In a world with entirely too many shows about cars, this is another Pointless Automotive Podcast.
Hey, Ian.
Hey, Ian.
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
Ooh.
Wow.
The noises of a podcast.
The noises of a podcast.
Mmm.
Is there, I mean, help me out here.
Is there such thing as podcast ASMR or are all podcast by definition ASMR or like if we like
fuzzied the mic and like popped peas and like did like really gross mouth noises and just
like got like really into it, you know, like eating like an overripe peach into the mic.
And I don't mean that as a euphemism.
I mean, like actually eating a delicious stone fruit.
Uh-huh.
Like do you like, I don't know, maybe there's maybe there's something here.
The only questionable thing I just saw was how you eat a peach.
For those of you who can see the video, he was kind of just grinding what looks
like a softball sized object into his face.
Give the peaches what they want.
Okay.
There's billions of them, you know.
Yeah.
Put there in a can by a man.
I know where that factor is.
Yeah.
That's right.
That's the one.
Yeah.
How, how are you?
Have you devoured any delicious stone fruit lately?
No, not really, uh, admittedly, uh, and sadly, no, no, I'm more of a, I'm more of a plum
over peaches guy.
Let's tell you the truth.
Ooh.
How about peach versus nectarine?
I mean, it's pretty close compare.
Yeah.
I still take a peach.
I'll take a peach over that for sure.
Yeah.
For some reason, like peach in my mind and, and, and thanks, thank you everyone for tuning
into the stone fruit hour.
Um, peaches are like an kind of any time of the year kind of thing.
A nectarine for some reason is like specifically spring, summer, and I don't even know if that's
one to ripe, but like in my mind that feels, I think that tracks, I think stone fruits
usually the beginning right before summer kicks off.
Yeah.
If I remember correctly.
It's like late April, early May kind of deal.
Yeah.
So interesting, man.
That's weird.
How you, why are you going to typecast your stone fruit to you?
That's the big question.
I know.
And then if you want to get really crazy, you grill, you grill your stone fruit.
You ever, you ever do that?
No, dude, we're going to get canceled if you put like, and then you put like some
sort of like cream base, like a burrata on top of it or something and some cracked
pepper, a little olive oil.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Just, just, and then you eat it loudly and sloppily into a microphone on a
box.
You grind it upon your face like you did earlier.
Exactly.
With your demonstration.
Got it.
Yes.
Yes.
Cool.
Anyways, what's new?
Should we talk about car things?
We should probably steer it in that direction, I think so.
So I've got a listener, an unusual listener request that we're going to do.
We do listen to the people.
Even in this case, if the people doesn't listen to us.
So I've got a friend of mine, Mario, if you're out there, yeah, regular in real
life, super in your hearts.
But he, what's interesting is, he doesn't really listen to the podcast yet.
He'll like occasionally be like, oh, you guys should talk about this on the
podcast.
I'm like, oh, you mean the one you don't listen to?
Right.
And so he wanted, he was just like, oh, you guys should do, you know, like
a saving Nissan.
I was like, what we've, we've sort of talked about it a little bit, right?
Sure.
I haven't done a formal saving Nissan edition of the pod.
We've discussed the downfall and failures of infinity.
And we've talked about the Z cars when the new Z launched, which God, has our pod
been around that long?
Right?
We've new Z launched and we talked about it.
We're putting some years on, man.
I know that thing is old.
So yeah, I think that's, that's what we're going to do.
We're going to satiate listeners who aren't even listeners.
That's how.
That's how good we are.
That's how strong our reach is.
Exactly.
Yeah, we're omnipotent.
Um, so why don't we do, why don't we do that?
Say impotent.
Omni impotent.
Yes.
Oh, we're limp for everything.
We're so fucking limp.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
It's just forever limp.
So baby, I'm so flaccid right now.
God, I couldn't be any more flaccid.
Um, yeah.
Just like weeping because you, you, you can't get it soft.
Oh, I'm sorry, babe.
I can't even, I can't even.
We can't stop.
I can't even maintain a not erection.
Um,
See, this is stuff we gotta say.
We gotta say for the after dark episode.
Right.
Spoilers.
Yeah, I know we're given the best stuff out for free.
What we should actually give out for free is our opinions on how each of us maybe
could co-operative co-operatively.
I'm trying to speak words today.
Collaboratively.
That thing.
Yeah, it's going for it.
It's, you know what I'm drinking today?
Topo Chico.
It's just like bubbly sparkle water.
I'm, I'm, maybe that's it.
Maybe I'm not, I'm not nearly buzzed enough.
Anyways, how, how, how are we saving Nissan?
It's taking us like 10 minutes just at this point.
How are we saving Nissan?
Yeah, too long.
PLDR, this episode is about us saving Nissan.
We did save Infiniti, so Nissan's upper crusty class cousin, if you will.
I think Nissan, I think we all can agree that Nissan's a fantastic, not now, but
Nissan historically is a fantastic automaker.
Some absolute gems in some periods, they absolutely killed it.
They killed it.
One of the, one of the more memorable brands I'd say from the late 80s, early
90s era, for sure.
I think that's when they were probably firing at their best.
They've had, you know, shining moments before then, some after, but I think that
was their kind of heyday, to be honest, if I was going to break it down.
Today, horrible.
It's, it's, it's absolutely, it's, it's so sad, the state of the company.
What do you think, today's Nissan, what do you think is their most potent?
Or impotent, incidentally, where Limp is now good in our universe here.
Yeah, hell yeah.
What is their otherwise best product right now?
Well, like, what do you think, if you had to pick a single product of theirs,
if you, if they have product, I mean, does anyone really know?
But like, what do you, what do you think is their best product right now?
Low and, what is it?
Low and lazy always wins.
But no, best, best product, it's got to be, it's got to be their CVT
transmission, my friend.
It can't be, can't be any worse than their old one.
I still see paper plates on Centra as an ultimus, so they're still pushing
it, somehow, I'd probably say like a rogue or something to that effect.
It's probably one of their, their best sellers without looking at numbers.
That's just a, that's just a take from the heart.
Yeah, I mean, like, what do you think is it, like, if you were to pick
out a product like, oh, that's actually almost competent as a hundred percent
of Z, a hundred, and I would enjoy it.
I know I would enjoy that car.
Yeah, yeah, but that's not, that's, they're not selling those.
I feel like the current Centra, which I think is, it's been out for a minute
now, pretty decent.
I think it's actually an okay car.
For what it is, which is, you know, no one else will sell you a new car.
And whatever your parole officer or somebody like demands you have a new car,
you can't get a used car.
I don't know.
There's some scenario where you have to get a brand new car, dude.
And we, we had one as a, yeah, we had one as a rental in Hawaii.
And that was, it was more than capable.
Good little, it's like 72% of all Centra sales.
Yeah, right.
They're all rental flights, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, I thought it was pretty, pretty nice little car.
They look, they look nice.
Interior is cheap as all shit.
But yeah, no, right now I don't think the company's doing too well.
And I think it's pretty bad when they bring us in, right?
They task us with bringing it back from the dead.
You know, I know, especially since we actually charge a lot for our consulting here.
That's the only reason the podcast days afloat is, is for our consulting piece.
We don't need sponsorship.
I don't know.
Unless you got something, Holler.
You know what I, you know what I forgot, you know what technically is still not dead
somehow, the GTR.
Isn't that wild?
Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's, it's been, it's been like the, what the last challenger and charger
where it's been the last call, final edition.
We're going to sell it for one more year, red eye, brown eye edition.
And they just like, keep stretching it out like goat's the edition and it just, it won't die.
Oh, would you now, that's a good one.
Would you take a GTR or a Z?
Do I have to pay for it?
No.
Money is no object.
Yeah, but which one would you enjoy more?
Think about it for a while.
Obviously you can't get a manual with the GTR.
Right.
GTR is like stupid fast, but also just kind of stupid at this point.
I do like the way the new one looks.
They've got the whatever fancy special green color, heritage green or whatever it's called.
It's like a, and they've really jazzed up the interior to try and make it
because it's like 140k.
Yeah, like not.
Dude, they started at like 65 and now they're more than double.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks, Obama.
But like, I don't know, maybe the Z performance package.
And I know they just announced the Nismo is finally going to be available with a manual.
Yeah, that's 420.
Got a minute.
419 got a minute, right?
But no, 420 horsepower.
I think it is the, I don't know.
I'm just scratching, scratching numbers out of thin air.
But I think the Z is something I'd probably want more to like enjoy.
As it currently is until, you know, even without the Nismo package,
I think I want to roll my own in that car.
I do think the Z is their best product.
But and I think it's been an abject failure.
I think there's no doubt it's failed in the marketplace.
Whether you think the car itself, the product itself is good or not.
How it's done and how well it's done in the marketplace has been brutally bad.
And I don't think it's fault of the car.
No, original NSX, same thing.
Well, I think the difference is if you wanted an original NSX,
you can walk into an Acura dealership, have a decent to good experience
and buy one for probably around sticker when that car was new.
When the new Z launched, A, there was limited supply
because of supply chain constraints because of the end of COVID.
Yeah.
And you had to deal with a fucking Nissan dealership.
But that's a byproduct of the times.
Yeah.
But the Nissan dealership experience was always been bad.
It's still bad.
It was the only competent product they had.
And it was the only product that brought in people
with actually decent credit scores and money.
And so every one of those had like a 50% ADM on top.
Don't get but hurt when you have to bring your Z in for like regular maintenance
and they give you a Versa as your loaner car.
Right.
We're not even that stupid.
And you go to try and buy it and they're like, oh, these are special.
Like we wouldn't even let it.
He would test drive it.
Yeah, the MSRP is whatever, 48.
But we're going to ask 68, 69.99 plus hit you up for perma plate
and low jack and a bunch of bullshit.
And you just can't, you can't get into the car.
So then you go down the street and you get a Supra,
which is more powerful for the same money or cheaper.
I'll take a Z.
Yeah.
It's still going to Z, baby.
I like it.
You don't see them.
I see like one a quarter.
Every once in a while, yeah.
Yeah.
Which is, it's a shame.
So how else, what would you, what would you do to save?
Would you, what's in your, I'm going to lay out, I'm going to lay out my plan.
It's easy.
Nissan listen.
Flop it onto the table, my friend.
Take this plan, put it in the musical instrument box,
have a special forces guy help you guide it back into the plan
to the dealership headquarters.
We're going to talk about it right now.
Dude, four vehicles.
We're going to start off small.
And I think, I think it's what we need to do.
I think we need to narrow it back down.
Sentra and like the funny thing about the Sentra Ultima,
remember when they had Sentra Ultima Maxima
and each one of those was clearly a different vehicle class.
Like, yeah, so easy to tell.
Now the new Sentra is way bigger than the old Maxima used to be.
And the ultimate is like massive.
If you look at it compared to like a first gen Ultima.
So let's just, let's just have one,
let's just have like two sizes that are very different.
I miss, I think the Maxima was a great car.
I think the Maxima and its time sold very well was well received.
It was the, you know, it was a, what the four door sports car
originally even had a little badge that denoted that.
So we're going to stick with the Sentra and Maxima
for our sedans because we're still living sedan life.
I don't care about crossover city.
We'll get into that in a little bit.
So you're murdering, you're getting rid of big Ultima energy.
Yeah, we don't need a middleman.
We don't need a middleman.
The Sentra's big enough now, right?
No one looks at a modern sized Sentra and says,
boy, that's really a, that's a real small compact you got there.
It's not, it's plenty room.
Yeah.
So, but I am, I am bringing back some excitement.
I want the return of the SCR badge.
Sure.
And that shouldn't be a surprise coming from me.
I love, I love little sporty Econa boxes,
little front wheel drive, high revving SR20.
I don't know if that's coming back, right?
Right.
But something similar.
I want to keep it NA.
I know like it's, it's contemporary competition was like the Honda Civic.
All the sporty Civics are turbo now, right?
Whether it be a Sport SI or Type R,
which we're not going after obviously,
but I keep it manual NA, high revving,
just think of a cheaper Civic SI fighter.
And, but also the Sentra itself make a little more sporty, right?
Even the base model back in the day,
like the B13 base model Sentras were pretty decent cars.
Like they weren't, they weren't wallowy messes.
They were pretty tight.
Those cars just went out of production like five years ago in Mexico.
Right.
Exactly.
The Suru.
But no, keep that, bring it back.
The way it used to be.
So kind of take that, because the Sentra right now is nothing special.
I think the last special Sentra we got was the Nismo.
Do you remember that guy from like 2019, 2020 with a turbo?
The turbo.
But good lord it.
It was just kind of neutered and it wasn't super exciting.
The suspension wasn't that great.
Still had the CVT, right?
No, you could get a Manuel.
Okay.
Yeah.
And that was the only saving grace,
but apparently the engine was pretty anemic.
There was nothing cool about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that was the last, and that was, yeah, we're talking five years now at this time.
The Sentra doesn't have anything super exciting.
So bring that back.
I also want the four door sports car to come back.
I want the maximum to come back, but I want to mix it up a little bit.
What were the original Maximas?
What kind of advantage did they have over?
No, what did they have?
The advantage over the following Maximas.
The drivetrain baby, rear wheel drive.
We're bringing it back.
OG, OG.
Yeah.
We're going OG.
Because Infinity has plenty of rear wheel drive sedan platforms they can borrow from.
So the cost savings are there.
Let's talk to the bean counters a little bit.
I want to do this.
I want to drop that Z engine in a maximum.
So it's kind of like the Red Sport.
Yeah.
We'll make it more affordable, right?
We'll focus on handling.
I think that Red Sport wasn't a super handler.
I think that was the biggest criticism that car got,
was that the engine is plenty of power.
400 horsepower, no one complains.
But I don't think it handled like a sporty car.
And I'm being careful because it's not a sports car.
So the aspirations were a sporty car.
And it wasn't even hitting that.
It wasn't a sports car.
Come on.
Yeah.
So the Maximas can do that.
So we're borrowing the rear wheel drive architecture, handling, performance.
I want to drop a manual in that, which is something that they didn't do.
Right.
And I think that's cool.
I think we bring the SCR badge on that too.
Remember the SCR?
Yeah.
We had the Ultima, but the Maximas never really got an SCR version.
Yeah.
So maybe we see.
Yep.
Maybe we do an SCR version with that 400 horsepower motor.
Drop the manual in there.
I think that'd be kind of fun.
Rear wheel drive in this parking place with a Nissan badge.
I think that could get a lot of people excited to tell you the truth.
And then even without that motor, put a nice stout, whatever,
Infinity V6 is running.
Keep it rear wheel drive.
So it kind of goes a little upmarket even.
I kind of like that.
But keep it not focused on, I don't think anyone's ever called a maxima opulent,
but don't focus on any luxury aspect.
Let's focus on sporty stuff and just keep it down to earth and sharp looks.
We'll redesign it, make it look nice.
Cool.
So this is my two sedans.
That's your sedans.
The other two, super easy.
A truck we've been talking about, the Pathfinder.
Yeah.
We need a Pathfinder.
We need a real Pathfinder, my friend.
A budget off-roader, which the original Pathfinder was positioned in the market to always be,
because it battled with the four runner did pretty good.
At the time, the market was pretty hard.
As Susie had like the rodeo and trooper, there was a lot of competition in that space.
Bring it back.
I want to make it like similar designs.
I want the three spoke wheels.
I want the cool little triangle window.
I want all the things we like about that truck, even a manual,
but more stripped down, more actual off-roading and borrow from like kind of the Bronco
playbook with the retro styling.
Sure.
I think this market would do well with something like that.
And that's a good batch to take back.
So I think Pathfinder is a recognized model.
So I think that would do pretty well.
And then here it is, baby.
Armada.
We're going for the three-row, kind of have a three.
Everybody's into big trucks again, right?
Dogs like trucks.
Yeah, and they love armadas.
The armada has been pretty rough for a while.
They're not good looking, dude.
And it's infinity counterpart.
When I see him, it's just like probably one of the uglier big vehicles on the road.
Yeah.
The original QX-56 might be the ugliest car ever produced.
Horrible.
SUV anyways.
It's horrible.
It's in the newer ones.
You know the second hand was brutal.
They're all bad.
Ugly vehicles.
That big chrome thing in front of like under the mirror.
Absolutely atrocious.
Yeah.
It's like a auto-zoned gluer on.
The weirdly shaped word glass situation.
Yeah.
Horrible truck.
So the early ones were pretty cool.
The armada, I'm saying.
Yeah, the armada way more than the QX.
Yeah.
Bring back the armada.
I say we do the boxy styling still.
Kind of borrow from that again, but just kind of reinvent that name.
Because I think armada is a damn cool name.
So I say we rock that.
It's like a deeply discounted Lexus GX at this point.
And then we just, you know, three-row.
It doesn't, I want to make it a little more off-road capable.
I hate like the faux off-road truck thing.
So we keep it honest.
Obviously it's downmarket from the Lexus.
But just to bring some of that three-row authentic off-road capable,
but still cool-looking truck.
So the market wants it.
Let's give it to them.
So we have our layout.
That's all I got, man.
I got four vehicles.
And that's how I bring Nissan back.
All right.
From beyond the gray.
Simple.
And I think, you know, the glaring omission is a sports car.
I think the Z needs to-
Are you keeping the Z or are you burying it?
I like the Z.
I didn't want to move the Z.
But I think we need to do something different with it.
I think it didn't deliver on everything we thought it was going to be.
Right.
And I think the original 240Z was probably the actual sports car
of the entire Z history.
Right.
The rest were kind of grand tours.
Sure.
But they had some sporty moments.
I think the Z32 twin-turbo was actually a pretty good sports car.
Yeah.
It was a pretty good blend between a GT and a sports car.
Right.
It was a little shorter, right?
The 2 plus 2 was obviously the GT variant.
But like-
Huge power bump over the previous Z31, right?
And two-seater.
Yep.
Kind of pure.
Kind of pure.
T-tops.
I think we do the Z, but I don't know, man.
We got to do something to spice that up a little bit.
Like either cut some weight out or do something to it.
Cut the price.
Find a way to make that thing cheap, you know?
And make it an actual approachable sports car.
But the Z name still applies because the Zs were always a great deal.
Like from a financial perspective.
Like if you're looking to buy a sports car,
Nissan always had you covered, right?
It wasn't the fact-
It was never the fastest.
Except for that Z32 was pretty quick when it came out.
But the Zs were always just that great sports car
that didn't break the bank.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's funny that you mentioned that.
Find a way to make it cheaper.
Because I think that's, for me, if I got to be given a magic wand and wave it
and everything is implemented for the 2026 model year,
I think that's the main change I do to the Z.
Is it stays the course, but you have to find a way to get your dealership network
to chill the fuck out and be like,
okay, you put ADMs on these Zs and you get penalized.
You're no longer able to qualify for Nissan financing or whatever.
I don't know what teeth Nissan of North America has,
but if they can figure out a way to be like,
hey, we have Zs in stock and we're not cranking the price up
and we're making the dealer sell them at or under MSRP and not add a bunch of horseshit
you know, add-ons and then market the car a little bit.
I think it could be viable.
I think you're right there.
Although my approach is like, don't cheapen the car,
just slap the shit out of these dealers.
Yeah, I think it could be cheapened though.
I think we could take a lot of the tech out of it.
I think we could pare it down a little bit.
I'd like to think that we can, but I think buyers won't.
Yeah, I'm not talking, well, it's just two seat sports car, right?
I know, but we don't, and we like that, but we're also not buying new cars.
We love that, but no one that's buying that car is like,
I need my daily commute grind vehicle.
I'm not going to Nissan and buying a Z, right?
Like it's, and it's terribly, it's terribly not a good fit for the commuter, right?
Like it has like not the best storage space.
It's probably ergonomically challenged to almost every respect.
I mean, you got it.
Yeah, you the only, in my opinion, the only hope for that car is
that you try and have it do everything the Supra does at a 25% discount.
Yeah, so it may be at 75% of the car that the current Supra is.
And I don't love, love the current Supra, the Supra.
But if it can be a cool thing and you're buying it from a competent dealership,
instead of one who's M-O to try and pick your pocket the moment you walk in,
because they assume you're buying a clapped Ultima.
And I do think the other biggest thing that'll help the Z is, are you there?
Yeah, I'm here.
Your face froze with an O face, which doesn't bother me in the least.
And it's frozen on my end with an O face.
Is it still frozen on your end or no?
Yeah, you're frozen, bro.
Should we just go with the frozen and see if I unfreeze?
As long as the audio is good.
Okay, well, this is fun.
Yeah, okay.
Anywho, and that was distracting because O face me is staring back at me
and I don't know what to think about it.
Oh, you're locked on your own screen?
Yeah, even on my screen, I'm locked.
That's what I don't understand.
Anyways, this is all fun.
Yeah, welcome to the wild world of podcasting.
Tell someone to hang up the phone at your house.
They're using all the bandwidth.
Yeah, my 28.8 modem just can't hang.
So should I just dive into my case here or should we take a break
and try and fix the brokenness just in case it stops?
I am getting good audio.
Okay.
I don't know how we maybe click your video on and off.
I don't know what happens.
Oh, can you even interact with your screen or is it?
Yeah, I can.
No, it's just let me.
Let me.
What if I do this?
Yeah, troubleshooting live.
Can I turn it off?
Let's see.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, that's off.
Let me turn it back on.
Oh, hold on.
Start video.
That's what I want to do.
Oh, we might have lost you indefinitely.
Oh, nope.
Oh, see, we just had to restart it.
Let's go.
Let's fucking go.
Anyways, this is going to be a very interesting episode.
Like I work in the tech industry or something.
I know.
Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?
Actually worked.
Yeah, hey.
So, okay, no, I like your approach.
What's funny is there's a lot of the approach is similar
or frankly, the same.
Just I have in my mind, I've got some different angles.
First off, what you kind of hinted at but didn't outright say
is I think one of the biggest steps to save Nissan.
And I say this as just a few days ago, Nissan announced that they are
axing their entire North American and South American design centers,
which includes their design center in San Diego,
which has been there since I think like the early 90s.
Like I think a lot of stuff came out of that design center.
I think the 350Z came out of that design center.
I believe the, I don't know, the Cube sounds like that was made in Japan.
But yeah, it's like it's a very, you know, it'd be like if Toyota
axed Calty down in SoCal in their design center.
So it's kind of a big deal.
And in my mind, I think they would be better served firing something else.
And that's they should just murder Infinity, kill Infinity.
Yeah.
They have all that money.
And instead, what you do is you make a couple of more upmarket Nissan offerings.
And that's where I agree with you with regards to the Maxima,
where not that there's a huge amount of money in a flagship sedan right now,
but where Infinity was at its best is when they were making the G35 and G37 sedans
and Coupes, but really the bread and butter for them was a sedan.
And the G20s, sure.
And so I think if you just eliminate all of Infinity,
which is just selling a bunch of crossovers that are indistinguishable from one another,
like, there's no reason for anyone to walk into an Infinity dealership today.
None other than getting something deeply, deeply, deeply discounted.
So you might as well have that be something in a Nissan dealership.
And oh, no, we have to sacrifice the one
Infinity dealership in the Tri-County area, whatever.
I don't know, buy them out and fucking figure it out.
You've got money from closing your design tenor.
So you utilize the savings, but I think you get rid of Infinity.
You do bring back an Infinity G35, 37 equivalent in the Maxima,
which is largely what you were advocating for.
So you've got a slightly more upmarket offering almost to like when
like Hyundai launched the original Genesis, right?
And that was their upmarket.
Like, wow, look what Hyundai can do for you.
Look at this awesome thing.
And you kind of bring a little extra cash aid to the brand.
The diesel has no cash aid, right?
Yeah, the Genesis 50R spec.
Yeah, hell yeah.
The Tau V8.
And so, yeah, so whether you make it, you know, rear-wheel drive and or all-wheel drive,
you know, you recycle the transmission and powertrain offerings out of the Z.
As old as all that shit is, like it's still usable.
My thought is you're a dying brand.
There's hemorrhaging money.
You're not going to...
Okay, let me put it this way.
Do you follow hockey?
I do.
Who's your team?
I know you grew up on the East Coast.
Bruins, my friend.
Oh, Bruins Coward.
They've been so horrible with the best season ever two years ago.
Yeah.
Or shit.
Tim Thomas is a clown.
The Sharks Baby.
Anyways, there's a famous clip of one of, if not maybe my favorite San Jose shark of all time.
Mr. Joe Pavelski himself.
Have this little Joe where they were down a few points and fighting for a playoff space.
And they got down like three nothing after the first intermission.
Right?
And he's in there, like everyone's all downtrodden in the locker room.
And there's a filming in there.
And he's going around to the locker room and he's just like, we're in a playoff push.
You can't take a shift off.
Like, and he keeps yelling soft shit doesn't work in the playoffs.
Like you have to, like this is crunch time.
Our backs against the wall.
This is basically a playoff game for us.
Right? Our chips are down.
Soft shit doesn't win in the playoffs.
Let's go.
You have to take chances.
And that's what I think Nissan is at.
Their back is against the wall.
They've got a bunch of shit that they can lean on with their heritage.
Now they just killed their design studio.
So maybe it'll be harder for them to take design chances.
But I think they have to.
They need to capitalize on what Honda has not been doing.
We talked about Honda a little bit ago and how they just refuse to take chances.
They're just mailing it in.
They say like they're going to take a chance.
We're relaunching the RSX.
And then it's a fucking crossover that no one cares about.
And so I think if Nissan does take the chance.
They don't have a choice at this point.
Right? They have to kind of shoot the moon.
And so I think if they make a somewhat aggressively styled.
Even if you're recycling powertrain from the Z.
And you have a rear drive sports sedan.
It will be the only one coming out of Japan.
You use that as your upmarket offering.
I think you keep the Ultima being the Ultima.
And getting you some bullshit basic level.
Sure.
Servicing your existing customer who oops.
My 2018 Ultima blew up because I ran it out of oil because I'm an Ultima owner.
And then they come in and they.
Oh, let me just get the new Ultima.
It's still like 10% cheaper than the rest of the competition.
And it's been refreshed and it's functional.
Great. I'm leaving the Ultima alone.
I like as much as I said earlier that the center.
I think is a is a is a decent offering actually.
It's a little long in a tooth.
I think they're redoing it now ish.
I don't know. I don't keep up on Sentra news.
But I think the brand name of Sentra.
Has no cache.
Has no brand value at all.
In fact, it's almost it's almost a negative value.
So I think you again in in in the theory of taking taking some chances.
You redo the Ultima.
You aggressively style it.
And I want to bring back the 510.
Yes, it was a Dotson, but everyone knows what it really is.
And do you remember?
God, what was it 10 years ago?
I want to say they had there was like a 510 concept car that they put out.
It was like a con compact kind of boxy blackout front.
We all knew in our hearts of hearts that they weren't going to make that thing.
I know.
Got it was cool.
It was cool.
But like imagine one of those now to be defunct design studios, but yeah.
Correct.
Yo, I promise you, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Watch was our boy, Brian Nesbitt, who actually designed it.
So here's the thing.
I think you.
Oh, did I freeze again?
Damn it.
Okay, let's try this again.
Hold up.
We'll do this in real time.
I'm really good at it now.
Thanks.
Fantastic listening.
Wonderful.
So 510, you bring back the 510.
Like it.
And my thought is, you know, when the, you know, I guess it was what they originally
called the 86 or GT 86 or FT, it was the FT 86.
When the Scion FT 86.
FRS.
Was it FRS?
Yeah.
See, it's had like 11,000 names.
Who the fuck cares?
Scion even, whatever.
Dead brain.
But if you have like, that was a successful callback to a cheaper, lightweight, rear drive,
entry level sports car.
And it was successful.
Now it hasn't sold in huge droves, but it's been successful and splashy.
Yep.
And they tried to make that be like the halo car for your entry level offering, which
was Scion at the time, which, you know, you weren't going to save Scion.
And they just think of like the matrix or some bullshit.
No.
So Scion's dead.
No one, no one wept.
But that model lives on.
And so I think if you kind of take that same thought of saying we're going to
make an exciting, inexpensive entry level car.
And it's going to be our center of replacement, right?
It's going to be a sedan.
I'm not going to make a two door.
I don't care.
I'm just doing this to like, how do I, how do I have a, an exciting
entry level?
Yeah.
Cause there kind of aren't any anymore.
What's the most exciting entry, like four door entry level daily?
Oh boy.
And by entry level, I mean, you know, starting at 20, call it 26,
which is there's like no cars right now.
Nothing, nothing competes in that market.
Yeah.
But like maybe 30, you can't get a GTI that low.
It just doesn't have to be.
Yeah.
It's probably it.
And you only need that amount of power, right?
Or civic SI even.
And so, but I want it to be a little smaller than that.
Cause you said it, like these cars have all gotten to God damn big.
So I want it to be a little smaller.
I want it to be aggressively boxy styled.
I want a wagon variant.
Right.
Even if it's basically a four door hatch, you call it the wagon.
Now it's a wagon.
Right.
And if it's styled right and it's price right and you call it the
five 10, maybe you can include the, right?
The five 10.
Um, I think that would do, I think that would be, it would
absolutely be a, a fucking flag plant by Nissan.
Be like, we have our heritage.
You even do like an old red, white, blue, like heritage
livery for some special edition shit.
Um, that's what, so I was just thinking, like, what if they
did a heritage edition?
You could slap a dots and badge on it from the, from the factory.
Yeah.
How cool would that be?
Yeah.
Or even just like, you know, like, like a blue and white two
tone with like red hockey stripes down the side or
something like that.
Um, again, like taking, taking chances.
Um, and leaning on their heritage cause they've got
nothing else left.
There's nothing else for them to lean on.
They don't have the money to do this huge development stuff.
And I think if you're, if you have an okay dealer network
and you have kick ass styling and good and decent pricing,
like, as long as it like meets cafe, which apparently
doesn't matter anymore.
Fuck it.
We ball like just like nobody's going to care.
We're like, oh man, they just reuse this engine for like
idiots.
Like you and I might care, but the market won't care.
Yeah.
So I think just do it.
Styling rules a day.
Um, yeah, I do like, I do like,
I do like bringing, they have to get back into the proper
off road game.
Mandatory.
Um, I think you keep this, I think you keep the pathfinder.
I think the pathfinder has gone too far down the path of softness.
So I think you, you have to keep a, you kill the rogue.
The rogue is a piece of garbage.
Nobody likes a rogue.
Um, the rogue has gone rogue.
Let it die in the desert.
And you, you keep the, you know, whether it's a two row or two
and a half row SUV as a pathfinder, unibody, but you do bring
back a frontier based X Terra as your butch off road offering.
And I, I think the X Terra is like classic quote unquote
enough at this point, it's been out of production long
enough and that second gen was in production well beyond
its shelf life to where people, you say X Terra, people might
even think about the original version more now.
Um, and so you, you, yeah, you capitalize on that.
You're like, you know, however you want to market it, you
market it aggressive, you style it aggressive.
Um, it's funny.
We think of the forerunner is this like kind of conservative
thing, but if you look at the styling of a new forerunner
it's pretty fucking aggressive.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And I think you need to match.
You kind of need to match that energy.
You, you have a lot of throwback styling to the original one
with like big plastic fender flares and, um, and you've
got the first aid kit bump on the rear gate and you have a
roof rack with like the bump on the roof, you know, almost
like an old disco, like the original X stadium stadium
seating.
Yeah.
And, and yeah, you make a, you bet, you basically make a,
a true forerunner competitor like the X taro was.
Hmm.
Um, and you part share with, with the, the current
frontier, which is, I think it's falling victim more to
more so like, here's my thought.
I think it's a decent product.
I've never spent time in one.
They seem okay.
They do look, they look nice too.
I think the new frontiers look pretty nice.
Like the pro four X's look pretty sharp.
Yeah.
I think they don't, I don't think, I don't think they sell
all that well because, because they don't head sub
because they have Nissan Edge.
That's right.
And Nissan has such a bad rep, but if you can make some
splashy offerings, like the five 10 and, you know, you
kill off infinity and bring it in house, the Maxima
and maybe you have, you know, a fancier option three
row and whether you call it the Armada, I don't
love the Armada name.
I'd like to like something, bring something out.
Maybe, I don't know if you bring a name out of
retirement, like what are you going to, the quest?
Like what the fuck are you going to call it?
The Cedric.
And yeah.
And then, and then kind of go from there, right?
Like if you find some traction with that, then
yeah, maybe you make a two door five 10, right?
Or you keep, you'd have that same chassis and
you, you, you make a different bodied coupe
based on the same mechanics and you call it
the 240SX or you just call it the Sylvia, right?
Enough kids have played video games that like
they'll know what that car is.
They'll want to buy that car.
Right.
But they have to take chances.
They have, they have to take some, you got
to swing for the fence.
Soft shit doesn't work in the playoffs.
Dude, I haven't had a solid bowel movement
in a decade.
I hear you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the, the, the bathroom playoffs.
Always win that game.
Let me, let me do this again.
Apparently this is my life now.
Exactly.
No, I like it.
I like your takeaway is taking risks.
Mine is going back to when the car company
was actually successful.
I think, I think truthfully they have to,
I think they have to drink from both of those
Kool-Aid punch bowls to make something happen
here because literally treading, they've been
treading water for, I don't know,
what feels like probably at least 15 years.
Yeah.
As a brand, they've kind of just been
just going through the motions.
They need to get excited.
They didn't get excited about their products.
They need to make us excited about their products
again because that's what counts.
I like what you did there.
I think the X-Tera is a good one,
but I just can't let Pathfinder go.
I think we need to be like, and when it returns
be like, guess who found their path again.
And it comes back with that retro styling.
I just, I don't know.
In my eyes, I think that makes it sound
like they were like in rehab for the last
decade.
Dude, they, like you can take
and take like a first gen Pathfinder.
You have Charlie Sheen
like roll up and roll the window down
and be like, guess who found
their path again.
And oh Jesus.
And then he spits out like a
Fiat Abart badge.
Those commercials were great by the way.
But no, I think the Pathfinder,
I think the Pathfinder needs to come back,
but the X-Tera is another good one.
I think they need to take risk.
I think staying away from risks
has made them horrible.
So have certain CVT transmissions,
but that's besides the point.
They just, they need to start making things
we care about.
Nissan.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just like just and, and what's funny
is like, I think they almost could
take a play out of
what like
Dodge and Chrysler has done
over the last 15 years.
While Nissan has been lost for the last
15 years and as much shit
as we can and do give
Mama Mopar
for what their offerings have been for the last 15 years,
which is basically the same fucking play.
Just run over and over and over and over again.
But it has worked for them.
They've been the ones who are
like zinging while everyone else is zagging.
Absolutely.
And it's kind of running out of steam at this point.
And which is why they've, they're really fumbling
the bag very lately.
But I think if, if,
if Nissan does some of that and says, hey,
like Toyota is
realizing everything and
Honda is just being
hyper conservative.
And even when they say they're going to take chances,
they, they don't.
Yep.
They need to be the ones to be like, you know,
whether the muscle cars back, not like
exactly Dodge, but like, you know,
you know, the Maximus back,
you know, the sports, the full size
sports and then it's back and the entry level
exciting car is back with some like aggressive
styling and the four wheel drive,
you know, anti Toyota tax machine
is back.
Like I think they can,
they can pull themselves up by the bootstraps,
if you will.
Yeah.
So yeah, I mean, they need to, right?
Like the writing's on the wall if they don't,
it's just, it's not going to be a very long
path left for them.
Pathfinder.
If you will.
Yep.
But I, it, how much they got in them?
Five more years.
Current trajectory is that
if like a fucking death
rattle of five years,
ticking off would be my best guess.
It'll just be, yeah, I mean, if they,
if they continue
sailing towards the shore,
which is pure rocks and,
and yeah, following the
Siren song of inaction,
then yeah, then I think
five years and they're, they go
all because they've got
some advantages, you know, they've got that long
storied history.
They have manufacturing facilities
in the United States, so they do not have
to get fully blasted in the mouth
by
not peanut north, but by the
the tariff gang, right?
Like if you're, if you're, you know,
Polestar and you make everything in China,
you are now ineligible for selling
shit in the United States effect, like
financially.
Nissan has manufacturing facilities here.
So they, they have
a lot that they can lean on.
They just haven't been
competing it competitively. So
come on. They got a chance. I want
Nissan to be good. We all do. I
love Nissan. I've owned some fantastic
Nissan's. I think in that period,
like I said, the doll even
extend to the mid the mid 80s to mid
90s. Nissan was
fucking on top of their game. They were absolutely brilliant
and they need to, they need
to get that back. They need to get that mojo.
We want that mojo, big mojo
energy, big ultimate energy.
Good. Well, we save that
brand. That's fantastic. Yeah.
Yeah. Check is, check is in the mail, I'm sure.
Yeah. Exactly. I cannot wait.
Yeah. Unfortunately, our PO box is a
paper shredder. Yeah, it is. Yeah.
It's a shame. Any
who. Yeah, let's, let's, let's move
on. Let's move on and do a little thing we'd like to
call the automotive print ad quiz
game. I'm going to post something
mild.
Well, moderate.
I'll call it, I'll call it in the five
in the five out of 10 range. I hate it when you do this
because then I'm going to like stumble and be like, I feel
like an idiot like halfway through you
reading it. I'm like, I don't get it. Fuck.
He gets it now. All right. Let's see. Let's
see. Get the pie in my face.
Let's go. So
Frank's going to walk you guys through what the hell we're
about to do. I try to dust off
this fine little advertisement.
All right. As he crop dusts that
thing off, I will tell you what we're
going to do, which is
it's a game. You should play along
at home. It's our print ad quiz
game. It still has a terrible name, almost 200 episodes
in. And
yeah, what it consists
of is quite simple. Chadwick here
in today's episode is going to find
a print advertisement from some sort
of publication from the
80s, 90s to the mid
2000s. The heyday of
automobile advertisement. And he
will read the type copy from that ad.
He will redact out anything
overly identifying such as make
model model here
because it's my job to try and figure out
what make model and approximate
ear of the vehicle in question is based
upon the advertisement type
copy. I get three guesses
and 10 minutes. Maybe some hints will
come my way. Maybe I won't need them.
Chadwick
read to me, baby.
You got that, man. So
coming your way is a single page
advertisement.
Very aggressive photo here. Vehicle
way full straight on rate
rate down your frigging face lined
up with your down to the forehead.
The main line if you will H1
if you're doing the HTML
please stay to the right.
Oh, so it's already in your face,
bro. Harrison butker. No, carry on.
Stay to the right.
It's not many luxury
performance sedans
that can scare traffic
into the slow lane on looks
alone. Oh boy. But that's
how the new blank is
aggressive.
The old
with a 32
valve
250
horsepower dual overhead
cam v8
ABS.
I like how they start with the motor and
then they've mentioned ABS time period
right leather
asterix
walnut and CD stereo sound
all of which make the left
hand lane a much more
like by blank.
See what happens when you demand
better.
Wow, okay.
Not wordy.
Not wordy, not a ton
of specs but some important ones which is really
the motor
you said said you said
luxury sports sedan
boy, I mean
32 valve
a 250 horse
immediately
the original
Lexus like the one use the Fe
jumps to mind
but it does not read
I would not call it LS
bold
and like scare shit out of the fast lane
type of shit
and aside show they're pretty scary
I believe God
the original Q45
had like
300 and then 290
and it did get downrated a little bit
later
in like 93, 94, 95
96 that era
to around
that horsepower number
SAE adjustments my friend
right
so that's a possibility
because that's an also a 32 that
kind of checks all those boxes
God could it be
the only
front wheel drive
modular Ford modular
application
which was you had the
the Lincoln
Continental
God Lincoln Lincoln
modern Lincoln naming has been
atrocious it is now
it's hard and it was in the 90s
because you had the Continental
and you had the Mark 8
and you had the town car
and a lot of that shit was
trims with one one another in
earlier instances and so it gets all wonky
but I think it was the Continental
which was the four door
with the in a tech VA
which is the 32 valve
Ford modular and that's right
around I want to say it was
like in the Mark 8 it was 260
horse or 265 but I think
it was downrated a little bit
in the front wheel drive application
so it could be that
God that does not that's not
an aggressive looking car
those are the three that popped to mind
32 valve VA
GM stuff
we ain't dealing with no
ancient push rod technology in this VA
right
like that's not it doesn't really jive
all the twin cam stuff
they were doing was like the quad four
and the LT
whatever the fuck you called it in the
the 3.4 V6
and the
in the front wheel drive stuff
you know I'm going to and
Dodge was out to lunch
they weren't playing in this space
neither was Mazda
certainly not Honda
not Toyota
proper but maybe the Alexis
it doesn't sound European
but could it be like an S type
I did not I did not hear
Sting singing in in this
advertisement so I don't think it's an S type
the 4.0 I'm
going to go you know what I'm thinking
I'm going to God
here's the thing if I've got three
leading the way in my mind
I get three shots right so
barring any hints that
clarified sure I'm going to say it is
I'm going to say it's the in a tech
VA powered
I'm going to say this is a
1990
God was color to
96
Lincoln
continental
final answer
this is not the in a trod
oh no VA
slow
office space shout out there
incorrect
what can I do to help you friend and this is actually the in tech
I just always call it the in a tech
I think it is the in tech from
from office space it's always
more like penetrode
exactly what can I help you with man
I guess that
I can't think of it being any other
potential domestic
domestic manufacturer am I correct
in that assumption
it is a domestic
is a domestic manufacturer okay
hmm
it's a big hit
could be the other Lincoln
I because I mentioned
I mentioned the S type
and that's got a stable mate which is the Lincoln
LS which I was thinking about
I thought
is that 250 horse
it's about that
that car famously you can get
a v6
manual
I wish you could get a manual with the 88
that'd be cool
God am I going to go back
to back Lincoln guess
there was no
VA 32
well
have I seen the North Star
lately
because it could have you
okay and that was why I was
talking about
could be Aurora too
located entirely within
my kitchen the thing is
GM loves
to talk about
ABS
and I do
talk about it or imprinted on every surface
yeah
exactly
Kali
what is more
aggressive
bold aggressive I almost
want to say we've done the Aurora before
but I don't know that we have
mm-hmm
she had this would have been the early Aurora
so it'd been like a 95
Aurora
certainly bold and aggressively styled
I don't know if I would call it sporty personally
um
and you know what's interesting
you did say
they called it the blank
by blank
which we've got
a critical reader here guys
because they were
that's that was Oldsmobile's thing then
they it was
it's back like when Chrysler it wasn't the Chrysler
Imperial it was just the Imperial
and then people realized like the fuck is an Imperial
so then it became the Imperial by Chrysler
the the Maserati
the TC by Maserati
by Maserati yeah yeah and they did that
and they did that with
with the Aurora so I'm gonna say
this is a 1995
Aurora
by Oldsmobile
that sick light bar and the four liter
you know
what do they call that motor
they would just call it the Aurora V8
mm-hmm
that they put in the Shelby Series 3 which is fun
um that's what I'm gonna say
95 Aurora
by Oldsmobile final answer
all of which make the left hand laying a much more
enjoyable place to be
Aurora by Oldsmobile
this is a 94
which is the first year 32 valve
it's a 4.6 so it is a North Star
what is a 4.0
nope 4.6 it's the derived from the
it's pretty much the North Star V8 that's in the Cadillac
I thought they down
I thought it was slightly downsized like the bores were a little
I think it makes a little less
power in this application but yeah
no that's the motor and fun fact
there isn't a single Oldsmobile
badge on the car
yeah I think the only place that has
it is
like on the
the cover of the owner's manual or something like that
the engine cover had it on there and a lot of times
they almost consider getting that out of there
so Oldsmobile
yeah have you have you driven one
so I've driven the newer one which I think is even
the second the rear is so
crazy the front end is really wonky
I mean the front ends wonky on both
but on the second gen it's got like the big
yeah
yeah it looks like if
if ET
was a blob fish
and like you pulled them up from the
depths of the ocean too quickly and you like turned into goo
like that's kind of what the front end would look like
happens to the best of us
this second I think the second gen was cooler
looking I think you're right the lower
front fascia and then the light
treatment on the rear of the second gen is
it's kind of cool and the huge
ovaloid exhaust
yeah they're interesting I've had some
seat time in one there's one I sold
on cars and bids
and go see Doug's review on
that car so I sent it down to San Diego
and Doug got some seat
time in it they're pretty interesting they
way more comfortable like I drove the
second gen and it's way more comfortable than sporty
all day
the first gen one like the one in the
ad there which is actually a very similar color
was like a purplish gray
and
really interesting the
dash layout was super unique like they were really
trying to do something different it was a little
bit more obviously GM in the second
one
and then they made a v6 variant
which was they actually
modified that same v8 and it made a 3.5
liter v6 out of
that 32 valve v8 so it was
like a bespoke v6
a shame when they got the
3800 Buick kicking around but whatever
yeah yeah that was a good one
that took
I had to dig through
the little bit of
you weren't thinking north star man you weren't thinking
north star at first that's not a north star
it's an aurora it's different
yeah
but no that's a good one it's
good little piece of automotive history
cool well good job with that
man you did well you did well the
aurora we hadn't done that one yet so
cool car worthy of a call out very
original design but let's
move forward into a little recreational
drug abuse this
is our pcp project car progress
section and have you made
any progress my friend on anything
um
god yes and no
so I
how much
my brain is soup how much
how much of update on
last episode did I give
on the
the fucking
project focus because I do have
you hadn't gotten to
your
where you're getting the pushback that you're getting
right now on that project you hadn't gotten into that
right yeah but I
want to say I did I had mentioned
that I did the driver's side
so I replaced the driver's side axle
oh yeah everything was going to the tires
everything was going swimmingly
swimmingly swimmingly I'm now
um
I don't know smashing my junk
with a claw hammer
figuratively so
yeah I don't kink shame so
no it's fine if you're into that
yeah I just I'd be ashamed if I got it up
because keeping it soft is cool
everyone's doing it the thing okay
so I swapped out the axle
and the outer tie rod and
the um
the
sway bar end link on the driver's
side right simple enough
it actually went
pretty pretty easily I did
have to run out
and get the sway bar end link and
the the tie rod end because
um
I didn't really see that they were as bad as they were
until they had the wheel off to do the axle
so I bought those
popped them all in mevotech
now I bought I got them locally
because I was like I just want to
get this thing back together so I can
get the project moving ahead
and so I did that
I bought that but if I'm going to do the
tie rod end and the end link on the driver's side
I'm going to pop the passenger side off and do that
so I did I popped the passenger side
wheel off got the wrenching on that
right when I got the wheel off I was like oh shit this
actual this axle is actually bonked
as well
so
it was gonna take too long to get it from
rock
and so I ordered it
through Napa auto parts
they're the only one that can get it for me
because it's SVT specific
ooh
anyways they said oh yeah it'll be here in two days
I'd
five days go by they never called me
so I called them and they're like oh yeah man it's here
like they just never called me great cool
so I went there I grabbed it
I go to install it a couple of days
ago
and
the driver's side
everything went perfect pacified
everything's a fucking mess
I
cannot for the life of me
get the lower
ball joint to come out of the
knuckle I got it unseated
easy enough
it will not come all the way
out I've done a little bit of homework
beyond
reaching out to you I'm like am I
am I profoundly
stupid here and just can't figure I'm
missing something obvious you're like did you try this
yeah how about this uh-huh how about this
yeah I did that and this and this oh shit
and it just every single thing was just
like it just wasn't going to come out and I don't
here's the thing
I am
right up against it as far as budget on this
thing my my $3,500 cap to the
point where like if I don't spend another
cent on this car I still
might not be able to afford an alignment
which I have to have to
yeah I have to so I might have to take penalty
points on that I'm or just like
find some hood rat place it's going to do
like I might even just have to end up doing a
two like just a front end alignment
in order in order to stay within budget
because that's right now
if I get the alignment done
by the less swab down the street after
mountain balance it would be $47
over budget
um
and that's without me doing the valve cover gasket
so gotta do that
if I can
so we'll see um I might have to get a little
bit creative but at the end of it is
I had I had to the bolt
seized on the
outer tie rod end
where it bounced to the knuckle it got to the
top and just locked and then it's got you
know it's got where you could put the
like a like a hex
in the top to hold it from
spinning
stripped that out so I had to take an
angle grinder do it
and cut it off which was easy enough
but I always assume it's going to blow up
and like decapitate me oh every time I
hate those fucking tools so
um got that off still cannot
get the
lower control arm
off the knuckle and I just like
beating the bejesus out of it with a
like a five pound dead blow
can't get it to can't get it to come out
I've got I'm using
a huge breaker bar with a floor jack
under it to like
nope do nothing I just
every stupid tool
breaker bar with a cheater extension
on it nothing like I just cannot
get it to separate out and I can't
afford to trash that lower
ball joint because it's riveted
into the control arm and I don't have money
in the budget to replace the control arm
so
I bought a tool
for seven dollars and ninety nine
cents which all it is it's
a hook it's one of that
if you've seen it it's like a breaker bar hook that you just
hook on the lower control arm
and it's it's got like a picture like
a question mark except where the tail is
it goes into a circle so you put it on
lower control arm you put the pivoted
it up break breaker bar through it and
then you pivot it off the yep
yep and you just yank it was
Amazon it came this morning
I haven't had it I haven't had an opportunity
and I will have an opportunity this weekend
to deal with it but
I'm hoping that's it because otherwise I have
I'm pulling the entire lower control arm
from the subframe
or or I go the other
way and I take the
I take the strut out
which I don't want to do
yeah
I'd rather deal with the control arm
yeah it's just
so you know in those bushings
the subframe for the lower control arm
are worn are worn so like
that I can
I can damage the control arm from that
end right if that bushing tears
okay now I got to buy
a control arm and I have to like I don't know return
my windshield or like return my tires
and get some ling longs like I don't
I don't know
I gotta make budget so we'll see
what was like oh like a couple of
this or that
I don't know
but it's annoying
so we'll see
how's about you I think I think you'll make it
through there I wish I was
making a progress report on my rally car
because I haven't I haven't so we're going to
talk about the track right I actually got some pretty good
progress on the tracker I'll be real quick because I think
we're over on time but the
track right just did the wheels
last time they came out awesome
like I'm so pumped that I went it was a little risk
you know I always like to do like that I'm straight up
restoration guy and bring the staley's
back but I was like fuck it we're doing gloss
white wheels because it just pops to the white top
hell yeah red came out great
the paint is it was
it's single stage paint right so it's
like every other single stage red paint it's
like pasty chalky peak
right and everything fades
differently after 30 years paint just it just
you can't ever bring it all the way
back but do just taking a
d.a. polisher to it doing like compound
polish and wax so satisfying
on those red cars because it just it always
comes back
even if you think it's like oh I think this might come out
okay it will always come out better than
you expect it looks so good done
obviously there's some panels that are faded differently
the hood and sure you know but you're
going to get that but I mean the gloss factor
is there like that it just the difference of having
glossy paint versus like a flat matte
finish is huge with these trucks
so it looks the bright white
top the bright white wheels with that
glossy red paint it just looks
absolutely fantastic
it's worth every every because it's all time
right at that point you already have I already
have the materials it just
takes so goddamn long to do that stuff man
because you get all done you get done with the
compound right and you're like oh god now to
polish now to wax it just
takes it takes for fucking ever
and you get fucking compound in every little
crack on these old cars that have so many
huge seams that just fill
with that shit so yeah you gotta deal with that
but anyway worth every every I wouldn't take it back
for the world I think that's one of the best things
you can do don't old truck like that to make it look good
and to keep the paint on there that's
on there right because that extra gloss and
putting a good coat of wax will protect it
I did install my
spare tire cover that I imported from France
that says geo tracker with the white lettering
on the black tire cover
that it's all those little pieces that come together
when I do a restoration and I think
I think that really tied the whole truck together
it looks dude it looks so good
it looks so fucking good
I need to like put it aside
though to get the fucking rally car
done because I really want to finish the tracker so
the tracker is pretty much at
a finished date barring anything interesting
that's going to pop up which I'm sure there is going to be
no no never yeah I know
as a project ever finished but yeah let's
shut it down really quick style
let's go yeah guys thanks
thanks for tuning in this has been another
presentation of the another pointless
automotive podcast network a p a
podcast for those that know check us out on
YouTube we do publish every video
we play a little drinking game this time every
time Frank freezes take a shot yeah
you will be hammered red I got
myself a new podcast machine and
every time we record now there's a new
fucking hurdle to overcome which is great
I love technology don't you it's the
it's the cost of progress
yeah but please check us out listen
to us wherever you listen to your podcast
review that helps us out a lot I
am at the auto obscure garage if you want
to follow my stuff rescues restorations
reviews tracker content hopefully
Volvo tracker or Volvo transitioning
from trackers content
before the rally would be a nice time
to finish that car yeah
follow me there Frank working the good
folks follow your personal endeavors
boy yeah a
nightclub near you or
the photographers garage
that's mostly on Instagram a splash on
the YouTubes
you can uh but honestly like pay
most attention to me and us
here
I do you know once my
computer start stops fighting
me and the podcast
hopefully we'll have some more fun stuff
coming your way so stay tuned for
that and
yeah I'll see you all on the next
time take care guys as always
peace
fake freeze
bye
About this episode
The hosts dive into a lively discussion about Nissan's current struggles and potential revival strategies. They reminisce about Nissan's heyday in the late 80s and 90s, critique the current lineup, and propose a focused four-vehicle plan including revamped Sentra, Maxima, Pathfinder, and Armada models. They emphasize bringing back sporty, rear-wheel-drive sedans and authentic off-road SUVs, while also addressing dealer issues and pricing strategies. The episode also features a nostalgic print ad quiz and updates on personal project cars, blending humor, deep automotive knowledge, and candid opinions on industry trends.
In yet another thinly vailed attempt to pull unwanted consulting fees from a major OEM, the homies sit down to chat about how they would each build Nissan out of its current hole. Lien into Nissan and Datsun heritage? Sell more Altimas for even bigger chaotic energy? What would you do?