2025 Year in Review, Dodge Charger Sixpack Review, Automotive Bucket List

Whether you drive a car, need a car, or just occasionally bummer ride with friends, you've

come to the right place.

Join Jill and Tom as they break down everything that's going on in the auto world.

New car reviews, shopping tips, driving green, electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of

great guests.

This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

Alright, this is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

I am indeed Tom Appel, publisher of Consumer Guide Automotive, and I am delighted, delighted

that you were joining us this week.

Big news.

What's my big news?

I don't know.

No, this is the fact that you chose donuts that look like vomit.

We'll get to that in a moment.

Oh, I know because I finally fit.

I don't know why.

Sometimes there's a review that's just harder to write, and my review of the Cadillac Escalade

IQ took me a while.

Sometimes that happens.

And generally for really good reasons, because once you get past the price, and once you

get past the fact that it's enormous, there's not much there not to like.

It's pretty spectacular.

Well, unless you're me.

And then the big thing you don't like is the fact that it doesn't have Apple CarPlay.

There's that.

I found out my wife doesn't use CarPlay.

Interesting.

But she also drives a 2016 car that does not have it.

Right.

And the thing is, is if you've never had Apple CarPlay, you're not used to Apple CarPlay.

You're not going to miss Apple CarPlay.

I'm trying to, if my daughter's using it or not, she's got a brand new car.

But anyway, my review of the Escalade is now up at ConsumerGuide.com, along with our 2026

Best Buy picks and lots of other fun stuff.

That voice, of course, Jill Simonillo.

She is a contributing editor here at Consumer, contributing.

Yes.

I keep losing the T.

Yeah.

I mumble.

Right.

You are a mumble.

Contributing editor here at ConsumerGuide.com, North American Car of the Year juror and prolific

freelancer.

Yes.

How you doing?

I am doing well.

We are past Christmas.

This is the new, happy New Year.

Yes.

We are heading into the New Year soon.

Which is crazy.

It is, all I have to say is hallelujah.

I'm so glad this year is over.

I kind of am too.

I want to hear a crazy thing.

So you get older, I'll be 61 in weeks.

That is crazy.

But that's not the crazy part.

It's about what you get excited about when you enter your 7th decade.

I told my wife, I told my mom, I don't want anything for Christmas.

I couldn't think of anything I wanted.

But then I'm all excited because we got a new Brita.

Which may be the most depressing thing I've ever shared.

That is sad.

Yeah.

A Brita.

Okay.

Water filter.

It's very nice.

No, I have a Brita, but it's not new.

And then we got a Brita for our faucet.

Oh, those are nice.

My mom used to have one of those on her faucet.

Those are nice.

So I'm a little depressed that that's really all I wanted.

So here's the thing.

Here's my theory.

My husband is the hardest person in the world to shop for.

And I think that as you get older and you make money, you just buy things when you want

them.

Therefore, when a holiday comes around, it's just like, well, I have everything I want

because I already bought it.

That is a thing.

Yeah.

You get to a point in life where maybe you're not struggling with money anymore and you

just get what you want more or less when you want it.

And even more depressing, I think, is you scale back what it is you want.

Like even though maybe you could afford to go crazy, you don't.

Right.

Because all of a sudden you're worried about retirement.

I'm so ways away from there, but yes.

Oh, it's creeping up on you.

But anyway, so the year is over.

Yes.

And last week, last, not this past Saturday, but the Saturday before, I visited with Steve

and Johnny.

I went downtown.

It was nice.

We hung out WGN Studios and they asked me to do a list of what I thought were the biggest

stories of the year.

Okay.

And because I really like to conserve time.

Okay.

I've got my picks right here.

Okay.

I'm going to run these past you real fast.

We can talk about them or not.

Okay.

And yeah.

And I think I have a couple of my own.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

All right.

Are you ready?

Yes.

So just a real quick response and then we'll get back to the list.

Anything you want to talk about.

Okay.

The end of the federal tax credits.

Big deal.

All right.

The end of the EPA's power to fine cafe scallywags.

Less of a big deal.

All right.

Hybrid madness.

I'm specifically talking about the fact that the world now seems to need hybrids more than

anything.

So hashtag Toyota was right.

Yeah.

But you're talking about Toyota was right as opposed to not going deeply into EVs but

yet they're adding EVs this year.

They are adding EVs this year but they have a very robust hybrid lineup and I think every

vehicle they offer is either hybrid only or has a hybrid option.

Yeah.

I think there's one exception to that because the Supra but that's going away.

Well the Supra and then the what is it the I want to call it the FRS but it's not the

FRS.

Right.

It's the GR86.

Those are the two.

Yeah.

So everything else available as a hybrid but the thing that happened and we can get back

to this in a minute if we choose is simply that when electrics came online all of a

sudden hybrids weren't scary anymore.

Yes.

Like the new technology was here and it's scary.

Yeah.

And going EVs it's a challenge.

Right.

It's a thing you have to think about but hybrids have been so good for so long.

Yep.

And Toyota hybrids have been especially good.

Yep.

There's nothing to worry about.

No.

I don't know why you wouldn't do it and then the bonus cost is usually like two thousand

bucks.

Yeah.

It's not crazy anymore.

Even if you don't drive enough for that to amortize right over the just because of

the cost of gas you're going to get some of that money back at resale.

Yeah.

So why not.

The Chinese nightmare that we haven't talked too much about this and it's something we

should probably talk to Sam about some more.

Yes.

But the Chinese auto industry is in chaos.

Okay.

They have capacity to build two and a half times more vehicles than they have than they

buy.

I'm sorry.

Right.

So they're trying to export everything.

Joe Biden put up a huge tariff barrier to.

So you can't sell Chinese EVs directly in the U.S. but they are going to Western Europe

and they're stirring up the muck.

Yeah.

And because they are affordable and well put together we several months ago we had was

it Patrick George from inside EVs on and he had just spent some time in China and search

out that episode because it's really good because he talks a lot about Chinese EVs.

Yeah.

But yeah I think the surprise is the Chinese vehicles are good.

Yes.

And 10 years ago they were not.

No.

So that industry moves fast and then finally the F-150 lightning guy killed as well as

the ID buzz.

Yes.

So those are my stories.

Anything you want to talk about?

Anything you want to expand on?

I mean I would say in terms of stories that I think were kind of a big deal this year

first off sticking with Ford they had a record number of recalls.

They set the record in terms of an automaker with recalls this year.

It is flat out depressing.

And I mean.

And it's for everything.

It's literally for everything and I think that a lot of those issues were software related

but they it's just it was a lot and they had I want to say like a hundred recalls by like

June.

A stupid number of recalls is going to be very very expensive for them to fix.

Most of them are not over the air updates so that people are going to have to bring

their vehicles into dealerships which pisses off people.

Yeah.

Because then they have to do this.

Yes.

And I mean fixing a recall is free and the stat I'm seeing is so far for 2025 at the

beginning of December they had 142 recalls.

Every other day almost every business day.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

And they're not small recalls of like five vehicles.

No.

They're like 100,000 vehicles.

It's been important things.

Yeah.

It's been breaks, backup cameras, transmission, the intershift lock, like all these things

that are big deals and safety things.

You can't ignore them.

Yeah.

And I think to Ford's credit they really are doing like focusing on trying to fix this

problem.

And I know Jim Farley has been quoted as saying that he was he's kind of kicking himself

that he didn't get on this sooner.

But I took a tour of the Kentucky truck plant this summer and they have AI like monitoring

all the vehicles that are coming through the line trying to detect problems before you

know it finishes the line.

And so, you know, they're really trying to do better with quality control.

And I think next year we will see this number drop significantly.

Yeah.

Part of the problem though is not Ford quality.

It's not assembly quality.

It's not even Ford engineering.

Some of it is suppliers.

Yeah.

And you never openly embarrass your suppliers in public, but they have been let down by

suppliers.

Yeah.

But part of the problem, and we talked about this half a year ago, is that Ford is at the

bottom of the list of its relationships with suppliers.

And you know what?

Companies almost always at the top of the list.

Toyota.

I was going to say Toyota.

Suppliers love Toyota and Toyota loves the suppliers and they don't bargain down too hard.

Right.

You allow your suppliers to make some money and you work with them and you take their

phone calls and you know, and it's working well.

Yeah.

Now Toyota has had.

I was going to say speaking of Toyota and recalls.

And this does not involve a supplier, I don't think.

No, no.

They're essentially from 2022 to 2024, they're recalling pretty much all the Toyota Tundra

models because of engine issues, manufacturing debris, causing engine bearing failure.

And it's that core engine, the 3.4-liter V6 that is turbocharged in a bunch of stuff.

And here's the thing about that.

I've been reading about that and the story is sort of slowly changing because General

Motors has the exact same problem with the 6.2-liter V8, which is a heck of a good engine.

And why are we hearing about these metal shavings?

And part of the problem seems to be ridiculously light oil.

So people who don't know a lot about oil, it's branded by, not branded, but categorized

by weight.

When I pumped gas, you know, 10W40 was a very common weight and that was as low as 10 weight

and low as 40 depending on temperature.

And that was enough.

But we were talking about 0W10 and 0W20 weight oil.

And if that doesn't mean anything to you, and no reason it should, that's just very,

very, very light oil.

And it is not protecting the engine from tiny little things that probably would have been

protected by heavier oil.

But this thin oil is used because engine tolerances are getting tighter, that's a good thing.

And to improve fuel economy, it's easier to squeeze light oil through little passages

so you end up using less energy.

You don't want to waste the energy in the engine.

You want to waste it going up a hill.

Right, right, right.

But you know, this recall is a big deal because it's not just the tundra.

Like there's other vehicles that get this engine that are being affected.

They will all be affected because it's not like they selectively made special engines

for the tundra.

And I thought, I actually saw a little video about this, some mechanic was talking about

this.

He's like, the engines are not different.

So eventually we're going to see this.

So that's a big deal.

It's a bummer because it's Toyota and you kind of want to believe in Toyota quality.

Yeah.

Well, and so what I thought was really surprising is they have this massive recall, which I

would argue is probably the largest recall that Toyota has ever had, yet they also topped

the reliability reports and reliability ratings, I think from JD Power and Consumer Reports

this year.

And I'm like, how?

How is that possible?

Well, you know, a couple of reasons.

One, that's one problem.

Fair.

And as much as it's in the number of vehicles, if you take the tundra out of that, it's not

in very high volume vehicles.

So I mean, the tundra.

LX also and Sequoia maybe.

Yeah.

And those are pretty low volume vehicles for Toyota standards.

So all the other stuff, all these things, you get the two and a half liter turbo or

hybrid, for example, which is everything.

Everything.

But so other than that, I would say the last big story that I would say, it happened at

the end of 2024, but I think that it brought a lot of change and it kind of cascaded into

2025 and everything that it brought.

And that was the resignation of Carlos Tavares as the CEO from Stellantis.

Because when he resigned, then Tim Kaniscus came back and the Hemi came back and you

know, the Ram Rev was, you know, the EV truck was killed.

And so a lot of changes came from that thing that happened at the end of 2020.

So a couple of things about that.

And yes, you're exactly right.

And I agree with you.

But Tavares himself could not have made all those decisions.

There is a board.

Yeah.

That he has to answer to.

And I think that all the decisions he made were on some level logical.

For Europe.

Yes.

Not for North America.

Well, but for North America too.

Because the interesting thing is that other companies have done what they did in terms

of modernization and gotten away with it.

Like this whole wild knee-jerk reaction to the Hemi by the public is crazy.

It is crazy because it's like inferior engine to the hurricane and it gets less horsepower

and it's going to be more expensive.

And it's slightly political too.

I think there are socially there are groups of people who would buy the Ram 1500 pickup

who just don't want a modern direct injection twin turbo charge in line six.

Well, I think that's most truck guys, let's be honest.

To some extent.

But I think that Ram more extreme than Ford.

And certainly Chevy.

But they're bringing this stuff back and it kind of bums me out just because I like

progress.

Well, I like progress.

And but I find it.

I just think that like that one thing that happened has like led to a cascading effect

of things.

So so what are the Tavares decisions?

Well, no, these were not Tavares decisions.

These are the things that happened because he resigned.

Well, because they went back.

But we talked about the Hemi.

What else was there?

Um, I think that will Tim Kineskis coming back.

Oh, yeah, which is interesting.

If a person leaves and comes back, then clearly there had been some angst.

Probably.

Or they just waived a gigantic paycheck in front of them this time.

Right.

Either way.

Right.

But yeah, Kineskis was always just sort of the face of performance.

And here's the thing too.

I'm just a little tired of the whole Hemi thing.

And red eye.

Hellcat.

And it seems like to keep the sales when they were trying to move the the charger and

challenger to keep those sales flowing, there had to be special additions announced every

other week.

Well, okay.

So here's the thing.

I, I hear what you're saying, but I think that before like the, the EV madness happened

within the Stalantis company, Dodge knew its customer, Ram knew its customer and they

like marketed to its customer and they really like fulfilled what that customer wanted.

And I think one of the biggest mistakes they made was putting an EV in the Dodge lineup.

And I think that the Dodge charger, which we're going to be talking about shortly is

a phenomenal vehicle, but it was the wrong thing for the Dodge lineup.

Um, maybe.

So here's the thing about that.

And we may have to talk about that after the quiz.

Okay.

Um, the thing about that is, is that the new charger was a really bold move, right?

They're going to slip that nice six cylinder engine from the Ram in there.

Cool car.

Also the new charger.

It looks fantastic.

Oh, it's amazing.

That is a great looking car.

And I really, I haven't driven one yet and I was dying to drive one with the six, uh,

called the six pack.

Yep.

That's what I had.

Um, what a cool car.

But yeah, it's kind of bumming me out.

But what are we going to do customers?

You said Dodge knows their customers, but I think Dodge knows the customers.

It was courting specifically.

Yes.

Because the, the Dodge, um, Hornet, well, that was, that was a Tavares problem.

And a Tavares decision or whatever happened under Tavares, pre Tavares under, you know,

when Caniscus was in charge of Ram or Dodge, I think that they were making different decisions

that made sense.

But Dodge should have never not had a compact crossover.

I mean, every, every mainstream car company has one.

And then they brought one in is a little too small, a little bit high strong and a little

bit expensive.

So I don't know how well they actually knew their customers.

And I think to some degree, Dodge is a damaged brand.

I think it is, I think it is now just the Challenger Charger, Hemi division.

And I don't know that they've got the Durango, um, they've got the Durango, it doesn't sell

well and the Hornet didn't sell well.

So it was kind of a, kind of a, but the Hornet was made in Italy and it was, I mean, based

on the Tenali, the, um, Alfa Romeo.

And I think that that was an inherently flawed vehicle to bring into the Dodge brand.

Like I would argue a lot of the things that they just did to the Dodge brand should have

been Chrysler.

Well, I thought going way back when, when, when, uh, Fiat became Fiat, when Chrysler

became Fiat Chrysler, they should have never brought in the Fiat brand.

That stuff should have been Dodge.

Dodge should have been their mainstream accessible price sensitive brand.

And they didn't do that.

Fiat was a really weird brand to establish again in the U.S.

Yeah.

Terrible reputation.

Fix it again, Tony.

Yeah.

It had a terrible reputation in the U.S.

And it sounds foreign.

Yeah.

And Dodge, I don't know if Stellantis buyers are going to go for that.

Also, they made the Fiat dealers have separate franchises, which really confused things.

Yeah.

I will say one of my favorite vehicles though is the Fiat 500 of Barth.

It was a delight.

Delightful.

Yeah.

And that should have been like the, the Dodge 500 RT or something.

It should have been a great car.

But, um, getting back to the Hornet for a second, the Hornet is a delight to drive.

You know, I liked the, the gas version better than the plug-in hybrid.

Yeah.

So that's on hiatus now too.

I don't know if that's coming back or not.

You can still get the Tenali, which is the Alfa Romeo version of that.

And if you, for some reason, there's a plug-in hybrid out there, run away from it.

You want the two liter turbo.

It's just scream to drive.

That car is also really cheap for an exotic brand.

Yeah.

And it's kind of mainstream because it's just really Fiat parts.

That's the thing to do.

You want to buy that new, hold on to it for the duration of the warranty, and then think

about getting rid of it.

Yeah.

I mean, the infotainment system is a pain point in that, but otherwise it's, it's, it

is, it is a joy to drive.

All right.

We are going to take a break.

And when we come back, we're going to talk to Sam Fiorani of Auto Forecast Solutions.

Yes.

But maybe not about work things.

Okay.

I'll let Sam, Sam talk about what he wanted to chat about.

Okay.

All right.

We'll be right back.

Okay.

Questions or comments?

Drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

That's carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.

And we're back.

This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

I'm Tom Appel.

She's Jill Simonillo.

And these donuts rule.

They look like vomit.

I don't care.

They taste, they taste like carrots, caramel corn.

You have a stronger stomach than I do.

They were maple.

They were just described as maple.

Also, I think that's a scone.

It's not a donut.

Okay.

It's very, got that crunchy thing going on.

Like the texture of what used to be called an old fashioned donut.

Oh, it's so good.

It just, it looks like something I clean up off the carpet.

Um, I mean, it's aesthetically challenged, I guess, but it smells great and it's delicious.

They don't sell glazed vomit.

You should try a piece.

Try a piece.

No, I can't.

Really?

I really can't.

Really?

I really can't.

You were the fussiest eater in the world.

I enjoy my food and I'm not going to put something like that in it.

My body.

Oh, it's so good.

I just not.

So if it looked better but tasted worse, you'd be cool with it.

I mean, probably not.

I want something to look good and taste good.

Presentation is key, my friend.

All right.

This is the last episode of the year.

So what a perfect time to have our good, good friend, Sam Fiorani join us.

He is Sam Fiorani, Vice President of Global Forecasting at Auto Forecast Solutions.

Sam, how are you today?

Doing great.

How are you guys?

We are good.

Having an argument about a donut here.

We'll send you a picture.

I'm totally sending you a picture right now.

I already had my apple fritter of the day and I'm jealous of your food now.

I actually, for my daughter's birthday yesterday, I got, not yesterday, a week ago, I got her

an apple fritter from Spunky Dunkers.

They're huge.

Way better than this.

They're messy.

They're a sloppy mess.

Yeah.

The one I had was about the size of your head.

If it's the size of my head, that's a big fritter.

That's a big fritter.

Sam, how are you?

Doing very well.

Happy holidays to everybody.

Well, to you too.

Tell us a little bit about Auto Forecast Solutions before we get to the conversation that you

chose.

Auto Forecast Solutions provides analytical services and forecasting services to the auto

industry.

We provide it to the suppliers, to financial houses, vehicle manufacturers, anyone who

really needs to know what's going on in the industry, we're there to provide that information.

And correct me if I'm wrong, this has to be the year that you were most quoted in other

publications.

I saw your name like every day someplace.

Yeah.

We were pretty well out there.

There's so many things going on this year, so everybody was asking questions and trying

to get the specifics on what was happening.

Yeah.

The tariff stuff was crazy.

So Sam, we're just going to play today, right?

We're not really working.

You had an idea for a conversation?

Do tell.

Yes.

Yeah.

We were talking about bucket list things, things that car people should do in their

lifetime or before they get too old like I am.

And this went back to a story that I read years ago of things that people should do.

And I took the list that was maybe 20, 25 years ago.

I took that list and said, I'm going to do some of these things.

So I did things like join the Madison Avenue sports car driving and Chowder Society.

Okay.

Chowder.

Chowder heads as they are known.

Well, let's talk about that a little bit.

I got a short list here.

Do you have anything?

No.

Okay.

Well, let's go.

Well, you know what?

I do.

I do have a couple of things.

All right.

Let's start with Sam's list.

We'll go to you.

And then I've got a few very short things here, but I just strongly recommend them.

I broke mine down into things to do, museums, events, drives and racing.

Okay.

Go ahead.

So, and things to do, everyone should learn how to drive stick.

Yes.

I support that.

Give a shift.

It is a difficult thing to arrange now, but I pride myself in the fact that I taught

my daughter stick.

Yeah.

So we have three in the family here, so most of us know how to drive.

I've got to get the girls in there, but most of us know how to drive.

Well, that's cool.

That's a good one.

All right.

So, extending that a little bit, enjoy a track day.

Take a car around the track, get to speed, find out how the car is supposed to handle

at, you know, 90%.

Those are fun to do, and I've done the Poconos and Monticello in New York.

Track days are cool.

And I've done a number of them.

I've just been lucky because I'm a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association.

They've made that access very easy.

Plus, if you go to a manufacturer event, sometimes they will give you a track peak at the vehicle

that they are promoting at the moment, but you learn a lot, and you don't have to drive

that hard, and you don't have to do anything you're uncomfortable with.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I will say that there are a lot of automakers these days that offer up a track day as a

part of your purchase.

I feel like Dodge, you know, gives you a track day at, like, I think there's a track in,

like, if you buy, like, a Hellcat or something like that, they give you a track day down

in Arizona.

There's a track there.

BMW, I think, has performance opportunities.

And so, like, I just, and I would say for those of you who are buying performance vehicles,

you should take advantage of that manufacturer opportunity.

And Ford has those too for different Bronco models.

Yeah, the Bronco Off-Road event.

So that's an off-road event, but it's worth doing too.

And it's just as challenging and just as rewarding, even though you're driving three miles an

hour.

Yeah.

It's a lot of fun, and you feel great when you conquer a trail.

Yeah.

And, I mean, you would have to pay for your travel expenses in, like, your hotel room,

but, like, one of the Bronco Off-Road-Os is in the Las Vegas area, and, like, hotel rooms

are pretty inexpensive there, and you can probably find a flight that's not horrible,

and it could be a good long weekend.

Yep.

All right, Sam, what else?

Yeah, associated with that, you mentioned the club you're in, the organization you're

in.

Join a car club or an organization.

I'm the president of the International Motor Press Association.

I have been active members of the Society of Automotive Historians, CCCA, AACA, a number

of groups like that.

It's a great group to be in, because you get to hear conversations and discussions about

all kinds of topics that appeal to car people.

It is, and I sort of, this is very inside baseball, but Jill and I have discussed the

fact that our local press association doesn't have as many luncheons as we used to.

And I regret that, because hanging around car people is how you learn about cars.

That is true.

Everyone has some crazy story that's worth knowing.

Yeah.

Absolutely, yeah.

When I was active in the Society of Automotive Historians, I got to hear stories about, we're

told about people who worked for Tucker back in the day.

Awesome.

You know, you run into these people who have stories, and they just want to, if they find

out you know about cars and they just want to tell you what happened to them, it's great.

I will share this story someday if I haven't, but the gas station I used to work at, I got

stuck in a brickland.

I could not get out of the brickland.

So we'll tell that story later, but it's a funny story.

But yeah, I'm an old guy with a story.

Yeah, you are definitely that.

And I will say, along the lines of car clubs, a lot of niche vehicles or popular vehicles

have car clubs, so like the mini car club, the Miata car club, you know, something like

that.

And if you have one of those kind of specialized vehicles, you should certainly look into like

clubs in your area.

If you own a Miata and you're not in a club, something's wrong with you.

You are not actually a Miata owner, right?

Don't tell the MG folks that I'm not in an MG club yet.

Well, I think you just did.

They're going to come stalk you now.

People need to check out your...

Hold on my tail.

Oh yeah.

People need to check out your Facebook Christmas post because it's a picture of you with your

MG and your wife.

Yes, yes.

And our two car named dogs.

What are your dog's names?

That's Bentley and Tucker.

Those are good names.

Yep.

Yeah.

All right.

What else is on your list, Sam?

So I was looking at events like a good flea market, a good car show, a good driving tour,

something like Carlisle or Hershey going to a big car show like Pebble Beach or my favorite

Radner.

These are great shows to go to because you get to see stuff that you won't find.

If you go to a flea market like Carlisle or Hershey, these are 80 acre flea markets.

And if it's not there, you're not going to find it.

It's incredible to go to these things.

It's funny that if you go to this, I worked with a guy who bought a lot of different interesting

vehicles and he would always restore them himself.

And I remember he was looking for a mirror for his Chevy C-10 van and he looked for months,

maybe years.

Then he found it and it was 10 bucks.

Yeah, right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I've done that too where we check the fields of Carlisle, which is literally 80 acres of

flea market stuff.

And just looking for some gadgets, some piece of literature sometimes, I'm always on the

hunt for something.

I'm going to start collecting Tatra literature.

I just want people to know I'm going to do that.

Okay.

Well, I'm going to get you out here one of these days and I just was in a collection

that had a Tatra.

So we'll get you out here.

Really?

We need to talk about that, Brian, because Joe's laughing because I don't think you know a

Tatra.

I don't.

But it's an old Czechoslovakian brand.

And they were way ahead of the curve in terms of design.

Okay.

Yes.

Rear engine air-cooled V8 engines.

And there's a very funny story about how those vehicles during World War II were referred

to as the Nazi killers.

Not because they were killing Nazis, but because people would get into these cars, they would

commandeer them, not understand about the big V8 engine way out and back and drive them

too fast and lose control.

So it's a crazy story.

But Tatra made absolutely stunning vehicles.

Yes.

And a lot of their brochures and things were wordless because the cars were Czechoslovakian

and not a lot of people.

Not even a lot of their customers spoke Czech.

Got it.

What else you got, Sam?

A good drive, like Route 66, Pacifico Highway, Pikes Peak, Mountain Washington, the Lincoln

Highway, all these places where there are all kinds of sites to see, living near the

Lincoln Highway, the Lincoln Highway Association points out all the good spots along the way

where you can go see old drive-ins, collections of assorted things, Roadside America, where

we have, there's a storybook forest, which is a concrete reenactment of storybooks.

Like, when I was a kid, we would go there and you'd just climb on the things and experience

it and it was right down the street from my hometown.

Well, that's very cool.

Is Route 66 still worth the effort?

Is there a lot of stuff still there?

The people along Route 66 advertise it heavily.

There are things to do.

It's definitely worth the trip.

Yeah, I know we occasionally end up on Route 66 during the Rabaul Rally and it's kind of

a cool experience to do.

I should be better informed about this, but somewhere in Southern Illinois, there's a

chicken restaurant and maybe it's not that far south of here.

That was famous, that was there then and is still there.

It's like the chicken shack or something like that.

But it's right on Route 66.

Road trip, maybe that's where I take you to lunch.

There you go.

Except that you can't eat chicken.

Joe owes me lunch.

Yes.

Oh, does he double order of large fries?

Got it, okay.

That's on my diet.

Yeah, yeah.

What else we got, Sam?

Well, taking the Rabaul Rally idea, go racing or go to a race.

There are SCCA events where you can auto cross your car or you can find a good road rally

where it's a timed road rally or just go to a NASCAR race or a drag race.

These are experiences that every car person should have in their lifetime.

Or an IndyCar race, just make sure you bring the earplugs.

Yes.

Most of them need earplugs unless you're going to Formula E.

Yes, fair.

And even then, I think they have a little bit of a high-pitched pipe sound.

That's a big complaint that Formula E doesn't make the right noise or any noise.

Right.

Well, going to an autocross is definitely exciting.

My son, Go-Kart Races, and he goes to autocrosses and road rallies all over the East Coast

and as far west as Lincoln, Nebraska, they're exciting, they're fun to drive, you learn

a lot about you and the car, and it's the fastest you can drive in a parking lot.

Years and years and years ago.

I was very hungover, but we were coming back from a bachelor party in Iowa.

This was for my buddy, Dave, and I was the worst hurt.

But we had rented a motor home for this event, and this gets to the point eventually.

We had rented a motor home, and I was just sleeping the next day.

I wasn't feeling well, but my buddy Dave, like, you got to come out of the car.

I'm like, why?

He goes, you got to get out of the car.

And we stopped at a gas station, and next to the gas station was this fantastic autocross

track, and people were there, and it was a club, and they were autocrossing on Sunday,

and the cars were fantastic because it was just a club.

People were bringing their own cars.

So someone was autocrossing an Audi 4,000, which was really flippy-floppy.

That was all over the place, but like a 60-90 or 70, no, I'm sorry, a 70 or 71 Camaro,

that was kicking ass, and a Lotus Elan, like the first-generation Lotus Elan, oh my God,

was this fun.

Like this is a thing to do.

I need to do that, but I don't really have a car to do that in.

Any car will do, because SCCA has classes where your car will fit in.

I raced my Suzuki Swift GT back in the day.

Excellent.

Volkswagen lent me a Beetle for a whole season to write about, and I've driven a number of

other vehicles in those races, and they're so much fun and inexpensive because you drive

what you, you race what you drove.

All you might need eventually is tires, right?

You definitely need tires because the corners of my Volkswagen were really, really rounded.

Have you ever autocrossed the MG?

The MG is not a really good autocross car because it is 52 years old and all of 50 horsepower.

So that would be a little sluggish.

I did own an Integra, which would have been good.

That would have been a great car.

Yeah, that was, I should have tried that.

What else you got?

So I got museums, of course, making sure you get to a collection somewhere.

Some of the best museums are, of course, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, and if you

get there, you got to go to Greenfield Village, which is not just a car museum, but an Americana

museum.

If you're into the history of cars, the Peterson Museum in Los Angeles is fantastic.

I've never been, and I've heard great things.

Peterson is, it's fantastic.

I've been from top to bottom.

We got a tour of the basement of that one.

It was great.

The Auburn-Court-Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana, and I've got a Talt Eastern Pennsylvania

where you can go to the AACA Museum in Hershey, the Simeone Museum in Philly, and of course,

the Boyertown Museum in Boyertown, Pennsylvania.

Which I need to get to.

You absolutely have to.

I need to get out there, and then you can buy me dinner.

Absolutely.

You get out here and I'll buy you dinner.

Yeah, I just want free food.

Producer Randy recommending the National Corvette Museum.

That's in Bowling Green.

Yes.

I have done that, and it's fantastic.

Corvette Museum, the Lane Museum in Nashville, which is the most eclectic collection you'll

ever see.

Producer Randy, also, and I think you just mentioned this, the Auburn-Court-Duesenberg

Museum.

ACD is a fantastic museum because it concentrates on those brands, but it's just a wonderful

place to be.

And it's a short drive from Chicago for our local list.

There you are.

You have Volo out here, too, which is like the classic or like Car Star movie type things.

Volo is cool.

I think a little too much emphasis on muscle cars.

Yeah.

A lot of collections do that, but if you get through the muscle cars, you'll find some

very, very different products sitting around on the sides or sometimes right in the middle.

The Claremont Museum in Chicago just closed, which was just some crazy guy's private collection.

No rhyme or reason.

And it was like in the middle of the city, like on a random street that you just like

and if you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't know it was there.

No rhyme or reason.

And I'd like to say the guy was crazy, but it was just the stuff he liked.

No apologies.

No.

And you can still find, I think, most of the Claremont collection pictures on Facebook.

So people want to check that out.

So what was on your list?

I got five things here that are very random.

Okay.

All right.

And they go way simpler.

I think that anyone who has never driven a convertible needs to rent a convertible.

It is a very unique experience to drive a car without a top.

And it's wonderful.

And I think if you own a convertible, you forget how wonderful it is.

Right.

This one's very important and I made my daughter do this and I did this a lot and I've explained

my actions to police and they always let you go.

And that is to find a snowy lot.

Oh, yeah.

Just find a big parking lot where there aren't, you know, the concrete stoppers in there or

any of those, you know, dangerous light poles and have some fun after a snow.

You learn so much about your car.

You have a little fun and it's really fun to lose control of your car a little bit.

Like you just get a sense of what that's like and it's a wonderful experience.

It's a learning experience.

Also, I'm not learning at this point, I'm screwing around, but it's fun.

One of the saddest things that happened to us is that we lost manual breaks, manual parking

breaks.

Oh, yeah.

So that you could pull it in drift.

Yeah.

When I had my Integra and before that I had my Shirako, you know, these were low power,

relatively low power front wheel drive cars, but at any point in time you could turn the

steering wheel a little and yank the brakes.

It's did oversteer.

So much fun.

And you want your kids to do this.

Yeah.

Well, and so to build off of your snowy lot comment, I will say that around the country

there are a lot of teen driving schools that simulate that experience like on a skid pad.

Yep.

My daughter did that.

And so I would say, and they often allow parents to go through it so that parents can experience

what their kids are doing, but in addition to driving maneuvers and things like that,

they teach you how to change a tire and check your oil.

And so I would encourage anybody to look in their, I know Kia sponsors some teen driving

schools and they're usually really well populated around the U.S.

I wrote about that.

My daughter went through that and I went with her and wrote about that.

So I'll post that in our show notes this week.

Yeah.

That's definitely something that should be on a bucket list is teach a kid how to change

oil and change tires.

Yes.

That was on my list here.

Not only for the kids, but people just do it.

Just the mechanical intimacy of knowing your car.

Change your own oil once.

Just do it.

It's a messy business.

Just be careful not to have your face underneath when you unplug that.

Yeah.

But it is easy to do.

You can watch a video first.

You're going to get a little dirty, but you get to see stuff down underneath the car.

It's kind of cool.

You also want to do it like on the ground.

You can see if you can borrow someone's, what do they call those Sam?

Creeper.

Thank you.

Yeah.

You want to slide underneath your car and check it out.

Yep.

Yeah.

And don't get oil on your face.

No.

It's bad for you.

Yeah.

Maybe wear safety glasses.

Here's one, and I don't know if you guys mentioned this, or you didn't mention it, but ride a

ferry.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah.

There's one up in Wisconsin over Lake Wisconsin.

I think it's called the Cossack 2, but it's a ferry, and I used to drive up there.

My girlfriend, her parents used to vacation up there.

What fun.

You just pull in.

That one's free, but there's one over Lake Michigan too.

There's two of them.

There's one from more or less central Lake Michigan called the Badger, and it was shut

down for a little while because it was coal-fired, but it's a really great experience, and you

get on a boat with your car, and then you get out.

It's very trippy.

Yeah.

It's all very fun, but that's worth doing too.

But yeah.

And then finally, the sense of accomplishment, the sense of accomplishment, helping someone

jump-start a car.

Yes.

Everybody should know how to jump-start a car.

Everyone should know how to do that, and I'm very proud to say that my daughter once called

me.

She had cables in her car.

We talked about doing it.

She jump-started someone else's car, and she felt like such a hero afterwards.

Well, and they have these really cool, like, contained boxes that you don't even need

help from somebody else to jump your own car anymore.

The other thing too is that the battery isn't always under the hood, but there are connection

points.

Yeah.

They're almost easier.

Yeah.

Also, your battery's not going to explode.

That legend is ... Yeah.

That's a legend.

Well, so I have a couple from the conversation we had, and along with autocrossing your own

car, I would look for locations where you can take your own car to a racetrack.

So our good friend, Phil Miranda, runs a racing school up in Michigan off the Gingerman

Racetrack.

And during the summers, I think that it's like six months.

The first Monday of every month, you can sign up to take your own car and get track time.

And they put an instructor in the seat with you at the beginning to test your level of

driving skills, and they will give you pointers, and then they kind of let you go and intermediate,

advanced beginner, and you get the sense of your car, and you get to have a little fun

in your car.

Yeah, do that.

And if you, for some reason, have a third car, like a fun, sporty third car, why aren't

you doing that?

Yeah, well, and so it's really funny, because we used to have a GTI, and my husband blew

through the engine, but my goal was to keep that car once he was done with it as a track

car so that I could participate in the Gingerman track driving.

So I would say, look in your area, see if there's a local track that has an opportunity

like that.

It's really cool.

It's really fun.

And then the last thing that I would like to mention before we wrap, because I know

we're running out of time, is Dirtfish.

Dirtfish is probably one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in my automotive career.

It's located in Washington State, and it is like a rally school where you learn how to

drift and do rally car driving.

And when I was there, they had Subaru WRX STI hatchbacks.

And so I don't know if they still have those or what they've switched to at this point,

but they had both manual and automatic transmissions.

And the instructors there are phenomenal.

They teach you how to drift.

You're driving in dirt, and you're just, like, I think they have one day, two day, and three

day classes, and it is just, it is a blast.

I would like to get this for my husband at some point as a gift.

There was, I used to go up to the, what was it called, the Spring, up in Road America,

Open Drive event, SCCA, the Spring, what was it called?

Well, it was a fantastic event every year.

And there was a group up there called Team Havoc, and it was a company that basically

made VR6 versions of the GTI, the Volkswagen GTI.

You could rent them.

And it was funny because the people who drove them weren't very good, and they were in a

car that was pretty quick.

But Volkswagen still, at the time, would do that thing where they would lift a wheel in

some corners.

There would just be three wheels down, like, oh, this is so much fun to watch.

And the Team Havoc cars were great to watch because the guys in them weren't great, but

they were really trying.

Right.

Very entertaining.

Well, Sam, your list is awesome.

Did we miss anything?

No, I think we added everything there.

I'm sure everybody else has their own list of things, but I enjoyed making sure that

people get out to drive, to see museums, and see some of these events that pop up all over

the place.

That sounds good.

Remind, speaking to museums, remind people about the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles is in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, just about an

hour outside of Philadelphia, and we have a collection of mostly Pennsylvania-sourced

vehicles and alternative-fueled vehicles, including electric vehicles over a hundred

years old.

That's very cool.

Sam, thank you so much for joining us.

I'm being our last guest of the year.

I'm so happy to be here.

Always glad to talk to you guys.

It's been awesome, Sam.

Have a great New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year to everybody.

Happy New Year.

That was Sam Fiorani, Vice President of ...

Out of Forecast Solutions?

Wait, wait, no, that's not the full title, though.

Sam Fiorani, Vice President of Forecasting.

Oh, okay.

Yes, at Auto Forecast Solutions.

We're going to take a break at its quiz time.

Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.

And we're back.

This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast last episode of 2025.

I'm Tom.

She's Jill.

We've got a couple of things to do, so we're going to go quick.

Okay.

This is the untimetimed me with my social media, Jill Siminello, Cartagior, all the things.

How's that?

Sounds good.

Okay.

And Car Guy Tom on Twitter and X and Blue Sky.

Check that out.

All right.

You ready?

Mm-hmm.

Last quiz of the year.

Speed quiz.

Last quiz is good because it's sort of about weight.

Like, we're all going to be making resolutions now.

I'm not.

Okay.

I'm probably not either.

At least not what I'm going to keep.

I do birthday resolutions.

But today's topic is two tons.

Okay.

Two tons.

And I spelled it British.

T-O-N-N-E-S.

Okay.

I didn't, actually.

Okay.

Um, base curb weight, you're just going to have to tell me, I'm going to give you a

vehicle and you have to tell me if the base model of that comes in under two tons.

Okay.

It's that easy.

It is not that easy, but okay.

All right.

Ready?

Mm-hmm.

All right.

We're going quickly.

You're ready?

Okay.

2026 Ford Maverick.

Two tons?

No.

Starts at 3,700 pounds.

You're on the board.

Okay.

The 2026 Chevrolet Blazer.

Chevy's good-looking mid-sized crossover.

Yes.

Uh, what?

Oh, is it two tons?

Yes.

No.

Okay.

Just under.

3918.

Okay.

That was a tough one.

You've got one point.

The 2026 Toyota Tacoma.

Yes.

No.

Oh!

It's a pudgy little thing.

No, yes, it's over.

Oh, it's over.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

All right.

Wait, did you say yes?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

4250 pounds.

You've got two points.

Okay.

And you should probably say what two tons is.

4,000 pounds?

Well, I mean, okay.

I don't know that we have any listeners that don't know that.

Okay.

I hope.

I mean.

They're metric tons.

See, that would confuse things.

Metric metric tons.

Okay.

That would confuse things.

Okay.

Because that's more weight.

Okay.

That's more resolution.

2026 Mazda CX-50.

Mazda's very likeable.

Compact crossover built in Alabama.

I'm going to say yes.

Standard all-wheel drive.

You think that would add to the weight, but no.

3741.

Okay.

You need one more.

You've got two more questions.

Well, one more question and the bonus question.

Bonus question always related to the topic of the day.

Always.

2026 Chrysler Pacifica, two tons.

Yes.

By a lot.

Yeah, I was going to say that's big.

It's a pudgy bugger.

4521.

Okay.

All right.

You have one.

The bonus question is just for fun.

Woo.

Are you ready?

Yes.

This is right up your alley.

Okay.

Four real TV shows, but only three real MD characters.

MD?

MD.

Medical doctor.

Oh, got it.

Which is the fake.

I'm going to give you four shows.

I'm going to list four doctors.

One of those doctors is not real.

I'm not real.

I understand when you go into it.

Not real as in not a character on that show.

Got it.

Okay.

Are you ready?

Mm-hmm.

The Rockford Files.

Okay.

Dr. John.

Gunsmoke.

Doc Adams.

Enterprise.

That's the prequel show to Star Trek.

Dr. Flockz.

And finally, the Simpsons.

Dr. Nick.

One of those doctors is fake.

Yeah, by the way, not familiar with any of those shows.

Also, I did this at like four in the morning.

Okay.

When you were watching these shows?

No, I just wasn't thinking very clearly.

I'm not familiar with any of these shows.

So, say them one more time.

Okay, you've heard of all of the shows.

Except for the Enterprise prequel.

Really? Enterprise?

I mean, I know the Enterprise, but not the prequel.

It's just called Star Trek Enterprise.

Okay.

It's actually a very good show.

Okay.

The Rockford Files.

Dr. John.

Gunsmoke.

Doc Adams.

Enterprise.

Dr. Flockz.

And the Simpsons.

Dr. Nick.

I'm going to say Dr. Flockz.

Is the fake?

Yeah.

That one's real.

Okay.

Dr. Nick was real.

Hey, everybody.

You know, you don't know Dr. Nick?

No.

Oh, Quack Doctor.

He's great.

Okay.

Gunsmoke.

Doc Adams.

He's the real.

I figured that one was real.

Yeah.

And then Dr. John's the fake.

Dr. John, actually a wonderful musician.

May he rest in peace.

Okay.

Hit song, right place at the wrong time.

Fantastic album called Duke Elegant, which was a tribute to Duke Ellington.

I had a high school lit teacher who was called Dr. John.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

We're going to talk real quick about the Ford F-150, Ford Maverick Lobo.

No, we already talked about that.

Oh, no.

I'm sorry.

See, I told you it was up late.

Oh, man.

Dodge Charger six pack.

That's it.

And tell us, this is an interesting story, right?

Because the charger was all new for 2025 and was all electric for 2025.

So the news now is the six pack.

Yes.

Which no longer involves six single barrel carburetors, but six cylinders.

In line six cylinder.

Yes.

Five 550 horsepower, I believe is the number for the high output engine, which is what

I had.

And so the design is exterior design is exactly the same as what you would see on the electric

vehicle.

The hood.

And that's an incredibly good looking car.

Incredibly good looking.

The hood is going to be different because in the six pack you have like a little bulge

for the engine.

Whereas with the electric vehicle, it kind of scoops down with an aerodynamic wing on

the front.

That bulge may have been a nod to the old six pack carburetor setup.

Okay.

So the thing that I find confusing about that though is six pack, they have it spelled out

on the hood facing the driver, but you can't see it from when you're sitting in the driver

seat.

So it seems like it would make sense if you would face it out.

I don't know.

It just, that was a weird design choice.

But outside of that, I really liked this vehicle.

It is really interesting in terms of the design.

I liked how it sounded.

I even did a video of doing like a cold start of the engine and I asked people, you know,

what does this sound like to you?

Because I think it sounds way better than a six cylinder engine.

I think it sounds like a V8.

Yeah, whatever.

I'm just interested in having this really great inline six cylinder engine that should

outperform like old versions of the Hammy, right?

The 5.7 and the, what was the 6.4 in the 392.

So but fun to drive.

Now the story, this car's had such a rough life already, right?

The EV is underperforming in the marketplace.

There was going to be a base model of the six pack with less horsepower.

Basically, these engines were going to parallel those in the RAM.

So there's going to be 420 and 540 horsepower, but they've got, they've got 10 horsepower.

But there's no base version anymore either.

So this is just this version that you drove.

Yeah.

And I mean, and it was the two door model.

So it was the Scat Pack Plus.

So it has like all the, all the gadgets and bells and whistles and things on it.

Carbon fiber package.

It had the ambient lighting, which they're calling an attitude adjustment, which is very

dodge.

And it was very nimble, very fast and very fun to drive, but it is very wide.

I heard this.

I actually read this on a different review that it feels kind of big.

Oh, it is very wide.

And so it's, I back into my garage space and I have a very narrow chute that I have to

go in through to get up to my parking space.

And I like had to go like a 20 point turn to line it up just so that it was perfectly

like one inch on either side of my garage to get it into the garage.

And that's a little big sedans are just kind of old school.

Yeah.

Did you drive a two door or four door?

I drove the two door.

Okay.

Cause there's now, there is no challenger.

There's just two door and four door versions of the charger.

And, and so the, the four door, I think is the, the newest, they came out with the two

door first.

Um, but the, the vehicle that I drove had, um, you know, the black top package, the carbon

suede package, the 20 inch wheels, like all of the, the glass roof, all the things, and

it was about $70,000.

It's very expensive.

Yeah.

A little expensive.

Um, but I mean, when you look at the, the base price for the vehicle, it's a little bit

more affordable at $54,000.

Uh, but all around well balanced, fun to drive, comfortable seats, uh, attractive.

This was one of the cars that I drove that I had people saying, Hey, can we meet for

lunch so that I can look at this?

Here, here's the thing.

This is what the most of car is now in a good way.

I think I, I agree.

Yeah.

All right.

Guess what we did.

Uh, we had some really good conversations.

Yeah.

Big things to Sam Fiorani of auto forecast solutions.

Thank you, Jill.

Thank you to producer Randy.

Happy new year, everyone.

Happy new year.

Remember to check us out at consumer guide.com.

The car stuff podcast is produced by J turn media.

To advertise on the show, please drop us a line at car stuff at consumer guide.com.

2025 Year in Review, Dodge Charger Sixpack Review, Automotive Bucket List

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