From Pixel Headlights To V8 Pull: Real-World EV And SUV Reviews
In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show
In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk ShowDec 30, 2025
From Pixel Headlights To V8 Pull: Real-World EV And SUV Reviews
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Car
Volvo EX40 Twin Motor Ultra
The Volvo EX40 Twin Motor Ultra is a new electric car that will be available in 2025. It's built on the design of an earlier model called the XC40, which means it shares some features with that car.
The Volvo XC40 is a smaller SUV from Volvo that the new EX40 is built upon. It's known for being safe and stylish, and many people like it for its size and features.
A twin motor means the car has two electric motors, which helps it drive better, especially in different weather conditions. It can also make the car faster and more powerful.
Pixel headlight technology is a smart feature in some cars that helps the headlights adjust their brightness based on how bright or dark it is outside. This makes it easier to see while driving at night.
A digital driver display is a screen in the car that shows you important information like how fast you're going and directions. It's a modern version of the old-fashioned dials you used to see in cars.
The touchscreen center stack is the main screen in the middle of the car that you touch to control things like music and navigation. It's a modern way to manage these features instead of using buttons.
A digital owner's manual is an online version of the car's manual that you can look up on a screen, making it easier to find information about your car.
Harman Kardon makes high-end audio systems that provide great sound quality in cars and homes, often with special features like extra speakers and powerful bass.
Towing capacity is how much weight a vehicle can pull behind it, like a trailer or boat. Knowing this helps you understand what you can safely tow without harming the vehicle.
Gross weight is how much a vehicle weighs when you add everything together, like the car itself and anything inside it. This helps determine how much weight the car can handle safely.
MPG means how far a car can go on a gallon of gas. The higher the number, the better the car is at saving fuel, which helps you spend less money on gas.
Miles per gallon tells you how efficient a car is with fuel. The higher the number, the further you can drive on a gallon of gas, which usually means spending less money on fuel.
The base trim price is the lowest price you can pay for a car before adding any extra features. It's like the starting point for how much the car costs.
The Mercedes-Benz GLB is a smaller luxury SUV that feels nice to drive and has a lot of cool features. It's a good choice if you want something fancy but still practical.
The Toyota Grand Highlander is a bigger SUV than the regular Highlander, providing extra room for passengers and cargo, especially with a third row of seats for more people.
The Ford Pinto is a small car that was made by Ford in the 1970s. It was popular because it was cheap and got good gas mileage, but it also had some serious safety problems that made it controversial.
The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car that looks really cool and goes fast. It's been around for a long time and is popular because people love how it drives and how it looks.
COPO stands for Central Office Production Order, which was a way for Chevrolet dealers to order special high-performance cars that regular customers couldn't buy. It was popular in the muscle car era.
Cosworth is a company that makes high-performance engines and parts, often used in racing cars. They are known for improving the speed and power of vehicles.
The Chevrolet Corvair is a car that was made in the 1960s. It had a special engine design that was different from most cars, which made it interesting and unique.
A flat-six engine is a kind of engine where six cylinders sit flat instead of standing up. This design helps the car handle better and makes it smoother to drive.
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a big family car that can hold a lot of people and stuff. It's great for road trips and is known for being comfortable and powerful.
The Cadillac Escalade is a fancy, big SUV that has a lot of luxury features and space inside. People often talk about it because it's known for being very comfortable and stylish.
The Ford Expedition is a big car that can fit a lot of people and their stuff. It's powerful and good for towing things, making it a great choice for families.
The GMC Yukon is a large SUV that can carry a lot of people and gear. It's similar to the Chevy Tahoe but has a tougher look, making it a great option for families.
LIVE
Welcome to another In-Wheel Time podcast.
Okay, Mr. Mars.
We're going to do it first.
We're doing Michael Wooding.
I haven't got him yet. He's on his way, he said.
Okay, so then you're going to do your car review.
Let's do the car review.
Now, we're talking about the 2025 Volvo EX40 Twin Motor Ultra all-wheel drive.
Now, this vehicle, the final assembly point, is in Ghent, G-H-E-N-T Belgium, which kind of surprised me.
And the relative it is, this is new for 2025, but it's all based on the last year's XC40.
So they took the XC40, they kind of rebuilt it and turned it into the EX40.
Now, it's got parts, we're not even going into that.
So it's got available trim levels.
There's actually three trims, but you can kind of look at it at six, because there's the core, the plus, and the ultra.
But each one can have a single motor or a twin motor.
So you can actually get six different variants of this vehicle.
Seats five people.
It's got a new battery, so it charges a little faster.
And I read something on Edmunds that it actually charges 10% faster.
So it's kind of, it's a few minutes.
It was kind of weird to me that they would even talk about it being that.
But anyway, would you like to start this car review?
No, I'm just, I'm trying to stick to the facts and not what I'm thinking.
So it's got a lot of things on the outside of it.
It's got pixel headlight technology, which if you're not familiar with that, they actually have little cameras in the headlights
that reads what the lighting is on the outside, cars coming at you and things like that.
And it adjusts the brightness of your headlights accordingly.
Where there's no headlights or anything out there, it gets brighter.
Yeah, mine does that.
Does it?
Well, does it have, does it call pixel technology?
That's first I'd heard of it.
But anyway, headlights is what we call them.
It's got the LED fog lights, got the power side mirrors, got a power sunroof, power liftgate,
rolls on the optional weather actually standard on the ultra trim level, the 20 inch alloy wheels.
Now, the get into the interior of this thing.
It's got the floor tunnel.
Most EVs don't have a floor tunnel on them because it's still based on that XC40 from the previous year.
So it's still got the tunnel in it.
So it kind of takes up some of the feeding foot area room that you would expect to have in an EV.
It's got a 12.3 inch digital driver display.
Got a nice nine inch touchscreen center stack, which is very important.
And we'll get to that in a moment.
Got suede, Michael Tech interior.
First row is seated.
They're heated and they're cool.
The second row is heated.
It is only a two row vehicle, which is a very good thing in this size of vehicle.
Got the sound surround view camera.
It's got connections with Google and Apple and all these other things.
And it has a digital owners manual.
I thought it was rather interesting.
Forget looking anything else up.
Got the folding second row seat.
Got a Harman Kardon premium audio system with 13 speakers, 600 watts subwoofer that is air vented, which is rather unusual.
But switching back up to that nine inch screen that center stack, it's very important.
And I'm surprised it's only that nine inches.
And I think it could be a little bit bigger to help out because everything is there.
Hold that right there, Jeff.
Everybody wants it bigger.
Well, I know, but there's across the bottom, there's very, it's minimal buttons, but everything is in that touch screen.
So for example, you get into it like a lot of EVs, you put your foot on the brake, put it in gear, it starts and off you go.
Great, love it.
That's fine.
But now you want to stop.
You pull in your driveway and you want to get out.
Now you can put it in there and you can sit there and say, get out.
Well, it's going to still be running.
Or you can go over to the touch screen and you hit home and you go to the control panel and you go into the control panel.
That's two touches.
Then you've got to scroll to the bottom because it's not all on the same screen and you touch it again the third time.
It says, I want to turn this vehicle off.
Great.
You can get out of your car, but when you do it's still on and it's very distressing, whatever you get out and the radio is still playing as you walk away.
So what you have to do once you push the again says, I want to turn this vehicle off.
It's going to come up and ask you, are you sure you want to turn this vehicle off?
Wow.
And you have to tell it yes.
Wow.
So you've got to touch four times to be able to turn the vehicle off before you get out of it.
Hmm.
I find that silly.
Yeah, very.
Whenever everybody else you could push it one time and say, stop or stop.
Well, the new GM EVs, you don't have to do any of that.
Get in with the key in your pocket.
Put your foot on the brake and it starts.
I will say the other thing.
The Volvo is known for their safety.
They have this reputation for being a safe vehicle and perhaps that's why they did it.
Just like sometimes you jump in the car, you put it in gear and you're gone and you want to call somebody, but you didn't pair your phone.
So normally you've got to wait until you're stopped.
Not in this car.
60 miles an hour is when I did it.
I'm sure you could probably do it a little faster, but you compare your phone going down the highway at 60 miles an hour.
Not that it's distracting or anything while you're driving, but you can do that in this Volvo.
So you can do all these good things to kind of make your life a little bit better.
So again, twin electric motors on this vehicle that we had, 402 horsepower equivalent.
Transmission is a direct drive.
Basically it's one speed.
Will be rated for towing 2,000 pounds.
Gross weight on this vehicle is 5,840 pounds amazingly.
Now the MPG, it says it's rated for 103 in the city, 85 on the highway combined, 94.
I still haven't figured out how to convert all that stuff.
So I did it a different way.
I drove this vehicle 270 miles.
I had to charge it twice.
Total cost was $33.59 to go 270 miles.
Now I took that same $33.59 and figured gasoline at $2.60 in my truck that gets 18 miles to the gallon, if not better.
And I could go 232 miles versus the 270 that went in the EV without spending two hours sitting at the Subaru dealer at 6 o'clock in the morning before he opens charging it.
It's pretty easy to get into and again, you can get in it and go as you need to.
Turning it off is not so much.
It rides and drives.
It's heavy enough that it's absolutely going to ride and drive better.
There's no engine noise.
Got a little bit of road noise on it, but I mean it's not anything that's not acceptable.
Turn that Harman Kardon stereo up and you override that as to the cost of it.
Now the base trim price on this vehicle would be $53,795.
Now the base model price is $62045 and we had the base ultra, I guess you would call it, the $62045 was the MSRP as tested.
Mercedes-Benz equivalent is an EQB, which used to be a GLB for $53,050, Audi QE Tron for $49.08 and the Genesis GV60 at $52,350.
So it's in the same price as all these other guys, but again, you need to kind of be prepared to deal with the controls and the infotainment system that I think is a little too much needy.
Too much involvement.
Yes, it does. Absolutely too much involvement.
But otherwise, if you're looking for something like that, you might look at it otherwise.
It's a nice looking car.
Okay, I got it.
Okay, so.
Do I have to change this picture?
You don't have to. Yes, you do.
But not yet. I want to see that girl there.
Days of the shagging wagon to look back at the 1970s custom vans.
The streets of the 70s were littered with a variety of vehicles littered.
Bad-ass muscle cars, muscle or massive gas guzzling, lanyards, your parents drove, the new economy cars to handle the gas crisis, motorcycles, always ridden without helmets, and of course, vans.
There were no minivans in the 70s, Mike.
This was a time before van had been tamed, before it had been neutered to a soccer mom machine of today.
Did she write that? No.
That was really good.
I know. It was. I had to throw it in there. I'd give credit to somebody else.
I don't like to use the word neutered.
In the 1970s, vans didn't carry spoiled kids drinking juice boxes and watching SpongeBob.
Quite the contrary.
Vans were basically a bedroom on wheels, Don. No SpongeBob, no juice boxes, no trips to organized sporting events in the suburbs.
Just a lot of sex and recreational drug use.
They might say the 70s full-size van was the crazy uncle of the modern minivan.
The uncle lived in a dangerous situation in the 70s and then flamed out a decade later.
In the 70s, many van owners took their shagging wagon seriously and tricked them out to the limit.
Big, shiny side pipes with mellow sounds, plush interior carpet for the maximum results.
Dual amps and the horsepower and perhaps most importantly the artwork on the side.
The vans of the 70s were decorated with airbrush psychedelic wizards,
doobie smoke and dragons, naked slave girls, flaming unicorns, the trippier the better.
This was not your mom's minivan.
This was a place where bad things happened and the designs were a warning sign.
Get into the back of a van with an airbrush grim reaper in the land of mushrooms and naked fairies.
You know what you're getting into.
Naked fairies, yeah.
Your clothes are distinctive too. Your lifestyle was different.
So why should your means of transportation be any different?
It was a sexual revolution.
A vehicle designed to accommodate massive amounts of shagging and drugs just made sense.
Songs like me and you and a dog named Boo declared generation passion to spread their wings
on the open road untethered by responsibility.
The only downside to thick shag carpeting Don was that your roaches tended to get lost in the fibers.
Nowadays, a van labeled magic mushroom wouldn't make it down about a mile without being stopped,
searched, impounded in the driver imprisoned.
Of course, I don't want to paint a completely one-dimensional picture of the 70s.
There were, they weren't all used for sex and drugs.
In fact, before the days of seatbelts requirements, the great family trips,
enjoying the splendor of a spacious legroom, the CB radio, kids playing rock'n'sock'n'robots in the back.
Life was good in the 70s, even for a kid.
Like a boat, vans of the 70s often had their own name branded on the side.
Node of the name Pot of Gold isn't referring to what you might think it's referring to.
Think Acapulco Gold or Lumbo Gold, also known as Columbian Gold.
Well, it's been fun traveling down memory lane, custom vans.
It's time to put your paraphernalia down and what?
Keep on truckin'.
Jazz hands.
That was worth the wait.
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Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeart Radio or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music.
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Time out for this hour's car review.
Had a chance to drive the 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander.
Now, the difference between the Grand Highlander and the Highlander, six inches of length at the back end of it that allows for a third row.
Final assembly location, Princeton, Indiana.
So it's built in the US of A.
Available trim levels, the LE, the XLE, the limited, the night shade, the max limited and the max platinum.
I had the max shade hybrid.
Standard SUV seats, including the driver, seven exterior changes from last model year was all new in 2024.
Best front fascia award for Toyota looks really good.
Subtle sheet metal creases create a conservatively look to a conservative look to it.
Rear hatch design allows for more interior room, yet still very attractive.
Love the fake dual exhaust tips for a four banger engine.
What I liked, one of the best looking SUVs on the market bar none.
What could use improvement? Nothing.
Interior highlights, one pod for the instruments and one separate infotainment screen for accessories.
Center console has a sliding door for the cover of the storage area, which is a good thing.
You don't have to open it up to the left or the right or the back or none of that stuff.
That was good. Seating is comfortable.
Consider captain's chairs in the second row if you're interested in buying one.
I think that that would probably be a good thing unless you actually need the extra seat.
Third row actually has room for adults, thanks to that six inch increase in the length of the overall.
I was in that car and yes, it does. It is roomy.
I made the comment when I was back there that, hey, you could actually fit back here.
I really like it.
More room in the third row when the third row is up than most as far as cargo space is concerned.
What I liked, high marks for a well thought out interior.
What could use improvement?
Upscale models could use a bit more bling.
The $1350 glass roof option is for northern states only, unless you want to cook.
Cell phone charger allows the phone to slide off of its charger pad.
That was a little bit of an issue.
2.5 liter four cylinder engine in the hybrid.
It also has a max option for more power, but then you use the fuel mileage.
And that's what this is all about. It's a hybrid.
Horsepower 245 is what I had.
The max has 362 horsepower.
If you need all of that, okay, go for it, but I like the mileage as a CBT transmission.
Now the max has an actual six speed transmission.
Toe rating 3500 pounds all wheel drive.
I got, well, it's rated at 36 miles per gallon on the highway.
32, I'm sorry, 36 city, 32 highway for combined to 34.
I got 29.7 miles per gallon over 475 miles.
What I liked about it, clearly the mileage.
What could use improvement? Nothing.
Just get the base engine in it.
I think that you'll really be impressed.
Ride and handling, the smoothness, it rides like a big car.
It's not stiff. It is not trying to pretend to be something else.
It will go off road, but let me ask you something.
Percentage wise, how many SUVs actually go off road?
Not many.
My guess is less than one or two percent.
Yeah, not many.
That's not what you're buying for.
They're like a big station wagon.
Dirt road is furthest I go.
Really gravel, snow, maybe.
Yeah.
What could use improvement?
Nothing that I can think of.
Like I said here, who takes an SUV off road these days?
Base trim price, 52, 6, 10.
Price is tested 58, 187 base model price, 44, 210.
Don't add too much to it.
Why?
Why junk it all up with all the options when you can't, you know,
that's an $8,000 savings.
Yeah. And you tend to see for more stuff to break.
Competitors to this vehicle.
The Mazda CX-90 hybrid plug-in, they don't have a pure hybrid,
but it's a plug-in, $49,995.
Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid, $37,8.
Kia Sorento hybrid, $38,690.
Next week, you're going to review the 2025 Mazda Miata MX-5.
Beautiful.
Mr. Marz has put together something special for all of us.
Something special.
Because I bet everybody has their own story about one of the five worst cars ever made.
I don't know why you just narrowed it down to five.
Well, because of time.
I just figured out the time because it's so subjective as to what's good,
what's bad, and what's the worst and what's the best.
So this is just five of the ones that you might can put a little data behind
to say that this is one of the worst vehicles.
And for example, one that comes to mind real quick and easy is the Ford Pinto.
It was manufactured from 1971 to 1980.
It was a very popular car and they sold a bajillion of them.
They really did.
In fact, the first year, they sold 220,000.
Is that rust?
And then they recalled every one of them.
I think they used to call them Exploders, I think.
But before that, the gas fumes got into the cab or the passenger compartment.
So that was the reason they had to recall all of them.
But it came in three models and it blew up a lot and it was only if you hit it.
True.
And had a lot of recalls and it was a big problem for Ford.
So they quit manufacturing.
There's mine.
The Vega.
Ladies and gentlemen, I had two of them.
Did you?
I did.
I had a 72 and then I went all into a 74.
You know, I really always liked the way those look like a baby Camaro or something.
Yeah.
And, you know, they never did really come with a lot of big power or anything.
It was just kind of stylish, but they had a tendency to break down a lot.
They had overheating problems.
The aluminum engine was part of the problem.
It just would get too hot.
Didn't they have a Copo version of that?
They had a Cosworth version.
Cosworth.
It was a little bit of a hot rod.
Yeah.
They sold 2 million, over 2 million of these vehicles and most of them.
That was one of the morons that bought them, but I never had a problem with mine.
Yeah.
It made great.
I mean, I thought that was really cool.
The ones that did the V8 conversion and particularly the low wagon.
It just looked really cool.
But another one that was out there that really didn't do so well was the AMC Gremlin.
It had kind of a quirky design to it, kind of boxy, but it also had reliability issues
and it didn't really run very fast.
It didn't even sell very good.
Actually, it was made from 1970 and 1978.
They only sold 671,000 of those vehicles total.
So it just didn't turn out to be very popular, although they make some pretty good hot rods right now.
Yeah, they do.
Then the one of your favorite probably, Don, is the Corvair.
Oh, God.
Not the first model.
No, not the first model.
I mean, they were built from 1960 to 1969.
So the first ones came out with a flat six at 80 horsepower.
It was under $2,400 to buy this thing.
Hold me back.
That was to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle.
Absolutely.
And of course, they sold 1.8 million of them during that whole time.
But really what really hurt it was the Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed,
where he went into why it would lose control, the rear engine, the swing axle.
A lot of these things that even though they fixed some of them, the car just kind of faded away.
And then right after you get down to this one, I think this one really died because it was just so ugly.
The Pontiac Aston built from 2001 to 2005.
It was actually the first mid-sized SUV, CUV, that came to market.
It had a V6 with a four-speed automatic, and they marketed it as a sport recreational vehicle.
And some of the advertisements had tents and had places you could put your bikes and your canoes and snowboards.
It even had a two-piece tailgate that had cup holders on it for tailgating.
Part of that whole get it the family and get out and get busy type thing.
And basically, though, it was just plain ugly.
And there's some more out there, but I thought that was a good place to start.
That's a good one.
All right.
Hey, if you'd like to get in touch with us, please do.
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Well, guess what?
What?
Mr. Mars has driven probably one of the...
Yes?
Were you calling somebody?
No.
Yes.
Please, hallelujah.
Mr. Mars had a chance to drive one of the most popular SUVs in the world.
That would be the Chevy Tahoe.
And here is now to talk to you about that.
And it is the 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe.
I haven't driven one in a couple of years, so I was really happy to see that I was going to get this.
It's assembled in Arlington, Texas.
So this is a Texas vehicle, very close to home.
And it comes in six different trim levels, LS, LT, RST, E71, which is obviously the off-road suspension.
You've got the Premier and then the High Country, the luxury.
So we were driving the Premier four-wheel drive trim level.
Now, this is considered by the government as a standard SUV that we used to call in full-size SUV.
But I guess that means it's standard now, full-size.
I had the polar white tri-coat option.
I love black and white cars.
I love the color combination.
That would be the police version.
Yes, almost, except it had the white hood instead of the black hood.
Of course, it had LED lighting all the way around on the exterior, including the fog lights, daytime running lights,
had the heated folding side mirrors, all the things you would expect off of a high-end SUV.
Power liftgate with power, panoramic sunroof, power assist side steps with perimeter lighting.
So whenever they would come on and it would start going back and forth, they would light up the ground so you could see it.
22-inch polished aluminum wheels were also an option that we had.
Now, it did have the seating for seven, front and second-row bucket seats, both of which were heated on this particular vehicle.
Had a 17-inch infotainment screen up front.
Now, this was not the vertical type of screen like some of the cars have.
This was more of a horizontal screen.
And I like it much better than the vertical because it just seems I could find things a little bit easier looking across instead of trying to search up and down.
15-inch heads-up display that was really good at seeing how things were going.
And the rear seat had the media system.
Now, this is the 12.6-inch touch screens that are on the back of the front seats.
Now, I don't particularly care for the way they did that.
To me, it's kind of like an add-on.
It's like it's hanging there.
I like it much better when they build it in.
But it worked.
Worked well.
Everybody seemed to be happy with that.
Now, to make this thing go, because this thing is a little bit on the heavy side, 5,700 pounds, we had the 6.2-liter V8.
Now, this is a $2,400 option on it.
The standard engine is a 5-point liter.
And I'm thinking that that's probably a very adequate engine.
But the 6.2-liter has 420 horsepower, 460-pound-feet of torque.
And putting that with a 10-speed automatic, it is rated to tow 8,200 pounds, which is a pretty good-sized load.
You can see him pulling big boats and things.
Now, the miles per gallon, the EPA says you should be looking for about 14 on the highway, 18, excuse me, 14 in the city, 18 on the highway,
and with a combination of 16.
Now, the week I had it, I drove at 267.8 miles.
I got 16.8 on as an overall average for that time.
And I was real happy with that because I really liked driving this vehicle.
It's got plenty of power to spare, particularly if you're thinking about towing something.
It's going to give you plenty of juice for that to get to that 8,400 pounds.
So I also like driving it.
It was very quiet.
I thought it had very responsive steering in that it's not a race car, but you get into round town where you're moving around the streets or through a parking lot.
I thought it worked really well for that size of vehicle.
I was really impressed with it.
And it's also got a lot of glass.
So you've got a real nice field of view whenever you're looking around to see what's around you.
The pillars don't get in the way.
No, no, it was really nice.
I also like the magnetic ride control.
Oh, yes.
That was some nice stuff there.
Damn, cost.
Now, the base model price, the LS base model price, $62,995.
That's what it'll take to get into a Tahoe.
Now, the base trim price for the premiere that we have.
There we go.
$78,000.
That was pretty good.
But we had an option or two.
We did.
Our MSRP is tested with $92,000.
So we had some options, like I say, the paint, the wheels and lots of other things.
The only option that it didn't have is the Cadillac option.
That would have been $192,000.
Yeah, yeah.
They'd be calling Escalade.
If you're looking for something to compare this to, I mean, you could look across at
the Ford Expedition of about the same size, $64,995 to get started.
Nissan or Mata, $58,800.
Toyota Sequoia, which is strictly all you're going to get there is a hybrid.
You're not going to get a straight gasoline engine, but it's $64,000.
Now, the GMC Yukon is the sister vehicle to the Tahoe or the cousin, whatever you want to call it.
And it'll start at about $69,000.
But I've always thought the GMC used to be the working man's truck.
GMC?
Yeah.
GMC now is the step between the Chevy and the Cadillac.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's got a lot nicer.
So it's base price.
That makes sense that it starts a little bit more.
But I really enjoyed this vehicle.
I thought it would do a lot of things.
And I don't know what all I would do to improve it.
And that's my review of the 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe Premier four-wheel drive.
Nice.
Thank you very much.
Hey, if you'd like to get in.
You own a car you love.
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Along with popular features including driving destinations, Jeff's car culture, latest car news, cruise ins, and racing dates,
About this episode
The episode features in-depth reviews of the 2025 Volvo EX40 and the 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander, highlighting their unique features and performance. The Volvo EX40 impresses with its pixel headlight technology and improved battery efficiency, although its infotainment system draws criticism for being overly complex. The Grand Highlander, on the other hand, offers spacious seating and a hybrid option, praised for its fuel efficiency and comfortable ride. The hosts also reminisce about the quirky custom vans of the 1970s, discussing their cultural significance and unique designs.
Looking for clarity on your next daily driver? We put two very different paths under the microscope: Volvo’s 2025 EX40 Twin Motor Ultra with its tight, tech-forward approach to electrification, and Chevrolet’s 2026 Tahoe Premier 4WD with big V8 torque, real towing, and road-trip comfort. The contrast reveals what you truly trade—time at chargers for quiet torque, touchscreen taps for minimal cabin clutter, and fuel costs for full-size capability.
We start with the EX40’s foundations in the XC40 platform and talk through what carries over and what improves. Pixel headlight tech, a 12.3-inch driver display, and a nine-inch center screen give the EV a modern face, but burying basic functions in software adds friction—like needing four taps to power down. We share cost-per-mile numbers from a 270-mile run, why a slightly faster charge still matters, and how the twin-motor setup’s 402-hp equivalent translates to daily confidence. Safety pedigree remains a Volvo hallmark, but we ask the hard question: does the interface help or get in the way?
Then we climb into the Tahoe Premier. A 6.2-liter V8 paired with a 10-speed transmission delivers 420 horsepower, 460 pound-feet, and up to about 8,200 pounds of towing, backed by Magnetic Ride Control and a surprisingly maneuverable feel for its size. Inside, the horizontal 17-inch infotainment display and 15-inch head-up display keep vital info easy to parse, while optional rear screens keep passengers entertained. We compare it directly with Ford Expedition, Toyota Sequoia hybrid, Nissan Armada, and GMC Yukon, and weigh where the Tahoe earns its price: space, visibility, and hardware that just works.
Between test drives, we take a joyride through 1970s custom van culture—shag carpet, side pipes, and airbrushed fantasy—and swap stories on the “five worst cars,” from Pinto to Aztek, separating legend from reality. By the end, you’ll know whether you’re better off with an EV that prioritizes safety and sleek software or a full-size SUV that delivers straightforward strength and family-ready comfort.
If you enjoyed this review mashup and the car-culture detour, follow, share with a friend, and leave a rating. Tell us: are you team EX40 or team Tahoe
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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