A dual clutch is a type of car transmission that helps change gears quickly and smoothly. It uses two clutches to make shifting gears faster than regular automatic transmissions.
The Ram TRX is a special version of Ram's pickup truck that is built for speed and off-road driving. It has a strong engine and cool features that make it fun to drive on rough terrain.
SRT is a special performance division of a car company that makes cars faster and more powerful. They focus on improving speed and handling for a more exciting driving experience.
Performance models are cars that are built to be faster and more fun to drive. They usually have better handling and more powerful engines than regular cars.
Luxury options are special features you can add to a car to make it nicer, like better seats, fancy technology, or extra safety features.
Car
Dodge Hellcat
The Dodge Hellcat is a powerful version of the Charger and Challenger cars, famous for having a very strong engine that makes them fast and exciting to drive.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 is a super-fast version of the regular Ram truck. It has a really powerful engine and was made to be more sporty and exciting to drive.
The Ram Power Wagon is a strong truck made for off-roading and tough jobs. It has special features that help it drive over rough ground and carry heavy loads.
A diesel engine is a type of engine that runs on diesel fuel, which is different from regular gasoline. Diesel engines are often used in big trucks because they can go farther on less fuel and have more power.
EVs stands for electric vehicles, which are cars that run on electricity instead of gas. They are becoming more common as people look for cleaner options for transportation.
The Cadillac XT4 is a smaller luxury SUV from Cadillac, which is a brand known for its upscale vehicles. It is aimed at people who want a stylish and comfortable SUV that is easier to handle than bigger models.
Welcome to another episode of the Auto Buyer's Guide 2026 edition. Today we're going to be taking
a deep and nitty gritty dive into sales for all the auto manufacturers that we have numbers for
so far talk about their lineups and what we find right and wrong with them and why we think those
sales are up and or down. Well Travis before we get stuck in today's main topic let's dive into
our five star reviews. Yeah it's a new year why not start off on a good foot we have a five star
review just titled best that's from LTK of HK I pretty much watch every Alex on auto's review
and listen to every podcast as I get information here I don't get anywhere else differences in
how each car model is built how it compares with others and prior generations the EV portions are
informative how a dual clutch works so much more so thank you for that LTK and Alex happy new year
and to the viewers happy new year to you as well yes happy new year and happy new you right that's
what we're all supposed to say so it seems like I may have let myself go over the last couple days
but you know it's probably not the direction I'm heading that's that's good news I want to talk
about directions real quick I know we've got a lot of numbers to dive into looking at sales numbers
and how manufacturers did last year but the last trip I made of the year was the first trip that
or the first event that we got to talk about that was Ram and boy Ram is not doing anything
subtly these days are they no they are not but before we dive into that what's your new year's
resolution let's let's get that out there oh goodness I I'm not I gotta admit I'm not a
resolution person oh you do better work on this work on that but there's no like here's what I'm
doing in 2026 that's supposed to be my line because I gave up giving up things so but uh
yeah boring okay it's not lent but uh moving along to Ram then uh yes TRX is back-ish right
it's the upgraded TRX and still got the RHO thing and uh they're sticking an SRT name on it now
yeah and I I get it and I don't get it I don't think it needed SRT to be considered a performance
vehicle I don't think anyone looked at the TRX and went what is that though you know like what
what are we doing here is this is this supposed to be exciting uh so kind of weird to throw SRT
on there actually I think TRX does more for SRT than SRT does for TRX but I have to say they have a
fantastic T-Rex head logo uh that can be found on the back of the models we looked at and I love
embracing that instead of the really radical you know um more like splash design that they have
one of the big decals I'd just go with the giant T-Rex head on the side of mine you know I uh
that's an interesting question an interesting point you raised there I would actually argue it's
the opposite because there've been far more SRTs sold than than TRX's so I think maybe it is putting
a little bit of that shine on there because the Hellcat was always a badged as an SRT and it wasn't
just the Hellcat it was also the the uh 6-4 and the 6-2 before it and the V10s etc starting with
the Viper etc so the Viper's had a SRTs rather had a good long history we'd had a SRT Neon which was
all kinds of fun oh yeah but but kind of wish we had a small SRT but does TRX need SRT I don't think
so at all so why do it it's a lot of letters at this point I don't know if it needs it but
I think that it points to a different way of of ram thinking about performance because there have
been rumors that there might be a street truck version that would be kind of tied in with that SRT
name and some other letters other than TRX perhaps there's always been that that that question
now Ram's kind of put a little bit of water on that in the past by saying well the last time we
did an SRT truck it didn't really sell well but I think it was also the wrong truck for the time
now I I'm trying to remember and as this is just it's a crossover thing and and I'm not the only
one who didn't remember when Dodge became Ram necessarily was it the Dodge Ram SRT 10 or was
recently I can't think of anything that I don't believe so I we can we can quickly Google the
Googles here but my my understanding is that it yeah 2010 was when it became just Ram trucks
so I feel like this is trying to bring SRT into Ram and again almost has nothing to do with the
TRX it I'm not going to die on a hill there it's it's not worth it but just something just something
I thought about is is why and admittedly while that's probably technically the most exciting news
it's not the thing I was most excited about with the trucks they showed us two of the three were
TRX as the other is a power wagon that finally comes with the diesel and if you love complete
packaging that is the complete package so that would be the one that went except for the winch
the factory winch because anything else like like every other truck you can go ahead and get one so
if I was going to drive one of those trucks home I actually would take that power wagon diesel
I have to admit I would not because I find the Ram 2500 seats dreadfully uncomfortable and
and when you look at Ram sales because we'll talk about this later they are really not doing
well in the heavy duty truck market and I think it's logical because the engine is fantastic
and that's the only thing that's keeping them afloat in that segment right now
they should have done what they had promised which was give us an all new heavy duty instead
this is actually a really old heavy duty truck that's been been you know beautified and botoxed up
the wazoo to try and make it look like the current generation halftime which I think is really solid
but if you like a halftime if you're a ram fan you have ram 1500 and you're like hey I want to
get a three-quarter ton truck and I'm a dodge you know well not we're dodging anymore but I'm a ram fan
I'm a ram head I'm a ram head whatever we want to call it right then then I would say to that person
really give the GMC or the four to look first because I think either of those options is generally
speaking better than the ram in every way other than the engine if you could so if I could make
my own truck in that segment it would be the Cummins jammed in a GMC with some affords tech
yeah I no argument there but I think it's it's more impactful for me in that I don't think the
diesel is going to go away anytime soon it's not when they refresh the 2500 that diesel will disappear
so it's more hey this has entered the chat versus oh my gosh it's revolutionary you know yeah it
probably would have been cooler for ram even to have that updated 2500 but still I'm just I again
I appreciate this whole package thing and and actually you know what in 2026 you know what's
what's my new year's resolution I actually have it's more of a question for the viewer and I don't
know how many of our podcast listeners are the same people who do watch us on YouTube but
I've got an old truck myself and I get itchy a little bit on wanting to do things with vehicles
and that truck at least needs some paint but if anyone is actually interested in what you know
in any sort of mini series or you know any any breakdown of what it what it what's what it is
what it's doing what what I have in plans for it let me know because it needs to get a little bit
of work done unfortunately that means some money but I've got a truck of my own it just doesn't
see the light of day very often and that that kind of brings us along to our sales talk here
because we have numbers for most but not all car companies that sell vehicles in the US as of the
day that we're recording this episode everybody so January 7th early in the morning not everybody's
reported the numbers but most of the car companies have and you and I were talking about this before
we started recording the thing that I get out of this is that we have never seen a new car
buyer demographic like this and changing this rapidly over over the last decade or so in America's
history and that is that the American buyer of new cars is richer than before they're spending a
lot more money on top and models and I think a lot of the reason that we get so many viewer complaints
about pricing and why are you focusing on this model why are you focusing on that model why is
the price tag so high is that's that's who's buying these cars and it's it's obvious in the sales
numbers sales of top end trims are up sales of luxury vehicles are up and people are just buying
more and more pricey things I mean you you and I are some of the biggest drum bangers on please
make affordable cars we want it for everyone we want it for ourselves we want it for the neighbor
we want it for the automotive industry but we we can't on our own change that but we're looking
at the numbers and it goes yes some of these sales are going to be down and you can make the
argument and somebody will that nobody is buying less expensive cars because there are no less
expensive cars and that's a fair argument you know people are going to have a a ceiling and if
that ceiling is $25,000 there's only so many cars you can buy under that and what if you didn't want
one of those cars right that that happens but as that ceiling rises we're not seeing any increase
in sales in the lower end that you know whatever that new floor is um they're they're falling
as well by and large so it's it's it there's not a market for less expensive vehicles therefore
manufacturers won't make them and if they make them people have to buy them otherwise that that's
the end uh it's it's not across the board there are some less expensive vehicles that are still
doing pretty well but it we're seeing the increases come on the top end certainly at the bottom
the one vehicle that's bucking this trend is GM's and that would be the tracks the
trailblaze has also done pretty well and you know the small Buick things but tracks has done
especially well I would say this is this is an interesting twist though for for some shoppers
because it's a Chevy but it is not built in the United States and it's not exactly the most Chevy
Chevy because the design is coordinated with other global market general motors products but
we're talking GM first here because GM is the biggest car company in America still they sold
2.85 million things last year in 2025 on this list what struck you about GM's sales split here
uh a lot I mean it's interesting to see how things have broken up I think the conversation
with the big three which you know is now the the big 74 however you want to break those things down
either way it's always been about trucks and General Motors sells a lot of trucks before
or the F series is the best selling pickup truck in America but that's partially just because
or partially because General Motors splits their trucks from Silverado and Sierra so those those
two exist separately but they really are by and large to my mind the same truck right they are
and it's almost a million of them 944,927 full-size trucks GM produced it's a lot of
trucks admittedly GM does combine light-duty heavy-duty Silverado Sierra and the EV variants of
those all jam together but still that was that's a lot of truck and honestly the splits between
them are not enormous you know about 590,000 of those were Silverados that means we're just under
400,000 or you know that range for the Sierras so pretty pretty evenly split amongst those I also
have to say that when it comes to the EVs General Motors sells a ton of them uh compared to the
rest of the well the US market because they have such a wide variety of them the one that surprised
me is the Escalade IQ and I guess IQL they probably don't split those up uh they were 50,000 Escalade
sold but they were 8100 Escalade IQ sold that actually is a pretty pretty healthy split uh
especially for for people who are concerned that EVs are not the new thing and we'll we'll see
later on where you know EVs are not selling in the same volume I would argue that not only are
they a little bit more expensive but it is still a new product and a new concept and people don't
have to be against it to still not buy it they just go I'm not so sure or there wasn't the incentive
or I don't know what charging looks like so still I was that's impressive that's a god that's a ton
I mean and I'm talking about metric tons of Escalade IQ yeah it's Cadillac sold 173,000 things
last year and the sales split's interesting XT four five and six sales are down which is logical
because they're the end of the road OPTIQ vistic and lyric the three of them together sold 40,000
units which I think is more than I had expected to be honest but we'll see how that goes without the
tax credit Escalade IQ 8100 units so about 50,000 ish electric things we don't have numbers on
their Celestics etc offhand but not many interesting one I'll go on record not many yeah
Buick's interesting one in a way because Buick is definitely back from the grave here they sold
almost 200,000 units last year beating Acura and that's I think the best Acura corollary in the
American market really is Buick right now based on just the product lineup and the customer type
there premium versus luxury and a sort of weird line the other thing that struck me on this is
when we look down at the vehicles that they've sold we're talking big heavy inefficient things
right so Escalade 50,000 units Silverado and Sierra almost a million units there they sold
173,000 just Tahoe's and Suburbans combined basically a quarter million full-size SUVs when
you jam all the full sizes together their full-size crossover traverse a caddy and enclave those that
recently got redone why do they have really another quarter of a million yeah because they sold
a quarter of a million of those if it works it works people and let's just say none of those
are averaging over 20 miles per gallon on a on a yearly basis when you actually look and see how
much gas is going down kind of makes me wonder is GM ripe for another fuel affordability crisis
oh boy uh the timing on that is is um is interesting I I don't know what the cost of
gasoline is going to be here in the United States in the next two months six months one year oh it's
it's going to be free because now we have Venezuela right well and you know Alex way to start way to
start us off um you're gonna find yourselves in a tough spot and and I think if your General Motors
the thing that you are missing and you have got to do something very very very soon is a freaking
hybrid anything does not exist if there was a traverse hybrid imagine the sales numbers that
that can bring in obviously it has to be good they have hybrids in China uh huh uh huh right but you
know what you can't ship right now to the us easily well many stuff from China uh huh yeah yeah so you
know it's just one of those things where it's these numbers are impressive and like I said they're
on top right and General Motors actually has less brands than some of the other you know model or the
other makers or conglomerates here that we're gonna look at uh but they're doing all of this with
a healthy EV portfolio but we know right now that's not going to move the needle healthy it's it's not
going to well you know what I mean right uh a varied varied very broad a very broad EV portfolio
with relatively muted sales compared to the elephant in the room but uh let's talk about the
other elephant in the room though because that is Toyota the other General Motors I always I like to
think of Toyota as Japan's GM because a lot of what they do reminds me of GM uh and I know that
there's a lot of pushback on that but they've got a ton of models but very different very different
outlook 2.5 million yeah sold and nearly half of those about 47 percent or so of those models
were some kind of hybrid and that's only going to increase in 2026 because we have all of these
models that are hybrid only for 2026 that you know are gonna have full full sales years um
and and I expect more model not necessarily more models coming but I think everything
Toyota puts forward from this point forward will have at least a hybrid option so uh yeah it is
actually kind of as I just said sort of the counter to what General Motors is doing right now because
like Hyundai Hyundai Kia has a whole host of hybrid models now and their hybrid sales are going up
but I believe I haven't been able to get good confirmation from those numbers the sales split
numbers on Hyundai Kia directly yet but I would be willing to bet that there are more hybrid
Camrys sold than all of Hyundai Kia's hybrids put together still probably and that has to speak to
not just Toyota's engineering but also you know how how popular the Camry has been and
its dedication to go and all all hybrid so you can factor all those things in but the numbers
are the numbers yeah there are some interesting other numbers though let's talk about successes
and failures the Highlander lineup has just sort of exploded or maybe imploded not in the best way
I should say because back in 2021 they shifted 264,000 Highlanders Highlander now has really
fallen through the floor and then even if you include Grand Highlander and Highlander together
we're only talking 192,000 Grand Highlanders outselling Highlander by the way as we all thought
it would 136,000 but GM GM GM Toyota General Toyota but from 264,000 Highlanders down to 56,000
Highlanders in four years I don't think I have a great explanation for that except I wonder
how many of these folks have upgraded to Lexus in their next purchase as well I'm going to go with
none uh I when you look when you look at this I think the problem that we did see with Grand
Highlander maybe this was an opportunity for other players here I think when we look at this
over the last that that five-year mark we saw the rise of bigger competitors from the Koreans the
Koreans came in they started sucking up 100,000 units each a year so they had to come from somewhere
they came largely at the expense of pilot but also at the expense of Highlander and the transition
to Grand Highlander didn't go smoothly because they had a stop sale that was really quite lengthy
Grand Highlanders I think the best Highlander I don't know why you'd buy a Highlander just
buy the Grand Highlander I think it looks better it looks more like a Toyota it's way bigger on the
inside more practical but I am surprised though that it's not selling like Highlander I think
maybe it might be a bit expensive well don't forget about the three we just talked about the
Traverse the Acadia you know those are those are also pulling in some of those same numbers
especially because they're now in the same size range as the Grand Highlander was their last
generation was Highlander-ish now this is definitely Grand Highlander and the space in there
is enormous it's not the same person stopping GM to Toyota even though there's a lot of corollaries
but I bet you some of those sales are pulling from there as well yeah Toyota has a lot of small
volume number uh volume vehicles but we got the Highlander family at 192,000 Corolla at a quarter
million Camry 316,000 interestingly Pete Camry was all the way back in 2007 with 472,000 but
Camry is an interesting thought experiment here because they built 316,000 Camrys and sold them
that's about 317,000 kilowatt hours of batteries which would have built theoretically about
5,500 standard range Model 3s and this is going to offend yeah and this is going to offend some
viewers here probably well there's there's still a standard range Model 3 or standard range plus
whatever the smallest battery pack is available that the 58 kilowatt hour battery pack is still
available in the Model 3 but you could have built 5,500 Model 3s for that same volume of battery
and this is the interesting question taking 5,500 cars if that person had bought a regular
Camry or a regular whatever in the compact segment taking them from 30 miles per gallon to zero
gasoline or moving all 316,000 of those Camrys from a blend of hybrid non-hybrid up to at least 45
miles per gallon likely had a bigger environmental impact because there is only one way to get your
Camry and that is hybrid between 44 and 50 something miles per gallon yeah no argument on
paper I think you're gonna see you know assuming you can have to have some crazy outliers but in
a significant margin where the people who bought that Camry drive five miles a day or less or you
know something like that and the people who would have used these Model 3s drive 200 miles a day to
really say no no no trust me the impact is there I still think the answer lies in the plug-in hybrid
and what that what that corollary looks like and I was just reviewing a video I did on my Model 3
where I was comparing overall fuel costs I included the Camry hybrid and I said by the way one thing
I haven't included in this is plug-in hybrids and it's not because I forgot them or because I have no
idea what to do with them but we don't have good information I think that if you put a even 10 to
15 mile range in a plug-in hybrid that's probably better use of that battery for trying to make that
impact and Toyota has proved you can make those a little bit more interesting they can be the more
powerful more exciting versions so no no argument there I think I still think it was a Toyota cop
out when they go no no no hybrids the answer period I I think that was business not not personal
belief on the large scale but there's no argument that they're making an impact I think I think it's
a bit of both in a way because the the environmental impact of 316,000 Camrys and nearly half a million
hybrid RAV4s basically are going to be sold because now RAV4 is all hybrid that transition's
happening basically now because they're getting rid of all the old RAV4s but next year RAV4 sales
have not slowed down in the height of this transition and neither did Camry Camrys sales did not
slow down when they went all hybrid so next year we're going to see 750,000 things getting over
40 miles per gallon suddenly in the Toyota lineup that's a massive decrease in the fuel consumption
of these new vehicles versus five years ago vehicles yeah the the sort of problem in a way
with plug-in hybrids would be the the eternal question do you plug them in the lower the range
the less likely I think people are to plug them in but then there's the cost factoring into this
as well they they are definitely going to be pricier and harder for manufacturers to to justify
financially the other thing I would say is with Toyota being Toyota their electrification
and their move to full EVs would never have been exciting Toyota is not that kind of car company
no absolutely not so like could Toyota have poured the money into creating another Tesla
absolutely they've got a hundred million dollar a hundred billion dollars sorry in the bank I mean
they've got they can smash the cili if they wanted they've got cash coming out of the wazoo they could
they could absolutely blow 50 60 billion dollars and still have billions of dollars left over tens
of billions of dollars left over to create to create a model y competitor and a model y
competitive charging network etc but Toyota would never do that Toyota would always have
given us a busy because Toyota's a very conservative engineering company and Tesla is not so Toyota
would always have preferred a longer lifetime and serviceability on parts and batteries and this
and that and they always would have opted for a relatively slow and boring thing compared
against what we see from the others and the GM corollary is there because that's exactly what
we see in Altium all we would have seen on a larger scale from Toyota in their electrification
would have been would have been Toyota right and it would just be their version of that thing
and so I for the for the for the viewers out that are the like but Toyota should have done it
like should they have because it would never do it Lexus could have right but I've tried to
could have done it because if if if the US had required it if California's emissions regulations
and the and the EPA had really required it and Europe had really pushed harder on them
Toyota would have done it that there's no question I think that Toyota would have done it
it's just that it wouldn't have been any more exciting than the Toyota EVs that we already get
and in the US at least for specifically it probably actually still would have had less
of an impact than Toyota bringing half their lineup into full hybridization especially as a
mainstream car brand right if you talk about more of a luxury car brand where you can you can kind
of get away with more you can be more adventurous it can cost more as long as it feels good you
know whatever it is right yeah but yeah Toyota Toyota does need to be careful with it I think
they could have done it more under the under the Lexus banner but I also you know I appreciate
they didn't have to make the BZ better but they did right not only just by changing the name but
they also have made it better but they've also done it in partnership and now they have a small
family of of EVs there so I'm not mad about where they're at I just I would love to see more
universally plug-in hybrids and they do sell quite a bit quite a few plug-in hybrids especially
in that RAV4 obviously the Prius Prime or the Prius plug-in hybrid Prime is gone
is also great but that's just not selling in the numbers that that it could yeah the customer
has to be interested in spending the extra seven to ten thousand dollars on the plug-in hybrid
that's the question now for people that think I'm giving Toyota a pass let me just say here
that their truck line-ups feel efficiency is really bad and it has not improved dramatically
over time even the addition of hybrids is not a fantastic thing for Toyota and it says it will be
no the four-runner hybrid is is not a terribly efficient hybrid the Land Cruiser hybrid not
terribly efficient ditto on the GX hybrid and the LX hybrid and the Tundra hybrid etc so they've
got a lot of work to do and I would love to see Toyota have some sort of honest transition plan
where they say okay we're going to hybridize the entire lineup and here's our plan because they're
dramatically on the way for that mind you so in 2026 it would be logical if over half their volume
was hybrid since all RAV4s will be but if they had said you know 2026 is this goal by 2030 we expect
the entire lineup to be hybrid and then we're going to start rolling in the plug-in hybrids
and then by this date it's going to be this percentage of hybrids and plug-in hybrids and EVs
and zero emissions whatever that would be interesting and so that's I think the the missing part with
them but we should go on to Lexus because Lexus is a definite tale of car sales down SUV sales up
well and I think this is I I think that's fine because Lexus is jumping on the everyone's going
to crossovers and SUVs and you just listed through we've got a lineup you've got the UX, NX, RX,
LX, TX, GX what else are we missing those that's where all the sedan sales went
it's interesting they sold just 63,000 sedans in 2025 versus BMW's sedan sales of 163 so it's
pretty big gulf the interesting thing though is that Lexus now has the best selling three row SUV
in the Lexus TX beating the Acura MDX by actually a decent margin and it's a bit of a shame because
the MDX is great to drive but people are looking for practicality and the TX has that in spades it
also has a bunch of different engine options so if you want a powerful TX it exists if you want a
less expensive TX that exists if you're looking for an efficient TX that exists so it was always
bound to do very well just like we said with the Grand Highlander none of those engine options
is as good as the MDX type I'm not saying it is but on paper the third row the third row is the
problem it has MDX has two big problems and those are the two seats back there in that third row
for sure that takes us along to Honda who squeaked out 1.4 million sales in 2024 but that was still
well below Honda's 2017 sales numbers what do you think is going on at Honda disclosure here before
we continue Honda blames some of their sales on a chip shortage where they think well they thought
earlier in the year that that might have had a up 200,000 unit impact they did not say anything
about that chip shortage in their 2025 sales wrap up though it may or may not have had much of an
impact overall by the end of the year yeah I mean they're still coming in whatever 35% less
something like that than Toyota sales they always were going to but but their but their sales are
why is that happening um well part of it is probably going to be in the car segment because
Honda makes some good cars they're fun to drive they're interesting they're getting a little bit
pricey and they don't have things like the fit like they used to the HRV is getting a little
bit long in the tooth you know all things considered but they they don't have as much pop or much as
much variety as I think you find over in Toyota not that they don't have anything interesting
but they're they're missing out it's a good hybrid system and you can get it in their main
mainline vehicles appreciate that but you don't get any hybrids in the higher end trims so no
or you know higher vehicles coming soon hopefully they say no pilots no passports no rage lines which
obviously is not the sales leader there no uh no odyssey hybrid that's not going to help anything
it I think Honda's Honda sales tail is also a tail of a lack of SUVs because they don't have
anything big big to compete with Grand Highlander or Palisade or tell you right I know some people
want to put pilot in that category it is absolutely not size wise in that category it is definitely
smaller on the inside um real world legroom is significantly below the the big boys in that
segment and they don't have bigger than Highlander smaller than Grand Highlander yeah but they don't
have any body on frame SUVs to compete with some of these faster growing segments in the US
if we look at the numbers back in 2017 when Honda hit their peak in the US they sold 32,000
accords back then it's a 30 drop versus 2021 mind you so they still dropped a lot so they were
selling so many accords in 2000 uh 2025 they sold just 150,000 accords so when we look at their
sales trajectory since 2000 over the last 25 years we've seen an astronomical drop in sedan
sales it's thought Honda's fault americas are americans are just moving away from them uh but
civic also they fell from 377,000 civics in 2015 down to just 238 in 2025 even though we have the
hybrids and the hatchbacks and the ours and everything else in the lineup now and the SIs I
mean you got manuals and hybrids and and and well you're not coupes preludes kind of the coop
but that that hasn't hit yet it's it's a car thing right like so Honda still has good cars
the fit sold in in big numbers but it's been gone for a while it's not like I've forgotten that but
Honda's really left behind that whole affordable that affordable market the civic is is civic is
is relatively inexpensive but they don't have a tracks competitor they don't have any right right
can be but but then you're getting the base civic there's not a there's not a well equipped
inexpensive model right and even even the base civic is not not inexpensive anymore it's it's
it's a premium premium entry level option for that segment when you look at its price tag
the interesting thing is the truck sales are solidly up since 2017 from 734,000 to 908,000
but they are not compensating for that lack of SUV sales I think it's the lack of those bigger
options somehow there in the lineup or even in between right so and Antonio is not the
perfect corollary but if you look at the uh well I didn't say the chr but that's now its own thing
if you look at the Corolla Cross and which is a better value than you get in the HRB
then you look at the RAV4 which is on at least on paper a very good balance against
then you can go forerunner or you can go highlander or you can go land cruiser or you can you know
the the the tree just blossoms Honda goes one two three four and it makes sense but you know
you're gonna be really fun and cool and we're not gonna see it and that's okay uh an element like
throw an element in there and say here's your adventure vehicle and it's not built to compete
with the RAV4 but it's a it's a crv-fied passport you know something of that sort they also don't
have the crown of the crown signia which again fall into this signatory Toyota sells none of those
in the US sales numbers are so so minuscule no one no one cares about that and the Ridgeline
is not a competitor in sales to something like Tacoma or even the Tundra so yeah I mean it's
the CRV sells well it probably would sell better if it was boxier and more rugged looking because
passport is exploding that that's a fantastic addition I could see a grand passport being
a three row alternative to telluride and palisade with that boxiness and a huge interior that would
probably sell really well for them the the sad and interesting thing here it really is Acura
I was shocked by this did you know that 10% of Acuras sold in 2025 were made by General Motors
and you don't get that in 2026 because those made by General Motors are gone and that's a big
number that's a big number and even including that their sales were down over last year down to
133,000 this year so definitely on the shrinking side and MDX accounts for a big portion of that
still but MDX sales fell 17% and RDX a whopping 26% yeah well I think RDX again it's not the only
thing but hybrids hybrids hybrids hybrids you look at the Toyota as their main competitor
and they have hybrids they have performance models you know even F sports right
whereas your Type S RDX one thing I was hoping for Acura was that the ADX would do well and I
think by and large it's done okay I think it's a really good entry-level luxury offering it's
got enough of the stuff to feel good you know Alexis UX is not the oh my gosh I'm in Alexis
the ADX feels like it's pretty close to what you'd expect from the rest of the Acura lineup
but again no performance I'll air quote it right but no performance solution no real sports version
and no hybrids I'm wondering if it's really just a lack of luxury and lack of expensive options
in a way because we do see the more expensive options selling well TX is selling well and
it averages higher than MDX XC90 is the interesting twist because it's transacts significantly higher
than MDX and it looks like we don't have final sales numbers for Volvo in the US for this year
mind you but it looks like Volvo will sell more three-row luxury SUVs than Acura in the United
States in 2025 most likely and globally it's an absolute slam dunk for Volvo globally XC90 alone
his his over a hundred thousand units and MDX is technically a global vehicle as well but Acura
doesn't have that global reach like Volvo does it is an interesting twist there I have I have one
quick proposal to flip this thing around if we say Lexus is on the right track and they don't really
need to change what they're doing not just by the sales numbers but you know things are going well
there what if Acura went sort of like the mini model where it was it was hey we are bringing
personality into this so even if there were some shortfalls here or there the ADX had some
wild color and wheel options and Acura's commercials went boom here we are who are you
you're Acura you know whatever it is like is that an option to really spice things back up
I in my my personal opinion I think that Acura would need to do a wholesale renovation of their
interior style and their interior philosophy in a way and bump the price tag up by 10 grand
across the lineup to probably get better sales numbers I think they would need their interiors
to be Volvo BMW Audi level interiors materials fit and finish etc Acura's only recently embraced
real wood trim for instance they've only recently embraced slightly larger screens touch screens
etc they would need to I think more wholeheartedly embrace those things and then they I think
probably would sell better just look at Buick you know Buick has embraced some of those things
and they're selling significantly more than Acura yeah but we must move on because we're
running out of time here in our episode and we have a lot to go through so Ford we want we
skip forward there rather than doing these in order because of Toyota and Honda you know synergies
so Ford best sales year since 2019 2.2 million this is another tale of the truck and the fuel
economy problem they sold let's go through 829,000 f-series 161,000 transit fans that's
mind-blowing 70,000 rangers 146,000 Broncos still did manage to beat Wrangler though 134,000 Bronco
Sports 222,000 explorers beating Toyota at the three-row thing and none of those is overly efficient
we have Maverick though at 155,000 units which is really saying something about America's desire
for a small truck yeah I think that is that's like the big home run out of this whole thing is the
Maverick and I drove past the Ford dealer the other day and I saw rows and rows of tiny truck beds
it was cute and hilarious but you know what I have seen is Mavericks with with uh oh gosh
industrial canopies I'm just seeing you know workmen's canopies on the back so I think there's
one company who makes them right now because it's they've seen the same one the whole time
and people and their companies not necessarily fleets right but smaller companies or individual
contractors are saying hey this fuel economy is crazy two-wheel drive all-wheel drive whatever
they're looking for they say how can I make the most out of this truck and and and it shows
there's an electrical company in the same business park that bought a whole ton of Maverick hybrids
for that same reason this is the sort of the interesting twist here I think is that Ford has
proved Ford has you know had ups and downs but I think this year's sales proved that Ford's made
a lot of good progress with actually a relatively small number of models really focusing on those
small number of models and making them what people want because we've got escape sailing off into the
sunset you know sales were okay but I don't think that's exactly what the shopper was after
Bronco Sport though 134,000 Bronco sports that is the thing that Jeep and GM are both missing
and they're letting out on that cute boxy practical segment Maverick obviously 155,000 of those
Bronco itself I think is doing pretty well especially given the the the new competition
that we have in this segment with a new forerunner a land cruiser that's doing well etc Lincoln
I'm kind of surprised here Lincoln sales numbers are not great and they're primarily
a navigator company right they're sort of defined by navigator but even navigators only about a
quarter of their sales they're almost a four-way split between Corsair Nautilus navigator and aviator
Corsair's ending production soon and Nautilus is built in China so it's a bit of a problem
and that's it's that's sort of where Ford is falling away from GM right now is that
if you look at Lincoln versus Cadillac Cadillac has a lot more momentum or a firmer stance in
where they're at and where they're going and what they can do with it I'm not saying I'm not saying
here's the answer but we've talked about it before why is there not a Lincoln Mach-E
I must say Mach-E did pretty well for Ford it has done still they're discontinuing the lightning
but it sold just about twice as many Mach-Es but something like that and I'll sold the real
Mustang too it's like more Mach-Es go out if as a company you're just in investing in Mustang
then you should also be investing in that Mach-E thing yeah so put that put that into the Lincoln
lineup that yeah if you're not going to do that then what are we doing but we must now move on to
the hot mess that is Stalentus and I promise we have to go quicker here so basically we have
Gladiator selling well Wrangler was up 11% the Wagoneer Grand Wagoneer thing seems to be leveling
out and showing some positive trends towards the end of the year Ram has pulled out the nose dive
but the aging heavy duty lineup is down 9% as we talked about earlier Chrysler's all minivan lineup
is selling minivans the weird part the weird part here in in the lineup they're really odd lineup
is that Durango sales are up 34% it's the best year for Durango in 20 years I don't like that
for some of the oldest things on the market Fiat and Alpha less said about them the better
and I want to know who on earth were the six people that bought a Dodge Dart in 2025 since
it's been discontinued for forever or the 17 people that bought and registered a brand new Dodge
journey that's been discontinued for five years where were they hiding wrong if you find them
yeah wrong answers only where were they hiding uh god were those were those vehicles that got
dropped off at the port they ran out of space they got tucked in the corner and everyone
forgot where they were at I mean what are we talking about here I was I was I was going uh
you know single wide tinfoil hat club they thought the world was going to end so they've
been living in a bunker for five years and they needed a new car because they realized the world
hadn't ended and the Dodge dealer was the closest thing and there was a journey there
because also inflation yeah I mean they were set aside to be brought in as part of the president's
new armored fleet and things got a little bit rocky it didn't quite happen that way they wanted
they wanted a Durango when they went into the bunker five years ago so they put away some
Durango money under the mattress and they popped back out the Dodge dealer is the closest dealer
when they get there with their cash in their cash bags their piglet wiggly bags um all it would buy
them is a five-year-old new journey that's that's my thought there I saw I've been looking at cars
and I saw some new 2024s and I went oh boy uh that doesn't hold a candle to this
rationally speaking though I would say for the splantis haters the the seem to be pulling
themselves up here basically jeep sales are more or less stabilizing the lowered prices and
resurrections of different things have have come back for them it's about what you'd expect we have
the new Cherokee coming online soon there's a lot writing on that so I think it's a year of let's see
because we have new Cherokee coming out we have the updated grand Cherokee coming out those sales
numbers are not there we have the recon which is not going to do anything for their sales but
new can be some sort of interesting halo thing there fiat and alpha god knows god knows what's
going on with them um still here yeah still here uh rams rams light duty sales are probably ticking
up heavy duty sales probably still going to be down next year depending on what happens with
the engine lineup uh let's move on to you but you did say there's new life coming you know there's
talk of a ram suv there's the size dakota is making its return yeah that's something new derango
yeah there's probably going to be a chrysler sedan maybe something like that charger challenger
you know the charger sales we'll see how they go with the inline six etc there's a lot a lot writing
in a lot of question marks but we do that we do know that undoubtedly the correction in trajectory
to bring their sales up has caused a profitability decline because they were a massively profitable
company in 24 25 they're pretty much just average moving on though uh not going in the same trajectory
is the Hyundai Kia rocket ship that has managed to shift 1.75 million things in america last year
900 1000 on the Hyundai side 852 on the Kia side uh i'm surprised actually how close those two
brands are in sales so let's let's go down the sales numbers here and then after this i will
i will uh let's breathe for a commentary so k4 in a laundra neck and neck 140 000 approximately
each k5 and sonata k5 selling better than sonata so apparently no hybrid and no inline not a problem
celtos and kona kona's outselling celtos which i think is interesting because celtos is better
looking to me sportage and Tucson no contest Tucson is leading the pack there i think the
sportage is a little fuggly well it was until they rebooted it here uh telluride and palisade
these are neck and neck almost identical Hyundai finally caught up with the prettier palisade
basically they each match pilot so you know doubling what pilot sells actually beating
Toyota as well in that combined thing serento santa fe 142 000 on santa fe versus 95 on serento
so boxy's better carnival 72 000 units apparently are showing that hybrid was a good idea nero
stands alone at 31 000 fuel zippers and the combined entity sold 124 000 evs uh which is
actually pretty impressive and beats just about everybody else yeah i their their spread on evs
isn't as large but it does seem more focused right there if you if you compare again especially by
the numbers um they come out ahead in acceleration in charging in range and efficiency um they're
they feel more they feel more modern than some like the general motors evs do but uh
i you know the most exciting thing here serento and santa fe is i like these little three rows
you know the two and a half rows whatever you want to call them uh they're doing well
and and so they're they're capitalizing where you know they're taking off for highlander left
and yes grand highlander in the u.s is going to sell better and and you look at things like the
traverse in the akadia and the enclave those are all those are all big these are on the smaller
side so i'd love to see it and what they're doing so well is turbocharged engines across the lineup
mostly turbos hybrids plug-in hybrids um they are they are up on the tech side of things the power
drain back yeah it's like you can see key is definitely focused on that telly right because
123 000 units versus serento which is a lot less expensive at 95 000 so there's there's money in them
their hills i also think that they've also done a good job ditching the me too styling because
let's not be honest 15 20 years ago hundays and kias were boring bland copy me too things
they sold on on the promise of reliability the long warranty and cheap sticker prices
but now they've they've come into their own and whether you like the styling or not
i don't think that the sportage is the most attractive entry in its segment but it certainly
doesn't look me too um it does seem to be doing really well for them yeah and all of that leads
into genesis who we don't have full numbers yet but has done fairly well i mean they've outsold
some of the other luxury you know premium offerings overseas other manufacturers we don't know the
breakdown but we know the year end number of 82 331 which is more than infinity it's their best
sales year ever and pretty close to lincoln and they still sell some cars mm-hmm it's interesting
they're very focused on the gv 70 so the gv 70 and gv 80 account for a large portion of their
sales gv 70 is the lion's share so it's they're definitely kind of a really riding on that one
model for genesis the interesting thing i think here is that and when you look at this whole
thing together we're looking at you know almost 300 000 compact sedans being sold somewhere around
to you what does this look like you know 120 100 something thousand full size overall full
size air quotes mid-sized sedans in k5 and sonata big size instead of yeah but on the compact side
that's that's a really good showing because that is a more that's more compact sedans being sold
than a lot of other car companies coming in really really close to civic actually civics 238 so
actually hunday kia sold more really and the hatchback is just barely coming online but the
interesting thing here is that they did this without a hybrid in the kia lineup yes but they
have some of the more affordable options i think that's where things are getting ahead so it's not
the it's not the bargain basement value it's hey this is fun this is interesting and one of the
things that you know you and i have both said about something like the k4 is that it's a good
looker and it's got nice tacky so looking where it falls it falls in the driving experience but
that's the thing those putting on all the miles they go right here's a nice car but that's kind of
the point that i'm making here is that they've managed to shift 250 000 approximately of these
things but actually sorry more almost 300 000 of these things but they they've done it without an
exciting turbo option yeah there's an alantra n but i mean no one buys it and there's no alantra
nk4 there's no mid-level turbo fun one there's no hybrid k4 the hybrid alantra is a boring fuel
zipper other than the alantra n they're not overly exciting to drive they're good for their
segment they handle nicely for what they are etc but they're not a civic si either but they've proved
that you don't you don't need that interestingly to actually shift some units no you just need to
have an interesting car it doesn't have to be the best driver which is sort of a shame i mean
admittedly i'm like i don't love that but it works and that's how you get some affordability
yeah moving on to nissan they managed to shift a few more cars than in 2024 but it's it's looking
looking bleak there i am especially sad that versa which is sailing off into the sunset
is not going to have as big of an impact on their sales as it used to have if they'd cancelled it
because they only sold 51 000 last year and they used to sell nearly a quarter million
centra apparently the 152 000 so reasonable sales there for a single model
ultima apparently has been re continued for 2026 93 000 there kicks is their new new big
seller 100 000 units there path finders up a little bit frontiers down our mod is kind of
up a little bit but not selling many rogue 217 000 so definitely below crv where it used to be
neck and neck with crv up there aria is dead infinity all in only sold 53 000 things and
apparently three fifths of that was a qx 60 yeah the qx 60 part of there is not surprising i mean
even the pathfinder sales being up is a little bit strange because the pathfinder is in itself
getting pretty old nissan has plans i think they are working on it if nothing else it was hey stop
the bleeding and and it seems like they've done that in you know in in the grand scheme and now
it's here's where we're going to be careful the rogue is their next big thing they've got that
hybrid coming for 2027 model year so we should see that sometime in 2026 i suspect but they're
also trying to bring back excitement to infinity they've talked about a sports sedan coming that may
even include a manual transmission not going to move a ton of units but might draw some interest
and had people taking a look you know you put that with a with a red bull livery on it in some sort
of fashion and that that's going to draw some things but let's just say it's not going to put
butts in the seats though that's the no but the but but like i said we'd look at the versa
one of the least expensive cars you can buy in the united states people aren't buying it
yep i'm set well they're also not bringing as many as they used to and having the fire sales
they used to so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way yeah the centra the centra i'll say yeah
we'll scoot along through subaru here at 650 000 approximately and mozzed at 410 000 approximately
they're both down about three percent uh for different reasons but subaru essentially says
that they cut production of less expensive and less profitable models so they've really killed a
lot of base trims also they had some retooling for forest or an outback because forest or moved
production to indiana for 2026 the wilderness model was delayed then we have an all-new outback
cross track forest or an outback are by far the biggest subarus on sale they count for the vast
majority of that sales uh there mozzed is another interesting one they really slashed cx 30 imports
because of tariffs they're coming from mexico and they were really throwing the tariff line
under the bus there the cx line is 372 000 out of that 410 000 vehicles so mozzed three sales are
really really down yeah and cx five this is going to be a very important product for them in 2026
because it is one third of all mozzed is sold in the u.s and cx 50 is one fourth of all mozzed is
sold so those two models are you know basically half of everything that they sell here between
mozza and subaru what they're missing is big impacts in the three row segments that's what
they're really missing that's yeah six nineties doing okay for mozzed but not selling an enormous
amount in ascent is kind of always stunk up the place uh moving along we have volkswagen and
outie talk about stinking it up volkswagen sales down 13 percent outie down 16 percent the eternal
struggle with the germans the problematic german brand um vw suv and sales uh car sales were down
buzz was up but 6000 units id four now pause yeah id four up at 22 000 that's not going to last
because the tariff situation here in the taxes uh everything else is down atlas down six percent
cross sport down 19 percent tals down 14 percent tig one down 17 percent jeta down 25 percent and
gti down a whopping 35 percent obviously tariffs are an impact here but i yeah i don't i honestly
failed to understand vw's perpetual problem because i think all those are fine i like the
tals i like the tig one i like the atlas the cross sport gti's fun geolize fun i mean they just put
a bunch of money into the tig one so i think that yeah that can bode well it just takes time to
kind of make that impact the atlas is getting a little bit uh aged but they're not doing anything
bad it's so yeah so why are we falling behind let's reach out to the viewer here if you have
looked at an outie or a volkswagen recently and you decided not to get one reach out to us send
us a voicemem we'll hit auto buyers guide dot com or on the the regular old jingle phone 669
eight four two one nine four seven and tell us why you didn't buy that specific volkswagen or outie
because mercedes yeah i've been out soon uh on the atlas and i asked i literally asked the same
if you didn't buy an atlas why not or if you did buy an atlas what put it because i i was i'm left
with the same question i'm sitting i go on we must hear from you let us know yeah we need to know
yeah bmw and mercedes did not have this same problem mind you mercedes has not released their full
2025 numbers as the date we are recording this so there may be some adjustments to these but
we'll start with bmw bmw beat mercedes in the us sales game and they did it without a cargo van
the tail here is the same as some of the others car sales down 13 percent suv sales up 4.5 percent
but the interesting thing is here the sales are up on expensive models of course and uh down of
course in the bev side of things bev sales were down to 42 000 still a pretty healthy number though
bmw shifted a decent number uh pf sales were up to 25 000 even though they make some really good
plug-in hybrids you can see there wasn't the sales momentum they had there before 65 percent of
bmw's volume was an suv yeah not surprising the good news mini is also up by about nine percent
and what helped their car volume is that bmw considers x1 and x2 both cars and those sell well
so so x1 and x2 cars cars cars quote unquote are they hashbacks now i i think it's a light truck
versus hatchback classification with the epa issue there maybe that's why they stick them in there but
basically riding high on x3 x5 x7 because they're all doing really well mercedes is an interesting
tail here because what we were saying earlier that the the new car buyer demographic is really
shifting in the united states and it's becoming ever more affluent ever smaller people are buying
multiple cars a year on a more frequent basis than they ever had in the past when you look at
you know s and p global sales mobility numbers where they're talking about the multi-car buyer
households we're talking i mean not huge numbers but but still a surprising number of people that
are buying two three four new cars a year absolute bonkers stuff and they're buying really expensive
things amg and mybok sales have been up by something 60 70 percent over the last few years and we're
expecting 2025 to come in with double digit sales increases on those sub brands amg and mybok and
those those msrp transactions are are absolutely staggering up there those days yeah yeah
mercedes has always had some expensive things and we talk about that every time we compare them here
where you know we got the bmw and the outie in this little category and their price tags are
high but but then you need like a paper bag to you know hyperventilate in when you look at the
top ends of mercedes there'll be an overlap but yeah but then but then it's just it's just way
off my hands off screen alex yeah because it just it just keeps going right oh you want adaptive
cruise control that's extra heated steering wheel that's extra rear airbags that's extra etc we got
it don't worry the world is your oyster but it's all it's all chaching here um and Porsche sales
of course have done really well historically over the last few years i don't have numbers for them
for 2025 yet they may be down is my guess for 2025 but on a very strong upward trend over the last
few decades because of the suvs and and ever more expensive models yeah no i i think um i think this
is what we're talking about and i know that you know 60 increase in some of these high-end luxury
brands the actual numbers are not going to be big but it does still speak to to a trend and that
trend is not the average consumer friendly or what you think of the average consumer really isn't
you know if i think i'm the average consumer but then i look at the numbers i go oh just kidding
i am not nobody's looking at me when they say what are we doing for our product planning
and the i mean just g-wagon for instance there was a time where mercedes was going to cancel g in
fact it was ostensibly replaced by gl now the gls but gls was up six percent last year up g-wagon
was up 12 percent last year and by all appearances we're going to see pretty similar increases in
both of those for 2025 because mercedes does have q3 2025 numbers out and the numbers were pretty rosy
yeah i good for them congratulations nice work uh boy wouldn't it be nice to see some of that
trickle down but we know how trickle down usually ends up working yes what's what i think is kind
of interesting too is that this this definite explosive growth in the luxury brands i remember
said he's 374000 bmw 389000 i mean even audi at 165 and then you take a look at lexus and acura
and cad lack etc we're talking an ever-growing number of expensive high-end models trickling
down into the used market after three and four years than ever before yeah and the question there
and what manufacturers have figured out is how do we how do we capitalize on that and that's
for all these subscriptions come in subscriptions for sure and then of course repair costs because
i think that's the one thing that a lot of people are forgetting in this is that that you use luxury
car upfront yeah long term but that used luxury car even a lexus or an acura is going to cost you
more long term than spending that same amount of cash on a brand new camry even just the insurance
cost which you know not everyone is thinking about insurance costs but it's the repairability or you
know covering that car for a total loss those sorts of things is going to cost the insurance
company more because the msrp was more it's not the end all be all but it pretty much tells you
what's going on underneath and what's going to cost repair means higher insurance rates
and that brings us along to tesla the brand that we haven't talked about yet we don't have full
breakdowns seemingly as of the the recording of this video but we do know that they did a 1.64 million
global sales a nine percent drop from 2024 and it looks like in the us we're going to be seeing
some sales drops as well some actually pretty staggeringly ugly sales drops i mean because
tesla competes in one segment electric globally there are so many more electric models available
there's probably some political impact there but not maybe not the number shifting that some
folks would like it to be if you look at all the r&d though they went into the same called the
cyber truck which as we know has done super well and everyone loves it and really rosy outlook
in all things light truck automotive yeah it looks like we're probably going to be seeing
tesla sales down around nine to ten percent in 2025 again we don't have the complete number
out right now but we also see some interesting headwinds for them in some markets because it
looks like the pop-out door handles are going to need a serious redesign because of some chinese
legislation that has not changed it's it's definitely going to be enforced it looks like
and it looks like in the united states the government here may actually also have
something to say about those uh those powered door handle designs it's not going to affect
just tesla it's going to affect a large number of companies and not just evz either because
this trend towards electronic door releases has grown especially in the luxury segment
i'm curious if it's going to be a effective from now on or if it's going to be a retrofit thing
you know i don't know how difficult i mean in theory it shouldn't be that difficult but the
vehicle is not designed to put another another mechanism and how much that would end up costing
you uh some people will say it's worth saving your life and that's a fair argument but um i'm
also looking at a company like tesla saying oh they need to do a massive maybe it's not a recall
but a massive uh you know re-manufacturing of the new part to put in a bunch of cars that's not
going to happen quickly if it if it does come to pass yeah it i would assume it's it could be a simple
mechanical uh replacement of the door handle a redesign of that entire door lock mechanism but
could fit within the same the same manual pop out handle designs that we find in model 3 and model
y for instance um i think that more of a problem would actually be some of the other car brands
that have the electric you know they pop these out of the car etc how are you going to redesign
that easily you just have to change the sheet metal probably with them just popping out all the time
for those that aren't familiar with the problem the origin story of this problem is the ability to
get out of the vehicle in an emergency from the inside or the outside apparently some vehicles
and i may be getting this wrong so apologies in advance but it is my understanding that the
complaint has been that in the loss of a total electrical loss in some of these vehicles there's
no way to extricate people from the outside of the rear doors in some of these vehicles or always
or especially if kids especially in child seats in the back you're not going to be able to get the
kid to be able to actuate a manual door lock release that's hidden somewhere that's not right
there where the regular physical release is i mean a kid in the rear facing child seats not
going to be able to get there anyway so you're relying on someone out of the outside of the
vehicle to actually be able to get them out of course you're also relying on the doors to be
unlocked and and all of that jazz but but that apparently has been the origin story of the problem
and in china i guess the legislation is also focusing on the location of some of these manual
releases that are not intuitive in some vehicles in some tests is i think they're actually fine
where the lever is actually kind of right on top but that's or yeah right there by the door handle
it's not the one you're supposed to use but a lot of people use them right but it's it's it's the cars
where that door release like in corvettes etc is like a little red red pole somewhere way down the
door that you aren't always using so you don't have the muscle memory in an accident i do kind of
wonder though where was the customer research that said customer said you know what i really want
is a button instead of a door lever i i don't know but i'll be the first to say that there are a
number of these designs with a button that i really enjoy i don't think i don't think the lever's
ever been an issue right but there is sort of a premium feel where you don't have to do it it's
done for you and that's why we see it in evs because of this flush door handle thing but you
see it in the luxury segment because it it feels good and there are some of these mechanisms that
do feel really good without you having to do anything and i know we're talking fractions of a
calorie to make that motion um but again it's an experiential thing it's it's funny because i don't
i don't think i like the feel of any of them and this is not a tesla thing i mean gms had had
electric door releases in some of their vehicles like elr and and corvettes and things like that
for quite some time if my memory serves actually decent time longer than tesla and i didn't like
those either something awkward teslas actually do this better but there's something awkward about
some of them where you push if you are pushing the button as you're pushing on the door like you
think you should be able to there's this like oops not yet and then the door kind of opens and teslas
are not that's not the way they they operate they have a much more immediate action but a lot of
vehicles don't and yeah manufacturers have tried to spin this as well we're we're adding extra safety
features that was lexus's deal in rx they're saying well if we if we want the ability to lock out the
door action if there's traffic coming or a bicycle coming or something's there a blind spot you got
to have time to check it well but right you have to have an electronic door release because there's
no other way for this system to function um i would argue that if you have the double pull style
mechanism that maybe the answer is in this moment where you're starting to pull on the door handle
if that situation exists then you lock the door and then you got to do a double pull to then
override that that blind spot monitoring situation right it's got to be some way to fix that and still
have a mechanical release because it's i mean it's there's no tragedy greater than than having a child
die right and for the people that have sued where their their tesla locked their children in the back
and then there was no power to actually at the door handle then child dies like that's that's
definitely a problem will this solve the problem i don't know yeah and and i won't be the one to say
oh it's it's a small number it doesn't matter but there are there are pieces of this where
a manufacturing design could have been safer or you know and it's a one-off scenario that's you
know to my to my knowledge i've you know glanced over some of these and and worldwide it sounds like
maybe a couple dozen incidents which by percentage is an incredibly small number
um but if we found that it's an issue then then how do we address the issue and i don't think it's
worth it feels a little bit better to sacrifice a life i'm never going to make that claim or that
argument but we don't know but it's an interesting one what we don't know in a way is is the number
statistically significant in that regular car regular old door handle but doors locked and
then you don't have 12 volt power you still can't get into the door because it's locked right right
because there's no electronic lock which is electric door or a mechanical or you know a
mechanical lock even for cars that have mechanical locks right so it's still on the outside right
and it's a rear doors there's not going to be a key cylinder for you to unlock it even in an old
car there wouldn't be so that's right kind of my my curiosity and i don't smash window will lift
the lever but even you know that that that old gesture there are people who might be listening
to this who don't know what i'm talking about because it's a little switch down and that is
and that is a part of this in a way it is still going to be harder with the electronic door release
because in a regular mechanical mechanism vehicle you could smash the window and assuming that you
could reach in and grab the lever you could open the door and then you could extricate a child's
seat or an adult or whatever you needed to out of the back and that is going to be tricky if you
smash the window and try and get that person out of the window because the mechanism is still
electronic and you smash the window but you can't get the person out of the car right and in case of
a fire and we're talking an engulfing fire you've got 20 30 seconds anyway seconds count which is
going to be which is going to be hard to even in a panic get a regular door open get your child
buckled and get them out of there right and and not slice them open on the broken glass and then
you know have them bleed out in your hands because that would be even worse and you know it's like
i it takes me longer than that to get my daughter in and out of a child seat in an absolute panic
and rush where i could where somehow i wasn't concerned about the additional harm that she
might get like hitting her head or whatever breaking a neck or an arm or something like
even in that i i don't think there's enough time to somehow get her out through the window i don't
know maybe i'm wrong there but does does not seem rational and there's always a world where
because it hasn't happened in mass doesn't mean it wasn't always possible and and i'm not really
going to go down this path but like there are designs out there that are known to be dangerous
that just haven't caused problems yet or the manufacturer has taken a gamble and gotten lucky
uh if it's if it's coming up let's take a look at it you know but
again not arguing against it but this is going to in theory add cost to manufacturing at least
in the short term because someone's gonna have to change something up and that probably ends up
the consumer paying for it i'll pay the extra i don't mind you know that's fine it'll be a design
it'll be a design r and d cost but true manufacturing it should be less expensive
it should be the same yeah but i just mean a short term hey we've got to put this thing in
and and and i think what we'll see at least again in the short term uh our biggest complaint over
the next four years would be that tesla door handles uh feel really flimsy now because they
didn't redesign the whole thing they said hey here's a stopgap measure you know i don't want to
just be tesla it'll but it'll be the same mechanism just mechanical not electric i don't know yeah i'm
curious to see what they do because we're going to know real soon uh china's rules are
implementing very fast and so now we will we will know in relatively short order well with that out
of the way it is time for us to sign off and wish everybody happy new year so thanks for
watching we may be on a bit of a hiatus because i will be out for a little over a week here soon
but uh we will catch you days at home myself so yeah but we will catch you all at the end of
january if we don't catch you beforehand see you everybody later
About this episode
A detailed analysis of the 2025 automotive sales landscape reveals significant trends among major manufacturers. Ram's performance is highlighted, particularly with the TRX and new diesel power wagon, while Toyota sees a surge in hybrid sales, making up nearly half of its total. The episode discusses the shift towards premium buyers, with luxury vehicle sales rising, and examines the struggles of brands like Honda and Nissan. Insights into GM's strong truck sales and the challenges faced by Volkswagen and Stellantis round out the conversation, providing a comprehensive overview of the current automotive market dynamics.
In this episode of the Auto Buyer’s Guide, Alex and Travis take a deep, data-driven dive into 2025 U.S. auto sales for the manufacturers that have reported so far.
They hit brand-by-brand analysis, covering highlights and concerns: Ram’s bold moves (TRX/SRT and a diesel Power Wagon), GM’s large truck volume and growing EV portfolio, and Toyota’s strong hybrid adoption across its lineup.
The discussion contrasts manufacturers that are leaning into hybrids and plug-in options with those focusing on expensive premium trims, and explains how the new-car buyer is trending wealthier and favoring pricier models and SUVs.
Other topics include Ford’s strong truck and Maverick performance, Stellantis’s mixed results, Hyundai–Kia’s rapid rise with turbos and tech, and challenges for Honda, Acura, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen and Audi.
The hosts also cover luxury growth at BMW, Mercedes and Genesis, Tesla’s global sales decline and a safety debate over electronic door releases, and the long-term environmental and market implications of hybrid versus full-EV strategies.
Throughout the episode they evaluate lineup strengths and weaknesses, sales drivers, and what manufacturers should change to meet shifting buyer preferences, finishing with a New Year sign-off and a look ahead to the 2026 model-year impacts.
