CarCast+Edmunds - Edmunds Top Rated Finalists

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OK, so Alistair, welcome back.

You had a whirlwind week.

Tell us a little bit about what was going on.

How is Vegas?

I'm so over Vegas.

I remember the first time I went to Vegas.

I was like, hey, Vegas and most of the time when I go to Vegas or frankly all the time

coming to Vegas these days is on business and it's not the easiest place to navigate

when you're on business.

But I was there for the North American dealer association show, NADA show for short, which

is this huge gathering every year where all of the dealers from across the country come

together.

It's a big sort of sales show.

It's a B2B event.

It's not a consumer event, but if you want to kind of understand the scale of the automotive

industry and particularly that kind of dealer industry in the US, it's such an extraordinary

event.

Edmunds has a big presence there.

We have almost 100 people there, but I was there to announce the finalists for the Edmunds

Top Rated Award.

It's also great to get a feel for that side of the business because I'm not dealing with

it every day.

It seems like it would be sort of kind of a big competitive environment because dealers

are competitive.

Obviously they want to win business, but they're always just so aggressive on trying to kind

of get that mantle like who's the number one BMW dealer?

Who's the number one Ford dealer?

And I know that there's rules about how close certain dealers can be from each other.

If you have a Ford dealer in Los Angeles, there's a certain amount of distance between

that dealer and the next dealer.

So you don't compete so much, but kind of an interesting but fun environment.

It's a competitive environment.

It's like a sports team, but you're competing with so many dealers are competing for selling

the same products like all the Ford dealers are there, all the GM dealers are there, Ram

dealers are there, and they're all kind of competing like how do you sell in North Carolina

compared to how do we sell in Los Angeles?

I'm sure there's a lot of conversation about that.

There's a lot going on.

It also sort of exists on different levels.

Like I bumped into the head of communications and Mercedes on the flight home and he was

out there because Mercedes used it because all the dealers are in town as a big sort

of dealer meeting.

We can talk about it at a moment.

I had a meeting with GM's president because also he was there to talk to GM all across

the whole group, the dealers there as well.

And you know, it's such a mix.

You walk to one stand and it's all about car washing, you know, come buy our car wash

and then you go to the next stand and it's something, you know, something entirely different

dealership floors or whatever it may be.

And then and then for us as a business, we have a lot of relationships with dealers.

We provide a lot of products to dealers.

So, you know, our sales team is there.

And I have tremendous respect for ourselves because most of them are on the road, you

know, they're driving from dealership to dealership across the US.

And I always think that selling to a car dealer has got to be one of the toughest gigs.

Yeah.

And I always love the energy.

You know, like if you're a salesperson at that kind of show, you've just you've got

to be pretty full on to operate in, you know, in that kind of environment.

And I find it, I mean, I'm not the most introverted person in the world, but I find it

kind of exhausting after a day because you've got to, you know, auto shows are exhausting,

but like a dealer show, it's just everybody's there to sell and to network.

And it's like, wow.

Yeah. Wait, is it at one of the hotels or the convention center?

It's at the convention center.

But, you know, like all these, like any sort of big trade show in Vegas, a lot of

business is done at, you know, I had a, I went to a McKinsey reception that was in

the Ceasar's Palace where I was staying.

And then I went on to something else, which is in Bellagio.

So, yeah, the, the, the, the focal point is the convention floor, but then there's

also sort of side meetings and everything else in the spread across the hotels.

It's also centrally organized.

So as a, you know, as a company, you get signed a hotel and it's, it's huge.

And it's, it's a lot of money.

I mean, everybody got in what we spend.

It's a lot of money, you know, and we had a good stand, but it wasn't the biggest.

So you look around at some of the biggest stands and think, wow, that is a,

that is a chunk of change.

It's, but it's interesting.

And, you know, obviously every, we look at the return on investment.

It's a good thing for us.

And I think across the industry, but yeah, 5,000 car dealers all

detending on Vegas at the same time.

It's quite a thing.

I think it's 5,000.

It might be.

Yeah.

That's like 5,000 sales.

People are going.

There's not a lot.

That's probably underselling it actually.

5,000.

I don't know the number.

It's probably, probably actually thinking about it's probably more than that.

So yeah, it's huge.

So you said you had a chat with GM as well.

So what, what's going on with, with GM actually?

Cause we haven't had a lot of conversations about that.

And I think it's maybe because other than maybe like Cadillac Escalade EV,

there hasn't been like a lot of new product recently.

I mean, obviously they're developing and working on what it is,

just the timing of, of how it's being released.

So it hasn't been like a big conversation.

I mean, we talked about Blazor and Equinox, I think, right?

But yeah, Blazor's getting, right?

Blazor's getting on a bit.

I mean, there was a big push around the EVs, Equinox EV being the cheaper one.

I know the bolts on its way as well.

But as, you know, now there's a big pivot away from that.

Yeah, I had a chat with a guy called Duncan Aldridge, who, who I knew he

used to run Vauxhall in, in the UK, uh, many, many years ago.

It's quite funny because he has a Northern English accent that's

probably even stronger than mine.

So, um, not sure the PR people made of that.

Cause I kind of drop into Northern English when, you know,

if I speak to somebody else in the same, similar region.

Um, but really, really interesting.

I mean, very good.

You know, he was running, he was running Buick globally, but then he took

the job as president of North America for GM and yeah, really interesting

conversation, GM, like everybody else, obviously EVs.

The big thing on EVs is we, at the moment, we've just got to manage,

um, supply and demand.

Um, and so, you know, we, what we want to do is avoid that trick of just,

you know, building too much and then having to try and sell them really.

We'll just try to manage supply and demand.

Um, the big news though that they were talking about for, for this year was the,

um, the new Silverado's on its way.

So we've got the GMC Sierra and Silverado, uh, both on their way.

So that's not the EV, which already exists.

This is the, this is the gas and diesel truck.

And you'd ask whether we'll have hybrid and it was kind of like, say, well,

you said that, not me.

And I kind of got the impression it probably is on its way, but nobody is

going to, nobody's going to admit that.

So, but you know, that's a, that's a really big deal for them.

Um, you know, Silverado, that is, that is the kind of mains like Fort, isn't it?

It's the mainstay of the, the company.

I mean, these, these are companies, you know, GM, when you look at Silverado

and the GMC platform, like, you know, and Ford, like they invest a billion

dollars into the new truck platform, whatever it may be.

So, you know, so that's, that's massive.

And you can only do that for such a profitable high volume vehicle.

But we haven't seen a Silverado.

When was the last time Silverado got an update other than the EV being put out?

Oh, we got a new interior couple.

We got a mid-cycle, which was a much nicer interior.

You may remember the criticism of the, of the last Silverado, which is what,

about seven, eight years old now that was the original interior, which has

been a long criticism of GM was a bit rubbish.

Then they updated the interior, which made that in that kind of bigger

touchscreen vibe, which kind of more in keeping where they're going with EVs.

That was a couple of years ago now.

So, but this is a, this is a genuinely new one, um, which is interesting

because I'll also be ahead of the new F-150, which I think gives them a big

opportunity. The Rams just had a little update.

The F-150 had an update not so long ago.

So, but this is, this is the new truck.

So that will be, um, that's GM's biggest news of the year.

I mean, there's a list of going on.

Buick is now going to come back to the US and be built in the US again.

Okay.

There's a lot of talk.

Is this to do with tariffs?

Maybe a bit, but it's also, it's a supply issue that if you build them in China,

you don't have to pay a big charity if you've also got a long time sitting on a

boat. So it's kind of explained to me, one of the challenges they've had is

you've either got too much supply or not enough.

And so it's just really hard to manage.

If you've got like a six month lead time, uh, between, you know,

building the cars in China, shipping them across, across the world.

So, you know, there's still some faith in Buick.

I mean, Buick's been bigger overseas than it has in the US for a long time,

but you know, it's still got a devoted following here.

Buick, I thought, was, that brand was alive because of China, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, that's right.

Uh, the, the Buick kind of caught on in China.

It's bizarre how some of these things play out, isn't it?

And that kind of sustained it in a way that it hasn't, uh, you know, hasn't in the US.

But in the US, it's still got this kind of slightly more niche following.

You know, quite geographically, geographically concentrated following.

So they're obviously feel like it's worth continuing to commit to.

So Buick is coming back over, uh, back on shore in terms of production.

Uh, what else is going on?

Yeah, EVs, Cadillacs, there's going to be a Buick commercial for the, uh, there's

a Buick commercial in the Super Bowl.

Oh, I didn't know that.

And, and, um, I don't know if it's national or regional, but I'm going to say

that some enthusiasts are not going to care for it because it's, it's just like,

like, you know, like, what do you ever, you call it?

Sort of the photo cave room, just white room, and it's a Buick grand national.

And they're like panning through the grand national and it's awesome.

And then it, it kind of like, I don't remember it correctly, but, but then

it kind of pans away and what you were seeing is like on a TV and someone's

watching the TV, but watching the TV is the new Buick and it is so far different

than a grand national.

So, and if they're kind of equating, like they're trying to go, we're taking

the essence of grand national, we're putting it into this new little Buick,

which wasn't black, right?

Cause you think the grand national is black and they should be like, it was red.

And they're like, this is the future of Buick.

But when you kind of see the before the grand national and then you see the

after this little red Buick, uh, any, any real grand national enthusiasts is

going to go, no, no, it's not, it's not, it's not quite the same.

But, but they're probably not after the grand national customer.

It's probably just trying to infuse it.

It's, it's difficult, like heritage stuff.

I mean, this was Jaguar did it for years, didn't it?

It's like, Hey, this is the successor to the E type.

Yeah.

But the E type was like, you know, either E type got a bit fat and, you know,

in the, in the seventies, but the E type was in the car from the 1960s.

You can't just like, you know, that heritage game is so, so difficult.

But Buick, when you go back to early Buick's, there are some really cool

cars that are there, but right now it's just sort of like eighties and nineties

cars are the ones that are taking off.

Like when we talk more about what's going on in auctions and collectability,

stock eighties and nineties.

I'm not just talking about hot rods and modified cars, stock eighties and nineties

cars, I rocks, mustangs, all the specialty cars, GMC, typhoons, cyclones,

grand nationals, they're all going up and up and up.

And by the way, integras, type R's, preludes, like a lot of these things,

low miles, clean cars.

So I think they're kind of playing on that instead of going Buick from 1950s.

They're going, no, no, no, we're taking Buick from the eighties.

We're taking, you know, the cool car from the eighties and equating it with the brand.

You musted after as a child, you're now 40.

You've got kids yourself.

You know, this is yeah.

Yeah.

You're a middle school and high school car.

You know, so I see what they're doing there.

Instead of going, hey, it's Buick from the 1950s.

Your grandpa loved it.

And now we got the new Buick and your grandfather may not be around anymore.

It's like, you can't do that with the brand anymore.

If you're trying to rejuvenate the brand.

So take the cool kid, take the grand national from the eighties.

Also, what I thought it was kind of funny is because I think they're also

have to be thinking about, do we do a commercial during the Super Bowl?

Do we have a grand national because the Super Bowl halftime show?

Was it two years ago when they had the grand national there?

They made sort of this, I don't know, like a fake grand national or something.

All these people came out of it, like a clown car, if I remember that correctly.

But but it was a grand national there and people were like, oh, that's that's cool.

It was like kind of a several like R&B singers, rap stars and things like that.

They're all kind of there with this car.

So maybe they're going, well, we got free press with a grand national,

you know, a couple of years ago during the halftime show.

Why not bring that back now?

So I don't know, it's kind of interesting to do this thing.

I know we want to get on the top, the Edmund Storysville's,

but we normally do this thing every year where we look at you can see the Super

Bowl ads obviously cost us brilliant dollars.

But we've always done this thing where you chart the immediate interest on the Edmund side.

And it seems hard to believe, but we can actually see, you know, an ad runs for a Jeep.

We can instantly see a spike in traffic.

OK, and then we can compare like who's got the biggest spike.

Because it always means like you're in the middle of Super Bowl,

you've probably got popcorn in one hand, beer in the other hand.

But like there is a direct link.

People see see the ad and the Edmunds traffic goes up instantly.

And it's it's fascinating to me because you just think, well,

I have people searching in that moment, but they do like everybody's second screening and stuff.

During commercials and things like that, people looking into it.

It will, you know, there's a reason people spend tens of millions of dollars on these things.

It's funny you said that because I was just going to bring it up.

I think it's NBC that's doing the Super Bowl, and they finally sold a ten million dollar ad.

And I don't know how many, but yeah, Super Bowl commercials,

like they keep creeping up and they keep trying to get more and more.

And they got to justify, you know, the audience and make sure that's there.

And, you know, but there's a there's a ten million.

There's a ten million dollar ad that they saw that was like in the ad agency world.

Yeah, which is another world that I'm sort of in is as a brand owner,

somebody spending ten million dollars, maybe more than one company,

spending ten million dollars on a single ad.

That's not the. Yeah.

And then you've got a layer on the production cost, which will also be millions of dollars.

Right. And then sort of the activation beyond that.

Like, are you are you doing shorter versions for online or are you going to run that ad

throughout the year? Like there's just so much like that's a little bit, you know,

though, and you start to amortize it across a year to talk about advertising.

But it's yeah, if you get it, but also then the pressure to get it right.

You know, you don't want to spend ten million dollars

and, you know, have an ad that everybody goes, man, I forgot what company it was.

But it was kind of genius.

Last year, somebody just ran like a 15 second commercial of a QR code.

And everyone was staring on like, what do we do? What's happening?

Where's the commercial?

And then eventually people just started taking pictures of it and an open an ad.

They like they just no creative, no production.

And it was a QR code for like 15 seconds just on your TV.

But I kind of love that.

But that's a really genius.

That's a genius thing to do, but you need a lot of good.

So you got to use the other CMO like advocating for that.

That's that's a confident proposition, isn't it?

So I love I love I love that sort of thing because everybody defaults back to celebrities.

Yeah, there's going to be a ton, tons of that.

And the car commercials always got to spend a lot of money.

The beer commercials and insurance commercials, they all got to spend a lot.

All right, so I want to get into the top rated stuff.

So let's go ahead and take our break now.

Maybe it's a little early and then we'll be able to just kind of go through it

and have some fun with it. Ready? Here we go.

Let's take a quick break.

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OK, so the Edmunds top rated awards.

The winners will be announced in two weeks roughly 18 6 a.m.

Matt, set your alarm. OK, Pacific Time.

But 6 a.m. Pacific Time 9 a.m. Eastern. OK.

6 a.m. Pacific Time.

I will I'll set my I'll be I'll be the first one.

You can do that thing on YouTube where you're right first.

Yeah, yeah, first.

I think we will stop doing that.

That used to be a craze, didn't it?

Like if you were the first person to view it, like right first.

You still see that like on Instagram every once in a while.

But but my my dogs get me up at 6 for their breakfast.

And then we all go back to bed. So I'll be up.

All right. So February 18th.

But you guys have announced

all the contenders, the finalists, the finalists.

Let's I'm going to bring up that page and why don't we.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

I think in previous years, we've been a bit remiss

not to make more of the finalists, because there's 17 vehicles here.

Every single one of those is basically a leader in its segment.

So all of these are vehicles that we would happily recommend to car shoppers.

So we wanted to make a bit more of an announcement.

The finalists, that's why I went to NADA,

gave a little speech to all the dealers, but simultaneously.

But like what you're saying about the Superbowl ads

are not quite the same scale.

Simultaneously spoke, we dropped everything across social media.

And it's been great to see the reaction to the list.

He's always kind of a lot of controversy, particularly on on YouTube.

You know, you get all come out, you've been bought by X or bought by Y.

And it doesn't really matter who wins.

Whoever wins has been, you know, you've been bought by X.

Yeah, that's kind of weird.

And I guess because there are some versions of.

Awards and things that are kind of bought, I guess you could say.

Yeah, I think that's I think that's a bit of the problem that you do get.

Dependent, there are certain titles and publications,

not even just not even an automotive that, you know,

it's a bit kind of a participation trophy, as we like to say at school.

Yeah, this is rather different.

This is just based on our testing during the year.

So we look at which vehicles are leading in their respective segments,

say luxury SUV or small SUV.

And that's how we start to distill the shortlist down.

There's certain criteria.

They all have to be on sale by.

It doesn't have to be a new vehicle for the year.

It just has to be currently on sale, correct?

Yeah, because that's the critical distinction.

It's taken, we've only been doing this for seven years

and awards always take time to bed in and for people to understand what's going on.

These are not the best vehicles that happen to be launched this year.

These are the best vehicles period.

So and we think that's an important distinction because with our audience,

this is really a shortcut to, you know, the best cars on sale for car shoppers.

So if you're wanting to look for an SUV, this is your this is a great starting point.

Whereas if you say, oh, well, these are the best cars that happen to come out this year,

you get yourself into an awful mess because you start to recommend cars

and SUVs that you don't think are the best.

And, you know, there's a place for recognizing new stuff.

But, you know, you end up saying, oh, well, the car of the year is this.

And then you do a group test and it comes third

because it's beaten by cars that already exist.

So I mean, one example of that, which actually car that doesn't make the list.

Toyota's RAV4, you know, if we were just doing which SUV came out this year,

then it would be a contender.

But actually, we already compared it to the right to the CRV and the Tucson.

And we're a bit like, well, it's a good car, but it's not necessarily the best,

which is why the Tucson hybrid makes the list.

And the RAV4 doesn't.

So why don't you just back up for a sec?

Tell us what are the categories and then how many cars do we have?

Like in the final list, we have three in each category.

Yeah. So you've got a car truck and SUV as the starting point.

And then we award for both gas and EV within those categories.

Hybrid gets lumped into into into gas car.

So basically, if it has gas power in some description, it goes under gas.

If it's a pure EV, it's in the award category.

And then we have an overall best of the best, which is really recognizing,

you know, a standout vehicle that's moved the game on.

I mean, that tends to be a new vehicle simply because, you know,

something comes along that kind of moves the game on.

So that's the that's the criteria.

Then within each as a finalist, we when we announce the winners,

those that aren't winners will also will be named as a highly recommended.

So for each category, we have a winner and then highly recommended choices,

which is typically two choices to go alongside the winner.

And we do that because it reflects, you know, different customer groups.

So if you look at SUV, it's such a broad category now.

The winner could come from any of the segments, but then the highly

recommended will come from alternative.

So the highly recommended might be a luxury choice.

If the winners, if the winners more mainstream, it might be a larger choice.

So we try and offer something for almost everybody in the market.

Right. So to simplify this, because it's a big undertaking

and you don't want to confuse people too much, you're just doing

car, truck and SUV and then the EV versions.

But you can go to the admin site and start to drill down and go,

what is the most recommended midsize SUV or small SUV or luxury sedan

or midsize luxury?

So you can start to drill that down.

Not necessarily something that you're doing in the top rated awards

because it includes all of those.

So a hundred thousand dollar sedan could compete with a thirty thousand

dollars sedan in the top rated awards.

But then if you want to start narrowing that down, that's what the admin site has.

Correct. OK.

And you know, we have a whole plethora of rankings and best

jobs and everything else, you know, to fit your if you want, you know,

car for two small dogs, you know, we'll have it.

But it's yeah, you've got to start somewhere and let's face it,

these categories and these awards cover off 90 percent of the market.

You know, there's always that thing, isn't there?

That actually, when you look at you and you distill the market,

so, you know, there's such high volume vehicles that it's I don't know.

There's no expression for that, isn't it?

Well, it says it's very small percentage is 90 percent of something.

All right. So let's let's go.

Let's go through some of these.

Let's take a look. What do we got?

So the top Edmunds top rated car last year's best, the best winner,

the Honda Civic hybrid is back again.

We talked about it on the show before.

I know you enjoyed it.

I love it.

I just think it's the most bang for the buck out there right now.

I know there's, you know, there's a handful of cars

and EVs in that 30 to $35,000 range.

But I just think this car ended up doing everything really, really well.

It's a great all rounder.

Alongside that Mercedes Mercedes E class, which again,

not necessarily the most exciting or novel choice, but just does what it's

does what an E class is supposed to do really, really well.

A quiet, refined, luxurious and then the Camry.

Again, you know, it's a camera.

It's not the most sexist thing in the world, but actually the latest version of

Camry is hybrid only. It's good value.

It's economical. It's spacious.

You know, if you're just looking for a, you know,

an all round like impressive family sedan, you know, at a very affordable price

and affordability is a big issue these days.

It's interesting how Honda and Toyota are competing with each other in a sense.

It's like we, we talk quite a bit about, you know,

you get a lot of attention on the Honda Civic, which is smaller.

Its competitor is the Corolla, but we don't talk about the Corolla as much,

but we don't talk about the Honda Accord.

So we've got, you know, Civic and Camry, which are sort of small and mid.

And then we don't really talk about Corolla and Accord,

which are smaller than mid, you know, but it's interesting how these,

both of these companies sort of found their niche, Honda with small,

being Civic and Toyota with Camry being mid-sized.

That's right. And actually the difference in price isn't that huge at times,

but it, you're right. There is the, each brand almost has,

and then the E-Class as well. You know, when you think of Mercedes,

you'd probably think of the S-Class and the E-Class, the German taxi,

and that's been their kind of heartland vehicle forever.

With BMW, it's probably the three series is probably where that kind of center point is.

But yeah, the Camry's, the Camry's great.

Civic, we're huge fans of, and then E-Class, again,

not necessarily the most exciting choice, but just a really nice way to try.

I was talking, wasn't I? I showed a couple of,

a couple of weeks ago about having, you know,

renting one in Europe over the Christmas period and it just being fantastic.

So yeah, that's, we're excited by those choices.

And often you get a better deal on the sedan.

Everybody talks about SUVs, but honestly, a Civic hatchback is a hell of a lot of car.

And yeah, if you go back in time, a contemporary Civic is pretty much as big as an Accord used

to be as well. So, you know, they're not, they're not that small anymore.

All right. Next category, top rated electric car.

Not SUV, that's a different category. This is electric car.

So again, the old favorites really here, Tesla Model 3,

BMW i5, and then the newcomer in this Audi A6 Sportback, which

is kind of an interesting vehicle. Because when you get into it, you think,

oh, the interior is the interior is nice as I want it to be from an Audi is what I expect.

But actually it's an, as an all round car, it's great. It drives really nicely.

It's very refined. It's very quiet. It's, you know, it's quite distinctive looking.

It's, there's a, there's got a lot going for it, really big range as well. So,

you know, again, everybody looks to SUVs, but an A6 Sportback, especially with the kind of the way

the back end and the, you know, the trunk is arranged is kind of appealing,

appealing alternative, particularly if you can get it on a good lease rate.

I am, I'm very interested in seeing what the, what the award winner will be in this category

in a couple of weeks, because if I remember correctly, both the i5 and the Model 3 are both

award winners in their categories, if not overall.

They've been both of, both have won this, you know, both have, both have been winners in the,

in the, in the past. So, you know, what Model 3, okay, it was a, it was a sort of update rather

than all new car, but it put a lot of things, a lot of concerns with that vehicle. Right. So,

and again, is the Audi A6 e-tron, is that the only new one? I mean, I guess there's an update

on the Model 3, but it's the only new release. So, the i5 hasn't really changed much in a little

while? No, but then Model 3 obviously had its big update a couple of years back now, but then they

also introduced the standard version this year, which reduced the entry price and actually,

and didn't really mean many compromises. So, okay. Yeah. All right. That's an interesting category.

Truck. Truck. So, this is, this is a really significant for this year. This is a big deal. So,

we do all the kind of analysis and sometimes you're surprised by what pops out, but

Ford has a clean sweep here. So, F-150, Maverick and Ranger, which he's basically

unprecedented. This is never, this has never happened before. So, yeah, Maverick the small

choice, Ranger the mid-size, obviously F-150, the default large truck. So,

now I know, I know the manufacturers, they participate like they definitely watch what's

going on here. They're oftentimes available for questions as you're doing testings, but this is,

this is a home run for Ford in this category. This is, you know, stealing, you know, this is

sweeping first, second and third at Le Mans. Like they're going, we win. We just win. Yeah, they

can't lose. They won because they can't, they can't, they can't lose now. And they're getting first,

second and third. They're getting basically, they're getting first in each other, you know,

like basically all of it here. And they don't really, I don't know if they even care what order

it's going to be in because they're like, we're sweeping here. Well, yeah, the Mavericks, I mean,

the Maverick had an update. You can now get all-wheel drive and hybrid, which was a great

step forward. And yeah, we bought a Maverick to run as a part of our test fleet. And it's great.

And actually, it's not, although it's smaller, you know, there's quite a lot of interior space.

The Ranger, that mid-sized truck market, you know, none of them actually are, they're all,

they're all good. And this was a tough call actually because, you know, the Tacoma is a

decent vehicle. The Colorado is a previous winner. But the Ranger just nicked it. But it's a very,

that mid-sized sector is really tight actually. And then on the full size, we mentioned obviously

new Silverado coming this year. So the F-150 is retaining its-

Yeah, it had, it had like a refresh. When did I go to Michigan? Maybe it was two years ago.

Different grill packages. And it had like the heads up display and the split tailgate thing

that's going on. Like those were some things that like my lightning, which is a 2022,

doesn't have those. And then like a year later, two years later, maybe it's like two years later,

24 or 25, they announced these additions to a refreshed F-150.

Yeah. And I think, you know, it's still, it's the biggest sign trick in the U.S.

for a reason. I mean, it doesn't always compute that the biggest sign vehicle is also the best,

but it does in this instance. And then on the electric front, this is a more difficult

category. And we've actually only ended up with two here. Because there's some internal debate

about this because from a consistency perspective, it doesn't look great. But the lightning is

obviously on its way out. And a lot of some of the other electric trucks we just weren't

not impressed with. The Cybertrucks got its issues. And some aren't out yet.

What am I thinking? I mean, they've all been canceled. I mean, that's

Yeah. Like Ram's not doing theirs. And Scout, like Scout doesn't have their truck out yet, right?

No. And that's also, we're going to have some fun with that because obviously that's a range

extender. So how do you do, you know... Well, I mean, their plan was to do an EV and a range

extender. And then I don't know what the final product is going to be. Is it going to be either

one of those or just a range extender? Just a range extender. So what I understand.

So, and then we were like, well, we could put the Silverado in, but we prefer the GM,

we prefer the GMC. We just think it's got a, you know, sort of nicer interior, just nicer

all-round proposition. So, yeah, GMC, Sierra, EV, obviously for a full-size electric truck,

over 500 miles on a single charge, which there's only about four or five vehicles that have done

that on our EDEN ZV range test and nearly all of them are GMs. And then the Rivian, you know,

had its own update. And that's, you know, just it's continued to evolve with the more and more

over-the-air updates. The build quality's got better. They've just continued to evolve that

truck. And we think it's great. Okay. All right. Next category, top-rated SUV.

Yeah, this is the big one, right? This is where all the interest is and the sales are. So we have

Ford Expedition, full-size truck-based, you know, much nicer interior. It's just a nicer

all-round proposition. I think it's actually made it harder for Lincoln, the fact that the

Ford's now got such good interior. Yeah. Hyundai Palisade Hybrid, we talked about the Palisade

before. Yeah. I think this one's a great vehicle. I drove this one too. And just, I mean, again,

like you're saying Ford Expedition is going to give Lincoln a run for its money because the

interior is so nice. Hyundai Palisade would give any Genesis a run for its money. You know,

it's big brother. It is a problem for Genesis. In fact, I've talked to people of the record

inside the company who accept that it's a problem because, you know, Hyundai's interior quality

has just got so good. And, you know, it's got a Bose Hi-Fi. Okay. Well, it's got a Bose Audio.

Well, does having a Bang and Olufsen or whatever have really made much difference.

Yeah. So, you know, and we've called out the hybrid. Where we think that the hybrid is

appreciably better. We've called it out. So we Civic Hybrid, in this case, the Palisade Hybrid

and the Tucson Hybrid tow 200 days in this group. And we're thinking both cases, the hybrid is just

a better choice of families. You've got, you know, you've got more that kind of instantaneous talk,

that shove that helps. You've got better fuel economy. And most of the time, you're not paying

a great deal more. So there's a little bit more, a little bit of a price walk. But yeah, most of

the time, you know, we would argue that particularly built in finance, I mean, it probably worth

for the majority of people paying that little bit more for the hybrid, particularly if you're doing

doing bigger miles. And then in the electric side of it, again, more Hyundai's Hyundai Ionic 5.

This was a tough call because obviously Model Y is a good Tesla Model Y is a good vehicle.

There's a lot out there, like some of the GM products Cadillacs as well are also good.

But the Hyundai's, it's really a value proposition. Now, I mean, let's start,

it starts at what mid 30s. And then also some of the lease deals at the moment,

I'm seeing these deals as low as like 200 bucks a month without a stupid amount down. So

that kind of affordability together with some of the sensible updates they've done in the last,

you know, in the last couple of years, just makes it a really appealing choice. And then the Ionic

9, we love the Kia EV9, but the Ionic 9 has come along and it's just a little bit better.

Yeah, it's just kind of nicer all around. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, personal perspective,

I like the style of the Kia better, but that's a subjective thing. We look at these things

objectively and the Ionic 9 is, you know, it's just a great three row electric SUV. And again,

there's some mega deals on those at the moment. And then BMW iX is the third one in that group

and electric SUV. Yeah, which again, had a had an update. It's not a car that's brand new.

I mean, the styling remains controversial. I think the interior is fantastic.

And if you just want, you know, a spacious, comfortable, good to drive, well packaged SUV,

you know, you can love what you like the styling. I don't like the styling. Frankly,

we weren't judging it on the styling, but it's just a really nice all around car. It's a really

nice family car. Yeah. Is it doesn't share a lot of the EV platform of the i5, because that is one

that you guys have liked. No, interesting. Interestingly, I don't think it does the

because the i5 is basically a three series, sorry, a five series that you can get in

gas, electric or hybrid form. Whereas the iX was a kind of standalone EV. I mean,

the interesting thing for BMW and the iX is, and it was too early to include it in these awards,

the the new i3 is coming out, right? Isn't it coming out this this year, which will be all new,

and he's very much a big technological leap forward. And that's going to be a strong contender for

next year's awards. But right now, when we did all the analysis, the iX is still, you know,

we wanted a luxury choice in there. And the iX is a, it's just a great, it's just a great all

around. It's pretty good. Yeah. Okay, I think it's a it's a good group and and not easy to do.

Like when you're looking at something like gas engine SUV, again, without breaking it down to

small or medium or large or price points or luxury or whatever, just going up all of those SUV

categories, how do we pick top three? I'm sure I don't know what that looks like sort of a big

round table of and a board and people moving little slides up and down going, I give this car

here, move this car here, move this car there. I mean, luckily, you guys have, you know,

data on all of the cars from all of its testing and and everything else that you guys have been

putting together. But yeah, there's a lot goes into it. And you're obviously starting from the

Edmunds rating because you can, you know, you have that data point as to which cars are scoring

best. And then we have our, as you called out, we have our rankings. So it's like, okay, what is

our top luxury SUV? So you basically take all of your segment leaders. And as you say, put them

into the melting pot. And then it's actually a Monday.com board. It's actually much more

technologically advanced. And then you do your sort of go, we get the test team together. And we

go through all the data points. And, you know, we also try and take into account, you know, we

want to recommend cars that people are, you know, people are buying, I don't mean that we choose

them because they're big sellers. But we, you know, we are looking for, you know, affordable

alternatives and things like that. Because as we know, affordability is a huge issue. So,

you know, we're not, we're not just going to give it to the, to the ZR1 because it went really fast.

Yeah. But that's the one everyone was driving. We flirted a lot with like a sports car category.

And we might do it, we might do it in the future. And the sports cars could come into the car

category. And I think the Corvette won in the past. So we kind of, you know, we'll look at that. But

I mean, this is, if you look at the winners that, you know, this is, these vehicles sell an awful

lot. But we wanted to make sure that, you know, people are choosing, you know, choosing the best

cars for them. So that's the, that's the genesis of it, if you'll pardon me. Yeah.

Okay. So February 18th. February 18th. There's a lot of work going on in the background. But

February 18th is the big reveal. And we will, we'll go through that here on the, on the podcast

as well. We'll talk about who the winners are and why in a couple of weeks.

Maybe we should do a special for that day. That would be fun.

Yeah, certainly could. All right. So what else is going on before we wrap it up?

Well, I'm just trying to get my head straight, having come back, come back from a week in,

week in Vegas. There's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of kind of just general announcements and

policies. Tesla just brought out a new version of the Model Y, but that's kind of like a standard

version with all wheel drive. Stellantis, just as we're about to come on board, just announced an

eye watering right down to do with all the kind of EV costs. I think it's 20, 24 billion or something.

I literally got a newsflash as about to, as we're about to start recording. So, you know,

after Ford and GM now Stellantis is doing this giant right off of EV costs. So there's still a

lot of that going on. If you guys go to the Edmunds site under the news page and

there's some fun stuff up there too as well. Announcements from Mercedes, you know, they're

the future of SUVs and AMGs, 1000 horsepower AMG SUVs coming out. We've got a nice refresh on the

Aston Martin Vantage S, which I think is just gorgeous. So there's some, I mean, the mouth is

a little big, but. And a little bit challenging. I prefer the DBS or even the DB12.

The other thing that's kind of interesting on here, we just did a comparison of like

Minivan or SUV, the unloved Minivan, which is actually best for you. And I should have said

this right at the top. I did it because I hosted it myself. We've got a YouTube film talking you

through all of these finalists as well. So that was live on Wednesday. And now we've got a podcast

as well. What more could you want? You're spending your whole life listening to me.

I feel like I do. I had a lovely moment at NAD actually when somebody walked up to me and said

how much they enjoyed, how much they enjoyed Edmunds U-Drags and the content that we were

doing. It's always nice to hear that. Yeah. Also on the Edmunds YouTube channel, you can check

those out. All right. I think we're going to wrap things up for today. I've got a parent

teacher conference to find out whether my daughter's behaving at school now. Not an

extraordinary one, a genuine one. Like all parents go. Are you going to drive over or

are you going to e-bike over? You're going to e-bike down. It's only all of four minutes.

Okay. All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week. And until

then, keep the air in the spare and the bag in the wheel.

CarCast+Edmunds - Edmunds Top Rated Finalists

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