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Welcome to the podcast of Motor Week, television's original automotive magazine.
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Motor Week is made possible by auto value and bumper to bumper and tire rack dot com.
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Here's your Motor Week podcast host, John Davis.
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And welcome to Motor Week podcast number 362.
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I am indeed your host John Davis and boy do we have a jam packed show for you this week.
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We have no less than three new vehicles to talk about, one from BMW, one from Honda,
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and one from Nissan. We also have a lightning round on how current events
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are changing Porsche's product plans. And a viewer wants to have more information on how we
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actually test cars here at Motor Week. And finally, how some automakers are coming up with
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inventive ways to extend the EV tax incentives that expired at the end of September.
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So lots to talk about and doing just that today are our over the edge reporter, Greg Carlos.
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That is me. Our digital producer, Jessica Ray.
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And staff writer extraordinaire, Alexander Kellum.
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All right. First up, that BMW I mentioned specifically the long awaited EV version
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of their most popular model worldwide, which is the X3 Compact Utility.
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This is the new iX3 SUV. Jessica, it certainly has big shoes to fill, can it?
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I mean, this is, it's such a weird time, I think, for this vehicle to be making its debut.
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I feel like it's probably a little bit more important globally than I think that's a good
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in the US. But nonetheless, you know, they still sell a lot of X3s here in the US.
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It's their second highest volume vehicle here after the X5. So between those two utilities,
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it makes up the bulk of BMW sales.
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Yeah. So when you, when you think about it, you know, and, and also
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this is an all electric vehicle. That's kind of why it's, it's a little bit
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funny that we're talking about it during this time. But yeah, it's sort of debuting
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BMW's six generation electric systems, right? You know, they've been doing PHEVs and EVs for
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a few years at this point. Certainly veterans of it.
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Yes. And so now they're moving away from initially where they had started, at least here in the US,
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where they were taking combustion chassis and sort of making it work for both ICE and for
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BEV or, or PHEV powertrains. So they were doing that for a long time.
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Which we all applauded, but now they've, they've pretty much put that in the rear view mirror.
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Yeah. This time, this really, truly is their all new, all electric, exclusively electric
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platform. And it's debuting a new design language for them as well, the new a classa, which
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That's as close as I can get. So which, which you probably know more about the
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importance of the historic aspect of new a classa. That was, it's inspired by the
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60s and 70s design language from BMW. That's what they say. And I think you can look back,
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say at the 2002 and see a little bit in the grill. The first thing I see is the 2002.
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But the rest of it seems to be like that's where the inspiration stopped.
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Yeah. I mean, it's definitely modern. I think you can see where the, they've sort of taken
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another step forward from the IX. This kind of hones in a very specific modular,
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futuristic design language. I thought you were going to talk about how ugly it is.
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Well, I didn't want to say that quite. I know styling is in the eye of the
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beholders, but the IX was certainly not the, didn't win any bellow the ball awards,
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I think for our parents. And this actually, I think is,
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I think this makes the IX look very attractive. Yes. Now again, this is, you know, taste is,
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is quite subjective. So there's that. But I do think, you know, without looking on the exterior
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of this, the, of this model, it's really important to actually dive into the details,
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what's underneath its skin, which is truly impressive. We've been talking,
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But you know, I'm so superficial.
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Now we've been talking.
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All right. I know. I know you're trying to give details. I'll hush.
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You're going to get the good stuff, John. You know, we've been talking probably,
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if you've listened to our podcast, we've talked a lot about architectures for electric vehicles.
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Specifically, we've talked about 800 volt architectures. And so a lot of times,
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some of these models will have an 800 volt architecture, but maybe they can't charge
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quite as quick as that architecture could peak at, for example. And so that's where this new IX3
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kind of moves us into the next generation of EVs. It's an 800 volt architecture,
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and it's also supported a max charging rate of 400 kilowatts. So that's actually more technically
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than what you could get right now at a DC fast charger, because right now,
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they only go up to 350. So this is what we would refer to as future-proofed,
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because the future is coming, we're going to be able to charge faster. And so that's impressive
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because they're saying that you could get 175 miles of recuperation in about 10 minutes. So
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with a total range that they're saying to of 400 miles. So we're kind of reaching the specs on
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this or kind of reaching to points that are grasping at what the standard should be within
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the next five years. These are the numbers that we're kind of expecting. Or what you can get on
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a Tesla now. I mean, that's the one thing that gets me about all this is they still, except for
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very few vehicles, when it comes to something near mainstream, they still are the mileage
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or range champs. Well, I guess technically for vehicles under $100,000. Obviously, we know the
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lucid air can go much further over 500 miles. But yes, you were correct. BMW previously did
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not have a vehicle that could hit range numbers quite like this. I want to say the IX probably
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wasn't seeing much more than 300 miles of range, 320, something like that. Now, what I do think too
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is really interesting is that it looks like at home, you can pull 19.2 kilowatts on a level
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one or level two, level two charger, which that's impressive because I guess I think right now
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most vehicles are looking at about 11 kilowatts. So I don't believe the battery pack on this is
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very big either. I don't think they said exactly what it is. They didn't say what it is yet.
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Okay, so we don't actually know what the battery pack size is. But standard NAX port,
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I will say we should also mention the interior of this, which is funky for sure. Kind of matches
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the exterior. The central screen is diagonal. It's at an angle. Do you like your infotainment
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in italics? Because this screen is in italics. And they're running counter to what,
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instead of blending it into the instrument panel like so many brands are doing it,
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they've got just another big, in this case, weirdly angled horizontal tablet in the middle
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of the dash. Yeah, and it does have this, and we've seen it in concepts too before, but like
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some other brands are doing, it has this panoramic screen that goes across the bottom of the dashboard
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that's sort of like inlaid back there, like right here, and which clearly is like where your
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speedometer is and other information. It's there looks to be like next to no buttons here.
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So yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's in line with what they told the press. So I think it was
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two years ago that eventually they think all the information that you normally need like speedo
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and climate and so forth will actually end up being projected up onto the windshield. So this
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is just below it. So they're moving in that direction to basically get all this information
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ahead of you and maybe even above in your eye line. Basically what Lincoln's doing. Yeah,
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very much. Very much. I think it's interesting because I thought like, I don't know, a year ago
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or so many months ago, Europe was going to incentivize, what was it, something about bringing
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buttons back into infotainments? Well, the public is speaking and basically saying that they'd like to,
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well, they're probably getting concerned that so many aspects of a car that used to be routine,
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you now have to look away from the road into some kind of a screen and take your hands off
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the wheel to touch it. Yeah, the controls are on the steering wheel, but you know, half the time
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people don't master those. Yeah. Anyway, so when are we going to get more info? Because this is such
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a critical vehicle that you would think that they would be pretty anxious to spell it out.
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I don't, I'm not 100% sure. I think it's still a little bit up in the air because I, this is a 26
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model. Yeah, it's got to be soon. Probably soon. Oh, probably next year. Early next year is going
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to be in production. Right. So it should arrive next summer. So what do you think?
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You know, I've had my say. Alex, you've been very quiet. You wrote the article on it.
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That bold of you to assume I remember what I wrote like a month ago or three weeks ago or whatever
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it was. Yeah, like you said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think with modern BMW,
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they could stand to go into an optometrist, but I think they've done a little bit.
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They have a history of doing that though, of getting people sort of churned up by their exterior.
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It doesn't take away from their, the great driving aspect. Sure. Yeah. And obviously,
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we haven't driven this, so we can't really comment on that. I actually, when I saw the pictures of it,
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I actually did not hate the way it looked. I thought it was, it's quirky, it's interesting,
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it's a little different. The steering wheel, if you didn't like having three spokes, now you got
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four. So that's cool. It's an across. And actually, I have a funny story about this car because
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about two weeks ago, I was on 95, regretting my decision to get on 95. And in my rear view,
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I saw a camouflaged vehicle and it's coming up, it's rolling up, and I can tell it's a BMW.
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And it pulls up next to me and I see that spoke in the steering wheel going straight up and it's
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got the jersey tags and I'm thinking, well, there you go. This is, this is a prototype here. I'm
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seeing it live in action. Of course, like a good driver, I did not take a picture of it, but I've
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got the dash cam footage somewhere. So I'm, I don't recall, are they talking about building this in
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South Carolina? Or have they said anything about that? Because that is where the bulk of X3 production
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is. And it's, we reported that it's going to be made in Hungary. Right. Okay. Given the situation
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with EVs in this country, that makes sense. Greg, any comments? Yeah, nothing to add any
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actual information. I just think it's, I think it's funny that for so long, people were just
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hammering BMW about this big kidney grille, like it got bigger. Now we found the other direction.
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Everybody was starting to be like, Hey, it is what it is. That's what it looks like.
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They go back to the small and now people are hating on the smaller like this is the original
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side. Like it is like 2002 BMW sticks in my mind, like, you know, like it's cemented there.
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So we go back to what everybody's been clamoring for for years. And now we're all like, Yeah,
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that's that doesn't look right. So I think the small grill works. I think what I have problems
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with is just what's around it. It's, you know, it's, it's the only thing that's really familiar
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up there and granted, you know, stylists always like to do something new. But the combination of the
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what would you call it almost arrow like a receding headlamp and and the side grills next to the
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twin kidney, they're trying to get a smiley face on it. I'll give them that. I'm just anyway,
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I'm curious to see if it drives. So I remember the I X. I that was driving for the first time.
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I'm like, this doesn't really drive like a BMW, right? We didn't. Yeah. But you get into like
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an I four and you're like, wow, this might be the best four series sort of an M four.
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And I think that's important for us to know they have, they, they have gone very quickly
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from providing a luxury EV that was, I hate to say fairly soulless, but certainly didn't feel like
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a BMW to cars that we think exemplify the history of the brand. And we're looking forward to see
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if they've rolled all that into this. We're going to go right quickly to the second car on our list
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today. And if you think we've been talking about the past, this next one up is a real
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blast from the past, that being the return of the Honda prelude, the first prelude arrived here
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way back in 1979 as a sporty two door coupe. It was lightweight, nimble and vastly underpowered,
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gaining the nickname Quaylude. But it was still a great grand touring car and it stuck around
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through five generations and brought with it a lot of innovations, including rear wheel steering,
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active rear wheel steering and variable valve timing until it disappeared after the 2001 model
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year. And here we are 25 years later, the 2026 prelude is back. Same long hood short rear deck
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GT profile. Alex, you think it's going to be anything more than just a blast from the past?
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Are they looking to make this? It has to be, because it doesn't have pop up headlights.
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So I should mention very quickly that we're just talking about it. We have not driven it yet. We
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will be driving it soon. So consider this the prelude to the prelude. I thought about that one.
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I knew that that was working in your head. All morning. All right, sweet. All right,
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that's where I peek on this podcast. Yeah, so I guess we'll start with the powertrain because
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that's probably the most interesting thing here. So it's a hybrid and we've kind of known it was
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going to be a hybrid. We've been talking about this car for like two years now. But they've kind
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of given us the deets. It's a two liter inline four, 200 horsepower, 232 pound feet of torque uses
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both that engine with electric motors. And that may sound very familiar to some of Honda's other
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portfolio or items in their portfolio. And that would be like the Civic hybrid. Now you may be
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wondering about the transmission. And this is the part that I knew I was going to have to talk about
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this. There's no manual transmission option. No three pedals. No three pedals. Only two pedals.
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Which right there is a disappointment. And that is a disappointment. I assume it has something to
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do with the hybrid powertrain. Right. And instead, we're getting an ECVT. Why? No, are we?
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Well, well, well, that's Honda has Honda has not labeled it. There's no transmission. They simply
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say, okay, we know it's an automatic. Let's put it that way. But they haven't put any labels on it,
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even though, as you just said, it has the hybrid powertrain lifted out of a Civic hybrid,
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which does have an ECVT. Yeah, but they are not referring to it as referring to it as such.
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They're actually not referring to it at all. They say whatever they want. It's all marketing.
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It really is kind of amusing. It's kind of amusing that they're being so coy about something
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that's fairly obvious. We don't really believe in labels. As soon as I saw I was on the run down
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to talk about this car, I was like, I'm going to avoid it. And then I got there and said,
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oh, I'm going to bring it up. Stir the pot. I'm going to stir the pot. All right. The people want
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to know. It will have an automatic transmission of some form. And so what they're doing is they're
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adding this S plus shift, which is, so there's paddle shifters on the steering column,
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or maybe on the wheel. They're up there, regardless. And this feature kind of simulates
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gear shifts and blips. Which is not new for transmission. But it's not transmission.
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Right. No. It's all electric. Yeah. And it's front wheel drive. So it's kind of retaining that
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aspect of the, you know, historically. There's a video of it. You can go look at it and see,
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listen to it and see it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they sent us the actual Honda video. Yeah,
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they sent us the B roll package. So that's the powertrain, which, you know, you can take that
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or leave it if you will. I have my, maybe that'll be my rant later, but I'll see whatever. You know,
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it's a good looking vehicle. Again, I'm back on the styling. It favors the previous
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preludes. I think it looks like a modern rendition of the last one they made. So I give them
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good marks for that. Yeah. They didn't try and create something that has no reference to the
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name at all, which we've seen lots of automakers do. Right. Yeah. So and to talk about the styling
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a bit, when this car was first kind of being not like it was just beyond the rumor phase,
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like we knew it was going to be a thing, but we didn't really know anything about it. And we
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have seen this in person already at like auto shows, I should mention, there was kind of the
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initial thought of like, oh, this will be a competitor for some of the other Japanese sports
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coupes right now. So the GR86 from Toyota and Subaru's BRZ. That's not really going to be the
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case. This is more going to be, or at least they're pivoting it to be more of a touring car.
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Which was what the original prelude was. But size wise, it's not far off. If you want to,
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you know, if you're trying to visualize how big this thing is compared to the GR86,
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I actually brought up to compare the measurements really quick. The wheelbase on the prelude is
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about 103 inches. And on the GR86 about 101 give or take. So right there, you know,
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wheelbase is about the same length is where there's a little bit more of a substantial change here.
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And that's because of the preludes kind of more GT proportions. It's going to be just shy of 180
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inches. Whereas the GR86 is 168. So there is a difference there. So it is going to be a little
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bit bigger. It's going to be a little bit wider. And as for the actual seating inside of it, like
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with that greater length, you're also going to get more room, more volume inside. It does have
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rear seats. Not sure who's going to use them, but it is a two plus two coupe. Yeah, Jessica will use
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them. I can fit back there. And you'll, well, if you're back there, you'll have 32 inches of rear
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leg room. Something they confirmed about a month or two ago, maybe a little longer than that,
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is that the preludes also going to use the Civic Type R's suspension and its Brembo brakes. So
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you get the dual axis front suspension, you get the bigger Brembo. So that should make it a bit
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sportier. But again, this is a touring car. And as such, actually, they haven't confirmed pricing
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for us yet. We're still waiting on those details. But they did say this is going to be sold as one
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trim. There will be different colors and interior options, but it will be a one trim car. You know,
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it's pretty bold of them that most everybody else is abandoning the two door coupe market.
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And to get back into it, they must know something that we don't, the four door coupe market, which
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is not a four, not a coupe at all. So any other comments about it? I mean, I'm kind of, I like
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the look of it. I'm intrigued. It'll have a proven powertrain. It'll be probably lightweight and
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nimble, like the old ones. I mean, there definitely has been a little bit of a void in their lineup
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when it comes to like when the the Civic Coupe left, you know, while I understand why it left
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their lineup just because of just not as many people want them. But there are a lot of people
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out there who that's all they want. That is all they want. And the Civic being the
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one of the best selling sports coupes, like affordable ones in, you know, that you can buy,
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I think that this if priced correctly will be a really great point to add back into the lineup.
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Any thoughts, Greg? Yeah, I want to go back to this whole transmission non transmission thing.
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I know everybody loves to talk about that. I'm willing to give it a try. I know a lot of people
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have, you know, certainly had their thoughts on it and most of them negative. But I'm going to equate
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it to the Ionic 5N. Yeah, that's a good comparison. Which obviously has no transmission. And it's
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simul- everything is simulated. So like everything, they actually have paddle shifters that can act
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as paddle shifters. It blips the throttle and it actually produces fake engine noise. Again,
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there is no engine in this electric car. And I bought into it totally. I thought it was,
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I thought it was pretty cool. And then I drove it and I thought it was awesome. So
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I'm going to give Honda the benefit of the doubt on this. And I did, like I said,
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there's a video out on it and I watched it sounded every bit as good as like the the Ionic 5N did.
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So, you know, I'm willing to give it a chance. And it's just where we are. I mean, like we
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bemoaned the loss of manual transmissions. And, you know, now it's like they're trying. They're
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trying. Most people don't care. I get it. You know, most people do not care about these things
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that we care about. So the fact that they're still trying to make some people care a little bit about
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it. They're trying to keep. I just recently kind of got hung up on this. They're trying to keep
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put back maybe even the soul of a car. The essence of what made one vehicle different from another.
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And I think you could argue that EVs and hybrids and even internal combustion engine cars,
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we've made them so smooth, they've lost that soul. So any attempt to put it back, I think, is to be
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applauded. And I do think like we made the comment like it's bold of them to kind of enter this this
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coupe market. And I have to wonder if part of it was they did want to wait for this hybrid power
23:27
train they were working on. They knew they wanted that. That being said, and I alluded to this earlier
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and you brought up like how this is kind of like the Civic Coupe people have waited for.
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We recently drove the Civic SI, the refreshed SI. And it makes me wish that this was a two-trim car
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where maybe the base offering had the 1.5 turbo and the SI with that six-speed manual.
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And I think that would just be like best of both worlds. You have the hybrid tour for people that
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want it. And then you've got the kind of like, you know, just the fun little Civic.
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And you'd sell about a thousand. Yeah, I mean, I get that.
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Yeah. I mean, I think I like, you know, the idea that here you have, you're starting off with the
24:06
hybrid power train, which gives you a boost of power, the same amount of power that you would
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have in a Civic SI. And but better fuel economy, obviously. So this would be a good daily commuter.
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And then you're adding in this S plus shift feature so that if you want to have a little fun
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with it and decent suspension and brakes. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think it's I think it's a really
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I think if people have to shift their thinking around it a little bit,
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but this could be a much cooler car than I think a lot of people think.
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Okay, let's move there. I can't wait to get behind the wheel of it.
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By the way, we want everybody to know stay tuned just a few minutes. We're going to
24:46
take a look at the latest iteration of really the EV that took battery electrics from concept
24:54
to mainstream in this country. And we're talking about the Nissan Leaf. But first,
24:58
we're going to do our lightning round right after I thank our sponsors for this podcast.
25:03
And for everything Motor Week, auto value and bumper to bumper. And also the folks over at
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tire rack.com. We know our viewers and listeners appreciate your dedication to all things Motor
25:16
Week. To refresh your memory in our lightning round, we give everybody used to be 30 seconds,
25:21
but now it's basically until I get tired of listening to them, a time to talk about a topic
25:27
that is trending. And here it is. Porsche, like other brands, has decided to pull back on its
25:33
plans to make its lineup fully electric, mostly because of what's going on here in the US, but
25:38
also some rejection in Europe of pure EVs. The news is the next generation 718 cars will have gas
25:46
powered version. 718 was slated to become an EV only model as production on the gas models was
25:53
supposed to end very soon. This is a familiar story to the McCann, which now produces both gas and
26:00
EV models. What do we make of these changes at Porsche? And is this something we're going to see
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at other brands, i.e., maybe even BMW? Yeah, Greg? Okay, I'll go. I think what we have to remember,
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first and foremost, as much as we love in this case, like Porsche, right, and they make these great
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cars, we have fun driving them and all that. At the end of the day, they are a business. Porsche
26:27
exists to sell cars and to make money. They are going to do what behooves them. And I'm not blaming
26:33
them for that. So I'm just saying that when the world changes, when there is, like you mentioned,
26:37
rejection or a little bit more of a change in industry trends and what consumers are buying,
26:43
they're going to adjust with that so they can keep making money. So I just see this as a way of them
26:51
doing that. You know, Volkswagen has already said that the ID buzz is going to end up being,
26:56
having an internal combustion engine version of it. At least that's what I recall. So I think this
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not necessarily knew it's going to become more of a trend. When you've only got 10 or 20% of your
27:08
customers eagerly awaiting an EV of a model, then you've got to do something. You've spent all this
27:13
money on development. Yeah, my takeaway is just as much as we think of business and specifically
27:20
automakers, it's like these big machines that it's like a cruise ship. You can't just slow it down and
27:26
stop it. You think it takes time. But things like this happen and like all this money, excuse me,
27:34
that they spent on EV technology and how quickly they're just like, yeah, okay, no, we're just
27:40
going to throw that money away or at least put that in the back. That's kind of what I'm taking
27:45
from this is we think of these decisions as long term decisions when they're really not. They really
27:51
can just like, you know, they call the CEO calls a meeting and says, hey, we're not doing this anymore.
27:56
That's it. Here's the gas engine back in this thing we said is only going to be EV. You've got huge
28:01
factories with tens of thousands of employees around the world. You've got to build vehicles.
28:08
You can't just lay people off. Your contracts keep making it so. In many cases, you must pay
28:15
workers even if they're not working. You've got to move the metal as they used to say.
28:21
I think what I marvel at it is, is we actually can see these decisions made in fairly short
28:30
amount of times. It used to be when a car maker gets wrong, they had to wait five to seven years
28:35
to get the right model into design work and get it out. Now, obviously, they can do it much quicker.
28:42
So I actually applaud where we are that they maybe not turn on a dime, but they can turn on
28:48
a quarter anyway. Nice. I think we're skeptical when we heard that the 718 was going completely
28:56
electric from the beginning. I certainly was. Especially knowing the history of that vehicle,
29:03
this is the vehicle that was supposed to help save the brand, that they could sell more of them,
29:08
that they necessarily would a 911. And then here you are making it all electric
29:13
and maybe less appealing than you would initially. I'm the only one in this room that around these
29:19
mics that remembers the first Boxster. Yeah. And it was the car that was, like you said,
29:24
was supposed to save the brand less expensive than the 911. Get back to that real genuine sports car
29:30
field. Now, of course, it's a very expensive model like everything else. But, you know,
29:36
between the Boxster and it is really the essence of what the Porsche sports car
29:47
is because it doesn't have a backseat. To me, it's like I think of the Boxster more than I think
29:55
of a 911. I think about a pure Porsche driving experience. And when I heard it was going to go
30:01
fully V, I thought, oh, well, really, okay, that's not up my tailpipe anyway.
30:09
So anybody else have another comment on it? I'm glad to see them being forthright about the
30:14
decision. Yeah, some more Porsche engines. No. I mean, the one thing I will say is I believe that
30:20
the gas models are going to be on higher trims, which is an interesting thing to do. But you have
30:28
to look at the used market. The used market for Porsches is not on the lower trims.
30:34
When someone went a Porsche fan and Porsche fans, even for a 718, they've got somewhere with all.
30:41
When they buy, if they are thinking about resale, they look at used Porsches. It's hard to sell one,
30:49
say without the Chrono package. You just can't sell it. And so they're going for that. Yeah,
30:55
you'll buy it. I buy it, but we're not typical. I understand what you're saying. I know what you're
30:58
saying. Okay. We have a viewer question, and this is an email they came in from Jay,
31:05
and he's talking about our road test. He says, I really like your road test for comparing vehicles,
31:11
especially body roll. He said he's in a forester and he's looking for improvement.
31:16
Are all of our tests through the cones at the same speed, and are the cones always the same
31:22
distance apart? Greg, would you like to address that? They started the same speed.
31:29
The entry speed is always the same. 35 miles an hour. Sometimes, if I'm getting a little bit
31:36
bored, like we're barely even putting the car through its paces, we've got all the shooting
31:40
done, it's like I'll pick it up a little bit. Well, I think that's the concept. You go in at 35,
31:44
if that was effortless, then you maybe kick it up to 40 next time. To test the car and have a baseline,
31:51
I always start at 35, and then I start picking it up, and then show off a little bit for camera,
31:56
start to then assess how it compares to the next level of vehicles. So, yeah,
32:03
35 is the start. Sometimes, they'll end at 38. Sometimes, they'll end at 40. So, I've gone as
32:07
high as 50, 52. And the cones, yes, they are all exactly the same. 100 feet apart. And just to
32:17
give you a little background, Jay, when we were at our former test facility, 7580 Dragway in
32:24
Monrovia, before it closed down, we didn't have enough space to do 100 foot slalom. So, we did an
32:33
80 foot slalom. But the 100 foot slalom is pretty much a standard of all people, through all people,
32:39
that test cars in the media today. This kind of brings the whole body roll concept brings up
32:45
something that I've been noticing in our tests. I might have brought this up before, but cars just
32:48
don't roll anymore. They don't. We take the cars, specifically the cars we take to Robling. I'm
32:54
watching this footage, man, and we're driving as fast as we ever have. And then I go back to
32:59
log the footage or watch the test. I'm like, man, why do we look so slow? It's not because we're
33:05
driving slow. It's because cars just don't react. They don't look like they're going fast. You're
33:10
not leaning into the corner anymore. They do not roll like they used to. And I'm not just talking
33:15
about the highest end stuff. I mean, it's just like even like GR, like we were talking with the
33:20
Prelude and GR86, or what do we call it now? Yeah, GR86. Yeah, sorry. But even like the
33:27
last year, we had a WRX and a GR Corolla. Yeah, I mean, you look at our old Retros,
33:33
they look so fast, but they're actually not that fast because they just they're like rolling. They
33:37
look like they're being driven fast. So yeah, I mean, it's nothing makes you lift your foot off
33:42
the pedal quicker than a car that really rolls along. Because if it starts rolling, you know that
33:48
something is going to lose traction pretty soon after that. We can empathize with Jay, though,
33:52
and he's in a forester. And yeah, there's there's some body roll. And it's a tall vehicle made for
34:00
cargo handling. So Jay, when you do your slalom test at home, stick it to 35 no more.
34:07
Maybe push the cones out a little bit. All right, thank you, Jay, for that. I want to remind
34:12
everybody listening that all of our Motor Week information, including our road test and just
34:16
about everything else we do is available on our Motor Week app. Go to your app store and download
34:22
it. It's a free download and gives you free access to everything Motor Week. By the way,
34:28
also has a very special tab on it labeled power. So you get the specs on every clean fuel vehicle
34:37
that is out there for sale, both new and used. That's every hybrid, every EV, every 85 natural gas
34:44
doesn't matter what you put in it. So download the Motor Week app today, take it with you and
34:50
take it from us. You'll never miss a mile of Motor Week. Now it's time to move on to our last
34:56
vehicle of interest this week, the Nissan Leaf. As I mentioned, it really showed how
35:02
practical EVs could be when it arrived here in December of 2010. I remember because I went to
35:09
Washington, D.C., where USA Today reporter Jim Healy and I got our first chance to drive it around
35:15
Tyson's Corner. It was a very big deal. It had a range of 75 miles that has steadily improved and
35:25
made the Leaf the best-selling EV of all times, and it's not a Tesla. It's a Nissan Leaf. And now
35:31
we fast forward to the new 2026 Leaf, which has a lot more than new to just a longer range. Greg,
35:38
you actually drove it. Why don't you tell us more about the new Leaf? I actually did drive it. And
35:43
I resisted saying turn over a new Leaf. I'm sorry. Yes, I know. He does them better than I do.
35:49
I was going to say his timing is better because we were sure if you were going to host us, Sir
35:52
Natchan, I think I was going to say the Leaf heads into a new season. As long as you didn't say it,
36:00
as long as you didn't say it didn't fall like a Leaf. Good thing I'm not hosting today.
36:08
My own Leaf story is that it was the first car I ever did drive-bys on here as a motor
36:13
weekend turn. Yeah. So yeah, I kind of like that original Leaf. And like it's quirky and specifically
36:20
that little shifter, the little joystick shifter. That was my first time ever using something like
36:24
an EV. I think it was the first time we'd really seen something like that. Yeah, like Prius had,
36:28
was it before Prius? Did the Prius have that before the Leaf did? I want to say yes. Yes,
36:35
yes, of course it did. It's not the same, but the same concept. It was a similar concept,
36:39
like joystick. Yeah. Anyway, pretty cool. So yeah, I drove the new one. We were in San Diego
36:44
a few weeks ago, and Jess, you went on the first look, right? Yes. So you got to see the styling and
36:51
did not get to drive it. So speaking of Prius, to me, it kind of looks like it's got the same
36:56
like profile shape, very aerodynamic, very much like we almost like we went back in time to where
37:01
what we thought like aerodynamic looked like in the 80s. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It just
37:06
has like a very smooth, clean look from front to back. And unlike other cars now, it seems like
37:12
every car we test that's new, it's like bigger, longer, wider, you know, this, this. The Leaf is
37:18
actually shorter than it was in the previous generation. And it is, I think a little bit wider,
37:23
but shorter in both length and height. And it's now, according to Nissan, a utility. I don't know
37:34
it's smaller. It doesn't have all-wheel drive. That's so that's it. And right now,
37:40
there actually are a lot of two-wheel drive utilities around. Yeah, I remember the CHR,
37:45
the Scion, the Toyota, yeah. So it's got a hatch. Yeah, it has a hatch. Somebody asked in the press
37:51
briefing like, what makes this a utility? What are the criteria? And it was kind of like an awkward
37:56
moment. Nissan was just basically their answer was, and I'm paraphrasing, is because we say so.
38:04
We just decided it's a utility. Chances are you're sitting a little bit higher, which is
38:09
popularly one of the prior requirements. I don't feel anything. You're a tall guy. Did you feel
38:15
like you were right on the ground? I felt close enough to the ground. I'll tell you this. I know
38:24
professionally, like that to me is not a utility. I'm a professional utility driver.
38:28
You can even talk me in to say in the Subaru Crosstrek is a utility, which of course they call
38:33
a utility. I would argue no, but I say it's closer than the Leaf is. I digress. 75 kilowatt
38:42
hour battery pack. So it's a bigger battery pack, and it can get up to 300 miles of range,
38:47
303 miles specifically on the S plus grade. That's kind of the benchmark we've talked about for years.
38:53
That is, for right now, all Leafs come with that 75 kilowatt hour battery. They are going to come
39:01
out with one with a 52 kilowatt hour battery. They said in the springtime of 2026, and that'll
39:07
have around 200 miles of range, and you would assume be even cheaper. But this S plus grade
39:14
right now is the base at just over $31,000, which is refreshing. Isn't that the least expensive?
39:21
It's the least expensive EV you can buy, and you're getting 300 miles of range,
39:26
and that is pretty legitimate. This is what I think we all throw out, like the Lucids and the
39:32
Tesla. This is what we want. This is what we wanted. That's what I love about the Leaf,
39:37
and I always have loved about the Leaf is like, let's have a cheap EV. Let's have an EV for the
39:42
mass. It's like the Volkswagen approach of the bug, right? The people's vehicle.
39:49
From that aspect, I've always loved the Leaf. It's not a perfect vehicle.
39:54
It's really small for me. I don't think I could live with one with two kids,
39:58
and even just by myself, it's a little bit small. Now the second row is even smaller than it was
40:02
before. I sat in the back seat, and I couldn't even get my feet with my shoes on under the
40:08
front driver seat, and there's absolutely no leg room. Granted, yeah, I'm taller than average,
40:13
but even somebody who's like six foot, five, 10, it's going to be cramped back there.
40:18
But if you had two kids, what do you mean? What car seats back there might be?
40:23
Yeah, you could. Yeah. What do you think about car seats?
40:26
Elementary school aged kids. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, growing family.
40:29
Think of it as like the third row in a lot of SUVs. It's like really, it's only going to help you.
40:33
That's a good way to do it. This is a commuter car. Excuse me. It's a utility.
40:39
It's for you to go to and from work. You know, so the thing that Nissan does really well is they
40:45
pack a ton of premium features into a car that doesn't cost a lot of money. Granted, we drove
40:52
around in the 40,000, 40 plus thousand dollar platinum plus grade, which has only like 200,
41:02
and hold on. Let me check my notes here. 278. I have it right here. Hold on. Just
41:07
let me check my notes. 259. 259 miles of range in the platinum plus. That is the top grade.
41:13
The reason it's the same battery, the reason you don't get as much range is because it has
41:17
19 inch wheels, bigger wheels and more features, more weight equals less range. So, right, you know,
41:23
if you really want max range, you're going to have to stick with the base. But if you want the most
41:27
features, go to the platinum plus. Nissan thinks they're going to sell the most of the mid grade,
41:32
which is SV plus. That gets you 288 miles of range. Again, just it's just more features. So,
41:40
it's more weight than that base level. And I tend to agree with them. It's really well equipped.
41:45
You have a 14 inch screens rather than the 12 inch base screens. And that's, I say screens,
41:50
because it's, it's the gauge screen in front of the driver. And then it extends to the infotainment
41:56
screen. It looks kind of like one seamless screen, but it's two. It's just, it's a really tidy,
42:03
high tech looking package. And I think a lot of people will, at that price range,
42:08
are going to be really impressed with it. You know, again, we were in platinum plus,
42:14
so you got some really, the cooler features like a panoramic sunroof, which has the, I forget the
42:19
technology, but basically you push it, push a button and it frosts over. And you can probably
42:24
help me with whatever that's called. I think electroluminescent, there you go, is the term you're
42:28
looking for. But it doesn't do it all at once. It actually kind of make it a design element,
42:32
which is pretty cool. So, you know, it's kind of like a look at, I don't know, like a show off
42:38
feature. It's like you push this button and it, it, it frosts over in steps. So like instead of
42:44
just going from clear to frosted, it goes like one section, two sections, three sections, four
42:50
sections. But it's like a design element because like halfway through, like there's like the
42:55
leaf that is scripted out. So like you can see it and then when the sun comes through,
43:01
it actually creates a design element of its own. Yeah, like leaf will be like on the seat.
43:07
Some stylists had a great time with that. Oh, I mean, yeah, I mean,
43:10
Jess could probably speak more to the styling and stuff. I actually drove it. It, it's fine.
43:16
And I don't mean that in a bad way. Just like, just like we said, the latest Prius had turned,
43:22
turned from sort of a, I won't say ugly duckling, but into an attractive vehicle. This is now the
43:28
most attractive leaf they've ever made. Don't expect like Tesla EV speeds. It's the, when you
43:34
take off, it's like a gradual acceleration. So for, if somebody's coming from a gas engine,
43:39
it's going to feel more natural. There's plenty of power to pass around town. Like we were zipping
43:44
around. Like everything felt great, exceptionally quiet at low speeds, which I think is a big deal.
43:49
Like I think that's what makes people feel like they're in a premium car is when they are isolated
43:55
from the outside noise. Now you get up to 50, 60 miles an hour. It's going to get a little windy
44:00
in terms of like you actually hear wind hitting the side mirrors and starting, starting to creep in,
44:05
but around town, really exceptionally quiet. Regen braking. Again, that's something I could
44:12
rant about this, but paddles on the steering wheel, control regen braking, but only I think in like
44:18
SV plus and above. Not really sure what they do in S plus. Again, we only drove the platinum plus.
44:25
It's one of those weird things like they save money by not having paddles on all of them.
44:29
Anyway, so that in, in my platinum plus, I was able to control regen braking. And that is important
44:35
because the brake pedal itself like doesn't feel nearly as good as if you just rely on the
44:43
regen braking. So I mean, like not even touching the brake pedal at all. There's like no, nothing
44:48
really happens the first two inches, which is like really disconcerting to me. So I just kind of
44:53
pumped up all the regen braking and just used one foot and it doesn't have one pedal driving. It
44:58
can't stop itself, but it's pretty darn close. It's close to it. Yeah. And it's, there's like EV
45:03
or regen step mode. There's a, there's a, you can control like three levels of regen. And then
45:08
there's an extra one that you have to push a button on the dash. So that gets you as close to
45:16
one pedal driving as possible. But again, it's not one pedal driving, but the disconcerting
45:21
thing is so complicated. I know, I know, I know. So the wood like, and I was like, okay, cool. That
45:28
makes sense. But I'm a left foot breaker. So my foot is like always hovering around the brake
45:32
pedal. And I noticed with that mode engaged, that pedal actually moves. Like, so when it's
45:39
breaking, it moves away from my foot and I hate that. Such a terrible feeling. So I ended up not
45:45
using that mode at all because I wonder what the purpose of why that's why in that moment, maybe
45:50
it was pre-production. So I will say that we were driving pre-production vehicles. And that's
45:54
one of those quirks. Yeah. So I do, I will have to feel and it's not the same. Yeah, but
46:01
like I, I don't want to bash a cheap car because I love cheap cars. And I think we need more of them.
46:09
And for $31,000 and even to the SV plus grade at about $35,000, like a lot of really cool,
46:16
useful safety features are all standard. Like all that good safety stuff that everybody wants,
46:20
blind spot, cross-traffic alert, like that's standard. That's, that's what we want in 30,
46:24
$35,000 vehicles. It's fascinating. We've all sit around talking about EVs really need a low-cost,
46:34
high content vehicle to be come popular even as a second car. And the Leaf has continued to offer
46:42
that and has sold okay. But this one really takes that almost above what anybody expected.
46:50
So Nissan kind of, let's face it right now is not the greatest time for Nissan's company.
46:59
But they've got a winner here. They just need to really do some targeted marketing to get all
47:04
those people out there that still want an EV are willing to give it a chance, don't need necessarily
47:10
the government incentives to be able to afford it and make it that standard commuter. I've got
47:17
everything I need car that would translate into a lot of sales. I'll close with two final things.
47:23
One is a housekeeping thing that I forgot charging. So it has two ports. It has two
47:30
ports. Now kind of explain that for a lot of people. It's got both types plugs. Correct. So
47:35
passenger side port is the NACS port, North American charging standard. Which is the Tesla
47:41
port. That's the Tesla one that everybody's eventually going to switch to. That is DC fast
47:47
charging only. So you can't, if you say you had a Tesla, got rid of it, bought a Leaf,
47:52
you had an at home level two AC charging charger, you cannot use that Tesla NACS port
48:00
to AC charge the vehicle. You can only do DC fast charging. You can only do DC fast
48:06
charging on that passenger side one. Now on the driver side, there is a J1772 plug, which is only
48:13
for AC charging. So you can do level one. That's like plugging into your 110 outlet or your level
48:19
two, which is that, you know, 200 or sorry, 240 volt charging. You can get an adapter though,
48:26
I suspect. Correct. Yeah. But I'm just saying you, so you can, most cars now you can do AC and DC
48:34
on the same port. You just have to extend, if it's a CCS, you have to extend that little.
48:39
This is again, very getting complicated. But if you stop in a motel overnight and it has the Tesla
48:45
level two chargers, not the fast chargers, you would actually, you would need an adapter to plug
48:51
into the right side. Correct. Because if you plug that Tesla level two adapter into the DC
48:57
fast charger, it probably won't work. It will not work. Yeah. Yeah. But and for, you know,
49:01
it does also say it on the charger itself, DC only. My final point is the, I've already said
49:09
that I love the leaf. I think it's a charming vehicle. I was worried it was not going to be
49:13
charming anymore because it kind of grew up with styling, more mature, but it's still that like
49:17
fun kind of quirky little thing, some really cool colors. There was like one like maroon color
49:23
that I just thought looked awesome on the road. So I think it doesn't try to be anything that it's
49:28
not. And I think we need more of these cars. But um, boom, very good. Thanks. Again, can't wait
49:34
to drive it because I remember driving the first one. Our last topic before we wind up this podcast
49:41
are rants and raves. Anybody got anything they want to throw out there? Because if you don't,
49:47
I do. Well, I was just going to be back off of what I already said, like the whole packaging
49:52
of options, like with Nissan and these battles for the regen braking, like the auto windows.
50:00
A lot of times, like the base models will have just the driver side where you just push it once
50:04
and it goes down or up. Come on, man, like put them all. Like, well, I mean, it's a programming
50:09
thing, right? I know when you sell like tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of vehicles,
50:12
yeah, well, come on, dude, like, give me. Well, you know, it's funny about that. So like, I have,
50:19
obviously, I only have two windows in my Jeep because I run a soft top and I have a two door.
50:25
And so my windows are automatic, both up and down, like so I can just click and it's fine.
50:32
When I got my Maverick, the only one that was automatic was the driver's side and it was only
50:38
automatic down. And I was like, there are 15 years between these vehicles and you're telling me that
50:45
you couldn't put the automatic, like, it's not just a convenience feature every carshow.
50:51
I asked, I asked, I forgot what the, oh, it was a Hyundai Sonata. I went to the preview and I was
50:58
talking to the public affairs guy and I said, why don't you have some feature? I think it was a power
51:03
passenger seat. In their top trim, they didn't have a power passenger seat. And I said, why not?
51:09
This is supposedly your near luxury model. That drives me kind of crazy. And they said,
51:15
we look at the market and we see what our rivals have for different trims and that's how we pick
51:20
it up. So in other words, they looked at whatever they thought was competitive and said, ah, we
51:25
don't need that. That's what they do. So that's great. Thanks guys. Okay, my rave
51:32
is based on something I read just today in automotive news. And that is for your information,
51:40
we're actually recording this podcast on September 30th. So this is the last day technically that
51:48
the federal tax incentives for EVs will be in effect and that means $7,500 for a new EV.
51:56
We all know that most people out there are not actually buying EVs outright. They're leasing
52:01
them because that's where the real deals are. I read today that both General Motors and Ford,
52:07
according to automotive news, have a plan to extend the $7,500 federal incentive on electric vehicles
52:14
at their U.S. dealers. And this is for vehicles that are on their lots right now. And they want
52:21
to extend this incentive for the fourth quarter. And the way they're doing that is they're using
52:27
their finance arms to go to the dealers and say, if you want to keep that incentive on that vehicle,
52:36
you need to put money down on that vehicle right now as a lease. So you have prepared that vehicle
52:44
legally to be leased anytime between now and the end of the year because you've essentially already
52:51
started the process. And this is because the IRS said that if you start the process before the end
52:59
of September, you can complete it after that and still get the $7,500 tax incentive. So they're
53:06
going to their dealers and saying, go ahead and do that, put money down, start the lease process
53:11
on any EVs still on your lot that you want to get rid of. And then when people come in interested
53:18
on them, interested in them, you can offer them a lease because it's already started with the tax
53:24
incentive, which is my thinking incredibly clever way to kind of protect yourself and to make sure
53:33
that if you've got EVs left on the lot that they will still be competitively priced at least for
53:38
the end of the year. So that makes sense the way I described it. They've essentially started the
53:44
lease process before they even have a customer for the vehicle. Basically they've got the paperwork
53:48
going before a customer even comes in the door so they can take advantage of it
53:54
pre-October 2025. Now the caveat on this, it's possible of course that the federal government
54:01
can change its mind and make this so it doesn't apply but right now as of us recording this. So
54:14
before the September 30th deadline, go anyway and ask them if they have any of these vehicles
54:21
to lease like a Maki for example or an Equinox that they have already started the leasing
54:29
process on that they can give you a special deal on. It's a good chance they will say yes.
54:35
Wow. Pretty interesting stuff. Very interesting. Okay, for Over the Edge reporter Greg Carlos,
54:42
digital producer Jessica Ray and Alex Kellum, our staff writer. Thank you very much for joining
54:48
us today and thanks everybody out there for listening to our podcast. If you're wondering
54:52
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55:43
If you've got a screen, you can watch Motor Week podcast producer Jessica Ray sitting right here.
55:49
Thanks very much, Jessica. Audio engineer Nicole Phillips-Nailer. Thank you, Nicole.
55:54
Podcast creator Bob Mixter. Hey, one more thing. Remember for the fastest way to find new car
56:00
reviews, be sure to include Motor Week in your search engine. I'm John Davis. Thanks everyone
56:06
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television's original automotive magazine. Motor Week is made possible by Auto Value and
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Bumper to Bumper and Tyarac.com. Visit our website at MotorWeek.org for more car reviews and the
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latest automotive news and watch Motor Week, television's longest running automotive magazine
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series each week on your local PBS station or the Motor Week app.