A gated manual is the classic stick-shift setup where you move the shifter into specific gear slots. It feels more mechanical and direct than automated shifting systems.
The Ferrari Luce is mentioned as a car the hosts aren’t sure about. They describe it as having a strange, minivan-like look. The episode doesn’t provide much detail beyond that uncertainty.
Clutch-by-wire means the pedal isn’t mechanically connected to the clutch. Instead, it sends electronic signals, and the car controls how the clutch engages.
Mechanical linkage is the physical connection between your controls and the gearbox. If there’s no linkage, the car uses electronics to make the change happen.
“991” is Porsche’s internal generation code for the 911. The point here is that Porsche offered a seven-speed manual on those 911s, and the discussion is about what manual feel was lost or changed.
Term
main shaft output shaft differential
These are key parts that move power from the transmission to the wheels. The differential is what lets the wheels turn at different speeds when you’re cornering.
The host is saying that if people don’t like the car, it’s not just because the company didn’t advertise well. The car itself has to be good enough to sell.
An EV is an electric car that runs on electricity from a battery. The hosts are pointing out that Ferrari is making its first electric car, which is a big deal for the brand.
The Ferrari 12Cilindri is a Ferrari with a 12-cylinder engine. Here, the hosts are talking about how Ferrari is trying to make the car feel like a real manual to drive, even though some parts are controlled electronically.
Clutch engagement is the moment the clutch starts grabbing as you engage it. If it feels abrupt or smooth, that’s what people mean by clutch engagement.
Shift by wire means your gear changes are handled electronically. Instead of a purely mechanical connection, the car translates your shift input into electronic commands.
Shifter feel is how the gear lever feels in your hand—how heavy it is, how it moves, and how it responds. Even if the system is electronic, manufacturers can tune that feel.
Powered clutches are the electronically controlled clutch systems you might find in a racing simulator. They can be adjusted to feel more like different cars, which is why the host brings up the comparison.
The Ferrari 550 Maranello is a high-performance Ferrari sports car with a V12 engine. The podcast talks about how the driving controls feel and how it compares to what you’d expect from a V12. It’s mentioned because it left a strong impression while driving.
PDK is Porsche’s dual-clutch automatic transmission. It can shift quickly, and the car can be programmed to feel more like a manual when you use the shifter or paddles.
Clutch feel is how the clutch pedal and engagement “bite” when you press it. The hosts are saying that even if the gearbox isn’t a true manual, the car can be tuned to make that pedal feel more like a real clutch.
Clutch springs help determine how heavy or light the clutch pedal feels and where it starts to grab. Swapping or adjusting the springs can make the clutch feel better to some drivers.
Automatic mode is when the car decides the shifting for you. They’re describing how the car’s display changes color depending on whether you’re in that automatic behavior or actively pressing the clutch.
A mechanical lockout is a built-in safety feature that stops you from accidentally selecting the wrong gear. Here, the idea is to make reverse harder to engage by mistake.
Drive modes are different settings you can choose that change how the car feels and responds. For example, they can make the throttle more aggressive or more relaxed.
The Hyundai Elantra is a common, everyday compact car. Here they’re talking about a new version with a more dramatic look—especially around the fenders.
The Honda Element was a weird-looking but super practical Honda with a flexible, cargo-friendly interior. The hosts are excited about rumors that Honda might reintroduce it with modern tech, possibly as a hybrid.
A hybrid uses a gas engine and an electric system together. The idea here is that a new Honda Element could use that combo to be more efficient than the original.
A fuel-cell electric car makes electricity using hydrogen. It still drives like an electric car, but it “refuels” with hydrogen instead of plugging in.
Estimated range is how far the car thinks it can go before it needs charging or refueling. Real-world results can be different depending on driving conditions.
Torque is the “pulling strength” that helps the car accelerate. Higher torque usually means the car feels stronger when you start moving or press the pedal.
A winglet is a small fin meant to affect airflow. Here, the host is saying the fin-like door-handle design looks bad and didn’t work well on another EV.
The BMW X5 is a popular luxury SUV. In this part, they’re talking about the newest version and how it’s being offered with different powertrains, including an electric model and a mild-hybrid gas model. They also mention a future high-performance M version with a V8.
Touch-sensitive means you interact with a surface by touching it, instead of pressing a physical button. The host is saying the BMW’s exterior control areas look like they work this way.
Term
wheels up to 23 inches
Wheel size is how big the wheels are. Bigger wheels (like 23 inches) usually change the tire shape and can make the car look sportier, but they can also affect ride comfort.
This is a motor-generator connected to the engine. It helps start the car and also helps add power when needed, while also recharging the battery when you slow down.
Hydrogen here means a car that uses hydrogen to make electricity onboard. It’s different from a gas engine and different from a battery-only electric car.
BMW’s M Performance versions are the sportier, higher-output versions of certain models. The host is saying a future X5 will get a V8 engine, which is notable because many new cars are moving away from big engines.
“Neue Klasse” is being talked about mainly for its interior design. The podcast says the inside of these new cars looks successful already. It’s mentioned as evidence that the new approach is paying off.
The Toyota 4Runner is an SUV made for everyday driving and rougher conditions. It’s known for being a bit larger and more rugged than many crossovers. The podcast mentions it because the host has one with a big screen and is comparing that experience.
HUD means head-up display. It shows important driving info on the windshield so you don’t have to look away from the road. The host is saying the new BMW interior is moving away from that.
A four-spoke steering wheel is just a steering wheel design with four arms/spokes. They’re saying it looks a little unusual to them and affects how the dashboard and driver position feel.
Door handles are what you grab to open the car door. Here they’re talking about how removing or hiding the handles can make the car’s side look smoother and more streamlined.
The BMW M3 is BMW’s high-performance version of the 3 Series. They mention a new one that was teased at Le Mans, which is a big motorsport event—so it’s a hint that the car is aiming for real performance.
Le Mans is a famous endurance race in France. Car companies use it to show off or tease performance cars because it gets huge attention from racing fans.
They’re talking about FCP Euro as a business that sells car parts and also helps customers with advice. The pitch is that it makes owning and maintaining a European car easier.
The 240Z is a classic sports car from Datsun/Nissan’s Z lineup. In the discussion, it’s used as an example of a car that can still get views even if it’s not the most modern or flashy choice.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. It’s built for fast driving and performance. The episode mentions it because people seem especially interested in Corvette-related content.
Term
first drive videos
“First drive videos” are the early review videos people post right after a new car comes out. They’re usually filmed during the first time reviewers get to drive the car and show what it feels like.
The “Terminator Cobra Mustang” is a nickname for a particular era of Ford Mustang Cobras that are especially popular with enthusiasts. They’re known for being very fast and for having a supercharged V8.
The Toyota MR2 is a small, lightweight sports car that’s meant to be fun and engaging to drive. They’re saying the MR2 is one of those cars enthusiasts love because it feels connected and nimble.
The Mazda Miata (MX-5) is a small two-seat convertible. It’s made to be fun and easy to drive, with a focus on the driver. The podcast mentions it because they keep bringing it up as a great driving experience.
This is a small Dodge hatchback that was tuned to be fast for the money. The speaker thinks it’s fun and well-liked by the right people, but it’s not a “viral” car for most viewers.
The Toyota Prius is a hybrid car that’s famous for saving fuel in normal driving. Here, the hosts are talking about a long-term test of an updated Prius and how people’s opinions about it can make them less interested in watching videos about it.
A supercharger intake is the part that brings air into the supercharger. It matters because it’s part of how the engine gets the extra air needed for boost.
Griot's Garage makes car cleaning and detailing products. The hosts are saying they use these products to keep cars looking very clean and polished for the show.
Car
1990 mazda miata
The Mazda Miata is a small, light sports car that’s famous for being fun to drive. This one is a 1990 model, and they’re using it for autocross, which is racing on a small course with lots of turns.
Autocross is a kind of racing where you drive through a course made of cones. It’s usually on a flat area like a parking lot, and the goal is to be fast through lots of turns.
The Chevrolet Silverado is a big pickup truck. They’re describing this 2004 example as a tow truck that’s been kept for a very long time, even with the original engine and transmission.
The Chevrolet Suburban is a large SUV designed to carry lots of people and gear. It’s often chosen when you need space and towing capability. In the episode, it’s brought up as a big V8-style vehicle.
Term
mod wise
“Mod wise” just means “how modified it is.” They’re talking about what upgrades or changes have been done to the car.
Rallycross wheels are wheels chosen to handle the specific demands of rallycross-style driving, which often involves mixed surfaces and frequent acceleration/braking and cornering loads. They’re mentioned here alongside track wheels, implying the car has been set up with competition-oriented hardware.
The Subaru Outback is a practical Subaru with all-wheel drive that’s great for trips and rougher roads. They’re talking about a brand-new 2025 one and whether it should stay in the lineup.
The Porsche Cayenne is Porsche’s SUV. They’re tossing it out as a possible “upgrade” option if they sell one vehicle and want something more interesting.
Track days are events where you drive your car on a real race track, but it’s not a competition. They’re usually about learning and having fun safely on a closed course.
The RS 3 is a fast, sporty Audi hatchback. In this conversation it’s mentioned as a possible upgrade after owning a Subaru, suggesting you’d keep the fun but move into something more upscale and powerful.
Concept
whittling things down
It just means trimming down—choosing fewer cars and keeping only the ones you really want. The host is talking about simplifying a driveway by getting rid of some cars.
The Audi RS5 is a performance version of an Audi model. The podcast mentions a future RS5 sedan and says it will include hybrid technology and strong power. It’s brought up as an example of a high-performance car with new tech.
They’re talking about the exhaust system, and it sounds like it’s been modified. A different exhaust can change the sound and may help the engine breathe a bit better depending on the parts used.
A brush fire is a small wildfire that starts from something hot or spark-like. The host is saying the exhaust routing is positioned to reduce the chance of igniting anything nearby.
A “tow pig” is slang for a truck or trailer setup people use to haul a car to events. They’re saying you might not need to tow if the car can be driven there normally.
“Tow tires” means bringing special tires to the event instead of using your regular street tires. People do this because the special tires usually grip better for autocross.
A tow hitch is the metal receiver on the back of a car/truck that you can attach towing gear to. It’s what lets you pull a trailer or mount certain accessories.
The Ford Maverick is a small truck that’s meant to be simple to drive like a normal car. The host is saying it can do everyday stuff like the Outback, but still has truck utility and can handle light off-road use.
Off-roading means driving on rough ground like dirt, gravel, or uneven trails. The host is saying the right version of the Maverick can handle that without giving up everyday usability.
The Ford Bronco Sport is a compact SUV that’s designed to handle rougher roads than most regular crossovers. The host is suggesting it as the “more SUV” option compared with the Maverick.
Here, “off-roaders” just means vehicles that can handle dirt, bumps, and rougher roads better than a normal car. They’re talking about small SUVs/pickups that are capable enough for light off-road adventures.
The Subaru STi is the sportier, more hardcore version of the WRX. They’re talking about keeping it for a bit, then deciding to get rid of it as they change what they drive day to day.
Here, decision-making just means figuring out what car fits your needs. They’re using a checklist—like budget and how easy it is to work on—to choose the best option.
A manual transmission is a car where you change gears yourself using a clutch pedal and a stick. It can feel more engaging because you control when the engine revs up and down.
The BMW Z3 1.9 is a small BMW roadster with rear-wheel drive. People like it as a beginner project car because parts and know-how are fairly easy to find, and it can be fun to drive.
The Mini Cooper is a small car that’s fun to drive and has lots of parts and upgrades available. Here it’s being considered as a budget-friendly project that can be worked on and modified.
The Toyota Celica is a sporty Toyota that some people pick as a project car. In this episode, it’s mentioned as another possible manual option that could be worked on and modified.
A branded title means the car’s paperwork shows it had a major problem before. It can be cheaper to buy, but you might find issues later and have to pay to fix them.
The Ford Fiesta ST is a sporty, performance-focused version of the Fiesta. The host is saying it might cost more than you want, which could double your budget.
Modifiability just means how easy it is to change or upgrade the car. If lots of parts and upgrade options exist for that model, people say it’s more modifiable.
Shift linkage is the set of parts that connects your gear shifter to the transmission. If it’s worn or poorly designed, shifting can feel vague or notchy, and fixing/upgrading it can make shifts better.
The Honda Civic is being used as an example of a common, affordable car that might fit someone’s budget. The host is contrasting it with more performance-focused choices.
The Mazda 3 is mentioned as another everyday, budget-friendly car option. The host is basically saying you don’t have to buy a super-special car to stay within your budget.
The host is talking about “restoring” a car—making it look and feel new again. Even though they don’t use the word exactly the way collectors do, the goal is the same: replace worn parts and refresh it.
The center console is the part between the front seats with the controls and storage. If it’s worn out, replacing it can make the inside feel fresh again.
Seat bolsters are the padded sides of the seat that hold you in place. If they’re worn out, reupholstering them can make the seats look and feel much better.
“Power mods” are upgrades people do to make the car faster. The concern is that pushing for more power can cause other parts to fail if the car isn’t set up for it.
“Gremlins” means annoying problems that are hard to find and fix. The idea is that with older cars, you can keep running into weird issues that take time and money to diagnose.
Front-wheel drive means the front wheels do the work of both steering and moving the car. The host is comparing it to rear-wheel drive to talk about what kind of driving feel and safety tradeoffs you get.
“Modern safety tech” means the newer crash- and driver-assist features that help prevent accidents or reduce injury. The host is basically saying older cars don’t have these, so they feel riskier today.
The Subaru WRX is a sporty Subaru that’s built for grip and fun in bad weather. This 2010 version is a popular used-car choice because people know how to fix and modify them.
This is a 2010 Infiniti G37, a sporty car with a V6 engine. The host brings it up because it’s being sold very cheaply, mainly because it needs a serpentine belt replacement.
The serpentine belt is a belt that runs several important parts of the engine. If it’s bad, the car may not charge the battery or run key systems, so the car can be sold cheap until it’s replaced.
A “mechanic special” is a car that’s being sold cheap because it needs work. If you’re able to fix the problem yourself (or pay a shop to do it), the car can end up being worth much more than the asking price.
Tinnitus is when you hear ringing or buzzing sounds that aren’t coming from the outside world. In this episode, it’s why the person is trying to find a car that isn’t uncomfortably loud.
The BMW M2 CS is a sportier, more performance-oriented version of the M2. They mention it because he drove it and liked how engaging it felt, but he compared pricing against the newer M2 he ended up choosing.
The Toyota Supra is a sports car made by Toyota. It’s designed for performance and driving enjoyment. The podcast brings it up while talking about which sports car makes sense for a certain budget.
The Porsche 718 is a sporty Porsche that’s known for handling well and feeling lively. He considered it, but his final choice was the BMW M2 because it fit his budget and needs better.
“Out the door” price means the total cost you actually pay at the end, including taxes and fees. They’re saying he got the car for about $8k less than the sticker price once everything was included.
MSRP is the price on the car’s sticker that the manufacturer sets. They’re saying he paid about $8k less than that sticker price once the deal was done.
Lucid is an electric-vehicle brand best known for its EVs and technology-focused approach to electric luxury. In this segment, Lucid is central because the listener’s wife is persuaded after visiting a Lucid dealership and experiencing the Gravity’s interior and test drive.
Term
performance test drive
A performance test drive is a more spirited evaluation than a typical dealership drive, where the driver checks how the car accelerates, brakes, and responds under load. In this segment, it’s used to show the Lucid Gravity’s real-world “try it and see” impact on the buyer’s mindset.
The Mazda CX-5 is a compact SUV for everyday driving. It’s a practical size for commuting and family use. The podcast mentions a specific CX-5 as an example of a car someone already owned.
The Range Rover is a luxury SUV from Land Rover. It’s built to feel comfortable and high-end, especially in how it looks and drives. The podcast mentions it because someone has wanted one for a long time.
This is a Lexus luxury SUV that uses a hybrid system. The “550h+” naming usually means it can run on electricity for part of your driving, then switch to gas when needed.
Lucid Gravity is an all-electric SUV. They’re treating it like a surprising family option because it’s roomy, and it ended up becoming a real consideration for them.
Term
ph ev option
They mean a plug-in hybrid. It’s a car that can use electricity for some driving, but it also has a gas engine for longer trips.
Cupra is a sportier brand from the Volkswagen family. The host thinks it would sell well in North America because it looks more aggressive and it’s based on the same kind of hardware as the Golf R.
The Volkswagen Golf is a compact car, usually in a hatchback form. The podcast is saying that a certain SUV-style model is closely related to the Golf R underneath. In other words, the core engineering comes from the Golf family.
A chassis is the vehicle’s structural foundation—how the body and key mechanical components are mounted and supported. When the host says the Cupra has a “Golf R chassis underneath,” they mean the structural/engineering base is closely related.
The Alpina Z8 is a rare, special version of a BMW roadster. The podcast mentions it because seeing a Z8 in person is exciting and uncommon. They don’t go deep into specs, just that it’s a standout car.
The BMW Z8 is an older BMW roadster, meaning it’s a two-seat convertible. It’s known for being rare and special. The podcast mentions it because someone was excited to see one in person.
The BMW M5 is a very fast, performance-focused BMW sedan. An M5 Touring is the wagon version of that performance model. The episode mentions it because they saw one and it stood out as something special.
The BMW 5 Series is a luxury sedan that comes in many versions. The podcast mentions it because they saw a lot of them and also talked about a high-performance wagon version. It’s used to set the scene for what they encountered.
The Lotus Carlton is a performance sedan. The podcast describes it as having an inline-six engine and a turbo. It’s mentioned because it’s a specific kind of car that’s interesting to enthusiasts.
Oradea is a city in Romania where the host says the Lotus Carlton owner was revving the car in a parking lot. Mentioning the location matters because it frames the sighting as a real-world, off-the-usual-track event. For listeners, it also helps visualize how rare these cars are outside major car-show hubs.
Turbo boost is what happens when a turbocharger forces extra air into the engine. That extra air helps the engine make more power, so the car feels like it suddenly “jumps.” The host is describing that dramatic boost moment and how loud it was.
The Dacia Duster is a compact SUV. It’s made to be a practical, budget-friendly option. The podcast mentions it because they’ve noticed them a lot while traveling.
The Dacia Logan is a low-cost car model. The podcast mentions it mainly because the hosts are talking about the names and how they stand out. It’s presented as a practical, everyday kind of vehicle.
A long road trip is just a big drive over lots of time and distance. They’re saying the best vehicle is the one that stays comfortable and doesn’t cause problems.
Smart cruise control is like regular cruise control, but it can automatically slow down if the car in front of you gets closer. It helps reduce stress on long highway drives.
The Genesis G90 is a big, luxury sedan built for comfort. The host is saying it can be a great long-trip car, especially if you care about features and comfort more than sporty driving.
They’re talking about the Android phone connection for the car’s screen. It usually means Android Auto, which brings your music and navigation to the dashboard.
The Ferrari FF is a Ferrari that’s built for long drives and has all-wheel drive. That means it can put power down more confidently on different roads than many other Ferraris.
The BMW 6 Series is a luxury car line meant for comfortable, enjoyable driving. In the episode, it’s talked about in terms of how it felt to drive and how it fit into social plans. The focus is on the experience, not specific mechanical details.
The Acura Integra is a compact car from Acura. The Type S is the more performance-focused version. The podcast mentions it in connection with high-grip tires used to improve handling.
That phrase describes a tire meant to be good in more than one season. It’s usually built to feel more “sporty” than regular all-season tires, but it’s still not the same as a tire made only for winter or only for track use.
The Lotus Emira is a sports car made by Lotus. It’s built to be fun to drive. The podcast mentions it because someone talked about tires they used on it and what happened while driving.
Hydroplaning happens when water builds up under the tire and the tire loses grip. The car can feel like it’s sliding even though you’re still driving normally.
LIVE
Holy crap. We're back. That was three weeks of you know, I described it to some of the yesterday as it was
It was great to the point of being overwhelming. I mean actually overwhelming as a positive thing there
Yes, so much in the last few weeks and thank you guys for listening and for watching our on-location
Podcasts because those are actually fun to do but we are back in the thick of it
This is a podcast with all of the above. It's got the news. topic. car debates
It's got the car conclusions. It's got the questions. We're gonna think it's got everything
We have also I know we've been doing shorter podcasts of late. We are back in coming in hot
Thank you guys for all of your questions for all of your comments
There's a huge conversation right now that we'll get into at some point going on on our discord all of our patrons right now are
buried in data
Can't one of our listeners and viewers has thrown all of our transcripts at Claude and
With the help of an AI assistant can answer any question about the trends of you and I have talked about for at this point a
1050 plus podcast and it is fascinating to us as it is to all of our patrons who are digging in on discord and asking questions
And it's been amazing. I've learned about our podcast. It's crazy
I was here for all of them, but I've still learned about it
Yeah, found the most recommended car the word we use the most describe cars the sentiment about the podcast
It's it's been really top name the top 10 lists for all things
So we got a top turn in a topic Tuesday. We will but I this is interesting data
I was thrilled to discover that our trending commentary on this podcast and with this show is
Helping people find a fun car. That's what we intended to do. Luckily. We stayed on brand of the data
Except what we're hoping for look at us. Look at us. We're actually doing what we intended
I also want to acknowledge that we yes
We have a lot of films coming from this Euro trip and so many films. There's so much footage, but
Those are a little more than a month out
Maybe two months out and once we hit it, I'm gonna try to make it a weekly thing
Once we hit one, I'm gonna have it be every week until we burn out. It's gonna be at least four of them
Maybe six of them. I'm very excited. There's so much footage
It was so much fun and there's so much to share about it
I'm gonna show photos of all the food that I ate with the course here's where how it served and then here's the aftermath after I eat
All of the breakfast because the breakfast you love that I'm gonna do a whole maybe I could do a short film
You could do a breakfast podcast. You you could do a whole breakfast podcast
I think you could do a special edition breakfast podcast
I didn't get video of every breakfast at every well, but it's a podcast you could just talk about it
I do have some photos to back. Of course you could be a breakfast. I'm not surprised
50 years the 9-11 from 13 years ago is now playing on our original YouTube channel
And that also means that all of our other feature link films will be coming out as well
Yes, if you haven't seen 50 years now is your chance. It's finally on YouTube for free
We're thrilled to put it out there. We're thrilled to revisit it and it's nice to see the commentary on not just wow
You guys look younger. Well, yes
But also just how the quality stands up and the information stands up to that was such a big reach for us at the time
We did it. We had well under I think we had like
50,000 subscribers at the time we did that and it was the biggest thing we've ever done
And I was convinced that everybody in town was doing one including Portia and nobody else did so we did this big 50 years 9-11 thing
I'm still very proud of it, but I will say here's my here's my calibration tactic for all of you that want to watch it
That haven't seen it just before you hit play get on your phone and look at the picture of yourself from 13 years ago
and then hit play
Because I don't care how kind to yourself exactly be kind be kind to yourself us because I don't care how much effort
You've put in 13 years is a lot of aging
Okay, so there's a lot of let changes that happen at 13 years and it's all on display for us
But also some really cool 9-11's we drove more 9-11's the first day our calibration day was 15 different 9-11's
That's amazing and then we did 8 in the film
Yeah, and I would argue work that we have more back-to-back
9-11 seat time than most any other journalist working and probably many people that work for Portia
Agreed still and 9-11 is still this thing where every journalist wants to talk like I know everything
And we don't know everything but we sure embedded ourselves in 9-11 culture for a while
But that was 13 years ago and also current it's both at the same time. Let's go to current news
How about that go find a photo of yourself? Yes from 13 years ago and go wow and then hit play go, huh the guys there
They are yeah, huh coming in with news
From Ferrari we've been actually Ferrari heavy because they have a they've had a huge news cycle this year
They have yeah, we've all said say let's save the manuals
Ferrari I think contributed to not saving the manuals back when they
Discontinued transmissions because 2% of their buyers were actually opting in right and I also want to say that something
We've said a couple times is that Ferrari?
Missed some magic by getting rid of the gated manual and if they brought back the gated manual they would sell everyone
They could make we've said this multiple times in the podcast keep going and yet. Yeah, so they they didn't save the manuals
They did not and now they're resaving the manuals. They're saving manuals. So hard
saving it so hard
The thing they're they're faking it, but anyway, let's move on yeah
We don't know about the luce and it it's a Honda minivan that weirdly has a Ferrari badge on it
We're not sure why but don't look over there look over here at the new 12-cylindry
Manuali actual the manual transmission with incredible technology to receive the manual so hard
We're gonna save it we took it away and we're bringing it back kind of this is it's it's an overlay of manual engagement
On the same dual clutch they already have without actually making a full manual
This is a very interesting mix of technology going on here and they're gonna sell every one of them
I'm going I'm sure they're all yeah. Yeah, this is an eight-speed F1 dual clutch transmission with a clutch by wire pedal and
A six-speed manual by wire control lever
No mechanical linkage for either
So the shift lever and clutch only provides signals for the shifting of the first
Six gears of the eight-speed DCT plus reverse
You can also switch to automatic mode when you want to take advantage of the remaining two gears without paddles on the steering wheel
And on 991 generation cars when those came out Porsche made a seven-speed manual transmission
Out of shared parts from the 997.2
DCT the PDK the main shaft output shaft differential some of the gears and the synchronizer mechanisms were shared from that
But this strikes me is still a little bit different and even more complicated because
Solve everything and clear everything up by making more complicated. Well, it's what I've always done
This is we're not going to make an actual manual transmission
We're going to leave the same transmission as we've already had right for this car right what we're gonna do is we're gonna create
Inputs I'm glad this exists. It's going the right direction
But this is them saying what if we created a button that tells you I'd like this gear now in the form of a gated
Looking manual in the form of a gated looking shifter and a button in the form of a clutch pedal that tells you okay
We're about to change gears now. It's it's a button. Yes, so apparently they have
Researched this for the last four years and done a lot of work to make this shifter have the same feel
That we all know Ferrari gated manuals feel like which was special
Which was very special
It's the thing that Ferrari lost the most when they got rid of the gated shifter there
They lost some magic in there somewhere. I don't know that this brings it back
It didn't lose sales even lose sales. But anyway, yeah, they took the manual away and they're giving it back to us
So manuals have been saved more than ever
Manuals have been super saved. This is still some fakery, but I am glad it exists
I have other Ferrari thoughts here that this relates to okay the luce. I'm sorry to bring it up again
I don't know what you're talking about. I know there's two interesting things going on behind the scenes here first off
There's been some press about the fact that in re in Rico, Galleria
Okay, the role of chief marketing and commercial officer depending on who you read. He was either fired
Or he said, I think I'm done and and walked out with his head held high the guy that defended it
I'm not sure which well, he was the chief marketing. Here's the marketing guy
Yeah, I'm not sure which of those is true because I've read from very reliable sources either of the above conflicting either
It was like don't let the door hit you on the way out or I've been planning this for six months either way
He's just happened to coincide with he's gone
Replaced by a former head of BMW from Italy and you made the comment talk about something that was how to defend ugly
But anyway that kind of experience with ugly, too
But I also want to say this though the luce's issue is not a marketing problem. That's a product problem. It's not no
No, because
Look, you can market you can be the best marketer on the planet telling you that you must go see a movie
But if the movie is terrible, yeah, that's not a marketing problem. Yeah, that's a product problem. Yeah
So replace your marketing guy is great and all but you still got that car to sell and interestingly enough
We joked about the fact that it looks like your average Chinese EV and the Chinese apparently are the only ones that it sold out for
There were 88 promised for the Chinese market and they went like that. They were gone
To the point that far he's going. Maybe we should send more of them to China
I cannot believe the Chinese who are ruling the way to make EVs fast and cheap
Apparently is the only market where the order book filled instantly
Which I'm sorry sends Ferrari the wrong message
So I am I am fascinated to see these two products are very interesting. They both dropped for Ferrari at the same time Ferrari
Bringing back the manual, but it's simulated and providing their first EV
But it doesn't seem like a Ferrari weird stuffs going on over there
You notice though that the luce came first. Yes, this followed. Yes
New that would happen. They needed some new there would be vitriol about the luce. You're right
So continuing on with Ferrari's apology to her
Very good very good good news everyone. Yes, it's back the manual week
I still think it's so funny because we always refer to as the company that took away our manual
Not really but now they're giving it back
Well, not really because they you know other companies make manuals
My questions have to do with a clutch engagement because again the center block apparently is the
Engineering the the centerpiece that the engagement and the feel is centered around for this as is the clutch
And so they've worked very hard on the shifter feel even though it's still clutch by wire and shift by wire
Now on the clutch by wire, I was thinking about the powered clutches on sim rigs and had a conversation with a friend
Just recently and she and I were discussing
Could you adjust the clutch engagement like you can do on your sim rig?
Can you adjust the engagement or the feel to match a different car? Okay? Okay?
Because what does a true manual 12-cylindry?
Feel like it can feel like anything. Mmm. Good point
It just it feels like this because we say it does you're right because clutch by wire and the manual on this
Well, does it feel like a 550 marinello? Well, no, it feels like a 12-cylindry
Cylindry manual. What does that feel like this? You're right. You're right. Oh, okay
So we're being told yet again, but I love that they are
Rethinking this and I'm actually kind of in love with it because it makes it for a very robust
Dual-clutch transmission. They did not reduce the power output of this car
Because that's a lot of the reason why they say well
We got to detune the engine because of the power going through an actual manual
Sure couldn't do so they didn't reduce the power
They figured out a way to introduce a manual keeping the same level of power
Even though it's made it very complicated in my opinion on the other hand
Is this going to now set the bar for saving the manual so hard that every other manufacturer is going to follow suit
They will also like Porsche and McLaren and Lamborghini and name another manufacturer
Koenigsegg has got something similar to this. I believe yeah, but every other manufacturer is going to say, huh
I wonder if we could do that Porsche is going to look at their PDK and be like well Ferrari did it with their DCT
Why can't we make the Porsche feeling and now that will allow them to increase horsepower in their future cars and
We're off to the races. See you took this a place. I'm not liking you took this a place that suggests
That every manufacturer and they're going to do it. You're right. They're looking at this
They only have to make one transmission the dual clutch
Yes, and then they can fake the manual feeling on top of it
And so then they can offer a quote-unquote manual
There is something about the actual engagement you pushing on a clutch and you feeling it connect to things or disconnect things
There is something there. We'll take less power says everyone
Well, okay, we'll take less power if you just give us a real manual interesting two different transmissions
Yeah, and this would allow them to have one transmission, right?
Okay, I hadn't thought about that and now I'm a little frightened. Okay. Yeah, so maybe you can change the shifter feel here
Maybe you can tune that. I mean, it's really just code. Of course. The clutch feel like well
It's a line of code. Yeah, feel like anything or whatever springs we decided to connect to the back of the pedal
We can change the springs. I mean, that's one of things in the in the the GT 350 Mustang that we really like
Mm-hmm. A lot of owners didn't like the clutch feel and there was a standard way for you to
Change the springs on the back of the clutch and a lot of people liked it better if you change the springs or took one of them off
I forget which one it was so the point here is that clutch is fabricated by somebody deciding on spring weight
Uh-huh and deciding on lines of code and we all agree
This feels nice and we like this and let's sell that and it will be bought
So this is white when it's in automatic mode and it turns amber when you push in the clutch
And then you start shifting so it goes to amber lit up on the top of the ball
I think the ball is just a little bit oversized too big for my opinion
I would also like to see a nice little
Mechanical lockout for that reverse there
I think that would really add to it and then you see once you're in the sixth gear you go to drive mode
You've got the drive modes down here
So you can go to reverse or drive mode for the top two gears for cruising
And then ostensibly launch mode for the L button I guess if you want to go to launch
Yeah, I can't imagine it's gonna be the old low mode that you had an old automatic
So I had an image of somebody's not gonna happen
But I had an image of somebody one of those tunnel car washes getting confused how to get into neutral in this car
No, I got the clutch it that I'm hitting the end. What do I do?
I'm in gear to chunk you know
We've all see that person in the tunnel car wash where they get off the track and if the track is
Yeah, lurching their car around because I can't forget to get into neutral. We've all been there
Anyway, I'm just picturing that right now. Nevertheless, we are back with the manual and you can see here
The paddles are gone on the steering wheel and the interior is quite lovely and manual transmission
I want a thousand percent want to drive this. I absolutely want to experience what this is
But this is open the gates the full guys are you're right. You're right. Clarence gonna do it
Porsche is gonna be like hmm. Can we simulate this? Okay every other car manufacturer and so now
Future cars are going to be even more desirable because manuals are super duper saved
They're like so extra saved. It's not even funny a speaking of things saved or coming back
I have to jump to something real quick
It's also in the rumor mill and then I want you to come back to I want you to talk about x5
Yes, we have x5 discussion here, but let me talk about this real quick two things in the rumor mill one is
Hyundai has shown in their in their home market. They have shown an updated Elantra
Which has gotten styling from that like type 74 that that whatever that
Old 70s looking thing that they did for a while. So the new Elantra supposedly has got these really crazy extra fenders and looks pretty cool
I hope that's real, but this is the actual Hyundai launch photos for their local looks rear-wheel drive
It doesn't really drive, but okay. This is on the rear haunches back here. Meanwhile, we've said it for a while
We had it. We had a podcast a while ago where we talked about cars brand should bring back
Mm-hmm and the rumor mill suggests that Honda really is bringing back the element
It's the greatest image. I'm showing these plastic element image where you're looking straight through the car with the seats folded down
That is the element in one shot this little box with four-wheel drive on the beach with a surfboard on the top and the seats laid all the
way down so it's just your little shipping container and everyone I know that had one of these
Loved it and drove it till they could not drive it anymore
And this is a huge opportunity for Honda to bring this back if they do it right
But it is a beloved brand for them and supposedly this is a model that Honda is saying they're bringing back the Honda element
I've been reading a couple rumors about that and I have to say please please can't bring it back fast enough
Because this would be such a cool thing to have back in a modernized form. They're talking about it being a hybrid which makes sense
Yeah, so we'll see if it really happens
But I read both of those this week and I thought they were at least acknowledging because man, I hope it's true
I really do I hope both of those are true wonder so much sand gets in that my buddy had one of these
It was just always full of sand. He would drive us to lunch
Yeah, well, you know and there's always saying and he's like yeah, I go windsurfing down in Mexico
I'm like well, yeah, but it's like full of sand well because most people don't clean their cars like you do
That's really what happens. Anyway, no wonder. It's full of saying exactly
Back to you
The Noia class BMW x5 has been announced the x5 and the I x5 so the gas and electric versions
It is the first vehicle to be offered with five
Drive train options gas powered battery electric vehicle plug-in hybrid diesel and fuel cell electric powered by hydrogen
That's astounding. We just had Ferrari trying to make one transmission
BMWs over here with five different
I
Like this styling a lot
I think BMW is back on track the beaver teeth are no more. They're back to just a signature
BMW look the Noia class styling is crisp. It's elegant. The surfaces are beautiful. It's modern futuristic
I think this is so good. It applies to every vehicle on their lineup
I think they're doing very well by applying this and I think they're going to sell like sell these like mad
The I x5 is confirmed as the first fully electric BMW to be assembled in the US
It's got an estimated range 435 miles 570 horsepower and
593 pound-feet of torque this
Noia class design language. Here's the rear view so you can see I think it's excellent. It's distinctive. It's
Not an Asian influence. It's still very German in my opinion, but it's it's very futuristic
They're pushing pushing the edges here in a good way. I do like it
It's only an improvement from the beaver teeth and you know, we actually in Europe. We saw quite a few
Sevens current seven series mm-hmm and current five and the current both of those cars are not attractive from any angle
Yeah, we would watch them because of course of the Autobahn
We watch them go past us it would be ugly coming at us from behind ugly as it passes on the profile
That's not all bad review mirror. That's not the money seriously
So this this x5 and this whole new styling thing
I like I do have to come down on one thing real quick and I have to say you know what these little winglet
Fin things that we're doing as door handles were a disaster on the Mustang Mach-E. So let's put them all over this
I hate them on the Mustang Mach-E. They don't make sense. They look stupid
And this is there here they are again
I'm hoping they're better on this because I do love what winglets do being a designer of course look what it does
It cleans up nice clean panel. I like it so much. There's no rub strip. There's no door handles
It makes it look clean makes it very different. So you've got these winglets, which are quite interesting
I hope they're better. They look touch sensitive here and they look a little bit more aerodynamic instead of just like a button
I got used to it when we drove the Mustang Mach-E
But I always felt like it was not a good way to execute a door handle, but okay
So these double X headlight icons can be switched off or switch to reveal a simpler diagonal icon
Instead of the double X or you can choose that wheels up to 23 inches in size and the
X5 50 EX drive bumps to
483 horsepower 516 pound-feet of torque
Whereas the regular
Gas-powered X5 using an updated B 58 engine and new turbocharger makes
394 horsepower
428 pound-feet of torque with a 48 volt mild hybrid system a
Crank-shaft mounted starter generator and those are the X5 40 miles
So you got the X5 40 the X5 50 X5
Ix 560 is the bev then diesel
Hydrogen the reality of these is they're all gonna be crazy fast and the V8 powered M
Performance version is forthcoming. That's great news. So there's gonna be a sixth. That'll be a sixth
Well, yeah, I guess a V8 even though it'll be still gas-powered. It'll be a different engine
Yes, and look at what they're doing the interior. I think the Neue class interior is very successful already
Whatever you think about screens, it might be a little large
But you know, I've got a forerunner with a giant screen in it
So at least this looks pretty integrated and I like the trapezoidal
Themes that they've introduced years ago and look what they've done to get rid of the HUD and just integrate your speed
It's just an eye flick away
For for pertinence that low panel all the way across the bottom of the windshield
I like that very much these there's a lot of screens going on in here
I just I have to experience it so far
But to this point I cannot connect with the four spoke steering wheel yet. It looks weird to me
It does look odd
But from a design perspective it makes sense the center of your sternum your body your line in a vertical position
I'll go with you on that and that just indicates visually a vertical
You know, I'm going straight because you don't have gauges to look through. Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, I get it
Yeah, I'm really intrigued by this. I think we'll see really well done and and then of course the winglets maybe
Successful hopefully successful. Well, we'll see about that, but what was it?
Who hurt us why are we angry at doors?
You just have handles you open the door you close the door. I think it's really great looking it does look good
I mean, look at that body side. It looks very improved
Yeah, because there's no door handles to visually break it up
It looks even taller and no rub strip right down the side
It it really just little things really clean up the design quite a lot. It looks very this in person
I'm excited about the new round of BMWs. I mean the new these light up to you know, by the way
Of course, you want everything lit up because you want all the nostrils to light up, you know
We talked a couple podcasts ago about the new M3 that was teased at Le Mans
That looks amazing and a lot like an updated version of the Evo 10. I'm just very excited about where BMW is going
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Let's move on to cars that we think YouTube will care about because Carlos is writing in with an interesting topic
And I don't want to go too far into the minutiae of YouTube
We actually have an insider podcast for our patrons coming up that's gonna talk about all the behind-the-scenes YouTube stuff that we are
Experiencing and others as well how it relates to this show
But Carlos is saying that he thinks that dream cars are not good youtube cars
He has a small channel that he's working on that is called Carlos auto lab where he does a lot of long-term ownership reviews
He says he can't do it a lot because he's got a full-time job
But he does all these long-term things. He's got some good stuff that's done pretty well for the Mustang maki
He's had for a while
He's driven a lot of other things
But he has a love for the Mustang and a few years ago
He sold a 2001 Mustang GT to get his dream car
a 2004
mystic chrome terminator Mustang really quite striking and uh not that well known
I don't think I mean it wasn't uh really quite prevalent
He asks what are the coolest cars we can think of that are actually terrible for making youtube videos about and on the flip side
What are the most boring cars that somehow
Generate the best engagement and most watch videos 82 silicon my friend the video that we did on it just blew up
Well then an old 240 old 240z. We have that one did well as well
I mean the point he's making here is is this was his all-time dream car and he thought these are rare
These are cool. I think this mystic chrome terminator musting is going to be amazing
But he said he's actually gets fewer views on this than his old
2001 Mustang GT nobody wants to watch this and so he's a little bit confused
So that's what brings up the questions. Thanks for watching the podcast and listening to the podcast watching all of our videos
And we we obviously appreciate firsthand how hard it is to get videos made in the midst of the rest of your life
Carlos there's a lot of stuff going on on youtube right now in all spaces
There's there's more content than ever before shorts are more important than ever before
I'm not a guy that likes to make shorts but
Long form is becoming less less watched and I I'm saying long from hope you can hear my air quotes
If you can't see them because long form now means anything over 10 minutes
The feature filmmaker in me is crying right now
Long form and then of course the argument I keep having with my own household
Where my son or my wife will look at shorts for an hour and when I say let's watch a movie they're like a whole movie
a whole movie
After that's so long like scrolling nothing for an hour
Carlos I think another thing going on youtube right now is we are in the I think we're in the post
supercar era
unless your audience
is
Let's say 21 and below maybe even 18 and below
Okay, the world of I bought a supercar and you're going to watch all I do with it is behind us
Part of that is changes in the economy and part of it is also the fact that those of us that grew up
Without a lot of car video that didn't see a lot of exotic cars
We're now full
We've seen it all my brain's full. There's video of every little exotic car
You can imagine done ad nauseam and so supercars are wrecked my car wrecked my supercar. Oh, yes
I bought it. I wrecked it. So if you're not not making a kid audience
So I think supercar ownership reviews are now even less relatable because that was also a thing for a while
Where supercar owners were going I have this car and you don't
Okay, so now the only supercar content. I think that does well
Is when you're being mean to your supercar. I'm taking farm animals in it. I'm going to mcdonald's with it
This is the only supercar content that seems to actually blow up now because we're doing things that I don't know the way to put it
Better just mean to the car. It's full of mulch
What I think it is that that relates directly to your car Carlos and why people aren't watching it is the more niche
A sports car is and the less relatable a sports car is the less it's going to get watched
I'll give you direct commentary from our actual stats on this show. Okay
Portia and
Corvette content will always play the better numbers for us
Then lotus and I love lotus and I've spoken about lotus and my love for lotus and many people
I've met many people who they recognize me because I do lotus content because they like lotus people in europe
We're like I met a guy in europe who don't you have an amirah? That was his opening line. I was like
yes
So I but but the point I'm making here is if you don't already like lotus and that's a small niche
You don't care. Yeah, everybody. I'm painting with a broad brush
But most everybody in cars is at least curious about porches product and corvette product
And we do either one of those it does better numbers than a lotus piece ever will
Because those are broader
So the more niche the the worse and the other thing you have to keep in mind carlos that your car is giving you trouble with
New is better than anything
The new blank. I don't care what it is
luce
Well, I mean
Maybe not maybe not
Maybe i'm wrong
But the point I'm making here is but no, but you know what maybe so maybe when that car got released and we all talked about it
Everybody and I say we all I mean everybody in cars talked about it
Yeah, everybody that takes in car content always listening about it. That's true
It had its moment in the sun where it was the new thing we all talked about and that was what was getting the clicks in the listens
And now it's a little bit behind us. It'll happen another wave when you get the first drive videos of that
Oh, yeah, the the and the problem I'm pointing right at us
The problem is the person that drives luce a year after everybody else does it's going to be crickets
Nobody's going to watch that new is possible like just came out this minute just got announced when i'm driving it
Known as possible and I'm talking about cars known outside the car world the luce is a perfect example
Everybody talked about that car if you don't know much about cars
Some random local news station went ferrari is just revealed their first dv
I read about it in financial times. They had a huge article all the same press photos
I'm like, this is a financial website
The luce luce works like crazy here because the next one on my list is controversial as possible
Yeah, yeah
With a big fan base. It hits every single one of those it was new
Everybody outside the car world was curious about it controversial and everybody knows who ferrari is
That is gold. The problem is your
Terminator cobra Mustang is and I'm not coming down on it because I mean people love the terminator
It is a well-loved thing and mr. Crome is interesting paint color and I like interesting paint colors
Yeah, but that is not the most beloved generation of the Mustang
It's not the Mustang that everybody knows right off the top of their head
And it's 20 years old. You've done well carlos with your Mustang maki content
Well, it's new
It's known
And it's controversial
That's a Mustang. That's why you've done well with all of it. Now. I I know if I'm saying this so definitively
Why don't we do it?
Why don't we just chase that?
Well, first off we have trouble getting cars the minute they're announced
But the secondary part of it is you and I have always chosen
To do video content. We believe in and like and experiences. We enjoy and can share it with with genuine joy to you guys
Then just trying to figure out where the audience is. What's the audience chasing?
What shiny object are we doing on youtube this week because it's going to be different next week
The treadmill chase of that always exhausted us and we knew that very soon we would be burned out
Please don't misunderstand me all of you watching and listening. We have this conversation regularly
What should we change? tweak?
But the one commonality for us is it has to be
Organic and real and we have to be able to present it in a way that feels real to us
Because if we're just chasing well, we have to talk about this at some point. We're stopped being real
It always concerned us
About becoming jaded. We always had this conversation about when you know, we're doing this and we've been doing it for so long
I never want to become a jaded automotive journalist and just say oh this not the new
Insert cool car here that all of us would kill to see let alone drive
Look at me. I have to write another article on this. I have to fly to tenor reef this week
Oh, I never want to become that. Yeah. Yeah
You would if it's the luce, but
Only for that only for the luce. I mean I tell me where I need to go and I'll go there. Let's go
No, I want us to be genuine and always excited about cars because you and I have always been asked
Well, how do you keep the passion alive?
How do you always be excited about cars and it always comes down to the people being excited about the driving experience and
It's really for the cars and what that does to people and and how excited people get when uh
When they see something cool and it's a it connects you to a fun driving experience
That's always been uh been that for me certainly
Carlos I've got a list here and I've got some images to follow
I'm not sure if all five of these cars meet your criteria, which are very good
By the way, I'm
I'm not sure if I'm curious and see what your list is. Yeah meets that because
You asked starting off the coolest cars we can think of that are terrible for making youtube videos
The mr2 of any generation never got a lot of love
Interesting. They're pure drivers cars. Yeah. Yeah the 12 cilindry manwally
manual
Is the purest expression of driving so as an mr2 spider
It's like
Piping from the h-fax section of the home depot for the door handles. They're great to drive. They're lightweight
All the mr2s are superb from the door stop to the middle generation to this one
Really crisp pure lightweight fun driving experience. We don't shut up about the miata. No one cares
Well, except for the people that already love them that's back to my niche thing
Yeah, the people that love them will watch that content and everybody else will be like, yeah next video
Hopefully the silica comes back. But do you remember the gts from 2003?
No one cares
Yeah, that keeps being discussed both of the cars you've shown that relate to the lotus motor in my car
And whenever I post a lotus piece the owners of these two cars show up and talk about other cars are similar. Yeah, exactly
Old jags, you remember the 2014 xkrs gt hyper niche
Super cool great gt car aggressive styling other better cars existed. I guess
I mean fast lots of power
No one would watch no
Why would I watch that because there's so many cars that surpass this?
I mean a camera is like got the same performance levels, right?
Almost well your ev does for sure ev does
The mitzubishi evo 10
By now is kind of played out
We wish mitzubishi would come back with the evo 11 whatever that would look like and you know bring this back
Bring this recipe back. Yeah, but anything, you know modded to this or even this now
You know superb driver's car
surprising value here
Hmm. Do I want to watch another video about that?
Not really. Well, I mean they haven't sold it for a decade. No, they haven't
And then every time the dodge neon srt4 comes up everybody's like, oh, yeah
That's that's really quite good. I you know, I heard great things about it. I'm like, huh?
Yeah, I don't want ever want to
Make a video that yeah, I mean if hey, I would watch I would do a test drive on it
But I don't think very many people would show up and we could niche people who love it and they had one
And yeah, you know, so this is the concept from the year 2000 and best photo I could find of a decent one with
With yeah, no, uh, no copyright here. So I think the srt4 so those are my five cars that
Would make terrible youtube views, but in their own right all of them have some element of fun and they're all enjoyable
But I don't think anybody would care to watch any videos, especially nowadays even when they came out
So yeah, yeah, okay. Well, we we mw portion of these boxes when we did our six months long term on the new updated toyota prius
Mm-hmm new
Controversial etc etc
But the problem is the prius at the time we did the video and I mean obviously our whole premise was let's
rethink what the prius reputation is but its reputation is so
Non-car interesting
That we were having to surmount that with that series
There was a segment of the audience that wasn't going to click on anything that was a prius video
Even though the entire point of the series was is it time to rethink this car, right?
So you've got a battle that no the supercharger intake is taller than the roof now look watch
Possibly. Yeah, I put a giant engineer. Hey, if I drag race, you'll show up
I mean the number of times that that that somebody I can tell has not watched our content before they will watch a comparison
And and all they're looking for is the drag race. Where's the drag race? I mean, I can tell you I could I could tell you
And and the person watching probably knows who'd win. That's the thing. It's crazy
You're probably showing up knowing who win the drag race and you just want to see the drag race anyway
I find that amazing. I'd like to tell you about the nuances of how it might actually be to own and drive
But you'd just like to see visual confirmation of what you already know to be true. That's where we're at moving on
Carlos, thank you for writing right to us topic tuesdays everyday driver tv at gmail.com
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A few hooked on driving announcements from july 2026 saturday and sunday july 18th and 19th
For hooked on driving midwest
Celebrating 50 years of speed at halit motor racing circuit in jennings, oklahoma is the halit celebration weekend
Again july 18th 19th and also in the pacific northwest for hod there at portland international raceway
saturday july 25
So we still have not been to i really love there. I really do. Yeah, that'd be really cool
And go to hooked on driving for more future dates throughout the year
We've got a great second half of the year calendar coming up and now we're excited for you to join us hooked on driving
So michael is writing in for our first car debate. He's writing in from toosan arizona
His title is i'm too impulsive, but i gotta be honest with some of the the emails we've read over the years a lot of podcasts behind us
When you say i'm too impulsive, I expect you to be trading cars every 34 months
I I expected with that kind of setup. There was going to be a lot of turnover
But michael's problem is he's not really sure what to get rid of and what to change into and he's got a decent garage right now
But he has five cars and he's decided no, sorry wait six cars and he's decided that is entirely too many
michael, thank you for writing
He is a huge subaru fan boy his current garage includes an o2
wrx
In blaze yellow, which is set up to be a rallycross car
He's got an o6 wrx sti in aspen white, which is set up to be an autocross and track car
1990 mazda miata classic red. This is a dedicated autocross car. He's got a 2013
Focus st in performance blue. That's the daily also pretty competitive in autocross apparently he autocrosses
2004 chevy silvarado in champaña. That's the tow pig with 357
Thousand miles still has the original motor and transmission
Incredible chevy like a rock. Well, I mean that's when they were making v8s that worked for a long time
Now they're struggling without any to say it. It's a shot. It's true. It's true
All right, let's acknowledge that it's happening
Low blow. No, it's like a like dead on the center of the target. Let's fix this come on chevy
What you do is v it's suburbans corvettes and v8s. That's all they do. I know anyway
Last car on the list is a 2025 outback in sapphire metallic
This is michael's wife's car perfect for her and the dogs
Now michael has a two-car garage with six cars. That's right six cars six cars
He could fit three but it's tight and he's got plenty of driveway spaces
So he could keep all of these but he doesn't want his house looking like a used car lot
Ideally he wants to whittle this collection down to four
Count them cars. Okay, so we're getting rid of two. We hope yes not going anywhere is the miata
This is his first date with his wife was in that car
He taught her how to drive manual in it and it's it appears in their wedding photos
Got it. That one's safe. He says no matter what
The real dilemma is the sti versus the wrx fighting it out for the same spot
The sti is pretty far gone mod wise. Well, it sounds like so is the wrx not fun to drive on the street anymore
It's great at what it's built for
A bunch of owners all autocrossed it. It's got national titles and podiums and does he care about that? He's not sure
The wrx is a rare color only around 500 made he bought it from the original owner who was an engineer
It's got rallycross wheels and track wheels
It's still pleasant to drive on the street a size aside from the sticky locks and windows and all it's an old car
Weird stuff. Yeah
He knows one of these has to go away eventually. He also knows that no matter what he does to the yellow car
It's never going to be an sti. Well, not magically transmogrify itself
But that's just the king of this era of Subaru should that matter
He likes the focus st
Does it stay or go he's not sure his commute is 12 minutes with no highways just town roads
So does he really need it?
And he's also owned three jeeps in total
He regrets selling two of them a 94 Cherokee and a mint 99 grand Cherokee
He says he wouldn't mind having a Jeep again for you know doing the broken arrow trail in Sedona or
Doing a little bit outback kind of stuff, you know trail roads
This could be the
Replacing for the outback and it'd be a little more interesting as I was saying but that outback's brand new. It's 2025
It is
But just the fact that it's on the table. I mean you brought it up in the email. He did he did for sure Michael
That means things are on the table. Yeah, maybe he sells the truck in the outback and gets his wife something like a Porsche Cayenne
Ding ding ding. I mean, what am I supposed to say? No?
I have zero legs to stand on here. You say cayenne. I go, uh-huh
Yeah, or does he keep the outback and grab a newer ford ranger? He's not sure. He's thinking out loud
I will jump right in and ask you how many track days
per year
Do you run Michael? How much autocrossing are these cars? How much tracking how much autocross?
I mean you say it's all set up and it's really good at it. He's got four cars ready for autocross
Two Subaru's the Miata, which isn't going anywhere and the focus st
That's four potential autocross cars and I don't know if I'm wrong here, but there's only one of you Michael
Also about your tow pig because it's not the decision-making on the track cars
That will inform your decision-making on the Silverado
Because if you tow your car to the track or to the autocross
Well, how much extra towing beyond that do you use the truck for now? I know 357,000 miles
It's probably not worth too much
It might be worth keeping it around just to use for truck stuff
But maybe not I mean how much truck and tow stuff do you do beyond autocrossing and if you do less and less
Well, then
What do you need the tow vehicle for I agree so that could go away or if he autocrosses a car like the
Yellow sti that can also be street driven
You drive your autocross car to the autocross and then you don't need a tow rig
Or maybe you're getting more into track days and you want to come find a track day near you
Could could work
Imagine Michael
Selling both subarus and the focus st
Interesting, okay
Imagine if you will imagine for a moment imagine a world
Where you don't own subarus six cars
You're selling wait a minute. Well, you'd have to sell subaru and the two sti
So all the subarus and the alcoves as well
And the focus you're selling for you got him down to instantly in one move
Bravo, he's got a miata and a truck
No subarus. I mean, I know you're a super fan boy, but
What is the car you've always wanted is it some ultimate subaru that you don't have that you're wishing the two current subarus would somehow equal
or
Maybe keeping them long enough would satisfy your urge
What is the subaru that you've always wanted or what is the car you've always wanted the other question that came to my mind is
What is subaru owners graduate to?
Not that you need to graduate to anything. I mean subarus are great to have at any point in your life
But what do they aspire to next? What do you want to grow into? What do you want to grow up to?
Sure, sure. What do you want to get?
so imagine
Those go away and you keep the miata because you said not going away. I mean when a car is in your wedding photos. It's probably
Sticking around probably gonna be around for a while. Yeah, and the silverado sticks around because it's so useful
But i'm just thinking about all the space in your driveway. So
I have
Whittled things down here. This is an 89, but you'll get the idea 1990 miata
It's in the wedding photos going nowhere. That's just fine. Mm-hmm. But what if
You got an rs3 outie. I didn't expect that keep going. I mean if it's subaru all-wheel drive subaru out back or sorry
wrx owner, what if you graduated to one of these also quite unique?
the other
Bad thing is you didn't send us a budget
It's kind of confusing how to navigate this with no budget at all
So that's why i'm trying to give you a pretty healthy budget by selling
Four cars all the subaru is going away. Mm-hmm. And maybe a ultimate subaru comes back
But I don't think you need the focus. I think we're whittling things down
And you entertain an rs3 outie which could be really unique and fun and
Sort of the grown-up luxury
Yep, wx right
What about a 2027 the forthcoming rs5 sedan?
Hybrid technology lots of power everything we read about this so far has been quite incredible and this looks quite desirable
So what if all four cars plus some extra budget magically poof turn into one of these?
Sure, sure. Why not rs5 outie? It's what happens. You don't send us a budget. Michael. You would just
That's what happens. We're gonna go high. What about an m2 could be interesting. That's the
I mean great on track graded autocrossing
Great commuting to work one car to do it all one ring to whatever. Yes. What was it?
Don't get me started. But yes, uh-huh one ring to rule them all. Yes. This is the one ring
Forged to the fires of mount doom. Anyway. Yes. I knew there was okay. I had to do it
Yeah, and then maybe we get one of those so you just sorry rs3 rs5 or m2 and then moving to your cayenne idea
This belongs to saunty one of the owners for the northeast hooked on driving region
I took this photo of his I believe it's an early turbo. It is like an oh six
I think somewhere in there that he got from an owner. It was all dealer maintained and then he did this to it
I went yes
This is super cool. He's got the rack. front bumper lights the yellow headlight covers the
The skid rails here the rocker rails. He told me that in the exhaust back here note the exhaust
Super sweet. He told me his wife loves to drive this
as a driver
But hates to ever get out
because
Guys just approach her out of nowhere and want to talk only about this truck and she's like
I don't know anything and I don't care to talk to you
She loves to drive it
But she keeps telling him he has to get rid of it because she's tired of talking to people
Anytime she parks it like guys just like flies like what is this? What is that's really cool?
Tell me all about it. Tell me about the build the exhaust
He had routed through the rear quarter panel back here and it is
Underneath the exhaust just looks great custom exhaust job
So it's you know out of the way so it doesn't cause a brush fire and this could be as sweet
Imagine yourself michael driving this i mean great for dogs great for the trails great for
Sedona those those trails out there and then I also I do love my forerunner
So you could consider a forerunner too
So now we've got
Miata some kind of cool sports car outie all-wheel drive outie or the m2
A forerunner or cayenne and lastly the o4 silverado. There's a 2,500. This is a as new
Kind of photo not beat down with 357,000 miles. That was that was the press photo
Yes, but you know just enough so you get the idea and now we've gotten you to your goal of four cars
It doesn't look like a used car lot. You've upgraded most of the car. Well two of the cars
And no more decisions. You've got a great sports car the miata still sticking around you've got a sweet
Trail truck and your wife will love driving that and the tow pig
Well done. I like it. We're done. I uh, michael the the lack of budget just confused me
I was just like i'm not really sure where to land create about it budget out of
Exactly by selling used cars and buying other things that so i'm not really sure I have a solve for you on new fun cars
But I am going to help you clean out your garage because
You have four cars that do autocross
44 cars that do autocross. You're not doing that much autocrossing. You're just not okay, and let's be honest
What's the best one for autocross the miata? I'm sorry, but it just it just is it's the one's gonna be best for autocross
The miata is not going anywhere and it works for autocross. So autocross is solved my friend
You do need to get to work. Well, hang on. You've got an sti that was an autocross champion
Well, wait a minute. You don't need that because you can't drive it on the street
You said and you're not really sure you care that it was an autocross champion
Autocross champion before you bought it
And the o6 is trophies the trophies filling his house and his mantle and the podium pictures
So it's got the hawk headlights and it's an autocross champion and you said you you said yourself
You're not sure that matters
You can't drive it on the street, which means it's mainly just sitting or getting towed somewhere
So the sti goes the focus st. It's not it's not special
And it you don't need it for autocross
So that goes which leaves you with the rare yellow bug eye 2002 w rex and I I want to put out there
This is
peak
Subaru w rex
It's a unique color. The bug eyes are classic and iconic
This is the one you keep for your Subaru love you keep the yellow w rex
You and you said it's still streetable
So use that for your you got a 12 mile commute use that for your commute
Use the yellow sti just get it driven get it seen by the world
It can work fine on the street. So the question becomes I don't think the tow pig has to exist anymore because what you haven't told us is
I don't get the sense that the miata
Can't be driven to autocross because this has history with you and your wife
I get the sense that this is still a streetable car that's good at autocross
So drive it to autocross unless it's bronze and sits on the shelf with your other crystal in china for your wedding
That's the thing so it clearly gets driven. So drive it to autocross and if you say to me
I need to tow tires
I have seen blunty of first gen miata owners with little tiny
Rack on the back that they put on a little tiny tow hitch and they carry their own tires, which I actually think is amazing
So drive them the other autocross. I love it. So that works the tow pig can go away
This leaves the outback and I'm of two minds at the outback. It's a 2025
It works for your life. Your wife likes it the dogs like it. It could just stay you have a lot of Subaru love
It could just stay
But not it's not an sti or a wrx
Exactly and you do have a wrx as staying in the in the the fleet for Subaru love
So let's leave the wrx. Let's leave the miata. Let's also get rid of the outback. I love
I know I have to say I love the cayenne idea selling cars. How could I not love the cayenne idea?
I'm required I think at this point. I think it's in your contract. Yeah, the cayenne works, but I was trying to go somewhere else
That gives you truck utility
But a different feel than Subaru
And I landed two places. I'm gonna go there real quickly, but I think there's two good options for you here
I think you could do
A ford maverick
Well now get the get the trimmer version of this good for off-roading
This to me is the blend between your outback love and your jeep interest is a maverick
It's got good street ability. This is these are easy to drive on the street. They get decent gas mileage
It's not something you have to be precious about but you can take it off-road
I mean look here it is in the photo actually currently off-road somebody took it off-road
My point is anywhere you take the outback the trimmer maverick can do that and more. Yeah, true
Okay, but it still is a very good street car. They're not that expensive. They're pretty cool
I think that this maverick works really well
I also think in the same lineup if you want something more suv you could do bronco sport
Oh, sure
These are down like 25 30 grand. You can find yourselves bronco sports all day long with all the options
Which one would you like?
These have proven to be better little off-roaders that I think we all expect them to be
Especially when you're comparing it to your outback or your or your maverick trimmer
They're definitely in that world. They do well here and they've got some personality
Okay
So I think one of these two ford products gives you that blending of what you like about the outback
But what you think you'd like about the jeep or what you'd like about past jeeps
It's like the blending of the two that gets you out of subaru not that the outback isn't working for you
But I was just trying to think of something else that gets you a new experience
So I'm going with the the maverick or possibly the bronco sport and again, I'm going to go backwards here
There's your your hawkeye sti. It's a picture of that. Super cool. I super cool
But I don't think that was their best styling something about this little bug. I
2002 that is
Peak subaru nailing it the yellow is great on the yellow is great
So I think that one stays with your miata and we've cleaned so I've kept miata and the sti
Pardon me in the wrx and we have some sort of new
Street off-roader like the maverick. That's three cars. I cut your group in half here, buddy
Okay, so you've got four maybe five. No, no, are you down to four? I'm down to three
You're down to three. I've got the wx. Oh, because I've got the miata and I've got the new
What is it a maverick or a bronco sport because we're getting rid of the outback?
We've gotten rid of the sti. We've gotten rid of the focus st and we're getting rid of the topig. I'm down to three
Oh, you are getting rid of that. Yeah, because we're driving the miata. That's true cross. Okay, drive it drive it to autocross
That's the whole great thing about autocross. You can drive your car to autocross autocross it drive it home
Works for h2d track days too, but it's it's the whole point of autocross. That's true
I gotta say look, I like autocross
But I've always felt like when you get to autocross and somebody pulls up with a trailer
I'm like, come on now
The whole point here is you drove here in the car and did well in the parking lot. What are we doing?
Anyway, all right, Michael, you've got some decision-making. You've got some drive homework in there. You've gotten multiple options
Thank you for writing. Let us know what you end up getting everyday driver tv at gmail.com topic Tuesdays car conclusions car debates
Jacob is in Nashville. He's a fan of the podcast. Jacob. Thank you for writing
Jacob is 13 years old. I did not see this coming by the way
Jacob's mom says that he can get a car when he turns 14. We don't quite know when his birthday is yet
The car has to be fun
Under $2,500 and he says here in parentheses. Please do not double my budget. You've listened Jacob
You are familiar with the podcast. Okay, good. I'm gonna try and most importantly
It needs to be a manual transmission. Hmm. He would like something relatively easy to work on and modifiable
He has looked into a few cars including a bmw z3 1.9 the portion 944 r 53 mini cooper and toyota selica
The bmw stands out because it's the most available in his price range
I'm glad to hear that because so far most of these
I want to run through your list a little bit most of what I've found here on auto tempest have all been auction cars
So if you can find that z3 at your price range, I mean that's really exciting
He's up for a project. He loves working on cars and his mom says that it has to be relatively good on the safety category
That also means driver upgrade driver improvement and that is part of the safety category
He does not want an american car. He would like something with good handling not a muscle car and thank us
He thanks us for helping with his car decision. I love all these ideas. I love the mini idea
I'm leaning towards this
If you can get this z3 in your price range for 2500 bucks. I mean, these are a lot of fun. They're great fun really cool
None of this matters in power
As a matter of fact the lower power cars the non s cooper the 1.9 here that will keep insurance down because that is a big factor
But again, this is an ebay listing. So it's
Still going to go for more than 2500 bucks. But if you can find that there
Definitely agreed. Also the 944 those are a little bit harder to find in good shape
Have you considered a branded title?
or
I mean some of these are parts cars, but if you would consider a branded title, I mean it's
It's exciting because it's less money upfront
But the problem with that is you're going to uncover something you're going to
Expose a problem and you're going to need to put more money into it
But if you're up for that and you're willing to do the work yourself that could be a possibility
This is another really nice 944 here on cars and bids
I found you a mini cooper s again. This was an ebay listing. So only listed 1100 right now
But you know it's going to go for more than that. But if you can find just the non s r 53 mini cooper
Yeah, I really like this a lot. I mean tons of fun
They seem to last
Yes, I've had a couple that've been around a while. Yeah, toyota silica gt here again
This is an ebay listing, but if you can entertain this
I mean, I don't love the styling on this and I think the rear wheel drive option even though I love the mini cooper
I love that that bmwz 3 for you and also jakeb. Don't forget about the fiesta st
Problem is these are also more expensive and this might double your budget, but if you could find one of these
Yeah, I don't even know if you can get one to double. That's the problem
It is the problem that here's the other thing that i'm thinking about
And that is you said you like to work on the car and you're going to be probably putting money into the car
So only you can weigh
How much will you put in and what will that cost? What will your maintenance and improve budget be?
And also over here versus what you bought the car for if you bought the better car a little bit nicer condition
You're not spending so much over here
But I also want to touch on the modifiability
Word that you used
You want it to be modifiable
Why
Why for what purpose? Okay, what are you going for? Okay
Because modding a car. Yeah, you can upgrade parts and
The things that will make it run better or the companies that have brought forth a product that improves a badly designed piece
A shift linkage or you know brakes or something like that. Oh, I totally get that that's fine
But if you're modding it just to say I've got more power
I've gotten more out of this what I think you should do
Is find one of these find any one of these cars that you suggest
I love all these suggestions and they're a little bit more performance oriented than just going to get a
Honda Civic or a Mazda 3 or something like that that could also be in your price range
Make it new refresh renew. I'm not using the word restore, but I'm saying
The center console that's worn away and you find a new piece or the buttons and switches
Or the seat bolsters or maybe the seats are reupholstered to the point then in all your maintenance
Everything you do and you get to the point where it almost looks brand new and that's your ride and it's stock
It's perfectly stock
You will get more compliments on a car that has been brought back to life
renewed refreshed
Run so good
And doesn't matter what the mileage is at that point. I think you'll take more pride in having a pristine
renewed
R53 mini or one of these people will go
I've never seen one of these in such great shape. Look at this
It brings back memories and it's stock and it doesn't need to be a hot rod. It doesn't need to go
Do the track thing. It's as close to perfectly stock to think about renewing door panels wear items
Carpets now also something to think about is digital the nav system and the stereo
That's a big part of car ownership for sure and that can be easily done
But maybe that's the only mod that you do everything else
You're modding it back to stock. You're refreshing. You're renewing these things
You're keeping them on the road
You're keeping it alive
And I think you would ultimately have more pride in it because you could also probably sell it from that point
Absolutely. Yeah, it's not why we're going down this road, but you would take a lot of pride in having pristine
Almost brand new looking. I mean you refresh the paint refresh the trim pieces
I mean, there's plenty to work on there just trying to make it nice and new again. I totally agree
That would be more appealing to me than modding it for some sort of I've got more power and handling
Doesn't matter
I'm going to jump right off of that because that's that's excellent paul jake
The thing about this is that when you say $2,500 car and then you say mod
All I hear is broken
I'm sorry because what what mods do and look they can make your car be better at x whatever x is in your equation
Okay, but you start to mod out a class where you're trying to make the classic example
Is the fact that somebody takes a big four-door sedan and tries to make it handle like a small two-door buy
Okay, this is the mod out of class discussion
But if you're spending $2,500 that means everything is old and high mileage which is reality budgets are a real thing
I get it. I applaud you for doing this. I'm amazed at you and your mom's deal here. That's it's really exciting
I love that you want to work on it
But to your point paul, I want you to make it run like it was supposed to from the factory
Because the concern I have is you're going to make it run just well enough and then you're going to modify something
And it's going to break something big
Modifications have a tendency to break things especially power mods
So if you refresh it you make it run really well like stock. I just you're broken. Seriously. Yes
This is what mods do. I hate to say it
But but I mean the 86 car that we talked about it is a classic example
Those engines seem to run until people start to try to add power and then the engines break that happens to every super ever made
I hate to say it, but it's true
Okay, the engines run okay when you don't mess with them and then you put
Oh, I got this much power and then next week. How is it broken?
Sorry, but it's true. All right, so
At some point you're going to have to bring the cars we're talking about to your mom
And she's worried about the right parent things. Is it safe?
And i'm concerned about the is it safe factor some of these older cars. I I like your 944 idea
But the $2500 944 that you're going to buy
I shudder to think how much money you're going to put into that to try to make it run
But especially with 944s, there's so many cool mods to do to 944s
money money
Tons of parts lots of work gremlins to chase
That's going to be your constant project and I think a money pit and
They're so old. They have no modern safety tech. I think the 944 is out. I hate to say it, but I think it's out
The Toyota Celica
Paul brought up a picture of one of the new front-wheel drive ones, which is a possibility
But what I I read this I thought you're going to go old you're going to go back to the rear-wheel drive ones, which is cool
Oh
But those are old enough that I think that's also a safety concern like 80s might be hard to like the one that we drove
Forever ago the the Celica super that we drove 82 that had been restored. It was like an 82 83 beautiful awesome
Fantastic really cool cars drive well, but you're chasing down parts and I it's got no modern safety tech
So I think that one's out as well the r53 mini no one's surprised. I think this is a great idea
You could definitely find one. In fact, I did find one. I'm going to show it to you right here
Nice because when you shop for $2,500 cars, here's the key thing
Obviously, we love autotempus.com slash every day, but when you shop this cheap
You have to find your local like your backyard people sell old cars on blank
Your area
That's where you find these cars right and so I went to our local site of this type and I got to show you right here
Here is a
2010 Subaru wrx
Limited 200,000 miles $1,300 on our local website here
Most of these you read into the description
And they have the what's broken or what needs to be changed right away. This is a $1,300
2010 Subaru wrx. I also have a 200,007
150,000 mile Cooper s for right at $2,500
This thing
Supposedly runs and needs a little refreshing
These are 53 minis are down here wherever your local area is jacob. You can find your it's a craigslist
It's a facebook marketplace. There's the place where where people sell cars this cheap
That I think the mini is a great idea here
But the other thing I want to bring up here is what I'm going to call price wild cards
Because what happens I'm going to show you one in just a second
Somebody has a car
That they need the money out of and the hassle gone
And so they're going to sell it for less than it really is worth if you just fixed a couple of things
Locally here. I found a 2010 infinity g 37 being sold for $2,000
It's got 178,000 miles. What's wrong with it? it is it needs a serpentine belt
And the person that's selling it needs money for college
They don't know how to do the serpentine belt and they need money for college and it'll cost more to dealer than the cars
The point I'm making here is what you're looking for jacob is a car you can work on find one of these
And I've heard people refer to them as mechanic specials find one of these cars that's super cheap because it needs stuff
But as soon as you learn how to do and do that stuff, it's worth two or three times what you paid for it
That's the kind of stuff I want you to find and you can only find in your local area
This was a great example for me because this 2010 infinity g 37 has no business being $2,000
But it needs a serpentine belt and one of the things I forget what it was
But these are maintenance issues that the person can't do and they need the money out and the car gone
This is the world you're shopping in you can also find some three series down in this area some fairly new three series
I think for your mom you need to be shopping newer than 05
For safety and I love the bmw z3. I love that. I love it for you. You can find them in your budget
I would I'd like you to have a bmw z3, but I think that is a big conversation with your mom about is she okay with that car
because they're small
They're a touch bigger than a miata just not really
I mean a first gen yes, but they're not bigger than the nc
No, you know so anyway
So have have a real honest conversation with your mom because I think the z3 is going to be too old and too small for her
To be comfortable with the r53 mini works something newer like this infinity or a used used three series
Do not hang on to value
A used three series 15 years ago you can find one of those out there
You're going to find those mechanic specials spend your money wisely
Shop your local whatever it is website to find these deals and get your mom involved
Get like mom. I found these six and here's what I like about them
But if you're going to need to shop newer than 2000 maybe newer than 2005 to get airbags and that kind of stuff
I'd love to see you in a z3. I can't believe you're going to be 14 and working on a car
I can't do half the stuff you're talking about, but I'm excited for you to learn that and I think it could be great
Jacob thank you for writing truly
Thank you for listening. We're really honored that you you've got such passion for these cars and it's going to turn into
bigger better faster more fun cars in the future, but I love your starting place here
And thank you for listening. Thank you for watching wishing you all the best and we're genuinely interested
In seeing the photo of what you bought agreed. Yes. Definitely want to know. Yeah, send us that car conclusion for sure
We know that you're either shopping for your next car or looking up prices for fun
We do it too, and we only use auto tempest calm
Because auto tempest pulls listings from all the top sites as fast as in a single site and shows them all so you don't miss a listing
For your perfect car
You can save your search get alerts and even compare prices with their price trends tool
Plus auto tempest was our first sponsor and they've been our partner for years
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For this podcast or for your garage find the next car with auto tempest calm slash every day all the cars one search auto tempest
A couple of car conclusions
We're going to start with mike who is a retired navy pilot and we talked about him a little bit when we were talking
Because he has a tinnitus problem from flying navy helicopters
And so we asked about his helicopter career and he sent us a bio
About the very cool helicopters he's he's flown
But all of them were noisy and loud and great at their job and as a result he has hearing issues
We talked about this before you have to find the car that works with your
hearing issue
I'm always amazed people with tinnitus like one car that I think is going to be really loud
They're like no i'm fine with this another car. They get in and I think it's going to be no problem
They're like oh that hurts so it's a very personal thing
So he's reminding us that he was shopping all over the place
He hasn't found a car as pure as fun as the miata
But the mission for him if you remember was under $75,000
Manual transmission sound experience that doesn't aggravate his tinnitus and his admiral of finance. He called his wife
She wanted more comfort than a miata. That was what we were trying for
We recommended things like the integral type s. He kept thinking about the time he went to the bmw performance driving school
Which ran them through exercises and all the cs versions of their m cars
He recalled how engaging they were to drive. He said they were automatics at the school, but the dynamics were undeniable
So he first drove that 2020 m2 cs. It was really good, but he noticed the price was similar to the new m2
So as we suggested the 2026 m2 was a great pick. That's where he landed
He'd considered the Porsche 718 a supra used 911
But with his price point and the criteria where our m2 recommendation was just right for him
I love that
He says it's not a sound vault like an s class or g90
But it achieves an awesome driving experience different than the miata and the driving fun and comfort delivers suits them
Well, and he replant plants replace the run flats to make it quieter
And he bought it on the last day of the year at a volume dealership got it out the door for about 8k under msrp
Wow
Well under the admiral's price cap. Love it like his helicopter story that he wrote to us the m2 does not have the
Pureness of the previous platform in the miata, but it met all their the criteria
He can turn the exhaust noise on and off and he says it's desirable for him. So that's the platform of choice
Should serve the mission. Well mike congratulations. I love your your helicopter descriptions and
This the first aircraft that you flew was an h46 dc night
Amazing just the fact that you did this. I have never ridden in a helicopter and here you've got this
Incredible experience. I keep thinking about you know, like the glacier tours or the hawaii tours that they do that'd be kind of fun
When we were in switzerland latin brunand the in the morning like right at 8 o'clock here went the first chopper tour
Just diving its way up the mountain. Go have lunch on a glacier. There you go. Why not? Yeah, very cool. Mike. Congratulations
zoe w zoe writes to us. He saw our video from prog. He loves that city and he's got lots of fond memories there
zoe, thank you for writing
He's got a quick addendum to his car debate
Submission because he was able to lure his wife into a lucid dealership here here. Just come here. Just real quick
Please step this way. Uh-huh
She commented on the minivan that someone was driving for daycare drop-off
That would be the new lucid gravity the gravity
But she was wowed by the gravity's interior and rethought what she thought of the lucid
And they did the performance test drive shout out to tahai at lucid north atlanta
RIP to the local roundabout
And his wife gets it now and is open to leasing the lucid or maybe buying one used
That's really great. That's good. That's fun. He had sent us a submission with with his minifer minister of finance
Granting him full control over replacing their third car, which was a 2016 cx5 grand touring or maybe it still is and you're
Still thinking about this lucid and I think that would be great for you
His wife has always dreamed of driving a Range Rover because she loves the design language
But the discovery lease experience soured her poor service random quality issues
And the usual land rover bingo card
I have a suspension failure bingo
So continuing on with the front runners. They've got the ex 90 volvo
They test drove lexus rx 550 h plus and that lucid gravity. It's the minivan wild card, but they love the test drive
They'd love to throw in the bmw x7, but no ph ev option because
They're family of 43 kids
Kids three ages three and five excuse me and their in-laws live with us about six months a year
Space and comfort matter. So it sounds like they're kind of leaning towards the lucid. That's pretty interesting
That that that was not on their radar and now it really is. It's very cool
Thank you guys for offering up questions as you do when we throw them out
We've got a lot of photos coming from europe as we build these monster europe pieces
So we so paul threw out a few cars from the euro rally. There were 100 plus cars
And a huge range of things. So there's those cars
But there's also those random cars we spotted that we don't get here and there's a couple of questions along those lines
Dammit patin asked some questions about the piece. So did jordan schieffer. So did a couple others
Here's where i'm gonna land i'm on land with jordan's question where he said he'd love to hear two cars
We'd ship home
That we saw out of all the forbidden fruit and then what was the other one?
Oh, here's here's the other one. Sorry matt gara 82 said if we could bring home one car from the trip for ourselves
And another car to be sold in the u.s. What would those be? These are good
Forbidden fruit. I have the one that I would bring home for me
I can't get over it
The early 2000
BMW one series three door hatch
Oh, yeah, we keep talking about rear wheel drive
Three door hatchback available in manual
Nothing like that exists and on the proper wheels with the proper stance. It turns my head every time we see them at the ring
But we also see them randomly in cities over there
And they come in five door, which is cool a five door rear wheel drive hatchback is cool
But something about the three door the two side doors and the hatchback
Rear wheel drive manual bmw. I would totally get that car. I think it is awesome and I would have that for me
Having said that it's good car. I would bring home to the u.s. That I don't understand why they don't sell here is cupra
It's a more aggressive better-looking
suv shape that is essentially the golf r underneath
We saw a lot of them. They've got a great stance
It stands out in the world of just random five-seaters
It really does golf r chassis underneath it, which is awesome
Which means space and good gearbox and good power. I'm like cupra
The cupra brand could work in north america like that because they could go all the volkswagen dealerships volkswagen cupra
Yes, I think it would sell like crazy. They do
Stylistically they stand out like crazy and they're good-looking. They are they're smart. They're sharp. They're fresh
I love the cupra brand. I just want them in something other than they seem to sell every single one of them
Like a matte gunmetal gray with bronze accents. I want some colors on those but they do look great. Yeah any color would look good
I
Recall seeing I think
seven or eight alpine a1 10s
Uh, I guess the eighth would be the a1 10 r that we saw at the ring at the uh our hotel and then was the ring the next day
That was quite special and quite a standard. So maybe the r
Okay, all right, because you know all those other alpines, you know now that we've driven one there so
common
It was really cool to see a few of my including including in the launch blue color, which just looks great on that car
I mean that is that's a car that I think looks
I'll be honest with you. I don't really like it in photos, but I do like it in person
I mean, I'd like to say
other forbidden fruit, but
Man that bmw z8 in person. I've never seen a z8
Like truly being driven in the wild seem to car shows. I've seen par
It was on the top of a major pass. Yeah, but here it was being driven thrashed
Awesome like a real z8 being used for what it's for because the z8 prices have gone crazy and the z8 was just gorgeous looking
But of course when we finished at the ring
There were so many gt3 rs's
You stopped counting. They're just like this blur or this like wall of gt3's ever
There were so many it's unbelievable insane, but we did see this m5 touring this bmw e 61 m5
Touring that was on the euro rally. It is on our social media instagram and facebook
Super cool to see that and a lotus
Omega also known as a lotus carlton the sedan with the inline six and a turbo the size of my head
And the owner was revving it in the parking lot in oradia romania
And
Everything you've said so far sounds insane, but keep going kids were
Were clustered around and he put on a clinic
I could see like down into the parking lot. They they did this till like 10 30 at night
Yeah, they did revving it and then you know the turbo boost blasting off and and it was so loud
But just the fact that it was you know running it was really cool looking
You just don't see these and I don't quite know what what kind of horsepower numbers he was making
But i'm sure it was well over the about 400 horsepower they came with so a lotus omega you never see those
Super cool. It was it was probably left-hand drive and you know, it was just a cool looking car to see and uh,
yeah, just so many
Cool cars just around even the the you know non-exotic the cupras were just yeah turn your head. Yeah, for sure
It was very cool and so many scotas
I was like I you know what i'm full. I've seen enough scotas. There were so many and also
I I didn't realize this. I knew I've seen desia dusters every time we're over there
But I I think that might be the official car of Eastern Europe
There were so many desia dusters
You you would sit at a light with a pickup version in front of you and like a
Van version behind you and like somebody just pulled up in one that they've clearly had since the dawn of time
That is completely beat up and that was like one stoplight. They were they were everywhere
I learned the entire desia dacia. Dacia. Yes, their entire lineup there all their names
The big stir the room stir the all the logan. They've got some really cool names actually
Yeah, I think those would work and you know what the fiat panda the new fiat panda is cool looking
It's cool looking
It's a fiat panda. I mean, okay. All right, but uh, yeah, we had a great time
Doing the car spotting in addition to all the scenery and everything else we were doing so
Kyle asked about uh, best long road trip vehicle
Is there a best vehicle car truck scv anything?
Take on a long road trip like chicago to quebec
Key west to san antonio phoenix is like what is the best thing to do a huge circuit and work his way back to chicago hitting
Major tourist traps along the way a four to six week road trip
comfort and dependability are top priorities
Kyle
I'm going to say you're not shopping car. You're shopping seats
Hmm
You need to find seats that you love and ideally seats in a car that does massage
If it does I do you want seats that are massage and ideally ventilated
Yeah, that if what you're looking for is like long road trip because what you're saying here is
You're doing a four to six week trip hitting tourist spots. This is not a in search of great roads
So some
Used sedan
That has phenomenal seats
That are ventilated and have massage which also might put you into some of the volvo
xc suvs as well
But I think and I also think depending upon your usage you might want smart cruise control as well. It's good
So I think you shop for those features versus the car
And that might put you into some of the large luxury sedans
You know what?
If you I don't know what your budget is, but a genesis g90 would be a phenomenal long road trip car
I mean, they're a hundred grand new find one for 70 80. Yeah
And take that everywhere that sounds fun
Doesn't it sound good a road trip and that sounds because if you're not doing like let's seek out because it's not bad dynamically
But it's a big old boat
But if you're if you're so I mean obviously lexus ls is if you're going into older cars
But I really think it's about seats ventilated massage seats
and smart cruise control
And then whatever your tech of preference is to get your tunes or podcasts or whatever playing
So maybe that's apple car play android or whatever
I think those are things are going to make the trip better than performance
I would shop that way
Dammit Patton says as people who put on events like this all the time
How does it feel to be an attendee at euro rally instead of the host crazy?
It was a lot of fun
But I still felt the need to go meet everybody and meet new people because we were also very grateful and honored to be the first
Americans
To be invited to be part of this euro rally and it was just awesome meeting the entire crew
Everybody that puts it on you know kind of behind the scenes was so much fun
And then meeting people who are very welcoming from all over europe. It was just it was so special and
Instant new friends, you know, we're just already talking about cars
We saw stig with his ferrari ff from norway
peter with his f4 30
What else all the wagons frank with his
amg wagon
e 63 wagon and it just it felt really fun to
Really experience this without having the pressure, but I also felt pressure to go meet people and
Who can we drive with who can we interact with and and just make new friends and we were filming as well
So it was actually that was a thing. It was nice to swap
The pressure or responsibility everyone to think about it of hosting the trip swap that for filming
So we were able to that was the thing about it is
All of then this was for first week second week was all on us
We did a pretty good job of planning and rolling with that
But first week was just where's our hotel and point me toward the food, which was nice
I'm not used to doing that. I'm used to thinking about is everybody here. I didn't ever think about where everybody was
It was like everybody everybody will get here. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Here's the food. Absolutely
Last thought for me samuel 236. Look, I'm probably gonna get angry letters on this
But I am going to tell this story because I because I think it's important
He's asking about the continental extreme sport contact dws
06 pluses for his integra type s now
That is an ultra high performance all season from continental
And I have not had that specific tire on a car
So I can't speak that specific tire, but I do want to talk about the extreme sport contact range
I'm not a fan
Okay, now I realize some people swear by them and I know people to track them and I get it
I actually have some on my lotus
Elyse right now
And they are fine on the Elyse. There's a lot of cars that don't come
Pardon me a lot of tires that don't come on the sizes for the Elyse and they are
Pretty much middle of the road as far as the tires I've had on my Elyse
But I had some on my amira and they were fine
Until there was like a spit of rain
And then I'll be honest with you the scariest drive I've ever had in the amira
Was on those extreme sport contact tires in a little bit of rain
I have never hydroplane so much in my life
I was taking that car to get serviced and I really was concerned about properly making it
I would have gone with the all track pros over the extreme sport contact every single time because of wet weather performance
I personally would put the all track pros on or if you want an all real all weather tire
Do the quad track pros that I have on my wife's cayenne
They will run you all year round as a all weather tire
Including in a little bit of snow and they work great. So there's my pitch
Guys, thank you for listening for watching. We're so excited to share these films a series of films
If you're also looking for films reminder 50 years in the 9 11 and all our forthcoming
Prior feature link films. Yeah, but this euro rally was so exciting and so different and just exceeded all of our
Expectations in a very good way and we're excited to share these films
So when those come out, you will be hearing from us and we hope you enjoy them. But until next time
Really appreciate it. Cheers everyone
About this episode
The hosts return with a lively mix of listener-driven data talk and fresh automotive news. A big focus is Ferrari’s new “manual” 12Cilindri setup: a gated-feel shifter and clutch/shift-by-wire inputs layered onto an existing dual-clutch gearbox, aiming to recreate the classic Ferrari engagement without a true mechanical manual. They debate whether it’s magic or “fakery,” and tie it to Ferrari’s broader product turbulence, including the controversial Luce EV. The episode also nods to BMW’s X5 news and asks what comes after Subaru.
Ferrari has re-saved the manuals, have you heard? The 12Cilindri is now offered with a manual transmission, but is it really?
Hyundai previews the updated Elantra.
Honda teases a future new Element.
BMW reveals the 6th-generation X5 and iX5.
Debate #1: Michael in AZ, who is very impulsive when it comes to buying and selling cars, and has two Subarus competing for the same place in his life.
Debate #2: Jakob in TN is 13 years old and trying to decide on a fun car for when he turns 14!
Car Conclusion #1: Mike Y, the retired Navy helicopter pilot makes a decision!
Car Conclusion #2: Zo has large family-hauling needs, and his wife seems interested in Lucids?
Social media questions ask:
How did it feel to be an attendee on Eurorally, instead of hosting like the guys usually do on their meetups?
What two cars would the guys bring home from Europe?
How was the food in Europe?
Audio-only MP3 is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and 10 other platforms.
Look for us on Tuesdays if you’d like to watch us debate, disagree and then go drive again!
00:00 - Intro
4:27 - Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale: Good Or Bad Fakery?
15:29 - New Hyundai Elantra (Avante in S. Korea) revealed!
16:11 - Will The Honda Element Return?
17:29 - Neue Klasse, 6th-generation BMW X5 and iX5 unveiled
23:42 - Topic Tuesday: Coolest Cars That Aren’t YouTube Cars?
37:37 - Car Debate #1: What Do Subaru Owners Aspire To Buy Next?
54:46 - Car Debate #2: First Car At Age 14?!?
1:08:31 - Car Conclusion #1: Navy Helicopter Pilot Buys A Car!
1:11:11 - Car Conclusion #2: Lucids Aren’t So Bad? Family Hauling Needs.
1:12:59 - Audience Questions On Social Media
Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe to our two YouTube channels. Write to us your Topic Tuesdays, Car Conclusions and those great Car Debates at [email protected] or everydaydriver.com
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