Car Keys with Robin Leech and Jay de Marcken – March 2, 2026

He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys

Hello to our listeners for this week's show of Car Keys with Jada Markin who is

traveling the roads of Europe today in this week's show and Robin Leach who's sitting at the

desk to conduct the show. I

have

started subscribing to Consumer Reports and got just in time for the show the

2026 auto issue which is packed full of interesting things. I have not been very much of a fan of the Consumer Reports car

reviews over the past decades, but I must say

this is the first one I've actually looked at in depth probably in a

couple of decades if not more and

they've condensed their reviews to what I consider to be quite an interesting situation and they've got a lot of top kicks,

10 bests, 10 worsts and all that and I'm going to cruise through some of the

categories with some comments that will come from both myself and Jay I'm sure as we go through.

It's interesting to note that their take on the cars in general

seem to be at least in the less expensive models and vehicles available. Full of

Subaru's, Honda's, Toyota's,

lesser numbers of Hyundai's and Kia's.

The Ford Maverick truck is in there. I'll go through a couple of categories. They've categorized them in price ranges

or well let's say under $30,000 or under $40,000 vehicles we start out with and they have

a Honda Civic, a Toyota Camry, a Subaru Crosstek,

Subaru Forester. You can get a Camry under 30 grand? Yes, you actually can.

29,110 apparently. I don't know whether you'll ever be able to find one of these in a dealer.

You might have to special order it. It's extraordinary and it's cut four-wheel drive,

all-wheel drive standard at that level. It's extraordinary for a Camry and of course that's a

very nice vehicle. It has been since I first owned a Camry hybrid back in 2009 or 10 I believe.

It was the first hybrid that I ever had before I transferred into the

Hyundai Sonata hybrid which is the 2014 which I still own and cut it.

Albeit it is older and doesn't. So what does Consumer Reports say about the under 30 grand cars?

They're all very good. They all come, they all get good mileage. They've divided them into

categories because the Honda Civic which ranges from 24.7 to 34,000 or 33.5 has a gasoline, a hybrid

and the mileage is 33 from gasoline, 44 for the hybrid and they say it drives well. It's got a

manufacturer's have been sneaking in upgrades to interiors and components in the lesser expensive

vehicles. Unbeknownst to probably many users who don't know that they can appreciate some of the

larger cars features and get them in the less expensive lines of vehicles without money.

Do they classify the cars? I mean is there a top 10, 1, 2, 3?

Well what I'm in right now is just a section of top picks. So they are not classified in a

1, 2, 3 type numerical situation. They categorize them in terms of a small car, Honda Civic,

mid-sized car, Toyota Camry, sub-compact SUV, Subaru Crosstek Trek, compact SUV, Subaru Forester,

mid-sized SUV, the Toyota Grand Highlander. The Grand Highlander is an extended version of the

interesting price category range of 41, 660 to 50 to just under $60,000 and the gas overall score

is a 79. The hybrid overall score is an 88. The hybrid gets 35 miles per gallon. This is apparently

for the Toyota Grand Highlander. Extraordinary that that engine of that car could get 35 miles per

gallon with any engine in it, sort of pure electric just because it's such a big and

comodious vehicle that there's a free-load SUV, roomy enough. The Highlander has been known to be a

workhorse. A workhorse. It sells extremely well. It's bulletproof, blah blah blah. You know you

didn't you? My family member is driving a 2014 Highlander. It's got 245,000 miles on it. It has

had two repairs to the vehicle under an extended warranty which my wife purchased with it back

in 2014 and it has been basically, as you said, J bulletproof in terms of reliability

and it gets driven properly. It can get 32 to 33 miles down. It's a hybrid way back in from the

2014 days and it's an extraordinarily durable vehicle. So that's what it was in the mid-sized SUV

with the Toyota Grand Highlander. Let me just continue for our listeners.

Luxury compact SUV, the Lexus NX. You asked about numerical scores. Where they have multi

levels of models, mainly between gas and hybrid and plug-in hybrid, they rate the

actually in the Lexus NX, they rate the gas overall score of 81, the hybrid overall score 85,

and the plug-in hybrid overall score 75. So let me ask you, how does consumer report

differ from like quote unquote real car magazines? I don't think they sit there and try to,

I found the real car magazines tended to, when they were doing their 10 best

issues, which they seem to do once a year maybe, tended to focus on, well, it's my opinion only

listeners, fancier vehicles, therefore upgraded vehicles like BMWs, Mercedes,

although they have been reversing themselves recently. I think a lot of listeners

complained in the writing in the editors' letters sections about how they seem to always,

these car magazines always seem to emphasize sporty, sort of expensive lines of cars as opposed to

vehicles like Honda Accord's Subaru Varsus and the like. And I think they've done a good job

in just going through, I think they start out saying in the magazine that there are like 260 cars

out there in the world, varieties of cars or something like that, from which they can make

these choices if they've made this particular issue of the magazine. The last time I saw consumer

reports about cars, probably last year actually, and it's just, it's tedious, probably like all of

their magazines, it's just a lot of information and kudos to them, I mean, they compile all of

that information, how much of it is just compiled from other sources, how much is it, how much of

that is driving experience of the vehicles themselves? I know they gather polls and they

have numbers on reliability and this and that, but do they actually spend a lot of time driving

the vehicles? Well, I doubt that they drive 260 vehicles of all these different kinds in any

given year, because I don't think they could do that. But let me continue with the list and then

we'll get into some of that stuff. The small pickup division, the Ford Maverick, that is matched by

Motor Trend and Jay DeMarco and Robin Leach and maybe even a car and driver if they got down to

the Maverick side pickup truck, but then you went to luxury mid-sized SUV, they picked the BMW X5

which is a $68,000 to $76,000 price range, maybe without extras within those. The gas overall

score was higher than the PHEV plug-in hybrid one, probably because they've had some comments and then

the plug-in electric hybrids have apparently having, they seem to think have reliability problems,

whatever that means in their language. But then we go to the full-size pickup, the Ford F-150

wanted this year, I'm not sure it's ever wanted before. Then they go to electric vehicles to

test the Model Y with their pick. That covered that sort of those types of vehicles that they

chose and identified as electric or full-size pickup, luxury mid-size, whatever. They have

other lists in this particular issue are the best and the worst lists and I'm not going to get into

it. There's too much stuff. They have a page with rats, best and worst gas mileage, small cars,

the Buick and Vista, 29 miles per gallon, Toyota Corolla, 36 miles per gallon. This is a small car

to visit. The worst was the Buick and Vista, the best was the Toyota Prius at 51 miles per gallon,

mid-size cars. The worst was the Hyundai Sonata at 30, these are gasoline, the Honda Corolla at 32

and the Toyota Camry at 45. Look at the Toyota Camry at 45, that must have been a hybrid.

I think all the Toyota vehicles in the 2026 mile a year are maybe hybrid vehicles, Jay.

You may or may not be for listeners. They are also all-wheel drive vehicles, I think,

in the Toyota line. Toyota has really jumped ahead in their appeal, their feeling of hybrid

being the appeal way to market and sell business, as well as all-wheel drive systems across the border.

I'm not sure Florida cars need all-wheel drive Arizona and the like and that's where mountains

to go to. Luxury small cars, the Lexus IS came in a low at 22 miles per gallon.

Hey, I'm glad I'm just not going on a road trip in a Toyota. I'll tell you that because the few

here is quite amazing. We're looking at the Alps which make the Rockies look like little

and anyway. Do you think that the Consumer Reports bases all of its data on

first-person choices? Well, on polls from customers, where does the data come from?

No, I don't think they do. Do they use what is JD Powell, whatever the reliability?

There may be something about that. They do have a vision of how we test cars and all that and I

have not read that thing, but that might answer a lot of your questions. But they have a list of cars,

a great cars built in the USA. This is interesting because obviously what I didn't know until we

purchased, my wife purchased the Q5 Audi recently. She has good choice in cars, by the way.

What? She has good choice in cars. She does, but the BNXX-5 is built in Spartanburg,

South Carolina. So that's a foreign name built in the US. The Chevrolet Corvette

is a great car built in the USA. The Honda Passport, they have the Honda Passport built

under the great car list. The Subaru Forester Hybrid, that's an interesting vehicle. The Subaru

has been late to the game in getting into the hybrid and or electric vehicle lines,

but they've come out with this Forester Hybrid which they advertise is getting up to 600 miles per

tank full in the hybrid version of this vehicle. I think the tank must be about 15

gallons, which you need to do to get that. But we'll talk about how you get the mileage's ratings that

are allegedly available in some of these cars, maybe before this version of the show ends,

because I have some direct opinions on that. First hand experiences, but back to the great

cars built in the USA. The Toyota Grand Highlander is built in Indiana, not in Japan. The Toyota

Camry is built in Kentucky, not Japan. The Tesla Model Y is built in Austin, Texas, not in China

or Germany, as it should be, of course, not be. Honda Accord Hybrid is built in Ohio,

the Subaru Forester is built in Indiana, that is also with the Forester Hybrid. So they have the

Subaru, gasoline, and the hybrid listed in this great car built in the USA. I think that's

redundant. How many people look at where the car is built before buying it? Not really, but it

comes to mind now with the tariff situation, because any cars that are coming in from outside

North America, and I'm not sure that includes Mexico. I'm not sure what the tariff situation

is because it's coming across a lot. Nobody does. Nobody knows. Europe is really getting

the brunt of the tariff situation for vehicles, and Audi is particularly

affected. I was told by Audi that's why they dropped the electric lines, the pure electric

vehicles, because the tariffs are so onerous. Wait a minute, Audi does not drop the full

electric line of vehicles? No, not in Europe, but they haven't dropped it completely in the US,

but they have cut back their whole electric lineup planning.

Most comfortable models, we have a category of most comfortable models in consumer reports,

small cars, Volkswagen Jetta, the Kia Nira, the Subaru Impressor, the small cars, three of them,

mid-sized cars, Honda Corp, Honda Corp Hybrid, Hyundai Sonata, most comfortable of the mid-sized

cars, luxury small cars, most comfortable in consumer reports, Cadillac CTS, Audi A3, Accura

Integra, luxury mid-sized cars, Audi A8, I thought that was a large car. Genesis G98 is not a

well, they've got it luxury mid-sized. The V80 does not forget about the comment,

BMW 5 Series, those are the three luxury mid-sized cars I think they're comfortable.

Subcompact SUVs, Volkswagen Tows, Subaru Crosstek Chevrolet Trailblazer, Compact SUVs,

Subaru Forestry twice, Honda CRV, mid-sized SUVs, Honda Passport, Chevrolet Blazer, Jeep Charity,

mid-sized three-row SUVs, Subaru Honda, oh, Subaru Accent, Honda Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe,

luxury small SUVs, Audi Q3, BMW X3, Cadillac XTS, luxury mid-sized SUVs, BMW...

So only in Europe do you see an SUV towed by a Compact SUV?

Okay, interesting. Whereas we would use big pickup trucks,

well I just saw Tiguan on a trailer being towed by another Tiguan.

How many of the largest sized vehicles do you see on the European roads such as the big Mercedes

and the big Audi? You see large vehicles, you see a lot of large vehicles but you just see a lot

of smaller vehicles too. Well when I was in Italy a year ago it was interesting to see

there were very sparse in terms of the numbers of the larger vehicles.

I did see a couple of big Dodge Ram pickup trucks in Italy and I said why? I don't know what...

Yeah you see them here too. Sure you do but not in very big numbers.

To finish the most comfortable model is luxury mid-sized BMW had two

the X5s were the models Land Rover, Range Rover Sport and then the luxury mid-sized three row

SUV, the Audi Q7, BMW X7 and Cadillac S-Galant. Those are all more expensive vehicles.

Let's cut to the chase. Would you trust consumer reports on any of this?

Actually it'd be impossible for you and I to be able to trust or not trust it because we'd never

get the chance to investigate these their lists but I don't have much disagreement. What I don't

know is what is most comfortable? Is it a soft ride? Is it a firm ride with good shock absorber

control that doesn't bounce or vibrate or shake when you hit a paho? I don't know how you identify

the word comfortable in terms of these vehicles. I think that's very subjective. I think it's a very

subjective situation. Which seems like very not consumer reports because they tend to portray

how are you otherwise going to identify what is most comfortable or what is most

sporty or whatever. I guess they have to write about something. So this is what they write about.

They have a great choice section. Three great choices if you want an SUV. Toyota Corolla Cross

Hybrid is one of their suggestions. The Honda CR-V Hybrid is another suggestion. The mid-sized

SUV is the Toyota 4Runner's suggestion. Any talk of wagons? They call them SUVs. Those three.

And then one was subcompact, the second was compact, and the third one was mid-sized.

Then they have a Sedan or sports car choice. You'll like this one, Joe. Small car, Chevrolet

tracks. I don't know how they come up with that. Sports car, Mazda MX-5 Miata. That seems appropriate.

Luxury car, BMW 5 Series. If you want a pickup truck, the Ford Hybrid is back.

Let's move on from consumer reports. Let's move on from consumer reports. Okay, let's move on.

We don't want to be as boring as they are. Some are driving experiences I'm trying to see more

often on our roads around our listing area. And that is the instance in where I am approaching

an intersection and somebody else is approaching an intersection from a different side of the

intersection. And one side, not me, is driving right through the stop sign without stopping.

This seems to be something that is recurring. I've noticed more in the last week or so.

This particular shows... Maybe they didn't see you. Maybe you didn't have your legs on.

Well, I may be on the road at the wrong time or right time of the day. But

there are people that it bodes well to bring up to our listeners that we should have

due diligence visually when we are approaching intersections these days. Because you might find

not that you as the driver would be interested in driving through without stopping. But you may see

others doing that particular action, which is certainly in direct violation of the

requested signage instruction for us to stop completely before you go through an intersection

so you don't get anybody coming through from a different direction. That goes along with our

my complaint about dusk to darkness drivers that are not turning on their headlights or their cars

are not turning on their headlights or lighting adequate for you that you could see them 300

yards down the road in the nighttime dusk time, especially when they are gray or black or dark

sedans in dark road areas. It's just the habits of our drivers, I think. We've been discussing

on this show about drivers have been deteriorating in their capabilities or their

politeness or whatever else you want to find it as we are heading into the new season.

Would you agree Jay?

Yeah, but you know, I, you know, you don't care. Okay, well, that's all right.

No, I don't care. I mean, personally, I mean, I'm not expecting people to have, you know,

yeah, just try to improve people's driving when you can and try to be aware.

As a person who drives a lot, are you impressed by the European methods of driving and politeness

of the drivers? I was just telling my friend a little while ago here in the car, I think that,

and I've said this on our show before, I think that drivers over here in the last since I left

25 or 30 years ago, I think driver behavior has improved as far as civility is going,

but also the speed limits are so strict that, you know, pretty much everybody's going to get

to the same place at about the same time. So, and there's certain rules that are,

that are pretty straight, that are, that people follow pretty well, like rules of merging and,

and intersections. It just seems to work, but I think that driver ed is a longer and more

complex thing here. I want to go to car insurance. I mean, I have been shocked by

getting new car insurance rates for my fleet of vehicles and consumer back to the report,

like just discovered a section which has which cars cost the most to ensure.

The list says this is a very important thing, which I don't think anybody thinks about when

we go out to buy a car, what the insurance is going to be on cars, but I would say that in the last

five years, maybe seven years, car insurance rates per model, at least in my fleet, have doubled

over what they were maybe as recent as three years ago, but certainly since seven years ago.

And I've seen my car insurance premiums go up. Yeah. Well, in my particular experience,

they've doubled from, and I had a multi-car discount rate. So they were more between $1,000

and $1200 per vehicle, and they are now $2,000 plus per vehicle. And this is,

I really noticed it because the insurance company I use used to... So let me ask you this.

In the annual rates, and now they've gone to six months

billing and six month terms on the insurance cards you get, which is a paper mint

right there. Maybe it's because you're getting older and they don't trust you to make it to the next

year. Do you think it's an age thing? You're going to get two, six month terms on those cars too.

You're not getting annual insurance rates. I don't think any more in most, in many of these

countries. So Robin, how many cars do you have? Give or take? Robin, how many cars do you have?

Give or take? A half a dozen? Ten. Ten. Okay. Yeah. So my point is, so you're...

So the newest car that we have are cars that my wife has decided she wanted and they are pre-owned,

so they're not new on the current year situation because we do not want the new,

some of the new vehicle features that are disappearing from the older versions,

concerning dashboard applications like knobs for tuning radio stations,

setting volumes, and that kind of thing. But just one by a car I've never seen before.

Our newest car, 2020, 2020. So let me ask you a few questions here. It doesn't really matter what,

but do you have all the cars under the same policy? Yes.

And is there any provision for collectible cars or older cars? That is not the case

of this particular company. Well, we'll talk more about insurance in a later show. And until then,

you will for Carkeys with Robin Leach and Jay DeMarkin. Carkeys with Robin Leach and Jay DeMarkin

is produced at the facilities of WHDD91.9 FM, RobinhoodRadio.com, Sharon Connecticut.

Car Keys with Robin Leech and Jay de Marcken – March 2, 2026

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