This identifies the specific event the hosts are attending, which matters because auto show lineups and priorities vary by year and location. It also helps listeners connect the brands and themes discussed to the show’s current industry focus.
Lucid is a company that makes electric cars. When they show up at a big auto show, it usually means they’re trying to get more attention and show off their newest EVs.
Honda is a big car brand. The hosts are basically saying they didn’t see Honda at the show, which is interesting because you’d expect them to be there.
Volvo is a well-known car brand. They’re known for safety, and they’ve also been working on electric cars, so their booth presence is part of the show’s overall EV story.
This is a bike carrier that mounts to the back of the car using the hitch. It’s a common way to bring bikes along without loading them inside the vehicle.
All-terrain tires are designed to handle a mix of pavement and light off-road use. Compared with highway tires, they often increase rolling resistance (hurting fuel economy) and can add noise, while also changing steering feel and braking performance.
Tire noise is the sound generated by tread blocks interacting with the road surface. All-terrain tires often increase noise due to their tread design, and that can be a tradeoff for improved off-road capability.
Fuel economy is how far you can drive on a given amount of fuel. Things like bigger, knobbier tires and extra accessories can make the car use more fuel.
A shared platform means two different car brands are using the same basic “underbody” design. That can make the cars similar in how they’re built, even if they look different.
Toyota is the automaker the host is talking about in the context of electric vehicles. The takeaway is that Toyota is working on electrification, but it’s also hedging by not going all-in on only one type of electric powertrain.
Automakers often partner to share development work and production costs, especially for expensive areas like electrification. This can reduce the financial risk for manufacturers and can help keep vehicle pricing lower than it otherwise would be.
General Motors is cited as another automaker sharing development work with other brands. This is used to illustrate that cost-sharing partnerships are common across the industry, not just limited to Toyota/Subaru.
Removable doors let you take the doors off the vehicle for an open-air driving experience. It’s a common Jeep off-road feature and helps make getting in and out easier.
“230-mile range” is how far the EV is expected to go on one full battery charge. Real-world range can drop, especially if you use chunky tires meant for off-roading.
A flush grille is when the front “grille” area is basically smooth and blended into the car’s body. EVs often do this because they don’t need the same cooling airflow as gas cars.
The Baja 1000 is a famous off-road race in Mexico known for extreme desert terrain and long-distance endurance. Referencing it signals the concept’s intended “serious off-road” vibe.
A concept car is a prototype built to show design ideas, materials, and technology, not necessarily to be sold to customers. The speaker notes that the construction details make it unlikely to ever reach production “in that form.”
All-wheel drive (AWD) sends power to more than one axle, improving traction when roads are slippery. The speaker ties AWD to real-world use—driving in snow—rather than just performance on dry pavement.
A wagon is a body style with an extended roofline and cargo area behind the rear seats, combining practicality with a car’s driving layout. The speaker notes wagons are uncommon, and praises the styling, highlighting the rarity of the segment at modern shows.
The Jeep Wrangler is a rugged SUV that’s famous for having doors (and sometimes the roof) you can remove. When the doors come off, the mirrors can’t just stay where they normally are, so Jeep uses a special mounting approach.
A rooftop tent mounts on the roof and opens to provide sleeping space for camping. It’s convenient for overlanding, but it adds height and weight, which can affect garage fit, fuel economy, and roof clearance.
A sliding door is the kind that opens by sliding sideways. It’s handy in tight spots and can make getting in and out easier, especially if someone needs a ramp or extra space.
LIVE
Hi and welcome back to a very special edition of Talking Cars. We're in fact on the floor
of the 2026 New York International Auto Show. We're super excited to be here. I'm Mike
Quincy. I'm Ryan Bielekowski. I'm Michael Grossen. So let's just get this right up front.
We had a great time meeting with other Talking Cars fans at the Canuck Sports Bar here in New
York City. We're going to do a quick shout out to Hal, Wallace, Steve, Eli, and Matt. Thanks so
much for coming out. We love hanging out with you guys. Weren't they awesome? It was a great
time. It was a great time. We get to eat food on Dave Abrams budget and have some adult beverages.
We had a blast. We look forward to doing more of these meet and greets in the future. So thanks
to everybody that came out. Let's just hop in to what we're seeing here at the New York Auto
Show to talk about some themes, talk about some cars. Mr. Croson, let's start with you. What's
the first thing that really jumps out at you here at the show? It's the same New York International
Auto Show that we've seen for the last few years, I think. A lot of manufacturers showing up. There's
a couple maybe not as present, but we've seen that in the past too. But a wide variety of vehicles,
EV stands, SUVs, off-road SUVs, off-road cars, stands, that kind of stuff. A lot of off-road
things. Yeah, there's a lot going on. I mean, Lucid is here and they're not a huge manufacturer,
but am I crazy or is Honda not here? Actually, I don't think they're here. I was walking over to
the Javits Center this morning, I was like, I don't remember seeing any Honda's. I think you're
right. Even the Volvo and the Audi booth in the corner, Mercedes in the corner, that was pretty
sad. Luster. There was not a lot going on over there. There's a couple cars.
We're going to get a little nostalgic during this podcast, primarily because it is the 500th
episode of Talking Cars. It really is amazing to me that it's gone on this long. And I swear
after my first appearance on the podcast, I was pretty sure Super Peers Dave Aver was like,
you're never going to be on this podcast again. Oh my god. It's been a long time.
In terms of nostalgia, it's like there was a time, whether it was in Detroit or New York,
from my perspective, that every car company was here. I mean, every single one. And the
press conferences were packed. You ran from one to another. You're writing up the stories,
you're doing the videos, and things are a little bit more chill right now, which is good for us.
That's helpful. Not quite as much work. And it allows us to get together and do this podcast
here on the show. But jumping on one of the themes that you guys mentioned is this term that we call
the emergence, the proliferation of soft rotors. Ryan, could you explain to the audience exactly
when is a soft rotor? Well, these are what they appear to be these off road versions of regular
cars. I mean, there's a cross track with knobby tires on it, all the rain tires. So like the
Wilderness version of the Subaru, the trims. So they all look the part. Hyundai has a whole flock
of these soft rotors down there and Chrysler has a minivan down there in their booth. What do they
call that thing? They've got a bear on the side of it. They call it the Kodiak, the grizzly pink
concept. Yeah, I mean, it's a minivan that they lifted a little bit in what tires on it as BFG
KO2s on it, which are extreme all train tires, like they're legit all train tires. They do not
have a minivan. And there's no fender well clearance. I mean, if you ran over your notebook
with your wheel turned at all, you'd rip a fender off this thing. I don't know how it's usable.
It looks pretty good. Yeah, and that certainly was apparent just walking around the show floor.
And I'm not going to rattle off every single one that I saw, but the whole concept that the car
companies are pushing of this active lifestyle. Yeah, a lot of adventure stuff. The rest of my
life, I'm never going to a press conference run by a car company or read another press release
where the car goes like, we're after the active lifestyles. Like, no, aren't you after
the like the couch potato lifestyle? I mean, it's just such an overused term that I'm absolutely
sick of it. So all the active lifestyle that I saw on the show, there was an explorer with
kayaks on the roof. There was a Subaru ascent with a tent on the roof. One of the things that
really jumped out at me was the new Kia Seltos, which I did a video on it yesterday. So check out
that. The Seltos had kayaks on the roof and a hitch-mounted bike rack with two mountain bikes.
Yeah, a lot of stuff. Yeah, one of the fuel economies on that. Well, what's funny is I've
gotten to do a number of interviews on how to stretch your gas. Right. Because the price of
gas is going up. And one of the first things I say is take off all the racks on your vehicle,
whether if you're not skiing anymore, take off your ski rack. If you're not hauling your bikes
around, take off the bike rack. So yeah, I imagine what the Seltos is getting if you're driving
around like that. But what's interesting about this is we're going to be looking into these
soft rotors in some depth. You want to talk about that? Yeah, we have 13 or 15, a lot of them.
I don't know the exact numbers, but we're not buying them. We always famously buy or test cars.
So these are the press cars example that we borrow from the manufacturers. And the idea is we're
actually going to test these cars the way we test the cars that we buy. But we just want to see
like what's the deal with them? And are these cars maybe we should buy some of them and actually
put them through our formal testing? So we just want to get a handle on them. And we've been here
for a couple of days and my email just keeps going off because I'm getting emails from people back
at the track like, oh, this arrived, that arrived. So the cars are massing. And when we get back in
the next couple of weeks, we'll get to have a look at them, do some driving. I think we're
going to do a little off-roading that kind of stuff. Yeah, I want to see what's up. What I think
we're curious about is these cars are pretty much regular cars that we've tested maybe already in
the past, but they put these all terrain tires on, they maybe lift them up a little bit. They put
some more plastics and racks on them. What does that do to the handling, the braking?
Noise. All the noise. So traditionally, an all terrain tire, when we test all terrain tires for
a tire program, they can add a little noise. They maybe, since some cases aren't as good in
driving with braking, they're handling, they lose a little bit of on-center feel maybe. The noises
increased. Are people going to deal with that? How much fuel economy do we lose? Some of these
have more rolling resistance. They're bigger. There's more tread mass to them. So they're just
heavier. They'll use more gas or battery. So I think that's sort of what we just want to
evaluate and see what's a general trend with that. Right. And contrary to a lot of the way the
auto manufacturers placed their products in the past, the top trim was usually like the luxury
dream. Sure. So one of the vehicles that was redesigned last year is the Honda Passport,
two-row SUV. Actually, one of my favorites, the top trim for a Passport is this Trail Sport Elite,
which is exactly what you guys described and Ryan specifically. You look, just look at photos of the
Trail Sport and the tires are super chunky. Oh, yeah. They look awesome. And so Honda's like,
well, that's the top trim. So, you know, what if you want kind of a nice Passport? They have no
intentions of going off-roading. You want a quiet cabin. So it's kind of a curious decision on Honda's
part as well as a whole bunch of other manufacturers. Well, they must be selling them or they have plans
to sell them. I mean, they're doing a lot of it and there seems to be like a surge of it this
year. I mean, we went to look at the van this morning. There was a guy over there who absolutely
loved it and was like, I want to put those tires on my Jeep and in all this stuff. He was totally
into it. It looks cool. Just in the entire world, we're seeing the all-terrain tires. They're putting
chunkier sidewalls, making them look a little more aggressive than they might actually be in terms of
tread on the ground. Because what I just mentioned, sometimes they aren't as good and dry and we're
bringing this, that and the other, but people like that look. So they're dressing up the sidewalls
on a lot of these tires and they're almost like soft road all-terrain tires. They're like in between
all seasons and all-terrain tires, so actual all-terrain tires. So yeah, people like that look
like that guy, but those are aggressive all-terrain tires and those are LP tires or heavy duty
trumpet on a minivan. It doesn't help the car at all. So let's get into some of the vehicles
that you guys highlighted in your work yesterday, some of the videos that you guys shot. I think
one of the interesting things is I did Subaru Trailseeker in Subaru Uncharted. They're all
kind of similar platform to the Solterra, which is shared with Toyota. The BZ, they now call it
used to be the BZ4X or whatever. There's a wagon version of it right back there as well,
that is basically the equivalent of the Trailseeker, I should say. The Honda is the Trail Sport.
It's nice to see that a couple of manufacturers are kind of working together. I always think that's
a good thing. It sort of goes back to the GM thing when you could have a Chevy, those will be
able to do it. They're all the same car, but like you can pick which one works for you by price
point, which one looks the way you like it to look, that kind of thing. So I think it's good
in a lot of cases for buyers. You have a little bit more choice. It's not the first time we've
seen Toyota and Subaru link up on vehicle either. They've been together on that, and if you're going
to partner up with a company for electrification, Toyota's a pretty good one to do it. They've
been doing it for quite a while, right? But they're kind of hedging their bets by not going all in
on pure electrics. They're going to share the costs. They are. I mean this stuff is really
expensive and a lot of auto manufacturers, I think, have lost a lot of money in the last,
however, many years. So I imagine that's probably weighing on their minds, right? So if they can
do anything to share some cost, share development, whatever that is, that's good for the manufacturer.
And ultimately, I think that's good for the buyer because it's just going to cost, I mean,
these cars are still expensive, let's be honest, but it's going to cost less. They could be more.
And it's not exclusive to Toyota and Subaru. I mean, General Motors and Honda are sharing
a lot of the stuff with their development and their Honda Prologue.
Ryan, what did you get into? So I actually started the day with a Jeep Recon, which I kind of end
up taking a little bit of a liking to. Really? It's this off-road, trail-ready SUV that you can
access an EV. You can take the doors and the rear windows come out of this, and they don't roll
down. They come out. So like the rear three-quarter windows and the rear back window comes out.
The doors come off. So it's like a Wrangler, has a big tire, full-size spare on the back.
How was it without the doors? Like, were you able to get in it?
Yeah, no problem. I mean, that's easy when there's no doors. I got kicked out of it.
They got a little upset with me, but we did get the shot. I got in there and checked it out.
I like impractical things. So this thing, probably somewhat impractical. It has like a 230-mile range,
which isn't that much, especially when you put these chunky all-terrain tires on it.
They're not a lot of cargo space, but the doors come off. It's cool. It's kind of cool.
But it's 65 grand starting at, and it weighs 6,100 pounds, which is like 1,600 pounds heavier
than a regular Wrangler, Unlimited, which is like that. That's so heavy.
But it's kind of cool. It has all the modes and stuff like that, dual motor.
And then the afternoon I got in a, what was it, the Subaru Getaway, which is a new
like sister vehicle to the EV Highlander EV, which is not here at the show, but on the Subaru's
area. But that was kind of, it's a nice car. I liked it because it looks like a normal car,
very simple. The grille's just flush flat. There's no like grille or anything, which
gives it the EV look. Yeah, and it's kind of a weird look.
Yeah, but you know, the rest of it, I thought was really nice. It has different door handle,
but they actually work. They're like, they're electronic, but you actually stick your fingers
in and like open it. And they claim you can put six foot person in every seat. I'm a hair taller
than 60, and I did fit in every seat. The back's a little snug, of course, but for a three-wheel
SUV, that's not actually that big. I mean, it's big, but it's not that big. You can sit in
all three rows, and they claim it has more cargo space than an EV, not key, an EV nine. Yeah,
which I thought was interesting. The EV nine looks bigger. Yeah, right. So it looks huge.
And then, I don't know, what's walking around, it was not a ton of new things, but a couple
concepts I thought that were kind of new. Yeah, I was gonna say, what about the bolder?
Oh, yeah. Hyundai, it's so cool, though, that they're not going to make it. That's the problem.
Yeah, that's what happens with the car. It looks like a cross between a Jeep and a Bronco,
and maybe even a little Land Rover Defender. Definitely a little Defender, yeah. But it's
this real off-road, something like soft off-roaders, soft roaders. This is like a
bottle off-road, it's an onion print. Yeah, like ready for like the Baja 1000 kind of thing.
It looks cool, but it's total concept. When you look at it, like you can just see the way they
construct the body, like that's never going to exist, at least in that form. But it's cool that
they're doing something. Yeah, I mean, largely the Korean manufacturers don't do, you know, full
frame kind of vehicles. And they had a big unveiling of it. It was a big deal, like there
was a lot of people around it. And an industry report suggests that that Hyundai is going to be
coming up with a midsize pickup truck. Correct. So that could be the Santa Cruz, the base,
like going away. So maybe they think that there's some market there, they just need to like get the
right form factor to capture that market. And for the people that might be coming to the New York
Auto Show and they check out the Boulder, you said that this concept probably won't be produced.
Just a little historical perspective, that was the origin of the Dodge Viper. The Dodge Viper
was a concept car. And people looked at it and they're like, they were wowed by it. And this was
in the early 90s. And so there was like a real letter writing campaign. People used to write
letters. So they just peppered the Chrysler offices were like, you got to build this. So they put
pressure on the company and they actually did eventually build it. I mean, we joke about that
because there's been so many concepts over the years and they look so cool. But they never
actually come to fruition, right? The Bronco was like the last one I can think of that actually
came to fruition. Some of the early renderings were very similar to what we ended up with,
which is awesome. And beyond just the looks, it actually was a truck. It had body on frame,
it was off roady, like that had those things. But that doesn't happen that often. So like to see
that is like exciting. But I don't know. Personally, the coolest one I saw was that Genesis,
G90 wingback. Yes, that's it. It's a giant wagon, but it is a very good looking car. Like it's got
all the lines, it's got wide rear fender. It's huge, but it's super sporty looking, got big wheels.
It's awesome. It's a great color. It's a wagon. It's a wagon.
I guess I liked the unveiling of the Corvette Grand Sport. It's a traditional livery.
It speaks to my heart. Also, more nostalgia. Sorry, guys. The final edition of the Supra
has the cool like flat black paint or they call it NAT. $73,000 that I'm not nostalgic for.
But yeah, you gotta jump to get to the best of show because I wanted to get.
It's okay. Oh, and one more thought I had about the bolder is I think the concept is cool.
Do we need another gigantic vehicle that probably gets like 13 miles per gallon?
Yes, we do. I'm going to say yes, too. I mean, we need a few of them.
Yeah, come on. And not everyone's going to buy them and no one's forcing you to buy it, right?
If you want to buy it, go buy it. Everything looks the same these days. This is different,
I think. Okay, okay. Wow. I mean, I hope they get better fuel economy.
What's the thing about being shot down by God's? All right, Michael Croson, best of show.
That Genesis was awesome. But the Corvettes, there's a bunch of different ones here. ZR1,
the regular ZR1. Then there's the ZR1X, which is like over 1000 horsepower. It's all carbon
fiber. It's crazy. I would love to drive one. I'd love to have a going one. We're probably
not going to buy one, unfortunately. But maybe we'll get to drive one. But the Grand Sports here
as well. So, I mean, the Corvette has always been a really bargain option for awesome performance,
especially the C8. It's like supercar level of looks and performance and all that kind of stuff
that I'd say a reasonable price because they're expensive, but reasonable compared to like, I
can see like a Porsche race car like right that direction. That thing is hundreds of thousands
of dollars if you can get your hands on one. So, I mean, you know, you got to kind of weigh your
options there if that's the way you want to go. And if I may, I do recall conversation we had
at Consumer Reports test track about, you have one car you have to drive it every single day.
And I think your response was an E-Ray. Yeah, which is going away. I think they marketed it
wrong as being like the hybrid Corvette. It's just been the all-wheel drive Corvette. You know,
we live in Connecticut. I got to drive in the snow. I'd put all seasons on it and just live with it.
I love that response. I love the idea of someone living day to day with a super car,
but a super impractical car. But don't change. Don't change. Feel like that. You got it. Best in
show. Yeah, I guess I ruined it already. That's okay. That's the coolest thing I saw. Hey, it's
a wagon. We don't see a lot of wagons anymore. And it was just beautiful. The styling is just
beautiful. I think it's tremendous. So that would be the best in show for me. And I mentioned
really, I kind of fell in love with that stupid Jeep. I think it's kind of neat. It's different.
I think that's good. We need different cars. Everything looks the same. Yeah, maybe it's
not the most practical, but it's cool. The doors come off. I mean, that's cool. I did see,
typically, when the doors come off, you have a problem with the side mirrors. They have a solution
where the mirror goes in the hinge and then it bolts to the dash. You can do that with the Wrangler.
You can get that option. The only thing with the back doors, though, is this big, gaudy hinge
hanging out because you have to have a proper hinge with the safety feature. That meets all the
safety standards, all that stuff. So it's kind of like this booby looking thing hanging out. The
old Wrangler just had a pin and it was just external from the door or the body. This is in,
but other than that, I thought it was kind of neat. I have to say, I agree with you about that.
I got to get the name right. The Genesis G90 wingback concept. When you guys saw it first and
told me about it, I just went right over like, I fell in love with it. It's gorgeous. It's chunky.
It's long. It's wide. It's too big a problem. You say,
oh, Quincy's a hypocrite because he's talking about fuel economy with the boulder. Well,
I'm sure that they even get a good gas mileage if they produce it. But I loved it. And what's funny
is the name wingback, which reminds me of what my wife often calls me a wing nut because I'm a nut.
And also, in English, they call it a shooting break. Shooting break.
Okay. So for all you talking cars, people out there, you don't know what a shooting break is.
Just Google that. It's a wagon. And we already did kind of like the most absurd,
which I thought was the Chrysler Pacifica Grizzly Peak concept. Why are these names so long?
Any other absurdities? So I hadn't seen that until you had mentioned it yesterday afternoon. So we
went and saw it this morning because I needed to see how absurd it is. It's absurd. But to me,
it's more of just a show piece. It doesn't really, it's not meant to roll anywhere,
actually drive anywhere. You think Chrysler is going to build that?
I don't think so. I mean, it's a regular van. They put a lift on it. When you Google it,
it says it has matte paint. It's a wrap, spoiler alert. It's just got a wrap on it.
That's true. It has less seats in it. They say, you know, so you can like sleep it and camp in it.
But you can take seats out of a van. So why not have all the seats and just take them out as you
need them? So like you're spending more, you're getting less. They say it comes with a rooftop
tent. Like, what if you don't want that or need that? I don't think it's going to fit in most
garages. It's a concept. It's crazy. Lean more toward the practical stuff. There's tons of great
choices here. We just see a lot of mobility, like there's a mobility car behind us here.
And then over in Chevrolet, there was a Traverse that we were looking at Corvettes. And on a corner
of my like, that's a Traverse and the same color as the Traverse we have. It's like, but it has a
sliding door on the side. Like what is that? And I didn't realize that it was a mobility vehicle.
Like you often see with like Sienas and Vans and things like that. But I'm kind of a cool
implementation of a sliding door on a smaller SUV. And Joe was in the city yesterday and I was
there with him. Yes. And he's one of the people who does access on our cars we test. I'm like,
oh, what's the access on that three? He's like, it's pretty good. He said, actually, I'd have to
duck. So it wouldn't be that good. So it was kind of funny to have that conversation. You could always
walk straight into it. Yeah, it's pretty tall. There's a ramp. But like you would still have to
duck. And they typically lower the floor on those vehicles. So the ramps are not as steep and it's
just lower. So it opens the opening. Yeah, do you think car companies would consider doing a
sliding door for a regular SUV that wasn't necessarily handicap accessible? I don't think so
because there's a stigma around many. Yeah, right. The minivan now. People have trouble. Those are
cool, right? But maybe they answer some of the most they make some of the most sense to drive. Oh,
yeah. Yeah, they have all this room. They're front wheel drive. They're decent on fuel. They're
just but they're mini fans. Right. And Toyota has not given up on mini vans. There's at least
two Sienas here. One is the top trim platinum, which is really nice. Yeah, $62,000.
And the Kia Carnival is here. And going to the press conferences, Carnival sales are up. Yeah.
And industry reports suggest that there's very few days supply of Sienas going on. Sienas are
all hybrid. So so that's good. If you're if you're concerned about fuel economy. Sienas have fantastic
reliability to reports data. We were in an Uber last night. Who's a Siena? Right.
And so I'm wondering, are we going to see the comeback of the mini shank? I sort of hope so. I
love them. They're practical. If you need to move people, it's the best choice. You can move a lot
of stuff that's like not really heavy stuff. I think they just need a little help, like with
styling, like a nice set of wheels and tires goes a long way. You know, and it sort of moves away
from like the school run, pickup line thing, soccer practice to like, sort of a useful cool
thing. I think more people want to try. I think it'll grow. I think it's just going to be what
it is a small little market. And some people like them. Most people don't. Yeah. And if we are if
we and this is if if we are facing much higher gas prices in the next, you know, six, 12 months or
you know, the audience should know that car companies cannot just turn on a diamond. They're
like an aircraft carrier. Yeah. Okay, to stop, turn, move, whatever. And I'm wondering, you know,
which car companies are going to be in a good position to deal with higher gas prices? Yeah.
So because of the domestic, they just they just gave up on sedans. They gave up on minivans.
Yeah, but I mean, there are some more reasonably priced options here too. We've talked about some
expensive stuff. But the Uncharted starts at like 35. And they actually have a front wheel drive
option that Toyota doesn't even have a little bit more range, a little less power, but a little less
cost. You looked at some Kia's that I think are kind of coming at a more bargain kind of price,
whether it was a gas or an EV. So it is nice to see that there are cars for sort of the every
person. It's always great to look at the crazy stuff. But let's be honest, we're not buying
that. And the Kia Seltos will eventually be offered with a hybrid, as well as the upcoming
Volkswagen Atlas. Yeah, yeah. So so there are a lot of choices out there. There are vehicles that
will be good. We'll kind of scratch your itch if you want better fuel economy. If you want to go
bash some boulders, there's that too. Yeah. And of course, you know, wall to wall pick up trucks
because this is the United States of the man. That's going to wrap up this special New York
International Auto Show edition of Talking Cars, which was conducted masterfully by Dave Super
Producer Abrams. We love them. We love them. We love them sort of and expertly edited by Andrew.
I still play hockey, Belize. And of course, Anatoly, the great. If you're looking for more
information on the vehicles or topics that we covered, check out the show notes. Thanks so
much for tuning in. Oh, yes, questions. We didn't do any questions this episode, but we love your
questions. Text videos, send them to TalkingCarsaticloud.com. That's TalkingCarsaticloud.com. I didn't
get it wrong this time. Thanks so much for tuning in. And we'll see you next week. Thank you for 500.
About this episode
On the floor of the 2026 New York Auto Show, Talking Cars talks trends, disappointments, and what they’re planning to test next. The big theme is “soft roading”: lifted, all-terrain-tire versions of regular crossovers and minivans, plus the overused “active lifestyle” marketing. They highlight vehicles like the Kia Seltos with kayaks/bike rack, Subaru and Toyota EV “Trailseeker/Getaway” variants, and the Jeep Recon EV with removable doors. They also debate concept-car hype (Hyundai Boulder, Chrysler Grizzly Peak) versus practical choices like minivans and fuel-saver hybrids, ending with Corvette performance standouts and best-of-show picks.
We're live from the floor of the 2026 New York Auto Show, and sharing our first impressions of the vehicles announced at the show, including the Genesis G90 Wingback and Hyundai Boulder concept cars, the Subaru Getaway 3-row EV SUV, Kia Seltos Hybrid, Volkswagen Atlas, Kia EV3 all-electric compact SUV, and the rise of the softroader!
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