In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show

EV Mandates, Rollbacks, And Reality

• In Wheel Time Podcast | Automotive talk with Don Armstrong, Michael Marrs, and Jeff Dziekan • Season 2026 • Episode 28

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Headlines shouted about a clean break from greenhouse gas rules, but we cut through the noise to ask what this policy swing actually means for people who buy, build, and maintain cars. We walk through the EPA endangerment repeal’s potential impact on standards, pricing, and long-term planning, then shift into the only lens that really matters: how drivers live. Short commutes, home charging, and quiet torque are wins for many; long highway runs, towing, and cold snaps still test the limits. Along the way, we dig into the heat around EV subsidies, why automakers crave stable rules, and how global competition shapes what ends up in your driveway.

From there we get tactical. We map the difference between range anxiety and time anxiety, explain how a simple home Level 2 setup changes daily life, and offer practical road-trip planning tips that reduce charging stress. We also deliver a crisp recall rundown—tires with potential tread separation, overheating starters, loose seat frames, and lighting faults—plus a reminder to register your tires and run a quick VIN check. Safety isn’t sexy until it is.

We keep the energy up with a “guess the sold price” set that teaches why a tidy Biscayne, a square-body Chevy truck, and even a stately Packard land where they do. Value follows originality, documentation, and tasteful choices. Our quick lap through auto history—Hudson’s NASCAR prowess, the Miura’s supercar spark, the Civic’s oil-crisis rise, Kia’s long climb, and the Nano’s lesson in perceived value—shows how innovation, timing, and trust shape markets. We close with hard numbers on industry losses tied to EV write-downs and supply snags, and what that signals for model lineups ahead.

If you care about cars, policy, and the practical choices that keep you moving, this conversation hits the sweet spot between shop-floor reality and big-picture trends. Listen, then tell us: should standards tighten, loosen, or simply stabilize so the best tech wins? Subscribe, share with a friend who loves cars, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.

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SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast. You know, I thought that we had another commercial with that, Mr. Mars, but I guess we didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. We're just sitting gabbing about the car. Okay. Well, um Let me point something out. Uh tomorrow is a Daytona 500. Today is the uh O'Reilly series. Yesterday was the Crassome Trucks or uh because of that we got a Daytona background. How about that? Well, thank you very much. Mike's got a car. I think you were born that year that car was Mike or Yeah, the Model A.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. Wait, you 35? That's a 35? Almost. Something like that? Yeah. All right. Well, uh, I'm so glad that we got that all taken care of. Thank you very much. Okay. Um all right. Um racing? Uh no. No. It it's uh it's it's too early for that.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's right. We got uh we got other stuff in front of us.

SPEAKER_02:

We we do. We do have things.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I was looking at the wrong time, sorry.

SPEAKER_02:

That's okay. All right. So uh we're going to move on now and start the bottom of the hour show. Stay with us. Welcome to the in real time hard show. Coming up. We're going to have in real time time. And what does that mean? We're going to do recalls. We're going to have our sold car roundup and uh our story of the week that I think that uh may be interesting. Is it kind of loud in your ear? Is it? Yeah. Yeah. How about that? That perfect. Is that good there? You don't like the music, do you?

SPEAKER_01:

No, it was just really loud in my ear. Okay. I was too close to the speaker.

SPEAKER_02:

The speaker. All right, so all that's coming up. Howdy, along with Mike Out of This World Mars. We always miss Miss Jeff Z. Yeah. Uh he's only here in spirit right now. This is not him. And I'm Don Armstrong. Glad that you could join join us today. And um, I wanted to get to the story of the week because uh it may or may not uh involve you, but uh, you'll have to be the deciding factor in that. You ready? Ready. President Trump's EPA has repealed the agency's finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public, creating a fresh round of uncertainty for the auto industry. Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldon announced the repeal of the 2009 endangerment funding finding at the uh press conference at the White House on February 12th. This is the single largest deregulatory action in American history, according to Trump. The endangerment finding severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers. Trump said that the repeal eliminates all greenhouse gas standards for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles and heavy-duty engines. So goodbye air pumps and goodbye catalytic converters. I'm I don't think that that'll happen in the morning.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't think it'll go quite that far.

SPEAKER_02:

Trump said the repeal purports to scrap all greenhouse gas standards, starting with those established in 2012. The document containing the details of the final rule have yet to be posted. The EPA decision, if upheld, castrates I like that word, the government's regulatory authority over pollutants from vehicles. It hollows out the rationale underpinning more than a decade of regulation meant to protect the public from the dangers of pollution and climate change, according to this writer. Quote, an ideological crusade within the Obama administration set off the most costly regulatory power grab our country has ever experienced, according to Zeldon at the White House. Who paid the biggest price? Hardworking families, small businesses, millions of Americans who just want a reliable, affordable car to get to work, take the kids to school, or go to church on Sunday, end quote. EPA data from 2022 found that transportation is the primary source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Passenger cars and light-duty trucks make up more than half of transportation emissions in the United States of America. While the auto industry has criticized the severity of the EPA's recent greenhouse gas emissions rules, the repeal amounts to a significant break between the industry and the government. Automakers in letters to the government criticized the Biden-era greenhouse gas emission standards, but expressed concerns about the elimination of the standards entirely. Ford said in its letter that current standards are not aligned with customer choice and market realities, but that eliminating standards altogether is not likely to provide the industry with the long-term stability they need to make historic investments in America and complete globally. Compete globally. Tesla, uh, that's another story for another day. But uh, you know, in a letter they said the endangerment finding and the vehicle emission standards which flow from it have provided a stable regulatory platform for Tesla's extensive investments in product development and production. And you know that they've just killed three of their models. Uh we're waiting uh with cheers, I'm sure, uh, of the elimination of the cyber truck, but they're not ready to pull the plug.

SPEAKER_01:

I've heard rumors that it's maybe a redesign, maybe a new thing altogether. But to get back to the first part of that story, the cafe standards were adjusted way back in his administration. Didn't they adjust the cafe standards for the vehicles and California was all upset?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, I think that the California thing has just but got nipped in the butt.

SPEAKER_01:

Nippit. Well nip it in the butt. Well, you used the word earlier that you like, but I've yeah, nip it's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't want to know what I used earlier. You did. I I did. Yeah, yeah, you did. There's that. So uh Mr. Mars, do you have any comments on that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I was I was thinking that some of the things that you said, uh I think it must have been like two years ago, three years ago, we were all supposed to be dead because of the greenhouse, the environment, and all that stuff. That's still coming. Yeah. Well they keep doing it back then because I I missed it whenever uh it happened a few years ago. But I do think that Tesla, like a lot of them, they're gonna respond to I mean, they already know the EVs aren't selling like everybody thought they would. And without the government forcing it, they're not going to. So I think obviously as a profit-driven machine, you know, they gotta make a little money. Then uh more and more am I gonna get away from it. It wouldn't surprise me that Tesla moves more into SpaceX and things like that that are uh more interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we read the story recently that uh Elon is going to combine all of his companies. And I think that that's the thing that that is gonna save Tesla. But you know, on the other hand, too, I don't have anything against electric vehicles. I really don't. No. What I have a real problem with is me helping pay for your Tesla. That's where I have a problem. So that's$7,500 out of my tax money that's gonna go to the person that buys an electric vehicle. And you know what? I think that, and I've said this from the very beginning, I think that electric vehicles need to be able to compete with other forms of power sources to the vehicle, just like everybody else. And if they can't do that, then they need to look inward and figure out a way.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, the market will kind of help drive all that because there are places I would think, like New York, San Francisco, Austin, places like that, where a 30-mile range, you might go three or four days with that. You know, I can see that. But for me, I go to Houston too much, I go out west Texas too much, and I don't want to spend an hour and a half every two hours, so I can go another two hours.

SPEAKER_01:

And that brings up a point too. We just had chip on uh going through state by state on you know the the the the wait time and traffic and things, death tolls. Nothing in there that I saw was about electric vehicles. Now the wait times and the your time that you waste on the road, there's gotta be electric vehicles in that congestion. So I wonder if maybe we can't.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I think electric vehicles just for survivability, they're gonna avoid that congestion because they're gonna lose their range as they sit there for an hour.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. That's what I'm saying. That you're burning the electricity you just parked. But why much like you do with gas?

SPEAKER_02:

Two people that I know that have Teslas. Uh my youngest daughter is one. She loves hers. She loves hers. Yeah. But she drives a very short distance, well, relatively speaking, in Denver to go to work every day. I think it's about 15 miles. Well, she doesn't have to plug it in at work. It certainly has more than enough power to get her back home and to, you know, the grocery store, et cetera, et cetera. And those are only the days that she wants to drive it.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sure there's other modes of transportation she takes.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, yeah, when she goes to the mountains, she usually goes with somebody else, and most of them have gasoline-powered vehicles. So anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's it's like my wife's driving pattern. She could live with uh an electric car, a pure electric car, because of her driving patterns, until that once a month or two months that she decides she wants to go to the beach or something where it's you know a hundred miles, and and that's when and that's what holds her back. You know, she just will not have something that she can't get in and say, I'm going to Houston or I'm gonna go wherever. Well, if you make sense.

SPEAKER_02:

If you plan it right, and I I I cannot imagine, because I've never had to do that in my life, plan my gasoline stop to go to San Antonio because uh I can't charge my vehicle or I can't get gas between here and San Antonio. Heard of such who heard of such a thing in our generation, you know, in the past 100 years, there's a gas gasoline station down the street somewhere. Yeah, you know, right. Whereas uh electric and those that have electric vehicles found out pretty quickly that they have to have a place to charge it at home, even if it's 110 volts, doesn't make any difference because at least I can plug it in and charge it at night when I'm sleeping at the house. But most of those people have a level two charger, uh, which is basically uh uh uh a dryer two forty. And um that works just fine.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and my but it's it's like we've we've talked about in the past that it's if you go that way, you've got to make a change in your lifestyle. Because if you want to go across Texas, you know, a thousand miles, well, you now you got to plan your trip according to that. You can plan your pit stop, so okay, we've got to eat lunch where there's a charger, or we got to do this, we got to do that. It just it's a different lifestyle, and that's just not me.

SPEAKER_02:

So I got more of an EV story coming up uh in our third segment. Okay, fourth segment, I think it is. At any rate, uh it's coming up at 11:30 on our live show. Uh, time now for some recalls to tell you about. I got a tire recall, and I don't usually do tire recalls, but Toyo Holdings of America is recalling certain open country AT3 tires, 26570 R18 and 265-60 R20. Trad may separate from the tire and cause a crash. So check your tires. If you got Toyos on there, then might want to check it out.

SPEAKER_01:

If I could add to that, uh, when you bought the tires, I should have registered with them with the Department of Transportation. So if there's a recall on your tire, you will be notified if they've registered it. If they didn't, it would be up to the uh owner of the tire to register their own tire. Sometimes they give you a card to do that, you send it away, and you're registered. So uh check with the DOT. There you go.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh got some car recalls. Unlocked rear door may open unexpectedly. Martha? No. Wait. Martha fall out. Yeah. Toyota Prius, Prius plug-in hybrid and Prius Prime, 23 to 26 model years.

SPEAKER_03:

Martha.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Martha. Um, rear coil springs may detach. Kaboom! I think we're dragging the back end of the truck. Well, low riders. G, Grand Cherokee 2021 through 2023. Might want to check that out. Driver's seat frame is improperly tightened.

SPEAKER_01:

It's one of those uh the the lazy boys that uh Mattress Mac sells. That's right.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, recliners the recliner. There you go. Uh driver's seat frame improperly tightened, Acura Integra, Honda Accord, Accord Hybrid, HRV and Pilot, 23 and 24 model years. BMW, bunch of recalls here uh from 2021 through 2024 model years. It's all a mess up and starter motor may overheat and cause a fire. You'll you'll what that'll wake you up. Yeah. Um, and inoperative trailer lighting and trailer brake failure, Jeep Cherokee, wagoneers, and a bunch of trucks. 24 to 26 model years. Those are being recalled. Ford transit, got to have specialty though, yeah. Ford Transit 2324, engine cross member improperly secured. A Ford eTransit for 2026, high voltage battery may cause a fire if you can get it in the garage. Uh BMW 228, 228i, M235i, rear lights may not function properly. Oh boy. So those are the recalls. All right. So you guys ready to do uh this week's little game that we play about guess the sold car price. All right, everybody. I hope everybody's online there. First one up this morning is the 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne. Oh. A biscaine. My dad used to have a biscayne, but it was a 62. I think this is a 59 model. How much do you think that that's sold for? Look, it's even got fender skirts on it, and it's a two-door with wide whites. 42. 42, Jeff said. Yeah, I like it. Is anybody else joining us this morning, Mr. Morris?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well, Heitman was on here a moment ago, uh, but uh not here right at the end.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so the sold car price on this is$39,000,$218. A brand new home didn't sell for$39,000 in 1970. He was talking to me. Here's a 1972 Chevrolet CK. I didn't know that they came in that denomination. 72 Chevy CK. How much did it sell for?

SPEAKER_01:

That was in a lot of commercials. I'm gonna go$17,000.$17,000.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Anybody else tell me?

SPEAKER_01:

That's a four-wheel drive, too. It's got a uh six-lug wheel.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's well that's a three-quarter ton it is.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so it's what that's what they call a uh square body and uh really a good-looking pickup truck because it looks all stock, even with those great big ugly mirrors. Looks like it's in a uh Chevy commercial almost. Yeah, almost. Got a little snow on the ground, too. Yeah, well, it's sold for 26,250. Ah, Jeff got uh Mr. Heisman got 22, you got close. Okay. Here now is a 1950 Chevrolet 3100. So this would probably be a one-ton, three-quarter ton anyway. I'm sorry, what year? A 1950.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Great year for everybody. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

In that year. Um I'm gonna go 24. 24. Yeah. It's probably a little low.

SPEAKER_00:

Looks like it's been uh, you know, it's like a resto my pocket.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a driver.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and it's got uh bumper overriders on the front. You'll never see that. Like a push. A 50 Chevy 3100 sold for$18.9. And that is clean too. Yeah. Okay, next up, the 1984 Chevrolet S10 Blazer. Now, I had one of these back at that period of time. Now, this one here is also a resto mod because you don't have a front end on it that looks like this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it looks like rocker panels.

SPEAKER_02:

It looks like if somebody put a Corvette cross flags up there, that's what I'd do. Uh 84 Chevy S10 blazer. These are two doors. Look, it's even got uh arrow uh rocker panels. 15 grand. 15 grand.

SPEAKER_01:

Anybody else?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Mr. Heis was here as soon as I can find the right button.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh oh, Jeffrey's got 25.

SPEAKER_02:

25? It sold for 1953. Split it with you, Jeffrey. Okay. I I I I wouldn't pay that much money for it.

SPEAKER_01:

If they put a V emblem on it, it would be much better.

SPEAKER_00:

I had one of those and I used it to tow my fishing boat. It came through Lufkin one night in the rain, stepped on the brakes, and that boat pushed me right through the red light.

SPEAKER_01:

Jason had a red one that we bought off the use car lot at Auto Nation. And uh he loved it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I loved it, other than I couldn't stop it.

SPEAKER_02:

Here's one. This is for you, Mr. Morris, because this is your background picture for the day. 1929 Ford Model A. That was the year everybody was cool. And uh, you know, I I this is not my cup of tea, but I thought that somebody would like that. Uh 1929 Ford Model A. How much? Parade is a. It looks like it's uh stock. I don't know whether that wheels, wheel color, and all that is stock or not.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm totally guessing maybe 25. 25. I have no idea. It's parade car.

SPEAKER_02:

That's that's yeah, that's what it is. I don't know what parade it would be in, other than for old people. Yeah. And I speak from the heart. Yeah. Jeff's got 31. 31. 24, 150 is what that's sold for. Next up, this is uh this is this is je Jeff Zeke's uh go-to car. Yeah. This would be a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquiz with a Landau vinyl root. Yeah, and the opera windows. Got the chrome trim on the wheel well. Oh, yes, let's not. Those look like Cadillac. Lincoln wheels. Whatever. Yeah. But uh it's not a marauder, it's a Marquis. Yeah, it's a Marquiz. Okay. This would be something that would be great for the hot rod tour of$9,000.$9,000.

unknown:

Mr.

SPEAKER_02:

Heitzman joining in on it. He will be right there at$35,$35.$35,000. This car, Jeff Heitzmann, this is your hot rod car.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02:

It sold for$11,550. It's super clean. It will never ever break. And finally, this would be Don Armstrong's Hoodlum car. 1932 Packard 902. Look at the size of those whites. All right. Holy Toledo. They're as big as the entire tire. The width of that stripe is wider than the width of the bumper. It's true. Look at that. Yeah. Um so how much do you think a 32 Packard 902 would go for?

SPEAKER_00:

That's almost like a limo, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know, but it needs some machine guns in it. It does.

SPEAKER_01:

It probably has some in there. I'm going to go 32. I think this is 39.

SPEAKER_02:

This sold for 32,550.

SPEAKER_01:

Whoa. Ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. You got a garage big enough that this is. No, I don't think anyone has that. That would be an industrial. That's an outdoor camera. I'd throw it back.

SPEAKER_00:

Knock out the back wall or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Something like that. All right. All right. Uh let's see. Hey, In Wheel Time. Uh invite you to join our live broadcast every Saturday, 10 to noon Central on inwheeltime.com, Facebook, and YouTube. And we hope that you'll check us out. If you miss us, you'll be able to connect through our podcast, and that you can get from your favorite podcast provider. Coming up, we've got the racing calendar, auto history, and news headlines. Our after this break. The tailpipes and tacos renowned cruising expands to Beaumont. Golden Triangle cruisers will want to experience tailpipes and tacos at the Loopy Tortilla, I Tin South in Beaumont near Washington Boulevard. Grab free Loopy Breakfast Tacos with any donation to Shirley's kids. Enjoy a coffee or an adult beverage. Every cruise-in vehicle is automatically entered to win one of the beautiful chili pepper trophies for Best Hot Rod, Classic, and Modern Classic. Tailpipes and Tacos Beaumont happens Saturday morning, March 21st, 8 to 11 a.m. If you're a car cake like we are, this is the event you'll want to attend. The Info Time Car Talk Show will be online live, and you may be interviewed in money for a ride. Tailpipes and Tacos Beaumont edition Saturday, March 21st, 8 to 11 a.m. at the Lupy Tortilla 2050 IT South in Beaumont. The Katie Tailpipes and Tacos happens Easter Saturday, April 4th, 8 to 11. The free Tailpipes and Tacos Cruising is a production of Lupy Tortilla Tex-Mex, Beaumont and Katie. It's pretty good. Apple or Android NWL Time podcasts can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads. Whether you're on the road or at home and Jones in for a different kind of car talk show, give In Wheel Time a try. Honest new car reviews, fun, informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's car culture and Mike's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time. Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music. Mm-hmm. Inwheeltime.com has a list, and we know you love lists. Time now for the In Wheel Time Racing Calendar, sponsored by Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for that. We've got NHRA coming up uh next month, actually. It's on the 5th through the 9th. It's going to be the NHRA Gator Nationals. It's in Gainesville, Florida. Uh everybody's running. It's the inaugural start of the season, so you've got Pro Class, you got motorcycles, you got everybody's going to be running a car in the quarter mile. Next we've got uh yesterday was the Craftsman Truck Series run in Daytona. It went overtime, uh the the three lap overtime, whatever they call that. Uh I didn't see the finish, don't know who won yet. I don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't seen it. And then today is the O'Reilly Auto Parts uh run at Daytona. It used to be the Xfinity. For some reason they've changed. Obviously uh O'Reilly's got the contract with that. And then of course tomorrow, the big day behind us is going to be the Daytona 500. So that is at 2 30 p.m. tomorrow. The race today uh for the O'Reilly folks, which is the old Xfinity, that is going to be at 5 p.m. tonight on the CW. So uh tomorrow is Fox and A CW and they'll move on from there. Then we've got uh we talked about NHRA. Let me move on to the next one here, which is oh gosh, got my things all out of kilter here. Give me just a moment. Stand by, Michael. Standing by. Okay. I did. I've got all my stuff mixed up here. Uh in the IndyCar Series, St. Petersburg. That's gonna be March 1st. So that's coming up pretty close to you. And then you've got uh the uh F1 guys, which uh last week I told you, Mike, that I got on the site for the Formula F1 Cadillac, and that's why I'm wearing my my my digs today. Uh I don't know if I'm gonna be on that site very long because every 10 minutes they're posting something from a different part of the world with Cadillac Racing, and it's just inundating and it's taking a lot of stuff on my phone, a lot of time to read it all. So I think I'm gonna have to pause it for a little bit and get kind of conditioned to get back into to looking at it. So I will follow up on it. I'll give you all the information I can on it, but I'm just kind of tired of it already. Just letting you know.

SPEAKER_00:

World of digital. I know. Okay. Well, where are we? We're uh we just finished uh Jeff's racing calendar. Yep. Okay, well it's brought to us by the Texas Muscle Car Challenge.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, well, very good. Well, it's time now for this week in auto history, Mr. Mars. I'm gonna find it, Michael.

SPEAKER_00:

All right.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm glad you're not always ready for everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got five things that we found particularly interesting this week. Uh in 1909, the Hudson Motor Car Company was actually founded. Now, this was in Detroit, and it quickly became known for a performance and in value. In fact, Hudson, they got a lot of their fame from being in NASCAR. They really won a lot of races in the 1950s with their fabulous Hordson Hudson Hornet, uh, pretty well dominating things. And of course, later on they merged with Nash Kelvinator to form the American Motor Company. And then, of course, they became a star in uh in a couple of movies. So then in 1945, it was the founding of the Kia Corporation. And I did not know this, that Kia is a translation that means rising out of Asia. So originally they were producing uh bicycle parts, you know, 2B for bicycle parts, and they uh before they got into building automotives, and when they got into building their cars, they first started out in 1957 building licensed motorcycles for Honda. In 62, they moved up to licensed trucks for Mazda, 74, they were building Mazda licensed cars, and then in 1997 they filed for bankruptcy. And then that's when Hyundai stepped in and basically rescued him, took them over and stuff. So uh a lot of interesting things. I didn't know about that, I just assumed it was a nice car. So uh in 1966, Lamborghini Mira debuts at the Geneva Motor Show. Now, this is considered the first supercar with a mid-engine V12, and uh it's got a lot of styling, of course, it had the speed, and uh it became Ferrari's true reviv rival, and it's very collectible because they didn't make very many of them. Then in 1972, on the other side of it, the Honda Civic comes in, and uh it was going to become a fuel efficient car, and be in mainly because of the 1973 oil crisis, and it became very popular, and now the Honda Civic's about three sizes bigger.

SPEAKER_01:

Mike, there's a there's a uh Tata Motors picture up there. Is that the scene?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, did I get them out of order? Maybe. Maybe that's okay. Because this is the Tata Nano was revealed to the public.

SPEAKER_02:

We did not say Tata's on this show. Especially if we say nano behind it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, you gotta say nano behind it. So in 2008, the Tata Nano came out in the public, and it was a considered a new car. It was targeted for the emerging markets, particularly in India. India cannot speak. And uh, targeted for the families here. I'm having a problem here with the Tata's this morning. Now, apparently you are. So the Bambies used to ride motorcycles in India, so they got this car and they generated it to try and do that. But the sales fell short of expectations over the years.

SPEAKER_02:

And um they were a size A instead of a size C. Exactly. Two-door versus four-door.

SPEAKER_00:

In two thousand, it would in when it was launched, it was two thousand US dollars at the time of launch. In 2017, the price had risen to 3,400. Now, this is a 624cc two-cylinder engine, two-cylinder engine, 33 to 37 horsepower, rear wheel drive with a four-speed manual, and it got 60 miles per gallon. But since sales never took off because most people thought it was too cheap, it looked too cheap, it was too cheap, so they didn't buy it. So the reason they actually killed it was because of safety standards. It wasn't because of sales in 2020 that the Tata Nano discontinued. That was actually a training Tata. Yeah. And that was this week in automotive history. Some of the things we found interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my god. Are we still on the air? Uh anyway. Um I just thought I get home, too. There you go. Gotcha. Yeah. Uh you know, we do get we do get sidetracked quite frequently. And uh we we can't help it, but it's just who we are. Yeah, there's that. Um I was kind of looking for a little short story, but all these stories are way too long for this little segment here. Um we got to do that. Here's one. Here's one. Failed investments in money-losing electric vehicles and a late-year disruption of aluminum supplies for F-Series pickups drove Ford Motor Company to an$11.1 billion net loss in the fourth quarter, resulting in the automaker's worst financial performance since 2008. Fourth quarter revenue declined 5% to$45 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes plunged by more than half to$1 billion. Hope you don't own any of that stock. For the full year, Ford lost$8.2 billion, largely because of the EV write downs and$2 billion in tariffs. The Automakers 2025 tariff bill ended up roughly doubling its previous projection following a late change, a late year change to offset by the offsets by the Trump administration. It was Ford's third worst performance ever and third full year loss in the past six years. Well, that kind of so they've had worse.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But it affected General Motors, Stellantes, they're all in that category. Yes, it's not just Ford. Uh Ford's the one that's got the most publicity on it. That was Stilantes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, we'd love to hear from you. Just shoot us an email. The address is info at nwheeltime.com. We're back after this quick break. You own a car you love. Well, why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it? Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts. We promise you'll be impressed. Whether you're looking to massage your original paint to a like new appearance, apply a ceramic coating, install a paint protection film, nano ceramic window tent, or new windshield protection called Exoshield, Gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go. Curbed your wheels? Instead of buying new, why not have them repaired? How about a professionally installed radar detector? Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too. Get a peek inside the shop and look at the services offered by getting online and heading to GCAutoShield.com. Better yet, stop by their facility at 11275 South Sam Houston Tollway, just south of the Southwest Freeway and get a personal tour. Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior. Call them today, 832-930-5655 or gcautoshield.com. The award-winning In Wheel Time Car Talk Show now reaches millions of folks around the globe each year. Check us out on InWheeltime.com, YouTube, Facebook, and don't forget our podcasts. Catch our live show every Saturday, 10 to noon Central Time. The In Wheel Time Car Talk Show has informative automotive guests, new car reviews, along with popular features including driving destinations, Jeff's car culture, the latest car news, cruise ins, and racing days. It's all on Inwheeltime.com. Join us. That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show. I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our InWheeltime.com website. Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.

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Don Armstrong

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Jeff Dziekan

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Michael Marrs

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