Welcome you to the CNC Auto Show. I'm your host, Darren Clement, and on the show, I talk mostly about cars, but also talk about anything that has to do with transportation. And of course, I love to answer automotive questions. All you have to do is give us a call, and that number is 800-224-9090. You can also watch this show live on Facebook.
You can just go to facebook.com forward slash CC Auto Show and Right there, and you'll be able to join right in again 800-224-9090.
Now, that's on any Saturday morning between 8 and 10 Eastern time. Just give us a call. I always like to start the show with a tech tip quiz, and this one will be no different. We are ready to hand it out, and the winner will receive a tech tip quiz prize package. And of course the good thing about the Tech Tip quizzes is they are always meant to also give a tip.
And this one will be no different with that. Because it does have a tip attached that can be very useful to a lot of people. Here's the question. question A U.S. spy dressed in casual clothes took something out of his bowling bag and used it to break into a Genesis.
G V sixty electric car. And he stole a laptop computer containing top secret information. And if you know the information on what he took out of the bowling bag. Just give us a call, 800-224-9090.
Okay, one of the things that we'll talk a little bit about today. Give a few tips on because there's so many people call me from time to time that have a son or a daughter that's out of town going to school, or they've just moved to a new location and they're looking for another shop. And they, of course, will ask me if I have any contacts in that area. Many times I do because I got friends all over the country that are in this industry, and it's just so many beautiful shops out there. But I think a lot of times, if I don't know someone in that area, I give them a few tips on how to find places.
And of course, one of the main tips that I always mention to people Is the best time to find a shop when you don't need one? Don't wait until you have a major issue with your vehicle to try to find an automotive repair shop. Go ahead and build a relationship with one early so that you'll get to know the shop and make sure that it is a shop that you trust and that you get along well with the service advisors in the shop. And you're able to feel like you can get good, accurate information. In other words, make sure you're on the save wave Lincoln was talking.
And some of the things that you want to do when you do that is possibly to start with go by and visit the shop. Do a little research first, go online, look at the website. Look at the reviews that the shop might have, and then do a little research. Find out if there's others that might recommend it. Talk to your friends, your family, find out about the place, and then go by and visit the shop and get to know someone.
And then, after that, get a little something small done to break the ice a little bit to find out if everything goes well. Course, when you walk in, you want to look around and see if you've got cars that are similar to yours. You don't want to. Uh have a Chevrolet and go into a place that's got all Mercedes uh or or vice versa. You want to find a shop that that they Uh it at least do a lot of work on similar cars like yours.
So De definitely, that's one of the first steps. We'll name a few other tips later on in the show on different things that different ways that you can find and build a relationship with a shop. But that would be number one. Another item that I wanted to cover, there seems to be some mistakes.
Some some people are a little fuzzy. having to do with the bulletins. What's a recall? What's a bulletin?
So we will be covering that very soon also. But first, we're going to go to the calls and let's go to The first caller Here it comes. I say we'll be going to the first caller. We have the little thing twirling around. Waiting for it to open up the first caller.
Okay, here we go. Welcome to the CNC Auto Show and what can we help you with today? Yes, I'd like to speak to Aaron Clements, please.
Well, you call the right place. I'm right here. What can I help you with? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were live on the show.
I'm sorry. I am live on the show. What can I help you with? Oh my lord. Uh No.
Can uh can you call me after the show? It's it's very important. Absolutely. I don't want I I I I don't want to go go in there with Okay, yeah, absolutely. I'll be glad to.
I'll save this number and be glad to call you back. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. You have a great day.
Okay, the number of the call, 800-224-9090. If you have a question, give us a call and we will go over to our next caller that we have here. And Welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
Okay, we got some phone issues.
Okay, we're gonna go ahead and and let them straighten that out and we're gonna talk about the service bulletins. There's there seems to be a little um People's a little fuzzy on what has to do with a recall and what has to do with a bulletin. Many times that we may mention that the vehicle has a bulletin, sometimes people say think that they can get that done at no charge. But bulletins are not a no-charge item. You you cannot go to a dealership and them take care of a bulletin at no charge at least By far the majority, there may be a few exceptions that It's a technical bulletin getting ready to move into a recall.
But as a general rule, a bulletin is just helpful information for the consumer. And it's very helpful for the automotive repair shops. For instance, someone may have an issue with a vehicle and They may issue a bulletin to reprogram the computer for that particular problem.
Well, that saves a shop from doing a lot of diagnostics and changing a lot of parts that is not going to repair the problem when it would take a computer reprogramming the computer to take care of problems.
So that's technical bulletins. Recalls are normally safety items that you might have. Uh let's say that you have a um an issue uh with a uh with a vehicle That with a seat belt, or something that could be a door not latching correctly, or something that could have to do with a safety item, the factory may recommend a recall on that item. And in most cases, recalls are done at no charge because it's sort of a Government mandated that it be taken care of. And so that's the difference between a recall.
and a technical bulletin.
Now technical bulletins are very, very useful with a vehicle and technicians use them very often to to check out the do to help diagnose cars because many times we can look up and and and if Someone's having a particular problem. We can look it up and take care of it very quickly.
Now, there is a place that you can go and check to see if you have any recalls on your vehicle. And that address is nhtsa.gov. forward slash recalls and if you if you want to check your vehicle you can either get the tag number now you'll need the tag in the state The tag number and the state that it's in, and you can feed it in that way. And look up recalls for your vehicle, or the better way is to get the 17-digit VIN number that's located right there at the left lower side of your windshield. It'd be 17 digits.
write it down, type it into the computer and that And go to NHTSA. dot gov forward slash recalls and put that in and that will let you know if you do have any uh recalls that are that are due on your vehicle.
Okay. Uh I have a two thousand six Chrysler Town and Country Van about a week ago and I started off leaving home like I Oh, the family kicking on because that they are on the Uh Yeah, I'll try anyways. Oh, I didn't go over the eighth amount, I kicked on, so okay, I don't know why, but anyways. I noticed it's been getting longer than I felt. There's no there's no cool air there.
So the AAC there's no cold air coming out either. But after I go about a mile, a mile and a half, No fan kicks on and I got cold air and everything, but I didn't know what could be going on. First I just thought, you know, the fan People doubt or something.
Okay. So at first uh when you were r when you were riding down the road, there was no air blowing out at all. And then the air didn't seem to be cold. It started blowing, but it didn't seem to be cold. Is it working normally now?
Yeah, once it once the fan comes on, it's School's real good, but it just You know, I got a drive a mile or mile now and then the fan comes on, it's cool and so the I thought, well, just the fan, but there's no you can tell that there's no cool air coming. You know, it just feels warm.
Okay. So at times the fan is blowing, but the air is warm. Other times the fan's not working at all. Does that sound correct? The fan don't Work at all, and the air is warm when I leave.
But then when I take off, when after I go about a mile and the fan comes on. And the air is cold.
Okay. All right, I can tell you on the fan, the part that's blowing the air inside the car. That is by far the most likely scenario is going to be the fan motor. Because if it was a fuse or some other electronic device that has just gone completely out, in most cases, it would not come back on. A fan motor is known to go away and then Just hitting a bump or just randomly, it can come back on and start working.
So it sounds like you need a blower motor.
Now, don't be surprised if when the technician looks at it, they mention to you that they would also recommend the power module or resistor module. And that is the module that varies the voltage up and down. Cars didn't have that many years ago, but now, of course, with more of the automatic features on a vehicle, it does.
So, high probability you're going to end up needing a blower motor. I would have a technician go in and check it.
Now, I will tell you. That it's going to be easier for a technician to check it while it's not working.
So if it. If you can kind of pin down when it's not working, because then all the technician I have to do is is remove the panels, check to see if it's got power, check to see if it has ground, and if it does have uh both of those, boom, needs a blower motor.
So take it in and have it checked, but preferably while it's not working, if you can do that.
Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Fantastic call, and we do appreciate it very much.
And the number to call is 800-224-9090. Give us a call. And we will be glad to answer your automotive questions. We will hold tight on that one for now and. Let's see here.
Okay. All right, we will go to the next item that I wanted to mention. that I think is kind of amazing. Mm. We have a a fleet of vehicles that we work on for a company.
And this company is always kind of on the leading edge of doing things. And their particular vans that they have did not come with these.
Some vehicles do come with something similar to this now, but these particular ones did not come with this. But it is something that I find very interesting. It is a system set up to where it monitors. the uh the driver And this uh this little box sit uh sits on the windshield. And it has four cameras in it.
It's got one left, right, a cabin, one facing the driver, and then one that faces outward. And if you are riding down the road. And let's say the speed limit's 30 and you're going 35. You hear this saying, please slow down. And if you happen to be looking the It's Mm-hmm.
Damn it. If you happen to be looking the other way for any period of time at all, Then it says Distracted driving, please watch the road. And this thing is monitoring everything you do. If you go over to the side a little bit off the road, it lets you know that you need to stay on the road, you're distracted. And it's kind of an amazing system, and I think that it will, without question, help the cut down on accidents because, I mean, it tells you if you're going even a little bit over the speed limit.
And so that part's pretty good.
Now, I don't want to get in trouble when I say this. Um, but I called the company up that uh that we work on this, and I mentioned to them. That driving this van is a little bit like riding with one of my family members.
Now, I'm not going to mention any kind of name here because she'd get very upset, but I will tell you that that thing telling me to slow down and keep my eyes on the road and all that did remind me of that a little bit. And I got a feeling I'm going to get in trouble with that one.
So that's bad news. And we were talking about the cameras just a little bit earlier. On vehicles. And Actually, to be able to tell If a person is being an inattentive driver, the vehicle has to have a camera inside the cabin.
Now, that leads to the question. Who should have access to that information? that is on the camera. Could is it okay for another person somewhere to be able to watch you as you're driving down the road? And it it is um that Many times they can.
Many times that information is there.
So, because more and more cars now are having interior cameras. For instance, the 2025 Hyundai Tucson. the 2025 Genesis G V 80. 2025 Mazda CV70. There's a list of other vehicles.
A lot of cars have the cabin type cameras inside the vehicle. And of course, they are able to see what you're doing. And that information is used to be able to determine if you're taking your eyes off the road. Of course, if you work for a large company, they would also be able to see the Uh the cameras To find out if you're looking down or if you're texting while you're driving, and so many different things that can be done. And I can kind of see it on a.
company vehicle because that company is responsible for uh keeping their insurance rates down. And one way to do that is by avoiding accidents that are on a car.
So the big question is, do you do you think it's fine for people to have access to your Information to your cameras that are there. And of course, there have been some instances to where. Um they have found that different companies would be laughing at what they're seeing. On the cameras as they're monitoring different people's cameras on cars. And sometimes this might be an aftermarket company.
And I think there were a case. uh having to do with a factory type uh system that people were watching the cameras.
So, that is something that you need to be aware of. That you do have cameras inside the car. And of course, some of the other things that can happen has to do With i i it Now with facial recognition. Is there the possibility that that information can be used to identify? People who have committed a crime, and they can find the person by identifying the looking at the picture that was in the vehicle camera.
And giving that name and saying this person is wanted at so-and-so.
So there's a lot of things that go into that. I think the biggest thing that I wanted to do is make sure that everybody's aware of cameras being in many vehicles now.
Okay, we'll go to one of our emails that we received. And remember, many of these emails that I get, I've already called the person and talked to them about their problem that they had. And many times already answered it to them, but I like to mention the questions so that many times it might help others. This person, this is from Dell, I hope that you can help me with a problem I'm having with my O2 Dodge, Dakota. Recently put a new battery in because the old one was dead.
Now when I try to start the truck, the lights on the dashboard come on, but the truck itself doesn't start. There's no sound or anything Or no clicking, and the engine doesn't even try to turn over. I'm not sure what else it could be.
Well, Sounds like there's going to be a high probability you're going to have a starter issue on this vehicle. Even though the battery can have plenty of voltage, if the starter is getting power and not spinning the engine over, then it could be bad.
Now, also, there's always a possibility you could have something like a neutral safety switch if the vehicle's a manual transmission, which would be unusual now. But on a manual transmission, it could be a clutch switch, but on an automatic transmission, it could be a neutral safety. switch item and uh not telling the computer that the vehicle is in neutral so that it'll know it start or in park so it'll know it can start. Uh so there's a chance of electrical problem, but by far the most common thing that I see when the vehicle has a good battery Turn the key, everything lights up, everything else looks normal, but won't start. Normally turns out to be the starter.
Just for the heck of it, put it in drive and park kind of hard. And um And see if it still does that. If it is, technician can check that very easily. He or she can check for power and ground on the system. And if it has power and ground and not spin an engine over, it is going to be a bad starter, which is not unusual.
Okay. And Dale, appreciate the message there. All right. We were talking about different ways to find a shop that find the shop that is right for you. And of course, one of the things I always mention has to do with reviews.
But reviews can be misleading and they can be manipulated very not easily, but they can be manipulated.
So when you're looking for a repair shop that's right for you, check out the reviews and once you find a few that's possible. Look at the reviews very closely and read through them. I mean, is it is are the reviews having to do with things to do with quality? Is it things to do with pricing? And also you want to find out does is there Uh all great reviews and no bad ones, which that would be a red flag, or is it uh i is it uh a large number?
of bad ones. then that would be a red flag.
So look at the reviews very closely, and that'll be a great time for you to look at the website, get an idea if it looks like it's a nice clean facility that has vehicles similar to yours on there. If you ride by, you want to don't take it for granted that there's a bunch of cars in the parking lot. Yeah. Because there's always that possibility that those could be, you want to make sure that those cars hadn't been sitting there a long, long time. And um and check those out.
Okay, so That's another tip on making sure that you find the shop that is right for you on there.
Okay, the lady tech tip quiz back out real quick. A U.S. spy dressed in casual clothes took something out of his bowling bag and used it to break into a Genesis GV60 electric car and steal a laptop computer containing the information from a foreign country. In other words, a foreign diplomat was driving the vehicle. But he used something out of a bowling bag.
to steal the the laptop.
So, what was it? He was able to get inside that vehicle with it.
Okay, and if you know the answer to that, give us a call. And we are going move into The thing having to do with EV.
Well, let's talk about Ford EVs. Matter of fact, some of the EVs in In general, of what some of them have run into, it seems that Ford is cutting back on its EV production. And the company They'll still be working uh investing in E Vs. There'll still be E Vs on the road, but they will cut back a lot of their plans to be as aggressive on building E Vs as they had planned to be, mainly because they seem to be losing money on E Vs. They're not doing well.
So they won't be making building as many EVs as they had planned to. And actually, that's about the same for General Motors. General Motors is cutting back some. General Motors had some very aggressive plans for building EVs, but it seems that the consumers are not. doing exactly what Both had planned for them to do.
The consumers are not warming up to EVs as much as they thought they were. That's what it amounts to. And because of that, did uh They are actually losing money on the cars that they're selling. And so they're going to be cutting back on the EV plans. Ford will probably be hyping up a lot to do with the hybrid.
type vehicles. But they actually just planned to cancel the plans for a new electric SUV that they had. uh planned on.
So they won't even be building that one.
So a lot of things going on, a lot of changes happening. A lot of these companies are trying to adapt to the market that they had planned on. It don't seem like the infrastructure is going to move as quickly as they thought on building charging stations. And again, I'm not pro-EV. I'm not anti-EV.
I like them. My biggest thing is I think the consumers should have a choice on which one they want. I do want to report what's going on. That's the main thing. Andrew, welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
And what can we help you with today? Yeah, good morning, Aaron. I don't know if I want it. uh say the name of the model of the car, but I've got a car that has two recalls on them that are almost a year old now. And the local dealership Seems reluctant or unable to do the warranty work, and yet I think the parts are available.
Can your shop do warranty work on? would say a Honda or an Acro, something like that.
Okay. Uh, well, no. Uh we are not able to do uh factory warranty work. That would have to go through a dealer. But I believe I would ask some questions on why Why they're not able to get it.
Uh, did they did they say that the parts were in or or did they give a reason why they hadn't been able to do it? Evidently, there's enough parts to do, we'll call it maybe emergency repairs, but not enough parts. To take in all of the recall repairs that need to be done, and there must be a lot of them.
Okay. Uh i is this having to do with the Takata air airbags or anything like that? No, this is actually a fuel pump issue. Oh, okay. All right.
Yeah. Um, I believe I would set up a a meeting with the with the manager and say you'd like to discuss your vehicle. And find out exactly what's going on. Because my guess is there's going to be a reason because the dealership. They really would not have a A reason not to do the warranty I mean, as far as where they're concerned, because they, of course, would be paid by the manufacturer and they would make money.
Now, if they're unsure of the fix and they have some concerns on, hey, is this the right thing to do for that person? Then That is a possibility. And I have seen a few cases to where. Things like that can happen to where a fix might come out and they worry that there might be some side effects to the fix. Uh, but I believe you just need some real good communication with that dealership.
And I got a strong feeling I wouldn't just go in and talk if you've already talked to the service advisor, and the service advisor had told you. what he or she feels like is going on, and it didn't quite add up to you, I believe I would just make an appointment and say I'd like to sit down and talk with the manager. What day can I do that? And at what time and just go have a little face to face. And discuss what's going on.
And many times there will be an answer, or the manager might not know. what's going on and may say, hey, we need to take care of this and get you get you taken care of.
So I wish we could take care of your warranty work, though. We would be very happy to do it.
Okay, Aaron, and thank you for your military service, sir.
Okay, thank you.
Okay. All right, there has been some talk on that. Uh as far as um some possible warranty work on some vehicles being able to be done. at independence, but uh hadn't heard Any new information on that.
Okay, let's go to our next caller, and this is somebody I asked to call in. Let's go over here to Carol Proctor, A. C. Proctor's painting body, Carol. How are you doing today?
Good morning, Erin. Yes. Good morning, sir. Appreciate you giving me a call. Carol, I have heard a lot of things having to do with.
EV cars and collision repairs. Matter of fact, I did a video for a weekly online magazine recently. And I and I there's just There's a lot of factors involved in this. And I did a lot of um Uh a lot of research. Uh before I did that.
Uh tell us a little bit about what is going on in the uh in the collision repair industry concerning EV cars if they get towed into your shop.
Well, I mean, the first concern, I mean, if it's If it's minor, minor repairs, you know, the scanning the the scanning the electrical scanning of it with scan tools and stuff becomes e even more important than it is on a normal car because you've got so many different electric vices. Uh electric. Modules and computers and stuff. You know, the safety concerns because you're dealing with some extremely high voltage on electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.
So you've got to make sure your technicians are trained even more than they are with the standard car, which that requires a lot of training as well. We have to have lineman gloves to work on the cars. And if you're not familiar with that, these are the very expensive gloves that electrical linemen wear. The gloves are four or five hundred dollars a pair They're only good for like a year and a half or two years, maybe. You have to send the gloves off.
every periodically to have them recertified that they're okay. Uh-huh. in training and you know, just the safety concerns, but the the car, the the If you don't get into the batteries and charging units and stuff like that, you know, working on the bumpers and the headlights and stuff, it's pretty much like a normal car, but the bigger concern becomes when you're you tow in a vehicle That is damaged extremely bad, and it it could have breached the battery comp um. modules um The vehicles have to be stored. In a protective area with around 50 feet of ground around each vehicle, and that's a half acre.
just to store the vehicle. And you know, it has to be stored for a certain number of days to make sure that the battery Degenerates itself and goes down. And then, God forbid, if there's a fire, you know, it could take five to six thousand gallons of water. to put the fire out, of course. Most of that water, it's breached the battery compartment, most of that water is now hazardous waste.
Mm-hmm. And and Carol, some of the things that um that I've heard of of some shops doing. Uh in order to meet the demands or the challenges that are going to be coming up on this. is some of them have uh have The railroad trailer cars. and they leave them empty.
Uh and then when a vehicle is in a bad accident, they have it to where that vehicle can be pulled in and put inside that railroad trailer car and stored there for the time frame that it takes to make sure that the vehicle's safe after that. That one I haven't heard. I mean, I've seen people where they build a concrete stall with these. Um Basically the the things you see on construction on road projects The concrete barriers, they build a storage area out of those, and they can park a car in it so they can contain the fire or a You know, damage from one of these things. They pour a concrete slab.
I hadn't heard about a railroad container, but the fire could be so hot. I mean, I could see it melting some of the container. Yes, yes. And that's what I'm wondering: is that a solution or a possible solution?
So they may even, you never know, they may come out with stalls specially built with sprinkler systems in them in case something happens. But this is going to be a problem. And the main thing we want to do is make people aware of some of the challenges that some of the repair shops will be going through. Because, of course, to be able to park something 50 feet away from other vehicles, a lot of. Repair shops are going to need more space.
No doubt you talked about needing more equipment. They need more training. And all of these things hold true for the automotive repair field in some ways also. But the repair shops will have some special challenges that others may not have. Even with the hailstorm we had a couple of summers ago, I had a a a good friend, a neighbor that's got a Tesla.
Um and the Hale people couldn't work on it in Augusta because there was nobody that could put the Tesla in the repair mode or sleep mode because they couldn't stick all the tools down in the panels to do the work. And he had to drive to Charlotte To the Tesla dealer and spend three days up there. um to get his car fixed. Because it just you know, the expertise to do it. wasn't in a gusta.
I think there's somebody now here that's got the proper scan tool for the test link to do it now. But things come up like this. I mean, I've another friend that's got another EV car. Hi, Carol. Carol.
Can I get you to save that one? We did not get an answer to our Tech Tip quiz last hour, so we're going to lay a fresh new. Tech Tip quiz out on the table. And the winner will receive a prize package with the CNC Auto Show water bottle attached. And here is the question.
Mike needed to go out of town unexpectedly. He was past due for an oil change. He called a shop and asked if they could change the oil and rotate the tires at noon and have them out by one so he could. Go on that trip, and he planned to eat while during that time while the car was being done. Uh so he uh he left the car at noon.
He left to eat. and the shop could not complete the job. And it was not the shop's fault. Why? If you know the answer, give us a call.
And again, that number is 800-224-9090.
Okay. We are going to be covering a lot of neat stuff. Uh during this hour. Just like last hour, we had a great time talking about cabin camera systems. You're being on many cars, you're being recorded and possibly even watched while you're riding down the road.
So I think it's good to be aware of that. A lot of that information is needed so that the camera can tell if you're not looking at the road properly, if you're if you're Texting, doing different things that you should not be doing while driving, and the vehicle's able to tell you that. And I've driven many vehicles with this system on it.
Some of them are factory systems, some of them are not factory systems. But it's kind of amazing because you can just be looking the other way for a few seconds and the it will Come on a speaker and say, please pay attention to the road, or it might say, slow down, you're driving too fast.
So it's just watching you the whole time that you drive. And I think it does kind of force you to be a safer driver. But I got a feeling a lot of people will like it. A lot of people will not like it.
So we'll just see how that goes. I'm not sure if on factory type vehicles if there's a way to shut that system off or not. Uh but Just like ADAS or assisting driving systems, many of those systems you can cut off and it won't try to pull the car back on the road if you're running off the road.
So it'll just be some of this stuff will be seeing what consumers like and they'll be putting different things on the market. And again, I had a list of different vehicles that had that, that had the cabin systems or cabin cameras in the system.
So there's a lot of things going on in the automotive world right now. A huge amount of things having to do with EV cars, having to do with assisted driving systems, autonomous driving systems. Yeah and I think s Many of these things, as time goes on, they'll be put on vehicles to find out what consumers like and what consumers. Do not like.
Okay, we during during today's show, we'll be giving some tips on how to find a shop. I get a lot of phone calls. Uh from time uh well, a lot of phone calls, I'd say it's not uncommon to get one a week. Uh someone saying that they either moved, their son or daughter's going to a school in a different place uh and they just would like to find a automotive repair shop. For whatever reason.
And I always give them some tips.
Now, many, many times I'll know someone in the area that they're going to because I've got access to a lot of shops. I've made a lot of friends over the years, and I know people in a lot of places, but there's no way to know someone in every place.
So I have methods of finding ones, different sites. For instance, we're a repair pal shop.
So if someone needs repair pal, they look it up and they find us. We're also AAA approved automotive repair shops, which they have to go through a very strict inspection to become a AAA shop.
So, Napa Auto Care Center, we're a tech net center.
So, a lot there's ways to find these online by looking at them. And for instance, napaonline.com, you can go find a shop and you can find a Napa Auto Care Center. And those, what I found in the past is those are normally very nice people, very nice shops. uh but from time to time you might be in a place to where you don't uh there's not a uh a nap auto care center triple a center or one of those and so you have to go out and find the shop that's best for you now during the last hour i mentioned a little bit about how important it is to uh first look the shop up online then go visit the shop and uh and i'm gonna mention one other thing is when you go visit just kind of look around see what kind of equipment they got see if their equipment's clean and uh just if the place is clean and neat and the kind of shop that you would like to be at There's another tip. Let's go to someone who's always got a whole lot of really good tips for us.
Let's go visit with James. And James, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. Good morning, Aaron. You're talking about a few things today that are Interesting regarding EV. Hold on, James.
You're kind of the volume's very low on you right now. Let me see what we can do about that.
Okay. Go again?
Sounding any better now? Yeah, yeah, we got you now.
Okay, fantastic.
Well, you're talking about the E V's before and Also with uh Carol about repair issues, but also the business model of it is pretty interesting, I think, right now. And finding a shop, that's interesting. I got a thought about that. And of course, I can always give you a wrong answer to a tech tip quiz. Oh, fantastic.
Well, we love it. We're ready. You you make the choice on which one you want to cover first.
Well the E V business is interesting and It's particularly because in spite of all the government push, all the government threats, all the government funding of the purchase of the vehicles on the backs of the taxpayers that it's seems to not be able to support its own weight, and that's what you're seeing in the private sector. These Automobile manufacturers are not in the business of heading down a road that's not going to support their employees or their stockholders So That's a telling thing, if nothing else, about where this overreach is and the over push is on E V's and it's headed back to the sort of the point you made before, and that is not only should people have the right to choose what to drive, it looks like they're making that choice and That Perhaps we have a cart in front of a horse here a little bit on the E V's at this point. I agree with that. I think that's the main thing. And I am definitely not against EV cars.
I love technology. I love all of the things. And there's no doubt in my mind that one day there's going to be a high probability that a large number of the cars on the road are going to be EVs. I just think that right now it's going to be a random, not random, but it's going to be, it needs to be a person's choice on whether that fits their lifestyle. Because someone that lives in the city drives short distances.
It may work out very well for them. But if you make a lot of trips, it may not work out well for you. Or you may not just not want one. But I tell you that the ICE engines, internal combustion engines have come so far. I think it'd be very foolish to throw all of that.
Away all of that technology away from how far we've got. Gas engine or internal combustion engines burn so clean now. They get such great gas mileage. I think we've got a long way to go. And, James, I appreciate the insight and your opinions on the EV cars.
That's always very informative and helpful.
Well, you're of course welcoming. We're also gonna Touch on Perhaps finding an automobile repair facility, and you've been talking about how to do it. When you're near home base and Google reviews and word of mouth and On site. visuals and so forth, but there's also those times if you're a Road Warrior, and you're out and about, whether you're driving a A truck or a car and you're a thousand miles from home and you encounter a problem, then you need something a little bit more broad basin. I remember, and I think it's probably still the case, that for example I think it's a very good idea.
For their repair facilities, not their parts stores, but the repair facilities, they actually had. an easy to browse directory with different levels of Whether it's certifications or offerings, I don't know what the right word would be, but they would list not only where they were, but whether or not they had warranties on their national warranties on their repairs and so forth. That's one place you can go. Also, If you're a AAA member, for example, AAA has scattered about Facilities that they, I believe, actually operate. There's none near where I live, but I know when you look at the largest cities, those are out there.
And You may have other thoughts, of course. being in the business of how someone who's not close to home find someone to do some work that they need or without any Ford uh or advance notice or forethought.
Well, James, I can tell you that you're you're right on uh the triple A. Triple A does have some standalone of facilities, but it those cities that do not have triple-A facilities Have triple-A-approved automotive repair facilities. And matter of fact, all seven of our facilities are AAA approved.
Well, I take that back. The store in Columbia is not because of proximity of some other stores. But all of our other shops are AAA approved repair facilities. And they are out of all the places, they probably gave us the tightest inspection we've ever had. They went through all of our equipment, all of our records, all of our, I mean, in training, and they made sure that we were.
good before we were able to be a triple A shop. But Napa was similar to that too. We just did that so many years ago till uh I don't remember all the details in there, but uh Napa was also a a very um uh It was an honor to become a Napa Auto Care Center. And there's a lot of those around the country, though. But I've found that practically every Napa Auto Care Center person that I've talked to has always been a good shop and a good person to work with.
So you're right. Those that you mentioned are very good options. Good, good. And then last And perhaps least, Let's talk about that TikTok quiz you got floating out there. Oh, my goodness.
Are you going to take a stab at this Tech Tip quiz, James?
Well, it might take a stab at me, more likely.
Well, let me put you on stage first. And then let me read. Yeah. The tech tip quiz. And here we go.
Mike needed to go out of town unexpectedly. He was past due for an oil change. He called a shop and asked if they could do an oil change and rotate the tires at noon, and he had he and have him out by one because he was going out of town. He had planned to eat lunch while he was getting the oil change and then take off on his trip. He left the car at noon and left to eat.
The shop could not complete the job and it was not the shop's fault. Why? James, all eyes are on you. I don't know what he's driving and things have changed a lot on cars since the ones I own were bought and produced originally. But uh There's things that if you leave and you don't provide access, to the shop They're not going to be able to rotate your tires because they can't get your wheels off, or they shouldn't take your wheels off, for example.
If you have a car with a leveling system in the back. And you don't Give them access to the trunk. They cannot turn the system off. You cannot raise the car. Other vehicles have certain wheel types.
which has a lock and key. Either An operator can fail to Oh. Put that in the car, keep it in the car, or it's hidden somewhere and they don't tell the shop where it is. they can't get the wheels off the car if they can lift it into the air.
So that's old school nuts and bolts. three-dimensional stuff, but there might be some electronic things in later production that keep the person from doing the work. They're capable of doing, they're just not technically able to do it for some reason, as you said, beyond their control. Thank you very much. And James, first, I'm going to mention that you are absolutely right.
That was the reason they could not rotate the tires, he did not leave the wheel lock key. But if we were given tips on things that would be a good idea when you leave a car. uh with a repair shop. What would be another great tip That it would be good to give people As far as when they leave a car with someone. It was a friend of mine with military experience would say NVO, no verbal orders.
And that's not that to suggest. that the customer doesn't speak clearly nor that the Service tech. I'm sorry, the service writer, the advisor doesn't listen well But days get busy and folks are Um Not always going to have everything at the top of their mind when they're at that service desk.
So I always have found, and as Aaron, you know, From experience, I always try to Start my thoughts on a scratch pad of what I need for a car.
Sometimes it's a list of things. And then, once I think I got it all jotted down, I try to type it up.
So, you don't have to try to read my writing and give that to you, and then that just translates. Transcends right on down to the tech. They get to see that, they get the full background. And it just makes for a much better experience when everybody knows what exactly the customer is looking for, and you can go right down point by point. And the other thing here is Make sure you leave the keys.
I know you always ask Aaron, can I have the keys? Because I'll walk out with them.
So that's something that be sure you've got the key ready to give up.
So it The work can begin in earnest. And one last part of the tip: what do you normally leave at the very top of the page before you ever even talk about the car?
Some who, what's, and wheres, who I am, what I'm dropping off, and where you can reach me. Perfect. And you're exactly right. And James, like always, you've been awesome, given a lot of great information. Leave that contact info also in a list is amazing.
I do that when I go to the doctor. I keep notes all during the six months or eight months before I go. Then, boom, I'll type them out and give them to them. James, thank you very much for the call. Congratulations on winning the tech tip quiz.
We're going to go over to Gary from West Virginia. Gary, welcome to the CNC Auto Show, and what can we help you with? Hi, thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir. Last week I called, and I think it was right at the end of the show, and we didn't get to complete Uh I was calling and uh inquiring about, you know, a lot of these new uh trucks and stuff midsized trucks especially, they're And vehicles, they're putting these four-cylinder, now, this is gasoline, four-cylinder turbo.
And uh I was at a Toyota dealership here. And I was talking to the guy because the new Tacomas from 24, starting in 24 with the new redesign, they're All four-cylinder turbos and uh And anyway, I asked him, I said, well, what's your opinion? On this, this was a guy in a back in the service area. He said, Well, He said, I don't think you'll have to worry about the reliability. But you will have More maintenance.
Involved, and he didn't elaborate. We didn't have time. and got interrupted and stuff to elaborate to what You know, of course, I know you got your regular lands, your oil change, your filters, and that. But I was inquiring on these new four-cylinder turbo gas engines what. Um You know are we looking at extra?
Is there extra maintenance? And also the reliability, the long-term reliability on the turbo itself. You know, and now what That that was uh My main question. Excellent questions. And the technician in the back, he sounds like an excellent technician because I think that what he was trying to say is you'll have more maintenance.
But by the words more maintenance, it just means... Uh what he's saying is Go to the regular maintenance items. There's really no special items that are added to the. The system But The ones that you do, I would not do just along with what the. Uh, factory recommends.
Uh I would uh for instance oil changes sometimes the factories. Recommended oil change on a vehicle. I've seen them six, seven, eight, nine thousand miles, or some just say wait until the reminder light comes on. That's a terrible, terrible method, but I can tell you why a lot of car manufacturers do it. Is because if someone is preparing to buy, let's say a rental car company or a company is getting ready to.
to buy 300 cars. the amount of maintenance that has to be done to that vehicle over a certain course of time is played is put into the computer when they're making the decision on which vehicle to buy. And if one i if they stretch the oil changes way out and and and uh and and other maintenance items way out, they that shows that it's less maintenance involved on the car.
So I would not recommend just sticking with that, but I would go more by what For instance, that technician in the back told you, or you set up just a good maintenance program. Let's say changing oil every 5,000 miles, full synthetic, best oil, exactly like the factory recommends. When it comes time to change the coolant system, coolant, exchange it, at or before they recommend.
So it's more the regular maintenance that you're already used to, but just a little bit more aggressively and on different things to do with maintenance tune-ups and things like that, doing them right on time or before. And I feel like that's more what he's talking about instead of added because you still don't have a fuel filter. You're going to have induction services, which need to be done every so often anyway. Transmission fluid exchanges are very important. But I love the, I think it's amazing the power they're getting out of some of these four children.
I have right now myself. I have a 2017 canyon. And it's got a four-cylinder diesel. I pull the radio show trailer with it. The Joker gets twenty five, twenty-six miles to the gallon unless I'm pulling the trailer.
It's less than that. But yeah, it's amazing what you're able to get out of some of the four-cylinder engines now. And they're lasting very long. They just don't accept abu they they don't accept abuse and they have to be maintained very regularly. Look which it sounds like you're the type person that does that anyway.
So I doubt you would run into anything That abnormal than you hadn't already run into. It's just don't skip those services. Yeah, that's you're very, yeah. I do keep my maintenance up, and I have a. I do now have a Toyota Tacoma truck, and I've had it for a couple of years.
And, you know, I was questioning them on different maintenance intervals because in the manual, You know. The truck I got still has a manual. You don't have to go to the internet to get your info. And it didn't specify the mileage on it. One thing that got me was when I was going through the things is in the differentials On this, it's a four-wheel drive truck.
They told me that, you know, hey, They recommend every thirty thousand miles on changing the If you want to call it differential grease, differential oil, and what are fluid, to change it. every thirty thousand miles and I I was kind of glad I asked that question because a lot of them A run out longer. And one other thing I'll add, I really got surprised with is. Took my wife's Subaru to the Subaru dealer shipped to have service the last time, and they said, Oh, by the way, they'll send you a text on your phone. They said, If you want to watch the technician.
Servicing your car go to this particular website where you can actually, they had it set up where you could watch the technician. And I thought that was really Great. I was really amazed by that. Yeah. We did that some years back, experimented with that a little bit.
It was a lot of fun. We didn't get that much buy-in with it, but when we did it, the computers were a lot slower than they are now, and it wasn't quite as easy to do things.
So that might be something to look into. I mean, that's a, I love stuff like that. And I think that's great for them to do that. Listen, appreciate you taking my call, and thank you very much.
Well, we thank you, and I would not be concerned. I would buy that four-cylinder with a turbo and a heartbeat. And of course Tacomas are beautiful trucks, so you'll come out good. Thank you. Hey, thank you.
Okay, the number to call 800-224-9090. And we're going to be straight over here to. Let's see here.
May find out where he went. He's here. He's here. Ah, let's see here. Oh tu ta do.
Okay, we're going to go over here to the This one. And Welcome to the CNC Auto Show, and what can we help you with?
Well, this is Ken this is Kenneth. Did you have an answer to the tech tip quiz? Oh, we did. James got the answer just a few minutes ago. What would have been your answer to it?
I figured he had locking lug nuts on him. He didn't have the key to get the lug nuts off with. That is exactly what James said, and he won. I tell you what, you stay on the line and we're going to get you a water bottle.
So you stay on there and a prize because you would have got it.
So hold on one sec.
Well, I do have a. I do have a question about the Jaguars. Absolutely. We're ready for you. What can we help with?
If It's the two thousand twelve Jaguar, uh XF Mm-hmm. The the battery voltage on it is, you know, when the battery was fully charged, it's good, but I checked the uh the the battery voltage with the car running and it still only showed like twelve point nine, and it should have been like thirteen point five or so. Is that an indication it needs a starter? Or could this I mean, not a starter, a alternator? Or is there something else that could be a problem there causing it not to charge?
Yeah, now, and I'm assuming your battery is in good condition and fairly new then. Does that sound right? I put a brand new battery.
Okay, yeah. I would say you your alternator. Yeah, it would be your alternator. It's gonna be weak. And now, of course, you got you can have voltage drops, so check the connections everywhere.
But high probability, it's just gonna be an alternator.
So there's there's nothing else that would tell the alternator to charge or other than loose connections or or corroded connections.
Okay, so just put it off from later on, huh? Yeah. Do y'all work on Jaguars? We do. Mm-hmm.
Okay, well, if I run into a problem, I'll get it over there. You bring it on. We appreciate it very much, and thank you for the call.
Okay, thank you for the info. Thank you. We're going straight over. To Carol and AC Proctor, and we have been talking a little bit about the EV situation with collision repair shops. Carol, welcome back to the show.
All righty.
Okay. I think where I was going with it is, you know, this is just a personal thing. EV is a great theory. But I don't think the people that are. telling us that we need to go electric have thought about all the consequences of electric vehicles.
Somebody was telling me the other day at a dealership One of the German automakers now, if you take your EV vehicle in for repairs, Some of the repairs require two technicians. One technician to work on the car and another technician there for safety.
So if you've got an hour's job, you're paying two technicians at $240 an hour and one of them to stand there with a string and a hook on the other technician.
So if something happens, he can snatch him loose from the car. I mean It's just Yeah, I'm sure there would be certain jobs that need to be done that would be like that.
Now, of course, I don't think some of your average stuff would necessarily require, but you're bringing to light some of the issues that we'll be running into. And really, again, I think the main thing that I'm after, of course, I've mentioned before, definitely not against TVs, but we definitely need to know about all of these issues that's there. And people need to know about things like this before they make a purchasing decision. And, of course, people need to know what the. What the repair industry and the collegial repair industry go through.
And here's one of the things I wanted to ask you, though. Does your tow truck driver? have to have to have any special knowledge. Let's say an EV car is in an accident. And of course, have you heard anything on the knowledge that emergency personnel should know If they go to the scene and let's say an EV vehicle sitting there is tore up pretty good, they suspect the battery's got a problem.
person's in the vehicle. Uh Are the emergency care people have they? I know that they've been receiving some extra training. But have you heard of some of the things that they might go through as far as challenges they're going to face? They are training for tow truck drivers.
I'm pretty sure that there is training for first responders.
Now, the level of training that the people in the Augusta area have had or have been required to have, I do not know that. I know that we keep the lineman gloves and stuff in our tow trucks, and they've had some of the training. But the training evolves constantly. I mean, it is today you could be up to date, and tomorrow you're behind because you haven't had one particular class. And I know it's that way as far as the collision repair.
I mean, we are constantly training and learning. And I think you've mentioned some of our ads. We've had an I-CAR designation, which is the highest level of training you can have in the automotive industry, constantly. since nineteen seventy s uh excuse me nineteen ninety six Um, so it's it's a constant thing with training, and it is very expensive training. I mean, it's you know, it's not thirty or forty dollars.
It's a couple of hundred dollars. For an hour online class. And even more expensive, you go to in-person training. And it's the same thing with the, you know, the automotive and the mechanical side of it. Yeah, an EV class, we recently sent a person to.
It was actually at the Gaylord Hotel in Nashville, and it was, I imagine we had somewhere $4,000 or $5,000 invested in that. three or four days of training and it's a uh it it's it's a lot of A lot of stuff. I feel like there's no doubt that the automotive industry and the collegial repair industry is going to step up to the plate. We'll be ready, whatever they bring to us. We will repair the cars, whatever comes in.
Carol, I'm going to turn into one other thing. This is more. Uh kind of uh funny or fun. But you know that now so many of the people that bring their car in to be repaired, they're going to be able to watch the repair. One gentleman a few minutes ago mentioned that the repairs can you can go online and watch the person repairing your car.
They're going to be able to watch it anyway because many of the cars now have so many cameras and so many and people can just tag in. And when that technician goes and gets a hamburger in the customer's car, they're not going to like it.
So there's going to be a lot of things going on there. You asked a question earlier about what you did about what he would recommend when people bring their cars in for repairs, and everything y'all mentioned is true. But one other thing I would add to that is Clean your car out. On the body shop side, you know, having a trunk full of stuff and the technician having to remove your. Your valuables and risk damaging them.
And then you know, as well as I did, there are computer modules and stuff under seats and under consoles, and you have to pull carpet out of cars sometimes to get to them to access it.
So, bringing in a clean car for the technician to repair. makes a much better you get a better repair and it makes a much better Situation for that technician, you know, having to work on that car. Faster. Lots faster. Yes, yes, yes.
And might cost you less because I've heard some people charge you extra when they have to clean the car out to do the repair. Absolutely. Hey, Carol, I'm going to go. This gentleman's got a call about a GMC truck. I'm going to try to answer it before we go.
Like always, I really do appreciate you contributing so much to the show. And it's always so much fun to talk to you, too. Thank you. See you later. Bye-bye.
Appreciate it. Carol Proctor, AC Proctor, always fun to talk to. We're going to try to grab this caller here. He's got a 96 GMC. Welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
What can we help with? We've got about a minute or so. Yes, sir. I bought a used ninety-six. Uh farm truck.
That had originally a fuel injection on it and the guy I borrowed from the repair shop had taken charge of the truck. and the farmer that owned it never came back to get it. But he had it changed over from Fuel injection to a four-barrel carburetor.
Now, the problem is, I can't get the truck to run worth a hoot. It won't even start anymore. And I talked to a neighborhood garage And the man told me that as long as uh I have the harness, for the fuel injection that he could easily change it back.
Now, I don't have the harness. Can they be purchased? Um, what are you going to be using this truck for? Is it going to still be a farm truck or something different? Yeah, it's a farm truck.
I've got a 500-gallon spray tank and Uh, spraying uh pump on on the truck for spraying my crops. but I need uh I need it to be reliable and at this point Okay. Mm-hmm. I can't use it, you know. All right.
Well, if the fuel system is set up correctly to handle a coburetor, you'll only need like somewhere around six to ten psi pressure going to the coburetor. If it's more than that or less than that, You can't do it.
So um I would recommend going out and buying a um A new coburetor. I was trying to think of the name. I tell you what, stay on the line. Let me try to think of that coburetor that'll be good to put back on. It'll be a lot less money.
So hold on the line just for a little bit. And we're going to close this show out. It's been great. We've enjoyed it. And we will be back next week with a whole new CNC Auto Show.
