New BMW 3-Series Revealed! Honda Quits EVs, a Toyota "Raptor" Truck?
THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!
New BMW 3-Series Revealed! Honda Quits EVs, a Toyota "Raptor" Truck?
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Car
BMW i3
BMW used to make a small electric car called the i3 that was very light and made with special materials. Now, they are using the same name for a bigger electric car that is more like their popular 3 Series, which is a common type of BMW car.
Term
EQ technology
EQ technology is a name Mercedes-Benz uses for their electric cars and the parts that help cars run on electricity.
Brand
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a company that makes fancy cars. They use the letters 'EQ' to show which cars are electric or have electric parts.
Concept
electric all-wheel drive
An electric all-wheel drive car has motors that make all four wheels move, which helps the car drive better on slippery roads and go faster.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how strong a car's engine or motor is. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster or pull heavier loads.
Car
BMW i7
The BMW i7 is a fully electric fancy car that BMW made, like a 7 Series but runs on electricity instead of gas.
Car
BMW 3 Series
The BMW 3 Series is a popular car that is fun to drive and has nice features inside. Many people like it.
Car
BMW X3
The BMW X3 is a small SUV that is both comfortable and sporty, making it a popular choice for people who want a luxury car that can also handle everyday driving.
Concept
design language
Design language is the way a car looks that makes it easy to tell which brand made it, like certain shapes or styles that are used over and over.
Term
grille
The grille is the part at the front of the car with openings that let air in to help keep the engine cool, and it also helps the car look nice.
Term
flared fenders
Flared fenders are parts of the car's body that stick out more around the wheels, making the car look wider and sportier.
Car
Lucid Air
The Lucid Air is a fancy electric car that can drive a very long distance before needing to be charged, but it costs a lot more than most electric cars.
Term
800 volt architecture
Some electric cars use a higher voltage system called 800 volts, which helps them charge their batteries faster and work better.
Term
EV tax credits
EV tax credits are money the government gives you back when you buy an electric car. This helps make electric cars cheaper and easier to buy.
Term
city dweller
A city dweller is a person who lives in a city. They usually want smaller cars that are easy to drive and park in busy places.
Car
Toyota Sequoia
The Toyota Sequoia is a big SUV that can fold its seats automatically and has safety features to stop if something is in the way.
Car
Kia Telluride
The Kia Telluride is a popular SUV that usually has seats you fold by hand, but the most expensive versions can fold the seats automatically.
Part
power sliding doors
Power sliding doors are doors on some vans that open and close by themselves with the push of a button, making it easier to get in and out.
Term
EV
An EV is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. It helps reduce pollution and uses batteries to move.
Concept
sunk cost theory
Sunk cost theory means not wasting more money on something just because you've already spent a lot on it. Sometimes it's better to stop and save money.
Concept
product launch incentives
Incentives are deals or discounts to get people to buy a new car. If a car needs lots of incentives, it might not be selling well.
Term
Type S
Type S means a sportier and faster version of an Acura car, with better parts to make it more fun to drive.
Term
write down
A write down means a company lowers the value of something it owns on paper because it isn't worth as much as they thought. For example, if they spent a lot on making electric cars but it didn't work out, they reduce how much that project counts as worth.
Car
Ram TRX
The Ram TRX is a powerful truck made for driving off-road fast. It has a big, strong engine that helps it go quickly over rough ground.
Part
5-liter V8 engine from Lexus
This is a big engine with eight cylinders that Lexus uses in some of its cars and trucks. It makes good power and is known to be reliable.
Term
long travel suspension
Long travel suspension means the car's wheels can move up and down a lot, so it can handle bumpy and rough roads better without making the ride uncomfortable.
Term
37 tires
37 tires are very big tires that help a car drive better on rough and rocky roads by making it higher off the ground and giving it more grip.
Term
TRD Baja
TRD Baja is a name Toyota might use for a tough truck that can drive well in deserts and rough places, named after a famous desert race called Baja.
LIVE
Hello, and welcome to this car pod.
I'm Filippo.
I'm Nick.
I'm Doug.
Let's start with the news.
Boom.
The biggest news story of the week is the new BMW i3.
That's right.
We've been talking about the new class BMW, literally new generation BMW, yep, and it
is now out.
It has been revealed in full, the letter version at least.
This is an important news story for a lot of reasons, not because they're reusing the
i3 name, which used to be on a carbon fiber gondola with wheels, but now it's on what's
basically going to position itself as the three series kind of vehicle in its lineup.
BMW is just putting the letter i in front of all of their kind of existing model ranges
in order to signify electric, which I don't think is the worst strategy, especially considering
that Mercedes-Benz is still to this day calling the electric G-wagon the G-class G580 with
EQ technology.
They are still leading into that.
And by the way, the new CLA, it's also with EQ technology.
Needless to say that the i3 is a lot more of a reasonable name, but more than just that,
it's going to launch as a fully electric all-wheel drive 465 horsepower.
That is a real car.
And I think they said they're going to do gas versions as well.
There will be gas versions.
And based on the i7 and the i5, the iX3, et cetera, they will all look like this.
Now, this is interesting because the i5 and the i7 used the existing 5 and 7 series, but
were electric cars.
And the i4 essentially does that with the four-grant coupe.
This is an unusual one because this is a completely different car from the existing three series.
Are we to assume that this is the redesigned next generation three series and that it replaces
the three series completely?
Absolutely.
You assume that?
Yes.
Even after the McConny V debacle?
Yes, absolutely.
Without doubt.
This is it, folks.
This is the new BMW 3 series.
Isn't that what we all...
Maybe.
They haven't said that.
The five series, the i5 and the regular five series look identical.
Yeah.
But when they were launched, they launched the five series and the i5.
This they haven't yet said that this is a three series replacement, that this is the
new three series.
Nonetheless, it probably is.
Yeah, it will look great.
The iX3 is the new X3.
And it looks the same.
It looks like an electric crossover.
But this is a totally fully redesigned thing.
Yeah, and it is a new design language.
It's very clearly BMW, but it is a new design language.
I love the design language.
Instead of making the grille taller, they made it wider, but it just looks so sleek.
It kind of gives me that old Trans Am vibe a little bit on first glance, but overall
I think it's sculpted really, really nice.
I totally agree.
Kind of narrow doors, but then flared fenders.
And I mean, they haven't shown an M version yet, but even the regular car looks pretty
good.
I hope that they take Mercedes Q. So if this is going to be the i3, the gas one should
be the i3 with ICE technology or something like that.
I like that point.
I am curious.
Again, it hasn't fully been revealed, but if this is the new three series, that's obviously
a really big deal too.
They're saying end of the year this goes on sale.
Wow.
Yep.
The interior, by the way, is pretty cool.
The screen in the middle is like a little like offset parallelogram situation.
Offset parallelogram.
How exciting for a full look.
It looks pretty cool.
It's not actually parallelogram technically, but close enough.
It's like a slanted rectangle-ish with cut corners.
It looks really cool.
It does seem like a great Model 3 competitor, right?
Like much more stylish, more appealing to a broader swath of people.
Yeah.
And they're saying a range of up to 440 miles, which is a really astonishing figure in a
car this size.
Only really Lucid has been able to go to that direction with a car that presumably costs
three times what this one will.
I imagine this is going to be in the 60s.
Yep.
To be clear, Lucid's not 180, but yeah.
The Lucids that do 400 miles a range, they have like 130 sticker prices and then the
transaction price is 703.
75, yeah.
And then two years later, they're worth 36.5.
Yeah, pretty much.
It is on 800 volt architecture.
It should be pretty 400 megawatt charging.
Pretty fast charging.
You should be able to recharge to like 7%.
But really quickly, like it is truly advanced and like it is a modern day EV in the truest
sense with all the latest technology, huge screens, 43.3 inch iDrive screen, plus a 17.9
inch center touchscreen and 3D display.
You got to assume, I mean, this is a real car.
You know, more and more of these EVs are actually becoming kind of desirable.
This one.
Yep.
To me, this one looks desirable too.
I haven't read, I'm sure the internet thinks it looks like some other car and is ugly and
terrible, but I think it's going to be in the world of EVs sedans.
I think that this is like a pretty good next step.
Plus, it has the heart of joy electronic architecture.
Oh, it's got a heart of joy.
So we're all set.
When you heard there's a new i3, you just sort of said, who cares next story?
And then when you actually look at this and think of the implications, this is actually
kind of a big deal.
I mean, I knew that the i3 was going to be the next three series or the next that size
of a car because they had teased the new class and all that.
But yes, the original i3 left us below my line.
No, we don't say that.
We love the original i3.
We like the original i3, especially now that it sells for nine, but they're so cool.
It really is a gondola car.
It really is a gondola car, but this is all like doors, like incredibly green materials.
You ever drive one?
It's got like a five inch wide wheel on it.
I think something really, really skinny.
All four tires combined are the same width as a Countach's Rears.
Wow.
That's not true, but it might be really close.
It's so cool, though.
You never drove one?
No.
You ever drove one?
No.
Oh, I loved it.
I loved driving it.
So cool.
I should have one.
There was a Rex.
Of course.
Anyway, new i3, absolutely huge deal.
Potentially the new BMW 3 series, which is always a huge deal and seems like a pretty
cool car.
We should talk about it more, but we've also seen like leak after leak after leak after
press conference after press conference.
I feel like we've covered it a lot, but it is huge news.
Honestly, I think the production car looks a little bit better than the concept.
I think the concept was like a little too not realistic.
A rock car, maybe.
Yeah.
I think they actually did a good job.
And because they weren't entirely constrained by three series design philosophy, I think
it actually took it to kind of a sort of a cool, but almost different slash better place
than where the next three probably would have gone.
I'm into it.
The three series never ended up getting that huge grill then.
Only the M3.
That's a good point.
Do we also like the ix3?
We do, right?
Yeah.
And BMW this week, it's not on our thing, but BMW this week announced that ix3 order book
has been absolutely slammed and they're like adding production shifts to make more of these
cars.
Only in America are EVs not successful vehicles.
Some people are going to be so cool.
They're going to be able to say that they had every generation of i3.
Every generation of i3.
Had the first, had the second.
Anyway, i3, any other, any other i3 related thoughts?
No, it'll be interesting.
Most of our stories are usually about EVs getting canceled.
Yeah.
It'll be interesting in three years if this joins that graveyard or if like an actually
well-designed purpose-built three series flagship car could actually do well in America.
I think they needed for the European markets, they needed for the Asian markets, even though
the man in the U.S. will be really low for the i3, it's going to be the basis for the
full three series.
I do think that had we asked BMW five years ago, this would have been just i3.
I don't think there would have been a gas version.
Yeah, that's true.
But there is now.
I agree they need it for Europe and Asia, although I would also make the point that this car
coming out in the U.S. probably a year from now, its life cycle will extend beyond the
current political administration and presumably, you know, the next one comes in, EVs go back
in vogue and so there's a possibility that this car, you know, takes some of that success
if EV tax credits do return, which someday you presume they have to regardless of who's
in power.
And I think that BMW buyer base is also more inclined to adopt something like a city dweller
that's going short, you know, an EV is more practical there versus like trying to make
your Dodge Charger an EV like that's the wrong audience for that type of car.
Totally.
Very much agreed.
Our next new story is a sad one.
The new Hyundai Palisade has been recalled.
The top trims of the new Hyundai Palisade have been recalled.
Did you see this new story, Nick?
Yeah, it was really hard to read.
Yeah, apparently the folding second row, power folding second row, didn't have an obstacle
detection system and actually killed a two year old child in Ohio.
It's power folding seats are the worst thing that I've ever existed in the history of the
automobile.
My power folding seats in my Sequoia do have obstacle detection.
And so what happens is when you press the button, you wait 28 seconds for the seat to
slowly and right when it gets to the very bottom, there is a strap in the way and it
goes beep beep and then it goes all the way back up.
And it's actually funny because the Telluride, even the top models of the Telluride, the
third row, they kept manual folding seats and I was talking with the product planner
for that car and he told me that he fought to make that decision and to keep those power
folding, the manual folding third row because it's just so easy.
You pull the strap, you push the seat, it's down.
It takes a quarter of a second, whereas the power folding seats take forever and apparently
they kill people.
It is tragic.
It is very.
Also, I'm glad they're recalling it and presumably, I think there was supposed to be obstacle
detection and just didn't work as intended.
Regardless, it is interestingly, it does also affect the Telluride because we're talking
about power folding second row seats.
Only the very highest end trim levels of Palisade and Telluride have the power folding second
row, which is this, the trick feature is that the seat lies almost flat.
Like if you're, you wouldn't do it while you're driving, but if you're like, you know, waiting
for your brothers to get out of soccer practice, you want to take a little nap or whatever,
you can lie in the second row, kind of fold flat, but also it folds forward that way.
It has to because it's now becomes a power seat.
And so both the second and third row in the Palisade do that and it seems to me like they're
recalling it and trying to fix both of those, whereas Telluride also apparently has this
problem in the second row.
Telluride just went on sale.
Like this last couple of weeks, the embargoes went up the day this was announced.
It was a dark day, obviously for Hyundai Kia.
It's sad that, you know, these, these consumer products like this, it's a reality when you're
designing a vehicle, it will kill, there will be people who die in it.
And it's just kind of something that you end up having to think about.
And it's sad when it results from a design flaw, but hopefully this is fixed.
You know, do you agree with me about power folding seats?
Do you have I'll take it a step further.
I don't like power folding or power closing rear gates hatches.
Our Cayenne has it.
You have to push the button.
You can't just slam it way easier to just shut the door with for you.
It is. But if you're like an old woman, well, that they can option.
I our focus has a nice gastrod.
It's easy to replace.
It doesn't break.
But the focus is tailgate is light and low.
And what's happened with SUVs more and more is the tailgate now includes all this other
crap sensors and yeah, but they're tall.
They've got also like you from your key fob.
You can open it when you're walking up to it's like so easy.
OK, but they're they're solving a problem I never had, which is the door.
You're telling me that you're old forward.
You don't need to use like a wooden pole to keep up with.
Well, that's that's different.
Same with minivans, the power sliding doors.
Just let me tug on the door like you can do that.
Every Uber gets super mad at me.
Then they like give me the death glare because I dare pull on their door handle.
Every modern if you get into a modern minivan, just expect that you press it.
Also, for little kids, those doors are heavy, heavy, heavy.
Well, then they shouldn't be operating them.
Also, the buttons for these then you have to get out.
That's the whole point.
If you're here's how it worked back in the day.
You're going to be in their car seats.
They won't be able to get out without human.
There's seven.
They're not in car seats.
Here's how it worked back in the day.
I know that in your world, you probably always had power sliding minivans
because you were a wealthy person.
But in my world, even single doors, I don't think our Voyager did.
We had single door.
I didn't have one.
But my friend Dan had one his mom had one Daniel and you would go to that car
and you would tug on the door and it wouldn't work.
And what would happen is then mom would have to put the car in park,
get out, walk all the way around just to open the door for you.
Just for clarity, they still need to be in park to operate.
And now you can just press the button.
You can enjoy all your buttons and technology.
I'm good, but sliding doors.
Consumers seem to want this feature.
I truly question whether consumers want all these powerful things seats and cars.
I do it every time.
And it's like, oh, the seat power folds the third row,
but it is invariably incredibly annoying.
Meanwhile, you get into a minivan.
None of which offer that.
I don't think right now you just like a powerful thing.
Third row would you just pull one strap?
The top is done. It doesn't say not same with convertibles that have a backseat.
When you have the power, push it forward to get into the backseat versus just
pulling a tab and it goes forward.
Like again, I don't think this technology actually improves the experience.
It does not improve the experience.
And this one certainly doesn't.
And I will tell you with my Sequoia, one thing that does improve the would improve
the experience is if it didn't have obstacle detection,
because then a strap wouldn't cause it to go back up.
But now you see what happens when you don't have obstacle discussion,
which just goes to show simply give us manual seats.
Even at this price point, that's what we want.
I don't even think we're being like, I want a brown station wagon, manual transmission.
He is. I don't even want power tailgate.
That's not real.
I actually want my steering to be manual.
And I truly think that powerful things seats are annoying and time-consuming.
Apparently a safety hazard.
And clearly now a safety hazard.
I still think this is a great vehicle and hopefully they fix this
and product launch goes better.
Yeah. Yeah.
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OK, next new story, please.
We have OK.
All right, so here's kind of a wild new story.
Honda is just out of the EV business pretty much.
That's not fully factually accurate, but it's close.
They've canceled three electric last week.
They canceled three electric vehicles that were planned for US production.
Yeah, they've basically written down almost 16 billion dollars in losses
because basically they don't think that there's EV demand in the US.
There's not product appeal for these specific EVs in Asia
and US tariffs are making it really expensive.
What's crazy is they were in the process of retooling a US factory
to produce the zero series and the accurate
are sex and some other EVs.
And so they've kind of paused the RSX done.
The RSX is dead. No way.
But they were going to start delivery this year of vehicles built in that factory.
And now they've just said, no, we're done.
We're not going to be that the Honda prologue also dead.
Prologue despite the fact that that's built by GM in Mexico dead.
They're they're just what their signaling is.
We did not have the right EV strategy.
Even the models that haven't come out yet.
We're not the right EV strategy.
Wow. We're just guessing.
You know what the right EV strategy is?
No, I'm all right.
Guess so. I mean, that's what they're saying.
But what you didn't mention yet is this, which is the most important part.
This is the Sony of Fila.
Honda was working with Sony to produce an electric sedan called the Fila.
It looked incredibly undesirable from every picture we ever saw.
Correct. And then they announced it officially
and it looked even more undesirable than that.
What is the status of Sony has said that they have no information
on the fate of the Fila project.
Sony has said they don't know.
We're not sure we heard from commercials for it for forever.
Honda is not answering the phones.
I do like that.
Instead of saying, I don't know, say, I have no information.
It sounds less incompetent.
Yeah, but it also sounds in a way more incompetent.
Like you're working with them on this.
Shouldn't you have some information?
Number one, Honda came out with all those crazy looking EVs.
Yeah, that was a series here that was going to build in Ohio.
The prologue was supposed to be.
I remember I talked to Honda about this.
The prologue was supposed to be the it wasn't like a true Honda was built by GM.
It was kind of rushed to market.
But the theory was that was the prologue.
That's why they called it that.
The prologue to like a real EV game.
They literally told me that was why it was called that.
And now the prologue is also the ending that the whole story.
The prologue is I want to read you the actual quote from the Sony Honda
Mobility PR person.
Oh, boy, who's out of a job.
Tough job.
Sony Honda Mobility is aware of Honda Motor's decision to pause its EV business
in North America.
Our parent companies, Sony Group Corporation, Honda will hold discussions
on how this offense affects Sony Honda Mobility.
Therefore, we have no information to share every day.
I'm every day.
I'm glad I don't work in a big company.
We are operating as usual.
Yeah.
Well, I'm not actually surprised.
We've done a lot of stories in this podcast about EV slowing and cancellation.
We've also been very critical on this podcast of Honda and how conservative
they are.
In this case, I think it's probably the right move.
This is there is a sunk cost that theory.
Oh, we've done that.
We've gone this far.
Let's bring the car to market.
There's no point bringing the car to market and dumping even more money
into a product launch and marketing the car.
When in the end, you're just going to have to put so many incentives on it
that you are never going to make a profitable car.
They were already building them at the East Liberty Auto Plan Ohio.
Yeah.
You're saying somebody's is actually a bold move to cancel that far along
because you are that sunk cost and like so close to getting real data
if it'll work or not.
But I mean, they're looking at the market.
They're looking at what numbers are for competitive vehicles.
And they're seeing at those levels, we simply cannot justify creating this car.
Why do you think that it's not a good idea?
I think your point about the I3, it's going to survive through the cycle will change.
The I3 is a global car.
These were being made in the United States.
They're also going to be made in the US for the Asian market.
Maybe. I mean, the Acura RSX is not going to sell.
Yeah, it just it's it is a late decision.
You're writing down a ton of losses and then you will probably be massively
behind once the tide starts, unless they're working behind the scenes on.
But what should this have been?
That's the story of Honda.
Yeah, the Civic, the Accord, the HRV, the CRV, the Odyssey.
Remember when they were first with the insight?
Yeah, but it was surely.
But it was totally done.
Now, they tried the insight several times.
It was poorly done each time.
They have never, but it wasn't though.
It wasn't a success.
Honda has got this this beautiful core and they're just they just don't know
how to get beyond it.
And maybe they'll never have to.
Maybe we're just going to buy Accords until the cows come home.
Can I tell you an accurate story?
I reviewed that TL.
Yeah, here's a story for you.
The first gen accurate or second gen on your trailer.
No, it's actually a fourth gen Acura TL.
I'm so sorry. I don't agree with that.
Third, there was the 95 to 98.
There was the 99 to 03.
And then there was that one.
The third gen is the 04 to 2009 TL, 0408.
Nick, you know, in 04, the TL Acura sold 205,000 cars, 0405, 205, 210.
So guess how many they sold last year?
I'm going to go with a tenth of that, 20.
No, that's not 20, 135,000.
They've dropped 40 percent, 35 percent.
That was a pretty design.
I mean, I remember back in the day, the Type S version,
I was trying to find takeoff wheels to put on my TSX and like up badger
because it was such a desirable and nice looking car.
No one thinks twice about the TL now.
Well, it's gone.
They don't make any sedans except for the Integra,
which isn't a big seller.
Acura and Honda just, they're just still struggling to figure this all out.
The RDX is dead.
Like the RDX is dead.
Honda's in a tough spot.
I mean, I remember a year ago, we were talking about Nissan
and how Honda might come to Nissan's, be a Nissan savior.
Turns out maybe that's a good thing that didn't happen because of what it is.
I don't know that Honda's in a tough spot.
They are in a tough spot.
They're still selling, in the United States,
they're still selling 1.3 million cars a year,
which is down from maybe their peak.
They're forecasting an operating loss for this year.
Well, yeah, because they just wrote down
however many billions of dollars that EV developed.
Of course, that's tough.
Seems like everyone's in an operating loss writing down their EV losses.
You've got to write it down in some year.
The industry.
That's just the reality and the market changed and so that's that.
By the way, I actually support Honda's decision not to continue with this.
Don't throw bad money after bad.
Every quarter, up till 2024, the auto industry part of Honda had operating profits.
Starting in Q1 of 2025, they've been notably in the red.
Dude, I told them to make a forerunner.
I told them to make a forerunner.
They didn't listen to me.
The passports aren't okay though.
The passports aren't okay.
It's okay for now, but it's not going to.
The last thing I'll add is,
Honda, if you're listening, please schedule a status call
with the folks at Sony and just let them know the future of their product.
They've been working hard and they deserve a status report.
This person who's the head of PR for electric vehicles for Sony is thinking,
am I going to be working tomorrow?
No, they know the answer.
Am I going to have to go back to DreamWorks and be 18th on the PR totem pole for God's sake?
Maybe just an emoji on Slack.
Just like thumbs up, thumbs down, let them know.
I don't want to get David Geffen coffee again.
Okay, move on to the next news story.
Oh yeah, folks, this is a big deal.
You hear about this?
Yeah, no.
You don't, I mean, I know what it is because I pay attention, but...
All right, Toyota has announced that they are going to come out with,
they haven't announced, but it's like there's been reports
that they are going to come out with a off-road Tundra.
They already have the TRD Pro Tundra,
but there's talk that they're going to call something the TRD Hammer,
which will have 37-inch tires, long travel suspension, and even more power.
So it's the Raptor R for Toyota.
Raptor R for Toyota.
Will it have a V8?
That's the big question.
The Raptor R has a V8.
Yeah.
The TRX has a V8.
Does Toyota show up with a V8?
Do they take that 5-liter Lexus engine?
That would be so cool.
They're not wearing a new engine in this.
They're just going to use their existing thing and make it look cool.
They got a 5-liter V8 from Lexus.
They're not going to re-engineer the Tundra to accept an engine.
What do you mean, re-engineer?
The engine bay on this thing is 4 million zillion.
My son describes things that are large.
Cubic millimeters.
There's no re-engineering.
That 5-liter V8 has already been in a bunch of truck,
four-wheel drive vehicles.
Well done.
The LC.
I can prove you can charge deep six figures for a truck with a special engine.
People will go after it, much like a fancy sports car.
What are you talking about?
The Raptor R is like 125.
That's not obsessed.
Early six figures.
It's well past 100k.
Shallow six figures.
This, by the way, is not necessarily it.
This is a desert chase concept from 2021.
Dude, but I bet it will look like that.
It does look like a SEMA car in this picture.
I am so pumped for this.
As a TRD Pro owner, the only one here, I really am excited.
That's not the flex you think it is.
It is, man.
No, it's not.
I love TRD Pro.
You do wonder if you could retrofit some of this onto your Sequoia.
No, dude.
I'll buy a TRD Hammer Sequoia.
Okay.
If it comes.
Can I say when is it coming?
You give me a TRD Hammer Sequoia.
If you're going to do it for the tundra, Toyota, give it to me for the Sequoia.
You know it's been selling.
You're not going to buy it.
Why wouldn't I buy it?
Long travel?
I need long travel, dude.
What do you mean?
What?
I'm desert running all the time.
All right.
Regardless, I want to explain where this came from.
So apparently, Toyota Motor Company has trademarked or is working trademarked TRD Hammer.
They also sent a survey to owners asking about some names and kind of laying out
what we just said about this truck.
Yeah, like the survey to owners was like,
what would you think of a truck that had 37 tires?
And what would you think of a truck that has long travel suspension?
What would you think of more power?
Can I tell, that power wasn't on it.
Can I tell, well, can I tell you the other names that we're considering?
TRD Baja, TRD Iron, TRD Pro S, TRD Berserk, and TRD Quake.
I like Hammer.
Hammer's the best of these.
I like Hammer, TRD Hammer.
Dude, I wanted TRD Hammer, Sequoia's so bad.
I would run circles around your little cul-de-sac.
You would be nothing.
We'll lean in like this because of the long travel suspension.
Yeah.
Well, 37s.
Are you kidding?
This would be in Nick's hardcore Republican.
This would be the dream of everybody in Nick's development.
You could run over an SLR McLaren.
Oh my God, I could.
That'd be a video.
That'd be a whistling video.
It does seem like this will do really well selling to rich dudes
that never get their cars off road.
You know, I see more Raptor R's than I thought I would.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Imagine if it was a hybrid V6, that'd be cooler.
Yeah, I mean, I would.
The Raptor R.
I would want a V8.
It won't be.
In this car.
It won't be.
Why do you say that?
Because they're not going to.
They already have two different engines.
They have a regular V6 and a hybrid V6.
They're going to just take the hybrid V6.
That's already the TRD Pro.
Why ruin our dreams?
Me and the viewers are sitting here.
We want, you know what they should do
is take the V10 from the LF.
It's really too proper.
What about that sports car that they came out
with a couple of months ago that we talked about?
That crazy sports car.
No, there was a V8.
The GRGT.
What's the powertrain in that?
Nobody knows.
What do you mean, nobody knows?
4-liter twin-turbo V8?
All right, they should put that in.
I'm ready.
Put that in the long travel phase.
I will be so impressed with Toyota if they do that.
I'll tell you what it ain't going to have is this bumper.
There is not a regulation on the planet
that that one is accepting.
They can sell other parts catalog.
Yeah.
Okay, TRD Hammer.
TRD Hammer.
Next news story.
On the other hand, our friends at Ram have said that.
Okay, when you think of a Dodge Ram, what do you think?
Muscle.
Think of that like 1995 or whatever year Ram
that looked like a semi-truck.
You know what?
That changed everything.
I don't think of that.
Rocker Texas Ranger.
I don't think of that, but I wish I did.
You don't think of that?
That is probably my favorite looking truck of all time.
I think of the movie Twister when I see this.
Twister, yeah.
This was Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.
They were driving this in Twister.
Rolf Gilles, Rolf Giles.
I actually don't have a Rolf Gilles.
Gilles, I apologize, Rolf.
Who's the head of design for all of Stellantis.
Yeah.
Has said that the next Ram is going to take a new approach.
New approach.
And he said that he doesn't think that the angry
and super exaggerated faces that other pickup trucks have,
he called out GM and the Cybertruck,
but also every single Ram.
GM is one.
He doesn't think that that's really resonating with buyers.
And so he wants it to be in a different direction
and much more futuristic and less angry.
I completely agree with his point.
I do too.
Certainly with the Cybertruck.
For Ram, though, when I think of a Ram.
That is the Ram brand.
And when I think of what Ram customers want,
it's more brawny and aggressive.
Yeah.
I think if anything, they want it to be even more brawny
and aggressive and muscular.
And definitely not futuristic.
And definitely not futuristic.
Like they ever, if you came out with this again,
it would probably be a hit.
Yeah.
They should.
A singer version of that, just like new underpinnings.
Put a TRX motor in this,
but otherwise give us this exact truck.
Ralph Geel is one of my favorite designers.
Yeah, he's awesome.
He's smart.
So I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt here,
but I do agree the design trend has gone too far, right?
It was like each truck became more exaggerated,
more in your face to the point where like,
eventually it does reach a tipping point
where it's too much and it's getting kind of tacky.
But at the same time, truck owners know what they like.
They don't really like change.
They buy the car in part because of how it makes them feel
and how it makes them feel is like big macho, muscular.
Having the TRX at the top of the lineup,
even if you weren't buying one,
sort of gave you some of that cred,
which was a reason you bought the truck.
And the TRX looks sick and they exaggerate the grill
and the front end to be even more in your face than the regular.
I think what he's talking about, by the way,
is the Silverado front end,
which is obviously TRX is a part of this trend.
But I think it's wild to try to eliminate that from RAM.
I actually think the worst offender
is your favorite Toyota over there.
The front end of the Toyotas,
and especially the TRDs where the grill is just ginormous,
like they're just every iteration,
they're just like stretching in Photoshop to make it bigger.
Nick, let me tell you something.
Look at that, look at that.
As a TRD pro, man, let me explain something to you.
We need our big grills because we have big motors,
we got to cool it.
They're not even a V8 anymore.
Excuse me, I have 450 horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque.
Do you have any cars in that range?
It's not actually accurate.
Something like that, it's wild.
I have more and I have less.
Remember, I pulled a heavy-duty Silverado stuck in sand.
That's the biggest off-the-peat.
Off-the-peat.
That's the biggest grill known to man.
Yes.
But that's a serious trap.
And I strapped a ratchet strap to my Sequoia,
and I was like, let's do this.
And one time a Tundra pulled a 747?
Uh-huh, or something like that.
It was the V8, it pulled the space shuttle.
Which is honestly cool.
It's a great PR stunt.
It was a great PR stunt.
Go to the pictures of that.
Tundra pulls space shuttle.
Can you think of any happy-looking pickups?
Yeah, the Ridgeline.
Yeah.
Ridgeline.
You look at a Ridgeline and you think this is nice and friendly.
That's not a good company.
Probably incredibly incapable.
Folks, this was one of the great PR moments
in the history of time.
The space shuttle, I'll tell you the story.
You know this.
Do you remember the story?
Of course.
The space shuttle was retired or decommissioned or something.
There were like five of them.
They all went to museums around the country.
And Toyota discovered, I think this was in LA,
Toyota discovered, hey, wait a minute,
they're taking it from this place to the museum.
Can we drive it for a mile?
Yeah.
And so they got, whichever company is doing this,
to agree to let them drive the space shuttle
for one mile in the Toyota tunnel.
Whoever had that idea deserved a raise.
Amazing.
Yeah.
So they drive it down whatever street
and they had to pull, like,
they had to take out light poles and stop lights
and so they did in the middle of the night.
That's why it's dark,
because they had to take out traffic lights
and all this stuff to do it.
But it was great and it worked great.
I bet Shoshan was there.
I bet Shoshan has a documentary.
It is pocket about this.
You think Toyota then sold it?
Yeah.
Sold it?
Nope.
No.
Former company demo.
Exactly.
No.
It's owned by the executive wife.
Only driven one mile.
One nice, easy mile.
That was the Toyota Tundra situation.
And I have confidence.
Curious to see what happens with RAM.
I think if anyone can pull it off,
they've got it.
But odd move does choose RAM to do,
to walk back this design language.
I, Ralph Fugilis, by the way,
has an incredibly hard job.
Because this is all part of a large interview
where he needs to figure out
what each of their 14 brands, 14 brands, looks and feels.
Well, yeah, but most of them brands are just models.
I mean, what does Chrysler feel like?
All right.
Yeah.
Apparently, it's going to be a complete pivot for Maserati.
Apparently, Alfa Romeo is going to be a little bit more like
tech forward is what they're thinking.
They're going to need to do some cleanup to the brand.
It's going to be a tough situation.
Well, regardless.
I'm very curious with RAM specifically
to see how they do this.
The next gen RAM must be on its way pretty soon.
They just did like a little facelift.
But it was-
But now it's got a hurricane.
Minor.
Yeah.
We're ready.
We're ready for a new RAM, I think.
Can I say one?
I want it to be broad.
Complete pivot on Maserati, though.
I think that's a bad idea.
Stay the court.
In 10 years, update the Gran Turismo.
Just so subtle that we can't tell the difference
and call it a new model in Church Double.
So far.
That was, oh, God.
Yes.
Maserati is such a lost brand.
It's a lost cost.
The pivot is just to give up.
Yeah.
Team up with Sony on the Ophelia and just call it a day.
The next generation is a cauldron of experimentation
moving towards a tech-heavy futuristic statement.
Don't you think AI has made all this worse?
The PR people already sounded ridiculous,
and now they have AI.
He said in an interview-
Cauldron.
This is what Rolf Goh said in an interview.
Also, apparently, Alfa Romeo is a head scratcher for designers
as performance means different things to the next generation.
Never mind that Alfa Romeo is the only thing
that's ever been that they look pretty.
Right.
That is literally the only thing.
Today's pod is sponsored by Harry's.
Harry's reminds me of Harry's Speed Shop
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And Harry's the razor company,
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In fact, I'm told in good insider information
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Okay, move on to the next news story.
Ah, the Audi A2 is back.
All right, next news.
Yep. Also, it's probably electrical only.
Probably Europe only.
Folks, they cheese the A2.
We only put this news story in because we owned.
Here in the office, we collectively owned an Audi A2.
It was titled in Montana.
We're going to announce that now.
It wasn't not obvious from the months ago.
We played it in the shop.
We saved, though.
By doing that, we saved a company $81 in sales tax.
And so, California don't come for us.
Anyway, we have it in petty cash here in the office
if they come by.
Meanwhile, we're in trouble with the fire marshal for our cords.
We're not actually just for the record.
They're coming for us.
Anyway, the A2 is coming back,
but it's Europe only and fleet.
I mean, probably.
It's TV only.
I eat it.
Probable.
It looks cool.
Maybe.
It could.
We don't know yet.
It does have the rear duck bell like yours.
For all this Audi A2, A4, A6, A8, A7, Q3, Q5, Q7, Q4,
they've only ever had one A2.
That's right.
And it was the OG.
I was walking with my wife the other day
and trying to explain to her why the Q8 and the Q7
are in the numbers they are.
And she goes, isn't the Q8 bigger?
If it comes out for the Q7, I go, no.
Because, well, is the Q5 smaller than the Q7?
Yes.
So it goes Q4, 5, 8, 7?
Well, the Earth is the same.
It's based on the position and the model range.
So the Q8 is more expensive.
Explain that to a non-car person in a way
that will make sense.
Here's how I'd explain it.
Honey, the Q8 is more expensive.
But can you explain the Q5 and the Q6?
Well, the Q6 is electric.
I love the Q6.
The naming is ridiculous.
The Q6 is larger than the Q.
What do you mean?
Can you explain the A6?
The A6?
No, dude.
I don't do sedans anymore.
I'm out.
I'm cross over his own life.
Because you may remember there is an A5, which is gas.
No one knows how that works.
There's an A6, which is gas and electric.
They look different.
The only thing I know is if they don't give us
the RS5 station wagon, I am going to personally attack
every Q4 e-tron I see in retaliation.
Got to have to take a big trip to the rental car fleet.
All right.
Next news story, please.
Look, we even retaliation won't make them look worse.
No, they'll be thrilled.
They'll be like, oh, thank God someone attacked my Q4 e-tron.
I can total it out.
It's worth $11.
This is the biggest news story of the week.
Ferrari has announced, OK, for the last 10 years,
since eight years, Ferrari has had, in some of their models,
haptic, not even buttons, but button screens, basically,
on their steering wheels.
Haptic controls.
And they're not particularly easy to use.
I know you never did a Ferrari.
I have them in my GJ.
No.
It's so much worse in a Ferrari.
It is, imagine if your GTIs didn't do anything,
but like, announced that they did something.
Like, there's a switch on there.
Like, there's a diagram on there showing what it could do.
If only you tapped it at exactly the right spot
for the right amount of time.
Yeah, pull up the Roma.
The Roma has it.
That's like the car that it debuted in.
And so, yeah, pull up just an interior shot of the Roma.
It's hard to see, actually, because they don't light up
unless they're, like, necessary.
But even the engine start-stop button
has been a haptic in modern Ferraris.
And they're very difficult to use.
This little wheel, it's a great idea.
But in practice, it is a tremendously difficult thing.
Yeah, there you go.
To actually control these all are haptics.
Everything that you see here.
And it just doesn't work all that well.
So Ferrari has announced that they
are going to offer a retro fit for all of the haptic cars
that you can go and get a steering wheel that
has actual physical buttons for the parts of the steering wheel
that were formerly haptic.
And by the way, in new Ferraris,
they've gone away from the haptics as well.
So this is, they reversed course for their new models
and they're actually going to offer this as like a retro fit
for the old model.
Is the same steering wheel as their new models?
Like, are they re-suit?
Yeah, and it's the same basic steering wheel
as the haptic cars.
It just doesn't have.
Now, the irony is, of course, that one thing Ferrari
won't retrofit is manual transmissions.
Yeah, which they could.
But they'll retrofit your steering wheel.
I would argue that they both significantly
would enhance the experience.
Do we have pricing?
No, I don't think we do have pricing.
You've got to imagine.
I've swapped steering wheels on B7s, Audi's,
and it was like $500 wheel, couple bolts.
So you've got to imagine.
It's going to be a lot.
I mean, it's an expensive wheel.
Like the B7 wheel probably had a volume control.
This steering, the Ferrari steering wheel,
has every single vehicle control.
Down to the turn signals, the headlights, the windshield wipers.
That clock's brain must be terrifying to take apart.
The personal experience.
Remember to remove the battery first.
It'll be an interesting thing to see.
I'm glad that they're doing it.
It's a really good idea because I really do think
it was the weak point in these modern Ferraris,
which are otherwise amazing cars.
Technologically, even they're amazing cars.
But it's an interesting thing that they're doing this.
And it's even more interesting to me that they're doing this
and that they still stubbornly are like no manuals.
We're not doing manuals.
We want to make some money.
We just don't want to make all the money.
We're going to let Porsche have that crowd.
Well, this is a lot easier to swap out for them, I'm sure.
Maybe Ferrari just doesn't want Porsche people in their showrooms.
Oh.
That would imply that the Ferrari clientele is somehow better
or more tolerable.
All right, next big story.
Good point.
What's this?
The E-Type, along with other famous Jaguars,
is now in their most latest attempt
to make this Project 00 takeoff.
So basically, the Project 00 flopped.
There was rumors that not only the ad agency,
but the designer themselves was canned.
Pull up that Project 00, of course.
The hyper gender fluid EV concept, they released some.
What does that mean?
Well, is it a boy or a girl?
It's pink.
We don't know.
We're not going to get into this.
It's a very progressive design
and I don't mean that in a positive way.
Regardless of how you want to interpret it.
So this has been a huge flop.
Everyone's made fun of it.
Everyone sort of assumed Jaguar would walk this back
and say, oops, we need to do over.
But no, they're doubling down.
They released a bunch of campaigns now saying,
look at how beautiful the XK00, the XJS,
the all these beautiful, the E-Type,
all of our heritage, and they're saying,
oh, because we were bold and adventurous in the past.
We're going to be bold and adventurous now.
And that's how they're justifying it.
Well, I think about Jaguar sometimes.
They were going to take a year off of car manufacturing.
It feels like it's been longer.
It has.
I don't know.
We still haven't seen a production car.
There have been a few first drives
where they take journalists under the cover of darkness.
I'm going to tell you right now.
This ain't going on sale.
So the question is, does this turn into a production car?
And if so, how?
And I haven't seen anything.
I have seen some first rides where there was still,
like where specific journalists were able to see it,
but not take photos or describe it.
They had one at the quail last year.
One of these.
Yeah, I'm saying like a production car.
They're happening theoretically.
Oh, I'd like to see it.
The only parallel I can think of is the Celestique,
which is like this sort of design language very over the top,
very bespoke and small numbers.
I actually think that if they literally came out with this car,
it'd be cool.
Really, I think this car is cool as hell.
It wouldn't sell money.
It would be like a very rare toy.
Ultimately, this is a limited production thing.
But if this was sitting at the top of the Jaguar lineup
in their shrooms, literally this car with 30-inch wheels
and no mirrors and no door handles, that would be cool as hell.
You could sell to Quella de Vil, Timothy Chalamet,
and like maybe, who's the guy, the Black Eyed Peas guy
that has crazy cars?
Will I am.
You've got a couple people that would buy this.
I think it'd be cool as hell.
But this is not a brand.
This is not a revival of an automaker.
So I'm not sure what the plan is,
but I'm sitting here waiting to see it,
and they're trying to tie the E-type to it.
They need a hard pivot here,
and I don't think dragging your beautiful past designs
into it is really a good idea.
No.
But we'll see how it all, it's all they've got.
I am legitimately rooting for them as hard as I am.
I still love the brand.
I think there's a future for them,
but like, they're way off course here.
Yeah, they're definitely not in great shape.
And especially because you'd think that all this time
they would have, okay, now we're going to launch with an SUV,
with a this, with a that, and we haven't seen any of these cars.
They also chose the worst possible time
to retool for as an EV brand.
Yeah.
You know, everybody else is getting out of it.
And in the middle of that,
they also had a huge cyber attack that shot
of all production for Jaguar Land Rover.
Land Rover, here's an interesting,
I saw the other day on the road a Velar
with a brand new paper temporary plate.
Did you know the Velar is still in production?
No, but I guess I never heard about it.
The Velar is the best Land Rover.
But no.
Well, it was when it came out.
If they had continued to invest in it, it would still be.
And that could have been a Jag product.
It was, it was the F-Pace.
And maybe that's why they haven't revitalized the Velar yet,
because they can't justify the cost without both cars.
The other day I saw an E-Pace.
Just saw it.
That was a surprise enough.
Okay, that's great.
Freaking news.
Okay.
We got to now move on to the talk cars thing.
Oh boy.
We're going to go quick.
Lucid had a investor day recently.
Lucid is coming out with,
I'm going to tell the news story.
They're coming out with three new products,
the Cosmos, the Earth, and the Stay Tuned.
And the Cosmos is for upscale nurtures.
The Earth is for transiting achievers.
Not overachievers, just achievers.
And the Stay Tuned is for active explorers.
What do you identify as, Philippe?
I'm telling you, every single day I come into this office,
I am thrilled I don't work for a big company.
We may not have a 401K.
We do.
Oh great, we have a 401K.
You should look into that.
They're a pretty good idea.
But at least we don't have to say that our products are for
transiting achievers.
Can I also put an upscale nurturer?
I know upscale.
What is a nurturer?
I'm going to translate what that means.
Is that a mom?
I'm going to translate what all three of these.
Rich moms is upscale nurturer.
Okay.
Okay.
Transiting achievers is men who think they are entrepreneurs,
but actually work a corporate job.
Achievers indeed.
And active explorers is just people.
And honestly, I'll bet you that the cosmos and the earth come out.
I'll bet you by the time the Stay Tuned comes out,
the Saudis are so mad at the success or failure of this brand
that they're like, you know what?
We ain't staying tuned any longer.
If this brand wants to continue,
they got to start getting money from the Qatari investment fund.
They're a bit of a tough spot.
By the way, the cosmos is for urban on-road performance inspired.
So urban on-road performance focused.
So urban any road adventure focused.
Yeah.
So some marketing person had fun with this.
They had a lot of fun.
Or lack of fun.
Lucid needs more cars.
They need cars that are in a niche that's not $120,000 family
SUV minivan.
Every time I see a gravity, it looks more like a minivan.
Yeah.
But it's a great, it's like incredibly efficient for the third size.
It's incredibly powerful.
It's a great car.
The Lucid air is a great car too.
Reliability concerns aside.
They need more mid-sized vehicles.
Lucid, I know you watch.
I'm going to tell you what you need to make.
A mid-sized luxury SUV, the size of a BMW iX.
That's the cosmos.
That doesn't look like a weenie car.
That's the earth.
Lucid has no.
We don't know what those look like.
Look under the sheet.
That, the cosmos is another minivan.
That's not going to sell.
Lucid, I'm going to tell you right now,
do a Honda and get out of that market, okay?
The earth looks a little bit boxier.
To Honda, get out of the market.
The holy market.
Just focus on your gas models.
Here's something that nobody's done.
A BMW iX that doesn't look like you have to apologize for buying it.
Everybody else is saying that that's every other mid-sized luxury SUV.
No, the Macan GTS looks like a Macan, but like asking for permission.
What do you mean?
Like, oh, I think my Macan really opened.
The Polestar 4 is like a real car.
Don't have a rear window.
Squatting down with no rear window.
Make a mid-sized luxury electric SUV
that looks like something with some muscle.
The EQE SUV.
The R2 is doing this.
Yeah, the R2 is doing it.
And Lucid is over here making cars for trend-setting achievers.
But the act of explorers would probably look like it.
Nothing, I'm going to tell you something right now.
No vehicle that is being aimed at upscale nurturers
is going to sell in a world where Trump is the president.
Every tech founder has like muscled up and moved to Florida
and EVs are dead.
It isn't going to occur.
Period.
I think they should just lean in, though,
and call it the hot moms or the rich moms
or whatever you want here.
Just tell it how it is.
Just make it look.
I know that their design language is like soft and curvy.
That is not what we want anymore.
We want bulky.
Look at the teleurized.
Look at the Raptor.
Look at Sean's bad-colored G-Wagon.
Right. Oh, nice.
Yep.
Weave it in.
Weave it in the first 40 minutes.
I just, God.
Okay, do what you want.
All right.
Everyone in the car enthusiast community is chasing gold.
Gold wheels, gold livery, gold brake calipers,
gold shift knobs.
You name it.
In my favorite car franchise, the Fast and the Furious,
the famous Mark IV Supra was orange in the first one,
but gold in the second one,
because everyone knows if you want value, you chase gold.
Slapjack took that Mark IV Supra, jumped it over a bridge,
and the rest is history.
If so, if you like gold,
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That's getacregold.com, getacregold.com.
Now back to car talk.
Okay, next final news story please won't let me talk about Alpine.
Okay, Ford F-150 Boot, Ford in Timberland,
which by the way is different from the Timberland that you're thinking of.
They're coming out with a boot.
And it's hard to see in this image,
but we'll have it on the screen.
The front of the boot is a grille of the F-150.
And it kind of reminds me a little bit more of the F-150 Lightning,
which I don't think they're going for, but this boot is so cool.
Yeah, the boot also has a lift.
It's, I'm trying to find the exact size of the lift,
but this will be for Filippos.
It's got a little lift so that when you stand with your F-150 boot,
you can stand a little taller than you think they'll call the Timberline.
Uh, interesting.
No, yeah, Timberland Timberline.
That's a little joke.
Yeah, you have to know that Ford's off-road trip right now is called Timberline.
And so...
Which is only on one model.
The Explorer, right?
Yeah.
No, it's on the Expedition 2.
It's on two models.
In both are mediocre.
Okay, by the way, by the way,
the Expedition and the Explorer are great vehicles.
The Timberlines, if I see you in one of those,
and you didn't get a Sequoia TRD off-road,
what have you done with your life really?
What did you want?
A car with some interior space?
Uh, okay.
Put it on the bottom floor.
I want to move on to the talk car segment,
which is brought to you by these shirts that we're wearing.
Here's the deal.
We got these shirts on.
They said Cars and Bids.
I have one.
Nick has one.
Filippo said, he said, no.
He said, today I'm wearing my vertical stripe shirt.
I will not put on a Cars and Bids shirt.
I will go to merch.carsandbids.com and buy one, though.
merch.carsandbids.com.
You can also get one of these stupid little stickers there.
That may or may not be true.
Maybe you can't.
Maybe Filippo has the only one.
But anyway, buy one of these shirts or don't.
I don't care.
All right.
Ryan Lopez.
Excellent marketing as usual.
Ryan Lopez made me put this shirt on right before the podcast.
He said, you're going to wear this shirt.
And I said, all right, fine, Ryan Lopez.
All right, Nick.
You have an AMG wagon that you're keeping from us.
Yes.
The E-55, I bought it on the site.
Check engine light, 205,000 miles.
Bit of a risky purchase.
Paid 17.5 for it, which was a pretty good deal, I think.
Shipped it out.
It is getting manual swapped.
And as of right now, it is done.
It is driving on its own power, shifting through all six gears.
Doug famously told me I would not get this car back
before he left for the summer.
And it looks like I'll get this car back in about a week or so.
Yeah, but you're shipping.
Here's something I'm going to even more famously tell you.
This car won't be here when I get back from the summer.
You're going to drive this car nine times.
And then you're going to be like, well, that was fine.
What transmission is in it?
What shift knob is in it?
It's got a manual transmission in it now.
It had an automatic before.
It'll shift with a clutch pedal and a shift knob.
He doesn't even know why he messed that new answer up.
Nope.
Everything is OEM from an E-Class.
So it takes it from the E230 diesel, something like that, a newer one.
We did upgrade the clutch and a couple things.
There are a couple other I've learned since originally positing this was the only
EMG wagon that's been manually converted.
There's an E63 that's been done.
There's another E55, but it'll still be one of the first.
I'm so excited to have it.
I love swapping my Mercia logo.
So it'll be cool to put this on a 500 horsepower wagon.
It will be truly cool.
Now, can the transmission handle?
We're doing a ceramic clutch on it to handle the extra power,
but I'm told it still shifts very factory like.
Which is apparently good.
Poorly and plasticky.
But I'm excited because the concept is incredibly cool.
Yeah, and I am retrofitting a third row into it.
So I have the top part of the seat and the seatbelts.
I just need the bottom bench and black.
Just need the bottom.
You also need the anchors for the belts.
The buckle.
Yeah, got the buckle.
So we're most of the way there.
You can just sit in a third row installed by Crazy Nick.
By Nick, I begged Nick, the guys who are doing the swap, the manual swap.
What is their DC motor work?
DC motor works outside Atlanta, right?
Yep, Alfredo.
They're in the 3.0.
Nick could have just had them put in a third row.
But he's like, well, he's looking for the parts slowly, slowly, slowly.
He's like, well, they would have to find the parts.
I'm like, well, they're a shop.
How do you think they got the manual transmission?
They didn't make them.
They found them just like they would do for the third row.
He's like, no, I'm going to do the third row.
Meanwhile, for days, he's been like, I can only find a beige bottom,
but a black upper.
So maybe I'll just do a two tone.
I'm like, man, Nick, you really should have let
DC motor work Panda seats.
The C 43 had those Panda seats.
Yeah.
This is just like that.
Yeah, but but black, the Pandas were like the middle half.
This is like the black upper brown lower.
I'm not really sure.
You can always get it reupholstered.
Regardless, we will figure that out.
I will be right.
You will be wrong once again.
It will be so cool.
I'm excited for it.
What do you mean I'll be wrong?
I never said you couldn't do it.
You doubted the timeline.
You doubted the viability.
You're going to drive this thing and be floored.
I will never drive it.
The one thing I doubt.
I don't doubt any of the timeline of viability.
The folks over at the DC motor works out there in the Atlanta,
they're they seem like they're killing it out there.
They seem like they're very successful.
The thing I doubt is that it will be enjoyable.
I own one of these.
You're going to need a 63, right?
And I never at any moment thought to myself,
I wish this had a manual.
Instead, I thought to myself, boy,
this was too much money for what it is.
No, but everybody hates the five speed in this.
Yeah, but it's durable and it fits with the car's ethos,
which is kind of a big.
It's not really a process around kind of.
It's a this car came in a manual.
I'm just making the manual available on this trim level.
It only came on the base trim.
You're going to love it.
I'm so excited.
I have a video on my YouTube channel
going through the entire process for those interested,
all the parts that went into it so on.
But are you telling me there are people who watch this pod
who aren't subscribed to the Nick Roshan YouTube channel?
They're missing out based on my based on my sub counts.
I suspect yes, just a pull up the Nick Roshan YouTube channel,
which is, in my opinion,
the greatest YouTube channel on YouTube.
Speaking of which, Ken and I recently did a video
comparing the SLR and the SL65 on his channel,
which is also great and worth checking out.
It was a pretty fun episode.
What is happening?
All these ladies, are we sure we're not signed
into Nick Roshan's YouTube subscription?
We're signed into yours.
Look at the logo.
This must be the cars and bits one.
Nick Roshan.
Okay, so this is the Nick Roshan YouTube channel.
If you're not on the Nick Roshan YouTube channel,
what are you doing?
You're not a real enthusiast.
Okay, we have to move on to the marker report.
We do.
The marker report is brought to you.
Do I have to do cars and bits?
I would like that.
The marker report is brought to you by cars and bits.
Same as our shirts.
Cars and bits is the best place to buy, sell your vehicle.
Your enthusiast vehicle.
Cars and bits.
It's accessible at carsandbids.com.
Well done.
Thank you so much.
Uh, there's a lot to talk about.
But I want to start with the $500.
Oh, it wasn't even a marker report
because this car is a market of one.
I follow that market closely.
Everybody who's out here being like,
I want a nice little golf cart
for my little resort community.
And I, you hear that sometimes.
You do.
They live in Florida.
They live in wherever, some island.
They want a little golf cart.
Man up.
This is it.
This is it.
You're sitting here being like,
oh, no, no, no, no, what a golf cart.
What a cool golf cart.
This is it.
This is a Fiat 500, converted into a Fiat Jolly,
converted into a limo electric.
And it's like the length of a Sequoia.
It's short.
If you don't have this, if you,
I'm going to tell you right now,
if you're driving around South abroad in Charleston
and you're not driving in this,
who are you really?
Who are you really?
Nobody.
If you're driving around Key West in a car
and it isn't this.
Agreed.
What are you doing?
Just go back to Harrisburg.
You know what I'm saying?
Where you came from.
This could be good for an Antucket,
something for you to consider.
No, in the Antucket, you kind of need
off-road capability.
And I think the break over angle here is not great.
But I suspect, though, in Key West,
if you're in Bridge Hampton and you're not driving this
or an LM002, you're a loser.
Right.
Those are your two off.
You have the two parked next to each other.
You're a complete loser otherwise.
What a car.
Yeah.
What's this?
It looks like a hot tub in the back.
I think that's a batter.
You could convert it to a hot tub.
What is our, where is it titled?
It's in Georgia.
It's on Georgia.
It's on, says I'm violent.
OK, Nick, tell us some market results
that you're interested in.
Grenadiers?
The Grenadier is really,
so I've always loved that car since it came out
because it reminds me of my P38,
just slightly more reliable, slightly more modern.
Most people say it reminds them of the Defender.
They're getting out, so you sold one for 60.
I've seen them in the high 50s
and I've also seen them like bid too high 50s,
which means the market thinks it's worth 60k plus or minus.
It is a rich guy go off-road car at retail price,
but as you start to get into the 50s,
these get pretty interesting.
What would retail 84?
I still think that-
And it'll go lower.
The problem with the Grenadier
still is that it looks like the rich guy
who wants a cool off-roader,
but is just afraid to like,
I don't know, it's going to be unreliable.
I don't know, I'm not really sure.
Well, they're right.
I don't know anything about cars,
so I'm going to buy a Grenadier.
But just play this forward, right?
And like five years, they're going to be 10 grand.
Well, off-roaders never get that cheap
because there's like this inherent capability.
And my P38 was less than 10.
Okay, bad off-road, great off-roader.
The occasional bad off-roader gets that check.
That is a good point.
Good off-roaders like Land Cruiseries and G-Wagons,
they never really go that cheap.
I bet you that happens to this car too,
because it's just so-
But this K-Bus is a 2024 with like no miles.
What is it, 9,000 or something, 12,000 miles?
If you, if these are in the 40s,
they do start to become like-
Incredibly.
You could put bigger tires on them.
You could start thinking about like real lift kits.
Like you could make this into a pretty cool car.
The engine's a durable one.
The B-58 is a good motor engine.
It's also now at price parity with an NAS Defender.
Yeah.
Like 60s gets you a decent shot.
Yeah, that's an, it's actually an interesting point
because it appeals to the same type of person.
It's like the guy who's afraid of like
taking any sort of Defender risk with some sort of import.
He wants something that he knows he can register
and like can take to a dealer and all that.
Yeah, that's interesting.
I think they're getting really compelling.
High 30s, I think, is where this car becomes
like really compelling.
That's where I'd, that's where I'd, I wouldn't buy-
Half price.
No, not half.
Well, no, they started at 80ish.
Oh, half price of original sticker.
Yeah, a little less.
But how long does it take?
Two more years?
Yeah, one.
Yeah.
This one was also a really nice one.
Like I love the spec.
It was pretty nice.
Why do you not have one?
I'm waiting for them to fall to the teeny tiny bit more.
But they're getting this level of depreciation.
Plus, Nick's a P38, man.
He's like too sophisticated to get into this car.
Like he, he, he can do a repair.
It's got all switches.
It's a BMW motor.
I can, this is, I love this car.
It'd be perfect.
But I think like in today's, in today's market price,
at 60, you're like two, you, you're, you got a little too much grip
for one of these.
Yeah.
The people who come to me and ask about this car are
interesting people.
They're always people who like want to kind of cosplay
as like a guy who's like off road, you know?
Sometimes we talk about, there's a new law in California
that if you're caught speeding over a hundred miles an hour,
you're referred to the DMV in addition to your criminal case.
You lose your license.
This car is limited, not electronically, just by
aerodynamics to 99.
So you're good.
I do want to talk about C806,
which is another very interesting thing.
You saw that result yesterday?
I did not.
We sold the C806 yesterday for 101.
Dang.
To be fair, with a lot of mods.
Mods, but honestly, I think it looks pretty good.
It does look good.
And 12,000 miles.
Not that many miles.
Oh really?
Just wheels.
A hundred grand.
This car is 670 horsepower.
I mean, these are, this is like, this will run circles around
anything that Nick's ever even considered buying.
Yeah.
Even in his mind.
We've got friends paying that much for like a 996
with 216 horsepower.
Just about.
That's not wrong.
We have a friend of a friend who bought a 996
for $90,000 or something ridiculous.
I think it was more.
4,000 miles or something.
This is better.
Yo, yeah.
Way cooler.
There we go.
For this performance level for $100,000 is really interesting.
Yeah.
This car suddenly is $75,000.
This car, I mean, this is Z06.
It will be, right?
Like, it just will be.
You're not stepping into one of these?
I should.
So be a lot, I mean, if you compare this to the SLR
or something else that I've bought in the past,
like it's going to.
This car, Corvettes depreciate.
It's a lot.
C706 is 60.
Corvettes depreciate.
New Z06 is a very easy to find.
You want to honor a trader.
There's 10 billion new Z06s.
They're at dealers, not over sticker.
To be fair, as we've said, the regular C8 is maintaining value
better than any prior Corvettes.
This has maintained value better than it's 137 sticker
two years ago, three years ago.
Not so bad, especially compared to other Z06s.
But you've got to assume this will continue to fall.
And at the performance level that this car is,
like all these people with McLarens are going to look at,
because those are value supercar buyers,
they're going to look at this and say, wait a second.
This thing looks just as crazy as the McLaren,
especially if you put on these wheels,
and I can get it for $100,000 and it's just as fast,
if not faster.
Why am I not going on that road?
Probably more dependable.
Yeah, yeah, right.
Then you don't have to roll the dice on having a McLaren.
And it's not like the McLaren brand
is like incredibly strong anyway.
The Corvette brand, in my mind,
has had a massive resurgence and excitement.
Total change from where it was,
because of the C8 specifically.
You see athletes in them.
You see like legit people, young people,
driving these cars for the first time in my lifetime.
100k.
100k.
For 670 horsepower.
Not too good.
Okay, we got to move on to questions.
The questions, the questions, of course,
are brought to you by Filippo's vertical stripe shirt.
Thank you.
Filippo's vertical stripe shirt.
It's better than cars and bids merch.
You notice he's unbuttoned at a little too?
He's showing a little chest.
He's an Italian.
He's an Italian.
Come on, drop a couple for me.
Nah.
God, this is the problem with Filippo.
He's never willing to show us skin.
You know, one of the podcast sponsors today
that I'll be doing an ad read for is Harry's.
They encourage product demos, I think, you know.
Give you a little smooth chest here.
Anyway, the questions.
Now, I want to make a very important point
about the questions.
Are they good?
Next week, we have a regular podcast.
Yeah.
The week after is the biggest podcast we've ever done
because it includes producer Sean.
It's going to be me, Filippo, and producer Sean.
Now, producer Sean, I've known producer Sean
for like 15 years.
Sean has never, he's never been willing to go on camera before.
Well.
Ever.
He's like behind the camera guy.
Okay.
And he is going to come on the pod in two weeks.
And so we are going to post, in addition
to the usual questions for next week's pod,
we are going to post for two weeks from now's pod,
Sean's specific questions.
If there is anything that you have ever wanted
to ask producer Sean, he's the father of the podcast.
He has a bad color G-wagon.
He created everything that we hold dear
in the cars and bids ecosystem.
This will be your chance to ask producer Sean.
You go to the carsandbids.com.
You click on the community tab.
There will be a post for next week questions.
And there will be a post for producer Sean questions.
Do you have good producer Sean questions
that you're going to submit?
I'll take a sum, yeah.
There are some things we've all wondered.
Do you?
Oh, yeah.
Folks, if you knew producer Sean,
you'd have even more questions.
Believe me.
Knowing him does not answer your questions.
It only brings up more.
So true.
Okay.
So true.
All right.
Time for the questions.
There were great questions this week.
And we're going to start right from the start
from Texas Subaru.
Texas Subaru says,
Dear Filippo and side character.
Wait, does that mean that I'm not a side?
Have I become a main character?
Except he spelled your name wrong.
Like everyone does.
It's F-I-L-I-P-P-O.
Yeah.
Do you know how I get this straight
as I look them up on LinkedIn every time
before I text them?
That's fine.
Give me that.
F-I-L-I-F-E-L-E-P-O.
That's where people have the biggest problems.
They do one P.
Filippo.
Filippo.
But that last sound is two P's, obviously.
To you it is.
But to the untrained ear, Filippo.
Filippo and side characters.
When did the hot hatch die in the U.S.
and who killed it?
We lost the W-R-X hatch,
Mazda Speed 3, Focus RS and ST,
Volvo C30.
We don't get the GR-Rs, the RS3, etc.
When did it die and who killed it?
I would apostolate that it didn't die.
We have a lot of cool hot hatches right now.
We have the Corolla GR.
We have the GTI.
We have the Golf R.
Yeah.
No.
There is also, give me a moment here.
The Kia K4 hatchback.
We have the new Kia.
It's like a 180 horsepower version.
We have the new Kia K4.
Filippo has sabotaged my computer,
but I made it.
The list.
Did you really?
Yeah.
You prepared a list.
That's so nice.
We have the new Kia K4.
Are you kidding me?
Because that was joking.
We have the Ioniq 5N.
Yep.
We got Minis.
It's sort of.
What was the one that I was-
I think you're making the guy's point here.
Oh, we have the, what do you mean I'm making the guy's point?
None of those are terribly hot or exciting.
Well, the answer to what killed it is the crossover.
Yeah.
The consumers killed it.
Yeah.
People didn't buy them.
I would say the Focus RS.
When that launched, everyone was so excited.
Americans finally get hot hatches after the whole head gasket issue.
Like they just kind of fizzle.
We bought them though.
That car sold.
They got bought, but then they didn't get renewed.
Like the data showed like, okay, this is not.
But it wasn't because of the RS.
In all honesty, the Focus RS and Focus ST and Fiesta ST all sold really well.
But they all did.
But that's my point is that was a really compelling product.
And if Ford said this, this good of a product can't make it in America,
then no one's gonna buy it.
The problem wasn't the performance ones.
What happened with that car was ultimately,
they couldn't justify selling the regular one anymore.
Which I was a product and mistake.
I, well, that's a decision that you've come up with.
Every other company has made the same decisions.
Ford is back right.
So Ford at that time.
Ford is back right.
But they haven't come out with a car yet.
The Honda Fit is gone.
The Toyota Yaris is gone.
Like all these little cars are.
Oh, in the US, yeah.
All these in the US because they can't sell these cars in the US.
The next gen Focus was sold globally.
They just didn't think they could make money selling them in the US.
And I don't think that they're wrong.
And I think that ultimately that had a big impact on some of the cars that are mentioned here.
Part of that same Rolf Gilles interview was basically saying that
SUVs certainly are popular.
But there is a little bit of a counter flow to that
as they've gone more expensive, bulkier, heavier.
And especially Stellantis is looking back at
is there a hatchback version?
Is there a slightly lower SUV version?
Because they can make that more cost-efficiently.
Maybe.
And I think that will help with return to that.
Americans, by the way, Civic Type R and Integra Type S.
That's what I was going to say.
The Integra is like in between.
It's like the same way the Panamera, the hatchback.
But the Civic Type R is a hatchback.
Also in Europe, hatchbacks are kind of dead too.
The consumers killed it.
Consumers killed it, I agree.
And in the case.
As the owner of a hot hatchback, I'm trying.
In the case of some of these cars specifically,
they just couldn't justify creating this whole new body
style, even if the performance version sold.
And honestly, the WRX hatch, there were some of these cars
that did that it's just tough to justify creating a vehicle
just to bring the hatchback.
Which now Volkswagen actually does do that with the GTI.
They don't even sell the Golf here anymore.
A lot of it is also companies make product plan decisions
based on what they think consumers are most interested in.
But their question is not, could we sell this car?
The question is, if we don't sell this car,
will that same consumer still come to our showroom
and buy something else?
And the answer is yes, they'll buy an X3 instead of a.
Or if we lose those consumers, how many will we lose?
They'll buy a Tiguan.
And do we care because it's the cheapest product in our lineup?
In a lot of cases, that is true.
All right, next question from Six Speed Taco.
For the crew, do any of you own individual car company stocks?
Which ones do you see that as a conflict of interest?
Are there CNB policies related to this?
No, listen, I'm the most ethical one of all these people.
All right, it's right here.
I'll never forget.
Do you should I tell the Patrick George story?
I mean, go for it.
You know the story, right?
I try to think where this is going.
All right.
You're the reporter of the Wall Street Journal now.
Yeah, Patrick George, shout out.
Years ago, I worked for Gelopnik.
I'll never forget, one time I did a Jeep Wrangler review.
And in the review, I disclosed that Jeep had paid to fly me
to the event and all the comments were like,
you you're on their payroll now.
Like a coach middle seat to Tucson was going to get me to review the JL
any differently.
And so as a result of that, because of that furor,
I don't take automaker money to go to reviews.
As a result, I don't go to the things.
When there's a product launch, I am the only journalist
who stays in a hotel paid for by it was myself.
Now it would be cars and bids, but not the automaker.
I am the literally the only one.
The whole the whole automotive press corps will be staying at the Ritz-Carlton
and I'm at the Ramada next door.
And that is actually that is an actual thing that actually happened once.
And so I'm very ethical about that stuff.
I do not own any individual car company stocks.
I do see that as a conflict of interest and I would not do it.
We don't take money as for automotive advertisers.
We have brands that sponsor us who are in the automotive realm,
but I drew a hard line when we started doing sponsorships
that I would not do automotive sponsorships
and we get offers and we have always stuck to that.
And I think it's really important when you are doing product reviews
as I am that you don't do that kind of stuff.
Yep.
Filippo, you're in agreement.
I am in agreement.
We don't have a specific cars and bids policy one
because frankly, most of our employees don't.
And I don't know that you have an impact on an automaker stock,
but certainly the rest of our team supporting stuff.
Yeah, the rest of the team can do what they want.
They also, if they're not in the content, I don't really care what they do.
They're not related to that.
But for me personally, as a person who is in content and who does,
I don't know if you could say I have an effect,
but like you review the Rivian R2,
you even have some inside information as to pricing that kind of stuff.
I don't mess with any of that stuff.
Also, I would say bad things even if I did on this time, I don't care.
But I don't.
Next question from Walt Stradlater, not Walt Street Trader,
but Walt Stradlater.
Nice.
Do you think that being in SoCal is ruining your ability to think about
or recommending cars for parts of the country
that spend three to four months every year dealing with ice, salt, and snow?
Yeah, Doug's a coastal elite now.
No, dude.
I mean, all of us spent the vast majority of our lives in cold.
That's still wonderful.
It's still very much in our minds.
Filippo lived in Wisconsin and in New Hampshire.
My family's in Buffalo and New Hampshire.
Ohio, yeah.
Nick grew up in Ohio, born and raised, lives in Ohio.
I lived in Denver.
I was born and raised in Denver through high school,
and then I spent four long, grueling years in Philadelphia.
I obviously still have a place on the East Coast that gets pummeled with snow.
We don't go to it in the winter anymore.
But snow is like my...
Think about it constantly.
Constantly.
It's one of the reasons we all live here.
But it definitely does factor into our thoughts and reviews, et cetera.
In fact, I had someone yesterday, someone you know,
who asked me if he should get a rear-wheel drive X5.
He sent me a link to one and I said, no.
S drive.
S drive.
I said, well, it's a rear-wheel drive.
He said, ah, maybe I won't get that.
Yeah, my sister who lives in Ohio still said,
you know, having a third kid on the way.
What car should I get that can see six comfortably?
And I said a 1971 Fiat 500 EV limo-cube version.
The weight is that long.
I don't understand.
I don't understand what you can't have this in Ohio.
What's the problem?
It's got a roof, honey.
It's perfect.
No, we're four-wheel drive people.
Filippo.
I have a four-wheel drive car right there.
Filippo's got two four-wheel drive cars.
I do.
Is your station wagon four-manic?
Of course.
Did you see this video he did last week on the cars
and bids channel, arguing what a sports car was?
Yep.
It went way off the rails.
And he said that a Dodge Ram counts as a sports car.
An RS4 counts as a sports car.
Then he equated it all to the Supreme Court ruling
on understanding what one is just by looking at it.
It was wild.
I'm so sorry.
Ryan Lopez, he had known for the AC incident,
said that a sports car is rear-wheel drive, manual, two-door.
An Array MSR T10 is all of those things.
But it's also got to be a car.
That was not a rule he made.
If you want to see someone talk for 10 minutes in circles,
try to justify their logic, check the video out.
BMW would not agree.
The XM is certainly a sports car.
BMW says.
A sports car.
Ryan Lopez is completely correct, like he always is.
Go watch that.
It's a rear-wheel drive.
Wait a minute.
Now, the problem with going rear-wheel drive only
is there are some modern-day all-wheel drive cars.
Like you wouldn't say a 911 Carrera 4 is a sports car.
Okay.
Okay.
So all-wheel drive.
Yep.
All-wheel drive is acceptable.
The RX8?
Three doors?
Is that a sports car?
Yeah.
Three doors, not two.
I'll tell you this.
I think that every two-seat rear-wheel drive, open-top car,
two-door car, is a sports car.
I think that some cars, in addition to that.
A base-avoke cabriolet.
Cars.
I said car.
I literally said car.
Cars is broadly deficient.
Cars and bids has some trouble.
See, this is what that video is like.
Plus, that's not rear-wheel drive.
Wasn't it offered?
No.
I think that every car in addition,
there are, I think that there are some cars,
in addition to that, that can be sports cars.
We're not, this isn't even one of the questions.
GT4 is the nucleus of everything related to it.
GT4 is the nucleus.
Straight as further from the sports car.
This is a great question from Mollymann823.
Hey, Duggan Buddies.
I'm a senior at George Washington High School in Denver,
which happens to be where Doug went to high school.
Dude, do you have any textbooks that say Doug DeMiro in them?
Probably.
Monaco Parkway, ladies and gentlemen.
I was there as a scared child.
What was your mascot?
The Patriots, which fits pretty well into your lifestyle.
I was wondering what the car scene, your donor.
Nah, he's just a hardcore Republican.
I was wondering what the car scene was like
when you attended high school.
That's a great question.
We'll start with me since he's asking about George Washington.
When I went to high school at George Washington High School,
I had a 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo sedan with 222 horsepower,
four-speed auto.
They were only sold as automatics in the States.
That was the fastest car at my high school,
which was pretty weak.
This is a, for those who don't know where George Washington High School,
this is an in-town high school that,
let's just say there were fights pretty much every day.
There were some knives.
There were maybe a gun or two.
And not like a school shooter gun.
I mean, like someone's dealing drugs.
You know what I'm talking about?
They wore Timberland boots with that 150 girls on them.
Nah, nah.
And anyway, and so it was a little bit of a rough place.
And so as a result, the Volvo 850 was like,
most of the kids didn't have cars at that high school,
but the kids who did, I had my Volvo 850.
And the car scene was like, I mean, whatever kids could afford.
It wasn't like, people I've met later in life are like,
oh, there were so many BMWs at my high school,
which I'm sure was the case with Nick's Rich High School.
But we didn't have like any luxury.
That wasn't like, the teachers weren't dry.
Like no one was driving anything branded
by a luxury automaker under any circumstances.
What was the nicest car in your parking lot, high school?
We were also in town, Madison West High School.
I walked to school every day, as did most of my friends.
There was a really small staff parking lot.
There was no student parking lot.
People would park up Speedway Road,
like about a half mile to find a parking spot.
Yeah.
It wasn't a thing you did.
What did kids drive though?
Like their parents cars.
Priuses.
Priuses.
Matrixes, vibes.
A lot of manual cars, because it was a college town.
Right.
They were like handing me down outback manuals
or Corolla manuals.
From thinking people.
Somebody had a Civic SI hatch.
That's the best I can think of though.
One teacher had an accurate RL,
but she was married to a rich person.
I remember my buddy David Schneider.
He bought a Chevy C1500.
So like a 90s Silverado.
She bought it off a construction company.
It was bright orange and it had no air conditioning.
Sounds incredible.
No analog brakes.
It was like the bassist of bass.
Bench seat.
You know?
He was living incredible.
And he also, he refused to even pay for a parking pass,
which was like nominal.
They didn't even fill the parking lot.
It was like $20 for the school year.
You had a parking lot though?
Wow.
And so he paid.
He parked on the street with his orange.
You had a parking lot though.
Well, there's space in Denver.
It's not hard to come by.
There's fields everywhere.
Right.
Nick, what was life like there?
I remember BMWs and Lexus' lives.
No, you got it wrong.
All those explorers.
Everyone here trying to tell their blue color credentials here
is a bit ridiculous.
I didn't see my car.
We were very much in a college town.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
People didn't drive to school.
It was a mechs.
The coolest car, a guy named Josh Parshauer,
had a B5A4 that had a body kit on it.
All right.
And then his dad had the matching B5S4.
I believe they were both blue.
Damn.
And it was like, it was like nicely modded in period.
He replaced his Audi 90 with that.
So those were like the coolest cars in the parking lot.
We didn't have BMWs.
Is he driving an RS2 now?
But he's driving something cool.
Damn.
Legit.
And then that Dodge Ram we showed earlier,
a kid named JD had the black one with the red
and then subwoofers in the back.
Damn.
And like his senior photos, he was like sitting on the hood,
like looking tough.
Bone thugs and harmony had just come out.
I can still hear the crossroads on his subwoofers,
like shaking the building.
I had a 95 Explorer Sport that I modded and got really excited
after seeing Fast and the Furious.
I heard the wheel fell off once.
It did.
Loose lugs.
Loose lugs.
OK.
Next question.
Next question.
Next question.
Oh, from Shotgun Sam911.
Why doesn't any brand offer an SUV with sliding doors
like a minivan?
My wife wants an Offroad-capable SUV,
some towing capacity,
but really the convenience of sliding doors for the kids.
I have a solution.
Pull up the 10.07.
Start there.
OK.
Let's start there.
I agree with that.
I have an actual solution, but.
OK.
10.07.
So this was tried, not on an SUV, but as a compact car.
Pujo came up with the idea, hey,
sliding doors are really useful.
So let's make a, it's like a normal European hatchback,
but instead of doors, we'll put on sliding doors.
Wow.
Power operated, by the way.
And what did people think?
Well, that it added a ton of weight
and was very slow to open.
And that it.
But that's so practical.
And that it looked like a minivan.
No, OK.
But they didn't want to drive a minivan.
You see these in Italy all the time.
You still see them, man.
You still see them.
And did you know about this?
No, this is blowing my mind.
Sometimes you would pull up, you would see one,
and like somebody pulled into a tight spot,
opened doors, they didn't need to clear it.
Totally.
It was smart.
It actually makes sense.
There are two obvious solutions, by the way.
OK.
One is.
Model X.
No.
Well, it's not sliding.
Well, OK, but it does open in a tight space.
We have sold a car like this,
which is a lightly lifted all-wheel drive piano.
OK.
So if you want a 2004 Sienna and pull,
you can do a kid in KO2 that is one option.
What's another option?
Quigley Vans.
Quigley Vans.
Quigley Vans.
Which is not only sliding door to door.
So if your wife wants to drive a church van,
that not only is a church van horrible dynamically,
but now we've got a foot lift kit on it and 37.
But it looks so cool.
Yeah.
Yes, it does.
It does.
How is this?
It doesn't have sliding doors either.
How is this related at all?
I forgot that in the front doors.
Fine.
Fine, fine, fine, fine.
It's a spinner.
Just a van.
That's all it is.
A bad van.
I will say my Sienna-lifted Sienna situation
was the right solution.
It was the right solution.
Pull up that spinner.
No, just pull up that.
Sure.
It's about $133,000.
And your wife can drive around in a spur.
Pull up the rear of this.
And your wife can drive around.
That picture right there.
Your wife can drive around in a spinner.
This is a camper conversion.
What's wrong with this?
It turns out that nobody wants sliding doors,
even though they should.
Why is your wife complaining?
I agree they should.
And I think that sliding doors should legitimately,
truly, I believe they should be on more views.
The gravity should have sliding doors.
Well, yeah, because it's a mini van.
Yep.
Do you see those on the road?
There is no minivan or looking car than that,
even the actual minivan.
We have one live right now.
Oh, go buy this great SUV on cars and bids.
It's perfect for a hot nurturer in your family.
But my Sienna idea is the right idea.
You can lift.
There's a couple of other drive minivans.
The Sienna's one, the Chrysler products are another.
You can lift them.
You know what the problem is with the Lucid Hot Nerd?
They can tell.
Rydian has this personality.
Like they have like the gear guard guy and the off-roading,
and they're like friendly off-roaders,
and there's like a personality and like a cult following to it.
You will never get a personality or a cult following
doing brand speak like hot nurturers or whatever.
Actually, if they did hot nurturers,
it would probably succeed.
But instead, whatever that was,
like unexpected nurturer or whatever, stupid.
There was a moment where Porsche Pilati's mom was like a meme,
you know, and I think of that persona a lot.
That's kind of, I think, what they meant.
I'm going to do two more very quick questions.
One is from Jaguar Man.
Can you go to the community and pull up this question?
You might not be able to find it.
This is an unbelievable question.
The question is, question for Filippo.
I saw on LinkedIn, he is commenting on people's posts advertising
cards for sale that they should sell on Cars and Bids.
Why not, man?
And the question is, how low will Filippo go to get a customer?
Folks, Filippo?
We're going to start to scrape the low bar.
Every time we do a podcast, at the end of it,
Filippo goes, you couldn't mention the app?
You couldn't mention, here's Filippo.
Here's Filippo trying to get people,
solicit people to use Cars and Bids on his personal LinkedIn.
Arun, which I think he has like a CarCare franchise.
He has three WAs right now and a Mercy.
But he's three WAs.
Because he wants to sell it.
Because he wants to sell it.
Yeah, of course.
Of course.
Oh, come on.
Back to where he's not selling.
Yeah, no, and I'd like to review one.
But Filippo, I mean, I've never met a more dedicated company man.
This is not a real part of my day, just I haven't seen that post
and want to see a bunch of M3s and WA passats on the site.
I've never seen a more dedicated company man than you.
Thanks.
But he won't wear the shirt.
A dedicated man, but he's wearing a vertical striped shirt.
Well, I think he feels that us wearing the shirts was enough.
And I think he doesn't want to be
egregious in his company man abilities.
And with that in mind, time for a break from our sponsor,
Cars and Bids.
This is what I'm supposed to do.
Yeah, keep going.
Cars and Bids is a great place to sell automobiles.
The best place to buy or sell your car.
Oh yeah, I'm sorry, the best place.
Better than all those other crappy places.
That's right.
Cars.com or like Cars. Who?
What is the answer to the question?
How low will Filippo go?
There's no end to what you would do.
You don't know yet.
I don't consider that to be stupid low.
I mean, to be honest.
If I think if you use an AI, I bought the cold DM people.
Yeah, no, no.
I'm not I'm not I'm not open.
But like you need to just randomly DM.
I don't open claw and then use open claw to DM.
You know what?
I don't know what you would do.
Yes.
Oh, by the way, I totally think you would do that.
I don't.
Personally, it needs to be my voice.
When the day you start leaving notes on windshields.
If you're thinking about selling this car.
Should we do that?
By the way, let us know.
I had a friend that did that on Mark for Superism was highly
successful.
Oh, yeah.
Before they got really big and he was just hoping it was like
some widow or person who couldn't get in and out of it.
Okay.
Final question.
Final question.
Final question from stirred burger.
Co-host and main character.
Nick, you're the main character because these questions
devoted to you.
Why do you think that Whistlin hasn't done the Bugatti
durability test that he promised everyone at 10 million subs?
What happened?
It takes a long time to film content.
It takes a lot.
You think Whistlin can just snap his fingers and get
content done?
Folks, give the man time.
He is busy.
He's getting arrested every couple of weeks.
You give him time.
Also, he may or may not be in Dubai.
The fact that he's in Dubai doesn't give him any less credit.
That's where you find Bugatti to run over.
But someone did wrong him like a dealership, a used car
dealership out there.
And he's threatening revenge.
So I can't wait for that series.
He's even threatening revenge on people in Dubai.
That's how legit Whistlin is.
That's him at his best when someone has done a minor
grievance towards him and he goes to the edge of the earth
to right that wrong.
That's my favorite.
Whistlin, look, Whistlin's going to do it.
Whistlin has never not done anything he said.
He's always delivered the content that we wanted.
He did sadly delete the subscriber durability test
that was up for a while.
Oh, that was such a great video.
We mean when he talks about his girlfriend and all that.
Well, I think he wanted to get people to unsubscribe
so he could get below the Bugatti phone.
So, look, Whistlin, the answer is it takes a while.
I'm sure he's got it cooking in his mind and I'm ready for it.
Maybe he'll do the Alex FG Bugatti when Matt Armstrong
is done rebuilding it.
Sure.
Just destroy it again.
Just destroy it again.
Let them start all over.
Let Matt Armstrong do it again.
If he was smart, he'd do some collab and probably a car
that's already a little.
Maybe that's what he's trying to do.
A little messed up.
Yeah, hopefully.
Cars and Bids promoter extraordinaire pulls up a nice
car on Cars and Bids.
Sold by our buddy, Vin.
Okay, I want to move on to the conclusion of the podcast.
Oh, man, this conclusion.
Folks, it's been 100 great years.
Sean will be on the podcast in two episodes.
This is, I'm telling you, this is going to be the most
important thing that you ever do is ask Sean questions.
And if you're able to go back and maybe find some videos
that Sean may or may not have done and posted on YouTube,
you can ask questions about that by going to carsandbids.com.
Ask him what his first car was.
Sean, go check out Sean's Cayenne review
that he did in his parents' drive one.
Anyway, absolute pleasure.
Thank you for watching our finest podcast ever, Nick.
Any final thoughts?
Okay, goodbye, everyone.
About this episode
The podcast dives into the reveal of BMW's new i3, likely replacing the 3-Series with a sleek, electric model boasting 465 hp and a 440-mile range. They discuss Honda's surprising pullback from EVs in the US, including canceled models and the uncertain fate of the Sony-Honda Fila. Toyota's rumored TRD Hammer off-road Tundra with 37-inch tires and potential V8 power excites the hosts. Ram plans a design pivot away from aggressive truck faces. Other highlights include Ferrari retrofitting physical buttons for their tricky haptic steering wheels, Jaguar's controversial Project 00, and Lucid's new EV lineup. The hosts also share personal car stories, market insights, and answer listener questions about hot hatches, sliding doors on SUVs, and more.
Original notes
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Chapters:
00:00:00 THIS CAR POD!
00:00:10 The New BMW I3
00:07:58 Power Folding Seats
00:14:44 Honda Cancels EVs
00:21:56 Toyota's Off-Road Tundra
00:26:01 Ram's New Design
00:33:51 New Audi A2
00:36:02 Ferrari Goes Back To Buttons
00:38:55 Jaguar Doubles Down
00:42:38 Lucid's New Lineup
00:47:25 Ford Boots
00:48:49 Talk Cars
00:49:28 Nick's AMG Wagon Update
00:54:02 Market Report
00:54:27 1971 Fiat 500 Jolly
00:56:04 Ineos Grenadier
00:58:56 Chevrolet C8 Z06
01:01:04 Community Questions
01:03:05 Who Killed The Hot Hatch?
01:07:11 Do Any Of You Own Car Company Stocks?
01:09:34 Does Living In California Effect Your Reviews For Cold Climate Buyers?
01:12:48 What Was Doug's High School Car Scene Like?
01:17:08 Why Doesn't Anyone Offere A Sliding Door SUV?
01:20:30 How Low Will Filippo Go To Get A Customer?
01:22:56 Why Hasn't Whistlin Diesel Done The Bugatti Durability Test?
01:24:38 The Conclusion
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THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!
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