2022 Honda Civic; Which Cars of Today Will Be Future Classics _ Talking Cars #312

The Technical Definition of Electric

The term "electric" is often misused to refer specifically to battery-powered vehicles. However, from a technical standpoint, electric refers to the flow of charge. Whether it's powered by a plug or stored in a battery, the motor that drives the vehicle is still electric. The electrical energy used to power an electric vehicle (EV) is measured in watts and kilowatts, just like any other electrical device.

The Misconception about Battery-Powered Vehicles

Many people assume that EVs are not "electric" because they use batteries as a source of energy. However, this assumption is misleading. Batteries take chemical energy and convert it into electrical energy, which powers the motor. Therefore, battery-powered vehicles are still electric in nature. This distinction is becoming increasingly important as the automotive industry shifts towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly options.

The Evolving Language of the Industry

In recent years, the term "EV" has become synonymous with "battery electric vehicle." However, some manufacturers are starting to use the term "BEV" (Battery Electric Vehicle) to differentiate between vehicles that are powered solely by electricity and those that offer hybrid or plug-in options. This change in language reflects a broader shift towards more precise and nuanced communication about the characteristics of different types of electric vehicles.

Peter's Question: Running the AC

Peter asked if leaving his car's air conditioning on while driving consumes gas. The answer is yes, but only to some extent. In mild weather conditions, running the AC can drop fuel economy by one to four miles per gallon, according to Consumer Reports. However, this reduction in efficiency comes at the cost of comfort and safety. Air conditioning not only lowers the temperature inside the vehicle but also reduces humidity and keeps the cabin more pleasant. For many drivers, these benefits outweigh any potential fuel savings.

The Importance of Air Conditioning

While running the AC may consume gas, it's essential to consider the bigger picture. Air conditioning not only improves driving comfort but also helps prevent driver fatigue and maintains a safer driving environment. In hot weather conditions, this can be particularly important. According to our research, having the AC on while driving can lead to improved alertness and reaction time behind the wheel.

Recirculating Video: Peter's Question

For those interested in learning more about the effects of running the AC on fuel efficiency, we have a video from Consumer Reports that provides further insights into this topic. The video offers practical tips for drivers looking to reduce their fuel consumption while still enjoying a comfortable driving experience.

Talking Cars with You

We'd love to hear from you! Have any questions or concerns about electric vehicles or driving in general? Send them our way at talkingcars@icloud.com, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more informative content and behind-the-scenes insights into the world of electric vehicles.

Keith's Love Affair with Priuses

In a recent interview, Keith revealed his long-standing fascination with hybrid vehicles. From the moment he first learned about the Toyota Prius, he knew that it was something special. "I've never met someone like that," he said, referring to the innovative spirit behind the Prius. For Keith, the Prius represents more than just a car – it's a symbol of innovation and sustainability in the automotive industry.

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

When it comes to encouraging people to adopt sustainable driving habits, positive reinforcement can be a powerful tool. By sharing inspiring stories like Keith's, we hope to motivate others to consider alternative modes of transportation that are better for the environment. Whether you're a seasoned EV owner or just starting to explore your options, every journey counts – and so does every question!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis week we give our first impressions of the 2022 honda civic we discuss whether a vehicle that sits at a dealership for months can suffer from lot rot and we talk about what cars on sale today will be considered classics in the future all that and more next on talking cars hey welcome back i'm keith barry i'm mike quincy and i'm jennifer stockberger and jen you're here now but but you've been you've been working late a lot um is have you been trying to figure out how to get mike and i bonuses or raises or something yes yes exactly no as as we do every month we we're doing some headlight testing so um just to give a quick rundown we do this once a month because we follow the moon charts we're looking for a dark clear moonless night so i literally have of my um astrological moon chart i follow and we're doing the current test group um as we're running some video behind here you can see we have this wonderful track with no ambient lighting so it's truly black and a set of flat black plywood signs that go from where we position the car all the way out to 900 feet there are signs for width for low beam signs for high beam signs and the test is really how many signs can you see so we took some footage both in the day and the night and we go out there and we're aligning the car as if it's in the right lane and we're looking at what little beams illuminate and what high beams illuminate and then we take a drive is there a very sharp cutoff is the light pattern uniform all of those little things that can make it more pleasing and one of the cool things about this week's test is most of the new cars are leds we see a lot of leds but we happen to have the hyundai ioniq in there and it was a halogen bulb so it was very interesting if you look at the footage you can see that the leds are brighter and whiter but the ionic had some pretty good distance even with a halogen bulb it doesn't matter if it's a little bit yellower as long as you can still see the object it's not a safety risk you know they say leds are better for color differentiation or object detection but as long as you've got enough illumination there for your eyes to pick it up you can have a very good halogen bulb um doesn't have to be super bright super white like most of the leds are so yeah we'll do that every month and we've done it every month for the past let's see 2004 what's that uh five years five five years 2004. yes yeah so yeah about five or 15 or whatever yeah so yeah long time it just goes to show jen how long you and i've have been working up here and and it's what's interesting also is i recall you saying you know more than once um there there often are extra cost options for headlights when you buy a car and and and these extra cost lights aren't always better and i think that's it's one of the great things that you do and and you're always looking for the dark side of the moon which is you know oh my gosh well we got to move on uh thanks uh we got to move on to an another topic um you know in addition to headlights which we we get a lot of a lot of folks say why are headlights so bright these days uh another complaint that we see a lot on social media and hearing is why are trucks getting so much bigger um i don't know if you park next to a truck at the grocery store if you're not if you're not driving a pickup truck if you park next to one and you look and and you're kind of at the door handle of some of these f-250s and and silverado hds and ram 2500s so um you know we didn't want to think that we were just imagining things we're cr so we do data based uh we use data to figure these things out so we had uh steve ellick who's on our data team got some data together and looked at sales data for trucks and also was able to get hood height data for trucks and found that since the year 2000 the average hood height of a passenger truck has increased on average by 11 and that new pickups have grown 24 heavier um between 2000 and 2018 was the last year that we had data for so so imagine probably even bigger uh today and then on some heavy-duty trucks like the ford f-250 uh those those hd trucks the front edge of the hood is 55 inches off the ground and that's that's as tall as the roof of corolla um and in addition jen some of the work that you've been doing you looked at at sight lines right um about uh about what this means for visibility what those drivers of those trucks can actually see and that's it's a lot worse right yeah you recall years ago we did very similar with rear visibility and it was some of the the data that drove why all new cars have backup cameras but the same is happening um for front visibility and pedestrian fatalities and injuries are one of the uh areas that are going up not down in terms of crash protection so of course we have pedestrian detection um but that really is the last minute emergency braking to try and protect this this pedestrian um it's so much better if you can see a pedestrian long before you you need pedestrian detection systems to apply the brakes for you and these trucks there's some really long distances you know we do it with it with children in mind so we're looking at about a 28 inch cone when we look at this visibility but it could be anybody and you're you're just not going to see what's out there in front of you um as you would from a much lower vehicle less hood less hood height etc so that's one of the areas of of the trucks and you know um the other piece for pedestrian safety is the impact point as these hood heights get taller and taller you're no longer hitting someone you know perhaps in their extremities where you can repair a femur or a tibia but you're talking about impact with the torso and the head which obviously is much more dangerous for someone walking or crossing in front of you or so yeah yeah you can head over to cr.org and read the article and there's there's information about you know people who are getting hit in cars in smaller vehicles are more likely to get killed um and as as suvs become less dangerous to drivers of smaller vehicles trucks are not they're becoming almost more aggressive or as aggressive as as they've been jen you're you know you you're one of our our chief experts on on best cars for teenage drivers and you listen to this with this discussion about you know mass you've got this big vehicle around you but these vehicles don't handle well they they don't have good visibility it takes much longer to stop these things so before parents out there think well i should put my you know new driver in a big truck because all this metal around it no this is actually you know other issues at stake yeah and do you know how many big pickups are on that teen list zero zero well what is a person who wants a truck that is fuel efficient but not so big to do because the other thing that we found is that compact trucks are now so much larger you know we looked at those smaller trucks from you know the things like the the the chevy love and the isuzu pup those are gone and today's rangers and colorado's are almost the size of what was a full-size truck years ago so so what on earth is there to do is is there any automaker who's out there who's who's thinking of mike how's is this enough of a softball lead up for you you know what's interesting is is ford is bringing back one of their old name plates but but originally it was on kind of a ratty little car called the maverick but since the maverick is coming out as a truck and and this is uh the new maverick is kind of fitting the bill of a smaller pickup truck it's about a foot shorter than the ranger crew cab and i think we're we're showing a great graphic right now that that gives you an idea of putting the maverick in perspective of how big it is compared to the ranger and to the f-150 uh it comes standard as a hybrid it's a 191 horsepower 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine linked to a continuously variable transmission 40 miles a gallon i mean you know yeah yeah epa epa fuel economy is estimated right you know around 37 uh front wheel drive is standard which is not something kind of you would ever think would happen in almost any pickup truck although actually volkswagen had a a rabbit pickup that had front wheel drive and you always think about you're putting weight in the bed and it's front wheel drive and the whole thing is you know it doesn't make a lot of sense in some ways but um you know ford knows what it's doing um it starts about twenty thousand dollars it's built in mexico and it's really it's taking the place of a small car in ford's lineup i mean ford is basically getting rid of all their cars and they're saying to people interested in enjoying the ford family um here here's our entry-level vehicle it's a pickup truck um so but keith i'm so glad that you mentioned um the the early uh the early small trucks in the 70s and 80s there were a lot of small trucks from from japan i mean mitsubishi made them for chrysler mazda produced them for ford and isuzu you know gave gm the love and um and nissan also in toyota we're also making small trucks and so i'm personally i love trucks so i'm really glad to see hopefully a resurgence of small trucks coming to the us market there is a serious conversation in my household about the ford maverick as soon as we get it into tests that's not just going to be the cr test drive that's going to be uh our households test drive of of whether or not this is you know there's going to be something that's going to be used to to do a little landscaping to carry kayaks you can put you can put plywood in the back but also there's room for for people in it too and jen they're safety features yeah i mean it's going to get the ford copilot 360 suite of safety features so all of that it's a great alternative you hit the mark keith with anything that's dirty that you don't really want to put in the back of your suv wet dirty bale's a hay i i haul we just had this conversation when jack bought the f-150 do you really need all of that truck what we came to is that he does because he puts mowers and things back there riding mowers but for many people you don't and i have a funny story when my daughter was about four she had a love affair with the subaru baja we had a bright yellow to tet on the test fleet subaru baja and she would pick them out everywhere and that was kind of the same idea we actually i was on the cover of a magazine in 2004 called working mother and there's a picture of her and i in the magazine with she got to pick the car the subaru baja because she loved that car but it's the same idea anytime you could put mulch or anything like you're talking about keith in the back of a small vehicle and then have great passenger space great alternative i think the maverick and the coming hyundai santa cruz is another one um that will do great uh before we move on uh i just wanted to take a moment to let you know about the talking cars donation program you've heard us talk about it before you probably know i hope you know that cr is a non-profit organization and that all the work that we do is funded by memberships and donations um not by doing mattress commercials or car commercials or anything like that so that's that's how we're able to buy and test those vehicles and buy and test the versions that normal people buy not the ones that automakers want us to buy so if you're able to give it really does help us keep doing the work we do including the bad puns that we make here on talking cars uh maybe forget about that point uh but all the good work we do uh it helps fund that so you can find more information at cr.org give talking cars cr.org give talking cars and thanks to the folks who have already made some donations it's it's really cool to see see those coming in so thanks thanks to those folks speaking of cars that are very highly equipped we got in a new 2022 honda civic touring that we rented from honda because this was the vehicle that they had available it's going to go on sale this summer we're going to buy one of our own but for now we've got some first impressions the price on this vehicle ranges from 21 000 to about 38 000 so that is a really wide range you know the base engine is uh is uh is a four cylinder but the ex and the touring get a turbo for 180 horsepower depending upon how it's uh how it's set up between 33 and 36 miles per gallon combined the thing that struck me was that interior quince you spent some time in this on the track right oh yeah yeah i mean i got i got to drive this car a flat out shooting the the b-roll with anatoly the great which you're probably looking at right now and listen it corners really flat it has a responsive chassis totally feels at home when you're pushing it the steering has good weighting it communicates well when that when the front uh the front end is kind of reaching its cornering limits really entertaining to drive this car hard i really like the upgraded turbo engine feels strong smooth power lots of torque down low uh and and keep it's really one of those times where we can say see not all cvts are bad the thing that really stood out to me was how put together this this this vehicle felt and how nice it felt i mean it's a civic uh by definition it is it is a car that is sort of for the you know an affordable small vehicle and this felt to me it felt the interior almost felt like it like like an audi from a few years ago this this honeycomb grates on the uh the the climate control vents the seats everything about the car just felt upscale i don't know if all of them are going to feel like that i'm sorry what you said is you know civic has always been this really nice small vehicle and i was just about to throw it to jen civic isn't so small anymore now isn't it no no very comfortable and i agree with everything you're saying so i was not on the track and i agree with you mike and and keith excellent powertrain i mean it it'll be interesting whether the two-liter non-turbo is is as peppy feeling but it it was really impressive it did feel much sportier than we've come to expect from the civic it's just super smooth the cvt is very well implemented now a couple things so it's sporty seats it had some fairly significant bolstered seats they fit my back well but maybe i'm a little wider in the butt area so that cushion bolster i encourage people to sit in that and one thing this touring had a 235 4018 uh tire and wheel package on it i thought the road noise was really really loud i don't know again now i in looking up the sport also gets to an 18-inch wheel package so there's 16s on the lx there's 17s on the ex but there's an 18 on that sport again i think they're looking toward the sportier driver and they'll be very happy but that road noise is crazy and it's not just on like the rougher chip seal type surfaces we have locally here it didn't seem to matter once the road smoothed out you still had a lot of like roar in that cabin so something i really think conda needs to look at and then controls wise very very straightforward for the most part traditional shifter some of the on-screen selection buttons a little small for me i like when they're larger so you don't have to look so closely at what you're navigating but that too and in looking at the specs no six speed manual on the mainstream i expect the s i and the r will perhaps have that but no six speed anymore so for you manual lovers no six speed all cvt another one bites the dust yes it seems like it's gonna be really interesting when we buy our own one of these if it can kind of keep up the good things about the the version the touring version we tested or if it's a car that kind of feels like oh they can make it look nice um and they they can do great things with it but not for 21 22 23 25 grand correct if they can so much the better but that sort of remains to be seen so yeah and that's and that's another great topic for talking cars is you know we're talking about uh a vehicle and when a trim line really matters so yeah we we rarely we buy our test civic we're not going to be getting the touring model as you said we're going to be getting something more well i mean it's just kind of how we roll we we talk to the manufacturers and we say you know give us your estimate of what do you think is going to be the volume model the volume uh engine and transmission combination that's the one that we buy because we're trying to get the majority of the market so in all likelihood our tested civic is not going to be as jazzy as this one so but we we're going to we're going to be able to see you know is it is it worth trading up or you're going to be fine kind of with with the middle of the road model yeah yeah really really looking forward to it uh and you can read the full first drive over at cr.org there's a lot of information a lot of photos and uh you can see just just you know this this car it's it's it's it's really interesting looking forward to it speaking of high trim lines of cars and cars that are sort of the mundane part of the landscape we want to try something new here on talking cars and talk about what we think are going to be some modern classics you know we've got these these these websites like bring a trailer you've got things like radwood and oblivion and these car shows where people bring cars that you know we were only testing just a few years ago it seems right and all of a sudden these these cars are showing up at car shows and you know the civic si that's one of those examples of a car that's probably you know that's already collectible the first versions of it and maybe the this version civic si or the civic r is going to be collectible in 20 years but jen what what do you think is a card that we have uh that we've tested recently that is going to be at a car show that you're going to in in 20 years so this was a hard question so let me just put that out because there's so many it's not just age to me that makes it a classic there's got to be something else um something niche that brings it back so i thought of first of all like somewhat quirky cars quirky cars that had maybe a different body style that that may be the the next classic so how about the classic honda element or the classic ford flex you know it's also going to have some robustness that lets it be around 25 years from now when it becomes classic in terms of age so you know you look back there were some really quirky cars like i was looking like plymouth prowler would you call that a classic chevy hhr is that a classic just because it was so different pt cruiser pt cruiser there you go there's some quirky quirky cars out there you're right juke yeah the juke will that be uh will we see a classic juke group but the other is we and we talked about this a few episodes ago what brings you back what is it that i drove around in that when i was a kid and my parents had that and i so loved it it's the way my quincy and i talk about station wagons when we were kids is there going to be the dodge grand caravan classic that's redone and made into like a little camping maybe that's the vw micro bus of 25 years from now i know i'm getting real wacky but no no no no i mean volkswagen could have done that volkswagen had the micro bus um the california they sell it in europe it's a it's a thing it's a collectible these these micro buses from the 60s and 70s some of them are going for like a hundred thousand dollars so so volkswagen could have said you know we need to build on this but no they they just uh we'll get chrysler to build us a minivan for a couple years and then forget it jen you are spot on i don't know if the rutan is ever going to be collectible but you are spot on about element prices have been like an element goes up on one of those auction sites and people go nuts over it because it's cool and different and it works and how about a civic manual all the manuals i think will be classics is as they eliminate them so yeah not just the si but any civic manual mike what do you think well i actually had a 1987 honda civic si one of those cars that i actually genuinely missed um but when i was thinking about this question keith i was thinking you know to to be a future classic there's a couple criteria it really has to be built in pretty limited numbers and some were you know really not popular when they were new i mean you know jen you talk about the flex we all like the flex and but but they didn't it didn't really sell that well right yeah it was it was nice and boxy and so i mean some of the the cars that we've been driving last 10 15 years are obvious that are going to be future collectors i mean the honda s2000 don't even put it on this list because it's it's already selling for way more than when they were new exactly so so i picked i picked two and i it was this exercise was difficult for me because i had a long list of cars and i really had to narrow it down so my first choice is the chevrolet ss okay this was last sold in 2017. it looked like a nondescript sedan but it was really like a stealth corvette it had a 415 horsepower 6.2 liter v8 it had this amazing exhaust spark right when you started it up it was it was developed and built by holden gm's australian division so which now is kind of you know yeah they're kind of kind of defined in some ways so you know holden is building a car it's a rear wheel drive platform let's put an american v8 into it and slap an ss you know a a a legendary uh moniker from from chevrolet you know ss for super sport uh we went so far as to call it a budget bmw m5 i mean it was quick acceleration great breaks and and we said the car eats up twisty undulating roads for breakfast without a burp come on that i mean that's just that's just literary gold right there and the car was really awesome so that's that's one but i had it i had another choice that i just couldn't resist and um the second one is the toyota fj cruiser okay this this thing looked great had real off-road chops a strong 4 liter v6 engine responsive 5-speed automatic i mean on-road handling was pretty clumsy in our testing and the cool styling really took its toll at outward visibility of huge blind spots all around it blind spot warning was not even a thing on this car back then but anyway i could probably give a dozen more but abrams is going to kill me if i keep going on so but but i think two of those are are going to do well because an fj cruiser is is selling for like almost 40 grand on bring a trailer as we speak so mike i don't actually think it has to be low volume think about the mustangs you and i have had in our driveways those were high volume vehicles tons of nostalgia around them even though they were mainstream in their day and i think i totally agree i i think that some of with with you know gen z that some of the uh when they start looking at cars to collect some of the early hybrids some of the early electric cars as cars become more electrified those first attempts you know something like uh the prius is going to be or the leaf or or the chevy volt these are going to be interesting things that people are even already now starting talking about collecting um how about the mustang machi exactly keep the mustang nostalgia going yeah and tesla's exactly the first a 2012 model s is gonna be i think that'll it'll be real interesting to see as people also have to learn new skills to keep these cars on the road and and remember old skills model s with the ludicrous button yeah perfect i i keep that i was thinking you're going to say like the honda the first honda insight remember that that little it looked like a little like a a a roller skate already people are with the skirted fenders already people are are saying that's you know the first gen prius the first honda insight these are these are historical cars they might not be as as fun to drive the same way that a mustang was in its heyday but they are important automobilia and i think people care about that stuff but i mean historical cars is different than desirability do you know what i mean it's like did you did you really think gosh that car is really hot when when you were a teenager or is it in a different way i wanted i dreamed of a prius i mean really i really did and when i got one it was one of the most it was real exciting in a very different way that i dreamed of other cars in a very different way jen who who is this guy who's this guy i know i'm going to be out there doing the headlight testing i i just know it you're getting me out there on the track in the dark and oh yeah okay okay i think it's time it's time to hear what you have to say uh you can you can rag on me for you know uh for my opinions for your dreamy prius uh but you can you can uh send your takes on uh good or bad takes uh about future classics uh to talking cars at icloud.com and if you have one i mean i remember a couple of weeks ago we had someone who had a a saab 93 wagon in the background and i thought that's a that's going to be a future classic so take a picture of your own send it to us maybe we'll feature it here and that's talking cars at icloud.com also two talking cars at icloud.com are your questions including video questions like this one that we've got from avi i changed my oil here with my phimoto valve approximately once every three thousand miles in my subaru ascent it is required at three thousand miles if i am doing rough commuting or putting a lot of stress on my engine now i actually drive about four miles each way as far as my commute goes so my oil changes do take a while in order to get there i just wanted to know whether doing my oil every 3000 miles because of my short commute and not getting my temperature all the way up is reasonable or should i actually do it by the manufacturer's recommended 6000 miles for regular intervals thank you so much great show appreciate it so first of all avi is is not a sentient um piece of of uh metal uh he was showing us uh a picture of i don't think he is at least uh a valve on there that makes it easier to drain oil for a diy oil change i get a lot of questions about oil it seems like people either don't even know that their car needs an oil change or they they really obsess over it uh quincy what what what do we have to say here uh well first i want to remark on on you're mentioning saab i have a sob t-shirt that i'm gonna wear next time i'm on this show okay but anyway um so so for avi uh the short trips should be considered severe duty i mean you have to think not only about how far you're driving but how much time uh the car is running in other words if you're are you sitting in traffic a lot so this is looking at it you know via time interval versus mileage um so our advice has always been that even if you don't drive a lot of miles every year you should definitely be getting your oil changed at least twice a year and oil becomes less effective as it gets as it as it ages and by not getting the engine warm enough excessive moisture can conform in the engine um that won't be removed from the engine and protect your you know your powertrain so so definitely if you make a lot of short trips uh standard motor oil might not get warm enough to burn off the moisture and impurities so um you know you have to keep that in mind you're talking about you know the intervals of your oil changes great i want to add too for avi he may need because he's doing short trips you may need to make a point avi of getting out there and just doing a couple of highway loops get that engine warmed up it's not good to not get that you know get some heat in there and just you may intentionally just have to take a drive and do some highway driving uh marilyn has an interesting question with a hint of mystery to it marilyn says i am in the market for a particular car the only ones in my area that are available in the trim level i want have been sitting on the dealership lots for six months or longer the months have been mild but they have been exposed to the elements should i consider buying these cars or is there a risk of lot rot and that's a cool phrase to coin also text us back what on earth car is this that you are this particular car in particular trim level i really want to find out uh yes marilyn made us so curious what was it yeah yeah so i've actually bought a car that sat on a lot for at least the car that sat on a lot for a long time and that was my infamous xe diesel which uh which when i turned it in it took it took an eight months at the dealer to find a buyer for it even during a historic used car uh you know crisis uh that still no one wanted this thing um so marilyn i've been in this boat where i wanted a particular car in a particular trim level and to be perfectly honest with this the car that i bought had sat um for about about eight or nine months before i got it and it had sat in a parking lot of a closed down shopping mall uh it had it was exposed to the elements it had you know water snow ice everything on it and they had to detail it pretty significantly when it when it showed up because you know birds everything else so and you want to go over it with a fine-tooth comb before you pick it up make sure there's no rust on the rotors on the brake rotors that's a big thing just look in the wheels and if and if you can see you know that those rotors have rust on them they might even need to be replaced even if they're brand new because the car sat that long look for rust on the exterior of the car it can happen even on a brand new car look for paint blotches or splotches or or some you know damage to the clear coat from pine trees sap or bird droppings i mean this car you know um but jen she's she's like the only person i've heard of who's written into us who has said um that the car is just sitting there waiting for her right right right now the market it's just the opposite we typically hear just the opposite that cars um as people move toward in independent transportation that the market's hot that they're actually paying more for sticker so in this case maryland take that as a opportunity to negotiate negotiate negotiate say you know i want you to go in there and say hey how much will you pay me to take this car off your hands and get it off your lap i see it's been sitting there for it's you know it's coming up on its birthday it'd be a shame if it just you know if it became uh you know a year old yeah so i was thinking that maryland maryland must be like shopping for a sedan because you know that's like one of the the lower selling uh body styles these days i mean she's certainly not finding a kia telluride that's been sitting on a dealer's lot yeah five minutes marilyn please if you're watching this send let us know just you know send us an email and and and let us know what you're buying and if you got it too i'm really curious about this one so you get a good deal marilyn if you take if you do go get it we want to know what kind of deal you got so yeah just make sure that it's cleaned make sure that it's it's taken care of but it's not gonna six months isn't gonna damage the car it sometimes takes the cars that long to get to the united states depending upon where it was made so i wouldn't be tremendously worried mostly you know exterior cosmetic stuff that the dealer's going to make sure that it's taken care of so one thing we didn't mention it's still going to be under warranty yeah i mean it's a new car yeah yeah yeah so um so good luck and thanks for coining a new phrase for us next up is a question from carl uh carl carl's auditioning to uh to write some jokes for us i think so carl says i have an electrifying question if i may this might seem silly but i don't call any of my plug-in battery-operated appliances like a flashlight vacuum driller etc electric so if a car is just run by a ton of batteries why do we call it an electric vehicle sure you plug them into charge but it's not really an electric motor that powers them they're just run by a bunch of batteries okay off my soapbox please provide an explanation i can live with i'll be shocked if you can i i come on carl i have my master's degree in dad humor okay come on i think you have i think you have a phd well hello you have a dad humor doctorate no this is uh this is a really good question but but jen we we we we kind of technically do call them battery electric vehicles right so let me see if i can generate an answer that people will be happy with so the truth is the technical definition of electric is the flow of charge so whether they're powered by a plug that you plug in what we've come to know as electric or if the charge is flowing from a battery they're both still electric and those motors that are running them are still electric even the electrical energy is measured in the same terms watts kilowatts so it's actually kind of a misnomer to say even battery power they're still electric we have come to know electric and we've come to assume electric is when you plug something in and that flow is directly coming from the socket in your house but that's not really the case batteries take chemical energy and make them into electrical energy and they are still electric and you're seeing kind of a change in industry where they're actually qualifying we're not just saying evs when you look at how they're writing standards and regulations etc they're using battery electric vehicles to help differentiate you'll see bevs instead of just evs so truth is they are electric hopefully carl you feel empowered to share this and you get a charge out of letting other people know and you know and if you buy you know a battery electric car you have to listen to ac dc the whole time and if you do decide you need a recommendation to further your comedy career we'll give you a plug um so peter is i'm too young for that i'm too young for this i plug that was good no i'm too i'm too young for this apparently you aren't everyone's rubbing off on me here this is you get you get points for plug that was good okay peter says he's wondering if leaving his ac off saves me gas as opposed to running it i've heard mixed things from different people so i was wondering what you guys thought and and quince you had a video that like uh you had a video that was iconic about this it was like vh1 you know level it was a classic it was a classic yeah don't sweat it we've got your back here's some cool tips so you don't become a hot mess while you're driving home first of all don't run your car with the ac on until you're actually ready to go air conditioning works much better when you're driving so don't waste your time or your gas you guys are too kind i you know the super producer dave abrams actually let me wear a hawaiian shirt and it was and sunglasses it was one of the hottest days of the summer i remember that i was like i gotta get my lines right every time i messed up we had to start over and then listen i'm the coolest guy to answer this question right air conditioning edit that out edit that all right okay bye guys um so peter using air conditioning does consume gas we actually looked into this and we tested this uh but in mild weather if you can get by without it even if you open the windows it will give incremental savings i mean depending how hot it is outside the hotter it is the harder your air conditioning is working the lower your fuel economy will get but um if you're running your ac you can expect to drop from about one to four miles per gallon according to consumer reports uh but keep in mind having the ac running it keeps you cool uh it lowers the humidity it keeps the cabin more pleasant it helps you to stay as a more alert driver so i don't think you're gonna have anybody here that's gonna say oh yeah it's the hottest day of the summer yeah don't run your ac no run your ac i mean it's what it's there for and uh that's that's some great advice uh quince and uh if if you want we can recirculate that video uh we'll we'll post it up on cr.org and you can check it out and learn more about about everything that we talked about today so if you have any questions any bad puns uh send them to talking cars at icloud.com we love video questions but we love all questions marilyn please tell us what kind of car you bought and from all of us here at cr thanks so much for talking cars with us we'll see you again soon he is good he's learning i didn't know what was gonna i opened my mouth and i don't know what's gonna happen hang on one quick second so sorry okay no problem good good advice good advice um yeah if you have any other questions uh if you have any other oh that's a horrible's i i lost my i lost my i'm sorry he lost his mojo for transitions yeah it's like yeah we have keith on the record saying i've been treated i've dreamt about priuses i mean i've never met someone like thatthis week we give our first impressions of the 2022 honda civic we discuss whether a vehicle that sits at a dealership for months can suffer from lot rot and we talk about what cars on sale today will be considered classics in the future all that and more next on talking cars hey welcome back i'm keith barry i'm mike quincy and i'm jennifer stockberger and jen you're here now but but you've been you've been working late a lot um is have you been trying to figure out how to get mike and i bonuses or raises or something yes yes exactly no as as we do every month we we're doing some headlight testing so um just to give a quick rundown we do this once a month because we follow the moon charts we're looking for a dark clear moonless night so i literally have of my um astrological moon chart i follow and we're doing the current test group um as we're running some video behind here you can see we have this wonderful track with no ambient lighting so it's truly black and a set of flat black plywood signs that go from where we position the car all the way out to 900 feet there are signs for width for low beam signs for high beam signs and the test is really how many signs can you see so we took some footage both in the day and the night and we go out there and we're aligning the car as if it's in the right lane and we're looking at what little beams illuminate and what high beams illuminate and then we take a drive is there a very sharp cutoff is the light pattern uniform all of those little things that can make it more pleasing and one of the cool things about this week's test is most of the new cars are leds we see a lot of leds but we happen to have the hyundai ioniq in there and it was a halogen bulb so it was very interesting if you look at the footage you can see that the leds are brighter and whiter but the ionic had some pretty good distance even with a halogen bulb it doesn't matter if it's a little bit yellower as long as you can still see the object it's not a safety risk you know they say leds are better for color differentiation or object detection but as long as you've got enough illumination there for your eyes to pick it up you can have a very good halogen bulb um doesn't have to be super bright super white like most of the leds are so yeah we'll do that every month and we've done it every month for the past let's see 2004 what's that uh five years five five years 2004. yes yeah so yeah about five or 15 or whatever yeah so yeah long time it just goes to show jen how long you and i've have been working up here and and it's what's interesting also is i recall you saying you know more than once um there there often are extra cost options for headlights when you buy a car and and and these extra cost lights aren't always better and i think that's it's one of the great things that you do and and you're always looking for the dark side of the moon which is you know oh my gosh well we got to move on uh thanks uh we got to move on to an another topic um you know in addition to headlights which we we get a lot of a lot of folks say why are headlights so bright these days uh another complaint that we see a lot on social media and hearing is why are trucks getting so much bigger um i don't know if you park next to a truck at the grocery store if you're not if you're not driving a pickup truck if you park next to one and you look and and you're kind of at the door handle of some of these f-250s and and silverado hds and ram 2500s so um you know we didn't want to think that we were just imagining things we're cr so we do data based uh we use data to figure these things out so we had uh steve ellick who's on our data team got some data together and looked at sales data for trucks and also was able to get hood height data for trucks and found that since the year 2000 the average hood height of a passenger truck has increased on average by 11 and that new pickups have grown 24 heavier um between 2000 and 2018 was the last year that we had data for so so imagine probably even bigger uh today and then on some heavy-duty trucks like the ford f-250 uh those those hd trucks the front edge of the hood is 55 inches off the ground and that's that's as tall as the roof of corolla um and in addition jen some of the work that you've been doing you looked at at sight lines right um about uh about what this means for visibility what those drivers of those trucks can actually see and that's it's a lot worse right yeah you recall years ago we did very similar with rear visibility and it was some of the the data that drove why all new cars have backup cameras but the same is happening um for front visibility and pedestrian fatalities and injuries are one of the uh areas that are going up not down in terms of crash protection so of course we have pedestrian detection um but that really is the last minute emergency braking to try and protect this this pedestrian um it's so much better if you can see a pedestrian long before you you need pedestrian detection systems to apply the brakes for you and these trucks there's some really long distances you know we do it with it with children in mind so we're looking at about a 28 inch cone when we look at this visibility but it could be anybody and you're you're just not going to see what's out there in front of you um as you would from a much lower vehicle less hood less hood height etc so that's one of the areas of of the trucks and you know um the other piece for pedestrian safety is the impact point as these hood heights get taller and taller you're no longer hitting someone you know perhaps in their extremities where you can repair a femur or a tibia but you're talking about impact with the torso and the head which obviously is much more dangerous for someone walking or crossing in front of you or so yeah yeah you can head over to cr.org and read the article and there's there's information about you know people who are getting hit in cars in smaller vehicles are more likely to get killed um and as as suvs become less dangerous to drivers of smaller vehicles trucks are not they're becoming almost more aggressive or as aggressive as as they've been jen you're you know you you're one of our our chief experts on on best cars for teenage drivers and you listen to this with this discussion about you know mass you've got this big vehicle around you but these vehicles don't handle well they they don't have good visibility it takes much longer to stop these things so before parents out there think well i should put my you know new driver in a big truck because all this metal around it no this is actually you know other issues at stake yeah and do you know how many big pickups are on that teen list zero zero well what is a person who wants a truck that is fuel efficient but not so big to do because the other thing that we found is that compact trucks are now so much larger you know we looked at those smaller trucks from you know the things like the the the chevy love and the isuzu pup those are gone and today's rangers and colorado's are almost the size of what was a full-size truck years ago so so what on earth is there to do is is there any automaker who's out there who's who's thinking of mike how's is this enough of a softball lead up for you you know what's interesting is is ford is bringing back one of their old name plates but but originally it was on kind of a ratty little car called the maverick but since the maverick is coming out as a truck and and this is uh the new maverick is kind of fitting the bill of a smaller pickup truck it's about a foot shorter than the ranger crew cab and i think we're we're showing a great graphic right now that that gives you an idea of putting the maverick in perspective of how big it is compared to the ranger and to the f-150 uh it comes standard as a hybrid it's a 191 horsepower 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine linked to a continuously variable transmission 40 miles a gallon i mean you know yeah yeah epa epa fuel economy is estimated right you know around 37 uh front wheel drive is standard which is not something kind of you would ever think would happen in almost any pickup truck although actually volkswagen had a a rabbit pickup that had front wheel drive and you always think about you're putting weight in the bed and it's front wheel drive and the whole thing is you know it doesn't make a lot of sense in some ways but um you know ford knows what it's doing um it starts about twenty thousand dollars it's built in mexico and it's really it's taking the place of a small car in ford's lineup i mean ford is basically getting rid of all their cars and they're saying to people interested in enjoying the ford family um here here's our entry-level vehicle it's a pickup truck um so but keith i'm so glad that you mentioned um the the early uh the early small trucks in the 70s and 80s there were a lot of small trucks from from japan i mean mitsubishi made them for chrysler mazda produced them for ford and isuzu you know gave gm the love and um and nissan also in toyota we're also making small trucks and so i'm personally i love trucks so i'm really glad to see hopefully a resurgence of small trucks coming to the us market there is a serious conversation in my household about the ford maverick as soon as we get it into tests that's not just going to be the cr test drive that's going to be uh our households test drive of of whether or not this is you know there's going to be something that's going to be used to to do a little landscaping to carry kayaks you can put you can put plywood in the back but also there's room for for people in it too and jen they're safety features yeah i mean it's going to get the ford copilot 360 suite of safety features so all of that it's a great alternative you hit the mark keith with anything that's dirty that you don't really want to put in the back of your suv wet dirty bale's a hay i i haul we just had this conversation when jack bought the f-150 do you really need all of that truck what we came to is that he does because he puts mowers and things back there riding mowers but for many people you don't and i have a funny story when my daughter was about four she had a love affair with the subaru baja we had a bright yellow to tet on the test fleet subaru baja and she would pick them out everywhere and that was kind of the same idea we actually i was on the cover of a magazine in 2004 called working mother and there's a picture of her and i in the magazine with she got to pick the car the subaru baja because she loved that car but it's the same idea anytime you could put mulch or anything like you're talking about keith in the back of a small vehicle and then have great passenger space great alternative i think the maverick and the coming hyundai santa cruz is another one um that will do great uh before we move on uh i just wanted to take a moment to let you know about the talking cars donation program you've heard us talk about it before you probably know i hope you know that cr is a non-profit organization and that all the work that we do is funded by memberships and donations um not by doing mattress commercials or car commercials or anything like that so that's that's how we're able to buy and test those vehicles and buy and test the versions that normal people buy not the ones that automakers want us to buy so if you're able to give it really does help us keep doing the work we do including the bad puns that we make here on talking cars uh maybe forget about that point uh but all the good work we do uh it helps fund that so you can find more information at cr.org give talking cars cr.org give talking cars and thanks to the folks who have already made some donations it's it's really cool to see see those coming in so thanks thanks to those folks speaking of cars that are very highly equipped we got in a new 2022 honda civic touring that we rented from honda because this was the vehicle that they had available it's going to go on sale this summer we're going to buy one of our own but for now we've got some first impressions the price on this vehicle ranges from 21 000 to about 38 000 so that is a really wide range you know the base engine is uh is uh is a four cylinder but the ex and the touring get a turbo for 180 horsepower depending upon how it's uh how it's set up between 33 and 36 miles per gallon combined the thing that struck me was that interior quince you spent some time in this on the track right oh yeah yeah i mean i got i got to drive this car a flat out shooting the the b-roll with anatoly the great which you're probably looking at right now and listen it corners really flat it has a responsive chassis totally feels at home when you're pushing it the steering has good weighting it communicates well when that when the front uh the front end is kind of reaching its cornering limits really entertaining to drive this car hard i really like the upgraded turbo engine feels strong smooth power lots of torque down low uh and and keep it's really one of those times where we can say see not all cvts are bad the thing that really stood out to me was how put together this this this vehicle felt and how nice it felt i mean it's a civic uh by definition it is it is a car that is sort of for the you know an affordable small vehicle and this felt to me it felt the interior almost felt like it like like an audi from a few years ago this this honeycomb grates on the uh the the climate control vents the seats everything about the car just felt upscale i don't know if all of them are going to feel like that i'm sorry what you said is you know civic has always been this really nice small vehicle and i was just about to throw it to jen civic isn't so small anymore now isn't it no no very comfortable and i agree with everything you're saying so i was not on the track and i agree with you mike and and keith excellent powertrain i mean it it'll be interesting whether the two-liter non-turbo is is as peppy feeling but it it was really impressive it did feel much sportier than we've come to expect from the civic it's just super smooth the cvt is very well implemented now a couple things so it's sporty seats it had some fairly significant bolstered seats they fit my back well but maybe i'm a little wider in the butt area so that cushion bolster i encourage people to sit in that and one thing this touring had a 235 4018 uh tire and wheel package on it i thought the road noise was really really loud i don't know again now i in looking up the sport also gets to an 18-inch wheel package so there's 16s on the lx there's 17s on the ex but there's an 18 on that sport again i think they're looking toward the sportier driver and they'll be very happy but that road noise is crazy and it's not just on like the rougher chip seal type surfaces we have locally here it didn't seem to matter once the road smoothed out you still had a lot of like roar in that cabin so something i really think conda needs to look at and then controls wise very very straightforward for the most part traditional shifter some of the on-screen selection buttons a little small for me i like when they're larger so you don't have to look so closely at what you're navigating but that too and in looking at the specs no six speed manual on the mainstream i expect the s i and the r will perhaps have that but no six speed anymore so for you manual lovers no six speed all cvt another one bites the dust yes it seems like it's gonna be really interesting when we buy our own one of these if it can kind of keep up the good things about the the version the touring version we tested or if it's a car that kind of feels like oh they can make it look nice um and they they can do great things with it but not for 21 22 23 25 grand correct if they can so much the better but that sort of remains to be seen so yeah and that's and that's another great topic for talking cars is you know we're talking about uh a vehicle and when a trim line really matters so yeah we we rarely we buy our test civic we're not going to be getting the touring model as you said we're going to be getting something more well i mean it's just kind of how we roll we we talk to the manufacturers and we say you know give us your estimate of what do you think is going to be the volume model the volume uh engine and transmission combination that's the one that we buy because we're trying to get the majority of the market so in all likelihood our tested civic is not going to be as jazzy as this one so but we we're going to we're going to be able to see you know is it is it worth trading up or you're going to be fine kind of with with the middle of the road model yeah yeah really really looking forward to it uh and you can read the full first drive over at cr.org there's a lot of information a lot of photos and uh you can see just just you know this this car it's it's it's it's really interesting looking forward to it speaking of high trim lines of cars and cars that are sort of the mundane part of the landscape we want to try something new here on talking cars and talk about what we think are going to be some modern classics you know we've got these these these websites like bring a trailer you've got things like radwood and oblivion and these car shows where people bring cars that you know we were only testing just a few years ago it seems right and all of a sudden these these cars are showing up at car shows and you know the civic si that's one of those examples of a car that's probably you know that's already collectible the first versions of it and maybe the this version civic si or the civic r is going to be collectible in 20 years but jen what what do you think is a card that we have uh that we've tested recently that is going to be at a car show that you're going to in in 20 years so this was a hard question so let me just put that out because there's so many it's not just age to me that makes it a classic there's got to be something else um something niche that brings it back so i thought of first of all like somewhat quirky cars quirky cars that had maybe a different body style that that may be the the next classic so how about the classic honda element or the classic ford flex you know it's also going to have some robustness that lets it be around 25 years from now when it becomes classic in terms of age so you know you look back there were some really quirky cars like i was looking like plymouth prowler would you call that a classic chevy hhr is that a classic just because it was so different pt cruiser pt cruiser there you go there's some quirky quirky cars out there you're right juke yeah the juke will that be uh will we see a classic juke group but the other is we and we talked about this a few episodes ago what brings you back what is it that i drove around in that when i was a kid and my parents had that and i so loved it it's the way my quincy and i talk about station wagons when we were kids is there going to be the dodge grand caravan classic that's redone and made into like a little camping maybe that's the vw micro bus of 25 years from now i know i'm getting real wacky but no no no no i mean volkswagen could have done that volkswagen had the micro bus um the california they sell it in europe it's a it's a thing it's a collectible these these micro buses from the 60s and 70s some of them are going for like a hundred thousand dollars so so volkswagen could have said you know we need to build on this but no they they just uh we'll get chrysler to build us a minivan for a couple years and then forget it jen you are spot on i don't know if the rutan is ever going to be collectible but you are spot on about element prices have been like an element goes up on one of those auction sites and people go nuts over it because it's cool and different and it works and how about a civic manual all the manuals i think will be classics is as they eliminate them so yeah not just the si but any civic manual mike what do you think well i actually had a 1987 honda civic si one of those cars that i actually genuinely missed um but when i was thinking about this question keith i was thinking you know to to be a future classic there's a couple criteria it really has to be built in pretty limited numbers and some were you know really not popular when they were new i mean you know jen you talk about the flex we all like the flex and but but they didn't it didn't really sell that well right yeah it was it was nice and boxy and so i mean some of the the cars that we've been driving last 10 15 years are obvious that are going to be future collectors i mean the honda s2000 don't even put it on this list because it's it's already selling for way more than when they were new exactly so so i picked i picked two and i it was this exercise was difficult for me because i had a long list of cars and i really had to narrow it down so my first choice is the chevrolet ss okay this was last sold in 2017. it looked like a nondescript sedan but it was really like a stealth corvette it had a 415 horsepower 6.2 liter v8 it had this amazing exhaust spark right when you started it up it was it was developed and built by holden gm's australian division so which now is kind of you know yeah they're kind of kind of defined in some ways so you know holden is building a car it's a rear wheel drive platform let's put an american v8 into it and slap an ss you know a a a legendary uh moniker from from chevrolet you know ss for super sport uh we went so far as to call it a budget bmw m5 i mean it was quick acceleration great breaks and and we said the car eats up twisty undulating roads for breakfast without a burp come on that i mean that's just that's just literary gold right there and the car was really awesome so that's that's one but i had it i had another choice that i just couldn't resist and um the second one is the toyota fj cruiser okay this this thing looked great had real off-road chops a strong 4 liter v6 engine responsive 5-speed automatic i mean on-road handling was pretty clumsy in our testing and the cool styling really took its toll at outward visibility of huge blind spots all around it blind spot warning was not even a thing on this car back then but anyway i could probably give a dozen more but abrams is going to kill me if i keep going on so but but i think two of those are are going to do well because an fj cruiser is is selling for like almost 40 grand on bring a trailer as we speak so mike i don't actually think it has to be low volume think about the mustangs you and i have had in our driveways those were high volume vehicles tons of nostalgia around them even though they were mainstream in their day and i think i totally agree i i think that some of with with you know gen z that some of the uh when they start looking at cars to collect some of the early hybrids some of the early electric cars as cars become more electrified those first attempts you know something like uh the prius is going to be or the leaf or or the chevy volt these are going to be interesting things that people are even already now starting talking about collecting um how about the mustang machi exactly keep the mustang nostalgia going yeah and tesla's exactly the first a 2012 model s is gonna be i think that'll it'll be real interesting to see as people also have to learn new skills to keep these cars on the road and and remember old skills model s with the ludicrous button yeah perfect i i keep that i was thinking you're going to say like the honda the first honda insight remember that that little it looked like a little like a a a roller skate already people are with the skirted fenders already people are are saying that's you know the first gen prius the first honda insight these are these are historical cars they might not be as as fun to drive the same way that a mustang was in its heyday but they are important automobilia and i think people care about that stuff but i mean historical cars is different than desirability do you know what i mean it's like did you did you really think gosh that car is really hot when when you were a teenager or is it in a different way i wanted i dreamed of a prius i mean really i really did and when i got one it was one of the most it was real exciting in a very different way that i dreamed of other cars in a very different way jen who who is this guy who's this guy i know i'm going to be out there doing the headlight testing i i just know it you're getting me out there on the track in the dark and oh yeah okay okay i think it's time it's time to hear what you have to say uh you can you can rag on me for you know uh for my opinions for your dreamy prius uh but you can you can uh send your takes on uh good or bad takes uh about future classics uh to talking cars at icloud.com and if you have one i mean i remember a couple of weeks ago we had someone who had a a saab 93 wagon in the background and i thought that's a that's going to be a future classic so take a picture of your own send it to us maybe we'll feature it here and that's talking cars at icloud.com also two talking cars at icloud.com are your questions including video questions like this one that we've got from avi i changed my oil here with my phimoto valve approximately once every three thousand miles in my subaru ascent it is required at three thousand miles if i am doing rough commuting or putting a lot of stress on my engine now i actually drive about four miles each way as far as my commute goes so my oil changes do take a while in order to get there i just wanted to know whether doing my oil every 3000 miles because of my short commute and not getting my temperature all the way up is reasonable or should i actually do it by the manufacturer's recommended 6000 miles for regular intervals thank you so much great show appreciate it so first of all avi is is not a sentient um piece of of uh metal uh he was showing us uh a picture of i don't think he is at least uh a valve on there that makes it easier to drain oil for a diy oil change i get a lot of questions about oil it seems like people either don't even know that their car needs an oil change or they they really obsess over it uh quincy what what what do we have to say here uh well first i want to remark on on you're mentioning saab i have a sob t-shirt that i'm gonna wear next time i'm on this show okay but anyway um so so for avi uh the short trips should be considered severe duty i mean you have to think not only about how far you're driving but how much time uh the car is running in other words if you're are you sitting in traffic a lot so this is looking at it you know via time interval versus mileage um so our advice has always been that even if you don't drive a lot of miles every year you should definitely be getting your oil changed at least twice a year and oil becomes less effective as it gets as it as it ages and by not getting the engine warm enough excessive moisture can conform in the engine um that won't be removed from the engine and protect your you know your powertrain so so definitely if you make a lot of short trips uh standard motor oil might not get warm enough to burn off the moisture and impurities so um you know you have to keep that in mind you're talking about you know the intervals of your oil changes great i want to add too for avi he may need because he's doing short trips you may need to make a point avi of getting out there and just doing a couple of highway loops get that engine warmed up it's not good to not get that you know get some heat in there and just you may intentionally just have to take a drive and do some highway driving uh marilyn has an interesting question with a hint of mystery to it marilyn says i am in the market for a particular car the only ones in my area that are available in the trim level i want have been sitting on the dealership lots for six months or longer the months have been mild but they have been exposed to the elements should i consider buying these cars or is there a risk of lot rot and that's a cool phrase to coin also text us back what on earth car is this that you are this particular car in particular trim level i really want to find out uh yes marilyn made us so curious what was it yeah yeah so i've actually bought a car that sat on a lot for at least the car that sat on a lot for a long time and that was my infamous xe diesel which uh which when i turned it in it took it took an eight months at the dealer to find a buyer for it even during a historic used car uh you know crisis uh that still no one wanted this thing um so marilyn i've been in this boat where i wanted a particular car in a particular trim level and to be perfectly honest with this the car that i bought had sat um for about about eight or nine months before i got it and it had sat in a parking lot of a closed down shopping mall uh it had it was exposed to the elements it had you know water snow ice everything on it and they had to detail it pretty significantly when it when it showed up because you know birds everything else so and you want to go over it with a fine-tooth comb before you pick it up make sure there's no rust on the rotors on the brake rotors that's a big thing just look in the wheels and if and if you can see you know that those rotors have rust on them they might even need to be replaced even if they're brand new because the car sat that long look for rust on the exterior of the car it can happen even on a brand new car look for paint blotches or splotches or or some you know damage to the clear coat from pine trees sap or bird droppings i mean this car you know um but jen she's she's like the only person i've heard of who's written into us who has said um that the car is just sitting there waiting for her right right right now the market it's just the opposite we typically hear just the opposite that cars um as people move toward in independent transportation that the market's hot that they're actually paying more for sticker so in this case maryland take that as a opportunity to negotiate negotiate negotiate say you know i want you to go in there and say hey how much will you pay me to take this car off your hands and get it off your lap i see it's been sitting there for it's you know it's coming up on its birthday it'd be a shame if it just you know if it became uh you know a year old yeah so i was thinking that maryland maryland must be like shopping for a sedan because you know that's like one of the the lower selling uh body styles these days i mean she's certainly not finding a kia telluride that's been sitting on a dealer's lot yeah five minutes marilyn please if you're watching this send let us know just you know send us an email and and and let us know what you're buying and if you got it too i'm really curious about this one so you get a good deal marilyn if you take if you do go get it we want to know what kind of deal you got so yeah just make sure that it's cleaned make sure that it's it's taken care of but it's not gonna six months isn't gonna damage the car it sometimes takes the cars that long to get to the united states depending upon where it was made so i wouldn't be tremendously worried mostly you know exterior cosmetic stuff that the dealer's going to make sure that it's taken care of so one thing we didn't mention it's still going to be under warranty yeah i mean it's a new car yeah yeah yeah so um so good luck and thanks for coining a new phrase for us next up is a question from carl uh carl carl's auditioning to uh to write some jokes for us i think so carl says i have an electrifying question if i may this might seem silly but i don't call any of my plug-in battery-operated appliances like a flashlight vacuum driller etc electric so if a car is just run by a ton of batteries why do we call it an electric vehicle sure you plug them into charge but it's not really an electric motor that powers them they're just run by a bunch of batteries okay off my soapbox please provide an explanation i can live with i'll be shocked if you can i i come on carl i have my master's degree in dad humor okay come on i think you have i think you have a phd well hello you have a dad humor doctorate no this is uh this is a really good question but but jen we we we we kind of technically do call them battery electric vehicles right so let me see if i can generate an answer that people will be happy with so the truth is the technical definition of electric is the flow of charge so whether they're powered by a plug that you plug in what we've come to know as electric or if the charge is flowing from a battery they're both still electric and those motors that are running them are still electric even the electrical energy is measured in the same terms watts kilowatts so it's actually kind of a misnomer to say even battery power they're still electric we have come to know electric and we've come to assume electric is when you plug something in and that flow is directly coming from the socket in your house but that's not really the case batteries take chemical energy and make them into electrical energy and they are still electric and you're seeing kind of a change in industry where they're actually qualifying we're not just saying evs when you look at how they're writing standards and regulations etc they're using battery electric vehicles to help differentiate you'll see bevs instead of just evs so truth is they are electric hopefully carl you feel empowered to share this and you get a charge out of letting other people know and you know and if you buy you know a battery electric car you have to listen to ac dc the whole time and if you do decide you need a recommendation to further your comedy career we'll give you a plug um so peter is i'm too young for that i'm too young for this i plug that was good no i'm too i'm too young for this apparently you aren't everyone's rubbing off on me here this is you get you get points for plug that was good okay peter says he's wondering if leaving his ac off saves me gas as opposed to running it i've heard mixed things from different people so i was wondering what you guys thought and and quince you had a video that like uh you had a video that was iconic about this it was like vh1 you know level it was a classic it was a classic yeah don't sweat it we've got your back here's some cool tips so you don't become a hot mess while you're driving home first of all don't run your car with the ac on until you're actually ready to go air conditioning works much better when you're driving so don't waste your time or your gas you guys are too kind i you know the super producer dave abrams actually let me wear a hawaiian shirt and it was and sunglasses it was one of the hottest days of the summer i remember that i was like i gotta get my lines right every time i messed up we had to start over and then listen i'm the coolest guy to answer this question right air conditioning edit that out edit that all right okay bye guys um so peter using air conditioning does consume gas we actually looked into this and we tested this uh but in mild weather if you can get by without it even if you open the windows it will give incremental savings i mean depending how hot it is outside the hotter it is the harder your air conditioning is working the lower your fuel economy will get but um if you're running your ac you can expect to drop from about one to four miles per gallon according to consumer reports uh but keep in mind having the ac running it keeps you cool uh it lowers the humidity it keeps the cabin more pleasant it helps you to stay as a more alert driver so i don't think you're gonna have anybody here that's gonna say oh yeah it's the hottest day of the summer yeah don't run your ac no run your ac i mean it's what it's there for and uh that's that's some great advice uh quince and uh if if you want we can recirculate that video uh we'll we'll post it up on cr.org and you can check it out and learn more about about everything that we talked about today so if you have any questions any bad puns uh send them to talking cars at icloud.com we love video questions but we love all questions marilyn please tell us what kind of car you bought and from all of us here at cr thanks so much for talking cars with us we'll see you again soon he is good he's learning i didn't know what was gonna i opened my mouth and i don't know what's gonna happen hang on one quick second so sorry okay no problem good good advice good advice um yeah if you have any other questions uh if you have any other oh that's a horrible's i i lost my i lost my i'm sorry he lost his mojo for transitions yeah it's like yeah we have keith on the record saying i've been treated i've dreamt about priuses i mean i've never met someone like that\n"