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This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
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Alright, this is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.
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00:53
I told you I was a little sick.
00:55
Yeah, I'm backing away from you, actually.
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Yeah, I got the rasp.
00:59
Funny story, I was on with Steve and Johnny Saturday night, and Steve said that I sounded
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like an FM disc jockey.
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That goes back, like a jazz disc jockey.
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Alright, that is Jill Siminello, a contributing editor here at ConsumerGuide.com, North American
01:19
Car of the Year juror.
01:21
We're going to talk some neck toy in a little while.
01:27
That's the second time.
01:30
I am not sick, and I hope not to get sick by being in this tiny studio with you.
01:35
I think I'm pretty late in this process, but I don't feel good.
01:39
Like, it really crushed me Saturday.
01:43
So Saturday, fun day for me, and it was a podcast adjacent.
01:47
I met Robert Colangelo and his wife.
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I had never met his wife for dinner down at Carnival.
01:54
Wonderful restaurant.
01:56
Let me highly recommend this sweet corn empanadas.
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They're appetizers.
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Just go to three appetizers and skip dinner.
02:07
And then I had a Crown Royal mojito.
02:11
Which doesn't sound like it would be good.
02:13
The waiter assured me it would be good, and it was really good.
02:17
Something about Crown Royal and crushed mint, muddled mint.
02:22
And since I was downtown, I stayed downtown and visited with Steve and Johnny at midnight
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That is always, always weird to go down there at midnight.
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I don't know where their new studio is.
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303 East Wacker, which is right on the river.
02:38
And you go through Lower Wacker Drive, made famous in the Blues Brothers movie.
02:42
And it all seems like a Bond film.
02:44
Where everybody goes to get lost.
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And then you go through these crazy doors that open for you to get into their garage
02:51
with that building, and then the building is dead.
02:54
You're walking through a dead building.
02:55
And then you get up to the 18th floor where WGN is, and it's like you're in like, like
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You know, it's wonderful.
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But you have windows on two sides, so the view is fantastic.
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So yeah, fantastic event.
03:07
So thank you, Steve and Johnny, for having me, and thank you, Robert and wife, for having
03:18
You had asked a good question the other day, last episode, I think, how much, how much
03:24
does an amount of money does it take to raise your, your monthly payment?
03:32
Let me, let me, let me fill in for you, because your brain seems to not be working this week.
03:35
My brain is not working.
03:36
Anyway, I had said 25 bucks, raising, raising your payment by raising the cost of your
03:41
vehicle by a thousand dollars.
03:42
I think I said 25 bucks.
03:45
And that's 60 months for 5%, which is a typical loan right now.
03:49
So who do we have to thank for that information?
03:52
I think I just worked it out.
03:57
I also made a mistake last week.
03:58
We were talking about small compact car hybrids, and I said the K4, but the K4 is not available
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The, the Hyundai Sonata, not Sonata, Elantra, which is kin to the K4 is available as a hybrid.
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And the K4 is coming out this year with a hatchback.
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Which is kind of cool looking.
04:19
I can't decide if it's just weird looking or cool looking.
04:24
It's kind of space shuttly.
04:26
They have good colors on that car too.
04:28
I did a fun poll on X.
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Are you ready for my poll?
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I gave people four colors, white, silver, gray, yellow and black.
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And I said, which was the worst color for a Ferrari?
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And I have seen Ferraris in all these colors.
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Which do you think it was?
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White, silver, gray, yellow or black?
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White was number one?
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Followed by yellow then black.
04:53
I would have thought yellow would have been like the best color because that's like, hey,
04:57
I'm driving a Ferrari.
04:58
I think yellow is like the number two color.
05:00
Like the red, obviously red, 80% of Ferraris are red.
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And then I see a lot of black and yellow.
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Black and yellow, black and yellow.
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Fortunately I see white.
05:13
I just wrote a piece about Tesla price increases.
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We talked about the Cyber Beast going up the price by 15 grand.
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You also know that they killed the rearward drive model.
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Do we talk about that?
05:23
I can't remember if we talked about it, but I do know this is true.
05:26
So basically the base price, the entry point for a Cybertruck, if you were still thinking
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about buying one and no one is, went from...
05:34
Well, there may be one person.
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Went from about 72 grand to about 82 grand.
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So you have to get the long range AWD or the Cyber Beast.
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Those are the only two models left.
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So that's what's going on there.
05:47
September 18th was a sad day.
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I'm like, what day was that?
05:52
So it was my wedding anniversary.
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That's not why it was sad.
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It's a little sad because we remember Ryan Sandberg that day.
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It was his birthday.
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Ryan Sandberg, one of the coolest Cubs ever.
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But it was also the last day they built any Subaru Legacies.
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You know, and it's really ironic because I'm actually writing a buyer's guide right now
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on the Subaru Legacy for the cargoogroos.com.
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Oh, well, whatever they're going to sell has been built.
06:23
I'm just starting to work on the seventh generation, which is the generation that concluded on
06:28
So Subaru still has the Impresa and the WRX.
06:31
Those are cars, actual cars.
06:36
And based on what I've seen in pictures, the next generation Outback is not a car anymore.
06:44
Well, you know, and so what's really interesting is the legacy came out in 1990.
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And it was their way to compete with like the Camry, the Accord.
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Like they were trying to get into that mainstream midsize market.
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And, you know, it initially offered front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive.
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But then quickly moved to all-wheel drive only, and that became a huge competitive advantage
07:11
along with the standard safety tech.
07:13
The Subaru all-wheel drive thing is relatively new.
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Like, well, 30, 40 years.
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It wasn't always part of their heritage.
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And it's not in other markets either.
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It's very carefully crafted for the U.S.
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Europeans, for example, and people in other markets won't pay for all-wheel drive.
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And they kind of don't need it.
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So goodbye, legacy.
07:35
Nice car, actually.
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Always worth knowing about.
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And you always had the great all-wheel drive.
07:41
There's a Nissan that just died.
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And, you know, I'm...
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The Aria's like the car that never happened.
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And I have to say I'm not super surprised about it, though.
07:55
I feel like it was one of the best EVs out there.
07:58
But I just feel like Nissan did not care about it in the U.S. market.
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They didn't promote it.
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They didn't get it out there.
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They didn't, you know, really...
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You know, I think I had it once in all...
08:12
You know, in its life cycle to drive.
08:17
I feel like they, like, launched it via press release and were like...
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Well, they stuttered.
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When they should have had, like, a big press event and they should have had journalists
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and stuff like that, they didn't.
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And they dragged their feet on full production for like two and a half years.
08:29
And then it came out a little bit expensive.
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And I think it just wasn't the right vehicle for the time.
08:35
I think they didn't quite hit their cost targets for building this thing.
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And it was a little expensive.
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I think I have the prices here.
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The price range was $41,000 to $56,000.
08:48
That's what it is right now.
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And they've got the new leaf coming out.
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Which I'm going to be driving later this week.
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So we can talk about that next week.
08:57
That estimated price range, current driver estimated price range is $26,000 to $40,000.
09:02
So much more affordable.
09:03
A little bit smaller.
09:04
But now that's a crossover.
09:06
It's clearly a crossover.
09:08
As opposed to a weird-looking shoe.
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Why was that a thing with early electric cars?
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Well, it had to look different.
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So you knew you were driving something special.
09:18
But the leaf always looked weird.
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The Mitsubishi iMeave looked really weird.
09:21
The iMeave was weird.
09:23
Even the Bolt was a little weird.
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It was like a bubble.
09:27
But the Bolt was cuter and a little more functional.
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It had a crossover thing going.
09:32
And then they added...
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So they made that work.
09:36
But the Aria, only 12,000 units so far this year, actually for six months, where the
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Equinox did $36,000.
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And just so people know this, even though Tesla's in dire straits, they still sold
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135,000 model-wise.
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So it's still the dominant vehicle in the segment.
09:54
So, interesting thing about the leaf, it will have the NACS and CCS charge ports, both.
10:05
And I thought it had the next charge port with a CCS adapter.
10:09
When I read said both, I could have read something wrong.
10:12
Because I don't know how you would have both.
10:14
You can have them right next to each other.
10:16
And that would be super-duper expensive.
10:18
It might be expensive.
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There's no reason why you couldn't have both.
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But you wouldn't have it on a $26,000 vehicle.
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And I'll be honest.
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I'm going to be driving it on Wednesday.
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And so I will be reading the materials on this vehicle tomorrow.
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We'll have to check that and get back on that.
10:30
Because that's interesting.
10:31
It struck me as a little bit nice, actually.
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I'm like, I don't know that they would have both.
10:38
I've never seen that or heard of it on any other vehicle.
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There are vehicles that are going to be doing that.
10:42
So, what that says.
10:43
And what we're talking about for people who don't know, NACS, it gets you access to the
10:47
Tesla charging network.
10:48
Tesla superchargers, yeah.
10:49
And chargers, other outside purveyors of public charging are going to be switching to NACS.
10:56
So, where we used to see, for some reason, chargers that had Chathamal and CCS, CCS being
11:01
the dominant charge format in the U.S.
11:06
If you're still using Chathamal, I'm sorry.
11:09
The original Nissan Leaf.
11:10
I think it was the Kia Soul EV, I think used Chathamal originally.
11:16
I think there were like two vehicles that had Chathamal.
11:18
For some reason, it's already dead.
11:20
There was an English company that was selling commercial vehicles.
11:25
I don't know if they ever got to the U.S. and they were using Chathamal for some reason.
11:29
Way to make your vehicle even less interesting.
11:32
And I feel like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV might also use Chathamal.
11:42
That's a weird factoid that seems to stick in my head.
11:47
People installing that crap at home.
11:49
Because they're never going to have another vehicle that uses it.
11:53
That's the news, I think.
11:54
Everything I've got here, I mentioned Ryan Sandberg's birthday.
11:59
I could say it is also, this evening is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah.
12:05
I don't want to, is that New Year?
12:09
I didn't know if happy was appropriate.
12:13
I think that's how you say it.
12:15
There are certain holidays, especially some Jewish holidays where happy is probably not
12:20
Yom Kippur, not happy.
12:25
I mean, the light stays lit for eight days.
12:28
I think that's kind of happy.
12:30
I will have to ask my in-laws more about that.
12:34
I'm new to the Jewish community information.
12:41
I'm Catholic, born and raised.
12:43
But yes, I will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah this evening with my in-laws.
12:47
I assimilated some Jewishness over the years.
12:50
Publication is international limited.
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A lot of Jewish co-workers.
12:57
I just noticed that you were driving the Audi SQ8.
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Which we're going to be talking about.
13:02
I drove a different SQ8.
13:04
Often when you and I are in test cars, they're the same test cars.
13:08
But yours is silver.
13:09
Yeah, I don't really love it.
13:11
Mine was something that you would not have loved either, I think.
13:15
I'm going to start over.
13:19
It was a strange color and a lot of people poo-pooed it.
13:22
Better than satellite silvers, what they're calling this.
13:26
Funny names for silver.
13:27
Don't make it less silver.
13:29
It's just kind of gray.
13:31
And this is such a beautiful car.
13:35
Well, we should talk about what this car is.
13:38
It's not a big seller because it is now Audi's flagship vehicle.
13:42
And when we talk about flagships, especially for German luxury makers, they used to be
13:47
They used to say these S-class would be in W7 series, the Audi A8.
13:50
And that's not the case anymore largely because manufacturers are kind of taking the marketing
13:54
muscle off of them because they don't sell well anymore.
13:57
People don't buy big luxury cars.
13:59
Part of the problem with Lucid is that the only product they have until they brought out
14:04
the gravity was this big sedan.
14:07
And people don't really want those.
14:09
So this is Audi's flagship crossover.
14:13
And it's interesting for a couple of reasons.
14:15
It is counter-intuitively less useful than the Q7.
14:20
It's like a little bit squished in terms of headroom.
14:23
Not that I have a problem with it.
14:25
So Audi sells the Q3, the Q5, the Q7, and the Q8 in the US.
14:32
Plus the electric vehicles, which have E-tron.
14:35
That gets a little confusing.
14:37
And there is an E-tron version of the Q8.
14:38
I think it's just called the Q8 E-tron though.
14:41
But the Q8 is like the Q7, loses the third row and gets the rakish rough line.
14:45
So you are paying money to look cool and lose utility.
14:49
But good cargo space.
14:53
But it is, well, you start.
14:57
So I both love and I won't say hate, but there's some things about it that I just don't love.
15:06
And first off, it is a very classic interior.
15:13
And what I mean by that is there is no place for you to put your phone.
15:17
That will actually fit your phone unless you're sticking in the cup holder.
15:20
There's like a little slot before the armrest, but my iPhone 16 is too big to fit there.
15:26
And so like that's, you know, so then you have to like lift up the armrest and put your
15:31
phone in the armrest.
15:32
So you're summarying up a vehicle that's over like 127 grand?
15:38
And your first issue is the phone.
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I mean, because, okay, I don't carry a purse.
15:43
So I don't put my phone in the purse so that it can like sit on the floor or whatever.
15:47
Where do I put my phone?
15:49
That really irked me.
15:50
That was the first thing that I noticed about this car.
15:52
So you would rather drive a 73 Pinto wagon with the optional console because there'd
15:57
be room for your phone.
15:58
No, there still wouldn't be room for my phone.
16:01
I mean, have you ever seen the optional console in the 73 Pinto?
16:03
I can put this in the console, in the console of the SQ8 or SQ8, but like that's not the
16:08
You may have missed the point of this vehicle.
16:10
No, I didn't miss the point of the vehicle, but I'm just saying that was the very first
16:13
thing that I noticed.
16:14
The next thing I noticed, however, when I turned it on was the sound of the twin turbo V8
16:21
engine, which is a word I can't say awesome.
16:24
Yeah, that is the four-liter twin turbo.
16:25
It's flipping awesome.
16:27
And Volkswagen, of course, also the parent company of Audi, I'm sorry, of Volkswagen
16:32
and Porsche, not to mention Bentley.
16:34
And this engine shows up in those cars as well.
16:36
This is a heck of an engine with a great pedigree.
16:39
And yeah, it's fantastic.
16:41
Twin turbo V8, ZF-H speed automatic with tip-tronic paddle shifting, nice, nice drivetrain.
16:49
It's quiet, just smooth, it's silky, it's really potent, no delay.
16:53
Like I was merging onto, like from one high to the other on the way here, and I literally
16:58
just like was trying to get around some traffic.
17:01
I put my foot down and I swear I was going 100 without even blinking.
17:05
And I was like, ooh, need to slow down now.
17:07
I've driven a lot of electric vehicles lately, and you get used to that sort of silent
17:11
But there is something about the visceral response of something like this, where the
17:15
engine is not only nearly as responsive as an electric motor, but sounds good.
17:20
Yeah, there's something to that.
17:21
But this vehicle is interesting too, because it will seat four people in real comfort.
17:26
I mean, technically seats five, but.
17:28
Yeah, not in comfort.
17:30
Well, I mean, unless they're my size.
17:32
But I mean, it's relatively practical.
17:34
It's just you're losing that third row.
17:37
But it is a great looking car.
17:38
The Rekish Roof Line really works.
17:41
There's actually, there's a whole lot here to like.
17:44
I read, I read some reviews of this.
17:45
I like to get other people's reviews once I've formed mine.
17:48
And a lot of them were digging the ride quality with the larger wheels and tires.
17:53
And the vehicle I drove had the optic package, which is a lot of black trim and 22 inch black
17:59
And I did not think that the ride quality suffered.
18:01
I thought it worked incredibly well.
18:03
I would agree with that.
18:03
In fact, the reason I used to think that Mercedes products of the of the European luxury brands
18:08
rode the best, but lately I've driven some impressive Audis.
18:13
So I haven't spent enough time in BMWs in the last year or so.
18:16
So I probably need to see if I can get back into those.
18:19
But I mean, all three makers really make incredibly good stuff, but this is this is an interesting
18:24
And if you don't get the weird ass color that I had, it's kind of sublime, right?
18:29
It's stylish, but it's not over the top.
18:32
Well, so what's the interesting thing is, is you would probably competitively put this
18:36
in the same category, perhaps as the Lamborghini Urus, the like one of the top end high performance
18:43
Porsche Cayans and like the BMW X6, like M performance.
18:51
And like all of those other vehicles have a little bit of flash to them, where if you
18:56
didn't know what you were looking at, looking at the RS Q8, like you might be looking at
19:01
what you're looking at.
19:03
Well, the RS Q8 is a whole notch up.
19:08
That's that's what I was driving.
19:09
Oh, you're driving the.
19:10
We're driving different vehicles.
19:13
Which is which is mid level, but they both have the four liter V8.
19:16
So we're not crazy.
19:18
So you're driving a vehicle.
19:20
140 grand starting.
19:22
I drove one that came to what was it loaded here?
19:27
127 was the vehicle.
19:29
I didn't realize both of those are in the fleet.
19:31
So you drove the RS Q8.
19:33
So we should make that distinction.
19:36
Further indulgence.
19:37
And so did you, did your model have the ultra suede on the steering wheel?
19:44
I have to tell you that was like other than like the phone and the, um, the performance
19:49
like the suede on the steering wheel was the next thing I noticed.
19:52
And it's just, it's like nails on a chalkboard for me.
19:55
And that would be an option delete for me.
19:57
This has nothing to do with Audis.
19:58
A thing that's been bugging me lately and I don't know why this happens is when you're
20:02
driving a car that's got leather wrapped steering wheel, which is almost everything these days
20:07
And then somehow, some way the leather behind the steering wheel in back of it is ripped
20:12
and you could feel like a tear, like a little tear and then you can't get past it.
20:18
And you'll take a little flap there and you just want it gone.
20:20
You just want to pick.
20:22
I've had it like three o'clock where I tend to hold the steering wheel.
20:27
So we just talked about two of the flagship models.
20:31
There's also a base eight.
20:33
Q eight that starts at just 62.
20:36
The Q seven starts at 62.
20:38
The, uh, the, the Q eight starts about 73.
20:44
So question for you as a tall guy, um, the, the front windshield is pretty steeply raked
20:50
And I'm wondering like, did you, like, I didn't necessarily have problems getting in or out
20:55
even though I have a far forward driving position, but I have a friend who did not buy this vehicle
21:00
who, and he's like six four because he kept hitting his head, getting in and out of the
21:05
I'm driving the forerunner right now.
21:08
I had a little problem getting in and out, but you didn't have a problem in the, no.
21:13
Um, but actually I just, to nutshell, on his flagship, I really like this, um, it's a
21:20
lot here to like, it's an indulgence.
21:21
It's expensive and you can get everything that you wanted here in the, in the Q seven
21:26
and pay less money.
21:27
And there is an S Q seven as well.
21:29
Uh, there isn't an RS though.
21:32
So that's for people to know your final thoughts.
21:34
You know, I really like it, but for $140,000, I want all of the things.
21:40
You know, I want, I want my phone to be able to fit.
21:43
I, you know, I want, um, a less black, shiny stuff on the interior and, um, you know, I
21:52
just, I just think it should be everything that I want it to be for $140,000.
21:56
And it was 99.9% of the things that I wanted.
21:59
So I loved it, but there were a couple of annoyances that would make me not spend $140,000
22:07
Well, you drove the RS.
22:10
I drove the S Q eight.
22:12
We're going to take a break.
22:12
When we come back, when we talk to Herb Weissbaum, the consumer man from checkbook.com, we're
22:17
going to be talking about car insurance.
22:23
Questions or comments?
22:24
Drop us a line at carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
22:28
That's carstuffatconsumerguide.com.
22:36
Welcome back to the carstuff podcast.
22:40
This is the Consumer Guide Carstuff Podcast.
22:44
And Jill, we're going to talk about something we never talked about on the show before,
22:47
and that's insurance.
22:49
My daughter just bought insurance, actually.
22:51
And I think I made a mistake, and we may have to ask our guest about this.
22:55
But I just sort of let her shop for insurance herself.
22:58
And I realized that I have an insurance agent, and she ended up buying all state insurance
23:03
And she told me what she's paying.
23:04
I mean, it feels a little expensive, and I wonder if she went through my broker through
23:09
my insurance agent, she might have saved a little money.
23:11
But people don't go through agents anymore, and we might talk about that in a little bit.
23:15
I still go through agents.
23:18
You seem like someone who might have done it online.
23:21
Well, so I should clarify, it's my husband's car, and my husband is a master networker,
23:26
and so he has, like, a lot of friends who are insurance brokers, and so.
23:31
And then when I was looking at my mom's insurance and my mom's, like, renter's insurance, like,
23:36
we went through one of his friends who's also a broker.
23:40
Well, our guest today is a contributing editor at checkbook.org and the host of their Consumer
23:46
He's an Emmy award-winning, I'm sorry, his Emmy award-winning reports have held consumers
23:49
nationwide for more than 40 years.
23:51
He is Herb Weissbaum, the consumer man.
23:54
Welcome to the podcast, Herb.
23:57
I always hear you on the NICD podcast because I started off and key everybody up for you.
24:02
So, it's nice to finally talk to you on what's thrilled when you asked me to be on yours.
24:05
It is great to be, uh, finally talk to you as well, and yeah, for people who don't know,
24:09
uh, Herb and I are both guests regularly on the NICD podcast.
24:12
I think it's like the second episode of every month, and we're on his, we're on his, we're
24:17
on Nick's For the People episode.
24:20
So, yes, nice to finally talk to you in person.
24:23
Uh, Nick sent me your contact information.
24:25
I am delighted to have you here as an expert because we have never talked about insurance
24:28
before, and, and the insurance market has changed a lot.
24:32
And as I just noted, my daughter just went through the whole process of buying car insurance
24:38
And what do you make of online and current, the market in general?
24:41
How have things changed in the last few years?
24:44
Well, um, twice as skyrocketed, I mean, there's no question that insurance is so much more
24:49
costly than it has been in the past.
24:50
Um, you know, the, uh, according to the latest statistics in the first half of 2025 alone,
24:56
rates have gone up over 8%.
24:57
That's according to the Euro labor statistics, uh, it's gone up 30% since 2023.
25:03
And according to bankrate.com, the average driver, the average is 2,600, 79 for, for
25:09
a year, but in places like Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, 3,500 in New York, it's 4,000 a year.
25:16
So cost, or a cost, or it's expensive.
25:19
And to your question, uh, you can do some good stuff online.
25:22
I like you and Jill use an agent because they're working for me.
25:25
They can compare a lot of policies and the agents can also sometimes find policies specifically
25:30
for that region much better than the big companies to tailor to your area.
25:35
My guy, the last time I price shop, and I try to price shop every two years at the, at
25:39
the most a year or two, if things changing so much, he saved me over a grand on home
25:44
insurance and car insurance to mind a grand.
25:46
And I got a little bit better covers than I had with a policy before.
25:49
So that to me is the value of a broker.
25:52
It doesn't cost, of an agent, doesn't cost me anything.
25:55
There are brokers out there who do charge a fee.
25:58
And unless you have some really specialized situation, I see no need to pay somebody,
26:03
but an agent yet makes an absolute lot of sense.
26:07
And based on those numbers you just gave me, I feel better about the prices.
26:10
My daughter is now paying.
26:11
But the other thing that's really important is it's not just the price you pay for
26:17
insurance, it's how the company is going to handle the claims.
26:20
And that varies greatly.
26:22
That's the mistake people, I believe they base it solely on the price.
26:27
You've got to base it also on the, uh, the company you're dealing with.
26:31
You know, it's really great to go to a restaurant with a food sheet, but it's
26:33
going to give you a food poisoning.
26:35
That's not the way to go.
26:36
You want, you know, reasonable price and a good, so I'll give you the latest numbers.
26:40
I just looked it up here for you guys from consumer reports.
26:43
They rated, uh, 31 companies and only seven got the highest ratings for
26:48
poll, from policy holders.
26:50
They interviewed thousands of policy holders, uh, for satisfaction handling claims.
26:54
They are companies, some of them that you may or may not recognize in your area.
26:58
The Geary Insurance Group, the Amica Mutual Group, uh, NYCM Insurance Group,
27:03
Cincinnati Insurance Company happened to be the one my broker found country
27:07
financial acuity and farm bureau and property casualty.
27:11
Those are the ones, uh, that did the best.
27:13
But if you look on the entire ratings for all these things, I mean, some of the
27:16
names you know and trust were so big, uh, State Farm only rated four out of five.
27:21
Uh, Chubb only rated four out of five travelers, three out of five.
27:25
Progressive, three out of five, uh, State Auto Insurance Company, three out of
27:30
five Kemper, three out of five.
27:31
So that's what I look at.
27:33
Just like when I buy an appliance, price is important.
27:35
I look at consumer reports, reliability ratings, but I want an appliance to
27:39
go to last, I don't want to spend money repairing it.
27:41
So that's also a really important part of buying good insurance.
27:45
You know, you just made a really good point there.
27:47
I feel like a lot of automotive, um, buyers will go to consumer reports and
27:52
look up reliability ratings for vehicles or if they're getting ready to buy a
27:56
new appliance, but I have to tell you, I never in a million years would have
28:00
thought to look there for, um, ratings on car insurance.
28:06
And, and they have, they have rated everything.
28:08
And by the way, just looked it up for you, Tom, uh, all state rates, three
28:10
out of five claims insurance.
28:13
Uh, and, uh, so that's, uh, you know, that's a, that's a big deal.
28:17
You know, making sure you have a company is going to pay your claim.
28:19
If you have a problem with not just delaying the delay, just get installing
28:22
and try not to pay it.
28:24
So what is driving the big increase in, uh, insurance rates lately?
28:28
Uh, number of factors.
28:30
First of all, it's much more expensive.
28:31
We're driving more expensive vehicles.
28:34
So when there is an accident, it costs a lot more to repair them, uh, the
28:37
cost of parts and the cost of labor and the whole routine, I'm sure, as you
28:41
guys know, has gone up dramatically.
28:43
Uh, so that's number two, uh, insurance claims for medical, a medical
28:47
cost has skyrocketed.
28:49
So that's another factor driving this up.
28:51
And then there have been a lot of, uh, legal action taken, uh, also that, uh,
28:56
have caused the brain to go up and put it all together.
28:58
And, uh, you know, it's a, it's a reason why, uh, premiums are going up.
29:03
So I've heard two things lately and they're contradictory.
29:06
One is that rates are going up and I believe they are an annual minor, uh,
29:11
but that rates are going up because cars have gotten more expensive and that
29:13
the safety equipment and cars is very complex and expensive to repair.
29:17
And one of the things too, very specifically is a lot of this equipment.
29:20
These sensors are in bumpers.
29:22
So if you have an accident, your, your accident is much more, your cars, much
29:26
more expensive to repair now, because all, all this expensive equipment that
29:29
Uh, but the other thing is that because of all this equipment, I've heard
29:32
that accident rates are actually coming down as they should, right?
29:36
Because the accident avoidance equipment is pretty impressive.
29:39
Like pedestrian detection and, um, automatic emergency braking and things
29:44
Um, and that the last thing I heard is that, um, insurance rates should
29:49
actually be coming down in the near future, but I haven't seen that, but it's
29:52
a contradictory article or two that I've read and, uh, where do you see
29:56
these trends going?
29:57
Well, if you think insurance rates are going to come down, I got a bridge in
30:01
Brooklyn, I would really like to tell you it's a great deal.
30:04
It's an absolute great deal.
30:05
Uh, I don't expect insurance rates to come down.
30:07
Insurance rates keep going up.
30:11
Bumpers, for example, uh, they have all the radar and the stuff in there.
30:15
So when you, the thing to bother in the past, so it's a couple of
30:17
hundred dollars, whoever fixed it now, it's a couple of thousand dollars
30:20
because they got it, you know, windshield.
30:22
Now you break a windshield.
30:23
It used to be a simple replacement.
30:24
Now they got things in the windshield to do all kinds of what I trade lack
30:29
of safety equipment for a lower insurance premiums, not on your life.
30:32
Those things, they've wise, they reduce access.
30:34
I don't have any statistics, but, uh, I'm just telling you that basically
30:38
based on all the data that's out there, insurance premiums are not going to go
30:42
They're going to keep going up and because now with the farm parts coming
30:45
over, uh, with the tariffs, uh, there, it's going to get even more expensive
30:49
to repair vehicles.
30:50
So you should expect insurance rates to go up even higher because that's
30:54
I did a big podcast.
30:55
Oh, I, it's not going to be a drop till Thursday, huge podcast on, uh, a home
30:59
insurance and a good portion of the reason why they're going to go up in the
31:03
future is because of material costs.
31:06
Some of that is being driven by, you know, like lumber coming in from Canada.
31:09
And that sort of thing.
31:10
And it's just going to, it's going to drive up, no pun intended.
31:13
It's going to drive up everything.
31:15
Well pun intended, I guess I should say clever to say drive up.
31:19
Uh, in terms of car insurance basics, I don't actually understand car
31:22
insurance and the difference between the different segments of it, the
31:25
liability and the comprehensive and all that.
31:27
What, what is in a car insurance policy?
31:31
There are three terms you need to know.
31:33
I'll run down all three of them.
31:34
First of all, there's liability coverage that pays for damage that you
31:37
cause includes damage to another person's car, uh, the other person's medical
31:42
bills, resulting from the crash that you caused any property damage you run
31:46
through somebody's garage or a fence or hit a lamppost or anything like that.
31:50
And any legal fees involved, uh, that's, that's one thing.
31:53
Second thing is collision, collision, pace or damages to your car from a crash.
31:58
That's not the fault of another driver.
32:00
And the collision is how you pay for a pair of placement.
32:03
If you're in a single car crash, you hit another car, the crash, you hit, uh,
32:07
you hit the something as the crash was your fault or if your car gets hit in a
32:11
parking lot or one driver doesn't leave a note there.
32:14
You know, you run into a tree, something like that.
32:17
So, um, that's what you have the collision insurance for.
32:21
By the way, it doesn't cover animals.
32:23
If a deer hit your car or something like that, believe it or not, that's
32:26
covered up a comprehensive.
32:27
The third part, even though it was a collision, it's covered under
32:30
comprehension and that's the type of coverage you add to it.
32:33
It's just an insurance policy that covers damage to your car.
32:36
It isn't your fault and that isn't related to a crash.
32:40
So that your car's stolen, your car is vandalized.
32:42
Your car catches fire, damaged by weather.
32:45
Uh, again, if it's a hit by an animal, so, uh, that's so what this covers.
32:50
And, uh, the one way to save money that we recommend and consumer reports
32:54
recommends is you might want to drop collision and comprehensive coverage.
32:58
It's allowed, depending on how you own the vehicle, when your annual
33:02
premiums equal about exceed about 10% of your car's book value or the vehicles
33:07
more than 10 years old, which is a vehicle that worth the whole lot.
33:10
And then you're not going to get much for it.
33:11
There's not a whole lot of sense in, in getting this coverage.
33:14
If you, if you're, if you're trying to save money, I mean, who knows, you know,
33:17
if you have the money to do it, do it, but if not, you might want to do that.
33:20
Uh, in some cases you will be required to have this coverage.
33:23
If you're leasing your vehicle, if the vehicle's still being financed and
33:26
you know how long people are financing their vehicles for now, seven years or
33:30
more, uh, but it's just something you might want to consider dropping if
33:33
you're looking to save insurance.
33:35
One thing I want to, want to, you know, cost you on it.
33:38
Policy, do they say this is, you know, the absolute minimum protection you can
33:41
get in this thing, age, if you can afford it, and I know there are a lot of people
33:44
that can't, you don't want them to know you want enough to protect yourself from
33:48
serious, I mean, I've seen car crashes where several people have been hurt
33:50
and the medical bills have been over a million dollars.
33:53
So $300,000 doesn't look like a heck of a lot when you're looking at a
33:57
million dollars liability.
33:58
The other thing is because of the cost of insurance, a lot of people aren't
34:02
driving with insurance and you have to make sure you have uninsured motor
34:07
I was just going to ask you to put it in your policy because you have no idea
34:10
if the person who hits you has insurance, then you have this whole thing
34:14
and a lawsuits and the stuff.
34:15
Why not just put that on the policy?
34:17
It is not a heck of a lot of money and it will cover you if the person, there's
34:21
just too many people doing what happens.
34:22
Now with a lot of people by the insurance and they do it to either satisfy
34:27
the state requirement or something like that.
34:29
And then they drop it as after a couple of weeks and months or something like
34:33
So it looks like they have insurance, but they really don't.
34:36
And that's where this uninsured motor protection covers it.
34:39
All things considered, all the things you just mentioned, what is the
34:43
minimum coverages you would recommend like for liability and uninsured
34:49
motorists and all of the, I think you mentioned four different things.
34:53
So if you could talk about the minimum, we recommend at least $100,000
34:56
liability per person.
34:58
So if there were four people injured in that other vehicle or your vehicle,
35:02
it would be $100,000 for everybody and a burger killed $300,000 per
35:09
So again, that's not a whole lot of money these days.
35:11
And a hundred thousand dollars in damage, you know, and I have, uh,
35:16
because I'm on TV and radio and I've known everybody thinks I'm worth
35:21
the hell of a lot of money, which is of course not true for reporters, but I,
35:24
I have an umbrella policy that covers me up for a million dollars.
35:28
And it really, I don't know if it's a figure here, but it's really cheap to
35:31
get a million dollars umbrella coverage.
35:33
It covers you for anything.
35:34
Car accident, somebody trips on my property.
35:36
Oh yeah, we're going to dig the TV guy.
35:38
Like, uh, there's not a lot there to get guys, but this is going to take care of
35:41
that. That's something else you just might want to consider getting an umbrella
35:44
policy that would cover you both for your house and for your car.
35:48
It's really in the scheme of life, very inexpensive coverage to protect you
35:52
against a whole lot of potential loss.
35:55
Here, we've run out of time, but before we go, tell us about checkbook.org and
36:01
Checkbook.org is nonprofit.
36:03
Uh, we, uh, rate services across the country.
36:05
So where consumer reports does, uh, like products, like washers and dryers,
36:09
we do electricians and, uh, veterinarians and dentists and plumbers and all
36:14
that sort of thing.
36:15
And, uh, we don't take any advertising because we're non-profit.
36:18
So you can trust our rating is not like some of these groups,
36:21
Angie's with others who make it a little money to boost up the rating.
36:25
And, uh, we're there to help people.
36:27
I do the consumer pedia podcast, which is at consumerpedia.org and write one
36:31
general consumer story.
36:33
Like I used to do for NBC news.com, not based on ratings, but just general
36:37
consumer advice, uh, every week, people who want to, uh, go to my website,
36:41
consumerman.com, you can sign up for my weekly newsletter.
36:44
We get up what I do every single week and, uh, keep up to the know of what's
36:48
going on, consumerman.com.
36:50
Herb, thank you so much for your time.
36:51
We will link to all of that stuff and we'd love to have you back on the show
36:55
And one, I know you're on time at one last thing, 30 seconds.
36:59
Do not let your car insurance policy lapse.
37:01
No matter what you do, if you let that policy lapse for a day and then go to
37:06
buy new insurance, it's like you never had auto insurance.
37:10
You're going to get clobber.
37:12
Your insurance never lapsed.
37:15
So that's some advice.
37:19
Thank you for joining us.
37:21
That was her wife's mom, the consumer man.
37:23
We're going to take a break.
37:24
And when we come back quiz time quiz time questions or comments, drop us a
37:32
line at carstuff at consumer guide.com.
37:35
That's carstuff at consumer guide.com.
37:40
Hi, it's Brendan from Sons of Speed.
37:42
You've heard me and my colleague Paul on the car stuff podcast, whenever Jill's
37:46
out of town, but now you can hear us every week on the we are motor driven
37:51
podcast, along with Jennifer from auto exotica and Harvey from rides and drives.
37:56
We talk about everything from sports cars to trucks to EVs and our favorite
38:02
So join us each week by searching we are motor driven wherever you get your
38:12
Welcome back to the car stuff podcast and we're back.
38:16
This is the consumer guy car stuff podcast.
38:18
She is Jill and I just learned for certain.
38:21
I don't know anything about insurance.
38:22
I know that was so much good information.
38:25
It's funny because people think that, you know, car guy, and maybe you get
38:29
questions like this too.
38:30
And then people call and ask me about like tires.
38:33
I don't, I don't know that much about tires.
38:36
No, I very rarely get to test tires and I rarely buy tires except for my wife
38:39
and daughter's car, but, um, yeah.
38:41
And you know where I go, um, little plug for our good friends there, but it's
38:45
a wonderful site to research tires.
38:47
And that's the tire rack.
38:49
We, we do that as well.
38:50
They do their own engineering train, a test, you know, these things plus the
38:54
consumer reviews are extensive in lots and lots of, lots of people have driven
38:58
Well, and plus I think you can actually call them if you're one of those
39:01
people who actually likes to talk on the phone and, um, you can talk to a real
39:05
human and they will guide you through the process.
39:08
I usually like to do the phone thing, but I did make my reservations at carnival
39:12
online and that was pretty handy.
39:14
But another send a meal sorts of texts.
39:16
I don't like using the phone, um, but whatever.
39:19
Hey, you're on social media.
39:20
I am, I am on social media.
39:22
Uh, you can find me on pretty much everything that exists at Jill
39:26
So my full name mashed together, lots of eyes and L's in there.
39:30
And then I also use the hashtag card as your, um, I've been putting new videos
39:35
on Tik Tok every day and I do full length YouTube reviews once a week.
39:40
So, uh, definitely check me out and I like to engage with people.
39:44
And you were working out some kinks in the process of putting our stuff up on
39:49
So I, I was having, it was taking me like three hours to edit a one hour video.
39:55
So I think I'm going to just put the audio up for a short amount of time and
39:59
then, um, get back into it, but I've fallen very far behind.
40:03
I think April is the last, uh, video I've uploaded of the podcast.
40:07
So I will, I will get back into that though.
40:10
I found you're thinking about editing a video.
40:12
Um, I used to go to auto shows more often and they used to be invited to,
40:16
to interview executives and I enjoy doing that.
40:19
And if you can get 20 minutes with an executive, you should take it.
40:23
It's pretty precious time.
40:24
And, and one of the things that I had access to back when I consumer guide was
40:28
part of another company was transcribers.
40:31
So I would record the interview and like hand them a file, you know, and, and then
40:36
a week later I'd have a nice written thing that I could edit.
40:41
Oh, this is so much better than me doing this.
40:45
Um, you didn't mention your social media.
40:48
Car Guy Tom on X, Twitter, same thing.
40:54
Uh, it's quiz time.
40:57
Um, I lost the quiz.
40:59
Well, while you're finding the quiz, I will fill in and say, um, I have chosen a
41:04
new doughnut today.
41:07
I mean, the, the normal powdered cinnamon doughnut was there, but there was
41:10
something that looked like it was not powdered cinnamon.
41:13
It was just like cinnamon and sugar.
41:15
And you said it was like an apple.
41:16
I didn't call it the apple crisp.
41:18
So I'm, I'm doing the apple crisp that has cinnamon and sugar on it.
41:21
And it is really quite lovely.
41:23
I, um, over the weekend, I was, no, last week before my anniversary, I was at
41:28
Mark's chocolate picking up anniversary stuff for my wife and the owner there
41:35
So it's a little out of the way.
41:37
You and I went to Mark's.
41:38
Yes, we did together.
41:39
It's a little out of the way.
41:40
Did you find the quiz?
41:47
You're a geography nut.
41:48
No, I am not foreign places.
41:50
And the question is, does Volkswagen build there?
41:53
I'm going to give you five foreign places.
41:56
I've got five here.
41:57
One, two, three, four, five.
41:58
Um, looks like four, five.
42:02
I'm going to give you a foreign place.
42:03
You have to tell me a Volkswagen builds cars there.
42:07
And it's not parts.
42:08
It's got to be cars because Volkswagen builds parts everywhere.
42:12
I, I have to admit, I'm not very familiar with, uh, where Volkswagen builds things.
42:17
They build things a lot of places.
42:22
Bratislava, Slovakia.
42:24
And Volkswagen is a very big company as well.
42:27
With a lot of brands.
42:29
Um, too many brands.
42:31
I'm going to say yes.
42:32
In fact, they build the Q8 there.
42:37
The Q7 Q8 and the Porsche Cayenne are built there.
42:41
And I think there's some other like crazy sub like SCOTA and other things that are
42:47
You're on the board.
42:49
I don't know how to pronounce this, but I think it's a gear.
42:54
G Y O with whom louts are hungry.
43:03
I'm going to say no.
43:05
They build the Audi A3 and A3 Sportback.
43:08
I think for Europe, I don't think those are important to the U.S.
43:11
You still have one.
43:13
San Miguel El Salvador and the little strip of land that connects North America
43:19
and South America and Salvador and Salvador.
43:24
I'm going to say no.
43:25
No, you're doing good.
43:28
You're in good shape.
43:29
Um, Accra, ACC RA, Accra Ghana.
43:36
We don't talk about Africa enough.
43:39
We did talk to have, we talked to Sam about Africa a little bit.
43:47
Um, I'm going to say yes.
43:50
I didn't know this.
43:52
The Amarek pickup, it's one of those vehicles that enthusiasts are like,
43:55
bring it to the U.S., bring it to the U.S.
43:57
And then they won't buy it.
43:58
Everyone wanted the, the Heidi Buzz here.
44:01
No one's buying that, but the Amarek is pretty cool.
44:04
And I think it's very offered capable.
44:05
We wanted the Heidi Buzz in the, um, shorter wheelbase version with a longer range.
44:11
You don't, well, is there a longer range version of it?
44:15
I don't know, but we wanted more range.
44:17
You'll get more range onto the shorter one, probably cause it weighs a little bit
44:19
less, but I don't think they can squeeze more than 95 kilowatts under the deck of that.
44:24
You got three, you've won.
44:26
And finally, Peace River, Alberta, Canada, Peace River.
44:33
Uh, does Volkswagen build stuff there?
44:41
Does Volkswagen build anything in Canada?
44:44
But that's the question.
44:45
That is the question.
44:47
Um, I'm going to say no.
44:51
A lot of manufacturers do, but they do not.
44:55
You have three, you've won this, but we're going to the bonus question
44:57
because that's what we do.
44:59
Uh, we're doing good on time.
45:01
You want to talk about something after the quiz.
45:02
Uh, KFC, no longer called Kentucky fried chicken.
45:07
How many do you think there are in the world?
45:09
I am always so far off on this.
45:12
Um, KFC locations worldwide, 15,000 halfway there, 30.
45:19
How many do you think there are in the US?
45:20
This never surprised me.
45:29
I would have thought there were more.
45:31
They're ubiquitous where we live.
45:33
Well, cause Kentucky like that, you would think there would be a lot more in
45:36
America than any place else.
45:38
How many do you think there are in Africa?
45:40
This number also surprised me.
45:47
Very international.
45:49
And then finally, as long as we're talking about Ghana, how many do you think
45:51
there are in Ghana?
45:55
You're pretty close there.
45:57
By the way, the Ghana URL extension is GH.
46:00
I learned that today.
46:01
Never saw that before.
46:03
You know, it's RU for Russian and stuff like that.
46:06
I need you to tell me which of the following is not an item on the Kentucky
46:09
fried chicken menu in Ghana.
46:12
In the four, wait, you said 14.
46:18
The Zinger tower burger.
46:21
The Colonel tower burger.
46:23
The glazed yam Zinger burger or the veg burger.
46:30
I think it's going to be one of the last two.
46:33
The glazed yam Zinger burger or the veg burger.
46:40
And we have to talk about this tower thing briefly.
46:44
I mean, veg just seems very basic.
46:49
And it could be so many things.
46:53
Um, I want the yam thing to be true.
46:56
Glazed yam Zinger burger.
46:58
I hope it's yams and a zinger, like a raspberry zinger and just pressed on a bun.
47:03
Why would you eat that?
47:04
I would eat something that was zingy, spicy.
47:07
Um, I'm going to go with the veg burger as the fake.
47:10
No, it is the glad the glazed yam Zinger burgers.
47:12
The fake, the tower burgers are interesting.
47:15
The Zinger tower burger is a fish patty plus a potato patty.
47:18
And the Colonel tower burger is a chicken patty plus a potato patty.
47:22
They're huge looking in the, in the, in the photography.
47:26
And the veg burger was very simple looking.
47:28
It looked a little bit like a chicken patty.
47:31
You have won this with three.
47:33
You did not get, but the bonus question, I have four, didn't I?
47:37
Oh, you got the Canada one.
47:38
You have four, four.
47:40
Don't, don't try to, you know, take away my points.
47:44
You have some Nectoy news, North American car of the year news.
47:49
And what do you have finalists?
47:50
Um, not finalists, not finalists.
47:52
The, the consideration, what do you call the first round?
47:55
Best of, best of, okay.
47:57
Um, so essentially this is like we, every year, there's a whole crop of vehicles
48:03
that are all new, significantly refreshed.
48:06
Um, and we look at all of those vehicles and we put them forth to the, we have 49
48:13
So we put them forth to the 49 jurors and say, okay, what are the best of what's new?
48:21
And we came up with a list.
48:24
So, um, in the car category, we have the Audi A5, the Dodge Charger, which will
48:31
include the, both the electric and the six pack.
48:34
So the Daytona and the six pack, the Honda prelude, the,
48:39
tell us what that is.
48:40
So the Honda prelude is a new vehicle.
48:42
It's coming out, um, towards the end of this year.
48:44
And I believe it is the hybrid.
48:47
It's a hybrid version.
48:49
It is very civic like drive.
48:53
and for people who don't know preludes a legacy name.
48:56
Um, it was once a very nice sporty car.
48:59
If you remember the Acura Integra, it was of similar ilk, although the prelude
49:03
was always based on the Accord, not on the civic.
49:06
That's different now.
49:08
And so that's, that's new that we haven't necessarily seen anything, I think,
49:12
other than a prototype right now.
49:13
By the way, is that a two door?
49:15
Oh, I don't remember.
49:17
I think it's, it should be historically replacing the, like the coupe version.
49:22
So yeah, I think it is.
49:25
So, um, but yeah, so that the Kia K4 hatchback, the Mercedes Benz CLA and then
49:35
And that's all redesigned.
49:36
If that is redesigned as well as the kicks was, and they are mechanically
49:41
similar, that should be a very nice vehicle.
49:43
And I will say, like of the vehicles on this list, I don't know what will make it
49:50
through to the finalists.
49:52
I, if I had to venture a guess, I would say, um, Dodge Charger Honda
49:58
Prelude and Nissan Sentra.
50:00
I don't think the Charger only, if I'm going to guess, I think the, the Prelude
50:04
and the Kia are interesting and the Sentra.
50:07
I think they matter the most and they, I don't know.
50:11
I'm very interested in the Prelude.
50:12
We'll see what that is.
50:15
So then for the truck of the year candidates, I have to tell you, this is
50:19
always a really tough category because there are, it's very rare that you get
50:24
like a whole bunch of new trucks in a year.
50:27
So it seems to be a problem for Motortrend where they would do a truck of the year
50:31
and then there weren't enough new trucks.
50:33
And so very often you will have like a full trim version that appears that, you
50:38
know, it's not a completely new truck, but it's a trim version.
50:41
So the vehicles this year, um, are the Ford F-150 Lobo, which is a trim version.
50:48
The Ford Maverick Lobo, um, at the Ram 1500 with the Hemi engine.
50:54
So they're bringing back the Hemi, the Ram 2500, which is all new.
51:00
And then, um, the Rivian R1T quad motor.
51:05
I will bribe you people not to reward Ram for taking a step backwards
51:13
I know why they did it.
51:15
It just feels like regression.
51:18
So if I could venture, yes, then I think the three finalists would probably be
51:22
Ford Maverick Lobo, Ram 2500 and the R1T.
51:25
What's the deal with the Ram 2500?
51:29
For people who know the 1500 and then the heavy duties, um, what do they call them?
51:35
Heavy duties at Chevy and at, uh, Ram and super duties at Ford.
51:41
But those are actually a significant class up in terms of, um, utility.
51:46
They are big, big, yeah.
51:48
They're big honkers.
51:49
And they're the ones that get the big brand name diesels.
51:52
And then finally utility.
51:54
So there's a lot of utilities this year and we purposely, we're a little tight on time.
51:58
We purposely increased this category because the SUV segment is the largest.
52:03
So we have Acura ADX Audi Q5, Cadillac Escalade IQ, Cadillac Optic, Cadillac
52:10
Mystic, Ford Expedition, Genesis, GV 70, Honda Passport, Hyundai Ionic nine, Hyundai
52:17
Palisade, Jeep Cherokee, Lucid Gravity, Nissan Leaf, Polestar four, Subaru
52:22
Forester hybrid, Toyota four runner, Toyota RAV four, Volkswagen Tiguan and
52:31
This is a really, like there are a lot of significant vehicles.
52:34
Can I look at that real quick?
52:35
I just want to see what I think might happen here.
52:39
ADX is not going to happen.
52:43
Um, maybe the Cadillac Optic, that's electric, of course.
52:47
I like the new Expedition a lot.
52:49
Passport, I haven't seen it.
52:50
I'm driving the Hyundai Ionic nine, I think next week and Palisades very good.
52:54
Cherokee has a chance just because it's really important.
52:59
They need that vehicle in that class.
53:01
Lucid Gravity, that's interesting.
53:03
A little expensive though, right?
53:06
Leaf could win this.
53:08
Could win this if it's good.
53:09
Um, I don't know how new the Q5 is.
53:14
And Polestar four, you've driven that.
53:18
I can't tell you yet.
53:20
I thought you would, I have driven it, but it's under embargo until the
53:22
beginning of November.
53:24
And I finally have a Polestar three coming.
53:26
So I'll be adding that to my personal fleet experience checklist.
53:30
If I had to guess what are going to make it through to the final three, I
53:34
think Cadillac optic, um, has a good chance.
53:37
I think Ionic nine has a good chance.
53:41
Oh, and I mean, Nissan Leaf and Polestar four are both.
53:45
It's an interesting list because there's not a lot of esoterica there.
53:48
It's all stuff that's been significantly updated.
53:49
I mean, the RAV four is all new.
53:53
Interesting thing about the RAV four and we're out of time here, but the RAV
53:56
four is coming in down on people's lists of best crossovers, but people are
54:02
Uh, and I think that long in the tooth, it's a little low, but it is still the
54:06
Toyota entry in that field and it's still got reliability and fuel economy on
54:10
its side, although pricing maybe it's just a little higher than other stuff.
54:13
So an all new one is exciting.
54:14
Yeah, we'll see how that goes.
54:17
Uh, big thanks to Herb Weissbound, the consumer man for joining us this week.
54:22
Thank you to producer Randy and the good folks here at Talk Zone.
54:24
Let's talk more about cars again next week, next week.
54:30
Remember to check us out at consumer guide.com.
54:34
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54:38
Please drop us a line at car stuff at consumer guide.com.