EPISODE 010: BUYING A NEW CAR & THE CHIP SHORTAGE

DRINK INFORMATION

Every episode we drink a different libation – so what are we drinking this episode?

Tom’s Drink – Laddie 10 by Bruichladdich

– An unpeated Scotch with a fruity nose

Ian’s Drink – “The Drunken Plum”

– There is no link… its Ian’s own redneck concoction 🙂

TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
All right welcome back to Drinking With Tom, the show where we drink stuff, talk about stuff. And we don’t really do stuff, but we drink more stuff.

Tom Kubiak
With me.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly.

Tom Kubiak
How are you doing, Ian?

Ian Robertson
Good, and yourself?

Tom Kubiak
Very good. Good to see you.

Ian Robertson
Hey, Did I did I tell you that my basement flooded?

Tom Kubiak
No you didn’t.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, yeah, my basement flooded.

Tom Kubiak
Your basement that you just spent all this time and effort and money finishing off?

Ian Robertson
Yep.

Tom Kubiak
Oh man.

Ian Robertson
It was finished for about eight months and then we had a quote unquote dry basement system put in, but they left a big gaping hole. So you know I’m no I’m no mechanical or structural engineer or anything like that.

Tom Kubiak
But hole, not good.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, hole bad. Hole bad. Hole, water come thru hole. So yeah, there was some outside water that they got in there. But man..

Tom Kubiak
How much damage?

Ian Robertson
All the floors had to be ripped up..baseboard. Yeah, it was.

Tom Kubiak
Oh I didn’t know anything about that. When did that happen?

Ian Robertson
Was about a week ago. Yeah. About a week and a half now.

Tom Kubiak
Do you need help doing anything?

Ian Robertson
No, you know, it’s interesting. I used to do that for a living. Yeah. And when it happens to you, it’s like your first thought is oh crap, what do I do? And then I stopped for a second. I’m like, Oh, I know what to do. So there’s a company that moved in right down the road from me within walking distance. No joke. If I had to walk there right now be 10 minutes driving there two minutes.

Tom Kubiak
Like a water, What do they call it? Like disaster relief type of company that comes in for fire smoke and water damage?

Ian Robertson
Yup, exactly. So they’re like, Oh, you’re right around the corner. So they came and they they had equipment that I don’t have access to.

Tom Kubiak
Okay. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
Industrial dryers. Yep, all that stuff. And they dried it out really, really well. But it’s really sad. I enjoy my basement.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, well, yeah, especially you put a lot of time and effort into it and it turned out from you know, pretty nice from the pictures I’ve seen so.

Ian Robertson
That’s where I keep all my booze..fortunately wine bottles float.. No, just kidding, it wasn’t that bad..

Tom Kubiak
They’re all corked so it doesn’t matter.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it was a couple inches. But, you know, I was worried I was gonna lose some wine.

Tom Kubiak
That’s a decent amount of water, couple inches. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
Oh, it was a lot of water. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Kubiak
Did, is insurance gonna cover the repairs?

Ian Robertson
We’ll find out. Yeah, we’ll find out.

Tom Kubiak
Okay. Oh, man. That’s rough.

Ian Robertson
Speaking of drinking.

Tom Kubiak
Let’s get to the point.

Ian Robertson
Let’s get to the point. That’s what I did right afterwards. I’m like, Okay. What are you drinking tonight, Tom? First we gotta tell everybody, because in our previous episodes, I’ve noticed we just start talking about drinking because we get so excited about it.

Tom Kubiak
True.

Ian Robertson
What we’re going to talk about is buying a car.

Tom Kubiak
Oh, yes.

Ian Robertson
Which is also just about one of the most stressful things I can think about doing. People do it casually, like, Oh, let me go buy a new car. Yes, I don’t like it. But that’s what we’re going to talk about. But before that now, what are your drinking, Tom?

Tom Kubiak
Okay, now I’m drinking the Laddie 10 by Bruichladdich, which is, this distillery that has a reputation for really different type of caskings and finishings on scotches, so they have a really wide range of different different types of scotches finished or different taste profiles. So I got one called the Laddie 10, which is an unpeated Scotch made in a peated Scotch area, so And since I don’t like peated scotches, you know this. This is more up my alley.

Ian Robertson
This is unorange orange juice that’s made in an apple orchard.

Tom Kubiak
Exactly. With a hint of anything but oranges. Yeah, exactly. How about you? What you drinking?

Ian Robertson
Well, I want to hear about this though. What’s the quote unquote bouquet is it good? Do you like it?

Tom Kubiak
So it’s not bad. It’s even though it’s not peated. It’s got that little bit of smoky flavor to it, which I think comes from, I think you say ISIL? They’re a slight it’s pronounced it’s spelled Islay but I don’t think you say it that way.

Ian Robertson
Isley..No, that’s not it. It’s something like that. I actually looked it up a bunch. And I can’t remember how to say it.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah me too. Yeah, I think it’s islay. It’s islay or something like that. I never drink that scotch. So..

Ian Robertson
Welcome to drinking with Tom where we know stuff, but not most stuff.

Tom Kubiak
We know some things just not a lot of anything.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, we mostly just drink and talk about things. But no, that’s where Lagavulin is from that region.

Tom Kubiak
Lagavulin. Right. Yeah. Oh, man.

Ian Robertson
I visited that region. We went through that.

Tom Kubiak
Did you go to Lagavulin when you were there?

Ian Robertson
No, I wish we could have of..actually we’re gonna..

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, you should have.

Ian Robertson
We’re gonna talk about that on a different podcast, the advantages and disadvantages of that form of travel.

Tom Kubiak
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that’s, that’s I’m looking forward to that discussion.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. So you like it and say this Say the name of it again.

Tom Kubiak
It’s called the Laddie. 10 and by Bruichladdich. So it’s a it’s a long name, but they and one of their bottling styles is this Laddie 10, which is a 10 year old. So it’s distilled unfiltered. And that’s it. They don’t say anything else. Just the 10 year a 10 Year.

Ian Robertson
That’s all you need to know, Tom.

Tom Kubiak
That’s all I need to know.

Ian Robertson
All you need to know.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, it’s good. It’s got a little bit of a of a peaty flavor, even though it’s not peated.

Ian Robertson
Well, it also sounds like the name of a really bad metal band that you’d hear in some bar. The Laddie 10 Bruichladdich.

Tom Kubiak
That’s true, Laddie 10 that’s the that’s the album cover.

Ian Robertson
Exactly.

Tom Kubiak
What you drinking?

Ian Robertson
Tonight I am actually drinking a plum wine that I made.

Tom Kubiak
Oh, okay.

Ian Robertson
So maybe our listeners are familiar with what’s called Fuki if you ever had Fuki.

Tom Kubiak
Fuki, No, I don’t drink stuff called Fuki.

Ian Robertson
Well it’s a very famous plum wine.

Tom Kubiak
Isn’t plum wine What you get at the Japanese restaurant at the end of the meal sometimes?

Ian Robertson
Is it? I’ve never gotten that.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah I think sometimes they give you plum wine.

Ian Robertson
Reallt? It’s probably Fuki then Yeah. Okay. Fuki is really well known. We used to bring it camping when I was younger, and I just drink in the woods anyways, even though I wasn’t supposed to. Because it’s sweet. And it’s good. So I’m like, let me make some plum wine. So we had this plum tree in our backyard.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah you do have that plum tree. That’s right.

Ian Robertson
Well it’s gone now blew over. And so the year it blew over, we had a really great plum crop. So I pulled all these plums off. And actually, after it fell over, I split it and made a cutting board that I keep some of my..

Tom Kubiak
Oh, cool.

Ian Robertson
Some my stuff on. So a little bit of a memory there. But my daughter loved that tree. So the plum wine, interestingly enough, changed. It was back in 2019. So this is only four years old. It’s not the oldest wine out there. But it changed it became acidic then it tasted gross. Really then it was too sweet. And then it was just right. And we cracked open a bottle..

Tom Kubiak
Strange.

Ian Robertson
Yeah well wine does that. Here’s a rule about wine. Drink it when it tastes good. If you taste that and say This tastes good. Drink it right then. Because then it won’t taste good in six months, and then I’ll taste good again in six months after that. Then a year after that.

Tom Kubiak
Because it’s alive. It’s changing.

Ian Robertson
Always changing. So I’ve made the mistake of oh let me put this away. It’s a little sweet, but it tastes just like Gerber Baby Food now. No joke.

Tom Kubiak
I can see the appeal.

Ian Robertson
And to be honest with you, it’s not that bad.

Tom Kubiak
Hopefully not the strange peas Gerber Baby Food.

Ian Robertson
No, no, it tastes like the sweet the sweet stuff.

Tom Kubiak
That’s cool.

Ian Robertson
I cracked it open gave some to my wife. I’m like, what does that taste like? She goes, Did you make this out of Gerber Baby Food? I’m like, No, but now I want to this seems like a good idea. You know, just..

Tom Kubiak
That’s cool.

Ian Robertson
But it’s too sweet. So I mix it with a little bit of vodka and I call it a drunken drunken plum. So I’m such a redneck, what goes good with my alcohol, more alcohol.

Tom Kubiak
I’ll take my homemade wine and pour vodka in it.

Ian Robertson
We were trying to come up with with with non offensive names for it but I could put bourbon in and call it the Kentucky plum or vodka was the it was the sweet Russian.

Tom Kubiak
Did you try with anything else or just just the vodka?

Ian Robertson
No just just a vodka and I think I tried some rum or something because you don’t want anything to overpower but I think like like a bourbon would be good like a bullet bourbon.

Tom Kubiak
Okay yeah, give it a little fruity fruity taste to a to a bourbon.

Ian Robertson
Yeah this is definitely fruitier than I usually like okay, but I just cracked open a bottle cool. You know I do all sorts of stuff like dandelion wine.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah you have well we’re going to do that some, we have to do an episode on alcohol making alcohol. Wine and other other things.

Ian Robertson
Quote unquote, boiling wine.

Tom Kubiak
Exactly.

Ian Robertson
We admit to nothing.

Tom Kubiak
Boiling wine that happens to run through brass lines surrounded by water.

Ian Robertson
Listen. Brass cooled lines are a normal part of the average American home.

Tom Kubiak
They just happened to be there I don’t have any way of describing it other than that,

Ian Robertson
I know don’t you put a water jacket on all of your pipes.

Tom Kubiak
Every one, every one to you know to condense the the steam.

Ian Robertson
I’m distilling water.

Tom Kubiak
Just to make it clean.

Ian Robertson
Exactly. You want clean water Tom. So you want to talk tonight about buying a car and I actually had to do this recently, transmission dropped out of my van.

Tom Kubiak
You just bought a car literally right?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, just like three weeks ago.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, well, you just picked it up but you actually ordered it how long ago?

Ian Robertson
Two months which actually came in a month early.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah which that’s actually pretty good. You know, in today’s environment to get a brand new pre or you know, custom ordered car and because it’s been a, well I will talk about my truck ordering process.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, so if you’re buying a car right now, it’s really not easy. Most of it has to do with the chip shortage, right, Tom?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah that’s exactly what it is. So yeah, buying a car is like we were talking about just as we were just about to start this episode. It’s a stressful event. Because you know, the traditional thought of what goes into a car salesman’s process of scamming you. So when you when you go into the car dealership, you’re thinking you’re gonna get taken advantage of, and a lot of times you don’t, you know, you don’t either have all the information or you don’t feel comfortable pushing back on what they’re suggesting. And most people are really, you know, frankly, not good negotiators.

Ian Robertson
I’m terrible.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. So they tend to either pay full price or, you know, get talked into buying things that they don’t often need.

Ian Robertson
Did I ever tell you that I overpaid for my last vehicle on accident?

Tom Kubiak
No. How’d you do, your caravan or your Jeep?

Ian Robertson
No, my jeep. So I go. And I was negotiating and feeling good about myself because my wife makes fun of me, because I just I want the experience to be..

Tom Kubiak
For many reasons.

Ian Robertson
Yeah but I want the experience to be over. Yeah. And I think the salesman can smell it. And I’ve never had a salesman that like was overly pushy, or was just evil. But when there’s blood in the water, a shark is still a shark. Yeah. And I think they can just tell he just wants this to be over. He’s buying this car, because he’s not going anywhere else.

Tom Kubiak
He’s buying this car. Exactly.

Ian Robertson
You know, and I’m sitting there thinking he knows that I’m not going anywhere else. Because I want this all to be over. Yeah, exactly. So I had negotiated so I told, told my wife, I’m like, I’m gonna negotiate this time. And I had a habit of going back and forth, back and forth. And I’m like, it was it was used vehicle when I was buying for one of my companies. So at the time, it was like, 17 grand. And so I’m like, they’re asking like, 18 four something. I got on down to like, 17 five, and I’m like, wow, you know, like, I can do 17,000 There’s a 1700, 17,000 Yeah, $17,000. That’s, that’s the best I can do. Or 16 nine, and they’re like, we can’t do 16 Nine, we can do 17 Five, and we went back and forth. I’m like, I can do 16 Nine, or you guys can just try to sell it at auction. And the guy’s like, Okay, well, we’ll do that we can sell it at auction. So he was willing to give me 17,000 for it finally. And he goes.. You said you got down to 17,000 Even? 17,000. Okay, yeah, I’m like, I’m like, sweet, I can get down to 16 nine. I don’t care about the $100. I don’t.

Tom Kubiak
It’s the principle.

Ian Robertson
It’s the principle. And so, but then I was getting hungry and confused. Sir, we can’t go any lower than 17,000. I’m like, do 16 Nine and he got this. It’s $100 What does that matter? He goes, it matters to us. We can’t do 16 nine Like fine. 17 Two it is.

Tom Kubiak
You’re an idiot.

Ian Robertson
I know I’m like I just paid an extra $200.

Tom Kubiak
I can see your wife just sitting in the background just shaking her head.

Ian Robertson
So I never negotiated ever again. But it was funny because the guy’s like, Are you sure? Yes. I just said 17 two, and he writes it up. And by then I could have actually said something like, Hey, you know, we actually did say 17. But I’m like, I want this to be over so badly. I would pay $200 to be over. Yeah.

Tom Kubiak
That’s pretty good.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, if you’re like me, it’s not it’s not your favorite thing to do.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, you know, but I think one of the things that’s happened recently is that the car buying process has always been fraught with challenges for for a normal person, you know, in the reputation of a car salesman is certainly not one of the better. The most moral people unfortunately, even though it might not always be warranted. But the reality is, in recent times, the tools that car buyers have to research what they’re purchasing, or their options are way better than they’ve ever had before. So that kind of levels the playing field. So if you’re willing to be an educated consumer, and you go into, you know, to purchase a car, you can be in a good bargaining position. You know, did you do any research beforehand before you bought yours, your most recent purchase?

Ian Robertson
Well, most of it came very anecdotally. So I did, I did look up I wanted to buy a vehicle that was safe, and it just felt good. And you know, I’ve just never owned a brand new vehicle. This is going to be the first time I’ve owned a vehicle that’s brand new. I just, I just tend to, you know, you hear things when you’re growing up, and you kind of follow that same pattern. My cousins and uncles are like, oh, never buy a vehicle under 30,000 miles, because that’s when all the problems happen. So I’ve just never bought a new vehicle and I always end up getting, yeah, all these problems. So I’m like, I’ll just buy new this time, let’s just, let’s see what happens. It’s not that I buy a whole lot of cars. And you tend to keep your cars for a long time. That’s really where Buying a new vehicle works out best. Like I’m not saying it’s the it’s always the best decision. But if you hold it for a long time, you know, then you level the playing field. And so because I hold the vehicle for a long time, I did look at what has the best resale value. What was the safest for the value and a couple of other features. I ended up with a Subaru actually, you were in a car accident with your wife. Yeah. And Subaru, you say is one of the things that saved her life?

Tom Kubiak
Oh, definitely. 100, 100% believe it did.

Ian Robertson
And I looked at I looked it up there are 1000s of people that say that same exact thing. Yeah. So I looked at the safety ratings in that. And then I also looked at the fact that the trade in value for Subaru, if I want to go trade it in in five years. The trade in value is also the resale value, which is also very high. You’re buying a used Subaru you might as well buy a new Subaru because because they hold their value like crazy.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah I’ll tell you the story about that. Yep.

Ian Robertson
Oh, tell me. I want to hear it.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah well so during the you’re exactly true. We, my wife and I, we had we had a Honda CRV and we decided to you know, it was getting to 70 or 80,000 miles, we wanted to get something different. So we ended up opting for a Subaru Outback, which we loved we were super happy with it. And right when we got about 13,000 miles, we got a side impact collision at full highway speed, you know, and and that’s very, very dangerous, a very dangerous impact because you’re hitting right into the passenger side of the car. And you know, if you’re in the passenger door, there’s really not a lot that protects the passenger from that you’re gonna you’re gonna have some consequence from it. So we you know, my wife did get pretty badly injured unfortunately. But she ended up okay out of it after the whole thing, but the reality was, it was the car that saved her. Even though we had the front of the car practically ripped off from the side impact, you could still open her passenger door and getting the they didn’t have to use the jaws of life to get her out which to me was amazing, like with all the damage that was on the car. So as a result of that we went back and bought a brand another Subaru the exact same car just one year newer and then the pandemic hit. And as a result of the pandemic the used car prices were So high, we actually took that car traded it in and got a brand new two year newer vehicle for with only like a few $1,000 paid in because of the how high the resale value was on on Subaru. So we basically traded our three year old car plus a couple $1,000 for a brand new right from the factory model. That’s nuts, you know this is gonna sound like a commercial for Subaru but and we’re not affiliated with them I actually just like it. If they want to give us a car we’re we’re okay with that.

Ian Robertson
Yeah if you want to give us a car Subaru, Hey, I’ve already alienated that Kavalan company and a couple of others on the previous podcast but I don’t want to alienate you Subaru.

Tom Kubiak
Don’t alientate Subaru.

Ian Robertson
Yeah but I tell you what it feels fancy inside. Like there’s a screen and the touchscreen and things beep at you and little lights and it talks to you. Yeah, I can control it from my phone. I push a button. And it’s just like, Would you like me to cool your car? Mr. Robertson? I’m like yes, please. Thank you.

Tom Kubiak
Better than Starship Enterprise.

Ian Robertson
I know. Right? Yeah, Gene Roddenberry.

Tom Kubiak
We’re, we’re super happy. I think you’re gonna be happy with it, too. It’s it’s super reliable.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, I’ve been very happy with it. I started wearing flannel vests and visiting the city of Vermont a lot more.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. And you need LL Bean duck boots. Yeah, at some point and you know, Shaggy haired dog. That’s right.

Ian Robertson
Maybe a man bun. I could I could get one. I could get one of those. I tell you what, though. Everybody made fun of me when I bought the Subaru because all the know all the you know, I live out in the country. So yeah, that’s true. Everybody, just like, Oh, you got a Subaru, gonna start wearing flannel. You’re gonna go apple picking later. I’m like, actually, I would like to go apple. I do all those things. I do all those things. I camp all the time. I’m just like..

Tom Kubiak
That’s exactly true.

Ian Robertson
I should have been owning a Subaru. Yeah.

Tom Kubiak
Well, most of the people around us have Subarus so we just got to fit in with the neighborhood.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, there you go.

Tom Kubiak
But yeah, it is. But what was your experience with the dealership? Did you did you find that they they seemed like they were less high pressure.

Ian Robertson
So here’s what I’ve learned buying a used car is a little bit more high pressure. Even though you go to I went to a dealership for my last used car. No, because you’re dealing with not a commodity with an MSRP which is the minimum sale price. Yeah. The MSP? Yeah. So they’re like, this is what We need to make to make money. Yeah, they put a sticker on there, whatever. But now it’s very subjective. Like we want to sell this van for $20,000. Yeah, is it really worth 20 years or really worth 17. There’s a range. So it gets a little fuzzy true buying a new car was okay. This is the lowest number we can go. That’s what I found. And I tried negotiating, I tried negotiating, and they’re like, we literally can’t go that look. Yeah, we can’t. This is as far down as we can go. Because otherwise we’d make less. Yeah. So he was very low pressure checked on me. Extremely low pressure, like to the point where I’m like, dude, sell me on something. Yeah. But he was just like, Okay, what do you want? What do you feel comfortable with? And I’m like, Well, I feel comfortable with this. He goes, Yeah, I like that. And you know, it was just a good buying experience.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, I had the same experience.

Ian Robertson
Yeah well we be bought them at the same place. Yeah. And actually where I, where I bought my jeep at where I just told you this story was the was the other experience. But it just at a different dealership with the same company. Yeah, it was actually a really good buying a new car is a way different experience. Agreed. I will say the whole..

Tom Kubiak
Well I think it depends on the dealership you go to because I know that there are dealerships that will take advantage of you. And there are there are unscrupulous new car dealers. But I feel like Subaru, at least in our dealings with them. They have a reputation. We did go to when when we were looking for our first Subaru. We went to a bunch of different dealerships. And we knew, you know, we did one of those online car searches, which gives you basically the, you know, the the best price you’re going to get. And so we went into them with that best price. And the first two dealerships we went to, they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t do it. But finally, this one that we went to the last one, they did it, they said, Yeah, we’ll do it for that, and they sold it.

Ian Robertson
I should have tried that. So that’s a good tip. For our listeners, I never really thought about doing that.

Tom Kubiak
I’m happy with those things. And I think most credit cards offer them now Sam’s Club and, and BJs and Costco, they all have car buying program. So basically, what you do is you tell him the car you’re looking for and the options that you want. And then they have a number of dealerships that they work with, and they’ll give you basically an agreed upon price. So you can take that price and go to the dealer and buy it or you can go to another dealer and say listen, you know, so and so dealer a they’re gonna sell it to me for this, will you do the same thing? Some of them will and some of them won’t.

Ian Robertson
Thank you very much, Tom for telling me that after I bought my car. Great suggestion for other people to use.

Tom Kubiak
Happy to Yeah, happy to help.

Ian Robertson
You know, there’s something to be said about the fact that so there’s two big Subaru dealerships near us. So I’m going to give you a scenario that could have actually turned it the other way with just going on price though. The dealership you went to? I have had nothing but good things to say about them. Yes. When you go in to get your car serviced, they give you a loaner. It’s nice and comfortable in there. They have free car washes. And these are, you know, amenities. But they kind of they kind of matter. You know, every time I go get my service they’re washing it for me, heck ya. The other and The other thing was they were one of the biggest Subaru dealers on the East Coast. And so they can actually get their vehicles a little bit faster.

Tom Kubiak
I think you’re right.

Ian Robertson
So the difference was maybe the other place. And actually, the salesman made this point. And that’s when it clicked with me. I know he was trying to make a point. But he was right. The I’m like, Well, let me take this to the other dealership and see if they can do better. He goes, that’s cool. Okay, just know that we’re the biggest dealership here. We can get your car faster. Yeah, we do all the servicing here, this, this, And this and this. And I’m like, I’d still be waiting for my new vehicle right now. If I gone with it.

Tom Kubiak
You’re probably right.

Ian Robertson
So four months, maybe more to get a vehicle from the other dealership. This one was two, it came and he’s like, Yep, we got all of this the other dealership, they kind of oftentimes have stuff missing. And you have to bring it back. Like, Oh, we didn’t have this option that you asked for, you’ll have to bring it back in 30 days and get it installed. I think that was worth maybe maybe the $500 that maybe I didn’t negotiate off.

Tom Kubiak
Oh definitely. Yeah, even if you had to pay a little bit more. And I think what you’ll find is the dealership that we bought that we bought from we bought three cars from them. And service has been top notch. We’ve never had a problem with it. I never have a problem getting an appointment. You know, sometimes you know that. They’re like, Oh, we’re booked out. You can’t get an appointment or they don’t treat you like you’re a valuable customer. They always do every time I’m there. So I think you’re you’ll be happy.

Ian Robertson
Oh yeah, no, and I’ve used that dealership before just a different I use the Jeep dealership of it. Let me ask you Did they give you your referral card?

Tom Kubiak
They did.

Ian Robertson
Oh, nice.

Tom Kubiak
It’s actually sitting on right behind me on that. Right there. You can see it.

Ian Robertson
So I I had to make sure because they kept forgetting and I’m like no, no, no, no, no, Tom gets his gift card for referring me. They’re go Okay.

Tom Kubiak
They did in fact, the the salesman called me and he said, Oh, Ian Robertson’s buying, is buying a car and we were gonna send you. They offered me either credit at the dealership for a service or something like that, or a restaurant coupon and I took the restaurant coupon. That was nice. Thanks for Thanks for reminding me. We’ll take you guys out to dinner.

Ian Robertson
I overpaid $500. So they get you a $50 gift.

Tom Kubiak
Thank you.

Ian Robertson
You’re welcome, anytime, anytime. My math is good.

Tom Kubiak
Well, let me tell you about my truck buying experience. So as you know, we had to, we bought this camper, we had ordered a camper and so in order to get the camper I had, and I might have even said this in a previous podcast, I had a Honda Ridgeline, which I liked as a truck. But everybody tells me it’s not really a truck.

Ian Robertson
It’s a car with a bed in the back.

Tom Kubiak
That’s and my family especially harass me constantly about that. So anyway, it’s not possible.

Ian Robertson
Your truck is the equivalent of dark socks with sandals. Like it just doesn’t fit. It’s not..

Tom Kubiak
That’s true, I accept that. But let me get to the end of my story and validate my truck.

Ian Robertson
Tell me about your four cylinder truck.

Tom Kubiak
So I love my Honda ridgeline beautiful, beautiful car it drove it drives. You know, it drives wonderfully. It’s got the bed in it, but it just can’t tow anything. So we’re buying. We’re buying this camper, and you know, I have to get a truck that can tow a camper so my family has always been GMC truck, my dad, tons of GMC products all along, you know all along for the past 30 years probably and my they have a farm and they’ve all their farm equipment, trucks are GMC. My brother’s got a GMC truck my brother in law’s GMC, so probably I don’t know over the last 30 years I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a million dollars worth of trucks a lot lots of trucks from pretty much from this one dealership in Rochester. So I GMC is coming out with this new truck new new trim level of their one of their trucks and I pre ordered it and this was in October of 2021 I pre ordered it is for an April or early May delivery and you know February comes March comes April comes I got an email from GMC saying oh your truck is built and I’m all excited about it. I’m like okay, I’m gonna get my truck pretty soon. No delivery date, no delivery date, no delivery date. Comes June no delivery date July no delivery date August no delivery date the dealership is just has no idea where the truck is. You go in and put the I had the VIN you’re going to put the VIN into GMCs find a truck. And it says your your trucks been built. It’s just waiting to be shipped to the dealer. This goes on for almost a year. And what ends up happening is and it’s exactly what we were talking about before this chip shortage. So they were building these trucks, partially finishing them and not being able to deliver them because they don’t have the chips to finish them off. But they were calling them built.

Ian Robertson
You don’t have the chips to finish this off.

Tom Kubiak
That’s that’s exactly what they literally didn’t have the chips. So I ended up I ended up canceling the order after more than a year of waiting. And I ended up buying a you know one year old truck. And this goes to our buying a car experience. I went to carmax and the nice thing about carMax and it was in the middle of the pandemic so I probably paid more than I needed to pay for it. But there’s no hassle there’s no negotiation there’s no bickering it’s you want the truck. This is our price. And I felt it was like a pretty good experience.

Ian Robertson
There’s a there’s a CarMax lot not far from me over in Albany area.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah that’s the one where I went to. And what I actually did was carMax is a nice thing where you can you can find a truck or find a vehicle anywhere. And they’ll tell you what the cost would be to ship it to Albany or to wherever you are. So I found a truck it was in Philadelphia, it was the exact truck I wanted. And for like $150 They’ll bring it to Albany for me to see. And if I want to buy it I can buy it if I don’t want to buy it. I’ve only paid $150.

Ian Robertson
Oh wow.

Tom Kubiak
And it worked perfect. It’s exactly what I wanted.

Ian Robertson
So you’re full of all sorts of good suggestions. I just showed up one day and go I wanna drive that. When you say did you do research like you did research I looked some stuff up online on my way to a dealership. Honey, you drive. I’m gonna look some stuff up.

Tom Kubiak
How do you spell Subaru?

Ian Robertson
It’s pronounced Sabra.

Tom Kubiak
You didn’t check what kind have like, which trim level you wanted or anything like that beforehand?

Ian Robertson
So I’m not much of a car guy, like, and I’ll spend months researching just the right yeast to put with the pair with one grape.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, that’s true.

Ian Robertson
And then I’ll just show up to a car dealership of like, give me that one. It’s got four wheels, right?

Tom Kubiak
That’s so true about you. No I get I get obsessive, like, I’ll I’ll read everything I can find about it. And I’ll read about the dealerships, and I’ll read reviews and and then I’ll I’ll, you know, go through the building process on with their online tools 20 times like, just to see if it’s changed or if there’s anything different about it. And then I’ll, I’ll search for dealerships that have the car completed. I don’t know. I’m just crazy, like, Yeah.

Ian Robertson
Well, that’s how you become like a semi expert and stuff. Like, I’ll talk to you one day and be like, Hey, Tom, have you ever thought about bow hunting? And you’ll be like, No, I’ve never thought about that. Three months later be like, I won every major archery contest. I was thinking today..

Tom Kubiak
That’s only partially true.

Ian Robertson
You show up one day and beat a grandmaster in a chess tournament like you’re unranked.

Tom Kubiak
Not a grandmaster.

Ian Robertson
You’re like that red haired lady on that Netflix show. You have more facial hair, but..

Tom Kubiak
Plus, I don’t see the chessboard on the ceiling.

Ian Robertson
I’ve never actually watched it. I just know she’s good at chess.

Tom Kubiak
It’s actually it’s actually a pretty good, pretty good show.

Ian Robertson
I’ll have to watch it. So those are good suggestions. I’m gonna have to keep that in mind. Because if I buy another vehicle at this point so far, I’d probably buy another Subaru. I liked the Outback. I’m considering considering the Ascent.

Tom Kubiak
Ev.

Ian Robertson
Not the EV Because..

Tom Kubiak
Did you did you drive their what do you call it the Solterra or something like that. Did you drive it at all?

Ian Robertson
I drove that we rented it. So actually, the reason we ended up going with Subaru

Tom Kubiak
Go back to I rented it. I love that idea if you’re looking for a car.

Ian Robertson
So that happened on accident because people were picking us up in our van when the transmission went. They were on the George Washington just before the George Washington Bridge. Big mess.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah that was crazy.

Ian Robertson
It’s a long story. Some lady spilled her water.

Tom Kubiak
I’m glad I wasn’t picking you up that weekend.

Ian Robertson
No. I wouldn’t have picked me up ever again. So we rented it and we..

Tom Kubiak
Oh the Solterra.

Ian Robertson
Drove back. Oh no, it’s actually the Impreza.

Tom Kubiak
Okay, that’s just a little four door one like a little, little Honda Civic type thing. But sportier.

Ian Robertson
It’s a miniature version of the Outback.

Tom Kubiak
Oh it’s a hatchback.

Ian Robertson
It’s a hatchback. But you know what, okay, it was comfortable. It drove super nice. Had all these bells and whistles is the cheaper version. And we had it for a couple of days or whenever we brought it back. And meanwhile for like, we like this. Let’s and then when we got the Outback we’ve ridden in years before we liked it. Yeah, we really, we really liked the whole thing. But the ascent has a seven seater. Yeah. And I do kind of like that sometimes that you know, those two extra seats, they have to be small people to get in there. But my daughter’s, you know, younger and she can fit in those things still. So I’m thinking about an ascent.

Tom Kubiak
And you still have the the carrying where like you could fold those seats down and still have the space in the back and it’s a little bit bigger vehicle.

Ian Robertson
Well, no, actually, it’s not. It’s it’s the same chassis, from what I understand as the Outback.

Tom Kubiak
It’s not the same length. So I think I thought it was longer.

Ian Robertson
I’ll have to look because maybe I’m wrong. But a car guy I know that they’re the same chassis. The body may be extended in some way. But interestingly, when you look at it, I thought he was right, because the back seat basically looks like it’s sitting in the trunk. And there’s almost no trunk until you fold the back seat down. Oh, okay, maybe and then it looks like the Outback after you fold the seats down.

Tom Kubiak
Okay, so maybe you’re right maybe maybe the only difference is it’s got those extra seats.

Ian Robertson
I could be wrong Yeah, sorry Subaru I’m not sure yeah, sorry.

Tom Kubiak
Well, I thought one of the reasons we discounted the out the Ascent is because our Outback fits in our garage with only maybe a foot behind it to spare and a couple inches in the front of it to spare and I was worried that the ascent might not fit well you know might make parking difficult.

Ian Robertson
Well, you know, most other podcasts would have this stuff well researched and..

Tom Kubiak
True.

Ian Robertson
But not here with Drinking With Tom. Tom built the car, you know on a hologram or something like that multiple times, but he doesn’t know how long the car is.

Tom Kubiak
We just talked about that how we come into these podcasts and do little to no preparation.

Ian Robertson
Well, I mean, we have a lifetime of preparation of..

Tom Kubiak
A lifetime of preparation, exactly..

Ian Robertson
You ever hear that..

Tom Kubiak
But I was saying did you, did you look at the Solterra when you were there, their EV model?

Ian Robertson
I did. Here’s my problem with this.

Tom Kubiak
Tell me what your what your impression of it was.

Ian Robertson
It looks cool and is good in theory, but I live out in the country. There’s only one place that you can charge the thing and It’s at a library down the road. And so here’s the other thing in the cold once it gets below 20 degrees. Yeah, they even say right there. I’m like, oh, man, this is cool. My salesman goes, yeah, if you don’t like driving in the winter, because you get about 120 miles on a battery in the winter when it goes below 20.

Tom Kubiak
Wow Yeah, that’s..

Ian Robertson
And then when it goes even lower. So I’m sitting there thinking, I’m like, it takes all night to charge if you’re charging at home, and then you wake up, go to work, come back, and you might not make it home.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, that’s the disadvantage of EVs right now.. they gotta get the battery distance, you know, farther, to make them really practical for..

Ian Robertson
And they’re doing some cool things. I don’t know if Subarus doing it. But they have that whole brake technology where the brakes actually help charge your battery.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, regeneration. Regenerative braking.

Ian Robertson
Mostly hybrid stuff that that’s doing it.

Tom Kubiak
Well I just I just read an article the other day that said Subarus CEO said they want 50% of their cars to be EV by 2030. So and and right now, I think this year, they’ve only sold like 4000 of those Solterras, like nothing.

Ian Robertson
Well, it’s so it’s coming. So here’s the thing, they just came back from the EU and or not the EU, the UK. And they’re going all electric there. And they’re already way ahead of the US. So it’s coming here and there’s already legislation, they’re just trying to get ahead of it. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Yeah. If you live in the country, I don’t I don’t recommend an electric car. The hybrids work really well. I have some friends who live out here with a hybrid. But other than that, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. Well, while I was thinking when you said about, you know, we rented a car, I was thinking and I had been told one time a really good suggestion is that if you’re if you’re going to buy a car that you have not had before, renting one for a week before you buy it is is not a bad idea. So find a rental company that has that model, and go rent it if even if it’s not for a week rent or for a few days, drive it see if you’d like the seating, you know, you know, the way the seat is set up the way the the you know, the if you’re able to see out all the windows good with your height, that type of stuff, because those little things can, you might not notice them as much on a test drive. But two weeks into owning the car, you’re going to end up really kicking yourself that you didn’t, you didn’t fill it out and then you’re going to be stuck with it because getting rid of a brand new car is or, you know, even for that matter, used cars not as easy if you’re trying to break even.

Ian Robertson
I actually have a new segment here that I want to do with you, Tom, but my two big takeaways from your suggestions were one, get the get the lowest price possible online and then bring that to the dealership and negotiate a little bit better. So thanks again.

Tom Kubiak
Love it.

Ian Robertson
Then, also, rent a car. I never thought about that it happened by accident, but.

Tom Kubiak
It’s a good idea. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
To end our segment I wanted to do a new a new section of our segment. It’s called..

Tom Kubiak
Okay, I’m ready for it. I know I’m not going to be good at this.

Ian Robertson
Name that sound. We can have some kind of some music some game show music or something. Post editing. All right. So I’m gonna I’m gonna play a sound and you have to guess what it is. Okay. I’m gonna throw you a softball. You ready?

Tom Kubiak
Yep.

Ian Robertson
Shake your head if you can hear it. Okay, what is it?

Tom Kubiak
Cowbells.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly. Ding ding ding. Good job. All right. So that was an easy one.

Tom Kubiak
What it needs is more cowbells.

Ian Robertson
Oh, I have a fever..need more cowbell. All right, ready? Here’s a new one..when we have guests on the show. We gotta do this with them.

Tom Kubiak
Sounds like someone laying carpet.

Ian Robertson
Yes. You got it. Wow, that’s fantastic. I didn’t think you’d get that one. Tom, you have a useless talent here. This is amazing.

Tom Kubiak
I didn’t even realize that I had a talent like this.

Ian Robertson
Okay, okay, okay.

Tom Kubiak
Is that really what it was?

Ian Robertson
That’s really what it was. Okay, let’s get you a new sound.

Tom Kubiak
No idea, shoveling something?

Ian Robertson
You can phone a friend.

Tom Kubiak
I have no idea.

Ian Robertson
Aww.. it’s walking in wet shoes.

Tom Kubiak
Where did you come up with these?

Ian Robertson
In between providing for my family and running a business I recorded what walking in wet shoes..

Tom Kubiak
How did your shoes get so wet?

Ian Robertson
Okay everybody listen up… Okay ready?

Tom Kubiak
That’s crazy.

Ian Robertson
This one is Uber specific, ready?

Tom Kubiak
Well obviously you’re filling something up. It’s quite a lot of whatever you’re filling up.

Ian Robertson
It’s 7am, just kidding.

Tom Kubiak
Filling the coffee maker.

Ian Robertson
Nope, I’ll give you one more try, this is really super specific. Give up? It’s water pouring into a surgical tray. Okay, now this one, if you can get this one, I will buy your next bottle of scotch. All right?

Tom Kubiak
I’m, I’m, what am I, two for five?

Ian Robertson
Two for four. Ready? This is our last one, though.

Tom Kubiak
Start it over again.

Ian Robertson
You’re never gonna get this one.

Tom Kubiak
Sounds like peeling potatoes or something like that.

Ian Robertson
You want one more shot or do you give up?

Tom Kubiak
No, I don’t know.

Ian Robertson
Wiping out the sink with a hand.

Tom Kubiak
You come up with the craziest things.

Ian Robertson
Hang on, how about that one?

Tom Kubiak
Sounds like either the lawn mower or..

Ian Robertson
That actually just came with our podcasting software.

Tom Kubiak
Seriously? It’s just, they give you, Oh, probably to like make sound effects type of thing.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, there’s all sorts of sound effects. But there you go. That’s our new segment. Guess that sound, so we’re gonna be playing that regularly.

Tom Kubiak
What about our stupid dad joke?

Ian Robertson
All right. I wanna hear your dad joke to take us out.

Tom Kubiak
Okay, here’s a good one. Why are grizzly bears so light on their feet?

Ian Robertson
I don’t know.

Tom Kubiak
I should probably just say why are grizzlies so light on their feet?

Ian Robertson
Why are grizzlies? I don’t know.

Tom Kubiak
Because they only carry the bare necessities.

Ian Robertson
Oh, come on, did chatGPT come up with that?

Tom Kubiak
No. I have to remember some of these jokes. Because I’m around all these kids all the time. And they’re, you know, if you have good kid jokes the kids like you so I want to come up with good kid jokes.

Ian Robertson
Kids love fart jokes. Yeah. Yeah, they always win a kid over.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah there’s a type.

Ian Robertson
All right. Well, thank you very much, Tom, for being on.

Tom Kubiak
Thanks man. Good to see you.

Ian Robertson
Thanks for being on your own show. We’ll see you next time.

Tom Kubiak
See you next time.