Whether you drive a car, need a car, or just occasionally bummer-eyed with friends, you've
come to the right place.
Join Jill and Tom as they break down everything that's going on in the auto world.
New car reviews, shopping tips, driving green, electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of
great guests.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
Thanks for joining us today.
I'm Tom Appel.
When you have a chance, do me a solid, check us out at ConsumerGuide.com.
Lots of cool stuff there, including my latest reviews, fun stuff, everything you want to
know about the auto world, it's right there.
Plus, you can stream the Consumer Guide podcast right there on our homepage, which is pretty
darn cool.
All right.
With me in studio is Jill Siminittle, contributing editor at ConsumerGuide.com, North American
Car of the Year juror, and Freelancer.
Yes.
I didn't have a pronoun ready.
That's fine.
Okay.
How you doing?
You mean an adjective?
Yeah.
Prolific.
Yeah, that's what I meant.
Yes.
Can I say pronoun?
You said pronoun.
Yeah.
That's okay.
Yeah.
I like to parse sentences in my spare time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
I'm good.
So here's the deal.
Okay.
I'm exhausted.
I'm sorry.
But it's over.
Okay.
My daughter has purchased a car.
Okay.
I can't wait.
I feel like I need to do a little drum roll.
Yeah.
I'm going to talk about it a little bit right now just very quickly.
But she purchased a 2024 certified pre-owned Mazda CX-30 Carbon Edition Turbo.
Woohoo.
Nice car.
I thought that Mazda was off the table.
It was for a couple of reasons, not Mazda, just the CX-30, which would have been the
only Mazda she would have considered, because the back seat's a little small.
But it looks like the back seat's going to work for her and her pooch.
Okay.
You know, and you can always put the rear seats down and ...
Also, after test driving five different vehicles, she chose the fastest vehicle.
Well, it's also, and I don't know what other vehicles she test drove, but I have to say
the Mazda CX-30 is a really nice driving vehicle.
Our friend Damon Bell, one-time co-host of the Car Stuff podcast, recently reviewed
the CX-30 and called it a legitimate alternative to the BMW X1 and Mercedes GLA.
I would buy that.
So, and it is that nice inside.
Yes.
And it is that fast, and it's nicely screwed together, and it's fun to drive.
So there you have it.
Yes.
She doesn't love the color, and the Carbon Edition only comes in one color.
So, we're dealing with it.
It's like mica sand, something, something.
It's a good-looking color.
It just doesn't quite stand out in traffic.
Is it like a bronzy color?
I guess I'm not ...
No, more of almost like a metallic version of a Toyota sand color.
Okay.
That's not horrible.
No, it's nice.
Okay.
It's over.
Well, yeah, which is the majority of the cars out there.
So, this is Monday when we record this.
She's actually picking up the car tomorrow.
But we test drove five cars.
It is amazing how long it takes to test drive five cars.
Okay.
And here's a weird fun fact for you.
The Hyundai Kona no longer exists.
They have sold out of 2025s.
Okay.
They're gone, and 2026s aren't in yet.
So, if you're looking for a Kona, either wait a little while
or go drive a Kia Seltos.
Right, or by used.
Which we did.
By used.
By used.
We did.
Yeah.
For certain models, there are a strange number of one-year-old
certified pre-owned vehicles out there,
and I'm not entirely sure why.
Although, we may have talked about this last time.
Mm-hmm.
The Alfa Romeo Terale.
Right.
Right.
Which was only that horrible plug-in hybrid for a while.
Yeah.
Those are free used.
You can buy a 2024 Alfa Romeo in good condition with low miles
for less than 30 grand.
So, not exactly free, but certainly not to...
No, but it's a shockingly good deal,
and you have to be prepared to ensure an Alfa Romeo.
But the maintenance is going to be really stilentous,
not Alfa.
Mm-hmm.
It's an interesting way to go.
But we're done with this.
She's excited.
Good.
And that's it.
And now we have to sell...
Hey, I can just try and sell it right now.
Okay.
With 2024 Nissan Juke, it looks like a kid took it to college.
I would call it...
It's well-loved.
It was, and it was very, very, very well maintained.
Okay.
That was a thing, because I didn't want her to ever be stuck.
Fair.
All right.
Anyway, that's that story.
But if someone actually wants that Juke, let me know.
So, congratulations.
Thank you.
That's really cool.
As a dad who writes about cars,
what was the pinnacle of my whole life career right there?
Buying my daughter a car.
Yeah.
I'm done.
You're done.
You've achieved.
Yeah.
Achievement unlocked.
Okay.
I have questions for you.
Yeah.
Ask somebody who reviews cars and occasionally buys cars.
How was the process for you?
Did you go in and how was the negotiation?
Do people know what you did when you went in?
No, I never told anyone.
Okay, good.
And they never asked me why I knew all this stuff about cars.
Right.
And that wasn't like showing off or anything.
Right.
But there wasn't a lot they could add to the discussion.
Yeah.
It's like I've done my research.
But no, yeah, right.
But no one ever asked.
Oh, the interesting thing is negotiating is kind of becoming a thing of the past.
Oh.
One of the interesting things is that going by like car facts and car facts you can
know, they list cars.
Yep, yep.
For sale.
They list cars how long they've been on the ground and where their price is relative
to the average transaction price for that car.
Right.
So this particular car, which is kind of a strange color and is a turbo, which is kind
of out of the price range of a lot of people, is strangely affordable.
And it was listed as $1,200 under the average transaction price for that car.
And I'm talking to the salesman.
He's like, yeah, there's not really a lot more we can do here.
And I believe him.
Yes.
Because it is so easy now.
I was fully prepared to go into this battle, you know, and put on my tough guy hat and
really negotiate and it ain't necessary.
Yeah.
It is easier to buy a car than it used to be.
Yeah.
And I mean, especially if you buy used because there's so much research out there.
You go to Kelly Blue Book or Auto Trader or CarGurus and you can research the transaction
price of used cars and what fair value is.
And so, you know, knowledge is power and people go in knowing what other people are paying
for the car.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm pretty sure there's two or 300 bucks left on the table here, but they were
really nice.
They let us test drive for a long time.
I had to come back and measure the car to make sure the dark cage was going to fit.
I had a bunch of questions about the price and they've been very cool and got back
to me.
And I feel like I don't really want to beat them up for 200 bucks.
So that's the deal.
And the salesman was really cool.
Thank you, Renee.
I'll write about this.
I'll talk about why she didn't like her, what she liked or didn't like about the other
car she drove.
Okay.
So, so it was the CX-30 and what else was she looking at?
Oh, she looked at the Dodge Hornet, a very specific one also in a weird color.
Okay.
And remember, we talked to Cheryl Turner.
Liz Cheryl.
Liz Cheryl Turner.
Yes.
Yes.
This was her color.
Is it Acapoco Gold?
Uh-huh.
It doesn't help resell the car.
Yeah.
So there's a, there's an Acapoco.
Acapoco Gold Hornet, sitting there on a lot in Chicago for 26 grand.
Okay.
It's a loaded GT Plus.
Okay.
Nice car, actually.
Uh-huh.
So that's there.
We also drove the Celtos.
Uh-huh.
New.
We drove the Kix.
New.
Interesting problem with the Kix.
Um, we drove one other car.
Oh, we drove, um, the Chevy Treblazer.
Okay.
Which is still as nice as I remember it.
Although compared to these other cars, the interior is not very nice.
Okay.
It's a little average.
Okay.
So I'm going to write about all that.
Okay.
Good.
Well, I'm going to look forward to reading that.
Yeah.
And I will say, I did write an article once about interesting colors and resale value.
And, um, you know, usually the halo color that they launch with, uh, I don't know
if you remember that weird lime green Genesis GV60 color.
Yeah.
Um, you know, that was kind of, uh, one of my focus, foci of, of this article
and how much the resale value dropped just because of that weird color.
There was a bronze brass that the, the last Mitsubishi Eclipse car was launched in.
And every picture of it, every ad of it, every test car was that color.
I don't think it helped resale, but it stuck out.
But yes, there are launch colors.
So actually next week, later this week, I get the ID buzz, the Volkswagen buzz.
Okay.
Um, and I haven't looked at what color yet.
I'm going to be surprised.
Yeah.
But I'm liking the green.
I like all the colors.
Yeah.
I like them all.
I really liked that car.
So interesting stuff happened this week, other than my kid buying a car.
Yes.
Uh, Audie is killing the A4.
Apparently we knew that.
I just, they just made news of it, but they're going to simplify their lineup
and the A5, the, the, um, Sportback four door exists.
They're killing the two door versions of the A5.
Interesting.
So, and they're raising prices a lot and they are blaming tariffs.
Well, I mean, they're, uh, they're not wrong about that because they, their cars are not
built here.
They're none of them are.
Correct.
Uh, 800 to $4,000 price increases for Audie coming up, uh, Chrysler launched a very silly
concept car.
Yes.
The weekend.
Yes.
I saw this.
The Chrysler Pacifica Grizzly Peak concept.
Yes.
It is what it sounds like.
It's an off-road version of the Pacifica.
Yes.
Here's the thing.
This thing's over the top.
35 inch wheels.
Yeah.
Camping equipment.
However, however, um, Toyota already sells the Woodland version of the Sienna.
I think we're going to see.
We're going to see something.
Yeah.
Well, and so.
It won't be this extreme.
And I've already written an article about it.
I'll share that on our Facebook page.
When we had, um, Chris Fuela on the show, the CEO of Chrysler a few weeks ago.
And she didn't tell us about this.
She actually hinted at it.
Okay.
So it was like, oh, I could see using this whatever vehicle is in the, the rebel rally.
And she was like, yes.
Um, so she was kind of hinting at, you know, an overlanding type concept.
It would have to be modded for rebellious because it doesn't have any belly protection.
But does it have a lift?
I didn't look at the specs.
Yes.
Actually considerable lift.
It was like two and a half inches.
See?
So I mean, really the, I mean, yes, you would probably need skid plates.
But the, the lift and the wheels, I think, and especially for X cross, which is what this
would be in, uh, would, would be more important.
And for people who don't know, when we say lift, we're talking about ground clearance.
And that's, that's to help you clear literally the obstacles in your way.
Yes.
So two and a half inches up higher, that would be the lowest point on the car.
Mm hmm.
In this case would now be eight and a half, nine inches, something like that off the
ground.
And that helps.
Super is regularly compete in rebel and they have like 8.3 inches of ground clearance.
So I'm just saying, all right, yeah, all right, uh, Dodge Durango, yes.
Did you see this news?
Uh, no, I was actually more focused on what I think you're probably going to talk about
next.
Okay.
Uh, yes.
Uh, the Durango is going V8 only for 2026.
So the 5.7 liter Hemi engine is now the standard engine.
Um, that's a lot of engine for that vehicle, but it's also really nice.
Well, have you?
So I've driven the Durango SRT on a racetrack.
So much fun.
Well, that's even more engine.
Yes.
Fair, fair.
I don't know if we know if that's coming back yet.
That's probably, I think we're one announcement away from that.
And the Hellcat version and the, I mean, it was just so much fun.
Well, we know now that the, um, that the Ram, um,
Hemi.
TRX is coming back.
Oh yes.
Yeah.
So that is the supercharged 6.2 liter V8 and if they're going to bring it back
for that, which is relatively low volume, they're probably going to stick it in other
stuff too.
They're going to put it in other things.
Yeah.
Just to make the volume make sense.
So, uh, Durango price is going up by four grand.
Okay.
So there you have it.
We're going to talk to her about Durango later.
Yes.
And you can pick which quiz we do today.
Awesome.
Cause we're doing two episodes today.
This is live, but then we're going to be, uh, I was not going to give that
away.
Oh, sorry.
That's all right.
Um, oh, I don't even know who this group is, but someone named us the seventh
best.
Oh.
I don't know if you saw this.
I did.
I saw you post it.
I don't even know who this organization is, but they picked the 100 best automotive
podcasts of 2025.
We were seven on this list.
So we cleared the top 10.
That's awesome.
Uh, and a shout out to our friends at Drive Chicago.
They made the list too.
Oh, awesome.
So Mark and Jim, congratulations and thanks for having us because you do that
show too.
I do.
Yeah.
We do their drive-bys.
Yeah.
The quick spin or yeah.
Oh, is there a difference between a quick spin and a drive-by?
Or do they call those both?
I don't know.
They're like, they're like three minute reviews.
Yeah.
I'm like, I've never done a drive-by.
Here's the thing.
I don't prepare much for a three minute review and then Jim O'Brill, co-host of
that show will ask me some question I did not prepare for.
And you're like, uh, that's a really good question.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very good stalling, uh, tactic.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
They do make some of these in Guadalajara.
Good, good point.
Yes.
All right.
Uh, Subaru.
Yes.
So, I did launch an electric vehicle that was, uh, very refined, but also very expensive
and not very interesting.
The range wasn't good.
Right.
And it was overpriced.
Yeah.
And it was out there and it was a good vehicle.
And it was a nice starting place for them.
However, it's all new.
Not all new.
It's significantly updated for 2026 and you have driven it.
I have.
So, the name stains the change, right?
This is the 2026 Subaru Saltera.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, it is being updated at the same time that the Toyota BZ is.
Yes.
That's no longer the BZ-4X.
Hallelujah.
Thank God.
I know.
Here's what's weird about that.
They did have a naming structure in place and, and there is, um, uh, versions of this.
There's a, like a BZ-3 in China.
Mm-hmm.
But manufacturers have, have a hard time globalizing these things.
Yeah.
Well, and when they first came...
And we don't care in the U.S.
No.
And when they first came out with the BZ-4X.
I was just like, okay, this sounds very strange and I don't understand.
Well, you know, the BZ is beyond zero.
Uh-huh.
And then 4X was supposed to be like, oh, it's, you know, four doors and it's a crossover.
You know, something along those lines.
Yeah, I think it was.
It was, it was, uh, 4 was the size class.
Yeah.
And then X was always a crossover.
Yeah.
And there's a BZ-3, which I think is a small car in China.
Okay.
And again, we don't care.
No, we really don't.
And thank, thank goodness they're only calling it BZ now.
Yes.
It's a small B.
But we digress.
So that's a little irritating.
Yes.
Well, it's like ID Buzz.
Volkswagen's ID Buzz, the van, ID Dot Buzz.
And weren't we supposed to push the buzz together into one word?
Yeah, I think so.
I don't know.
I, I, you know, Mini is all caps, but I never put it in all caps.
Like I don't, I don't often adhere to it.
I don't do Mini all caps.
Standard.
Saturn View going way, way back.
Yeah.
View was supposed to be all caps.
Yeah.
No, no.
No.
No.
It's obviously AP style.
All right.
Back to Subaru.
Yes.
Salterra.
Yes.
It's, it, how is it different?
Um, so it, it's, it's like, how isn't it different?
I mean, obviously it doesn't get a drastic redesign, but you have the new front and
rear fascia.
You have new lighting signatures.
You've got a lit emblem on the front.
I want to just go back to something because I think you're using fascia correctly as
plural.
Okay.
No one does that.
Well.
Most people would say fascia.
What else do you?
Well, well, thank you.
Yeah.
Did you do that in a review you wrote?
Like did you use the plural of fascia?
Maybe.
I have to check now.
Yeah.
It's very weird and weird in Latin.
All right.
I'm sorry.
Fascia.
I don't know.
Stadia.
Yeah.
I took, I took four semesters of Latin and I remember none of it.
Did you really?
Yeah.
Oh.
Or at least I remember very little of it.
Yeah.
Um, I, yes.
Uh, so we'll just leave that there.
But, uh, I, yeah.
Okay.
What's new?
Back to, back to the Subaru.
Uh, we have the, uh, so there's some of the design differences.
You go inside, you have a new 14 inch, uh, infotainment screen display, which is the
Toyota infotainment system.
You have dual wireless chargers.
You've got, um, a better positioning for the driver's seat as well.
Um, one of our automotive colleagues, Harvey, uh, Briggs, who, um, is, is his Harvey Drives
I think is.
Um, Ryzen Drives.
Ryzen, Harvey's Driven.
RyzenDrives.com.
And he's part of We Are Motor Driven.
Uh-huh.
And he's been on the show.
Yes.
Talking Rolls Royce.
Um, yes.
And, um, but so he was on the show or on the drive as well.
He's six foot three and previously with the Solterra, a lot of taller drivers had
a problem with the steering wheel by selecting the gauge cluster.
Yes.
The steering wheel sucked.
Um, as a petite driver, this was never a problem for me.
Um, so I specifically asked Harvey, okay, I'm like, okay, being six three, is this still
a problem?
And he said, no.
So they fixed.
Well, that's good.
And I don't know where that was going.
Yeah.
Um, because it's like that in the Toyota Prius too.
Yeah.
It's the same setup.
And I think the architecture is related.
Yeah.
But did they use a flat bottom steering wheel?
Yeah.
And it looked like they were ready to go yoke.
Yeah.
Stop them.
I don't think they were going to go yoke in the RZ, but I don't think they ever did.
Okay.
I don't think they were going to put the yoke in anything else.
Yeah.
But I liked the yoke.
The yoke, I had to drive it.
Really?
It was really cool.
Um, but, so back to, back to the Solterra, we keep digressing, uh, but, uh, well
you do.
I'm focused like, uh, like a laser, laser focused fascia, fascia.
That's what I'm going to say to you.
Uh, so, uh, what else is new?
So next charging is now standard and explain that.
That is a big deal.
So North American charging standard, which is the Tesla charging, a lot of automakers have
started switching over to that.
And some automakers, when they were still with the old charging structure would offer
you a NAX charging adapter for a fee, uh, but Subaru has now included the port factory
installed and they, I think they're offering a CCS charger for free with the purchase
of the car.
Well, I thought you got both.
Is that what I, did I read that wrong?
Well, it's NAX charging.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
And then the adapter's free.
Yeah.
And the adapter, if you have to buy it's like two, three hundred bucks.
Um, I, I think Subaru's pulling it in for free.
Well, that's nice.
Yeah.
I, I, I think I heard that correctly.
Here's the thing.
If you're going to buy one, buy a good one.
Buy a very good one.
Just spend the money.
Just spend the money and make sure it's correct for your car.
Because they do melt.
They actually melt.
Yes.
There's a company that I don't know anything about, is it called LekTek, LekTek?
They're selling this stuff and they have very, very, very good reviews.
Yeah.
And we'd love them to sponsor the show.
Or come on the show and talk about it.
Yes.
I'm trying to get them on the show to talk about it.
Okay.
Oh, but they make really good adapters.
I think of like two hundred and fifty bucks.
Okay.
And they're heavy and they're solid.
And the, like, I think, I don't know who makes it for Ford, but the one that came
with the F-150 Lightning, huge.
Yeah.
It's a big, heavy thing.
But you want it and you want a good one.
You do not want it.
And I'm sure it'll serve you forever.
Yeah.
I agree.
Until we, all the charging ports are, all the chargers are in a knacks.
Yeah.
But so that's new, battery, bigger, better, more range.
So two hundred and seventy-eight range is the minimum, two hundred and eighty-eight
miles of range is going to be the maximum.
And if that's up from, was it two twenty-eight?
Two twenty-seven.
Yeah.
Which was just, it's almost there, but you just want a little more.
And I find that, like, I'm driving the Volvo EX30 right now, two hundred and
fifty-eight miles, I think.
And that's plenty for me for a week.
Yeah.
So that's enough.
Like, you want to get to the mid-two hundreds, but three hundred is great.
Yeah.
And I've read a lot of studies that say three hundred is about where people want
it to be.
Yeah.
And so they are right on the money.
And Subaru and Toyota are very conservative with their range estimates.
I remember when I had the Solterra previously and we only had two hundred and twenty
miles of range.
I was getting, like, two fifty.
So I was getting a lot more range and, I mean, it was, like, seventy degrees outside perfect
temperatures, but I was getting a lot more range than what the EPA estimated.
I want to, we have to break and talk to our guests, but I want to talk a little bit more
about this vehicle after the quiz, because you wrote a little bit about off-road ability
too and how Subaru is trying to maintain its off-road credibility with electric vehicles.
Yes.
So we'll talk about that.
After a break, we're going to talk to Justin Loney, the CEO of Everati, about the coolest
thing in the world, which is converting classic cars into electric cars.
And their website, the photography is great and the cars they're converting are awesome.
Cool.
We'll take a break and be right back.
Questions or comments?
Drop us a line at CarStuff at ConsumerGuide.com.
That's CarStuff at ConsumerGuide.com.
Welcome back to the CarStuff Podcast.
All right, we're back.
This is the ConsumerGuide CarStuff Podcast.
I'm Tom.
She is Jill.
Jill, help me out real quick.
Would you like to talk about social media?
I would for just a quick moment.
Just a quick moment.
I am CarGuy Tom, an ex-Twitter and Blue Sky, and my Saturday collection this year,
my CarSpotter Saturday collection.
Did I say this year?
I meant this week.
This week.
Spectacular.
Awesome.
I did eight cars.
Okay.
I had a good drive.
I drive around on Saturdays.
That's my test drive day.
And I go looking for weird, strange, rare cars, and I share them on X using the CarSpotter
hashtag.
Well, and I had a really good CarSpotter last week, too, that Oldsmobile.
Yes.
That was so cool.
Yeah.
And I was really excited.
I got to meet the owner.
I love B-Body and C-Body Oldsmobiles.
Actually, the whole General Motors, that whole era of downsized, they're just
really crispy-looking, and they were so important historically.
And there were millions and millions and millions of them, but I think Rust has taken its toll.
You don't see them anymore.
Yeah.
No, this one was beautiful.
So we talk a lot about electric cars, but we don't talk that much about classic cars,
and we never talk about electric classic cars.
But our guest today talks about them all the time.
Yes.
This is his deal.
Our guest today is Justin Lundy.
Lundy is the Chief Executive Officer of Everuddy.
Justin, how are you?
I'm very well.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you.
You are many time zones away, so we appreciate you making the time and the effort to join
us today.
Justin, I'm at a loss to describe your company, so I would like you to do it because you're
going to do it better than I do.
That's very kind.
So, yeah, Everuddy was formed to really, I suppose, create some of the world's most
iconic EVs.
We're pretty fortunate.
We work with cars that are already loved and we make them into something that can be used
into the future.
So, my team is, you know, is X McLaren, JLR, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Formula 1, so we use
that engineering talent and we really use that experience and that knowledge to redefine
some really cool cars, make them really usable in the world today, and really enjoyable.
And that's, yeah, you can imagine, we love what we do.
You must.
You must.
And the cars are beautiful.
It seems like right now, you guys, you're focusing your own attention on a few specific
models I saw.
That's right.
A portion on 11s, Land Rovers, the Pagoda-era Mercedes-Benz cars, which are gorgeous.
Why those vehicles?
So, yeah, you're absolutely right.
We are focused very much on a few specific models.
The reason for that is that each of those models has between six and say 10,000 hours
worth of engineering in to get it right.
Wow.
I can imagine, yeah, doing one-offs would be extremely expensive.
So the focus of the company is essentially we're an EV powertrain's business and effectively,
you know, highlighting that brand on some of these gorgeous, gorgeous cars.
So the 911s, we principally focus on the 964 era, which is, you may know, is kind
of, you know, a very, very specific generation that's also used a lot in other rest
and mod-type businesses.
The Land Rover series, which is, again, absolutely gorgeous, you know, we have a number of those
on the East Coast here in the United States.
So Palm Beach, Florida, the Hamptons, Nantucket, those kind of beach-type kind of areas.
And then we also have the Mercedes-Benz Pagoda, which, as you rightly say, is just absolutely
gorgeous.
And last but not least, we also do a fully electric 800 horsepower electric GT40, which
is kind of interesting as well.
That's wonderful.
So how is it, if you chose these particular vehicles, and obviously they are gorgeous, they
are historic, and I think people love these vehicles, I don't think there's a lot of question
there.
How is it that you guys chose to do these specific vehicles from an engineering perspective?
Were these easier to do?
And from an engineering perspective, how close to a modern EV do you guys come?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So to answer your first question, I'll be honest, they were kind of cars that
I think have been very important, certainly in my life and some of my team's life.
So they've been our kind of launch vehicles that we've run now over the last three to
four years.
If you look at the Porsche 911, clearly it's hugely iconic.
The 964, which if you're into combustion, Singer Vehicle Design have done an excellent
job of creating that into something that is really, really desirable.
The Pagoda, again, the ceiling prices on those are becoming very, very high.
And that's really the key thing here, which is vehicles that have that ability to justify
the higher price tag.
Because as you can imagine, we're entirely rebuilding these cars.
They go right back to the frame, right back to the chassis.
In the Porsche's case, most of the panels that go back on are carbon fiber.
So again, very, very lightweight, fully integrated powertrain.
So essentially what we're doing to answer your second question is to keep them as
to respect really what they were designed to be.
So we always stick as close as we can to the original weight, ideally below the original
weight, which we're able to do with our 911 and make it as analog and easy as we can.
Because again, what we don't want to do is make a late 80s, early 90s Porsche still
like a Taycan.
You know, we want to keep its character, you know, we want it to keep its steering
feel, its suspension feel and something that you know, you genuinely can get in and
have the essence of the past.
But with with modern, modern amenities, you know, modern, modern powertrain, things
like Apple CarPlay, air conditioning that works, you know, dials, gauges that look
gorgeous, but they're showing proper EV data and the like.
So really, when you see one of our cars to the untrained eye, I'll be honest,
it looks like a beautifully restored combustion car.
But actually, under the skin is a lot of modern technology.
And then people are using them every single day, which is what I love.
You know, we've got clients in the Bay Area, they use them every single day
that would never do that if it was still a combustion car.
So I'll go ahead, Joe.
So you talk a lot about Porsche, but if somebody had a different classic car
that they would like to have electrified, I mean, would you take on a
commission or is it you only do certain vehicles?
No, it's a good question.
So, Joe, thank you for that.
It's we do have what we call our bespoke division, our kind of, if
you like, private office division.
But given what I just said about number of hours, as you can imagine,
it's not for the faint hearted.
We have a client in Dubai right now who is commissioned us to do
quite a special car.
You know, that will be, you know, probably a million
dollars plus just for the design and engineering of the powertrain,
which is again, not for the faint hearted.
He will end up with an incredible EV out of the back of that.
And, you know, we're using the very, very best technologies that, you
know, we're using the motors that are used in Formula E cars.
We're using silicon carbine inverters from places like McLaren.
So, you know, we're very fortunate.
We're a UK based company.
We have a very strong and high end supply chain and we're able to
access some of this technology.
So again, you know, we're kind of putting tech into these cars
that's otherwise found in some EV hypercars, and we're able to
provide that into, you know, into the kind of cars that we're
working on today as well.
So Justin, talk about the 911 specifically for a moment.
And like you talked about matching the weight, but can you
match the weight distribution?
That's a car with a wacky weight distribution, right?
You got the way off the back.
But how does that compete in terms of like, what is the range of that vehicle?
And how does that compete in terms of performance with a gasoline version of the vehicle?
Yeah.
So 911 is a great example.
So the Porsche 964 that we is our kind of our mainstay at the moment.
We can make that around 50 pounds lighter than let's say a 964
turbo of the same era, which is great.
The weight distribution itself is still 60 40.
So it's still as it should be.
However, the weight is ever so slightly in board of the rear.
So effectively, it's not quite as tail happy as one of those eras of cars.
And last but not least, performance wise, I mentioned, yes, about 50
pounds lighter than the 964 turbo, but it's about 70 percent more powerful.
So zero to 60 is about three point.
Yeah, three point seven seconds, which isn't fast,
I suppose, by really modern EV standards, but it's appropriate for the car.
In other words, we're not trying to make these things dangerous
and you want to make them enjoyable, obviously.
That's wonderful.
So people interested in getting a car from you guys, do they
do they buy their own car and bring it to you?
Or do you source these cars?
So generally speaking, we help the client source a car.
So, you know, we essentially are selling the dream
is a dream of an electric 911 or the electric Pagoda and nine times out of 10,
that client will not already have that vehicle.
In fact, in fact, quite the opposite.
I think only less than five percent of our existing clients
have ever even owned the combustion version of the car we end up building for them.
And I think that's because they they had this dream, you know,
they had that dream as a Pagoda, maybe, you know, beautiful car to enjoys,
you know, as you just described on Sunday,
but actually probably wouldn't want necessarily to live with its foibles,
you know, the fact that it may leak oil on the on the garage floor,
the fact that it may break down, you know, that there's a number of things
that unfortunately that, you know, the promise doesn't always
deliver what you might expect.
And therefore, they're people that have loved the idea of these cars
and then finally want to own one that is easy to use and easy to maintain.
Justin, have you run into any pushback from classic car
enthusiasts to like classic car purists to think you shouldn't be doing
these conversions to vehicles that are basically, you know, timeless classics?
Yeah, we do to a point, but it's so funny.
So I was actually so I'm currently in Southern California.
So I'm a few time zones away from where I normally am.
And, you know, I went to see one of our build partners
and we have a very, very poorly looking
1990 Porsche that, I'll be honest, is entirely unloved.
It's a tiptronic, which, if you know, Porsche's was not
the was not the gearbox to have back in the day.
It's by modern engineering standards, it's not a gearbox you'd want to use.
So we're taking this car that's leaking oil, that is not easy to drive,
that is very, very, very sorry for itself.
And certainly within six months, that will be an absolutely gorgeous
carbon bodied masterpiece that people will be using every day.
And I think that's what people forget.
We're not we're not taking the holy grail classic cars.
We're taking some of them, you know, the very unloved ones
and giving them an entirely new life.
And I think once people realize that again, we're not ruining
that Rembrandt of cars, you know, we're not we're not ruining an art piece.
We're just taking something that currently exists
and giving it a brand new life into the future.
And I think that certainly from our client's perspective
is quite an attractive proposition.
I suppose, too, in the case, especially of the Land Rovers,
one of the things that you're probably bringing is reliability.
That's right. Yeah.
You know, they are to many
gorgeous to look at. They're really cool trucks.
You know, they obviously were used many, many parts of the world as,
you know, in the Middle East and certainly, you know,
in various parts of the world.
But they were not great on reliability.
They were not great on performance.
Being honest, there's bits you can't change too much.
You know, I often joke it on that Land Rover.
It's a 1960s design.
You know, we only do about 150 miles to a charge on that,
which is bizarrely about the same as the gas, the petrol version.
But I often joke that, you know, you need a car
of practice with you after about 30 miles anyway,
because the seating position is so bad.
So so in reality, you know, you're making it easier to drive.
Certainly far more enjoyable.
It will break when you want it to,
which again wasn't necessarily part of the original design.
And yeah, but it's fun to look at.
It's fun to to to to drive.
And you're going to get looks and smiles wherever you go in it.
And I think that's the other thing that I'd say is you wouldn't
necessarily get that from a brand new EV. Yeah.
So Justin, soup to nuts.
Tell them walk me through this process.
I I just realized I got a nice tax refund.
And I want I want one of the Mercedes Pagoda convertibles.
I call you guys up.
You guys help me source a car and then you restore that car.
How long will that process take?
And what will that cost me?
OK, yeah, Pagoda is one of our most
complicated build in terms of the process.
So that car, as I'm sure you know, even though they're gorgeous to look at,
they've had lots of them a very tough life.
Even even kind of dry state cars will need an entire overhaul.
So that car is entirely stripped.
So it goes again, right, right, right way back to the chassis,
right by the way back to the frame that is then dipped.
So it's basically almost acid dipped to ensure that we get everything
that we know exactly was wrong with that and then rebuilt up basically
with either new parts of the chassis or elements that, you know,
ensure that that chassis is 100 percent that then is coated.
So coated, the can no longer get any corrosion.
And then all of the body parts are put back on either.
Refurbished body parts or brand new in many cases as well.
So effectively what comes out of that process is basically a brand new
body shell on an existing chassis for Mercedes Pagoda.
Clearly through that entire process, we've discussed paints.
We've discussed leathers.
We've discussed stitching.
You know, we had a client recently
in one of the southern states of the United States
who flew over to London on his own jet to ensure that we had the exact
look for the interior of the jet that he wanted on his car.
So that gives you an idea of some of the clients we may have.
And then, yeah, and then that is entirely rebuilt as a, you know,
as a custom vehicle.
That process itself takes around 14 to 15 months.
Once, you know, once we have the donor car, part of the reason
for that is it goes to Germany or to Poland.
So that, you know, the people that, I guess, have the very,
very greatest skills in rebuilding Mercedes tend to be clearly
in that part of the world, as you can imagine.
And then that is shipped back and the EV install actually happens
here in the United States.
And that is delivered to you as a, you know, a fully functional,
gorgeous looking, almost concord standard, but clearly not
concord because it doesn't have the original engine.
Right.
A car that you can just enjoy on a daily basis.
Again, not for the faint hearted.
So excluding the donor, the starting price on that is $525,000.
So again, that tax refund that I'm looking forward to you getting
is, yeah, it's going to be on the largest side generally.
I got 200 bucks.
So perfect.
We're at a good starting point.
Yeah, I'll put that down.
Yeah.
So how many cars at any given time are you guys working on?
Do you do like one at a time or do you have like a certain
capacity or a certain number of vehicles you're working on?
Yeah, it's a great question.
So we are because of our distributed nature.
So our horses actually are built in Irvine in Southern California.
Our Landrovers are built in the UK.
Mercedes built in Europe and actually we work with
superformance actually on our GT40s, which is you may know
as a US based company.
So in essence, so to answer the first question, I think
we've got seven cars in build right now.
But we can scale that.
So, you know, with our Porsches, for example, we can do up to 30 to 40 a year.
Pagoda is probably less than that, maybe maybe 20 to 20 to 30.
Landrovers also 20 to 30.
So that's kind of where we are today.
But of course, we also then can scale that.
So if we want to, you know, let's say we want a different Porsche.
In fact, we're actually we just launched during Monterey Car Week.
We've announced that we're doing the next generation of Porsche.
So the Porsche 993, which was an absolutely breathtaking
and big, you know, big, big moment in Porsche's history.
You know, we have, you know, we have capacity to do to do those
in addition to existing.
So again, we can scale this not to a manufacturer level clearly.
But, you know, what we find is that these are kind of thought
leaders, high net worth clients that want something different.
And and certainly, you know, we we can technically do, you know,
certainly north of 50 or 60 cars a year and certainly as we grow,
you know, north of probably 100 to 200 cars a year.
So it's it's a gradual process, but we're not there yet.
But that's certainly the capacity that we're aiming at.
Well, this is all very cool, Justin.
I'm glad we talked to you today for people who want more information.
How can they reach out to you guys?
Absolutely. So the company's EverRati.
I'll explain that forever, keeping great cars on the road forever.
So E-V-E-R and then Rati is the goddess of love, passion and desire,
which is what our clients have for their cars.
So EverRati, so E-V-E-R-A-T-I dot com.
And of course, we're also EverRati cars on, let's say, Instagram
and we're also on other social channels as well.
So we always love to hear from people who are interested in what we do.
Well, we're very interested.
Justin, thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you very much, both of you.
It's lovely to talk to you.
That was Justin Lundy, the CEO of EverRati.
We're going to take a break.
And when we come back, quiz time, quiz time.
Questions or comments?
Drop us a line at carstuff at consumerguide.com.
That's carstuff at consumerguide.com.
Hi, it's Brendan from Sons of Speed.
You've heard me and my colleague, Paul, on the Car Stuff podcast
whenever Jill's out of town.
But now you can hear us every week on the We Are Motor Driven
podcast, along with Jennifer from Auto Exotica and Harvey
from Rides and Drives.
We talk about everything from sports cars to trucks to EVs
and our favorite speed.
So join us each week by searching We Are Motor Driven
wherever you get your favorite podcast.
Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.
And we're back.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
I'm Tom.
She's Jill and we don't have enough money for an EverRati.
No, we do not.
If we pooled our money together, we would still not have enough money
and then borrowed 20 bucks from producer Randy
and then borrowed another five hundred and twenty thousand from the bank.
Well, I would love to drive one of these.
You know what we didn't get?
We got the range on the on the range over about 150 miles or whatever.
I'd be interested to know the range of the Porsche.
Yeah, I think there are limitations to how much battery
they can get into them.
Yeah, and they're trying to keep the weight close to original weight.
So the battery works against you there.
Yeah, no, this is this is fascinating.
I am so glad we we had them on.
Yeah, we'll have to follow up with them in a year or two
to see if they had any models.
Yeah, so.
But yeah, I love I love the people will post a picture.
But the Pagoda Mercedes Pagoda is a nickname for the car.
The one they have pictured here is a 280 SL.
But it's the early version of the Roadster.
And I think this is the generation of Roadster that came after
the legendary 300 SL, the the Gal wing and the.
Yeah, those will those would be way too expensive
to do this to also probably heresy.
Because those drivetrains are pretty pretty classic, too.
So all right, it is quiz time.
I have two quizzes in front of me.
You already gave away the fact that we're doing two episodes today.
So I have two quizzes ready.
No, no, no, that's OK.
That's the illusion that we just work on a holiday.
I enjoyed that. I know.
I know next week is Labor Day.
Yeah, without explanation. OK.
Do you want the quiz called red question mark or LX question mark?
Knowing that in an hour, you're going to have to do a different one.
Let's start with LX. All right.
Today's quiz, the car stop power quiz brought to you by consumer guide.
Is LX question mark?
All you need to do is tell me if a particular model,
a twenty twenty five model is available in the LX trim level.
OK, I knew this was going to thrill you.
Yes, this is so thrilling.
And I like the bonus question.
I am not I'm not hip to LX. All right.
Are you ready? Yeah. LX as a trim level,
the twenty twenty five Kia Seltos, which I test drove with my daughter.
Still a very nice car. Oh, I haven't driven
the twenty twenty five.
But Alex, oh, I'm trying to think if that's a Kia.
The Kia Seltos and the Hyundai Kona kind of benchmark cars in that class.
Yeah, they do just they're they're refined.
If you get the turbos, they're pretty quick.
Yeah, really good use of space.
The pricing is agreeable, although it's going to go up this year.
Yeah, twenty twenty five Kia Seltos.
I need to know if there's an LX.
No, there is.
Yeah, it's available.
Alex is the base trim.
Yeah, I was going to say if in Kia, it's usually the base trim.
But Alex SX X line, SX.
OK. And I think you need to get X line or SX
to get the turbocharged engine, which you want.
Yes. All right.
You have no points.
Your favorite phrase. It is the twenty twenty five Honda Civic sedan.
Is that available in LX trim?
I feel like it used to have on Alex,
but the question is, does it now?
Because I I'm going to say no.
Yes. Oh, great.
I'm doing awesome.
LX sport and sport hybrid for the sedan.
OK. And I don't remember what they are for the hatchback.
OK. All right.
You've got no points.
This is getting dire. I know it's getting dire.
Five questions total.
You need three for a win.
The twenty twenty five Dodge Durango.
Durango. Durango.
Durango.
My first inclination is to say no,
which is probably wrong because I've been wrong so far.
Also, yes.
No.
Getting your butt kicked today, Joe.
I know.
I knew this was not going to be good.
Lot of trim levels for a relatively low volume vehicle.
GT GT plus RT RT plus
RT premium, RT twenty fifth anniversary plus
and RT 20th anniversary premium.
Those are your twenty twenty five trim levels.
OK. I presume there'll be fewer next year
with one engine and no anniversary additions.
Yes. Although they might bring back an SRT.
Yeah. So all right.
You have no points.
You need to sweep the west of the way out.
The twenty twenty five Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross,
a vehicle we talk about all the time
because we love it so much.
It actually is not that bad.
I hardly remember it.
I I do remember that the the first generation
before the before it was
fresh and had that stupid spoiler that bisected the rear view.
Yeah.
That's a dumb thing to do in the modern era.
Yeah, that was well, you know, Prius used to have that as well.
The split window in the back.
Yeah.
You know, I would say it would probably be.
I mean, not in Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross,
but like in a higher end vehicle,
you could probably get away with it these days
if you had the rear camera mirror.
Yes.
Because the new Polestar four that's coming out,
which no rear glass at all, talk about in October.
Yeah, no rear view, like no rear glass at all, no rear window.
Weird. I'm going to go back to no.
Correct. You have a point.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's available.
And this is super confusing.
The base model is the E.S.
The next trim level is the L.E.
And then the third trim level up is the S.E.
Yeah. So you have E.S.
And they're separated by something that isn't E.S.
I mean, they probably do that so that you don't get confused,
but the end effect is it's confusing.
There's also a rally art and an S.E.L.
OK. So S.E.L. is the top trim level.
So you have one point.
Yeah. I'm going to write that down here.
One. I have a point. Point.
Got to write that down and underlined it three times.
The 2025 Toyota Camry.
Now all hybrid.
I don't think L.X. is a Toyota trim
because I feel like they go X.L.E., L.E.
Maybe S.E.
But it's like S.S.X.E or X.S.E.
or something like that.
So I'm going to say no.
No. And you name them all.
Yes. Nice job.
Yes. It's L.E. S.E.
X.L.E. and X.S.E.
And now that everything's hybrid,
the lineup's a little simpler.
OK. Actually, that's the lineup.
There it is. Yeah. That is the line.
X.S.E. can be very nice.
X.L.E. can be very nice.
Yeah. Well, you know, what I find interesting
that they've done is with the S.E.
and the X.S.E., they try to go a little more sporty.
And then with the L.E. X.L.E.,
they try to go more like luxury.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
And then also the L.E. and S.E. are your value plays.
Yeah. And they can be...
A base Camry can be a very nice car
for a very good price.
Yeah. And I can't remember
how their pricing structure works,
but I feel like L.E. and S.E.
might be the same and X.L.E. and X.S.E. are the same.
I don't know about the bottom, too,
but I think that's true in the top end.
And we're seeing more and more of that.
Yeah. Like when I was driving,
or not researching the Trailblazer,
the Chevrolet Trailblazer for my daughter,
the RS and the active, I think,
are the same price.
And one looks off-roading and one looks sporty.
And neither is neither.
OK. They look nice.
Neither is neither.
This is not especially sporty or especially off-roading.
All right. You've got two points.
You need the bonus question to make this work.
Are you ready? All right.
Do you know what the five most popular birds
are in Illinois?
No. No, I do not.
They are the Robin, the Cardinal, the Blue Jay,
the American Crow and the Chickadee.
Chickadee. Chickadee.
Hi, Chickadee.
We're going to talk about the crow.
There are 40 varieties of crows.
OK. About the crow.
I thought you said the crow.
I'm like, what? No.
OK. That's funny because I cracked
a terrible dad joke with my daughter the other day.
OK.
But the answer was King of the Crow.
It was a joke about a show about an animated guy
who was really into bailing whales.
Anyway. OK.
It's not really funny now.
No, it is not.
Was it funny the first time is the question?
Yeah. I laughed really hard.
Of course you did.
That's what a dad joke is.
King of the Crow.
It's actually funnier when my daughter gets my stupid jokes
and then tells them to me deadpan.
And I'm like, oh, maybe it wasn't funny.
I can see her for doing that.
All right. 40 varieties of crow.
Which of the following is not one of those 40 varieties
and is indeed fake?
OK.
Are you ready?
Yeah.
The New Caledonian Crow.
OK.
The Sierra Madre Crow.
OK.
The Dingus River Crow.
The Cuban, I did, I thought I wrote Cuban Psalm,
but it's Cuban Palm Crow.
New Caledonian Sierra Madre, Dingus River, Cuban Palm.
I kind of feel like it's going to be one of the last two.
OK.
Dingus River or Cuban Palm.
And you laughed at the last one.
I think you may have given that one away.
No, I'm laughing at both of them.
OK.
Yeah.
I'm going to go with the last one.
No.
It's the Genghis River.
It's the Genghis, the Genghis Khan is fake.
Genghis Khan.
Yeah.
There we go.
That's actually it.
I'm going to sign this for you anyway.
Well, I don't want it.
I didn't win.
Yeah.
OK.
We didn't look at the donuts yet.
I wanted to talk to you real quick and get back
to the Salterra.
Yes.
When we talked to the folks at Subaru about the Forester,
Subaru made an interesting decision
to forego a little bit of fuel economy
to stick to their roots and their core sort of US marketing
position and be an off-roading company,
and they kept their symmetrical all-wheel drive system.
Actually hurt them a little bit in fuel economy,
but the vehicle maintains its off-road credibility.
But what's interesting here is they can't do that.
This is an electric vehicle, so they
have to get to the same results as via motors.
Right.
And I don't know how the torque distribution works and stuff.
But you did have a chance to do some light off-roading.
Do talk about that.
Yeah.
So they set up a course for us at,
I believe it was at Private Ranch,
and there were some moguls and some hills
and just some slightly rough terrain.
I mean, it was nothing crazy.
It's not like going to the Rubicon Trail
or doing any serious rock climbing or anything like that.
But it was, if you were going to go to a trailhead,
if you were trying to find a little bit of an off-the-beat
and path campsite, it was like that.
And I thought it did really well.
And we did some moguls, and so there was wheel lift,
and you didn't feel like the car was going to break.
And it handled them very well.
You didn't bottom out on anything.
And I want to say there's like 8.3 inches of ground clearance.
There is.
Because that's actually under the battery.
Yeah.
The battery in almost every modern vehicle,
modern EV with any range,
constitutes the floor of the vehicle.
Yeah, built-in skid plate.
No.
That's actually a thing.
I don't know what the,
like is there a plate, a skid plate,
protecting the battery?
I don't think they mentioned that.
And like looking at the specs in my head,
I don't remember that.
You know, there's some extra cladding around the front
and the back and the wheels,
but like I don't think there's a skid plate.
So yeah, maybe don't puncture the battery
if you're going to take it off.
That is excellent advice for the youngsters out there.
Yeah, I think that would be a bad idea.
But no, I mean it did really well.
It has X mode.
And when you put it into X mode,
these really cool cameras pop up
so that you can see the side of the vehicle
as well as the front of the vehicle
and the trajectory of your wheels
as you turn your wheel.
And so I thought that was a really nice feature
and a nice touch.
You're starting to see that
in a lot more off-roady type vehicles.
You had raised a point and you wanted,
you said that the the around camera,
the around view, off-road support,
around view presentation
was locked out at eight miles an hour.
Yeah, yeah.
I think the primary reason for this is
they want you to start looking forward at that point.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just a decision
that safety gurus and lawyers and engineers made
that at that point,
you better look out the window.
But there are times when you are driving off-road
and I mean, I do a lot of off-roading
and you're going nine miles an hour or 10 miles an hour
and the vehicle can handle it in that train,
but it's just nice to know and get an in-depth look
at where the rocks are
or where your wheels need to go in the ruts.
And I know it's because of distraction or whatever.
But I just, a lot of other automakers,
I know Chevrolet and GMC
and I believe even Salantis or Dodge Ram, all of those,
they have allowed the cameras to stay on
actually at highway speeds.
So I just, I get that there is a lot of lawyerism
that has to happen, but I just, come on, 10 miles an hour.
You know, it's funny when we were test driving cars,
my daughter has more interest than you might think
in the stereo system.
Okay.
So I kept hooking up my phone while she was driving.
Does she like your music?
We agree on some stuff.
Okay.
We agree on, they might be giants, the talking heads.
She hates the jazz.
Yeah.
She hates the jazz.
Okay.
She's still like Mark Knopfler.
But anyway, anyway, she doesn't want a bad stereo.
She doesn't need a great stereo.
So we were hooking up my Bluetooth
while we were driving.
Some cars let you do it while you're driving, most don't.
You have to come to a complete stop, put it in park
and then you can finish hooking up the Bluetooth
so they don't want you distracted.
Yeah.
All right, guess what we did?
Well, one more thing before we run out of time.
Oh, what?
First off, this vehicle's not gonna be available
until November.
Okay.
We didn't mention that yet and pricing hasn't yet been
announced, but they have said that there is not going
to be a huge price increase.
Well, that's impressive.
If you can get more range for less money
or the same money, that's great.
More range for features.
And speaking of that, the companion vehicle to this,
the Toyota BZ, price cuts.
Yeah.
Price cuts coming.
So.
So yeah, that's good stuff too.
Yeah.
It's interesting that the federal government no longer
really wants to support electric vehicles,
but manufacturers are still cranking them out.
Global industries.
And they're getting more interesting.
Well, that's the thing.
Yeah.
It is global.
And the, for instance, the Chevrolet Bolt EV
returns next year.
Yes.
I don't know how much cheaper they can make that
than an Equinox EV, but we welcome an affordable EV.
We do, in fact.
All right.
Now guess what we did?
Now, now we are running out of time.
Now we've talked too much.
Yes, we did.
Great show.
Thank you to Justin Lundy of the CEO of Everett.
That was a very cool conversation.
I need to look more about those.
I want to see some test drives.
Yes.
I haven't done that.
So I need to check that out, but check them out.
It's Everati.
Everati.
Thank you.com.
All right.
Thank you, Jill.
Yes.
Thank you, producer Randy.
We'll talk more about cars again.
Next week.
Next week.
Remember to check us out at consumerguide.com.
The Car Stuff podcast is produced by J-Turn Media.
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at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
About this episode
Jill and Tom dive into the latest automotive news, including Audi's price hikes and the new Subaru Solterra's updates. They discuss the buying experience of a Mazda CX-30, highlighting its performance and features. The episode also features an interview with Justin Lundy, CEO of Everrati, who shares insights on converting classic cars into electric vehicles, emphasizing the blend of modern technology with vintage charm. The hosts explore off-road capabilities, pricing, and the future of electric vehicles in the market.
The hosts open the show briefly discussing Tom’s experiences car shopping with his 25-year-old daughter. After test driving five cars, and much careful consideration, a car has been purchased. Listen in for details.
In the news, Jill and Tom talk about Audi tariff-related price increases, Chrysler’s crazy Grizzly Peak minivan concept vehicle, and the Dodge Durango going V8 only for 2026.
Still in the first segment, Jill reviews the updated 2026 Subaru Solterra, which now enjoys more power and greater range.
In the second segment, the hosts are joined by Justin Lunny, CEO of Everrati. Everrati restores classic cars, fitting them with modern electric powertrains. Listen in to learn what cars the company is currently restoring, and what it costs to bring a vintage Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, or Porsche 911 back to life with an all-electric drivetrain.
In the last segment Jill is subjected to Tom’s “LX” trim-level quiz. The hosts closed out the show discussing the 2026 Solterra’s off-road ability and AWD drivetrain.