Clutch Culture Podcast Jan 12, 2026

#61 - Jeep Ends Plug-In Hybrids, RAM Says No Single Cab Sports Truck, Listener Comments & more | EP 61

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

70:00

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car that many people admire. It's famous for being a fun car to drive and is often seen as a symbol of American car culture.

Concept

SUV

An SUV is a type of vehicle that is bigger than a regular car. It can carry more people and is often used for driving on rough roads or in different weather conditions.

Car

Toyota Corollas

The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's cheap and gets good gas mileage. It's known for being very reliable, which means it usually doesn't break down often.

Car

2025 Mini

The 2025 Mini is a new version of a small car that's fun to drive and has a unique look. It's great for city driving because it's easy to park and maneuver.

Car

Lamborghini Urus

The Lamborghini Urus is a fancy SUV made by Lamborghini. It's known for being very fast and having a unique look, making it popular among luxury car buyers.

Car

Porsche Cayenne

The Porsche Cayenne is a luxury SUV made by Porsche. It's designed to be both comfortable and sporty, making it a popular choice for families and car enthusiasts alike.

Car

Chevrolet Trax

The Chevrolet Trax is a smaller SUV made by Chevrolet. It's designed for city driving and is easier to park than bigger SUVs.

Car

Chevrolet Traverse

The Chevrolet Traverse is another SUV from Chevrolet that can fit a lot of people and their stuff. It's great for families because it has a lot of room inside.

Car

The Ford Bronco is a well-known SUV that was first made in the 1960s and came back in 2020. It's designed for off-road driving and is popular among people who enjoy outdoor adventures, making it a competitor to the Chevrolet Blazer.

Car

Chevrolet Blazers

The Chevrolet Blazer is a stylish SUV that people like because it's comfortable and has a lot of space. It's a good choice for families or anyone who needs room for their stuff.

Car

Jeep Cherokee

The Jeep Cherokee is a type of SUV known for being tough and good for off-road driving. Many people like it for its ability to handle rough terrain and its spacious interior.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser

The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big SUV that can handle rough roads and is built to last. People use it for driving in tough conditions and for regular trips.

Car

Dodge Ram

The Dodge Ram is a big truck that people often use for work or to tow things. It's known for being tough and reliable.

Car

Mercedes-Benz GLS

The Mercedes-Benz GLS is a big luxury SUV that has lots of room for people and their stuff. It's known for being very comfortable and having high-end features.

Car

Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 is a very luxurious SUV made by Mercedes-Benz. It's designed for comfort and has lots of high-quality features, making it one of the most expensive SUVs available.

Car

Volkswagen GTI

The Volkswagen GTI is a small car that is fun to drive and has a lot of space for passengers and cargo. It's popular among people who like sporty cars.

Car

Mercedes-Benz C300

The C300 is a model from Mercedes-Benz, a well-known luxury car brand. It's a smaller sedan that offers a comfortable ride and good features.

Car

Gene Shorts and New Balances, the Rob crowd.

Listen, welcome everybody.

I am Rob, never loses a poll on Instagram at RobGTV.

I could not take this anymore.

I had to immediately hit record

and record on the video.

I thought we had more class.

I thought our crowd had more class, I don't know.

Excuse me, come again?

You guys got the whole code in here?

You guys got like New Balances

and the Corvette shirts and the Gene Shorts.

Yeah, yeah, that's right, we do, absolutely do.

So thank you to everybody,

to the hundreds of people that voted.

And at this rate, the SUV, the Corvette,

the vet SUV, whatever it's gonna be called,

probably just be the vet SUV,

will not only look better, according to people,

but will probably sell better than the Lambo.

Yeah, it's cheaper.

Well, yeah, it's cheaper,

but it's also gonna be better.

Yeah, it's cheaper.

I mean, yeah, it's like saying,

you know, they sell a lot of Corollas.

It's like, yeah, I mean, it's cheap.

Hey, you know what else?

This is a totally wasn't even on today's list.

You know what is selling better than a Corolla?

I was literally walking around yesterday,

I was doing some things and I was like,

how do I frame this tomorrow?

The 2025 Mini,

I've been talking about this for weeks now,

is selling like they're going to buy a Toyota Corolla.

I don't understand it.

I don't know what's the incentives going on.

But they're not out selling Corolla.

No, no, no, no, no.

I mean, that's how many I know are being sold

through some people that I work with.

And I'm just like,

every time I see another one, another one.

And then it's like, it's...

It's gotta be a Texas thing.

I never see them here.

Really?

Yeah, it might be a Texas thing.

It might be a Houston Austin thing,

but it's crazy.

Like I've never seen this mini,

new minis have modifications done,

whether it's a performance

or just cosmetic or whatever it is.

I think it's the desire for something smaller.

That's the only thing I can come to.

Like it's peppy, it's small,

but it's not too small.

It's obviously bigger than the original minis that came out,

but it still looks...

You've ever been a mini guy?

Only from the Italian job.

Only, that's the only time.

I don't know why, I just think it's cool.

Not to mention, I've been getting a lot of Sopranos clips

on my YouTube, but I think it's because of you.

Yeah, Sopranos is off the hook.

I just saw one where they killed Joey Diaz, I think it is.

Spoiler alert, sorry, it's 25 years old, the show.

I forget that.

I forgot that too.

I forgot he was in the show.

Yeah, me too.

I actually forgot that.

What a good show.

I mean, I'm literally watching that,

and I read the comments like,

I've never seen the show,

but I feel like I'm watching it all

just through 60-second clips on the internet.

Yeah, no, you have to assume

that it's the most clippable show ever.

Yeah, dude, that's exactly what it seems like.

Every scene looks like in 60 seconds,

you can get like a whole, like, Italian.

Yeah, you get the whole story.

A whole story.

And then to top it off, and we'll get into cars,

I saw one of my favorite clips of all time,

and it was the mad TV where Will Sasso is playing

Tony Soprano, and it's the whole Sopranos bit.

Did you ever watch that growing up?

I think I remember it,

but the only thing I ever cared about on mad TV

was already lying.

Okay, fair enough, that was early mad TV too.

But if you've never seen everybody,

go check out the Sopranos mad TV sketch,

and it's just like, it's so funny, dude.

And I haven't seen it so long.

Hey, his Jesse Ventura is...

Oh, Will Sasso's?

Yeah, that's his own.

He was in the news yesterday, it's so funny,

and I was trying to do his,

because I love the way he talks.

We have some people in the government

that don't know how it works.

I know.

Did you know he was a Navy SEAL?

He'll tell you 53 times in a 23-second period.

Well, he's always wearing the Navy SEAL hat too,

so how could you miss it?

He's a SEAL, but he hates everything about it.

He hates it?

Yeah, no, he's...

Jesse Ventura is one of those guys,

like, I don't really have an opinion on it,

but he's kind of annoying to me.

Jesse the body, no, the body, right?

The body Ventura.

Yeah, Jesse the body Ventura.

Listen, you don't know what the weight is.

I think if I had one of the all-time,

like, average nicknames in wrestling,

I think I would just be quiet.

Like, I think, you know...

Especially in the air...

What will Sasso say?

I live in the Baja.

Have you been to the Baja?

You're the way he says it is so funny.

He's so good.

When he goes...

When he gets on Brian Callan,

and he's like, what are you gonna do?

Use some of that boxing you've been doing?

Some of that boxing?

He always has this big-ass juggle water,

which I do as well,

but like, he has a huge container.

He's a funny guy.

Between Will Sasso and Dan Soder's

Randy Macho Man Savage impression.

Soder's unmatched.

I die every time.

And I don't even want to do it on the podcast

because I can't possibly do it justice,

but the way he can, like, close his eyes and do the...

Yeah, you know...

Yeah, and the best thing is,

is that if you watch Billions

and then Dan Soder's character on Billions,

like, it just all goes together.

Yeah, I gotta watch that one.

I gotta put on the list since Landman is letting me down,

but I don't want to get too far into it.

Boy, I told you.

Boy, did I tell you.

Listen, I hope...

Is there a season three?

Do we know this?

I don't know, man.

I really haven't even watched much more of season two.

I'm one of those guys.

Like, I don't know how...

I'd love to hear everybody's opinion on this.

I would love to.

Once a show jumps to shark,

but it's hard to get me back.

You're not committed?

Like, if you're too...

No. No.

I will say unequivocally,

when a show gets bad,

Better Call Saul did this to me.

Yeah.

Kind of good at the beginning,

then I was like, you know what, man, I'm...

Forget this.

This is...

This is stupid.

I give you that razor thin edge.

I leave more margin, I guess,

because I want to like it, right?

So I'm like waiting for the buildup

to continue to suck me in.

Since we're talking to mostly men here,

let's be honest.

I mean, the only thing keeping you in Landman

is the wife and the daughter.

Hey, you know what?

You're not lying.

Yeah, that's the number one reason.

Although the name...

And if you have a certain age,

Allie Larder and a whipped cream bikini

is the real reason you're still there.

What are my favorite movies ever?

I mean, if we're being honest.

Yeah.

Old boy's got some kind of a cancer, I think.

So he was promoting the moxin shirts or whatever.

So as soon as I saw him, I went to watch the movie.

Every time I saw...

Oh, yeah, James Vanderbeek.

Yeah, that's kind of like a sad story.

Yeah, super sad story.

But I saw her.

And anyway, anytime I see her or him,

I just go back and watch the movie

and it just takes me back to such a good time.

Yeah.

Say, I'm stupid.

I'm about to get hit in the nuts.

Such a good time, man.

All right, look, we got a lot.

Well, actually, let's go back to the conversation there

about the vet.

Were you surprised?

I'm going to guess and say, no, you weren't surprised

that I won the poll, but were you a little...

I wasn't really surprised.

I mean, obviously, I didn't know the poll went up.

I saw everything after the fact.

Sure.

I think it was framed in a way to help your voting.

Was it?

I'm just...

Look, if you guys are that big into jean shorts

and new balances, you're not going to be into the urus.

I mean, I get it.

It's not the same vibe.

Well, now I'm going to get a urus

and then I'm going to wear jean shorts

and my new balances and I'll be like, you know what?

This feels right.

Here's what we all haven't seen, by the way.

They'll sell like hotcakes

because you still have an age demographic

that'll buy anything Corvette.

Let's be clear on that.

So don't give me the sales number nonsense.

Sure.

Okay?

They sell more cayans than they do GT3s.

It's not like some kind of conspiracy

that you guys won here.

Okay?

I think...

I still want to see them pull it off

where when you really get in it, you go,

this is a great SUV.

Yeah.

Which I'm sure they're going to do.

But I think there's a small percentage here.

We all could go, yeah, I mean, they did it,

but it's whatever.

Yeah.

It's a Chevy Blazer.

I was going to say, if it just turns out to be a Blazer

or a Traverse or a Trax

or whatever these other economy vehicles are.

They got a lot of names, don't they?

They do.

And they're not the best.

They're not names that you think you feel

like you bought a good thing, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

Didn't you think that when they brought Blazer back,

it was going to be bigger?

I was so excited.

Because I really thought they were going to compete

with Bronco.

Yeah, for some reason, I just thought it was going to be big.

I just thought I would see them all the time.

It's like, maybe it's just going back to a certain era

that you and I were a part of that you saw Blazers everywhere.

Yeah.

And you just kind of figured once this comes back

and they'll get it right,

and then it just kind of was like a trail Blazer,

renamed Blazer.

It's just, you know what I mean?

It was such a let down, you're right.

And even the old ones to this day,

I had a buddy that sold one that was,

I mean, it was clapped out, right?

But there's always somebody that wants a vehicle like that,

like an old Cherokee we've talked about, right?

And he thought, he's like, no one's going to buy this.

I'm going to like, nobody wanted to buy it initially

if you put it up for sale.

How quick did that sell?

It sold really quick.

And he got like, he got probably $1,200.

I mean, it was, it had been through some stuff.

He was thinking he'd maybe like it to get $200 or $300 for it.

He ended up getting like $1,200 bucks for it.

And I was like, that's crazy.

I believe, yeah, it wasn't worth $1,200 bucks.

No, it was not.

I will say this, I had to, you know,

I was using my Land Cruiser for Land Cruiser things.

I had to transport a battery to the, you know,

to the auto, what is the auto zone?

I had to go on, I thought you had a job on tonight.

I had to go, you know, get a new battery for my Dodge Ram.

Again, I have these cars that you have to do stuff to.

Sure.

You know, everyone else has perfect cars

that never have anything go wrong.

It seems like I own a lot of trucks and cars

and I had to fix stuff.

We are how that happens.

Yeah.

So my Land Cru, I mean, basically it was off road.

I put the battery on the front, you know, passenger carpet.

It handled it well, Rob.

You know, suspension handled it well.

I mean, I'm all good.

I'm using it as a true Land Cruiser.

You know what I'm talking about?

Well, you know what, I'm so glad you brought this up.

I didn't even tell this to Nick

because I wanted it to be a complete surprise,

but we got an email back from our boy, Missouri Adventures.

All right, he took his Land Cruiser as well on a mission.

He was doing some infield reporting.

And I'm gonna go and just pull it out for you

because most of us that are listening,

or most of you guys that are listening to the show

don't know exactly what I'm talking about.

Let me see if I can find it.

Here we go.

And can I do the audio?

Let's go.

We are at Costco, as you can tell here.

All right?

And he's doing some reporting.

His wife's filming him.

Does the gesture, because we know what's up.

I'm going to grind tubes.

Yeah, I'm so down.

But you know the signal.

Yeah, I know the signal now.

That's unbelievable.

But, by the way, this is the coolest video

since we've been doing this.

Dude, that's so funny.

I laughed so hard.

That's so good.

My wife was talking to me, dude.

I saw the email I opened it because that's all who it was

from, and I'm watching the video as she's talking to me.

I'm not even listening to what she's saying,

to be honest with you.

Can you be quiet?

We got big things going on over here.

Dude, she was like, what is so importantly funny

that you had to not listen to what I'm saying?

Missouri Adventures, sir, that was the best reporting

I've ever seen in any podcast ever.

No question.

You guys need to go to YouTube to see the whole video,

by the way.

I get DMs when people are like, you know,

I can't see the video.

I'm like, are you on YouTube?

No.

Please go to YouTube.

Yeah, you had to go to YouTube,

but I don't know what to tell you.

The best part was that he asked,

oh, but you know, because they were sold out,

but again, the best bargain beef anywhere

you can find in your city,

he's like, yeah, we're just sold out,

but you know the signal.

Oh yeah, we know the signal.

100%, he knows the signal.

Let me ask you a question.

Yes.

You ever find it weird that after all of these years

of doing business places like Costco

don't know how many to keep on the shelf?

You know, I haven't thought about it that way.

I've always thought it's such a popular thing

that they can't keep the demand up,

but there are times I've also run into this store,

you know, the ones next to close to me,

and they don't have enough.

And I walk away and I'm like,

in my mind, I think that they do have enough,

but they're just like,

they're controlling the amount that they let out the door.

See, I agree with that.

Okay, okay.

That seems more like a Costco move right there.

A thousand percent.

Yeah, we've sold enough of these,

we've given enough good deals.

Why don't you guys go ahead and buy the $300 ribeye

right underneath here?

Yep, and then come back tomorrow

or the next day when I tell you we're gonna have more,

so you're back in the store twice that week.

Yes, 100%.

Now you're thinking like me.

That's good.

Now you Costco guys are seeing that

this has all just been something of a scam,

like when they put the tainted chickens in the back

for five bucks and everybody's like,

hey, I got a good deal.

It's like, is it a chicken?

Is it not a chicken?

How much chicken is in the chicken?

Well, I was gonna say before we even show the video,

if I need to put on my clutch conspiracy cap,

that would have been,

if you brought up why is it I can't find the stuff,

because some people just say,

they claim that they can't find it,

they never have it,

it's always different qualities of meat, which is true.

I think that, I think they wanna control

the amount of times you walk into that store,

because it's a good deal, right?

It is a good deal.

No question.

You're gonna come back.

Yeah, there's no question.

And then when you come back when they're samples,

they tripled it.

They got you back a second time

and the samples are out.

Most people are taking the samples.

They make a lot of money for a reason,

and it's not cause you're getting a deal.

That ain't happening.

And it's not cause the glizzies have stayed

a dollar 50 for 20 years.

I can't believe people eat that shit.

What?

You don't like the Costco glizzies?

I never had one.

I honestly haven't either.

Not from the food court,

but I did buy some cause they sell them in a pack.

That would, that, now that makes sense to me.

You can do what you wanna, and look,

everybody can act however they want about hot dogs.

I know you guys eat them.

We all have met the 4th of July, cook out,

like let's all relax.

But yeah, ballpark hot dogs is kind of the thing for me.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

With the steam bun and all that.

That's kind of like elite level to me.

It's not the dollar 50 Costco hot dog.

Well, I'm gonna have to go make some visits more,

even more so to Houston to go watch our new star ace pitcher,

or I guess the number two,

Hunter Brown's number one.

We got a mind, this Japanese pitcher

that wants to take down the Dodgers who's in town,

getting grills from Paul Wall and the whole thing.

I'm like, okay.

I'm all for it.

Is he learning how to hit the trash can?

You guys teach him that?

He's a pitcher.

He wouldn't be involved in such scandals.

Did you tell him how to get the,

put the thing on his lapel so he knows exactly what's going on?

Mookie Betts can let him know about that.

Let's not forget about that, everybody.

Wow, I didn't bring the show down.

Yeah.

Hey, look at that.

By the way, guys, this is earlier than we typically record.

So I didn't even get into my big can.

I'm on a small can right now of extra pep in my step.

Yeah, I'm, I got winter edition Red Bull, sugar free.

That's all right.

I've never even seen that winter edition.

That must be a Vegas.

Yeah, well, that's winter edition.

You know, that's how it goes.

It's limited.

Limited winter edition.

It's a Fuji, Apple and ginger.

So, you know, there's some health benefits.

There's some health benefits, Rob.

These conversations that we're having

that aren't even car related.

I love seeing on YouTube or anywhere else

where people are like, I just love the banter.

I'm like, you know what?

That's exactly what we're aiming to do.

Like, that's what I like about other podcasts.

Another thing I want to hear comments on.

Yeah.

I think we have to have a 2026 conversation

about podcasts, commercials and people advertising thing.

That you know they never, ever are involved with.

Like, you and I are huge Tim Dillon fans.

Okay.

Factor meals probably ain't Tim Dillon.

Five star factor, five star factor meals.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just, I'm throwing that out there.

Sure.

You know, it's like, how long is everybody

gonna keep the AG one thing going?

Like since it's been exposed and exposed and exposed.

Like, I really care about my health.

Here's AG one.

It's like, I don't know.

Like the frequency, the not committed.

Cause maybe, maybe I'm trying to think of this logically.

Okay.

There's enough people advertising

that you can advertise things you actually like.

Right.

Does that, does that seem crazy to everybody?

I think the problem is and we have,

we were approached by our, we'll call it

audio distribution platform early on,

just because of the way the podcast grew so quickly

to add integrated ads and Nick and I have talked about it

and it's just not of interest, you know?

We, cause it can make it easy.

Like if you get the listens, you get the plays,

these platforms will just make it super enticing.

Like, hey, just add the integrated baked in ads.

You don't have to do anything, set it and forget it.

If you're gonna publish it,

just add a couple of ads in there and then forget about it.

You just get paid.

Well, you guys probably know this about Rob and I.

I'm all for everybody making their money.

Oh yeah.

Okay, I'm not, I'm not trying to say don't make your money.

But if you have an hour long show

and you have 10 commercials and nine of them,

there's no chance you use or frequent or whatever.

Are we a little bit back to like AM radio days?

Yeah.

And I think that's a negative.

Absolutely.

Have you ever either sat with your kids or a younger,

just niece, nephew, whatever and try to watch a live TV show

and they have to see through.

Oh, they're not gonna do that.

They don't do it.

It blows their mind.

Yeah, it's not gonna happen.

And you know what?

I'm with them.

I'm done. Totally.

I have actually stopped listening to certain podcasts

that maybe I thought lost their fastball or whatever,

but I've been loyal to them and I like the guys

or the gals or whatever.

Once the commercials get to a certain point, I'm out.

Like that's my, that's a good reason for me to go.

Okay.

I was on the fence.

He pushed me over it.

Yeah, you know.

What I'll do is.

I just don't get it.

I don't get how we got here.

Well, greed, some might say, but I'm cool with people

making their money, but I just think you can make your money

in different ways.

I would say this even for like television networks.

And you know, look, we talk about this

with automotive businesses.

I just think there's better ad spend.

Like, why don't you have Toyota sponsor the first half

of a football game instead of running commercials constantly

and just put Toyota somewhere in the bottom right

at all times.

So it's in somebody's head and go,

here's what it costs to sponsor this game.

Like, aren't we to that point yet?

Yeah, like, because that way also would allow you

to have more of an immersive experience.

Like you see people that, you know, want to show you the game

from a different perspective.

Well, if you only have one ad running the whole time

or periodically in its Toyota, for example, use that.

Hey, let's talk to the cheerleaders.

Maybe they're interesting.

You know, maybe you want to hear

what they got going on that day.

Just do something.

Anything, yeah, innovative in that space.

I totally agree with you, man.

And it's gotten to the point.

What I was going to say is that if I know a show runs live

that I might listen to and then they'll do the audio,

the live version rarely has baked in ads.

They might have one or two sponsors that they read live.

And then on the audio portion,

they always jam a dozen different ads in there.

So I stopped listening.

It's just a horrible experience.

I stopped listening to audio and I'll just go turn on YouTube,

you know, close the window and just listen to it that way.

And I want the ads.

They need to make money.

But I think you can also care about the product

because enough people are throwing money at this.

Yeah, the listening experience.

Acting like Tim Dillon uses FanDuel to gamble on sports

is not a real thing.

You know what I mean?

Like Joe Rogan says, I don't watch sports.

And he's like, hey, go to FanDuel.

I'm like, huh?

I don't know.

He went to a UT game not too long ago.

He said he had a great time.

Yeah, that's true.

Every time I think of Tim Dillon,

I just think of the video where he's like,

she should have kept her mouth shut.

And then the neighbor shot her.

Oh, Jesus Christ, Tim Dillon.

That's a funny Tim Dillon clip.

Well, shout out again, Missouri Adventures.

Look, we posted a video about Porsches, right?

And you gave your thoughts about what's

the last remaining good value.

And it's starting to reach what I've called peak Porsche hate.

Because the same, I think equally amount of people

that agreed with you, obviously it was a good take,

are just the same amount if not more people

that hate the brand altogether

because there are no more options for them to buy.

When you, I don't really, somebody wrote something crazy

on a BMW video, like, you know, it brings me joy

when I see one of these in the ditch or something.

Or on a tow truck, I did see that was another one.

It was the BMW and the Porsche was one up on the same day.

Relax, settle down.

Like this isn't, this isn't, you know, life.

I mean, you're actually, if it's in a ditch,

it is life and death.

You know, BMW, Porsche, in some ways, Mercedes,

I think they kind of avoid this

because they're not a certain style of brand, you know,

obviously you get this with Ferrari and Lambo conversations.

Not everybody's gonna afford this stuff.

And if you wanna talk about the cars

and you wanna talk about things you've been around

or things you've driven, but there is this like

really unnecessary hate towards these cars

that everyone kind of who's driven them is like,

it's a great car.

It's a great car manufacturer.

They don't always build their best version every time,

but it's been great for, you know, 20, 30, 40 years

and Porsches in that boat.

I mean, they've been good for a long time.

If they're not your style,

I understand why you wouldn't buy one.

I also think how many people make these really

outlandish comments with no hope of ever buying one

even when they were cheaper.

Yeah, that's probably why they make the comments.

They're just so mad.

They're like, I want one, but I'm never gonna have one.

Let me just shit on it.

Yeah, I think Porsche has real,

real, real structural problems, okay,

that I think is gonna show its head,

started to already show its head, actually.

You know, that you see they're commissioning people

to like send their old Porsches back and, you know,

customize them however they want,

which by the way, is a wild scene if you haven't seen it.

Nobody does it well.

They always make the wrong choices.

So I really believe 100%,

Porsche is not gonna go down by 50%, okay?

I see those comments all the time.

There's going to be some type of correction.

There's gonna be some type of normalcy here,

but these are now what you would call

a very, very expensive sports car.

And for everybody that wasn't there,

they weren't always very, very, very expensive.

They were expensive and there was a difference, okay?

Just like we talk about with where you get

with some M cars now, you're getting into a place

where you're asking somebody to spend $135,000 on a car

and you go, is that really a $135,000 car?

Yeah.

And I don't know what the breaking coin's gonna be.

I think we all can agree

it's some type of recessionary period,

but they are out of reach.

I mean, for people that were on the brink

of being able to afford them once upon a time,

for those same people, a lot of this stuff is out of reach.

I was driving back from Houston,

we had a call you and I on Wednesday.

Yeah, I was like, dude, the days are blurring together

this week, because I know you're super busy

as the year starts off, but there was a GLS,

it was a Maybach, what's the SUV, 600 GLS, right?

And I never, you mentioned BMW and,

fucking, what were we doing, Porsche?

And then how, or rather, Mercedes is kind of outskirts

some of that because of the type of brand it is.

What I was gonna say is that they're usually

not the aggressive drivers,

like some of these other brands on the road.

Oh, no way.

Right?

The first time ever, this Maybach was driving like it's stolen,

which it may have very well stolen.

Yeah, it could be.

It could be having it for the board.

Now that I say it out loud, they might have stolen it, damn it.

He almost sideswiped me like careless driving

for the vehicle they were in and I was like, you son of a,

if I hadn't just gotten a ticket,

I might try to get some vengeance.

And by the way, that thing is big.

It's huge.

If you've ever been next to one.

That's one of those, we had one here in the shop.

I told everybody about driving it.

It's the great driving experience for luxury.

It looked like it.

It looked like it was like down at 10.

But that is one of those SUVs that looks big

and sits big in the interior.

Like there's some, as we know,

we make the jokes about the old escalated EV

that sits big and you get in and go,

wow, this doesn't seat four people comfortably.

The bus on the outside, can you on the inside?

Yeah.

So, but that GLS is big all the way around.

Tons of leg room.

And when you sit next to them at a light

or you're driving one, you're very, very cognizant

that damn, that's a pretty big vehicle

that still has that kind of small footprint feel.

You know what I mean?

Because it's not big and boxy and those tight,

like an escalator, a navigator or whatever,

but it's a big vehicle.

And I've driven two of them

and I don't know how people don't fall asleep at the wheel.

It's that comfortable, huh?

It's pretty comfortable, man.

I mean, but I say that about every sort of top-in Mercedes

for a long time.

The seats are so good, you know,

that you're just like, man, I could take a nap.

Yeah, you know what, it's funny to say that.

Well, two things.

One is that when I was next to it,

because it was silver, and I felt like in Despicable Me,

where people look over at Groot's Big O Rocket Home car thing,

it's just like, this thing's huge, right?

It is big.

It's a lot bigger than you think.

Yeah, well, especially if when you're in a GTI,

you're like, well, my car feels really small already,

as it is, but when I used to,

I did some work at a Mercedes plate

a long time ago, over a decade ago,

and when I'd drive the cars back and forth

to some of these projects I was doing with them,

the thigh positioning extender of a Mercedes

is unmatched by any car, in my opinion.

Yeah, one of the things that I would look at,

I would say right now,

there's also another thing about Mercedes

that I felt for a long time.

BMW has kind of inched into this world.

There is no bigger difference between

their lower insidians and their high insidians.

It almost feels like two different companies

built the cars.

You talking about Mercedes?

Yeah, Mercedes.

1000%.

You get in like a C300, you're like, okay.

Yeah.

Then you get in like an S-Class,

you're like, whoa, this is a lot different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's no way the same people built this.

Yeah, dude, when you would get a car for a loaner,

that usually they wouldn't let the big cars out, right?

But if that's all that was left, that's what you'd grab a key.

So if you got whatever the,

and I don't remember all the classes,

E-Class maybe, or some lower end C-Class or whatever,

people would make fun of the,

it's like, dude, I'm taking a loaner,

it's like I chose this car,

it's like what's there to take as a piece of shit,

like it's not my car.

Yeah, it's not my car, dude.

That's how big.

That's always been something that stuck out.

And now obviously with so many different BMWs,

you're getting the same feel when you go to seven series

and you go down, but for a very long time,

I just always felt it was probably just a me thing.

I just couldn't believe it was the same company.

Yeah, it is pretty much.

I was like, this is unbelievable

that this is the same company.

And you know, if you've never driven one,

I've said, I don't think I've said this on the podcast,

but you might have, you should go experience it.

And I don't know, I've never used Toro.

All right, so maybe Toro might not be the best thing,

but if you can get a different appreciation

for those kinds of cars, I recommend doing it.

Even if it's, you know, it's a splurge kind of thing.

Cause when you get into those higher end Mercedes,

for example, it really is a different experience

on the road.

Boy, it's so, all the people that have listened to us,

there's something about luxury sedans

that'll just always be near and dear for me.

It's like, I don't know what it is.

It's just, I guess when you get in one,

it just meant something once upon a time.

So I'm like, still, like it means something

when it doesn't, right?

Like this is, we're basically out of the luxury sedan world.

I mean, for all intents and purposes,

we're basically in an SUV world now,

but there's something about it, man.

And like you said, if you've never,

there's people listening to us to say,

I don't know what I'm talking about.

I don't care if you're a truck guy,

you're a Land Cruiser guy, you're this guy,

you're a forerunner.

If you get into a big body Benz, big body Lexus,

you know, a seven series BMW,

there's just always been something special about it.

Yeah, and so then, you know, I'd wrap up the day

and I'd get back at my Focus ST and I'm like,

I hate my life.

Yeah, exactly.

It's not even, it's a great car, but you're just like this.

Once you get used to a certain amount of luxury,

like I always wonder those people,

what's his name from Wolf of Wall Street,

Jordan Belfort?

Yeah, yeah.

How do you go from yachts to a prison cell to like,

you know, what's that like?

You know, because like you said, you're just at the lot.

You're driving the car and then you get in your car,

which is a great car and you're like,

oh man, I hate this thing.

Dude, it's so dumb.

It's so dumb and that's why it's funny,

like it's good to poke fun at these kind of topics

and conversations because they happen all over the world

all the time and people sometimes feel bad

for the fact that it is true.

As egotistical as it might sound

or as vain as it might sound,

it's just a matter of what it is.

Those cars are better, they drive better, they feel better.

They actually make you feel better

other than when you have to repair or pay for something,

but it is a different experience.

And here's what everybody is saying right now,

that is a certain type of guy.

Oh, those are expensive to repair.

Yeah, we got it.

Yeah, we know.

We know they are.

We're not talking about repair bills.

Okay, we're just talking about the experience

of driving the things around.

And by the way, I don't own one.

Yeah, for that reason, you know, maybe.

For that reason.

And by the way, I've gotten burnt.

I wouldn't say burnt.

I made out okay, but I've dumped some money

into some sedans that I shouldn't have purchased,

that I had to make things right

and learn some hard lessons on.

I wouldn't say that most people get,

especially today because of the SUV truck type

of economy that we're in,

just what it's like to drive around

one of those elite level sedans.

Yeah, and it's way better than having that bitter perspective

that we're seeing across the internet right now

on cars and car ownership and car appreciation even.

Like, oh, you like these kind of cars?

It's like, whoa, dude, it's so much better

to just appreciate what we know that they are.

It's good machines, fun, enjoyable, luxurious,

all that kind of jazz.

Because the other side of it just makes you,

these people that we see actually have

the Porsche video pulled up.

I mean, this one's kind of starting to blow up

more than I thought it was.

You just said a 996 is a good value.

You know, it's basically what the whole video is about.

Yeah, and by the way, it's just a math problem

at that point.

Yeah.

You know, I would really love to understand,

and I think this is probably a conversation

for a different day of, you know,

why you have to hate stuff that you're not gonna own.

It's a good segment, you know.

I'm gonna put a rainbow on some sparkles,

why you hate stuff.

Yeah, I've said this before, like, you know,

I've been, I've dealt with a lot of Ferraris in my career.

In my career, and anytime we talk about Ferraris,

the comments look the same.

A bunch of people that have never been around Ferraris,

making a lot of assumptions about Ferraris.

But I go, you never had a poster.

You never watched them and go, that Ferrari looks good.

You never liked the sound of a Ferrari engine.

Like, in what universe can you not appreciate what it is?

Yes, they're problematic.

Yes, we wish the quality was different.

Yes, yes, yes, but if you aren't the one footing the bill,

why are you hating on it

when more than likely you've never even driven one?

Right, statistically.

And that's not a shot at people,

but I never understood the hate of Ferrari,

or because I own a Porsche, I gotta hate Ferrari.

Well, that's coming back to haunt you

since Porsche's copied everything Ferrari's done,

but, you know, see the GT3 program, that was copied.

The constant hate, I think,

keeps people from just enjoying all of this.

It's fun to debate things about a car brand,

like we're all debating the Toyota situation

or the Ford situation, this recall, that recall.

I think that shit's fun.

I think you think that's fun.

Oh yeah.

But that doesn't mean I don't understand

why people buy certain things.

And that seems to be the huge disconnect, in my opinion.

Absolutely, as a matter of fact,

because from time to time, some comments will be so good

that I know that they're worth bringing back up,

even if it's just for a shout out, but man, who was it?

I'm trying to find it here real quick.

It was something to the effect,

and I'll find it and give him credit,

but it was on the Toyota one, on the engine replacement.

He goes, bought my wife a not so grand Highlander, right?

And he just kind of, it was just a really good right up where,

because that's one that we've mentioned in the past.

You almost can't find them.

People do like them.

They sell really fast, but there are plenty of experiences

where it's like this vehicle's not worth the price point.

It wasn't worth what we paid, overpaid for it even.

Shoulda bought something else, or the engine itself

shoulda been the older one,

because the older one was better.

Well, I wonder how many people get disconnected

seeing a one minute clip from us.

I've never advocated for people to pay the prices

that I've seen some of them pay on any type of vehicle.

Kia, Hyundai, Toyotas, Mercedes, BMWs.

I mean, we are pretty realistic about all brands

that you can get into some territories where,

yeah, man, I'm not gonna advocate to buy that thing,

whatever it is from whatever brand.

So I kind of ride with people on that.

It's like, look, man, you bought a grand Highlander,

you had a bad experience,

you paid too much for it for said experience.

I could put you another 10 brands

that you would have said the same thing.

You know, that's the other part of it.

It's like, I hear your story, and I totally respect it,

but there comes a point when I think there's a lot of prices

that have been paid in the last five years

that most people regret the car they bought.

Yeah, so I can't find the full name,

but I know his name was Charlie.

Charlie, for listening, appreciate letting us know,

because I don't personally see a bunch of people

complaining about the Grand Highlanders,

but, you know, everyone's got different experiences.

Yeah, there's a story.

I mean, look, there's a certain percentage of these

that are, you know, let's make no bones about this.

Every car company sells a lemon.

Right.

That's why a lemon log exists.

Right.

Okay, so Toyota, all the way down to Honda to, you know,

whoever, they are dealing with lemon log cases

in every single, you know, state in the country,

and that happens.

That's a manufacturing process.

It's imperfect, and no manufacturer escapes that.

There's not a single one.

We'll get to a couple of car stories that I have pulled up,

but I might as well just make this a podcast of the people

we're having good banter.

We're talking about comments from, you know, our videos.

Shout out Hector.

Hey, clutch cultures for the people.

I'd vote for future president and vice president right here.

Make cars affordable again.

That was a great comment.

I even screen shot it, sent that to Nick.

Hey, I'll be the, I'll be the press secretary

or the VP, whatever.

Yeah, I mean, I can just be the overlord.

And if you vote against my Corvette and Urus,

that's just like, what's the penalty?

See, this is why you can't give Nick power.

This is why you can't give Nick.

To the gulag for you.

You can't give Nick this much power.

Yeah, no, you can't.

He's got to be second in charge just so he can have some.

I'm one of those people that are very aware like,

nah, that's, that's, you don't,

you don't want me a part of that.

Hey, that's some good self-awareness.

I got my lane.

Okay.

This is, this is about my lane.

And at times it's not a good one.

So, you know, we just got to keep going.

This is hilarious.

Matt, as requested, he's doing his part because we did,

you know, say, hey, interacts and emails, DMs,

the whole thing is always fun.

How about some convertible content?

Yes, I know they have issues,

but we drive the wheels off of ours.

There's good cruiser convertibles out there

for consumers, upkeep question mark.

Cause you do love a good cab, don't you?

As everybody knows, love a good Murano, you know,

convertible just because I think it's the craziest thing.

PT Cruiser had a convertible at one point, which is wild.

That one was bad.

I don't know if you ever saw one of those.

My convertible love is the ones that were built

that make absolutely zero sense.

Like who was asking for a convertible PT Cruiser?

Who was asking for a convertible Murano?

I don't think many of you or many,

I don't think hardly five people in the world.

So that's my convertible thing.

One thing that was really popular for a long time is,

do you remember the Sebring?

Oh, yes.

Good one.

That was a pretty big body car.

I used to see those all the time.

Yeah.

That was one of those convertibles that I go.

They obviously did their homework

and those things were everywhere, right?

Look, my favorite convertible that I've driven,

that I think, I mean, obviously you can get into all kinds

of, you know, Ferraris and things like that,

that, you know, let's be clear, are technically convertibles,

but the convertible just, you know,

goes back a couple feet.

You know, you got Targas from Porsche,

but I still think one of the slept on convertibles

that people don't, if you don't never around them,

you don't realize how nice they are is the Bentley GT.

Yeah, I don't know.

I've seen, I've never seen one of those in person.

In pictures, I think they look great.

I don't know if they do it justice.

Well, it's just, it's a good experience.

Yeah.

Like it's a good experience, but average every day,

I think this is a great question.

Yeah, it is.

I wouldn't actually know.

Would you buy one yourself?

Would you buy a convertible?

Well, LC 500 has a convertible.

Oh, okay.

Well, that doesn't, well, it doesn't even count.

That car all together does no wrong.

Yeah, that'd be a good convertible.

Yeah, this would be a good question.

I'd have to really, really dive.

What's yours off the top of your head?

Off the top of my head, I'm not gonna lie.

I like T-Tops more than convertibles.

So I almost wouldn't-

Yeah, T-Tops are cool.

You know, I almost wouldn't even consider convertibles.

Yeah, no, T-Tops are cool.

I mean, look, the old Nissan 300Z, right?

Yeah.

Remember, or what was it, the 280 maybe?

The 300ZX was cool.

I don't know if that was a-

The ZX here, there you go.

Those were T-Tops, right?

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

So, man, I would have to, I think he's right.

We oftentimes overlook, overlook what's, you know,

what's out there, but I think he's right to say,

the problem for me is I look at the joke convertibles

and that's what I get enamored with is like,

I can't believe somebody-

You've had customer cars with plenty of convertibles, right?

Yeah, we've done a lot of Bentley GTs.

I mean, at, you know, look,

oh, you gotta say the Miata.

Oh yeah, the Miata's a good one.

Yeah.

The Miata, you know, you got what?

I wish you would have put what his was.

Oh, you know, you got Z4 from BMW.

Oh, Z4's a good one.

That'd probably be a good one.

Especially for a budget right now, that's a good one.

You got Corvette convertibles that I'm sure people,

but he's right.

This should be more of a conversation.

But you have to be like, I mean, you got 911 Cabriolet,

those are obvious, you know,

you know, I think you got what, 718 Boxster.

And you can tell by the price differences too,

how much more car you can get if you're willing

to get a convertible in some of these things.

Like even Cobras, like if you get a Terminator,

0304, like you're talking significantly thousands.

Okay, I got one for everybody.

What goes through your head when you see

a Mustang convertible?

Hey, what are you doing?

You're setting me up for something here?

No, no, I'm asking.

Cause here's the deal, when you live in a sunny place,

okay, Southern California, this is the case.

You know, when I go to Arizona,

when you're here in Las Vegas,

you see a lot of convertible rentals, you know,

like somebody's come down from a Northern state.

They don't realize it's cold here right now.

They get a convertible and you're like,

they gotta be freezing, but they just said,

hey, we rented this convertible.

So that's my experience with the Mustang convertible,

is I see people freezing their ass off.

Cause it's like 32 here this morning,

but there's a 99% chance somebody today

is driving with the top down

because they rented the car thinking

that Vegas was going to be warm right this second.

So you got to think rental,

you got to think midlife crisis,

and you got to think high school.

Yeah, that could be one, yeah, it's a good one.

Yeah, it's like in King of Queens back in the day,

Doug had rented a Ferrari for whatever reason

and him and his coworker were in the car

and they're like revving it up out of light

and said to some young, young ladies, right?

Some fetching ladies and he's like, hey, take it easy.

It says rental on the license plate.

You know?

I wish everyone had the joy for convertibles

that shouldn't have been built as I have

because it's one of my greatest joys in the car world.

Interesting.

Like when I see Moranos

and I have a whole bunch of people

that send me convertible Moranos when they see them,

like whether that's for sale on a site.

What a weird thing to just be kidding me.

Dude, because I can't believe it got built.

You have to understand,

one of my great joys,

and we've never really talked about this,

like I got super into the infotainment in cars

when the Escalade had the Q system

that was so horrifically bad

that you basically couldn't turn the volume up and down

people would blow speakers in that thing

because the thing was so bad.

Like I get enamored,

not with all of the great things happening,

I get enamored with what the hell is going on with this.

Like that's like my favorite thing about cars.

I'm gonna pull up a picture here in a second,

but the Q system, it was like when haptics,

I don't know if they were first starting to take off,

but it was like a half ass haptic

because it was still a button,

but it was also kind of a haptic and they never worked.

Well, you gotta realize,

you didn't get any response to hitting it.

So it wasn't a button,

like nothing pushed in at one point.

So, and then it also gave you no feedback

that something was going on.

And then you would like swipe up

and the thing would go to full blast

and it had the worst backup sensors

in the history of the world.

I'm pulling, I'll never forget this as long as I live.

This will be one of those things when I have dementia

that I bet you I'll repeat a thousand times to the nurse.

I'm backing this escalate up.

It had only been out five minutes.

I thought I wrecked into someone's living room

backing it into their driveway.

I thought I hit a deer, went into a living room.

I get out and for five minutes,

I look under the car, beside the car.

Rob, I wasn't within 30 feet of anything.

Like there was, I was looking for an injured dog.

Did I hit somebody's kid?

What the hell just happened?

I mean, for somebody,

if you've never been in a car accident,

it has a certain feel to it.

This had the feel that in this person's driveway,

I just got in a full blown accident.

And I was like, I got out.

I mean, dude, I'm on my chest like looking under the car.

I'm like, what the, you know, looking at the bumper.

I went over the car for five minutes.

Finally, I had the customer pull,

his camera was like right there coming into the garage.

And I go, Hey man, let me look at that.

Nothing.

That is so weird.

There wasn't a single thing.

And by the way, that consistently happened on those cars

because I talked to other owners and they were like,

yeah man, it has these weird moments.

So I get enamored with foolishness.

I'm a big fan of foolish.

Who built this?

I want people's names, not so I can get them fired.

I want to talk to them.

Yep, he named, I only need you to name names.

Yeah, he named names.

You got me blacklisted from how I'm saying.

Yeah, I mean, that's, so if people are listening to this,

you think I'm kidding.

I would just like to talk to Jim in engineering and go,

you had to see this was a problem.

Walk me through how this got through.

I think the problem is,

I think the turnover rate was so high that like nobody knew

what was going on.

Like maybe Jim was pissed he didn't get a raise

and he just built the Q system because he was pissed.

Now see, that's what I would like to talk to Jim about.

In the middle of those infotainments,

you had that little thing where you kind of like rub

the bottom of it into a lift.

Oh, there'd be times where I would drive an entire day

and I couldn't get my wife's like middle center console

back down.

Like you couldn't wipe it or swipe it anyway

for it to go back down.

No, and I'm going to tell you this,

if I own one of those, that thing would have been snapped off.

I'd have been at the GM dealership,

the Cadillac dealership getting a replacement five times a month.

Come to think of it, I don't give her enough shit

for buying that shitty car.

This was early on in our relationship, 10 plus years ago.

Like why would you just don't do it?

Right now in 2026, don't do it.

It was horrible, dude.

Yeah, but convertibles are a good conversation.

There's no doubt.

Okay, I'll show you this one

because I think this is the best color

if we're going to be talking about these Murano Cabrales.

This teal color.

Yeah, see that's classy, Rob.

That's classy.

The Maroon with the tan top is also a fan favorite.

Well, Maroon with tan top actually looks good.

This is an abomination.

First of all, none of it looks good, Rob.

None of it.

Hey, if we're comparing the two,

this teal with the tan versus the maroon one?

This thing looks like a York peppermint patty in some ways.

What would you do for a Klondike bar?

Yeah, it's not good.

Man, what a bad, did they sell 10 of them?

Because I think I've seen all 10.

I think they sold 200.

I remember reading one time.

Man, that's such a good number.

That's such a good number.

I need it to just be enough to be ludicrous.

Yeah, that's it right there.

If they sell zero, you go, oh, it was just a failure.

But if they sell like 1,100, you go, huh?

They sold 1,100 less?

Well, that makes you scratch your head even more.

You're like, I was not expecting double digits

much less, three or four digits.

Man, it's so good.

Oh, we need to do early morning podcasts more often.

This is very loosey-goosey.

I like it.

OK, I had one more here.

Oh, this is more on the back to the negative side

of the internet.

You were talking about lateral moves.

I think it was in the price point of some of the cars.

You might have been Honda.

I can't remember who it was.

But they're outraged at us thinking

that they can make lateral changes to keep prices at a point

that they are now versus going up,

because they can't maybe bring them back down.

They were just basically, to what we hear a lot,

got to get rid of the dealers.

I'm going to clean it up.

I'll make a little PC here in case you

have some kids in the car.

But yeah, people are very adamant that we

need to go back to the, not back to,

but go to direct to consumer.

And you've talked about this at Nozium at this point.

I think slowly people are going to realize

why you need a good dealer network.

You can't just write these things off completely

with recalls and stop sales and issues.

Yeah, but you guys need Lowe's and Home Depot.

Right, right.

If you go to Lowe's and Home Depot,

it's the same as a car dealer.

I'm going to go lumber yard.

But they cut the tree down.

Same thing.

By the way, how many boxes of Amazon

do these guys get delivered to their house?

Guess what that is?

That's a car dealer.

Yeah, basically.

Just so we're clear, the markup at Amazon that Amazon takes

is like triple quadruple what most dealers mark up.

Just so everybody actually knows

the behind the scenes numbers.

I'm not defending dealers.

People have a really hard time of understanding

what a balanced opinion is.

But I've never paid dealer markup.

If you did, you didn't know how to buy a car.

That's not my fault or anybody else's fault.

You made a mistake.

You got to eat it.

We've done everything we can to tell you guys

how to deal with a dealer.

Oh, go ahead.

It's a distribution company.

That's all that it is.

Loss in here.

My son's 2022 F-250 King Ranch Tremor 6.7 Power Shroek

was 114,000.

I find it more surprising that people don't know

that these have been over a thousand,

a hundred thousand for years now.

And that was towards our...

I think we're more surprised

your son paid $100,000 for it.

That's what we're surprised about.

$114,000 for a 20 year...

And it seems like you were bragging about it.

Yes, there's exactly nothing to say.

The flexing is getting out of hand.

Yeah, and it's all good, man.

It's your money, you do what you want.

But that's not the flex you think it is.

But it's not the flex you think it is.

It's cool if you have the money.

It's cool if you're doing it for a business reason.

I'm not really judging you.

But if somebody was sitting at my table

at an event and goes,

I paid $114,000 for this Ford.

And it wasn't, I don't know, a Ford GT.

You know, or, you know, the Mustang GTD,

at least that would be an argument.

Like, okay, man, it's your money.

But why do you...

I'm not confused that they're a hundred grand.

Yeah, it's the backhandedness of the comment like that.

We're like, I'm more surprised

that you don't already know

these events. No, no, what I'm surprised is

your son bought a $114,000 truck.

I mean, that's what I'm surprised by.

Seems ludicrous to me.

It's his money.

But like, this is the thing that people don't understand.

Like, we call it as it is.

And it comes to this point

where people have a very hard time understanding.

Guys, I deal with car collections every day.

I have for 15 years.

Somebody flexing about a $114,000 truck.

It's not the flex you think it is.

Nope. There's levels to all this.

Levels of the game, son.

Charlie Hotel found your message.

My wife's 2024 not so grand Highlander is junk.

Our 2004 Sequoia is so much better.

That's a great deal.

Well, to me, it's apples to oranges.

Yeah, at that point.

I mean, I see why Charlie probably

has had a good experience with that Sequoia.

Yeah.

It's a different thing.

And everybody needs to calm down.

Every brand has problems.

I don't care what your favorite brand is.

I don't have a favorite brand.

I buy the car that I think is cool.

Or that's a great deal.

I'm the guy that made tons of money on a Subaru Outback

because I found a dealer mistake on their website.

Okay.

And he realized he wasn't on Lesbian anymore.

Yeah.

In the end, I just got cured.

I got, I'm not getting no more.

I made money on a Corvette

because somebody got in trouble financially.

I don't have any loyalty to any of this.

I'm in the car business.

And I'm in the business for myself,

more importantly, as a buyer.

Like you guys that have all this loyalty to one brand,

you think you're like outsmarting the world?

No, man, I've owned a lot of BMWs.

I've owned a couple of Mercedes.

I've owned a Corvette.

I've owned some Hondas.

I've owned some Toyotas.

I've owned some Lexus.

The list goes on.

I own what I feel like I can make money on in the end.

That's what I care about.

I realize that's not everybody's experience.

But coming from a person like me, who's not brand loyal,

I buy what can be, you know, turned around and fixed

and made into something.

When you say things like my son bought a $114,000 truck

and you think that's a flex,

you haven't been around really expensive cars.

I am delivered.

You would have a very, very different experience.

You'd be like, that's what you paid $114,000 for?

Okay, it's your money.

Yeah, you know what?

And if you're new to the show,

because there's only the second episode of 2026,

Nix takes it very balanced.

You know, the clips sometimes for whatever reason

might not be taken as a balanced approach,

but if you extend them 30 seconds, either direction,

you'll find them more balanced.

It's almost like Rob sets me up to piss people off.

No, not at all.

I'm just getting the juicy bits out of it.

You know what I'm saying?

The moist bits.

One of my favorite words, by the way, is moist.

Yeah, yeah, look at your boy.

Just so we know.

It's just like Dr. Drew after dark.

I love Dr. Drew after dark

and we might actually have to do that

in the premium section of this show

in the later part of this year,

but you know, more on that later.

You know, we talked about Stellantis's

no longer investing, I think it was globally,

no, it was just in the US on the EV side of things, right?

So they still have other projects going on globally.

I think we even talked about some of the stuff

in the EU, but from the drive Jeep and Chrysler,

plug-in hybrid models are officially dead completely.

So the four, all the 4XE stuff,

all the plug-in, the Pacifica even, all gone.

Well, it seems like they've given over the reins

to guys like Kineskis, right?

I mean, basically in North America,

they're gonna kill this stuff quickly.

They know there's no future.

A lot of problems with these.

Tons of problems.

There was somebody in the comments here saying

that one of their 4XCs had been in the shop 10 times

and only three of them were for recalls.

Yeah, I will say many of you can probably understand

why you shouldn't trust Stellantis

and especially something with Jeep on the side

or Chrysler on the side or Dodge on the side

to get electrical issues correct.

If you've owned those vehicles, that's been the bugaboo

as long as I've been getting.

I mean, I have a 2000, early 2000s Dodge Ram

sitting out here.

It's hard to get the taillights to work.

Gremlins might be understatement for that.

So I think people should be hopeful

because look, I'm sure you're gonna bring up the TRX here.

It does seem like they are going to start listening

to their customer base and what it used to be

and what it, I just wonder how far they're gonna push it.

This is obviously a step in just cleaning things up.

You know, we had mentioned it last week,

but actually I have two caniscus stories here.

I'll start with the TRX website.

This is actually from the official Ram website.

Love this beautiful green.

We had showcased this one.

Yeah, that's good.

And it's gonna be SRT.

I may not have, I think I did

because I do like the badges on the doors,

which that's how we started talking

about the Paga Constitution,

which was gonna make for an amazing clip

in a couple of days.

Yeah, we'll see how that goes.

I cannot wait.

But yeah, so the truck looks great.

What's funny and so obscure,

could the way you love keys,

I think I like push buttons.

These push buttons are probably-

And by the way, just so everybody

isn't watching on YouTube,

on the actual official webpage,

they have a start stop picture

of like one of the worst start stop buttons in the game.

And you can actually make the engine make noise

by hitting the start stop button on the webpage.

It's unbelievable.

Like what an unbelievable thought process.

Go ahead and hit it.

Hit it.

Oh yeah, brother.

Yeah, brother.

I had to exit the fucking screen

because I didn't know it was gonna go for so long.

Oh my God, you guys gotta go.

If you guys are just car nerds,

you gotta go to that webpage and see that button.

And by the way, it's just with like a big white background

around it, so it's like not even framed.

They're just like, stick it on there, brother.

I wouldn't have even noticed it had you not pointed it out.

I don't know why I would have just, I don't know.

I hovered over it.

Oh man.

Oh buddy, what a, just what a kickoff.

What a ton of you live, you mean?

What a ton of you live.

Unbelievable.

Hey, brother, put that button there.

I just, again, so you guys know my love of real car culture.

Who can I talk to inside the Ram building

that came up with that idea?

Please.

And also put the worst start, stop button in the game

and a big white background and goes, just stick it there.

They'll figure it out.

It'll sound cool if they figure it out.

It's so good.

All right, look, we have another one of Mr. Koniscus here.

He rules out 392 V8 for the single cab sport truck

by the drive as well.

What was interesting,

he was a one-on-one conversation with the drive.

And basically he used the phrase,

I think I highlighted here,

during one-on-one review of the drive,

Koniscus said, you're not getting a single cab sports truck

with a 6.4.

And then he used phrases like, that's a YouTube,

here it is, that's a YouTube thing, right?

And he kept referring to how if you read things

in the comments, this is what you want.

But in reality, and he even wrote it here,

he wrote tiny, the market is tiny like five times,

yeah, right here.

So just because they can, that doesn't mean they will

and they most likely will not.

Well, so he's going into a new role here.

And people, Tim Koniscus was the fun product developer.

He's in the big boy seat now.

So now his team goes, here's the numbers.

Whatever you were doing over there in product development,

that was cute, but this is a big boy job.

Okay, you're gonna have to now realize

what we tell so many of you.

We have this conversation a lot on the podcast,

but maybe we don't do it justice.

So let's do it justice.

They need to bring back base car.

Customers need to bring back single cab trucks.

People don't buy them.

That's the reality guys.

There's a whole group of you that go from post to post

to post to everybody talking about cars

and you demand cheaper.

I want no bells and whistles.

That's not what the consumer does when they drive on the lot.

He referenced numbers.

And guess who found that out?

Tim Koniscus.

Yep, and he references.

Yeah, that was cool.

That was cool over there, that job you had.

You're the CEO now.

Okay, here's what actually, but guys,

we're always gonna advocate on this show

that I don't think tech stacking,

which is basically what car companies have been doing

is beneficial to just continue to add price to the car, okay?

But the statistics say that you guys walk on a dealer lot

and you end up two or three or four trims above

what you say on the internet you want.

Yeah.

And that's the numbers.

That's why I've never been solely

pointed the finger at manufacturers.

I've never solely pointed the finger at dealers

and I've never solely pointed the finger at consumers.

But all three of those people have a role in this.

And a lot of people want to act like

the consumers made zero mistakes.

I just told you the data everybody in the car business knows.

You could put a base vinyl floor F-150 out on that lot

and everybody says they would buy it.

And when they go to buy it, they end up in a lariat.

It was lariat.

I mean, look, you've been around the dealer world.

You know, like we don't talk about this clearly enough.

A lot of times you guys think we're advocating

for more base level stuff,

which I think would be good for the market

to at least provide some competition

to keep the numbers down a little bit.

But when you guys walk on the lot, you don't buy base models.

And this goes exactly what Nick just said

maybe a week or two ago in his lifetime,

the buyer has never been a responsible buyer.

No matter if you're buying a Porsche, a Lamborghini,

or an F-150, like we gotta be honest about that too.

I know everybody listening to this might be,

I would consider myself to be a smart buyer.

Nick and I were talking about this on the phone.

I purposely didn't go into the direction of cars

that I loved at the time could have bought,

could have financed, could have whatever,

because I knew the rapid hold it would be.

And I'm like, I'm gonna find other ways

to enjoy my driving experiences in my cars.

And then just kind of put some of that stuff off.

And a lot of people I know didn't.

And whatever, again, your money, but that's true.

Like the responsible person

is not going to get a base level F-150.

That's just never happens.

And it's just like we see consistently, guys,

what someone says on the internet is not real life.

The commenter that says,

I just had a conversation with the guy.

You know, if they brought back those entry-level Tercells,

I said, nobody will buy them.

What are you talking about?

Dude, dude, the BMW, I didn't even,

I should have thought about this

when we were recording in the new three series.

The Mitsubishi, what was it, the Diamante?

Diamante?

Yes, it looks exactly like it.

Yeah, and by the way, that couldn't be worse for BMW.

But let's all say something.

People are gonna buy that.

Yeah, for sure, yeah.

So we have fun talking about things.

We have fun giving our opinions on things.

I think many people don't realize

how much the manufacturer knows your behavior

better than you do.

Yeah.

That's why they're multinational,

multi-billion dollar corporations.

They know what you want.

And you go, well, I don't want that.

Okay, so why'd you buy a car then?

Why'd you buy it?

Go find a local city and go in there.

But in truth, if the older cars were better,

you can find them.

That's the argument that I don't get people have.

And so I don't think we've said it clearly enough,

to be honest.

So that just comes down to, I'm with everybody.

There's a lot of things that sound good on the internet

in the comments section or in a video.

But the behavior of consumers are what drive

these upper trim models.

I think it's ludicrous that people pay what they pay for them,

but it's not my money.

I don't pay for them.

And we at some point have to talk about the warranty talk.

You mean guys, I've never owned a car

that I gave a shit about a warranty.

You've never gone and said,

I'm gonna go shop around at the lots

that I know have good warranties.

No, if you talk to me about warranty

and then you try to tell me you've gotten good deals,

I know you've gotten ripped off almost every time

you bought a car.

But the extent of warranty is always presented.

Nobody who can afford the car that they're buying

ever cares about the warranty.

That's a sad reality.

I mean, they just don't think about the warranty.

If they go, I have the money to afford this

and I mean, really afford it.

They're like, yeah, I mean, whatever happens,

I'll get a fixed.

I mean, yeah, if it's under warranty, great.

If it's not, it's not.

That's how people that can really afford

whatever car they're in think.

That may not be you out there who's listening

or some individuals like, that's not true.

I care about the warranty.

Okay, we just talked about Jeep.

How many of those people, does that warranty matter

if you've been at the dealer 10 times?

That's how people that understand warranties

look at warranties.

They go, if the car is still screwed up,

that warranty doesn't guarantee me

that the car is ever gonna be right.

That doesn't guarantee you anything.

It just means they'll cover the cost.

But if your car's at the dealer for 25 days at a time,

what did the warranty really get you?

It's really true.

It's always an inconvenience, no matter what, really.

Yeah, it's like people that live their life,

but they're like people that buy,

I bought a TV and I bought the extended warranty.

It's like, yeah, you know best buy one on that, right?

Not you?

And what are you scared of?

The TV's gonna fall off the wall.

By the way, they don't warranty that anyway.

Like, and if the TV goes out,

you're still gonna have to send it back to Sony

or go into the store

and have to go through this big rigmarole.

Warranties are the most profitable thing,

along with like insurance, financial services thing,

in the whole economy, guys.

It's not because you win on warranties.

That doesn't happen.

Like that's not, it's just an absurd thing

around cars that people say all the time.

Why got this warranty?

Okay, man, then that,

honestly, people that can afford the car they're driving

never talk about the warranty.

This is why this is the best

and most fastest growing show about cars in the world,

because this is a real adult's show.

We're talking about cars, Costco,

and consumer electronics warranties, okay?

I'm just trying to help people, Rob.

I don't know why the warranty thing gets me so fired up.

I guess it's because I've watched people lie to themselves

in the car business as consumers,

and then still blame dealers, still blame manufacturers,

and you go, but you're a bad consumer.

So they're supposed to be good

to bail you out of being a bad consumer.

And a part of this, honestly, is funny enough,

it comes back to personal finance.

If you talk to anybody, if you've ever been educated

on what steps you need to take

in your personal finance steps or whatever as you get older,

those consumer warranties, they will always tell you,

and they'll do the math for you,

and they'll show it and explain you why it never pays off,

honestly, in the long run.

So I'll say this, in a part of my business,

I have been behind the scenes and been able to talk

to one of the big dealer warranty owners,

the guy that actually started the company, okay?

Because we had to deal with some stuff in my other company.

And let me tell you, he's got a really good life.

I'm sure he does.

He makes a lot of money, has a lot of houses,

and he'll be very honest because if you, just so we're clear,

if you, at any company you own,

want to put a warranty on a product,

you just have to follow the federal law

of what is the said warranty and the wording and whatever.

So you pay a company, and there's only a handful of them,

to draw the paperwork up with your name on it.

That's what a warranty is, guys.

It's not for debate.

That's exactly how it works.

Private label litigation.

It just has to meet the certain act

in the federal government, and just so everybody's clear,

I know what it is, but I can't remember the name.

If you meet that act, which protects the consumer,

and your warranty paperwork meets that act,

you have a compliant warranty, plain and simple.

You can sell whatever you want,

as long as that paperwork is in order,

so the government knows that you're not in violation

of the actual paperwork.

Now, you can sit here and tell yourself whatever,

and you said it best.

Anybody that's at the top end of the finance field

will tell you to never buy a warranty.

And by the way, they don't agree on anything.

But they'll agree on that.

They'll agree on that.

But you talk to people like me, and people like Rob,

and people in the comments about the warranty you got,

and I see why people get so enamored with it,

and I see where it helps people when something goes wrong.

I'm not saying I don't understand all of that.

I'm just saying if you can actually afford the car,

those people don't bring up the warranty.

And I deal with people every day in the car business, guys.

It's not an opinion.

All right, dude, this hour flew by.

I know you got a busy Friday,

so we're gonna just let people leave them with a little teaser

that we've got some LX content coming out

from your newly painted shop with new lights

and the whole thing,

and we got some extra little fun bits going to it.

Any other little extras you might wanna sprinkle in there

that you have planned for the thing?

I mean, I know we're still mid-summer,

but I feel like Vegas is gonna get hot pretty quickly.

I mean, sorry, winter, not summer.

I really suspension lights really top of my list.

I need some of you guys to reach out.

Some of you guys really deal with this all the time.

If Missouri Adventures is listening to this,

can you tell me what lights you put in your car?

Because I think I asked you on YouTube,

and maybe I missed the answer, send that in.

The fact that you went and asked for a bull tube is wild,

so I know I'm asking you for a lot,

but yeah, no, it's...

That was great.

I think I might have to address the headliner this summer.

Oh, really?

I think I might have to.

It's not, I mean, it's not like sagging or anything,

but I see pockets, so I'm thinking like,

do I just go like Alcantara?

Starlight?

Were you in the starlight in there?

Why not, Rob?

Why not?

Yeah, okay, we'll talk to him.

I mean, no, but we're not gonna do that,

but yeah, man, I'm really, I gotta go to the drawing board.

One of the things that threw me off, guys,

is my shop has been ripped up for, you know,

and I'm trying to like, I got cars in here now,

and so I need like a good, you know this,

if you ever do something at your house.

I need a good week of just getting this thing back,

put together and where I want it,

and you got the holidays.

So I think then I'll put my little whiteboard together

of exactly bumpers or top of the list.

Your vision board.

Yeah, vision board, yeah.

What was that website?

Pinterest?

Pinterest, yeah.

My Pinterest board.

Pinterest board, your Pinterest board.

Yeah, that's, hey, hey, everybody.

Don't let Nick Clue get a little smirk.

He has a pin board or a Pinterest board.

It's all overlanding and in land cruisers.

Yeah, well, like I said,

I put a battery in the front passenger seat,

it handled it, look, the suspension held up,

I mean, I'm rock crawling to O'Reilly's.

You know what I'm saying?

Here's some weight, it's good.

And in Missouri Adventures included a picture,

he's like, hey, what better way to wrap up Christmas?

Clutch culture hoodie with some tools.

No free shout outs to the brand of the tools,

because maybe we're actually reaching out to work with them.

But thank you very much for picking up the hoodie

and the tools.

And I know it's another thing you shop in these,

now that it's got all the fresh paint

and things that are going into it.

A buddy, so I bought a bunch of stuff during Black Friday,

so everybody knows what I mean by my shop being messed up.

So I got a bunch of tools.

They're in a one singular box,

like just basics that I needed.

One singular box, none of them have been opened.

Since Christmas? Oh, Black Friday.

Since Black Friday.

That's how my shop is driving me nuts.

Yeah, I can imagine.

And by the way, I've had to work on two cars this week.

Okay, the thought this week was gonna be like

the week that I got everything in order,

so I kind of like just had meetings set up.

Boom, two cars show up out of the blue, which is great.

Fantastic.

So I had this week planned,

and then I had two emergencies pop up with some cars,

and now the cars are next to the mess,

which really bothers me, right?

So I just don't have the space.

I like space to throw things, move things.

I'm one of those kind of guys.

Yeah, dude, I got none of it.

Throw things at people, whatever needs to happen.

Yeah, yeah, I will.

Get your shit in line.

It's only me in there, but yeah.

Okay, well, with that said,

we'll see everybody next week.

Nick, good luck finishing out the day and the week,

and we'll see everybody next Monday.

All right, guys.

0:00

70:00

#61 - Jeep Ends Plug-In Hybrids, RAM Says No Single Cab Sports Truck, Listener Comments & more | EP 61

2025 Mini

Mercedes-Benz C300

About this episode

Original notes