2027 Kia Telluride, All-New Polestar 4, Plotting the Future of Infiniti

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All right, this is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

I am indeed Tom Appell.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us this week.

When you have a moment, check us out at consumerguide.com.

You can stream the podcast there.

You can check out our 2025 Best Buys, which go away in a couple of weeks, 2026 is on the

way.

It is.

And all sorts of other fun stuff.

And I told you I wrote that crazy article about the 1983 Miss Universe contest in St.

Louis for which to celebrate it, Chrysler was the official sponsor of the event.

Miss Universe won a Labyrinth Convertible and the official car sponsor was the Chrysler

Fifth Avenue, not a sexy vehicle.

Not in keeping, I think, with the Miss Universe theme, but the actual ad itself, it was a

newspaper ad full page, it's terrible.

It's terrible.

People want to check that out.

I will link to that.

Anyway, that voice was Jill Simonillo, contributing editor here at Consumer Guide

on Automotive, prolific freelance person in North American Car of the Year juror.

Yes.

How are you?

Good.

I missed lunch today, so I apologize.

I'm eating chili.

We have donuts.

I will have a donut after I have my chili.

There is a restaurant that I drive through every week before the podcast to get a very

large diapepsy.

And the guy there frequently doesn't charge me for the diapepsy.

Instead, he wants to chat about the car I'm in.

But he wasn't there today, so I got him a donut.

I thought I should do a nice thing for this guy.

Right?

So I got him a donut, but he wasn't there today.

And he wasn't there.

Also, I had to pay for my donut.

And you had to pay for your soda, got it.

So I didn't see the nice guy, and I'm out three bucks.

And you're out there.

And by the way, I'll point out for the second week in a row, I was here before you.

I guess.

I guess you can point that out.

I was on time.

There wasn't a scare.

I mean, you sat in that chair with like 30 seconds.

No, like 45.

You're exaggerating.

I am not.

Um, kind of the buzz is off.

We celebrated our 300th anniversary last week.

Lots of nice well-wishers.

Thank you very much.

It's been fun.

Yeah.

Crazy six years.

It has.

I can't believe six years has passed so fast.

No.

And it's weird because I look about the same, but you've aged so much.

Oh, yeah.

So, so much.

I don't know.

I feel like your hair went from black to gray in the last six years.

It sort of has.

I think that's true.

I met an old friend I used to work with.

Her name was Margie.

And if you're listening to Margie, hey, but we worked together in the 80s at the place

I met my wife at.

And I met Margie and I hadn't seen her 20, 25 years.

We loosely stayed in touch on Facebook.

But the first thing she said when I sat down and she's like, I haven't aged.

What the hell happened to you?

But yeah, my hair suddenly went gray, like really fast.

Yeah.

Because there's actually pictures of me, I think even in the studio.

With darker hair.

I'm literally just noticing how gray your hair is.

It looks worse if I cut it for some reason.

My husband is the opposite.

His stylist actually manages to cut out the gray and he looks like 20 years younger.

Really?

When he gets a haircut.

Yeah.

My beard goes completely gray.

Well, it is kind of completely gray.

Yeah.

So, all right.

Enough of that.

Enough of my aging.

Later in the show, we're going to talk to Tiago Castro, vice president of Infinity

of the Americas.

Yes.

I'm excited about that conversation.

It is always good to talk to somebody who is about to do something to reinvent a brand.

Yes.

And Infinity has gone through its ups and downs in recent years.

And very recently, two, three years ago, they were supposed to be like moving to

slightly more mainstream.

They were just going to do luxury versions of Nissan products, but that's not the

plan anymore.

And in fact, there's some cool product on the way.

Yeah.

And I will say their current product that is out and has come out in the last

couple of years looks great.

Yeah.

The Russian, the QX60, that's their midsize SUV crossover.

The QX80 is all new.

So much better.

Mm-hmm.

It was really bad.

The old QX...

The old QX80 was based on international chassis, and it didn't really suit...

American drivers.

Not well.

First of all, it was really big and really scrunchy.

Like I should fit in a full-size crossover or a full-size, but I didn't.

So that's that story.

But there's a lot of other product coming on the way, including unbelievably a

sedan.

Mm-hmm.

So we will talk about that.

You drove to Indy over the weekend.

I did.

From Chicago.

I did.

200 miles round trip.

What did you drive?

Well, 400 miles round trip.

Because it's 200 there, 200 back.

Oh, oh, I'm cutting your shirt.

I'm thinking of my relatively current or frequent trips to Milwaukee.

Right.

From Chicago.

Yes.

And that's a 200 mile round trip.

Yes.

I was actually very apropos to the conversation today driving an

Infiniti QX60.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So that's from Freshen.

How do you like it?

I liked it.

It's really comfortable to drive and good visibility.

It was really comfortable for the long haul.

And you know, I have a couple of TikToks coming out that talk about my

likes and my dislikes, so TBD on that.

But overall, I mean, it's a very comfortable vehicle to drive for a longer

period.

Now, the QX60 went four-cylinder.

It's now the VCT, the two-liter variable compression

and turbocharged engine.

Is that enough?

Yes-ish.

I noticed some weirdness with the transmission.

Like I would be driving at highway speeds and I would be trying to pass.

And like the transmission would just be like, it didn't know what to do.

Now, when it was, did it just make that noise or was there any actual

visceral characteristics associated with that?

It didn't move.

The way I wanted it to move.

Because the noise alone, weird.

Yeah, and it took like a hot minute.

And then it'd be like, oh, oh, God, you want me to downshift so I can go faster.

Got it.

And so it just, you know, I could have used like manual shift mode, whatever.

But it was just kind of a weird thing that I noticed.

No one does that.

I know.

Journalists do it on test drives and then no one ever does it again.

Nobody does.

Yeah, my wife and daughter, they don't do it.

No.

I get out of the lucid air.

Okay.

That was the first extended period of time driving the Lucid.

This was the Touring, 100 grand, almost even, spectacular car.

Yeah.

Spectacular car.

Quick, smooth, refined, beautiful interior, great ride.

Also I did the one throttle thing, one pedal thing.

It's probably the best one throttle application I've ever enjoyed.

Okay.

I didn't need to use a brake pedal at all.

It was very good.

Everything about this car made me happy except one little thing that made me

very sad.

I don't fit in it.

Oh.

It was very low and the doors are very small.

Okay.

And it is very difficult for me to get in and out of.

And the back seat's not super roomy either for a large sedan.

For people who don't know what this is, this is very much competition for the

BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

It is a large luxury sedan, fantastically executed, great range.

I think that would have seen about 400 miles.

Yeah.

And for people who maybe are tuning in for the first time, how tall are you?

About 6'1".

And about 300, I don't want to say, but a lot of 300 pounds.

So you are in big and tall.

In big and tall.

Yeah.

I am.

And the interesting thing about that too is the vehicles I don't fit in are few.

Right.

Miata, obviously.

Four-door German sedans that are small are rough because they have very small door

openings.

This is related to them trying to keep chassis integrity.

And the Jeep Wrangler's a bit of a squeeze for me.

You just can't get far enough away from the steering wheel.

Yeah.

But all that is associated with its off-road persona and you being able to look out the

window.

Yeah.

You might want to be able to do that.

There's actually a thing where you still expect to be able to put your arm outside

the window and see the wheel.

And I've done that.

Yeah.

So there you go.

The Lucid Earth.

Fantastic.

Unless you're big and tall.

Spectacular vehicle.

I'm hoping to get time in the gravity soon.

So.

I'm very interested for people who don't know this is Lucid's only second product.

Yeah.

It's a large-ish mid-size crossover.

Mm-hmm.

It's more expensive than I thought it was going to be.

Yeah.

I had the very brief opportunity to drive it in Detroit at the North American Car

of the Year fall drive.

Uh-huh.

It was one of the vehicles that is up for the award contention.

And the results actually of who the finalists are come out tomorrow.

So stay tuned.

Okay.

The short amount of time that I spent in that vehicle, I was very impressed.

You just said it's three-row.

I don't know if I knew that.

Yeah.

Okay.

So.

I'm like, yes.

I'm pretty, 99.9, now that I say that I'm like, is it?

99.9.

I don't know why a new mid-size crossover wouldn't be.

Right.

And obviously I had like 10 minutes in the vehicle, so I didn't climb back there,

but I'm 99.9 percent certain it has a third row.

Okay.

I want to talk about this for exactly 31 seconds.

Okay.

Really?

Ready, set.

Really weird news story, Tesla may add car play.

Yes.

Weird.

Although it's this weird contingency thing where they may add it, not all the features.

Right.

Strange.

Where are we at?

I actually said it for 29 minutes or 30 minutes instead of 30 seconds, but yeah.

Okay.

15 seconds in.

That's all I wanted to say about that.

And then some news about how Mercedes may drop car play.

The world is weird.

The world is very weird.

We already know General Motors is dropping car play from its gas vehicles.

And you know I, so my brother-in-law bought, he's been in like three or four different

Teslas.

He started with the Model S like many moons ago.

I think before.

When there was only the Model S.

Yeah.

I think like back in 2012, before I got married, he had like one of the OG Tesla Model

3's and has, you know, maintained like every three years has gotten a new one

and apropos of the earlier kind, and this is like the third time I've said that word.

To that conversation, he bought a Lucid Air recently.

And loves it so much more because of Apple CarPlay.

The Model S really was the predecessor for the Lucid Air.

Like they're kind of the same car.

Yeah.

But he is elated with it.

So that's there.

I don't usually deal with recalls because recalls are boring, but here's an interesting

one.

406,290 Honda Civics being recalled between 2016 and 2021 because the available 18-inch wheels

may not have been fitted with proper steel inserts around the lug holes.

Oh.

They can come loose.

Okay.

That would be bad.

Now, all four of them would need to come loose for it to be really, really bad.

But I mean, just one coming loose would be bad.

Well, it's bad.

Bad.

Yeah.

Two coming loose is you're going to feel it.

Yeah.

One maybe not, but here's the funny thing.

Okay.

And it's not that funny.

This way back when, if you remember the General Motors key problem, the one we talked about

Mary Barra having been promoted to deal with, they don't know which wheels.

So they're recalling 400,000 of them because 3,000's two, they know exactly the number.

3,276 wheels are affected.

But they just don't know which ones.

They don't know which ones.

Oh.

Yeah.

And this is like the GM thing where they didn't have parts numbers and stuff.

Yeah.

Anyway, that sucks.

Yeah.

Anyway, if you have a Civic in that period with the optional 18-inch wheels, notices will

go out on December 8th.

Okay.

By mail.

Yep.

All right.

I don't know if this story matters yet or not.

Ford's CPO on Amazon Autos.

Yes.

I saw that.

I don't know if it matters.

I don't know if that makes it easier for people to access it, but CPO is certified

pre-owned.

We talked about this a little because my daughter's car she just bought was CPO.

And what that is basically is a used car that has been inspected and if it's

a year old, I don't know how much inspecting it needs.

But it's been inspected and outfitted with a special factory warranty that often exceeds

the warranty that you would have gotten had you opted for a new car.

So that's really cool.

I don't know how much easier that's going to be for customers to shop.

Well, you know, I was just listening to the Automotive News podcast on the way here.

And one of the arguments they made for it was that, oh, you'll be on Amazon

shopping for holiday gifts and you'll see a Ford Bronco there and maybe you'll click

on it and want to buy it.

And I'm like, really?

I'm looking for a $20 whatever phone charger for my sister and, oh, Ford Bronco.

Yes.

Click buy.

Yeah.

I don't do a lot of $55,000 in-house shopping things.

No, no.

Like more than like 20 bucks.

I'm like, I really have to think about that.

Yeah.

Like a special flavor of Pringles, that's an impulse buy while you're on Amazon.

And then they come all broken up anyway.

Yeah.

We talked about that.

So you had, you've got two things here to talk about.

Yes.

One, you got a sneak peek at the Kia Telluride.

Yes.

And I'm going to say this next thing with a certain amount of trepidation, the 2027

Kia Telluride.

Yeah.

They're actually skipping a model year.

Yeah.

And...

Is that going to affect supply?

I don't know.

It doesn't seem like it will.

No.

I mean, so they're actually doing the full review, reveal of the vehicle this week

at the LA Auto Show.

So on Wednesday, we should have all full spec details, engine, powertrain, all that kind

of stuff.

But what I had the opportunity...

That car is like half the news.

Yeah.

It is.

At the LA Auto Show.

It's going to be a quiet year.

The other half of the news is like Hyundai, but this is the design preview that I

went to.

I got to see the X-Pro model and it was really, really attractive.

I thought the new exterior styling was very Land Rover-esque, very sleek.

You actually went to a studio...

I did.

...and looked at a clay model.

Well, I...

So both.

I went to a design studio, the design studio for Kia, and they don't let people...

Like I think this is the first time they've ever let journalists in there, and we were

there.

And so they had a guy...

That's because journalists touch things and leave things smudgy.

That's true.

But they had a guy who was actually working on a clay model version of this, and then

they had a pre-production version of the X-Pro that we could climb around in and

look at.

So I got to see them working on the clay model, which is kind of cool in and of itself, because

what they do is you have a steel frame, they put foam around the frame, then they put the

clay on top of the foam, and then they use their knives to kind of cut and sculpt.

To get a shockingly realistic image of the vehicle.

There's fantastic stuff from the 50s and 60s and even 70s, a lot of Detroit stuff, where

they did clay models that were 50-50.

So it'd be like one grill on one side and one grill on the other.

Really cool.

But if you get to see that kind of stuff in a design studio, it's kind of awesome.

Yeah, and I do have a TikTok out there.

I think I also put it on YouTube.

So if you find me on YouTube or TikTok, actually I think I have it on Instagram too.

So you can find me where I am and you can see it.

So the thing about this vehicle that I took note of is that they gave no technical

information, but it is larger.

A little bit.

Like the wheel base is stretched.

Yeah.

And what's interesting...

The wheel base is longer, I think.

The wheel base growth is actually greater than the car's growth, suggesting that there will

be less overhang.

Yeah.

I think there's...

Necessarily.

I think the geometry forces are going to be less overhang, which means it might

be a more serious off-roader.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, they've got front and rear recovery hooks and Kia is a frequent participator

in the Rebell rally.

And so I have to think that a lot of what is going into their X-Pro models was learned

in real life experiences.

And so...

But no.

I mean, this model is gorgeous and you look at it and from the side, it has a very

Land Rover appearance.

It looks much higher end than what you would expect.

I might be a little jaded.

It doesn't look that different to me.

Oh, it looks very different.

It looks like all the styling cues are almost exactly the same as the old vehicle.

Well...

I don't know.

Maybe it's just my dull aging eyes.

It is your dull aging eyes.

And I really like the new lighting signatures.

To me, it harkens back to the original rectangular lighting signatures that they had that were

very iconic and then they switched away and they had the two little slashes and it was

not as attractive.

Everyone did a thing where you have a car review to share.

I think we're going to wait on that and we'll do it after the quiz.

We can do that.

All right.

Just a decision midstream.

Got it.

So we can continue talking about the Kia.

Yes.

I got it.

One of the things that happened to Kia and Hyundai too is that their front end designs, their

grille designs, started to change when they went to LEDs.

And for a little while, they really, really wanted you to know they were LEDs.

So that's one of those things where it'll be funny to know.

It'll be interesting to know 10, 15 years from now if that looks silly to us or not.

But you don't know.

And it sold cars.

Those things certainly sold well.

And people love the Telluride.

And the similar Hyundai, people love it.

Well, and it's really funny because I've been posting about both the Hyundai Palisade and

the Telluride lately because I drove the new Palisade last week, or a couple weeks ago,

and with the hybrid version.

And people are like, so which do you like better?

And I'm like, well, I haven't driven the Telluride yet.

But it's one of those things where it's like very design.

I mean, underneath, they're kind of the same vehicle.

But it's design and features is what is going to sell the vehicle to you.

Yeah.

The drivetrains will be identical.

Yeah.

And then it's how they tune them, how they package them, how they style them, and how they

price them are different things.

And I am actually hoping that they're more different now than they have been in the past.

And I recall a lot of our journalist colleagues really preferred the Kia when they were new,

when both first came out, largely for styling reasons.

Yeah.

And I was probably a party of one, usually am.

I preferred the Palisade because of the features.

When the Palisade first came out, it had the blind view monitor on both sides, whereas

Kia put theirs in the center and it was kind of an awkward location.

There were...

I kind of did the center location.

For people who don't know what that is, it's your outside mirrors projected on the instrument

panel.

Yeah.

It's like a blind...

Yeah.

It's just...

Super useful.

...digital view of your blind spot.

And I loved it.

But I like the Hyundai, or the, yeah, the Hyundai representation better.

Plus Hyundai had like power third row seats.

It had heated third row seats.

It just had some features that the Telluride didn't have.

And that kind of carries through into this generation with the Palisade having more premium

features than the Telluride has.

So if you want the features, like heated third row seats that are actually comfortable, Palisade,

but if you want...

You know, if you're more designed forward, if you're looking for the features, Telluride,

or you're looking for the design or the elements there, Telluride.

I'm going to ask you a question now that people used to ask General Motors people

about in the 80s when they were talking about Buick and Oldsmobile.

Okay.

In your mind, how it's branding, positioning, how are Kia and Hyundai different?

You know, that's a really tough question because...

It is still a tough question.

So similar.

Yes.

It's still a tough question.

But I would say Hyundai is more premium, more luxury, whereas Hyundai has more of an

athletic, sporty feel to it.

So like, you know, they branched out and they did like the Stinger.

You know, they tried that for a while.

The X-Pro version and the, you know, off-road-y-ness that they've got going on some of their vehicles.

I don't know.

I just, I feel like Kia is a little bit more on the sporty athletic side, whereas, I mean,

and Hyundai has some off-road stuff too, but they're more on the premium luxury

amenities side.

You think that's it?

Yeah.

I mean, that's my opinion.

I haven't thought about it hard enough, so I don't even know if I agree with you.

Just say yes.

I agree with you, Jill.

Yes.

Awesome.

And I'm going to have Randy send that to me so that I can play it on repeat.

That should be your ringtone.

Yeah.

Yes, I agree with you, Jill.

Thank you.

All right.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, we talk to Tiago Castro.

He's vice president, infinity of the Americas.

Stick around.

Welcome back to the Car Stuff Podcast.

And we're back.

This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast.

She's Jill.

I'm Tom.

And it's interview time.

It is.

I'm excited because this is a good topic.

On the phone with us is Tiago Castro.

He is the vice president of infinity of the Americas.

Tiago, how are you, sir?

Hey, Tom, good.

How are you?

Jill, how are you?

Good, good.

I am well, sir.

Thank you.

And thank you for making the time for us.

This is a great topic and I'm glad we're doing this.

But before we start talking about infinity and for people who don't know that's Nissan's luxury

division, tell us a little bit about your career because you've been with Nissan for a while,

Nissan the corporate parent, and you've done some interesting stuff.

Absolutely.

I actually was just thinking about last time I saw you, Tom.

I think it was in 2018 in the Chicago Auto Show.

Yes.

So it's been a while.

Your memory is phenomenal, sir.

Oh, thank you very much.

We try.

But, you know, I started my career in Michigan working for the technical center, the Nissan

technical center, North America, so that Farmington Hills, Michigan.

And I started as a design engineer designing seats and interior.

From there, you know, I worked in product planning, marketing, sales, and you name it.

I had the two international assignments.

I led the like commercial vehicle business unit.

And here I am leading infinity now.

I'm very proud of what we will do with infinity.

I think we have a very clear plan of the future.

We understand what needs to happen.

There's a full alignment of all executives in the company and, you know, the future

is bright, but, you know, I'm here to talk to you.

So let's go.

Well, thank you.

And I'm going to do something I always do and I'm already off topic, but I need

to know, does designing seats and interior material things give you a greater sense

of what divides mainstream from luxury?

I don't know if just that alone will do it, but I think that's added to the context.

One of the missions I have here in my current job is to improve the present

and accelerate the future.

And when I say accelerate the future is to put together a product plan that

will help infinity succeed in the U.S., in the Americas, and ultimately globally.

And knowing how things are done in the organization help.

What do engineers need?

How to prioritize?

What do the sales team need?

You know, so because I had so many experiences, the company gave me this

opportunity to work in so many different parts of the organization.

That foundation is very strong.

And then you start seeing synergies.

And I think that's where getting stuff done helps.

And obviously as we're part of this industry, as you know very well,

we pay attention and understanding what luxury means is critical for infinity.

And we can talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, and I want to do that.

I want to go back to the start of infinity for just a moment.

So 1989, 1990, infinity and Lexus.

The initial battle there was glorious, right?

There was the LS 400 and the unbelievable grillless beauty that was

the Infinity Q45.

And that was sort of the inertia that launched this brand in the U.S.

And I think everyone remembers those cars because they were fantastic.

But where is infinity now?

It's obviously not about sports at hands.

It's certainly not in terms of volume.

But you guys have just shed some models.

You're at a point in the middle now where you're about to add some models.

Where is infinity now and where do you want to take it?

So infinity now is, you know, we had a little bit of soul searching.

What do we want to be going forward?

And I think we need to go back to our roots.

And what do I mean by that?

We needed to be a company that is not for everyone.

It's for you.

And what do I mean by that is we're designing a vehicle that will be

satisfying specific people that love to be with infinity.

And we're going to provide the best client experience you can

possibly imagine for these clients so they can not only like us,

but they will be delighted to work with us.

And part of what we need to do is, yes, be distinctive,

but distinctive by design, intentional on what we do.

And when it comes to product line up, that's also what we

needed to do.

So you will see in the next few years, infinity will launch one

product per year for the foreseeable future.

You know, doing it very well.

And I've been really emphasizing this topic internally is it

doesn't matter if it's through the launch or how we work with

our retailers, how we take care of our clients,

or even our internal team.

We needed to do less, but do it very well.

And fundamentally, when you do this every day, this mindset,

you wake up every day and you do better than the day before,

and worse than the following day at the winning process.

So the QX60 is a big thing for the brand right now.

That was redesigned last year and it is so much better than

the old vehicle.

Congratulations.

That is big, clearly high profit product.

How much does that vehicle being a large SUV speak to what

infinity wants to be?

Is that sort of an outlier product or is it core to the brand

moving forward?

So you're referring to the QX80, correct?

Yes.

So the QX80, it's instrumental for us.

It is not only because it's a profitable model, but it's also

because it is our flagship model.

So about the content, the design aspiration, the

technology that we will apply to the rest of the lineup

started there.

And we launched this product just last year.

It's being roughly 12 months.

We launched in August of 24.

It is still in ramp up mode.

In fact, we had now 16 consecutive months of year-over-year

growth.

Congratulations.

Very strong, yes.

I'm very proud to say that the clients are rewarding us

with their business, which is exactly what we need.

And there's more to come from QX80.

This is also a platform for us to test, again, new technology

or even new concepts for the future.

So one of the big products that you have coming up is going

to be the QX65.

And what I've read about it, I haven't seen it in real life.

I'm not sure if any journalists have yet.

But what I've read about it is that it kind of goes back

to the original FX45, which by the way was one of my

favorite SUVs ever.

So I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about

what the QX65 is and how that will move the vision of

Infinity Forward.

Yeah, the QX65 presents a big opportunity for Infinity

because not only it will be a really beautiful looking

vehicle, it is sporty, it's sexy.

It is hot, as some of our colleagues described.

But it also positions Infinity in one of the largest

segments in the industry, for premium industry, which is

this larger SUV two-row kind of where the Lexus RX plays.

There's a lot of opportunity to be in that segment.

We are using the formula, if you will, of the FX

looking back from a design standpoint.

So that's why I said it's very sexy and hot.

But we also looked at what are the things clients

use to complain about the FX.

For example, cargo space.

This vehicle has quite a bit of cargo space.

So we are giving the look without compromising the cargo,

for example.

So it's going to be exciting.

It will be produced, this vehicle will be produced in Tennessee

in our Smirnoff plant.

So it's US production, which is also important for us.

So it will be the second vehicle that we produce here

in the US.

The QX60 is also produced here.

And we have a good track record of amazing quality

out of this plant.

Nissan has recently been awarded the number one brand

in JD Power, an initial quality survey.

So that's the plant that will support us.

So we're really excited.

There's a lot to come and a lot of positivity

coming from QX65.

So Tiago, explain to me the luxury midsize crossover

coupe phenomenon.

It seems like we go to crossovers as a nation,

as a bunch of consumers, we go to crossovers

because we're practical.

And then makers are making them impractical

and people love them that way.

No, this is an interesting phenomenon.

And that's within time that we've really studied

to come up with this vehicle.

If you look back and when the team was starting to design,

we know the design is appealing

and will attract new customers.

We also know as you described,

sometimes you're buying SUV because you need the space.

And one of the things that we couldn't compromise

was that space.

So this vehicle, and I can't wait to show you,

both of you, when you have a chance,

we will drive it together.

And you will see.

I would love that.

Fun to drive, but it looks sexy.

We had a big debate about what to call.

We don't call it a coupe at all.

It's more like a fastback, you know?

Design, but it's not a coupe

because a coupe immediately tells you

that you will compromise on a car going,

that's not the case.

Yeah, coupe is such a strange word for that.

It troubles me deeply.

It's been troubling now for a decade and dang BMW.

Yes.

Actually more than a decade, right?

The X6 has been around for a while.

Yeah.

Jago, moving forward, how important is

hybridization or electrification to you guys?

Well, it's important for clients,

so it's important for us.

We are planning within that plan of one product per year,

a hybrid vehicle coming up in a few years.

There will be leveraging a Nissan platform

of a small SUV.

So that's a big winner for us.

It's probably going to be our number one volume vehicle.

Think about using our,

what we call e-power hybrid technology.

And then that vehicle becomes fast,

fun to drive, very silent.

So it has a lot of opportunity for us to

use this platform and make it through luxury vehicle,

obviously adding content and adding sophistication

and so forth and so on.

So I'm really excited about this part of the segment

and the opportunity that this vehicle will present to us.

So you guys have a lot of things coming,

a lot of things going on,

and you have the benefit of kind of having an eye

on the big picture and everything that's in the pipeline.

And from what you can share,

because obviously there are things you can't comment on,

from what you can...

Don't make it that easy for them.

Thank you, Jill.

Yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying.

But no, from the things that are coming,

like what is the thing that you are most excited about?

Like, what is the thing that's just got you

like giddy with delight?

You know, if I step back,

I'm really excited about the QX-65

and because we're so close to the launch,

next spring we're going to be starting the launch

of this vehicle,

sending to our retailers across the nation

and really doing something special.

We've been discussing, as I mentioned earlier,

what is the best but do it well.

And this is our opportunity to launch a product,

launch a product successfully,

drive demand in excess of production.

So you truly are able to provide clients

across the nation that luxury experience.

So this is one that also will mark

this new beginning for Infinity.

You know, now there was...

We're stabilizing.

I told you all that we did the sole searching.

We know exactly what we need to do

going forward from our global CEO,

Ivana Spinoza,

to our chairman of America,

is Christian Munea, to myself.

We're very aligned.

We know what we need to do.

So that's why I'm so excited about this product.

Cool.

I have a quick question for you

about your product lineup at the moment.

So you guys have eliminated the QX-50

and QX-55 from the lineup moving forward.

And I don't know if this plays into that

decision or not,

but they were imported from Mexico.

By eliminating those vehicles,

have you effectively moved the brand upstream

and is that part of what you're trying to do?

This...

First of all, the plan of stopping the production

of QX-50 and 55 was basically announced

even before we headed the tariffs.

So it wasn't just...

Okay.

The tariffs were actually pulled ahead a little bit.

This month right now of November

is going to be our last month of production

of the QX-50.

But it is going to move the brand

a little bit upwards as you described,

which is something that we have to watch, right?

Because there are clients that want to join our brand.

And at one point,

that starting price will be different.

That's why we see the importance

of the certified pre-owned also in our brand.

We're taking special care of certified pre-owned.

We have a process to certify those used vehicles.

Quite successful so far.

We sell several units per month.

And we keep track of those customers.

So when they're ready to upgrade,

they have another option to buy another certified pre-owned,

obviously, or coming into our new vehicle

and stick with Infinity as their brand.

Interesting.

And another question,

sort of an extension of the last one.

Automotive News is reporting

that you guys are going to be bringing back

a sporty small sedan,

which is great news for enthusiasts,

but probably not great news for volume.

How important is that as a halo vehicle for you guys?

And what do you think the customer base is

for that sort of thing anymore?

Yeah, I think you're spot on on the volume.

It's not a volume play.

This is the...

It's truly distinctive by design.

We're trying to be identifying how to operate

in a way that represents our roots.

We've been very successful with sedans,

especially with sports sedans.

We have a following.

A lot of clients connecting with us through social media,

through letters,

bring back the sedans and so forth.

But I agree with you that this is not a volume play.

It's an opportunity for us to, again,

connect it back to our roots,

show clients what we can do

and have something inspirational in the lineup

that is fun to drive, sexy,

and allows us to move the needle

and connect with more and more clients across the nation.

When might we see that sedan?

You know, one product per year,

it's not next year.

I'm looking forward to that.

Tiago, we run out of time,

but is there anything else you want our listeners to know?

Well, first, thank you both, Tom and Jill,

for allowing me to be here.

There was a lot of questions about,

you know, what's the future of infinity.

I want everybody to know

infinity is here to stay,

and there's really no stopping us.

The company is completely committed to the brand,

and we're going to accelerate going forward.

Well, that's good to know.

Tiago, thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you. Have a good one.

You too, sir. That was Tiago Castro,

Vice President of Infinity of the Americas.

We're going to take a break, and when we come back...

Quiz time.

Questions or comments?

Drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

That's carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

Welcome back to the Carstuff Podcast.

And we're back. This is the Consumer Guide

Carstuff Podcast, Episode 301.

301.

We've got a long way to go to hit another 100.

Yeah, we do.

That voice is Jill Simonillo,

the leading editor here at Consumer Guide,

Freelancer, North American Carrier the Urger,

and my favorite part of the show

is when she talks about her social media outlets.

I thought that was your second favorite part.

I thought your favorite part was when I talk about running.

I forgot about that.

Because I am training for a half marathon now, so...

Oh, good.

So there could be more running talk in the future.

We'll have to devote a whole segment to that.

We should. We should.

Do you ever use Shoe Goo?

No.

When I was in high school, a guy named Todd,

who was on the track team,

people used to rip through their shoes really quickly.

Okay.

And I guess shoes were different then. I don't know.

They were.

But Shoe Goo was literally something you could use

to form, like, new parts of the heel or sole

to bring back the mass.

You know, I just buy new shoes.

Yeah.

But in high school, you know,

only family with a lot of kids,

that's not always an option,

and track shoes were expensive.

And you were supposed to buy good track shoes

for foot health.

So I ran Cross Country in high school,

and they actually gave me shoes.

Oh.

Yeah.

So I didn't have to buy them.

No, I think people shared Shoe Goo.

A Shoe Goo.

It's a real thing.

I've never heard of it.

Now I'm going to have to Google it.

You'll have to check it out.

Shoe Goo, real thing.

So that was your favorite thing.

So your next favorite thing is me talking

about social media.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'll be right back. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah.

So you can find me on TikTok,

Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn,

Threads, Blue Sky,

and all the things at Jill Siminello,

my name,

or I use the hashtag Cartageur.

And I'm getting ready to do a rebrand

of my YouTube channel.

So stay tuned.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, so stay tuned.

In addition to being able to put

the Car Stuff podcast videos back online,

I will have a little bit of a rebrand coming soon.

Hmm.

I think that whenever you talk about running,

I will talk about jazz vibraphomists.

Okay.

Yeah.

Lionel Hampton.

I would like to know what people would like

to hear about most.

Jazz or running?

Oh, jazz.

Running.

Lionel Hampton.

Running.

He did a show called Flying Home,

a song called Flying Home that he borrowed.

I can't remember who it might have been

from Benny Goodman.

Fantastic song.

And they'd launched that guy's career.

But the vibraphone, giant xylophone.

Okay.

And it's a fantastic jazz instrument.

Okay.

It doesn't get enough play.

But we got to move on here.

We got a quiz to get to.

Did you finish your...

Yes.

Okay.

Where did you are?

Come find me.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm back then.

Okay.

It's quiz time.

Yes.

And sort of in honor of Tiago.

Okay.

What is a Nissan?

Okay.

Actually, was it a Nissan?

Was it a Nissan?

Yeah.

Okay.

So I'm going to take a bite of my cinnamon donut.

Uh-huh.

While you ask your first question.

It's all dry and powdery.

Will you be able to talk after that?

I can talk with it in my mouth.

Kind of.

I can.

If I was just listening, I'd be like,

Donut in her mouth.

Would you?

Maybe.

Hmm.

All right.

Was it a Nissan?

I got five cars here for you.

There's five questions total.

Okay.

Oh, these are real models.

You have to tell me if they were Nissan models.

Okay.

Are you ready?

Mm-hmm.

The Nissan Stanza.

Ooh.

Was that a real Nissan model?

Or was it in a Suzu?

Now, don't mess me up.

Or a Jaguar.

Mm-hmm.

Definitely don't think it was a Jaguar.

No, they don't really do model names.

They don't do anything anymore.

Yeah, at the moment, kind of nothing.

Stanza, I feel like that was a car.

Was it a Nissan?

That is the question.

They all were cars.

Yep.

I'm going to say yes.

Oh, yes.

The Nissan Stanza actually preceded the Altamo between 1982 and 1992.

It was a midsize.

Actually, it was probably spent some time as a compact,

but cars got bigger.

You're on the board, you have one.

The Nissan Pulsar.

Hmm.

That name has an interesting history.

But was it a Nissan?

I'm going to say no.

It was.

Ah.

It was a small hatchback, completely forgotten for the 1983 model year only.

And then it returned as the Pulsar NX,

which was a cool car that had two different rear-end treatments that you could buy.

One was a wagon and one was more of a fast-backy thing.

The NX was available between 1987 and 1990.

I drove one.

Okay.

Way back when.

Okay.

That wasn't that exciting.

Okay.

You have one point still.

Okay.

The Nissan Prism.

I know there was a Geoprism.

So I'm going to say no.

Nope, it was the Geoprism.

1989 to 2002, that was built more or less for Geo by Toyota.

Okay.

And Sam's going to text me about this.

I think it was built at Fremont, which is the old, which is now the Tesla factory out in

California.

Okay.

I think so.

Anyway, there you go.

Nissan Storm.

What do you got?

You got two points, right?

I do.

Oh, Storm.

Was there like a Chevrolet Storm?

I kind of don't feel like that was a Nissan.

I'm going to say no.

Nope, it was a Geo.

The Geostorm 1990 to 1993 was based on the Asuzu Impulse.

So you have three, you've already won.

The Storm was available on the GSI trim with a 16 valve engine.

Kind of spunky.

Kind of spunky, one of the more entertaining of the Geo lineup.

Finally, the Nissan Oasis.

Hmm.

Oasis does not sound familiar to me.

From any brand.

It was a band.

Yep.

The Oasis, the Brothers, yeah.

Champagne Supernova.

Coming back together, Wonderwall.

Oh, good.

Oh, that's great.

I know.

That makes you happy, doesn't it?

Yeah.

Almost as happy as talking about running.

Making a note to myself.

Oasis is coming back.

At least that's what I've heard.

There's no joy in my life.

I know.

Going to need an answer because we have another car to talk about.

So to say it again, it was Nissan Oasis.

I'm going to say no.

Nope.

This car is a fantastic history.

It was the Asuzu Oasis and it was built for them by Honda.

It was actually based on the Honda Odyssey.

Okay.

So very early version of the Honda Odyssey sold by Asuzu.

And then Asuzu, because Honda really wanted to get into the SUV game.

When they were all SUVs, they weren't crossovers yet.

They sold the version of the Rodeo to Honda, which was the first passport.

It gets weirder because the Asuzu, is it called the Trooper or Trooper 2, became the Acura SLX.

Crazy.

But they needed an SUV, too.

Right.

That's that story.

All right.

You've got four, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

You've got four.

Nice job.

All right.

We're going to do this a little ahead of time, but we're going to be talking some Thanksgiving.

Okay.

What's coming?

A bonus question coming.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln declares the first official national Thanksgiving.

The last Thursday in November, almost every illustration, menu and description from that

point forward shows a giant roast turkey.

Okay.

All right.

You ready for the question?

Yeah.

It's going to have nothing to do with that, isn't it?

No.

It's all about that.

Okay.

Which of the following is not a breed of American turkey?

Okay.

No clue.

We haven't heard them yet.

Yeah.

It might be obvious.

No, it's not going to be obvious.

It's going to be super obvious when you hear these.

No.

All right.

The Baltimore Cherry Gullet.

Okay.

The Jersey Bluff.

The Bluff is a funny name for a quiz question.

The Jersey Bluff.

The Merriam's Wild Turkey or the White Holland.

We know a guy named Jeff Holland.

He's white.

Unrelated.

He works for Vinfast.

Yep.

Okay.

So.

He owes me a call.

We were going to talk about podcasting.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay.

I'm so distracted.

Say it again.

The Baltimore Cherry Gullet.

Okay.

The Jersey Bluff.

The Merriam's Wild Turkey or the White Holland.

Which of those is not an American breed of turkey?

Not.

So three of those are real.

Yeah.

I'll go with the Bluff one.

You're saying the Jersey Bluff is fake?

Yeah.

That one's real.

I want to guess again.

I'm wasting time when we don't have time to waste.

Cherry Gullet.

That one's the fake.

Okay.

The Baltimore Cherry Gullet.

Nice job.

Okay.

Here you go.

I'll just autograph this for you.

There you go.

We're not very good about the autographed quizzes.

Which you'll sell someday a huge profit on eBay.

That doesn't even look like your signature by the way.

It looks like 4C.

Yeah.

All right.

You recently spent time driving the Polestar 4.

I don't know why that was so hard for me to get out.

It was just there in my head and then the door didn't open.

I was going to say, was it me chewing my donut?

Was that the problem?

Just made surprise people, but it is the fourth vehicle ever produced by Polestar.

I'm so surprised.

The first one was a small plug-in hybrid sports car.

The second was a small hatchback.

Kind of a good-looking thing.

The third, which they still sell, is the Polestar 3, which is a midsize crossover.

That's fantastic.

Yes.

And now the Polestar 4.

What is that?

That's a good question.

For some reason, the folks at Polestar seem to think there's some volume to be had here.

Yeah.

It's not quite a sedan.

It's not quite an SUV.

I think for Nactoy, we classified it as an SUV because they call it like an SUV sedan or

something like that.

It's a little bit like the Toyota Crown.

Yeah.

That kind of reminds me of the Toyota Crown, except that instead of a trunk, it has a true

lift back to it.

Okay.

Which the Crown does not.

Right.

So it makes me think more of an SUV or a crossover because of that.

Okay.

But the other really interesting slash weird thing about it is it does not have a rear window.

This is a really weird glimpse into the future.

Yeah.

If it is indeed something we adopt.

Yeah.

We as an automotive community, and by that I mean people who have to pay money for vehicles.

Right, right.

And I mean it was, so if you have a digital rear camera mirror in a vehicle today, it's

essentially that there's a camera on the back of your vehicle and instead of being able to

see out the rear window, there's just a digital display on the rear view quote unquote mirror.

So there is a mirror hanging from the windshield.

Yes.

It's where it was.

So in terms of what it's asking consumers to accept, it's not entirely a leap because

you can see out the rear view kind of.

Yes.

The other thing is it does also double as a mirror.

So you can like flip it down and like look at your backseat passengers.

Oh, or I can see if I've got donut crumbs in my mustache.

Well then you would have to tilt it towards you.

Yes.

Yeah.

I drive that way.

Yeah.

Every mirror is on me.

Well.

I'm very vain.

You're so vain.

And then I have a lot of accidents because.

You're vain.

Yeah.

Yeah, got it.

Don't tell the people who supply your vehicle that.

No.

They would know if I had an accident.

Okay.

At some point.

Right.

They're going to figure it out.

That is true.

Yeah.

But I mean, so I thought the Polestar 4 was really cool.

The technology is well done.

The technology in the 4 is very similar to what we saw in the 3.

So the large screen, the controls that are through the screen for your steering wheel

and your side mirrors, but they've given you a shortcut on your thumb wheel for your,

on your steering wheel to do that.

The ride and handling is very smooth.

It is fast.

I just, I had a brief moment, like I drove it back in July and the embargo just lifted in

November.

So I had a really long lead time between driving the vehicle and actually being able to talk

about it.

But I had a whole bunch of warm fuzzy feelings about it.

Just from, from the technology to the, the seat comfort to the overall visibility.

The rear camera mirror didn't bother me.

You know, the lack of a rear window didn't bother me.

Do you still have the ride height that you would have from a crossover?

Similar to the crown.

It's kind of like a lifted sedan.

Okay.

And then part of the reason too that there is this migration from sedans and coupes

to crossovers is because once the road started to fill up with these larger,

higher vehicles, everyone wanted a larger, higher vehicle because he wants to be stuck

behind a crossover in traffic and not be able to see around it.

My husband apparently.

Yeah.

So, this is sort of a premium thing going on, right?

Fast-packy.

We were just talking about the QA65.

Yes.

This is not that dissimilar in terms of mission, I think.

Where's the price point?

Of course you asked me that and I completely don't have that in my head at the moment.

But the one thing that I did ask them at the, because this is not built in the United

States, I want to say it's built in South Korea.

So, one of the things that I asked them at the press launches, like, so, tariffs.

Like, is the price going to go up or did you factor in the cost of tariffs in the

price?

And they said they factored in the cost of the tariffs with the price.

So, we shouldn't expect to see that going up.

So, we now have a deal with South Korea and that's 15%.

So, that's what that is down from the 20-25% punishment tariff.

God knows what people were being punished for.

But so, that's the deal.

South Korea is the weather, because the Polestar was going to build things in China

and that's not going to happen now.

Right.

For this market.

Yeah.

And I just did a quick Google search.

It looks like the base price is $54,900.

Okay.

I thought those came in higher.

Okay.

And, I mean, the vehicle that I drove had a higher price because it was like

a normal motor performance version, like the top of the top all-wheel-drive version.

So, I feel like the vehicle I drove was probably closer to 70, but the

Google says 54.

Interesting.

Polestar is such an interesting brand.

One of the things I learned and I didn't realize that this before we talked to the

folks from Polestar, all Polsters are sold through Volvo dealers.

Yeah.

But not that many of them.

There's still lots of states out west, for example, where you can't get one.

Yeah.

This is the bottom here in Chicago and on East Coast, you know, New York, wherever.

You're good.

Down in Miami, places like that.

But still, the supply is limited.

They still need to get the volume up there.

How's the styling?

I mean, the others I've seen are fantastic.

Yeah.

I think the styling is really good.

It was really funny.

So, I did a video of a different vehicle and the Polestar 4 was parked by it.

So, it was at the North American Car of the Year, Fall Drives.

And I was in the parking lot and people, like, there were several people were like,

what's the car in front of it?

What's that other car?

Like, I don't care about the car that you're filming.

I want to know what that other car is.

It is very attractive.

The interesting thing about any Polestar product is when you see it on the road,

your first thing is, like, is that some strange Volvo I don't know about?

Exactly.

And the answer is yes.

It is kind of a strange Volvo you don't know about.

Yeah.

The relationship with the Volvo is a little tenuous right now.

But both Volvo and Polestar are owned by Geely, Chinese car maker Geely.

And Polestar was kind of a Volvo spin-off.

Well, it started out as kind of like the performance brand.

Well, way back when.

Way back when.

It was performance models.

I had driven Polestar versions.

And there's still Polestar versions of Volvo vehicles.

I think I had the Polestar version of the V70 recently.

The wagon.

With the yellow seat belts.

Yeah, fantastic car.

Amazing.

But so, I think it's weird that they're still using the Polestar branding.

Confusing.

And then you have the full separate Polestar electric vehicle models.

Going back to, you were talking about Polestar 1, Polestar 2, Polestar 3.

Their strategy, their naming strategy, isn't like, oh, the 4 is bigger than the 3.

It's just bigger than, it's just, that's the order in which they were created.

Which is very confusing.

Because there's nothing about the name that tells you about the vehicle.

No.

But that, I mean.

Whatever.

What does the name Caprice tell you about the vehicle?

Nothing.

Right.

Yeah.

So there you have it.

All right.

So Polestar 4, when's that go on sale?

It should be on sale now.

All right.

Starts around 55K.

Yeah.

All right.

And goes up from there.

All right.

Guess what we did?

We had a really good show.

We did.

Yeah.

I confused Tiago by calling the QX80, the QX60.

But other than that.

But he caught it.

And he moved with it.

He was good.

He didn't shame me.

He did not.

I deserved to be shamed for that.

Yeah.

You do.

So there you go.

Yeah.

Big thanks to Tiago Castro, Vice President of Infinity of the Americas.

Thank you, Jill.

Thanks to producer Randy and the good folks here at TalkZone.

Let's talk more about cars again.

Oh, next week.

Next week.

Remember to check us out at ConsumerGuide.com.

The Car Stuff podcast is produced by J-Turn Media.

To advertise on the show, please drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

Thank you.

2027 Kia Telluride, All-New Polestar 4, Plotting the Future of Infiniti

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