Consumer Reports Bombs the New 4Runner
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Car
Audi S5
The Audi S5 is a stylish car made by Audi that is faster and more powerful than regular models. It is designed to be comfortable and fun to drive.
Term
clear bra
A clear bra is like a see-through sticker that goes on your car to stop little scratches and chips from rocks. It keeps your car looking nice for longer.
Concept
street cars
Street cars are the normal cars you drive every day on regular roads. They are made to be comfortable and safe for driving in cities and highways.
Concept
race cars
Race cars are cars made to go very fast and win races. They are built differently from regular cars and usually aren't comfortable for everyday driving.
Concept
off road cars
Off road cars are special vehicles made to drive on rough ground like dirt or sand, not just smooth roads. They have bigger tires and stronger parts to help them go over bumps and rocks.
Concept
car enthusiast
A car enthusiast is a person who really loves cars and enjoys learning about them, fixing them, or driving them for fun.
Concept
off-roading
Off-roading means driving a car on dirt or rough paths instead of regular roads. People do it for fun or to explore places normal cars can't go.
Part
race seat
A race seat is a special car seat that keeps the driver safe and steady when driving fast or on rough roads. It helps stop you from moving around too much.
Car
Ford F-150 Raptor
The Ford F-150 Raptor is a special kind of truck made to drive well on rough and bumpy roads. It has a strong engine and special parts to help it go off-road.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a medium-sized truck made by Ford that can carry things and drive on rough roads. The Raptor version is a special model made to handle tough off-road conditions better than regular trucks.
Car
Ford F150
The Ford F-150 is a big truck made by Ford that can carry heavy loads and drive on many types of roads. The Raptor version is a special model made to go off-road and has a unique seat setup with two seats in front and one in the back middle.
Term
off-road diesel
Off-road diesel is special diesel fuel that farmers use for tractors and machines that don’t drive on roads. It’s dyed red and cheaper because it doesn’t have road taxes. Using it in regular cars is against the law and can get you fined.
Term
DSG
DSG is a special kind of gearbox that changes gears quickly and smoothly so the ride feels better and faster.
Term
driverless vehicles
Driverless vehicles are cars that can drive themselves without a person controlling them. They use special computers and cameras to see the road and other cars.
Term
lane splitting
Lane splitting means a motorcycle or small vehicle drives between cars that are stopped or moving slowly in traffic to get ahead faster.
Term
electric vehicle
An electric vehicle is a car that runs on electricity stored in batteries instead of gas. It uses electric motors to move.
Car
Toyota 4Runner
The Toyota 4Runner is a type of SUV that can go off-road and is very tough. It comes in different versions with different features and some have hybrid engines.
Term
TRD Pro
TRD Pro is a special version of Toyota trucks and SUVs made to handle rough roads better with extra strong parts.
Car
Tesla Cybertruck
The Tesla Cybertruck is a truck that runs only on electricity and looks very different from other trucks. It is made by Tesla and is designed to carry things and drive well while using electric power instead of gas.
Car
Chevrolet C8
The C8 Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet that has its engine in the middle of the car, making it handle very well. Even the basic version is really good to drive.
Car
Toyota Tacoma
The Toyota Tacoma is a type of truck that many people use for work or fun, especially if they like going off-road or need a tough vehicle. It's known for lasting a long time.
Term
steel wheels
Steel wheels are simple, strong wheels made of metal that come on cheaper or work vehicles. They are less fancy but very tough.
Term
snorkel
A snorkel is a pipe on a car that helps the engine breathe cleaner air, especially when driving in dusty places or through water. Some snorkels only help with dust, not water.
Concept
vehicle aerodynamics
Vehicle aerodynamics means how air moves around a car when it drives. This affects how much gas it uses and where dirt sticks on the car.
Term
water fording
Water fording means how deep a car can drive through water without breaking or getting damaged.
Part
differential breather
Differential breathers are tiny vents on the car's gears that let air out. When driving through water, you have to make sure these vents don't let water in or the car can get damaged.
Car
Acura NSX
The Acura NSX is a fast sports car made by Acura that uses both a gas engine and electric motors to go quickly. It is designed to be very precise and fun to drive.
Term
anti-seize
Anti-seize is a special grease that helps parts not get stuck together. It makes it easier to take them apart later.
Part
caliper
The caliper is a part that pushes the brake pads to stop the car. Sometimes it needs to be taken apart to fix the brakes.
Term
dual sport
A dual sport bike is a motorcycle you can ride both on the street and on dirt trails. It’s made to work well in both places.
Car
KTM 450
The KTM 450 is a bigger and more powerful motorcycle than the 390R. It’s good if you want more speed and can handle rougher trails.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how strong a vehicle’s engine is. More horsepower usually means the vehicle can go faster or pull heavier loads.
Car
Honda Grom
The Honda Grom is a small motorcycle that’s easy to ride and good for city streets. It’s popular with people who want a simple, fun bike.
Company
Doug DeMuro
Doug DeMuro is a person who makes videos about cars. He shows what’s cool and different about them so people can learn more before buying.
Car
Mclaren 765 Lt
The McLaren 765LT is a very fast and special sports car made by McLaren. It is built to be light and quick, mainly for driving on race tracks.
Concept
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a well-known race track in Germany where people drive cars very fast and test how good they are. It's famous for being really hard to drive on.
LIVE
Welcome to the Abantz Podcast. I am Dan. I am Nick. Welcome back everyone. Wow,
that was formal. First half of sleep as I am, that's way formal. How are you? Oh,
I'm pretty good. The rain has come. The rain has definitely come hard. I tell you,
I was out and about today chasing down a package, by the way. If you work for the
US Postal Service, I'm sorry. I just, that's just, I ordered some stuff for
Kate's birthday. And I don't understand why, and I'm not going to go too
deep into this. You had to pay through PayPal. And PayPal, for some reason, told
them my shipping address was the place in Sammamish that I haven't lived in
four or five years. Oh yeah. And then I call PayPal and they go, we don't have
that address on file. We didn't do that. And I was like, I, so then I go somewhere
buried in your address book. So I, well, no, no, no, but I, I, I'm very good at
checking that before I sent stuff. So I go to my old address and the lady goes,
oh yeah. Well, there's nobody living in your apartment. And so I told the postman
to send it all back. Yeah. Return to sender. How nice. Yeah. So that's fun.
But other than that, my day was fabulous. Thanks for asking.
Sorry. Actually, my day was awesome. Speaking of our awesome partner partners
with Stack and Metropolitan took the new 2026 Audi S5 and dropped it off for
protection, which has been tough. I haven't driven it. And either has my dad
because it's been, we took delivery and then it sat underneath in Bellevue.
It's funny because we always talk about enjoying the drive. But like that car
being the fact that had no protection on it, I had to limp it to Metropolitan.
So I took all these back roads so that I wouldn't be following people. Yeah.
I took the most convoluted way to get to Redmond and my GPS is like, what are you
doing? But I don't blame you. That's a great approach. I was about to take it.
I was like, oh, I just get on the free. I was like, oh, I can't get on the
freeway in this car. That would be absolutely suicide. So actually,
and thank you to everybody at Metropolitan. My appointment was on Monday,
but they got us in early. They are absolutely swamped, which I'm glad to see.
That's, you know, Metropolitan has been a part of this podcast since day one.
Yeah, we have a lot to thank John and his crew over there.
And even, even with it trading hands. So all the, I mean, so we're doing,
we're doing full clear bra and they're, I'm having them tinted out and do
everything good to it. Cause gotta protect it. Yeah.
Well, you guys will have it a long time and it'll be very worth it.
So that's, I've talked to you about this and the fact that like,
it's going to take some sales. So the day we took delivery of it, you know,
we weren't supposed to have it till April.
All the vehicles that have been ordered through the Bergeron family are showing
up early. It's weird. Oh, good. All of them hint.
Yeah. More to come. Much more to come. But the day they took delivery,
my dad and I took delivery, they released that RS five wagon.
And I'm like, that would be a lot more fun. So we just leased this one.
So I'm like, maybe that would be in the future, but I don't know.
It's always easy to spend somebody else's money.
So just because I'm on the board doesn't mean I get to decipher where the money
goes. Yeah. Well, congratulations on the new car. Yeah.
A big thanks to our friends at S tech. Like you said, I will have a review
after I've driven it not 25 miles an hour from Bellevue to Redmond.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. It's a, I like the redesign.
I think it's a really good looking car. Beautiful interior as always.
I will say this, it, it, I even sitting in the, in the cockpit,
it's taking a lot for me to take it all in, which I have to learn it
so that I can teach it and it's, it's a lot. That car, that car does a lot.
And I mean, which I'm grateful for, uh, but there's just so many really cool
little features as far as where the turn signals light up the dash and
like the interior stuff and like down to the simple things like where
you hit the button and how the lights will come on and yeah, that's cool.
Yeah, there's some, yeah, there's a lot of tech and out East.
That's for sure. And especially the new ones, but keep Brandon.
Keep Brandon business.
I had not told him by the way, I forgot to tell him about that.
I told him in that chat, I was like, huh, good news. Good news, everyone.
Yeah, so nice. We, uh, before we get our car to see if we actually have
another text message, we always appreciate these.
This is a good one.
Somebody else yelling at me.
No, no, this is, uh, uh, James G.
Evance member, former Seattle, so Cal currently in Japan.
Oh, yeah.
I know, I know James who he is anyway from this post.
Um, I know you are.
I know you are.
Uh, thanks for these regarding roads.
I love to drive.
I have two favorites and unfortunately they've both been largely
commandeered by Instagram and TikTok idiots.
We know how that goes all too well.
Uh, the first is Arizona, formerly us highway 89 a from Flagstaff to
Prescott going through Sedona and the Verde Valley.
I know this road very well.
I love this road.
It's so fun.
Uh, he's right about the traffic though.
Luckily this is one of those roads that dies massively during the
off season when people think it's going to like rain or snow, which
it barely ever does over there.
It does snow in Sedona.
Don't be wrong.
And especially on that route, but it is an incredible drive and
it's I've driven it several times in like October, November, December,
and there's virtually nobody on it, but man, you get into the summer
months, the spring.
It is packed.
Okay.
So highly recommend that one.
He said growing up in Arizona and then going to school at Northern
Arizona University.
I drove that road a lot when I wanted to go for a scenic drive.
The second is the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Uh, first lived in North Carolina more than 15 years ago and driving
the parkway was one of the things I did.
There were several more drives on it.
Well, I lived there.
So it's like offshoots of this, the Blue Ridge Parkway.
That is a beautiful drive.
Um, I don't know that route, that route.
If you haven't looked up the Blue Ridge Parkway, you will definitely
recognize photos of it and the way the trees lineup looks almost,
it doesn't look real when you see photos of the views from there.
It literally, the first time I saw a view is I thought it was AI
generated.
And I mean, like the way these days, yeah.
And it's, it's incredible.
So highly worth it.
Um, so I would love to go back.
For drives on both, but again, there's somewhat of a shit show
with all the social media.
Yeah.
He's, he's right.
Uh, one of the downs like tail of the dragon has become.
Yeah.
You know, absolute shit show.
Yeah.
So still worth driving.
You just got to pick your seasons carefully.
Um, it's funny.
I was having, it's funny how this stuff crosses over as having completely
unprovoked this exact same conversation at work today.
We're talking about places they love to go and it's winter.
So people are saying, you know, skiing in Aspen is incredible.
And it is.
Aspen's one of my favorite cities.
The, the highway outside the back side of California.
Yeah.
California.
Samsonite.
Yeah.
Beautiful, beautiful drive outside there.
Um, I forget the name of the pass that's behind there.
I could look it up, but anyway, uh, probably worth it.
So,
I mean, you have a recall of roads that I won't, I don't think most people
ever have in the fact.
Obviously you've driven most of them, but like.
Driven a lot of them multiple times that helps.
I've made special trips just for like, Oh, I love this road.
I'm going to go drive three states over to drive this road.
So,
yeah.
Well, that makes sense.
I mean, if you're going to, if you're going to work as hard as you do
and, and I'm, I'm talking in general for advanced members and put the money
into your vehicles, you're going to use them, be it off road cars, be it street
cars, be it race cars.
It's, I mean, it is fun to sit in your garage and tinker and look at your car.
But at the end of the day, you want to, you want to drive it.
So.
Yep.
I get it.
There was a post on a Vance off road.
Um,
I think it was just in the advanced channel about how someone had switched
over to going off roading from sports cars.
I saw that.
Yeah.
How much they had loved it.
And like I said, if you are a car enthusiast and we harp on this a lot,
but I think that was that group that went to the dunes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, how they said it really completes your circle.
It's not that one is better than the other.
I mean, you, you will enjoy one more than the other.
Sure.
But I think it, you haven't experienced that side of a vehicle.
And I don't mean like just doing the BDRs.
That's great.
The BDRs are fantastic, but they're the Washington one is very mild.
Let's put it that way.
I mean, like taking a real off road day, going to Natchez locally or going
to Moab, obviously, which we talked at the end, you know, over and over again
about, I think you're missing out on a key peak automotive experience that
you need to invest in.
It's worth it.
Even if you go with a friend or something the first time, you'll get it.
But having those experiences really changes your perspective on cars.
And in a good way, you either, you're not going to dislike it.
I don't think unless you do something stupid and roll your truck or something,
but it really opens up your world to what more is out there, what more
a vehicle can do in a different way.
I always look at it as, and I, and I tell Kate this, I have automotive
options on a day that's nice.
I can get in the triumph and I can go driving, but if the roads are bad,
like people are too many people and come home, I can get in the truck
and I can go into the woods.
And yeah, there'll be people, but there won't be as many people.
So I'm still filling that need to be in my car and do something.
And to your point of not liking off-roading, there are certain people,
somebody in my life, aka my wife, that when we're off-road and I'm moving
and it jitters the crap out of her, she's not a fan, which I get.
Yeah.
Well, that's the high speed stuff, but maybe she'd really like the low speed
stuff.
Like, oh, I was so scenic.
Yeah.
No, I mean, that's on the list and I've made it very clear to her and I
want to fit my parents down there too.
Like some of this stuff to get in there.
Like, I mean, I want her to see Thelma and Louise Point, but it's,
it's, they're still going to be some slow bumps.
Like, yeah, through that.
So yeah, you have the right vehicle for it though.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
No, I'm not, I'm just saying like being, being a pet, I will say this
and probably a good example.
Brian and I in the back of your car that day, I was, I was ready to get out
of the car.
Like, oh yeah, I love off-roading, but I was like, even the slow stuff was
like, you're just, it's hard to control.
Like as a driver, you have the kind of the wheel to hold onto.
And as a passenger, it's, it'll be a grip handle somewhere.
Cars don't have as many shit handles as they used to.
It's really disappointing.
They really should consider that.
Yeah.
Well, actually, you know, it's kind of a nice thing about being strapped
in to like a race, a race seat where you've got all that.
It's actually more helpful off-road in my opinion.
I mean, I, I'm, you know, I wonder if anybody's going to do that with a
Ranger Raptor and the fact that you remember our friend that owns
Mountside Tavern and he had that, that F-150 Raptor and had three seats.
It was two in the front, one in the back in the middle.
Such a great setup.
I think that would be great in the Ranger because that back seat sucks
and you can't sit back there anyway.
So just rip it out and put that in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was good watching the jump videos though.
Nice to see our, our friends and people out in advance using their trucks.
Apparently some of us who are in the Raptor community were not invited to
that, so whatever.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm glad to see.
It really pleases me to see a lot of people out there, especially in the, in
the Ranger Raptor community.
That's kind of grown and the, in the, in the Vaunts community.
So there's a lot of good people that are buying them.
So yeah, but yeah, um, yeah, Carter tip of the week.
Yeah.
So, uh, let's talk about diesel.
Since we talked about it last week, a little more on how that's changing.
This isn't, uh, I want to talk about off-road diesel.
What is off-road diesel and what happens if you use it in your vehicle,
which is highly illegal.
Um, I mean, well, first of all, it's called farm diesel.
Yeah.
You can tell the difference because if you're pulled over while driving on a
road in it and the officer looks at you and says, I'm going to stick something
in your tank boy and it pulls it out and it's red.
It's a large fine.
I'm not going to tell you how I know that.
Um, but yeah, uh, it's untaxed.
We're correct.
Yeah.
So off-road diesel or farm diesel is not taxed because those vehicles don't
go on roads.
So why would they pay a road tax?
I'm sure that'll change here like everything else, but, uh, for those of
us who are just have tractors that are diesel, so you can just go fill up your,
your farm diesel when paying no tax on it because that vehicle will not touch
the road, which makes perfect sense.
And I'm not joking.
It is bright red.
And if you're pulled over and they think you're using that on the road,
they will test it and the fine is large.
Um, this person that I know who looks a lot like me was driving somebody else's
vehicle and helping, but was still had to share in the fine.
I'll put that that way.
So, so yeah, fines are the first step.
The Arizona department of transportation, you could be looking at, this is a
worst case scenario.
I think this is for commercial vehicles, $1,000 fine for every illegal gallon,
a charge of $10 plus potential prosecution.
I don't know what the $10 is for, but $1,000 for every legal gallon is an
insane amount.
Uh, so watch that.
Uh, yeah.
So, but, you know, semi pulling massive loads and then you can imagine
how much diesel they're going through.
There's a lot of temptation there to use that.
Okay.
So as of 2025, the average retail price of diesel in the United States is
approximately, no, that's not 24 cents per gallon.
That's wrong.
I was trying to figure out the difference.
Like it's there.
It's what?
It's about the same price.
Super.
And let it use it because I've, I was back in my day when this person got
pulled over, it was a lot cheaper.
Yeah.
And, and yeah, that's as it should be because it's less refined, but why would
they do that?
Yeah.
That's about 470 a gallon around here.
I'm just looking at local diesel prices for, uh, yeah, it should be cheaper.
There used to be a bigger gap in it.
Oh yeah.
It's like a dollar cheaper.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And now, um, yeah, with people with that death restriction going away, I'm
curious to see if they want to come back like we talked about, but I don't
know.
Yeah.
This person, I know it just happened.
Like it was a hot day and they decided to drive to the store and police
officer watched them drive out of the field and yep.
So that's it though.
That's the only difference.
Yeah.
It's just not taxed.
It's the same thing.
It's just, it's got to die in it.
Not all of it has died, uh, almost all way.
Like 99% of it has died and that's just do that so they can get you.
Yeah.
That's it.
It's just, it's just a regulation.
It's just a control.
Yeah.
So control factor.
Yep.
That's it.
Um, but good to know.
Let's talk about automation.
Oh, my favorite topic.
Okay.
It is.
I love automation.
I've worked with it a lot.
Uh, do you like it in your cars?
No, I hate it.
Okay.
Do you want it in your motorcycles?
That's the least place I want it.
Why would that be Dan?
Why would you have a motorcycle if you can't?
If it's automated anything.
So that's, that's kind of, I mean, maybe, okay.
I like a DSG in a motorcycle.
I really do.
An Africa twin with the DSG that automated quote unquote shifter.
That's not the same thing is a fantastic transmission.
That's really, really good.
But that's it.
As you know, we have, I mean, we're starting to see the way most here.
They're starting to drive around.
Yeah.
It's funny because every time I try to point one out to Kate,
somebody is driving one.
It looks self-driving car.
Oh, yeah.
But the idea has come that that could come to motorcycles.
And, um, the article, of course, now won't pull up.
So I can't read my facts, but, uh, the Ducati's us CEO CEO was saying
that that's never going to happen at Ducati.
And that defeats the purpose of riding a motorcycle, which, you
know, is one of those, if you're a car person or an automotive person,
duh, like the whole point of riding a motorcycle is to be on the edge
of being on two wheels to have fun, you know, be it monkey, be it
African twin, be it a CBR 500, whatever it is, a Hayabusa.
Um, having, you know, the, the automation, like you said, with the
clutches and maybe the, you know, and ABS and things like that are great.
I think that's wonderful stuff in it, but it is important to also
know how to ride a bike without that stuff.
Cause if you happen to get on a bike, but they're talking, he's talking
basically about them saying like you get on a motorcycle and it just
drives you where you want to go away, but it's like, no, that's not happening.
That is terrifying for one.
Absolutely terrifying.
That's like 50 years from now.
Maybe you still have to wear a helmet.
Better.
I'm not sure you're offering your honor.
I wasn't drinking the motorcycle was the bugs alone.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That seems terrible.
I mean, it's obviously you could implement it, but at the same time.
Oh, no, yeah, just no.
The fact that you would be not, I mean, one of the things you, there's
so many more factors to consider the G forces, the breaking.
Like you have to be holding on.
And so that's exactly that would introduce so many problems.
Well, obviously, you know, it's, it's probably not going to happen
to the point of like, I think that tech or what, or what we'll call
that tech could go into like driverless, smaller driverless vehicles,
kind of things like delivery vehicles, like, you know, where they
can put your pizza in and it will drive it to your house.
And, and a smaller vehicle might be able to get through traffic
faster than a four wheel drive or four wheel vehicle.
Correct.
I could see an unmanned two wheel vehicle doing this.
It's completely no occupant.
That's a great point right there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that I would actually be for because they would take
up far less space on the road and they would be much more maneuverable
and they could get around traffic.
You just have a little dedicated.
You're going to let these things lane split.
I absolutely will let them.
Just to get your dominoes there a little quicker.
Okay.
Dominoes would be the one to do it too.
Lane splitting by dominoes.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Get the nerd or the noid to come back.
The noid.
Yeah.
If you know, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh man.
There's a whole video game for that.
Is there really?
Yeah.
There's a noid video game.
Oh, there was.
Yeah.
I remember that.
I think it was Super Nintendo.
I don't remember.
Yeah.
It was old though.
Good money.
Good money.
Yeah.
I just, it was something that came up that was funny to me.
Um, I, uh, obviously it's, it's not going to happen.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like you said, I think you hit around the head though.
Small delivery vehicles that could be very advantageous.
I, I would be glad to see them do that.
They would get hit all the time.
So we would be looking at them, but I mean, you could make it like one big,
you could make it like a box basically.
I mean, they have those now, like those little, those little coolers with four wheels.
That wire.
Those are hilarious.
I mean, I think they get picked on, but.
Yeah.
Those would work, you know, those would work great in Japan.
Yeah.
Where people would, nobody would screw with it.
They'd be like, why?
And they probably do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That would be a fantastic.
And they have small, narrow streets and people move out of the way for things.
Yeah.
That's a great society for that.
I just feel like somebody here would spray paint with their own logo and.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Somebody would kidnap it for sure.
I don't know about that.
Don't, don't kidnap autonomous vehicles.
That'd be me.
Yeah.
That's, that's pretty funny though.
Um, all right.
Next topic.
So, uh, consumer reports came out with their most disliked vehicles of 2025 and.
One of them is obvious.
The other two, I was a little surprised at one of them.
I'm very surprised at the most obvious.
Of course, the cyber truck, um, between very polarizing looks and, um, just weird.
How do I say it?
Not ergonomics.
Static or?
Yeah.
The, the, the aesthetically, they're obviously very mixed, but also like the dimensions are
kind of odd.
They're very difficult to park the low speed handling.
They didn't like, um, awkward low speeds, awkward steering ratios, low speed behavior
that felt unnatural and clumsy.
Uh, they just didn't like it that much as a vehicle, but then of course you've got
the, the Tesla stigma that is divided the nation on hating Elon Musk.
I mean, I, I get why that was on the list.
Let's put it that way.
Even if I agree or don't, I can see why that was on the list.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
The other one that I was a little surprised by, um, the Volvo EX 30.
So that the electric one?
Yep.
Uh, everybody says it's a rocket.
It's got great acceleration, but not one tester said they'd recommend this car.
Not a single person.
This is like their most hated vehicle.
Can we back up here for a second?
Consumer reports, do they, you, when they're testing these vehicles, are they
using car people to test these vehicles?
Or they just, I mean, oh yeah, they've had automotive segment dedicated for years.
I, I, when I think of automotive testing, I think of road and track and things like
that, but I know consumer reports is always something you can look to when
you're buying a car.
But, um, I didn't know the basis behind their, their knowledge.
Yeah.
There's some good differences in consumer reports that I actually like.
I don't agree with a lot of their stuff.
I shouldn't say that.
I don't agree with some of their things, but I like the consumer reports looks
at vehicles for the more common car buyer because that market is obviously the
largest market.
So if you're, you know, if you're, you know, mom or dad who just needs to get
to work is looking at a vehicle, consumer reports isn't going to be a bad option
because they're going to look at things like, is it comfortable?
Is it quiet?
Is it reliable?
They're not so much vacuum for your minivan.
Yeah.
They're not so much focused on the zero to 60 or the, you know, the G forces or
whatever.
They're looking at maximum practicality or at least that's sort of where
they come from.
And they do test performance vehicles though, but they're, but this list is
obviously they're just testing vehicles to see the usability.
And if they like the car, right?
Okay.
So they, which they said the usability is a nightmare.
I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
And this, to be clear, this is the Volvo.
Yeah.
The EX 30.
They're little SUV.
That's all electric.
Yep.
So they said, first of all, from a consumer reports perspective, extremely
poor value, virtually terrible resale value and practical cabin controls, a
driver monitor system so bad that it made Quincy, one of their test drivers,
yelled the car in response to a warning to keep his eyes on the road.
So I would keep my eyes on the road.
If your controls were designed better, the complaints weren't about acceleration.
It's an absolute rocket over over complicated tech.
Uh, uh, over complicated due to tech reliance for simple tasks, derailed, but
it could have been a promising EV competitor from the revered Swedish automaker.
The near unanimous aversion to the X 30 among consumer reports, Cessars is
the closest we saw the outright hate in their 2025 recap.
Everybody hated it.
Again, this goes back to a lot of things we have called out.
The whole industry has called out that just suck touch controls.
Everything in the infotainment versus having a dedicated buttons stuff
that gives you basically anytime you can't feel around a compartment, you
know, to keep your eyes on the freaking road.
Yeah, that's like, that's a major problem and it's a safety issue.
And if you remember Volvo was sort of on the leading cusp of safety with
these, this technology of where their cars would supposedly stop if a
pedestrian stepped out in front of the car.
They're also famous for releasing the video where the car definitely did
not stop.
This was years ago, just so we're clear and it ran over like three
mannequins and then it ran into the back of a truck.
Obviously, a lot of cars have that technology now, but Volvos have been
known through their history of being some of the safest cars out there.
Yeah.
But like you said, like they're saying, the, you know, the cars yelling
and not to keep his eyes on the road, but he can't because he's trying
to see what's going on.
And I guarantee it was yelling at him and putting something up on the
dash that he had to look at.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, yeah, look at so much fun.
Yep.
The third one, which actually really surprised me because there's a lot
of love for this vehicle.
There's still a lot of love and that's the new forerunner.
Okay.
I haven't, if you're an off-roader or if you're, if you're a person
that likes to ski, you know, the forerunner has been iconic for years.
And this is, this was a big region or a big re.
Complete redesign.
Re-design.
Yeah.
And I have, I have sat in one, but I have not driven one.
Yeah.
What are their negatives?
What's going?
So they were talking about the two, the first is the 2.4 liter turbocharged
inline four.
So this is not the hybrid.
It was loud, noticeable vibration through the steering wheel transmission
that shifted with noticeable bumpiness and bouncy rides.
They didn't like the ride quality.
There was just a few of the gripes.
Another editor said the noise levels were terrible inside the cabin.
The handling was terrible and the wheezy engine, that terrible engine
just kills it for me.
He said, so nobody likes the little inline four without the hybrid,
apparently.
And then, yeah.
Which I guess if you were buying one just to get around town or get you down
some dirt roads to go biking or hiking, it's not a bad thing.
I mean, a lot of our friends that own them have totally redone them.
I mean, full suspension, suspension, things like that.
Not even the new ones.
I'm just saying in general.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And then he said, what stung the most though was that this score,
this basically scored the same as the old one.
Oh, that had been on the market for way too long.
They've considered it basically not an improvement.
Now, here's my gripe with this digging in a little deeper.
This is specific to the 2.4 inline four and the lower trim models.
And if you know anything about forerunners or Toyotas, like the upper trim models
are vastly different.
They have completely different suspension.
And then of course you get the hybrid and then, but that different
suspension, the different tires and everything really highlights
what a forerunner is great for.
They're fantastic off-road vehicles.
But you got to get that turd badge.
Yep.
You got to get the turd badge.
You need a turd.
So I'm still surprised to see on the list, especially with so many other
reviews saying how great it is.
So maybe it's just very dependent on use case and maybe maybe they're just
judging it completely from a usability around town perspective, which is
what Consumer Reports is for.
And that's why I asked about the Consumer Reports thing.
The base forerunner is going to be for a more run around town.
If you're going to, like I said, if you're going to go in the mountains
or if you're going to go anywhere, you're going to be one TRD turd.
You're going to want that or get the, there's so many also, by the way,
if you've ever been on the Toyota website, there are so many models
when you click on forerunner, go right now, go to Toyota, click on forerunner.
See how many models there are.
Not everybody needs to follow Porsche.
Yeah.
It's ridiculous.
I mean, it used to be, you have a base model, you have the TRD and maybe
a TRD sport or whatever.
Or TRD pro.
Now it's like trail hunter and pro and hybrid, non hybrid and they'll
have different options.
So, I mean, again, they're testing one of many.
That doesn't mean that the, that the brand in general is bad.
I mean, the same could be said for the Cybertruck.
It's weird.
A lot of people don't like it.
It, it weirdly appeals to me.
Again, don't have one, wouldn't buy one, but I would definitely drive one.
But, you know, you look at their, the cousins, the normal cut, the normal
kids, the three and the Y and all that.
It makes sense.
Yeah.
I think, I think this is one of those vehicles that really shouldn't exist in
that base trim in general, because it disservices the vehicle.
It's, it's not like a C8 Corvette where the base model is still fantastic.
Yeah.
But there's no matter what, just so we're clear, there's no such thing as a
cheap T no, there's no cheap or like 40 grand.
Yeah.
And that, I think they're like 45 actually.
The cheapest Tacoma you can get is like 40.
Yeah.
Which is insane with, with steel wheels and no options, but they still do
steelies.
Yeah.
It done the base base base model.
Interesting fact about the forerunner trail hunter edition though, the snorkel
is not a water snorkel and it's not water rated.
It does not change the weighting depth of the vehicle.
It is a true dust snorkel.
There are kids faces forward.
Yeah.
Well, they all do because it raises, it's a, so if you think about how dust intake
works, it's coming off the wheels and around the vehicle for aerodynamics.
You can watch, if you go through dust, you'll quickly understand how the
aerodynamics in your vehicle work, which is always fun to see if you're in the
lead, which is why your back hatch will be covered dirt.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so with, if you look at a snorkel in a really dusty condition and you're
not just, you know, bumper to bumper at the car in front of you.
It will, the top of that snorkel will be really clean.
It really does a good job, but it is not in this case, a water fording change.
It doesn't change the depth at all.
So you, it's funny because that's, if you buy any aftermarket snorkel for,
it's not from, you know, Teemu or Alvi Baba or something.
It's, it's going to be have a water fording rating.
Like any good snorkel is changed, is helping with water fording.
You still have to extend your diff breathers and exhaust stuff.
About just about to say that like you could take your car as deep as you want
depending on the air level.
But if you don't know where your, your diff breather is,
yeah, just, just differentials could buy.
That's for the true water forging, forging, forging, yeah, fording.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So, so I don't know.
Interesting.
Not surprising that they would pick those three.
I would be curious to know what did they say?
What other cars they tested that did test?
No, they just gave us that bottom three, which maybe laugh a little bit.
I remember, I mean, the only time I remember like reading consumer reports is
when I was a kid or like a young adult and you'd be in a doctor's office
and it was still in print and they'd have all the cool graphics and things like that.
Yeah.
So, hmm, well, I don't know.
Obviously, the automotive field is changing.
We're, we're, and we're yet again because of geopolitical things.
Gas prices have now gone back up again.
And, and, and I don't know how that's going to affect.
Like I said, these cars are designed so far out.
Like, I mean, they, they were talking about redesigning the forerunner
for like four or five years before they actually did.
So, yeah, I mean, look how long it took accurate to bring the NSX out.
This stuff is planned way in advance.
So who knows what we'll see.
Yeah, I hope we see more, I don't know.
I hope, I don't want to talk about it again, but I still hope we see more cars
that take advantage of the less restrictive emissions.
And I mean, louder.
I don't mean dirty cars.
I mean, just more fun performance cars getting back a little bit.
To that point, I was, I was posting up the podcast for today
and I was pulling the photos off of there of your car, by the way.
You don't know those photos are Dan's Corvette.
And is that the inside of your Porsche?
To the photo?
No, that was a different.
That C6, that black one of yours, it's a really pretty car.
That's a gorgeous car.
I never actually saw that car.
I met you at the NSX, not the NSX, the GTR.
But you forget what a stylish, pretty car that was.
Oh, I love the C6.
Interior's got awful, but it was still just a fantastic car.
Nothing but good things to say about driving it.
I love that car.
Have you, as we said in the garage and I have, have you invested any new tools,
anything new that's popped up in the world?
Boy.
Trying to think.
I think I did.
What did I get?
Oh, I got a brake disc measurement caliper, not a disc, not a brake caliper.
A measurement caliper, so that I can measure brake discs.
So if you, as your brake discs wear a little lip built around the edge,
which means you can't use a flat, but caliper tool.
Yeah.
You need something with little tongs on it that stick in so you can actually
measure the thickness.
And I do, I don't need to do a lot of brake jobs, but these tools are cheap.
So I spent 25 bucks and got one of those on, on Amazon.
And as long as I don't use it enough to need a professional one.
So just something I can take really accurate measurements of discs with
to determine if they need to be replaced.
Um, not a big deal on a lot of cars.
Rotors are pretty cheap these days for most stuff, but I think Garab needs new
front brakes on his Corvette we talked about.
So I might help him with that.
And I just want a chance to use it, um, and see if he needs new rotors.
But just, I was like, yeah, I have it.
Remember the last time you put brakes on his car?
Oh yeah.
But I used anti-seize last time.
So they'll come off this time.
Cause yeah, come up.
Did you have to take it apart last time?
Uh, I thought they had to come up like there was something that happened.
I had to basically disassemble the caliper.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what it was.
Yeah.
That was not fun, but it should be a lot easier this time.
Okay.
Should be fingers crossed.
Looking back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think that's about it.
I haven't added much in here lately.
I've been too busy.
I swear.
I got something there.
Okay.
There's always some tool coming in here.
You know how it is.
I do.
That's why I asked like what, what is, what is happening?
So, uh, cause usually there's, there's some, some good, hard thinking behind
things like, I mean, again, measuring your, your, your brake disc is something
that's important, but I didn't think about buying the tool.
There is another compressor over there.
Oh, there is.
Where did that come from?
I acquired that from a friend.
Um, it just sort of fell in my lap.
So I have a new compressor.
Another one.
Not going to read into that in any way, shape or form, but okay.
Um,
they were going to use it for something else than they turned out.
They couldn't use it for what they were going to use it for.
So now it's in my shop and it's kind of here as storage for as long as I need
it until it gets plumbed in.
Well, I mean, even if it gets plumbed in, it's not going to be.
No, I'm just, yeah.
So it's yellow.
Is it the wall?
It's a DeWalt quiet compressor and it's a.
It's big.
It's big.
It's big.
It's a big compressor.
It's way bigger than I need.
Yeah.
But you know, so that's pretty exciting.
I didn't actually intend to need just like literally say, Hey, do you want this
in your shop since I'm not using it for this job and it may just sit here for a
long time.
I'm like, how long is like probably forever.
I might have to use it like once a year.
Fair enough.
So I'm just going to put it back over there where it can be rolled out if it needs
to and do a little rearranging of those shelves.
And now I have really big onboard air and they're not on board, but you
know, in shop air.
Oh, then I have my new magazine rack for the, just specifically for the
Ebonz magazine.
If you're not getting the Ebonz magazine, it displays exceptionally well.
It's a beautiful magazine, but they planned it that way.
I know.
And so now I have a dedicated rack just for having Ebonz magazines in the shop.
We need to have Carl on again.
Yeah, we do.
It's been a long time.
Especially with the new version, the new magazine coming out.
We need to have, you know, talk about that.
What is that launch?
I don't know.
I'm excited for that.
I'm anxiously awaiting my mailbox.
So yeah, I still need to.
I'm, I'm debating where, and you'll understand this.
Like we're all very busy and the grom is still broken.
You need to bring it over.
Well, with what time either one of us has, right?
That's my point.
That's where I'm going with that.
Like, do I just take it and drop it off and have it fixed at this point?
Try bringing it over here.
Okay.
Bring it over this weekend.
All right.
I can't do this weekend, but, um, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
Think happy birthday.
Hey, honey.
Happy birthday.
I'm leaving.
Probably would be a pretty good gift.
She might enjoy that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think you still just drop it off sometime.
I'll take a look at it.
Well, I mean, I've taken it apart now twice again, just because I want to.
I've replaced so many things on those bikes.
I mean, I practically, I haven't broken into the transmission big with the monkey,
but I've done so much on it that I feel like I need to accomplish this.
But yeah, I need, I, you and I need to come up with like 30 or 30 minutes to
an hour and look at it.
Cause I feel like you're going to look at it one, one moment and go maybe.
Yeah.
Um, if not, it's going in the truck and it's going to 90 and I'm just like fix it
cause I want it to run.
Yeah.
No, I also, um, in, in the, in the typical brain of you and I, I was like, well,
I could just trade that in and, you know, maybe get that new KTM 390R.
That's their new dual sport.
Um, pretty sweet.
I still, I don't know if 3, 390 would be enough after having the 450.
I don't know if the 390 would be enough.
Technically it would, but you would always want more power.
Yeah.
Cause it's only like, it comes out to like 28 horsepower or something like that at
the end.
well, I mean, you know, it's a pretty big step up from the nine.
I understand that, but I don't know.
I was just thinking like, okay, do I need a monkey in a grom?
And, and I know that's blasphemy in our group because you need both and
sometimes you need multiple.
I understand.
But yeah, I don't know.
I mean, just so we're clear, grom is a used grom.
It's not worth what a new KTM is, but there'd be some extra cash.
That's what I've been thinking.
So have you watched the review on the Doug DeMurro specifically
review of the zero one X?
I have not.
It is in my to watch.
Um, I was laughing at him because he was breaking the Audi embargo on the
RS six.
They told him not to talk about and then it leaked and then they, they sent
him another thing saying, yeah, you should still not talk about it.
And he's like, I'm going to talk about it.
Yeah.
Oh, no, it is, I'm waiting for it.
I know it will be amazing.
Yeah.
It's spoiler alert.
It's rated extremely high on his Doug score list.
Doug score.
Okay.
And it's a everybody's fastest you would imagine and his maniacal laugh as he
does his test drive says it all.
He basically long story short kind of did what we expected.
Lives up to all the hype.
It's every bit the super car, hyper car, whatever you want to call it.
Plays down the numbers.
He puts it right up there with the McLaren 765 LT, the GT3 RS.
Like it's, it's, I think it's within his top five best cars ever tested in
his opinion.
And it's American.
Yep.
It's saying a lot for Corvette.
So congratulations to them.
They've, it's, you know, for cars of that caliber, it is a bargain.
Even at $240,000.
So it's funny.
I was thinking, I was thinking about you when I was gone.
Um, I was internet car shopping and I was at some, uh, super car hypercar
dealer in Florida and they had to use 675 LT for like 170.
That seems too cheap.
That's my point.
Well, but my point, what I'm questioning is, is that now are those cars
going to trend down a little bit?
Obviously the, the 765 LT's are going through the roof.
If they make a new version of that car with the 750 or whatever.
So it would be whatever it is, but yeah.
Yeah.
I'm looking to see if there's any online I could find, but I don't,
I can't, I can't get my phone to work.
Internet here's being weird.
Yeah.
I'll go reset it a bit, but I don't use it very often.
Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah.
That's still one of the, that to me, it's still one of the best cars I've
ever driven.
I can't, there's still another two, two and DuPont registry.
I'm seeing them low in the two 80s to three 50 ish.
What seems about right?
Okay.
So that one seems too cheap.
I'm, I'll, I'll send it to you because I'm, yeah, I'm curious.
So, huh?
I'm trying to think what, what questions should we leave our audience this
week?
I like to give a woodchuck.
No, how much wood could a woodchuck?
Yeah.
I mean, I want, I want to know what people are most excited about, about
coming into the driving season.
Like we talked about,
Oh yeah.
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
What, where, where are your vehicles going on road, off road motorcycle?
Where are you taking the boat?
That's great.
What, what's where you, cause I want to know, maybe I, I, this avance
exists, Adam created avance so we could all share our experiences and
things like that.
And while you probably won't stump Dan on a road, you might stump me
and I'm looking for some new things.
I've definitely, you know, looking, I want to get that S5 out there and do
some, do some fun roads and get it out of Washington, Idaho, Montana.
But where are you going?
That's what I want to know.
Yeah.
Western Colorado, I think is probably going to be our drive this year or
maybe some more of California.
There's a lot of roads in California.
Okay.
I've been doing a long time and I want to revisit.
Um, I still want to go back outside of Reno again, that area.
That's so fun.
Oh, it was.
Yeah.
What was that town we stopped in like that old Western town?
Uh, Virginia city.
Is that what it was?
I think so.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because it's the whole climb around.
Great sidewalks and all that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's a great spot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's so many great roads out there.
Yeah.
Where are you going?
What's your automotive data destination?
Are you doing the Nurburgring?
Are you, uh, that's, that's what I haven't done.
Yeah.
Um, are you, there's a lot of, I mean, I haven't done tons of roads in Europe.
That would be awesome.
Those are fun.
Yeah.
Give me speed cameras, better than that.
Yeah.
All right.
All right.
Yeah.
That's the word.
That's the question of the day.
Let us know.
Call us at 425-298-7873.
It's always in the show notes.
Leave us a voicemail.
Leave us a text.
Uh, we love to read them.
We'd love to get them.
We'd love to talk about what you want to talk about.
So let us know if you want, if there's a topic you want us to cover.
That's another good one.
Is there somebody you'd like to hear on the show?
Let us know.
Yeah.
Also, I mean, if we, Dan and I try to do a pretty good job that when we post the podcast,
we generally watch it for the first few days.
So if you're, if you're commenting on that, we like to be engaged with that.
Yeah.
Hard to say.
I guess.
Yeah.
Uh, so for this episode of the Avans Podcast as always, I'm Nick.
And I'm Dan and don't just get there.
Enjoy the drive.
About this episode
The hosts discuss their recent experiences with new vehicles, including the 2026 Audi S5 and the challenges of protecting and driving it. They share stories about favorite scenic drives like Arizona's US 89 and the Blue Ridge Parkway, noting how social media has impacted these routes. The conversation also touches on the joys and challenges of off-roading, emphasizing how it broadens automotive appreciation. Personal anecdotes about vehicle use, road trips, and the importance of driving experiences highlight the episode’s focus on enjoying cars beyond just ownership.
Original notes
Consumer Reports has launched there worst of 2025 and much to our surprise, the new 4Runner made the list! We love the new 4Runner, but CR did have some good points about the underwhelming engine choice as well as it's ride quality on the road. While the other choices were somewhat expected, we were surprised to see the beloved 4Runner make the list, but what do you think?
And for our question this week, where are you most excited to travel to in the upcoming driving season?
The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA and Carter Seattle!
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