iDriveSoCal

Volkswagen Maintenance

When it comes to Volkswagen maintenance, the days of 3,000-mile oil changes are long gone.

But regular maintenance is still key to not only your vehicle’s longevity but also keeping your long-term repair bills to a minimum. And that goes for VW and all other vehicles too.

We sit down with Ontario Volkswagen’s, Service Manager, Jim Straley to learn how to get the most out of our cars in this iDriveSoCal Podcast.

***Transcript***

Recorded @ Ontario Volkswagen, Ontario, CA

Tom: I’m at Ontario Volkswagen and joining me is Jim Straley, the service manager of Ontario Volkswagen.

Jim has been not only in the Ontario area but specifically in the Ontario Auto Mall here for a number of years.

And, as the executive in charge of service departments and Jim is going to tell us all about maintaining your Volkswagen. Or, perhaps, maintaining your next Volkswagen, and what needs to be done to take care of it and make sure it’s running in tip-top shape.

Jim thank you so much for joining me.

Jim: Thank you. Good morning.

Tom: Cars these days, the technology in them is just absolutely crazy. I mean it’s one of the reasons why I started the iDriveSoCal podcast is an appreciation for cars, but also in awe of the rolling technological wonders that they are. How do we maintain today’s Volkswagen?

What really needs to be done, if anything? I mean wave a magic wand and it’s perfect, right?

“The cars will tell us and tell you by its lights. If there’s something that needs to be addressed other than just normal maintenance.”

Jim: We wish. The primary part of taking care of your car is just maintenance.

The cars will tell us and tell you by its lights. If there’s something that needs to be addressed other than just normal maintenance. And maintenance intervals for Volkswagens are annual, one year, ten thousand miles.

When your car comes in, we’ll change the oil, look the car over, give you a courtesy inspection, let you know what’s going on with the car.

The goal for us is to keep it running just as well as it did from the day you bought it.

Tom: The old school thought of, “Hey, I need to change the oil every 3,000 miles.” It’s pretty much out the window.

Jim: Out the window.

New technology and synthetic oils allow us to run cars much longer now on the engine oil. Ten thousand miles, one year. Using synthetic gives a better lubrication interior.

Top-end oiling is better, stays cleaner longer, it’s designed to run in the hotter temperatures.

“…in this area… ten thousand is fine. If you’re in the hotter climates, like up towards Palm Springs, 115, 120, maybe a little more often. But the oil that we use is good from zero degrees up to about 110.”

Tom: Now we are here in Southern California, we are a car culture. We drive more than anybody. We have the worst traffic on the planet, right?

So, we’re harder on our vehicles. But even so, when it comes to maintenance Volkswagen as a manufacturer says, “Hey, 10,000 is perfectly fine.” Is there ever a situation where I need to do maybe 5,000, 7,000, intense stop and go. I mean I’m not on the racetrack.

Jim: No, in this area, no, ten thousand is fine. If you’re in the hotter climates, like up towards Palm Springs, 115, 120, maybe a little more often. But the oil that we use is good from zero degrees up to about 110.

Tom: When was it the last that I needed to do 3,000? Has it been a long time?

Jim: It’s been a long time. Yeah. 2001-2002.

Tom: Wow, talking about 15, 16 years.

Jim: Engine tolerances have gotten tighter. The materials have gotten better, we use multiple or bi-metal materials now instead of just basic cast iron and solid pieces.

So the closer tolerances, the higher, the better oiling systems, the better oils. As oil has improved because the oil that you used 10 years ago wasn’t synthetic. It was just out of the ground crude oil. They added chemicals and such to make it a better oil, but now we’ve gone to synthetics.

“We have a filter that’s inside the air conditioning component, it’s called a pollen filter. As spring comes up, we all hear about pollen on the news in the weather reports, it’s a good time to get that filter changed.”

Tom: So technology in chemicals literally.

Jim: Just in the way the oil is groomed, yeah.

Tom: And what else do I need to worry about from a perspective of maintaining my vehicle? And we’re basically in the heart of spring now, right? I think the first day of spring was a couple of weeks ago or so. Is seasonal maintenance a thing of the past? Is it not really a factor here in Southern California?

Jim Straley: There are things that we should look at going into the spring is a good time, just like spring cleaning the house, there’s spring cleaning of your car.

We have a filter that’s inside the air conditioning component, it’s called a pollen filter. As spring comes up, we all hear about pollen on the news in the weather reports, it’s a good time to get that filter changed.

If you notice any type of odors in the A/C heating system that you’ve picked up over there, there are ways to clean the interior components of the heating system so your car does remain still fresh. If your Volkswagen has a coolant interval change, every three years on most cars.

Tom: Coolant meaning like the radiator fluid?

“Overheating of an engine is the most drastic form of failure you can have, even more so than if it ran out of oil. So the engine coolant should be checked.”

Jim: Right, engine coolant.

If you’re coming on a three-year mark, the engine cooling is vital to keeping the car running correctly. Overheating of an engine is the most drastic form of failure you can have, even more so than if it ran out of oil. So the engine coolant should be checked. AC system going into the summer.

We should have a specific temperature coming out of the vent. We usually look for something in the 40s coming out of the vent. Because out here we have so much heat that we want to get as cold as we can coming out so let’s check with how the A/C system’s working. It’s a static check, it’s nothing hard to see.

That’s really about it going into the spring. You know, we have a great staff in our service department. And our service advisers have built longtime rapport with some of our clients have a 150,000, 200,000 miles on their Volkswagen still and they still drive them as daily drivers.

“You see, you may spend four hours with your salesman, but you will spend lots more with your adviser during the ownership of your car.”

So that tells you right there just by normal maintenance, keeping the oil clean, taking care of issues as they arise keeps them on the road for a very long time.

Tom: You mentioned earlier your service advisors and I love you guys here at Ontario Volkswagen, because it is family-run, family operated, everybody has been here for a duration, and you have your customer first award that you guys have received a number of years in a row, which is bestowed upon only a small percentage of Volkswagen dealers across the country.

To me personally, the service adviser is so important to where I buy a car because I mean I love my sales guy when I’m buying a car, or my saleswoman when I’m buying a car, but I’m going to work with them for the transaction.

The service advisor, I’m going to see at least every 10,000 miles, right?

Jim: Every ten. You see, you may spend four hours with your salesman, but you will spend lots more with your adviser during the ownership of your car.

Tom: So especially with the Volkswagens, obviously they’ve traditionally gone forever, as long as you take care of them, but now with the new Volkswagen warranty that you have six-year, 72,000, the service advisor and I are going to be seeing a lot of each other over the length of the vehicle, the duration of the vehicle. Just from perspective maintenance.

“…And your relationship with your service advisor is going to be so important. So when you make a phone call, you’re a name and a face that we know. And we go to great lengths to know who you are and we want you to be part of our family, as well as we want to take care of your car.”

Jim: And that really goes to speak for Volkswagen and the fact that they want a strong family in the new People First Warranty, which is that longer duration of year-end mileage, is going to make you a bigger part of our service department.

It’s going to bring more rapport with you. We’re going to want to keep your Volkswagen running, and your relationship with your service advisor is going to be so important. So when you make a phone call, you’re a name and a face that we know. And we go to great lengths to know who you are and we want you to be part of our family, as well as we want to take care of your car.

Tom: So with the extra-long Volkswagen warranty, on top of the fact that Volkswagens are good for hundreds of thousands of miles, as they have always been, the key thing is like anything else, maintain your Volkswagen.

Jim: Maintain your VW.

Tom: What is the benchmark? What are the guidelines? Is it just wait for your lights to pop on? Is it come see me in 10,000 miles?

How are the new Volkswagens on the roads these days… How do I work with them as an owner and making sure that I have it for as many years, as many hundreds of thousands of miles as I want to?

“Most important is just to schedule that date. You know, it’s a birthday for your car.”

Jim: Most important is just to schedule that date. You know, it’s a birthday for your car. It’s something. You know something reminds you, I got to bring the car in. But like again, as you said earlier, 10,000 miles to most California drivers is six months.

So we’re going to see you every six months, just for an oil change and a quick look around. Get you in and out, get your car washed for you, get you back down the road. The important thing about maintenance though, it allows us to tell you what you may be expecting.

What are your tires like? And, what are your brakes like? Plus, what are other things like that you drive every day that wear out that may wear out somewhere in between? So we want to tell you everything is great with your car, but we also want to say you’re going to be looking for tires before your next service.

Your brakes are down to 15 percent. So you can plan to come in, you can budget to come in, and now it’s no longer an unexpected expense.

Tom: It’s like the dentist’s appointment, right?

Jim: Exactly.

Tom: There’s my little card. I mean sometimes I still get the card, I just plug it into my phone right? Skip the card. But yeah, all right, we’ve got to watch that tooth, keep an eye on it.

Jim: And if it becomes a repair, we can tell you a price, we can give you time to budget it into your personal life.

Because a broken down car is very expensive to fix. A budgeted repair, you’re going to save $100 a month, as I do at six months. So it becomes part of the framework of driving and living.

“Because a broken down car is very expensive to fix. A budgeted repair, you’re going to save $100 a month, as I do at six months. So it becomes part of the framework of driving and living.”

Tom: What else can you tell us about maintaining Volkswagens?  What should we an eye out for as we motor through Southern California in our new Volkswagen from Ontario VW?

Jim: You’ll be seeing more of them. Volkswagen has made it a huge effort to become a primary car on the road.

The Atlas, by far an outstanding car, with other makes and models that are its competition. We have the new Jetta coming out, brand new car, it’s not the Jetta you’ve seen before.

We have the Golf R. We’ve got the new Tiguan. There’s a lot of new product that Volkswagen has introduced to us in America so that Volkswagen becomes a big name brand.

Tom: Jim Straley, the service manager here at Ontario Volkswagen, Ontario Volkswagen is a partner of the iDriveSoCal podcast. So, thank you for being a partner.

Jim: Thanks for having me.

Tom: Thank you for joining us for this podcast as well. We look forward to future talks about keeping our Volkswagens in tip-top shape and until next time, I’m Tom Smith, this is iDriveSoCal, thanks for listening.

The Latest Volkswagen News HERE.

2018 Volkswagen Jetta GLI

The 2018 Jetta GLI is the enthusiast’s compact car from Volkswagen.

Great European styling with sport acceleration, braking, and handling plus fuel efficiency on top of it all.

While the all-new 2019 Jetta’s get ready to make their debut, if you’re looking for the sport version, this very well may be the car for you.

iDriveSoCal’s Professor, Clinton Quan, picked one up from our friends at Ontario Volkswagen for a complete analysis – hear it all in this iDSC Podcast.

2018 Volkswagen Jetta GLI

***Transcript***

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA

Clinton: This car is for someone who wants a compact car but wants something that’s sportier, more fun to drive than your typical compact car.

So if you’re looking for something that’s also fuel-efficient but that’s fun to drive on the highway and on mountain roads, and you like going on scenic drives, this is the car for you.

“This car is for someone who wants a compact car but wants something that’s sportier, more fun to drive than your typical compact car.”

I think the three-spoke steering wheel is my favorite feature of the car. Love the large, sporty gauges. It handles really well. And the power, 210 horsepower 207 pound-feet of torque.

Tom: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States–Southern California.

I’m Tom Smith. And joining me for another vehicle review is our good friend “the Professor” Clinton Quan. Say hello, Clinton.

Clinton: Hi, Tom; it’s great to be back for another automotive review.

2018 VW Jetta Courtesy of Ontario VW

Tom: Always happy to have you, my friend. Today we are reviewing our first Volkswagen from our newest dealer partner, our good friends out at Ontario Volkswagen.

And, Clinton is going to review the 2018 Volkswagen Jetta but the sporty version, which is the GLI.

Before I throw it over to you, Clinton, I want to give a shout out to Earl Reed, who is the general manager out at Ontario Volkswagen. Thank you for coming on board.

And Randy Halcomb, who is marketing guru, thank you for coming on board.

Clinton, tell us about the 2018 VW Jetta GLI!

Clinton: I test drove the 2018 Volkswagen Jetta GLI. The Jetta is Volkswagen’s compact sedan.

The GLI is the sport version of the Jetta. And there are six trims in the Jetta family and three engines.

“…features a 2.0-liter engine turbocharge inline 4 and that produces 210 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque.  That starts at about $30,000.”

The base Jetta is the S which starts at about $19,000. Then you have the Wolfsburg edition at about $20,000, the SE at $21,000.  And, all three of those trims feature a 1.4-liter inline 4-cylinder turbocharged engine producing 150 horsepower, 184 pound-feet of torque.

Then you move up to the SE Sport which is about $23,000 dollars, and then the SEL which starts at about $26,000. Those two trims feature a 1.8-liter inline 4 turbocharged engine producing 170 horsepower. It’s also rated at 184 pound-feet of torque.

And then you move up to the top of the line trim which is the Jetta GLI, the one I drove, and that features a 2.0-liter engine turbocharge inline 4 and that produces 210 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque.  That starts at about $30,000.

Tom: Another outstanding feat of granular recollection of detail. Folks, Clinton and I are just sitting here talking. I, of course, have my pen in hand, notepad in front of me.

Clinton is just going off the top of his head with these details of the vehicles, so that’s why we call him “the Professor.”

Thank you much for all those details, as always. You drove the GLI, the sporty version.

“It’s got plenty of power, especially with that 270 pound-feet of torque and 210 horsepower.”

And to clarify, not long from now, 2019 is going to be coming out, the 2019 Jetta.

However, the 2018 Jetta GLI, the sport version, this one, the sporty version is going to stay for a little bit longer, whereas some of those other trim levels are going to be replaced soon.

But, these are little separate issues within the Jetta family.

Clinton: Yes. So I’m pretty sure they’ll have a GLI trim. But it hasn’t been announced yet, so it’ll probably come the following year in 2019 as a 2020 model.

Tom: Got it. Okay. So let’s talk about the drive. Where’d you go?

Clinton: I drove out to Idyllwild. So it was a really nice drive up to the mountain community of Idyllwild.

Tom: Nice.

“it was a great drive up in the mountains, really got to test the vehicle in terms of acceleration, braking, and handling. And this is a really fun car to drive.”

Clinton: Yeah, it was a great drive up in the mountains, really got to test the vehicle in terms of acceleration, braking, and handling.

And this is a really fun car to drive. It’s got plenty of power, especially with that 270 pound-feet of torque and 210 horsepower.

Tom: Okay. So you drove everything, highways, byways, right?

Clinton: Yes. Yeah, it has a six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters.

“It looks great, I think, from every angle whether it’s the front, the rear, the side, three-quarter front, three-quarter rear. Overall length about 182 inches in length. So that’s a little bit larger than some of the other compact sedans.”

Tom: Paddle shifters, your favorite, right?

Clinton: Yes. Yes. It’s the only transmission.

Tom Smith: Okay, cool. So let’s talk a little bit about the styling, the outside. Take us around the car.

Clinton Quan: Well, I think this is one of the most attractive compact sedans on the market. It’s got really, really clean lines. It’s very well-proportioned.

It looks great, I think, from every angle whether it’s the front, the rear, the side, three-quarter front, three-quarter rear. Overall length about 182 inches in length. So that’s a little bit larger than some of the other compact sedans.

“…with the Jetta GLI, you get the red/black combination trim. It also has that nice red stitching on the leather steering wheel, red stitching on the seats.”

There’s really a good amount of space on the inside as well in terms of the interior design.

That’s one of the things I like most about this car. It’s got the three-spoke on a flat-bottom steering wheel with the paddle shifters.

Plus, the large, circular gauges, tachometer, speedometer.

It actually reminds me of the Audi TT I used to have.

Tom: Well, it’s in that family, right?

Clinton: Volkswagen, Audi.

Tom: That’s obvious, but not obvious for everybody, so yeah. The Volkswagen, Audi is siblings, right?

Clinton: Yes. So with the Jetta GLI, you get the red/black combination trim. It also has that nice red stitching on the leather steering wheel, red stitching on the seats.

Tom: And I love the red accents; those are always very clean, very sharp looking.

Clinton: Yeah. It also has nice 18-inch alloy wheels. It looks really nice on this car.

Tom: And how is the inside designed for you from a creature comfort and…?

“…it’s got about 94 cubic feet of space in terms of interior cargo space, so, yeah, two adults in the front, two adults in the back.”

Clinton: Oh, it’s very comfortable for a compact car. It’s got plenty of space, I think, great ergonomics. Most of the buttons, controls they’re all right within your fingertips. It’s very, very well laid out.

GLI Mk6 – The Enthusiasts Jetta

Tom: Okay. Space-wise what kind of capacity are we talking about for adults, comfortably?

Clinton: Oh, it’s very comfortable for four adults.

Yeah, it’s got about 94 cubic feet of space in terms of interior cargo space, so, yeah, two adults in the front, two adults in the back.

There’s a really good amount of trunk space for this car, especially being a compact vehicle.

Tom: Okay, perfect. So four adults comfortably, plenty of trunk space.

Clinton: Yeah, good amount of legroom in the back, too, yeah, for a compact car.

Tom: And so who’s this car for who? Who’s ideally is its intended target demo?

Clinton: Well, this car is for someone who wants a compact car but wants something sportier, more fun to drive than your typical compact car.

So if you’re looking for something that’s also fuel-efficient but that’s fun to drive on the highway and on mountain roads, and you like going on scenic drives, this is the car for you.

“…it still gets about 27 miles to the gallon combined. So it’s only one mile per gallon less combined than the SEL and the SE Sport…”

And speaking of fuel efficiency, it still gets about 27 miles to the gallon combined.

So it’s only one mile per gallon less combined than the SEL and the SE Sport, which gets about 28 miles per gallon with the 1.8-liter engine.

Tom: Okay, so 27 combined. Do we have different driving modes, the eco sport…?

Clinton: Sport and that’s it.

Tom: Boom, that’s it?

Clinton: Yeah, drive and sport. Think of it as the enthusiast version of the Jetta.

Tom: Enthusiast, right. The enthusiast version is perfect. So then who this car might be for, we’re talking. Junior exec, exec.

Clinton: I would say probably someone in their 20s maybe early, mid-30s.

Tom: Likes a sporty drive.

Clinton: Yeah.

Tom: Likes some fuel economy, whipping in and out of L.A. traffic, whipping in and out of Southern California highways and whatnot.

Clinton: Yes.

Tom: Very good. So are we ready for the top three?

Clinton: Yes. We’re ready for the top three.

Tom: Top three, hit ’em.

Clinton: The top three I would definitely say the interior design. I really liked the sporty three-spoke steering wheel. I think the three-spoke steering wheel is my favorite feature of the car. Love the large, sporty gauges.

Tom: What’s the movie? “You had me at hello.” Because, honestly, folks, Clinton if it has paddle shifters and a three-spoke steering wheel that’s flat on the bottom, Clinton’s like, “Aaah.”

Clinton: Volkswagen does a really good job with the design of their three-spoke steering wheel.

Tom: Okay. So back to top three, sorry to chop you off there.

Clinton: Yeah. The interior, as we mentioned. The drive, it’s a really fun car to drive. I think it handles really well. And the power, 210 horsepower 207 pound-feet of torque.

Tom: Nice. So do you have 0 to 60 on the top of your head and quarter-mile, or anything like that, or 0 to 100?

Clinton: No, I didn’t…

Tom: And you didn’t time it yourself?

Clinton: I didn’t do a 0 to 60 test or a quarter-mile test.

Perfect Scenic Mountain Cruiser

Tom: All right. Anything else to add about the 2018 Volkswagen Jetta GLI from our good friends over at Ontario Volkswagen?

Clinton: Well, I would just say that this is the last year of this generation.

So if this is something that you…if you want a compact car and something that’s sporty and fun to drive, now is a great time to get one.

Tom: Now’s the time to pull the trigger.

Clinton: Now’s the time to pull the trigger, absolutely.

Tom: And the place to pull the trigger is at Ontario Volkswagen, which is in Ontario California just off of the 15, ontariovolkswagen.com, ontariovw.com.

Another shout out to Earl Reed and Randy Halcomb of Ontario Volkswagen, very excited to have you guys on board and working with us.

And that brings us to the end of another fantastic vehicle review from “the Professor”, Clinton Quan. For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith. Thanks for listening.

The Latest Volkswagen News HERE.

The Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin, California looks, feels, and even smells fast.

American muscle – check. Racecars – check. Ferraris and Lamborghinis – check and check. Sportbikes that give you whiplash just looking at them – many checks.

Their collection also includes a Gullwing Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce from the 1950s, a firetruck from the 1930s, and much more. It’s an auto museum that makes kids, both young and old, grin and drool. But it’s also a venue for private and corporate events and all for a good cause.

The museum is also a non-profit that supports Southern California organizations that help at-risk children. In this iDriveSoCal Podcast we learn the history of The Marconi Automotive Museum from the museum’s CEO, Priscilla “Bo” Marconi.

***Transcript***

Recording date – April 5, 2018 in Tustin, CA

Bo: Somewhere along the way, Dick decided that he really wanted to put his money where his mouth is. He’s always been very philanthropically-minded and so he decided to donate all of the car collection and the building to the Marconi Foundation for Kids. We’ve got to one-of-a-kind Ferraris here in our collection. We have the 53rd car that Enzo Ferrari built. We’ve also got beautiful Gullwing. Ranging from American muscle cars. We’ve got a Firefox fire truck from the 30s and all the way up to the modern-day car, so there’s something here for everybody.

Tom: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States–Southern California. I’m Tom Smith and having a lot of fun with iDriveSoCal yet again today as I’m in Tustin, California at the Marconi Automotive Museum, and joining me is Priscilla “Bo” Marconi of the Marconi Automotive Museum, excuse me, the CEO, actually. Priscilla, Bo–I’m gonna go with Bo–thank you so much for joining me.

Bo: My pleasure. Happy to be here.

“We’ve got to one-of-a-kind Ferraris here in our collection. We have the 53rd car that Enzo Ferrari built.”

Tom: So the museum was founded by your husband.

Bo: It was, yes.

Tom: And it is an adult playground. For anyone that’s been here already, they know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t been here, you absolutely have to come, and you will see the most fabulous display of high-performance vehicles, race cars. And Bo is going to fill us in on how it became and what it’s all about.

Bo: Well, my husband Dick founded the place in 1994, and he bought this building which was a former solid oil manufacturing facility that had gone out of business. And I can remember seeing it thinking, “Oh this is a terrible place.” It was a decrepit. I had no vision for what it could be. But Dick is a great visionary, and he put what he calls cubic dollars into it, and he formed this museum, and he moved his open-wheel race car team into it along with his car collection of about 75 cars.

And so for a couple of years, he used it as a facility to tune the engines. We had mechanics running around and, because he raced professionally, that was the whole purpose of this building. But once he decided that he wanted to stop racing, he opened it up as a special event facility, and we became very organically.

So somewhere along the way, Dick decided that he really wanted to put his money where his mouth is. He’s always been very philanthropically-minded and so he decided to donate all of the car collection and the building to the Marconi Foundation for Kids, which is a 501 (c)(3) public foundation.

And his goal has been to encourage other people to find their passion for philanthropy whether it’s children, which is our passion, to give to at-risk children’s organizations whether it’s animals, the environment, whatever it is that hits your hot button.

His mantra is to “learn, earn, and return.” So you go to school, trade school, university, whatever your passion is, and then you earn. And then after you’ve started to establish yourself, then you give back.

And you find that when you open yourself up to helping others in need, you have a tremendous feeling of well-being because it’s not all about you. It’s about giving back to others.

Tom: What year did it become the 501 (c)(3) and began the transformation into a nonprofit and helping children?

Bo: 1997 was when we got our nonprofit status. So we were around for three years prior to that just kind of trying to figure out what the next best decision would be. And when Dick founded the foundation, he said, “Okay, who are we going to give our money to?”

Personally, I have always been for helping at-risk children. And by that, I mean particularly kids that emancipate out of the foster care program and end up on the streets. Covenant House up in L.A. is a great organization that we’ve put a lot of effort into because their goal is not only to give them crisis shelter but to then help them become productive. Whether that’s through job training, skill development, resume building, mental health awareness, those sorts of things.

And then, here in Orange County, we’re highly involved with CHOC, which is the children’s hospital. They’re opening a mental health pediatric unit, actually, in April. So that was that was how we started.

And we have donated millions of dollars to various at-risk children’s organizations through the rental of our museum and through tours that come through and then we host a big event called Fight Night which is held in March.

Tom: All the revenue that comes in, is all about taking care of children. Is it just local to Southern California?

Bo: For the most part it is, yeah. We have found, is in Orange County, there’s a misunderstanding that Orange County is a very wealthy community and there is no poverty.

But, literally, on the other side of the railroad tracks from us is Santa Ana. Lots of homeless population issues, as we know, but lots of homeless kids or high-risk families, low income. So we believe there’s a lot of need right here in Orange County.

Tom: And the Fight Night, I know, is a really big, fun time for you guys. Tell us a little bit about that and what year did that start and how did it evolve.

Bo: Well, we just finished our 20th year. So, yeah, I was 12 when we started this. Little joke. So it started because we had a friend that came to us who had a friend who was a kickboxing guru, and this guy said, “I want to give back. I can put the show on if you get the people here.”

So I said, “Gee that is a really novel idea, “and we are all about novel. Obviously, we’ve got these one of a kind cars, which we’ll talk about, but so I went home to Dick and I said, “Listen to this great idea.”

Well, Dick was a former Golden Glove winner. Now he’s blind in his left eye, so back in the 50s, he was boxing with a blind eye and winning Golden Glove championships.

Tom: Wow.

Bo: So he knows boxing, he knows professional boxing, and he said, “Well, that is a terrible idea because the boxing world is corrupt. You’re a woman. You’re going to get taken.”

And I said, “Well, you tasked me with running the museum. And so I’m going to do this.” Well, over $7 million later, here we have completed this great event.

So we have professional fights, both kickboxing, and boxing. We have women’s fights, men’s fights, we have about 400 people in the museum, and we serve a delicious steak dinner. And, we have great live and silent auctions.

And I think what makes this a very interesting event is we’re all used to going to galas where we have to sit and behave ourselves, and this is not that. It’s a well-orchestrated event, but our guests see it as, “I can go across the room and talk to my friend in the middle of a fight, and it’s okay.” So it’s held on a Friday evening. We have lots of men that attend, but women enjoy it as well.

Tom: And, of course, you get to go home… The greatest thing about the fight night is that you actually get to pick your car that you want to drive home from the museum, right?

Bo: Oh, ha-ha-ha. Well, actually, we live on a four-mile dirt road, and at the beginning of this whole venture of building the Marconi museum, when we found our property in San Juan Capistrano, our crew chief at the time thought that this would be great. We could move the race team out there, and we could put Dick’s cars out there because we have a lot of land. But a four-mile dirt road doesn’t exactly help with big car transporters, so, thus, this building was built.

So I drive a Toyota Land Cruiser, which I am a big proponent of, and the cars here at the museum there have been a couple of Ferrari’s and a couple of Bentleys that have been out there, but you can imagine the dirt that gets on them, and low to the ground cars on a dirt road is not great. So…

Tom: Gotcha. I was actually referring to coming to fight night and, as an attendee, part of the deal you get to drive a car.

Bo: Oh, right. Haha. Again, you cannot imagine the number of times people say things like that.

Tom: Let’s talk a little bit about the cars. You have a phenomenal… It’s, as I mentioned, I think, adult playground is about the best way to describe what the Marconi Automotive Museum is.

It’s got to be such a fun place to come on a daily basis. But the cars themselves–you showed me some of them–one-of-a-kinds, really impressive. Talk a little bit about the collection.

Bo: Well, Dick has always been a high-performance street car and race car guy, big Ferrari person. I think we’ve got a pretty good collection of them.

We’ve got to one-of-a-kind Ferraris here in our collection. We have the 53rd car that Enzo Ferrari built. So it goes way back to the 50s. We’ve also got a beautiful Gullwing, show Gullwing which was built about the same time as our 195S Ferrari, which was the 53rd car that Enzo built.

So it’s an eclectic collection. Dick is an eclectic guy. He’s a creative person, and he wanted people to be able to enjoy the cars with no barriers around them.

So we’ve got cars that are worth, singly, worth millions of dollars, and knock on wood, we have never had anything bad happen because I think the people that come through and see the cars are largely car people.

But even those that aren’t, can appreciate the beauty of them, the color, the shine. We’re modern, we’ve got hard edges, steel, concrete, and they are very respectful of the cars. And Dick has always wanted people to dream.

Maybe you see an American muscle car that your dad had when you were a kid, or it’s a car that you wanted to have or, perhaps, did have, or people that have never seen many Ferraris that come and they can see the engines and see the interiors without being held back by barriers.

Tom: And that’s really one of the cool things that I had to ask. Like wait a minute, where’s all the stanchions? Talking about one of the cars that you were pointing out being worth $2-million-dollars by itself, and it’s like I can just touch this thing. That’s that’s kind of crazy.

Bo: Yeah, that is Dick. He wants to share. And of course, we have staff. They’re paying attention, and we, periodically, during events, have to ask people not to lean against the cars when they’re taking selfies. But you know, they’re great.

Tom: So what is the collection cumulatively? What’s the value?

Bo: Well, that’s a good question. I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 million probably.

Tom: And what about the top 1, 2, 3 single value vehicles?

Bo: You know, car values change all the time, and we have a great appraiser. He comes in twice a year, after having gone to all the different auctions, and reappraisals the collections.

We’ve got a Formula One car that Michael Schumacher drove the first year that he drove for Ferrari. It’s got a working engine in it, which, normally, you can’t buy Formula One cars with the engines because they have this proprietary information they don’t want anybody to know about.

But Dick bought the entire collection from that year and sold off all the cars and kept this one jewel of a car. So the value in that, you know, I don’t know. Probably a million dollars. We’ve got a Daytona Spyder that was brought into the country when Sonny and Cher were married, and that’s valued in the neighborhood of $2 million by itself.

Tom: That’s a funny story. Let’s share that one.

Bo: So this was in the early 70s, and, you know, I chuckle telling this story because a lot of your people that listen to the podcast probably…

Tom: Weren’t born in the early 70s.

Bo: …who Sonny is. To the older generation, they get… There was a time when Sonny and Cher Bono were married to each other. And when the car came in, she had started to see Gregg Allman, so Sonny said, “Well, it’s the car or Gregg,” and she said, “I’ll choose Gregg.”

So Dick got the opportunity to purchase this car, and one of the great facts about it is the list price was about $35,000. By the time Dick got the car, he paid $125,000, and his friends said, “Why would you pay so much over sticker for this car?”

And he said, Oh, you just wait.” Well, here we are in 2018, and it is worth in the neighborhood of $2 million dollars.

Tom: Well worth the extra dollars that he paid.

Bo: Yes.

Tom: All the revenue that you generate, goes, essentially, to a good cause, right, children in Southern California. But it’s not only, “Hey, come to the museum,” that helps you guys help children but also you have special events here. You guys are prepping for a special event right now.

Bo: Right. That is actually probably the biggest part of our business model. As a nonprofit, our business model is a little different than most because we’ve got three components. So we’ve got the museum itself. We have the foundation, and then we have the event side, which is what you’re speaking of now.

And because of this car collection, it’s very mobile, so you can have all the different kinds of events. I like to say that the museum, as an offsite facility, is different than a hotel ballroom. We’re all used to going to hotels where, after five minutes of talking to somebody, you want to move on, but there’s nothing to move onto and you’re stuck.

Here with the cars, especially since there are no barriers around them, you can say, “You know, I’m just going to go over here and check out this car. Nice chatting with you,” and then off you go.

And from a fundraising standpoint, because we do have a lot of fundraisers held here, men, largely, are the ones who stick their hands in the air for live auction items that are worth thousands of dollars. Well, men typically don’t like to go to events because they’re easily bored.

Here you go to the Marconi Automotive Museum with this great collection of cars ranging from American muscle cars. We’ve got a Firefox fire truck from the 30’s and all the way up to the modern day car, so there’s something here for everybody, and I think that’s one of the things that’s made us successful are the cars. People love that.

But it’s also in this culture of corporate climate, they want to give back. So Brand X holds their event here, and they are indirectly helping children’s causes because we are taking a portion of our net proceeds and giving it to children’s charitíes. So it’s definitely a win-win all the way around.

Tom: For podcast listeners that want to come out and check out the Marconi Automotive Museum, your website, your social media, how do they track you down?

Bo: Well, this is not my area of expertise because I’m an old person, but I can tell you our website is MarconiMuseum.org, and I believe that all the rest is under the Marconi. But if you come to our website, that’s a great place to start, and you guys who are in the modern age can figure it out from there.

Tom: It’s a very cool place to come to check out, just an adult playground and also a kid’s playground, too.

I mean, when I came up for the interview that we’re doing right now, there was a bunch of young families that were fathers and sons and daughters ooh-ing and aah-ing and looking into the windows and everything, so it’s a great place. It’s a great cause, and I highly recommend checking it out. And is there anything else that you like to add before we say goodbye?

Bo: Well, thank you so much. We appreciate the exposure as a nonprofit. Anything that we can get to bring people into our community to help kids in need and enjoy these wonderful cars, we welcome you, so thank you.

Tom: Well, thank you for being with us. For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith. That was Priscilla “Bo” Marconi of the Marconi Automotive Museum. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.

Volkswagen Innovation

Volkswagen is delivering innovation in many ways that you need to factor into your next car-buying equation.

From new technology and designs to new vehicles and (an industry-leading) new warranty – the carmaker is definitely on the move. We sat down with Scott Reed from Ontario Volkswagen, in Ontario, California, to talk VW innovation.

⇒SoCal’s VW HQ = Ontario Volkswagen

Hear the impressive details about what’s available right now and what’s being rolled out very soon. And learn about an exclusive (and free!) ride and drive event you can attend. VW Factory is bringing out brand new vehicles you won’t be able to buy – but you will have the opportunity to drive them on April 24th! All that and more in this iDriveSoCal Podcast.

***Transcript***

Recorded March 29, 2018

Scott: What makes most of this stuff so easy for a new owner of a Volkswagen to be immediately comfortable in the new car that they just purchased is the fact that they already know how their phone operates.

They know how to pull the navigation up on their telephone. And now that can so seamlessly be transferred up to the display on the vehicle. I think the bigger story with a lot of our cars is the design, the design itself, not necessarily technology.

You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck with Volkswagen these days and especially now with the 6-year, 72,000 mile you know People’s First warranty. That’s industry-leading.

Tom: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States–Southern California.

I’m Tom Smith and today I’m out at Ontario Volkswagen in the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario, California. Ontario Volkswagen is just off the 15. And joining me is the sales manager of Ontario Volkswagen, Mr. Scott Reed. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for being our newest automotive retail partner.

Scott: Not a problem. I thank you guys for being here. We’re excited.

Tom: We’re excited to start bringing the news of Volkswagen to drivers throughout Southern California. So I always like to start off with everyone’s path to the automotive business is different. How did you get into the business yourself?

Scott: For me, it’s a family affair. I was born and raised in the car business for the most part. My dad goes way back in the Southern California automotive retail side of things.

So I kind of grew up in showrooms and sales managers’ offices and things like that. And then shortly after high school, I decided I wanted to start selling cars. So dove into it.

Dad wouldn’t give me a job working for him because I didn’t know how to sell cars. So I went over to a Ford dealership close to my home and showed up as a 19-year-old kid and said, “I’d like to learn how to sell cars.” They gave me a job and I learned the ropes. Did that for about a year and came back to Dad..

Tom: And growing up, was there ever a time that you were like, “Maybe I want to be a doctor. Maybe I want to be a lawyer,” or anything but? Were you always like,”Dad does this. I love that. I want to do it too.”?

Scott: Yeah, not particularly, no. I liked to play baseball as a kid. You know when you grow up and realize that you’re probably not going to be a professional baseball player. For me, luckily, it was earlier than most kids. I realized that at about 13 or 14. So I kind of gave that up and played water polo and swam all through high school and my first year in college.

Tom: Nice.

Scott: But yeah, I realized very shortly I was ready to get to work and start making some money for myself.

So I went to community college and as soon as I started selling cars, I really enjoyed it, enjoyed the people that I worked with, enjoy speaking with people and customers on a daily basis. And I was kind of just…it felt like a natural progression to me. And still, 16 years later, I still enjoy it, and I still feel like I’m growing still, which is nice.

But I’ve got really no interest in doing anything else to be honest.

Tom: And do you consider yourself a car guy from a perspective of are you grabbing the kids and going to a car show on a Cars and Coffee kind of thing on a weekend?

Scott: We do, yeah. My kids and I, we do like to go to the automotive shows and check out what’s new out there. Every time something new comes out, I get kind of excited about it. I know my wife does as well. And you know luckily for us, we’re in a position to be able to drive you know cars maybe a little more regularly than somebody not in the business is able to.

Tom: You get to experience a little bit more.

Scott: We do, yeah.

Tom: So on that note, let’s talk a little bit about Volkswagen the brand. And you know, iDriveSoCal is all about mobility and in Southern California, mobility is a car, right?

Everybody’s got one. Everybody’s got to drive. Maybe someday that will be flying cars or whatever else. That would be really cool.

We talked about that with your dad as well. He was talking about you know even if it got to the point of The Jetsons, like somebody…provide those for…

Scott: Somebody’s going to want to buy one, and we’re going to have to sell them.

Tom: Right exactly. Exactly.

Scott: We may be getting there with the way they’re doing self-driving cars and things like that.

Tom: Isn’t it crazy?

Scott: I’m still waiting for the hoverboard that was promised to me right in the “Back to the Future”.

Tom: Right. Right.

Scott: I grew up skateboarding and surfing and snowboarding and all that. I’m waiting for that hoverboard. If we get flying cars before hoverboards, I’m going to be upset.

Tom: So Volkswagen, all manufacturers have some pretty crazy tech in innovation and everybody’s one-upping each other.

Scott: Yeah, I think car manufacturers have actually realized that over probably the last eight or nine years, you know there was a time when the technology was progressing that cars became so involved inside, they were difficult to use as a driver.

Too many buttons on the dashboard, too many things beeping and chiming at you, which also…they were built as safety features but ended up almost distracting the driver to a point of being unsafe. I think Volkswagen has done really, really well, especially with the new…really going back to about 2016 now through the 2018s and coming to the 2019s.

Everything’s very, very simple to use. All that tech is in there, but with the voice command, with the simplicity of the dash and the touch screen displays, I mean you can get your car set up in 20 to 30 minutes with one of the salespeople here on delivery and have a really good grasp on how everything works.

And if you want to change something, you’ll know how quickly at home to change it and tweak it. Whereas, you know, five, six years ago, you didn’t have these touchscreen functionalities to be able to go in and make small tweaks to your driving systems and things like that that you can today.

Tom: To put it to computer terms or like a website term, you know a user interface or UX, right? The vehicle has the same thing and a different manufacturer took a little bit of criticism for, yeah, they brought out this whiz, bang, holy cow you know tremendous computing power in the car, but gosh, to figure out how to use it, forget about it.

Scott: I experienced that myself. I worked for a different brand, a different manufacturer outside of my dad’s stores a few years ago and drove one of that brand’s vehicles and the inside of it looked like a 747.

I mean it was so incredibly difficult to use anything. The really nice looking car you know the higher-end car, not one of those ultra-luxury cars but a car that’s attainable to most people like myself, and for the entire two years I had it, I never felt like I knew the car. And I also didn’t have the time to mess with it to really learn it.

It was the product that was selling, so I sort of felt obligated to drive it. But to get into these new Volkswagens now, we just call my wife the new Atlas, to get in there and kind of just playing with the functions in that car, it’s night and day difference. It’s very, very simple.

I think it’s really important for manufacturers going forward, and Volkswagen is doing a heck of a job of staying at the forefront of that, just making it user-friendly, especially in Southern California. We’re all so busy now. Nobody has the time or the patience to sit in their driveway and mess with their car for 30 or 40 minutes before they leave.

Tom: We’re stuck in traffic, and the reality is we can’t just sit there and think about going from gas to break for the next hour and a half. So we have all kinds of tech and innovation and being able to use it efficiently, effectively without having to download a whole bunch of knowledge is so crucial.

Scott: To me, the most impressive thing in all of it is the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

I mean I think that’s what makes most of this stuff so easy for a new owner of a Volkswagen to be immediately comfortable in the new car that they just purchased is the fact that they already know how their phone operates. They know how to pull the navigation up on their telephone.

And now that can so seamlessly be transferred up to the display on the vehicle. It takes a lot of thought out of it for the customer which is nice. Instead of learning how to operate inboard navigation, which so few of these cars are actually being built with anymore, they just plug their phone into the CarPlay, and it’s done.

So I think that’s probably the biggest thing, and I know a lot of other manufacturers are doing that as well. Volkswagen’s really nice job with the interface that they built.

And once you come in and you actually see the displays in some of these cars, you don’t really…it’s hard to tell on a podcast what I’m talking about. It’s such a nice, good looking, cosmetically pleasing interface. Once the phones hooked up with it, it’s just…like I said, it’s very seamless.

Tom: So this is Apple CarPlay…

Scott: Android Auto.

Tom: And Android Auto and this allows me… am I connecting via Bluetooth or am I plugging hard hardwiring in?

Scott: Hardwire for a lot of the…if you want your apps to pop up from your actual phone screen, you’re hardwiring in. Bluetooth is all still there as well if you wanna listen to music via one of the streaming music lines, you can do that via Bluetooth. But to get that navvy and things like that on the screen, you are going through a hardwire.

Tom: And then I get to select if I want to use Waze or Google Maps or Google Play, Google Play Music which is where you can listen to iDriveSoCal. Also, of course, all the other iTunes and whatnot.

Scott: I think the bigger story with a lot of our cars is the design, the design itself, not necessarily technology. I mean like the Atlas, for instance. I think one of the best features of that new Atlas is how they designed that second row. For a child seat be anchored in, you don’t have to remove it to get into the third row like you do with almost every other SUV out there.

Tom: Oh that’s huge.

Scott: Things like that’s really where they kind of set themselves apart from the competition because if you had kids or… Thank God my kids are both out of car seats and booster seats.

Tom: I just started.

Scott: Anybody who’s anchored a car seat into the anchors in a car knows that once it’s in there, the last thing you want to do is take it in, take it out and kind of reinstall it all the time.

Tom: You bet.

Scott: The Atlas designed in a way where you can flip that seat forward with that child seat still in place, and your third-row passengers can enter and exit the back row.

Tom: That’s brilliant.

Scott: Nobody else can do that on the market, so that’s awesome. You know Volkswagen took a long time to get to the seven-passenger SUV game. We were probably the last ones to the party, but it was important to them that they designed the car you know correctly before they brought it to market. And it’s very clear if you come in and check it out, the car stands far apart from its competitors.

Tom: And now speaking of that, let’s talk a little bit about the lineup itself. So you mentioned the Atlas. That is a biggie for you guys.

Scott: That’s big. We’ve been waiting on it for years.

Tom: Years, huh?

Scott: Years in the making. You’ve got to understand, with Volkswagen, most of these other manufacturers have had a seven-passenger SUV now for upwards of, in some cases, 15 years. Volkswagen has not had anything other.

We have the Touareg, which was a really nice high-end five-passenger SUV. But we eliminated ourselves from an entire segment of shoppers that needed a seven-passenger family SUV.

So to have that come to market, finally, for Volkswagen was a huge deal, not only to have something to offer but to offer it in a price range they’ve offered it in is huge. And we’re already seeing the cars doing very, very well nationally, especially here in Southern California.

Tom: It seems to be–and I haven’t driven one yet, I look forward to it. It’s very appealing aesthetically inside and out. It looks like a tremendous value for what it is, not to mention it’s a European car. It’s a German car. I mean all those are like, huh, this is some serious consideration.

Scott: Being built right here in the U.S. helps too. Yeah. When we talk about pricing, that’s got a great deal to do with how they’ve priced it so competitively.

They build it right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And it’s fantastic. Not only is it new to the market, now a lot of the other SUV is in that segment are becoming a little bit stale. You’ve got a lot of them that have had roughly the same body style for the last 10 years or so.

So it’s nice to have something fresh that nobody’s seen before. It’s different. Volkswagen’s always prided itself on being different. There’s no doubt that this new Atlas is different. But once you start looking at the value of what you get within each trim level, that car’s hard to match with any manufacturer.

And it can be compared very competitively to the other domestic SUVs, which is what most people compare it to, but even if you start looking at some of the higher-end Euro SUVs. you can spend $20,000, $25,000 less on an Atlas than some of those higher-end competitors and still get a lot of the same features you’re getting in those higher-end cars.

So I think it’s actually appealing to a broader audience than Volkswagen maybe thought it would, especially here in Southern California because SUVs and pickup trucks are I mean that’s what we drive here in Southern California for the most part.

Tom: I love the functionality of seven-passenger of a third row. Some of the cars out there look like you know, like, oh, you know from the outside, that’s got an extra row, and it doesn’t look quite as aesthetically pleasing. The Atlas, I was surprised to hear there was another row, and it’s spacious back there.

Scott: Yeah, more surprising once you get in the car. It doesn’t look like a big behemoth driving down the road. It looks very European, very sleek. But once you get in it, it’s giant.

It’s got probably one of the most comfortable third rows out there. You know a lot of these manufacturers design them, and the third row is kind of an afterthought because they have to have it in there at this point, but it’s really not designed for anybody over about five feet tall.

You can put seven full-size adults in an Atlas and be comfortable. And that middle row reclines so if you don’t have third-row passengers, your second-row passengers can kind of lay back and get comfortable. That’s really very impressive.

Tom: So other than the Atlas, what other items in your model lineup would you like to touch base on?

Scott: Tiguan. Tiguan’s a big deal for us as well. Volkswagen’s had the Tiguan in their line for quite some time now, but they also just stretched that car out 11 inches. Now our long wheelbase Tiguan which also has a third row in it.

So also a seven-passenger capability which is huge. That car’s selling very, very well also. Not everyone needs that full size, Atlas size SUV. So that’s competing actually quite well with the Atlas within the dealership. And then, of course, we’ve got Jetta, we’ve got Passat, the old go-tos that Volkswagen is still doing really well with.

Those vehicles are very smartly designed, still incredibly priced, and most of them have all these technological features we’ve been discussing standard nowadays which is really, really nice. You know, to be able to come in and get a Jetta for the price you can get a Jetta for with all of the standard features on it is really impressive.

It makes cars with a lot of content in them available to a lot of buyers. Whereas, you know, maybe our younger buyers in the past were sort of pushed into a lower end segment where the cars didn’t have a whole lot of features in them, you know, crank up windows, things like that. Cars, at one point, didn’t have air conditioners.

I remember that was an option at one point. You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck with Volkswagen these days and especially now with the 6-year, 72,000 mile you know People’s First warranty. That’s industry-leading.

Tom: Tell us about that.

Scott: Well yeah. You know for the most part, across the board, you’ve got your standard three-year 36 warranty for most manufactures, which is your comprehensive you know warranty if you will. Volkswagen essentially stepped up and doubled that six-year, 72000 miles now on every new 2018 Volkswagen which is huge. That’s not only value wise because the pricing of the vehicles didn’t go up with that. Volkswagen built that in to not only be able to offer what the competitors can’t but it kept the pricing where it’s at for the most part.

Tom: Is that bumper to bumper?

Scott: It’s bumper to bumper. It’s bumper to bumper. Everybody loves to use that term but that’s our bumper to bumper warranty with roadside assistance, all of it.

Tom: Six years, 72,000.

Scott: And that’s a big deal, especially in Southern California because we drive a lot here. You know what people forget about warranties is that it’s years or mileage whichever comes first.

It’s never both. So somebody who’s driving 15,000 or 20,0000 miles a year which is fairly regular in Southern California, you could buy a brand new car in a year and a half from now be out of bumper to bumper warranty. And, that really helps kind of combat some of that. So now to have coverage for, in some cases, the life of the entire loan, really is a lot of peace of mind.

Tom: Absolutely. I mean peace of mind and huge, huge savings too, right? Okay, I think that brings us to the upcoming event that we wanted to talk about.

Scott: We do have a new Jetta coming out. New Jetta, originally, it was scheduled for a June release. Looks like it’s maybe a little early now. We have the brand new 2019 Jetta which is a complete redesign, ground up. This thing is going to get close to 40 miles a gallon within a normal gas turbo engine story.

Tom: 40?

Scott: Yes. Still going to have your Jetta pricing which is fantastic. I have that new warranty we just discussed, and we’re actually having a launch party here on April 24th, which is a Tuesday night.

Volkswagen corporate is actually bringing four or five of those cars out for our guests who’d like to come in and test drive it, see it. We’re going have food. We’ll probably have some fun stuff for the kids if you want to bring those. We had mini horses over here the night we did the Atlas launch party which was pretty neat.

We do parties a little more than most of our competitors do. So we spend a little extra money on that to make it fun for the customers who want to come out and check out the new product.

Tom: Sure. And this is…it’s not going to be available for, from the time you have the party, another…

Scott: Probably another month. Roughly. I mean with logistics, obviously, things can delay from getting here in the showroom, but we’re expecting to have that car for sale no later than June. So we’ll be taking preorders that night for customers who are interested in doing so.

And it’s nice that Volkswagen does this because a lot of times when a new product is released, they don’t do a dealership level promotion. You know they’ll sometimes have a ride and drive for the public that’s maybe out in Los Angeles or elsewhere.

But we’re actually able to have one here where they’re going to bring ours to our guests to be able to check it out. A few different trim levels will be present. And like I said, we’ll be test-driving them all night with people. If the customers choose, we’ll do preorders and go from there.

Tom: Yeah that’s an exciting thing, as you point out, that the manufacturers can do that very often for…I can’t think many times I’ve heard of them doing that. But like we have a contributor, I call him “the Professor”, Clinton Quan, he knows the most granular details about cars and what manufacturers tap him all the time for those kinds of things.

But it’s not an open to public thing. So it’s kind of like what Clinton gets all the time, folks, is what you can come to Ontario Volkswagen and enjoy April…

Scott: April 24. Tuesday the 24th. Yeah we’re going to start probably officially about 5 but store’s open all day if you want to come in early.

We’ll have food and drinks. It’s not a selling event which is nice. You know folks like that approach to things so we’re here to help and answer questions. We’ll have factory personnel on hand to do the same thing. And it will be fun, plus, you can check out any of the other models we discussed today as well. We’ll have a full lineup of cars here ready for everybody to come see.

Tom: Well, thank you so much, Scott Reed, Sales Manager here at Volkswagen Ontario. It’s actually Ontario Volkswagen, right? You can be found online ontariovolkswagen.com or ontariovw.com.

Scott: Yes, sir. We have an Instagram page, Facebook page, we’re everywhere now.

Tom: Follow them, like them, stop in and say hi to them. Scott’s always here. Thank you so much for coming on board with iDriveSoCal. We’re so excited to intermingle our families, yours and ours.

Ontario Volkswagen, the place to come for Volkswagens now and a long time to come, especially on April 24th to check out the event, and it’s absolutely no pressure because you can’t even…they don’t have…the manufacturer is bringing out a few of them for you to crawl through and check out and test drive, but they’re not even going to be…

Scott: I couldn’t tell you when if you wanted me to.

Tom: Right. Exactly. All right, excellent. Scott, thank you again.

Scott: Thank you, Tom.

Tom: And until next time, this is iDriveSoCal. I’m Tom Smith. Thanks for listening.

The Latest Volkswagen News HERE.

Ontario Volkswagen

Would you believe that the top-rated SoCal VW dealer, Ontario Volkswagen, started as a hot rod shop in the sixties in Pasadena, CA? Or how about that Ontario VW’s General Manager, Earl Reed, got his start in the business washing cars?

Yes is the answer to both of those questions. Those humble beginnings helped to set this family-run Volkswagen dealership in a class of its own when it comes to accolades from its customers and VW alike.

Hear the historic details of this uniquely ‘only in America’ story in this iDriveSoCal Podcast.

Recorded at Ontario Volkswagen

Earl: He started with a hot rod shop in the city of Pasadena in 1966 called Sticks Unlimited. In June of 2003, we built and opened up this facility, Ontario Volkswagen.

Coming into a car dealership doesn’t have to be an anxiety-filled transaction. We’re really a family-owned and operated business is what we are.

Look at the third-party review sites, look at what Yelp customers are saying about us. And, look at what Google plus customers, Facebook customers, these are all very valid third-party websites that offer customer reviews, unsolicited customer reviews. You really have to experience it.

“Coming into a car dealership doesn’t have to be an anxiety-filled transaction. We’re really a family-owned and operated business is what we are.”

Tom: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States Southern California.

This is a special episode as we welcome our newest partner from the world of automotive retailing, Ontario Volkswagen.

Pre-Launch Arteon @ Ontario VW

Ontario Volkswagen, obviously, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario just off the 15. And with me today is Mr. Earl Reed who is the general manager of Ontario Volkswagen, Earl, thank you so much for joining us.

Earl: Well, thank you. We’re really excited to be part of this fast-growing podcast community.

Tom: So we were just talking off mic a little bit about how Ontario Volkswagen became, and it’s a family-owned and operated store, has been for a long time, but it has a pretty rich history in the automotive culture here in Southern California.

So why don’t you take us from the beginning?

Earl: Sure, yeah. Mr. Gary Sherman is the owner of Ontario Volkswagen and Ontario Volvo, and he started with a hot rod shop in the city of Pasadena in 1966 called Sticks Unlimited.

From the growth from Sticks Unlimited, he ended up getting a Fiat Peugeot dealership in the city of Pomona.

And he triumphed during those days of the late 60s and early 70s. Then I think it was 1973, he acquired a Volvo dealership, Volvo and Fiat dealership, in the city of Pomona. It was called Frank White imports. It was down on Holt Boulevard there for many, many years.

“And from the growth from Sticks Unlimited… in 1995, we acquired the Volkswagen franchise here in the city of Ontario…”

From there, Mr. Sherman acquired the Chrysler Plymouth dealership, which was called Montclair Chrysler Plymouth.

The Volvo franchise was moved from the city of Pomona to the city of Montclair under the name of Exclusively Volvo. Opened up in 1986 on Central Avenue, Central and Holt, in Montclair as exclusively Volvo.

And then he added Audi and Porsche in 1991, which was the old George Follmer Porsche and Audi. Then I joined Mr. Sherman in September, August, September of 1992.

And, at that time, it was Exclusively Volvo and Porsche in that same building in Montclair. So he’s been serving the automotive community since 1966 and primarily been in the Inland Empire…  since… the late 60s early 70s in the Inland Empire.

So in 1995, we acquired the Volkswagen franchise here in the city of Ontario, and we moved Volvo and Porsche over the Ontario auto center in late 1995, early 1996.  We ran it as Exclusively Volvo, Porsche, and Volkswagen.

And subsequently, in June of 2003, we built and opened up this facility, Ontario Volkswagen, and Ontario Volvo is still over in the original location in the auto center. So what we’re currently managing is a Volvo store and a Volkswagen dealership.

Tom: And going all the way back–rich history–I didn’t want to interrupt you. But the hot rod shop, Sticks Unlimited, what is sticks? What did that mean?

“…we built and opened up this facility, Ontario Volkswagen, and Ontario Volvo is still over in the original location in the auto center… we’re currently managing is a Volvo store and a Volkswagen dealership.”

Earl: Manual transmission.

Tom: Okay, that’s what I thought…

Earl: …type stuff was what he was selling.

Tom: Sure. And hot rods really got their start here in Southern California.

Oktoberfest Auto Show @ Ontario Volkswagen

Earl: Yes, they were very, very popular. You know, the Beach Boys scene and hot rods. That was right here in Southern California.

Tom: I’m so happy nobody got to the iDriveSoCal concept before I did because this is just so much fun for me to hear the history.

Earl: It’s fun talking to a gentleman like Mr. Sherman who’s you know an entrepreneur, right? All of a sudden, he decided, “I’m going to get in the car business,” and starts with one car up and built it into where it is today.

Tom: Yeah. And let his passion become his livelihood.

Earl: Correct.

Tom: So, that’s the history of the store. Now the history of you personally. You have a pretty interesting path to the position that you hold now.

Earl: I do, yeah. I’d love to talk about this story because I refer to it as “only in America”. You could write that book about what was my journey to get where I am today.

And I started in 1975 right out of high school washing cars at the Chevrolet dealership in Riverside, California. It was called Dante Chevrolet.

And, I knew I wasn’t going to go the path scholastically, going to college after high school. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

“I refer to it as “only in America”. You could write that book about what was my journey to get where I am today.”

And my father had told me, “If you’re going to get into the workforce, you need to select a field that no matter what happens in this world, you’re going to be able to utilize those skills.”

That’s how transportation came to mind.

Ontario Volkswagen

So I applied for a job out of the newspaper. I was only 17 years old at that point. I hadn’t even turned 18 yet. And they hired me to wash cars at Dante Chevrolet, and I did that for one full year – and grinded it out. I got some cute stories about that I think I’m going to share it real quick.

Tom Smith: Please.

Earl: When I turned 18 years old, which is about 60 days after I had started there, my supervisor’s name was Jerry Blandino, called me in his office and told me what a great job I was doing and wanted to give me a raise to acknowledge the great work I had done.

“And I suddenly found out, after the fact, that he had to give me raise on my birthday. I turned 18 and the minimum wage requirements changed.”

And I suddenly found out, after the fact, that he had to give me raise on my birthday. I turned 18 and the minimum wage requirements changed. So I think it was a $1.80 an hour I was making. And, he did a great sales job needless to say. So that’s one of those things you’ll always remember.

Tom: Sure, nice positioning.

Earl: So I did that for about a year and I had some older gentlemen that had some real impacts on my life and one of them was a service dispatcher at this very, very large Chevrolet dealership in Riverside. In my lunch hour, I used to go sit in his office with them and watch how he dispatched service repair orders to technicians in the shop. I said, “I can do that.”.

And so I kind of used that on the job training, off the clock, of course, on the job training. I applied for a service dispatcher job at a Toyota dealership in Riverside called Joe Redford’s Toyota Riverside. There I was all of 18 years old, soon to turn 19 years old, and I go apply for this position.

So, I put on my application that I’m a car washer and they wonder, “Why do you think you could do this service dispatcher job?” And I said, “I can do it.  Give me a shot. Give me 30 days and I’ll prove I can do it.”

Al Christy hired me for that particular job and ended up proving myself in that role, and he kind of took me under his wing a little bit, Al did. And the other gentleman named Dick Jennings and they taught me to become a service adviser. Next thing you know, I was a service rider at a Toyota Riverside.

I did that until 1979, and then there was an ad in the paper for a service manager at Volvo of Riverside owned by Mr. Rick Fritz at the time. And I think I was all of 20 years old now.

“I can do it.  Give me a shot. Give me 30 days and I’ll prove I can do it.”

But I knew that I could just about do anything, and I went and applied as a service manager, convinced him to hire me at 20, soon to be 21 years old, which he did. And didn’t make any money, but he taught me the business, and I worked service for many, many years.

And then one day he said, “You know, I can make you a sales manager, but you gotta go over and sell cars for a couple of years.” I had to sell cars for Mr. Fritz Volvo of Riverside as well as be the service director.

“You know, a lot of that had to do with what I experienced going back to 1975 and how I saw consumers treated by the car business, and I just didn’t like what I saw.”

Ultimately, I became a sales manager, which moved me to become a general manager of that store in 1988, which I did.

And then I hooked up with Mr. Sherman in 1992, became a minority partner with him, Exclusively Volvo and Porsche, and here we are years later.

So only in America.

Tom: And congratulations on all your success. I mean, obviously, you were recognized as someone that was worthy of various peoples’ investment of time and energy, and you didn’t let them down, certainly, didn’t let yourself down.

Earl: You know, a lot of that had to do with what I experienced going back to 1975 and how I saw consumers treated by the car business, and I just didn’t like what I saw. I just didn’t really feel you needed to run a business that way.

And I’ve always kind of adopted that. That you treat people the way you want to be treated. And so that had a big impact on how we run our store today. I just think that it’s not necessary to treat consumers that way. We respect them. And it pays off in the long term, and it has for us.

Tom: And we talked about that a little bit off-mic, the perspective of you know a lot of people come up to the car business in different ways.

But you, having come from the service side–and spent some considerable time on the service side before going into sales–and now you know being, ultimately, responsible for the operation the entire enterprise, that’s a big difference.

“My grandfather said… if you can greet every customer with their last name, make them feel warm and welcome, they’ll remember you and they’ll want to do business with you.”

I don’t think that there’s a whole lot of other professionals that have taken that path.

How do you feel that impacts the philosophy here, what customers coming to the store experience and kind of just a big-picture view of that?

2019 VW Jetta

Earl: Well, I definitely think it’s unique because, typically, general managers come up through the sales environment.

Coming up through the back end, fixed operations, parts and service, different perspectives completely. So again, some stuff I was told by a wise gentleman when I was much younger.

My grandfather said, “You’re going to get into service. The best thing you need to do is to remember people’s names. Always remember their last name, and if you can greet every customer with their last name, make them feel warm and welcome, they’ll remember you and they’ll want to do business with you.”

So that has a lot to do with how we are today. It’s that purchasing a car, servicing a vehicle, coming into a car dealership doesn’t have to be an anxiety-filled transaction.

And it starts you know even in the service point when a consumer pulls in the driveway. They don’t know where to go.

They don’t know how they’re going to be approached. Just the whole process is intimidating until you have a relationship with someone at that store that you’re comfortable with.

Then you find the barriers come down, comfort level changes. So I think that the entire field that I’ve learned from the back end of the operation is carried over into my sales portion of how to run the business.

“We’re approachable. We just know there’s no barrier whatsoever. So you know what you see is what you get.

Make consumers feel welcome and friendly and understand the first time in, first few times in, they’re probably apprehensive. Make them feel comfortable.

Tom: It’s a respectable philosophy for sure, and I think, in this day and age when there’s so much information out there. You need to really differentiate.

And I could tell a difference the first time I was on your website. Certainly, when I walked in, I could tell a difference. When you and I sat down to talk about working together, I could tell a difference. And how do you articulate that difference to your customers?

Earl: I’m going to answer that very simple. I think the word is approachable. I’m approachable. We are approachable. It’s at the mall, it’s at dinner, it’s at Subway picking up a sandwich at lunch or walking on the showroom floor. We’re approachable. We just know there’s no barrier whatsoever. So you know what you see is what you get.

I think we’re friendly. We’re outgoing. It’s difficult to speak to it, but I’m sure you sensed it when you walked in the first time. We’re really a family-owned and operated business is what we are.

Tom: And that’s a big thing in automotive retail, and it’s becoming a bigger thing in automotive retail, isn’t it?

Earl: It is. When I started in the business, and probably up until as much as five years ago, probably, the way we were training sales staff members was that when consumers come in to purchase a vehicle, they are very uncomfortable doing it because they do it once every three, four, five years. You do it every day.

“…you need more consultative in your approach, so being approachable…”

Well, that’s not the same approach any longer because there’s so much information available today online that consumers are coming in more informed, in some cases, than the sales staff is.

They actually know more information.

Is the wall predicting the future VW Bus?

So you need more consultative in your approach, so being approachable makes that whole process I think just takes barrier walls down quicker. Knowing that you need to answer questions truthfully, straightforward, give them the answers they’re looking for because they want to do business with somebody they can trust.

“…answer questions truthfully, straightforward, give them the answers they’re looking for because they want to do business with somebody they can trust.”

Tom: A little bit about the brand of Volkswagen.

It’s iconic, it’s cult-like, it’s fahrvergnügen. And when fahrvergnügen first came out and some people put on their Volkswagens the slang for that, “something groovin'”. Which all of it made me chuckle.

You know it’s just one of those brands that kind of like, huh. I mean all the way back from the Beetle, right? That was the first Volkswagen on the streets here in the United States. What’s your take on the brand that is Volkswagen, where it’s come from, where it is now?

Earl: Well, obviously, they’re working very, very hard to be more than a niche player in the automotive business in the United States.

They made a real commitment to this market when they built the plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee to produce the Passat model in 2011.

“They made a real commitment to this market when they built the plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee to produce the Passat model in 2011.”

At that particular time, our industry was not where it is today as it relates to SUV.

It was more of a sedan market, so for Volkswagen to make that type of investment to want to build that car here in the United States for the American people, not to ship out but to have here, was a big deal.

Volkswagen Beetle

Now subsequently, obviously, the market’s changed and sedans don’t play as a big a role.

People are buying three different types of SUVs, large, medium and small size SUVs. So Volkswagen’s addressed that with their model lineup and the new seven-seater Atlas, which is less than a year in the market, seven-seater Tiguan, which is less than the year in the market.

“…building this MQB platform where they’re able to have a scalable one size platform for all these models is a really big deal.”

So they’ve really you know, obviously, recognized that there’s a shift in the market, so that wouldn’t have happened prior to Chattanooga.

Tom: Really?

Earl: That just wouldn’t have happened. Just wouldn’t have been able to probably do a cost-effective, develop a brand new platform.

So building this MQB platform where they’re able to have a scalable one size platform for all these models is a really big deal.

So that’s it. We have the new Jetta coming out in April this year which is also that’s a segment that’s not as large, but it’s still very important for Volkswagen. People know us as Jetta a car company.

Tom: Being from the Midwest, I mean the Jetta was a big…that had like a following like a subset following of all Volkswagen. Sorry to interrupt you but…

Earl: You know what, it was true because that’s really the case. You know, I mean the Jetta, still, to this day, has a great following even though that segment is shrinking.

All-new 2019 Volkswagen Jetta

There will be adjustments in manufacturing to account for that, but it’s still very important.

It’s kind of like that brand icon force is what it is. We’re really excited for that new car coming out by mid-year, and I think it will help Volkswagen reestablish a foothold in that segment.

Tom: So we touched on this a little bit. The L.A. Coliseum. A few moments to share with 100,000 of your closest new friends and potential customers. What do you share with them?

Earl: To hand me a mic. I’d have no problem talking to them.

Tom: I can tell.

Earl: Going back to that one word, approachable, which just very, very open in how we do business. And I think you have to try to…sense it. I can talk about it all day long.

Tom: Sure. You have to come in…

“…there are all sorts of things that can validate what I’m telling you, but you really have to experience it to understand what I’m trying to explain.”

Earl: You really need to kind of a look at what…look at the third-party review sites.

Look at what Yelp customers are saying about us, look at what Google plus customers, Facebook customers, these are all very valid third party websites that offer customer reviews, unsolicited customer reviews.

Ontario VW’s Earl Reed on his team’s ‘approach.’

I mean if you can look at the fact that we’ve won the Volkswagen Customer First Club award four years in a row.

I can’t mention another California dealer that has won that award four years in a row. That’s a report card from the customers who are doing business with both sales and service, and we all know it’s much more difficult to get a good score in the service department.

It’s much more difficult. The fact is that we’ve been able to secure these higher ratings through these third-party websites is a validation of what I’m speaking to today. We were just recognized as the California Volkswagen Dealer of the Year by DealerRater.

So there are all sorts of things that can validate what I’m telling you, but you really have to experience it to understand what I’m trying to explain.

Tom: Come on in.

Earl: Come on in.

Tom: Is there anything that you’d like to touch on that we haven’t?

Earl: No, I’m really happy to be part of this iDriveSoCal podcast. I’m looking forward to the relationship growing, so come on by and say hello and introduce yourself to us. I think you’ll find that we have something to offer.

Ontario Volkswagen

Tom: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Ontario Volkswagen, Earl Reed, we very much appreciate you being part of our program, and welcome to our family. And we look forward to helping to intertwine our family with your family and help bring news of the Volkswagen brand to Southern California for many years to come.

“…come on by and say hello and introduce yourself to us. I think you’ll find that we have something to offer.”

Earl: Stay tuned.

Tom: Stay tuned. For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith. Thanks for listening.

The Latest Volkswagen News HERE.

Whether you’re a young kid or a kid-at-heart The Automobile Driving Museum is a guaranteed treat for every automotive enthusiast.

It’s one of the coolest museums in Southern California. It offers antique Model T’s all the way up to a ’95 Viper and 2000 Saleen.

And not only is it okay to touch and sit in the cars but you can swing by on Sundays and go for a free ride! Hear the details from co-founder Stanley Zimmerman himself in this episode of the iDriveSoCal Podcast.

***Transcript***

Recorded March 14, 2018, in El Segundo, CA

Stanley Zimmerman: We would go to car shows, generally, everybody else had a sign up saying, “Look but don’t touch” their precious jewel. And we thought differently.

We thought that we should invite the public, particularly, young children to sit in our cars. And go for a ride in them. They’re not immobile. They are moving art and so to enjoy them, you have to use them. We bring out three or four cars from our collection, and people line up and get a ride. It’s no charge; it’s all free.

Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. Today is a pretty fun day for me, actually, already has been because I’ve been getting a tour through The Automobile Driving Museum here in El Segundo, California.

Those of you from Southern California know that El Segundo is adjacent to LAX, Los Angeles International Airport. And sitting with me right now is the founder of the Automobile Driving Museum, Mr. Stanley Zimmerman, Stanley, thank you so much for joining us.

Stanley Zimmerman: My pleasure to be here and talk with you.

Tom Smith: So the Automobile Driving Museum, you’re the founder. It was your vision long ago. Can you kind of start off with a high-level explanation, summary?

Stanley Zimmerman: Correctly, I am a co-founder of it along with a man called Earl Rubenstein who’s no longer active in the museum. He’s busy with his profession as an architect. And we’re both car collectors, primarily, and we would go to car shows and to car exhibits, concourses, and we would be there with our cars and, generally, everybody else had a sign up saying, “Look but don’t touch” their precious jewel. And we thought differently.

We thought that we should invite the public, particularly, young children to sit in our cars. And so between us we had discussions and said someday, we’d like to have a museum for our cars where the public could come and sit in them, bring their children, and let their children sit in them and go for a ride in them. They’re not immobile. They are moving art and so to enjoy them, you have to use them.

Tom Smith: And how long ago did you actually execute on that dream that became a vision that became a reality?

Stanley Zimmerman: In the beginning, it was just car clubs coming and maybe bringing their families for meetings; it wasn’t the general public. But in 2002, I was able to get the use of a large underground or semi-underground garage under a preschool, which they weren’t using.

And so we put our cars there and started with leaving a few cars out on the street with a sign on them, “There is a museum around the corner.” In West Los Angeles it was. And so we’d get a few people coming in and then I decided that it would be worthwhile making it a public museum so that there are some tax benefits, but it also meant that the collection could go on.

It wouldn’t be limited by our lifetimes. And then we did that for, oh, three or four years before we had the opportunity to acquire this building in El Segundo, and we chose El Segundo because it was near LAX and because it was in the South Bay where there were no car museums and a lot of people that like cars.

Tom Smith: Sure.

Tom Smith: It’s so much fun. And what…because you have cars out here from literally the early 1900s all the way up through… There’s definitely some 80s probably 90s and beyond. I’ve only been in one of your main rooms here. I haven’t gotten the full tour yet. But what vehicles are people getting rides in? It’s different every weekend almost, I mean?

Stanley Zimmerman: Pretty much every weekend. There are some cars that if we were to drive them… We have an 1886 Benz. It was a built by Mercedes in 1986. They made 11 of them duplicate to the first one they actually gave to dealers, and Beverly Hills Mercedes gave us this. And we did have it once run; it does run.

But like cars of that vintage, when you run them, you can pretty much rebuild them for the next ride, so that’s our oldest car. And our newest car is a 2000 Saleen Mustang, and we have pretty much everything in between.

Generally, the cars that go out are the cars that are on display, whatever happens, to be on display, or ready for the display. We have 130 cars and about half of them are on display at any time. The others are either in the repair shop or in our garage storage facility.

Tom Smith: And now Alec, your, I guess, his title is curator?

Stanley Zimmerman: Car Manager.

Tom Smith: Okay. So Alec was showing me around, and he clarified that all of the cars in the museum run but not necessarily all of them are driven because some are actually quite valuable and rare.

Stanley Zimmerman: That is correct, but most of the ones that are very valuable, we have a duplicate that’s not so valuable.

Tom Smith: Ah, okay.

Stanley Zimmerman: So yes, you may not get a ride in a million dollar car. You get to look at it. You get to sit in it under supervision. But we might have a car that’s not worth a million dollars that you can get a ride in.

Tom Smith: And that brings me to the question that’s, I think, on everybody’s mind as soon as you walk into a museum and there’s beautiful vehicles, what is the most high-value vehicle that you have?

Stanley Zimmerman: It probably is the 1955 Packard Caribbean convertible that was number seven. Was the first one sold to the public and was sold to Howard Hughes. Howard Hughes gave it to his then wife, an actress, Jean Peters, who if you like movies of the 50s, you’ll see her in a lot of them.

They took it for her–it was her birthday present–and they drove it to Malibu, and drove it home, and parked it in a garage in Beverly Hills, and went off to Las Vegas. And the car sat there until her divorce.

I bought it from Jean Peters and donated it to the museum. It’s probably the most original one. It only has 1700 miles on it now. We only drive it about a mile each year. And because of its history and because it’s being so rare, it probably is our most valuable car.

But, it isn’t much more than the next one which is a 1930 Stutz Weymann Monte Carlo. Weymann bodies are made like old airplanes, like World War I airplanes. They’re not metal; they’re not wood. They are a hardwood frame on which cloth is stretched so it’s a cloth body.

Tom Smith: Cloth body?

Stanley Zimmerman: Cloth body, yes. It’s more like a vinyl, but they didn’t have vinyl those days. And so there’s in the whole world of Stutzes, there are 23 Weymann body Stutzes left because you can tell if it’s fabric body car, you leave it up in the snow, things are going to happen. And only four 1930 Monte Carlos, so it’s a very rare car.

Tom Smith: The Stutz is valued at how much again?

Stanley Zimmerman: Something over half a million dollars.

Tom Smith: Now the…Howard Hughes’ wife vehicle, Jean Peters?

Stanley Zimmerman: Yes.

Tom Smith: What is the value of that vehicle?

Stanley Zimmerman: It’s really…and you really can’t tell. I’ve been told that at some of the auction companies that would like us to sell it, which we won’t, that in an auction, it would probably bring more than a million dollars.

Tom Smith: So you had a vision for this museum a long time ago. Has it come to fruition? Has it changed a little bit?

Stanley Zimmerman: Oh, it’s always changing. Things aren’t static. They’re not static. If they’re static, you’re a dinosaur. We have dinosaurs flying around as birds. They evolved. The museum has to evolve.

We do a lot of things for young people, youth. We have events nine times a year if it doesn’t rain, for kids that are in the average to maybe five, six years of age.

They get a chance to learn a little bit about cars, answer a few questions, and win a prize. The prize is Hot Wheels, which graciously, Mattel provides for us. And by the way, they get to see, at that same time, Mattel’s full-size cars that they have full-size cars.

Maybe 500 young people show up for that. And then we do a lot of birthday parties for preteens. That all has a motive behind that. We’re trying to implant into them a memory that maybe when they’re 50, around that age, that they’ll start to think about, “Gee, I saw those cars.”

The cars are here forever. We’re just temporary custodians of them. So we have to think about who’s the next custodian. And maybe they’ll want to have, for their memory, a Toyota that has a computer in it and not a car that you had to crank to start, didn’t have any electricity in it. So yeah, the museum will evolve that way.

There’s a need for having a facility where people can learn how to take care of these cars, we’ll grow to that. I mean we have some youth here that come in that help us, but it will get more formalized. And if you ask me what else is going to happen, I don’t know. But whatever is going to be for the time as we change, we will change.

Tom Smith: It sounds like whatever is going to happen, your intention is for it to stay and to continue growing.

Stanley Zimmerman: That’s our plan. The museum has funding for the next 40 years. And if they are careful with what their funding is, it will go longer. But of course, we need to have sponsors, contributors, docents that help us out.

We’re working hard now on bringing females into the car hobbies and teaching them. There are classes here for women to learn how to maintain cars. We’re starting a project where the women will do a restoration of a GMC truck. They’re going to do…we’ll guide them, but they’re going to do all the work on it.

Tom Smith: And the driving portion of your museum, it happens every Sunday. Are there any Sundays that you guys take off? Holidays, whatnot?

Stanley Zimmerman: Yes, the obvious Sundays, although, some of the Sundays, yes, they’re driving because the public gets off, and they want to be here. A rainy day is not a day for taking these cars out for a drive.

Tom Smith: Luckily, in Southern California, there’s not a whole heck of a lot.

Tom Smith: Mr. Stanley Zimmerman, this has been a pleasure. Thank you for having me. As we start to wrap it up here, the way that anybody can get involved, I believe your website is TheADM.org, right?

Stanley Zimmerman: TheADM.org or if you go Automobile Driving Museum, you’ll get us too. You can apply on the website and definitely, you can become one of our members or sponsors.

Tom Smith: It’s a fun place to come, and thank you for executing on your vision to make it a reality.

Stanley Zimmerman: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Automobile Driving Museum.

Tom Smith: The Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, California. You can find it online at TheADM.org or just swing on by any day of the week…

Stanley Zimmerman: Not Mondays.

Tom Smith: Oh excuse me, not Mondays but swing on by any day of the week but Mondays. And if you want to go for a ride on Sundays…

Stanley Zimmerman: 10:00 to 4:00 but I would get here earlier and get in line.

Tom Smith: There you go, El Segundo, California. For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith. As always, thanks for listening.

Driver assisted technologies, driverless technology, robotic cars, autonomous vehicles…  If all the different talk and types of autonomous driving has you a bit confused you’re not alone.  In this iDriveSoCal Podcast we lay out the six Automation Levels as described by the Society of Automotive Engineers and accepted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  And yes there are six levels, not five, listen to get all the details.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Automated Safety for Vehicles

***Transcript***

Recorded March 12, 2017

Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States – Southern California.

I’m Tom Smith, and in this episode, we’re talking about automated driving.  Specifically, we’re going to identify the different levels of automated driving.

But before we can do that we need to frame the rather complex issue.

We hear a lot about driver assisted technology, driverless technologies, robotic cars and the like.

Personally, I get excited about it all of it and can’t wait for it to get here.

But the reality is that some automated driving technology – depending on how you look at it, a lot of it actually – is already here.

The topic can be confusing because of the definition of the different levels of automation that fall under the umbrella of quote-unquote “automated driving.”

The topic can also be confusing because there’s many different major industries and organizations dealing with it. And they all have skin in the game so to speak.

First, you have the for-profit companies that want to bring automated driving technology to you and me – the consumers.

Then there are the existing Federal government agencies that need to keep us safe by managing their current domains but still accepting, if not embracing, the future.

And then we have the different states in the US deciding what they’re going to allow and not allow.  And that’s even been an issue just from a perspective of testing technology that would ventually be implemented.

And let’s not forget groups like Consumer Watchdog who we spoke with a couple weeks ago.  They’re basically saying – hey this all is great but let’s proceed with caution because this is a very big hairy issue.

I might be forgetting something or some-group but you get the point.  The topic of automated driving is big.  There’s a great deal at stake for powerful groups.  And because of that it’s been, and will probably continue to be, quite a fluid situation.

With all of that in mind there’s one more important group to mention – the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Anyway, SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineers) is relevant here because just a couple years ago – NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) decided to accept SAE’s definitions of the various levels of automated driving.

NHTSA has a cool timeline on their website – in case you want to check it out; we have a link to it through this podcast’s post on iDriveSoCal.

Now NHTSA refers to automated driving technologies as vehicle safety features or safety technology.  And that’s fair –

all things considered.

But that can also further confuse the issue.  Just know that the terms can be used interchangeably to refer to technology that will deliver similar outcomes.

So again, SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineer) has defined six levels of driving automation which NHTSA (the National Highway Transportation Administration) has accepted.

One last element of confusion – the six levels are labeled Zero through Five because the first level involves no automation at all.

So here we go with the levels:

The reason why many say Level Five is likely a long way off is because of the probable need for infrastructure – across the country – to be able to communicate with (or guide) vehicles.

Just think of it – every road – across the country has to be marked just-so in order for the Full Automation of Level Five.  Every Interstate, every highway, every street, boulevard, side-street, alley-way, etc.  That is a crazy thought.

So, going back to Level Four with High Automation.  Waymo has not only been testing this technology in Arizona since last year but they’ve recently been given approval to deploy it to the general public.

And Waymo says that Phoenix residents will be able to hail driverless Chrysler Pacifica Hybrids by the end of this year.

Let me restate that so it sinks in.  By the end of this year residents in Phoenix, Arizona will be hailing driverless vehicles to take them around town.

So, back to the top of this podcast; I stated the reality is that some automated driving technology – depending on how you look at it – is already here.

But personally, I’m always going to want to drive.  Always.  I love it – just not the traffic congestion.

For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith, thanks for listening.

All cancer sucks.  Stomach cancer delivers some especially deadly statistics, but if you know anyone that has been diagnosed with this unwanted news there is Hope for Stomach Cancer.

Listen to the road trip we took to help fight the disease in this episode of iDriveSoCal.

***Transcript***

Recorded February 6, 2018

Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States – Southern California.

I’m Tom Smith and in this episode we’re trying something different.  I’m not interviewing anyone, there’s no script, just me, a microphone and a few bullet points I want to cover about a recent road trip my wife I and took with our son.

A couple weeks ago we drove from Los Angeles to San Francisco for a conference.  It was our first road trip with our new son and it was my first time ever making the drive.  The few times I’d been to San Francisco I flew.

For more on stomach cancer go to HopeforStomachCancer.org – that’s all spelled out.  Hope-for-Stomach-Cancer.org.  You can also go to StoCAN.org that will get you to the same place.

Okay, now that the public service announcement is out the way let’s talk about that drive to San Francisco!

The conference went great.  The ride home was smooth and our little boy did great in the car.  Slept the whole way.

That’s it for this episode.  California is surprisingly flat in some places.  San Francisco is shockingly expensive and stomach cancer sucks but HopeforStomachCancer.org is there if you need help.

For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith.  Thanks for listening.

History Of Cars & Coffee

Cars just have a special appeal to some folks.  Young or old, wealthy or not, doesn’t matter what race, nationality or religion… for some guys (and gals – yeah gender doesn’t matter either) the sound of nice car’s exhaust can be as universally appealing as certain genres of music.

Do a Google search for Cars and Coffee and you’re very likely to receive results for small unofficial and barely organized local events on a Saturday or Sunday morning where local car buffs get together.  They’re passionate.  Have to be because many of these car shows start as early as 5:30 AM!  The bond that ties is automotive.  And while some are specific to a segment of cars – supercars/exotics, low-riders, muscle, antique, etc.  Most are open to anyone who loves cars.

You don’t have to own one to show up.  It usually doesn’t cost anything to show up anyway.  Just enjoy cars and the company… maybe have a coffee too.

We sit down with legendary car guy Barry Meguiar about how this, now a global phenomenon, got its start right here.  Crystal Cove in Orange County to be exact.

***Transcript***

Recorded, November 21, 2017, in Irvine, CA

Barry: The good news is that we created a phenomenon that people from all over the United States, even the world came to visit. It became that famous without any PR publicity.

It became that famous and those people went back to their regions their homes and around the world and said I want to do this here. Right. And so now we have I think something over 80 different Cars and Coffees around the world.

“…now we have I think something over 80 different Cars and Coffees around the world.”

I’m very proud of what happened here and the impact it’s had around the world.  To bring opportunity for car guys to come together and share their stories and share their love for each other.

It doesn’t matter, you love cars, you’re having fun hanging out. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin, doesn’t matter what language you speak, doesn’t matter if you’re a guy or gal. If you’re a car guy you’re car guy.

Tom: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility in the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. I’m Tom Smith, joined by automotive legend, Mr. Barry Meguiar.

Barry is president of Meguiar’s Car Care Products. He is the host of Car Crazy TV, which is a global television show, been on the air for almost 20 years.

Just this year he was inducted into the Sema Hall of Fame. And he’s one of the original participants and promoters of the unofficial car show that has really swept the entire United States and really in multiple countries around the world – Cars and Coffee.

Barry, thank you so much for joining me today. I’m excited to meet you and have the opportunity to sit here and speak with you.

Barry: Great to be with you, Tom.

Tom: First, just an overview of Cars and Coffee as it started here in Southern California.

Barry: Well it did. Yeah. It was actually in an area called… it’s identified as Crystal Cove. It’s on the coast of Southern California, Orange County, just south of Newport Beach, north of Laguna Beach if you know that area.

“It’s on the coast of Southern California… just south of Newport Beach, north of Laguna Beach…”

And it was kind of a new shopping center that went in, and just across the highway, you’re looking at the ocean so palm trees and all, kind of a small shopping center. And we started… we didn’t call it Cars and Coffee at that time, we called it just Crystal Cove.

“You’re going to go to Crystal Cove?” It was the insider thing, you know? And Southern California’s kind of full of car guys so it’s not… I mean you just kind of wave at somebody you have a crowd.

And so we kind of filled that shopping center pretty quickly and just started this camaraderie. And that went for several years and then, unfortunately, the Irvine company had everyone saying it was the Irvine company.

It wasn’t the neighbors, the neighbors never complained, Irvine Company said it was the neighbors. The Irvine Company said it was the police. I actually talked to the police and they said we didn’t have any more complaints when you’re there than when you weren’t there.

It wasn’t the police, it wasn’t anybody. It was just the Irvine company that decided Donald Brenner owns the Irvine Company’s kind of an anti-car guy. I don’t mind saying it. And he just stopped it.

And I put together a group after they shut it down with pokes and patient island big shopping center.

I had the tourist area and I had everybody in the area, the city council, the police, everybody. And the guy at the Irvine Company said this is a non-starter it’s not going to happen.

And that stopped us in our tracks and we had no place to go. But one of the original guys that helped start the first one that was there, he didn’t actually start Crystal Cove was named John Kleiner.

There are a lot of others tell yourself a mentioned name but John is by my number one hero, head of PR for Ford for the western region. And John is just such a car guy and has quite a few cars himself. And he called a meeting and he said okay let’s have a meeting.

About 12 us met at Ford headquarters there and we got up a chalkboard and we listed all the places that we could possibly go. And we had probably 15 different locations that were possibly large enough.

So each took some, we went out started looking to see who might be open to having car guys coming in at 5:30 in the morning. And we couldn’t find one. And so John said “Well until we find one, why don’t… we’ve got a parking lot here and we could certainly host it here.”

So for a temporary basis because the next Saturday was the last Saturday at Crystal Cove and there was no database. Nobody’s ever collected names. So if we didn’t get the word out that next Saturday, everybody’d be scattered right now.

We were down to Tuesday of that week and Saturday was our last Crystal Cove car show. So we had great pressure on us. We have to go somewhere. And so it’s pressure.

So finally out of desperation, we couldn’t go, and finally, John said, “Let’s just meet here. We can do it here and that’ll give us a place until we find a real place to go.” We say oh, can we do that? Yeah, we can do that. They have quite a large parking area and trees scattered throughout.

It’s not just straight asphalt but it’s quite pretty you know. And so we went and we put the word out and the first Saturday, we had a lot more than we had at Crystal Cove because we had more room.

It grew and grew and grew until you know it just is mind-boggling. And John, I’m not sure John came up with it by himself I don’t remember exactly how the name came to be but John was integral to it. And come up with this name Cars and Coffee.

He created the name. He didn’t copyright the name. Didn’t feel like he should, didn’t want to, didn’t want to have ownership on. Just a car guy.

Like his gift to the car you know so let’s just call it Cars and Coffee. And it just grew like crazy. I did two Car Crazy TV shows there, and over a period of time, it went for a lot of years.

He called me one day he says “Barry, I have a very unusual request.” I said, “what’s that?” He says “Don’t run that episode more. Please don’t run that episode anymore.” He says when you run that episode, we get more people and we get people mad at us. I don’t want people mad and I don’t want to turn anybody away. So we don’t need any promotion.

So please don’t do that anymore. All right. I love you, but don’t run your Car Crazy TV show anymore on Cars and Coffee, so we left. Cars and Coffee is wonderful because I mean there’s a 190… whatever.

And then there’s 2007… or concept car and everything in between. It’s just a surprise. And anybody that gets up that early, pretty passionate. Even the people that don’t have cars. They’re passionate.

So it was one of the great experiences of our lives. Car guys are special. I say that in the TV show, but I mean it and I have some expertise on that because I travel the world.

I know the car guy really, really well and I can tell you car guys are the same the world over. If you’re a kid growing up a car guy family, there’s no question you’re going to be a better adult.

Because you learn work ethic, you learn to respect, responsibility.  You honor your mom and dad.  You have quality time if not hundreds of hours of time with your dad whether you’re the daughter or the son to work on that car.

And guess what? You’re not talking about cars all the time. You can talk about life, you can talk about God, you can talk about guys and girls, and life and everything.

But the whole thing of car guys and what they’ll do for you is just… I think it’s the greatest fraternity in the world. And so when you get in a region where you can meet week after week after week… And it was not just a few months in California we can meet year-round almost never rains in California.

And for our case, civilization started moving in around and it wasn’t anybody that was doing anything wrong.  But all of sudden you got condos or whatever got homes around.

People starting to say I don’t like the sound of this. How are they not like the sound of a V8 rolling down the road at 5:30 in the morning? I don’t get that but some people don’t like that.

I guess I just go figure. And they start complaining and all a sudden the complaints come in.  So, Ford finally had to say we’re getting enough complaints that we’re going to have to shut it down.

And so that last morning it was in the wintertime. And we were there in the dark and everybody was like in tears. I mean we just hugged each other and some of those people I’ve not seen since.

The good news is that we created a phenomenon that people from all over the United States, even the world came to visit. It became that famous without any PR publicity.

It became that famous and those people went back to their regions their homes and around the world and said I want to do this here. And so now we have I think something over 80 different Cars and Coffees around the world that John Kleiner… and let me tell you, Linda. Linda Kleiner. She’s almost more responsible.

Tom: John’s wife.

Barry: John’s wife. I mean you expect the car guy to do it right? But at the driveway every morning John was usually there.

Linda was always there.  How many of you car guys so right now would have your wife standing beside you or even if you couldn’t make it, she’s there? 5:30 every Saturday morning with her smile.

Tom: Maybe once.

Barry: Welcome everybody in. They are my all-time heroes. I mean they’re just amazing, amazing people. And we’ve tried to duplicate it. We have been all over Orange County trying to find a venue where we could do it again.

And some have gotten traction for a little while and done well and then neighbors complain and they’ve gone away and we have one now. It’s looking pretty good. And it may survive but we’ve been all these years trying to find, you know, to reproduce what we had here.

Tom: In which location is the one that you’re talking about?

Barry: Well…

Tom: Because I know it’s splintered.

Barry: Yeah there’s the one down by the outlet stores down San Clemente that’s really catching traction. So it’s pretty cool but yeah. I’m very proud of what happened here and the impact it’s had around the world.

To bring opportunity for car guys to come together and share their stories and share their love for each other.

Tom: In Crystal Cove? That was a morning thing? A Saturday morning thing?

Barry: Yeah. I got there at 7:00 in the morning, 6:30, 7:00 in the morning and started that. And, I was a latecomer, I didn’t get there until after I’d been doing it for two or three weeks…  I didn’t come till about a month and I was there. But, I was hooked after that.

Tom: What year was that?

Barry: Oh my. Now you’re really testing me. If you’re suggesting that we close. That sounds right that we in 2015. We were at Ford for more than 10 years. My guess is we were there for 10, 12 years.

Tom: Okay. So then Crystal Cove was before that for three or four years?

Barry: Yeah. Exactly. So go back 2000, 2003 something like that.

Tom: It was a couple of months before the Ford location shut down. I went and visited a buddy of mine in Texas who had just moved with his company, State Farm was here and then moved to Texas.

So I went there and we spent the night catching up having cocktails whatever. Wee hours. And the next thing I know he’s waking me up saying “we’ve got to go to this car show.”

And I’m like “what are you talking about? we’ve been sleeping for like two or three hours. What are you talking about?” And we went and that was my first Cars and Coffee. And it was technically in Plano.

But I mean as you say, there was every socioeconomic, you know, represented. There was… and the money that was… I mean there was a section of McLarens and a section of Bugattis and a section of Model T’s and a section of muscle. It was like this is crazy. And lo and behold, wow wait. This all started right down in Irvine.

Barry: What you said there I think is very significant. The car hobby has none of the regular social barriers. I mean that’s one of the things I love about it so much.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have, it’s not a matter of money. You have some guy that’s got his exotic car, you’ve got some guy that’s got his… it doesn’t matter, you love cars, you’re having fun hanging out.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin, doesn’t matter what language you speak, doesn’t matter if you’re a guy or gal. If you’re a car guy you’re a car guy.

Tom: So did the TV show… obviously you have it in your blood. But did the TV show somehow… was it inspired or did it come out of Cars and Coffee?

Barry: Gracious no – way before that. What inspired the TV show was frankly… and it’s hard to even imagine now.

But the car if you go back 25 years ago, the car hobby was suffering. It was going down. Car clubs were disbanding. Car shows were having fewer people all the time.

And we look at our business. The only people that wax their car are car guys. I looked at SEMA. I’m a big part of SEMA and thinking everybody at SEMA is depending on car guys you know?

It’s not regular consumers are buying all those aftermarket things, it’s car guys. And if we don’t have car guys we’re all in trouble. Somebody needs to do something. But it happens that the car hobby is not like motorsports.

Motorsports has governing sanctioning bodies and they want another motorsports event over here, we need another NASCAR event there, they do that.

But in the car hobby there, it’s just it’s all over the world. I love this car, I really, really love it. And, I find somebody else that loves the same car, great. Hey let’s take our cars on Friday, let’s both drive our cars down to whatever.

So you do that and all of a sudden some other guys come along and say “we gotta get those cars too.” And all of a sudden hey, let’s form a club you know? And then say “hey you know there’s some other guys over yonder that they like. Let’s have a car show.”

That’s basically how the car hobby happens. It’s grassroots. It’s the ultimate grassroots. How do you grow that?

So we kept saying somebody’s got to step up and grow that. And one day the gal that ran corporate communications for us, Leslie Kennedy, said “you know Barry, Roger Werner started this new channel called Speed Vision, and you know about everybody there is in the car hobby. You know all the sheriffs. You could interview them.” I said, “nobody’s gonna listen to that interview show.”

“No, but you could talk about their passion. Talk about why there’s so passionate.” I’d say “well we need to come up with a name.” So it hit me, this name Car Crazy and we ended up getting a trademark.

And we just we looked at always always always as not selling car wax per se. You know of course, we were selling car wax. But we needed more car guys.

So my focus was on how do we get more car guys? We’re going to have more people with good values. I’ve said it with tongue in cheek but really meant it. If we have more car guys we’d have less wars.

We’d have less racial tension. So I’ve been on a mission for 25 years. How do we get more people in the car hobby? Because when we do that, yeah SEMA will grow, but that’s secondary to a higher thing of just get more kids to grow up with values and work ethic.

And I could say this without hesitation. I’m a better person… every car guy can say this without hesitation. I’m a better person, I have better friends because I’m a car guy.

So anyway that’s I think whether people understand that part of it or not they’re a part of it. And Cars and Coffee making it happen and that’s something all over the world. That’s cool.

Tom: And it’s unofficial I guess is the thing that’s always boggled my mind from the very first time in 2015. And I actually had planned on making the last event in the Ford parking lot.

But then that last event was actually canceled because of the event before that was too big. Right?

Barry: Exactly right. We had a sense that was the last one but yeah. That was one of the highlights of my life.

I’ve celebrated a lot of things, been to a lot of emotional events. I count that as one the very highest privileges of my life to have been there that last day. It was great.

Tom: As we move towards more and more technology, and you know I got my license I think in 1986. And I couldn’t get it fast enough. I couldn’t get it fast enough and I was working on, you know, junkers that I was hoping was going to be in my car before way before that.

But now, you know, manufacturers are concerned that kids aren’t so much in a rush to get their license anymore. What do you think happens? How do you think that impacts the car hobby moving forward?

Barry: Well it’s their biggest challenge. There’s no question about it. I have in my own family one grandson that turned 16 and didn’t care.

In my own family. Hanging around my cars and all the coolest car shows and in my own family, I have one? I have five grandsons. It is a concern obviously. It really is.

I don’t know where that’s going to take us. I hate to even speculate. I’m going to enjoy the present. I don’t think where technology what it’s doing for performance and design.

We’ve got cars… and you know it’s interesting now that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have style and performance.

I love it that without getting into the specific cars, but I mean you cover them, you know there’s a lot of relatively inexpensive cars that I’d be proud to drive. I mean they’re cool.

But that’s obviously Tom, I mean that is the biggest challenge to the car hobby as we know it today it’s a big one.

And whenever I speak to car guys I say we all have a personal responsibility to hedge against that. So, when we see a young person looking at our car, strike up a conversation and ask if they have any questions.

And if their parents are there you can say “can I let them sit in the car?” And I’ll let them sit in the car. We each one need to be an evangelist for the car hobby.

And I think that’s the number one responsibility we have if we’re going to save this car hobby. All the good things that come out of it beyond the cars, that we need to take personal responsibility make sure this car… That we hand this car hobby down to the next generation.

Tom: What do you think about the idea that the fuel combustion engine is going to be only something that we find in museums in the not so distant future? Everything is going to be electric?

Barry: Well I’m finding it quite interesting actually. The Tesla I didn’t think would ever catch on with car guys. But to the contrary. You know in the end car guys like cars that look good and go fast.

Tom: And that does. Check, check. Right?

Barry: And I tell you what, that Tesla is mind-boggling. Joe Barnes who owns all the exotic car dealerships in Newport Beach, a great friend of mine and he can have anything he wants and he drives a Tesla.

Tom: Daily driver?

Barry: Yeah. And I said that’d be like me using X brand wax, you know? He’s a very… he’s a Ferrari guy. He’s going to buy a Ferrari.

It doesn’t matter what kind of car I have, he’s going to buy a Ferrari. He’s a Ferrari guy. So it makes no difference to them at all. But for me, I’ve driven them all.

I don’t get a discount on Tesla. But this Tesla’s an amazing car. So you know, I mean it is what it is. And the performance acceleration. I mean it’s mind-boggling. So I miss the visceral sound, and you know some people played around with having imitation sounds or whatever.

But the sound of the V8 quite frankly is I think the number one ambassador for America worldwide.

Tom: I want to say what’s in your garage, but I’m assuming that’s either a really big garage or there are multiple garages.

Barry: Well, you know probably the most asked question I get asked is what kind of cars do you collect?

And it’s the one question I don’t answer for this one reason because of the show because of the radio and television and because of my products. I want everybody to love me and I want everybody to love my products.

So if they pigeonhole me into being a certain type of car guy right when I go there, they’ll say well we’re glad you’re here, but we know you’re not really one of us, you’re one those guys, right?

I have never advertised the types of cars I have people locally here know because I drive my cars, every one of them. They’re all cars that I love. I don’t believe in just having cars sit. And they all have a special purpose for me.

Tom: From your perspective, I think you have some unique insight and contacts. How far out are we from actually experiencing flying cars running around Southern California?

Barry: You know I don’t hear a lot of talk about that. I mean I sit with the car makers at the end of the day at Pebble Beach on Sunday where the heads of design for several of the carmakers.

And the fascinating discussion on technology, where it’s going and all that. Talked about everything. It’s a wonderful thing getting to get to be a part of those kinds of conversations.

I never heard flying cars mentioned that, you know. That’s not top of mind for them at the moment.

Tom: What about the autonomous driving aspect?

Barry: Well that very much is. Yeah. They all talk about that a lot. So that’s coming. It’s coming I think probably faster than some of us might realize.

So and that’s a little bit of a challenge for us as well. I mean I don’t like the thought of everybody just calling up a driverless Uber and have a pod pull up to take us to our destination.

I’m not really excited about that concept. So the carmakers feel like that is… will be a role. I mean, to the last one they all… because I’m saying why are you advancing this? You’re a car guy. Why on earth do you want to go that way?

Well, you got to follow technology. They can’t be left behind so the pressure moves on, you have to do that. They’re all convinced that that will be a part of the market, but that will serve its purpose.

But people are never going to get away from the ethereal experience of driving a car. And the just the whole driving experience of having control and independence and it goes on and on.

Tom: Freedom.

Barry: Freedom. They’ve done a lot of research on that. And they are a rock-solid believer, and that’s going to go on forever.

And the driverless thing will play its role. But it will be for some applications but for the mainstay, people keep wanting to have their independence and freedom and control driving a car wherever they want to.

Tom: Mr. Meguiar, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this talk and appreciate your time. And all the historical facts you can share with us.

Barry: Well, I am historical. Sometimes hysterical, but always historical. Thank you. Congratulations again on your show. And let’s do it again sometime.

Tom: I would love to do that. I would love to do that. That was Mr. Barry Meguiar, this is iDriveSoCal. Thank you so much. I’m Tom Smith. Until next time.