CarCast+Edmunds - Mercedes E-Class Diesel drive in Europe, Honda Civic Hybrid and new RAM TRX.

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Hello, welcome to the Edmunds Car Cast Podcast.

I'm Matthew Motorator DeAndrea here with Alistair Weaver, our first show back for 2026.

Welcome home!

Thank you very much.

Happy New Year everybody.

Nice to be back.

2026 is here and all that.

I am spectacularly jet lagged.

My boy got me up at 1.40 this morning.

I went back from Europe on Sunday and my three-year-old decided 1.40 AM was the time to get up

because, presumably, that was the time he was getting up in Europe.

So, yeah, it's already been a long day and it's not lunch time yet.

It's before noon over here.

I know, I was like...

I tell you this amazingly how productive you are before 7 AM.

Took a Christmas tree down, you know, took it out the door.

Did it unpack the bags?

Did a huge amount of work in those six hours up to breakfast time.

So, overall, good trip?

Yeah, good trip.

Nice to see family.

Go back to the mother country, as you want to call it.

So, yeah, so you went home but then also France.

Right, because your wife's from France.

You got family in both locations.

You guys got to go visit everybody, hop planes back and forth.

And tell me a little bit about the automotive differences in the UK and France.

Do you look forward to one more than the other?

I mean, it's kind of boring.

It's kind of interesting because I've been out there, you know, it's 2018 and I emigrated.

So, I feel like out of the scene.

And I think we talked about this on a previous show but so much has changed,

particularly in the UK where a lot of the Chinese brands,

they don't have the tariffs that we do in the US.

There's not as many restrictions and also they were quite clever in buying up old British brands like MG,

the famous MG brand is now owned by the Chinese.

So, if you look at the top 10 selling cars in the UK, they actually got Chinese brands in there

and I think they've now got like 10% market share, if I remember correctly.

So, that's kind of interesting.

There's a lot of cars which genuinely I look at and go,

I don't even know what that is, which is a little bit shocking.

Yeah, okay.

When you go to France, in Europe, they've been a little bit more restrictive

of some of the Chinese brands coming in, not as much as the US,

but a little bit more than the UK.

So, they get quite the penetration.

But it's also interesting to see a lot of the French brands which are used to know so well

and aren't in the US like the Renault's and the Peugeot's and the Citroens.

And Renault in particular, I think it's an interesting lesson for what's happening in the US is,

they basically said like, how do we compete with the Chinese?

Well, the only thing really we've got is heritage, that people remember, you know, the Renault 5,

the Renault 4, these were kind of iconic cars in French culture.

The Renault 4 was built for decades.

So, what they've done is gone back into their history books and reinvented them as EVs.

And I think, I haven't driven them, so there's that caveat there, but I had a good look at them

and I think they've done a really smart job.

Because for somebody in my generation, you look back, there's a sort of emotional attachment to those cars,

the Renault 4's got this little baguette holder inside.

And again, it's like, it's a differentiation.

Because if not, you just end up back in the world of appliances.

And if you want to just go for cars and appliance, then a lot of Chinese brands have got, you know,

arguably better technology, you know, often at a cheaper price point and, you know, decent quality.

So, if you're a European brand like Volkswagen or something or particularly Renault, Citroen, Peugeot,

then Heritage and brand is what you've got left.

So, it's interesting how they're playing on that.

I was noticing, you can watch, you know, so many streaming services, so many shows you can watch.

And for some reason, I watched a while ago, we watched like some limited series, you know,

Murder, Thriller, whatever, Missing Persons, Thriller type of thing.

And there's a few that have pop up now, like on the list, like one, I think was in Denmark,

one was in Spain, several in the UK.

And when I watch some, I just, I look for all the cars that everyone's driving, right?

And interesting is, maybe it's just the producers or when these things were produced.

They're fairly new shows, but I haven't really noticed any of the Chinese brands or like,

am I watching and going, what is that car?

I haven't seen that car before.

But I have seen Polestar pop up in the shows, Porsche, Porsche Taycan, VW, like ID4, I think.

So, I've seen quite a few EVs pop up.

And then, depending on the character of the show, some of the lesser expensive or older cars,

I see older Volkswagen's and stuff pop up.

So, I'm watching the shows, waiting to see some of the stuff that I haven't seen yet.

But surprisingly, I was looking at new Polestar was in the show.

Yeah, I think Polestar, I mean, Polestar's in a tough place.

And they're doing all they can just to get that brand recognized.

And yeah, it's tough for them right now.

And I don't see anything changing too soon.

So, we'll see.

One of the shows we did watch was, I don't know, some cop was asking some kid questions, like a waiter.

And he goes, I remember that guy, like, why do you remember him?

He's like, oh, because he had a Porsche Taycan turbo and that car is awesome.

It was like a line in the show.

And he goes, you remember that car.

Oh, I was watching Landman, which is a great show.

I love that show.

But like the Bentley in it is obviously like, like, if you're too close to the industry

and you start to see these things, it's like the lingering shot on the Bentley badge

as she gets into it in the constant reference.

And it's cool and it fits the character and everything else.

But it is a bit gratuitous.

I mean, I remember like the old Bond movies where it was, it's not so bad with the recent ones,

but some of the Pierce Brosner ones was really gratuitous.

Yeah, but that one too.

And I saw that I go, I think Taylor Sheridan like really likes Bentley.

The guy creates these shows because in Yellowstone, the girl in that show had a Bentley

and then maybe that it took off and then he probably was like, he's like,

I think she should have a Bentley and probably didn't think about it at the time.

And then they cast the car in the show and then that show became this huge hit.

So one of his come time to do another show.

He calls a Bentley is like, what do you got for me?

Right.

At that point, they're like, sure, we want to be a part of this.

Yeah, even the first few episodes, it was like a huge storyline where she's like,

I'm going to go back and dump my husband.

I'm definitely not leaving without my Bentley.

And I was like, OK, yeah, I was like, you should take the cash because Bentley is a beautiful car.

But if you're looking for residual value, grab the jewelry and the cash and grab the Bentley.

It's a sweet looking car though.

Yeah, it is a gorgeous car.

It's so nice, so nice to drive.

Let's talk about what else you were driving out there because I'm always curious.

You go out there, you rent a car.

I don't know if you specifically seek out something to rent that you haven't driven before

or you just throw the dice and see what happens.

I'm such a geek.

Sometimes I try and borrow a car to try and drive different stuff.

But this time I rolled up at Hertz as it was shutting in Luxembourg because my in-laws

live quite close to the border with Luxembourg.

So I rolled up in Luxembourg.

And the guy goes, we've got a problem that the car you were supposed to be driving has been crashed this afternoon.

It's basically a total.

I was like, it's now 10 o'clock at night.

I've got two kids that are starting to get very twitchy.

I've got like 20 bags.

He was like, I can give you a C-class estate, C-class wagon.

And I said, yeah, it's not going to work.

And I let ran all my bags.

So eventually we did a deal.

I got a got a Mercedes E-class wagon, which was a bit of a win actually.

So I hope the guy, I was told that the guy who crashed the car was okay.

Yeah, I think it was supposed to get a Volvo XC60, but that got total.

So I ended up in an E-class wagon, but it was a 220 D, which is something not sold over here.

But diesel still, I mean, diesel still have a role in Europe.

They're not anything like the market penetration that they had after the Volkswagen debacle.

But this thing was mega.

It had a range of, when I got in the car, it's a 1200 kilometers,

which is what about 800 miles, a little bit more.

And it was brilliant.

I drove it from Luxembourg across the border into France.

I drove it to the Alps.

I didn't have to fuel it.

I drove it all around for a week.

It was super quiet, not massively fast, but super quiet, super refined, massively frugal, cheap to run.

I did like 1500 miles, and I think it cost me like less than a hundred bucks in fuel.

And I just thought this would be a brilliant car for the U.S.

But it's just the politics.

If you've got a diesel, the modern diesel with all the AdBlue technology, which this has,

it's basically as clean as a gas car, but it's way more efficient.

It's super torquey.

I just thought this is fantastic.

This would be a brilliant, long distance luxury U.S. car.

And they've got no hope in hell of ever selling it here.

Now, diesel's got such a bad reputation now in the car market.

Although, I don't know, we still like it for trucks.

Like if we're going to tow everything, anyone that actually tows is like,

it's diesel, why do you waste your time with the gas engine?

Yeah, I saw over the Christmas break, Ram came out with a 2500 with the Cummings diesel engine

that's got over a thousand pounds feet of torque.

So yeah, but it's a specific niche use case.

And it's such a shame that the market just sort of missed what an amazing technological product.

They spent all these millions and millions of dollars creating this fantastic product.

And then all the Volkswagen debacle crisis, which was a completely different kind of diesel

that didn't have all the AdBlue technology.

So it just kind of gave the whole thing a bad name.

And now nobody, it's the same in Europe.

People don't buy diesels anymore because it's a terrible polluting thing

when actually if you've got the right technology in place, makes a lot of sense.

So I spent 10 days in a week in a E-Class wagon and drove it from north of France up into the Alps.

My brother's got a place there.

Went skiing for a few days, drove it back to Paris.

It's nice in here.

You can actually pick a car up in different countries.

Picked it up in Luxembourg, dropped it off in Paris.

Such a big, I mean, we talked about a previous show about how good the E-Class wagon is.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up because a few weeks ago,

we talked about you were driving the E-Class,

but how does the US spec gas engine one compare to the diesel one?

Just not just in performance, but just overall, how is the car different?

Is it more comfortable?

Well, the one over here is the all-terrain, which has got the air suspension.

He's like an Audi all-road.

So it's like a skiing car, basically.

And the one I had in Europe was just on winter tires,

but was just a more kind of conventional passive suspension, et cetera.

Didn't have all the, didn't have things like the Bowmeister Hi-Fi that we get in the US.

So it didn't have all the fancy tricks.

But honestly, it was just a really nice, just a really nice thing.

Super refined, super comfortable, spacious, practical.

The E-Class is just a great car.

I mean, we really rate it at Edmunds.

We like the sedan.

We like the wagon.

It's a shame that you can't get the wagon in the US at a cheaper price point.

You have to get something that's more like 80 grand.

And if memory serves, it starts about 60.

So it's more expensive, kind of more a collective choice over here.

But I would have one over an SUV.

In fact, right now for me in my kind of lifestyle,

an E-Class wagon would be about perfectly all-terrain.

Yeah.

And I wouldn't buy the AMG because that's a plug-in hybrid

and it's just a ton more weight and it's not as versatile.

So just a standard.

Yeah, it's too bad it's a plug-in hybrid

because they have some great AMG engines

and it doesn't necessarily need to be.

I guess they were like, you know, you want the wagon,

you maybe you're going to road trip it some more

and you want it to be a little bit more fuel efficient

because there are some AMGs out there that are not hybrid,

right?

That are just beast.

They do it really nice like for 4.4 V8,

which is in the AMG GT Cooper and other other things.

Yeah, they were four liter.

They were four liter G8.

Four liter.

Yeah, that would have been a perfect that would have been perfect

for that for that car.

But yeah, anyway.

So I went a little bit different direction

out here during the break drove out to Arizona

and I grabbed very specifically and I mentioned this

a few weeks ago.

I grabbed the Honda Civic hybrid.

I got the sport touring hybrid.

You know, that car starts the Honda Civic.

We got the hatchback.

I don't know.

They started twenty eight twenty nine thousand.

I think I think the hatchback is about thirty grand.

Yeah, just just a nuts over.

And the way we got it.

I suspect I've got the paper here.

The hatchback hybrid sport touring pretty much had most of

the options on it.

It's got a premium paint, which is four hundred and five fifty

five bucks and then your destination will handle it.

So this came out of thirty five thousand one hundred and forty

five dollars.

And honestly, it's like I'm not sure you're going to find more

bang for the buck and a nicer ride for thirty five grand.

And that's the loaded version.

Obviously, you can get something nice for thirty one or thirty

two thousand.

Yeah, but the loaded version has got like that.

It's got like the Bose Hi-Fi.

It's got a lot of stuff on there that just elevates it to the

point where you go.

This is just that this really wants for nothing.

You've got carplay.

You've got a nice Bose Hi-Fi.

You really it's just I mean, it was the Edmunds top rated best

the best last year for a reason.

It's just a sweet spot car, isn't it?

There's there's very little that you look at and go.

This isn't this isn't good.

You know, sometimes you get into these lesser expensive and

even the base model versions of cars.

And you know, start to notice like a lot of road noise and

the doors just feel kind of tinny and lightweight and less

so in in this particular car in this Honda, this least the

sport touring version road noise was was fine.

You know, it's not a Lexus, but that's fine.

You know, you're paying a half or less.

You're right.

I hit you up ahead of time.

It's like, Hey, should I grab the sedan or the hatchback?

You're like grab the hatchback.

There was more room and it totally worked out because you

know, you could put the seats down and put a bunch of stuff

down there or you could just put like one seat down and put

stuff down there and you still got space back there like we

put all the luggage in there, put one seat down and left one

seat up and then, you know, the dog would the little dog would

jump in the back and nest and is like, this is my spot now.

Right?

Yeah, you're right.

It had heated seats and in these cars, they didn't cut the

corners in the places that we talked about before, which are

a bad idea.

Like it had a leather wrap steering wheel and it had like

a good feel and tension on like the AC controls and the

window switches, you know, so like all the the tactile feedback

you'd want and the the cushion feel you'd want like an

steering wheel and stuff in the the shifter felt solid like

all of those things felt solid and had a little sunroof moon

roof thing going on and so you think about like where did

they where did they save a little bit of money and it's

like, all right, well, there's not like seat memory, you

know, there's not like number one memory to like it is what

it is, right?

You get into it and you know, and all the key fobs kind of

feel kind of cheap but then some luxury brands have that too.

They just yeah, it's even worse.

Yeah, yeah, right?

But overall, I thought it was it was a wonderful car to drive.

You know, when you when you do that trip to Arizona from

here, when you get out to Arizona, the speed limit 75,

you're probably doing a little bit more than that.

You know, so am I getting 50 miles per gallon?

I wasn't really getting 50 miles per gallon but but I was,

you know, I was pushing the car with, you know, a load of gear

and people so I wasn't quite expecting that but I was still

surprised on 37 miles per gallon, you know, that I was

getting out of it, you know, like I think it did well and

then I because those hybrids over there best really mix

use if you're around town and then if you're doing, you

know, if you're just belting down the highway, it's not

the best solution.

But yeah, so what we did is is I I reset everything like the

MPGs, the trip, I reset everything from when I got the car.

We went wheels up to Arizona like a couple like the next day

and drove it around town there, drove it back and then drove

it around town to here and I actually went up and grabbed

dinner with Adam Cruella and I was like, let's take the Honda

and he's like, what is this, you know, pick him up at night?

And I was like, Honda Civic Hybrid.

It's like, he's like, is it a plug-in hybrid?

That's his first question because he's like, how many

miles you get on the on the hybrids?

Like it's not plug-in hybrid.

You don't have to fuss with it.

He's like, oh, that's good because he's had those.

He had to plug it in every night.

And then he's like, how much is this thing?

I go, this one right here with all this is 35 grand.

He's like, that's fantastic.

It's also surprisingly quick, particularly off the line around town and stuff

because you've got that instant talk from the hybrid.

So you never, I mean, honestly, as I say, I was our best, the best car

last year and initially it was like, oh, you know, is it that, you know,

it's not, is it not particularly standard?

Sometimes you don't need something that comes along and kind of

reinvents everything.

It's just one of those cars that comes along where you just, they've

just like absolutely nailed it.

All of the key things, the way the powertrain works, the way they, you

know, the civics got bigger.

So this generation of Civic is actually quite close to what the

Accord used to be.

So it's not so small that you can't fit in the back and it's, and we're

currently running one as our, as a one year test vehicle, which again,

I think ours is the same as what you've got, isn't it?

Which is a sport, sport touring hatchback.

Really nice thing hatchbacks.

I mean, everybody goes, oh, you got to get an SUV.

But honestly, an SUV is just this, but raised slightly.

This is a really nice alternative.

You know, it had the decent touchscreen.

It looks a little small when you get into it for some reason, but it's

kind of tacked up on the dash.

But like you said, everything seemed to work fine.

I didn't notice serious XM.

I didn't, I didn't notice it in the press car.

Maybe it wasn't activated or maybe they just don't have it.

I don't know if that was another sort of cost cutting feature.

I would have thought that's just that.

I mean, that's just an app, isn't it?

I can't imagine that they wouldn't have that, but.

I, you know, some of the cars, like you could just use it in your car

play, which is what I ended up doing.

I have a serious XM subscription in my truck.

So I have the SXM app.

And then when we drove, I just used the app to get serious XM.

But when you drive out into the middle of nowhere and you get no

cell service, you lose, you lose it when the whole point of serious

XM, in my opinion, is to get it via satellite in the areas where

you can't get anything else.

It's the thing.

I haven't listened to that.

Like when we first moved to the U.S., I listened to it all the time.

Yeah.

And I drive a lot of cars with it installed or with it activated.

And I can't remember the last time I listened to.

It's terrible, isn't it?

I mean, like maybe we're doing a podcast.

We shouldn't, we shouldn't belittle it, but I just listened to podcasts

and Spotify now.

I never actually think about listening to radio unless there's something,

unless it's sport or there's like some massive news story.

I just can't cope with the ads anymore.

Yeah.

And some of the channels that I listened to don't have the ads,

just the music channels.

But the reason why I bring it up is like, where are you saving a little

bit of cost to get this thing into a $30,000 or less vehicle?

Like I said, there was no seat memory.

And then normally you'd have like AM, FM car play and then AM, FM,

and like an option for like serious XM.

And then we just say subscribe, call this 800 number.

It wasn't even an option for me, which is why I'm bringing it up.

It might not be available in the car or it was somehow an option

not available in the one that I got.

The other thing is, and looking at this photo is I noticed this

when driving the car was so many cars today come with the reader

windows tinted and this one, none of the windows were tinted.

And again, save a couple of bucks.

But I guess save it in the right area, right?

Would you rather have no tinted windows or a plastic steering wheel?

Yeah.

Right.

And if you want the tinted windows, you can go and get that done.

If you have a plastic steering wheel, good luck going, hey, no,

I want a leather steering wheel.

What are we going to do?

You get one of those things that like old fashioned taxi drivers used to

have.

Yeah, yeah.

You're at the auto parts store doing it.

You get a wrap and you're trying to sew it on or you got to take it

to an upholstery guy and let's take the steering wheel off and like it's

way more complicated, right?

It's really fair.

I'm trying to my wife's car.

The Genesis goes back in May at the end of the lease and we're trying

to figure out, you know, what to get.

And we maybe talk about it on another talk about it on another show.

But I was starting to think about we want to save some money.

We don't use it enough to, you know, don't do miles to justify an

expensive lease.

So, you know, I thought about like a civic hybrid.

It's maybe a little bit small for my kids now because I'm too tall.

But yeah, there's a lot of cars out here or getting something.

I mean, really at that price point, 35,000, you're also not caught.

You're also competing against used cars at that price.

Yeah.

You know, so are you buying this new or you're buying a used car?

Maybe, you know, you think the average transaction price now is 50 grand,

which I find hard to believe, but this is a lot of car and it is kind of,

we talked about the center a couple of weeks ago.

That's a nice vehicle, Kia K4.

There's actually quite a good sweet spot of sedans, hatchbacks,

what, et cetera, around that sort of 30 to 35 grand mark, which all

undercut the equivalent SUVs.

And you've got to really, I mean, I like everybody wants an SUV,

but you know, if you're trying to save a few dollars and, you know,

they're really appealing cars.

Yeah.

I think there's almost like a little trend, because everybody, you know,

you look at the SUV sales, like 60% in the market or something.

There's almost a little trend away from that.

You want something a little bit different.

Hatchback is basically an SUV without, you know, you give up a bit

of ground clearance and that's about it.

Yeah.

And I can see, I can see why, you know, the wagon as well, like you,

when you were driving the wagon and you're, wow, that makes sense.

Like, you know, you went to go rent the SUV, that thing was smashed.

You've got the wagon.

And overall, I think you were probably better off with the wagon.

With the wagon.

Oh yeah, it's a great car.

Yeah.

And there is still something nice about like having the lower center

gravity and there's still better to drive.

I was thinking about when driving the Honda about the size of the car.

You know, I'm, you know, being a short guy, I can drive that car and

there's room in the back.

I could sit in the back if somebody with my height was driving the car

and if he were taller.

So I was thinking sort of the next level up and this is a question

for sort of across the lineup of manufacturers.

The competitor to the Honda Civic in that 30 to $35,000 range, then

you scale up to like a Honda Accord and after a big call these days.

Yeah.

So when I returned the Civic, I asked him, I was like, do you guys

have an Accord hybrid as well in the fleet?

And he's like, yeah, we've got one.

Let me know.

And I was like, great.

I think I'm going to book that next because, you know, for five grand

more or depending on how you load it up, I think you can get it up to

in the $43,000 range.

So yeah, it's a bit more money, but is it worth it?

It's a lot of car for the money.

You know, it's like the Camry.

We're big fans of the Camry as well and the Camry, you know, hybrid

only and it doesn't have like the image or whatever.

It's seen as a bit old school now, but you know, it's big, it's spacious,

plenty of kit, drives well, hybrid, super, you know, super efficient.

Again, I'm a big proponent of buying a sedan and not, you know,

because SUVs are just that much more money.

And yeah, unless you really, unless you go in hiking all the time

or you really feel like you're going properly off-road.

But you know, if you're driving to the average hiking destination

anywhere, your car will get you there.

It's not like such a big deal.

I, the most noticeable thing and this isn't, this isn't the car.

It's, it's we drive, we leave out of the state and we come back as soon

as we get back to LA, we're like, oh, these roads are shit.

They just start to realize what junk, what crap.

I had that career out of Europe as well.

I mean, the E-Class rides really well, but I got into the Genesis

and we went down to Venice Beach yesterday for, for breakfast.

And I was like, God, this is, this, this feels like, you know, this is rough.

And the LA, so LA now got bad roads and for now for 2026,

we got speed cameras as well, which is something that's one thing driving

in France that drives you nuts.

There is just so many speed cameras now.

And also they restrict, like in the US, like Google will tell you

when it's coming up, they ban that in France.

So you constantly have these signs and, you know, it puts them, I'm not

an advocate for like driving at stupid speeds in built up areas

and everything else, absolutely not, but it definitely puts an

additional level of stress onto driving.

Yeah.

You know, when you're just, and now the other thing in Europe

is you have, they've legislated.

So if you drive over the speed limit, the car starts beeping at you.

It's a system which is, we're talking about, see, it's getting some

milk now has a button, but you can turn it off.

So the, basically the mute button for the, the hi-fi, the stereo system

is also the means of turning off this thing.

So these bass become muscle memory.

You start the car up and you turn this thing off.

And everybody I spoke to in Europe goes through this process now.

How do I turn this thing off?

And that's just part of the startup process of the car.

But I, you know, I'm not advocating for new 50 mile an hour past

schools or anything like that, but there's, there's a level of stress

associated with just drifting over the speed limit that in the US

you don't have and in Europe you do.

I mean, my brother's mother-in-law who's like well into her eighties

was, it's a 20 mile an hour speed limit now in London and was, you know,

stopped doing 22 or something, 23.

And you know, it's, it's a stress.

It's an anxiety that comes with it.

That's, and now we've got speed cameras in LA and at the moment

it's all about, we're going to put them in, you know, areas of roadworks.

We're going to put them outside schools.

We're going to put them in action black spots and that fine.

I got no issue with like sticking a camera outside of school.

Yeah.

Not at all.

But what I worry about is what's happening in Europe where it's like,

oh, hang on a minute.

There's a lot of money in this.

Why don't we put a, why don't we put a camera up on a deserted road

where we know that everybody kind of like has a bit of fun.

And let's stick it there because we're going to make a ton of money.

And that's what's happened in Europe.

It's just become, you know, and then you get, you get the negative reaction

because everybody's like, hang on a minute.

We're all for this when it was a safety camera outside the school.

Now it just feels like you get, you know, gratuitously catching me for money.

Yeah.

There's a place where there hasn't been an accident in 20 years.

We don't know what the full specs are going to be, but there's some margin

to error.

The word is if you're 11 miles an hour over the speed limit,

it will take your picture.

This is all AI based as well.

Again, they're trying to reduce headcount.

It is 11 miles an hour over the speed limit in LA.

You'll pass one of these speed cameras.

This is not the stoplight cameras.

This is not the, did you fully stop?

Did you turn on a red, you know, any of that?

This is the speed camera.

11 miles an hour over the speed limit.

It will take your picture, run your numbers and automatically just send

you a ticket in the mail that you're required to pay.

And that's it.

Like there's, there's, there's no person involved.

No, and people like to be nicked by a person.

There is something about like, it's like a cop, isn't it?

Like, you know, is your speeding going too fast?

Somebody pulls you over.

There's like, you know, there's a sort of.

There's kind of an aw, shucks you got me.

Yeah, there is.

There's a sort of, you know, sorry officer and there's a whole process.

I was always curious about the statistics of, of.

I don't want to say tickets.

I want to say damage to vehicles, accidents.

How many are related to speed versus like distracted driving or making

stupid mistakes or, you know, under the influence?

Like, because the speed thing seems like that's just the source of revenue.

It's also hard to say, so as a speed was a factor.

But that's, if you're going over the speed limit, it was a fact.

You find there's been a factor, but that doesn't necessarily mean

it's the primary, primary cause.

And that, that's another, that's become another negative.

I wrote a load of, before I moved to America, I read a load of stuff

and did a load of investigation in this whole area.

One of the problems was like, you talk about distraction.

It's 20 mile an hour speed limit.

People put the cruise control on and then they switch, mentally switch off

because I don't want to get caught for speeding.

So I'm going to go at 30 miles an hour and I'm just going to switch

my brain off.

Yeah.

So that was an issue.

And then the other issue is people seeing a speed camera and panic

breaking.

There's a lot of accidents of people just smashing into back of people

because it's like everybody panics, hits the brakes.

Yeah.

And, and, and, and especially, and then what happened in Europe as well,

that they got into the very early ones were film based.

So they had a film in them and then they had somebody who went along

and, you know, took out the film and, you know, processed it and then

you got your ticket and then suddenly they went digital.

So of course, then suddenly like you call the time and the numbers

went up and, and in Europe, it's linked to a, it's sitting in the UK.

It's linked to a point system.

So if you get 12 points, you lose your license and each speeding

offenses gem is like three points up to a certain level.

If you're going really fast, it's five points.

So people suddenly like losing the license because you could, you

could almost drive for a day or drive for a couple of hours, drive fast

four cameras and lose your license.

Bang.

So there's, there's all sorts of.

Which I didn't even know that two weeks later in the mail, you're like,

here's all your points.

Here's all your fees and your license has been revoked.

I'm now worried about Europe because last time I went to France,

I got caught accidentally driven down a bus lane without realizing it.

So I got a ticket for that.

And then I think I got a ticket for like five kilometers an hour

over or something, which is like three miles an hour.

And both of them was just came to the rental car companies got sent to

me and fine.

So it almost becomes like a road tax.

And there's not a, you know, there is.

There's some evidence around like, say, you know, saving lives or the,

but you know, within specific, you know, specific use cases, but it's just

when it starts to get abused, then you lose the public argument.

And I worry that the same thing will happen in America.

Oh, my God, there's a lot of money here.

A lot of money attached to, you know, attached to this.

So let's just stick cameras everywhere.

Yeah.

Interesting.

It just for LA, it just means they're not making enough off of parking tickets,

which is already tens of millions of dollars apart parking tickets.

But yeah, maybe it's not, maybe it's the EVs and the lack of fuel,

revenue, you know, lack of revenue from the fuel.

And that's the other thing, right?

We push EV so hard and then we realized, yeah, well, it starts to go,

what happened to all of our fuel tax money?

And we're like, well, that's what's happened in, that's also what's happened.

I mean, it's in the like America influences Europe and Europe influences

America on this stuff.

And what's happened in, in the UK in the latest budget is they've gone,

Oh, all that fuel revenue that we're getting, we're not getting anymore.

And this is a big problem.

We're losing billions of pounds.

So what do we do?

Oh, we're going to put a tax on EV.

So there's now a tax on how many miles that you drive, but nobody's quite sure

how you administer this.

So you have to like self, I said mess.

So I don't know, you go out to Europe and you think, cause I always kind

of interested in like, how's this going to impact the US and, you know,

what can we learn from each other?

And, you know, speed cameras, I think have a, have a role.

You know, like I'm, I'm all for it outside schools.

I'm all for it in like where people are working on the road and stuff.

I've got no issue with that, but it's, it's when they kind of get misused

that this starts to get tricky.

And actually I was reading, I bought auto car, which I started my career at,

which is very famous.

I think it's the oldest, the oldest car magazine in the world founded in

like the late 19th century and I worked for it for a couple of years.

And I bought it while I was over there and there was a good story in it

about the, the original speed camera was in called a gas.

So it was invented and it was invented by a rally driver to try and

make himself go faster.

So he built this camera and these white lines on the road and it was all

about basically timing himself on a stage.

Yeah.

Got into a speed ticket thing.

Yeah.

Too bad he doesn't get a residual on that at least, right?

Yeah.

Whether it's Kalashnikov, there's a famous one, wasn't he?

We didn't get the, uh, didn't get any rights to the gun.

Yep.

Uh, all right, let's take a quick break.

We'll be right back.

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All right, so enough about speed cameras and hybrids.

Let's talk monster trucks.

Yeah.

A bit of news out recently was kicking off the new year is

Stellantis.

Stellantis is saying, hey, let's take our RAM, TRX.

Let's bring it back.

Let's make it bigger, better, more horsepower.

And this is what we got.

We got a new, it's supposed to come out mid-year, maybe the second

half of this year.

You know, Hellcat VA 6.2 liter, 777 horsepower now.

They needed to up their own number.

They needed to up the Raptor R number.

And then, but the claim zero to 60 because nobody's driven this thing.

We, you know, we haven't driven it.

I don't know.

Somebody's driven it.

Tim Kaniscus has driven it is zero to 16, 3.5 seconds.

What did the TRX do before?

It's like four, we had it tested.

I think the last one we tested, I was reading the piece early.

I think it was just over four and about 4.4 if memory serves.

Yeah, that's 0.7 seconds quick.

And when we tested, say, yeah, about 4.2.

I mean, it's, it's a lot of weight to move.

It's funny.

Stellantis is obviously, you know, in a tough spot, both the Jeep and the

Ram Brands, but they're just basically said, like, how do we rescue the company?

Let's go back in time.

Let's bolt in a V8.

They've done the V8 in the 1500 and now they're bringing back the TRX.

I mean, it's kind of funny what it's called in TRX, the dinosaur, isn't it?

It's kind of like very appropriate.

Like, let's get the TRX back.

Supercharged, Hemi V8.

I would, the one thing that struck me was not just a horsepower and everything else,

but I was looking at, we did a piece on, you go to edmunds.com slash news.

We did a piece comparing the, the TRX with the, with the Raptor R.

And it's like, the TRX is about 10 grand cheaper.

And that's obviously a good thing, but they're both well over a hundred grand.

I mean, it's, this is going to be like 105, I think it is.

Oh, price is starting.

We've got it right there.

A hundred, you know, he's, he's 12, 102, you know, and then, and then you obviously

can, you can spec it from there.

Definitely Raptors about another 10 grand, but they're both well, both over a hundred

grand.

Is there anything different on this version of the TRX like other than the

little bit more horsepower?

There hasn't been a revision to the RAM, right?

There was on the 1500, there was a, there was like a, you know, a sort of a bit of

a refresh.

So I think it's had a, you know, it's, it's got a little bit more power, but it's,

it's the same recipe, isn't it?

It's got the, you know, we did, if we did the spec comparison and, you know,

the, the Raptor R does, does outperform it on paper, but it's all pretty, it's all

pretty marginal.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a, yeah, this is basically after the fate.

I mean, it's a mild facelift like mid-cycle refresh of the, of the RAM.

I mean, looking at ground clearance, the F-150's got 13.1 inches, TRX has got

11.8, you know, it's pretty, pretty close on spec.

And I think it's just, are you a TRX guy or Raptor guy?

But yeah, you know, I, I'll say this, I like it.

I've driven the TRX, I've driven the Raptors, I've driven the R models, I've

driven the Hennessey TRX, I've driven all these crazy vehicles.

I don't think I got one of them dirty, but they were all fun to drive around,

you know, driving over curbs and whatever.

But I, I love the rivalry between RAM and Ford in this regard.

I love that they have little digs on each other.

I love that, that making one bigger and better just, you know, drives competition

up with, with the other company going, Hey, we should do that.

You know, like, you know, Raptor came out and then TRX came out and it was

eight cylinder and it was supercharged.

So we got Raptor R and it had to be like a little bit better and a little

bit faster.

And now we've got this TRX.

So, you know, and the Raptor R is a few years old.

So it's going to be a new version of that at some point.

And what it turned into was this new division of SRT.

It's sort of been restructured at, at Stellantis.

And I'm interested to see where it goes because, you know, we talked to,

I forgot his name already, but we talked to the guy from, from Ford that is

heading up the, the production cars under the Raptor brand, under the Ford

Racing brand, right?

He's production, he was production vehicles for Ford Racing, which

included everything Raptor.

Yeah.

Right.

And now he's got sort of the green light to go build out the Raptor brand.

You've got Bronco.

You've got Ranger.

You've got F-150.

You've got Raptor R, F-150.

Now, what else can we do?

Does it make sense to, to, you know, they were talking about a Mustang of

sorts, like a Dakar, you know, like.

Yeah, I don't know whether that's just the internet.

I think everybody was like, oh, they're going to build like a 9-11 Dakar,

but it's going to be a Mustang.

I don't know.

I don't, I don't, I don't know if it's going to be a Mustang or what, Raptor,

whatever, but.

But I, when I, when I did interview Jim Farley and I said, how about an off-road

Mustang, like a Dakar thing?

He just said, yes.

That's the CEO of Ford Jim Farley.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I could see them doing the Mustang needs a bit of a lift as well.

I mean, I know GT 500 is on its way, but it needs a bit.

It needs something to give it a bit of, um, you know, get it back in, get

to get it back some attention.

Yeah.

I mean, Ford, look, we were talking about how different brands are coping with

like, you know, threats in the marketplace and Ford, like we're talking

about Renault doing, going back to his heritage, Ford's doing the same thing.

No more boring cars.

Let's do, you know, what do we do?

Well, trucks, off-roaders, performance.

That's what we're going to do.

I mean, it's interesting.

The escape died at the end of last year.

So, you know, Ford doesn't make a, you know, Ford doesn't really make

a, what you would call like a mainstream sensible car.

I mean, they got the Bronco sport, but that's actually a little bit nichey.

You know, where is the Ford, the Ford CRV or the Ford RAV4?

There isn't one really.

And, you know, when the escape came out, it kind of missed the mark already.

It wasn't even like.

No, it just wasn't very good, but they basically just decided that.

You know, the mainstream market, I mean, I grew up and everybody had a Ford.

Like they had a Ford Escort, Ford Focus, little hatchback fiestas.

And, you know, same over, same over here when you think of the fusions

and all that stuff.

And now they just don't, they've just given up that whole market,

which is, is interesting.

There's definitely more margin in Raptors and things like that.

But, you know, there's very, there's also a much smaller market for people

spending over a hundred grand on a truck that he's going to be a fortune to run.

For sure.

But the Bronco sport came out and the escape came out and it's

essentially the same platform.

But then people are just like, I don't know, I like to look the Bronco sport.

And then they invested more money into that and they had some new

little features and a little pop out hook so you can strap stuff to the roof.

And, and all of a sudden the escape is dead and the Bronco sport is the way to go.

And let's do it.

And let's do a Maverick truck, which is the escaping truck form.

Yeah.

But, but it's, it's, you know, but then you look at the RAF four and it's

selling 450,000 a year.

So, you know, you still, it might be my head.

Ford is still a volume brand.

You know, it's a heartland brand and really what they are now is a truck

brand, really a truck and off road brand and a bit of performance.

Yeah.

Cause they've got a sports car, but, uh, yeah, interesting.

So I think about like maybe Ford's direction is, you know, they've talked

a lot about having some sort of like modular EV platform.

Like we talked about this, this sort of rolling skate of electric motors

and battery, we can make it longer.

We can make it shorter.

We can, you know, we can make it a truck.

We can make it a car.

Could that potentially be the Ford's answer to, and maybe hybrid technology

as well, uh, it doesn't have to be all electric.

That could be Ford's answer to coming up with another high volume car.

Maybe a sedan, maybe a placement to the escape.

Maybe, but I don't think it's the strategy.

I mean, they've got to do the EV thing in some form and try and make that profitable.

They've got a future proof themselves, but yeah, they're just, I think

they're just saying this is where the, this is where the margin is.

And we need to sell high margin cars, not high volume cars.

And, you know, certainly in Europe, that's probably a little good.

Just concede to the Chinese or concede to some of the, you know, European

brands or the Korean brands Hyundai and Kier and just accept that, you know,

the world has moved on, but it's, um, I mean, Ford of Europe's never

really made money.

Ford in America has, but what does Ford in America make his money?

It makes his money in the trucks.

Yeah.

I saw, I saw some, um, I guess sketches or renderings or something come out

from Scout, uh, that shows more about the underpinnings of that vehicle,

where that little gas engine is going to sit this little like four cylinder

or whatever gas engine basically under the back of the vehicle, where

maybe the spare tire would tuck in, right?

Um, you know, and that's bringing up a lot of questions in like the F 150

forums going, well, if they're going to do a range extender version to

replace the lightning, where is that engine going to sit?

Everyone's like, I don't want to lose my frunk.

You know, that's the thing.

All the, I mean, I was going, I love my frunk.

What do I do?

And that was the big point.

Yeah.

Cause also if you take the Ram example, you know, the Ram Rev or

haven't they just renamed it?

Uh, I think they're calling it Ram Charger now.

Are they calling it Ram Charger?

Was it Ram Charger is now Ram Rev?

I don't know.

I don't know which direction they went.

There was Rev and Ram Charger and they killed one of them.

And they basically, that car's got the three and a half liter V six.

So the base is no place to put it, but under the hood cause it's a proper engine.

And I think what Scout's trying to do is what BMW did with the I three

and stuff is have something smaller and a bit more compact.

Therefore you can kind of hide it away rather than, and then yeah, I'm with

you, like the whole point of those EV trucks is you've got a big lockable

trunk in a, in a, in a truck and that's great.

And it makes it a lot more usable.

So, you know, it's a ladder frame chassis.

Can you hide it away underneath somewhere?

Like how big does it have to be?

But I think talking to the Ram engineers, they would say, well, hang on a minute.

If you're towing, which is the whole point of these big trucks, if you're

going to tow something, you actually need a big engine because

you need a big generator.

Yeah.

Cause you, it's not, if you think about like the BNW I three, the way they

did it, tiny little three cylinder, I think it was like, it was, I can't remember

what CC was, it was a tiny thing.

Yeah.

But it was all about getting your home and it was a tiny little car.

This is about using it genuinely to charge the battery and keep you going.

Yeah.

You need like lots of electricity, which means you need like a proper generator.

Yeah.

I don't think there was specs.

I don't recall seeing specs on like scouts, tow ratings and stuff.

Are they, are they intending to compete with, you know, the full size trucks?

You know, if they are, that's going to be tough because they're so competitive.

It's like every time about 1500 comes out a Ram, you know, Ford's like, oh,

we're going to, we're going to tow 50 pounds more.

Yeah.

You know, it'd be also interesting to see where they're like, you know,

Rivian is an EV brand.

You know, do they need, I mean, obviously they've got links to the

Volkswagen group as a big investor.

There's, you know, that you can buy these engines.

You know, will they start to say, well, you know, we need a, we're going to do

a range extender.

I mean, it feels like a leap because their entire brand has been based around EV,

but a scout couldn't, I mean, I think scouts still got a long way to go,

but it would be very interesting to see what like a range extender lightning

does.

I don't know.

I just think like, right, like what does Rivian do?

Does Rivian just go all in on battery development?

Do they find maybe a partner to go?

We need something to really change.

Solid state, solid state, super fast.

Yeah.

Just fast charging, way more capacity, lighter weight, like, you know.

It's hard to see where you get to hundreds of thousands of vault units.

Yeah.

And I suppose with a little car, they're going to try and do that.

And maybe that, maybe that's the way they approach it.

So actually what they'll sell is the R2 and it'll be the smaller one.

But I don't know.

I have reservations about the whole range.

I think it's really interesting technology, but I think as soon as you do

that, unless it's got a real competitive advantage, like a frunk or light,

you can charge it at home and, you know, have the best of all worlds.

Otherwise you just, are you just going to go in and go, I'll just buy the gas one.

I don't know.

Right.

Like, because you're carrying around now just so much gear.

You've got batteries and electric motors and a gas engine and a fuel tank and

the 12-volt battery for that and just like, and just, it just went from simplicity

going, I never go to the gas station with my lightning.

I never take it in for an oil change.

When I took it in for its 20,000 mile service, they said it was tire rotation

and a cabin filter and I was like, well, I already did that.

So I don't even, I don't even need to go in.

Right.

They're like, we can just fix whatever the, any, you know, recalls or warranty stuff.

We can fix that.

I was like, all right, I guess do that, but there was nothing to bring it in.

But if you have the range extend or you're like, I still got to do oil changes.

I still got to do this.

I still got to do that.

You know, I, you know, like it's all kind of there, you know, but then again,

hybrids are that way too.

So we're talking about the hybrid, you know, a Prius or Honda Civic.

It's, it's still got a version of that.

They're just powering the vehicle difference powered by essentially the gas engines of the electric motors.

Like a Camry, which is, you know, they're building millions of them.

And it's, it's a, you know, it's more sophisticated than a traditional gas engine,

but it's, you know, it's, they've got it down to a T, you know, you're right.

Like you're carrying around an electric car plus, which has its advantages and disadvantages,

but then on top of that, you're bolting in a gas car as well, particularly in the

Ram, if you've got a three and a half liter, it's like, what?

Yeah, they got a big engine in it.

You've got a base that you're carrying around two cars as far as I can tell.

So I, it's really, I mean, this is the year we're going to drive them.

I think, I think it's super interesting.

We'll probably end up buying one as well and living with it just because I think,

you know, we, it's, yeah, it's come full circle from the, from the Chevy Volt.

So we'll see.

I'm, I'm definitely interested, like you said, if you guys get the whatever it's

called a Ram charger, um, uh, you know, drive it, test it.

If you guys buy one for your longterm fleet, that'd be interesting.

I think it's the Ram Rev.

I think it was the Ram Rev.

Um, at the end of this, you know, this, this longterm test, is it worth it?

Is it not worth it?

Was it just a big pain in the ass or was having, listen, maybe you guys go, the only

time we use the gas engine is when we went out of town and otherwise you just drove it

like an EV and charge it like an EV and never use the gas engine.

I don't know.

I've got it here.

This is, this is, this is, we're getting out.

So in September, last September discontinued the electric Ram Rev, which we knew about

and then renamed the range, extend the hybrid truck fully, formally the Ram

charger is the Ram Rev.

Okay.

So it's the Ram Rev.

That's right.

Not like, like Ram charger.

I thought Ram charger was a better name.

I thought Ram charger was a much better name because.

Yeah, they had the truck.

They had a Ram charger and also charge it like it is a play on that.

They obviously own charger as part of the Dodge brand.

That had a sort of, they must be thinking they're going to use it for something else.

The Ram charger may come back as something else.

Yeah.

It may be a sort of a performance variant between a Ram 1500 and a TRX.

You put a Ram charger in there, right?

Like tremor, like Ford's got tremor.

Yeah.

Right.

That's what they need.

And there's all those things that maybe Ram does an SUV or something.

I don't know.

Or maybe they do a new SUV.

It's called Ram charger because they had, they had the sort of a Bronco competitor.

Or Dodge does a truck.

I don't know.

It's too much.

All right.

Well, I'm not hugely confusing the note.

Yeah.

I was like, let's get a wrap it up.

But I did wait.

Did we talk about the Mercedes versus the Corvette?

No, we should go out on that.

Let's go out on that.

I just like to drags over.

Edmunds, you drags over Christmas or the holiday season.

I should go.

I call it Christmas.

He's in the UK.

He goes to the Christmas of 44 years calling it Christmas holiday season.

It's, yeah, we launched that.

It's got quite a lot of interest.

Cause the, we just love that.

He right.

It's just so well in this format.

It's massive.

It's so underrated and the GT, the car with the world's longest name, the Mercedes

AMG GT 63 S E performance.

Uh, up again, which is over 200 grand against the Chevy Corvette.

He raised, he raised, he really is almost a hundred grand cheaper.

The Mercedes is a lovely car.

It's such a pretty car.

I think that's like the best looking car.

So, but we need to explain the Mercedes because there are several versions of

the GT and there's the four cylinder versions AMG.

There's an eight cylinder AMG 55.

There's a.

There's an eight cylinder.

There's a 63 and this is the 63 SE performance, which is a hybrid.

Yeah, which is a plug in the hybrid cylinder, which gives it basically.

Yeah.

So it's got a, it's 805 horsepower and a thousand pound feet of torque.

Yes.

To combine powertrain.

So it is monstrously, monstrously fast.

I mean, obviously you're adding a chunk of, a chunk of weight.

I think it's 800 pounds more than the, more than the, the Chevy, but it's got

over a thousand pounds of torque and a lot of top ends.

So I don't want to, you know, you should watch the video.

I don't want to give it away, but.

Well, it was interesting to, to pit the two hybrids together, right?

Cause the e-ray we've seen in your other videos, it's fast.

It's cool.

It's, it's all wheel drive with the electric motors on the front.

So it launches incredibly well, but putting it up against the AMG hybrid.

I thought it was kind of interesting.

You know, yeah, it's almost twice the cost, maybe not quite, but it's somewhere

around there, but it was, it's, it's a fun video to see.

Watch.

And I think that Merc is a really, you know, this is all like the 9-11 is the

default choice for a sports coupe in that price bracket, but that Mercedes is

lovely.

And I think, you know, I wouldn't buy the SE performance cause I'm a big fan

of plug-in hybrids and it's silly money, but like the standard six, you're

probably the 55, which I think is about 140 grand and it's still that 40 to V8.

It's still got nearly 500 horsepower.

That's a, that's a really nice sweet spot.

And that's a, that's a lovely car.

It's, if you were buying like one, you know, like one proper, proper GT, proper

grand tourer, really nice car.

Especially now that the 9-11 turbo was so expensive.

Yeah.

I mean, honestly, like 140 grand in 9-11 terms, that gets you a Carrera these days.

You know, or maybe a Carrera T, but yeah, that would be, there's like an everyday

sports car.

That'd be a lovely, that'd be a lovely way to travel.

And it's a, it's a little more touring, a little more GT car than, than that.

But I mean, the performance numbers say sports car, but, you know, it's stated

in the video, you guys, you know, like it, just driving it out to the track.

It's just a beautiful, comfortable car just to drive, right?

It's just a lovely thing.

You know, I was a big fan of the, I was a big fan of the SLS, the Gullwing car.

I drove that thing for a long time.

We shot, and we shot videos with it, but we were doing a TV show at the time.

So we got one of those cars to put it in the intro of the TV show.

And it was me and another guy, another driver, and we had the Gullwing doors open.

Turns out if both Gullwing doors were open, you're doing donuts, the centrifugal

force starts to shut the doors.

Oh, that's cool.

That was, I remember doing a thing in the Arctic, like a testing story going out

to the Arctic, one of those.

And basically it was, it was doing all the weather testing.

And if you turn the stability control off, because the wheelbase is actually not

that big and it had so much power, it was basically undrivable in there,

on like winter tires in the ice.

But it was, that was a, that was a cool thing.

I actually think this is prettier.

I think, you know, the proportions and the detail, they basically iterated that

design and this one is so pretty.

And that one we had on test, I think had gold and not too blingy, but it had

like gold alloys, which just looks so good.

It was very good.

It's a cool thing.

All right.

So check that out.

That's on YouTube.

That is the admins you drag videos.

Yeah.

Welcome back.

Thank you very much.

Thanks guys for, for listening.

Welcome to 2026.

Hopefully we have a bunch of great new shows for you guys coming up.

I think we've got, you know, beginning of the year for me is, you know, starts

NHRA drag racing.

So over the next few weeks, expect some drag racers to be on the show.

Some friends of the show will welcome them back as well.

So see what's going on new in the drag racing world.

And Alstair, if you haven't been out yet, it was the last time you've

gone to NHRA.

I, do you know what?

It's a terrible admission.

I've never done it.

I've done it in Europe.

I've been various, but it's not quite the same thing.

It's always a bit of a correlation.

We should go.

When they kick it off like in Pomona, we should go to NHRA because

it is, you have to experience it once because it, unlike other racing, you

feel it all over your, your body.

Those things are so 10,000 horsepower.

I don't care where you're standing.

It's, it's going to, it's going to make you cringe.

So we should, we should do that.

All right, guys.

Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next week.

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

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