Honda Drops 2 Models, Audi Q3 Reivew, Buying a Car in Uncertain Times
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Car
Volvo EX30
The Volvo EX30 is a small electric car made by Volvo. It was supposed to be fun to drive and not too expensive, helping more people like electric cars.
Concept
China tariffs
China tariffs are extra taxes the U.S. charges on things made in China, like cars. This makes those cars more expensive to buy in the U.S.
Concept
Tariffs on European Union imports
Tariffs on European Union imports are extra taxes the U.S. charges on things made in Europe, like cars. This makes those cars more expensive to sell in the U.S.
Car
Honda Odyssey
The Honda Odyssey is a big van made by Honda. It is used to carry families and has lots of space inside.
Car
Honda Prelude
The Honda Prelude is a small sporty car made by Honda. It was popular for being fun to drive and shared parts with the Honda Civic.
Car
Honda Prologue
The Honda Prologue is a new electric SUV made with help from General Motors. It shares parts with some Chevy SUVs and has features like Apple CarPlay for easy phone use.
Car
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people like because it is reliable and uses little gas. The Prelude was made using parts from the Civic.
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
The Chevrolet Blazer is a medium-sized SUV. The Honda Prologue uses the same basic parts and frame as the Blazer.
Car
Chevrolet Equinox
The Chevrolet Equinox is a smaller SUV. It shares many parts with the Blazer and the Honda Prologue.
Term
Apple CarPlay
Apple CarPlay lets you use your iPhone on your car's screen so you can get directions, play music, and use apps more easily while driving.
Term
EV
An EV is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. It uses batteries to power the motor, so it doesn't need fuel like regular cars.
Term
real ID
A Real ID is a special kind of driver's license or ID card that lets you do things like get on airplanes or enter government buildings more easily. It's a way to prove who you are with extra security.
Concept
Keep America Rolling
Keep America Rolling was a plan by General Motors to help people buy cars after 9/11 by letting them pay for the car over five years without extra interest. It made buying cars easier and helped GM sell more cars.
Term
subcompact SUV
A subcompact SUV is a small type of SUV that is easier to park and drive in cities but still offers space and some utility.
Car
BMW X1
The BMW X1 is a small SUV made by BMW. It is similar in size and purpose to the Audi Q3 and is meant for people who want a luxury SUV that is easy to drive in the city.
Term
Audi MMI multimedia interface
Audi MMI is the screen and controls inside the car that let you use the radio, maps, and other features. The new Q3 has an updated version that is easier to use and faster.
Term
gear selector
The gear selector is the lever or button you use to choose if the car goes forward, backward, or stays parked. Audi changed this part in the new Q3, and some people have strong opinions about it.
Part
turn indicator
The turn indicator is the control you use to tell other drivers you want to turn or change lanes. Audi's version uses a special switch on a stick near the steering wheel that you flip instead of the usual lever.
Term
TFSI
TFSI is a special way Audi makes their engines work better and use fuel more efficiently by mixing air and fuel in a smart way and adding a turbocharger to boost power.
Part
seven speed dual clutch
A seven speed dual clutch is a type of gearbox that changes gears very quickly and smoothly, making the car feel more responsive when you drive.
Company
AutoTrader
AutoTrader is a website where people can look for cars to buy or sell, and it helps you find good deals and information about cars.
Company
Kelly Blue Book
Kelly Blue Book is a company that tells you how much cars are worth and gives advice about buying and selling cars.
Concept
smart car buying tips during economic uncertainty
When the economy is not doing well, it's important to be careful about buying cars. Smart tips help you pick a good car that won't cause money problems later.
Car
Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited
The Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited is a newer car that uses both gas and electricity to save fuel. It has extra features compared to basic versions.
Term
all wheel drive
All wheel drive means the car sends power to all four wheels, which helps it grip the road better when it's wet or snowy.
Concept
crossover
A crossover is a car that looks like a small SUV and is easy to drive, with more space inside and a higher seat so you can see better.
Concept
used EVs
Used EVs are electric cars that someone else owned before. More of these are becoming available, so it's easier to buy an electric car without paying full price.
Term
lease
Leasing a car means you pay to use it for a few years instead of buying it. After that, you give the car back or sometimes buy it.
Term
interest rates
Interest rates are how much extra money you pay when you borrow money to buy a car. Lower rates mean cheaper payments.
Term
gas prices
Gas prices are how much it costs to fill up your car with fuel. When gas gets expensive, people might not want big cars that use a lot of gas.
Term
warranty
A warranty is like a promise from the car maker that they will fix certain problems for free for a set time. If you keep your car a long time, a long warranty can save you money on repairs.
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All right, this is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
I am Tom Appel.
Thank you for joining us today.
When you have a moment, check us out at ConsumerGuide.com.
You know the drill.
If you're looking for a car or truck, great stuff there, including our 2026 Best Buy list.
Also, just lots of other fun stuff, industry news, other stuff.
It's good.
I just wrote a piece, Jill.
You wrote a piece.
I wrote a piece.
Okay.
About the Jeep station wagon Maverick edition.
There's a whole lot of stuff going on with that name.
There is.
And the story here, Jeep used to build a thing that was based on stuff that it had sold during
World War II.
Okay.
Actually, it wasn't Jeep.
It was Willys at the time.
But they built a thing called the station wagon, and they started to sponsor the show Maverick,
which is fabulous.
Change Garner, Jack Kelly, great show.
But this vehicle was a special edition based on that sponsorship.
Okay.
Very cool.
I just wrote about that.
That voice is Jill Siminello.
She's a contributing editor here at Consumer Guide.
North American Carrier Juror and Freelancer.
How are you, Jill?
I am doing well.
Remember when we talked about that perfect day a week ago?
Yeah.
What the hell?
Today is not that day.
Last night, wind gust, my wife and I live in a bungalow, and the entire upstairs is our
bedroom.
Basically, our bedroom has four outside walls.
The sound of wind slapping the siding in our house, I couldn't sleep.
It was crazy.
Yeah.
And it's cold.
It is cold.
And then there was snow.
Yeah, it can't decide if it wants to snow or if the sun wants to come out.
We have a lot of this news in Michigan.
Right now they're just flicking us off, because it was way worse in Wisconsin in Michigan
and up North.
Yep, up North.
So I have to say, I was trying to get back to Chicago on Friday.
I was in Detroit.
I gave a keynote speech on Friday to the women of Stellantis, and it was pretty awesome.
But trying to get back to Chicago, not so awesome.
I was stuck in the airport for an extra three hours, because the wind was so egregious that
things just couldn't take off.
There were ground stops both in Chicago and in Detroit.
And then when I landed in Detroit, I posted in my stories, I took a picture of the departure
board, and there was maybe one flight on there to Frankfurt that was not delayed.
Frankfurt.
Yeah.
Every other flight was delayed.
A lot of flights stopped in Frankfurt.
You could have just made a stop in Frankfurt.
Yeah.
Well, I think that's why that wasn't delayed, is because that's the jumping off to all the
other things, and they're like, if one flight gets out of here today, it's going to be that
one.
That's where they have those hot dogs.
I thought Chicago was where they had those hot dogs.
No.
Well, Frankfurt.
Cheers.
Anyway.
Yeah.
Right now it's crummy outside.
It is.
That was the point of all that.
Here's the funny thing.
I'm watching people shovel today.
We got some snow.
It's not going to be melted in a day or two.
It's going up to like 60.
Yeah.
I feel like by Friday or something, it's going to be warm again.
This is where everybody needs to start taking zinc, because everybody's immune systems are
going to be like, what?
I'm still a little sick, so I can't get sick again.
I'm finally, famous last words.
I'm finally out of the woods.
I'm finally feeling better.
I'm still coughing.
Yeah.
Not much.
I mean, I still have a little bit of a cough, but other than that, I'm good.
The other thing happened where you're falling asleep, you're comfortable, everything's great,
your pillow's your best friend, and you're just sort of drifting off, and then you have
to cough, and you're like, seriously?
Yeah.
I'm going to have to reset after that.
Yeah.
Yeah, because it's not just one cough.
I'm going to have to start over.
It's like a big cough, and you've got to get it all out, and then...
You might sit up and get a drink of water, and then you're like, oh, well, that's 20 minutes
I lost.
Yeah, exactly.
Because I've got to start over.
I have to reacquaint myself with my pillow.
Yes.
Oh, man.
Speaking of bad news.
So which bad news do you want to talk about?
There's a lot more.
There are more EVs disappearing.
Yeah.
You and I may have the same bad news.
Well, I've got two.
Okay.
I've got two pieces of bad news here.
First is the Volvo EX30.
That was the bad news that I had.
This was a vehicle with so much promise.
It was a delightful vehicle, and it was going to be $35,000 when they were going to build
it in China.
I didn't even write down the name of the city in China because there was no way I was
going to be able to pronounce it.
But they were going to build these in China, bring them in here for as little as $35,000.
And they were quick, and they were fun, and they were agile, and they made great use of
space.
These were great little cars.
And these were the kind of cars that would have changed people's minds about EVs.
Yep, 100%.
But that obviously went bad, China tariffs.
So they moved production to Belgium.
But if it's not one administration, it's another.
Biden, of course, with 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, actually 102.5%.
And then now the Trump administration with a 15% tariff on stuff from the EU.
So they just couldn't make a run of it.
No.
It was a little small for what they were going to have to charge for it.
So that's gone.
Great car.
It was.
And I recently just had the opportunity to drive it on snow up in Canada and was thoroughly
impressed.
They may still sell those in Canada.
Yeah.
Actually, I don't know the nature of this discontinuation.
They're not killing the car.
No.
They're just not going to bring it here.
They're just killing it here.
And here might be just here in the US.
Canada and Mexico probably still going to get it.
I don't know if Mexico was ever going to get it, but that's it.
So all right.
That's one piece of bad news.
The other one's kind of a bigger deal because it was a sub-brand, and I never knew where
this was going anyway.
And for reasons that I can't fully explain, I never followed the story that closely.
But Honda was developing a line of electric vehicles, a sub-brand called Zero.
And there were two products that were coming imminently and one coming later.
But one of them was the Honda Zero SUV and the Honda Zero Saloon, Saloon being British
for sedan.
And these were really striking looking.
To me, they looked like something that might have been out of the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Because the concept cars were white and simple and had that sort of plastic look to them.
But really interesting cars, they would do this year.
It ain't coming at all.
No more Honda Zero.
And how does killing everything?
Yeah.
I mean, on top of that, I've heard rumors that the Prelude is going away.
The Prelude?
The Prelude?
No, not the Prelude.
Prologue.
Yeah.
That puh, puh, puh, too many plows of peas.
That confusion is because the Prelude is a small gasoline-powered car based on the
Civic.
Yes.
The Prologue is an electric car based on a General Motors design.
Yeah.
Actually very similar to the Equinox or Blazer.
Yeah.
I think it's based on the platform for the Blazer, but the Prologue, I'm going to mess
them up now, has Apple CarPlay, whereas the GM variants did not.
But the rumor, and I don't think that this has been confirmed yet, but the rumor is
that when it stops production, it will not enter another generation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
I think the relationship with General Motors was going to be short-term.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, the Zero sub-brand was supposed to take the place of the relationship with
General Motors.
So here's a question for you.
And we have not talked much about this on the show.
Ofila.
Mm-hmm.
Ofila is a Honda Sony joint venture to build premium electric vehicles.
Were they going to build those here?
I should know this and I don't.
I don't know.
But they were going to be premium electric vehicles, for sale in the United States.
That was going to be the primary market, but they were going to sell them everywhere.
But the brand was Ofila, and they were going to be very high-tech.
Sony was going to bring connectivity and whatnot, and Honda was going to bring its
obvious manufacturing and automotive design expertise to the project.
I bet you that's dead.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, and here's the thing.
I've recently been hearing a lot about the used EV car market and how...
That for some reason, that's being hyper-covered right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I feel like as a lot of vehicles are starting to come off lease, that there is
the huge potential for somebody to dip into the EV market without having to pay the high
EV premiums.
So I think in some way, we might see a resurgence of electric vehicle registrations.
It's just not going to be the new ones.
Well, there's not going to be any premium for purchasing a used EV versus buying a new
EV.
Right.
And part of the reason is that in that resale value, that $7,500 tax credit was part of the
price.
Right.
And that's why used EVs seem cheaper, perhaps, than they might.
But yeah, to your point, I've heard the same story three times now from three different
others.
But about a million cars, a million EVs are coming off lease in the next three years,
which means there are people who've got four-year leases, which is very weird.
But anyway, those are going to flood the market with quality, nearly new EVs that are probably
going to be very affordable.
So if you were going to dip your toe into this, it maybe has a second car or a car for
the kids, you can buy one for $20, $25 grand.
Do that.
Yeah.
Why not?
Yeah.
I mean, these things are going to be high-tech.
They're going to have all the safety features that you want, especially for a teen driver.
You're going to have the cool things, most of them, except for the ones from General
Motors.
We'll have Apple CarPlay.
Yeah, but the youngsters can work around that.
Yeah, by touching their phone.
Old people like you and I, we can't figure it out.
Yeah.
Again, by touching your phone, that's how you work around it.
So I don't know, but I think that there's lots of safety, lots of tech features, nearly
new, as you pointed out, because somebody who's driving an EV probably bought it as a
commuter car.
So they weren't going huge miles.
Like, they probably didn't do the 12,000 miles a year that is the average.
No, the mileage, actually, man, I don't remember what I read about the mileage, but I thought
it was higher than you thought it would be for an EV because I would think what you just
thought that the miles would be pretty low.
It's a second car.
You don't take it on trips.
But anyway, yeah, so that's going to be weird and that'll be interesting.
Here's a story.
I want you to just sort of raise your hand if I'm getting too political when I talk about
this.
OK, nobody else is going to see it, but you will and you'll change course.
But there's no way to have this conversation without hand raising, without getting political.
Texas, the Texas DMV, is now requiring residents who purchase a car.
Do you know the story?
I do.
They're going to need more than just a driver's license.
They need a real ID to purchase.
Not to purchase to register a new or used car.
Yeah.
And this is clearly politically motivated and it is aimed at preventing undocumented
residents from purchasing a car or registering a car, registering a car.
Well, you can't do one without the other.
Correct. But I mean, you can purchase the car and then like here's where the problem
is going to purchase the car and then move to Louisiana.
Well, no, but this is where the problem is going to come in.
Somebody bought a vehicle this year before whatever laws were enacted and then they need
to re-register their vehicle.
Here's the good news.
It's only the first time registration.
Is it?
Yes. Based on what I just read.
Okay.
It's just the first time.
Because everything I've heard was talking about the re-registering.
That's more difficult.
Also, I don't know how many people actually know this whole story, but if I'm right,
it's not as horrible as it could be.
Okay.
If you're right, it's tragic.
And here's part of the problem.
This started this month, so I don't know how dealers are reporting monthly sales
since it's only been two weeks, but dealers are reporting.
They slow down in sales.
It's small, but it's interesting.
And ultimately, we'll see what states adopt this otherwise.
Maybe Texas is the only one.
Maybe there's a couple of other states down south that want to do this.
But this may actually hurt sales somewhat nationally.
Well, and so the concern is this.
Like, it's not, yes, it's to prevent people who don't have proper identification
from registering a vehicle.
But the concern from dealers, as I understand it, is this.
You know, say you just have a regular driver's license and this new law requires a
real ID and you haven't gone to get a real ID yet, but you have a driver's license.
Well, in addition, then, to your driver's license, you're going to need a birth
certificate or a passport or something like that.
So you show up the dealership with your ID, which is perfectly legal tender here.
And then the dealer's like, hmm, this isn't a real ID.
And maybe your real ID isn't due for four more years or you're not due to renew.
And so now they're like, you need to go home and get your birth certificate
or your passport to complete this.
And they're concerned that in the act of you need this one more thing
that people will just walk away.
Well, they will.
There's there's a there's a fact in the auto industry.
And when I sold cars, this was very, very real to me.
If someone leaves, there's a 75 percent chance they're not coming back.
And that's because they're going to find a better deal someplace else.
Or they were embarrassed by being forced to, you know, find more ID
and want to go someplace else.
Whatever it is, dealers are going to lose some people.
But they may gain some people in the flip flop.
But it's still a very awkward situation.
Right.
And it seems designed mostly to harass, frankly.
Now, OK, I'm this is me raising my hand.
Yeah, I think I think that is a little bit of a political statement.
And I mean, there is there.
I understand the rationale for this.
And by the way, everybody should go get their real ID.
You should just you should just do that because it makes going through an airport
so much easier.
If you go through an airport, fair, you know, but you never know.
Surprisingly, small population of Americans actually go through the airport
on a regular basis. But OK.
So you have a relative who lives in Ohio and you live in California
and you need to go to their funeral or something.
And yeah, last minute, you're going to have to travel.
It's so much easier if you just have that real idea.
You're right. People should have it. People don't.
And no, no, they don't.
My husband doesn't have a real idea.
I don't yet either.
So I've been slow to move.
I got my real ID with my license expired this year.
I was like, let's just let's just make that happen.
Yeah, my license is up till 2028.
So I probably need to do something before then.
I mean, you have a passport someplace.
Is it valid?
I don't know.
So you're you're the problem.
Yeah, I am the problem.
All right, enough of that topic.
We'll follow up on this if it turns out it does have some impact on sales in Texas.
Yeah, because part of what can happen to is that people might just borrow cars,
register them with a family member, something like that.
So ultimately, this may not have any impact at all.
Right.
It's just going to basically force people to jump through additional hoops.
Yeah, it's just something for us to talk about.
It seemed better than that.
It's a real topic.
It's really overly political about.
I didn't get overly political.
Lord knows I didn't.
I just finished my review.
It's not published yet of the 2026.
Hyundai said not a hybrid limited.
I want to make one point about this.
You and I have driven a number of $60,000 non-luxury SUVs,
then luxury brand SUVs.
They've all been fine with their $60,000.
Correct.
This fully loaded top of the line Sonata in hybrid trim 40.
And you can do one for less.
I'm just saying there is an answer to the affordability issue and it's to buy less car.
It's to not get an SUV.
Yeah, seriously.
Step down from an SUV, consider a car again.
You can get a Civic, a Corolla, a K4, a Kia K4, a K4 hatchback.
Phenomenal.
These are nice vehicles.
They cost less.
Yeah.
You do not need to finance a vehicle for seven years.
That's more car than you need.
But people do that.
And going way back, I don't know if you remember, keep America rolling.
It was a General Motors program that was launched right after 9-11.
And basically it was we are financing your car for, I think, five years.
So just free financing, five years, and it worked.
General Motors sold a lot of vehicles afterwards.
Here's what happened.
Nobody, nobody bought a cheaper car.
They all stepped up to more expensive cars because this was cheaper.
Like this helped them save money.
And that's the way we work here.
Like we get as much as we can get because we want all the things.
And we like all the things.
We do like all the things, but we may not need all the things.
And so part of the affordability issue, I think, is is homegrown.
I think people are buying more car than they need to.
The other part is that cars are damn expensive and interest rates are pretty high.
Yeah.
But but anyway, but anyway, was that political?
Is is more social commentary.
Yes.
You.
Yes.
You, Jill.
Yes.
Just drove the Audi Q3.
Yes, which is redesigned for 2026.
Yes.
OK.
Tell.
So tell us what that is, because I think people think the Q3 is compact.
It is smaller than compact because you kind of subcompact.
Q5 is kind of considered compact on the Q7, really considered midsize.
Yeah.
All these things play a number lower than like they do at BMW or Mercedes.
Right. Well, I mean, so I mean, if you're looking at BMW,
like the competitive vehicle would be the X1.
Yes. So I wrote that down.
You wrote that down.
So, you know, next gen vehicle, they've made, in addition to styling changes,
which happens when you have a next gen vehicle, they did a lot of tech upgrades,
which I thought was interesting for their entry into the SUV line for them.
And so they are launching the new user interface for their Audi MMI
multimedia interface with larger icons and a different design.
You know, they have quicker processing speeds.
They launched and this is going to be a little bit controversial.
I just posted a TikTok on this and I haven't had the chance to look at the comments yet,
but they have a new gear selector.
And it's controversial.
It, yes, because it's interesting.
So Audi's gear selector used to be on the console and they now have this unit
that goes over the steering wheel.
And it's kind of like a single unit and then sticks out on the side with her hands.
Yes, I am.
Well, I'm like hoping that it will help me describe it because it's really hard to describe.
It almost looks like, you know, way back in the day, like I've only seen pictures of this,
but like a yoke that they used to put on an ox that was going to be pulling like things.
It's kind of shaped like that at any rate.
I'm not up to date on yokes.
Okay. You're not up to date on yokes. Got it.
Okay. So at any rate, it's this thing that goes over the steering column and has two
wands out to the side.
And on the right side is going to be your gear shift.
And it's not, you don't move the wand itself.
There's like a little square on the end of the wand that is actually the gear selector.
Well, that sounds like kundakea EV.
No, that's a twister that you twist.
This is an up or down square, like a disc almost.
And then on the other side, you have your turn indicator, which is a similar like disc
that's coming off of the wand that you don't obviously turn, you flip.
And you would think that this is horrible, but it actually works really well in practice.
Do you end up using your thumb?
No, I think I've used my finger and you don't need to take your hand.
I guess if it was thumb, it'd be inboard a little bit.
Yeah. You don't really need to take your hand off to select it.
My thumb's on the wrong side, so I might use my thumb.
Yeah. You might.
You might. Your hand is kind of reversed.
But at any rate, so I just want to rest assured everybody that like the gear selector,
even though it looks a little bit weird, is not, once you get behind the wheel and you use it,
it works really well.
Not to cut you off, but I am.
Everyone's going with new gear selectors now.
Like the kundakea does, it's actually really great.
And that's a little twisty thing that comes off of the stock.
But I think the Silverado and the Sierra, the new big pickups,
are going to a column twister little thing.
Yeah. Well, they had like the push button thing on the...
Part of the reason is everyone wants the console space for other stuff.
And you know what drove that? Phone chargers.
Phone chargers take up a lot of space, so everything has to migrate somewhere.
Because you have a limited amount of real estate.
But anyway, I cut you off.
Yeah. But no, I mean, I just wanted to say outside of that,
I think there's a huge improvement in interior materials.
Like the last time I drove an Audi Q3, I just remember thinking it was really not nice.
It wasn't worth the money, that it was just kind of like plasticky,
and it didn't feel good to me.
But driving this 2026 model, and they've gone to a single trim,
and you just add like tech packages, driver convenience packages,
that kind of stuff to it, really high end, really well done materials.
Did Audi bitch about the terrace?
No.
Okay, because they have in the press.
Yeah, no, they did not.
Part of the reason that this is a single trim level with just a couple of packages
is to simplify the lineup, because they tended to sell fewer,
because they had to raise the price.
And indeed, for a subcompact crossover, I have the price here someplace.
I want to say the base price is right around $45,000,
including destination.
And then if you go all in with all the packaging,
you're still, you're only looking at $52,000.
So that, I want to say, is less than if you add all the things to the X1,
or the Mercedes version.
Here's the thing about the BMW X1, I'm mumbling already.
The X1 is a delight to drive.
I just wanted to throw that out there.
I haven't driven a Q1 in a long time, but I always liked Audis.
The Q3 is now a delight to drive.
I mean, it's always been delightful.
It certainly has more of a firm sporty ride to it.
But I thought it was delightful in terms of ride and handling.
I thought it was delightful in terms of the overall design.
I thought it was delightful in terms of the interior materials, the user experience.
I liked pretty much everything about it.
I mean, there's always a couple of little quirky things.
So it's just like, why wouldn't you put latches in the cargo area to drop your rear seats down?
Can't tell you.
They didn't.
Don't know.
Yeah.
We were out of time, but real quick, two liter turbo.
It's the, it's Audis famous TFSI.
It's a nice engine.
Seven speed dual clutch.
Is that smooth?
It is.
Volkswagen Audi dual clutches are either really good or terrible.
And the one that they stuck in the, was it the Taos?
Yeah.
Or the Tiguan?
I think it was the Taos.
Brutal.
It was miserable.
Yeah.
All right.
They reduced the number of trim levels.
The car was built in gear, hungry.
Yeah.
And more horsepower this year too.
Oh.
I think 27 more horsepower.
Oh my.
So it's like the same engine ish, but completely reworked.
All right.
Yeah.
I want to say it was like 255 horsepower and maybe 273 pound feet of torque.
And when does this bad boy go on sale?
I think it's already on sale.
It's on sale?
There you go.
All right.
We're going to take a break.
When we come back, we're going to talk to Sean Tucker of Auto Trader,
about buying cars during economic uncertainty.
Like right now.
Like now?
Yeah.
We'll be right back.
Questions or comments?
Drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
That's carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
Welcome back to the Car Stuff Podcast.
And we're back.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast.
I'm Tom.
She is Jill in our slightly political show.
Yes.
And this is a moment where I literally wanted video during the break coming into the segment.
There was like some z-z-z-z-zippy music and Tom was actually dancing.
I did know Togsong got new zippy boppy extra music.
Yeah.
A little zippy bumper there.
I'm too old for that music.
I don't know.
You were bopping your head.
Yeah, I got into the groove.
And you know what even though you're old,
Well, you've got social media, right?
How'd you like that transition?
I have several social media.
Yeah, real quick, you can just check me out Car Guy Tom
on Twitter X or Blue Sky.
Or if you want to just follow my completely non-automotive
stuff.
About pictures of cars on TV shows?
Yes.
I guess that's automotive.
Kind of.
Also pictures of people on TV shows.
Yes.
Like if Abe Vagoda showed up on The Night Stalker,
I might get a picture of that.
OK.
You have an Abe Vagoda t-shirt.
I do.
That you have never worn a second time.
I probably will not.
I spent harder money on that t-shirt.
You should wear it or camp in it.
It was over.
It was big.
It was like husband-sized.
One of the things that we often talk about doing that we never
do is talk about carbine tips.
Yes.
And these are certainly strange times.
So it would be a good time to talk about carbine tips.
Yes.
About, no.
Luckily for us on the phone is Sean Tucker.
He is the managing editor at AutoTrader.
Sean, how are you?
Pretty good.
And Jill, good to be with you.
How are you?
I think we're well.
Very well, other than the freaky cold weather outside.
Where are you at, sir?
I'm in Washington, DC.
So all I've got outside right now
is thunderstorms and a possible tornado.
Oh.
Oh, OK.
Well, that's fine then.
Tell us a little bit about what you do at AutoTrader.
I'm the managing editor of both the AutoTrader
and the Kelly Blue Book brand.
So I lead a team of video and written experts
who talk about cars all day.
That would make you, I think, the perfect person
for the conversation we're about to have.
But before this conversation, we
invited you on to talk a little bit about smart car
buying tips during economic uncertainty.
That certainly describes the world we live in now.
And we do know that most pundits out there
are suggesting that auto sales are going
to fall slightly this year.
And it doesn't seem likely.
Yeah, yeah.
What's your take on that?
You know, even before we were dealing with high gas prices
and the war, there was just enough economic uncertainty
going on that I think we are somewhat
likely to see a drop this year.
But on top of that, you have to add in that cars have grown
far more reliable than they used to be.
The average car on American roads is almost 13 years old now.
So people just don't car shop as much as they used to.
Part of the problem, which isn't a problem at all,
is that cars actually last longer than they used to.
So consumers are served well by improved reliability.
But on the other hand, things change very quickly,
and they might feel left out of the game.
But buying cars has gotten to be kind of a strange process.
It's no longer as difficult.
And one of the things I learned just shopping for a car
with my daughter is that the old battle with the dealer
seems to have subsided a little bit.
But that doesn't change the fact that prices
are extremely high.
And I've heard some numbers lately
about how upside down the average shopper is.
Yeah, and those prices, there's a certain element
of consumer choice playing into that.
The average buyer in February paid $49,353,
which sounds like an extraordinarily high number.
But if we take full-size trucks out of that,
it's more than $10,000 lower.
That was pushed up quite a bit by the fact
that the average full-size truck is selling
for $66,157.
And as you know, most of those have options
in the low $40,000 range.
That's just consumer choice.
$66,000.
Well, that's a wonderful point,
and Jill and I were just talking about that,
that people are in fact choosing to buy these cars
as expensive as they are.
And I made the point that I had just test driven
the 2026 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited.
And then that vehicle came to almost exactly $40,000.
And it would serve most families very, very well
for 20 grand less, 10 grand less
than something else that they might buy.
And in one of the things we've also noticed
that crossovers, mid-sized crossovers,
have gotten phenomenally expensive.
Phenomenally expensive and very, very big,
not to jump the gun into where I think you're going next,
but as your experience with that
and that hybrid might have taught you,
one of the things we're seeing is that cars have grown
so much larger than they used to be
that the average buyer would probably be quite satisfied
with a compact SUV now,
and they're not necessarily aware of that.
They're still going for mid-sized models
that are as large as the large SUVs of a decade ago.
I do remember a story, and this is completely off topic.
Jill is used to me doing this.
And so I apologize in advance.
But I remember a story maybe 15, 20 years ago,
but I bet you this is still true,
is that people who were shopping for an accord
would go to buy an accord and leave with a CRV.
And the number was fantastically high.
It was like half the time or something like that.
And I think that a lot of shoppers are finding
that crossovers, for whatever reason,
the magic is there, that holds more stuff,
you can get all wheel drive.
And the seating position is more,
is preferable in traffic
because every other vehicle is a crossover now.
We're kind of in a constant height war
where if you want to see over the guy in front of you,
you need to tell her car than him,
and I don't know when that ends.
We do.
So what do you recommend consumers do know?
Is this a good time to buy a car?
This is a relatively good time to buy a car,
as strange as that may sound.
It does sound strange.
Because those prices are high, as I said,
but that's partly a matter of consumer choice.
There are a lot of reasonably affordable,
compact crossovers, compact sedans
that will meet the needs of most families.
And I think with sales likely to fall a bit this year,
the buyer is going to be in more demand.
So are we looking at any shifts during the year?
Jill had noted earlier a story about the fact that EVs,
used EVs are about to,
the availability is about to increase
because a bunch of leases are coming in,
but what are we waiting for this year
that might affect the market?
Is there any big event?
Are we waiting for a big fall in interest rates
that may not happen, or what is the outlook?
It's very hard to predict the interest rate situation
right now, but the one thing that I had my eye on
in the short term is the price of gas.
We just got the numbers in this morning
that demand for, this is used car shopping,
but demand for used SUVs dropped off quite a bit
in February, and the war started February 28th.
So with gas prices rising,
it may be that there's far less demand
for those used SUVs,
and those prices are maybe gonna come down.
Wow, if you can actually make use of a used SUV then,
you actually, this might be the time to buy one of those.
Right.
All right, I got a question for you if you don't mind.
I have a theory, and I think that the media
is kind of overblowing something.
We keep hearing about the fact that hybrids
are incredibly phenomenally popular right now.
Everyone wants a hybrid, but my suggestion to you,
and please tell me I'm wrong if I am,
is that hybrids aren't that popular,
it's that people aren't really choosing hybrids,
they're just looking at vehicles
that happen to be available as hybrids.
And at Toyota, it's almost hard to not buy a hybrid now.
I was gonna say, I think you're onto something,
I don't have a lot of data to back it up,
but I would note that in the Toyota example,
they're just slowly becoming a hybrid company.
If you go in to replace your Camry,
you're buying a Camry hybrid
because there is nothing else anymore.
That's also true of the RAV4 all of a sudden.
So some of their volume models,
they're no longer available at anything that isn't hybrid,
and I'm sure that's pumping the numbers up.
And I think with Sienna and the Crown too, hybrid only.
And did you suggest the Sequoia?
Yeah, I can't remember if the Sequoia is hybrid only or not.
I mean, that's not a huge volume thing, but still.
Yeah.
All right, so we talked about this.
If you're a consumer right now,
what do you suggest that they do
if they're thinking about buying a new car or use car?
So a couple of tips that are really evergreen tips
that make sense in all markets,
but certainly in this one.
My number one piece of advice to friends
is buy the car you need 50 weeks a year.
I see so many people say,
I need three rows of seating
because mom and dad visit during the holidays.
Well, that means you need three rows of seating
during the holidays.
Save $15,000 by a two row car
and rent one when they show up.
Yes.
That's a great piece of advice.
100% that.
The second thing I recommend though
is pay close attention to inventory.
You're not gonna get inventory numbers
out of your local dealership,
but we publish the inventory numbers by brand,
and car pricing is supply and demand,
and in some cases the supply is really out of whack
with demand.
I'm just looking here at the end of February,
and Lexus and Toyota,
so there's an old industry rule of thumb
that they aim to have about 75 days worth
of cars for sale on the lot.
Lexus and Toyota right now are sitting at 38 and 41.
You're not gonna get a deal at Lexus and Toyota.
Ford and Hyundai are at 121.
They are willing to negotiate.
So you've got a bunch of stuff.
Where do you,
where can people find your inventory numbers?
That one's available on Cox Automotive.
We also publish it monthly in an article on Kelly Blue Book.
Yeah.
So question for you.
Like say, I'm getting ready to,
I know I need a new car,
and I'm getting ready to go and look,
but I don't know if I want a new car or a used car.
Would you,
do you have any like pros and cons of buying new
versus used or buying used versus new?
Like when should I buy new and when should I buy used?
So your grandfather's and your father's old advice
of letting somebody else pay the depreciation is still applied.
The reality is the market's kind of bifurcating
to where there are no cars,
there are no new cars left under $20,000 at all.
We believe that the last one probably rolled off
the lot about two months ago.
There are very few under $25,000.
What was that?
The last one was likely a Nissan Versa S.
Since Mitsubishi canceled the Mirage
and Nissan canceled the Versa,
there's nothing new for sale under $20,000 at all.
Under $25,000 is relatively rare.
So if that's your budget, you're shopping used.
Do you think it's purely a budgetary consideration or,
I mean, like I know my husband and I,
we needed a new car in 24 hours and I was like,
I asked my husband, I was like,
how much do you want to spend?
He's like $10,000 and I'm like, good luck with that.
I will say we managed to find a 2017 Volkswagen Jetta
for 12, so we were close.
But yeah, those unicorns are very rare and don't exist.
It's primarily a budget consideration,
but there's also the question of how long
you're gonna operate it and how long the warranty will be.
If you are like me and you drive a car
until it absolutely will not drive anymore,
then there are good reasons to consider
some new cars with very long warranties
because that will save you a lot of money in year nine.
And I'm still driving a car in year nine.
That's not necessarily true of everyone though.
My wife is driving a 10-year-old Subaru,
so I appreciate the getting the most for your money,
which we did buy new.
We did buy a new, but yeah, ultimately we're holding onto it
and she started working from home, no hurry.
Tell us what Cox done because Cox is one of those things
that I don't think people fully appreciate
because there are so many branches and divisions
of what they do and they serve dealerships,
they serve manufacturers and they serve the consumer.
It's a big company.
Yeah, absolutely.
We've got a company that provides the software
that operates a lot of dealerships.
That's where we get some of this data,
the way that I can tell you the inventory.
It's partly because we have the software
that controls the inventory.
You actually generate that information, interesting.
Cox also runs Mannheim,
which is the largest source of auctions.
So quite a few of the youth cars pass through our hands.
And increasingly over the last few years,
we're getting into battery recycling.
Interesting.
My world is Kelly Lubbock, an auto trader.
Tell me about Mannheim for just one moment and the batteries.
Jill and I had an opportunity to visit Mannheim
a long time ago now, pre-COVID.
But we visited an auction on the south side of Chicago
and the volume of vehicles that go through that, crazy.
I don't think people know,
I don't think people know how many Mannheim vehicles
they've owned or how many vehicles go through that process.
But when we were there, there was already talk
of making dealers aware of the battery condition of EVs.
Is that something that's happened?
Yes, in fact, when you look at a listing for an EV
on an auto trader these days,
you will find a battery health score.
Oh, okay.
We've actually tested that physical battery
that you're considering buying
and can tell you how much life is left in it.
So that's handy.
And people might be shopping for EVs now.
So if you're looking for an EV,
if you go to, is that auto trader and Kelly?
No, those are auto trader.
Just auto trader.
Okay, you can get the battery health indication.
So that's cool.
Generally, are you finding that the batteries are,
in fact, holding up nicely?
Yes, I think there was a lot of fear a few years back
that battery replacement would be a significant expense.
And the reality is it's something we rarely ever see.
So it hasn't proven to be a significant problem
for the industry.
Most of these batteries are in pretty good shape.
And right now, I think Jill got into as we were beginning,
there are just so many three-year-old EVs
about to be rolling off lease that will be available used
that used EVs are a fantastic value they submit.
What is your recommendation
for someone who's considering an EV?
What should they think about
before they commit to going electric?
You need to think about your lifestyle
and how you're gonna use the car.
There's a common misunderstanding
in that people tend to look at the infrastructure around them
and say, does my town have enough charging?
And the reality is there's a mental shift you have to make
in that you don't have a gas station at home,
but you do refill your battery at home.
It's a different way of driving
that you're gonna refill when you get there
instead of stopping in the middle.
So you don't necessarily need the local infrastructure
to be up to spec if you have access to home charging.
However, I do caution people,
the one situation in which I'm a little reluctant
to get an EV is if you do a lot of road trips.
The infrastructure, particularly here on the East Coast,
why I am has caught up to the point
that a road trip on an ordinary day is not difficult,
but a road trip on a day when everyone is driving
can be quite difficult.
So it's the day before Thanksgiving
and you need to drive to grandma's house.
A lot of those chargers that maybe the charging route
planning app is telling you to use
are likely gonna have lines.
Yeah, you know, and I think this all feeds into something
that you said a little bit earlier
is that you should buy the car
that is going to work for you 50 weeks of the year.
I wrote that down to say what you're gonna say.
If you are only gonna be taking a road trip
once or twice a year,
one, do you have a gas car to back it up
and you could take that car instead?
Or two, I mean, the route planners these days
are so good that will tell you where the chargers are
and tell you if they're open as you're arriving.
And so I think a lot of times people will buy a pickup truck
because they're gonna haul something once a year
or they're going to put plywood in the back of their car
or mulch in the back of their bed once a year
and it's just like buy the car for 50 weeks, not 52.
Right, you can always rent for the other two.
It's so much better.
Do you remember either of you
when BMW launched the i3, who was the i3?
And one of the things,
this was a pioneering electric vehicle
and it was fun to drive, it was a crazy car.
People might remember it, small car with weird doors.
But one of the things that they were gonna put together
for owners was a plan by which they could rent a BMW
for a couple of weeks a year.
That was part of the Nissan.
I remember that.
Nissan did something similar with the LEAF for a few years
where I bought a new LEAF
and you had the right to check out some other Nissan
for I think it was up to two weeks a year.
I have a business idea for AutoTrader.
This is a great idea, you can have it.
I'm not gonna make you sign anything.
But you had suggested that what you have now
if you have an electric car is a gas station at home.
What you need is the AutoTrader gas station kit
which you put in your garage
and it's filled with Funyuns and Slim Jims.
Right?
Self-refilling?
Yeah, maybe Gatorade.
Yeah, someone comes by once a month and tops you off.
Okay.
All right, just an idea.
Just an idea, you don't have to tell me now.
I think that's a no.
I'll pitch it to the CEO, my hopes are not high.
Yeah, I'm sure the CEO is listening to this
and he'll be like, yes, that's a great idea.
Oh man, Sean, how can people find out more about AutoTrader?
Go to AutoTrader.com.
Sean, thank you so much for your time today.
We really appreciate it.
Thanks guys, I really enjoyed this.
All right, that was Sean Tucker with AutoTrader.
We're gonna take a break and when we come back.
Quiz time.
Quiz time.
Questions or comments?
Drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
That's carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.
And we're back.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
I am Tom.
She is Jill.
This is episode 318.
Is there anything Shway there?
Well, 18 is a lucky number in the Jewish faith.
I knew that.
Yeah.
I don't know why I knew that, but I knew that.
My accent is gonna be horrible, but I think it's high.
Isn't there a name for a Hebrew numerologist?
I don't know.
There's something to that,
which I don't think is very steep deeply
in the actual Judaic faith.
I think it's something kind of ancillary and weird.
I just know that all of my Jewish friends,
whenever they donate money to whatever charity
I'm raising money for, it's usually in multiples of 18.
Really?
Really?
That's crazy.
All right.
Social media.
Yes, I'm on it.
I'm on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Threads, Blue Sky, YouTube, all the things.
You can find me at Jill Siminello.
Or, you know, Blue Sky does that weird
like jillsiminello.bsky.whatever.
So, but Jill Siminello,
and I use the hashtag Cardishor.
So if you can't find me with my name,
which is, you know, kind of hard to spell,
you can usually find me by Cardishor.
Speaking of things Jewish.
Okay.
Tomorrow.
Yes.
I have to go drive past my old office,
which takes me to Skokie, Illinois.
Yeah.
People outside of Illinois might not know this,
but lots and lots of Jewish people in Skokie, Illinois.
There are.
And because of that, Kaufman's deli.
I was gonna say really good delis.
I'm going to Kaufman's deli tomorrow.
Okay.
I need egg salad, I need challah,
I need coleslaw,
and I need dill pickles.
Oh, okay.
So they sell them in two barrels.
One is like new and old,
and it's basically how long they've been.
Okay.
They've been decanting.
Decanting.
That's the wrong word.
Fermenting.
All right.
Did you get through the social media stuff?
I did.
I wasn't paying attention.
I feel like I was pretty time efficient there.
You were.
You were.
And we actually have enough time today.
I have some really good news about the quiz today.
Uh-huh.
The bonus question is an extension
of last week's bonus question.
Great.
So I think you'll enjoy that.
We talked about the Nancy Drew Mysteries last week.
So we're going to expand on that this week.
People are going to do that.
But the quiz, oh, 318.
Yeah.
It was a BMW.
Got it.
And so it was one of the early BMWs.
When people talk about yuppies buying BMWs in the 80s,
the 318.
Got it.
Then later the 320, 325, 328 button.
Got it.
Yeah.
I'm taking a bite of my,
I'm going to, orange and cranberry scone right now.
You have issues with the donuts again.
Well, I mean,
I'm never going to do the German chocolate thing.
Um, and then.
Wow.
I know, I'm just not.
That's racist.
I'm not going to do, I'm not going to do that.
And then you have this scone looking thing
that's covered.
It's like white chocolate.
And you know, it's not horrible.
It is not horrible.
So I took a bite of that.
Cranberry and orange with like some white chocolate in it.
That's not a review you want of a donut.
It's not horrible.
But then.
You know how many women said that
after a first date with me?
Shh.
La la la la la.
I'm raising my hand again.
That's too political.
And then the other,
the other, the other donut is magically delicious.
That is possibly the most cynically cheap thing
a donut shop can do for St. Patrick's Day.
Yeah.
Which is literally to pour lucky charms on a donut.
Yeah.
They put icing on top and then just dipped it
in lucky charms.
Here's the thing about it.
And put some like shamrock sprinkles on there.
And it looks good.
It is all yours.
It looks good.
Well, no, producer Randy picks before I do.
That's a rule.
All right.
And that's fine.
Cause I love German chocolate.
Yeah.
All right.
It's quiz time.
Okay.
Do you remember when we had a lot of time?
We still have a lot of time.
Not really.
I'm looking at your watch upside down.
We've got like 10 minutes.
Plenty of time.
All right.
Are you ready?
Yeah.
Consumer guide, car stuff, podcast, power quiz, 318.
$100,000 question mark.
Okay.
I forgot the doubt.
No, it's not 100,000.
It's 100,000 units.
I'm going to give you a car.
You have to tell me if they sold more
than 100,000 of those bad boys in 2025.
Are you ready?
The Hyundai Elantra.
Hyundai's likable compact car.
Good looking.
And one of those cars that you can buy
instead of a crossover.
That is true.
I'm going to say no.
Actually, yes, but a lot.
148,200.
Secretly a hot seller.
Wow.
That's a good car.
It deserves it.
It is.
It is a good car.
All right.
You have no points.
BMW X5.
BMW's very nice midsize crossover.
I'm going to say yes.
No.
Oh gosh.
76,246.
I'm off to a bang up start.
But that's an awful lot of these things
because they probably average retail prices
by 80 grand on those.
All right.
You have no points.
I'm in trouble.
Here's one.
The Jeep Compass.
No.
That is Jeep's compact crossover
and really the only affordable crossover
in their lineup at the moment.
We have the Cherokee coming.
You and I are going to go see the Cherokee next week.
We are.
I'm in town.
They're bringing it to the local journalist
here in Chicago.
We're going to get a walk around.
We're not going to drive it.
No.
But we get to see it.
We get to see it.
Also, we probably get free pasta.
There will be some form of free lunch involves.
I'm thinking it's probably going to be sandwiches.
Journalists just come together over free food.
I know.
Free food.
We're all there.
Journalists we haven't seen for nine years
will be there because free food.
Free food.
All right.
What did you say about the Compass?
I said no.
Yes.
Yeah, 101,997.
That surprised me of the ones I'm here.
I didn't know the Compass was selling that well.
So, but it does have a very nice interior now.
And it's pretty quick.
All right, you need to win out.
You need to clean up here.
I know.
Signs point to know that Magic A-Paw
is saying this is not my week.
All right, the Subaru Crosstruck.
My wife owns a Crosstruck, the most affordable Subaru
Crossover.
I really like the Subaru Crosstruck.
I just don't think it's.
When do you think Subaru will kill the Impressa?
Soon.
Yeah.
All right.
Sorry.
I cut you off again.
I'm like soon.
I just, I don't know.
I don't know there is a volume like that much of a volume
seller.
Let's see if I can go for 0 for 6.
I'm going to say no.
Yes.
Buy a lot.
191,724.
They move a lot of those bad boys.
Subaru may have a bunch of different models,
but it is the Crosstruck, it is the Outback,
and it is the Forester that do all their volume.
And those are all great vehicles.
Yeah.
All right, you can't win anymore,
but you can try to save face.
The Honda Passport.
There is no face to be saved.
Yes.
No.
This is a model.
This is a model in a slump, because it
used to be one of the best selling mid-sized crossovers.
Just 55,231 last year.
So I don't know what the deal is there.
That's hard.
But everyone's been, I mean, you know what part of the problem
is, the Koreans.
I mean, they have two vehicles in the mid-sized category,
both of them, right?
You've got Palisade and Tucson.
And then Telluride and what is the?
Sorrento.
Sorrento, thank you.
It's kind of a one-two punch, and they're all good vehicles.
And there's hybrids there now in all of them.
Yeah.
All righty, bonus question.
Are you ready?
OK.
We talked about Nancy Drew.
Today we're going to talk about the Hardy Boys.
Hardy Boys, the Hardy Boys novels go back to 1927.
OK.
They wrapped up the original series in 2005,
but there's been a bunch of subsequent things
that have come out.
So there's still plenty of Hardy Boys to be had.
I'm going to give you four book titles.
You have to tell me which one is real.
Real, OK.
Real, are you ready?
Ready.
All righty, the case of the shapely librarian,
the tuna that would not swim, the empty Q-tip box,
or the Tower Treasure.
And I'm assuming the last two are the case of.
Because you didn't put the case of in front of that.
Strangely, strangely, the Hardy Boys
aren't named that as consistently as the Nancy Drews.
Interesting.
It's the case of or the clue of for almost all of the Nancy
Drews, not the case with the Hardy Boys.
I wouldn't know if you're telling me a bald-faced lie
because I have never read.
What I just said is true.
In the context of the quiz, I would not
lie about the question.
Yeah, you would.
No, I wouldn't.
OK, so the case of the shapely librarian.
I'm going to say no.
The tuna that would not swim, the empty Q-tip box,
or the Tower Treasure.
And I have to tell you which one is real?
Yep.
I'm going to say the Tower Treasure.
It is.
Yep, you got a point.
As a kid, I would totally have read the shapely librarian.
No joke.
Sadly, these weren't illustrated.
Actually, I think there was like a line drawing
in the middle someplace.
You don't know what shape the librarian was, though.
It could have been a square.
Well, shapely suggests a certain positivity.
Does it?
Yeah.
I don't know that I would describe a librarian as shapely
if I didn't mean it as a compliment.
OK.
Mercedes Benz is bringing out a van.
Did you see this?
I did not.
Yep.
Why didn't I write down the name of it?
I believe it's the VEL.
Anyway, it's an electric van.
It's coming in a couple of years.
It's going to be a premium thing going
to be used for maybe hotels.
They are going to make a passenger version of it
so you could buy it as the America's most expensive
minivan.
Do you remember the Mercedes Benz R-Class?
Yes.
That was a really interesting vehicle
because it was a crossover-ish.
With sliding rear doors.
It did.
Did it have sliding doors?
It did.
Yeah, and they advertise this as having the room of an S-class
up front, the room of the midsize E-class in the second row,
and the room of the compact C-class in the third row.
And sure enough, I could get into the third row pretty easy
and be comfortable back there, even me.
That was like 20 years ago.
It was a while ago.
15 years ago.
But they're giving it another shot.
No one understood what the R-Class was.
It didn't sell well.
They did do an AMG version of it, which I thought
was the coolest thing in the world.
Another shot, they're going to go with this van.
It's going to be electric only.
OK.
All right.
So piece of news we did not discuss at the beginning.
It just jogged my memory when we were talking about SUVs.
I can't talk about news that isn't in my notes.
Too bad.
So four minutes of silence.
OK, four minutes of silence.
The Hyundai Palisade recalled this week.
Talk about that.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I really should have covered that first.
Yeah, no, like I completely spaced.
And then when you mentioned it, I was like, we should probably
mention that recall.
So essentially, it is being recalled because the second row
seats are their power operated and they don't stop,
even if somebody is in it.
And it resulted in the death of a child.
Yeah, that is tragic.
And we're so used to these things working.
Yes.
That it is stunning and awful when they don't work.
But this actually happened.
Because there are so many things now in cars.
Like if you stuck your hand in a window as it was rolling up,
it would just bounce back.
Unless it's a Tesla.
And I don't know how many times I've actually bumped my head
on the rear hatch of a crossover or minivan.
It just bounces off.
I've had some that haven't, like because I'm short.
And so what I'll try to do is pull it down
so that I can reset the height.
And then it just keeps going.
And I'm like, no, no, no.
And I'm like trying, like Atlas shrugged
as I'm trying to like hold the thing up so that I can set it.
So I've had some missteps.
It used to be in General Motors.
There used to be a little knob in the door pocket
on the driver's side that you could adjust the height.
To like half, three-quarters, 12, yeah.
But this recall, this is two vehicles, right?
So it's the Palisade and the Telluride?
No, because the Telluride, I think it's the new Palisade.
Just the new Palisade.
Because the new Telluride isn't out yet, 2027.
I don't think.
So if it would apply to the Telluride,
I've only heard it applied to the Palisade.
It would be the previous generation.
Well, it would be the 2027 model, which, I mean,
is on sale.
But I don't think that actually, you know what?
I don't think the Telluride, I haven't driven the Telluride.
I don't think it has power-operated seats.
You're right.
So it's not on sale yet.
So not an issue.
But yeah, a child was hurt, killed.
Yes.
So this is brutal.
So if you own a new Palisade, be sure to look up
that recall information, please.
Get that done immediately.
I don't think they have a fix yet.
No, I don't know.
The way these things work, it's really interesting.
We're made aware of the recall as soon as they decided to recall.
But then there's a period of time.
Sometimes it seems very long, a month, six weeks before people
get notifications, but they have to find a fix.
They know there's a problem and they have to let people know
about it right away.
But it can be a while before they develop a fix.
And if it's a software fix like that, right?
You go to Telluride and have a fix.
Or if you have OTA updates, if your car accepts those,
it just happens in your driveway automatically.
But yeah, this one's a big deal.
Yeah.
So all right, what else you got going on?
You know, just something cool that I'm going to be doing later
this week that I'm not sure I can talk about yet.
So yeah, I have lots of cool things on tap.
And does that involve fruit juice, electrolysis, donuts?
Cars. It involves cars.
Oh, OK. It's a car thing.
It's a car thing.
Guess what I got delivered today.
What did you get today?
The Lexus LS 500 Sport.
OK. This is the end of the line.
It's actually a 2025 model.
But the Lexus LS, the single most important Lexus ever built.
It's no longer very important because Lexus has moved on.
But back when they were sitting there scaring the crap out of the Germans
back in 1989, this car mattered.
It came in 15 grand cheaper than the Mercedes-Benz S-Class
with more power, possibly better build quality.
I think that I don't think people question anymore,
but it was it was absolutely a game changer.
Mercedes-Benz products are cheaper now because of Lexus.
Yeah. So this car is going away.
I've got one of the last ones.
It's it's really a pretty cool car.
But people do not want large luxury sedans.
They do not ever for any reason.
They just don't buy them.
But as we discussed at the beginning,
like maybe that's your better cost alternative for an SUV.
I don't know. I don't.
I don't know the large luxury sedan.
The $95,000 sedan might not be your best option.
I don't know.
Also, Lexus still sells the ES.
Yes. The front drive Camry based vehicle.
It is so roomy and so refined and so quiet.
Well, and I've started to see some 60 grand content coming out
from the new ES that's going to be launched.
And I'm hearing electric.
Interesting.
I was not 100 percent convinced there would be a new ES.
Yeah. But anyway, we are out of time.
Yeah. So more on that next week.
All right. Big thanks to Sean Tucker of Auto Trader.
Thank you, Jill.
Thank you to producer Randy and the good folks here at TalkZone.
Let's talk more about cars again next week.
Remember to check us out at consumerguide.com.
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please drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
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About this episode
Jill and Tom discuss recent automotive news including Honda dropping its Zero EV sub-brand and Volvo's EX30 not coming to the US due to tariffs. They review the redesigned 2026 Audi Q3, highlighting its new gear selector and improved interior. Guest Sean Tucker from AutoTrader shares insights on buying cars amid economic uncertainty, emphasizing buying what you need and the growing availability of used EVs with battery health scores. They also touch on Texas DMV's new real ID requirement for vehicle registration and a serious recall on the Hyundai Palisade. The episode wraps with a fun quiz and Lexus LS 500 Sport news.
Original notes
Jill and Tom open the show again sharing word of electric-vehicle cancellations. This time EVs from Honda and Volvo are being dropped.
Tom discusses a new Texas DMV law which makes it difficult for undocumented shoppers to register a new or used vehicle. Though the regulations are relatively new, some area dealers are reporting small but measurable downturns in sales.
Tom notes having recently reviewed the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited, which was priced at $40,000. Tom made the point that in an era of $50,000-60,000 midsize crossovers, a midsize sedan--especially in hybrid trim--might make a lot of sense.
Still in the first segment, Jill reviews the subcompact Audi Q3 crossover. The price-leading Audi has been redesigned for 2026, and features updated connectivity features, more power, and tweaked styling. Listen in for Jill's complete review.
In the second segment, the hosts welcome Sean Tucker of Autotrader to the show. Sean talked about the volatility in the new- and used-car marketplace, but suggested that, despite economic uncertainty, this may be a good time to make a vehicle purchase. Listen in for details.
In the last segment, Jill is subjected to Tom's "100,000" quiz. Jill also shared news of an important Hyundai recall involving faulty 2nd-row seat sensors in the Palisade midsize crossover which my fail to detect the presence of a person in the path of seat travel. One death has been attributed to this defect.
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Car Stuff Podcast
Consumer Guide Automotive, Tom Appel, Jill Ciminillo
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57:29