Parts Site Nightmare; Plane Lands on Car; Volvo Review;

What up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire podcast. Today's episode is brought to

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All right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, I got into a fight with customer

service. Zach spent a week and a half in a Volvo and the planes are landing on the cars.

It's a Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. There we go. I saw this. This plane comes in and

tries to do a highway landing, but then lands on a fucking Civic or something.

Dude, that guy in the Civic is just rolling down the street,

smoking and no sipping on gin and juice, and laid back. Thank God, otherwise his head would have

been crashed. And a beach craft is on his mind, literally, fucking,

and it bounces a couple of times too. Bro, Mike, what are the odds that

motherfucker's running a dash cam? Because look, because then the plane comes, it bounces on

him and it goes forward. So he's got a crush, crush and the plane, he's got the best shot of

all time. It would top the Mustang going off of turn nine at Willow for best dash cam video ever

recorded. Which do you remember? This is early internet. By the way, I hope this guy didn't

like die. No, they're both, they're both okay. Early internet. There was a video, I think it

was like joking about these things. This might have been the 90s. It was like the first

look at CGI I could remember and there was a plane that lands and it lands on a Jeep

Grand Cherokee and it's like the plane touches down on the Cherokee and the landing,

because the landing gear is broken and the Jeep holds up the plane and it's like the Jeep saves the

day and this guy's just driving along. I think it seemed like someone was making a spec commercial

and this proves that your Jeep probably is not going to support a C130 that lands on it.

I mean, this guy landed on this car. What's that plane weigh? 1000 pounds?

No. Pretty light, right? More than that.

Either way, it just, it came down and thank God for a pillar strength.

Yeah, I mean enough to, that plane, it occurs to me that I don't know what the plane weighs,

but it must be more than 1000 pounds. Beach Baron. Beach Baron.

It's the name of, it's the type of plane. I mean, it's like a fixed wing aircraft,

low wing aircraft. Oh, wow. It was way off like 5,500 pounds.

A Baron 58, G58. I don't know what that was, but all right, that's heavy.

Yeah. That's some kinetic energy. Okay. You need a Pagani roof structure.

To quote the great Doc Brown, he'll rip through us like we're tinfoil.

You know what I mean? What did he say that? I believe you.

He's flying. He says, Doc, let's land on him. We'll cripple his car. Marty.

46 Ford. We're the Lorian. Ripped to us like we're tinfoil.

In hindsight, with what we know now, the 48 Ford would have also crumpled.

No, it wouldn't have been bad. Yeah.

The second collision would have been ugly. Yeah. But man, it's a, dude, that guy,

he's in the middle lane too. This dude is the least aggressive driver. No one's around.

65, hands at 10 and two. Eyes forked. Eyes forked.

Just listening to an audio book about jazz. You know, a history of jazz.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why if this dude was driving like 95 was the Mulsanne straight,

he would have had both the focus and the pace to not be in this situation.

Maybe I have to play him landing lights, but if you were driving, this plane descends very

quickly. It didn't have, it looks like it had no power. It didn't really glide and touch

land. It just kind of came down. It lost altitude fast at the end here.

Yeah. Yeah. I think unless you spotted those landing lights and understood what was happening.

If you scroll down into the commentos of this Reddit post, is there another angle,

but does anyone else have another angle of this?

One hurt, no deaths. That's good. You want to guess who was hurt?

Oh, is that? Oh, apparently. Here's a YouTube video showing something else.

Okay. Well, good times. I mean, you know, flying. Every time I see a video like that,

it makes me want to get a pilot's license. It definitely tells me exactly why I should know.

Oh, is that the car? I think that's the car. What is that? Is that a, it's a Camry.

Yeah. You think Toyota's going to give them a new Camry?

Look at the cuts from the props. Whoa. Oh my God. Oh yeah. We do have another angle. Hell,

fucking yeah. It's further back. Guy banks it right in, losing altitude very fast. This is further

back. Yeah. I mean, you know, that's luck at the draw, right? If this, if this guy has no power,

it's like you just got to, you got to hope. Whoa. Yeah. So scary. Man, what do you think

that conversation's like? Can I have your insurance? Do you have insurance? Bro, what's here?

You got Geico? Yeah. Flaco. It's fucking, it turns out it's the mayhem guy.

Like me. Like me. It doesn't have all state. If you're not prepared for unexpected things

falling from the sky, you're not prepared for mayhem like me. Holy shit. I'm a 5,500

pound beach baron and I'm out of fuel. That sucks.

Yeah. That's no way to, poor guy. I would have loved to be there for the pilot climbing out going.

Really sorry. Really, really sorry. Bro, my bad. My bad. Okay. So for like three days,

I wanted to tell you the wildest three week customer service fight I've had over $46,

which is the kind of thing my wife would do. It is. And so I was going to start this by saying that

there's a company called PartsGeek. Have you ever heard of this company? It's an online parts

reseller. And I don't know. It's just a fucking website that sells parts. Thaddeus sent me

lug nuts through this. It just looks like you're very legitimate. Yeah. I'll say that this little

search bar right here, this reminds me of when you go to websites where you can download a YouTube

video and there's like type in, here's where the address goes, but here's a fake bar of an ad

of where the address goes. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, I had a pretty seamless transaction

to purchase lug nuts for my Acura NSX, because I needed regular lug nuts to

sell the car, right? I had the black ones for the HREs. I need silver ones to go back on the

stock wheels. Can I ask, did you call AutoZone or anything first or you just went here?

No. Okay. I was talking to Thaddeus about it. Right. I was just like, yeah, because

Thaddeus is my friend who's a photographer and I was being lazy about getting the lug nuts.

I was doing other things. And so Thaddeus just goes, here, I did the work for you just like hit

buy. Got it. So I go, okay. So I do hit buy. I do like three day shipping or whatever. Okay.

Like, and I'm going to, I was going to start this by saying that there's a story about this

company stealing my money. Okay. But today, about 20 minutes before I got here, I got a thing,

an email saying your refund has been initiated, initiated. Now I haven't actually seen any

monies, but I won't use that word. I'm not going to call this segment parts geek stole my money.

I wouldn't because they're, they're holding my money hostage. You can say they held your

money. They're certainly holding my $46 hostage until further notice. Okay. But

I ordered November 14th, three day shipping November 14th. Okay. On November 15th, I got a

shipping notification. Okay. With a tracking number, a USPS tracking number. Just for listeners,

it is December 10th today, December 10th today. It's almost a month on December, November 22nd.

All right. It's now been over a week. I click on the package hasn't shown up. I click on the

tracking number. It does not go to the USPS. It goes back to parts geeks website. And it says

your order is in transit. I then call and I am told to wait two days. And then, you know,

I then call again. I escalate it to the next person. And they say to wait two days. And I

said, can I get a refund now? Cause by now I've just ordered the parts from auto zone.

Because now I need them. And now it's been 10 days and all I wanted was fucking lug nuts. And

they're not here. And I need them. So I got them from somewhere else and I figured I'll

fucking deal with this. So, okay. It's been 10 days and they've told me to wait two days twice.

The next day I get an email that says the warehouse has been alerted

to the investigation. Please wait one to three days. Okay. The same day, later that day,

it says we've started an investigation with the carrier that may take seven to 14 days.

Okay. December 2nd. December 2nd. I go to the chat bot. Not the video I sent you,

but previous to that. I didn't screen record this one. And I request a refund based on the

fact that it's now been over two and a half weeks and I've not received this part.

And there's no one knows where it is. They say there's an ongoing investigation. We can't refund you

during an ongoing investigation. The next day, December 3rd, they say I get an email that says

the carrier is investigating. We need to wait for the carrier to finish investigating and

deliver their findings. I said go. I then call customer service and I'm told there's a 45 minute

wait. Please wait two days on the phone. I go back on the chat bot. December 9th. December 9th.

This is from November 14th. December 9th, they go back on the chat bot. Just the

investigation is ongoing. Nothing else. I would like a refund. No, not while the

investigation is ongoing. Well, I'd like you to cancel my order. We can only cancel the order in

the first hour. We can't issue a refund if you don't return. So I was like, okay. Okay, fine.

Now it's, now it's what this was yesterday is the 9th, right? To the 10th. Today's the 11th,

right? Today's the 10th. Today's the 10th. Okay. So today at 6.30 a.m. I call. I get

on the phone. I'm caller number 25 when I call at 6.30 a.m. and I stay on the fucking phone for 45

minutes. I get to number two hung up on. Gone. After 45 minutes. This just connects on you?

Yeah. I go back. I go back. This is for $46. I go back on the chat bot. And at this point,

I have the conversation which I have screen recorded and sent to you.

Oh, first of all, by the way, I'm number 25 and it says, you know, press one and we'll call you

back when it's your turn in line. Yeah. Press one does nothing. Of course. Absolutely nothing.

So now I sit there and then they hang up on me. Now I'm at the chat bot. Do you have the

thing? Can you pull it up? Oh, I can airdrop it, I think. Yeah. If you can airdrop it,

it's worth showing a little bit of because it's fucking insanity. Guys, got to take a quick break

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Well I did well no about three quarters of the way into this process I decided this would be

maybe funny radio for like somebody and I'm that I was going to fly the plane into the mountain.

You know what I mean? Where did the car as it were? So do you want to uh so scroll down uh

just a little bit are you are you showing the screen? Yeah. Okay so you want do you want to

be uh the the chat bot which is gray and I'll be. Oh yeah let's just play it out. Yeah

let's act. Where do you want to start? Top? Uh sure yeah yeah okay and I scrolled it in a way

that I think you I think it's readable. Okay so go ahead you're the chat bot. Sure.

Hi there welcome to the parts team web sorry. Hi there welcome to the parts geek website our

best qualified team agents are ready for you. Let us help we have the best prices and benefits

online. I would like a refund on an order that I paid for but never received and your

company has spent a nearly a month investigating. Hello this is Lucas Harper welcome to parts geek

thank you for visiting our website how can we assist you? Order number? Order number blah blah

blah blah placed on November 14th. Sure then I'm going to read this literally what is said

please cs25962203 which is a very helpful response for you. Hello Matthew we highly

appreciate your patience regarding this as of today the investigation is still ongoing and we are

waiting to receive an update from the carrier and our warehouse we will make sure to keep you

posted as soon as we hear from them this is the last update we have from your order so you

need to wait you will get an update from the warehouse. I would like you to cancel my order

and refund my money. We are not able to cancel the order at this time. Why not please

provide me the UPS or USPS tracking number for the package. Unfortunately we only have one hour

after an order is placed to cancel an order because it is past that time frame and your

order is being processed we cannot stop it from shipping please contact us after you have received

the items to set up the return. The order never shipped what is the tracking number of the

package I ordered this package three weeks ago and never got a tracking number your company has

provided no evidence that this package ever shipped at all. I completely understand the concern you

have raised regarding the situation at hand however in accordance with the order you placed

I would like to inform you that this is the most recent update we have available at this moment

therefore in this particular case it is necessary for you to wait for the final answer to be

provided by the warehouse before we can proceed further. Real quick when you sent me this once

I got to here I was like oh you're talking to AI like you are not talking to a human being Lucas

is made up. Lucas is not a human yeah no Lucas is Tilly Norwood uh what is the tracking number

if you can't provide one the packages in your warehouse that you can refund my money. And

then they sent a picture of the tracking number which they said not a clickable tracking number

they sent a screenshot of. Right so it's a screenshot of the tracking number and literally

below it in bright red it says tracking not available not available for this item this may

be because the tracking number is invalid or USPS has not received payment or has not received the

item. And then under the screenshot says the screenshot Lucas says is there anything else

I can do for you? And I say that screenshot literally says number invalid on it you can

give me an actual valid tracking number yes. Matt I completely understand your concerns

regarding the situation however I would like to clarify that the process of refunding the parts

and canceling the order is not something we have control over. Currently the ticket related

to this matter is still open which means that you will need to adhere to the policy timeframe

that has been established. Unfortunately we are unable to take any further action on this issue

until we receive an update from the warehouse team regarding the status of your order.

Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter. Is there anything else I can

do for you? At this point it is time to go. No I love that you were like I never agreed to

wait for any time for it. For any time frame. Anyway I basically then said I'm calling my

company. Yeah you talked to a made-up person. I talked to a made-up person but then I did

in about three seconds shout out to Chase Sapphire Reserve dispute the charges and win

and so they go fuck themselves. Yeah that's terrible. For 46 dollars 46 dollars a set of

lug nuts. That's what this was over. I have fucking given customers hundreds of dollars of

like in value of stuff on the off chance I fucked up. You know what I mean? Like I've repaired

fucking scratches in people's leather that there was no way you know that I couldn't like

because maybe possibly one of my guys did it. Maybe like I've done like little stuff. This is

why you don't own a jet. This is crazy. Yeah right. PartsGeek probably has a jet. I don't know.

It says they've been around since 2008. Yeah and they just fucking outsource their entire

shit to AI and guess what happens. It's not very good. You want to be around for another

fucking 20 years buddy you better fucking get on this. That's crazy right. Yeah stuff like

that like I ordered a lot of parts online because it's just it's easier to do research

and especially finding like BMW parts but recently I was buying a part for the

your episode of the game show that's coming up and like the shipping cost of these things

just seemed insane and I called Napa auto parts down the street and I was like do you

guys have this and they said yeah I said how much is it they said the guy laughed you went

three bucks I was like I'll take two of them and I'll see you in two days if you ask how much

something is and a person laughs yeah that's good yeah that means that means it's good

it's affordable well the other part I needed for my car to fix the lights that were on

that the laughter was because it was a thousand dollars for a new a new version of that yaw

sensor no fucking way but I was able to buy one on ebay that works for a hundred bucks nice and

cost for that because that is looked up what cost would be 798 so oh wow so it's not even like it's

it's a 20 discount which sometimes you get cost it's 80 discount sure as I'm saying it's not

like in the in the world of high margin items it's not that high margin of an item right

that's like uh you know that the Bentley fucking seat motors that I had where they're on $2,500

otherwise like guess what buddy no power seats for you that's right the manual operation not motors

of like brains the power seat ecu's oh not even the motor it's like the controller for it yeah it

was the brains I mean think like think about like the the kind of computer that you needed to

do something in 1990 it was a game boy yeah it was fucking yeah yeah yeah yeah based on your

what you just gestured with your hands yes that is an accurate description of the size of this

particular piece of equipment or for anyone who's younger than us it's like the size of a small iPad

which is gigantic yeah um oh man so so anyway fuck those people but that's that was that was

what I spent my last four days doing that's that really yeah you sent that to me I went that's brutal

especially for something so simple you know it wasn't an obscure thing and I like you know I I'm a

real big time versus money guy like you I make fun of my wife all the time for for crazy amounts of

time that she dedicates to very very small amounts of value but like at a certain point

like I got the lug nuts like a week ago like from somewhere else like I I I could I could just write

this off as fucking getting robbed but like about halfway through this process I decided that

riding it all the way to the end was the only way to go I think it's good I'm glad you canceled

the charges so that they're not just making 46 bucks no because I don't know maybe I don't want

to speculate that they do that all the time I mean I I would hope that this isn't just a

completely fraudulent company but like either maybe it's like a Dunder Mifflin situation where the guy

in you know customer support in the warehouse they have a beef remember remember in the office

there's a big like rift between the office people in the warehouse warehouse right class war sort

of right or it's like you know Tommy boy like you fucked you know bang the guy's daughter

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quince dot com slash tire and now back to the program and Tommy boy I need Chris Farley remember

it well RJ the warehouse guy's daughter okay and they hated each other oh that'll do that yeah

yeah um cars yeah do you have cars to talk about I do I have the the Volvo and lose

everything again the Volvo the 90 the ride with excellent seats uh yes I wish it had an

excellent ride though um so I spent Thanksgiving driving around in the Volvo V 90 cross country

cross country my notes for this if you're gonna have a Volvo it should it probably should be

a cross country at this point yeah well they're I mean because they've out of all the fast

is now at Polestar right they've sent they've outsourced their speed to Polestar totally so and

even those aren't that frost but like they're not there's this actually compared to the competitors

but right volvos have have kind of given up on fast what they do is luxury yeah I think that's

fine um of course so here's what here's the quick specs on this thing starts at 57 grand the

one I had was like 72 and it had the confusingly named b6 trim yeah which just makes me think of

outie doesn't be mean like mild hybrid in this wild hybrid that's like 48 v I know because d means diesel

and what's the electric drove t is gas electric we drove that electric although e yeah like e x all

right electric yeah so so this is the b6 uh it's the fanciest one they have it has uh I think a bno

stereo in it it's got these amazing like 14 way seats that have massage and cooled and heated

and everything and with this trim $73,000 which is still cheaper than where the competing Mercedes

starts that's the e 450 450 all terrain all terrain yeah which is how much uh it starts at like 74

okay um it starts at 78 it's a lot quicker 0 to 60 is two seconds quicker than the Volvo

because it's a twin turbo it's the it's the is it the six it's a twin turbo six twin turbo

six yeah yeah this is a tiny it's a two liter four banger turbo charged with electric supercharger

and with mild hybrid there's a lot going on isn't it weird well hmm isn't it weird to have a

electric turbo electric supercharger and a turbo yeah when you could really just have an electric

turbo yeah because if you like Porsche makes makes do with one electric turbo sure and

because if the electrification can spool that turbo well what do you need the supercharger for

with two things I would say I tried to find Volvo media on like how this system specifically

works and it was very very difficult like they need to do a lot better job with their press

with their tech so if I had to take a swing at this my guess would be

does it have drive accessory drive belts or if they eliminate it does I didn't open the hood okay

I mean by by they already had a twin charged engine they did right and it wasn't very good

right so what they do is they just remove the drag of the supercharger by putting an

e-motor on the pulley effectively and they go and that frees up efficiency for the gas engine

it's sort of like a it's a half step right and I think that was gonna be my guess is that they

already have this two liter turbocharged engine and if they can just take off one little part of it

that's probably cheaper than maybe redeveloping the whole packaging for just a single electric

turbocharger yeah so I think that's probably more complicated to do I don't know I don't know

if it's more complicated or less complicated but it's probably a case of like working with

what they had sure and like like whether it's more complicated or less complicated doing

a new system from nothing costs money you know versus like modifying this one component right

probably think so I mean if if the supercharger just bolted on it spun up electrically and

shoots air into the engine you could kind of put it in a lot of different places when

it's no longer attached to a belt right yeah but like the Porsche turbocharger thing it has to live

in one spot and when they change it to an electric turbo I mean you have a lot we have a lot of good

cutaways in the videos of the gts and stuff like the engine looks way different the engine looks

a lot different yeah so um this engine is is much better than some volvos in the past we drove

where the throttle was super touchy uh 060 in 6.4 seconds 300 horsepower 4400 pounds which is

light in some ways it's because all the drive is standard um great things the seats are awesome

these seats are like when we drove the car we we'll talk about in like a month you know a

thousand miles I said the foam is a little firm yeah and like some Porsches the foam is too firm

it'll probably hold up well this was perfect this was like just the right amount of memory foam

and then supportive underneath super configurable absolutely loved them radar cruises great

angling lights when you turn is awesome are they laser they're not laser they're just they're

bright yeah and they just rotate when you turn but I mean plenty of cars have that stuff

google maps everywhere the eight speed is really smooth and it gets has double wishbones in the

front like a gt3 um and the screens which look kind of simple and small by you know compared

to most cars today are actually really usable and the response has always been quick because

I think those screens are like a laser grid which is different from the other um touch screens out

there so the response is great and now it just uses google maps for everything yeah so it's like

Audi like you can get google maps in the center screen you can get google maps in the display in

front of you super clear super familiar um things I don't like this car this Volvo rides

the way I expected like the Taycan gts to ride and inverse that car is so amazing we can talk about

a minute active ride active ride but like the ride's the best this is a giant luxury wagon you know this

is the end of their wagon run and it feels in corners and over bumps like a sports car

it's just no it is not I think it's too stiff is it because it has big rims they're not I don't

think they're that big and it's not like it it shouldn't have a really hard sidewall

this thing rides like it has pilot sport cups on it you said that about the Mazda CX 52 I would

stand by yeah same thing like that car to me with this off-road image they're portraying

similar to this Volvo both of them I think felt like they had been tuned for canyon driving

but that's great for a car commercial but what people actually use this for is driving around

and all right yeah LA has the worst roads possibly in the country top five for sure no

certainly not worse in the country but they just suck they're in the top five or ten worst worst

race we go to Boston podcast tour and we stop in Boston or Philly or DC or any of them spots

no no no that shit's Philly is like fucking off-roading well they're pretty bad here but

I mean I drove this like east 100 miles just over small expansion joints and regular things

I was just really surprised type of shitty because we have the concrete and they expand and

like that's different like east coast they have like good ass fault but there's like potholes

to get from the plowing and the whatever well hard edges so it's like good but then there's

holes you have to like avoid and shit here it's just it's there's less of the holes but there's

more we have a lot of that but just around the corner here there's a there's the sink

hole that's happening in front of Chick-fil-A for sure and you need a truck for that no that's

really weird yeah there's a couple space spots around this block there's a lot of undulation

in short distance it's built on a fucking swamp dude yeah it's all built on a swamp um so that

that was just a thing that didn't make sense in a car that is very quiet very easy to drive very

smooth you know has great tech everywhere it just seemed really out of character for it

I think I hate to say it because Volvo wagons are like in terms of heritage like where it's at

totally but like the XC 60 is fucking that's a really nice car I know where the XC 60 loaded up

with the wool interior and the nice suspension that is the shit yeah that thing rules yeah

I'm so about that I'd rather have that for within like five grand of this it's a little

we're just with 72 72 I when I specced one out because maybe Hannah one and one it was like 75

I'd have to look up the like storage but this has a huge trunk and I wonder if it's longer than XC

60 it is probably not taller it's a very long vehicle yeah it also kind of had old looking

the overhead camera display like the way it the way the graphic looked it had that little

rectangle around it and it just seemed old and kind of imprecise uh for parallel parking

I speaking of which uh I want to I want you to I'm gonna let you finish okay but

we got an email from somebody who works in the uh in in the industry in an industry and

wants to talk about backup cameras and says it has sent me a very detailed thing as we're

talking about the taikans shitty backup cameras and the Rivian being really good

and had some real inside shit so I would definitely like to talk about that um

you know the cameras were okay uh it was just the overhead camera that looked 10 years old the

resolution wasn't very good um it seemed like it would be hard to to understand where the

corners of the car were when parking and you know like the the gts that the taikon I just drove

up here today the backup camera that is so wide angle that these women were walking maybe

12 feet behind the car and they look like they were about 50 feet away uh and then a thing that

will definitely annoy you and bothered me is the only controls for climate in this car are in the

screen you have to go into the screen no good for that yeah it's no good so it's a really nice

car and it's super comfortable radar cruise was fantastic the programming of that was good

oh but the lane keep assist is super aggressive you have two cruise controls and I never ever

wanted to use the lane assist because the the strength which with which it moves the wheel

and moves against you and it almost seemed to cheat a little right yeah and I didn't like that

well remember dude in ex 90 was the same the ex 90 lean keep assist was like yeah so to the no

that was a problem with this thing I know you gotta just love wagons and it's a great wagon

in most of these regards but like you said I you drive this and you go okay I understand why

SUVs are just so popular because it's easier to get in and out of little more ground clearance

especially this you know this whole cross-country movement like this was the gateway into SUV

popularity yeah and now that crossover like the wagon the lifted wagon was the first crossover

right and now everyone makes crossovers you go why do we need a lifted wagon no and now the

crossovers are turning into sports cars with the hatchback and true that's true yeah there

it's all it's all just melding back into you know and the sports cars are becoming off-roaders

like everyone you know everyone wants to do an off-road sports car now yeah so it's fashion

goes in cycles sports cars are becoming are the off-roaders have become fast SUV road cars

and now the sports cars are becoming off-roaders it's like it's fucking kind of crazy yeah well

would you say before the show like the the money right now is in film cameras and other

cameras and retro players right yeah oh wow but look at these seats that seat reminds me of like a

1980s Maserati Quattroporte you know you picture it having like a big switch panel with like 18

toggles to move all them shits around there's so many man they were nice yeah that's really nice

but that seat when you get the wool interior is fucking epic yeah that's that's the best

seat in the game i agree yeah yeah that's nice clear screen though super clear screen everything was

really easy to use and if i recall this screen is pretty glare resistant yeah i didn't have i

didn't have problems with that i mean the sun right now is like my driving route was mostly

east west so the sun was coming like from the side but i never had a problem seeing any of it

or using any of it so that was the Volvo v90 cross country v90 now right here so check this out so

automotive camera systems this is from a gentleman whose name asked to not be mentioned but works for

a major a major tech player in the team in the camera team at a major known tech company

says please please feel free to read below in whole or in part i was a camera engineer in

the automotive industry a few years ago and worked for a supplier that supplied image processors to gm's

integrator magna electronics as well as hunday and honda uh we did not supply the camera system for

the corvette pdr but it was around the same time uh when gm says they wanted it to work at 1080

instead of 4k for longevity that's just translating we didn't want to upgrade our image processor

etc and increase the build cost and spinning it in that way i owned a tycon before and i could

say it is the most fucked up backup camera of any car i've ever owned uh what Porsche is doing

is to place the camera extremely low with an extremely wide angle lens and then they warp

and de-warp geometrically to get a normal looking image this is 100 accurate it's also why

anytime you drive the car in the fucking rain the camera gets super wet because it's just right

in peak spray and and then when the water dries it hardens and you actually have to like go out

there and clean it like with glass cleaner all the time it's so dumb uh back to the that was my editorial

in there they warp and de-warp geometrically to get a normal image uh none of that is quote free

and results in an exaggeration of the relationship of objects in space i don't know why they place

the backup camera almost on the go on the ground but it is the worst backup camera i've ever

used geometrically uh i don't disagree with this this is the backup camera in the tycon

does in fact suck um from an image quality perspective discounting the warping i'd say it's fine

i ship some abysmal one megapixel backup cameras for hunday or kia that make the tycon camera

look like an i max okay let's see hang on um automotive sensors are mostly made exclusively

for the automotive industry and generally have to pass a variety of extremely rigorous quality

standards such as and goes on to list a bunch of standards okay uh i personally tested cameras at

temperatures as high as 180 degrees fahrenheit and as low as 60 negative 60 degrees fahrenheit uh while

performing tests on the image quality effects of these temperature swings uh automotive qualification

also includes other factors like fault tolerance reliability reboot time and latency uh as to your

question about why portia's system may not be on the same level as rivian i will say it's very unlikely

that they are behind quote the cameras for the most part are commodity parts and likely portia

delegated the system design functionality and part selection to bosh and didn't think about it again

since it's a comparatively non-essential system but lead times are very long um and so uh it

would not surprise me if the tycons backup camera solution was using a camera i worked at on a previous

employer back in 2017 bearing in mind the tycon launched in 2020 rivian by contrast is less likely

to have uh farmed this out since they were designing a clean sheet platform in house

it's simply a matter of where they wanted to put the money and why certain features

should be emphasized i recall vividly that people were blown away by tesla's backup

camera quality back in 2013 it's just where the priority goes when you have an imaging team focused

on eventually doing autonomous driving and driver assist and you tell that team to spec out the

backup camera a whole team of camera minded people aren't going to deliver a crappy backup camera

but for portia they probably just don't put time or money into it or even just reused one from

another car that's my input and best guesses so pretty thorough explanation from that

industry uh professional on why portia's tycon camera is absolute garbage

even on the brand new one that we're driving right now the gts which i don't want to do a full uh

a full review segment on um but uh it's it's crazy that um this one outside here is 196 thousand

dollars and the one sitting in my driveway right now you could buy on you know anywhere

auto tempest fucking for probably 62 grand 60 grand maybe um and uh boy are they awfully similar

yeah i mean looking around they're very similar the only time where the the suspension really made

its presence known to me though you know right in front of your uh office if you say in the

right lane heading west there is like five or six undulations in very short it there these

like basketball sized little four inch deep troughs and there's like five of them in a row and in any

car i've been in you go over that and like it moves a lot this thing stayed flat yeah it was okay wow

that really impressed me because over hard edges it it doesn't respond to that it doesn't soak those

up it it it doesn't as uh i think it does about the same as the air suspension does over those

edges but i think the lower and firmer so set settings of the gts even with active ride and

um i think the maybe the wheel entire package also just makes it a firmer everything because

it's got the much lower ride height okay um because like mine is taller than quote normal

because it's a cross turismo and this is lower than quote normal because it's a gts so they're

pretty like far like this is like the lowest one you can get and mine's like the tallest one you can

get so they're not like tuned the same way but like the air suspension is definitely substantially

less precise than the active ride it was really there's a lot of dumb options on porches but

active ride is not one of them if that is available on a car that you're looking at which

is like all the hybrids and all the evs actually not all mccon electric mcconn doesn't have it yet

but tycon panamera hybrid uh have it now i'm sure cayenne hybrid will have it for the next generation

what is that option cost is like 127,000 seven seven yeah it's worth absolutely worth every

yeah it's pretty awesome yeah especially if you're leasing or you know you're gonna sell it

because i think the maintenance on that system who knows but i mean it's it would be it's

gonna be covered under um under all those extended warranties and cpo warranties because um uh with my

car i made very clear uh because my car is air suspension so it's still i was worried about that

too and they said air suspension is not considered a wear item and is is fully fully a hundred

percent warranty wow yeah so i imagine active i mean down down the line yeah third owner like

new shooter coming in i think you'll have a relationship with your hydraulic hose supply

salesman dude who the fuck knows um i think that i bet the pump like the motor the hydraulic motor

will be very very expensive it's not the there's one in each wheel right that's why it's there's

there's like six fucking hydraulic motors in this thing yeah no the opportunity for problems is

enormous but man but it does it does make the case for what you did which is buying a used

tycon because i got in the car this morning the seat felt the same as yours yeah the interior looks

the same except for the uh carplay button and you go yeah you can get a whole lot of car on

the market if you're not dry if you if you don't drive anywhere and you just sit in the cars

they're the same like they they are not different at all same seats same steering wheel same leather

same yeah it's the same yeah which is great i mean it just shows you how much value there is in buying

one that's a couple years old yeah um but i have we'll have more to say when we drive it more because

it's there are differences the suspension is different this thing has ceramic brakes it's

also got like 250 more horsepower uh than mine has so i'm not you know we should we should

go drive it fast sure that's about um it also has more range um this on performance battery plus

which mine does not have which is part of the reason it was so cheap but if you want to borrow on a

budget tycons are still fucking where it's at use tycons are awesome even this you don't need a

wagon rear wheel drive long range that's a fucking sweet sauce right there it's pretty good car uh

should we go to the people yeah do you have more i don't i don't have more uh not yet i'll

i had i had an oem person did you see the new whatever trump declaration of wanting to bring

the cost of cars down by a thousand dollars but they're also going to remove epa regulation

we'll talk about in the next show because someone someone messaged me from an oem and they were

like free folks and they were like because i did some math about it and stuff so i'm teasing a

segment basically let's see hmm cars will be cheaper but everyone gets lung cancer

cool oh god fucking hellscape uh yeah the people will go to the people will go to the people they

provide solace from the hellscape over at patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast we we love them

over there they're keeping the train rolling through the lulls and uh if you've heard

there's been some ads the month of december which is good for your boys over here um but believe you

me we're going to be leaning on those patrons a couple of months in the dull drums of february

where nobody buys anything um but uh yeah we love you guys over there you can get the show live

you can get the show early you can get the show uh before everybody else you can get the show

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oh not totally recovered from texas sorry and uh at patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast not

to mention you can support your favorite car podcast assuming that assuming that's us i mean

who might judge even if it's you're not you can still support i mean it's your second

favorite podcast i support uh my top five podcasts uh with their patreons um let's talk

about the duffel shuffle retirement club superb love it uh what what wagon would be the best to show

up to lemons right now uh right now i'm on the hunt for a ford ltd but i'm open to all suggestions

uh no you don't want the ltd you want the one that the fair is there a fairmont wagon the

fox body one i'm pretty sure there's a fairmont wagon that is a fox body that you that you

want to roll with that or you want whoa what looks rad i'll show you doesn't dax have one

that can't be real um dax shepherd has a sick one uh yeah that's basically it that's like a you can do

a thought you can do a fox body swap that's what you want 100 percent um yeah i mean you do

there's a lot like a volvo 240 you can put any engine in a volvo seven or nine series

you can put fucking any engine in so like v8 volvos all the time those are the rear wheel drive

cheap e46 wagons you could do one of those that's a quick race car the problem with like

lemons like you you actually want a car that's going to be dynamically decent like you're driving

on a fucking racetrack so i wouldn't want the ltd that's what i'm saying like what are you doing

with this giant huge thing like get us if you want to you want to drive a wagon like cool

get an agile one now it depends on your wrenching ability because someone was running an ltd at

button willow lemons but it was built like you know if you're a fabricator and you can build your own

you know stock car essentially sure ltd but if you're just trying to like get into it

i think you should start with something that's of higher quality and more sporting sure yeah um

nope i'm a i'm pro wagon in fact sometimes the wagons have better weight distribution than

in the sedans yeah the e46 wagon i think has better weight distribution um jeep of feces how bad will

the depreciation on the catalac celesteak be over the course of the next 10 years it'll be

something to see it'll be epic it'll be truly epic i think the question is will it outpace things

like my box or will it will it hold on i mean it's gonna fall like a brick but will it be

faster than other things or not what what is a used rolls royce specter go for because that will be

the that will be kind of the the benchmark i don't really know i have any traded hands

i have no idea what these things trade hands for i haven't looked but these are just like

dupont registry type stuff oh no now it's going to end up in

oh here we go dupont well i'll look at dupont registry 2025 specter oh then 400 all right so that

so a 25 is between 600 and 700 and then a 2024 is 400 with a thousand miles on it

look at that 689 to 399 with a thousand miles now options and things can be different from car

to car and very pretty wildly but like yowza that's a big delta in one year with a thousand miles

dude that's so expensive it's like four bucks a mile and this you know the rolls royce badge

is worth a lot it pulls up people respect it this the celesteak is such a unique new idea

also not as pretty from the profile of the back in my opinion that i i think fewer people will be

drawn to it than a rolls royce yeah so that's not going to help it wow yeah that's going to be

that's going to be a serious depreciation one move and moon units love that man fuck mary kill

people love the fuck i like it for a 20 year old maintenance disaster german luxury sedans here

we go uh 06 outy s8 that's the ronin joint 06 mercedes s65 06 bmw 760 li easy for me so s8 is the v10

right s8 s8 no that 10 back then or 06 yes that's a v10 right that's not the ronin one it's after

the rounded one with the v10 correct okay i'm going to marry the outy only because i think the

engine would hold on longer i would fuck the mercedes because you can put those straight

pipes on it sounds like an f1 car and absolutely kill the 760 yeah i mean same page and you don't

actually have to kill the 760 it'll just commit suicide yeah it'll unalive itself some youtuber

they also look terrible back then i don't know if it's a youtuber a tiktoker or whatever came

through my fucking doom scrolly feed of a of a content creator who who lost who spent like

70 000 dollars maintaining his you know mid aughts bmw 760 it costs him like i'm doing the ac slater

my back is a little fucked right now but um yeah he spent just all the money keeping these things

going they are dude they're fucking these cars are garbage yeah and i think they're very unattractive

as well if you want to old bmw 7 series it's the e38 or bust yeah right like who the fuck

who wants anything but a 38 or maybe if you're like if you're a super super bmw connoisseur

like when's the last time zak you saw a fucking 733 i like do you even i don't have to look

at what it looks like it's like from 1980 yeah oh this looks like shark nose it's a shark nose seven

series yeah and they came with manuals like if you're like eventually zuckerman will roll up for

sure that's a prettier car they are yeah the e38 that's the e38 perfect design sporty shorty game

on right yep actually if you were if someone wanted to like get some like neils van is it ready

pronounce his name the coach builder guy neils van royan the guy who built dario's that rolls Royce

wagon and he does he's done some pretty wild coach i just saw a picture dario just put one up of the

wagon right the rolls wagon yeah that's his ski vehicle but imagine doing one of these as a wagon

you could you could you could basically graft the wagon thing from the five series could work

yeah i do think the back of these looks really good too this is just a beautiful car it does but

i think it would look i think it could work as a wagon yeah these are rad these are those are

these are kind of a guilty pleasure yeah yeah i think they cost i think they're

fucking horrific to keep going it's like the 850 of the same time right like didn't spinnelli

and then bought one for motor one i think as a project and he went oh my god chasing they had

like an electrical draw yeah and it cost thousands of dollars to figure out just where it was coming

from and the problem is with old luxury cars is they don't they're they could be beautiful they

could be interesting they don't they never drive they're never interesting to drive like

you know over a period of time they go you go okay you know kind of kind of done that it's

not like when a car gives you the fizz it's like it's interesting for longer and these cars

all old cars like luxury luxury cars have to sort of be on the cutting edge to be like good when they

get old yes they're not that interesting anymore because even a lot of them now you can get the

same luxury similar fit comfort in like a middle level whatever yeah like a new ish car can be just

as comfortable i think your Bentley was different because it had more of the unique fizz yeah it was

like a strange experiment yeah but i've sat in seats far more comfortable than that car because

they didn't know what uh you know bolstering lumbar was yeah no that car was that car was a

unique experience i think it was it was a year worth of interesting for sure um but that's a

pretty extreme example of you know you got like if it was a 1991 mercedes s-class it would have

been interesting for like two days you know what i mean yeah um it's because it was mildly ridiculous

with so the carpets and the fucking wood and all that shit uh will my homeowner's policy pay for a new

roof says um about to be 40 and i want to get a grand seiko to celebrate i know i should try

them on in person before deciding but do you have opinions on which dial designs are your

favorite uh is it worth buying in japan from a flagship store um you may be able to avoid

some tariffs by buying in japan make sure that you can go into the store because i learned

in south korea it's very difficult to do that uh but it's people go to japan to buy watches all the

time okay yeah i i don't hold me to it but you could probably call and ask but but people going

to japan and buying watches like is a thing okay um and it would be fun if you're in japan or

i wouldn't make the trip if all you want is a watch but it's a fun thing to do um i like

their their bolder designs i like bright colors i like crazy textures so i have i have a three grand

seikos but the the urban bamboo i usually just say bamboo because urban sounds a little weird but it

does look like bamboo-ish like reed glass which is beautiful cool and the lake sua which looks

like water they have a diver that looks like deep water like dark water that looks crazy um

but i mean uh and i and i really like the snowflake the one that looks like fallen snow i just don't

like titanium watches that's why i don't have one of them because they don't make that one in steel

but yeah they have special like limited edition stuff they do in japan and and and also while

you're over there there's like so much cool vintage shit to buy um but yeah i like the i

like the color the dial that you can see from across the street that's not for everybody but

more fuck mary kill from rage against the maki portia 356 jaguar e type c2 corvette this is

fucking cakewalk you marry the 356 you fuck the e type you kill the corvette wow i would marry

the c2 i would fuck the 356 it's never driven one and i've driven an e type so i could do without

it that's what i would do because every time you start the c2 it's going to sound good um

midship runabout two-seater long-time listener first-time commenter what are your thoughts on

cold starting old cars moving them around quickly and turning them off immediately is that bad for

the engine is it better to idle for a few minutes should i drive it if possible good thoughts uh

and if you read my uh how to park a car manual for uh westside collector car storage i have a

procedure for this as one says and um we never allow a car to be run for less than 60 seconds ever

and if and and only that short ever if it's been run very recently and or is a brand new car which

we have tons of basically brand new cars here also as well as old cars um for an old car

we run it for 60 seconds before doing it anything before moving it anywhere because you just want

it doesn't need to be up to temperature to move it around a parking lot but you definitely want the

fluids to fully cycle through the engine before doing anything else um and uh ideally i let the

cars run up to temperature before shutting them off but like you don't really have to do that if

it if it if it gets to its relaxed idle you move it around you run it for a couple minutes

turn it off i wouldn't run an old car for 10 seconds um but you don't need to run it for 25

minutes or drive it halfway around the town just because you needed to move it across your you

know warehouse um two guys in the back of a lexus texas what's a lexus texas i think it would

be funnier if it was two guys in the back of a texas lexus uh that's not a copy but lexus texas

is an american porn actress oh in the back of a okay cool spell yeah so these guys wrote a space

lexus space texas got it but uh two guys in the back of a lexus texas also probably a movie out there

so we don't need to google that uh let's see i have the dvd at home uh camisa said on a recent

car mudgeon podcast that china is implementing a new regulation so that no car gas or electric

can accelerate to zero to 16 under five seconds in its default drive mode uh i think this is good

thoughts um i mean i i don't uh i have to be honest i that i don't necessarily mind that um

we already have regulations that make you go into a default eco the most environmentally

friendly mode anyway in this country um and there there aren't a lot of times in my life that i actually

need to accelerate zero to 16 under five seconds so if i'm required to flake a car into sport mode

in order to unlock the amount of power if yeah i mean i don't think that's terrible actually

i mean if especially because horsepower is so cheap and so computer controlled anyway it's easy

to say in china no car gas or electric because their shift to electric is going to be so rapid that

they're going to have no gas cars like pretty soon or minimal gas cars pretty soon um

but like i'm not opposed i'm not actually that opposed to that um i think most people don't

really need to do zero to 60 in three or two or one second yeah i think it doesn't really it doesn't

affect the user experience very much yeah like you said it seems performative in a way in terms of

safety like if most people aren't doing rocketing zero to 60 or in this case they're trying to

target on ramp speeds much anyway then like all right yeah put it along with the other performance

parameters like behind a sport button or something like that um says they're this is from

inside evs says the proposal is part of a larger safety framework that would detect pedal misapplication

limit torque spikes and cut power that's a car suddenly changes speed too quickly so i just

had that thought which is that this isn't something to keep people from going fast who

want to go fast it seems like it could curb uh some or at least curb to some degree unintended

acceleration from you know people that are older or whatever or cannot good drive i mean

it's one of those things where like the kind of people that don't even know their car has

a sport mode or some other mode you know the pedal slips and the car just goes ahead so fast

because it's so you know what i mean it's apparently there's been some accidents of like

someone drove through the front of the building um they think it'll help with like crowded parking

lots yeah i think zero to 60 in five seconds is still quick so if you misapply the pedal

now it's not as quick as 1.2 yeah um you still have to be very aware of it but like

you know you'll go you'll cross in space very quickly but sure it's probably something that

that would reduce accidents and injuries across the entire population at the mild

inconvenience of car enthusiasts you know and not just car enthusiasts but like

even if you have a really fast car like zero to 60 in five seconds is a full bore fucking clutch dump

launch in a Lamborghini Countach or or you know for our like a Ferrari Testarosa zero to 60 like

car magazine smoking fucking tire power like that's driving a 25 year old car 30 year old car like as

hard as you possibly cannot launch like that's going pretty good most people even most people

would probably readily admit that they don't do under five second runs to 60 in their normal

life anyway yeah i think you make a good point so if they do it accidentally while parking a car

that's what i'm saying then you know holy crap sure turn it down whatever uh borats carry piece

says uh i'm picking up a lot of business travel in the next year what airports when you travel

through them make you go wow these folks really know what they're doing what are some good airports

i think s well denver now has a whole new tsa section that's much faster and i think san francisco

airport also it when i got there it reminded me of europe like well france a little bit with like

they have a new tsa thing has like 20 different you know x-rays and stuff and it was just very

quick the trays return themselves like that's that was finally modernizing exactly that was very

effective i think what airports need it depends on like where you're going like we end up going to

europe a lot not asia so much um but like the airports in the middle east are like awesome like

those are the dopest fucking airports like like in dubeye and shit those airports are awesome

if i'm go if i'm connecting in europe i like to go through amsterdam that seems to work better

for me and my delta thing yeah i'd rather do that than charles the gall charles the gall sucks

unfortunately uh because the shopping there is very good but everything else about it is really

terrible um munich not bad actually you always have to take the bus right i got to the plane

there's just some things that seem to add maybe they don't but they feel like they add travel time

for my connection yeah yeah i don't know where you're going um let's see a second jz has hit the

supra uh thoughts of the toyota's g r gt will they be able to move them at 200 k i mean i think it

looks cool i think it does too i think it looks cool i think depending on how it sounds which we

haven't heard yet so they put a clip out it sounds like standard v8 sounds like an amg v8 or

like it sounds more like an amg okay it doesn't sound bigger than that i'll say like ls and it certainly

doesn't sound you know like uh s 65 okay but it all but it's not like a flat plane ev8 then i don't

think so okay um i mean i think it looks nice i i i i think the styling is good from what i've

seen uh i i really look forward to driving it it's gonna be pretty fun um i hope it's not

super duper heavy even though it probably will be um and i hope it's not so stiff that it

doesn't make a very good road car you want to hear you want to hear what it sounds like

it's pure violence is it really it's pure violence let's see

it sounds pretty meaty

uh yeah okay revving it i think that has um

yeah i think that has an amg-ish sound right sounds like in between amg gt and flat plane but

from everything i'm googling quickly is not a flat plane crank engine um it sounds pretty cool

dry some yeah dry some uh i'm curious how like what it's like when you're sitting in it because

the hood does look 80 feet long yeah and the canopy looks really low um remember the lc 500

it's got the super flat hood and you like can't see any of it right yeah i hope it's not like that but

you know pictures make it look like it might be yeah but i think for 200 grand i think they'll

sell them i think they will too i think dynamically gr and twitter kicking ass and that price is

pretty approachable for you know a lot of markets now so uh yeah uh vision 2002 says how do i scratch

the automotive itch when i feel too guilty spending money on anything but the necessities like what are

some cheap free ways to satisfy my automotive parts modification addictions um someone in the

comments suggested rc cars which can be really fun if you're into that especially the drifting ones

yeah but they're not cheap yeah is air quotes because when i i did it with quarry once and he's

like yeah you can get started in this for like 600 bucks and i was like that's already too much

for an rc car right yeah so maybe you find a used one compared to full-size cars but not cheap

compared to free slot cars and shit too i used to fuck with slot cars and i was a kid that's

some nerdy ass shit right there but it is kind of fun you could do a decent amount of carding

sim i mean sim racing sim is probably the that's the best value for for dollar yeah once you buy the

stuff yeah every you know just amortizing every time you run it yeah you can you can get in

pretty basic for not a huge amount of money and just that one time purchase and you can do it

all the time i mean and even so like you can fucking fuck with forts on a controller i mean

assuming you have a fucking xbox or a playstation or something like you can play car video games like

that but uh larry casillas power wash your car car detailing video game uh like you can fucking

you can restore a car i mean like you could find a shitty car and like restore it yourself or fix

it up yourself like true just using you know whatever i mean i don't i might actually make

money on that yeah i'm not sure what kind of budget we're talking about here but you could do those lego

like lego builds i don't know that's not really cars but um that there's a story in uh in rodent

track uh this month actually about this girl high school girl that just started uh rebuilding

carburetors and like got one learned how to rebuild it and then like within a very short

period of time people were asking her to rebuild their carburetors and now wow yeah that's rad car it's

called riley's rebuilds okay and it's like a girl and her family we're fucking rebuilding carburetors

there's not we need more people doing that so check out their website you got a carburetor

that needs rebuild go to fucking riley's riley's rebuilds you do the cobra oh yeah

so now they're doing like a whole bunch of carburetors so like maybe just like

figure out how to like there's a guy that like the starter the starter motor and alternator guy

in la who makes an entire living just fixing and you know replacing and restoring starter motors

and alternators this is whole shit and like just you could do that you might you would actually

make some money fast back to the future pretty good best northeast daily driver fun in the snow

at 10,000 30,000 and 100,000 100k i'll jump to f type r when it was all wheel drive oh wow once it

went all the drive throw some throw some winter tires on that and just make it have a noisy good

time 100k i'm going to say a 997 gts rear wheel drive manual on snow tires perfect better investment

no notes 30k subaru rst i yeah right yeah uh 10 k e 30 on snow tires yeah maybe wagon

so you can like throw some stuff in the back but yeah uh keel and toe there you go what would you

like to see from a mr2 or silica revival those are two different cars i mean mr2 you know it

would not be hard for toyota make a minute well i don't say that using the the gr corolla's powertrain

essentially flipped 180 degrees you could have an all-wheel drive mid-engined you know uh kind of

something something the size of a grm r4 and it could be an off-road sports car mr3 because it's

a three cylinder now oh yeah with the gr uh corolla's powertrain that's what i said as i'm

saying no you said that but the name could be gr3 right yeah mr3 that would be sweet

then that'll cover your silica all-track and your mr2 yeah in one get on a gr let's fucking go

watching my car get raced at kukwala i love that name that's pretty funny i think it's so good uh

oh at what uh uh oh success uh watching my guy at what point with the Cadillac celesteak

start to become a sales success given the brand's reputation i i i can't say that it's a failure

yet i have no idea how many of those they've actually sold yeah also i don't think they can

make that many they might sell them at a loss but see it as a success yeah like like bugatti verons

right so what number do they need to sell it at to make money that's one marker of a success

or is it just i'd say if there was ever any kind of wait list that would be a pretty strong

indicator for them that they did it right uh christie yama gucci main is an s2000 really a

30 000 driving experience i'm seeing 150 000 mile examples going for 25 to 28 and i can't see it

being that compelling to paired compared to cheaper boxers and caimans um i think they're

cheaper to run and so that's at that price point the cost of running the car comes into play

and so people might be more comfortable spending 28 000 on an s2000 uh then spending more that much

on a boxer knowing what the the running costs are of that but and there's never been a follow-up

to the s2000 that's artificially propped their value they kept making it yeah they wouldn't be

worth that but it's like they're there's just that one and so there's enough people out there that want

them that want a miata that isn't a miata that it um it props them up and i they're known for being

dependable cars 150 000 miles for 28 k i would not spend that though and it's a lot i don't

know the only the only one i ever drove was like a full-time attack car so i don't really have a

frame of reference for a normal one is that real let's look on cars and bits right now what

what are what are they actually selling for selling in cars and bids i i don't i i i don't

want to say i don't believe that it's they that could be totally accurate but um

but let's see this is yeah honey honey s2000 and let's see results bid to sold for

23 so this one here look this one 2000 this is from two weeks ago 2002 s2001 owner 49 k

six speed manual california stock sold for 30 that sounds good yeah that's a 50 000 mile not

150 000 yeah let's look to the one to the one to the right of it that sold for 13 2 what is 13 000

dollars gets you in s2000 black on red that's a hunt that's a 200 k black on red 21 200 000 so

all right so there's your range right 200 000 miles is 13 000 and uh and 50 000 miles 49 000 miles

is uh is is what was what i said 30 it was 30 000 bucks for 49 000 miles stock a lot of car our

friend chris frizzales he's had one he's owned a bunch of sports cars and drives he's very critical

and a very good driver and he i he's not put up a post last week that said i finally understand

why i love this car and he has a yellow cr so i think if you fit because that's a big thing with

these right well yeah because the steering wheel doesn't move right so your knees get all are all

fucking weird i think it's a unique experience they look amazing but and they're reliable so

like that's why they probably command a decent price but man 13 grand for one that's a lot of

that's a fun car in the case of uh of this question um i don't i don't know if you're

seeing those kinds of examples i think i think this may be a case of asking ain't getting

him you may be he may be seeing cars listed for that sure but they're the transaction price

it acts if you're willing to spend 25 or 28 000 you're getting a 60 000 mile car not 160 000 mile

car which is a different proposition yes you know what i mean you're getting you're getting a car

that's going to last a really long time and it's probably been really well taken care of like

tunehound uh when is camisa going to learn his lesson re flirting with tesla and praising them

he praised uh the new fsd on twitter and then he got retweeted by one elon musk um but

i don't think he was doing that i think camisa usually well he's very discerning most of the

time so why is he using twitter uh i don't that's more of a problem with me that he's actually

like still using i don't have to ask him but yeah like i wouldn't what what do you use twitter

for except to get elon musk's attention the only thing it's for maybe he still has a lot

of followers there i don't know i would throw them away i threw away 50 000 followers like

fucking nothing on twitter it was great well and deleted all my tweet he praised the new fsd

he said it took us from this place all the way to our destination with no problems no strange

moves it made lane changes etc etc so that was his post sure i i i i believe that it can

do those things sometimes well i think i think tune how the difference between this and like the

cyber truck thing is in my the cyber truck he was like this is an amazing new version of trucks

and and it supposedly can do these things which weren't tested but the fsd thing he had this

experience he's reporting his experience yeah i don't think he's saying this is the solution

to all vehicles which is like how fsd is always presented by its uh its leader yeah uh man what's

what the fuck did we do we request fuck mary kills no i think people like it carls matzabal soup

fuck mary kill 90 homologation specials clk gtr 9 11 gt1 and mclaren f1 gt i mean obviously you

marry the mclaren there you go uh i would fuck the 9 11 gt1 and the clk gtr would kill me would

backflip into a tree yeah um okay hang on a minute

sweden lowe has a watch question and he has a healthy budget this is a this is sweden lowe's a

was a rico suave torn between a vacheron constantine overseas with the blue dial and the now discontinued

one with the white dial or considering a milgos Rolex of some kind mainly to wear to the

office where the attire is business cash it's a milestone birthday purchase can you think of

a reason the 4520 is worth the extra 10k over the other two yes i probably can

vacheron is considered a higher echelon of watchmaking than Rolex it's it's vacheron patek

and and ap are really up at the uh at the top and so the overseas isn't really

considered to be in the same level as a steel Rolex it's a step up from that so

now if whether you personally believe that or not is up to you but but they make far fewer of them

Rolex you know vacheron probably makes as many watches in in a year as Rolex makes in a week

probably wow and and if you like how it looks they are they are relatively stable price wise

milgos is are great it's a classy watch it's sort of if you know you know it's got that lightning bolt

second hand that everybody loves for your office the hentai magnetism won't mean anything

the color is nice it's kind of they come in a few different colors

and and it's again it's incredibly well made but why is one is one ten thousand more than the other

it's basically because it's not just because of the brand vacheron it's it's um

it's a smaller production it's a higher level of watchmaking um it some of it is the is the

brand um and it's just it's a more baller piece to be honest with you it's a more baller piece

and it's a little more if you know if you if you know you know um but definitely some folks in

the office if they see you if they know watches and they see you in a vacheron they know you're

gonna be fucking or you're on it my favorite vacheron overseas where is a chef eric repair

of uh the chef from new york who's very good friends with anthony bourdain he's in a

lot of episodes of parts unknown he rocks a blue vacheron uh quadrifolia o-face are you leaving tycon

gts sounds on no i turned off the sounds uh ain't nothing but a g wagon with montana plates i love it

that's a weird al yankovic song that would be yeah uh what's the best engine swap you've seen

within the same uh car family

so i've seen i like when they put the nissan patrol engines in the skylines that's fun full drag car

uh the top secret uh supra that had the century v12 and twin turbos oh yeah that was a century

engine right century v12 that's pretty weird turbos because that the engine comes from this thing

that it's like to carry your grandfather to the office and then you put in the supra and then

do 200 miles an hour in a tunnel right yeah that's pretty good uh this person their friend put a 1jz

into a forerunner that's pretty cool uh the dude who put the ferrari um they took a ferrari 360 engine

but made it like they they i don't forget how they set it up but it is basically uh a ferrari

360 block um in a dino like oh that's rad that would sound amazing

chris from colorado most overrated enthusiast car that everyone pretends to love but secretly

isn't that great to drive i doubt it's secretly i mean yeah people are pretty outspoken um what is

the most torque steer that you've driven oh you know what maza speed three maza speed three that car

was like fun at the time because we were new like i was new to this game yeah and i went it's fast but

like not great not great so much torque steer um e early wrx's just like non-sti like earlier like

regular ass wrx's kind of man they're softly sprung they're rubbery rubbery that's true um

most 1990s outies they look cool some of them go quick in a straight line they're all fucking pigs

they understeer terribly yeah um

you know i think i think like the new g80 m3 in the right environment it's great to drive

in any other environment it is too stiff super heavy and not that great yeah

uh metallica's in your oil pan uh with how expensive cars are these days do you think a company like

ford or chevy will make a stripped down no frills version of their top performing cars for the

budget friendly or for them to use as competitive race drift builds i think ford wants to sell you

a factory race car not have you build your own ford ford offers that the dark horse are

which is a turnkey you know i i think i think ford knows that most budget racers aren't buying a

brand new car to turn into a race car most budget racers are buying an old shitty car and turning

into a race car well there's also there's no way ford could sell you a 2026 let's call it

race spec Mustang gt and it's cheaper than you going and buying a 2024 and stripping it yeah

i mean they might make a fucking you know the cobra jet you know the stripped out drag car

or something like that and they certainly sell they you know many companies will sell you

a factory race car if that's what you want but i the problem is like i don't americans like

don't like stripped out cars like workers you know work trucks and shit but like

like is that what is that what people want like the like a suburban that has like crank windows and

stuff is that actually what somebody who can't afford a suburban like l t or whatever wants

like a more a stripper version or do that does that person is that person really just get

going to get like an equinox with with all the things in it right isn't that kind of how

kind of how it worked or used suburban like i think there's also all these car companies the

profit is in the options you know because the base car cost them x so the more stuff they put in

there the more profit is probably in it so for them to pull stuff out they're making less money

and then like you said how low the take rate be it's a very small market yeah um yeah some more

okay uh picking up a bmw 230 i in the next few months should i plan on getting rid of it before the

factory warranty runs out or are used bmw's problems not as bad as everyone makes them seem

seem i mean first off if you're buying a used bmw that's still under factory warranty you

should consider an extended warranty because they probably have a pretty good cpo extended

warranty program that you can get if the car's still under factory warranty you could extend it for

some amount of money the 230 230 i is a lovely little car it's got handles nice yeah it does

cool little car um and based on um how i just treated a bmw2 series for three days i would not

be concerned with the dependability of that vehicle i can't believe the shit we kicked out

of this car for fucking three days aces well even didn't you say they've been running it for a while

and they just change the fluids and they just change pads and it just keeps going yeah um which

is crazy so um i would also refer it really makes you think about how hard you can drive

your own cars honestly um i don't know i mean you look at the forums you look at consumer

reports you look at stuff like that i don't follow the reliability of every single model

of car um but yeah if you're super concerned i mean eric dude my eric here just bought a g-wagon

he used one and he said they offered him you know the super extended warranty and they offered him

the super the free paid maintenance they go he was it was um a thousand a year for five years

for the maintenance and it covers anything that that that comes up that they might find and in

conjunction with the warranty the total thing this is like a two-year-old g-wagon with only a couple

thousand miles on g63 and um it was like 16 grand for five years of warranty and maintenance i was

like ask if it covers brakes you're a hundred percent you got to go in if it doesn't maybe could go

either way because brakes are like 14 000 on that fucking thing but a thousand bucks a year

for five years for all maintenance in a g-wagon i would take that is a great deal sure it actually

is a piece of mine is worth a really good deal yeah um i just bought a sensor that costs a thousand

dollars so a hundred percent garbage uh after years of saving and test driving several different

cars i recently bought a lotus of vorah 400 with 8500 miles from my 40th birthday congratulations

that's awesome that's a great car uh suggestions on mods to consider first

no why do you need mods just drive it just drive it you just got it drive it for like a year yeah

you don't need to do anything and just like just get to know it six months maybe i mean the only

thing maybe i would consider is an exhaust system that doesn't have that valve in it you know what

i mean because it has a very distinct on off yeah when you cross a certain rpm the only

thing i would do to that car is change it so that's just one consistent sound other than that

just go have fun just hammer on that car just just hammer hammer hammer drive it it's a tough car

enjoy it i saw a pearl jam sticker on a cyber truck and a little voice inside said what the

fuck i think it's based on 50 cents uh i took quarter water quarter water sold it in bottles for

two bucks coca-cola came about for billions what the fuck that's what that is drama two things with

came which came up on recent shows the weight of the 911 turbo and the question of substituting

an 18-way seat for a 14-way seat how much do you think the increase in weight of modern cars

is caused by consumers wanting more features and how much by regulation um it's probably it

could be equal parts i mean um i don't know i like i don't know what you know adding four airbags to a car

and larger structures how much weight does that add versus you know two zone climate then four zone

climate you know heated and cooled seats i mean those are all like different motors and different

heating elements and all kinds of stuff that's a great question it's it's it's both it's it's

definitely not just one or the other it's definitely both and it's definitely it's like a cycle

you know of of weight and features in turn dynamically you know you you you have the

weight from the tech and then you have tech to combat the weight right and then around and

around and then larger wheels and tires to combat the weight and then yeah so you know as the car

gets bigger and heavier well now it's got rear steer so it feels more agile but that's bigger

and heavier so now it's got to have stickier tires and better you know 22 inch rims but those are

bigger and heavier it's just like it's it's it's a circle it just spirals around yeah and then one

and a lot of times a lot of times like the regulation doesn't always lead like someone

invents something and then that something is proven later to save lives and then it is it

is brought in right it's not like the government said you have to put seatbelts in cars like Volvo

invented the three-point belt and that you know what I mean like it's someone invented a thing and

then the government decides to put that in a car like government didn't mandate a dash like someone

invented that shit and then they went you know what these dishes this saves lives it needs to

be at the corner a strawberry strawberry cheesecake watch question I have a fairly small wrist about 6.5

would the notice Canyon be too big for my wrist no I don't think so we designed that watch to fit a

wide range of do you know your wrist size act nope fits you I think it would look I think it

looks just fine ah, Johnny said he had a six and a half inch wrist which uh I didn't think his

his wrist would be an inch smaller than mine.

I have a seven and a half inch wrist,

but it fits him.

It fits him.

This is the last two, three?

What is this?

I don't know what that one means.

Okay.

Yeah, let's see.

Gavin Sullivan says,

you often talk about how a car drives

isn't worth the money it costs,

especially with some high use prices.

Do you have a way to quantify that?

I've just driven some super cars

and they sure make a Porsche Boxer Spider

look like good value.

I mean, there isn't a real way to quantify it.

I mean, first off, if you're at a certain level of income

where you can buy a car

and it doesn't affect your day-to-day life,

then it's really about the overall cost of ownership,

not how much it costs to buy.

It's how much does it buy, how much does it cost to own,

and how much do you get back when you sell it?

And what's the difference between those two?

And you can only play that game

if you have enough money to park it

without it affecting your life in any other way.

And if you can do that, lucky you, that's great.

And if you can't,

now we have to talk about the value

of a driving experience, right?

Now I can't just buy the thing I want

and hope it doesn't depreciate.

Now it's how can I get the most for my money in?

And so, predictably,

there's cars like Boxters and Corvettes

that are great value for money, and Miata's,

that are great, a great value, dynamic value for money,

and 86's used a lot of some mirrors, you know,

secondhand, and Devorah's a fucking hell,

yeah, and Elise's, all that kind of stuff.

But there is no, there is not a way to quantify that.

I think the closest I could get is

if you made a list of different attributes

that sports cars have, like steering feel,

steering response, brake pedal feel, engine sound,

like the things that you like about a car

and then you tick the box as you go down,

does this car do more of these,

you know, have more of these attributes or fewer of them?

That's the only, but for me,

it's such a subjective question

based on how much money you have,

that when people are like, this isn't worth 50 grand,

like, okay, are there other cars you can get

for 50 grand that do these things better,

you know, yes or no.

But if it seems like a stretch for you,

then it'll never be worth 50 grand

in terms of a driving experience

because it's just too much money.

Yeah, I mean, the way to quantify it

if you wanted to find one is you'd look up

like car and driver's instrumented testing

and you'd lay that against the cost of the car

and you'd go, wow, the Corvette ZR1

it literally puts the same numbers down

as the McLaren 750, I'm making that up,

but they are close, for one third of the money.

Okay, well, that is a way to quantify that

with instrumented testing

is really the only way to do that,

but that's not what you're asking

because I'm talking about vibes, you know?

And to me, the way that something feels expensive

is when you can feel a very precise engineering.

That's how you get expensive,

which is where if you're talking about

like it's particularly older Corvettes

or Mustangs or muscle cars or whatever

compared to Porsches or Ferraris or whatever,

you can feel the difference in engineering by driving them.

They literally feel sloppier and one feels tighter.

Danger Noodle, and then we're out of here, says,

are you pro or anti dash cams?

Do you use them in any or all of your cars?

I'm like pro the existence of dash cams.

In general, I love seeing a crazy dash cam video,

but I'm driving a different car.

I'm driving three different cars a day sometimes,

and so to try to carry anything from car to car

for me is very difficult, so I don't fuck with a dash cam.

I didn't mount one,

because I just don't want to tear my interior apart

to hard wire one, but I would do it if it was convenient.

Like I might have someone,

the guy that wired my speakers,

I might have him do a V1 and then go,

oh, I have a dash cam from Larry Chen,

like just throw that in there too,

but now I have the image like so much stuff happening

Yeah, I mean, I don't like cluttering my windshield

if I don't have to, but having said that,

if I was me, but didn't do this job,

and I was just driving my car to work every day

and spent 90% of the time in my one daily driver car,

I would probably have a dash cam, I probably would.

I'd probably have a fucking suite of electronics

in that motherfucker, you know,

because that hard wire of V1,

I would do all that shit that I used to do

back when I had a primary car.

I had a fucking CB radios in my shit, dude.

I was comms ready, fucking ready to go.

Thank you for joining us today on this show.

Thank you to our patrons for their continuous

and ongoing support.

We love you guys so much.

We're gonna have a December pro show for you very soon.

It'll be a drinking show.

We got Brian Scottow next week.

Oh fuck yeah, Tuesday, just fucking buckle in,

prepare for three hours,

because Scottow's gonna wanna go for some kind of a record.

Let's put the coffee maker here.

We got the fucking, we're gonna bring

the Nespresso and the catheters.

It's gonna be very legit.

Thanks everybody, we'll see you guys later.

Bye.

Parts Site Nightmare; Plane Lands on Car; Volvo Review;

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