9B: Episode 8: Teen Drivers?! We have an answer

We discovered the cheapest, most durable answer to running a household fleet: old Toyotas. We unpack it all right here.

This business and BS is hashed over a beer, a bourbon, and a Boulevardier cocktail by our three bombastic, bloviating blokes in Bryan, TX — the 9B’s.

Work with us  Fidelis Creative Agency 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Welcome back. This is the 9B podcast, which stands for beer, bourbon, boulevardier, uh business and bullshit from three bluviating bombastic bros in Bryan, Texas.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Do you change that every time? What do you mean? Is that it? Do you have it memorized? I think he threw that one in there.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

You hadn't noticed it before?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

I mean, I don't know. I don't have it memorized for sure.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Well, somebody's got to do it, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:33

I don't have that mental capacity.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Uh so I want to talk about some news that hit here in the last couple of weeks, and that is that we are done with the CAFE Act. Do you know what this is? Oh, yeah. Do you?

SPEAKER_02 0:48

But you should explain it.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So this is like the uh emissions? Yes. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Corporate average fuel. I think it was. I was like, I don't know, cappuccinos are free now? Is it just all Starbucks?

SPEAKER_03 1:07

For every American? Yeah. Yeah. No, the uh CAFE Act, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Act, refers to a regulation in the U.S. aimed at improving the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks enacted in 1975 because of energy consumption and greenhouse gases. Have you seen cars in 1975? Yep. Yep. They they burned. Okay. It was introduced in response to the 1974 Arab oil embargo. Yes, it was. Aiming to reduce energy consumption and enhance energy security. Yeah, which has been fine. It's fine, fine. But it does seem that every 10 years or so they would kind of bump up like these requirements. The EPA would, and then, you know, uh international agencies would say, well, you should be getting, you know, 40 plus miles to the gallon, and that now we've got hybrids, and now we're trying to do all electric.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

And then the automakers would sometimes self-regulate so that they could stay out of hot water. They would bump the standard sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Yes, yes. So it's been this thing on the curve that is moving the U.S. market for automobiles, which is the topic of the day, uh toward more efficient, more expensive. So pricey, um, less uh durable, more complex, uh, and did I mention expensive cars? And all of us have teen drivers, yeah, many multiple, and it's insane. It's insane, it's so difficult to keep one car well maintained on the road, trying to do it without big car payments. It's an impossible like Rubik's Cube of variables, like it's so hard to figure out. So today I thought we should talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

I'm gonna get me one of those Toyota Hylix. Pretty excited about that. Yes, so diesel.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

In the aftermath of revoking the CAFE Act, it opens up all kinds of things. So, you know, these light trucks, these Toyota 4x4 diesels that they had in Indonesia suddenly can have a market in the US, which is very exciting. Let's normalize affordability. Yeah. I mean, my goodness. So here's what I did. I prompted Grok as you do with this. If I cared the most about longevity, durability, and overall lowest cost of ownership in that order, and those were the only variables I cared about to exclude initial purchase price, depreciation, fuel economy, aesthetics, or features, what vehicle has the best historical record based on these factors? You want to hazard a guess?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Uh certainly the BMW.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Yeah. It was number one.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah. Yeah. The Jalopi? Yeah. Uh I don't know. Toyota or maybe a uh uh a Camry.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Maybe an F-150?

SPEAKER_02 4:28

F-150 uh Honda Civic. You can't beat down a Honda Civic.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Top vehicle recommendation on with those qualifications based on extensive historical data from all these sources, analyzing 400 million vehicles, consumer reports, all of it, it's the Toyota Forerunner. Oh, Toyota 4Runner. Toyota 4Runner. Okay. Okay. Longevity, it's the number four overall for vehicles likely to reach a quarter million miles. Okay, with many examples documented at 300 to 400,000.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Wait, number four.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

That's overall on longevity. Then durability, built on a body-on-frame truck platform, okay, shared with Tacoma and Land Cruiser. Um, it's engineered for abuse, for ruggedness, and then the lowest cost of ownership. CarEdge estimates a 10-year maintenance repair cost at $5,500. Okay, it's pretty that's pretty low. Um there's a little bit more. The uh the range here uh for number one is the Toyota Forerunner. 10-year maintenance cost is $5,500. The Toyota Sequoia comes in number two with $6,200 10-year maintenance cost. Toyota Land Cruiser was number three at $6,800, and then number four is the Toyota Camry sedan at $4,000, which is the lowest of any sedan. Number five, finally, is Honda, the CRV, at $5,900. I hate that vehicle.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Oh, yeah, that's not a good idea. You don't like the CRV. I don't like looking at it. Nah.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Oh, okay. Um, the reason that I prompted it is because we find ourselves in a constant fever-pitched battle with our cars. Um and I we have an automotive, like a um a parking lot. Yeah, it's basically we rotate cars, which one is operational. We have a mobile mechanic. Yeah. Christopher Mobile Christopher Mobile Mechanic shows up in his van, and one of the things that he says is it's hard to play cars. That's his phrase. Is it's hard. What does it mean? It means that if you want to have cars that you don't have a car payment on, that means you have a used car, which means you're coming out of pocket every month in some way to replace something just to keep the thing on on the road. Yeah. I am very thankful that having had four teen drivers now and they're graduating out, uh, we've never had a car payment. But that means that every month we're shelling out something uh just to keep it going. So you do. So we do in a function. That's a that's a car payment. Right. So uh I mean like right now, today, the Lexus is in the shop getting front wheel wheel bearings done. It's a thousand dollars just to have all new bearings. It's great, so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

I love playing cars. You that's and I know you're trying to factor for this in your prompt there to grok, but that is essentially, I think, at least top three considerations when buying a new car is how confident am I to be in repairs? Does this represent I mean, there's something of branding. Does this represent me? Am I the kind of person that drives a kind of thing like this? Um, but like how much is this gonna hurt? I think people factor that in and be like, I'm gonna I'm gonna do a car payment because at least it hurts that much. I know.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

But it it kind of eliminates the unknown.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

The problem is, if I can if I can if I can contest, even though you have a static monthly car payment number, that doesn't mean those cars don't need maintenance. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, it also means you're paying a premium for what a new car costs now. It you know, the depreciation slope as soon as you drive it off the parking lot is huge. Um, but these these things are crazy expensive and they are not built super well. Like we have relatives who bought a new suburban, all all kitted out, and like at 7,500 miles, transmission done.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah. That's good to hear. How do you there's a joke about a guy? Uh two guys get stranded on a deserted island, and one guy just real calmly and confidently says, Wait, what day is it? And he answers it's December, whatever. He's like, Great, and goes and sits under a tree and he goes, How are you so calm? He goes, My car's warranty is running out this month. Somebody's gonna find me. He's like, Yes, they know. They know.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Yeah, even even companies you've never been in business with will call you and tell you that your car's warranty is about to expire.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah, that's how that's how people navigate that. It's like, I guess I'm gonna buy the warranty.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

So buy the extra.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

By the extra warranty and by the car payment, and now you're like at least able to budget.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

When I got my very first car that I got myself, it was a 99 Volkswagen Jetta. It was a three-year lease. But what came along with it at that time is it was totally paid for um maintenance. Maintenance. There you go. For I think two of those three years, you know, up to some certain mileage on the car. Which uh I don't know if you can find that anywhere anymore. Do car manufacturers even do that that gratis maintenance for you?

SPEAKER_02 10:34

No. Uh my first car was a Dodge D100 that my dad got for $400 at an auction uh that from Texas AM Corpus Christi maintenance department, where they were just trying to get rid of extra metal on the lot. And so he went to this auction and bought this thing. The battery fell through the engine because I hit a bump too hard. The uh through the through the like the plate that it sits on just crumbled and went away. The U-bolt, uh, I was going 80 on the highway, and the U the U joint on the tail just disintegrated, and I started dragging my main the drive train the main drivetrain right down the road, sparking everywhere. It was it was a health violation to others around me. It was so good though. And it was like every time something went out, a couple hundred and bucks. That was it. Everything was so cheap to fix.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Because it was just old and all mechanical. Yeah, all mechanical.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

But I would do that deal now for kids. A couple hundred bucks to fix every time. Something's gonna break every month. Great, that's a car payment. They're gonna ding them up too. Oh yeah. I I got stuck on beaches, I got in bumper fender benders in the school parking lot, all that stuff. That was the way to go though.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

So as we are all facing this actual predicament, very high expensive cars that don't guarantee durability and performance, or buy older stuff that you're just gonna repair for forever, where where where are you landing? Like, this is a real problem for all of us. I've got at one point we had two forerunners, um, Alexis uh SUV, uh Land Cruiser SUV, and we're just swapping who what needs a new battery now? What needs brake pads now?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah. Well, I mean, we've got the sprinter that we are making a car payment on so that we have some vehicle to transport our huge family. Huge family. Then we've got our beautiful family. That is yeah. It has a let's try to push it as far as as long as we can without you know the next repair, next major repair. And then we've got the Sun's truck, which is in the shop. In the shop. And I don't know what we're gonna do for Hona Claire.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Probably just gonna have to And she was driving, we saw her drive today.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

It's gonna be fighting over the suburban and getting rides to work and getting rides home.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

There is a s there's a stat about how Gen Z is not wanting to get their driver's licenses. Yeah, I've heard that. And uh this kind of helps. Well, great, we don't have cars for you anyway. We haven't experienced that in our family. They want their license. Everybody's like out the door. Sure. Yeah, they want to get away from it. That's how I was too, man. My wife and me. I was you take it so personally. I do. Yeah. That's good. I'm gonna send your daughter this and be like, this is what you're doing to your father. Yep. You're ripping his guts out. The poor guy. You're gonna be alright. I think so. We're here for you. I think so. Yeah. I I tend to fall on the uh I'm gonna buy something cheap and make repairs as we go because yeah, it's gonna break. I just kind of go in knowing that. And also, there's probably gonna be fender benders and dings, and hopefully everybody's okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

But I'd like to I'd like to bring us back up out of this trough though, which is this is where I stay. Is this a the with the repealing of the CAFE Act?

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Okay, hope.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

What you have to ask is can Ford Motor Company or do Americans know how to make a four-cylinder, a six-cylinder, an eight V8 engine that will not fail? Do we have that technology? We do. We do have that.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

With the technology, do we have the know-how and the common sense to to make the decision?

SPEAKER_02 14:59

We don't have the bottom line that supports that decision. That's not a long I mean, a cheap car that lasts forever, you can't you can't make next year's numbers on that.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

I see. So you're saying the planned obsolescence and the don't give them the right to repair.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

I totally believe in planned obsolescence is driving the whole thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

I think that I think they totally know.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

I did also I think first person to the market who says, here's a V6 engine, naturally aspirated, internal combustion engine, and it's going to go for a long time, because we know how to do this, and we don't really care so much about pushing 41 miles per the gallon, and it's not gonna fail, and it's gonna be a durable pickup, I think they win.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Saint Hood. I think I'm just thinking about this now. I wonder if the um original early 20th, mid-20th century, you know, emphasis on reliability, durability, and and marketing on that was because it was a a consumer base that initially you were competing against the durability and reliability of the horse.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Right?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

So you had to you had to sell a machine that was not so um uh that it was gonna be able to stand up in the difficult conditions of a farm and of a ranch, and it was gonna be something that people could probably work on themselves or have a neighbor help them with. You know, it wasn't gonna be real finicky, it wasn't gonna be real fragile. And it has the power of 150 horses. Right, exactly, and that's why you have that terminology. You'll never get me to abandon Applejack.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I mean, uh now you're talking about a consumer base that largely is not mechanically inclined, not terribly mechanically inclined, and the things that they care about are the the conveniences. Airplane bells and whistles of of a car. So how are you ever gonna make a it's only it's only a feature mentality?

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah. I don't know how you make a a mechanically an entirely mechanical car sound appealing to the other.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

In a feature focused world. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

I would buy that so fast today though. But you're not I'm not the customer. I'm not the target audience here. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

I think I think there's an ache in the American soul. If anybody's listening who gets to make these decisions, there's an ache in the American soul for a very well-built, highly durable car and truck.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

I'd buy it. There's an ache in the American soul for a car that has heated seats that work reliably reliably. That's what I'm that's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

That can be that can be found. That's my argument. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

I would give up heated seats. I'd I was I always say this with caution because I live in Texas, but I think I would give up uh air condition for a vehicle I knew was gonna have no problems for the next 15 years. I'd be like, okay, great, I'll sacrifice the AC. I got that 280, two windows at 80 miles an hour. I got that I got that joke when I was in my Dodge D 100. That's good. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Alright, well, any other thoughts on this? Yeah, save us, Elon. Somebody make that save us tape Toyota. I don't think Elon's got that thing. He's not gonna do that. He likes heated seats. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

And sing.