The Barrett-Jackson auction is a famous event where people buy and sell special cars, often classic or collectible ones. It's a big deal in the car community.
The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is a special, high-performance version of the Corvette sports car. Only 250 of these cars are being made, which makes them very rare and valuable.
Rick Hendrick is a famous car dealer and collector who buys a lot of valuable cars, especially Corvettes. He often supports charities by buying cars at auctions.
IndyCar is a type of car racing that features fast cars with open wheels. It's famous for events like the Indianapolis 500, where drivers compete on different types of tracks, including oval and road courses.
A street race is a car race that takes place on regular streets instead of a racetrack. It usually involves closing off parts of the city for the event, allowing people to watch the cars up close.
The Freedom 250 is a race in the IndyCar series that will happen in Washington DC. It's special because it takes place on city streets, making it accessible for fans to watch.
The American Le Mans Series was a type of car racing that took place over long distances, often featuring different kinds of cars racing together. It was popular in North America and showcased high-performance vehicles.
NASCAR is a type of car racing that involves specially designed cars racing on circular tracks. It's very popular in the U.S. and has many fans who enjoy watching the races.
Yellow flags are warnings used in car racing to tell drivers to slow down because there is something dangerous on the track. They can't pass other cars when the yellow flag is out.
Short track experience means a driver's practice and skill at racing on smaller tracks. These tracks are usually shorter than a mile and have different challenges than bigger tracks.
Speed Weeks is a special time at Daytona where lots of racing events happen before the big race, the Daytona 500. Fans get to see cars practice and qualify, making it a fun experience.
The Ford Thunderbird is an old-school car that many people loved for its cool looks and smooth driving. It first came out in the 1950s and has a lot of history behind it, making it special for collectors and car fans. People talk about it because it represents a fun time in American car design.
The Chrysler Daytona is a sporty car that looks cool and is fun to drive fast. It has a history in racing, which makes it special for car fans. People talk about it because it combines style with performance, making it exciting to see on the road.
ARCA is a type of car racing in the U.S. where drivers compete in stock cars. It's often seen as a place for new drivers to gain experience before moving up to bigger races.
The Lucid Air is a fancy electric car that is designed to be very high-end and luxurious. It can go a long way on a single charge and has a lot of advanced technology inside. People are excited about it because it's a new player in the electric car world and offers something different.
The Indy 500 is a famous car race that takes place every year in Indianapolis. It's known for being one of the biggest and most important races in the world, where cars go really fast around a big track.
Formula One is a type of car racing that features very fast cars on special tracks. It's known for being very competitive and using the latest technology in car design.
Drive to Survive is a show on Netflix that gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Formula 1 racing. It shows how teams and drivers prepare for races and the challenges they face.
Haas F1 is a racing team from America that competes in Formula One. They started racing in 2016 and work closely with another team, Ferrari, to improve their cars.
McLaren is a British company that makes fast sports cars and has a successful racing team in Formula One. They are known for their advanced technology and racing achievements.
An electric pickup is a type of truck that runs on electricity instead of gas. They are quieter and better for the environment compared to traditional trucks.
Giga casting is a way to make big parts of a car all at once instead of putting together lots of smaller pieces. This can make building cars cheaper and easier.
The Ford Maverick is a small truck that is designed to be affordable and useful. It's a good option for people who need a truck but don't want to spend a lot of money.
The Tesla Model S is a fancy electric car that can go really far on a single charge. It's known for being fast and having cool tech features, which makes it popular among car enthusiasts. People talk about it because it changed how we think about electric cars.
The Tesla Model X is an electric SUV that has cool doors that open up like wings. It's a roomy car that can fit a lot of people and has lots of high-tech features. People are interested in it because it's different and shows how electric cars can be stylish and practical.
The Tesla Model Y is a smaller SUV that runs on electricity instead of gas. It's popular because it has a lot of space and cool features, making it a great choice for families. People are excited about new versions that can drive better in different weather conditions.
The Nissan Leaf is an electric car that was one of the first widely available options for people looking to drive electric. It's known for being affordable and good for everyday use.
Miles per charge tells you how far an electric car can go before it needs to be recharged. It's important to know this so you can plan your trips without running out of battery.
The Chevrolet Equinox is a medium-sized SUV that many people use for everyday driving and family trips. It's known for being comfortable and having enough room for passengers and luggage. People talk about it because it's a good option if you're looking for a reliable and affordable SUV.
The Chevy Equinox EV is an electric SUV made by Chevrolet. It offers more space and comfort compared to smaller electric cars, making it a good choice for families.
The Nissan Sentra is a small car that's easy to drive and great for getting around town. It's been updated to look nicer and have better features, making it a good choice if you want something affordable. People talk about it because it's a practical option for everyday use.
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's dependable and doesn't use much gas. It's one of the most popular cars in the world, and people like it because it's usually affordable and lasts a long time. It's a great choice if you want a simple and reliable vehicle.
The Nissan Altima is a medium-sized car that many people use for daily driving. It's known for being comfortable and saving on gas, making it a good choice for families. People talk about it because it's a reliable option that offers a lot for the price.
The Subaru Outback is a car that looks like a mix between a wagon and an SUV, and it's great for people who like to go on adventures. It has special features that help it drive well on rough roads, making it a favorite for outdoor activities. People often talk about it because it's safe and can handle different weather conditions.
LIVE
Hello and welcome to the gas. We have a bad news, good news edition today. I'm Gary Gastlow.
This is the Gary and Alex show. And with me, of course, my cohost Alex Nunez Alex. I have
some unfortunate news to share with our listeners today. And is it that I'm fired? Well, that
would be fortunate news for some of them, I'm sure. But no, I have to issue the guest's
first correction. I'm somewhat mortified about this. A couple of weeks ago, you might remember
we were talking about the America 250 celebration. The USA is 250th anniversary. And in an effort
to sound fancy, I referred to it as the sesquicentennial because that's fancy Latin language sounds
pretty cool, right? Well, the other day I was in a car, I forget which one, and happened to notice
the license plate, which was from California, said sesquicentennial. I'm like, oh, that's
interesting. And then right next to it, it said 150th anniversary, which actually was in 2000,
but I guess they still have these plates. And I quickly realized that the correct term I should
have used was semi-quincentennial, sesquicentennial, one and a half centennials, semi-quincentennial,
half of 500 years. So really, I feel bad. I let you down because you're involved in this.
I disappointed our listeners. And the worst part about it, Alex, for me, I had a year of Latin
in college. And the one time I ever had to use it in my professional life, I blew it.
Gary, I'm just going to say it. All you ever had to say was America 250 and you'd have been good
to go. So it's true. It's water under the bridge. We're trying to sound smart. I'm not smart. I try
to pretend I am. I like to think I am. But I am not smart. Nevertheless, there's a lot going on with
the America 250. We didn't talk about it last week, but I forgot to mention, you know, Chevrolet's got
the new Stars and Steel collection. That's part of the celebration. A couple of different models
with some stickers and decals and such. They put one up for auction at the Barrett Jackson auction
in Scottsdale. It was a Corvette ZR1. Special edition. They're only going to build 250 of them.
This particular one had a couple of extra little touches on it. Cherry auction sold for $2.6 million.
I'll give you one guess who bought it. That would be Rick Hendrick.
Rick Hendrick, who buys pretty much every charity Chevrolet that goes up for auction,
has several million dollar Corvettes. Rick Hendrick's car collection is incredible,
and he does like having these Vin ones, especially. And especially when it comes to these Corvettes.
He's cool because while they do eventually end up in the private collection,
he often does put them on the floor of one of his showrooms in Charlotte. I know he actually got
the first ZR1 when that was built, and that was actually there, so people can come in and check
it out. I've not had the pleasure of seeing his private collection. I know people who have,
and my understanding is that it is a pretty awesome thing to see in person. Little surprised
they don't have it all as a museum, but I know that actually had some problems. I know Jay Leno's
got his great collection. He's just like, man, if I open this up at his museum, now I'm dealing with
all sorts of regulations and all that. I don't want to deal with any of that. So maybe Rick Hendrick
is thinking the same way, although video I've seen from inside of it looks like he's got a nice
set up there. Also on the subject we last week got confirmation that IndyCar is going to be
holding the Freedom 250 in Washington DC the weekend of August 21st, 23rd. This is going to be
street race held right in the middle of DC, right around the National Mall. The proposed layout's
going to run from Capitol Hill down to Lincoln Memorial and back. That's going to be four,
five miles, depending on how they finally set it up. Obviously President Trump pushing for this.
He's friends with Roger Penske made it happen. Look, I'm sure a lot of people are out there.
I know a lot of people are out there who don't like the optics of it. They think this is a
Britain circus thing and they're not fans of Trump. So now they're already saying bad things
about IndyCar for being involved in this. I don't think there's too many of those people though
in the big picture. I think this is going to be one of the biggest racing events in American history.
I'm with you. Also free IndyCar street race in DC. I mean, it's going to pull a ton of people.
These street races are fun. As long as you can still sort of get around easily. It can be
it can be dicey depending on the street circuit. But although with this, they're working with such
an enormous amount of space with that National Mall. I have a feeling it's going to be pretty
easy to get around. You might actually see the race itself so well. Street races you just never
do. It's about the scene. The cars go zipping by. But that's not what it's about. It's about the
scene. The street races. Listen, you find one spot where you can see the cars go by and hopefully
that where you can see one of the big monitors that's actually carrying the TV feed that allows
you to actually watch the race. I mean, the dirty secret for most races in person is you still see
it best on any of the 8 billion billboard monitors or auditions around the circuit. Not where you're
necessarily sitting. That's not a shot at it because the experience is great to be at a race
and you see it and you hear it and there's a ton of fun stuff. Listen, people are going to complain.
Whatever. Let them complain. I think it's going to be cool. It's going to be really interesting.
It's sort of unprecedented that you have a street race announced for a city that does not do street
races and it's just going to happen because they're just going to helicopter money all over this thing
to ensure that it happens. And it sounds like it's already coming into the teams. We saw
Graham Rahall on social media saying his phone is ringing off the hook with sponsors even more
than for the Indy 500, which is kind of astonishing to me. I'm going to be interested to see
where the paddock for this is because that's always a fun part of Indy car races going to
check out the garage and the paddock and all that, but also the layout of the track. There's the
potential for some enormously long straightaways here. The speed might be insane, depending on
how they finally put this thing together. But again, you mentioned free admission. I'm sure
there'll be some fancy VIP areas as well. The general admission will be free. Still will be
an incredible lift to get this thing done in the next seven months. Street races are hard enough
to organize, let alone the middle of a big city, let alone the middle of a city like you mentioned
doesn't usually hold races like this. Although I don't know if you remember this, but DC has had one
auto race before, not by them all, but 2002, the American Le Mans series, Imps's predecessor,
held the Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington DC over by RFK Stadium on the streets and the parking
lots over there. It was a one-off race. Definitely didn't have the cool backdrop. This one's going
to have, but right now RFK Stadium is being demolished and redeveloped. So they couldn't do
it over there, which I'm sure would have been a lot easier than trying to do it on the national
television product, which again, a huge consideration. It's going to look great. Just the same way
NASCAR when they raced on the streets of Chicago, awesome on TV. It's a big factor.
Yeah, and Fox was very involved in the announcement. They're certainly going to help set up the
track as well to get those great shots because that's really what it's going to be about,
getting the monuments and the buildings in the background. While that's a very big track,
NASCAR just kicked off its season on its smallest track on Wednesday night. Supposed to be on Sunday,
got snowed out, got pushed to Wednesday, but they still couldn't avoid the snow for the NASCAR.
Cookout clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. This was a wild one. Not sure it went the way
they hoped. 200 lap race, first 100 laps were fine. Then the snow and sleet arrived. Not a big
dump, but enough to cause them to go to the wet weather tires and things definitely got wet and
wild for the rest of the race. Lots of contact, lots of yellow flags. It was a real mess. I feel
bad for the teams going to have to fix up a lot of these cars. Then they ran into trouble that
there were so many yellow flag laps that the car started running out of gas. Kyle Larson came in,
Chase Elliott came in. They don't even have pits at this race because it's too small. You got to
pull around back into the paddock. Then NASCAR just said, you know what? Everybody's going to come
in and get some gas because we're not going to make it to the end. The race went about an hour
longer than expected. At the end of it, Ryan Priest won. Maybe not a surprise. He came up through
Modified, has a lot of short track experience, has raced at Bowman Gray, probably more than anybody
else in the Cup Series. It was a very exciting win for him. Here's what he thought of the race.
I don't care what type of a race car driver you are. It's 35 degrees. You don't know where you need
to be for air pressure or adjustments or all these things. When they set these race cars up,
they're in for dry conditions. You work really hard to get to that level. There was a lot of
emotions there. Obviously, I'm on the good side of it right now. I'm extremely happy and proud
to have had this opportunity to be holding this trophy at a racetrack that I won here 12 years
ago or 10 years ago, whatever it was. This was part of that journey to be at the Cup level.
I've been doing this full time for the most part since 2019. I remember I was going to,
like, I'm not kidding. I was moving back to Connecticut or two years ago. The stars aligned
and this opportunity at RFK came about. I remember there was nights where I thought,
is this going to come together? Or am I just going to be another story where
it falls apart in the last second? I'm grateful that it happened.
Alex, I don't know. It was a spectacle, to be sure, but this being maybe one of the biggest
years in NASCAR history with all the new changes, the return of the chase, the end of the lawsuit,
all the fun stuff. Not sure this is the look they wanted to kick off the season on national TV.
So let me preface this by saying I did not watch one lap of the race. The entirety of my
monitoring of the situation of the race was basically Bob Pocrus on Twitter and texting
with you throughout the thing. So it sounded like it was a disaster. I also saw on the online
chatter, despite it being a bit of a disaster in some respects, people were still really happy
that this happened because people love seeing cop cars at Bowman Gray.
Yeah, it's fun when it works. This one was just sloppy.
It comes off. It almost makes the argument. It's like, just put the clash back if they tell them
what. NASCAR really starts in a week, whatever, a week and a half now.
Yeah, I liked when the clash was at Daytona. It was kind of a shake down before the season
actually started. Of course, Daytona is coming up next with Daytona Speed Weeks.
It's so awesome. It is, but it's only five days this year. I think it's about time to change that
name unless they bring the clash back next year, which I wouldn't be surprised after
how Bob and Gray went this year. I love Speed Weeks. The one time I was there for a lot of it,
if not the whole thing. And this is just sort of man on the ground stuff. But if you're there,
those days leading up to the 500, the Thunderbirds are practicing every day. So it's like
free show, all of that stuff that everybody looks forward to at Daytona. And when they do that fly
by, it's really amazing because they did multiple passes and it's super cool. But if you're there
in Daytona for Speed Weeks, those guys are overhead all the time. It's kind of fun.
All three series, of course, will be there. And as usual, we have NASCAR Truck Series news because
that is the hottest of the series this year. I'm telling you, man, trucks has a lot of juice
going into this season. Definitely this first race. We already got Tony Stewart coming back,
racing for color, racing and Ram. Travis Pastrana is going to be in the Nice Motorsports,
Chevrolet, and now his teammate is going to be Cletus McFarlane. Folks, if you don't know him,
I'm sure you do. He's one of the biggest YouTube motorsports and car guys owns his own racetrack
in Florida. Did some ARCA races last year. He's going to be doing some more this year. But having
him in this opening race, I know Fox loves this guy. He's on the air even when it wrecks out of
races. You can't finish the race. But that kind of star power for a truck series race
is really something else. And let's not forget Frankie Muniz coming back for another year. And
they are definitely promoting him. He's all over the place. He's in that new Dale Earnhardt
documentary that they've got going on Fox. Of course, the other new, the brand new
truck announcement for say Pete, where trucks is running as one of the support races for the
IndyCar kickoff weekend. We've got another big name shown up there, a big surprise name actually.
Yeah, not so much of a surprise when you hear the background, but it is Dario Frankchiti,
who is going to drive the number one. And this is something that unsurprisingly was sort of
nudged into existence by Jimmy Johnson, who is also going to drive that truck,
you know, this season. Those guys are buddies. Jimmy lives in the UK, you know, Jimmy and Dario.
If you saw last summer, it's like, you know, they were hanging out driving together,
racing at Goodwood, all that fun stuff. So we have another sort of big star, Dario Frankchiti,
three time, you know, Indy 500 winner, awesome guy, fun guy to watch, clearly enthused about doing
this, knows that knows that circuit very well, obviously, I think it's be a lot of fun. And
it's kind of cool that you're getting all of these sort of stars from outside of NASCAR,
you know, just jumping into trucks all over the place to have a little fun.
People may forget Dario Frankchiti spent much of 2008 racing in NASCAR in the Cup Series and
the Nationwide Series with Chip Ganassi racing. This was the year after he won his first Indy 500,
couldn't get a good sponsor for Indy. The following year decided to give NASCAR a shot,
if you could believe that, then went back to Indy and of course won two more Indy 500s,
ended his career there with four championships. Been a long time since he's been in any car,
you know, he had to retire in 2013 because of a concussion he suffered and trucks are very
different from Indy cars. So it's going to be interesting to see how well he does in his first
real competitive race since then. I think he'll do well. I mean, it's not like he hasn't been,
you know, racing, he's like I said, you'll see him show up at Goodwood and stuff like that running
vintage equipment. He was also one of the key development drivers for the Gordon Murray car.
So it's not like Dario has been sitting, you know, knitting sweaters, you know, the whole time
driving Frankchiti is more than capable of jumping in a race car and be fast.
Trucks on a street track going to be pretty interesting down there in St. Pete. But this
weekend we're going to be getting a look at a very different type of car when Cadillac reveals
its Formula One cars livery in a commercial during the Super Bowl, making a big deal about that.
They threw in some teasers out there with John F. Kennedy's speech about the moonshot Cadillac
definitely setting a high bar with this return not return with this entry into Formula One.
As part of this, the Cadillac Tommy Hill figure merchandise finally went on sale
yesterday. First day, all of the Checo Perez merch sold out. There's still some
Valtteri Bottas t-shirts and hats left, at least on the website. Yeah, it's pretty classy looking.
Tommy Hill figure stuff. They're definitely going for that American style. Have you yet to see the
cheesy racing gear? I would expect maybe some of that would be on the way or they just going to
What you're seeing with the merch is a lot of predominantly black, predominantly white.
The Hilfiger stuff adds that shot of color in some circumstances. One of the interesting
observations, a lot of women commenting back to the Cadillac Formula One X account saying
where is the women's line? Because there was not any sort of dedicated women's...
There's some in there. There's some. Maybe not as much as I think the demand was for.
But I found that interesting and to me that speaks to sort of one of the big differences
of Formula One driven by things like Drive to Survive. That audience is not, you cannot sort of
just segment it by, it's not just like an audience of dudes. It's a big mix as evidenced by immediate
feedback from women who wanted merch and couldn't get it. As for the big Super Bowl ad launch and
the installation they have in Times Square right now with the car in the box, the box is opaque
right now and it will become transparent after the ad or whatever. This is the sort of go big
or go home stuff that I think is completely warranted for a program like this. I mean costing
them fortune. A lot of the juice in Formula One is by doing big, visible stuff like this.
So I think that is smart. Frankly, yeah, I mean I feel like Cadillac could have been doing stuff
like this for product launches for a number of years. Every time they had something, you know,
cool to put out there or something that was culturally significant. But so here we are.
They're going to be in the thick of it. It's one of the few ads that I'm actually looking forward
to seeing. I haven't really seen a whole lot. Super Bowl is usually all this ad chatter. There's
interesting stuff, but this one seems like it's going to be a big one.
Do you think it matters how the team performs this year? I know they think
and have indicated they're planning on being competitive year one, which is usually pretty
remarkable for a new team, although we do have the new Formula and this is General Motors. It's
not some shady little startup Formula One team. They've got all the might of any company possible.
But do you think it's going to matter as far as the fans are concerned?
No, I don't think that.
Or do they get a pass for the first year?
Listen, I don't think it's going to matter that much. I think fans are,
A, excited that there's a new team in Cadillac there.
Clearly, the drivers have their own force of gravity around them that, like you saw,
the Czechos stuff sold out pretty much immediately. So do they want to perform well?
Of course they do. It's a racing team. Nobody that is in any form of racing doesn't want to
be fast and show up and be competitive. Does a lousy season, and I don't even want to
predict anything this early. We haven't seen anything. Everybody's running brand new equipment.
Does it impact anything like that? No, I really don't think it does.
All the teams sell merch, all the teams have following, and you're going to get coming off of
this a full season of Drive to Survive a year from now that has the Cadillac team and that whole
story, and I think that'll be compelling and actually pull more people in year two as they
sort of follow the sort of the introductory narrative of this new asset. I'm a little surprised
the other American team, Haas F1, hasn't pushed its promotions a little harder this year. They're
kind of giving Cadillac the stage. I know they really have been a pretty low-key team, but
they've been there a decade now. I feel like they could have turned it up a little bit this year to
almost get on Cadillac's coattails and make it up. Haas vs Cadillac kind of battle. Ford's obviously
in there as the engine supplier for Red Bull, but I don't know. I really don't understand what Haas's
interest in F1 is. I think it's a real B2B play for them selling Haas machines to all these
corporations that hang around F1. Formula One in general is a giant B2B play. It'd be hard to
argue that anyone is better at lining up these B2B sponsorship deals than McLaren.
That car is like a rolling billboard of every sort of B2B company on the face of the earth.
But yeah, Formula One is a hugely B2B-centric sport in terms of the partnerships and all that
stuff. That's what the spectacle is about. The scene at these races is there's a ton of deal
making happening and you can bring those clients in. It's very conducive to all that stuff.
We did some Ford news this week that's not F1 related. Nata, the big national automobile
dealers association events going on in Las Vegas. All the automakers, meaning with their
dealers there, having presentations, many of which are behind closed doors. Jim Farley was
out there talking to the Ford dealers and gave them an update on the $30,000 electric pickup.
Ford is planning on releasing next year and he released a few photos of it on social media,
not complete pictures of the pickup. Just a couple of crop shots, but we got to see a look at the
front. It's not a grille. It's got a flat panel. It's an electric car. Kind of a slopey hood from
what you could see from these crop shots. And a big part of the news is they're doing what they're
calling unit casting, what Tesla started as giga casting. Instead of having a hundred and
something parts for part of the vehicle, it uses two. They're just these giant pieces cast in
these huge machines, supposed to make it cheaper to build, easier to assemble, which also lowers
the price. They've got a pretty ambitious target here, $30,000 for a vehicle that's going to be made
in Kentucky. Ford doesn't have any vehicles that are priced less than $30,000 made in the United
States right now. It's cheapest one is the Ford Maverick that's made in Mexico and it's about
$30,000 once you throw in the delivery fees. This can be about the same size as that. Ford's put a
lot in this and you know we're seeing a lot of pullback from the electric car segment, but they're
at least for now full steam ahead on this, even as they killed the Ford F-150 Lighting and don't
really have anything else in the works except for this vehicle and then other vehicles that will
follow it on the platform. With affordability being the talk these days, what do you think,
$30,000 electric pickup or would you rather see Ford sell a $25,000 compact car?
I think if they can actually get it out the door for $30,000, it will find an audience. The pricing
is going to be everything on this, otherwise people are just going to buy Mavericks. Ford wins
either way in a sense there. Will they buy an EV pickup if it's $30,000? Again, it just might
if it's good. It's got to be good too, so we'll wait and see. Ford has sold as many Mavericks as
it can build. I'm actually surprised they haven't added another factory to increase production for
that yet. It's pretty wild how popular that is. I've tested a few recently. One of the big changes
this year was they added an all-wheel drive version of the Hybrid Maverick pickup that gets 37
miles per gallon. I've said it before, I think this is probably overall the best deal in cars
today. Although having a pickup is just different than having a car or an SUV. Got four people on
board, need a place for the luggage or the groceries. It's going in the bed, so that's
kind of sloppy and I'm not a big fan of that. I wish they had a SUV version of this at that price
with that kind of fuel economy. It's built on the same platform as the Bronco Sport,
but that's not available as a Hybrid and is a pretty tiny SUV. But I guess this is what the
plan on doing with this electric pickup, which is going to be about the same size as the Maverick,
and it's supposed to have a roomier interior even. Plus, under that hood, it's going to have a
frunk, so it does address that issue as well as far as carrying things around. As far as
affordability is concerned, Tesla's been cutting prices on some models even as it eliminated
the Model S and Model X. Last week, announced that last week, just announced a new all-wheel
drive version of the Tesla Model Y. It's bestseller on the bestseller cars in the world. $43,630,
$294 miles per charge. That's for an all-wheel drive model, the cheapest real-wheel drive
version of the Model Y, $41,000, so it's two grand less, and it's 321 miles of range. There's a lot
of good compact SUVs right now, electric SUVs, but whether or not you like it, the Tesla Model Y
really is still best in class. But I was testing another vehicle this week that kind of put a
perspective for me. It's the new Nissan Leaf. Now, you may remember the Nissan Leaf was the first
electric car of the 21st century mass market electric car when it went on sale in 2011. Back
then, it was made in the United States and Tennessee. They finally stopped building them there and have
moved it back to Japan. But that original one, Alex, I was looking at the other day, starting price
$33,000, which would be like 50 grand today. It had a range of 73 miles per charge. In 2018,
they came out with the second generation Leaf, 151 miles per charge. But this new one,
base version, $31,000, 303 miles per charge. But those are just coming into dealers now. The one
I tested was a Platinum, $41,000, $42,000. Front-wheel drive, 259 miles. For me, putting that up against
the Tesla, I'm going with the Tesla. It's just objectively a better vehicle. But if Nissan can
actually start shipping the $31,000 one with 303 miles per charge, I think they might have a
pretty strong competitor here. It's not a big vehicle. Rear seats a little tight, but it feels
really premium, at least that Platinum one I tested did. And that beats the Chevy Equinox EV,
about like $4,000 or $5,000, which is the only other vehicle, the next cheapest vehicle,
where you can get 300 miles of range out of an electric car right now.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like, again, on that, once you're talking about this price segment that
used to be easy to find something in that price range, around $30,000 or so, Nissan's biggest
competitor in American showrooms for that car is going to be the Sentra, which is still essentially
a brand new car and has all the stuff that everybody wants. And it's going to undercut it on
price and it doesn't require anybody to alter their sort of daily way of life in terms of
charging and stuff like that. So like you said, there's better options. And I think a lot of these
lower priced entries, especially from brands that are not EV native, like Tesla, are going to compete
in-house with other product on the showroom floor that is as inexpensive or less expensive.
And when it comes to affordable vehicles made American, I will use that affordable buzzword.
Right now, the cheapest US built vehicle of all is the Toyota Corolla, which is $24,120.
And the second cheapest is the Toyota Corolla Cross at $26,385. And interestingly, the Nissan
Altima, not just the third cheapest vehicle at $28,825, but also the cheapest mid-sized sedan
right now. It's not until you get to number four, the new Chevrolet Bolt that's not quite on sale yet,
but will be soon, $28,995. That's going to be competing against the Leaf, but it does only have
262 miles of range. That's made in Kansas and they've already announced it's going to be out of
production next year as they start building more Chevrolet Equinoxes, which are currently made in
Mexico. They're going to be expanding production to that US plant. I'm just, I'm shocked when I see
the Corollas being the least expensive cars made in America. I just feel like the American brands
maybe aren't even really trying. And why should they be? Right now, they're making tons of money
and selling everything they can that's expensive. They're selling stuff that makes money, but
Toyota is showing that it's going to win that low-end argument. The Corolla and the Corolla Cross
are extremely capable and rock solid vehicles, especially at those entry point price ranges.
And it's not like you have to worry about it breaking.
One other vehicle that recently moved from the United States to Japan, the Subaru Outback,
was made here for years. They just started to build the Forester here instead, which is Subaru's
best-selling model. I'm actually going to pick up an Outback to test a little later today,
so we'll be talking about that on a future show, maybe even next week. And we will be back
next week with more from Daytona because we're going to be hot in the middle of Daytona Speed Weeks.
I still don't know. It's been quite a while since it's been a multi-week event. Anyway,
we will be back next week. Alex, good to talk to you and thanks everyone for listening. We'll see
you next time. The gas is a production of 8-car media and American cars and Ricin.com.
About this episode
A mix of news highlights the episode, including the upcoming IndyCar Freedom 250 street race in Washington D.C., set to take place in August. The hosts discuss the excitement surrounding this unprecedented event, especially with free admission and a scenic backdrop. They also cover the NASCAR Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, which faced snow and wet conditions, leading to a chaotic race won by Ryan Priest. The episode features light-hearted banter, corrections on terminology, and insights into the significance of these events in the racing calendar.
Gary and Alex unpack the Freedom 250 IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., the NASCAR Clash gets blasted with snow, the Cadillac Formula 1 Team prepares to launch with a Super Bowl ad and the Nissan Leaf finally gets good.
