Surprises and Disappointments

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This is episode 433 of wheel bearings.

Almost at 344.

That would be like almost two years ago.

It's the time between Christmas and New Year's Day.

So time doesn't matter.

Like this week, nothing is real.

Truthfully, does time ever really matter?

Not really.

There's a really good book that I want everywhere.

You guys start talking.

I'll tell you, I'll find the book that I'm reading.

That's really good.

All right, and I'm Sam Abul, Samet from Telemetry.

I'm Nicole Wakelin from Ottawa.

We'll say this week.

Did you say Ottawa?

Well, no, Ottawa.

Ottawa, okay.

Have you ever been to Ottawa?

Ottawa? I don't think so.

I don't know.

Yeah, you've probably been there.

I'm Roberto Baldwin from SAE International.

And the book I was talking about is called The Order of Time.

The Order of Time.

Give it a read.

It'll, it's a great time to have an order.

It feels like a lot for the week that we're talking about right now.

No, that's the whole point of the whole,

the whole point of the book.

Stuff just kind of happens and falls in.

Like there's no sense.

You roll with it.

There's a lot of things.

Like there's no such thing as now,

because you can't quantify something that's,

by time you think you perceive that it's happening,

as already happened.

It's already in the past.

Yeah, so there's no such thing as now.

There's no such thing as like,

if you're on one planet,

someone's on the other planet,

there's no shared like space and time.

The idea that if you live higher up in the,

you know, the further you away from gravity,

the slower time moves.

So if you live in the mountains,

you're actually younger than your friends who live at the sea.

Does this book also discuss the time variance authority?

Oh my gosh, you guys, you nerds, stop.

But it gets really, it gets really,

like how do we perceive time?

It's great if you're a big time nerd.

Are you expecting Loki to just bust in in the middle of the show

and run across your screen now, Sam?

You never know.

Anyway, The Order of Time by Carlo,

what's his name?

Gosh.

Oh no.

I'll tell you the time.

That sounded very smart, whatever it was.

Carlo Revelli, R-O-V-E-L-L-I.

Okay, noted.

The Order of Time.

It's wonderful.

I will look it up and see if it's on Hoopla or Libby.

While Nicole tells us what she's been driving.

I have been driving now for, I have this for three weeks

because of the way the holiday works.

So I'm really, really living with the Toyota Corolla Cross hybrid,

which after two weeks with it, I have my thoughts.

First of all, the seats heat up really, really super fast

and so does the steering wheel and that is the plus.

My negatives are that this hybrid, it is loud.

I've been driving around with family and this car is your car okay?

Yeah, it's fine.

This is what it sounds like.

No, but people are really noticing it.

You do feel like when you mash the gas on this,

it's like really, really you expect me to go.

It sounds so that it has, it's a two liter four cylinder hybrid.

There's three electric motors and it has a CVT that sounds every bit like a CVT

and it has 196 horsepower.

It's just not a lot.

It has the hallmarks of something that is like very much,

I want a little crossover but I don't have a budget

and I need it to feel like a starter car vibe,

which if you're going for is fine.

I mean, it's attractive inside.

I'm in the top trim.

Does anybody really want a starter car vibe though?

I know.

Well, no, but like you're not in vibes.

You have a starter car budget or something, I guess.

So there's the SSE and the XSE.

I actually have the XSE.

So this is the top trim.

You can't get this any fancier than what I have this.

And the total price with a couple of extra little things they put on.

There's a convenience package that's a tilt and slide moonroof.

That's like 1200 bucks.

Premium audio is 800 bucks.

They have this two tone exterior.

It's another $500.

So with everything all told,

this is $35,999.

That does not include the destination.

I want to take a guess on destination on this, guys.

13.

13.95.

14.50.

So Sam wins.

So I'll tell once you add that in $37,449.

So it's not outrageous.

Definitely not.

I mean, for considering that it, you know,

it has a pretty good list of features to it.

Like I said, I already said it has the heated seats.

It has a heated steering wheel.

It's got heated mirrors to it.

There's a 12.3 inch digital instrument cluster.

So it has a nice digital instrument cluster.

There's a 10.5 inch infotainment chest screen,

which weirdly does feel a little small.

And I was just kind of thinking about that.

How big is it?

And as I'm looking and it's 10.5,

that tells you how much, how big infotainment screens have gotten.

Like 10.5 on an infotainment screen.

10.5 used to be considered huge.

Was huge, right?

And I look at it now and it feels kind of small.

When you have things that are these huge landscape screens

and things that are like sort of wrapped right into one display

along with that instrument cluster

to give them the illusion of being even bigger than they are.

Suddenly 10.5 inch screen seems small, but it works just fine.

For some reason, my Toyota keeps thinking I'm talking at it.

It's constantly trying to respond.

I'm like, I'm not saying Toyota stop.

But I mean, I like it overall.

I feel like it's not an especially inspired car.

This is a hybrid.

You're paying for that, you know, the hybrid fuel economy.

It is EPA rated at 46 city, 39 highway, 42 combined.

So you're getting great fuel economy.

And if you're commuting a lot and you want a little extra space

and you want the convenience of having something that's

considered like a crossover, then this is great.

I would have to say the backseat is snug.

When we had Russ sitting up front, we had to do the careful

like the short person sits behind Russ

and the tall person sits behind me.

So because if you put tall person behind tall person,

you're in trouble.

You just don't have that much.

That's just a life lesson.

Right?

Yeah.

That's a life lesson.

But I mean, even putting like the shorter person behind Russ,

he still had to pull his seat up to a point

where I'm like, I thought if this was a long trip,

you would not be comfortable.

You know, his knees are just a little too squished.

You can fit three people in that backseat, but it is tight.

It is really snug.

I had both my girls back there and the one fiance,

and they were all squished back there a little bit.

So it's not especially great.

Which position did Reza get?

The behind Russ or behind you or in the middle?

He sits behind me.

He sits behind me because when I'm driving,

that's the most room.

Then Kit and Rose fight who sits behind Russ

and who gets to sit in the middle.

I think it's like a, just toss the dice,

roll the dice and see what happens.

The seniority win in that case or?

I think whoever's first in the car

gets to decide where they play.

Where we yell shotgun?

Yeah, right.

Shotgun rules.

Shotgun rules apply.

So it was totally fine.

We've actually had some crummy weather

the last couple of weeks.

We keep getting a couple inches of snow,

a couple inches of snow, a couple inches of snow.

So the roads have been sort of perpetually messy,

sloppy, snowy.

It's been great.

Haven't had any troubles with it.

So it's good in the snow.

And it's not like there's like a snow mode on this

or anything because I looked.

It's normal eco and sport.

I want to say.

So there's no snow mode.

Sport in quotation marks.

Air quote sports.

This is a hybrid.

A little hybrid, like inexpensive hybrid.

It's not that I don't like this.

It's just not a very exciting car to drive.

It's not very engaging.

It feels more appliance.

Like you're getting something because you want it to do the job

that you wanted to have fuel efficiency.

You need something that's a crossover

and you just want it to do its job and it does.

And also it's a Toyota.

So you'll have it forever.

Like you will get tired of this

and trade up to something different.

And somebody else will still be driving around

in your old Toyota.

It will outlive you.

It will survive everything.

So you will have this forever.

So overall, I mean, I like the features.

I like that it at this price point,

you're still getting cool features like the heated seats

and steering wheel and stuff.

Those are small things.

But you know, they make your car feel a little bit nicer

when you have these extra little features.

I like that.

The only thing I truly didn't like is that it's very loud

that when you accelerate hard,

it is slow to accelerate

and it is extremely loud.

So you hear it enough that I mash the gas

a couple of times in the highway

with everyone on board

and everyone did that like,

whoa, that doesn't sound good.

That is really the classic Toyota hybrid problem.

Exactly.

Is that because of the way the system works,

it's extremely efficient,

but it's the four-cylinder engines

that Toyota uses in their hybrids

they don't sound great.

It just doesn't sound good.

When you got to rev it up to 4,000 RPM

and just sit there droning,

it's not a pleasant experience.

It sounds awful.

And if you need, like if you're at speed

and you're trying to pass slow-moving cars,

the good news is it gives you a little bit of,

you know, it gives you a little extra juice.

You can pass relatively well when you're at speed.

So it does well.

It's just getting up to speed

that it just doesn't sound pleasant.

And it's quite enough.

The ride itself is quite enough on the highway.

It's not about there being too much road noise

or wind noise.

Those are all fine.

You know, it's good.

You can carry in a conversation with people in the backseat.

No problem.

It's not intrusive.

Even when it's snowy in a mess

and there's plows going by, it's fine.

It's really just that noise.

When you accelerate, this is a noisy car

and it does not inspire confidence.

So that was my negative about it.

But overall, you know, for the price,

for the features, comfortable, fuel economy is great.

You want a little commuter car.

This is a good choice.

Just turn the radio up when you're about to...

A lot. Turn it up a lot.

Where are some noise-canceling headphones, maybe?

Yeah, right.

Maybe not that.

Noise-canceling headphones.

You don't hear sirens. You hear nothing.

Living a dream.

So, you know, would you recommend that someone buy...

Because you can get the Corolla Cross

with just a regular four-cylinder

without the hybrid.

But I think even that one still has a CVT.

But I assume you've driven the non-hybrid Corolla Cross.

I have. I think in the...

Would you recommend one or the other?

Okay, it's going to depend on your employees.

I'd have to look at the exact fuel economy on the gas

and I don't have the gas fuel economy in front of me.

But if it's that much for the same,

I continue looking it up.

If you really value the quietness,

if you want that smooth, quiet experience driving,

I think I'd probably lean towards the gas

because I think you're going to get a little bit more oomph

out of that and probably not going to notice

this droniness quite so much.

But you know, you are going to take that sacrifice

in fuel economy.

So if that's your priority,

if your priority is that you want to get every single

ounce of value you can when you're driving

and that you're not paying for gas

and if you're someplace like California

where gas is stupid expensive,

then go with the hybrid.

But if that's not the be all end doll,

if that's not, you know,

did you look it up, Sam?

I thought I saw you typing.

I did, yeah.

So what's the fuel economy on the...

The Corolla Cross Hybrid is rated at

42 miles per gallon combined

and that's all-wheel drive only.

The front-wheel drive Corolla Cross

is rated at 32 combined.

That's a pretty big drop.

And let me find the...

That's a pretty big drop.

The Corolla Cross all-wheel drive.

Oh my God, I bet that's even worse, right?

So the all-wheel drive gas Corolla Cross

is 30 miles per gallon combined.

So that's a pretty significant drop.

That's a significant drop.

So that would be my thing.

If you really don't care about the

fuel economy that much, go ahead and get the gas.

Otherwise, that's a good bit of difference

if you have a long commute.

You're driving 20 miles to work no big deal.

If you're driving an hour to work

each way or an hour and a half or something like that,

that hybrid is going to save you a lot of money

and it's probably going to be worth it to get the hybrid

and find a good playlist on Spotify or something.

So I don't think...

I wouldn't recommend not getting this

if you're getting it for the reasons

that one gets a hybrid, which is generally

the fuel economy.

And the noise problem with the Toyota hybrids

is really...

It's really mostly just a problem

when you're accelerating hard.

When you're just driving...

Just normal driving.

It's not bad.

If you're just cruising at highway speeds,

totally fine, road and wind noise are good

and you don't have that intrusive wind

from the CVT, the engine doesn't...

It's fine.

It's really just when you accelerate.

So your playlist just needs to play

when you're getting on the highway.

That's really it.

But it is one of those things you notice.

You need an audio system

that is specifically tied to your throttle position.

So as you accelerate,

you want the audio system

to get louder for momentarily.

So I think I said it has an audio upgrade.

It's a JBL Premium audio,

which is a 9-speaker with a subwoofer and an amp.

It's $800 spring for that.

So you have a better audio system

to cover the sound when you accelerate.

That $800 is worth it.

Okay, fair enough.

Alright, anything else on the Corolla Cross?

No, that's it on the Yieldy Corolla Cross.

Yeah, next week I'll be talking about the Honda HRV,

which is kind of like Honda's direct competitor,

most direct competitor to the Corolla Cross.

The Herve.

And that one, for whatever reason,

Honda does not offer that one with a hybrid system yet.

So it would be interesting to see that one,

see how that compares.

Alright, and Robbie, you had nothing to review this week, right?

No, I didn't have anything.

I'm trying to think. I'm like, no, I didn't have nothing.

Well, I had the Lexus Texas plug-in hybrid,

which is the official name, of course,

for this particular variant,

which is the Lexus TX550H Plus all-wheel drive.

So the TX is the Lexus variant of the Toyota Grand Highlander.

So it's their larger three-row crossover.

So that means that it's a little bit longer than the Highlander,

actually has enough, it's got enough extra length

so it's actually usable by people with legs.

And it's quite a pleasant drive.

The TX plug-in has the same basic hybrid architecture

as the Corolla Cross,

but it has, instead of a little four-cylinder engine,

it has a 3.5-liter, excuse me, 3.5-liter V6.

So there's three different powertrain options in the TX.

You can get a 2.4-liter gas four-cylinder,

turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine.

You can get that same engine with the Toyota Hybrid System,

which is the same hybrid system that's in the Corolla Cross,

but with slightly more power.

Or you can get the plug-in hybrid with the V6,

which also has an 18.1 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack,

a little more electric motor, motor power.

And that gets you a grand total of 301 horsepower.

And for reasons that have never quite made sense to me,

Toyota does not list a total max torque for its hybrids.

They only list the total max power, but not a torque value.

But they do list, in the case of the TX,

they list the torque for the motors by themselves.

So in the case of the TX550,

you get 199 pound-feet from the front motor.

And because this is all-wheel drive, it's an electric rear-drive system,

so there's no drive shaft that runs down the back to the rear axle.

And you get 124 pound-feet of torque from the rear.

The rated, the EPA rating for the plug-in hybrid

is 33 miles of electric range.

It's been kind of cold here, mostly just above freezing,

which means that it's been miserable and raining all day today

and good part of yesterday and good part of the day before.

So there's no snow on the ground, but it's cold enough.

When I had it plugged in and took it out to do my usual drive loop

to measure the driving range, electric driving range,

like I said, the label value is 33 miles.

I got 27 miles before the battery ran out and it pulled on the engine.

So I had the heater running, so that's going to drain it a little bit more,

a little bit faster.

In warmer weather, you can probably get close to that 33 miles.

Usually in the past with most of the Toyota plug-ins,

particularly the RAV4 and the Prius,

I have beat or exceeded the label value for the electric driving range.

So I think you probably could at least match, if not exceed, that 33 miles.

So that puts it a little bit less than what you get,

for example, from Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid,

which is a similarly sized vehicle.

The XC90's got about 140 more horsepower, so quite a bit more power.

But in electric mode, the TX has got a little bit more electric power

than the Volvo, because the Volvo only has electric drive on the rear axle.

So it's got about 145 horsepower from the electric motor on the rear.

In the case of the TX, you've got a combined total of about 210 horsepower

from the front and rear motors.

So if you plug it in, you can fairly easily, without really trying to baby it or anything,

you can drive it around in electric-only mode pretty easily, even in cold weather.

You're just not going to go quite as far in cold weather,

but you can use it as a daily driver in electric mode.

You're not going to get the full performance, the 300 horsepower

that you would get if the engine came on.

But, you know, 210-ish, 220 horsepower, that's enough that you can do, you know,

it's more than adequate for your daily driving, even for such a large vehicle,

because you've got plenty of torque as well.

So the TX, the one that I had was finished in, let's see what do they call this color.

It is Matador Red Micah, which is very bright red, which is not a color you would typically

expect to see on something like a big Lexus 3-row crossover, but it works.

I liked it a lot.

The design, you know, starting with the TX really, Lexus really started toning down

the look of the spindle grille.

So you still have kind of the trapezoid shape for the lower portion of it,

but most of it is body color.

You have like four slots with some trim in those slots.

So you can still see a bit of that spindle grille look in there,

but it's much more toned down than, you know, compared to, like, if you look at a Lexus LX,

the Lexus Land Cruiser version.

That, you know, is much more, you know, in your face.

You know, it's a fairly tame design overall, but really nice interior,

very comfortable, comfortable seats, much larger screen.

I think it's a 14-inch center touchscreen.

You've got knobs to control the temperature and volume.

So you've got the dual-zone climate control in the front with a couple of knobs

with the display in the middle so you can see that each front passenger

can see their individual temperatures.

You've got temperature control, a third zone for the second-row seats.

The third-row seats, like I said, you know, adults can sit back there.

You probably don't want to take a cross-country road trip,

but you'll be fine, you know, if you've got three couples going out to dinner

or something like that, you'll absolutely be fine sitting back in that third row.

There's enough headroom, there's enough legroom back there.

You probably don't want, like, three rabbis sitting behind each other,

but, you know, maybe one or two rabbis and then, you know, maybe a 5'10",

you know, a 5'9 person would still be comfortable.

Three quarters of a rabbi?

Yeah, yeah.

Three quarters of a rabbi.

Seven eighths of a rabbi.

Yeah.

And, yeah, so, you know, I genuinely thought, you know,

for a premium three-row crossover, you know, this works really well.

It's not quite as expensive as the aforementioned Volvo.

You know, so it's not cheap by any stretch.

It's definitely quite a bit more than what you would pay for a Grand Highlander.

The grand total came to $84,795.

Guests is on the destination charge.

$14.95.

$15.95.

And Nicole gets it.

It was $14.50.

I should have said $14.

I should have said $1.

No, wait, we don't do that anymore.

Yeah, it still would have been Nicole.

Even if you said $14.00, Nicole still would have got it

because she would have been off by only $45.

Yeah, not a whole lot of options on the plug-in hybrid.

There's just a couple of packages available.

The big one is the technology package,

which includes the heads-up display and a few other items.

There's a wireless charging pad up in the front

at the front of the center console.

You've got movable cup holders that you can take them out.

You can actually remove them if you need to put in a very large big gulp,

a mega big gulp or something like that.

What else?

One of the features that I do like that they have on Lexus

and some Toyota models is the front cross-traffic alert.

So when you're at an intersection,

it uses the cameras and front corner radars

to detect vehicles coming from either side,

and it'll give you alerts both in the instrument cluster

and the heads-up display if you have that.

So that's a nice feature to have.

It's just a genuinely very nice, not wild-looking,

but very nice three-row premium crossover.

So if you want something that's a little more than a Grand Highlander

in terms of design and features, this is definitely one to consider.

Very cool.

I think calling it the Lexus Texas makes it fun.

Maybe that could be my car.

Well, Toyota and Lexus are based in Texas.

For North American operations, they're based in Plano.

So yeah, why not?

And I'm sure that that only had a little bit to do

with their naming decision for the TX.

All right.

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Let's move on.

Let's see.

So it's, what is it?

It's the 28th of December as we're recording this.

So it's the end of 2025.

And so, you know, you get the usual, you know,

looking back, looking forward articles all over the place.

And before we, before we get into a little discussion of,

you know, looking back at 2025,

let's, I found an article on inside EVs the other day

about the EVs that they are most looking forward to

in 2026, the new EVs.

And there are, you know, despite everything that's going on,

there are still a number of new EVs.

There's about 30 or so that are scheduled to launch in 2026.

Having a hard time saying that one.

And so, you know, inside EVs picked out their,

the seven that, let's see, who wrote this one?

This is Matt Kogan.

He picked out, picked out the seven that he's most excited about

for the new year.

And so, let's see, he's got the Rivian R2,

the Honda Zero Series, which also includes the,

the Acura RSX, the Slate, the Kia EV3,

which actually, I think at this point,

may not actually be coming.

I'm not sure what...

I thought that wasn't coming here for some reason.

Yeah.

I know they put off the EV4.

And I think they've also paused the EV3 as well.

Whomp, whomp.

Good job, Mack.

Can we test them and tell them he's wrong?

Well, I mean, you know, he might have written this a few weeks ago,

you know, and, you know, I had, a lot of times these stories,

these holiday stories, you know, you write them in advance

and put them in the queue, you know, so you can take some time off.

No, I'll text them and tell them he's wrong.

It does actually, as I'm Googling, it is saying,

it's still saying it's coming to the U.S.

So...

I'll have to check with James.

So I don't, I'm not...

Yeah, everything I'm seeing says, yeah, it is still coming

unless they've changed that, which, you know, we'll see.

There's the BMW iX3, the new Chevy Bolt,

the mid-sized Lucid EV,

and then under honorable mentions,

he's got the new Mercedes CLA

and also the Mercedes AMG GTXX.

So is there anything on here,

anything that you think is missing from this list

that should be included that either you two

are looking forward to for 2026?

Not that it's missing.

Oh, you know what I'm kind of interested to see

is the Recon.

Yeah?

Despite your recent history with Jeep?

Still interested. I didn't say I want to buy it.

I said I'm interested to see.

I think that could be interesting.

I'm curious how that's going to play

with the removable doors and stuff.

Like, is it going to feel like an EV Wrangler?

What's it going to feel like?

So I'm curious, I am curious about that one.

Yeah, it'll be real interesting to see

how that one actually does off-road.

Yeah, that's going to be key.

They implied that it's going to do it.

When they did their, where was it? LA?

Their big thing?

Yeah.

It sort of was, you know, no,

this is going to be an off-road vehicle.

They had all these different areas

waiting that it does and all these different things.

So it, I don't know.

I'm curious about that one.

I'll put that on the list.

What about you, Robbie?

No, I mean, I don't think there's anything missing

that's, that I think should be on here

to be honest.

I drove the CLA EV, I forgot to tell you guys.

Yeah.

So I did drive a car.

But I only love to talk about that one.

I am a lot, I'm double checking.

But yes, it looks like I am allowed to talk about this one.

Can I speak about this or am I in trouble?

But yeah, no, I think it's really nice.

It's better than a hybrid.

So if you're getting one or the other,

just get the EV.

Just that, that's my, that's it.

Just get the EV.

It's the better car.

They look exactly the same except for like

the grill and the diffuser

because you don't need, you know,

exhaust pipes for an EV.

But yeah, anyway.

But yeah, I'm looking, I mean, the R2,

I think a lot of people I know are,

actually a lot of people I know are really waiting for the R3.

And then a lot of people I know

are really excited about the Slate.

So those are sort of the two

sort of normie excitement.

But these, again,

excitement doesn't equal auto sales.

Correct.

We'll see.

We'll see the thing with the Slate is that

not every automotive journalist

is in on it.

They're like, nah, I don't think so.

So it might do well.

Like if we were all super into it,

it would definitely be a disaster.

It would fail.

So it seems pretty polarizing.

There's people who like the idea,

like it, other people are like,

well, I don't think so.

I mean, they should have four doors.

And, you know, a lot of things

that they keep adding to it.

I'm like, well, now you're talking

about a $40,000 truck.

Yeah, you're sort of...

That's not the same truck.

The things you're adding to this

make this a more expensive truck.

And then it's just a maverick.

Now you're just making...

You just built a maverick.

Good job.

You just built a maverick.

You built another truck.

Good job.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I think those...

I think the CLA EV is really,

really nice.

But yeah, I don't think there's

anything else.

I mean, I think the bolt coming

back is great if they can

do the correct job.

This...

When's the Ford thing?

Like 28 or something?

27?

No, it's...

It should...

Production should be launching

in Q4.

And then it'll go on sale

at the beginning of 2027

is the plan.

Okay.

Although...

Wow.

You know.

The Ford plan is like

the Tesla plan at this point.

You're like, okay, whatever.

Yeah.

Whatever you say, Jim.

Thumbs up, I guess.

Yeah.

Well, you know, there's...

You know, in order to build those,

they have to be building the LFP

batteries at their plant,

their battery plant in Marshall,

Michigan.

And I've been hearing

there's some challenges there

that, you know,

equipment coming in with

either no documentation

or the wrong documentation,

as, you know, and so they're...

The engineers are having

to go through everything,

trying to figure out

how to set everything up.

Are they buying everything on Tmoo?

What's going on?

Kind of, yeah.

It's all...

There's just no...

Every time I think about Ford,

I think the lack of the inability

to just focus

and do the thing you say you're going to do.

Just do the thing.

I'm going to do a thing.

Just do the thing.

Don't like, oh, I'm going to do a thing.

I don't know.

Any kind of half-asset.

I don't know.

And then we get a card.

It's not great.

Or it comes out late.

Or it's, you know,

no one quite knows what it is

because no one's on the same page

at the company.

Just do the thing.

Stop buying things from Tmoo.

Probably suffice.

Don't buy car parts from Tmoo.

Don't do it.

Or manufacturing equipment,

especially not manufacturing equipment.

Yeah, don't...

Don't outfit your...

Don't buy your battery...

Yeah, don't buy your battery manufacturing

equipment from Tmoo.

Or Xi'en.

Because it has that thing that spins around

when you go to buy it and it gives you...

I've never bought anything from Tmoo.

I always look at things and they're like,

meh.

Yeah.

Because I don't want things to break.

There's like...

Like, if I want...

I can just go to Harbor Freight.

Yeah, I was just going to say that.

If you want tools that are going to break,

just go to Harbor Freight.

You don't need to go all the way to China.

You don't need guys and rollers.

I buy like a lot of like little weird things,

but I don't buy tools from Harbor Freight.

I don't want to sock it to bust.

You definitely don't want to get your jack stands

from Harbor Freight.

Oh, god.

I don't want to get my...

Yeah, yeah, that's not a...

That was terrifying.

Can't be that cool.

Gosh.

Yeah.

Anyway, yeah.

All right.

R2 Slate.

And then...

Okay.

So let's look back at 2025.

Let's start with...

What was...

Of all the stuff you drove this year,

what was the biggest surprise?

Oh, man.

What surprised you in a good way?

The biggest surprise?

Oh, the GLC on the sand.

That was bonkers.

Yeah.

And the sand dunes?

What we got there?

There was another...

There was a Chevy product.

That was an SUV that was like kind of near

the sand dunes and it got stuck.

And so they had to send a CLA out to get it

out of the sand dunes.

So driving an electric midsize luxury EV on sand dunes

and being like, yeah, no problem.

That was like the sort of the biggest surprise

because it's...

Does it make sense?

No.

Is anyone else going to do it?

No.

But if you're a person who's like,

well, I want to get a CLA

and it kind of snows here sometimes

or it's raining,

you're going to see videos of me doing donuts

in the sand

and you're going to be like,

well, yeah, if he can do that,

it'll be fine.

Yeah, probably he can do it.

Anybody can do it.

If I can do it.

Uh-oh.

Did we lose Rami?

No, he's still there.

He just froze momentarily.

Oh, okay.

I had to mute my mic

so I could blow my nose.

Sorry.

Oh, okay.

What about you, Nicole?

What was your biggest surprise in here?

I'm really trying to think.

You know, it's funny.

I'm really looking back.

What did I drive last year?

I know.

It's hard when we drive so much stuff.

Right?

You kind of have to look back and wait.

What was really, what really surprised me?

I don't know that there was a car

that especially surprised me in 25

in a good way.

I feel like I...

No.

Right.

That's not it.

But like I feel like...

I had one really bad surprise.

No, I feel like they generally speaking,

the cars that I drove this year

very much met my expectations

but didn't surprise me

by exceeding my expectations necessarily.

I'm literally trying to think of...

I'm truly looking at a list of...

We're talking like,

what did I drive this past year?

And I don't know that there's anything

that really surprised me.

I'm looking.

What about you, Sam?

I would say the biggest and best surprise

was the 2026 Subaru Salterra and Toyota BZ.

That's fair.

After just two years on the market,

they fundamentally re-engineered those vehicles.

They don't look dramatically different.

Although depending on which trim you get,

if it's got the body color fenders,

it actually does look surprisingly different.

But just the driving experience,

everything about it,

the range, the performance, the charging,

the interior,

that was a huge, huge improvement

to those vehicles.

And they're priced more competitively

than when they launched.

They drive a lot better.

Everything about them is fundamentally better.

And I'm actually quite looking forward

to driving the wagon version in February

with the BZ Woodland

to see how that is.

But that's probably the biggest

and best surprise to me of 2025.

So I'm looking now.

I found another list of cars.

I'm like, where are the rest of the cars I driven?

I think I had two surprises.

Can I have two now that I can remember

what the heck I drove?

No.

My two surprises would be,

the first one would be the Honda Passport

because we took it off road.

Like we really took it off road.

Like it wasn't just dirt.

Like we did some challenging stuff in that thing.

And it was really good.

Like it was impressive.

It was definitely the kind of drive

where you would have thought

you wouldn't think a Honda would do it.

Honestly, it did some really technical stuff.

So I was really pleasantly surprised

by just how capable the trail sport version,

the trail sport, right?

I have the right terms I had.

The trail sport was,

that was the one we took off road.

And that was,

it is genuinely an off-road capable vehicle.

You can do some stuff in that thing.

The other one that surprised me

for totally different reasons was the Nissan Leaf

because the old Leaf was just sort of fine.

And it was an also ran

and it had been around for so long.

It was so early in when they introduced vehicles.

Then people kind of forgot about it.

And it was like nobody really paid attention.

The new Leaf is really good.

Like it's really, really good.

It's a nice car.

It's a tractor car.

The numbers are all great for it.

It was fun to drive.

So those two probably,

the Leaf because I didn't,

I actually did not expect that to improve

as much as it did.

And the Passport Trail Sport

because I did not expect it to be

as off-road capable as it actually was.

There.

I did find something once I found one.

Bam.

There we go.

Awesome.

Bam.

All right.

What about biggest disappointments of the year?

I mean, I'm just going to say Ford.

The whole company?

I just don't know.

What are they doing?

I don't think they know what they're doing

at some point.

I mean, it's a company that's been,

that's, that's, they, they are,

are fortunate that they had the F-Series

because if they didn't,

they'd be in big trouble.

And they have the Bronco.

And then everything else just feels like

and I don't think that they kind of have focus

on what they're doing outside of that.

I mean, they have the Bronco.

The Bronco is a big launch.

It's a big deal for them.

Good for them.

I still see them around.

I still like, oh, cool Bronco.

The F-Series is still the F-Series.

But outside of that,

I mean, they put out an EV,

they put out another EV

and then they just sort of like stagnated

while others who seem to have some sort of focus

in the company are moving forward.

I mean, we're doing 800 volt.

We're doing this.

We're moving to the next, you know,

everyone else is evolving

and Ford seems to be devolving in this

and what is going on.

And again, they have F-Series money

so they can kind of do whatever they want.

They could coast off that for decades.

But I mean, that, you know,

riding off with 19 billion

or some ridiculous amount of money.

Half of a Twitter.

It was 19 billion, 19.5.

Yeah, 19.5.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that,

I really think that's all down to just

a lack of commitment

in what you're doing as a company.

And I mean, again, the F-Series,

the F-150 lighting,

you know, for most people,

the best F-150 you can buy

but also sort of a misstep

because you're, you know,

as a company, you're looking at Tesla

with the Cybertruck,

which obviously was also a misstep by that company,

and thinking,

oh, we should also do a big truck.

And, you know, automakers are like everyone else.

You see somebody doing something like,

oh, we should do that too.

Oh, we should do that too.

That's all we got.

Also, AI and cars, let's stop.

Those are my big disappointments.

Just stop putting the word AI,

or the term AI on everything

and saying it's AI.

Just stop.

I used, what do I use?

What's that thing called?

Grammarly.

Oh, right.

I used it for, like, ever.

It'll catch, you know, typically it'll catch,

oh, you forgot to put a comma here.

You misspelled a word there.

All right, fine.

And now it's like, oh, now powered by AI.

It's gotten worse.

But also, it's the same thing.

Like, and, you know, concord?

The thing that I do my expenses with,

it's like, oh, it's going to read your receipts

using AI.

You know, it read my receipts five years ago,

didn't have the word AI in it.

I don't know.

What are we doing?

Stop it.

Those are my disappointments.

Ford's lack of focus, AI.

Ford's lack of focus, okay.

What about you, Sam?

Do we even need to guess what your biggest disappointment is?

I don't think we need to.

My biggest disappointment is I bought a car

that would not go.

There we go.

My wagon-ear ass.

That really was my big disappointment

because I love that stupid thing.

I kept the license plates.

They're sitting in my garage.

But yeah, taking a gamble on an EV from a car company

that has questionable reliability.

Like, well, really, like Jeep, right?

And I took a gamble on it.

And I thought, let's take a gamble.

And I rolled Snake Eyes.

Snake Eyes.

That was my biggest disappointment this year.

But now next year I'll have the fun

of picking something new.

Well, my biggest disappointment was,

I guess, kind of Lincoln as a brand.

But particularly the navigator.

They were doing so well.

I know.

It was like a couple years where Lincoln's killing it.

And then they're like, eh.

And then they brought out the Nautilus last year

and then the navigator this year.

And there's still a lot to like about those vehicles.

But there's just this thing that they did

with the big full width screen

and putting too much stuff in the touch interface

and having that stuff controlled

by a nearly vertical touch screen

that is down low at the front of the center stack.

It's just, they completely broke the interface in that car.

And made it so I just don't want to drive it anymore.

It makes me angry getting in that car.

My in-laws bought a Lincoln.

They're like, oh, we're going to get a Lincoln.

I was like, oh, no.

They're like, oh, 2021.

I'm like, oh, no, no, you're cool.

Yeah.

I'm like, oh, you're getting one of the good ones.

All right, cool.

Yeah, you're golden.

Yeah.

I actually got angry getting in that car.

I'm like, what is this?

Why is this way down here?

What is happening?

Why does Lincoln hate its customers?

And I don't know what the demographics are for Lincoln.

I'm assuming a little bit older.

And when you have a little bit older of a,

don't do that to them.

Come on.

Yeah.

They just want a car.

I want to go from here to here.

I don't want to learn all this weird stuff.

And I definitely don't want to look down to do things.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

All right.

Anything else?

Any other highlights or low lights of the year?

Automotively speaking?

Automotively.

Because there's so many other things that we probably shouldn't be

helping into that.

One could complain about if they chose to.

Yes.

I mean, I am cautiously optimistic about the Ford Skunk Works

because it's outside of the Ford.

Ford and GM are giant behemoths of machines.

And there's, you know, I think everyone sort of knows that there's

always conflict inside of those big companies.

You know, you're doing this.

I'm doing this.

I'm not going to share this with this.

And it's sort of a, I don't know why that's an issue,

but you know, sure, whatever.

But I am, I do hope that Ford can sort of get it together

with this new universal platform, even though it doesn't,

it's not going to be in Europe, which is part of the

universe last time I checked.

The United States is the universe.

Is it not?

That's true.

I mean, does any other country even matter?

Not really.

I mean, Japan matters in Germany.

And oh, Austria is really pretty.

Man, that's a pretty place.

Yeah.

I mean, I, you know, Ford has said all of the right things

with the universal EV platform, you know,

what they say they're going to do, you know,

and, you know, what, what they've talked about,

you know, from a technology standpoint, you know,

it's, it's, it's the right stuff.

But, you know, they have had a little bit of a problem

with execution.

I just want to, I hope this is like the reset.

They're like, you know what, we've all had a bad time

in our life.

We're just like sort of half-assing things.

And we're just like, we're just, we're just exhausted

and tired.

And then we're like, you know, I'm just going to reset

and start doing my life better.

I hope this is their reset and they start doing

our life better.

And it lasts longer than two weeks.

I hope it's not like, like, I hope it's like a

New Year's resolution.

Like, I'm going to stop eating fatty foods

and carbohydrates and start going to the gym.

And then week three, you're at Pizza Hut.

So I hope this isn't like a resolution thing.

We're at week three.

They're, they're, they're down in a, you know,

at all meat extravaganza pizza with a stuffed crust.

I hope they're just, they're still drinking the

smoothies and doing the gym stuff and,

and doing the thing that they should do.

So fingers crossed.

I hope so.

Cautiously optimistic.

And anything else for you, Nicole?

No, not for me.

I just hope your next car purchase works out a little better.

Samesies.

Just hope my next car purchase.

Yeah.

I just want, I just want my next car purchase to work out.

I just want my car to go.

Rowley, Rowley, Rowley.

I just want my car to go.

I just want to go.

When you press the start button and step on the,

on the accelerator, you want it to actually do something.

I like it to go forward.

Yeah.

Go forward.

Or reverse.

I mean, depending on whatever you select.

Well, generally forward, if I'm picking forward,

let's have it go the direction.

I'm actually putting the transmission.

And that was a concern for a time.

So, yeah.

All right.

Oh, cars.

So complicated.

Such typical creatures.

Just so complicated.

Softwares hard.

Hardwares hard.

It's all, it's all too complicated.

Engineering, so difficult.

If we think about, remember the old Cadillacs and Lincoln's

with their weird electronics and everything.

They would break within like six months of you buying the car.

Like in the 80s and 90s.

And everyone would be like, well, you don't buy the cars

of that stuff because that stuff just breaks.

I feel like sometimes.

We have power windows.

Remember when I was like, power windows would always break.

Now cars are just all, like the whole car is that stuff.

The whole car breaks.

I take a broken power window any day.

That's why I'm very pro slate.

Cause I'm just like, I'm like, I know this stuff is going to come.

But some, some companies are having a lot of trouble.

Again, like you said, software.

I mean, Volkswagen is giving brilliant, brilliant billions of dollars

because they're like, they've just thrown their hands in there

like, we don't know.

We can't do it.

We tried.

We tried several times.

We reorganized.

We fired everybody.

We hired new people.

We fired them.

We hired more new people.

And we still can't do it.

We don't know.

You know what?

We don't have money.

Can you do it?

Yeah, you do it.

Here.

Can you make like a little bear, big foot monster on our car, please?

Just make it look like our car, but your stuff underneath.

Okay.

Thanks.

Bye.

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All right.

Let's move on.

So it is the end of December.

You know, weather's cold.

A lot of parts of the country.

I think in New York this weekend, northeast,

they're supposed to be getting big snowstorm coming through.

And we have frequently talked about the benefits of using winter tires

if you live in those kinds of environments.

I actually have a car in the driveway right now

that is equipped with winter tires.

That's great.

This is a Subaru WRX-TS.

We'll talk about it next week.

Winter tires.

Oh my God, that sounds like so much fun.

Yeah.

It was great when I took it out yesterday.

There's no snow on the ground, but it's the temperatures

around freezing.

Yeah, so you still want the winter tires for that.

Yeah, because when the temperatures get below 40 degrees,

most tires get very hard and they lose their grip.

And winter tires are specifically formulated.

The rubber is specifically formulated to stay pliable

at low temperatures.

So you still have some grip.

And there's a bunch of other things that do on winter tires

like the tread design and everything else as well.

But the big thing is, one of the big things is the rubber compound.

But not everybody can necessarily make the case

for having a whole second set of tires for their car.

And, you know, there's inconvenience involved

with swapping your tires out in and out a couple of times a year.

So Consumer Reports published an article on the best all season tires

for winter driving.

Because the reality is, as much as we push for winter tires,

most people are going to use all season tires

on most of their vehicles.

And so there's a bunch of good stuff in this article.

One of the things they talk about is when do you replace your tires?

For most normal driving, when your tread depth,

so the depth of the grooves in the tread,

usually when that gets down to 230 seconds of an inch,

you absolutely need to replace your tires at that point.

But if you're going to be doing a lot of winter driving,

they recommend you double that to 430 seconds,

which is 1 eighth of an inch tread depth.

Because you need to have that extra tread depth to move the snow

to get a grip.

And so they picked three different, based on their testing,

they picked three different sets of tires for different categories,

or three different tires for different categories of vehicles.

So for the basic all season tire

for mainstream cars,

what they picked was the Nokia Entire's Remedy WR G5,

which according to Consumer Reports,

gives great snow traction,

better than average hydroplaning and ice breaking traction.

So those are all really important.

And then they picked the best all season tire for SUVs,

the Michelin Cross Climate 2.

And this one, according to them, does really well for snow traction

and for ice breaking and also does well in hydroplaning.

So when you get deep water.

And then for trucks,

they picked the Continental Terrain Contact HT,

also very good snow traction,

decent hydroplaning and good ice breaking.

And finally, for an ultra high performance all season tire,

they picked the Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06.

And that one, not as good in any of those categories

as the other all season tires,

but it's tuned more for performance.

So depending on the type of vehicle you've got,

if you want an all season tire,

it's going to give you better performance on dry pavement

than some of the others.

This Conti is a good tire.

Any thoughts on this?

I mean, you guys, well, Robbie,

you probably don't have winter tires on any of your cars.

I've got high performance all seasons though.

We get a lot of rain.

I drive a BRZ.

I have the Bridgestone Potenza all seasons

and they're like, I was looking at their little grid

and they're like pretty, they're like in the middle,

but they're like, they're so good compared to like what used to be.

So I was like, well, I should get these Contis.

And they have some, they have some that are higher up

on the rating, but I think they're just really expensive.

Yeah, so they have the Contis,

but like above it is the Michelin Pilot all seasons.

They're like 30 bucks more or 25 bucks more.

But yeah, even with my, hold on,

let me just go all the way down to my Bridgestone,

which are, so let's, the Contis are 71.

That's a little overall score.

And the wheels I'm driving on, 57.

But they're so good.

I was like, all right.

So they could be like 25 better.

So yeah, so I mean, the, you know,

if you're thinking, oh, you know, if you're,

you're still looking like old,

especially for performance, like old sort of tire,

like the latest like all season performance tires are really,

really good.

I'm going around in rain.

I'm trying to break free.

Sometimes I do.

Sometimes I don't.

Because, you know, so yeah.

No, I think like,

especially if you're driving anything like that,

I've seen people with like summer tires on,

and I saw someone, they had a brand new BRZ.

It was last year.

It was raining.

There was a left turn near my house, you know, the light.

And the person went around the corner and they overcooked it

just a little bit.

And they went up on the media.

It's like a curb median.

So it's like, you know, three or four feet wide.

And, you know, however tall a curb is a couple of inches.

And they had spun it around and the back,

it was high centered on the median.

And the person in the car, I was just crying.

Like he would.

Because they, you know, they, it's, you know,

it's a manual transmission.

It's a, you know, rear wheel drive vehicle.

They, they take, oh, this thing's great in the summer.

And then they decided that, you know,

they didn't switch out those tires for when it rains here.

And when it rains, it's like, oh, everything's flooded.

And, you know.

Yeah.

I mean, there's, I mean, I'm,

any place it's really winter,

I still would rather have a winter tire.

But if you're in that in between time, you know,

like you, you still need something with a little extra.

There are really good all season tires out there.

And that's the thing like that winter is so specialized.

You do have to spring for an extra set of tires.

And although it's, it's, you know, in the end, you're not,

you know, you're getting twice the tire life.

You've got two sets of tires, you know, they all last longer,

but still going to some place to store those tires.

You have to pay to have them swapped out every season.

The time to do it.

Like there's, there is a commitment to,

to having winter tires on your vehicle.

And if you're not somewhere that truly has, you know,

you're not worrying about all the aspects of winter weather.

It's really just like Robin was saying, when it's rainy,

when it's like, when it's a little colder,

there are some really good all season tires out there.

For those people who are in the, in the, in between,

I feel like winter tires, you got to have some,

like you're, you know, when you're in some place

where winter tires are what you need.

Like, you know, if you live someplace wintery or not.

I've done all seasons on a WRX up to Tahoe where the snow

here is apparently slicker than other places.

According to people who've lived other places,

I'm like, I don't know.

This is the only snow I've ever known.

And I haven't had issues, but also, you know,

I grew up in the snow and then, so I know a little bit better.

You know, I'm a little bit smarter about driving,

but the all seasons, you know, occasional snow,

I had someone who was like, you shouldn't get studs.

I'm like, what are you talking about, man?

Oh my gosh.

You're a junk person.

What's happened?

This person made a lot of money.

They made way more money than I did.

I mean, you know, if you live somewhere like, you know,

Montana or, you know, Wyoming, you know, up in the mountains,

you know, or the Dakotas or, you know, maybe northern Minnesota.

Yeah.

Maybe you want to get studded tires, you know,

or, you know, northern Sweden.

You definitely want, you know,

or northern Canada.

You definitely want studded tires.

But, you know, in most places,

it's not even legal to use studded tires,

especially on pavement, on dry pavement.

So, you know, that's, you know, that's definitely problematic.

And when we were doing Operation Frodo the other week,

you know, there were sections along I-80 where,

you know, there were signs, you know, or, you know,

tire chain change out points, you know,

and they had areas where vehicles could pull over.

And when, you know, in these, in these sections,

you know, they have signs, you know,

depending on the weather conditions, you know,

they will turn on the signs, you know,

and say, put on tire chains now.

And, you know, legally you're supposed to put on chains.

And so they have areas where you can pull on

to put the chains on, pull off, you know,

and then also, you know, to take them off.

You know, and, you know, those are,

you know, those are definitely much more limited use.

But, you know, I have had winter tires

on some of my cars in the past and they're great.

But, you know, given the, you know,

as things have changed over the years,

I mean, certainly all season tires have gotten

a lot better than they were 30 or 40 years ago

or even 20 years ago.

And, you know, I haven't had winter tires

on any of my vehicles for, you know,

for at least the last 20 years,

although my daughter, when she had a Toyota 86,

you know, she had a set of winter tires

that I'd put on and off for

and store her summer tires in her garage.

But, yeah, it depends on what you're driving

and where you're driving

and how much, you know, winter weather

you're actually getting.

But, yeah, if you go to the,

there'll be a link in the show notes to this article

and there's a whole tire selector,

there's a link within the article to the tire selector,

and they've got all of the tire ratings

and consumer reports, you know, tests all of these tires.

So, everything that they've got rated here,

they've actually tested in various conditions.

So, it's definitely worth a look, you know,

if you're, and they've got not just the winter

and all season tires, but they've got

all the different categories of tires in here.

So, if you're shopping for tires,

this is definitely someplace you probably want

to take a look at this and on tire rack

at their tire ratings as well.

Yep.

All right.

Let's see.

So, you know, there's been a lot of supercars built

over the years and, you know, some of these cars,

you know, cost, you know, millions of dollars,

but they, you know, sometimes, you know,

when you're building very low volumes of cars,

especially, you know, if you're a smaller manufacturer

that does nothing but build supercars,

it costs money to design a lot of the various

small bits and pieces that you need to have on a vehicle,

but that don't necessarily, you know,

that aren't necessarily going to be obvious to the consumer.

And so, a lot of times, you know,

companies will use parts from more pedestrian vehicles

to, you know, instead of designing their own custom components

for every single little bit.

Like back in the beginning of my engineering career,

when I was working for Delco, which was then part of GM,

working on the Lotus Elan and Lotus Esprit ABS systems,

I got to spend a lot of time in those two cars.

And, you know, they had, at that time,

quite a few parts from other GM vehicles.

Like, you know, this airbag and this very expensive Lotus Esprit

looks exactly the same as the one from that Firebird over there.

So, you know, it's not uncommon to get used parts from other vehicles.

And Chlamnick's got an interesting sort of listicle.

These supercars save money using parts from boring everyday cars.

And you guys had a chance to take a look through this?

It is funny, like the different bits and pieces that they've,

like, I like how they talk about the Jaguar's world-beating supercar

borrows parts from just about everywhere.

The entire car was a collection of spare parts.

It's like, and when you look at the list,

a little bit of Citroën, a little bit of Aston Martin,

there's a little bit, like, there's a little bit of everything in here.

Yep. Yeah, well, I mean, that Esprit, you know,

the transmission in that came from Renault.

You know, it was used in a bunch of Renault vehicles.

And you had to be careful with it because of that,

because it was very easy to break.

It's funny because there's this perception that if it's a really,

it's a supercar, right?

You've got all these beautiful, like, stunning components,

especially there's a Pagani on that list,

like, oh my gosh, the inside of that thing, right?

This is so cool. Everything is so custom.

Well, not everything.

Underneath there.

The car would be like $15 million.

Right? Can you imagine if all those parts,

like the parts they didn't borrow from other cars,

like if they made everything as unique and one-off-ish

as the stuff that you see? Oh my gosh.

Faraday did a walk through their headquarters in Torrance

years and years and years ago.

And they kept saying, oh, we're building this,

we're building that, we're doing this, we're doing this.

And I'm just, like, turning to people.

I'm like, did these people not know how to build a car?

Like, you don't do that.

You get suppliers to build all these things.

Are you buying from apartments?

This car is going to be like $350,000.

And then recently, I'm like, how much is the Faraday?

$350,000?

Yeah.

Well, like, yeah, the Lamborghini Diablo

is another good example.

When the Diablo first came out in the early 90s,

it originally had pop-up headlights.

And sometime in the around 96, 97,

they did a mid-cycle update of the Diablo.

And they replaced it with fixed headlights.

And when you look at it, you know, if you, you know,

if like me, you're old enough to have been around

during that time period, it's like,

those headlights look vaguely familiar.

And then when you look at them,

you realize they used the headlights from the Nissan

300ZX, the early 90s 300ZX.

Yeah, that's right.

So, yeah.

And the McLaren F1, the tail lights, came from a bus.

I mean, if it works, like we need a tail light

so they're this size and this kind of like,

hold on, hold on.

Let me jump into the parts bin, super computer.

Hey, there's a bus.

I mean, they're just basic round tail lights.

And so there's nothing fancy about the design.

So they just used one from a bus.

Makes sense.

I mean, these things, like they don't, it seems so bizarre,

but why not?

They make it work.

It all still works in the context

of what you're seeing and everything, you know.

Plus you can order them from the bus company.

Exactly.

How much is this light?

Oh, it's going to be $40,000.

The bus company's website and find it for $10.

Which, you know, given some of the other things

you have to do with an F1, if you own an F1,

you know, the electronics in F1,

if they ever had to do any servicing on the electronics,

that stuff was all programmed using a compact laptop.

You know, most people probably don't even remember

the brand compact.

They made computers.

Oh, wow, yeah.

You know, they used a compact laptop

to program the electronics in the F1.

And basically no modern computer is compatible with it.

So the McLaren has, they buy these laptops

from like eBay and other places.

They have an inventory of these laptops

just sitting around so that they can use them.

So if they, you know, if a customer,

they're not only 106 F1s ever built,

but if a customer needs service on their vehicle,

you know, a technician can grab one of these laptops

and go out or, you know,

or they send the vehicle back to the UK.

And they use these, they use these, what, 30,

now 30 plus year old laptops to communicate

with the electronics in the F1.

Which is going to be, you know,

think about what that's going to be like 30 years from now

with the software-defined vehicles that are coming out now.

You know, will the tools still exist

to do any service on these things?

Probably not.

You got to keep going around.

Yep.

All right.

Let's see, we had, there was another one here

from Jalopnik.

Where'd it go?

Oh, use cars that you shouldn't buy.

And so rather than specific models,

they had categories of seven cheap used cars

that aren't worth the trouble.

And, you know, there's this old saying

about buying certain kinds of cheap cars.

You know, it's the most expensive cheap car

that you'll ever own.

You know, because you, the car may be cheap to buy,

but actually fixing it or keeping it running

can be extraordinarily expensive.

Pricy, pricy, pricy, yeah.

Like buying an old Mercedes Benz or BMW.

Yeah.

You can buy an S-Class or a five series.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's one of the categories.

The heavily depreciated luxury sedan.

The tastefully modified racer.

Tastefully, and it's this bright green car.

They have the image that is awesome.

Yeah.

The multi repo buy here, pay here special.

You know, that's one where, you know,

you don't really know the history of the car.

Or if it's been repowed multiple times,

probably better to just walk away.

The one owner former fleet workhorse.

You know, so, you know, a car that's been used,

you know, for, you know.

The rental car.

Or DoorDash or Instacart or something like that.

I like the next one, the early EV experiment

because it calls out exactly the vehicle I said

that surprised me this year.

It mentions, it has a little Nissan Leaf in the picture there.

Yeah.

The first generation Leaf.

It was great when it came out,

but now it says it should be represented

in an automotive history museum, not your garage.

Yeah.

For the money you're going to pay,

I was just getting a car.

Right?

Get a modern EV.

Get a new one.

Yeah.

Or just not an old beat up one.

Well, I mean, you know, the leaf in particular,

because of its air cooled battery,

tended to have much more degradation of the battery.

You know, there's a lot of other older EVs

that are fine to buy,

as long as they have liquid cooled batteries.

Yeah.

And then of course there is the salvage title dream build.

You know, salvage title, you know,

means it's either been in a crash

or it's been flooded

or, you know, something else.

And those, you know,

sometimes they may,

you can clean them up and they may look okay,

but there's usually a lot of problems

hiding underneath somewhere.

Yeah.

Salvage title isn't always a sketchy.

I mean, yeah.

That's definitely like, if you're a mechanic

and you need a car that you know

is just a roam around town with,

then yeah, maybe a salvage title makes sense.

But for the average, don't.

Just don't.

It's like my cousin one day is like,

I'm going to buy a sob.

I'm like, no, you're not.

I'm like, you know, you're not going to buy it.

He's like, wait, I'm like, no,

I'm not going to work on your sob for you.

It's going to be my sob or no sob.

Oh, okay.

And he bought a Honda and it like broke down

and had like an $80 part

and he was going to send it to a shop for like $2,000.

I'm like, dude.

And I went over to his house,

fixed it in 45 minutes with $80 part.

He never paid me back, by the way.

So he's listening, you owe me $80, dude.

Oh, jeez.

I mean, that's what happens

when you work on relatives cars.

Yeah.

$80.

And then the final category here

is the Craigslist Unicorn Grandma Car.

And they've got a picture of an old 1980s,

probably early 80s or late 70s, Buick,

big Buick, two-door sedan.

These are the ones that, you know,

the old apocryphal story of, you know,

only driven to church on Sunday, you know, by grandma.

Probably want to stay away from those,

if they're so low mileage.

And that being driven,

engines love to be moved around.

Yeah.

Things like rubber and plastics and gaskets.

Don't like to just sit.

Yeah, they don't age well.

Tires get dry rot, belts and gaskets get dry rot.

Things will leak, things will seize up.

So, yeah, you definitely want to keep the fluids moving,

keep everything moving periodically.

And so, you know, if it's, you know,

the garage find, you know,

is often more trouble than it's worth.

Unless it's something that's extremely valuable

and, you know, that after a full restoration,

you know, we'll have some value to it,

it's usually not worth the effort.

I've worked on two Beatles that have sat,

one for, like, over a decade

and one for, like, two years.

And both of them, like, you had to replace the fuel lines,

you had to replace, because there's just like,

one of them, like, almost caught fire

because the fuel line just cracked and it was shooting gasoline

out onto the firewall.

Like, ah!

So, yeah, and that's just like a few, you know,

for those that's like a year or two.

Yeah, the sort of sitting around car,

again, if you're, if you are mechanically inclined,

cool.

But if you're going to, like, buy this car

and you, oh, I just need a few things done

and you give it to your mechanic,

it's going to cost you so much money.

Yeah, if you're looking for a perpetual project,

fine, but otherwise,

probably want to stay away.

Yeah.

Check all those belts and hoses,

if you could get that car.

All right.

The Nissan Versa,

it's like the last of the cheap

little cars in America,

because the Mirage went away,

Mitsubishi Mirage went away last year.

The Versa,

there's been rumors about this for a while

and it's now official that the

production of the Versa

for the U.S. market

ended this month,

earlier this month.

And so, you know, whatever cars are

left on dealer lots,

that's it after that.

There will be no more.

It's the last new car that you can buy

for under $20,000.

I'm sad about this,

because I feel like it, you know,

that sedan's cars

aren't the thing that they once were

and that people like the little

crossover thing, but

it's nice to just have,

this was exactly the kind of car

I would have bought when I first graduated

from school and didn't have a huge budget

and wanted something affordable

and I'm sad that there's not

an option like that anymore.

That was a good option for first-time buyers

and the Versa was a solid little car,

but clearly not

selling enough to make it worthwhile.

What is wrong with people?

I don't have a big budget.

Someone was complaining

online about there's not enough

small, cheap cars in America

and then of course all the automotive

journalists popped in there and started

listing cars that were

small and inexpensive

and it's not that they're not there,

people aren't buying them.

I've had people complain to me like,

why can't I get a hatchback

in Transmission? I'm like, you know the golf

is still there, it's still a car.

You can still get a golf. The cars

are there, everyone's

complaining about there's no cheap cars

and you're not really trying.

People would rather overextend

themselves to buy

something fancier.

Instead

you could buy

a Versa for under 20 grand,

have a full warranty for three years

and it's generally

going to be pretty reliable

and it's a decent

looking little car.

It drives well.

It's a shame.

I had one earlier this year

and it's a

good little car to drive and

you could still get it with a manual transmission.

The manual version

was like $17,400

for the

base trim

and it was a decent little car.

But it's

almost gone.

Get them while you can.

Snap up your Versas while you still can.

Get your Versas.

I was sad when they got rid of the hatchback

and they just have the sedan now.

Again,

there's no hatchbacks because you're not buying hatchbacks.

I don't know what to tell you.

It's the same people that

millennials don't know how to drive

versions and I'm like, okay,

you're a parent. Have you taught your kids

how to drive a manual transmission?

I did. I'm like, then shut up.

Yep.

If you're not going to pass on the knowledge

I don't want to see your stupid meme on Facebook.

Shut your pie hole.

I taught my kids.

One was interested to learn.

The other one was not.

They both got lessons

in driving a manual.

Yeah, so

I passed on the knowledge. I did my part.

You did your part.

Yeah, Nissan Versa.

Poor one out further.

Hi, little Nissan Versa.

Kia Souls gone.

Yeah.

That's a magical car.

I know.

It was just a magical little car.

It's called a magical car.

Gosh, if they ever get rid of the Miata,

then I just quit.

That's their halo.

Even if they sell four of those a year,

they're not going to get rid of it.

They can never get rid of it. Don't do that to me,

Mazda, please.

Unless, like,

those people that buy up companies

and then ruin them.

Private equity.

Yep, unless private equity buys

Mazda, they should be fine.

All right.

So Volkswagen,

like a lot of other brands,

has a bunch of vehicles

that they build and sell

only for the Chinese market.

They don't export them anywhere else.

Which is unfortunate.

Because

they've actually got some surprisingly

interesting stuff, especially that they've launched

this year.

Including the newest

the ID UNIX

08, which is kind of a weird

name.

And UNIX, unlike the operating

system, is spelled

UNIX.

But

this is a midsize crossover.

It has

a CATL

LFP battery

and has a range of 730 kilometers

or about 450 miles.

That's on the

Chinese light duty test cycle.

So real world is probably

somewhere between 300 and 350 miles.

But still that's

pretty good.

Yeah, that's pretty impressive.

And it's a decent looking vehicle.

It does look pretty good.

And it's 800 volt, so it charges quick.

Yeah.

It's all the things that the ID buzz should have been.

Poor ID

buzz.

Well, speaking of the buzz,

they have

paused production of the buzz for

2026.

Because they've got enough of them sitting around

running for a while.

I just need to depreciate.

Yeah, I know all the problems

with it, but I still want one.

The buzz is like the Wrangler.

I know all the problems with a Wrangler,

but I've always wanted a Wrangler.

I will tell regular people, don't buy a Wrangler.

Because it's a Wrangler.

But still,

do you want to be able to hear the person next to you while you're driving?

Don't buy a Wrangler.

Well, the ID UNIX 08

has

with the single motor rear-drive version,

it's got 308 horsepower

and then there's also a dual motor

all-wheel-drive version.

The

electronic architecture

was co-developed with Xiaopang,

a Chinese automaker.

So it's a modern

zonal architecture, so it can support

all the over-the-air updates

and everything.

It's got

very fast DC fast

charging rates. It doesn't say

exactly what the charging rate

is.

It's an 800 volt.

It's an 800 volt system,

but even in China,

a lot of the 800 volt systems are now

getting up to

they're

getting

500, 600, 700 kilowatts

which is about

double what we get here.

It's one of those models that are supporting

megawatt charging now.

Did they have the megawatt charging

stations?

There are megawatt charging stations in China.

There's probably like billions of them.

You just pull up. It's faster than getting gas.

You can't even go inside and get

beef jerky.

It's hard charges too quickly.

If I don't have the time to at least run in and get beef jerky,

I'm not doing it. I need at least my road trip snack.

Come on.

I need beef jerky and my Diet Coke.

It's going to make me pee in 20 miles.

Beef jerky and Diet Coke.

Well,

you pull up, you charge it,

and then you pull your car over to the side

and then you walk into Bucky's and get your beef jerky

and your barbecue

and your ginormous

Diet Coke

and hit the restroom

before you hit the road

and then drive about 10 miles

and turn around and drive back and drain your bladder again.

No, I can make it to the next spot.

I can make it.

If you say so.

I just got the drink. I just got it.

I got a good 30 minutes.

Let's see.

Every Saturday morning

I get this email from Haggerty

with links to some of their articles

that they have that week

on their site.

And this one caught my attention

yesterday

which is

about options to remember or maybe not.

Some of the interesting options

that used to be available on cars

at least on some cars.

And

there's some

fascinating stuff here

like

Chrysler

this one I knew

that they had an option in the 1950s

for a record player

but

they also had

a package called

the Special Fifth Avenue Ensemble

which

included

a cigarette case in your steering wheel.

Ladies, please note

a cigarette case built in the hub

of the chic new Fifth Avenue steering wheel

hands a cigarette to you

at the flip of a convenient lever.

Ooh.

Wow. Makes me want to smoke.

I'm going to start smoking just because of this car.

That's a much more stylish steering wheel

than you find on most modern cars too.

It is pretty stylish. That's pretty nice.

I mean that is pretty snazzy looking I got to say.

Let me grab my ciggy.

Could you put other stuff in there

like if you didn't smoke could you put

like the candy cigarettes in there just like

Probably.

I was thinking about this as a child

I was obsessed with candy

cigarettes because you blow on them

and then like a little poof of yeah

the dust.

Because they are a grown up thing and it was getting

to do a grown up thing in smoke which is not

cool but it was cool. Let's face it

we thought it was cool.

The reason people smoke is because it looks cool.

That's it. That's it. No one starts

smoking because they're like ooh this tastes delicious.

Everyone starts thinking it looks cool.

That's it. That's the whole thing

everyone's while someone will argue with me about that.

I'm like no it looks cool.

Once you've started now you're you know

there's a whole other now you're hooked

but everyone starts because this looks

cool. I like

the description here. The special plastic

steering wheel with dispenser

cigarette case.

Oh my gosh.

I wonder how many like do you have to load it

I guess. Yeah I mean

it has to be an easy load to a pack

of cigarettes or hopefully you're not

going like one

two. Yeah I hope you just like shove them all

like a cigarette pack you know like the

metal packs that they have. Yeah.

When you pop it open you offer a cigarette

to a spy.

I mean that's I'm sure

yeah that'll work.

There's also

the the station wagon

rear window washer.

This is the most over engineered thing

I've ever seen in my life was this actually

on a car it really was

let's see. I don't know if they

actually put it in production. No way this is the late

60s corporation were offered with an optional

magic window. This is the most

what engineer

did this.

They got washed in the tailgate.

Yeah so the whole window goes into it.

So it had retractable rear window.

All the way down. Yeah.

And then it cleans

it. And then presumably

it goes back up again. I mean

today we have you know rear

washers you know because when you're

driving down the road and messy weather

you know your rear window gets all

gunked up and

you need to wash it from time to time so you can see

what's behind you. But

this can obviously only work

in nice weather because you don't want to be

opening your rear window. When your rear window

isn't messy anyway. Yeah. Like when you want

this is when there's like salt

and dirt and muck. They were so close.

They were so close.

They were really close. Like

you almost got it guys. Like someone should have slid

this back across the counter to the engineer

and be like...

You see the front

where we have the little washer and the thing goes back

and forth. Just put one of those in the back.

They're like oh yeah all

the things you've got all the things there.

You have all the parts you've done this one already

just put in the back. Just put in the back.

My personal favorite

of these is the traction in a bottle.

I'm trying to figure out what this is. That was my favorite

favorite police song.

This literally just says

in the description that it squirts

sticky goo on the rear

tires. This was offered on the

Camaro in 1969.

So you had a little, you had a bottle

in the rear fenders.

Hopefully on both sides.

And it was filled with some kind of sticky

goo. They called it liquid

tire chain.

And

button on the dash it's spray

squirt of this goo

onto the rear tires

and

presumably it was supposed to give you a little more traction.

All right.

Or you just sunk deeper. One or the other.

Yeah. Right.

Strangely they don't offer this option anymore.

I don't know why. The goo

they ran out of goo. Turns out the goo gave everyone

cancer.

Most things from the six days it turns out

cancer. People were huffing the goo.

They were just pushing the button and sitting by their tires.

And then there was the dodge

super light

which added

an extra beam

in there for the headlights.

That's kind of cool. Yeah.

I mean, you know, nowadays

they can kind of do, they can do

the sort of thing with the adaptive headlight

systems

that, you know, are just

recently become legal in the U.S.

Yeah. And I mean

those systems are amazing.

They're very cool. Yeah. Because

they can create custom patterns.

You know, so as you're driving down

you know, driving down a rural road

you can have your high beams illuminating most

of the road but as soon as

the sensor detects

a vehicle or something approaching

it will dim part of the pattern

or, you know, dip it down

so you don't blind an oncoming driver.

And, you know, I tried

I had that last time I had a Rivian R1

it had those

on there. It was pretty amazing.

And then the CR, the Honda

CR-V picnic table. We had

one of those. We had the CR-V with the picnic table.

We had one of those too. The first-end CR-V.

You know, with the picnic table. Yeah.

Yeah. Take it out, put it up, put it back in the car.

Like I always tried it and you put it away.

But they brought it back in the passport.

You can get it in the passport and it's sturdier

than the old CR-V. Like this one had legs

that just folded open, the CR-V legs.

The passport has them, they like

screw in individually and it actually

feels like the table wouldn't break

if you sat on it. The CR-V table was a little

spindly. Is a little spindly.

A little bit rickety.

But it was cool. I actually used ours.

We broke it out every now and then. So there you go.

It was useful.

All right. And then the last

thing before we get to some listener

emails.

I was watching TFL yesterday morning.

And

Tommy and Case

took, they have

TFL has a 1927

Ford Model T

and they took it

and put it on a chassis dyno

to see just how much

or rather how little

power it actually makes.

And

the results were pretty amusing.

What did it come up with?

What was the?

11.2 horsepower.

Yeah.

What was it supposed to make? Do we know?

I

think the original rating was

like

about 24, 25 horsepower.

So it's lost about

half. More than half, roughly half.

You need to check some more.

11 horsepower.

Barely goes.

Yeah.

This Model T maxes out

about 45 miles an hour.

Yeah, that's about right.

Which is probably about as fast

than you really want to be going in a Model T.

Right. I don't think I want to go that fast yet.

No, I've only ridden in one once

and I was like, okay, that's enough. Thanks. Bye.

I don't want to die.

I don't want to die today. Not today.

Not today.

All right. Let's get to

some listener messages.

Adam Jackowinko,

our old friend Adam,

just wanted to provide my two cents

about the Mach-E frunk removal store

you talked about last week. Ford has said

that their data shows people largely don't use it

so they made it optional.

You know why they don't use it? Because it's a hassle

to open. At least in the U.S.

there is no frunk button on a Mach-E key fob.

So you have to either go into

the vehicle and manually pull a big lever

twice to pop the hood,

like most any other car. Or you have

to pull out your phone, unlock it,

open the Ford app, wait for that to load,

press the frunk button and wait for that command

to pop the frunk.

So what I and some other

dedicated owners have done is purchased

an F-150 Lightning key fob on eBay

and programmed it to the Mach-E

because in addition to all the same buttons

the Lightning fob has a frunk button.

This solution works perfectly

and now makes it super easy

and convenient to pop the frunk.

I have a 2024 Mach-E and use my fob

to pop the frunk all the time

for groceries, takeout food

that I don't want to stink up the car,

anything I don't want rolling around

and storing valuables that I don't want to risk getting stolen.

It's incredibly useful,

but I can see why most people with an OEM fob

wouldn't use it. From my perspective

anything that's less convenient to do

people will naturally do less.

It kind of makes sense. Ford did not

provide owners with any easy way to open it

so most people don't open it.

Then Ford uses that data

so most people don't use it to justify removing it.

Every Mach-E owner that I show

my Lightning fob to says,

oh, wow, that's neat. If I had that

I'd use my frunk more. I'd also bet

anything that people with Teslas and Rivians

adjust their air vents a lot less.

Probably.

I didn't even know you could do that.

You could take an F-150 Lightning

key fob

and program it to work with a Mach-E

I didn't know that was a thing.

Makes sense.

They use basically the same

the fobs

basically all have the same electronics

in them.

If you go to any given manufacturer

all their key fobs

are going to be basically the same.

Depending on which vehicle you have

some of them may have more buttons than others

depending on what features are on there

if it's a car

it's probably not going to have a power tailgate

button, things like that.

But in this case

for whatever reason Ford

used

gave a fob

with a frunk button

to Lightning owners but not to

Mach-E owners which makes no sense.

That's weird.

We can just go back to the beginning

you can just rewind back to the beginning of the podcast

where I talk about disappointments.

This is on the list.

What are you doing?

Come on Ford, what are you doing?

All right.

And then we had

there was a couple of messages

a couple of threads in the

wheel bearings discord

and if you're

not in the discord

if you're not participating in there

some fun conversations going on in there

just shoot us a note

I sent out a note to all the patrons

the other day with the link

but if you want the link

just feedback at wheel bearings.media

and I will send you the link to join the discord

but Nicole

you want to address these?

Yeah so I got two. I got a long one and a short one

so the short one was from Jeff D

and he said there are Boston area lease deals

to be had on Polestar 3

and 4. I think Nicole should consider

one of those so on my continuing quest

to what am I going to replace my

my old car with

or my new old car

so that's a possibility

I do like Polestar

is one of those one same

which one doesn't have a rear view

rear window? That's the 4

that's the one we drove in Montreal in July

so I was thinking forward I had a blank

and that one also has

software controlled vents

does the 3 also have software controlled vents?

the 3 does not the 3 has manual vents

so the 4 then Jeff

no joy but the 3

okay 3 could be on the list

I can move the vents

okay the rear window wasn't a deal breaker

I was just trying to remember the car on the other one

but the vents are a deal breaker

so that's a possibility

the other email comes from Staniel

it looks like Daniel with an S

T at the beginning Staniel

it says I just topped on that my two cents

from Nicole's car search I'd recommend the Lyric as well

after two and a half years and 40,000 miles

a few software fails early

but reliable

since few software fails

she could pick up a little

did the original launch drive the software was really buggy

did you go on that one in Park City?

I don't think I did

I went on it the software was trash

it was bad

they just told us the software doesn't work

okay

so they told us so we're like alright so we know

when you don't tell us and then like the software's

horrible yeah you're gonna get a bad write up

but if you're like hey it's just not done

but we wanted you to drive the car

it's encouraging

it says I could pick up a little mile 24

least return and still get Android out on Apple CarPlay

good point or I could pick up a new

one and use my phone as a hotspot for connectivity

MSRP on a new luxury

1500 horsepower

all drivers in the mid 60s

has everything I need my biggest beef with the Lyric

is its range while more than

adequate most of the time 330 miles

is really concerning

cold weather the tune maybe 150 miles

on the typical 80% charge

wow frankly I don't think Nicole's

ready for an EV yet or more appropriately

I don't think EV's are ready for Nicole yet

she seems like she will spend whatever she needs

in order to do exactly what moves her

and then she keeps her for 10 to 15 years

I don't think the car that car has been built yet

especially with battery

chemistries evolving as quickly as they are

and I am inclined to

agree with you that the EV

that I want doesn't exist yet

that it's I'm just not

it's not there yet I need to

wait a little on an EV

because I'm not gonna get what I want

out of an EV yet that's genuinely

what I think so I think I'm probably gonna

end up getting either a hybrid

or an ice

vehicle just because I don't feel like the EV

I want exist

I feel like it's not there yet

it's not there yet

I even just hearing software glitches

my eyes start twitching I don't even

mean software glitches what does that mean

and I know you're talking about the old one

but still what does that mean

what does that mean

you know I think the software

the GM vehicles

is actually in a pretty good place

now hearing a lot

fewer issues

with GM software in the last 12 months

you're not making me feel any better it's in a better

place it's a lot fewer issues

what I want to hear is it's

perfect period there are

no issues

you don't want anything built in the last 5 years

yeah that's true

seriously

yeah my nephew just bought a new car

and his complaint is there's too much technology

on it

it's like there's too much stuff

I think again that's why people

people are excited about the slate

they're like I don't need all that

I stop it I just want

to drive away I guess

what is it you want

they just want to drive away

or if we're getting an EV

whatever little

you know low mileage sound

your EV sounds like that's interesting

there we go

it's yeah

so there we go

there's my latest this is

a task to be pursued in the new year

so I'll let you guys know as I figure this out

keep sending in your suggestions

I know it's kind of fun to see what you suggest

and importantly your justifications

yes the why, why would Nicole want that

car

there have to be a long one but you gotta give a reason

not just like it's cool

usually it's us that's stuck

giving advice that doesn't get listened to

from people that ask us

now it's your turn

it's your opportunity to know what it's like

to be an automotive journalist don't buy that car

they go out and buy it you should buy this one they don't buy it

don't buy a Wrangler

Nicole

we like the Wrangler

my husband loves his Wrangler

I love a Wrangler

would I tell a regular person to buy one no

no I wouldn't either

I wouldn't either but it's the right car for him

it's the right car for the right people

do you know the right car for you

is all that picking the right car for you

not for a six foot Robbie

alright well

thanks everybody and

happy new year

and we will talk to you in 2026

bye everyone

bye

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Surprises and Disappointments

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