A two liter engine means the total space inside the engine's cylinders is two liters. Generally, bigger engines can produce more power, but this isn't always the case.
A CVT, or Continuously Variable Transmission, is a special kind of automatic transmission that can change gears smoothly without the usual steps you feel in regular automatics. This helps the car accelerate more smoothly and can save on gas.
A three cylinder turbo engine has three small chambers that help burn fuel and create power. The turbocharger helps it produce more power without using a lot of fuel, making it efficient.
The Mazda 3 is a small car that people like for its good looks and fun driving experience. It's a popular choice for those who want a reliable vehicle that also feels sporty.
The Toyota Corolla Hybrid is a small car that uses both a gas engine and electric power to save on fuel. It's a good choice for people who want to be more environmentally friendly while still having a reliable car.
The GR Corolla is a sportier version of the regular Corolla, made for better performance and driving experience. It's designed by Toyota's racing team to be more fun to drive.
Crumple zones are parts of a car that are made to bend and crush in a crash. They help keep people inside the car safer by absorbing some of the impact.
The Porsche 718 is a type of sports car made by Porsche. It has a great balance and is designed for fun driving, with models like the Boxster and Cayman.
The GTS is a sportier version of a Porsche car that offers better performance and handling than the regular models. It's designed for those who want a more exciting driving experience.
The Dodge Charger is a large car that looks sporty and is known for being very fast. It comes with different types of engines that give it lots of power.
An inline six is a type of engine with six cylinders lined up in a row. It's known for being smooth and powerful, which is why many high-performance cars use it.
The Dodge Challenger is a popular sports car that looks like the classic muscle cars from the 1970s. It's known for being fast and having a powerful engine, making it a favorite for car lovers.
A muscle sedan is a big car that is designed to be fast and powerful, often with a strong engine. It's a mix of a regular sedan and a sports car, popular in America.
Lamborghini is a company that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their unique and flashy designs that stand out on the road.
The Corvette is a well-known sports car made by Chevrolet. It's popular for its speed and style, but it's not always as admired as some other luxury cars like Lamborghinis.
Car
Kia Palisade
The Kia Palisade is a similar SUV to the Telluride, also made by Kia. It has a lot of space and features, making it a good option for families.
The Infiniti QX80 is a large luxury SUV that offers a lot of space and comfort, making it a great choice for those who want a premium driving experience.
I drive two cars at complete opposite ends of the spectrum, and we have our first returning
guest.
But first, a word from our sponsor.
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Okay, so to get started, we have a lot to talk about this week.
And like I said, we have a returning guest that we'll want to have a lot of time to talk
with.
So let's get through this quick.
So we'll start with how the week started.
And that was the 2026 Nissan Sentra first drive that I went on.
And I've spent a lot of time on here because it's not that much different than the
old car.
It's got new styling on the outside, which I mean, I don't mind, especially on
the SR, the SV and SL.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
They're trying to give it the corporate face that the leaf in the Murano half, but
it doesn't work in some spots.
The rear is nice.
The inside, they've done a big update.
They got the sort of single pane double screen thing that everyone's doing that
are digital.
You can customize it.
The switch gear is nice.
They have this cool thing with these center vents and some controls between
them. It looks like a triple vent thing.
So that's all good.
It's much quieter inside.
OK, that's good.
Yeah, the wind noise and engine noise are kept down.
Although we heard myself and the person I was testing with a lot of road noise
and I don't know if it was just the roads we were on.
It's hard to stay without driving something back to back, but we were
surprised, the tire hum, but biggest issues under the hood still.
I mean, cars are too powerful these days.
Yeah, but the two liter with 149 horsepower, especially in this,
the SR that's supposed to be someone's 40, it's just it's like 20 horsepower
short of what I think it needs to be around town.
It's OK.
The CVT is connected to as much improved compared to what Nissan used to have.
But it's not fantastic.
But oh, man, you get on the highway and you punch it and you can count
the miles per hour increasing in real time because it's just you're
just praying it goes up and like you don't have to go crazy.
They don't have to give it like three cylinder turbo to the road or
anything like just the ultimate two five entry engine like that would be
a fine upgrade and I can't imagine it be hard to put in.
But suspension wise, it's always been a good mix of comfort and somewhat
responsive, much more on the comfort side has very skinny tires.
The SR is two fifties.
That's the widest tire you can possibly get on the car.
So that's interesting.
It makes it feel more responsive because there's like no weight to the steering wheel.
Yeah, I mean, it's the same centra, in my opinion,
and not in like it's the same car, but it's the same
same market segment going forward.
This is a tremendous value in the S and the SV.
You get a lot of stuff for the price.
It's even price points that some of those competitors don't even start at.
But when you get to the SR, especially mine, I had a bunch of options
with the SL, you're getting over 30,000 with destination.
And that's putting you sort of the heart of the loaded up competitors
like the Mazda three and the Civic and the Corolla hybrid
that all have now much more upgraded power or hybrids that have more power
and better efficiency. And one side note, this is worse on gas,
even though it's more aerodynamic, which.
I don't know, just to come by.
No, it's actually almost the same as like a handful.
I think the pounds heavier.
It's one mile per gallon worse overall and two on the highway.
So yeah, but I mean, it's not terrible.
It's still 38. It's just that's surprised when
usually a new model is even better than the old one.
But so that's in a nutshell.
It's it's it's a great value proposition, big, compact.
If we still call that tons of space inside, get the SV, get good options.
You get a good price.
It's proven mechanics and as much as I'm kind of ragging on them for it,
it's like, we know what you're getting and it's going to should be reliable.
It's just it's like a mid trim car, I think.
OK, well, I mean, that's that's still like that's good.
Some people just want that, right?
So I mean, and we said in our mega comparison earlier this year
that the center just needed some updates.
And so this seems to solve it.
I'm curious to get behind the wheel.
Yeah, I mean, if they put a hybrid in this in the SL,
that would I think really transform it.
But who knows, maybe one day.
So moving on, Kyle, you drove another 9-11,
but this is one you hadn't driven yet.
Yes, I drove the 9-11 Carrera T,
which is now the only way you can get a manual transmission
in a regular 9-11.
So the GT3 and the Touring still come with one.
But all the other trims, all the Carreras are automatic only,
except this, and this is actually manual only now,
whereas the T before you can get either.
So it is the lightest regular 9-11.
It weighs exactly the same as the
the mid-level GR Corolla trim.
So it's a little over 3,300 pounds,
which is like pretty impressive, right?
Like, I know that that's heavier than cars used to be,
but 3,300 pounds rear drive manual.
Yeah, 388 horsepower.
Like this is all we need from a 9-11.
And I kind of loved it.
That's lighter than like an impressive.
Yeah, 3,300 pounds is fantastic for this day and age
with the safety systems that cars have to carry.
Like that's where a lot of the weight comes from.
People think it's we're just getting bigger, fatter cars.
I mean, we are, but it's because they need 75 airbags
and all the electronic crumpled zones and reinforced steel beams.
And yeah, like cars are safer than ever before,
but there is a trade off to that.
So I say that the 9-11,
the current one is a little bigger than I think people realize.
Every once in a while driving this, you're like, oh, yeah, it's larger.
It still drives very compact for compared to most vehicles on the road.
But, you know, I'm more I'm more of a 718 person.
I just I just am.
This was great.
It's low key because I mean, you get the little stickers on the side,
but you don't have to get those.
There are some questionable options on the T
because of the manual Porsche really tries hard to let people know.
So there's stickers in the rear quarter windows
that have the shift pattern.
And then there's also puddle lights from the side mirrors
when you open the door that has the shift pattern,
which feels a little try hard.
But I mean, maybe people like it.
I don't know.
Well, you know, the people who have the money
they're buying a manual 9-11 brand new.
Maybe that's what they want.
I mean, it's a very small niche demographic.
So this has the base engine from the regular 9-11.
It's 388 horsepower.
Like I said, plenty quick.
You get the manual.
You get a few of the choice options
like the sport suspension, so you get it a little lower.
This one, it was just it was lightly optioned,
which I thought was nice.
It has the nose lift, which I think is necessary.
The base seats, so they're only four way adjustable.
Perfect. Don't need more.
It was it was great.
It was fascinating because I drove this directly
before driving the hybrid GTS, which is a very different beast.
And that thing is super quick.
But this just had a little bit more feel, right?
Because it's lighter and because it doesn't have
ridiculously wide tires, you can have fun at speeds
that wouldn't immediately remove your license.
So, yeah, overall, I thought this was great.
And I mean, it's not a deal
because no, 9-11 is a deal anymore.
But for one hundred and forty
ish thousand dollars as equipped.
It's it's a lot of fun and it's fun in a way
that doesn't feel like it's trying too hard,
which is kind of rare to find these days.
Yeah, it's crazy, though, like just cars in general,
like hundred forty and you're getting a three hundred eighty
horsepower base, basically that all crazy.
Anyway, moving on, neither
you or I drove the new Dodge Charger
Scat pack six pack.
The new Charger with the gas engine.
So you couldn't join us today.
So we won't spend like really any time here.
I read his review.
I can't wait to drive one.
I've always been saying that it's crazy fast,
still even with the gas engine.
If you get the 550 horsepower, it's doing 16 under four seconds.
Yeah, the electric is three three, but three three to three nine.
You're not feeling much difference.
And you're getting probably the visceral sound and whatnot of this engine.
The base engine, I say base is still four twenty five,
still way too much for what this car needs.
That'll probably be well under five seconds.
So Greg said it's it's like a muscle car.
And that's what the Charger's supposed to be.
And it was something I was curious about
and having driven the E.V. twice.
I'm curious to drive this because by putting all of that in line six
in turbo plumbing, you've thrown off the weight balance, probably.
So I didn't find the E.V.
handle that bad.
It's actually first size.
It was kind of nimble, but now that you're putting
probably like 60 percent of the weight on the nose,
I'm sure it's changed how it is.
Mm hmm. Yeah.
So I just wanted to get one when it gets on the fleet.
That's that's what I'm hoping for, too.
I'll just add that I've been looking at a red Greg's review
and I've read a few since it broke just before we recorded this.
And and yeah, I'm I'm just I haven't driven any of them yet.
And I would very much like to.
But I get the feeling that
I'm not going to love it as much as the old Challenger
because the Challenger knew what it was before
and it feels like now it's kind of isn't sure what it wants to be.
Yeah, it's almost sort of like when they first brought out the Charger 300
and it was trying to be sort of a full size premium American car.
And then over time, it slowly morphed more and more into just a big muscle
sedan, which it had its market.
And it's like we're starting again and it's yeah, making its way back.
Like next, there'll be a Hemi and then there'll be a more powerful Hemi.
Anyway, yeah.
Anyway, moving back to something you drove, another high performance German car.
You drove the M2 CS.
Yes. And this is weird, actually, framing it with the 911
that we talked about just a few minutes ago.
The M2 CS is less money, but way more power.
Also rear drive, no manual,
five hundred twenty three horsepower in a two series.
I just I just want everyone to just chew on that for a few seconds.
That's I want them to chew on the Charger
with the same size inline six turbo, which talk to it has more power,
which is also yes, BMW famously known for for high power turbo
charged inline sixes makes less power than the Dodge.
The three liter inline six turbo.
It's crazy, crazy world.
So, yeah, so the one M when it came out what, 15 years ago,
had three hundred thirty five horsepower.
This has five hundred and twenty three.
There are rumors that the two or sorry,
the M2 will have all wheel drive starting next year,
which I'm a little sad about if true, because I don't think it needs it.
If you're getting the little coupe, try and make it different from the M4.
This is different.
This is I drove the M4 CS in the summer.
The M2 CS is just a little bit more wild.
It's you have that tiny wheelbase.
I mean, comparatively tiny.
It's basically just a little square in terms of where the contact patches are.
And it makes this so lively and playful.
I was given a little bit of time with it because I was at a Jack Test Fest.
So I didn't have a ton of time to really get to know it.
And also it was the only one in the country.
So I really didn't want to be the person responsible for putting it in a ditch.
Needless to say, it's more talkative than a regular M2.
So you get more feedback from it.
Still not a ton.
BMW's current steering wheels are just steering in general.
Just feels a little over boosted.
But yeah, it's it redeems the M2, the current generation one,
in my mind, where it is a lot of fun and very interactive.
And it's a lot of money.
It's 100 grand to start, which is nuts for a two series.
But the people who get it will enjoy it.
And the rarity gives it, you know, an added a bit of appeal.
And also it has, you can't see it in the front picture here,
but I highly recommend everyone go look at it because the duct tail
spoiler really makes the proportions much better than the regular M2.
So overall, just a fantastic, excellent car.
BMW continues to make the CS models the best ones available.
All I hear is six cylinder engine, 150 more horsepower.
Still as a duct tail spoiler, like 911 priority versus this, I don't know.
That'd be an interesting comparison, right?
So moving on, this I will spend too much time other than just kind of
plugging for folks to go check out on our YouTube channel.
We have my Lamborghini versus Lamborghini.
Two weeks ago, Kyle talked about driving the Revoltto.
Last week, I talked about driving the Temurario.
This is driving it back to back.
Surprise, surprise. It's the same impressions.
As I kind of covered last week, I'll just briefly recap the 6.5 liter V12
in a tunnel with the windows down is ridiculous.
It sounds amazing.
The turbo in the Temurario with the windows at 10,000 RPM,
it sounds really cool too, but it builds so fast.
And then there's this huge like turbo, not a blow off,
but just releasing the pressure at red line.
It doesn't kind of have the same echo, but they both sound great.
Someone that watched the video pointed out,
imagine when they get aftermarket exhaust for the Temurario
because I've heard them on the Revoltto when it sounds even better.
Yeah, I could see that.
But Temurario definitely more of the trackish
kind of really full boil attack at all times car.
Whereas the Revoltto is just a ridiculously insanely quick
car that you also could probably drive like semi long distance.
I mean, you're not going to go across country or something like that.
But yeah, I mean, I feel like you could so long as you know
that the nose won't catch on anything.
That was that was my experience driving it was like it's weirdly comfortable,
except it has no ground clearance.
And when you drive a dark matte green Revoltto with bronze highlights,
which looked amazing, you got like that sort of brown green combo.
You get attention as you're going through towns.
But then after lunch, when you come back to the Lamborghini factory
and a bright orange Temurario, which just happens to coincide with the schools
getting out, you're a celebrity.
Like there were kids chasing me literally through town with their phones
out trying to get pictures.
And I say that video like even an 85 year old woman working in a field
or a 50 year old guy coming out of an office.
Everybody just stops and looks and smiles at the Lamborghini.
It's part of like that area is like cultural identity.
And we don't have that in Canada or the U.S.
I was going to say, you don't like people don't stop to look at a Corvette.
I mean, maybe they should.
I mean, I guess it depends on what part of the U.S. you're in.
But but yeah, I was I was going to say, like you're in Italy.
Like you are driving the national icon.
One of the two exhaustive fry.
But yeah, like I literally could have probably gone ripping through towns
at three times the speed limit.
I'd be getting smiles and thumbs up here.
You'd have helicopters chasing you
and the SWAT team after you.
Yeah, it's just it's just cool being in a place where they appreciate
the noise, the flash, the coolness of these cars as opposed to just coming down
on them all the time. I mean, you I got that with the Revuelto here.
I had I couldn't go anywhere without people taking pictures
or asking questions or stuff.
But I would encourage you to red line it downtown or they do the launches.
They were asking me to.
But I mean, I'm not going to do that in traffic.
Whereas in Italy, it's like people get mad if you don't.
Like everyone in the car is like, come on, really?
So I'm sorry.
I'd like bands riding me because I wasn't driving fast enough.
And I'm like, I'm already like way above the limit.
I'm not going any faster.
But there it's like, no, go for it.
See, and I had the other thing where I had someone I was trying
to do some filming and I got up on a car.
It was young guys, right?
If a car followed them when they realized what was behind them,
they slowed down to less than half the speed limit
so that they could all hold their phones at the window and take photos.
And I was like, this is really frustrating.
Anyway, oh, well.
So our final story didn't drive this, obviously not yet.
But we have to cover it because it's big news.
The Telluride from Kia finally got its new version.
The Palisade had it last year.
We knew this was coming.
But it's a model year.
There is no 26.
There is a 26 Telluride.
There's the 25 and then there's this thing, the 27,
which is coming out next year.
It'll be one of the first 27, so I guess Kia has that.
But it's interesting.
The Kia Telluride from day one, I had non-carry people all the time
ask me about the Range Rover Kia or the Kia that looks like a Range Rover
because it had that big boxy look.
And I think since then, many companies have gone way more in on the Range Rover
or Land Rover look like look at the Santa Fe and the QX80.
But Kia decided, you know what?
We can do it too.
And from the back, it looks so much like a Range Rover.
Yes, we're still waiting for the front end to load.
Like I'd Kia.
This is the XRT that we see.
So maybe it's like for those who aren't looking and haven't saw it.
The front of the XRT is just a black abyss, the bumper, the grille,
the trim, everything's just a lot of lights, everything.
It's just like the marker of the amber lights and a light strip
on top is like the only thing that's not black.
It looks like, yeah, like it's missing or it's been in not an accident.
It's just like I got the snowshoes chopped off.
But look, I realize that journalists in general,
maybe I'm taking a swing here.
But like, I feel like a lot of journalists praise Korean design lately.
This isn't it.
Like there are a lot of very fascinating, interesting looking Korean designs.
I feel like this is a miss.
Maybe in person, it'll be different.
I didn't love the new Palisade until I saw it in person.
But oh, that's that's that's a face.
It's like they saw the new Outback and thought we can put more black plastic than them.
See, I still am not a huge fan of the Palisade.
And to me, it's kind of like the Palisade until you're right, the first ones.
They were somewhat polarizing, but mostly got positive feedback
and really made an impression and like they stood out.
And it's almost like both companies are like, well, now we've got to go further.
And it's like, do you really do really?
Yeah, yeah, they both took their styling cues and just amped it up.
And like I said, then we both said this is just a.
I don't know what they'll call their GT line or what they'll call the top one.
Maybe when it gets in color to the face, it'll look different.
But right now I like it from the back.
It's just there's an SX premium that they showed a few pictures of.
It's still a lot of black, but at least the bumper is body color.
Yeah, you're right, though.
Like they're kind of leaning into it to see how far they can push it.
Like how to say it is, oh, did you like, did you notice our chrome on the old one?
Well, congratulations, there's chrome everywhere.
And this is like, yeah.
Yeah, I'll say it was like, did you like her headlights
that kind of had those horizontal lines?
Well, now it's going to only be that.
That's all you can see.
And this one had that big kind of detailed grudge is really cool.
And they just said, well, the whole front is going to be that now.
Yeah, so yeah.
Anyway, well, we'll take a break here
on the Autocut show by Ebay Motors, and we will be back with our friend James for
I don't know what we'll talk about.
We'll talk about different things because last time we covered
sort of his journey into the auto industry.
So now we can just talk about cars.
And then after that, I'll have Colin back to talk at one.
And then Kyle and I will wrap up the show and take a look at what's ahead.
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All right, we are back.
And once again, we have our special guest, James, joining us.
You are our first returning guest.
So hey, honor.
Yes, the first day on the AutoGuide show.
So how how are things going down there?
I know you're in much warmer weather than we are right now.
Oh, well, it actually started raining today.
So everyone in Southern, I just anticipate the the convention and the
winging about the horrible weather and comments of, oh, hopefully this clears
up soon to come any second now and me just to beat my head against a desk.
As someone who grew up in Toronto and feels very much at home in Oregon.
I'm very happy when it's raining.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, we we got our first snow earlier this week.
And oh, kind of unexpected.
They said flurries and actually stayed on the road and the roads were kind of snowing.
And I think in the end in the Toronto area, there's 400 accidents because, you know,
how people are and this wasn't even real snow.
So I can't wait for the first real dumping.
But yeah, I think it caught a lot of people by surprise.
Me included that hadn't quite put their winter tires on yet.
So I mean, it caught most of the press bleeds off guard because most of them
are also not on winters yet.
I mean, at least at least a lot of them are regular cars with all seasons.
Like I'm a Genesis coupe.
I have way too wide purpose built summer tires.
So luckily enough to drive it.
It was parked the whole time.
But there are some high performance cars out there that were probably
loaned at the time.
But well, well, I lived in Portland, Oregon for five years.
And that testing thing was interesting because some cars ended up with winter
tires on them and others did not because strictly in Portland itself,
you don't really need winter tires.
It doesn't snow that often in all seasons.
Fine.
So sometimes they don't put them on it.
So but some companies did put snow tires on the Mercedes, for instance.
Others just left all seasons and then others just just didn't change anything.
They just brought them up from Southern California and I'd get like a BMW with
summer tires.
I have a picture of this.
It's maybe it was a 550 or something.
And it is just parked in front of my house surrounded by a ring of foot snow.
It arrived on like Tuesday and never moved.
There was so much snow on the ground because
they would actually go there would be people who would go cross country skiing
through the neighborhood because there was no effort to plow anything.
So you just so I have a picture of a guy on cross country skis going past a BMW
with winter with summer tires on it.
Yeah, that's a good point to bring up because there's a lot of even Canada
places where they don't get that much snow.
And when there is even just a bit of snow,
it's it stops the city because they don't have the system like where we are.
And like Chicago and Montreal, I mean, they have like an army ready to go
as soon as the snow falls with deisers and sultrers and plows and whatnot.
But you go to a place that doesn't get it and it's like two inches in the city is
done. Yeah, like in Oregon, it was just it just wasn't worth it.
Like he got it like there's no point in putting any money into it.
Maybe like plow the highway, whatever.
But there's but because we're close to the mountains, right?
So people would have studded snow tires on to deal with like going up to
Mount Hood, right?
Which is a strata volcano that you could go up and go ski down.
So that's great.
But then people are driving on studded snow tires in just kind of damp roads,
which I'm pretty sure is not what you want.
I thinking metal has less grip on pavement than rubber.
Otherwise, you'd be driving around in
metal tires, not a tire expert.
I'm just thinking that's correct, though.
And so you just hear them just
go all in town.
And yeah, interesting, interesting place for tires.
Yeah, asphalt loves studded tires, too.
It's getting cheated up by it.
It's funny because it's banned in Ontario.
So the entire province of Ontario can have studded tires because there's no
really need, but I've been places where they're more regular.
Like when you go into town, where it is plowed and whatnot,
the pavement, it just looks like someone's taken like a grinder and sandpaper
to it because years of tire is running on it.
Or there's like channels down the middle of like where the tires go.
And they if you don't redo those quickly, they fill with water.
And so then you have channels of ice.
That's fun.
Well, now the studs are used again.
So it all comes around, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they're self fulfilling prophecies, the studded tires.
There you go.
So as you've alluded, you're you're somewhere
where it's a little warmer, a little longer.
For those who don't know, you are driving cars as much as Kyle and I am
on a regular basis.
Anything in very recent memory or in 2025 really stuck out to you as a either
a surprise or just something memorable or something that was as good as you
expected.
OK, I just had a Mercedes GLE.
OK, I'm not sure I've ever driven one.
Like including the ML.
I've been doing this for 20 years.
Somehow I've never driven one of these things,
except maybe briefly the one that kind of like danced up and down the current
generation, I might have experienced that, but it might have been anyway.
First time I've ever driven one and no expect.
It was like extremely luxurious and gorgeous.
I loved it.
It had this green color that's a six thousand dollar option, but it's
basically an eleven thousand dollar option because you also have to get the
AMG design package and a summer.
Oh, but it was beautiful.
Also, it had the aromatic suspension, which is a masterpiece.
I have it on the back end of my 2013 E class wagon.
So but, you know, everywhere it does make a huge difference.
Just a lovely car.
I was so I was so surprised by just how much I love this thing
because I had it the week after an E 53 wagon,
which I was a little underwhelmed by.
I really wanted to love it and I didn't.
I don't think the plug in high.
I mean, the both had the plug in hybrid powertrain.
You can accelerate more in the AMG plug in hybrid than you can in that
450 E that you really it's interesting.
The the throttle pedal basically gets cut in half.
There's like a wall that suddenly appears in the throttle travel and you push up
against it, it takes a while and then effort to go through that detent to make
the engine kick on and get like decent acceleration.
Otherwise, it's kind of slow when you're like really trying to take off or
go into the highway, but like, yeah, like luxury SUV,
like definitive luxury, it's beautiful.
The interior Mercedes old interior design,
I'm sorry, is more luxurious and nicer than the hyper screen thing in the in that
E class, just a wall of piano black and screen.
Does no, it just does not look as nice as the last generation with that
beautiful wood and there's those metal vents.
It's just just was nicer.
I I driven ML's previous, but about two years ago, I guess it was when I was at
one of our mid-west automotive media association rallies, they had the GLE
450 and the 53 and I hadn't driven the new ones.
And I can't wait the exact same you did.
I was blown away at how quiet and smooth and luxurious they felt.
And driving them back to back, I was kind of I mean,
that 53 has the six turbo, not the four.
But even then I was like, 450 is all you need.
This is like the perfect combo for this vehicle.
It's so nice.
Kyle, you drove one recently, didn't you?
I drove the CLE convertible.
So it's the three liter inline six turbo mild hybrid.
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, similar experience where
because it doesn't have a giant screen stretching the whole dashboard,
you actually get some semblance of design that inline six is so smooth.
I think Mercedes is doing really good
proper luxury stuff in the sense that like that's what I want out of one of those
cars, right? I want the smoothest possible experience.
I want it to eliminate any minor annoyances and it did a good job.
And then similar to what James said earlier,
I drove the E 53 sedan in the summer and I wanted to love it and I just didn't.
I just it's just not.
Yeah, it's hard to describe.
And I mean, I literally own an old E class.
I think I like the comfortable one better.
Give me a motor. Cool.
But I don't really need the sporty stuff on that.
I think with the plug in hybrid, at least in the states,
the 450 and the 450 are like the same price.
Isn't it?
And the acceleration is like six tenths of a second in the six's advantage,
whatever. And then I got 60 miles per gallon
from which confirms the MPG from it.
That's with one charge on a 75 mile mixed driving loop,
including driving through the mountains, by the way.
And the 450 period gets 21.
So that's that's worse.
It's good plug in hybrid.
And it's not like a really it's not like you get like a giant stage worth of
batteries in the cargo area. It's basically the same.
Yeah, so anyway, that's not a sexy answer there.
But I like the GLE also the Carrera T 911.
That's sexier. That's brilliant.
That's like the best 911. I love it.
I my review for it just went out this week.
And yeah, it's I titled it the thinking man's GT3.
Yeah, it's just very nice because you can actually get them.
Oh, OK.
Well, it's just so it's like the manual.
Great.
I do not need more power.
Like the idea that there's more power available is kind of bonkers, right?
It's just utterly unnecessary.
And the it was this it was like this electric banana yellow kind of color.
It's a new Cartagena yellow.
Oh, that color. Yeah, it's a new color.
So it's like very now, right?
Very now color.
But the interior has the wood shift knob, which is standard.
And then these black plaid seats, which are so it's this very retro.
And the entire interior design is pretty like old school 911.
So it's like classic interior, very now exterior.
Very cool like that.
So sorry, because I sort of bring something up because you mentioned it.
And it's something I've been thinking about for a while.
Do you think we're at a point where EVs have distorted us so much that even
gas cars are starting to get too fast and too powerful?
Because like we're at a point where it's I don't need more power always.
It was like more power because the six pack
charger with the 550 horsepower to zero to 60 and under four seconds.
And that's not like a super sporty Hellcat special.
It's like, do we need a 3.9 second sedan?
Like, can we do save yourself the money and do it in under five seconds and still be happy?
Yeah, well, I mean, especially given like how if you ever noticed how people accelerate,
like going on to the highway and like everybody's like at 45 by the time
they reach the end of a very long on ramp.
Like, really, you need 3.5 out of a Tesla.
Cool. I had a Mazda two.
So five speed manual, 100 horsepower, slowest car probably available in its time.
And I remember one week I did a little experiment and I punched it off the line
of every stoplight and twice in a week, someone beat me.
So it just proves no one's using the power that they have.
If my little two could accelerate people up to legal speeds.
I mean, I've beaten people off the line in my electric bicycle.
I my my response to that, Mike, is like, we were already doing it before
these became a thing like too much power was a thing for the last 15 years.
I think once the Camry started pushing 300 horsepower,
that's when we probably were to it.
Well, yeah, I remember the last gen in Pala came out and it had 306.
I think in the like LS hub cap rental spec.
And I remember having one it was like 3500 pounds.
And it's like stupid fast for being a big family rental car.
Well, the M5, I really point to that.
So the I guess it was last year's
like Pebble Beach Concorde thing.
And that's where the new M5 touring was revealed.
And that has like 700 horsepower, doesn't it?
Around there, the new M5.
Anyway, it's ridiculous.
So that's that's why we were there to to see the debut of this car.
But as as, you know, it was also the moderating historic races.
The journalists there were given the opportunity to drive some classic M5s.
So myself and two other journalists took the one from the I don't know,
I'm just going to forget the names of these the internal codes.
But let's say they're like a 94 one.
So the second M5, then the classic E39.
So the third generation one and then the fourth generation one, which was the V10.
So we drove those back to back to back.
The one the second gen was like you had to drive it on a door handles to keep up
with the other two, that one felt much older than it was.
The E39 is as magnificent as you have always heard.
And we were on Carmel Valley Road, which is like the spectacular driving road like
world like it's fantastic.
The E39 was like could go on that.
You could really drive it as hard as you could.
The V10, though, was, you know,
it is kind of like from a driver's perspective in many ways.
It is the better car, especially from this rigidity standpoint.
But that V10, I couldn't go faster with that car.
It had more power than the road needed, which is like, there's the demarcation.
This great, brilliant driver's road.
A car from the year 2000 with a V8 was like that's how much power could be
handled by that road anymore from like a couple of years later was too much.
Meanwhile, we're three generations beyond that thing that was too much and now
has 700 horsepower.
So we we're 20 years beyond like too much power at this point.
So almost double the power.
I mean, almost double the weight, but well, yeah.
But still, it was just it was so illustrative of maybe we don't need this much.
And, you know, it's that that Carrera T is also another example of like
that car, I didn't have to drive it that hard on my local mountain roads for it to be great.
I could drive it fairly slowly, which are still like 60 on like a mountain road,
but kind of keep it steady and you have the feels through just everything.
Everything is just so feel some that it's enjoyable no matter how fast you're
driving, you do not need to drive it one hundred and fifty.
It got thrown in jail in order to like get some to make it feel like it's not
just driving itself.
And so, yeah.
It's interesting you say that with those BMWs.
Kyle, you ever driven the V 10 one?
Yeah, so actually the reveal that James is talking about,
you got to drive classics there.
I did the launch for the M5 and the M5 touring in Germany.
It was the same thing brought out all the old M5s.
And I had a similar experience where I drove the second gen M5, the first touring.
And yeah, it actually it felt a little slow, right?
Like you really had to push it.
But then the E39 was glorious and incredible.
The V 10, because we were in Europe, we only got the SMG one.
We didn't get the manual to use.
And that transmission kind of ruined the car for me in the sense that
I never really got the full experience.
It sounded great when you revved it high.
But otherwise, yeah, it felt like we were quickly approaching that point of too much car.
Yeah. Yeah.
So what were you going to ask about that, Mike?
So well, just before I ask just one one quick thing, you guys have both brought
up and it's so true cars from like the early to mid 90s felt so much older
and different than cars like five, six years later, like around 2000.
And I found that when I drove the Lexus, I drove the SC 400 and I was like,
this feels like a really, really slow monster.
And I drove the IS 300, which is only like five years newer.
And it felt so buttoned down.
But anyway, I wasn't doing this job when I got to drive the the Florida horsepower
V8 M5 that you guys are going on about.
I briefly got to drive the V 10 and then I drove the next generation.
And even from that V 10 to the next generation, when we went to turbo V
eights, I was like, this doesn't feel like a driver's car anymore.
Became a big, heavy sledgehammer grand tour.
Like it had all the power I could ever want.
But it wasn't that fun compared to what these older, slightly slower cars were.
So, yeah, I think we've kind of got there.
And complication hasn't improved anything.
I mean, the V 10 added, oh, boy, there's a little button that does something.
I, you know, this was two years ago.
I don't entirely remember.
But like now you get in them and there's all of these settings.
Yes. And like, I don't think it's necessarily better.
I thought I thought it was interesting on the M5 launch.
They talked about, yeah, the the different transmission settings, right?
That are on the little nubby shifter.
There's the three settings about shift speed and aggression.
And we tried all the different settings.
And the most aggressive one actually like it's a thunk.
It feels like you're breaking something in the transmission.
And when we talked to the PR person about it,
he said that was very intentional because they wanted to add drama.
But yeah, like, unless you're on a racetrack,
you don't need to use that setting.
And I was like, so, I mean, in all honesty, why put it there?
Because how many people are ever actually going to track their M5?
Well, no, even like your 911 Carrera T.
Yeah, I'm on a track.
No, it's even suspension settings, right?
So that GLE, and so I was driving it in comfort mode on the highway.
It was a lovely, really, really impressive.
And it wasn't like nautical rebound on bumps or anything.
So but I get to the mountains and immediately this instinct,
I'll put it in sport and drive around.
Oh, this is very capable.
It's not not like sporty at all.
But this is capable of controlled yada, yada.
I then put it in comfort and heave ho, captain.
This is fluffing and floating around over carters.
Like, wow, this is a profound difference.
This is kind of like what you want.
The suspension differences to be.
But then there's so many cars that have like comfort sport.
Then there's like a Sport Plus or a track mode.
I am never pressing that button.
Like even like that 911, I drive, I have great mountain roads.
I'm not engaging Sport Plus.
It's too firm.
It upsets the chassis.
It upsets everything in you.
Like maybe if you are in Germany or on a racetrack, great, press it.
But it's just it's just and that is so common.
I very rarely like engage those firmest track settings.
It's just not or like even like a Civic Type R.
Whatever the hard firmer one is.
No, absolutely not.
So what you guys are saying is you
don't need seven and buttons on your steering wheel.
And also German's obsession, obsession with having boost modes like EV gas.
It doesn't matter.
Every single car now is like, if you push this for 10 seconds,
you get more power.
It's like, just give me the power if I want it.
Like, why do I have to push a button?
Because it's it's great for the gram.
What's next?
We're going to have EVs that make noise and shake when you're doing the
launch mode and make a whole production and light shows.
Oh, wait, where do you have all that?
We have that.
I what I find less impressive are the boost modes where it's like, oh,
we give you 10 extra pound feet or something for 10 seconds.
And I'm just like, OK, like no one's going to notice that.
No, no, no.
Well, what they should do, what they should do, I think is the button should
just it's like if you hit the star on Mario Kart and just like the ambient
lights go nuts and the sound system goes down, down, down, down, down, down.
Like, give me that for 10 seconds.
That would be great.
And the windshields have smears the entire world.
So it looks like it's flying by twice.
Yeah, give me give me the ability to fire a red turtle at the car in front of me.
But is that so much to ask?
I don't think so.
I'm merging at 45 miles an hour.
I feel like there is.
I swear I read a press release.
I probably wrote about something this year where, yeah, there's there's
something that actually integrates all of the ambient lighting and stuff
when you go into a different drive mode.
And I was like, you know what, yeah, like if we're going to make this all
about the feeder of it, go all in.
Yeah, BMW do that.
Oh, I mean, you can change it too.
But yeah, yeah, like it does the animation background.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's what their drive modes are now experiences.
That is so confusing.
The annoying thing.
But they I think they've quickly changed it is for a little bit there.
I think when the new five series launched, if you change drive modes,
it would have an animation come up on the touchscreen.
But then it would just stay on the drive modes.
It wouldn't go back to whatever screen you were at first.
And it was like, this is terrible, but they have since changed that.
So well, speaking of ambient lighting, I do have I have the new
A6 e-tron from Audi.
And so that has the wrap around ambient lighting strip from like all
from the across each front door across the dash.
And so it's just a little strip just underneath the windshield.
And so when you turn on a turn signal,
actually the right in the corner of that strip actually blinks green
with the turn signal.
So you have standard turn signals and you have the I kind of like that.
It's kind of cool, especially how many turn signals are actually hidden
behind the steering wheel for me.
So I have never seen the turn signal in my class from 13.
It might not have them as far as I know.
But it's like kind of a cool thing.
And I'm sure it flashes if I'm about to run into a forage pillar or something.
Yeah, blind spot monitoring just changes color.
Yeah, no, the blind spot monitor is actually is this is the old Audi light
in the the mirror housing, not the mirror itself.
So that was kind of interesting.
The I will say, though, the screen that that interior we were talking about
the E class, like too much screen and you mentioned like how like the design
just you can't do anything with a screen.
And it's so true that that interior is just so screeny.
There's nothing to it.
All the details that Audi used to be so good about is just gone now.
Because there's this huge screen of like so much of that if I'm if you're using
Apple CarPlay, like a quarter of that screen is just Alba Mart.
Yeah, yeah.
And to that point, I think I I appreciate the usefulness of digital
instrument clusters because it can be great to be able to put my navigation
right beside my speedometer, let's say, right?
Like so that my eyes aren't moving far away from the task at hand.
I get it.
But I mean, with the 911 T, actually, that that was my example recently of
you lose a little bit of specialness when you open the car door.
And before anything turns on, it's just you're looking at black.
Like just there's there's nothing there.
It's just a blank screen.
And before, at least you had, you know, the central tack.
And maybe it was a red one because you got the special kit.
And like, I just feel like we're missing a little bit of the experience
when the car isn't on.
Well, also, you know, fancy watches are not, you know, Apple watches.
They're still analog.
They look more expensive.
They are more expensive.
I think we'll go back to something that I don't the end game.
Ultimately, is a 65 inch television that with a steering wheel growing out of it.
So that's just that's ugly and that's not going to happen.
So yeah, I'll one better you on that because I think what they're
trying to do and doesn't work, as we're saying, is they're trying to make it
like the screen lets you personalize how the interior looks.
So like I have the Denali terrain right now when you get in all the screens,
give you the Denali latitude, longitude, and it's kind of cool.
But I think the end game is the entire dash curve.
Everything is just a screen and then you can like make it whatever color
you want or put whatever design you want on it and then your info places.
And I mean, the BMW X three isn't too far off trying to do that already.
True.
Yeah, I just like do these people not live in the real world?
I mean, I don't have kids.
You guys do like would you really want like a pillar to pillar screen
with your kids like kids can't sit up front.
So not yet.
But soon like I just and like what happens if you scratch part of the screen?
I just I don't see how this is practical.
And I mean, there are advantages.
I think the Mustang is a great example where I can put the dials from the older
models on the like I think that's a cool feature.
But I think it's also unique to a Mustang.
I don't think a Corolla buyer is like,
dang, I really want to get ninety four dials.
No, but as a BMW person, I would say like they're they're digital.
They have all digital and they are grossly underutilized and they're bad.
Like it's just like the the speedometer is on the outer
the speedometer and the tacker on the outer reaches like half you can barely see them.
And the middle is like an unmarked map.
Cool. Thank you for that.
And then like why can't you just have
throw us a bone like BMW gauges were iconic and they look pretty much the same
for decades, just give us amber colored like throwback ones.
It's something like Mercedes would probably do.
But like BMW isn't and Porsche is doing it.
And it's just this.
Yeah, it's disappointing.
BMW will do it, but it'll be a subscription model.
Yeah, exactly.
We don't give them, I think, credit for enough things at times.
So I'll call out GMC again with that train.
They really done their screens because the digital driver information I could
put it like four different gauge modes and then I can do native navigation.
And if I have my carplay hooked up, I can also do ways in the in the gauge cluster.
And then the dash screen is huge, but it's low.
And the bottom row of buttons are actual buttons or touch screen.
And you can change those around.
So you like you have the choice what you want to do.
And like it's just well thought out and easy to use.
And it's just like you say, like there's so many companies that don't do that right.
Chrysler is another one that's still
is that there you connects pretty good too.
But GM seems to have taken that idea and put it a step up.
And when I put on home screen, I can have my carplay in ways and still have a box
that has my audio and then to have another box, I could put whatever I want.
Which again, not enough manufacturers do that.
It's like carplay or nothing.
Like, let me let me split the screen up.
So I've had a terrain with that same system.
I loved it because it's the standard GM one is pretty good, right?
So like the general menu, like it's like like a Chevy,
whatever the Chevy version of this of the GMC you're talking about at any given time,
that has the widescreen oriented one.
I like using that.
It's very but the same menu, like the same
general menu layout ethos is the same in the GMC.
It's just like dropped down by it's just extended.
The width is almost the same.
So you just add real estate and instead of just packing in info bar for something,
it kind of spreads everything out.
So it just makes everything easier to find to your point.
Those it still has toggle switches for the climate control, which are nicer pieces
than what's in the Chevy's and much nicer than the touch buttons in the Audi up front.
And it and yeah, I love having like that Apple CarPlay thing.
Yeah, it doesn't take up the whole screen.
It doesn't need to. It's 15 inches. It's a it's a television.
I don't need that. Exactly.
Right. So like I can have the Apple CarPlay
Google Maps up there and see by satellite radio song.
It's it's great.
It was such an example of how to do it well.
And in truest GM form, that means they're going to get rid of it.
So you see it later, CarPlay.
Yeah.
Oh, well, grab your twenty five
trained in all this while you can, I guess.
Yeah, I would say my wife has a has a has a what the hell does she have an optic?
She has a Cadillac optic.
So that is one without Apple CarPlay.
She had a key in Euro for almost three years.
She never used CarPlay once.
So she does not.
I care because I use the Apple
podcast app.
So if I like I start a podcast while walking the dogs,
it would be nice for it to transfer into the car.
And I can't I have to use Bluetooth and then if I then I have to control it
with the phone and that's that's not ideal.
I did not find an MLB app in the Google Play
pod thing.
So that's another thing I have to use from my phone.
So
yeah, so it bothers me a little more, but I'm not like too upset.
But it would not be it would not be something I would
not buy the car for.
It still reads me my messages, my text messages.
That's fine.
Yeah, I think the optic I drove it in the summer and I really enjoy it.
I think I would suggest people get it if they were interested, even without the
CarPlay thing. And now I hear that for twenty six, it's going to be rear drive
as an option. Oh, yeah, that's really cool.
So that's going to be a big difference.
I can tell you right now it's a huge difference and I'm kind of cheesed about it.
It's not just the rear wheel drive, but the fact that this has the so the the,
you know, the Altium system is kind of like different like Lego things that plug
in here and there. And so although it's all wheel drive,
it is kind of more like the equinox that is a front wheel drive.
And it's kind of like a Honda CR-V like you get slippage and the
and the all wheel drive just kind of peters the rear axle just gives you a little power.
Right. This thing feels like a front wheel drive vehicle.
You get some torque steer in it.
And I'm kind of surprised they didn't do
rear drive what they're doing from the get go.
Now, the performance gap is huge.
So the rear wheel drive makes about the same power as the existing all wheel drive.
And then the new all wheel drive is giant.
So from a value perspective, you now kind of have to pay more
if you live in Toronto, right?
Like you kind of have to pay more for even more performance that you don't really need.
So from that perspective, the original was better.
But yeah, getting back to our point about how cars have too much power now.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like I drove, I think it was last winter, maybe it was two winters ago.
I had the Volvo.
It was the XC 40 recharge.
Now it's the X 40, but I had the rear drive version of it in the winter on winter tires.
And it was awesome over the holidays because I got better range.
And honestly, like, what was it?
It's like 290 horsepower or something.
Plenty, plenty.
But the thing is, at least here, it's like $3,000 more to get all wheel drive
and an extra hundred horsepower.
And so people are just going to get it because
all wheel drive has had a very successful marketing campaign for 20 years.
But also it's barely more money, right?
Like if you're paying every month, you're not really going to notice the difference.
And you think you have to get the
better vehicle.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it's also like that with you said it's like three.
Well, I guess we're dealing with Canadian funds here.
But usually like all in the States, at least the all wheel drive is like
1,800 bucks for like an ice vehicle.
Yeah. But but the electric one
send to be three to four or five thousand dollars more because it's adding a hundred
horsepower. Yeah. Yeah.
You're getting a whole other order.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, we could go on about horsepower for ever, but we should really
let you get back to your day, James, and get back to our show.
We need to get Columon and then wrap it up and not have our listeners be
listening to Kyle and I talk for too long.
I know, you know, it's going to be a limit when you're ready to move on.
But thank you again for joining us.
You will probably be our first three time guest down the road because it's
always great talking to you. Yeah, I enjoy coming on.
Yeah, it was a good time.
Thanks so much, James.
You are welcome.
All right. Yeah.
Thank you so much and we will talk to you again soon.
All right. Welcome back.
We once again have Columon joining us for Formula One, which stands for
Ferrari One as the things are going.
It seems like last year, not even last year, it was early this year.
It felt like Red Bull was kind of imploding.
Well, it seems like Ferrari is doing it this year.
They're crazy and straight from the top, as I guess Red Bull did too.
But what a crazy.
I couldn't believe when I saw this news that John Elkin,
the chairman or whatever of Ferrari came out and they're like, first,
I heard these rumors that he said, oh, like the driver should like,
you know, talk less and focus more on driving or whatever.
And I thought that's like a misinterpretation because you see this stuff all
the time, you know, it's it's some Italian, you know, website and that gets
translated to Google translated somewhere and somebody misinterpreted
and that gets blown out, you know, out of proportion.
But as it turns out, no, that's not it.
It didn't get blown up or legitimately just said the driver should focus
more on talk less.
And that's it, which is which is a while.
And in the for the video here, the little image below is an awesome comment
of Jensen Button replying to the Sky Sports thing, saying maybe John
should lead by example.
So wow.
But like all out from this has been tremendous.
And you can only imagine if it came to this.
Like, I know like Ferrari had a bad weekend at
but like, I don't know.
I kind of thought like Lewis's crash
was kind of Lewis's fault.
Charles wasn't, you know, sometimes like the Lewis crash bit of a racing incident
to like whatever.
But I don't know.
Clearly, the Ferrari brass are not happy with their drivers.
And the shocking thing is to see the driver sort of teaming up and fighting back.
So yeah, so two things.
First, the funniest, I think, post on social I saw after the race was
that Ferrari came second and third and then at the bottom to DNF.
Oh, but I think it's it's one of those
historic legacy things of Ferrari was like always one of the teams.
I mean, there's still a good team.
But it was like that was the team that at different periods to chase.
And they still have this belief they are like the best team.
And like we said, like it's the one people on race for.
It's why Lewis is there.
They're like the, you know, like the New York Yankees of F1 or I can't think
of the football team ever wants to play for Cowboys.
Yeah, Cowboys used to be the Cowboys is a traditional one.
But that hasn't been it for a long time.
But they said that's true of Ferrari as well.
Right. So.
But I think their management still think like they're getting all this criticism
is coming from the drivers.
And I still think they have this opinion like we're high.
We'll just replace the drivers and get whoever like we have historically.
They need to like, you know, whatever.
But everyone kind of sees that it's actually Ferrari.
That's in chaos.
It's not necessarily the drivers and it's been a joke for years.
And it's like, you're not the you're not this powerhouse used to be
like ever since you put the wrong you forgot to put a tire out on a pit stop.
Like it's just been an ongoing joke for years.
And yeah, it has been it's it's not good.
So I don't know if you've got the next slides there.
The these were these were the comments from, you know, like, so like to see that.
General Concosa and then Lewis Hamilton posts that I back my team.
I back myself, I will not give up, you know, like, wow, like he's just coming
right out and he didn't like just let it slide under the radar.
OK, you know, it was a public criticism and it's getting a public pushback,
which is like they're they're taking this messy fight to the streets.
And you can only imagine if they're doing this publicly,
like, how bad is it behind the scenes?
Like, what are we seeing?
They must be it must be ugly.
I have a feeling the team and maybe from team principle down or maybe one step below.
I think they like I think they're getting the heat from the top.
And I think it's kind of becoming like a team versus the execs.
I don't think it's sort of like a Lewis versus the team.
And I think that's how I worded this.
This is obviously carefully crafted by I'm sure his PR people.
So it sounds like he's very supportive.
But the underlying is basically like we as the F1 for our team,
we're doing everything we can and you're not helping, basically.
Yeah. Yeah.
So hit the next slide.
The Charles Leclerc one was a similar, even, even more subtle when he says,
well, a very difficult weekend in Sao Paulo, disappointed to come back home
with no points at all for the team and what is the critical moment
season to fight for the second place in the construction championship.
It's uphill from now and it's clear that only unity can help us turn
that situation around in the last three races.
Like just a little that word unity right there, like, boom.
Right. And there's a little picture of him, you know,
hugging Fred Visser.
I mean, and it came out shortly after Lewis posted his like, that's a wow.
They are they seem like in locks and I do.
It does feel like it's like maybe I don't know why, but it just like I don't
know how it would impact, but it seems more like the team versus Ferrari,
the automaker, right?
Like, like the end, but at the same time, like, what can't they do
to make this happen?
Like, what is what is the restriction?
That's the thing.
Like, again, I relate it to other sports.
Sometimes, you know, you have a coach that is a great coach and has the idea
of what to do, but their president or general manager or vice
whoever is telling him, like, no, this is what you're going to do down there.
And it's not what's going to work.
It's not what the coach wants to do.
But because they're the ones that are in charge, they have to follow it.
And I wonder if that potentially is a thing here where Fred's like,
let's do this or this.
And the higher ups like, no, we're we're sticking with this part of the car.
We're going to do this strategy.
And then it just becomes like, who's really running the ship?
I mean, I feel bad because I can almost guarantee Fred's not there next year
the way things are going.
And I don't think it's his fault, but it's it's crazy at this level
that you would have that problem, right?
That you would have this problem of basically micromanaging a team.
If that if that is in fact it, right?
If they're like, oh, no, no, we're going to do this.
It's like, you're paying these people enormous sums of money
to make the right decisions.
You should let them make the right decisions.
And if they don't make the right decisions, they screw up.
You get rid of them and you move on.
Like that's simple.
But to them, you know, like if you don't think, you know, if Fred Viser is
saying we should be doing something and the corporate execs are saying
we should be doing something else, you should clearly get rid of Fred Viser.
That's what you really think you should do.
Or maybe he's right and you should listen to him.
So those are the options.
Yeah, I mean, and if you wanted to always micromanage
because some teams do like they want to run it from back home.
And basically your team principal is a figurehead that just relays your message.
Then why would you hire Fred?
Like a likable, outspoken, charismatic guy.
You get some boring person that just hides in the background.
Exactly.
Hire an automaton and pay them peanuts.
You were talking about changes.
I saw there was a comment from Ted Kravitz, a broadcaster this morning.
He says, if they don't have a good start to 2026, they will make changes.
And maybe these statements are just the first sign,
a sign that upper management is irritated by these performances.
And yeah, it's funny.
He goes on to basically say Ted Kravitz is sort of insinuating
because we've heard these stories about Hamilton like basically brought a lot
of like information and data to the team from his past.
Like he wrote these like he wrote these like essays or dossiers on like driving.
And so he says this is thinking about the dossiers Hamilton is compiling.
A sort of model based on what he learned at McLaren and Mercedes
as Ferrari perhaps felt offended by these dossiers.
Maybe they thought, OK, thanks, but could you just focus on driving the car?
So that could be it.
It could be that they're it's so like really thinking that the drivers
should just be driving and not doing anything else.
And yet we know from history that that's exactly why they were good under Schumacher
is because Schumacher told them what to do and they did it
unless we've all been misled in some way.
But that's my understanding that he brought beat them into look, do it this way.
They did it this way.
They were champions, you know, it's very, very odd.
I don't mean how many again, you never know, because you're from the driver's side,
but you look at all the super successful drivers in history, Lada,
Santa Schumacher and the common theme is always they came into the team
and they knew much as much about engineering as driving.
And they said, we've got to change all this to be competitive
and low and behold, they were.
So I mean, that might not be the case, but part of it, too, could just be the way
the car was designed, like the design around Charles and previously Carlos
and Hamilton's driving style and car setup could have been completely different.
And if they're not willing to budge and it's not suiting him,
it's sort of like we said with Max, right, like the Red Bull set up for him.
And if he goes somewhere else, what if it's not?
Yeah, it's but, you know what, Hamilton just got to endure.
I mean, never Chico went through this couple of years ago
when I was in, I think I'm all a test in an old Ferrari,
the Cadillacs using as a test bed.
So, you know, things can be be good again one day.
They can, but I don't know.
I don't see there's there's nowhere but down for Hamilton,
unless it was some like amazing return to Mercedes, which I can't see happening
because I think I feel like even the way Toto speaks now,
I feel like Toto and him have like severed ties almost.
So I don't see Mercedes to Alpine confirmed.
Yeah, or sorry, Hamilton or Alpine.
But that quote you had is so Ferrari,
where it's like if things don't improve early in 26, there'll be changes.
It's like that's such a so Ferrari, like let's wait till we start failing.
And then midseason, try to fix things as opposed to do it all now
and get ready for the new car, new regulations.
But yeah, we are checking.
They're always to comment back.
It's like, oh, well, it'll be interesting to see what happens.
We should like offseason make some predictions for the future year
of how long it takes before Ferrari fires someone or something.
Yeah, sort of a side bit.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Well, moving on, the one of the newest teams,
I just kind of alluded to Cadillac a second ago, Audi,
which is really just kicks out where rebranded showed off.
I guess what the F1 car is going to look like livery wise.
I mean, this isn't the 26 car, obviously.
They they painted an old one.
But yeah, it's like the Audi Audi's a kind of car.
Yeah. And I guess it's kind of like they say, basically,
it'll look like this plus batching is the plus sponsors.
I guess that's the gist of it, right?
So yeah, and obviously need sponsors.
And I kind of a feeling they may sponsor their own car
for the first year, at least the first while to get the name out there.
So oh, yeah, this is like the Audi color scheme.
And it looks great.
Like I think if any manufacturer could just do their own color scheme on a car,
I mean, for a kind of us, but it would look great.
It'll look not as good with badging.
But if there's just the four rings and Audi badges here and there
and smaller sponsors, great, but it won't last.
They'll eventually have a real sponsor and they will dictate
probably more of the color scheme.
But to start, it'll look cool.
They do have a bunch of other sponsors they've already lined up.
What's that? We talked about it once.
I think Revolute was the there's a like a FinTech company
that does like budget.
It's like an alternative to having a it's like a bank credit card
company, etc. that is bigger in Europe.
They've got a couple of clients lined up there as well.
So but I think it looks good.
Sort of interesting note that they sound like the red Audi rings
will be potentially making its way onto future road cars as well.
That's like a they've sort of hinted at that.
And but otherwise, you know, it's always funny how they roll these out, right?
It's like, is this the way it will look or won't look?
And we don't really know.
Sometimes it's just like it's part of the hype train.
You've got to get people talking.
Either way, I mean, it looks like a good thing.
And they in everything they come out with.
And I guess this is they kind of have to say this, but they've said,
like, we are committed to we're committed to winning.
We are not interested in being a back marker team.
And so you have to think with that that
they will be looking for, you know, not to slide on guys
like Nico and stuff like that who are driving them next year.
But but as we start to look a little bit into the future,
if they're really going to start looking for championships,
they're going to need some top tier drivers.
And so they get through year one or two.
And then maybe that's where those Hamilton goes,
although he'll be an old man by then.
So who knows?
I mean, the looks distinct, which Cadillac's looking for, too.
And I think it's important for both brands to show, like, we're new.
And here we are. But yeah, we'll see how it goes.
It's crazy. This season is almost over, and then it'll be all off season stuff.
But we'll have another race coming up soon, Vegas, and go from there.
But hopefully it's good that the last race,
Sao Paulo as your favorite race, it was freaking amazing.
It was like another just outrageously good race.
I wish they were all like that.
Sao Paulo always brings a good even when it didn't rain.
It didn't rain and it was still amazing.
So yeah, that's a good times.
All right. Well, thanks for joining.
We will have you back next week and we'll be preparing for the next race.
And probably more Ferrari fallout because it seems to be the theme right now.
It looks like it.
All right, thanks, Mike.
So that just about wraps things up on the Auto Guide show brought to you by eBay Motors.
We'll just quickly cover what we've been doing this week and what's ahead.
So as I've mentioned on the cast a couple of times, I have the GMC
Terrain Denali. I don't want to get too much into it.
We've already talked a lot about it, but it's
I didn't overly care about the last one.
I did not like it.
It was just like, eh, and I got to really dig
into what they've done to change this one, besides the things I can physically see.
Because I quite like it.
What are you driving this week?
I'm driving the Palisade.
Yep, wasn't meant to.
I feel like you were actually supposed to drive this, Mike.
And then you ended up in in the GMC.
So I am in this Mike is Mike.
Greg has driven it recently.
It's the XRT Pro, so it's the off roadie trim.
I spent a bit of time with it at the launch, and so I'm living with it for a week.
And I will have my full thoughts on it soon.
And then next week, both of us are traveling.
I take off a little bit earlier, though, before this actually publishes
to go to Spain to drive the BMW IX3,
which I've been really looking forward to.
It was on my list of most anticipated vehicles last year.
So it is the all electric, roughly X3 sized SUV.
And it brings in a whole new generation of everything, right?
It's a new powertrain, new infotainment, new styling.
It's a big deal for BMW.
So I'm really looking forward to it.
It's almost like it's a whole new class for BMW.
Yes, like some sort of noia class.
So next week, as you mentioned, I'm on a trip to
I will actually be in the air probably when this goes live.
And I am going to Sedona to drive the Outback.
And it's one of those vehicles I've been really curious to drive
because everybody has made much to do about it.
It doesn't look like a wagon anymore.
It looks like a bigger forester.
They've kind of gone more into the family styling.
But I'm curious if it still drives like an Outback.
Because if it does, then I'm more OK with it
because I get Subaru's point.
Everyone wants an SUV, so you make it look like one,
but still have all the things that we liked about the Outback.
Then I'm fine.
So we'll see how that is.
And I will be gone for a lot of the week.
So I don't have anything to drive when I get back,
but I will be back for the podcast next week.
Same. Yeah.
So I guess, Mike, I guess we'll talk then.
Yeah, so we will summarize some more news and reviews
and probably not what we did in our trips
because we'll be in a barcode.
But that's just another week off to wait for.
So until then, this has been the Outback Show
and we'll see you later.
So long, everybody.
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About this episode
The AutoGuide Show dives into a variety of automotive topics, including first drives of the 2026 Nissan Sentra and the Porsche 911 Carrera T. The hosts discuss the Sentra's updates, including styling and interior improvements, while critiquing its performance. The Carrera T stands out as the only manual option in the 911 lineup, praised for its lightweight and engaging driving experience. The episode also touches on the Dodge Charger Scat Pack and BMW M2 CS, highlighting their power and driving dynamics. Notable discussions include the evolving landscape of automotive technology and the challenges faced by manufacturers like Ferrari.
This week Mike and Kyle break down the 2026 Nissan Sentra and discuss Kyle's time in the BMW M2 CS and Porsche 911 T. They also talk about Greg's first drive of the 2026 Dodge Charger Scat Pack. In News, the main reveal is the 2026 Kia Telluride, an uber-important SUV for the brand.
Colum joins to talk all things F1, and Mike and Kyle also catch up with our friend, automotive journalist James Riswick.
Finally, Mike and Kyle look ahead to what's next.