The team reports live from the 2024 New York Auto Show, highlighting the trend towards affordability in new vehicles. They discuss popular models like the Toyota Camry and Kia K4, emphasizing their practicality and reliability. The episode also covers Honda's new Prologue EV, a collaboration with GM, and the nostalgic Volkswagen ID Buzz. The hosts reflect on the evolving automotive landscape, including the importance of safety features and community engagement initiatives by manufacturers. With something for everyone, the show captures the excitement of the auto industry.
Topics:affordabilitytoyota camrykia k4honda prologuevolkswagen id buzzsafety featurescommunity engagementelectric vehicles
Are less expensive cars cool again? The prevalence of cars real people can afford is one of the trends we noticed at the 2024 New York Auto Show. We looked closely at the new Nissan Kicks, Subaru Forester, Honda Prologue, Toyota Camry, Volkswagen ID. Buzz, and many more. Our experts also share their favorite car/trend/feature from the show floor.
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"...n that I think I've shared, my husband had a 1973 Bronco. And there is a new '24 Bronco Heritage version o..."
- Introduction
- Universal Appeal
- 2025 Toyota Camry
- 2025 Kia K4
- 2025 Subaru Forester
- Manufacturer's Presence
- EVs
- Volkswagen ID.Buzz
- Race Cars
- Pet Ownership, Mobility & Accessibility Appeal
- Color Trend
- 2025 Nissan Kicks
- 2024 Ford Bronco Heritage
Select text to request an explanation
[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, and welcome to Talking Cars.
I'm Jennifer Stockburger.
I'm Mike Quincy.
I'm Michael Crossen.
So as you can see, we are not at home.
We are coming to you from the floor of the New York International Auto Show, as we do every year.
It's a nice, short jaunt for us from Connecticut to New York.
And we've been taking in the show.
Usually, there's some themes that we see.
The first one I see is that there's really something for everyone here, be it the racing enthusiasts, the off-roader, the wilderness guy in their pickup truck, or girl, but one thing struck, I know, us as we were walking around the floor, an that is this concept of affordability.
Mike, I'll start with you.
Mike Q, as opposed to Mike C. But yeah.
We need nicknames.
We do.
[LAUGHS] Absolutely.
When you're walking around and looking at all the manufacturers, what is prominent to all of us is a lot of Nissan Sentras out there.
Yeah.
A lot of Chevy Trax out there.
Really affordable cars.
Not just out there, but right in front, the most prominent spot on a show floor that people are going to see right when they walk in.
On the stage at Hyundai, Tucson Santa Cruz.
Right.
Not the top level.
Not the Genesis cars.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Affordability and practicality seems to be the most important thing going on right now.
Yeah.
And you wonder, is it manufacturers realizing the average price of a new car keeps going up and up and up?
People talk about EVs, how much they cost, and maybe they're sensing a shift that the market is ready to start embracing much more affordable-- if you want a new car, it has to get cheaper.
Yeah.
And don't get us wrong.
There's-- the fancy cars are here.
They're here, but they're not-- to your point, Mike, they're not the most prominent.
So I wanted to talk too about a couple that are particularly popular, not only with Consumer Reports, but with buyers in general.
And the first one of that which is taking tremendous prominence is the Toyota Camry.
Right.
Again.
Up until the pickup trucks took over, best selling car in the country.
Super reliable every year, but new Camry coming for 2025.
Mike C?
Yeah.
It's-- I mean, it's exciting thing, right?
You don't get a new Camry every single year, and we're always very hopeful with the Camry, because they always do a pretty good job.
So you know, it looks cool.
Can't wait to actually get our hands on the one that we purchased and get to experience it for ourselves.
Yeah.
I got to shoot a video with Anatoly the great.
Yeah.
And the cool thing is that every model, every trim line is going to be hybrid.
So there's no more V6.
Right.
No more standard four cylinder.
All wheel drive is going to be available-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] --on all the trim lines.
Blind spot warning is now standard on all the trim lines.
Toyota wasn't-- Right.
--and now is, yeah.
So and I actually-- I think the styling is kind of slick.
Yeah.
It shows that when you think of how kind of cool the Prius-- I mean, I think the Prius looks pretty racy.
Yeah.
That same kind of theme, that slick styling is featured, I think, in the new Camry as well.
I think-- I saw certainly, a lot of slope-y sedans.
Yes.
A lot of slope-y sedans.
Keeping too with the affordable and the slope-y sedans was the Kia K4.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Replacing the Forte.
Right.
It's bigger, which kind of seems to be the trend as cars age, I guess.
If you want to call this the new Forte, it's really just the replacement.
Yeah.
So I think two inches wider, two inches longer.
There are two motor options.
140 something horsepower.
You got it 147 two liter.
Yeah.
A 1.6 turbo that's 190 horsepower.
You got it.
Yep.
And it looks pretty sharp.
I think it's a little more stylized than the Forte was.
Yeah.
But again, yeah, this sort of swooping back, kind of like sort of big fender bulges out back.
Yeah.
Pretty neat looking car.
Yeah.
So one too, that super popular among just Consumer Reports members, again, in general, was the Forester.
That was one I filmed with Dave Abrams.
And yeah, an iteration.
A little more burly looking, if that's-- as they've done with the Impreza and the Crosstrek, you know, that whole wilderness idea.
Same powertrain, but again, upping the ante in terms of safety, in terms of infotainment options, you know?
Big, optional 11.6 inch tablet-like screen.
But again, iterating pedestrian detection, bicyclist detection.
I think we've seen that on a lot of cars.
Powertrains staying pretty much the same, little tweak in horsepower, but every Forester buyer-- again, I talk about my 87-year-old mother on her seventh Forester.
She'll be ready to be 90 and order her eighth, because it's not that much of a departure.
So reliability, hopefully, will benefit from those small tweaks.
But of course-- And-- --and again, most of these are 2025 models coming.
And for people maybe traveling from out of town coming to the New York Auto Show, check out the Subaru display.
They always go all out.
It's very nice.
Certainly, the wilderness theme, the outdoorsy themes, Subaru does that better than anyone.
I'm waiting for someone to roll a sleeping bag out and just lay on the ground.
Because as we've seen over time with a lot of auto shows, car makers are cutting back on their displays, not as fancy as they have been.
So it's nice to see that Subaru's still sticking with it.
And again, they're-- not everybody's here, to your point.
Right.
There isn't a BMW booth.
There isn't a Mercedes booth.
So some are opting not to be here.
Chevrolet has a huge presence, but we learned the GMC trucks and vehicles that are in the corner are from their regional dealers, Correct.
General Motors National.
Exactly.
Just a few vehicles.
So I think this is expensive to do.
And it's very sad.
I mean, really.
It's tucked away in the corner.
They don't have great colors on any of them.
There's nothing to draw you in, but I think there are some neat vehicles over there.
Yeah.
I stood in front of the-- I think it was 2500, and it is massive.
The grille is huge.
The hood height is like, around my nose.
Not going to be great for front over, or anything like that.
Right.
And then there's also the EV version of the Silverado, so the Sierra Denali EV is over there too.
Yeah.
And speaking of EVs, again, the trend, not the forefront.
Kind of tucked in, it just shows you how the market-- they're here, but they're embedded in the floor space of the other vehicles.
One in particular though, Mike, that you talked about was Honda's Prologue.
That's right.
And it was out front for Honda, basically right at the corner.
Not showy out, front, but out front.
It wasn't.
It wasn't lit up all that spectacularly.
It's kind of in a gray color, so it didn't really stand out.
But it's an interesting car.
And I did a video on it a little earlier today, but we walked around, and we kind of had some comments about it.
One of the surprising things to people, maybe, is that it's a Honda, but it's also General Motors.
It's a collaboration.
It's the Ultium platform like the EV Blazer, and so basically, battery and motors, which actually might be a good thing-- Right.
--because that's kind of maybe the best part of the Blazer EV and the LYRIQ so far, from what we've experienced.
But I just wonder for the Honda buyer, what are they going to feel when they get in this?
Because I had both of you sit in.
I was like, go sit in.
It it's weird because there's a H on the airbag for Honda, but what does it feel like?
Yeah.
It's all General Motors.
All the controls are General Motors.
So we just we just wrapped up our testing of the Blazer EV, and we're looking at the controls like, wait a minute.
I've seen this before, and it's-- what struck me about the Prologue is that Honda has been one of the few manufacturers, like Toyota, that has not been diving in headfirst to the EV market.
They've been much more reluctant, and they're-- so they're using an existing GM platform and mechanical, Right.
Everything else which lowers their overall investment, financial investment in this vehicle.
And you know, Honda has re-branded vehicles in the past, so that's kind of not necessarily new.
Right.
But on the other hand, the average consumer has to has to kind of realize like, no, Honda is not going all into EVs if they're getting General Motors basically to build one for them.
Right.
Right.
And maybe that's a good cost savings.
They're not to run up.
But is it a risk in terms of other areas of not branding themselves?
Yeah.
It's the unforeseen costs down the road.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] It looks nice.
The technician in me wonders about service because it is a GM platform.
Now, does Honda have to have a GM scan tool, and things like that?
So we're going to get one, so we're going to find out.
And you brought up they're risking Honda's reputation for reliability.
Yeah.
OK?
A lot of newly designed General Motors products have not done well in Consumer Reports reliability surveys.
Right.
So Honda has pretty good reputation for top notch reliability.
So I-- you know, doing the accounting, crunching the numbers and this is way above my pay grade.
It's a big scale.
So I don't know if this is a smart move for Honda, or just they're placating people that say, I want a Honda but it has to be an EV.
Honda's like, all right.
Here's a sort of a General Motors Honda EV whatever thing.
Right.
We'll see how it sells.
And like-- I do think it'll sell.
--we're going to buy one and test it.
Absolutely.
See how it goes.
Yeah.
Very interesting.
The finally, just in the cars we looked more closely at, Mike, was the Volkswagen ID buzz?
Yes.
It's here again.
Again.
Haven't we seen this?
[LAUGHTER] Once or twice.
Is it deja vu?
I think 2016 was the first time that we saw, it not at an auto show.
I think it debuted at CES maybe, or that was the first time we saw it.
Yeah.
I will say I saw it last year here.
This particular one looks more complete.
It looks more like a factory-ready production vehicle.
It's not, though.
We did find a couple of things as Andrew and I kind of made our way through the car.
Still a European model.
So what's interesting is it's the three row, the longer wheelbase, which is what we're going to get here in the states.
OK.
And I heard from someone who was in Germany last week.
They actually saw a lot of the two row German models like, in and around Wolfsburg and out on the road.
So whether they're factory test mules, I don't know, but they saw a few.
So we have the long wheelbase here.
But in poking around, it actually still has the European charge plug on it.
So what's here now today is not actually truly the US model.
It might have-- Did they give any promises of when?
There are no promises of any kind for Volkswagen, other than they literally say, stay tuned for more information on any time you ask them a question.
Mostly in promises, they're going to keep teasing this.
Yes.
I mean, talk about brand, like, love for brand, brand loyalty, and how this looks like a classic, you know, summer of love minivan, you know, micro van-- microbus, sorry.
And they're not producing it, but they still show it.
People still swoon over it.
And like, yeah, it might happen.
It might not happen.
There's other swoon worthy.
There's a lot of nostalgia.
Right.
Again, there is something for everyone.
A couple of things that I wrote too, the race cars that are out here, be it Travis Pastrana's, or some Nismo, or whatever.
And one quote I read, "Racing today shapes innovation of tomorrow."
I thought that was very interesting, and it almost alludes to what we do sometimes in a very high end, very expensive vehicle.
I would say luxury of today shapes innovation of tomorrow, and why we test some of these very expensive, new technology cars.
I mean historically, anti-lock brakes debuted on high end Mercedes-Benz models.
Yeah.
We wouldn't think of even buying a new car without ABS because they're all standard everywhere.
Right.
So it starts on the high end and it trickles down, just like with the active safety features.
Certainly, most of the electric vehicles are starting out high end.
And again, they're going to learn technology trickles down, costs get better.
And I like to think we have a role in that, particularly safety innovation, where we say-- take electronic stability control, where it was high end first.
And we said, game changer.
Everybody needs this.
And it trickled very, very quickly because it was a game changer.
I think we're seeing a little more of it, too.
Some of the cars that I spend time with, some things are now standard, not even optional in these sort of, I'll call them mid-level or lower end cars like rear cross traffic, or rear pedestrian alert, and things like that.
And again, you can't argue with those safety systems.
I love rear cross traffic.
I think it's the best of all of them.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Well you just talked about the K4.
That had a laundry list of standard safety that just went bang, bang, bang, bang, and hits all the marks that we give points for, or really feel are really beneficial for safety.
One thing I noticed, too, just on the floor here, is automakers doing good.
And you were a little cynical, [LAUGHS] But you know, Ford and Honda with micro-mobility and wheelchair access to national parks.
Toyota has a whole thing on Paralympics and their support.
And you can go try playing basketball from a wheelchair.
Not so easy.
Hyundai Cancer, Hope On Wheels, support of cancer, Subaru, pet safety and national park support.
So it's nice to see.
It's nice to see.
I think all most corporations want to have feel-good moments, either to make themselves feel better, to say something to their shareholders, or maybe it might even be a write off, or whatever.
I think it's all good.
But you know, it-- yeah, I do.
I do look at it just a little bit not cynically, but skeptically.
Yeah.
Would it change you?
Would it change you if you were on the fence to pick a manufacturer that you thought was doing something good, either for the environment, safety?
I don't think it would change the car that I purchased because I'm so connected with cars, and I want the car that I want.
However, if that car that I want, they're doing something, I would feel good about it in the process.
Even if let's say, it was whatever the cause was, I don't have a direct connection to, but I know that $500 is going towards that.
Yeah.
It doesn't hurt, right?
I was just thinking my friend who I take care of who has MS, who's in a wheelchair.
I see those micro-mobility and her being able to see a national park because there's tracks on it.
Right.
No, I think I would.
The American Disabilities Act is really important.
And to think years ago, that they didn't have anything like this.
Just, but-- if I can jump on this to answer?
Absolutely.
I love the fact that Subaru is big on like, dog ownership or pet ownership.
Pet safety.
We're dog people.
Yeah, we are.
And for Subaru, certainly when you're when you're on their website, they have all these pet accessories, whether it's seat covers, or harnesses, or even like, ramps for elderly dogs to get into your car.
I think that's totally cool.
No, it wouldn't like, make me want to necessarily buy a Subaru or something else just because they're pet friendly.
But I do like the fact-- listen, talk about smart accounting.
The pet market, the dog market is $1 billion industry.
So it was like, well, let's appeal to those folks.
We like our dogs better than we like people.
Well, sort of.
[INAUDIBLE] I think it creates a little bit of community, too.
So if we stick with Subaru for a minute, it's part of that whole Subaru kind of community.
And [INAUDIBLE] a lot of people that buy Subarus are active.
They bike.
They hike.
They do all those kinds of things.
So it's-- again, it's part of that community.
And I think community is important.
And we talk about that.
And like with our community, it's one of the reasons why we do a podcast, right?
Exactly.
So it's just another way that we can reach out to our people.
Right.
Or it's aspirational.
It's like, people maybe aren't outdoorsy, but they think they might want to be, so they get a Subaru.
Or they want the image of being outdoorsy, and so they get a Subaru.
So it's like-- I get a Subaru, I'll ski better.
Right.
Yes.
But just like with all the racing heritage.
Exactly.
People aren't necessarily going to racetracks all the time on track days to take their Nismos out there.
Right.
But they like the whole idea of associating themselves with a racing program that has some prominence of some success.
Absolutely.
And you get that trickle down, too.
So you get like a little taste of it.
Some of the systems that your kicks might have might have been developed on the GT-R.
Exactly.
Right.
The trickle down, which I love.
OK.
Closure.
What tickled your fancy the most on this score?
I don't think I have one car in particular, but I was sort of happy to see a lot of the prominent cars are kind of silver and gray, which is what cars tend to be.
And we end up with a lot of white, black, silver cars.
But there's a lot of really good color choice here.
Yeah.
I mean, there's a purple Tacoma back there.
It's not a factory color, but it's still here, and it looks kind of cool.
Some good greens, really good blues over in Nissan.
And then I don't want to spoil anybody's, but Genesis down there has three crazy orange cars.
Yeah.
Total concepts, but it's them saying, I think, like hey, we're over here, and we have fun.
They're trying to change their image just a little bit.
Beautiful green, I think it's a GV70 or something.
You?
What tickled your fancy?
Well, I also was blown away by the Genesis display, not only the concept cars.
I love the color orange on cars.
I think it's awesome.
Yeah.
But the commitment that Hyundai has with Genesis is awesome.
They're not going away.
They're not quitting at all, so I kind of like that.
But really on a more practical basis, I actually kind of like the Nissan Kicks.
Yes.
Got to do a video with Anatoly the great on this.
It's a little bit bigger.
It's getting the Sentra's four cylinder engine, which-- We really like.
--which produced pretty good fuel economy numbers in Consumer Reports testing.
It is affordable, you know?
So it kind of goes on that theme.
And it's totally front and center at the Nissan display.
So they're not going all in on trucks or big SUVs.
Certainly, they're out there.
But the Kicks, to me, is something that's really approachable by most people, and affordable.
And the 4 all-wheel drive.
Yes.
That wasn't there.
All-wheel drive, so it's kind of transitioning from being kind of a-- --a not SUV.
Well, kind of like a like a dorky hatchback to now, sort of looking like an SUV and offering all-wheel drive.
Yeah.
Mine was a little more obscure in that I think I've shared, my husband had a 1973 Bronco.
And there is a new '24 Bronco Heritage version over there that looks so similar.
I literally just sent him a picture and he said, please drive that for me.
The light blue one.
Yeah.
Please drive that for me.
Looks great.
That looks really good.
So again, something for absolutely everyone-- racing, nostalgia, off-road, on-road, EVs, traditional gas powertrains, here at the New York Auto Show.
Of course, anything we've been talking about today, consumerreports.org.
We do have highlight videos of some of the vehicles we talked about.
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark.
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