Mercedes Is Bringing Back Buttons, Fords New Giant HQ, The Voice Command Future, & More

All right, dude, we got a couple of videos floating around as of the recording of this

podcast in regards to Rivian, the used market for Rivians and EVs, Teslas, and that kind of

stuff, the Amazon conversation we had about two weeks ago.

And there's a sentiment among the comments that we've seen for a long time now where

it's like, bye-bye dealerships.

And people are just, they're so ready to say bye to dealerships.

And I, you and I both can say we're probably not the biggest fans of every interaction

I've had at a dealership, but it is a necessary evil of sorts.

And I use the word evil, because I think that's the sentiment that people are using when

they're typing away at their comments.

And I just wanted to see if you had any feedback, or more so for our more educated car fanatics

that listen to the podcast when it comes to looking at dealerships like that, like

they're ever going to go away completely, and it's going to go all DDC, all direct

to consumer for cars.

I think people don't realize that the manufacturer is linked already to the dealer.

It's just their distribution arm.

So let's say you cut out quote, unquote dealers.

What do you think's going to happen?

They're going to set up dealerships that are just called Toyota manufacturing dealerships.

They're going to charge you the same price, because if you think they're going to cut

the middleman out and give the savings to you, they have to recoup all of the cost

dumped into running the dealership, right?

And if you think they're going to cut out the extra warranties and all the stuff

that makes money, like you're just not living in the real world.

Manufacturers like Toyota or Ford or whoever don't cut out the middleman

to save you the consumer money.

It's to then realize the profits of the middleman.

So, and by the way, they are going to be terrible at it because they've never done it, right?

They've never had to service the consumer and the complaining and the whining.

And by the way, they're not going to hear it.

That's not how they work.

They basically send, let's just use California.

Let's say you own a manufacturing company.

You have 10 distributors in California up and down north to south and central and everywhere in between.

You send your product to 10 places.

You only talk to 10 organizations.

That's it.

You only interact with 10 people, 10 basic contacts.

You want them to interact with 100,000 people in California, 200,000, 300,000.

They've never done it before.

Stop living in fantasy land that you have this utopia that's going to exist.

It's not.

If they did cut out that person, that dealership, it would be to realize all the profits of the dealership.

That's exactly why they would do it.

You've worked so long in this world, whether it's dealing with dealerships or people or high-net-worth individuals, whatever.

Then all of a sudden, I just had this image of you're like the guy when somebody calls into a radio station

and they're fanatics about a sports team and this broadcaster is trying to keep it real with them.

It's like, look, they're pins trashed.

You're living in delusional land.

They're not making it past the first round if they even make it at all.

It's just like, you've got to keep it real sometimes.

It's just fairytale land sometimes.

Here's the thing, man.

Everybody loves a boogeyman.

Yes, they think that the dealer is the boogeyman.

I had somebody send me a comment that was made on one of our posts and I appreciate the comment.

The guy's like, well, you know, if Toyota put out this mini truck, the dealers would mark it up 200%.

Buddy, there's an MSRP in very, very tiny moments in history.

Has a dealer ever been able to sell a car for over MSRP?

Let me tell you who sets MSRP.

It ain't the dealer.

Yes, everybody.

Okay, so you guys want to look at the last two, three, four years and you want to say that's the market

because you had Bronco at one point that could sell above MSRP.

You had C8 Corvette that could sell above MSRP.

By the way, if you don't buy any of the BS warranties or things in the FNI office,

many of you have never paid over MSRP.

Okay, you've never paid over MSRP.

If you don't buy all the nonsense in the FNI office, most of you have never paid

even MSRP throughout history.

So where is this whole idea you're going to pay 200% markup?

You guys don't know the data.

Now, again, I'm not defending the dealer.

They do some slimy stuff.

There's some things I wouldn't do if I were them.

I know a lot more than most of you.

There's a lot of offshore money you guys are unaware of that get put into these

Cayman Island accounts and whatnot.

So, and by the way, your favorite insurance company is all wrapped up into this stuff

that you guys don't know about.

And there's 20, 30 million sitting offshore to a principal dealer.

I get it, man.

I understand frustration.

But if you follow our way, simple way of doing things at the dealer,

you have no reason to bitch about the dealer, okay?

If you've made a bad deal at the dealer, don't get mad at the dealer because

you signed on a lot of paperwork to make that deal.

And that's the fact.

You literally, I didn't even finish my last sentence in my note.

And that was, I think a lot of the quote, unquote,

necessary evil came from people over the last couple of years claiming or

even not claiming, but seeing so much being sold over sticker.

And you literally went into the MSRP topic, which is I think why a lot of

people's brains are kind of, they're kind of fried a bit from the over,

I guess, I don't know how to use Predator, but you know what I mean?

Like there's some shenanigans sometimes.

We were just talking about that.

Like there's-

Well, look, and by the way, let's not forget, you had Grand Highlanders

or Toyota RAV4 selling for exorbitant amount of money for

basically a one to two, maybe three year period.

Go back before COVID, they were selling below MSRP.

So you can't take a snapshot of 36 months or 48 months.

Again, houses were pretty cheap in eight, nine, and 10.

Yeah.

They're not cheap now.

So the snapshot of eight, nine, and 10 is not the story of the housing market.

Like there's so many of you that are looking to point the finger at somebody

instead of the person who signed the paperwork.

I've never signed for a bad car deal.

Just, it just hasn't happened.

So since I didn't sign for it, I didn't get a bad car deal.

That's how the world works.

And guess what?

Yeah.

I was going to say, and guess what?

If you listen to this podcast, you'll never sign a bad car deal in your life again either.

No, most of you, and by the way, a lot of over MSRP stuff happened at the top end

of the market, and those people didn't complain about buying at the top

end of the market because they had the money, right?

They just go, I wanted the car, so I overpaid for it.

I've shared the customer mind that overpaid massively,

probably by 100 grand for a Hummer EV, okay?

Guess what?

He doesn't care.

That is, I mean, he's on like three or four or five, six cars deep past that now.

It's not even a conversation that him and I ever have after buy it,

sell it, he's moved on, right?

So you guys are almost complaining on behalf of people that don't even care.

That's true.

It's irrelevant.

So I know a lot of people are seeing videos and their feeds from, you know,

whether it's a dealership that's made it pretty big on social through their

negotiation videos or whatever, just insights to how they operate there.

There are a lot of cars.

It could be a big dealership like Camino Real in California that does like,

it's a Chevy dealership that does like funny stuff.

Yeah, they seem to use a certain looking types of individuals.

Good for them.

Yeah, good for them.

Is that like Bakersfield Hyundai or whatever it's called to?

Yup, yup.

You know, and usually their names are like Jackie or, you know, Stephanie.

They do tend to have like the same 15 names that they go on rotation.

Absolutely.

Jennifer, the occasional Ortencia, you know, possibly Socorro from time to time.

But yeah, it's the same people and good for them.

And actually just so I've been seeing more.

And again, you know, how do you how do you take it when somebody,

if you do something really well, then somebody else starts doing it.

Do you take offense to it?

Do you be like, hey, you know,

imitation is the biggest form of flattery kind of thing?

Because other dealerships are doing that.

They're seeing what's working.

Yeah, I don't care.

Yeah, right.

Like we've seen some things come out of this podcast that you and I know

directly from people inside the building, like, hey, we saw what you guys

were doing and we copied it.

OK. Yeah, I'll be working.

You know, nobody, you know, we all need to remember something.

Very few of us are just original on everything we do.

We take influence from all different walks of life.

You know, you and I are big.

We love MMA and we love sports and we love the comedian world.

Look, man, all of these people influence us.

It doesn't really bother me.

I don't really get caught up in it.

But but again, you do want to have some originality and some people have none.

Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, look, look what's hit.

I thought I don't know if you even have this on a list today,

but look at all the conversation around GTD because Ford started to give

access to people in the in the automotive and, you know, journalistic world.

I didn't have it on a list.

No, I wasn't too familiar with it.

I mean, you could watch three or four videos,

none of its original thought, because there's not a lot to say.

Yeah, that's the other thing.

Some of this stuff, there's just not a lot to say.

So it could look like someone's copying someone.

But it's like, also, guys, there's only three or four things to say.

There's not 25 things to say or, you know, 100 things to say.

So who cares?

You know, I mean, I just think people get way too caught up in that area, dude.

And the reason I brought that up, too,

is because what I was going to lead into was the conversation

around EVs right now, like in that world of social

and showing a lot and your dealership or whatever,

there was the people that sold EVs for a lot of money.

Not too long ago, a ton of money, made a lot of money.

And then now they're kind of offloading them to these now other people

who are like, I'll buy all the EVs up.

So I'm fascinated by these worlds.

I don't know how much insight you have into those.

But if you're the guy that sold it for well over sticker, major money,

now you still sell them kind of and then you don't want to deal with them anymore.

You're getting out of that market.

And then this other guy is like, I'll take all of them at what,

you know, whatever we can negotiate.

How did they become not enthused anymore?

I guess, obviously, because they sold over

and then you have this other new guy who's now enthused,

whereas the original guy is no longer enthused.

It's just I think a lot of a lot of dealers, especially,

I think that's what you're talking about.

They know they can't move them.

I mean, we have a Mercedes dealership that I have good relationships.

I mean, the EQ stuff just scarred them.

Yeah. I mean, it just.

There's no movement.

I mean, they literally it was the same one.

It's like, I got to get this off my lot.

Like I can't be looking at it.

They're talking to Mercedes directly.

They're trying to find places to offload them.

They're trying to get anything that they can in this world.

And I completely understand that. OK.

Then there's people saying, if I can get them at the right price,

I think I can turn a little two thousand, three thousand, four thousand

dollar profit on them. It might be worth me taking the risk.

What you're going to see is sort of arbitrage on the low side.

A lot of times what we think is arbitrage happens.

Somebody buys something for a dollar.

They go to and sell it for 15, 20, 30, a hundred dollars.

Now what it's going to be is I want to buy something for 30 grand

and see if I can just eke out thirty five thousand for the vehicle.

Right. Maybe if I market it differently, if I support it differently,

it's going to be interesting to watch if people can really make that happen.

I mean, I don't really know.

Do you think that because, you know, we talked about the Rivian stuff

about two weeks ago, that world, do you hear something outside?

And we're back. Best time ever to say if you're new to the podcast,

welcome to the number one automotive related podcast on planet Earth.

Talk about markets, news, predictions that most importantly offer you

a good hang every single Monday.

So this is going to lead me into the first real story of the day, Nick.

And that is Oops, our bad.

We're bringing back buttons.

Can you guess who just said that yesterday?

I'm going to pull it out for you, but I want you to guess Audi.

Well, they should, but no, Mercedes. Oh, there we go.

Yeah. So Oops, our bad.

We're bringing out buttons.

And so I read the article via Motor Trend.

And are you because you've spent a lot of time in Mercedes.

You've recently had some cool action on a Maybach that you were doing some work on.

The rollers, the scrollers on the steering wheel, the buttons, the whole thing.

Consumers have just said, look, we want all of that over the touchscreens.

Your thoughts.

Yeah, no, I've never so.

I think when you get into like an AMG, OK,

one of the things that becomes very clear is I think Mercedes

and I'm not blaming Mercedes.

I think every I've said this before,

if you get in a lot of different cars, the steering wheel stuff is not as

intuitive as when it's your car and you can get used to it.

And you can get, you know, a lot of time behind the wheel.

You get real comfortable.

But if you go from car to car to car,

the steering wheel stuff is not intuitive.

Right. I mean, because every manufacturer is doing it differently.

It's almost like if everybody had a different plug that went into your outlet

at your house, you had 27 different outlets.

You know, it would just be a mess.

And I think that's kind of what the steering wheel controls have become,

is because if you're in lots of cars, you realize there's no industry

standard of where we put everything.

So you got to relearn it.

And I got to tell you, you get into anything that like has haptic

on the steering wheel.

It's to me, it's miserable.

Yeah, I don't enjoy it.

And again, I know Ferrari did this.

People complained about it.

They've gone back to to to a different style.

I think you kind of look at this and you go,

I just think when something works and it's intuitive,

whatever you replace it with, better be even more intuitive.

And I don't think it ever has been, honestly.

No. And when you said Audi, you know, Audi and Volkswagen,

they kind of they're kind of divided because half of their cars

and models have buttons.

The other half will have the haptic,

whether it's on the steering wheel or in the center console.

And that's one of the reasons I said before.

I don't want like the eighth generation or eight and a half

generation golf hours because they still have the haptic stuff.

And then you go to the Audi's and they got the buttons

in the console, which is great.

But like they haven't quite figured out that they all need

to just revert back to what works

and what's most recognizable to the customer.

So Mercedes are at least one of their spokespersons

from the marketing department, you know,

was basically saying the consumer has spoken.

And but they the way it was written up,

they keep pushing about how like because of like

the Chinese market or certain things, it's hard to know,

like where everything's kind of kind of kind of kind of go.

Geez.

But that they feel like it's going to swing back to that

more like techie, everything over the air,

you know, less buttons eventually,

but for now they are reverting back to buttons.

Well, and let's not act like we build

the exact same things for every market.

I know, right?

You know, I mean, this is what's becoming

all too common as manufacturers like,

well, you got to understand.

It's like, well, wait a minute.

I mean, you don't even release the same cars.

Bingo.

And SUVs into markets.

Like, I get it, man.

I don't want to put more onus on the manufacturer

where all of a sudden they got to build

all kinds of different infotainment

for 58 different countries,

but stop acting like you haven't done things different

in almost every market for generations now.

This isn't news.

They want to make it news

because they want to sound like, oh, whoa is me.

It's like, guys, you've been,

there's a bunch of cars we wish we had in the U.S.

that you never even bring here.

So we're now going to draw a line on touchscreens.

It's like that, you know,

but you got to realize, you know,

China might want something different.

It's like, well, no kidding.

Like you guys have been making different stuff

for markets for generations now.

This isn't news.

Yeah, do us all a favor.

Please give us the RS3 hatchback in America.

Come on, that's all I've been asking for

since I was a kid.

Please, please.

Well, you got the M5 Touring

and it's like weighs more than a suburban.

So, you know, be careful what you weigh.

Yeah, we don't want that.

We don't want that.

Although I did hear that the Golf R

might get the five cylinder from the RS3 in America

in the near future in the next two or three years,

which would be very awesome.

But so how familiar are you with these cars?

So in 2027, the GLC, I believe,

is going to be what the moves,

you know, into buttons first.

I'm reading it first here.

There's going to be a 2026 CLA

and then 2027 GLC.

And that's what they were kind of referencing here

in the article.

I like the GLC.

Yeah.

The CLA doesn't, I mean,

I don't think that does a whole lot.

The GLC is the bigger one.

If I remember correctly, I'll top my head.

I just tend to think the GLC is just more appealing.

You know, obviously when you get into the AMG version of that,

you're talking about a pretty serious car.

So when we look at this

and we start to have conversations as a group

and people that follow us,

all of you want some semblance of buttons back.

I've never heard anybody say,

I'm extremely glad they've gone away from it.

There's a lot of Tesla, you know, fanboys

that have a conversation about Tesla's infotainment.

I get in Tesla's quite a bit.

I mean, it could use a couple buttons, guys.

Like, you know, putting it in drive and park,

you know, swiping on the side.

Okay, I mean, it works.

But again, why?

You know, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

And I think we all have this conversation far too often

is like, when something works,

you know, just work on beautifying it,

you know, hiding it a little better,

integrating it into the dash a little better.

That's the moves you should make,

not, you know, wholesale changes go completely to software.

So the chairman and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group,

Ola, I believe it is, says,

you test it and it works beautifully,

but sometimes you have to take two steps backwards

in order to take one step forward.

Customers say they wanted the roller back

even though the haptic controls function properly.

And yeah, man, the market spoke.

Like, people don't want that haptic stuff anywhere.

Yeah, and you know where it works

with a whole bunch of people at Mercedes

that know how it works.

Yeah, their groups.

You know, when you don't have 15 pounds of makeup

on the steering wheel from driving it,

it works really good in a sterile environment

where you guys test these things.

And this is where you get into these problems.

For those people that don't know,

they're not testing it, you know,

with wives and husbands and kids

and the car hasn't been detailed in six weeks

and eight weeks and 12 weeks

and the gunk is building up

and all of a sudden it's not working very well

and there's sunscreen all over it.

You guys don't test it that.

That's a very good point, man.

You test it in this white lab coat area and go,

you know, this works really good.

Well, yeah, it doesn't work in the real world.

Not consistently, intuitively,

as just grabbing a volume button and going,

let me turn it down a little bit.

Hey, if this was 2020,

we would have had to have said brown coat area.

Like, you can't be saying white coat,

you know, white glove, brown coat, brown clients.

You're the resident on this, but I don't know, you know.

I'm speaking for the resident here,

the resident brown individual.

I had a clip the other day that I was trying to work through

of what to make where we were talking about,

I don't know if it was the ranchero,

we were making some jokes and I was like,

I just don't know how to make,

I know it's funny, but I don't know how to make it to where

we wouldn't get somebody to be like,

hey guys, take it easy with your jokes over there.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, we have you to,

I can use you as the shield.

Exactly.

Hey, look, don't look at me.

Exactly.

We were talking about, how do you like-

We have a resident on this pack.

Exactly.

We're meeting the codes.

Yes, we're meeting the diversity, equity,

and inclusion needed in today's world.

When you're talking about Metallica and jewelry,

I know how to make it funny,

but I don't know if the world's gonna find it as funny

as we did.

It is what it is.

So going forward on this,

they kind of just wrap up to say that,

going forward, expect all models to have hard controls

that are intuitive and easy to operate alongside

some haptic controls.

What really got me, dude, was towards the bottom here,

they said this is the future,

overall, of everything that they have done and do,

voice commands are the future.

And I've seen this a couple of times

where people are putting some manufacturers

keep going hard on this voice command thing.

The real paradigm shift will be the reliance

on voice commands.

Just when I thought I couldn't hate the inside

of a car more,

because the haptics are already so terrible,

just about across the board,

can you believe everybody going all in on voice

for the next decade?

I mean, this may just be me,

but I'm assuming most of our audience has an iPhone.

The new Siri with chat GPT is not good.

It's not good, it's like really confused all the time.

Like when you try to use it,

it's like, you want us to look that up through chat GPT

or do you want Siri to do it?

It's like, well, wait a minute.

I just asked the question.

Yeah, she was confused before.

Just give me the answer.

Yeah, she was already confused.

So if Apple, and this is my opinion,

is not doing it really all that well,

and they've been fighting the Siri battle for,

I mean, you're a tech guy.

I mean, are we close to, what, 17 years

of fighting the Siri battle now?

Yeah, honestly, wow, it has been that long, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, aren't you like what, 2008?

Yep.

You know, something like that,

17 years then.

Yep.

I don't know, man,

doesn't feel all that much better today

than when I first started using it.

That's true.

And to use verbates like the use of voice commands

have tripled, and he, you know,

Mercedes Group foresees a large scale shift

as AI revolutionizes how we react to our tech.

You know, it'd be hilarious to sit in there.

Rob's got, you know, Inner Sandman,

Blaston, speakers gone.

Then he's got to say something like,

can you please turn down?

Yeah, exactly.

Can you please turn down the AC?

They have to shut the music off.

Your vibe is gone.

No more vibe.

It's, and it goes.

Can you say that again?

You want the AC off, and it turns it off.

You're in the Texas heat.

No tent.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

You know, you just got the car.

No tent.

You haven't gotten to the tent shop yet.

You're just burning up in your S580, you know,

like a fishbowl, but things turn itself on and off,

then Metallica's coming back on at the elevated level.

Yeah, this is what we all want, right?

I mean, again, aside from just letting me hit a button

that says I want to go from 72 to 71 on my,

okay, I mean, there's going to be somebody out there.

Let's be clear in our audience, super techie,

going to say I don't get it,

but tell me I'm wrong about the scenario I just gave.

Everyone's been through it on your phone.

You got Spotify playing.

It's going through your house speakers.

It's going through your car speakers.

Somehow you're trying to get something on your phone.

It turns that off to do this other task,

but yeah, Mercedes is going to do it better.

BMW is going to do it better.

Come on, man.

How do you feel about when like the settings

where as you're rolling, like in the car,

it, the volume goes up with your velocity

or if you're slowing down, it slows down.

Like how do you feel about those functions?

Let me tell you something.

That is very car specific.

There's car companies that got that right.

And then there's car companies you go,

hey bud, this went from eight to 28

and the car's already pretty quiet.

Like the speed, I didn't pick up all this road.

It's like they think you're driving a race car.

It's like, well, now you're on the track.

So we got to pump it up.

It's like, no, man, I just got on the on ramp.

Who got it right?

Who got it right to make and who got it really wrong?

Well, Mercedes has done it well

because they do everything gradual, right?

So everything in there is very great.

So the high end part of the market tends to do that better.

Imagine that.

When it happened in your Nissan or it happened in your Mazda

or it happened in your Toyota or whatever car company.

The car companies that don't have as much money

to put into development inside those,

what you would call consumer vehicles.

Once you got over $100,000, those car companies go,

it's pretty quiet in here.

We're going to bump it up one or two notches.

But you got inside of your Mazda, you floored it

and the thing goes up 27 levels and you go,

well, wait a minute.

I don't ever use that.

I hate that feature, dude.

Honestly, I just always turn it off.

Yeah, it's not good.

It's not good.

Look, you got to be in a specific,

like Rolls Royce does it really well, you know what I mean?

Like those were the car companies that go,

hey, we got the time to put into the system and go,

hey, we're going to perfect this.

Mazda, Toyota, Ford, Chevy,

they don't have that kind of time.

They don't, they don't.

Speaking of our Mazda.

So it's in the body shop.

It's round two.

I had my car already fixed from the hail.

Now the wife's is in there.

So we have a rental.

You said no tent just now and it reminded me.

We're driving or she's driving.

It's like a 24, 25 Eclipse Cross.

What, like a Mitsubishi?

It's a Mitsubishi Eclipse,

but it's like the freaking whatever crossover version.

I've never even been in one of those things.

Me neither.

It is, it's cozy.

How about that?

That's the best way to describe it.

It's cozy.

It's very sharp edges everywhere.

My legs are constantly being,

I constantly have to move my legs

because they're getting bruised on either side.

By the way, a Mitsubishi with a ton of off-road accolades

in its history.

And now you get in the car and you like cut your leg

when you go over a speed bump.

It's like, I don't think this is your heritage here, bud.

Off-road heritage, right?

But, and then you took the Eclipse name.

Talking about, we talked about this recently.

Like taking a name that's so like,

especially for like a millennial kind of,

or you even, and you put it on this thing, right?

It's just like.

Hey, I'm a millennial dude.

Don't relax.

No, you're not.

Yes, I am.

No way.

Wait a minute, I was working on another project.

Are you not, what are you?

You're not Gen X?

No, 82.

Oh, my bad.

That's millennial.

You're right.

You're an elder.

I am the elder.

You are the elder millennial.

Absolutely.

Whoa, I thought you were 80

because that's like the cut-off for,

I'm just, okay.

You better watch yourself.

My bad, my bad, my elder millennial.

I'm leading the crowd.

You're beneath me the other way around.

My elder millennial.

I apologize.

My elder millennial, you're absolutely right.

Damn, I really thought you were Gen at this point,

because 45, anyway, regardless.

The eclipse, it's just not,

they shouldn't be selling it.

It's really not a, I mean.

Yeah, we've talked about Mitsubishi.

There's no redeeming quality in this thing.

That I want to see get its act together.

It's Mitsubishi, right?

Montero, Pajero, all of these long history off-road vehicles

that have done things.

For those of you who have never looked into it,

I believe Mitsubishi has won a race more times

than anybody in the off-road circuit.

I think they won like six in a row or something

at one point in their history.

We had the eclipse growing up.

I mean, that was in every high school parking lot

that ever existed, right alongside the Mercury Cougar

for those that weren't there.

Those were kind of like the battling.

You either bought one or the other of those.

I want to see Mitsubishi in the US market

come back to some of its old style.

And it doesn't sound like this rental car

is anywhere near where it needs to be.

No, dude, it's such a bummer.

And again, when you get a rental car,

it's usually not like the nicest,

even though my wife's got whatever X status

of enterprise where she could get better cars.

But there's literally no cars in South Austin,

apparently.

We had to go to three different enterprises.

And there were no cars.

I was like, what do you mean?

They're like, yeah, you got to wait.

Enterprise is a wild experience.

You know, we have an enterprise exotic.

Have you ever been to one?

Oh, no, no, I haven't.

It's like two seconds from my shot.

I know the general manager really well.

He was doing something else prior,

has a different life prior in the exotic market.

And there's just like four-runner.

What is it?

The Chrysler, what's the Chrysler van called?

Oh, a Pacifica?

Chrysler Pacifica, you have that,

and then you have a Lambo,

then you have like a Malibu,

or whatever kind of car they got.

A lot of Jeep compasses there.

Yeah, there you go.

Jeep compass, big on the EVs,

then you got to imagine those things are just toast.

Oh, yeah.

So yeah, we have an enterprise exotic.

And I tell you what,

it's not that easy to rent a car these days.

No, but shout out to them.

They always take care of us with a turai.

So shout out to enterprise.

I've honestly never had a bad experience.

They've always gone above and beyond,

even the one yesterday.

Like they were calling around.

They even called,

I probably shouldn't say this,

but they called a competitor just to get us into a car

because they were like,

I can't believe we have no cars.

They were just like looking.

So they were really nice.

And we ended up getting this,

but funny enough.

I'll tell you this,

enterprise does still get it done.

Yes.

Right?

Like sometimes you call them,

they don't have anything.

Vegas is a little bit of a different market

because they make sure they have stuff.

And they got like 200 locations

inside of a 10 mile radius out here.

And I mean, dude,

they just have them like in strip malls

that are like next to a sub shop.

And they just have like cars delivered there.

It's like, I mean,

they're trying to get anybody in a rental car out here.

Like, you know, it's a tourist city.

They really got a lot of corporate conventions.

They're like, we'll get you a car.

You have no idea.

It could have just come from Bubba's car lot.

You have no idea where they got this car.

No idea, but they get you a car.

So how does he exotic?

Is it same thing?

Like the exotic,

you just go in there and you kind of try to do the same.

Hey, I want this for the day.

Yeah, it's just a bigger deposit.

It's just a bigger daily rental.

Like, yeah, man.

I mean, it's you got to carry bigger insurance.

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's the same thing.

Has that always been a thing?

Has the exotics and the enterprise,

cause then you have like the rental people.

This one's been here for forever.

I mean, I don't know exactly how long,

but I can't remember a time it wasn't here.

You know, but, you know, they kind of got drowned out.

We have big exotic rental car.

That's what I was gonna say.

Right.

You know, that kind of drowned them out.

But look, that's turned into a really tough business.

If you've never, you know, looked at the stolen cars,

stolen exotic cars, a lot of that stuff's going on

at exotic rentals, you know, and, you know,

once they kind of have your car as a rental car company,

you got really, I mean, it's not like you can just

call the cops and say, hey, this thing is stolen.

And by the time you can say that,

they're usually five states away and that thing's

on a truck.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, and in a shipping container very quickly.

I mean, that's turned into a very tough market.

And actually, I know some people that have owned

those car companies here in town

and many of them have sold.

Many of the original OGs have just said,

I'm not doing this anymore.

Yeah, I used to see a lot more of it.

I mean, you go back 10 or so years,

a lot more of the exotic car rental

because of social, obviously,

but also because it just seemed like

such a great business to be in at the time, right?

There was...

Well, I'll give you what the top business was.

And you definitely remember these times

since you're also a millennial.

This is true.

And you tried to put me somewhere where I don't belong.

Apologies, apologies.

They used to kill it on rap video rental.

Yeah.

Oh, I know.

Those original like OGs in the exotic car rental world

like Atlanta, Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles,

they used to kill it like putting 10 cars in a rap video

and all that kind of stuff.

Like there was real money being made back then.

Oh yeah.

Don't sleep on Houston.

I know some people firsthand.

Oh yeah, Houston.

I mean, yeah.

Yeah, they love them some exotics.

They had to put swangers.

100% got to make sure the elbows are on there.

Got to mix.

You got to mix it and match, right?

You might have like the exotic over here,

but on this side, you got like the corner of like,

you know, Paul Walls, swangers.

You got some slabs.

100%, 100%.

I'm in on slabs.

I mean, that's gonna be the title of the podcast.

I'm in on slabs.

100%.

Couple one, two.

If you just want to count, I follow on TikTok

that all they do is like big old Cadillacs.

Oh yeah?

That's all they do?

Well, that's all they show.

Oh, that's funny.

It's like they go to these like Cadillac car shows.

Many of them in the Houston, Texas area, obviously.

Sure.

I'm totally in.

It's like I'm in on dunks.

I love watching that podcast.

No you're not.

I don't care what anybody, I love it.

What?

I mean, look, I'm not gonna build one.

Sure.

Say that now.

But I think it's cool they got them.

You say that now.

I was gonna take-

When he just came to my shop and I'm like,

hey dude, I'm building this dunk and this slab,

that'd be off the hook.

I'm also not, yeah, I don't put that past you

to tell you the truth.

If people don't know this by now,

Nick could very well go to sleep tonight,

wake up tomorrow and be like,

I thought about what I said yesterday.

I think I'm gonna do that.

I think I'm gonna get me an old El Dorado

and pimp this thing out.

And then you know what?

Not only would he do it,

he would put all his time and attention

on this one thing that all of a sudden he wants to do.

100%.

For people that don't know,

Rob gets a behind the scenes look of,

this is what I wanna do right this second.

We're gonna do it.

We're getting it done.

Speaking of what you did recently,

let's get a little bit of a sports corner here

real quick.

Just to get your feedback on the Canella fight

because I know you're a huge boxing fan.

You witnessed it just like I did.

What are your thoughts?

Probably the coolest thing I've seen in person.

And I went to Mayweather McGregor.

I've been to name every type of fight I've been to it.

Going back to Rich Franklin and Anderson Silva,

big title fights, big names.

We saw history.

You don't see a guy just cruise up two weights

and put on a dominant performance.

And then you had good undercards,

although that all went too long.

That's a real boxing issue is that,

they gotta figure out how to make those under,

I mean, I think some people on the East Coast,

weren't you guys up to like three o'clock?

I mean, I know you're not on the East Coast,

but our listeners, I mean,

weren't some of those guys up to two,

three o'clock in the morning to try to catch the fight?

Yeah, I mean, I think,

by the time it was all sitting down,

it was probably 1.30, I think, here, something like that.

Yeah, it sounds about right.

I mean, I didn't even get out of the stadium

until about that time here.

Oh, dang.

Yeah, it was, I had some other obligations

and some people to talk to and things like that,

but for those of you guys that are into this thing,

I've hung on with boxing when nobody was watching it.

I mean, literally,

I do, I don't-

Many of you don't watch it.

True.

But, I mean, look, you saw Fernando Vargas' kid,

which I think is cool.

He went to a high school here, I believe.

Seeing stuff like that, man,

and for those that don't follow boxing,

and I get why you don't.

I mean, it's been a complete mess my whole life

and long before my life in watching it,

but I can't put into words what that was like.

I mean, you just saw somebody

who shouldn't have done what they did

and they did it in a dominant performance.

Yeah.

And I saw Crawford knock out post-all

with a body shot.

That's how far, I mean, I go back with him here locally

where I actually was at that fight.

I was two rows off the ring.

I heard the body shot.

It sounded like somebody got killed

because if you've never heard somebody fall down

from a body shot, it's a real distinct noise.

Yeah.

I just think, look, man, he's gonna get his due

and there's gonna be, I got it on pretty good authority.

You guys can probably expect a rematch.

There's a lot of money in a rematch, I assume.

Absolutely.

We're gonna see a rematch.

I don't know if there's a clause or not,

but guys like that don't leave

a lot of money on the table.

Yeah.

But if he went away, he's now,

he's the fighter of this era.

I think we could all say also Canelo

did not look like, you know, primetime Canelo.

Well, I mean, that Mexican beef, quote unquote,

does not help your boxing skill, right?

Canelo fights one simple way.

If he's not gonna land body shots,

he's one of the rare fighters that hits you in the arm.

So for people that don't know,

like that's like part of his tactic.

One of the things that I will say is,

is that he's had an impressive career.

He started very young.

It's cool to see.

I don't really think he's developed boxing.

I think he's developed power

and certain types of boxing.

But when you don't throw a jab

against a guy like Crawford,

it's gonna be pretty tough to win.

Tough, man.

Just the looping shots

and then just the haymaker kind of approach

did not bode well.

And once you could see it in person.

Once he caught Crawford and Crawford smiled

that first time, I was like, oh yeah.

I was sitting on the couch, dude.

Oh, and I saw that for the first time.

I was like leading up to before I saw that smile.

I was like, okay, starting to slow.

Right, Crawford's gonna do his thing.

He's a faster fighter.

And then I saw that and I'm like, oh man, this is over.

This is over.

Yeah, yeah.

I was so upset.

If you watched enough fights

when your superpower is literally catching someone,

Deontay Wilder's this kind of guy, right?

You catch somebody and you hurt them

or they look like, hey, you stunned me.

You go, okay, power's gonna be a part of this.

When he caught him that first time

and your boy smiled, I go, uh-oh.

Ugh.

That's your superpower.

You better learn a jab really quickly.

You get this pit in your stomach.

You're like, oh no.

Oh God, I feel bad for the guy.

I'll say this, man, 70,000 plus in the building.

Dang, sounds like my Metallica concert.

It's a lot of people.

That is pretty incredible.

And look, man, I'm happy for the guy.

I mean, I really am.

I mean, I watched this guy from the very beginning,

went to a couple of his fights.

Like I said, I saw him just body shot,

post-all to what I thought was death.

Yeah.

What a cool thing, man.

And for those types of people, I'm always happy.

Seems like a good dude.

Don't know him, obviously.

I gotta imagine he's getting a lot of investment advice

from Warren Buffett, you know,

since he's like right down the street.

So I would hope he's just gonna have lots of money

forever because Warren Buffett's like, hey, we got you.

That's the podcast I wanna hear right there.

That's the podcast I wanna hear, those two.

What's your investment advice to Terrence Crawford?

So speaking about the last thing on that,

we'll get back to cars.

You know, I'm aware how big this show has gotten here

over the last 10 months.

So, you know, a lot of this is jokes.

A lot of it is not from Nick, it's from me.

Just curious, your thoughts on Max Kellerman

doing the whole thing?

Love that dude.

Really?

Okay. Love him.

Yeah, no, I'm so, I didn't get to listen to it.

I'm gonna go back this weekend,

I got some free time, I'm gonna watch the telecast.

Yeah.

I would say the problem that I bet I'm gonna see,

Andre Ward probably shouldn't be in that booth.

The dynamic just was a little strange

all across the board, man.

I'm gonna say that during the broadcast after.

I don't feel like Andre Ward's all that interesting,

you know, so, but Max Kellerman, for those who don't know,

he's like a mental level boxing savant.

Sure.

As far as like recalling the history of boxing

and who fought what style, like,

and I just tend to like him.

I just think he, I think he's kind of,

kind of a just a unique guy.

I don't think he's for everybody.

I can see why people don't like him, though.

So leading up to it, you know, you gotta go to Axe

be like, what are people saying about this right now?

And people are like, oh my God, Max Kellerman back in the

boxing, like it's great, dah, dah, dah.

At the end of it, I was like, let me go back to this

and see what people are saying.

And they were not kind of your boy.

He was having a bit of an off night.

We'll just say that.

Yeah, I think he talks a lot.

You know, he talks a lot.

He probably talks over people a little too much,

but look man, he's like a true savant.

Like he is, he is like the,

you know how Bob Costas is with baseball?

Yes.

If everybody's ever listened to Bob Costas,

he's like this insane historian on baseball.

Horrible to listen to if you're not into baseball

because you're like, hey man,

just show me guys hitting it out of the park.

I'm not a big baseball guy,

but it's like, I just want to see guys hitting bombs.

Max Kellerman's kind of like that.

Obviously more interesting than Bob Costas,

a little bit more animated to Bob Costas,

but he's that level of historian.

But I've always understood why some people didn't like him.

I mean, I see both sides.

Real quick, I got to ask Joe Buck.

Hey, Joe Buck's good.

Joe Buck is good.

Joe Buck's good.

He has a lot of hate.

There's a lot of hate, but watch games without Joe Buck,

especially baseball games.

Yeah, yeah.

Joe Buck is good at what he does.

Especially in the post season.

Whether you like him or not is a right.

I agree dude, in the post season,

you got to have Joe Buck's voice in there.

Yeah.

This game is upside down.

I'm watching a lot of Monday night football.

Is he all right on Monday night football?

That's a good question.

Tex has just played Bucks and I should have watched it,

but I didn't and I'm not sure.

But I feel like he's got to be good.

Like it's just, he's one of those quintessential voices

of like, you know, sports broadcasting.

He's like Jim Nance.

Exactly.

How can he hate Jim Nance?

Like Jim Nance is just good.

Yeah, man.

We've lived through some really cool eras

of sports commentary and just personalities.

I mean, the all-time football guy to me is Gus Johnson.

I thought you were going to say John Adams.

I didn't want to listen to that dude get hyped.

That dude gets so hyped about everything.

I love it.

Dude, I love it.

Relax, dude.

It's like three minutes in the first quarter, my guy.

But I love it.

It's three minutes into the first quarter.

I do like, dude, that would be me.

If I ever was a broadcaster, I'd be way too hyped

for the entire game.

By the end of it, I would just collapse from exhaustion

because I hyped up every minute of the game.

Hey, did you ever hear the Al Michael stories?

No.

Because Al Michaels is like, you know,

he's never eaten a vegetable.

What?

Like he's never eaten like a green vegetable.

That's like, so in the middle of the game,

they bring him like, I realize a potato is a vegetable,

but it's like steak and potato is what he eats at halftime.

And there's like no green allowed on his plate.

Honestly, at this point, I'm kind of in that world myself.

You know what, like I get enough fiber,

like I don't care about your greens.

All right, your micro greens.

I'm not going to eat this cauliflower.

Get this off my plate.

I hate cauliflower, by the way.

It's terrible.

Yeah, no, it's horrible.

And by the way, when you cook in your house,

it's just gross.

Yeah.

Don't try to smoke cabbage or whatever

the hell my wife wants to do.

Can I just have a steak?

Yeah, don't eat that shit up again.

One of those guys just eats off the cutting board,

now the thing, if you don't eat off your cutting board.

I mean, if I don't put jalapenos next to my steak,

because I'm cutting it on the cutting board,

did I even do it right?

You know?

You just go full Joe Rogan.

Look at my elk steak and my jalapeno.

I don't care, guys.

I think it's cool.

I'll do it.

I know everybody likes to roast people, but it is good.

Actually, yeah, I ended up eating more on the cutting

board than I ever put on the plate.

And then my wife's like, what the hell?

I'm like, sorry, I was just kind of eating

as I was cutting.

I'm not hungry anymore.

What a team player.

Yeah, it is what it is.

Look, after 70 years, dude, Ford

is going to demolish the iconic Glass House Global HQ.

Did you know this?

No, I didn't see this.

Yeah, so it's been in the works for a little while,

but I think the official date of it,

because they're making a new HQ in Dearborn.

So this was an interesting.

If you were actually going to make a new HQ,

wouldn't you move out of Dearborn?

No offense to our Dearborn listeners.

That's a very good point.

And I'm going to have to go ahead and concur with that.

I think you're right.

So this was, let's say, 70 years ago, right?

I wanted to get the size of this just for context.

So in 1956, the Glass House rang at 950,000 square feet.

As you scroll down, this is a new one, by the way,

they haven't done the,

my people haven't gone out there to do any of the shrubbery.

Why does that look like an embassy in the Middle East?

Like what do they think is going on over there?

You know what?

It is 2.1 million square feet.

Can you imagine being like,

hey, so we got to build a new HQ.

How many feet?

I don't know, three mil?

Nah, let's go with two.

Let's go with 2.1.

By the way, people that think car companies

are always in trouble,

this is why people want to own car companies.

This is why we're here.

They literally just like drop money.

It is, and again,

there is so much interesting financing

and publicly traded stuff,

but you want to know why billionaires

buy up these like old Aston Martin as an example.

Yeah.

There's no value there.

There's value somewhere.

Do it.

They can throw up a million square feet and be like,

I mean, who can just throw up 2.1 million square feet?

Listen to this.

This will fit up to 4,000 people in the new studio,

garages, fabrication shops with building design,

be a net zero energy facility as well,

water saving, waste reduction, all that.

How does one learn about that?

Yeah, exactly.

I read this when I read it.

I was like, yeah, me too.

I'm so glad you're doing that.

It's going to be located within walking distance

of 14,000 employees at Ford's Research and Engineering

track side testing facilities.

The new campus will be complete in 2027

while the new headquarters will open in November.

Of course, you've got to have the GTD right there

in the front.

I like that.

It's a pretty cool shot.

Hey, I think it's pretty cool on the GTD.

You can see the rear suspension through that clear

like glass.

The glass, yes.

I think it's pretty cool.

I think that's super cool.

That is super cool.

I know of a Fox body that has the same setup,

but I mean, yeah, it's cool on this GTD as well.

It's a half a million dollars.

Yeah, I mean, look, what's a half a million dollars

between friends?

Dude, so I thought that was really interesting.

And by the way, the old one, the 950,000 square feet,

70,000 square feet of that was just lobby space.

Hey, we need you to sit here and have a coffee

while you wait for our executives.

Yeah, exactly.

How many people you got waiting for executives?

That's a lot of feet.

I mean, it was 12 floors.

The new one's only going to be four floors

if you can believe it or not.

I'm still going to ask,

why does it look like it's in Beirut?

Because a lot of those people are buried

under the building from Beirut

built his building in case he didn't know.

Check out our new HQ.

It looks like we just put this up in Tehran.

Tim Dillon will be performing here next week, by the way.

Hey, did your boy get thrown out?

That's what he said.

I don't know if you could take it seriously these days.

I don't know either.

Yeah, but funny stuff.

I've said it before, I'll criticize Tim,

but he's still my spirit animal.

He's my big gay spirit animal.

Hey, dude, he's funny.

He's a funny dude.

Oh, one day, one day we'll run into Tim Dillon

or I'll run into Tim Dillon and Austin

and say, hey, you want to do a car podcast?

Talk about those Maybox that you bought

and the Rolls Royces that you bought

that you hated and just gave back.

You better invite me.

You'd be like, oh, I just did this off the cuff thing

with Tim Dillon.

That'd be the day this fucking thing dies.

Good times.

So yeah, we can expect.

So speaking of that, I just showed you that.

We read what it looks like, the space and everything.

How can you realistically,

without making fun of the world of car manufacturers,

put into the regular person's mind

that these people know what they're doing, right?

They know how to operate the manufacturing side

and their dealership groups.

And you had a sentence.

Can you remember it from a wallback

where you said that the dealer networks

are one of the most sophisticated

and well thought out distribution networks

ever created, right?

Yes, super efficient.

So understanding that it is what it is.

And understanding that, right,

is what really separates somebody who got a good deal

or enjoyed their purchase and enjoyed their car

and those that don't know how it works.

Yeah, and again, our whole philosophy is

don't get mad about it, understand it,

and then you won't have any problems, right?

So when you keep looking at these as separate entities

and not one entity distributing a car

to you in a local market, you get very frustrated.

And I understand that.

We gotta keep repeating.

I understand why people have a sour taste.

Really simply, if you don't purchase a lot of the nonsense,

you don't have a sour taste.

You just go, I'm going in there to purchase a car.

Just like you walk into a Walmart.

You walk into a Walmart, you say,

hey, I need this storage bin for my garage.

You pick it up.

You don't go and buy extra warranties on the storage bin.

You don't, you just treat it just like you would

go into a Costco, a Sam's Club, a Walmart, a Target.

Then you start to realize it's just a distribution.

It's like a loaser or a Home Depot.

It's just a distribution network

to go pick up a Milwaukee tool, except you're buying a car.

You don't have to get all flustered.

And guess what?

If you don't like the price, you leave.

You don't sign the paperwork.

It's a pretty simplistic thing that I think

because people are so anxious and,

well, you don't understand.

It's like, no, I do understand.

I understand.

We're telling you how to do it

so you don't have a bad experience.

Yeah, you got to leave because unlike Costco,

you can't just take a bite of something,

go back and say, these Kirkland bars are crap.

You know, these are shit.

These grapes suck.

Can you take this half the bag back and like, sure.

Have you ever done that?

No, I'm not, no, I don't do any of that.

Listen, listen, listen.

I knew that was going to be a response,

but I got to get that, that's gotta,

I got to tee you up for that

because I've also never done that.

But my kids wanted something and I was like,

you know, next time when they don't get it,

even though I knew like,

this probably isn't going to be good

and you're not going to like it.

And I told them that and I was like,

you're not going to like it.

Like, come on, what you want to try, like, all right.

But after they kept asking, I got it,

brought it, one bite, each of them.

This is terrible.

I said, I told you, I told you, but you wanted them, right?

So I said, we're going back and we're returning this

and you're telling them that these weren't good.

Cause I don't want to be the guy that's like,

hey, this is bad.

So I made the-

You made your kids the bad guy.

I made the twins.

You're going to be the bad guy with Louise

at the front desk.

You're not going to hurt my name in this.

You tell Ms. Lauren, her name is Lauren.

She's an old lady, white hair.

I was like, tell her, tell her,

I don't want to be the person to say this was bad

cause I hate taking half a bag of anything

and going returning it.

I'm telling you, if people have never,

so we just had a brand new Costco,

like two minutes from my house that got built,

the first day there that it was open,

if you've never witnessed that,

I don't know, we got five or six Costco's in Vegas.

No idea why you have to drive from all over

to go to the new Costco.

But boy, that's a thing.

That is a thing.

Well, this might end the podcast here,

but I'm going to say it anyway cause it's funny.

My sister-in-law loves going to like new things

that are opening up.

And that, when they opened up in central Texas,

she was like, you want to go?

I was like, I had nothing to do that day.

My niece, I hadn't seen my nieces in a while.

That might end the podcast.

If you taste samples and you just told me that,

it's a wrap.

Listen.

You people that taste samples,

I have no idea what you're doing.

No idea.

Wait a minute.

You've never been a guy

to just want to sample something?

No, absolutely not.

Dude, I'm real like buffets, wedding buffets,

buffets here in Vietnam.

No, I'm not doing that.

I can understand the buffet and the cafeteria style.

I'm sure you're not a big Lubies guy,

or a Golden Corral guy.

I wouldn't take it.

No, no, that has, but I mean,

look, I didn't always have a lot of money.

It would have been smart for me to be one of those guys

at that point, trust me.

You couldn't, yeah, that would have fed you

just going through Costco or Sam's Club.

I don't need to buy food, just eat off that.

Yeah, no, I have a very weird thing about it.

I just judge people, I go,

people are breathing, touching.

Yeah.

I'm good, man.

So fun.

I'll take the risk for 12 bucks.

Yeah, I'm with you, but I'm a simple kind of man.

I'm not the aristocrat on the show here, clearly.

Oh, that's crazy.

You're like, hey, I've never tasted an almond.

Can you hand me that?

No, no, no, no.

Listen, if they're yogurt covered and they suck,

I'm gonna be pissed, because I love almonds.

I want it to be good.

So what I'll do is if I see it coming out of the,

whatever, out of the bag box,

the little air fryer they have there, then I'll try it.

But if it's been sitting there

and I didn't see you take it out of the machine,

I won't try it.

I mean, you have some respect.

Thank you.

That's a middle ground, but that is still not acceptable.

Okay, well, I try to be middle of the ground

and you still didn't welcome it, so it is what it is.

I'll never tell you a secret.

The middle of the country just getting blocked out again.

Geez, bunch of haters on this show.

If I were to say, Nick,

what is something that Hyundai could add to their lineup

in North America that would help them

or be useful to the consumer?

What do you think it would be?

Well, not have a recall like I think they did this week.

I said, man.

It's gonna have to be like a smaller crossover

that's pretty cheap.

Okay.

I think, again, even cheaper.

What about a 20, 30 mid-size pickup truck?

What am I looking at?

I'm looking at you.

I don't know what you're looking at.

What's on the top of the fenders?

Legos, Lego pieces.

Legos.

This has been telling me, you know,

Hyundai's really nailing design.

This one might need some work.

So at Hyundai's annual CEO investor day,

it's where they kind of announced roadmap for the company

and this is what the next few years looks like

as far as truck for Hyundai in North America.

The idea is to have it by 2030, for sale by 2030.

Well, yeah, why not?

Let's bring it up in 2020 and let you know.

Hey, by 2037,

we might have this mid-size pickup truck for you.

As we talk about these things, the days get further out.

We keep saying like,

hey, do it in like a six months, 12 month thing.

No, five years, six years.

Oh yeah, no, they'll do whatever they want.

Whatever they think is acceptable in that specific,

but hey, it looks better from that angle.

It does look better from that angle,

but it really looks like, man,

we wanna make a Jeep Gladiator,

but how can we make it look like it'll break

in seven days?

It's like a broke grenadier.

I saw you a picture of that grenadier I saw.

This is exactly what it looks like,

but if it came from T-MU.

The T-MU grenadier.

Well, we just named your car, Hyundai.

Call it the T-MU grenadier.

You kind of called it.

They're in a weird spot where that looks like.

Kind of like a interior.

Gladiator a little too much.

Now let's be clear.

I think we're talking,

this is probably not final design.

We're still in the concept phases.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a lot of plastic, man.

That's a lot of plastic.

And again, I just don't think,

I don't think that's ever really played well, right?

Like that much plastic

and they got the top of those fenders are wild.

Yeah. Good thing that Nick manufactures a trim care kit

over at hybridcleansstore.com

because you are gonna need it on this.

You will definitely need it.

But I mean, you nailed it.

This would be something if priced right.

Again, I don't know how much traction it would get

year one, year two,

but if it's dependable,

let's say it's in that $32,000 range.

Do I see people buying it?

Yeah, man, because I think people are just kind of sick

and tired of the 50, 60, $70,000 world on these trucks.

Yeah. So you look at a 2.5 liter turbocharged I4

with an eight speed automatic.

And I like how they kind of allude

to a possible 2.2 turbo diesel

that would make fans salivate.

Unlikely, but I like how they include there anyway

because you never know.

I mean, it's five years from now.

What's gonna happen in five years?

Yeah, and I think, you know,

for all the grief I've given Hyundai

for the fake luxury Genesis brand,

this is more on par with something they need to do.

So let's give them credit.

Now, whether you see it by 2046, I don't know,

but this is definitely something.

I love how they exaggerate

and then you always take it a step further.

2046, yeah, they said 2030, but.

I mean, think about how many cars and trucks

in our life they're like,

they were two years away from being 75 years away.

So I mean, it's like, I gotta be realistic

with the fans out there and let you know,

this sounds good by 2030,

but like you just referenced,

a lot of things can happen.

A lot of things.

All right, we're gonna land the plane

with a listener question here,

which by the way, a Kledzkultur podcast

at gmail.com, if you wanna submit an email.

We went through it, and I think we've gone through

most of them that were like show worthy type

conversations and not just like stories

for Nick and I to read.

So do you have any comments, Nick,

before I read this last email for you?

Anything people can look forward to?

Are we releasing some Lexus content here pretty soon,

maybe?

Yeah, so we're finalizing the editing

and voice over and introduction for the sound system.

We have a huge project that got put on the table

this week for some interior work

and we're gonna bit by bit by bit.

Anybody out there that's listening

and those off-road companies, off-road owners,

we are trying to partner with people

and use it as a way for them to display

what they do for these types of platforms, right?

It's not just a sponsorship type of thing.

It's like we wanna tell the story

of how to do the work right,

how to do the work on a high level.

So if you guys listening and you're in the off-road

community and you know owners of bumper companies

and wheel and tire companies or suspension companies,

like we're actively putting deals together

to bring that to you.

All right, so again, that was Clutch Culture Podcast

at gmail.com.

So Jason wrote in, this was from two Fridays ago.

So we're getting to it now, Jason.

Appreciate you writing in.

This was when we were talking about the car collections

and of like our parents and handing us stuff down.

So his dad has an eclectic car collection,

two GMBs, one GMB GT, a Super Beetle convertible

and a Sunbeam Tiger.

I don't know if I know what that is.

Maybe I'm sure he-

Yeah, let me tell you, that is very eclectic.

He keeps him reasonably maintained.

He's given 76 years old and still works.

I've told him a number of times

that I don't have interest in inheriting them.

The only reason is while I love to admire them,

I don't really have the room or the passion

to maintain these particular vehicles for the long haul.

Any more insight on something that's like that,

if you were to inherit a collection like this,

I mean, what do you think you would do or say

as it was coming around to it?

Well, usually when you inherit them, somebody's gone.

So I don't think you're having a lot of

in-person conversations anymore.

It's just gonna go to auction.

I'm gonna try to sell them.

And this is the thing when people don't live

in the real world that talk about the future

of muscle cars, the future of cars, generations

before you were really an enthusiast, right?

It wasn't during your era.

I mean, even for somebody like me,

I was born in the 80s.

There's not a ton of 80s cars that speak to me

because I really wasn't of age to get into them, right?

So I mean, that's just kind of how it happens historically.

And I would say this, like that's why

I spoke to a dealer in the Midwest

who's very big in the classics.

And the conversation in their building

and they've been in the classics.

I mean, I think they've been open 40 plus years.

He's very aware this is,

we're gonna see a downturn here.

And this is what this guy does for a living.

This is not Nick's words.

His words are, yeah, I mean,

we're already starting to see some people pass

and I'm getting good deals on inventory

because, you know, sons and daughters

are just liquidating their cars.

That's just the reality of this, man.

Like we deal with car collections every day.

I can tell you that some of those people

are in their 50s and 60s already talking

to their sons and daughters who are now,

in their 20s or 30s, those kids aren't,

and these are some great car collections.

Those kids have no interest, right?

Like we have real life experience,

not only from dealers that I know

they're in the classic market to now.

I mean, I guess some stuff where

we have a huge Porsche collection,

huge Ferrari collection, multiple Ferrari collections,

Lambo guys, their kids are not interested.

Their kids, matter of fact, don't even drive the cars

that are actually more recent.

Let's say it's a 2010 Lambo of some kind.

You got a kid that's like 25 years old,

he doesn't even want to buy that

because he's like, well, what's the new McLaren?

What's the new, I mean, that's the age that he's at.

And so I'm not saying they can't get into it,

but I think everybody needs to take a step back and go,

this is what happens with every generation.

This generation's going to be no different.

And we're in that, I'm talking about a 10, 20, 30 year

age gap.

You know, some of you are 20 right now,

some of you are 45 and your parents are still alive,

you're 50, maybe your parents are still alive.

You don't want their cars.

Like just, I'm not saying some of them you might want, right?

Some of you guys may have dreamed of having

your dad's Camaro or your dad's Chabelle or whatever,

but the vast majority have not dreamed that.

That's just not what's happening.

He, so he goes on to say in the next section,

finding a fun project car.

And this is where I thought was really interesting as well.

This really hit home the whole conversation.

I always wanted a second gen lightning

and I was already looking at him before this email

came in, so it's funny that this is what he wrote in.

In 2016, he searched for one and found one

that most people had turned their noses up to

and in the time where the great examples

were going for 15 to 20, which by the way,

I wish they were going for 15 grand now, trust me.

He bought a 99 second gen with 75,000 miles for $12,000.

Bravo.

Bro, I mean, incredible.

Unfortunately, he had to sell it in a divorce.

Jason, I don't mean to laugh, but it's unfortunate.

We hear you don't.

We feel for you.

Long story short, you know, he's going to be looking

for another fun car in the near future.

Ended up selling it in the massive divorce in 2020

for 20K, so ended up breaking about even,

but man does he, does he miss that truck?

I've been looking at those dude.

I don't even care about low miles.

I know that you work with a lot of people

that love the low miles conversation,

but there was a fourth, there is a 4,000 mile 99

or 2000 red as well, which is the only one

I'm looking for.

It's $63,000.

Whoa.

Yeah.

So, okay, so let's walk through this guy's situation.

If you ask me what I would do in this guy's situation,

he's got a car, or he's got a truck he wants back,

but just, let's just invent the story here

to how this is going to play out.

You go, hey, my dad has passed, the cars are mine.

If I liquidate all of these,

I can get the car that I've always wanted.

That's true.

There's where people don't realize this goes,

which is most of the time

we've got into liquidation situations.

We have had some divorce situations,

and actually a big one in Houston

was the Porsche White Collection.

We weren't involved in that,

but there's a perfect example of like,

hey, you're gonna sell this really rare collection,

which was right down by the stadium,

by the way, the Astro Stadium.

So, what would happen in Jason's?

The reason I say that the minute most kids

don't want their parents' collectibles and cars,

they sell them, or what they should do

is sell them, realize the gains,

and then go buy the things you want.

To me, that's a great steward of all of this.

The sad ones make me,

the ones that make me the most sad is when

they sell or liquidate a car collection,

and then it doesn't go back into a car that they want.

And again, I think everybody,

you gotta look at it from the real angle.

The guys that were in the muscle cars,

and that's when they came of age,

they didn't want to stuff their parents' owned.

And it went on and on and on since then.

It's going to replay itself now,

but the thing that I would always tell people to do,

and I've been in this situation a lot,

unfortunately, through my business,

liquidate what you don't want,

and let's take that money

and let's buy something you really want.

That way now, you basically have gotten into

quote unquote a dream vehicle,

multiple dream vehicles,

depends on how much money the collection is.

And you have kept alive your parents' love for cars.

The enthusiasm.

You've just done it your way.

And I don't find too many parents,

like aging parents, that are against that.

Honestly, I know a lot of dads

that I've been involved with

that they've gotten a bad diagnosis

or they've went a little earlier

and we've had to sit down with kids,

sons, and I go, well, what if we do this?

And the dad's pretty happy.

He's like, hey, man, I want him to own.

I want him to keep this going.

I want him to be in the cars.

It was our connection.

So I think people need to realize

that the good parents out there,

they know you're not into their stuff, okay?

But if you can take their stuff

and turn it into something

that you can kind of carry on,

what is that part of enthusiasm?

I think it's a good balance.

I don't get all,

people get way emotional about this.

And you go, look, if you really talk to people,

your dad knows he bought it because he liked it, you know?

I mean, he knows that.

He's not an idiot.

Like he's like, yeah, I liked it.

And then if you go, hey, dad, I can take your car

and I really want to buy this truck,

this Ford Lightning.

It's the one I want to get away.

I think your dad's going to be pretty excited.

That's a good point.

Because he helped you get your thing, right?

So I don't think you guys need to be scared

about these conversations

because I've had to have them with family members.

You know, not my family members,

but inside people's families.

I just don't think it's that big of a deal.

But for all you guys that think

that we're not going to see a huge dip

in these older collectibles,

you just have never looked at the market.

All right, I love it.

Good perspective.

Jason, I hope your dad's a reasonable guy.

Because I don't know if mine would be.

Your dad, your dad sounds like,

when you have an eclectic car collection,

it seems like you're a pretty cool guy.

You'll be all right.

That's a good point.

Yeah. So like I said, I don't know about mine,

but we'll see.

I don't want those James.

No, I'm kidding. I'm joking.

It'll all work out.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, dude, that was a great episode, everybody.

ClutchCulture Podcast at gmail.com

if you want to send in your stories,

your insights, your topics of any sort,

or just something funny to maybe, you know,

make Nick laugh or make him mad

and tell him how great buffets are.

I don't know.

Whatever you want to email us, let us know.

You do your thing.

All right, we'll see everybody next week.

See you guys.

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