Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 07-29-26_WEDNESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Morning news and conversation and into Wheels Up Wednesday with auto journalist Eric Peters. What causes the deteriorating driver skill? Lots of listener calls, Infinity review and more.

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausurrilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. Welcome to the show. It is Wheels Up Wednesday. Join the program at 77056633. 770563. Okay, just making sure I had my little phone button because if the phone button doesn't answer,

It's like, everybody just rings and then they get, they get angry with me. They get angry with me. Oh, by the way, every now and then I have to explain the rules, and I will really explain the rules that if you want to join the show, you do have to have caller ID turned on. You can't be blocking your caller ID because otherwise it just makes sure that we remain friends here. I don't sell your information, nothing like that. But we just want to make sure it's real people and not just trolls,

because there's no point in giving trolls. I don't mind. You want to disagree with me about something. fine. But we'll be civil with one another, okay? Yeah. You can always tell when there's a troll. It's like you'll be talking about something unfriendly to a Democrat and all of a sudden, and then it hangs up on it. My system does. My phone system. Hings up on him. Hangs up on him. It gives me a perverse pleasure to watch it. There's a troll. Oh, there's a troll. There's another troll. H hangs up.

Yeah, so go ahead and keep them coming. You won't get through, okay? Anyway, oh, there's one right now. That's so funny. I don't know. Yeah, and see, there it is. There's a troll. There goes the troll.

Yeah, it just hung up on them. I love it. I love it. You know, there are sometimes that I actually love technology. They can be very useful for such things, although this is a pretty simple stuff. Speaking of the technology of trolls and all the rest of it, it's not very often that I say good things about

Attorney General Dan Rayfield, because mostly all he is is just to shill for the Trump's resistance. That's all he does. That's all he does. But he actually ended up joining a 49 state, 49 other states ended up doing this too. And there's one thing. I found that there is one issue that unites all 50 of the United States here. Doesn't matter if you are the hardest progressive state, you know, the crazy commie state of Oregon, or if you are the, deepest red of Texas, no matter where you are, one issue unites everybody.

They hate robocalls. And all 50 of the United States Attorney Generals, they've all gotten together, and they have written, they are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen what they call the know-your-customer rules. I'm not exactly sure about all the ins and outs of it, but it's essentially that if you're going to be connected to the communication network, and you've got your business and you're this person. In other words, they really want to know who you are.

And really what you're doing. Because it's the one thing that probably more people complain to me over the years. If I was to look at one issue that they will write about, it's the fact that the robocalls never stop. Now, I know that some of our phone systems and some of your phone providers do a pretty good job of marking calls as spam. Even mine, my cell phone would say, say it's spam, but it still comes through in rings, right?

And so, okay, I'm looking at it. And so you just move on. But, yeah, they're looking to actually crack down on this and to strengthen the know-your-customer rules. And it's one thing that all the other 49 attorney generals, they all agree on, right? Everything else, they'll fight about Trump or they'll, they're Biden or anything else, they'll get involved in the politics and make politically oriented lawsuits and resist or help or whatever the case might be.

But the robocalls, they're all against. They like that part. They've all united on that. We'll see where it goes. In fact, I've often thought that if all the attorney generals are able to truly stop the robocalls, the illegal robocalls. Now, not all robocalls are illegal. If you have a business connection with someone, they can certainly call you. You may have your permission in the past for someone to get in touch with you.

Those are perfectly legal. Perfectly legal. You've got to remember that. You can also say, hey, don't call me. You can go on the do not call list. I don't know how effective that is. There is one category you'll be surprised, though, about robocalls that gets absolutely no restriction. You know what that is?

That is political robocalls. You didn't actually think the politicians in Washington were going to create a telephone rule on robocalls that would stop them from robocalling you, right? I shouldn't laugh too much, but yeah, there was a little bit of that going on. Also, there would be a serious First Amendment speech when it comes to political speech issue if they were going to move forward with it. But that's the one type of robocall you will continue to get. Unfortunately, they've always made sure that they can get through to you one way or the other. But, you know, if the 50 Attorney Generals of the States are able to unite,

get the FCC to tighten these rules up a little bit, and they're able to really get rid of the robocalls. I think all 50 of them, even Dan Rayfield. Yes, the insurance lawyer in the past there. Even Dan Rayfield, I put them up for canonization. I think that would be good, right? I think we could all agree. Okay, yeah, Dan's a Democrat shill.

He got rid of the robocalls. Okay, all right. Might do pretty well. All right, some of the other news going on this morning. oil prices were down yesterday. Now they're up. Oh, yes. Iran launches missiles at U.S. base in Jordan.

I find it interesting the way they talked about this. They said, United States ended up fording a potential surprise attack. Okay, was it a surprise attack or wasn't a surprise attack? Well, I guess, you know, we're still at war. No, it's not war. We're at conflict, I guess, really. But the intent to kill was made clear here.

Iran launching multiple ballistic missiles toward a U.S. military base in Jordan yesterday. Sentcom describing it as an attempted surprise attack. It's an interesting choice of words there, but all the missiles were intercepted, Senkomsing. This marks Iran's first ballistic missile attack against a U.S. base in the region since President Trump-Pa strikes on Friday. So we've had a whole three days without a whole bunch of fighting, and then it started again. All right?

Iran targeting the same country where two U.S. service members were, killed at a missile and drone barrage earlier this month, prompting the president to intensify his 13-night campaign. This all from Axios. Trump met Netanyahu. BB says the meeting is one of the best we ever had. What does that mean? Exactly. President Trump ended up meeting, Zelensky.

The leaders, they're talking about their need to reinvigorate diplomatic efforts. The two men seem to have developed a mutually respectful relationship. Trump is impressed with how well Ukraine has done in the war with Russia. Remember the good old days when President Trump was actually trying to have a rapproachment with Russia? And maybe we wouldn't have to go to war. I know those are silly little things to, you know, to remember President Trump. And it's interesting how things have changed in the second term. Wouldn't you agree?

it is a very different President Trump this time around. By the way, let me just a minute or two. I know everyone's sitting around there and praising Lindsey Graham. Most conservatives didn't really like Lindsey Graham before. And I'm trying to figure out why are conservatives all of a sudden loving Lindsey Graham today? Is it because Lindsey Graham was just, you know, helping President Trump? Was that just the only reason? was just the one thing that I've never quite understood is that principal conservatives for the

longest time were not a real fan of Lindsey Graham. He was either getting in the way or else he was always just the most bloodthirsty, warmongering Senate, a senator that we've ever had this side of John McCain. He essentially took John McCain's place, always wanting to drag the United States into additional conflicts, which was completely against what President Trump was running on for the second term, but yet it appears that Lindsay Graham was of great influence. And there was an amazing documentary, which the footage is out here, that they just got released, the Wall Street Journal had it, and I'll share a couple of thoughts about it.

I wanted to do it yesterday, but got distracted by some other things. But I think it's good to know what's going on and what has amping up what appears to be a growing push for more conflict, more conflict with Russia, more conflict with Iran, more conflict in the Middle East. And whatever we do, we never get out. It's fascinating. And Lindsay had a documentary filmmaker with him. Of course, I'm wondering how he got away with doing this, given that there was probably a lot of conversation about the Senate business and war and all the rest of it. But yeah, he was quite the puppet master behind the scenes, trying to make sure that no matter or what happened, we are going to be involved in an interesting, sticky war this year.

Fascinating stuff. I'll share more about that coming up, too, on the Bill of Myers show. Eric Peters will also join me after the 630 news. I'll also go to talk with former senator or, you know, former state senator, Berchiger. It's been a few weeks since we've had a chance to talk. And we're going to be talking about the Oregon politician who is most happy that IP28. That crazy animal rights one is not on the ballot.

We'll kick that around and a whole bunch more. Army Navy Marine Store for camping, survival, tactical gear, and things you won't find at the average store. Getting ready for a summer road trip, click on the travel report. Hi, I'm Randy with Diner 62, and I'm on KMED. Love Diner 62. We love them all. 624 at KMED. Cindy writes me, hey, Bill, did you do a podcast of your show with Glenn Gamer on the Red Light lawsuit? No, I didn't do a show with him. Cindy, I just talked about the updates that he had sent out to people who are in the class action lawsuit.

The class action lawsuit about the red light camera scam in South Medford. Everybody got popped. My wife got popped. You know, she got the email too. And I have reached out to him, and we're going to try to get him on the show. Apparently there's going to be some legal movement on this. The city, of course, is trying to get this dismissed because the city doesn't really want to be held accountable for the fact that, you know, my opinion, they ran a scam over there in South Medford and got a million, maybe even a million

or two million dollars in ill-gotten gains. They didn't have the lights set the same way as other lights around it. It was designed. It was designed essentially to fleece people. And you would have thought that somebody in the city of Medford back in the day, I don't know if it's in the Rhodes Department or who actually was in charge of that, that red light camera out there by Fred Meyer South, you know that one. But it's like they'd have one light set with like a yellow light of five seconds. And then the one where they had the red light camera, same speed limit, they would set the yellow light to three seconds, if I recall correctly, is what this was.

So it was next to impossible for a lot of people to make it through without getting popped for the red light. And it all started with Glenn Gamir's patients who were saying, man, I'm sorry. Glenn, man, you know, ever since you move the office over here out in the, you know, southeast Medford, I'm always getting popped with these red light cameras. And then he got popped with the red light camera and said, yeah, it was a scam. Now, they changed it. They actually moved the red light camera.

It's over there by, what is it, Black Bear, the Black Bear restaurant in that neighborhood. I think that's where they put it. So I don't know if the scam has moved. But the city probably got the message and has re-timed the light to be a little more reasonable. rather than just a mulkding light. They have the downtown traffic cameras to do that. You know, that's the one. They got you going $10, you know, 10 miles over the speed.

Now we're going to nail you hard, that kind of thing. But no, I will get him on and we'll have a conversation, but I just more or less updating the case is what I was doing. But hopefully we will get him and then get him on a podcast too for that matter. All right. Now, I mentioned before this break here, just an amazing story in the Wall Street Journal. And, of course, the Wall Street Journal is certainly a pro-war paper. I mean, for the most part, you'll never see them in really bad-mouting a war.

Maybe a Trump war. But, you know, that's just the way it is. But still, unreleased documentary footage captures Lindsey Graham's obsessive push for Iran-war. war. In the footage, Graham says he's astonished at his access to world leaders as he's lobbying for the war. And the footage also shows Lindsay Graham's frustration with President Trump for signing a preliminary deal with Iran, claiming he was letting the war slip away. Yeah. And now the friend he was talking to here in the story, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him on a call before the trip that Bringing the U.S. unto the operation, this was the bombing of Hezbollah in Lebanon they first started talking about, was going too far too fast, according to this footage.

This footage has been not officially released, but the Wall Street Journal got a copy of it, and so they've been looking at all of this, and he gave them big access to this. And Netanyahu says, we're concentrating right now on Iran, he said on the March 4th call, according to the footage, viewed by the Wall Street Journal. if we tell Hezbollah that we're going all the way, we threaten them, but if we actually do it, then they have no reason not to go all the way against us. And right now, that's not in our interest. That's actually good counsel, Lindsay Graham replied from the Senate office, covered with Trump hats, scattered papers, and planters peanuts, and a bottle of bourbon on the shelf. The extraordinary exchange captured by the documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who had been granted extensive access to Lindsay Graham since 2023. It's an unvarnished look at his years-long quest to topple Iran and the ways in which he persuaded President Trump to strike, at times pushing for even more aggressive action than BB Netanyahu was prepared to take. Look what we've done here.

I almost cried, he tells the film crew, laughing loudly just after the U.S. strikes began in Iran in February. How long we have been pushing for this and he's almost in tears of joy. He then tells the crew that President Trump was equally happy about the war. I talked to Trump this morning. He's jacked. Best thing I've ever done. He loves blowing stuff up. That's a quote.

Oh, my goodness. The footage shows the documentary crew regularly traveling with Graham, sitting in the backseat and filming as he takes phone calls from the front seat. Graham let the crew stay in the room for sensitive meetings and some of the people Graham spoke with by phone told the journal they didn't know the calls were being recorded. Uh-oh. Includes Graham flying to meet with Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to sell him on the war in Iran,

calling the military commanders about the war, speaking with Ukrainian President Volodomor Zelensky, huddling with other world leaders and expressing candid thoughts on a range of American political figures. The Israeli government has not responded to a... requests for comment on these stories, but apparently Holder is now distilling hundreds of hours of raw camera footage for

a documentary currently titled Lindsay's Game, which he said he wants to release in the coming months. Absolutely amazing. And I just find it fascinating that all we're hearing out of Washington, D.C. is just, what a great

guy, what a patriot. But yet one of the reasons that conservatives and Republicans Many Republicans for years have had trouble with Lindsey Graham as that he was nothing, but he was nothing if not first. Get us into the war. He was one of those people that one of us everywhere, everywhere, bombing and at war with our enemies or our perceived enemies.

And that was exactly what President Trump ran against going into the second term. And it appears that Lindsey Graham was quite effective, don't you think? This is the Bill Myers show, and you're on KMED and KBXG. Eric Peters will join me here in just a moment. Wheels up. Let's head out on the open road after news. For precision and performance. I'm Taylor Riggs, and this is the Fox Business Report.

A 90. You're hearing the Bill Myers Show on 1063 KMED. Now Bill wants to hear from you. 541-770-5633. That's 770 KMED. We've got all the buzz. Eric Peters, automotive journalist and genius

at EPATOS.com. Wheels up Wednesday. Eric, welcome back. Yeah. Thank you for having me again. Oh, it's always a pleasure. Hey, you were,

I don't know if this is when you were driving that infinity the other day, but you had a road video with a clover in front of you. First off, you need to define what clover is. And I couldn't believe it was. And I think you were talking. about how it's like as cars have gotten better at at kind of nagging us if we're out of the lanes and things like that, people seem to be getting worse. And there was a person in front of you

that was just going all the way over the double yellow line when they were going in curves all the way off to the right. It just kept on going, I couldn't believe it. And you're just following this guy and just it's too difficult to stay in Lane. What the hell. Yeah, I mean, it's astonishing and it's not exceptional. I see this literally. I'm not exaggerating. single day. When I go down the mountain, that's what we say here. It's a series of S curves from up in the mountains down to the valley below. I see it every single day. And it's just it's it's it's just this this incongruity between the capability of today's cars. It's not even so much the the safety assistance stuff. It's that generally speaking, any car you buy today

is vastly more capable in terms of road holding, braking, stability, all of those things than the vehicles that were available, say, in the 70s. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And yet, ironically, people have become far worse drivers. So you've got this bizarre relationship that goes on. And, you know, it's compounded, actually, because these modern cars are so easy to drive, you know, relative to the cars of the past, a lot of people listen to us, maybe had no experience driving something like a 72 Chrysler-Newport with overboasted power steering. Oh, yeah.

And absolutely no road fear. through the steering wheel, right? Nothing like that. Right. But the danger now is that you have people who are completely inept as drivers who feel safe driving these modern cars at speeds way beyond their capabilities. So, you know, when things go awry, they tend to go awry in a way that's far more potentially damaging than in the past.

In the past, when people drove hard to drive cars, they sort of were corrected by the car. You understood that it wasn't a good idea to take a 72 Chrysler-Newport. you know, around a curve at 20 miles an hour faster than the speed limit. Now people do. They just, you know, swing wide into the opposing lane and God help you if you happen to be coming in the other direction. Yeah, but it'll actually stick to the road. And to your point here, that Vanagan camper of mine, there's never been a Volkswagen bus or Vanigan. I thought that is ever what you would call a great handling vehicle at speed.

I don't know. Have you ever driven one out of curiosity? I have. Yes, very familiar with old classic Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah. And the point is that, you know, you get one of those things and you realize that a puff of wind, it'll blow you into a lane if you're not careful. And it's rear engine.

And I think it's because of rear engine, it's understeering, right? Or is it overstirring that it gets because of that? Yep. Right. No, it's because it's very light, light in the nose. Yeah. And so whatever you're going to have to do, you're going to have to do a lot more effort to get through those kind of things. But, you know, now modern cars will just zip through.

that kind of stuff. Now, I'll give, I mean, I'll cut brakes to people that I see, you know, driving classy cars because I realize that sometimes you are wrestling a lesser design suspension. I mean, that's realistic, right? Of course. And you think about it. Absolutely. Sure. I mean, a guy driving a Model A Ford down the mountain, understandably. But even then, keep it in the lane. Is it that difficult? You know, it seems to me that that's like a fundamental driving skill. And if you have difficulty keeping your car within its travel lane without assistance, maybe you probably ought not to be driving or take your medial driving course. But it was just an absolutely amazing video.

And these people are what you term clovers. And what is a clover for those that don't know? If they go to your side, you'll always see even the clover is the logo that you use. Yeah, it's not necessarily a bad driver or somebody who's not particularly skilled. It's somebody who doesn't know that they're a bad driver and also isn't particularly. particularly skilled. And then who does things like creeps along at 10 or 15 miles an hour below the speed limit, oblivious or indifferent to the fact that he's got a tail of cars behind him and won't move off to let people go by. That's an example of a clover or the guy who rides your bumper on a

straight. And then when the curve comes, of course, he can't handle it. Now he's sweeping wide into the opposing lane of traffic. It's just it's people who are inconsiderate and inept drivers and don't recognize it. You know, I have no problem with somebody who's maybe a little bit timid or fearful or uncomfortable about driving at the speed limit. There's reasons for that. People might be elderly or they don't have good reflexes. Yeah.

That's fine. That's fine. But make an effort to be considerate to other people. You know, if you're having to drive a lot slower than the flow of traffic, maybe try to ease over to let people get by you. Then you're not a clover. Oh, and I have to tell you, when I would pull over on the van and people would just wave and be happy because it's, oh, you're letting me go.

Great. Absolutely. Because an 82 Volkswagen just doesn't handle well in the S curves of the canyon going out to the Oregon coast. It's just the way it goes. It's just such common courtesy. It's like, you know, sometimes you'll go to the supermarket and you'll encounter that person who just stands there in the aisle with their cart. You're obviously trying to get by and they just stand there. And, you know, they probably drive the same way.

They drive the same way, right? Yeah, exactly. Okay. I'm talking with Eric Peters this morning. It's 641 at KMED and KVXG. Let me grab a call here. I don't know if they're calling about this or not, but welcome. You're on with Eric.

Hi, who's this? Morning. Good morning, guys. This is Vicki from the Applegate. Vicki, good to have you here. What are you thinking, huh? Oh, my gosh. Well, as you know, I live in the Applegate, and the jaunt going to town can be deadly sometimes.

People here, it's so bad that each corner, the paint is completely, almost completely gone on the corner because people cut the corner. They cut it so much. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Back in the day, when I was a kid, you know, you were taught when you began to drive, oh, well, if you cut the corner, you're saving gas. Well, yeah, you cut the corner, you're taking your life in your hand. I mean, I'd rather, you know, not make money or not make, you know, miles off of a gallon of gas or have my life.

Yeah. And even the school buses, I mean, we have a lot of big truck traffic on the road I live on. and you really, really have to be careful when you come around a blind corner. Yep, I know. I agree with you wholeheartedly. And it was exactly what Eric was experiencing, and he put that up on the video on EPiotos. It was a great story. And it was shocking, but not really all that shocking. Yeah, it's not just, it's not about taking your life in your hands so much as it is taking

other people's lives in your hand around these blind curves. You know, I mean, I ride motorcycles. So, you know, this is a particular, a thing of particular importance to me. You know, coming up the mountain on my bike, and I go around a curve, and there's a clover halfway in the lane, you know, and if you haven't got a place to go, potentially you're going to get killed as a result of that. Indeed. 643.

KM.E.D. Let me go back to the phones here because when people want to talk with Eric, we're happy to bring you on. Hey, Bob, how are you? Morning. Hey, I'm wonderful, Bill. Good morning, Bill. And Eric, this weekend, my wife and I bought a used 2021 Mazda CX30.

What did you think? I think it's a good car. It has the planetary transmission, and we took it up the mountain to Canyonville yesterday, and it did quite well. One comment with the large beltline and the door panels and that, what I found interesting is up, you know, the parallel park, the mirrors automatically tilt down so you can actually visualize the curb without craning your neck. around or having to readjust the mirrors to do it. We got a good price on it. I think it's a decent car for, you know, being only five years old.

Glad to hear that. And, Eric, you're actually a fan of the Mazden lines recently for sticking with conventional automatic still, aren't that? Yeah, yeah, I wanted to address that. You know, I don't have the product manual right in front of me at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that that car has a conventional six-speed automatic, not a CVT. Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. And it has paddle use, so I may have to enter it in an auto rally race and put it in sport mode and figure out how those pedal shifters work.

Yeah, well, they give you limited control over up and down shifts, but don't worry, you're not going to grenade the engine. It'll override you. And it just gives you something to do in the absence of a clutch. I think it's kind of a course substitute for that. The transmission's program to shift pretty effectively on its own if you put it in sport mode. So there you go, Bob. All right. Thank you so much. I'm glad you're having a good experience there. Let me go to line three.

Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. Hello. Hi, you're on with Eric. Who's this? Hey, Jeff and Selma.

Hey, Jeff. Welcome. Yeah. So, you know, I've always been an advocate that every driver's test should be taken on a 64 Buickla Sabre with power with manual steering, manual brakes, and a three on the tree. Oh, boy, that would really clear the roads out pretty quickly, wouldn't it, Jeff? Well, yeah, and we've got somebody who's, he was a missionary's kid. He's an American, but he spent most of his life in other countries.

So America's like a foreign country to him, but he's, I'm teaching him how to drive, and I put him in my one-ton duly extended cab, and our driveway is about a quarter mile long, and it's not exactly straight. And I made him back up the driveway using mirrors only. You know, so I'll be doing several things like that. Because if you can learn on something big and difficult to drive with lots of obstacles, then when he jumps in his little minivan that we got for him, he won't have a problem. Yeah, absolutely.

I agree with that. I've done my share of corrupting the youth. I taught my niece how to drive in a Mazda Miata press car. And these are just basic things. Like, you know, the ability to use them to operate a manual transmission and to parallel park a car with a manual transmission. You don't necessarily have to drive some big land yacht from the 60s to acquire that skill. But you do need something that requires you to develop spatial relationships

and the ability to just perform these dexterous motions with your hands and your feet and using your mind and using your eyes. I think it's atrocious that you don't have to demonstrate this basic. competence. If we've got to have driver's licenses, as opposed to government IDs, if they're actually going to be some sort of a metric of competence, well, I think people should have to establish that they have actually got some competence in order to get the thing. Jeff, when was the last time you did a road test at the DMV? Because I can't remember the last time I actually had to go out and demonstrate my skills as a driver. Do you know? Can you remember?

me going to the DMV? Yeah, yeah. I don't recall ever, no, I haven't had to do a driver's test at DMV here. Yeah. But, I mean, if you want to go back when I was 16, I don't remember that. Yeah. I think I... I know it's a lot more fun training someone with 500 horsepower, though.

Oh, yeah, I would agree wholeheartedly. The reason I was bringing it up, though, Eric, is that do they really do a lot of road testing these days? I don't know. It's like everything I do with the DMVs is about getting renewals. in or, you know, getting a, you know, the real ID government super secret squirrel, you know, ID kind of stuff that I did a while back. I guess it varies from state to state. You know, in Virginia, I'm not sure whether they require a road test any longer.

You know, the last time I was aware of it, they just take you in the back parking lot and perform a few perfunctory maneuvers. And that's it. It's not really a meaningful road test. Do you think it would be an interesting world on the road, Eric, if everybody had to re-qualify every few years? I don't know. I don't think that that's necessary, but I do think that when people display incompetence,

you know, I mentioned in my article, the one that you were referencing about that Clover, here is a guy who clearly demonstrated impaired driving, right? I mean, he's literally weaving and wandering all over the road, probably not drunk. I took that video at like 10.30 in the morning. Now, cops never seem to pull over people like that. Now, I've never seen them pull over people like that. They hassle people like you and me who just happened to be on the road at some sobriety checkpoint.

you know, I think when people demonstrate incompetence, particularly when they wreck, you know, we're kind of in this habit of calling it an accident, as if it's an act, you know, some kind of random act of God that we had no control over. And the fact is that the majority of these so-called accidents are the result of driver error. When somebody does, has an accident, to me, that's prima facie evidence that they need remedial driving training minimally. That would be, so, you know, that's what I would impose. Yeah, that would be interesting. Jeff, what would you think about that? If you get into an accident, have to re-qualify. What would you think about that?

Well, I've often said that there's no such thing as an accident. Somebody's always at fault. Yeah. I mean, unless a tree falls on your roof. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Hey, appreciate the call there, Jeff. 7-7-0-K-M-E-D.

If you're on hold, we'll get right back to you. We have other articles we want to talk about on the E.P.A.com, too, including old new cars are selling. old, new cars. It's really interesting, and I found it so interesting. We'll talk about that with Eric, and if you want to talk with him to 770 KMED. Jump on. It's so neighborly of you to trim my hedges, Dan, and on such a hot day, thank you so. You're hearing the Bill Myers Show on 1063 KMED. Every day is special, but Wednesday mornings, even more special. Wheels Up Wednesday with Eric Peters,

Automotive Journalist at E.P.O.com. And we're taking your calls about the open road and maybe the not so open road, the Clovers, the crazies and what have you. And Keith is in Cave Junction. Keith, you wanted to talk about the handling capabilities, I guess, when you had a 64 split window, Volkswagen. You were saying? Go ahead. 50 years ago, I had a 12-year-old Volkswagen van in my altar counterculture days. right out of high school.

And I find myself going north towards Denver in this, I think it was a 40-horse motor, bucking a north wind, climbing from 2,500, if I'm remembering right, to 40. What is Denver? That's 528. Yeah. So that's a mile. You're gaining 2,500 feet over the miles. I can't remember the interstate.

I had my foot flat on the floor going numb, doing 45 miles an hour. And the steering, and the steering on that bus was, there was probably two or three inches of side play as you went bucking along. People, it was fun. But you had to pay attention, though, didn't you? Well, yeah, but I spent my professional life paying attention. And most commercial drivers as well, but the ones that don't, nobody forgets, and everybody gets blamed for those people. Yeah. But, yeah, if you see a pile of cars coming up behind you, find a place to pull over.

They are so happy, and some of them aren't. But that's not your problem. Exactly. Anyway, you guys made me remember something. That trip was very, very memorable. Well, that reminds me of when I went cross-country when I was coming back from Pittsburgh to go out to the West Coast here. And what it was, it was a 73 Volkswagen bus. And I had a, it was in the middle of the winter, and I had a propane heater inside there with a big tank just to try to stay warm as I'm going through Montana in North Dakota.

And you know how much metal there was between you and the business in front of you? what is the thickness of that sheet metal? That's it. I know. Well, you know, when you have no front end like you do on those old buses and vanigans, you tend to be pretty good on the following distance. Wouldn't you be, Eric, you know, for the most part? Yeah, that cab over, that cab over experience is a whole lot of fun.

And by the way, you know, these little acts of civility that we're discussing is what makes a society civilized. Just trying to exercise some common courtesy for your fellow person, you know, you see somebody behind you. You're obviously going slow. you know you're going slow, just move over. What's the big deal? Why do you have to squat there and just make life difficult for other people? There is a passive aggression that comes through kind of that kind of behavior, in my opinion. Let me go to Lauren.

Lauren, you have a memory when you were trying to qualify in the fire department, right? Qualified to be able to drive the trucks, right? Well, this would mean not the big trucks, but mainly just pickups and such as that. And they did it. It's about five years ago now or more. know about that virtual reality they put the glasses on me and they said now drive and do this do that i got sick and threw up all over the cab so yeah because i'm not very good i get motion sickness sometimes i wear c-bands all the time when i'm on a plane or when i'm riding with somebody but yeah that's

the memory hit me just a few minutes ago when you mentioned what you did now you said so they put on virtual reality were you like in a booth like a video game kind of booth or something to qualify or how do they do that? I'm just wondering if they put goggles on you. Yeah, goggles. It's for goggles

just on my face. So I'm not seeing any, I'm not really driving. I'm not out on the training grounds where we normally have to drive and back up, but everything going move this way. So yeah, I'm not I don't do have to do video games. That's for sure. But I, yeah, that was a

interesting experience, I'll say for sure. Guys, that reminds me of an actual real-world experience I had at one point a few years back when I was invited to go visit the Hemings Motor News Vehicle Museum that they have up there in Bennington, Vermont. And I had the opportunity to drive. I think it was a 1914

LaFrance Fire Engine. Now, if you wanted to experience something that's difficult to drive, there it is. I remember trying to leverage that big wood steering wheel around. I mean, you basically had to be honored to be able to move the steering wheel of that thing. I mean, it was, that was a challenge. And, you know, to think that people had to drive those things and panic emergency type scenarios where you better know how to maneuver it.

I had great respect for people who grow fire trucks, especially the old ones. All right. Hey, great story. Thanks for sharing that, Lauren. I really appreciate that. All right. Hey, Eric, a couple articles I wanted to touch on here before we take off. First of them, this just broke this morning.

And there was talk that we were going to. be getting our tiny cars that President Trump was going to change the rules or try to make it possible for tinier cars to come to the United States so that perhaps there was a more affordable way to get around being brought to us. And I'm not seeing any movement on this, but Japan is welcoming them. Isn't that the case? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. BYD, which is one of the major car manufacturers in China, is going to start selling their little cars, their tiny cars. And really, when we talk about tiny cars, what we're really talking about are K-K cars, K-E-I-A. That's a category of vehicle in Asia and Japan specifically. And it just refers to vehicles that are a notch down below subcompact. They're very

small. Anyway, the Japanese government apparently is okay with Japanese people having the opportunity to buy one of these things if they would like to buy them, whereas our government refuses to allow people to have the opportunity to buy a car like that if they wish to buy one. And I think it's incredibly outrageously obnoxious that Americans are not allowed the choice. Remember, nobody's being forced. There are people out there who say, oh, but they're not safe. Oh, they're too small. Nobody's making you buy one.

If you want to buy a Yukonanali, go right ahead. I'm simply saying that I think Americans should have the opportunity to buy tiny cars like the Mazda Flair. I profiled that a couple of weeks back. $10,000. And it's a four-door car, totally usable on the road. It has a top speed over 100 miles an hour, more than ample. Can you imagine being able to buy a brand new car for $10,000? And imagine if they would sell like crazy.

They would sell like crazy. Absolutely. In two or three years, we would have low miles, recent vintage used cars available on the secondary market for around $6,000. You know, people could buy a nice, low miles used car. Instead of today, they have to buy some 15-year-old beater with 230,000 miles on it. Yeah. Now, speaking of older cars, though, there's an interesting wrinkle that's going on, and this is over with Stalantis, Chrysler Dodge, right? That kind of thing.

And it has to do with old, new cars. and the story out of Stalantis has been really, really rough like we've been talking about. They don't have many vehicles left right now. And they've been kind of, I don't know if their parent corporation is kind of just leaving them to die on the vine or what the real structure is going on there. But it has to do with which Dodge, is it that is just selling like crazy? The Durango. The Durango.

And so far, for the first six months of this year, it's had its best year in 15 years. They've sold about 40,000 of the things. far, which means they're on track to selling 80,000 of them. Notwithstanding that the thing is 15 years old, because the last time it was updated was 2011. That's why I say it's a new old car, because it is. Hmm, I wonder why that is. Why would it be selling so well? Could it be that it doesn't have a lot of this creepy, cloying, invasive technology that you find in all the other new vehicles? Could it be that it still comes standard with the V6 and it costs about $37,000 to start, could it be that you can get it with a V8 engine? Now, contrast that with the sales of the

charger. They finally put an engine in the thing. They've only managed to move 4,500 of these things so far. And that's better than, you know, the 500 electric chargers they sold last year. But the point is that it's the Durango that's keeping Dodge afloat because this charger, it's $20,000 more than the last charger, the 2023 charger, which is the last one you could buy before they went electric. It's stickered for $32,000. The new one with the engine stickers for $51,000. The amazing thing about this Durango is, like you said, it's a 15-year-old design, but it appears that people have figured out that this 15-year-old design is a great design. For the reasons that you just noted there, you get an actual V6, not a double turbocharged

a four-cylinder or a three-cylinder, like some of the vehicles are coming with. Yeah, and it doesn't quite apparent you. imagine it. The thing does not even, you can get, if you want it, lane keep assist and break assist are not standard, meaning you can opt out, you can avoid it. Imagine that. Imagine the appeal of that. Amazing. I didn't realize that there was actually still a new but older design car that was still available. But even the V6, though, just having the V6 right now is a big deal these days, isn't it? Huge, huge. You know, now, I kind of wrote in the toward the tail end of the article. I hope that the people at Stalantis read this and consider it, that they might

give some thought to bringing back the old charger, the charger classic. They did that with the RAM truck successfully for a number of years. They sold the old model. They called it the RAM Classic alongside the new one, which a lot of people didn't like because all the reasons that we're talking about. I imagine that if they were to reboot the production line for the previous generation charger with the V6 and price at around $35,000 to start, I think they sell them hand over fist.

I like the new charger. It's a pretty car, but it's $51,000. And that's just a bridge too far for working in middle-income people, I think. Yeah, it's not, you know, something that a 22-year-old guy is going to go out and get, for example. Correct. Yeah. The point being with the Durango, or if they were to reboot the RAM and do these kind of things, is that the tooling, they already have the tooling. They already have all of the files for the computer-aided drafting and manufacturing and all that kind of stuff.

So it's not exactly like they would have to pay a whole lot of stuff. That stuff's already amortized and paid for. It could actually save the company. Couldn't it? Yeah, they could make a lot of money. I mean, I'm sure they're making a lot of money on the sale of each Durango, because as you say, the tooling has been amortized years ago. You know, right now they're just stamping them out and making good money selling them.

So why don't they try that same thing with the charger and some of their other models, too? You know, it's become very evident, very clear that there's something profoundly wrong with the way the new car market is right now. And people want the cars the way they used to make them, not the way they're making them now. I've also noticed that there is a rising, I guess if you want to call it, resistance to the digital snooping of all the newer cars. In fact, I'm looking at this from younger generations, Gen Alpha and those type of people. And they're talking about resisting it. And they're wanting to go out and purchase older cars that don't have the surveillance tech.

And they're a generation that's grown up with all the surveillance tech, you know, essentially. And they're wanting to opt out of this. This stuff has happened so fast. Most people who aren't motorheads, gearheads, people like us, they are not even aware of it. But awareness is dawning. You know, it's becoming common knowledge, you know, what's going on with the new cars. And more and more people are just understandably creeped out by it. They don't want to be watched.

They don't want to be recorded. They don't want to be controlled externally. It just goes against everything that a car is supposed to be about that makes driving appealing. Yeah, they don't want their data being sold. as part of actually purchasing a vehicle. They don't want that. They're not looking for this. They're looking for, well, actually ownership to actually own something.

How about that? Yeah, I mean, speaking of the Gen Z, I think she might even be younger. You may have seen this video. It's kind of gone viral. Young woman, she looks like she's probably about 22 or 23. And she was talking about how her generation is going old school and seeking out the pre-computer pre-tech cars, you know, of the 70s and the 60s. because they just don't like it, which gives me hope.

Because as you say, that generation has never known a world before all of this tech stuff came online. But they don't like it either. And you and I remember the world before. My listeners understand that world before and how it has changed since that time. Speaking of which, though, let's talk about maybe one of the biggest behemoths of the road right now that you had out. And this was the review of the week. and I always hear people say right things about the infinity.

The QX80 though, this is a monster. What was your experience like with that, huh? Well, let's start with, I think that you remember the love boat, they should give out Captain Studing's hat to everybody who buys one of these things because you really are piloting an ocean liner. It's wonderful. Once you get it out on the open ocean,

you know, the only negative thing that I have to say about it is it's just so gargantuan that maneuvering it in tight, tight spots is a little bit of a challenge. But once you get it out on the open road, It's delightful. And, you know, this is the first non-American brand that really is challenging the hegemony of the, you know, the GM and the Ford huge SUVs, in particular the Cadillac Escalade and the Lincoln Navigator, which for decades have kind of owned that segment. You know, there's a lot of high-end SUVs, but the really huge ones that, you know, that have dominated that segment have long been American. This one, I think, is going to undercut those two, not only because it's their peer in every respect objectively, but it's also. also a lot less expensive. You know, even in the high end, $8,000 price difference, that's not jump change. Anybody looking for a vehicle in this class, I recommend they go check out this big rig.

All right. What's it start at? It starts, gosh, I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but I think it's 80-something thousand. You know, the escalate starts around 91,000, and the navigator is about the same. I think the difference between those two is just a few hundred bucks. I had no idea that when you went on, got an escalate, you were getting close to 100,000. I had no idea. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

You load one of those things up, and it's $115,000. You know, it's a little bit above my pay grade, my friend. Yep. But I can certainly admire them from afar, I guess, is what I'm going to have to do, all right? But still, review of the 2026 Infinity QX80. Great. Also, the final thing I would mention here, and the Odyssey, the Odyssey article you were talking about, and how, you know, the black-facing of America in which you have everything about history now being retold

and, you know, here it is. Here's a documentary about the Anglo-Saxons, and then they have black lords in it, right? And do you think, is this still a hangover from the George Floyd era? Is that what we're dealing with still? I partially, and, you know, I think if I had Elon Musk's money, I would commission a film a remake of the, of, let's say, the color purple, and I would hire Sidney's to portray Oprah's part in that movie.

I love the idea. You know, I mean, just that, I mean, I'm making fun. that it's serious. You know, it is, it's an insult. It's an affront. How about we remake roots with Ryan Gosling playing Kuntikinti? I am tired of lies being portrayed when they talk, when they're talking about history in, in these Hollywood films, even these epic films. You know, here it is what, who was the trans, the trans guy, you know, the fake guy that took the spear in the Odyssey. Oh, Elliot Page. Yeah, Elliot Page. They talked more about that than the actual movie itself. But once again, there ain't no guy that was going to be going up in and fighting in that war.

Let's be real. Or no fake guy. Elliot is something I think of all of 5-1 and 110 pounds. But, you know, the point is that they're just trying to shove this down our throats and make us pay for it and gaslight us if we object to it, you know, because somehow it's racist to say, hey, wait a minute, there really weren't any black lords in 10th century England. You know, somehow that, it's racist to say that. Nonetheless, it's the truth. It's got nothing to do with that. I'd equally as affronted. I'd laugh my butt off if they remade roots and had Ryan Gosselin playing Kuntikente. It's absurd. Yeah. There was a meme out there that had the story of, who is the girl, the girl. How dare you? Remember her? Oh, Greta.

Yeah, Greta, Tuneberg. Yeah, the story of Greta Toonberg, and it was a black actress, right? Just be truthful about it. It's okay. There were areas that, let's face it, England was not diverse back of the 10th century, okay? That's right. All right. And I will not, I will not reward that kind of nonsense. I will not go to see it, and I will not watch it online or

anywhere else, for that matter. Eric... That's the best weapon that we have to fight, is to simply just, you know, opt out. Don't watch it, don't pay for it. Eric, great story. And thanks. We will catch you next Wednesday for sure. And thanks so much for me, sir.