Peak Ferrari - Hyundai, Fetus Calisthenics, The Moose Horn | Episode 1,035

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You've been showing it to me as well.

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I still struggle.

It's my ongoing struggle.

Podcasts is an audio medium.

What do we all do?

We're looking at each other.

But okay, I'm glad you're with us.

What are we doing?

Looking at each other.

We're going to keep doing this.

We've got a huge podcast.

We're continuing our series of what we think was peak car for various models.

We've got a bunch more to do.

It might have gotten a little out of control.

I might have gotten off more than we could chew here.

A lot of research, a lot of photos.

It's taken some time, but we're taking the alphabet chunks at a time we're doing.

Let's see.

It's Ferrari through Hyundai today.

So it'll be good.

We didn't get through three letters.

We didn't get too far.

Hey, we'll see.

Wait till we get to the back half of the alphabet.

It's going to get dense.

Anyway, yeah, but we've got some big brands coming up here.

So we're doing that.

But of course, we've got to do car debates, car conclusions, some questions from you guys.

If we have time, I have a, did you see this?

We're going to have time, but we'll get to that.

But first we should dive in with a little bit of news.

Starting out with a car, an SUV, or a thing, a vehicle that I never knew what it was supposed

to be.

Lamborghini came out with the concept called the Lanzador, all EV.

And you think, well, if it's from Lamborghini, it's got to be special and high-powered and

different and exotic and unique.

And I don't even know what that is.

It's like a lifted Aventador or a, or a squashed Urus, it's, it's, it's good.

But apparently because this EO, Stefan Winkleman, decided that there is no emotion associated

with EVs and also the customer interest is close to zero, they have canceled the Lanzador.

They've shown it around, they've gauged customer interest and isn't that what concept cars

are designed to be?

Just gauge customer interest.

And apparently not very many, like close to zero customers.

Apparently they revealed this and everybody started looking at their phone, just scrolling

away at other things, watching the TikTok, not paying attention.

Amazing.

Also moving on to Rivian, who has come up with the Rivian Adventure Department.

Super rad, dude.

They, I mean, they've got a lot of press of late because the R2 is out now and we actually

look forward to driving it.

But yeah, this is, they've gone totally rad.

This rad department, well, it is, that's like saying Vin, Vin number.

It's the Rivian Adventure Department.

So it's not the rad department.

It's just the rad, the rad, the rad, yeah.

Is finding the next level of what's possible with our vehicles, bridging between where

we find the extremes and the features that end up in your driveway.

Oh, no.

I mean, they've partnered with Mark Rober.

They're probably going to partner with Alex Honnold.

I'm sure they're going to, they're going to make this super rad, yo.

It's super, the, the color, I mean, interesting colors.

I just like that there's graphics and colors and it makes them more interesting.

You know what, great.

They're leaning into that 70s, 80s aesthetic that goes with the word rad.

Do it.

Yes.

You're going to be watching actually seen the movie rad, which was a BMX movie

from long ago and far away.

Oh yeah, that existed.

Yeah.

It was a thing.

Don't look that up.

And then moving on to a small piece of news that I found called starter motor.co,

which is pretty cool from a Financial Times article just recently about young

people all under 25 getting involved with classics and vintage cars and giving

them the opportunity to drive, experience, work on and experience the industry and

see if that is a career path for you, because what happens to all these

vintage and classic cars?

They're not going away.

They just get auctioned for more and more money.

So they're, they're starting out with low cost vintage classic cars, which is, I

find really intriguing.

Now here's a company sort of dedicated to helping younger people enter the

industry and kind of figure out if that's the world they want to be in.

Because, you know, they've seen for YouTube for years, like, wow, how do you

get started in screwing around with cars on YouTube?

I don't know.

Or just sure in the car industry, it seems like everybody in auctions or in

any field in the industry has this career before they go into something

involved in automotive and they discover, yeah, wow, this is pretty cool.

This is where I should have ended up.

I wish I'd started early, whatever, you know, like being a racing car

driver or something should start when you're two, you should do pushups.

When you come out of the womb, fetus calisthenics, yes, that you're setting

on your career path.

It's going to be perfect.

Yes.

But super interesting starter motor.co.

Super interesting.

Yeah.

Go to that website and take a look at that.

It's only in the UK right now, but all the different cars and the rallies

and just the opportunities, which is really intriguing to me.

So very cool piece of news.

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Shall we, shall we try this?

Shall we dive back into this?

So if you were with us last time or even if you weren't, I want to catch us up.

So it's just gotten, it's gotten huge, the lots.

This podcast takes research at time for prep anyway.

And we enjoy doing that and trying to find the photos, all that kind of stuff.

But digging into the history of multiple car brands, because the idea

here is to talk about peak car.

Most of the time when peak car comes up, we as automotive journalists

and just, just car enthusiasts online and people with a, you know, an

online account where we can share our thoughts and there's many thoughts.

We want to talk about, okay, this was the year when all cars were the best.

But we decided to expand that out and take it by brand by brand and just go

through and figure out, okay, this brand, we're going alphabetically, this

brand we feel like was at their peak where, and you took a little bit

different approach to me, but we're going to dive in and do this again.

We got almost a Ferrari last time.

So this time it's Ferrari through Hyundai, which means, we're just

reading them real quick, we've got Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, GM or GMC,

Genesis, Gordon Murray, Honda, Hummer and Hyundai.

It's just three letters of the alphabet.

Yes, we didn't get very far.

This, this may be our topic for the next six weeks.

It won't be, but, but it starts to feel like it.

We please keep standing in your topics, by the way, you guys are sending

some really great ones and we're looking forward to covering many, many more.

It was a great idea until I parsed it out and decided to really break it down.

But I, again, I feel like we wouldn't be doing it justice and not a

thorough job if we didn't break it down by alphabetically.

Okay.

Well, and, and you are a list guy.

So this, the lists are easy here because the, the information is vast.

I am definitely a list guy.

I'm going to jump in starting with Ferrari here.

And I think Ferrari has peaked multiple times, starting with the 1958 Ferrari

250, Testarosa, Skagglietti, Spider.

So I feel like Ferrari has peaked multiple times with various cars and all

of these cars are highly desirable by enthusiasts.

And I'm not counting the 1962 GTO because I feel like that's an outlier

and at 70 to $100 million.

I think they've come off the $100 million price range.

So they're a bit of a bargain now.

Maybe they're like 40 to 70 million.

So get two should get two while you're at it.

So that is aspirational, but that is the super hand of the market.

And you park it and you buff it with a diaper and yes, he never drives it.

He just rubs it with a diaper.

The whole deal had to get the joke out of the way.

So any man that has his priorities so far at a WAC doesn't deserve

such a beautiful automobile.

I could keep going.

It's the greatest.

Anyway, all right.

1958, 250, Testarosa, the Spider, and also from that same era, the 1959

California Spider, the 250, the short wheelbase and showing in a

different color other than silver, burgundy, black, blue or red.

It's gorgeous in that color.

It's kind of a teal.

Yeah, it's really nice actually.

I absolutely love this car.

Every time.

Yeah, yeah, it's a teal.

It's not quite the Tiffany Robbins egg blue.

It's not.

But you know, the association is there, I guess.

If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

I could keep going.

It could be I could do the whole Ferris Bueller.

We could just do that for 90 minutes.

That's for at least for the Ferrari section.

Yeah, for sure.

So this is the late fifties, I guess.

Yeah, late fifties and representative for these two cars.

I'm I just think they're super special.

The design, the styling and the emotion.

I mean, this is early sixties, right?

This so these are late fifties.

They they went through 59 to 61.

So just overlaps just barely but the 58 Testarosa.

So 57 58 Testarosa.

And then moving on to the eighties here into the 1985 308 GTB and GTS.

I mean, how is this not iconic completely?

If you have the means to get one of these in your life, they're the less

expensive Ferrari, I would absolutely take a 308.

This is GTB.

So the hard top, I love this is what everybody thinks of for Ferrari.

And let maybe less so now, but certainly when you and I were growing up

because the TV show Magnum PI, this was what everyone knew a Ferrari to be.

Showing a GTB, that's the hard top in yellow.

So not red.

Look at you trying to look for other not find red.

I get it. It's great. Yeah.

F 40s were a little bit difficult to find in anything other than red.

But they do exist.

The one offs do exist.

So here is the 1987 1988.

Again, this is my photo from the 2014 Pebble Beach.

Actually, this is the Quail Lodge.

Looks like it. Yeah.

F 40s are a dime a dozen there at Monterey.

They're just, oh, you have one.

I have three and I've got a bunch of Ferraris and my garage is just littered

with F 40s and I'm so sick of them.

There's just too many. Yeah.

So just F 40s driving around.

You don't have to look very far to get a photo of an F 40.

It's crazy. Monterey.

Moving on to the 1988 Testarosa.

This image is from the shoot that we did that were inspiration cars.

Yep. Picked a what was it?

Sixty three Jag X type was it?

It was the type one. Yeah, it was early, early series one.

Yeah, keep going.

So this is the Testarosa that we borrowed from a local Utah owner.

The wheels you might see on here are in question.

They're not my favorite wheels ever in question.

That is for sure.

I'm not sure that I love them, but you know what?

When somebody offers you generously a Testarosa to drive, you don't say no.

And so this was from that shoot.

I really, really love this car and it exceeded my expectations

because the side strikes, I mean, this was just peak eighties for me.

And so I think Ferrari definitely peaked and I also had to take a photo of it

parked in my garage.

So I had to recreate my own eighties poster.

I love it. Here it is in the garage next to the nine twenty eight

and the Cayman, the old GTS way back there in the corner. Wow.

It was just a fun shot to take.

But also, I promise that the owner that, you know, I'd park in the garage overnight.

Yeah. So and then I have to give a special mention

because Mondial T are they are I'm fond of them.

You are this thanks to Griot's Garage, Richard and Nick of Griot's Garage.

They allowed us generously to drive their Mondial T.

And this is the one I did the review of.

It is currently on our test drive and this is parked at their Tacoma

headquarters in their, you know, their their front concrete portraits right there

and the front entry and I just it's totally classic eighties look.

And the T up to nineteen ninety three is the one that you want.

That is the everything that they had learned and all the refinements,

the most power that had gone into the T and the way that you can

designate the T and differentiate that from other models is the side vents.

And that is a rectangular shape instead of a trapezoidal shape.

So that is the dead giveaway for the Mondial T.

And on the hard tops look better.

They really the hard tops look better with this.

I think the the spiders, the convertibles really didn't do justice to the shape.

That's why I'm showing hard top and they have one and they let us drive.

It was fantastic.

So also moving on to the 2004.

Well, oh, 1999 through 2004, 360 Modena.

This is the spider shown here from our shoot two years ago when we drove.

Wow, can't believe it was that long ago.

Yeah, it was twenty twenty four at this point and we compared one hundred

thousand dollar manual transmission, mid-engine sports car.

And we included Urimira, this and the NSX, the first generation NSX.

So this is from that shoot.

And this was actually a manual swapped 360.

And this was the village bicycle and it was still superb.

And I still loved it.

It was really, really cool to drive.

Such an experience.

Not surprised. Very good.

Also, let's see here.

Moving on to, yes, the 550 Maranello from our drive with the Grios guys.

They allowed us to drive their early 2000s 550 Maranello.

I can't quite remember.

I think this was a 2000 somewhere in there.

Probably about right.

And this was the the four hundred and seventy nine horsepower V twelve manual

transmission. It really stuck with me to this day.

Yeah, V twelve manual, snickety, snick to second gear and winding it out to almost red line.

And just snick so so good.

I love it. I love it.

So we went all on a drive together.

So here's another shot, a rear three quarter shot of that 550.

And I decided the 550 is the one that I want because it's a little less refined,

a little more raw than the five seventy five that followed that.

And then here are all four of those cars from that shoot when we first drove

the Mondial T next to a Kirkham Cobra, a build of the three fifty six

that was painted in a Hyundai green shade that absolutely worked perfectly.

And that black 550 Maranello, which was just so this was this was our day

and get in some cars, come on, something and how can you go wrong with any of these?

Not at all. Not at all. Very good. Love it.

So all right, so we're going to just go back and forth on brands here real quick.

And so I'm I'm going to try to tackle Ferrari,

but I'm going to continue to take the tactic that I did last time.

And that is and this got really hard for me to walk into the dealership tactic.

What's the year you could walk into the dealership?

And there was a lot of great choice.

That's a great thing. It's a great thing.

And I like that you and I are tackling it differently.

But I tried to stay with that moment in time dealership model, if you will.

And so going to Ferrari, this was difficult.

It truly was. But I landed a place that I do actually really like.

And that is you go to the year.

Imagine the year 1996.

OK, 1996 at Ferrari, all of the following are possible.

That's a sexy car.

The three fifty five, which is maybe my favorite ever of the mid-engine V8s.

I just I love the look of it. I think it is timeless.

Yeah, it to me is one of their most timeless designs.

We've driven this car.

It is wonderful to drive.

It is also terrifying because you've all heard the stories.

This is where the terrifying engine outstories come from for Ferrari.

It's all from the three fifty five.

We're all scared of Ferraris, frankly, because of this car.

That's OK. So the three fifty five.

Nineteen ninety six, you get a three fifty five.

You could get the five fifty.

Yes, V twelve early on in its life cycle.

Five fifty was available.

You could also get the end of the Tester Rosa,

when it was called the five twelve M and no longer had pop up headlights.

It's not my favorite version of the Tester Rosa, but still Tester Rosa,

the Tester Rosa and you could get the F fifty.

Nineteen ninety six at Ferrari, I think has to be the answer

because all of those cars are possible at your local Ferrari dealer.

Of course, you'd have to have lots of inroads

to get all the cars we're talking about, but come on now.

As 50, the five twelve, the five fifty and the three fifty five

were all available in nineteen ninety six.

So in spite of the fact that F forties existed

and the Ferrari California that you brought up the stuff prior and post.

The other thing that's interesting about all these cars,

every one of these available in their gated manual.

And when you and I had that trip with the griots, boys,

I love that you brought that up and we drove that five fifty and we drove the

Mondial and that was when I really came to this conclusion.

We've talked about soul recently on this podcast.

I think Ferrari lost more than anyone when they got away from manuals.

There is something incredibly tactile and special

about a gated Ferrari manual and as cool as the gated R eight manual is.

I don't think and maybe this is controversial, but I don't think if the

pardon me, if the R eight didn't have a gated manual, just had a normal manual,

I don't think it would be any less compelling.

But the Ferrari, something about the Ferrari gated manual.

There is an electricity.

There is an engagement in those cars that Ferrari lost.

And I think they could bring it back and sell they should sell a model with a manual.

And I bet you they would sell every single one now.

What's strange is they decided to do that as a business because of lack of interest

and built more cars and made more money.

And it grew their model lineup and they developed technologies.

And I think it was good for them to do that.

Weirdly, yeah, because that's what people were asking for.

They surveyed their owners and the two percent eligible two percent.

Yes. But then now it's come full circle because now I think the desire is back.

And now that they've explored all the technologies and put F one technology

in a streetcar in all kinds of various formats, the new F 80 is one of my faves.

Now, let's go full circle and go back to what people miss about Ferrari,

because if they had stayed with manuals from then to now,

cool, but I don't think they'd be as large and have as prolific and has

have as much sales.

I don't even think they would have gone public.

Interesting. So here's my actual recommendation for Ferrari.

They're not going to listen to me.

They're really not listening to this podcast.

But here's my recommendation anyway, Ferrari, and that is resurrect the Dino.

So it doesn't have to compete with the fastest, most it doesn't have to.

It's the Dino. So it's already, if you will, the Ferrari

lesser brand. And I hate to say it that way, but that's what the Dino was.

Resurrect the Dino and make it manual only truly and see how that sells,

because I bet you if they had a model that was a Ferrari and they went back

to the field of those traditional gated manuals,

I bet they would sell every single one they could build.

My understanding the 296 was supposed to be the Dino,

and then they just named it the 296 and kept it going as a super high

powered non manual, whatever it is, which is fine at all.

But yeah, bring the Dino back, bring the Dino back manual only.

And I think they could have something special.

But all of these 96 manual transmission, I have to land there for Ferrari.

Do you have stuff for Fiat?

I have stuff for Fiat.

Good, because I'm going to admit right now that I don't know enough about Fiat

to speak intelligently.

So I just punted.

I punted Fiat.

I just was like, you know what?

I have driven so few.

Punto Fiat.

There you go. I went Punto. Yes.

I have I have driven so few.

I know so little about the Fiat lineup.

I just felt like, you know what? Can I pick?

I was even I was doing my same research.

I was scrolling through the years.

I was trying to find a dealer.

I was like, I got nothing.

I have no idea what headspace to put myself in to walk in and go really cool Fiat

because I think there's a few that are cool, but I can't I can't pick a lineup.

So please lead us through fuel.

All right.

I decided to educate myself and I like this start, by the way.

I am landing on an Italian design, but the same designer as the Miura,

the Kuntas, many others.

Marcello Gandini from Bertoni designed the 1972 Fiat X19.

It was actually the Bertoni X19, but it was called the Fiat X19.

And it looked different than pretty much everything else in Fiat's lineup

before and after the Fiat X19 came about.

So it's very interesting to be educated.

I think the five hundred and six ninety five of Barts are cool.

I do think the one twenty four spider is cool.

And I think the Fiat pandas are cool.

And there are some cool fiat's.

But as far as the brand peaking, as far as what it could be

and for Fiat to revitalize themselves and bring something back and look into their

history books and come out with something new, I think they should take another look

at the X19 because Marcello Gandini design.

Yeah, yeah. Unveiled in 1972.

And then by the time 1978 came around, that car gained a five speed transmission,

bumped to one point five liters, making a grand total of eighty five horsepower.

But it weighed nothing.

It weighed so little, but had a top speed of one hundred and eighty

kilometers an hour.

So that was nearly one hundred and twelve miles an hour in this little tiny thing.

Sure. OK. Light weight.

You can imagine the steering feel on this because it was light.

This is almost like the Lotus Elise before the Lotus Elise in many ways.

It is that recipe. It is very much so. Yeah.

It's that Porsche nine fourteen thinking the Lotus Elise thinking it's Fiat has done this.

You're right. And they did it in an original way.

Because that target shape, they actually I mean groundbreaking for 1972,

but there was a roll bar in incorporated into that target roof line.

So they were thinking because it's so small, they were still thinking safety

along with efficiency, speed, great handling, fun to drive.

The Abarth's notwithstanding.

The Abarth's are fun to drive and designed to be fun to drive.

But the Fiat brand isn't really associated with fun.

And then things like the five hundred X come along and we all recoil in horror.

And I won't show an image of that.

Well, they've had crazy Abarth's even from the sixties, where there's that one

Abarth from the sixties.

I think it is where they had to leave the engine cover opened for enough cooling.

So they just turned it into the rear wing.

I mean, there's there's some funny stuff there for sure.

Funny stuff.

So check this out.

This was entered into group five rally and gained two drivers and three

constructors championships for the nineteen seventy seven seventy nine and

nineteen eighty seasons.

This looks awesome.

Well, you mistake it for something else exotic like a wheelchair.

Is that a is that a launch it?

No, that's a Fiat X one nine.

And this is the car that Fiat could look backwards in coming out with something

small, mid-engine, lightweight, fun to drive.

Of course, the size would grow.

Of course, the weight would increase.

But by today's standards, it would still be an incredibly fun, lightweight car

because Fiat styling.

There was there were a lot of cars you wouldn't remember.

If I name some names that you wouldn't remember, you wouldn't care.

They're forgettable.

There were some standouts, but I think Fiat, the brand peaked with this car

and then has just sold cars to please the public ever since.

And the Abarths have come along.

There have been some great ones.

The six ninety five Abarth.

I mean, cool, really cool car.

But they're based on cars just to be the general public.

And this was a special car designed from the outset.

And I think this is Fiat's absolute peak.

They need to take a hard look at this again and think this way again.

Not copy this, not duplicate it, not do a retro none of that.

Just start thinking this way again.

And then the Fiat brand, we'd all take a second look.

We take a second look because we look the first time.

Nobody's ever looked away, looked away.

So second time, right?

I have to show it because I did find one.

There is actually this ridiculous little abarth hatch

that has a permanent wing open.

That is the golden down the engine cover is bolted open.

And it is. It just stays that way all the time, everybody.

That's what it looks like.

It's just leave it open. We're just going to leave it open.

I remember we saw one of these at the Lowe Museum there in Germany

because that is the official museum of amazing car museum in Germany.

But we saw one of these.

It just makes me laugh that anybody ever thought, well, we need the engine cool.

So we'll leave the engine cover open. You know what? Just leave it open.

It was making a wing. It'll be fine.

All right. Did you tackle Ford?

I did tackle Ford, though it made my brain hurt because there's a lot going on.

Yeah. And so I will admit, I will admit, here's where I cheated.

I didn't get a specific photo for everything I'm going to list because I have a list

and I'm going to rapid fire it.

So I want all of you that are going to watch to imagine.

But then the rest of you, I want you to just think through what I'm talking about.

If you're if you're just listening, you'll be able to be with all of us

because I went with 2005 for Ford.

OK. And here's why.

I'm not claiming that 2005 necessarily everything in the Ford lineup was brilliant.

But for 2005, I'm picking as peak Ford because

I think it is the time in their lineup.

When they did what you and I keep asking manufacturers to do.

They offered solid product in every area you can imagine.

On almost every vehicle they build. Right.

Think with me real quickly. I'm going to run through a list.

OK. OK. Right.

In economy cars, Ford was selling in their in their dealership showroom,

a Focus and Fiesta pick your economy car.

Both were available. Both were solid. OK.

This is before we got the really great ones.

We love those a little bit later, but they were still selling a Focus and Fiesta

in 2005 for sedans.

They were selling the iconic Crown Vic.

They were selling the Taurus.

They were selling the Taurus wagon and they were selling the 500

all at the same time.

500 was kind of nasty.

The Taurus wasn't attractive.

But the point I'm making here is which sedan would you like, sir? True.

That's crazy. I just read a recent headline that Ford is investigating.

Sedans again. We'll see.

It might be coming back in trucks.

They were selling the Ranger, the F 150 and the full F series superduty.

Which size would you like your F series truck?

Yeah, 250, 350, 450.

In SUV, they were selling the Escape, the Explorer,

the Explorer Sport, which was the one with the actual little small bed

like a Santa Cruz. Oh, that's right.

They were selling that.

They were also selling the Expedition and the excursion.

Oh, the excursion. The monster excursion.

That's right.

All of those were being sold side by side by side.

And in sports cars, they had the Mustang in all of its flavors

and the full bore GT.

That's a product lineup, man.

I cannot believe the breadth of product being sold at Ford in 2005.

And the point I'm making here is I'm not saying all those cars were brilliant.

But I'm saying if you were a customer needing any kind of vehicle,

Ford had it.

And right now that's so rare.

It's so very rare for a manufacturer to sell a breadth of cars.

I feel like they're all finding their niches and they're walking away.

And I also specifically am landing on Ford here

because so much of the lineup I just listed for you for doesn't sell anymore.

Like half of what I listed, they don't even sell anymore.

There's no focus, no Fiesta, no Crown Vic, no Torres, no 500, no excursion.

The expedition has come and gone and come back.

The Explorer Sport is gone.

The escape is does it even exist or is it just now the Bronco Sport?

The Ranger exists, the F-150, all that.

The Mustang exists, but the Ford GT is gone.

Half of what I listed, Ford doesn't even sell.

I stopped paying to the escape.

I don't really follow the escape news.

The escape and the Bronco Sport existed side by side.

I think it's just Bronco Sport.

But either way, but the point I'm making here is that was a broad lineup.

Yeah. And now they just don't.

And they're not alone.

Well, that just after that, we recognize that Ford was building

ST versions of nearly everything in their lineup.

So to take it further is Fiesta ST, Focus ST.

I'm not sure any of the sedans were necessarily, but of course, they had an

Explorer ST SUVs, various Mustangs, all the flavors.

Yep. Yep. Everything.

And then all the way up to the GT.

I think that was the end of the 21st century teen years.

Like the aughts.

Yes.

The that was in the brief gap.

A decade later, the GT wasn't being sold because the GT then came back.

Yeah. I think I have the three times where it peaked in my mind.

Love it.

But I am going to make two notable exceptions because of any Mustang.

Say we're going to buy Mustang.

It would be the GT 350 from the teen years, the 21st century aughts.

The aughts this 2018 GT 350.

It didn't get better from here.

You're right.

The GT 500 was not better.

It had more power.

It doesn't make it better to drive.

I agree with you. I agree with you.

Yeah.

And now the seventh generation Mustang is not better than this.

I agree.

It got worse, in my opinion.

Well, and this turned into the Mach 1, which is also excellent.

Which is the same.

It's also excellent.

I thought I'm not one.

Which is but it's this without the really interesting engine.

This is the cooler engine for sure.

This is this is the peak.

I'll go with you on this for sure.

Yes, for Mustang peak, in my opinion, is this late teens GT 350

and also special mention to the Fiesta ST.

Focus ST, cool, fun hatch.

Very good.

The Fiesta ST, weirdly, I think is a different level

because it's even smaller, even more delightful to drive.

We just recently drove that not too long ago.

So this is on our main YouTube channel under $12,000 car.

So fun cars for 12 K and under.

You can get yourself a Fiesta ST.

We've talked about this for years and how much fun it is to drive.

And then when we drove it, we're laughing again.

Yeah, couldn't couldn't believe how fun this car is.

But I think Ford peaked in 1966 with their their triple winning cars.

The Ferrari beating cars.

So here is one of them.

I believe it was number five was the third place

finisher at the 1966 Le Mans.

And this is that car here at Pebble Beach.

Everybody is, of course, fawning over it.

I love that bronze gold color is phenomenal.

And this is the the Mark 2B GT 40 from 1966.

Also 2005, such a special car.

That GT is so good looking.

It's a genuine 200 mile an hour car, phenomenal.

And it's timeless now.

It's it's it's been around long enough.

It's been around 20 years now.

And it is still as timeless as the day they introduced it.

It's so cool.

And of course, I think starting 2017 through early in the 2020s,

the the third Ford GT 40.

So now just the Ford GT.

And this is also a peak because what a special car.

What you're looking at is a white with blue graphics

heritage edition for GT from 2022, I believe.

And yeah, all three of these GT GT 40s.

Those were peak four years.

And it was again, because of their thinking, because it's a racing mindset.

Yeah, trickling down to their products.

This is this latest one that they've done is such a technological throwdown.

It is a very impressive car.

I think it's already aging faster than the early 2000s one.

The early 2000s one is one of those timeless.

Yeah, this kind of cars that is going to look at 300 ZX.

Other cars that we just think of that they don't have a year.

They just exist and they're just pretty.

The the GT after this, I think, is already starting to look old.

And somehow this early 2000s GT, this 0506 era is just it lives on forever.

It's so pretty. Camila Pardo designer.

And he throws legendary parties for Detroit Auto Show.

So if you've ever been to a Camila Pardo party, I have not his warehouse,

you know, you know what I'm talking about.

So all the designers and you know, it's just this big party.

So Camila has one and yeah, timeless design and it looks so good.

It still looks old and new.

It looks a great kind of fresh and kind of modern still.

But still got that vintage look about it.

And then, of course, undeniable with the the new GT spectacular car.

But V six still gobs of power, tons of power.

Yes, you know, would have liked to see the V eight.

But OK, you know, packaging and aerodynamics and cooling sounds good.

And those amazing things. It's a very cool car. Yeah.

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All right, I'm going to move on to GMC for peak 90s is when I think GMC,

because I thought GM the brand, but we've actually broken down all the GM

brands into Cadillac, Buick, you know, all those.

So I left GM the company aside and just focus on GMC only.

I agree. I agree. Yep.

Peak 90s for two of them.

Oh, yep.

The GMC Cyclone from 1991 and the 1993 GMC Typhoon.

These cars in particular, but this kind of thinking in general, OK, all right.

Is what I think made GMC peaked in their trucks.

And, you know, I guess the Hummer brand is now under GMC, but whatever.

If you have not seen Jason Kamise's breakdown of the Cyclone,

he's got a great video on it, but it's pretty interesting to hear how a lot

of the engineers were looking at that Buick Grand National and GNX

and wanting the engine out of that. Yeah.

And for internal reasons and whatever, it did not get that 3.8.

It's stuck with the 4.3, which red lines just before 5,000 RPM.

So it makes 280 horsepower, 350 pound feet of torque in the Cyclone

and 360 pound feet of torque in the Typhoon, which is gobs of torque

in an all wheel drive, just a lightweight Jimmy. Yeah.

And I love how they look.

And I was so intrigued by this.

So the engine doesn't rev very high.

Practically a diesel.

Really kind of power instantly. Yeah.

But these things just the thinking they're plain

Jane, just a mini truck, mini SUV with all the power with all this,

you know, all wheel drive attitude and shouldn't have had it.

Yeah, it's good.

This these two for me are peak GMC, the early 90s.

And I feel like it was just let's just build trucks and, you know,

now they're never seen a brand new GMC anything.

They're absolutely enormous.

We just recently had a 1500 with supercruise.

A POV is coming out on that one.

Sure. And that GMC was easy to drive, nearly silent inside.

Tons of amenities, incredibly priced.

I mean, this is the thing.

But a great truck. I really liked it.

You've nailed it on GMC.

I don't have anything to add here, because photos wise,

because the reality is this is the most interesting stuff they made.

The reality right now of GMC is it is the better specced version of Chevy's trucks.

Chevy is the is the more base model and the and kind of like two thirds of the way

if you take like by a Chevy Suburban, OK, two thirds of the way through

adding features and trim models is where the GMC Yukon starts.

So that's how they position it.

It is it's below Cadillac, but above Chevy.

And it is rebadged versions of all of their trucks and SUVs.

So it's hard to find a place that feels like it's their own.

But you've nailed it here.

So I'm going to leave it right where you've got this.

So like their own. Yes.

These are theirs.

And because it's not like Chevy and Cadillac, we're making a version of these.

Yeah. And that I think you have completely.

I'm not even going to add because I think you've nailed it

because that's my issue with GMC is mostly it's just a rebadging exercise.

For slightly nicer trucks that aren't quite Cadillac.

I'm going to jump straight to Genesis and talk through the Genesis lineup.

It may be peaking right now because Genesis.

Look, I actually debated there was a time a few years ago when they were

before they were their own brand when Hyundai was still had some Genesis stuff

in their lineup and things like the Genesis Coupe and the Equus existed.

And those exactly. Oh, my God.

And those were cool, but they were having so much trouble finding a buyer

that came with an iPad.

I know that was your own. Exactly right.

But I'm just I've got a picture up right now of the entire current Genesis lineup.

And I'm going to run through real quick.

They're not all standouts, but we've got in Sedans, we have the GV, the G 70,

the G 80, the G 90. And then in SUVs, we have those are GVs.

We have the GV 60, which is all EV, the 70,

the 80 and the 80 Coupe. OK.

Now, talking about standouts, the G the G 70 sedan,

we recommend all the time on this podcast being sold right now.

It's excellent.

That is a great alternative to the Alfa Romeo,

Julia or the three series BMW or whatever that car is being sold right now,

as is the G 90, which is doing for the luxury car market,

what Lexus did in the early in the late 80s, early 90s.

OK, the G 90 is a spectacular place to be.

You're not going to feel more luxurious in anybody else's product.

And it's charging a hundred grand when everybody else is charging two to three

times that G 90 is very good.

And the GV 70, their small SUV

is actually a good Macan alt.

Yeah, it is. But I think it is more interesting looking

and you can get it in either gas or EV.

This is one of the few brands that is offering same car.

What drivetrain would you like?

They're doing it in the 70, they're doing it in the 80,

the set of the and the SUV GV 70.

And I believe the GV 80 is both also an electric and they're all electric.

Their GV 60 is surprisingly good.

Now, like a lot of EVs, it's super overpriced as a new car.

Deals are available now.

But it's one of the one of the few actual all EV small five seaters.

We got in and thought this has its own personality and it's solid.

There wasn't really a thing about it.

We were like, I hate this.

It was good. Yeah.

So Genesis has got a really fascinating lineup right now of just solid cars

and they have been fighting for a while.

And I think they have really come into their own kind of currently.

Your current Genesis lineup is very good.

Now, the problem Genesis has and this has been talked about a few times,

but I want to land on it real quick.

They're just now starting to get dedicated Genesis dealers.

OK, in a lot of cases, your Hyundai dealer is also your Genesis dealer.

And if you're buying a car with a luxury perception,

this is how Lexus has been gotten such dedicated customers,

my mother-in-law being one of them because Lexus is known for great reliability.

But even if there's bad reliability, superb service.

And unless you go to like a marquee signature, I forget what they call it,

but they have very high end Genesis dealers.

Unless you go to one of those, I have consistently heard I bought a luxury car

and I'm not getting a luxury experience because I'm going to a Hyundai Genesis

combined dealer and I'm not being treated like a luxury car customer.

I have heard that, unfortunately, more than once anecdotal to us personally

and just industry wide.

Now, the Genesis dealers are starting to grow.

They're getting their own reputation

and they're trying to build that Lexus kind of mark out of this,

but it's not quite there yet.

I know many personally know many very happy Genesis owners

with mixed ownership experiences because of the dealer experience.

Genesis is working on it.

I hate to say it, but it's because those Genesis owners don't want to see the Hyundai's.

You don't want to see the Hyundai's over in the other side of the showroom or nearby.

Same thing Lexus. It's not just seeing.

I don't want to see the Toyota's near the Lexus products.

I don't want to be brushing up against Toyota's

while I'm shopping for Lexus and dealing with Lexus brand.

But I think it's also just what is the dealership service experience?

Is that luxurious enough to match my car experience?

Yes, I'm going to continue on briefly with Genesis because I love where you're at.

And I think this is the start of their peak

where they're with that entire lineup.

That is like the foundation for where they're going.

Because have you noticed the incredibly desirable cars from Genesis

that they have just recently introduced starting with the G90 wing back?

Can we all agree that all of us crazy enthusiasts

desperately want this to happen and we also really want one of our own?

Like I want one in green. I hope just like that.

I hope that shows up.

Bring that the wing back looks amazing.

I hope it's not just a concept and it really does come to be

and have multiple wings on the back.

And let's call it the wing back.

I'm 100 percent for this idea.

Yes, yes.

I want to know what survey I have to sign or what petition do I need to put my name on?

I'll sign it twice. That's fine.

But it seems realistic.

It does. It doesn't seem like so far out of the realm of these other two.

Weird craziness. I agree with it.

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of weird concepts,

the Magma GT, which we are now hearing could be a rebodied C8 Stingray.

Underneath. There's rumors.

There's a rumor.

Have not corroborated or confirmed anything yet.

We'll see.

But nevertheless, with the introduction of the Magma performance brand,

everything is orange now.

So they're kind of doing what Cadillac does.

They're kind of doing what Lexus does.

Both of those brands have the performance version, too.

Both of them are into racing.

Yeah, you're right. They're winning teams.

They're very competitive.

So now with the Magma brand, that only bodes well.

So I think the current lineup is the beginning of the peak.

And if they keep going in this direction and the recently introduced

ex Scorpio concept, which is a Dune rally fighter luxury off-roader

for conquering dunes with their new Genesis styling winner.

Build this now.

They'll be stupid expensive.

But that elevates the Genesis brand even further into desirability.

I mean, up there, desirability, like Ferrari, Lamborghini,

McLaren, desirability in different category.

But still, it now elevates that Genesis name to.

That's what they're going for.

They're trying to get up there.

Really want something totally different.

I think these three, if any one of these come about, that's a good thing.

If all three are built and for sale in any capacity,

combined with their current lineup, that's where Genesis Peak is.

OK, I like that. That's very good.

I'm going to jump to Gordon Murray, which it does come up in the alphabetical list.

But I guess I have to include it does seem amazing because I think

I think there really is only one answer on Gordon Murray automotive.

And that is right now.

Agreed. That's a nice shot.

It is a cool shot.

I've got a family shot up here right now.

I mean, look, they have the T 50 with the crazy

whatever the jet engine fan it's fan car.

It's it's very cool.

So they have the three seat T 50, which is the the modern version.

Let's be honest of the old McLaren F one, which was Gordon Murray's masterpiece.

But I prefer the T 33. I really do.

I don't have three million.

I certainly don't have the money for the big boy T 50.

But I prefer the T 33.

I'm very curious to see how many people are going to buy T 33's

and what's their life cycle going to be?

Are they going to be seen?

And I don't mean this to sound weird, but is the T 50 going to be the 9 11

and the T 33 is going to be?

Oh, you couldn't afford a T 50.

So you bought a T 33.

And will they hold value or drop?

I think the hold. I think they're hold.

I think they're probably will, too, because they're going to be so unique and rare.

And a lease with a V 12 is what I see when I think of the T 33.

It's the only thing.

Honestly, it's the only thing above my Amira that I really yearn for.

That is it's another manual transmission. Great.

The T 33 is awesome.

But T 33 T 50, both of them have got these bespoke V 12s in them.

It's just the T 51 revs even higher.

Gordon Murray's operating on a different level than everybody else.

And I really is. I mean, let's be honest.

Gordon Murray automotive hasn't hasn't had to line up like this ever.

But I think I just have to say right now,

I am total agreement like everything is everything he's doing right now.

I mean, you're right.

We can't include the F one because that is technically a McLaren.

We are not to the letter M yet.

Gordon Murray, everything he does like every decision.

Yeah, we'll take it all.

I will just plug the S one L M, even though there's only five being made

and four were owned by the same guy in the auction one slot and special edition.

Anything special edition, Gordon Murray is just even more.

Yes, yes, should be your answer.

I know we can't afford it, but just another plug for the S one L M on that one.

Shall we move to Honda?

I actually have a year for Honda as well.

OK, and Honda's kind of like Ford.

I think they had a year when you walk into the showroom and you go,

you have all of this. OK.

So where I ended up with Honda, I'm kind of excited about this

because I also found an ad that shows the entire lineup. Oh, really?

Honda, our year is 2001.

You walked into a dealer in 2001 at Honda and you see everything shown here.

And I'm going to run through it.

The Accord was being offered in four door and coupe.

The Civic was being offered in four door and coupe.

Beyond that, they had the Insight, the CRV, the Odyssey,

Minivan, the Passport, the Prelude and the S 2000.

And I'm going to put it here as well.

The Accra NSX, everything here is being sold at one time.

And again, I am I am grouping the original NSX here with this group

as the car because I think it goes here.

But one more time, you want to buy a base car.

Well, would you like two or four doors for your Civic?

You want to buy an economy commuter?

Well, we have this Insight over here, which is manual transmission

and getting 50 miles of the gallon when nobody was pulling that off.

You want a family car?

Well, we have a four door cord or you could get a two door cord

and feel like you've got a coupe.

Oh, that's exciting.

You feel a little more sporty than they're on the front wave

of the five seat CUV with their CRV.

Uh-huh. The Odyssey Minivan in 2001 was very good.

The Passport was kind of on the leading edge with the XTERRA.

Remember the Nissan XTERRA?

Susie rodeo. Yes, the Susie was on the way out.

The XTERRA was on its way in. That's true. That's true.

These are all these are all in that same area.

The Prelude is hanging on and the S 2000 exists.

This is 2001 at Honda.

That is an unbelievably broad lineup.

And everything in that lineup is at least interesting.

And there's variation. True, true.

I don't think I can do better than 2001 at Honda.

That's good. I'm going to go back just slightly because

my through line here is dedicated, fun, small, fuel efficient cars.

The cars just seem like they were designed with fun in mind.

I love your all-encompassing lineup.

And that was very much what a product lineup.

Yeah, what a great offering.

The car I'm starting with is the S 2000.

This orange one shown here is currently on sale from Graham Rahall Performance.

He's always got the best stuff, including this very lightly driven

orange S 2000. I mean, if I were to buy one, I pretty much want this one

because it's perfect.

So I don't know that I've ever seen another orange one.

That's really cool.

Also because of the unique color.

And let's go with that.

But the Honda S 2000, so this would be late 90s, like mid to late 90s,

maybe crowding 2000, just a tiny bit.

And there's one car in there that I'll include.

You'll you'll understand why.

But again, small, lightweight, fuel efficient, but fun.

Every one of these was just fun.

You're right. CRX.

This is from 1991 shown here.

And in Japan, this had a hundred and eight hundred and fifty eight horsepower.

Not that's just the janky old one hundred and five horsepower that we got.

One hundred and fifty eight horsepower was a lot of this car.

Wait, no, I in Japan.

Are you kidding me?

I love the shape, the design.

I fell in love with these.

I want they were very fun to drive.

Yeah, that was 1988 to 1991.

So I guess kind of, you know, encroaching into the 90s there just a little bit.

The Civic Type R from 97 to 2000 Type R Civic.

I mean, just fun, great, excellent performance and lightweight fun.

The Prelude Type S H same prelude that continued on into the early 2000s.

So that was 97 to 2001.

And in Japan, they got the cool four wheel steer that we didn't get.

That's all right. But the last car, you remember the Del Sol.

Yeah, I couldn't make the Del Sol work and with everything.

That's why I had to go back just a little bit.

The Del Sol was surprisingly cool because Honda intended this

originally to be a competitor to the Miata.

So everything was fun, feel efficient, throw the miles on them.

And this is where Honda gets its reputation.

That 01 era, but all of these cars, too, is just they're just going to run.

They're just going to run in spite of you.

These early 90s, don't change the oil, surface them, don't surface them.

We don't care. They'll just run. They'll be fun.

What's interesting here is the early 90s.

And I didn't I didn't follow this rabbit trail, but you've gone there already.

The early 90s is interesting.

I feel like Honda so nailed the Civic.

They just said, what else could we make from the bones of this?

And you get the Del Sol, you get the CRX, you get all these weird variants

true of essentially the Civic bones.

Yes. And somehow they're all great.

And they all have just enough of their own personality

that they can live at the same time.

I can't believe it, to be honest with you.

It's technically the Civic Del Sol. It's technically.

I know. Yes. You know, exactly.

It's not just the Del Sol.

So that, yeah, the Civic shared everything. So crazy.

Amazing. That's really good.

Moving on to Hummer and we don't have to linger here because I think Hummer peaked

back when it was a military truck.

And can we just leave the H one?

I don't like any of the other Hummers.

I don't like the current Hummer.

I don't like what they ended up becoming.

I don't like that it was just a marketing exercise.

I liked this. This was cool.

It was cool for Arnold to drive around and one of these.

If Hummer was ever cool, it was that.

And that was it.

I mostly agree with you.

I mostly agree with you. Here's here's my counterpoint.

Again, I'm trying to find you walked into the dealer, right?

And really, why were these ever sold to the public?

I mean, we really could ask that question.

But in 2004, you really could drive a Hummer in the U.S. military

by an H one. That's a great photo.

Buy an H one for your personal use.

Or if you wanted something slightly less hardcore,

you could actually buy the H two in 2004.

This was the lineup.

They were still military.

They were they were civilian and they had the variation H two.

I didn't like the H two.

I thought the H three was really bad.

But yeah, I'm glad that wasn't shown.

Let's not even acknowledge that.

I think O four is what I'm going with because the only time

they weren't just a one trick pony,

but they still really connected with their roots.

Fair. Well, I one of the many things

and there's all kinds of things discussed,

but one of the many things I thought was amazing about

and I've gotten a military one shown here with the other two.

The the original Hummer was designed to drive up to a vertical wall

and its front tires in some configurations

actually touched the wall ahead of the front bumper.

And so you could really put the power to it

and it would climb the three foot like wall

you'd see on a on a highway.

It could go up and over that approach angle.

Yeah, just crazy, crazy stuff.

I mean, that's Hummer to me.

That's Hummer. I agree with you.

This is a poorly executed Tahoe with less interior space

it drives worse.

What's shocking is how little interior space

all of these have.

That is the one thing that they carried forward

into the H two and the H three

because the H one is big as it is.

The entire transmission tunnel is in the car with you.

You're sitting essentially in a bucket like like imagine way

off to the side, imagine your Home Depot bucket.

That's that's what your butt is in.

You're in a Home Depot bucket.

That's all the space you have.

And in spite of how massive this is, it barely fits in a lane.

All the space between the bucket that your butts in

and the person on the other side is just transmission tunnel

and it's up by like halfway up your almost up your bicep

to your deltoid. It's high.

There's no space in these things

and as as cool as they look going down the road

any time I ever passed a convoy with a bunch of essentially

college age guys driving Hummers.

I just thought you're hating life.

You're hating life.

But anyway, this for me was peak Hummer jumping to Hyundai.

And this is where we will end things for this peak car discussion.

I think Hyundai is currently in a peak.

I think we're just coming out of peak

and kind of sustaining things.

But it's a little bit foggy right now for Hyundai.

It's a little bit unclear as to where they go next

because they've shown some cool concepts with that N74 concept.

But where we've just come out of, including the Elantra N,

the Veloster N, this was from a shoot in 2019 that we did.

Yep.

The Kona N, which I think this was just a cool GTI competitor.

And you know what, not for everybody, but still,

it was a little SUV GTI kind of hatch thing.

It was more fun than it should have been.

It seemed ridiculous, but it was more fun than it should have been.

I mean, it was ridiculous.

The styling was kind of weird and questionable,

but still fun to drive.

And of course, the two EVs, that is the i5N and the i6N,

which we have not yet driven.

But you'll notice that all of these cars are defined by Hyundai

coming out with the N designation, their N performance.

We saw it with Genesis, with the Magma lineup.

We see it with Hyundai, with the N Cadillac V.

Everybody's picked a letter at this point, except for Genesis.

Pick a letter, go with your N performance.

What's your letter?

What could we actually patent?

What can be copyright as our letter?

What is our letter?

But all that track driving, that racing participation,

track driving mentality, has trickled down to their street cars

to make them in a renaissance.

And we've just kind of come out of that.

Like I said, the i5N, this was from two years ago,

actually when we put this against a Ferrari GTC for Lusso.

Weirdly, it works.

It did work, yes.

That films on our original channel and the i6N,

which I'm very curious about.

I've heard great things, but a little bit unclear past this.

It's just sort of like we've gotten this far,

and there's been no real indication of where Hyundai's

going to go next.

Are they going to continue into leaning into EVs like this?

Are they going to offer some new gas-powered N version

like the Elantra?

Where are we going next?

I think everybody's sort of waiting for Hyundai to

continue the N, and what is it going to be?

What other vehicles will you apply the N brand to?

So it's a little bit unclear.

It's murky for the future.

I think we've just come out of it.

We're on a high.

The Elantra N is superb.

We're seeing all kinds of drivers at hooked-on driving

track days have decided to go with the Elantra N.

Yes.

They can't justify the 10 grand for a Civic Type R,

and it drives great.

It's a track-dedicated car, and yes, is the answer.

They can get in an auto-launcher N.

I agree with you.

So all of these Elantra N-Rise styling,

that Veloster N is still such a great buy.

Such a great car.

Such a good car.

No, they haven't held on to values used,

and you definitely should get one.

I'm actually just going to add to what you've got here,

because I think you're right.

I think the Elantra N is an ongoing standout,

and what's even more amazing is somehow,

the Elantra N they're currently selling

has more space in performance trim.

I mean, it does have a little cage in the trunk,

so you can't fold the seat down,

but because of the special seats,

it's got more backseat space.

Yeah, true.

This is such a hero-dad enthusiast car.

I cannot get over it.

And the fact that it's available with DCT or manual,

I mean, pick your poison here.

This is such a fantastic car.

Yes, we have hooked on driving coaches

that keep getting into students' cars

that are Elantra Ns and going,

that's great, and buying one for themselves.

So you're right.

I think you've nailed Hyundai,

because they are in a place where what happens next?

I have one bit of sunshine to show what's next,

but again, the Ioniq 5N is the car that convinced us

that electrics could be fun,

even though let's be honest, part of what makes it fun,

is the fakery.

And I hate to say that, but the fakery made it fun.

How does that move forward?

We have heard a few times, you've probably read it as well,

that Porsche has actually bought

and has been researching the Ioniq 5N

to try to understand how to make electrics fun.

Now, they're also talking about killing

a lot of their electrics.

So what does this mean?

But when Porsche is checking out your product line,

you've done something right.

Is this the future or is this fakery theater?

Is that something that we're actually

going to turn on at some point?

Yes, is the answer.

I don't know.

The Santa Cruz.

I have to call out the Santa Cruz,

because nobody else did this.

Now, this wasn't successful for them.

They've actually just stopped selling it.

It was a little too expensive for what it was,

but this drove well and it looks cool.

And it feels like the pickup that people need,

like the commuter pickup you need.

I think this was underappreciated

and I was sad to see it go,

but again, it's on the way out.

And the Sonata, pick your poison.

My parents have one of these right now that's not a hybrid.

We drove a hybrid on that ice cream run

long trip we did with Griot's.

The Sonata, I put it right up there

with the Camry on a cord.

Like which one do you prefer as a buyer?

And depending on which one you prefer, just buy one.

So all of those, again, that's all Product Hyundai

has now that they're coming out of.

What is next?

But the new Palisade is excellent.

And we have a review of it coming up.

It is very, very good.

It is a lot of big seven-seater for the money.

It feels very luxurious.

Frankly, I would almost argue it feels too nice

for the Hyundai brand.

What does this do to the Hyundai lineup?

And I don't have an answer,

but this is something that's just dropped in the last year

that pushes the Hyundai brand more toward luxury,

which again starts to crowd the sister brand Genesis.

Who is this for and what does this do to the lineup?

I think this bodes well,

but I think you nailed the assessment,

which so much stuff is so great right now.

It feels like they're living on that little long tail.

What happens next?

And into that drops this Palisade,

and there's a bit of an unknown.

I'm very curious to see what's next.

Guys, thank you for all your Topic Tuesday ideas.

We welcome wide and deep and information

sorts of Topic Tuesdays,

but we also welcome single questions too.

And bring it everydaydriverTV at gmail.com.

Griot's Garage is our official car care partner

and one of the first ever sponsors of our show.

They don't just make great car care products,

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I know you're not surprised to hear this,

we have track days coming up with hooked on driving.

It's just beginning for 2026.

That's the thing, we're getting into March now

and this is when every region is throwing down

every month from now through October.

So there's going to be a ton of dates.

If you would like to go and get on track,

there's probably an HOD track day near you

within driving distance.

There is one coming March 14th and 15th.

That's a Saturday and Sunday at the Ridge Motorsports Park.

So that's our Pacific Northwest region.

That is such a great track that's coming up soon.

Sonoma is having the first Sonoma day of this calendar year

on March 19th.

That happens to be a Thursday, but Sonoma always fills.

The California region loves Sonoma,

so that'll be a great one.

And then you and I are traveling in mid-March.

We're going to go to the Midwest.

We're going to go to the Ozark Spring Speed Fest

that is run by our Midwest region,

just southeast of Kansas City proper

at Ozark International Raceway.

We have heard it's amazing.

Did you know that this raceway,

Ozark's International Raceway is four miles long

and lots of twists and turns.

Completely technical.

We understand that there's very little time

for you to get a breather.

Most tracks have a nice long front straight away

where you reset yourself and you have a moment

to catch your breath and then you're back into technical.

This, to our understanding, is almost all technical

for four miles.

And it actually has some elevation.

Twisting, elevation, all of it.

So we're excited to see this track.

We've never been.

That's March 21st and 22nd.

That's a Saturday on Sunday with our Midwest region.

We will be there.

We're very excited about that.

And then please don't forget the big boys.

You've ever wanted to drive Circuit of the Americas?

This is your year.

This is it.

This is your year because we don't know

what happened after this year.

2026, that is May 30th and 31st.

That is the weekend after Memorial Day weekend.

That Saturday Sunday in Austin, Texas.

That is filling quickly.

It is almost sold out.

It's getting very, very close.

And speaking of very close to sold out,

I have to plug pilgrimage.

It feels like a long way away.

It's August.

That's a long way from March.

But what's crazy is one, and if we push our capacity,

maybe two more people total.

One really is when we're supposed to sell out.

We may, we've been talking about it.

We may have just enough space to take two more people.

But we're that close.

So if you've been thinking about I'll decide later,

you ought to decide now because it's going to be,

I think, maybe our best trip ever after a decade.

August 2nd through the 9th of this year,

we're having a really cool couple of tourist days mixed in

with two days on Circuit Spa to Franco Champs,

which is amazing.

And an actual track day on the ring,

which is how you want to do the ring.

This is not a cheap trip, but it's all inclusive.

This is transport, track, car, gas,

instructor, meals, helmets, everything.

Get yourself to Frankfurt when we got you.

You really want to come.

Doesn't include airfare, but compare this trip

to something domestic in the US and Canada.

North America, this is competitively priced

and you get three days on two amazing tracks,

de-restricted autobahn time, great food, great lunches,

great people.

You don't get to bring,

you don't have to bring your own car and pay your own gas either.

Yeah, this is all inclusive.

So to get on track, look for hookedondriving.com

for a track day near you.

And for these everyday driver adventures,

including the September Utah adventure,

which is not quite open yet,

go to everydaydriver.com slash adventures.

We hope to see you there.

Come join us on all of them, any of them.

We would love to see you there.

Brandon in the Midwest writes to us

about the great consolidation.

He has been looking at our reviews for a long time.

Brandon, thank you for writing.

He's 48.

He's owned somewhere around 30 cars

and currently manages seven.

Brandon, I thought that you meant you managed seven other cars

for somebody else or your job was to manage cars.

Those are your own cars.

You manage seven of your own cars.

He would like to bring that number down a bit,

but he fights the urge to buy more project cars.

Don't do that.

Fight the urge.

His exact story tells it.

They ended up just sitting.

There have been many vehicles he's owned

for approximately a year before moving on,

and he likes unique vehicles that are manual transmission.

Nothing too new.

Having one car that could do it all would be nice.

So we're going to try to consolidate seven into one.

I don't know how successful we're going to be,

but I've got a pitch.

I've got a pitch on this.

I mean, this is the place to shop for it.

Yes, absolutely.

All right.

The starting car here of the seven,

2005 Mercedes E320CDI with 225,000 miles.

Brandon bought this one cheap.

He spent more money maintaining and repairing

than he spent on the car and countless hours working on it.

So he is upside down in terms of man hours

and money into the car.

He says fuel economy is incredible,

but the key sentence here is it is not truly reliable.

And he knows he's had the valve body out of the transmission

three times and the car no longer goes into lip mode,

but now he's traumatized.

There is nothing about this paragraph, Brandon,

that says keep this car zero.

Apparently the glow plug module is bad

and Mercedes are aftermarket options

are not available for the diesel.

Okay.

Well, speaking of diesel, he's got a 1982 Mercedes 300D.

Yes, with a manual swap.

Wow.

All right.

This has over 250,000 miles.

Brandon has owned this for seven years.

Did the manual swap himself?

Lots of other repairs and maintenance, of course,

but he's always said he will drive this car until he dies.

Okay.

All right.

No major issues, but this one continues to run.

It has little things that he says never rise

to the point where he really ought to address them.

So, I mean, it's a 1982 Mercedes diesel.

Of course, there's little things going on,

but it mostly runs and manual swap.

Do you think he pours the McDonald's fry oil into it?

I've driven behind many of those cars over the years.

Smells like French fries.

Exactly.

You're driving behind what smells like

some sort of fast food restaurant going,

what is going on?

Yeah, for sure.

He's also got a 2006 Boxster S manual transmission

with 85,000 miles.

He's owned it for four years, uses it for errands,

going to work, but mostly for the back road blasting,

taking it to places like Tale of the Dragon

and the Ozark National Forest area.

Love it.

You can make it out.

We are going to be at the Ozarks.

We are.

For that hooked on driving track day.

2009 Infiniti EX35, especially the rear lights.

It was their attempt to do the SUV.

So, I mean, sorry, the CUV.

It was like they took the really cool looking G35 sedan

and just inflated it up.

This is his daughter's car.

He is responsible for maintaining this with 163,000 miles on it.

1996 Jeep Cherokee.

He bought this as a project car that's been on pause.

It's a two-door manual, was two-wheel drive.

He's converting it to four-wheel drive,

and he's lost interest in it, but it remains.

I can't believe the sentence, Brandon.

It says, my interest is lost in it,

but I hate to let go of an unfinished project.

You've answered your own question.

Not going to happen.

We're not going to sing it, but we are feeling it.

Moving on.

Okay.

He says he also has two other W123 Mercedes chassis.

Now, that is essentially matching his 1982 Mercedes 300D.

He has two other chassis.

One is missing the engine and transmission.

That was the donor car for the manual swap.

The other is complete, but doesn't run.

It's a run when parked, but it is now just a parts car.

He has way more vehicles than he has time to fix or maintain.

Short commute to work.

Two daughters.

One, we already know drives the Infiniti.

The other wants a Volkswagen Beetle.

You didn't specify, but I'm guessing she wants an original.

I don't know.

Maybe you want your early 2000s, but she wants a Beetle.

That's kind of fascinating.

He's never been satisfied with any automatic car he's ever owned.

He likes vehicles with minimal tech,

and he tends to gravitate toward German or Japanese vehicles.

He has a list of other things he's owned over the past 10 years,

which is a broad range of stuff.

He really is trying to pare this down to maybe one,

which is a long way to go.

The vehicle that gives him the thrill of a Porsche,

the ability to transport people,

and maybe the occasional small piece of furniture.

Are you antiquing?

Is that what's happening?

Anyway, not over complicated with tech

and is reliable enough and unique enough.

He lives in a smaller Midwest town dominated by domestic brands.

He wants to stand out.

By the way, have furniture delivered or go to Home Depot

and rent their truck for $19 an hour or whatever it is,

and go use that.

Don't buy the car thinking I'm going to buy furniture.

That's good.

Have the furniture delivered.

I like that.

Do not buy for furniture.

People do the stuff and the things.

That's very funny.

I do have one car solutions for you, Brandon.

I am diving in because you said,

minimal tech, manual transmission,

haul people, fun to drive.

I'm starting out here with the prior generation BMW M2.

This is shown the CS from we compared this directly to the Evora.

That was a great day.

It was a very good day.

I love the CS so much, this prior gen CS.

It's great.

It's a race car.

It's always on.

It's buzzing with excitement and energy.

It's very fun.

But if you, if that's not for you for any reason,

I'm just going to give you a lot of suggestions here.

You could go with the F80 generation M3,

manual transmission, non beaver teeth, people, power.

The problem with both of these is they have a lot of tech.

I mean, there's a lot of tech in any BMW,

but I'm just using this as a starting place to think,

okay, four doors, two doors, BMW.

I'm thinking of getting rid of all of these,

like all of these, including the Boxster,

even though you drive for work.

I mean, I know sell a Porsche.

That's a weird sentence for me,

but I'm thinking sell everything seven into one.

Well, I guess not your daughter's car because she needs that.

But the Mercedes project cars,

I guess we can't do seven into one because he's going to drive

that 1982 diesel until he dies.

It is interesting.

There's, there's, there's caveats here,

but you're doing well.

Keep going, keep going.

So whatever the mix looks like,

we're going to keep going.

The answer truly for simple,

going to run lots of power, manual transmission.

I'm the one suggesting a Chevy SS this time.

You know what?

I'm just going to sit here and grin.

I'm just going to,

just going to enjoy the fact that this moment just happened.

I like it.

It's good.

I'll keep rocking onto Civic Type R or

the Integra Type S.

Both of these.

I also noticed Brandon,

you didn't exactly give us a budget.

So I'm throwing all the ideas.

No budget.

So either the Type R Civic or the Integra Type S,

both of these are great fun to drive,

manual transmission, the front wheel drive,

but who cares?

They're true sports cars, enthusiast cars,

great engineering, brilliant cars, brand new.

They're going to run lots of,

you can fit furniture in either one.

Fit people in the back.

Just grabbing a whole must-we moment.

That's very funny.

I love it.

It's good.

But let's get real.

The car that you,

the three cars that you should consider

are the E90 M3,

the four-door manual transmission,

V8.

Yes.

It's the wort,

the pimple on the hood.

So good.

The power bulge.

If you can get the one with the wort on the hood,

but not in the cabin,

you've really found something.

That's true.

Because the extra second hump on that car is terrible.

Yeah.

An E34 M5.

Ooh, those are cool.

Go back to early 90s, low-tech manual, haul people,

forget the furniture, fun to drive,

rear-wheel drive, commute.

Keep this going,

because what I'm getting from Brandon

is that he will put the time and the work and the money

into keeping something old running.

This is a 1995, I believe.

Really? Late.

Wow, okay, cool.

So pretty late.

So with the throwing-star design wheels,

just superb car.

I want to drive this.

I want to own one of these.

So maybe imagine the 300D and this part next to it.

That's a sweet garage.

That's cool.

That's very cool.

Yeah.

Like the Peak German, whatever they were known for,

and then ending on the E39.

You saw this coming, right?

Yeah, you would think so.

I mean, it's the older Chevy SS recipe.

I mean, it is for sure.

We lament the lack of this recipe in cars made everywhere.

This was actually in gig harbors visiting my family

and saw this parked on the street.

And every time I see one,

especially as nice as this one is,

it's just like, I want it.

So you've got options here, Brandon.

You've got a lot of great options.

You could go domestic.

But again, you said you live in the Midwest

and you're looking for German, Japanese,

something a little bit standout-ish.

So go older on the BMW sedans.

This is when the peak stuff here.

Yes, for sure.

That's where I'm landing.

That's very good.

It's very good.

There's a little bit of overlap here, Brandon,

but I want to talk through your current list of cars

real quick because you're going from seven cars,

many of which are projects, and trying to go one.

Six, six, one, leave the Mercedes diesel.

I don't really know that that's possible.

So I'm just going to walk through your cars real quick.

Yes, exactly.

I cannot think of a single decent reason

to keep the 2005 Merc, especially considering you just said

it's just never reliable.

So go on.

And you've dumped money into it.

Yes, completely gone.

It doesn't get better from here.

I'm having you keep the 1982.

You said you want to drive it until you die.

So, okay, no big issues.

You want to drive it until you die.

You did the manual swap.

That's the 123 chassis that runs and works and so fine,

which also means you can sell the other two,

get rid of the two parts cars.

I don't care if they're going to haul them off

and it's going to be scrap metal.

Move on.

So both of those go, I'm having you.

So now you've got, let's be honest,

I've already sold three cars, the 2005 and the two extra chassis.

Selling the metal here.

Exactly.

You've kept the 1982.

I'm having you keep the Boxster for now.

I'm going to come back to that.

The two-wheel drive Jeep project gone,

gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

I'm sorry.

I don't even know what you're talking about.

Seriously, the fact that you admit you have no interest in it.

Yeah.

You know what that means?

Go, time to let go.

There is no benefit to your pride, wallet,

or actual free time to keep that vehicle.

If you're not interested, who cares if anybody else is?

Go.

Brandon, you're all out of excuses.

So the Jeep goes as well.

I've dropped your cars to two, the 1982 and the Boxster.

I'm leaving your daughter's car off the table

because that's a separate thing.

So we have those two cars.

So think about those two cars.

We have a classic old school diesel Mercedes with a manual.

That's so cool.

And a modern Boxster from Porsche.

Those do very different things.

OK?

OK.

But you've said you'd like to have something kind of simple,

haul people interesting to drive still manual transmission.

Here's where I went.

I went two places you might not be expecting,

but I actually solved all of those needs

with two potential vehicles that you have to drive.

The first one is, do you remember

that the early generation X5 BMW actually came in a manual?

I didn't remember that.

The early ones, like 2000 to 2002, were five speed.

And then the O3s to like 06 or 7 were six speed manuals

with a straight six under the hood.

Chris Chapman designed this generation.

This is the early gen, early 2000s BMW X5 available in manual.

Oh, that's good.

This will haul people.

This is an old, interesting German car,

which is one of your things.

It's still manual.

There's all of those things.

Again, the wild card in all of this, I don't know your budget,

but these are not that expensive.

They're just hard to find.

While we're staying here, though,

you will be unsurprised to hear about my other car,

but I have to do it.

You can get a GTS.

This is the V8 first gen Porsche Cayenne.

The GTS came in a six speed manual.

These are also not easy to find,

but this is going to be like an 09, maybe a 2010.

So it's not that old.

It's actually newer than your Boxster.

But you said drives like a Porsche on haul stuff

and manual transmission.

Well, there you go.

Put your antiquey thing in the back seat of this.

Have your furniture delivered.

Seriously.

Anyway, yeah.

But manual transmission, Cayenne,

I will admit the only thing that would make our old Cayenne cooler

would be if it was a manual.

And you could get the base model,

which we actually have a base model.

You can get the base model or the GTS in six speed manual.

And this is the GTS.

And that is the way to go if you can find one.

So these are my two favorites for you, Brandon.

But my wild card, we're all going to laugh together.

I had a wild card.

We're all going to laugh because I thought

if you're not actually going to do this,

because my thinking on these SUVs,

let me close that thought and then I'll give you my wild card.

My thinking on the SUV is this.

You have the old school German that connects you back

to your roots of having these Mercedes diesels.

You have that in the garage.

You have the Boxster that is for fun driving.

And you have the Cayenne or the X5 that is the transport vehicle.

That's a great mix of things.

Also, all of these cars are from the same town.

I mean, technically the Boxster is Leipzig, but whatever.

Just call it Stuttgart, same town.

But you could have the opportunity in this situation

to have three very different uses for three very different cars.

But here's my challenge, Brandon.

I've got you down to three cars now.

Take six months at the minimum, but a year at the max.

Any of those three you haven't driven a thousand miles,

you sell it right now.

Is that the rule now?

That's my rule.

I know it's a little challenging, isn't it, for your 928.

But this is how you pare down, Brandon,

because I think you're going from so many cars

and so many projects down to very few.

I think you're going to feel like you don't have enough cars.

But I'm getting you into stuff that runs and drives.

And has uses.

And now you can figure out, what do I actually have a use for?

Because maybe you can go to one car.

And the one car I have for you, ironically, is the Chevy SS.

You and I did not consult.

No, we did not.

But I just thought, you know what, if he sells everything.

We can't not say it.

If he sells everything.

Okay.

The great thing about this, the manual transmission ones

of these with the magnet ride, okay.

They are a modern car.

That is still simple like an old car.

This is going to run and be rely.

This is this is Chevy Corvette dynamics

and Chevy Corvette pieces under the hood.

The hardest thing on this is the body panels.

The interior is actually better than the interiors

of that same era GM stuff, because this was an Australian car.

But the thing is, on one level, you're going to blend in

with Midwest folks driving domestic on another level.

Who else has got one of these?

Who else has one?

This is not the car anybody thinks it is.

This could do hauling people, hauling stuff,

and hauling down your fun road.

This is all of the above.

This would still be fun on Tail of the Dragon.

This is still be fun on track.

We've driven these on track.

They're actually great on track.

So it's a modern car with simple old school think.

It's a wild card, but I love that you went there too, Paul.

I have to stay here.

I think the answer for the time being

is the manual Cayenne or manual X5 in your other two cars.

But again, my wild card was the one and done Chevy SS.

Seems to be the answer for a lot of things.

By the way, everyone, Todd needs an 2006 Vantage manual V8,

and he also needs a Chevy SS.

Those two cars are going to keep coming up.

At least I can think of right now.

I don't know why, but they keep coming up.

Yes, they do.

I came across some Peyton and Maserati photos just today.

I was searching for photos, and I just, that was five years ago.

I know.

Well, but last podcast, I ended up talking about the Audi A8

from that same generation.

And ever since then, I have restricted myself from looking

because I kind of want one.

I kind of want the lighter Peyton.

I kind of do.

And I have no use for it whatsoever.

But anyway, yeah.

Michael is in Michigan.

He's 33 year old.

He's a dad.

He's in the middle of nowhere, Michigan,

he says with a three year old and a five year old.

And he's struggling with deciding on his next car.

He's been an enthusiast for a long time, but from a distance.

He's been financially practical for too long,

and he needs something fun.

The struggle is real.

Yes.

This is real life for sure.

Yeah.

Michael's driving past includes a horrid 2004 ION.

He paid cash, got him through school, a supercharged Monte Carlo SS.

Then a string of Ford leases.

He got employee pricing on all-wheel drive fusion.

Then a couple of F-150s.

He then took the plunge in order to 2022 WRX, his first manual.

He loved it, but his wife hated it.

She claims it rode too rough, was too loud, and she's right.

He also works from home.

You're not wrong.

I'm just laughing because it's funny.

He drives less than 7,500 miles a year,

so he decided to trade that in, lease an Equinox EV

to capitalize on the incentives and paid off bills

with a much lower payment.

Being financially prudent, there is no shame.

There's no, you did right.

You did right.

But the lease is now ending and he wants to get back

into something in joy driving.

There we go.

Yes.

Got it.

It's time.

He's not worried about the weather.

He drives minimally and his wife will have the three-row family hauler.

He needs to fit two car seats, his wife regularly.

So growing family, so four of them.

He would love to find something in the 25 to $35,000 range.

Good news.

We have answers.

His shortlist includes a Mustang GT with MagneRide.

Love it.

A two or three series BMW.

Yes.

Or a mini hardtop JCW.

Yes.

Okay.

Love all of those choices.

I have some to add of my own.

Good.

I hope you thought of these.

They almost seem to be usual suspects, but starting with the 11th generation,

the current generation Civic Si.

Gigantic back seats, two car seats will fit.

Your wife in the front, it's a Civic.

But it's manual and it's got 200 horsepower and it's fun to drive.

Agreed.

All of the above.

Yep.

Also, the car that does the same thing from Hyundai is the Elantra N.

The Elantra N.

You don't have to buy this new either because they were 36,000 new.

So get slightly used.

Get the cool seats.

Get a huge back seat.

Gigantic trunk.

Manual DCT.

Don't care.

Have a great time.

Agreed.

And last on my list, just as you said, the BMW 2 series,

that prior generation 240 always impressed us.

The car seats will fit, but you're going to have a bit of a struggle getting the kids in

and out and it's just going to be more.

Is that all the time though?

Only you can answer that as to when the kids go with you.

But right wheels and tires.

This comes to life and you can get your choice of transmission

and then you can come on one of our trips and you can take your track day

and find a track day near you.

You know where to go and these are my three choices for you.

But I love Michael.

I love your choices that you start out with.

You're thinking right.

All of those would work.

But the most important thing you need to do is take the whole family.

When you go driving.

I love that.

Everyone goes.

I love that.

Maybe you only get one or two done on a Saturday.

And then next weekend you do the other, you know, the next two.

Because the three year old's going to get tired.

Five year old's going to get hungry.

You're going to get hungry.

Wife's going to be like, okay, are we done yet?

And just take everybody though and involve everybody.

So when you do land on it, everyone approves.

Yeah.

The shopping as a family is an interesting kind of under,

but it could be pretty cool if you can pull it off.

Michael, I want to talk about a few things here.

First off, I want to ask questions about your Mustang choice.

I want to talk through your shortlist and I've given you some alts.

The Mustang, I'm wondering if you've driven a modern Mustang

and which Mustangs intrigue you said the GT.

I like the GT with Magna Ride.

I like that generation.

It's the same generation as the GT 350 that you brought up earlier.

That is possibly peak Mustang in general,

whether it's the big 350 motor or not.

What I love for you to find is actually a Mach 1 of that era,

but I think it's going to be above your price range.

I know the GT 350s are.

I think the Mach 1s are hanging on to value

because that was the GT 350 without the fun motor that came on afterward.

That is actually the one you want is the Mach 1.

I'm wondering about your love for it.

If you haven't driven it yet because you put it in here

and I'm wondering what your experience is,

but I'm going to jump to the things that you did call out

and I'm going to give you alts for the things you did call out.

Starting here with the Mini Cooper, which is a great choice.

JCW Mini Cooper.

My concern is you have two kids with car seats in the back.

I just, I don't know if this is going to be enough space.

It's going to be enough fun.

I just don't know if it's enough space.

It's not.

It's just so fun, like lean into the fun.

Look, three year old, five year old,

my son was in the back of a FRS until he was eight or nine.

So I mean, it's doable.

It's definitely doable.

I also don't know how big you are.

Nobody could sit behind me in the FRS, but shorter people,

I could have put a little kid behind me if I'd been shorter.

So I don't know what the scale is of your family.

So that's an unknown, but the Mini I like.

But what I think is the car you're looking for the Mini to be

is what the Elantra in is.

Front wheel drive, fun manual transmission,

good rotation with actual back seat space.

Well, that's the Elantra in.

So if the Mini is not big enough, you go Elantra.

So let's go to your other shortlist car.

And that is the two series.

Now the current two series, I'm showing the one generation prior,

the current two series has gotten bigger and number.

Now that makes it more usable and more modern.

And I don't know that you're going to be able to find one in your budget anyway.

But the reality is the prior gen, the current, pardon me,

the prior gen 240 is a phenomenal car.

And the 235s you can cheaper with the 240s are excellent.

So I think a 240 would be great.

Now we're talking two plus two again, kind of like the Mini Cooper.

But we're talking rear wheel drive two plus two.

Really good dynamics, a nice place to be.

The back seats are actually surprisingly spacious.

It's just you're dealing with two doors.

So that is the struggle.

But then I have to wild card this one because

Michael, here's the question.

How much are we leaning toward fun?

Because if we really are, if we really are,

low, medium, high car, gold, medium, bronze,

I hate to say it, but I must.

The GR 86 is your answer.

Go get one of these a year or so old.

Get the GR 86.

Yes, the back seats are small.

Yes, it's loud.

Yes, it's not a car that you're going to want to take a family road trip on.

But you have the family hauler.

What I feel like from you is you're trying to buy a fun car first.

And you're feeling because you're responsible, Dad,

I'd like it to be able to do some family duties.

That's exactly what the GR 86 is.

It is just a fun car.

Well, see, this is what I'm thinking about.

If the whole family goes and they buy this,

then you can always say, Michael, well, we went as a family.

We all approved that.

True.

So you can't renege on your true.

You know, we all thought it was great and we're still.

I really think we're good.

I feel like from you, you want permission to buy a fun car first.

But you don't want to go Miata because then you really have said to the family,

none of you are coming.

OK. All right.

That's kind of what I'm feeling from you.

All right.

The GR 86 is for me.

Exactly. Goodbye.

The GR 86 says I get to have all of the fun.

I get to really have all the fun.

You can come if you want.

True. OK.

So I'm going to lean toward this, even though I think the place you land

is probably the two series.

I am going to be here again, broken record.

I know talking about the GR 86.

This is the Miata for the whole family.

It really is.

So in that regard, I think it wins.

Like it, Michael.

Thank you for writing, Brandon.

Thank you as well.

EverydayDriverTV at gmail.com.

Topic Tuesdays.

Car conclusions, car debates, keep them coming.

I'm going to pivot real quick to it.

Did you see this?

We're not going to do car conclusions.

We're already running a bit long,

but I'm going to do it.

Did you see this?

Because it's currently unveiling as we speak.

Well, actually, by the time this comes out on Tuesday, I'm sure it's resolved.

Hopefully.

A few weeks back, I talked about Warner Brothers being for sale.

Right.

And Netflix was probably going to be the winner.

At the time we're recording this,

what I'm telling you is less than 24 hours old

is that Paramount has been the jilted lover

ever since Netflix became the winner.

And they keep upping the amount and appealing to stock investors

and people that hold stock, stockholders and all.

They've been going, what about me?

What about me?

Well, Netflix has stood its ground.

I don't like the idea of Netflix being sold to Warner Brothers.

But I don't like the idea of it being sold to Paramount anymore.

Really?

It's not like Paramount would be better.

Because the movie theater thing really stuck with me

when you put it out that Netflix could shut down theater.

They could.

But Netflix has claimed, consistently said,

they would continue release big Warner Brothers movies

to theaters first before they went to Netflix.

Now, that's just them saying it.

It's not that we can hold them to it.

They might have.

Theory.

Exactly.

They might have reneged on that.

But at least they've been consistent in that.

Ted Sarandos and others in Netflix that are high up have said,

we will keep doing this.

So, OK, let's at least assume that was correct.

But there's a lot of problems with the Warner Brothers-Netflix deal.

Well, then with Saudi money, which makes it even weirder.

OK, sorry.

Brief side note.

When you're one of the richest people in the world,

use your own money.

Crazy idea.

Who has Saudi money?

Hang on.

Ellison or Bezos or Musk, when they buy things,

they use other people's money.

I know that's the way the whole point is rich.

But I'm just going to say, if you're worth,

starts with a B, just buy the thing.

Don't go to the Saudi wealth fund.

The Ellisons, more money than God, practically,

have aligned with Saudi Arabia for their pitch to buy Warner Brothers.

So that means there's Saudi money now in their pitch for Warner Brothers.

And they did up their bid.

They up their bid enough that it was OK, Netflix,

do you want to up yours?

And to the astonishment of everybody,

Netflix went, no, we're good and backed away.

So it's now $31 a share?

So now it's theoretically going to the Ellisons,

which is like a pick between bad.

We have issues with Netflix.

But the problem with Paramount getting it

is the Ellisons haven't proven themselves with Paramount yet.

But now we're talking about two studios co-owned.

Well, watch what happened when Disney and Fox merged.

You have a lot of duplicate jobs.

There's a bunch of jobs that get wiped away.

In the Netflix deal,

Netflix doesn't have a lot of what Warner Brothers does.

So theoretically, again, theory,

a lot more jobs stay because you didn't buy

a duplicate business to what you already have.

As much as I don't like the things about the Netflix deal,

it's not exactly a duplicate business.

They'd be the big, even bigger gorilla in town,

but it's not like they bought a duplicate of what they already do.

Paramount is now duplicated itself.

So here's my thinking.

I'm going to call my shot right now.

We're talking about two historic lots, Paramount and Warner Brothers.

Both of those lots take up awfully expensive,

valuable real estate in Los Angeles.

If this deal goes through,

I bet you one of them is condos and it's probably Paramount.

I think they will sell one of those lots

because we've got duplicate jobs.

This is going to hurt the industry further.

It's going to wipe away a lot of jobs.

I will admit to not knowing a ton about this,

but my guy that cares very much about the film industry

that used to work in the film industry

that watches it still as closely as I can.

There's a bunch of stuff I don't claim to know at all.

But I think the Ellison's buying this

means they will have Warner Brothers and Paramount.

And one of those lots is going to be real estate.

I think so.

And a lot of jobs are going to be,

oh, you and I do the exact same job at both studios.

One of you is going home.

We'll see.

That's terrifying.

There is huge turmoil in Hollywood in general,

and whoever buys Warner Brothers,

and now as of today, it looks like it's going to be Paramount.

Whoever buys Warner Brothers, big changes are coming.

Anyway, there's my, did you see this?

It's a little oddball, but it's on my mind

and I wanted to share it again.

Got some audience questions over here on social media.

Daniel asks, what car has the best horn note

and what car has the worst?

Let's go buy brand,

because all the brands pretty much

source the same horn component

from their suppliers.

It's, maybe it differs from car to car,

but usually it's the brand.

The worst is Porsche.

I think you're right.

Flat out?

I think you're right.

Terrible.

Every time I use, the Cayenne's not small.

The Ruba Cayenne that I have is now big.

Every time I pull that horn, it's like a clown car.

The worst.

And I know of anything to spend money on, it isn't horns.

When the budget is being scrutinized,

we spent how much?

Let's make it really cheap.

That's not a thing that we need to use

or spend money on.

Sure.

Toyota's horns, not too great.

The forerunner horn is weak sauce.

It is wimpy and kind of embarrassing.

I mean, it's...

You're going to buy one of the Foghorns

for your forerunner?

I kind of would like that.

The ones you attach to a drill and like,

it spins the air compressor and...

Yeah, I see it.

That's funny.

I want one of those.

I want the big air horns.

I want something suited to the car.

I've got the Euro horn on the 928.

And that high-pitched, the really cool...

Like, it sounds Italian.

Yeah, I hear that.

I remember that.

It's really cool.

But Porsche is the worst.

I mean, it's almost like any other brand is better.

You know who does it right?

Our American cars.

The trucks, it's a four-note horn.

It sounds like a train.

It's the minor key.

It will get out of my way.

It'll undress a moose.

You know, when you hit your GMC Sierra...

It's not something I've heard before, but you're right.

I mean, it matches the height of the front end.

Yeah, the American trucks and SUVs.

That's good.

I do like that.

I think you're right there.

Another one from Daniel, as he said,

what essentials do we put in all of our cars?

I have...

It does...

I mean, it changes what car I'm driving,

but I generally keep one of those combination

tire inflator jumper boxes.

So, because I've gotten really small,

I've got a good one from Battery Tender,

and it's not very big.

And so, you've seen us actually use it on our Sierra trip.

So, you can inflate a tire.

If anything gets low, I don't...

I really don't like putting the goo in a tire,

because it's never the same.

It's not ideal, yeah.

So, I mean, sometimes you have to,

but generally, I just...

I will limp with the tire inflator.

You'll see us do that in the Sierra piece.

But also, you come out...

There's nothing worse and also nothing simpler

than coming out and the car just needs a jump.

Well, then you got to do a whole dance

with another car and cables in the...

No, those little boxes that jump the car,

that tire inflator combo.

I put that in every car, especially when we road trip.

I don't go into tools and that kind of stuff

because I'm not handy.

But also, at some point, we got to tow the car.

So, but those things get you out of most,

huh, that's kind of stupid kind of problems.

I've got a first aid kit and mints.

I am lost without mints.

If I don't have them in the center console,

if I don't have mints, I'm...

Every time you climb in a car,

Paul is prone to say mint because he's got them.

That's right.

Need the mints.

And then Daniel also asks,

what are some of our favorite license plate designs?

I think that's actually a good topic Tuesday,

because they're also ever-changing.

And by the way, in Utah, they're not stamped anymore.

They're printed.

It's the thinnest, cheapest.

I mean, we might have gone back to 10,

or maybe I'm not sure, but it's so cheap

and it's printed on there.

Even the registration stamp,

when you order the license tag for the first time,

it's printed on there now.

I mean, I understand taking the cost out of things,

but man, I mean, it's going to be paper soon.

People are actually fighting now

to have the actual imprinted license.

Oh, you have an imprinted one.

It's like, I didn't know that was ever going to matter,

but there it is.

Texture and ridges and yeah.

The Bruce B asks about our shirts on BlipShift.

You're right, Bruce.

We need to reset some of those.

We've been working on some merchandise

for Hooked on Driving,

so we haven't thought about everyday driver as much.

But I know I personally need to reset

some of my BlipShift shirts,

so we need to bring some of them back.

So we will work on that.

Mandy will help us on it,

and we will work on that soon.

Thank you very much, Bruce.

Appreciate it.

Guys, thank you for all your questions.

Really appreciate it.

Those topic Tuesdays are a lot of fun.

We're going to continue to do this.

We're going to work our way through.

We're going to find the Peek cars.

We've dedicated ourselves to it.

Peek dealership moments.

I love that.

That's the only way I can get my head around it.

It's great.

Looking forward to next time, as always.

Cheers, everyone.

Peak Ferrari - Hyundai, Fetus Calisthenics, The Moose Horn | Episode 1,035

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