Episode 417: 2026 BMW iX xDrive60 Road Trip, Pebble Beach News Roundup

Hello and welcome to the Unnamed Automotive Podcast. My name is Sammy Haj Asad and with me

as always is my good friend, Benjamin Hunting. Say hi to the people, Ben.

Greetings, human listeners. Greetings to everyone. We hope this is not your first time listening,

but if it is, thank you for trying something new. I will reiterate Ben and I are a pair

of automotive journalists, but more important than that, we're such good friends. Isn't

that right, Ben?

Sammy, I'm coming back from vacation and on that vacation I drove to your part of the country.

Is that correct?

You drove towards me and went further than you've done in the past. Yes.

Went further than I've gone in the past? What does that mean?

I don't know. We almost came all the way to the city that I live in, but then I came

towards where you were at and we were in the same city for a very long period of

time.

We went to a celebration of sorts, the Canadian National Exhibition. Shout out to

the fried dough that I ate that wasn't very good and the $55 hotdog that I saw

somebody selling, which is absolutely insane, even if it is two feet long.

No one should pay. I'm going to make a controversial statement. I think $8 is

the maximum price for a hotdog anyone should pay and I think that hotdog

should be spectacular.

I got ice cream. I got an ice cream waffle sandwich and it really hit the

spot. We're talking about hotdog, Sammy.

Yeah, and then I got some sandwiches. Don't you remember my yummy sandwiches?

I tried to feed my child and he threw them in my face.

Yeah, but I mean, the thought is what counts. What's your maximum price for a

hotdog? Hotdogs? I won't buy a hotdog.

You won't buy a hotdog? Would you eat a hotdog that was given to you?

For free? Yeah, totally.

Would you eat a hotdog that was given to you by a clown?

Yeah, of course. Really?

Clowns are people and they can be chefs. They can be hotdog chefs.

You're walking down the street. Things are going well in your life.

A clown appears. A clown offers you a hotdog.

What do you mean by offers? Is he saying I was having a hotdog but I couldn't finish it?

I was going to eat this hotdog but I'm so full. I can't finish it.

I don't know how much you know about clowning, but they're not supposed to

speak once the nose is on, so the clown wordlessly offers you-

That's a rhyme!

No, no, no. It's a clown as well. I went to a clown school.

You're laughing, but I was a teenager and I went to a theater camp and part of that theater

camp included a clown school and we did like a week of clown stuff. No hand stuff, just clown

stuff. And it was an unusual time in my life. But what I'm telling you is this clown is

wordlessly offering you a hotdog. Do you accept it?

No, because unfortunately I think clowns are full of

misunderstandings. So they could be offering me the hotdog, but it could also look like he's asking

me to hold on to it while he ties his shoelace. Or the hotdog could be filled with

like water that's going to squirt you somehow. Yeah, I guess.

Or the hotdog are keys to a suspiciously small car.

Yeah, or the Oscar Mayer or Winomobile. Ben, we've really lost all of our listeners

in our intro today. Thank you for coming all the way over to my part of the world for your

vacation. I had a really good time hanging out. We saw a lot of cool cars, including one that

looked like a giant boot. Yeah, it was the, what was the LL bean? So LL bean has a car that

looks exactly like an outdoor boot. And for whatever reason, it was just driving around Toronto

and we happened to cross paths with it. And moments before that, I had seen a Ford GT go by.

And I feel like that's the most unusual rare car sighting that you're going to have together.

The streets of Toronto is full of unpredictable cars. That's for sure.

If anyone's seen anything stranger, like one after the other, feel free to let us know.

Ben, why don't you, before we get started, why don't you let our listeners know where

they can find all of your latest work? Sure. You can find my work at MotorTrend.

You can find it at Hagerty. You can find it at driving.ca and you can find it at

greencars.com. I noticed that you said .ca for only n.com for two websites there.

Are the other ones websites as well or just? I prefer to let that remain mysterious.

You can find my work at auto trader.ca and driving.ca. I feel like if you say I find it at

driving, like driving is a verb, right? So it could be, it feels like an incomplete sentence

when I say that. You can find my work at driving.ca. Yeah. I guess so.

But you can't be, you're just not going to go MotorTrend.com.

Well, I don't know where MotorTrend is putting it. It could be anywhere.

Okay. It could be in the magazine. It could be the .com. It could be one of the many

satellite sites that are associated with MotorTrend. It's a whole universe of possibilities.

As our listeners have clearly noticed that we've come back to the show much more casual than

before. We'll see how long this holds up, how many episodes we can keep up this kind of attitude.

But Ben. Well, look, I drove to Toronto and I drove to Toronto in an electric vehicle.

And I don't know how many people who are listening will remember,

but I did the same thing three years ago. I tried an electric car.

Everyone remembers. It was a turning point for this podcast. It went from,

it went from, oh, they just talk about cars and then they're like, oh, they talk about

journey. So I took a Mach E to Toronto three years ago and I did that because I wanted to see

what the infrastructure was like along the way. Because between, at the time I was living in

Montreal and between Montreal and Toronto is probably the most heavily trafficked corridor

in Canada. And Quebec does a really good job with charging stations. And Ontario I discovered

does not. So bad. A much more casual approach to anything related to charging.

Casual. It's almost antagonistic. Yeah. So when I arrived in Toronto, the first time with an electric

car, if I wanted to do like DC fast charging, you pretty much had to go on to private property.

And most of the time that meant paying for parking in a garage and then paying for charging

as well. And it got to be pretty expensive because, you know, you don't always know if

the charger is available, right? So you're paying for the time you're in the garage,

which could be charging or could be waiting for another car. And then you're paying the,

essentially, you're a prisoner of the rates of that charger because you're already in there.

Like once you're in, you're in. So it wasn't a great situation. The biggest difference,

in addition to the lack of fast chargers, the bigger difference between Montreal and Toronto

was there's no L2 charging. L2 charging like on the street. Yeah. Yeah. In Montreal, you can

park at like a normal parking space downtown and there's a charger there. And you like

for a dollar an hour, you get like 11 kilowatts of charging, which is fine. I mean,

if you're in a movie or shopping or dinner, you can come back and you probably picked up

like 30 miles. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I will, I will, I will agree with Ben in that,

especially like in the downtown core of Toronto, there is like zero charging like infrastructure

or it's really, as I said, antagonistic, you have to go pay for parking and then plug it

in somewhere and then you hang on it. And it's that was three years ago. I still find that

it's equally as bad now. But most of the charging that I would have experienced when I was living

in Toronto, you'd have to go outside of the city to do, which also seems like counter-intuitive,

right? Yeah. Because I mean, driving anywhere in Toronto was a nightmare. Like everywhere I wanted

to, I spent like two hours a day in a vehicle, traveling of a surprisingly short distance.

We have an awful subway that makes it a little bit easier to deal with.

But I can't take this subway to the electric car charger. Like that's the thing.

So if you have to leave the city in a car and then come back in that same car,

you're eating up a lot of the gains that you were going to make. It reminds me of

that time I had a, it was a. It's another cloud school thing.

It was a hydrogen powered car that I was driving for Toyota. And the only refueling,

there's no refueling stations. There's one in Quebec and it's the only one in North America,

east of the West Coast, like east of the Rockies, at least. And I obviously wasn't

going to drive to Quebec City in charge because that's a two and a half hour drive.

It would use all of fuel. It doesn't make any sense. They had an 18 wheeler parked on the

south shore of Montreal that would provide you with, it was at their headquarters,

Toyota's headquarters, and it would provide you with some hydrogen fuel.

But because it was in a trailer, it couldn't give you enough pressure to fill the whole tank.

They couldn't pressure. Yeah. So you could get half a tank,

which was like 125 kilometers of driving or some tiny amount like that.

So you really couldn't go anywhere. Anyway, this time when I went to this time,

three years after your initial EV road trip to Toronto, what has changed? What is going on?

And what did you drive it in? Well, the first thing that changed is EV technology has moved

on past the Maki, which is I think one of the oldest designs still on the market.

There haven't really been any meaningful refreshes. I think there's been some power

boosts and whatnot, but it's roughly the same cart was when it came out. I want to say in

2019, but maybe a little bit later than that. In any case, this time I drove a BMW iX X-Drive 60,

and I drove the 2026 model, which is important because it's the mix.

X-Drive 60 eDrive 60 X eDrive. What is it called? I have so many weird badges now.

It's the iX, which is the model and X-Drive 60, which is the trim level.

And the reason I bring up 2026 is because it's the mid-cycle refresh for the car,

which means a bigger battery, different energy management software, and a few other changes

have been made to it. And it gives you pretty crazy range. 364 miles is where it tops out.

That's for the small wheels. I had the 21-inch wheels. When I picked up the car, it told me I

had 379 miles of driving, which is like 612 kilometers, way past, you know, that's a pretty

64 that they said it can do. Yeah, it's like 15 miles past the theoretical max for the small wheels.

I can tell you that the gasometer is not accurate, but it's pretty good.

Gasometer? Is that what we're going to call it now? The range estimator?

Yeah, the range estimator. I mean, you never know. First of all, it's dependent on a lot of things,

including how the person who was driving before you drove, temperature, climate control, the

terrain that you're driving over. I mean, hills take away power, but they also give you power on

regen. Then there's the regen settings themselves, like how you've had them set up, how aggressive

they are. It's all going to play out. But I can tell you that I averaged 31.7 kilowatt hours

per 100 miles of driving. That works out to 356 miles, Sammy, on a full. That is pretty

good. That is very close to the max. That is very close to 600 kilometers of driving on a full

charge. I was impressed with that. I'm not going to do a really linear review or talk linearly

about the travel because that's kind of boring, but I will tell you that I started off going to

Toronto on 100%, but when you come home, it's not the same thing. When you're using a public

charger, you don't charge an electric vehicle to 100% charge. You charge it to 80 because the

charging curve, the speed falls way off after 80, and you don't want to be that person who's

sitting at the charger, hogging it and ruining it for everybody. It'll take you forever.

So on the way home, I didn't have access to 600 kilometers or 356 miles of range. I left

Toronto with 80%. I made it to Kingston, which was my halfway point, and I had about 22% left

of the battery. So I'd used like 50-something percent, which is not bad. It's like 250 miles

or something like that, which is a decent distance, maybe not 250. Anyway, I charged

in Kingston and it showed me that I had 480 kilometers to get home, which is, I think,

roughly 350 miles, or that seems a little high, maybe 320 miles. Now, I was like, okay,

it's 400 kilometers to my house. So that'll do it, and I'll have enough of a cushion.

And it was hot, but not super hot. As soon as I left the charging station,

that guess just kept dropping, like drop, drop, drop, drop.

Like more than you're expecting.

More than is linear. Like it was like I would drive a little bit and it would drop like

20 kilometers. And I'm like, ooh, that's not great. So I wanted to see if I could get home

on that single charge, that single top up at 80%. I knew the locations of a few fast

chargers along the way, including one that was like eight or nine miles from my house,

in case I really misjudged things. I could pop in there, I could charge it,

and we would still get home. But by the time I got to an hour away from the house,

I had put it in efficiency mode. And then when I was about 20 minutes from the house,

I turned off all the HVAC. Oh no.

I rolled into my house with 5% battery showing and 30 kilometers of range was just like 15

miles. That's the lowest I've ever had an EV.

An EV. Did it, it didn't do like a turtle mode or anything like that?

No. It warned me when I hit 60 kilometers left and then it warned me again when I hit 40.

It just flashed it. But I think because perhaps I was already in efficiency mode,

it didn't need to do anything. And I will say this, the last time I had an EV very low was the Fiat

500E, which was always the moment you take it anywhere. It's like, oh, you've only got 100

kilometers left. I got home with 11% on that car and a few miles from my house,

it started flashing all this stuff on the gauge cluster saying like this system shutting down

and this system unavailable. And I was like, what's going on? And it was like so angry with me.

How could you let this happen? I'm turning off AC. I'm making all these sacrifices for you

to get home. The BMW did none of that. The BMW was just like,

hey bro, things might not work out. But I'm here with you.

I love your BMW voice. That's very much what the BMW sounds like.

Yeah. Hey, bro line. I don't know what it would say.

I'm here with you. This might not work out.

So I was impressed with that. I've heard that before.

I mean, it's a big, heavy SUV. It has a big, heavy battery. And even with 5%, it was willing

to go the distance and get me home. So that was pretty cool. Not so cool how the

how the charging infrastructure is in Toronto. The L2 still sucks. It's awful. It's nowhere.

But the level three fast charging was better. And I think that it's primarily due to the efforts

of gas stations that are now offering fast charging that didn't necessarily have it before.

Specifically, the Petro-Canada has their electric highway setup, which was available within

15 minutes driving from where I was staying. So that's not super inconvenient.

And then Shell also has their recharge stations attached to their regular gas stations.

And the Shell station actually gave me the fastest charging of all. I hit like 160 kilowatts

on a theoretical max of 190. Previously, Electrify Canada and the Petro-Canada.

Petro-Canada, this charger I went to was surprise, surprise, kind of broken.

I was getting 98 kilowatts. And someone who was on the one functional charger, the card reader was

broken on the second one. And someone who was there in an Ionic 5 said that he usually charges

there and gets much faster. So he's like, something's wrong with it. They need to do

maintenance. And when I was at Electrify Canada, I peaked around 140 kilowatts,

more around the 130. But that's pretty fast. Not super fast.

But, you know, on a maximum of 190, that's still pretty decent.

And I had one instance where I had the vehicle plugged in. I walked away and I came back and

discovered I was being charged for idle time. And I'm like, what's going on? And I looked.

And it had disconnected after 20% of charging 11 minutes, just for no reason, just disconnected.

No warning inside the car, no warning from the station. And I'd been idling for 10 minutes

past that. So it was frustrating because it was on the way home. And at that point,

you just kind of want to go home, right? You want to be, you know, you figure that

you can plug in, come back and it's done. But it added another 20 minutes to our stop

to have that done. This is just the kind of things that when you're taking an EV road trip,

you're going to run into. Because the infrastructure is not consistent. But

I will say, I never spent more than 28 minutes on a plug. And that is pretty good. Yeah. That is,

I think, much better than the first time when I went with the Maki. Because

when I went with the Maki, I tried to use the DC chargers that are available at these things called

like on routes, which are like, you see them all over the US as well. It's like a stopping,

it's a service station directly off the highway where you don't have to go into a town.

Right. And there's usually like food and gas and stuff. And in Canada, we have

DC chargers there. And I tried to use the IV branded chargers and they just didn't work.

Like they would not connect even though I was on the phone with IV tech support,

trying to get it to work. This time, I figured not only is there a chance that

these are technologically crappy, but they're probably going to be really busy.

And I shouldn't bother wasting my time there. So I always took the time to go to an off-road

location. I drove maybe five to 10 minutes away from the highway.

One of the things that surprised me was there was a Petro-Canada station with four

chargers off the highway in Kingston that I had considered using. But when I got there,

all four charging stations were full and there were two people waiting. Five minutes down the road

was a completely empty Electrify Canada. Electrify Canada, which is known for being

the fastest ones. Yeah, I used the same plug I had used on the way in. And surprisingly,

this is the plug that also disconnected me, even though it had worked perfectly four days

beforehand. Interesting. In any case, I bring this up because you really need to use the

apps when you're charging, when you're looking for a charger. How many of those people who

were sitting there could have opened up an app and seen that literally five minutes down the road,

there was available charging. They didn't have to be waiting. And it's not like we're talking price

differentially. These people aren't shopping for a better cost. I paid probably 22 bucks or something

for my charging, Canadian, which is very reasonable. Anyway, that was my charging experience.

My experience with the vehicle was pretty impressive. I mean, I've already talked about

how the range was impressive. It has pretty insane power. It's a mid-tier trim. There's an M70 now

and there's an XDrive 45. This vehicle has... Did they change any specs with all of those?

Or is it just like... I haven't verified that. They said that when they redid, because last year

there was an XDrive 50, an M60, and an entry level model. And they said that when they reshuffled

the trims, it was to better reflect their performance, whatever that means. Yeah.

Yeah. This car... Why can't I find the horsepower? I want to say it's 516 horsepower,

but I want to double check that. I know the battery is 113.4 kilowatt hours, which is

new for this year. But why can I not find... I have it in my whole little review here. Sorry,

536 horsepower. I don't have a combined torque rating for the vehicle. BMW is very cagey about

providing that for some reason, but it does 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds. It does very fast for

how big this thing is. It's super big. And it's super big in the sense that I was able to stuff a

lot of stuff in the cargo area without having to worry about the cargo cover and without putting

the seat down, including a giant cooler, bags for a full week for two people, and a big,

big box of books because I bought a ton of books because I'm a book maniac and I can't stop doing

it. So yeah, I was surprised by how practical the vehicle was. It was extremely comfortable.

My biggest complaint was I was not able to wear my polarized prescription sunglasses

without the attention monitor freaking out. I'm looking straight ahead and it's like,

you're not looking at the road. You're not looking at the road. And I'm definitely

looking at the road. That was irritating. So I just put on another set of glasses and made

my peace with it. But otherwise, the highway assist system that comes with the BMW, which

just automatic lane changes and whatnot, if you look in the mirrors and stuff, it works

pretty well. Cars comfortable. It's not the most attractive vehicle. I don't think it's ugly.

I don't think it's ugly, but I mean, look, the i4 and i5 just look like regular BMW 4 and 5 series

for their EVs, which is, I guess, the iX. Is there another electric BMW that I'm missing?

No, no. It doesn't look that bad. It looks like it's totally fine. It's a little bit like

something between the X5 and the X7. With the hatch open, it's super strange because the hatch,

it's a very sharp angle. And it looks like, I don't know if you remember the Lincoln MKT.

Yes, I remember, of course. It really looks like that. It looks like, and it's so surprising.

And the MKT is not known for being an attractive vehicle in a way or four.

That's just with the hatch open. I mean, obviously, but I had some people tell me they didn't like how

it looked, which surprised me because I don't have a strong feeling either way. I think it's totally

fine. The interior is pretty futuristic-looking. I really like the interior. Yeah, it's not like

BMW just took an X5 and made it electric and put the interior from an X5 in the iX. It is its

own thing. And I think that's cool. I think it's nice that they gave it its own personality.

On the whole, for the price, I want to say it starts around $80,000. Yeah, $89,000 is the starting price

for the XDrive 60. And I think you're around $80,000 for the 45 that's before that. My vehicle

was $98,000 US. Canadian, I don't remember the exact price. I can pull it up now. But

that really checks out with like, remember a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about the

Vistik, which has three rows. This vehicle doesn't. The XC90 is in that price point. The

Rivian is in that price point. I'm sorry? EX90. Yeah, EX90. Sorry. So I feel like it's well priced

just in terms of, yeah, the Canadian one is over $100,000, the one that I drove,

but not a lot over $100,000. I think that in a world where there's not many electric SUVs,

it doesn't feel like a huge outlier. I mean, a lot many luxury electric SUVs.

Sorry, say that again. Not many luxury electric SUVs.

And it doesn't feel like an outlier? No, price-wise. I think it fits in there well.

Like, I'm not including stuff like the G-Class. I'm not including stuff like the EQS.

Those are like, they've pushed past into trying to do their own thing and

separate themselves from the rest of the pack in terms of price. Mercedes is, I mean,

maybe an EQE is like similar, but I feel like the EQE is smaller than the IAX and I'm not sure it's a

direct competitor. No, I mean, I think the pricing is right in line with the rest of the class.

It is not exactly like a flagship EV, I suppose. I mean, I guess it is by default,

but they don't treat it that way. Right. They don't treat it that way. I mean, it's only

that it's only that way because there is nothing, you know, more fancy or bigger or

special. Yeah, until we get like an IAX 7 or, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah. I mean, I've only driven the M60 version of it when it first launched. Now,

it's funny to hear that this has been replaced by something called the M70.

And I was really impressed with it. I found that it had really impressive power delivery.

I really enjoyed the interior of it. And I thought it was really a classy EV that

demonstrated all of BMW's like best sides. Basically, it was enjoyable to drive. It was

powerful. And it was fairly high tech. I mean, as you mentioned, it has relatively high recharge

speeds. It has tons of performance. It has, you know, face-watching and lane changing.

You love the face-watching. Whatever you want to call it. You love that facial detection.

You love that robot paying attention to your every move. Check it out.

I need somebody to pay attention. Maybe Sammy's a little bit sad today,

and that robot's going to know because it has literally millions of photos of your face that

it can compare to in its giant face facial database. The other thing, though, is that

BMW, ever since their i-program with the i3, has made a really big show of incorporating

lightweight materials and carbon fiber in particular. And I remember the iX having

exposed carbon fiber within the door sills or something like that.

Yeah. So I looked into that because every time I opened the door, you see something that looks like

exposed carbon fiber. And we know that, as you mentioned, this has been a BMW trend in the past

where carbon fiber has been a big part of their devoted electric platforms.

Yeah. The i3 and i8 both use a lot of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, right?

Yeah. That's why I was going with this. They call it carbon fiber reinforced plastic

side frame and rear of the vehicle. It's draped-

It's not pure carbon fiber. It's just enough.

It's draped over an aluminum space frame. They call it carbon core technology.

If you'll remember, carbon core technology is something that we've seen on non-EVs,

I believe, from BMW as well. Am I mistaken in thinking the seven series has carbon core

technology? No, I don't think you're mistaken at all. I think for sure it has.

So why do you bring that up? Because that's what this is.

Oh, okay. Sorry.

Yeah. But what's weird is if you look at carbon core, which they call it a carbon

cage for the IX, so the aluminum space frame. And then I'm just reading this here about how

they're applying it. Obviously, it's for light weighting with strength. BMW was weird about,

I'm reading an interview where they were talking about it, and they were like,

not really willing to go into details about how the carbon fiber is used.

But if you look back on the seven, the carbon core was a big deal at the time,

and then you look at vehicles that have come out recently. We've talked a lot about the

five series, and specifically the M5 about how heavy it is now, because it's a plug-in hybrid.

But they don't talk about carbon core.

Is it, do those cars have it?

No. I mean, if they do, they don't talk about it.

They're not talking about it. Some people say it's because they don't think that

customers care about weight savings.

That doesn't make sense, because their original EVs, like I said, the i3 and i8,

especially the i8. The i8 has a ton of carbon fiber, so much so that

any body repair on an i8 is unsustainable, right?

Yeah, it's the Dodge Viper of plug-in hybrids.

What does that mean?

The original Dodge Viper had a clamshell hood, remember? The whole hood lifted up.

That hood in the 90s cost $20,090 to replace.

And so if you were parking and you cracked the front splitter, that's all one piece.

Insurance companies were losing their minds.

If there's any kind of fender bender, this is an insane amount of money.

So the first and second gen Viper have that clamshell.

Then we get to the third gen. Clamshell is gone.

The Viper that we saw in Tokyo Drift at the beginning of the movie,

you'll notice it's got a regular hood.

And that was a big part of that was pressure from insurance companies telling Dodge,

like, look, we're going to raise premiums to an unsustainable level for your owners,

if you don't fix this.

But there was such an uproar among Viper owners at the time

that it kind of divided them into these two camps.

Pro-clam and anti-clam?

Yeah, so the pro-clam people,

they were like, this third gen Viper is not a real Viper because it doesn't have the clamshell.

That's so funny. Oh, no.

Yeah. And also the other thing about the third gen Viper was they made an actual convertible

instead of having like the removable target top.

Yes.

So that was another sticking point.

Third gen Viper kind of controversial, I think.

And also I think of all the Viper's, the one that has held its value the least

because it does not have the cachet among Viper fans.

I've got to double check my third gen here.

The third gen is considered the SRT Viper, yes?

Yeah, that's where the name started coming from.

So all this to say...

Wait, I want to go back to this I8 thing.

That's where I'm going.

All this to say, I think that they might be right

and that customers don't care about weight savings,

at least BMW customers who are buying these giant sports sedans.

The companies probably care about weight savings in as much as it gets them into

a certain fuel mileage range.

Like they have to care about that

because they have regulations that they have to meet.

But beyond that, if they meet that,

they're probably not going to make it a focal point of advertising.

I would say.

I was just going to say that, look, my favorite,

one of my favorite cars that I've ever driven was the I8

and I have no clue why other than it's like weird.

It's like super strange.

I love the I8.

I would love to own one and I was looking into it because I'm like...

I was looking into it because I was like,

these must be affordable because I don't see many of them and they're not really...

Like I said, this insurance thing is so problematic that I don't know.

They're not really super cars like performance wise, right?

But then I discovered that the battery system

is something you do not want to have anything to do with

as a secondhand owner.

Once you're out of warranty, you need to stay away from these cars.

It's the same as the I3.

They rely on the HVAC system of the vehicle to cool the battery.

There are some legitimate design issues with that

and there are design issues that can lead to you essentially breaking the car.

I love that.

I'm in love with this car even more.

It is super risky to own.

It's my favorite.

It is not fast.

It is...

I mean, it's fast enough, but it's not super fast.

It looks amazing.

It's like an incredible...

It looks brilliant.

Inside and out, it's like super cool.

It's got this weird sounding turbo inline three.

It's like the Lexus LC of like plug-in hybrids.

Yeah, I'm totally into it.

And now it's 10 years old.

You can get one for like half the price.

It's got three common doors.

Yeah.

So I'm always like, do I dare look at one of these?

But I don't know.

One more thing.

Anyway, what am I thinking about carbon core, Sammy?

Yes, carbon core.

Let's get back to it.

So apparently the high-end seven series, it was like,

even though it had this carbon core technology,

it was like just a little bit lighter than the S-Class,

which had no carbon core technology.

Uh-oh.

And that really reminds me of,

remember when Ford made a big deal

about going to aluminum for the F-150?

Oh, yeah.

They were like, oh, it's going to be a huge weight reduction.

And it was, but the thing is,

the F-150 was so heavy compared to all of its competitors

that when they went to aluminum,

it just kind of became the same weight as like a Silverado.

So they really dialed back

how much they were focusing on the aluminum.

Like it was good if you only bought Fords,

but if you had done any kind of competitive analysis,

you would have already known that the F-Series

was like way overweight.

That's fair.

But at the same time, they have a ton of equipment now

in all of these pickup trucks.

So I guess a little bit of weight savings here and there

goes a long way.

And I suppose that they went to aluminum around the same time.

They also started introducing EcoBoost.

Well, EcoBoost was like much earlier, wasn't it?

Oh, was it?

Okay.

I think EcoBoost was like 2009 or something.

I was thinking that there was like compounding

fuel efficiency savings here and there.

But I guess at the same time,

like EcoBoost would add extra weight too because of...

Turbos and cooling and all of that stuff.

Especially cooling.

So they're just trying to figure out a way to make all of that balance out.

I remember folks, one gallon of liquid weighs about eight pounds.

So when you start putting extra coolant in a car,

it can add up really quickly.

Interesting.

Not just the coolant and not just, sorry.

I didn't know this is mathematics.

Well, you're not a drag racer like I was when I was young.

So you would go to...

Well, hold on. Hold on.

Let's talk about your young days.

No, no, no.

We're going to skip past that.

Or after your clown school.

I'm going to skip past that.

But I'm just saying, you would show up at the drag strip

with as little gas as possible because you knew about that weight issue.

But the other thing is when I talk about cooling,

it's not just coolant in like a larger reservoir

for the cooling system, but it's also like bigger fans

and an intercooler and all that stuff.

That is going to add weight as well.

Anything else you want to tell me about this BMW?

Do you recommend this BMW?

Yes.

Especially after driving the Vistik?

I mean, I know that one is the same vehicle.

I know, Ben.

I know.

So my wife likes the Vistik.

But they're similarly priced.

They're similarly kind of performing.

My wife liked the Vistik more.

I think the Vistik interior might come across

as more traditionally luxurious.

But I think that I definitely do recommend the IX.

It's something that should be on your list.

I mean, you've said the EX90 is a disaster.

Please don't, please.

EX90 looks so good, drives so well, cannot live with it.

Awful infotainment system.

Made me want to jump out of the car

anytime I need to do anything with it.

The Rivian has also a software-based everything.

I haven't driven one, but it's also very good off-road

in a way that the BMW isn't.

So that would be another difference.

And the Vistik has three ropes.

So this vehicle is kind of out there.

I would take it over at EQE, no question.

I mean, the EQE SUV.

Mercedes EVs miss the mark, right?

Like all of them miss the mark.

They are boring to look at.

And I think that that was a huge problem

that they didn't anticipate.

They went all out on aerodynamics.

They performed very well.

But I'm not a fan of the interiors.

I don't like it.

Very well, significantly better than all of these other cars.

I didn't say that.

I said they performed very well.

They made all of these compromises for aerodynamics and design

when everybody else just made the regular looking cars

and were like, we did just as good as you.

So.

And the interiors are also all piano black and screens.

And that's something that I'm not into.

So yeah, that's what made this BMW to me stand out.

And I haven't driven the Audi equivalent.

I am going to in a couple of weeks.

So I will be curious to see how that shakes it.

That's Q8 e-tron?

No.

While I'm driving the Q6 e-tron.

Oh, OK.

I think Q8 is probably bigger than the IX.

I don't know if there's a third row option in the Q8.

I don't think so.

No, I don't think so either.

OK, cool.

Anything you want to talk?

Anything else you want to talk to me about this IX?

No more.

No, we're done.

I'm currently driving a Volvo EX90 plug.

Not EX90, XC90 plug in hybrid.

But I'm tired of talking about EVs right now.

We'll talk about it next week.

What I am really excited to talk to you about

is some of the news that happened while we were hanging out here on vacation.

One, it was the Monterey car week,

which is one of my favorite times of the year,

because all of these wild automakers come and show up.

It is one of the most concept car-oriented auto shows,

I think, of the auto show circuit these days.

And then two, it also brings in all of these exclusive cars,

luxury automakers and stuff like that,

which is sometimes an opportunity for the automakers

or the auto groups to showcase what's going on at the highest level

or the highest level in terms of their design and performance ideas.

So there are a lot of really interesting cars showed up,

and I'm really eager to talk to you about them.

And then in addition to that,

because so many of these automakers

are kind of accessible to the journalists,

there's a lot of news reports that come out from Pebble Beach.

So I've got a couple of things that I want to talk about.

First of all, probably my favorite thing that I saw

is this new Lexus concept that showed up.

It was called the Sport concept.

That's very creative.

It's not very descriptive or creative.

LSC.

It basically looks like if you took the LFA supercar

and the LC and mind melded them together,

you've got something going on here.

Actually, maybe more like a Mercedes AMG GT.

I think it kind of looks like something from the GT,

like Gran Turismo.

Remember when they were releasing other concept cars?

Yeah.

I think there's like heavy vision vibes from this thing.

It looks so superb.

And from what I understand,

everyone is saying that this is going to translate

into a production car known as the LFR,

or yeah, LFR or LCR,

which I'm very eager to hear about.

And I'm sure we're going to hear more about that

by the end of the year because they're talking too much

about these Lexuses.

The term is Lexi.

Lexi.

There's nothing no one really talked about in particular

to this car.

I read a bunch of reports about the...

There was mules of the LFR running around the world

and people were saying they were being benchmarked

to the AMG GT-R.

Not the new one, the older one,

which I think had that really slick V8.

Wait, isn't it a V10?

What are we talking about here?

No, no, LFR and the AMG.

I don't know if there's going to be a V10 in this LFR.

Okay, I wouldn't think so.

I think there's going to be a V6,

a twin turbo V6 or something.

But apparently it's been benchmarked to an AMG GT

and that sounds like a great car to me.

I really like the driving dynamics of the AMG GT.

I like the design of the AMG GT,

the sound of the AMG GT.

Sound of the AMG GT if Lexus can make a version of that.

Why don't you just marry an AMG GT?

Oh wait, Sammy, you already made your choice

and married a human being.

Yeah, I don't regret that.

But if I had the choice again, I don't know.

Well machine marriage is less controversial

than it once was and I wish you all the best

in seeking out your true happiness.

Okay, in addition to Lexus' news,

Nissan, I mean not Nissan,

Infinity showed up to the Pebble Beach Monterey,

Pebble Beach Monterey car week.

This is interesting mainly because

Infinity has not shown off like an

extremely new and interesting product

in a really long time.

Typically bring the Pebble Beach

is a different QX80, right?

QX80 and they did, they brought two.

But this time around they brought something,

a concept car known as the QX65 monograph,

which they said straight up is really related

to a production car called the QX65,

which will, I don't quite get it,

somehow slot between the QX60 and the QX80.

It basically is a QX60 without the third row of seats

and a little bit of a sloping rear design.

I think you're being a little,

it's more than a little of a sloping rear design.

When I look at this,

because we've already seen what happens

when there's a super low effort version

to make a two-seater SUV with the Mazdas,

where they went from CX70 and CX90.

I think in this case they're trying to evoke

the Bionic Cheetah, the friend of the show,

Infinity FX.

Friend of the show, yes.

The original, feeling like original

luxury coupe crossover, right?

Yeah, and I think they succeeded,

at least to my eyes,

there's more than a suggestion of that vehicle

from the rear quarter view.

And in the front, the large grille,

the way it's angled, also speaks to that.

Now, obviously, performance-wise.

It's not going to be anywhere near that.

No, it's the QX60,

which is a pretty middle-of-the-road luxury SUV.

But I do-

It's like a V6, a naturally aspirated V6 with life.

Yeah, I appreciate what they're trying to do.

I also want to say,

I think it's time for car companies

to stop using the terms

autograph, biograph, monograph.

Autobiographical.

This is just, it doesn't mean anything-

What is a monograph?

What am I talking about when I say monograph?

Exactly, it doesn't mean anything to anyone.

No one really understands what you're saying.

I just don't think these have resonance.

Like, maybe if you were trying to sell the public

an old, old fighting ship,

or something like that, from like the 1700s.

But you're not-

A monograph is generally a long-form work

on one, usually scholarly subject.

Oh, wow.

One aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist.

When I'm driving a luxury car-

Wonderful.

I often link it to a long, single subject piece of writing,

which I ruminate on like Matthew McConaughey

when he's driving a Lincoln.

Oh, yes.

The main thing here, though, is, as you've said,

friend of the podcast, Bionic Cheetah,

Infinity FX, 35, 45, and 50 in the second generation.

This car had legs, man.

This car had tendrils that extended way past Infinity.

And now all their automakers have been utilizing

its coupe crossover way more effectively than Infinity ever did.

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't-

It ran away from that.

It wasn't the first, right?

Like, the first was technically the X6,

but I really feel like the FX from Infinity had more influence.

Did the X6 come first?

Yes, the X6 was the first of the sport coupes.

Well, I'm pretty sure it did.

I'm going to double check.

Because there was the FX, sorry, there was the X6,

and then there was the ZDX, which came out a year later.

I don't remember exactly when the FX came out.

My man, you're way off.

FX, first generation FX came out 2002.

Okay, then I want to amend what I'm saying.

No, no, hear me out, because the X6 was an X5

that had a sloped roof.

It wasn't its own design.

So I feel like you're even more right

in the sense that the FX-

RDX was a good idea, though.

Let me take a look at one.

Not RDX, ZDX.

It came out a year after the X6, exactly one year.

Oh, yeah, 2009.

Okay.

So the FX has been echoing through time,

and I really do feel like it was more-

The X6 was more successful for sales,

but I just think the legacy of the Infinity is more important.

But look, let's think about what Infinity is showing now.

That channels this Infinity FX.

I don't even mean like Infinity's-

The design is there, but you're right.

The performance is going to be way off.

The chassis is all wrong.

But I'm talking about the influence

over the whole industry, not over at Infinity.

Infinity has been lost without a paddle for at least a decade.

Yeah.

One more luxury automaker that showed up

and had something to say was Acura.

Acura again showed us a concept car

which will probably showcase a real product.

It's called the Acura RSX.

Do you remember that name?

Do you remember the Acura RSX nameplate?

Entirely uninterested in engaging with this vehicle.

The original or the old?

The original or the new one?

I feel like this is manufactured nostalgia at a level

well past what they did with Integra.

And ZDX.

This is just like, what if they brought back the vigor?

You know?

No one remembers the vigor.

Maybe people remember the legend,

but these are still cars that I don't think

people have a ton of resonance with.

The RSX came and went.

In one generation too, if I remember correctly.

Yeah.

So it's not real heritage.

So let's forget the original RSX,

just like Acura actually did,

and talk about this new EV,

which will be using Acura or Honda's own platform

and technology as far as I understand.

And you're going to love this.

Remember Asamo?

The robot?

I love, you know what?

Asamo RIP in retirement.

He's back in OS in operating system form.

The thing about Asamo that I didn't like

was it was always trying to shake people's hands.

There's all these photos of it shaking.

What?

You can't meet Asamo.

It's not real.

It's not a person.

You can't meet it.

You can't.

Okay.

All right.

I'm done.

Okay.

Well, he's coming back or it's coming back

in the form of this RSX.

I guess infotainment system or AI or something like that.

It's...

I'm uncomfortable with this.

I can tell you though that the debut of the RSX EV

means you're going to get some really good deals

on ZDXs.

Good point.

And that's not a bad thing actually.

They're going to clear out that inventory.

Yeah.

And the prologue is already like being cleared out.

So you know that there's a wave of change

coming at your Honda Acura dealer.

And like Sami said,

get in on that because the prologue is like a good

GM SUV EV with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

One more thing that I wanted to talk about

in terms of the luxury automakers.

Again, because all of these luxury automakers

are bringing in media to take a look at all their cars

and they also want to be in the same breath

as some of these super car makers and stuff like that.

There's a lot of like news that gets shared,

lots of rumors, a lot of talking basically.

And one of the things that showed up

that caught my attention,

there's two news reports here.

One is from Auto News, Automotive News.

They said that they got the inside scoop

that BMW is developing an off-road SUV

to rival the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

Isn't that something we've always really wanted?

The weird thing is it's going to be based on the X5?

That's okay.

Why not just make a hardcore X5?

I think that would make a little more sense.

They made a new version of the X5.

This is something that the...

No, they added an options package

that gives you a locking differential

and some other skid plates and all-terrain tires.

And that's fine.

I think that's actually a good direction for them to go in.

Because once upon a time,

and I say once upon a time, it was like 25 years ago,

when the X5 and the M-Class and the Cayenne first arrived,

they had to go off-road.

For some reason...

They were actually off-roading.

Yeah, car companies thought that,

well, SUVs go off-road and as far as don't,

people will make fun of us for being posers.

No one cares about that anymore.

But back then, you had legitimate low-range four-wheel drive

on all of those vehicles and some decent off-road chops.

Today, I guess making their own vehicle

that will look like a G-Class is an interesting way to go,

except the reason the G-Class sells, I think,

is because of its heritage.

It's been able to weaponize heritage really well.

BMW won't be able to do that.

So I'm curious to see what their game plan

will be in terms of marketing it.

All of these off-road-oriented EVs weaponize that heritage,

just as you said, really well.

I mean, look at Jeep, look at Bronco.

You mean SUVs, not EVs.

Sorry, SUVs.

Really nail those things, right?

Land Rover as well, Range Rover and Land Rover.

Yeah, but I mean, I'm talking specifically

about the old-school designs.

No, no, I'm saying I agree with you entirely, entirely.

And will BMW be more successful

because they're not shackled to a history?

Will they be able to make something more interesting?

Or they just will whiff on this

like they did the XM that's currently.

So here's what's interesting.

Apparently is going to replace this thing.

Because I know the next thing you're going to talk about

is another example of heritage that's not really heritage.

And that's Nissan talking about bringing back the X-Terra.

Yeah, this is good.

This is a report, again, from, I think this is from

Who is this from?

Where is this from?

Automotive.

Let's just say automotive news.

You saw it in Car and Driver.

I sent it to you from Car and Driver.

It is automotive news.

It's always automotive news.

I have it right here.

Anyway, I love automotive reviews.

Me and you have both written for,

they are really thorough in their reports

and rumors that come from automotive news.

So what's super weird about this is that it's not just

that Nissan wants to bring back the X-Terra,

something that they've been talking about for

probably five or six years now.

But it's that they're making a brand new body on frame platform

that's going to be used for the Frontier,

the Pathfinder, the QX60, and the X-Terra.

Okay.

What?

I wasn't aware that any of those vehicles sold at a volume

that warranted a brand new platform.

Especially a body on frame platform.

That's what I'm saying,

because it's so limited as to what they can do with it.

I mean, maybe this is tied to global frontier production,

in which case, I can't remember,

it's called the Navara elsewhere.

Is that what it is?

I think that sells reasonably well on the global market.

So, okay, if that's what you're doing with it,

but why move the Pathfinder as a Pathfinder owner?

Now you can talk about it.

Yeah.

The Pathfinder has gone from-

You've had this car for like a week and a half.

Come on.

Two months.

The Pathfinder has gone from being like a half,

a body on frame vehicle to a half body on frame,

half unibody to a full body on frame vehicle,

back to a unibody,

and now it's going back to body on frame?

Like, that's so weird.

Just think about-

No, so what you're saying though,

when you talk about it that way,

then this is totally,

that's totally on brand for this car.

You're saying the pendulum swings and they have to-

Yeah.

But what's strange is like-

There's been somebody working at Nissan,

sweating it, being like,

my God, I have to deliver a successful new body on frame

SUV that'll yield to every market.

The only similar model out there I can think of

is the Explorer,

which I think had a sort of similar journey,

not as many swings,

but it did do like the brief body on frame thing for a while

before, sorry, the brief unibody thing

before going back to being a truck, right?

Yeah.

And it's a truck now, right?

Isn't it?

It's on a-

The new Explorer?

Yeah.

It's on a rear wheel drive platform.

I don't know if that means that it's body on frame or not.

So who-

I don't think it is.

Who are the customers

who are buying the body on frame Pathfinder?

Or the new Extera, right?

Like-

Well, no, because if you look at the Nissan showroom,

they have the Armada.

The Armada is based on the-

Oh, yes, that's right.

Yeah, the Armada is based on a body on frame platform

that it shares with the Infiniti QX80.

The Pathfinder is their equivalent of the Explorer kind of.

And it's-

Or the Traverse or something like that,

a family-friendly vehicle.

I know-

Three-row, yeah.

They have the Timberline,

but you don't really expect to go off-road in either of these vehicles,

like hardcore.

Absolutely not.

There's no need for the body on frame

unless you're really pushing hard for towing,

which I don't think they need to do with the Armada.

And at that point, you can just get an Armada.

Exactly.

Although maybe the Armada has just become so expensive,

no one's buying it.

I think that's possible.

They're going to stealth-

Because where are they building them?

Maybe they're trying to build them closer to-

Well, maybe they're stealth-

Replacing the Armada.

Maybe we're going to see-

The Armada's gone,

the Pathfinder becomes the new Armada,

except they widen the range.

So it's like you can still get an affordable Pathfinder.

Oh my God, you cracked it.

And then the XTERRA slides in to do what the Pathfinder used to do,

except as to risk it doesn't,

because it's also body on frame.

And we'll also sport a way better power train, apparently.

Yeah.

Not only will it ride on a body on frame,

but we'll have a V6 hybrid,

which, you know, the Pathfinder,

look, it has a V6 right now,

makes about 300 horsepower is good enough.

It's no supercharged XTERRA.

I can tell you that.

Right?

Back in the days where it was like, what, 220 horsepower?

It was supercharged or something.

Yeah.

260, I think.

It was a different time.

I mean, look, let's be clear here.

The off-road like SUV, like landscape,

I don't know what you want to call it.

It's like changing every year.

It feels like, are we-

I'm not off-roading, Ben.

I don't really off-road.

I know you have a little plot of land,

but I don't think you're really-

I live out in the country and I don't really off-road either.

I've actually been-

No, but I've been looking for a place to off-road.

And honestly, it was easier to find a place near Montreal

than it is out here.

And I think that's because off-roading tends

to make a mess of whatever land it's on.

So you have to have a landowner who's totally cool with it,

or you have to have a utility like Hydro-Quebec

that is okay with you using their access roads,

which might as well be off-roading

because they're not-

They're roads and they're only, right?

Yeah.

It's that kind of thing.

I have too many expensive hobbies.

Like road course racing is expensive

in terms of stuff that breaks and whatnot.

And off-roading is just basically daring your truck to break.

Like that's all you're doing, you know?

It's a feat of strength.

That's what it is.

It's like fun, but it's not something

that I really think about or that I aspire to.

But listen to us.

Two automotive journalists, two automotive enthusiasts.

We're talking about that we don't really go off-road.

Yeah. And I own like a body on frame, two solid axle Jeep.

And now I have this Pathfinder,

which is also pretty decent off-road.

But like, this is weird to say,

there's also a culture around off-road driving

that can be impenetrable and it can feel

like it's attached to other subcultures of cars

that are not necessarily something

I want to be associated with.

And I'm saying this-

Is this what the automakers are gunning for with all of these off-roading things?

I just want to finish my thought

because I'm saying this not to offend people

who are into off-roading.

But there's a vocal minority in the off-road community

who like have truck nuts and ridiculous like brodozers.

Bullet, bullet antennas.

Yeah. And they kind of ruin it for people

who are really there to have a good time

and be welcoming to people

who want to enjoy that part of off-roading.

Don't tread on me stickers or whatever.

There's a crossover between people who are aggressive

because they own giant vehicles and lift kits

and people who actually build vehicles to go off-roading.

And that can be a turnoff.

So the question is,

is that what all these automakers,

because there's like, you've got to be blunt with me here.

The amount of off-road oriented vehicles

and off-road cosplay packages for non-body on frame

like off-roaders is staggering, right?

Yeah, it's all-

There's an insane amount of-

But it's because they can charge you more for it.

Anything a car company can charge you more for,

they're going to get on board.

And if they can give you some accessories

and some stickers and call it an off-roading package,

they're definitely going to do that.

And that's fine. They're in business to make money.

I get it.

But why is that marketing successful?

Because as we talked about a couple of weeks ago

where we were saying, you know, at Subaru, for example,

Wilderness has definitely replaced STI,

I think it's because it's more accessible.

You can take your off-road vehicle

or your quote-unquote off-road vehicle to work every day

and it's fine.

It's not necessarily like driving a race car to work every day,

which can be annoying.

And not just annoying to you,

but annoying to everybody, like loud popping everything.

A mildly lifted suspension

is easier to drive than a slammed suspension

in almost every circumstance.

I want to stay on this Nissan news.

It's crazy that Nissan has built so much news

in the past two weeks that I have heard in the past year.

Nissan is committed to launching 20 new and updated models

by 2027.

I like that we're committed.

Yeah.

Like it suggests that like it's going to happen,

but like if it doesn't happen, at least they were committed.

Okay. I've got tons of decent news actually.

No, no, this is the last one.

No, no, I have to get all, I can't.

You can, I have faith in you.

Pick one of them that speaks to you and we'll use that one.

How about the one about the sports sedan?

How about that one?

Yeah, okay, fine.

So there's a rumor that Infinity is going to revive

the Q50 with a manual gearbox.

Sammy, does anyone out there remember the Q50?

If you remember the Q50, please write to us

because it was a vehicle that was totally fine and good

and it was automatic only, I believe.

And nobody cared.

And they sold it with this wicked powertrain.

They then they removed the, then they did the,

they did the wrong thing of removing the, the, the,

what is it?

The steering.

I don't know where you're going with this.

What did they do with it?

No, it had an electric power steering system.

That's right.

But it was like a steer by wire.

The physical connection to the,

man, I couldn't even articulate it properly.

They removed the physical connection

between the steering wheel and the steering wheels.

Good job there.

I had my safe.

It was, it was drive by wire in the sense

that it was steer by wire,

but they had a mechanical failover system also present.

So like if the steering system, like if it crapped out,

the mechanical system would instantly take over,

which just adds weight and complication.

It was a feature no one was asking for.

And I think they were really banking on the fact that you could,

you know how like on electric power steering systems,

you can dial in how heavy you want it to feel,

but it doesn't really do anything.

They were trying to convince people that they wanted to

ultimately configure their steering system to feel however

they wanted it to.

But they didn't give you that much granularity.

And no, I mean, there's zero feedback.

It's like all simulated feedback

when you have no direct connection.

If they could make it like a video game,

like I have one of those gaming steering wheels.

No, thank you.

I don't want that either.

But I mean, it's just funny that you would be able to

like go lock to lock in like one 360 turn or not.

That's not something you want to give people on the street.

Anyways, there's a rumor that they're planning to revive the Q50 sedan,

which hasn't been on sale since 2024.

That's news to me.

And they're going to bring it with a manual transmission

and the twin turbo V6 from the Nissan Coupe.

So I like the Q50.

I like the Q50.

I think Infinity is a brand in trouble that has no identity.

No one knows what it stands for or why they should buy one.

I don't think selling a super limited appeal

manual transmission sports sedan is going to help them.

As much as I like that segment of the market,

I just don't think it's going to change their fortunes.

And that's too bad.

Listen, the official spokesperson on this rumor says,

Infinity is executing a five year product strategy

that will include at least four all new models.

The QX65, which we already talked about,

a high performance sports sedan,

a mid-sized hybrid crossover, and an all electric SUV.

OK, given the financial status of Nissan,

do you think Infinity has five years?

No, I don't know.

We've seen luxury companies like Jaguar

just disappear from the market.

And they certainly...

Listen, Jaguar is pairing back their situation

and are going to make the weirdest thing

you've ever experienced.

They're going to sell weird things to weird people.

And Jaguar's CEO said that they expected to lose

85% of their existing ownership.

But they're going to sell a single $5 million car

and make it all up.

It's so wild.

My point is, if Jaguar can't make it,

an air company that has much more heritage

and huge backing from Tata, right,

what chances does Infinity have

when they have far fewer years spent on the market?

No identity and a parent,

a corporate parent that is in dire straits financially.

Like it's just not a good situation.

Yeah, the Renault, Nissan thing.

If Mitsubishi out of that?

I can't remember.

I think it's Nissan specifically as a brand.

I think Nissan is in trouble.

So anyway.

Okay, but like, listen,

if you could get a high-performance sedan,

let's, like, I don't know what the upper,

what the ceiling of a sports sedan

made by Infinity would be price-wise.

Let's say it's under 100 grand.

With a manual transmission,

you've immediately gathered something

that AMG and M do not have, right?

You can buy, a Q50 is the same size as an M3.

You can get a manual transmission M3.

Why would you buy a Q50?

Can you really?

Yeah.

All right.

Well, I guess I thought that thing was done.

I thought it was super limited edition.

I thought it was stuck to like the CSLs

or something like that.

I don't think so.

I think it's the other way around.

In any case, I just don't see Infinity

competing with M or AMG.

I don't think they're in the same conversation.

Well, yeah, without the base product,

how do they get to the higher end stuff?

They're just not being cross-shopped.

So in any case.

Struggles.

Struggles for them.

We're all struggling, Sammy.

Nisa's just struggling at a much more public level.

Okay. Anything else you want to talk about this week?

No, that does it for me.

What are you going to be talking about next week?

As I mentioned, I'm going to bring in the Volvo XC90.

I think it's called the B8 plug-in.

Okay.

And yeah.

I'm going to be talking about the Mitsubishi Outlander,

the gas-powered one.

A vehicle I can't remember the last time I drove.

It's been a super long time.

So I'm going to have some pretty fresh impressions there.

I can't believe they gave you the non-plug-in hybrid.

It's specifically what I asked for.

It's so unnecessary.

Okay. I can't wait to hear from you about this.

This is going to be great.

Sammy, if people want to get in touch with us

and tell us their thoughts on you,

really talking some crap about the Outlander.

Head on over to our website, unnamedoutamotivepodcast.com.

While you're there, you can see all of our previous episodes.

You can see pictures of the cars we've been driving,

links to the stories we've been writing about, all that kind of stuff.

More important than that and more important than...

No, wait. Not more important.

You can also subscribe to our podcast, which is handy,

using buttons at the website.

You can also go to our website and fill out a contact form

that gets you in touch with us.

If you have comments, you have thoughts about what we're saying,

you have your own input that you'd like us to hear,

and we love hearing it.

We really do.

I encourage you to go to our website, unnamedoutamotivepodcast.com.

Fill out that contact form.

Let us know what's on your mind.

Let us know what you want to talk about.

Like if you want us to talk about something

or if you've got some notes,

if you have some experience off-roading.

If you've been thinking about long-range EV road trips

like Ben just went on, whatever's on your mind, hit us up.

You can also email us the old-fashioned way.

It's benjaminatbenjaminhunting.com.

Or you can reach out to us on Instagram.

Ben is at Hunting Benjamin, and I'm at Sammy underscore half.

Like you're laughing.

There's one more thing I want to talk about this week, Sammy.

It's been a long time,

but I have another comic book coming out.

You're going to talk about the end of the podcast?

Yeah, I totally spaced on it.

You talked about the podcast thing.

I just realized that this is going to be,

when this goes live, it'll have been announced.

So it's about, it's called Model UN,

and it's about a world where in the 1990s,

yes, the 90s again, there's a group of high school students

who are, they're in a Model UN club.

They're much of misfits.

And an alien ship shows up at their high school

and mistakes them for the real UN.

And no matter what they do,

they can't convince the very pigheaded alien leader

that he's made a mistake.

So it's up to them to basically save the world.

It's something different for me.

It's kind of a black and white manga style.

It's funny.

At least I'd like to think so.

And I'm going to have a Kickstarter for it

that starts October 7th.

But you can get in on the action right now.

ModelUNcomic.com is the way to go to the preview page

for the Kickstarter.

And the more people who click notify me

when this goes live,

the better we're going to do with the Kickstarter algorithm.

So that's always helpful to me.

If you're interested in comic books,

if you're interested in aliens,

or you're interested in a weird 90s high school experience

like I had, you might enjoy ModelUN.

So that's ModelUNcomic.com.

Thank you everyone for listening.

We can't wait to hit you up next week with the next episode, man.

Bye-bye, everybody.

Bye.

Episode 417: 2026 BMW iX xDrive60 Road Trip, Pebble Beach News Roundup

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