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Diary: Car Dealerships Are Houses of Distrust (Patreon)

Published:
2024-01-11 21:30:28
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

In this Patreon-exclusive diary episode, David discusses his thoughts on the following topics:

An upsetting drive home

Long COVID in the Chen household (3:30)

YouTubers retiring - Tom Scott and The Game Theorists and the plan for Decoding TV (7:15)

Buying a Chevrolet Bolt EUV (The Verge's article on tax credit vehicles) (16:30)

Process movies: Perfect Days and The Taste of Things (28:45)

New Comedy specials: Dave Chappelle's The Dreamer, Ricky Gervais's Armageddon, Gary Gulman's Born on 3rd Base (33:00)

[Also, be sure to check out my top 10 movies of 2023 at Decoding Everything] 

PATRONS: You can get this audio in your podcast app by going to patreon.com/davechen, going to the "My Membership" section, and copying and pasting the RSS link to your podcast app.

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Comments

Christopher Yee Mon

lol, Should have come to me for advice on the electric car stuff. I have a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, and I've put 100k miles on it. I also bought a Tesla Model 3 for Turo in Jan 2023 and I've put 30k miles on it so far. Coulda helped you with the dealers as well. I had a not great experience with my dealer. EVs are amazing for the maintenance. You only ever have to change the tires, and change the battery pack coolant. The tires need rotation and replacement a bit more than gas cars because they are heavier and the Bolt is front wheel drive. And the battery pack coolant replacement is very rare. Only need to do it every 100k miles, so basically a handful of times, in the car's life. Other than that, no maintenance. Other EV notes / pointers * Tesla is opening up their charging network so you can use Tesla chargers. Chevy is switching to the Tesla plug so no need for an adapter either, but Tesla is also rolling out a charging station that has the CCS adapter in it. You clip the charge plug into the adapter when you use it, and it works on other cars. For finding other stations, there's Plugshare. * Electricity in some parts of the country (like Washington's hydro-electric power) is very cheap so keeping the car running is very cheap. I've driven over 1000 miles in a month on the Bolt and barely spent more than $100 * Invest in a level 2 charger at home. The regular wall plug is not enough. They're as cheap as $200 on Amazon (or as expensive as $600) You want overnight charging, not a full 24 hours to charge.

Gary Yarbrough

Got my first car this summer and just came back from my holiday vacation to a dead battery (/alternator?). I can’t wait til the day I get an EV and my car is more like a laptop and less like a gas stove.

Derek Cheng

Did poker skills help you at all when negotiating with the dealer? Or maybe rewatch the original Fargo?

David Chen

Only in the sense that I knew he was bluffing 😂

CDMatthew

Though I would NEVER want you to apologize for a lack of productivity (even under the difficult circumstances you describe, your creative pods and vids and things bring me plentiful pleasure), I do appreciate your candor in these diary episodes about what’s going on with you. Taking care of @joyonapping’s health is top priority, and would be for me with my own spouse in a similar situation. (And I’m fortunate to have an employer who would understand and support that need.) I’m intrigued about what’s next with Decoding TV podcast, and glad to hear your excitement about it. (Side note: I still miss Culturally Relevant, as I think you’re an excellent interviewer of other creators about their work, but you have to go with where your passion is leading.) Also appreciate your comments about Gervais and Chapelle, and your analysis of how they’ve both lost their way as comics is exactly right; it’s just plain sad. What a waste. Many thanks as always, Dave.

Nicolas Zika

Hi Dave, Sorry to hear about Joy. I hope she makes a full and speedy recovery. Congratulations on the new car. I’m super jealous as I would love to get an electric car but on my current situation, getting a new car doesn’t make sense. Best of luck with Decoding TV this year. I will certainly be listening.

David

Wishing the best for you and Joy. Long COVID can be immensely challenging to manage. Prioritizing your own health and your family’s health is what I would support as a Patron. I am basically the same as you regarding cars (a certain pride after a lifetime of owning old, sometimes unsafe vehicles). I finally bit the bullet late last year and was about to buy the Bolt as well but with the persistent price drops I ended up getting a Model 3. Access and availability of a reliable charging network is its killer feature. I went to multiple dealerships in the buying process and it is a hilariously awful experience. I am curious as to why you continue to watch Gervais and Chappelle. Their “comedy” is not just offensive but dangerous to the trans community. I was a huge fan of Chappelle and have seen him perform live. But your correct criticisms of both comedians could be copy and pasted to their previous specials. They aren’t changing but doubling down on punching down. There are so many other stand up comedians deserving of your platform.

David Chen

David: Gervais and Chappelle have said (and continue to say!) terrible things. But I also think it's possible for important people to change course and was hoping we might see some of that in the latest specials. If that's what we saw, I would've been happy to highlight it. Sadly, we didn't.

Jorge Figueroa

Diary episodes are my favorite Patreon content.

Stranger2Reality

In your opinion, who has more cultural relevance right now: Gervais/Chappelle or the Avatar franchise 😂

Phillip Jackson

firstly, I'm so sorry to hear about Joy and I wish you both the best. my SO also has long Covid and suffers from debilitating migraines, which subside slowly until she contracts the virus again. it's a constant battle. you're (legitimately) in my prayers now. In the case of Chappelle and Gervais, people with narcissistic personality disorders get stuck in a feedback loop where negative feedback or critique serves as a positive signal that they're doing the right thing. by creating more and more hate they continue to experience the feeling of doing the right or just thing by fighting against it. be well, I love the diary episodes. I hope decoding takes off this year! I have had my own personal rough year as a media founder but things are looking up.

Joe Darcy

As the original driver of a 2010 Honda Civic, I have a different assessment on the desirability and utility of the car, but to each his own ;-) For car dealerships, the 2013 "This American Life" episodes on their business model stuck with me: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/513/129-cars tl;dr the dealership gets a large bonus from the car maker for meeting a month's sales target and nothing if they don't. At the end of the month, it is economically rationale for a dealership to lose money on an individual car to make the overall sales goal; what a crazy system!

Connor Rock

Hey Dave, I’m so sorry to hear about Joy, i’m hoping that you guys find some really helpful and healing solutions this year, I know that our medical system is pretty terrible in the way it treats those with long COVID but I’ve heard anecdotally from some folks who have found some respite with certain treatments. In regards to your Chevy Bolt EV, I’m super excited for you! I’ve been leasing a 2022 Hyundai Kona EV for a little over two years, and for the most part I really love it. When I first started leasing it we had this charger installed in our garage: ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 WiFi Enabled 240 Volt NEMA 6-50 Plug Electric Vehicle EV Charger for Plug in or Hardwired Indoor Outdoor Setup w/Cable We moved to a condo in LA county since then and our building doesn’t allow us currently or have a way to have hookups, so I’ve been struggling with having to charge my car at public chargers, way more frequently then I’d like to be, because of a long commute (I’m charging it almost every other day at a public charger). But despite the inconvenience I’m still grateful to have an electric vehicle.