S3, E46 - Have You Heard? Truck News!

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Have you heard?

Oh no, oh no, oh no, although it's kind of so bad that it's good in a way.

But it's not good and the first story we're going to talk about, hold on, I forgot to do the cool.

Yeah, I got a little V8 noise for you there.

Our friends over at Motor Trend put out a completely clickbait-y story the other day

and I know a few of you messaged me and I think there may have been posted on the

Podget Insiders.

The clickbait title is If the 2029 Jeep Wrangler Flops.

It lights out for an icon.

Here's what we know about it.

It talks about how the Wrangler needs to succeed.

Jeep's identity is tied to Wrangler.

Okay, fine, that's fine.

Can't afford to get this one wrong.

Okay, fine.

But then they start talking about platform and powertrain and they're talking about

Jeep had initially teased out that the Wrangler would have a couple of powertrain options,

one all-electric, one with a range extender.

I don't think that's not accurate.

But now with the big pivot, I guess for the industry, they are going to have a traditional

ICE vehicle as well.

And they go on to talk about how the E-Rev would work without a low-range find.

I don't have an issue with that.

But they give this thing sources, familiar with the company's thinking.

They say that all electric Wrangler is dead and that the Jeep Recon EV takes this place.

I don't necessarily have any issues with that.

Then they talk about how there's going to be a range of conventional internal combustion engines,

base engine being the 2-liter turbocharged Hurricane 4, as well as the Hurricane 3-liter

twin-turbo 6, which is possible because on the JL platform, everybody's like,

why can't we get the Hurricane?

Well, it doesn't fit is the reason why.

It's two inches too long and you'd have to recrash it and get it certified.

And the JL has a few years left.

They're not going to invest all that money to put the Hurricane in there.

So that'd be great.

I would love to see the Hurricane come to the next generation,

which was originally going to be called JM, I believe.

But now it has a new code name.

Motor Trend drops it as being the J70.

I've heard it.

I don't remember if that is accurate.

Not that it matters anymore.

But I'd love to see it if it's going to be an all new platform, which it is.

Love to see the straight six in there.

They say it's going to continue to be body and frame.

That's great.

But then they say it's going to be independent front suspension.

And I can tell you the powers that be have been fighting this battle at JK.

They fought at JL.

Now they're going to fight at J70.

Everything else can be all independent.

To me, Jeep needs to be the brand that is the best off-road,

all-weather vehicle in its category.

So not every Jeep to me needs to do the Rubicon.

Compass doesn't need to do the Rubicon.

But should it be a highly capable all-weather vehicle to go down a dirt road?

Yeah, absolutely.

Same with Grand Cherokee.

Doesn't have to do the Rubicon.

But should it be the most capable off-road vehicle in its class?

Yes.

And they have the Trail Hawks and things like that.

And since there have been some executives that have moved out of the company who are

really pushing for IFS, I think the core of the brand and the people realize

you know what?

The Wrangler is unique and special in this place.

Let's keep the solid axle.

Even when it was going to be EV, it was going to be solid axle from what I heard.

And I would think that that is going to stay in place.

It's an archaic suspension.

I get it.

It doesn't do well on consumer reports.

I get it.

But they're selling hundreds of thousands of these things a year.

And the areas that it excels over the competition like simplicity and rock crawling

and the ability to put a lift kit on in your driveway, all that kind of stuff.

It's stuff that the enthusiasts want.

It's super aftermarket friendly.

I know that there's issues with death wobble and that's usually a setup problem

and something that's worn.

So that can be fixed.

I know there's people are going to come back and go, oh death wobble.

But to be honest, a properly set up Wrangler with really good suspension rides just as good

as IFS most of the time on the highway.

Maybe it doesn't handle as well.

But it's nothing that is like, oh, this thing's horrible.

It's all over the road.

Like today's Wranglers are really dialed.

You look at the super duties.

You look at gladiators, which benefit from a longer wheelbase.

You look at Ram HDs.

There's definitely a place for solid axle.

And I just don't buy that they're looking at a IFS for the next generation Wrangler.

Not with what I have been exposed to and the people that I know that are behind it.

I just don't see that happening.

And then they throw in some other things.

Both engines will be backed by 8-speed automatic, true four-wheel drive capability,

two-speed transfer case, which is all makes sense.

And then they say, oh, off-road goodies will likely include disconnecting sway bars,

locking axles, knobby tires, plenty of armor.

Okay.

I mean, that's like the bare minimum to get into it.

So anyway, I take a little bit of exception with this particular article.

I think it was clickbait.

I think it was just thrown together to try and guess what's going on there.

But it's a guess.

There's nobody inside Jeep that's giving them that information.

It's just not true.

So anyway, now with the algorithm on Google changing and how Google does stories with deep

technical integration and substance, not just keywords, you're going to see a lot of this

kind of stuff that comes from writers that are trying to game the algorithm.

And clickbait will still be a part of the process, but I just don't believe it's accurate.

So take it for what it's worth.

That's my opinion.

What do I know?

So here's some good news.

If you've been waiting for the return of the 5.7 liter Hemi to the Ram 1500,

they are now hitting dealership lot.

You can go to a dealership lot and probably if it's not sold out,

find one and take one home today.

And the good news is I've been reading all the reviews.

I didn't have a chance to go on that drive and they're now hitting all the websites and outlets

and everybody's saying the same thing.

It's good because it's always been good.

And they say it's fantastic in the new truck.

It's proper V8.

It feels right.

The integration is really good, even though it's a different architecture

for the electronics and things like that.

And I haven't seen one bad review on it so far.

All the reviews have been like, this is exactly the truck this needs to be.

Yeah, it's not as punchy or as powerful as the straight six,

but there's just a certain amount of truckiness that this is proper for the Ram 1500.

I'm glad to see that the journalists agree that the V8 is a good thing.

We'll see what the sales do.

But that hurricane straight six is a, it's a heck of an engine.

So I'm definitely not poo-pooing that because I've been really impressed.

Even the standard output version.

Power is 395 horsepower, 410 pound-feet of torque on the V8.

And on the standard output, it's 420, 469.

So even the standard output is a step above.

And then the HO gets 540 horsepower, which is a lot, absolutely a lot.

But there's just something about the V8 that just feels good, the way it drives.

And there's a lot of people that overall numbers or the way, you know,

a turbocharger comes on.

That's just not for them or they want something that's not turbocharged.

That can do the job.

And I think all those points are valid.

I'm going to be really, really interested to see how they do with sales,

because I think it's exciting to find out, was the return of the Hemi enough

to keep it around for a while?

Or people going to go, oh, okay, we have the Hemi back and drove it back to back

in the same truck with the straight six.

And now that's the one I want.

It'll be interesting to see.

For now, and I think we talked about pricing before, it's actually a pretty decent deal.

It's only 1200 bucks over a standard output hurricane straight six.

And it's a no charge option over the 540 horsepower high output version of the hurricane.

So I mean, get what you want at those dollars.

And I mean, really a money thing.

It's just a, what do you prefer?

And it's great to have choice.

We've said it before, I'm excited it's back.

I think there's a lot of people that are excited it's back and let's see how the sales go.

I'm not sure if you heard the news, but Ford has officially changed Ford performance.

And well, it's going back to Ford racing.

Everything else stays the same.

There's a lot of projects that are still on for Ford racing, which was formerly Ford

performance.

So it's going to prepare to return to formula one.

You still have the Raptor T one plus race vehicles in Dakar.

And I'm sure there's other series that they're looking at and Ford will continue to set records

sort of piecemeal.

And beyond that management stays the same.

So you still have the same Mark Rushbrook, who's the global director of Ford racing,

and then William Clay Ford, the third, which is Henry Ford's great grandson.

He's going to be on as the general manager at this point.

It sounds like it's just a name change to reset what the expectations are.

And I think racing is cool again.

I think for a while people and companies shied away from the racing thing.

And I think it's coming back.

So kudos to Ford for bringing back Ford racing.

All right, we'll go back to the Ram with a straight six.

The Ram RHO, which has the high output version.

Well, apparently you can now go over to Hennessy and get the Hennessy Mammoth 700,

which is built on the Ram RHO chassis.

This will tune the engine.

Bigger turbocharger, different exhaust, 700 horsepower instead of 540.

And apparently all the driving modes still work.

You get a three suspension lift.

However, they still use the Bilstein E squared shocks.

So I'm curious, three inches sounds like it might be a little bit on the high side

for getting full range out of those shocks.

So I'd be interested to drive it and see how they do their lift,

just because your shock stroke is not changing.

You don't want to raise it too tall, where you're in a spot of your wheel travel,

where you don't have any droop, right?

And just kind of skitters over things.

And it's only compliant on the compression side of the shock travel.

So be interesting to know what they do there.

But you're curious, comes with a three year, 36,000 mile warranty.

Every truck is dyno tested.

And the cost, this might surprise you.

All right, so you're already building on top of a $70,000 truck.

So what's it going to set you back?

Well, $70,000.

So basically doubles the price of the truck.

Now you get some off-road bumpers and you get 20 inch wheels

and you get interior appointments.

But that's a lot of coin.

But hey, if you can afford it, it's a cool looking truck.

And it's 700 horse.

So it brings you right back in line with where the TRX was,

with presumably a more efficient three liter,

7.62 V8.

I don't know, we'll see.

So if you follow Ford on Instagram,

they recently post an image of Jim Farley sitting in the cab of a future truck.

And it's obviously just a styling buck.

And the caption was product day, my favorite time of the month.

Great discussion, debate about future mustangs,

super duties and the Ford digital experience.

Well, if you look at it, it looks like sort of a super duty windshield

because there's a drop center section there.

He didn't mention F-150 specifically mentioned super duty.

So it looks like the vehicle is a future super duty they sitting in.

And at the base of the windshield,

you can see the screen layout looks really similar to the new expedition

where it's a two tiered screen layout.

Interesting.

Is that something that truck drivers want?

Do they want that two tiered digital experience in their heavy duty trucks?

Looks like it's potentially coming to the Ford super duty.

And by way of super duty,

that probably means it's also coming to the Ford F-150 at some point too.

So it'll be interesting to see if the expedition is hinting

at what the future dash design is for these new trucks.

So pricing is in for the 2026 Nissan Armada and Nismo.

And it's interesting to see what Nissan has done on pricing

because I thought it was a really good value proposition

when it dropped especially for everything that you get.

But because the Armada is built in Japan,

it definitely is going to face some tariffs.

And I think that's reflected in the new pricing.

So not only do you have higher prices,

but you also get a destination charge that's now $2,190,

which is probably one of the higher ones that I've seen in a while.

So the trim breakdown is Nissan Armada 61030 for rear wheel drive.

And you top out at the Nissan Armada Platinum Reserve 4WD at $81,720.

So TFL Truck had this great little chart where they went through

and they said, okay, what's starting them SRP and the highest MSRP?

So again, Armada 61030, Tahoe 62095, Ford Expedition 64515,

Yukon, non-XL, 70, 495, Jeep Wagoneer, non-L, 62040,

and Toyota Sequoia 66120, and those were all for 4x2s.

And the highest trim, so Nissan's still a value proposition.

Looks like they gave them some room in there.

The highest MSRP is $81,720 for the Platinum Reserve.

The Tahoe High Country 4WD base price tops out at $82,295,

of course, you can option.

Higher than that, the Ford Expedition, again, non-Max,

King Ranch, 4x4, 86, 170, GMC, Yukon, non-XL.

If you went to Nali, ultimate 4WD, $103,595, whoo-hoo.

Whoa, that's not right.

And the Jeep Wagoneer, super 4x4, $83,230,

and the base price of the highest trim on the Toyota Sequoia,

so Capstone 4WD, $86,530.

And if you're curious about where the Pro 4x stacks up,

that is at $74,490, which gets kind of a mix of

the Platinum and Platinum Reserve pieces in there,

and it splits the difference, the Platinum 4WD, $75,680,

the Platinum Reserve rear-wheel drive, $79,740,

and then the Nismo 4WD comes just under the Platinum Reserve 4WD.

At $81,720, again, you get more of a street-tuned,

sport-oriented package with more power.

So there you have it, news on the Nissan Armada,

which is actually a fantastic SUV that I'm a huge fan of.

Here's kind of a fun fact for you on Friday nights

when you're drinking beers in the garage with your friends.

What's the one thing that you would expect a GMC Sierra EV AT4

to have on their off-road package?

It comes with all sorts of stuff.

It has two inches of additional ground clearance,

35-inch all-terrain tires, crab walk capability,

terrain modes, tow hooks, its own look,

but the one thing it doesn't have that you would expect is a spare tire.

That ain't true! That's not true!

So get your facts straight.

Nope, that's true, but instead it gets a tire inflator kit.

And a spare's not even an option.

At least on the Hummer, there's an accessory

that allows you to have a spare that stands up

in the bed of the Hummer EV trucks.

So I don't know why they didn't include that on the GMC.

Reviews of that thing have come back, though,

and it's been pretty cool, but it should be pretty cool

because pricing for the AT4 extended range, 81, 395.

And if you want the max range variant, it starts 91,695.

So for those of you out there who are looking to pick up a brand new truck

and you are going to finance it,

when Trump signed the big beautiful bill into law,

one of the provisions in there was a new tax deduction

for auto loan interest on vehicles built in the U.S.

with a gross vehicle weight under 14,000 pounds.

So I went through the list of pickup trucks

to figure out which ones would qualify for that.

And if you're on the fence between one or the other,

maybe that makes the difference in which one you choose.

Hyundai Santa Cruz, made in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Jeep Gladiator in Toledo, Ohio.

Ford Ranger in Wayne, Michigan.

F-150, including Lightning in Dearborn, Michigan

in Kansas City, Missouri, technically, Clecomo.

The Toyota Tundra is made in San Antonio, Texas.

The Nissan Frontier in Canton, Mississippi.

The Chevy Colorado in GMC Canyon Twins in Wentzville, Missouri.

And the Ram 1500 in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

Now there's a bunch of vehicles that are built outside the U.S.

and those include the Ford Maverick in Hermosillo, Mexico.

The Toyota Tacoma in Baja, California.

And Guanajuato, Mexico.

And the Ram HD is still built at the Saltillo

Truck Assembly Plant in Mexico,

although there's been some investment stateside

where my guess is Ram HD is probably going to be

coming back to the U.S.

And then there's also a whole host of vehicles

mixed between the U.S. and out of country.

Now this is where it's going to get a little bit tricky.

If you're going to go buy one of these vehicles,

you're going to want to make sure that you have

your final assembly here in the United States,

and that's decipherable on your VIN code

or on your Minroni, which is the Windows sticker,

which will tell where that vehicle is made.

Because the GM HDs are made in Flint, Michigan.

And apparently some are still in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500

are made in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Springfield, Ohio.

And also at that same Oshawa, Ontario, Canada plant.

And the Super Duties are made in Louisville, Kentucky

and Avon Lake, Ohio.

But apparently Ford makes some in Ontario, Canada,

since 2024 to meet the demand.

So if you're looking at any of those trucks,

GM HD, Ford Super Duty,

or Chevy Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500,

not all of them are made here.

Some are made in a neighboring country

and may not qualify for the tax break.

So I just wanted to break that down for you guys

if that helps you to buy a new truck.

And it's that time of the show

where we take a look at the latest recalls.

Check engine light just went on.

Noise under the hood takes like a bomb.

Recall covers metal glass leather and plastic.

Door handle pulled off in my hand just fantastic.

All right.

Hate to say this, but Ford,

back in the news with recalls again.

Every ranger built between 2024 and July of 2026

is being recalled.

So that's another 100,000 trucks adding to their totals.

So this recall revolves around the side curtain airbags.

And apparently there was a safety audit

of the 25 ranger conducted by NHTSA,

the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

And it got a lower score than Ford anticipated.

So Ford went back to the third party that NHTSA used

and they did an analysis and found

that there's an external source

that was tearing the curtain airbags.

This cut was only 15 seconds of an inch long,

but it allowed the airbag to deflate enough

to where performance while still passing

was below Ford's standards and what they designed it for.

So they figured out that there was a inner reinforcement

flange for the bags that could cause a tear

and then lose pressure prematurely.

So 100,900 pickups are affected.

If you're an arranger before 2024,

after July 29th, 2025, it's not affected.

And Ford is redesigning the part right now.

So owners will be notified and repairs will hopefully

get started before the end of the year.

So for now, if you drive a ranger,

just be real careful out there.

All right, that's going to do it for this episode

of Have You Heard.

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And that'll do it for this episode of Have You Heard.

It's been fun.

Let's do it again soon.

Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.

S3, E46 - Have You Heard? Truck News!

Jeep Wrangler

Jeep Recon

Wrangler Rubicon

Jeep Compass

Jeep Grand Cherokee

Dodge Ram

F-150 Raptor

Ford Mustang

Ford F150

Ford Expedition

Ford Super

Nissan Armada

Chevrolet Tahoe

GMC Yukon

Jeep Wagoneer

Gmc Sierra

Hyundai Santa

Hyundai Santa Cruz

Jeep Gladiator

Ford Ranger

Ford F-150 Lightning

Toyota Tundra

Nissan Frontier

Gmc Canyon

Ford Maverick

Toyota Tacoma

About this episode

Original notes