Cheaper Jeep V8, Alfa Stelvio Reivew, Infiniti Jeans-Wearing Robot

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Join Jill and Tom as they break down everything that's going on in the auto world.

New car reviews, shopping tips, driving green, electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of

great guests.

This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

All right, this is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

I'm Tom.

She is Jill.

We'll get to her in a moment.

When you have, she's kicking her feet off.

Sorry.

Wow.

I was going to post a picture of my new shoes.

Oh, so relaxed.

Are you comfortable?

Well, you know, I'm getting there.

I'm getting there.

Normally, at this time, I'd ask you to check us out at ConsumerGuide.com, but Jill's extremely

relaxed attitude.

Come on.

They're red converse.

They're really cool.

I guess so.

Yeah.

I guess so.

That's Jill Seminello.

She's a contributing editor here at ConsumerGuide.com, a North American Car of the Year juror, and

a freelancer.

You freelanced anything good lately?

Just the good stuff.

Just the good stuff?

No, nothing good.

I have in the kitty a review of the Chevrolet Traverse for 2026 that's coming up and that'll

be on US News.

I want to drive that.

I understand that it's very good except for the drivetrain.

Yes.

The other thing that I found, and it's really interesting because I think they must have

redesigned it before the iPhone 16 came out because I typically love wireless chargers

from General Motors.

They're good.

They have a cool pad under them.

Your phone doesn't overheat.

They, you know, charge your phone fast.

When I put my phone in the wireless charger, it didn't even make contact to be able to

charge because of the bump out of my cameras.

That's old school.

That used to be a problem where you, like, I remember Toyota being a little bit ahead

of the curve on some models with wireless charging, but they didn't have a bracket or

anything to restrain the vehicle, so if you took a corner, it slid off the area.

And my phone didn't even slide.

It's just the bump out from my cameras, like the contact patch where your phone would touch

the charger to charge isn't making contact.

So I mean, I'm having a similar problem.

I'm in the Toyota Prius Prime right now and it has a clip that holds your phone into place.

So it's holding my phone into place, but I think it's not actually picking up the charge

because the back of my phone isn't making contact.

It does need to be close.

Ram does that really nice where it's got like a long clip.

I think you can put multiple phones in there.

Yeah.

Well, you know what?

I can't wait to test.

And I'm on a tangent here with wireless chargers because I usually hate them, but I can't wait

to test the new wireless charger in the Nissan Murano because they have apparently made some

significant changes to that that will not only hold your phone in place with like a magnetic,

like MagSafe magnet and then also with the cool pad and things like that.

So I cannot wait to test that.

Interesting thing about wireless chargers and like the last five years, they just got better.

They're quicker.

They were really slow for a while to the almost being pointless where you were just sort of

keeping your battery from being dragged down if you were listening to something.

Yeah.

Speaking of listening to something and I don't want to go too far into this, but I took delivery

of a vehicle today and whatever XM country station was on was on.

I don't know how to say this.

A key brinky heart.

No, but country music blows.

I guess that's where I'm going with this.

You are not entirely incorrect in that assessment and we've probably just pissed off half of

our viewers.

Maybe.

I don't think half.

I don't know.

A lot of people really like country music.

It's just.

This is weird, pop-ish new country and it all sounds exactly the same.

It's it's it's not it's not my thing, but your music is not my thing.

Thing is I was running late getting here and I just got the car and usually I connect my

phone via Bluetooth after the podcast.

The music was so bad I did it before and then I had to cleanse my palate with some Mark

Noffler.

Okay, a lot of stuff going on here.

You wrote a piece that we haven't talked about yet about the Highlander.

Yes, this is a big piece of news.

You want to go ahead and run with this?

Yeah.

So I was last week in Ohio, California, or people are like, Oh, hi, California.

And I was I had the opportunity to people really do that.

People did that on my social media.

They were like, Oh, hi.

And I'm like, Oh, age.

OK.

I Oh, OK.

At any rate, so the so I was in California with Toyota.

Oh, hi.

Toyota and sensibly, it was to drive the new BZ Woodland and the CHR, which are electric

vehicles.

Oh, that's why you were there.

That's why I was there and you will you you will get both of those reviews for Consumer

Guide and the but they did a surprise.

Well, not a surprise.

We knew it was coming, but they did a reveal of a vehicle while we were there.

And it was the 2027 Toyota Highlander.

And and that's its name.

That is its name because it doesn't tell the whole story.

This this is the next generation Toyota Highlander and it's electric.

Yeah.

And there is no gas power train.

Everybody's like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

So it's electric and in Toyota's like, no.

Yeah, it's interesting because Highlander people probably know this, but the Highlander

goes way back and was a pioneering crossover and an extraordinarily important vehicle for

Toyota.

It really put Toyota on the map more than even the Camry and the Camry was was big.

But here's the interesting thing about that.

Two, three years ago, they brought out the Grand Highlander, which has conquested all

the highlander.

Yeah.

The sales have been going down on the Highlander.

They dropped like the base trim, you know, and so yeah, I mean, what else were they going

to do?

Right.

They could still sell this.

They know here's the interesting point.

They build both vehicles, the Highlander and the Grand Highlander in Princeton, Indiana.

So allocation between the two.

They're not very different vehicles mechanically, architecturally, so they could probably go

to a very low run of Highlanders and still make it work.

But these numbers are crazy.

In 2024, Toyota sold 87,000 Highlanders already down in 2025, they sold 44,000 down by half

in a year.

Meanwhile, Grand Highlander sales went from 72,000 in 2024 to 137,000, almost doubling

in a year.

And that's where it's going.

People see the value.

First of all, you got the word grand.

Sounds like more.

They don't actually cost that much more, especially because there is a base trim level, which

helps.

But you get the useful third row and definitely useful.

One of the things that's sort of unbelievable is that the Grand Highlander rides better

than the Highlander.

And the Highlander rode well, but you get the longer wheelbase, it's a little bit quieter.

So there's a lot of reasons why you might just move to the Grand Highlander because

it ain't going to add 50 bucks a month to your payments.

So it's kind of an easy move and dealers probably don't want to sell this many versions of things.

So we know volume of the Highlander, the new EV coming for 2027 is going to be relatively

low because there's just two trim levels.

So going to be a fairly simple build.

Yeah.

So and, you know, we obviously didn't have the chance to drive it, but we had the chance

to do a really good walk around and climb around in it.

And, you know, it's going to be a six passenger vehicle with the option of having a bench

seat in the middle, so potential up to seven, but only in the base trim.

And so they only put two seats in the third row, which I approve of because you should

never try and put three of me in a third row someplace.

But the...

Just for the noise.

Yeah.

Just for the noise.

But the third row seems spacious and it has like a nice window and they've done a really

good job with the amenities and with the finishing touches.

I mean, I'm sure I think the only trim we were looking at was the top tier, but it just,

it looks really good.

And a lot of people are ticked off, though, that it's electric only.

A lot of people are ticked off.

I wonder why.

If there's another vehicle that is a very similar proposition from the same manufacturer,

I don't know what people are getting mad about.

It's kind of surprising and it's actually kind of a bold move.

Yeah.

I mean, my hats off to Toyota for realizing that this is where they are and acting so

quickly on this.

Well, and, you know, I mean, I have to think that this was probably in the works for a

lot longer than you and I know because...

It has to be.

Toyota is like the ultimate planner and they're not just thinking through, okay, what's this

president going to want or that president going to want?

They're thinking globally and they're thinking long term and they're thinking, you know,

20, 30 years down the road when probably more than half of the vehicles will be electric.

Do you think that when they launched the Grand Highlander, they already knew this was going

to happen?

I wouldn't be surprised.

I think the only surprise maybe, or the only change of mind, might have been keeping the

Highlander at all, maybe, because this is going to be low volume, but they're probably

going to end up exporting these.

Actually, I don't know where they're going to build the electric version.

Yes, in the U.S.

Some place.

Yeah, I feel like...

Is it Kentucky?

Okay, Georgetown?

I think they're...

Yeah, I think...

Toyota has two monstrous plants about 100 miles apart and that's Princeton, Indiana and

Georgetown and Kentucky.

Big volume plants, but...

Well, and the other big news is the battery is going to be sourced in the United States

as well.

So, you know, they're really going all in on manufacturing in the United States and I

think that's a big deal.

So that's cool.

So, we'll have more news about that when we get it, but it's a big deal.

It is a big deal.

The Highlander was such a good name.

They're keeping the name alive too.

You remember this happened with the Caravan and Grand Caravan?

The Dodge Minivan eventually just became the Grand Caravan, simplified things for everyone

and then they actually stopped selling the short wheelbase version anyway.

All right, we said this was going to happen and it happened.

Okay.

We said that once the rules were broken, taken down, no longer applied, that Stalantis was

going to go V8 Nuzzo and they have.

And the latest example of this is the new Willys V8.

Okay.

So, the Jeep Wrangler, previously available with a V8 only for 2026 with the Rubicon 392

for 100 grand, that was the sticker price, 100,000, 590 bucks, now available in the very

affordable Willys edition, no longer affordable with a V8 however, but 30 grand less.

It's 71995 for the same V8 because now there's no rules.

They don't care how many V8s they sell.

They don't care about their corporate average fuel economy.

And the thing about those two is at any given time, they can just stop selling this.

It's not a huge commitment on their part.

They're not laying out a lot of money.

There's not a lot of planning or any sort of, you know, things they have to do to the

factory to make this happen.

So, people are going to buy a lot of these.

Yeah, I mean, I think their new philosophy is, hemify all the things.

Yeah, hemify to monetize.

Yeah.

Hemify, that's a good word.

All right, so that's happening.

That's available already, I believe, or very soon because if you go to their website, you

already see the vehicle there.

And no one's going to be buying the old Rubicon at 100 grand.

No.

Some will.

I mean, it is a Rubicon trim, which is serious off-road stuff.

All right.

Oh, this is the quiz.

We don't need the quiz yet.

Just wanted to talk about this car real quick in case we don't get back to it.

Last week I drove the Trax Active, 2026 Chevrolet Trax, the most affordable vehicle in the

Chevy lineup and the most expensive Trax.

27, 990 out the door, which seems like kind of a bargain.

Yep.

Great starter car.

And here's the thing.

I've been pushing back against your use of the word bougie, but it absolutely applies

here in its correct term.

The interior of this car presents well, and it's not really that nice if you touch stuff.

OK.

But it looks good.

OK.

So it's bougie?

Well, it's really bourgeois because I don't recognize the word otherwise.

But what a nice car.

It is roomy.

It rides nice.

It handles well.

It's affordable.

It is everything but quick, but it's reasonably quick.

And if you're young and you don't care, the buzz of a three-cylinder engine isn't going to

bug you.

Nope.

And at least it's attached to a six-speed automatic, not a CVT, so you get nice crisp shifts.

Yeah.

So I like this car a lot.

I had my daughter test drive this car when we went shopping.

Ultimately, she wanted more power.

But other than that, she liked the car.

She also thought it was big, which is interesting.

This car presents as large, and you can't put four adults in it.

So Chevy Trax, it's in Cacti.

That fabulous green.

Oh, OK.

It's a good green.

OK.

I photographed it over the weekend.

Nice car.

All right, we got to talk about our test drive in a moment, but I would just want to get

this one out there real quick.

Or you know what?

I have one more news story we'll save it for after the quiz.

OK.

All right.

You and I were charged with the same task.

Yes.

Test driving, the 2025, unchanged for 2026 mostly.

Alfa Romeo, Stelvio, Intenza.

Yeah.

So many words.

Yes.

So many words that aren't words I use.

Yes.

And this car is interesting for a bunch of reasons.

No, the interior is legitimately nice, I think.

Yes, yes.

I think it's very clubby.

It was really nice interior.

But the interesting thing about this car is that it's supposed to be premium and it's

supposed to be sporty, but it plays in a really weird netherworld between mainstream

and luxury.

And the pricing bears that out.

The vehicle we drove, the Intenza, which is a trim level, but it's really kind of a

design level.

There isn't that much equipment difference between the trim levels.

And the Intenza goes away for 2026.

I think it becomes the Veloce again.

But either way, at about $60,000, you're getting an awful lot of sporty performance

vehicle.

And maybe the interior is not Mercedes-Benz or BMW, but it's nice.

And I genuinely like this vehicle.

I would agree with you.

I really like the finishing touches on this.

They've got little Italian flag emblems throughout the vehicle.

They've got bronze accents on the interior, on the steering wheel, on the wheels.

They're gently bronze.

Yeah, it's not.

It's not.

It doesn't present as really bold gold.

No, no, no.

It's classier than that.

It's just subtle bronze that is very attractive, and it works with the design of the car.

You've got the Italian flag on the side mirrors, just a lot of really nice finishing touches.

And for the size of the car, I thought the engine worked really well as well.

I thought it was peppy and fun to drive, and I thoroughly, I enjoyed my time in it.

And you know, I'm on the smaller side of things, so it fit me as a driver really well, so I'm

going to be very curious how it fit you.

Oh, it fit me fine.

You and I drove one, a different one, to visit Kirk Bellup in Milwaukee a few months ago,

and it had the sports seats with the reinforced bolstering wings.

Those bug me after time.

Like on that trip.

Right, right.

Because we were in the car for about four hours.

Yeah.

Total, three and a half hours.

They bug me.

But other round town, it's fine.

It's great.

But here's the thing about that car.

You mentioned the engine, 280 horsepower, too little turbo.

It is really caffeinated.

The transmission works really well with it.

The car is fast.

Yeah.

It's not just quick.

It's fast.

280 doesn't sound likely.

A lot.

There used to be a 405 horsepower.

Yeah, the quadrifoglio.

Yeah, V6 engine that was available in that.

It was over the top, probably uninsurable.

But this car is so much fun to drive.

The steering is excellent.

Old school steering feel, great strong feeling brakes that are very responsive, nicely controlled

lean encoders.

There's a little bit of lean, but it's controlled.

You know what's happening.

Everything about this car is just fun to drive.

The bad news here is, if you want to get away from this car, you can't.

Like you're tired, you want to drive home after work and you don't want to deal with

the exhaust nose.

You don't want to deal with the really hair trigger throttle response.

Right.

Well, you can turn that off.

You can go into econo mode.

Right.

I guess.

But you have to want this car.

Yeah.

And if you do, it's pretty cool.

Well, you know, it's a driver's car.

And I will say in 2026, there are not as many driver's cars as there once were.

Because like, you know, I mean, you've got the EVs, which are nice and they're quick,

but they're not driver's cars.

Like you don't feel the connection to the road.

You don't feel the connection to the car that you get with a lot of, a lot of the old school

vehicles.

Yeah, which is why I keep using the words in my review, visceral and caffeinated.

Yeah, visceral and caffeinated.

It is very much a vehicle you're connected to.

And it is fun.

And if you are young and you're up to this, do it.

And if you're buying a second car and you're thinking about it, do it.

And if you're worried about Italian reliability, and God knows the Italians have given us

enough to worry about in that category.

Hey, careful.

You're talking about my ancestors.

Case in point.

If you're buying this car for three months and you're going to have it for three years

and you're just going to be under warranty the whole time, it's not your problem.

It's the next guy's problem.

Right.

Or, you know, and you and I have had this conversation offline, but leasing is not really

a bad word these days.

And so, I mean, if you're concerned about reliability and having problems, lease it.

To your lease.

There are lease deals too.

I don't remember what they were.

I don't usually look at the lease deals, but there are lease deals on this vehicle.

Yeah.

There's three trim levels again for this coming year.

And they, again, the differences are mostly designer kind of things, colors and stuff

like that.

We should talk about color.

$2,200 bucks for Verde Fangio.

That's this intense green.

My review is off if people want to check out this color.

Right.

I would not get this color.

I liked it.

There's an Elfa Rosa, a red.

That's the way to go.

Yeah.

I mean, the red is nice too.

The red is nice too.

I don't know.

I like green.

You're wearing green again.

By the way.

I guess I am.

I do.

I love green.

You just don't like that green.

So, here's the thing about this car.

I don't know if I recommend this for everybody, but I want to put it on people's radar.

It is a cool car.

For some reason, Elfa caused this midsize.

It ain't midsize.

This is very much a compact.

Yeah.

And it does not have a whole bunch of adult room in the second row.

Yeah.

So, remember that.

It's kind of a personal car with not emergency space in back, but occasional.

Occasional passenger space and, you know, relatively okay, useful like utility space

in them.

But so much fun to drive.

Yeah.

I look forward to getting into this thing every day.

I think that only for if I had to drive, if I made your trip from Chicago to Indianapolis,

I would not buy this car.

I think it would wear on me if I had to take two-hour drives every weekend or four hours

because there's two ways.

So, that would get a little rough.

But boy, I love this car.

Yeah.

No, it, you know, as a short person, the one problem I had was because the bolsters are

so big and I have a far-forward driving position, getting in and out of the car was a little

bit of an acrobat.

Hey, speaking of short people, you didn't get out of the Armada, did you?

I got into the Nissan Armada today on the way here and...

No, no, no.

It was not me.

I did not do it.

Last driver tried to kill me.

Seats just started closing.

I don't know what's going to happen.

Like, if I don't find the controller quick enough, do I die?

Probably not.

I don't...

We should see what happens.

Do you get squished?

It was not me.

I have not driven the Nissan Armada.

I'll make sure my life insurance is up to date and then we can try that test.

No, it's very funny because whenever I'm test driving cars and like when we're doing like

a drive day and we're doing back-to-back swaps, I'm very, very diligent about moving the seat

back and down and like such that the people who are like moving the cars and cleaning the

cars in between drivers look at me and they're like, what are you doing?

And I'm like, if I don't do this, they're going to be like, Jill, Jill was driving this

last.

See, and I didn't even drive that last and you're giving me a hard time.

What I like to do is make sure that country music isn't playing on the car for the next

driver.

That's my contribution to society.

But you know, it's not what you put in there that is controlled.

I feel like the drivers who are delivering the car control the music and I am also convinced

that the automaker tells them what station to put it on when they deliver the car to

you.

I don't know if that's always the case.

I believe that's sometimes the case because I will get into some cars and they always have

country on them.

And then I will get into other cars that what's the cool XM station is just like a smooth

like.

Oh.

Chill?

Yeah.

Chill.

That one.

Oh my God.

I will say more times out of not the chill is on.

Yeah.

I feel like that's a direct.

Serious XM chill.

Yeah.

What a brutal station.

No.

I go in and I change the stations to like XM like station to rock, you know, pop 40, all

of it.

Channel 33 first wave, the cure, the talking heads.

Good stuff.

All right.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, we talk to Evan Frank, seat engineer manager at Nissan Motor Corporation

about Infiniti's jeans wearing robot, which looks for all the world like a buttocks on

a stick.

We'll be, we'll be right back.

Questions or comments, drop us a line at carstuff at consumerguide.com.

That's carstuff at consumerguide.com.

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Let's go, places.

Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.

All right, we're back.

This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

Jill did not die.

I did not die.

You almost killed me.

You've been trying for years and you've foiled again.

Yeah, you think I'd have gotten this down by now.

Speaking of killing me, you've got social media stuff.

I do have social media stuff.

You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, all the things, at Jill Siminello,

and I use the hashtag CarDeJour, so CarDeJour, and I actually just rebranded my YouTube

channel, CarDeJour.

People should check that out.

Yeah.

All right, so here's a deal.

When I started at Consumer Guide 2002 or 2003, we had a long-term Lincoln Navigator in our

fleet.

Nice car to drive, super unreliable.

But one of the problems with that car, by the way, the Navigator's way better now, it

had white interior, and after we had it for like 30 days, it was a gray interior.

The seats just did not wear well, and this is an issue, right?

Auto designers, auto engineers, they worry about this sort of thing.

On the phone with us is Evan Frank.

He is the seat engineer manager at Nissan Motor Corporation, and they've been doing some

fun stuff with robots and denim.

We're going to talk about that right now.

Evan, how are you today?

Doing well.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks for joining us.

We don't talk enough about like interior engineering and interior design, but this is a huge deal,

right?

It's as important as any other part of the car.

Yeah, very important.

We've seen in the past a lot of wear and tear just from staining on the interior of

the vehicle.

I like you.

You mentioned with your example.

One of the interesting things is my daughter had a Nissan Juke, which she loved, and it

served us very well.

But the way she got in and out, she was often carrying something, and over time, she always

put her hand on the edge of the seat, which by 100,000 miles, which is a long time, I

realize, the seat was starting to crack right there.

And that's like the sort of thing that engineers really have to think about, right?

You're not just worried about the first owner, but these cars' reputations going forward.

What are some of the trouble spots that maybe consumers don't understand?

Yeah, I think from vehicle to vehicle, like you said with the Nissan Juke, you also see

with the cars that are sitting lower to the ground, how we actually design the seats versus

something that's sitting higher from the ground like a truck.

If you can imagine how getting in and out from a truck to a sports car is going to be

very different.

Yeah.

So all of those considerations have to be taken into account when designing the shape

of the seat, what materials we apply.

It can be very complex.

So Evan, we're having this conversation because of a very intriguing email I got.

And the headline was, Infiniti's Jeans Wearing Robot.

Tell us about that and what role that plays in keeping car interiors fresh looking.

Yeah, so one of the things that we've seen from warranty information from the industry

is when lighter interiors come back with stained seats, like you mentioned.

So one of the things that we see a lot is a denim dye transfer.

So a majority of people, everyone likes to wear jeans.

These are very susceptible for those jeans.

As you can imagine, over time, your jeans lighten up either through the wash or being

transferred down to dye, being transferred to your seats or other surfaces.

So the machine itself is a way for us to validate, one, obviously, the integrity of the seat.

It's basically a body that we strap a brand new pair of jeans on and we ensure for each

vehicle, the path that it's getting in and out, we're validating that it's going to be

OK for customer use.

One, the material itself and then two, ensuring that the material has a protective coating

that is working to avoid that denim dye transfer.

So I was watching the short video that you guys provided of the Jeans Wearing Robot getting

in and out of the seat and like you said, it kind of clips the bottom bolster.

So, you know, kind of going over that like a human would do.

So I'm assuming you're testing not only for transfer, but also making sure that the bolstering stays in place.

And I'm wondering, like, how many times do you do that in a car to verify that, you know,

the the jean material isn't going to transfer and the bolster isn't going to deflate?

Unfortunately, Jill, I can't answer that as it is proprietary.

OK, OK.

It is a lot.

OK.

It is an incredible amount to make sure that during the life of the vehicle, the product stays robust.

So an interesting use of leather and materials in like the the QX80, for example, where you have

perforated seats and also quilted looking seats, the kind of quilted, tough to look in seats.

Do those pose, do those pose an added challenge for you guys?

The perforation, the quilting, no, not necessarily.

We definitely will consider where we're applying some of the material.

Obviously, there is higher wear areas like when you get in and out of the vehicle.

So we just have to be considerate of where we apply some of the material.

But all of the material we ensure from a from a material point of view that we're

comfortable with its performance before we actually will put it on a seat and run those type of tests.

So what material is the biggest problem?

Is it like leather, leather, red or cloth showing wear?

Likely leather, just because it's a it's a natural product, right?

It's it's coming from a cow.

So we have to we have to make sure that the quality of the leather, the quality of the hides,

the quality of the cow is very good.

So we won't have those type of problems later in the field.

Now, you had mentioned earlier and I didn't think about this.

I thought it was just sort of leather that had been processed.

But you said you guys cover it with something or you coat the leather with something.

I'd never cross on my mind that you would do that.

Yeah.

So we have a coating that we apply specifically for lighter color interiors

to avoid such staining from other variables that the customer may be using,

whether it's coffee stains from your pants, whatever you may spill.

This this coating helps the cleanability of the seat.

So you don't end up with that long term staining on your interior vehicle.

So if you have a light colored steering wheel,

do you put that on the steering wheel as well?

The coating on the steering wheel?

Yeah. Yeah.

Because I mean, one of my like, I love how a light interior looks,

but I am always so concerned because I am the spiller.

And I'm like, I would bring coffee in here and spill it immediately or my jeans or actual

middle name. Yeah.

Jill Spiller, Simonello, that would be me.

But I, you know, I always worry about that.

So what you're telling me is that like in infinity vehicles,

this is this is not a worry I should have.

Yeah, I'm not sure that we actually have any like light colored steering wheels.

OK. But if you did, but if we did the coating again,

depending on the color of the material, it should be applied.

So where are the big problems on a seat?

My like, I'm a big guy and I always grab the seat base on the side.

And I know that over time we've had long term vehicles.

My sweaty hands start to wear on that spot that I grab.

But where are the is at the seat?

Bottom is like the thigh bolster is at the sides.

Where do you see the most wear?

The most wear is going to be on the bolster,

where you're getting in and out of every single day.

So over time, the material could wear the foam.

And if we do see wear, that's the that's the likeliest area.

Now, I described this earlier as an automated buttocks on a stick.

That's what the rope the jeans wearing robot looks like.

But but do you guys try to use that for other things as well?

Not just denim or the other materials you use or is denim really just the big problem?

No, as far as the the staining denim is the problem,

but the denim gene, it's a rough material.

And the amount of cycles we do with the pressure on the seat that that robot exhibits.

That is one of many, I'll say sequences that that robot does.

Evan, are there other parts of the interior that are also subject to extreme wear?

And I'm thinking specifically now like about big trucks like an Armada,

an Nissan Armada or Infinity QX80.

Like you have that panel at the lower part of the door

that seems to get the crud kicked out of it when people get in and out of the car.

You've got that and sort of like the area to the left of the footwell

on the driver's side that always seems to get messed up.

Are there other areas that you guys have to adjust for extreme durability?

I'm sure there are other areas.

Unfortunately, my specialty is seating.

Like it only speculate on what I thought I'm not sure, to be honest.

Well, speaking of seating, we've been talking about wear and long term reliability.

But tell us about seats in general.

What are the trends in seats and what is Infinity doing moving forward

with seats that maybe other makers aren't doing?

Yeah, I think overall from a Nissan Infinity point of view,

we're striving in comfort.

That's one thing I think we really excel at as a company.

And then obviously durability is something that we're really excelling in.

Like last year, JD Power Nissan was we were number one for mass market

automakers for durability. Congratulations.

Yeah, so that was a big win.

And as well as safety, I would say kind of those three key points

are something that we're really proud of.

So on Nissan seats, I know that they talk a lot about zero gravity seats.

I don't know what that is.

Well, OK, so maybe maybe we have you explain that.

But but also does Infinity use zero gravity seats?

Or do they use a different technology for comfort?

No, we both both brands use zero gravity seats.

And I can try to help explain what that is. Please.

So a while back, we collaborated with data from NASA

to see what the spine look like in a zero gravity situation.

Oh, so we took that shape of that spine

and we are including that influence within the seat.

So basically, we're trying to push the spine

into that zero gravity shape with the intention

to reduce fatigue during long drives.

Well, I have to say like the seats in Nissan and Infinity vehicles

from like the center all the way up to the QX80 are my favorite seats.

So I mean, and I'm I'm the fifth percentile female.

So the fact that you manage, so a.k.a.

the smallest person you would design for.

So I I'm very impressed from my perspective

with what you've done with the seats.

I think they're incredibly comfortable.

I've always thought that your interest in seat comfort

came from the fact that the shape the shape of the seat

probably more important to you.

I as a very, very big guy, I'm pretty sure I shape the seat.

It's a very different situation.

The seat shapes me, you shape the seat.

Actually, that's a great question.

We've got Jill and I here, very different sizes.

How difficult is it to deliver a seat in a vehicle,

especially the driver's seat that covers such a broad range of comfort?

It can be very difficult.

Obviously, the first thing that has taken into consideration

is the layout of the vehicle, making sure that everyone's body parts

are in the proper angle as far as the hip to heel distances.

You don't want to feel like as an example for Jill.

I'm sure Jill, if you're sitting at a high top,

right, your feet are your legs are dangling.

Yes, they are. She's thirty and thirty six inches high.

I'm not. I'm like just under sixty, but I often sit cross like it a lot.

Yeah. So that's just an example.

So obviously layout and we have an amazing group of comfort engineers

within Nissan and Infinity to make sure that we're capturing

all height sizes of people so we can again

deliver the most comfortable seat to the biggest range of people.

Well, this is all very cool.

Evan, is there anything we forgot to ask you?

No, I don't think so.

But I again appreciate you having me on.

Oh, the pleasure was ours. Thank you so much.

I hope we can talk again soon. Thank you.

All right. That was Evan Frank,

seat engineering manager at Nissan Motor Corporation.

We're going to take a break.

And then it's quiz time. And then it's quiz time.

Questions or comments?

Drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

That's carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

Hi, it's Brendan from Sons of Speed.

You've heard me and my colleague, Paul, on the Car Stuff podcast

whenever Jill's out of town.

But now you can hear us every week on the We Are Motor Driven podcast,

along with Jennifer from Auto Exotica and Harvey from Rides and Drives.

We talk about everything from sports cars to trucks to EVs and our favorite speed.

So join us each week by searching We Are Motor Driven,

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Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.

And we're back. This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

I'm Tom. She is Jill. Saturday night,

you and I did something together that we've only done maybe once before.

We did. We visited with our good friend Steve and Johnny Saturday night on WGN

radio in Chicago. And you gave everyone the lowdown of the Chicago auto show.

Yep. Winding up right now. Yeah. Winding down, not winding up. Yes. Ending.

It's ending today. Today's the last day. Wrapping up, winding down. Yes. Okay.

All right. Yes. That sounds good. So that's wrapping up. Yes.

If people care, I'm on Blue Sky and Twitter and X Car Guy Tom.

I've been derelict in my car spotter duties.

Only had a couple of cars in the last couple of weeks, but it is quiz time.

Okay. It is quiz time.

We have a little time here, which is nice because I want to get to a story.

And then you've got something else to share too. Yes.

About a scholarship. Yes. So we have to get to that.

But today's quiz topic is, I know you're waiting.

Oh, I'm baited breath.

Even more spelling. Oh, God.

There's the music. I love the music.

It makes this. I'm going to give you a car model name or brand.

And you just have to spell it. Got it. It's that easy.

Ready? You got the first one. Okay. Pujo.

One of the oldest car companies in the world.

The company goes back to 1810.

Clearly before there were internal combustion engines.

I think it's P-E-U-G-O-T.

Or is it P-U-E?

I need a final answer. Just to just to sound it out.

P-U-E. P-U-E. What are you saying?

P-U-E. P-U-E. G-O-T.

No, it is P-E-U-G-E-O-T.

E-O-T. Oh, it's a messy name.

It is. Yeah. So no, I don't got that.

And I'll be honest. I can't spell.

I would not have gotten that right either. Jill, you have no points.

Your favorite phrase.

You haven't been able to say that for a while.

Chinese E-V, performance E-V maker Neo.

OK. Neo. OK.

So 325,000 cars last year known for their innovation.

I think they're also actually making money.

OK. Which is weird in China. Right.

Neo. Neo. Neo.

Yeah, I've never heard of them.

Really? No.

Oh, they're kind of newsmakers.

Hmm. I apparently need to read more news.

N-I-O.

It is N-I-O. OK.

Wow. I was like, you're trying to throw me.

I was going to say N-E-O, but I'm like, it can't be that.

That's too easy.

All right. Are you ready?

Moka.

Opel sells a car in Europe.

Called the Moka.

I can tell you a little bit about it from 2013 to 2020.

It was based on the Chevrolet Trax.

OK.

But since that time, of course, Opel has gone over to Stalantis from GM.

So it's made on something else now, which I did not write down.

OK.

Moka.

The Opel Moka.

I'm going to, I don't even know how to spell Moka if you're ordering coffee.

So I'm going to say M-O-C-C-H-A.

No, but you're on the right track.

It's M-O-K-K-A.

OK.

There you go. You have one point.

I have a point.

I bet you get this one.

OK.

Lucerne.

As in the Buick Lucerne.

As in the city of Lucerne.

Sure.

L-U-C-E-R-N-E.

Correct.

All right.

You have two.

All right.

And finally, the Chrysler Y.

Which was based on the Lancia Y.

It was only sold for a single year.

Small hatchback related to the Fiat Punto.

2000 total sold.

Chrysler Y.

I feel like there should be a picture of my face right now.

Because I'm just totally scrunching it up.

You know, I'm going to go rogue and I'm going to say it begins with a Y.

Uh-huh.

You said Ipsilon.

Ipsilon.

Y-P-S-I-L-A-N.

Oh, L-O-N.

I was close.

Oh, no. You need the bonus question.

OK.

All right. You're going to need the bonus question today.

You have two points.

Luckily, it's a good one.

You love music.

I so love music, especially yours.

All right.

I just need you to tell me who was the godfather of soul.

I've got four names here.

Are you ready?

Walter White.

OK.

James Brown.

Jack Black.

Or Lauren Green.

I'm going to go James Brown.

Yes.

My dad did teach me one thing.

What's that?

That.

He liked James Brown.

James Brown, 1933 to 2006, famous for the song Sex Machine.

Papa's got a brand new bag.

And his band.

A brand new bag.

His band did an acoustic album.

Or not acoustic, but no vocals.

One of the songs on there is called Popcorn.

Or the Popcorn.

It's really good.

OK.

All right. You got this.

I got it.

There you go.

I'm signing this for you now.

Only because of my dad did I get this.

Yeah.

Yeah. It was not Lauren Green.

It was.

I don't even.

It was not the godfather of soul.

I don't know who that is.

Ben Carpwright on Bonanza.

Got it.

Adama on what was that called?

Battlestar Galactica.

OK.

All right.

Let's go to your story first.

Yes.

So I just wanted to let everybody know that there is a new scholarship in town from the

SAE International in Nactoy, which is a North American car of the year jury.

We funded a hundred thousand dollar endowment so that we could create this scholarship.

And it is for students interested in automotive journalism.

So print online media broadcast all that.

But engineering and design.

So it's not just automotive journalism, but also engineering and design.

And here's the kicker.

You've got to apply fast because applications are due by the end of this month.

And it's just one scholarship a year.

I believe it's two scholarships a year.

So one for automotive journalism and then one for engineering.

So that should be about 2,500 bucks each.

Yep.

OK.

Do tell.

Yeah.

So I'll give Tom the link, but the application is on the SAE website.

And, you know, we wanted to create a scholarship so that we could honor like automotive journalists

in our mission, but we also wanted to make sure that we were honoring the profession of

just automotive industry folks in general.

So we're really looking forward to getting this.

This will be the very first scholarship we're awarding this year.

Here's the thing about that.

There are automotive engineering jobs that pay unbelievably well.

Mostly software engineering and things like that.

So if you're not thinking about it, maybe think about it and get a little help.

Yeah.

And so, I mean, this is for graduate or undergraduate careers.

So pursuing automotive engineering design or journalism.

February 28th is the last day.

Oh, that's coming up.

So I wanted to make sure we got this mentioned.

It's for U.S. residents.

So I will issue that caveat and it's open.

It says minimum unweighted GPA of 3.5 for incoming freshmen and 3.0 for upperclassmen.

Oh, well, I would have never qualified.

And so, but yeah, so we will post the link.

But we are definitely looking for a good pool of candidates to apply for our first scholarship award.

All right.

There you have it.

Yes.

Scholarship.

Yep.

Money.

I wanted to talk about this story.

We have touched on this before, but it's becoming more, I want to say acute, but that sounds negative.

And that's not necessarily what's happening here.

But Cadillac is becoming and maybe the leading purveyor of electric vehicles in the United States.

Yeah.

And they sell a bunch of different models.

But the numbers are impressive.

In 2025, the number of EVs they sold was up by 25%.

Now, this is clearly driven in part by people rushing out.

To buy before the...

Yes, but sales were up 40% in the last quarter.

That's amazing.

But what's interesting about this is the number of vehicles in their lineup that are now electric.

Yeah, nearly all of them.

I think there's two that are not, right?

Three.

Let's see.

What's not electric here?

The X-T5 is the last remaining non-electric crossover.

Oh, and the old Escalade.

Yep.

And I say, oh, but it's still a fantastic vehicle.

The Cadillac CT5 and CT4, but the CT4 is going away soon.

That is the compact and midsize gasoline-powered cars.

They're nice cars, and they are priced pretty competitively.

If you're looking at a Lexus ES, which may be going away soon,

they don't talk about it much anymore, and I haven't seen one in a long time.

But look at the Cadillacs, too.

Yeah, the CT4 Blackwing, which is their high-performance version with manual transmission,

is one of the favorite cars I've driven ever.

It's interesting that I almost believe they're keeping those cars around

just so they can sell these high-performance things and get magazine covers.

Probably.

I mean, it's really a nice way, you know, to brandish your reputation,

is to have a high-performance vehicle that makes the cover of car and driver.

I don't know how many of them they sell.

But here's the electric car part of this story.

So the Cadillac Escalade IQ, and for this year the IQL,

which is strange because it's not that much bigger than the IQ, but anyway.

The Optique, which is the small vehicle

that basically replaced the gasoline-powered X-T4, is not the Optique.

The Vistik, which replaced the X-T6, the three-row car,

the Lyric, which was their first electric vehicle, very nice car.

I just drove the Lyric V. Wow.

Wow, nice car.

But that's their midsize two-row crossover.

And then the Insane Celestic, which we learned was at the Chicago Auto Show.

But that's a one-off bespoke.

You order the car, and then you wait a long time until you get the car,

and they're really cool-looking.

And very expensive.

Yeah, like $400,000 out the door.

They start cheaper, but by the time you customize the thing,

you do the bespoke thing.

Yeah, bespoke.

But that's the deal there.

So Cadillac selling a lot of EVs.

Interestingly, maybe we'll talk about this next week,

but this is a funny story.

NADA, the North American Dealer Association,

had their meeting more or less during the Chicago Auto Show at the same time.

NADA is interesting for a bunch of reasons,

but two stories coming out of NADA.

One is that Cadillac dealers are very optimistic,

as reported by Automotive News.

But the other part about NADA that always makes me laugh so hard,

Automotive News does like this 10- or 12-week cycle of previews about cars

and everything they know about what's coming for each manufacturer.

It's a really good read if you have the time to read it.

Absolutely worth your time.

You have to pay money to read it, though.

You either have to get the print edition or pay the subscription online.

But if you care about cars and your geek, this is good stuff.

But nothing can do that for all the time they want.

You go to NADA, and a bunch of dealers have a make meeting,

and the Cadillac dealers go into a room holding cocktails,

and Cadillac shows them future products,

and they're like, don't tell anybody.

And then all these guys leave the meeting and blab everything immediately.

So if a reporter were smart,

they would be waiting outside the door of that meeting.

Well, Automotive News does that.

They report heavily on that for that reason.

So in the next couple of weeks,

we're going to hear more about the future of cars

than we would have any other time during the year.

And I want to say, I've never heard it referred to as NADA.

I always hear NADA.

Do you?

I've heard NADA.

But yeah, you're probably right.

It's probably more NADA.

But it's a big deal.

The Chicago Automobile Trade Association is a member of NADA,

of the North American Dealer Association.

But the thing there, too, is that they're a powerful lobbying group.

So anyway, I was thinking about something from last week

when we spoke to Mark Lanieve,

and the average dealer being 70 years old,

which is interesting because they're not stepping aside.

Right.

You know, you wonder how things like that happen over time.

And you seem to doubt my theory that there were just a lot of youngsters

that didn't want to get into the business.

I don't know.

I mean, I just think that if it were a family-owned business,

I mean, I could see them passing it down.

But maybe not.

Maybe young kids who don't have any tie to dealership business

probably wouldn't want to start it now.

I don't know.

So interesting that I went and re-listened to that interview.

And I don't often hear everything when we do the interview.

Right, right.

I have to listen to it again.

And I heard some interesting things.

And one of the things that Mark told us

was that they don't buy fixer-uppers.

Right.

They don't invest in them.

They'll buy up to half.

So 49% of a business.

But one of the things that he did say they do,

and I didn't ask about this because I thought it was super interesting,

you've got a dealer group that has 10 dealers,

they want to buy five more.

They'll come in, give this company half of what their company is worth

to the 10 dealers, and then they can buy a fixer-upper.

Right.

So they will help financially a well-run organization

buy more groups that they're going to fix up.

Right.

Which is actually really good investment.

Yeah.

If you know that this dealer has run well,

they can probably fix another group.

So you're buying in kind of cheap maybe.

Right.

So interesting stuff, but I enjoyed that interview.

Yeah.

You know, it has been a long time since I have talked to Mark,

so it was nice to have him on.

Yeah, I talked to him years and years and years ago before the bankruptcies.

People might remember him because he was,

I'm sure he doesn't want to be known for this,

but he was the face of the bankruptcies in 2009 or so

when General Motors was going under.

Yeah.

He was on every financial show every day all the time.

Yeah.

And he looked tired.

Yeah.

But he did talk the business community,

the business media through this.

Right.

Like, it was his finest hour,

and unfortunately it was a really rough hour for him.

Yeah.

Anyway, what are you driving?

I have a very, very yellow.

Oh.

Very yellow Toyota Prius Prime.

I want to talk about the, do you mind?

Can we talk Prius for a second?

Yeah, let's talk Prius.

I love the Prius, and I've always loved what it was.

Mm-hmm.

And it was the vehicle that was proof of concept for hybrid.

Mm-hmm.

It was.

I mean, they're ubiquitous now,

but once upon a time, we were all startled

that they could sell this technology as cheaply as they did.

Yeah.

And then they turned out to be ridiculously reliable.

Yep.

So reliable that taxi cab drivers bought Priuses.

Yep.

And do you remember the Prius V?

Yes.

Which was a wagon-based one?

Yeah, well, they had the Prius V and the Prius C.

The C, which was, I didn't fit in the C.

A little compact, yeah.

Yeah, I didn't fit in the C, but the V was super popular

with cabbies.

Mm-hmm.

And it was really rumored in the back, and that was the deal.

I mean, if Toyota points at anything on its resume

that just suggests that they make reliable, high-tech,

affordable cars, that the Prius is it.

Fantastic car.

So here's my question to you with two and a half minutes left

on the show.

Okay.

What is the Prius now?

You know, I still think it's a benchmark of what hybrids can be

because it is one of the smoothest running hybrids

I have driven still to date.

And, you know, a lot of automakers are coming out with hybrids

from, you know, BMW to Mercedes to Lexus.

Well, obviously Lexus is Toyota.

But, you know, to all of the luxury automakers,

to Hyundai to Kia, and I don't, like, I feel like the Prius,

even amongst the Toyota lineup, the Prius is still, like,

the smoothest hybrid that they have.

Is it weird now in 2026?

And the new Prius came out for what, 2024?

Is it weird now that the Prius is sexy and has a small backseat?

Or is that antithetical to what we used to believe the Prius was?

Because it is a great-looking car.

It is a great-looking car, and it's really funny because, like,

still, when I see a Prius, I do a double-take,

because I'm just like, that's a Prius.

But, I mean, it is a little bit weird to think of the Prius,

because, like, it's always been kind of funny-looking.

The money is not too different. It is different.

I can't remember which way this thing sways.

But, Corolla Hybrid or Prius?

Mmm. I'd probably go Prius.

I like the hatchback, and I think the Corolla Hybrid

is only available in the sedan.

I believe you're correct.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, guess what we did?

Oh, we had another really great conversation.

It was a fun show.

We talked about a buttocks on a stick.

People, I have to link to that video.

You really do, because, I mean, it is a very odd-looking machine.

It is weird to see a robot with butt cheeks.

Yeah, yeah.

Right?

Uh-huh.

You don't usually see that.

All right. Big thanks to Evan Frank,

seat engineering manager at Nissan Motor Corporation.

It was good to talk to him.

Thank you, Jill.

Thank you to Producer Randy and the good folks here at TalkZone.

Let's talk more about cars again.

Next week.

Remember to check us out at ConsumerGuide.com.

The Car Stuff podcast is produced by J-Turn Media.

To advertise on the show, please drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.

You've got the tech.

You've got the drive.

And you've got Toyota value that spells affordable.

You ready?

Find yours at Toyota.com.

Toyota.

Let's go places.

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