The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gasoline and electricity to help save fuel and reduce pollution. It's known for being very efficient, which means it can go a long way on a small amount of gas.
Gas mileage is how far a car can go on a certain amount of gas. If a car has good gas mileage, it means it doesn't use a lot of gas to drive a long distance.
A hybrid car uses both a gas engine and an electric motor to run. This helps save fuel and is better for the environment than regular cars that only use gas.
The Toyota Camry is a popular car that many people use for everyday driving. It's known for being reliable and now often comes as a hybrid, which means it uses both gas and electricity to run.
Federal tax credits for electric vehicles help buyers save money when they purchase an electric car. These credits lower the price you pay after taxes, making EVs more affordable.
Windshield wipers are the rubber blades on your car that wipe away rain and dirt from the windshield so you can see clearly while driving. They need to be changed often to work well.
The Mazda RX-7 is a small sports car famous for its unique rotary engine, which makes it lightweight and fun to drive. It was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Toyota GR 86 is a sporty two-door car that is designed for fun driving. It's lightweight and has a powerful engine, making it enjoyable to drive on twisty roads.
The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small, fun sports car that seats two people. It's known for being light and easy to drive, making it enjoyable for many car lovers.
Mazda is a car company from Japan that makes cars known for being fun to drive. One of their popular models is the Miata, which is a small, sporty convertible.
The Toyota Highlander is a popular SUV designed for families. It has a lot of space inside and can fit many passengers, especially in its three-row version.
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a big SUV that can carry a lot of people and cargo. It's great for families and has a strong engine for driving on different types of roads.
The Volkswagen Beetle is a small, round car that has been around for a very long time. It's famous for its unique shape and has been loved by many people for generations.
A three-speed manual transmission is a system in a car that lets you change gears manually using a stick. It has three different gear options for driving.
A CVT is a special kind of automatic transmission that doesn't have gears like regular ones. Instead, it can change speeds smoothly, which helps save fuel and makes driving feel smoother.
The base trim price is the lowest price you can pay for a car model without adding any extra features or options. It's like the starting point for that car's price.
The Honda Civic Hybrid is a version of the Honda Civic that uses both gas and electricity to run. This helps it save fuel and be better for the environment.
The Toyota 4Runner is a tough SUV that can handle rough roads and off-road adventures. It's great for people who like to explore nature or need a strong vehicle for daily use.
A radar detector is a gadget that helps drivers know when police are using radar to check for speeding, so they can slow down if needed.
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Welcome to another in-wheel-time podcast
Welcome to the award-winning in-wheel-time car talk show just ahead. We talked to mr.
California author singer songwriter and car god
Jack me right here
Jeff has this week's motor minute and we review the new Toyota Prius don't laugh
You're gonna be interested to hear about what I got to say about
Prius in this segment of the in-wheel-time car talk show. Howdy along with Mike out of this world Mars over there in Neaterville, Texas
We always need more Jeff Seekin here in the beautiful Houston area
Our chief engineer David Ainsley is vacationing today. I'll be in Michigan where the current temperature is
55 degrees now all of us are eating our hearts out. Hello. I'm strong glad that you could join us
on this Saturday for our live
broadcast and
It's been an interesting week
Fun-filled week for me. How about you Jeffrey? Yeah, pretty decent pretty good week. Well, I had to as I've mentioned
I had the Toyota Prius. I'm gonna review that car. I had it and I
Say what you will it's not the original Prius. This is a zoomie
little car
That gets great gas mileage. Matter of fact
Let's go right now to Southern, California
Who's up and Adam this morning? That would be singer songwriter Jack knee read Jack. Good morning to you
Good morning. How did you know about my music career? I kind of kept that on the down low, but
A little bit, you know
Well, Jack, it's great to see you this morning. How are you my friend? I am doing great. I'm doing terrifically well
Well, I'm glad to hear that
Not sure about your governor, but that's another story for another day. Yeah, I'm sure about our governor either
But yeah
So as I said in the teas and I just repeated the Toyota Prius. Have you driven one of those? I have yeah
I was on the launch of I think the most recent one, you know, I
Don't know about you and
You know, it really came with some bad rap after it got going and granted
It probably wasn't the best-looking car originally, but it has evolved and not only
Technologically evolved, but it has also evolved in body shape and
To me aesthetics. I I fell in love with the car. I
There's good reason to do that
Absolutely, I think what a lot of people don't realize is how good hybrids are these days to drive
I mean how fun they are to drive and you know that little electric amount of electric torque just adds a lot
I think it's really they're really terrific in the and I think that a lot of it has to be as a salute to Toyota
For their technology because basically that technology is across the board now. Yeah
Yeah, and so yeah, I mean you see that in Camry. For example, I mean you can't get a Camry
That isn't a hybrid these days. So there's a lot about that. So what's going on with you?
well, we're trying to sort out what's gonna happen now now that the
federal tax credits for EVs are
Gone, you know, there's much gnashing of teeth and some some channels over that
So we're gonna see whether sales of EVs crater or not. I think that's the the big issue for October
We'll see what happens there. I mean some manufacturers that mitigate against that
Yes, and and the suppliers they're going crazy. Some of them are going out of business
I'm still shocked and surprised about the Fram
automotive
Supply the made major company
But I think that there's some shenanigans going on there that put them in this predicament
What do you think there could well be there could well be because you know
That's a brand that those of us who work on our cars and have worked on our cars for a long time
I mean, you know, it's just top front front and center, right? I mean, this is a brand that we all know about
So it's it's hard to imagine how that could have been frittered away
But who knows?
Fram and windshield wipers the one two things that you've got on your car that you change out all the time
Right. How do you how does a company go bankrupt like that? I just don't understand it
But it certainly has sent shivers throughout the automotive industry because you know
new cars come with wiper blades and oil filters and they don't just make the Fram brand as you will know
They've got their generics and specialty brands that they make for you know
NADA and all the other people out there that sell car parts
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it's a giant supplier and you know, the supplier base for the auto industry
employs so many people in the United States
Maybe as many as the car manufacturers themselves. So it's a big deal. Well back to the
Actual EV stuff. I know that a lot of the manufacturers have pulled way back
Matter of fact, I'm going to do a story later on about the EVs that they had planned
But now they're saying no, we're not going to do that or they've put them off for at least a couple of years
Battery plants that were planned or in the process of being built and they've stopped all of that and
You know, Jack my take on and I want I want you to give me your take on it with
The EVs I've said all along. Why does an EV have to have the government's help? Okay?
Comes a point where you say they need to compete
Against the rest of the cars in the market. Don't you agree? I totally agree totally agree
You have to take the training wheels off at some point. I think we were what 15 years into something like that into subsidies for these things and
Basically, you know, I've had some industry
Insiders talk about this and and essentially it was a $7,500 subsidy for each car manufacturer for each car sold, right?
I mean, that's that's really what happened
Now we're going to see if they can swim without the
Flotation device, right?
That's exactly if that was mentioned last week that it's a sink or swim kind of thing
If you want to do this you want to play in these waters
Here's how we're going to play and that's why they they they're making those announced and let's just face the fact
It's not as if all of the EV sales have gone to zero
There's still selling these despite the fact that they're not getting the 75 and my take is hey
If you want an EV you're going to buy an EV because there's all sorts of different price ranges
Just like a regular car different styles. No that yeah, I agree with you
And I and that's fine
And you know that for a lot of people in EV works and for a lot of people in EV doesn't work and that's the important thing
I think our consumer choice is a good thing, right?
Well and GM and Ford I think that they were trying to cheat the system and load up on the on the
Borrowers side and well, we're just going to go ahead and buy them and we'll give you the money back and they both backed out of that deal
Pretty quickly. Yeah rightly so because it seemed pretty hinky. We reported on that on our show a couple of weeks ago, too
It's just this doesn't seem quite right. Does it? Yeah, no it does not
So have you driven anything fun and exciting lately? I have actually I was recently well in just last week
I think
excuse me in the
Toyota GR 86
Hakone edition
Which is a lot of fun. I mean a what it struck me was
This is one of the few cars
Liberal cars and certainly sports cars that I've driven for a long long time because probably as you guys do
I mean, we're driving a lot of
SUVs and and crossovers and reviewing those because that's what people are buying
But it was really kind of a breath of fresh air to get into this, you know
Little sports car reminded me a lot of the RX 7 I had
Years and years ago. I'm probably 30 years ago now. You're showing your age. I
Had that in middle-aged Don
Yeah, I hear you. I'm right with you. Yeah
So does it ride as rough as the regular GR 86 kind of you know
I mean you have to put up with
Doesn't have a lot of suspension travel not a lot of compliance as they say in the industry is not all that soft riding
I think it could use more horsepower
But I guess I think everything could use a little more horsepower
So what what what what denotes this special version of it?
It's a paint treatment. There's some special things inside, you know, they do different things too
I think there's 860 of them available for for the particular year that they're out
It's kind of cool. It's got kind of a green
Paint color to it. That's interesting different than anything else. You see I mean, we don't see color cars anymore, right?
You see black silver and white cars is pretty much what you see. So
That was fun. It was it was cool to do I like a lot of Japanese cars
It's kind of like the Miata in a way in that it's kind of a 7-8 scale car. Yeah
Our size maybe I feel a little bit too big for it and I'm not that big a guy
Well, it's funny. You should say that because I got to drive
This anniversary edition of the Mazda Miata here a few weeks back. I love the car paint was beautiful
I love the special touches that they put on it
But I forgot how small it is my knees almost touched the back the dashboard
Yeah, yeah, and it hasn't grown has it I
To its credit in a lot of ways. I think that's pretty cool because
You know the way the car companies improve a lot of vehicles is just to make them bigger
And then you need more motor and then you need this and that more brakes and everything else
And and you know, I guess that's another big industry issue is affordability because everything, you know gets bigger and you know
More filled with stuff and fewer and fewer people can afford them
Well, you know, it's interesting that you should bring that up that the grow all of these brands for instance
The Toyota Highlander when it went on the market man that thing they sold like hot cakes
And I think a lot of it had to do with the size of it now. It's darn near a full size
I think they even have a three-row version. Yeah, like a Tahoe. It's like what what is the thought process?
So although the thing I can think of is the fact that they're using the name for people that have bought it loved it before
Hey, we got a new model. It's bigger. Oh my gosh
We're gonna sell X amount of these just by you know repeat business. Is that is that what your take is?
I think some of it is that and I think if you're the chief engineer on a particular program
Let's say your chief engineer on the Toyota Highlander, for example
How do you make that vehicle better than before? How do you make the next generation better than before, right? So maybe
Customers want a little more room
Maybe they want a third row that's usable. Maybe they want a little more horsepower
Maybe they want more safety equipment than before and even if they don't
I mean that seems like the way you would quote unquote improve it, right?
I think one of the geniuses of the Volkswagen Beetle was it didn't change very much for like 30 years, right?
And they figured out how to build them and you know
Anybody could pretty much fix them
You know by the side of the road you could fix them oftentimes
I ended up doing that myself a few times if you've got a if you've got a
A vehicle that works and people are buying it. Why would you want to tinker with it?
I mean sure. There's probably some things aesthetically. Maybe you uh, uh
Fender tweak here a grill grill tweak there, but if it's working, why why do that?
Well, like you were talking about the Volkswagen. It's the same principle
You know, they they modified or they improved the mechanics that the engine got a little bit bigger got a little more horsepower over the years
You know, they
Got to change their heating system for the past years
I mean, there's a lot of ways like just said to improve it without necessarily making it bigger
Yeah, yeah, well, I you know
I I guess as many schools have thought on that and jack you you're probably more than know on this
I would imagine because there's so much money involved in not only designing and building a brand new vehicle
But there is also a huge take on whether or not it's going to be successful in the marketplace
why
Why would you?
Not have a focus group. It seems to me that they do do they not yeah, they do but it's interesting
I mean, I worked within car companies for a long time about 10 15 years
I work for car companies or I work for
Suppliers to car companies when I left my journalist career for a while
Thank you. Thank heavens. I'm not getting it
Because this is this is what I love to do
But what you find out there is there's a lot of things
Maybe they want consumers to kind of endorse their own opinions about stuff
so
Maybe the focus groups aren't as straight up in terms of what they're saying yes or no to
Then you might think I think there's a lot of manipulation that goes on you would think that they would want just
Give me the the real opinion your real opinions, right?
But I think that information gets stacked a little bit. Well, it's like
It's like a survey you can set it up to get the answers you want not necessarily the answers you're looking for
Yes, absolutely. Mike and that was one of the things back in my radio days
I guess there's still radio days but back in the day of radio they did especially the very successful radio stations
They did focus groups focused on the actual music
And they would play a snippet of a song. Do you recognize the song? Do you like the song?
What do you know about the song and that kind of guided them for the next three four five months until the next focus group
As to what songs they were going to play at what direction they were going to go in that they play the latest releases
Are they really more successful with some of the oldies out there?
How old that sort of thing and the focus groups were part of the
process of being a successful radio station and I would like to think
That the auto companies are doing the same thing
Do they do they actually look at some of these influencers jack?
Yeah, they do and you know, I've been on both sides of focus groups
I've been a participant in focus groups and sometimes they'll have journalists panel focus groups as well as
And that's a really bad thing for product planners actually because his auto journalists often
Want the wrong things they were things that consumers don't want
You know, they want cars that to handle real sharp, but don't ride all that well
You know, they always want more horsepower. They want things that the typical consumer
Doesn't find useful. So you have that going on, but
Um, I think they listen to focus groups to an extent. I think the really smart companies listen listen better
Uh pay more attention. Uh, I think toyota is an example of that versus, you know, some of the other companies that maybe go astray a bit
Well, can I can I just go ahead and play that card if I may would somebody please?
Make it easy to turn off the lane keeping assist
I hate I hate fighting the car
Right, right. Well, you know, I'm pretty close to the jd power folks. I worked there long ago and I still, you know, follow them very
Uh closely and that's one of the the biggest bugaboos of people. I mean people find that such
So dissatisfying
Lane keeping it just again it fights you right? I mean, there are times when you want to cross that white line
Exactly really good reasons to do that. I've got mine turned off. Yeah, yeah
so, um, the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about if we can stray just a moment is
Only one thing stays the same a new book by jack knee rat. There you go
That's that's very nice of you to talk about that. It's a my second crime novel. Uh, it's going quite well
It's uh, I think an interesting story. It's about a a blue collar worker who kind of gets involved with two women and they
They end up kind of confounding him and being smarter than he is
Uh, which isn't so surprising. Is it? Oh, it's all running the women who are smarter than us, right?
But uh, there's uh, some interesting crime involved and uh, this to then I think there's a lot of surprise
I've solved it. The crime is is he got two women? That's
Exactly well, um, so have you had your books translated into
the spoken word
You know, I'm thinking about doing that and uh, I'd like to I'd like to voice them myself
Uh, there's a situation now where uh, AI can do it
Uh, and I've heard some kind of AI renditions of uh, books and they're pretty good, but you know
You're a voice guy don you know, you know that the the inflection you put on it is maybe better than a machine would
I I hope that that's well, there is one guy that is used too too much and you hear him all the time and
It's AI generated and hey look good for that. I'm glad that that exists
But if you really want a human touch to it, you hire a human voice
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I've had an agent for years and years and years and I've been fairly successful at doing voiceovers
Uh in this industry here in houston in particular
And I I have some very good friends that are very good at what they do
A very close friend of mine as a matter of fact
Does all of the comic con stuff that the anime from japan that he does all the translations
Listen, he goes to these conventions. They fly him there. They put him up. They pay him great money to make personal appearances. I'm going
Lord death, you've got to be kidding me. That's one of his characters
Yeah, you know and he was he started off as a voice guy
He wasn't in radio originally, but he was a voice actor. So
Great guy. There's good money to be made if you can get the work
Well, jack, it's always great to great to talk to you. What are you going to be working on here in the next month?
uh, I've got another book that I'm working on uh a uh
non-fiction
Um that I'm working on so that's that's one of the things and of course we do the radio show each week and uh
associated
All right, and they associated a youtube channel and all of that stuff. So that keeps me fairly busy and I'm writing
Vehicle reviews still for jdpower.com. So I'm a busy guy. Yeah, you are you are and I hope the price of gas stays down for you out there
Yeah, well, it's under five dollars. So
It's always a pleasure to talk to you my friend. We love you to death and let's talk next month
I love that. I love that. Always great to talk to you guys. I hope you have a wonderful day today
Thank you. Thank you. All right
Uh, hey, we invite you to join our live broadcast if you're listening on a podcast
Our talk show airs every saturday live tend to noon central time on in wheel time dot com youtube and facebook
Get one of those today coming up a review of the toyota prius
Plus japs motor minute
And the in wheel time car talk show continues right after this quick break
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You gotta love it. Yeah, yeah something
That's hometown right there. Yeah, welcome back to the good will time car talk show time now for jeff's motor minute
Yeah, I actually had two i'm gonna pick one of these. This is my favorite. Have you all had snh green stamps growing up?
Oh, absolutely. Well, here we go. Many of us probably grew up with the train
Store that you used to go and retrieve all the junk many families did household things small appliances decorative home furnishings
In 1965 catalog in the top value stamps. That's what it was called
In this catalog you could exchange full stamp books for ford automobiles and small motorbikes
The ford falcon was
771 books the account online wagon was 807 books and the Mustang was 718 books
The fair lane coop was 766
So sperry hutchinson began the stamps for us retailers in 1896 and it went all the way through
Had a heyday in 63 and they've actually kind of dropped it around 1980 a little bit earlier
But you would pay two dollars and 45 cents in today's money. It was 25 dollars a little over
For a book now the stamps were issued in dominations of one the nominations of one 10 50 points perforated with a gum reverse side
Shoppers accumulated the stamps now
The books contained 24 pages might get a pencil in your calculator. You get ready for that. I got it. I got it
Look contained 24 pages
Filling the page requirement of 50 points. So each book contained 1200 points
Shoppers could exchange the filled books for premiums including housewares
Like we said local green stamps store catalogs and things of that nature now in order to buy a ford falcon for
771 book develop the falcon was 105 horsepower engine three speed manual transmission all vinyl interior a stripper
Full with three passenger seats
Boy and foam padded cushions heater to frost your two spoke steering wheel and so on
And it had a twice a year maintenance program from ford if it was not recalled
Falcon deluxe club wagon
807 books 105 horsepower synchro smooth three speed transmission all vinyl interior three spoke deep dish steering wheel
Front seats belts front seat belts heaters into frosters
So you could actually go to your snh green stamps and if you had enough books you could buy a car
Order a car order car because I don't think they kept them in stock
No, no, no, but they would deliver it to you. That was part of the deal and they got pictures
And you'd have to have a couple of wagons to haul out many books
Yeah, and it's a lot of money. I broke up a 1200. That's a lot of saliva too
It's about 95 thousand dollars where the purchase is you would have to do to buy a car back in the day
Well, but remember they gave the stamps away
At the grocery store east for us. Well, they did you had to have a
A certain plateau to get a five or ten cents for something. Yeah, that was given. Yeah
But to do that if you added them all up and today's money is about 95 grand
We had big bonus stamps
We went from snh to big bonus at the white guys that blew on the back of it
Time now for this hour's car review
Had a chance to drive the 2025 toyota prius. Don't laugh. Listen to this final assembly location toyota aichi japan
available trim levels se
xse and premium
I had the premium
This is a plug-in hybrid sedan seats five people. It's small
Exterior changes from last model year was all new
This is a new trim name for 2025. It was all new in 2023 exterior features
The most aerodynamic car in everyday models
I I think that this thing is sleek the windshield is sloped just like the front hood all the way down to the pavement
Attractive skinny headlights with small grille opening at the lower end of the front end
Slick big wheels hatchback is sleek with attractive lighting
But I liked its attractiveness. It's not just a hybrid model anymore
This is probably one of the most attractive sedans. I'd buy it interior highlights
unique
To cluster dash design with a big infotainment screen in the middle
Sleek comfortable seating up front leg and the headroom is limited in the back
Drive mode controls on the center console hvac controls on the lower dash is well placed
And the controls are easy to use trunk room is limited due to its fastback design
But I liked the convenient controls what could use improvement
Well, the instrument cluster in front of the driver is a little bit too far away from the driver in my opinion
And sometimes it was blocked by the steering wheel
It comes with a two-liter gasoline four-cylinder engine with 220 horsepower combined
That's a ton of horsepower friends for this little car
torque tons
Transmission CVT automatic
And here is where you hit home runs
combined gas mileage
With gas and electric together is 114 miles per gallon
electric
I got 43.7
Miles per gallon over 400 and 60.6 miles
What I like plenty of gasoline only power
I did not plug it in if you want to plug it in you can probably get about 40 miles of range
With nothing but the battery what could use improvement nothing stick with it. This is a good good deal
What I liked about it the smooth ride what could use improvement nothing pricing
Base trim price
$40,070 price has tested with a few options 44
324 the base model price all the engines are the same
Same gas mileage the base model price is 33
375 competitors there really isn't any but here's some that are close key and nero plug-in
34 490
Hyundai Tucson plug-in 39
730 these are starting prices and the Honda Civic hybrid
28
750
And that's my review of the 20 25 toyota Prius next week
We're going to review the brand new toyota 4runner and we hope that you'll tune in for that next week
same
Bat channel same bat price. Yep. Yep. Yep. All right
Coming up our next segment lots of stuff including a special guest
Somebody that likes statistics you're gonna love this we invite you to stay tuned here on the in-wheel time car talk show back after this
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About this episode
A lively discussion unfolds as the hosts dive into the evolution of the Toyota Prius, highlighting its newfound appeal and impressive fuel efficiency. Jack Neerad joins the conversation, sharing insights on the GR86 and the current state of the EV market amidst changing federal tax credits. The episode balances technical analysis with personal anecdotes, exploring the challenges and triumphs of hybrid and electric vehicles. The hosts also touch on industry trends, consumer preferences, and the importance of focus groups in automotive design.
A sleeker Prius that’s actually fun, EV incentives vanishing, and a sports car that resets your grin—this one brings the big swings and the small joys. We kick off by tearing down the old hybrid myth and putting the latest Toyota Prius through a real-world lens: punchy off-the-line torque, thoughtful ergonomics, and the kind of efficiency that makes weekly gas stops feel optional. From there, we head straight into the question everyone’s asking: with federal EV tax credits gone, does the market hold or fold?
Jack Nerad joins us to unpack what a true sink-or-swim moment looks like, why some automakers are delaying EVs and battery plants, and how supplier instability can ripple from factory floors to your local service bay.
We don’t forget the fun. Jack shares seat time in the Toyota GR86—a small, balanced coupe that channels RX-7 and Miata vibes, reminding us why analog feedback still matters. That joy ride fuels a candid talk on size creep: when a Highlander ends up near full-size and “improvement” means more mass, more screens, and a higher price, do we lose the simple cars many drivers actually want? We compare focus group theories with street-level needs, and we get blunt about the UX headache everyone feels: lane-keeping that fights the driver and hides the off switch. The fix isn’t magic; it’s human-centered design and clearer choices.
We round out with a nostalgic detour through S&H Green Stamps—the original loyalty hustle—and a creative pivot: Jack’s new crime novel and the debate over AI narration versus human performance. The throughline across it all is choice and clarity. Hybrids that feel alive. EVs that fit real lives. Driver aids that obey intent. And stories—on the road and on the page—that keep us leaning in.
If you enjoy smart car talk with real-world takeaways, tap follow, share this episode with a friend who still thinks hybrids are dull, and drop a review with your take: are incentives a crutch or a bridge? We’re reading every word.
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