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Hello and welcome to an in-studio edition of the Auto Buyer's Guide podcast.
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Travis has actually made it all the way down here to Northern California to join me for a week
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because we are going to be driving a Jera Corolla and a Corolla Cross.
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Yes, all Corolla is totally the same thing.
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Yep, and interestingly, we are not going to be driving what is coming up soon,
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but before we get to that, let's just roll the intro.
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Also, in Toyota news, they're having a big recall now, and this one is interesting
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because we've talked a lot about reliability and features here on the channel,
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and one of the ways that some manufacturers get to high reliability numbers is by simply not having
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new features and modern features that are modern tech because that breeds unreliability.
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Toyota, I think, has for the last maybe about a decade or so really tried to change that part
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of their personality. They'd been lampooned for never fully redesigning a vehicle. They always
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had modest tweaks one generation over the other. They had really resisted turbos in the U.S.
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They had resisted modern technology by and large, I think some people would argue.
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And now that's quite different with their new infotainment system. They're
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sticking LCD instrument clusters and everything, and those LCD clusters are failing.
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Yeah. I mean, the headline is going to say Toyota recalls nearly 600,000 vehicles,
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and that is a huge number, but you have to put it in perspective and look at how many cars Toyota
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sells year over year, which is a ton, right? 600,000 is sort of a drop in the bucket,
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but it is some of their bigger names. They have things like Camrys and Corollas and obviously
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these large volume numbers, but it's also not the cars are all breaking. We have an issue with the
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screen, and there's a question of, is that a safety concern or is that a inconvenience?
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Yeah. So it's basically going to cover Venza, Crown, Crown Signia, RAV4,
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GR Corolla, 4Runner, Camry, Grand Highlander, Tacoma and Highlander. Also Lexus LS, RX and TX
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2023 plus. Now the interesting part of this is that it seems to mostly be software, although
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there is a hardware component, because some people may be getting completely new screens,
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not just a software refresh here. And it seems that it's basically going to be every one of those
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models with the LCD cluster. Some of those vehicles had them standard, so basically all the Lexus LSs,
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and some of them were optional, so not all RAV4s until recently got the full cluster standard.
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So it's an interesting twist that basically they had an oopsie with their software that,
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while you're driving, the display would just go blank. Right. And the question here is,
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which display is it? And that's super important, right? Are we talking about driver display?
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Are we talking about the infotainment screen? And it's the more important one.
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Yeah. Yeah. And so, but this is something that a lot of car companies have had troubles with.
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This is not a uniquely Toyota problem. But it is one of those interesting questions of,
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you know, what does reliability mean to you? Something we've discussed a lot here. And
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is this a classic reliability problem? If your car hasn't broken down, you know,
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quote unquote, it hasn't stopped driving, doesn't stop doing the things that it normally does.
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The safety concern supposedly is you may not know if you're speeding. You may not know if
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your headlights are on and may not be an alert that is there on the screen to get fuel level,
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etc. But it doesn't mean that your car is going to stop running. Right. And it appears that at
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least in most of the vehicles, the display does come back. So it sort of reboots itself and then
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comes back. But it's not, it's not a broken car per se. Right. It's a broken component or a
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malfunctioning component. And it's also not one where you immediately have to go do this or
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work. Those are some recalls. It also doesn't mean 600,000 Toyotas have had this issue. It just
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means they're all potentially able to have this issue. And that's why you get ahead of it. That's
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why you have a recall. So like you said, manufacturers like Toyota are known for their
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reliability. People say this car is not going to have any issues. But when I think of those issues,
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I think most people are thinking of mechanical, they're thinking of the engine transmission,
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the big, very large expense components. This is a small thing that's going to be covered and going
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to be fixed, probably with just a software update if you need to go ahead and swap it out. So
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it's going to affect a lot of vehicles. It's going to be inconvenient certainly while your car is in
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the shop. And for some folks, it's going to be concerned about what happens if this is going
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to happen to me out on the road. And that's some discomfort. And there's, you know, there's a place
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for that. But it's not one that I'm hugely concerned about. It's not as bad as one of Toyota's last
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big recalls. Yes. It sounds like every model is going to need at least the software refresh. And
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then if that doesn't solve the problem, they'll get a completely new head unit there for the
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instrument cluster or instrument cluster unit, I should say. Now, this, I guess, also kind of
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highlights some of the benefits of the over-the-air software updates, because this is another kind
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of conflicting thing. A lot of car companies that are more baked in traditional reliability,
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Honda and Toyota especially, have kind of resisted the theory of over-the-air updates because
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they prefer to have software that's static. So over-the-air update, you push out,
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you can create a problem where a car gets bricked or you've created a different software
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problem that you didn't see before because maybe it hasn't been as tested. If you're pushing out
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software updates on the regular, there's less likelihood seemingly that it's going to be fully,
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fully, fully baked versus a car that's going to get a software update that's only once in a blue
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moon and doesn't change. It's expected to just stay that way forever. And this is kind of an
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interesting turning point for manufacturers, traditional manufacturers like Toyota.
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Yeah, and they can say, here's the benefit of that over-the-air update. But I actually just
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read a story from a Tesla owner who had a major issue with their vehicle not updating in time
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and essentially self-breaking. So then there's always this, how do you make sure that the vehicle
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has the correct software on it? Because as a manufacturer, you want the most up-to-date,
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the most feature set, the most stable version of the software. How do you do that without pushing
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it to the vehicle and then disabling the vehicle for some period of time? Exactly. But if it isn't
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working, then at what point does it become a bigger issue? So I don't know, there's stability,
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but with stability comes uncompetitiveness at this point. And to a similar point,
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General Motors recently said that if you don't software update your GM vehicle with their
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Google infotainment software, especially their EVs, and keep everything up-to-date, then after a
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certain period of time, you may have warranty concerns involved in your vehicle going forward
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if it's not on that most recent software update. So it's kind of an interesting twisted world there.
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Now, let's go to a viewer question here. And for all those watching and listening out there,
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you can always send your viewer questions to hayatautobuyersguide.com. That's H-E-Y
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at autobuyersguide.com. Voice memos are great because we can play them in the episode. You can
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also phone call us on the regular old telephone at 669-842-1947. So this question is kind of right
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up by Allie from last week. Josh Thompson is writing in and says, unfortunately, I got recent
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use of work that'll be part of the mass push for return to office. One year into a three-year
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lease on a 2024 XC40 recharge ultimate, my quick math says I'm going to overshoot my mileage by
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3,000 miles a year or more. And he's about 20, probably about 25 cents a mile there on that one.
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So that's definitely going to be an expensive bill. What advice can you offer for me and others in
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this situation? For him, he thinks his options are one, alternate cars with a partner so that
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we can keep the mileage low under 10,000 miles a year. The other car in their household is fully
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paid off some mileage doesn't matter, but he likes driving this and would prefer to. He can call Volvo.
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Do I call Volvo financial ship or the dealer, Volvo financial or the dealership? I assume
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if I call the dealership, they'll probably try and get into a new lease with the right amount of
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miles, yada, yada, yada or three buy out the lease and just keep the vehicle. I lease this car
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because I wasn't sure how I'd like the EV lifestyle and the XC40. Well compromised as an ice car
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seems quite a good EV. My main two dislikes after a year are the range is a little low and the
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suspension is a little stiff. Range can't be increased. I imagine I could swap two different
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tires to get a more comfortable ride. It doesn't know how that will work out for him. I mean,
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the first thing here is I'm just going off of basically what we were told and that's going to
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be about 6,000 miles over right over the course of the next two years and 25 cents a mile. It's
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about $1,500 and that's not a small change. However, if you break that up and as you start
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making this payment, if you make your regular payment and you start tucking some of that money
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away, that's an easy way to say, Hey, I'm not going to be surprised if I do have to drop the
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vehicle off. It does have a big cost at the end. I've already basically accounted for that,
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so it's not a surprise. But even things like if you want to go ahead and purchase the vehicle at
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the end of the lease and you want to swap out some tires, well, hopefully that helps, but it may
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not. And you're probably going to spend more than $1,500 swapping out a new set of wheels and tires.
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So it's sort of weird math when you start to say, What are my options? Because you have
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quite a few of them, you could get a car and for in between, it sounds like you can swap cars and
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maybe save some money on miles. But even then you look at what the gas cost increase and that's
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something you'd want to go ahead and factor in. There's a weird world where as much as it kind
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of sucks, it might be just worth paying the extra money. Yeah, it's not the worst thought. It's,
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you know, on average, probably going to be based on the average lease out there for an XC4. And I'm
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going to assume something like two months extra payments effectively, maybe that you'd be that
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you'd be coughing up there. You could try calling Volvo financial, they're probably not going to
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do a lot. I mean, you never know what they'll say, you could talk to the dealership, my assumption
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like yours would be that they would try and get you into a new lease at some point and somehow
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work through that. It is possible that they may be able to offer some sort of early lease
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termination deal. Those can happen. And sometimes the dealer will just take it back basically as
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long as you get into another Volvo, they'll be like, Yeah, no worry, we'll figure out what to do with
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this thing less likely on that front, but it can still happen. You can also check into the buying
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out of the vehicle. I would say that's only going to make sense if they have wrapped that $7,500
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tax credit into the cap cost of the vehicle and Volvo financial is one of the car companies that
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generally does that. So if they've already taken that $7,500 off the top and your lease factor was
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not a terribly bad lease factor or money factor in that lease, then your buyout cost could be
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pretty reasonable, but you'll be financing a used vehicle if you do that and you don't have the
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cash just to pay for it. That is a tricky one because your rate's obviously going to be higher.
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If you plan on doing that, you may want to just ride out to the end of the lease and then buy it
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out at the end because obviously you're going to be paying interest only on that buyout amount at
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the very end of the lease. The tricky part there is that unless you know what your financial situation
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is going to be in two more years, you could find yourself in a situation where maybe money's tight,
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maybe you don't qualify the same way that you thought you would etc. So those are all kinds
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of things to keep in mind. Generally speaking, the recommendation I would say is option number
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one, which is just try and keep the miles under the limit and easily do that with another vehicle
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that you maybe have around. Stop using it for weekends, that's probably the other easy thing
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you can do, just use it for commute, just try and do the bare minimum there. But it is tricky and
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this is one of those areas where that lease versus buy decision process is tricky, what fits you best
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and that may not be the same consistently. As you've discovered, it may change based on
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how your life changes. It's a little bit restricting at least, but as long as you can live
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within those restrictions, there are lots of benefits to it. My advice number one is do not
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panic. So consider what your options are first. Don't immediately try to turn this in and get a
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new vehicle with a larger mileage cap or those sorts of things. Just settle down, take it easy,
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don't panic. You have options. I would probably start by tucking that money away per month based
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on your estimate and that way you don't have a big surprise bill that you don't already have cash set
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aside for. You don't need to go buy a new car for like a daily driver. Again, your $1,500 is what's
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going to cost you at the end, this approximation here. So if you went and bought, I don't know,
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a cheap Nissan Leaf and said, I'm going to drive this as my daily driver. Okay, great, but consider
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your cash upfront and then the cash when you go ahead and sell it at the end because you don't
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need those miles anymore and then basically that depreciation and your running costs, those sorts of
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things. So you've got a lot of options, but if you do think about buying it out, I would absolutely
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wait until the very end or until you get to a point where, for example, you are about to switch
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jobs and you'll have a period of unemployment. Make sure that you secure a car loan while you're
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employed, not need a car loan when you don't currently have a job. Those are things that's
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something that I've done before is before I left a job, I got my vehicle because I knew there'd be
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a period where I may not have the income that I would need to qualify for a loan, although I did
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have the money to pay for it. So lots of different ways you can play that one. And remember that
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definitely reaching out to the dealer is a good idea. Just be sure to brace yourself for any attempt
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to sell you something different, but they can also help you in interactions with Volvo Financial,
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if necessary, if it's, of course, in their financial interest to do so. That's generally the
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limit there. So thanks for writing in for us there. Good question. Sorry for the position.
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Yeah. And again, you can always send us questions to hayatautobuyersguide.com. We have another
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question here from Heron, who's asking about a 2026 Q5 or the 2026 X3, which do we think is better
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in terms of pricing and cost of operation with maintenance? Q5 is higher on the base price at
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the moment in his area. He's wondering if it's worth it. Oh, it depends on what drives you towards
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the vehicle, right? Because they are going to be in a roughly same size category, but they are
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completely different cars. Yeah, I lean towards X3. I kind of like the new asymmetrical grille thing
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they've got going on there where the grilles are going in different directions on each side.
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Generally speaking, BMW's maintenance has been high, but relatively predictable, whereas Audi
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has been a little bit more over the map on some items. Some Audi maintenance items can be a little
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on the pricey side, and some of the long term repair costs have been variable and somewhat
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less predictable, I would say, on the Audi front. Personally, on the style front,
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I think that the BMW interior is a nicer place to spend your time, and I find the BMW infotainment
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system more intuitive and better sorted. But the Q5 has a decent amount going on for it.
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It's got a really big cargo area. It's pretty practical in the backseat area,
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and the engines have been really fuel efficient, so that's definitely a big advantage there.
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I think the X3 is probably going to be a little bit more exciting to drive, but the Q5 might end
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up being a little bit more comfortable, although they are going to have different suspension
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options between them, so some of that's how much money you're willing to spend.
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Exactly, and that engine choice is going to make a big difference. Are you choosing
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the four-cylinder engine? Are you choosing the six-cylinder engine? The inline sixes from BMW
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have had a slightly better track record, generally speaking, on the maintenance cost front,
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but this can always depend year on year. BMW could have a really bad year this time,
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with the refresh of the X3 that we just don't know about. Volume on luxury cars and luxury car
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engines is kind of a problem going back to the reliability commentary we mentioned earlier.
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If you're a Toyota or a Honda, or a Ford, or a GM, etc., you will build hundreds of thousands of
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engines in the same time period that a luxury car company may build 50,000 or 60,000 engines,
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so it's going to be a lot harder to find some of these low take-rate problems,
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low incidence problems in a BMW or a Mercedes or an Audi engine that's exclusive to those brands
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versus a higher volume engine somewhere. This can actually help Audi sometimes in their four
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cylinders, which are shared largely with Volkswagen, but if we're taking a look at a BMW
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inline six or worse yet, some of the V8s, which are really low production, AMG V8s, etc.,
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there are these peculiar little issues that you may discover over time. I know a lot of people
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have been talking about some of the Porsche V6 maintenance issues right now in Macan, where
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people are having sort of oil issues, oiling issues in the engine, and probably the reason that we
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are just hearing about them now in these vehicles that are a little older is just they just aren't
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as many. It's not like you're going to find that problem so fast like in a Honda Pilot
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where they're selling 100,000 plus a year. I mean, in sort of a weird way, I would also say
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that it depends on if you're looking at buying or leasing. Sort of counter to our last topic here,
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which was some of the concerns with leasing. If you're leaning one direction but you have
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reliability concerns, you're not sure if something maybe a little bit more unusual like the X3 design
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interior exterior is really right for you, go ahead and lease it, and that way you get a good
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shot at it. You say, hey, this is what I enjoy. And if you decide you loved it just the way you
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leased it, you can go ahead and buy it out at the end. Now's a good time to push for some more
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five-star reviews. So if you haven't found us on the Apple Podcasts app, be sure and find us over
17:15
there. Give us a five-star review. We do read them. It's actually good to help promote the podcast,
17:21
to have those views and the reviews over there as well. So please do that. If you usually watch us
17:26
on YouTube, just check us out on the Apple Podcasts app and type us up a little review down there
17:32
when you have a moment. A lot of our viewers are actually viewers. So not just listeners,
17:36
but also viewers. So we appreciate that. And you'll see, again, we can exist in the same space.
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And if you're listening, you never know. But lots of different ways to enjoy us. Obviously,
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we have a couple of YouTube channels as well beyond this. So whatever works for you, works for us.
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We will be here. While we will be here, there are a few vehicles that are no longer here.
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Do a little bit of a poor one out for these. The Cybertruck-based model was here and gone
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almost faster than I could even see anyone purchase it. I'd love to know the final sales
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numbers on that one. Yeah, I'm not going to pour one out because it was fuggly. So fair enough.
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And the Cybertruck is still here. The Nissan Aria is on its way out, at least for model year 2026,
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but it's probably not going to be an isolated incident there. It sounds like they're working
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on putting most of that production towards the new leaf, which sounds like it's having a couple
