CarCast+Edmunds - Testing the Chinese built Geely Galaxy M9. Plus the Volvo V60 Cross Country and more.
CarCast
CarCast+Edmunds - Testing the Chinese built Geely Galaxy M9. Plus the Volvo V60 Cross Country and more.
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Car
Toyota Highlander
The Toyota Highlander is a family SUV that can come with three rows of seats. It’s built to carry people comfortably for daily driving and road trips. The “Grand Highlander” idea is about making that space even bigger for more passengers.
Car
Toyota Sienna
The Toyota Sienna is a family minivan. This part mentions that it can come with screens/entertainment for passengers in the back.
Term
Check engine light
The check engine light comes on when the car finds a problem. It doesn’t always mean something major, but you should get it checked.
Term
ABS
ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System, which helps prevent wheel lockup during hard braking. If an ABS warning appears, it can indicate a fault in the braking control system or wheel-speed sensors.
Company
O'Reilly Veriscan
This is a device/service that reads the codes behind your warning lights. Instead of guessing, it helps you see what the car is complaining about.
Concept
language immersion school
A language immersion school is where kids learn subjects in another language. Instead of studying the language separately, they hear and use it all day.
Term
FanDuel
FanDuel is a website/app for sports betting. It’s mentioned here as part of an advertisement.
Concept
ride height
Ride height is how high the car sits off the ground. If it’s higher, it can feel easier to get in and out of and handle bumpy roads better.
Car
Audi RS 6
The Audi RS 6 is a high-performance wagon (Avant) from Audi’s RS performance line. It’s referenced as an example of a “cult” or enthusiast-favorite wagon that appeals to a smaller, more niche group.
Brand
Genesis
Genesis is Hyundai’s luxury brand. They’re bringing it up because it doesn’t offer the wagon body style being discussed, only SUVs.
Brand
Polestar
Polestar is an EV brand connected to Volvo and Geely. It’s mentioned here to show how Geely controls multiple car brands.
Brand
Geely
Geely is a big car company from China. They also own other brands, so some cars may be designed by one brand but built in different places.
Concept
tariffs
Tariffs are extra taxes when a car is shipped into a country. The host is saying those taxes can make a car too expensive to sell.
Term
twin motor version
“Twin motor” means the EV has two electric motors. The speaker says that version was sold in the US, but it cost more than buyers wanted.
Car
Volvo XC90
The Volvo XC90 is Volvo’s bigger family SUV. The speaker brings it up to show that some Volvos are still built in Sweden.
Brand
Mopar
Mopar is a name people use for Chrysler’s performance and muscle-car world. The speaker is saying some people only follow that kind of car scene.
Concept
auction circuit
An auction circuit is where people buy and sell cars through auctions. To get the right price, buyers often need to know exactly which version a car is.
Term
build sheets
Build sheets are factory documents listing how a vehicle was assembled, including options and specifications. They’re often used to confirm the exact configuration when serial numbers alone aren’t enough.
Term
Volante
“Volante” is Aston Martin’s word for the convertible version. So it’s the open-top DB9, not the coupe.
Concept
Chinese brands coming in
They’re talking about more Chinese car brands showing up in the market. With so many new models and names, it can be tough to stay organized.
Car
Geely Galaxy M9
The Geely Galaxy M9 is a new, bigger family EV-style vehicle from Geely. It’s not just a battery-only EV; it also uses an engine in some situations to help power the car.
Term
range extenders
A range extender is like a backup power source. When the battery runs low, it helps keep the car going by generating electricity.
Term
turn signals
Turn signals are the lights you use to show you’re turning or changing lanes. Here, the car also turns on cameras when you use the turn signal, to help you see what’s around you.
Term
resolution
Resolution is how sharp the screen image is. Higher resolution usually means text and graphics look clearer.
Term
dealer network
A dealer network is the chain of car dealerships that sell cars in different areas. The speaker is saying Ford has to think about how dealers fit into selling EVs.
Concept
direct to consumer model
Instead of selling through lots of middle companies, a brand sells straight to you. That can help them lower the price because there are fewer markups along the way.
Company
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a major automaker investing heavily in EV technology and software capabilities. The segment references Volkswagen putting $5 billion into buying technology, framing it as a way to accelerate development and improve integration.
Concept
miles of cabling
“Miles of cabling” refers to the large amount of wiring used to connect sensors, modules, and control units. Reducing wiring can lower weight, cost, and complexity, which also improves reliability and makes software integration easier.
Term
markup
A markup is the added profit margin a supplier charges when selling parts or systems to the automaker. The segment connects markup to the idea that using more vendor-supplied components can increase overall cost compared with in-house production.
Company
Bosch
Bosch is a big company that makes car parts used by lots of different brands. So even if the cars look different, some of the underlying tech can come from the same supplier.
LIVE
Dear Crew, it's Toyota. With an adult-sized third row, everyone's welcome in the Grand
Highlander. From sports fans to eco-buffs and movie fans, sync back in the Sienna with
an available rear seat entertainment system. Slip into the RAV4 with available all-wheel
drive and let's go. Toyota, find yours at Toyota.com. Toyota, let's go places.
Find a rate that works for you with the Name Your Price tool. Progressive casualty
insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law.
Check engine, ABS or maintenance light on. Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with
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Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today.
Hello, welcome to the Edmunds Car Cast Podcast. I'm Matt, the moderator,
D'Andrea. Before we get started, I want to tell you about Bio Pro Plus. It's a 100%
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How are you doing? I'm good. Thanks, Matt. I had a few days vacation in Mexico without the kids,
so I'm nice and refreshed, driving to go on a Friday afternoon. So it was nice.
What do you do? You just send them to daycare for three days? Like dogs?
I think where I live, people don't even do that with dogs. People have dogs here to
the vast expense. They don't send them to doggy hotels anymore. No, the in-laws. The in-laws are
over from France, so they stay in our house for a month, which I'm going to listen to this show.
It's a month and it's quite a small house. They're lovely, but when you have your house and more
people come and live here, it's a pretty small house. But they do very kindly look after the
kids for four days. I love my kids dearly, but four nights away from them where you can have
a little bit of me time is a good thing. Do the in-laws speak French and English?
My wife is French, if you're a regular listener, you might remember that.
My wife's mother was an English teacher, so she basically speaks fluent English. It's not fluent
English like, well, I don't speak fluent American, but not quite that fluent. My father-in-law
speaks some in English and I speak some French, so we kind of get by and sort of frongly.
So we don't have deep and meaningful conversations. It might not be a bad thing,
because it avoids anything controversial. Right. Okay. Then the kids have been growing up with
American English. Well, I don't know, do they have an accent? Oh, my daughter,
now my daughter's turned seven next week and she's now, she was in a language immersion school,
so she learned Spanish then French. My boy's a Spanish immersion school. But as soon as she kind
of came and, you know, reached kindergarten, she went into the American system and almost overnight,
her accent has gone very Californian. So as you keep, you should call me bro the other day. I'm
like, on no, on no level am I or ever will be your bro. Okay, but I like, I think we should hear
now. Your wife speaks French. Yeah, I household, my wife only speaks French to the kids. I understand
most of it these days. My wife only speaks French to the kids. I only speak English to the kids and
somehow they get by an American too. So and then the boy speaks better Spanish than any of us and
he's only four. So it's kind of cute. But it's, and it's interesting actually, I know we're supposed
to be doing a car show here, but there is some interesting science behind it that up to up to
the age of I think it's like six or seven, your brain takes in languages in straight lines.
So what they don't do is what you and I do, which is here in English and translate it into Spanish
or French or whatever it may be, they just take in like streams of data. So they will,
it's crazy, even like the age of three, they will talk in French, turn to me and speak in English
and not even be conscious of it. So the kind of neuroscience of it is really fascinating.
I bring it up because I find it difficult to learn a language now at my age. Me too. Yeah, yeah.
And, you know, car events and talk interviewing, you know, staff from the different countries
from the from the car companies. It would be so much easier if I was able to speak at least
more than one language, you know, some, some version of Spanish, Portuguese, something,
you know, would have been helpful. But no, just can't, it's, it's more complicated than I
thought I ever thought it would be. It is. I mean, like obviously working in this industry,
you work with all different nationalities, but the problem is all like the Germans and the
Swedes all speak perfect English, the Dutch all speak perfect English. The French generally now
is, you know, professional language for many people in France is, is English. But Spanish is
a language I wish I had spent more time on at school and an Italian, I think always sounds
beautiful. But yeah, yeah, it's amazing though how many people, I don't know if people listen
to this podcast or I don't know what this guy's coming out and going on about, but it was very
interesting. I haven't been here a long time now when I first moved. And particularly when you
first move in your senior position, people don't really want to say, I'm sorry, I've got no idea
what you're talking about. But there was definitely a little element of that. People like confided
in me later that there would be conversations at the end of a meeting saying, so did he think
that was a good idea or, or not? Right, or not. Yeah. Yeah. Particularly like dry humid, like
don't do. I remember like in week two, somebody said, how are you doing? I was like, you know,
a little bit tired, but you know, struggling on word went around the business. My boss came
up to me said he okay, you know, anything I can do. I was like, I was just, I was just giving
him a standstill at a rubbish night's sleep. I was a bit tired. It's like, we don't do this.
I love going into shops. It's like, you know, you know, hey, how are you doing? Really not good.
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in select states. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Okay, so anyway, some car stuff. So one of the
things I wanted to bring up is I've been driving the Volvo V60 cross country and there's one kind
of issue with the Volvo and you brought it up when I mentioned it off the air. You said, oh,
are they still selling that? Yes, that's one of the issues with the Volvo is it's just not
getting the attention and it's a perfectly fine car all around and it really kind of fits this gap
nicely between your sedan and your SUV, right? You've got the room and the cross country version
a little bit of a ride height. It's not quite SUV. It's not quite sedan. It's a little bit
easier to get in and out of. You know, the trunk floor is like a little bit higher than the wagon
or a normal trunk and all around like a good vehicle. It just doesn't crush it in any one department.
No, and Volvo, I mean, I grew up in a world where the 80s set square Volvos. Everything was
straight lines and it was very distinctive and your kind of middle class mum had a Volvo estate
when I grew up and now they're like everybody else. They're just doing SUVs and they've had this EV
strategy. So they're just doing electric SUVs. And I was surprised he said that was still on the
fleet because I understood and maybe I got this one that there was this big fuss about not selling
a wagon anymore because you know, Volvo is synonymous with wagon. That's their brand.
And they were dropping the V 60. So maybe they dropped the maybe that's right. They've dropped the
V 60 but kept the cross country. Yeah. I think they're charming. I think wagons make a huge
amount of sense in the US. Interesting at the performance end of the market. I read something
the other day that the M five wagon is massively outselling the M five sedan just because it's
I think seen as cool here here in the US here in the US. Yeah. But I think that's because
high performance wagons like the Audi RS six and the M now the M five, they become a bit
culty, haven't they? They become a little bit like a kind of an insider thing. I think the
problem with things like everyday wagons is people go in look at it or well, either the dealer
doesn't have it. So people just don't see it. There's no money to advertise it so people don't
know it exists. But also it's one of those things that I'll be really cool to have a wagon and then
people just buy the SUV because a V 60 cross country is basically an XC 60 and pretty much
right, which is also a very nice car, which is also a nice car. But there is something very
charming about those Volvo wagons. And I remember boring one to drive around European and it was
just such a nice way to travel. So yeah, I always had a real sauce, but they still look cool, don't
they? They're still inside. Maybe it's a little bit dated now, but it looks it looks cool from the
outside. It does. And you if you could find it, you know, maybe look around to the dealers to
see what they have. If you're if you are looking at the SUV, look at the V 60 wagon because you
might find the better deal on the wagon and it's equipped essentially the same. There's a little
bit of technology that still feels dated compared to things like the carplay and Android is wired.
It's not wireless and you have to like wire and plug it in. And just like seems like everything
else today is you just connect Bluetooth says you want to sync up your, you know, carplay or
whatever and you do it and you're just good to go. So it was a little weird because, you know,
like we swap cars all the time. So I got into it and I started driving and it's like,
how do we get carplay to work? And it's like plug it in. I'm like, I don't I don't have a plug.
You can get those $20 gadgets on Amazon that will that will will will sort that for you. But
you're right. And that's to do with, you know, a sort of aged technology. And it's not
everybody thinks it's just software. But actually, no, there's a lot of fundamentals in those cars
that they can't just kind of bolt new technology on. So yeah, they're all I mean, Volvo without
wishing to rope over stuff we talked about so much on the show. But Volvo is in the same place as
Porsche that they went all in on EVs. And now they're ferociously backpedaling and trying to
figure out what they do because they've they've refreshed the XC 90, they've refreshed the XC
60, which was never in the plan. And they've got an ex 90, which they've had a lot of problems with
and I don't need sign terribly well and an ex 60 on the way, which looks like a really fine vehicle,
but you know, nobody's buying EVs. So I asked for the Volvo specifically, and there are EV versions
of the of the Volvo as well that are on my schedule to drive. But I brought it up today
for a couple of reasons, like one, again, it's still tough to look at vehicles like this and not
compare them to something like the Hyundai Palisade, which was an Edmunds top rated winner and go,
well, for $60,000, what are you getting with a Hyundai Palisade versus the Volvo, you know,
SUV or Volvo wagon, and where the rides a little better, the technology is a little better.
It's got a good look. They're both handsome cars, but it's got a good look to it.
And just a few more advancements in the Hyundai compared to the Volvo that it's tough
to jump on that Volvo bandwagon, if you will. I mean,
Genesis doesn't have the wagon version. They, you know, they just have the SUV version, but
you know, there is something to look at and go out for 60 grand. Like, what do you what do you
get? Volvo has always been, you know, that slight tweener brand that I don't think it's
necessarily seen as like a full on, it is a luxury brand, but it's maybe not in the, you
know, not seen as like BMW or Mercedes. So it sort of fits in that in between a little bit where
you've got, you know, Acura, Infiniti, arguably Lexus, although they wouldn't like me saying that,
you know, you've got, it's a sort of tweener. And then because the mainstream stuff sort of
got so good, you know, the Hyundai's, the Kears, et cetera, then, you know, what are you really
buying into? I mean, what Volvo, I think does well, you know, it's, they do well when they play
to their strengths. You know, they've got a great reputation for safety. They've got the best seats
in the business, in my opinion. They always look good. You know, they've got a lovely kind of,
you know, Swedish simplicity about the design. And then, you know, if they continue to play for
that, they'll be okay. But of course, it's also probably a neat segue. Of course, Volvo these
days is owned by Geely. And which is, you know, is it Geely or is it Geely?
Oh, that's a good point. I was calling it Geely. I was too, but your video, I watched,
I watched the video and your guy specifically said it's Geely, not Geely. And that was the other
reason why I brought up the Volvo is the Volvo is owned by Geely, the parent company, which is also
a vehicle brand name. So it's like Ford and Ford, where Ford also owns Lincoln, but Ford sells
Fords, Geely sells Geelys, and then they sell other things. But they own Volvo, they own Polestar,
Lotus, I believe. Lotus is a weird one. I think there's a difference between
Lotus, the EV manufacturer that makes these big, in my opinion, quite ugly SUVs. And Lotus,
the sports car manufacturer in the UK, which is, you know, keeps making the Evora, you know,
and has been sort of struggling for survival for pretty much as long, you know, since Colin
Chapman died in the 80s. And, you know, so now I want to get into the actual vehicle. But what's
interesting is being owned by the Chinese parent company doesn't mean they're building all of
the cars. So Volvo is still built at Volvos. Some are. So the EX30, which Edmunds bought and is
selling the little one, which I think has been discontinued. That's been discontinued because
it's built in China. And they were looking at, could we build it in Europe and then import it
because all the tariffs have gone in the way. So the only car they were able ever sold in the US
was the twin motor version we had, which was a little rocket ship, but too expensive. And when
I originally drove it in Barcelona on a vehicle event there, you know, it's going to be like 30,
35 grand. And it's like, Hey, this is a really nice little town car. If you live in New York,
I mean, it's going to be great. And that vehicle just never showed up because it was it got caught
up in all the tariff thing and everything else because that's based on a Geely. But then a lot
of the other vehicles, the XC90 and stuff, you know, are built out of Gothenburg and stuff. So
it's and then I think the XC60 is built here. Is that right? I think so. All those got manufacturing
over here. Here's the question. Having been in all of those vehicles, is there a noticeable
difference in, I don't know, build quality or features or whatever between the Chinese built
one and one built somewhere else? No, I haven't driven. I mean, the XC30, the EX30 that we had
was a nice, it was a nice little thing. But no, XC, I was just Googling XC. Now it's XC66
expanding to South Carolina in late 26. That's right. There's going to be some some built here.
But no, I mean, this is in here. So to go us here, so we just tested and we got tons of
interest in this, a Geely, Geely. So not a Volvo, but a Geely, Geely, Geely.
So God, I need another vacation. I just got a comment on YouTube where
this past week we did an episode with Goldberg and Goldberg was saying, listen, you know, I'm
selling my Porsche and bring a trailer and it goes, it sort of opened my eyes up to the Porsche
community and what's going on and how valuable these cars are and how they moved in value.
And a comment was left going, how did he not know this? It's like, how can you have such blinders on?
Like you just can't, you know, base your whole car experience off of like Mopar and muscle cars.
But my comment was there's so much out there. Like it's so tough to keep
track of like, we're talking about new cars here and we're talking about, is it Geely, is it Geely
and is it, you know, all the different versions of things and SUVs and electric and where they're
coming from and like just trying to get a grasp on that, let alone on the, you know, the historical
cars, everything that pops up at auctions. Like how would you expect anybody to go, I'm an expert
in Porsche and JDM and American muscle. And like, it's like, it's too much. There's just too much
out there, especially when you're on the auction circuit and you're going, you know, what are the
serial numbers and what engine option was it? What gear ratio and the muscle cars at four speed
with a 456 gear, because that's more unique than the one that was automatic or like,
they're like, okay, now you're talking about build sheets, not just serial numbers, right?
Like, it's so much. You're right. And I guess that's my, that's my job is to like, on the new car
and I've been around long enough that you do like, I saw something popped up on bring a trailer
today of an Aston Martin DB9 Volante manual. And that's like, how many of those exist,
particularly in America, DB9 Volante manual. And it went for like 50 grand, which sounded like a
steel, about a cabriolet. So DB9, yeah, Volante is the cabriolet. So it's like, okay, that's 50
grand. But anyway, we digress, but you're right, the whole, the whole proliferation of the market,
and especially with, you know, with the Chinese brands coming in, a lot of which have, you know,
different, different names and nomenclature and everything else, it's hard to follow. But,
you know, so we, we, one of the team, Clint went to CES in January, and they had some geelys,
geelys there, muscle memory, they went, they went and drove some there. And then that started a
conversation. And suddenly we got offered this opportunity to test a, to test the car here in
LA. And what we basically said, right, well, if we're going to do, if we're going to do this,
we're not just going to drive it around on some influencer event, you know, we want to do a proper
test of it. And they said, okay, and we were actually dealing directly with, with China.
And I went to our lawyers and said, so we're going to test this Chinese car, which
they were like, but it's not sold here. And I was like, yeah, but it's kind of on this, there is a
law which allows companies to bring in vehicles for purposes of evaluation. And then we were able
to piggyback on this. So anyway, the geely came, geely came to the office. And we had it for about
three weeks in total. And we said, right, let's, let's not think of it as a Chinese car. Let's
think of it as a new car that's launching in America. Let's test it in exactly the same way
as we would the new Palisade or the Telluride, which would compete, which it would compete with.
And let's tell the story of whether we actually think it's any good. So
is the American consumer missing out on not being able to buy a Chinese car? Because as we know,
they're coming to Canada. I was in Mexico last weekend, lots of Chinese cars knocking around
Europe. They're doing phenomenally well. So it's like, okay, this is a, this is a Geely Galaxy M9,
which is a, a good example. Like we didn't want to just, you know, this is a three row
range extender EV. So it's like an e-rev, which we're going to see with the Ram plug in hybrid.
So it's, it's a range extender that you can plug it in. And then also the gas engine can power
the wheels. Yeah, this is where it gets into like a real nuance. It's where these things get really
complicated because yeah, you're right. Then if, hang on, if it powers the wheels, is it
there for a plug-in hybrid and therefore not a range extender where it's simply a generator? But
you remember, I think even the Chevy Volt, the engine could actually power the wheels. So
frankly, it doesn't really matter. The, the, the bottom line is it's got a big enough battery to
do a hundred and did a hundred and one miles, I think in our Edmunds EV range test. And then
after that, it's got an engine which can drive the wheels also acts as a generator. So you've got
over 800 miles of range. Yeah, which is super impressive. Super impressive. And these are
things are all the rage in China. There's tons of these range extenders in China. Again, like the
US big country. So that, that was the starting point. So basically what you've got is a Hyundai
Palisade. It's the three row family SUV that looks like a family three row SUV with a range
extender powertrain system. And in China, it's this, this model starts at $25,000. And I think ours,
which was the fully loaded top trim is somewhere in the 30s. Now with all the kind of taxes, even
if you take away the tariffs, it would never be that cheap here. But our question was, well,
if this was like 40 to 50 grand realistically, how does it stack up then? And the answer is really
good. Really good. So I want to get into some of the test results and I'll bring up pictures and
stuff of the car for you guys watching on YouTube. But let's take a quick break so we can spend a
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from sports fans to eco buffs and movie fans. Seen back in the Sienna with an available rear
seat entertainment system. Slip into the RAV4 with available all wheel drive and let's go.
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so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet. Drivers who
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Okay, so we're talking about the GLE, the three row SUV and the one you guys got. First of all,
smart to get the three row because that's mostly what we like out here. We want the big SUV.
I'm sure there's plenty of small cars that do well out there, but for us in America, we like the
bigger SUVs. So to take something like that, and yes, so the powertrain is a little bit complex.
It has a small gas engine motor. It has, I think, three electric motors. It has like 800 plus 850
horsepower combined. 850, 859 pounds for you to talk, which is a lot.
Which is a lot. So obviously, it can't just be driven by the gas engine because it's got like a,
I don't know, a 2 liter, 1.5 liter or something. 1.5 liter turbo, yeah.
Yeah, tiny little engine. So that's not making 850 horsepower. It's the motor. So it has to be
driven by the motors, but somehow it can be driven by just the gas engine.
It sounds mighty complicated, but actually when you drive it, you know, I drove it at our test
track and it feels pretty seamless. You know, you can play around with different settings. There's
nothing, you know, the technology's good. The technology works. There was nothing in the
experience of driving this. It's not like we used to have it in the family of BMW i3 and,
you know, if the motor kicked in, you thought something was wrong with the car because it
sounded so industrial. This isn't it. Everything's super smooth. Really quiet.
The integration is really good. The quietness is extraordinary. When we measured it, it was quieter
than an electric Rolls Royce Seraph. Spectre. Which is an extraordinary achievement. It's
the quietest car that we've ever, ever tested. And that's not just about bolting extra material to
sound. That's, you know, that's a car that's thoroughly well engineered, you know, road noise,
wind noise, everything. Vibration, you know, exhaust routing, like just everything where it
goes. Everything, every placement of everything has to be taken into effect when you're when
you're trying to make it that quiet. And there's nothing in this car that the most interesting
thing from a technical perspective is the is the powertrain. And it is mighty fast. I mean,
we did zero to 64.2 seconds, quarter mile, 12.9. The grip, the ultimate grip wasn't that high,
but frankly, that that can be a tire thing as well. You know, braking was really good. Sound
was really good. It's set up, it's on air suspension, it's set up quite soft, softer than we would
typically have in the US, which means the ride quality is almost like an old fashioned American
car where you get a little bit of pitch, a little bit of dive, but a little bit of body roll. But
it's a little bit of a software thing, you know, you would if you wanted more of a kind of US feel,
you could you could you could quite easily address that. And then the interior, the thing I was
really interested in was how good is the how good is the quality, both the build quality,
but also the materials. If you remember when, particularly when the Korean brands were starting
out, like the material choices and things like that, they were felt always felt quite cheap
and plasticky. And some of the design wasn't on a par with, you know, the best of the Japanese
or the or the West. This just isn't the case. Now, it just you get into it. Everything feels very
solid. The materials feel really high grade. You know, the leather's good, the plastic's good.
You've got a 30 inch screen in the middle of the car. Then the resolution and 6k resolution,
super responsive. I mean, like Tesla level responsive or iPhone responsive.
Everything about it, you get in the thing, this is this is actually really good.
These there's no sort of massive novelties. There's one little thing that I kind of appealed
to me as you get sit in the back, you can push your button and it's a it can pivot between being
a fridge and to keep your stuff cold or you can or you can change the temperature so it'll actually
keep keep your food warm. And I thought that's actually that's not a gimmick. That's something
I would genuinely use that super smart. Everything falls flat. So you got lots of versatility.
You know, they thought they've really thought this vehicle through everything's powered,
everything feels river burst, even though there's a sort of infotainment screen in the back as well,
which is really responsive. So if I sound like I'm raving about it, actually, we came away
really impressed and we came but we didn't we didn't do like a full rating because there was a
few things like the software and some safeties that we which we weren't able to test. This
isn't federalized from America and everything was kind of in giant in Chinese. But there was
nothing we drove it on the track, we drove it on the road, we did took it through the range test,
did 101 miles. There's really nothing here that that either your German style now that's that's
too much of an eccentricity. Or you think this just isn't working. If this came in at like 40 to
50 grand, it would be a genuine contender. No question about it. It's really good.
This this screen in the pictures is massive. But when you watch the video and you kind of see
how it works and how it's accessible to both the driver and the passenger, it is functionality wise,
it is impressive. Like you said, the speed, the boot up time, and then the size of that screen
and the quality of it, you know, having things like, you know, turn signal, the, you know,
the cameras come on when the turn signals are on or the reverse, you know, camera, it's so it's
so big and so detailed, like it's makes you think you won't ever back into anything.
Well, I mean, 30 inch tele in your car is it's a big screen and aesthetically, it looks a bit,
you know, it does feel like they've been to best buy a bullet on a massive massive computer monitor.
But that's just the front one. There's one that folds down in the back out of the ceiling. Yeah.
Yeah. With the same quality of resolution. Yeah. But but but I guess relative to the price the car
screens are now, you know, pretty cost effective, you know, pretty cost effective when you compare
that to what like a contemporary Subaru has and how bad how long that takes to load up and how
laggy it is. It's it's it's really good. And what what I actually did an interview this morning
with the Wall Street Journal talking about it and you know, would American consumers,
you know, consider this and Reuters did a piece on it and everything else. We've got a lot of
interest. And I was also really intrigued to see what the commentary would be like, you know,
what would people say on social? What would people say on YouTube? And, you know, kind of half
expected, you know, kind of a sort of anti Chinese or whatever it would be. And frankly,
we've seen very, very little of it. We've seen a little bit of like anti EV or whatever. But a lot
of people, you know, I'd say the vast majority of people are looking at it and going, this is
really impressive. If they sold it here, I would seriously consider it. And it's kind of interesting
because you hear a lot of rhetoric about this is why we got tariffs or we got this or that or
people wouldn't buy from everything that we've seen and all the all the response that we've had.
You know, I think this could be could be a success. And I think US consumers, I mean, it's
crazy. I'm sitting here with my iPhone made in China, like what's okay, it's an American brand
and the money comes back to America. But, you know, if you've got this, if you've got a great
product at a great price, I think history suggests that US consumers buy it. And particularly if they
open, you know, they decide, OK, we're going to have a geely plant in North Carolina.
Yeah. So this, this is an interesting topic, not just on the car and the quality of the car,
but I'm glad you guys got to see this car, to test this car, to drive it in the real world.
Because we're we're hearing car manufacturers, we're hearing the administration guys like Jim
Farley from Ford and others saying, I've been to China, I've toured the plants, we've we've seen
the vehicles, we've brought them over there, we've tested them and we have a lot of catching up to do.
But we have no real idea of what he means by that until now in seeing a car like this,
me and my test car like this. And looking at it going in China, this is, you know, by the way,
this is a really nice vehicle anywhere in the world. And in China at 25 to 35,000, call it 35,000
for what you tested, the fully loaded version, 35,000 ish, which is an incredible price. Now,
here you go, all right, well, we brought that here, there's tariffs, there's rules, there's
regulations, there's, you know, all kinds of stuff, maybe different crash testing, maybe that drives
the price up to $50,000 or $60,000. And we look at it and go, well, $50,000, $60,000 is now a competitive
price range, how does it compete? And it would compete well. But the other question is, and this
is one of the questions that Jim Farley has been vocal about, is not what would that car cost if
we brought it here, it's if they're building it and selling it in China for 35,000, how can we not
make something in our own country that's competitive for 35,000? You know, because you're
taking tariffs out and everything else. And that's the issue that he's running into and going, how
are they doing this so well? And how are we not collectively as a country not doing it as well?
And it's very easy to say, well, it's because, you know, it's a communist country and the states,
this is all states subsidized. And there's definitely an element of that, you know,
they're not necessarily subjected to this, you know, potentially got, you know, state incentives,
or there's, there's, there are, this is like, obviously, a different business model, and you
don't have the legacy of Ford in terms of, you know, all the, you know, the historical costs
and everything else. But then Tesla has also benefited from, you know, big state subsidies
and factories that were kind of half, you know, they've given to them and all the rest of it.
So we know that that is not like that hasn't played played out here. There was some interesting
stuff talking to Ford, and I think which has prompted this whole rethink of their EV strategy,
when they stripped down a Tesla, they realized that the Mackie had, I think, 30% more parts or
something. And, you know, I think they're doing the same thing with China. But it's really interesting
when a guy of Farley's statue, his chief executive officer of Ford, when he comes out and says something
like that, you kind of think he's talking to his own employees, the union, the unions, really,
he's basically, you know, dealer, dealer network, the dealer groups, it's like, Hello guys.
And I'm just reading the book on a really interesting book on how Alan Mulally, you
know, saved Ford called American icon by Bryce Hoffman, who's a really good journalist. I'm
just started reading that. And it's interesting all talking about the politics and the back and
forth. And it was quite stark to me. I think he was saying that to his own company is like,
you know, cut with the BS, you know, this is what we're up against. And we better shape up. And,
you know, it's interesting that their EV project is down here in California. It's not in Detroit.
And, you know, they've got to change because right now I go back to Europe, I go back to England,
and there's Chinese cars everywhere. I read something the other day that perhaps a Chinese
brand will be the number one seller in the UK next year. It's coming into Mexico. It's coming
up in a world where the American America is this kind of protected island and has different cars to
the rest of the world. I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but it's heading in that direction.
You're right. So we need to look at so somebody like Farley and the other CEOs of these automotive
manufacturers and the government as well needs to look at the entire process from building the car.
And what does that mean? Facilities, you know, parts, labor, unions. And then the next step
and the next step, it's getting those vehicles delivered, fuel costs for that, get dealers,
and the amount of money dealers make on it. And honestly, I don't even know how they sell cars
in China. Do they have a similar dealer network where it's sort of a three-tier system where you
kind of distribute to them and they're not the wholesaler, but now they're the retail operation
that's doing it. I'll be honest, Mark, I should know the answer to this. I'm not as familiar with
from brand to brand. I want to go out to China when I get the opportunity. I've been out a couple
of times with work. It'd be fascinating to go to one of the big shows and really feel this
market out because there's some incredible stuff coming out of there. Listen, just someone who's
sort of in CPG, consumer package goods space as well. There's this typical three-tier system
where like, I am the manufacturer of a product. I make a drink and then I have to sell to a
distributor and they get a 30% markup and then they sell to a retailer like your grocery store
and they get a 30% markup. So you see more and more companies pop up, all these companies
that advertise on Instagram and social media and they're doing the direct to consumer model.
What's called the DTC model and everything from mattresses to supplements and whatever,
because they're going, I'm losing 60% of my total revenue to distributors and retailers.
And if I can sell to you directly, not only would I as a company make more money, but I can
effectively make my price lower overall, which is something Tesla has been trying to do,
something Rivian's been trying to do, something that Fisker tried to do. And then of course,
people get sued and going, well, the dealer association says, it's not fair that another
company can sell cars direct to consumers and other ones don't. But ultimately, I kind of see
that model happening if you want to bring those prices down or maybe some sort of hybrid model.
There's a use for the dealer, but it doesn't have to be 100% of the sales. It could be the
delivery, it could be the maintenance of the warranty work, the aftermarket parts.
There's a lot of things going on that the dealer can do, but they're not going down
without a fight. They want those margins on those cars.
And I think it's the American business. A lot of dealers do a great job and up at the end of
that great thing, the mom and pop dealer at the end of the road who looks after you and that's
still a big part of it. And not everybody wants their car to be delivered autonomously and just
dumped outside your house with an entry code. There is this thing about personal service.
I mean, obviously, if Chinese brand coming in, that would be the whole thing about how they
sell as a Polestar, struggle with that model. So let's see. But for me, it's hard to imagine a
world wherein let's say in 10, 15 years time and Chinese brands are competing or even dominating
in Europe, in Canada, in Mexico and everything else. And the US just stays this kind of protectionist
island. It's hard to, I'm not saying it won't happen. It could do. But we had this a lot with
Japanese cars in the past where they had all these tariffs on them and then suddenly they
didn't. It's hard to imagine that you end up in that place in 15, 20 years time.
Yes. But we can't just look at the politics of it and just the tariffs. And one of the things that
Farley and some of the other admins over at these car companies are looking at going,
we need to sort of rethink how we are building cars. We need more modular systems. We need
more shared parts across the lineup, more efficiency. Like you had said, the Mach-E was
overbuilt, believe it or not. It had so much cooling, so much wiring and add this extra weight.
And then at the end of the day, they looked at it and they compared it to some of the other vehicles
out there, Tesla and some of the Chinese vehicles and going, oh, we went too much over this. Like,
there was just too much stuff in this car over build it. And the technology, one of the issues,
and you had brought this up, oh, I don't know if it was last week or the last couple of weeks,
saying we're not sharing, there's not much of, what were you calling it? I'm drawing a blank,
but sort of a software driven vehicle. There's too many components from different sources and
they're all trying to talk to one brain, if you will. And it doesn't work. It doesn't seem to work
because things keep breaking and the car gets confused. That's true. And I think what Tesla
and what Tesla did really cleverly is they own the whole infrastructure. It's their software,
it's they own the whole infrastructure. And I think the Chinese brands, I mean,
follow themselves about like the smartphone integration and things like that is so much
more seamless. So Rivian, same thing, Rivian has also gone out of its way to protect its IPA
and that's also why Volkswagen has put $5 billion in it to buy the technology. I mean,
who would have thought that Rivian, that Volkswagen would be going out and spending
$5 billion are basically to license somebody else's software. It's crazy when you think about it.
And I think the Chinese have gone in this direction as well. So it's a fascinating time.
It really is. And it was, I was super excited to get this vehicle in because it's all right
having all this, you know, pictures of it and, you know, on TV and everything else, but to actually
sort of drive it and think this is this kind of there. It's not like there's not really many
caveats. Listen, I would say for, for, for all of you listening, go to the Edmunds website and,
and either read the article or just watch the video that you guys put up. It's up on the YouTube
channel as well. Just to kind of get an idea of what we mean is happening with this car,
how it excelled in certain areas. It's not perfect, but how it excelled in certain areas.
Now the video is very consumer facing. It's a road test. It's a track test. So it's saying,
you know, it stops well, it's quick, it has a great range, but we didn't get to look under the
bodywork and go, how did they do it? Like, how are they saving the money? You know, what's happening?
And then GLE presumably is a big company and a lot of that technology under the skin of this
SUV is shared across multiple other vehicles. One, one reason for sure how they can get that
price down. You can't just go, hey, we're going to build an F-150 and then everything on the F-150
is just going to be on the F-150. At this point we're going, no, we need to share some of this
stuff. It needs to be under multiple vehicles and it can't just be F-150 and Expedition because
they're similar, right? You got to go, what technology are we using here that can go
across the lineup of all of the cars so we can get that shared cost and volume discounts?
And then one of the other things, of course, that you mentioned was you can't, you can't go to all
of your vendors and go, we need this and this and this and this. And there are all parts that have
sensors and electronics. And then Ford goes, okay, now we need to develop an operating system that
talks to the airbags and the brakes and it talks to this. And these are all the vendors that supply
it. It's kind of the other way around. It's Ford going, we're developing an operating system and
now you, the vendors need to make parts that talk with our operating system, right? Because if we're
trying to talk to all these individual things, that's where over the air updates get complicated,
going, oh, we're going to do it over in the air update, but there's very limited on what things
we can control, the manufacturer can fix and do because it's trying to talk to all of these third
party built electronics. So we can't really do that. If you think about your Apple and the Apple
Store, all of the apps have to talk to the operating system of your phone. It's not the phones going,
oh, we're going to just adapt to every app because there's way too many. So there's,
there's a, the developer tools are going, build your app. This is how it needs to be compatible
with Apple's operating system. And that's what we need from vendors is to be compatible with
whatever operating system is in the car. It is interesting as well, how quickly these things
are talking to Rivian and when they're doing the R2 versus the R1, or I think even when they did the
version two of the R1, they're talking about the miles and miles of cabling that they took out,
you know, even though they started from a pretty sophisticated place is how much,
you know, in two or three years they'd learned and they were able to kind of rip out and
start again. Of course, all of that is not just complexity and cost, it's also weight. So you
get this kind of virtuous circle. So yeah, money, people aren't where manufacturers spend an awful
lot of time and money buying up other people. And there are third parties that do it as well,
buying up vehicles and then basically stripping, what they call reverse engineering. So they
pull it apart and figure out how the hell they've done it. So I mean, that's how, you know.
I'm curious to know how many external vendors does Gila use to build their cars versus how
much of the parts are built in-house? Because every time you buy a product from a vendor,
that vendor needs to make money and there's a markup on it.
I mean, historically, manufacturers never really made anything, they just assemble.
Yeah, right. They stamp some steel and they create some shapes.
Yeah, and I don't know, but I think a lot of it is, you know, Tesla obviously doesn't build,
you know, doesn't build, you know, brakes and they use bread mones, all the bad tires and the
rest of it. So everybody's got suppliers, but I think it's also about how you, your relationship
with that supply chain and everything else. And as you say, how you set the architecture up and
how you liaise with all those people, because everybody uses Bosch and, you know, you start
strip these things down. There's all sorts of shared suppliers across the whole industry. But
yeah, it's been a really interesting, somebody said to me this morning, would I,
you know, would we test more of these? And, you know, it's interesting reading the YouTube,
so, oh, can you test this? Can you test that? So we'll see. Obviously, we want to do it here
in America. So if there are people out there with, you know, with more cars that we can't buy and,
you know, we won't be doing it every week, but it was a very interesting exercise.
Opportunity presented itself and you guys took advantage of it and jumped on it and said,
yes, let's try to make this happen. Yes. And, you know, got to go to the lawyers and go to the,
you know, try to figure out how to get this done. But it's good. And I'm glad you did,
because this is interesting. It gives us sort of a real world, like sort of consumer facing look at
what the car manufacturers have been talking about going, hey, you know, you know, I've been to
China and they're kind of doing things differently over there, but we're not exactly sure what that
means. And like they didn't just build an inexpensive car. They built a pretty good
inexpensive, you know, like a very good car. You know, so that's definitely eye-opening going,
you know, even at double their cost here in the U.S. at $60,000 or $70,000, you go, okay.
Yeah, I'd say it's competitive at like up to about 60 grand. You know, I think above that it
would become more of a struggle. But yeah, really, really interesting. Watch the video.
And I guess the other news this week, thinking about it, like, you know, we're driving this Chinese
car, Volkswagen killed off the ID4 in America. I mean, it was funny, I was with Volkswagen's
leadership last week in New York. They kept quiet about this one, but they've killed off the ID4.
So, you know, China's marching forward to all these EVs and they've killed off making the
ID4 in America to make a large, gas-powered SUV in the form of the new Atlas, which is not massively
economical. Economical from a perspective that it'll sell. But, you know, ID4 was a bit unloved.
So, I don't think there's going to be too many, many tears shed. They got better as the years
went on. They kind of updated a little bit, but I don't think too many people will shed a tear
over the ID4. You know, I drove it and, again, I kind of just struggled with it. It was like, just
felt, it felt kind of cheap and not very solid. And again, we talked about some of those touch
points, steering wheels and buttons and AC controls and all of it just felt like they,
that's where they cut corners. So, it didn't, you know, it didn't really resonate with me. But,
you know, when there's other options out there that seem to be doing it better. Yeah.
But still, another interesting sign of the times. Yeah. All right. So, what happened to the GLE?
They took it back? It went home? Yeah. The GLE's gone back to whoever's handling it in America. So,
we'll, yeah, we'll wait and see until the next interesting thing comes along.
Yeah. Maybe a trip to China to see what they've got going on. I would love to go to China. I might
be nice to, but I'd love to go back to China. I drove a Ferrari across China once. That was an
amazing experience. Maybe one for another show. Maybe one for another show. All right. We're
going to wrap things up. Again, check out the Edmunds YouTube channel. Of course, you can watch
a car cast on our YouTube channel as well. Just search for car cast on YouTube. And you can watch
that video at the Edmunds channel of the GLE. The GLE. GLE. Yeah. The GLE Galaxy M9.
What else is going on? What's coming up? What's coming up that you can talk about?
What's coming up that I can talk about? I mean, we just did a little test that you can read about
on the site with the Kirgott's Drive, the GT3, the 911 GT3 race car as well as the road cast.
That was a fun little piece. Back in the real world, we did the Honda Pilot against
Pathfinder against Toyota Grand Highlander. Three interesting three rows. A little bit of news on
the Jeep bringing back the Trailhawk on the Cherokee, which I think they have to do for
credibility, right? So yeah, it's all happening. It doesn't stop. I have, well, I'm going to head
out to NHRA this weekend or as you're listening to this. And then Grand Prix of Long Beach is
coming up. Yeah, hoping to make it down there next week. We'll see. Then the Air Water event,
the offshoot of Lufka Kult basically. That event is coming up. And next week,
which I'm excited about because you've spoken so highly of it, I swapped the Volvo for the Ioniq
5N. Oh, it's a great car. And so I'm going to be going from Volvo wagon to
Ioniq 5N. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it should be fun. I'm excited about that. Okay, guys,
thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next week. Until then, keep the air in the spare
and the bag in the wheel.
Dear crew, it's Toyota with an adult sized third row. Everyone's welcome in the Grand Highlander
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About this episode
The hosts kick off with a personal chat about language immersion and how kids pick up accents, then pivot to cars. Volvo V60 Cross Country gets praise as a charming “in-between” wagon/SUV, though dated tech like wired CarPlay is a drawback. The big focus is Edmunds’ test of the Chinese-built Geely Galaxy M9, a three-row range-extended EV aimed at the Palisade/Telluride crowd. Despite complex powertrain hardware, it delivers astonishing quietness, strong performance, and a premium-feeling interior—raising questions about pricing, tariffs, and how US automakers can compete.
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