Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 12-10-25_WEDNESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Morning news and weirdness, including Jo Co has the very first state approved THERAPY FOREST TRAIL. Auto journalist Eric Peters talks Trump and the Tiny car talk, the Lincoln Navigator review and a whole bunch more and listener calls.

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. It's a delight having you on this morning, 11 minutes after six. Join the conversation at 7705-633-770K-M-D. Email Bill at Billmyershow.com. The Facebook.com slash Bill Myers Show is up.

And I'm happy to talk with you wherever you happen to be. 1063, 105, 9, 1067 on the FM dial, KMED.com, too, for that matter, and 993 KBXG. Some of the stuff going on this morning here that I find really interesting. President Trump is on the road right now, and he's touting economic success, and there has been quite a bit. I wish he wouldn't fib about the inflation, though. Do you feel that same way as I do? He is going on the road. He was in Pennsylvania last night over in the Steeltown.

areas and talking about the Biden administration gave us the worst inflation in history. It was the worst inflation in history. It's a lie. I don't know how you come up with saying that the inflation in the Biden administration, which, by the way, was bad. It was bad. I'm not saying it was a good thing. They printed stuff into existence.

The Trump administration printed money into existence for the first Trump administration with the COVID situation, that money eventually flooded into the economy and more money chasing fewer goods, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, lots of inflation and we're continuing to inflate even right now. But to say that the Biden administration was the worst in history, that's not true. And it bothers me that he's continuing to go to that fib every time he's making a speech about it because the truth about the Biden administration is bad enough. You don't have to say it is the worst inflation in history unless you're talking about the total amounts of money printed. That's not the point. What were the rates of inflation? You know, as high as the

mortgage rates are right now, I was paying 10.5% during the Reagan administration. I was lucky to get that. In the late 70s, I remember people were paying way, way higher. mortgage rates into the early 80s. Paul Volcker ended up coming into the Fed and ended up raising interest rates insanely to try to put out the inflation of the 1970s. You know, essentially the United States decoupled from gold and decided it was going to have both guns and butter, a guns and butter economy. We're going to pay for the Vietnam War and all the other stuff, and we're going to pay for a huge welfare state also. That was just insane inflation. running through the economy.

And I don't like it when President Trump fibs about the inflation in the Biden administration. The Biden administration had certainly the highest inflation of our recent memory, but it's not the highest inflation in our history. You know, way more of it in the 1970s and 80s. And if you're vintage enough like me to be able to remember that, you'd have to know that, wouldn't you?

you know I just don't understand why he feels the need to shoot his mouth off about that do you does anybody have an idea why does anybody have an idea why because the the truth is bad enough of Biden but it's easily disprovable just with a look up of some of the history of the financial facts I just don't understand why he's doing it it makes no sense to me because I don't know maybe most people won't look it up or maybe most people who are receiving his message now didn't live through that 1970s and 80s inflation. I don't know. That bothers me, though.

It's a bother you as much? The truth is fine. Just go with the truth, and we're good. So we have that story going on. Wheels up Wednesday will be coming up with Eric Peters, and we'll be talking about what's going on here. Hey, also, the Trump administration talking about the ability to buy those small, tiny cars overseas, like in Japan.

What are they called Ki-I's or Keys or not Kia's? You know, Kia's a Korean, but I'm kind of wondering what that, if that is actually possible because the laws that actually require the airbags and everything else, I don't think those have been repealed yet. I think they should be. I don't think you should be forced to buy a car with an airbag or anything else for that matter. But, you know, in the land of the free, we don't have free choices on such things. Maybe we'll be changing that.

Speaking of driving, KOBI reporting this morning, that work is being done at several I-5 ramps in Jackson County. They're doing it at night. They're putting up signs. It's because of an Oregon Department of Transportation program to stop the wrong way driver incidents. Apparently down here in southern Oregon, we have way more people or way more incidents percentage-wise of people driving the wrong way on the freeway. We see a higher percentage of wrong way driver crashes compared to other areas of the state. Now, a couple of weeks ago had a 34-year-old Grants Passwoman died driving the wrong way on I-5. And ODOT says the incidents can result in serious injuries. What I'm wondering about, and maybe you could comment on this, is there a possibility that our freeway exit designs may contribute to that? you think that might have something to do maybe with some of the ways these these things are designed

I'm thinking about I'm just going off of memory at this point the Phoenix exit with that confusing X crossover X that what are they call that the divergent X design maybe that would be an example of an intersection that could be easily confused and then somebody ends up going the wrong way I just thought I would toss that out if there's anything else they any of the other freeway exits that you think might have something to do with this trend. Fine. Of course, it also could be the drinking, drugging, or could also be maybe, you know, like me as I get a little older, a little more confused, and maybe I'd cause a problem out there. I don't know. That is an interesting one. Tell me what you think, okay?

Another story that NBC5 had that this was the other day. This was not last night on last night's news. I think it was Monday or Tuesday night's news I was watching it. And it had to do with this establishment of a therapy trail. I'm just going to play some of the audio from you. They're our news partner. We're good with it, I'm sure. Oregon has just certified its first forest therapy trail

and honor no other place in the Pacific Northwest can claim. Today, community partners and local leaders celebrated the official dedication at Fish Hatchery Park in Josephine County. The Eco Recovery Trail is now certified through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, offering visitors a slow, sensory-focused experience designed to support mental and physical wellness. The path includes stations that encourage walkers to pause, breathe, and reconnect with nature. The project grew out of community partnerships from the Parks Department to the Department of Corrections, which created the trail's signage.

Certified Forest Therapy trails are incredible because they not, only bring in ecotourism but they also connect communities back with the land it is the first certified forest therapy trail in the state of Oregon as well as in the Pacific Northwest okay that was the executive director of eco recovery Don Coglizier now I'm sure she's a very nice person but do you buy what the what is being sold in this in this squishy culture I just want to hear this again. Certified forest therapy trails are incredible because they

not only bring in ecotourism but they also connect communities back. Okay, wait a minute. Eco-tourism is this how that grant stream funding ended up sliding by? All you have to do is make up some kind of Bullstein

that it will serve tourism and then you get the grant. Is that the way is that the way this works? Does anybody within the sound of my voice honestly believe that the first certified forest therapy trail opening up in Josephine County, is this going to lead to a big boost in tourism? Let me know how do you think this, how will this increase tourism? And why are we going further down this, this therapy? You know, this whole therapy thing.

Are we all mentally ill here in the state of Oregon? And we have to have a therapy dog, a therapy cat, a therapy, a therapy ferret, by therapy chihuahua, a therapy trail in Josephine County? I mean, is this where we are that we are so emotionally? and mentally unresilient that we need therapy trails? A forest therapy trail? Does that strike you as kind of odd? Or am I just overthinking this a little bit this morning?

I'm watching this, I'm going, what the heck? A forest therapy trail? We used to call them just a nice, calm walk in the woods. Isn't that what you used to do? You would connect with Mother Nature. Of course, now I guess you have to say, you have to connect with Gaia. connect with Gaia and I don't know why this I've just kind of concerned that this will be the next thing then that is put before the Medford City Council because anytime you mention tourism or sustainable tourism everybody gets really excited on the Medford City Council and then they're maybe they're ready to find some kind of money you know just kind of like the ball stadium and the big

development downtown but you know that's not an eco-therapy thing but boy you put an eco thing on it or a therapy name boy the therapy trail therapy therapy everything therapy nation huh this is the bill mire show completed electric plus come plaza drilling dot com hi i'm michael with gage of construction and i'm on kmede well it appears that the uh the latest griff that's going to be coming out is getting certified forest therapy trails we've had the first one open up in jose Syfine County. I think it's Hummingbird Park is where this is. And Francine, you wanted the way in on that. Go ahead. Good morning. Good morning. Yeah, I, you know, it doesn't, it's like

the farm, big, big pharma, you know, they, they want to take things from nature and patent it and say that it's theirs, you know, they want to make money off the step that's just always been there. Yeah. Well, is this going to be the next, uh, the next reason or excuse to be given to not ever have any kind of forestry treatment whatsoever, because we need the forest, the therapy forest here, the therapy trail. Well, it's part of that mentality, yeah. Okay, all right. I agree with you on that.

Now, there was something else you would have to talk about. Go right ahead. It's early Wednesday. You know, I've been thinking, you know, all the controversy about, you know, our government shooting these alleged Venezuelan drug boats out of the water, okay? Yeah. And, okay, why do the boats keep coming? Why do they keep sending boats out when they know they're going to get blown out of the water?

Ah, well, it's good money. That's why. No, there's no good money if you're blown to be it to bits. I mean... Oh, I think, I guess the assumption is that some make it through. But, yeah, but I mean, I don't know, Bill. I don't, you know, first of all, I read a little thing, you know, Ron Paul put something out recently, too, And he made some good points that have been discussed previously.

It's like, we don't have any proof what they're sending over. You know, I mean, yeah, they're probably not fishermen, obviously. But, I mean, Venezuela's not a big country for narcotics, you know, known for narcotics and stuff like that. Yeah, well, I think, well, it's certainly a part of it. It is a minor part of the drugs that actually make it in here. Mexico is the biggest part of it. It still is. All right.

Well, let me ask you this. If you were like some poor guy that didn't have. very much money and you needed to do something to make money and so you go you go ahead and you take the job. Would you take the job if there was like about a, you know, 50-50 or greater chance of you getting blown out of the water? Not me personally, but other people may have a higher risk quotient, okay? That's all. I just think there's something funny going on. You know, I always have with this whole thing and there, and I don't know quite what it is. I can't put my finger on it quite. Well, I think the pretext is that they want to do a regime change and it's

being used as the excuse. That's all. Yeah. Okay. All right. United States is notorious for that. Well, yeah, we're pretty good at it. We do it a lot. All right. We've been doing it a lot. All right. Thanks a lot. Appreciate the call. Let me go to. Hello, Lynn. How are you? Welcome to the show. Good to have you on. Yeah, I just wanted to comment about Trump. I mean, I remember the days of inflation in our youth, and it was horrible. It was much worse. But, you know, this is who Trump is. He's the king of hyperbole and exaggeration. Everything he says that he has done as the best in history. Yeah, but it's not just an exaggeration. It's a demonstrable lie, isn't it? Well, sure, but I mean, this is why the Democrats accuse him of lying all the time,

because this is what he does. He's always done it. And he's just, he's a funny combination of absolute genius and kind of a schlock salesman. It's just weird, but I mean, his people have learned to look past this sort of thing and look at what he's actually accomplished and what he actually accomplished and what he actually does. I guess just occasionally, I just want to hear, I just want to hear a truthful conversation come out of the guy with the American people. That's all, instead of having to sell, instead of having to sell like a huckster, it just, well, whenever you hear the best or the worst, just know he's

exaggerating. I mean, and you know that. Oh, okay. It's not true, but I just, it just goes right over my head. I don't pay any attention to it. But he's right, though, that the price of eggs is down like 90%. That's true. Even gas in Oregon is way down. About 320? About 320 a gallon for regular right now. Yeah, I can get it for 317 at my little shell station near our house. So, I mean, they are making good progress. And the Democrats, certainly COVID and what he did contributed to the inflation. But, you know, Biden put it on steroids. And they cannot take the affordability issue because they did it. And I will agree with you on that. But my point is, when you have a president that lie. so easily, then you, it's like, when do we believe him? And that's the problem when you exaggerate and when it's unnecessary, when it's unnecessary that because, you know, you want to trust what you hear, but you can never trust what you hear for the president, the way it goes.

Whenever, whenever I hear the greatest ever or the worst ever, I never believe it. I know it's just him, you know, that's just what he does. He's done it his whole life. Okay. And it's just, you know, He's just the king of hyperbole and exaggeration, and it drives a lot of people crazy, especially the left. Well, I'm not a person from the left. I just want to hear an honest talk. That's all. I want to hear an honest take. Well, you're never going to hear it.

Give it up. All right. All right. I'll just let it go. Thank you. Okay. All right. Bye.

Okay. Let me grab another one here. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. Hi.

This is Phil. from Roe Griver. Phil, how you doing? What's on your mind? Good. Well, I wanted to talk about how intellectually stimulated I am about the therapy trail. I'm so excited. You are.

Good. Let's hear about it. No, just sarcasm. Oh. Now, how can you be sarcastic? Because this is Oregon's first certified, like a little, you know, C with the, you know, inside a little bubble type thing. It's certified therapy trail, which means that, you know, maybe you can.

can get prescribed to take a day off work to go on the therapy trail, Phil, so that you will feel better and more mentally healthy. I guess that's what they're doing. It's certified. I would propose it as certifiable. All right. There's the quote. No, but here we go. Here's my real question is to be intellectually stimulated, I'd like to hear an update on that, what was that? That, that, that, that, Proposal petition to deny it and get it out of being a Cotex's face. Oh, yeah, that's being counted right now.

Well, it won't be certified until after the end of the month. That's the deadline. So that's it. We've probably made it up to, what, $250,000 or so? Yeah, I'll take a look on that. I haven't looked at No Tax Oregon. They have way more than they need, but keep going as far as I'm concerned. All right.

Yeah. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you for the call, Phil. Hi, this is Bill. Good morning. Who's this on KMED? Hello.

It's Chris and Method. Hey, Chris, how you doing? Doing pretty good. I was calling because I think you missed a very important point with this ecotourism thing. Okay. What is that? What am I missing on this? So it's tourism, and that implies that it's going to be people that aren't from here.

Right. So in order to enjoy nature, they're going to pollute the, environment by taking a plane or driving a car to get here so that they can go see nature. You know, all right, Chris. So the certified therapy, forest therapy trail will lead to more carbon pollution, and we're all going to die, right? We're all going to die because people are coming here for therapy. I was just concerned that more mentally ill people were going to be coming to. southern oregon because they'll be attracted by the the therapy trail forest therapy trail but

oh anybody that can travel here because they're mentally ill doesn't hold a candle to what we got walking around the street hey they already have abortion tourism in oregon i suppose and transgender tourism surgery so why not mentally ill therapy trail people okay yeah we'll just do that all right thanks chris good call it's sex 32 hey we'll pick that up here just a little little bit. We're going to break for news, then it's wheels up Wednesday as we continue more absurdity, and we'll catch up with the latest with Eric Peters at E.P.O.com. 541, 941, 3736. 635. Eric Peters is standing by. We'll get right to him, but I wanted to ask you, Randy, you want to the comment. You said you were crack it up. We were talking about President

Trump's exaggerations on the trail yesterday in Pennsylvania. Go ahead. Okay. Well, in terms of the inflation, I'm with you, my first mortgage was 9%. That was very common, you know, 80s, even into the 90s. Carter administration, we were barbecued with inflation in the Carter administration back in those days. I was a kid, but I still remember it well. I really do. Oh, yeah, absolutely. In terms of Trump and his exaggeration, compared to Schumer, it's, it's, not even close. I mean, that guy, I have a pet peeve. We misuse the language. If you say somebody's incompetent, it means they're not competent. If they're insane, they're not sane. If they're insolvent, they're not solvent. And we say incredible. That should mean that it's not credible. That's a very good point.

There's a lot of incredibility coming out of the Washington state or the Washington, the D.C. government. Fair enough. How about that? Yeah, all the politicians need to take the therapy trail. All right. The Forest Therapy Trail in Josephine County. What do you think about that one over at Hummingbird Park, huh? Oh, that's, I think you're right. I think somebody just got a pile of money. And then you get to the exit.

I attended all of the meetings for over five years on the Phoenix Interchange. I'm in the sound business, and I provided the sound so the audience could hear all the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That went on for over five years. I know Gary Leaming pretty well. Me too. And the first time I drove through that thing, I got confused. That's what I was wondering if now they're putting signs up on the freeway, because, we have a higher propensity to do that.

I'm wondering if we have a fault in the way we design our freeway interchanges. Well, that particular one is bizarre, and they went through, I think, four different versions, and they actually ended up with the very first one. That was the first proposal, and you had to deal with the city of Phoenix, the state of Oregon, and the landowners that were being, you know, their land was being taken away. In other words, it was done by committee, and that's why it's such a mess, in other words, right? Right. Yeah, the city, the county, the state, and the landowners, and it just, it took literally over five years before they finally stood through their hands in the air.

Look, this is the plan we're going to do, live with it. All right, very good. Appreciate the call. It's always good to hear from you at Ashland. 638 in just seconds. Wheels up Wednesday. Eric joins me. Haven't planned your holiday party on West Main and Medford.

You're here in the Bill Myers Show on 1063, KMED. We crank it up and we hit the road. 639, Eric Peters joins me. A little bit later, sorry about that, Eric, but we've been talking about freeway exchanges and various other things this morning. We now have a certified forestry trail here in southern Oregon. It's a therapy. It's a therapy trail. You're laughing, too?

I actually have some news that might gladden your heart this morning, at least maybe. possibly. Okay. What's that? Well, we've all been hearing about Trump supposedly issuing a decree that will remove the regulatory obstacles that prevent so-called tiny cars to use Trump's term from being legally available for sale in this country. And specifically, we're talking about the supplemental restraint, i.e. the airbag requirement that mandates that all the vehicles sold in this country have at least a driver and front seat passenger airbag minimally. Now, what's interesting to me about that if we take it at face value is that they're going to create an exemption for these tiny cars, which implies, well, if tiny cars don't have to have airbags, why should any other car

have to have airbags? And particularly, it's interesting to me because it's just as a matter of simple physics, the small cars are more vulnerable in a crash. Like if you're going to pile into a tree or if you're going to get hit by somebody, an airbag in a small car, would be more relevant than in a larger car, which is inherently safer, even if it doesn't have airbags. So what I'm hoping, what I'm getting out here is that I hope that perhaps what this is is an attempt to undermine the airbag mandate generally. And I'm not seeing the people who want an airbag who believe it's worth the money shouldn't be able to buy one. Of course, they should be able to buy one. I'm hoping that what will happen is that people, excuse me,

who don't necessarily want to pay for an airbag may not have to buy one going forward in any car. I would agree with you. And I would hope we would get back to the point where we could buy a car with a safety feature that we want. And it's not a cheap safety feature. I would dare say that if you have eight, nine airbags in a car, what that probably adds, what would you say, $4,000 or $5,000 to the sticker price of a car, would you think? At least, and I don't think it's eight or nine airbags, because it's important to understand that it's not just the airbags. The airbags themselves are only part of the cost. The interior, the structure of the vehicle, in fact, has to be designed around. It's a system. It's not just the airbags. If you get into any new car and look at the dashboard, look at the way it's put together. Same with regard to the door panels. Same with regard to the seats. These are not inexpensive things. They add considerably to the cost of a vehicle. And it's why in other markets where you can buy these so-called tiny cars and tiny pickups that do not have airbags, you can buy them for, you know, $12,000, $13,000. The airbags add massively to the cost of a vehicle. well with that kind of a cut in the sticker price that truly would make vehicles much more affordable again which is what the president is on the road talking about that affordability issue absolutely and it could be done instantaneously which is the really interesting thing because these vehicles are already in production they are already out there it's just a matter of making

it permissible to sell them in this country you can't do that right now it is literally illegal even though and it's interesting to me we're just talking about talking about regulations. And we've arrived at a point in this country where we have these bureaucracies that issue regulations that are effectively laws. And yet no legislature ever voted on these things. They just sort of granted plenary power to these regulatory bureaucracies. And then they emit these regulations that effectively serve as laws because you have to obey them. So is this a regulation that's put in by NHTS or some other group? which federal agency is actually in charge of demanding that we have to have an airbag and that we have to have a rear backup camera and we have to have a pie plate, you know, on the, you know, on the front dashboard.

This is Sean Duffy. This is the Secretary of Transportation, Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. There's something called the federal motor vehicle safety standards. It's effectively the regulatory Bible. It contains the catechism, all the things that new cars must comply with in order for them to be legal to be sold in this country. And it's not just the airbags. It's also things like roof crush standards, which have created these horrible blind spots in all modern vehicles. And that's why you can't see out of a lot of these vehicles right now. the windows are very tiny in many cases, isn't that right? Yeah, and it's also why they're so heavy, which operates at odds with the whole mantra about how we need ever more fuel-efficient vehicles, which is difficult to do when even subcompact crossovers

now way close to two tons. Now, how many vehicles actually flip over and crush their roof, though? Has anyone looked at that? I don't see that too often, do you? No, it's a very unusual event for that to happen. Of course, it does happen, but, you know, I think fundamentally the issue here is whether you and I and other adults, you know, we're not children, should have the right in a free country to weigh costs and benefits to say, well,

on the one hand, if I were to roll over this vehicle, you know, having this roof that could support the weight of the vehicle is worth it to me. Therefore, I'm going to accept the cost of limited visibility and, you know, perhaps higher cost and higher curb weight. Or on the other, you know, I'm not really that worried about that. I've, you know, I've been driving for 30-something plus years. It's never happened to me. I don't think it's likely to happen to me. I'm comfortable with running the risk. And in fact, I think I'd rather like to be able to see what's coming at me from the side because I've got, I haven't got these horrendous blind spots on account of these guerr-like structures to support this massive roof. Boy, you drive an older vehicle out there,

Eric, and you just understand what we've lost under this guise of making a car crush-proof in a role because, you know, that old Vannegut of mine, you know, the Volkswagen, it's nothing but glass around me. I can see everything around to the right, to the left, to the back, to the front. I mean, it's just insane, you know, how I'm able to see. And then I get into any new vehicle, and it's almost like you're inside this, it's almost like a tank, right? A tank where you have a little slits. A lot like a tank. You know, that analogy is exactly accurate because the buildup of metal is, you know, it's designed for that purpose to be structural. And that's great. Again, you know, if you're worried about the thing flipping over and crushing you, you know, if you were to go back

to the era in the 70s, you and I can remember this, when there were what were called pillarless sedans, meaning there was nothing even in the center where currently the C pillar is, or B pillar, excuse me. And like you say, you had this massive greenhouse. And you know, you could glance to the left and glanced to the right. You didn't need blind spot cameras because you could see. And it's astounding to me because being able to see is probably the most significant, quote unquote, safety attribute that you could imagine. Yeah, I'm talking with Eric Peters once again this morning and how the rules may be changed. to permit the small cars, the tiny cars that President Trump is talking about, much more affordable.

And you're going to write more about that tomorrow on the side, right? Yeah, I've got an article coming out that's going to get into this in some depth. And again, I'm hopeful that this is going to happen minimally, even if Trump is just blowing hot air again, I think that he has started a very important conversation. You know, he has broached the whole topic, I think, whether elliptically or directly, about whether the federal government should be decreeing these things, whether you should be forced effectively if you want to buy a new car to pay for airbags. You know, not just in terms of the cost of the car itself, you get into a relatively minor fixable

accident. The airbags go off or one, and now the thing's totaled because of the cost of replacing the bags. And then there's the cost of the insurance and all these secondary and tertiary costs that are imposed on us. That's the key thing. I'm really glad you brought up that aspect of what happens when a vehicle with a lot of airbags, especially if you have a slightly older vehicle with a number of airbags and it gets, you know, crunched up, they will total it just because the cost of the airbag replacement is so high that it becomes worth more, you know, that's more valuable than what the value of the actual vehicle is, and that's sad. Well, it's also expensive.

It's one of the reasons why insurance costs have absolutely ballooned to use an appropriate term over the last several years. Now, is there a chance, though, that insurance would go up for a so-called less safe vehicle, let's say for collision coverage, things like that? That would be reasonable, wouldn't it? That probably. Now, I don't know whether it's reasonable. You know, ultimately, I think that the coercion should be taken out of the marketplace, which would solve the insurance problem. You know, if you're a good driver, regardless of what you're driving, whether it has airbags or not, you haven't gotten into an accident, you don't have traffic tickets. Clearly, you're a safe driver and a low risk by dint of that. And they try to hit you up with a double. doubling of premiums just because some other guy went out and bought some monstrous big truck and now potentially they say, well, you might hit him and incurred damage. If you had the ability to

say, no, you know what, I'm not bad. You know, imagine if a plumber could just tell you what you're going to pay and you had to pay him. And you got no ability to say, you know, no what, I'm not going to spend that kind of money on this estimate you've given me. Well, the plumber would have to be more reasonable. And I think that same doctrine should apply to insurance. E.P.O.O.com, Eric Peters Automotive Journalist. You want to talk with him? Have a question. Comment on this or something else involving the vehicles. It's 7705-633. I'll be right back with him on Wheels Up Wednesday. KMED. Do you take safe drinking water for granted? If you have a well for your water, no one's monitoring what's in your water. It's up to you to be sure that the water you and your family are drinking is safe and free of contaminants. Get your well tested now. Grants Pass Water Lab offers next day results for bacteria tests and a speedy three to five days for a full reporting. that meets all state requirements.

Online at GPWaterlab.com, independent and serving the Rogue Valley for over 40 years. 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 today 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 Biddle Road in Metford, no wires now.com. Restrictions apply. Call for details. Internet and cell phone service not provided by DISH.

As your family and ours gather for the holidays, we wanted to take a moment and give thanks to our community for the spirit of giving we see every day. So spend time with your family. Reach out to a neighbor and know that this holiday, season taking a moment to say thanks is priceless. Happy holidays from the Markey broadcasting family because local and family matters. News Talk 1063 KMED. This is the Bill Myers Show. And we're taking your calls. Eric Peters, Automotive Journalist at E.P.O.O.S.com

for Wheels Up Wednesday. And Tony is here. Tony, you have a 2006. You have a 2006 Prius, right? And what's your question? Go ahead. Yeah, the touchscreen went out about a week ago, and my kid came over and did something, and he got it to work. So we got out of the car, we walked away. I said, let me test it again. So I went and tested it. It worked fine. Got in the car the next day to drive it, and it was blank again.

And then later that day, it just went on by itself. and then since then it went off and it's not working and I was wondering is that going to be an expensive fix oh boy well is the vehicle still under warranty oh heck no it's a 2006 yeah 2006 18 years 19 years yeah it doesn't look that way eric yeah unfortunately it's probably going to be a pretty expensive fix these screens are not like the screens that you get when you go out and buy say a tv at walmart which are basically generic. You know, they're proprietary. They're designed to be an integrated part of your vehicle.

They're specific to that particular make model and probably year. So you have to get the exact replacement for it. And you may not even be able to get it because of the age of that vehicle. I hope you can, but the cost to replace that is going to be pretty high. If you follow the news about this issue, some people who've had issues with Stalantis products, meaning, you know, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, RAM, they've had issues with their touch screen, so is Ford. and the cost to replace these things is staggering.

You know, it's one of the reasons why I think it's been such a bad idea to do this because it's an inherently fragile technology. It's not like physical needles and dials that would last as, you know, 25 years in most cases without giving you a problem. But how long does your smartphone screen last? How long does a computer screen or a smart TV last? It just don't last that long. They're not made to last that long.

Are you aware if there are any cottage industries out there that are repairing touch screens like this gentleman's Prius, because he says it, now, you were saying that it's actually been very reliable. This is the first real problem you've had with it. Is that right? Yes. Maybe, and it's possible you might be able to get a good functioning used replacement from a salvage yard. I wish I had the, I can't remember the name of it offhand, but I've got, there's a national company that has a parts locator service. You can put your part or your vehicle, what you need. into that and they'll tell you whether they've got it. And even if it's on the other side of the country, they can get it shipped to you or somewhere close to you. I wish I could think

with the name of that place. Well, I know one place that I've tried before is car-dashparts.com. That's it. Thank you. That's it. Oh, that's it. Okay. Yeah, so try that. Car-dashparts.com And you enter the information about the vehicle and then say that you're looking for a touch screen and it's on there. And if there's one available, they'll ship it right to you if you. And how difficult is that to replace? I don't know about that. Right. It depends on the vehicle and it depends on your level of expertise and ability and the tools that you have.

I can't say offhand what would be involved. You know, probably you're going to minimally have to take apart part of the dash to get at the connections and to disconnect everything and then reconnect the new component. Yeah. What I would do is that, you know, check on YouTube. There are people that do these kind of things. They'll make videos about replacing a part. on a Prius or replacing the touchscreen, do a little search on that, sir, and give that a shot

and see how difficult it is maybe before you decide what you want to do with this, okay? Okay, thank you very much. All right. I appreciate the call. Yeah. See, this is the challenge that we've been talking about this touchscreen for a number of years, this touchscreen issue, Eric, and boy, starting to bite some people, unfortunately. Vicki, Sarah, you had a question about Hubcaps.

Go ahead. What's happening in the Applegate for you, huh? Yeah. My dad, you know, was a hoarder and also mechanic and has several old cars and parts. But he's got like probably 100 different hubcaps and at least that many manuals, auto manuals. So I'm wondering, are those worth saving? Are they worth, like, trying to figure out how much they're – they're mainly for Ford's, Dodge, American-made. Yeah, so in all good shape, I guess, right?

Otherwise, your dad wouldn't have kept them? Yeah. I mean, it really, it depends. You know, some of these things, they have historical interests. Some of them are rare. And, you know, people who want that might be interested in buying that at a decent price. But there's really no way to know without specifically knowing exactly what you've got. Yeah.

I have some pamphlets that are, they look like they might be from like the 50s or 60s. And one of them is like, how to fix it? any car and I just started I think this is an old one well you know that's something where if you wanted to do if you could get some internet connectivity out there Vicki and do a little bit of eBay work

or something like that I'll tell you you'd be amazed what people will buy from you that kind of stuff you know it's nice vintage stuff in good shape and especially with the motor motor vehicles a lot of stuff's pretty collectible for some people Eric isn't it right some someone absolutely you know and here's a suggestion

you know you could attend a car show and talk up some people who have older vehicles, because that's a great resource. They will know things that you may not know or be able to point you in the right direction. So if you've got a lot of materials for, say, old dodges, go to a car show and talk to a guy who's got an old Dodge. Like, you know, I know Pontiacs really well, old Pontiacs. So I'd be a good person to talk to if you had stuff that was relative to old Pontiacs and whether it's worth anything.

All right, very good. Hey, Vicki, good luck on that part about it, okay? Yeah, you're going to need a little more information, but yeah, you could have a gold mine there. Just never know. And I'll grab one more call. Hi, good morning. You're on with Eric Peters. It's Wheels Up. Who's this? Hey, Bill, it's Brad. Good morning to you and Eric. Morning, Brad. Good morning. Bill. And Eric, what is the deal with all of these Porsches over in Europe that just stopped all of a sudden for no reason? What's the deal with that? Well, that's what you call law enforcement a clue, meaning this gives you an indication of what the technology can be used for.

We've talked before, Bill and I many times about the connectedness of modern vehicles, basically vehicles that have been made over the last decade or so, that receive updates over the air that can be shut off externally. This goes all the way back to the 90s when GM debuted its OnStar system and which was marketed as, oh, you know, we can prevent your car from being stolen. We can turn it off remotely. We can, you know, we can unlock your doors, things of that nature. But like any technology, this can be used for nefarious purposes.

You no longer are the master of your vehicle, potentially at least. The manufacturers, the government can simply turn off your vehicle anytime they wish to do it. Now, was that a bad update, Eric? Do you know about the Porsche specifically? I assume so. I can't imagine they would have done it for any other reason. There must have been something that went out over the transom that caused the operating system and the vehicle to glitch. You know anything more?

You know anything more about it, Brad? Just curious. I haven't read the article. You know, I don't, but I read the article and I thought, holy macro. I mean, these aren't cheap little commuter cars. These are really expensive luxury cars. And is this something that we should be concerned about here in the United States? I'd be concerned about it.

You may have heard the news story that apparently there was an effort to get Elon Musk to remotely disable all of the Teslas that are in operation in Russia to punish the Russians for the whole mess in Ukraine. And the point is that can be done. And it can be done with not just Tesla's. It can be done with any late model vehicle that has what they call telematics or connectedness, meaning that it sends and receives updates over the air. And you have really no control over that. Yeah, so you don't really own your car. You have a title, well, in name only, I suppose.

A title. Hey, appreciate the call. Hey, thanks for that, Brad. I hadn't heard that story, or at least much about that. Eric, before we take off, though, I do want to hear your review on the 2026 Lincoln Navigator. Nice car, nice big. nice big one right enormous a leviathan it really is in every sense of the term and you know that has its pros and its cons it's kind of like you know the whole steering of the titanic once you're out

in the open ocean it's wonderful you know you get in your deck chair with your drink and you watch the scenery go by but you know once that thing gets close to shore and you have to maneuver it up to the dock then it becomes a little bit more of a job and you know the world outside is not designed for these gigantic things at least not in my area. I live in the country. The secondary roads have relatively narrow lanes with drop off shoulders. You have to make sure you keep that thing in its lane. And then the same at parking spots. You know, it's difficult. Even if you line it up straight, you open the door and you're like right on top of the next car, you kind of have to, luckily, I'm not too fat. So I can kind of like ease

myself out of the side of the thing. But, you know, that aside, it's really nice in a lot of significant ways. It has massaging seats. Now, one of the things about the massaging seats in this vehicle that I really like is that you just touch a button on the side of the seat, an actual tactile physical control. You don't have to scroll through the LCD screen and menus and all of that nonsense. You just push the button, and even better, the massager will stay on until you turn it off. It doesn't cycle on and off. Oh, I love that.

I love that idea. Now, is it a nice gentle? Can you choose little wave massage or even what kind of things can you get? Oh, yeah, man. You've got five different types of massage and different intensity. So, you know, that's one of the perks of driving a high-end vehicle like that. The other thing that I like about it, though, is that it really is a Lincoln in the sense that they're not trying to be a BMW or a Mercedes or even a Cadillac. It's not an obstreperous vehicle.

It's just a wonderfully plush, comfortable, quiet, nice vehicle for, you know, just cruising and not making a big to do about your drive. If you wanted to drive across country, you could do worse than being in a Lincoln navigator, right? It would be hard to do better, frankly. I mean, even the second row seats are available with massagers. So, you know, there you go. Oh, man. You just go all day. You won't get sore or anything else.

Yep. What do those sticker out these days, huh? Ooh, well, that's the downside. You know, they can easily run up to over $100,000. Oh. It's just incredible, you know, 120, I think, on the high end. And they start around $92,000. But hey, some good news.

Kind of like the BMW that we talked about last week. It is slightly less expensive. They brought back, they call it the premier or the preferred trim. I can't remember offhand, but they had previously dropped the entry-level trim, and they brought that back for 26, and it's a couple thousand dollars less than the 2025. So the upside is you can get a brand new 26 navigator for less than the cost of a 25 navigator, and that's nice.

Now, there is another aspect up on EP autos. I was reading the article that when you were test driving that, you had a blowout, right? In fact, you actually call the article the blowout, and this is a trend that I do wish that the auto manufacturers would get away from, and that is the thin little tires, you know, with huge rims and thin little tires, you know, well, they're called riums, you know, when they're at that level. We have rings now, not wheels. Yeah.

Yeah, it couldn't have happened at a better time. We had a pretty good snowstorm here the other day. There was about six inches of snow on the ground, and we went out to do a little bit of shopping, and on the way back, blew out a tire, you know, curb strike kind of a thing. And so I had to get out of that thing in the blizzard and use the cheesy little flimsy screwjack thing and, you know, get it up in the air, which is quite difficult when you're dealing with a jacked up SUV to begin with that has 24 inch rims, two feet across. And the reason the tire blew out, of course, is because with tires that thin, they have these really thin sidewalls. So they don't have a lot of give or flex built into them. So when you say hit a bad pothole, the thing just blows.

You know, if you had back in the day, like my Trans-Am has 15-inch wheels, and the tire, the sidewall is probably, I'm going to roughly say at least four times as high, it's got a lot more give in it. If you look at vehicles that have off-road equipment, you know, that have MS-type tires to go off-roading, you'll see they have the tires are more balloon-like because they want them to flex over rocks and things. Yeah, you want some give. You want some give. Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, in the 70s, in 80s even for that most part, when we were growing up, well, I remember like the Cadillac had an L-7815, you know, even that car, relatively small rim by today's standards, but there was a lot of give on that sidewall, so it was easy not to blow them out if you hit a pothole.

Yep, from a purely practical point of view, there is nothing good to be said about this trend toward these ever larger rims. It's a purely cosmetic affectation that derives from. you know, the whole rap culture thing, somehow that got popular. And so now you have minivans with, you know, 19 and 20 inch wheels. All right. But if you want more reliability then, do not, whatever you do, do not get the big, super large rims, right? Get the smaller. The other aspect of it, too, is you almost have to be He-Man to deal with these things.

I, you know, I'm a pretty big and strong guy, but dealing with that wheel, that 24-inch rim, it had to have weighed around 100 pounds, all told, you know, manipulating that thing off of the hub. and then heaving it into the back of the SUV, most women, I doubt one out of a hundred women could have handled something like that. And a lot of men couldn't either. Well, maybe the trans women could. The trans women could, maybe. Sure, yeah. All right. Hey, this is KMED, KMED, HD, Eagle Point, Metford, KBXG, Grants Pass. I'm talking with Eric Peters. I'll grab one more call. And then we're going to have to cut Eric loose to his day job to do some more stories. Hi, who's this? Morning. Good morning, Bill. Morning, Eric. This is David and Phoenix.

Hey, David, what's up, buddy? I just wanted to give you guys a little hypocritical chuckle. Okay. Our local bus company, we call it the RVTD. I've noticed that their head employees are all driving new one of them's Lincoln Navigator automobiles while the rest of us stand and wait for the bus. So they're not the electric hive mines. They're fully gas vehicles, including it,

One of them has a diesel truck, and one bought a Toyota, pretty nice model of Toyota truck. But they're not driving the little hive mine electrics and golf carts and why we ride the bus. So I just thought you guys get a chuckle out of the hypocrisy. I appreciate that. And thank you very much, David. We really do. Well, I guess. Yeah, of course not.

It's just in the same reason. Leonardo DiCapro has yachts and has, you know, 20,000 square foot mansions, but lectures us about our carbon footprint. Yeah, but you forgot the other side of that, though, because of his point of view. He has 20-year-old girlfriends today. That too, right. All right, there we go. What's you going to review next week, Eric?

We'll talk with you then. Oh, we're going to have some fun. It's going to be the Buick-Encourt GX, which, you know, it's interesting because Bewick used to be famous for building really big cars with really big engines. Well, this is a small crossover with probably the tiniest engine, 1.2 liters and three cylinders that you'll find in anything that has four wheels. 1.2 liters, three cylinders. Okay. Yep.

All right. Well, I'm looking forward to that review. And, of course, all the other articles up on E.P.O.O.com. Have a great week. We'll catch you next time. Thanks, Eric. Sounds pretty cool. Thank you. Right back here with Fox News. They were going to be talking. Speaking, I had that little mention about the trans situation. In Utah, conservative Utah, they're making a big deal on saying that trans surgeries are necessary and proper, and they're just wonderful things.

We'll talk about this. We have some do-no-harm medicine people that are saying, what? We'll tell you more coming up. You're getting ready for a winter road trip. Click on the travel report on KMED.com. You'll find the latest road conditions, road cams, and gas prices all over our region. Be prepared with a travel report on KMED.com.

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