Hooniverse Feb 26, 2026

Electric Porch-A

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Car

GMC Yukon Denali

The GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate is a big, fancy SUV that is comfortable to ride in and has lots of features. It can carry many people and things and is good for long trips.

Car

The Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid is a big car that uses both gas and electricity to move. It can drive using just electricity for a short distance, which helps save fuel and is better for the environment.

Car

Volkswagen Jetta

The Volkswagen Jetta is a small car that many people use for everyday driving or renting. It's comfortable and easy to drive.

Car

Porsche Cayenne EV

The Porsche Cayenne EV is an electric SUV made by Porsche. It uses electricity instead of gas to move and is part of Porsche's effort to make more electric cars.

Term

twin turbo

Twin turbo means the engine has two devices that push more air into it, making the car more powerful and faster.

Concept

prototype

A prototype is like a test version of a car that a company makes to see if their ideas work before they build the real one you can buy.

Term

sport chrono package

The sport chrono package is a special option in some cars that adds a stopwatch on the dashboard and makes the car drive more sporty and fun.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser

The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big SUV that can drive on rough roads and is very dependable. People often use it for adventures and everyday driving.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser 80 Series

The Toyota Land Cruiser 80 Series is a big SUV that can drive on rough roads and is very reliable. People like to buy and sell these cars online because they last a long time.

Concept

surface rust

Surface rust is when only the very top layer of metal on a car has started to rust, but it hasn't caused serious damage yet. It can usually be fixed easily before it gets worse.

Concept

road salt

Road salt is spread on roads in winter to melt ice, but it can cause cars to rust faster, especially underneath.

Concept

frame replacement

Sometimes the main metal part of a car, called the frame, gets too rusty or broken, so it has to be taken out and a new one put in.

Term

dry ice treatment

Dry ice treatment means using tiny frozen pellets to clean stuff like rust or dirt off parts without scratching them. It's like a gentle blast that cleans without hurting the metal.

Term

powder coating

Powder coating is a way to paint metal parts by spraying on a dry powder that sticks and hardens when heated. It helps protect the metal and makes it look nice.

Term

stick welder

A stick welder is a tool that helps you melt and join metal parts together using a special rod. People use it to fix rust or broken metal on cars and trucks.

Term

limited

Limited means a fancier version of the Jeep with more features and comforts.

Term

four wheel drive

Four wheel drive means the car can send power to all four wheels to help it drive better on snow or mud.

Term

Michelin Primacy MX

Michelin Primacy MX are a type of tire that works well in many weather conditions but aren't the best for snowy or icy roads.

Part

Toyo AT3 tires

Toyo AT3 tires are special tires that help trucks and SUVs drive well on roads and off-road places like dirt or snow.

Term

stability control

Stability control is a safety feature in cars that helps keep the vehicle steady and stops it from sliding or spinning out, especially on slippery roads.

Car

Ford Ranger

The Ford Ranger is a medium-sized truck that can be used for work or fun, like driving on rough roads. It comes with special tires from the factory that help it drive well both on streets and off-road. People talk about these tires to see if they are good for different weather and road types.

Term

All right. Welcome back to the universe podcast. I'll go this time because I am scared of awkward

times. So I'm joined by Ross. Ross, what are you talking about today?

We are going to talk about some electric Porsches that may or may not live. We are going to

talk about the cold weather and cars that are or are good for the cold weather. I have

a Yukon Denali ultimate press car and then we'll we'll go over our usual personal shenanigans.

So what I want to start with, I was in California a few weeks ago on a work trip and I drove

up into the canyons and I took one of the one of the, I mean, you could say roads less

taken, but it's a Malibu Canyon road. So it is a very, very often taken. And I happened

to pond for the audio listeners. I'm sorry, but I'm sharing my screen and you can see

it if you watch our video. I happened to pond the Cayenne Evie test wheel. And it was the

Cayenne Evie and then in front of it, they had a con. I think it was a GTS. I don't

sound good, but could have really, you know, inspect too closely. And it's very awkward

when you happen upon people who have zero desire to interact with you in any way, shape

or form. And it's not like is it, wait, hold on. This is a Cayenne, right? I'm not delusional

It's ugly. Yeah, it's a Cayenne.

Sure. Cause I can hardly distinguish the two. But yeah, so I tried to engage with them. And I

was like already preparing my speech about how I'm in the media, but I'm not like cutting

edge media. I won't spill any of your secrets. And every time I like would walk over to them,

they would dive into one of the cars, two guys, but literally hide.

That is their training. Because they're not, I mean, they're engineers. They're not trained to

talk to media. They don't want to talk to you. They want to have shit to do.

Nothing to do with me. And I was in a rental Jetta. And I just kind of like sat down on the

hood and took pictures of the beautiful sunset and whatnot. And it was an extremely awkward

experience, but it was pretty interesting. It's the first time that I've actually been like

that up close and personal with an unreleased test vehicle. And there's really not much you can

deduce from a test car without broaching the spectrum of what's socially acceptable. You

know, like the guy left the door open, but I wasn't going to just like jump into the car or

anything. So I'd pretend to take pictures of the sunset. And then I waited a few minutes and the

McCann drove away and sounded like a McCann. And then the Cayenne EV drove away and it sounded

like a V8 Cayenne. Very clearly some severe synthetic stuff going on there. That's not your

traditional sci-fi spaceship kind of noise. It sounded like a Cayenne, a twin turbo VA Cayenne

under low load, in my opinion.

But hang on though, like, do you think this is just a ruse to fool any onlookers? Or do you think

this is the thing like what they're going to produce in front of Stalentis for? Was there

Xonoramic or whatever?

Oh, well, that's pipe organ.

That's different. This just sounded like a car they already make. It wasn't just like some, you

know, yeah, it was like it, like it, but it didn't sound like a recording though, right?

No, no. It sounded like a throttle dependent recording, which could have been I mean,

interesting. It's a prototype. You know, it could have been something that will never see the

light of day. It could be something they were playing with for the second iteration or the

whatever GTS turbo comes down the line for the Cayenne EV. But it was it was an interesting

thing to stumble upon. I know they're interested. I wish they had even just like said hi, you

should have said something in German to them like, yeah, whoa, I should have pulled open

like Google Translate and just said something like, oh, I see smoke coming from battery.

Das ist scheiße.

I don't know that much German.

I don't know. So I'm not going to say anything. So yeah, so I just wanted to share that. You

know, it's it's not every day that a guy that lives in Connecticut is in the California Hills

just driving around for shits and stumbles upon a car that he's only seen online.

I mean, it's cool. And you know, if they have a sound package, I'm sure it'll be part of like

the sport chrono package that comes with the little little chronometer on the dash and unlocks

all the performance and costs. Yes, your Cayenne EV can sound like $5,000.

Yes, it can sound like a 917.

I think there's a there's an opportunity. There's an upsell opportunity. I've been

with these and and even the sounds within the car.

Like you can license or that's predictive.

We are 20 years of what it was 20 years ago that everybody was downloading and paying for

ringtones. Yeah.

But it was was it Garmin that had the thing where you could or Tom Tom, you could actually

download celebrity voices to your nav so you could get like Mr. T or like.

I remember I think ways had that for a brief period too, because there was a it was really

popular when it was people who it was like Gordon Ramsay telling you you you missed the

turn you fucked up like that kind of stuff.

But I don't yeah, I don't think anybody here at least once, you know, to be shouted at

in German after they get on the wrong side street.

Anyways, no.

So that was my that was my interaction with the Cayenne EV and if anybody from Porsche is listening.

You've done good in training them to not say anything that yeah, I mean, that's honestly

as a former automaker comms person.

That's what you want.

You want them to not engage you guys have work to do.

Whatever you're doing out there, yeah, keep doing it.

Yeah, do not engage.

We walked on opposite sides of the car and I said, is this the Cayenne EV and the guy

literally like stopped looked at me.

And got in the car.

Yeah, you know, like that's when somebody stops and looks at you like that you could go one

or two ways skipper quick or scatter.

So it was just the Canyon Rover like, is this one of the dangerous ones?

I mean, they're all kind of dangerous, right?

Um, I don't specifically remember which one this was.

I I deliberately took some of the Canyon roads that aren't the ones people talk about regularly.

You know, it was like, I saw maybe two cars the entire time I was on.

That was nice.

Yeah, it was great.

And it feels like alien territory, you know, like a totally different planet compared to

what we have here.

Oh, yeah.

No, it looks like you're driving around in like a picture or something.

It's literally like everything just looks different.

I'm gonna send a pic.

Hold on.

Uh, this is awesome radio as I talk while I look at my phone.

Well, I mean, I could talk about my LA experience, my LA driving experience, which was basically

just like, I don't know, the five and four or five.

Oh, five.

Like maybe it wasn't the four.

I can't remember.

Anyway, it was highways because LA is very large.

The one on one.

Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't know.

Like I stayed last time I was there for Slade.

I stayed in Santa Monica and we is we were meeting over like I was right by the

pier and then we were meeting over it, whatever club I had motoring club.

And so it was like a couple of exits hop over and it was just like, why is

the gridlock here?

I legit left it like six 30 in the morning just to yeah, it's that is the like my

thing about LA is that it he it's a car city, you know, it's a city and they wanted

to have that vibe of being culturally dense, which maybe it is.

I'm not somebody who analyzes more than one way, but yeah.

Anyways, I saw this Land Cruiser up there while I was in the canyons

and it looked awesome.

And yeah, that's a beautiful shot.

Is that clouds?

Like are you guys up above the clouds or is that water?

No, that's the ocean you can see in the background there.

And yeah, probably, you know, of like an $85,000 80 series on bring a trailer.

So that's nice.

Yeah, the light is the light is different out there.

The car scene is different.

There was more interesting stuff that I would see within like 30 seconds

of leaving my hotel then in 30 days of driving around here.

Yeah.

But that's what happens when you can drive it every day.

Oh, I think there's there's actually probably a business

and people probably already do this of like going out and snagging

the stuff that Southern Californians, you know, people who live in like

this sort of desert Southwest are like, oh, it's rusty.

And you're like, that that's just surface rust.

It's fine.

Like dragging it back here.

There's such a different such a different perspective on East Coast

and West Coast, West Coast people are just like, oh, yeah, it's from the ocean.

It's it's, you know, from the breeze and what not.

And here it's like, oh, no, the salt, the road salt and, you know,

the treatment has been eating my frame alive for the last decade.

Hi, Toyota.

Anyways, yeah, they replaced the frames.

They replaced a lot of frames.

Did they replace yours?

No, no, I'm actually I'm going to do the I think I'm like a year or two

out from doing that dry ice treatment where they basically

it's like the opposite opposite of powder coating.

They basically just like use dry ice to blow off all the

bits of rust and whatnot.

And then they treat it with like a wall wax or something.

But yeah, every time I talk about getting rid of the truck, I end up keeping it

and kind of in it for the long haul now.

You can get yourself a stick welder and you can play it when it starts to rust.

Yeah, right. It's not unsafe at all.

The last time I welded a spark jumped and went into a garbage can full of

papers that were being disposed of and it literally caught fire.

And this was my junior year of high school and I haven't tried my

hand at welding since.

Sounds like comedy.

Yeah, it wasn't.

It was not at the time.

Anyway, let's speak of cold and speak of crap weather.

I wanted to ask you, what is the best cold weather car you've owned or driven?

One with me.

I would say, actually,

the best cold weather cars.

I really do like our WK2 in the bad weather.

It's a limited.

So it's not like manually shifting into four wheel drive or anything.

You do need to use winter tires on it.

It's a grand charity for people who are in the cheap terminology world.

And I would agree that's a very good cold weather car goes everywhere

with no problem.

And it's so stable.

Yep.

On the winter tires, if you don't have winter tires on it,

it's it's not really that good.

I don't know.

It's good on the altering.

OK, yeah, no, that makes sense.

This the tires that it came with were like Michelin Primacy MX.

Oh, no, they're low tires.

The the all seasons, it just it'll you'll go sailing through stop signs.

And my this is a Jeep.

Right, my parents, my parents usually put like the Hancock

Dynapro ATMs on theirs or I mean, this time Toyo hooked everybody up

and and give them discount on AT3s.

And yeah, it's a monster.

The thing about the WK2 that people don't think about in the snow

is it's so proportionally like track with the wheelbase perfect for snow driving.

Yeah, it's it's really good.

Honestly, like the the stability control hardly ever fires unless you provoke it.

Again, on winter tires, if not, it's a mess.

I actually have Dynapro ATMs on the on the Ranger.

They're OK. Those are the factory tires, right?

Those are the FX4 factory tires for a stretch.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

White letters. I got it because they were white letters.

I just got a white letter.

I yeah, white letters to awesome.

But that one actually is like it's got winter tires on it when now

we're steelies, they're firestone something or others.

But there are more traditional snow tires that they're not as good

as the blizzaks, it's on everything else.

Yeah, I will say as well, I really did like our Volvo 740s on blizzaks.

They were great.

I I like real real driving the snow.

They were one of us, dude.

Yeah, I mean, you can rotate with the throttle.

It's just the whole point or the whichever you prefer.

That's the thing about real drive.

I'm trying to think what else I've driven that was really

good in the in the snow.

But with the media cars, I've been out of it for a while.

And so it's not as fresh in my mind and

you only have them for a week usually.

So you only get to experience the spectrum of whether that comes

during that week.

And the reason I ask this is because the projected forecast

for the weather here this weekend.

I think I sent this to you.

But the expected wind chill on Saturday night is negative twenty nine degrees.

Yeah, it's going to be negative five actual and negative twenty nine

real feel wind chill, whatever you want to call it, which is really goddamn cold.

And I know there are people listening in

Canada or the Midwest will laugh at that and say, well, well, we had negative

forty wind chill, like, great.

Doesn't matter once you're below like negative twenty.

It's all the same.

So you know, like once you're over one hundred and five degrees,

is there a difference between one of five and one twenty?

So I think to make the difference is that they're

they're surroundings and their culture is is accustomed to it more.

It doesn't get quite that cold here that often.

So people are not prepared.

They don't know what to do.

It's like when it snows in Georgia, like it's just this pandemonium.

Oh, dude. Yeah.

You know, we're in like ice in North Texas.

Shots. An inch of snow in North Texas shuts down the city.

Ice. I lifelong New Englander.

I don't like I don't like I don't like ice.

I don't like ice.

It brings down trees.

Power lines.

And yeah, it is it's no good.

It's beautiful the next day.

But it's so pretty.

But then you walk outside and it's silent and you hear one crack

and you know, a tree has fallen or a huge icicle has fallen.

And you know that it's not good.

Like no way around.

We had a giant ice storm back in like 2010.

Was it 2010?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, there's been a few, but the big one that I remember was 2010

because we spent all night with the power out, listening to legitimate trees,

like large maples and things falling.

And there was a huge one that shook the whole house.

And it was one of the trees in the backyard.

Yeah, nearly made it to the house, like through the kids bedroom.

Jesus, what was that?

So yeah, we have a couple like like 70 footers around the house.

Trees are heavy.

Yeah, scary shit.

Anyways, yeah, no.

So the so the reason I brought this up is is, you know,

cars are vulnerable to cold weather in the same way that people are,

obviously in different ways, more or less.

The electric cars that I've had generally have amazing HVAC.

Yes, the detriment of their range.

If you use it to their full capacity, the heat in that lyric V

that we talked about in our last show was like, it was unbelievable.

How good that was.

That's how quickly it gets warm, how adjustable it is and how insulated a car

makes how the degree to which a company like it's not just insulation.

It's not just how much, you know, sound deadening is in there.

But it's also just like the build quality and whether you can feel

the cold creeping in when the wind chill is negative 10.

Yeah, I feel often here.

No, no, most modern cars are pretty well sealed.

That's why they have the little check valves.

They're usually hidden behind the the rear valance.

When you close the door, they kind of pop out because otherwise

the door would would just well send so many modern cars.

The door goes all the way down below the rocker, you know.

Yeah. But I remember as a kid, we had fours.

So we had like an 82 escort and we had a Fox body wagon.

And you could feel like driving on the highway at night in the winter.

It just like a stream of cold air coming through the door handle.

It's just the way they were designed.

They weren't they weren't really sealed.

And so like a lot of that is is better in modern cars.

Anything designed for for cold climate.

So that cold climate is I liked the Volvo's was just like they had huge.

Other domestic market.

But and and so I wonder, too, did the lyric have.

Did it have heat pump HVAC or did absolutely no idea.

So that's very efficient.

And the other way to do it is

they call it PTC, which is positive temperature coefficient,

which is it's basically a resistive heater that eats the hell out of your range.

But it is like you don't have to wait for anything to warm up.

It's instantaneous.

Yes. Yeah.

So the lyric allegedly, according to Google, does have a heat pump.

The funny thing is that if you type in, does the Cadillac lyric

have the first thing is apple car play?

And that's probably the general consensus typing that in, you know,

because a new car doesn't have this tech that I'm looking for.

But us, like we know, the question is, is that one of the ones that GM decided

should or shouldn't have car play, you know?

But anyways, I just thought that would be a fun little sniffer.

I mean, so lyric aside, though, like, what was your favorite

or most impressive, the best vehicle I've ever driven in the snow?

Not like my own GX, not withstanding.

I had a 20.

I owned a 2017 WRX on I think they were general

Ultimax Arctic.

Yeah, your tires.

It's a good time.

It was until it got to the point where ground clearance

or, you know, like snow plowing became a problem.

It was far and beyond the best car I've ever driven in the winter.

And it was just like predictable and controllable.

And I mean, it's just it's a WRX, this point.

Shoot, you know, like there's three inches of snow on the ground.

It doesn't matter.

You just drive like it's on winter tires, on good winter tires, you drive

like it's like it's not the summer, but, you know, like it's raining or something.

The most fun I've ever had.

I dailyed my Miata through a few winters on snow tires was awesome.

That was on Michelin sent me like X ice.

I also could tire these or something and I had it on RX seven wheels.

And it was just like it was a time in life when I I couldn't do that now,

obviously, but it was just so enjoyable, like 30 degrees with the roof down

in the snow, heat blasting, the fucking like some of the most enjoyable

time I've ever spent sitting by the wheel.

Well, so a sports car in the snow is an interesting thing because,

yes, they're low to the ground, but otherwise it's a balanced car.

So it's going to be really good to drive even in a low traction condition

because it's got the weight distributions right.

It's set up to be responsive.

It's going to be easy to control.

My wife and I went to a supermarket a few towns over on an extremely

snowy night, like a couple of days before Christmas.

And there's a big hill right before you get to the supermarket.

And this is like if anybody in New England knows this is Stu Leonard's.

It's like Mecca for supermarket and there's a big hill and we were stopped

at the stoplight and next to us was like a new Highlander on like new

Highlander tires, a light turned green and it was so slippery that they

started accelerating and slid backwards like a few feet and we were just away.

And that was and I did a challenger in a winter in two winters on snow tires.

Some silly things, but I had.

Yeah, actually, one of the more terrifying press cars I had in the winter

was a challenger or a scat pack on winter tires.

No, that was the issue.

It was I mean, it was beautiful.

It was like it was dark metallic green.

It had the hounds to that.

I think it had like the 1320 package or whatever.

I it's really hard to keep it straight with the challenger.

It had the shame that you did to those what it did

because those cars are actually really awesome.

They are fantastic cars.

I love the Alex cars.

Nobody's going to ever stop me from loving the Alex.

I know I want to charge around.

Had so I had one as a press car.

Or I had a no, I had the even the even a scat pack or no.

Yeah, charger for door.

Yeah, the so the challenger scat pack like it had the had the big

hammy and a manual fun car.

But like not it was it was weather like we have right now.

It was like, no, this this traction, too much power.

Yeah, it's like so much weight.

This is actually kind of scary.

I was worried about the fleet guy coming to take it.

I was getting out of here.

I don't blame you.

I once upon a time, I was delivered a C8 press car on actual winter tires.

The biggest, widest winter tires I've ever seen.

And I was like, OK, I guess this is happening.

It was awesome, you know, I bet it was actually.

That's probably a really good car to drive in the snow, too.

If it's not like a huge it was one of those winters where it was like

it's going to sell on third.

No, there's no.

It's going to snow on.

No, that's right.

But it was the worst.

And I think the worst, like most harrowing experience I ever had

driving the snow was when my brother was living in New Jersey,

Southern Jersey, a little north of Atlantic City.

We went down with the kids.

Kids were real little.

We went down from Christmas part of Jersey and.

So like just off the turnpike, right?

Like long trip on the the Jersey turnpike and on our way home.

And we knew this was coming, but there's just a big storm

that rolled into New England.

We hit it before we got out of Jersey.

And it was like us and the tractor trailers.

No visibility.

You couldn't see the lanes.

The plows couldn't get ahead of it.

And we were going all the way from Jersey to Massachusetts.

Like in a hole in that weather.

That is, I can't remember how long the drive was in good weather,

but it's long and it felt like five times that that day.

It was at least double.

It was a very long time to be in the saddle.

And then, you know, everybody fell asleep and I'm on like the mass pike.

And it's just like, right?

That was a that was a press card.

That was a second generation Kia Sportage, I think.

OK, it might have been the Hyundai Tucson.

I can't remember whatever it was.

It had the little V6 and it had all the drive with a lock button.

It looked a little ugly ducking.

That was before Hyundai and Kia hit their stride.

And it probably did fine because it probably weighed like 3,800 pounds.

It was great.

It was trusty and solid.

And, you know, you just you kind of go slow.

You don't do anything stupid.

It was it was great.

It just took forever to get home.

But that was that was a harrowing drive because like you couldn't see anything.

I so I have I have two stories that follow this story.

So a few months after this was, I guess,

my first daughter was six months old and we needed to get out of Connecticut.

So we went to Newport, which is an awesome, awesome town.

Absolutely love Newport.

And we took a.

What's the Kia Minivan?

That's how right now.

Name is. Oh, it's not the carnaval carnaval.

Carnival. Yeah. Oh, Jesus.

I'm sorry, Kia.

We took a kid carnival, which, you know, we had a six month old.

It was great because my wife could sit in the second row and like do the recline thing.

Yeah, we were there for like this was like right around Christmas.

And if anybody wants to go to like a quintessential Christmas town,

like you would see in a movie, Newport on Tame Street is like it is it's game over.

And there was a snowstorm coming in and our six month old daughter was

not enjoying the stay in a place she had never slept before.

So we drove home from Newport to Southwest Connecticut in an actual blizzard

in a Kia carnival and it took the drive there without bad weather.

It's like it's like two hours to like four and a half hours to get home.

And the car did great.

It was just like if you drive like a sensible human being,

you know, you can get through most stuff.

I mean, this was like this was white out conditions for almost the full duration

of the state of Connecticut.

One of the sketchiest drives I've ever done.

And in hindsight, I probably we should just hunkered down.

Um, but, you know, that's onsite.

And yeah, we can save my other story for it.

I mean, that's that is a I've been to Newport.

Newport or it's always like that's a drive that makes you realize like,

oh my God, why is Rhode Island so big?

Like it just takes forever to actually get to Newport.

No, it makes you realize why people just take their boats to the nice places.

You would have been better off going just like across Long Island sound

like like the French did. Yeah, right.

I would be I would be better off if I had an extra

$300,000 in my vacation budget.

No, we stayed in like a shitty hotel.

And no, if we didn't have a press car, we wouldn't have been able to swing the trip.

That's our long slog because you basically would you went,

I don't know the route from like 95 down to to Newport.

I don't know the number, but like basically from their home, it's just it's 95.

Yeah, all the way through Southeastern Connecticut and Southern

Connecticut, New Haven, the whole way home.

It was a horrible drive, but I am forever,

ever grateful to the Kia Carnival for that, for that trip.

Well, it was a two hands on the wheel trip the whole way,

which I've had not that many of in my life.

So consensus wise, kids go to the snow.

Yeah, they don't suck. They don't suck.

So anyways, we can talk about the Yukon Denali Ultimate on another show.

OK, you're a Boston guy who you got for the Super Bowl.

Two Patriots. I mean, come on.

Yeah, that's a big game.

That's just it's a matchup.

It's a repeat of a matchup.

Both teams look really good.

Pats are not the sort of precision weapon.

No, they're not a powerhouse.

Like they like they were.

Yeah, but they're scrappy and they're clever and they're fun.

So it'll be a good game.

How do you feel about Dillichick getting snubbed?

Nobody likes that guy.

He's just and he's cranky and I can relate to the crankiness.

But he probably he probably cares a little,

but he probably doesn't care that much.

He's like, whatever, I have the rings.

Yeah, a 70 year old man with his 24 year old girlfriend.

Yeah, that's he's probably he's probably pissed off, honestly.

I mean, I would I would feel a little bit like I

clearly the achievement is there while you would snub them.

Like I whatever I laughed.

I saw the headline on ESPN at my gym at like 7am

and lit at her left out loud.

It's like, ah, fucker.

I was with he and Bob Kraft get for being.

No, I mean, they're not we're not we're on air.

Yeah, they're not my buddies.

I really I can't I can't deny the achievement.

But like I don't look at their donation history, whatever.

Yeah, those guys, those guys don't they don't need accolades.

No, no, I would like some accolades.

I can get into a horror film as long as it comes with a large check.

I think that doesn't matter what hall of fame it is, right?

Like the automotive podcaster with a small audience hall of fame.

The universe podcasting hall of fame.

There we go. There we go.

I mean, I used to have a big audience.

You did. Yeah, you had you had a show and a half when shows were blowing up.

Yeah. And that only kept going because we wanted to.

We liked it. They tried to kill it and we're like, no.

And now that it's still going.

Yeah, well, the landscape has changed.

And thankfully, we have we have Jeff's blessing to to bring things down even further.

Oh, you know, that's a good point.

Actually, speaking of the changed landscape,

one of the things we we had on our our list, although I think it's gone now.

Trotterhouse and Top Gear.

Just a tour. Just like a great tour.

I'm sorry.

To have it all the same.

Two of the same.

It's well, it's Andy Weldon.

Yeah, no, the the throttle house guys.

Then we knew this was

it just wasn't a secret.

It was just a matter of a final announcement and like a launch date.

And this morning,

Thomas and James from Throttle House officially have said that they will be

hosting the Grand Tour with with train guy.

Or train guy.

Train guy.

The other guy they brought they've brought in is I think it seems like

Francis or France or something.

Let's see, I'm going to use somebody else's reporting here.

So let's see.

Thomas Holland, James Engelsman and

Francis Bourgeois.

Yeah, I had it.

Yeah, so we have a new grand tour.

The the Holy Trinity of

Clarkson, Hammond and May have, you know,

they've aged out.

Well, so how far past their sell by date?

Do you think those three were by the time this just happened anyway?

Like, so I think there was something

good after Top Gear that could have been better.

But I think it was just.

It wasn't them.

It was everything behind it that made it so contrived.

So I don't know the sell by date.

If they, if Clarkson hadn't been acting like a douche,

they probably could have got going on Top Gear for another at least five years.

Yeah, possibly.

So I think.

Every time that like shifted, because there was like there was Top Gear

in the grand tour and it was like, I don't know what I was doing with the farm now.

I what I have Clarkson's farm is the best thing he's ever done.

Is it really?

It is truly like I have.

Maffara always says that the best part of Top Gear was whenever they were like

helpless or hopeless or didn't know what they were doing.

And that's basically this entire show is him.

Him realizing how inept he is.

But it's there's like a heartfelt connection with like what he's doing.

You know, like hurting sheep or shoveling shit is a lot different

and a lot more relatable to most of us than driving a Pagani.

Yeah, I think that's I really like I liked.

So Top Gear sort of we all kind of got into it in the early 2000s,

watching back episodes, and he was just, you know, he's just a very clever writer

and he's funny.

And then as Top Gear progressed, even towards the end of Top Gear,

like they've run on Top Gear, they got it became like a stick.

And it was less about the cars and more about them like.

Yeah.

Pranking each other all the time.

And I was like, this is not interesting to me.

People always say like, you know, they didn't watch Top Gear for the cars.

It was a car show or no.

OK, people say it was a car show, but it wasn't really about the cars.

It was about the people and the stories and the journeys and the vendors.

But yeah, to your point, it very much by the end

turned into we have to make this joke every episode.

Yeah. And like I actually I liked their their car segments.

I liked some of the other stuff, too.

Like it was a well done show.

But the like they went they got imbalanced

where it just became all about them messing with each other.

And I think some of that was political.

And and the BBC telling them that they couldn't

just spend, you know, 90 minutes each week being nerds.

They had to they had to have these jokes

that they could put in their in their commercials and whatnot.

And everybody else suffered for making their egos, you know,

it really did like it did have a big effect on car car media.

Like I remember watching some of those those episodes

when I first discovered them and it was like, this is this cost a fortune

to shoot because they had like

a lot of shows like not easy.

Not drone areas.

Helicopter.

Yeah, no, the budget was unbelievable.

I read it one point.

It was like 15 million dollars an episode or something.

That's like beautiful stuff.

Really well written, really well produced.

Yeah, I think completely change the automotive media landscape.

End of statement.

Yeah, I don't go ahead.

Sorry, I mean, I was just like, I I.

I think one of the things that I started to get kind of tired of,

too, was like the particular brand of humor.

And maybe this is just Clarkson,

which respect for what you've achieved, but also like you were a dude

who went to like high end schools in England.

Like that's a particular thing.

And whether or not you were happy there,

because I don't think he he's talked about it.

I don't think he was happy at his private school.

But also him and was Andy Wellman.

Like, yeah, they were school buddies.

And so it was just some of that, like.

That joke was really obvious.

You don't need to do that.

Like that's that's cheap.

Like I'm tired of you.

Yeah, they're better than that.

Like we saw kind of thing.

We thought that we don't know what they were being told behind the scenes.

I'm not trying to play defense or anything like that anyway.

There was inevitably some kind of politics happening

that made them go on the trajectory that they went on.

And I mean, the show had everything good comes to an end, you know?

Yeah, fortunately, it came to the end

because he punched somebody over a sandwich.

Yeah, if it wasn't that, it would have been something even worse.

I there were other things prior to that.

Like that is pressure building up behind the court.

That was the last straw.

But yeah, I mean, I do agree with a lot of like, it's funny,

like everybody's complicated.

He's complicated.

The show has a, you know, a little bit of history to it.

It's good, though.

It's good TV.

Um, so yeah, we think, though, that the grand tour is going to be relevant.

So maybe maybe it is relevant to another audience,

which is clearly what they're trying to do with this new cast.

I don't know.

It's it doesn't carry the same weight with it that.

Top Gear carried after they left, you know, the grand tour is top years

of a household name as far as like worldwide media goes.

The grand tour isn't.

There's much less pressure.

I mean, I not to disparage the amount of pressure that there

actually is on these guys, but there's less pressure on them

than there there is on, you know, say, like.

The people that succeeded.

Clarkson Hamid and May at Top Gear, which is probably good

because like Chris Evans on Top Gear was literally unwatchable.

There was there was a great period of like, quote unquote, new Top Gear

with with Malibu and Chris Harris and Rory and like.

That was a good show.

That was an enjoyable.

They had camaraderie, you know, it it it felt like the makings

of what could have become similar to old Top Gear.

Yeah, I just never got there.

I don't know.

Do you think that these guys have any potential for?

How do you watch the house?

No, not a regular watch or throttle house, but I do think that.

They built something so they have a history that they have a fan base.

They're known quantity.

And the third guy from Francois.

It is Francis, I'm getting his names messed up.

But anyway, I think I think people like watching him

because of his enthusiasm for what he's enthusiastic about.

So I think that dynamic will actually be interesting.

And somebody compared to Fensky, where it's like you're a nerd

and you embrace that.

Yeah, yeah.

So you give it a chance.

I mean, so much of the automotive media.

Spectrum is not for anybody other than us.

It's like we're talking to ourselves.

It's an echo chamber if there ever was one.

Let's see if they can have a broader appeal.

They might, you know, they're pulling in a couple of different audiences.

And it's it's, you know, if they have interesting takes, it'll be great.

I really see what they say.

I will urge anybody with doubts.

You're self included to watch the throttle house video

on the Lamborghini Timorario that came out this morning.

It feels like this video was the test bed for if they could actually

do the grand tour, like make it bigger than two guys

with a YouTube channel doing reviews, you know, it has that embellishment

and like level beyond just here's the car, here's the stats,

here's what we like and don't like about it.

Yeah, I have I have high hopes.

Yeah, well, we'll have to come back and see what we thought about it

after they kind of kick out their first stuff.

All right, let's keep going.

So when I talk about the kind of ultimate save that

because I've only put like 20 you five or 30 miles on it.

OK, and it costs as much as down payment on my house

so we can tell whether that's worth it or not in a different.

So is it in the hundreds of thousands of dollars?

One oh eight. One oh eight.

That's most of it. Short wheelbase, short wheelbase, not an Excel.

OK, that's a great vehicle.

It's always a great vehicle.

I like the Yukon's and the Suburbance and stuff.

I have my problems.

I will have an escalade, though.

I hadn't had the escalade just leaves me flat.

It's like, this is so annoying.

You get in the Chevy or the GMC and look, OK, this is better.

Yeah, my.

My gut after driving it for a couple of days is.

You could spend 40 percent less and get the exact same experience.

The niceties that are added to it.

Yeah, don't take the price from sixty eight one oh eight

or even like a base Denali is eighty.

You know, this is a hundred and ten thousand dollar vehicle.

That's a crazy spread.

That is a great unit.

It doesn't cost them that much more to make it that nice.

You know, once upon a time, I set out to write an article about like what vehicle

has the biggest price delta between base and top trim, because I think I actually

own a challenger at the time, because the base challenger was like twenty seven.

You get a help cat for like help after like in the mid to high seventies.

But and I don't I don't know if it's pick ups either because a base.

Fifteen hundred is still like thirty five grand and fully option.

Yeah, you're in the nineties, but there's there's got to be something that has.

Bigger delta.

I think it's going to get it'll get skewed by all the high end stuff

because the price is already high.

And then as you start to add stuff, it just becomes talk.

But that's right.

Yeah, you have to you have to I got your sample set.

Just thinking about it, I got it.

Jeep Wrangler, two door base, stick shift, no option, no frill vehicles.

I think they're I think they just crested thirty.

I think they're thirty one or thirty two.

And you get a final edition three ninety two.

I think they're like one ten percentage wise.

Nothing's beaten that that's like until you talk like bespoke, you know,

especially horses.

I would say that like like Porsche is probably going to distort your numbers

a bit because as you start adding stuff to it, it just becomes really expensive.

That's fantastic.

Yeah, right.

Like nobody buys porches.

No, because I mean they sell a lot of vehicles, but I.

Yeah, what was that famous line?

Like, you know, nobody goes here.

It's it's too crowded.

It's too crowded.

Nobody goes here anymore.

Yeah, that's that's nine eleven world.

But yeah, I would say specifically the nine eleven.

Like the Macan is probably the highest volume Porsche, at least over the last decade.

And and they're the highest margin car brand based on, you know, profit margin, which.

That makes the I'm surprised that Ferrari or Lamborghini aren't higher, but yeah.

And Ferrari might be they're just going to tell you whatever they want you to know.

They don't want you to be sad.

Such a funny company.

You're a percent.

I don't know, man.

I I.

I'm back up and give the caveat of every automotive enthusiast.

If they don't love Ferrari appreciates Ferrari for no other reason than their influence

and their motorsports impact, I'm not a Ferrari guy.

And that has nothing to do with the amount of money that isn't in my bank account.

That's just not it's just not my shtick.

Well, I'm really about to go on a tangent here.

God, do I hope that was Hamilton and Kim Kardashian are in a couple?

Oh, boy, that would be catastrophic.

Oh, that's an interesting inch.

How did you get there from there?

I don't know, man.

That's just an F1.

Yeah, it hasn't been confirmed.

But there's been swirlings in the media that Lewis and Kim Kardashian are together.

And every time it comes into my brain, I just want to vomit because I love Lewis.

I love Lewis and I couldn't hate a family more than I hate the Kardashians.

Really?

I think you probably can.

They can try.

OK, yeah.

In American public media, there is no family

that contributes less for what they're worth.

Well, I mean, that's our that's our culture.

And that's government, Dan.

No, no, I'm it's it's our culture, our celebrity worship culture.

And it's actually more distilled in the UK.

It's it's way more concentrated over there with the celebrity stuff.

So right, which is why maybe that's part of my issue with like.

The really high end cars and stuff like that.

The most terrible people love these things.

And they're like, you know, they're like the high end watches and stuff like that.

None of this is productive or useful.

I can appreciate the machine.

Thank you for being a patron to the craft.

Right.

Thank you for keeping this going.

You're disgusting.

What kind of watch guy are you?

What are you? What are you?

I have a citizen E-car drive.

E-car drive, of course.

My wife got me when one of the kids when the first kid was going to be born.

That's the first watch I've ever had.

That will last the rest of your life.

Yep. Otherwise.

Cheap Timex.

Like, they're good.

They keep time.

And honestly, like, I love Timex.

I used to make some nice stuff here.

Timex is a Connecticut company.

They're the oldest American watch company.

And I used to meet my UPS guy in the Timex headquarters parking lot.

Every single day. Yeah, I love Timex.

I wish they made watches that were.

I wish they made a watch that I loved, but I love the company.

Yeah, it's funny.

We got, what is it?

It's Waltham up here is Watch City, because they were right on the Charles River.

The factory, the old factory was watches in the gauges in the

the Model T Ford's Model T's model is they said Waltham because that's who made the

instruments and they got screwed because the Waltham actually made the finest

pocket watches, more accurate.

You talk about Swiss watches.

Yeah. Waltham's better.

More accurate if the problem was fashion shifted to wristwatches

and the Swiss were better at miniaturization and all of the Swiss manufacturers

after getting their asses kicked by American mass production, they ganged up.

They formed the consortium.

They shared technology and they dominate now the wristwatch market.

But I can mass produce this pocket watches were better.

I cannot imagine rocking a pocket watch.

I mean, I think you're a particular kind of person if you do, especially

with the very obvious chain.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You look like the guy in Mad Max.

I can't think of this man, but he's got the thing and the monocle and yeah.

Also, and somebody like like our friend Todd from every day driver would say

everybody has a pocket watch.

It's a cell phone, which is true.

Yeah. And like, honestly, time is a construct.

It was invented by the robots.

So the trains didn't crash into each other and you could know when to show up.

I thought it was invented by like the mines and the Romans.

But OK, I mean, talk about it, but it's like a show.

You want to talk about trains?

There you go. Francis.

Come on. Exactly.

Great work. Let's do a crossover.

Our modern conception of time zones was developed by the robots.

The time zones and time keeping.

So like Eastern time, we're at Eastern time with the Sunriles over, you know,

Boston is earlier than it is on the western edge of Eastern time.

And so there's like a there's a delay across the time zones as well.

And it's sort of like all corrected for and stuff.

But by timekeeping with accuracy was a thing like how the ball drops in time square.

Like that's the only one we can think of now.

But those were everywhere.

Like that was sort of like your.

Yeah. So all of what you're doing and everything.

Trying to explain is why Robbie was sleeping when we were trying to play in the show today.

Right. Because we're nerds.

Because Robbie was sleeping because Robbie was at the time.

I mean, was he mountain time?

Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, the weirdest time zone that everybody forgets all the time.

Yeah, it's like every time I try to set up a phone call with my best friend,

I'm like trying to remember. Oh, yeah, Denver, two hours behind.

Not three, even though it feels like it's that far away.

It's only two.

Um, OK, we are way the fuck.

Look, if you're interested in time zones, go find the regular app episode.

It's fantastic.

Yeah.

If you're interested in time zones, reject daylight savings time.

OK, we should be on Atlantic time.

If we could get all the new states together, we could be.

Yeah. OK, I'm going to I'm going to move on.

Let's do like another 10.

And then we'll call it before we are way easier.

I want to talk about my truck, my Lexus.

Let's talk about my very, very fancy Toyota Prado.

So.

It's a 2018 GX460.

I know I've covered it on this show.

I've covered it on prior shows.

It's, you know, I've been on pictures, multiple, multiple.

I'm working on them, working on the pictures.

It's been on multiple media's outlets.

And, you know, I had three, four runners before I bought this.

And I was literally about to drive.

I was on my way to go look at a TRD Pro, a used TRD Pro four runner.

And when it sold and I ended up driving the GX, because I knew it was

effectively a fancy four runner and the rest is history.

That was four and a half years ago.

So it's it's been in my care longer than anything I've had since my first vehicle.

And the latest stage of this build, as as can be seen here in this

beautifully over exposed poser picture from our last wheeling trip is

it's it's been a conglomerate of things.

So the the first of them was suspension from Elka, which yeah.

Like so I first learned about Elka in like the I want to say the late 2000s.

They were doing ATV suspension, like really, really nice high end ATV suspension.

And I just like perpetually put off buying suspension for my quad at the time.

It never did.

So I didn't have first hand exposure with the brand.

And when the time came to do suspension on my GX, I did Ironman, which, you know,

they were a part partner on the project.

But Elka jumped in and has, you know, been a full partner on this for,

you know, since we started working on it last year.

And they are really starting to dabble in the the full size world.

So they're going from ATVs to SUVs and trucks and pickups and all that stuff.

Which you would think it's like a pretty linear jump, but there's a lot more

nuance to it. Yeah. A lot of that comes from,

you know, the incremental price difference between an off the shelf

product and something custom valved and custom tailored to your use

and your vehicle.

And that's kind of where Elka is playing.

And, you know, I've had it on on my GX for

five months or six months now.

And I don't put that many miles on it because, you know, I drive

press cars and I live local to everything I need to go to.

But I just like, you know,

the ability for a vehicle to feel

on pavement effectively as comfortable as it does stock and then

just as comfortable off road and, you know, still manage the,

you know, ideal amount of flex and and

articulation is it's mind blowing.

You know, that's the one from the world has grown up and like, you know,

my dad's YJ Wrangler, like this is a different planet.

And, you know, the Elka suspension,

there's always obviously room for improvement, you know,

the mounting points for the reservoirs on this suspension setup isn't perfect.

I don't expect that the Lexus GX 460 will be their biggest volume seller.

But, you know, there's only like five brands that sell

suspension for the GX and.

There's probably 30 that sell it for the forerunner,

but they're the same frame.

So there should be a little bit better of a place to put this stuff.

And yeah, it's it's amazing.

I have a friend who every time we go wheeling says like,

I cannot believe that truck went where it did with open front and rear diffs.

And it doesn't have lockers or the center diff lock.

And then it's just it just uses the brakes.

Yep. No, it doesn't even use the brakes because I turn traction control off

because I grew up driving a truck without traction control and without stability control.

And in the ATV world at the time, there was no traction and stability control.

So, you know, you can debate this up and down to the nth degree of the world.

But I like.

Probably to my own detriment, I like managing it.

So I turn everything off.

Yeah, no, I agree with that.

The fact that this truck can go where it does without front and rear lockers is

it's I mean, it's amazing.

And there are times when I have to pull much cable

because I, you know,

get in over my head and try to go places on 33s that guys on 35s have trouble with.

But that's the fun and wheeling.

And we should go wheeling.

We should.

Dude, come with.

I have a spot that that will be closer for you and Camille than it will be

for me that we can watch.

We can. Yeah, let's do it.

And it's got a real nice rocky climb where you can you can play

with your rear locker and see if I can get without it with it.

I brought the FX for for a reason.

That reason was that I had white leather tires.

But yeah.

Well, that place is probably under about a foot of snow right now.

So let's wait until the spring.

But yeah.

So I just wanted to I wanted to touch on this because the GX is

I think about selling it.

You regret it every six months, I think, about selling it.

And every six months, I don't.

And then do something like this with it and fall back in love.

And then just to close the loop,

Toyo also sent me tires, these RT trails, which have been awesome so far.

They're pizza cutters.

So they're 255 80s and you can see here, they don't love mud

because they're not a mud terrain, but they got me through places

in crappy conditions that I was shocked that like a.

So RT's are in the Venn diagram of all terrains and mud terrains.

The RT's, the rugged terrains live in that overlap.

And that's what these are.

And obviously they're not great on mud, but they're they're good on road.

They're good on rocks.

They're decent in mud.

And they kind of it's like trying to be everything to everybody.

And that's difficult for how did that sound when you got back on the.

Just like, oh, the tread.

When you get on the road after a day like this, you just you hear it everywhere.

Yeah.

Well, the narrow tire actually probably helps you out.

I mean, it helps in the snow too.

Yes, it focuses the vehicle and you get you cut down through it.

The first vehicle had quote unquote, skinnies or pizza cutters on

was my first 2005 400 and had 255 85 16s, which are like 34 by.

9.8 and I've kind of just always loved them that narrow aspect ratio since

because on the road, rolling resistance means that it it doesn't feel like stock.

But when you accelerate and you break it, you don't even though weight is still

a factor, there's not that much tire fighting friction.

And off road, yes, there's pros and cons and there's physically less lateral grip,

even though our friend Kai from Tinker's adventure goes into a whole thing about it.

It's effectively the same when all is said and done, but the pizza cutters are

lighter and they're a track bit around the road, more like stock.

Yeah, it's been a great setup and pro cop.

Shout out to them and wheel pros.

They shared my truck on their Instagram and some love.

So I can't open Instagram on my computer because I don't want my password.

So I'm not missing anything.

I know we should have all those guys come on the show at some point.

Because I think that's actually something that like wheeling.

We'll buy like offer things because we like the image, but then to actually use it,

like that's a high dollar subset.

And right now I'm looking at a bunch of like King of the Hammers stuff.

Oh, God, yeah, Hammers has been live this week.

They have an awesome YouTube feed.

Highly recommend it.

BFG, if you're listening, hit us up because we want to come do a show from there next year.

Yeah, that sounds good to do.

I used to have a contact at BFG.

I have one.

My name's Andrew.

I think Andrew might be listening and Dan and I want to do a show live from

from Hammers next year.

So let's let's make that happen.

And yeah, the last thing I want to talk about in the GX world.

And thank you for making my my little description here is also nerd.

Is we talked about this a while back on the on the show and I've had it in the

truck for like over six months now.

So I feel qualified to actually provide a full review of things.

Um, the stock 2018 2010 to 2021 Lexus GX460 has this like terrible eight inch

screen that you can't swipe on.

It's old school is old school touchscreen gets all the HVAC controls are through it.

It is infuriating.

It takes like two minutes to boot up when you start the truck.

So you can't change HVAC until the truck's two minutes into a start cycle.

Don't you also have like hard controls for the HVAC under the vents?

So this is the upgraded kit.

This is the this is the picture.

You're seeing here is the is the Hamilton.

They call it a carb like it, but it's really like a full center stack.

So that's what they do.

They like replacing.

So it replaces everything down to the CD player from there.

The whole thing is a replacement kit and they sent this to me and I was skeptical

because most people are a good portion of people don't have great experiences

with aftermarket infotainment systems.

Yeah.

And I had never really done or played with one that means you have to change

out like the temperature controls and the clock and all that stuff.

But the install was straightforward.

It took longer than it should have because I had to unfuck some of my own

stuff from a prior escapade.

But the Hamilton kit like it's dude, it is.

It looks like a factory 2023 GX460 minus the duplicity of the knobs

because you don't get a CD player in the later ones.

And it functions like, oh, yeah, you know, you can go back and toggle through

the stock like screens to change vehicle settings and all that stuff.

And listen to AM radio if you really want to.

And if you want to buy gold, that's where you go.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And yeah, in day to day life, like sometimes it takes a minute to boot up.

But the screen resolution is great.

It relocated the fan, you know, the vents from higher up in the dash to lower,

which I thought would be a pain in the ass and annoying, but it's been fine so far.

So it's like, what what does it indicate?

It's the screen.

It's the it's the whole whole thing all assembled.

And like the is it the tan behind it, too?

That goes, it's the whole thing to the dash.

The whole fitment, including like the material that mounts it to the dash.

The screens, the vents, the controls, the buttons.

It's it's a physical like 18 inch by, I don't know, probably 18 inch piece

that replaces the whole factory insert.

Yeah. And it.

Yeah, they sent it to me to test and review.

And and I think the retail price is like 1300 bucks, which.

It brings in the question of.

20 21 and prior GX's go for $10,000 less than 20 22 to 20 24 end of 460 model

on vehicles and the only difference whatsoever is the center stack.

So that's just the later model center stack that's been they gave it car play in 2022.

OK, but it's yeah, and it is the same vehicle.

I could say everything about it is the same.

They didn't change anything else.

So it's like, do you do you buy the earlier vehicle and spend 1500 bucks on this thing?

And yes, the answer is yes.

And that's if I didn't have the media connections, that's what I would have done.

Regardless.

And yeah, I mean, I.

There have been like a couple of hiccups and and their customer sport has been awesome.

I can't vouch for enough, you know, and I'm not one to shill things just for the sake

of shilling things.

But it's like 10 grand.

If you buy a 20 21 or 20 22, the difference is $10,000.

There's no mechanical difference.

There's no physical difference.

There's no interior difference other than this.

And yeah, it makes my truck feel like, you know,

I'm spoiled. I get all the press cars.

I get all the new tech getting into my truck made it feel like literally going back in time.

And now it feels like at least comparably modern.

Well, is that screen OLED?

I do know.

Yeah, no, that's that's just my biggest issue with screens.

It probably is.

But the OLEDs have true black because they're organic LEDs, so they don't need a backlight.

I don't know.

You can you can dim them better than like our four by year.

Our WL grand Cherokee has OLED on its nav screen.

And so you can get darker.

My Ranger has more traditional LCD or LED displays.

I can't even get the instrument panel as dim as I want it because it has a backlight.

So this this does dim very low with the is probably with the OEM dimmer

on the on the left side of the dashboard.

Everything integrates.

That's really nice.

This also has one of the the only time that I've ever seen this sort of a sob.

There's a button to the left of the temperature control you can see.

And I think I'm still sharing my screen.

Yeah, you are. Yeah.

Oh, shit.

But I obviously don't know how to use this.

You don't know how to use this.

But this button on the left here, this daytime nighttime button, if you push that button.

It shuts the all of the the screen turns off like the.

That's awesome.

It's like sob.

It's like that.

The only thing left is the dashboard and it's awesome.

And I have Cherokee has that, too.

It has a screen off button.

Doesn't it?

There's a lot.

Yeah, especially on the old, the new one does.

Yeah, yeah.

It's alright.

So like driving on long highway trips.

It's just like this bright ass thing and even dimmed all the way down.

So if you know we're going to screen off.

We already have the radio or podcast that you want to be listening to.

Yeah, happening.

And that that stuff's in the instrument panel, too.

So like I don't need it in four places.

Like you have.

Well, yeah, you have the gauge cluster stuff.

Yeah.

And the the Ranger, I have to go through like three menus because Ford.

It's very obtuse to shut off the screen.

So I love having the screen off button.

Yeah, it's like sometimes it's useful, but sometimes I just don't need it.

I pushed it by accident the first time I was like, wait a minute.

Oh, my God, I don't have to stay.

Like we do.

You and I both know we spend plenty of time looking at computers and phones.

So to have that option to just shut the thing off with one button.

And that's why we're contacts.

And yeah, to be able to just say bye-bye.

And I don't need you right now.

It's awesome.

So it's the best thing ever.

Too much light in the cabin is like I shut off all the ambient light.

Camille complains about this.

He's like, I would get press cars after you and all that stuff would be off.

I couldn't see anything.

The gauges would be damn.

I was like, I couldn't get in the dark with the press cars.

Yeah, you're welcome.

So I shut all that crap off.

And if you want it, you can have it, but why do you need more light in the interior?

It's just going to make it hard for you to see out.

We need less light.

We need less light pollution.

Say that as somebody who lives in.

Point of course, yeah.

So do you.

OK, let's let's call the game.

Yeah, let's wrap it up.

This would be I mean, we're recording the 5th of February.

It's probably not going to come out till I don't know, whatever, the 12th or something.

That's OK. Next week.

Whatever you had to do.

And then this would be the show.

Nobody's probably listening anymore because we've been going for a while,

but next show after this one is going to be a good one.

I think the one.

Yeah, I don't know what in between because we've got to do the recording anyway.

Still, yeah, we got good shit coming.

Speaking of kicking that.

Yeah, all right, cool.

Thank you for for hanging in with us.

If you're still in with us, like, subscribe, all of those things.

We do have a problem with the feed, which I'm going to try to fix.

We might just have to create a new feed.

And so.

But yeah, thank you for listening to Nerd and Fellow, also nerd.

Also nerd. Yeah.

All right, thanks everybody.

Well, thanks everyone.

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70:01

Electric Porch-A

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