**Discussing Toyota and Lexus Reliability**

When it comes to off-road vehicles, reliability is key. Both Toyota and Lexus offer robust four-wheel drive systems that can handle rough terrain with ease. The Toyota Forerunner is particularly popular among outdoor enthusiasts, thanks to its advanced technology features and impressive ground clearance. With a starting point of under $15,000, the Forerunner is an affordable option for those looking to venture off the beaten path.

Toyota vehicles have been known to offer stability control as standard equipment even in earlier years, making them a great choice for those who prioritize safety on the road. The fourth-generation Forerunner, which spans from 2003 to 2009, is a popular model among enthusiasts due to its unique features and rugged design. The rear window folds down or rolls up into the tailgate, providing a distinctive experience for drivers.

However, when it comes to Lexus, the reliability factor takes center stage. A well-maintained Lexus GX, such as a 2008 model, can provide years of trouble-free service on even the most challenging off-road routes. With its powerful V6 engine and robust four-wheel drive system, the GX is an excellent choice for those who want to explore rough terrain with confidence.

**The Importance of Storage and Rodent Protection**

For those storing their vehicles in remote locations or cabin settings, it's essential to take steps to protect against unwanted critters. Mice, rats, and squirrels can cause significant damage to electrical systems, which is why many owners opt for rodent-deterrent solutions like peppermint spray, ultrasonic sensors, or rodent-repellent tape.

Garages or storage units should be regularly inspected for signs of infestation, as mice can quickly take up residence in vehicles if left unchecked. A well-maintained garage with a secure lid and minimal ventilation can help keep unwanted critters at bay. For those who frequently leave their vehicles unattended, it's crucial to implement measures like these to prevent damage.

**Expert Advice and Tips**

Alex offered some insightful advice on choosing the right off-road vehicle, recommending the fourth-generation Forerunner for its impressive ground clearance and unique features. Mike Quincy, on the other hand, suggested an older Lexus GX as a more luxurious option that still delivers impressive off-road capabilities.

Mike's experience with his two friends who purchased used GX vehicles has proven that this model is well-suited for navigating rough terrain with confidence. With its powerful V6 engine and robust four-wheel drive system, the GX is an excellent choice for those seeking a reliable and capable off-road vehicle.

In contrast to Mike's suggestion, Jen offered her own recommendations based on market trends and availability. She emphasized the importance of stability control as a standard feature in any off-road vehicle, particularly when considering models from Toyota or Lexus.

**Final Thoughts and Recommendations**

Ultimately, the right off-road vehicle depends on individual needs and preferences. Whether you opt for a Forerunner or an GX, it's essential to prioritize reliability and features that meet your specific requirements. By doing so, you can ensure years of trouble-free service and countless adventures on the road.

Before making a purchase, be sure to research and test drive potential models to find the best fit for your needs. And remember to take steps to protect against unwanted critters when storing your vehicle in remote locations or cabin settings. With the right choice and proper care, you can enjoy years of exciting off-road adventures with confidence.

**Additional Resources**

For those interested in learning more about off-road vehicles and related topics, be sure to check out our show notes for links to recommended resources and additional information. We encourage you to send your questions, comments, and 30-second video clips to talkingcars@icloud.com, where they will be featured on future episodes of the show.

By joining our community, you'll stay up-to-date on the latest automotive news, tips, and advice from experts like Mike Quincy and Jen. Whether you're a seasoned off-road enthusiast or just starting your adventure, we invite you to join us next time as we explore more exciting topics and share valuable insights with our audience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis week we share our first impressions of the 2022 genesis gv70 how we learned some important information on getting brakes changed at a dealership and how a talking cars audience question led to changes at the insurance institute for highway safety next on talking cars hi everybody welcome to another episode i'm mike monticello i'm alex nizik and i'm jennifer stockberger so we're going to start off this week kind of circling back to a few topics we talked about on a couple of recent episodes and the first one has to do with mazda's active safety systems and the ihs ratings jen why don't you tell us a little bit about what the result was with that right so so the original question came from tariq on episode 316 where he was asking about the um active safety systems between the mazda cx-5 and the subaru forester which he had kind of narrowed down as cars he wanted to for himself to drive but also share with his younger son so in my answer i shared the some of the ratings from the ihs um on on both of those vehicles and in particular he was concerned um or asking is the dual system the camera and radar on the mazda better than the camera only system on the subaru so i shared the ihs ratings that are slightly better for the subaru system camera only including the fact that mazda did not get credit for its forward collision warning system on the ihs's ratings so fast forward mazda sees that they do some outreach to us and as it turns out mazda has fixed that forward collision warning system timing and should have been getting credit on iihs's site for having it mazda reaches out to ihs ihs updates the ratings and the mazda cx-5 now gets credit for that forward collision warning system making their rating slightly better so when i it was funny because i'm sure tariq didn't realize when he wrote the question that it was going to have upstream impact all the way up to the ihs altering the ratings for the cx-5 so tariq and for anybody else who thinks they might have a question that doesn't apply to others please ask it um you know tariq your question went right through mazda right to the ihs that has been updated i would say the subaru's ratings are still slightly higher for its camera only system but new ratings for the mazda cx-5 for forward collision warning so thank you tariq and also uh thanks mazda for watching our podcast absolutely uh now we're gonna talk about um so last episode episode 317 we talked uh one of our topics was you know what suvs do we think are going to be classic down the road you know we always talk about classic cars uh you know and and how valuable they are and and we know what those cars are but what about suvs and so we got a lot of good responses from you guys besides the picks that we gave you for from us you guys sent in a bunch and so we're just gonna read a few right here uh some of the more interesting ones janet says for an idea of a future classic small suv crossover i've always thought there was something unique and appealing about my 2015 infiniti qx50 i'm a fan of the curvy body styling and the dashboard is very elegant and traditional just as a side note if you're not familiar with the qx50 uh it's what infiniti used to call the ex before they switched over to this all-queue uh naming system the ex was essentially a raised version of the g-series sedan uh we got another comment here the fj cruiser and defender were the two suvs that came to mind when i thought of future classics as they're pretty much already classics that's the toad fj cruiser the land rover defender which uh both quincy mike quincy and uh ryan talked about last week as their picks gerard from terrytown new york says i think some jeep gladiators will make the list especially the manual transmission ones it's harder to decide which of the current crop of vehicles will generate enough nostalgia to become the equivalent of a 1960s mustang or volkswagen type 2 bus what do you guys think gladiator maybe down the road yeah i think it could be especially with the manual right it's one of the more uh less common versions of a wrangler so yeah i could see that yeah and i think unique body styles uh now and when we talk about my picks that's somewhat of what goes into the classic equation because it's different than other vehicles on the road right right okay donald says the 1984 the 2001 jeep xj cherokee is also an suv that's been appreciating the last few years a nice clean unmodified one might also be collectible as well and when you think about it the cherokee was really one of the first suvs uh and plus it's got the benefit of it is it is actually uh a pretty good off-roader yeah and they're getting hard to find in that nice condition they've oh yeah they've all been trashed at this point or rotted away so they're getting harder to find so i think that that's spot on yeah yeah because they weren't that expensive you know when you bought them new so it unfortunately sometimes when when vehicles aren't that expensive people don't take they don't don't always have as much pride in them they don't take such great care and of course they're pretty old by now all right nicholas says crossovers aren't in the discussion regarding future classics because they're mostly very similar and most are bland characterless appliances nicholas thanks for thanks for telling it like it is i mean it's just going straight you guys agree with that um i think i think in in a way yes but you know just like any car it's um it's the unique versions of the crossovers or the the the ones that stand out that might um gain attention later so actually thinking about what janet said about infinity i thought about the infinity qx45 i think it is with the v8 it's this like kind of koopa crossover and an early crossover so something like that where they're not very common have something unique about them i think you know given enough time they'll they'll get popular again and and i yeah i think that the the different ones again going back to the unique body styles and i think i might have shared this on a previous episode how about the ford flex so i you know i love it here we go with jen again with the ford flight and how about the um the element we also talked about the element keith kind of indicated that's already becoming hard to find and a cool classic very functional cars but you know what i have a question for you guys i have a lot of questions in this episode but uh-oh do you think as cars get more electrify not electrify but um electronics over-the-air updates all of these is it gonna be harder to have a classic i think of my you know they alluded to the 60s mustang so simple it's easy to keep that classic is it going to be harder to have a classic car with all those electronics in it um yeah i mean even with a classic car it depends if it's a really popular one like a mustang and they keep making parts whether it's ford or other companies you know kind of pick up the the slack if you will and start making parts and that's one thing so i think yeah if the software stops being supported or the parts you know don't get made and yeah you're gonna have a hard time i think yeah but it's parts but those can be reproduced and get reproduction parts it's the software so i'm i'm interested to see what happens when you mean the simplicity of the mustang simplicity if that's what you're kind of partially talking about that you know like you know those cars you could work on yourself and and it's just seems like it's getting more and more complicated with the newer cars right is that what you're sort of saying jen and you could get parts physical hardware as opposed to electronics or software yes gotcha well anyway uh we're glad you guys enjoyed that segment thanks for sending in uh all the good comments and uh keep them coming we'll we'll still keep talking about them down the road so uh let's move on to our next segment we're gonna talk uh this week at the test track the 2022 genesis gv70 uh these are our first impressions of this vehicle uh the gv70 comes on the heels of the gv80 which we've already tested and uh in general liked liked uh quite a bit uh and the gv80 was the genesis brand's first suv now the gv70 slightly smaller comes along uh if you don't know genesis is the luxury arm of hyundai along the lines of you know accurate a honda uh infiniti to nissan and lexus to toyota and so if you think of the gv70 competitors worth talking like a bmw x3 that's about the size that this vehicle is aimed at it shares its powertrain i thought this was really interesting shares his powertrains with the larger gv80 so you're talking about the same turbo four-cylinder the same turbo v6 yet in a smaller package i mean right there that's a recipe for good performance uh so there's a 300 horsepower turbo four cylinder a 375 horsepower turbo v6 uh available in rear or all-wheel drive eight-speed automatic transmission comes on all of them we rented two gv70s from genesis uh so we could do both powertrains and base prices range from 41 000 to 52 600 alex we're going to start with you sure what is it like uh you know a smaller version basically of the gv8 this gv70 what's how does that affect its cornering ability and also did they get the ride to handling compromise right yeah i i was pretty impressed when i first drove this um we drove the 2.5 turbo first and you know i think they they really nailed um the ride and handling balance in my opinion and jen i think you said it they uh the riot handling and powertrain really define this vehicle um i found it genuinely fun to drive you know and not just for a crossover for actually just any car very fun to drive you know the steering is direct but it doesn't feel dirty it's got a good weight to it and then it feels you know rear-wheel drive even though the one we drove was uh all-wheel drive it's a rear-wheel drive architecture and you could really tell when you when you drove it through you know the twisty connecticut roads and all that type of thing um but talking about the balance you know it uh it stays planted through the corners and it kind of has a firm edge to it but it still manages to absorb the bumps really well and be comfortable and i just i do think they struck a really nice balance there yeah i i totally agree i mean uh i i also uh took took it on the track our test track as well and you can feel that rear drive balance of the car like you said even though it was all-wheel drive you know if you turn it into a corner really hard and let off the throttle and you can get the rear to kind of step out a little bit i mean obviously the stability control takes care of all that but just the fact that you can do that as opposed to just kind of plowing or understeering through the turns they really really uh tuned this car to be a sporty driver and man it you really you really feel like it what about what about the um the turbo four like do you think uh our our buyers who go with the turbo four instead of the turbo v6 obviously are gonna be uh having a fuel mileage uh improvement and it's gonna cost a little less are they is there how much of a penalty are they paying in a sense performance wise by going with the turbo 4 instead of the turbo v6 yeah um i mean you said it in your um intro of the car right these are direct carryover engines from the larger gv80 and not detuned at all so you're still getting you know 300 horsepower out of the turbo four and i think in this thing it it is excellent it's a ton of power um you know it's smooth there's only a couple instances where you know maybe the power delivery could have been a little smoother but the transmission is great and shifts smoothly um but you know like you said we rented the the v6 as well and it kind of almost it really feels like a hot rod in that in that car it is a lot of power for a smaller suv and um i think if you want that type of thing great and you're going to enjoy that that extra power but anybody who chooses the the four-cylinder turbos is not going to be disappointed in my opinion oh i was just going to say if if i had never driven the v6 in either car the gv80 or i would be completely happy with the with the four-cylinder totally and then you only go oh well that was but the four-cylinder is plenty for most people i think and and i actually like that little bit of firm edge on the ride that to me is much more appealing than something that's far more floaty i i agree with you that like the the v6 just has a little bit more it's it's a lot not like worlds more power i mean you know again it's not it's 75 more horsepower which is not a ton but you just feel a little bit more everywhere right and it just has a little deeper well of power a little nicer note too uh what i liked for both vehicles is when you put it in at sport mode the shifts become faster and kind of really crisp i mean so you know sometimes with these sport modes it's like well they just you know it just holds the gears a little longer but this one i just i like that if you wanted that you've got this now chris sporty shifting uh transmission feel which was pretty neat alex let's talk about controls because this was an area of the gv80 that we weren't happy with uh they were kind of confusing not that uh intuitive did they do a better job with the gv70 the the gv70 is better but it's still not it's not worlds better and i think if it still suffers from a lot of the um shortcomings that the the gv80 has and so it's the same you know large landscape touch screen display and thankfully it is touch enabled up there on the dash but the problem with that is they put it so far away that they're really encouraging you to use a dial that they have on the center console to interact with the screen and the main problem with the gv80 is that it was this like really flush dial you kind of felt like a disc jockey or something trying to spin this thing on the on the dash or on the center console rather so in the 70 they turned it into a raised up knob style thing that looks like kind of what you get with a bmw i drive system so you're pushing and rotating and pressing this thing and it's better it is better but the software side of things hasn't changed so that still can be confusing to navigate around and then also the problem with the knob is that it's now right next to the gear selector knob and they both look very similar feel similar so i know i did it i don't know about you guys but i accidentally grabbed the you know infotainment dial instead of the gear shift knob at one point so you know can take some getting used to or even if you're not paying you know close attention could maybe be an issue yeah it looks looks nice looks fancy but oh yeah you know the important thing really should be you know how easy is it to use especially while you're driving jen uh what were some thoughts uh on your end about the gv70 maybe some things that are kind of unique that stood out to you about it yeah so so one my again i told you i had a lot of questions so my first question and i was literally looking at them side by side gv8 gv70 is the handling difference so my question if you're spending 40 50 000 anyway why would you not get the gv80 is the handling to you guys that much with the smaller package that much better i was just like why would you not get the additional cargo um the optional third row i was just like why would i get a gv70 over a gv80 and don't get me wrong love love the powertrains on both i've got some opinions but uh um alex why don't why don't you go first and let's let's let's set jen straight generous of you i i think you're right they are they are pretty close uh but i did appreciate that the gv70 doesn't at least to me quite feel like only a mini gv80 you know sometimes when you go like bmw shopping you're kind of just choosing a size not to pick on bmw but that's true for a lot of brands so it did feel a little different to me and i think you know the suspension feels like it's set up similar but because the car is a little lower it's not quite as tall it's um you know it's a little lighter for sure so it's not like the handling was so much better that it was an obvious choice but i think without needing that extra space it's it's different enough for me that um you know i can i can see it and it it looks different the styling is different so i think um there's a little bit there that that would make you choose a 70 over the 80. yeah i think you're right uh you know if you need the space to go with the gv80 uh but i do think the gv70 has a little nicer sharper handling feel and actually i think in some ways it actually rides better at least the ones we rented versus the one we bought of the gv80 so we'll have to see we're going to be buying a gv70 very any day now but i actually thought in some ways it actually rode better maybe that had to do with different wheel sizes you know again it all has to do the wheels affect these suvs so much but i thought i was kind of impressed with how well the gv70 rode but i i see your point jen for sure a couple things i just want to add um i do think it's these big things the ride the power train you know that are gonna lure people into the gv70 or 80 but it's some of the niceties that i think will keep them outside of the controls and i hope they do some work on there but like the interior fit and finish on both just some really neat accents mike i know you'll eventually rate it when we get one but some geometric backlit armrests and the quilted you know leather seats just some real niceties other things that you've i've never seen before you have the ability to adjust the front passenger seat from the driver's side so how many times have you leaned over and tried to you know give some rear seat passenger more leg room you can do that from the driver's seat a kid you know you have a kid that's why they do that i thought that was just so you can you know mess with your passenger no but isn't that so nice have you ever seen that it's such like so simple yet so great the other thing i do want to add on the child passenger safety side is the gv70 is the first vehicle certainly that we've seen that will have an integrated radar based not ultrasonic radar sensor for detecting the presence of children or pets even that are left in these hot vehicles kind of an occupant detection system the promise of this one and what makes it different is not that it just detects movement but the radar is sensitive enough that it would even detect say a a small child or an infant's respiration so it can even get those kind of fine movements so we have great hopes for all of this technology we're really fortunate this year if you look at the number of kids in hot cars deaths there's only 10 in 2021 versus 25 in 2020 53 in 2018 and 2019. so less driving um i'm hoping you know one of the silver linings of covet is maybe people feel less harried and they're not rushing off to work in commutes or maybe even some of the education on this topic is setting in and people are realizing how dangerous it is but only 10 and we're up to august so those were some really good things and nice things about the gv70 right right obviously 10 more than than we want or there should be but progress is important so um yeah i think overall uh this is a sporty driving stylish suv and kind of to your point jen about the interior and just how nice it looks uh it's an suv that i think you'd be proud to own you know what i mean and and yes it doesn't have a mercedes or a bmw badge who cares and actually i think the genesis badge is actually gaining some real traction as as this is a really solid luxury brand like i was your own and proud to show off i think yeah yeah it feels special it does it really does and that's why my point of being i think you'd be you'd be proud to own it you know and that's that's important and uh like i said we will be buying one very soon uh stay tuned for full road test results uh in the meantime go to consumerreports.org and check out our first drive with a lot more in-depth information than we just talked about right now uh let's take a giving moment for a second if you guys don't mind and talk about the talking cars donation program uh you know if you don't know consumer reports is a non-profit organization everything that we do is funded by memberships as well as donations so any little bit you can do goes a long way helps us to do the good work that we do here consumer reports including putting out this podcast so you can find more info at cr.org givetalkingcars and we thank you so much let's move on to audience questions uh don't forget to send those questions comments 30 second video clips to talking cars at icloud.com uh we do love those video clips you send to us we love seeing your faces and all your great questions and the first one today comes from darnley from yonkers new york let's see what darnley has to say hey consumer reports i recently took my mazda cx-9 in for service and they told me that uh my rear brakes they're good for now they're kind of in the yellow so i'm assuming next time i go they're probably gonna want to put on new rear brakes i was gonna go to another place and order my own bricks for this car and i asked him if i do that would you put them on he said yes but we won't guarantee them i said that's not a problem do you recommend going outside and getting breaks from someplace else and having them install as a dealership instead of having them put what they want to put on and charging you more money let me know thanks all right jen uh do you have an answer for darnley yeah so um i gotta be honest i reached out to john ibbitson our chief mechanic at the track i got schooled on breaks so much so that i emailed him the questions i had about darnley's um questions and he texts me back and says call me i can't put all of this in an email it was so so let me just walk through it i did take some notes first of all we may be old enough or diy enough that we still think about replacing pads only john says gone are the days when you just replace brake pads it's always yes and no dealer or um bigger independent repair shop you'll you're likely never gonna get just pads only it's always going to be a pad and rotor replacement and the reason is the reason that they take such a embedded set together that when you put a new pad on an even slightly imperfect rotor that you're likely walking yourselves right into a noise issue a brake noise issue even if it's just you know we think of warped and really gouged rotors he says it doesn't even have to be that and rotors have become much more of an expendable part they don't have the thickness where we used to turn them you know to smooth them out they don't have that thickness anymore they're meant to be as a pair and while we might do it on older cars or what we're doing in our own garages most shops will not do that and it sounded like darnley may have known that you know when he talked about it the second thing is that darnley alluded to replacement of rear brake sets may be more expensive than the fronts because they've been complicated by the electronic parking brake so to get that piston retracted from this electronic parking brake you have to go through um putting the vehicle in a service mode to get that parking brake to pull back so you can work on your own um rear brakes so you need to have someone who knows what they're doing who can't knows how to put that car in service mode he actually alluded to you know putting it in a tow mode but this time you have to put it in a service mode for a brake job when john darnley alluded to the brakes being in the yellow and i was i got to admit i'm like what does he mean by in the yellow john said that could be two things the garage or mod or you know in this case the mazda may have a gauge that indicates red yellow green for the pad depth it also may be simply the inspection sheet that has you know they're doing their multi-point inspection here's things that are green here's things that are yellow on the sheet that you may want to be thinking about for your next service appointment again schooled and depending john says that yellow could be anything from half worn to a little more and if you know the rate you know you know when your car was new how far did you get on those pads for the miles you've driven kind of the rate of wear on the pads he said you may be looking at only half worn and still them showing yellow so for his specific question yes you can get after market parts to his point yes you can take them to the dealer they won't necessarily certify them or warranty them john said however breaks are a great opportunity if you're looking to save a little money by working with an independent knowledgeable garage again we've just said all the reasons they need to be knowledgeable but it's a great job to bring to an independent repair shop get a relationship going it's not something the dealer necessarily has to do there's so many things like we talked about electronics computers etc that you can only go to the dealer why not develop a relationship with an independent repair shop let them do the breaks again make sure they're knowledgeable it doesn't matte i mean some people are just saying i'm always going to go to the dealer which is fine but you are going to pay more so maybe take the opportunity for something like brakes to to have an option for saving a little money in terms of labor costs but it's it's going to be labor costs and i i was just schooled on the whole topic i thought it was a great answer thank you john um but always get someone who knows what they're doing on a newer vehicle like darnley's cx-9 thank you jen for doing the research and and telling us because i know alex and i both learned something today here too so all right let's move on to david from dallas texas david says i am a proud owner of a 2020 ford escape with the 3-cylinder turbo engine and i've had good luck with it i usually drive my car in sport mode which keeps my engine revving higher and my transmission in lower gears this option gives the engine a much noticeable increase in power i enjoy this feature and use it often but will the sport mode wear out an engine faster over time versus driving in normal mode uh i also checked with big john as jen did our you know chief mechanic and he said there will be no measurable difference in wear between the modes but he did say there will be a difference in fuel economy so as far as wear and tear don't worry about that but if you wanna uh if you notice your fuel economy going down a little bit it could be because you have it in sport mode so but don't worry about the longevity anyway as far as that uh we have the next one is it's gonna a couple questions kind of on the same topic so i'm gonna read both questions and then we'll try and see if we can get them answered for you the first one is rick from chesapeake virginia i recently saw a facebook ad for undercoating which i have seen offered as a dealership add-on i don't see cars with rusting issues like we used to have years ago the last car i had with undercoating was my 83 malibu but the ads show varying degrees of resting underneath the car what are your thoughts on undercoating these days a waste of time and money bill from pittsburgh along those lines same line says can you weigh in on fluid film wool wax or other undercoatings please i want my new car to last many years so alex uh what's what is the deal with uh rust proofing or undercoating you can put on yourself yeah i love this question because you know as and we all do it driving old cars in the northeast you're always trying to like prevent rust and maybe you just don't drive in the winter but if you do trying to figure out how to how to stop the corrosion so um and we've answered this question before right monty on a previous episode but um in a little bit of a different way but so i would say to uh focus on rick's question first um any any undercoating you know advertised to you for a new car like either from the dealer or even just a independent place when the car is new um probably not worth your time or effort because cars have just gotten so much better in terms of not only the undercoating that they already come with from the factory you know 99 of cars but also even just the steel that's used to manufacture cars now are literally better at resisting uh corrosion so i would say don't don't bother with that you also have to be careful because a new car comes with a warranty and you don't want to spray anything on the underside of the car that might damage components or get into the electrical system or whatever it is and void your warranty that would be worse than the corrosion you're trying to prevent down the road and and also if you were to do any undercoating it's very important that you do it when the car is essentially as new as possible because if you were to spray on like a permanent coating like a rubber coating or anything on top of rust that's already there you're just trapping that rust and it's just gonna accelerate the problem and make it worse you're better off leaving if there's like surface rust on the frame of your car or something you're better off not touching that with like a rubberized coating that that might be advertised to you um and then to answer bill's question um he's spot on um and i actually personally use fluid film on on my old uh toyota to try to protect it in the winter and this is a natural um substance basically that you can spray onto the frame and it's a once a year type of application maybe november time spray it on at least in northeast spray it on and it's going to just not allow kind of a barrier between the frame and the salt and corrosion and all that right and you can actually rinse it off um with low pressure take the hose and just kind of rinse any stuff that collects under the underside of your car and get that to to wash away so and i think uh other than using something like fluid film just it's important to wash your car throughout the the winter months right don't wait until uh you know may rolls around or something like that to give it its first wash try to get it you know throughout the the season and whether you do it yourself or you take it to an undercarriage wash um you know that'll that'll help definitely help a lot too along the way yeah you got to keep you got to keep on top of that salt if you're in an area uh like where we live where they do use salt on the roads that can be very harmful to the car all right great answer alex thank you for that uh let's go to the last question this comes from henry from new york city henry says your show prompted me to subscribe to consumer reports thank you henry and now cr is part of my research and shopping for everything so thank you i do 90 of my driving in the city but i have a cabin in the woods 400 miles away with 10 miles of rutted dirt roads i've had suvs for years vehicles that can do both the city stuff and the dirt roads but it's wasteful i'm going to get a phev for the city driving and need help finding a 4x4 to leave garage in the woods can you recommend a reliable fun used 4x4 in the in the 10 000 range my family will also use it so it should have abs airbags stability control and can't be breaking down twice a month in the woods so no classic range rovers thank you uh there's a lot to unpack there before we even get to the question which is first of all the no classic range rovers in your face uh ryan piselkowski and mike quincy from last episode because that was one of the um classic suvs that they picked henry's right though yeah also uh i'm so jealous 400 miles away from the city uh with 10 miles of dirt roads i think to get to the cabin i mean that is way out in the boondocks and i love the sound of that but we do we are here to answer questions so let's start with jen what kind of a good used 4x4 can you recommend for henry yeah i could appreciate i live on a dirt road and the house in vermont is on a dirt road 10 miles of dirt road that's a lot of dirt um so i had a cheat because i work on those best cars for young drivers and the link to um the question was that all of those vehicles on those lists have standard stability control so and they're used and they're top-notch for reliability and road tests so i kind of had to cheat because i referred to that list first it's a tough ask at the ten thousand dollar mark where he wants to be to get the stability control standard and we say you can search for one many vehicles had it optional but it's much easier to look for model years where you know it's on there where rather than having to dig through a vin or find an old sticker and see if it had it so um with that said i also honed in on his idea of fun um and the ones from that list were an acura rdx actually so a little bit smaller 2011 for the 10 000 range if you want to go a little bit higher you can get 2012 to 14. um used cars are a little crazy right now as we've talked about at length a little less fun but maybe more functional for a family is the toyota highlander um 2008 to 2013 is sub 15 000 range um all of those vehicles had stability control uh toyota vehicles long before it was required so you just get it in those earlier years as standard equipment um so yeah all right good picks uh alex what do you have yeah this is another great question so anybody who knows these probably expecting me to say like a third gen forerunner or something that's like the next six to o2 that's what i figured you would say but close but i'm gonna say the fourth generation forerunner is is my choice so that's o three to o nine i believe is the the span um and so toyota reliability um it's some of the you know it's going to have a pretty robust four wheel drive system for those 10 miles on the dirt road uh the fun aspect of it it does have the kind of forerunner trademark thing of the rear window that folds down or rolls down into the tailgate right so that gives it a little bit of a unique experience i would say you know if you can and i did try to look up some prices ahead of time and like jen said the market is crazy and it's even a tough ass to begin with at that price range but um if you can get a 2006 or newer with the v6 they're generally a little more reliable but i'm not sure if it's standard as jen mentioned but you definitely can get stability control on this vehicle so that's need is is met there i just the last comment on that is with any vehicle whether it's a forerunner or whatever it is just in the northeast if and that's where you are just be mindful of any rust on an older 4x4 we talked about before so just be mindful of that when you're doing your shopping i wanna i wanna add two mike it might not be what car he picks but how he stores it you know he said garage so you gotta make sure your garage stay i would worry about squirrels and rats and mice getting in those wires if he's not going there frequently and and there's things like peppermint spray or or rodent um deterring tape or even the ultrasonic sensors that's what we use in vermont to keep the mice out so there's all these things but you i would worry and make sure you're checking on that too when you do go back to the cabin and are checking in on it uh so to your point jen about the rodents yeah that is a you know if you're storing something for a long period of time uh we do have have some stories about that up on our website if you want to check it out with uh some really good tips how to protect your car from rodents cr offers clever solutions to critters nibbling out your wires but i feel like i feel like we forgot something here what do you guys think we forgot on this topic your suggestion yes oh thank you thank you alex at least someone cares around here jen just moves on to rodents who cares about monty's no no i'm very interested very interested oh you have a cabin in the woods yeah um so my pick's a little a little out there not quite mike quincy out there but uh so i'm suggesting an older lexus gx uh you know this would be like 2008 or a little older um this is a really good off-road vehicle i actually have two buddies that over the last several years have bought uh a gx each one has bought a used gx and they've taken them off-road they're fantastic off-roaders i mean they're kind of a little bit luxurious too uh and you know really good reliability so that's what that would be my pick for something interesting especially with all that with 10 miles of dirt roads if i don't know if that's 10 miles to get to the cabin or if there's just 10 miles of dirt roads they generally drive on around the cabin but that's just a good solid strong vehicle that's going to be able to soak up those uh those dirt roads like nothing so yeah and i did say assume with my rdx and my highlander that the roads are in decent shape you're right if if if they're rutted or you know mud season then you might need something closer to what you're saying or or the fort runner with a little more clearance a little more off-road-ish jen your your picks are still good gently i'm just saying all right we gave him choices all right anyway that's gonna do it for this episode uh if you want to learn more about the cars and the topics we talked about you can click on the links in the show notes don't forget to send those questions comments and 30 second video clips to talking cars at icloud.com thank you so much for watching and we'll see you all next week out therethis week we share our first impressions of the 2022 genesis gv70 how we learned some important information on getting brakes changed at a dealership and how a talking cars audience question led to changes at the insurance institute for highway safety next on talking cars hi everybody welcome to another episode i'm mike monticello i'm alex nizik and i'm jennifer stockberger so we're going to start off this week kind of circling back to a few topics we talked about on a couple of recent episodes and the first one has to do with mazda's active safety systems and the ihs ratings jen why don't you tell us a little bit about what the result was with that right so so the original question came from tariq on episode 316 where he was asking about the um active safety systems between the mazda cx-5 and the subaru forester which he had kind of narrowed down as cars he wanted to for himself to drive but also share with his younger son so in my answer i shared the some of the ratings from the ihs um on on both of those vehicles and in particular he was concerned um or asking is the dual system the camera and radar on the mazda better than the camera only system on the subaru so i shared the ihs ratings that are slightly better for the subaru system camera only including the fact that mazda did not get credit for its forward collision warning system on the ihs's ratings so fast forward mazda sees that they do some outreach to us and as it turns out mazda has fixed that forward collision warning system timing and should have been getting credit on iihs's site for having it mazda reaches out to ihs ihs updates the ratings and the mazda cx-5 now gets credit for that forward collision warning system making their rating slightly better so when i it was funny because i'm sure tariq didn't realize when he wrote the question that it was going to have upstream impact all the way up to the ihs altering the ratings for the cx-5 so tariq and for anybody else who thinks they might have a question that doesn't apply to others please ask it um you know tariq your question went right through mazda right to the ihs that has been updated i would say the subaru's ratings are still slightly higher for its camera only system but new ratings for the mazda cx-5 for forward collision warning so thank you tariq and also uh thanks mazda for watching our podcast absolutely uh now we're gonna talk about um so last episode episode 317 we talked uh one of our topics was you know what suvs do we think are going to be classic down the road you know we always talk about classic cars uh you know and and how valuable they are and and we know what those cars are but what about suvs and so we got a lot of good responses from you guys besides the picks that we gave you for from us you guys sent in a bunch and so we're just gonna read a few right here uh some of the more interesting ones janet says for an idea of a future classic small suv crossover i've always thought there was something unique and appealing about my 2015 infiniti qx50 i'm a fan of the curvy body styling and the dashboard is very elegant and traditional just as a side note if you're not familiar with the qx50 uh it's what infiniti used to call the ex before they switched over to this all-queue uh naming system the ex was essentially a raised version of the g-series sedan uh we got another comment here the fj cruiser and defender were the two suvs that came to mind when i thought of future classics as they're pretty much already classics that's the toad fj cruiser the land rover defender which uh both quincy mike quincy and uh ryan talked about last week as their picks gerard from terrytown new york says i think some jeep gladiators will make the list especially the manual transmission ones it's harder to decide which of the current crop of vehicles will generate enough nostalgia to become the equivalent of a 1960s mustang or volkswagen type 2 bus what do you guys think gladiator maybe down the road yeah i think it could be especially with the manual right it's one of the more uh less common versions of a wrangler so yeah i could see that yeah and i think unique body styles uh now and when we talk about my picks that's somewhat of what goes into the classic equation because it's different than other vehicles on the road right right okay donald says the 1984 the 2001 jeep xj cherokee is also an suv that's been appreciating the last few years a nice clean unmodified one might also be collectible as well and when you think about it the cherokee was really one of the first suvs uh and plus it's got the benefit of it is it is actually uh a pretty good off-roader yeah and they're getting hard to find in that nice condition they've oh yeah they've all been trashed at this point or rotted away so they're getting harder to find so i think that that's spot on yeah yeah because they weren't that expensive you know when you bought them new so it unfortunately sometimes when when vehicles aren't that expensive people don't take they don't don't always have as much pride in them they don't take such great care and of course they're pretty old by now all right nicholas says crossovers aren't in the discussion regarding future classics because they're mostly very similar and most are bland characterless appliances nicholas thanks for thanks for telling it like it is i mean it's just going straight you guys agree with that um i think i think in in a way yes but you know just like any car it's um it's the unique versions of the crossovers or the the the ones that stand out that might um gain attention later so actually thinking about what janet said about infinity i thought about the infinity qx45 i think it is with the v8 it's this like kind of koopa crossover and an early crossover so something like that where they're not very common have something unique about them i think you know given enough time they'll they'll get popular again and and i yeah i think that the the different ones again going back to the unique body styles and i think i might have shared this on a previous episode how about the ford flex so i you know i love it here we go with jen again with the ford flight and how about the um the element we also talked about the element keith kind of indicated that's already becoming hard to find and a cool classic very functional cars but you know what i have a question for you guys i have a lot of questions in this episode but uh-oh do you think as cars get more electrify not electrify but um electronics over-the-air updates all of these is it gonna be harder to have a classic i think of my you know they alluded to the 60s mustang so simple it's easy to keep that classic is it going to be harder to have a classic car with all those electronics in it um yeah i mean even with a classic car it depends if it's a really popular one like a mustang and they keep making parts whether it's ford or other companies you know kind of pick up the the slack if you will and start making parts and that's one thing so i think yeah if the software stops being supported or the parts you know don't get made and yeah you're gonna have a hard time i think yeah but it's parts but those can be reproduced and get reproduction parts it's the software so i'm i'm interested to see what happens when you mean the simplicity of the mustang simplicity if that's what you're kind of partially talking about that you know like you know those cars you could work on yourself and and it's just seems like it's getting more and more complicated with the newer cars right is that what you're sort of saying jen and you could get parts physical hardware as opposed to electronics or software yes gotcha well anyway uh we're glad you guys enjoyed that segment thanks for sending in uh all the good comments and uh keep them coming we'll we'll still keep talking about them down the road so uh let's move on to our next segment we're gonna talk uh this week at the test track the 2022 genesis gv70 uh these are our first impressions of this vehicle uh the gv70 comes on the heels of the gv80 which we've already tested and uh in general liked liked uh quite a bit uh and the gv80 was the genesis brand's first suv now the gv70 slightly smaller comes along uh if you don't know genesis is the luxury arm of hyundai along the lines of you know accurate a honda uh infiniti to nissan and lexus to toyota and so if you think of the gv70 competitors worth talking like a bmw x3 that's about the size that this vehicle is aimed at it shares its powertrain i thought this was really interesting shares his powertrains with the larger gv80 so you're talking about the same turbo four-cylinder the same turbo v6 yet in a smaller package i mean right there that's a recipe for good performance uh so there's a 300 horsepower turbo four cylinder a 375 horsepower turbo v6 uh available in rear or all-wheel drive eight-speed automatic transmission comes on all of them we rented two gv70s from genesis uh so we could do both powertrains and base prices range from 41 000 to 52 600 alex we're going to start with you sure what is it like uh you know a smaller version basically of the gv8 this gv70 what's how does that affect its cornering ability and also did they get the ride to handling compromise right yeah i i was pretty impressed when i first drove this um we drove the 2.5 turbo first and you know i think they they really nailed um the ride and handling balance in my opinion and jen i think you said it they uh the riot handling and powertrain really define this vehicle um i found it genuinely fun to drive you know and not just for a crossover for actually just any car very fun to drive you know the steering is direct but it doesn't feel dirty it's got a good weight to it and then it feels you know rear-wheel drive even though the one we drove was uh all-wheel drive it's a rear-wheel drive architecture and you could really tell when you when you drove it through you know the twisty connecticut roads and all that type of thing um but talking about the balance you know it uh it stays planted through the corners and it kind of has a firm edge to it but it still manages to absorb the bumps really well and be comfortable and i just i do think they struck a really nice balance there yeah i i totally agree i mean uh i i also uh took took it on the track our test track as well and you can feel that rear drive balance of the car like you said even though it was all-wheel drive you know if you turn it into a corner really hard and let off the throttle and you can get the rear to kind of step out a little bit i mean obviously the stability control takes care of all that but just the fact that you can do that as opposed to just kind of plowing or understeering through the turns they really really uh tuned this car to be a sporty driver and man it you really you really feel like it what about what about the um the turbo four like do you think uh our our buyers who go with the turbo four instead of the turbo v6 obviously are gonna be uh having a fuel mileage uh improvement and it's gonna cost a little less are they is there how much of a penalty are they paying in a sense performance wise by going with the turbo 4 instead of the turbo v6 yeah um i mean you said it in your um intro of the car right these are direct carryover engines from the larger gv80 and not detuned at all so you're still getting you know 300 horsepower out of the turbo four and i think in this thing it it is excellent it's a ton of power um you know it's smooth there's only a couple instances where you know maybe the power delivery could have been a little smoother but the transmission is great and shifts smoothly um but you know like you said we rented the the v6 as well and it kind of almost it really feels like a hot rod in that in that car it is a lot of power for a smaller suv and um i think if you want that type of thing great and you're going to enjoy that that extra power but anybody who chooses the the four-cylinder turbos is not going to be disappointed in my opinion oh i was just going to say if if i had never driven the v6 in either car the gv80 or i would be completely happy with the with the four-cylinder totally and then you only go oh well that was but the four-cylinder is plenty for most people i think and and i actually like that little bit of firm edge on the ride that to me is much more appealing than something that's far more floaty i i agree with you that like the the v6 just has a little bit more it's it's a lot not like worlds more power i mean you know again it's not it's 75 more horsepower which is not a ton but you just feel a little bit more everywhere right and it just has a little deeper well of power a little nicer note too uh what i liked for both vehicles is when you put it in at sport mode the shifts become faster and kind of really crisp i mean so you know sometimes with these sport modes it's like well they just you know it just holds the gears a little longer but this one i just i like that if you wanted that you've got this now chris sporty shifting uh transmission feel which was pretty neat alex let's talk about controls because this was an area of the gv80 that we weren't happy with uh they were kind of confusing not that uh intuitive did they do a better job with the gv70 the the gv70 is better but it's still not it's not worlds better and i think if it still suffers from a lot of the um shortcomings that the the gv80 has and so it's the same you know large landscape touch screen display and thankfully it is touch enabled up there on the dash but the problem with that is they put it so far away that they're really encouraging you to use a dial that they have on the center console to interact with the screen and the main problem with the gv80 is that it was this like really flush dial you kind of felt like a disc jockey or something trying to spin this thing on the on the dash or on the center console rather so in the 70 they turned it into a raised up knob style thing that looks like kind of what you get with a bmw i drive system so you're pushing and rotating and pressing this thing and it's better it is better but the software side of things hasn't changed so that still can be confusing to navigate around and then also the problem with the knob is that it's now right next to the gear selector knob and they both look very similar feel similar so i know i did it i don't know about you guys but i accidentally grabbed the you know infotainment dial instead of the gear shift knob at one point so you know can take some getting used to or even if you're not paying you know close attention could maybe be an issue yeah it looks looks nice looks fancy but oh yeah you know the important thing really should be you know how easy is it to use especially while you're driving jen uh what were some thoughts uh on your end about the gv70 maybe some things that are kind of unique that stood out to you about it yeah so so one my again i told you i had a lot of questions so my first question and i was literally looking at them side by side gv8 gv70 is the handling difference so my question if you're spending 40 50 000 anyway why would you not get the gv80 is the handling to you guys that much with the smaller package that much better i was just like why would you not get the additional cargo um the optional third row i was just like why would i get a gv70 over a gv80 and don't get me wrong love love the powertrains on both i've got some opinions but uh um alex why don't why don't you go first and let's let's let's set jen straight generous of you i i think you're right they are they are pretty close uh but i did appreciate that the gv70 doesn't at least to me quite feel like only a mini gv80 you know sometimes when you go like bmw shopping you're kind of just choosing a size not to pick on bmw but that's true for a lot of brands so it did feel a little different to me and i think you know the suspension feels like it's set up similar but because the car is a little lower it's not quite as tall it's um you know it's a little lighter for sure so it's not like the handling was so much better that it was an obvious choice but i think without needing that extra space it's it's different enough for me that um you know i can i can see it and it it looks different the styling is different so i think um there's a little bit there that that would make you choose a 70 over the 80. yeah i think you're right uh you know if you need the space to go with the gv80 uh but i do think the gv70 has a little nicer sharper handling feel and actually i think in some ways it actually rides better at least the ones we rented versus the one we bought of the gv80 so we'll have to see we're going to be buying a gv70 very any day now but i actually thought in some ways it actually rode better maybe that had to do with different wheel sizes you know again it all has to do the wheels affect these suvs so much but i thought i was kind of impressed with how well the gv70 rode but i i see your point jen for sure a couple things i just want to add um i do think it's these big things the ride the power train you know that are gonna lure people into the gv70 or 80 but it's some of the niceties that i think will keep them outside of the controls and i hope they do some work on there but like the interior fit and finish on both just some really neat accents mike i know you'll eventually rate it when we get one but some geometric backlit armrests and the quilted you know leather seats just some real niceties other things that you've i've never seen before you have the ability to adjust the front passenger seat from the driver's side so how many times have you leaned over and tried to you know give some rear seat passenger more leg room you can do that from the driver's seat a kid you know you have a kid that's why they do that i thought that was just so you can you know mess with your passenger no but isn't that so nice have you ever seen that it's such like so simple yet so great the other thing i do want to add on the child passenger safety side is the gv70 is the first vehicle certainly that we've seen that will have an integrated radar based not ultrasonic radar sensor for detecting the presence of children or pets even that are left in these hot vehicles kind of an occupant detection system the promise of this one and what makes it different is not that it just detects movement but the radar is sensitive enough that it would even detect say a a small child or an infant's respiration so it can even get those kind of fine movements so we have great hopes for all of this technology we're really fortunate this year if you look at the number of kids in hot cars deaths there's only 10 in 2021 versus 25 in 2020 53 in 2018 and 2019. so less driving um i'm hoping you know one of the silver linings of covet is maybe people feel less harried and they're not rushing off to work in commutes or maybe even some of the education on this topic is setting in and people are realizing how dangerous it is but only 10 and we're up to august so those were some really good things and nice things about the gv70 right right obviously 10 more than than we want or there should be but progress is important so um yeah i think overall uh this is a sporty driving stylish suv and kind of to your point jen about the interior and just how nice it looks uh it's an suv that i think you'd be proud to own you know what i mean and and yes it doesn't have a mercedes or a bmw badge who cares and actually i think the genesis badge is actually gaining some real traction as as this is a really solid luxury brand like i was your own and proud to show off i think yeah yeah it feels special it does it really does and that's why my point of being i think you'd be you'd be proud to own it you know and that's that's important and uh like i said we will be buying one very soon uh stay tuned for full road test results uh in the meantime go to consumerreports.org and check out our first drive with a lot more in-depth information than we just talked about right now uh let's take a giving moment for a second if you guys don't mind and talk about the talking cars donation program uh you know if you don't know consumer reports is a non-profit organization everything that we do is funded by memberships as well as donations so any little bit you can do goes a long way helps us to do the good work that we do here consumer reports including putting out this podcast so you can find more info at cr.org givetalkingcars and we thank you so much let's move on to audience questions uh don't forget to send those questions comments 30 second video clips to talking cars at icloud.com uh we do love those video clips you send to us we love seeing your faces and all your great questions and the first one today comes from darnley from yonkers new york let's see what darnley has to say hey consumer reports i recently took my mazda cx-9 in for service and they told me that uh my rear brakes they're good for now they're kind of in the yellow so i'm assuming next time i go they're probably gonna want to put on new rear brakes i was gonna go to another place and order my own bricks for this car and i asked him if i do that would you put them on he said yes but we won't guarantee them i said that's not a problem do you recommend going outside and getting breaks from someplace else and having them install as a dealership instead of having them put what they want to put on and charging you more money let me know thanks all right jen uh do you have an answer for darnley yeah so um i gotta be honest i reached out to john ibbitson our chief mechanic at the track i got schooled on breaks so much so that i emailed him the questions i had about darnley's um questions and he texts me back and says call me i can't put all of this in an email it was so so let me just walk through it i did take some notes first of all we may be old enough or diy enough that we still think about replacing pads only john says gone are the days when you just replace brake pads it's always yes and no dealer or um bigger independent repair shop you'll you're likely never gonna get just pads only it's always going to be a pad and rotor replacement and the reason is the reason that they take such a embedded set together that when you put a new pad on an even slightly imperfect rotor that you're likely walking yourselves right into a noise issue a brake noise issue even if it's just you know we think of warped and really gouged rotors he says it doesn't even have to be that and rotors have become much more of an expendable part they don't have the thickness where we used to turn them you know to smooth them out they don't have that thickness anymore they're meant to be as a pair and while we might do it on older cars or what we're doing in our own garages most shops will not do that and it sounded like darnley may have known that you know when he talked about it the second thing is that darnley alluded to replacement of rear brake sets may be more expensive than the fronts because they've been complicated by the electronic parking brake so to get that piston retracted from this electronic parking brake you have to go through um putting the vehicle in a service mode to get that parking brake to pull back so you can work on your own um rear brakes so you need to have someone who knows what they're doing who can't knows how to put that car in service mode he actually alluded to you know putting it in a tow mode but this time you have to put it in a service mode for a brake job when john darnley alluded to the brakes being in the yellow and i was i got to admit i'm like what does he mean by in the yellow john said that could be two things the garage or mod or you know in this case the mazda may have a gauge that indicates red yellow green for the pad depth it also may be simply the inspection sheet that has you know they're doing their multi-point inspection here's things that are green here's things that are yellow on the sheet that you may want to be thinking about for your next service appointment again schooled and depending john says that yellow could be anything from half worn to a little more and if you know the rate you know you know when your car was new how far did you get on those pads for the miles you've driven kind of the rate of wear on the pads he said you may be looking at only half worn and still them showing yellow so for his specific question yes you can get after market parts to his point yes you can take them to the dealer they won't necessarily certify them or warranty them john said however breaks are a great opportunity if you're looking to save a little money by working with an independent knowledgeable garage again we've just said all the reasons they need to be knowledgeable but it's a great job to bring to an independent repair shop get a relationship going it's not something the dealer necessarily has to do there's so many things like we talked about electronics computers etc that you can only go to the dealer why not develop a relationship with an independent repair shop let them do the breaks again make sure they're knowledgeable it doesn't matte i mean some people are just saying i'm always going to go to the dealer which is fine but you are going to pay more so maybe take the opportunity for something like brakes to to have an option for saving a little money in terms of labor costs but it's it's going to be labor costs and i i was just schooled on the whole topic i thought it was a great answer thank you john um but always get someone who knows what they're doing on a newer vehicle like darnley's cx-9 thank you jen for doing the research and and telling us because i know alex and i both learned something today here too so all right let's move on to david from dallas texas david says i am a proud owner of a 2020 ford escape with the 3-cylinder turbo engine and i've had good luck with it i usually drive my car in sport mode which keeps my engine revving higher and my transmission in lower gears this option gives the engine a much noticeable increase in power i enjoy this feature and use it often but will the sport mode wear out an engine faster over time versus driving in normal mode uh i also checked with big john as jen did our you know chief mechanic and he said there will be no measurable difference in wear between the modes but he did say there will be a difference in fuel economy so as far as wear and tear don't worry about that but if you wanna uh if you notice your fuel economy going down a little bit it could be because you have it in sport mode so but don't worry about the longevity anyway as far as that uh we have the next one is it's gonna a couple questions kind of on the same topic so i'm gonna read both questions and then we'll try and see if we can get them answered for you the first one is rick from chesapeake virginia i recently saw a facebook ad for undercoating which i have seen offered as a dealership add-on i don't see cars with rusting issues like we used to have years ago the last car i had with undercoating was my 83 malibu but the ads show varying degrees of resting underneath the car what are your thoughts on undercoating these days a waste of time and money bill from pittsburgh along those lines same line says can you weigh in on fluid film wool wax or other undercoatings please i want my new car to last many years so alex uh what's what is the deal with uh rust proofing or undercoating you can put on yourself yeah i love this question because you know as and we all do it driving old cars in the northeast you're always trying to like prevent rust and maybe you just don't drive in the winter but if you do trying to figure out how to how to stop the corrosion so um and we've answered this question before right monty on a previous episode but um in a little bit of a different way but so i would say to uh focus on rick's question first um any any undercoating you know advertised to you for a new car like either from the dealer or even just a independent place when the car is new um probably not worth your time or effort because cars have just gotten so much better in terms of not only the undercoating that they already come with from the factory you know 99 of cars but also even just the steel that's used to manufacture cars now are literally better at resisting uh corrosion so i would say don't don't bother with that you also have to be careful because a new car comes with a warranty and you don't want to spray anything on the underside of the car that might damage components or get into the electrical system or whatever it is and void your warranty that would be worse than the corrosion you're trying to prevent down the road and and also if you were to do any undercoating it's very important that you do it when the car is essentially as new as possible because if you were to spray on like a permanent coating like a rubber coating or anything on top of rust that's already there you're just trapping that rust and it's just gonna accelerate the problem and make it worse you're better off leaving if there's like surface rust on the frame of your car or something you're better off not touching that with like a rubberized coating that that might be advertised to you um and then to answer bill's question um he's spot on um and i actually personally use fluid film on on my old uh toyota to try to protect it in the winter and this is a natural um substance basically that you can spray onto the frame and it's a once a year type of application maybe november time spray it on at least in northeast spray it on and it's going to just not allow kind of a barrier between the frame and the salt and corrosion and all that right and you can actually rinse it off um with low pressure take the hose and just kind of rinse any stuff that collects under the underside of your car and get that to to wash away so and i think uh other than using something like fluid film just it's important to wash your car throughout the the winter months right don't wait until uh you know may rolls around or something like that to give it its first wash try to get it you know throughout the the season and whether you do it yourself or you take it to an undercarriage wash um you know that'll that'll help definitely help a lot too along the way yeah you got to keep you got to keep on top of that salt if you're in an area uh like where we live where they do use salt on the roads that can be very harmful to the car all right great answer alex thank you for that uh let's go to the last question this comes from henry from new york city henry says your show prompted me to subscribe to consumer reports thank you henry and now cr is part of my research and shopping for everything so thank you i do 90 of my driving in the city but i have a cabin in the woods 400 miles away with 10 miles of rutted dirt roads i've had suvs for years vehicles that can do both the city stuff and the dirt roads but it's wasteful i'm going to get a phev for the city driving and need help finding a 4x4 to leave garage in the woods can you recommend a reliable fun used 4x4 in the in the 10 000 range my family will also use it so it should have abs airbags stability control and can't be breaking down twice a month in the woods so no classic range rovers thank you uh there's a lot to unpack there before we even get to the question which is first of all the no classic range rovers in your face uh ryan piselkowski and mike quincy from last episode because that was one of the um classic suvs that they picked henry's right though yeah also uh i'm so jealous 400 miles away from the city uh with 10 miles of dirt roads i think to get to the cabin i mean that is way out in the boondocks and i love the sound of that but we do we are here to answer questions so let's start with jen what kind of a good used 4x4 can you recommend for henry yeah i could appreciate i live on a dirt road and the house in vermont is on a dirt road 10 miles of dirt road that's a lot of dirt um so i had a cheat because i work on those best cars for young drivers and the link to um the question was that all of those vehicles on those lists have standard stability control so and they're used and they're top-notch for reliability and road tests so i kind of had to cheat because i referred to that list first it's a tough ask at the ten thousand dollar mark where he wants to be to get the stability control standard and we say you can search for one many vehicles had it optional but it's much easier to look for model years where you know it's on there where rather than having to dig through a vin or find an old sticker and see if it had it so um with that said i also honed in on his idea of fun um and the ones from that list were an acura rdx actually so a little bit smaller 2011 for the 10 000 range if you want to go a little bit higher you can get 2012 to 14. um used cars are a little crazy right now as we've talked about at length a little less fun but maybe more functional for a family is the toyota highlander um 2008 to 2013 is sub 15 000 range um all of those vehicles had stability control uh toyota vehicles long before it was required so you just get it in those earlier years as standard equipment um so yeah all right good picks uh alex what do you have yeah this is another great question so anybody who knows these probably expecting me to say like a third gen forerunner or something that's like the next six to o2 that's what i figured you would say but close but i'm gonna say the fourth generation forerunner is is my choice so that's o three to o nine i believe is the the span um and so toyota reliability um it's some of the you know it's going to have a pretty robust four wheel drive system for those 10 miles on the dirt road uh the fun aspect of it it does have the kind of forerunner trademark thing of the rear window that folds down or rolls down into the tailgate right so that gives it a little bit of a unique experience i would say you know if you can and i did try to look up some prices ahead of time and like jen said the market is crazy and it's even a tough ass to begin with at that price range but um if you can get a 2006 or newer with the v6 they're generally a little more reliable but i'm not sure if it's standard as jen mentioned but you definitely can get stability control on this vehicle so that's need is is met there i just the last comment on that is with any vehicle whether it's a forerunner or whatever it is just in the northeast if and that's where you are just be mindful of any rust on an older 4x4 we talked about before so just be mindful of that when you're doing your shopping i wanna i wanna add two mike it might not be what car he picks but how he stores it you know he said garage so you gotta make sure your garage stay i would worry about squirrels and rats and mice getting in those wires if he's not going there frequently and and there's things like peppermint spray or or rodent um deterring tape or even the ultrasonic sensors that's what we use in vermont to keep the mice out so there's all these things but you i would worry and make sure you're checking on that too when you do go back to the cabin and are checking in on it uh so to your point jen about the rodents yeah that is a you know if you're storing something for a long period of time uh we do have have some stories about that up on our website if you want to check it out with uh some really good tips how to protect your car from rodents cr offers clever solutions to critters nibbling out your wires but i feel like i feel like we forgot something here what do you guys think we forgot on this topic your suggestion yes oh thank you thank you alex at least someone cares around here jen just moves on to rodents who cares about monty's no no i'm very interested very interested oh you have a cabin in the woods yeah um so my pick's a little a little out there not quite mike quincy out there but uh so i'm suggesting an older lexus gx uh you know this would be like 2008 or a little older um this is a really good off-road vehicle i actually have two buddies that over the last several years have bought uh a gx each one has bought a used gx and they've taken them off-road they're fantastic off-roaders i mean they're kind of a little bit luxurious too uh and you know really good reliability so that's what that would be my pick for something interesting especially with all that with 10 miles of dirt roads if i don't know if that's 10 miles to get to the cabin or if there's just 10 miles of dirt roads they generally drive on around the cabin but that's just a good solid strong vehicle that's going to be able to soak up those uh those dirt roads like nothing so yeah and i did say assume with my rdx and my highlander that the roads are in decent shape you're right if if if they're rutted or you know mud season then you might need something closer to what you're saying or or the fort runner with a little more clearance a little more off-road-ish jen your your picks are still good gently i'm just saying all right we gave him choices all right anyway that's gonna do it for this episode uh if you want to learn more about the cars and the topics we talked about you can click on the links in the show notes don't forget to send those questions comments and 30 second video clips to talking cars at icloud.com thank you so much for watching and we'll see you all next week out there\n"