Clutch Culture Podcast Dec 8, 2025

It's A Modern LFA? GR GT Reactions, Cooling Car Prices, A Car Culture Reality Check & More

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69:29

Term

horsepower

Horsepower measures how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and more powerful the car can be.

Car

Lexus LFA

The Lexus LFA is a super-fast sports car made by Lexus that is very rare and special. People talk about it because it has a powerful engine and is considered one of the best cars ever made.

Term

V10

A V10 engine has ten cylinders arranged in a V shape. It's powerful and often used in high-performance cars, making them faster and more exciting to drive.

Car

Toyota Supra

The Toyota Supra is a popular sports car that many people like to modify and improve. It's known for being fast and fun to drive, which is why tuners are interested in it.

Car

Mazda Miata

The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small sports car that is very fun to drive. It's known for being light and quick, making it a favorite among car lovers.

Car

The Ford Mustang is a classic American sports car that people love for its speed and cool looks. It's been around for a long time and is often talked about because of its strong performance and how it compares to other cars.

Brand

Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a luxury car brand from Britain known for making high-end sports cars, often featured in movies like James Bond.

Brand

McLaren

McLaren is a British company that builds super-fast sports cars and is also famous for its Formula 1 racing team.

Term

V6 engine

A V6 engine has six cylinders arranged in a V shape. It's a popular engine type because it can be powerful while still being relatively small and efficient.

Car

Toyota LFA

The Toyota LFA is a fast sports car made by Toyota that has a powerful V10 engine. It's known for its unique look and is rare because only a few were made.

Concept

Nick, I think we're better than fantastic.

Because of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the whole Thanksgiving ordeal,

you kind of forget that we did our one-year episode.

We got a lot of praise, a lot of thanks, a lot of claps,

a lot of hope you guys keep doing this.

So shout out to everybody that listened to the episode that we dropped

early on Black Friday.

Hopefully you made all the purchases you wanted.

Hopefully you picked up a hoodie.

I believe there's still some at HybridCleanStore.com.

I don't know how many or what size it is.

We're doing well, man.

For our first little hoodie drop, we got to say thanks to everybody.

Yeah, shout out.

I'm going to be in charge of the next drop of apparel.

So Nick, he already had his say.

He got the one he wanted made, so I'm going to get one made.

And hopefully you guys like zip-ups.

I'm just going to say that, because I did get people.

Actually, some people that said, I'm not even a hoodie guy,

but I want to support the show, bravo to those people.

Like the people that just want to support.

Those are the real heroes.

Not all heroes wear capes.

That's right, but they will wear hoodies.

Absolutely.

All right, man, we've got to start the show with the very obvious

of what's going to be in the news this week.

And that is the grand unveiling of the new modern LFA.

Which is one of your favorite cars, right?

Top three, maybe?

Yeah, it's up there.

Yeah, looks, sound.

I mean, probably the best sound in history.

I mean, some would argue.

Some would argue, actually, believe it or not.

Some would argue it's not that good.

OK, I mean, OK.

OK, guy.

All right, Hardo, we haven't used that word in a while,

but all right, Hardo.

Absolutely.

So I'm going to go ahead and play the video.

Maybe you can gather some thoughts.

Most people have already seen it by now,

so I keep playing the video while we're talking.

But, you know, all new sports models, it's a big unveiling.

And it's the same color as the background.

I know, right?

Genius.

Absolute genius.

Look, let's do our thing here.

The only person clapping is the guy on stage,

just so everybody knows.

Yeah, the chief branding officer, I believe it is.

The chief branding officer.

This is named Simon.

Yes, Simon Humphries.

Yeah, well, Simon, this did not go well.

As an unveiling, I mean.

The car, we get into this real conversation of the car

manufacturing industry, I think, has a problem

of realizing the world's changed.

How many of you would have rather seen the unveiling

on a track where it comes down the straightaway

and you get to see it and then you get to see it drive

and you get to look at the dynamics

and you got a professional driver?

Why are we doing the dog and pony show

for everybody in the crowd that's already

going to write a good piece about it

because you sent them a Yeti cup?

Like, that's nobody in that crowd

is going to write something bad about this car.

No.

Because they didn't write stuff bad about any car

that they've ever gone to an unveiling of.

Because, like we've said to you,

those people in the crowd, quote, unquote, journalists,

get to go on these types of things

and are expected to write pretty positive articles.

By the way, this is not new.

This is not 2025.

This was the same in 1985 and 1995 and 2005.

It's all good.

The underwhelming reception of this,

of the crowd, who, by the way,

has been to 1,000 of these, so I don't blame them.

Yeah.

What are you doing for?

Why are we still doing this?

Why are we still?

By the way, could have done this at SEMA, by the way,

because they're the biggest displayer at SEMA.

Would have been the smartest move, honestly.

Would have been the smartest move.

Well, the smartest move is what I would have said.

Go actually do something with the car, OK?

The second smartest thing is take over SEMA, which

you've already done.

Ben's in bow ties is a comment.

Nobody clapped, question mark, was just

such a slap in the face, like disruptive, like obvious thing

to say, which didn't get a lot of, like, it only got 50 likes

and no reply, well, one reply to, which is crazy,

which makes you think, like, how many people

even saw this on the Motor Trend Channel,

which is another thing?

You know what I mean?

How many people actually saw it?

It's underwhelming.

Are we glad it's being built?

All of us as enthusiasts need to say we're

glad it's being built.

There is our obligatory, we all want these cars to be built.

You know, we're now into some electrification stuff

that seems to have come out after this

and that they have an all-electric, some type of model

that's going to be introduced and slid in here.

I think it was a lot of mess in the unveiling of this.

I just think it was so underwhelming.

And I don't even think the car is necessarily always

the reason.

I think the way you do this stuff in 2025 builds up hype.

You know, again, go back to the silly stuff at Pebble Beach

when they have camouflage on it.

They're trying to build.

This was branded all wrong.

OK, because branding's not just the name of the car.

It's not just a car.

It's how do you build up?

But let's all say this as Toyota fans, Toyota owners,

Toyota, whatever.

They've never been great at this.

Yeah, it's true.

And they continue to be very underwhelming at it.

I hope the car is great.

We got to see it.

I think they chose a very kind of odd color scheme

with this.

I think the design is OK.

I don't think it's knocking your socks off.

What else is there to say?

I mean, it's what, 650 horsepower, which

doesn't even get a comment in today's world.

It's definitely not a V10 that the LFA was.

So what are we all supposed to say,

except for just the generalities of,

I'm glad you're building the car?

So you know what's funny?

This kind of begs a whole new conversation.

Now, I want to stick to piggyback of the LFA,

but I'm starting to just kind of feel and wonder sometimes.

It's interesting that we started this podcast a year ago,

and it gained all its traction.

These are conversations you and I would have anyway,

like we said, right?

We've been talking about this.

We'll talk about it anyway.

And now that people are tuning in and appreciating

the things that we say, or the jokes, or the insights,

or whatever tips may be here and there,

it does feel like the interest is waning, right?

So my question to you is kind of like, is it a,

is it like, are the consumer's hands kind of forced

to not being interested, or is it

that they're not interested, which

is why these things are so lackluster?

Or is it?

I just remember, hardly anybody can afford them.

That's very true.

And that's at the very top of it, right?

Not even talking about just LFA,

we're just, now we're just talking

about cars in general, new cars.

So is it that, and maybe help me deconstruct this,

is there a window right now that we're

in this window of time where it's the automotive industry

is being forced to go through this transition of where

there's not a lot of excitement, not a lot of affordability,

not a lot of innovation, because maybe within the next five,

10 years, we can get back to that

by slowly simplifying some of the things,

slowly making things a little bit more affordable.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's a good question.

I mean, these cars are never going to be affordable again.

No.

I mean, they don't seem, I guess,

we're seeing some post-launch love of Supra,

you know, because now the tuner market's kind of going into Supra

and doing some cool things with it.

Yeah.

But those cars are few and far between.

I mean, you and I can say this wholeheartedly,

like all of you guys can agree or disagree.

But essentially, you really kind of have Miata left.

You know, I mean, I'm seeing a lot of comments

of Ford guys talking about, you know,

another lackluster year under Mustang

and you go into comment section.

It's like, I've owned Mustangs my whole life.

It's just too expensive for me.

Yeah.

Right?

So I'm not trying to always play the money game,

but this stuff doesn't interest people

because again, I don't know how old Simon is.

OK, I can just see him on stage.

We are at a crossroads of the people in charge

of these brands are of a certain age.

The media that needs to take place

is being dominated by a younger crowd, i.e., social media.

And the older crowd still wants to do things the old way,

therefore not connecting to anybody under a certain age.

Like this doesn't connect.

I'm 43 years old, guys.

This doesn't connect with me.

No.

So this isn't going to connect with a 35-year-old.

It's not going to connect with a 25-year-old.

Like this just isn't the world.

This is the world you've created 40 years ago.

This shouldn't have been the unveiling of this car.

So the question really is, and who does it appeal to?

Who does it interest to?

Who is it really for?

Was it for shareholders?

Was it, like you've said before, like we're trying to keep our jobs here.

So we're going to keep slowly inching out something that seems like,

hey, we're making things happen, right?

Yeah, I think they're, again, for Simon and his team,

this is the way the team before them did it.

So that's what they're going to do.

They're not going to rock the boat.

Everybody wants to get their salary.

We're around Christmas time.

Rob, you don't want to take a big risk.

You've got to get your Christmas bonus.

This is true, right?

Not blaming these people.

But when you go to an event that you're talking about,

this is the follow-up to the LFA, which is now a very valuable car.

It was not received well in the moment.

We must repeat that.

Time and time again, LFA did not do well on launch,

but now it's beloved after the fact, which we say all the time.

Ford lightning back in the day is the same thing.

It wasn't as loved as it is loved now.

When you look at this independently,

doing things the way you did them 20 years ago because that's

the way you did them is a really bad reason to do them.

And that's this to a T. I don't know what they're doing.

I don't know who this excites.

This is probably going to get some hate from Toyota fan boys,

which seem to come out and just love everything

and act like Toyota doesn't have a massive engine

problem ever that's actually going on currently.

But it's just not that exciting.

And I don't know that it's Toyota's fault.

I don't know that it's Aston Martin's fault.

I don't know that it's McLaren's fault.

I don't know that we can lay the blame at them.

I can tell you, this seems like the wrong way

to launch a car in 2025.

And I think the crowd and the internet goes,

let's not do this again.

I like how you can sit in your Lexus,

one of your bulletproof Lexuses, and make that story post

on the clutch culture page about the tear down,

the mechanic that tore down the engine.

Just kind of like, it's kind of just like post and ghost,

and then just see who replies what.

Yeah, for anybody that hasn't seen it,

I mean, somebody got a hold of a guy that actually tears

down engines for a living, got a hold of the V6

that's granating itself.

And he says the story that Toyota's telling

doesn't seem to be true.

I mean, that's the gist of it.

He's not going to know enough.

People are going to say he doesn't know enough.

He just goes, I don't think this is the reason.

I would see debris in a lot more places than I see it.

There's an issue here.

I am now, and many of you guys would probably know better

than me, but I'm getting texts that maybe even some

of the replacement engines have granated themselves

on a small level.

So we're looking at this brand going through a transition,

and we need to keep saying this because I say this

in the comments all the time.

Toyota's one of the few brands that deserves the benefit

of the doubt on things like engine and reliability

because they've always gotten it figured out.

They deserve the benefit of the doubt,

and that's what I'm giving them.

That doesn't mean you gloss over what's

going on in the moment.

You brought up Mustang, right?

I know it's kind of weird Ford Mustang or Toyota Mustang,

but there was an article by Automotive News.

They're celebrating their centennial year of publishing

news, and they had a guest essay by Bill Ford.

The title was Legendary Mustang

that represents freedom, optimism,

to generations around the world.

Now, I don't think that's the case anymore.

You just said it, right?

The sales are down.

The outlook of what the Mustang once was

to not just Americans, but to everybody around the world

has completely turned upside on its head.

So would you say, is there a replacement to that?

Could you say right now that something else

gives that to Americans or anyone else around the world?

I mean, I think Bill Ford is really reaching

on what the Mustang has meant.

Yeah, what was?

I mean, it's just a car, number one.

It's not enough.

It's a sign of freedom or whatever.

Watch your mouth.

You don't get me riled up this early in the morning.

Yeah, that's pretty dramatic.

I mean, it was just a car.

Let's take a deep breath, but I don't know, man.

I think a lot of us were looking forward

to the successor of the LFA.

I think a lot of you watching were probably like,

what's Toyota gonna do?

I think it's been bungled head to toe.

And by a brand that kind of does this, right?

Slate gets announced and Toyota's like,

well, we've been working on this thing for the US for years.

And it's like, they've never talked about it since.

I was hoping to see, I was hoping to see Sung Kang

in like a LFA with a V10 and Fast and Furious 15.

Like that's what I wanted, not some vacuum cleaner.

Yeah, and not something released in this way.

And I don't want, you know,

if Simon or anybody from his team hears this,

I know why you did it this way

because it's always been done this way.

And every one of your competitors is doing that this way

and every one of you guys keep doing it this way

and it continues to get more and more underwhelming

and it continues to be more and more head scratching

for people, not just 20 year olds.

Again, I'm 40 plus years old, it's head scratching to me.

And I just go, this is not 2025 material.

This is what you did when you didn't have

the connectivity around the world.

Right.

We're connected guys.

You guys have a cell phone in your pocket

that could have done a better launch than this.

You could have literally,

you have everybody's phone numbers and emails.

You could have sent like an SMS text thread

where you sent a custom 3D, you know,

some kind of like augmented reality thing

to write directly to people's phones

and then through their metaglasses

they can project what they were watching.

But no, no, no.

Yeah, hold on Robin, let's be clear.

Whatever you text them to write in the magazine

on the internet, whatever,

that's what they were gonna write anyway.

They didn't need to be in the building.

Yeah, they just tell them what to say.

They were gonna say it

because they've been saying the same thing

that you guys tell them to say for 40 plus, 50 plus years.

Like, let's not act like

you're not giving them the talking points anyway.

Hey, no, we make a lot of wrestling references here.

Are we officially the heels of automotive podcasting?

I feel like sometimes when we talk

we're the heels of automotive wrestling,

automotive content.

Yeah, but I'm not blaming this.

Here's the thing, I'm not blaming it.

No, no, there's no blame.

They're going to put out exactly what you want them to put out.

And then they're gonna add a little blurb

at the end of what they thought about the car.

Cool, man.

I don't know.

Have Whistle and Diesel drive the car.

Have Cletus McFarland drive the car around a track.

I mean, have a pro driver drive it around the track.

Get a Formula One guy to drive it around the track.

Do something.

Dude, Dale Earnhardt Jr. out there, you know?

There you go.

With Cletus, you know, driving like, what are we doing?

Yeah, whatever, okay?

Whoever your, enter your favorite guy or gal

is it better than this?

Are people producing YouTube content

as an independent content creator

better than what you guys just did?

That tells you there's a problem.

It's so strange.

I know we're kind of hard.

I mean, at least I'm hard-working on this

because we've been keeping up with this stuff, man,

since the, you know, PBS days,

since auto weeks, since all the magazines

and then the content and the videos

and then you get to this point in 2025

as we're wrapping up the year, going into 2026

and you feel like, did we just step back

into like a 15-year-old time machine

with this unveiling of what was supposed to be a super car?

Yeah, and a great way to say it.

And it's the same thing that's happened

time and again, brand and again.

This is not picking on Toyota.

This is just what we keep doing.

You know, are you going to the LA car show?

Does anybody go to the LA car?

Are you going to the Detroit car?

Why did they unveil it, the Detroit car show?

More cheap plastic.

This is what we're doing?

Like, the people that go to those car shows

that write about cars are going to write

what you tell them to write.

You don't need to impress them.

Send the Chachkes to their office.

They'll give you, you're good.

Okay, you guys have had this figured out.

You don't have to keep doing this.

I love that word, Chachkes.

So, when we talk about media, is there any,

okay, if it's Nick, if Nick has the magic wand, all right,

and you kind of already given some good examples

even at the top of the show,

how would you have rolled out this,

or pick another, actually pick another manufacturer,

pick another car maybe even that's coming out

or that came out, that did it better,

or in what would be like good, better, best?

What would be like, this was obviously not the best,

what would have been slightly better

and what would have probably nailed it,

you know, hit the head nail on it.

Oh, I think there's only one thing.

You gotta think about social media hype,

how to get people excited.

That needs to be the baseline.

The baseline needs to be that we live in a world

where attention is what matters, okay?

Attention can take a car that seemingly many people

aren't that interested in, which this would rank

in that very low number of people that are interested.

And how do I get the most amount of people interested?

Well, in 2025, it's through hyping things up

through multiple channels of social media,

having things made for TikTok and Instagram and YouTube

and long form and short form and clips.

It's a barrage that should have lasted

an entire week for a brand the size of Toyota.

It's sent from this point on,

it seems like their whole idea was,

let's pull the cover off the car,

which by the way, they'll do that

when you order a Macan at the dealership.

Let's keep pulling the cover off.

Whoa!

How do you do that for my pre-owned Volkswagen, by the way?

Yeah, and you're like, where's the bow?

Yeah, I had the bow, I had the bow.

There you go.

I swear to God, it had the bow.

You know, guys, this is,

and I don't say this towards Toyota.

We're talking about in general what needs to change.

Think about all the EV launches,

think about all the cars being launched,

all the things these brands have put a lot of time,

a lot of teams, a lot of people have put a lot of effort in.

The name of the game is attention.

And a lot of times, attention,

even if it only lasts a week,

can get people to change their mind

and lose sight that maybe the car is underwhelming

or the car is not exactly what they want,

but you can get excited and go,

man, did you see that TikTok?

Man, did you see that Instagram reel?

Man, did you see that YouTube video?

We seem to have no thought

because I truly believe these brands think they're above that.

I totally agree with you.

And I think that's coming from a lot of the bigger,

not just automotive-wise, but like big companies,

they're kind of losing the plot a little bit

because things have been so good,

money's been rolling, right?

Investments have been up, all that kind of stuff.

And then you kind of get slapped with it,

or at least in my opinion,

they're gonna get slapped with the reality

when, for instance, Mustang's not selling

or fill-in-the-blank isn't gonna be selling.

You're gonna have to try a little bit harder

to get people's attention

or even get them in the door anywhere.

Dealers have always been also,

like the people that always get the most hate.

We've heard it here since we started the podcast.

Replace the dealers straight to consumer, whatever.

Yeah, the manufacturer is way better than the dealer.

This is what they thought was great, dude.

This, in their world, they think this is great.

You think they're gonna take care of you when they,

come on.

What a great way to tie that together too.

Like anytime, anybody says that,

like, did you see the launch of the LFA?

Like, you want the manufacturer to hand you your car?

What did they name it again?

Is it just the GT?

Well, that's so the GR GT, right?

GT.

Well, that's gonna be,

so let's go ahead and move on to that one.

I was gonna say, and I guess it is still kind of fair to say,

to their credit, it did roll out this GR GT twin-turbo V8,

basically a street legal race cars,

what they're calling it, right?

And everybody has basically written the same headline

and the same first paragraph about the car.

Fair, fine.

Any thoughts on that?

I'll pull up pictures.

I think there's a video of that rolling into it.

I will say there's one thing that I kind of like,

that they did is they really didn't try to go

to Supercar on the design,

which I think can be overdone for brands like Toyota.

Of the LFA or of the GT in the GR?

No, no, the GR.

Okay.

The GR GT.

I think they did an okay job of being kind of subdued

and, you know, cleaner lines

and not be so dramatic

and try to be something that they aren't.

They kind of stayed true to themselves with this design.

People can love it or hate it.

Design is an individual thing.

I just go, wow, you pulled two cars onto the stage,

which is what we're watching right now

if you're not watching on YouTube.

Okay.

I mean, there's more flashing lights in this

than there was at the Metallica show.

I'm just gonna tell you right now.

No question, no question.

No, no question.

I mean.

I don't know why they didn't add pyrotechnics.

Well, James Advil doesn't like pyro.

I know you're talking about the car,

but you know, James doesn't do pyro anymore.

Since he got burned.

But you're right.

They should have done something here.

I mean, I mean, I pause it on this close up

of the GT car back here.

I mean, it looks cool.

It looks cool from the front.

Isn't it kind of reminiscent like from a certain angle

while I was like, I just, if you glance at it,

I'm like, was that a Ford?

Is that a GTD?

Like, was that?

Well, and I think we have this problem.

Many, I'd like to hear people in the comments.

We're getting eerily close to going,

is this this, is that that?

Is this this?

That kind of looks like this.

I mean, we're getting pretty close to design languages

just being the same, no matter the brand.

I mean, we just talked about the Telluride

looking like the Range Rover from the back.

I mean, we're pretty eerily close

on a lot of cars going, who's making that?

Yeah, you mean the Telluriver?

Yeah.

The Timu Rover?

The Timutela Rover.

Yeah, like, I want people to really leave a comment.

I don't want to blame Toyota here.

Let's all be fair.

We haven't gotten a lot of people driving it around,

putting it on a track, hearing it, going through gear.

We just don't have it.

And I think that's the mistake.

The mistake is that should have been the launch.

The launch should have been,

let's have the car driving around, again,

a closed track, which you guys are so fascinated with

as brands, to tell me what your car does on track.

Just give, just do the track video.

Then just stop this.

By the way, this is going to be close to,

I forgot which Porsche it was.

GTS weight, like 3,800 pounds, which

I think the Porsche came in at 3,500 pounds.

It's going to be a lightweight race car, basically,

you know, probably.

I think we have no reason to say that Toyota hasn't

built a fast, nimble car here.

I'm sure that they have.

Many of you, and we see it with our numbers,

are just not interested in this stuff.

No.

You know what they are interested in?

This is a perfect segue because I'm seeing more of this.

And after seeing this kind of unveiling,

it kind of tells me more why, probably.

Man, I need to sell my 22 to get a 97.

Man, I'm really not digging this 23.

I'd probably go back and get an early 2,000s.

Fill in the blank, dude.

I've been seeing that.

I'll cross all kinds of posts.

Not just ours, but other people,

like other publications like this, or other just videos

of modern cars, reviews, or whatever.

And I mean, we've been saying this shit for months.

It really is one of those things where,

and I don't know if you've noticed this, a lot more

of like, Paw Paw trucks on the internet.

You know what I'm talking about?

People that are super like, paw pawing in their trucks,

or they'll like, de-paw paw it a little bit,

where they'll take the rails off and maybe switch something up

with different tires on it.

But a lot of Ford, Chevy, occasional dodge,

but mostly Ford and Chevy, just old school trucks, man.

There's this mom, as a matter of fact,

who went from Range Rover mom to 2001 Excursion mom.

Because she was like, that's my dream car.

I got tired of the Range Rover.

I got the Excursion.

I feel like my dream has come true.

And I saved it.

I'm going to send it to you in case you haven't seen it.

But dude, there's something about it.

It's not just nostalgia.

It's not just anything other than, it is nostalgia,

but it's reliable.

They like it.

It means something to them.

It elicits some sort of response as well when they drive.

I think you're hitting all the nails on the head.

You know, from driving the kids to school,

to driving to your parents on Thanksgiving,

like the whole thing, the whole game,

it runs the gamut of like, if I'm going to pay,

like what's an Excursion?

I haven't looked up the prices, but like, you're going to still.

Let's just say you can get a good one for $40.

OK.

Let's just say you can get almost a really good one for $40.

$40, right?

Let's just say you go higher mileage and you're in the $30.35,

like $35,000 for a modern 2022, 345 fill in the blank.

Isn't getting you a whole lot because it doesn't have any

of the bells and whistles?

And also, you lose all the other factors

that I mentioned as well.

And I think, you know, there's people

that have bought a lot of different new cars.

You know, let's say from 2015 to 2025, a lot of plastic,

no emotion, no sound.

And again, I think that's OK.

You know, that's where we're at in the manufacturing of cars.

This idea that just because we say how things are,

that we're bashing how things are, that isn't actually true.

Because I get in a lot of, I mean, my whole life

is car collections and then the newest of the new high-end car.

Yeah.

Like, that's my world.

I get in a lot of new cars and go,

hey, this thing's pretty nice.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't hate on it.

I don't go, eh, you paid $250 for this?

A piece of crap.

That's not what it is.

That's not my reality.

Shout out to those commenters, by the way.

We do get that a lot.

Yeah.

And I go, but guys, I also know the people that

can afford those things.

I know many of you who can just afford something

that costs $65,000 to or $40,000.

And you go, I paid $48,000 for dot, dot, dot.

And I'm bored out of my mind.

And it's not interesting.

And I want to drive something more interesting.

And so I sold that.

And I bought this such and such gen one of this.

And I'm having a ball.

And it's not what everybody thinks I should be driving.

And all my buddies have new cars.

And I didn't like mine.

And I bought five different new cars.

And I hated them all.

And it didn't matter what brand.

I think that kind of conversation is here to stay

because I want to alert everybody to something

we've been saying for a year.

This is not going to change.

There's no going backwards.

I do want to mention this because we haven't brought it up

in a while.

CTV Blackwing prices starting to dip into the low, mid-70s,

by the way.

Just saying.

I mean, Land Cruiser four-cylinder or?

2023, CTV Blackwing with only 30, 40, 50,000 miles.

75 grand, 74 grand.

That's pretty enticing.

That's extremely enticing for 70 grand.

And thank, for those that weren't paying attention to that market,

125, 123, you're 50 grand off of that now.

There was a point in time earlier this year

when we were talking about these particular cars more,

maybe like around the springtime.

I'd look it up nationwide.

And there were maybe like a dozen.

There's over 50 of them now.

So just something to think about.

And all of you probably need to hear this

because we don't talk about it every week.

There's a lot of change in the market.

It's definitely loosening.

You're definitely seeing cars depreciate

on a normal depreciation curve again.

You're not seeing the market.

I know people talk about new car prices a lot.

Used car prices have loosened.

And the five Blackwing kind of proves that

because that was untouchable.

I mean, that was untouchable for that to think

that you and I would be talking about something that

would easily sell over in the six figures

now being in the mid-70s.

And I get it.

There's mileage on it.

And that's what you're going to be your argument.

But I know stuff that had a lot of,

I mean, was getting a lot of mileage quickly on those cars

and they were still holding price.

I don't have it in front of me,

but it was just something I was going to look,

research for like a future episode.

But Bronco, we've talked about Bronco a lot,

but those prices are collapsing at the moment right now.

It turns out when you make a zillion of something,

the prices will normalize sometime.

I mean, you're talking about half too.

Like some of these were going for over 100,000.

Now you're lucky to sell them for 50, 60.

Yep.

So, interesting.

And we saw it happen to tell you right in Palisade market,

that probably crashed the fastest and the quickest

when things normalized where people,

whether you guys were there looking at that market,

there's people that paid $75,000, $82,000, $69,000.

And when they went to trade them in,

they hit $45,000 pretty quickly.

But they held steady during a really weird time

of 12 to 24 months.

Yeah.

You know what's not crashing?

Bullion.

Get your bullion at.

It's an interesting time, man, because gold is,

I mean, it's one of those things where people,

if you pay attention to markets, cool,

if you don't, it's probably not interesting to you,

but it's rapidly, it's raising at a point

we haven't seen since the 70s.

That's all I'm going to say.

I love history.

You guys should look into it.

If you haven't, it's really interesting.

Bullion.

I think precious metal bugs that run ads all the time

on their shows.

It makes me want to listen to their show less.

I like how you just got to look over to the side.

All right, sorry.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just like, OK, but there's a guy.

There's a guy.

I won't say his name here because people get pissed.

He's been right about zero recessions out of the last 350.

He's been predicting of the world collapsing.

And I just go, people still listen.

He's a charismatic SOB, all right?

Yeah, I go.

He's been talking about the world collapse since 1991.

He'll eventually be right and egg on our face.

Because I don't be like this.

I told you it's like, no, but for like 45 years, you were.

We're going to be old and gray, like you finally nailed it.

He'll be dead, long dead.

Yeah, true, true.

No, he's going to record himself.

He's going to store himself in a server somewhere.

Yeah, he's going to put his head in.

His head's going to be in a bottle.

All right, let's shift gears here.

By the way, if you're new to the podcast,

welcome to the number one automotive-related podcast

on Planet Earth.

We talk about news trends, predictions, obviously,

about the market.

But more importantly, offer you a good hang every single Monday.

We have not missed a Monday.

And now, over a year, Christmas is around the corner,

if you need some stuff, hypercleanstore.com.

Well, we kind of missed a Monday,

but we posted it on a Friday.

Yeah, we posted it early.

And a lot of you guys said, shout out on the idea,

because my wife's making me go to Costco,

and now I get to listen to the podcast.

So thanks, you.

Hey, you're Costco brethren, or you guys are a wild bunch.

Shout out to all of the responses on my personal IG

and also to the Story Sticker about how much you're paying

for gas, why Nick doesn't like.

By the way, tier one gas, I got a couple of people saying,

hey, Costco's tier one gas.

I didn't know that things were qualified as tier one gas,

so I'm going to let Nick sit on that.

And if he wants to comment on it, he can.

He doesn't have to.

You guys are big fans of five pounds of mayo you don't need.

You don't know how big our families are.

You don't know how much mayo I put on my sandwiches.

I got that right.

Don't put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby.

All right, I had a video that was sent to me

that is actually an old video.

Maybe you've seen it.

Do you know, I don't know if it's true to this day,

but a couple of years ago, Leno, J. Leno came out

and said he doesn't own any Ferraris.

Do you know why Leno doesn't own any Ferraris?

So the story keeps like evolving.

It's brand because from years ago.

For everybody that doesn't know,

his original pure reason that he stated originally

was he didn't like being made to buy a couple models

to get the big model.

Now that other companies have copied Ferraris model

that he owns, he's like, well, you know, it's also the service.

I get better.

It's like, well, that wasn't the reason.

And I love J. And I think he's the ultimate car guy.

And I'd love to hang out with him and just shoot the shit.

So don't anybody get this wrong.

That story has changed.

You know why?

Now why?

Because Porsche copied Ferrari in the allocation.

Oh, we've been talking about that.

Yeah, I should have put that together.

And I'm sure people around him go,

you know the GT program at Porsche is kind of a mess.

Not for you, but for lots of other people.

Don't think that that story, because now he's like,

you know, with McLaren, they just like come pick up

my McLaren and service it.

I don't know, man, I got a lot of clients with Ferraris.

They do the same thing.

Your story is changing.

I'm not not ragging on it.

You can buy what you want.

Everybody needs to hear that.

I don't care what you buy.

He it's his money.

He can do what he wants.

That story is changing.

Yeah.

The original story was he was told to buy to, you know,

to buy to buy a car before he got the special car.

That was the original story.

Now that everyone's kind of copying Ferrari's model

in this elite car world.

He's like, well, you know, in the service and the way

they talk to me.

And it's like, well, that wasn't the original reason.

I was there when I heard the original reason.

For any of you that heard his original story,

that was the original story.

Don't get it twisted, all right?

Yeah, it's all good, man.

Spend your money on what you want.

But if you think Ferrari is somehow different than what's

going on in the Porsche GT program

with the GT3 and et cetera, come on, man.

That was direct copied from Ferrari.

Come on, man.

All right, let's shift into an email real quick.

We talked about the Timur Rover, the Kia Tellur Rover,

the Palisades last week.

You're going to have people just bent

calling it Timur Rover.

I like the Timur Rover.

I've said this.

I got a flag from Nick early on when I may have even

compared it before it actually looked like a Range Rover.

Back in the day when we made the Defender videos

and the Range Rover videos, it went pretty wild on social.

And I wasn't going to pay the prices

that people were paying during the lockdown era of the world

because, I mean, you know this better than anybody.

They're so upside down or they were so upside down

on those cars that it felt like life was over for some of them.

Like, what did I do?

Yeah, agreed.

Literally, what is it, Tiger King?

I'm never going to financially recover from this.

That was a lot of those people.

And I feel bad for them.

But you got to live with the decisions you make.

So we had an email from one of our listeners.

Shout out Rob, not me, Rob Smith.

He's had a couple of them.

OK, so I'm going to summarize the emails.

He's got a couple of palisades, three of them to be exact.

Usually no issues.

All of them have worked pretty good,

except for some cracked plastics and broken windows

or broken glass.

And all in all, no complaints.

They want to upgrade to a 25.

And funny enough, this is what we said in the videos,

they're going to that four-cylinder turbo.

First thing he said was like, dude, I want the six.

Like, these things are already big.

They're only getting bigger.

He's not going to try.

Now, you're going from a customer who's

had three of those vehicles who's

considering not buying his fourth just because of those choices.

I think a lot of people are going

to make the similar choice.

They're just not going to go that route.

And I think to summarize Rob's email,

he also said he kept them pretty short period of time.

Very, very important point if he has an information.

Very, very important point.

So you as a buyer, me as a buyer,

whoever's buying the car, lots of cars,

everybody that wants to get on Range Rover

and everybody that wanted to get on Jaguar back in the day

and all this kind of stuff.

If you kept them a year or two, you

didn't really deal with the issues.

Same with a Hyundai, same with a Kia, same thing

we tell all the Toyota people that tell me

that they keep their car for 43 years.

And it turns out the data says they don't.

Almost every car manufacturer from Ford to Chevy

to whatever, pretty good the first two years.

If it doesn't have some granating problem

or some massive manufacturing issue.

So he's experienced the Palisade,

exactly how we would tell you to.

Get it for a couple years before that thing

starts to have the seats tear and the plastics crack

and all the wear and tear, you're onto the new one.

That's a great way to buy a Hyundai Palisade.

When we talk about the Hyundai Palisade,

it's talking about living with it

for an extended period of time.

I think that's where many of you would go,

I wish I wouldn't have bought this

or I wish I wouldn't have bought that from this company.

The same goes for a Range Rover.

I've never told anybody to keep them for 10 years.

Go listen to what I said.

Great car, most people trade them in

after 24 to 36 months.

Exactly what I tell people.

Dude, you should do, so we should do voiceovers

of car commercial ads essentially

where it's you reviewing or kind of like

doing what you do in real life.

You know, advising people on cars,

purchasing cars, all that kind of stuff.

But it's in a perspective that you just said

because if I close my eyes and I just heard you

describing this Palisade to somebody like,

and that's a great way to buy a Palisade.

You just kind of like forget it after two years,

move on to the next thing.

And now we're buying like whatever.

Like the people don't usually hear that from people.

It's like, look, cause a lot of people think,

I'm gonna buy this, I'm gonna keep this for 10 years.

They don't end up keeping it for 10 years.

They don't end up keeping it for five years

most of the time.

And then they're onto the next thing

that they are scared that they might have issues with.

And then they just forget to themselves like,

oh wait, bro, I don't keep these cars that long.

Why am I really worried about it?

They're just kind of getting scared.

No, and a lot of it is to argue in a comment section.

Well, that's a big part, right?

For sure.

I mean, that's really the part of it.

It's like, everybody wants to say that your opinion,

this guy over here's opinions wrong.

It's like, no, I listened to him.

It's not the wrong opinion.

You just are making up how people experience cars.

To sit there and tell me Range Rovers are junk

when the vast majority of people

that buy a new Range Rover keep it 36 to 24,

maybe 48 months at the most.

It's all under warranty.

They send it back.

If they got a recall, they have it handled.

They don't, they're not buying the used third owner Range Rover

that, yes, we all admit is problematic.

We've never advised that, okay?

Just like I would tell you,

don't be the third owner of a Palisade.

Don't be the third owner of a Telluride.

Don't be the third owner of most Chevy Tahoe models.

Don't be the third owner of dot, dot, dot.

Seven series BMW.

Yes, do not be the third owner of a seven series BMW.

Do not be the third owner of an AMG S 63.

Like there's just a lot of cars

that fit don't be the third owner, right?

But people don't want to hear what is actually said

that most cars that many of us want to experience,

it sucks being the third owner.

Dude, there's this video I saw of a,

somebody sent me a mechanic and he was doing maybe

a conference between the shop guy

and he was basically saying like,

look, if a customer brings you a car and it's a seven series,

have you seen it?

Yes.

Oh, dude.

So just to summarize it for people,

he gives a description of like,

look, you're gonna come the first time,

it's gonna be three grand.

You're gonna pay it, because you like the car.

You're gonna come back a second time

and it's gonna be another third again.

I'm gonna tell you, you might not want to do this.

You should probably just get rid of it now.

You're gonna do it anyway.

And he ends up telling the story,

he's like, you're gonna come back a fifth time,

it's gonna be $7,500 and you're gonna say

there's no way I'm gonna tell you to get fucked.

Because I told you to get rid of this car forever ago.

And by the way, you thought you got a good deal

was his whole premise.

Exactly.

Like, you thought you got a good deal.

So when you look at this and I know the people

that listen to us and actually listen to the podcast

are not consuming clips, understand this about us.

I want you to buy what you want.

And there's sometimes I have been the third owner

of cars I shouldn't have been.

But I've accepted the responsibility of that.

What was it, by the way?

What were you like?

My E90, I'm the third owner.

Oh, okay.

Okay, my E90, I'm the third owner.

But you gotta remember, I bought it,

it had 37,000 miles on it.

Okay, do you have a good story

of a third plus ownership of it?

Yeah, my E90 right now is a good story.

Okay.

I mean, I don't want to jinx myself,

but yeah, it's a good story.

You just did.

You just fucked up.

All right, what's the worst case scenario

you've had on the third plus?

An E39 M5.

Yeah, I was like the third owner

and it was just, it was an utter nightmare.

I mean, I basically had to gut

every problematic thing out of that.

Now, I bought it at a level

that I knew how much money was gonna have to be dumped.

That doesn't mean I love dumping that money into it, right?

Even when you know what you have to do, right?

Even when you are somebody in my position that you go,

okay, I'm getting a deal on this,

but it's probably gonna be another 12 grand.

You don't love when you go from,

okay, there's my first two,

now there's my next three spent.

Uh-oh, here comes another three.

It's never, and I already knew what I had to do.

I didn't know that I was gonna use all the money,

but I was ready to use all the money.

Like, but the same goes, my LX, you know,

I posted this about my LX.

You know, I had to have a couple, you know,

sway bar linkages, sway bar links replaced.

And I go, it's just amazing to me

how many of you Toyota fanboys

have had cars go a million miles

that you didn't change the oil,

that you didn't need new tires,

that you didn't need new brakes,

that nothing ever broke.

The way that you talk in the comments.

Now, I'm saying that tongue in cheek,

but guys, you gotta remember,

people do say that to their friends and family.

Oh, I got this Toyota, you know, I got 350,000 miles,

I haven't had to do anything.

Such a goddamn liar, Rob.

Such a goddamn liar, whoever you are.

Yeah, I mean, it's like, come on.

Everything has a price.

And when you're second owner,

when you're third owner, that price gets bigger.

And when you buy these cars that are finicky,

and you don't know what the previous two owners did

maintenance-wise, boy, that price goes up pretty quick.

You know what really grinds my gears?

And shout out, by the way, to Rob.

He wrapped up that email by saying,

by the way, she's topped off with Dose,

which is your two-year ceramic coating

from HyperClean and all their HyperClean products

inside and out.

Thanks, guys.

Appreciate you, man, for writing that email.

We'll get to another one shortly,

but you know what really grinds my gears

is when you're in the school pickup line,

if you're ever there, Nick, or any listener,

and the people don't know how to give you some space.

All right, you're way too close to the car in front of you.

So yesterday, as a matter of fact,

I saw, I have these premonitions, Nick,

I don't wanna say this that I got some kind of power

of any sorts, but I see things sometimes,

I'm like, that's probably gonna unfold poorly for somebody.

That's not gonna be good.

Sure enough, a 2005, maybe 2010 at the newest,

Nissan Murano, way too close to this really nice desert

storm-colored sequoia.

And I'm like, you're just way too close.

The lady wasn't paying attention, boop, rear ends it.

In the school pickup line.

Serious swear to God.

I was like, oh my, I knew that was gonna happen.

And the lady gets out and she could just tell

she is annoyed, you know?

Cause it wasn't hard, but you still rear ended it.

Like you're gonna have some plastic damage

on there or whatever.

So we make it around and they exchange information

after they pick up their kids,

which by the way, what an awkward,

because the kids were friends.

They walked up to the cars at the same time.

One gets in the, you know what I mean?

And now, so please give space at lights, at stop signs.

Do you think, and I think we all know the answer to this,

but I wanna put this out there.

Has the cell phone epidemic in the car gotten to a place

that we all need to fear for our life when we're driving?

The entire circle, which is a large circle

at the pickup line, has signs about every 20 feet,

10 feet maybe even, $200 fine if you're on your phone.

That's how out of hand the parents have gotten

in these school pickup lines with their phones.

And- That's just the pickup line by the way.

You don't even know what they're doing in traffic.

Oh, of course, of course.

I honk at people when I see them.

I honk just to scare them

because you see them weaving in and out of the lanes

and then you get next to them.

They're looking down.

I honk just to scare them.

Hopefully they don't end up hitting me, but you know what I mean?

Do you think a tech situation

we're gonna find ourselves in inside of cars?

Because, I mean, let's look at the seatbelt law.

Technically, you're regulating what I have to wear

inside the car that I bought and I'm paying for,

which we can get into the government part of that.

Sure.

Do you think we get to a point

where they're going to disable,

tech is going to disable your phone in the car?

Like, do you think we're going to get to that point?

I'm actually surprised

and I don't want to speak this into existence

because if you have self-control,

maybe there's some inconveniences of that happening,

but I'm surprised that it isn't disabled

the way that your keyboard is disabled

when you put an Apple CarPlayer or whatever

on your screen, right?

You can't type on the screen when the car's moving.

I'm surprised that you can still use your phone

when you're hooked up to CarPlayer

or anything like that as it's moving, so.

I'm kind of surprised too.

I mean, it feels like it's coming

because we went and did a family thing last night

and it gets dark early, you know,

we're all in that position, right?

And we're on a major artery, you know,

that's lights and tons of people

in a time of day when there's even more people than normal

and I'm going, I'm looking around

and three or four cars, I see people just,

the phone is right in front of their face.

It looks like they're FaceTiming.

I mean, and you go. I've seen that.

Yeah, I've seen it too, so all of you

and I'm not, look, I'm not dad get off my lawn about,

but it feels like we're getting to a breaking point

where all of us go, like you said,

you're in the school pickup line and you don't understand

and that's all phone related, right?

That's, you know that lady, that guy

was close to that other car

because at some point they were messing with their phone

and they just didn't gauge the distance

and here we are and you go, what are we doing here?

What are we doing here?

And people love that phone.

I mean, I have the conversation.

It seems like every time I'm in the car

with more than one person that's not my kids,

it's just, it's adults and my kids,

the person in the passenger seat goes,

man, that person's on their phone.

Man, look at that guy's on his phone.

Do you get that too?

Oh, dude, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And my wife or I, we usually call it,

the kids won't obviously,

they're not really paying attention out the window,

but I see it all the time.

It's terrifying because listen,

if you got a like glance at your phone,

don't do it when you're around 18-wheelers

and then 80 mile an hour traffic.

Like do it somewhere where there's literally nobody there

to even see you and if you freaking move out of your lane,

you're not gonna hit somebody.

But people just don't, I don't know, man.

I know this, get off my dad, get off my lawn thing.

Nick says, I'm not trying to be,

I am trying to be that sometimes

because this is getting out of hand.

It is getting out of hand.

Let me tell you, I am a dad.

I do have a lawn and you get off of it.

Bro, best lawn in the entire neighborhood every year.

That's right.

Lawn of the year,

is that you're waiting for the end of the year award?

Yeah, and I get it every year.

I winterize,

the way that Nick is winterizing his LX right now,

which you're about to see videos

roll out on the hyperclean store channel,

I winterize my lawn like nobody else.

Just saying.

Yeah, you're like, you go, hey, Ted,

get on your lawn game.

Hey, look at this skin tone color, right?

I know the lights on me right now.

I was gonna say something, but-

It's in the blood.

Yeah, you're not allowed to,

you know, we're not allowed to make those-

You're allowed to do everything on this show.

You guys, you want an uncensored version of this show?

You just tune in.

You just wait.

Well, I mean, you know, look,

just living in Las Vegas,

landscaping, it's in your blood.

Of course.

I mean, it's who you are.

Yeah.

Hey, we're from the H.

Hey, soy de lache.

You know what I mean?

Soy de lache.

You know what I mean?

Hey, what are you doing?

That's funny.

Hey, we just had 25 white people get off there.

Like, I didn't know Rob was that.

That's true.

Shout out to Zuri Adventures, by the way.

He sent me a DM about the hoodie

and the holidays and Thanksgiving and stuff.

And he asks me, like, how country did I grow up?

And I explained it to him and he's like,

OK, yeah, you know, he had a very similar.

Like, because people don't know we've talked about it.

If you haven't, like,

Missouri Adventures listen to the show,

I think for the majority of the time we've been doing it.

And if you're new to the show, Nick also grew up

kind of country bumpkin of sorts,

cheap life, right?

People might not know that best of what you do now,

similar for me, but that's true.

Yeah, no, we, you know,

canned sauerkraut, you know, that kind of stuff.

Like, you know, there's a great way to grow up.

I mean, you actually wonder, you have kids.

I have kids are my kids missing out on what, you know,

I grew up like because we're living in a city

and that kind of thing.

And look, it's a topic in my head quite a bit.

Like, dude, we have to fabricate some some tough times, essentially.

Yeah, I mean, when we are when we are picking out

our own Christmas gifts with Grandma at the the store we're at,

that's a lot different than how I grew up.

And that's that's been my week of hearing,

yeah, well, they kind of pointed at this.

And then I put it in my cart and then so and so on.

And I go, this is a little different than my experience.

I mean, I've said that a lot this this last couple of weeks of my family.

And time I go, I didn't you didn't do that when I grew up.

Wow, you can do that.

I didn't know you could do that.

Yeah, no, it's it's but you're grateful for it.

You know, you're grateful for great grandparents

and you know, I had great grandparents growing up.

But yeah, I think when you look at how you and I were were were brought up

and in the era and a little bit different than one another,

but kind of similar that what's good.

That's what gives us the unique perspective on cars, too.

It's like, I really want to say this as much as we can probably next year.

Guys, we talk a lot about the things that we like,

but I'm also really cool with the things other people like to,

you know, like I'm not into JDM or low riders.

But when I go to those shows or I see them driving around, I go, man,

that's kind of cool. That guy did this, that guy did that.

And that's what the culture is about.

All of this, this versus that that I see kind of happening in the automobile.

I don't think it is this versus that.

It's like me making the comment being having the utmost respect for Jay Leno

but going that story's changed over the years.

Yeah, like that's what you're supposed to do to people you respect.

You go, Hey, man, you've kind of changed that story

because some things have come to light that maybe a lot of other companies

are doing business like Ferrari is doing. Whoops.

Yeah, I can't say it that way anymore.

Whoopsie. All right, we're going to wrap up and land the plane

with this another email from this was from Josh.

So right listener Josh writes in it's a pretty long email.

I'm going to summarize some of it.

But basically the title is the perfect seven car solution.

And I love it. This is an incredible email.

You took a lot of time to write it.

Josh, we highly appreciate it.

Although the subject said the perfect seven cat solution.

So when I read it, I was like, is this spam?

Am I going to get a corn, a corn email here

that come through on our podcast page?

But no, it was below that seven car solution.

I'm going to go through his cars, his stable and, you know,

if you want to rate them, which I think would be fun to do

or rank them rather in next order of favorite, we can do that.

So he's got a 2019 F-150 Raptor, a 22 Yukon, a 22 e-tron,

a 22 BMW M850, a 16 Challenger Hellcat, a 17 ATSV,

and a 2003 911 Turbo.

Well, 911 Turbo wins.

Obviously.

Yeah. Raptor, I can get down with that.

And then you're in a mishmash, right?

Like where does the e-tron rank?

Because if you have like a really shitty commute,

you know, like if you're in downtown Chicago or, you know,

or what Vegas has turned into at rush hour,

that e-tron could be real helpful, you know, to calm you down

before you have the kids screaming at your house.

You've got a nice, calm ride home.

I hope everybody understands what I mean by that.

That's a good point.

But at the end of his email, it seems like he loves that Yukon.

It seems like it.

Yes, let me summarize the Yukon part here.

So my hat is off, let me see.

My hat is off to my Yukon SLE underappreciated even by me.

And it has to be the complete bargain by standards,

costing me around $10,000 in depreciation.

Routine maintenance and the rest has never let me down.

But it has been my whip for some of the most important events

in my life. Hail the base spec.

That is such a funny way to end an email.

Well, and when you go up in spec and when you go up in trim

with almost any brand, you're getting more problematic.

Engine bolt ons, quote unquote, you're getting more problematic

trim pieces, you're getting more problematic features

because we've said this with with the whole tech stacking

that's going on inside of cars where we're just adding tech

for the sake of adding tech, not that it makes your life

any better.

So that's the same with trim models, right?

Like we had this discussion about what fully loaded used to

mean and now how people use fully loaded.

They're like they get a mid tier spec and they're like

it's fully loaded.

It's like, no, that's not what that means.

Fully loaded honestly is like it's got leather and

lane keep assist and it's fully loaded.

Yeah, it's got a leather and a CD.

It's like, OK, we got it.

But, you know, I think he's probably experiencing what many

of us have experienced in our lives.

If you bought enough cars, you go, I just got this

vehicle. I didn't think it'd be that great.

And now it's like I've driven the shit out of this

thing. And I think it's my favorite one.

And it has no reason to be his favorite one.

Yeah, by the way, let me start at the top real quick.

You know, he's a longtime listener.

First time heckler.

Nick is just a few years younger than I am.

I find myself violently agreeing with most things with him

on most things.

That means he's a smart guy, but of course.

Yeah, so he tends to listen in batches, by the way,

four to six episodes at a time.

So he might not hear this for a while.

I don't know what kind of work he does with that kind

of a stable. He's probably a busy man.

But that's hilarious.

What a cool 9-Eleven to have, though.

I know most some people aren't going to like it, but I think

that's the especially if you've had it, right?

Like if you've had it, if he's had it for a while.

I mean, he's probably just enjoyed the hell out of that

thing with very little problem, you know, because he

doesn't probably get to drive it all that much.

But the thing just starts up.

It runs. He has a fun time, that kind of thing.

But for any of you out there that are thinking

of adding a car or an SUV or whatever, just a

general vehicle, sometimes, and I'm as guilty as

anybody, I think you are too, you overlook base models

because you go, I want these extras.

Yeah. This email kind of proves that the extras

come with a lot of headache and having that base model

that he basically says, look, I'm just doing

general maintenance and oil changes in my life.

It's pretty simple with it.

I mean, it'd be hard for me to rank that

above the raptor, right?

But I could see why he's because I just said

what's happened to us all.

There's sometimes you got a car you didn't think

you'd be that into and you're like, you know what?

This thing's been pretty good to me.

When do you think that that stopped?

Because I think with the tech, like we've said,

stacking all that stuff and getting the top, you know,

everything loaded really had kind of diminishing

returns, longevity and reliability, like kind of stuff.

But there was a certain time where like fully loaded

was like, yeah, it was like classy chef's kiss kind of,

you know, fully loaded.

And it's it's it's things that people now

are going back to get.

And again, I'm telling you, man, like the amount

of 97 to like 05 GM stuff that I'm seeing where

and it seems like obviously they're doing it for the gram.

The paint's fully polished.

The glass looks brand new.

Everything is done up, you know, like they just

bought it with 100,000 miles, but it looks like

it's got like 10,000 miles on it.

Like that's you're going to see a lot more of that

next year. And I think I think that's the the

future of all this.

I think you're seeing automotive YouTube change

in front of your eyes.

Absolutely.

I think the people that review cars still have

the same reality they've always had, which is

the everyday drivers don't do well for car reviewers.

Like they just don't.

That's why you don't they try to find special

things, you know, a singer or whatever, a Pagani,

because that's what's going to move their numbers.

For everybody that's not in the car review

world, I think we're in for a massive overhaul

over the next 12, 24, 36 months because

number one, many of these guys can't keep

the financials going, right?

I mean, you know a lot of the behind the scenes.

I've been brought in on a lot of behind the scenes

stuff with those creators.

There's no more money.

They can't keep they can't keep doing this.

And some of them are actually pretty honest on

their channel, which I think is great.

You know, they're like, hey, I, you know, I'm

just we're not doing this anymore, and we're

going to do this and we're going to do that.

And I'm even seeing things like the guy that

I like M 539 restorations.

I mean, he just he's going to put some

cars up for sale.

He's like, this is I just have too many

and I don't need this one.

And I want to do this next project.

Well, for a lot of times on his channels,

he could keep things much longer.

And now that's changing.

And I don't know what anybody's personal

finances are.

It's just an interesting thing to watch.

Yeah.

And go, this is all changing.

And I really believe it could be for the better.

I agree with you.

And I think going into next year and then

honestly, the next couple of years,

because at the end of the day,

everybody's trying to sell something

like we're trying to sell you entertainment

at this point, you know, of the show

and come back and listen and you know,

let's build a community here

and that's what we want to do next year as well.

And then also, there'll be some

there'll be some sort of product or service

that someone's, you know,

wanting to offer us to pitch to you guys

or that we have to pitch to you guys.

And it's all in the effort to make your driving

experience or your car owning experience better.

And to me, that one speaker, Nick,

here is if you're going to go ahead and spend

new money, it doesn't always need to be

on a new vehicle.

I rather just spend new money that you acquire

from you save bonus, whatever,

and spend that new money on your old thing

and just make it cooler.

Like we've talked about that, right?

I think I think that's going to be

and I know a lot of the people listening to us,

that's what they've always done.

Yeah, you know, they like the platforms they like

as we get newer people that are trying to figure out

how to navigate this very expensive world of cars

that basically got hyper expensive in a five year period.

Yeah. Right.

It really happened in about a 24 month period

and then just sustained itself.

We're going to see new people coming into the automotive

enthusiast quote unquote world

that aren't necessarily the traditional car enthusiast,

but they're trying to figure out how to navigate

what do I do next?

And if they find people like us, we're going to say,

do you like what you have?

Yeah.

Then like you said, then just spend the 1500 bucks

and spend the instead of on a down payment.

Exactly. Take that car you like

and make it something you like even more.

Dude, that's exactly, when you sit down payment,

that was the last thing I was actually going to say.

What do you think the average down payment is

for an American on a car these days?

2500.

I was going to say the same thing on a car.

I'm going to say 3000.

What is this?

Price is right.

Then it, then it, then it, then it.

You're like 2501, Bob.

Ha, ha, ha.

All right, all right, hey.

$1.

Dude, I hated those people.

I hated those people with a passion.

20% on the new car, 10% on a used car,

the average Americans, 4,000 of 4,200 seems kind of high,

but that's what I'm getting here

from our good old AI overlord.

Well, and you have to ask yourself,

are they taken into account trade ins?

How are they, how are they manufacturing that number?

Good point.

I think there's some people,

I was just telling people this about my GX

that my family drives.

It's one of the few cars that I bought

with such low mileage that has literally been

in the green since I got it.

Nice.

Like I've never been in the red,

anywhere near the red.

Like I started that car so far in the green,

I've never gone to the red.

That's such a good feeling.

Yeah, it's on a newer car, that's pretty rare.

And other people are gonna be like,

well, it hasn't been rare last,

it's been pretty rare.

I've been buying cars for quite some time.

You can tell the amount of comments

and it gets in regards to opposite views of his.

That's why that voice.

Yeah, that's why I always said,

that's why, you don't know what you're talking about.

It's like, yeah dude, 2023 wasn't the real world,

relax, but I've been in the green

and I think, I would say you and I

probably have a different view of like,

down payments have gone up significantly,

liability and financially what you have to give up

on a monthly basis to own some of this stuff.

I think we could see a lot of caution and new buying

that we've never seen in the marketplace.

Truthfully.

Like it's nobody's ever been,

the economy's never been a responsible new car buyer

in my entire life.

The average person has never been

a responsible new car buyer.

I think the prices are getting to the level now,

people are gonna be like, I don't wanna do that.

Yes.

I'm not gonna do that.

That would be the first time in my lifetime

that we see people go,

actively the average person I'm talking about

has never, that's why dealerships

are worth so much money.

That's why manufacturers are worth so much money

because the consumer has always been irresponsible

as a car buyer, all good.

I think now the prices are getting to a level

where people are like, I just can't do it anymore.

All right.

So I'm just gonna make a bold,

we've already kind of talked about it,

but I'm gonna make my own bold prediction

in line with what you said.

So next week is the next Fed meeting,

last Fed meeting of the year.

When you see what happens with interest rates,

what happens to high yield savings,

what happens to, as we go into 2026,

more of the caution that you just described,

I feel like is gonna permeate the entire market,

not just cars, but the entire market,

but especially in cars,

because it's such a luxury kind of like,

if I got them, maybe you saved all of 2025

and you were gonna buy a new car.

Take that same down payment

you were gonna put on a new car.

I promise you, as long as your car

is not completely clapped out,

you can make it more fun, more enjoyable

if you just put that five grand

or whatever it is into the car you currently have.

Promise.

Yeah, and you wouldn't even have to put the five grand.

No, exactly.

Most of the time it's like, just,

upgrade the brakes,

I've been riding around a little bit,

I can get the wheels repaired.

You know what I mean?

We're talking about stuff that's just not as expensive

as that five grand and then that big monthly payment.

Dude, I saw an average,

did you see the video about the average new raptor payment?

Oh, I didn't miss it.

Like $1,500 a month.

Yikes on, wow.

On a raptor.

That's crazy, dude.

I love the raptor platform.

Don't get me wrong.

I mean, we've been fans of it.

1,500 a month for a raptor, average payment.

Nick's young voices came out 1,500 for a raptor.

Yeah, I did kind of hillbilly it up right there, huh?

I love that.

Absolutely.

Dude, okay.

How low does a first-gen have to drop

where you're like, that is a buy now button?

Buddy, it was about a buy now button before this LX.

Really?

Hell, I mean, dude, you and I were sending them back

and forth like, hey, let's call this dealer.

I know, I know, but you didn't,

well, you didn't put the trigger on it

because you liked what you saw out of the LX more.

Buy now is like a good low mileage one for 25.

It's almost, dude.

I think it's like, you just go,

I can't click it fast enough.

Hey, if you guys are looking in Arizona,

there's a really nice blue one for 32.

It's starting to call my name.

Hey, what's the mileage?

I do, I think it's like 70?

Yeah, all you gotta do is get the,

get the shock tree belt.

The suspension, yeah.

Or just put new ones on.

Mm-hmm.

Just saying, they're starting to creep down.

They're starting to creep down.

Boy, you'd be on Border Patrol at no time with that gen one.

Just for everybody knows,

the Border Patrol agents used to drive gen ones.

You could just green and white it up,

be down on the Texas border, you know, be in a militia.

I know Chief Roy.

I know the chief in Arizona Roy, former chief Roy.

I know him.

Don't think I don't know him, of course.

By the way, this is all a joke for me.

This is not a political statement,

so everybody calm down.

Yeah, right.

If you stuck into an hour and five minutes of the show,

your real one, you're not gonna really get offended

by what we say from here.

We should say this is where the uncensored version

of the show starts.

Yeah.

Send a max after dark.

What a time.

What a young boy was able to see then.

Boy, you ain't lyin'.

All right, so that was my bold prediction, dude.

I think that people are gonna be spending

their down payments that they had saved up

on just improving their current rides.

I agree.

I think it's gonna be cool.

Yeah, I don't think it's a crazy thing to say.

Just real quick, we'll get back to this email next week

because I don't know if you had any takes on the M850.

He seems to love it.

200 mile commute, loves, you know.

I think he actually has the right.

I'm actually surprised the E-tron's not as daily.

Yeah, but yeah, he really seems to love this M-sport,

which is funny because I think he was referring to

us talking about what's a real M-car,

what's not a real M-car.

No, and by the way, he acknowledged.

He did acknowledge it, yeah.

Yeah, no, I do like the M850.

I think he probably, and it seems like he's a bigger guy.

Yeah, 6-1-2-3, he said.

Yeah, so there's some problems with the E-tron

that I've told people when I got in it,

it did not, you know, I'm about the same exact size.

It just doesn't fit me that well.

It's not that it's a bad fit, I'm not saying that,

but compared to driving an M850,

I'm guessing that's why he chooses that would be my guess.

The ATS, you know, underrated, well, as he said.

And then the Raptor, surprisingly, you know,

goes off-road, goes hunting, does all the things.

Yeah, you know what, he's the exact epitome.

When I tell people I have clients

that go off-road, that go hunting with Raptors,

like people don't do that, I'm like, okay.

Like, why would you say that?

I mean, it's like the, I got like 10 of them

that says something different, but okay.

And then of course we talked about the SLE,

shout out to the SLE and the base model,

it's got the 5.3, I mean, it's great, little stout motor,

you know, it's not the strongest thing in the world,

gets shitty gas mileage, but it does everything you need

and it's not gonna break the bank.

Yeah.

Lastly, what was I gonna mention,

do those one more thing that was on the top of my head

as we were talking now, it's gonna come to me

as soon as we end this podcast.

Are you gonna mention your Houston Texans

looking like they're rounding into form here?

Oh, dude, they're only took half the season, right?

Yeah, I mean, you got a buck eye at quarterback.

I mean, what do you expect?

Yeah, oh boy, CJ's not looking too happy

in those post interviews in the locker room,

he's just looking like.

Just letting you know, yeah, just letting you know.

Looking out of the corner of his eye.

You get some of that buck eye love over there,

you know, number one, gonna go ahead and, you know,

try to win this college playoff back to back.

Dude, electric, honestly, just straight up electric.

I mean, their defense is nasty.

It's so good.

I was watching the game last night.

For a second, I'm not a huge Cowboys fan.

My wife grew up watching the Cowboys,

but like they were getting dominated

and then kind of came in with in distance of the Lions.

I was like, oh, interesting.

Hey, that Lions team's kind of wild, huh?

That Lions team is exciting as well.

Who are you?

Boy, they, what's up?

Go ahead.

Do you have an NFL team right now that you're like?

No, I don't have.

I mean, I think the Patriots look like

they're just gonna.

Dude.

And again, I have to say this,

coached by a buck eye, Mike Radle.

Dude, they're coaching.

They just brought it all back together.

Isn't that funny?

So for people that are like, follow this stuff,

you see how big Mike Radle is.

Used to get bullied by the coach of Wisconsin,

Luke Fickel, who looks like a nerd.

Luke Fickel, one of the all-time amateur wrestlers.

No way.

Dude's huge.

Yeah, Mike Radle's huge.

Mike Radle used to live close

to one of my family members.

And we went and grabbed breakfast at this breakfast spot

and he was in there with his family.

The longest arms you've ever seen on a human being.

Really?

Just standing.

I mean, dude, they're like past his knees and he's a tall dude.

But yeah, for everybody thinks, talks about how much,

and they say it all the time on the broadcast,

for Abel's this bad ass,

and he puts the pads on with the players even to this day.

The bad ass in Ravel's time was a guy named Luke Fickel,

who played at a high state coaches at Wisconsin.

He was the all-time,

like one of the all-time great amateur wrestlers.

Nice, I did not know that.

Thanks for that bit of information.

I saw, I remember this.

Do what?

Little tidbit for you.

Sports Corner, welcome to Sports Corner.

Thank you for tuning in to Sports Corner.

We're gonna have an extra episode

where we give you bad sports takes.

Yeah, bad sports takes and bad betting bets.

So if you wanna take some bad bets, listen to us.

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