Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 08-06-25_WEDNESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

08-06-25_WEDNESDAY_6AM

The Bill Meyer Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. Here's Bill Meyer. 11 minutes after six wheels up Wednesday time here. Eric Peters joins me in about 20 minutes. We'll be digging into car news and such, including his latest look at the Toyota Fourrunner, the brand new iteration of them, which is quite a bit different from the 2002 that I use around here at the radio station,

which is still going strong. I'll be curious to see what he thinks the durability will be because I always get the impression that the more luxurious and the more automatic things that are in it, the, yeah, I know, maybe the more fragile it is. I don't know. We'll talk with Eric about it. I'm sure he put it through its paces.

Also, another great talk we'll have is who gets to pay when the self-driving car runs over people and kills them? because Tesla ended up just losing a big lawsuit. It was a quarter of a billion dollars. They're pretty close to a quarter of a billion dollars award from the jury. And I have no doubt that Elon Musk will likely drag this out on appeal for a number of years. But it's kind of putting a cabosh on this whole idea that, well, it's self-driving, wink, wink, wink, but you better be there to pay attention, wink, wink, wink, wink at all times as your text messaging or watching porn on the phone and having the test.

By the way, I'm not saying that you're driving porn. I'm just taking the person that runs over somebody. But, you know, is it self-driving? If you're going to call it self-driving technology, then obviously you would not have to pay attention to it, right? You know, what is it? So this is something that the lawyer is, and we figured this is going to come. sooner than later the lawyers were going to start taking apart this thing like oh yeah everybody you know down at the car dealerships they'll show you the self-driving technology but you do need

to pay attention to it at all times okay well how self-driving is it okay so we're just going to experiment with with people yeah we go maybe if you're out in the middle of the desert self-driving technology works really really well when there's nobody there but the thing is everybody wants to use it when you're driving in downtown crowded cities and trying to get around the construction zones. I could see how that wouldn't necessarily pan out real well. But we'll talk to them about that. There's also a lot of discussion this morning about the possibility of going with a special prosecutor to do the Russia-Russia investigation. And John O'Neill's going to join me from Landmark Legal. He has put out a piece there that is just screaming loudly. Whatever you do,

do not go the special prosecutor route. And I have a feeling I haven't actually read the piece. I'll talk with him about it after 7 o'clock. I have a feeling it's going to be like, okay, special prosecutor where investigations go to die or go for five to 10 years, et cetera, et cetera, and nobody does a per block, that kind of thing. I think that may be where he's going, but we'll find out. We'll talk with John about that. Another John we have coming on, John Leak.

John Leake is an author who has partnered with Dr. McCullough, and they had a best-selling book on COVID-19, fighting COVID-19, back just a few years ago. And now they're taking on, he and Dr. McCullough taking on the vaccine mythologies. And something tells me that this is one of those game-changing, potentially game-changing books. And I'll discuss that with him coming up a little bit later this morning after 8 o'clock. All right. All right. Let's see. President Trump issued rather an executive order for the 2028 Olympics. So they have a White House task force in the 28 Summer Olympics and the president shall serve as chair of the tax force and the vice president and the vice chair. Okay. So they're going to mobilize the entire federal government to ensure the games are safe, seamless, and historically successful. Okay. So that's the latest. in what's always a slew of executive orders coming out of the Trump administration. Fox Business reporting the tariffs yield $29 billion in July,

$29 billion in tariff revenues, highest monthly total date so far this year. The question is always who paid for it. The customer's not paying for it. I know that's what the claim is. I'll have a little difference with the Trump administration on that, but we'll set that aside. Still, $29 billion, so $30 billion a year, let's say $360 billion. It's not a small amount of money if that keeps up.

This is also not a small amount of money. City of Ashland has approved the city management salary raise in spite of all the protests. They had a bunch of people protesting down by the city council yesterday in Ashland. It passed 3-3 tie, broken by Mayor Tanya Graham, casting the deciding vote. It's from News Watch 12 reporting this one. And meanwhile, before the council meeting, the newly formed coalition group, Take Back Ashland, had a protest outside of the council chambers over the city management proposing salary increases and cutting community services.

I guess they're talking at anywhere from 17 to, I think, $30,000 a year possibly, is how much the extra, according to some reports that I'm saying could be. Pretty good pay. Pretty good pay. And there were a number, now Daily Courier had to take on that story too, that the city of Ashland ends up approving, approving, rather, increasing city employee salaries anywhere from $1,000 to $16,000.

And the pay hikes might be funded by long-term increased charges on citizens. Yes, permanent increases in the cost of living in the city of Ashland. So, see, this way that the people above the boulevard are able to pay this, and we squeeze out those below the boulevard over time. We'll see. We'll see. A lot of money. Each of the employees gets at least a two and a half percent pay raise.

Electrical, clerical labor union point. It's really interesting the way that there seems to be a real focus on increasing the size of local governments. The bills are getting higher everywhere you look, and they're talking about growing things. And I was surprised to see this story. in the Daily Courier. Might have to talk with Victoria Marshall or somebody else over at the City of Grants Pass. The Daily Courier reporting

that the Grants Pass City Council is hoping to hire more police and firefighters. Of course, these are two of the most expensive employees, especially firefighters, that you can possibly add. I'm not criticizing firelight as I'm just making the statement that these are some of the most expensive hires that any city ever makes besides, say, city manager.

You know, the city manager that has paid more than the president in some of these places. It just astounds me, not Grants Pass, but still. And so Vicky Aldous of the courier ends up saying the Grants Pass City Council wants to try a potentially risky strategy of hiring more police officers and firefighters without raising fees or taxes to cover the costs. The city government usually wraps up each fiscal. school year with unspent money, and counselors hope that will be enough to pay for new public safety workers. Counselor Joel King said during a Monday council workshop, I think we need to take a little bit

of a risk. Really? Between you and me and several thousand folks listening this morning, is this time in the state of Oregon world and in the Oregon state of world? economy, things being a little bit shaky, tons and tons of debt. The state of Oregon is losing money on its purrs, and they're charging the city's extra. See, that's something they haven't even talked about this. Cities are getting nailed with paying for extra purse charges because while other people are making money in the stock market, the state of Oregon lost money

on purse, or they didn't get nearly as much money from purse because they put a lot of it into private equity. That's another story that I think the Oregonian had out a few days ago. But it means that public employers, like the city of grants passed, like the city of Ashland, which is talking about raising, you know, raising pay and benefits and all these other sort of things, they're raising the purse charges. Because when Perz loses money, see, it's interesting when the stock market goes up, retirees win

when the stock market doesn't go up as much or they don't make as much money taxpayers just lose more you know that's how per is a no win or a no lose situation for the uh the employee wouldn't it be great if all the rest of us could be in purse too given that no win you never have to worry about the 401k going down but yeah this is the the especially sacred status of the public employee in the state of work and you've got a contract i know i know i know i've been laurs and i will argue

about this all the time. The contract that can never be broken. Yes, all contracts are permanent, just like the Social Security contract, the social contract, right? Every time they change the rules, it's breaking the contract, but you can never touch the PERS contract, all right? But, all right, sorry, I'm getting off into irritating land. Back to the City of Grants Pass, though.

Is right now in the state of Oregon, in the way the Oregon economy is the way the Oregon economy is looking in the way the Oregon tax situation is looking and the various other issues that are going on in the state of Oregon, even exodus from some of the cities because of the tax situation, is now the time to take a risk and hire more people? That is an honest, heartfelt, serious question that I would pose to the grants past city council. taking a risk if you have some money left over at the end of the year I know if it were me I would not be hiring any additional people at this point

I would be building up reserves just in case and you might really thank yourself for having built up reserves maybe there's a rule in your charter that you're not allowed to build reserves above a certain above a certain level but taking risks on hiring permanent increases in the cost of running the city of grants pass is that a really good idea right now i would in my opinion say no and i say this not because i don't like public employees they're necessary we need them for certain services but is now the time i mean you haven't even solved the

homeless crisis yet and you want to add some more people well you know are more people are more police going to solve the uh the homeless crisis problem in grants pass no you can't do anything to them for the most part you've been told right now by the state of Oregon you just have to sit and take it but we'll see it's what the city council's up to i've got to reach out to them because it just seems like a really weird time to say i think we ought to take a risk let's let's roll the dice and take on some permanent increases in the in the cost of running the city of grants pass including the purrs obligation too i might add all right oh speaking of the precarious issue that the state of Oregon is facing and do you want cities in Oregon to be

rolling the dice and increasing, you know, salaries and benefits and all the rest of it. Oregon live reporting tax cuts in Trump's bill could cost Oregon nearly a billion dollars a year over the next two years. This according to state analysis, the legislative revenue office or a billion dollars over the next two years. Even in the state of Oregon, a billion dollars is real money. Okay, so a half billion dollars a year, legislative revenue office determining that the renewal of the Trump tax cuts and making that permanent, as you see, that's the whole thing, I have no doubt that the state of Oregon was really hoping that the tax bill wouldn't get passed because when the federal taxes end up being cut and there are certain tax rules that

are put in there, the state of Oregon ends up writing around those, around those rules. what is taxable income and the exemptions and all the rest of it. The federal bill included more than 100 provisions, Oregonian rights here, that will impact Oregon's tax system, according to the report, state analysts to examine some of these budget cuts, estimate that Oregon is going to be short about a billion, is what they are talking about. So they had about $2.9 billion in the Rainy Day Fund and the Education Stability Fund. And so, you know, this is going to cause the leftist in the state of Oregon who all they ever see is, hey, let's make, let's take a chance and hire some more diversity, equity, and inclusiveness people. More reporters or commissions that can go after people like Dwayne Yunker that say the wrong things on the state legislative floor.

You know, they always want to have more money. Roll the dice on that. So yes, Joel over the Grants Pass City Council, you know, another reason why I would say, don't. roll the dice and hire more people right now, hold off a year, maybe two, and see how things are going to shake out, because it feels a little bit, how do we, how do we put it, just shaky, not shaky, or it could be volatile. Volatile is the word I was looking at. You could always hire people later. It's not exactly like there won't be people available to hire a year or two from now when you have a better idea where all the money is coming from.

Another interesting story, this from K-OBI. In WI.Rika yesterday, they had a bunch of people sheltering in place because the Ready Mix facility, the Mountain Ready Mix facility on the southern side of town ended up having some kind of a malfunction. They were doing some equipment repair, and it just blew a huge cloud of slag into the air, and they put out a temporary shelter in place. Hey, you don't want to breathe this stuff in. Happened around 7 in the morning.

And the Siskue County Emergency Services Director confirmed that he was alerted by Cal Fire. And the Siscu Alert System was used to advise residents. They turned off your air conditioning, close the doors and windows, and limit your outdoor activity. It did clear after a little while. But, yeah, I guess that's something you don't really want to breathe in. That wouldn't help. back on Ashland KOBI now reporting that more utility rate hikes

could be headed to the city of Ashland it's not connected with them raising the city manager's salary and giving everybody else a raise there in the city of Ashland from what it looks like but city manager Sabrina Kata informing council members oh she got a new she must be happy right she got that raise right informing council members that rate hikes for electricity wastewater and storm drain services are currently being considered.

Why? Rising operational costs, particularly staff salaries. But there's no connection to the city council raising the staff salaries for the fact that the utility rates are going to be going up. And finally, we have the Oregon Attorney General, Dan Rayfield. You want to meet him? He'll be in Southern Oregon. In fact, Town Hall, 6 o'clock tomorrow. Tomorrow night, Southern Oregon University, Stevenson Union and Ashland. And he'll be talking about sharing experiences when it comes to the impact of federal action. Because, you know, Dan Rayfield, that's the one where I'm reading a news release from him about every six hours or so about the latest lawsuit he's filing against the Trump administration.

He's stopping us from providing services and resources to illegal aliens, you know, stuff like that. That's what Dan's all about. Well, the hero of the left will be at the SOU tomorrow. It's funny. You know, it's always at Southern Oregon University. I guess Attorney Generals and, you know, Pam Marsh, they always feel very comfortable in such August halls, I suppose. It's 27 minutes after 6 on Wheels Up Wednesday.

This is the Bill Meyer show, KMED, and KVXG. Hi, I'm Matt with Stone Heating and Air. We understand how uncomfortable your home can get when the AC quit's working. You want it fixed right, fixed fast, and you want a fast quote. Unlike some companies, we won't give you a quote until we see what the problem is. We will then give you a rock-solid price and then stand behind it. At stone heating and air, we rely on years of experience backed by support from companies like Carrier. Turn to the experts and meet me at the thermostat, and we'll fix your system the right way with a stone cold guarantee.

Getting ready for a summer road trip, click on the travel report on KMED.com for the latest road construction. Roadcams and gas prices in our region. Be prepared with the travel report on KMM. Brought to you by Lithia Body and Paint on Bullock Road in Medford. At Drake's Paint and Supply, we know your color because we know our community. For decades, we've partnered with Benjamin Moore to bring you the highest quality paint and expert service. At Drake's, we help bring your vision to life, making your project a stunning success. Shop local, save big, and experience the best quality and service in town.

Drake's Paint and Supply, your color, your community, your home. Your locally owned Benjamin Moore dealer in Medford and Grants Pass. Hi, I'm Matt Stone with Stone Heating and Air, and I'm on KMED. 29 minutes after six, Eric Peters joins me here in just a few minutes. Great peace in Fox News. I wanted to mention here too briefly before we break for the other news. And I wonder if there is going to be a way that this could affect, if this could affect Oregon's voter, motor, or motor voter in the way we actually identify?

State of Texas scored a victory this week when a federal appeals court upheld a state law requiring voters using mail-in ballots to include a state ID number or partial social security number. A three-judge panel reversed a district's court decision saying unanimously that the law did not violate the Civil Rights Act of 1916. as some critics had claimed because it is material to confirm voter eligibility as required under the statute. So this is good news. Judge James Howe began the unanimous opinion with a blunt statement, mail and ballots are not secure. Okay. It's kind of refreshing to actually have a judge just come out and say mail and ballots are not secure.

I mean, because it's obvious because we have this faith-based system in Oregon that mail-in ballots are secure. because we do everything with a mail-in ballot. It don't really require much more than that with the mail-in ballot. And if you want to look at the mail-in ballots afterwards, the Democrat Secretary of State say that you can't look at those ballots to try to check them to see if there's any kind of hinky going on, unless like it as an example in Jackson County, you pay up a million dollars so that the county can then hire somebody

to make sure that there's no personal information on these ballots. That's how much the state trusts you. They err on the side. Well, we wouldn't want anybody's privacy. No, really what the state is saying in Oregon is that they don't want anybody checking up on the security and the sanctity of our faith-based mail-in system. But at least in Texas, they are doing some work about that. Yes, they can require some ID even on the mail-in ballot. Wouldn't that be great if we did that?

Just an idea. You know, maybe the Republicans can once again, walk out until the Democrats were to look at something like that. But no, I don't think that they're available to look out of anything, or walk out, walk out for any reason. I've often wondered what it would take, because we know we've been talking about this denial of quorum thing a lot on my show for a number of years because it has been successful, even though it's a hard thing to do, like I was talking with Herman about that yesterday, Herman Berchiger. and we're seeing denial of quorum playing out in Texas. And I don't agree with the Democrats' reason for wanting to deny quorum,

but I appreciate the fact that they're willing to use their power, which in Oregon Republicans are no longer, they just don't feel comfortable using that denial of quorum power to take care and temper the abuses of the Democratic Party. Must be that abusive marriage thing. And so they, you know, some sort of sympathy. Republicans have sympathy for the Democrats and they just want to do better.

They want to be a better wife to the husband Democrats and they wouldn't want to do anything to get them upset, I suppose. But wouldn't it be interesting if we were able to get that kind of thing moving here in which mail-in ballots required some kind of an ID on it rather than,

yeah, we'll trust you and we'll have our forensic signature analyst down at the county courthouse, figure this all out. Well, we know that there's no fraud in the state of Oregon. Yeah, Texas seems to be a little more sensible of such things, about such things, rather. 633. We'll catch up on the rest of the news, and then out to the open road, Eric Peters. Well, much more coming up. 30 years ago, American industrial doors specialized in industrial doors for warehouses,

shops, barns, airport hangers, and the like, but soon after they began offering residential, garage doors and openers. They thought about changing the name to include residential, but too late now. So if you need to move anything on wheels from inside to out, from a golf cart to an airplane, please remember American Industrial Door is Southern Oregon's premier door company, including residential, with locations in Medford, Grands Pass, and Klamath Falls. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, and I'm with Cherise from No Wires Now, your Dish Premier local retailer. It's time to switch to DISH. If you have direct TV or cable TV, call me to Dism. to see how I can save you money.

Plus, I'll lower your internet and cell phone bills. And those offers in the mail from DISH, you can go through No Wires Now for those. Call me at 541-680-5875. Call Cherise like I did or visit their showroom off Bidl Road in Metford, no-wires-now.com. Restrictions apply. Call for details.

Internet and cell phone service not provided by DISH. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. Tuesday afternoon, City of Ashland Counselors approved city management's proposal for major salary increases. The motion passed on a 3-3 tie, which was broken by Mayor Tanya Graham casting the deciding vote. The raises will push those wages to nearly the highest tiers in the state. Top 10 city managers could see their salaries increased by an average of $30,000 in just a few years. The U.S. Department of Justice listed a list of states, counties, and cities that have declared sanctuary status.

Oregon is prominently listed. The federal government has filed lawsuits against New York City and other jurisdictions. to force local governments to comply. The Oregon Department of Justice released a statement yesterday, reiterating that local law enforcement does not participate in federal immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant.

A man from Honduras, reportedly living in the U.S. illegally, was sentenced to six years in prison for trafficking fentanyl in Oregon and California. He was arrested as part of a Portland sting. Bill London, KMED. With SRN News, Samrich Thomason in Washington.

California's Gifford fire continues to grow, expanding to roughly 84,000 acres. Fire-fighting crews struggling to rain in the blaze amid very hot, tender-dry conditions. The fire in the Los Padres National Forest only about 9% contain. President Trump says he considers J.D. Vance, a front-runner in the 2028 Republican presidential nomination race,

although the president says it is still very early. NATO is helping Ukraine with some heavy lifting, coordinate him regular and large-scale deliveries of arms. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has gone to court to remove Democrat Texas House Leader Gene Wu from office. Abbott accusing Wu of leading dozens of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block a congressional redistricting plan. More details at SRNNews.com.

The Montana roofing crews are very observant in their daily travels, and occasionally they can appear to be telepathic, like this dramatized occurrence that actually happened recently. Well, it could. Maybe. It's possible. Ah, this is turning out to be a fairly nice day. Hmm, that intense reflection coming off my roof is sort of odd. I didn't know I had a skylight up in the attic. Pardon me, ma'am. We're from Fontana Roofing.

We couldn't help but read your thoughts as we drove by. Sorry to intrude, but that blinding light coming off your roof is not a skylight. It's actually the remainder of your composite roof. Oh, my. Yes, a shiny roof means the protective granules have worn away, revealing the fiberglass matting underneath. Fontana roofing, do you know what I'm thinking now? Let's get busy on a quote. I'll get the latter.

Give Fontana roofing a call for a quote before they call you. Visit fontana roovingservices.com. Myers Show on 1063 KMED. I didn't one crazy train today. Today I just wanted a different song in honor of Oz's passing the other week. But anyway, here we go. By the way, we found out that that was a heart attack, I guess, huh? Wheels up Wednesday.

Eric Peters rejoins the show here from E.P.O.O.S.com. Eric, it is a pleasure having you on. Good morning, sir. Oh, likewise, Bill. I always enjoy our get-togethers. I do, too. And I was thinking about this. Have you been paying attention to what's been going on in Texas with the Democrats flying the coop and going over to Chicago?

I don't know if you paid. Oh, you mean what, the 40 years in the wilderness? Apparently, the journey into the desert? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's really interesting to watch this because here in Oregon, we have a situation just like in Texas, except it is the exact opposite. It is a supermajority Democrat, bloodthirsty majority, that does everything to beat inhuman. humiliate the Republicans. And the Republicans have one power when there is a problem, and that is to deny quorum,

just like the Democrats trying to deny quorum in Texas. And unlike the Democrats in Texas, our Republicans are, I guess, too afraid, or, you know, they just want to cooperate, or they don't really thought of as mean. You know, they don't want to be thought of as mean. And so they don't want to do that anymore, even though they did it a number of years ago, and we're quite successful at bringing the Democrats to the table. and they compromised. It's just fascinating to watch how the Democrat critics of quorum denial here in Oregon,

well, they're Democrats. And then now that Orange Man wants to redistrict in Texas, now I hear all the Republicans talking the way Democrats in Oregon do. It's just like, oh, they were chicken, they left, they're not doing their job, all the rest of it. I didn't realize we had runaway slave laws still. Did you? Well, no, but isn't it just another example of this cognitive dissonance, particularly with regard to the left?

You know, they're situationally principled. You know, they favor free speech when free speech works to their advantage. They're all for choice when it comes to killing kids, but not when it comes to wearing a mask and so on and so on. Yeah. And the thing is, though, is that Republicans in Texas turn into Oregon Democrats, though, when it's when the shoes on the other foot there. But still, this whole idea that a,

John Cornyn, the senator, is calling on the FBI. I want you to find these people because they're breaking the law. Yeah, they're breaking the law in Texas, and it's a civil law. You know, this whole, like, you know, see what we're getting at there. It just seems to be a weird thing that we would enlist the FBI to drag legislators to go back home. Isn't it weird? Did that strike you strange? I don't think it's weird anymore because, you know, just to repeat what Mao said, power flows from the barrel of a gun.

And, you know, those who have power, they tend to wield it, particularly the people on the left. Now, of course, when the right does it, then the left draws itself up in high dozen and says, how dare you, like Brett up? Yeah, yeah, you're right. Okay. I guess the thing is I'm looking at the denial of quorum thing. I appreciate denial of quorum because it's the one thing that a minority that it's being abused can use in the legislative process, which of course is why a lot of states have gotten rid of quorum requirement, which means that, gosh, there can be situations in which you just have a few. people show up into the legislature, and then the laws can pass that end up. You know, magic pieces of paper, Eric, and you know how much you and I respect those magic pieces of paper on everything. Well, don't you feel sometimes like I've traveled back to early Imperial Rome, where the forms

of the old republic still existed, and they had the Senate, and everybody pretended that they were representing the people. Meanwhile, you know, you had Caesar, whose will was the law. Yeah. That's where we are now. We still have this pretense of living. in a constitutional government, you know, with the rule of law. It's all just a bunch of obnoxious nonsense.

I think people have got enough with it. Well, the one thing, we have not gone to the horse being elected to the Senate yet. We haven't seen that yet. Wait. You know, if Orange Man continues to mess things up, we're probably going to end up with somebody like Pete Buttigieg as the president next to go around. Then maybe he will appoint his horse a senator. Oh, gosh, I hope we don't have to experiment with that, all right. Hey, wanted to talk with you a little bit.

And I was driving around in a friend's 2018 Toyota forerunner the other day, and it was really nice. The one I use at work is at 2002, so it was a big difference in those generations. You have been reviewing the 2025 forerunner, and what was your overall impression of it? Well, it's very different, but it's very much the same. You know, if you look at it, really difficult to discern the differences between the new one and last year's one. Now, there are, you know, a number of stylistic differences, but they're not obvious. The big difference is that the 4-Liter v6 that's been standarded in the for, what, 14 years, I think, something like that? Yeah.

It's not there anymore, and there is in its place a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, and for the first time ever, they're offering an optional drive train, which is the same four, but with a turbo-hybridged drive train, which tops some really impressive numbers, 326 horsepower, I think it's 300, no, 456 or 65, I'm transposing it, but 450 plus. foot pounds of torque out of a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine. Pretty cool. Pretty good horsepower. I'm going to continue to ask the question, though, how durable is a four-cylinder pushed to that level? Yeah, that is the question that I kind of explored in the article. You know, Toyota has a well-deserved reputation for building durable V6 engines, and the four-liter is an example of that. That's a quarter-million-mile engine if you change the oil regularly. We have that track record to look at. Now, without any disparagement meant at all towards

this new 2.4 turbo engine, we just don't know, and we can't know until the future gets here. It's going to take, you know, at least, at least six, seven, eight, nine years, and a lot of these things out in circulation and crewing miles to see whether they are, in fact, as reliable or less reliably than the four-liter-six. What has been concerning me is that there have been a lot of manufacturers, including Toyota, that in order to comply with new rules or pollution standards in carbon and all the rest of it, they've been putting out a slew of new engines. And we've been talking a bit about this. And a lot of them were rushed to market pretty quickly, weren't they? What I understand? Oh, absolutely. Desperate, desperate to manage this balance between complying with the regs and maintaining the power and performance that people want.

You know, they couldn't just put a 2.4-liter 4 in the forerunner without a turbo because the power would have been insufficient to move the vehicle. Nobody would have wanted it. The towing capacity would have been probably cut in half and all of these things. So, you know, they put a turbo on it to pump up the power and make it replicate the performance and the capability of the old V6. But by doing that, you're literally putting that little engine under a lot of pressure. Literally, that's what turbo boosting is. And you've got smaller wear surfaces, bearings, and so on that have to absorb that load. And whether they're going to be able to hold up as long over the long haul, we just don't know. And again, this is just about compliance.

If the federal regulatory regime did not exist, you can bet your BIP that that 4-Liter V6 would still be. the standard engine in the 25-4 runner. You know, it's too bad that Toyota and everybody else just hasn't done their own version of the old General Motors, you know, the Buick, the Pontiac 3.8, 3,800, that is the quarter million, sometimes a half-million mile engine. They no longer make that any longer, and I guess maybe it's just, it's not complying or it can't comply with modern standards. Yeah, exactly.

It isn't quite fuel-efficient enough to meet the government's demands, and The real problem is that a six-cylinder engine, a larger displacement engine, no matter what you do to it, it's going to flow a certain amount of air, right? Because the volume of the cylinders. And, you know, if CO2 is a pollutant, as the government says it is, well, you know, part of what comes out of the tailpipe is going to be carbon dioxide. And a larger engine will always emit, to use their language, more CO2 than a smaller engine. So you put a 2.4-liter engine in the thing instead of a 4-Liter 6, and you've got two fewer cylinders and less cylinder volume. And so when it's not under boost, it's not producing as much CO2, and that's how they make, that's how they comply with the federal leaders. All right.

Very good. Talking with Eric Peters this morning, E.P.O.O.com. If you have a question about a vehicle, car, maybe you've been looking at, maybe a story that he's covered. And let's touch on some more of those in just a moment. Before we go to the break here, I want to just mention that I joined the conversation along with other people, that article you had last week on the company. It was at Everotti? Everettie? Yeah, Everettie.

Yeah, Everett. The company that was taking half-million-dollar Porsches and gutting the regular engine and putting an electric motor in it and that sort of thing, you know, their PR people reached out to me again. I forwarded that pitch to you is, boy, I believe I got the same one independently. Oh, you did? I did. I was going to email you, and then I got sidetracked. But I literally got the same PR pitch you got. Yeah.

And it's like they are pushing this hard, and the fact that they hired a PR firm tells me. that something tells me these half million dollar neutered Porsche, classic Porsches, are probably not selling as much as they would like them to. I think that's so. But we'll talk more about that and a bunch more. And we've got to talk about that Tesla, that Tesla lawsuit, okay? That is a very big one. More on that's coming up with Harry Peters from Epiottos.

If you want to join the conversation, 770-5633 on KMED. Hi, this is Lisa from Kelly's Automotive Service and Grants Pass in Medford, I asked my staff what was the one thing they wish more people would do to save themselves money. Overwhelmingly, the answer was a pre-buyers inspection. Investing a little upfront can save you thousands later. Unfortunately, we see a lot of post-buyer inspections when it's often too late. If you're thinking about a new-to-you vehicle, please get a pre-buyer's inspection with us or someone else you trust. Kelly's Automotive Service where we service where we service your vehicle, but take care of you. If you have an Alexa device, you can listen to

great news and talk anytime by first asking Alexa to enable KMED. After enabling the skill, you can listen to the most popular talk personalities like Bill Meyer and Lars Larson, plus local news and weather 24 hours a day by just asking Alexa to play KMED. Alexa screaming on KMED is made possible by Megan McPherson at Farmers Insurance, BM AutoWorks, and Father and Son jewelry in downtown Medford. Welcome to the Bill Meyer show on 1063 KM. KMED. Give Bill a call at 541-770-5-633. That's 770 KM-E-D. Back with Eric Peters, E.P.O.com, great automotive journalists. If you have a question or comment, things we've been talking about, transportation related. Vicki, you had a comment and then a question about your El Camino. You got your classic El Camino, I guess, here. You're on with Eric. Go ahead. Yeah, it's 1978 with three on the floor. And I called a couple weeks ago because we were having issues.

choose with the distributor. And one of your listeners called in after I talked to Eric, who told me basically the same thing, was that we needed to replace the core. And, oh, my God, it runs so good now. I just want to thank both of you guys for that tip. And just a side note, we didn't have any problem at the DMV other than the weight. It hasn't been registered since 2008. But when we tried to switch the insurance over from our 72 Ford Courier, which actually

has less numbers in the VIN, the insurance company had such a hard time. They just kept saying, well, there's not enough numbers. There's not enough numbers, and it's like it's old. They didn't have that many numbers back then. Eric, have you ever heard about that? The insurance company doesn't know how to handle fewer VIN numbers? Oh, yeah, actually, and I've heard stories that at least in my state in Virginia, that the DMV is sometimes having that issue with older vehicles.

You know, we're talking now 50-year-old vehicles. And, yeah, they have fewer numbers in the VIN. And, you know, sometimes it just doesn't compute. It's just like, it's almost like the robotic, and they have to go by what the computer is telling them. And it's like, no, back then, they didn't have as many numbers. So finally, after about 45 minutes on the phone with the, I won't say the company, but the insurance, they finally, you know, let it go through.

stuff, and it was just, it just blows my mind, maybe because I'm from a different generation. I grew up with old cars, but it's just amazing that they can't deviate from that screen at all. But that requires the exercise of initiative. And another factor is that the old cars just have numbers on their vint plate. They don't have a bar scan thing. Oh. And the new ones all have a bar scan thing. That makes a lot of sense, too.

Hey, Vicki, appreciate the call and the comment. and I'm glad you got that 1978 El Camino back on the road. Wonderful deal. There was something you were mentioning, Eric, I don't know one of your articles. I think I was reading it over the weekend. And on how, you know, years ago, was it years ago you actually had the opportunity to drive even older vehicles

than the ones we're talking about right now, like the ones that I maybe grew up with, like even... Oh, yeah. And what was it, the Model T, right? Yeah, a lot of them actually turn to the center. vehicles. Do you know Hemings Motor News? Yes, I do. Great. Okay, so years ago, they invited me and a number of other journalists up there. I think Bennington, Vermont is where their headquarters is. And they have a whole just horde of old cars going all the way back to like 1900 or even earlier than that.

And they let us have a field day. They opened up the doors and let us drive them. And, you know, I got to drive vehicles that were built decades before I showed up on this earth. And so I didn't know how to drive them. I mean, if you've never driven a Model T, you may think you know how to drive, but if somebody hasn't shown you how to drive one, you don't know how to drive one. You'll just sit there and look at it and go, what are these things for? They have different pedals. They have different controls. And it's a whole process. And I got to thinking about how, you know, from my point of view, as a Gen X guy, you know, a 16-year-old today probably has no idea, for example, how to set the choke.

Yeah, setting the choke of, you know, pushing down the gas pedal sharply one time, letting it set and then also once you start it then giving it a braps so that the choke will let loose a little bit let the idle go down right so you know time passes and and that's you know it's the same thing for us and we're getting to the point now where you just get in a car and push a button and before long it'll probably just read your mind and say hello master or maybe that's your way around or yeah the car will be the master and saying we are we are taking you to your pod thank you very much to your government assigned pod he wanted to ask you though when you uh speaking i think you brought up a model t i've always wondered i've never had the opportunity to drive a model

t and i remember that it has three oddly spaced foot pedals it's not the standard way we look at at the foot pedals now and what were they do you remember what they were actually designed to do because it wasn't the same thing like a while yeah it's been about 20 years but one of them has something to do with with actually changing the gears uh which is a weird thing and you know before you even try to start the engine, which you have to do manually, like getting out of the car and putting a crank into the hand crank into the engine and being very careful to not break your wrist when the thing kicks back on you, then you have to rush into the thing and adjust the spark timing because it's all manual. You know, it's not like a distributor that has an

advanced system in it. You have to advance it to get the thing started, and then you have to retard it to get it to idle decently, and it's just a whole hilarious process. I recall that that lever that would look like a turn signal on a modern day car was actually the spark advance. You would change the timing manually with that, wouldn't you? That's exactly it. Was it still a gas pedal, though? Do you remember that? I can't remember. You know, this is like back in 19, I would have to have somebody showing me how to drive the thing again. Yeah. Like back in 95 or 96, that's how long it's been. But it was just an instructive experience to see what it used to take to drive a car. And, you know, then fast forward

to our generation where typically you and I, when we had to learn how to drive, we typically we learned how with a manual training. That's right. That's right. Yeah. So the kids coming up today, what's that? They have no idea. You put them in a car with a stick, and they don't know what to do with that. That's why they call it, well, a millennial. How about a Gen Z anti-fass device? Oh, I know. I know that, well, I learned to drive on a 1971 Ford Pinto. That was the one. And then, once I got the license, then they let me drive the automatic. It was pretty cool. But, you know, that was back in the days, though, when high schools routinely, I mean, Just as a part of regular education, there was a lot of driver's education.

I guess now that's all usually outside of the school system where you have to pay a lot extra. Isn't that the rule now these days? I'm not sure, but I think so. I think it varies from state to state. Probably you have to go to some private driving school and pay the guy to take your kid around the block or whatever they do now. I don't know. Well, I know that a couple of vehicles on my bucket list that I would like to drive just to get the experience before I die. One of them would be that Model T type thing, so super vintage car that was before I was on this earth also.

And I would also like to drive, and I know that you may laugh at this one, but you know the old Detroit diesels with the twin sticks or sometimes the triple sticks? Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, I both wanted to try to drive one of those too. Yeah, I've wanted to learn a little bit about how to drive those things because there is no diesel on the road that sounds like the old General Motors Detroit diesel that's screaming Jimmy, you know? It's a two-stroke diesel, I think. Yes, it was a two-stroke diesel, and I think it was most efficient at taking diesel fuel and turning it into noise and smoke. But it was such fine-smelling smoke, wasn't it? Oh, and it was. Because when I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania, those were the engines that were on all the big semi-trucks in those days.

And they were pulling the coal trucks up and down the hills of the mountains out there, and they were just, you know, screaming up the hills. And that note, that exhaust note, was just – well, that's part of the appeal of a lot of these vehicles, just like you were talking about the Porsche, the Porsche being gutted last week for an electric motor, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, part of owning the Porsche is the experience of driving it, and they've taken that away largely by turning it into something, you know, it looks like a Porsche, but it's not materially different from any other electric vehicle. So what's the point? I mean, unless you just want to have a slot car that looks like a Porsche. Remember when we were kids, you know, you have a little – car set and they'd have, you know, but they were all the same. They just had different bodies,

you know, and that just kind of breaks my heart to see them do that. The Porsche is particularly since they're not just making fiberglass shells that look like 9-11s and putting them on an electric skate. They're actually taking the very limited number of classic 9-11s that are still around and mutilating them in that manner. I wouldn't even mind if they came out with those fiberglass type things. Put them on a Tesla, right? Or put the shell on a Tesla. Fine. You know, that'd be great. but there's something that is sacrilegious about just taking out the vintage internal combustion engine and doing this. And also, you know, the other trend that right now is everybody is putting in, is it the L.S. engine into. The L.S. crate motors, a lot of people do that. I'm not a big fan of that either.

You know, I have a classic Pontiac, and when I go to a car show, and I see somebody who's got another classic Pontiac, and they've taken out the Pontiac V8, and they put it in one of these L.S. crate motors, oh, because it's cost less, and it makes more horsepower, and it's all of this and that. But it's not the Pontiac engine that it came with. So now what you've got is basically a modern car that looks like the classic Pontiac. And they do that with Ultramovils and Buicks and so many other cars. And it's just something I'm not a big fan of. Yeah, I'm not a fan of it either.

I remember when I was rebuilding the van again, and I had mentioned this on it in a comment there, that some people were saying, well, why are you rebuilding the stock low power engine and everything else? And so to me, there was something about the authenticity. I know that the van is slow and smoky and it's loud and it's, and it does everything else. But to me, that was the charm of it, kind of like the moan of the or the wine of a six-cylinder boxer engine in the Porsche. You know what I'm getting at? Absolutely.

Amen. 100%. Yeah. There's something to that. I'm not against doing projects, but there's just something, there's something I don't know, Bulgarian about it. It's a defacement. It's vandalism, in my opinion.

Yeah, exactly. Eric Peters with me this morning. We're talking cars and transportation. Let me go to another call. Hi, good morning. You're on with Eric. Who's this? Hey, this is Old Royal Salmon. Hey, Steve, could you back away from your mic a little bit there, but happy to have you on. What are you thinking? Okay, Old Wild Salmon, I can tell you about the three pedals on a Model T. You can. Okay. Help me out.

Okay, that's a two-speed transmission. Now, there's another part to the Model T, and that's the parking break, because it does a couple of different functions. but you put the car in neutral with the parking brake. If you pull it all the way back, that puts the brakes on. If you put it all the way down, that engages the transmission. Oh. But, you know, order for it to work, you have to push down on one of the pedals. That puts it in first gear.

And I believe that's the far left pedal. And then after you get it up to whatever speed you want to in first gear, then you let that pedal out and that puts it in high gear. Wow. Do you remember all that, Bill? Yep. I'm going to remember that next time I try to hotwire and drive away a Model T. Okay.

Well, it's completely different than what you would normally think of. But that was, you know, one of the first low-cost, high-production vehicles, and that was the way that Henry Ford came up with to make it work. I don't know what. The top speed is 25 miles an hour or something. Yeah, about 30 miles an hour. downhill. Yeah. Yeah, and the gas tank is on the cowl. So if you have a half a tank of gas, you start to go up the hill, you'll run out of gas. And so if you turn around and back up the hill,

that puts a little more gasoline pressure into the carburetor. Great story. I mean, again, you know, four genius was simplicity. The gas tank was gravity-fed, no fuel pump. It had splash oiling. It didn't even have an oil pump. So, I mean, it was that simple. And they made they made kits for it. So if you wanted to turn it into a tractor to plow your field, you could do that too. Great story. And Steve, thanks for sharing the old vintage Model T experience. But like I said, I'd still like to try a drive one of those someday. I really would. All right. Hey, Eric, before we take off, I wanted to talk about this great article on EP. And it's who's responsible when no one's responsible for driving? Because I guess this is the first crack that we are seeing in the self-driving car world. because most of these lawsuits, I think, have been dismissed or settled out of court or something. So the question is, what happens when you have a self-driving car?

And what was this lawsuit? Can you tell us a little bit about what happened with the Tesla? Yeah, well, a jury in Florida awarded, I think it was $243 million in total to the family of a couple that had been out walking on the street when a Tesla that was being self-driven and the driver was texting. He admitted that he was texting, wasn't paying any attention. and the self-driving glitched, and it ran these with a couple over, killed the woman, and it badly hurt the guy. And so the jury found that that Tesla was liable, and I'm glad for that. You know, I think that there is this kind of contradictory incentivizing of not paying attention that's going on with Tesla. They will tell you, I posted the actual link to it or a picture of it in my article, that even when you use self-driving, you have to pay attention at all times.

I forget the exact language and be ready to, to internet. intervene if the thing glitches, but that's just absurd. They know they're marketing it to people with the idea that you can sit there in text, you can take a nap. That's the cell. If you have to pay attention all the time and be ready to intervene, then it's just a gimmick. You know, there's an analogy here with aviation. You know, planes have self have an autopilot, but the folks will have to sit and see and pay attention to what's going on and actually be ready to intervene. He doesn't go back in the cabin and take a nap. That's right. You know, and that's and that's the distinction here. You know, I think it's either is or it isn't, somebody has to be held responsible for this. And if it's not the driver, then it's got to be, I think, the purveyor of this so-called self-driving technology, which is no such thing. There are numerous people who have been killed in various car manufacturers' self-driving technologies or the various iterations of it, whatever they call it. And there hasn't been a lot of legal activity that has been successful at this point. Is this the only one that has pierced that kind of corporate wall of inviability? so far? Yep, so far. And it's interesting because at this very moment, Elon Musk is trying to

launch his fleet of robo-taxies in cities all around the country that will not have any driver in them at all to intervene if something glitches. And this could definitely put a hair in the suit there. And I think that there are going to be other cases that will take Tesla to task because now a precedent has been set. And I think it's a valid and sound precedent. And we're not, and we're not criticizing Tesla for because we dislike Elon Musk or anything like that. This is just one of those things where I didn't quite understand why the federal government seemed to be so laissez-faire about this technology being unleashed because essentially the American public was the guinea pig for the electric vehicle push with self-driving technology. That was something

we were kind of conditioned that there's nothing you can do about it, right? Well, I think Elon Musk and Tesla have served their purpose and that's why this is a really cynical point of view. But I think that's why, probably partially why we got the decision that we did. You know, they turned a blind eye, the federal government, toward Tesla for the longest time, because Tesla was kind of the leading stalking horse of this EV push. And, you know, that is no longer needed from Tesla. So, you know, now going after Tesla is just fine. That's my take on this.

Oh, so he can now be discarded now that he has served the government's purpose. Is that it? I think so. I think Tesla, like Fonzie, has jumped the shark. Ah, we'll see. We'll see about that, but it's a really interesting article. Who's responsible when no one is responsible for driving? And I was always wondering, it's like, gosh, you're going to end up suing the software writers?

You know, who's actually responsible when the self-driving car runs over somebody and kills somebody? I mentioned in the article there's this doctor, and I can't remember the exact verbiage about fitness for use. You may know better than I. That essentially when a manufacturer of a product put something out there and they say this is good for X, whatever is. You buy a hammer and you buy the hammer with the understanding that this is a tool that's used to hammer nails with. And if it turns out that it isn't actually safe or viable for that purpose, then you have a cause for action. So, you know, here we're talking about the self-driving technology that you can implicitly feel safe using and that you're not going to be responsible for killing somebody. You know, that's kind of contrary to the whole fitness for use, I think.

All right. Fair enough. You can find out more about this on Eric Petersato.com. E.P.otos.com. It's who's responsible when no one's responsible for driving. Eric, before we take off, what's you going to drive and review for next week? Or what do you have in the driveway? What do you think? Do you know? Oh, Bill, I'm going to have to leave you an alert. I haven't looked at my schedule, so I'm not exactly sure what's coming. So it'll be a surprise. Okay. All right. So I will take bets or odds that it will be, let's see, a crossover SUV. It's either that or it's possibly an EV. I know that there's still one lurking around in my schedule somewhere.

to have a power cord this time. Okay. Well, that's right. That's right. I still couldn't believe it that the company sent you an electric vehicle with no charging cord. Okay. I could neither. You know, and it's just, maybe they're just deliberately trying to generate bad press for these things at this point. I don't know. Yeah, could be. Could be. Eric, thanks so much. Great talk as always, right? Thank you, Bill. E.P.O.com. This is KM.E.D. and KM.E.D. HD1. Eagle Point, Medford, KBXG. Grants past town hall news is next it's so neighborly of you to trim my head you