Episode 435: Guest Adi Desai of DoubleClutch, 2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid, 2026 Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro

Hello, and welcome to the unnamed automotive podcast.

My name is Sammy Hajesad, and with me, as always, is my good friend and fellow automotive

journalist, Benjamin Hunting.

Say hi to the people, Ben.

Greetings, human listeners.

Greetings to everyone, but we also have a guest today.

I'd like to introduce a friend of automotive media and the founder of doublecutch.ca, as

well as the owner of a couple of dealerships, including Clarkson's fine cars.

Of course, I've got the one and only, Addy Desai with us.

Say hi, Addy.

Howdy.

He's a great way of saying hi.

I love him.

He's not just a friend to automotive media.

He's also a friend of ours.

He's been a friend of ours for a long time, and it's great to have you on the show.

Thanks guys.

I'm really honored to be here.

I've been listening to your annoying voices for a very long time.

I love them very much.

I'm just joking.

You guys aren't annoying.

You're the best.

We're not going to kick you out of the podcast if you say something disparaging about us.

Don't worry.

You have the whole episode.

We have the whole episode for you to be antagonistic towards us.

We'll take it.

No.

I want to share a little note about Addy.

Addy, I met, I don't know, I think it would easily qualify as one of the most awkward meetings

I've ever had with somebody.

That's saying a lot for you, Sammy.

I know.

It goes a long way.

In which I would go to my family home and check my mail, and every time I did it, I think

Addy and his colleagues at Double Clutch would drive by, say hello.

They've got a press car, and they'd say something to me.

I always wondered, who are these people?

Eventually we exchanged phone numbers, we caught up, we hung out, and I guess the friendship

was established that way.

It started as a question of, is this guy stalking me?

It turns out that one of your colleagues lived in the neighborhood.

You guys had a little tradition, I think, of meeting up on a certain day, and it always

coincided with me being there.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

Actually, I had completely forgotten about that part of it.

I always think of it as, you grew up down the street from me, which you basically did.

My colleague Zach used to live right across the street from your parents, I guess, where

they used to be.

We used to have a tradition that whenever we had every week, a certain evening, we would

meet up with all the press cars that we had, we'd get together, have an evaluations night

where everyone drives everything, we get gather impressions, compare notes, and get together

for dinner.

Of course, this worked because we were all in our early-mid-20s, no one was married,

no one had children, and it was like, oh yeah, you want to meet up, it's just a night out

with the boys, but you're playing with cars instead of getting up to stupidity.

See, what you're describing sounds beautiful because where I live, it's absolute isolation,

and the only people I share my press cars with are deer and porcupine.

Jesus Christ.

How do they like the car?

Well, they like avoiding them, I mean, and as long as we keep that part of the bargain

going, I think things are fine ultimately, but yeah, that sense of community sounds pretty sweet.

So what you're saying is that Bambi approves of the 2026 Hyundai Palisade?

You know what, it's hard to know whether they approve or disapprove, they just kind of look

straight through you.

That's fair.

So Sammy touched on the fact that you've had an automotive, you've been running and managing

an automotive outlet for some time, you've taken a bit of a step back from that right now because

you've created a well-oiled machine that just does journalism with very little oversight,

which is I think the dream for most publications, and you have devoted a lot of your time to

seemingly purchasing every cool car that anyone has ever wanted from the 80s or 90s

and early 2000s and then driving them for as long as you feel like it and moving on.

So that's an enviable position to be in.

I bring it up because the vehicles that you collect and drive are, I would say,

outside the mainstream of what a lot of people would think of as collector vehicles,

just in the sense that we're so programmed to buy things like Barrett Jackson and bring a trailer

to covet certain types of vehicles.

And I've always admired the fact that you're doing your own thing and you are picking cars

that are meaningful to you.

Do you want to talk about maybe some of the vehicles that you have chosen over the years

and what you have in the fleet right now?

Sure. And I appreciate that you've gone there and commented that it's different.

A couple of the cars I have are kind of the mainstream, like everybody's poster car from

the 80s or 90s. I've really tried to do that. I try to have a keeper fleet.

There's a lot of stuff that I have that I'm never, ever, ever going to get rid of as long as I can

help it, of course. There have been a couple of poster cars that I found I didn't love as much as

I thought I would.

I would love to hear about those.

Can we start with those?

Yeah, 100%. I pared down my fleet this year, actually.

So I got rid of my 97 Ferrari 550 Marinello, which was...

So that's mind blowing to me, because to me...

He didn't even finish the sentence that you jumped in, yes.

No, but the reason I say that is because we're talking about keeper fleets, right?

And I would think that a 550 would be something that would be in the keeper fleet.

So I'm curious to find out why that's not the case.

So here's the thing. I started... My first Ferrari was a gated manual 360 Modena.

And then that was... I loved it, but the 550 was always the poster car.

I had three poster cars in my life, and that was one of them.

The cover shot of Need for Speed high stakes.

Exactly. I was going to say that.

Yeah, exactly. So I got the 550 and I loved it.

I probably put about 10,000 kilometers on it in four years that I had it.

Just for people listening, that's like 75 times the mileage most people would put on

any Marinello. And that's the thing.

So I loved it as a grand tour. It didn't sound exciting enough.

I put 2B exhaust on it, like every Ferrari does, gets at some point.

The gated manual was great. I actually really liked driving the car,

but it just didn't feel special.

That's wild for a V12.

That's what I'm saying, right?

That car's in Bad Boys, isn't it?

It is. Bad Boys 2.

So mine was one of two made in the Bad Boys 2 color, which was the Grigio Silverstone,

or Grigio Titanio with the navy blue, blue scurro interior.

So it was straight Bad Boys 2 spec.

And I still look at them and I'm like, God damn, that's a pretty car.

I'm never going to have one again because I've had that experience.

And then I actually, I traded it for a 599 GTB Fiorano,

which I then also did a gated manual conversion of.

And we were the first ones in Canada to convert one.

And then I got rid of that because I said, oh, this is too new and fast and special for me.

I like my cars to be a little bit old, a little bit more characterful.

And I keep going back to the fact now that if I ever get the opportunity to buy a scrappy manual

360, that's what I want.

Like I've tried the 355 for a long time, you know, one of my best friends had one.

And I drove it quite a bit and it sounds like no other car out there.

But it's like something about that 360 and they're also kind of attainable still.

Yeah. So the 360 is, I think, the sweet spot for if you want a modernish Ferrari

that doesn't have the scary maintenance that so many of the cars leading up to it did.

Like the 355 is engine out for everything.

Yes.

And everything happens because it's, I think the mileage intervals are quite modest for a lot

of the things you have to do.

The 360, I think they realized how many customers they were potentially losing

with that type of attitude.

And it's far easier to own.

100%, well, it's funny that the 355 I speak of that belonged to my friend,

I actually got him a personalized plate for it that was engine out.

And that plate was formerly mine.

I had it on my V10 Touareg, both of which had their engines out.

See, this is what I mean about interesting cars.

Well, it sounds like difficult cars to begin with.

But I've never met anyone else who's owned a V10 Touareg because I think that that is like,

because once they saw the repair bill on one, they decided they would.

But within Canada, that's like a two-hand count.

Well, this is the thing.

When I was in university, we had a V10 Touareg in the family,

and I got to drive it around a couple of winters.

It belonged to my uncle.

When my uncle was away, I'd put miles on it for months at a time.

And it was new then, right?

Like this was an 0405 truck in 2007, 2008.

It was new.

And I said, okay, well, we know that they're pieces of crap now to own.

However, I own a shop.

I have a Volkswagen and Audi MasterTech who can work on anything for me.

I will just buy one of them and I bought the nicest one I could find.

And I've realized that even with those means, and it's not feasible financially or time-wise

to keep this thing on the road because it's such a huge turd.

That's the craziest condemnation possible.

Well, it's funny.

Even with the means, I can't have it.

It's wild.

Well, I sold it two or three years ago on Bring a Trailer, actually.

It allowed me to break even.

I didn't make any money on it, but I broke even and I had it maybe six months.

That in itself is amazing.

And I sold it to the nicest guy ever.

He's an older guy who bought it and he's not a car guy, but he's a guy like diesels.

I'm like, oh, well, you're in first place.

So a non-car person bought the worst Touareg, the worst, hardest to find

and also most interesting Touareg.

And he's like, on Bring a Trailer.

Mike, I know so little about Kars, but yet I am drawn to this upcoming horrible experience.

Yeah, yeah.

He was a nice guy.

Now, now I'm not sure.

That was a broken shell of a man.

Well, he probably is.

You should check it on him.

You know what?

That's where I'm going with this.

So actually, three years later, I left the office earlier today to come here and record.

And I'm home now.

But before I left, I looked out through the glass windows of the shop from the showroom.

I'm like, is that my old Touareg?

Yes, it is.

Is the engine sitting on the ground?

Yes, it is.

Oh, wow.

I have not asked any further questions to my service team, but I went out the door

and breathed the fresh air of minus 25 degrees.

Oh, yeah.

Was so happy to get into a normal car and drive home.

So what I mean, like, wait, hold on a minute.

Like, just because it was like a nightmare maintenance thing does not take away from

it's the ownership, like the driving.

And it was so good to drive.

That car was wonderful to drive.

Did you have 10,000 foot-pounds of torque?

Yeah.

5 billion, actually.

Yeah, 5 billion.

That car was, I will still go to, I've driven, I mean, you know, like I wrote about cars

for 10, 12 years weekly.

I was on the same press launch as you guys are on.

I've driven everything now.

And I will say that the V10 Touareg with the air suspension is one of the best driving SUVs

I've ever driven in my life.

That was from the, that was from the era when Piaq was like, or Piaq, I don't know how to

say it, he decided to spend all the money Volkswagen had to develop whatever they needed.

Like, yeah, the Faten, this V10, the next generation S8 and an A8.

And it was just like, there was, cost was no object.

They didn't really seem to think about maintenance.

It wasn't really in the conversation.

He was a very silly boy, it wasn't he.

He was a very silly boy.

I think, doesn't his family like a major shareholder in the company too?

Like, so some kind of like tie up where they couldn't get, he was a unique person.

I don't know if it costs like a billion dollars to develop the Faten,

but I think it was something close to that.

And they sold three, two of them to me.

Yes.

It's, it's why, and you had, you had the W12 and no, no, no, no, just, no, no, I,

both were eights.

Just an eight still.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

One was per, this is actually interesting.

So again, my, the same uncle who bought a Toureg V10 new also bought a 4.2 Faten.

And he wanted the W12, but at the time in 2005 or six, Volkswagen Canada would not

sell you an extended warranty on a W12 because they knew.

So that was a, you know, that was a hand me down as well.

I used to drive it all the time when my uncle had it.

And then I didn't technically own a second one.

I was, um, I had won too many glasses of Scotch while browsing the dealer auction

one night and I bought a Faten like last year just to, you know, have around.

And I bought it for three grand.

The thing had like 130,000 kilometers on it.

It had decent service history.

It had a huge $30,000 hit on it from when it was new.

I'm like, okay, three grand, how, how poorly could this go?

So I bought it.

We listed it on the, on our website for 10 grand.

I started driving it daily in the winter.

We all thought we were going to die with it, but for three grand, who actually cares?

The thing was in great shape.

It's worth rolling the dice.

And that's the thing.

We had it listed for 10, 12, something like that.

And sure enough, a couple weeks later, men walks in off the streets as I've always wanted

one of these.

This one seems nice.

Great.

I'll give you what you're asking for and drove it away.

So apparently insane people like me do still exist.

And the last I checked that guy loves his car.

Well, wait, you know, it's, it's interesting because with the, with the Turing especially,

you managed to turn a, a money hole into a revenue source for your dealership.

Like that's, that's pretty impressive.

You know?

Yeah.

That's, it's one of those things.

Yeah.

I mean, so I guess those were the only two that I said, you know, never meet your,

I mean, never meet your heroes.

I guess everything else has just been like opportunistically that I've gotten rid of,

but in moving house and also like Sammy knows can kind of attest to this very well that

now I have a one year old at home and I just don't have the time to screw around with cars

as much as I used to.

So I got, I had a Lexus LC 500 that was my daily and I came to a conclusion that now

with, you know, daycare runs and stuff like that, a two door rear wheel drive V8 daily

just doesn't make sense.

I need a normal Ford or whatever.

I think it makes so much sense though.

Like that's just as a childless human being or child free, depending on which term you,

you prefer.

I have a cat in my lap right now.

Um, I think that just the LC is the ultimate all around vehicle.

You know, when you're camping or taking the kids somewhere.

Yep.

I rooftop tended with all the time.

I love picking people up at the airport that had luggage.

Did they ever make a luggage set for the LC 500 that fit into the trunkish area?

They did not.

That's one of my favorite when a car company admits that like it doesn't fit into the real

world, like it's, you have to adopt a new lifestyle to use their car.

And part of that new lifestyle is like L shaped luggage that fits around to some woofer.

You know, that was, that was common for the Italians.

And I think, uh, the British, the McLarens are coming with luggage sets now too.

Like seven, 20 s's and stuff for the Miata.

They just put a luggage rack on the back and said your luggage gets wet.

Deal with it.

You know, yeah.

Yeah.

Actually, I forgot about that.

You know what?

I saw an S 2000 recently with that metal luggage rack on the truck.

Really?

That was really weird.

It was definitely like, I didn't even double check that had to be an older person.

Do you think that's factory?

Do you think they just went onto the JC Whitney catalog and like grabbed it?

Oh, they definitely just drilled it on.

They actually probably took it off their MGB.

Oh man, that's so true.

The thing that gets me about the weirdest S 2000 mods that I see these days are the, um,

hard tops that don't quite fit.

Yep.

Like the ones that are tapered and don't at all match the body lines when they get to

the rear quarter.

That's my, that's the funniest thing.

But have you, but have you seen how much factory hard tops for those things are now?

They're like $7,000 to $10,000.

Yeah.

Even the Miata ones are expensive now.

It's, it's kind of nuts.

I remember like back in the day, quote unquote, so like the 2000s, you could get,

so any Miata hard top fits any Miata generation from like 1990 to I think 2007 or something like that.

And you could get them for $500 all day long.

And that's what they were and you couldn't negotiate.

And that's just what it is.

But I think they're not two to three times that price.

They are now, they are that now.

Yeah.

And if you could find them too, because like a lot of them got cracked over the years,

they weren't necessarily well built.

If you taking them on and off all the time, you get cracks near the pillars in the back.

So yeah, the other funny thing about those hard tops for Miatas is people who think that

like they need them to go on the race track and that it provides some type of protection.

Oh no.

It's literally like the Papier-Mache of hard tops.

It's not going to, if you roll, it's going to be bad.

You're dead.

Yeah.

You're screwed anyway.

Like what's the point?

Yeah.

You need a, you need a roll bar at a cage and then you're fine.

I mean, that's, that's, that's just how it should be.

But don't rely on like an aged hard top of any type that anything you can take off your car.

Like you wouldn't flip a Wrangler over and expect the hard top to do anything for you.

No.

So like why, why do that with the Miata?

But are there any of the cars that you've let go that you regret?

Aside from the Marinello, maybe.

Yeah.

And that's like a semi-erip.

But no, honestly, I'm, I'm pretty content with, with what I have.

I think everything I have is going to be sticking around a long time.

Nothing's really, you know, on the chopping block, even in my head or my heart.

I've actually recently gotten rid of my, my modern daily driver and I'm, I'm just going to,

I've got a couple of practical-ish toys that I can drive in the summer when, when I,

if it's raining and I don't want to expose my, my more special toys to rain.

And like I've got my, my dailies, I guess, are just going to be, I've got a 99 Mercedes S500,

which is the last of the W140 generation, the big boxy, big, huge land yachts.

They're like bank vault styling.

Yeah, exactly.

The bank vaults, it's got the ballistics protection level one package.

So it's funny that you mentioned that because when I think of those cars,

I think of Hong Kong action movies and how it was always like the baddest dudes who were driving

them in some type of convoy. So what does the ballistics package give you?

It gives you some sort of bulletproof-ness for some sort of weaponry.

Dude, I live in, I live in Mississauga, Ontario. No one's shooting me up.

I just think it's, we're not sure about that yet.

Valid. Yeah. Okay. Fair, valid. But I don't know. It's, it's something, it's like the most basic

level. So like you could get up to like level three or four and those were like the fully

armored cars. How many thousand pounds does it add to the vehicle? Many, many. The windows

and doors are ridiculously heavy to a point where the soft clothes function only works sometimes,

not because it's broken, but because the doors are so heavy. And so I really like that. That's

kind of like my rainy day, kind of if I have to take my little one out, the car seat fits perfectly

in it. It's your cartel vehicle. It's my cartel vehicle. How did you find it?

Um, I actually, it was a service client at, uh, at one of our dealerships and, uh,

he, he had it for a while and I just kept saying, sell me your car, sell me your car,

sell me your car. No. And then finally he put, he had his eyes on a 9-11 that we had and I said,

you know what the condition is, bud. And, uh, okay, I may have paid a little too much for it,

but I really wanted it. It's black on black has a big wide staggered AMG monoblock wheels.

Um, so he wanted to sell to you, but they kept just pulling him back in for one last job. So

like he had to keep that's true. Yeah. I was thinking now the heat's off.

Yeah. And, and I recently picked up actually another nostalgia car for me. Uh,

Sammy grew up in the same area as me. So he can appreciate, uh, as a brown guy growing up in

Mississauga, Ontario. Um, I have always pined for a infinity G 35 coupe.

Well, that's the thing. I had a really clapped one when I was, when I was younger.

And also who hasn't, well, there are only two types of G G coupe. No, no, there's just one

type. They're all except this one. This was the one that I found. And it was like, it has,

it's got 60,000 kilometers on it. It was, I've got every rec service record from the local

infinity dealer. I've got the original bill of sale when buddy paid like 65 grand for it,

original sales brochure, like everything with it. And the thing is like immaculate. So I had to have

it. So you and I have talked about this car. I've seen some photos of it. And I have long been a fan

of the styling of this vehicle. I just the entire concept. I mean, it's just so nice that a car

company had a sports car and decided to make a luxury version of that sports car. And it didn't

suck. And they didn't like super dilute it, you know, the closest thing I could think of from

that era is the XLR from Cadillac, which was like, yeah, it's like a rebodied Corvette.

And I think the G does it better, but these are really rare examples of like

actually following through on that promise. Cause it's something I have one, I have one,

the Honda Civic SI and then the Acura Canadian only CSX type S. There you go. Yeah. The CSX is

honestly, you know, lit so many fires in the hearts of so many budget conscious street racers.

Yeah, I don't know. I like them, but I can't say I've driven one for an extended period,

but I kind of like, but yeah, no, you make a valid point that I would have done a 350Z2 if

I found one that clean, but I'm glad I found the G because I can again put the car seat in the back

and you know, just kind of enjoy it. It's a great little commuter. And yeah, it's stock.

Um, so yeah, I mean, I've kind of gone away from a normal, having a normal daily, and now I daily

this crap that's old. It's just so much more interesting. It's like, we had someone, uh,

we had a question on the podcast last week talking about like the, this era vehicle,

like mid 2000s, and they had just picked up, um, a Volvo from that era and they were shocked by

how much more pleasant it was to drive than their spouse's modernish Mazda. And it kind of feels

like that's one of the last eras for getting an affordable car that had good driving feel,

but didn't sacrifice safety and convenience and modernity. Like you could still find good driving

cars past that point, but you start to get into more enthusiast territory. But like, yeah, back

in like 2004 or 2005, a lot of cars were still interesting enough to drive regardless of their

price point because they hadn't been weighed down by weight, obviously, but also, you know,

technology features that were pulling more of the drive away from the pilot.

Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. I mean, you're a Nissan man. I'd even go back and say that was

not only peak era of, uh, normal cars that were good to drive, but peak era for that brand, like

the manual maximas were fun and they were fast with the three five. Um, like even like a V6

Ultima, like oh, two to six. Look, I know the Ultima is kind of the laughing stock of a stereotype

now of, you know, the driver who's just foot to the floor everywhere. But I want to say that,

like, if you go back 15 years, those Ultimas were handsome cars. I agree. I agree. And the idea that

you would have like essentially Mazda's full size car with a manual transmission is just such a

foreign concept today. Yeah. Oh, 100%. It was one of those things. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So I, I buy a

nostalgic crap. That's what I do. That's the, you know, if, if, if you're lucky way to do it, if

you can do it, do it. Yeah. If you're lucky in life, you get to the point where you're able to

make these decisions of what you want to drive based not necessarily on need, but, um, on preference

and opportunity, you know, and I think, I mean, what's, you have such a great advantage with the

dealerships is that you see so many things come in and you have the opportunity to pick up stuff that

I doesn't make it to the market. You know, you're not going to see it on Facebook marketplace.

You're not going to see it on Kajiji. It's stuff that people might not have been thinking about

selling or maybe they, they want to trade it in, which is an entirely different customer, right?

So like it's, it's a, it's a fantastic opportunity to see cars that are well kept and the person is

just ready to move on, you know, and that's something Sammy and I don't get to do that. We, we

have to, we have to fight with everyone else on marketplace for cars that, you know, probably

aren't super rested. Yeah. Yeah. No fair. I mean, I guess, I guess that's, that's one of the

fun positions of where I am that I do have the opportunity to do that.

And in a world where bring a trailer has jacked the price up on so many vehicles, just

because people don't understand necessarily that their version of X isn't the same as the one that

sold for Y online. I mean, having that dealership outlet is, is, is an even further way to like

get away from that part of the market. Well, it's fine. Cause we get a lot of people that are coming

in to trade in or just straight sell their vehicles. Well, I've seen on BAT that it goes for,

it's like, okay, well, first of all, you're not in the U S. So take off 30% right there.

You're not getting tariffs. So take off another 20% right there. Also, if you want to list it

privately on BAT, feel free to go get it. But yeah, that's always an option, right? Yeah.

And that's the thing, like you can just go do this yourself and it will be fine. But if you're

walking into a dealership and expect it, like it's a place of business, right? Like we have to

leave gravy on the table. However, like if it's a called $150,000 car, we're not getting out of

bed for less than 15 or 20 grand. And if it's a call it a $20,000 car, we shouldn't be getting

out of bed for less than two or three grand. Like the, the, the gravy kind of varies for

depending on the price, but ultimately you're right. The bring a trailer thing has put that

perception on people that, oh, I, I should be able to get that or this should be worth that.

And on one hand, it's great. On the other hand, it's, uh, it's, it can be tough.

Yeah. It's great if you own one of those cars, right? But like the way I think about it is

when I was in my 20s, it was when the muscle car market totally exploded and you saw all

of the auctions going on bear Jackson, et cetera, et cetera. And all of a sudden you had

cars that could have been purchased for $20,000 or $30,000 in their best possible condition

going for five times that. And it got, it got wild and out of control and in some ways it still is.

But when I look at BAT and what it's done is it's, it's shifted the window of cars that were

affected by that, by a significant margin. And now stuff for the 80s and 90s has been hit with

the same tax. And of course there's other factors like, you know, fast and furious,

it had a huge effect on a lot of sport compact cars. But and, and, and the fact that, you know,

people like us who are aging into a part of our lives where maybe we have more disposable income

and we're able to buy cars that we wanted when we were younger, which is what the boomers were

doing with the muscle cars that that's playing into it too. But I really do think that online

auction portals have just obliterated the idea of affordable nostalgic classics for at least

several decades. And I'm worried that the early 2000s are, are next up on the list. Like I think

about cars like the Bug IWRX, which is then on the ground in Canada because of rust. But it's,

it's never been super desirable because there was no STI version in North America.

They were, some people thought the looks were awkward. But there's, I think right now we're

right on the cusp of those cars falling out of affordability. And that's sad to me. I mean,

even NA Miata's are starting to be, they were a car you could buy for $5,000 pretty much all the

time. And now the NBs are cheaper because they're less, they have a little bit less

desirability, but for how much longer, you know, it's the thing with NBs or like, I guess with

Miata's NAs, people are only buying now for sheer nostalgia. They don't drive really well for what

they are. But objectively, when cars like, you know, you can get a, Sam, did you still have your

FRS? Yep. Yeah. So I mean, cars like the FRS came out as a lightweight, rear wheel drive, manual

trends, sports car. With all of the doodads. With all the doodads. And you can get, like,

I think you can still get a shitty one for $10,000. Oh yeah. Facebook and trainer, they're full of,

like, and I look at mine and I'm like, well, it's worthless. So I guess I'm keeping it forever.

Yours is nice, right? Like, you're nice. You've loved it. Like, you keep it. But I think it's

one of those things that's like, people are only like the NBs or the crappy Miata's because nobody

cares for them anymore. Because they were kind of disposable. They rusted out where we live.

NAs are pure nostalgia. So they've held their value. Yeah, the pop ups, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

That's and it's true. And NC's are pretty cheap as well, which is kind of crazy. I was thinking

the ND has been on the market for like 10 years now. Yeah. 10 model years came out in 16. That's

crazy. I should go. I should go see what like the early ones are going for. I'm curious. They're

pretty affordable. The ND we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not a huge one, which had like

some reliability transmission issues. I remember like, Stefan, one of our listeners and friends of

the show, Stefan has told me so many times that like, he's like three transmissions. Yeah. But

also it had the less interesting motor. I really do think the ND2 motor was a big step up in terms

of just engaging the driver. Yep. But the NC is such a cool vehicle that I think it's totally

overlooked now because you have like the bookends. Yeah. Yeah. You have the bookends of the NA and

the ND, which are both quite desirable from a driving perspective and a nostalgia perspective

for one of them. The NB, which was larger inside a little bit more comfortable and kind of forgotten,

but the end the NC is the current no one talks about at all. You know, you're absolutely right.

And you can get the PRHT with that. A lot of people like that. I'm not a big fan,

but I do like that better than the power retractable hardtop on the ND, which I think is

really that. Yeah. I don't like the, because with the NC, if you put the hardtop down,

it's a convertible, but in the ND, you still have those buttresses that give you crazy blind

spots. And if I'm in a convertible, I don't want blind spots. Like that's a reminder that

something is wrong to me. So no, and that's totally fair. I've always kind of liked Targa

Tops. I've never really owned, I've never owned a car with it, but I do really like Targa Tops and

how the RF was designed. I haven't spent enough time with one to kind of have a strong opinion

on the blind spots, but I like the design. I think it's different. But if I were buying,

I'm buying a soft top for sure. My favorite modern Targa, I think is the Alfa Romeo 4C,

but that's a car that you just can't find. Like they didn't sell any of them,

and no one wants to sell the ones they have. So those also suck a little for reliability.

Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, every Alpha does, but I mean, I remember picking up the pressed

loader and it had like a USB cable hanging out from underneath the dash on the passenger side.

And I'm like, this really sets the tone aftermarket radio. Like it's just had like this,

this whatever Alpine or whatever brand it was, it was just sitting in the middle of the dash.

And the trunk was just a lunchbox. I like, you know what though, that was that character.

Oh, I loved it. I loved driving it. It's so flawed and all of those flaws make it so desirable to

me. What owner of a, what buyer of a modern car with no power steering wants an automatic transmission?

It's not even an automatic transmission. It has no park. It just has neutral. I mean,

even that is weird. Like again, who is that customer? The three people in Canada who bought

one are very upset with what we're saying right now. I know I make no mistake. I love this car.

I need to. It's so much fun. It makes the right sounds. It looks amazing. No one knows what it is.

You know, like, and you will never see another one when you're out driving, which to me is

important because I'm weird like that. Like I like to drive something that I don't see coming and going.

I think, I think cause like, okay, so I own one Italian car right now.

Yes. And I want to hear about that car. I'm glad you brought it up.

Oh dear. I mean, I was going to say before we get there, is that like nobody, okay, Italian cars,

we already know inherently flawed in just about every way and parts availability is shoddy at best.

So why would somebody want a modern, like even a modern Giulia or Stelvio? The same thing applies.

They're still tough to get parts for. If you find the parts, it's expensive. They're expensive.

Every single time I've walked into the dealer to have a conversation with someone in the service

of the parts department from the internal dealer side, they're dead. There's nobody outside getting

their car service. It's ridiculous. And there's a line up of cars outside waiting for parts.

I think what appeals to me about the Stelvio is the rigid, non reclinable driver's seat.

That's something that I think a lot of people are looking for in an SUV.

Exactly. In a normal SUV, it's just supposed to compete with like an X3.

I think the reason people buy the Giulia, though, is because it is very pretty.

It is very pretty.

That forgives a lot. I mean, it's pretty on the outside. On the inside, it's like,

this screen is... Yeah, it's tough.

For a really good friend and industry colleague, Thomas Holland of the Throttle House,

he recently picked up a Giulia Quad. We service all his stuff. He's also a very old friend of mine.

We PPI'd his Giulia, service it, and it's a cool car. It passes PPI with no problem.

He bought it from a reputable dealership. It's fine. But there is a driveline vibration

that is unsolvable. He thought it was tires. He changed the tires. We thought it was

something suspensionally. Every single component on the suspension is fine.

Apparently, north of 140 kilometers an hour, allegedly, there's just this vibration that

can't... And apparently, that's normal. So whenever I hear stories like that,

my first thought is there's a crack in the unibody.

You know, I thought of that. I thought of that and said,

what if this thing just hit a bump so hard at some point in its life that it's just bent?

Yeah, and there's no... The only way to find it would be to invest way too much money

in disassembling everything. I saw a video recently, not recently, maybe a few months ago,

and this is why it's top of mind, is someone had... I want to say it was an S65 and they had

a driveline vibration, and it turned out to be a crack in the tub, and they only found it when

they removed everything, all suspension and driveline components from the rear of the vehicle,

and they had to... The vehicle was totaled. There's nothing you can do at that point

with that crack, and it's like, damn. So no one should drive Italian cars as the...

Well, not above 140, I guess, if you don't want to think about your mortality.

Exactly. So let's get into this car. Let's get into this last car.

My Italian... Okay, so this was my ultimate poster car, so I had three poster cars.

Maranello was one. It was in every year. The first, I'll just be quick about it,

was an air-cooled 911. I've always wanted one. Again, the cover of Need for Speed high stakes.

Mine's a 964, 991. I love it. That was kind of like... Before the values went up crazy,

that was the attainable one. And then this one is the... I've got a 991 Lamborghini Diablo,

and I... That's the original owner of that car was Mario Andretti, who is a man of some fame with...

Yeah, so this is a wild story. You're just casually like... So you might have heard of this guy...

You might have heard of his dude. His name is Mario. His brother's name is Luigi.

And he used to own my red lawn ornament, but it's kind of cool because there's a couple of stories

online. There's a couple of Instagram reels of this car being airlifted and being lifted off

a bunch of skids at LAX, and Andretti's waiting there to get delivery. It was the first one

delivered in North America. It's like the beginning of Rain Man. That's the thing.

And it was standing there, and then fast forward like eight or nine years, and there's a video of

a cop running up the side of the road. I feel like it's got to have been staged,

but apparently it wasn't. And the cop was running up because his Diablo has been flying,

whatever crazy speed it was going at. Cop runs up, he's got a jacket cam. He says,

who do you think you are? Mario Andretti? And he just hands over his license. I'm sorry,

sir. And it was in fact Mario Andretti. But yeah, so I bought this car. I got it at a bit of a

little bit below market because it needed motor work. And when I say it needed motor work,

it needed the entire, like the engine out, the full major. It needed everything, like head

gaskets, a bunch of stuff. It was in restoration for two and a half years. I just got it back

before Christmas. And sorry, I don't know why my watch is speaking to me. But I got it back

just before Christmas. I've had it detailed. And I'm now just waiting for the spring. I got

a dry day to just take it up the road and back. I drove it about 10 minutes. And I had tears in

my eyes as like, you know what, I'm finally behind the wheel of my dream car. And I get to enjoy it

with my son because there's no airbag. And legally I can put his forward facing car seat

in the passenger seat. I haven't tried yet. Like, look, this might be a non starter with my better

half, but yeah, that might fly in my house. And you know what? It might not. I might be being

aspirational. Even with my best arguments. I mean, I don't know. But look, you told me if it works

out. No, is this is a key forever? Is this a key forever car? Are we going to hear a sad

Maranella like story? Well, here's the thing. I drove the car and everyone says these things

are junk to drive, right? Like Kuntasches and Diablo is everything. They're horrendous to drive.

So my feet don't fit. And I don't have particularly large feet. It has a very small pedal box,

right? And it's angled. It is angled. So here's the thing. I, so I wear a size tennis shoe.

My right foot, I cannot have a shoe on because there's not enough space between the gas and

the brakes. So I basically get in the car, I take off my right shoe. The left shoe needs to stay on

because the clutch is so heavy that I need almost like the added weighting of my boot.

One boot and barefoot clutch boot. So this is this is only because I try to drive this thing in

December, right? Like, I'm, well, I assume that if I get like a narrow set of like driving Puma's

or something, just don't wear crocs. That's the thing. But I like wearing crocs. I used to turn

up to car shows and like whatever I was driving, wearing like flip flops, shorts and a blip shift

t-shirt themed with some awkward car cartoon on it. Do you think Mario has tiny little feet?

Uh, do I think he has tiny little feet? I mean, maybe.

I, I'm leaning towards that. Like, because if he was driving that car for that long,

I don't know if Mario is like a one shoe kind of guy. That's, I think he might have drawn the line.

And plus he was always in open wheel cars, which had the tiniest pedal boxes imaginable, right?

That's true. And he, and he did well with those. So he's probably fine. And he had a

coontage before. And I think he had a six liter Diablo after this one. So I, he's used to cars

that are tougher. But if you get like, get around the awkwardness of the pedal box and

you've realized that there's no rear visibility. Yeah. I was going to ask, like, do you,

you did a periscope for that? Zero. Yeah. But here's the thing. If you're going

forward and shooting flames behind you, you don't need to look behind you. Just go forward.

That's what Jackie Chan always used to say. Don't look back. Exactly. So, but like,

I stepped on it. I took it up to, you know, 6,000 RPM and I just hammered through gears.

And I was like, you know what? This thing is actually sick. And it kind of has to be, it was,

you know, it was the car back in 1991. Like, who's, who's saying that they're terrible to drive?

Like, they're cool. They're just trying to drive the values down so they can get them.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's during the Chrysler's ownership of Lamborghini, right?

And Chrysler was spending all the money in the world at that point. Like they didn't really

seem to have any limits. So they would just engineer whatever they wanted to engineer.

Yeah. Cause they made all their money off the K car in the caravan. Exactly. They were flushed

with all that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that's like right around like Lamborghini,

they just, that's just before they sold it to Megatech, which is a company that sounds like a

James Bond villain, but is actually real and was owned by like the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia.

They ended up buying Lamborghini, but they, they, that was before that and they, they,

they made the Viper, they made the new Ram, they made the grand, the grand Cherokee. It was like,

yep. Yeah. They're spending all the cash they had and then the world is better for it.

Yeah. 100%. Sammy, I think we're going to segue from there to talk about a car that you and I

have driven separately, but the same over the course of the past week. And Abby might be

able to chime in a little bit on this too, because he has some corporate links to this

particular automaker. But that is the 2026 Hyundai Palisade. That's right. I mean, I drove

the hybrid version while you drove the non-hybrid version of it, right? Not only did I drive the

non-hybrid version, I drove the, the Kienis Masmacho XRT off-road version of it. XRT Pro,

I believe is what it's called. As opposed to the amateur model. Yeah. Yeah. XRT amateur is donation

not make the cut. Yes. I think this is an important car to talk about because the Palisade was,

it was like a revelation, I think, when it came. A lot of people really fell for it. And I mean,

I know the automotive media fell for it. It won several awards. It won a bajillion comparisons.

It was seen as sort of the new standard in three row crossovers in terms of space. And it also

upped the, what's it called, the kind of premium feel that Hyundai is capable of doing. They kind

of set a new benchmark for themselves as to how nice their cars can. Yeah, they didn't really

have anything like this before. They tried. They tried in the past with like the Vera Cruz, I think.

But the Vera Cruz always was never in time to be premium. It really came across as like a,

an almost, an almost traverse, you know, like not quite there.

And when the Palisade came, it kind of, I think it challenged everyone's

conceptions of what Hyundai, and like I said, it set a new standard for the, for the brand.

Now, I think you can go back to previous episodes and I would always say that I had one major

um, complaint with it. And that was that I didn't love the powertrain in

all of the Palisades or Tellorides as well. The V6. Yeah, I found the V6 to be just okay

when the rest of the car was actually quite um, a notch above than usual. And I think with the

high, the introduction of a hybrid powertrain, which is a 2.5 liter turbocharged four cylinder

and a hybrid powertrain, I think that they've tried to address that. And um, I'm still not

sold as to whether or not this isn't a major improvement in any significant way. But it's

a change, that's for sure. I was going to ask about this. There's the gasoline and the hybrid.

I should know this, but I don't and I'm embarrassed. But is the hybrid faster than the gas?

In terms of, I don't know about specifically like zero to sixties or anything like that,

but it does have more horsepower. It has 329 horsepower and 339 pound feet of torque,

which is, I think the old motor did not crack the 300. No, it didn't. I think it was like

280 or 290 from that naturally aspirated six. Yeah, so it's an improvement. But of course,

you know, the the added weight from a hybrid powertrain. One of the interesting things as

well is it uses a six speed automatic as opposed to, I think an eight speed in the gas model.

Yeah, it's an eight speed. It's a 287 horsepower, 260 pound feet for that of the current gen.

Yeah. And it's okay. I mean, it's rated. It's rated pretty generously, I think. Let me double

check the fuel figures here in terms of what it's capable of. The V six does 18 and 24.

And the, the, the six, sorry. And the, and the, what am I talking about? The hybrid, of course,

gets 29 miles per gallon combined. So I mean, that's, that's, you know, not,

I didn't get that difference. I didn't get that because it was super cold, right? It was super

cold and it was really snowy as well. And all of the routes I was on, basically all four wheels

were going for it as much as they could because where were you going, Sammy? Where were we going

in that car? I was, I had to do a video shoot for driving.ca. I didn't get to throw any of our

plugs in earlier. We just gave all Addie double clutch plugs all day long. That's fine. I'm just

kidding. Um, but, um, I was doing a video shoot for that and we ended up, we usually shoot in

fairly rural areas because, um, well, all of your priors, right? Like it's hard for you to be in an

urban situation. Yeah. I can't be, I can't be seen, um, especially with my posters up everywhere.

He can't be within 200 meters of a Hyundai dealership.

In Jesus. It's also worth pointing out that the model I had was the range topping calligraphy model,

which I suppose is akin to like, uh, an autograph or an autobiography version. Some type of fancy

writing. Yeah. So I'm surprised it's not like a hieroglyph model out there. Some, someone's

going to come up with that. It's coming. I'm sure it, I'm sure it's coming. That's the next generation.

I still like this car. I still think that it is like a good benchmark in the class. I think

there are some other vehicles that have joined the, the fray in terms of its size and, and

capabilities. I think the Nutriverse is quite good. I think, and the Buick version of it,

I think it's called the Enclave. There's also the Grand Highlander from Toyota that is

equally like large and also comes with a hybrid powertrain, but kind of expensive.

I will say that one of the things that caught me off guard with the Palisades is that it comes with

a bunch of really weird, quirky and unique features. For example, mine has a UV disinfectant

in the armrest. Okay. The new Santa Fe has that too. So I don't like a feature that suggests my

lifestyle is unhealthy. And like, like, what, what am I, how big is this thing? Like, what can I

put in there? It's an armrest. It's literally the armrest. The armrest itself. Inside the armrest.

Okay. That's, these are two very different things. Like one inside the arm while I'm driving.

The other one, the armrest storage area. Okay. So you're supposed to pop it open. You put your

phone in or whatever you got and you press the button. When I was in Korea, this might be a

Korean thing because when I was in Korea two weeks ago, one of my hotel rooms had a UV like vault

on the, on the table that I could use to sanitize whatever I could fit in the vaults.

And you wouldn't do that because you don't know the other, you don't know that what the other users

put in the space. When I opened it, it had like everything you would put in your mouth was already

there. Like, like glasses and tumblers and stuff. I guess it was to prove to me that they had cleaned

the room, which I, I guess I appreciate, but at the same time, this is a level of cleanliness to

suggest it's necessary. It suggests there's a problem in the hotel and this is their best

way of dealing with it. And I don't like that. Gentlemen, I've had an idea. I've had a revelation.

This UV thing, Sammy, you have a child approximately the same age as mine. Have you started the toilet

training train yet? We've gotten started on it. It's not going very well.

Well, yeah, no, same here. I mean, you know, there's good days and there's bad days, but

they're really bad days. So, you know, those, those mini plastic toilet seats that you kind of put

on top of the toilet. Does that, does that fit in there? That's what I'm saying, Doug.

Like think about all the stuff Sammy and I need to wash on a daily basis. If I could just take

that thing, take it outside to my Palisade and put it in the console and leave it there.

Do you think it would sufficiently clean it so that my wife would also be satisfied?

And I also would not tell the PR. I would definitely tell the PR people that I put my child's

toilet. There's also a difference between sanitized and clean.

I'm not, I wouldn't do it in a press car. I'm saying if you own this vehicle, would you do it?

No, I would wash it. I would wash it.

Something might be sanitary, but it's not necessarily clean. You know what I mean?

So that's one of the gimmicks that I found on this, on this vehicle. There are other ones.

What if you, wait, wait, wait, wait. What if you put food in there? What happens?

Do you think it'll take away the taste? I'm not a scientist, Sammy.

That's why I'm asking the question. So you don't have to wash them.

Oh my God. It's time to wash grapes.

That's true. I'm on the go.

I just peel my grapes so I don't have to wash them.

These are on my teeth too, my old old teeth.

Is that what you're telling me? You're like at nine in the morning,

I'm going to have my grapes and then like at noon, you're like, I finished peeling them.

My old wooden teeth can't have it any other way.

And then the other weird feature, I don't know about weird,

but this is something that's been going on. You've heard about this. It's called a dash cam.

Uh, what? Yes.

You've heard about dash cam. Do you have a dash cam personally?

Yes. No, because I change vehicles every week and it would be impractical in the extremes.

Addy, do you have one?

Yep. I've got one in everything. Learn the hard way after my work got hit.

And yeah, now I've, I have them in all of them. I kind of look after my families,

my parents fleet, my in-laws fleet. I like to make sure everyone's got a dash cam.

And even if you're driving press cars, like when I used to do that,

I had one that just suctioned to the windshield and went into, um,

like the, the cigarette lighter port.

Now does, so I, the problem with me is I leave things behind.

Oh fair.

So I would, I'm worried I would lose it.

But does your protection model Mercedes have like 17 dash cams?

And are they like 90s era large scale?

They're VHS physical medium.

You can hear them running.

They're actually Sony handy cams, just duct tape to the glass.

And if you play the videos, it's just hostage videos.

And you're like, how did these get in here?

I don't know.

Oh, I'd have to come here and use your VCR.

Sorry, carry on.

The Palisade actually comes with an embedded dash cam,

as well as some like automatic recording features.

So like when...

So it's like a Corvette or, or any V series or like a Camaro,

they all have this feature now.

Yes. But the way, now I'm not sure how the Corvette or the GM model is,

but I found when I looked into this,

basically any time the parking sensors were at like red,

in terms of like how close you get to something,

or whenever the Ford collision warning goes off,

it's been recording or is recording that moment.

And I had a whole bunch of other people's recordings in the car.

And I was like...

You could view them inside the car.

Yes. This seems like a problem.

This is a big Tesla feature too.

This is like Tesla has their whole century system, right?

Yeah.

For the Model 3 vehicles like that.

Can you follow up question?

How hard is it to take that camera out and sanitize it

in the center console when you...

Impossible. I think it's very much a service thing

that you have to go to the dealership schedule.

I'm not impressed with that.

It's probably a 12 hour job.

I don't want a dirty camera.

I'm just...

But I thought that that was really interesting

because I know a lot of people have dash cams,

are interested in dash cams,

and every car comes with cameras now.

At least got me thinking I need one.

Just stick a storage capacity,

a storage medium to those dash cams,

and figure out a way to get them into the driver

without needing to buy a third party item

that hangs somewhere or needs to be plugged in somewhere.

You don't hang it from your mirror

like a giant cross or a CD.

I mean, I would basically...

Basically, you know how my due diligence on these things.

Yeah, good enough.

Your big Hamilton flag that you've got like hanging from that.

So, I mean, I really found the Palisade to be really good.

It was smooth riding.

This calligraphy model had a bunch of really neat features.

Kind of gimmicky, yes.

But if you're going to be spending what is about $60,000 for them

in the US and in Canada, it's closer to $70,000.

I think you've got to have something to show for it.

The new design is definitely striking.

It gets people...

That's what I wanted to ask you.

What do you...

Both inside and out, I need your opinion.

And yours too, Addy, if you're comfortable

on the new look of the Palisade.

I think especially the exterior makes the outgoing model look ancient.

It looks so good.

And I can't believe anybody thought the old one looked good

after seeing what the new one looks like.

It's very much a rip-off of a Range Rover though.

Yeah, I don't disagree.

It's funny that when...

So, full disclosure, I own a Hyundai store.

So, you know...

Stop selling me on one.

Well, no, look...

I don't need a venue.

When the first gen came out in 2020 model year, I guess, 2019, whatever that was,

I thought that...

I preferred the look of the Telluride.

Me too.

Of the Kia Telluride.

I thought that that looked better, like blockier.

I was the opposite, but I realized I'm in the minority.

No, I don't think you are because I've had this conversation with a lot of...

I think about 50-50 men.

Like some people preferred the kind of swoop styling of the Palisade.

I think that the first gen Telluride is aging better

than the first gen Palisade, because I think Sammy's absolutely right

that the styling of the new one...

I like it today.

I feel like the blocky styling, the retro kind of lighting...

I think all that...

It sits well with me, but I also really like retro stuff.

Like, I love the way the Ionic 5 looks.

I don't love the Ionic 6's looks.

I love both of them.

I really like the 6 because of how unusual it is.

Cool.

Okay.

Yeah, like...

And that's fine, right?

Like in a world where everything looks kind of the same.

That's what I think.

They both look different, and I'll give it that.

That's Hyundai's deal, though.

They want every car to look different, like totally unique, which I think is good.

I think the new Palisade will age well.

Just looking at how the Telluride looks six, seven years on.

I don't think the new Santa Fe will age well,

because I feel like the rear end has some awkward angles,

the taillights being right at the bottom.

And we had one, like my wife had one as a demo for six, seven months,

so I got really intimate with what it looked like in my garage every day.

I think you're onto something.

The new Palisade styling blows the old one out of the water.

I haven't actually driven one yet.

I know that the Double Clutch guys had a press car around.

I didn't get a chance to take it for a spin, or I've just been busy.

But I hope it does well.

They haven't, sorry, just clarifying.

They haven't released the second gen Telluride yet, have they?

I don't know.

They have.

It has a weird blacked out grill that embeds the look.

Like it's very strange looking.

Oh, I just Googled it.

Okay.

It is strange.

I think I prefer the first gen Telluride and then the second gen Palisade.

So I completely agree.

I'm on the fence about the Palisade, the new one,

because I think it photographs very well.

In person, it has some weird angles.

And I didn't, it might be because of the XRT model that I had,

which is it's got like an inch more ground clearance.

It's supposed to have off-road tires, which I didn't have because I had winter tires.

But the, when it was sitting in my driveway and when it was like stuffed up against a snow bank

and in a more enclosed space than when it's out on the road,

the front end just was kind of weirding me out.

No, it looks frumpy.

I'm looking at the XRT Pro right now.

I just Googled it.

I don't like the way that looks at all.

I think the calligraphy looks very nice.

I don't like the way the XRT Pro looks.

I'm just being honest.

It's, it's, it's very black up front, which I think removes a lot of detail.

And you end up with this kind of monolithic razor-like front grill.

Kind of like an F-150 actually.

You're not wrong.

And I don't know how well that meshes with the rest of the vehicle styling.

So there were times where I would come out from wherever I was parked and I would look at it

and be like, oh, this looks really good.

And then every time I was at home and I was looking at it from my house,

I would be like, this is just, it's big and kind of awkward.

And so follow up question, Sammy.

I found the inside to be underwhelming in the sense that it's totally fine.

But in the past, I was much more impressed with how the Palisade looked inside.

Now I'm at the point where I'm like, this doesn't feel special.

It feels like, it feels like I have nothing to object to about it.

But when I'm inside of it, I never, I know, I no longer get the feeling that I'm getting

a premium experience for a regular price.

Interesting.

So the outgoing model, I remember having a lot of small details that made it feel special.

Like just the switch gear in particular felt different.

Yeah, exactly.

And I think that maybe some of those details either would become accustomed to them

or they're actually missing.

That could be very, it could very well be it.

And I feel like...

I'm so sorry, Sammy, please go ahead.

No, no, go ahead.

No, you got it.

I was going to say, I think you're right that the first gen of both the Palisade and the

Telluride had these kind of quirks and little nitpick items that I really liked.

Even if you look at the, and I am, I promise I'm putting my journalist hat on for a second

and taking all biases out of the equation, former journalist.

But I think that like, I've recently gotten, I've spent a lot of time in first gen Palisades

and Tellurides.

Actually, my last Hyundai press launch was like then Palisade in like 2019.

I think that I recently got into like a Highlander and like a Pilot.

And I feel like the Telluride and Palisade both feel kind of levels above those guys.

And while the Pilot and Highlander are both, you know, excellent sellers,

they're proven to be excellent vehicles.

But I feel like they just don't feel special.

They feel like they're utilitarian, they're built to a purpose,

they're built so you can put your 17 children in the back, throw six strollers,

and a camping tent and just bugger off into the, you know, cottage country for the weekend.

Meanwhile, these two feel special.

I, that's, you're right.

So the XRT, I struggle with these vehicles because-

The Cosplay Vehicles?

The Cosplay Vehicles, but specifically the full-size Cosplay Vehicles.

Because if you're like, this is the segment-

Pilot Trail Sport is like the major-

You've got Pilot Trail Sport, you've got Rock Creek Pathfinder,

you've got Xpro Telluride, Z71 Traverse, Explorer Tremor, and Overland Cherokee,

the Grand Cherokee L, I'm sorry.

The only one that's legit about all those is the Grand Cherokee L, right?

I mean maybe-

It's trail rated, I hear.

Is it?

I don't know.

Is it?

It's marketing.

So the problem I have with these vehicles-

Marketing approved.

I mentioned earlier, this one has a one-inch suspension lift.

It gives you 8.4 inches, 8.4 inches of ground clearance.

Now there's a vehicle I didn't mention in that list, the Subaru Ascent Limited.

Does not have a wilderness model, it's just like this is what we got.

But it has 8.7 inches of ground clearance,

which is class leading until you get to the Grand Cherokee,

which has an air suspension.

Yeah.

It will boost you like 10.9 inches if you want.

And that's got to be like a $90,000 car at this point.

So the Ascent is right up there with the Ford Explorer Tremor.

It's the only other vehicle that has 8.7.

But you also get a limited slip rear differential,

which is more than a lot of these vehicles have.

That's great.

And you have the tires and recovery hooks.

And that's pretty much it.

Inside, the vehicle gives you information you're probably never going to use,

like pitch and roll, there's a compass.

On a land yacht, it's huge.

You have like an invisible hood kind of deal

that shows you what's under the front axle if you're doing hardcore stuff.

But what kills me, there's also the terrain selector.

So like mud, sand, snow.

That's in the hybrid I had.

Do you have terrain modes or do you just have driving modes?

I'm certain I have terrain modes.

Because on mine, you could toggle between the two of them.

And mud, sand and snow, I'm not sure if they're in every vehicle.

You might have different terrain modes.

Any case, where I'm going with this is the problem with a very long vehicle like this

is the approach and departure angles are horrible.

You're going to rip the bumpers off of this vehicle going up

and coming down any kind of incline.

And that's where I think that the cosplay really falls apart

for non-body on frame full-sizers.

Because there's really limits as to what you can accomplish.

It's like when you look at the Lexus LX,

right, and even the older GX where it had that gigantic front fascia

that just went down to almost the ground.

And it was like loaded with off-road gear and low-range four-wheel drive.

And you can never use it.

Yeah, and the door is closed.

Like it's like I can't go.

I can't do that.

Like it's just impossible.

So XRT, I can't really recommend it.

It's not much more expensive than the regular one in this whole thing.

I feel like every time we have one of these cosplay vehicles,

we go, I don't get it.

It's not that much better.

It's like four grand in the US.

It's four grand for that model in Canada.

Let me take a look.

I didn't do the trim by trim.

It's a little bit higher up.

So it's also four grand Canadian over the SEL Premium.

So I don't think you should spend the money unless you're in love with the looks.

And as I mentioned earlier, I'm not.

So I don't know, man, it just feels unnecessary.

Enjoy the Palisade for what it's good at.

Don't try to do stuff it's not good at.

And I think that's the best way forward.

But if you do buy it, it's not going to kill you.

It's like 8% more purchase price.

It's not really a huge deal.

I can't wait to talk about the other Hyundai that I drove recently.

I'll probably do that in a week or two.

But the All-Electric Ionic 9 was also a very interesting.

I can't wait to tell you about this.

I think we have a really good conversation coming up on that.

But we had a listener reach out to us.

Yeah, Jake reached out to us.

Jake had some stuff to say.

So he said, in keeping with our Hornet watch,

he wanted to let us know he's seen one Hornet.

And I think that that is honestly one more Hornet

than most human beings have seen.

I know, Addy, you've seen a few Hornets yourself.

I've only seen one Hornet myself.

There you go.

We're at the one Hornet limit.

He has seen this one charger as well.

Charger EV a couple of times, two or three times

over the last few months.

These are our vehicles that don't exist.

Thank you, Jake, for sitting in a report

because I'm always curious to find out.

He's in the US.

Where are these chargers, these Hornets?

He's in the US.

So he's located a couple of them.

You know, I thought you guys, when you said EV charger,

I thought you were talking about the contraption

you put in your garage to put your electric car into.

Maybe they should not have called it that.

I guess, technically, the term is charger EV.

And I'm making a spoonerism of their marketing.

But Jake had a question.

Wanted to ask about the possibility

of the Hemi coming back to the charger.

And also wanted to wish us well in the snowstorm.

I know Sammy was hit pretty hard by it.

So were you, Addy?

I was, we got some crazy cold.

It got so cold here that the heat pumps I used

to heat my house stopped functioning, which sucks.

That was about one day of that.

But things were generally okay.

We got a lot of snow, but not as much as some other area.

So thanks for checking in, Jake.

I hope you were safe there in your part of the world.

Will the Hemi come back for the charger?

I didn't think it would.

And then Sammy dug up a report from last year.

March of last year.

A very vague report.

That's from current driver that said it was supposed to come back.

And there was a weird comment from a Dodge spokesperson

that said multi-energy options have always been part of the plan.

Now, typically multi-energy refers to ICE and BEV

in the same platform, right?

So I don't know why they would talk about multi-energy

and referring to a V8 and an I6 turbo.

That seems a little strange.

Yeah.

It's worth pointing out that Stalantis or Dodge and Ram,

in particular, have really waffled on their multi-energy approach

or whatever they're calling it.

Hence the Hornet conversation.

Yeah, the Hornet was, I mean, the Hornet came with,

I guess, different power trains,

but then got canceled very shortly afterwards.

And then the Ram is the other one,

which where it came out with only a six-cylinder option.

And let's be clear, a very good six-cylinder option

that eventually got, I guess, upstaged by a new Hemi V8.

So no, no, no.

It didn't get upstaged by a new Hemi V8.

It got out-marketed by an old Hemi V8.

It makes the I6, which is available in two different power trims,

it makes way more power, is smoother.

Yeah, more torque.

It's just a better motor.

I have nothing against the Hemi.

I think it's a fine engine, but if I had to choose,

I'm choosing the better engine.

And now that they've put the gas engines

into the charger or challenger,

I'm not sure which one we're talking about.

I know that.

There's no more challenger, Sammy.

We have this conversation every couple of weeks.

You forget.

They call the two-door a challenge.

They're calling the charger two-door.

They're both chargers.

There's no more challenger.

The challenger's been dead for a couple of years now.

I'm going to mail you a photo.

I'm coming to terms with this.

I'm going to mail you a photo of the challenger

with the headlights X.

I need a flowchart.

They're going to be X'd out,

and we're going to put it in front of your screen

when we do the podcast.

I need a flowchart, like two-door.

Is the challenger alive?

No.

Go back to, is the challenger alive?

No.

In fairness, I'll admit that even as the owner of a Stellantis store,

I mix up that not calling the new two-door charger a challenger.

A challenger Daytona?

I don't know what it's called.

This is the Bolton Volt for Stellantis.

This is like them.

So I now know that there's a gas model of that model,

this new generation charger.

And I've been told that it's exceptionally good.

And it won, I think, Nactoy car of the year,

North American car of the year,

which is a pretty big spend by Stellantis

in terms of getting that publicity out there.

But that's a joke.

I actually really trust a lot of the Nactoy journalists.

I think they're great.

I was going to say.

Yes, Abby has just taken names.

Savage.

I'm very curious.

I haven't driven it yet,

because the only model they offered us was a 24 in 25,

which really made it difficult.

That's the EV, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

So is it gas version coming?

I got to try the gas one.

But the double clutch team had one,

and I got to take it for a quick spin when they had one.

It was like they called it the six pack,

or the four pack, or something muscular.

I think six pack is right, yeah.

Yeah, it's called the six pack.

It had the straight six in it.

They were going to call it the beef machine,

but they went with six pack.

They could have just called it the steroid, the gym rat.

Anyway, here we are.

I can't wait for the lightweight model

to be called the event pack.

Oh, the GLP.

That's the narrow body one.

Narrow body one.

I actually, I hated the electric one.

I thought it was awful.

I thought everything about it was just really annoying.

I didn't like it.

I didn't like the fake noise.

It was weird.

I really liked, and I don't really,

I'm not a big Mustang and Camaro guy anymore.

I've tried to like muscle cars.

They just don't fit my style.

Anyway, I took this thing for a drive,

the six cylinder charger, and I really liked how it drove.

It was a great cruiser.

Even if it gets obliterated by the Mustang

and the Camaro and Attractive,

because they have dedicated track setups

on those things that are available.

This is like a daily commuter or cruiser with personality.

Look, I really enjoyed it.

It had been a long time.

I think the last car I really was that surprised by

was like the GR Corolla, but this thing I really enjoyed.

I really think that Dodge has dropped the ball

marketing this vehicle.

I think so too.

Well, we just talked about how we don't know

what to call it anymore.

But I feel that so much of the emphasis from Dodge

has been on their whole hemi thing

and their whole V8 muscle car thing,

that when this came along,

it's almost like it broke their brains in terms of,

they're just like, well, this is also fast, but not a V8.

And then they just didn't know what to do

or how to communicate that to buyers.

And that to me is kind of crazy and unfortunate

because it's possible that we have a good car

that no one will know exists.

Yep, no, you're right.

But the hemi, then.

The hemi.

The badge on the RAM to let you know that you walked away

from something good for something old.

It's just so strange to me.

It's an odd moment at Chrysler in general.

And I hope they make it through,

not just because Addy has a store,

but because it would suck if,

I mean, this is a car company

that's been on the precipice so many times.

And it's always managed to make it through.

Maybe that will keep playing forward.

Who knows?

But thank you for that question.

I just want to, no, I want to answer the question.

I think the hemi will come.

You think it's going to come?

Yeah.

I don't think so.

I think if I were a man.

I think Stalentus is terrified of losing more customers.

Wasn't this platform developed in concert

with Fiat and Alfa Romeo?

Mm-hmm.

I guess so.

I don't know why.

With that in mind,

I don't see how a hemi fits in that engine bay.

They'll make it work.

I think you listen.

Okay, Ben, I don't think it's because of the size.

I think that that engine bay is the size of a house.

Like, I think it could fit.

That whole car is huge,

but I don't think that the hemi will happen.

All right.

You heard it here first.

There you go.

Again, I don't know anything.

I actually don't have any information,

but this is just what I personally feel.

No, I don't see it happening either.

I think they can get away with it in the trucks

for corporate fuel economy.

I don't know what they can do in the cars.

I also don't, like we were saying,

if no one knows this car exists,

does it really make sense to put the tooling together

to put a new engine in it if it's already not selling?

And can they justify by saying,

well, if we put the hemi in it, people will buy it?

I don't know if that's true,

because I don't know if that was true for the charger

beforehand, which had kind of fallen off the radar

because it was fine, but it was old,

and it was great at the rental counter,

and it had kind of been on the market forever.

I don't know if you can apply the lessons

from that model to this new charger.

I think you're absolutely nailing the head right.

So that's it for this week's episode.

I'm going to plug Addy one more time,

doubleclutch.ca, as well as, I guess, Clarkson Fine Cars,

that we talked about beforehand.

Yeah, thanks, guys.

Anything else you want to point out?

I really, really appreciate you having me on the...

No, it was fine.

I really appreciate you guys.

I love hearing you talk about cars,

and we should have done this a long time ago,

so I'm glad we were able to do it.

I love your stories of these cars,

especially these cars that I'll never own.

You can own them for me.

You can just drive them whenever you want.

I'll take you up on that once the weather gets warmer.

Sammy, you've got to get your clutch boot ready.

Yeah, what's like, I prepare my clutch boot.

Ben, what about you?

Can we plug a couple of publications for you

since we didn't do it so earlier?

Sure, you can find my stuff on Motor Trend at Hagerty

and at driving.ca.

Let's go with that.

And you can find my stuff at driving.ca,

as well as their YouTube page and autotrader.ca.

Ben, what are we talking about next week?

Next week, I'm going to be talking about a vehicle

that has somehow triggered a lot of hostility from Sammy,

and that's the GMC Terrain Denali.

I can't believe we're talking about this car.

I can't wait to talk to you about it.

I think it's worth all the hostility that I can dish out.

And I also want our listeners to head on over to our website,

unnamedautomotivepodcast.com, fill out the contact form,

send us all your great questions.

We love hearing from you,

and we love answering your questions on the show.

That's right.

All right.

Thanks, everyone.

See you later.

Bye.

Thanks, guys.

Episode 435: Guest Adi Desai of DoubleClutch, 2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid, 2026 Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro

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