CarCast+Edmunds - We take a look at some of the new vehicles expected in 2026.

Hello, welcome to the Edmunds CarCast podcast. I'm Matt, the moderator, D'Andrea here with Alistair and Nick.

Welcome back to the show. Nick's part of the Edmunds team as well.

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We were kind of talking about heading into the new year, which has been the topic for a couple of weeks now, it seems like.

And what to look forward to in the new year.

Alistair, toward the end of last year, we touched on a few things as cars were coming in.

Mercedes, we talked about, CLA, we talked about BMW X3, what's going to be new there.

But worth mentioning again, so what do you think guys, you want to go through just a list of maybe a handful of cars or so and see what we think is going to be interesting for this year?

Something to keep an eye on?

Yeah, we have a pretty little, we put a little list together.

This is not necessarily exhaustive of everything that's happening this year, but it's kind of the ones that perhaps we're most most interested in or really kind of caught the eye or perhaps are particularly, particularly interesting.

It's a sort of funny year.

There are a lot of the really big name stuff.

Toyota RAV4 was new last year.

You think of the really big sellers.

There's nothing on here, maybe apart from the Chevy Silverado, which you probably won't see till the end of the year.

That is a sort of massive seller, but there's a lot in our list that is really interesting.

And obviously there's the whole EV thing going on and range extenders and everything else.

So where do you want to start?

Top of my list is BMW iX3, which we talked about this year.

Let's take a look at that.

BMW iX3.

I'm trying to find pictures of some of the stuff that we're talking about, but not all of it's that easy to find because some of it has just popped up at events and shows and press releases.

So iX3 is a car we've already driven in Germany.

I think it was Germany.

It was in Spain, if I remember correctly.

Spain, there you go.

I never get those gigs anyway.

Somebody had a nice trip to Spain or Europe or Germany or wherever and drove it.

But iX3 is basically BMW's new electric, small luxury SUV, but it's kind of a bigger deal for them that this is the big demonstration of all their new technology.

And it also sets the scene for this kind of new generation of BMWs, which we'll also see with the three series coming up this year.

The three series has always been the heartland of BMW.

If they don't get the three series and the iX3 that goes with it right, then that's kind of a big deal for the business.

Do you like the way it looks, Nick?

Matt and I were debating this on the show a few weeks ago.

It looks great from some angles, other angles it looks a bit.

Yeah, I think I'm okay with the front because they've finally gone away from the massive kidney grill thing.

But if you go to the picture of the back, a designer friend of mine actually noticed this and it seems like the back is cut into equal length, like horizontal sections.

So everything is the exact same width and you can just repeat that rectangle all the way from top to bottom.

It's kind of weird once you notice it.

So I think the rear looks like a little funny to me anyway, but it's definitely better than like M3 or the most recent, you know, seven series, at least in my opinion.

And there's stuff that's going on on the interior, like the sort of the skewed to the side screen and the oddly turned steering wheel, which is there's an optional for, there's an option I found out for regular steering wheel, by the way.

You don't have this one that looks like it's tilted sideways.

So for those of you watching it on YouTube, you'll see the steering wheel because there's no like gauges in a conventional location in front of you.

You don't need that hole in your steering wheel to see through.

So BMW is like, so let's definitely get rid of that.

We'll put like a spar that goes from not just like from 12 o'clock to the center, which makes like a force book steering wheel doesn't make any sense to me, but okay.

Yeah, so they made this sort of this vertical element in the middle of the steering wheel, but you know, like it's fine.

I don't hate the interior.

I think it's going to work.

I mean, this idea of putting gauges and elements of what's going on in the car far forward underneath the windshield is, you know, we're seeing that in Lincoln and I thought it was fine in Lincoln.

I'm not sure there's there's something else.

I forgot what who has it that's doing it like that.

But it's like infinity.

There's something similar.

A lot of the big SUVs.

Ford's doing the expedition now as well.

I mean, you've gone away from like that classic BMW, you know, I was in one the other day and you've got like that classic.

You own one.

Right.

With the original.

Nick owns a 740 from 1997.

Yeah.

It's so funny.

It's so funny how like watching BMW go from like straight clean lines and like circular headlights to this like weird obsession with polygons.

Like everything is some kind of weird like trapezoidal shape nowadays.

They're like, I mean, it's 30 years.

The cars like actually as old as I am, but like the difference could not be more clear.

Also, another thing with the IX three is like, if you can see it, every new BMW will probably follow this design language.

So the three series will look like a smaller version of this car.

X five and IX five will look like this too.

Like they're sticking with it.

They're not, they're not going to go back from it.

Like this is their design language for the foreseeable future.

So all of them will look like that.

So if you like it, great.

If you don't, well, you know,

You're going to be stuck with it for a little while.

Yeah.

I'm looking at the initial write up and Steven wrote it.

Did Steven get to go to Spain?

Is that?

Yeah, Steve's got more air miles than Santa.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

That's quite a good line.

I just thought of that one.

I'm going to use that again.

Yeah, use that again.

Well, he has a good write up on it.

So we won't dig into the specs completely.

But I just thought it was kind of interesting too.

You know, like you said, this is a big part of a new push forward with BMW design language and technology and stuff.

So the three series will be a bit more, a bit more conservative,

just because sedans by nature and the people who buy them tend to be more conservative.

But, you know, it will still, the interior will, I think, will look very, very similar.

You know, and as Nick said, a lot of the kind of motifs will carry across.

And three series isn't as big a deal as it used to be in the U.S.

It's still quite a big player in Europe.

But it is still kind of an important.

We talk a lot about cars that brands have like a sort of natural fulcrum, if you like.

In Mercedes, it's probably the E class.

BMW has always really been the three series.

Yeah.

When you think BMW, you think three series.

That's the first thing that comes to my mind anyway.

Yeah.

I mean, it was such a dominant, like winner in its class for so long that everyone was going after three series, you know.

You know, now we see car companies that you wouldn't expect, you know, car companies like, I don't know, like Ford going,

we're going to buy a Porsche and bring it to our test facility so we can benchmark Mustang before you wouldn't think to do that.

But everyone was going against three series.

Anyone in that class was like, three series is the benchmark, you know.

The default sports sedan.

But talking about, if we move the game on, like the other one we talked about, like where the Brown,

we mentioned Mercedes in the E class, but also the S class for generations has been the default show for luxury cars.

I mean, like, look, compare S class sales with seven series sales or eight sales or Lexus sales, nothing.

The S class in that market is just the luxury sedan.

And yeah, there's a new one coming up.

I think we're heading to Europe.

See it pretty, pretty soon if memory serves.

And I think we've already gone, but we're waiting for all the official info.

So it will show up soon.

Real soon.

As you can see, I'm like completely on top of the game.

Yeah, I'm the news guy.

That's my job.

I don't know where anybody.

I don't say I have a spray.

We have like a system, like a piece of software.

And look at it, find out where people are in the world.

But yeah, this is the this is the new.

I mean, what you're showing on the screen there might as the old one.

This is a genuinely new.

It's always a big deal because in times gone by the S class was always the one where all the fancy new tech debuted.

Yeah.

And then it had this sort of trickle down.

But in recent years, Mercedes has almost gone in the other direction where the CLA, which is getting rave reviews from us and other people.

The CLA is like debuted the technology right at the bottom of the range, you know, all the new dashboard, this kind of big wrap around screen.

So it's getting harder and harder.

And we talked about this on the show before, harder and harder to differentiate luxury from everything else because the technology is democratized.

So it'd be really interesting to see what they've got on the S class that makes you think, wow, that's worth, you know, 150,000 bucks or something.

I mean, I think they're going to have to do something.

And BMW as well in the big cars, it just seems like S class and the seven series haven't really been in the conversation for a while.

And I would say even, you know, Audi, you know, as well, it's all been SUVs and it's all been EVs.

And we just haven't talked about, you know, the big super sedan for a while, you know, the top of the heap sedan.

So I guess they're going to have to do something.

Listen, maybe they missed the market list card.

I see the seven series around here in the neighborhood and I'm like, it's OK.

It's like, I'm sure it's amazing to drive and it's nice inside and it's great.

But, you know, it doesn't drive by me and I go, oh man, that's so nice.

It's actually not.

I mean, it's OK to drive, but it just inside as well.

It just feels like a slightly bigger version of a five series for a lot more money.

Yeah.

BMW has gone in for like a lot of tech, almost like gimmicky type stuff lately.

And like, if you like ambient lighting, then that's the car for you.

But, you know, like real luxury touches, I think the S class still has it nailed down.

Whenever somebody asked me, like, oh, what do you think the best car on sale is?

I'm just like, whatever the new S class is.

And I'm my guess is that'll remain the case because like they take that car very seriously.

It's also the guy around the corner from me just bought one and he had one before

and he said he went back and it was like 30 grand more because all the prices

have gone up the base of the same car.

But he bought it anyway.

He bought it anyway.

Wait, he's the same guy that bought the Lexus because he wanted a fancy SUV with

some off-road capability and mileage be damned.

No, it's another guy.

Different neighborhood.

Well, you must live in a pretty nice neighborhood.

Yeah, I'm at the puller end of the street, believe me.

So we've got S class.

We also got CLA, which we've already talked about on the show.

Excited by that.

It's a great entry-level Merc.

I know the EV in particular has got an amazing result in our range test.

So I haven't driven it yet.

I haven't driven it.

But a question that that inspires for me is now that Gordon Wagner is leaving Mercedes,

I wonder if the brand will follow the precedent set by the CLA or if they're going to also

switch gears and change the way they do their designs now that their head of design is leaving

the company.

I wonder if more cars will look like CLA or more cars will look something different in

the future.

That's an interesting thing.

But I guess it's three or four years till we find out anyway.

Yeah, that's true.

At least, maybe five.

The CLA, if I recall, was one that I think we brought this up before and you and I were

debating on the look of this, too.

So let me see if I can find the picture of that.

You've still got this weird sort of like fish-like front end.

It's got this weird light strip, which visually pushes the grille.

If you want to leave something in your car, then if you imagine a grille and then it has

this horizontal light strip along the top of it and the visual effect of that is to

kind of push the nose down.

It looks better in real life, but it's still a bit curious.

It definitely looks like it's pouting to me.

So the headlights have connect with this light bar.

The way my Ford Lightning does, the way like a Cybertruck would, but then it has this pouty

grille in the front, in my opinion, has this pouty grille.

The shape of this grille, the way it kind of pouts down is like it's a little bit Ford

Escape.

It looks a bit pissed off.

It does.

Sad car.

Yeah.

Like angry eyes and fish mouth.

Yeah.

I guess see it in person.

I'm not sure.

I love the look of it, but yeah, it's all right.

What else?

Honda Zero Series.

Yeah.

I think that looks a lot more interesting at least than the CLA.

I don't know if it's more classically beautiful, but it's definitely more interesting to look

at, which, and there are going to be two of those.

One's going to be a sedan and the other one's going to be more of like a almost like reborn

Honda Element-esque like square body SUV.

They're both going to be EVs.

They're both going to be like completely from the ground up Honda.

They're going to have like a whole new tech stack as well.

But it's the first time Honda's built an EV like of their own because the prologue,

as we know, was sharing all of its parts with the Chevy Blazer and there was all GM stuff.

So this is their first genuine like solid effort and they're starting at the end of this year,

I think.

Yeah.

And also that when I was at the CES show and they unveiled all this and yeah, one of them

looks a bit like a Lamborghini Gallardo at the front.

Yeah.

Like a stretched out one, like a Ford Gallardo.

They look really cool.

And at the time it was like, we're going up Mark here.

This is going to be thing.

And now you look at it and go, wow, there's not many people buying $80,000 EVs right now.

No matter how cool they look.

So yeah, especially with the Honda badge.

So let's see.

I mean, the first, we've got it on our list actually the first Honda product on this platform

that will then this underpinning that will then underpin all the Hondas as well is actually

an Acura.

So the, the first one we'll see is actually an Acura RSX EV, which will, which will preview

the Honda.

So the Acura comes first, which is not always the way around to do it.

And then we'll, we'll see the, we'll, we'll see the Hondas and we should see the Acura

this year.

If I remember rightly.

Yeah.

The Acura should come out this year.

It's, it's a very different looking thing to the, to the Hondas.

It's like very angular and like got lots of triangles going on.

It's a very far cry from the RSX of the old days.

You can remember that slinky little coop that they used to make with like the scalloped out

tail lights.

That's, that's a thing of the past.

This is like a, like a Tesla Model Y sized thing.

And it's, that's exactly what they're going for.

That's the market that they want with the RSX.

We'll see.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

The ZDX lasted a year.

This is color.

One model year.

Yeah.

They never renewed it for 2025 and then they just said, okay, nevermind.

We're out.

Yeah.

We're out.

We'll fulfill the contract.

Like the little Honda zero SUVs.

It's got a little Polestar going on.

Right.

Like it's got some, some Polestar influence.

That's, do you see how many cars?

Polestar just announced their sales figures.

I think they sold like 6,000 in the US last year.

That's like, yeah.

Yeah.

Although it was the press release is we've got record sales, but I think if it's like

the first year you're selling cars, going from zero to any number is record sales.

So not exactly sure.

I mean, sure.

Kudos to them for, for, for the PR team going, listen, how are we going to write this up?

Let's do it.

30 to 45.

That's 50% rise.

You know, like a little bit of that.

I like, I mean, I like the Polestar brand.

I like the way that they look and the styling is cool.

I, we talked before, I like looking the Genesis going back.

My wife was saying the day like, what's new?

And I was like, well, it's actually not a lot.

There's not, you know, there's not a lot actually come out in the last couple of years since,

in the three years since we got our, our family car, the lease is up.

It's been a bit of a funny time.

There's not that much.

Certainly the EV will really hit the market.

That's, that's, that's that interesting.

So I'm quite like the Polestar, but that God, it's, it's expensive at the moment.

So I don't want to skip too far ahead on our list here, but like close to a GV 60, but

like more rugged, the R2, that's something that I'm personally super excited for.

Smaller Rivian.

Yeah.

Smaller Rivian.

I think that'll be like a, I think that'll be a big deal.

And it's also, also a pretty good looking thing.

Like doesn't look like anything else on the road, at least not to me anyway.

We don't know how drives or anything or range figures, but like, I like the R1S, but I

think it's too big for city streets.

I live in LA.

So I think something smaller is like perfect.

Yeah.

It's too big and too expensive really.

Um, you know, yeah, this, this, I'm also excited by this.

I think Rivian generally has been doing a, a good job.

They've scraped off a lot of their quality issues.

The technology is good.

That's why I've also invested so much into them.

It's, the design is good.

Um, yeah, I think this is going to be a, it's tricky for them to man, you know, getting

to more, what is more the mass market, but if they're going to really grow and prosper,

then it's probably the way forward.

Do you think we should get one?

I think we should get one.

Yeah.

I think we've got an older down.

Wait, wait.

Was it your idea to get the Fisker?

Because if so, you've been, you're not a lot of pick cars anymore.

Whose idea was that?

Yours?

I think I was, I think I was, I was.

If that was Nick's idea, then.

Yeah.

I need Nick like twisted my arm, you know.

If that was Nick's idea, then Nick should be picking a car for at least a year.

He told me to wait a moment.

Got a really good idea.

You're not going to believe this.

Yeah.

You know what you should do.

You should get this.

Yeah.

But listen, I get it.

Henrik Fister, I like talking to him.

He's a charming guy.

He's definitely a salesman and he's, he's interesting to talk to you, but he's, he's

had a couple of misses.

Yeah.

It's a tough gig.

It's a, you know, I, yeah, I think there's certain things that he didn't do well or didn't

do perhaps properly.

But yeah, it's also, it's a tough gig.

But the Rivian, Rivian's established now, you know, I don't think Rivian is going anywhere,

but this has got a, you know, at least in the short term, but we'll, we'll see.

Their designs are really good.

They've got that kind of industrial sheet going on.

I think it's a, it's a nice thing.

And I guess the other one in a similar vein and even cheaper price point would be the

slate truck, which we have got on order.

Yeah, we do for sure.

I'm still, I'm a bit, I had a sneak preview of that thing months before the unveil.

And I was just like, starts off really cheap, which I really like, but then by the time

you put in like basic things like a stereo and stuff like that, then suddenly you get

into third, into the thirties, then they've taken away the tax credit.

So I love what it stands for.

I love what it's trying to do, but it's just not like a 17 grand truck anymore.

I think you, you know, the, I think you're going to end up paying low thirties.

And then what you end up with is something quite small into utilitarian.

And I worry that people are going to look around and go, hang on a minute.

I can have a maverick hybrid.

And that's, that's a really proper truck.

Yeah.

I, you're right.

I like the idea of, of like starting with this modular component and adding things onto

it that you may or may not need or things you, you want to add to it later because so many,

like me, I modify my cars.

So there's things I think about later going on.

I'm going to do this to it.

I'm going to do this to it or something else knew that came out.

That's kind of interesting.

But I, you're right.

Just the way the money adds up on this thing, it's like, all of a sudden it's like, you're

right.

There's a Ford Maverick or a little SUV, like you can get the SUV conversion.

Like you're into a CRV for that, for that price.

Yeah.

Right.

Or a RAV4 or something.

And I'm like, eh.

I think it could be great thing for, you know, like a, a plumber, you know, maybe a landscape

gardener in urban areas, that sort of thing, you know, charge it, charge it at home or

whatever.

And, you know, that sort, that, you know, that smaller truck.

We'll see.

I mean, everybody's saying, oh, it's got Jeff Bezos money and it's got this money behind

it and that money.

But, you know, those guys invest in a lot of things.

So it doesn't necessarily mean.

Right.

So Rivian does too.

Like Rivian's got Jeff Bezos money.

So, you know.

Yes.

But well, Rivian's got Amazon money.

Slate's got Jeff Bezos money.

Yeah.

Well, because you kind of retired from the company anyway, so you can't make those decisions

on his own.

I think Larry Allison's slightly involved.

But I mean, these guys, you know, it's not like that means it's got to succeed, you know,

I think they probably, their funds have probably got money in different places.

So I will say one thing in defense of the Slate truck, I grew up on Lego and Magnetics, if

anybody remembers Magnetics.

But like the, I think the idea of like getting to like tack stuff on to your own car, like

it scratches an itch that at least for me, I put my own money down for a slate for my

own, like, just because I remember like building my own stuff as a kid and I thought, I think

the idea of being able to do that in a way simpler way than having to, you know, take

it, take the engine out and put it back together like I'm doing with my seven series is like

appealing.

And I think a lot of people my age will really dig that with modularity and right to repair

and stuff like that's super popular with like tech people.

And so I feel like that's maybe where they're going, what they're going for consumer wise,

it's kind of a niche market, but like that might actually hit.

It might, but it might be like the old, it might be that point where you go, oh yeah,

that's because scratch that age.

Oh, I could buy a Maverick.

Yeah.

I could buy a Maverick.

I might not waste my money.

You know, if, if, if you're building stuff as well and you're really into that, you can

take a vehicle like that, like, you know, like Ford kind of opened the door with going,

you know, you could start to 3D print stuff.

We've got these attachment points in the Bronco and whatever, or in your Maverick or

whatever, and other car companies are doing that going, hey, we've got this attachment

system on the dash.

You, you make whatever you want.

You want cameras, phones, you know, whatever you, you just all make it on your, on your

own.

Well, Slate too, you know, Slate's going, we'll sell you a radio.

We'll sell you a conversion piece to make a, make it into an SUV.

Other people may go, oh, well, you know, I could probably make something similar and see if

it works.

So I don't know, maybe you'll see them pop up at SEMA turned into really wild things.

And, and yeah, it'll be sort of like, you know, transformers or like you said, Lego,

like full size Lego.

Yeah, I wish them, I wish them well.

I mean, I think it's a, it's a tough gig.

I think, you know, it's an interesting product.

I was very surprised by, I went down to launch of it.

I was very surprised how much media attention it got.

Yeah, we always monitor the figures on like what we do.

And I was really surprised, you know, sometimes you're surprised, I surprised how much attention

it got.

Well, I think it's creative and I think it's interesting.

I just, I just, right now I'm a little hesitant because I just think at the end of the day

when you get it and you make like a competitive vehicle with it, it's not going to be as cheap

as everybody thinks.

So that's, that's my hesitation.

But that's the problem.

And it also depends on how much with the other EVs, you know, big manufacturers start throwing

money at them.

I mean, look at the price of the Ioniq 5, it's like 35 grand, you know, Hyundai's not making

money at that, but they're building volume and building for the future.

What else we got?

Chevy Bolts also EV.

Yeah.

Coming back.

Chevy Bolts.

Yeah.

That's not for long.

They say they're doing it as a limited production model.

And I don't know what that means because it's not like Azonda.

You know, it's not like there's only 20, you know, I don't, I don't necessarily know what

they mean by that exactly.

Well, Jim's just written down how many billion for EVs less than Ford, but it's still a few

billion that they've basically written off for EV losses at the moment.

Yeah.

Is this going to be it?

This is 2020.

Is it?

Yeah.

That is it.

Okay.

I kind of get this, right?

Yeah.

30,000, you know, $30,000 over 200 miles of range.

Again, you know, it's, it's, it's what we need actually is a sensibly sized EV, you know,

where the, you know, it'll be all right.

Yeah, I think we need like, we need like good inexpensive EVs to prove to people that it's

that it is a viable and also in many ways better alternative to like your four cylinder

RAV4.

And like, I think the bolt is a great way to do it.

It's, it's a, I don't know, it's won so many awards.

My, a good friend of mine owns and drives one and I love getting inside because it still

feels like a go-kart to me.

So, I mean, I think it's cool.

It'll work.

It also might tick that box for a lot of EVs where it's a sort of second, you know, where

like if it's a second car in the family, I mean, 30,000 bucks still a lot spent on a

second car, but it's, you know, for like multi car families, I think it could be a good,

could be a good addition in that, in that.

So the only thing that I've kind of slightly curious about GM is, you know, they've already

got the, I need to say the Silverado, I don't mean the, so the Equinox EV, which is a little

bit more.

So they're kind of peppering the market, but yeah, it's interesting.

I mean, there's been a lot of conversation about bringing the price down and doing affordable

EVs, which sure, that's probably what their market research is saying consumers want.

But also the CFO also needs to go, oh, how are we going to make money on these?

So we need to figure out how to make money on them.

If the Equinox and the Bolt and everything is all on a sort of a shared platform and a

shared tech and a lot of, you know, shared everything, then maybe they're, they're making

the cost make sense.

But if everything is sort of clean sheet of paper, it's going to be tough to make money

on these things.

My theory is that the Bolt, the new Bolt is built on old stuff and they don't have like

as many, they don't have as many as they would like, which is why they're calling it limited

production.

And if it sells like hotcakes, they'll invest to make newer stuff, but that platform is completely

different to the old team one that they're using for Equinox, Blazer, Silverado and so

on.

It's a bit like in Europe, there's a brand called Dacia, D-A-C-I-A. They're actually

doing really well in the Dakar rally at the moment.

And they basically were set up using old generation Renault technology.

So it's like, you had a Renault Clio and it's like, now we're going to do a Dacia as like

a cheap brand.

So it's basically reusing stuff they already had, but he's been really successful because

people just looked in, well, it's actually quite nice.

It's very utilitarian.

There's, you know, there's a generation older, it's proven technology.

They've got rid of the, you know, they've ironed out the creases.

It's so, it's been doing really well.

So, you know, there's definitely something in it because you've already, all the sunk

costs of the R&D are done, you know, you just take an old Clio, stick a different body on

it and, you know, it's a way you go.

But we've also got the Silverado.

This was one I know when Nick, you were talking about putting this together.

I didn't realize that must be end of the year, right?

Silverado.

That'll be, yeah, that'll be a 2027 car.

We should see it at the end of the year, but this is like big news.

So there should be a new fifth generation GM small block that goes underneath the hood

of these.

They're going to change the look up to be like boxier, everything's gone boxy.

So these are going to get boxier, they're going to get more rugged.

And the hope is that they like work to either catch up or exceed the F-150 in a lot of areas,

namely like the ride refinement.

Maybe there'll be a hybrid powertrain and hopefully like the interior takes a big step

up too because that's been, you know, typically a Chevrolet weak point, at least in our ratings

and rankings and just like general, you know, feel the look and feel of it the way it is

to touch.

I think those are all going to get huge, huge boost with like an all new generation truck.

And they've got money to play around with here because Silverado is maybe not doing

as well as Ford or Ram, but, you know, it's still a highly profitable vehicle to sell a

lot of.

It's doing better than Ram less than F-150, yeah, they're just looking at the sales figures.

F-150 is still by far the leading truck, Ram 1500, that's having a tough, like all Solantis

cars.

I mean, poor guys, that's, you know, that's having a rough time and Silverado's in the

middle.

You've also got to bear in mind that there's GMC Sierra, which is actually, I think he's

getting close to Ram now in the sales and that's actually, that's actually come up on

the rails.

So if you put the GMC and the Chevy together, that kind of changes the picture a bit.

Yeah.

Keep in mind, truck guys, you know, there's a lot of brand loyalty with truck guys.

I think, you know, if you're a Chevy guy, you're probably a Chevy guy for a long time.

And so you'd be looking forward to something like this.

And GM just put like, I'm not sure exactly.

I know it's like in the billions into new V8s and that the end result or the V8 in this

truck will be the end result of that.

And Ram just brought back the V8 in the 1500, Ford still sells a Coyote in the, in the F-150.

So I mean, I think the V8 truck thing is definitely here to stay.

Hopefully we get some gains in like efficiency and stuff, but it's definitely not going anywhere.

Let's take a quick break and we've got a few more on the list.

So we'll be right back.

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Okay, let's see.

What's, what's next on the list?

I see, oh, you got some sports cars.

I see a Shelby GT 500 or whatever it's going to be.

Yeah.

So we're going to get a hot new Mustang to kind of slate in between Dark Horse and GTD.

Right?

Yeah.

We've covered some spy shots of it already.

My guess is the formula will be very similar to the last GT 500.

You'll probably still have that DCT and you'll have that super charred VA, whatever they

call it, Predator, I think is the name of that motor.

And I'm sure it'll be like super powerful and super fast.

But yeah, it's, it's the, that'll definitely show.

Well, it should show up by the end of this year.

Do we think it'll still be super charged?

Like what would they're doing with the Raptor engine and the GTD engine or would they move

to turbo, maybe some more efficient version of it?

I think they're going to stick with something that they know works.

And also they can totally piggyback off of everything they've learned from GTD development.

I think that makes sense for them to sort of continue on that path.

They're, they're selling crate engines of it.

You know, they're selling, you know, they're selling those super charged crate engines as well.

I don't know where they are with licensing with Shelby.

And last we heard there was, there was not a renewed license with Shelby.

And that's why I would bear Jackson last year, Shelby came out with the, the Shelby GT 350.

So this new version that we're thinking is a GT 500 could be something like a boss, you know,

or it could be another bullet, probably not.

But, you know, I guess we have to kind of, kind of weed through their recent patents

and trademarks and see what they're going to go with.

But, you know, listen, anything can happen.

Right behind you could be a new Mach 1.

It could be a new Mach 1.

It certainly could be a new Mach 1.

You know, when they didn't renew with, with Shelby, they went with Dark Horse, right?

Which could have been a lower level Shelby.

You could have two versions of Shelby like GT 350 and GT 500.

But they went with Dark Horse.

So it could be the darker horse.

It's like die-harder.

Yeah, it's like die-harder, right?

But yeah, it could be interesting to see what they come up with.

Also, like what, I mean, the data, it's also where is it going to cost?

Because we are GT 500.

We bought for just over 80 grand, I think.

And I think if you had all the carbon fiber, it was like pushing 100.

But now like a Dark Horse is getting up to that kind of money.

So, you know, it'll be interesting to see where it lands from a price perspective.

So, I mean, they've got to keep it under 100 grand, surely.

And GTD is interesting because it's so far out of the spectrum.

Yeah, it's a different, they're just calling it Mustang because, you know,

Ford wants this like 9-11 lineup, you know, like we want an entry level 9-11,

then we want to go all the way up to the craziest version of it.

But but I get I always like this competitive nature of it.

I like, you know, TRX and Raptor, for example.

I love that they just keep going and trying to one up each other.

But we're going to have a V8.

We will have like a V8 charger back.

Yeah, I'm sure they're going to drop the drop the Hemi in that.

It's not on our list, but I suddenly thought of it as we're talking about it.

But I I don't think that's going to be a GT 500, or at least not a not at first.

Might be, you know, there might be a Hellcat down the way.

I mean, they're just going back in time.

So, you know, Ford's been testing like Benjamin Button.

Ford's been testing the GTD with the upgraded Whipple Supercharger

from the Ford Performance catalog.

So imagine your your, you know, your your GT 500 with the bigger displacement

engine, but with the Supercharger that you guys put on the dark horse.

Yeah. Right.

So they're going, can we get a little more out of the GTD to get a little

closer to ZR1?

But I hate that.

I mean, even Bugatti gets into this game, don't they?

Where they're like, oh, you bought the ultimate Bugatti, but it's not the ultimate.

And, you know, so you have more expensive faster.

Yeah.

It's, I mean, that's to say, it's a neat segue into the ZR1X.

Yeah, ZR1X.

There you go.

See what I did there?

So they call it ZR1X.

We had one of my highlights, and we're talking a couple of weeks ago.

I'm sure you listened to the show, obviously, a couple of weeks ago

about the highlights last year of the ZR1 and now the ZR1X, which can't be far away.

I think we originally said we're going to drive it in spring,

which is going to be a monster.

Yeah. You saw it in person, right?

Yeah. I've got to poke around it.

I mean, it is basically a ZR1 with a slightly uprated version

of the E-Rays hybrid system in its nose.

We love that E-Ray.

It's massively underrated.

And we've just done a couple of Benz U-Drags races with it, and it's mighty.

So I think this is going to be a hell of a car.

I mean, you go to the the Chevrolet website and just see the ZR1X.

The specs are bonkers, right?

Like, it's insane.

It's 1,250 horsepower, 0 to 60 under two seconds.

It runs nine second quarter miles.

I know they want it to be an eight.

They want like an eight, nine, nine out of it.

They want to run high eights out of it, right?

Yeah. For two hundred and ten thousand dollars.

Yeah, I think it's going to be.

You're probably going to end up paying out, saying like I've shown two forty three

looking at your looking at your image.

It's going to be you're going to be paying a quarter of a million.

I mean, you're going to be, you know, for like in the spec.

And you know, you'll be if you get everything on it, you're probably going to be

pushing up to to three hundred.

And they were even Chevy didn't really know who's going to buy this.

Like, is it going to be, does the purist by the ZR1, just because it's

rear wheel drive and doesn't have all the trick electronics or, you know,

are people just going to buy it because they want the ultimate?

And they, you know, I think they're hoping that people who've got

Ferraris and stuff like that are going to see this as additive to their collection

because it's a stretch for your typical Corvette customer to suddenly start

spending the best part of three hundred grand.

It is, especially when you look at like e-ray sales versus like zero six sales

and and C8 stingray sales.

And, you know, it's the better benchmark and it's a cool car and it's fast.

And, you know, looking at the U drag videos, it launches hard.

The thing is, is cool.

But are, is, is, is the Corvette enthusiast picking up that car?

Remember when we thought the NSX was too expensive at like a hundred and thirty

thousand dollars is literally the same formula.

I mean, less power and sure, but like same thing.

And it was like a less than half the price.

The, the only thing I think that's sort of in its favor is the fact that, you

know, particularly with all the tariffs and everything else, a lot of the Europeans

have got so much money that you think that a GT3 911 used to be about a hundred

and eighty grand.

Now it's getting, you know, now you're pushing towards 300 grand.

So this is no longer more expensive than something like a GT3 911.

And it's going to be less than a GT3 RS, certainly less than something like a GT2.

So relatively speaking, it's a bargain.

And some of that is, you know, the benefit of building it over here at the

moment, because you don't have all the tariffs that's coming in from Europe.

So, you know, it's definitely a bargain.

I suspect having driven the ZR1 at length, it's going to be really good.

And it's going to be bonkers performance.

So anyway, that that's a.

Yeah, that's a very exciting one.

At the other end of the scale, I drove this recently.

I had a little go in around and if you go for about half an hour is the Honda

Prelude, which I think it's a cute little.

It's a really good looking little coupe.

It's the kind of it's it's basically a it's a it's a hybrid of a hybrid.

So it's got the Civic hybrid system engine and motor, but then it's got

a load of bits that they basically pinch from the Civic Type R.

So yeah, it's not like a kind of like nutty little car.

Like it's not like a Subaru BRZ or something like that, or the Toyota GT86 or 86.

Or what are they called?

Yeah, 86, the GR86 or GR86, the keep check.

Yeah, but and I was like, who's going to I was a little bit like who's going to

buy it because it's not like really fast.

It's a hybrid.

It's not like really sporty, but if you just want something a bit different

and maybe it's like I was thinking it's like an empty Nesta car.

You know, the kids have the kids have gone to college and you have something

a little bit more interesting again at a sensible price point.

That's what it feels like to me.

Or maybe you're kind of like late 20s.

You haven't got kids yet or people just without kids generally.

I thought it was a nice little thing.

And they have it priced right in between like Civic and Civic Type R, right?

Because like performance wise, it fits right in between.

So they kind of priced it right in between.

They wanted it, you know, because people are like, oh, it's $42,000.

I'm like, yeah, it needs to be.

That's where it needs to be financially, because that's where it fits in the lineup.

And it can't be more than a Civic Type R, but it has to be just like a little bit

less, but more than the Civic, right?

So they didn't have a choice.

Like that's where it has to be priced.

Also, Civic Type R is dead, isn't it?

All dying.

No, no, no, they just like this week, they just renewed it for 26.

It's now 48 grand after destination.

So it's still less than the Prelude.

Yeah, it's a lot of money.

It's almost $50,000 Civic.

Was it built in Japan?

That's right.

That's why, yeah.

You should build in the UK.

Then they shut the factory customer.

Yeah, another thing with the Prelude that is important to keep in mind is

like the 42 grand number is not the base price.

It comes one way.

There are no trim levels.

So this is the most expensive version of the car with everything on it.

The most expensive Civic you can buy is like 35 grand.

So they're not they're not right on top of each other, but they're

not that far away, like a Civic compared to a Prelude.

Like, sure, there's a seven thousand dollar gap there.

But like all of these cars are getting expensive and people complaining

that the Prelude is too much money, haven't necessarily looked at Honda's

lineup in its entirety and then been like, oh, wait, that sort of makes sense.

And it's really pretty.

The only thing I would say is the rear seats are completely token.

Oh, you'd like just about pour somebody in to get back from the pub.

But they are they are super tiny.

So yeah, I tried sitting in them.

I did the first look the first look on our YouTube channel.

And I would not make it back there for more than five minutes.

No, you know, one thing I want to add that I think just popped up today.

Maybe you saw it, Nick, was a facelifted Nissan Z.

And it they kind of fix the nose.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's a rare example of a facelift being much prettier than the original.

Yeah. I mean, that's a handsome looking car in a cool color as well.

It's like so we're seeing it.

It's almost like in a British racing green with black wheels as we're looking at it.

And yeah, they've really tidied it up.

The nose looks great now.

It just I think that looks really strong.

If it looked like that from the beginning, it might have had a different reception.

Actually, I remember when I went to Japan last year with Nissan

to talk to their new CEO and do a couple of other things right along in

early drives, I saw this car sitting in the in the back of the

in the back of the like Nissan open air like design studio.

And everybody was looking at like what was eventually going to be

like some like the Armada or something like that.

I can't remember. Or maybe the new Rogue, I forget what.

And then I was just I just wandered off all the way to the back by myself.

And I sat there looking at this like, hmm, this is pretty nice.

And it's like and I forgot about it because it happened in March of last year

and it just now showed up.

But yeah, that's a cool car.

I love that. Yeah, I did 700 miles in the regular Z.

And I loved it. I thought it was awesome.

And how much is a Z now?

I can't even remember how much is a Z now.

I don't know.

But it's probably a pretty cheap.

A used one's pretty cheap.

It's like, yeah, it's a totally different

customer to Prelia, but they do kind of, yeah.

They do sort of like they cross saver a little bit.

What else we got?

Let's let's let's let's just wrap up on.

Well, there's two more.

Let's talk about this for a second.

Let's the Jaguar.

I don't know what to.

OK, is this going to be a cool car?

Is this? Yes, it is.

And it's going to be cool, right?

Is it? Yeah. Yeah.

Are they going to just make an EV?

Are they going to throw a gas engine?

No, they've got no chance.

They're not going to reverse end.

They've got they're not going to reverse

engineering to put a gas in it now.

Well, Porsche is trying to cut apart a boxer.

Yeah, that's back in it.

Oh, man, yeah, it's not going to happen.

The only big thing about this is like

Jerry McGovern, a guy that full disclosure,

I worked for in a previous previous life

when I was running a production company.

We did a lot of work with Jerry directly.

I thought he was a pretty inspirational figure.

You know, he's he's now their chief creator.

He's left the business.

Oh, he's no, he stayed.

There was apparently everybody lied.

Yeah, I'm not sure about that.

But let's let's let's let's see how that plays out.

But it's I I like it.

I quite liked it when it was unveiled.

I I like what they're trying to do.

I just hope that when they sat down and said,

what are we going to do?

The market and the world look like a very different place

to what it does now.

So I hope there's enough people.

Who are willing to buy?

I mean, like, like something like me,

like something that's extrovert and different.

You know, I could I imagine buying buying something like that?

Yes. Do I have 150 grand to spend on one?

No. Yeah, I wonder if they're going for a like

mini Rolls Royce Phantom vibe, because, you know, it's very big.

It's very boxy. Yeah.

But but for, you know, a third of the price, half the price, you know,

like what I mean is it kind of I guess they're

if they can make it interesting enough

and they can make hit that luxury mark, but also make it profitable.

You are you going after, you know, you're not going after Bentley.

You're going after S class seven series.

Be on W. I mean, think about it as a statement car.

You know, I mean, I love about statement, isn't it?

Right. That's going to be a statement car.

So I think for me, the asset test is not going to be that first year

because I think you're going to get a lot of people who just buy it as a statement

and roll up to parties or whatever in it.

You know, the question is like two, three, four years down the line.

What does it, you know, what does it look like?

What does it sell like?

What are the residual values like?

But of all the cars like on our list, there's a lot of really interesting stuff.

But like it's crazy.

I mean, the one positive thing about it is, you know, if you put like Jaguar F,

you know, F pay successor down there, you know, we wouldn't be sat here talking about it.

But of all the cars on that list,

if you tell me which one I'm most interested in driving this year, then it's right up there.

Totally. I'm going to say just for the sake of resale value,

I recommend Edmunds do not buy one.

I don't think it's going to hold its value.

I think you could lease one, but I don't think that's your MO over there at Edmunds.

I think you I know you want one.

I can see it in your eyes.

You're better off in the Morgan, my friend.

We should buy a used one, wait like six months and then by the first used one.

There you go.

I think it's a crit.

Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be it's going to be really interesting.

I hope we do see it.

I mean, I went out to drive the electric Range Rover.

Talked about it in a show months ago, like last March, I think he was.

Yeah, went out to the Arctic in Sweden and drove the electric range,

which itself got delayed, but we should see that it should also should also see it this year.

And the Jaguar's belting around then, you know, there was prototypes

charging around the artists last year, so they were already quite a long way down.

It's been delayed, you know, the coal company's got a new CEO.

They had all the cyber attack last year, which stopped the whole company from

a they've had a really rough period.

And I hope they get it right.

I hope it does well.

I'm a fan of Jaguar.

They've been great to me.

I've always enjoyed driving the cars, but this is another one of those cars that's like,

guys, you can't release this too early.

Don't release this.

Don't make the mistake of so many EV companies have done that, you know,

and it's just plagued with problems because people are already sort of itching to go,

oh, I can't wait to complain about all the issues this car is going to have.

So let's make sure this thing gets released with a decent amount of quality assurance testing.

Don't do it early software, all that stuff.

Do you know what I was looking at the other day?

Because of course, like what's happening with the the old Jaguar, if you like.

Jaguar F-Pace SVR, which I think is a fantastic looking car,

VA engine, they're starting to get down into like the 40 grand range.

Yeah, that's scary.

I was trying to like sell it.

Could I sell one of those to my wife?

Like, you know, get one of these.

I mean, it's spacious.

It's a fact family SUV.

It's British.

It's like, can I, you know, can I sell this?

And then it's got carbon bucket seats and does 12 MPG.

Yeah, but we don't drive it very far.

Right.

And also the EV thing, now you can balance it out.

Like you did, you did a couple of years of pulling it.

You're pulling a ram.

You're going back to V eights.

And every time you start it up in the morning, it's going to be.

We had a F F type SVR on our ownership fleet.

Oh, yeah. I think when I first arrived, they rang out and said,

do you want an F type SVR?

And I was like, yeah, yeah, I think they'd got a few that they weren't selling.

But but I think it was so obnoxiously loud.

And of course, the F base is basically the same engine.

Oh, I loved it. I loved it as well.

But and then the the the the Jag SUV and the range over the SVRs.

I was I was going out with somebody and I hit that thing hard.

And he rolled up next to me.

He's like, that is the loudest thing I've ever heard.

And and I was like, I know, it's crazy.

And the F type.

The the sports car with the five liter supercharged engines is like, OK,

if you want a British GT 500, like there's your car.

Yeah. And then the problem you had with the SVR,

it was never different enough from the standard V8.

The standard V8 kind of gave you all that.

And then it was like, oh, but there's an SVR.

It's in the 30 grand and you bought it.

But I like that somewhere in there, they were like, we're going to give you this

thing, it's awesome, and it's fast.

And then it just scared people so much that they go, we're going to make

it all wheel drive so it's a little less scary.

They because you remember the initial version with the five hundred and fifty.

Oh, yeah. Maybe it wasn't the four or five fifty horsepower.

Maybe it's five twenty five could have been five fifty.

And it was just rear wheel drive.

It's just like every stoplight just wants to break loose and go sideways.

It was so much fun to drive.

But you bet you were right.

And basically it was a kind of, you know, slightly more, you know,

sophisticated Mustang.

Yes, it's the posh version, as you would say.

It's a posh version.

Sophisticated might be overselling it actually.

Yeah, it's the posh version.

Also, you forget that underneath that was a Jaguar XK and XJS.

So which went all the way back to seventies.

Now, that's why that was basically the underpinnings were still there.

And then the XK that came later.

And so the other pinnings of that, not an XJS is the XK that it was all basically

it was a cut and shut job of stuff they already had.

Yeah, yeah, a Franken car.

It was a Franken car, but it was a very pretty car.

And I think actually I quite I want to know is it'd be nice, you know,

like now they use market and I think nice one's pretty attainable.

Yeah, so let's take this one last car before we wrap up.

We're going to go off in a tangent because I got excited.

Yes, I'm in a different direction.

And I apologize, I'm kind of pushed for for time today.

But another another another car that we're like, are they going to sell these?

Yeah, I mean, if ever there was a brand new Jeep recon, I mean,

it's it's quite a pretty thing.

It's but it's basically if you're not familiar with it,

it's a Wrangler in electric form.

It's probably the easiest way of saying it, but it's got a much prettier interior

and it can still take the doors or anything else.

But it's going to be a chunk of change.

I mean, starting price, 36 grand.

You know, it's going to be really fast straight line.

But yeah, who can I mean, really?

It's like an off-road SUV who needs I mean, like take 200, you know,

doesn't need 600. I'm off on one now.

We don't need more than 600 horsepower in a, you know, in a Wrangler.

It's just you know, what are they trying to?

They're trying to get a bit of like Rivian market share.

They're trying to get a maybe out when that comes out.

If that's going to happen, they want to compete on that level.

Or I think what happened is what happened is five five years ago,

they sat down and said, oh, my God, we got it.

You know, legislation says we've got to do EVs.

We want the Wrangler name to keep going.

We've got to do an EV version of the Wrangler, basically.

And that's what they've done.

And then five years later, they're bringing it to market and going,

oh, God, nobody's buying these anymore.

There's a plug in hybrid Wrangler.

And they just pulled the plug on that pun intended, right?

Like they just they're like, we're not doing that anymore.

And they just spent all that money on the Harrison Ford commercial.

Every every Forexie is God, right?

The Cherokee. Yeah, they're killing it.

Wrangler both gone. Yeah.

I mean, the on of our list,

the biggest head scratcher to me is this car.

I it like six people will buy them.

All of them live close enough to PCH that they can take the doors

and the glass out of it and enjoy it up, you know, of that road.

Put a surfboard on top.

Yeah. And then that's that's it.

I mean, in all seriousness, I looked at it and when

this could be quite cool, you know, the Genesis is going.

It's like, you know, but depends what the like the lease deal is.

This could be quite fun for, you know, for knocking around in.

I was thinking about that, too.

And, you know, the show that we do with Goldberg and, you know,

he he's a he's a slantist guy.

He's a big Dodge guy in my head.

I'm like, all right, you live in the middle of nowhere in Texas.

You have this huge ranch, 200 acres,

and you get up at five in the morning.

You don't want to wake up your kangaroo, your giraffe or whatever he's got out there.

I was like, this is something he could get and not ever leave the property.

Just using us like a UTV, like this is a really nice side by side.

Like, you know, and just if you've got Goldberg's income.

And you got you got Goldberg's money and you've got 200 acres

with a shooting range and a garage in them.

I think it's going to be really interesting because, you know,

that they've had a really rough time with the Wagoneer Wagoneer S.

Isn't it? Yeah.

Got to name it properly. Wagoneer S.

I mean, your Jeep customer, they're going to buy it.

And no, I mean, I think next ride is going to be like

surfy types around here. But yeah, again, I looked at it and thought,

actually, I quite quite fancy, you know, but then, you know,

they've had so many problems with like the Dodge Charger EV.

I hope, you know, but then we're a bit further on.

They've had more time to develop it, you know, more, you know, I think if

you know, I always think of the reliability thing, then you've got to

got to give everybody a chance.

And so I think, you know, they've they've learned a lot from the Wagoneer S.

They've learned a lot from the Charger EV.

So I don't care about the performance.

It's an off-roader.

I don't need 600 horsepower, to be honest.

I think that's barking up the wrong tree.

I think you give it five years and you pick one up for like

$26,000 and then you have yourself something really cool for really cheap.

And that's and, you know, without the maintenance costs of like if they built

the decent car, if they built a decent car, but if it's just a maintenance

nightmare, then then, you know, I mean, look, they know how to build

Wranglers, they know, you know, you get the EV bit part of it.

So I'm excited, but I think it's interesting.

I just wish that it was 45 grand, not 65 grand.

I think that's that's the problem.

You think, what's a Wrangler cost?

You know, I know you can get them expensive if you start buying the V8s

or the Rubikons or all the rest of it.

But, you know, a Heartland Wrangler isn't 65 grand plus.

So this, let's say this one's going to be 75 in a mid-spect trim.

That's a hell of a lot of money.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's why they put the nice interior in it.

They want you to feel like you're getting something, you know, they're like,

oh, we're going to have to step up the interior game, which is probably

fairly inexpensive for them to do.

You know, like how much extra, by the way, does it cost to do leather

seats versus diamond stitch?

And you're like, wow, this looks so much better with the nice stitching in it.

It was like, all right, that costs 50 cents more.

Yeah. You know.

OK. Yeah, it's a good list.

I think it's some interesting, interesting mix of cars.

Sports cars, EVs, you know, a little bit of everything.

A little bit of everything.

I do agree with you.

I'll say this as sort of a final thought from me is I agree with you, Alistair,

of everything on that list.

The most interesting thing I'm looking forward to seeing on the road is that jack.

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

And I also quite interested in the in the recon as well in the Jeep, both of,

you know, both of which, you know, might not succeed.

So we'll see. Yeah.

That's what keeps it interesting.

OK. What do you think, Nick?

Any final thoughts from you?

Yeah, if I can look, if I can get myself into a GT 500

and spend a little time at the Edmunds test track, I'll be more than happy enough.

Listen, GT 500 has had a big influence on the Edmunds team.

It basically started the U-Drag stuff, right?

Yes, it did.

How it did. Yeah.

I don't know.

But we we that was the in terms of financial outlay versus return.

That was probably the best performing vehicle that we had as well.

So I, you know, with a new TRX coming out,

we've got to see a Raptor R versus a TRX, because I just want to see

you guys take that turn at the end of the day.

I didn't want to be so scary.

I don't think we ever shed it, but we certainly didn't put it

because we had this idea of doing the Edmunds U-Drags in the dirt.

And we tried to do a pilot.

And I don't know.

We haven't thought it through.

Oh, that's right.

You and I talked about this.

We talked about it.

So you went in while everybody went and turned around and stopped

because you couldn't see anything.

You couldn't see anything.

You couldn't film anything.

You couldn't.

It was just a cloud of dust.

You're right. We talked about that before going up.

That was a bad idea.

Yeah. It's like, you know, you've got to push the boundaries.

You've got to get some things wrong at times.

Right. All right, guys, thanks so much.

I appreciate it and more next week.

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CarCast+Edmunds - We take a look at some of the new vehicles expected in 2026.

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