#082 - The Audi Nuvolari, Hellcats Are Back, SLATE Pre Orders, 2027 Bronco Filson, Base VWs, & More

#082 - The Audi Nuvolari, Hellcats Are Back, SLATE Pre Orders, 2027 Bronco Filson, Base VWs, & More Clutch Culture Podcast · Jun 8, 2026

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Car

Audi R8

The Audi R8 is a high-end supercar from Audi. It’s the kind of car people use as a reference point when talking about what a new Audi supercar might replace.

Car

The Honda NSX is a sports car made to be fast and fun to drive. The podcast is talking about how it was priced and released, which affects how people viewed it. That’s why it comes up in the conversation.

Car

Acura NSX

The Acura NSX is a well-known sports car from Acura. The hosts are using it as an example of how pricing and expectations can be confusing when a new version launches.

Term

hybrid powertrain

A hybrid powertrain uses both a gas engine and an electric system. The electric part helps the car make more power than the gas engine could do by itself.

Term

four liter V8

That means the car has a V8 engine that’s about 4.0 liters in size. It’s the gas part of the power system being discussed.

Term

1,000 horsepower

“1,000 horsepower” is how much power the car can make at its peak. Here, they’re saying the hybrid system helps it reach that huge number.

Term

217 miles per hour

“217 miles per hour” is the car’s estimated top speed. They’re using it to illustrate how extreme the performance claims are.

Concept

logical successor

A “logical successor” is the next car that makes sense to replace the previous one. Here, the host is saying the new Audi doesn’t feel like the R8’s obvious replacement.

Concept

price point

A “price point” just means the exact price a product is sold for. The point they’re making is that if the price is too high for the buyers at launch, sales can struggle even if the car is impressive.

Term

supercars

A “supercar” is a very expensive, very fast performance car. In this discussion, it’s mainly about how few people can actually buy them.

Brand

Ferrari

Ferrari is an Italian performance brand famous for limited production and high demand. The hosts reference “true Ferrari fashion” to describe how Ferrari communicates that cars are “sold out,” even when the brand is still managing allocations through dealers.

Term

allocation

An “allocation” is basically a reserved quota of cars that a dealer can sell to certain customers. The point here is that dealers may only be able to offer the next hot car to people who also buy other cars.

Car

Nissan XTerra

The Nissan XTerra is an SUV that’s built with a rugged, off-road style in mind. The podcast mentions it because a video about the XTerra went viral. That made more people pay attention to the vehicle.

Car

F-150 Raptor

The Ford F-150 is a large pickup truck. It can be ordered in different versions, including ones that are built for more performance and tougher driving. The podcast mentions it because the Raptor-style setup adds a lot of extra performance features.

Term

appearance upgrades

“Appearance upgrades” means the changes are mostly about how the vehicle looks. Think styling details and exterior trim, not the engine or drivetrain.

Term

painted fenders

“Painted fenders” means the front wheel-area panels are painted to match the truck’s color. It’s mostly a visual upgrade that makes the truck look more finished.

Term

V6

A V6 is an engine with six cylinders. The cylinders are arranged in a V shape, and it’s a common layout in many modern trucks and cars.

Term

twin turbo

“Twin turbo” means the engine has two turbochargers. They help the engine make more power by pushing extra air into the cylinders.

Car

Bronco Raptor

The Ford Bronco Raptor is a tougher, off-road-focused Bronco. Here, the host is saying it can be less comfortable in town, and that the seat fit seems to depend on how tall the driver is.

Term

collaborations

“Collaborations” here means special versions made with help from another brand or partner. The point is that these can turn out great—or they can be awkward to live with, like seat comfort not working for everyone.

Car

Ferrari Luce

The Ferrari Luce is a Ferrari model that the podcast describes as a major change or turning point. They’re saying it introduced something new that other cars weren’t doing at the time. That’s why it stands out in the conversation.

Car

Dodge Charger

The Dodge Charger is a car that’s built more for performance than for everyday comfort. It’s known for having a strong look and powerful options. The podcast mentions it because there was a new reveal and lots of people watched the video.

Car

Challenger Hellcat

The Dodge Challenger is a performance car with a strong, sporty focus. The podcast says it’s bringing back the Hellcat, which is a high-performance version. That matters because it changes what kind of power and driving experience you can buy.

Car

Plymouth Superbird

The Plymouth Superbird is a famous old-school muscle car from the late 1960s. It’s known for its huge rear wing that was designed to help it go faster in racing.

Car

Bronco

The Ford Bronco is a tough, off-road SUV. The host is saying they’d rather own an older (1990s) one than the newer version because it doesn’t feel as “right” to them.

Car

C8 Corvette

The C8 Corvette is a Corvette with its engine in the middle of the car. The host isn’t interested in owning one, but they respect that other people really love them.

Car

The Raptor

The Raptor is a rugged off-road version of a pickup truck. The host is saying they’re interested in that kind of vehicle next.

Term

trim packages

A trim package is a set of options that comes together on a car. Instead of picking everything one-by-one, you choose a package that matches the features you want.

Car

GX550

The Lexus GX 550 is a luxury SUV. The host likes how it looks after the redesign, but thinks the tires and wheels they chose are a bit questionable.

Term

tire and wheel choices

Tires and wheels aren’t just cosmetic—they change how the car drives and handles. The host is saying the GX 550 looks great, but the specific tire and wheel setup they chose might not be ideal.

Concept

churn happen, right?

“Churn” means cars getting traded in and resold more often. If that happens a lot, more used cars show up and prices can fall.

Concept

used market

The “used market” is where people buy cars that were owned before. The idea here is that if lots of new EVs get sold, more of them will show up later as used cars, which can lower prices.

Car

Tesla Model S

The Tesla Model S Plaid is a fast electric car from Tesla. The hosts are saying that once used prices get low enough, it becomes an obvious choice to buy.

Car

Lexus LX470

The Lexus LX470 is a big, luxury SUV based on the Toyota Land Cruiser platform. People like it because it feels solid and is built to last, so it’s a common “I want to own that one day” kind of vehicle.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser 100 series

The Land Cruiser 100 series is a specific generation of the Toyota Land Cruiser. It’s the kind of platform people associate with tough, long-lasting SUVs—so it makes sense the host wants to own one of the vehicles built on it.

Term

right-hand drive

Right-hand drive means the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. If you’re used to cars with the steering wheel on the left, it can feel strange—especially for driving and living with the car.

Term

alternator

The alternator is what keeps your car’s battery charged while you drive. If it goes bad, the battery can run out and the car may start acting up or stop running.

Term

EV

EV means electric vehicle. It’s a car that runs on electricity from a battery instead of using gasoline.

Car

BMW E90

The BMW 3 Series is a luxury sedan, meaning it’s aimed at drivers who want a nicer interior and a more enjoyable drive. Some versions can be bought with a manual transmission, which is a feature enthusiasts look for. The podcast is mentioning it because the pricing and manual availability can make it feel like a good deal.

Car

BMW M3

This is a BMW M3 from the E90 generation, and the host is talking about the manual version. They’re basically saying you can often get a real enthusiast car for less money than what some EVs cost.

Term

out the door

“Out the door” (OTD) price is the total amount you pay to take the car home, including taxes, registration, and dealer fees. It’s often higher than the advertised price, so comparing OTD helps you judge real affordability.

Car

Gx460

The Lexus GX 460 is a rugged SUV that feels more like a truck than a car. People often buy it to drive normally day to day, and it’s known for being dependable when it’s maintained.

Concept

leases

A lease is like renting a car for a few years with monthly payments. You don’t usually own the car at the end, and your choice can matter more as your life changes.

Car

Toyota Tacoma

The Toyota Tacoma is a pickup truck that’s built for everyday driving and light work. It’s also known for holding its value well. The podcast mentions it because current lease deals can make it much cheaper than you might expect.

Term

lease deals

A lease deal is when you pay to use a car for a set time, usually with a lower monthly cost than buying. The hosts think more of these deals will make EVs and other cars easier to afford.

Car

Honda Ridgeline

The Honda Ridgeline is a pickup truck that’s meant to be comfortable for everyday driving. It still has truck features, but it’s not built to be the most extreme off-road machine. The podcast is mentioning it because people see it as a reasonable, practical choice.

Car

Toyota Tundra

The Toyota Tundra is a large pickup truck. People choose it when they want more room and more truck capability. The podcast brings it up because they’re talking about whether Toyota should have focused on the Tundra sooner.

Car

Volkswagen base golf hatchback

The Volkswagen Golf is a popular small car. A “hatchback” means the rear door opens upward and the trunk and back seats are part of one space. The host is saying Volkswagen may start selling the simpler, cheaper Golf hatchback in the U.S. again.

Term

tariffs

Tariffs are taxes governments place on imported goods. In the segment, the hosts argue that if tariffs on Mexico-made vehicles get low enough, Volkswagen could justify bringing more Golf variants back to the U.S.

Car

Land Rover Range Rover

The Land Rover Range Rover is a luxury SUV, meaning it’s designed to be comfortable and feature-rich. It also has the ability to handle rough roads better than many regular SUVs. The podcast mentions it because they think the company didn’t do enough to keep it moving forward.

Term

do not drive warning

A “do not drive” warning is an urgent safety directive issued when a vehicle defect could make continued driving unsafe. It typically shows up during recalls or safety notices and signals that the risk is serious enough to restrict use until repaired.

Car

Ford Bronco Sport

The Ford Bronco Sport is a smaller SUV that uses Bronco branding and is meant for daily driving with some off-road ability. The podcast mentions a warning that says not to drive, which usually means there’s a safety problem that needs fixing. If you own one, that’s the kind of message you’d want to take seriously and check immediately.

Term

I'm gonna go ahead and just start it with, hey,

clutch.club if you guys wanna join the Discord

and the largest, soon to be largest,

automotive car club online.

But we gotta start with a really big,

I was actually gonna ask you, man,

are you ready for another reveal?

Can you handle another reveal, three weeks in a row?

It is kinda wild, right?

It is kinda wild how we've just gotten

all of this free content.

It's great, I know, like.

I have another one, actually we have two this week,

two reveals, I don't know if you know what the second one,

I'll wait till later in the show to bring it up,

but it's on the heels of our most viral video.

I'll let that linger and see if you can guess what it is.

But, you know, Nick actually saw it, unfortunately,

usually he's so busy that he'll catch

maybe half of the stories that I have on my notes,

but this one was one of the halves that he did catch.

Yeah, I got plenty of messages as soon as this went off.

I can't wait to hear him.

Audi has a new 987 horsepower supercar,

but it's not an R8 replacement.

First thoughts.

By the way, it's definitely not an R8 replacement,

because let's look at exactly what happened with NSX, right?

NSX was this price point, they released it,

it's basically $170,000 to $200,000 when they released it,

doesn't make sense with the NSX lineage price-wise,

and now you're talking about they kind of internally

we're saying the R8's coming back

and then this is now supposedly not the R8 replacement.

I don't know if that's just the journalistic type of thing

where people are saying, hey, what we see,

it's not an R8 replacement,

certainly has a lot of R8 in its DNA,

but you're talking about what, 499 being made,

you're also talking about it definitely design-wise

looks like what they would consider a modern R8

and you're now into completely hybrid powertrain,

although I do believe it has a V8 in it, right?

Yeah, go ahead, it's a four liter V8, by the way.

But it has hybrid components that allow it

to get to that 1,000 horsepower number.

And 217 miles per hour if you wanted to go that fast.

Yeah, and now you're talking about a $700,000 Audi,

$700,000 Audi.

I have a Lego kit that looks exactly like this by the way.

Yeah, that does have a Lego feel, right?

And I would ask this of what exactly

are we looking at design-wise here?

Audi has always done things,

they've done curvature well,

they've done body lines well,

and to your point, it kinda has this Lego,

boxy type of feel.

I don't really understand it,

but I really don't understand it with $700,000.

So since you work in that kind of clientele,

what were those thoughts on the text

that you got based off this review?

I am seeing more and more a rebuff

of the modern, let's call it quote unquote super car.

I mean, just across the board.

We, I'll be trying to share some photos,

some vintage Ferraris that we've had purchased

and different things like that.

I think everyone's getting to a strange place here, man.

Everyone, there's always going to be a marketplace

to buy the new Lambo, Ferrari,

buy the new whatever, right?

Bugatti doesn't matter.

There's always going to be buyers for that.

Does Audi have the chops

that somebody's thinking about buying a $700,000 Audi?

I don't see that in my network,

and I gotta think that my network

probably has the affluence not to worry about

paying $700,000 for this Audi

from a customer based standpoint.

I don't see a lot of excitement.

For some reason, I see a huge disconnect,

and look, most of us that are listening to this

and Rob and I, we're not in this marketplace,

meaning as buyers.

So we're just on the outside talking about it

and thinking about it and looking at it.

And I don't see a ton of excitement.

There wasn't a ton of excitement for 12-cylindry.

There wasn't a ton of excitement

for obviously the new Ferrari that was unveiled.

There's not a ton of excitement.

And so this used to be part of the market

that was all about excitement.

Excited to get in it, excited to see it,

excited to be around it, excited, excited, excited.

I see that waning in a big way.

And not only that, but the aspirational aspect

of those that aren't in the market

to eventually be in the market is completely silent.

Yeah, it's non-existent because again,

you kinda look at this Audi in particular,

this type of Audi.

The R8, which there's, you know,

I don't know whether they're publicly saying it

or everybody's just saying this isn't the logical successor

to an R8, you know, you're looking at something

that's the 200 to $250,000 range.

You know, that's what you're looking at.

You're now almost triple

if you go off the $250,000 number.

And what do you think puts it at that price point?

Is it just the awe shock factor of it's something

that we've never done before?

No, I think what puts it at that price point

is everybody wants to be in that price point.

They're putting themselves in that price point

from a business aspect saying, well, you know,

if Lambo can do it, if Ferrari can do it,

why can't we do it?

By the way, that was kinda like the NSX problem.

They're like, hey, you know, we're gonna build this

and it's a great car.

We're gonna build this great car

and we're gonna charge what we think we should charge for it.

What they found out is like,

nobody wanted to pay that for an NSX.

It doesn't matter how good, how bad, how whatever,

their price point didn't make sense to the buyer

at that point of the launch.

This has that same vibe where I just go,

who's excited at $700,000 Audi?

You look back at that NSX though

and with what you get from the total package perspective

and now you see what's coming out now for the same or not,

if not more, and you're like, wow,

we were so wrong about that NSX.

Yeah, but I think people misread that in a little bit of a way

because, you know, a $200,000 car was really something,

not too long ago.

We're not talking about 30 years ago.

Like 10.

You know, 10 years ago, a $200,000 car,

you're like, man, that's pretty pricey, right?

Now we've suddenly jumped to the 700,000, 600,000 number

and it's like, well, it's no big deal.

And to your point, you're taking out the aspirational people

that are coming up in life.

Maybe they're 35, getting into their 40s.

They can start thinking about an R8.

Well, guess what?

They're just going to go buy the old R8.

They're not going to buy this

because this is out of their price range.

This isn't even a thought process.

I think everyone's trying to compete on these supercars

for these very limited amount of buyers.

And it hasn't hit everybody

that there's not as many buyers as you think.

There was a comment on the,

like it must have been the Ferrari video,

where the comment was something the effect of like,

these cars are already all sold out or something like that.

Did you reply to that one?

Yeah, I said in true Ferrari fashion,

they tell you they're sold out of everything.

I mean, that's been the nature.

We know what sold out at Ferrari means, right?

Because let me give people all behind the scenes.

Hey, dealership Z calls up their clientele and says,

hey, we'll promise you the next big allocation

if you buy three luches.

So they buy three luches

because they want the next big allocation.

That doesn't mean they sold out of luches.

That means that they manipulated the entire ecosystem

to drum up sales of a car they have found out

very few people want, right?

So it's not in Ferrari fashion and Porsche fashion

and a lot of these brands fashion,

they can say a lot of things.

When the rubber meets the road is,

when they go into production and they're in the second year,

the third year of that production,

you start to see, well,

Ferrari California doesn't sell that well.

Roma hasn't sold that well.

This has all been in the ecosystem for a long time.

The difference is now people are getting visibility on it.

And so because they don't know how the system works,

they go, well, they'd say it's sold out.

They've been saying everything they've ever built

has been sold out for 50 years.

That's not ever been the case.

Good on them though,

for making everybody believe that it is.

Well, because they,

one of the things that Ferrari probably does better

than anybody else's PR.

Oh yeah, they've got the best of the best.

They're, I mean, we can talk about,

you know, and I hear people talking about this now.

I mean, Ferrari is the leader,

even in the older market of making you believe their cars

are more special than a Kuntas,

more special than a X, Y, Z,

when in a lot of cases they aren't, right?

Sometimes they have bigger production numbers

and it's not as cool of a car.

And they've always done the PR thing extremely well.

And that's why they've become pretty much the solo brand

that every car company would love to own.

If they could own Ferrari,

they would just, they would flat out purchase it

because, you know, they sell a Peral

and the horse and all that stuff has become so iconic,

which has been mainly done

through managing their public relations,

managing the way people see the brand better than anybody.

You think we're in the air?

That doesn't mean it's all true.

You think we're in the air

where we can still make something like a horse

be that iconic for another 50 years, 200 years?

Not with what we're seeing now.

No. Yikes.

I don't, I don't.

I think a newcomer could come and maybe do it all over.

I think a lot of people have tried.

I think a lot of people are trying

and I think they are doing interesting things,

but you're talking about a lot of heritage

that may not be, you know, I mean,

if you just think back to Enzo and the racing history

and how he was and how kind of personality he was,

that defiance, you know, that he kind of led with,

like we're going to do our thing.

We're going to do whatever we want.

You're going to come along for the ride.

Who do you see that acts like that now?

I mean, that kind of created this heritage.

You sort of had this, let's call it visionary type of person.

I guess Rivian kind of gives me that vibe.

Tesla kind of gives me that vibe.

They could, they could, but that's more mass produced.

You know, I mean, Rivian and Tesla have to compete

in a more mass production, broad scale.

I think Rivian has done an excellent job

of staying in their lane.

Yeah, probably better than anything.

Which you could say that Ferrari's done that pretty well.

They were always considered the most forward thinking,

you know, luxury brand.

They would try things with design.

They would try different stuff.

And so that gave them an aura.

But the problem when you talk about most of the car companies

you brought up, think about it, they're electric.

They're not going to invoke that type of emotion.

It's just not in the DNA of the vehicles that they build.

Now there was a cult following with Tesla for a long time.

I think that cult following is largely diminishing.

And now people are just buying them as appliances,

which is not the worst thing in the world.

But I think the cult following of Tesla is pretty much gone.

Hey, coming up, how much apparel from Ferrari

have you purchased in your life?

Actually, I'm not a big purchaser.

I have gotten some gifts.

I got some pretty cool stuff directly from Italy

as a gift from some people.

Oh, that's cool.

But it was never like worn.

And I just kind of kept it because it was like a keepsake.

Like this is pretty cool.

No leather gloves, no jacket or nothing.

No, like it's funny.

I am not somebody that rails against apparel

from these brands.

I know a lot of people just think it's like super tacky

and it's fun to make a joke about

and I'll make my set of jokes.

But if you get like some really cool stuff,

I just never wore it.

I just, it was honestly just a gift

that I thought was like really cool.

And I'm glad I got that.

But I've never been like an apparel guy.

Like that's never been like my thing.

Dude, what was the brand where Rob Deirdeck,

like there was kind of a running bit,

but it was like the leather jacket

with the star on it, I think.

Do you remember?

I mean, he was in big with DC shoes.

It was DC shoes, but there was like a couple of episodes.

And I know because literally,

I think Nick went to school with him,

was in the same area as him or whatever the run was.

No, I didn't go to school with him,

but he was came up near where I got there.

Real native to where you were.

Man, I think, I don't know if it was like super,

somebody's right now is yelling at their phone,

but it was like super track or super start

and had like the fault with the star.

And it was just like a running bit.

Oh dog, I gotta find it and send it to you.

And it's just, it's so funny.

Having big black being like, what are you wearing?

What is that?

Yeah, I mean, Robin Big was one of those things

that if you were there, it was so funny.

But I think if you go back and watch it for the first time,

you're like, why was everybody so into this?

No way, there's no way.

Don't tell me that.

In my mind, it's as funny today as it was.

I'll say what, when they go through the car wash

and they're playing the Ricky Gillesias,

or I think it was, and they're like,

they're going through the car wash

just jamming out, breaking the seat.

The best episode ever, and I'll never forget,

I introduced my dad to Robin Big

when he was just at my house one time.

And it was the episode where they had to weigh big

at the like the aluminum, on the aluminum scale

or the steel scale or whatever, because it was so big.

Man, I still laugh about that episode.

But I think the apparel thing is interesting,

but that's where Ferrari has sort of built this mystique

about itself is because it is in so many parts

of luxury life.

I mean, you remember Puma did a deal with Ferrari.

They did, you're right.

I mean, you have a lot of things like that.

And so to your question, do I think any brand?

Man, I think that would be tough.

I'll believe anything because people can make stuff happen.

I just think the cultish nature of Ferrari,

the racing, the race teams,

they've always been very heavily invested

in Formula One globally, even before it was where it is today.

I just think you have the Le Mans stories

and all this kind of stuff.

I think it's really hard to see a brand be able to do that

because you're talking about,

you'd really have to have this conversation

a hundred years from now.

Yeah, true.

Well, with today's technology,

we might actually be there doing clutch culture

a hundred years.

Just plug me up to the Nero link or Nero that and we'll do it.

Yeah, yeah, there we go.

By the way, Puma, that brand, I had one pair of Pumas.

And I don't know if you like them or, again, Puma.

If you wanna sponsor the show by all means,

but they were so narrow, I remember them being so narrow.

They're specifically for like the tunnel

where your feet would be in a race car

that that was a whole pitch to it.

So I remember getting in like, these are terrible for me.

These are not gonna fit.

Yeah, it was kind of the same for me.

Puma was sort of, I grew out of Pumas as I sort of grew.

Yeah, exactly.

As I grew, Puma was great at a certain point in my life.

And then as I sort of got taller, got bigger,

it was like, yeah, Puma doesn't work for me.

We're just like the jockeys on the back of a horse,

like we've outgrown this face.

Cannot wear Pumas anymore.

Let's go the opposite direction of price point

and just vehicles all together.

So we're in June, we're just about to approach

the official pre-order launch for Slate,

I believe they're calling it, right?

Do you have anybody in your network?

Maybe even you, they haven't told us

that are actually looking at really going through this

because it's non-refundable.

Like I think you could put a 50 bucks down,

now it's 250 to do the actual configuration

all in your 300 and after a certain date,

which I think is June 24th or a week after that point,

you can't get your money back.

Yeah, I think they've lost a lot of momentum.

And this goes back to something we've said about Scow,

we've said about some of the Rivian drops,

all that kind of stuff.

I think Slate's in a very weird place

that they have kind of milked this for too long.

So I think the interest is going to be interesting to watch

because they have just milked this and milked it

and done, gone on Jay Leno's garage and done all this PR.

I just wonder how much of this

they've just lost a ton of steam.

I still wanna see something like this succeed

because I think it's important to find something sub 30,000.

Obviously we were talking about a possibility

of being sub 20 with the rebate, which is now gone.

I think this will be an interesting test case of

did you guys sort of announce too soon

and did you carry this out too long?

I have one person in my network

who might be actually getting one of these.

And I think it's gonna be great.

I hope they do it because I wanna have an excuse

to be able to be in one of these things early

and then just make content and be like,

look, you guys are missing out.

Slate, go ahead and sponsor the show.

Fly Nick out there, let him tour your facility.

We've talked about it.

And we could really blow this thing up.

We've been on it early, early.

Like we were excited for what it was,

what it could be, provide to the market

way early on.

And I'm still excited for it to be honest with you.

Right now, my whole thought process is

can you get something decent sub 25?

We're at sub 25 now?

Oh, you mean for them, not just in general?

Yeah, yeah, not for them.

Because sub 20 was sort of the selling point.

If you look at inflation, if you look at

what they've had to go through, the lack of the rebate,

can I pick something up 24,000?

I think that's what they're aiming for.

What's the Rivian price now?

Because I think somebody commented that too

on our last episode about...

I forget, it was like mid 40s?

Maybe it was like the base model's gonna be mid 40s

and then the one that they did release was like 50, 58.

Yeah, something like that.

That's a big difference in what you say

and claim you're gonna come out with.

It's why we always, when we see

we had the XTERRA video go viral.

And we say this, and it doesn't always make it

into the clips, we have to see this get to production.

It's great to make all of these claims.

We have to see what you do when the rubber meets the road

and deliveries start happening to dealerships

or to customers.

And I wonder if Slate missed a window here?

Obviously, they definitely missed the $7,500 tax credit

window.

Can you imagine?

That much we...

Oh yeah, that's a real thing.

We talked about it at the time.

This is all based on that $7,500 tax credit.

So now, are we gonna see people take delivery

of sub 25,000, not sub 20?

And it looks like they're gonna be probably

inching towards 30 and now you get into real conversations

of is this what it once was?

I gotta say though, this is the second time taking a sip.

You have not said anything about my straw

and I'm surprised you haven't said anything about me.

What's up, dude?

I didn't, it's over ice.

I didn't get put it in the fridge.

So I was like, I can't do the show without my energy drink.

So I just put it over ice, put a straw.

But as soon as I did it, I was like,

God, I'm gonna get roasted immediately.

What is going on?

It's just here, just...

If you're not watching on YouTube,

your boy just sucking on a straw, you can't do it.

You gotta take the straw out.

I think I'm going to, yeah.

It's gonna get the ice.

When you roast yourself, it's time to take it out.

Well, I was like, wow, Nick's really being

the bigger man here this episode.

Twice taking a sip of my beverage

and he hasn't said a word about it.

I'm just too much in the zone.

I can't always concentrate on what you're doing.

I'm sorry, I'm built different in that case

where I'm like, all right, where are we coming from?

I can do a lot of things that, yeah, I'm not built like that.

We're just built different.

All right, Eddie Bauer.

What's the first thing that comes to mind

when you hear that word, those names?

Buddy, those old explorers.

Did you have any Eddie Bauer anything

back in the 90s or at any point?

No, but I thought they were the...

I wasn't sort of in the economic status

to have Eddie Bauer back in the day.

I was much lower on the totem pole,

but I thought they were the coolest thing in the world.

I don't care what anybody says.

I'm with you, I'm with you.

I thought they were the coolest thing in the world.

So they unfortunately filed,

I think it was chapter 11 this year, as a matter of fact,

now that I think of it, I thought it was last year,

but it could have been this February.

So we're not gonna see those collaborations

with Ford anytime soon, if ever again.

So Ford has a new collaboration.

I don't know if you've seen this.

2027 Ford Bronco Philston Edition

has hipster vibes and the Raptors.

Why did I go to LL Bean?

I was like, did they partner with LL Bean?

Why did you go there?

Because wouldn't that be the logical Eddie Bauer to LL Bean?

I mean, wouldn't that?

More so than what, I had to look at what this was.

I forgot this was even a partnership.

Philston, I think it's Philston Twill or Till.

It's some like Seattle or Washington based

outdoorsy company, but here's a shot of it.

Looks pretty good.

That looks good.

Looks really good.

And I didn't get any interior shots

because I was waiting for you.

There we go.

Hey, that looks good.

Looks really good.

That looks really good.

Yeah, I like that.

I like that a lot.

One of the things you can't get on Ford about,

obviously we've given them a lot of jabs on the recalls.

Bronco has just been done well.

It's one of the few ones that has just been like,

there's very few things to complain about.

Yeah.

Even recall wise, for being honest.

This is a really cool interior.

Like that two tone on the dash.

You obviously got the cool seats, two tone seat.

This is really cool, man.

Check this out.

Oh, look at you.

That way you know.

Now you know what you bought.

Now you know what you're in.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that looks great.

Man, that is really good.

I like that sort of like army green.

I'm not the best with colors, but.

But even the pattern too, like the quilted squares.

Looks awesome.

I wonder what the, did they say what the price is gonna be?

I think it's gonna start around 70.

Woo.

It's got the Raptor motor though.

It's got a lot of the Raptor goodies in it.

And it's got the appearance upgrades everywhere.

Yeah, which is a painted fenders and all that kind of stuff.

They got little satchels here.

I didn't even notice that.

Yeah, that's kind of badass.

They're good touch.

It's like a, it's a premium outdoor brand

from what I remember.

They did like a firefighter collaboration a few years ago.

The weird thing for me is there's a lot of these brands

that again, I've kind of admitted

I'm not the biggest apparel guy.

Sure.

So, you know, I wear T-shirt and shorts

for like nine months out of the year.

Dude, same.

I wear 12 out of 12 because I can do that here.

You know, but that's a pretty cool back window.

What's it?

Go back up.

Oh yeah, that was really cool.

Yeah, that's real cool.

Yeah, this is, there's some nice touches in this.

Like very thought, yeah, really thought about kind of things.

Yeah, it's really, it doesn't matter what you think afford.

The reintroduction of Bronco has gone about as well

as anything out there.

You know, sort of like we, you know,

we see the Corvette platform change,

whether you like Corvette or not,

you go to go and have C8 be this big of a hit

is pretty unbelievable.

Bronco to me is the same thing.

I can't believe they pulled this off

in the way that they did.

It's a credit to them.

I mean, it really is.

And I know everybody gets very brand loyal,

but when you're just talking about on the face of it,

taking this iconic thing from the 90s,

you know, an earlier obviously,

but basically not being in the market

since the 90s with that vehicle

and have it go this well is something to applaud

for a company that struggles

to build cars and trucks without recalls.

Yeah, and honestly, this would be like,

the kind of sleeping giant of the lineup.

Mid 70s is what they're saying it's gonna start at,

but it's gonna have the same three liter V6,

the twin turbo one from the Raptor,

not tuned to the same.

So instead of four or something,

you're gonna get like mid threes,

but with the tune and all of these like,

really nice interior bits for that price,

it's half of the price of what you would get

a brand new Raptor come out basically.

Yeah, what's Raptor today?

Like 125?

120, yeah, it's a ride around 120.

And here you are in a gen one, just living.

Dude, living my best life, honestly, it's the best.

It's the best.

Actually, oh, that reminds me.

Somebody sent a,

There's no way Raptor R is like 120.

Raptor one, yeah, it's around there.

So what's normal Raptor like 90?

95, yeah.

So yeah, I mean, if you start talking about

you're cutting $20, $30,000 off,

I mean, that's a legitimate question.

And I've already said,

I've been around Bronco Raptor for a long time now.

It's not the most enjoyable around town

because I don't really love the seats.

I think some people probably do.

I think it comes down to size of the person

because the taller people that have bottom

have the same complaints I have.

But I think it's one of these things.

These collaborations can go poorly.

This looks like if this is how it comes out

it's gonna go really well.

Yeah, so the 26 is yeah, 95, 558 basically is where it starts.

So I'm gonna be really interested people pick those up

and do their own little customizations.

Although let me ask you this,

when you buy something that's already like a special edition

and has a lot of those things done to it,

there's really not much to do to it.

Well, I think people more times than not,

make it look worse.

Yeah, yeah.

I think they make it look worse.

But the justify by saying I put my flare on it

and it's, yeah, which is what you're supposed to do.

Yeah, it's your car, your vehicle.

But I do think in some of these special editions,

people go too far.

Yeah.

And you go, okay, man,

if you just want an upgraded wheel package

or something like that to kind of do it,

I kind of understand that.

But this looks pretty damn good out of the box.

So I would be leery of messing too much with it.

So speaking of the General and Raptor,

I just hit about 3,000 miles on it,

a little over that, did an old change.

Got some things I want to do this summer.

Do you believe it or not?

I'll show you the map again, dude.

We have nothing but rain still.

Yeah, like the next.

I mean, you're getting to the age

where you're just talking about weather on the podcast.

That's where we're at.

Well, I can't do shit with it.

I've been fishing twice

and that's about all I've done in like the last 90 days.

Did you catch anything?

I did.

My wife and I caught some really big bass,

got some catfish.

Did you fry it up?

No.

I don't like catfish that much.

Really?

She said the same thing.

I actually don't mind it.

It tastes like chicken.

Yeah, I mean, let's be clear.

So let me put some catfish in front of me.

I'm going to eat it.

This isn't, this isn't,

but if I have my choice,

it's not my, I'm not on high on my list of fish.

You like Gator?

Yeah, so I actually do like Gator.

Yeah, I do too.

People will be surprised how good it is.

If you used to cook for it.

Yeah, but you don't cook it too long.

That'll give you a little jaw workout.

That'll ruin your day.

And go to the dentist.

Yeah, exactly right.

Exactly right.

All right, so that's a big kudos to the Bronco.

There's another Ford store.

I'm going to save it to the end

so we don't mesh the really good stuff

we just said about Ford

with what you're going to hear later on in the show.

So let me just go ahead and put a pause.

This is a guy managing trying to get Jim Farley

on the podcast and seeing it in real time.

Yeah, hopefully he stops listening.

Yeah, most people.

This is the only thing you see.

Exactly, people will make it 45 minutes.

The last 15 are kind of up in the air

so we'll just save it for the last 15 minutes of the show.

Hopefully he has something to do.

Yeah, not likely.

He's like me, he's always listened to a podcast,

getting ready for his next podcast.

Yeah, driving his Chinese car.

That's good.

There was a photo and we have a community group online

that my wife always keeps me up to date with

and somebody took a picture of a car here on the Big 35

that stretches to San Antonio to Austin, the whole thing.

And it was a BYD vehicle.

And the caption was, what a strange looking vehicle.

They had no idea what it was, right?

And then in the comments, it was like,

you don't know what you're looking at.

That's what could be taken over the American market.

And this whole debate about Chinese EVs and vehicles.

And I was like, how do you just find the time

to argue with each other about that?

You knew your wife pulled it up

and you saw the comments, you go, yep, we've experienced that.

I did, I did.

I said, go to the most recent video about EVs

and you'll see what we deal with all the time.

But yeah, it seems like a lot of people

are just waiting, they're chomping at the bit

to be able to get a BYD in here for whatever reason.

It's almost like a contrarian view at this point.

Here's the crazy thing.

We've gone 30 minutes in the podcast

and you haven't brought up the story that pertains

to you and I the most since we started.

I'm shocked.

Do you want me to bring it up?

Sure.

Okay.

You are now seeing a revolt inside

of the automotive influencer.

Oh, dude, sorry, my bad.

Quote unquote influencer reality.

I had so much stuff on my list, it's at the bottom.

So here's the crazy part.

So we come on the scene late 2024

for all of you that are new listeners.

One of the first things that we tried

to get across to people is first of all,

we're not influencers, we're not journalists,

but we start talking about automotive journalism.

Largely, nobody was doing that.

Now, Luce seemed to be this turning point

where quote unquote automotive journalists

are taking offense to quote unquote automotive influencers.

And this was never talked about

when we started talking in 2024.

Yeah.

Among a lot of other things, by the way.

Among a lot of other things.

But I want to bring everybody's attention to something

so we make this clear.

There's no such thing as an automotive journalist.

Not that I can see, not that I've seen in my whole life.

Driving a car and telling me how it drives

is you giving an opinion of how it drives.

It's an opinionist, okay?

IE, an influencer.

All influencers are doing is giving you an opinion.

It's all they're doing.

You can't point me to any automotive journalist

that's ever uncovered any story that you go,

whoa, that guy, that gal, she went real deep

and got all this information.

I mean, hell, the Nissan executive

got smuggled out in a suitcase

and they didn't know he was doing anything dirty,

but you're an automotive journalist.

That's not a, journalists are supposed to revolt against

the system.

That's a journalist to me.

Would you agree?

Yeah, not ride the wave of the system.

Not ride the wave, not go to paid launches

where you get trinkets and free five star and three star

and Michelin chefs are at the launch.

And because you get access, you're a journalist.

It's been the lie that's been going on our whole life.

But now we see these people that think

that they're a journalist,

and I use that word up purposely,

think that they're a journalist,

revolting against what influencers

are doing at these launches.

They're not revolting because of any other reason

that the influencers are getting more attention,

not only from the brands, but from all of you.

That's the revolt.

And so all of these people that have been gatekeeping

that they were a journalist

and they were doing all of these things,

they're just mad that other people are getting access.

That's all that they're mad about.

And I'll say it again,

I've never seen any proof

that anybody's an automotive journalist.

And it's really easy to go in on people like that

because when you make such self-grandizing

kind of comments about other people's criticisms

of maybe you or the industry that you claim to be in,

it just comes off as like very out of touch

and it makes more people not like you

and not like what you quote unquote do for a profession.

Yeah, and also there's been a lot of harm done

by these people going to launches

and just spewing PR nonsense.

They were quote unquote journalists.

We've shared a story where somebody who worked

in the PR arm of a major manufacturer

had all of their cars catch on fire during a launch

and then you go read the articles

and nobody brought up that the cars caught fire.

But you're gonna now bang 57 10 years later

on what influencers doing, not doing.

Guys, when it comes to car opinions,

you gotta go drive the car, right?

Like we get a question all the time

when people are like, hey, should I buy this?

And I go, go on tour, find the car,

rent it for a couple of days,

see if it fits what you need.

Don't take anybody's opinion.

I mean, this is entertainment.

We give you entertainment.

We also have decades of experience in the car business.

Take everything everybody says with a grain of salt

and has entertainment.

Great entertainment by the way.

Yeah, top tier entertainment.

First class.

You know.

But I see this happening now and people writing posts

and people writing big long diatribes

and people getting all been out of shape.

And I look at it and I go,

I mean, you've barely criticized anything in your career.

Like just because you go, hey, the prelude's not very good.

You're a journalist and not an influencer?

That's crazy.

Right?

And we have heard stories that now all of these

quote unquote journalists have told willingly on podcasts

where they're like, yeah, you know,

Chevy got mad at me this one time

because I said something and then you go read

what they said and it was like, I didn't like the headlights.

Oh yeah, man, what a journalist you are.

I mean, what a journal you really uncovered

some stuff there, right?

Like we have to understand and I say this

because we get so many questions and DMs

and things like that where people,

we know they're listening to some of these people

that they think are reputable journalists.

And I'm not here to say they're not reputable people.

I'm saying they're not journalists.

They are in cahoots with these brands in some way.

If you have to be invited to a launch

then fly out to a launch on someone else's dime,

you're not a journalist.

You're not a journalist.

You can't be completely impartial

if this brand gives you five star treatment.

How's any human being gonna be like,

what, I'm gonna screw this up.

I'm not gonna be invited to the next one.

I just had a great time.

I just went to this great place.

This thing I couldn't afford on my own.

Human nature says that's not journalistic integrity.

That was one of the biggest selling points to like us

as individuals to do the show is like,

we don't make money off of like Nick said before,

several times off the business that way.

You make it like in the business.

Car care, manufacturing things, appearances,

other mods and upgrades.

So we work in the world per se, but we're not that.

We're not taking flights.

Although, again, Slay wants to fly us to the factory.

We're gonna take it, but we're gonna be real

about what we see there.

And that's one of the purpose.

And by the way, we're also gonna say to you,

they flew us out here.

We're gonna tell everybody.

I mean, we did a brand deal on my LX470.

You guys are gonna know it was a brand deal.

Like you're gonna know that, hey, they provided this,

they were involved in this,

they worked with us on this.

There's no reason to hide this stuff,

but it's been hidden from all of you for decades.

Most of the things have been hidden from people.

And still hidden.

Yeah, especially in the car world.

Yes, still hidden.

All the PR people, for those of you listening

for the first time, all the PR people

of these major manufacturers around the globe,

they think they're paying these people for a good review.

So the people cutting the check,

believe wholeheartedly they are in a system

where they are paying for good reviews.

And there's so many people out there

that do understand the world of like,

how to buy a car, how to lease a car,

how to flip stuff, how to modify, whatever, whatever,

how to do auctions that yet,

more than ever, people are confused.

There should be enough people out there outside of us,

I'm gonna pat ourselves on the back

that try to make this stuff fun and funny,

but we shouldn't be getting as many comments

or rather DMs or emails about buying cars

and all the things that I just listed.

But everyone's so uncomfortable and unsure

about what's good for me, what's a good deal,

what's the accurate way to look at money factor

versus interest and all these little minutia details.

We're talking about 25 years of car content on the internet.

25 years.

Easily, easily.

And all these people that have been in it

for that long as well, who should have also been really

informing their audiences on how to enjoy the car world.

Yeah, and they purposely either didn't tell you,

which is one thing, or they just kept up their ignorance

and they don't actually know how it all worked.

That's fair too, actually.

That's yeah, that's a good point.

So it's one or the other, either you did it knowingly,

it's like we talked about with the chip shortage.

All you needed to talk to was somebody in the chip business

to go, that lasted six months.

The car business made you believe it lasted five years.

It lasted six months.

I never saw anybody write that, quote unquote,

automotive journalist.

You can't milk that though, you know what I mean?

Yeah, you can't, well, it's not gonna get a click.

It's not gonna, you know, they live in a world.

If you work for a magazine or you work for an online outlet

or make videos, they don't wanna make the videos

about cars, how to buy them, this and that.

I think it was a huge blind spot,

because now you see all these people like us

that are talking real, that are getting traction.

But I think one of the things you have to say out loud is,

there's no such thing as an automotive journalist.

Not that I, and I'm willing to be proven wrong.

I'm willing for somebody to say,

they're digging into the manufacturing BS,

they're digging into the business,

they're digging into how the cars drive.

That would be an automotive journalist.

If you're just driving press cars, that's not journalism.

That's just an opinion about the car,

which is fine too, I'm cool with that.

But to see this revolt now,

and there was a big podcast segment a week ago

that I listened to where they started to reference,

what's gonna happen coming out of the luce,

because there was people there,

how are they gonna talk about it?

Are they gonna wanna hurt their relationship with Ferrari?

This has been going on for decades.

It didn't just start because quote unquote,

influencers got invited.

This is, it just was managed behind the scenes.

And now that it's out in the forefront,

all these people see their spot being blown up,

and they're like, well, what you gotta realize

is I'm different, no you aren't.

You're not different in any way.

Like I said, you're not,

and I'm kinda cool with all of it.

Like, hey man, if somebody wants to fly me out

to go drive their new super car, let's do that.

But I'm gonna get on the video and go look,

they flew me out to review this,

and I had to tell them, I'm gonna say what I wanna say,

I'm probably not gonna be invited to the next one,

but I can't in good conscience

not tell you exactly what I saw here.

That's not how any of those people are.

They are trying to keep the good times rolling

and being on someone else's dime

and getting invited to places that they can't afford

and never will be able to afford

and cars they can't afford.

And it's all understandable,

but now when you get mad that influencers are there,

as if you're somehow been different

over the last two decades, that's a laughable thing.

I'll tell you what's a laughable thing, Mr. Jerry Seinfeld.

Hey, you like that?

Oh yeah, how was it?

Brother, brother, brother.

If you guys can find a way to see Jerry Seinfeld on tour,

I highly recommend it.

It was-

See, I gotta take your word.

I think I might have to try to, it was good?

Dude, it was so good.

I mean, it was nonstop last for the entire set.

He did right at an hour, gets off stage

and then comes right back.

All right, all right, I got time for a few more.

Does a few more.

Take some questions.

Okay, if you got questions about the show,

you got questions about my life or whatever.

And the first question,

I'm gonna fast forward to the end of it real quick,

he goes, all right, questions, questions.

What do you think about the luce?

He's like, sir, we're better off talking in the lobby

about this.

Nobody wants to hear me talk about the luce.

The next question, like further back,

what do you think of the new Ferrari?

He goes, sir, did you not just hear the gentleman?

Why don't you two go outside into the lobby right now

and just talk about the Ferrari?

It was great, man, but like the whole thing,

it was, I don't wanna over exaggerate,

but it was phenomenal.

Like everything from influencers, the phone, social media,

vacations, and he used one of my favorite lines

that he said several times on late night talk shows.

He's like, I'm extremely happy

hating everything about my life.

And then he goes into a bit about like,

I don't vacation well, it was so great.

Everything was like, there was no skipped beats.

It was great.

It's hard to do an hour, man.

If he did an hour plus, that's unbelievable.

Yeah, and it seemed effortless, man.

Like when he came to the end, I was like,

holy shit, it's already been an hour,

and face is hurting, obviously.

Like when you see stand up, you get some good laughs,

but when somebody makes your face hurt

from like constantly just like having that grin on your face,

it's very hard to do.

You know where I got that really one time,

and have you ever been to the comedy store in La Jolla?

So I lived right down the street

when I lived in California.

So we went to the comedy store

and they just had random people.

That was the best night of comedy I ever saw.

Promoted a lot of shows there though.

A lot of good people obviously together.

Like it was one after another,

and that was the time that I started to realize,

like dude, there is a lot of talented people

that you just don't know about.

And you may never know about, right?

Because there's just always gonna be a comedy club,

bouncing around, going to the funny bones,

going to the improv and Irvine, things like that.

That was probably the last time.

I've seen Bill Burr a couple times.

I'll tell you one of the ones that I got some tickets given

to me, I saw Mike Epps.

Oh, Mike's Epps hilarious.

Oh, buddy, that was a funny show.

That was like one of those moments where you go,

yeah, this dude is different.

Like this guy, because I didn't even believe

he wrote the jokes.

He might not have.

I believe he just woke up and just started to like talk.

Like just got up there and just started doing,

and you just go, man, that was unbelievable.

So I've seen a lot of that stuff,

especially being in Vegas,

but it's cool that you got like a good hour

of just like, hey, this is really well done.

And for whatever reason, you know, you might look at me

or people might look and be like,

this kid doesn't look or this guy doesn't look like,

I'm in my mid 30s at this point, not a kid,

who grew up watching Seinfeld.

For whatever reason, like I just loved that show

and that ability to just take real life everyday things

and just make them as funny as he does,

it's such a crazy skill.

Yeah, I would say that it's one of those things

that I connected with with Seinfeld and Curb was just like,

you can kind of see this happening.

It's not real, but you're like, yeah,

I could kind of see this.

That's what my connection to all of it was.

And some of it you did see happen actually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're like,

oh, okay, this is like, this is way more real life.

But with a comedy spin, like, yeah, man,

it was, I just saw the Kenny Rogers chicken roaster episode

like maybe a week ago.

Dude, my wife and every time we're eating something,

we'll just go like this.

And he's wiping his mouth on the, on the sheets.

Like dude, that shit was fucking funny.

Oh, it's so good.

But yeah, highly recommend it.

I mean, the guy's got, I didn't look his age,

but he's got to be everybody's 70, right?

He's not creeping up on 70.

No, he's not 70.

Come on, man, really?

He's got to be in his lower sixties, upper fifties.

There's no way he's 70.

Is he really?

Let's see.

Survey says he's 72.

Whoa.

Dude, moving like a young spry cat, man,

like just on stage.

But he always kind of stayed in shape.

He did, he did.

But he's pretty theatric too.

Like he's very like movements in the hair and the hand.

And it's, it was.

Damn, I would have never guessed 72.

That's crazy.

Good for him.

Born in 1954.

He just turned 72 in April.

Wow.

Good stuff.

Highly recommend it to everybody.

That dude's older than my parents.

Is he really damn?

Actually, yeah, he's older than my parents too.

Yeah.

I mean, he's older than my parents.

Wow.

He's older.

By the way, considerably older.

My parent, I mean, he's like almost seven,

eight years older than my parents.

Dang, yeah.

He's about six years older than my mom.

That's two years older than my dad.

But again, can't say enough good things.

His opener, he's done the coffees and cars with him.

I can't remember his name.

Oh, Mario Joyner, I think it was.

Also very great.

It's just an opening act, 15 minutes,

and then him right to the stage.

Yeah, smart.

No big intro or nothing, just right to it.

And he also said that they might be bringing the show back

for new episodes.

Not Seinfeld, sorry, cars and coffee.

Oh, I was like, yeah, what are you talking about?

No, no, no.

I had a love hate with cars and coffee,

or comedians and cars getting coffee.

It was OK.

I had to be kind of interested in the other person.

I think he had JB Smoove on there,

which is one of my favorite TV characters ever on Curb.

But I didn't, matter of fact, the people in my house

liked that show more than I did.

Really?

Yeah, like my family, you wouldn't think it,

but they liked it more than I liked it.

I couldn't watch every episode, let's just say that.

I had to be interested in it.

I think he had Bill Burr on and people like that.

Michael Richards.

One of the best things right now to me,

I'm sort of one of those guys that loves when jokes don't die.

So anytime Bill Burr puts out a video in his pompous way

that he talks now and people just go,

Bonesaw Billy, and you go down in the comments

and they just keep on with that dude, that shit cracks me up.

Like the diddler, like the baby oil thing,

all that stuff's funny.

Dude, I don't know why.

It's just one of those things for me.

Nick sent me a random text about like a Krista Stefano

in the Tuberware thing we've mentioned before, right?

So then I was looking at through my hard drives for some stuff

and I found an old folder that I hadn't seen in a long time.

I was like, oh, what's in here?

And when I produced the podcast,

Stefano was in town for him and at the time,

his boxing trainer, Sergio, I don't know if you remember,

he used to do the podcast with him sometimes too,

a guy from Brooklyn, Puerto Rican guy.

And I didn't have a mic that day

because his friend, Riko, has took my mic

and he's like talking to the other hosts

and he's like, I can't stop looking at your producer's beard,

man, I just feel like it's filled with coconut oil

and I just want to run my hands through it, you know?

It was the weirdest.

I totally forgot that memory.

And then to Stefano goes in on it too

with his funny gay jokes or whatever, it was so hilarious.

Yeah, dude, that's funny.

Another comedian you guys got to watch.

A lot of you might not know him.

Krista Stefano, he's fantastic live.

Okay, I got to shift into, well actually, you know what?

We had another bit of a reveal.

We had that video by the Charger that go wild

the last 34 days.

Did you know that's bringing back the Hellcat?

No, what?

What are we doing?

What, what do you mean?

What, what?

Not only that, but they're gonna bring it back

with a Plymouth Superbird, Superwing as well.

Oh.

The big old. That's pretty cool.

It is, it's gonna have the same.

Do they have the unveil or we just gotta look

at this red thing?

No, they don't really have the unveil.

They've just kind of described.

Oh, come on.

Hey, I'm getting you excited or I relax.

By next week we'll see it, I bet you.

Yeah, that could be cool.

Very cool.

You know, it's supposed to be more aggressive looking.

We all know what the new current Charger body style is.

It's nothing to write home about,

but this is supposed to be much cooler.

Yeah, I think if they pull off all this,

I think that could look really cool now.

For everybody listening, there's a red cover on this thing

where all you can barely see is just a wing.

But it could be really cool.

I cannot wait.

It could be really cool.

Cannot wait.

So I wanted to bring this up to then

piggyback off the question I was gonna mention

at the top of the show.

I did get a DM saying from Jason, he goes,

you guys seem to love American made stuff,

cars in particular, manufacturers,

but you don't have any modern made American cars.

To which would you like to give an answer before I do?

I, in fairness to American brands and to all brands,

I'm not very interested in modern stuff.

I can still think it's cool.

I'm not interested to own it, right?

It's just not something that peaks my interest

on any level from any brand.

And I'm not saying there aren't great,

I mean, we just talked about the Bronco.

But I don't wanna own a Bronco.

I would like to own a 90s Bronco, right?

Like I would love to own one of those.

But the new Bronco doesn't speak to me as me in ownership.

That doesn't mean I can't respect it.

Like I'm not really enthused to own a C8 Corvette,

but I can go, hey, they've done an awesome job with that.

The people that own them, love them.

My customers, my friends that own them, love them.

You know, I got people that own Bronco.

So I don't think my feeling is American only.

I just, at this point in my life,

I wanna own stuff that I've always wanted to own.

And I can't say that a lot of modern vehicles

give me that feeling.

Like where I go, I wanna own that.

Yeah, I can't disagree with that.

And the only thing I could add to it is,

I'm gonna follow those same steps.

The Raptor, obviously.

I like the small hatchbacks from the older years.

And anything new that gets purchased

really just up to what my wife likes.

If she likes a newer American car, we'd go that route.

But she hasn't really found a newer American car

that she likes.

Yeah, that's kind of the same in my house.

I also think that we have to separate.

And this is what kind of makes the car community at times,

like not as fun as it should be,

is because people can't separate

what they like from what's good.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I can just say what's good.

Like that's a, the Bronco platform is good.

They've done a good job with it.

They reintroduced it properly.

They've got all these different trim packages.

They've done that platform really well.

I can also tell everybody, I don't wanna own one.

That is not because it's a bad platform.

I don't wanna own any of the new Toyota stuff.

So, it really doesn't, but I can say,

I really like how the GX550 looks.

And I think they did a good job on the redesign,

although I think they've made some tire and wheel choices

that are a little questionable.

But I can say that, I understand

that those are good platforms.

For me, it's just, at this point in my life,

I wanna go back and buy things that I always wanted to own.

And it doesn't matter if it's European or it's American,

it doesn't matter, that is just my interest.

But I think the way that I separate it,

you separate it is, I can still say,

look at this Dodge unveiling that's coming

and it could be awesome.

We said this kind of about GTD.

It's really cool you guys built that.

If I was in the market for a $400,000 plus car,

GTD wouldn't be on my list.

That doesn't make it a bad car.

This means I don't wanna own it.

Yeah, and I will say, I also wanna compound

before I buy any more cars, I think.

You know what I mean?

I wanna compound for the cars

and for all the other things we wanna do,

and then we can maybe get some other American cars.

Yeah, I do think he's right though.

I mean, I think what's kind of held me back

is just interest.

I just, for some reason, a lot of new stuff

from every brand just doesn't connect with me.

That doesn't mean it doesn't connect with others.

Across the board too, not just American.

Yeah, no, it's just, and maybe that'll change.

I've told everybody, I mean,

used EVs are getting to the point.

There's gonna be a point

where I just don't ignore them anymore, when I go.

We're pretty much there with a lot of them.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, especially as we start to see

the churn happen, right?

You got so many millions being sold or whatever,

and the churn starts to happen in the used market.

Like, there comes a point

where a Model S Plaid is a no-brainer.

You know what I mean?

Well, here's a question for you.

And by the way, it's American-built.

True, true, yeah.

What if the slate does pop off,

and then it just kind of turns into the cycle of most cars

where two years down the road, people are like, ah.

Yeah, see, there's a good point.

How cheap could we see slates in a couple of years

if it actually pops off?

I've said this on the podcast before.

I know others have said this on their platforms.

EVs are the first thing that I think can go to zero.

I mean, you saw a leaf for like $900 or whatever.

You know, I don't think they will,

but I mean, theoretically, a slate, two years old,

could you see it at 12 grand?

Like, you would believe it, I would believe it.

I'd believe it at 10.

I'd believe it at half the price.

Why wouldn't it at least have?

Everything else was at half the price.

Yeah, so I just think,

I just like driving things.

There's something about me getting in a vehicle

that I always wanted to own,

and I couldn't own it at the time that I liked it.

Honestly, that's like one of my biggest connections

to my cars is like,

I always liked the 100 series platform, the LX470,

and I want to own it when I get in it.

I'm happy to own it.

I don't think I'd get the same enjoyment

out of the Philsen Bronco.

You say that to get in there.

But I would still go,

what we said earlier is absolutely true.

It looks extremely well done.

It does.

That might be the first thing I can get the wife

because she already wanted a Bronco,

but it was a little bit on the uncomfortable side,

little small,

then not having rear AC vents is kind of lame.

They're in the ground on the floor.

Like that's, I don't like that.

But that one looks really good.

By the way, there's a right-hand drive,

a cord wagon in Austin, Texas,

if anybody's looking for one, for 11 grand.

What is your feeling personally

about owning a right-hand drive car?

I never want it.

Yeah, it's the same for me.

I have no interest.

It's actually the same for me.

And I've driven a lot of them,

living with it.

I think I would,

me personally, I wouldn't enjoy it.

No, I think the guy's funny

that goes through drive-throughs in reverse

and gets his coffee and stuff and great.

Like actually, I have a ton of respect for people

that choose to live right-hand drive

because that's the vehicle they like,

whatever vehicle it is.

I don't even care.

I'm like, hey, that guy's committed.

Like that guy, that person really wanted that car.

Dude, we had it.

It's just not something for me.

It's a weird thing.

No, Nick and I had a call earlier this week

about something else.

And I just told him about this meme I saw

where like as the year goes on,

the caption was like,

as more of the year passes by and things get weirder,

it's like the heller the gnaw is for me.

That kind of inconvenience for me is like,

hell no, I don't want a right-hand drive, do we?

Yeah, and that's what gets you thinking about an EV

because you're like, yeah, that'd be kind of convenient

just to whip around town

and not have to worry about a whole lot.

Is my alternator gonna go out?

That's honestly what gets people like you

and I thinking about an EV.

Like it's not because we're like in love with them,

because I think we fall more towards defense on them,

like buy what you like, whatever.

But you're getting to some points

and this guy, it's a great question.

Like I just am not interested in a lot of stuff.

Like it's just not my thing.

It really did make me think about it too.

So again, shout out Jason,

thanks for sending that DM as a question.

It really is, it just goes back to the interest level.

And obviously they're expensive.

Like you just think of the things

you could buy with 60 or $70,000.

You're like, I could buy multiple cars.

I could, again, we've done it before.

Yeah, like you look at it,

you can get my LX and my BMW manual, E90 manual M3,

and you're out the door for less

than you'd pay for that Philson Bronco.

Yeah, most dudes are gonna be that way

and the wife is gonna be like,

but a nice modern car for the kids is gonna be great.

And you're like, all right, we'll get that.

Yeah, and I think one of the best things

is to have that attitude.

Totally.

Have that modern car, you know, we have a GX460,

go drive that around, we'll keep it maintained,

you know, live your life with that thing.

And when I get in it, it's not like I hate it.

You've talked about, you know, you guys had a Mazda,

you never hated it.

You're like, hey, I actually kind of like this.

I love it.

But you still are not pumped up to drive it every day.

No.

And at this point in time,

I wanna get in stuff that I'm like,

I'm glad I'm getting in this.

And I don't care if it's a $5,000 car

or a $500,000 car, my exact feelings are,

am I excited to get into this?

Yeah, and I think, and I've been thinking about this

and I've actually worked on this little side thing

for leases and as you get older,

I feel like leases start to become something,

especially whether you have a business or not,

that you start to kind of mull over

because you look at all the costs to go into it

and you're like, okay, can I lease a new cool car

under warranty and save enough money

to where I can just put it in this pile of fun car.

So there's a lot of cars right now,

whether it's the Cadillac, what is it,

the Opik, Opak, Opik, I don't know, it's an EV.

And then there's also the Equinox version of it.

You can get those things leased in the 200s.

Oh, easily.

And by the way, like if you look at,

I think it's the Equinox RS EV with hardly any miles

on it used, you're talking about under 30.

Yeah, so why would you finance it?

Think of it as, now this is more so for the dudes,

I know we've got some ladies that listen,

but the dudes are gonna be thinking about like,

okay, look, if we're gonna get finance a car

in the family, all right, it's good, it's new, warranty.

I could save hundreds of dollars

on whatever I wanna buy for later,

if I just lease a car.

By the way, if not a thousand.

Yeah, close to it for some of these cars.

If not a thousand.

But with the Cadillac you would,

if you finance a Cadillac,

I think it's like $800 or $900 a month all in.

Why would you do that when you can do $200, $300 leases

on it and save the difference?

The lease deals are back.

Very much so.

We see Toyotas lease deals on things like Tacoma

going extremely low.

You're bringing up, I mean, lease deals on things like,

EVs are gonna get very healthy lease deals, right?

So I'm kind of with you that I think the kind of guy,

the car guy math here is, can I get into something,

let's call it sub 500 a month, whatever that is.

If it's 350, if it's 200, if it's 400,

whatever your economic status is.

But if I went and purchased something I like,

it's 1200 bucks a month, let me just get this

and then I'll figure out what to spend

the other 700 bucks a month on.

You know, whether that's putting it into the fund

to go buy something I like or whatever,

I think a lot of us work that way.

Absolutely.

Now, and that's how, you know,

people ask me a lot of times how I've done things.

Everything I've done with cars has come out of a slush fund

from buying and selling cars.

So, you know, when I wanted my LX, you know,

I just wired the money and got the LX.

But that slush fund's been building and building

and building and there's a substantial amount of money

in there to do what I want to do.

And I've said to all of you, like, I got a space problem.

Like out in my shop right now,

I got to drive an S580 this week.

Boy, I still love those things.

Nice.

Boy, I still, and I got to put a lot of time

behind the wheel.

I'm like, but let's say I go, I love S580.

You go to the dealership and start talking about buying an S580.

There's a lot of cool shit I could buy for that.

Instead of just one car.

What are we looking at right now?

I wanted to pull it over real quick.

How much are we looking for a new-ish 130 to 150?

130 to 160?

Yeah, I mean, the ones you want are probably gonna be

140 to 150.

You can go back to 21, give them for like 80.

That's what I'm saying.

Wow.

So now for that same 140, I could get an 80,

and then I got 60 more to spend.

Yeah.

And that could be two cars, that could be three cars,

that could be four cars, that could be one car,

it could be whatever you want it to be.

Oh, you know what?

So it's just an interest level thing.

It is, and what we didn't take into consideration

the last time we talked about leases,

which might have been last week.

And I feel like, because I'm starting to get some more

questions in acting in real life,

it might make good podcast topics.

When you do like an all up front way of paying for your lease,

you can actually get that down even further

if you break it down month to month.

Into the, I've seen some people do the math

where it's like $190.

Yeah, so one of my beliefs on leases is,

I think leases for me would become very interesting

at zero down, zero down on what's my lease payment.

Because now I'm playing the cash game long term, right?

I'd rather have the cash flow instead of putting

the 3,500 or the 7,000 or, you know, like you said.

Are you saying do it signing or actual down?

Do it, do it signing.

Like there's a lot of lease deals that they'll say,

this is your payment, if you put $4,000 down

or 4,500 or $5,000 down.

I'm more like, I would walk in there and go,

wipe that away and tell me what it is monthly for zero down.

That would interest me from a lease perspective.

Because if I'm playing the cash game,

any cash out of my pocket up front,

I can't invest in something else.

Right, and you wouldn't, for people that don't have it,

haven't or don't do this, the do it signing,

you wouldn't think of it as a money down

on a car that you finance, right?

It'd be completely,

because you're looking at just like your fees,

your registration, whatever else

or do that wants you to pay.

Anything on top of that, people that finance cars only,

would be money that you lose if you ever totaled the car

or if it ever, so you don't wanna over down the payment.

You can get, you know, stop gap and all that kind of stuff,

but here's the real truth.

I think leasing becomes powerful as zero down.

Roll everything in, that way I'm out zero cash.

And now I'm just in, let's call it a,

maybe that bumps my payment up 150 bucks a month.

Well, the reason I would go zero down

is because I'm playing the cash game.

The cash is this thing I wanna have access to, right?

But to your point, if you wanna really lower

like a two year lease, you start walking in there

and going, I'll pay this all up front.

Yeah, changes a lot.

You're gonna see a lot of people in that building

jump through hoops to be like,

oh, yeah, yeah, we're ready to go.

Cause then you'll have the manufacturer discounts,

which is gonna be different from most dealers' incentives.

Or they could be different, very different.

Yeah, no, it's, so leasing is one of these things,

like the people that have done it well for a long time,

and there's businesses around this,

like we're guys like lease hack and all that kind of stuff.

So you have to go individual deal by individual deal,

but I am a fan of leasing if you're talking about

putting zero into the deal, period.

And if you're gonna trade, don't trade in on a lease.

The big mistake I see people make,

get the check, get the check for your trade in

as a trade in, don't put it towards your lease.

Get the capital and then do your lease deal.

Now, let's go the other direction towards the end

of the lease, cause a lot of people are driving from home,

or working from home, they're not driving as much,

but they're still having the newer cars,

or they want the newer amenities or whatever.

Some people are seeing themselves more often

have equity in the deal at the end of it.

Do you trade that in with it,

or does another one sell it out right?

You can trade, and you're talking about like what,

mileage equity or things like that.

Yeah, let's just say that between the money factor

and the depreciation or whatever at the end of it,

you can buy it for 30, but it's worth 35.

Yeah, so one of the crazy things that,

and I don't do a lot of these types of deals

are not my clientele necessarily,

but I had a situation where somebody had a company car

that was technically theirs,

the company paid for it the whole time,

but they could make the decision,

do I want to purchase the car at the end of the three years?

Yeah, that was great, yeah.

I think we were, I want to say,

the resale value was something,

and there was about a $7,000 spread for this customer.

So he bought the vehicle,

and then immediately just sold it like at CarMax

and got the $7,000.

Nice.

It is a case by case thing.

It is for sure.

I'll think every person has that.

I think everybody kind of looks at this whole thing

and they have, because again,

his company was just asking for what they wanted.

They're like, hey, we want 30,000, do you want to pay it?

And he's called me and he's like,

well, I can sell us the CarMax for 37.

And I'm like, well, just cut the 30,

and the next day go down to CarMax

and you got $7,000 in your pocket.

Those are pretty rare, right?

Let's say that.

So I wouldn't play that game necessarily,

but I would be very interested in leasing at zero down.

I just think that's where you're really taken.

If you can get manufacturers incentives

and all this stuff to start taking down

what you owe at signing, leasing becomes very,

and since I own businesses, leasing could make sense,

but at the same time, it's just not the game

I've ever played, but there's nothing wrong

with playing that game.

Totally.

I mean, that could be, to go back to Jason's question,

that could be what gets me into an American car.

Let's just say by the end of this year,

because we know they're already coming.

We were seeing the good lease deals.

If they continue towards the end of this year,

I'd just get rid of the GTI and get into a brand new lease

and see what it's like, maybe make it for,

obviously for the show or whatever.

And also you guys got to remember,

if you can wait till November or December,

you're going to see even better deals.

At the height of, this is kind of the height of car season,

and you're already seeing stuff,

you're going to see this trickle and trickle and trickle.

Well, that was a really fun conversation on that topic,

and I'm telling you, it's going to come up more

because you're just seeing more of it.

You're hearing more on Radio ads, you're seeing it more.

Also, I think there's an interesting thing.

You basically went five plus years

where lease deals weren't talked about.

So now as it enters the conversation

from the brands, by the way,

these are the manufacturers

that are putting these deals together.

They're now starting to talk about them.

So you're just going to, you're watching a game,

you're going to see more commercials.

It's going to be more about leasing deals.

But that was part of the ecosystem 67 years ago.

It just kind of went out of the ecosystem

for about a five year period.

And also, if you get people to send you,

you may be friends, family,

clips of people that talk about how dealerships

in the U.S. car market is going to completely implode

or explode or whatever, it's all hyperbolic content.

We kind of do some of that for fun,

but we're never really being serious.

Like they're not going to just all of a sudden go under it.

Things like this will happen to correct,

and you're going to have opportunities.

Aston Martin's still in business.

It's all calm down.

McLaren has been in bankruptcy

or headed towards bankruptcy.

Look at Nissan.

You talk about Nissan 12, 16 months ago.

They're talking about bankruptcy, acquisition,

and now we're talking about them going,

man, if they pull some of this off.

My perspective is capitalize on the correction

and ignore all the other nonsense.

Yes, yes.

And also, find what fits you.

We have too many people that are hearing things

and not asking the question, does it fit you?

Is this a conversation?

Many of us don't need to be super worked up about luce.

It's fun to talk about,

but you're not buying one anyway.

Right, or an old one for that matter.

Yeah, you're not buying.

I wonder what the depreciation on a $650,000 luce.

I mean, are they just going to be like 50 grand?

Well, let's just call it now, summer of 26.

By summer of 27, what do you think

they're going to be going for?

Well, you're not going to have them ship out.

Oh, that's right.

It's going to be.

So after the first year of ownership,

I think you're talking about 50, 60, 70%

of the situation in here.

I think it's pretty likely.

Is this going to beat your Hummer story?

Yeah, because it's really, well, percentage wise, no,

but the amount of money, yes.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

I mean, the amount of money is, you know, it's,

it's very interesting, man.

Like there's going to be,

I know a lot of people have been so anti-EV.

Let me tell you, you're going to see some of these.

Now I'm not talking about luce in particular,

that you go, how much is that?

You know what I mean?

Like the dead serious.

Like you're going to be like, that's what?

That's crazy.

You're just going to be like, that's crazy dude.

Like I just told you that equinox,

like I think it's called an equinox RS,

which is an electric version.

You look at that interior, you look at that car

and you go, that's sub 30.

What if you look up and it's sub 20

with hardly any mileage on it?

Like you got to be crazy to go buy a gas equinox for 45.

If you can get an equinox RS EV for 19.9.

Yeah, dude, that'd be sick actually.

But it's happening now.

Think about this.

I mean, people are going out saying,

I don't have a choice but to spend $50,000.

You and I can do a search and you can find Model Ss

for 21 with hardly any mileage on it.

I think we're going to see a lot more good lease deals.

A lot of people are turning to EVs

because it's just too good to ignore.

And a lot of people that are going to be saving

for the fun cars.

We all know the fun cars aren't coming back.

So you got to save for the older stuff,

which ironically, it's a double edged sword

because when we wanted them, we couldn't afford them.

When we can afford them,

they're costing more than when they were first there.

Good point.

So we're just, we never win.

We're never going to win.

Yeah, we've just, we're stuck like Chuck.

I know.

I'm going to speed run through a couple of things

before we land the plane today.

So for those of you that like the Honda Ridgeline,

which I heard was an okay truck.

Yeah, got canceled, yeah?

Paused, as a matter of fact.

Paused, he didn't cancel it, all right.

They couldn't meet emissions regulatory, whatever,

so they're pausing it until 28,

might be back around 29.

Have you, were you, and truck guys will see this,

we all see this differently.

Have you ever been surprised that they never just got

into the beefy truck market?

Yeah, because this one is really popular, believe it or not.

The Honda Ridgeline?

I thought, I just kind of thought

they would take a leap with this.

Even if they kept the Ridgeline,

I thought they would go more into,

but this kind of goes back to Honda's whole MO.

They take zero, they already had the Ridgeline,

so they're gonna keep the Ridgeline.

They take very little chances as a brand,

like that's just not who they are,

but they should have been going the tundra route,

how long?

20 years ago?

I mean, I just, I've never understood it.

And I've never like bashed the Ridgeline,

it's not something I'd want to own,

but I just go, you saw this crazy truck market happen,

and you just kind of like sat it out.

Yeah.

And now they're looking at, who's do Megan Splash?

Oh, I guess Nissan, but also kind of like Mitsubishi-ish.

They're making a Splash 25 years later,

whatever, maybe we can do it too, like you never know.

It's like, well, yeah, I mean,

you guys do shit overseas, why is this not here?

Bring it here.

You know what I mean?

Well, speaking of people overseas

and bringing stuff here, Volkswagen announced,

they might bring back the base golf hatchback,

which isn't in the US anymore,

because they're moving production to Mexico, all right?

And what this does, if the tariffs get low enough

for Mexico products, is they're gonna bring back

other variants like the wagon and the alt-track.

Very cool.

I don't hate it.

Very cool.

I love those two.

Yeah, I think it's gonna be interesting

to see what some of the Euro brands do.

Let's just call it, you know,

we would say the same about something like Mitsubishi, right?

Like they can't just keep ignoring the US

in the ways that they've been ignoring, right?

And I think this four-year political climate

has got these companies thinking differently,

which I think as a consumer,

we may not see the benefits for a while,

but I think it could benefit us long-term.

I'm not saying it will, but it could.

I think if they bring some of this stuff onshore,

and let's be real, Mexico is sort of onshore in a way.

You know, you got a lot of stuff that gets built there.

I think it's gonna be interesting to see

what this four-year political climate

causes some of these brands, VW, could be any brand, right?

What they do.

And if they just start to do more localized manufacturing

in a sense, you know,

stuff that can just be taken by train or truck somewhere,

it doesn't have to get on the water, it doesn't have to do,

I think it'd be very interesting.

Like I think Land Rover's in this position.

Yeah, and they've been in it for a while though.

Yeah, because they knew how big Range Rover was here.

And they just made no effort.

We'll just wait, we'll hang out.

They must have coffers of cash, they don't know, yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, and I get it, we know why that happens.

I just wonder if this political climate

that may be longer than just this four years

is gonna get some of these companies.

And by the way, it's easier to do localized manufacturing

today than it was 10 years ago.

It's gonna be even more insanely easier

in the next 10 years,

according to everybody in that space.

So it's gonna be interesting to see

what that brings for the U.S. market.

And I think you're talking about a much more segmented

car manufacturing business than we've ever had before.

Where stuff's gonna be built in South Africa,

stuff's gonna be built in America

or on the continent, so to speak.

And I think that stuff could prove

very interesting long term.

I don't know what it all means,

but I think we are starting to see

with VW saying things like this.

It's like, oh, okay,

they're starting to bring this thought process of

let's build stuff that we can get into America easily

that doesn't have such a big barrier

if something goes wrong.

Yeah, so base golf that is in the GTI,

the all track and the wagon, all around sub,

well, all sub 30 is what the estimate is

if tariffs play nicely.

So that's 35.

Sure, hey man, a $35,000 wagon with all the drive,

like that's American.

Yeah, that'd be something.

Yeah, that'd be great.

That'd be something.

You know, on the other side of that,

Mercedes is gonna be having a harder time

with their partnership in the China manufacturing space

and this whole, I don't know if you've seen this,

but it's a big issue coming up,

going through Congress of the vulnerabilities

of security for European.

Oh, you mean this all wasn't just gonna work seamlessly?

Oh, got it.

Okay, yeah, let's just have.

I mean, obviously I think the Chinese have been trying

to backdoor into the US through a Volvo partnership.

For a long time, yeah.

It's like that's the latest thing

that they've been trying to do.

I'm very interested in how global manufacturing

of cars are gonna change so drastically

and I hope it all goes in our favor as the buying public.

Yeah, of course.

But I think it's really hard to understand

how many changes are gonna come in the next decade

and largely from an industry that hasn't made

a ton of change in decades.

Yeah, in knowing how many players can make batteries

that Mercedes would need for their platforms

because they have so many EVs.

I don't know how long they're gonna be going hard

on that platform to go the China route was interesting.

Again, I'm just saying what I read,

but I don't know, I don't know much more beyond that.

Let's see.

Oh, okay, we'll end with this one, unfortunately.

So Ford, okay, Ford gives drivers a do not drive warning

when it comes to the Bronco sports and the Mavericks

because they have found front suspensions

that may fall apart.

I mean, have we not been building front end suspension

for long enough?

What is the culprit here?

Like, did they use some like tainted metal?

Like, what did they do?

Honestly, I didn't read the specifics.

That was kind of the sub headlines.

So what's it say, like 4,500 vehicles?

It's 46, yeah, 4,600 vehicles ranging from 21s through 26s.

So even the newest ones.

So it's a ball joint knuckle attachment?

Yeah.

Man, you think they should be an easy fix, yeah?

Yeah, but you think you've been making them for 150 years.

You just have a ball joints blow out.

I mean, all the suspension parts of the Raptor are great.

They're 12 years old or you know, the older ones.

I would say this is like the ultimate joke

about Jim Farley is like maybe relax on all the stuff

and just get the quality under control.

This isn't a huge number.

This kind of stuff happens all the time.

That we know of, by the way.

Yeah, that we know of.

And I think this is what any of us say is like

the concentration on everything but quality

has kind of reached a, this can't continue anymore.

And by the way, you can say that about all brands.

All these brands are having issues

they shouldn't really be having at times.

But when you manufacture something as difficult

to manufacture as a car with all of these moving pieces

and all of these things being brought in

from all over the world in this global supply chain

you're bound to have some of these issues

before it has really had about a two to four year run here

that's getting to the level of inexplicable.

Yeah, I'm just gonna quote, you know, Ron Burgundy.

I'm not even mad.

I'm kind of impressed.

It's pretty impressive.

All right, we'll end the plan with that next week.

We already have a list.

We're halfway through 2026 and we already have a full list

of 2027 cars that are basically dead not coming back.

Some of them surprised me.

Maybe you guys already know about some of them

but we'll save that for next week.

HyperCleanStore.com, American Made Car Care

right here made by Nick and Co.

And then clutch.club to join our Discord.

There was actually conversations going on in there

as we were recording this episode.

So join there, leave us a five star rating review

and like and subscribe on the YouTube.

So we're trying to get the YouTube numbers

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See you guys next week.

See you guys.

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