John and Derek touch upon the topic of cutting-edge car technology, including the widely popular Apple CarPlay. Discover how this feature has become almost standard equipment in most cars, while General Motors takes a different route with its own system. We discuss what features we like on our cars and what surveys say you want on your cars. Like always we take the gloves off and give our honest thoughts.
As always, the hosts encourage your participation and feedback. Share your desires and suggestions through their Facebook page or the No Driving Gloves website. And don't worry, this episode focuses on positivity and good vibes, so get ready for an engaging and enjoyable conversation.
So, buckle up, hit that play button, and join John and Derek as they take you on a ride filled with car talk, exciting features, and a whole lot of fun. Don't miss out on this thrilling episode of No Driving Gloves![00:02:01] Fixed RSS feed issue.
[00:07:14] Replicating lost race car.
[00:09:09] Desired items for new cars.
[00:12:33] Heated and cooled seats.
[00:17:27] Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
[00:21:07] Everything new is old.
[00:26:05] Funny stories about cars.
[00:28:14] Marine laws and boating regulations.
[00:31:02] Wireless device charging in vehicles.
[00:34:49] Lane change avoidance systems.
[00:38:57] 120 volt power outlet.
[00:44:07] Driving the Mini for pleasure.
[00:46:44] Bright backup lights are important.
[00:50:05] Acetylene headlights vs modern lights.
00:00 John We are recording. Are you ready to rumble? Are you ready for this?
00:07 Derek Even more important question from the 90s. Are you ready for some football?
00:12 John I have spectrum, so I don't have any of the ABC channels.
00:15 Derek Oh. And really, the better question for no driving gloves is, are you ready for some car chat? Because we're going to talk cars.
00:29 Intro Wanna talk about cars? Ferrari, GTO, Bentley, CRX, and even down to your great-granddad Spearless. Welcome to No Driving Gloves, the Car Talk Authority, where experienced knowledge and controversy share the same seat. Enjoy the ride. Now you're a host. John and Derek.
01:05 John Let's warm up our engines, everybody. It's no driving gloves. Generic time of the day. Generic date. We're here. We're happening. I've got Derek on the other side of the mic. How are you doing, Derek?
01:17 Derek You know, I'm doing really good, John. Had some good things going on at work. Got some good things going on at home. So I'm doing really good.
01:26 John How you doing? I'm I'm I'm I'm doing a hell of a lot better. My dad said something to me the other day about, hey, are you filling out your schedule? Because I just I've just been so overwhelmed the last few weeks. And I said, no, I stopped doing that a few months ago. Went ahead, got out the notebook again, got everything set up, started to do that. And the first thing on that list was figure out why our episodes weren't appearing on some podcast players. Some of you may have noticed all of a sudden about a week ago. You may have got four episodes overnight. I fixed the RSS feed. Our episodes are out. Sorry for that. I didn't realize it. Derek said something to me the other day or I guess during our last recording or after last recording that Myron Bernas was asking what was up with the podcast and I need to look that up. So I looked that up and got that fixed. Granted, this is coming out a week or so later, but We've got that fixed. Every episode's caught up. Everything's rolling out. You've got old car festival coming up, I would say next week. But when this podcast comes out, it was yesterday.
02:30 Derek So, yeah, it's coming up yesterday. And man, is it, was it great?
02:37 John I was going to say, I don't know. Do I want to say, are you expecting a lot of great things out of yesterday or?
02:42 Derek You know, I really am was, and it really is holding up, held up to what I fully expect, expected. See if everybody can follow that one.
02:53 John I would say normally, normally it does, I think for you. Well, you do enjoy the old car festival and are you taking anything up of yours or are you going to, as you said in another episode, borrow somebody else's?
03:07 Derek So, it is always a great show. I cannot stress enough, not been to it, you need to make the trip at least once to see this show. I just got the registration information in a week, week and a half ago from Henry Ford Museum and the cars I am taking are like car registered number 909 and 910. So, there's going to be eight, 900 cars at the show. So, we know it's going to be good and have a lot of fun. I am not taking one of my cars this year, as it tends to happen when I work for a museum that has cars in the collection that fit the show. Being that I'm already going up to the show to narrate a little bit of the judging and just participating, whatever, I normally abscond with one or two of the collection vehicles, whatever will fit in the trailer, from the institution I'm working with. So this year, the 1925 Tatra Targa Florio replica at the Lane Motor Museum will be running around at Old Car Festival, along with the 1932 Martin Martinette, one of a kind car as well. So Should be a good time. Uh, having race cars there is always fun. And, uh, probably noticed. I said, replica touch or only bill, I believe it was three. I don't have the information in front of me right now is what I'm recalling from memory. Uh, they only built three of the target Florio racers. And for some reason, they seem to all have been lost to history. So a handful of replicas have been built. Lane motor museum proudly has one of those. So. been been driving it around getting used to it and man is it it makes a glorious noise well by the time this comes out i will have posted some videos of it running so hopefully you all have seen them
05:08 John Yes, I was going to say, if you are listening to this podcast when it comes out on Monday, go back to our Facebook page because hopefully Derek does a few live streams from old car festivals, shows off some of this stuff. And it's interesting because about two episodes ago, three episodes ago, we discussed basically the Ferrari Mondial that had sold at Monterey Car Week. And we kind of said in the show is at some point you just have to let these things die there so far gone you don't mean what are you preserving your preserving nothing and. like those Tatras that you're talking about, they they got to, you know, you said they were lost to history. They were lost to history. But say we found one and it was in the same condition as that Mondial. If you rebuilt it, it wouldn't be anything different than what you have, other than you could potentially do a storyline saying this rivet came from the original car. Yeah. Yeah. It's just one to me. I just thought it just all of a sudden put that episode into perspective a little bit that these things were lost to history. And the Lane Museum has a lot of replicas of cars that have been lost to history. If you ever get a chance, swing by. And I want to. Yeah, I want a really nice collection.
06:33 Derek Yes yeah and and i want to stress and i think i don't remember john you could probably look back but i think i'm on one of the episodes we talked a little bit about terminology in the automotive museum world or in the automotive collector automotive world And i believe we had the conversation about replica and recreation how those words can i get a loosely bantered about but i always like to stress that yes the lane museum in a number of museums have replicas. And you know as a museum we try very hard to make them as accurate as possible so even though you're seeing a replica these. have been replicated as close as possible to the original cars. The Tatra Targa Florio I'm mentioning, they based it on the T11, T12 chassis of the Tatra, which did not have independent front suspension. It had a solid axle, front axle. And so it would be easy to just take one of those T11, T12 chassis, make the body look right, slap it on there, straight pipes back like the Targa Florio cars had, and call it a replica of the race car. But you don't have that independent front suspension. You don't have some of the modifications that were made to the engine to make it more powerful. You know, the car that we have, the time was taken to replicate, to put that independent front suspension in, to beef up the engine the way Tatra had back in the day. So, you know, I always like to point out, these are, if it's a replica, these are extremely accurate, you know, well thought out, the time spent to make sure they are representing the car that they are replicating as close as possible to that historic artifact that is now lost to history. So, I always like to point that out.
08:23 John I was looking up some of those past episodes. Episode 135, we did sit down with, actually Derek wasn't there ironically, but we did sit down and talk to Jeff Lane and talked about the Lane Motor Museum. And I don't know which episode it was, but I know we talked about Replica. recreations, Will's favorite word, restomod. Oh, yeah. So we kind of went through those terms at some point in our back catalog. I can't pull it up really quickly here. I apologize to the listener. But it gives you a reason to poke around and see what else we have back there. I came across an article, it was interesting, that discusses the 10 most desired items new car buyers want on a car. And these are kind of, I guess, things that have not become accepted as standard equipment. Because even one of them on there is really interesting because you got to have other stuff to, you know, if you did this list back in the eighties, you'd probably say, Oh, I'd want ABS early nineties. I would want traction control. You'd probably say you want airbags over the seat, automatic seatbelts that kind of hung you every time you got in your car. We all remember my Eagle Summit had one of those, believe it or not, I had an Eagle Summit three door hatchback at one point in my life. One of those cars I forget about, I think it was a 91.
09:44 Derek You know, I never had the joy of owning a car with those power belts, seat belts in it, but I had friends that did and God did.
09:51 John That Summit was the only vehicle that I had that in and the CRXs had the seat belts that you could leave buckled. And when you opened the door, the seat belt would open with the door and then close back with the door. So you kind of got in under the seat belt. But yeah, the Summit was the only one I think I had that had these wonderful automatic seats. If you were to go out there, Eric, and I know you're not studying the new car catalogs and aware there are certain new cars out there. What are one or two of the things you absolutely would want to have on a new car?
10:25 Derek Well, I mean, I've heard all this rumor that there's new this new thing called an internal combustion engine. I mean, updating from my steam car would be fantastic. You know, my problem is.
10:35 John Believe it or not. I was reading an article on potentially the successor to the Kia Stinger, and they were saying the way it had appeared, it looked like it was going to this prototype is internal combustion. It had a tail part, had an exhaust pipe and exhaust system on it, et cetera. So it's not such a crazy thing. Some people, I think the internal combustion engine is a must have on their next car.
11:00 Derek Well, I think a lot of, for a lot of us it is, but you know, John, like you said, I'm not really out there studying all that. When I go to buy a new, normally it's a truck. I think everybody knows I'm pretty much truck guy. And so I'm always more concerned, you know, tow capacities and you know, all of the kind of ability to tow the four by four off-road features. Cause you know, there are things that I like to do having grown up on a farm in Michigan. Yeah being able to drive off road in certain instances tell trailers with my cars and things like that that's really important to me but i will say that having owned some newer trucks having owned by my wife owns a newer SUV. I have gotten really, really used to and enjoy the heated and cooled seats in new vehicles. When I get in a vehicle that doesn't have heated and cooled seats, you know, of course, winter, summer, you know, whichever it is, and it doesn't have the feature that is needed for that time. I'm kinda like i kinda like this this car kinda sucks it really need some heated and cooled seats i don't know why i just i've had a couple newer trucks with that feature although my my wife says you be only has the heated seats it doesn't cool for for summer but. Yeah, I really, really miss that feature when I have a vehicle that doesn't. So that would be that would probably be up there for me.
12:28 John I kind of go back and forth between two for me. Let me go back to your heat and cool seats. I totally understand that. That's a high priority for me. I remember when we bought the 2004 Saab 9-3 Turbo that ex-wife and I had, and it came with a heated steering wheel. She swore she had never owned another car without a heated steering wheel. Sometimes it's one of these things, once you have it, you don't want to let it go. She had heated seats in that car, and I think that might have been the first car that I had that had heated seats. And I hated them because I always thought it was a griddle on your butt. When I got my 2012 Ford F-150 Lariat Platinum Edition, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it had everything but the refrigerator. It had heated and cooled seats. And what was so great about that is it actually ducted as part of the climate control and perforated and it would blow warm air on you. And that's so much more comfortable than the many that I have has heated seats, which are the griddle on your butt. That warm air, that that's a big key. That cool air is great. And I actually think I prefer the cooled seats more than the heated seats. I've always been a big cloth interior person. The car I drive daily for my job that I travel thousands of miles a month for. It actually has cloth interior and I love it because you never get in and burn your ass on the seats and kind of keeps you warm in the winter. Does everything as heated and cooled seats should do it. The Mini's a leather interior or pleather or whatever the hell they made it out of. And seats get hot, seats get cold, but yeah, I can go with. My big must-have Apple CarPlay, I've addressed it a couple of times on the podcast. I had it in a couple of vehicles. The Mini didn't come with it. It was actually one of the big deciding factors that almost didn't make me buy the car. I'm looking at getting an aftermarket Apple CarPlay upgrade for the Fiesta that I drive every day. I had rental cars over the period of time while the Fiesta was in the shop for its transmission issue. And I really learned CarPlay's safer, more conducive for my driving. It's not that I text and drive and stuff, but it does allow a lot more rapid voice commands and a little bit better interface with your phone. The navigation's a little bit better. You know, just put your phone on the screen. So Apple CarPlay is one of my big ones, but I think it's actually become almost standard equipment on most cars. However, we remember General Motors decided to come up with their own system and is pulling Apple CarPlay and Android Auto out of all of their electric vehicles beginning in 2024. So I believe the electric vehicles you're buying now have General Motors version of this. And we all know how well Apple takes to third party software, at least those that I'm an Apple guy, Derek's an Android guy. So I'm really thinking this GM thing's great. And a lot of people have blatantly said that will keep me out of the General Motors vehicles if they don't have CarPlay and Android Auto. The other thing about that is you drive GMs, right? Derek, both your cars are GM. Currently, yes. So they're familiar. You get into one, you get into the other. Things are familiar. I understand there's a couple model year difference and technology is a little bit better in your wife's car than your car in that. But overall, the ergonomics and the buttons and the thought processes in making things happen are the same, correct?
16:16 Derek pretty pretty close yes yeah things things are pretty standard within within each uh you know company's vehicle lineups yeah see i bounce between a mini cooper a ford uh supposed to go 2020 mini cooper a 2018 toyota camry and a
16:36 John very well equipped Camry and a 2015 Ford Fiesta. Nothing is the same between them. Every car you get in, it's a learning process. I drive my Fiesta 1,500 miles Monday through Friday. I get into the Mini on a Saturday. It takes a couple of minutes to adjust to remember how things work. I get into the Camry, it takes me a few minutes to adjust to how things work. When I went through three different rental cars in three weeks, and they all had Apple CarPlay, and I went from a Dodge Ram, believe it or not, Dodge Ram to a Toyota Camry to a Nissan Sentra, I believe, or whatever, whatever's just below the Ultimate. all had Apple CarPlay. The infotainment systems were the same. I didn't have to learn how to text with each car. I didn't have to. And that seamlessness, I think, is one of the big keys with like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. And that's what GM's missing is now their electric cars are different than everything else in the world. If you're somebody who has a GM car and a Ford pickup, if it was apple carplay or android auto it would be the same at least that much of the car is the same and while the climate control might be different and while you know turning on the wipers and whatever might be different the thing you interact with most is the same and i think there's a lot to be said for the other thing i really really um Like about cars and the rental cars really emphasized it is keyless entry I like to be able to walk up push a button on the door handle the door is on lock get in the car the push button starts nice the festiva Is or Fiesta, whatever the hell it is Is old-style you got to use the key fob push the key to unlock the doors lock the doors all that Mini is the you know works that way. The Fusion, the Edge, the SHO. The SHO was proximity. You walked up to the car, it was unlocked. You walked away from the car, it locked itself. That stuff I really do like. I do find it very convenient not to have to fight and find keys every time you go to the car. So those are the two big things if I was going out and buying a new car. And then the add-on is I don't want that to become a subscription in 12 or 24 months. If I'm buying it on the brand new car, I want to have it until I get rid of the brand new car. If I buy it used, I can say, OK, it's not activated. OK, we'll say Toyota. Here's three hundred and eighty five dollars. Make it active as long as I own the car. I don't want to be nickel and dime for nineteen ninety five a month.
19:28 Derek Exactly. And you did say something, John, there that would be big for me. And I don't know that there's many vehicles not doing it anymore, but the push button starts. Yeah i hate nothing more than forgetting that i'm in a car that you have to have the key in the ignition and turn it and i get in. And the keys still in my pocket and i either gotta get back out to get out of my pocket or i gotta fight you know my hand in my pants pocket to try to get a key out when there's other keys in there and it just drives me nuts i i am i will say i would also be looking for the you know. Push button start so that you don't have to have the keys out of your pocket it's just something that's convenient and i like that and just to bring a little history to the show cuz that's who i am. You complain about you going from one car to another to another and they're all different there used to be schools. the early nineteen hundreds to teach show first how to drive various types of cars because every car that was built. At the turn of the century nineteen eighteen nineties up until the really into the nineteen twenties pretty much every lever and every knob did something different in every car even if it was from the same company you go from one model to another model and do something different but. Yeah there were cars back in the day that you'd think they look very similar they have very similar handle controls and you get him and one handle would do something completely different so we haven't maybe we've progressed and maybe we who knows.
21:07 John Well, I guess that goes back to the episode we want to do is that everything new is old. And that's one of those things is the fact that things are different between every single car is actually an old technology because it used to be things were different between every single car. And then we got to a point where everything kind of got standardized. I mean, between the 50s, 60s and 70s, everything was pretty much standardized. The windshield wipers were on the, you know, dashboard. The turn signal was here. The horn was in the center of the steering wheel. The bright lights was a silver little button on the floor that you push. parking brake was on a fourth third or fourth pedal everything was standardized now parking brake is a button on the dashboard or maybe a button here or a button there and a horn can be just about anywhere also and you know windshield wipers are on the left side right side and let's not forget push button start is not new either
22:03 Derek The electronic feature of it, where it's an electronic function, is something new that it's connected to a computer. But early cars had push-button start. They had a button either on the dash or, if some people remember, a pedal on the floor. You would push down and it would engage the starter. It would start.
22:25 John I think where you're at, though, I think just about everything does have push button start. One of those rental cars I had, the Toyota Camry, actually, I got into it and I'm looking at it and I know I drive one of these and I know it's push button and the button is right here. Well, maybe it's the difference between an 18 and a 23. And I looked and I looked and I looked and just as I was getting out to go in and actually asked these people, how the hell does this car start? I noticed there was a place on the side of the steering wheel to put a key into. And when I returned the car, I said something to him and they said, we don't understand it. It's the only car in our fleet that doesn't have push button start.
23:08 Derek I've got a good one for you. Do you know how, and there were a number of cars that did this, but just because my dad and I own a Roosevelt. Do you know how you started a 1929 Roosevelt was built by Martin?
23:20 John No, I only know the ones that are built by Steve.
23:22 Derek Oh, okay. It would have been better if you said Teddy, you know. No, so on some cars in the 20s and 30s, the horn button was known as kind of an all-purpose switch, and it would work the cowl lights, the headlights, and if you pushed in, it would honk the horn, but if you grab it and pull up, it's the starter. So you'd actually grab the horn button, pull up, and it would engage as a starter, and then you'd let off when the engine started.
23:53 John I've probably told the story on this show, and this goes back to how I was probably in high school or 18 years old. And I may have had a beverage or 12 that maybe a 17 or 18 year old shouldn't have. And I might have been doing an activity that you shouldn't do after even having one of these beverages. But we just were leaving the gas station, and I'm in my ex-wife's 80 or 81 Mustang. And we weren't married. We were just friends at the time. Hell, we weren't even dating. We just hung out, a bunch of us. And I think four of us are in the car. And I was the one that had enjoyed the fewest beverages that evening. So I was the designated driver. And And I was trying to figure out how to turn the lights on in the car. And I always drove, I think at the time I had my Mazda B2000 pickup, B2200 pickup, whatever it was, and the light switches on the end of the turn signal. You turned a knob and the lights came on, lights went off. Nothing fancy. So I'm trying to figure out how the hell to turn the lights on in her car. And she's going, you just pull the knob. You just pull it. Okay. So I yanked and pulled the turn signal clean out of the steering column and I'm sitting here, lights didn't come on and she didn't believe I pulled this turn signal out of the steering column because it was a pull button on the dashboard. Hey, you know, American car thing. Differences between manufacturers. So while we're sitting there at the Speedway gas station, and I think Brian was probably working the counter at the time, I decided to put the turn signal lever back in. And I don't know how many of you know 8081 Mustang. The turn signal lever served two functions in those cars. Well, three funks. Signaled right, signaled left, and was the horn. So when you pressed in, the horn would honk. So I'm sitting there, four very well-lubricated teenagers, underage, honking the horn like crazy, trying to put the turn signal sock back in. Eventually got it in and we continued on our merry way, but hey, that's just one of my funny stories about the differences between cars. You pull out on your horn button to start the car, I pull out on the horn button to try to turn the headlights on.
26:12 Derek Not what you're supposed to do, John.
26:15 John Oh no, I don't know if I ever drove another one of her cars until we were married. And now we know why you're divorced. On another funny story is I actually got into my 89 Blazer, the spare tire on the back, leaving one of my, leaving the apartment while her and I were going out. We were dating at this point. And I put the car in reverse and she started to move and she screamed just as I backed into her bright white brand new Azuzu pickup truck. Maybe there's a reason she's an ex-wife now.
26:48 Derek probably probably i'm also the one that aforementioned sob i'm the one that totaled oh nice nice so we've talked about what you want john we talked about what i would want new cars but what does the average person want in a new car stupid things well does that surprise anybody
27:07 John No, actually, the list that we're going off of brought up this topic. There's one or two things on there I understand. Yeah, I'll agree with that. There's a couple. There's a couple of things on here I go. I could do without. I've bought cars with some of these options and totally forgotten they were there.
27:25 Derek Well, I'm really referring to.
27:26 John I'm saying I'm referring to number eight on this list, the sunroof.
27:31 Derek Oh, yeah. Well, I'm actually I'm, I'm curious about number one, because I'm wondering how many people actually know how to use them, like properly? Or are they just using LED fog lights?
27:43 John Yeah. You turn them on makes you look cool.
27:47 Derek Exactly.
27:47 John Are they using them just as you know, I'm surprised number two isn't underbody neon.
27:53 Derek No, no, no LED valve stem caps. So you get the ring as you're going down the road.
27:59 John No, I mean, we were out on the lake around the 4th of July and the pontoon boat and we didn't have it and we decided it needed to be added the LED or the neon down each side of the boat so that you could see the boat if they were crossing your path. They have really stupid laws here in Alabama about marine. It's the strictest marine laws in the country. And frankly, I think it makes it extremely dangerous because I said back when we used to boat in Illinois, we would use the big spotlight on the top of the boat when we're moving at night. Oh, you can't turn that on while the boat's in motion. What? Yeah. You have to go with your running lights and drive across a black lake. That's genius. You turn your docking lights on, you even get in trouble.
28:43 Derek Oh my. You need the, you just need the, uh, it's a pontoon, right? So you just need a nice strand on each side, a pink flamingo lights, you know, just hanging down. Cool. Yeah. Although let's see on, on the port side, they'd have to be red and on starboard. They'd have to be, couldn't just have pink. Um, that'd confuse people.
29:01 John If they were visible from the front of the boat. Yes. But if they're not, if they're visible from the side, I think you can have any color you want.
29:09 Derek I'm not a mariner, so I don't know the answer to that.
29:13 John You know, back when I used to boat in Illinois, you didn't need a license here. It's a very extensive test. I don't boat down here.
29:21 Derek Honestly, as it probably should be. I grew up in Michigan and we have a lot of water there, too. I don't know the laws there, like what you need to license. But yeah, my dad, we used to have a fishing boat. We'd go out. People need to know how to drive boats when they're out there. I've seen some people that don't know how to drive their boats. You should probably think about it. It just made me think of something. To changing this podcast to being about boating and calling it No Diving Suits.
29:51 John Oh, yeah. I know so much about boating.
29:55 Derek We could actually get a couple of different people, start a whole new podcast next to No Driving Gloves, get some boat guys, and they can call theirs No Diving Suits.
30:05 John Ironically, on Facebook, Memories Today, I can't remember how many years ago you had posted about a boat from your hometown museum in Michigan that had been stolen.
30:16 Derek That was only about two years ago. Yeah. A year and a half ago maybe. It got returned.
30:19 John Well, it would have been an even number. It would have been two years or three years ago.
30:22 Derek Okay. It must have been probably two years. It got returned. It's back. It's where it belonged. So number one is led fog lights, which we've, I think we've agreed on here, John, that no one knows how to actually use those. They're just want them. So they look cool and they can just turn their fog lights on during the day and be like, Ooh, look at me. I've got led fog lights. Number two is one of them that I would. And I, and I have had in multiple of my vehicles. And actually currently right now do not have this feature in either of my vehicles, but wireless device charging in the front row seats is number two. And number five, it comes in for the rear, rear row seating. But this is nice and induction charging. So you don't have to have cables, you know, sticking out of your dashboard, coming out to your phone and all that good stuff. So, I'll go with that. That's one of them that, you know, I don't mind having the induction charging in the center console, you know, somewhere in that area so that you can charge your phone without having to have all the cables. Because I will say, I've had cables get caught up in the seat tracks and things like that when they're not in use and get crushed or cut and then you got to go out and replace them. So, yeah, I don't mind the wireless feature. That's actually the wireless charging. It's kind of nice.
31:43 John I've had one or two cars with the wireless charging or at least been in. I've never actually owned a car with wireless charging. And I don't even use wireless charging at home for any of my phone. So this is this is a wash for me. It's not going to be a make or break whether or not I buy the car. That's all I can say.
32:03 Derek Well, yeah, I mean, it's it's not a make or break for me either. But it is, in my opinion, having had two trucks that had induction charging in the center console. It's a pretty nice feature because you can just plop your phone down and it's charging, ready to go, boom, on your way. But definitely not a maker.
32:22 John I can see wireless charging with wireless CarPlay being, it would be stupid to have wired CarPlay and wireless charging or wired charging and wireless CarPlay, but that's bringing up another factor. I don't quite understand number three on this unresponsive driver stop assist. I'm assuming this means an unresponsive driver being assisted in stopping, not stop assist being unresponsive. Yeah, I read this like five or six times and I just get why the hell would I want to buy a car with stop assist that was unresponsive? But I think it's the driver is unresponsive.
33:04 Derek Yeah, I think it should just say driver stop assist.
33:07 John Yeah, not unresponsive. This one, I can agree with. It's, I think, nice. I've never had one that's had the full stop assist. The Fusion, if you were approaching a car too fast, would light up like a police car on the dashboard, red flashing lights, and then had a bar, you know, across the lower part of the windshield to tell you to freaking stop. And the Mini has a little red car that lights up in the center of the speedometer, which every time it lights up, I look down thinking I've got a warning light on the dashboard because it's a Mini. And I kind of use that as my buffer. If that light comes on, I'm tailgating. If that light's not on, I'm not tailgating. The driver in front of me still thinks I'm tailgating.
34:00 Derek Yeah. My, my wife's GMC has the, uh, green car, the yellow car and the red car. So I'm like, okay, I'm in the yellow. I know where I'm good. I'm good here. Yellow's good.
34:12 John I pay attention to yellow is good.
34:14 Derek Yeah. Yeah. And then the red is just, you know what red means? Red means the car in front of me needs to get out of the lane there because they're in the wrong lane. That's that's what red means to me.
34:25 John Exactly. I agree with that.
34:27 Derek I will say though, and this is not on the list, and I'm not saying I actually hate it, I turn it off on any car I'm in that has it, and different companies call it different things, but the lane change avoidance or lane guidance system where it tries to keep you in your lane because Just and maybe it's just me i don't know john if you experiences but when i'm driving one of those and my wife's gmc has it i turn it off in the car because. I'm i'm a very you know i try to be very pay attention to what i'm do know what i'm doing and why i am so when i am. using my lane as i need to to avoid oh i don't know someone else that's drifting out of their lane i don't want the car trying to jerk me back into the center of the lane i'm in i want to be able to control what i'm doing so i don't get somebody else smacking into the side of me because they're not that is that is one thing i absolutely hate
35:31 John Yeah, I don't like the cars that physically try to keep you in the lane. The Camry, when you start to drift out of the lane, changes the steering resistance just a little bit, but it doesn't try to steer you back into the lane. And it beeps. The beeping drives me freaking nuts. Because the way I drive, I'm usually hugging a line anyway. So as soon as I touch the line, it beeps. And after about the 30th time, she's looking at me really, you know, with a stink eye. I want to say the Nissan I drove had it, and it was nice because it just lightly vibrated the steering wheel. That worked well because it doesn't upset the passenger. But you know, the rental car Nissan that I had, I'm a little indifferent on the lane thing. I do find that if I'm in the Camry and I turn on the radar cruise control and the lane keeping assist, it's almost like having a self-driving car. It's like Blue Cruise almost. You can turn it on and then you can kind of just let go of the steering wheel for 15 seconds, which is about all Toyota lets you do, and it'll keep you in your lane. It will bounce you, you know, if you're working those two together, it'll keep you in the lane if you're not forcing it to continue to change lanes. I know, I know what you're saying is sometimes you're making a snap decision and you don't want the car, even changing the resistance of the power steering can be the difference between crashing and not crash. And there's pluses and minuses to it. I guess I wouldn't, I, the Nissan was the best I've ever had. And then it vibrated a little, but it didn't pull whatsoever. And it just kind of woke you up that you were drifting out of your lane. uh that i can live with but yeah like you said the the cars that try to keep me in my lane force me into my lane no that one drives me so automatic power folding mirrors has there ever been a day that you really want even when i had them i didn't use them well they're automatic they would just use themselves
37:38 Derek Oh, they're talking, okay. They're talking about the ones that like when you park in a parking spot, get out, close the door, they fold in. I've never had any, I mean, I've had power folding mirrors and I never used them. So.
37:50 John We live in the Midwest, so it's a little bit different. You've got a little bit bigger parking spots and that you're not parallel parking on a lot of streets. So maybe I can understand that. But when the car wash decides to take a mirror off for the concrete pole at a bank, just takes, decides to take a mirror off. It gets to be a fairly expensive job. But that's not one that I would need. Five, we've already covered. Six, we've already covered because that's heated and ventilated seats. So you actually had one that was on the list. Household 120 volt power outlet, very convenient, especially back when it As I always say, the No Driving Gloves listeners know back when I dated somebody that had children, it was nice to have this to keep things charged. I'm sure you're very aware of this.
38:40 Derek Oh, yes. And it does come in very handy for that. And I was it's not big on my list, but I know on my wife's list, having that 120 outlet in in a car And preferably a couple, one up front, maybe one or two in the back rows. She really likes that. The trick is getting your young children to not destroy the charging cords while you're on a long trip. That's been the challenge.
39:10 John So the 120 outlets are great. When we went to Charleston, South Carolina earlier this year, we took one car. It was her mom and her mom's friend and me and her and we took her mom's jeep and it had one of these 110 120 power outlets in the back seat did not have a usb cord or usb charger it's a 2014 jeep so i have this thing that i i carry with me when i travel and it's a little thing it plugs into a 110 outlet it gives you two outlets and two usbs When I plugged that in, it wasn't recognized by the car for some reason. I don't know. I want one that works just like my household.
39:52 Derek Yeah, there is an issue in some vehicles with that. One of my trucks, I don't remember which one now, but it would not recognize my wife's previous laptop charger for her laptop. The new one that she has, the new laptop, it recognizes. The one before this one, she'd plug it in to keep it charged on a long trip, and it would not recognize it. I don't know why, but it wouldn't.
40:20 John I remember my 2014 Edge Sport had one of these, might've been, I think the F-150. And the power went out at the house one night and I actually plugged the freezer into the truck and then ran the truck all night long to keep the freezer running. I was surprised it did that. I really expected to blow a fuse or, you know, shut that circuit down in the car. That's impressive. Not recommending people do that. Number eight's the good old sunroof that we spoke about. Meh. Number nine, I kind of find a little funny. Can't say I ever thought that I would want this because I don't have this on any car, even though I have this feature on cars. And I've never really thought I needed to use it. Maybe it's for people that off road. Maybe. And that would be the self-cleaning exterior camera and parking sensor. How dirty does your car actually have to be for that to fail to work? Good question. I've never had a camera too dirty. And I mean, I've
41:15 Derek I've had people write notes to me on the back of my, you know, truck saying, Hey, although I will say I have had, and actually on my, on my Malibu, I can notice a difference when I've been down like dusty dirt roads, dusty to make sense. When I've been down dirt roads and the dust kicks up on the back, you know, things like that. I can notice a difference in the clarity if I were to get out and, you know, just simply clean the lens off real quick with a damp washcloth or something or damp towel. And I do notice a difference in the clarity of what you're seeing the camera, obviously. But like you say, John, do we really need it to be self-cleaning? Like how, how little do you wash your car?
42:02 John Well, I see this feature and it brings me back to the 80s, where every European car had windshield wipers on the headlights and windshield washers for the headlights. And that's even when those cars, their headlight. But obvious, I would be honest, much prefer to have headlight cleaning, automatic headlight cleaning before I cared if my rear view camera was self-cleaning. But maybe that's why we need the LED driving lights at number one on this list because then we've got backup lights. Yeah, there you go. Reserve lights, not necessarily lights to back up being LED driving lights on the front of the car. And driver profile settings. I've had these on many, many cars. I have yet to ever, ever, ever have them work.
42:49 Derek I have yet to ever use them. I don't want to take the time to build the driver profile to get everything set and actually make it work.
42:57 John Wait, I'm thinking driver profile settings as in like the seat. You push a button, the seat adjusts to where you want it to be, and then the steering wheel adjusts to where you want it to be, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. But I'm betting this might go on to our cars that you get into and it moves the seat, it moves the steering wheel, adjusts the height of the seat belt, the corner thing above your shoulder, and then it loads up the playlist that you normally use through your Apple CarPlay and it loads your preferred radio stations on the radio. And then it sets the climate control where you like the climate control. And, you know, I guess if you have an auto dimming roof, it sets the roof to the right dimming and then it chooses the headlight angle that you like and moves the rear view. So I guess there's so many things you can set in a car now. Yeah. Maybe, you know, maybe you do want that.
43:50 Derek Well, there's an easy way to get around not needing it, John. Don't let anybody drive your car other than you.
43:57 John I agree with that, but I'll be honest, I'm very glad that she gets into and drives my mini. My girlfriend loves my mini. She credits it to really one of the reasons she went out with me. I had it in one of my profile pics. Again, I drive my Ford Monday through Friday, never touch the Mini. The Mini would just sit in a parking spot. And if I don't go anywhere on Saturday, I'm probably not going to drive it because usually I do drive the Ford on Sundays. Those that know me know I work in a cigar shop on Sundays for an excuse to have a couple of cigars. And I usually will even drive the Ford there. I won't drive the Mini there. And I think some of that comes down to so that she's able to use the Mini if she wants to. She just enjoys driving that car and she gets pleasure out of it. And I enjoy driving it, but I'm glad she does drive it a couple of times during the week just to keep it started, keep the fluids circulating. To me, it's better than if I just drive it three miles on a Saturday. But then again, it doesn't have 8,000 driver profiles and stuff. I did figure out the other day that the seat does elevate. You can raise the seat up and lower the seat. My girlfriend is significantly lower than me, so the seat's much higher than me. I like it in that car. Plus, the seat in the Fiesta is so low. It's ridiculously low, and it doesn't adjust.
45:23 Derek Yeah, that might be one for me, John. Powered seat adjustment in multi-axis adjustments. Because I'm very particular on the height of the seat for my driving position, as well as the angle of the bottom of the seat. For my comfort, I have to have it at a certain height and then have the bottom of the seat actually angled just right for me to be comfortable. And when I'm in a car that doesn't have that capability, very difficult to drive. It doesn't make it difficult to drive, it's uncomfortable to drive. So that might be one of mine, is just a car that has power seat adjustments that are multi-axis.
46:07 John This coming from the guy that has what six, eight pre-war cars.
46:11 Derek Yeah, but there's a, there we go. There's something different about pre-war cars versus modern cars. I don't, I guess maybe it's when I'm, when I'm driving in those, I'm having so much fun. I don't, I don't really care about how I'm sitting. It's just, it's just fun. I was just going to say there's.
46:30 John there's so much mental focus in the driving and there's so much discomfort even the power seats and i'm gonna make exactly exact but you know you did say something earlier that made me think of one that's important which is.
46:44 Derek In my opinion i like really good backup lights reverse lights i like something that's got a lot of of yeah. actual light coming out to light up what's behind me, especially at night, like late at night, when you live out in the country like I do, and it's a real dark, it's nice to have those bright backup lights to be actually see what's behind you. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've been in cars that you have the backup lights on and you're starting to back up and you hit the brakes and the brake lights are brighter and light up more than the backup lights do. I hate that. I want a nice bright backup
47:19 John I know that, and I think I have seen, and if I haven't, here's an idea for people. a LED mini light bar that would plug into your trailer hitch so that when you turn, you know, if you had a trailer, it's a different story. But instead of having one of those rubber plugs, you have this LED light bar or just even a single bright LED light for a backing light that plugs into your wire harness. And I think you're right. I think they have that. Yeah, I thought I thought they had had it because I thought I'd looked at it a couple of times when I've had trucks in the past. But I'm somebody what's not on this list and what's not mentioned is I want these new smart headlights that are coming out where there are a thousand different little mini bulbs in your headlight. And they kind you know, they adjust themselves and they're super, super, super bright, except that when they see an oncoming car, they immediately start adjusting themselves so that they're not aiming light at the oncoming traffic, but they're keeping your path very well illuminated. Uh, the mini, you know has whatever xenon led I don't know which headlights but they're, you know, extremely advanced they turn with the the car they Level with the car a lot of cars have that stuff. They I just absolutely love those headlights the first time brandy and I drove out to um her um mountain house, um in the carolinas I insisted on taking the mini because I knew we would be driving there at night and we're driving in the mountains and I've driven in mountains before and cliffs. I wanted the bright headlights of the Mini. Now, her Camry's got great headlights, too. But I wanted the bright headlights of the Mini and I'm glad I did. It wasn't as necessary, but still, I'm glad I did that for that trip. Now we normally take her Camry because it has more room. But just another one of those little things that
49:15 Derek So that's where early cars are nice on the backup, like Duesenbergs, my, my peerless, they basically have one miniature headlight on the back that put it in reverse. This bright white headlight just comes on. You got a backup light and it's might as well just be one of the front headlights.
49:33 John Now, all of a sudden I got a picture of acetylene backup lights.
49:37 Derek You know, the funny thing is, I've been on some, well, I've been in cars on brass and gas tours, and that literally means brass and gas headlights, not brass and gas tanks. It's gas headlights. And surprisingly, a well-adjusted acetylene headlight, yes, it is no comparison to modern lights. in period or even right now if I was to be on my back road in the middle of nowhere Kentucky with a well-adjusted acetylene you actually can see quite a bit it is it is quite remarkable adjusted properly and the reflector polished properly and doing what it's supposed to do how well you can actually see in now if a modern car comes at you you know modern headlights it becomes very difficult but you know if you're just out driving and in period there weren't really any other cars you'd come across it's actually pretty darn good it's it's surprising how well they work uh for you know what would have been the i don't think i've ever driven a car with acetylene headlamps at least where i had to have them on and my eyes aren't so good anymore i don't know if they would work well
50:51 John But that was discussing some of the car features that are out there. And let us know what your desires are through the Facebook page or through the No Driving Gloves webpage at nodrivinggloves.com. Give us some feedback. Let us know what you want us to talk about, bitch about. We tried to keep it away from a bitching episode. We've had a run of complaining episodes and kind of negativity. We're going to try to keep it on a positive beat for a while here.
51:17 Derek I think we did pretty good tonight.
51:19 John yes i don't think we get too negative on much but buy us a coffee uh there's a link at the uh again nodrivinggloves.com uh your support really helps us out here uh motivates us but you know again we do it we're doing it for fun anything else for you tonight derek or we'll go ahead and wrap this up
51:40 Derek I really got nothing john other than i hope folks enjoyed some of the live stream that i'm going to be doing from old car festival that now have happened yesterday and the day before.
51:51 John And we're going to hold you to that. So future past Derek or past future Derek, we're going to hold you to that. Derek and I actually met up in person for the first time in a couple of years, a week or so ago, and I dropped off a digital recorder for him and a whole bunch of stuff that I've been promising to give him. Got the swag. Yeah, he got some swag. He got a hat. He got t shirt. He got the no driving gloves, coffee mug, all of that available through the website also. So again, check out the website. Great seeing Derek. We chatted a little bit about the show. I was going somewhere with that, but we had a good dinner.
52:30 Derek It was great.
52:31 John Bartender was a little scary. But I think that's it. I guess I'll use my new saying that came up a couple of a couple episodes ago. I really like it. Now the show's over, everybody. Get off your ass and go burn some gas. I'll see you next time.
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