A six-speed manual transmission is a system in a car that lets you change gears manually using a stick. It has six different options for how fast you can go.
The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gasoline and electricity to run, making it very fuel-efficient. It's one of the first popular hybrid cars and is known for being environmentally friendly.
All-wheel drive means that all four wheels of the car can get power from the engine at the same time. This helps the car grip the road better, especially when it's slippery or snowy.
Fuel economy is how well a car uses fuel. It tells you how far you can drive with a certain amount of gas. A car with good fuel economy will save you money on gas.
A three-point seatbelt is the type of seatbelt you see in cars that goes across your chest and lap. It's designed to keep you safe in case of an accident by holding you in your seat.
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people like because it's dependable and saves on gas. It's popular around the world, and now they also have a version that uses less fuel and is better for the environment.
The Toyota Corolla Hybrid is a car that uses both gas and electricity to run, just like the Prius. It's usually cheaper than the Prius but still helps save on fuel costs.
The Toyota Sequoia is a big SUV made by Toyota, perfect for families or people who need a lot of space. It can also handle rough terrain and comes with options for better fuel efficiency.
The Toyota Tundra is a large truck made by Toyota. It's designed for heavy-duty tasks like towing and carrying heavy loads, and it can also come with a hybrid engine for better fuel efficiency.
The Jeep Wrangler is a tough-looking vehicle that's great for driving off the road, like in the mountains or on trails. People love it because it can handle rough conditions and is perfect for adventures.
Car
Cadillac Lyric Signature Sport
The Cadillac Lyric Signature Sport is a new electric SUV from Cadillac. It has different versions, including a sporty one, and is designed to compete with other electric vehicles.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a lot of power and cool features, making it fun to drive.
DC fast charging is a way to charge electric cars really quickly. Instead of taking hours, it can fill up the battery in a much shorter time, like a gas station for electric cars.
Supercruise is a feature in some Cadillac cars that lets you drive without using your hands on the wheel, but only on specific highways. It helps keep the car in the lane and can adjust speed based on traffic.
The Nissan Ariya is a new electric crossover SUV that has a stylish look and is designed to be comfortable and efficient. It can come with either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive options.
A frunk is a trunk located at the front of a car, often seen in electric vehicles. Since these cars don't have engines in the front, they use that space for extra storage, which can be handy for things like bags or groceries.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E is an electric SUV that carries the Mustang name. It offers a lot of space and modern technology, but some versions make it hard to access the front trunk, or 'frunk', which can be inconvenient.
The Monroney is a sticker on new cars that shows important details like the price and features. It's a helpful tool for buyers to understand what they're getting and to compare different cars.
Car
Volvo EX60
The Volvo EX60 is a new electric car from Volvo. It's designed to be efficient and modern, and it's part of Volvo's push into electric vehicles.
SPA3 architecture is a new design framework used by Volvo for their electric cars. It helps make the cars better in terms of performance and efficiency.
The Volvo S90 is a fancy car that focuses on keeping you safe and comfortable while you drive. It looks nice inside and out, and it's known for having a lot of safety features.
800 volt architecture means the electric car can charge faster and work more efficiently. It's a newer technology that helps electric cars get power more quickly.
A 400 kilowatt charger is a type of charging station for electric cars that can charge them very quickly. It helps drivers get back on the road faster.
Bi-directional charging means the car can both take power to charge its battery and give power back to something else, like your house. This can be useful in emergencies.
Retractable door handles are handles that hide away when not in use. They pop out when you need to open the door, making the car look smoother, but they can be harder to use in emergencies if there's no backup way to open the door.
Mechanical latches are the old-fashioned way to open a car door, using a simple handle or lever. They work even if the electronic parts fail, which is important for safety.
Cell to body architecture is a way of designing electric cars where the battery is built into the car's body instead of being in a separate case. This helps make the car lighter and cheaper to produce.
Large scale die casting is a method of making big metal parts for cars all at once, instead of putting many smaller pieces together. This helps make cars lighter and easier to build.
The Chevrolet Malibu is a medium-sized car that offers a smooth ride and plenty of room inside. It's a good choice for families or anyone who wants a comfortable car to drive.
The Lincoln Nautilus is a luxurious SUV that provides a lot of comfort and cool technology. It's designed to be a nice ride for people who want a bit more style and space.
The Subaru WRX is a fast car that's built to handle all kinds of weather and road conditions. It's popular with people who like to drive quickly and enjoy a sporty feel.
The Ford Model T is one of the first cars that many people could actually afford. It changed how cars were made and helped more people get around in the early 1900s.
LIVE
Sam Abuelsamid (00:01)
This is episode 437 of Wheel Bearings. I am Sam Abuelsamid from Telemetry, and I even remembered the number this time.
Nicole Wakelin (00:09)
I'm so proud of you. I was getting ready to look to see so I could be like number whatever.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:11)
Well, as it was counting down, I looked down at the tab
on the rundown and double checked and realized, yep, it is 437.
Nicole Wakelin (00:21)
Sam and I am Nicole Wakelin and we're gonna say with test miles comms I started working with test miles in the last couple of weeks you're doing a lot of stuff over there yeah I'm excited to be working with that crew that should be fun
is fabulous. I'm working pretty closely with Nick to do some cool stuff over on Test Miles. So yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:44)
Okay, and sadly, Robbie pinged us about 15 minutes ago. He is laid up with a migraine right now, so he's not gonna join us today.
Nicole Wakelin (00:55)
So it's in the Colin Sam show. Woohoo!
Nicole Wakelin (01:02)
I did a lot of stuff this week, most of which I don't think I can talk, can I talk about it yet? I don't think half the things I did I can talk about. I have, I was traveling to drive Honda stuff. I think all the embargoes are though this week, so I don't think.
know, videos have been posted of, you know, walk arounds and stuff like that. You know, so we know it's a new new Honda pilot is out there are actually refreshed Honda pilot mid cycle refresh and prelude.
Let me see. I'm just seeing what the official, yeah, drive impressions are still embargoed. I had to double check, which is weird. I know, because, right? And I actually drove the Prelude back in when we did the ⁓ NACTROID test drives. But Pilot is embargoed, and so is Prelude.
Sam Abuelsamid (01:36)
Which is odd because we got to drive it in Japan in October.
Nicole Wakelin (01:53)
I don't know. I don't know. It's very weird. So embargoed. So first drive impressions are embargoed. so I can't really talk about them. They did. I didn't drive them. I didn't have a chance to. But yeah, they did have all the old preludes there. And it was awesome to even see them because I learned how to drive a stick shift on a manual prelude.
Sam Abuelsamid (02:00)
Did you drive any of the old preludes that they had?
Nicole Wakelin (02:14)
back in the 90s and they had that generation there. And I was like, I almost got a little twitchy. I was like, oh, God, because it was so scary to learn how to do that. I was like, yeah, no, you know how to drive one now.
But the one I had that I drove was a friend's husband's car and it had the pop up headlights. And I kept I was so panicked with gear shift, turn signals, whatever. I kept hitting the pop up headlights.
So we're like driving and it's like blink, blink, blink, blink, blink. I'm going to get arrested. But yeah, so they did have the old generations there, which was really fun.
Nicole Wakelin (02:44)
was it was just neat to see and to see everyone sort of reminiscing about the prior versions of the prelude versus the new. Yeah, so and I love in terms of how it looks. I love how the new prelude looks. You've driven it to what did you think? I think the style is super cute and they gave us all blue ones, whatever the really bright blue is. So lined up outside was just like.
Nicole Wakelin (03:05)
10 of these brilliant blue preludes all staged in a little row. So it was really, it's really pretty. I like the bright blue cars. So it was, it was a good looking car.
Sam Abuelsamid (03:17)
Well, since I wasn't on this program and I didn't I wasn't under this embargo and I already published something back in November. ⁓ I will say that I very much enjoyed driving the prelude despite the fact that you can't get it with a manual transmission.
⁓ I thought I thought it was really, really good. And I do. I I love the way it looked ever since I saw it in twenty twenty three at the Japan Mobility Show, where they first showed it as a concept.
And then they brought it over to the L.A. show and they've showed it.
Sam Abuelsamid (03:45)
the various US shows since then. ⁓ yeah, think it's really good. The price, as is the case with most stuff today, is on the high side. ⁓ if you go back and look at the pricing from the 90s and early 2000s and look at the rate of inflation, it's actually priced about comparably to those. ⁓
Sam Abuelsamid (04:13)
You know some people complain that you know, it's a hybrid You know doesn't have the performance the prelude was never a high performance Sports car anyway, it was yeah
you. That was the thing. And again, not saying anything about what I thought about how this one drove, but in terms of like, guys, this isn't powerful. Neither was the old one. Like that wasn't, I think people have this nostalgia about what the old prelude was and it wasn't this like pocket rocket of a car.
So I think expecting, no. And they have the type R and they made a good point about saying during the presentation, if you want that go for a Civic type R. That's not what this is supposed to be. This is.
Nicole Wakelin (04:52)
It's like a grand tour kind of thing.
has the suspension and brakes from the Civic Type R and this is based on a Civic platform. It uses the same powertrain that's in the Civic hybrid right now. So just saying that if you wanted to go get a Prelude and get a Type R crate engine, which you can buy from Honda, you can buy the Type R engine and transmission as a crate engine. I'm just saying when it gets around to SEMA next November,
Sam Abuelsamid (05:24)
I would be shocked if there isn't at least one prelude with a type R engine and a flat and a six speed manual transmission.
be amazed if people don't start playing around with this. And it does have what this does debut is the first time that they have the, ⁓ my God, the shift plus button. I think it's shift plus is what it's called, which it makes, it makes it, the idea is that it will make it trying not to give drive impressions, feel like you have a car that shifting and has that same sensation. And it's the first time. So if you want that, you have to get this car. And I,
it's a very similar concept to the Hyundai IONIQ 5N and 6N. And it makes you giggle in those cars, and it does in this car too. Like I say, I'm not under embargo. I can say whatever I want. Don't, yeah.
I was like, I'm, I'm working very hard to say things and features and not say drive impressions, not say
what I think. No impressions about what I think that I could tell you next week. It's very weird. Cause like you said, we could talk about it now. I can't cause I was just on the drive.
Sam Abuelsamid (06:19)
Yeah, we'll get your impressions whether you love it or hate it next week.
for the record that blue is called Boost Blue Pearl. Yeah.
Nicole Wakelin (06:34)
my gosh, it's fantastic. It's exactly
the kind of color you want. You know what, like little fun cars look, they need skittlesy colors. And that's what this is. This is a really fun color. I like it. I think it looks great. ⁓ And I like the style on this and that hatchback has so much room back there. It's kind of crazy how much room it is. You don't you got to open it up to see it. Yeah. You have a huge amount of cargo room. So, yes.
Sam Abuelsamid (06:50)
Yeah. Yeah. Really just you should just fold down the back seats, leave them down, never touch them again. And you've got a huge amount of cargo space back there. You can you you
you and your best mate, partner, spouse, whatever, you know, you can you can load up your stuff and go for a weekend getaway and you know, have a blast.
Yeah, so I drove that and I also drove the Honda Pilot, which again is also under Margo. That was just a refresh. So not a significantly change, but I will talk about both of those ⁓ next week. Not now because I can't. ⁓ Yeah, so can't say anything. I can talk about the Toyota Prius that I drove this week. ⁓
Sam Abuelsamid (07:27)
Okay. So what can you talk about?
hey, the current generation Prius, I don't mind talking about it.
and you know, it's funny. So ⁓ I drove this back and forth to Boston, drove it down to Burlington. So I a good amount of drive time in this thing. And ⁓ it was funny as we were putting cars in the garage as we're getting two feet of snow where I am in New England. It literally has just started two feet, which is insane.
Sometimes like when it's a little bit of snow, we'll leave the cars in the driveway or whatever. No, we rearrange both my car and Russ and the press car. The press car is in the garage. Russ's car is in the garage. And this morning when we went out, he said, well, you're gonna take my car. We can't take the Prius. I said, actually.
Matter of fact, the Prius has all wheel drive. So we could take the Prius. It's not going to be like we're going to have two feet of snow like that. It can handle it. So it does have all wheel drive. And I did drive it in some of the snow that we had this week.
And it was great, which is it's kind of funny. You don't think about a vehicle like the Prius as being something you'd want to have in the winter. And no, it's not what you want to drive through actually two feet of snow.
But if you have to go out afterwards or what it first start.
Nicole Wakelin (08:42)
It doesn't have the ground clearance. But
in terms of just being able to manage snowy weather, yeah, it can do that. And I did drive through some snowy weather and it was totally fine, which is pretty impressive because there's a time you wouldn't have thought that at all about this vehicle. But the thing that it's, you know, it's it's hallmark is you get great fuel economy. The official EPA figures, 49 city, 50 highway, 49 combined. I've been doing a mix of highway and city, and I think I've been averaging about 47.
Not too bad. It's also really cold and you know, driving through some snow that affects your fuel economy, blah, blah, blah. But it's been doing great. I've enjoyed driving it. I can't believe I'm saying that.
I enjoy driving it. I once upon a time really didn't like the Prius. I remember driving one many years ago, many, many, years ago, and I thought it always sounded like the engine was just going to explode and go like shooting through the hood.
It did not sound good. It sounded really bad. Sam, you remember the old Prius. It sounded terrible.
Nicole Wakelin (09:42)
It didn't feel especially responsive. And it kind of made me, I'll be honest, it kind of made me a pre-iss hater. At that time, like, I hate this thing. And my brain is still stuck on that. And I'm driving this and I'm like.
actually, I don't hate this. I even like this. And it's such a shift because in my mind, I still see a Prius in my driveway. My brain wants to remember that old Prius. It's not that car anymore. It really is nice.
So I thought about how, you know, people talk about Hyundai and Kia and how, they aren't good cars. And we're always trying to disabuse them of that notion because they are good cars. Now, I have to disabuse myself of the notion that the Prius is still like an awful car to drive.
I enjoyed driving this. I really did enjoy driving it. It was
responsive, it's comfortable, it's, you the interior quality is, I had the limited trim, interior features and the quality is nice, you don't feel like you're in a cheap car, and it's not especially cheap. this was, let me see here, $39,000, trying to this, it's really faded, $39,075. Sam, you're gonna win, but we wanna take a guess on the destination.
Nicole Wakelin (10:58)
You're off by hundred 1195. So. What? OK, wait, I'm like, wait, I think I did it right, but he's the engineer and I should just trust him, but not this time. So so you're looking at about $40,000 for this car, so it's not the world's cheapest car. But, you know, given the prices on cars. Limit, yeah, it's the limited is higher on life. In fact, the limited might be the highest terminal lineup. I'm not sure, but it's let's see.
Sam Abuelsamid (11:01)
Oh, 1000. No 100. Yes, nevermind. Can't do math this morning.
Nicole Wakelin (11:29)
Limited yeah the base le if you go down the list it the le starts at 28,000 So, you you can you can get this for significantly less you're just using some of the the features and things that you get like, you know You don't have the fancy alloy wheels and you know, there's heated and ventilated seats in this one You know, so you get the upscale stuff that you kind of lose
But it's, you you're not, and even this, you even have that, like, you can do the, Toyota thing. So you can say, Hey Toyota, where is the nearest whatever. And I do have to say that the, of the voice recognition systems, I happen to find the Toyota ones to be one of the best ones in terms of it hears you and it hears you right on the first try.
You're not repeating yourself as it randomly. Just like, I'm going to send you the gas station. Great. I asked for the hospital. Like it, tends to hear you right. The first try and send you where you want to go, which I appreciate.
So I enjoy driving it. Horsepower, let's see if I can get some facts and figures here. So it has a two liter four cylinder engine. I don't have the horsepower right in front of me. I did, and I just accidentally closed my page. Let me open it back up. Yeah, so it's not especially powerful. But again, it's enough.
Sam Abuelsamid (12:34)
like 190 something I think isn't it
Nicole Wakelin (12:41)
When you think about the fuel economy that you're getting in this and you think about how it drives, it drives really nicely. ⁓ You're not going to feel like you're sacrificing.
If you want a sports car, not your thing. But you're also not going to get this kind of fuel economy in a sports car, you know? So I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Prius, things that like Nicole of eight years ago is like, can't believe you're saying this, but I really did.
I enjoy driving this and I think the Prius is a great car. Where its challenge is a little bit the price, although you can
for this generation of Prius, when Toyota launched this one a couple of years ago, they kind of changed their product strategy a little bit, because they went from, ⁓ prior Priuses were always kind of boring to look at, to say the least. And they also had the Corolla Hybrid with the same powertrain in it ⁓ that was available. And so you had these two
Sam Abuelsamid (13:40)
vehicles in the lineup that are kind of competing with each other. So what they did was they made it more stylish. They gave the Prius a little more power. They went from a 1.8 to a two liter engine and it got a little more expensive because the prior generation Prius, you could get it starting at about $22,000, $23,000. And so they bumped the price up, made it a little more stylish. But if you want essentially close to the same powertrain,
Sam Abuelsamid (14:10)
but at a lower price point, you've got the Corolla Hybrid. And that starts at under $25,000.
a change in the mix, which they needed to do. Because once upon a time, when people first thought hybrids, once upon a time, was like you thought Prius. That was the hybrid. That was the only thing out there. And that's what everybody thought of. Well, now there's a million hybrids out there. Like just being a hybrid is not enough to make the car special.
you know, in 2026, every single vehicle in the Toyota lineup in the United States is available with a hybrid as either optional or standard equipment, every model from, from the Corolla all the way up to the, um, the Tundra and Sequoia.
So there had to be a way to, you you had to do something to make the Prius relevant still in a lineup. know, it doesn't driving a Prius isn't like, I have the best fuel economy in the planet anymore. Everybody else gets hurt.
No, there's a lot of things that can can do this. So I think it was a good move for them. I think it was a nice shift and it makes the Prius relevant. And I really, truly enjoy driving it. I'm not taking it out when the snow really starts going today because I think we already have an inch on the ground since we've been talking.
Sam Abuelsamid (15:18)
Well, you guys have the Wrangler,
the Wrangler to get us through that. Yeah, that's what's gonna get us through if we need to go out. Hopefully we don't. If we planned correctly, we will not need to go out until after this pass, because it's gonna be a lot of snow really fast.
Sam Abuelsamid (15:30)
So ⁓ one of the complaints with earlier Priuses was with performance in snow, especially with the traction control, because they often, the way the system worked, it basically, when you got in some snow, it would just basically cut all the power and you couldn't go anywhere with the traction control. And so how did this one work for you in the snow?
probably had, when I was out there driving, it was maybe two inches of snow that was on the roads. Snowy, a little bit slushy. Some spots it was a little bit more like two inches of squished up snow. It was fine.
Like that's the thing, like as I was driving, I never felt the wheels, they weren't spinning. I didn't feel like I was losing traction and doing that like, you're not really fishtailing, but when you're not going straight anymore, you're going like a drunken kind of line forward, like you're wiggling back and forth because you're not quite getting traction.
have that wiggly kind of thing like, going going left, right, left, right. No, it doesn't do that. It was really good. So I think for your average day to day driving in the snow, it's it was fine. I had absolutely no complaints about it. And like you said, it doesn't have the ground clearance to handle the kind of snow that we're about to get. But very few things do any car, any sedan. Right, sedans.
Sam Abuelsamid (16:42)
But that's true of any car or for that matter for most crossovers. Most crossovers
this kind of stuff, you literally have to have an SUV because it's just going to be too deep, especially when you get to the snowbank. So, but in terms of cars, sedans, I'd have no problem driving this in the snow. I think it's going to handle it as well as any of them. Yeah, yeah. So was pleased with this. So thumbs up. Good job Toyota.
Well, I had the Cadillac Lyric Sport all-wheel drive. Actually, let me double check. It is the Lyric Signature Sport, which is, you know, Cadillac, you know, they have this kind of Y strategy for all their models. You know, they have the base model and then they have Sport and the luxury trims that kind of branch off.
Sam Abuelsamid (17:38)
you know, and then a couple of variations within each of those. So this is the top of the sport branch. So this one was finished in vibrant white tricot, ⁓ which, you know, after five minutes of driving on the salted roads just kind of looked grungy, not particularly vibrant, but you know, hey, it's January in Michigan, what are you gonna do? Well, it still looked, you know, whitish, you know, but.
Sam Abuelsamid (18:05)
You know, kind of grungy white. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Nicole Wakelin (18:06)
Everything's filthy this time of year. Yeah, it gets dirty in two seconds, so.
Sam Abuelsamid (18:10)
Yeah. And, you know, had the noir interior with Santorini blue accents, which which looked really, really nice. ⁓ So, you know, I like the lyric. You know, I was fortunate enough to drive drive it for the first time back in twenty twenty two when they did the original launch program. You know, driving it then it was the driving experience was really good.
the software at that time was not it was it was pretty fundamentally broken. ⁓ But, you know, they spent a lot of time working on that. I had no issues with software on this one. ⁓ This one was the all wheel drive. So it's a dual motor. And over time, ⁓ Cadillac ⁓ has gradually bumped up the power output on these things. So, you know, when when it launched.
Sam Abuelsamid (19:04)
It launched originally just as a rear wheel drive, single motor, and at the time had 325 horsepower. That one now has 365 horsepower. And the all wheel drive, the dual motor all wheel drive has gone from 500 to 515 horsepower. And then of course there's also the Lyric V, which has I think 615 horsepower. you know, even with 515,
Sam Abuelsamid (19:33)
You know, this is a quick enough car for anybody. And interestingly, the range, so the range has also gone up, even though power's gotten better. When it started off, that original rear wheel drive one was 300 miles of rated range. It's now 326. And then for the all wheel drive,
They've got two different range numbers. With the base configuration, you get an 11 and a half kilowatt onboard AC charger. So for charging at home, you can charge at 11 and a half kilowatts, which is pretty quick. And for home use is actually probably, you know, it's more than sufficient. Even if you have a completely dead battery, you'll be able to charge it overnight, you know, in about probably about eight hours on 11 and a half kilowatts. And it's 102 kilowatt hour battery.
⁓ usable range. ⁓ That, when you get that one, you get 319 miles of range with ⁓ the dual motor all-wheel drive. Interestingly, there's also an optional 19.2 kilowatt ⁓ onboard charger. ⁓ And of course, to make the most use of that, you've got to have a 19 kilowatt charger at home, which means that's 80 amps. So you got to have that on a 100 amp circuit, which most people are
probably not going to have an available 100 amp circuit to use to get that full 19 kilowatts. But if you get that one, the range actually drops from 319 to 303 miles. And I think that the reason for that probably has to do with, you know, the 300, the 11, the 11 and a half kilowatt, kilowatt charger. That version is probably right on the edge. The way they do the, the testing for
Sam Abuelsamid (21:31)
EPA for fuel economy and range and everything. ⁓ They have ⁓ test weight classes. It's usually like 100 mile or 100 pound or 100 to somewhere between 100 and 150 pound intervals. ⁓ And they use that for setting up the dyno for doing the testing. And so the base version is probably right at the edge of its test weight class. And that 19 kilowatt charger is probably going be a little bit heavier. And I think that when they
They, when you order that, also bundle it with some other options. So it probably bumps it up into the next test weight class, which is why, even though it's got the same battery, the same motors and everything, the range actually drops down by 16 miles. It's 300, still 303 miles. It's gonna be fine, you know, for, you know, for any, almost everybody's use. ⁓ It will charge on DC fast charging at up to about 190 kilowatts. ⁓
You know, I have a 9 kilowatt charger at home, you know, it easily, you know charged overnight You know, I I didn't ever drained it down completely the The official let's see. Let me go back to them and roni here the official Rate it. Yeah, the rated range for the one I had is 303 miles which with With 102 kilowatt hour battery is about three miles per kilowatt hour
roughly, ⁓ or just under three miles per kilowatt hour. During the time I had the Lyric, this Lyric, the temperatures were in the low teens to single digits. Most of the time there was frequently snow on the road. So I was using the heat. You know, when you're driving in snow, you're to get a lot more rolling resistance. And so with the heat on and everything, it averaged about 2.1.
between 2.1 and 2.2 miles per kilowatt hour, which means about 210 to 220 miles of range in these conditions, which is kind of worst case conditions for driving an EV. So, like I said, even with 200 miles in these worst case conditions, you're still, almost everybody's gonna be able to handle whatever their daily driving needs are. These conditions also meant that
Sam Abuelsamid (24:00)
from time to time, you know, things like sensors got obscured. And so there were a couple of times when, you know, driving through a snowstorm, the supercruise said, sorry, can't do anything right now. Your sensors a little bit too covered up with snow and ice, you know, and there's only, you know, only so much you can do with that. But other times, you know, supercruise work great as it as it always does, you know, keeps the car centered in the lane.
Sam Abuelsamid (24:30)
The Lyric is very roomy. It's a two-row, five-passenger. ⁓ It's quite roomy. The seats on the non-V versions of the Lyric, like a lot of GM's other cars, are a little flatter than I would like. I generally like to have a little bit more lateral support in the seats, but GM seats tend to be a little broader. And I'm not skinny by any stretch.
Sam Abuelsamid (25:00)
⁓ But you know when even I am sliding around in the seat a little bit that you know, that's that's a sign that it's maybe maybe a little bit too flat ⁓ but other than that You know, it's ⁓ You know, I really like driving this car. ⁓ It's still even though this is a 2026 and Because it came out because the lyric was launched before GM made their decision to drop
Smartphone projection from their EVs. It still has that it had that it still has that they have not removed it from the Lyric So the lyric is the only current GM EV that you can use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with You know for navigation. ⁓ I use the built-in Google Maps ⁓ but ⁓ for you know from for whatever reason on GM's vehicles with their ⁓
with their Google built-in system. We use YouTube music. We don't use Spotify in this household because we've got a subscription for YouTube premium that comes with it. You know, because we don't want to watch ads on YouTube because they're terrible. But so we use YouTube music. And for some reason, the YouTube music app, when I download that on a GM vehicle, Google built in, doesn't work.
Sam Abuelsamid (26:25)
I don't know why I've let GM know about this. It's been like this for quite a while. It works on other vehicles that have the same system. Does not work on the GM vehicles. So, you know, if anybody from GM's listening, let me know, reach out, you know, talk to your contacts at Google, figure this out. You know, it should, it should. You would think YouTube, which is owned by Google, would work on a Google built in system. Does not. ⁓ Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (26:55)
Yeah. But other than that, you know, everything else, you know, we've driven the Lyric multiple times over the last four years. ⁓ And I still, I still really like this vehicle. You know, it would, it would have been nice, you know, if GM had provided some front space in this thing, because the way the car shaped, you know, it's, it's got, you know, kind of a traditional profile, fairly long hood. ⁓ And when you, when you lift the hood,
and you take off the cover over the front motor, even with the front motor there, you know, on the all wheel drive versions and especially on the rear drive versions where there is no front motor. There's a lot of empty space there. They could have put a front there. They opted not to. Not sure why.
Nicole Wakelin (27:34)
Mm-hmm. I wish they would do
the front. Some of them, there's a couple of different OEMs who don't do frunks or vehicles. And I'm like, why you've got a spot there, put it there.
Sam Abuelsamid (27:44)
Well, on some, you know, like say, you know, on the Nissan's, the Aria and the Leaf, you know, those are configured ⁓ primarily, you know, by default as front wheel drive vehicles. They always have a front motor and they've got all the electronics and everything stacked up there. So they don't actually have a lot of available space to do that. You know, and then the optional is to put there to add the rear motor on the GM on the on the
Sam Abuelsamid (28:14)
the Lyric and the Blazer and the Equinox EV and you know, on those, those are default rear drive. ⁓ And even on the all wheel drive versions with a front motor, the electronics are still mostly at the back end of the car. So it, it's, it, they're excuses for not doing a frunk. You know, don't, don't make a lot of sense. You know, I, know I've heard from a lot of engineers and product planners that
You know, they've found that most people don't actually use the frunk. ⁓ And I think in most of the cases where people don't use the frunk, it's because they've configured it in such a way, like, for example, on the Mustang Mach-E, ⁓ where you can't, they don't put a button on the key fob to open the frunk from outside the car.
So it's not very convenient because you actually have to reach inside the car just like you would to open the hood ⁓ on an internal combustion vehicle to get to the frunk.
And if you've got stuff, you know, if you've got groceries or something and you want to drop them in the frunk, it's inconvenient to do that. ⁓ But, you know, on other cars that have, you know, that have a button on the key fob, then it's so much easier to just do that. You know, just use that space.
Sam Abuelsamid (29:35)
So anyway, ⁓ the ⁓ Lyric, this one was pretty well loaded up for the sport trim, it's the signature sport. So it has the optional 22 inch wheels, it's got ⁓ all season tires, ⁓ Super Cruise with three years subscription included, the high end AKG 23 speaker audio system, which sounds good. ⁓ All the stuff.
⁓ nice leather interior grand total six, ⁓ wait.
$78,200. Not inexpensive. ⁓ Yeah, because some of the options, the base price on the Signature Sport, 68.3, ⁓ so almost 10 grand in options and stuff. ⁓ This had the trailering package. Not sure how many people are going to tow a trailer with a Lyric. ⁓ It also had the...
Sam Abuelsamid (30:39)
dual panel sunroof, is $1,600. It's $1,480 for that 19.2 kilowatt AC charger. The paint, the vibrant white clear coat, which was kind of grungy white coat, was $1,225. $600 for the black roof option that was on this one. And then you want to guess at the destination charge.
Sam Abuelsamid (31:10)
you are spot on. Well, actually you are spot on with what's on the the Monroney. Because when I was checking on the Cadillac website the other day, there is a slight difference between what was on the Monroney and if you went and bought one today, what you would get charged. ⁓ And let me double check that. Let's see.
It's funny how often they change how often it's like what we have on the Moroni is different. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (31:38)
Well, especially in this past year, we've talked about it, you know, multiple
Sam Abuelsamid (31:46)
1795 it's gone up $300. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (31:57)
So, if you're gonna buy a car, buy it now before the destination charge goes up again. Yeah, who knows? So yeah, $78,200 in total. The trailering package was 3,500 bucks. So mean, there's stuff on this that you could probably get away with. Do you need to spend 1,500 bucks on the 19 kilowatt charger? No. Do you need to spend 3,500 bucks on towing? No.
Sam Abuelsamid (32:26)
You know, so that's that's five grand right there that you could drop off the price of this thing. So so that's the the twenty twenty six Cadillac Lyric Signature Sport. All right. ⁓ So. As far as competitors to the Lyric, there's a new one coming. ⁓ It's the the new Volvo X60. ⁓ That has we've.
Sam Abuelsamid (32:53)
talked about it, Volvo has been teasing this out for a few weeks now, ⁓ and they finally dropped all the information on the new EX60 this week. Excuse me. Yeah, I'll make it. So, let me find it here. Okay, so the EX60 is built on a new, what they're calling SPA3.
Sam Abuelsamid (33:21)
architecture. the EX90, so the original, ⁓ the current generation ⁓ XC90, XC60, the S60, V60, V90, or S90, all those are built on the, what they call the scalable product architecture, SPA, the original one that came out a decade ago. ⁓ The EX90, which is all electric and the Polestar 3 are built on SPA2.
which was Volvo's first EV only architecture. And that one had a 400 volt electrical system, 110 ish, 111 kilowatt hour battery. And it's nice, it's very good vehicles. But the EX90, they've stepped it up and they've gone to a new SPA3 architecture.
which now has an 800 volt architecture. And they've worked on everything on this thing. So they're claiming that with the charging on a 400 kilowatt charger, it will now add 340 kilometers or a little over 200 miles of range in 10 minutes from a 400 kilowatt charger. Yeah.
If those numbers hold once it gets, you know, we have our hands on it sometime, see it, that would be really good.
you know those specs are, ⁓ those are the global specs. ⁓ Those are not the US specs. ⁓
change a little bit. It's just the nature of how vehicles are made and the testing and requirements. So could be a little bit off. It's not only significantly different, but it'll be different.
Nicole Wakelin (35:21)
It gives this says what I'm looking at is up to depending on which one you get 810 kilometers of range, which is about 500 miles. Right. So that's your, that's the best, like that's the best numbers that you will get, but you can also get, ⁓
Nicole Wakelin (35:39)
There's an all-wheel drive version that has 660 kilometers and then a different version of the rear wheel at 620 kilometers. So you can get a range, but you can get it up to 810. That's pretty cool. Like, feel like crossing roughly 500 miles of range, that does better than...
gas cars do depending on the car, you know? And that can get you, and how fast it charges. See, that's the thing that would make it easier for everyone. It needs to have enough range, you don't have to worry about charging it all the time, and it needs to charge real quickly. So if you have to top it off somewhere in the middle of a route, you're not stuck waiting forever in a day. That 10 minutes, that amount of charge range, that's not insignificant, that's a big deal.
Yeah, no, it's a very big deal. So you've got the P6 electric, which is the base version, that's rear wheel drive, single motor. Then there's the P10 all wheel drive. So the P6, you get 374 horsepower, or 369 horsepower, sorry. The P10, you get 503 horsepower. So you're talking similar levels of performance to the...
to the Lyric and then the P12, 671 horsepower with that one. And zero to 60 in about 3.9 seconds with that P12, but even the P6 rear drive, you're looking at 5.9 seconds, ⁓ zero to 60, ⁓ is, that's more than adequate. ⁓ Yeah. And then ⁓ the battery and the
Sam Abuelsamid (37:24)
The P6, you get 83 kilowatt hours, 95 in the P10, 117 in the P12, and some, let me say, some serious charging capabilities from these things. It's also got bi-directional charging, so you can do vehicle to home or power export from any of your devices.
And then, you know, overall, I think it looks really good, but I do have a couple of issues with it.
Nicole Wakelin (38:00)
Yes, what are your couple of issues?
Sam Abuelsamid (38:02)
⁓ Guess what the first one is.
Nicole Wakelin (38:05)
I don't know what's the first one, share with us, do tell Sam.
Sam Abuelsamid (38:07)
There's nowhere to grab the vents and adjust them.
Nicole Wakelin (38:12)
No! No! Shake's fist at sky. I hate this idea. Why do they insist on doing this? I don't get it. I don't get it. Don't get it. Nobody likes this. Like nobody. Nobody likes it when they do that. Not a single human likes it when they do that. And you have to be like, oh, we're going...
Nicole Wakelin (38:38)
See, that literally is one of the stupid things that's a deal breaker for me buying a car. I literally would like it used to be Mazda's little rotary dial thing was enough to make me reconsider a Mazda and the lack of touchscreen and a Mazda. Now my new battle cry is going to be that's that you can't actually just reach out and grab and change.
Sam Abuelsamid (38:58)
Yeah, Volvo is a brand that built its reputation on safety. These are the people that invented the three-point seatbelt. And when they invented that back in the 1950s, they made it public domain. said, anybody can use this idea. We're not gonna control a patent. We're not gonna force anybody to pay any license fees. Anybody can do it.
Sam Abuelsamid (39:25)
⁓ And you know, it still took several decades before most other automakers adopted them, but they do it and on the EX60 they have these multi-adaptive seat belts that ⁓ adapt for each passenger, each passenger position to provide optimal protection. ⁓ And you know, this thing, you know, their structures are really good, but then they do things like, you know, the touchscreen controls for the vents.
Sam Abuelsamid (39:54)
which means that you're looking away from the road. You gotta screw around with the touchscreen to figure out where you want the air to blow. And ⁓ then there's the door handles or the absence of door handles on this car.
like so on the outside, it's just like a little, I don't know, tab like it looks like a tab that makes me think of a file tab, like an old school file, you know, stick in a filing habit and that tab. It's like a sensor based door handle. So it's like a like a wing kind of, and it's at top of the doors and you use that to open the doors and it's more aerodynamic, but so are handles that pop into the door. I don't know that I like those any better, but. ⁓
Sam Abuelsamid (40:15)
It's like, yeah, yeah, that's a tip. Yeah.
Nicole Wakelin (40:39)
It's kind of, they're kind of weird. Like, I don't know, do we need those? Could we not just do a handle handle?
Sam Abuelsamid (40:47)
⁓ I mean, designers don't like handles. ⁓
not. Handles add bumpy bits to the car and make the smooth.
Nicole Wakelin (40:55)
beautiful lines that they work very hard to create, not smooth and not beautiful. But I think we're used to them being in a car at this point. It's not that we look at it and go, oh my gosh, the car has this like bulgy thing.
What does that know it's a handle? Like we need to get in somehow. I mean, it does look kind of cool, but you just wonder about the. always wonder about the everyday versatility of like you got to grab that and you got to, know, then it realizes you're there and it opens up and and they can to retractable handles.
China, you can't do the retractable door handles. So they gotta...
a bill in the Congress, which who knows if it'll ever get passed, but the Safe Exit Act ⁓ would limit electronic-only door handles. ⁓ You'd have to have mechanical latches available as well, easily accessible mechanical latches.
And it's funny, know, even like I look in cars that have the electronic release.
And sometimes you can see where the manual release is. Like you take a second and you sort of lean back. look, there it is when you're inside the car. And some of them, you don't see them right away. And I think, and even some of them, I know where they are.
You look and you're like, OK, if I was in a panic because I was in a car accident, I desperately needed to get out of the car and I'm just pawing at the door. Would I remember that what I need to do is reach down there and because it's always out of the way slightly.
Handles much like vents, handles work. Wheels work. I haven't reinvented that yet. Please don't anybody do anything with those wheels work.
they have sort of tried to reinvent the wheel by making them bigger and bigger and bigger and having less and less rubber, ⁓ which is kind of ridiculous. It's still round. It's still circular.
Nicole Wakelin (42:38)
Yes, yes that's true but at least it's still a wheel like if suddenly they come out and somehow
it's some random weird triangle shape thing I quit. ⁓
So the ⁓ the EX 60 initially is going to be produced ⁓ in Sweden ⁓ and it's ⁓ it's using what they're calling cell to body ⁓ architecture for the battery. So there's no separate battery enclosure. You know, what you have is the the floor of the car in this case.
will have an indentation, you when they make the body, they weld the body together, it's gonna be an indentation in the floor and they will take the block of cells that they have glued together, put that in there and then just put a cooling plate and a bottom plate on there. And so you don't have ⁓ a whole separate battery case that comes out. So that again, it's gonna reduce cost, reduce weight. You know, it's got next generation electric motors. ⁓
And they're also using large scale die casting ⁓ to help reduce weight and complexity of the body structure. that's a concept that obviously Tesla pioneered. ⁓ And I think it's a good concept. ⁓ Now that they've figured out how to actually repair those things in the event of a crash or damage, ⁓ it's ⁓ a concept that can help.
reduce manufacturing complexity. And so Volvo's adopting all of that stuff on the EX60. They have previously said that they were gonna build the EX60 in Charleston as well, although in the announcements that came out this week, there was no mention of building it in Charleston. So my guess is that right now, given what's happened with EV sales kind of flattening out, they're probably gonna just build them in
Sam Abuelsamid (44:46)
in Gothenburg ⁓ and export them from there ⁓ until they see volumes start to go up and then maybe add production in Charleston.
Nicole Wakelin (44:58)
It'll be interesting to see.
Sam Abuelsamid (45:00)
Or perhaps Geely will decide to build something else in Charleston ⁓ because Volvo is owned by Geely Group in China and ⁓ Geely's got a bunch of other brands too. So maybe we could get some Zeekers or something built in Charleston.
could that China market's gonna change at some point soon. It's not gonna stay the way it is forever, definitely not.
Sam Abuelsamid (45:26)
⁓ Okay, anything else about the the EX-60 that you want to comment on?
Sam Abuelsamid (45:35)
Okay. All right. one other thing about the design, the interior design. ⁓ It does have, they changed the infotainment layout because Volvo's, you for the last decade, you know, their infotainment was always a portrait style screen. And this one goes to a landscape style design.
Sam Abuelsamid (46:02)
All right. Let's see. What do we have next? ⁓ Tesla. ⁓ Remember their robo taxis ⁓ running around Austin? You they had about 20 of them ⁓ and, you know, they had no safety driver in there. But what they did have was a safety observer in the front passenger seat with their finger hovering over the stop switch on the screen, just in case anything goes wrong.
Nicole Wakelin (46:31)
I mean, letter of the law, he's there, you know, was he correct? Yes. Yeah.
apparently some of the, ⁓ the, the robo taxis, which are just, you know, they're, they're standard Tesla model wise that are driving around Austin. have now taken the safety monitor out of the car so people can drive around without anybody else in the car. Sort of, because what they're doing instead is they have the safety monitor sitting in another Tesla right behind following everywhere they go.
Nicole Wakelin (47:09)
It's kind of funny. It's kind I mean,
I guess it's, good. mean, I guess it's good that they're like, okay, we've launched it, but we're going to have spotters just in case. guess that way, if there is a problem, right? Here's the good thing.
You'd have someone right there. Right. Because you think about the number of times that companies like who was it that just had all their, was it Waymo? They had all their vehicles kind of got stuck in one section.
Like they all sort of were like, ⁓ didn't know what to do. It would have been nice to have a human somewhere going, okay, back up, like, know, take to fix it.
Sam Abuelsamid (47:17)
Yeah, I mean, I'd rather have somebody watching and ready to take over.
a system like that. They have a remote assistance system. The problem was that situation with Waymo during this power outage in San Francisco, it also knocked out communications. like the cell towers were out. And so there was no way for the remote assist people to actually communicate with the vehicles and tell them what to do. Yeah, there's...
my gosh, that's funny. There's still flaws in the ointment with this whole thing. It's not gonna, it's not, it's
Sam Abuelsamid (48:05)
There's still some sand in the gears.
So, ⁓ yeah, so if you happen to be in Austin and ride around in a Tesla Robo taxi ⁓ that doesn't have a safety monitor inside, take a look out the back window and see if there's another Tesla following close behind you. Yeah, well, there's videos showing these being followed by somebody else.
Nicole Wakelin (48:23)
I'd be curious if anybody does that or if they see one or if you're, you know.
I just find that kind of funny. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but I find it kind of funny.
it's and in fact, it's not the first time that this has been done. know, Neuro, who started off, know, their their their company was started by some former Waymo engineers and they're working with with Lucid now. But when when Neuro started, they were developing a delivery vehicle, an autonomous delivery vehicle, and it was purpose built. So it had nowhere for anyone to sit in it. You know, they had three iterations of it, the R1, the R2 and the R3. And
Sam Abuelsamid (49:06)
they were doing deliveries in partnership with some grocery stores. And because they had to have a safety monitor or safety driver or equivalent, and there was nowhere for someone to sit in this vehicle because it's not designed to carry passengers. It's only designed to carry small amounts of cargo. ⁓ They did the same thing. had people, they had engineers following behind in another car, in fact in a Toyota Prius, following
Sam Abuelsamid (49:35)
the delivery vehicles and watching, looking at the signals from the cameras and looking around. And if there was any issue, they could intervene from the following vehicle. ⁓ So that's what they did. ⁓ what Tesla's doing now is basically the same idea.
Sam Abuelsamid (49:59)
Also, Tesla made some changes in their option lineup and their feature lineup this week on their vehicles. So they announced last week that they were no longer going to sell full self-driving or FSD as a one-time purchase option. ever since they launched FSD, I think in about 2016 or 17,
Sam Abuelsamid (50:28)
and launched that as a separate option on top of enhanced autopilot. The ⁓ price varied wildly over time. It started off at about $5,000, eventually reached as high as $15,000, and most recently was selling for $8,000. So that was $8,000 for the lifetime of the vehicle, for full self-driving. ⁓ They no longer are selling that as a standalone
Sam Abuelsamid (50:58)
One-time purchase option now you can only get it as a subscription Which you know they started offering FSD as a subscription several years back and That was I Think when they launched that as a subscription was $199 a month It's now $99 a month. I think Yes, $99 a month to subscribe to FSD
Sam Abuelsamid (51:29)
And there's a couple of advantages to that for Tesla, at least. They get recurring revenue that they can book on their earnings reports. And also when they were selling it as a one-time purchase, because it wasn't delivering all of the things that were promised, they could book it as money coming in.
but they couldn't book it as revenue. It had to be booked the way accounting works, had to be booked as deferred revenue. And so they could only account for that in their profit and loss ⁓ as they released features to customers. So, you know, that $8,000 went into their bank account, but it didn't count on their bottom line for revenue and profits. ⁓ Now as a subscription feature, ⁓ it
Sam Abuelsamid (52:26)
the accounting rules are different and so they can book that as profit right from day one. Tesla's had a long history of somewhat dubious accounting practices. ⁓
was thinking about that, I just crunched it. So at $99 a month, it would take you just not quite seven years to get to the point where you had spent the same as if it was that $8,000 that it's been its lowest price as of late. So it's not that crazy actually, like you're like $99 a month, but it's not really that crazy when you think about it that way.
Sam Abuelsamid (52:58)
Yeah. No, I mean, it's not a.
Yeah, if it actually delivered on everything that it promises, it would not be an insane amount of money to spend. And the thing is, in a lot of situations, maybe you don't need that capability for your daily driving. Maybe you only want it ⁓ in the summertime when you're taking road trips with your family. For a long trip, you want to use that. ⁓
And then so you saw you can sign up and then you can drop it, you know, kind of like with your streaming services and other subscription services. ⁓ The other thing that Tesla did this week is ⁓ again, ever since 2016 when they launched autopilot version two ⁓ after after they got ditched by mobile eye, ⁓ they have had all of the.
the cameras and everything for autopilot installed on 100 % of their vehicles. And basic autopilot was included in the base price of the car. So what that meant was you got ⁓ adaptive cruise control and lane centering, which Tesla called auto steer capability, ⁓ as standard on all their cars. And then if you wanted other features like automatic lane changing and there's summon and assorted other
⁓ capabilities that they had. Those you'd pay extra, you would have to step up to either the enhanced autopilot feature or to FSD to get that. And the mix of which of those packages, those features were included in has changed over time. ⁓ But as of this past week, ⁓ AutoSteer is no longer available on base Teslas. ⁓ Autopilot is no longer included.
What you get when you buy a Tesla now is adaptive cruise control. That's it. ⁓ All the other features and capabilities that were once part of autopilot are now included in FSD. So if you want auto steer, you have to step up to that $99 a month. So if you want something that's roughly equivalent to super cruise for driving on the highway, 99 bucks a month ⁓ right from the day you buy the car.
So they're probably gonna see more adoption of that than they were getting for FSD when it was $199.
think so. And it's going to encourage people to do it, which is not a bad thing also because it gets people as people use it. That looks good for their bottom line, the numbers, yada yada. But it also gives them data about to improve it faster. You if they have more data about what's happening, it's given a little more information. If like, you know, 80 % of their customer base is using it instead of 50 % or whatever the numbers are. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (55:54)
except 100 % of the customer base had it before.
Nicole Wakelin (55:57)
Yeah, but I know, this will get them to have the other, right, but this will get, but I'm saying in terms of Tesla, they get more than they got, they have to pay for it, but they're getting more than just those features, they're getting the full self-driving features too. And Tesla gets more data, because more people are using full self-driving, theoretically. Mm-hmm, we'll see.
Sam Abuelsamid (55:58)
but they weren't paying monthly for it.
But basically, you know, it means that you're going to, if you want the features that you would get on a Tesla two weeks ago, now it's going to cost you more and, you are going to pay in perpetuity for the same features that you got for, for the base price two weeks ago.
Nicole Wakelin (56:26)
Yes, it is going to cost you more for sure.
Sam Abuelsamid (56:37)
⁓ And also those are features like lane centering that are increasingly common as standard equipment on everything out there now.
true, but you get more, mean, you get more than just the features that they gave you for free before. It's like we gave you this little piece for free. Now we're making you pay for that piece, but you get extra stuff. So it's not just like you get those same features. You get a little bit more than if the free stuff was.
Sam Abuelsamid (57:03)
All right, let's move on. ⁓ So ⁓ the Trump administration's trade policies have had a variety of effects over the past year. We've seen a bunch of announcements from multiple automakers about shifting production, you where are going to build various vehicles. And among those was GM who last fall ⁓ or maybe summer announced that they were going to ⁓
shift the production of a bunch of vehicles, move the final assembly of a bunch of models into plants in the US, ⁓ including the Fairfax, Kansas assembly plant, which ⁓ had previously been building the Chevy Malibu, is now starting to build the new bolt, the updated bolt. are, they last fall announced that they were going to move production of the gas-engined ⁓ Chevy Equinox from Mexico.
to Fairfax. ⁓ And this past week, they also acknowledged that for the next generation Buick Envision, which is Buick's midsize crossover, ⁓ they're also going to move that to Fairfax. So it's probably going to be built on the same platform as the Equinox. That vehicle, the Envision, it's now in its second or third generation, second generation, I think. Yeah. So the first two generations have all been built in China. ⁓
Nicole Wakelin (58:27)
gosh, I think second, I'll look it up.
Sam Abuelsamid (58:33)
It has previously been exclusively imported from China. That will no longer be the case starting ⁓ in 2028. ⁓ When the next generation in vision comes out, it's going to be built in Fairfax instead of in China.
Nicole Wakelin (58:48)
And it is second generation right now, you're right, it is this moment. Yeah, so it'll be coming to the US.
yeah, so I'm going to be interesting to see if, if ⁓ Ford makes a change with the Lincoln Nautilus, because the Nautilus currently is only produced in China and imported from China into the US. And I don't know if they're going to, we'll see if they, if they bring that production back to North America.
Nicole Wakelin (59:17)
They might, if they have a way to do it and they have, know, they can make it work with the rest of their lineup, why not at this point, you know, bring it back, bring it into the US market again.
Sam Abuelsamid (59:29)
Another one of the policy changes from the administration has been effectively saying, yeah, we're not going to enforce any emissions or fuel economy standards anymore. We're not going to fine anybody for violating those standards. So just build whatever you want. And the most recent thing is that they announced they are no longer going to go after
people that delete diesel emissions systems from trucks and SUVs, ⁓ that previously, under the prior administration, if you did that, you could be charged with criminal offense. That will no longer be the case going forward. They will no longer charge anybody for rolling coal ⁓ or removing diesel emissions devices from vehicles.
Nicole Wakelin (1:00:28)
I can't say I'm especially surprised. People were going to do it whether it was legal or not. People do it all the time. mean, the number of times you see trucks like that. Mm-hmm. There have.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:37)
Yeah, but there have been a number of fairly high profile cases in the last few years where, know,
where shops that do this for a living have been charged, you know, faced criminal charges and ⁓ gotten huge fines and even jail time for removing those devices. And that will no longer be the case.
I mean more rolling coal, guess. don't know if that, I wonder how much is actually going to change stuff. The possibility of people being prosecuted. Sure. You might find more like shops willing to do it. Obviously if there's, can remove it it's not prosecuted. I wonder if it's actually going to feel like the guys who wanted to do that were already doing that. You know, it's not going to change how many vehicles do it by that much. bet.
Probably not, but I mean, there will probably be some additional ones, but not a lot.
number because the people who wanted to do that probably like, heck with it. I'm doing it whether they want me to or not, you know.
So earlier we talked about the Prius and the, you know, the Prius has an interesting transmission design. They call it an ECVT. Toyota was the first to do it. Ford does it. Other manufacturers have done similar design. And, one of the things you mentioned was, you know, Toyota's hybrids, you know, when you're accelerating hard, you know, they tend to rev up
to about 4,000 RPM or so to their peak power RPM. And then the engine just sits there droning until the vehicle speed catches up. And on the new Prius, it's not quite as noticeable as it has been in the past, because I think they put some extra sound deadening in there. ⁓ But it still works basically the same way. ⁓ And so Jason Fenske at ⁓ Engineering Explained.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:02:29)
put together a really published a really good video this week where he actually explains how these things work. And I've talked about it a little bit in the past, you know, basically, you know, these ECVT systems, they have a planetary gear set, which is the same kind of thing that you find in almost all conventional automatic transmissions.
We've had them for close to a hundred years in automatic transmissions. So, you know, planetary gear set consists of three main components. You have a ring gear,
Sam Abuelsamid (1:02:58)
just the external part, which has teeth around the inside of the ring. In the middle, there's what they call a sun gear, which has looks like a conventional gear. has teeth around the outside. And then in the in between, there's a planet carrier with some smaller gears that connect the ring gear and the sun gear together. When you were a kid, did you ever play with Spirograph?
Nicole Wakelin (1:03:21)
Yes, my gosh, that was such a fun game or fun toy.
know, it's a similar concept to that. know, Spider Graph is basically the same idea of gears of different sizes, some internal gears, some external gears. You stick a pen in the little round disk and you go around and the pen moves as the thing rotates. Well, a planetary gear set works that way. But in order for a planetary gear to actually transmit power from one side to the other,
one of those three elements has to be held steady. So you either have to hold the ring gear, the sun gear, or the planet carrier. And then the other two elements move. And depending on which ones you hold, and they call it grounding, depending on which ones you ground, you're gonna get different gear ratios. But there's only three possible gear ratios from any one planetary gear set, generally. Because whichever part you ground is going to stay steady.
ECVTs are a little different because what they actually have is a variable ground. Instead of having a clutch that holds one of those three elements to the transmission case, and that's what you find in automatic transmissions, they use an electric motor to vary how much that element that you're grounding can actually move. So can either be held rock solid or it can be allowed to move some amount and that changes the gear ratio. And so Jason has
got this really cool model that he borrowed from someplace that does training for technicians on how these things work. And he walks through and he shows you all this stuff. It's a really cool video. I mean, it's always worth watching Jason's videos. He does great videos explaining all this stuff. I he's an engineer by training, ⁓ but he's really good at explaining all of these things and what they do.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:05:16)
⁓ So definitely highly recommend the Engineering Explained channel on YouTube and especially this ECVT video that he just published.
Nicole Wakelin (1:05:23)
Yeah, very cool. He does a good job explaining in such a way that you don't have to be an engineer to understand them, which is what makes it interesting.
And very visual. ⁓ All right. Next up ⁓ in Mexico. Well, I last week we talked about ⁓ the trade deal that Canada signed with China ⁓ to allow some number of Chinese low cost Chinese EVs into Canada and how that is very likely to be the first step in a process that leads to
Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:01)
Chinese brand vehicles being assembled in Canada. But Automotive News had a story this week on some of the progress that Chinese automakers are having in Mexico, because they've been in Mexico for quite a few years now. in Mexico, Chinese EVs now count, or Chinese brand vehicles now count for 20 % of sales.
in Mexico, which is huge. Mexico has traditionally been a market that bought a lot of GM, Ford, and Stellantis, slash FCA, slash Chrysler brand vehicles. ⁓ That is changing rapidly. ⁓ Plug-in vehicles accounted for 9 % of new vehicle sales in Mexico last year, almost all of which are Chinese.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:59)
A vast majority of which are Chinese. BYD was 70 % of those. Chinese brand vehicles overall are about 20 % of the Chinese market last year, up from low single digits in 2020.
Nicole Wakelin (1:07:15)
Yeah, it's, know, we don't have them in the US, but they are knocking right there at our door, really, truly. And it's not going to be long before all it takes for them to be here is one change in the administration. And we could have EVs, Chinese vehicles in the country. Really, that's all it takes at this point. So it'll be interesting to see what happens because it's not just like they'll have to come to North America.
they'll already be here. They just won't be in the US. So it'll just be like over the border. It's not like they have to find ways and distribution and how we get them there and where do we make them? Nope, we're going to make them right here. We're good. We're already inundating both sides of us. So ⁓ yeah, when that gate is finally lifted, we're going to have a ton of Chinese vehicles.
Yeah, and with trade policies, with the administration saying, don't care about USMCA anymore, we don't need a trade deal with Canada, we don't need products from Canada or from Mexico anymore. ⁓ The governments in Canada and Mexico, they're going to want stuff made in those countries. ⁓ And they will inevitably do deals with Chinese companies to set up factories. ⁓ Just as we saw here,
in the 1980s, when it was pushed back against Japan, we saw all the Japanese automakers set up plants here and build vehicles here. If the administration is forcing Ford, GM, and Stellantis to pull production out of Canada and Mexico and put it in the US, those facilities are going to be available. And it's only a matter time before somebody steps up and starts building something there.
And ⁓ then, I mentioned, ⁓ Geli, which owns Volvo and Polestar, ⁓ they have a factory in South Carolina. And I would not be surprised if they start building some other vehicles there at some point, some non-Volvo, non-Polestar branded vehicles there. ⁓ And then ⁓ there's also the former GM plant in Lordstown, that was once...
Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:27)
going to be home to Lordstown Motors. It's now currently owned by Foxconn, a Taiwanese company, but they do a lot of business in China. ⁓ They're looking for customers to build vehicles for in Ohio. I think it's only a matter of time before we see those vehicles built and sold here as well.
yeah, it's gonna happen very, when it does finally happen, it's gonna happen very quickly.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:55)
Yeah, and that's going to be a problem for the US automakers because ⁓ they're going to have to have products that compete. ⁓ can't rest on their laurels of selling big trucks and SUVs forever.
Nicole Wakelin (1:10:11)
Yeah, at some point they've got to change. And it's always interesting
to me. think they had a chance. You know, I all these things take a very long time to happen. It's not an industry that you can move things super quickly. ⁓ But you would think they would be taking this opportunity to really try to do that. You don't really see it.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:29)
Yeah, think one of the few potentials that seems to be trying to compete with that is what Ford is doing with their Universal EV platform. ⁓ And ⁓ there's going to be more news coming out on that in the coming weeks. ⁓ we'll ⁓ see if they can actually execute on their plans. Ford has said a lot of the right things. The question is, can they actually pull it off?
that's the bigger question. Are they going to get it to happen? Yep, exactly.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:59)
That's where Ford has sometimes struggled. Yeah.
All right. Speaking of affordable vehicles, ⁓ Subaru has is also making some adjustments in the lineup for the WRX for 2026. ⁓ They have, you previously, for the last couple of years, at least ⁓ the the lowest cost version of the WRX was the ⁓ the WRX premium. And I think that's actually the case for most of their models. The premium has been the
Sam Abuelsamid (1:11:34)
the base model, which always seemed a little odd.
Nicole Wakelin (1:11:35)
Right, right, which is so confusing.
You're like premium? Wait, no, that's not the best? No, it's not. ⁓
Well, now there is just a for 2026 model year. There is just a base WRX available again. And ⁓ it has a starting price of thirty two thousand four hundred ninety five bucks, not including destination charge, which is ⁓ not bad for that vehicle. I you know, it's not it's not entirely clear what content they've removed and they have undoubtedly removed some content. But it seems like most of the most important stuff
Sam Abuelsamid (1:12:11)
is still there. You still get the same 271 horsepower four cylinder boxer. ⁓ Still get standard all wheel drive. You still have, yeah.
Nicole Wakelin (1:12:20)
still looks like a WRX. has that very distinctive
Sam Abuelsamid (1:12:25)
Yeah, you still get the same infotainment system with CarPlay and Android Auto. And iSight, their iSight driver assist system is still there. So this looks like a pretty reasonable deal, especially for something that is standard all-wheel drive. That's $1,500 less than the WRX Premium. And that's with a six-speed manual transmission.
Nicole Wakelin (1:12:55)
I think it's a good deal. think people are going to be excited about it. It's such a fun car. It's always been a fun car. I like it.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:01)
Yeah, I when I had that WRX TS a month or two ago, that thing was a blast. I really had fun with that.
You can really enjoy it. And it's not so harsh that you can only enjoy it for five minutes. You know?
Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:17)
⁓ There's also a Sunrise Yellow exterior available.
is that like a blinding yellow? Probably. Like I imagine that's going to be like you need to put on your sunglasses before you walk out to your car, even if it's the middle of the night.
but I want more bold colors. you know, if you buy a new WRX, definitely consider getting the Sunrise Yellow.
Nicole Wakelin (1:13:37)
Yeah, get a bright color people. Don't get black. Don't get white. ⁓ don't get gray.
All right, ⁓ Rivian. ⁓ They have promised that the R2, their new midsize model, ⁓ is going to be out by the middle of this year. ⁓ And last week they got their first, what they're referring to as manufacturing validation build vehicles. ⁓ So this is what's typically known as ⁓ pilot production vehicle.
not even pilot production, but pre-production. Pilot production vehicles are usually built in a separate facility, a separate line, you know, to work out some of the manufacturing processes. These are vehicles actually built on the actual assembly line in Illinois, where they did a big expansion last year to accommodate the R2. ⁓ And they are currently driving these across the country, driving across, you know, taking a road trip.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:14:38)
across Route 66 with the first couple of these MVB R2s that they've talked about.
Nicole Wakelin (1:14:44)
Which is super fun because it's the 100th anniversary of Route 66. So I think that's kind cool that they chose to do that. That's neat.
Yeah, so, you know, really looking forward to finally driving this thing later this year. I think this is going to be interesting. ⁓
a big deal for them because they have an SUV but it's large and if you don't want that large vehicle, this is the sweet spot. This R2, this is going to be... They've got to nail this, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, obviously a lot of people are excited about the R3, which is even smaller. ⁓ And actually, I think if I was going to buy one, it would actually probably be the R3 rather than the R2. I think the R2 is, yeah. I mean, I don't have a need for that much size. We're empty nesters.
I just get to say R2 like a Star Wars nerd. I'm taking R2. Right?
Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:38)
Okay, that is true, you know and
you know as I'm looking at you on the screen here You know, you've got a Star Wars blanket draped across the back of your chair. So
Nicole Wakelin (1:15:44)
I do because it's cold and that's my Star Wars
blanket on the back of my chair that I take out when I'm working and I'm freezing cold.
Nicole Wakelin (1:15:55)
So I would pick the R2 just for the name. And I have to get some kind of Star Warsy license vanity plate to go with it.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:16:09)
Yeah, it's in the touchscreen.
forever ⁓ because there was a new patent issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to Rivian. And I'm not really sure why they granted this patent because I I found the actual patent and read through it and there's nothing about this that is particularly innovative. ⁓ But essentially the core of the patent is that
Sam Abuelsamid (1:16:42)
It has ⁓ a ⁓ tailgate with ⁓ separate glass. So the glass can open up separately. The rear glass can open up separately from the rest of the tailgate. ⁓ Yeah. Although, you know, it's been done once or twice or a million times before.
is that? What is different about the way they did it? I don't know. Yeah. Like, OK, you patented a thing that everyone knows how to do already.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:17:01)
Nothing that I could find in the patent.
but, know, and again, the, the other thing that's in the patent, that not particularly innovative, but is interesting from the perspective of the, of Rivian, because Rivian, know, on all their vehicles to date, including what they've shown us with the R two and the, upcoming R three, you know, they basically issue all the physical controls and do everything through the touchscreen. Yeah. The only, the only real physical controls being on the steering wheel. You've got the.
the little switches and roller, the rockers and rollers on the steering wheel spokes. There is one of figure 13 in the patent. If you, you you can go through and find the patent. Yeah. Just describes having switches and knobs and buttons as a potential mechanism for controlling that tailgate. You know, so the, patent is about the tailgate with the separate glass, but
Nicole Wakelin (1:17:50)
13, yeah, I see figure 13.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:09)
You know, they say it can be controlled through a touch screen.
Nicole Wakelin (1:18:09)
Not for nothing, does that, does that
sketch actually have three pedals like it's a manual transmission? I just, I just caught that. There's three.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:17)
It does. It does have three, but it's kind of odd because
usually, yeah, well, maybe they're going back to the Model T thing, because the Model T had a weird pedal arrangement. So looking at this sketch, it's got a small vertical ⁓ pedal for where you would expect the accelerator to be. And then there's a small sort of squarish pedal.
Nicole Wakelin (1:18:23)
What is going on with those pedals?
Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:46)
in the middle, which looks like what a clutch pedal typically looks like. And then you have a long vertical pedal on the left, which looks like what a traditional accelerator pedal would look like. And you don't have anything that looks like the long, know, the wide ⁓ brake pedal that you typically have.
and I know that's not even what they're patting, but I'm just looking at the sketch and I'm like, what, what's happening over there? What is going on?
key in the patent and reading the text of the patent, they talk about several mechanisms to control the power tailgate and the separate glass enclosure for the separate glass for the tailgate. So it could be done through touch screen, but they also describe you could also do it through physical controls. since Rivian traditionally doesn't talk about that, I didn't have time to go back and find any previous patents ⁓ for any of this stuff to see if they've talked about it in the past.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:19:40)
You know, it could be, this could amount to nothing. Rivian may not actually do this. Um, you know, and it could be just a matter of trying to get, you know, protection to prevent anybody else from having a button to open your tailgate. Um, because that's never been done before. But, uh, you know, just the fact that they're mentioning it, you know, maybe a sign that they're at least considering it. So hopefully.
Okay, I'm gonna just hold out hope that maybe this will happen. Maybe.
maybe. And then finally, ⁓ how much would you pay for ⁓ a 1991 Toyota pickup? back in 1991, Toyota was not yet calling their pickup truck the Tacoma. The Tacoma name didn't come until later in the 90s. ⁓ So this is a 1991, it was still just called the Toyota pickup.
How much would you pay for a 35-year-old Toyota pickup?
Nicole Wakelin (1:20:43)
Not a lot. I don't know. It wouldn't be a lot.
this one ⁓ looks to be in really nice shape. ⁓ It only has just shy of 70,000 miles on it. Yeah. And for a 35 year old Toyota pickup and keep in mind that if you, know, if you can find a 35 year old Toyota pickup or, you know, a Nissan or Datsun pickup from that era, you know, there's a strong probability that much of the steel
Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:15)
has turned into iron oxide. ⁓ And this one does not appear to have any notable amount of iron oxide. ⁓ But Vanguard Motors, which is here in Michigan, where are they? They're somewhere here in Southeast Michigan because the 248 area code. ⁓ They are in Plymouth. So these guys are like about 15 miles away from me. So maybe I should go over and take a look at this thing.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:46)
Yeah. But they've they've got a Twitter pickup under 70,000 miles on it. ⁓ They're asking. Sixty nine thousand nine hundred dollars for.
Nicole Wakelin (1:21:58)
No, what is it? What about this? I'm trying to figure out what what makes this so special? What am I missing? Is there a thing in here? Is there like a gold plated? No, it just looks it's beautiful. I mean, it looks absolutely in great condition. But why? Why? I mean, it's got really pretty. The paint looks beautiful. The interior looks beautiful.
Nicole Wakelin (1:22:25)
The seat, like everything looks really good. I don't understand. I don't get it.
standard cab four-wheel drive Looks to be a little bit lifted Like I said, you know, it's probably the only Toyota pickup of that era ⁓ That you know has no no apparent rust on it According to this article from the drive. They looked up and bring a trailer ⁓ only two other examples of ⁓ similarly aged Toyota pickups sold recently
Sam Abuelsamid (1:23:00)
um, uh, have gotten above $50,000 at auction, which even $50,000 for a pickup this old, that's a lot of money.
Nicole Wakelin (1:23:12)
That is a lot. I mean, it's gorgeous. I just clicked on the link to see the full listing. I don't see anything amazing about this. see other than like it's it looks cool. It doesn't look 70 grand cool, but it does look cool. I'm perplexed by the reasoning behind this. Let's see if they sell it for $70,000. That's that's the real question. Yeah, go go oglet.
Yeah, think I'll have to take a drive over there and take and and just
ask why? Why why are you asking $70,000 for this truck? Yeah, I mean it's not like they've done anything with the engine. You know, it's just a stock 2.2 liter four cylinder. It's five speed manual ⁓ Yeah, it's ⁓ it's kind of nuts
Nicole Wakelin (1:23:44)
Like what warrants that? Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:23:59)
Yeah, it does. Let's see. It does have a front skid plate ⁓ and exhaust system with a new tailpipe. ⁓ See, yeah, yeah, it's in good shape, but wow, that's that's a lot. All right.
I don't know. I will have to see. You've got to go take a look and see if it looks as cool or see if you can figure out why. Like guys, why are you selling this for 70k? Maybe the secret will be out. We're selling it for 70k because and then it'll all make sense. Maybe probably not, but we could always try and see what you can figure out.
yeah, just trying. mean, you know, other trucks are so expensive these days. Yeah, I mean, a Tacoma TRD Pro, a brand new Tacoma TRD Pro is going to cost you about this much money anyway. It's about 67, $68,000. Yeah. Or a trail hunter. ⁓ And, you know, this looks nice, but I don't know that I'd spend this kind of money on it. Yeah, it's probably only about 140 horsepower.
Nicole Wakelin (1:25:03)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm with you.
Nicole Wakelin (1:25:08)
Yeah, definitely wouldn't spend this much money.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:10)
Yeah. All right. Well, on that note, let's let's call it a show. Yeah, hopefully he feels better. Hopefully his migraine subsides and feels better.
Nicole Wakelin (1:25:14)
Let's call it a show and hopefully next week we'll have Robbie back. He'll be feeling better.
get buried in snow, like I can actually get out and I can communicate. I'm not just covered in snow and lost forever after a snowstorm here.
Russ doesn't mess up his back trying to shovel you guys out.
Nicole Wakelin (1:25:38)
⁓ he has a snow blower. What are you think we're amateurs? We've had a snow blower. The first thing we bought when we moved into this house. ⁓ All right, everyone. Have a great week, guys. Bye.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:43)
Yeah, I know. All right, bye.
About this episode
Exploring the latest automotive news, this episode dives into discussions about the refreshed Honda Pilot and Prelude, with insights from Nicole's recent drives. The hosts reminisce about the old Prelude while sharing their thoughts on the new model's design and features. They also review the Toyota Prius, highlighting its improved performance in winter conditions and overall driving experience. The Cadillac Lyric's advancements and Rivian's upcoming R2 model are also discussed, alongside a surprising $70,000 price tag for a vintage Toyota pickup, sparking debates on classic car valuations.
Unfortunately, Robbie had a migraine this morning so it's just Nicole and Sam. Nicole has been driving the latest Toyota Prius with AWD in New Hampshire snow and Sam had the Cadillac Lyriq Signature Sport AWD in Michigan winter weather.
Volvo finally dropped all the details on its new EX60 midsize electric crossover including the missing door handles and touchscreen vents. Tesla has moved the safety monitors from some of its "robotaxis" to a following vehicle. Tesla also killed off Autopilot and moved lane centering to its subscription only full self-driving. GM is moving production of the next-gen Buick Envision to Kansas and the current administration in Washington will no longer seek criminal penalties against businesses that remove diesel emissions devices. Chinese automakers now have 1/5 of the Mexican market and may soon do the same to Canada. Subaru is launching a lower priced base model of the WRX that keeps the 271-hp turbo boxer. Rivian is driving its manufacturing validation R2s across Route 66 and might, maybe, hopefully put some switches and knobs in future models. Finally, a dealer in Michigan is asking nearly $70K for a 35 year old Toyota pickup.
