#71 - TRD Hammer or Raptor? Automotive Person Of The Year, Robo Rivian, 2027 Offroad CX-5 & MORE!
Clutch Culture Podcast
#71 - TRD Hammer or Raptor? Automotive Person Of The Year, Robo Rivian, 2027 Offroad CX-5 & MORE!
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Term
third pedal
Most cars have two pedals (brake and gas). In a manual car, there’s a third pedal—the clutch—that helps you change gears.
Concept
Gen 1
“Gen 1” just means the first version or early generation of a vehicle. They’re saying the club isn’t only for people who like the earliest Raptor.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota is a major car brand. In this conversation, they’re being talked about as a company trying to compete with Ford in off-road trucks.
Brand
Chevy
“Chevy” means Chevrolet. They’re being mentioned as a brand that hasn’t matched Ford’s off-road truck momentum.
Concept
TRD Hammer
TRD is Toyota’s performance/off-road brand. “Hammer” sounds like a new name Toyota might be planning for an off-road truck that would go after the Raptor crowd.
Concept
four-wheelers
They mean ATVs—off-road vehicles with four wheels. It’s being used as a funny, exaggerated scenario.
Company
clutch.club
clutch.club is the website they’re telling listeners to use to sign up or reach them. It’s basically their online hub for the show.
Concept
off road
“Off-road” means driving on rough or unpaved roads—like dirt trails or rocky paths. Off-road trucks are set up to handle that better with tougher parts and suspension designed for bumps.
Brand
Motor Trend
Motor Trend is a well-known car magazine/website that covers new vehicles and gives awards. Here, it’s being used to set the context for why they’re talking about a tech CEO in a car-related award.
Brand
Porsche
Porsche is a car company from Germany that makes high-performance sports cars. Here, they’re talking about how Porsche’s money situation and announcements can influence what fans think and want next.
Company
docuSign
DocuSign is a website/app for signing documents electronically. It helps people finish paperwork faster without meeting in person.
Term
push button start
Instead of putting a key into the ignition, you press a button to start the car. It used to be mostly on expensive cars, but now it shows up on many regular ones too.
Concept
direct to consumer
Direct-to-consumer means the car company sells the car to you without using regular dealerships. People like it because it can mean simpler pricing, but the big question is whether service and repairs are still easy to get.
Brand
Tesla
Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. The speaker is talking about what it’s like when a Tesla needs repairs and how those experiences can be good or bad depending on the situation.
Concept
body shop
A body shop is where cars go after they’re damaged, usually from crashes or impacts. They handle things like fixing the outside of the car and repainting it.
Term
Vin
VIN is the car’s unique ID number, kind of like a fingerprint. The speaker wants it to make sure they’re talking about the exact right car for evidence.
Car
Pontiac Aztec
They bring up the Pontiac Aztek because it was a very controversial-looking car. The point is that some people will hate a design, but others will still buy it if they like it.
Term
front grills
They’re talking about the car’s front grille—the part up front that you can see first. They’re saying they don’t like how it looks.
Term
starting price
Starting price is the cheapest version of the car you can buy. The full price can jump a lot when you choose higher trims and add features.
Car
Lexus LX
The Lexus LX is a big luxury SUV. Here they’re talking about whether a bigger infotainment screen is actually useful or just something you pay for.
Car
Lexus GX
The Lexus GX is a luxury SUV that’s built to handle rough roads. They’re saying they don’t need the newer, bigger screen because it doesn’t feel worth the extra cost.
Concept
average consumer
This just means the typical person buying a car, not the hardcore car enthusiasts. They usually care more about comfort and easy tech than performance details.
Term
cockpit
The “cockpit” is the driver’s area inside the car—where you sit and where the controls and screens are. It’s about how comfortable and easy it feels to use everything.
Brand
Audi
Audi is a German car brand. The point here is that Audi is known for putting a lot of thought into how the inside of the car looks and feels.
Brand
BMW
BMW is a German car brand. In this discussion, it’s mentioned as a company that tends to design the car’s interior more thoughtfully.
Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a German luxury car brand. The speaker is using it as an example of a company that usually designs the inside of the car with more care.
Term
iPhone
The iPhone is used as a shorthand comparison for a minimalist, touch-screen, consumer-electronics design language. The speaker’s argument is that copying that look doesn’t automatically deliver the brand identity or design coherence people expect from a Ferrari.
Concept
traffic
They’re talking about how crazy busy the roads are. When traffic is like that, driving feels stressful and you burn more fuel because you’re constantly stopping and going.
Concept
I-10
I-10 is a big interstate highway in the U.S. It’s the kind of road you’d take for commuting or getting around a large metro area, and traffic can get slow.
Concept
Barnedominium
A Barnedominium is basically a house built in a barn style. People like them because they look cool and can be customized, but you have to plan carefully.
Car
Land Rover introduced the 2026 Range Rover Sport SV Winter Dusk Bespoke
Land Rover made a special version of the Range Rover Sport for 2026. It’s from their “SV” customization program, so it’s meant to look and feel more premium and unique than a regular one. “Bespoke” usually means it has special, tailored details.
Brand
Rivian
Rivian is a company that makes electric trucks and SUVs. The point here is that people also argue and defend Rivian like they do with traditional car brands.
LIVE
Welcome back to the number one car culture related podcast on Planet Earth, everybody.
As we're listening to this, I want you all to go to clutch.club.
Very simple.
Clutch.
Third pedal.
Dot club.
And that's where you can sign up for our community and essentially join the Discord.
That's how you get your invite to the Discord community.
That's how you're going to get all of the exclusives, whether it's content or offers
from people that we're going to be bringing onto the show, onto the guest show.
But I wanted to set that up.
I wanted to let you know.
I just filled Nick in.
So everybody clutch that club, sign up, join the club.
We're trying to build the biggest car club in the world.
That's the way I look at it.
Yeah, I'm in.
Let's do it.
No matter where you're living, no matter what you're into, this isn't a Gen 1 Raptor
club.
It's not an Alex 470 club.
It is a car club.
If you can bust balls, if you can take a joke, if you like to have a good time and a good
hang like you do every Monday, that's where you want to go.
I'm in.
All right.
Fantastic.
Yeah, I need you to do it right now.
So as I'm talking, clutch that club.
Thank you for entering your email, Nick.
And I see it here.
Appreciate your participation.
I'm in.
All right.
Let's just start with some of the coolest news.
I think most people that are in the off-roading or even just car world will say is Toyota
is finally trying to dethrone the Raptor.
Little too late or what?
Well, I don't know.
It's about what?
16 years late?
Yeah.
I mean, to be exact, faster than what Chevy's done it.
So I guess that's a win.
Chevy's just like, nah, we don't need one.
They've been selling a lot of Raptors for 16 years.
We're good.
You know, I think Toyota is in the same boat.
Toyota culturally has always moved slower, right?
They change platforms slower.
They just refine and refine and refine.
You know, it's just, that's just the nature of sort of the Japanese brands.
Honda's the same way, those types of things.
I look at this and I go, I hope it's good, you know, by all accounts, it's going to
be good.
But yeah, I mean, Ford's got a 16-year lead on any company jumping into this.
The name to, you know, outlets were, you know, saying that rumor saying, because I
saw I think a trademark or something of the name TRD Hammer or Toyota Hammer was filed
that, oh, you know, finally they're coming, you know, for the Raptor.
And it's just so funny that for starters, I think of Mercedes, anytime I hear Hammer
in the car world.
Of course.
Right?
I don't know about you or people listening, but could you have thought of a better name?
What would you have named this?
This desert running Raptor competitor?
That's a good question because I think for me, they've done so much around TRD, it almost
seems like saying TRD anything is just more shit, you know what I mean?
So I don't really know what I would have done, but they're so TRD heavy that it seems like
just adding another thing in true Japanese fashion.
Let's have 48 trim models.
They all sound the same.
We don't know what any of them are.
The question I have is this all going to be put in, you know, at the dealership, at the
distribution center, at the port, you know, like all the TRD gluons, but I'm kind of glad
to see somebody finally realizing, hey, this is, it's time to do something, you know, Toyota,
I believe they won, did they win a Baja race with this truck?
They did, yeah, that was another one of the big giveaways too.
Yeah, so I like that they're doing this stuff.
I mean, this is one of the things we have to say about Toyotas.
They do seem to be, I mean, they are invested in sports platforms.
They are revealing, you know, things that a lot of other companies are just kind of
hesitant all the time to do.
So if they keep being, you know, it's hard to say you're forward thinking when you're
16 years late to the party, but, you know, GM's not in it, you know, GM, GM doesn't
have a Raptor competitor.
And if anybody brings up the Fox edition, please don't, okay, don't, that thing was
an abomination the way that GM went about that.
So I, does anybody, anybody know how quickly this is going to, is this another, you know,
wait till 2030 type of situation?
I mean, people will probably point to the ZR2.
I was trying to think of what the name was.
The ZR2 is the most off-road capable one because they have the trail loss, but that's
really just like literally a visual.
Let's just all be, let's all be fair here.
It's, it's not a Raptor competitor.
No, it's not a Raptor competitor, but I guess it would be in the segment.
Yeah.
No, no, it's not in a segment.
It's, it's not.
No, we're not going to allow that.
Chevy guys, just take the L.
Okay.
You've taken the L for 16 years.
You're not, you don't have anything competing with the Raptor.
But I, I, I kind of hope, and I know that, you know, hope in one hand and, you know,
this and, you know, all those old sayings.
Yeah.
We're, we're in a situation now.
Is this like a 2029 release?
I hope not.
I hope this is, is going to be, you know, released pretty quickly.
And I guess quickly in the car world would be in the next 12 to 16 months.
But I haven't read much about the release date or anything like that.
Yeah.
There wasn't too much info on it.
As far as the name, what I was thinking, because they had the X runner back in the
day, the small truck, the single cap truck, if they would have called us like the
TRDX, because it kind of sounds like T for X, like, oh, you're trying to, like,
you're trying to compete, you know, compete with the TRX, with the Raptor.
And you have commercials with DMX wrapping.
Yeah, you go, dude, I mean, see what I'm saying with holograms and AI, you can
make them do whatever you want.
That's actually not a bad idea.
You can go Woodstock 99 and just play all those clips.
Instead of having like the helicopter in the background, you just have the Toyota
truck just on top of some sort of mantle.
Or the Rough Riders just riding four-wheelers down New York City, you
know what I'm saying?
Or just, yeah, with the four-wheelers in the back.
With the scion side by side?
Hell yeah.
In the back of the TRDX.
That would have been awesome.
Yeah, that's what I'm telling you.
All you got to do is ask us.
All you got to do is hire us, guys.
No, no, you don't ask us.
You hire us.
I know.
Yeah, just, just, there'll be a consulting fee.
Shoot us a line.
Shoot us a line through clutch.club and we'll get back to you.
Clutch.club, we'll get right back to you.
Steve Rob did a lot of work on clutch.club.
So if you guys don't go and start signing up, we're just going to hear
about it 42 times in the show.
100%.
We don't run any other ads on the show, guys.
It was only for our shits.
Well, I've made it pretty clear.
I'm down the road on some podcasters of all different genres that I'm
stopping listening to if they get their ads out of control.
I'm just done with it.
Yeah, like I said, Tim Dillon doing factor meals.
Come on, bud.
Come on.
Did you, speaking of, did you see the trailer to a, dammit, what is it?
Busboys, I think it is.
I did.
Dude, what do you think?
It looks funny.
It's silly, right?
Look, I like Tim Dillon.
So, uh, friend of the show.
Friend of the show.
Yeah, friend of the show.
Tim Dillon, friend of mentions.
Yeah.
So, uh, but yeah, I mean, I'm, you're right.
We don't do a lot of ads.
Uh, we are for sale.
Absolutely.
Somebody offers us enough money.
I mean, look, we just busted on GM.
They come in and say, Hey, here's some money.
I'd be like, you know what, you don't need a raptor.
I mean, what are these guys talking about?
What are these lame-os going to do off road, huh?
To come in from guys with off-road vehicles.
We'll get a question.
Do you think Chevy should release a raptor?
No.
Why'd you ask such a stupid question?
Just dismiss the panel of questions.
You freaking losers.
Just be really aggressive.
We're not paid off.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, well, nobody's ever heard that before.
That's never been said in the car world before.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, nobody's getting a check.
God, this makes me want to jump straight to an article that I
thought was very interesting.
I'll just say it that's where we're not shooting shots before we get paid.
First we got to get paid and then we can shoot the shots.
Yeah.
But if I say the word AI, it's, it's
March of 2026, Nick.
If I just say, hey, what do you think about AI?
What is the first thing that comes to mind?
Just your honest opinion.
People want to know exactly that.
Don't, don't sugarcoat it.
Overblown.
Overblown.
I mean, that's pretty unparforated, I think.
Overblown for right now.
I'm sure like anything with tech, it is going to be something and it's
probably going to be powerful.
But just like I say anytime, part of the tech CEO's job is to tell you
everything's 18 months away.
So in 2020, when AI kind of burst into the scene, I think for most of us,
probably 2020, 2021, everything was 18 months away.
It's 2026.
That's 2026.
That's crazy.
Everything's 18 months away.
Well, we're six years in, you know, if not longer, I know it was around a
little bit before that, you know, I'm not trying to give you an exact date,
but AI became this big thing.
And, uh, oh, come on.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is the 2026 Motor Trend Person of the Year.
I, um, again, hey, Jensen's a cool guy.
He did a good Rogan in episode.
He's one of the original guys at NVIDIA.
That's all fine and dandy.
This is Motor Trend, guys.
I mean, I know if somebody from Motor Trend is watching this or is going to
see this clip, if you don't watch full podcast, like, what are we doing here?
It's a bit of a stretch with this, and this was a long ride up, as you can see.
And I read through it.
So you guys don't have to speaking of, speaking of AI, this article, uh, so
I mean, obviously, you know, what NVIDIA does is they're behind a lot of what
powers the modern car, obviously, and, and, and that space as a whole globally.
I, okay.
I mean, first of all, I think the fact that this guy, no matter summer or winter,
where's the same leather jacket has to be discussed.
All right.
I mean, it's not always cold.
I mean, how do I see the jacket?
Reptiles, aren't they cold-blooded, retillions?
But, but I look at, I look at all of this and I go, for all you guys that listen
to us and say a lot of things in the comments and support and ask questions
and make your opinion known, you have to realize that the people covering the car
world from a media perspective have become enamored with tech, tech, tech, tech.
Boy.
They are not even trying to speak to, I think anybody at this point.
I'm not even sure who they speak to.
Right.
Who do you really speak to?
If you're talking about a guy who builds chips being the, the, the person of the
year on a car website, a car magazine, a car YouTube channel, it doesn't matter.
I'm sure you can make your argument and this AI written 5,000 word piece.
I'm fine with it, but who are you trying to speak to?
And this is kind of what this, this podcast was born out of.
And my opinion is I just don't know who most of these people are talking to.
I don't think they're talking to the general car buyer doesn't read motor
trend.
No.
So you're not talking to them.
They don't seem to ever be talking to the enthusiast.
Who are they talking to exactly?
And this is the whole disconnect of nobody covering the pricing situation
through COVID EVs being covered improperly and muddying the water and
dirtying the pool from the very beginning through the media.
It's like, I can't figure out who they're talking to.
Check out who is your, who, who is your audience?
And then they, they end the article.
This is fascinating to me under Huang and video has become one of the world's
most valuable companies where it's significantly more than Tesla period.
Always taking the jab at Tesla.
You gotta take it.
I mean, you gotta take it.
Nvidia is a bellwether for the health of the tech industry and financial
market as a whole.
Its earnings are watched closely for signs of an AI bubble.
Well, what's that got to do with cars?
One, and have you not been watched?
Maybe you haven't been watching the AI market or the market in general of an AI
bubble.
It's just disconnected.
Completely.
That's where you look at this, you go person of the year.
I don't know, bud.
I mean, I'm not saying you had a lot of choices.
I mean, let's, let's all be fair about that.
I'm not saying you had a hundred great people in the automotive industry, you
know, to write about, I understand that part of it.
This doesn't seem like it speaks to anybody.
Who are you talking to?
The end of the article is talking about the worth of the company and the AI
bubble.
This isn't the business journal.
This isn't the Wall Street Journal.
You, what are we talking about?
Stock price.
If you're going to do that, at least give somebody that's running a car
company person of the year.
I know that'd be pretty tough at this point in time with, with what, you know,
I was just talking to somebody, a big Porsche guy.
Evidently, a lot of people didn't know Porsche is kind of hurting financially.
You know, they, they, they were basically down what, like 99% at the end of 2024.
And there's not that all that stuff means they can always get money or whatever.
But it like affected him as a Porsche fan.
I'm like, bud, you don't even own the stock.
You don't own the company.
You don't own a piece of the pie.
What are you talking about?
What do you care?
Like, I mean, what, what, what do you, what's your worry?
Like you're not, your family wealth is not tied to whether or not Porsche's
stock price, but his identity, not Porsche's stock price.
Obviously they're, they're part of a group.
But his identity is, you know, if, if 100%, yeah, you know, they're hurting.
If they're looked at, it is no longer as a top peak, you know, brand than his
identity is kind of takes a look.
So then they want, you know, Porsche makes an announcement that they're
looking at building something higher than the GT three, you know, like a step
above the GT three, which I think is just trying to milk certain buyers.
Sure.
I mean, they could do something awesome.
Don't get me wrong.
They're degraded building cars, but it's obvious they're just trying to milk the
top buyers and I kind of talked about this.
I mean, you know, specking out a Porsche Cayenne for $228,000.
I mean, I think they're kind of missing the plot of, of, I mean, how many
people are buying that, uh, you know, so, yeah, but his like whole, it was like,
man, I mean, I don't know.
Your car still has blue stitching.
What do you, what do you care?
Like, you know, go to the car show and put your billboard up and talk about how
you have, you know, these, you know, blue colored door pools and, you know, go on
with your life.
You're hitting them with the, with the cardboard every time now, all your
body, I'm telling you, you have no idea about the group chat.
Like Porsche people would be so pissed if they saw my group chats and the
things I throw into my Porsche group chat.
You're just going to start seeing so and so has left the chat in the bottom
of your text threads.
No, I will not because they just, because, because here's the thing.
They want to tell me about their latest stitching and they want to tell me they,
they're just too addicted to telling me corny shit that I don't care about.
And I know you guys are listening.
That's, that's awesome.
And that's why you join clutch.club.
So you can get more of this inside the discord.
So we can have more fun.
Absolutely.
It's all, it's what it's about.
Right.
It's a good hang.
Uh, school's sticking on the AI subject.
I have another topic that I've been seeing more of and this is a real car
salespeople complaining about people that go find deals for them.
It's something you might, you know, you obviously do at a higher level, but we
know a lot of people that do these videos.
We've talked about the delivered channel and a couple other people that record
those processes, but then on top of that, so that's one is salesmen are
upset that someone is being paid, whatever it is, 500, a thousand, a
percentage of whatever the, you know, that they, they get the deal for.
And then there's the AI agents now.
AI agents are making full blown deals for customers and removing the
salesperson altogether.
So that's a pro to the consumer.
I guess it obviously, it hurts the dealership, maybe some, but not really.
I don't understand what the way everyone's up in arms about.
Anytime things change, people get up in arms and the automotive business is no
different than that.
You know, I was around when all this stuff went electronic, you know, at the
dealership and, you know, you got those big like pads in front of you and, you
know, all the people in the dealership are like, we don't need that.
We just need a thing, you know, I mean, when change happens in any business, it's
not just the automotive business.
I don't want to just pick on the automotive business.
People get all up in arms.
Look, all of you have had probably some good experiences and some bad
experiences buying cars.
Most of you will say you had nothing but bad experiences.
I find that kind of hard to believe with the trillions of dollars people
have spent at these facilities.
But I really want people to understand we're just going through a change.
The automotive business is going to be hit by that change.
I buy lots of cars for my private customers.
I've never really had much of an issue.
I've had a couple of things happen in the last 15 years, but I think the
people complaining about this online are either pretty low level at what they
do or just don't understand times are changing, which both is probably a
combination of both of those things.
But when you, when you're talking about buying, you know, high end Mercedes,
high end Porsche, high end Lambo, Ferrari, all those kinds of things, nobody
really cares how the metal gets moved, right?
It's just like people just, people that are buying sort of that mid-priced car
or that lower priced car, they aren't privy to how some of the high end stuff
has been going for a long time.
Most high end customers, you know, have somebody that is kind of facilitating
the paperwork and running the paperwork to their office or docuSign or power
of attorney or any of these kinds of things.
And it's, it's been accepted in that part of the market.
And just like push button start, you know, push button start started at the
very elite level of cars.
And now it's in every car.
This way of buying cars for people with means on the higher end has kind
of been going this way.
You know, very rarely do I have a customer who's like, I'm walking around
a showroom, they're not going to do that.
The car is going to be brought to them.
They're going to be able to keep it for as long as they want.
I mean, I've had customers drive cars for two weeks and be like, I don't like
it, you know, that that's just kind of a thing that can happen on the higher
end.
That's not going to happen if you're buying a Honda or Toyota or Chevy or
whatever, I understand that.
But I think we're getting to a point where just some of this stuff that's
been going on in the higher end part of the market is going to leak down.
And it's going to be done by technology.
Right.
It's not going to be done by much else than that because it's going to be
affordable to do it through technology.
Hard to argue with that.
It's going to be interesting because now you're seeing more people.
As long as we've been doing the show, we've been seeing a lot of people say
we need to go or the manufacturer needs to go direct to consumer, this
that and the other, we see it in our comments.
And now I'm starting to see it in like just the most random of car related.
If it's a car adjacent comment section, like we just need to go to direct
to consumer no more dealership.
And I'm like, man, we've been talking about it for so long that now when I
see those more, I'm like, you're missing a lot of the nuance of what goes on in
between.
Yeah, they just don't know how everything works.
No, they don't know how everything works.
They just, they just don't.
And again, I'm all for somebody presenting a very clear, this is the next
way to do things with all the finer points and all the details, how the
car is going to get serviced.
Who's going to be responsible for servicing it?
I'm all for that.
If there was a direct way to show me that Ford is going to run 3000 dealerships
for service as a corporation, the size they are and what they're concentrated
on, I'm all for it.
Show me how it's going to work.
If it looks like it's going to work.
Well, I'm like, Hey, let's do that.
I want to make this clear.
It hasn't been shown and using Tesla as an example.
I keep telling you guys on the West Coast, we get a view of Tesla that I think
the most of the country doesn't get, right?
Because it's, this is where it all kind of from California East is how this
thing traveled.
There's a Tesla body shop right by a gym that I attend.
Jiu-Jitsu gym I attend.
I have seen the same car sitting there waiting to get repaired.
There's a red one that's been there for six months.
Six months.
God, last spring.
Last spring.
I know the Vin.
I know, I know what it is.
I want to make sure.
I'm going to need this for the show evidence.
Just take a picture.
Yeah, I got any, not saying Tesla does it.
The Tesla's a bad thing.
I have dealt with some nightmare situations with Tesla.
Not all of them have been a nightmare.
Okay.
But some of the nightmare is there.
It's not figured out the way because you're Tesla.
You're a Tesla owner and you go, it's gone great for me.
Yeah, but they've sold millions of cars.
One good example of you does not paint the whole picture of millions of cars in
the things that have, I've had Tesla paint fly off the car with its first
wash because that just because that didn't happen to you doesn't mean it
didn't happen.
That that's that's what people need to realize.
So if there is a direct to consumer model that Ford brings out or Chevy brings
out or whoever brings out and they go, this is the plan and the plan makes sense.
I'm all for it.
Magically, none of these manufacturers who you guys think are greedy are trying
to cut out the dealership.
No matter what you think, it's like, well, because of state law, no, no,
they wouldn't give a rip about state law if they knew the plan and knew that
they could cut out the middleman.
No, no.
All right, let's make it, let's take a shift into a, an interesting topic
that we love and that is the subject of BMWs and the M division.
We got some, some photos here.
I can't believe you're pulling this up on this show.
2027 BMW M three.
Look at that.
Awesome camo.
I know, but they, but they have a, they have a, they have a real picture out.
Uh, well, not on these articles.
Yeah, they have a blue one out that you can see.
I, Rob did some, let's just be clear.
Rob, Jamie wouldn't have done this.
I already had my set up.
Hey, friend of the show friend of the show.
So I've been seeing a lot of comments, uh, about the new M three, uh, anybody
that thinks it looks great.
Okay, man, we can all have our opinions, I guess.
Uh, your opinions are an assault on my eyes.
Yeah.
Secondarily to that, I think people have a very hard time because now I see a lot
of content, not on our content, but sometimes on our content, but I see it on a
lot of M stuff is they go, well, look at, you know, the, the big grill and that's
growing on everybody.
No, it isn't.
No, no, it isn't.
It may be growing on you and you're allowed to like what you like, but don't
tell people that it's growing on them.
No, it isn't.
I have a bunch of BMW buddies, none of them buying, uh, the pig nose front end.
There is not growing on them.
Now, if you like it, that's a perfect reason to buy the car.
You don't have to agree with what I say about a design of a car or anybody says
about a design of a car, you know, people bought the Pontiac Aztec.
So at the end of the day, you know, it's your money.
It's your car, but I see this ever growing thing is like, well, you know,
I, everybody's going to bitch about this M three, but they're going to love it in
the future.
I won't.
I mean, here's the thing.
I don't really enjoy the E 46 platform.
I didn't, I just don't enjoy it.
Okay.
I know about its greatness and, uh, you know, that it's a great driving
experience, but I, that's not the favorite BMW that I like the looks of.
There's other people that love that car.
I haven't come around on it, you know, 20 years later, I just don't, I'm just
like, Hey man, if I have my choice now, if somebody wants to give me a smoke and
deal on an E 46 that I can flip, make no mistake, I'll own one, but I'll never
tell people like, yeah, this is my favorite BMW.
It may be yours.
You may love the E 36.
You may love the E 92 the most, but there's this growing thing where everybody's
trying to sound like the smartest person in the room going, well, this new M three
people will love it, you know, in the future.
It's like, no, not really.
I mean, certain people will love it.
And you could tell by the price me, I won't, you could tell by the prices to the
market was spoke on certain years for a while now that was going for more than
the newer ones and the ones you could get for much cheaper than the older ones.
Sure.
Yeah.
So I'm showing, if you're watching on YouTube, this red color here on the new M three.
Yeah, but this isn't where, where's the, um, I gotta find this for you.
Because of that money.
Where's the, the new calls, the, oh, that's the electric one though.
Yeah, I want to see that.
Okay.
Here, I'll pull it up for you.
Actually, that was, that was some car and driver and then, uh,
Motortran had a different shot of the car here, which is still going to be in that
same wrap, but it's the one I was showing you earlier.
Still having a full color.
And it's very similar to the one that we were, we showed weeks ago or probably
months ago that had the screen at the bottom.
Yeah, there it is.
Is that one?
There's that.
There's the, the lady that we didn't know what she was really trying to explain
here, uh, but I just think people, and, and some people will just always be
influenced in the future and go, yeah, you know what?
It's not that bad.
Yeah, that's going to happen.
Yeah.
But true enthusiasts are going to like what they like and you really can't be
swayed one way or the other.
You just go, Hey man, it just doesn't speak to me, but I see a lot more comments
and a lot more, you know, well, you'll see, you'll see.
It's like, no, man, not really.
I've been around M cars now for, what is it?
28 years.
You know, I've liked what I've liked.
I've never wanted to own an E 36.
There you go.
There you go.
Oh, for all you watch it, not watching on YouTube.
Here's the front end that again, not very inspired.
I mean, I guess it could grow on you if you shut one eye and squint the other.
The I three, excuse me.
Yes.
Boy, but if you like it, you like it and, and it's just not something that speaks
to me and it won't speak to me in the future.
Like so many people try to say is going to happen.
So we got a Mitsubishi Diamante front end and we have a Lexus rear end right here.
Tell me that's not an F sport rear end.
Hey, how about those wheels?
Yeah, that's also an assault on my eyes.
Yes, does not look good.
It's not look good.
The proportions don't look right.
The door, the door area is really the problem.
It just doesn't look right.
Yeah.
Uh, from, from the front door to the back door.
It's just not the right line.
Uh, but people are going to say what they're going to say and they're going to
try to say, well, people will love it.
No, they won't.
No, they won't.
I know, I know, I know plenty of guys young and old that won't buy these cars.
And if they do, it'll just be to say that they bought it so that, you know,
you got the newest thing and people know, yeah, which, by the way, great reason
to buy something, of course, we love you to join clutch.club.
Whatever, I told you guys, if you guys don't go over to clutch.club,
Rob's going to be 48 times in that only this time, only the other ones.
I'll just cut it in half just until we get 23.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Until we get it through freaking heads that we need you guys to come join
and have fun with us.
Um, but yeah, you know, BMW is just killing the game right now.
I don't know what else to say.
No, it's just not, it's it, it is literally a hit or miss thing right now.
And that's a bad place to be.
Well, so speak enough.
So this is a perfect segue to, uh, let me just pull this one up for you.
The 2026 basically looks like the same from the back, Lexus ES will launch
with battery electric or hybrid motor starting around 50k.
They're really going down with the ship on these front grills, aren't they?
Boy, are they?
Yeah, they're just like, we don't care that everybody thinks they're ridiculous.
I mean, is it a Hyundai or is it a Lexus?
You know, I'll tell you one of the things that I really find pretty crazy is the
ES just keeps powering along, doesn't it?
It sure does with before with good reason now.
I don't know.
Yeah, it seems like, but starting at 50 is a little better than you thought.
Yes.
Right.
I think I know it's not a $35,000 starting price, but you know, starting at
50 going all the way up with 812 trim packages, you can be at $98,000 for the
top trim package, probably.
That's a joke for everybody out there that doesn't think I understand how they
work.
You know, dude, the inside of this though, if people with kids have ever seen
Mitchell's versus the machines, the pods that they get into, this is what it
looks like.
It's so uninspiring.
It feels like it's like a sterile room, a pod that you're just in.
Just never going to be a fan of the screen sticking out of the dash.
No.
I just don't think, I just think that's lazy design, in my opinion.
Like it just doesn't, you want to put a big screen in, but you don't want to do the
work to bury it into the dash.
I think that's, I'm just, I don't care what manufacturer it is, I'm not down with that.
Look, and I've said this for a long time.
I think the money has just been spent.
These things are already in motion and they have no choice but to put it out
despite all of them flopping, despite all of them not selling at all.
All right, some of them might sell well, but let's be real.
Overall, they're not selling well for a lot of these manufacturers.
And eventually we might see some inspiration come back, I think, because
they'll be forced to say, okay, all of those tests failed.
Okay, we have no choice.
But also, how much do you think it's because our listeners and ourselves,
we're the minority of the market, somebody's going to see that big screen as
an average buyer and go, look, I got this big screen.
I mean, you got to realize, I don't think the average buyer sees it negatively.
We see it negatively because we're like,
I don't want this big screen sticking out of my dash.
I don't think that's how the average, I think they think they're getting value
the bigger the screen is.
I think you're right right now.
And this is kind of like the AI thing that we started the show with,
like right now it's not overblown.
Right now it's overblown is not where it's supposed to be.
I think enough people in a certain amount of time, in a window of time,
will have experience, either a big screen, really bad tech.
You would think it's already here, but apparently not.
To where enough people have had one shot at an iteration of this so-called
upgraded tech and screens.
To where later, even the lame, it'll be like, you know what,
I was down that road a while back, not that great.
I don't want this anymore.
Have you seen that skit where somebody takes a big flat screen TV
and she puts it on her lap and goes, hey, look, I got my new car
and she's got this huge flat screen?
She goes, I just love all the screens in here.
That's great.
No.
I wish I would have thought of it, by the way, because that was hilarious.
I mean, she had like a 45-inch TV on her lap.
It was hilarious.
In her car?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's so funny.
Damn, what was she driving?
I don't know, but it was hilarious.
So I just saw it briefly.
I was like, yeah, I wish I would have thought of that because that's hilarious.
Well, I need you to do that now anyway,
and just go ahead and put a soundbar wire in there, you know?
Like, I got a so-no soundbar to go with it because this new tech is great.
You can hear it from the outside.
It's unbelievable, man.
Yeah, but are you going to be right?
Am I going to be right?
I don't know that everybody's going to get sick of it.
I think they think, I'm paying this price.
I'm supposed to get a big screen.
I think they're going to be trained that way.
So I don't think they're going to see it your way.
I just don't think they're going to come around to that because
as long as it has the functionality that they want,
and it's not like a terrible experience,
they're going to equate big screen with value of their money.
Okay, what's too, how do I phrase this for Nick?
So, you know, what's too big of a screen?
If we're just talking broad brush here,
we're painting with a broad brush.
What is the ideal size?
Whether you're in a car, SUV, a truck, where's the limit?
I like what I have in my LX and in my GX
because I don't have the GX with the bigger screen that was redesigned.
I don't need all of that.
Like all of my screens and all of my cars, even my BMW,
is buried in the dash.
I don't have a single other vehicle that I am,
and I still can't understand what I would need a bigger screen for.
I agree.
Do you?
No.
I don't, I get people could make an argument,
but I don't personally, other than playing music or a podcast,
what do I, what else am I doing?
And then you, so this is like about a good size right here.
This is an external hard drive.
This is what most cars,
I think your BMW is probably a little bit bigger than this,
but like unless you-
Y'all way bigger, yeah.
Yeah, it's maybe double the size.
But even then, I don't know, 2010 or so,
whether it's 4GM or even, you know, any kind of model.
They had a screen that was about that size.
If you're really cheaped out, like I remember in the Focus ST I had,
I didn't get the ST3 that had like the bigger sync screen.
I had that old Ford screen that was like this big.
It was really just to like tell the time what radio station
or what music and that was it.
And you didn't really think about it.
Like if it was there, cool.
But now you're integrating all of the other stuff into it as well that,
oh man, what's going around right now?
I forgot which maker it was,
but they're using the Panamera style,
like to change the AC, you got to go into the screen
and drag your finger across to change the AC event direction.
That's got to be horrible.
I think it's GM actually.
Is he the GM or Cadillac?
No, it was Lincoln.
Lincoln, the newest Lincoln.
Yeah, no, let's not do that.
That's not good.
Let's not do that.
I would say that, first of all,
Bob has an external hard drive.
He wanted to show off, you know, Tommy Tech over there.
Oh, one.
I got all these things plugged in.
I don't have a fucking,
I don't have no space for all the shit I got to do.
Look at all my tech.
But I don't like tech in my cars.
I don't.
There's nothing better than grabbing that Raptor knob that looks like this.
I think we all have to say this.
Yeah, it is like a hockey puck.
It is.
We all have to say this that what we want is enthusiast
and what we enjoy.
You got to take that hat off
and you got to look at the average consumer.
And the average consumer wants a bigger iPad.
They want a bigger computer screen.
They want a bigger television.
And I think that's just what these manufacturers are playing into.
And I'm not sure we can blame them because
it's the wow factor of getting into a vehicle
that sells a lot of the average consumer.
And I think those screens can put on a show
for the average consumer.
I'm not saying that's the guys and gals listen to us.
Absolutely not.
Three women that listen to us and the rest.
Thanks, Bonnie, to call you guys the real MVPs.
Yeah.
So, but you have to realize
when you're talking about the average consumer, man,
I do think that's what manufacturers have to have
incredible data on what this all is.
You would think so.
Now that I picked something up in my hand,
I can't let go of it.
I got to point with it.
You know, I got this little yellow screwdriver here.
Ironically, since we're talking about AI and cars,
how many people do you know that have not even experimented
with the with even a sliver of GPT,
Gemini, any AI, LLM or anything at all?
I probably know more people.
We probably all know more people than we think.
Agreed.
So kind of envious of them, by the way, too,
for being honest.
Yeah.
Depending on the day, I'm like, wow, you really,
you've never even logged into chat, GPT.
Like, I don't even have a free trial.
Like, that's crazy to me, right?
Meanwhile, we're down like our 100th different model of whatever.
But these people, this is the average consumer.
If they don't even use the bare bones of any LLM
or any AI agent or whatever, why are we
to expect they're going to continue
to love so much more tech in their cars?
Oh, yeah.
I can shoot this down, right?
Rob, don't rob a softball.
Let's go.
Why do people keep buying the newest iPhone?
I don't think they do.
I think that's why they're building other things.
I don't think they're...
What?
They sell like eight zillion iPhones a year.
That's fair.
But they used to sell 10 zillion just a couple of years ago.
I'm not saying you're wrong.
I'm just...
It's because I'm not wrong.
I'm right on this one.
I look at it as they got to have
the data of what these people want.
I mean, one thing that everybody loves to say
is how stupid auto manufacturers are.
That's a big thing on the internet and the comment sections.
Sure.
They have behavioral scientists and all these people you know,
you don't even know they employ.
And I'm talking on a big scale.
These screens are there for a reason, period.
I hate them.
They don't speak to me from just a simple sitting in the cockpit
and looking at this screen that's not integrated into anything.
That doesn't speak to me.
But I have to take that hat off and go,
what are we, 1% to 3% of the market that would even care about that?
To that point, I think those efforts are more so...
Let's just take the behavioral science of cars even.
I think those studies are to implant the things
that they want to be used,
not that they're studying people that want them in there to be used.
Yeah, I got to disagree with you.
I completely disagree with you.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, look, Rob,
I don't have a bunch of external hard drives over here,
so we're going to go with my opinion.
Well, you know what?
I tried talking about hard drives on the internet.
Go to klutz.club and tell us who's right or wrong.
Tell us right now.
Let's talk.
Yeah, it's Nick.
Go ahead and cast your vote.
I mean, I know about hard drives.
I was talking about hard drives,
nobody listened to me a couple of years ago,
and then look what we found out.
Oh, what do you know?
What do you know?
It was real.
The fucking hard drive was real.
Yeah, so I just see it's just about getting people impressed
when they're sitting in there.
I go back to the old coffee in the Japanese people,
I believe it was Japan.
Do you know the story?
Right?
They didn't drink coffee,
and the way that they got them to enjoy coffee
was they started making coffee candies
when the kids were young,
so they implanted the thing
that they want to grow in popularity.
That's on my side.
That's what they're doing.
They're implanting that we can put this cheap screen in here
and the bigger we make it,
No, no, no, but you said that the consumer wants more of that.
They already feel like they get more by having that there.
That's something they have no option.
Okay, so trained or once has the same outcome.
For the person putting on the training,
not for the person that's forced to buy it.
That's what I'm saying.
So it's not going to get smaller is my point.
This is now a part of it.
So automotive design, especially on the interior,
you had companies that excelled at this.
If you look at Audi,
if you look at BMW,
if you look at Mercedes,
this is kind of the German brand selling point
as they thought through the interior
a little bit more than an American manufacturer
or Japanese manufacturer.
When those companies start just mounting a screen
on top of the dash,
but it's over.
That's not going backwards.
They're not going to make life harder on themselves.
That's not going to happen.
So whether they're training people to think this is value
or these people are just automatically think it's value.
The outcome is exactly the same
is that this is not going back to let's think about elegant design.
I mean, we can look at the Ferrari thing we brought up
where they go, hey,
we got the guy who designed the iPhone
and they proudly start to say,
look at this interior.
It's like, yeah, it does look like an iPhone.
Doesn't look like a Ferrari
just because you put a Ferrari steering wheel on it.
So do you think that they pulled or tested their audience
in the Ferrari world and said this is what they want
or they tested and say,
if we make more like this and convince them they like it,
we'll just put it in everything and they'll have no choice.
Yeah, I'm saying both could be right,
but the outcome is exactly the same.
Yes.
My point is, is the outcome is these screens
are not going to be more elegant 15 years from now.
Well, they're not making them 15 years from now.
Obviously they're going to completely just be obsolete.
The cars are going to be driving themselves.
They're going to self-destruct at that point.
Rob, look, stop arguing.
Okay, just admit you lost.
No, I need a bell.
I need a bell for when I'm right like ring the fucking bell.
Tell us right now.
Do we need a bell?
Clutch.club.
Let us know.
Yeah.
So Rob, is that 42 mentions already?
Yeah, that's not true.
For those of you playing the drinking game at your fraternity,
we should actually, you're going to pass out.
Hey, we need a drinking game, a dead series.
We're going to do live shows maybe on a weekend one day
for like 30 minutes.
We're going to play a drinking game.
You can only get access to the discord.
First one to pass out wins.
I mean, you got to be Madelo, right?
I do love Madelo.
Yeah.
Of course you do.
Look, that's like, come on, I already knew.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what I said.
You like the mountains to get blue, right?
Obviously.
No, no, no, no.
You're not a course guy?
That's not, no, there's, no, I'm not a course guy.
Okay, let's say that you were at Ohio State.
What are you drinking?
Natty lot of natty light.
Okay, natty light.
All right.
You know, 30 rack of stones, you know, keystone light.
Yeah, that was, those were the broke days.
Dude, natty light.
Can you grab a 30 rack of stones?
Natty light still goes hard.
I don't know what you're talking about.
If you pop over, you're driving a gen one raptor that costs,
you know, $7,000 a gallon.
You're not drinking natty light anymore.
What are you talking about?
Of course I am.
I was drinking Lone Star.
You know, what about Lone Star?
Yeah, so I do like Lone Star.
Let's go.
You know what was cheap when I was, for people in the Midwest
and probably the Northeast, it used to be so cheap.
It's called yingling.
Have you ever had yingling beer?
Of course.
Love yingling.
It's one of the oldest breweries in America.
Just so we're clear, that was a trash beer when I was in college.
It's like a superior beer now.
I know.
So when I go back to the Midwest and people are like,
hey, I'm getting a yingling, it like triggers me
because I'm like a yingling.
Yo, bro, no one ever mentions yingling.
That is really, really cool that you mentioned yingling.
Yeah, so, I mean like a keg of yingling was no money at all.
Really?
Yeah, yeah, it was very, very cheap.
It is a, if you go to the store now, it is a premium price product.
Yeah, you gotta give them credit.
Did private equity buy that?
I dude, it's a great question.
Damn it.
I have to know this now.
People were messaging me about private credit.
I go, guys, I gave you what I know.
There is no, and by the way, it was like one percent
of a shitty story I gave.
So it's like, you know, that's all I got.
I got other things going on.
Funded, founded in 1829.
Yeah, it is the oldest brewery in America.
Yeah, when I was at Ohio State, it was a trash beer.
I mean, like a Natty Light or a Keystone Light or something like that.
Sure.
And we say trash in a good way because obviously we bought it
because we enjoyed it.
Bushlight, I mean, I don't care.
Whatever, whatever got you going.
Hey man, there's a place where they'll do like three dollar
loan stars on certain days.
I'm like, that's great.
You know, in today's economy.
When I was at Ohio State, they had a bar called Alcatraz.
And it was like this white block building with like black bars on it.
Party Central, quarter pitchers.
Quarter pitchers.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Quarter pitchers.
And look, I had some guys that ended up going into the NFL,
one that might go to the Hall of Fame.
That dude would just take it to the dome.
Take it to the dome.
There was a place in Huntsville called Shenanigans.
We used to call it Shenastes.
And it was like one of two places there, the Jolly Fox and Shenanigans.
And I think it was like 10 cent, whatever, like well drinks or whatever.
And I'm like, I remember at the moment being like, okay,
am I in the Matrix or not?
Because this seems like a really bad idea for everybody that's in this place.
But such a great idea.
Such a good time.
A great time, good idea.
Yeah, Panama City, Spring Break.
I mean, we were all living the life back.
Club La Vila.
That was a different type of life because right now people
apparently are just roaming through the concrete jungle that is Houston,
spending their Spring Break demolishing the concrete jungle.
What are we doing?
Wasn't happening in the Woodlands.
I can tell you that.
Between the rodeo getting shut down for the first time ever.
I saw that.
I saw that.
Insane.
So you and I, you have a lot more experience in Houston,
but you know I have my fair share of experience in Houston.
It is one of the most insane places that stays put together on the planet.
Like if you really think about it, the traffic's insane, the behavior's insane.
Certain places don't even feel like you're in Houston when you are.
Some of them are like in central Houston, some of the rich areas that you're like,
how is this in the middle of all this?
Then you go south of Houston and all of a sudden you see all the oil and all the,
and you're like, I can't believe this place stays together.
I can't believe there hasn't been a civil war in here.
You know what I'm saying?
You are so right.
Someone's trying to do an expose on River Oaks right now because of the money in old River Oaks,
which is right, that's more of the centralized versus up, down,
you know, Woodlands or the beach area.
It is really, really wild for how.
If you've never like traveled all of Houston, you have no idea,
and I've been to a lot of places in this country and I've traveled a lot,
but if you really take in Houston, go down to a baseball game or go to a Rockets game
and then drive around and you're like, I can't believe all this shit is going on.
In one, in that one, in one area that's called Houston and you're like,
it's so much space.
There's so much going on.
There should be seven cities.
Yeah, it's this.
This is not.
And that's why you have 48 different law enforcement agencies.
You don't know what any of them do.
It's true.
Even you live there your whole life.
You couldn't explain to me what all them.
No, it's like what they're responsible for.
If you need somebody's got to come.
There's enough people.
So if I need backup, somebody's going to be here.
Yeah.
And you're like, is that a real cop?
What's that car?
I've never seen them before.
He's got a badge.
It is one of these places.
It's like when you go to Phoenix, you can't believe how big Phoenix is.
Like you could be in Scottsdale and if you want to get to the north part of Phoenix,
it takes you like an hour and 10 minutes with no traffic somehow.
Like there's just these weird things about cities.
Houston is up there in weirdness of just how many things that coexist in that city.
You can't believe it.
Before we hopped on, I literally saw a video of somebody in traffic.
And they were like, you know, it doesn't matter what time I leave,
what time I get up, what time I have to be somewhere.
I am in the pants to the track.
He goes, because I'm going to be in traffic.
This is I-10.
This is the biggest highway in the country.
And I'm going to be at a standstill at some point of the day.
Yeah, true.
I will say it is a fascinating city.
And then you can just go to like the NASA Museum randomly and you're like,
oh, okay, it's kind of chilling here.
As soon as you get out of there, not chill.
Not chill.
No chill.
You can go question them.
Did you actually go to the moon and tell me right now?
You know how it's got that long driveway to get into the NASA thing?
Oh, yeah.
You drive out and you just realize I'm not in NASA anymore.
You're on the driveway of the NASA facility looking out going, yeah, that's over.
Feels like another planet.
Yeah, that chill two or three hours I just had, that's coming to an end.
And I'm not even out of the driveway yet.
That's so funny.
I saw a video of the old Enron days where the guy that was in, it was basically,
it was because of him that they actually got the Astrodome, you know,
the people that were wanting to build where the Astrodome was to go downtown.
Long story short, he ends up being one of the guys that gets indicted for the whole thing.
And he's never- Ken, Ken, whatever it was.
Yes, yes, yes, exactly, right.
And he's never to be heard of again.
But thanks to that guy, Minute Maid, which is now Dyken Park is downtown.
And mine, I want to go research like, what was his,
what did he gain by getting them to convince them to build the ballpark down downtown?
You just never know.
Look, man, the stuff that I hear about just in this town of how stadiums have gotten built,
AAA stadiums have gotten built, the payoffs, the political power and all these kinds of things,
it happens everywhere.
I think if people really knew that what was going on and why it was going on,
you just be astounded as, as, you know, obviously the modern news,
kind of let you know about some things that we can't talk about on this show.
This is a kid-friendly show.
Family-friendly, family-friendly.
Yeah, so I think they're just, and I would love to hear people where they live,
you know, like one of the best summer cities to visit is like Chicago.
If you've never been to Chicago, it's probably the best summer city in Vegas or not in Vegas
in the country, you know, in my opinion.
And, you know, you can go to Wrigleyville and you got all this kind of stuff and it's kind of chill,
but you start to veer off of that.
We all know that.
And you go, hey, this is, this is tough.
Might not want to go to a White Sox game.
No, might not.
But, you know, you, you, you really look at a lot of this stuff and as crazy as Los Angeles is,
and I was in Southern California for a while, a long time,
as crazy as Los Angeles is, it doesn't even compare to Houston.
It's pretty wild.
It doesn't even compare.
It's wild too, because LA is a wild place, you know, if you drive all of LA County,
you see a lot of, you know, you got the Fent and the Meth over here, you got the,
all kinds of big businesses over here, then you got some houses and some neighborhoods
that you can't believe exist, but Houston, whole another level.
But you know what's funny about both those places and a lot of the other places we've mentioned,
no matter where you go and what degree up, down, you know, we're in the middle of poverty-wise
or money-wise, there's always a car culture there, no matter what, where you are.
You know what I, you know what I always say when people are like,
how'd you like living in X, Y and Z?
I go, they had a tall target in Walmart too.
It's true.
I don't know, man.
Like the shit's all the same.
I mean, everybody's basically got a Walmart, a Target and Ikea at this point.
Yeah, no, we, one of the craziest things in Vegas, we have an Ikea across the parking lot.
We have like the biggest Ashley home furniture distribution and showroom in the same parking
lot.
It just got built.
They just said, hey, we're going to build right on top of Ikea.
True story, just happened within the last like 18 months.
That sounds like here, or not here, but in Houston, you'll have gallery furniture,
everybody knows Mattress Mac, and then you'll have like the other one,
which is exclusive furniture right across the highway.
Like what?
Yeah, no, no, this isn't across the highway.
This is in the same parking lot.
That's even, that's crazy.
That is absurd.
It's wild.
It's just a slouch, just bigger face.
If you need furniture in Vegas, you only got to go to like, you know, a couple,
couple parking lots.
He's just like, all right, let's walk across the parking lot.
See if we find something better.
Literally, you can walk across the parking lot.
That's insane, dude.
What a country, what a time.
AI's taken over.
I just saw a robot, an AI robot that was kicking a soccer ball.
I don't know if you saw this.
And, okay, somebody takes the ball and the robot immediately goes to just demolish the person.
It's not going to go well.
Is this not already a sign of things to come?
Having those Tesla robots in your home, probably not going to have any issues, right?
I mean, it's probably just going to be fine.
They're not going to smash up your counter.
They're not going to, you know, try to grab one of your kids and choke them
when they don't do what they're supposed to do.
Like this can't go wrong, Rob.
I have, we have a couple more car stories, but now I got to ask you.
So I follow this page.
This individual, it's called Stage Runner.
He was like a department head for Disney and a couple other big production companies.
And he was talking about the numbers on micro dramas, okay?
A couple of years ago, I remember hearing that true crime has always been popular, right?
Especially with the ladies, apparently they love true crimes.
But then these drama shows, all vertical facing, vertical shot,
we're starting to catch popularity.
As of this year, you know, March 26th, they have more watch time than Disney, Netflix, Paramount,
Prime, all of them combined.
They're full blown, filmed, like they're actually going to be bringing like supposedly
A-list type stars to make just vertical micro dramas.
And in my mind, let me ask you, have you ever,
do you know anybody that watches all vertical show?
It's got to be age related, right?
But they're like supposed to be in a younger demographic.
It's got to be.
Yeah.
Because I don't think, I don't know, man.
I'm still going to turn my TV on if I want to watch something.
I mean, I think it's just-
The only thing that beats it is YouTube.
Yeah, but it, you know, if you watch the good channels on YouTube, like car channels,
like it is more enjoyable to sit, like if they do like hour long, like, you know,
rebuilds or something, you know, turning it on your TV on YouTube is a great experience.
I don't really do anything on my phone watching wise, unless it's something,
you know, Instagram that's made for vertical YouTube shorts, things like that.
I don't really do the whole turning my phone or anything like, it just doesn't,
it's just not how I've ever consumed things.
It's just, just not, if I turn my phone, I'm watching it on my TV.
Yeah, it was weird to me because this is like 21, 22, like prime, you know,
lockdown era, as I call it, which made sense, but it has only grown like exponentially.
People that want to watch solely like, like half hour drama, tell them about us.
Look, you're in the e-commerce world.
I mean, I never thought we would see 60, 70, 80% of people shopping just on a mobile phone.
I was just having this conversation this morning with someone else.
It is, it is literally 80 to 90% across multiple different types of stores.
You know, I think what our e-commerce store is, is cresting 70 plus percent.
So it's just, it's just kind of one of these things I'd be interested to hear from everybody
is I think it's just an age thing.
I think if you're, if you're, you know, 16 to probably 28,
they've just gotten used to watching things that way.
So if you want to get that crowd and, and, and entertain them,
they probably are a little more comfortable with it.
This is also another thing.
You know, people get like really upset that these things are being shot vertical.
I'm like, just don't watch it.
This kind of goes back to our screen talk, though, earlier.
Like, is that, are we, are we seeing right now foreshadowing?
Like everything's just going to be in vertical going forward.
Are we going to go back to horizontal?
I honestly just think everything's going to be what it is.
And, and we are going to be more segmented.
I was just going to ask you that.
Than ever before.
Right.
And that's going to, as technology gets more and more ubiquitous,
because everybody thinks like we're deep down this technology road.
You're not as far down as you think.
If you just look at the time of, we've talked about this internet speeds.
And you still have a lot of cities that I've visited where the internet speed
isn't as fast as it is in Vegas or Los Angeles or something like this.
So as this stuff continues to get better, you're just going to have fragmentation.
Like, you know, we're in the manufacturing space,
but people that manufacture like hard goods, like true, like metal parts or whatever.
When you listen to these guys talk about when 3d printing really gets where it's going.
And I'm, I'm looking at them and I'm going, can't you do a lot now?
They're like, no, no, we're talking about 3d printing that can do like mass production stuff.
We're at the infancy of 3d printing.
And so they're talking about like manufacturing facilities.
They'll just be more ubiquitous.
They'll just be more places closer to their customers.
They won't have to be all over the world.
They can just have some in each region with 3d printers.
Now we're, we're some semblance away from that, right?
But when you think about technology in cars and trucks and I mean,
this is the tip of the iceberg.
So what about, what do you think about these homes?
These, I think it might have been without giving names.
One of the big developers that was doing an all 3d printed subdivision.
I think they're, I think they're awesome.
So I got to see a neighborhood in Phoenix where they're building homes out of foam
and they're, they pour the concrete into the foam and then they just put like stucco or,
you know, whatever.
And then I have seen in person, I've seen some of those 3d printed homes.
I, if you've ever built a house, if you've ever had to deal with it,
I think a lot more people will be signing up for it.
If you look at the rebuild in Los Angeles, I think you're going to be seeing a lot more.
How do we do more concrete construction that's sort of, you know, flame resistant and things
like this, because those are some of the houses that have survived these fires.
I think we're just very, very much in the infancy on all of this.
And I think people think technology is far down the road where my mind is,
I still think we're at the tip of the iceberg.
What about things like, and I know Nick just also dabbles quite a bit in real estate,
which is kind of why I'm picking his brain for, on behalf of everybody listening,
barn dominiums and the kind of steel construction type homes.
It's going to depend on where you build it.
It would go over really well outside of Austin, outside of Nashville.
Oh, it does.
Yeah, those types of things.
I like the idea because, and I have explored the idea.
You know some of the things I'm doing on my personal side.
If you want acreage, I think what you need to, when you're, if you're building a barn dominium,
you need to be sure you want to be there for a while because you're not always going to get
all your money out.
That's a big kind of fallacy.
You got to find somebody kind of like minded that wants some land and, you know,
wants some shop space and all those kinds of things.
But I think it's awesome.
I'm one of these guys.
I can travel anywhere and find something great.
They're building somewhere.
Yeah.
Right.
Like I don't really have a preference.
Like if you go, if you go into some old neighborhoods in Las Vegas,
you got these Spanish style ranches and things like that.
And I'm like, yeah, I could live there.
Yeah, I like that.
That thing's kind of badass.
Then I can see the 15 million or 30 million dollar office building type of construction
that somebody's doing on their house.
Because we have that kind of construction here where you go,
so that's 32,000 square feet.
And I still like it.
I go, oh, not my kind of design.
But I go, yeah, I could see why somebody would enjoy that.
So I'm kind of one of these guys like, I don't get all caught up in what everyone else likes
or tells you, you know, that's not great architecture.
Okay, man, I didn't go to architectural school.
So I don't really care.
I just know I understand why things get built.
And I think the Barnedominium thing,
I think it could speak to a lot of car enthusiasts.
The problem is, I noticed some people have gotten burned pretty heavy on Barnedominiums
because they didn't plan to stay there, which was the mistake.
You didn't go to the same school as Art Vandalay for your engineering degree?
No, no, no.
There was a Tennessee Titan player who had a Barnedominium recently built,
or at least that I recently saw on YouTube.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw that.
Oh dude, that is such a cool setup.
I love the way he set that thing up with like that little pavilion in the middle
that kind of seems like the community center in most subdivisions.
That was just the middle of his house, you know, connecting.
I'll tell people, I have a client of mine been a longtime client, people would know.
He literally bought five houses in an exclusive neighborhood, ripped them all down,
and then built a house that looked like a resort.
So it's got three structures on it.
It's got this insane pool, like when you jump in the pool, the pool lowers,
so you don't splash onto the deck, all this kind of crazy stuff.
And when you walk into that, you go, yep, they accomplished that.
Yep, this is exactly what a resort would look like, like a five star resort.
I have other customers that have old style builds that, you know,
are very wealthy people that, you know, when I go in their houses, I'm like,
man, this is sick.
I think people get too caught up in what they like instead of just seeing like,
yeah, I can see why people would like this.
But I saw the Barnedominium you're talking about, it was awesome.
Well, look, we want to make positive pushes in the car world,
which is why I'm suggesting you go to clutch.club.
But what else I want you to do is help with property taxes.
If you want to help make a positive push to eliminate or severely reduce property taxes,
not just in Texas, because a lot of other states that have the similar situation.
Don't put it on other states. Texas is in a league of its own.
Definitely is, but regardless, I know those other states too.
Anyway, all right, let's get to a couple more quick car stories before we wrap up today's show
Land the Plain. One of your favorites, Land Rover introduced the 2026 Range Rover Sport
SV Winter Dusk Bespoke. I haven't seen that. Did you see it? I haven't seen it.
Oh, okay. Yeah, it debuted at the Range Rover house in, I think it's Utah, Parkside, Utah.
Did you pull it up? I did. That Vegas Internet is just moving real slow.
No, it isn't. No, it isn't.
Man, that's kind of clean, huh? Yeah, dude, I really like it.
That color too sick, and I usually don't like the matte.
Oh, so we're still doing the whole pull the cover off, huh?
Yeah, got to. Hey, man, that looks great. That looks fantastic.
Yeah, people will be like, well, you're not going off road in that thing.
No, they're not going off road in that thing. They don't care about going off road.
But no matter where they go, they're going to look sick as fuck.
Yeah, that's sick. Once again, for all of you that hate on Land Rover and Range Rover and all
that, they just stay in their pocket, don't they?
They sure do. $242,000. Yeah, that sounds about right.
You know, that's just a little bit of a quarter milli day with Utah's majestic scenery in the
background. I will say, I'm sure people probably have some things that aren't coming to my mind
right now that they'll leave in the comments. I can't think of a company who's done an SUV
that's just always stayed exactly where they were supposed to stay. Maybe you could say Escalade.
Escalade's kind of kind of been in that. But one thing you can say about Range Rover is they
know exactly who buys those and they know exactly what they want.
Well, also, you're absolutely right. And to stay on the off road and SUV at the same time,
Mazda is trying to make or possibly making a Forester competitor on the CX-5 platform.
So taking the CX-5 and going from luxury to basically something a Subaru owner might want
to trade for, this is more of a modern CX-5. But I think that's pretty cool. You had a lot of
experience with those vehicles, right? Subaru in general, but also like Foresters or...
Yeah, yeah. That was one of the best deals I ever did when I found a mistake on a website.
Back in the days when you had to do that work yourself, you could probably have AI do it now.
But yeah, I found a massive mistake and sold it for a huge profit.
And was it a good vehicle?
They had an electrical issue and at the time it was in the middle of the pandemic,
so they couldn't get the part. So I had to pawn that off on CarMax for a hefty profit pretty
quickly. Not quickly when I owned it, but quickly when the problem started to happen.
And I enjoy driving that car. I mean, I will say we can all make the Subaru jokes, okay?
We all know the Subaru jokes. And we do. And we do. It was a nice car to drive. Look, it's not
going to blow your hair back. It's not a sports car, some type of like inspired driving experience.
I can see why people buy them and love them. Now, imagine Mazda putting their
flair onto a Forester or something like that. It could be cool. Yeah, it could be cool. It
speaks to a lot of people. It's the right size. You got a lot more space than you think if it's
done right, which Mazda might have some trouble with. Because sometimes Mazda gets claustrophobic
with how they do the curves on the top. Yes. So they're going to have to broaden that a little
bit. So it'd be interesting to see what they do. Now, I don't want to end on the saddest note. So
we'll do two more, but there was a stop sale in the Hyundai family of cars, brutal. So before I
mentioned that, we had the video of Zent Rose, who was the guy testing out the Ram products, the RHO
specifically, had the airbag deploy a second, maybe a third time, face was all bloody. Anyway,
that video is probably done at 1.5 million views at this point when this episode drops.
And that's shortly after that is when I saw the stop sale on the Hyundai. I think it was a
Palisade, right? Yeah, third row, the weight sensor or something is not recognizing people are
in the back of the car. We had a sad situation with a child. I just find it hard to believe
Hyundai didn't know they had a problem. You know what I mean? And instead of just,
you don't want to think the worst, but I just find it hard to believe you guys didn't know you had
a problem. Yeah, there had to be a level of complaints. There had to be people that went
through this. And it's it just didn't get to the level of concern it needed to. And unfortunately,
somebody, you know, lost their life, a child. And it's ridiculous that this stuff,
this is the argument that you can make about a lot of things with any, you know,
anything that has safety around it, cars, whatever.
We all want the convenience of pushing those buttons.
That wouldn't have happened if it was the old pull style just wouldn't have been possible,
wouldn't have had that kind of power, you know,
I just look at some of this stuff and with every advancement,
there's always a risk of this kind of thing, you know, and I just I just don't know how any of
this happens. Yeah, it's hard to manufacture anything in the world. And so there's always
manufacturing defects and things like that. The car industry has got to be dragged into a problem
to fix it. And that has to come to an end. Yeah, it's not always about good, bad, right, wrong.
It's about what's the trade off and are you willing to make the trade off? So as of today,
actually, they updated the story. They officially recalled 6193 Palisades as of today.
And the crazy part is, if they issued the recall, that means they have the fix,
which means they've had the fix ready to go, because they knew it was some type of issue.
That's the scarier unfortunate part of the story. That's the scarier part.
And that, by the way, it's not a Hyundai thing. All these car companies wait till the last minute
till they feel like they're going to get in trouble. So they feel like the Crescendo has
gotten to a level. And that's just that's just always been the BS of the car market. You know,
you got a problem. Get out in front of it. But their reactionary businesses, not proactive
businesses, that's been proven for about, I don't know, seven or eight decades now.
And I just don't know when that's going to change, because it's just not,
it's just not worth all this, you know, for a stupid power seat. Like,
got to put it into perspective. All right, let's let's try to shift back to the last story as we
land the plane to be a little bit more lighthearted, but also might fire up Nick Moore. I don't know.
We just don't know sometimes. Yeah, you don't know. So your Uber driver could soon be replaced by a
driverless Rivian R2. So Uber is partnering with Rivian to bring you the automated taxis to Los
Angeles and San Francisco first. Buddy, we have them everywhere here. Yeah. Waymo, Zooks. We got it.
We got the Tesla tunnel. Dog, but we talked about this being one of the reasons for some of Rivian's
decisions earlier on was literally fleets was automatic taxis, Robotex, whatever you want to
call them. The funniest part is is to watch people be like, and I want to address something with the
Rivian comments that we got because it's a great conversation. So Rivian doesn't release all the
trim models of the R2. And I kind of said, I think that's BS. Yeah. And guys are like trying to defend
it. And I'm like, you do realize when car companies release a vehicle, they usually release all the
trim models. We're asking a lot of Rivian to do that now. Like, you're that much of an EV Homer
that you're like, we're not going to hold them to the same standard we would hold Honda, Toyota,
Ford on just regular ice vehicles. This is where the EV conversation gets really strange because
we've talked about the zealots on both sides, the anti EV years that act like there's no use of them,
and the people that act like EVs are the only things you should be driving.
There's no reason to defend Rivian. They told everybody they were going to have a $45,000 car
when they release it, it's like $58,000 and they're like, yeah, the $45,000 will come
next year. Well, in that year, if you have more inflation, which it looks like we're headed there,
if you have more problem, all of a sudden that $45,000, they can bump up to $49,000 and you forgot
they told you it was going to be $45,000, which is why I think they did it. They're not a bunch of
dummies, right? They don't want to release something for $45,000 in one year have to raise the price
$5,000. They're going to look like the bad guy. If they just say, we're waiting on it,
so magically you have less features, less things to put in, and that's the one you can't get out
into the market, and there's people defending that. It's like, no, there's got to be a reason.
The things that people will defend on the, there's few things that will leave me speechless,
and most of the time it's just the things that I see people defending, right? Whether it's your
body with the Porsche, I'm sure he's a cool guy, or whatever, or it's Rivian, or, and we can end
with this, really end on a light note. It could be the people defending this chick that's supposed
to be the next Bachelorette, who just got the show canceled because she's a psycho. You know what
I'm talking about? Oh, I haven't seen that. Oh my God, you're about to. This was like, as of this
morning, they released a video on TMZ. I think the guy, we gave it or sold it to TMZ. This chick,
who's supposed to be the star of the next Bachelorette, dropping in like three days,
shows canceled. She's got like a domestic violence case on her that ABC didn't tell anybody about,
or whoever the production company was, and the video shows her throwing like those steel chairs
that you'd find at like a bougie burger joint at the dude. She's got a kid in the living room too,
and it's just like, it's just full WWE. Straight up WWE, straight up stone cold hitting
Vince McMahon with a chair. He hit him with a chair. My God, my God, the bodies, the destruction.
Yeah. JR is the best. Well, here's, we're really not gonna, we're gonna have to end on the Chuck
Norris news. Yeah, I was gonna say at the beginning, but you know, it's sad. It's sad. Our guy's
gone. You know, he roundhouse his way into heaven or whatever. It turns out the total gym doesn't
make you live forever. Huh? He was like 86, 87, something like that. I know. Yeah, and I thought
he was in good health. I mean, I, wasn't he like out places? Yeah. And by the way, speaking of
Houston, doesn't he live outside of Houston? Last I heard, but he was in Hawaii when this happened.
So I don't know what the incident, there was an incident, apparently he was hospitalized,
I think yesterday and this morning, he's no longer with us. Brutal. I mean, now you think of all
those Chuck Norris memes. I mean, this is a guy that truly just had a life span of in the public
that nobody has replicated. Like all the Chuck Norris jokes, all the Chuck Norris memes, all,
I mean, he transcended. Yeah, yeah, nothing. Yeah, like Walker, Walker, Texas Ranger, dude.
I knew you were gonna bring that up. It's a great show. I don't care what anybody says. It was one
night writer. Okay. All right. Let's start at ask. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Walker. Get that. Get out
of here. Any car guy that says Walker, Texas Rangers, not a car guy. Kit was off the hook.
Kit was off the hook, but those trucks, I think it was a Dodge actually. They used to drive around
with the headache rack and the lights. Hell yeah. You have one of those. Like that's, that's a great
car guy vehicle. That's in the podcast. No, no, no, no. Who could possibly transcend the way that
he did generations. I'm thinking Keanu Reeves was my, was my guess. Yeah, John Wick, the whole
John Wick thing. He has a lot of memes. You would have once upon a time said the rock, but boy,
he's falling off. Yeah. You know, he's gotten kind of weird. Have you watched the Mark Kerr
thing yet? No, is it good? I have watched it either. I was hoping you could give me the damn.
I keep saying the smashing machine, right? Yeah, yeah. It always pops up on my Netflix.
Same. They're really trying to get people to watch it. Yeah, I'm going, man, if they're trying to
get me to watch it this hard, is it really good or should I fight the urge to? Yeah, they're trying
they're trying to algorithmically, you know, bait us into clicking it. I think I'm gonna have to
watch it. Yeah, no, it's, it's, I would have said the rock once upon a time, but he kind of went
off the deep end for a variety of reasons. Yeah. Yeah, I would, I would probably say Keanu Reeves.
It's probably a good, you really gave this some thought this morning. Well, no, I didn't give
it some thought. It actually just came to me instantly because of the kind of like, I don't
know. Nobody believes that, Rob. That's fine. Hey, you know what? It's not a lie if you believe it.
As modern day philosopher said, that's right. All right, everyone.
Signed Costanza. Costanza. Right. It is catchy. Clutch.club. If you want to sign up for our
club newsletter, join the Discord and join us basically on building the world's biggest car
club. Maybe it'll lead to live events where we can actually go to Vegas and have a live event
somewhere around Nick. What we're really trying to do, you probably need to, because Rob obviously
is concentrated on watching Walker, Texas Ranger. The whole point is here is we're trying to bring
also for you guys some companies that are able to give you some offers on some car-related
things. And that's the long-term plan is to start building that network out of people that,
you know, we, we vet, we trust, we've talked to, we visited, we have their phone numbers.
It's not some big conglomerate that we don't know who to talk to and who to get you in touch with.
And so that's the ultimate goal because so many of you ask, would you do this? Would you do that?
Who should I call? That's kind of the thing that, that you can't do so easily on a podcast. So you
have to be on something like clutch.club and kind of get into these different platforms where we're
able to do some of those things. Yeah. And just so you guys know, I wanted it to be clutch.cosco
because that's how, you know, the idea kind of formed, but I couldn't. So clutch.club it was.
I would have never joined. Yeah, right. You would have joined in an RV with an alias.
I do not have, I do not have a Costco card in my wallet. Doesn't mean you don't have a membership
though. Hey, nobody knows. Got him. Got him. Got him. All right, everybody. Have a great week.
We'll see you next week. See you guys.
About this episode
Toyota’s rumored TRD Hammer desert-racer truck sparks debate on whether it’s finally dethroning the Raptor—16 years late, but maybe legit thanks to Toyota’s Baja pedigree. The hosts then go off on car media’s tech-obsessed “Person of the Year” pick (Nvidia’s Jensen Huang), and argue about AI agents and the future of dealership/direct-to-consumer sales. BMW M3 styling gets roasted, Lexus ES screen design is criticized, and a Hyundai Palisade stop-sale/recall tragedy is discussed. Later: Rivian’s robotaxi plans, vertical micro-dramas, and a Houston/AI/real-estate tangent before ending with Chuck Norris news.
Original notes
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Clutch Culture Podcast
Robert Garza & Nick Walters
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