Episode 420: 2025 Audi SQ6 E-Tron, 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport, Listener Questions

Hello, and welcome to the Unnamed Automotive Podcast. My name is Sammy Haggisad, and with me as always is my good friend and fellow automotive journalist, Benjamin Hunting. Say hi to the people, Ben. Sammy, I'm glad you're back because last week you were in Scotland. I was in Scotland. I was driving in an Audi that I'm not allowed to tell you how it drives or share any pictures of it in motion, which is something we don't do anyways on the podcast, but I just wanted to warn you, I've been really like,

sternly looked at and told that I can't do those two things. Sternly looked at. Yeah, you know, when somebody looks at you quite sternly. I mean, this isn't a visual medium, so yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't imagine it, people.

And so what you're saying is, in the future, we're going to be able to hear about everything that you did. Everything that I did. I mean, I don't think about everything. I think something should be left personal to me.

I will talk to you about the 2026 Audi Q3 that I drove and all of the fun details that involve driving it, which were, which were many. And that'll be next week, though.

And this week we're talking about another Audi, which is kind of fun because we haven't talked about Audi's in a really long time on the podcast. If I recall a couple of years, maybe.

I think in regularity, in like regularity, we don't typically talk about Audi's too often. Mainly the here in Canada, in order to pick up a vehicle, in order to get a press vehicle, it's a we have to drive to them and the Audi HQ for me is super far away.

The Audi HQ is actually closer to me than any other HQ. Now that I've moved out into the country.

Well, mine is, mine is closer to you than it is to me, I think, but anyway, so I find myself kind of skipping them every once in a while. But I guess we should get back to it because people want to know about these outies, right?

I want to know about them. I'm glad that I drove it because it had been too long for me. I do want to say it had been a couple of years. I think perhaps the previous, the most recent Audi I drove was the RS6.

And that would have been a couple of years ago. And then before that was I want to say an RS3 and then an RS5. So there's been a lot of high performance outies, but the vehicle that I drove, Sammy, was high performance in a sense that it's it's underneath the the badge, you know,

Audi and BMW and Mercedes-Benz have gotten weird about their performance, right? In the sense of how it's advertised. So it used to be the M meant high performance and AMG meant high performance and that S meant high performance.

And then you can get middle performance and products and AMG products. It's pretty much that's how it is, right? Like the S became middle performance and RS became super high performance and AMG is just everywhere now.

It's hard to keep track of what's fast and what's only a little bit faster. You have to know your number. It's actually for the AMGs because I think they have 53s or 55s and then they have the real AMGs which are like 63s.

And then BMW, it's like either M or M sport, right?

Well, they put M in front of the number or M, like if it's M in front of the normal number, like M340 versus M3. If you have more than one number after the M, then you're you're dealing with like middle performance. So I'll have to say super, super clear, really, honestly.

It's better than what Cadillac does with that weird number on the back of the trunk or the hatch that no one understands, which is like the torque in Newton meters.

Yeah, 600. It doesn't mean anything. No one knows what that means. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't matter.

So this extends to electric vehicles. Wait, can we take a step back? It could also be. Remember, Accura has type type S, which means that the car just has an average amount of horsepower.

Is that what that means? Yeah, isn't it? I don't know. MDX type S. That didn't do anything.

But the type S version of the Integra has like a fairly substantial almost the same amount of horsepower is the MDX type S.

There you go. This extends to electric vehicles, too, because Audi is in the middle of remaking its EV platforms.

They have a new platform coming out or coming out. It's already out now. And they're replacing the Q8 e-tron, which was their largest electric SUV.

It's been running for quite a number of years now. And in its place steps in the Q6 e-tron or the one that I drove the S Q6 e-tron, which is intended to offer better acceleration.

With the usual caveats that come with increasing the output on electric car. So I picked this one up.

I mean, there's a couple of things that I really want to make a point about with this vehicle. The first is I won't get in the way.

I think this is the most norm core luxury SUV styling out there. And I think that that's on purpose. I think that Audi has decided to make its EVs look very much like its gas powered vehicles.

And if you were to look at a Q6, I should say all Q6s are electric, just like all Q4s are electric.

And then Q3 and Q5 are the gas versions that are roughly the same size as the next number up.

I mean, this barely looks any different than a Q5.

Exactly. That's where I was. That's exactly what I was about to say. And I think that that is on purpose. I think the idea is, Audi realizes that when you look at a BMW showroom, and you see the iX, which is fairly extraverted styling.

Or you look at the Mercedes showroom, and you see the EQE, which looks like a bar or soap that was run through a wind tunnel.

Some people are either not going to want to have all the attention that an iX provides.

Or they're not going to want the bland and anonymous look that Mercedes has gone with for its non-conversion electric vehicles.

They want an Audi. They want an Audi that looks like an Audi that maybe looks like the Audi they're trading in. Or that looks like the Audi that their neighbor has.

That's what the Q6 and the sq6 is going for. It has the big grill. They even do like diamond cutting on the grill to make it look like it has openings that it doesn't have.

It's fairly well done. And again, you're into this look.

I am into this. I think it's cool. I think that there's room for different things in the marketplace. And I like when a car company walks its own path.

And in this case, walking its own path means staying true to its internal styling decisions.

Some people might say that Audi is very conservative when it comes to design these days. I think that's an accurate assessment.

But that might say for sure, I think they play it safe.

There's nothing wrong with that if that's what your customers want. And conservative doesn't mean ugly.

It just means you're not taking a lot of risks with the shape of your vehicle.

That's something that really stands out to me about this vehicle inside. It's similar. Like you could be in any Audi.

And I think that that is a strength.

It doesn't. Yeah. It feels plush. It feels. I really like the seats and really nice time is stitching really.

It felt upscale, but it didn't feel overwhelmingly upscale. When you get into like an Iax, which I actually driven the week before pretty much.

Yeah.

Which is all sorts of like weird angles and shapes.

Yeah, they're really reminding you that you're in an electric car. And that's fine. Again, there's a customer for that.

But Audi has walked away from that. And in this one, they're like, hey, you're in an Audi.

So I appreciated that about it.

Okay.

The other thing I wanted to talk about that's not so good for the Q6 or the SQ6. Sorry.

Is the electric drivetrain. The power is decent.

It's a dual-border all-wheel drive vehicle. It's this is pretty much like a mid-size luxury SUV.

Which is to say like you don't expect a third row expected to be like functional for for adults.

Yeah, exactly. It comes with 510 horsepower from its electric drivetrain.

But the thing is you can't get that unless you're using the boost mode and boost mode most often comes up when you're using launch control.

Which is something no one is going to do more than once or twice with one of these vehicles.

It's a party trick. You scare yourself. You scare your passenger and then you never touch it again.

Because like this thing will do zero to 60 in 4.1 seconds.

Wow.

Independent testing has got that number down to like 3.7 or something, which is absolutely insane for a 5,000 pound vehicle.

And that that's terrifying. It's just like hurtling towards the horizon at that speed in something that heavy.

I don't want to do that. I just don't want to do that.

So some people might think, oh, well, I'm only getting 510 horsepower when I use this button.

Well, it has, you know, 483 horsepower all the time, which is more than enough.

You're not going to be up.

Am I going to miss the 30 horsepower that boost mode provides?

No, that doesn't sound like that doesn't sound like a difference enough.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's not a huge deal.

Even percentage wise, it's not quite a lot.

The other thing that's a little weird is the regular version, quote-unquote regular version of the Q6 has the same drivetrain setup, but it's tuned to 456 horsepower.

So it's like, it's less than 30 horsepower difference there from that to the SQ6 as well.

Yeah.

There's not a big separation.

The other stuff that kind of pushes the vehicles apart.

There's some styling elements.

But as I mentioned, they're pretty modest.

I believe that the suspension, the air suspension on the SQ6 is tuned more aggressively.

When I drove it, it's not really a corner carver.

It's a vehicle that's very comfortable in pretty much every situation.

Again, I think that's way more important for SUV buyers, especially electric SUV buyers.

But where I was going with this whole drivetrain talk is the SQ6 has a 275 mile range semi.

Okay.

What does it sound super competitive, is it?

No, it's not.

I think BMW's on the IX.

I drove the X60 version, which is equivalent to the SQ6 in terms of it being like the mid-tier performance model.

Yeah.

I can't remember it off the top of my head.

I'm going to look it up right now.

Okay.

It's so 275.

So it's 364 miles.

Wow.

So that is nearly, it's a 90 mile difference.

And that depends on whether you get the big wheels or the small wheels.

Like it can drop down to 318, which is still almost 50 miles more than the SQ6.

And in my experience, I was able to push past the official number, the official big number,

sorry, the big wheels number in driving the BMW.

That is a huge difference.

It's really hard to understand why Audi was so okay with putting this out there.

I will say that it matches up better with the EQE.

So BMW this year came out with new energy management for the IX.

Okay.

And I believe the battery is different as well.

And that helped boost its range.

But the SQ6 is an all new platform.

Yeah.

So they could have done the same thing, right?

There's no reason why they couldn't have benchmarked that particular figure.

They weren't dealing with anything legacy, you know?

But let's not, let's not hold on.

Just give me a minute here with this Audi.

This Audi platform I've learned is called the PPE platform, which is a fairly unfortunate name for a vehicle platform.

It is using the same 800 volt architecture that's found on Porsche vehicles and some other Audi vehicles.

It has a huge battery band.

This is 94.4 kilowatt hours.

Yeah. And it's still getting 275 miles.

That's really rough.

I don't know how they can sacrifice where the disconnect is.

I don't know if that's a conservative thing.

Did you experience that limited amount of mileage?

I got 35 kilowatt hours per 100 miles of consumption, which works out to roughly 265 miles of range on the battery.

It's not far off at all.

Less efficient than what I got from the IXX drive for sure.

That's insane.

And the regular Q6 is 307 miles.

So turning down the power does give you 30 more miles of driving, but you're still like 60 miles away from what BMW is doing.

Is the regular one also hauling a 94 kilowatt hours battery?

I think it's the same battery for all vehicles.

So that's strange. Like, I don't get that.

You have this big battery, man.

You have this good platform.

You have these great power.

You have the comfort that you need for this vehicle.

And then you have this inefficiency, which is really surprising.

Now 275 miles is still very useful.

And it does compare well to some of its rivals.

Like I believe the GV70 electrified, which is a conversion vehicle.

It comes with a 77 kilowatt hour battery.

And the Mercedes EQE, the 500, I think, is the one that's roughly equivalent powerwise to this.

But yeah, just strange.

If you get the smaller, there's a smaller battery available for the BMW, or at least a smaller motor setup.

And that one is like 312 miles.

So at the entry level, the Q6 matches up well with the entry level IX.

But then once you get to this SQ or X drive 60 level, the BMW really pulls away.

Even though they have similar straight line performance.

I think when there's a three in that, in that first position of your mileage rating there.

Yeah.

It doesn't even matter if it's 301 versus 299.

I'm going with the 301.

Like, I think that, that feels like it has a bigger ceiling then.

But that, to me, the inefficiency must be a weight thing or maybe a performance thing.

I don't think it's a weight thing because it weighs roughly the same as the IX.

I just think it's some type of energy management that the Audi's not quite where BMW is.

Well, earlier you mentioned that they have, it has a fairly conservative design.

The battery is also, I want to point out the battery is slightly larger in the IX.

I think it's 115 kilowatt.

Yeah, it's a big battery too.

Yes.

You mentioned that the design of the Audi SQ6 is a little bit more conservative,

a little bit more mainstream.

It feels like a regular, it could have, it could be the design on an ice powered car

where, where aerodynamic efficiency is not as heavily scrutinized.

So I would have thought maybe that, but the EQE is similar range.

And that's definitely all-error.

And that's all-error.

Yes.

That's that slumpy look that it has, that melted jelly bean or colder bar.

So absolutely.

I do want to say it was a useful vehicle.

I mean, I hauled home a set of tires and wheels for my, my pathfinder in it.

No problems.

A lot of space.

No, they're like big 17-inch tires with like, you know, gnarly tread on them.

And I was able to still fit like two axles and a couple of other body parts in.

And I had room left over.

So it's very useful.

I also think it's well priced.

It's like 75 grand in the US.

It's just under 100 in Canada, which matches it up really well with the BMW.

I think the Mercedes is more expensive.

Don't quote me on that.

The Genesis is slightly more slightly cheaper.

I do think that the e-tron being in the middle of the road in terms of price fits with its range.

If you can deal with the range, if you're not driving long distance, it's not going to be an issue, right?

You're going to be happy with the comfort, with the styling, with the performance.

So if you're, if you're a road trip person, you're going to want to lean towards the BMW.

But if you're spending money just to use it as a commuter,

it's going to handle anyone's commute.

That's, that's not a problem.

So it's an EV that does everything you want it to do.

It's not, not the plushest.

It doesn't have the most weird, you know, technological gizmos in it.

It doesn't have the biggest road presence.

But I think that that's a specific choice by Audi.

And I can get behind that.

I'm curious if there's some sort of corporate like we don't want to cross too many lines with the Porsche.

Because to me, as far as I can tell,

SQ6 and Macon should be very similar in terms of, in terms of clientele.

I think it's much more, much more, and the Macon is much more expensive and has a way,

way larger emphasis on performance.

But it has around the same size battery,

but can have up to 600 horsepower and has more ranged as well.

So it's smaller.

I'm pretty sure it's smaller.

Okay.

That makes sense.

I mean, Macon has always been a fairly small car.

I'm just so, I'm, I'm really caught off guard by that, by that range estimation.

But I have driven some other vehicles in this class, like the GV70 electric,

which is good, but also has a limited range.

I think 230 or 240 miles.

I think it was that low.

I thought it was like 265 or something.

And, um, and, well, my mind says 236 here.

But I'm going to double check to see.

No, it can be right.

I haven't driven one in a couple of years.

So.

And, um, the thing about both of those cars, the Genesis and the Audi,

isn't the have fairly high recharge, or they support high recharge rates.

So I'm reading that the Audi can, can charge at rates up to 270, I think.

Yeah.

I forgot to mention that.

That's a really good point.

It is much faster at recharging than the IX.

And so that might balance things out when you are on a road trip.

Uh, it'll do 10 to 80% in like 21 minutes.

And I think that the IX is like 35 or 37 minutes for the same amount.

Okay.

That's, that's, you know, that's not nothing.

Uh, the chances of you finding a 270 kilowatt charger in the real world are pretty low.

Yeah.

Uh, I, when I had the IX, I did use DC fast charging.

And I maxed out around 160 out of a theoretical 190, which is pretty good.

Um, for, for real world, real world charging with the, with the Audi, I didn't do any DC fast charging.

I charged at home.

So it was an issue for me.

But thanks for pointing that out.

That, that is an important difference.

But again, doesn't that speak to like kind of how befuddling it is that it pulls a head in this one area?

Yeah.

And it could have like also been good.

And I mean, better in the other area too.

And then it's like, eh, we'll go with 275.

Can you, do you know if the, it's unlikely that, um,

BMW has an 800 volt architecture, is it?

I don't remember.

I don't think so because I think we would have heard, we would have heard like more about that.

But the Genesis and the Audi and the Porsche all boast this 800 volt architecture, electrical architecture,

that allows it to be more competitive or allow for better charging and battery management.

But it seems like even the MW is capable of keeping up even without that kind of technology.

So it's always interesting to look at what these automakers are pushing as they are like breakthrough technology

and how much of an emphasis it adds to the, or how much of a change adds to the entire package.

This is a really tough, there's a tough spread of vehicles here to talk about, right?

You mentioned GV70 in IEX and EQE, EQE really, I struggle to recommend.

That is a, you have to be okay with the design of that vehicle.

Yeah, I really, I really don't think there's a lot to recommend it based on how strong the challengers are for that, that segment.

And in addition to the EQE's just exed, like wild exterior design, it has the giant hyper screen stuff.

It's super strange.

It's not going to age well.

Um, which is not to say, like, I see this Audi can also have a passenger screen, but you can also turn that off, of course.

And it just, you know, you can't see it from the driver side.

I didn't really talk about it because it was irrelevant to me.

It kind of feels like Audi put it in there because they feel they have to put it in there at this point.

It doesn't disrupt the styling of the vehicle all that much, because like I said, unless you're sitting directly in front of it,

it really just comes across as another trim piece.

I think one more dark horse in this class, which is not out yet, so don't, don't grill me too hard on this.

But I believe that there's going to be a performance version of the Cadillac Optic, which will probably bring it in range of these two vehicles.

I think Lyric is more a competitor for these vehicles.

Okay, sure.

I mean, Optic is a Macon competitor.

Lyric, yeah, that also makes sense.

Sure. And Lyric has been pretty good.

I think there's been some technical issues with it in the first years that it was out, but I think those can be pretty good cars too.

I don't, I think we've talked about how strong.

Lyric styling is more on the BMW side of things too.

It's like more extroverted in terms of its EV, wearing its EV credentials.

I mean, I also think Lyric's design language hides the fact that it's actually quite a large vehicle.

I think it hides it so well.

But overall, this SQ6, you've driven so many of these electric pseudo crossovers.

How does it feel?

Is this overall a pretty successful effort from Audi?

Yeah, that's what I said. I do recommend it.

And are you looking for anything like in a refresh or redesign that should just came out?

I mean, this year, sometimes it seems like this automaker is rushed to a finished product without, you know, fully, fully finishing certain aspects of it.

Like, nothing, nothing.

The payment system was totally functional.

Safety features.

Do you want to hands free?

Is there a hands-free feature coming to this car in any way?

I don't think so.

Okay, interesting, cool.

The car I drove was a crossover.

It's also new for this year in terms of it's writing on a new platform and has a few new technical features.

It is, of course, the 2026 Honda Passport, specifically the Trail Sport model.

This is an important car to talk about because it...

And I'm really eager to talk about it because one of the cars I really had a difficult time connecting with

over the past two years was the Honda Pilot.

The Honda Pilot is a three-row SUV from Honda.

And I really felt that it drove like a big car without the benefits of the big car.

It was really like clumsy.

It was really taxing to drive.

Like, they just truncated the pilot, basically.

No, no.

I'm talking about the pilot in particular, right?

Oh, sorry.

I really, like I said, I really struggled to connect to the pilot because it always felt like a big car.

Well, you can't really...

How do you connect with a large SUV?

Like, what does that even mean?

Well, in many ways it's not even a large SUV.

There are larger SUVs that are easier...

That are more comfortable and more...

Like, when you drive a grand highlander,

at least you know that this large SUV has tons of cargo room, has all these features, and X, Y, and Z.

So you're saying there should have been like a grand pilot?

No, I'm just saying the pilot felt big without the benefits of being big.

It didn't feel spacious.

It didn't feel high performance.

It was, in fact, very awful on gas.

And the only thing I liked about it was that it looked pretty tough.

When you make the transition from the pilot to the passport,

the passport is supposed to feel, as far as I understand,

it's supposed to be more off-road-oriented or more rugged, or portray a more rugged exterior aura.

And I feel that the passport actually achieves that, first of all, it looks great.

Although, from certain angles, I think it just looks like a ginormous Bronco sport.

You know, take it as you will if you like the Bronco sport.

Do you think it has that similar kind of styling that Hyundai put on the Santa Fe recently as well?

No, there's something...

There's something approachable about...

Like, like, friendly about the Santa Fe.

That is, like, kind of, like, masculine or aggressive or muscular

on the passport.

They really delivered on this design.

To me, it feels like the exterior design is up there with the likes of the Wrangler or the Defender,

a really boxy, butch sort of off-road-oriented vehicle.

I was questionable because I've seen it in pictures, but I think in person, once you see it,

it really looks the part of an off-roader.

In practice, though,

there are a couple of things that make me question just how off-road-capable this car is.

So you're saying it's no wilderness?

It is definitely not a wilderness.

For starters, the drivetrain cribbed exactly from the pilot is a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6

with only 285 horsepower and a 10-speed automatic transmission.

The 10-speed feels like a lot of gears to work through.

It is super like road and road trip oriented?

Does it have an off-road driving mode and does that off-road driving mode change how it shifts?

Like, does it restrict the gears?

As far as I noticed, it didn't restrict the gears.

I think it just changes the shift pattern and when they're doing it, when they're changing gears.

There's also a...

It's hard to describe the drive mode because there is a drive mode selector.

There's several drive modes to pick from.

There is an off-road oriented one.

But in addition to the drive mode selector, there's also a S mode on the transmission or the gearbox.

So you basically double press the drive button and it goes into S mode.

And then it's going to shift a little bit sooner or downshift a little bit quicker.

So I don't know what...

Basically what I'm trying to say is, this feels like a car that wants to look like an off-road car but performs like an on-road car.

And I have a tough time, you know, reconciling all of these things.

But let me get back to just how it feels or just some of the elements of it that feel a little off in terms of off-road capability.

Ground clearance is one of my major issues here.

8.3 inches of ground clearance.

So less than wilderness.

Well, significantly less than any Subaru.

Less than any Subaru.

Yes, that's right.

I mean, you can stick your foot, you know, I can fit my foot under the car.

Are you bragging about how big your feet are?

You can't put your foot under a pilot?

Like if I listen to a passport?

Yeah, my heel...

Like I can't fit my foot under there.

Are you talking vertically?

What are you talking vertically?

This is really confusing.

When would you ever have your foot vertical near a car?

Like are you lying down?

I'm trying to see how much ground clearance it has.

So you're lying down beside the car.

Things are getting really, you know, it's intimate.

It's comfortable.

You're feeling good about how the night's going.

I am.

And the car's like, hey, why don't you try?

What did I try over it?

Hey, what's that foot doing over there?

And what's that foot do?

And you, you, I guess, respond.

Yes.

Okay.

So the other elements here uses all terrain tires.

I believe they were geolanders.

Of course, they're always geolanders.

And what's the, what are the two choices?

Just geolander and then there's the...

Oh, I can't remember now.

Geoliders are Yokohama, right?

Wild peak.

That's right.

Falcon and Yokohama.

Yeah, that's right.

So contractually obligated to be on every off-road type vehicle.

And yeah, in general, like, drove like a big car,

it is a little bit shorter.

There is no third row.

Like, you would find in the pilot.

What?

You can't off-road with three roads.

Everyone knows that.

Tell that to Land Rover.

The thing that caught me off-guard was the amount of cargo room,

of course.

There's a ton of cargo room, essentially, because they ripped out that third row of seats.

And overall, I was leaning towards liking this car,

but only as, you know, sort of a tough on-road sort of, like,

occasional gravel or mud sort of companion.

It is not a wilderness.

That is the number one thing I think they need to make clear here.

But the steal of being in a big vehicle is achieved by whatever Honda

is working on with the pilot in passport.

I think this is an important thing to talk about because

I'm going to go way back to the Ridge Line.

When Ridge Line came out, Honda was so, they were so pressured

about making a vehicle that even though it wasn't a body-on-frame truck,

they wanted a car that felt like a truck, which is a hard thing to define.

It's a totally subjective thing, and only people who drive trucks regularly get it.

And the moment they get into a unibody thing, they kind of just feel,

oh, this is kind of like flimsy.

Except everyone who bought a cheap Cherokee.

Yes.

So, I think they've been struggling with this identity

that they're trying to create with their Ridge Line,

which has been very difficult to define.

And I think they finally achieved it with whatever this platform is

that the pilot in passport is running on.

I think it's the same platform as the Ridge Line.

The Ridge Line has yet been upgraded to whatever the pilot in passport have yet.

It's lagging.

And I think that if a new Ridge Line is coming, which I assume it is,

it will feel what they've been trying to achieve feel-wise,

whether or not that it means anything capability-wise,

like I just mentioned in terms of off-road ground clearance,

that's a whole other story altogether.

If you're buying an off-roader, the fact is,

you're looking at Wranglers, Broncos, Four Runners,

you're looking at vehicles with a ton of capability, ground clearance.

They're typically body on frame,

and they have a little bit more of a ruggedness to them.

I think this thing barely has skid plates.

It does a lot of technology on it that allows-

What about the differential?

Does it have a special all-wheel drive system?

It just has the same IVT-M4 all-wheel drive system

that they torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system,

which is similar to super-handling all-wheel drive,

in which I think for the rear wheels,

it can send 100% of the rear-bound torque to one of those wheels.

Can you get the same all-wheel drive system

on a non-trail-sport version of the passport?

Yeah, as far as I can tell,

it looks like the same all-wheel drive system for all of them.

I don't really have a problem with them building a truck

that looks like it can go off-road.

I honestly-

That's something.

I'm past the point where I care about posters and posing

and whatever.

Just try whatever you want and look home

wherever you want to do whatever you want.

I happen to think the new passport looks pretty good.

It looks super good, man.

It's way better than the old one.

They really dialed up the aggressiveness

and the interest level for me when I look at that vehicle.

I'm down with that, which is a weird thing to say.

I also think it's strange

because some companies,

we talk a lot about wilderness,

but companies like Kia, for example,

they have X-Pro and X-Line,

and X-Pro is very confusing.

I don't like that they have too often

potentially off-road oriented trains.

It's confusing in a sense that one gives you capabilities

and one doesn't,

but both of them look like they have the capabilities.

But it's designed to do kind of what the trail sport is doing.

I feel like trail sport is trying to have it both ways,

where they're not even saying that it doesn't go off road.

You know what I mean?

I think when you get an X-Line version from Kia,

you know that you can't really go off road,

and Kia doesn't pretend.

They're just like, hey, do you want the styling?

I think there's a version of the Jeep that also looks

a lot like the Rubicon,

but doesn't do what the Rubicon does.

I want to say it's called the X or something like that.

They made the version.

Oh yeah, I actually limited it or something like that.

The Grand Cherokee had a version like that too,

where it looked like the SRT,

but it wasn't the SRT.

Yeah, yeah.

So I kind of understand that,

but with Honda,

they're trying to have it both ways.

They're trying to be like,

okay, so it looks really hardcore,

and we're going to give you a skid plate.

Yeah.

But don't really go off road.

And we're going to have painted tow recovery hooks.

I assume they're functional.

And with Kia, they're like,

it's going to look really hardcore,

but we're not giving you anything.

Like, it'll give you like one or two things

to make you feel better about it.

They're like, if you want that, get the X-Pro.

And even with the X-Pro,

you're barely getting anything, you know?

It's like SRT for Hyundai.

I think that's fairly anything.

I think that might just be tires.

It's just tires.

I believe it's just,

we talked about it on the show this summer.

I drove the Santa Cruz with the XRT

and I'm 100% sure it's just tires.

And then I think,

it's just like fine.

Okay, whatever.

It doesn't pretend though.

You know?

The other one, there's a Nissan Rock Creek, I think, is there?

I don't know what Rock Creek is.

Because like, was it Rock Creek

really luxurious on the Pathfinder as well?

I don't think so.

No, I don't think so.

I thought it was.

And I think that they've also tried to do thing.

They've got like a...

You can get like a Rock Creek CVT-powered

unibody Pathfinder at one point, I think.

I think you're right about that.

Okay.

So it is this wild idea of trying to...

First of all, I don't know why we're at a society where we're totally...

No, they're talking society now.

No, but I mean, the automakers are looking at people

and being like,

everyone wants to go off,

wants to feel like they should be going off road.

They want to feel more capable in their car.

I don't get it either.

I don't get it.

It's like a sickness that has,

or like a mass hallucination that has infiltrated the auto industry,

where everyone wants to be off road all the time.

It's like...

It's got to be a focus group thing.

It's the over landing phrase.

It's like everyone...

Over landing was popular in the pop consciousness,

and I think the automakers were like,

we can make people feel like they do cool, fun stuff on the weekend,

even if they don't have time to actually do cool, fun stuff.

You know, like,

hey, here's a platform for the tent on your truck you're never going to use.

Like that kind of thing.

And I also think that this type of tech is cheap to develop

because all you have to do is really hard and stuff.

You know, you have to make like a more rugged suspension.

You have to make a roof rack that can hold 700 pounds instead of 200 pounds.

And you can also sell a lot of accessories.

Like you can just add so many off-roadics like coolers and like tents

and an off-road recovery gear,

all that stuff.

You can sell that and make a decent amount of money doing it.

It's very accessible economically for our car company to do this kind of thing.

And a lot of the time,

like we've just talked about three versions of these vehicles

that are basically just plastic cladding in tires.

You know, like,

how hard is it for a company to source some tires from Yokohama or Falcon?

Not hard at all.

I don't know.

It's so insane to me that there's like this...

Like I said,

it's insane to me that there's just this idea that we need to deliver more

of an off-road appeal to people who may never go off-road.

I cannot...

I cannot fathom that every automaker needs to have this in their pocket

when it used to be just a couple.

When it used to be,

I think Subaru and Toyota TRD.

I mean, Ford also had the Raptor.

I think the Raptor is really something that kicked off a lot of this.

Well, I mean,

there's no Raptor escape or Bronco.

Ford.

It doesn't...

It's not really a question of that.

I'm just...

I think that this type of off-road stuff started in the pickup world.

I think we got Raptor and then the Colorado eventually came out with their...

ZR2.

ZR2, which is, again,

something you could get in the 90s.

You could get ZR2 Blazers.

You could get ZR2 S10s.

But it really felt like that was like the critical mass.

They did that and then Powerwagon came back for Dodge.

Yeah.

And I think that the product planners looked at these pickups that were selling well.

And they're like,

how can we expand this?

So then we started to get stuff like trailboss.

And FX4 was already pretty popular,

but they decided to make trimmer,

which was like off-road without the high speed aspect.

And then Toyota expanded TRD to be TRD Pro, which is like hilarious.

And TRD off-road.

We only had TRD off-road.

So they went to TRD Pro.

And now there's that happen.

You get more Nissan was like,

hey, remember, we have Pro4X?

And then they just...

This spread to every single area.

We're like people...

It's a virus for sure.

And it's a way for people who can't get a big rugged truck to feel like maybe they have one,

or to feel some kind of...

It's like...

This is perhaps disrespectful.

But you know how motorcycle riders do that hand thing to each other?

When they drive by, like they give a little wave,

Harley drivers, sport bike guys, or end-girls.

Then there's those people who have like the three-wheeled trikes,

like the KNM spider.

The T-Rex from the spider.

No, not the T-Rex.

The T-Rex, I think, is something else.

But like the KNM spider,

and what's the other one?

It's the Polaris.

They make one too, right?

Those people, they like try to wave to bike.

Slingshot.

No one waves back, right?

It's like not a perversion of what a motorcycle is,

but it's like a funhouse mirror interpretation of the motorcycle experience.

And I feel kind of like in a roundabout way,

all these faux off-roading things are like the funhouse mirror version of hardcore off-roading.

Okay.

And that's cool.

Again, I don't care if that's what you're into.

And I think that the trail sport looks good.

And I think some of these models, the styling is cool.

I don't think you have to have like the credentials,

the off-road credentials to back up what your vehicle looks like,

because you're not building this on the aftermarket.

You know, like you just went into the showroom, you bought it,

you drive it every day and you're happy with it.

It's not like you went out and like put a giant wing on your economy box

and did no supporting mods and expect to have some kind of allegiance to the performance crowd.

Well, I mean, this is something I said to you last week,

or last time when I had the CRV trail sport.

Like there was no aftermarket community for the CRV.

Well, there is kind of, right?

Like, because you used to be able to get,

the old one.

Yeah, you could get like a table that attached to it.

Yeah.

And you could get a shower to like wash yourself off after surfing and whatnot.

Like a portable shower right from Honda that attached to the door.

So when they, because again,

and this is a little bit of automotive history.

It's interesting.

When these cueutes came out,

they thought that they had to be as rugged as like the Broncos and whatnot

that were around at that time to justify their existence.

And remember when Porsche came out with the Cayenne and Volkswagen came out with the Torreg,

they had like low range four wheel drive, you know,

because again, people were worried that it would be seen as cosplay

or would be seen as posing.

And now no one cares.

You know, you can just do whatever.

So it's, it's, we've come full circle.

Absolutely.

That's one, that's my take.

I should tell you that it costs a ton of money.

I mean, of course.

Of course.

I shouldn't get to talk, talk about the starting.

Geo-liners aren't free semi.

Yeah.

Clearly.

The password starts at around $45,000.

The trail sport is $48,000.

So it's not like a huge jump from one to the other.

I think the more interesting thing is, if I recall correctly,

the price difference between, there is a price difference between the passport and the pilot,

which doesn't make sense to most people in the way that, you know,

removing the third row somehow adds $4,000 to the price.

Is this the most expensive version of the passport?

The trail sport?

No, there's like a, there's like a slightly more expensive version of the trail sport called the elite,

which is actually what I drove.

Sorry, the trail sport elite, which is $52,000 and a half thousand dollars.

Wow.

And there's a blocked out version of it called the trail sport elite blackout.

So it just want to remind everybody that Honda makes the versions of its vehicles

called black edition in colors other than black.

I just, I will never fail to point that out.

We talked about that with the Odyssey, which used to ride on the same platform.

I saw one the other day.

Oh, red.

I didn't believe it was red.

Red.

A red black edition Odyssey.

Yeah.

Just so strange.

No, but like I said, this is it's also very bizarre to me that a pilot,

which is the same technical specifications as a passport is $4,000 cheaper and is more practical

because it has potential, more potential passengers, right?

Sammy, why does the CX70 even exist?

These are questions to which there are no answers.

Major disappointments for me is the, is the powertrain.

I really wish there was something special to talk about with the powertrain.

It is a very average powertrain in my life.

Hardcore Mary to that V6.

That V6.

This is, from what I remember with the pilot, it's a new V6 with the thing.

It's like in the same displacement in the same horsepower.

Yeah, exactly.

It wasn't very good on gas as expected.

I got probably around 20 miles per gallon in my drive, which is not superb for a, for a crossover.

But I don't know, it's a big, it felt big.

It drove big.

It acted big.

It just is not a very tough car on off the road.

And that's it.

That's what I take.

It's enough.

It'll tell 5,000 pounds if people wanted to know that.

Okay.

I mean, that's not worth the Canadian pricing real quick.

No.

No, please.

Of course you can.

The one I drove in particular was the Trail Sport Touring in Canada is around $65,000.

It's a lot of money, man.

It is a lot of money.

Again, cheaper than a, I mean, more expensive than a similarly placed pilot, though.

Sammy, did you know that you could get an $87,000 Ford Mustang?

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

There's one more thing I want to talk about this week before we.

It's a couple of things.

A couple of things.

Let's go with your thing first.

Go with my thing.

We got a message from a listener.

Danny.

Danny is in the market for a new car and is particularly looking for a Miata.

I also want to say Danny.

Sorry we're getting to this so late.

Sammy had to go to Scotland.

So that pushed back answering this question and also want to thank you for listening for

as long as you have and for enjoying the show.

It means a lot to hear that.

Specifically, Danny asked about the ND2, which is the much improved version of the most recent

Mazda Miata.

And they were asking, look, I had apparently said in an old review,

or I passed Miata episode, that the Miata is quieter with the hard top closed.

Sorry.

With the soft top open, the Miata is quieter than it is with the hard top closed, talking about

the RF version of the Miata, which I'm not a fan of versus the regular soft top version

of the Miata.

And they were asking what I meant for that.

I honestly, it's been a long time since I've driven the car.

But if I had to decode that comment based on my memories of the vehicle,

it could be that there is some noise, reflection and reverberation inside the Miata because of the steel roof.

I've never found the Miata to be a particularly noisy vehicle in the ND version.

With the top down, it's actually pretty good.

This small cabin helps a lot.

There's not a ton of buffeting.

My big issue.

So Danny hasn't, hasn't made the final decision yet, whether they should get a soft top or a hard top.

I'm in team soft top all the way.

Yeah.

There's reason, the reason for me is it's a lighter.

And when you have a Miata, the lightness is what makes the car so special.

It's also the second reason.

It's way easier to open the top.

You just turn the switch and throw it back pretty much.

You can't really beat that.

The third thing is inside the RF Miata.

With the top down, you have huge blind spots.

It sucks.

With the top down and the top up, those pillars behind you are still there.

And they contribute to some pretty big blind spots.

You should not have blind spots in a convertible.

That is absurd.

Not there on other convertibles.

That's my biggest factor when thinking about the two cars.

One, you're right.

The soft top is actually really quick to open and close and is lighter.

But to me, it's more of that the feeling of being in a convertible in the RF is completely diminished due to those pillars.

You really don't get the full Miata experience, the full convertible experience.

That reason alone is enough for me to not be interested in the RF.

I will say though, because of where you live, the RF is going to be a lot more secure.

And I don't know if you have off-speed parking or what your parking situation is when you visit the destinations you most often visit.

Convertibles with the top up, all you need to do is run a knife through it and you're inside the vehicle.

That's why you see so many convertibles just parked with the top down because it's always better to come out and find something missing from your car,

whether it's like change in the cup holder or whatever was visible that you forgot about, then to come out and find that you need to buy a brand new top.

Because you left something out, someone wanted it and they cut through your top to get it.

So security is a legitimate concern.

In the RF, you would not have to worry about that.

It would be as secure as any other hard top vehicle.

So again, that wouldn't be enough for me to get an ND2 with the RF with the hard top.

It might be for you.

The other thing to consider is Sammy and I, we have a friend of the show, Staphon, who had an ND2 for a long time.

They had an issue with the transmission.

The ND2, I believe, what's the model you're, Sammy?

23 and 24, I think.

I think it's 22 and 23.

Oh, 22 and 23.

They had synchro issues with the transmissions where they would start grinding over time.

And Mazda didn't have a fix for this really other than replacing the transmissions under warranty.

There's a couple of other problems that Sammy researched and came up with.

There are some hub carrier bushings that wear out.

You can get cheaper aftermarket bushings that are better to put in.

And there's an air conditioning line that cracks.

Again, these are not huge problems.

The transmission is a pretty big deal.

And you've got to really, you've got to pay attention when you're driving these things.

To make sure that that transmission is.

You're like, listen for a wine, a whining sound.

If you're test driving one of these cars, you should not hear that.

You should, in third and fourth gear, is typically where it's the loudest.

It'll be loud.

It'll be really noticeable.

I mean, you'll hear everything in these cars.

Let's be clear, right?

This is a really uncomfortable sound.

You'll hear it.

Danny, I think that you're going to see it as a big upgrade over what you're driving now.

I think you're going to enjoy the manual transmission.

I mean, getting one without problems is key.

But I think it's a great decision.

I think if you're in a situation like you are where you don't need the extra seats or the cargo,

and you can drive them yada every day, I think that that's like really good for your soul.

And I wish I could do that.

I have this winter that I have to deal with.

So I have to, when I buy a fun car, I often have to think whether it's going to be a year round

or whether it's going to be something that sits in my garage for five months a year.

So I'm excited for you.

And I hope that you get back in touch with us when you make your final decision on what you pick up.

Yeah, great.

But now you said you had something you want to talk about as well.

Yeah, it's more of a teaser.

So people have been listening to the show this summer know that I've been looking for a vehicle

to replace my wife's vehicle, which is a least Subaru cross track.

A 2024 cross track, the current edition.

And we have a base model.

And we like the vehicle, but we don't like it enough to pay $27,000 when the lease is over.

Just doesn't make a lot of sense.

So I've been test driving a lot of stuff recently and I've been having some frustrating experiences

with the condition of the cars I've been looking at.

But we finally decided on the replacement and we bought it and we're picking it up tomorrow.

And that's all I'm going to say until next week's episode because I want to talk about it more

once it's in our driveway.

And I've spent some more time behind the wheel.

It's a vehicle that I'm not going to be driving very often, if at all.

But it was something that needed to be safe in the winter, safe in the summer on the highway comfortable

and reasonably fuel efficient and affordable because if we were going to buy something outright,

we wanted it to be pretty cheap.

The vehicle is going to be sitting like five days a week.

It doesn't get a lot of the cross track has like less than 30,000 kilometers on it in two years,

which is pretty low for a new vehicle.

And we didn't see the point in lease.

I really wanted to lease a newer vehicle until I looked at the amount of driving we were actually doing

and just having a monthly payment attached to a vehicle that doesn't get used every day didn't make sense.

So next week, Sammy, I'm going to tell you all about it and everyone who's listening.

And I hope that your your isn't treated as as Sammy is.

Now, usually we plug a lot of our stuff at the beginning of the show.

Let's do it at the end of the show because we didn't do it.

Man, working people find your latest work.

Well, if you want to find my latest latest work, you should go to modeluncomic.com.

October 7th, I'm launching a Kickstarter for my newest comic book.

It is set in the 1990s at a high school where a model UN club is they're just doing their regular meeting one Saturday

when aliens show up and mistake them for the actual United Nations.

And they're forced to negotiate the fate of the Earth over the course of one crazy weekend when all they want to do is just graduate.

So the first half of that story is 54 pages long.

It's coming out in digital form on October 7th on Kickstarter modeluncomic.com.

And I know a lot of you have supported my books in the past.

And I would love for you to be on board with this one.

If you want to look at car stuff that I do, you can find me at haggardy motortrenddriving.ca and capital one auto navigator.

I will use my approach of my plug, my plug time to tell people to go to modeluncomic.com.

Additionally, you can find my work at auto trader.ca and driving.ca.

What are we talking about next week again?

Next week in addition to my mystery car, I'm going to be talking about the 2025 Toyota 4Runner Trail Hunter sale.

Oh, so a real off road vehicle.

Trail Hunter.

And I'll be talking about the Audi.

I'll be unchained and talk and free to chat about the Audi Q3.

Sammy, how long until we get a CNA trail hunter?

I don't think it's long.

I don't think I don't think we have to wait very long at all.

Something to look forward to finally.

Yes.

Thank you even for listening.

I really encourage you to head on over to our website, unnamedonmotifodcast.com or you can find all of our episodes.

Additionally, you can find us on social media.

You can find Ben and myself actually on Instagram, although we're a little less active than usual.

You can find me at Sammy underscore haggard like you're laughing and you can find Ben at hunting Benjamin.

You can also email us if you want to get in touch.

Does contact form on the website or you can email us at Benjamin at BenjaminHunting.com.

Alright, thanks for listening everybody.

See ya.

Episode 420: 2025 Audi SQ6 E-Tron, 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport, Listener Questions

Audi Q3

Audi Rs3

Audi RS5

Acura Integra

Audi Q8 Etron

Audi Q6 Etron

Mercedes-Benz EQE

Tesla Semi

Toyota A90

Genesis GV70

Nissan Pathfinder

Dodge Challenger

Ford Dark Horse

Cadillac Lyric

Honda Passport

Toyota Grand Highlander

Ford Bronco Sport

Jeep Wrangler

Ford Falcon

Jeep Cherokee

Wrangler Rubicon

Jeep Grand Cherokee

Hyundai Santa Cruz

F-150 Raptor

Ford Escape

Porsche Cayenne

Mazda Cx70

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Toyota 4Runner

About this episode

Original notes