00:50
This winter, know what your vehicle needs before it needs it.
00:54
Visit your Buick Certified Service Center and ask for a multi-point vehicle inspection
00:58
and take advantage of stackable rebates.
01:00
See dealer for complete details.
01:02
Multi-point vehicle inspections vary by participating dealer.
01:05
Did you know you can opt out of winter?
01:08
With Verbo, save up to $1,500 for booking a month-long stay.
01:13
When thousands of sunny homes are waiting for you, why subject yourself to the cold?
01:18
Put the snow shovel down.
01:20
Put the parka back in the closet.
01:22
And don't you dare scrape another windshield.
01:24
Slip into some flip flops.
01:26
Consider a sunless tan.
01:28
And use the monthly stays filter to save up to $1,500.
01:33
Book your warm getaway at verbo.com.
01:41
Welcome to the Total Car Score podcast bringing you the world of cars from inside the car.
01:48
And now your hosts, Carl Brower, Lauren Ficks, and Javier Mota.
01:54
Well, here we are in the back stretch of 2025.
01:57
Can you believe it?
01:58
The year is pretty much gone.
02:00
How are you, Lauren?
02:02
Yeah, I can't believe it.
02:07
We're in September, but like pretty soon it's going to be Halloween Thanksgiving
02:10
Christmas, and that's it.
02:13
Yeah, we're down to crunch time, both calendar year-wise and car of the year-wise.
02:18
So all three of us will be busy over the next few months trying to figure out what the best
02:22
car of the year is.
02:24
And that's the reason for this episode, because today, Nactoy North American car, truck, and
02:31
utility vehicle of the year announced the best of 2026, and there are a few surprises.
02:38
The list of cars is always short in the recent years.
02:42
What do you think it was?
02:43
Oh, when we switch from truck, when we divide a truck with SUV, right, Lauren?
02:49
That was during my term and leadership.
02:51
Yeah, definitely something that changed.
02:54
But remember, people started switching to SUVs.
02:57
And that's why there's less and less sedans that are the least.
03:03
I mean, they're so popular.
03:04
People still like them.
03:05
It's not like nobody wants them, but let's go through the list of the candidates
03:10
for this 2026 car of the year award in North America, Audi A5, Dodge Charger,
03:16
Hondra Perlut, Kia K4 hatchback, Mercedes-Benz CLA, and Nissan Centra.
03:22
I'm surprised that I'm not seeing the Nissan Leaf, because probably it's the most important
03:27
car on the category, unless it's, oh, no, it's in the SUV, my bad, my bad.
03:33
I guess it's not a sedan, the Leaf.
03:36
I think it used to be.
03:37
I'm actually surprised they put it in that category.
03:40
So it should be a car because Nissan, you know, I drove it just a few days ago and my video
03:48
was up at Carl Broward Cars on YouTube, but it's not an SUV.
03:53
They tried to make it look like one because nobody wants to drive a hatchback.
03:57
Everyone, you know, like Lauren said, for the past 20 years, SUV, SUV, SUV, SUV.
04:02
So that's what we're all supposed to be driving.
04:04
And that's what all the car companies want to make every car look like, whether
04:07
it really is or not.
04:10
You think it's like a marketing thing?
04:13
Oh, it's 100% a marketing thing.
04:16
First of all, it doesn't have an elevated ride height.
04:18
In fact, it sits lower than the previous one.
04:20
It's more aerodynamic.
04:21
It's good because what do you want to get out of an EV?
04:23
You want to get max range?
04:24
How do you get max range aerodynamic efficiency?
04:26
So this new all new Leaf for 2026 actually sits lower than the previous gen.
04:33
And it has no all wheel drive option.
04:36
So if you were going to say, and someone did actually, one of the other journalists at
04:41
the event with me said, what defines it as an SUV?
04:45
And you can imagine kind of the interesting, you know, verbal calisthenics and gymnastics
04:51
that were done to try to define it as an SUV by the Nissan folks.
04:55
Overall, I generally like the car.
04:56
We can talk more about it when we get to the SUV section, even though we should
04:59
be talking about in the car section right now.
05:01
But that's the one thing I would dispute or argue with.
05:06
So I was wrong and right.
05:08
It's not on the car list, but it's in the SUV list.
05:12
And it should be in the car list.
05:15
Well, maybe you can make a pushback on that, Javier.
05:17
Well, I don't know.
05:19
So of the cars that are there, Audi A5, this Charger, Honda Prelude,
05:24
Kia K4, Mercedes Benz, CLA and Nissan Sentra.
05:26
I'm going to tell you, I mean my, I'm sorry for going first.
05:30
The ones that won't win, in my opinion.
05:33
Nissan Sentra is not going to win, even though it's probably the most
05:35
affordable car in the market right now.
05:38
And the Dodge Charger, I don't think it's going to win because people like
05:42
Karl Brower still misses one with a Emmy.
05:46
Well, it's a bad execution of an EV, too.
05:50
It's a bad EV, but anyway, just keep going.
05:53
So those, those two win, in my opinion, won win.
05:56
But what about, what do you think, Lauren?
05:59
Honestly, the Honda Prelude, I haven't driven it yet because we've only seen like
06:04
But is the Civic revised pretty much?
06:07
Oh, well, that it should be our great vehicle and the Kia K4, I like a lot.
06:12
Nissan Sentra has great value.
06:15
So I'm going to say it's going to be those final three and the winner will be the Kia
06:22
I agree the Kia K4 hatchback.
06:23
By the way, the Prelude, I don't want to be cynical or mean or anything else,
06:27
but I have to be honest.
06:28
You don't want to be cynical, Karl?
06:31
I rarely show my cynical side.
06:34
That's what I like about Karl.
06:36
The Acura ADX, I drove it recently, and I don't know if you guys have driven it yet.
06:40
Really nicely executed on every level, except the price.
06:46
Well, no, no, the transmission is terrible.
06:49
It's a CVT and Acura tries to make it into an interesting CVT by putting fake shift
06:55
points in and having paddle shifters, you know, paddle quote unquote shifters for
06:59
the continuously variable transmission that has no way to be shifted.
07:04
So they're doing the same thing for the Prelude.
07:07
So even though I haven't driven the Prelude, I hear again, we're talking more verbal calisthenics
07:12
You read the press release and the description of the Prelude, and all I hear is more creatively
07:16
trying to make it sound like it's really fun and sporty even though it's got a CVT,
07:20
which is an impossible state.
07:24
And the other thing, if you, if we are honest or cynical or whatever or something in between,
07:30
honest, the CVT, the Integra, all these cars look the same inside and out more or less.
07:38
Yeah, they definitely the styling is, I do feel like even the German cars have lost their
07:44
No, that's true too.
07:46
I think Genesis is one of the few brands that's really standing out.
07:50
Kia is doing a great job, but a lot of these brands are just they all look the same.
07:57
Oh, I thought it was a Mercedes.
07:59
It's a BMW or is it an Audi?
08:00
They all look the same like jelly beans on wheels or potatoes.
08:04
So we give it to the Kia then, I guess.
08:06
I'm Kia K4 should win.
08:08
I don't know if it will win.
08:12
But if we go by my recent history, people a lot of the 50 euros love the Honda Civic.
08:19
So I think the prelude is different.
08:23
Prelude is different.
08:26
Then the truck, I think we can give it to Ford again already.
08:29
So you know, the two fords are good.
08:34
I haven't driven the Lobo edition, but I do like the Maverick.
08:37
It was a ton of fun.
08:40
But the F-150 isn't all new, is it?
08:42
Neither is the Maverick.
08:43
Oh, it's just a trim.
08:46
I don't think it should win.
08:48
It shouldn't even be in the list.
08:50
Well, again, this is what happens when I'm not in charge, you know?
08:53
That's the all new truck.
08:55
It's got to be new.
08:56
It's got to be different.
08:57
A trim or a mid-cycle refresh does not qualify.
09:01
And they're putting some in.
09:02
A lot of brands pulled their names out because it wasn't new.
09:07
And there aren't many options either.
09:08
I mean, I guess the Ram 1500 is not new either, but they're bringing back the
09:12
Hemi so that makes it new again.
09:16
It'll make it a final three in my book, but it's not new.
09:18
When was the Ram all new?
09:24
I guess it was a couple of years ago.
09:26
Well, it was new with the Hurricane engine, not with the Hemi, so that's why I guess
09:32
they put it back as new, even though it's pretty much the same as it was before the
09:38
Well, it's a new world.
09:40
How about we spin it that way, or maybe that's what Ram will do.
09:44
We're not going to be forced to buy EVs.
09:46
We're going to let the market decide world.
09:48
And so the Ram coming back with the Hemi represents that.
09:51
So it's a new world and it's a new truck of the year.
09:54
We should change the name of the organization.
09:56
I'll leave it at that.
09:57
That's the people running the show.
09:59
Comcast Business helps retailers become seamlessly restocking, frictionless paying, favorite
10:04
shopping destinations.
10:06
It's how nationwide restaurants become touchscreen ordering, quick-serving eateries, and how
10:10
hospitals become the patient scanning, data managing, healthcare facilities that we
10:16
With leading networking and connectivity, advanced cyber security and expert partnership,
10:21
Comcast Business is powering the engine of modern business.
10:25
Powering possibilities, restriction supply.
10:28
This winter, know what your vehicle needs before it needs it.
10:31
Visit your GMC-certified service center and ask for a multipoint vehicle inspection
10:34
and take advantage of stackable rebates.
10:37
See dealer for complete details, multipoint vehicle inspections vary by participating
10:42
Okay, we should change the name of the awards then, I guess.
10:46
Yeah, it's best of the year.
10:48
Well, no, I mean, I think what you do see here is, look, we broke truck and SUV apart
10:54
a couple of years ago because there were so many SUVs.
10:58
But the thing is, as soon as we did that, we've had a lot of years, you guys both
11:02
know, where we're really kind of scratching.
11:04
Is there kind of a new truck?
11:05
Is there anything that's all new for the truck world?
11:08
Because there just aren't that many truck models.
11:09
This year is maybe the best example of that.
11:12
So I'm fine with the idea that it's like, look, it's called truck of the year, car of
11:17
the year, and SUV of the year.
11:18
It's supposed to be an all new vehicle to be eligible.
11:22
But maybe we just need to start saying, look, it's going to be an all new vehicle when
11:27
And when one isn't, which is only going to happen in the truck category, then it's
11:31
the best of, it's the best.
11:33
Whatever it's out there.
11:34
Whatever it's out there.
11:37
So it's ready for the Rivian R1T quad motor, which is also bearing in the original.
11:44
Listen, they're going to be lucky if they stay in business.
11:48
They're going to sell about a hundred of those.
11:50
They look cool though.
11:51
I mean, I have to say.
11:54
Look, the Rivian is well engineered.
11:56
It's a well engineered EV.
11:58
It costs too much and isn't a very good truck because as soon as you start using
12:01
it as a truck, it's mileage and it's range falls off a cliff and it takes a
12:07
Pain in the butt to go get it fixed, you know, versus a regular truck that you
12:12
You know, every dog is like, well, you lose mileage, you use range on a diesel and
12:17
And then you solve the problem in five to 10 minutes at 140,000 different gas
12:20
stations across the country that are always open, the pay system always works.
12:23
There's not a line and you just go and fill up.
12:27
So truck EVs are not a good idea.
12:32
So should we give it then to Ford again?
12:33
I think they won five in a row.
12:36
They do make the best trucks, I'm sorry to say.
12:38
Lightning, the Maverick, the F-150, all of the Super Duty, I think, one, two.
12:46
Well, they certainly sell the best, so.
12:49
And the Maverick is still long.
12:51
The SUV list, as always, Accur IDX, Audi Q5 that I've driven or like drove last
12:58
week, Cadillac Escalade, AQ, another electric, the bigger one.
13:02
And then Cadillac has the OPTIQ and the Vistik 2 Ford Expedition Genesis
13:06
GV70, which I don't think is completely new.
13:09
It's our fresh, but again, I think it's it's pretty new.
13:14
Honda Passport, Ioni 9 Hyundai Palisade, which I think is the best.
13:18
I really like that car.
13:21
Cherokee, the Lucid Gravity, Nissan Leaf, again, I think maybe going to get
13:26
some votes, Polestar 4, Subaru Foster Hybrid, Toyota 4Runner, which is really
13:31
good for that we're going to drive in a few months or weeks.
13:35
Volkswagen T1, which also is really good on the Volvo EX30, who finally made it
13:40
to the US after what?
13:43
We'll see if it actually shows up.
13:45
Yeah, yeah, it was supposed to be voting on it last year and it couldn't get here.
13:48
So yeah, so it was supposed to be $35,000 and now it's like 55 something
13:54
because it's not really there.
13:57
And they switch the production from China to Belgium.
14:00
So it's been difficult for them.
14:01
So that's like Polestar.
14:03
What do you like there, Lauren?
14:05
Well, I know what I don't like, but I do like the Hyundai Palisade.
14:09
I think they didn't tell me what you don't like.
14:11
The Cadillacs look great.
14:12
The electric side of it is ridiculous.
14:15
If those cars were hybrid, they couldn't.
14:17
They wouldn't be able to make them fast enough.
14:18
You know, you don't like the icky cars?
14:23
You don't like the icky cars?
14:24
No, I'm not an icky car person.
14:29
Oh, I never thought of the icky cars.
14:32
Oh, my gosh, you are so bad.
14:35
I love I like the Palisade.
14:37
The Polestar 4 is cool, but I think it's not going to do it.
14:40
But the RAV4 I expect to do really well.
14:42
The T1 was excellent.
14:45
The 4Runner is always good.
14:46
The Ford Expedition, you know, my daughter has one.
14:49
So I spent a lot of time inside one.
14:51
But the new one or the past one, the last one, she's got last years.
14:56
But still, they're great trucks.
14:59
It's just, I don't know.
15:01
They're just a lot of great candidates.
15:04
There's a lot of alternatives.
15:05
Yeah, but if I was going to buy a car on that list myself, I'd buy a Palisade in a minute.
15:11
If I said you got to buy one of the cars in the list, what am I buying?
15:15
And they're going to they're going to have the plug in hybrid pretty soon
15:19
by the end of the year, I believe.
15:20
So that's going to be even better.
15:22
Well, yeah, I think a lot of changes, just like we see in Chrysler
15:25
doing a lot of doing a lot of stepping back.
15:29
We're not going to do the electric trucking.
15:30
We're going to get rid of our electric vehicles.
15:33
Now, after you stuck your heels in the ground, because I got in this in charge.
15:38
Yeah, I put the right guy in charge.
15:41
We'll always wonder, or at least I will, the I wish I had the DeLorean
15:44
and go back to the other timeline where GM doesn't doesn't walk away
15:48
from their hybrid and plug in hybrid, which they were ahead of the market
15:51
on with the cat with the Chevy Volt and the Cadillac.
15:56
What was it called?
15:57
The two door convertible version of the bolt.
15:59
But anyways, the XLR was it?
16:01
It was it was a it was a volt in a tuxedo.
16:06
Yeah, it was a volt in a two door convertible body style,
16:09
which they overpriced. They priced too high and that was dumb.
16:11
They thought to try to make it.
16:12
And we know some of them have one.
16:15
So this is just like a Tesla.
16:17
We're going to make it 70 grand.
16:18
It was like, guys, come on.
16:19
But anyways, GM, you know,
16:22
hybrids are half measures.
16:23
We're going all in on EVs.
16:24
And now here they are.
16:26
Well, we're going to make some hybrids and plug in hybrids.
16:28
It's like, yeah, you were already doing that.
16:29
And then you shut it all down.
16:31
And now you got to fire it back up.
16:32
But anyways, I agree with you guys.
16:34
I think Palisades, probably the car I would personally buy.
16:37
But I also would have to say this.
16:40
What's the best selling car on this list by a huge margin?
16:43
Oh, let me get a rough four.
16:46
Oh, Rath four is the best selling non full sized truck
16:50
in the country right now.
16:51
It's the new Honda Civic or Honda Corp or Toyota Camry,
16:55
whatever you want to call it.
16:56
But for a third reason, Toyota doesn't win often in actory.
17:01
It frustrates me because, you know, it's like, well,
17:04
at some point as jurors, we should be looking at what the market says.
17:08
And if the market keeps saying that Toyota's going there,
17:11
let's go and ask about that.
17:12
Now, the Rath four is going to be huge.
17:14
It's going to be all new.
17:15
You know, it's going to be well done because it's, you know,
17:18
it's it's Toyota's F one 50 and they're not going to screw around.
17:22
And it's going to be all hybrid starting this generation,
17:25
which just like they did with the Camry already
17:27
and they're doing with a lot of their other models, the Sienna.
17:30
So, you know, as as always,
17:34
Toyota seems to be the smartest guys.
17:37
You know, everyone wants to.
17:38
Everyone says they're the smartest guys in the room
17:39
when you go to the automakers.
17:41
One of them has the biggest global sales.
17:43
Yeah, longest lasting cars, according to IC cars data,
17:46
and just generally is a winner consistently, globally, all the time.
17:53
So, um, KIA gave for hatchback.
17:58
Ford, Maverick, Lovo and Hyundai Palisade.
18:01
They have your winners for not to I bet you want to vote.
18:06
I think I think we're right.
18:08
I would, like I said, I mean, I would like to think people
18:10
would potentially give the Rath four more consideration,
18:13
but they probably won't because it's not as flashy and cool as the Palisade.
18:17
So I guess it'll probably win.
18:19
So there you have it.
18:21
The official schedule for this is that in November,
18:25
well, in October, we're going to go to Detroit
18:27
and test all these cars back to back.
18:29
Then we're going to vote again.
18:31
We're going to select the finalist for three in each category.
18:35
What those will be announcing in a lay in November.
18:38
And then the winners go back to Detroit in January for the winners
18:42
in the Detroit auto show. Yeah. Yeah.
18:45
And there was over again.
18:47
What is all this new again?
18:49
Yeah. Yeah, that's OK.
18:51
Sometimes it's good.
18:52
Sometimes it's good to have something tried and true, right?
18:56
Because I think we keep running all these silly changes, you know.
19:00
But and we're all members of World Car of the Year
19:03
and we've started the road to World Car.
19:06
So we just got our long list of cars.
19:08
I don't know. We don't know.
19:11
That's going to be interesting.
19:12
That's going to be a very interesting year there,
19:14
because I don't know three quarters of the cars.
19:18
Well, that'll be that'll be the topic of another episode.
19:22
So thank you for your time, and I hope we are right.
19:24
So I think we've been right in the previous year.
19:27
So I think yeah, I think we I think we've kind of figured this out.
19:32
Who do you think are the three finalists in the SUV?
19:35
Because I think there's a lot of, you know, the TV ones finalists.
19:38
Finalists in the SUV.
19:42
It's to me, it should be Palisade for sorry, Palisade,
19:46
RAV4 and probably take you on or Genesis GV7.
19:51
How about how about the Honda Passport?
19:53
I drove it in Colorado about three weeks ago when I was back there on a trip.
19:57
And I really liked it.
19:57
Vehicles as well. There's a lot of good vehicles.
20:00
Yeah, I'm going to go with Carl Palisade and RAV4
20:06
and the Nissan Lev, I think might get some votes to get it.
20:09
I would be OK with that, guys.
20:11
Yeah, you're out on the Polestar four.
20:14
I mean, it's tough, but it's going to be very.
20:15
I mean, you've seen like in the past year, the difference was one boat.
20:21
Yeah, so I can tell which is kind of part of the fun of why we test drive
20:27
every vehicle we can and we make decisions, you know,
20:30
based on what we think based on our experiences.
20:32
I think most of the journalists that are part of the jury are experienced.
20:37
We have some new ones.
20:38
We have four new ones which could throw a wrench.
20:41
Actually, we're down one.
20:42
We're down one because we had one person resigned.
20:45
So now we'll have three new jurors.
20:48
And we have no idea how they're going to vote.
20:50
Exactly. And none of them are from Detroit.
20:52
So that could throw a wrench in the whole thing.
20:55
Excellent. Well, we'll we'll see pretty soon.
20:58
So thank you for your time and hope to see you in person
21:01
next week over for the test drives. For sure. Yes.
21:05
We'll talk about Toyota since we're going to be at Toyota.
21:07
We'll talk about that on a future episode. OK. Yeah.
21:09
All right. Bye, everyone.
21:11
All right. Bye. Thanks a lot.
21:13
That's a wrap for this episode of the Total Car Score podcast.
21:18
Want more expert takes on the hottest cars, industry trends and insider insights?
21:23
Join Javier Mota, Lauren Fix and Carl Brower every week for the ultimate auto talk.
21:29
Hit subscribe, like and share with your friends to stay informed and stay ahead.
21:36
Concast Business helps retailers become seamlessly restocking, frictionless,
21:40
paying, favorite shopping destinations.
21:43
It's how nationwide restaurants become touch screen ordering, quick serving eateries
21:47
and how hospitals become the patient scanning, data managing, health care
21:51
facilities that we all depend on with leading networking and connectivity,
21:55
advanced cybersecurity and expert partnership.
21:58
Concast Business is powering the engine of modern business.
22:01
Know what your vehicle needs before it needs it.
22:04
Visit your Cadillac certified service center and ask for a multi-point vehicle inspection.
22:08
Plus, with the winter ready service event, get up to $210 in stackable rebates on batteries,
22:13
brake pads and rotors, cabin and engine air filters and wiper blades.
22:16
At participating USGM dealers only, max rebates derived from collectible rebates on all eligible parts.
22:21
Visit Cadillac.com slash service offers or CDL if you're full time.
22:25
Visit Cadillac.com slash service offers or CDL if you're full time.
22:28
Offer ends $228.26.
22:30
Multi-point vehicle inspections vary by participating dealer.
