00:01
Hi guys, we're back on the podcast. Happy Tuesday to you. Hope you had a good weekend.
00:04
Also hope you saw our latest piece that just dropped since the last podcast. It was a kind
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of came together on its own, which was pretty cool. We had Toyota sent us a Grand Highlander
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and we wanted to put the Grand Highlander with stuff. We went seeking out the Kia Telluride.
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We found a used one of that with a mostly new version of the Rivian R1S. But the reason
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we pulled that, if you haven't seen the piece yet, I was just looking around. And those are worth
00:30
nothing used. One year old ones are 60 grand and some of them, depending on the spec, are worth 50,
00:38
which is right exactly what a Telluride or a Grand Highlander will cost you if you buy one new. So
00:43
we thought that's an interesting oddball comparison. Hope you saw that on our original channel.
00:46
It's actually playing pretty well. Thank you guys for the comments. We're also getting those
00:49
comments where like, I would never buy these, but I liked watching this. That honestly, I consider
00:53
that the best compliment. That is a win. I will take that all day long. So thank you guys for
00:56
watching. We appreciate you being here with us. We have all of it. News, big topic Tuesday, that is
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one of those unsolvable conundrums, which is great. Cool car debates, conclusions, questions. We're
01:08
going to dive right in. Yes. Hello to all of you. Thank you for your feedback and your comments.
01:12
We did ask for it when we discussed all wheel drive on the last podcast episode and called it
01:17
dumb because it's dumb. So thank you for your comments. We really appreciate it. Continue to
01:23
share that episode because yeah, it's just so controversial and it was, it was a lot of fun
01:27
to discuss. It's a political question. It kind of is. It's so funny. You and I don't do religion or
01:31
politics except apparently whether or not all wheel drive is good or what drive train is best is
01:35
by as political as we get. Yeah, for sure. Jumping in with some news up front. We have been having
01:40
our eyes on longbow motors because this is an EV cool lightweight fun roadster. And I wanted you
01:48
to know the configurator is live. If you haven't played with it yet, here we go. I've got longbow
01:53
motors pulled up and you can select the roadster or the hard top. I'm kind of a hard top sort of guy
01:58
agreed. So they're two tone paint configuration is a bit odd, but there it is very odd. But check
02:04
it out. Front paintwork. So over in the right column, you can design with paintwork. So I'm
02:10
just going to start with blue. Here's blue. It's much better when it's all blue. I did that earlier.
02:15
Yeah. And then you can start the back. Don't do that. Don't do that and do some pretty strange
02:21
color combinations. You remember in the 80s when cars were available to tone, at least that was
02:26
like the top half of the car and bottom half of the car. This is like diagonally split it.
02:29
Yeah, they did. It was almost like the boat bond line, like when the whole meets the upper and
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it's kind of that way. So I tried, of course, red and blue. And then I did all solid colors and then
02:42
I switched it to blue and red. So there you go. It's just kind of fun to play with. But you know
02:48
what? It just speaks to this is coming along. I would love to drive this whenever it comes out.
02:53
I think it's really interesting and the styling is pretty cool looking. It's pretty classic and
02:58
clean. But those of you that don't remember this is a 2000 pound EV. 2000 pound rear wheel drive
03:05
EV EV and I would love for someone to actually succeed and do this. I would love to drive this
03:10
because my obsession is lightweight cars. I think weight is the thing that kills it the most.
03:15
Of course, this is a configurator just for the exterior. We'll see how long it Paul's lost.
03:20
We'll see how long until this is actually a real thing. They're talking about it costing
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65-70,000 euros actually. So we'll see what it actually becomes. You're doing two tone green now.
03:31
Well, let's see. It's an EV so it's green. So it's all the green. Oh, please stop. All right.
03:34
I went over to finalize. Check this out for a Roadster autograph version limited to 100 numbered
03:38
examples because why does anybody care? But it costs you an extra 5000 pounds.
03:43
Well, this is your reserving. You're reserving. I'm reserving. Yeah. But the Roadster series is
03:47
500 pounds. Uh-huh. I don't get that. You're just getting a reservation. This is like the 100
03:51
This is the $100 Cybertruck thing. Are you really? Okay. This is the
03:56
Cybertruck thing that they did and they're going to use that money to try to make more.
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That's what they're going to do. That was auto-populating. Here we go. Driver. You really
04:04
are putting in right now. Should I reserve? Live? No, we're not going to pay 5000 euros
04:09
to reserve at Roadster. We're not doing that. We'll have that kind of money.
04:12
All right. I'll just save my configurations. Yeah, do that. We're not giving them money.
04:16
We're not doing that. I mean, I want to drive it and if they make an awesome one,
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then I might like buy one, give them money. But let's make it awesome first and let's get to
04:24
drive it. That interior is not looking so good. That's because it doesn't exist yet.
04:26
You're not rendered very well. Nope. Doesn't exist yet. You can't go in and change your
04:29
interior. So anyway, it's news because it's moving along and because I do. I desperately
04:34
want a lightweight EV sports car. That seems really cool. And we like to play with configurators
04:39
because everybody does. I mean, who among us does not log into the Ferrari and build your
04:45
own F80. Okay, fair. Constantly. All right. Change the colors and the graphics.
04:50
And I think you do that more than I do. I like doing this with the F80. I like the F80 and that.
04:56
All right. I'm going to move on to other things that I don't. I can't actually decide if what I'm
05:00
about to talk about is further along or not as far along, but I'm going to dive in anyway.
05:05
Did you hear Toyota has officially stated that the MR2 is coming? After their joke tease,
05:12
they went, we're doing a mid-engine vehicle. Here it is. And it was that K-Truck Daihatsu. Yep.
05:18
Whatever that was. Yeah, whatever that was is exactly true. Yeah. So they have confirmed
05:22
that the, I got to get the rest of my notes up here. They have confirmed that the MR2 is actually
05:28
coming, which is interesting. It's very, very cool that this is the case. Yes. I am showing the
05:34
latest picture that we have, which is this cool orange one. It's actually great looking from
05:38
this profile angle. I hope that it shows up. What they're saying so far is two liter turbo,
05:46
roughly 400 horsepower. Good recipe so far. I like it. It's good stuff. What they're not saying is
05:52
how soon and if it'll be hybrid. The discussion was it's at the beginning of their five stages
05:59
of making cars. So that suggests it's a few years away. All right. So four or five years.
06:04
Right now. Right now. Well, there's no Cayman. Some outlets are talking about they think this is
06:09
going to be slotted in the place in their lineup where the Supra is right now. Now, I think that's
06:13
what it has to cost. It has to cost 60 to 80 grand. Yeah, it'll be expensive. Okay. So that is where
06:18
the Supra lives right now. When the Supra ends, will this be the car that replaces in the lineup?
06:22
I mean, I would be fascinated by this car. I'm very intrigued by it. But I want to go on a little,
06:27
little journey real quick to talk about things other than the MR2 and link it back to the MR2
06:34
because this relates to what should this car be? I mean, it's final iteration. What? Yeah,
06:40
what should it be? Market and all this stuff? Because by the time you see this,
06:44
you'll be about 48 hours away from just about everybody but us dropping a video on the new
06:49
prelude. As far as US journalists are concerned, when you see this, we will be in the midst of
06:54
filming a comparison on the prelude that will come up very shortly thereafter. And of course,
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I cannot think of another car with enthusiast interest and enthusiast sad trombone noises
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like the prelude. Okay. So many people all around us have just said that cars are relevant. It's
07:14
terrible. And nobody's driven it yet. I mean, nobody that we trust. Driven it by virtue of the
07:18
spec sheet. They have driven the spec sheet. Cannot drive the spec sheet. So we're very excited
07:23
to drive it. We have, we have defended it only because nobody's driven it yet. We've gone,
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couldn't this be cool? Yes. And isn't and it doesn't need to be an 86. It's not, I mean,
07:33
it suggests that it is, but it doesn't need to be. Okay. Right. But the point I'm making here is,
07:38
I would like to see Toyota avoid what's happening with Honda and the prelude. I would like Toyota
07:44
to pick a spec for the MR2 where all of us just go, Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't care if it's
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hybrid or not. It could be hybrid, could be not hybrid, but it needs to be manual.
07:56
Absolutely. 100%. And Honda has proven with their CRV and pardon me, with their CRZ
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and with the old insight that you can do hybrid manual. They've proven it.
08:07
That's true. They were one of the only ones. Yes. And it worked. Yeah. So
08:11
I genuinely don't care if it's hybrid or not. But CVT and no manual is going to be terrible if
08:18
they do that. And we know there's people from Toyota that watch this show. And I just, I hope
08:22
that Toyota is listening to the market around them. And here's where I'm going.
08:25
Motor one asked automakers how many people are actually buying your manuals. So they went through
08:32
cars that automakers are making and how many are buying manuals. And so I'm going to run
08:37
through this list real quick. But I think it's fascinating. And I'm going to land on stuff that
08:41
relates to the MR2. Okay. The BMW M2 50% of buyers are manuals on the M2. That's great. BMW Z4. Now,
08:51
this is the last year of building, which is going to really matter for the Z4 because the Z4 manual
08:56
has only been out for like 18 months. The Z4 65% manuals. Really? Yes. It's great. The Blackwing
09:04
Cadillacs, just about 50-50. I'll take that for that big car. Absolutely. I think that's great.
09:09
A lot of people are going to buy those cars. This is already proving the market. We guess.
09:13
The Elantra N, which came out as a manual first and then has later followed with a DCT. So keep
09:18
that in mind and this stat is still 30% manual. The Amira, which I will admit came out first as
09:24
a manual and now you can buy the flappy paddle AMG motor. But the Lotus Amira is 86% take up with
09:33
V6 manual, 86% on the Amira. That's fantastic. It's great. Wow. The MX5 Miata, thankfully,
09:41
is 70%. 70% of the buyers are manuals, which is great. Porsche Boxster Cayman, 43%, 9-11,
09:48
37%. That's not bad. That's still good. That's still lower than I would think for those cars with
09:52
all the screaming that ensued when they took the manual away. But keep in mind how many people buy
09:56
them. The PDK is brilliant and people buy them to use them as dailies. That's the difference there.
10:01
The BRZ, 77% manuals. You're kidding me. Isn't that amazing? And then a quick lesson on what happens
10:08
when you make a CVT or only other option, the Subaru WRX. It's available as a CVT or a manual.
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87% of buyers are buying a manual in that car. What? But that's fantastic. I'm bringing this all
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back around to Toyota. If you're going to make an MR2, you tell sell two cars right now that are
10:27
sports cars available in manual. The GR86, 53% of buyers are manual and the Supra, 65%.
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All of this to say. Amazing. All of this to say. Toyota and other automakers. I don't want to hear it.
10:43
If you are selling a sports car and you say no one buys manuals, this is not Ferrari.
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Did they cover the Z-car, the Nissan Z-car? Was that in there? I don't have that on this list.
10:54
I'd be curious. I knew there was a lot of take up for that car too, one manual.
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And I'm very curious about what the interest is in the Nismo. The Nismo manual.
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Because it only is available in base manner right now. But anyway,
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sorry, keep going. That's all good. But I mean, this isn't the Ferrari situation.
11:07
Where the reason Ferrari stopped making manuals is it was 2% of buyers. 2%.
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I mean, I think legitimately you could argue it if it's less than 30%.
11:16
But most of the stats I read here are 50 and above. 50 and above. Now this is
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dedicated sports car chassis. So I realize you're focused on people that want to drive.
11:28
And it is very expensive to make a dedicated sports car chassis. But my point in all of this is
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the MR2 they say is coming. It's not like they're debating if they're going to do one.
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They say it's coming. So if it's coming, please, please, please Toyota.
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Yes. There are buyers make it a manual. I don't care if it's a hybrid.
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I'd like it to be hybrid manual. Candidly, a good hybrid manual. Let's do that. Let's make
11:48
another one. So there you go. The stats from motor one. I thought we're fascinating and here's
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where we are. That's good. I guess we could put it like this. Hey Toyota, hey all of you other
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car makers, we have saved the manuals. We did it, everyone. We got there.
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My son now has an endangered species manual shirt that I kind of want, except for the fact that
12:13
laced on these stats. I mean, you can buy them right now. The new shirt is it's off the endangered
12:17
species list. There you go. Saved. We saved it. We did it. There's a market that even speaks to
12:22
Ferrari because I wonder if, I mean, Ferrari will build any of their customers, anything if you
12:27
throw enough money at them. Notwithstanding. But if Ferrari were to bring back a manual option in
12:33
this now car environment, this modern day and age when everybody laments the manuals and wants it,
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I wonder if their take up would be above 30%. I do think you're right. If Ferrari made a manual,
12:43
they would sell a manual, but I'll give you the one I really hope is listening.
12:49
Chevrolet for the Corvette C9. That's great because they have a really good dual clutch now.
12:55
It's a really good dual clutch. Don't get rid of it. But make there needs to be a manual option.
13:01
Because, you know, I mean, and look, no one believes that internet commenters equal buyers.
13:08
No one believes that. True. This is buyer stats. Okay, that I'm reading all the stuff I'm talking
13:14
about is buyer stats. But the separate thing is the overwhelming number of comments when we do a
13:19
C8 video of will never buy one isn't available in manual. Last real Corvette was a C7. The C9,
13:28
another mid-engine, refined manual. Come on now. I also wonder, you know how much crap that Porsche
13:35
took for coming out with a manual transmission four cylinder mid-engine car? Sure. Now that it's
13:41
Toyota coming out with a two liter four cylinder. Well, it's Toyota and it'll run and Toyota said,
13:47
well, this two liter needs to work with hybrid technology, whether it is paired or not. Maybe
13:51
it's an option. Sure. Maybe offer two different trim levels. Possibly. Will anybody give Toyota the
13:57
same kind of crap? Like, well, you just built a four cylinder. Even the Amira four cylinder is sort
14:01
of like, eh, we'll take the six cylinder manual. But the MR2 has been a four cylinder before. That's
14:06
the difference. I guess that's the only saving grace. And it's a small and small Japanese sports
14:12
cars are able to be four cylinder. That's true. But when it comes to Porsche wise, well, it's
14:17
the sounds terrible. People forget the 912. You know, but the 912 was never like a 912, except
14:23
for now when 911 prices are crazy and suddenly the 912. Moving on. Good news, everyone. I just got
14:28
a confirmation email from Longbow Motors confirming. Happened almost in real time. It did. Yes. I mean,
14:35
it's almost like they use an automated system or something. Crazy. Yeah. Thank you for crafting
14:38
your dream car. Your bespoke configuration has been securely saved, allowing you to revisit,
14:42
refine and share your leisure where whenever inspiration calls, the front paint work is
14:46
verdant crest green and I accidentally chose Sherwood Dawn green for the rear. Yes, you did.
14:51
And silver black wheels. That's not really my configuration. I need to work hard on this and
14:55
resave. I need to go back to it and resave. I'm sure they will take your email again. Confirmation.
14:59
They will happily do that. Am I ready to take the next step though and reserve my Longbow?
15:04
I think money's an issue. They would like. I mean, this is the Tesla model. They would really
15:09
like you to make a reservation so they can spend your money now. Yeah. Warm regards.
15:13
Team Longbow. Love it.
15:16
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off by using the code driver10 at griotsgarage.com. Oh, do we have a topic Tuesday? It is lengthy.
16:13
It is fun. And we will not solve it. I'm just I'm calling my shot now. We're not going to solve this.
16:17
Somebody's going to get thrown clear. We're going to talk about it. It's going to be crazy.
16:21
Fan is writing in Jonathan fans writing in and he is got questions about turning someone
16:26
into a car enthusiast. Is it possible? That's where he goes. And then he gives us history.
16:32
He loves listening to the podcast. We love that you're with us. He's originally from China recently
16:36
in the last recent time moved to Finland. And his younger sister is moving from China to Canada
16:43
to go to college. He describes it as no visible car culture in China. That's where he says he
16:49
was raised. He learned to drive in China. He said not only is traffic in China terrible,
16:56
but modifying cars is essentially illegal to the point that changing from 16 inch factory wheels to
17:02
17s is not allowed, let alone wings, body kits, ECU tunes, all of that is out. Also culturally,
17:10
I'd never heard this, culturally, there is an underground feeling. If you like cars and do
17:15
anything to cars, that results if people like fan become somebody in that culture in China,
17:20
you're kind of perceived as being with the wrong crowd, like the bad kid with the wrong crowd.
17:25
So he was never really able to get fully into cars in China, but he drove his parents car.
17:32
We're talking Civic Volvo XC60 Lexus ES. Now they have a BYDEV. His dad, think about what we're
17:45
having culture or tuning all of this stuff's out. So that's how fan was raised. His dad's owned
17:52
a Buick, which is very popular in China, a Camry, a Civic, other stuff that he's already mentioned.
17:58
But in 2023, he moved to Finland. In 2024, he bought his first car, a 2021 hybrid Yaris. He
18:05
chose it because it was small, economical and felt like a perfect A to B tool, except for the fact
18:10
that now he started to like it like like driving cars. He always wanted something small. His parents
18:15
always bought big SUVs. He realized Finnish roads were great and the traffic was actually usable.
18:20
He could like go places. So he wanted to be able to drive manual and have fun. So he bought a 2020
18:27
Civic Type R. Well done. First manual loves it, watched countless reviews, couldn't believe it
18:34
when he actually was able to buy one. He said it is pretty much amazing. He said he would have gone
18:39
for the Civic Si, but it's not available in Europe. He did rent a Civic Si when he traveled to LA
18:44
and was amazed with how well it drove. But his 2020 Civic Type R is practically a dream car.
18:50
He's done a little bit to it. Wing, people give him thumbs up. He goes to car events. He's embracing
18:57
his car person. He's embracing car culture. You see where this is going. Dad's coming for a visit.
19:05
Said in a year, he's already put about 36,000 kilometers on the Type R. He agrees with our
19:10
philosophy. Drive your fun car. Don't just let it sit. His is stage one tune, BC racing coilovers.
19:15
He's planning a downpipe intercooler, an intake to make more powerful, but still daily friendly.
19:20
Clearly, these things are legal in Finland. Exactly. His car is his life, his hobby, and the
19:26
way he connects with people. And he never plans to sell it ever. Interesting. We'll see if that
19:32
holds. But interesting. Yeah. Okay, got it. He's physically healthy. Plants keep driving. Love it.
19:35
So one of the best surprises is the social side. Fan writes in China, this would almost never happen.
19:42
Here, he says in Finland, kids get excited when they see his car. Strangers give him a thumbs up
19:46
or say nice car. And sometimes people even come over to talk about it. Finnish people have a
19:51
reputation for being introverted. But when it comes to cars, they open right up. I'm loving the
19:56
cultural lessons that are buried in this email. It's really, really cool. I love this. So when
20:00
fan wrote to us, his dad and sister came to visit him, showed him the car, they thought it looked
20:05
a bit cool because of the wing. But once he showed them the acceleration, he knew they weren't car
20:12
people. His dad said it was too loud, even though the fake cabin sound has been removed, and his
20:17
sister was scared of the acceleration. Probably never experienced it before. I'm certain that she
20:22
hasn't. Yeah. And as you said, fans dad sees a car purely as a tool. He can't understand why
20:27
someone would own more than one car or why people would take photos of fans car.
20:34
Damn, it's just a car. Civic with a wing. Yep. He's driven manuals for 35 years, some without
20:40
synchros, but he couldn't comprehend why a fan would switch from automatic back to manual. He
20:44
said to his dad, that's going backwards. He's very pro, full self-driving. He's all about
20:50
FSD, full self-driving. When fan told him he worked hard to try to drive his car extra smoothly,
20:55
his dad said, why would you make extra effort when an automatic can do it for you?
21:01
Thinking about all of this from fans dad's perspective, you see his logic. His logic's
21:06
faultless. It's just use a car to get through traffic as a tool. What are you doing, son?
21:11
His dad got angry and upset when fan told him he was practicing heel and toe. He thought it was
21:15
completely useless and just trying to look cool. He said fans into cars too much because to him
21:22
it sounds dangerous even though he's always a very responsible driver. He's that bad kid.
21:27
By the way, fan is 33, by the way. I don't want to put that out there. He's not a bad kid at all,
21:31
but this is fascinating. I'm enjoying the cultural clash going on here.
21:36
Fan's sister just turned 18, doesn't want to drive at all. She's headed to Vancouver for
21:39
college and said she'll rely on public transit or friends cars. Which you can do in Vancouver,
21:44
I get it. Yeah. She wants to travel to the US, but even then she'd rather take Uber or Waymo
21:49
or let friends drive. His dad agrees she shouldn't even drive if she's not interested and they both
21:54
figured they'll just wait for full self-driving to become mainstream. I mean, I look at the
22:02
progression of fan's dad. I look at mainstream. Yeah, China and that kind of stuff. Mainstream.
22:07
I can understand why they don't want to drive, why they want full self-driving. I see how they
22:11
got there, but okay. Yeah, it's not like that's happening next week. We'll see. So he asks us
22:17
because we've mentioned in our podcast intro before that we think everyone is one great car
22:21
from being a car person. Is it possible to get his father and his sister to be car people?
22:29
Should he encourage his sister to try for a license? Should he get them in a Miata when they visit?
22:35
Should he kind of, I hate to put it this way, force feed them car culture until they go,
22:39
oh, I get it. Is this going to work is what he's asking. This is tough and I don't think there's
22:45
a straight answer, but I have many thoughts. I'm going to start with your thought that you said,
22:51
I can't remember. It's been years now. And that is about cars themselves, a classification of
22:58
car turning somebody into an enthusiast, EVs or Teslas for a specific example. Sure. Yeah. The
23:03
people who bought Teslas might never have thought, I like cars, but then they bought their Tesla and
23:08
realized I like cars, but it's that segment of cars. Yes. Yes. There's life for GM people.
23:14
I don't know if you know anyone. My father. Yes. GM cars. I'm into cars, but you're only into GM cars.
23:21
I know people that are into Sobs. You have met a couple. Yes. Hello, my family. Yes. Sobs. Yes.
23:26
Or I've lost count. It astonishes me that people so not into cars can be so into Sobs. My nephew
23:34
is turning into a car guy because he's doing his own wrenching and he's ordered parts from
23:38
FCP Euro to keep a sob because FCP Euro has sob parts. Where else are you going to get them?
23:43
And he's so overjoyed. He was like, this is great. I can order a new water pump and he's doing the
23:48
water pump and oil change and he's taking care of his sob. He's turning. It's so exciting. He's
23:52
turning into a car guy. Good. I love it though. It's great. As far as waiting for full self-driving
23:57
fan, I still think this is years away and I think this is going to be limited to regions where it
24:04
operates best by virtue of weather and cities. Yes, but that's probably how his parents are
24:11
going to interact with a car is going to be city areas. You know what? I'm all about full self-driving
24:17
too for people that can't drive, specifically my dad. He is no longer able to drive and that alone
24:24
will open up so much quality of life for people who cannot drive themselves. It will make accessibility
24:31
for so many things that it will change their lives and allow them a higher quality of living.
24:36
I am all about it from that standpoint. Well, and I also think about the fact that people,
24:40
and it sounds like fans, family is kind of in there, people who are frightened of driving or
24:45
considered an extra stressor. And if you know you're a bad driver, the rest of us don't really
24:50
want you driving. Well, and also look, if we're talking bumper to bumper traffic, none of us
24:56
want to do that driving. That's exactly what the car should do. True. True. Keep going.
25:02
But there is a flip side to the autonomous driving, at least as it stands right now.
25:07
On January 1st, 2026, an autonomous Waymo taxi took a wrong turn and drove straight
25:12
into an active fire scene in Los Angeles. Well, and there was the other thing where there was
25:16
a power outage in San Francisco and they all bricked themselves. Yes, they bricked themselves.
25:20
Waymos have been caught illegally passing a school bus with the lights flashing,
25:22
the stop sign deployed. That was a line of code that got missed. Yikes. Don't do that.
25:29
Yeah, true. Yeah. And you see a school bus doing that. And from a recent article from
25:34
Financial Times written by John Thornhill, published January 8th, 2026, quoting,
25:39
over the past 15 years, industry players have spent more than $100 billion trying and failing
25:45
to achieve full level five autonomy, meaning no human intervention required, promise deadlines
25:51
have come and gone, a slew of autonomous startups have run out of money, several large car companies
25:56
have abandoned the idea completely, and the industry still has not reached its goal. True.
26:02
Now, on the counterpoint, I read something this week about Alex Roy and a couple others did do a
26:07
full Tesla cannonball run where it was on FSD from start to finish. Yes. Apparently,
26:12
there were no interventions. So you've got there was a 90 minute detour I read that
26:16
you got the victories and the failures. Well, okay, fine. But as long as the car knew where it
26:20
was going, they didn't know where it was going, but the car do. But point is there's progress that's
26:24
been made. There's difficulties that are happening. I do see the value of it for fans family. Can we
26:31
bring them around? The pursuit of this will never ever stop. And it's going to happen at some point.
26:36
I agree. And I welcome that. As a matter of fact, Nvidia just announced their new suite of AI
26:42
self driving technology called Alpameo. And I'm not referring to the mountaintop in Peru,
26:47
that is 19,511 feet tall. That looks cold. I'm referring to Alpameo. Whoa, the suite of AI.
26:55
It's like chat GPT ran into a Nvidia processor and somebody learning to drive and they're teaching
27:02
it. There's chat GPT. There's AI. There's everything built into this new suite. And so
27:06
Nvidia is very much behind this and still pushing on it. And I like to see there's been there's
27:12
been struggles. Let's, uh, let's put it that way. Will society accept human deaths
27:21
at all at any level? And up to this point, society has accepted human deaths. That's a good point.
27:27
Just a part of what we know is coming. We, well, but hang on though, I'll go one further. Society
27:32
has accepted human deaths was human behind the wheel. People die in car wrecks. True. And you
27:38
may know people still some guy that was sitting passenger seat or in the back or something.
27:43
And well, look, I'm not saying that the, that the full self-driving systems have not had human
27:48
deaths. But the point I'm making is in general, we as a culture have mostly accepted people are
27:54
going to die while driving cars. We've mostly accepted that and cars have gotten much, much
27:59
safer in the last 15, 25 years. They've gotten significantly safer yet again. I'm not even
28:04
talking any kind of helpful, full self-driving smart cruising drivers talking drivers behind
28:09
the wheel, but yet we accept drivers will be injured and killed every year. What's interesting
28:15
is tragic. What happens and what's the acceptance rate of it happening behind the wheel when the
28:23
computer is driving? Are we okay with it? Because so far we've kind of been outraged when the
28:28
computer does it. Will we get to a place where it just happens in general and the computers are
28:32
doing it now? If the humans do it, it's fine. But if the machines do it, the machine shouldn't be
28:36
able to kill humans. Yes. And then the flip side, sorry, I'm going down a whole separate
28:40
rabbit trail, but there's so few plane crashes comparatively to like volume of numbers, people
28:46
that die in cars versus die in plane crashes. There is outrage when a plane goes down. Not
28:51
saying there shouldn't be, but I'm just saying there's outrage. But if the number of planes
28:55
went down to equal the number of car deaths, can we imagine the outrage? I have been on a flight
29:01
where just before the wheels touched Tarmac, just before he graces it on, Captain got on the radio
29:08
and said, on the intercom and said, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to I forget where we're going
29:12
and we're about to land here and you're about to start the most dangerous part of your journey.
29:18
Oh, wow. Yeah. And he touched down and he's like, be safe out there while you're driving.
29:24
And everybody was just like, oh my gosh. Interesting point. He was driving at home,
29:30
man. That's fascinating. All right. Flying is safe, you know, to your point. Absolutely it is.
29:34
Statistically speaking, and he drove that point home for everybody and we're all just sort of going
29:40
right. Excited to drive now. I'm headed to the rental car counter now.
29:44
It's okay. But fan, thank you for writing this. I'm really intrigued by your commentary and I do
29:50
think people can turn into car people. I'm seeing it with my own family right before my very eyes.
29:55
That's true. Good point. Yeah. And I never expected my brother-in-law to,
29:59
there was some car love. He had a 1950 Mercury named Nina. Okay. And he loved that car. Okay.
30:05
It left his life and he raised a family and, you know, is coming back in and loving cars. And I
30:09
love that he's rediscovering cars. It just happens to be sobbed. I just can't believe it. Which is
30:15
amazing. It is shocking. It really is. Yeah. Any car, any car brand can do that to somebody from
30:22
Tesla's to car companies that no longer exist. But the sob community is huge and FCP Euro has
30:28
parts. Have you heard? It's crazy. It really is. Also, the experiences that we have in cars and the
30:34
longer we do this show, the more road trips that we go on, the more events we have, the more track
30:39
days we do. It's about the experiences in those cars and the experience that you associate with
30:44
cars. And when you accomplish something, you do a corner right, you have a twisty road and you're
30:52
beside the ocean and the breezes in your hair, some kind of experience that really sticks with you,
30:57
then you associate it with cars. So I don't want to commoditize experiences. It's just a thing to
31:04
get you from this point to this point. What if you're doing that point to that point for the
31:09
purposes of fun only? What if that's the only reason? Does that still count? It should, but we're
31:14
not commoditizing. Well, I have to get to work. That's it. I have to get to the store. True. I'm
31:21
just going for a drive because over here is lunch and then we're going to have a great drive back
31:27
and what a great day and we're with friends. And so I want to continually emphasize that whatever
31:32
we do as drivers, whatever car that we own, we're not commoditizing that experience. Even though
31:37
we use cars sometimes for that purpose, to get us around for that purpose. But then it's also
31:45
this incredible freedom. And you said it before, nowhere in the history of mankind has man ever
31:51
been offered, humans been offered such freedom that a car provides. Agreed. Agreed. The places
31:57
that it takes us, that's the key thing I want to hit on here, fan, is I'm going to show real
32:02
quickly. I'm going to show this crazy photo that I found. It's just a massive Chinese intersection
32:09
of freeways. And if you can't see it, imagine four to eight lanes in all directions in all four
32:17
corners of the compass. What city is this? I don't even know. I pulled up traffic images of
32:22
China and I had my pick. There were tons. There's so much stop and go in China and it looks like
32:30
the worst photos you've seen of LA, but just all over the country. LA's up there. LA's up there.
32:34
Well, I mean, every year, every year, Thanksgiving weekend, they have a traffic
32:38
watch cam that is solid lanes like eight each way. And it's it's bright white lights going one way
32:44
and bright red tail lights going the other. And it's just gridlock. You don't even see any space.
32:49
Fan, this is what your father has experienced. Yeah. I want him to have an automatic with full
32:54
self driving. I 100%. I want that for him. I wanted to have it right now. I want all of these people.
32:59
I hope. Yes, I hope his BYD has fantastic smart cruise control and almost drives itself because
33:05
nobody wants to sit in terrible traffic. I don't know, honestly, that you're going to be able to
33:11
make your father or your sister car enthusiasts. But what I do think is possible, what I do think
33:18
is possible is to get them to see a glimmer of what you've become attracted to. And when we've
33:26
talked about one car away from being a car enthusiast, I think you have to initially
33:31
be car curious. Fair. But the big thing here, and you've already touched on it, is you're
33:37
going to need to do something with a car that you couldn't do without a car and sitting in traffic
33:43
can't be it. And so I'm going to show you another image that is one of my favorite sections of
33:48
Bare Tooth Pass. It's just an incredible and that angle is kind of interesting because we
33:54
actually stop at this overlook and we actually look down at this lake and it's in our Bare Tooth
33:58
Pass piece that we released first of the year. An amazing road. But here's the interesting thing
34:03
about Bare Tooth Pass and a lot of other roads in the US and there's roads like this elsewhere.
34:07
But I'm thinking about roads in the US. The interesting thing is there are lots of roads
34:11
in the world that take you amazing places, overlooks the middle of nowhere, whatever.
34:18
Without a car, you would never get there. And there's stats out there about before the
34:23
invention of the car and the train. Most people were born, lived and died within 100 mile radius
34:28
of wherever they were born. And now we go thousands of miles. And of course we've got
34:31
aircraft and a bunch of other things. But do it a weekend. Totally. But cars are very unique
34:37
in that unlike planes, I mean, you can go to Alaska and you can talk float planes and crazy
34:40
stuff. But most people can have a car experience. Most people in industrialized world can own a
34:50
car at some point. And that car can take you somewhere you've never imagined that you never
34:55
thought you'd see that you would never hiked to flown to ever. And it's one of my favorite things
35:01
when we do these road trips is when you and I get somewhere. And I'm not only amazed that we're
35:05
seeing whatever that whatever it is, whatever it is. But I'm amazed that the car brought me here.
35:10
That thing I just climbed out of that I also like brought me here.
35:15
That is the unique thing of cars. And so fan what I want you to do. I don't want you to
35:21
enthusiast car scare your family to try to get them to come around. That's never going to work.
35:25
What I would like you to do is figure out places. Look, you said your sister is going to go to
35:28
Vancouver. Can you and your dad meet your sister in Vancouver and you rent an interesting car?
35:35
Not a fast car. It's not necessary, right? We're in a decent car, something that has that that has
35:41
controlled body roll. Fun ish exactly so that it has good dynamics doesn't need to be fast,
35:46
and don't even try to drive it fast. But take your father and your sister somewhere you can
35:51
only see because you drove there. A fun drive that's not from traffic. Yes, that's not the
35:56
center of the Chinese city. Yeah, that's something more like a bear tooth pass where you just you
36:01
get to go. I can't believe we're here and we're here because the car brought us here. Yeah,
36:05
hopefully a good road to get you there. It has twists and turns and scenery. My wife has the
36:12
biggest love hate relationship with this part of the experience. It's in the bear tooth piece.
36:17
She starts to get she starts to get so terrified of all the things she can't control. But at the
36:23
same time, there is there's almost an equal part of her that cannot believe this cool place she is
36:27
and how awesome the scenery is. And those two parts of her it's like watching a live war inside
36:31
my wife in the passenger seat. It makes me laugh so hard because she's just worrying with herself.
36:36
Okay. But there is something magical about I got here. It's beautiful and the car brought me.
36:42
So I'm not sweaty or exhausted or any of these things. I mean, look, bear tooth past you can
36:46
bike. I don't want to do that. But you can. Yeah, you just got to experience this in luxury and
36:53
comfort and dynamics wise, kind of like a roller coaster, some g force fun. You got to feel the
37:01
forces at play while you were protected. Have a cup holder, the air conditioning is blowing or
37:07
heated seats or whatever it is. This is the experience that I want you to introduce your
37:10
family to because I think that is the place where you could actually have a good experience with
37:15
them. But you can't force it and you've got to go slow. And I don't know that your sister,
37:20
it makes any sense for her to drive. But these kind of driving experiences are what I want you
37:25
to share because I think what you can get them to is not necessarily car love, but car appreciation.
37:31
And I'm going to give you a counterpoint without the extreme because I'm sure they exist the
37:36
extreme corners of YouTube. Do you know any microwave enthusiasts? They just they're excited
37:43
about microwaves. No, I mean, I'm sure they're out there. Somebody's going to send us links. But my
37:49
point is there's got to be a rating and reviews. There's not a known part of culture that's just
37:53
like excited about microwaves. Yeah. Okay, because ultimately what does it do? It cooks your food
37:59
or your refrigerator. Okay, ultimately it keeps your food cold. Yeah. These are appliances. And
38:04
if all you're doing is you're using a car to get through a waiting period of your life, which is
38:10
what a microwave does. I have raw food. I need cooked food. Okay, it's what your refrigerator does.
38:15
I need food that doesn't spoil. Okay, I'll put I mean, you literally used to be like cold sacks.
38:21
Okay, yeah, it's all we're talking about appliances are things that manage your waiting.
38:25
Hmm. Cars can do that, which they do when they are a commute device, but they can also be a
38:31
conduit to fun and experience and your microwave can't do that. That's good. Okay, so I want
38:37
to philosophy right now. I'm hoping so. The book of Todd, I don't know the point I'm making is I
38:42
want you to actually get some life experience with your family and a car. And I think then they will
38:47
see a glimmer of the joy you get. And if you don't become a worse person while you are a person
38:54
that loves cars and they've had little glimmers of how a car can do something special, I think they
38:58
will appreciate that you love it and why even though I don't know they'll ever be getting in the car
39:03
themselves. Fan, I have a question to ask you and only you can answer this and that is the
39:08
Chinese culture forbidden part of this, the bad kid part of it, because it was looked down upon,
39:14
did that influence you to make you want to do it more? That was, was any part of that?
39:18
Is fan a rebel? Well, we know fans are rebel, but how much did that influence your decision?
39:26
And the second part is for all of you watching, you showed another road in our last car debate
39:32
from Michael number two. I did, yes. And it was just road, no cars, no nothing. It was just scenery
39:37
and road. Great squiggle, yeah. Bare tooth highway, just road, no cars while there were a few cars
39:42
of the turnouts. But still, there's an opportunity on an episode basis, maybe once in a while to just
39:47
show roads. Just doesn't it inspire us? Don't you want to be there and doesn't make you want to
39:54
buy a fun car and just take it to wherever the road. Take it to that road. It could be a whole
39:59
new section of we're just showing roads. We're just teasing you. That's what our adventure should do.
40:05
This is what our adventures are about. This is why I mean, watch our bear tooth piece where we
40:09
talked about how to drive, test drive multiple cars on a great road. It's that piece that dropped
40:13
the beginning of the year right on January 1st. This is what our adventures are about. We want
40:16
to take you to an amazing road like bear tooth, like the Great Ones in Utah. We're going to Laguna
40:21
Seca area, Monterey here in May. That trip's already sold out. Thank you guys for that trip,
40:25
like that, which is awesome. We just want to take you and have a fun, these experiences we're talking
40:30
about. Look, Pacific Coast Highway. We should just so show roads. The Big Sur area Pacific Coast
40:35
Highway. Without that road there and a car, how many people would see that? That would be a treacherous
40:42
hike to get to sections of it or you take somebody's low flying aircraft and you
40:49
stare at it like the coasts of Kauai. It's that kind of thing. This is what the car does.
40:54
Fan, thank you for writing. If you've got a topic Tuesday that's combative like all-wheel drive is
40:59
dumb or maybe a little bit more controversial in any way, but just we'd love to hear your
41:05
topic Tuesdays because we love debating and we love leaving an open-ended and more so to have
41:10
your opinions so you can write to us and weigh in on the conversation too. EverydayDriverTV at
41:15
gmail.com. Since you're listening to us, you'll end up shopping for your next car very soon.
41:21
And when you do, you need autotempest.com. Any car, anywhere at any price,
41:25
autotempest searches all the major car listening sites on the web, local or nationwide.
41:30
And autotempest has recently added price history for every car listed so you can see how prices
41:34
are trending and know if you found a good deal. You can also create search alerts and lists of
41:39
saved searches so you can find your perfect spec even easier next time. Search on any device in
41:44
your browser or as an app for Apple iOS and Android. New, used or unexpected, autotempest is how we
41:50
search for cars. Go to autotempest.com slash everyday so they know we sent you. Autotempest,
41:56
all the cars. One search. Hooked on driving and EverydayDriver announcements coming up.
42:02
Kota, we're going back to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. We are very excited.
42:07
That is May 30th, Saturday and May 31st, Sunday, two day HPDE weekend. We're very excited to return.
42:15
We're hoping to do another live podcast from Kota. We'll see. But otherwise, you can sign up right
42:21
now hooked on driving.com and register. Register for two days. Going to be great coaching, excellent
42:26
food and such a fun time. And if you've never been to Kota, this is your year to come because the
42:32
track is superb. It's just so much fun to drive. We will definitely be there and we're looking
42:37
forward to seeing you there. So come to Kota. Also, we've got EverydayDriver,
42:40
pilgrimage trip coming up in August. That is going to be our best. Look,
42:44
we've done this trip for a decade. It's going to be our best one ever. I know already.
42:47
Man, I've just been looking back at photos that we've taken over past years.
42:51
It's just so much fun. You've got to come on this trip. Come with us. It is a little bit more
42:57
expensive from August 2 to August 9. But the reason for that is because it's two full days
43:02
on Spa-Francorchamps and a road tour and one full day on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. But
43:09
it's also a little bit padded to make it partner friendly, bring your spouse, bring a friend.
43:14
But you can also just enjoy yourself. So it's not going to be quite as tight and we've really
43:18
wanted to compress it. But people have requested, can you just like make a little breathing room on
43:22
either end, which we have done? But that's not the cost thing. The cost thing is, I'm going to put
43:25
it this way, 50% more track day. We've got, instead of two track days, it's three. And that's where
43:30
the cost comes from because you're in Europe on an F1 track, you have a car, fuel instructor,
43:35
lunch, everything's provided. It is all-encompassing, all-inclusive so far. If you compare that to any
43:40
other track day or road trip experience in the US, it is on parity, not including flights. We
43:50
don't do flights because we don't know where in the world you're coming from. And if you use points
43:53
or you upgrade yourself, that is on you. But get yourself there starting in Frankfurt, Germany.
43:57
And from there, it is on parity with any other track and road experience.
44:03
Yes, domestic-related road experience. And this is three days on two of the best tracks on the
44:12
planet and great food, great people. A couple of tourist days. It's going to be spectacular.
44:17
I don't think anything comes close. I don't think it does either. Not in our experience or fun. And
44:21
we have so much fun every time we come. So we'd love for you to come with us. If you have any
44:25
questions at all about that trip, every day driver, TV at Gmail, please write it. Please ask
44:28
those questions. There's a bunch of information on our website, everydaydriver.com slash adventures.
44:33
There's tons of information there. But I had somebody write me just this week and asked questions
44:37
beyond the FAQ. And I was like, bring it. Let's talk about it. And what's even cooler is he signed
44:41
up. Awesome. So he's coming. It's going to be great. We also have a lot of hooked-on driving
44:45
trips coming up. Our season actually kicks off in the mid-Atlantic region. We just had our first
44:50
event of the year just happened in the Pacific Northwest. But at Atlanta Motorsports Park,
44:55
on February 21st and 22nd, they're doing an event there with them in Atlantic, which is great.
45:00
The first California event is February 28th and March 1st at Laguna Seca Race Track. It's going
45:05
to be awesome. We'll be there in May for the Monterey Adventure. This is the first one of the
45:09
year. And then back in the Pacific Northwest, March 14th and 15th at the ridge, one of our very
45:14
favorite tracks. It's just a great track. So that's happening there. Lots more coming.
45:17
Lemon's memory is there. Big time. So go to hookedondriving.com. You can find our whole schedule
45:22
or the track days near you with a local region. Since you're listening to us, you'll end up
45:27
shopping for your next car very soon. And when you do, you need autotempest.com. Any car,
45:33
anywhere at any price, autotempest searches all the major car listening sites on the web, local,
45:37
or nationwide. And autotempest has recently added price history for every car listed,
45:42
so you can see how prices are trending and know if you found a good deal. You can also
45:46
create search alerts and lists of saved searches so you can find your perfect spec even easier
45:50
next time. Search on any device in your browser or as an app for Apple iOS and Android. New,
45:56
used, or unexpected, autotempest is how we search for cars. Go to autotempest.com
46:01
slash everyday so they know we sent you. Autotempest, all the cars. One search.
46:08
Aaron writes to us from Toronto. He's a long time listener, first time caller. Aaron,
46:13
thank you for writing. Very good. He's been enjoying the content over the last few years and
46:16
he's looking forward to the podcast and the odd days he's forced to commute into the office on
46:20
the train. Okay. He's in Toronto, as I mentioned, he's used to help his dad move cars around the
46:26
province of Ontario as he was and still is a car wholesaler. Okay. Aaron drove everything from a
46:32
$50 Ford Escort with a hole in the floor on the way to the junkyard. That's terrifying. Does.
46:36
To a $200,000 plus dollar SL 65 AMG, everything in between. So those experiences definitely
46:43
influence his passion for cars. Aaron now lives in the suburbs with his wife and two kids both
46:48
under five years old. He works from home 85% of the time and occasionally has to walk to the train
46:54
and then head into the office. So he doesn't drive for work very frequently. On the other hand,
46:59
his wife is a health care professional, spends several days a week on the road visiting patients
47:03
in their homes and frequently has to deal with less than ideal parking conditions. So she's
47:08
always preferred driving something not too big and with all wheel drive to help with winter
47:11
conditions. I see it. Yep. She can't drive manual, has no interest in learning. It's fine. All right.
47:16
Aaron and his household, they have presently have four cars. By the way, they have two kids under
47:21
five and four cars. I have no leg to stand on, by the way. I have five cars at the house right
47:25
now and we almost have a third license driver, but I'm just noting we're car people around here.
47:29
That's all I'm saying. Aaron's got a 2019 Mazda CX-5 with the turbo. That's his wife's daily
47:33
2015 Honda Odyssey. Aaron's daily driver and the car they often use when they haul the whole family
47:39
plus the in-laws. Of course that happens. Aaron's got a 2023 Nd2 Miata six speed manual
47:46
soft top, one of his fun cars. And he also has a 997.2 911 Carrera S 2010 Carrera S
47:56
six speed manual on that one. Coop also his fun car. And so both the Miata and the 997 are stored
48:01
in the winters because he can't bring himself to subject, subject cars to the sloppy brine.
48:06
I get it. He's applied on the roads. He's added child seats to the back of the Porsche to give
48:11
himself more opportunities to drive it with the kids. But the drives aren't long enough and sometimes
48:16
he just hops into the Odyssey. Of course you do. Get the kids in and out easier on that stuff. He
48:20
says the Porsche is fairly tight if he jams the whole family in it. And so drives longer than 30
48:25
minutes aren't very well tolerated. The reality here is he says he puts maybe a thousand kilometers,
48:31
not miles, a thousand kilometers on each of these cars in any calendar year. He loves them both.
48:37
He says he adores both the Miata and the 997.2. They're cars that he's always wanted. He loves
48:42
thrashing around. They both make him happy. There's a side note here where he talks about
48:46
the fact that even though he loves that 911, he actually prefers the Miata because he gets
48:53
to floor it everywhere. He gets to feel like he's using it and he feels like the 997 is wasted the
48:58
way he normally gets driving. Again, we're talking a thousand kilometers a year, but it's mostly
49:02
going slow in traffic, not doing the stuff he wants because he's trying to take the kids with him.
49:06
So the 997 doesn't even feel like he's using as well as he would like even though he loves it.
49:11
The Miata he feels like he's using, but again, less than a thousand kilometers a year.
49:16
Guess which car is going away, everyone? Well, he's offering them both up though,
49:21
the Miata and the 997. This is the question. Guess where he's going is not expected.
49:25
Yeah, he loves the Miata, but it seems like he's actually considering selling the Porsche before
49:31
the Miata. Even though you're right, both are on the table. Is he nuts to consider swapping them out
49:35
for a Civic Type R? He drove the FK8 generation so that is the 10th generation,
49:43
but the styling was too much. For many of us. You were not alone, Aaron.
49:47
The base Civic was too much. It was a lot. It was a lot going on there.
49:51
So now he's been gravitating towards the FL5, that is the 11th generation Civic Type R.
49:57
He catches himself spending his idle time at night looking up other cars.
50:01
Nobody else here does that. He's all alone. You're the only one.
50:05
So is he nuts to consider selling the 997.2 for about 80,000 Canadian? He said he used
50:12
FL5 Civic Type R seems to be around 60 in Canada, which objectively is crazy because it's above
50:18
MSRP, but scarcity and demand and all that stuff. And if a 2026 model year were to be released in
50:24
Canada, he thinks dealers would be asking about 70,000 Canadian, which is a lot.
50:29
So what should he do? I've got choices for Aaron. I'm excited. Here is the FL5 generation. So this
50:37
is the 11th generation. And I love it. It's an amazing car. Yeah. Every time that you see these
50:43
cars, Honda always pictures them on tracks. True. They never see them really just driving around.
50:49
All the Honda press photos are all track photos. It's a very good one. Every single one you're
50:52
like, Oh, that's a run. Nope. That's a track right there. Yep, that is unless the road near
50:55
you has FI spec. If they're painting curbing, then your road is cooler than ours. Yeah.
51:00
So for that reason, Aaron, as cool as I think they are, I also think you need to drive
51:06
the Integra Type S. I see it because this does everything you're talking about without being
51:12
the boy race or Civic Type R. True. It's true. The gentleman's. It is more discerning choice.
51:18
If you're not doing a lot of tracking, even though people do track these for sure. Yeah.
51:21
But we just recently drove one in our road trip test drive piece on Beartooth. Rudy
51:26
Mylene were gracious enough to allow us to drive theirs and remind ourselves what a fantastic
51:31
car it is for commuting. It's got incredible power. It's a Civic Type R. Just the seats are
51:37
brilliant. Everything about it is just so much fun. So I think this has got to be high on your
51:41
list to at least drive and experience and just feel the differences in the suspension, the power
51:46
delivery, all of that. But I kept going. And what I noticed just recently in the Genesis,
51:53
at least the Genesis USA website, the Sport Prestige with the 2.5-liter turbo engine is
52:00
no longer available. Really? It is just the Prestige. So of all the flavors. So they're just
52:07
doing the V6 now? The 2.5 is still available, but just in a non-sport trim. Oh, I see.
52:15
It's base. It's prestige, luxury. Got it. And then you move to the 3.3,
52:19
which is where you find sport once again. Do you find sport there for sure? Yes.
52:22
So this, I think, is the sweet spot. The Sport Prestige 2.5-liter keeps the price down. Now,
52:28
it's not an automatic, but that does mean your wife could drive it. And for your young kids,
52:32
it doesn't matter that the back seat is a little bit cramped. Nobody cares.
52:35
And what a fun car to drive. Auto-only, but you're right. She could drive it.
52:39
Luxury and the sport part really was a little bit disappointing, but maybe there just weren't too
52:45
many takers. But used, I bet you could find easily from the price range that you're thinking of,
52:50
60K Canadian and under. I think these were $49,000 US, so I think these would be easily in the
52:57
sweet spot. So if you're searching for a Genesis G70, my recommendation is the Sport Prestige
53:02
just from a year or two back. I also kept going, because if we're going to talk fun
53:08
Dadmobiles, the Audi RS3 has got to be on your list. That's a good one. I didn't think of that one.
53:13
That's a great one. Just like this car showing a 2025 on screen here. We'll table the all-wheel
53:18
drive conversation for purposes of this. Understood. Yes. Debate, but all-wheel drive.
53:25
It's got the cool, punchy five-cylinder engine. It makes a different noise. It's fun to drive.
53:31
Interesting, different choice, and it's compact. It is. It's surprisingly little in a good way.
53:37
In a good way. I'm looking for that thing that Aaron, you identified is just easy to live with,
53:43
easy to get into, easy to get the kids in and out of. You don't really have to think about it,
53:47
but yet you still want fun. You still want, I want to get out there, but Audi, you don't have to
53:51
worry about this all in the brine, and you can just go. But I kept going. I like the compact idea.
53:56
I like the G70. I love your Honda and Acura ideas, but I'm going to throw a wild card at you,
54:04
Cadillac CT4, the Blackwing, my friend, because also slightly used, let's say 2024,
54:12
you could go find one of these and have loads of power, loads of fun, your choice of transmission
54:18
options, and what a cool dad car rear wheel drive. So no all wheel drive found here, but
54:27
yeah, I think you could really enjoy the CT5, sorry, CT4 Blackwing. We drove that car and
54:35
it lived up to the hype, Aaron. It's awesome. It lived up to what I expected a feeling to come away,
54:40
not just going, this is GM, this is Cadillac, but this is a genuinely fun, interesting car. There's
54:45
something to be found here that makes it enjoyable to drive, but also what a great place to be if
54:50
you're just slogging through a giant intersection somewhere. That's my wild card for you, but
54:56
otherwise you've got some great choices to go drive and chase. Aaron, I've got a few thoughts
55:01
for you. Those are good stuff, Paul. I'm going to jump right in here and let's see. I'm going to
55:04
jump up to where you currently are, and that is my favorite generation of the 911, the 997. So this
55:10
is 05 to 2012. You've got a 997.2 sweet looking car, which is the refinement. This is my favorite
55:18
era of 911. I'm not a big 911 disciple, but this is the one I love. You're putting less than a
55:24
thousand kilometers a year on it. You have a Mazda Miata. You're putting less than a thousand
55:28
kilometers a year on that. I'm going to go in a tough love mode here. Okay. There is no reason
55:35
for you to have this 911. No reason whatsoever. And furthermore, because they're worth so much.
55:43
Yeah. Yeah. 911s have stupid pricing. There's no reason for them to be worth anything that
55:48
they're worth. They are stupidly priced. So you could get rid of this 911. And you've even said
55:53
you don't get to use it like you want. You don't get to use it for things it would be really good
55:57
at. So the 997, 911 goes, whatever you get, it goes. I'm also going to say something else to you.
56:02
I think the MX-5 can go because you're driving it so little. And here's the other reason I say that.
56:09
The 997, you're not getting full use out of it and you're not putting many miles on it. And the
56:13
thing about the MX-5 Miata is you can always get one later. That's a great point. They sell so many.
56:20
They actually do decrease in value and they stay somewhat normal in pricing used. There's parts,
56:27
they're beloved. If you want a Miata later when the kids are bigger or you want a fun car or whatever
56:31
it sounds like or even another one of these later in life. Yes, but but they'll be even more priced
56:35
themselves out. But that's the key delineation I want to make here is he doesn't feel like he's
56:41
using all of the 911. He feels like he loves and uses the Miata all the time when he actually gets
56:46
to drive. He gets to ring that car out. You can get rid of both. Free up garage space, free up cost
56:53
because you can get a Miata later. I always loved having a Miata. Go get one in five years
56:59
or whenever or when the kids are going to get a car and you want to get a fun car. So Miata for
57:03
later 911 gets sold now. So you are thinking about the Civic Type R, which is great. We've driven
57:09
it multiple times. It's a fantastic car. We love it. Here's a photo that Chance took from one of
57:13
our hatchback comparisons a few years back. It's a phenomenal car. I love that you brought up the
57:17
Integra Type S because that's a great alt. You would not be disappointed here. You'd love it.
57:22
Great manual transmission, fantastic car to be used all the time you could do your errands in
57:26
this never think twice in that way that you're this is the reason you take the Honda Odyssey.
57:30
It's just easy. This gets a lot of that easy feeling in a car that you as dad are going to
57:36
like driving. So I cannot argue this at all. But I'm going to go a few other places. A two series
57:41
BMW. Great car that rear wheel drive feel that you're enjoying in the 911 and the Miata is still
57:48
evident here. You could still get it with all wheel drive he wants to he could but but my point
57:53
here is you could get this rear wheel drive. You could get the M240 I was just looking it up.
57:57
You can get that in X drive but you can also just get it in two wheel drive rear wheel drive.
58:02
This has usable back seats. Now it's a coupe. You got to teach the kids to open the door and
58:07
move the seat and blah, but the seat. Yeah, but it's got actual back seats. It's got decent sized
58:11
back seats. The 997. Those are cramped. It didn't it was the 991 and beyond where the 911 got
58:17
frankly too big with the seats started to become usable. This has got usable back seats. This
58:21
could almost be a four door in space almost little tight. But you're going to stay something
58:26
that is rear wheel drive focused and a little smaller. This car is a little big for my taste.
58:31
You could go back a generation. I think it's better sized. But this is the current one.
58:34
These are excellent. So I want you at least consider it because then you merge the rear
58:38
wheel drive with the back seat and the stuff you want with still powerful. Okay.
58:44
GR Corolla should be considered. I've got it here with the type R. The problem is that the
58:49
GR Corolla has small back seats. It does. That's a cool shot. I love that shoot. But it was very
58:53
fun. We were we were way out on Yerba Buena Road, which is a really, really fun road in California
58:58
a few years ago. It was really, really good shoot. We had the Golf R. You could do the Golf R. I think
59:01
the Golf R is not going to be interesting enough. Yeah, it would work like crazy. But the Corolla,
59:08
I would argue the Corolla has a little bit of that happy puppy dog feel about it. And I said
59:13
this in the review compared to the type R, which feels like a singular focused thing. It's like
59:17
the type R is serious. The GR Corolla is hilarious. So what's your driving style? The problem is I
59:23
think the seats might be too small, which led me to the car I don't want you to overlook.
59:28
And that is the Elantra N. That's really good. That has the back seat space of the Civic type R.
59:34
You can get them for cheaper. You could get it in DCT, which is decent or manual. Yep. I would
59:39
argue that the manual is not quite as good as the one in the Civic, which is brilliant. But this
59:43
is a superb car. And to the point that what's happened is these cars have started finding
59:47
their way onto the hooked on driving track days. And what I love about that is when our coaches
59:51
get in them and then our coaches get out of them and go, have you driven the Elantra? And we go,
59:55
yes, that car is great. And what's also starts to happen is we move around the country to various
00:00
events. We started to see coaches who come up and nudge us and go, hey, do you see my new
00:04
track car? And I turn around expecting like a caged thing. Miat or something. And it's an Elantra
00:10
N with a dealer tag on it. Like, there you go. So you should at least drive this. It's a different
00:15
feel of the same idea as the Civic type R. But I don't want you to overlook it. So I'm landing
00:19
here as your last one. But I think the two cars in your garage are thinking about selling. Yes,
00:24
sell those. Let's get you a dad car. And if you need a Miata later, you can find a Miata later.
00:29
That's true. Aaron, originally, I was just thinking, let the 911 go and keep the Miata. But
00:33
where you're at in life with a growing young family, and you still need something, I think
00:38
the Miata will continue to sit if you don't sell it. That's my concern. That's my real concern.
00:42
You'll keep it, and you'll still have a fun car, and it'll be the fun car in your heart.
00:45
Yeah. It'll be the fun car in your memories and the fun car that sits in the garage.
00:48
It'll be too bad. So I agree with you. Sell both. Get one of these cool cars. And you've got some
00:56
driving homework. But the best part is you get to take the kids and they can try out the back seats
01:00
and they can all talk about it as a family and then say, can we all last longer than 30 minutes
01:04
in this space? And if so, buy that car. The Elantra and the Civic Type R have got plenty
01:09
of back seats. Yeah, they're great. For sure. Yeah. I was thinking the GR Coral is awesome. You
01:13
can get it in the automatic. Yes, you can. If you wanted it. But you know, it's back seats are a bit
01:18
tight. It's snorty and fun, and it'd be like for a period of growth than the kids. And then you'd
01:21
have to like, it's hilarious. That really is its demeanor. It's just hilarious all the time.
01:27
Such great choices. Thank you so much, Aaron. Really appreciate it. Write to us every day.
01:30
DriverTV at gmail.com, topic Tuesdays, car conclusions and those ever important car debates.
01:37
Mike B writes to us with a $12,000 budget. I'm going to do my best. I think I came in under,
01:42
like dramatically under, for a weird choice that I forgot about. Oh, I'm excited. Okay, let's go.
01:48
Michael, thank you so much. He is first time writer from Vancouver, Washington,
01:53
looking to replace two cars with one. Okay. The current garage includes a 2021 BMW X1 that is
01:59
his wife's car. Okay. 1990 Miata. All right. 1994 Ranger and a 1990 Nissan 240SX. Okay. The X1 and
02:10
the Miata are not going anywhere. Touch it. His wife loves her X1. Yeah, I get it for sure. Well,
02:17
the Miata is his daily on days it doesn't rain and his fun car on the weekends. It's the best car
02:21
he's ever had the pleasure of driving. He has no plans to get rid of it, which leaves the 240 and
02:25
the Ranger on the chopping block. He got that Ranger about a year and a half ago to do beater
02:30
truck duty. I don't see dump in here. You said gravel, soil, lumber, wood and hauling all the
02:35
stuff. I promise you he went to the dump. Mike was helping rebuild the house. Mike sent that
02:40
Ranger to the dump. I guarantee you it went to the dump. Yeah. But he says it's horrible to drive.
02:44
He uses it less and less and now it just sits in the side yard and it's an eyesore. It's because
02:49
they've done the stuff for the house. It's right. And now the truck has no purpose. And I don't think
02:52
he goes to the dump that often. Right. You know, he's not old enough to go to the dump every week.
02:56
Anyway, it's a whole thing. Well, that's why you have pickup truck because you only go once a year.
02:59
Well, maybe it's a week, but no, but see, but see, there is both my parent, both my father and my
03:06
father-in-law reached that place just like that scab. I just like to, you know, they just reached
03:10
a place where it was like the event of the week. Well, I got to go to the dump. I'm like, what are
03:15
you throwing out? You don't have any that you've downsized like three times. What are you throwing
03:19
out? Why are you going to the dump? Anyway, moving on. Mike bought the 240SX last summer
03:23
when he was looking for a car to drive over the winter. I like your thinking because, of course,
03:28
he was walking around the neighborhood with his wife and newborn baby when he saw the 240.
03:33
It was on their regular walk through the neighborhood and one day the owner was out in
03:38
the front yard. So of course, what do you do? You strike up a conversation. Sure. He was the
03:42
original owner. He bought the car for his wife, but they were getting older, weren't driving it.
03:46
It was in good condition for a 35-year-old car, completely stock. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
03:52
35-year-old car. Mike's got to be an and his wife are randomly walking around their neighborhood
03:58
and find a stock Nissan 240SX. They're all drift cars now. They are. How did you find a stock one?
04:07
His neighbor was on the yard, I guess. Yeah, seriously. So Mike thought it'd be fun to drive,
04:12
but the old suspension is sloppy and the car feels too big. That's wild. I still think Nissan
04:17
needs to come back with a cool 240 or 180 or something. They should, because they could directly
04:20
compete with the 86. But anyway, yes. So the original plan was to replace the Ranger with a
04:25
K truck, which is a great idea. It's fun. And the 240 with some different fun car, like a Mini,
04:30
R53 Mini, or a one-series BMW or something like that. Totally. We would back all those.
04:34
But then the more he thought about it and talked to his wife, he realized he didn't need a truck.
04:38
Sure. You're done with the house projects and you're not going to the dump that much.
04:41
Yeah, keep beating on the joke. Yeah. So Mike wants something that isn't a chore to drive,
04:45
something he can use as the winner driver, haul smaller loads for house projects,
04:49
and a little bit of a spin here. He wants to take three people camping or into the forest for mushroom
04:55
picking. That's the first time we've seen that in an email or hiking. Yeah, or hiking, something
04:59
he doesn't mind getting dirty and a little banged up, something he can maintain himself.
05:03
He's a technician at a body shop, so he's got mechanical abilities. He prefers German interiors
05:09
and good handling and a good looking exterior. Okay. He figures he could get a small trailer to
05:14
use if he needs to haul anything larger than dump run stuff. Well, but even the dump run.
05:19
Seriously, the average person, the trailer to the dump is fine. I'm sorry, but that's
05:23
plenty. Oh, you've had a Ford Crown Victoria. He did. Yes. Wow. He sends his car history and
05:28
his wife has a long car history, including a K5 Blazer. A Corrado is in there. Wow. A 1978
05:34
Volkswagen Caddy truck. That's the sentence I haven't seen in forever. E36 convertible. She's
05:40
had a lot of cool stuff. Yeah. All right. I'm jumping in, Mike, with choices here. And I love
05:46
your Cayenne suggestion. You suggested, why don't I just go get a Cayenne version Cayenne? Here's
05:51
a 2008, but you've got a 2010 with 170 plus thousand miles on it. It's just running fine. It's your
05:58
beater. One wiper beater. We have to get the second wiper fixed, which is quite expensive,
06:04
but that's Porsche. But let's see. The dogs love it. The bike gets hauled everywhere. We go to Moab.
06:09
I've done back roads in it. I've taken my wife and scared her on the off-road trail. I wasn't
06:13
trying to, by the way, in my defense. I was like, this is an off-road trail to a cool picnic. We
06:18
had a cool picnic, but there was terror prior. She was like, yes. In her defense, it was the
06:24
first time she saw what the new revised Cayenne can do. Oh, okay. It's the first time that we'd
06:29
taken the Rubik Cayenne anywhere, and she was convinced we were going to roll off a mountain,
06:32
and I was like, we're not. But anyway, moving on. I love the suggestion. You like German interiors,
06:37
very German interior, and you can work on it. So any Cayenne 12K and under, yours is worth what,
06:42
10K? On a good day. So for 12K, he could find a 100,000 mile Cayenne. Oh, easily. Just the base
06:49
motor, just the base Cayenne. It'll do all the things. While you're here, look, I'm just going
06:55
to jump real quick while you're here because Mike, this has a beginning, a middle, and an end,
07:01
and it's just Cayenne. You already have a BMW X1. You've talked about getting something else.
07:09
Look, I have three different shots of taking this thing to Moab. Yes, it still has the sticker. To
07:14
this day on the back, this has my other car is also a Cayenne, which is a funny joke bumper
07:18
sticker. It says Rubik Cayenne all over the place. It actually says Cayenne on the rear hatch,
07:23
three different places, which is me making fun of myself about overbranding cars.
07:27
This has got a three inch lift on it. It's not worth anything on a best day, nine or 10 grand.
07:33
But here's the thing, you could even go so far. I don't know that you want to do this, but I looked
07:36
them up. You can get these manual. The base with the base. Yes, you can get the base base V6 with
07:43
the manual. In fact, the first year or so of the second gen, you can find manual up to like 2012,
07:48
you can find these with manual base V6. You might have to spend a little bit more money than 12,
07:54
like maybe 14, 15. I actually found two of them that were second gen manuals. When I looked at
07:59
auto tempest.com slash every day today, I found two second is the first gen. But this is a 2010
08:07
there. Look, you want German interiors, you want good build quality ability to tow this tows over
08:12
7,000 pounds. I didn't have another recommendation. Don't get another BMW. You have one Porsche,
08:19
Cayenne, $12,000. I started here. I ended here. I wanted to interrupt you because you have other
08:24
thoughts. This is my only thought. I did sign the form that I said I had to do this. I'm going back
08:29
to your pictures because Cayenne is the beginning and the end for me. It's all good. I mean,
08:33
you're using it probably for something far more extreme than Mike would ever use his for. Yes.
08:38
But here's the thing. He just wants to do probably some light dirt roads and we have a second gen
08:42
and it's perfectly great as a daily. Yeah, true. So these are there. Excellent. Yeah. Have we mentioned
08:48
how all about Cayenne's we are? I have to stop now. I started at Mazda CX 30 because you can get
08:54
these for 12k and under Mike. But then when you threw in, I want to take three people and I want
08:58
to go a little bit more off road, maybe a little deeper into the forest and you want to do some
09:03
other things. The backseat is a little tight. So I'm going to remind everybody about a car
09:11
that you haven't seen for a long time. It's the shoe, the first shoe. Well, I guess this was after
09:16
the first shoe. It is the second generation, Infinity FX 37 and FX 50. Those have a lot of
09:26
power. The V6 had 320 and the V8 had 390 something like that in the FX 50. Yeah.
09:34
Do y'all know how cheap these are now? They almost give away used infinities. They almost do. And
09:41
you said you want something you don't have to worry about. You want it to haul people, plenty of
09:45
space. It's a car that I don't even know if I can call it a car in SUV. It's the thing that never
09:50
knew what it was before everybody was making them. Right. It's like AMC Eagles. They never knew
09:57
what they were. Sure. And so they didn't last too long. This never lasted too long. They were
10:01
a second generation here. So I'm showing the second generation with slightly updated lights.
10:05
But you can get, if you spend $12,000 on an FX anything, you can get the nicest one out there
10:13
with low miles and relatively low miles. That's a good find. I like it. You're already a Nissan
10:18
enthusiast. Well, owner. But you're right. Making a good point. Making a very good point. These are
10:25
so dirt cheap. Go find yourself the 37, the 50. You could go back to the first, the 45 and the
10:32
sure. Yeah. And the 35. This was, this was infinity's crazy idea to take essentially the
10:39
running gear of the Z car, which they'd already made into a cool coop and make it into a weird SUV
10:44
with a long nose. And we all were like, what is that exactly? And now, now it seems like not
10:49
aware they forward thinking, but their idea was cooler than everybody else's. Am I a tall car?
10:53
Am I a most long SUV? Am I an SUV GT car? What am I? I don't know. But here they are. Super
10:59
cheap auto tempest.com slash every day. And it's something you don't have to worry about. You
11:03
know, it's just going to run. You can maybe the test is like barely take care of it and see how
11:08
long it'll last. But other than that, you've got some great choices here, namely Kynes,
11:14
Go Shop Kynes. Sorry. I just, you all expected it. You knew I was going to go there. For sure.
11:19
The shot against this is it's not a German car. It's not a German interior, but he does have
11:24
Nissan ownership history. Yes. So we'll go with that. There we go. Mike, thank you for writing.
11:30
Really appreciate it. Car conclusion number one comes to us from Ahmed. He realized that he wrote
11:35
to us two years ago and never sent in his car conclusion. Okay, we love getting them. He wrote
11:40
about asking for a fun daily for the Pacific Northwest that can accommodate a car seat for
11:45
his one year old. He loved the MR, sorry, the M2, MR2. Got MR2 in the brain. We do. Yeah,
11:51
we're quite distracted. Yes. He loved the M2, but being a coupe ruled it out. And we challenged Ahmed
11:56
to see if he could make it work. And we steered him away from the Audi S5. Okay. So we did homework.
12:01
He tore out an Audi S5, an Alpha Giulia, non quad, Genesis G70. He wanted to drive the M2 in
12:07
an M340i, but they weren't available. So he opted for spending a lot of time with many of them at
12:11
dealerships. He included the M340i was the best of all worlds. Comfortable daily, good gas mileage,
12:18
has a usable interior, and has great speed and driving dynamics. It's everything he really liked
12:23
about the M2, but grown up and larger. But then he didn't buy one. Matt Farah talking about the
12:30
fact that the Porsche Taycan is worth nothing. There's no second buyer. They've all plummeted.
12:36
That got him looking at used Porsche. Seriously, got him looking at used Porsche Taycans. And in
12:40
the process, he stumbled across the Audi e-tron, which is the same chassis. He likes the styling
12:46
better. I think that is an actual possibility case. We actually love the e-tron that we drove
12:51
forever ago. It doesn't have a lot of range, but the thing he discovered, which is true,
12:57
we talk about no second buyer for the Taycan. The Audi e-tron wishes it had as much interest
13:04
from second buyers as the Taycan is getting. Can nobody wants the e-tron. He found a 22 e-tron
13:11
sitting at his local Porsche dealership. And then he kept thinking, nah, and he kept chasing the BMW
13:17
M340i. And he chased multiple, and guess what happened? All of them got sold out from Monday
13:22
before he got the money together or the PPI or something. They just kept getting sold. And the
13:25
e-tron kept sitting there, kept sitting there, probably with price going down. Eventually,
13:29
he was like, okay, I'm just going to buy the used e-tron. He bought it back in February of last
13:34
year. He's loved it. And he thought he'd keep it for a year, but he's had it for a year and it's
13:39
been very good. And he keeps seeing viable M340s and wondering if he should jump, but he's liking
13:46
the e-tron in the intermediate time. And I just kind of feel like... Stay where you are. I feel the
13:51
same way too. I think it's... Here's the thing. If the e-tron works for your life, and it sounds
13:55
like it does, okay? If the e-tron, because my only real concern with it was in like real use,
14:02
it had about 200 miles worth of range. Yeah. So if you have enough range and it works for your life,
14:07
I think the e-tron is far more interesting than the e340. I mean, pardon me, far more interesting
14:13
than the M340i. I like the 340. I see why it would work for you. I think the e-tron is far cooler.
14:19
Now you have two kids. That backseat is small at some point. They're going to outgrow it. Maybe
14:23
that's when you move to the BMW. But I think for now... I like that. When they're grown and...
14:28
When they're going to outgrow that backseat. Yeah. There's a red one in my neighborhood,
14:31
and it sounds just wild and wicked. Every time it turns the corner, it's just this
14:36
warbly, cool, EV thing. And the styling is actually gorgeous on those things. It's holding up well.
14:43
Congratulations on your car. Very cool. Keep it for now. 340s are on the table,
14:48
but yeah, I say wait a little bit and the prices on those will come down.
14:50
They are going to keep coming down. Not like an e-tron, but they will come down.
14:54
Things that don't fall as quickly as an e-tron.
14:57
Lots. Most of the cars you can think of right now. Anyway, yes.
15:00
Mark D follows up with a car debate we featured back in October 2024.
15:04
Since then, he has replaced his wife's aging manual cross-trek with a 2025
15:11
GR Corolla. That is a... They bought last spring.
15:15
She had wrapped in Nardo Gray and I did look up your Instagram photo, Mark.
15:20
And here is the car. It was originally black and she had it wrapped Nardo Gray.
15:26
It's amazing that she wanted that color. That really does look cool. I have to admit,
15:29
it wasn't the color I expected, but all right. So here's the... It's from Blackout Tinting.
15:34
And here is his wife's commenting in there and there's a series of photos doing the whole wrap
15:40
process. And yeah, it does turn out to be a pretty unique, but from a cross-trek to this...
15:47
To GR Corolla. That is the right direction. I love this. That's very exciting. Obviously,
15:51
of course, she loves it clearly and it's a unique gray color. And in the process,
15:54
he's placed in order for a 2026 M2 in the perfect Portamao Blue Metallic Silver Wheels
16:00
carbon seats roof. You got the big carbon seats. Oh, that was a worthwhile purchase. Those seats
16:04
are expensive, but they're really money. Wonderful. He said he's hoping to actually
16:09
take it to an HOD day. Maybe we'll see it in person. I love this, Mark. That is a fantastic
16:13
two-car garage. Good for you. I'm very excited. You guys gave us lots of good questions. Again,
16:18
the photos were from our latest piece, which is on our main channel, which is the Kia Telluride,
16:22
the Toyota Grand Highlander and the Rivian R1S Quad, the big boy. That is such a huge truck
16:29
and it has got so much power. Anyway, go watch that piece if you haven't yet,
16:33
and share it with a friend that we'd really appreciate it. Lots of really good questions.
16:35
I'm going to start here with Thomas G22. If money was not an issue, it always is. But if money
16:40
were not an issue, would we ever move back to California? Would we move to a different state
16:44
or is Park City the place to be? Thomas, I never... If you would have talked to me,
16:48
I can't say 10 years ago if I was here, 20, 30 years ago and said,
16:52
what about Utah? I'd been like, Utah, what are we talking about? I love living here. I really,
16:55
really like this state. I've been very blessed. My family has been very blessed while living here.
17:00
I have very few complaints about Park City. There are other places I would move,
17:05
but I am in zero rush. If I were in Park City indefinitely, great. I have zero complaints.
17:11
There is something special about California, but I will say for California,
17:15
have to live somewhere in the middle of nowhere. California has a vibe. It has a temperature.
17:20
It has amazing roads everywhere. If I could live somewhere on the PCH, you know what?
17:27
Ohio, from Ohio North to Carmel, somewhere in there. I can live anywhere in there in a nice house
17:33
and actually have... That's a real estate. He said money, no object. But I'm saying,
17:39
near a cool road in a decent house, somewhere between Ohio and Monterey,
17:43
I would totally live in that part of California. But I want to be near nothing. I kind of want to
17:47
be out because I feel like California is special. I talked to a friend of mine about this this week.
17:53
He was like, what is it about California? Because he never really been there. I was like,
17:57
there is something subconscious when you hang out in California for a few days. You just get this
18:01
longing like, I could live here. It just has a tug and natural gravity about it. It's so bizarre.
18:08
But people know this. And as a result, millions upon millions live there and move there and all
18:12
pack the same areas. So that's why I think there's an even more special thing about California
18:15
when you live near nothing. The right place. So that could be really cool. It's never going to
18:21
happen. But there's that. There's sections of Montana that I love for all the same reasons.
18:25
There's lots of Montana that I like a lot. Otherwise, I'm quite happy in Utah and would stay here a while.
18:30
Preston St. Peter asks us to convince him why he should like Mercedes.
18:34
Ooh. Older, newer. He can't understand it. He thinks they're pretty much all ugly.
18:41
And he feels like they left fun cars a long time ago. Ooh. Well, fun is, I guess, a
18:49
relative term, Preston. Because when you're ensconced in an S-class and you're enjoying
18:55
all the power, cool everything, or you're feeling the power of an AMG and you're suddenly realizing,
19:01
yeah, this is just, I never want to get out. That's fun. That's kind of the Mercedes thinking
19:09
there too. And Mercedes, of course, has their AMG GT school and they train drivers. They're
19:16
very competitive in a lot of different classes of racing. They build some incredibly powerful cars
19:22
and a lot of buyers get those cars and they are fun to drive. They're not as fun as lightweight
19:29
sports cars. I do wish they had manuals, but you also have to think about the market that
19:34
they have chosen to swim around in. And that is a very high-end market where the buyers
19:39
aren't necessarily looking for something lightweight. They want that door thunk. They want
19:44
to be insulated from the rear. They want that solid, wonderful, beautiful feeling. And they're
19:50
willing to give up a little bit of steering feel, even though there's a lot of AMG cars that have
19:55
very quick, direct, precise styling or steering, sorry. And yeah, they are fun to drive, but they're
20:02
not the Neatas, the super light Caimans and that kind of stuff. So considering their market, I think
20:09
they do quite well where they're at, but they're clientele. And I think where they have wanted
20:16
to go as just a premier provider of some of the best experiences, it's not just fun cars. I mean,
20:24
not as a great and all, but when you're doing a road trip, Miata versus Mercedes,
20:30
something cool S-Class, I can see that. I can see choosing a Mercedes for that reason. But
20:37
styling, I think they're fantastic. I love that Mercedes is designing with surface and reflection
20:44
and highlight rather than, and they've just got beautiful, well, swollen surfaces and
20:50
just good proportions. I think they're far more beautiful. I've seen some SUVs that I don't really
20:56
love that are coming out from Mercedes, but otherwise, I think it's very different than
21:00
the current crop of cars that are very line and arc driven. BMW's Neu-Class styling has brought
21:09
back surface treatment. Have you noticed? You're a big fan of that. I'm excited to see some for
21:13
you. I am a huge fan of Neu-Class because they've been after, they've done a lot of good surface
21:18
treatment up to now, but it's been about huge graphics and a lot of lines and things that don't
21:24
really resolve. It's just a lot of jarring lines everywhere, whereas surface, I can relate to that
21:30
shape. I see beautiful reflection. I see the environment reflected in the car. It's, I think,
21:36
far more beautiful approach. Of course, beauty is in the eye, but I think Mercedes does quite well
21:41
where they're at, but they're going after the very high end blast-to-palm springs or blast
21:49
across a continent in Europe. It's a different kind of fun. It's not just pure sports car,
21:54
lightweight magic, catering. It's car as first class airplane seat. That's kind of the thinking,
21:59
which is a different animal. Yeah, I see it. MattGara82 has listened to this podcast before
22:04
because he's combined two things I love. It's a track daily crush and it's movies.
22:08
Oh, dun-dun-dun. I love it. So he's got three. He says the Jaguar CX-75 from the Daniel Craig
22:17
movie Spectre driven by Baptista, David Baptista. Actually, he plays the heavy in that movie,
22:23
and there's that orange concept Jaguar that is such a great looking car. They missed out building
22:29
that. Oh my gosh. So that CX-75, the Cadillac CN from the island. I'm going to show you that one
22:36
because all of us are going to forget that car, but that car is cool. Was it forgettable? No.
22:41
The Cadillac CN from the island. You and McGregor drives it. It's this thing. That's right. This
22:48
was the year 2000. A seven and a half liter V12 was intended for this mid-engine V12 from Cadillac.
22:56
Yes, please. That era of styling for Cadillac. I'm a big fan of that. And then the last one,
23:02
I'm going to leave the CN up on the screen. But the last one is that big, crazy, long Mercedes
23:08
thing that Ben Affleck drove in Justice League. It was in the trailer where they said,
23:14
where they said, what is your superpower? And he said, I'm rich, which is one of the worst Batman
23:19
lines ever. But anyway, so that. So I'm going to crush the Mercedes. It's obnoxious. And I very
23:26
much get the feel in that entire scene that it's paper mache. They just they kind of ease their
23:32
way around it. They kind of ease the door open. They kind of, you know, I feel like there's a
23:37
there's a PA pushing it from the back just to barely get it off screen. The Mercedes is crushed.
23:41
I'm sorry. I want to track the Jaguar and I want to daily this Cadillac.
23:46
You know what I'm seeing in this is Corvette C8 proportions. Yes, agreed. And if, you know,
23:52
put the styling from the era aside right now, but absolutely. Could Cadillac
23:59
bring the CN back or name it something else? Well, they had the XLR that was the Corvette
24:04
XLR. But that was the front engine version. But this mid-engine. Yes, they should do a mid-engine
24:09
Cadillac. Mid-engine Cadillac of this and take it further than this and do Cadillac styling.
24:15
Cadillac who sells a black wing and is about to have an F1 team needs a supercar. I'm kind of
24:21
about that. Let's do the C8 for Cadillac. Bring the CN back. I really love this. I would totally
24:26
daily this thing. Seven and a half liter V12. That that is I'm all about that. So that one's
24:32
very cool. Matt, I appreciate it. Question from George here, Mystic Negro, asking for our least
24:37
favorite performance add-on. For instance, his wife's last two cars have had Alcantara trimmed
24:42
wheels. You're not supposed to wear lotion with an Alcantara wheel. You're not supposed to touch
24:47
an Alcantara steering wheel. You're not. You're supposed to wear gloves. That's really what they
24:52
want you to do. The oils and dirt in your fingers and your hands. I get it. His wife is in her AMG
24:58
light era. So he's got to go through the whole Alcantara cleaning process semi-regularly.
25:03
Any other options that irk us. I'm not annoyed by Alcantara as easily as some people I think.
25:11
Some people is me. I mean, look, I got an entire aftermarket steering wheel because I could not
25:17
believe that the one I had had an Alcantara wheel. And here's the thing. My problem with Alcantara,
25:22
I actually like it if it's not something you regularly touch. Anything I regularly interact
25:27
with. I don't want it because dashboard and panels, dashboard, ceiling, door panels. I think it's
25:35
great on all of those places. But anything you're regularly interacting with that the thing that
25:39
bugs me on all cars and it was why I was annoyed with it with the Amira is I don't want to hang
25:44
on to that wheel over time. I just don't like the feel of it. So that the gear shift, etc. So
25:49
Alcantara on any surface I'm going to regularly touch is one. But the other one for me, George,
25:53
honestly is carbon fiber. That's just carbon fiber black. I was just going to say that I was
26:00
look that now they flip the other side of the equation. The Ferrari F40 is carbon fiber and
26:04
they talk when you can see the weave through the paint body panels that are made of carbon fiber
26:09
body color, colored painted. I'm fine with it. But there's a plague right now in sports cars.
26:15
You can do it. You can cover your C8 Corvette with needless carbon fiber look apart panels.
26:22
It's in bobs and wings and canards and oh, this piece got replaced for carbon fiber. Stop it.
26:28
If it's a carbon fiber piece that's painted to look like the car,
26:31
whatever that was a choice on that part is that. But like, did you notice all my carbon fiber
26:36
inside and out? Stop. Well, I need the carbon fiber to do something. It's either structural,
26:40
yes, or it's a vent that does something. It's not just a decorative thing, but I still looks black
26:46
and even carbon wheels. I love the idea of carbon wheels. Yeah, I hate how they look. I'd still
26:53
like it to be painted the color of the car. The wheels and themselves, not the wheels, but I'm
26:58
saying like all the parts on a car, the wings and stuff. Let's just I don't need to see this
27:03
carbon fiber. Don't care. Let's paint it. Let's paint it the color of the car. I was just going
27:07
to say all the bits and bobs and stuff that is tacked on because sometimes you never know and
27:11
it's that vinyl wrap over the top of an actual fiberglass piece and it's not really carbon fiber.
27:17
There's a lot of that too. Yeah, it's just it's kind of a plague. I'll go you one further on
27:21
carbon fiber. The worst one is the raw carbon fiber that doesn't have the weave to it like the two
27:28
Lamborghini does that. It's just the flakes that they mash together. It looks dirty all the time.
27:35
It's like it's like the most fingerprinted piano black permanently. It's what it looks like. Like
27:41
what are we doing? That's not raw carbon fiber. You're connected to racing somehow. I'm just not.
27:48
One last one for me. Another track daily crush. We haven't seen any in forever and there's two
27:52
here. I love it. I got to go with this. Kirk Meyer says track daily crush. You got to be with me on
27:56
this. Okay. Maserati Gran Turismo Aston Martin V8 Vantage Mercedes Benz SL 63.
28:06
Ooh, that makes it easier. Okay, go because I'd crush the SL 63. The GT 63 I would keep.
28:12
If it were GT 63, that makes it harder. I agree with that SL. You can get rid of the SL. Yep. Okay.
28:18
What was it Maserati? Maserati Gran Turismo. Let's assume the new one. Let's assume the
28:26
I would. Okay. I'll track the Aston. Okay. And I will daily the Maserati. I think you're right.
28:34
I think that's the play. That's cool. And I actually agree with you on the GT 63. It was
28:37
new GT. That's your daily GT. And then I then I'd crush the Maserati. And I'd still I think
28:43
I'd still track the Aston. Yeah, for sure. It's a cool car. Guys, thank you for all your questions.
28:49
Thank you for your interaction with the show. Definitely rate and review the podcast and
28:53
yeah, interact on YouTube. You can find us on Spotify as well. We're definitely growing in
28:59
viewership on Spotify because you can upload videos so it actually strips out the audio. So
29:04
you can listen. If you are listening as an audio only file or you can watch the video there and
29:08
YouTube, like I said, and we're really appreciative of all your interaction, your comments, and we're
29:13
looking forward to next time. As always, cheers, everyone.