Car Keys with Robin Leech and Jay de Marcken – March 23, 2026

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

Hello to this week's show of Car Keys with Jada Markin and Robin Leach.

It is, weather-wise, a

Moisturist spring day.

In the economic news,

we have possibly some hope for lowering fuel prices as

this show is being done. Oil prices were plummeting on the world markets.

We'll see whether the gas prices, which go up like a rocket and float down like a feather,

make a

descent today

across the board, across our listening area, because it was widely varied over this last weekend and

I'm looking forward to seeing whether the plunging oil price that went down overnight

over maybe some calm in the Middle East are going to result in lower prices for fuel oil,

car gas, and diesel fuel.

Diesel fuel is atrocious, I must say, Jay. Yes, it is.

549 at one place and who knows what it is elsewhere.

I drove up to New Hampshire on Thursday thinking I'd find cheaper diesel and

I got back and I filled up at

489 and 24 hours later was at 549, like everywhere else.

So you put in 10 gallons, you save 70 cents a gallon maybe?

No, no. By the time I got back, I needed to put, I put over 20 gallons.

So I saved a ton of money on that one tank. Okay. Well, that's wonderful. But it still cost me 110 bucks.

It's also interesting to note that I have learned through some sources that

apparently this

area in the Gulf of Hormuz, or in the Gulf,

we don't get any of the oil benefits if the Hormoz Straits are

operating fully. So that should not be affecting any of our fuel prices in our country as far as I know.

And I don't have a lot more to say about it, but that's what I think our listeners should know.

So yeah, well, Hormuz is affecting the other parts of the world, not us.

So let's talk about cars. Okay. I have a first-hand edition

test drive and comments about the

2026 Jeep Cherokee, which is hitting the dealers lots as I went

to Tarrington to a Jeep dealer and had a very nice test drive in in the newest version of cars that I have

Responsibility of three of. In my violent? No, I'm not buying one. I'll get to that in a moment.

It's interesting to note that these are early production models, or early production, let's say,

offers out there. There are only three models you can choose from.

There's a basic one, which was in my day when I bought at 14 was called the Sport.

It's now I can't remember what it's called because I can't see my computer.

But the Laredo is the middle grade,

one, and then there's the limited.

And here is the base price of a Laredo, which is what I test drove, is under $40,000.

The price of the vehicle I looked at was before taxes and licensing and all that was

$41,300 plus. And it was pretty well equipped, but

I'll go first to the ride. I took a five mile test drive instead of the normal four rights in your back at the dealership,

which the seldom is five miles.

The sales person with me let me go on some different roads.

Some where I could experience the performance of the one engine that's available on the new models.

There is no alternative V6 versus turbo four versus non-turbo four, which has been available in the

which are three engines that were available in the last

production line of these cars.

And it is a turbo for 1.6 liter engine combined with hybrid batteries.

Now, that engine was surprisingly

efficient and also sprightly.

It does not equate to the turbo four in the last generation of the Cherokees,

which has been out of production for I think one and a half or two years.

But the acceleration was very good.

I don't know. I didn't get on

where I could pass cars on a road to see how good it was

instantly, but there was very little turbo lag, mostly because I think the battery boost of the electric battery

componentry jumps in and

helps boost the power of the gasoline part of the powertrain.

There is no nine-speed,

nine selectable speeds, and the transmission is a CVT, constant variable

range transmission, like some other cars have or vehicles have.

So you don't feel yourself shifting through gear ratios like you do in the older versions.

That is seemingly not a

disadvantage in

my test drive.

Okay, so let me go ahead and jump in.

Let's get to the point. How does it stand out?

How is it different from the previous model? And how does it stack up against

Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, the big hitters

in that segment of the market? There's one model. It is a

fossil-fueled hybrid vehicle only.

No non-

hybrid vehicle available or no electric vehicle. How it stands up against that list of

cars or SUVs. I can only

contemplate because I haven't driven most of them in the hybrid format.

This hybrid is very good.

The vehicle itself is physically bigger than the old Cherokee by I

think two or three or four inches in length and maybe an inch in width.

I'm surprised we haven't heard you. The ride is very comfortable. I was able to

test it on some fairly undulating bumpy town roads and it felt more comfortable than the past

generation of Cherokees, of which I am very familiar with. It was quiet.

It's got a touch screen for many of the controls along with voice control, override capability.

It does have knobs, two knobs for radio.

That is volume on the left knob, which is the way it's always been in the older versions of vehicles.

And a right knob for scrolling through the

range of stations that you get wherever you are with this vehicle.

It's just more like everybody else bland. Has it lost a bit of its way?

I think it's lost a bit of its way in the following manner. When Jeep brought out the older Cherokees,

they talked about how the knobs were big so that if you were a truck driver or you were wearing

gloves, you could turn the knobs. You can't do that on the new vehicle if you've got gloves on

because of cold weather. Now, I know not many people wear gloves inside a car, so that's a minor tip.

But the other major controls were on a touch screen. I did not, you know, in a 15-minute test

drive or going five miles or whatever it is, you don't get to sit around and learn about the new

technical features which are not on the older models. So there's a lot of new technology in there

and whether that's a plus or a minus probably depends on the technical capability of the owner

user. And yes, you can learn all these things after you have a new vehicle long enough to get

familiar with all the new features that the high-tech componentry adds to the new vehicles

that are coming off the assembly line. There are some manufacturers that are being smart

and maintaining more knob control in some of their vehicles even as we are in the 2026 model year.

So I like the interior. Let me just continue because the interior is very nicely done.

I happened to be and the seats were comfortable. The performance was good. The mileage rating,

I didn't get a chance to really rate the mileage, but the sticker says you're going to average 35

miles per gallon in the mixed highway city driving, which is better than probably most of the vehicles

are equal to or better than many of the vehicles that you mentioned before as competitors.

I happen to like the exterior design of this vehicle. It's not as unique as the older generation

Jeeps were that's got in terms of the lighting design of the front end. I don't know what it looks

like in the back end, but I think it'll sell where I don't know anything about. I don't know

its off road capability. I mentioned to the sales person about my concern of being stuck on a beach

of soft sand and whether that CVT transmission would have enough torque to get me out of it

if I needed to get away from a rising tide. He came up with a very interesting answer, which I bought

hook line and sinker, but couldn't prove that it's correct or not unless I owned one of these vehicles

and tried to go out on a beach with soft sand with a rising tide. He said it will use the battery

mode only in the mud and snow mode, the mud and rock mode. You do have four modes of drivetrain.

You have sport, automatic, snow, and I think it was mud and rocks or something. I don't know

that's true about that, but that would override my concern about a CVT transmission, not

having the torque pull capability if you were really mired in muck and trying to get out of it.

Of course, I don't think very many people are going to ever take their Jeeps off the road.

I think fewer will take this particular model. There's not a trailhawk version,

which is the off-road alternative to the non-trailhawk versions of the older generation,

and that had a different transmission ratio. It had a different height of ground clearance,

and it had different underbody components which were more tuned into being defensive against

things that you might hit with your underbody in a non-off-road capable vehicle.

Jay? None of this sounds life-changing as far as it's not life-changing. Well,

it's life-changing in one area, and that is the miles to down it gets. It is very good on the

sticker, and I believe that I've been able to exceed the sticker ratings on most of my vehicles.

I don't think 98% of the users of cars actually ever matched the sticker ratings, so the sticker

ratings are there because the manufacturers had to prove to the EPA or whatever that they could get

miles per gallon that would meet the then current standards which have been lifted and are no longer

around. So boasting about high mileage on a sticker is of little use in terms of real world.

Reality of use going forward. All right, moving on. So I was driving back from New Hampshire this

last week and passed a new Subaru Outback. I like it. Well, why don't you go get one?

No, I don't want to get one. I think speaking of losing their ways, I think Subaru has...

I mean, I really do not care for the new styling on the Foresters and on the new Outback,

but that's a personal thing. I also think that this choice of going totally SUV and moving away

from what was originally a wagon and then a wagon on steroids with clad fenders.

I think long term, I don't know where this is going. Subaru is going more mainstream.

You can see that I think Subaru is dropping some versions of the WRX, which was the sports version

of the Impreza, which had a cult following and was active in motorsports and rally racing

and just created this image of a cool different car brand. And now they've gone mainstream

and I'm not sure that they're going to... I don't see the point and I'm kind of skeptical of the

future of Subaru. But hey, I've been wrong before. I want to jump in on this cult of all the

manufacturers bringing forth off-road capable models or units within the model. Honda's got a

trail sport moniker on some of their mid-sized to what I would call larger SUV vehicles.

And I believe Ford is heading that way with the Bronco. I read a recent article about how Lincoln

is going to get a version of the Bronco. And it's sort of like the Lexus versus the Toyota

line of vehicles. The Lexus is a luxury line, but they too have cars with off-road capabilities.

The Audi Q5 has got off-road capability in the drivetrain options that are a knob in the vehicle

or on a push button, including off-road. One, I think it's titled off-road in the Q5 that my wife

has. That's a 2021. So all these car manufacturers seem to think that if their cars are not able,

at least in print, to go off the main highways and byways that 98% or 99% of the users are going

to stay on, they're going to sell more vehicles. I don't think they sell more total, but they may

spread out the variety of the models that get sold to equate to the total number of a particular

line of vehicles that comes out each year. So let me go on a side note and then I want to get back to

dumb marketing if I ever saw dumb marketing. All right. As far as the ultimate off-road version

of a street car, and there is one going through town, I've seen it once or twice,

is the ultimate off-road Porsche 911, which is a 2023-2024 Porsche 911 car.

So they've made this off-road rally version of the 911. It's pretty much a limited edition.

I think they've built it in 2023-2024, and I don't believe they still make it now,

but it's got clad fenders like a Subaru outback, and it's a little higher off the ground. It has a

roof rack with lights, and you can put an extra gas can for when you run out of gas in the desert.

But I think the coolest use of it is as a winter vehicle, and I have seen it on the

wintery roads lately. Anyway, put snow tires on that thing and a ski rack, and I think you've got

the ultimate off-road vehicle, but that's just me. No, that is just you, and probably there are

few of you with that same opinion. Well, there are very few of those cars. There are models of that

car itself on the road. Of course, the ultimate off-road vehicles we're talking about are really

Jeep Wranglers, Ford Broncos, Mercedes, whatever the off-line road is that, and what's that new

one that comes in that's custom-built that we've seen a few of around here, the new Toyota Land

Cruisers, and the like. I think all this other bluster you talk about marketing is just for

marketing capability, so that if they've got a Honda lover in their lineup of vehicles, but they

don't have an off-road cable vehicle, they might lose that Honda owner. So be it. I mean, marketing

is really crazy. Now, let's go to Mark. I want to go to marketing for another minute and a half or

less. No, I don't want to go for more than that, so let me start. Okay, you can go follow me up,

but the new Jeeps don't come. The Jeeps came from the outset of 2014 until the end of that model

round in 2023, a cold weather group that included all you needed for cold weather driving,

and the all-you-need part was the inclusion without having to order an extra of the heated

steering wheel. Guess what? And two of the three models of the Jeep, new Jeep, it does not come

with a heated wheel, but it comes, it can come with heated seats and heated outside mirrors,

but you cannot even order a heated steering wheel on the new two of the lower versions,

limited being the higher version. If anybody wants to look for Jeeps,

the people who have heated steering wheels, one safe experience, the heated steering wheel of the

car, just about a hundred percent of them don't want to ever have to buy a car without a heated

steering wheel availability. We can agree on that. So Jeep has just blown it in the marketing

department, and this may be something that they will rectify when the market is built.

I don't think so. They've been pretty good at messing things up.

No, you don't know Jeeps. So you can continue any way you want.

I wanted to talk about in the list of 25 cars or so that a car and driver is looking forward to

seeing in the next year or two. I went down the list and a few cars that are worth mentioning,

but I did see a Corvette SUV and then I just had to shake my head and I go GM is again doing one

of the dumbest marketing things ever. It's on par with Ford doing a electric Mustang.

And Ford's producing that vehicle you just talked to us about.

You're talking about Chevy and the Corvette GM and comparing it with your Porsche off-road

vehicle. You've just discussed that length. There's a big difference. Porsche is a brand.

To expand the brand, they came out with a it's a brand within a group. Porsche has to sell vehicles

as a brand. GM has a gazillion brands. They don't need to sell a Corvette SUV,

especially when Corvette dealerships are basically incorporated in probably Chevy

dealerships mostly. And Chevy has a bunch of SUVs and you have Cadillac SUVs and you have Buick SUVs.

I just think coming out with a Corvette SUV doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense.

Well, I agree, of course. And the fact that Ferrari is doing so. Again, Ferrari is a small brand

and if they want to sell more cars, they have to sell more models. I don't really like the idea of them

putting out an SUV. Well, you've just confirmed what I just said to our listeners a few moments ago

that all the manufacturers seem to think that they've got to jump on the bandwagon of having a model

that has SUV slash off road slash capabilities. And because they think they're going to sell

markedly more of that. Then again, I've been wrong before that kind of thing and Corvette

with that kind of thing and I believe a Porsche in that kind is they're just not made for off.

They're not off road vehicle companies. No, but you know, they probably will come out with a

very kind of one or two of them, you know, probably a few more.

And the more I think about it, maybe they're not wrong. I don't know. The other marketing thing I

wanted to talk about is, you know, Jaguar after completely being wiped out and having zero product

no one electric product is coming out, I guess, with the I type. So they're looking at coming out

with I believe an electric vehicle rebranded trying to go more up even more upscale and compete

with the Bentley's and the Rolls Royces of this world. And I did notice that they have the the

styling of it is still based on the outgoing designers new branding that looks more like a

watch or jewelry. Yeah. Yeah, I know how you feel about it. And I feel pretty much the same way.

But it'll be interesting to see if they can actually reposition the brand on the market. I'm

kind of skeptical. But we'll see. I don't know how you feel about it. I agree with you totally on

Jaguar. I think, you know, Jaguar lost its way when they had that some kind of jewelry type designer

and put out an abomination of a design plan. Fortunately, they got they got fired instead

of bringing that kind of vehicle to market. I have not seen any of the newer the succeeding

designs that have been coming out with the new design group that has supposedly been hired to

try to reinvent Jaguar to bring him back to the US roads. By the way, the outgoing design chief who

actually only we thought mistakenly that he had been fired months ago, he actually only just left

the company. But he's also responsible for the newest Land Rover Range Rover, which I think is a

pretty which is a very attractive vehicle. So the guy didn't do all bad.

That's true. I would agree he didn't do all bad, especially if he is the response for the Range

Rovers. They're basically selling everything they're producing as far as I can tell in the United States

and the Range Rover level, which is the highest level. And I understand that if you want to go buy

one, you get the luck of the draw. Any dealers have anything that's not already preordered and sold.

And it can take weeks if not months. Well, months of that weeks to to get one specced out to what

you want to do. And I think most Range Rover owners are pretty sophisticated in what they want in the

as far as the interior componentry is concerned. But they look great. They've held their they've

held their style pretty well throughout the last five to 10 years. I think at the Range Rover level,

we're talking about the highest that the highest model that they put out, which is a six figure

model for sure. And good for Range Rover. But if it's the same designer, I don't know where you

went wrong on Jaguar. But in my opinion, as you've heard, and the listeners have heard was not very

high about what he was trying to promote as a potential design. So, you know, new design range

for the Jaguar model. Anyways, do we have anything to talk about driving? It's as bad as ever.

You know, drivers do not use turn signals until they're practically stopped. Sometimes they put

the turn signal on the right and go left. And vice versa, that's probably dyslexia in action. I don't

know. They still don't like to run their headlights sometimes until somebody flashes at them. And

they realize that they're not being seen if they even realize that. But there are too many people.

This morning, I came up in a foggy trip from New Canaan area and in a row of cars. And you

don't see these cars without headlights. They don't jump out at you like cars with proper lighting

that's in that that's being used. Do in in vision visual conditions that are less than perfect.

Well, I'm about to hit the road and spend the next five or six hours on the road. So I am

sure I'll encounter a few non lit cars along the way. But pay attention for future discussions,

because it's just too bad that people just seem to forget that turn signals are there. They're

installed to be used whenever you're making a turn off of the main road that you are driving on.

Would you agree or disagree? And it would be nice to be it be civil if they would let the people

behind or in front of them know, not at the point of actually making the turn off of the road,

so that people could slow down and or avoid running into them in the back,

because they knew exactly in advance what the vehicle ahead of them or coming at them was

going to do. And that is just becoming an increasingly noticeable condition to me.

Robin, I think, I think, yes, I don't disagree with you, but

people are going to be what they're going to be. There you are.

So be safe out there. Hey, so if we still have a few minutes, here's a question I came about.

What's the legendary car that doesn't deserve the hype in your opinion?

I know it's it's an open question. We're not going to answer that in a legendary car.

Yeah, that doesn't deserve the hype that it gets.

I don't have an answer. I'm sorry. What's your idea of it? I'm not sure. What's the best all

around car? These are probably an SUV that has got the proper height off the road, plus a comfortable

suspension that can handle different curves and bumps and all that and keep the driver comfortable.

But can I give you one? I don't know. Range rovers have got pretty good suspension systems.

This new Jeep I drove, I didn't really get in a real bump. Let's stay in the best all around cars.

Best. Well, best all around would be some kind of mix in the SUV range of cars.

How about a great wagon? You know, a great wagon. Well, you know, why can't somebody make a great

wagon with a six speed manual? BMW could do that. I think they do. In Europe, they may.

They're bringing back a wagon. I got to call it a wagon. A lot of these cars, the Subaru Outback,

looks like a wagon. It's not a wagon anymore. It's an SUV. It looks like a cardboard box.

Okay. What does the wagon look like? A Santa Fe? No, there are plenty of nice wagons out there

that have been. You've owned one or two smaller wagons, but you know, wagons don't have to be,

you know, Volvo in the V60, V90. They were true wagons in the old range. BMW 3 Series,

which there's talk about them coming back with the new 3 Series would come out with a wagon,

including in the U.S. I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see. Maybe we talk about wagons. You

watch the wagons on your next trip. And until next time, this is Car Keys with Jay DeMarket

and Robin Leach. We hope you enjoyed this show. Car Keys with Robin Leach and Jay DeMarket is

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

Car Keys with Robin Leech and Jay de Marcken – March 23, 2026

About this episode

oil prices plummeting

gas prices go up like a rocket and float down like a feather

car gas

diesel fuel

Gulf of Hormuz

test drive

Jeep Cherokee

trim levels

base price

engine lineup simplification

CVT, constant variable range transmission

ride is very comfortable

touch screen

voice control

knobs

miles per gallon

Subaru Outback

Subaru WRX

Subaru Impreza

Ford Bronco

Audi Q5

off-road mode / off-road setting

limited edition

snow tires

heated steering wheel

heated seats

Ferrari

Porsche

Jaguar

Bentley

Rolls Royces

six speed manual

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