A large family SUV from Nissan that has three rows of seats. It is built to carry up to eight people comfortably, though car reviewers sometimes find it less exciting to drive than its competitors.
Mazda's largest and most luxurious SUV. It is designed to feel more upscale and sporty to drive than most other family haulers, featuring a fancy interior and a smooth, powerful engine.
A very large SUV made by Volkswagen. It is famous for having one of the roomiest third rows, making it easy for adults to sit in the very back, though some find the ride a bit rough.
A highly popular family SUV from Toyota. This specific version uses a special high-power hybrid system that gives it quick acceleration while still saving gas compared to a traditional V6 engine.
A dependable, spacious family SUV from Honda. It is designed like a minivan in an SUV body, offering tons of cup holders, smart storage spaces, and a comfortable ride for up to eight people.
A well-known American SUV. It is designed to tow heavy loads and offers a sporty drive, though some reviewers complain that the interior feels a bit cheap and the seats aren't as comfortable as rivals.
A stylish and very comfortable family SUV from Hyundai. It feels almost like an expensive luxury car inside, offering high-tech features and a very smooth, quiet ride for a reasonable price.
An incredibly popular SUV from Kia that has won numerous awards. It looks rugged on the outside, feels like a luxury vehicle on the inside, and is widely considered the best overall family SUV on the market.
The Range Rover is a large, expensive luxury SUV made by a British company. It is designed to be extremely comfortable and fancy inside, while also being able to drive through tough off-road conditions like mud and deep water.
A rugged, boxy SUV from Ford designed for serious off-road adventures. You can take the doors and roof off, and it is built to climb over rocks and through mud, while still being decent to drive on regular roads.
A classic Jeep model name. The hosts are disappointed with the newer version, arguing that Jeep has made it look too much like a soft, generic family crossover instead of a tough, recognizable off-roader.
A type of automatic transmission that doesn't have traditional gears that shift. Instead, it smoothly adjusts like a dimmer switch, which helps save gas but can make the engine sound like it is constantly revving.
Jeep's larger, more expensive SUV. It is designed to be comfortable and fancy inside for daily driving, but still tough enough to go off-road where other luxury SUVs would get stuck.
The quintessential reliable four-door family sedan. It is incredibly common, highly dependable, and very popular for daily commuting and rideshare driving.
A new Chinese car brand that makes stylish, rugged-looking SUVs. It is growing very quickly in Europe and the UK by offering luxury looks and features for a lower price.
A small, highly stylish luxury SUV from Land Rover. It is designed to look very modern and sleek, making it popular for city driving, though it is quite expensive.
A massive Chinese company that has overtaken Tesla as the world's biggest seller of electric cars. They are known for making high-tech electric vehicles with very safe and long-lasting batteries.
An all-electric SUV from Tesla that is slightly larger and taller than the Model 3 sedan, making it much more practical for carrying cargo and families.
A highly popular, all-electric sedan from Tesla. It has a very simple interior with almost no physical buttons, relying instead on a large central screen to control everything.
Volkswagen's main electric SUV sold in the US. It is designed to feel familiar to traditional SUV drivers, offering a quiet, comfortable ride and plenty of cabin space.
A highly famous, practical compact hatchback from Volkswagen. It has been a global favorite for decades because it is fun to drive, easy to park, and surprisingly spacious inside.
A compact electric hatchback from Volkswagen that is sold in Europe. It is about the same size as a VW Golf and is designed for city driving and daily commuting.
A small hatchback from Volkswagen that is popular in Europe. It is a size smaller than the Golf, making it very easy to park and highly fuel-efficient.
An all-electric SUV from Ford that uses the famous Mustang name. It is fast and sporty, but features four doors and a hatchback trunk for family practicality.
An all-electric version of America's favorite pickup truck. It looks almost exactly like a regular gas truck but runs entirely on battery power and can even power your house during an outage.
The Ford Mustang is a famous two-door sports car known for its sporty look and powerful engine. It is designed to be fun to drive, relatively affordable, and has a long history dating back to the 1960s.
A popular, small family SUV from Ford. It is easy to drive and offers good gas mileage, but Ford is planning to stop making it to focus on other vehicles.
A smaller, more affordable version of the rugged Ford Bronco. It is built for camping and light off-roading, but uses the same underlying parts as the smoother Ford Escape.
Cadillac's first all-electric luxury SUV. It has a very futuristic design, a giant screen stretching across the dashboard, and a super quiet and smooth ride.
A massive, ultra-luxurious electric version of the famous Cadillac Escalade. It is packed with high-tech features and has a giant battery, but is very heavy and expensive.
A famous highway system in Germany where some sections have no speed limit, meaning you can drive as fast as you want if conditions allow.
LIVE
He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys.
Good day to our listeners for this week's show of Car Keys with Jada Markin and Robin Leach.
Jay is just back from Europe, so we'll get a little bit of that later on.
I have just picked up my mail from being away from the mailbox for a week,
and then in it was the latest car and driver, which has a very
interesting to me and maybe for some of you listeners of who drive
large SUVs, I guess.
Car and Driver did a, or yeah, Car and Driver did a eight
comparo test between, well, eight of them, and I will go quickly through it.
In eighth place, we'll start from the last place and move to the first place.
Nissan Pathfinder,
it was one of the eight and it came in last, and
they have a little quickie
summary of each of these, and I'll pick what I want out of each summary.
The Nissan Pathfinder, which is actually quite attractive to me personally,
it apparently has its good points of space and comfort
from the first to the third rows. These were all cars or vehicles that would have
three rows of seating if you needed three rows.
The lows are things that they complain about on each of the vehicles, or they make negative comments about.
This is an interesting one because they had too many to even put any in.
They said, oh boy, where to begin? I don't know what they mean by that.
I haven't read the article, so I'm not going any further. The pictures they have of it are very attractive.
One of the things I like about the interiors of some of the cars that aren't necessarily U.S.
driven, but we'll continue later, is that they have others in black interiors
available on some of their lines. Usually it's on the upper level lines of each of the vehicles that they do.
The baselines probably have a baseline black interior, but we'll forget about that.
They did say the Pathfinder didn't charm us with its driving dynamics.
But if the use of the third row is paramount, it won't disappoint.
In seventh place was a Mazda CX-90. Jay, I think you've, I don't know whether you've ever driven one.
I've never driven the big Mazda in my
career of driving lots of cars. Neither have I. Their highs was the
risky, risky, but attractive interior design.
Simple and straightforward instrumentation. Lowes, too much focus on the driver for a family hauler. Skimps on features.
That was seventh place. The sixth place was the Volkswagen Atlas.
I think the Atlas is a pretty good vehicle in general.
I've, I haven't really actually driven one, but it's a very attractive looking one. All these vehicles are actually quite attractive in my
visual opinion.
They, they, they all were the premium lines. High, cavernous interior, comfy seats,
enthusiasm for make-believe. I have no clue what that means. Lowes, rough ride, bland interior, and
there's a next generation coming out so they,
so they don't really care about this one.
Verdict is too late to make suggestions for the all-new Atlas.
Fifth place, I guess we're at fifth place,
is the Toyota
Highlander Platinum Hybrid Max. Highs, powerful, and efficient hybrid
powertrain. I will say that Toyota seems to have their hybrid powertrains pretty well sorted out through
most of their lines, if not all of their lines of cars, which all now come with, I believe, a
power line of a hybrid treatment, one way or another.
They said it had a comfortable, natural driving position.
Lowes, big
second and third row space isn't quite enough. I do not know how you
decide when the interior of any vehicle you purchase these days has got quite enough,
but not, or not quite enough, or just enough, or too much interior.
Fourth place, there was a tie. Honda Pilot was one of the ties. I'm not sure what the other one was,
but they
maybe that was with the Toyota.
Highs with proper family planning, you won't need one forever. I don't know what that means.
Lowes, engine works very hard to deliver tepid acceleration. That, to me, means the engine's underrated for
too small to deliver what car and driver feels is a necessary pleasure-feeling of
acceleration and
passing capability.
Lowes, that was the Lowes.
Vertic neutrons are essential, whatever they are, but beyond that it's hard to say anything positive about them.
Third place, what is it? Oh, the Ford Explorer, the first American one to show up.
The Ford Explorer has changed quite a bit. It went from front-wheel drive into front- and all-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive,
and into rear- and all-wheel drive.
The short
decision on that was
let's see.
Highs, powerful and silly. What is silly to tell you, Jay? You can think about answering some of these when I let you into this.
Lowes, the most expensive vehicle here, and one of the least comfortable,
no matter where you sit. I guess that's a reference to the seats. The seats look very attractive in the Explorer picture that I'm looking at,
but if they're not comfortable, so what, right?
A 400-pound breath of fresh air that is exactly as impractical as you think it is.
Next on it, that is the second place is the Hyundai Palisade.
We're getting to the second and last ones, and they both happen to be Korean-built and from the same company.
The Hyundai took second place with a highs in the comfort luxury,
tech, the powertrain, ride and handling, pretty much everything. Lowes,
highest-tested price,
Kia Tellerade, which is number one coming up, does things just a little better.
Verdict, a luxurious three-row that comes up two points short of a tie for first, and the first
place is Kia Telleride,
the Prestige-level 2.5T hybrid, highs, everything that is great about the Hyundai plus more,
driver engagement and better fuel economy. Lowes, seats are slightly less plush than the Hyundai's.
Verdict, you could pay double, and we'll get to that in a second, and still not get a better SUV.
Now, I don't know what anybody would think of about a better SUV, but Range Rover comes to mind.
Jay, you might be able to add in on that. I'm not sure what other ones were looking at. Jeep was notably absent.
I do not know what vehicle in their lineup would possibly have been able to make it be a nine vehicle comparison.
But there,
for you listeners, is this brief on eight people haulers in the SUV line. Jay?
So as you went down this list or up the list, I was waiting to find something that I would actually
consider buying if I were in the market for that
type of vehicle, and I had to wait till you got to the Ford Explorer,
which I think is a pretty good-looking vehicle.
I've not driven a very recent one, but I've written in the back seat in an Uber, and
I found it to be a little plasticky in the finish, and also not all that comfortable.
But I do think it's a it's a competent vehicle, and they and their different models in the lineup
that can be appealing. There's a very powerful, I think,
Turbo V6,
and there is also
a run-of-the-mill four-cylinder turbo.
That seems to be like a
smart choice.
But, you know, when when you mentioned the two Hyundai and Kia
propositions, there is no competition, and this is just the newer versions of the of these two models
that have just come out in 2026, and I think they may be 2027 models,
I'm not sure, but they are brand-new. The first generation of these two vehicles were already the two I
think best
offers in this in these non-luxury
large SUVs. Ultra-luxury, you might say, for the Range Rover, right? Yeah, yeah, but the Range Rover is not in this list, right?
I mean, the Tellaride and the Palisade kind of have a Range Rover look,
and it looks,
you know,
there's a resemblance without it being
trying to look like.
Yeah, it's hard to explain what the difference is, but
they are both good-looking vehicles. They are slightly different. I have not read the article.
I don't know what the differences are, but you went over them briefly.
The difference is between the Palisade and the Tellaride, but I think either one is a good choice.
I think the big difference now versus the first gen is
the engines are also now four-cylinder turbos
versus V6's in the past, and
they'd be correct. And
that has been the trend with every single manufacturer out there.
I'm a little
I'm not sure about how that engine runs in the Highlander, in the Toyota
hybrid
proposition, because the only
vehicle I've driven with the Toyota engine is a Lexus that is not a hybrid.
And I've said it before, I'm kind of disappointed in that engine.
I've driven the Ford Explorer
four-cylinder engine in the Bronco, and I think it
performs really well with the 10-speed transmission, but I also know that Ford's had reliability
issues with that engine. So who knows? I think the number one and number two choices are
absolutely the way to go in that list.
And
yeah, I think we can move on from there, but that's those are my conclusions.
I would like to continue a little bit about the
latest new, two new Jeeps that I've read a little bit about only because I like Jeeps. I have my own
Fuddah Fuddah!
I know.
What I didn't know was, I have been down on the new
2027, I'll call it 2027 Jeep Cherokee.
I think they've taken the Jeep out of the Cherokee.
The way I look at Jeep is being looked at by a lot of people who want to buy Jeeps.
They've softened it considerably.
They've lengthened the new Cherokee over the ones I own by seven or eight or nine inches.
I can't remember what it is.
You cannot tell the Cherokee coming down the road, the new one, the way you can tell the last
generation Cherokees from a quarter or half a mile away. However far you can see,
either front or rear, that disappoints me because I'd like to know
that you have, you know, if you have a vehicle and you like your vehicle,
you can recognize it when other people have it. But to that end, they have a lessened, turbo
charge engine along with a hybrid driver train in the new Cherokee, but they've switched out the
nine-speed automatic with selected drive capability transmission for a some kind of CVT version.
And one dealer told me it was a throwaway transmission. If there was a problem with it,
I don't know what that dealer knew that I don't know because much about it.
I'm not sure that was a great sales pitch.
That was not a great sales pitch.
I think we can move on. We've covered the new Cherokee.
Yeah, we have covered it. I'm not going to recover it, except that the turbo four in the Cherokee
last generation put out 278 horsepower. It was a two liter turbo.
And I've just discovered that the two liter turbo has extinct now, but it has become a
325 horsepower turbo four, same two liter, but new technology.
And it's now an option engine in the new Grand Cherokee.
So that engine, that's where they put the two liter turbo instead of keeping it in the new Cherokee.
And that's all I'm going to say about Jeep, which, by the way, that Grand Cherokee might have been
could have been included in the list of those.
Yeah. So it's interesting that it wasn't. And I don't know why they didn't.
So we won't go any further than that. Jay, what was going on in Europe?
Uh, it was very hot.
More cameras, more cameras, slower driving.
Yes, we'll get to the whole camera thing.
A lot of slower driving, no fast driving for sure.
Well behaved driving.
Part of it is good.
Yeah, unlike driving through New York, I drove through New York over the weekend
and got caught up in some pretty messy
traffic jams, and it just never sees us to amaze me how
just people really do not care.
And I'm talking about quote unquote professional drivers.
The like of the lower tier
ride share drivers in their little Toyota Camrys
and little Nissan's and driving on the breakdown
lane and passing and cutting.
It's just annoying.
And it's it's really refreshing when one of them gets pulled over by a cop
who happened to be in the line that they were trying to cut.
And that's all I'll say.
And and so, yeah, Europe was is is the changes I see in Europe.
Well, that's what I wanted to mention.
Jayco, the other one of the other numerous Chinese cars.
And Jayco, I saw a few of them in Belgium and I was like, huh, this is new.
I don't really know this brand and I don't really know this car.
But then I came back here and over the weekend, read an article
about Jayco and their SUV that looks a little like a Range Rover Evoque.
And it landed in the UK
eighteen months ago, and I believe it is the best selling vehicle
in the UK right now. Wow.
In eighteen months time.
So to think that the Chinese cars are not coming here.
Is that coming? They're coming.
And so in Europe, I talked with more and more people who
one person who drives a pretty compact Mercedes SUV said.
My next car, BYD, just clear answer.
No question, no doubt, absolutely convinced, likes the styling,
likes likes the features and I see I've I saw a lot of BYD, you know,
sedansi, they have a vehicle that looks like a crossover between
a Tesla three and a Tesla Y, but it looks like it has a
more substantial presence on the road for some reason.
Hard to explain what it is, but back to the Jayco.
Yeah, it's another Chinese brand.
And what I want, yeah, what I wanted to say is that the UK versus the rest
of Europe, they also has tariffs like Europe has 35 percent tariffs
on Chinese cars, whereas UK, the UK only has a 10 percent tariff.
So the Chinese cars are penetrating the UK faster than they are
other European markets. But yes, you think the European manufacturers
have a lot to be very worried about, given what we know about
the Chinese cars, the automobile situation, and we've been sort of
touching on it off and on in past shows.
And therefore, that same concern is going to move into North America,
including Canada and the U.S.
when it gets creeping more than creeping into both our countries here.
Well, what I see with the European manufacturers have been doing,
there's been a change in the trends.
Europeans are slowly but surely adopting EVs, unlike what we're doing here.
And, you know, there was a panic stage amongst European manufacturers
in the last few years, where they started flip flopping
and, you know, abandoning the idea of going fully electric
and starting redeveloping ICE cars.
But you can definitely see now the trend is going electric.
And there are a bunch of European electric cars, compact cars
that make a lot of sense.
Volkswagen is coming out with what they call, I think, the ID Polo.
So ID, the ID, ID four is the car we have here.
And then in Europe, they have an ID three, which is the size of the golf.
So it's a smaller vehicle.
It's a hatchback and it's well suited to the European market.
And now they're coming out with an ID Polo.
The Polo was historically the smaller, the small, not actually not the smallest,
but smaller than the golf little compact hatch.
And the ID Polo is a little fully electric little car that looks great,
does everything it needs to do, and I'm sure it's going to sell well.
Are the Chinese going to penetrate the market?
Yes. Do they have reasons for concern?
Yes. But I think at least they're getting ready for that invasion.
I think here we have no idea what we're doing.
I just, and I know I'm jumping from one thing to another here,
but I will get back to small pickup trucks, maybe in a minute or two.
But I just stumbled upon a, quote unquote, secret web page of Ford's
where they keep you hanging on the development of their
to come electric pickup truck.
Oh, good. And I know we're talking about it.
Ford has no, absolutely no plan to market EVs.
The only EV they have, the only EVs they've had is that that must be,
which is the stupidest marketing thing ever.
Then they came out with a Ford Lightning truck,
which was actually a pretty good vehicle, but disappointed in sales.
So they pull it off the market and now they're going to come out with a compact
pickup truck. They just flip flopping, have no idea what all over the place.
Yeah. They do have, they don't seem to have any stay power.
We, I've talked about the American manufacturers
not having much patience with something that doesn't automatically bring them a
lot of profit right off, right off the start,
harking back to like the 65 Mustang did, you know?
And I wasn't really around for that.
Another thing is Ford is doing is that they're letting go.
They're stopping the production of the escape,
which is also on the same platform as the Broncos sport.
And the escape is very different than the Broncos sport visually.
And in my opinion, in comfort and practicality,
I happen to think the escape is a very practical car.
And I see lots of them running around here.
And I do not know why I can't remember the reason why they're taking the escape
off the production line. And they're going to, but now the headline,
a recent headline is that they are diverting the escape fans to the
pricier Explorer. You know, if you're an escape driver,
you're not going to think about going up to a pricier car,
but it's probably the escape is very popularly priced car,
as well as being popular in its size.
The Explorer is not a bit better escape in my view.
So this is a two different vehicles part of your your your discussion about Ford.
There's no rhyme, no reason what's going on in the marketing department,
as far as I can tell. You know, they want to put,
they want to bring out a Lincoln asked Bronco,
probably because Lincoln is dealers. There's clamoring for it.
I don't know what that's sort of like the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Lexus
version of it, right? There's an upscale model on all those
and on those vehicles.
Whether that's going to bring a lot of profit for Lincoln dealers,
if they actually bring it to the market, which it looks like it's it's heading that
way or not, I don't know. But we'll watch and we'll watch that department as well.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure Ford would like to do with Lincoln or or or kind of
realizes they missed the boat and the Cadillac, right?
To do what GM did with Cadillac, but Cadillac is off the track.
Charged in popularity as far as I can see.
I see Cadillac badges coming at me right and left.
I never used to notice them. I've seen lyrics on the road.
You know, they're not there.
The the I hadn't realized that.
But I guess more to transfer SUV of the year is the Cadillac
Lyra, Escalade, I what is it called the IQ Escalade or I whatever.
OK. And it's a huge vehicle, but it is huge.
And it's not energy efficient unless you have a, you know,
unless you have a solar powered
charging station at home and some people do.
And there is a market for that.
But, you know, what surprised me most again, in Europe versus here is like
it is a lot of times very convenient to be driving a smaller car
and large cars, if you're in the city or in small towns, just become cumbersome.
And and and it also you we learn how to parallel park again,
which is an art that has been lost.
But now I'm totally going off the charts.
Hey, so something I wanted to talk about.
We talked about flock cameras a few weeks ago.
Yes, yes.
And just read an article about deflux.
So there is a movement out there about trying to reverse
that privacy invasion that the 80,000 flock cameras represent.
And among other things, there is a deflux.
Has it's an open source organization.
And I I just stumbled upon it this morning as we were preparing for the show.
But there is a map out there where you can actually zoom in
and see where all of those flock cameras are.
And good news, bad news here in the northwest corner
that does not seem to actually be any flock cameras right now.
I think, Jay, I think the towns have the right to.
Yeah, well, usually a vote.
And I don't think a lot of small towns want them any more than I think you or I want them.
Municipalities are the clients, the typical clients for these systems, these flock cameras.
And if you go towards Hartford or if you go down towards New Haven
and the whole southern part of the state, they are all over the place here in our tri-state corner.
Basically, you're looking at one camera in Millerton.
And there are.
It is if I can believe the map, it is as you go out of Millerton down, you know,
South on 22 Yes.
And and and then if you follow the map, as I'm doing right now down 22
you know, then they're all over the places you go down 22
So if you are going back and forth on route 22 on a regular basis, you've been flopped.
OK, that's that's very interesting, because I go back and forth, you know,
all your times a week, you know, I'll be flocked every time.
But I want to I think I think that in Washington, Connecticut,
there's a flock camera, apparently, and I think they stand on post.
And I think once you know what to look for, you could spot where they are.
I'm not sure they're very big either.
Are they not very big, Jay?
They're not very big.
But usually if by the time you see them, they've seen you.
One of them is at scan your plate.
It's too late.
But aren't they also scanning your face as well?
Or scanning everything to play?
Who knows? OK.
OK, enough of that.
You've made your point.
But I think you're safe if you stay under under 10 miles an hour over the
post cameras, don't record your speed.
The cameras just record you.
Yeah. Yeah. OK. By the way, there are speed.
You know, we're starting to see speed cameras in, obviously,
we know that in New York City in also in work zones.
And that is I'm totally fine with that.
But I also had a little a little ding from
Google Maps as I was approaching the Whitestone Bridge and at the end of the
hutch and there seems to be a fixed camera, a speed camera there.
And I don't know.
I have not located it.
So I'm not sure whether that's supposed to have signs
noticing them to you before you actually get to them.
Aren't they not a law?
I think there's some kind of I don't think so.
But I don't know.
I honestly don't know.
All right. Well, everybody who's listening, watch out for speed cameras.
Because if they are making inroads, maybe not right around our listening area,
but encroaching on the outskirts of our listening area,
it might be well for us to pay attention to this kind of comment
that you're hearing here on car keys.
Are you leaving us? No, I'm not leaving us.
I just wanted to put that little voice in.
I thought you'd keep going.
Anything else besides what you're learning?
Well, let's you know, you've been talking a lot about the controlled speed
at which drivers are paying attention to in Europe.
It makes the whole concept of all these high performance cars
we read about on our side of the pond and are readily available in Europe, too.
Sort of ludicrous to buy.
If you're not, we're going to be able to exercise them
to the lengths that you used to be able to do on the Autobahn.
And can you still do that on the Autobahn, Jay?
I haven't been there.
I haven't been to on an Autobahn in Germany in maybe a year or two.
But I'm sure that there are fewer and fewer sections
where you can actually go at unlimited speeds.
But there are still a few sections, for sure.
I'm just a proponent of adaptive speed limits.
No, no, the speed limits varying depending on traffic conditions.
OK, unfortunately, the way we enforce speed
makes it just the opposite of what the goal should be.
It's like the more traffic there is, the more difficult it is
for police to target speeders.
And therefore, if you're going up and down 684 in morning afternoon
or afternoon commuter traffic, you can pretty much drive
at any speed in any which way you want.
And there's no repercussions whatsoever.
And that, in my mind, is just wrong.
Well, you know and I know where they usually sit
when they're on 684 once you enter 684 from 22.
And they're not very creative, in my opinion,
which is their problem and not ours, thank goodness, in where they sit.
And even when they're out there
to be able to catch these what I call slalom cars
that go down 684 at awful speeds.
Alas, Alas, little safety thing, because I think we're running out of time.
I did flash my lights at a state trooper in New York yesterday
who was driving without his lights on and it was at dusk.
And I thought the heck with it.
I'll teach him like I teach everybody else.
Put your lights on at dusk.
Yeah, the state troopers don't.
They just don't.
I don't think the Connecticut state troopers are any better.
So with that.
Well, anyway, let's not pick on all of them all the time.
It's their problem, but we know it's OK.
So until that until next week, we'll have another edition of Car Keys.
We are Car Keys with J. DeMarken and Robin Leach.
Car Keys with Robin Leach and J. DeMarken is produced at the facilities
of WHDD 91.9 FM, Robin Hood Radio dot com, Sharon Connecticut.
About this episode
Hosts Robin Leach and Jay de Marcken dive into Car and Driver's latest eight-way three-row SUV shootout, debating why the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade continue to dominate the segment while domestic options like the Ford Explorer fall short. Jay shares firsthand observations on European driving culture and the rise of Chinese brands like Jaecoo after a recent trip, contrasting it with chaotic New York traffic. Finally, the duo critiques the controversial design and powertrain shifts of the latest Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee models.
