Honesty Pays?

I'm Alex, he's Jim, and this is the Charging Status EV Podcast. How are you doing, Jim?

I'm good. We've got a lady with us, Alex. As you usually say, an illustrious guest.

An illustrious guest, very illustrious guest. Yeah, how are you doing, Caroline? You okay?

Very good. Lovely to join you on the podcast, guys.

Oh, thank you. I was giving Alex a seamless invitation to announce her illustrious guest

and he's just completely missed that because her chemistry is so good. But this is worldwide

renowned car journalist, Caroline Kidd, from Ireland. Yeah, all the way from across the Irish Sea.

Award-winning. Have you won any awards?

No, I haven't. But then I haven't put myself forward for any. And we don't have journalism

motoring journalism awards here in Ireland because I'm sure I would have won with sweeping

colours, flying colours, you know? Absolutely. Award-winning journalist, but just not quite yet.

Yeah, I had you on the podcast, not this podcast, but my other podcast a few years ago now. Time

goes very quickly. But if people don't know who you are, do you want to give a brief introduction

about what you do and where people can find you as well? Yeah, so I set up changing lanes.ie back

in 2014. And it was a place to share my love of cars. And I studied journalism in college.

I'd come out and there wasn't really any jobs at that point. It was 2012. So it was a case of,

I just had to start something and start sharing my thoughts on cars. And that was an interest I'd

had since I was a child. So it's been quite a journey ever since. And I suppose these days

I see myself primarily as a car reviewer. But of course, content creation has become a huge

thing as well. And it's something that I love doing. It comes quite naturally to me,

filming videos and a lot of short form content now of cars as well. But I suppose

at the core of what I do is just trying to give consumers really honest,

a common sense approach to car reviews as well, being grounded and talking about affordability,

practicality, running costs, and all those things that really matter to consumers. So I like to think

I'm on the consumer's side. But I love cars. And I think that passion comes across too. I'm still

doing this after 11 years, you know? Yeah, a lot of people just give up, don't they,

after a short amount of time, and give it a go. And it's got to stick with it. I think

that's what yeah, you've got to be the best thing. You've got to really persevere with

it because it's not easy. And we'll probably won't make you a millionaire either.

Definitely won't make you a millionaire. If you're honest, anyway, if you're honest,

honestly, doesn't pay the bills, does it shock, horror, basic bills, I think nowadays.

But integrity, that's what it's all about. Yeah, people see that as well. And they need to,

it has to be someone who they can trust. So I think you have to play the long game as well,

and not sell out. You've got to think ahead and how long you want to be in the industry,

how committed you are as well. But at the end, the values of good independent balance to journalism

is what we have to strive for as best we can, because all things still matter in this modern

world. I feel like they they matter more than ever because they don't exist as much.

They're harder to find. Yes, for sure. Yeah, except like, I'm in the position now where I have to try

and fund this with sponsorships and stuff. But I work so hard to get the right sponsors.

And I, like, bat away so many that aren't the correct ones. And sometimes, like,

some of the things you get offered, you think, wow, but it's

not the way you put the decimal point. But

but the second someone thinks this is just being done for the money, you're sort of

yeah, your words, sort of worthless at that point, isn't it? Absolutely. And

but you have the right to earn a living as well. So difficult tightrope to walk across.

For me, it's like, if you if you're doing an ad, make it very clear that it's an ad.

And then everyone's happy. But I think when the lines get blurred, it just smells to me.

I don't like it at all. Personally, I like it when it's fairly up front.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what's the car scene like in Ireland? Obviously,

over over here, the switch to two EVs going reasonably well. If you read one part of

the press, it's, you know, horrendous and everything's full of EVs everywhere. You

speak to manufacturers and they're giving you sales figures and you look at the actual sales figures

and it's all pretty good. I know, I think Ireland has historically been quite sort of

diesel heavy. And like diesels sales of diesels on this side of the water really

dropped massively now. But how is it? How is it in Ireland? I follow like Bob Flavin quite a bit.

And I know Bob said about the public charging network not being amazing and

Yeah, you can have good and bad experiences with it. But I suppose on the car scene, we've

obviously seen this increase in SUVs over the years, just like the UK. But when you look at

the space between petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric, electric is now up to about 18 and a

half percent. So it did take a dip last year, like it did in the UK as well. But now we're

starting to see people coming back buying EVs again in good numbers. So what's that?

Yeah. Yeah. 18 and a half percent of the new car market and it's actually overtaken diesel.

Historically, we were a very strong diesel market, as you said, particularly around 2008, 2009.

And people were being missold diesels. Completely. Yeah. Same here. Yeah. Like my mother was driving

around in a 1.3 Opel Astra diesel and not doing enough miles and then having those DPS issues.

So a lot of that went on. So yeah, now we are slowly moving in the right direction.

It's taken time, but the cars have gotten better. There's a wider selection as well.

Kia are doing well with their EVs here and Tesla, Volkswagen. Yeah. They're probably the

big EV manufacturers. And then we have BYD and MG. There's loads of new brands coming to the

market. We've had XPang. There's Cadillac actually heading our way, which came as quite a

surprise to me when I got the press release on that. I think we might be getting it before

the UK, it seems, which is quite surprising. I don't know how that works. Or maybe you guys

will be close behind because to right-hand drive markets, you'd imagine that it would happen

closely. And sometimes we seem to get the cars a little bit after you are a little teeny bit

before. But yeah, look, it's exciting times. Lots of new brands coming to the market, more choice.

And that's good for the consumer. And as a journalist and a car reviewer, it keeps things

really interesting as well. You probably will find that as well.

Yeah, they might have new brands. We mean, Jim has said between us on and off the podcast

that it's so exciting having all these new brands because you just get in the door

quite early with it and all the new models that are launching. I mean, we've had Cherry and Amoda

launch it and Jacob actually. And they are on fire in terms of launching new models. It's

been a really busy year for them, hasn't it? So yeah, it's very exciting.

And I mean, you look at BYD and it seems to be every day there's a different way to market.

It's unbelievable the pace of what they bring to market now quickly. And now they're

bringing these super hybrids as well as EVAs. So yeah, and they can do these changes to the cars.

MG as well at S6 that you guys were at the launch this week, was it?

Yeah, it was yesterday. Yeah. Can I ask you a question then? I suppose, what did you think

of the MG S6? Or is that a secret? Is that embargoed?

No, no. No, it's not actually, which is quite good. So yes, it's a very big car.

So the rear legroom is incredible. There's a lot of kit as standard.

There are some little areas where the build quality is maybe not quite as good as what you

would expect. But I thought in general it was a pretty decent car. I know when you drove it,

Jim, you thought it was really cold yesterday. So the efficiency wasn't quite as good as what

it possibly should be. But it was really cold. So that sort of explains it. But I thought

it's a decent car with a massive amount of storage space. So I thought the build quality

was way above my expectation. Maybe I worded it wrong. The material choice I meant.

Yeah, I like that. The fact there was no piano black in it made my heart sing.

That was a good aspect. Piano black makes me incredibly sad.

Yeah, it was hard to film. It's just a magnet for like filth and scratches and sadness.

And greasy fingerprints. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

If you're trying to film it, you get your face in the reflection, which is never a good thing.

No, it depends. Actually, not only my face.

I really like to actually, I just, I mean, it's unremarkable in a way because

lots of these kind of cars are, but they're designed for an audience that wants unremarkable

really. They want just something that's really easy to live with, really easy to drive.

You can throw all your kit into it. It's got a ginormous boot in the back.

It's got a decent frunk. Absolutely tons of headroom. Probably the best headroom I've

ever seen in the car. I mean, Alex wouldn't know because he's a midget, basically.

He might have stunned up in the back. Oh, the insults of Sturges.

Oh, no, no, they started months and months ago.

I started when I first met Jim. But even when he's in his booster seat,

he's still got like a good three feet of headroom. Red carry for that now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I would say in the back, you could probably be,

I would say six foot four and you've still got headroom. There was that much and they'd use

the space like really well. But if it's the some of these reviews are difficult now,

aren't they? Because there's nothing that bad about anything and there's nothing like

outstanding with anything. I think the most difficult one I've done was the Prius,

the new Prius. Yeah, the Prius. It's really good at everything,

but not outstanding at anything. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Now go make a video. It's not an SUV for some people. That's probably the biggest problem.

It's gorgeous. For me, it's a bonus.

It's a beautiful car. Yeah.

Yeah, it is difficult. I just thought some little areas in the cabin weren't quite as good

sort of material as they could be. But it is, you get a lot of car for your money.

And the software was the software was decent. There's a lot of features you can watch YouTube

on it, which is coming to a lot of cars now. And something we take for granted when you

drive a Tesla, they just get all the video features, but now other manufacturers are

starting to catch up in that aspect. So yeah, pretty good.

And will you guys get to spend longer with those cars at some point? Because I know it's

just a launch event and it is, it's hard to capture, you know, you're not going to have

deep feelings about the car based on a short trip in it. It's kind of more of a news

and feature piece really, isn't it? Here's what it is. Here's the stats.

So will you get longer with those cars?

Yeah, so we could try and sort of book them in and we'll get the cars for a week.

I think in Ireland, you go to like a central facility, don't you, and take the cars away?

There is, we have to go and collect the cars so they don't get delivered to our house.

So most of the distributors, they use one company in Dublin, but there's a few

brands that don't use this. It's kind of a fleet management company who prep the cars.

So you could have to do a little bit of travel on the Monday across town

to get to the other districts where they all are, but I actually, I actually enjoy all that,

which is weird. I've been doing this for so long, I wouldn't know if I had a Monday where I

didn't have to go to Dublin to collect a car. I'd be like, what do, what do I do with

myself? So it's part of the routine. And you bump into your colleagues as well. So

you have a chat with them because it can be lonely life as a freelancer, guys.

You probably know, working from home a lot, you can go a little bit crazy. So it's good to get

out and chat to your colleagues, exchange the gossip and all the stuff, you know.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That never happens often. She only usually do catch up with

people at launch events really, and not for very long, because people always brush enough to do

stuff. So yeah, busy. Yeah. And so often now at launch, you get such a short amount of time

with the car, don't you, that you want to spend every minute of that with the car?

Yeah, it's a lot of pressure, actually, on those local launches. If you are trying to do

video or capture deep content like that, you know, it's a lot of work. And then trying to give

something of worthwhile to the viewer, because in many ways, they can give the car their own

first impression, they want something deeper from us, you know. So it's trying to work

within those parameters. But I think people are interested in the key facts and finding out

even how it stands against the competition, which does require some research and preparation,

particularly with range and price and all that. Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

So a question I often get asked a lot, so I do a lot of content about car leasing here.

And leasing here is often it's a bit of a no brainer, because it's so cheap in comparison

to sometimes other types of finance. And I don't I hate sponsorships, as I said,

in product placements and stuff, especially. Oh, sorry.

It'll be random buster. Yeah. And lots of people will watch from Ireland and say,

like, why do we pay three times more for car leasing in Ireland? What's how do people tend to

sort of purchase their cars? Is it do they usually are they doing like high

purchase or a loan or something like that? It is mostly the PCP, the personal contract

funds that people are paying this monthly payment. I know when I was buying my first car,

all those years ago, I got a loan from the bank based on my my new job. But that was a second hand

car. So it wasn't like a huge value. But I think that's what's keeping the industry alive. Because

when you look at the price of the new cars, the list price, particularly since 2020, you guys

have this as well, I'm sure. But the price of cars and it doesn't matter. You know, there's

this thing that this that electric cars are expensive, but like all cars are expensive. Well,

look, we have a new wave of smaller more affordable cars coming to market. But a lot of a lot of

is a lot of cars in that 40 to 50,000 euro bracket, which before you could get a good

family car 30,000 euro. So a lot of things have changed. But I think PCP is is very popular

here. And it's leasing not so much, particularly for private cars. But maybe that is something

that we need to get used to. But in Ireland, we like to own stuff as well, you know, like

homes. We're not very European like that. I think we've still got that here that want to

own stuff and PCP is by far the most popular way to get cars here still. But PCH can be

so much cheaper here. And it seems to be, I guess, maybe it's because there's not enough,

there aren't enough people that have gone for it already in Ireland. So there's not

that competition, you know, you don't tend to get a competitive marketplace when you've got

three players in it, do you? And I guess you end up with only a handful of players if there

aren't enough people doing it. So. But yes, an interesting one. I mean, sometimes there'll

be a car that's going for, I mean, at the moment, for example, you can get a Polestar 4 here on a lease,

10,000 miles a year for about 450 quid a month. And someone dropped a message the other day and

said like, oh, in Ireland, that's 950 euro a month. Yeah. And I get that all the time,

all the time, people saying, why, why, why, why? I don't know.

Yeah, we are a small market on the fringes of Europe. We have high taxes. And I think this is why

we are such an expensive place for cars. But when I post a video on YouTube, and I mentioned the

prices of cars, I did an Alpine A110 recently, and it's about 90,000 euros here. But in France,

it's 65, you know, which is a big difference. And we're talking euro prices. So people are like,

oh, but in my country, you can get it through this price. They're like, great.

Yeah, congratulations. Yeah. Yeah, YouTube is so funny, the comments you get. People want to

pick a fight with you over the smallest things. Like, I got one yesterday about

the boot space in the Alpine. I had said, you know, it was poor for boot space. And it really is

guys, okay, it's really poor. And this guy comes out with like, oh, the Ferrari such and such has

similar and the Lexus something else has something else similar. I don't know why why journalists

have this problem with the boot space. So he's really sensitive about it. So I kind of

learned just to let them like, don't even get into it. I try not to pick fights with people

on the internet as best I can. In those car review videos, though, how many of the comments

come from people that own the car already? And they're watching your review of it almost for

to stand their corner and, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna speak up for my my girl.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, or I don't know, kind of underlined that they made the right decision

and sort of kind of validate their decision. Definitely because you do if you give a good

review to a car and you want good review, they're like, oh, best video I've seen. I totally agree.

You're the best reviewer. Yeah, I've had my for six months agree with everything you said.

And sometimes you get a message like this length, you know, of of like, some people will

actually, you've just reviewed the car as a professional, but they'll put their review

in the comments as well. That's okay. Look, I appreciate it all, you know, it's people are

usually lovely online. Yeah, you can you can get the few difficult ones as well.

Yeah, I think the thing is, you might have bought the car. So you YouTube algorithm knows

that you're interested in it. You might pop up and might say, Oh, yeah, I'll see what

see what they said about the car that I bought. And I think that's how it happens. But

yeah, it's interesting. So what what car are you sort of looking forward to to get into next?

Or do you have something like a trip lined up that you're really looking forward to or?

Well, I have cut back a little bit on the overseas travel, but I was away this week for

the market GSE next week, the Peugeot 308 facelift. And then I'm going for the studio

reveal of the EV2 in January in Brussels. Oh, cool. So I think that's like that's a very exciting

car because we've seen what Kia and Hyundai have done today and in that you small, that'll probably

be their smallest EV. So that'll be really interesting. Toyota CHR electric. I'm curious

about that one too, to get behind the wheel, because they've done so well with hybrids.

And I've actually really liked the CHR hybrid. So me too. Yeah, like it's the quality and it's

quick and sporty to drive as well. So I'm interested to see how they will make this leap. And they're

the best selling brand here in Ireland. So they have a potential to really, if people take to

this car, we could see a massive increase in EV sales in Ireland based on one manufacturer,

because they're the best selling brand. So they have this enormous influence and power on the

new car market. So obviously, they have been slow on EVs today. But I think that's probably just

the Japanese approach is more conservative to new technology. And they really think things through.

And I respect that. You know, I do appreciate that. So be interesting to see

what the CHR plus, I think that's what they call it. Yeah. So another year of driving cars,

I try and live in the moment. And I live week by week, pretty much, you know, sometimes my mother

asked me, you know, what are you driving next week? And I'm there like, what am I driving

next week? Or what were you driving last week? Sometimes she does that, which is like,

it's a really mean trick to play on me, because I've already moved on. And she's like,

what were you driving her two weeks ago? And like, there's not a chance at me remembering

what I was. It's trying to live in the moment. And because this industry moves so fast, and

we are all moving fast in it. And you do the car, you do the review, and then you move on,

you know? Yeah, completely. What's the car that you've had in the last year when it's

left you and you've felt like your family member has just been lost, you know, the one that you

cry as you walk away from it? Or has there been one? Gosh, sounds like a sounds like a personal

story, Jim. It's called the Ionic 5N. Oh, yeah. It's a tale of longing, love, and then

eventual heartbreak. Gosh, yeah. And I mean, like, those high performance EVs,

we're seeing, we've seen so many this year, like Alpine 1890, I had the Alfa Romeo Jr. Velace

last week, loved the car, but didn't like the range. And I think this is a problem

with particularly those compact performance electric cars, because those cars are meant

to be driven, you're meant to go out for the day and enjoy. But I think the range in those is a

problem at the moment, because they're trying not to make the car too heavy. Yeah. Which I

appreciate that as well. You're not going to like when I say this, I had a Cooper for

Mentor diesel over the summer. Yeah. And I had it during my holidays. So it was actually,

like, not having to think about charging was actually a luxury. Sometimes you drive the occasional

fuel car, because that's what it is now. It's occasional. It's like, oh, yeah, that was good,

you know. But I know that's not on brand for you guys, but

we have discussed in petrol cars. We are. We are. I mean, we do an EV podcast. We both

like EVs. But we also like cars. So, and we do, I mean, we review everything.

So sorry, audience, but we do like sort of everything.

Well, it's not really a journalistic thing to be like biased to one thing. I don't think.

No, it's not. No. And I think this podcast about EVs, because, yeah, we both do have an

interest in it. I mean, I've got to. And it's a really interesting part of the market. And it's

like new technology and it's evolving. And we both love technology and stuff. So,

but I also love a VA and I don't think that'll ever change. And I think it's great when

everyone's got a bit of choice, personally. Yeah, like, I suppose the BYD Dolphin Surf,

and that was surprisingly good in hindsight. I didn't think it was going to be as good,

because I read a lot of different things about it. But I drove for eight minutes in traffic in

London. I think that was it. I think I'd looked at all the UK stuff. And that was quite,

quite bizarre. That was a mad launch. It was absolutely bizarre. So there were,

I think there were 72 of us, and then there were a thousand influencers. Yeah, this was it.

So I wasn't, I think I'd heard all this stuff. And I just wasn't sure. And then, you know,

I had people leaving me comments about referencing it, that about in the UK. And

I was saying, well, I think in Ireland, you know, we journalists, there's no interference. We review

the car. That's, that's what we do. There's no money changing hands or anything like that.

And it's really important to establish that trust. And we're a small industry here as well.

So any cars that win awards, they do it on their own marriage. But I was really

impressed with the delve and surf and the quality of the car. It was really fun as well. And it was

so fast. It was surprisingly fast. I don't know about you guys, but the many cars I leave for

dust in these electric cars. Yeah. Gas, you know, you know, all behind you. Yeah. Yeah.

BMWs. And I'm like, God, don't don't even try. Don't even try this. This thing is potent.

Except like everyone states the naught to 60 or not 62. And actually it's the naught to 30 is

yeah, you're absolutely right. Because they might eventually catch up with you. But it's

an initial burst and the smoothness. There's no fumbling around with gears.

Insta was fabulous this year as well. I don't know. Nine actually, I had it

recently. And I thought it was fabulous. Yes. Yeah,

it's small. That's the only thing. I thought it was a really good sized car.

Well, it's basically a poke code on wheels. Yeah.

Oh, the I thought the insta was a really good size. Oh, no, the yeah, we would

know we were talking about the ironic nine. I said it's just a bit small.

The insta I absolutely love the insta. Yeah. And I went to that one thinking,

yeah, I'm sure it'll be good. It's a little Hyundai and they don't really make bad cars.

It'll be it'll be good. And I came away from it like completely in love. And you know,

when you come away and think, I wonder if I could make that work somehow and you start

looking at numbers and things. Yeah, that's when you know it's a special thing,

especially when you drive as many cars as we do. Yeah, I thought that was really,

really good. That's only got about 100 horsepower. That was really quick.

Yeah. And it's not fast on paper, but that's not 0-30 as you said. Yeah.

It's super quick. Yeah. Yeah. Fun little car that is.

Renault 5 was iconic as well. Yeah. And it was one where I was carried the year award here.

Oh, did it? Yeah. And SDV. I think the best EV in the UK. I'm not sure. There was some

awarded one today or yesterday. It said SDV Worldwide or something along those lines.

I'm not sure though. T. Alex is totally in love with it. But I've only driven it for 10 minutes

and that was at the SMMT day at Milbrook and it's probably not the best place to drive it.

But I was expecting it to be like so fun to drive and so engaging. Yeah. And I was like,

it's not perfect for sure. Well, I crammed a month's worth of mileage into one week.

So I sort of had a really good exposure to the car. And yeah, I think I don't know if I spoke to

you about it, but it's not really designed to be a fun EV. It's more of a Renault Zero replacement

that looks really cool. So I was surprised how efficient that car was. I just think it looks

so amazing. Yeah. Like if it was fun to drive as well, I think the Insta is really fun to

drive. Yeah. Yes. And if they had a little bit of that like dusted on it, it would be like

the perfect thing. And the LP-A290 is much better to drive. Is it? Yeah. Because I found the Renault

Five did run out of talent quicker than I run out of talent on a twisted road. And what they did

to the A290, it's a much better driver's car, I would say. And I kind of prefer that more moody

styling and color patterns that the A290 has. But range, again, is a problem in those cars,

I think. Not so much the Insta, but the Renault and Alpine, I thought, hmm, you know, can horse

through that range. Yeah. Yeah. I was getting really good efficiency on the Renault Five. I

think I was seeing about 240 miles of range. And there's a little, I don't know if you saw

it, but there's a little eco thing. And you can keep the line within the eco bar. And as long as you

do that, which I was doing the whole time, it was getting like nearly five miles per kilowatt

hour. So that might be my problem. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get cars from Renault or Alpine. I can

only assume they've seen my content before and decided against it. But it's quite difficult

here. Like, when I first started, some of the manufacturers will say, oh, you need 10,000

subscribers and this many views or something. And I go, of course, 70 something thousand now

and I've had 17 million views. Can I have a car, please? And you just don't get a reply. But I

think there's so many people doing it here. Yeah. And yeah, I don't know. I am like,

I know we talked about honesty and integrity and stuff, but I'm very honest as well. And

I don't know if that maybe goes against me sometimes. And I do do a fair bit of

like, be careful at the car dealer kind of content and telling people when they're being

taken for a ride and stuff. And that might not go down. Well, I don't know.

Yeah. But the UK market is huge. Like how many new cars is it every year?

Oh, it's, what is it? 10 million, maybe? Or maybe? I think. Yeah, it's.

One million, maybe. It's, I know. It's, we should know this, shouldn't we? I mean, I do know this.

I do know this, like, well, because I study the numbers all the time. But I know it's

over 1 million EVs a year, I think. Yeah. I'll be 48 in about seven weeks. So forgive me.

Well, ours is about 120,000 cars per year. So, you know, we're not a big market.

Yeah. So we're about 2 million. I think last year, I've just seen it was 1.95. But

I think that was up on the previous year. But I think pre COVID, we were like

2.4 or somewhere around, somewhere around that. Yeah. So, so that

gives, that should give more opportunities for, you know, reviewers and content creators. But

maybe it's all relative because of course, you probably have more people actively. And you've

got your very well established titles, of course. And then the internet has, of course,

opened up more content opportunities as well, YouTube podcasts. So it is massive.

The good old right at the top guys, it's just like cars.

That's why I'll stay where I am forever. I think there are some brands certainly here now as well

that are doing much more with influencers and like Instagrammers and stuff. And, you know,

it's not unusual now to go to a car launch and be chatting with someone and they're like a fashion

influencer on Instagram or something. And I mean, I'm too old to understand, but

it must work. They must see returns from it, I guess.

My fashion are influencers. I wasn't sure what you said you were too old.

Fashion influencers yet, influencers. Also, yeah.

Here, I think the manufacturers know you don't mix influencers with journalists because

there's a bit of, we're suspicious, I suppose. Yeah, you know, we're suspicious. How can you have,

you know, how can you get like, you know, 100,000 likes on a picture of your launch or

all this stuff. But I think it must do. We seem to be in this era of the influencer. It seems

to have come back very strong and brands, car brands here are delving into it, but maybe done

through, you know, collaborations on social media. I suppose that it's about getting a car

in front of a massive audience that maybe is not looking at the traditional

motoring media outlets or who's not genuinely consuming car content, mostly brand awareness.

Which is probably a great idea. When those two worlds are in the same room together, though,

it is hilarious. It is probably funny. You're just seeing like all, yeah, there's all these

old bloats just going, I know. I mean, I was talking to someone at the, at the,

that BYD launch we were talking about. And he was moaning to me because he had to be there at

nine in the morning. And he said, I told him, I want another 500 if you want me here at that

time. And luckily, and he goes, luckily, they said yes. Wow. Oh, that's cringe. Yeah, they

mixed the two because that's not fair. Like you probably, you know, you go to the goodness of

your heart. Two days out to get there and go, anyway, then there's this, there's a girl there

who's sort of draped across the front of the car who he seems to be with. And I'm imagining she

was a bottom influencer. And he's just a dolphin, sir. Yeah. It's not even like a sexy

guy, you know? No, no, but like her, all the content that they were filming seemed to be her

bottom. So I think she's a bum influencer, a bum influencer. There you go. There's a title for

the episode, Bum Fluencer. Sorted. Although don't put Bum Fluencer and then you've got

Caroline's picture on it. Oh, yeah. Maybe not. Maybe not. That might not go.

And then, and I, and she turned around and said to me, oh, have you driven it yet? And

I said, like, not yet. I'm going to in a minute have you. And she said, oh, no, I can't drive.

I know it's a different world, you know, but they shouldn't mix. You don't mix both because

it's not fair either, you know, especially since we're also poorly paid for our work.

I suppose it's like having Brad Pitt in an aftershave advert or something.

A lot of stuff I've seen is a lot with a new, a lot of new brands. They'll do, there'll be some,

I don't know, some family thing on Instagram where they've, they do road trips and stuff,

and they'll use the, use the car as part of their feature. And I've just read the comments

and people seem to, oh, that's a cool car. That's a lovely sort of thing. So I think,

I think as Caroline said a minute ago, it's more about brand awareness, especially now,

all these new brands competing for the, the mind share that's happening because

I think there's 17 Chinese brands at the moment in the UK and there's at least five

that I can name that are coming next year already. So it's, it's, yeah, it's crazy.

And going back to those numbers, if there are 2.4 million car buyers in the UK,

how many of them are proper car lovers that are probably reading auto express and watching

all the car channels? Maybe 50, 100,000 of them, I don't know.

Yeah, possibly. But then you've got 2.3 million that need to accidentally stumble across it

whilst they're scrolling on Instagram, I suppose. Yeah, exactly.

There you go. It all makes sense. I'm going to go and work on my buttocks.

And I suppose the key is not to be like threatened by it because people will always want

honest, educated opinions on cars, particularly with around EVs because it's so new

that people will look for a voice of reason and balance and that hasn't been paid for.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It also might filter down. You might, the brand might be,

well the car that someone might be interested in might be discovered to them via Instagram.

They'll go down the journey of maybe looking at it and then right before they go and look

at the dealership, they might watch a couple car reviews just to sort of cement the idea in

their head. Exactly. So it'll work. I think it all works out possibly.

And video, as you said, it's so important. Like people are now, they just want to watch

a video and get the details they need. And you can get across a lot of nuances in video that

you can't in a written article. I find that's why I'm trying to do more video of my own.

Though it's a lot of hard work guys, isn't it? It is. It is hard work. Standing in the

middle of nowhere with a camera. Especially when you're working with this.

Yeah, yeah. I always think it's like the words that come out of your mouth are important.

That even if it's not flashy or in, you know, the best camera, whatever,

but surely that still matters in today's world that what you come out with is sensible and

is accurate. Accuracy is another thing that's going out of fashion guys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta be get your facts right as well and the numbers and all that stuff.

The amount of research that has to be done, you probably find that too before you go out with a

car. Yeah. Do you make notes or how do you do your whole video scripting thing?

Are you just make it up? I spend about an hour plus on bullet point notes.

Yes. Getting everything correct. Because what I find is not so much with the Chinese

manufacturers because they keep things very simple, but more by the BMW than the week

and the complexity of what you can order and all the different options because I want to

make sure people know what they can get. It takes over an hour to make the notes, whereas

something like a Chang'an, which I've made a video on the day, there's no options. It's

just the color. So it's quite easy to do. So yeah, it depends. Yeah, the luxury cars are

really hard. I reviewed Taycan during the week, it was last week. I saw that.

And oh my God, all the options. I was on the configurator trying to work out what was

standard. Most of the stuff is not standard. The Porsche thing is unbelievable, isn't it? I

mean, I think the average spend on on extras is like 30 grand or something.

I mean, that's a different ballpark, you know, and you have to try and step into that world.

What about the little clock on the dash? It's like four grand to the chrono package.

And it was lovely. I thought surely that's included because it's so iconic. And no,

that's the sport chrono package. Yeah. And it's like,

madam would like the clock wrapped in leather, would she? Give us another thousand pounds,

please. And that's like, again, you're sort of like, well, that's someone's world.

One is no object. So it's not an issue. So you have to, one minute you're reviewing the

insta or the dolphins are, and then the next minute you're stepping into the shoes of somebody who's

got a lot of disposable income and can, that's their world. So they maybe disguise the limit

for them. So you don't want to be like, well, you might have to, you know, pay this amount

extra because they're like, oh, no, we just take those boxes, you know, it's no big deal.

So that's sort of, you are putting yourself, you're changing worlds all the time, aren't you?

Trying to think, well, what does that cost? What's that customer looking for? What's the luxury car

customer looking for? Because it might be an alien world for me, but I have to sort of

put myself in those shoes and try to look at their level. Yeah. But yeah, like, I actually found

this car is far too expensive, you know, go boy. You'd be mad. You could get a small flat for this

and rent it out. You could buy 10 of them in three years. Yeah. Yeah. And dacha dusters,

you know, or something like that. Yeah. Sure. Look, yeah, it's all fun and games, isn't it?

Yeah. Do you know about the whole information thing? I just shamelessly stand there and

read it off a bit of paper now because I just, I cannot retain information.

Can't do it. Someone commented on that. No, you need to work on that.

Because I know there's some real high profile YouTubers who use the notebook, isn't there?

Like that's a thing. Well, Johnny, Johnny, so Johnny with his notebook, and I thought he's

getting away with it. And I think twice I'd put out a video and I'd said the wrong number

or something. And obviously, you just get battered for it. And I thought, do you know what?

I'm not getting any younger. I can't retain information, especially when you've got new

information like every three days or something. Yeah. It's just too much for me.

You can't have beauty and brains. I will just stand there and just keep referring to a

bit of paper. And I just think I'd rather that and get it right. And then the bit when

I'm in the car is entirely off the cuff. And I try and make it like a conversation

and not like a presenter kind of thing. Yeah. But I don't know if that works or not,

but that's that's my style, I suppose, if you could call it that. I print out,

I print out the notes, hold a piece of paper. And if it's something I can remember the

charging information quite easily. So I'll look at it for like a good few, few seconds and then

put it on the floor and then and then do it. But I have to have the notes so that I can't

remember everything. But then you seem like Tish will look at the piece of paper for about four

seconds. And then she'll do about the 35 minutes, reciting kind of all these steps.

Yeah. Please tell me. She's amazing. And she's just gotten better and better at it.

A complete natural in front of the camera. So yeah, yeah, fair play. Yeah, she is.

Yeah, you can just wish that you have my hair.

Of having that skills.

You had your wig on yesterday. I did add my woolly wig on yesterday. Yeah. Yep. I love

this time of year because I get to wear wear a woolly wig in a video.

Yeah. Just a hat. Just a beanie hat. Yeah. Okay. Not a full on wig.

No. No. No. I used to wear one, but I found the chin strap sort of gave it away.

It's quite obvious. No. No. So yeah. When you're out yet to stay warm and a hat because you lose

most of the heat through your head. So it is important to wear a hat in these chilly days

and stay warm, which it can be really challenging on location all right. Sometimes I forget to put on

like two pairs of socks if I'm filming. Yeah, which is warm, but your feet are freezing.

Yeah. I've got these little solar panels and it's also called alopecia and you would not

believe the difference between having like the tiniest little bit of stubble on your head

and then a little ball bit. And you touch it and it's like you've just touched an ice cube in the

fridge. Like the difference it makes is unbelievable. And crazy. Hair cover is part of the heat insulation.

Yeah. I've no idea how such a tiny amount of nothing could actually keep you warmer than

without. But yeah, when I can stick a T-cozy over my head in the winter months, it's life's a lot

better. But yesterday was freezing at that MGM launch. Let me come up to you and offer you

their gloves. No, I asked her, an old lady if I could have her gloves. Oh, I see. Yeah. She's

about 80. And I said, well, if you're not using those gloves, all in jest, obviously.

But she probably took you seriously though. She probably thought you...

She did like a double take and yeah, it was fine. I had a laugh with her and her friends

and yeah, it was fine. She said they won't fit and I said they will. I've got ladies' hands.

It sounds like you have some amazing interactions in life with equal.

No. That you have a way of opening up conversations and...

I just... Do you know what? I just try and have a laugh with people when I can just because

we don't do that enough, I don't think. And because I work on my own so often when I get

around other people, I'm like a puppy or something. When you bump into someone in Tesco or...

Yeah. Hello. Talk to me. And what about at the EV chargers? Are you a chatty person?

Would you start talking to people recharging? Yeah, I am. But English people generally aren't.

That's true. Whereas in Ireland, we talk to the door handle.

So in my previous life, I used to go over to Belfast probably about 10 times a year

and I used to find it so difficult to get around because everyone

wants to talk to you. I mean, checking in to a hotel, that's 20 minutes to half an hour.

They're really friendly and kind of... Unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, I'd love that if

some random person starts talking to me. That's me set for the day. So...

Yeah. Yeah. Even Alex, I mean, I can even have a conversation with Alex sometimes for

in excess of three or four minutes without being bored. But...

Yeah. I mean, not that often, obviously, but...

No. No. By the way, Alex had a very yellow coat on yesterday, which...

Yeah. Yeah. It was nice and warm. And good to make a statement as well.

It was a statement piece. Yeah. You filmed a cheeky little Instagram reel of me,

which was very kind of you. You lurking in the bushes, extending your tripod.

I saw that image was on X. Instagram, yeah. On Instagram. In the middle of

of filming. And I know when I'm engrossed in filming, don't take photos of me,

because I probably look like a maniac. They're trying to wrestle with my tripod

and sound equipment as well. It can be a very physical day out, can't it?

Yeah. So me and Jim are in the same car park. There's quite a small car park. I could hear,

obviously, Jim talking to himself and the camera and stuff. I thought it was normal.

Then I was sourcing out the camera for the interior. So I could say, Jim,

talking a bit different to usual. I just looked over and he's just filming me. So...

I just did a little David Attenborough commentary. Yeah. Yeah.

Look at this man in the bush with his camera. It's very silent.

He's listening. He's waiting.

I love David Attenborough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is he coming on the show?

I doubt it. Yeah. I very much doubt it. He's not your niche, I suppose.

No, probably not. Probably not. I mean, we'd be happy to have him.

But I find it... I find that one very difficult around the hyper-intelligent people.

I know. Legends, you know.

Need a national treasure in the UK, but his influence is wider than that, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

You can call this episode a tribute to David Attenborough.

A tribute to David Attenborough. There you go.

And the little shot of Alex in the woods with the camera.

What do people might think? He's asked on or something and...

Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll tell you what, that would be a sad day.

Yeah. Let's not go there. No.

Right. I think that's about it, really. I think we've been going on for too long.

But yeah. It's been really, really good to have you on the show, Caroline.

I appreciate your time. It's been good to hear about all the bits and pieces

about the car market in Ireland, but also we could obviously discussing all the

in and outs of car reviewing and car filming at the same time.

And sorry about all the nonsense. Yeah.

Thanks, guys. It was lovely to join you. 99% of it. Yeah.

Where could people find you online if they'd like to find out more about you and what you do?

So my website is www.changinglanes.ie and you'll find the social links on that channel

for YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. TikTok as well. A little bit of trying.

There we go. And you also do videos for Carzone still. I do. I do videos for Carzone.ie.

There we go. I put some links in the show notes and in the description down below for that.

What about you, Jim? I produce much worse videos on my YouTube channel,

which is called Definitely Not a Guru. My website is not a guru.co.uk on Instagram X.

Also on TikTok for some reason, but I don't understand short form content.

And you never know. Maybe crime watch one day.

A nature watch. And you can find Alex in Greg's.

Yeah, you can find my car reviews at the Interface Cars.

This podcast is in audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and also in video on YouTube.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching as well. And we'll see you again next time. Bye-bye.

Honesty Pays?

Opel Astra

Audi S6

Toyota Prius

Polestar 4

Alpine A110

Peugeot 308

Kia EV2

Toyota Chr

C-HR Chr Plus

5 Renault 5

Alpine A290

Porsche Taycan

Dacia Duster

About this episode

Original notes