Nissan Kicks Review, Confused by the Hemi, Boldy Looking into 2026
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57:49
Term
haptic touch steering wheels
Haptic touch steering wheels are designed to let you control things in the car by feeling vibrations instead of using buttons. Some people find them difficult to use while driving, so many car makers are moving away from them.
Term
touch sensor
A touch sensor is a part that lets you control something just by touching it instead of pressing a button. It's often used in cars to make controls look sleek and modern.
Concept
haptic feedback
Haptic feedback is when a device gives you a little buzz or vibration to let you know you've done something, like pressing a button. It's used in cars to make controls feel more responsive.
Car
Ferrari Enzo
The Ferrari Enzo is a supercar made by Ferrari, known for its speed and design. It was produced in the early 2000s and is highly sought after by car enthusiasts.
Term
synthetic oil
Synthetic oil is a special kind of oil made in a lab. It helps your car run better and can last longer before needing to be changed, usually between 7,000 and 10,000 miles.
Car
Jaguar Stype
The Jaguar S-Type is a luxury car that was made by the British company Jaguar. It’s a comfortable sedan that many people liked for its stylish design and smooth driving experience.
Car
Toyota Highlander
The Toyota Highlander is a popular family SUV that can fit a lot of people and cargo. It comes in different sizes, including a larger version called the Grand Highlander.
Car
Nissan Kicks
The Nissan Kicks is a small SUV that is easy to drive and park. It's made to be affordable and has good fuel economy, which makes it a good option for city driving.
Car
Fisker Karma
The Fisker Karma is a fancy car that runs on both electricity and gasoline. It's designed to be stylish and environmentally friendly.
Car
Tesla Model S
The Tesla Model S is an all-electric car that is known for being fast and having a long battery life, making it a popular choice among electric vehicles.
Car
Tesla Model
Car
Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 is a popular electric car known for being more affordable than other models, making it accessible to many buyers.
Car
Lucid Gravity
Car
Lucid Air
The Lucid Air is a fancy electric car that looks great and can drive a long way on a single charge. It's designed to compete with other luxury electric cars.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and more powerful the car can be.
Term
0-60 time
0-60 time is how long it takes a car to go from a stop to 60 miles per hour. It's a way to measure how fast a car can speed up.
Car
Ford Mustangs
The Mustang is a well-known sports car made by Ford. It's famous for being fast and fun to drive, often seen at car shows and races.
Term
trim level
A trim level is like a version of a car that has different features. Some versions are fancier and cost more money.
Term
miles per gallon
Miles per gallon tells you how far a car can go on one gallon of gas. The higher the number, the more efficient the car is with fuel.
Term
2-liter engine
A 2-liter engine is a type of engine that has a total volume of 2 liters. It's a common size that can provide a good mix of power and fuel economy.
Term
normally aspirated
Normally aspirated means the engine gets air naturally without any help from a turbo or supercharger. This can make it slower to respond when you press the gas pedal.
Car
Mazda Cx30
The Mazda CX-30 is a small SUV that combines comfort and luxury features, making it a good choice for people who want a nice vehicle without spending too much.
Concept
Chinese cars
Chinese cars are vehicles made in China. The speaker is discussing whether people in America are ready to buy these cars.
Term
discount
A discount means you pay less than the original price of something. Here, it refers to how much less people expected to pay for Chinese cars compared to others.
Term
EV range
EV range is how far an electric car can go before it needs to be charged again. It's an important thing to think about when buying an electric vehicle.
Car
Toyota Chr
The Toyota C-HR is a small SUV that is popular for its stylish look and good fuel economy. It's a good choice for city driving.
Car
Nissan Leafs
Car
Mitsubishi iMiEV
The Mitsubishi iMiEV is a small electric car that doesn't need gasoline to run. It's made for city driving and is one of the early electric cars available.
Term
Hemi engine
A Hemi engine is a special kind of engine that has a rounded top shape, which helps it run better and produce more power. It's often found in powerful cars made by Chrysler.
Term
inline six-cylinder engine
An inline six-cylinder engine is a type of car engine that has six cylinders lined up in a row. This setup helps the engine run smoothly and evenly.
Term
twin turbo direct injection
Twin turbo direct injection means the engine has two turbochargers that help it get more air for better performance, and it injects fuel directly into the engine for better efficiency.
Term
supercharged
Supercharging is when an engine gets extra air to help it run faster and produce more power. This makes the car quicker and more powerful.
Term
Hurricane
The Hurricane is a new type of engine from Chrysler that uses less fuel and is better for the environment while still being powerful.
Car
Ford Orion
Car
Gmc Hummer
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
Car
Gmc Sierra
Car
Gm Sierra
Car
Cadillac Optiq
Car
Cadillac XT6
Car
Cadillac XTS
Car
Cadillac XT5
Car
Cadillac Ctsv
Car
Honda Stream
Car
Cadillac El
Car
Chevrolet Malibu
Car
Holden Caprice
Car
Ford Ltd
Car
Chevrolet Impala
Car
Chevrolet Nova
Car
Chevrolet Monte
Car
Ford Granada
Car
Acura Tlx
Car
Audi A4
Car
Audi Q8 Etron
Car
Audi Etron
Car
Infiniti QX60
Car
Jeep Wagoneer
Car
Kia Soul
Car
Honda Element
Car
Lexus Rc
Car
Polestar 2
Car
Polestar 3
Car
Polestar 4
Car
Porsche 718
Car
Porsche Boxster
Car
Porsche Cayman
Car
Toyota bZ4X
Car
Volvo S60
Car
Volvo S90
LIVE
Whether you drive a car, need a car, or just occasionally bummer ride with friends, you've
come to the right place.
Join Jill and Tom as they break down everything that's going on in the auto world.
New car reviews, shopping tips, driving green, electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of
great guests.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
Alright, this is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
I'm Tom Appel.
Well, thank you for joining us today.
When you have a chance, please check us out at consumerguide.com.
That's consumerguide.com.
All our new car reviews are there, our 2026 Best Buy picks are there, and you can stream
back episodes of the podcast right there on the homepage.
It's really convenient, although you should just subscribe and download them someplace
better.
More convenient.
Of course.
Of course.
That voice is Paul Harold of the Sons of Speed.
Paul is sitting in for Jill this week.
Jill got a last minute invitation to CES.
Yeah.
And as of my last text message, she still doesn't know what it's about.
Yes, I saw her post too.
She was asking for advice of what to do, which I found kind of funny.
So she's there at the request of a manufacturer.
They obviously have some stuff to talk about.
So here's a hint.
I think it's Chinese.
Okay.
So that'll be interesting.
Yes.
Alright, how are you doing, man?
I'm doing well.
Happy New Year.
Thank you.
Happy New Year to you.
This is episode three away, but it's episode one of the new year.
Yes.
But you don't mark your episodes that way, though.
No, we just run them.
We just keep going.
Yeah.
No seasons.
There's a thing there.
It used to upset Damon Bell, one of our first co-hosts, that I didn't want to do seasons.
Yeah.
And that feels like added complication.
Like if there's seasons, we should do things to mark the seasons.
I know.
Anything complicated, you don't like.
I get it.
So, how are you doing?
You guys have a new podcast, a relatively new podcast?
Yes.
I've caught maybe half the episodes, and that was very good.
Tell us about your podcast.
Well, we started a podcast, WeAreMotorDriven.com, or sorry, We Are Motor Driven Podcast, which
you can find on WeAreMotorDriven.com and all your streaming services.
So basically, it's Harvey from Rides and Drives, Jennifer from Auto Exotica and The
Medium, and then me and Brendan from Sons of Speed.
We kind of got together and started our own podcast.
And it's about an hour long.
Yeah.
And it's just conversation.
Yep.
And it's good, it's smart conversation.
Yeah.
We're not really picking like, we're not doing like news, although we do cover some things
like that, but we're trying to make it where it's just for car enthusiasts talking.
It's kind of a single topic.
Yes.
The last episode I listened to was your predictions episode, and we're going to do our own predictions
today.
Okay.
So glad you're here.
Later in the show, Tim Healy of The Truth About Cars joins us.
He's going to be in on that conversation.
Tim has never been in studio before.
Wow.
I don't know if he knows about the donuts.
Well, he's going to find out soon enough.
What predictions did you guys come up with?
Just very generally?
For anything, anything, anything, like he caught me off guard.
Oh, that's all right.
So, so like of a new model or like something that's going to happen?
Trends, sales, electric cars.
Haptic touch steering wheels are going away.
Thank God.
Everyone's dropping them.
Volkswagen's dropping them.
Even Ferrari's dropping them.
So those are going away.
For people who don't know what that is, tell us what that is.
Instead of having like solid buttons, you had like a little touch, like a little feather
touch sensor on the steering wheel.
And when you pressed it, you got like a little vibration from it to kind of give you that
yeah, that sensation that you did activate something.
You did something.
Yeah.
And people absolutely hated it.
And I number myself among them.
Yes.
And finally, manufacturers, you know, they invest a lot of money into it, so they just
can't drop it.
But you know, through the model years and model changes, they're pretty much all gone now.
It's funny how slowly the auto industry can respond to things like that.
But they also have contracts, you know, the suppliers are going to have to pay.
And if they kill demand for that, they might have to pay for four years of no production.
Exactly.
And in typical Ferrari fashion, though, you can always upgrade your steering, if you
have haptic steering wheel, you can upgrade to the new solid one, probably for, I don't
know, 15 grand, but at least they give you that option, which is about the price of an
oil change.
So I remember the scandal when the Ferrari Enzo came out and it was special oil.
And I think an oil change at the time was 800 bucks and people were scandalized.
And I bet you that's typical now.
800 bucks?
Yeah.
That's like cheap.
It's like three grand or more.
My daughter just handed me a receipt for an oil change on her car.
It was 82 bucks.
She went to Northwest Oiler right here on Northwest Highway outside of our office here.
And that's just what an oil change costs now, because everything's synthetic.
Synthetic, yeah.
Yeah.
Basically doubles the price of an oil change.
Yes.
And the promise was that you could go a lot longer between oil changes.
So now it's like between 7,000 and 10,000 miles, but they are making it back up in
the price.
Yeah, they are.
Years ago, when Tim Healy, our guest, when he and I worked together, we had a long-term
Jaguar S-type.
I did not know you two worked together.
We did.
Yeah.
Long time ago.
And this car was with us for a year and it was a mid-size sedan.
I don't know if people remember the S-type.
Very retro styling.
But we were all freaked out by the first oil change interval, which was 10,000 miles.
Yeah.
I worked at a gas station as a kid.
I changed, you know, I changed people's...
It was 3,000.
It was 3,000?
Yeah.
Like, religiously.
Everyone, 3,000 miles.
And then limousine drivers, those guys were crazy.
They did 2,000 miles, which is what cops do, I think.
Okay.
So yeah, 10,000?
Yeah, but that's kind of the norm now.
So...
Oh, man.
So we're waiting for sales numbers.
We don't have those yet.
But it's looking like 2025 was going to be a fairly normal year sales-wise in the new
post-COVID normal sense, which is weird given how crazy 2025 was.
But the weird thing that has happened, and this is kind of bumming me out, is what we're
seeing, which may affect sales in 2026, is that base models are disappearing.
Okay.
And I don't know if you saw this, and I just did the math on it, and of course I forgot
it and my phone, but the Toyota Highlander, very popular car, very good car, very good
crossover, available in two-row and then three-row Grand Highlander.
Because the sales have been pulled away from the Highlander, there's no longer a base LE
model.
Okay.
You can only get an XLE, which effectively raises the entry price of that car by four
grand.
Oh, wow.
That's significant.
And that's happening in a lot of places.
Yeah.
Interestingly, I'm going to talk about this car in a moment, the Nissan Kix, which is
built in Mexico, and you think that they might be subject to some price stress.
Yes.
They didn't really raise their prices for 2026.
Okay.
A few hundred bucks.
Okay.
So, anyway, this might make you sad.
All right.
The car that was called the Fisker Karma, which was later the Karma Rivera.
Rivera, yes.
And we don't have time to get into the history of this car, but it was a beautiful car.
It's gone.
It's gone.
Yes.
I heard.
It's gone.
Yeah.
That car lingered way too long.
You would remember this.
The Fisker Karma came out almost exactly the same time as the Tesla Model S.
Yes.
And they were both kind of rake-ish sit-ins and they were both challenging new technology.
One of those did better than the other.
I wonder which one.
But no, the Karma when it came out back then was actually a little bit more of like a sports
car version.
The Tesla is more of, well, I mean, the very first Tesla came out was based off the Lotus,
but then the Model S, the Model S was, which was actually a Tesla produced car that was,
you know, instantly family sedan.
So that was the big difference between the two at the time.
It was weird to watch that car happen.
And then we have Tesla today because of that car.
Yeah.
I mean, that was truly, love or hate Tesla.
The Tesla Model S was proof of concept.
Yes.
Absolutely.
People would buy the car.
Yeah.
People would buy charging stations for the houses.
And they would spend the money because it wasn't cheap.
No, it was very expensive.
And they got to, what, like $140, $160,000 at one point where there was like the Platt
Edition.
The Platt Edition, yeah.
And it's super expensive when people paid that money.
And then Tesla went to volume with the Model 3 and the Model Y, which are really the only
thing they're selling right now.
Yeah, the Model Y is their number one seller.
So interesting thing about sales numbers, and I don't know if you've been watching this
or if you've loved monthly sales numbers as much as I used to, but GM Ford Stalantis and
Tesla do not provide monthly sales anymore.
Oh, really?
So it's really hard to know what's going on until you get to a quarter.
Yeah, yeah.
And so this is big, this is a big deal.
Like, has anyone seen sales numbers come out yet today?
No.
Yeah, they're going to be delayed a little bit, I think, because of the holiday.
But yeah, it'll be interesting to see where these things play.
Is there a strategic reason why they're doing that now?
Yes, I believe.
So if you go back to when I was in high school, you know, the 20s, manufacturers used to actually
report on a 10-day basis, which was stupid.
That was.
It was frankly stupid because you had a different number of weekend days each 10-day period.
And if a holiday came up, it just blew that out of the water.
So monthly made a lot more sense.
But one of the reasons they got away from 10-day, and I believe it's the reason they
got away from monthly, is you don't really want the stock market responding to relatively
weird one-off events and things like that.
So if you're quarterly, everything just evens out a little bit.
Especially with all the recalls and stuff.
Yeah.
So here's a story about that gravity, the lucid gravity.
People might know lucid, they make the lucid air, which is beautiful.
And that just drove it.
All electric, yeah.
Man, that's a good car.
That is a nice car.
I don't fit in it, which is a super bummer.
Doors are too small.
Oh, really?
Okay.
Yeah, but that's a town problem.
Okay.
Everyone else is going to love this car.
But they just came out with a mid-sized crossover called the Gravity.
Yeah.
By all accounts, a very good vehicle.
They had really difficult time getting that thing out the door.
I don't know what the deal is, but that was misunderstood to be a problem selling the
car.
It was a problem building the car.
Okay.
And I think that if markets responded to their sales numbers, if they were official sales
numbers, the stock would have tanked.
Okay.
Because everything hinges on this thing doing well.
Sure.
So by waiting for to the quarter, they can kind of soften the blow.
Yeah.
And it turns out in the last quarter, they kind of rebounded.
Okay.
Gravity's selling a little bit better.
Yeah.
And that thing's expensive.
So if that can bring in some...
All lucid products are expensive.
They are.
They have a smaller chassis coming, and hopefully that'll do something.
But every time you turn around, you hear lucids borrowing some more money from grandpa, which
is the Saudi wealth fund that owns most of lucid.
Okay.
So to what extent the Saudi wealth fund is willing to let them die?
Who knows?
Yeah.
But...
But they keep giving them money.
See, really, their next models will be more mainstream.
Yes.
I guess lucid hasn't figured that out yet.
No, not really.
Not really.
The lucid air, their single product starts around 80 grand and goes up to 250 grand.
With a sapphire.
What the sapphire?
What the hell?
Yeah.
It's crazy.
But it's fast.
What is it?
Is it 1300 horsepower?
Yeah.
Something like that.
Something like 1.99 or something.
Whatever that is.
Whatever that is.
You know what?
Whenever I hear a zero to 60 time like that for an electric vehicle, I think about some
of my favorite videos on YouTube, which is Mustangs leaving car shows and getting sideways
on it.
And then ultimately ending up in a ditch.
Yeah.
Or in the opposite direction.
Yeah.
And that was just acceleration.
I don't know what's wrong with Mustangs that you should hit the gas that hard.
Live axle, rear wheel drive.
Yeah.
So.
But I think that before I hit the gas really hard on an electric vehicle.
Yeah.
And I only had the 600 horsepower version of the lucid air.
And that was ridiculously fast.
It is.
It's a quick car.
Yeah.
It's good stuff.
I wanted to ask you this.
It's completely off topic.
But do you ever visit dealership websites?
Yes.
Okay.
How irritated are you by the pop-up bot?
Yes.
Yeah.
Like right away.
So I'm like, you know, very attractive woman.
Hey, would you have any questions that I could answer for you?
You know, some photo of.
Yeah.
And it's like, I just want to schedule service or, you know, something like that.
No.
You know.
So.
But it happens on all of them.
It does.
Yeah.
And my problem with the bot is not that it exists.
It's that it was so poorly implemented.
It pops up.
You can't figure out how to get rid of it.
Yeah.
And it covers up a third of the screen.
So you can't actually see what you're looking for.
Yeah.
It's like the Microsoft paper clip.
Windows paper clip, whatever it was.
Was that Clippy?
Clippy.
You can't get rid of it.
I never once actually had Clippy help me with anything.
I don't want to be a whiner about that, but I never got good advice.
Okay.
But yes, that's my problem with those bots and it seems like they were just slammed into
a place.
And I don't know if you've noticed this, but a lot of manufacturers, Subaru specifically
that I remember from recently, provide their dealers with more or less cookie cutter websites.
So they're almost all about the same for a particular brand or manufacturer.
But they're all just slapping in this damn bot randomly, it seems.
It pops up.
And then if you say anything, it wants your name and number, you're trying to kill it and
you want it to move.
It's terrible.
And the other thing is there are always some obscure 800 number phone number if you want
to call.
It's a local number, it's down the street and you just can't find, when you Google it,
you can't find their number.
They want you to use their outside number so then they can record everything.
Yeah.
And that is probably provided by the manufacturer as well.
And they probably use that for research and market research and stuff.
All right, really quick, I wanted to talk about a car I just drove.
Okay.
All right.
And I liked it a lot.
The 2026 Nissan Kix.
Okay.
So this vehicle was redesigned last year.
It's Nissan's most affordable crossover, their smallest crossover, although it is not that
small anymore.
Yeah, it's grown.
It's grown a lot for 2025.
It picked up a little more power and by little I mean...
Yeah, a couple horsepower.
And that's kind of the only problem with that car.
I just went car shopping with my daughter and that was one of the vehicles that we test
drove.
And she was very impressed by the interior and the equipment level for the money.
Here's the interesting thing.
For 2026, this was a 2026 model I just drove, you can load the crap up out of this thing.
Which means expense.
It gets more expensive.
You don't have to spend that money on it.
Yeah.
The most expensive trim level starts at $28,000, but the vehicle I drove was $36,000.
Wow.
So you could...
That's pretty significant for entry-level vehicle.
It's a big bump and you get stuff for that and I'm wondering...
I would love to know the take rate on all the stuff.
Mm-hmm.
Because for one thing, you can now add all-wheel drive.
Okay.
Bargain at $1,500.
Yeah.
So no brainer.
Do it.
Because you're going to get your money back at resale time.
Yeah.
So just do it.
There's this big equipment package that includes the big sunroof and for a while you had to
get the big package to get heated seats, which was crazy.
You still have to get it to get a heated steering wheel.
But that package is kind of worth it because it's just a lot of luxury stuff.
But then, willy-nilly, there's like puddle lights, ambient lighting, all this other stuff
you can add.
Yeah.
And it all adds up.
It all adds up, yeah.
And it's not really necessary.
I mean, it's nice.
It's just not necessary.
So just in a nutshell, this is a fantastic small vehicle if you're not looking for the
power.
It rides and handles well.
It's got really good room up front, pretty good room in back if you're not behind somebody
tall.
Nicely finished inside, feels nicely screwed together.
I got 30 miles per gallon.
Okay.
There's no extra power, unfortunately.
It's normally aspirated 2-liter engine.
So when you hit the gas, you kind of have to wait.
Yeah.
It's kind of geared for a round town.
So if you're just sticking around town and driving under 30 miles an hour, you're going
to love this car.
But if you're going to try to pass someone at 60 miles an hour.
You need to calculate.
Yeah.
You need that, the Rosary.
You know, it's not there.
But what a nice car otherwise.
Ultimately, I think you know this, my daughter went with the CX-30, the Mazda CX-30.
Very similar in terms of offering luxury stuff in an entry-level vehicle.
Way more power.
Yeah.
And a little bit more drivability, I would say.
Handling.
It's definitely sportier.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Where the Nissan kind of looks sporty.
This really is sporty.
Yeah.
So.
Alrighty then.
We're going to go to a break in a moment and then we're going to talk to Tim.
But what do you guys have coming up on the podcast?
Good question.
When we get together, we record like a bunch of them at once.
And it's just so hard to get four people all together.
I imagine.
Yeah.
Especially when two live in Wisconsin.
So.
And you guys do gather in the same room.
Yes.
Because we've tried the zoom thing and it, yeah, it's just talking on top of each other.
Like it just, yeah, so it's much better to be in all in the room together.
We did the podcast via zoom during COVID.
Yeah.
It sucked.
Yeah.
I mean the quality of the show fell.
Yeah.
I was constantly stepping on other people's feet.
I do that anyway.
So can you imagine when you're not in the room with them?
Yeah.
I'm a crazy rude host.
So yeah, it was really bad.
So but we plan on getting together soon now that we're in the new year and we'll record,
you know, four or five more.
Well, I've been enjoying the podcast.
Tell people how they can listen to it.
All yours major streaming sites, Apple and all of, anywhere you get yours, your podcast,
you can find us.
Excellent.
All right.
We're going to take a break.
When we come back, we talk to Tim Healy, marketing, I'm sorry, managing editor at the Truth About
Cars.
Stick around.
Questions or comments?
Drop us a line at carstuff at consumerguide.com.
That's carstuff at consumerguide.com.
Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.
And we're back.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
I'm Tom and he is Paul.
Paul, thank you for sitting in this week.
You're welcome.
So first show of the year.
Yes, first show of the year.
You guys already jumped in.
Yes.
And I want to give a lovely shout out to my lovely wife, Agnes, who is listening live
for the first time.
Hello, Agnes.
I've met your lovely wife.
She was there, not New Year's Eve, the Midwest Automotive Media Association.
Holiday party.
Holiday party.
Yes.
Where I had fried potato things.
Yeah.
I don't know what they were.
They were good.
It was amazing food.
Loved it.
It was a great night.
Good party.
I don't get out much anymore, so it was good to see people.
Yes.
And to be amongst our fellow journalists was great.
I've lamented this before, and I'm sure this is true of virtually any career path, whatever
people do.
Hanging around with people that do what you do is how you learn.
Yes.
Really.
Absolutely.
You can read stuff as it's printed, but people know things.
Yeah.
And they talk about things and things they wouldn't say out loud.
Yeah.
Especially if you get a couple of drinks.
Especially if you get a couple drinks.
Yeah.
With an open bar, you learn things.
And speaking of drinks, Tom, are you on social media?
Yes, and only when I'm drunk.
I am Car Guy Tom on Twitter X and on Blue Sky.
Okay.
Thanks for asking.
Absolutely.
So in studio with us for the first time, Tim Healy, managing editor at The Truth About
Cars.
And as you noted before, you didn't know, Tim and I worked together a long time ago.
Yeah.
We were a consumer guy way back when.
Okay.
Tim was a really young man then, and I was a younger man in those days.
But yeah, we used to do fun things like have long-term vehicles.
Stuff like that.
And anyway, Tim, how you doing?
I'm doing well.
How are you?
Good.
Thanks for making the time to visit.
Thanks for having me.
You've been on before, but you haven't been in studio, I think.
Oh, that's right.
I was on about a year or so ago.
Give or take.
All right.
Help yourself to a donut.
I'm opening the donut.
Yeah, yeah.
Let's see what you got.
Let's see what you got.
Okay.
We have...
Oh, okay.
Oh.
Double chocolate, chocolate cake, and peanut butter.
Looks like German chocolate cake.
Oh, peanut butter.
Oh, peanut butter.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, oh, someone has to take a picture for me.
I forgot my phone.
Okay.
I'll take care of it.
I'll go ahead and...
I'll text this to you in just a minute here.
Sounds good.
Anyway, Tim, tell us a little bit about the truth about cars.
Yes, the truth about cars, we are part of a larger group company called Vertical Scope.
And what we do, our niche is sort of car enthusiast, industry nerds, like dealer employees,
manufacturer employees, people who like driving cars fast, people who like having fun with
cars, people who pay attention to cars closely.
So we work with AutoGuide.com, which is more of a consumer-focused site.
Sure.
And then that's kind of our...
We belong to the same parent company, but we are separate.
We are more of an enthusiast and industry-driven site.
Gotcha.
So what kind of content do you guys put up?
News.
So sales numbers.
We'll have a few things tomorrow on sales numbers.
If there's a new model, launch.
CEO says something crazy.
Car reviews, of course.
We have a podcast of our own, which we launch every Friday afternoon throughout the year.
So again, a lot of industry enthusiast content.
Some features as well.
We have a rare rides feature, one of our writers kind of focuses on the history of the industry.
He's been working on Cadillac for the past six months or a year.
And we have another gentleman who does junkyard finds every Monday, where he goes to local
junkyards and finds...
That's fun.
I've seen that.
That's great.
So we have a lot of some classic car stuff as well.
A little bit of racing stuff, not a ton, but a tiny bit of that as well.
It's good that you're hitting the classic stuff too.
Just because I have noticed in the last 10 years, I think that the number of true enthusiasts
has dropped a little bit, but there are people casually interested in cars.
But they're not as well-informed as they once were.
Yeah.
And I worry that Cadillac, for example, people don't know what the cell was.
Yeah.
And that's crazy.
It was such an important thing, and it got Cadillac through the Depression, and the
cars were freaking beautiful.
Yeah.
And there's a lot of stuff that happened that, and then the General Motors companion brands
are crazy.
People don't know that there used to be a brand called Marquette that was sold through Buick
dealers or a brand called Viking that was sold through Ulz.
Gosh, I don't even know that.
It's crazy.
Or did I?
Or did I?
It's all...
It was all part of the General Motors ladder.
Yeah.
The Alfred Sloan...
Yeah.
And unfortunately, the generation of kids today just don't seem to care about cars like
us.
No.
You know what else they don't care about is brands.
Yeah.
I've had this conversation a couple of times in the last few weeks when I was being interviewed
on other shows, and the question is, are Americans ready to buy Chinese cars?
And...
I don't think so.
Okay.
Interesting point.
Twenty years ago or so, there was a survey that came out, and the average American at
the time, and I assume it was someone in a position to buy a car, that was the...
They responded, they were expecting a discount of up to 35% off the price of the vehicle
were Chinese.
Yeah.
For them to consider it.
I don't know what it is now, but I get the sense that people are more open to it than
they were.
Okay.
I mean, they're going to be discounted off of other brands.
However, the tariffs are going to bring that right back up.
That's a really good point.
Number one.
Number two, like you said, at what point of a discount are people looking for to make
that transition?
The other part about that, too, is I think you guys probably saw this BYD outsold Tesla
in 2025, and that's Tesla's second year in a row with down sales.
So Tesla's getting beaten up a little bit.
But the Chinese market is a different market than our market.
It is.
And BYD did...
Though they are international, they did most of their sales in China.
And what they sell is very affordable cars that don't go very far.
Like 100 miles, 150 miles, 200 is kind of a big number for them.
So those numbers, those vehicles would either have to be discounted or pitched very specifically
to potential buyers who have less expectation of range.
Yeah, I think so, too.
But anyway, so, Tim, we're going to talk about 2026.
Crazy 2025 was crazy.
2026 promises to be kind of crazy, too.
Any big predictions you have?
I think it'll be a lot of status quo, because our prices are going to continue to increase.
I also believe that there will be a short kind of fallback in EV adoption, given the
removal of the tax credit and changes that have happened with fuel economy regulations.
But at some point, probably in the latter half of the year, I think with EV range getting a lot
better, I think we'll start seeing more EV sales pick up slowly, a percentage or two,
not a huge dramatic increase.
There's some interesting stuff that came in here.
I wrote them down, but I should probably remember them, the Leaf, the Bolt, the CHR from Toyota.
And I'm forgetting another vehicle that came in, but these are going to be much cheaper
vehicles. And I think they're important to the future of EVs in the country, because
without the $7,500 tax credit, affordability becomes an issue.
But all these vehicles are looking to come in around 28,000 for the Bolt, to like 35,
with range going up to 300 miles. And this might be the new sweet spot.
I think. And have you guys driven the Leaf?
I have. And the Leaf is much better than the previous generation. It's more fun to drive.
It's still not a sports car. No, but it's a good commuter car.
It looks more, it looks less weird than the previous generation.
I have said this on the show, it looks less like a shoe now.
Yes. And I think if I remember correctly, it also now has NAX charging, the North American
charging standard. So you don't have to look for a chatty mo, which are hard to find anymore.
So you have more charging options, which is going to be huge, especially if you're a
first time EV owner.
If you've ever been to a charging station and wondered what the second plug is for,
the second cable, it's for nothing. It's the, it's the chatty mo thing that fit a few Nissan
Leafs and a couple of Mitsubishi products over the years, and they never were used.
Yeah.
And what was super irritating to me is that the station near my house
would say that it was working when it wasn't working, because the chatty mo side was working.
How does this help me?
Does it help anybody unless you own an old Nissan Leaf?
Yeah, it doesn't help you or a Mitsubishi iMeave.
Yeah, exactly. There's a house somewhere in the North Shore that has two of those iMeaves
parked in the driveway whenever I pass by it.
Wow.
Yeah, that that person must be a glutton for punishment.
We had one of those. Were you a consumer guide when we had a long term eve?
I don't believe I was still with you, but I definitely have driven them and they are
weird.
I would say dreadful.
Yeah, I was trying to be nice.
But they were really small, really cramped. I really didn't fit in that vehicle.
But they were slow.
Yeah, I remember how slow they were.
I never understood why electric cars were ever slow because they didn't need to be slow.
No, even some torque.
Yeah, you could just throw a bigger motor in there.
And the strange thing is, as we're learning from cars that are 1600 horsepower,
it's not that hard to get a lot of horsepower in an electric vehicle.
That's not.
All right, I got to throw this out to you guys and you guys talked about it
in your most recent podcast or the one I listened to about your predictions.
And I exhale with exhaustion, but the Hemi engine is back.
Yes.
And for people who don't know, the Hemi was killed for 2025
and replaced by a spectacular engine called the Hurricane at Ram.
And it's an inline six cylinder engine, twin turbo direct injection, slick.
Very smooth.
Everything about that engine was good.
And Ram buyers would not buy it.
Yes.
Ram sales went into the tank.
This is a big sticking point with you, Tom.
I know.
Just like just like Apple CarPlay is with Jill, you in this engine, it's a big sticking point for you.
I just drove the 2026 Ram with the Hemi engine.
Okay.
And it's great, right?
The Hemi engine is a good truck engine.
And now as if they're rubbing their nose, rubbing our noses into what the Hemi was,
it comes standard with what used to be an available catback exhaust system
for the Hemi engine.
That's not standard.
Okay.
So it's noisy as heck as well.
Yeah, because that's what people want.
That's what people want.
I wish they didn't want that.
I just saw an ad this morning for the TRX.
Now it's going to be 777 horsepower versus the 702 original.
So that thing is going to be just a rocket.
I think Ram's plan can be summed up in three words.
Well, I can't say one of them on the air, but America F, yeah.
You know, I think that's what they're going with this.
That is exactly the marketing plan.
There's actually a manila folder somewhere.
With a big America F, yeah, on the cover.
I mean, it works.
It's a good motor.
The whole Hemi lineup, those are good motors.
The supercharged version that was in the old TRX was very good.
I see where you're going with this.
So you're trying to say the Hemi is very good,
but the hurricane is better and more fuel efficient and better for the environment.
I kind of like moving forward.
Yeah.
And that six cylinder engine, the hurricane six cylinder engine,
what, 420 horsepower or 540 horsepower?
I'll top my head, I can't remember.
I think 540 for the high output.
Yeah.
Or for the super high outputs, 540 or 520, something like that.
It was a bunch of horsepower.
And for a small engine, the torque was immediate.
Yeah.
It was smooth and if fuel economy was better.
But it doesn't sound like a V8.
I wish we weren't turning our backs on it.
Now here's the craziest part of this.
If you pick up a Ram now and you want the Hemi engine, it's 29.95 extra.
Three grand to get less horsepower.
Worth it.
Heck yeah.
I don't understand it.
I think the towing numbers are about the same too.
So I don't think you're picking up anything in towing either,
which would be the one logical reason for a truckpire to spend three grand for fewer horsepower.
And the Ram marketing folks completely nailed it.
They have that badge of protest that's on the side of the thing.
A lot of truck drivers, they look at the V8 as not just the stronger engine,
even though it might not be, but as the longer Jevity engine.
Well, I can pull my stuff and have the V8 and it's going to last me 20 years versus the V6,
which is going to be more susceptible to wear and tear.
But are they keeping their truck 20 years?
At the prices they are now, they probably will.
Maybe.
And to your point, Paul, that could be the case.
We don't know that the hurricane has any longevity.
No, no, I'm not saying that at all.
But I'm just, you know, perception is the market.
And you can sit here and talk to your boo in the face.
If people are convinced that the V8's better, guess what?
Yeah, you're just stuck.
The giant irony here is that the diesel engine that comes diesel in the big rams is the 6.
Yeah.
But diesel gets treated differently.
That's true.
And diesel's torque here, you don't need as many cylinders to get as much torque.
So I got an electric car question for you guys.
And General Motors was doing pretty well selling EVs last year, not as well as they wanted.
And they didn't end up opening that Orion plant to build the Sierra and the Silverado EVs.
That didn't happen.
So they're building everything, most everything at what they call factory zero,
the old Hamtramik plant in Detroit.
But they do have that thing humming.
And here's the question.
General Motors has so many EVs compared to other makers, like relative to their volume.
There's the GMC Hummer.
There's two versions of that.
The GMC Sierra, the Chevrolet Bolt, the Equinox, the Blazer, the Silverado,
and the Cadillac OPTIQ Lyric Vistic, Celestic and Escalade.
Do these things stick around now without?
Certain models will and certain models won't.
I know it's kind of a cop out.
The market is going to dictate what stays and what goes, period.
I mean Cadillac is really all in on EVs.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
And they actually killed their small gas vehicle.
Yeah, like some of the X-T4 and X-T6.
X-T4, I think, was like their compact crossover.
Yeah, those are gone.
Replace by EVs, oddly enough.
But yeah, if they sell, they'll keep them.
If they don't sell, they won't.
What do you think, though, will they sell?
That's the larger question.
That's the big question.
Again, some models won't, some won't.
I don't mean it to be a cop out, but I think
I think with EVs, weird for the sake of weird, doesn't necessarily play.
But I think when you drive an EV that has at least 275 miles,
probably 300 miles of range and is close to what people are used to with a gas vehicle.
That's why I like the Hyundai iNX6 so much and the iNX9,
because their designs are not that weird.
And then the iNX6 is a little weird, but they feel.
In a good way, though.
Yeah, in a good way.
But they feel like gas cars.
They've got a fairly long range, at least at the top end,
top trims.
Some of the EVs that General Motors has are a little more weird, though,
and those I don't know if they're going to do as well.
I actually drove here in a Lyric and it's okay.
It's fine.
It feels more like a station wagon than a crossover,
but that's not really an EV problem.
That's just a size problem, right?
So but the range, that's only 285 miles.
That seems a little low for it's not super low.
There's but you think it could be a little bit better.
So I don't know.
It's all going to come down to use case design.
I think, you know, Blazer EV has a better shot of making it than
the Celesteak or the Vistig or whatever.
I think and the naming part is part of it, too.
The name is a problem.
It's so funny because when companies that aren't BMW or Mercedes
start messing around with Alfa Numerics, they always get it wrong.
And like Cadillac, it's just like, do you remember the X?
Was it the XTS that replaced the I think that was the?
Well, yeah, that was a mistake.
The ATS, CTS, XTS and the XT4, XT5.
No one was ever able.
No one was ever able to follow that.
Nope.
It was life was so much easier when there when BMW was just three, five and seven.
Yeah.
Or Lexus with just three, 54, 50 for engine size.
Yeah.
But when you ask people about Cadillac models,
what's the one that sticks out in everyone's head?
The real word escalate, right?
The ones that have these like weird spellings and stuff people don't remember.
I had the escalate IQ and then still the short wheelbase.
So it was a 2026, but they I don't think I have the long wheelbase out yet on the IQL.
But I had this when it was really cold out and it was delivered to my house with a 90% charge.
And the the range read out read 500 or 504 miles.
That yeah.
And I like this is good.
This is good.
Like this is good.
And that whole vehicle is spectacular.
There was nothing wrong with that.
Brendan and I love that car.
If once you get past the price and kind of the size, it's difficult to park.
Yeah.
Basically, it's actually good handling.
Yeah.
What a spectacular vehicle.
It was 136,000 or something.
That's one of the cheapest versions of the vehicle.
But blindingly fast and that range turned out to be legit.
It got cold, really, really cold after I got that vehicle.
And I still managed to squeeze when I asked me to be 460 miles out of it.
So and it's super fast charging.
Like everything about the vehicles is just darn spectacular.
That's the EV experience.
And I'm sort of surprised that's not selling better,
but I understand it's not selling well.
It's got to be the price.
Yeah.
That's all there is to it.
That price is crazy.
Talk that you've driven escalate IQ.
No, I don't believe the driven in the EV escalate yet.
Okay.
I think only the gas engines.
I just drove it.
I actually put out a word that I need to drive more General Motors EVs
and then they just all showed up.
Like, all right, I got to ask more.
And I've got the lyric coming.
Are you driving the V?
Yes.
Yeah, I've got that coming.
So that's for people who don't know the V is the performance version of those vehicles.
Yeah, I did put it into V mode on an off ramp.
It doesn't make a huge difference.
It's more of a crossover family kind of hauler upscale.
Does it like suspension wise?
And does it do other things besides?
You can set it in the dash.
I haven't played with it.
Oh, okay.
You can change the modes.
It didn't feel and again, I didn't play at the setup.
So maybe it was the way the previous driver had it set up.
It didn't feel particularly engaging.
I'd rather have a CTS-V than this.
Yeah, MS Heald CTS-V.
Yeah.
Well, the black ones are still around.
Hard to believe that there was once a CTS-V wagon with a manual transmission.
Oh, the automotive journalist stream?
Yeah, exactly.
Do you remember a gentleman by the name of Dan Johnston?
I do.
Yeah.
He was our Volvo rep and he was a great guy.
But I remember talking to him once about how it'd be great if one of the wagons was available with
a stick and he goes, yeah, you and he named a journalist and I wish I could remember who it was
because it was a brand name journalist that people might have heard of.
But he was looking for an all wheel drive wagon and manual transmission.
I forgot what else there was there.
I drove that the CTS-V back when they had it in the fleet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was one of the worst fuel economy vehicles I've ever tested.
Do you drive the TRX?
I did the last TRX.
So that was also on that list.
That was like four miles to Calvin.
I think I managed nine on the freeway.
But you know, if you want an example of why automakers should never listen to journalists,
the ID buzz.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you and I talked about this when you were a guest on our podcast.
That vehicle, it should be so much better than it is.
It is fun to drive and the space is amazing.
It's packaged really well, but it's sold so terribly.
They're skipping a model year, at least in the North America.
Yeah.
Or they're not skipping a model year.
We've seen the last event.
It's possible.
Yeah.
We don't know.
We only know what we know officially so far as they're skipping 2026 in North America.
There were three things in my book.
There were three things wrong with that vehicle.
It cost too much.
It didn't have enough range.
And then there wasn't enough space, half of the third row.
And I think that if you...
I would agree with all three of those things.
Yeah.
And I think that if you fixed the price or the range, just one of them,
that vehicle was sold a lot better.
Yeah.
The range was shockingly low for such a large vehicle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a 230, 231 miles, something like that.
Something like that.
And the whole marketing scheme of that is,
oh, you go to the campsite and go camping with this thing.
Okay.
You need at least 250 on that, probably 300.
You know, 300.
I think 300, yeah.
And then the other, the range, the space doesn't seem like a big deal,
but if you were actually trying to use this like a minivan
and take five or six people to go camping, you couldn't.
Yeah.
You couldn't put five or six people in there and their stuff.
I notice that getting groceries.
I live alone and trying to put groceries in it without moving the third row.
I mean, I had enough room, but it was tighter than it should have been.
Every other minivan, well, they're not electric,
but every other minivan has that deep, deep well.
Yeah.
After the third, you can get a lot of stuff in there.
Yeah.
So that's a problem.
Well, we have burned through our allotted time for this segment, guys,
but tell us about the Truth About Cars and how people can check it out.
Yeah.
So you can go online and find us at ttech.com.
That is ttac.com.
You can also spell it all out, the truthaboutcars.com, either way.
And we have new content just about every day, Monday through Friday.
And again, our podcast goes live right around midday, every Friday.
It's good stuff.
People should check it out.
We're going to take a break.
And when we come back...
Quiz time.
Quiz time, stick around.
Questions or comments?
Drop us a line at carstuff at consumerguide.com.
That's carstuff at consumerguide.com.
We talk about everything from sports cars to trucks to EVs and our favorite,
speed.
So join us each week by searching We Are Motor Driven,
wherever you get your favorite podcast.
Welcome back to the Car Stuff Podcast.
And we're back.
This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast.
I'm Tom.
He is Paul Harold of The Sons of Speed.
And with us is Tim Healy of The Truth About Cars.
Thank you for joining us, guys.
Real quick, tell me some social media stuff.
We Are Motor Driven.com.
All right.
Yeah, pretty much.
Let's get to the quiz because we got a lot to talk about after the quiz.
Yes, you've got a list of cars that are leaving us.
Yes.
That's always a big deal.
I didn't think about it.
So thanks for compiling that.
Yep.
It's kind of a sad list.
It kind of is.
All right.
It's quiz time.
This is quiz number 308.
That's not actually right.
This is just the 300.
Sometimes you don't have quizzes.
Yep.
But this is perfect.
50 years ago, I need you guys to tell me the best sellers of 1976.
Oh, geez.
I was six years old.
I'm going to guess.
You can guess how loud I've got a full quiz.
Yeah.
He's got the full quiz.
Okay.
So we can guess how loud though, right?
If you want to.
Okay.
Just go ahead and guess the best selling car of 19.
I'm going to say Cadillac El Dorado.
No.
All right.
All right.
Let's start here.
So I'm just going to give you two cars.
You have to tell me which one sold better in 1976.
Tim, you're our guest.
You get to go first.
Okay.
Which sold better 1976?
The Chevrolet Malibu or the Oldsmobile Cutlass?
That's tough.
I want to say Malibu because it was probably cheaper.
And the Cutlass was the next level up luxury UI.
So I'm going to go with Malibu.
Paul.
I'm just going to be different.
I'll say Cutlass.
It was the Cutlass by a lot.
Oh, really?
Here's the deal.
The Malibu was new for that.
Did that replace the Chevelle?
Okay.
Now, I think Malibu was a trim level on the Chevelle.
But the Cutlass was a bunch of vehicles,
including the Cutlass Supreme, which was unbelievably popular,
especially here in Chicago.
So Cutlass Supreme, 515,000 units.
God manufacturers wish things were like that.
I was going to say that they don't see those numbers anymore.
No.
And the Malibu, 325.
But the Malibu would get more popular.
Eventually.
All right.
Tim, you're on the board.
You have one point.
No, I think I do.
Oh, you have one.
I'm sorry.
Paul, Tim.
Paul has one point.
I'll take his point.
All right.
I'm very bad at hosting the quiz here.
Paul, which sold better in 1976, the Chevelle and Paula Caprice
or the Ford LTD?
What was the first one?
The Impala Caprice.
Yeah, that one.
That's or the LTD.
You're going Impala?
Yes.
Sir.
Do fleets count?
Yes.
Okay.
In that case, the LTD.
No.
It was the Impala by a huge margin.
470,000.
I remember that.
Even though I was a little kid, I remember that.
I don't know my 70s very well.
I was going to say LTD because I thought more cops buy.
LTD was 362,000, which is still a gigantic number of cars.
Paul is winning with two.
All right.
Back to you, Tim.
Which sold better in 1976, the Chevrolet Nova
or the brand new Plymouth Velary.
I'm going to say the Nova.
Yeah, if it's brand new, I'm going to go with the Nova as well.
Yeah, by a lot.
Not a lot, but a good number.
334,000 Nova is just 295 Volares.
Do you remember the Velary song?
If you would, you hum it, I'll know it, but I know it.
I don't know if I'm going to hum it.
All right, you both got a point.
But the Velary replaced the valiant and the scamp and all those vehicles.
It was all new.
Also, they should never have replaced those vehicles
because the Velary and then the Dodge Aspen,
which was its analog over at Dodge,
were crappy, unreliable nightmares.
Like they just, they did not get that right.
But that was before K cars, right?
Comfortably before.
The K car kicked in for 81.
81, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always had 82 and then one day Sam texted me during the show.
Oh, I'm sure he did.
Our good friend, Sam Fiorani.
Happy New Year, Sam.
He does listen live usually.
So, but I don't have my phone so I can't text back.
All right.
Back to you.
Paul, which sold better in 1976, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo
or the Ford Granada?
Granada also knew.
I'll go with the Ford.
The Granada's new new new cars, especially back then,
didn't always solve the first year.
So well, let's go with the Chevy Monte Carlo.
The Granada sold a stunning 450,000 units.
My logic is it's not working today.
And the well, the Monte Carlo was a hot seller
and I think it was next year.
But I was just saying, yeah, it didn't sell till later.
Not in 76.
Monte Carlo is kind of one of my favorite cars
in terms of marketing readjustment
because it came out in 70 and was really a muscle car.
Yeah.
You can get a 396 and a 454 cramped 454.
Yeah, crammed under the hood of that thing.
And then they just adjusted so quick when the muscle car ended.
Yeah.
Because of all the gas issues.
Low lead gas, insurance issues.
Yeah, one of the years of the gas shortages, 76.
No, 73 was the first embargo and then 79,
I believe it was the second embargo.
But people were reeling.
I mean, people thought about fuel economy
for a long time after the first embargo.
All right, where were we on that?
You guys both got that.
I got it wrong.
Paul got it correct.
Do you have four?
I think so.
He's sticking my butt.
All right, you're heading for a perfect score.
Okay.
All right, back to Tim here.
Which sold better?
The Chevrolet Chevette or the Dodge Aspen?
I'm going to have to say the Chevette.
Because I had never even heard of the Dodge Aspen.
I would go with the Chevette as well.
It was just a Velari with different badges.
Oh, was it?
Yeah.
If you were really lucky, you had a 318 V8.
Okay.
Otherwise, you were just not lucky.
I want to think of the Dodge Aspen.
I'll do the Chevette as well.
It was the Chevette.
This was a slow year for the Chevette,
but I think it's one of its first years.
275,000 units.
That got, I think, close to 400 at some point.
I was thinking of the Chrysler Aspen.
That was short-lived around 2008 or 2009.
I drove one of those to the Detroit Auto Show.
That was just...
Yeah, it was a rental, fleet-type car, yeah.
But I don't remember the 76th Aspen at all.
Nor do I.
I don't remember that vehicle existing either.
You're missing nothing.
Okay.
That a bright spot.
Oh, so you both got that one right,
but you have a perfect score, Paul.
Thank you.
And Tim, you have two.
We're going to the bonus question,
which is always related to the topic of the day.
Always related to that.
And this would go to you first, right?
Okay.
Okay.
All right, you ready?
Yeah.
Paul, the pickle market in the U.S.
is an astonishing $3.5 to $5 billion annually.
The average American consumes nine pounds of pickles every year.
That seems like a lot of pickles.
Well, if you're Polish.
Maybe.
Yeah, you wouldn't want to try and do that in a week.
Anyway, according to Grock, so this may not be right.
Okay.
Which of the following is the best-selling brand of pickle relish?
Are you ready?
Okay.
Mount Olive, Flasik, Hines, or Klosson.
What was the second one?
Flasik?
Flasik.
I'll go with that.
Which is really weirdly spelled.
I don't know if I knew that.
I've been looking at the jar all my life, but
Tim, pickles.
I'm an avowed pickle hater, so it's going to be tough.
Really?
It's going to be tough.
Yes.
Do not like pickles.
How does that affect you and your relationship with the Chicago hot dog?
I don't do Chicago hot dogs.
Now I understand the relationship.
And you don't invite this guy back.
I'll eat a regular hot dog without ketchup or, you know what,
I'm from the suburbs.
It's fine.
I'll eat some ketchup.
It's fine.
But I don't do pickles.
I don't do the relish.
I don't do the whole thing.
Interesting.
I go Italian beef as opposed to hot dog.
Speaking of Italian beef, Portillo's does an unbelievably good veggie hot dog.
I don't know if people, you guys don't know vegetarian.
Yeah, they're a garden dog.
Yeah.
Spectacular.
I've heard about it.
Oh, sorry.
I was going to say the only thing wrong with it is that they cheat on the pickles,
or the tomatoes.
Tomatoes are supposed to be like an eighth wedge.
Like it should be a substantial thing.
And they use like slices, really thin, paper thin slices.
But other than that, pretty great.
Interesting.
Yeah, so to answer the question, I've heard of three of the four brands.
The first one I've never heard of before.
Mount Olive.
Yeah.
Blasic is always, I always hear that one talked about is a really good one.
Heinz, probably most brand name recognition because of all the other condiments they sell.
And then the, what was the last one?
I'm sorry.
Closson.
Closson.
Closson sounds pretty familiar.
They used to advertise a lot.
I'm going to go with Heinz just because it's probably cheapest at the grocery store.
Yeah, you're both wrong.
It's actually Mount Olive.
Never heard of that.
The one brand I never heard of.
Well, I checked into it because I thought that seemed odd.
I'm aware of Mount Olive, but apparently they're super popular in the Southeast.
So all these brands are kind of regional.
Who knew?
Who knew?
All right.
Nice job, Paul.
Thank you.
Signing this for you.
Good job, Paul.
First quiz win of the year for anybody.
There you go.
You can have that framed.
Okay.
And then you have a list for us.
Yes.
A sad list.
It's a very sad list.
Am I allowed to chime in on this too?
Our sincere condolences to the following 2025 vehicles that we won't see in 2026.
We start with the Acura TLX.
I forgot about that.
That's a bummer.
I'm bummed about that one.
So now Acura only has the Integra as their...
That's the only car.
Yes.
The TLX was a great car.
Yeah.
But there's no market for it.
Yeah.
When it came out with the Type S, I was really looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, underpowered.
As much as I think it had 300 horsepower.
It's right around there.
It felt a little heavy if I remember correctly.
It was a heavy car and the competition was like well into the fours.
So it just couldn't keep up.
Okay.
The Audi A4.
That's a bummer.
That's a weird one.
And Audi admits that this has to do with tariffs.
Is it?
Okay.
Yeah.
They're actually replacing it with the A5.
A5, which will now only be a four door when before it was only a two door.
Or no, you can get it a four door as well.
Yeah.
That was called the Sportback.
Yeah.
The Sportback, yeah.
What was the Sportback is now the only A5.
Exactly.
And if you don't follow this, don't worry about it.
No one does.
Yeah.
This goes back to the conversation of Alpha the Numeric's being confusing.
The Q8 e-tron by Audi is gone as well.
How is it?
Yeah.
I did not know that.
Going over to BMW, the X4, which was basically just a coupe version of the X3.
Just didn't sell that well.
Interesting.
Because they were the first to do the coupe crossover with the X6.
With the X6.
Yeah.
Which I kind of like.
I think it's cool.
When I came out, I was like, wow, that is a great looking SUV.
The X6?
Yeah, the original one, it first came out.
I love that one.
That was always a weird one.
Yeah, it was a little weird, but it was just cool looking.
Also, why people are paying five to 10 grand more?
For less room.
For less room.
Yeah.
Because it looks cool.
Cadillac XT4, XT6.
Oh, I don't know if I knew the XT6 as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the, the VISTIQ EV replaces it, which is very odd.
They have, the only gas cars they have left are cars.
And the XT5 is the only gas.
Oh, XT5 is still there.
Yes.
Oh, so that's the midsize two-row crossover.
Correct, yes.
Okay.
But the three-row XT6 is gone, and the small XT4 is gone.
I don't know if I knew about the XT6.
Interesting.
Do you know about this one, the Chevy Malibu?
Gone.
Wasn't that gone for like, hasn't been gone for two years?
That's.
Try to sell the last ones off this.
Yeah, well.
That's been my joke about that vehicle.
There was a, there was a 2025, so officially they sold the 2025, so.
That's so weird.
They had to go into a fleet.
Yeah.
Dealers weren't stocking them anymore.
Infinity XQ50 slash 55, which is the Coupe version of it.
And those are built at that Mexico plant that you have.
So they're going to focus all on the XT, I'm sorry, QX60 now.
Yeah, there's supposed to be a small thing coming down the road.
Yeah, yeah.
We'll see what happens.
No surprise here, the Jeep Wagoneer.
The Grand Wagoneer lives, but the Wagoneer dies.
That was so confusing.
I don't even know the differences.
Yeah, I think the engine.
We never did.
Yeah.
It was maybe the chrome around the windows.
Yeah.
Pretty much the only thing you could visually see.
This was a good move for them.
It simplifies things.
Yeah.
We talked about the Karma, uh, Revero.
Your list is very detailed, sir.
Yeah, yeah, that's gone.
Oh yeah, the key, this surprised me, the Kia Soul.
Gone.
This, this we covered a few months ago and I talked to Kia.
And yeah, it's, I guess it's, I don't know if it wasn't selling well or...
According to Kia, it's because they geared towards youth, but believe it or not,
they were selling it to very old people.
This happened with the Cyan XB.
And the Honda Element as well.
Yeah, they wanted kids to buy it, but ultimately guys with bad hips.
And they're wise.
Yeah, like under 60s and up.
We're trying to go into these things easily.
This was a little confusing because it will come back.
The Kia Telluride, it's gone for 26, but it will come back as a 27.
I keep forgetting this.
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks for reminding me.
Yes, that's...
And it's all new for 27.
Yeah, it's all, it's all new.
The, this is a very sad day for, uh, car enthusiasts, the Lexus RC.
Yeah, that's a bummer.
Yeah.
So, especially the, the V8.
Do you know what's cool about the RC?
As a fat guy, I couldn't get into the IS, the small sedan.
But the Coupes got huge doors.
Yeah, yeah, the Coupes.
I love the RC.
Yeah.
Well, maybe you felt young and spelt.
Better find a 25 and get it.
That was a good car.
Mercedes Benz EQB.
Oh.
No loss there.
I can't even picture that car in my head.
Okay, the Nissan Kix Play version, which was weird.
It's the first generation Nissan Kix that stuck around while that they were selling
the second generation.
And I think it would be like thousands less because it's the last generation,
but it was not that much cheaper.
No, no, I wrote about this recently.
It was like 500 bucks cheaper.
So why?
Yeah.
You're giving up a lot.
Yeah.
The, the, the replacement vehicle was so much.
Yeah.
The second generation.
Just a better vehicle.
So much better.
Yeah.
The Nissan Versa.
And that's just because it was a subcompact sedan.
That's out of the good off again.
Okay.
I don't know if it's dead for sure, but I heard it was too.
Yeah.
And then someone told me they're still building them, but I don't know what they're building.
If they're building them, it's 25s.
They might be a build out and there'll be a dealer lots during the year.
I don't know.
Yeah, could be, could be.
Polestar 2.
And that's the tariffs killed that because it comes from China.
So.
That, that story is crazy.
Yeah.
Because the Polestar 3 now built in South Carolina.
Yeah.
And the Polestar 4 is built by Renault in an old Samsung plant.
It's.
In South Korea.
Oh my God.
It's a, it's a world market out there.
This is going to kill the enthusiasts, the Porsche 718.
The Boxster Cayman.
They're finally gone.
Yeah.
We've got to.
It's becoming an EV and then it will return as a gas in 28.
We have time for one more.
Okay.
Subaru Legacy, Toyota BZ4X.
Right.
Volkswagen ID buzz.
We talked about Volvo S60 and Volvo S90.
That's it then.
Oh, the, the, but the Vs are still there.
The wagons.
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you so much guys.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Good show for the year.
Big thanks to Paul Harrell for sitting in for Jill.
Thank you, Tim Healy of The Truth About Cars.
Thank you to producer.
Forgive me.
Thank you to producer Randy and the good folks here at Talk Zone.
Let's talk more about cars again next week.
Next week.
Remember to check us out at consumerguide.com.
The Car Stuff podcast is produced by J-Turn Media.
To advertise on the show, please drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
About this episode
Jill is away at CES, leaving Tom and guest Paul Harold to discuss the latest in the automotive world. They review the 2026 Nissan Kicks, highlighting its affordability and features, while also lamenting the disappearance of base models in many lineups. The episode features a lively debate about the return of the Hemi engine and predictions for 2026, including the future of EVs and the impact of tariffs on sales. Tim Healy from The Truth About Cars joins to share insights and predictions, making for a dynamic discussion on the state of the auto industry.
0-60 time
2-liter engine
Chinese cars
discount
EV range
haptic feedback
haptic touch steering wheels
Hemi engine
horsepower
hurricane
Acura TLX
Audi A4
Audi e-tron
Audi Q8 e-tron
Cadillac CTS-V
Cadillac Eldorado
Cadillac Escalade
Cadillac Optiq
Cadillac XT5
Cadillac XT6
Cadillac XTS
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet Blazer EV
Chevrolet Chevelle
Chevrolet Equinox
Chevrolet Impala
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Chevrolet Nova
Chevrolet Silverado EV
Ferrari Enzo
Fisker Karma
Ford Granada
Ford LTD II
Ford Mustang
Ford Orion
GMC Hummer EV
GMC Sierra
Holden Caprice
Honda Element
Honda Stream
Infiniti QX60
Jaguar S-Type
Jeep Grand Wagoneer
Jeep Wagoneer
Kia Soul
Lexus RC
Lucid Air
Lucid Gravity
Mazda CX-30
Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Nissan Kicks
Nissan Leaf
Oldsmobile Cutlass
Polestar 2
Polestar 3
Polestar 4
Porsche Boxster
Porsche Cayman
Tesla Model 3
Tesla Model S
Tesla Model Y
Toyota bZ4X
Toyota C-HR
Toyota Grand Highlander
Toyota Highlander
Volkswagen ID. Buzz
Volvo S60
Volvo S90
Original notes
For the first show of 2026, Paul Herrold of the Sons of Speed sits in for Jill who is traveling. Paul and Tom address a number of topics to open the show, including annoying helper AI bots on dealership websites, the death of the Karma Revero (once known as the Fisker Karma), and the return of the Hemi engine to the Ram 1500 lineup.
Still in the first segment, Tom reviews the 2026 Nissan Kicks. Tom is impressed by just how much equipment can be had on this small, practical crossover.
In the second segment, Paul and Tom are joined by Tim Healey of The Truth About Cars. The guys dare to predict what’s coming for the car industry in 2026, especially for electric cars and Cadillac; they also address vehicle affordability and sales.
In the last segment Tim joins Paul for Tom’s “Best Sellers of 1976” quiz. Listen in to hear who won. Paul wraps up the show with a surprisingly long list of vehicles that didn’t return for 2026.
Car Stuff Podcast
Consumer Guide Automotive, Tom Appel, Jill Ciminillo
0:00
57:49