090 - MG's S5 SUV is a cracker for value

This is two blokes talking electric cars with Trevor Long and Stephen Fennick. Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uni-Den. Great to have you company here on two-bikes talking electric cars. We are here to talk electric cars. It is what it says on the box. We do it thanks to Uni-Den smart dash cams. If you've got a car, you need a dash cam. Why not put a dash cam front and rear in your car because it'll keep you peace of mind. Whatever happens on the road around you, you've got a record of it. That's the great thing about a dash cam.

They're award-winning Uni-Den, so they've got something for everyone in every price point. Of course, NRMA Insurance is helping Australians protect what matters most for over 100 years and ensuring a lot of electric cars too. They know their stuff and they're doing a lot of work on electric cars to understand the market and make sure their service centers are ready for them. They're putting in the effort when it comes to electric cars. Stephen, great to be with you mates. Good to be with you too. We have calls coming up. We'll get to shortly. Stay on the line, Simon, and stay there, mate. We'll get to you.

I'd like to let them think that. We'll let them think that. Just stay on the line, callers. We'll get to you shortly. We'll get to you soon. But, Stephen, a few weeks ago, we drove the MGS5 EV. This is a nice little mini SUV, but not too big. Would you call it mid-size? I would call it mid-size. Small to mid-size. This is, I think, a really good, or what I call a good bridge.

Red and butter EV because it's pretty basic. It's sort of more your affordable price range, but it's solid. Drives really nicely, and it just delivers. It's got a really nice infotainment system, comfortable, spacious, and just ticks all the boxes. If you're looking at an EV that delivers on the range, on the cross some great colors as well, you can get it in. The red looks stunning. They've got some really, this vehicle is really impressive.

This made me, I'll say my feeling and driving it was, it didn't feel dynamic. It didn't feel like a driver's car, but it felt like a great A to B car and get around town car, which is exactly what this is. I'm sure of it. The thing that surprised me most is styling.

MG have gone from, frankly, bland and boring. The MG ZS, the first thing they had. The generation that was a petrol converted. That was probably good at the time, but it didn't really have any flair. This thing has a really nice front end design. They've really gone to some trouble on this. The MG4, that's a really sharp and good looking car.

This has got a bit of a sleek look. A lot of people think it might look a little, it's like a Model 3 and a BYD had a baby. It's got that similar front, the similar narrow headlights.

It's priced from just on 40 grams. As I said, I reckon value all the way. It's got five star and cap rating as well, which is really important. It has a really nice fit and finish. The car I drove was white. It's really nice.

Same thing.

Did we have two of them? No, I was the same one. Of course, it was the same one.

My choice of color would be Picadilly blue metallic. The red is metallic as well. The red is diamond red metallic. I'd love to have the job of naming the colors.

Do you reckon so dove a white is what we drove? The red diamond red metallic. The red looks stunning. I reckon MG have always done a nice blue. Have you noticed their blue colors?

They're very bold blue.

Do you remember the MG folded the sedan, the hatchback and the orange one? The bright blue and the orange in that stand out on the road.

But I think MGs, they've been in the game a little bit. They've sort of been one of those brands that have evolved nicely into EVs. I think this is the result here. You can see right here. It is pretty nice.

This has great tech, big screen, driver screen as well, wireless charger right there in the center.

Yes, I'll copold us with in reach. Big boot too. And there's some portable boot too that you can take out for your tools and stuff.

I think if this is a family looking to buy their first EV, I reckon this should be in consideration because it does punch above its weight in terms of, yes, it's affordable but in terms of the styling, the performance, the range, I think it does really well.

I remember AC charging rate of 6.6, but DC's 150.

On the road, on a trip. You can charge in 20 minutes. You'll be up to 80% in 20 minutes.

What estimated driving range has it got? It's a 400.

Be around 500, I think.

It depends on the model. It's 335 for the essence and 430 for the excite.

Not quite the 500, but still very nice.

As I said, this is not a, it can absolutely do highway driving, but this is a great little family car.

A daily drive, I think it's a great, get around car this one.

And even on a long trip, like 435 Ks, there's nothing to say.

There are games, family car, plug-in every night, recharge, just on trickle.

Happy days. And price-wise, they're smashing it.

Yeah, I reckon.

And they're very competitive. They're pretty aggressive with their pricing, very competitive.

So I think if you, they're, I reckon they've really, they've got that market,

sort of the similar sort of BYD sort of market where entry level, but still quality.

Yeah, yeah.

I think the thing that MG's done is they're able to support their business

with some very affordable petrol cars, right?

Yeah, they're still just pumping out it.

And that's giving them volume in a big way.

But these cars are giving them the future.

Absolutely, yeah.

That is a car that no one needs to buy.

Yeah.

But the fact that it exists, it's a flag in the ground for MG.

Absolutely right.

And they've been there, they've been sort of on the EV journey, just like everyone else has.

And I love how their vehicles are sort of switching over to having, there's more EVs in the range that ever before.

And also too, they support a great club in South Sydney.

They're the largest one sort of, of the South Sydney, the mighty South Sydney Revitas.

Not our year this year, but you never know next year.

Oh, Jesus.

Stephen.

I'm going to have a look.

EV sales August 2025, because it's been a while since we've kind of looked at what's been going on.

So earlier last month, we're going back a couple of months, but it's just easy to find those numbers now.

But there's the model while I still, while I still, way up the top.

Still, I'm looking at August.

So that was 2300 cars.

BWD Cline 7, 1400 was number two.

Model three, 600.

Wow.

Cline 7, beating the Model 3.

Has outsold the Model 3 in August.

Now, August, July, June, May, April.

It's only March was the last time.

That's probably before the Cline 7 was actually robustly available.

A fully electric two other two other two.

Yes, that's a fully electric one.

Wow.

Impressive.

It's just such a big drop off then to things like the Kia EV5, the GLEX5, which we're driving at the time of recording.

MG4, doing well at 100 sales.

A hard year to date though, doing very well.

Yeah.

But MG is now a, well, it's the top four EV brand.

Because Tesla, BWD, Kia, and then MG.

You know, the numbers they're selling make them absolutely worth a look if you're in the market.

And that's in, that'll be within your budget, worth a look.

They're selling off the MG S5.

They're selling two to three hundred a month.

Wow.

That's good numbers.

Yeah.

Considering the, that's half what the EV5 is doing.

EV5 is doing very well. EV3 is doing pretty well.

They've got some, they've got quite a range every day for different drivers.

It's just quite like the EQE SUV was doing very well too.

Like a hundred and sixty cars sold.

I think that was the result of this and pretty aggressive sales going on too.

Yeah, right.

So many EV9s being sold, 23, 24 of those a month.

Yeah.

But I like it that way.

That's what Kia does.

Not many EQEs on their list either, mate.

No, just the SUV.

Yeah.

And I'm making them anymore.

I'm making them more.

EQE, they sold nine in August.

Yeah.

32 in June, 34 in May.

Wow.

Right now.

A lot of people are doing very well.

Well, the Porsche Taycan, they're selling 10 to 30 of those a month.

Wow.

That's a very expensive car too.

Wow.

Okay.

There you go.

All right.

Let's kick on.

And so, yeah.

MGS5S5S5.

I forget.

What's it called?

It's the MGS5S5.

In red.

In red folks.

Blue.

But yeah.

If you own one, we'd love to hear from you.

What was the, what was the process?

Which other cars did you consider?

Yeah.

And what did you love about it?

What chipped you over?

Yeah.

It's great to hear from EV owners, because you're essentially selling to other

potential EV buyers, as we've heard many, many times.

The dealers.

Yeah.

They're not doing the job.

They're not actually doing the full job.

They're not trying hard enough.

It's the word of mouth from other drivers that are sort of putting people over the line.

All right.

Let's get on with the show and take your calls.

You've done the bonkers.

And I don't like it.

Don't like what you made me do.

You've rubbed off on you.

Yeah.

It's rubbing off on you.

Yeah.

It's the music that makes you move, mate.

You've got to move to it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thanks for your time.

We'd love to hear from you.

People don't listen.

They don't watch the show to watch us move.

They won't.

They listen to the show to hear from calls.

Yeah.

If you want to get in touch,

four double seven, six five, seven, six five, seven,

we'd love to hear from you.

Simon's on the login.

Simon!

There you go.

Really, really good.

You are an EV owner.

EV6 I think you've got.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Basically.

It's heads for radios.

Yeah.

We don't need people don't need to see this anyway.

If you want to get in touch,

four double seven, six five, seven, six five, seven.

We'd love to hear from you.

Simon's on the login.

Hey Simon.

I think you've got it, is that right?

Yeah, that's correct.

I've got a KRI V6 GT line three and a half years ago.

Nice, great.

So that's what it looks like.

Well, you live up up in the mine.

So how's it go?

You're doing a lot of case?

Yeah, so I actually live up in Taylorfield,

up in Northern New South Wales.

But I commute down to the Hunter Valley

for my job in the mines down there.

So I've clocked up a few cases.

I actually just booked in for its 135,000 service on Friday.

So is there a name for what you do?

It's not a five-foot, you're a drive-o.

What happened there?

That's pretty good.

It's not a five-foot, it's a drive-o.

Yeah.

It's pretty good.

Yeah.

I drive down, I stay at the brother-in-law's place,

just outside, just not far away from where I work.

That's what it's like.

Well mate, 100 and that many case, you are best

to have a lot to say.

So tell us about the Care EV6 GT line.

What do you love about it?

It's just a great driving car.

It's what it says on the tin.

It's GT, it's a Grand Tourer.

So it's just very relaxing and easy drive up and down the highway.

And if you know the new and the highway,

it's silly and it's 1D and it's, you know,

it can be a bit of work.

And the car I had before this was a Ford Fiesta.

So it was a bit of a transition.

Yeah, so it's perceived to comfortable,

the driving experience is great.

So that's why I love it.

So when you first got this, was it an easy choice

or was there others on the list

that could have been your car?

Yeah, there was a choice.

But you know, three and a half years ago,

the EV market here was pretty different.

So the choice was limited because I had to have something

that was going to have a reasonable range

because I was talking a 500 K drive.

So the more range I could get the better.

And basically at the time we were looking at a Tesla Model 3,

the Ironic 5, which is obviously

the same platform as this car.

And the Polestar 2 was the other option.

And in the end, the Polestar 2 was just very cramped.

And that was the sort of first iteration of the Polestar.

True, yeah.

It was not an EV platform, didn't it, like, no?

That's the right idea.

And the Ironic 5, I just didn't like the design of it.

I know some people love it and some people, you know,

not so much.

And I just thought this was a better-looking car.

Although I never got to see it until I went to the dealer

and picked it up.

So it's not a funny thing.

So what's your say?

You drive a lot.

So I'm assuming, as a dydo driving a drive out,

you're going to have a charge.

Is there charging solutions where you work?

No, not at work, but I plug in.

When I'm down here, I plug in at the brother-in-law's.

So I've just got the granny charge if I'm down here.

But also, in the Wollies Car Park in town,

there's a level 2 charge of there.

I'm so pretty.

Much more fascinated by that new England highway drive.

That's a lot of kilometers you're doing on a regular basis.

I used to do that drive to go up to Walco and to see my mum.

I would always just try and essentially get to Tamworth

and suck the juice out of the Tesla superchargers there.

What are you?

What's your regular go-to on the drive?

Yeah, well, that's pretty well-eat.

When I started the Tesla supercharger in Tamworth wasn't available.

It wasn't open access.

Right, yep.

So I was relying on the NRMA.

Pretty much charges at Sky.

No, there's only one of them.

Tamworth is an armadil.

Well, there's one at Sky, there's one at Tamworth,

and there's one at Armadil.

But literally, one in every spot,

someone else turns up in trouble.

Have they increased that?

Well, the tritium charges themselves weren't particularly reliable.

So not only did you have to shuffle the fact that you might have to wait,

but they might not be working.

So I always had a fallback plan like I'm going to charge here,

I'll charge you the next one.

And really, that worked okay.

I just had to think about it.

But now the situation has transformed.

The Tamworth superchargers are open access for 80 months ago.

They put one in at Armadil now.

And also, there's another choice in Tamworth.

The EV network's set up for campaign charges there,

which are fantastic.

So it's in no brain in there, I'll drive down either way

and pull in and just do it like a 10 minute top-up,

10 to 15 minutes top-up in Tamworth,

that usually the campaign charges, the EV charges now.

Yeah, right, fantastic.

So that's a lot easier.

That many case, Stephen's favorite question is,

what do you not love about the car?

What's your feedback to Kia or what are you looking for

in the next car that you've learnt

from having that car for so long and doing so many cases?

I think probably the main thing to car

is the experience of the car is great.

So it's great car, but the Kia experience itself,

particularly in the early days, was not good.

You know, love the car, hated the Kia experience.

And that was really based around the dealers

weren't aware of what was going on.

And Kia wouldn't give us any information.

The only way we could get information about the car

and what was going to work on it and what wasn't

was through Facebook groups.

And lucky had Gary back on the other day

and he was talking about the Kavaka Group,

which has been really good information resource.

I think, since then, the secret is finding a good dealer.

And I do have a couple of good dealers

like at service down there and get some information

from, but early on, yeah, no information at all.

And because the car, this was one of the very first cars

in the country, the dealer at Cainty

was actually a demonstration car.

And they said, you know, do you want it?

And I said, yeah, I'll take it straight away.

So they, I was like, yeah, on your own.

So, yeah, pretty well.

But, you know, since then, in my mind,

most people is if you find a good dealer,

then what's going to look after you go to them?

Yeah.

Yeah, not the first time we've heard that about dealers

and in particular, Kia.

So, yeah, it's a problem.

They got some work to do by the sounds of it.

Yeah, I think, you know, if they find some hero dealers

that are willing to go to the hard yards

and are interested in the cars,

then they're the people that talk to you.

And like I did have a major breakdown

with the ICC union in this car.

And that is a bit of an issue.

A known problem particularly with these earlier EV6s

and even some of the EV9s.

So, you know, I got flatbedded to the nearest dealer

who put one in.

Actually, I was quite lucky

because they had some units in the country.

It took two weeks.

I drove it for two days and then it did it again.

So I actually had to, I got it as far as,

I got as far as down here at work.

And John here at up 100 Ford looked after me.

But, you know, it was over Christmas

and it was all drama really.

Yeah, wow.

So that was all warranty, all that was all that tape

and they looked after you.

Oh, correct, it was under warranty.

And the, you know, the car was affected

of the off the road for six weeks or so

being over Christmas.

But they have been some, you know, horror stories

of people being off the road for three or four months

because they couldn't get past, depending on the dealer.

So that's probably the one, you know,

sort of black spot in the experience.

But overall, a few niggles which you'd expect

with a, particularly a new model.

But again, go to the right dealer, they're happy out.

Can I ask you about, a few months back,

we talked about tyre wear.

Are you finding you drive so many Ks?

So often, how many tyres do you change the tyres

in that time, that period?

Okay, actually, I've had a good experience with tyres.

So the original one, so it's counties that they put on them.

I got 70,000 Ks out of them.

And I've got Michelin's on them now.

And so what are we up to?

65, 7, nearly 70,000 now.

And they'll probably get another 10,000 out of them.

Okay.

So I think, oh, now I'm very happy with that.

I mean, there's been people scrubbing tyres out

after 20,000 Ks on some cars.

I'm not sure how much of that is driving style.

I do, you know, like I'm highway driving,

so I'm not putting the foot down too much, just up and down.

But I think there's a bit of information coming out.

It's, you know, just because it's a new car,

it doesn't mean to say the alignment's going to be good.

So, you can see.

I've had that experience, yeah, we agree.

Yeah, and I was, you know, I owned a Land Rover discovery

many years ago, and that scrub tyres out a little time,

and that was all due to wheel alignments.

And keeping the pressures up.

So, you know, the recommended pressures,

I think, are so 36, 37 PSI, but there's a bit of everything

out there, and they have to keep them up over 40.

Yeah.

Yeah, it'd do a lot better.

So, so that's my experiences.

Yeah, now it's like, I'll be,

I'll probably get 80,000 Ks out of this set,

and I'll get another one.

And how long are you going to hold on to the EV64?

Probably till it dies.

Yeah.

Well, I had thought of, you know, swapping it over

after two or three years, you know,

when, you know, at the beginning,

but now having driven it, it still feels like a new car.

Yeah.

What do you want?

The range does not seem to have dropped.

So, you know, I understand there's a little bit of a buffer

in the batteries, and it's probably cheered through the buffer,

but I've actually noticed no real noticeable drop in range

over that time, right?

So, from that point of view, I'm not too worried about it.

I'm probably happy to keep it

until there's a step change in car technologies.

So, the state batteries come out,

or something that will make a real difference to go out

and change the car.

Since.

And I'll probably keep this one

and maybe park it up eventually,

and use it for vehicle to grid or something.

Yeah, maybe.

That's a great, great option for me.

Yeah, you've got a plan.

I don't think we've ever had a diver on before,

especially an electric one.

Just quickly, in the mines, are you unique

in owning an electric car?

I know, not at all.

I probably was the, I think I was the second person

at my site to get an EV.

There was another Tesla, there was a Tesla Model 3,

there as well about the same time,

but really there's quite a lot.

I mean, not heaps, but there's a smattering of BMWs

and quite a few BYDs.

Right through, you know, there's the C-Line

and some sales in, there's a shark turned up.

Yeah, no, I think, I think the attraction

is the leasing option that the mine,

or particularly my mine site offers.

So you can go and lease the car

and obviously you get that good text deduction

when the EV.

So I think that's probably the bigger driver

for a K-Worker's in going and getting one.

Because I can, you know, I've knocked bit off the tax.

It's always good.

That's what you want.

It's not a bad thing to do, mate.

Well, awesome to hear from you, mate.

Great you put so many cases on the car

and enjoy the new England.

I assume you've got time for some great music

and some great podcasts here, mate.

So hopefully we can keep you partly

entertained on that drive as well.

Well, that's exactly right.

You know, same as at work as well,

I drive the trucks at work too,

so I get to listen to all that.

Maybe it's fine.

You drive with the big, big tip of trucks

like proper mind trucks that we do with the big rigs.

Yeah, that's correct.

Yeah.

You've seen that?

That's the one with the size of the house.

The size of the car.

The size of the house around for a job.

Have you seen that?

Have you seen the one that's in the mines?

I think in Western Australia,

it's got a four to skew battery

and it's like there's an electric one.

Wow.

Yeah, that's correct.

And we actually have the similar models to that on our site,

although there were obviously diesel power

but they have an electric powertrain in them.

Have you ever got a four-megawatt charger or something?

Wow.

Yeah, so four to skew is taken the same truck

and ripped out the diesel engine

and shoved in a, you know, obviously a big battery

to drive the powertrain.

So the challenge for them obviously is,

you need to keep these trucks running all the time

to make them economic.

So how do you charge a battery that size

without holding the truck up for ages?

Of course.

30 minutes they're reckon they're doing 30 minute charge

and it's like some ridiculous megawatt charger

they've got anyway.

It's fascinating technology.

We can talk about it another day.

Mate, great to hear from you.

Thanks for having me.

Good on you, mate.

Yeah, no worries.

Thanks, guys.

Awesome, great to chat to you mate.

There you go.

There's a diver.

Who knew we've just created?

Have we created a new term?

What's a diver?

Diver.

Flies to fly.

Diver.

Yeah.

Great to hear from you, and we'd love to hear from you as well.

If you want to talk electric cars, we're here to talk with you.

Oh, just when you get in the zone, I like to put the camera straight on here.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you'd love to do that.

You do these ones you like.

You'd love to do that.

You do this.

You're in the zone.

It's just great to see the passion.

There's the passion.

Passion.

Yeah, kind of.

Don't me.

I feel like there's been dust coming down on it.

What?

I don't know.

What?

It's snowing.

It's snowing in the two bikes studio.

It's unbelievable.

But anyway, speaking of nothing to do with what we're about to speak about, I hope for

a level 765, 765, 770, the number of call, text, don't call, because it's my only way.

Text, text, all what's up.

Text, all what's up.

Not my number.

Yeah.

It's not my number.

I had to do a video in recent weeks on the mobile phone because we're out of the job

as a tech guys.

And I was doing this thing about ECM conversion, and I'm like, this is excellent.

This is a really good education, but this is going to take me hours to edit out my phone

up.

Because you can't not have your phone number in the whole process.

No.

Anyway, some, some knack will freeze frame it and go, you missed a frame, and they'll ring

me.

Oh, damn.

Has happened before.

Yeah.

But anyway, not now.

And 6570 is the number to text, all what's up.

In fact, someone that did what's up us is Ian, and he's on the line.

Good, Ian.

Yeah.

Good.

Kevin Steven.

How you doing, mate?

Really good, mate.

Really good.

You're, you sound like you're in an alleyway or something.

I hope you're okay.

No.

I'm just, just, just indoors on my earphones.

That sounds better.

Well, you had some advice for Steven.

You heard us talking about Steven getting rid of his heap of rubbish.

I mean, no.

His end of lease.

My EQE 350, which I love.

What, what are you driving?

Ian?

Well, I'm at the moment I drive an EQB, a 2024 model, and when I was looking at that,

I was looking at the electric option, but essentially it was just the same car with an

electric motor in it and batteries, which really compromises the, you know, the EV effect.

Yes.

But transmission tunnel, all sorts of things, yeah.

Yes.

Now, and it just wasn't the range of cars available then, and of course, we've got

a world for them now, but then a couple of days ago, I saw some reports on the new GLC

and they're calling it the, the GLC with EQ technology because Mercedes are changing

their manufacturer for the EVs.

They found the EQ business was confusing people.

Oh, it's a good idea, mate.

You see EQB, EQA and all this stuff, and they're just going to add an E in the end.

Add an E.

No, actually, they're going to call them GLC or GLA or whatever with EQ technology.

Oh.

So that's what they're going to call them because some of their E's will also have plug-in

hybrids.

Oh, okay.

EQ technology will be the EV, and I was having a look at this on, you know, there's a guy

who does EV reviews Nick Nicoliri in the UK who sent me the link to this.

Yeah.

And it looks great.

Yeah.

It does.

It's got that big, wide, big grill.

Yeah.

Was it you sent me that?

I must.

I think I did.

I do remember seeing it.

And what I mean, you know, what are the people, what are people saying about it?

Is it actually available?

Are people reviewing it already?

Obviously.

No, it's just.

They've just it now.

They haven't filed it yet.

It's only allowed to look at it and haven't driven it yet.

Right.

Yeah.

I've watched a couple of videos myself.

Yeah.

It looks really great.

And the hyperscreen, which they've got right across inside is continuous.

It's not like little.

It's not continuous display.

Yeah.

It's not continuous display.

Yeah.

I've seen.

I've seen all those videos.

Are you looking at this for yourself too?

Apart from myself?

Well, I'll be looking at that.

I'll be looking at that in 2027 when the finance of my current car is gone.

So by the time we'll have an idea of what the pricing will be here.

But you know, some of the specs on it.

570 litre.

Bootspace, 1740 with the down.

It'll tow 2.4 tonne.

It's got under store under floor storage in the back.

And it's got.

Yeah.

For a Mercedes, 120 litre front.

Oh, yeah.

See the front on that one?

Yeah.

That's a learning.

That's beginning the Tesla front.

And they're quoting it on a 94 kilowatt hour battery being able to do.

435 miles or in our language, 696 kilometers.

Wow.

It's pretty good.

It's their new battery.

Have they got a new battery technology on you?

What?

This is the whole architecture is same with the CLA.

The CLA is with the same.

Yeah, because I saw it.

I think it might have been a Berlin airport.

There was a huge electric billboard.

You watched the whole billboard go around and talked about like 700k range.

Yeah.

Which is next next next.

Yeah.

They're also quoted on one of the sites.

Vehicle to grid and vehicle to homes.

Wow.

That's.

You've got to be worth while you can get that.

You're talking me into it more by the way.

I just.

Look, I went when Trittle was saying to you have had a look at the McCann.

And I went back and looked at some of the reviews because it's available locally.

Yes.

And it's, you know, you're just.

The interior is the Porsche just something to die for.

But, you know, there was smaller car.

And when you want to throw your golf buggy and, you know,

I like the idea of your Bluetooth.

Bluetooth thing on your golf cart there.

Yeah.

When you want to throw that in the back of.

Yeah, more like a CLA.

It'll be too small for you.

The CLA made it too small.

The CLA, I like the lookers.

I'm coming out of an EQE.

Which is basically an e-class size car.

Right?

It's a bigger car.

Yes.

That's something still a sedan.

But the, the choices in the sedans who will sell A and a small.

But Mercedes like a lot of other brands are moving SUV style car.

It's still going to be probably the main choice.

I think it might be my first SUV that I buy.

Yeah.

Well, like you, I prefer a car for the driving.

But when, you know, we had a GLC prior to the GLB and, you know,

it was just good on the road anyway.

And this one also comes with this cloud communications,

which basically will communicate with other Mercedes,

and tell you if there's a pothole around the corner or something.

And we'll adjust the suspension in your car to make it easier to go around.

That sounds cool.

Unbelievable.

That works out.

That's what Mercedes would do.

Yeah.

The only downside of them, which is in my car is that a lot of these services,

subscription services, and I just did a check on mine.

Yeah.

And they all expire in 2027 and it cost me like $1,500 to renew them.

So what, what are you subscribing to there?

What have you, what have you got on your car?

Well, the car came with everything by the security package.

Yeah.

And the in-car video, and the in-car video was not a webcam.

And you know, not that bad.

It's like a dim-car camera system.

Yeah, a lot not dash cam, like Unity.

It just gives you limited functionality.

So I really get you back.

So you're saying that the rest of it I've got.

The stuff that you got as part of the car you bought has an expiry on it.

And to continue using those features,

you're going to end up paying $15.00 to renew them.

It's kind of like when Samsung say, you know, Galaxy AI is free for the first two years.

Yeah, free to 2026.

There's still no talk of what it's going to cost.

And if they're actually going to charge for it,

but it could be an extra cost for people that own those phones.

And this will be the case.

And Mercedes is just deciding to hang on to the car.

BMW have done the same thing.

There's a conversation going on there.

Yeah.

Basically, we're going to end up with cars that we lease.

And then we have subscriptions too.

And it's like, oh man.

Yeah, and everything's a subscription.

And you know what, Tesla kicked it off too.

I remember Elon Musk talking about auto-pilot and self-driving and subscription service as well.

Yeah.

And now I knew Mercedes had a better,

I remember all the stuff in my car.

You see the current,

or I haven't renewed the subscription,

because I didn't particularly want that feature.

So I haven't had to pay out of it.

I've had my car for two years, 200 years now.

Haven't had to pay it in the extra.

Oh, yeah, I know.

It's annoying.

You pay for the car.

The car should be yours.

Yeah, it should work.

Yeah, exactly.

But what's also fascinating here is,

where it's what Ian's on the phone here.

And he's giving you advice on your next car.

Yeah.

And your next EV.

Ian doesn't own an EV.

He owns Mercedes, though.

Yeah.

You wrote something in your text message,

which I think is hilarious,

which applies to both you, Ian,

and Steven.

Yeah.

As they say in the army,

time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted.

Ian, very wise man.

That's right.

And do your homework.

Except in my wife's opinion,

who says I spend too much time on reconnaissance.

I'm always researching,

looking at these things.

Isn't the answer there that we got married love?

So that paid off.

Yeah.

That's right.

She was, she was,

you did the reconnaissance,

and she ended up marrying her mate.

So yeah, well, it should be a compliment.

I'll go back with that one, too,

and see what she's saying there.

I've always been.

It's either,

or it's passed down through DNA

to my granddaughters,

who are always bustin' my chops

over the amount of research I do.

So.

Yeah.

Can confirm that attitude stuff is generic.

It's genetic.

It's absolutely passed down through the DNA.

But we don't want to get in that right now.

Yeah, mate.

Very good advice, mate.

Thank you.

We'll keep that on Stephen's radar

and pointing that out to me.

Yeah, we appreciate you throwing that one

in the ring for Stephen's hip pocket to pay for.

Yeah.

Just quietly.

Any time.

Get up to good work, guys.

Thanks, mate.

Thank you, mate.

Cheers.

Good to hear from you.

Just quietly.

I'm thinking that's going to be around 150 that car.

Yeah.

And one to one.

So in the same.

I think you should keep spinning more and more on cars.

I'm living vicariously through you in that sense.

Although there was another message I apologize to whoever

sent it that I don't have it with me.

Someone said you should look at the poll star five.

Is that the one that they've just released?

Yes.

It's like 200 grand.

It's like it's upwards of like 180.

But it's look at it, Stephen.

It's like a.

I know.

And it's $200,000.

Yeah, but it looks amazing.

How hard do they agree?

But if for $200,000, I can get a really good Mercedes.

It's trying to keep less than that.

Yeah, that's right.

Look about it.

Invest for property for that much.

It's a gorgeous look at thing though.

Although, without digging into the weeds on it now,

there was also some talk about poll star.

Not doing well.

There are some concerns about them actually.

Well, it's like lasting.

Which is weird because they're a current parent brand.

Very strange thing.

Yeah, well, it's kind of like they're trying to compete

in the same ballparkers, you know, Mercedes and BMW

in those premium brands.

And it's like in our tech, in our tech podcast,

where we talk about Samsung and Apple

and all these other brands trying to compete at that level as well.

Yeah.

And this was Paul Marik, who I respect.

Yeah.

And no very well.

Car expert.

What he rated this card, did he?

No, no, he was talking about poll star.

Yeah.

May not exist soon.

What?

Yeah.

Wow.

This is a story a few weeks ago.

But again, this is just a, you know, their report there was.

Yeah.

That the grim signs for the company, they're also new concerns about

how it's going as a, as a going concern.

There are, in their financial statements, it says,

uncertainty related to the execution of manageance liquidity

and funding plan indicates the existence of material uncertainty

that may cast significant doubt upon poll stars' ability to continue

as a going concern.

Yeah, sure.

I'll buy the poll star five.

I mean, that's not good.

That's not encouraging.

But I find that fascinating.

If Ian was doing his reconnaissance, mate, that'd be a red flag for him.

Yeah, well, he's probably, he's, he's like, he's the kind of person

that's reading the warranty as well.

It sounds like.

Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah.

For a constant, he's really wasted.

Very, very wise.

Amazing.

All right.

Great to have you company, folks.

And we love hearing from you.

We love talking to you about electric cars.

And we do it each and every week here on two bucks,

talking electric cars, Stephen.

Let's do it again.

I'll be here.

All right.

090 - MG's S5 SUV is a cracker for value

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