A “truck” is a vehicle with an open cargo area for carrying things. In the podcast, they’re talking about a particular truck and its details, but the exact model name isn’t given in the snippet you shared. The main idea is that the episode is discussing a truck specifically.
A heat pump is an EV heating system that can move heat around instead of just making it from electricity. That usually means it uses less energy than a resistance heater.
Term
remote battery
The speaker is talking about features that let you manage the battery from far away, usually through an app. They’re saying the base model doesn’t have that.
Pre-conditioning means getting the car/battery ready before you leave—like warming it up or cooling it down while it’s still connected. That can make the first part of your drive more efficient.
A resistance heater is basically an electric space-heater style system. It uses electricity to create heat, and in EVs it usually wastes more energy than a heat pump.
The Jeep Wrangler is a popular off-road SUV. It’s famous for having removable doors, and the speaker is comparing the truck’s removable-door idea to that Wrangler vibe.
That “63 kilowatt hour” number is how big the EV battery is. Bigger battery usually means more potential range, though real-world range also depends on how efficiently the car uses energy.
EPA ratings are the government’s standardized test results for things like EV range. They’re meant to be a fair comparison between cars, and the speaker is saying they’re stricter than what some companies claim.
State of charge is just how full the battery is, usually shown as a percent. Charging can be faster or slower depending on whether the battery is near empty or near full.
The Hyundai Ioniq is a compact car designed to be more efficient than a typical gas-only car. Depending on the version, it can use electricity and/or a hybrid system. The conversation mentions it as an example of an electrified option.
The Chevrolet Cobalt is a compact car. In the podcast snippet, it’s mentioned in connection with battery technology and battery materials. The key point is that the conversation is discussing how batteries are made or chosen.
NMC batteries are one type of EV battery chemistry. The speaker is saying they can be more expensive, but they may allow faster charging compared with other battery types.
“800 volt architecture” means the car’s electrical system runs at a higher voltage. Higher voltage can help the car accept faster charging because it can move power more efficiently.
Term
$7,500 tax credit
This is a U.S. government discount for buying an EV. Whether you can get it depends on rules about the car and its battery.
It’s a government rule that restricts certain battery materials. If the materials come from certain places, they may not count for the EV money you can get.
NMC is a type of EV battery. It uses materials like nickel, manganese, and cobalt, and that supply chain can affect cost and eligibility for incentives.
LFP is a type of EV battery. It’s usually cheaper and can be more robust, but it may not provide as much range for the same size battery and can be weaker at very fast charging.
Energy density is how much “battery power” you can fit into a certain size or weight. If it’s lower, you usually need more battery to go the same distance.
“800-volt” is about the car’s electrical system voltage. Higher voltage can help the car charge faster when using the right chargers, but it costs more to design and build.
Term
charging system electric architecture
This is basically how the EV’s high-voltage electrical parts are designed together. That design affects charging speed and cost.
Range anxiety is worrying you won’t have enough battery to finish your trip. It’s especially a concern when you’re using the car in ways that drain the battery faster.
The Chevy Bolt is an all-electric car that was popular because it was relatively affordable and usable for everyday driving. The host is defending it and saying GM ended it anyway.
The Chevy Blazer EV is an all-electric version of the Blazer nameplate. Here, the host is saying GM shifted focus to making more of this EV after the earlier Bolt program.
EPA rated range is the official mileage estimate for an EV from standardized testing. Your real range can be different in everyday driving, but it’s still useful for comparing cars.
Charging speed tells you how fast the car can take electricity from a fast charger. Higher numbers usually mean faster charging, and the host is saying 150 kW isn’t as impressive as some EVs.
Infotainment is the car’s main screen and electronics for things like music, maps, and phone features. It’s basically the dashboard entertainment and information system.
Cruise control is a feature that lets the car hold a steady speed for you. Instead of pressing the gas the whole time, you set the speed once and the car maintains it.
The Lotus Excel is a sports car designed for comfortable driving over longer distances. People talk about it because it can be more “everyday” than some other sports cars. The podcast mentions it in the context of features you can add and what the inside is like.
A touchscreen is the screen you tap to control things in the car, like menus and settings. The speaker is saying the touchscreen they experienced didn’t feel well-made.
Door pockets are little storage bins built into the inside of the car door. The host is talking about how the truck’s interior details feel designed for a specific kind of buyer.
A trim level is the “version” of a car you buy, where different versions include different features. The host is saying the design philosophy stays the same even when the trim changes.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is an electric SUV/crossover with a modern, tech-heavy cabin. The host is using it as an example of how far car interiors have come.
This is a 1994 Toyota pickup truck. The host is talking about a version with four-wheel drive and a manual transmission, which usually makes it feel more “old-school” and straightforward to drive and maintain.
Four-wheel drive means the truck can send power to all four wheels. That helps it grip better on snow, mud, or uneven ground compared with two-wheel drive.
A five-speed manual means you shift gears yourself using a clutch. It’s typically more hands-on than an automatic, and some people find it simpler to understand and maintain.
A battery-powered truck refers to an electric truck that relies on a large battery pack for propulsion rather than a gasoline engine. The host’s point is about real-world charging constraints—especially for apartment dwellers without easy access to home charging.
3M vinyl is a type of wrap/sticker film used to cover a car. The point here is that this specific kind of vinyl may not stick properly to the truck’s plastic outer layer.
A wrap is a vinyl film you put on a car to change how it looks. Instead of painting, you cover the outside with film—though in this case it may need replacing more often.
The Toyota Supra is a famous sports car. This one is a 1988 model, and the host is talking about customizing it with a wrap—basically changing its look with vinyl film.
An “ad van” livery is a flashy graphic design meant to look like a vehicle advertisement. It’s basically a themed wrap/paint job with attention-grabbing branding-style visuals.
It sounds like the company wants you to keep paying after you buy the truck to get the paint/finish handled. Instead of one-time pricing, you pay a recurring fee for that service.
Here, “connectivity” means whether the truck can connect to the internet on its own. If it doesn’t include it by default, you may have to use your phone instead.
Phone sync here means pairing the truck with a smartphone to enable functions like receiving software updates. It implies the truck’s connectivity features may be gated behind subscriptions or require your personal device for access.
A telematics module is a gadget inside the vehicle that helps it connect to the internet and send/receive data. It’s often what powers connected features like remote updates.
The Ford Maverick is a smaller pickup truck that’s notable for being able to come with a hybrid setup for good fuel efficiency. The host brings it up because Ford encouraged owners to customize it using downloadable files.
3D printing is a way to make a real plastic part from a computer design. The idea mentioned is that owners could print their own add-ons for the truck using files provided by the manufacturer.
Jeff Bezos is being mentioned as a stand-in for the Amazon/tech-company vibe. The point is that the truck feels like it’s branded like a big corporate delivery vehicle.
A fleet vehicle is a work vehicle used by a company. The idea is that companies often make them cheaper and simpler, so they may feel less comfortable inside.
EDV usually means an electric delivery van used for transporting packages. It’s designed for everyday delivery routes, with lots of stops. The podcast mentions it as part of a group of electric vans in use.
The Dodge Charger is a car that’s designed to feel sporty and powerful. It’s a well-known model that people often associate with fast driving and a bold look. The conversation mentions it as a familiar car name.
The Ford Mustang is a sports car made by Ford. It’s known for its classic look and for being offered in different performance versions. People often mention it because its design is easy to recognize.
The Ford Ranchero is an older Ford model that mixes a car and a pickup. It has a passenger-car feel but also includes a bed for carrying things. The conversation is mentioning it as a possible model name people talk about.
The Ford F-150 is a very popular full-size pickup truck. The hosts are basically saying it sells in massive numbers, so it’s a good example of how common pickups are.
A “kit car” is a car that’s made from a parts kit instead of being built as a complete factory vehicle. The host is saying the truck looks like it might feel cheaply assembled or less refined.
The Mitsubishi Mirage is a low-cost small car. The host is using it as an example of a car that felt cheaply built, with rattles and rough fit between parts.
“Fit and finish” means how tightly and neatly the car’s parts are put together. If it’s bad, you might hear rattles, feel gaps, or notice the interior doesn’t feel solid.
The Ineos Grenadier is a tough off-road SUV designed for rough terrain. The host is comparing something else to it to say it feels similar in spirit, but maybe cheaper or less polished.
The Ford Ranger is a medium-sized pickup truck. It’s meant to be easier to handle and cheaper than the biggest trucks, while still being able to haul and tow. The discussion is about whether it makes sense to buy one used.
Charging centers are places with EV chargers. The idea mentioned is to put chargers at warehouses so delivery vehicles can recharge easily for nearby routes.
Term
local deliveries
Local deliveries means transporting packages on shorter routes close to where they start. That can work well with EVs because charging can be handled more easily at nearby locations.
The Rivian R3 is positioned as the model that could meaningfully shift buyer behavior, especially for people considering a fully loaded off-roader. The speaker’s argument hinges on whether Rivian can price the R3 under $40 (likely $40k), making it a more accessible alternative.
Rivian R2 is a model that the speaker expects to come to market. They’re mainly talking about whether it will help Rivian compete, especially based on price and what kind of buyers it attracts.
An off-roader is a vehicle meant for rough roads and trails, not just paved streets. The speaker is saying the R3 could appeal to people who were shopping for an EV that’s ready for that kind of driving.
Used EV depreciation refers to how the price of electric vehicles changes after they’re sold new. The speaker is arguing that used EV prices are rising, but not rising as much as the new price being discussed.
The BMW i3s is a small electric car from BMW. The “i3s” version is the sportier take on the i3, meant to feel a bit more responsive and fun for city driving.
The Plymouth Prowler is a sports car with a very unusual, hot-rod-inspired look. People talk about it because it’s visually distinctive. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as a style reference for a custom trunk idea.
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric pickup truck. It uses electricity instead of a traditional gas engine. The podcast mentions it as the “Lightning” model name in a dramatic description.
Term
12 cilindry
“12 cilindry” means the engine has 12 cylinders. Engines with 12 cylinders are usually found in higher-end performance cars and are known for strong power and smooth operation.
A manual transmission is the kind of car where you use a clutch and a gear stick to choose gears yourself. The hosts are hinting that Ferrari’s “manual” might be more complicated than a simple old-school stick shift.
“Six-speed” means the car has six forward gears. That can help the engine stay in the right rev range for smoother acceleration and better drivability.
The Ferrari California is a Ferrari that’s meant to be more usable for everyday driving than the most hardcore Ferraris. The host is basically saying it wasn’t a great Ferrari and didn’t live up to the brand’s reputation.
The Ferrari Roma is a Ferrari with a V8 engine that’s meant to feel more normal to drive than the wildest Ferraris. The host brings it up while comparing different Ferraris and their reputations.
“Ferrari Luce” is a Ferrari name mentioned in the podcast. The snippet doesn’t explain what kind of car it is, so it’s hard to describe its exact purpose or features. If you provide more of the conversation, I can explain it more accurately.
The Ferrari Portofino is a Ferrari with a turbo V8 that’s built for comfortable driving, including as a convertible. The host is saying it didn’t turn out well compared to what people expect from Ferrari.
The Aston Martin Vantage is Aston Martin’s main sports car. The host is comparing how it looks (and what badges/graphics it has) to a Ferrari, basically talking about styling and brand identity.
The Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a luxury sports car. It’s designed to look and drive like a high-end performance vehicle. The podcast mentions it as a specific model people recognize.
A “gated manual” is a manual transmission where the gear lever is guided into the right gear slots. It usually makes shifting feel more controlled and less vague.
PRND are the common gear settings on an automatic car: Park, Reverse, Neutral, and Drive. The speaker is pointing out that the car still has the usual automatic gear choices, even though it also has a manual-style setup.
“Eight gears” means the transmission can use eight different gear ratios. The speaker is saying not all of them are always available—some are only used in certain modes, like when the car is optimizing for efficiency.
European emissions standards are rules about how clean cars have to be in Europe. The speaker is saying the car’s extra gears are partly there to help it meet those rules by keeping the engine running in a more efficient/cleaner range.
Concept
emissions cheats
“Emissions cheats” is the idea that a car might act differently during emissions tests than it does in everyday driving. The speaker is suggesting the transmission behavior could be used to make the car pass tests more easily. It’s a serious accusation, because it implies the results don’t reflect normal driving.
A “ratio” is how the gearbox multiplies the engine’s speed to turn the wheels. Different ratios make the car feel more responsive or more efficient. The speaker is saying the car’s gearing choices are part of the gimmick.
ECU is the car’s engine computer. It decides things like how the engine responds and how the transmission behaves. Here, the host is saying they had to reprogram the ECU so the car could act more like a manual and still keep things safe.
Money shifting is a bad manual-driving mistake where you downshift into the wrong gear and the engine spins too fast. It can cause serious damage, so the host is saying the car’s computer tries to stop you from doing it.
LIVE
Recording an episode now. I am also recording an episode. Wow
Should I 321 us? Yeah, let's just clap immediately. Let's just get it. We're just going right into it
321
You shook the camera when I was about to say it was like I was power violent
Yeah, it's because I made fun of myself that one episode for having such a little pristine little clap
I
Wrote the I wrote the opening line. So I'm gonna I'm just gonna take this episode go for it
Hi, welcome to Tran girlies note the only automotive podcast. We're talking about the bird cage
Could mean the Robin Williams movie or the Maserati. It's kind of a toss up
This week
My name is Jordan Hofstetter my pronouns are she and her as always I am joined by
Hi, my name is Victoria Scott my pronouns are she and her there you go. Wow, we did it. This feels weird
I just you've been you've been so busy over the last couple weeks that I was just like yeah
I could start the notes off. I don't believe her. I've been I've been deposed
Absolutely violent takeover doing the January 6
We're doing a yeah, we this woke nonsense is over
I'm here to talk about how it's good that the EPA or it's good how the rolling coal guys just got pardoned
I I I was good to say too many
I was gonna say too many actionable threats
The rolling coal guys getting parted this week. So so we didn't um
But up here at the top
We have some house cleaning if you don't follow us on blue sky or are not a member of the patreon
You have probably missed these so
We have our first ever patreon stretchable
Victoria and I wanted to have a little
Carrot to dangle as we are both relying on this as our this is our jobs now
Let
Once again the November Kelly joke of leftist podcasts is the only growth industry for trans women. Hey, I
Unfortunately, I think that's just true right
So yeah, this this show is supporting both of us now and you know the support means the world so
When we reach a thousand patrons a month at the four dollars and up to here
We're gonna be doing an extra bonus episode every month a kind of show within a show for our patrons which
Vicki
Caved clutch with the actual name of it. We're calling it switch gear
It is it is a top gear rewatch podcast where
You know, I'm gonna go ahead and just say we could do grand tour episodes as well not that I think we're gonna do grand tour episodes
but the premises were each going to pick a
Top gear episode watch both of them and then reunite and I'm sure have
Completely normal thoughts and reactions as trans women 20 years after
Conservative British men
I'm gonna go and find the the British cuts too because like I remember the there were huge differences between like the
America's airing of British top gears Mexico episode and the original episode because they were just too racist to air in America
So I want to go find that. Yeah, cuz I want to be furious. I like being mad. It's the only joy I get anymore
I want to be furious, but also like I
Think about how many US episodes would they'd edit out the entire news segment as well for some reason
The music was usually all different
Yeah, because of rights reasons
And then who knows I might make you watch the the grand tour French special because I think it is just one of those
Rare, you know, it's like it's like how
This is a weird this is a very weird metaphor, you know how Kokomo is is in the 80s so much after the rest of the Beach Boys
It's like such a weird late period success that is kind of unrelated to their early stuff at all
Sure, I think no I follow actually I think I think the grand tour French special is a weird late period
Boy, how do you they could still really get together? It's what I imagine like the beetle a Beatles reunion would have been like
Oh my god, you still got it. You still got it actually and it's
John Lennon didn't
That didn't happen, that's cool
But uh, no, so yeah, we are
Yeah, we'll start doing that as a second bonus episode
Once we reach a thousand patrons, which you know
We're pretty close to we're actually yeah, it's we need like a couple hundred. I think I think we're like
300 and change away from it. So hey if you've been waffling back and forth on
whether to
Be a patron or not. Just know that
You know, you're already getting one bonus episode a month our last bonus was on bullets and I think it was very good
Despite the movie
And speaking of that bonus episode was not the first episode edited by
Alex our new editor
But we have a new editor we're uh, I
Self-retired because I think I had somehow gotten worse at editing audio despite some theoretically doing more
There's a there's a level of podcast editing that is just running
Two quick cleanup suggestions sinking and then letting it go. I was okay at that
Stella my wife our first editor was really good at the nuts and bolts of it all
She just doesn't have time because she has a real 40 hours a week job that I I wow that's a fascinating concept
I know right they still let transgender women have those. Yeah, in fact, there's there's a couple of them there
So, you know software girly stay winning
But yeah, I
I
Despite doing more and more effort and trying to be better. I just don't think I
Just don't think I just don't think audio editing is intuitively my thing
So yeah, Alex edits that labyrinth of cinema podcast that I guess it on
last month and
Does a lot of cool music stuff here in Pittsburgh and we are really happy and lucky to have her
Thank you, Alex. Thanks, Alex, and that's another thing that your patreon money is going to so I guess what
Hey car speakers are the hardest thing to edit for because everyone's car speakers are set up differently. I
I'm sorry car speakers. I was never gonna be good at making the edit for the edit was for headphones. I'm so sorry
Oh
God
Bits a house cleaning. No, that's it. I think
cool, all right
Here's the checkups gun that we've talked about for like three weeks in a row
Vicki, I'm gonna hand this back off to you so we could both just windmill dunk on the on the bad electric pickup truck. Oh
Finally, yeah, we could do it. I've been waiting for this. Oh my god
Jesus Christ. I've had weeks to hone my hatred. Okay, so
We finally have details on the slate truck the utopian was correct with their
Like scoop that they found on the website where it is 24 950 plus an unknown destination fee for the base model quote
Blank slate which is just the pickup truck. Oh, fuck you fuck you
That's yeah
The two-door the two-door SUV with the clamshell on it is 29 950
the the like coop fastback
SUV that everybody is I don't know why every manufacturer has to offer that but that costs even more
I don't care about those all we care about is the pickup and the SUV
Now as a reminder as a as a base model product the slate ev which I should note is
This company is not run by Jeff Bezos. It just has a lot of investment money from him
So that is like people keep calling it Bezos's EV because I think it's an easy way to kind of get people hyped up for like
oligarchy stories that is a that is an oversimplification, but his fingerprints are all over this shit. I
Will explain why I believe this is the case for 24,950 dollars plus an unknown destination fee
That's gonna be easily over a grand
It comes the slate the blank slate has no speakers no paint no infotainment no remote battery
Pre-conditioning no door pockets no heat pump
It does have heat and AC
But the heat is generated with a resistance heater
Which you might know as the least efficient way to create heat because it's literally based on the idea of making something inefficient
So it gets hot
Which is an interesting choice
also also
crank windows
Not an option. They are mandatory no matter how much money you spend
They just dropped the electric windows entirely for the truck because we've known I think we can't figure out because there's not like
I don't know if only there was like a German company that had all of these like window
Regulators that you could just buy off the shelf. Well, we could call them. I don't know something like Bosch
It's a shame. They don't exist, right?
Well, this is what silly right is like they they also offer like an off-road package that allows you to take the doors off and shit
I'm wondering if they just did they decided to go with removable doors over like electric windows. I
Don't I don't know. I don't know it makes no sense, but we're not we're not done yet
Did it a Jeep Wrangler?
Has it that been a solved problem for?
Decades yes, okay. All right, please continue. I just wanted to I'm like, hey, that's that's a really cool engineering exercise
If the Jeep Wrangler did
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so also interesting is the large and the small battery options are gone
There is one battery. It's a 63 kilowatt hour pack that slate rates at 205 miles
But hasn't gotten any PA rating for yet. EPA ratings are like the strictest in the world
and generally speaking
They have no track record, right?
Like there are some car companies that predict their batteries like I remember BMW with the i7 was like
Oh, we think it'll be good for X and the EPA rating was actually better because it was very good at regen
But like Tesla consistently says oh, we'll get like a bajillion miles and games the EPA ratings and they're in real world
They get a lot less so it it's too early to say but generally speaking if a company is like we don't have the EPA numbers
Here's what we say it is. I don't trust them. No, not at all yet. Yeah
Interestingly, they only have a hundred and twenty kilowatt hour fast or 120 kilowatt fast charging
I will get more on that in a bit that in practical terms
That's 10 to 80 percent state of charge in about 30 minutes. Yeah, which is not
It's not it's fine, but I it's not slow, but it's not fast. No, it's and okay charging
That's what we just called charging. I think yes
Moment in technology like 10 years ago. What is so I do a fucking depressive number now?
I'm just like that's like the bad chargers that I settle for on the Ioniq
Well and see so this is what's interesting so originally when the slate truck was announced
They were going to go with nickel manganese cobalt batteries
NMC batteries which are more expensive and generally speaking allow for
higher charging speeds, especially when paired with an 800 volt architecture and
the idea behind this was that they were trying to comply with the
Basically the rare earth metals ban that was written into the language of the biden era $7,500 tax credit you couldn't use
Metals that were from
countries, we don't like namely China and
NMC batteries which despite the fact they cost more and they definitely come from places that are not like
The cobalt mining is not something you want to learn about if you ever would like to sleep again
But they weren't from these like embargoed countries
And so they were going with that and they swapped that plan as soon as the $7,500 tax credit was gone
And they went with a lithium-iron phosphate battery, which is less energy dense and cheaper
But generally isn't like as good at fast charging and all that kind of stuff
And they were never going to make an 800 volt batteries like charging system electric architecture, whatever you want to call it
at this price point, so whatever
so they
In the interest of cost-cutting they switched to lithium-iron phosphate and according to inside EVs
There was a video they did on this the less energy dense
205 mile rated, you know, LFC pack fills the entire battery tray
So if they were going to give you a higher-range battery pack
They would have to just switch to the more expensive chemistry
And since they already have a factory that's doing that like 90 miles or 60 miles or something from their Indiana plant where they're building the trucks
There's no point. So you get one size
Now this is where I think things get interesting right because like on the face of it
Range anxiety for people who live in cities isn't like a super real thing
I would argue that it's probably a slightly more concerning for electric pickup truck buyers because towing
Which this can tow like 2,000 pounds
towing
Kills your range instantly. You're not getting anywhere with this thing with the trailer
But I don't think that's like a huge deal
It has a 2,000 pound payload like a five-foot bed. So I don't think you're gonna haul that much
It's not like a huge deal. This should theoretically be enough
But the thing that's interesting is that like it feels like it's more
It feels like these numbers are very much kind of like well
It's good enough
Because the bolt interestingly
Which is I would argue a much better car. I have
Convinced people to buy them and I know that we have our listener who is mad at Marriabara
Justifiably so but I still think the bolt is like a good EV
Relatively speaking which is why GM had to kill it as fast as possible because they were like oh shit
We made a good car. We can't do that
Hurry we have to crank the blazer EV production all the way to maximum
But like that car has 262 miles of EPA rated range
And it supports 150 kilowatt charging speeds which are considered dog shit slow when people review the bolt just for the record
And it costs
$28,995 after delivery as of right now and you know what it has Victoria
paint paint
It has a electric windows air conditioning
Infotainment
It might even charge your phone. It's a nice place to be inside
It has what I like to call materials that are not polycarbonate. I yeah
Is this is this where I could start putting my cards down where I was just I wanted to really like this thing
Because my dad my dad has a pre-order on one
And now I'm just like I don't think I was just looking at him and I was just like
I don't think you should pick it up and he's like really and I'm like no I
Don't I think you could do better. I also don't think you need a pickup truck
My dad's not that kind of butch man
My dad's I unless he gets really into woodworking in his retirement. I'm like, what do you need that bad for?
You're not doing anything with that bad. I
Yeah
This okay, so here's that here's the thing that really decided it for me worse
It's just it's such I knew I knew it was not going to be everything that they wanted it to be when they first were doing the initial round of
press announcing their intentions
But the amount of a downgrade and the price is
Making me feel a little crazy seeing people still excited for this thing
Yeah, please. I mean yeah, okay
So like the the the what really drives me insane here, right?
Is it like okay if we still had the $7,500 tax credit and they actually
We're able to
Build it in a way that they could have like been eligible for it
Which the domestic manufacturing and the battery sourcing makes me think they could have this was very much built to that kind of specification initially
It would have been what 18 grand and at $18,000 we're talking about a very different vehicle
I'm just gonna say that because I feel like everybody's like well, you know, no it is a
$25,000 truck bare minimum before you put
Speakers in the fucking thing. It doesn't come with door pockets. You have to pay extra for shitty plastic
like okay, the thing that decided it for me is a
Friend automotive journalist Daniel Goulson went to the slate launch
Got a ride in it and posted a picture on blue sky of the blank slate with no with basically no options
And if the interior is genuinely hateful you get like a four inch screen for your dashboard
That doesn't it's like the cheapest like I've seen phones with larger screens and the thing
Why why do you want a big screen in it?
It's like well see I like to know what speed the car is going
I like to be able to check my my charge at a glance sometimes
It's cool to like yet have like space for things. You know who else did this shit. I
Drove a grenadier else did this shit. Oh god a grenadier and a grenadier has the same kind of like
Minimalistic we spent the absolute bare minimum on a screen thing and it just looks cheap and shitty
The the interior is just like a flat slab of plastic and they're like well
You can pay extra to get like colored plastic and it's like what part of like
What do you think we're doing here?
Yeah, I I had to go pull up the I had to go pull up the the I
Actually was making it way worse if I had I that's the other thing where it's just oh my god
It is the world's shittiest smallest little screen. Yes. It at least has
buttons
It has three knobs according to Daniel who again actually get to touch it
I'm that they're never letting me within a thousand feet of this fucking thing
It the knobs felt like shit and I guess that kind of like like there are so many individual elements of this
That just kind of gave away the game for me and it like I've been inside of Ford Maverick
Which was initially a $20,000 truck at $20,000. I found it insanely compelling
It had one punitive cost cutting feature which is that you couldn't get cruise control in the base truck
It took 150 bucks to do that at home and and like add cruise control to an excel annoying but doable and the interior was like
incredibly thoughtful
Like I if they had not put a touchscreen in this that's fine
But the thing is is like the gauge cluster was like pleasant to look at the dash was still like thoughtfully textured
they used interesting like
Materials on it, you know, they had like door pockets in the doors that were designed for like a nail gene
You know, it wasn't like
Like you still got the same level of like careful design no matter what kind of trim level you bought because the issue
Like they knew they were only going to sell excels to basically like really cheap people or fleets
But the excel was not designed to make you feel bad for being poor
This is
This is so fucking hateful in its base form
It it's Protestantism in vehicle form
It's just like it's a hair shirt. It's like hey, you couldn't afford a nicer truck
Well, you should feel bad about it. Simply work harder. It's the free Haynes beefy tea
It's the hateful
T-shirt of yes pickup trucks. I
It is so
It feels
Like
Like a geo metro has a comparable
I I'm writing. I'm trying to write my uh Ioniq five more like long form thoughts for the for the blog we do
um
For the patreon
And I'm just talking about how far car interiors have come in 20 to 30 years
Slate feels like they are trying to go back to the past
But not in a way that feels like
You know, we've done too many screens and we've done it. It's not it's not like intentional. It's like oh
No, no, no
We don't we don't know how to give you a nice interior
For this amount of money like we just don't know like we're like for it's we could do you
We could do you okay at 20 000 dollars because we're forward and we have like
You know a part spin then the knowledge of how to build a car. Everybody has a part spin
Yeah, this is what really gets me right is like if you look at a 90s
So I use this example on blue sky, but like the first vehicle I ever had good sex in
Was a 1994 toyota pickup pre-tacoma pre-t100. This was just the the pickup
It was a short cab short bed four-wheel drive
five speed manual crank windows
Like heat only I bought it for 700 dollars used with 300 000 miles on it
Um bench seat. I loved that. God bless
It was awesome. Uh, you know if even it was
We had some fun in that thing, uh, you know
The thing is is that like there are two parts of this that feel like huge misses for me
Um compared to that first of all if you look at the interior of that toyota
Uh, it is there is more care put into the design of it's like at the very least gauge cluster
Then the slate has you know what else that truck had?
Actual gauges and not a phone a radio. Oh, yeah a radio, you know the um
The the heating climate control cluster the all of the knobs and stuff. We're all still like halfway decent
Um, it also and I think this is the other part of this that like I I suspect people will be mad at me for
Um, but I really think is like kind of core to why I don't think this is a great idea for the market
They supposedly targeted at is is like I lived in an apartment then
Because I've only ever rented places for my entire adult life
Um, I don't know where I would have charged a truck
And I drove to columbus for that really good sex from cleveland, ohio
It would have been very difficult for me to make a battery powered truck
It was also like the middle of winter. We had the heat crank
It would have been very difficult to make the like the ev resistance heater truck work for that
Wild night. Yeah in my otherwise placid twenties. Uh-huh
I I also just it the slate truck to me
Is giving it's giving me hg tv tiny home fake minimalism. Yeah
Like it yeah, it's
Oh my god, it is it is the show of going without things
Despite otherwise still paying a premium on certain parts of it. It is the
It is the tiny home that you built on a million dollar lot nostre, you know less less Protestant more Mormon
We are I have once again been talking about how we were at a very Mormon moat despite all of them pretending to be catholics
We're at a very Mormon point in our in our american moment and uh
Yeah, the slate ev is the dirty soda of where it's just like no, just put I just put it in it
Just put creeper in coffee you fucking Mormons. It's fine
um, the okay, so the other thing too that I think is like
Really needs to get you got to get into to like
Sorry, I looked at another photo of the interior at it
It looks like it's unfinished
I know like this shot of looking at the back seat and all I can't see it all all all the bare plastic
Is just oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm just no no
The the fit and finish on the rear seats in the suv version genuinely feels worse than my like x's
1987 four it's fucking hateful. It's got it's got a worse interior fit and finish than the tiny tykes cozy cart
It's the cozy coop
It's got a worse interior finish than my sister's barbie jeep she had when she was three
Yeah, it's it's
It's genuinely hateful
Uh, and also, okay, so this is the other part that I think this is where I begin to be like
Oh, I see Jeff Bezos fingerprints all over this, right? Um
Tim Levin of inside ev is previously reported the slate ev
Will not allow you to wrap it with like shit you buy on amazon or whatever
You can't use traditional 3m vinyl because it supposedly won't stick to the polycarbonate finish that they're putting on the trucks
Because again, they're all just plastic body panels. So if you want color
Not only do you have to wrap it every couple of years
But you have to buy the vinyl directly through slate
Uh, currently they're charging like 500 for some colors and more for others. Um
And the thing is is they don't that doesn't include installation fees
They hand you the vinyl cut to fit your truck and they say good luck
Jordan have you ever wrapped a car?
No, because it seems really it I can't put a sticker on a car without having to get a debit card out
And then like pray to god that I can work all these I actually have there
I need to go take a uh a thing to a sticker
I put on the Ioniq yesterday because I noticed a bubble that wasn't there when I put it on
so
I did wrap a car uh in another cooler part of my life when I had more money and less sense
Um, I owned a 1988 Toyota Supra, which I wrapped half in black. It was otherwise half red
I did like an ad van livery thing on it. Um, that one's still wearing the ad van livery. It is. Yeah, it is
I might post a picture in the the notes just because I missed that car sometimes even though I hated owning it
Uh
But in any case I did do that with a licensed like
Wrap got he ownedish business and he did it the two of us did it together
And it still took us a solid day to do half the car and it was a huge pain in the ass
And I was chasing down bubbles for years. I had to have like a heat gun for it
We we had to do it you need two people bare minimum to get it done. You're not going to get it done by yourself
No, um, and it's like a huge project. Um
And so basically what they've done is they've outsourced the labor of making the car finished
To you and also made you pay a subscription fee for your paint and that to me feels like
Amazon this feels like Amazon notably and I'm not just I'm not
I'm just throwing this out here, right because I think we're starting to get peel away layers
To get to the real point of this truck
Did you notice that the gray that they're finished in is the exact same color as all the amazon trucks?
I did notice that that. Um, did you notice that it is?
It's it's giving uh, also like
And I love a couple of the things that teenage engineering does but like it's giving
It's giving like a sense of irony in its like minimalism as well that I find very annoying
um, I just
I don't think people are gonna be happy with it. Also
I'm just
I know people have gotten rides in them
I'm really wondering what the
First year ownership experience is going to be like
Like software wise
Like oh, yeah, well you have to so that's the other thing, right?
It's like it doesn't come with a
Bowton connectivity
Standard so if you want over-the-air updates
You have to sync your phone to the truck if you didn't pay for that to get them through your personal device
Which I think is very funny. I'm sorry. The truck has to piggyback off a phone in order to update itself
From the factory, yes
You can get the little slate telemot telematics module installed and then it can get over the air updates
But otherwise you're gonna have to use your phone. Also, I don't you know, it's not you can take it to a dealership
Um, no, no, why would they say they have places for it?
But like I don't know that I haven't
Seen a network in place. Yeah, there's not really a whole lot of them
Real world
Data on that but yeah, you know, you have to do over-the-air updates with your phone by by by default unless you pay extra cool
Uh, and then I hope you I enjoy spending 80 dollars on like a jbl
Speaker to rattle around into the cab. No, they'll sell you a speaker holder
But the price isn't announced on the website yet
45,000
Well, the thing right is like
When when ford did the maverick one of the things I really loved is that they
Emphasized in their like press package like hey, we're gonna put a bunch of downloadable stls on our website
So if maverick owners want to 3d print themselves extra shit for their trucks
They can do it and again the maverick was like I think it's a lot less compelling now
But at 20 grand it was I was like this is insane. This is the best fucking deal on the market
in a super efficient hybrid system
You know completely like very well engineered interior and their idea for like hey
Do you want to have like extra cup holders?
Do you want to have like spots to put your phone or whatever?
We'll give you a bunch of files to 3d print and slot into the design of your truck
which was like
How you would do this if you were trying to design a truck that the customer could
Customize yeah, but instead it's like hey, we're gonna nickel and dime you at every possible opportunity and here's the thing right?
this is like
Their amazon gray finished jeff bezos involved my my read on this has been for a while and I have to credit
uh
Kevin kevin williams here as the first to notice this because he was like this is performatively cheap and has bezos all over it
Like way before anybody else did he he once again his original sin was simply being right earlier than people wanted to hear it
uh
But you know it has
It feels like a fleet vehicle
Where you have stripped out every small joy that a person might experience inside while working their job
And charge the money for it and they're just gonna sell it to other people because nobody wants to buy a car without a fucking stereo in it
I'm sorry. That was an issue and the original mini cooper in like 1960
Was that well, I forget his name
But the guy who designed the mini cooper was like a radio as a distraction
So we can't have it in the car and he was like come on man. Give me a fucking radio like for the love of god
uh, uh
Like this is a this has been a thing that people wanted in their cars for 60 years
um and
Their their idea here is basically to be like, okay, we're just gonna stick enough extra charges on here that hopefully we make up the
We can become profitable slightly quicker
And we'll do the bulk of our selling in pure volume where we could just strip out every feature anyway
Like one of the things we have in seattle is we have all the rivian vans
Um, oh like the the amazon like rivian. Yeah. Yeah, and the thing about those
I think as bezos looked at it and was like, why am I paying so much for a van that like feels like it's not a prison
Inside like why does it have any features whatsoever for people? I'm making piss in bottles
Because that's just wasted money because that's how he sees these things
So it's like well, we'll build you a truck where nobody has to experience any incidental joy inside of it
Um ever unless they want to pay more money
And we'll just continue to outsour it's a self checkout of fucking pickup trucks
Hey, you want to listen to music? Well, I hope you brought a speaker and a radio and a charger for it
Hope you brought your AirPods fucker like yeah, it's yeah. Yeah
Also, it's so
The where the screen is is so counterintuitive to where I imagine the driving position is where I'm just like
It feels like it was
It feels like an AI generated truck a little bit
Did you notice how they didn't put like anything over it too so the minute you get sun on the dash
You're not gonna be able to read it
Yeah, this this like it's just lazily slapped into the middle of it
You know the reason the gauge clusters have those like little things on the dashboard mold it in over top
That like even in the cheapest possible implementations
What you do is like in the ford Mustang which is now a styling characteristic of them
You have two humps on the dashboard so you can switch from left to right hand drive
Without having to mold a new dash piece like that it's been a solved problem for like 60 fucking years
Um so you could read your cluster
Well, as you may notice here, they didn't do that. I hope it's a bright screen
Or otherwise you'll be driving into the sun and being like I don't fucking know. I guess I'm doing 50
They figured this out
If you're an amazon driver and you're like shit if I don't make it to this next house in the next 30 seconds
Jeff Bezos is going to personally execute me. Uh, you know
My my amazon peer supporter is gonna break my fucking ankles when I get back to the depot
Uh
Yeah, like yeah, Henry Ford II figured this out in the 60s while hammered
Uh at like sending letters to some married European woman going like I'm gonna buy Ferrari for you
Go like hell is such a better book than Ford versus Ferrari is a movie by the way, uh, but yeah, I just
And granted we saw the leaks by shot of the the the Ford what they might call the ranchero
I guess that's that that's the rumor. Oh, yeah, and that looks like a boat
That looks like a that tugboat
It looked so like I just
We should be
Ford should have just put a bunch of batteries and EV boaters in the in the maverick and that were salt
Like we had we had the slate truck years ago. It just had a hybrid, you know
They should just give me the $20,000 maverick again
The other thing that I wanted to like mention here just before we like
Finish with the slate section
Is that slate says they they can make up to 150,000 of these a year
I don't think so they need to sell 80,000 a year to break even
To break even
Yeah, to to to pay for it
I mean
Okay, would you like a so for comparison?
um
Ford sold
69,175 trucks f-150s in may
Oh
They sold that many f-150s in a single month in may yes, um
Ha they sell so many more of them than you think they do
I mean I
Like statistically do I know how many f-150s they sell but I just never think about it
If you'd like a better comparison
In 2025 Ford sold 155,000 mavericks. It was their best year by far
Okay, so slate needs to basically sell
half as many I mean
Look
I just don't think they're going to be able to build that man. I mean granted. It doesn't look complicated to build
It looks like a kit car
It looks like a kid car. Do you remember do you ever if you've ever driven a 90s Mitsubishi?
Yeah, unfortunately my second car was a 92 Mirage
Um, and that entire car basically sounded like it was rattling to death
Every time you started it. It was just like the most missed. I feel like this is going to rattle
So bad so rapidly because the fit and finish is clearly garbage and it has to be to make it so modular
Uh because and I just think that like it's it's it's not going to be a pleasant ownership experience
I want to like it because it would be cool if somebody would do a cheap truck that
Was actually nice if this just feels the thing is just like this just feels like such a fuck you
Do people look like the mirage the current mirage
Has more care put into its interior design than this does and granted the mirage is dead now
So you can't you know
But like come the fuck on
It it feels it. Yeah the the I think when you said the inios grenadier is like
It feels like the poor man's grenadier in some ways because it just feels
It's like performatively rugged in a way where I go this is for guys who are spending
Three times what they need to on like slidged like salvaged denim and all of these other things to just be like
You know, I'm a performative every man and this is what if what if graham? Yeah, what if graham platner were a truck?
Look the slate eevee did not realize the totem pump was
Uh
the god
Yeah, I just I just think that it's
Recording this on another day that uh a really bad platner story is coming out and it's just what I get once again
I am getting smugger and smugger at my line being hey, I think if you've got a nazi tattoo you're ineligible for public office
I the
Turns out when that's your bar
You're never gonna be wrong. You're never gonna be wrong
Yeah, it turns out that we have the full left lib spectrum on this
Podcast because you say they shouldn't run for public office. I say they should be forced to dig their own ditch
But you know, oh, I agree with you there as well. I'm not saying I'm just saying for public office
bars in hell
Yeah, that's true and speaking I
People might still be in public office from hell because it seems like
Yeah, the slate truck is for the world of dreams and madness that mitch mcconnell is currently stuck in
Yeah, I just I think the thing is is that like if you want one of these
I don't begrudge you that but I also don't understand why you wouldn't just go buy a used ford ranger for like 7000 dollars
And then pocket the money or just buy a maverick
Just buy a maverick. Yeah, the same
Yeah, a new maverick excel costs the same and they added cruise control back in and let's fucking go
You know what if you if you are if you can afford a new truck
But can't afford a house. You probably aren't gonna find somewhere to charge that slate either and you know, I just
We're never getting infrastructure in this country stop buying things like we're going to
or at the very least like
Don't settle for a thing that's shittier than it needs to be
Yeah, like this feels it's a bunch of people who are like
Applauding being given slop
It's it's one of those things where I'm like, I don't think that the people who are excited for this
Are doing it for any reason other than like
Have fallen for marketing
Yeah, because I don't think it's worth it
Yeah, I think people are desperate to get the touchscreen out of their vehicle and in in the process they have just
Made it okay to make a completely awful vehicle if that makes sense because the thing is right is like
I'm
Generally anti touchscreen and if they had put any level of care or thought into the design of the center cluster of this truck
I'd be like I'll give them points for that
But they didn't
And they didn't put any thought into the gauge cluster and they didn't like it's just it's just we have it is
It is paying it's the steam machine right like here
We gave you a featureless box that looks nice and we charged you a lot of money for it
And there are people who are lining up to praise it because it's like well
You know, I didn't have to think about it. Well victoria now
You've lost me because the steam machine's a good idea people just admittedly people have just forgotten what computers have to cost right now
Because of nightmares. I don't know what's in the steam steam machine. I don't know if it's a good deal or not
I don't know about computers. I hate them. I make my wife work on mine. Yeah, that's probably for the best. Um
I just the slate is so
I was cautiously optimistic for it and then the more we've learned the more I just go like
Yeah, it's
I guess it's neat
If you're into it, but also it feels like microtransactions the truck
It feels like everything is microtransactions and subscriptions and this is someone willingly signing up and going like
Yummy, thank you. Thank you for giving me nothing and making me pay for
Things you can't even
Can I can I make my prediction actually that this sells 10 000 and then the company explodes?
No, so here's my thought. Here's my guess, right? Okay. They sell
They they they have a bunch of uh
Issues getting running. That's pretty typical for a like new car company
I mean, that's not something I would even hold them to account for because it's kind of expected
Like if they're solving teething issues in five years, that's crazy. What I suspect will happen is they'll sell a bunch
privately the first year
The the hype will wear down. They will fulfill it for fleets
For a while to big warehouse corporations. Maybe they'll sell some to like ice or something. Who knows?
um
It's too woke for ice though
No, I mean
It's the wapo of trucks, right? Like it looks woke on its face, but once you peer under the hood, it's all bezos and shud
um
and
They they slowly realize that like there isn't anybody else who can maintain the scale to like
keep it going
Like amazon who will get their trucks that replace all their rivian vans with them
They'll probably put charging centers inside a lot of their warehouses to like use these for local deliveries
Um, and that will sustain them for a bit and then like I don't know three to five years from now
They start like going under it and they
Probably fold. I don't think that they're gonna have like long term success
But I also think they will be more successful than like a fairer day future
You know
Yeah, I mean
I think I think the other thing too is like the minute
I am a downer on rivian's prospects long term
But I think the minute the r2 and especially the r3 the r2 is on the market and it's doing okay
The minute the r3 hits the market if they can actually get that below 40
I think that a lot of people who would consider getting this fully loaded as an off-roader will instead go to an r3
Which I don't even like how they do interior design, but at least a designer touched it
There's some thought given to like what the user experience is because the user is a person you care about instead of
Like drone that you throw inside a truck to throw boxes at people's doors
Um, so you can make a billion dollars every 20 minutes or whatever. Yeah, I because you're too busy at taylor swifts fucking Madison Square Garden wedding or whatever
Yeah, that's uh
It's
I hope you enjoyed your fucking
Cisco
Catered weddick
taylor
uh, I
Yeah, I just
I don't think they're gonna. I don't I don't see them doing well and I also just
You're also they're competing with every used
EV also at that price point
Because while used EVs are going back up in price. It's like they're not going up that amount
You know what I'd rather have again for $18,000. We have a totally different conversation for $18,000
Although I still would be mad at them for $18,000. I'm getting two
BMW i3s and I'm I'm using them like roller skates to get around town. I am taping them together
I am turning one into a plymouth prowler style
trunk that looks like the back half of the
Car I am driving
Yeah, dog fuck the slate. I just don't I I it's one of those things we're like we're gonna have to keep caring about it
We're probably gonna have to talk about it a couple more times. I just don't give a shit about it
In like look, I can drive one and be completely convinced that it's a good idea and a good truck actually
I can be proven wrong. I am not a I can't
I am not
I'm just
If it were $20,000
After delivery cool
It's not gonna be who gives a shit
Yeah, love yourself more than settling for the slate. That's what I want a towel a bunch of people
Because there's still like some car folks on blue sky who are like, oh, I fucking can't wait. I'm just like
I think you're being duped and I think you need to love yourself more or you are or you might be a fucking rube. I'm sorry
Well
I don't miss so speak you being forward to being proven right in in two or three years
Uh by which point everybody who makes more money than us will have claimed to have been right all along while loving it at this stage
And people will still yell at me when I predict the future by looking at the past
It's really not that hard. You just have to read a bunch of books and then be really sad and you'll usually be right
Speaking of which yeah
Item number two
Donald trump continues to want to be joseph stalin
Uh not in the communist way though. He just thinks that the manliest thing in the entire world is when men hit steel with hammers
Um, you're familiar of how like joseph stalin got his name, right?
Uh big big sweaty shirtless men hit and steal. Yeah
Yeah, yeah, like stalin stalin it it's like it's like the the steel man
Uh because he picked his name to be to lead the soviet union and it's because he loved
Uh men hitting steel with hammers so much because like any other work is women's work
And we had to devalue that once the minute that lenin died it was like all right enough of this gender shit
Yeah, joseph stalin got his name from the 90s music video spark factory
You know my favorite 90s stock location, which is just like some industrial warehouse where a bunch of things are just shooting endless sparks like that is uh
A real thing machines should be doing
The modern equivalent is like that video of that guy violating osha in 50 different ways as he like hooks up an oil well
Oh, yeah, you know the one i'm talking about where he gets covered in drilling mud and like every conservative is like
I love watching this sweaty man get covered in lubricants. Yeah, and i'm like he's actively dying
Like you need to you actually need to like wash him off with don dish soap like a like a dying seabird
Um, anyway, the reason he wants to be stolen is because we are refusing to renew the usmca
um
The usmca as you may or may not know is the us mexico-canada agreement
Which dictates the north american free trade zone that most people i think better know is the previous agreement nafta
Um
so usmca as you might remember was
Like pushed for heavily by donald trump previous
Um in 2020 he signed it and called it the fairest most balanced and beneficial trade agreement
We have ever signed and he was a huge champion of it
Um, and it was much stricter about auto production than nafta was
Uh, it requires 75 of car parts built in north america versus 62.5 for like
domestic manufacturer to avoid
extra tariffs
Um, it instituted wage floors of 16 dollars an hour for at least 40 to 45 percent of
manufacturing employees
Which is real dark if you think about it. Yeah, I that's I feel like they're not saying
I feel like there's not saying the the quiet part loud there of how many folks are not making that much money then
for manufacturing which uh
maybe this is my
city girl like
Hey, if you're touching heavy manufacturer equipment it that number should at least start with a 20
I I think that starts with a two and fair minimum. Yeah. Yeah
um
the
And yeah, this was obviously a carve out so that stuff would either be built less in mexico or mexican employees would have
um
Something resembling a fair wage because a lot of the point of nafta, which was a fair criticism was that it allowed
Companies to which can flee freely right like the whole issue with borders
I guess that I should get in books and music. Yeah the issues. They've been out of business for about 14 years. Yeah
Um the issue with borders in our modern conception is the capital can free it can you know freely
migrate from one place to another and basically seek out human being arbitrage
um with like life's like
Prices of labor um and living conditions and people cannot like that's kind of
There's a whole argument to be made there that the concept of borders themselves in a modern a context are actually bullshit
And we shouldn't have them
um
Now if you were listening to this podcast expecting me to get further into that I probably will at some point
But I didn't I didn't include that in here. I wasn't going to attack the concept of borders. I was just going to talk about the usmca
Um future bonus episode will just be about like
Borders turns to the microphone. Victoria turns to the microphone
It says I'm the exact kind of communist you are or alternatively
I can make a bunch of people really mad either way free free content
Unless it's a bonus episode in which case famously not free dollars. Yeah four dollars content
Making me a bad communist really like something for everybody there. I know right? How dare we charge for our labor?
Yeah, well, that's that's the thing right is it's it's you're not we control the means of podcast
I mean we do we could refuse to make the podcast. That's true. Like I that's just does it just doesn't work for us, you know
yeah, um
Anyway, so
That was the that was the usmca's requirements about car manufacturing
Um and since president tariffs put tariffs on stuff. He's actually actually he's actually already jacked up the prices
on this anyway because the
uh
25 percent of cars that aren't built in north america actually are subject to the 25 percent tariffs
So that is getting put into the final cost
So like for a lot of car companies like gm that import about as much as they possibly can from overseas
That that jacks up your overall purchase price. So we already are making money on tariffs from this but they want
More yeah, this is the first review year for usmca
We were supposed to it was signed in 2020
The three member countries, the united states, mexico, canada are supposed to review it every six years
And decide whether to renew it or put it into like an annual review purgatory at which point then
We have a 10-year countdown clock to either agree on something and renew it or sunset it
There is also the chance that the us just unilaterally is like we're done and six months from now usmca explodes
Um, but that would be a lot of people read it into this as like trump would never do that
Because it would destroy the american economy and make things cost a lot more money
Um, well, I'm not gonna go that far. I don't I I don't think you could assume rationality from anyone
He's already tried to pull every other lever. He had to blow up the american economy. He is
He is the wrecker president that we have like
Yeah, I he's he's trying to go into an escape room and instead of like solving the clues or anything
He's literally just been punching different parts of the drywall and just ripping shit off the wall
Is it big like eventually I'll get out of here? It's like
If he's trying to escape the cycle of uh birth and rebirth like I don't know
he's trying to enter samsara, uh or leave samsara by just
I I don't know. He's
There's a level of zen fascism to donald trump where he's like who me worry as he's just like
throwing a
Just beer made of iron into the gears of the american economy. He's like it's gonna be in the world
Like it's gonna be really cool if I can actually break this
Somehow can't break it
Um, yeah, so
Uh, we we've we've decided that we're gonna balk at it and we're gonna force the annual review
Automotive news reports at the sticking point is predictably by american requirements
Um, you know, as I mentioned usmca says 75 of the cars you made in the u.s. Mexico or canada
Um, they want to raise that to 82 which isn't like a huge deal on the face of it
That's not like a massive increase, but the kicker
The the the the joey steel kind of hammering at the steel beams
We gotta we gotta bring back american manufacturing moment is that they want 50 of the car
manufactured here in the united states
Which is new
Do you remember how
basically
Many in the uk
Was in order to like say that they were assembled in the uk
They were just like tightening all of the bolts it in that factory in in england and it's just like no
I know every single part of this car was theoretically made in germany, but
We we we we finished we finished doing the righty tidy
Uh lefty loosey shit here in the uk, which means british automobile
It really feels like it's like, hmm
We're gonna have to go to the brass tacks of what manufacturer assembled means
Uh to get through this one
Interestingly it
Chris farley has gone on the record as being a fan of this pause
Because they make they they manufacture their vehicles more domestically than a bunch of their other
competitors do
Um, so they would stand to benefit from this, uh, interestingly
Making this even more complicated because this is like the least straightforward political thing
I think i've seen in a hot minute. Um, despite despite me coming in hot on trump. I there are there are layers to this shit, of course. Yeah, um
The president of the uaw. Sean fein also
Wants this I always
Left every time I always just think is I because i'm just like god if this were the 80s
This would be a band who is just like we'd all have to pretend to be shocked with somehow funneling money to the ira
For years like oh, you're telling me shod fein was sending money to the ira
I let me just what's their political arm called again. Don't worry about it. It's
Well, and this is what's confusing right is because he wants he wants this and specifically the part he's called for was uh
I think this was in a cnbc thing. I might have to check
I don't remember I was reading through a bunch of things and I may have mixed up sources
So I apologize for that. I'll put it in the notes
Um, but he specifically wants wage parity for factory workers in force between the us and mexico
Which I don't even uncomplicated little like like or dislike fein like he's
He's a union leader, which means he will do whatever for his union. I think that there are he's been really
In the trump tank, but also like has
This is not one of those things that I can be like well, that's not fair because the thing is is right
Like the whole model of the usmca and after whatever the fuck you want to call it is the idea that basically
The us gets to have a high standard of living and products from around the world
And in return we will give other countries
pocket change
relative to us
Uh for them to have shorter life expectancies and worse working conditions and less money and less wealth
um
And that's like what we've done to mexico with car manufacturing
And so the idea of being like no you act and that and in the process that is kind of how we destroyed american manufacturing
Right, like that was that wasn't the intent. I don't think I think the intent was just like again
Arbitrage with human beings just make as much money as possible from whatever place is cheap and wherever you can get away with like
Can we use bribes to get this built? Can we like, you know skirt environmental regulations?
Can we you know like the the this is kind of like
If you remember the most hateful thing any liberal thinkers ever said on the internet
I think it was madagalaceous, right? Was it the him with the bangladesh shirt factory?
Oh, jeez, uh
Sorry, my brain was just trying to think if my brain just went through a rolodex of villains saying really awful things about foreign workers
So yeah, it was madagalaceous. What's the what's the quote? Um
I
Uh, let's see. I think it was uh
There's an entire section on it under controversy
In 2013 after the 2013 DACA garment factory collapse, which as a reminder was
A building an eight story building collapsed due to structural failure that everybody knew about. Um
That was a sweatshop for every western
Fashion house in the world. Basically. Um, it killed 1,100 people
So, you know, uh, that's up there with tenorife, let's say
In terms of like overall fatality counts just to give people like westerners an idea of like
How many people this killed and like how ridiculously tragic it was and also that it would have could have been
Like completely avoided. Uh, because like the building itself shouldn't have existed. It was it
It was a cut and dried. Well, there's your problem episode. Uh, you know what I mean?
Where it's like, oh, wow, they cut quarters at every stage and everybody knew this was going to happen at some point
And it just made more money to let all these people die. Wow. Um
Anyway, eglaceous specifically said he argued against a quote unified global standard for safety
Uh, because the current system of letting different countries have different rules is working fine
Uh
1,134 human beings were dead. I think they were still actively finding bodies as he wrote this. Yeah, I uh
There's a lot that makes me kind of glad that I never finished spending the money to finish my journalism degree
because there's part of me that uh, I just think that maybe the term journalist has really
been able to let people hand wash away
uh, some, uh statements that should get you, uh
Exiled from polite society. Yes at the very least screamed at at any time you want. Remember when people were like clutching their pearls when like
Sean Spicer was getting yelled at at restaurants. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I just
We need to be meaner to people
And I think that's why all the journalists cry about not liking blue sky is because the one website
that will tell people to you know
Telling someone to kill themselves is still against the to s and I would never you know, it's illegal to say
That
Do you know what my go to is that like
Doesn't get you banned having done it a bunch of times at least I think yeah, if you get banned for saying this
It's not my fault. Eat my shitting hair shitting hair is real powerful
It's eat my shitting hair is one that you they can't ban you for saying it. It's totally allowed
It's fair, you know, like if you see a really bad take that's unpleasant
Yeah, I think it's a fair one. I'm I've been rolling with it
I save it for really meaningful occasions because I don't want it to lose. It's like rhetorical power
Yeah, um, but I really think it's up. It's really up there. Uh
I I this one's bad, but I do it's the it is the the chain's breaking a freedom and it is the uh
When your mob hears a gunshot in the basement
That would also I that one I I think depending on how how many people
That one can also get you banned, but
You know, you know, yeah, yeah, you're only gonna catch a three-day that you get people basically pull it out the
T-shirt that says free your name on it. So, you know, you'll get to be a folk hero for a little bit. Um
Anyway, so all of this is to say that like I think
There is an argument to be made that the
current usmca
Isn't great to other countries and it is fair to want the
Spoils of capital to be distributed more widely and off-shoring really shouldn't exist
I mean like if you if you think that like
All people around the world that deserve human rights and their lives should be valued and their labor should be valued
we're absolutely like screwing over the entire world, but I think it's part of the reason why I'm like so
staunchly anti-american is because the the harm we do to other places so that we can have things is just it's measurable and it's big
um, that said, I think that this is kind of like decarbonizing via
Bombing Iran, right? Like yeah, this is this is the leroid Jenkins
Of of trying to make the world a better place
Where it theoretically incidentally might have some benefits, but the real point here is that it would benefit
Trump's political allies
and
It would also benefit tesla
Because they build a lot of stuff in the us and their components are largely manufactured in the us and it's just kind of like
it's
It is
It is a way to set up another own goal on us without really having any benefit for anybody else
I guess it's more accelerationist like if if fucking if like, you know, the the chevy silvarado is
$70,000 base price. Maybe that will finally get people to realize that they are living in the burger rike
I don't know. Yeah, I it's one of those things where this the story is another one where I go
I can see
a
staunch leftist making the same argument
And
To have a completely like a completely different goal than the like concert
It's one of those like actual political horseshoe moments where I go, huh
Accelerationists is this pretzels is the same accelerationist
It's just like it's why I always think that there's no good way to do accelerationism because I think it just I think you just uh
It turns out the tech broke go fast and break stuff
Turns out that's just bad because you're
It's called breaking things because they were either working or at least doing something
And that intact. Yeah, and then when you break them
that thing is broken
And it's fixed. So I
Yeah, I just yeah, it's kind of it's one of those where it's like this is
Uh, there are fair arguments to be made some for some reason. I somehow believe this will not actually be used to help people living in other countries
Um, and I suspect that it will be used to dispense favors
to
Donald Trump's political and business allies
Because we live under fascism and this is what fascism does is it takes the state
Merges it with corporations and then picks winners based on who's more willing to go along with the corruption
yeah, and it's
it's just kind of
blatantly just
I it's so us to basically and it's so accidental 40 chests from trump being like, ah
I'm gonna sign this thing in 2020 and then in six years. We're gonna have to look at it again
There's no way he thought he'd get office in six years
Like he thought he was gonna he thought he'd be out of there 25 or whatever like
I was just talking to my wife about this, uh about how how different the first trump admin was in this one
Um, it really got pretty fucking terrifying that like towards the end when we had covid we had
We had the black lives matter protests
We had january 6th
Like it it escalated really severely in that last year
But the first three years of the first trump presidency were bad. Do not get it wrong. It was obviously bad
It was obviously going somewhere awful
Everybody who had been like hey, he's gonna destroy america was clearly correct
But the vibe was different and it is funny to see him argue with his past self
Like this isn't even a bite. No, yeah, he's just dunking on to him six years ago
It's one of those like yeah it again. It is uh the the first vibes based, uh fascist regime where it's just like
Nothing nothing anyone ever says out loud is real or binding in such a way where it's just
Uh, george orwell would be just fucking uh, it's the
We explained what 2026 is like to george orwell and he hanged himself like
Yeah, our median voter so fascist our empire so
In the middle of ruin shapes place, uh, yeah, we're
We're doing
spectacularly, uh
Uh
Yeah, there was a picture that got posted uh in writers
I have to look up the actual photographer, but it was a shot of the washington monument lit up with like
Neon freedom 250 as lightning struck dc behind it with just silhouetted people wearing like cowboy hats and shit in front of it
And I was like, yeah, that seems that's that's that's accurate. I uh
Uh, I spent I spent my july 4th, uh
Stella brought me to anthro con for a for a day
and uh july 4th furry convention is a very funny vibe, but
Uh, I we watched the we watched some of the fireworks from the roof of the convention center in pittsburgh because it actually has like a great view
um
And the speed at which a usa chat was
Quieted and a bunch of people going no not right now
Like we're here to watch fireworks because it's fun to watch things explode. Sorry
uh, but like
We don't have to pretend that yeah
We're us of all people are he like this entirely queer crowd being like no
No
Yeah, um
Again been watching ken burns the civil war again
For no reason probably normal
Probably feels good. I love how every trans woman in her 30s has to just like pick up the kind of like
They're one dad habit. Yeah, and it's just called it
It's like I haven't watched ken burns civil war since I was at middle school
And my texas history teacher had us watch it because he's like hey the textbook for the civil war in texas schools
Would you believe it? I think it's maybe not great
for reasons
Yeah, um, remind me why we have juneteenth the game who could say
Yeah, I god. They just anyways, we're gonna go play football against Robert E. Lee. Hi
Oh my god, uh
You want to talk about other people reaching back into the past for nostalgia and
Maybe the inherent fascism of nostalgia and how we're we have to do a basically weird versions of the past
Um, uh gi da board eat your heart out gi da board would love our show. Yeah, uh gi da board
subscribe to the patreon, um
He's dead fuck. Yeah
Justifiably honestly nobody can fault him. Uh speaking of never killing yourselves for any reason, uh
For an extra 200 000 dollars premium over the the regular Ferrari, uh
12 cilindry
They'll sell you a fake real manual transmission
Yeah, you know, no, it's less of an up and down and more of a uh forward backward side to side thing. Yeah
Um, yeah, I'm sorry fart noise jerk off motion. I just
I'm oh my god. I am already like part noise jerk off option
Then I read the rest of your notes and it gets worse. It gets really worse. I mean, it's both technically very interesting and also
I just keep going
Hey, this is a really funny way to fleece an extra 200 000 dollars out of people Ferrari. I think it's really funny
um
A couple weeks ago rumors started to crop up that Ferrari was going to be unveiling a new special vehicle
That had the first manual transmission
uh
That ferrari's have offered since
The california is the california you could get a california with a six speed up until i think
09
And the take rate was so hilariously bad that they just stopped after that
um
If you if you are a listener of the show and you bought a california with a stick shift
You're the one good ferrari order in my eyes. You also I think have the one good california because I have someone who's uh
Been in a ferrari california that thing
Sucks
You want to talk about a thing that eats shit and hair? It's the fucking ferrari california
Don't get me stir
It's like the the roma the roma and the roma spider were the first like
This is why people are so funny. It's like the luce. They're like the luce is going to destroy ferrari and i'm just like
They sold
They had an entire family of ferrari's that were just dog shit bad
Like sub amazurati levels of clown shoes awful for 15 years california hateful machine california t hateful machine
But turbo charged uh
The portofino
Still bad still a bad card. They made a bad drop top convertible as their entry level model until the roma
And even then the roma i'm like i just think about tomatoes
But like you know it at least was pretty they at least finally made it pretty and then they're like, oh
It's like a v8 vantage, but it's just got the the horse on it instead of the astin martin wings cool
It's it's it's an astin martin vantage that doesn't depreciate
ferrari ferrari did it
But uh, yeah last on friday, they uh, there was a press blitz that there was a new line in their
speciale line of special vehicles
Uh, and it was a tell 12 slingery that has a six speed gated manual sitting in between the two front leather seats
Uh, the first time a gated six speed was in a ferrari in years. Um
Now listener you may be thinking well surely they just dusted off their old six speed that was back at the california. They just like, you know
You know, they probably had a bunch sitting around still and they're like, ah, there's a fucking fit. It's fine
you just
What do you do you throw no flywheel on uh on it and you
Throw a clutch pedal in there and bought a big bought a boom or it's like, you know
Tremac still makes t 56 is right like you could just put a t 56 fucking anything, right?
Hell yeah, uh nope the do it for dale of manual transmission. Uh, no they uh
That gated shifter and clutch pedal aren't connected to the actual physical transmission at all. I am losing
My fucking yeah, I am losing my fucking mind. It is speaking of gi de board
They they managed to put the spectacle inside your fucking 600000 dollar ferrari or whatever the goddamn
You uh, I think this is an 800 thousand dollar car with the premium over the 600 thousand for
A regular 12 slingery which
I am going to just call it a 12c from now on and you go jordan, wasn't that the mclaren from 2012 and I go
Yes, but ferrari named the uh named their v 12 the 12
Cylindry and that's too much to say and I'm not even I'm even already half
Americanizing it by not saying
Whatever do it do itchi
That's the rapper. That's the woman
So I don't know. I don't know italian. I'm trying. I gotta learn. Stella's not here. Otherwise. I would I would just be doing that. Um, so
victoria
Yes, physically in the transmission tunnel
Is the eight speed dual clutch from the regular 12 slingery?
You are harming me with your words. It's this is
This is awful. So because transgender is like ferrari
This new car is the best of both worlds much like me a beautiful pepenis woman
I
I
Have to it's the only this is the
This is the penile preserving vagina plastic of transmission setups
Like right this is why I had to put this in the notes because this is all I could think about right
It was like I'm like, oh my god. It's like what cis women chasers say to me
I am the best of both worlds. I have both a six speed gated manual and I could cruise an automatic. It's great. Um
Yeah
Oh my god, I love when I activate your forber smoker cough
Um
Yeah, so oh my god
When you start the car
You can either
There are still the usual ferrari automatic prnd
buttons
That sit behind the gate. Oh my so you could throw it in drive
And then not touch the stick in the clutch pedal and it'll just shift by itself through eight gears
Because it's still the dct
And then you go okay, jordan
Why is it still the eight speed if they only put a six speed manual in it and it's because for our oh my god
Seventh and eighth are just there to beat like
European emissions standards and stuff and for gas mileage
If you're shifted yourself, you just don't get access to seventh and eighth
You just shift up through one through six because they're like that's all you're going to actually use anyways
So i'm also arguing that it's kind of like a weird emissions cheats almost
You're getting to put the ratio for this it's so it's a gated manual that doesn't it's just like a
It's just like a log attack. I was going it's a toy. It's a toy racing and like a toy racing wheel they have
so
They put so much work into it for how
Much a toy and a gimmick it is and like you know
Konex egg did a very similar thing a couple years ago with their weird like
They did like a 20th anniversary thing that they called the cc 8s because their first car was the cc 8
It was like christian von konex eggs
50th birthday to himself and 20th birthday present to konex egg
And by present i mean it was a thing that they sold for several million dollars to a bunch of rich people who
seemingly hate owning konex eggs, uh as much as they love having the money to buy konex eggs
but like
That see that's my that's my I win the lottery built like billionaire car. Those are cool. I
Because they're weird engineering projects that one guy wants to and they're like, you know, I I
I like the konex egg stuff just fine. Yeah, I think I think christians
Christians great because he's like what if elad busk didn't feel like he needed to be like globally important
He just wants to be like a weird insane car man
He wants christian konex egg is the closest I think to like a willy wonka-esque figure
We still have in like the automotive space because like what liaya coca is really dead at this point, right?
Yeah, yeah, and like bob lutz also dead. I think like
Or at the very least they're not allowed to just do things lia coca is definitely a was
Bob lutz might still be alive actually for bob lutz. Yeah, bob lutz is still a lot. Yeah
He's 94 years old. I am shocked that he is still alive, but I assume all the cigarettes he smoked through the uh his life
Preserved him like smoked like a smoked meat
um
But yeah, so like at the konex egg it is a shifter that is entirely it is it it is a manual by wire
This is okay, we gotta stop at what point
Have have we allowed the signifiers to kind of run the show here come the fuck on but
What's the point the point is?
because
They know that no one no one who is this rich once a pure manual only experience
Because they want to be able to give it to a valet and not have to worry about it
They want to be able to cruise in traffic and not worry about it. I
There's part of me that goes in the right car. I think this technology is fun and not silly
and like
I don't know it does feel
It's a very fascinating engineering exercise because topgear in their article about it says that it basically feels exactly like the manual that was in the 5 9 9
Like they waited it
So that it feels
Like the 5 9 9 also the amount of software changes that they had to do to the ecu of this thing
Because you can stall it using the manual
It'll let you stall
It'll let but it's a dct
But it when you're using the stick and clutch pedal
It will let you use it like a real manual where it'll let you fuck up install it
It'll let you lug it out. It'll let you like
It won't let you it money shift like right?
That's the one thing that it it will software protect against is money shifting
I have to assume that also if you try to shift from like
I assume it has lockouts. I assume it I assume it's auto rev matching like right like I assume it is
I mean they can do that in a civic. Yeah, I assume it has all of the tricks of like a nice new manual
but also
It'll let you stall it. It'll let you
Do a jerky bad start like
If you drive it poorly, it'll
operate poorly
But also if you're good with a stick it'll feel great
and that's
That's more interesting than half of anything ferrari has done in a log time
And it's where I think that we the the top end of the market is finally realizing
That just speed
doesn't sell anymore
like
Yeah, well because it's boring and you can't use it like this is the 12-cylindry
That they are saying is like their speciale. So like, you know
the like the 296 speciale or like the
Whatever like, you know, it's the instead of making it's usually a faster version of the base bottle
Like the 458 speciale was like a thing to celebrate the end of the 458
And it had it, you know, we know what the speciale is usually are which is like just a tarted up faster version of it
I think it's fascinating that for this one. It's like no, it's not any faster. There's no more horsepower. It is purely
The manual the fake manual is the thing that they're going with for this and it's
Yeah
Yeah, I
I think it's a fascinating choice that is
somehow
Way weirder and I think actually harder to do than if they just put a stick back in it
Because the amount of ecu tuning to get it to behave like a manual is genuinely
Astounding like I have like yeah, one of those things were like wow. I always think that marinello is kind of like
Not technically juiceless, but they usually are
They're usually coasting on the name plate a little bit more than like, you know
McLaren still has to do things special in order to get noticed like labor geedy will have their own party tricks, but like
In the age of things like the gordon murray g fit or g 50 and t 50 like these things that are like
Multimillion dollar one-offs that you can get with a manual or everything
I'm not surprised that ferrari felt like they had to do something like this
I just think it is so fascinating that they refused to just put a regular manual back in and they're like no
We we spent so much money building this beautiful tct that we actually can't
afford they probably can't afford to like
like, redo the entire car to be a manual either. But like, I go, how much money did you save
by doing it this way? Because this seems insane. Did they work with Logitech? Like, there's
part of me that goes like, did you have to like, bring in like, SimRacing people? Did
you poach someone for code exec? Like, I want to, this is the first time I have wanted to
talk to Ferrari press people at a really long time. And it's just because I'm like, hey,
this is way weirder than just dusting off your old six speed and putting it in a new
car. Like, this is so much weirder. Like, I guess you don't want to have to service clutches
anymore. But I'm also like, can people damage the DCT? Like, this has to be so weird for
the DCT. I don't know. When this news came out, it literally, it's been a long time since
a piece of automotive like technical news has come out, or like, one of these special Ferraris
has gotten announced, where I then watch every single video that like, pops up on YouTube
when the embargo drops. Like, I don't know, I watched a couple people driving the new
McLaren W1, and I don't feel compelled to talk about it at all, other than like, breaking
news hypercars got faster again. Jazz hands, like, who get, yeah, fucking it. Forks found
in kitchen. Fork factory continues to put out forks, like, but then this is just like
Ferrari, and you know, I know car development cycles take years. I'm sure that they've had
this cooking in the lab for a while. But with how, like, Ferrari's head of marketing left
after the luce was unveiled, which, sure, yeah, that's probably correct. If I'm that guy.
Once again, the Victoria. I still think you're fucking, I still think you're wrong.
I'm annoying. Here's the thing, right? It's like, I'm an, I promise I'm always annoying,
but I have a long enough timeline, I will be vindicated.
And I think the luce will be looked on more positively than like the Ferrari 400. That's
all I'm saying. But like, this does feel like a thing that they're like, look, the luce
announcement can go any way you want, because everyone's going to forget about it the second
we show them this. Or for buyers, they're only making, I think, like 1400 of these
manuales, manuale. Transgender is like Ferrari. They're only making about 1400 of them.
What do you want to bet that you need to buy a luce if you want one of these? Like, that's my
favorite. It's just like, hey, you're going to get a luce. Or you, you have to get a luce,
but guess what? You get our coolest toy that we've put in a, because guess what? I'm sorry.
I bet it rocks to drive. I bet this thing's going to be incredible. It probably does. It probably
kicks ass. Guess what? I get to scream and second through a tunnel without a, well, like
heating a clutch pedal in order to do it, to clunk through a gated metal, because it's still
the beautiful Ferrari metal. I know. It's just, it just, as somebody who, who's, you know, pretty
heavily in on the sort of like the spectacle and sort of the simulacra sort of side of modern
culture, this just feels insane to me. This is, this is even rich people can only buy signifiers
anymore to me. We can no longer give you things that are exciting. We can, I mean, we can, but we
have to engineer an experience that feels exciting versus just making a thing that is inherently
exciting. Do you what I mean? But I think this is like, that implies that the regular, like,
you're adding, to me, it's like, if the 12-cylindry, the base, the base one is like a beautiful meal.
This stick is like, it's like a dessert that you probably don't need because it's going to make
you feel ill. Like, I, I, it's, it is just a level of further indulgence into, you know, all of,
a Ferrari has always been signifier, right? Like, yes, I, people have always been making better,
faster, more special cars, except they're not more special because there's, you know, they're not
Ferraris. And then this is just such a, it's such a gimmick. And I feel like they usually don't do
this level of gimmick. Like, their other level of gimmick is like, this is the engine from the
actual race car that we have adapted back to reuse. Like, that's their usual gimmick.
Um, this is just something. I don't know, I'm fascinated by it. It is the first Ferrari in a
long time that I am like, jealous that I will probably not be able to drive just because I'm
so fascinated by what it must feel like. No, that's fair. I mean, it's definitely,
as, as a staunch Ferrari hater, I will admit it's technically very interesting.
I would love to speak with the engineers too. I would, I just also, is also the other thing
where I'm like, they're, they're also not like, they're not innovating. They're copying someone
else's idea. And granted, sure, I don't know how long this has been in development. They could
have been working on it parallel and Koenigsegg can just get it out faster because they're making
10 cars instead of 1500 or whatever. Um, but yeah, I kind of hope that this is a thing that
we start seeing in other performance brands that have just abandoned manuals. Like if this is a
new like trend in performance cars, I think that kind of rocks. This also to me ends up with the
like, Oh, is this how we do the fake electric manual? This is how you do the fake stick for an EV
sports car? I mean, Ioniq figured that out with paddles. I don't know. Yeah, that's true.
Uh, but yeah, I just, uh, this was the first, it was kind of nice. I almost, I didn't think we
needed to do, uh, I saw that Chris Harris's podcast did an emergency episode about it. And I'm like,
I think that's a little you, you run collecting cars.com, which means that you are very interested
in used Ferraris. So I have to imagine that this is like, guess what? Those are going to trade hands.
But this is the other thing. I'm like, yeah, even at like the 600,000 pounds starting price for
this thing. The euros is 598 euros. So that's even worse right now because pounds are worthless.
So sorry. Yeah, sorry. I mean, I'm always sorry, British listeners, but I guess specifically.
Yeah, that's true. But like, you know, it's going to be,
this is, I hate that all Ferraris appreciate forever now, but like,
this is going to be a million dollar car, basically the second that they sell out.
And that's also stupid. Yeah. Yeah, I just, I, fascinating things at the top of the market.
You summed up my feelings of this so well in that lesson.
Yeah, it's just, it's, they're not real cars, but this is, this is at least fascinating technology,
I guess. I think they should, Ferrari every now and then will do like a internally produced
hour long documentary about a technical thing they did. I have never been more fingers crossed
for one than about this car. Yeah. That's fair. Also, I hope it lets them do that,
that fake F40, like the F40 revival thing that Lewis Hamilton wanted to do,
because he was like, I want to help you develop an F40 successor, but I only want it,
I only want to do it if we've got a stick.
He's so cool. Ferrari won this weekend. So like, you know,
yeah, Charles Leclerc's, his, his infinite sadness has ended. He did his usual thing,
which is he signs a big new contract with Ferrari that seems way longer than it should
be based on how Ferrari performs. He has three miserable, miserable weekends after he,
his, the rumor is that his most recent Ferrari contract will end up being the first 100 million
dollar F1 contract. And let me tell you, they hurt that young man's feelings enough that like,
he deserves that. Fuck it. That's fine. But yeah, and then he, and then he won. And Lewis,
and Lewis is also doing well. So usually it used to be if Ferrari was doing well in F1,
their, their road cars suck shit. And their road cars have been too good for two log,
which is why the F1 program sucks shit for so long. And maybe, maybe they're about to figure
it out. The WEC programs finally looking like it's been clawed back to earth by the organizers. So
yeah, I don't know. It's weird, it's weird times at Maranello right now. And I think that's,
that is when Ferrari is usually at their most interesting to talk about is when there is
strife in the palace. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's a thing that I got that I could not stop thinking
about through most of this weekend when I was not with Ferrari. I think, I think we did an episode.
I think so. Yeah. I, there's a very, they don't all have to be two hours. They don't all have to be
two hours, even though boy, howdy, do we still have a lot of names to say out loud. So we should.
Oh yeah. I was going to, to say I was going to read off a thank you to our $15
and up subscribers. We really appreciate your support. Should I just start with it? Yeah,
let's do it. Unless I don't think we had anything else, right? No. Hell yeah. No, we're done.
Thank you to Tattania Bird Heel, Clocky Galadriel, Athena V, Candy Fox, Hailey Pup High, Transfig,
Transfig, the suspiciously woman-shaped pharmacist, Nick the Kiwi. I drive Rivians for Amazon and
all I got is this stupid piss bottle. You'll love this episode.
Thank you to Raelsmith. Here ye, here ye, it shall be generally known that the listener
known as Buick actually drives a Toyota. That's fucked up. Have you at least,
have you at least ever been a Buick employee or is this purely Buick story baller?
Thank you to David Bolin, Professional Stellantis Hater. We should unionize.
Hazelbutt, Blue Screwy. It is morally correct to bully Teslas. Broke two arms riding motorcycles
time for a Miata. That's true. Certainly time to stop riding motorcycles. Ronin C, Ty,
Papa Shittycams, Samantha, Elio Dare, Smoke Stack, the man formerly known as Kyler,
now with Toyota Cera actually. Hell yeah. That's our logo. Pittsburgh Tea Girl Baseball July 25th,
yep, absolutely. Yeah, have fun at that. I will be here. I'll be there. How about that? I can go
to that one. The last one I was at a town for, this one I can go to.
I do believe so.
Totally not Saudi oil bribe money. Alex K, Cameron Shaft, J.D. Santos, Jeremy Tanner,
waiting on back to the future trilogy bonuses in the distant future. That would
actually be fun. We should do it. I would do that. Those were car movies, fuck it, yeah.
Yeah, I think they are car movies, honestly. We could get into a history of DeLorean.
Oh boy, boy, howdy. That would be fun. I'll have to. That would be a three-part special
just for the car. That's a booger sugar bonus.
Thank you to Dog Bed, the bed that eats kibble, Deluxe, Katrina, Sloppy Head Enjoyer.
The rest of these are just one long name. Incredible. Great bit. Thank you to the
People's Pillow Princess, Perspective GT4 Luso Buyer. That would be insane for our
audience, for somebody to have that much money. Why are you listening to Broke Transman?
It's because not all of us are broke. I had a nightmare that we, maybe it wasn't a nightmare,
but we got a listener email from Caitlyn Jenner. Yeah, she's like, I don't agree with
this politically, but thank you for being in the space. I was just like, this is a nightmare,
this is a nightmare, fucking nightmare. Thank you to Bean, Bree Henry, Sable, James
Gilbreth, Charlie Stangle, Slate actually stands for Chevy Bolt, but for guys that work in
manufacturing with correct capitals in there in the wrong order. I love that. That's good.
I wish I could just show it to you. It's great. Theodore Constantine, John V, Buick.
Buick, are you paying us twice? I know people want the top gear bonus.
Hey, you don't need to pay us twice. We'll get there eventually. It's fine.
Steven Duckworth, Bailen, Mildly Proterbed, Hannah W, Asherin, Chris Hefner, Jerry at
homogameragenda.com has a 2023, has a 2023 Subaru Outback for sale. We'll deliver.
Dexus, Hera Hailstorm, Will, the goose that created value. Thank you. That's my new deep cut.
I'm going to be in the nursing home talking about that slide deck.
I'm sure Ed Zitron did the rundown and we don't need to do the podcast rundown on it,
but I just want to thank SoftBank for once again existing because SoftBank
makes the fucking craziest shit I've ever seen on the regular.
Thank you to Steph Schrader. Princess Respark did her new job because of a snapping noise.
Leet Wolfgirls, Leet spelled 1337. Emma Alex, Seattle Dyke March Traffic Warden,
New Hampshire Transsocial, July 7th, 7 p.m. at the Hopknot in Manchester. I'm sorry,
this episode's going to air too late. Yeah, I'm so sorry. We had our bonus. If you would like to
change that for the next one, we'll get it for your next social event. Jetfuel Can't Melt These
Dreams, Nathaniel Hubble, Tens to 44, Saturday's Claire, Wing Smith will trade her eternal soul
for a set of lightly used Billet Titanium Soviet moon rover wheels. I was on failure to launch.
I posted it on the Blue Sky account, but the most recent ones, I think the next one's actually
coming out this week, we're about the Lunacod moon rover project where they did have Billet
Titanium moon rover wheels. It was a great experience. You should check it out.
Uh, Penile Sparing Vaginoplasty available now.
Nick, Drinking the Lord's Bleach Fumbowski.
DJM, Seeking Low Poly Car, I Heard They Get Better MPG. Sylvia, Finn Springs,
Flopple, Chut, Erie or Yanio, Saw You from Across the Bar and Liked Your Vibe.
Emote account face, Julie Aguilar, Team Radar Love, R.C. Duke, Chaz, Crystal Storm, currently
riding the last Gen 1 Leaf on a Nom, John Russell, Justin Ryan, Sable Poush. Poush? I always, Sable,
I'm sorry, I always forgot how to pronounce that. It's, it's the other Sable. It's the Sable I've
been friends with for a long time. Josh J. and Selectric. Thank you all again so much. We really
appreciate it. We are getting very close to our, our necessary number. Actually, I can tell you
right now, let me defilter this real fast. It's on, it's on any tier. Let's see. We are currently
sitting at 655 overall subscribers, so we need 345. You are. To do the top gear. Episode.
Episodes. One a month. Yeah. Episodes, yeah. The entire, the entire new series. So we're close
and we appreciate it. It's been nice to be, I just got rejected for another job, like literally 45
minutes before we recorded. So it's been nice to be like, well, at least we are treading water,
because then we finally hit that point. I deeply appreciate it. But yeah, it's fucking dire out
here. Don't ever need a job. Don't be a journalist. That's my honest advice. That's my survivability
Don't be a trans woman. You should be a trans woman, but it is economically more challenging.
I'm not going to lie to you. Freaky, where can people find you? Yes.
The blue sky. What is it? Say it. Victoria Scott dot beast guy dot social. And it's
train grilles mo dot beast guy dot social. And you can send the emails along behind on stuff,
because I just finished shooting a book that will be hopefully getting laid out.
Thank you, everyone who said nice things about the look at Pittsburgh gallery. I took it down
the other day. That was fun. Yeah, I'm actually not going to be in town for the Pittsburgh
vintage grand prix after all. So I know I had talked about maybe due to beat up, but I'm bad
at looking at calendars. So I'm going to be in Jersey instead. But yeah, I think that's an episode.
Thank you all so much. Bye.
About this episode
Jordan and Victoria kick off with podcast housekeeping, Patreon growth plans, and a new editor update before turning to their latest target: the Slate electric pickup. They break down the pricing and feature cuts—no speakers, no infotainment, no remote battery preconditioning, mandatory crank windows, and a resistance-heater setup. They also question the lack of EPA range confirmation, the single 63 kWh battery, and only 120 kW fast charging. The debate ties cost-cutting and battery chemistry choices to broader politics and skepticism about “Bezos” influence.
Hello! In this episode of Tran Girlismo, we finally dig into the Slate Truck. We both do not like it. Next up, President Deals decides to destroy his own trade deal because we live under textual fascism! Weirdly, we both have complicated feelings about this, because it turns out that global trade and American imperialism are not clear-cut issues. Finally, Jordan explains that Ferrari has invented a Real Fake Manual and Victoria can't decide if it's good or not but it sure is some shit Baudrillard would have soy-pointed at.
