Clutch Culture Podcast Feb 9, 2026

#65 - SLATE Visits Leno's Garage, Automotive Psyops, Affordable Fords Are Coming & More

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Car

Ford Ranger

The Ford Ranger is a small truck that can be used for various tasks, like carrying tools or supplies. It's popular for people who need a vehicle for work or errands.

Car

Toyota Tacoma

The Toyota Tacoma is a type of truck that is known for being tough and good for driving off the road. Many people like it for work and outdoor activities.

Car

The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a small truck that offers a mix of truck features and SUV comfort. It's designed for people who need a vehicle that can carry things but also be comfortable for everyday driving.

Term

beater

A 'beater' is a car that isn't very nice or valuable, so people use it for everyday tasks without worrying about damaging it.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser

The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big, tough SUV that can handle rough terrain and is also very comfortable. It's quite expensive, which is why some people might choose not to buy it.

Car

Kia Telluride

The Kia Telluride is a large SUV that can carry families and their gear comfortably. It's known for being a good value with lots of features for the price.

Term

PPI

A PPI stands for pre-purchase inspection, which is when a mechanic checks a car before you buy it. This helps you find out if there are any problems with the car so you can decide if you want to buy it or not.

Car

Ford Raptor

The Ford Raptor is a special version of the Ford F-150 truck made for off-road driving. The first generation, known as Gen 1, was made from 2010 to 2014 and is famous for its strong build and ability to handle rough roads.

Car

Ford Lightning

The Ford Lightning is a special version of the Ford F-150 truck that is faster and more powerful. The Gen 2 refers to the second generation of this model, which was made between 1999 and 2004.

Term

Carfax

Carfax is a company that gives you a report about a car's history. It tells you if the car has been in accidents or if it has a clean title, helping you make a better buying decision.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car that many people love. It's famous for being powerful and fun to drive, and it has been around for a long time, making it a classic choice for car enthusiasts.

Term

suspension problems

Suspension problems are issues with the parts of a car that help it ride smoothly and handle well. If something is wrong, the car might feel bumpy or hard to steer.

Term

dead battery

A dead battery means the car's battery is no longer working and can't start the engine. This can happen if the battery is old or hasn't been used in a while.

Car

Dodge Charger

The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks tough and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a lot of power and is great for people who like a sporty feel in their everyday car.

Term

Porsche type body

A 'Porsche type body' means a car design that has smooth curves and shapes, similar to what you see on Porsche cars. This kind of design makes the car look good and helps it move through the air more easily.

Car

Ferrari F8

The Ferrari F8 is a high-performance sports car made by Ferrari. It has a powerful engine and is known for its speed and luxury.

Term

British Racing Green

British Racing Green is a dark green color often used on British sports cars. It's a classic color that many car enthusiasts recognize.

Term

twenty five grand worth of work

'Twenty five grand worth of work' means spending a lot of money, $25,000, on fixing or maintaining a car. This shows that some cars can be very expensive to take care of.

Brand

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a car company from Germany that makes well-known cars like the Golf and Jetta.

Brand

GM

GM stands for General Motors, a big car company in the U.S. that makes cars under different names like Chevrolet and Buick.

Car

Cadillac CT4

The Cadillac CT4 is a small luxury car from Cadillac, known for its stylish look and advanced features. It's designed to attract younger drivers who want a mix of performance and luxury.

Car

Cadillac Escalade

The Cadillac Escalade is a big, fancy SUV that is very comfortable and has a lot of luxury features. It's popular among people who want a stylish and spacious vehicle.

Brand

Geely

Geely is a car company from China that makes different types of vehicles. They have been expanding quickly and have bought other car brands to grow their business.

Car

Mazda B2000

The Mazda B2000 is a small truck made by Mazda that was popular in the past for being dependable and good on gas.

Car

Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gas and electricity to drive, making it very good on gas. It's popular with people who want to help the environment.

Car

Mercedes-AMG C53

The Mercedes-AMG C53 is a new version of the C-Class that will have a smaller, more efficient engine compared to the C63. It's part of a move to make cars more environmentally friendly while still being powerful.

Term

I know it's Super Bowl weekend, but before we get to sports corner,

I got to go ahead and say, dude,

I think there's a large scale automotive Psyop going on when it comes to buying,

selling, but also EV versus ICE. Again, this has been going on forever.

But there,

the reason I bring it up is that there was a video that was dropped where the

slate team visited Jay Leno's garage. And when I saw it,

I just could not wait for Nick to sink his teeth into that video.

And it didn't take 24 hours before Nick called me on one of our random,

you know,

business talks that just devolve into other automotive industry conversations.

How do you want to frame the conversation based off of what you saw in that video

for listeners to?

Well,

this is the first,

what I would consider like real in depth, you know,

20, 30, close to 40 minute conversation where they walked through mindset,

why we did what we did, you know,

everything to this point has sort of been a PR stunt.

And this felt like the first time that the slate team said, yeah,

we're going to tell you why we have, you know, screws on the,

that you can see and, and what our thought is,

and it seems like their entire thought is boil it down to the bare

minimums. Like one of the most interesting things they said in this interview,

I think was they actually had long discussions about not having AC.

Yeah. Early on, right? They're like, you know,

we had long discussions about removing air conditioning.

So the interesting thing sitting where we sit now over the last,

you know, what year and a half, boy,

you go on anybody's stuff talking about expensive cars, ours,

other people's, and you look at the comments and everybody's clamoring for

cheaper.

I think slate gave the look into what it takes to actually sell and

build a cheaper vehicle.

So we haven't talked about slate since around Thanksgiving.

And right around then, and then a couple of months before that, when some of the,

you know, the press was really starting to get heavy into it,

we made a bunch of, you know,

clips about it from a few, maybe one or two conversations we had had.

And the sentiment started to become, wow,

you guys are really sucking down this slate, you know, plan emoji.

And I'm like, whoa, whoa, it's just a really interesting topic that we're

interested in. We, Nick and I both learned,

I would assume probably drive stick or drive all together in a small truck that

looks like the slate truck, right? Yes.

So the way I did video that's titled, I have it in my notes here,

it is what are you willing to give up for a sub $25,000 truck?

It was a perfect title for the video at the time now.

I think it's safe to say we're not looking at a sub $25,000 truck anymore.

And if you watch that video,

you start to learn a lot of reasons why.

Yeah, I do think there are going to be things that are sub $25,000.

I think it's a matter of if anybody's going to buy the sub $25,000 option.

You and I did talk about this.

And I think this is where the conversation to me needs to go.

If what you're concentrated on is the way the car is propelled,

I think you're missing the point of our conversation.

Number one, most people drive less than 50 miles a day around their town.

You know, let's just bump that up and say 75 miles.

So how the car is propelled at this point is kind of irrelevant

to this specific conversation, because I know what everybody's saying to themselves.

Well, if it was this four banger from this, you know, one, I would buy.

It's like, I don't think that's the conversation.

The conversation is everybody wants cheaper.

And what are they willing to give up to get cheaper?

Now, what we see from the average price of cars is that people are not opting for cheaper.

They're opting for more options, more tech, more heated seats, more leather

everywhere, more everything, because there are options that are less than

$50,000 that people just bypass on the lot already.

So when I started to listen to Slate and their team, the first thing that came

to my mind was, I just don't think people are giving all this up.

I just don't think they're going to give all the features up.

I agree with you.

And it's funny in that, in that video, you know,

there's a ton of different comments from different angles.

You know, some of them, a lot of them being range.

Who's going to buy 150 mile, you know, they're going to walk away if it's 150

mile range, but you just made a good point to, for the average person,

that really doesn't matter.

We're talking average.

Yeah, we're talking about the everyday driving around your town.

Now, here's the funny thing.

You know what was never meant for long road trips?

The Ford Ranger.

It's true.

The small Nissan trucks, the small Mazda trucks, the small Dodge trucks.

None of those were meant for long trips.

You have family that had those.

You, you know, they were mostly farm work trucks around the city, around the farm,

you know, do odds and ends, go to Home Depot, go to Lowe's.

Those weren't driving from Texas to Arizona.

So yes, would you want to?

Absolutely not.

No, no, hell no.

I mean, and somebody's going to be like, well, me and my dad used to,

I hear you, man, the average person was driving that from the woodlands

to the center of Houston and back to the woodlands.

That was me.

Yeah, like it wasn't it wasn't going from Houston, Texas to, you know, Las Vegas.

Yeah, right.

Like that wasn't happening.

No.

So I think getting caught up in the range and and it doesn't have this

engine that I would love, we're going to find out more about what the consumers

willing to give up feature wise with slate than almost anything that's

been released in what the past 10 years.

And Nick and I were talking about this on the phone and I still am of the

belief that although it shouldn't be, you know, what's this propelled by

being a big, you know, point of contention, I think it is.

And we're just talking in the States, obviously, if you want to talk about

abroad, maybe it's a different, you know, it's a less pool on the consumer.

By the way, they've been less features in most of the world.

They've been more stripped down in the rest of the world.

America really dominates this heavy featured car.

Yeah.

You know, heavy featured vehicle, which is heated steering wheel and 9000

things of tech you don't use.

And that is really kind of a US, maybe parts of Canada.

But again, not all of Canada, you know, parts of Canada, certainly not Mexico.

Right.

So just in the North America world, the US kind of sits by itself with

this heavy feature way of thinking of cars.

So somebody asked on that video from a while back, who is the exact

market target market of a sub $25,000 truck?

And they kind of posed it like a who's really looking for that in my mind.

I'm like, I think a lot of people.

Well, I mean, this is where we have to ask ourselves, everyone's bitching

about price when it comes to the comments section on the internet.

I want cheaper.

I'll buy cheaper.

That's who supposedly is the marketplace.

The problem is those guys walk on the on the lot and they buy a $62,000

Tacoma and then they get on the internet and go, I want a cheaper truck.

It's like, yeah, there was a cheaper Tacoma you didn't buy.

There was a cheaper X, Y, Z that you didn't buy.

So this is where I think Slate's going to have to answer some questions.

I think of the broader market.

Are you guys really willing to give up leather seats?

Are you really willing to give up a great audio system?

Are you willing to give up all kinds of tech?

And I think the answer after watching that video is everyone concentrated

on the roll up windows.

I think that's the least of their worries.

I think it's all the bells and whistles that people say they're sick of paying.

Then Slate is your is your second vehicle in your household.

And you guys, we talked about this.

One of the things that I get tired of is revisionist history.

I was just about to bring that up.

Yeah, you and I were around the mini truck scene

when everybody had a smaller truck.

OK, maybe you had a larger truck, but you also had this,

you know, 100,000 mile beat up small truck

that's just kind of floating around your orbit in some way.

Revising those trucks as though, well, you know,

I would have got a lot more back then.

No, you wouldn't have.

It barely had AM FM radio.

Yeah. And by the way, when you by the way, when you turned it on,

it sounded like it barely had an AM FM radio.

We have Bluetooth speakers that sound better than those audio systems.

Oh, no, I mean, light years, light years.

You were using one of the LX when you first bought it.

But think about how rare it is that I just didn't care.

I was like, I'll get to it when I get to it, I'll get this repaired.

Most people would have freaked out.

Oh, my my my stereo doesn't work exactly like this.

And it has older tech.

And there's always been cheaper out there.

It seems in the last 10 years, we moved into a different phase

where the average consumer, especially in America,

doesn't think they should have to live without all the features.

But then after they buy all of them,

they get on the internet and bitch about the cost of vehicles.

Yeah. And it's weird because I would say our audience is is a really,

I think you guys are special.

That's right. I want to give you guys your flowers.

But in the sense that they are like you or I,

where they actually would go and prefer the less features.

And a lot of times we'll have, like you said before,

you got your your buy vehicle money in this account over here

that you always use to buy, flip, sell, whatever.

And the ones that are the average consumer

who are probably our listeners, friends, family, neighbors, whatever,

or the ones that our listeners are saying,

hey, you might want to go this route instead of that route.

And here's why. And this is a better move.

And the average consumer isn't listening to them.

And it's so strange to me because on paper,

you really, they care about the car less.

Overall, they care about the vehicle less.

They are looking at it as a A to B.

And yet they hold all the other things on a higher pedestal

than the average car enthusiast that might be listening to our show.

Yeah, it's it's and I think that's where

Slate gets into this interesting conversation.

It's not the perfect truck.

It's not how I wish they would have done anything.

Right. It's not a judgment of, yeah,

I wish there was an engine option and an EV option and all these different things.

But they literally thought of everything to reduce the cost to the consumer.

And that much is obvious when they talk,

because neither one of these people is great in front of cameras.

I was just, yeah, you read my mind, right?

They're not great in front of cameras.

So these aren't TV personalities telling a story.

Yeah, they're not trying to like entertain or sway your opinion.

Yeah, I mean, that was very evident very quickly

that maybe Jay Leno, combined with these two people,

is not going to tell the best story.

But if you could get through it, you realized they had no talent to tell the story.

They were literally just taking you,

meeting by meeting of how they ended up in these decisions.

I still hold out hope that this is the beginning

of the consumer starting to come to grips with to get less of a price.

You have to give stuff up. Absolutely.

But I'm not sure the average person is willing to give all of these needless

things up because it's the same with starter homes.

If you went to the starter home in 1995, none of you are buying it.

The only thing missing from that conversation with that duo

was them actually having their meeting minutes and going through it.

Like, so this is 100 percent a good way to sign up, dude.

That's exactly what it came off as.

But you're right about the housing.

I'm glad you brought that up, too, because I told Nick over the phone.

Going back to the revisionist history line, if you go back in time,

houses were smaller, there was one good car and always a beater.

There's these things in time that a lot of our listeners of their

our age, mid-30s to mid-40s, remember, I'm like, wait a minute,

you look at the current consumer now or just any younger buyer,

and they don't have that, or if they do, they completely forgot it

or they've been completely sigh opt-in if we're getting about it,

that you have too much optionality nowadays.

And you also always opt for the higher end of things

that you don't either need or can't afford.

And it's not boating well for the whole market

because everyone's just now trying to get the larger margin.

They don't want, and this is nothing we talked about.

The smaller truck, I'm going to bring up a Hyundai here in a little

bit with what they're trying to do with the Santa Cruz,

but it seems like the manufacturers has basically decided

or they've been told by the public, we don't want the small profit.

We're not going to make the small profit vehicles.

We're going to go the other way and you're still buying them.

So why would they change their minds?

Yeah. And when you say nice car and beater,

here's an example that probably pertained to a lot of people

from 1970 to probably 2005.

OK, somewhere in that range, right?

Like probably before that, but, you know, like my parents aren't that old

and your parents aren't that old.

So is that there would be homes that had a Lexus

and then they'd have a shitty Ford Ranger as the second vehicle.

They'd have this really nice van at the time

and then a real dumpy Buick that had 150,000 miles on it.

It was a floaty as Buick.

Yeah, I mean, you got a comfy ride, right?

You're exactly right that that that was the common where I grew up

is that there was like a family car we spent money on

so our family could go on road trips or, you know, go to school functions,

not looking like, you know, you had holes in your socks and, you know,

you know, you know windshields. Yeah, yeah.

Rust and rust and rust and then you have this other vehicle that was like,

yeah, that's dad's beater.

Yeah, that's the put mileage on it unnecessarily, you know, go to work,

you know, go pick up the pizza on Friday night.

Don't you don't mean like might have had a sliding window

that he threw the cans in the back. Sure. Sure. Sure.

I mean, we have changed so much as consumers.

And this is what we I think try to say a lot on the show.

What people say in internet comments and what they do when they walk on a dealer lot

or they go hunt for a car are so vastly different

that it's almost like I'm just on the internet to complain,

but I'm actually not going to do anything about it. Right.

I'm still going to buy the sixty eight thousand dollar,

the seventy two thousand dollar Land Cruiser with the worst four cylinder on the planet.

And I don't know why I did that.

I just didn't want the cheaper options.

Right. So I think the median income is somewhere around,

you know, depending on where you live, forty eight to sixty thousand dollars.

Household is like a hundred and ten grand.

It is nothing to see

one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars in cars sitting in the driveway.

Yeah, unthought. I mean, unheard of in 1999.

In most middle class average neighborhoods,

you had a nice car you're maybe making payments on,

or maybe you were lucky enough to pay it off already, and then you had this beater.

And now you have a sixty five thousand dollar Kia Telluride

and the dad's driving a sixty two thousand dollar Toyota Tacoma,

and they make a hundred and ten thousand dollars.

And they got a hundred and twenty plus thousand dollars worth of cars.

Who to sleep fit a lot more people than are probably going to buy it.

That's a fact.

Dude, God damn it.

I get jazzed up when you talk about this because it's so it.

This is most listeners, I think, like myself.

There is this pool to be irrational about your car buying endeavors,

but you also want to be the responsible adult that you know that you are,

which is why you listen to clutch culture,

which is why you listen to these conversations that we have.

But the majority of the consumer does not seem to reflect that.

And I think that for as much as we say we don't want to be dead,

or, you know, we make the joke, we don't want to be, you know,

sound like dad, get off our lawn kind of guys.

I think it's almost like a duty for the real enthusiast

that has been in and out of the car world to bestow some of these nuggets of knowledge

to whoever's around you that might be asking questions.

And even if it's unsolicited, honestly,

I'm usually not a fan of doing that in the gym or at other places or whatever.

But sometimes you really do need to just be like, hey, you know what?

This sounds familiar.

Like I've been here before.

Try to avoid this if you want to X, Y, Z, and people will appreciate it.

So I have I have something I'm getting a PPI done on tomorrow.

I haven't even brought this up to Nick.

And I'm going to wait.

I mean, I got to leave you like an HBO, you know,

Sopranos or Game of Thrones cliffhanger to be continued

because if it goes to shit, I don't want to talk about it.

Like it's got to be a Gen 1 Raptor.

I got it. I got it.

We got to wait until it's all secured.

But I will say this, if you're in Florida or actually if you're anywhere

and you're looking for maybe this is related, maybe it's not.

But if you're looking for a Gen 2 Lightning, there's one in Florida,

one owner, 70,000 miles, clean car fax for it was reasonably like low 30s.

And it's in Sonic blue.

I'm going to turn the Corvette guy for a second.

If you know anything about that Gen 2 Lightning world,

they only made about 700 sonic blue ones, hit them up.

I don't know what dealership it is, but it's in Florida.

It is an incredible look at your boy.

You're about to have one of those stands next to your blue Ford Lightning.

Like, you know, they only made 700 of these.

Dude, how do you feel about that?

Actually, when it when it's not like a rare thing, but like they just made a few of them.

There's I mean, you mean like buying it?

Yeah, or like something you happen to like was just like low production.

Yeah, I think it's great.

I think it's it's cool to be into stuff like that.

I think it's real suspect to bring it up as much as people do.

You know, but I think it's cool if you find.

Look, I think the color of a car for a lot of people is the most important thing.

OK, especially when you get into like, you know, certain Porsche.

You and I have talked about this.

It's one thing to go.

I want a certain color of Porsche.

It's another thing to tell me the license plate frame like you're somebody.

Like that shit's real stupid.

OK, you look stupid, you sound stupid.

You don't understand the history of all this stuff.

You don't understand how much that's been copied from a brand

that Porsche people used to hate.

You just don't have any connection to the real shit.

I think the color of cars, most of us had a poster or we remember a magazine

or something we saw online and the color kind of gets imprinted on you.

Yeah, I'm cool with that.

Some of this other stuff is real suspect and I'd use a different word here.

But, you know, it is I mean, it's you got to be you're a real.

I mean, let's call him a you're a clown.

OK, there's a lot of clown behaviors.

Yeah, I got two things for you.

I'm glad you brought up horses, colors, price, all that.

Funny enough, I had mentioned this because I had a I saw last minute email.

Shout out, Luke.

I can't blow up because I don't have the pictures here, but he sent in

like a half dozen examples of ideas for you and color changing the LX.

So I'll send him to you in pictures.

This dude, Luke, shout out.

We'll just drive around town.

It seems like happened to spot a ton of LX for 70s.

Well, I spotted one.

Look, we could probably pick it up for eight or nine grand.

Yeah, I had to put another eight or nine grand into it.

Not bad. You know, what are we?

What are we talking?

What's what's wrong with it or what color is it?

Looks like I have we have suspension problems.

Exact same color as mine.

So we have. Yeah, we'd have to do a color change on it.

But yeah.

I think it's cool that this shit's getting driven around more

because I got news for you like we are seeing certain people dust off

some of these vehicles and you could tell they haven't been out in a while.

And you go, OK, I've run into an issue with my BMW

for anybody who wants to know why I haven't been driving it.

I got a dead battery.

Now, mind you, it's the original 2008 battery that lasted this long.

No way. Yeah.

So if people don't know this, BMW, if you have a genuine BMW on M cars,

a genuine BMW battery, tend to last like an insane.

I mean, think about this.

It was always in hot climates, at least for the last five years.

So that burns batteries more than anything.

It's actually not cold that burns batteries.

Heat is actually the thing that burns batteries quicker.

And it lasted.

But the problem is it's such a headache to get to.

It's such a headache to get all the shit off of it.

It's in the trunk, right?

Yeah. And it's got all kinds of shit you got to deal with.

And it's got a weird tie down that you got to get off there.

I'm not saying any of this because it's like the hardest thing

you're going to do on a car, but it's one of those things.

I just keep looking at it when I pass it and I go, oh, man,

I got to put a battery in this thing.

If the keys are right there, you're like, just not going to grab those keys.

Yeah, 100 percent, dude, 100 percent.

And I made the mistake.

I didn't put a trickle charger on this thing.

Nick's fault. Yeah.

Not going to blame BMW, which is, you know, what normally people do.

Easy thing to do. Yeah.

It was all me just didn't take care of it.

But yeah, I got that.

That's my latest.

I got to take, you know, a little bit of time and get that handled.

Funny, since I don't have the pictures up, though, I will.

So I'll just ramble some off black, not a big fan of the black on the Alexus personally.

And I know the gold color, kind of cool, but I like the the two tone.

Yours is two tone, right?

Well, you got like a gray with a gray.

Yes. The solid color, I don't think it looks as good

if it's like solid colored top and bottom, the brownish, goldish.

And then the maroon one, I do think like the.

Yeah. So there's a maroon one near me.

I like that. Yeah, it looks good.

Yeah. No, if we're doing a color change, which I've been talking to some people

because we're able to do color changes here.

I have an idea.

It was not available on this.

Oh, if I do a color change, I'm going full color change.

That's what I'm thinking, too.

It's good. It's fun to, like, do something that isn't available

in the lineup of what you have, right?

Yeah, because at that point it's like, this is why we did it.

So I was actually having this conversation with myself

and as I was getting ready for this PPI that we'll talk about next week, obviously.

What are your favorite color?

I know the British Racing Green, but like outside of that,

is there anything that it sticks to your mind that you like that just that much

or close to it?

There are some dark blues and light blues

throughout different manufacturers that have done them well.

Yeah, I still think that, you know, like slate gray, chalk gray, wind done right.

I get that people are kind of burned out on it,

but there are some cars that look so good in that color because of the current.

You got to have sort of a curvy, you know, Porsche type body or swoops or things like that.

I think there are some reds throughout history, you know,

but you'd be more in like the maroon than I mean, the Redford Lightning

is one of those things that comes to mind.

You go, that was a great red for a great car.

Ferrari red comes to mind.

But I just saw an F8 that was done in British Racing Green with gold wheels.

And I'm like, boy, that looks great.

That color combo is so good that you don't see it on enough things

because people don't know what the fuck they're doing.

I mean, yeah, I don't I don't I don't have to.

I don't have to even mince words with this.

There's no thinking about it.

People people just don't have the class to to to do the gentleman.

That's called the gentleman.

Gentlemen spec.

OK, by the way, though, we will say spec in our terms is different

than the spec on the most people might.

Yes, yes.

Well, we may be making merch that says something about spec.

So that was the that was the paint aspect of what we were talking about.

You brought up price and Porsche.

I happen to see a video of Doug.

It was a real where he was talking about.

He had a bill for his Porsche that didn't he have like 20 grand,

twenty five thousand dollars.

He was like, you know, I told people that I was back on cars,

got a twenty five thousand dollar bill.

Doug's back out of cars.

He's back out of no.

It's so funny.

And the best part of that is I think the best part of Doug being involved

in this Porsche world is he's the guy that tells people how corny the Porsche world is.

So funny.

And it's hilarious.

Like it's probably my favorite like automotive stick right now is the fact

that he has two Porsches and he just busts on Porsche culture

because I've been busting on it for the best better part of the last decade.

But when I look at at his Porsche, the funniest part of this is

how many Porsche guys are like, never need to do anything to him.

It seems like everybody.

Everybody has a perfect vehicle.

Yeah, well, and the guys like Doug, who actually take care of their shit,

are like, yeah, I got it.

I've had it for a month and a half and I had to do twenty five grand worth of work.

It's amazing how the people that take care of their cars

seemingly always have things to take care of.

And then the people that treat their cars like shit,

want you to believe nothing ever goes wrong with their cars.

It's like the most fun thing I think they have.

So when they sell it, they know what they have, right?

Yeah, all I did was change the oil.

It's like, that's not a flex.

That's not the flex you think it is.

I don't remember how you framed it, but he was like either I had the most

expensive bill or I had the cheapest bill.

However, he phrased it because essentially he was looking at getting

a six-year-old figure car or whatever.

And he's like, oh, that twenty five thousand dollar bill

just saved me about three hundred thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars.

Yeah, he was going to get other stuff like this.

It's my favorite.

We don't know, Doug.

It's my favorite stick on the Internet right now,

is that he just busts the Porsche guy's balls while owning

like two of the best Porsches you can own.

Yeah, that's the thing about him, too.

There's a lot of car content creators, obviously, out there.

And some of them that have been around a long time like Doug,

but he does have that way of being so like giddy and knowledgeable

about the shit that he talks about that even if you initially don't like his.

That's another thing, too, like people's presentations,

the way that they talk or whatever will immediately turn some people on

or off of their content.

If you just give that guy a chance in his content, if you never have,

you'll end up liking it.

Most people like no one has a bad thing to say about Doug.

Yeah. And I think he's one of the few.

I know he's done some stuff with manufacturers

and he's probably gotten some, you know, access to things that that from his platform.

But he's one of the guys that that from the beginning said,

if I start taking these trips that manufacturers provide,

I just don't think that's about bored. Right.

And the funny part is to see that he's the biggest one.

And then these guys still over here trying to tell you they're not getting any benefits.

They're not being paid off.

They're not. And Doug's like, no, they are.

I just didn't want to get into that because I thought it was a pretty bad

gray area to be in. It's like the people that cut the checks

think they're buying them off.

Guys like Doug are pretty honest about it.

Then these other guys are like, nobody paid me off.

It's like, OK, I don't know, man.

The biggest automotive guy thinks it's a very big gray area.

And the companies cutting the checks think that they're buying good press.

You're the only ones that think you're not being paid off.

I mean, that's the craziest thing on the planet.

A plane couldn't have gone higher over their heads when you're talking about it, too.

They're just like, I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, because they always say this way.

I mean, it's not like they drop off cash on my door.

Yeah. Did anybody say that?

Like, dude, you just you just flew to Italy in a flight you couldn't afford on your salary.

That right there is is a way of paying you off.

You fool. Exactly.

You fool. Shout out Christopher as well.

He sent an email and just sending links to Gen 1 Raptors.

So thanks to you. I love it.

Hey, check this out. Check that.

It's out there, right?

Like, shout out to you for taking the time to even think to send us a link about,

you know, any kind of car for that matter.

But also that's what it was.

Doug was looking at upgrading Sequoia to the Lexus 700.

I think it was the Overland 700.

He's like, yeah, I'm not doing that anymore.

Yeah, dude, so funny.

And the comments are like, he's still going to get the life.

The best part is he calls the Sequoia a Republican car.

That shit cracks me up.

It's so funny.

Yeah, I want to give a shout out to Doug.

I enjoy his stuff.

I think we need to say, you know, like when we talk about Vinny and these other guys,

we like Doug's one of those guys that I think can rub people the wrong way,

but he's knowledgeable.

I think he's fair.

And if you have an issue with him and you're following other automotive media people,

boy, do you have it wrong?

Because if you knew some of the stories about some of these guys and gals behind

the scene, boy, would you have a different opinion?

I thought Nickerson said, then you have a problem with us.

No, we got to be careful because I don't want to say things about people

who can't defend themselves.

But boy, are there some people that have taken some things that you'd be

shocked as I'm sure it's not payment.

Of course.

That's so funny.

So that was if you haven't watched it, by the way,

go back to the top of the show and look at the slate on Jay Leno's garage video

and make your own assumption.

Maybe leave a comment on their video and just let them know what you think.

I told Nick, I definitely got to get Nick in the room with these slate people

so we can have a conversation that is outside of the ordinary.

Because along with what we already talked about,

there's a lot of other car topics with manufacturers that most people don't ask.

And I almost think of it in a way where they get proposed, I guess,

at the beginning, what some of the bullet points are going to be.

And they might even say, like, yes, no, yes, no kind of thing.

So we might not ever get the real answers.

But there's still a way to ping and pause these conversations that could bring

more interest to them.

I would love to go to Slate's facility.

Yeah, I mean, I'd love to see that.

I think that would be awesome because I want to give them credit for something

in that video.

It's not the most thrilling 30 minutes you're going to watch.

Yeah, yeah.

Before being so we're not going to sit here and tell you it's the most entertaining.

But you are listening to some two people that make it very clear

that they put a lot of thought into how to make the cheapest vehicle they could

make and still make it something maybe some people would want to buy.

I don't want to see it flop because this could be the cascading effect

of just different offerings in a lower price point.

I don't know how low.

I think it's going to be pretty hard for anything with a gas engine to be sub

$30,000 in America.

I think people are kind of living in fantasy land now.

Could it?

Yeah, man, you can have some base stuff that are at 28, 27.

Something like that.

But the days of 20 grand, those are gone.

And I don't even know if Toyota or Mazda or anybody put a 20,000

on their truck out there.

I just don't know how many people would buy it.

It just wouldn't have anything.

All right, I got a hard shift in segue here

because I did say the Super Bowls this weekend, right?

This is kind of a quick sports corner.

But did you know that there's only three automotive manufacturers

that are going to have full fledged commercials during the Super Bowl?

Who is it?

It's going to be Toyota, Volkswagen, and I believe Cadillac.

So Ford and GM are just like, we're out.

Isn't that weird?

Is anything weird with those two brands at the moment?

Very good point.

Very good.

Somebody's got to explain to me.

I listen to Mary Barra speak, and I'm just like, I don't understand this.

Do you think years ago they would have just stopped her from being

impressed that I just don't understand why she talks.

We've said this about Jim Farley, too.

I mean, he talks entirely too much.

Like, we love that he talks because he just says, wow, shit.

But there's some of these people that are.

I'm working this because it's headed that way, by the way.

Yeah, Caniscus is he's losing favor quick as he got the big job

and now has gone into a different human being.

He's like, I got three years locked in here.

All right. Yeah.

And we also need to say this for anybody that's never been around people

that have sort of gone to a different level of the C-suite.

Things change immediately.

Yes, you're you're total you're total.

A lot of things you didn't know when you were on the lower end of the C-suite.

Oh, they definitely know more.

But Mary Barra, it astonishes me.

She's been around for 10 years.

I think I just don't know what she's getting at in each interview.

Jim Farley, the same way.

I think he's talking just to talk.

And like you said, Caniscus is getting into some weird areas now.

But yeah, man, it's just a wild time.

So I'm going to I didn't look deep into it.

I only wanted to keep the manufacturers in the list

because they had kind of dropped.

Here's the thing. I don't believe this.

What do you mean?

You got to have like you got to have some kind of stupid AI,

you know, written article that's not going to turn out to be true,

that we've taken shit for like 10 times on this podcast.

This is from Car and Driver, by the way.

Well, I mean, what does that mean?

Yeah, it's good.

I mean, what does that mean?

What is there to believe these days in, right?

I mean, come on, man.

We know some of the people over there. Come on.

That's true. That's true.

I will say we're just real quick.

Two of them will lean into nostalgia and one of them won't.

That's all I can kind of.

I'm still astonished that Cadillac had these like two Halo vehicles

that like, you know, the CT4 and the CT Vibe that's basically going away.

You know, I still am really astonished by that

because it was never about sales.

It was like, let's just have some cool shit that makes the brand look cooler.

And, you know, when we go to shows,

we have these cool things that everybody, you know,

you're always going to sell Escalades.

Do you really need to work that hard at Escalade?

You just need to like make the brand cooler.

I will say that I saw a brand new one yesterday, a day for yesterday,

a white Escalade V.

When that thing turned on, I thought it was like an eraser.

Yeah, my neighbor right across the street, they have a V.

That right here, I see it every day.

Like, it's nice.

Now, Cadillac Escalade that costs 120 plus thousand,

that's a little tough.

Just because you said, you know, what do we make of GM and Ford these days?

Did you see, I'm sure you have, because it's been like two or three articles

this week breaking news kind of thing.

We're Ford and I think is it Geely or Geely?

They're going to have some sort of manufacturing partnership in China.

Yeah, I didn't see that.

I didn't see that.

So I believe if I'm not mistaken, they're looking to use Ford manufacturing plants

in Europe to co-mingle technology.

That's very common.

I mean, that's like, you know, Mazda back in the day,

all the Mazda smaller trucks were Ford Ranger,

built off the Ford Ranger line.

Yeah, there was a little B, whatever they were, B2000.

Yeah, B something like that.

I was just trying to remember it was B.

What a stupid name, what a stupid name.

I know, but they were great trucks.

They were basically a Ranger.

Yeah, they were just a Ranger, right?

And a lot of five speeds were made.

They were great.

You know, a lot of five speeds.

Never see those around.

Never, you're right.

Now that I said that out loud, I used to see them all the time,

like probably about 10 years ago when I was in...

I got a good cross-section here in my business park

because I got a V and then I got a Ford Ranger

that a dude has taken perfect care of,

that actually has aftermarket wheels on it, by the way.

Yeah, I gotta take a picture of this.

I don't know if he just moved in or what, but yeah,

or he just started working for somebody here,

but yeah, he's ready to go.

So I got Escalade V, I got Toyota Prius,

I got a Lexus hatchback, I got a Ford Ranger.

Like I got a nice little mix here.

Nice, we should start a car show

and just take weekly pictures.

B3,000, by the way, before I get roasted in the comments.

Yeah, sorry, we aren't Mazda truck experts.

Sorry, sorry.

But I mean, when you got those things,

it was literally, and all of it was a Ford Ranger.

Oh yeah, they didn't change anything.

They didn't change the color, the layout.

The buttons are all the same.

Oh yeah.

So funny.

I love when that happens.

You're just like, huh, odd little finding.

But yeah, anyway, I think that's interesting about Ford

and Geely, again, or Geely, whatever it is.

Does it mean more EV stuff from Ford?

Or less, I don't know.

I think more news will come out in the next couple of weeks

because it's kind of just coming out this week.

But, um, hard shift here into Mercedes again,

the AMG C63 to be replaced by a six cylinder C53.

I didn't know this until literally this week.

Why are they doing that?

C63 was one of my favorite cars.

Why didn't they just, why didn't they just put a C63?

Well, what the hell is the difference?

It can be a powerful turbo four cylinder hybrid

to be phased out in production.

The Germans are so weird with names.

Are they?

It's like a Mercedes EQS.

Yeah, man, that's not going to work.

That's a stupid name.

Like a C63 works.

People know what it is.

Just fix it.

So what are they saying?

Like the C63, what, is going to stay all electric?

It's going to be, they're going to phased out

the C63 performance sedan and its turbocharged

four cylinder hybrid from production.

Yeah, we already knew that.

So why don't you just replace it with a better power plant?

Yeah, it's going to be a C53 variant

that's going to be, it's going to still use.

Dude, Germans are so stupid with names.

Like it, it's unbelievable.

It's, we'll use the same non-hybrid inline six

from the 2026 AMG CLE 53.

Oh yeah, another one, the CLE 53.

We can't forget that one.

I mean, screw it.

Just call anything, just call it whatever.

We're going to make it the CLE 5379.

Basically what they do.

Like, come on, man.

Everybody just wants the old school C63 back.

If you're going to make the move, make the move.

Please.

The 53 will be revealed later this year, by the way.

So you get about another 12 months before you get to see it.

We're excited.

I mean, I had somebody DM me and I think maybe even left a comment.

They're exactly right.

There is something with Mercedes right now

that just looks rudderless at times.

Ooh, rudderless is a good word.

It just looks kind of like, what are you, like this.

You made a mistake with the C63.

You admitted it.

Which absolved you of all your sins.

Just build the C63 people want.

Now, we're going to do the C53.

It's like, bud, you already got out of the woods.

You were already out.

You were out and then they pulled.

You pulled yourself back yourself.

You pulled yourself back.

Yeah, exactly.

You literally drowned yourself.

Resuscitated yourself and then drowned yourself again.

100%.

It's just a wild and I hadn't really, Mercedes is not,

other than certain vehicles that I'm interested with Mercedes,

Mercedes as a brand is just not in on my radar every day.

Unless I actually like the car and it's like, you know,

big body or G wagon or something.

I mean, it's got to be kind of something specialty.

The C63 stuff popped up.

We got interested in it because it sounded so bad

and it was a really stupid decision.

I after these guys started saying how, you know,

it just looks rudderless.

I started looking into it.

I go, yeah, I guess you're kind of right.

Like this should just a brand that I like that I just kind of go.

I don't know, man.

You got a lot of different numbers and letters

and all kinds of different shit going on.

It's like, I guess I just for a long time,

I've let them off the hook for something.

It seems like a company that could just use

a little bit of streamlining

so I could understand your lineup of vehicles.

It almost feels like at all of these Mercedes included,

but a lot of these big manufacturers,

they're all in like in this lame duck position

where there's some new successor coming over.

Changers are about to take place,

but it's been going on for years

and it feels like there's going to be a few more years

before things start to seem like they're on pace again.

If ever again.

Because you need somebody to come into a place

like Mercedes and go, yeah, we're not,

we're not going to do this anymore.

Like we're going to clean this up.

I'm not sure they hire people like that.

That's a good point.

I don't think anybody puts their foot down anymore.

And not only that.

I mean, German automakers sort of like a

go with the flow crowd there.

I mean, that's sort of built into the old, you know,

German way of life.

Like go along, go along to get along here.

So I don't know that they're going to hire somebody

to kind of clean up some of this sloppiness

that they don't see as sloppy inside of the German automakers.

They go, yeah, this all makes sense.

It's like, no, it doesn't all make sense.

You got too much shit going on.

And somebody told me, or I read something.

Did you see that BMW is talking about making a bigger SUV?

No.

Bigger than the X7?

They're making their own suburban?

That's what I'm asking.

That's incredible.

That's like the big conversation of a lot of automakers.

I heard that Volvo is going to be trying to build

something bigger than the XC90.

You're looking at something like BMW trying to go

bigger than the X7.

Like, I'm all for it.

I mean, fuck it.

Let's get weird.

But I mean, it's insane to think about,

you could have between X1 to X9.

At one point, you're just going to create like an X-man or something.

100%.

It's going to be like some large vehicle.

Yeah, exactly.

That's good.

That was good.

I'm trying to find, I can't find anything on it.

Man, I can't believe there would make something that big.

Because the X7 is already a large vehicle.

Yeah, no, no, it's definitely being talked about.

I don't know what's going on with your,

got to get on GROC or whatever it's called.

I don't know.

GROC might say some wild shit that we can't come up with.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Let's make things weird.

Let's be a German automaker and just put a bunch of weird numbers up.

Yeah, they'll know what to relate the two if we put it in a GROC.

All right, well, I'll look for that for sure.

And I got to bring it up when I find it because that's interesting.

All right, we talked about the little truck segment earlier on.

I want to go back to it because on the phone earlier this week,

I talked to Nick also about how Hyundai is cancelling the Santa Cruz in hopes of,

not I guess in hopes of, but also maybe another year from now, two years most,

releasing a truck, like a full on Hyundai truck that they've never really done.

I don't remember if it's going to be body on frame or not.

But I found this and if you're new to the show early on,

we used to do like kind of like reddit rabbit holes.

So I hadn't been on right in a long time and there's a whole Hyundai.

Sure, you haven't.

That sounds made up.

Nope, super true.

That sounds like a German automaker CEO.

That sounds like something Grog would say.

I don't go scouring reddit.

I don't dick around on reddit for two hours a day.

I don't plan emoji on there at all.

Listen, Hyundai to Sunset, the Santa Cruz.

But the whole Reddit thing was like the buyers of these cars,

one of them was actually a salesman essentially saying the Maverick killed the Santa Cruz

and anybody that wanted a Santa Cruz already bought one.

So that's probably fair.

That's probably fair, right?

So they're hoping that the incentives, the pricing,

the offerings of whatever this bigger truck is.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.

Didn't Kia and Hyundai already release that weird truck with the weird fenders?

Yeah.

Was it called like the Tasmanian or something like that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The TAL something.

Yeah.

Wow, they really love that phrasing.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think it's...

Tasman, I think it was.

I think it's kind of already here.

I mean, they've already, if Kia has already released renderings,

you can assume Hyundai is not far behind of using that same kind of ecosystem.

I thought the Santa Cruz was kind of a cool idea.

The buyers of it seem to think it's great.

Like everyone in this thread, by the way, this could all...

If you believe in dead internet theory, this could all be bots talking to one another.

Yeah, you don't know.

Apparently, there's also a social system now.

I don't know if you saw this Mock or McLaugh or something.

Sarah McLaugh and I don't know.

That word's bots talking to bots.

Did you see this?

No, I believe it.

Oh, yeah, no, they created their own social network.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, that makes total sense.

And now I'm just beginning to believe that all social networks are just bots talking to other bots.

Well, I think Twitter purchased kind of showed us that it was like 85% bots.

So I kind of believe...

And some of the stuff we see on Instagram and TikTok makes you believe.

It makes you go, hmm.

Like we have now people pop up and go from India and then they'll leave a comment.

I'm not sure that that is a real comment.

This doesn't track right here.

Yeah, because it'll tell you where it's from, like exactly how a bot would do.

It's like from India, period.

Then they leave a comment and you go, huh, that doesn't seem right.

And it's always pro whatever car you're talking about.

As if they work at the Dearborn plant and then like that's their job.

So it's a really like odd thing.

But I look at the Santa Cruz, I do think things like that.

You know, remember you had the Outback that had the bed in it.

What was that called?

Man, I remember.

But you know what I'm talking about?

They had sort of one of those once upon a time.

I forget what that was.

But I've always liked when car...

I mean, the...

Isn't it just the Subaru Baja?

Yeah, the Subaru Baja.

There you go.

Okay, yeah.

I mean, the Sport Track from Ford Explorer.

Sport Track.

Oh, I loved that.

Yeah, those are really good.

Those like hybrid, you know, four-door things always...

For me, I always...

I mean, that's why I always thought like I thought everybody would buy an Avalanche.

You know, it was...

Were we wrong?

Boy, we were definitely wrong.

You know, the Sport Track, when it had that foldable like to extend your bed,

right, that that flip flippy thingy, I thought that was like,

wow, what a genius idea for those smaller trucks.

And people are like, that thing's ugly.

I'm like, really?

I kind of like it.

I think gay.

I mean, compared to a normal Ford Explorer, I don't know, man.

It looked better to me.

Yeah, it looked beefier, stockier.

It actually just drove better.

Like, I don't know.

Yeah, no, I thought...

So I think things like the Santa Cruz, the Baja,

those things were always kind of cool ideas to me.

None of them ever seems like,

yeah, how do you live in the Baja?

Do you live in the Baja?

For anybody that doesn't know any Jesse Ventura references, there you go.

I'm living in the Baja.

That's so good.

So yeah, let's see what that...

And here's another thing.

I like trucks of all sizes.

So if they can nail it,

and Nick and I were talking about this because of the price point,

going back to that, the Slate, the Dakota.

We talked about it last week.

I didn't want to bring it up again,

but there was more news than that,

where Caniscus and Dodge and Ram or whatever,

they're talking about this needs to be a full-fledged truck.

To me, the sub $40,000, Nick immediately was like,

that's not going to be sub $40,000.

If you want to be a real truck truck.

By the way, not the rendering we saw.

Right, right, right.

I mean, because this is Dodge 1500.

It's basically a Ram.

Right.

So that's not going to happen.

And again, I don't know why anybody to look at them and said,

do you mean the one that we saw the picture of it

was a full-size truck?

That's not going to be under $40,000.

So my point was, if Hyundai could nail it

with something in the 25 realm,

Slate would be completely irrelevant,

and then Nick and I got into the propulsion conversation

and all that.

I don't know.

It's a fun and interesting time right now.

They don't have any renderings of it.

It's got to be something like that truck we saw.

I thought it was the Kia Tasmania or something like that.

You're just making shit up now.

I'm not.

You're probably.

I'm not.

You're going to be real salty when you pull it out.

I said Tasman earlier.

Kia.

Yeah, maybe you are a right Tasman.

I don't know.

I thought it was the Tasmanian or something.

Yeah, the Kia.

Yeah, Tasman.

T-A-S-M-A-N.

It's a mid-size truck.

I was way closer than you were.

I said Tasman.

You said Tasman.

I said Tasman.

Yeah, yeah.

Don't, don't, don't.

I meant Tasman.

Yeah, no, you did it.

No, you did it.

Yeah, I did.

See, this is, this is, you know, Houston banging on the things in the dugout.

Oh my God.

We were the only ones that got made an example of.

Everybody else was doing it.

I don't know.

They just made an example of Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft.

That's true.

What do you think about that?

That's bullshit.

Look, Hall of Fame's are a joke.

They're a joke.

I mean, they've always been.

Pete Rose proved that Hall of Fame's were a joke.

Best hitter of all time.

You can't take any of those things seriously.

I mean, from the music to the movies to the sports,

to all those award ceremonies.

This is why we crack jokes about automotive media,

because all of these media members, sports, cars, entertainment.

It's all a joke.

Yeah.

It's all a joke.

How you walk out of a room of 50 people and go,

you know, Bill Belichick's not a first ballot Hall of Fame.

So now you got to keep Tom Brady out.

So the winning is quarterback, the winning is coach.

I think the winning is owner.

You're not going to let them into Hall of Fame on first ballot.

So who's the first ballot Hall of Famer?

Drew Brees?

Hey, Prime Drew Brees.

Prime Drew Brees was a beast.

Come on, dude.

You can throw passes in a fucking dome.

That's true.

Everybody should be in a dumb though.

That's my opinion.

Yeah.

That's the worst opinion I've ever heard.

Band domes.

What do you do?

It's an outdoor sport.

Band domes.

Band them.

I'd ban them all.

It's it.

#65 - SLATE Visits Leno's Garage, Automotive Psyops, Affordable Fords Are Coming & More

Ford Raptor

Mercedes-AMG C53

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