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Car
Bmw Ix
The BMW iX M60 is a sporty electric SUV from BMW. It’s designed for high performance and has features that make it feel like a racing car, even though it's electric.
Term
zero to 60
Zero to 60 is a way to measure how fast a car can go from a complete stop to 60 miles per hour. It helps show how quickly a car can speed up.
Brand
Lincoln
Lincoln is a brand that makes luxury cars and SUVs. It's part of Ford and focuses on high-end features and comfort.
Brand
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a big car manufacturer in the U.S. They make many types of vehicles, including popular trucks and sports cars like the Mustang.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Mustang is a famous sports car made by Ford. It's known for being fast and has a classic design that many people love.
Concept
auto shows
Auto shows are big events where car companies display their new cars and technologies. It's a chance for people to see what's coming out soon.
Car
Ford F-250
The Ford F-250 is a strong truck that can carry heavy loads and is popular for both work and everyday use.
Car
Cadillac SLA Type V
The Cadillac SLA Type V is a luxury car that offers impressive performance and technology. It's designed to provide a thrilling driving experience and showcases Cadillac's engineering capabilities.
Car
Cadillac SLA
The Cadillac SLA is a car from Cadillac that will be the last one powered by gasoline, as the company plans to move towards electric vehicles.
Part
6.2 liter supercharged V8
A 6.2 liter supercharged V8 is a type of engine that is very powerful and helps the car go fast, similar to engines used in sports cars like the Corvette.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Corvette is a fast sports car made by Chevrolet that is famous for its speed and cool looks.
Term
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a type of engine with eight cylinders. It's known for being powerful and is often used in sports cars and trucks.
Concept
Detroit Auto Show
The Detroit Auto Show is an important event where car companies show off their new cars and technologies. It's a big deal in the automotive world and happens every year.
Term
key fob
A key fob is a small remote control for your car. It helps you lock and unlock the doors and can even start the engine without using a traditional key.
Term
electric parking brake
An electric parking brake is a button you press to activate the brakes instead of pulling a lever. It's easier to use and takes up less space in the car.
Term
cable parking brake
A cable parking brake is the traditional handbrake you pull up to lock the back wheels. It uses a cable to connect the lever to the brakes.
Term
drift
Drifting is when a car slides sideways while still being controlled by the driver. It's a popular technique in racing and can look very cool.
Term
e-brake
An e-brake is a type of parking brake that you can activate with a button instead of pulling a lever. It's easier to use and is becoming common in newer cars.
Term
Coyote engine
The Coyote engine is a powerful V8 engine that Ford uses in some of its Mustang models. It's designed to give the car a lot of speed and performance.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. The more horsepower a car has, the faster it can go.
Term
EcoBoost
EcoBoost is a type of engine from Ford that uses a turbocharger to help the car use less fuel while still being powerful. It's a way to make cars more efficient.
Concept
fuel economy
Fuel economy tells you how far a car can go on a certain amount of gas. Better fuel economy means you spend less money on gas.
Term
over the air updates
Over the air updates mean that your car can receive new software or features through the internet, just like your phone gets updates without needing to go to a store.
Part
brake caliper
The brake caliper is a part of your car's brakes. It squeezes the brake pads against the wheels to help stop the car when you press the brake pedal.
Car
Jeep Wrangler
The Wrangler 4xE Willys is a modern version of the popular Jeep Wrangler that uses both electricity and gasoline to drive. It's designed for off-road adventures while being more eco-friendly.
Car
Jeep 4xE Willys
The Jeep 4xE Willys is a modern version of a historic military vehicle that can run on both electricity and gasoline. This makes it more environmentally friendly while still being a tough off-road vehicle.
Term
plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid is a car that can use electricity from a wall outlet to help it run, in addition to using gasoline. This helps save fuel and is better for the environment.
Term
Detroit show
The Detroit show is a big event where car companies show off their newest cars and technology. It's a chance for people to see what's coming in the automotive world.
Car
Fiat Uno
The Fiat Uno is a tiny car that's great for driving around the city because it's easy to park and uses less gas. It's been around for a long time and is loved for being practical.
Term
turbocharged engine
A turbocharged engine is a type of engine that uses a special device to make it more powerful without needing to be bigger. It helps the car go faster and use less fuel.
Term
torque
Torque is a measure of how strong an engine is when it turns. It helps the car speed up and can also help it pull heavy things.
Term
accessory mirrors
Accessory mirrors are extra mirrors you can add to a car when the regular ones are taken off. They help you see better while driving.
Car
Jeep Grand
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a type of SUV, which means it's a bigger car that can handle rough roads and off-roading. It's popular because it combines comfort with the ability to go on adventures.
Concept
archival pieces
Archival pieces are old documents and letters that show how a car was created and developed over time. They help us learn about the history of the Mustang.
Term
disposable income
Disposable income is the money people have left to spend after paying taxes. It's what you can use for things like shopping, entertainment, or saving.
Car
Ford Falcon
The Ford Falcon is an older car that many people liked back in the day for its cool design and good performance. It's now considered a classic and is sought after by collectors.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that people love for going off-road and exploring nature. It was originally made a long time ago and has come back recently, making it popular again.
Car
Ford Thunderbird 2
The Ford Thunderbird is an older car that many people remember for its stylish look and smooth ride. It's considered a classic and is often talked about because of its history in American cars.
Car
Infiniti Q50
Car
Infiniti QX60
The Infiniti QX60 is a big, fancy SUV that has a lot of room inside for families. It's known for being comfortable and having nice features that make driving more enjoyable.
Car
Bmw 3
Car
Mercedes-Benz Cclass
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a fancy small car that many people love for its style and comfort. It's known for having nice features and a smooth ride, making it a popular choice for those who want something special.
Car
Genesis G70
The Genesis G70 is a fancy small car that feels really nice to drive and has lots of good features. It's a newer brand trying to compete with more well-known luxury cars.
Car
Kia Stinger
Car
Tesla Semi
The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck that companies can use to transport goods. It's important because it helps reduce pollution and can save money on fuel.
Car
Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 is an electric car that doesn't use gas, which makes it different from most cars. It's popular because it's more affordable than other Teslas and can go a long way on a single charge.
Car
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's dependable and doesn't use a lot of gas. It's a great option for anyone looking for a simple and reliable vehicle.
LIVE
Ask him anything. Our auto expert, Nick Miles, has an answer. Direct message your questions
at our auto expert on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Our auto expert, Nick Miles.
A locally created nation who celebrated from the northwest to the southeast. This is the
world's car radio show. It has a throttle. We'll feature it on air, online, on smart
phone, or on smart speaker. This is our auto expert where two million Americans get their
automatic news daily. I am your host, Nick Miles, with automatic injured Andy. Oh, you
can still clap, though. I'm a 10 speed automatic. Are you? Yeah, not one of them seven speeders.
You you're injured, though. Yeah. Am I facing assault charges? Yeah, Nick, you battery, battery
to me. Battered you. Yeah. Assault and battered you. I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm too assaulted. Now
you and you. First of all, public apology. I am sorry for hurting you. You didn't mean
it. Maybe I didn't mean it. I'm gonna assume that you didn't mean it. So it's very I have
to tell you the story and it's full breadth because it's it's a little bit chocolate. Yeah,
funny. Yeah, but it's also sad and it's funny and it's Andy. And this is a bit of a disclaimer
here. Automatic Andy has had injuries in his past. Yeah, pre existing conditions. Yeah.
As the insurance company liked to list. He has pre existing conditions. Health wise. Yeah,
there's some metal wise, but this health is this health wise. And he doesn't have two
break feet either. So we can't drive a manual. But yeah, because manuals have two breaks.
They do. Yeah. By the way, there's a sub sub side story to this. I mentioned this to a bunch of
high level guys from Motor Trend and Kelly Blue Book at dinner the other night about you to asking
why manuals had two breaks. And yeah, they do. And the some of the new manuals have the dual clutch
two manuals. And so so someone necessarily have four pedals. That's my people. I can't deal with
my cousin or something. Which was even funnier. Anyway, that was a sub sub sub story back to the
bit the sub story and he has pre conditioning pre pre existing conditions. So you know,
he's had he has a couple injuries. We learned from 20 years ago doing the morning shows together
on radio. They has one side that one the limbs on one side of your body are shorter than the other.
Am I correct? Yeah, it's weird. How much shorter are they? Like, almost a half an inch. Yeah,
half an inch. So his arm and his leg on one side are half an inch shorter than the other. So weird.
Is it? It's I feel like if you spun me on the left, it would just be like a perpetual motion. I
wouldn't ever stop because I would just keep one of those optical illusions like the stairs that
never end. Yeah, it would be maybe weird. You'd spin forever. Yeah. And so we already know that
he's a little delicate. He's 300 and something pounds of delicateness 2024, 324 pounds of
delicateness. Congratulations on getting down about 40 pounds. Yeah, thanks. So he's 324 pounds of
delicateness. I should have taken that into account when I did to you what I did to you. I get it
though. And before I did this to you, what went through my mind was even funnier, even funnier
than that. Because my buddy and business partner Mike Caddell told me when he did this with his son
in the car in the exact same vehicle that I did it to you. He didn't realize what would happen.
And he went to his son, TJ, watch this. And he gave himself whiplash. Yeah,
in the young box. So so what it is, we'll get to the car in a second. But when you put your foot
on the accelerator, this car is so unbelievable that it throws you back in the seat. And he said
when he did it to himself, he didn't expect what happened would actually happen. And he
hurt himself. And I was thinking, I wonder if automatic Andy will feel this when I do this.
So I'm sitting in the car on the way to the radio station today. And I am in the BMW iX M60. So
most people are familiar with the BMW iX. It's their all electric SUV, the first electric SUV. But
the M60 is the famous motorsports version, the M60. So it is the super M car version of this.
It's where electric meets motorsports, the iX M60. And then you got to imagine this car does zero
to 60 in the three second range. But you don't expect an electric car because it's all instant
talking. But you don't expect it to have such a kick. No, we were doing 17 miles an hour when I
put my foot on the accelerator in sport mode. And I was like, you must have realized something was
going to happen because I came out of the side road really slow, didn't I? Yeah. And you started
pressing buttons and I saw sport. And I was like, Oh, yeah, here it is. Here we go. You were like,
I'm getting ready. So you must have sort of positioned yourself a little bit. I was starting
to get ready because I knew we were going to go into the future. Right. And so then I was like,
Yeah, watch this. And I jammed on the accelerator. When we were like 82 miles an hour must have been,
you know, on a private road, we were 82 miles an hour in just seconds. And all I heard was a
scream from the passenger seat. It sucked. It was worth it, but it sucked. And what I expected
was a giggle and a smile, but it was like, Oh, my back. Well, what had happened was my body
stayed in position, but my back went into the future. So you were sort of morphing between two
time zones. I was trying to enter galactical travel. And I got I got hung up in the middle.
It was totally worth it, though. Apparently not. I mean, crying for about 20 minutes.
I was crying because it hurt. It feels it feels like my back isn't my I have a Charlie
horse in my back. The pain, the pain's over pains, pains, you know, you can get over that.
But maybe you need more potassium, calcium, cardio, cardio, your second heart, your second
heart. Yeah, I need some more. I need some more cardio. So you were just in pain. I wanted to call
my mom. Oh, that's horrible. You lost her this year. I know. I want to say, mom, you know,
Nick did. And then she would have been like, Yeah, he should have done harder. Oh, wow.
My mom loved you. There's there's a whole. Yeah. It's a whole thing there. Yeah. She
she wouldn't have been mad if you did it. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm just sorry. No, it's okay.
I batted you. It was totally worth it, though. Apparently not. It was super fast. That's
impressive. Because you got to think like, we were we were going sure like 10, like you said,
15, 17 miles an hour. But we went from, I mean, that was like a standstill comparatively.
And it went so fast. It got into the 80s, like in a couple seconds, man. It was insane. Yeah.
It's like anybody that thinks electric cars are boring and soulless, shut up. I've never ever
had my back rocked like that in a petrol car ever. A petrol. Yeah. Look at you. It's because my
nephew's staying with us from England, isn't it? Nick, I'm flanked by British people. I feel like
I'm a quarter British by proxy, bro. You're surrounded by bangers. Yeah, bangers and mash.
I had to go to Detroit this week. So you were left with my family and it seemed like you didn't
miss me at all. We did. We talked about you a lot. Did you? I was trying to get embarrassing
stories out of that. They didn't give you any, did they? No, they don't have so much. And your
sister knows better. They have plenty, but they're, we're English. You don't do anything.
Well, they say mum's the word. Isn't that a British one? Yeah, mum's the word. They're never
going to divulge any British secrets. I just, I like listening to y'all talk.
Why? Because it's like fancy talking. Really? Like, you know, when you're hiking,
I call that four by four walking. Four by four walking? Yeah. And you guys like four by four
talk. They're very different to me, aren't they? Yeah. Very different. My sister's family are
very outdoorsy. Yes. They, my nephews got up at five o'clock yesterday morning and,
and basically went to Mount Hood. If you're not familiar with Mount Hood, it's the tallest peak
in, in Oregon. And they scaled it. It was just a day for them. And they wanted to do that before
they left. I would need a week of recovery. I don't think you need a week probably just to get to
where the snow line is. Yeah. I don't even, first of all, I don't even think I could get up there.
I'd be hanging out at the base and it would take me forever. Hanging at the base, at the base,
at the base. No trouble. Yeah. It would, but they're, they just do it casually on a Tuesday morning.
Yeah. No, I mean, good for them, but. And yeah, we wanted, we just want to scale them out. This is
the boys. Well, and you know, they're very super athletic. They've done something almost every
morning significant. They went for a seven mile walk because they were bored one morning.
Yeah. That's what I do. My, I, I looked at my steps this and we're, we're about,
uh, what, three quarters of the way through the year. I haven't even got seven miles for the whole
year. That's so sad I am. Well, you know, I do have a right foot. Why, why, why walk when you,
you can have a throttle. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I'd get on. I was like, hey,
do you guys want to learn how to pull, you know, ride one of my motorcycle while you're here?
And they're like, no, no, we want to hike. Yeah. I want to get on top of Mount Hood and put a British
flag. I'm like, shut up. All I wanted to do when I went to England was like go to the set of Harry
Potter and sit on Hagrid's motorcycle and sit inside the Morris Minor and get on the night bus.
And all they wanted to do was, hey, do you want to go and climb Ben Nevis?
A bunch of try-hards. Yeah. Just want to show how fat and unhealthy I am basically.
Yeah. Well, you want a salad? I'm a saladator. Why would I want to eat a salad?
Do you guys not have any vegan sausages? Cause that's where I'm at. Yeah. I want,
if the salad tastes like bacon, they open my fridge in the morning and go, all right.
I know. I've seen your one nephew. Like you can feel the, the disappointment.
Yeah. He likes to walk around the house with his shirt off and he shows his ripping muscles.
All right. I get it. Cause he's in a bunch of movies. I feel like I should even the...
He's a movie star. He is a movie star. He's going to teach me how to take a fall.
Is he? Yeah. I tried to do that this morning, but it didn't work out so well.
Yeah. I fell this morning and I was like, where were you on that one? Your ego definitely fell
this morning. It did. I've been crying all morning. Thank you BMW for the IX M60. Just send the
insurance paper so I can see how, how automatic Andy's medical is. Yeah. I'm going to send you,
I'm going to send you my shirt note to BMW. If you think he's an automotive intellectual,
you should try his spicy peanut butter chicken. Our auto expert, Nick Miles, catch up with
previous episodes of the show at our website, our auto expert.com. You can hear all past
shows, see automotive videos and read inside of car stories about your next ride is where
two million Americans get their automotive news daily, our auto expert, my pal, my friend,
Mike Cadel, the other half of our auto expert. Today he's at volleyball tournaments. That's
probably what all the noise is in the background. Mike, it's your daughter's game. We should probably
mention that. So everybody knows what the excitement is. So we spent the week in Detroit
after three years there was coming back to the Detroit show. And then just days before we got
to do the show, President Biden decided to go mess it all up for us and decided to make a visit.
So we all had to sort of come out of the hall and wait for him to go through the hall. I've never
had that experience, by the way. I don't know if you have. Well, yeah, I mean, working for U.S.
Congressmen, you are surrounded many times by Secret Service and Comp and Circumstance around
the procession, which is the president or senior officials. But you know what? It's all in the
name of keeping our president protected. So I understand it. But that said, I think there
were four or five press conferences that were canceled. And if you were the one putting money
on the line for it, I think it would have been a little bit frustrating. But the show was,
it felt good to be in Detroit. It felt good to see some familiar faces. It felt good to be on
the floor. It was awesome looking at some of the new vehicles that are going to be coming out,
some of the future vehicles. I'm thinking about Lincoln and their booths with their future. It
felt 100. It's going to be, you know, kind of a glimpse at the future of what Lincoln's bringing
to market. I think Ford Motor Company with its news with the Mustang and the S250 this week.
I think we've got some really cool pieces of news coming out from automakers right now.
You and I were both just saying that. And that was, I mean, it was, we were outside,
right, but normally it's in the snow and it was just to be there. And I think what we did with
the auto show this year is I think it breathed a little bit of light back into Detroit around
auto shows. I tell you, and you felt the same way as I did, Mike. I really, really miss auto
shows. After such a break, it just felt so good to go back. And I hope that everybody
gets back to the regular schedule of auto shows. I think so. I think there's a need for it. I think
there's an ink for the industry. The first slide to it is it's probably more cost effective for
automakers to host a singular event in a, you know, location. You and I were able to go to a
secret location just outside the city for a backgrounder on the new F-250, which we can't
talk about until they're on Margo lists. But I mean, that's, if you get one on one attention
with the automaker, you get one on one attention of auto germless and get specificity as it relates
to your product. But auto shows are great because we can tell a bigger, bigger story.
We can talk about what electric means for the market. We can talk about, you know, a variety
of different vehicles in a three minute TV segment. And, you know, that's what it's all about.
And what it's all about right now. I'm just going to let you guys hear it. Let me just talk about
that. I didn't think you could hear this. You guys hear that right now. That is a major volleyball
party going on. But I want to share, I do want to share something with you guys unrelated to the
auto show. I returned home yesterday was my wife's birthday. Every Tuesday we had to be
delivered. And I've got to be honest, I've never driven in my entire 25 years of vehicle that
moved me as much as the Cadillac SLA type V. I had no idea what it was. When I fired that engine,
I just was in shock. Just complete utter shock.
It's, I would say that this is an incredible piece of engineering from Cadillac. They sold
every single one. And V is something that I hope they find a way to continue that.
One thing about that vehicle, it is the last gas vehicle that Cadillac will ever launch.
And that made me kind of sad. It made me sad. $151,000, 6.2 liter supercharged V8 under the hood.
I mean, it sounds like the Corvette. It moves like the Corvette. I was, I took my wife downtown
Nashville for lunch yesterday for her birthday. And we were pulling out of this car park at
fifth and broad, which is a fifth Broadway, which is right there in the mix of everything
you know, Nashville is. And these four young guys probably in their mid 20s, as I pulled out,
they went, dude, that's the Cadillac SLA with the Corvette motor. And you know, I hate to see that
go because that's, that's what the auto industry is about. I hope we can achieve that with a
vehicle. So it can be like, wow, that silence is amazing, but it looks cool.
I think that also leans into that Ford Mustang as well. The seventh generation Mustang,
Ford making the commitment that they will keep the gas engine in the seventh generation Mustang,
and they will keep a V8 in that vehicle because they saying that the customers just want a V8.
And that's the idea that they'll do every kind of Mustang V8 electric. They'll still keep doing
it. Ford's doing it right. They are dividing the gas division in their electrical division.
And that's a smart strategy because you can have your face and eat it too. You can have those that
believe in gas, thick with gas. You can have those that want electric move and shift to it under the
blue local brand, whereas General Motors is putting all of their eggs into that electric
gas. And I think that's going to be problematic. You get pragmatic about it. You don't expect
there's going to be critical. We talked about that over and over and over again.
But even if you remove that, you just have to go do people want to drive them.
I think it's the verdict is still out there. And you and I know that these are 50,
they are 50 United States of America. Every state moves at a different pace. And not all of us are
California. We're not all ready to go the same way as California. And everybody needs to do that at
their own pace. Correct. 100 percent well put. That's 100 percent well put. 50 United States.
And it's going to be interesting to see what the auto industry does. I'm on every Saturday with
you guys. It seems like the auto industry takes one step forward, one step forward,
one step forward every time I'm on with you. And I'm hoping that auto shows come back like Detroit.
It was fun to meet us. Great to see you. Great to see all of our friends. Great to see new products.
Let's just hope the LA is just as good or even better. And you know what I'm really,
really looking forward to, Mike, is the opportunity for both of us to actually test drive that Mustang,
because not only is it going to be the most powerful, regular GT version of the Mustang,
but they'll have the dark horse version of the Mustang and they'll have the eco boost.
And the amount of cool things that they're going to have in that car,
we're going to probably end up making at least three or four videos out of the launch of that
brand new car. I'm really looking forward to doing that this fall. America's fastest growing automotive
radio show. Our auto expert, Nick Miles. This is our auto expert radio show, our auto expert on
the Facebook, on the Twitter's and on Instagram. You can start a conversation with us, ask us a
car question, just direct messages at our auto expert. Our auto experts were two million Americans
together, automotive news daily. I'm your host, Nick Miles, along with automatic Andy Boyd,
Detroit auto show back after a three year hiatus. So 2019 was the last time that our auto expert
was at the Detroit auto show. And then it got, let's say suspended for the pandemic.
And so 2019 we took a break in 20, 21, 22 is when the show returned. And this year it was a much
reduced show, but there were some press conferences, there were some stuff, you know, going on the biggest,
I would say, announcement was the seventh generation Mustang. And they had quite a
celebration. So it started off with a stampede and that stampede started off in Tacoma,
Washington, where Mustang drivers drove all the way across the United States from Tacoma,
Washington to Detroit to Flat Rock, Michigan, where they make the Mustang at the Flat Rock
plant. I think it's Flat Rock, Michigan is where they make the Mustang. And everybody drove
from Tacoma, which was a surprise for me. I didn't know that drive was taking place.
And then they all, a whole bunch of them parked all the way up and down outside the heart
arena where everything sort of took place, the launch of the Mustang. And it was a night of
celebration. There was food trucks, there was music, there was DJs, there was guys from Formula
Drift. It was really a look back into the Mustang and the Mustang history and the Mustang launch.
So Ted Ryan is going to join us later to talk about Mustang history. We won't get into it too
much, but I need to tell you a little bit about Mustang history. And it's an amazing history.
There's a few things you need to know. It is and has been for the last seven years the best selling
sports coupe in the world. In the world for the last seven years. So basically the best
selling sports car in the world for the last seven years. No big deal. No big deal. They have
made and sold 10 million of them. Yeah, that's a lot. 10 million. I mean, how long would it get
take you to count to 10 million? A long time. A long time. Yeah, isn't that like half the people
on the earth? No, we have seven billion. Oh, you know, tomato tomato. Math, math. Yeah, whatever.
So there's a lot. It is sold, I believe, on six different continents, 70 countries,
something like that. It is the longest single made name plate that Ford has ever had for 58 years.
I think it's one of the longest single name made name plates ever 58 years without a break.
58 years they have made that car without a single break. I get annoyed when I do something for
10 minutes. Yeah, well, there you go. It is probably the most iconic sports car in the world,
the Mustang. So it's completely full of history. And Ted will go through some of that history.
The new Mustang, pretty mouth dropping. So they have a number of different
Mustangs that are fairly popular in the two door sports car version.
This new one comes with some things that are nice, but some things that are pretty mouth
dropping. Let me tell you three things that are mouth dropping. Number one, you can get
into the car and you will love this because of the size of your giant head.
You do not have to take off a helmet to get in the car. So you could wear a race car helmet,
but it doesn't have to be taken off to get into the car. So most drivers have to put
their helmet on and off to get into a regular sports car. You don't have to do that with a
Mustang. Big plus, they made the door so a helmet head can get in. So automatic and use
giant head can get into the car. That's amazing. That means I can just get in it without doing
a yoga move. You can get after it and get in it. Oh, finally. Get this. You can rev the engine
from the key fob. Wait, from the key, the thing that opens it? The key fob, yeah. You can rev it.
You can rev it from the key fob. Yeah. What? Yeah. Okay. From the key fob. And get this. This
is even cooler. So you know how a lot of the modern cars have that electric parking brake button?
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, people are going to that because it's a lot cheaper. It's a lot easier. It
takes up less expense than the old cable because the old parking brakes where you push the button
in and you pull the handbrake up, it tightens the cable which pulls the brakes onto the wheels.
All right. So that's the old style. The new one, you press the button, it sends an electronic
signal which puts the brakes on onto the wheels. That's the simple way of explaining it. But that's
kind of what happens. So it's a lot cheaper to do that than have this cable that goes all the way
through the car and it's a lot faster and those type of things. They knew they had to have an
electronic brake in with the button. But they know that one thing that you can do with the old
style parking brake is drift a car. So you can drive it onto like a big piece of blacktop and
you can pull that brake up and have the car slide sideways. So how do you combine that parking button
with the old style brake that you pull up and drift a vehicle? So Von Getten, Jr., who is
part of Formula Drift, which is the fastest growing sport in America, helped for design
a new e-brake that looks like and works like the old-fashioned e-brake where you push the button
and pull up the parking brake but is actually electronic and works the same way. So it's like
the button but it looks and works like the old-fashioned one. So as you're driving and you
want to slide into a parking space at Safeway, now you just pull the e-brake and slide right into
the parking space. It's really cool and when you're there and you want to turn off the brake
because it's already engaged you just push that down instead of you know you just push it down
to the floor and then the brake comes off and you drive away. It's amazing though. Those are just
three things. In with a helmet, rev it from the key fob and it has what looks and works exactly the
same as an old parking brake e-brake but it's electronic. I need, I need, I need and I need.
Then let's talk about several other things that are amazing. It's the most powerful Mustang ever.
They have a new Coyote engine in the GT which is going to have over 480 horsepower.
They have the EcoBoost which is the 2.3 liter where you can have great fuel economy
but at the same time that's going to be the most powerful EcoBoost they've ever had. So the smaller
engine, the EcoBoost and the GT look similar so you don't get a boiled down version with the EcoBoost.
You still get the same looks on the car. The biggest difference is the grills are slightly
different and then the GT has the hood vents in the hood but you don't, when you buy the EcoBoost
it doesn't look like a more, more, more version of the Mustang. It has these really amazing
hips where it steps in over the wheel like it's square, like it steps in. So that looks amazing.
The lights look really, really great. The roof slope looks great. They did an amazing muscular
job. The headlights have an amazing light up sequence that, you know, Mustangs always had the
lights where they went, they sequentially lit the brake lights. They went one, two, three, one, two,
three, you know, they have, they still have that in the new Mustang. It looks absolutely flawless.
Yeah, it looks pretty tough. It looks like it has a body kit on it.
Then we haven't even got inside. What? Yeah, inside two large screens just like the Mercedes have.
Oh, cool. Yeah, together. So it looks like this one big piece of screen that goes across. It's two
screens but it wants one piece of glass that goes across in the middle. Those screens are
completely programmable so you can change the colors. You can change, it's over the air updates.
Fancy. Yeah, it's all those kind of things. So and then new seat colors, new materials,
new interiors. Looks like the next step above carbon fiber. You can have new stripes on the
outside. They've introduced new colors. They've introduced new seat belt colors. They've introduced
new packages, new brake caliper colors. They've introduced blue as a brake caliper color.
They've just new wheels, just a whole bunch of new stuff. So now you can build these
Mustangs with new wheels, new brakes, new stripes, new seat colors, new street stripes,
new interior colors. In red is an interior color that you have now in the Mustang.
And new sort of darker blood, royal red. Yeah, they have completely gone to town.
Much nicer seats, amazing sound systems. Yeah. So you can have a concert in your Mustang.
Have to. And that doesn't even include the engine sound. Oh boy. Let me just tell you,
shut up. Mustang, they did a good job. And then when they came out, they rolled this car out,
they rolled out three of them. They rolled out the convertible, which will come in both the GT
and the EcoBoost. So they'll have four, the GT, the GT hardtop and convertible,
the EcoBoost hardtop and convertible. And there was a space left on the stage and people start
screaming, bring out the fourth car. And they were like, what fourth car? Good night. Thanks for
coming. Yeah. And everyone's screaming, bring out the fourth car. And they go, we're done.
Good night. Yeah. Have a safe trip home. And everyone just starts screaming,
bring out the fourth car. All right. Here it is. Welcome the new Mustang Dark Horse.
What? 500 horsepower special edition. Oh boy. If you ever wanted something, it's the Dark Horse.
Find us, follow us, direct message your questions or comments.
Our Auto Expert on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Our Auto Expert, Nick Miles.
Over 20,000 people have downloaded our Auto Expert podcast. Many more streamers join the
happy listeners by iHeartRadio, Pandora App, Apple Podcast and Spotify. Our Auto Expert,
you know, hours of endless fun away you. I'm Nick Miles and this is automatic Andy.
Automatic Andy, how are you? Nick, good. How's your back? Nick, my back, it doesn't hurt,
it's just spasming. Like a Charlie horse in my back. How do you get rid of Charlie horses?
Should we smack it, drink water? What do you need to do? I think during the commercial break,
you should stand on my back and jump. No, I've done enough damage to you and nobody needs any
of that. I think I just need to quit, quit hurting. I think you need just to quit. Yeah,
in my whole life, first of all, let me publicly thank Jim Morrison,
who is the vice president of Jeep worldwide and the leader of Jeep in North America.
He's the head of Jeep. He is the nicest man ever, ever. He told me about a new Jeep that was
coming at Detroit Auto Show. It is the Jeep 4xE Willys and the Wrangler 4xE Willys. Willys is the
name that was given to the Jeep that transported American soldiers to and from the frontline
of the First World War. This is bore so much historic, real historic memories for America.
This is the Jeep that saved many lives. You've probably seen pictures in the Second World War
of soldiers on the hood of this vehicle, on stretchers being brought back from the frontline,
and it saved many lives. So it has important historic remembrances. Now I wanted a plug-in
hybrid version of this vehicle, and that was important to me. The Jeep 4xE Willys was going
to be announced at the Detroit show, and Jim said, would you like the first one off the line?
What? Yes, I would. Numero uno? The very first one off the line. And so that is an honor that was
unbelievable for me. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, huge honor. So not only am I getting the first one off
the line, but I watched the car get rolled out in Detroit. And to me, that is just unbelievably
magical. You may not touch it. Touch it. I'm going to touch every part of it. I feel like you should
put a layer of saran wrap around it. So I've sort of ordered my vehicle, in a sense. I've gone over
with him what I want. Okay. And I'm just trying to work out how I can go to Detroit,
make an amazing video of this vehicle. And then, you know, we have to sell one of our
vehicles, which is sitting at home next week. And that's why it's really important that we
get and sell that, because we're going to use the money from that to buy the Willys.
We got to get the Willys. Yeah. And I'm thinking that was rolled out at the show at the Jeep press
conference. And that, and you know, so there's a lot of emotional stuff was at that show to see
the vehicle that I'm going to own is amazing. Yeah, just to see it rolled out on the stage.
That was quite emotional. That's not really, that can't be something that happens all the time.
I mean, sure, special circumstances, but how many people do you know, like, oh, hey,
that 000001 car? That one's mine. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was very, very emotional to see that
vehicle rolled out for the first time. What a cool dude. Yeah, it was very cool. And it's a
plug-in hybrid. So it does 21 miles on electricity alone. That's a big deal. It'll be arriving in
dealerships soon. It does have a starting price of around $55,000, which is pretty high.
Yeah. But it's, it's also has a two liter turbocharged four cylinder engine inside it,
electric motor, an eight speed automatic transmission. The battery there is 17 kilowatts.
And it sits under the back seat, which probably means that there will be no two door version
of the vehicle unless the engineers do something amazing. I bought a picture of it up on the screen
for you to have a look at. Nick, so. Oh, it says Willie's on it. Yeah. Yeah, you need that.
The funny thing is, it's a little comical, is that of course, Willie's means something completely
different in English. Yeah, it does. In English, England, English. It has a 375 horsepower. The
engine puts out 375 horsepower, 70 pounds feet of torque. So you know, it's going to have some
kick in it. It does 49 miles per gallon. 49 miles per gallon. Yes. MPG equivalent.
Both the combination of the electric and the gas, which I find quite exciting.
Yeah. So plug in hybrid. I mean, what more can I say? It joins the rest of the lineup. It's really
exciting. Nick, Nick, can we, can we drive around with the doors not on? Yeah. As long as you help
me take them off and put them on. No, none of this, I'll help you take them off, but I'm not
helping you put them back on when it gets cold and, you know, chilly. Yeah, I'll be busy conveniently.
Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's just exciting. You have to get, when you take the doors off though,
you have to buy the accessory mirrors for the car, because once you take the doors off,
the mirrors are gone. Oh, that's right. Well, that's worth it. Yeah. It has the blue toe hooks.
It has a bunch of other stuff, which is really cool. Oh, can we take the windshield out too?
Yeah. Well, the windshield doesn't come out. It folds flat. That too. Yeah. It looks nice,
doesn't it? No, I was going to get white though. The gray looks kind of nice, doesn't it? I do
like the gray. The white would look tough though. And then I was going to do is put a light bar in
it and lights and have everything flashed so we could use it for an animal rescue rig.
Yeah. Can we illuminate the headlights where they say Jeep?
How do you illuminate the headlights, Andy? You probably need new headlights in it. Come on.
It looks really cool. That does look cool. That looks nice. Putting new light bars and stuff in.
I like the blue hooks. Blue toe hooks. And I like the rear end of it. It's got a nice bum.
Yeah. It's interesting. I think I'm just in love more than you could possibly imagine.
Yeah, I like the inside too. The inside looks really, really wonderful with a big screen.
And of course, as you connect in it and the whole works, I can't stop looking at it. Is
this thing wrong with me? Well, yes, but not because you're not because you're looking at the Jeep
and you like it. They also had the 30th anniversary Jeep Grand Cherokee, which famously in 1992,
crashed through the glass at the Kobo Center in Detroit. Yeah, they drove it through the glass
doors. On purpose? Oh, the glass window. Yeah, they drove it through the door into Kobo Hall.
Did you see it? 1992, I was not in the industry. I came in the industry in 2002. Remember with that
mini? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was highly interesting. So there was a lot going on there. There was the
president went to see Jeep and then also the president went to see the new Cadillac Lyric,
which is an electric car. And he sat in that and he sat in the Corvette and said he wanted the Z06,
by the way. Oh, he should not be behind that. Why? I mean, he is very much into Z06. Hey,
as long as he knows how to drop it and second high gear and floor it. He also went to see
Ford Mustang and the new stuff at Ford as well. And coincidentally, Ted Ryan, who I spent a lot
of time with is going to be on the show today. And Ted's going to talk about some of the history
of Mustang and you will not believe some of the letters he showed me in the archives.
He's putting the fancy back in pants. Our auto expert, Nick Miles, locally created,
nationally celebrated. That's our auto expert from the Northwest to the Southeast. This is the
world's car radio show. If it has a throttle, we'll feature it on air online, on smartphone or on
smart speaker. This is where two million Americans get their automotive news daily. Well, we talked
a little bit about the brand new Mustang being announced in Detroit, but we didn't talk much
about the history. We've saved the history for the man that's in charge of the archives of Ford.
He is the archives and heritage brand manager for the Ford Motor Company. Ted Ryan, we got to
spend some quality time together just before I got my walk around of the brand new Mustang.
So Ted, hopefully you have had a rest from hordes of journalists pouring their way through some
of your most treasured documents in the archives. I had a rest and I had a wonderful nine holes
of golf in my son's afternoon. So I took an afternoon off and did a little R&R. But
how can you not love talking Mustang? It was great to see you this week as well.
Yeah, it really was. And obviously, over the last several years, we've had quite a radio
friendship and then to spend some quality time together. Even though, of course, a lot of my
attention was diverted to the brand new Mustang that we got to look at and to sit in and to
experience. The history is probably the most important. I would say one seventh, of course,
being the seventh generation is about what is today. But the rest, the sixth other portions are
about the generations that came before. And definitely some of those archival letters
and those archival pieces that show the very beginnings and the ideas in the birth of Mustang,
in the ideas of what the company had from the very beginning when Mustang was conceived.
So let's walk us through, Ted, how it all began, what the ideas were and some of the documentation
that you have in your archives that show the beginnings of Mustang and what Ford were thinking
when they actually started the project. Will, and just to set it up for your listeners,
Nick was part of it. He got the super secret briefings before the auto show. And those briefings
actually began in the archives where we had a beautiful 65 Mustang and we had the 10 millionth
Mustang. And then we had some different displays showing the origins of all of pop culture, etc.
But the origins of the Mustang come from good marketing research, as opposed to the bad marketing
research that happened on the Dysa site a few years before that brought us to Edsel. Edsel,
we asked the wrong questions and we built the wrong car. Well, with the Mustang,
we asked the right questions and we built the right car. We knew that a baby boomer generation
was about to come of age and they had their own music, they had their own fashion, they had their
own style, they wanted something small and sporty, but and extended at the same time because while
they had nice taste, they didn't have a whole lot of disposable income. So one of the documents we
had was the blue letter signed by Leah Iacocca, launching the Mustang program in the state of
December 5, 1962. And we all get a chuckle too because they only estimated 75,000 units would
be sold that first year. Right. Obviously, we blew through that we did 22,000 the first day.
So, but you know, when we pull out the original things and you get to see them and see what the
thinking was, it shows you what the DNA of the Mustang is. And that was the goal in showing
the journalists all these these great materials. I think one of the things that was really great
for me is what you did. So the the the ESL really taught you what not to do. That's the first thing.
And I when I talk to my boss at the network, I always say to her, you know, pain is a really,
really important thing for us because pain teaches us where we shouldn't go. And she always smiles at
me and she says, you always have the best analogies. And I think the pain of the ESL taught
Ford what not to do. And so they did the opposite. They did the things they know they should be
doing. And that really, really helped with designing Mustang. And so I think the ESL was
really important in teaching Ford what to do as versus what not to do. And that was as important
as the Mustang itself was. And I agree. The other thing too is that out of the episode,
we got the Falcon. The Falcon was nice. And we sold a boatload of Falcons. But the Mustang project
was actually called the special Falcon project with its current name. So we knew we knew how to
go one step further. And I think the other thing that the Mustang taught Ford and other car companies
is the right questions breed huge profits, jobs, happy customers and happy history.
And so I think now Ford always ask the right questions, as we can see with things like
marquee, the seventh generation Mustang and all the other products that are super successful,
Bronco, those type of things. And other car companies who have super successful products
that are born out of asking customers the right questions. And you always know when a car company
asks the wrong questions, because the product isn't right. And so those things have taught
everybody a lot of things. I agree. One of the other documents we had out there that was interesting
and the journalist looking like all got a chuckle out is that we didn't know what we were going to
call the stupid thing. Just a mere six months before the launch of the product, it was either
going to be the Cougar, the Mustang, or the Thunderbird 2. Think of how different history
would have been if we had called that the Thunderbird 2, trying to leverage the success
we had already had with the Thunderbird. Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So take us through
some of the other documents were there because almost every single one was, you know, you didn't
have endless space and endless time. So you were very careful in what you picked.
We, the next section was talking about Mustang's racing heritage. And I've become good friends
with Henry Mann, who's Alan Mann's son. Henry actually restores Mustangs for Alan Mann Racing
in England. And I saw his footage from Goodwood this morning, and he had a couple of his cars
out there, but he specializes in Mustangs. But his father, Alan Mann, prepped four Mustangs that
were sent to Europe in the summer of 1964. So just a few short months after the launch, and they were
used in the Arduous Tour de France automobile race that was 10 days of mountain climbs, sprints,
and then endurance racing. And the Mustangs took first and second place. And we had some of his
prep notes showing how he prepared those Mustangs. And Mustangs had this great racing heritage.
And now that the seekers out there are going back to Le Mans, you know, that was why we were
emphasizing racing so much in that space. So it makes a little bit more sense now.
Yeah, no, it does. And of course, racing, as we found out, obviously, at the launch was a huge
part of what was to come the next night.
It was. And that secret announcement from Bill Ford that the Mustang was going to,
or Ford was going to return to the 24-hour Le Mans, and the Mustang was going to be our
flagship. So it's going to be an exciting time the next couple of years. But the other thing we
wanted to do in this exhibit is we wanted to focus on pop culture, because a car becomes an icon
every once in a while. A couple of our competitors have them. We've got a couple with a few of
the Continental's and a few of the Broncos, but the Mustang was used in 10,000 movies and music
videos. And we had pictures of Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever with the Mach 1. And my
favorite was the collected works of Jim Morrison, the lead singer from the Doors, who only ever
owned one car. And it was a Shelby GT that he called the Blue Lady. And we just, we wanted to
try to show how important the Mustang has been just in pop culture in general.
I didn't know that. And I know a lot about Mustang history. I knew a good part of what
you showed yesterday, but I had no idea about Jim Morrison's ownership of just one car and that
being the Blue Lady. That, to me, was all news. So that was very impressive.
That's why I've got the best job in the world. I get the, can you, can you imagine me pay me to
sit there and do all this research on Mustang? So I, for six months, I've been spending an hour or
so a day trying to find Mustang things. We'll just make people think differently about the car.
Yes, everybody knows it. Everybody knows bulletin. Yeah, we had our obligatory bullet
thing there. But I wanted to focus as much on, on Goldfinger, you know, the 1964 James Spahn film,
because that was the first time Mustang ever appeared in film. James Spahn producers heard
there were some in Europe and they got Alan Mann racing to prep the car. The woman who was cast
in the role of the driver didn't know how to drive a stick. So it was actually an Alan Mann
employee wearing a wig that was filmed for a while. And then they filmed her next to the car.
Wow. So it says little stories like that, that, that, that uncover another layer of the Mustang
and allow us to change the storytelling narrative a little bit.
There, yeah, there was some amazing displays there. I think one of the things about Mustang
that really interests me too, that we never even got to talk about was the paint colors,
because over the years, the paint has been something that has changed quite radically,
hasn't it? It has just to shine a little light on what people don't see is that the Mustang
design team have been coming into the archives for the past two years. And on one of their visits,
we actually pulled out paint samples, every single paint sample that has ever been on a Mustang.
So some of them were paint sheets that show all the colors, some of them we actually had the
little metal chips that have been painted. And we just had this big long table so that the designers
could see the entire palette of Mustang, not to go back and specifically recreate a color,
but just to get a feel for what the colors, you know, what would use on the car. We did the same
thing with interiors too, where we had all the different fabrics out. And we had all the different
interior trim sets and radios and how a Mustang could be configured. Once again,
the goal of the new one was to make it more like a cockpit to feel like the driver is in control
of everything easily. And we tried to show how that had been done in the past as well.
Oh, I like the disco music. Our auto expert, I'm Nick Miles and you're listening to our
podcast and radio show. This is our auto expert on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can start
a conversation with us, ask us a car question, just direct messages at our auto expert. It's
where two million Americans get their daily dose of car talk, not daily dose of anything else
automatic. Andy, get your mind out of there. You were, that's what that was. I thought there was
still a back injury from me doing your thing. My back, it does hurt. It does. It just feels
like a truck horse. A truck horse? A truck, like Charlie. Oh, a Charlie horse. A truck horse.
Juck it. You know, you are beautiful. And so was the QX60. Sorry, the Q50 we're going to do today,
aren't we? Yeah, you're thinking about another car. I was the Q50 from Infinity. Q is also the
Q50 from Infinity. Let's just go there. L-M-N-O-P. Q. No, Q in Infinity stands for cool.
Cool. I'm not the best speller, but I think that begins with C. It's urban. Cool. Okay, cool. Yeah,
cool. Nick, this car was beautiful. Yes, and it has some major, major improvements over a lot of
the competition. Yeah, it's a big segment, is that what you call it? Yeah. It's a big segment,
but Infinity did a good job of carving its own lane. Yeah. Because there's- Oh, look at you with
the automotive torque. I'm telling you, I'm reading stuff. There's a lot of big names in it. So, Nick,
let me start with, if you take the luxurious nature of the Infinity brand and then you add
2023 to it, and then divide it by a standard twin-turbo V6 power motor, you get this beautiful
2023 Infinity Q50 sensory all-wheel drive. Well, I was going to do it like a clap,
but sensory probably doesn't need a clap. Oh, like high senses. Sensory. No, sensory we might.
Oh, like ASMR? Yeah. Oh, we can do that. Okay. Nick, the competition for this car is a big one.
It's going against the BMW 3 Series, the Mercedes C-Class, which is one of my favorites. Yeah.
The Genesis G70. That's favorite for me. And the Kia Stinger. The Kia's got to get right up in there.
Yeah. Kia like to get right up in there. It's quite a lot in the segment. It's a lot of competition,
but Infinity did good. So, why does it stand out, Nick? Well, one of the big things for me,
the reason it stood out is the twin-turbo V6 that no one else in the segment has. That's it. Period.
Done. They have it. So, what's new for the 2023? Yeah. They kept it, the updates a little bit light.
There are some. We got the saddle brown interior option, which is now available on the entry level,
which is nice. So, they went and said, hey, if you can only afford this one, let me bless you
with a little bit of the leather. You can have a little bit of that. Yeah, just like that.
Saddle brown. That's what the salesman says when he asks for it. Yeah. Nick, it's got an illuminated
Infinity grow emblem that's now available on the mid-range, the sensory one that we got.
And that looks so cool. Yeah. It's the little things. We were just talking about this. We
had the Infinity logo lighted up. Yeah. So, like all the other 2023 Infinity models sold in the
US, it'll now come. This is a big one, Nick. Now, are you sitting? So, at all the Q50s,
all the, excuse me, all the Infinity models sold in 2023 come with a three-year complimentary
maintenance plan with no, Nick, this is the underlying italics, no mileage-based restrictions.
That means the whole three years, you can get free, you can get oil checks, you can get your tires
bounce, and there isn't that caveat of you can have all this cool stuff up to like 50,000 miles.
You get it for the whole three years. That's huge. That's so nice. Thanks, Infinity. We got three
different trims for the 2023 Q50. We got the Luxe, the Sensory, and the Redsport 400. Do you
know about the Redsport 400? Yes. That thing is insane. Yes. Each grade is available with
Infinity's intelligent all-wheel drive, so you're just getting that. The Q50 Luxe joins the Sensory.
Excuse me. No, they, we already talked about the saddle brown, but I wrote that twice because
you need to know about that. Yes. The Luxe comes in at $43,675. The one we had was $49,
rounded down to $49, and the Redsport is about $57,000, but it's a 400 horsepower version of
the Twin Turbo V6. I have more reasons to buy this car now, included on all the Infinity models
the year 2023. You get the premium care enhances and all the different ownership packages and good
things like the oil changes, tire rotations, inspections, all that stuff. Let's look into
the meat and potatoes of the car, the engine. All the Q50s get a Twin Turbo 3-liter V6, which is huge,
a seven-speed automatic transmission, and either rear or all-wheel drive. You'll have to talk about
what's available in your market to see if you can get the AWD. The engine comes in two potencies.
You either get the 300 horsepower one or the Redsport, which is 400 horsepower. The drive has,
this is cool, has an optional drive by wire. Did you just say horsepower?
Horsepower. Nick, this part was cool. They have an optional drive by wire steering setup called
direct adaptive steering. It's a really cool feature and you could feel the difference in the
cornering. You could go a few miles an hour more. Yes, I can tell you I've done it and I like it.
The Q50s got a little bit better than normal front seat leg room. This car is perfect for
long drive where comfort is super important. 13 cubic feet in the trunk, which is okay.
That's enough for snacks and blankets. The infotainment thing, though, really threw me for
a loop on how cool it was. It's got a dual-screen system. That way, it's more modular, so you can
have something running up top and at the bottom. I haven't seen that anywhere else. They may have
it, but I haven't seen it. Sometimes does that. Oh, they do? Well, Infinity did it better.
Yeah. So, Nick, am I giving this the stamp? Yeah. Are you?
I would say yes. Oh, wow. It's a big segment. There's a lot of competition,
but if you were listening to three-year package, all the stuff that they said,
you know what, let's just get rid of some trims and make a lot of this cool stuff standard.
Okay. Go ahead, Infinity. I'm buying one. You know what I have to say to that?
Hmm. Ask him anything. Our auto expert, Nick Miles, has an answer. Direct message your questions
at our auto expert on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Our auto expert, Nick Miles.
This is our auto expert radio show. Our auto expert is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
You can start a conversation with us. Ask us a car question. Just direct messages at our auto
expert. It's where two million Americans get their automotive news daily. Anton
Warman joining us. He is an international investor and expert on autonomous cars and the
automotive business, as well as what goes on, especially with the electric vehicles in Europe.
You can read the majority of his stuff at the street and seeking alpha. So, Anton, it's been
a few weeks since we've had the opportunity to talk, and there has definitely been a whole lot
of stuff going on, especially with Elon Musk and the whole Twitter scenario. We did work out that
if Elon had to withdraw the maximum amount of money at a cash machine every day, which is usually
$1,000 to pay the $44 billion back, it would take him, I think we worked it out at 140,000 years
or something ridiculous. So, he should start now.
Fortunately, he's not going to be using a cash machine to do this, but one thing is,
not for sure, but I think it is a very high probability that he is going to craft a cough up
that approximate $44 billion because the trial date of October 17 is drawing closer and closer.
The trial is expected to take about a week, and the judge, the chancellor in the Delaware
Court of Chancery, is going to be writing an opinion probably within weeks, not months,
thereafter rendering the verdict in this trial. And if I had to guess right now, and if nothing
changes between now and the time of the court date, I think he is going to be in the losing site.
So, let's talk about, if he is on the losing side, then what does he do? Let's talk about
Twitter itself and let's talk about the business. So, he has to fork over $44 billion. Where does
that leave him? Well, I think he's basically going to have to sell another handful of billion
dollars worth of stock in Tesla, which is where the majority of his liquid network resides.
So, that's going to happen number one, and then, of course, he'll be the proud owner of Twitter,
very shortly thereafter. So, that's what's going to happen. And if you've noticed, Nick, back in
March and well into April, there was all this talk in and around Washington, DC, and everywhere
else, oh my God, what would happen if and when Elon Musk took over Twitter, all sides of the
political spectrum had their various views on this positive, negative confusion, everything and
everything in between. All of that speculation essentially went out the door starting in about
May, and Elon started questioning whether he should actually be completing the transaction.
So, since May or so, and especially since early July, which is when these lawsuits were being
filed, the parlor game has been whether he will actually be closing this transaction or not,
and almost none of the talk, Nick, has been about what will actually happen after he becomes the
proud owner of this asset. So, maybe at that point, that parlor game will then resume rapidly.
So, I mean, where does that leave Tesla? If he sells all those shares, what do you think will
happen to the stock price of Tesla? Well, here's the thing, in and of itself, the fact that he
will sell those shares, certainly A, will have a negative impact on the stock price, all other
things equal, but at the end of the day, it will not be a do or die thing for either him or the
company or anything else. But rather, to see the significance of what's going on here, Nick,
you have to look at why was it that all of a sudden, right around the first week of May,
Elon suddenly decided to get essentially that cold feet about wanting to consummate this
transaction. And the reality is that that was the beginning of a change in the international
business climate. And you're seeing now that we have an enormous drawdown in consumer sentiment
all over. And you saw this just a couple of days ago when Federal Express FedEx reported earnings,
and they announced that going forward for the next several quarters, they're estimating that
earnings was going to be down about 30%. And I mean, look at FedEx. I mean, you talk about a
company that has its tentacles in almost all of the 193 countries around the world. I mean,
they touch more people and more businesses than almost any company on earth. And if somebody's
going to have this, as we're saying, German Fingerspitzke fuel on in terms of having their
finger on the button on what's going on in this world, and they basically said, look, we're in
the early stages of what could be essentially an economic depression. So this is going to
impact forget just Tesla, but I'm talking about the entire automotive industry is about to take
a little bit turn for the South. Now, of course, what's leading up to this thing is are these
enormous supply constraints where the industry is coming from a point where we've had all these
supply shortages, which is why we're all paying above MSRP and you have to wait months and months
to get a new car. So the industry is not going to be maybe as impacted initially as some of these
other industries, but make no mistake about it, make used car prices are going to start finally
coming down and eventually give it about a year or so, you're going to see that the new car business
also will start to basically run into some severe headwinds here before we fast forward to about
a year from now. Let's talk about what you think will happen to Twitter when Elon takes over.
He's talked about having a lot of bots on Twitter, which I think Twitter had actually taken care of
a lot of that during Trump's presidency. They culled about 75% of accounts. I mean, I know that
I saw a lot of my Twitter followers go down as they were culling what they called fake accounts,
and they did for everybody. They lost a huge chunk of their accounts as they called them culling
what they thought were fake accounts. Do you think that Elon, if he still claims that there are so
many fake accounts on Twitter, is he going to go in there and start culling what he believes are
fake accounts? So what is he going to do if he's claimed that there's so much shenanigans going
on at Twitter? Is he then going to clean it up? No, Nick, I think this whole fake accounts thing
is a complete ruse as far as Elon is concerned. Elon, I think, legitimately wanted to maybe improve
the product to some degree. And the whole bot thing is something that he, because he's a very
famous person and has one of the largest follower accounts in the world, sees a lot more of us than
us mere mortals. So I think that in the big schema thing, that is not a huge problem for the platform
as a whole. Rather, what I think that he is most concerned with is how is he basically going to get
some money out of this thing so that he can shore up the entirety of his businesses. So
he's probably more thinking about how do I then resell this product? Basically, so
now that I've had to pay $44 billion for this thing, can I somehow take this company public
under some new scheme? Or can I get new investors? Or can I get some of the money that I put into
this thing back so I can deploy it for one of my other businesses? I think those are his concerns
first and foremost. And coming up with a plan for that is I think is going to be his first
order of business. I don't think he's going to, this whole bot thing, nobody will ever notice
whatever changes are being made on that not normal people. Right. Let's talk about Tesla
themselves. They had this whole R&D rest. They have their semi that they're supposed to be
moving forward with, but they pick up truck, but there's no real movement on new vehicles for them.
So where's the car company at? Well, so of course, yes. First of all, when it comes to
the semi truck, we're actually seeing a few more of these test vehicles out there. So the semi is
clearly coming closer to a production date. We can say that with some certainty. When it comes
to the cyber truck, I think suppliers and so forth have indicated that they're looking at
perhaps a July 2023 production date, initial production date in Texas for that vehicle.
And then Tesla has said that they're really looking at trying to come up with a
less expensive vehicle that would sit under the Model 3, but that will probably be at least
a couple of years away from them to actually execute a bond. So in the meantime, they're kind
of caught into this whole economic drawdown that everybody else is in the US, for example,
all these changes, the tax rules has left the consumers a bit confused as to what the rules
are. And you can clearly see that many of the consumers are maybe pulling in their horns
because they see that the interest rate is on their home mortgage is going through the roof,
the property taxes are going through the roof, bills for everything else from food to
you name it is going through the roof. And now people are saying, you know, let me just post
a poll on some of these capital purchases. And that does not apply to everybody. Clearly,
sales do not go from, you know, 100% to zero or anywhere near it. But what it takes to impact
the business is just a shift on the market. And I think that many of these companies that are
selling products that are not the rock bottom necessities, but rather are discretionary,
more luxury items. I mean, if you're a cab driver, I mean, you're going to buy that to
a Corolla no matter what. But if you're somebody who's got already one or two cars in the garage
and you're thinking about buying a Tesla and trading in your three year old vehicle, you
might just say, you know, let me hold off on that a little bit. And I think we're seeing that in
the orders and sales numbers. I mean, if you look at the September quarter here, which is
just about less than two weeks away from completion, that's of today. I mean, I'm not
seeing it in the numbers yet. I mean, they had better have some magical hockey stick here in
the last two weeks in order for the number to be exceptional. I mean, the company's going to sell
at the end of the day fairly close to 350,000 vehicles this quarter. But I think they're really
draining the pipe on that. Look at China, for example, to just introduce new discounts just
a couple of days ago for thousands and thousands of dollars per vehicle. If you chose to take
delivery of them by the end of this quarter, heck, you know, it was just a few weeks ago and
barely that they said that, well, if you placed an order for a Tesla, you'd be getting it in the
first quarter of next year, if you were lucky. And all of a sudden, if you're willing to take a
multi-thousand dollar discount, you'll have it before the end of this quarter. Nick, that doesn't
add up. Clearly demand is falling off a cliff here. And if they do make this quarter and deliver
close to 350,000 vehicles, the pipeline from there on, maybe it'll be about as dry as Bob Dylan's
mouth. That is an energy that I love and I will be using in the future.
America's fastest growing automotive radio show. Our auto expert, Nick Miles.
Oh, for 20,000 people have downloaded our auto expert podcast and many more streamers join the
happy listeners and on Apple podcast, hours of endless fun await you. I'm Nick Miles and that's
automatic Andy next to me. Two million Americans get their automotive news daily from our auto
expert. The F pace from Jaguar is one of the cars that has turned the company around and also
really made a huge difference. Every time car companies who are well known for their high
end performance sports cars make SUVs, they're a massive win. Ferrari just announced that they
are doing an SUV boom and then Jaguar make an F pace boom. Then it becomes the majority of their
sales. They have a whole bunch of different models and additions of this vehicle and I will tell you
they are killing it with this fun to drive, very, very luxurious and dynamic.
It makes me proud. It makes me proud to be a member of King Charles III's household. It makes me
proud to be British. It makes me proud that Jaguar have really done a really good job starts
$56,000 and has some amazing key features and things that you would expect in a British luxury
car on top of things like heated electric power folding mirrors, you know, approach lights,
automatic dimming drivers on the driver's side, power tailgate, the new PV pro 11.4 inch touch
screens, touch screen, I should say, the online with the online pack wireless Apple CarPlay,
Android Auto, the remote app, which means you can use it from your phone and do a whole bunch of
stuff. Those wheels 19 inch 10 inch color cabin lighting, 10 inch 10 colors cat 10 color cabin
lights, 12 way heated electric front seats, which has a also two way manual headrest,
because if you are going to punch it, you want to make sure that Andy doesn't get whiplash.
Jewel leather seats with diamond perforated and embossed Jaguar leaping on the back of the
seats. I love to look at the Jaguar leaping just before I sit down on it. You know what apart,
you know, a part that I liked about it was the privacy glass. Oh, yeah, because we went no one
wants to see you. No, not at all. They don't want to see me. They don't want any of it. When we
went and got food, no one can see me that I was cheating on my diet. How often have you picked
up food for people and stolen French fries out of the bag and wiped your hands on the side of the
seat 100 times out of 10, except for the Jaguar. That's why the seats are always extra shiny when
we give the car back. Yeah, it's not because I wiped them down. That's grease. That's French
fry grease. Everybody's smiling here because we've all done it. Yeah, that's the best fry.
Lane keeping assist. So it keeps you in your lane while you're fishing in that fry bag for
a couple of fries that may have fallen out of the fry bag. Yeah. Yeah, traffic sign recognition
because you were in the fry bag and not paying attention to the speed limit changed. You know,
there's adaptive speed limiters so you don't speed and get a ticket because you know,
one more ticket and you don't want to get the points. Adaptive cruise control, blind spot assist,
you know, all of the things that you really want. Top speed is 135 miles an hour at 0 to 60
in under seven seconds. It's just 249 horsepower. Nice and plenty. It just looks good. I like the
orange color, don't you? Yeah, it's not quite burnt, but like you got it out of the oven right in
time. That's the SVR one that looks best in that color. There's different specifications.
You can just enjoy building, which I do online all the time and get told why you're wasting
your time. Go play video games, you know. Yeah, that's a better one. There's a lot of those things.
I mean, I often like to look online at the galleries, search what's available, you know.
I don't believe that 0 to 60 time is correct because it was really quicker than that.
Well, we also have the SVR. That's the base model. Oh, okay, because we went quick fast.
We did. I like the fact that a lot of car companies now have learned something,
and that is that you can have beautiful, light colored seats and door panels on the
top of the car, but then the carpets can be dark. Yeah, I like that. Because if you live
somewhere where the weather gets rainy and not nice, then you can have nicer light.
So in the winter here, it gets dark early and it rains when I'm in the north of the country.
I mean, I spend a lot of time in the south, you know, below the Mason Dixon line where it doesn't
snow, but it's nice and warm. But in the weekends, I come home because my dogs live in the north,
northwest, and I like to see them on the weekends and snuggle with Bill and Sam,
and Arwin and Porsche. I could go on. But here's the deal. It is difficult to have a dog in a car
when the carpets are light colored because they get in and they're muddy and nasty.
But I like lighter tops of the cars on the inside, but darker bottoms, like I like dark carpet.
And it always used to be you would get lighter interiors or darker interiors. And in the winter,
black on the inside of car is just depressing. But in the summer, black on the inside is hot.
And then you put muddy dogs in a white carpet in the winter, it just is trashed.
So you can never really win. But now they give you darker carpets with lighter tops and lighter
leather. So you can get like a brown leather, which is fine. If they get on the seats, you can
always wipe them down like a saddle, leather and dark carpets, like a dark brown carpet,
sadder leather, leather and lighter roof color. So that makes a huge difference. And Jaguar
and the shifter looks like a cricket ball. Oh, Nick, now come on. Look, that's the same
stitching as in a cricket ball. That's extra British. Now the visitors will bow. Every time I
grab it, I feel like I should be bowling. You know, this isn't going to sound dumb, Nick,
so forgive me. And I know this is very subjective, but in my wise years of driving.
Wise. In my 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. In my three years of driving steady. Yeah. Like,
I've gotten them luxurious cars, right? Like they feel great. Yes, this is nice. Yeah. But
there's something just a little, little different in the Jag. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's hard
to, I know that doesn't make any sense, but it just, it's a, it's a feel, maybe it's a vibe,
maybe it's a something, but there's just a little, just like a chef's kiss, just a little extra in
the Jag. So what I have to tell you, Andrew, and something you're experiencing, all right,
that a lot of people understand it and you've talked about this and this is Jaguar really give
you this and land Rover to some extent, give you this. And it's something that a lot of people
experience for the first time with both of these brands, these cars. And it's really hard to explain.
I'm going to, I'm going to give an attempt to explain it to you, but it's, it's difficult to
explain. This is a lot of people try to capture this, the world over. It's exquisite. It's somewhat
this sort of pent up. I would give it the name of sort of this vibrant sex, almost sexual energy
in these, in both of these cars. It's a beauty. It's a sort of a regalness. It's an absolute
vibrant beauty. It's this sort of royal diamond type energy, but there's one phrase that really
sums up both of those cars and you've already experienced it and you've kind of already touched
on it. But Andrew, Andrew, this is exactly what it is. It is this. It's called being British.
autoexpert.com
About this episode
The episode provides a lively recap of the Detroit Auto Show, highlighting the much-anticipated launch of the new Ford Mustang and the personal experience of co-host Nik Miles as he test drives the BMW iX M60. The discussion includes humorous anecdotes about the car's acceleration and its surprising power, which left co-host Automatic Andy in pain. The episode also covers the significance of the Mustang's history, its enduring popularity, and the exciting features of the seventh-generation model. Additionally, Nik shares his experience of acquiring a new Jeep, emphasizing the emotional connection to the brand.
Original notes
Nik talks to the man who knows everything about Ford, Ted Ryan. He is the archives and heritage manager, who has access to old classified letters from Ford.
Mike Caudill talks about blending in with the secret service when President Biden visits the Detroit auto show
Anton Wahlman isn't the happiest with Elon Musk.
Automatic Andy has some words of encouragement for the Jaguar F-Pace R, dynamic S , and the Infiniti Q50 sensory AWD
Our Auto Expert
Nik Miles
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