Tariffs Halt Imports! Ferrari Bringing Back the Manual and a NEW Mercedes AMG WAGON!

A message from McAfee. If they're faking it, they're not making it past us. Get award winning

scam detection today, McAfee.com slash keep it real.

Tarriffs, some tariff, however, that 90-day pause did not have any effect on the automobile industry tariffs, which are still going full speed ahead.

Yep, and those are 25% tariffs on cars coming from anywhere. There are some exceptions for vehicles that are built within the USMCA zone, but honestly, those are still unclear.

Yeah, I don't want to rehash a lot of the stuff we've talked about over the last couple of weeks, but the interesting stories this week has been how manufacturers have responded to these tariffs.

And there have been some varied responses.

Yeah, two real categories of responses. Response one is, we just aren't going to bring cars into the US for a while.

So Audi has, which is about 60 days, which, by the way, is insane.

Well, not from the manufacturer perspective, but like I worked for an automaker that imported cars, that is insane.

Let's start with the Porsche. Porsche said last week, or at least there were reports last week, that they're not importing anything.

And if it's on a ship right now, it's not coming in.

I don't know that Porsche has made a official statement on this topic yet, but it was discussed in a boardroom situation, correct?

Yes, it was just, no, it was a dealer call, and it leaked out that they are going to not.

So Porsche's, the leaked thing that Porsche is going to do is not import anymore cars to the United States, which was the first of these companies that this came out.

And I thought at the time this was a week ago that it was an unbelievable response to this, considering that's kind of

the whole business.

But then Audi and Jaguar Land Rover have also said they're not importing any cars.

And it makes some sense, right?

They, Porsche excluded, they have some real inventory on the ground already.

So Audi has about 60 days of inventory in the US.

Now, is that a dealer, like, is that appropriately distributed?

Probably not, but nevertheless, they have a little bit of inventory dealers can keep selling cars.

And clearly, Audi is hoping, if we don't import any cars right now, we won't owe any tariffs.

Right. And we hope that tariffs will go away in the next 30 seconds.

The automakers who are not importing are taking a bet that the tariffs are going to go away quickly.

My assumption is that the fear for the automakers is if they do import some cars and then the tariffs do go away quickly,

there will be a, a tranche of cars that was imported from April 5th through May 10th or whenever the tariffs go away,

that were to have a 25% tariff on them.

And then those cars will never be sellable, because they'll have to eat the car.

Or they'll have to simply eat that and they think that they won't need to.

They will think that by sitting, they might be able to just avoid that.

And by using on-the-ground inventory, they might be able to avoid that.

Now, Jaguar Land Rover, that's probably easy to do.

There's a lot of inventory, especially for Jaguar.

Land Rover Lesso, Audi, the Q5 is built in Mexico.

So this is their leading product, probably globally.

Certainly in the United States, that's a tough vehicle.

They have all new lineup.

They're the Q6 of the brand new vehicle, which should also be one of their big models.

Is Q6 also built in Mexico?

I believe it's built in Germany right now.

They got a lot of days to play on that, though.

It just came out.

Yeah, it can be a deal.

There's already big discounts, not anymore, of course.

The second, especially three categories.

Second category is manufacturers that have said, yep,

we're going to be adding the tariffs really clearly.

We're going to be marking it as a transportation fee, basically.

Yeah.

And prices will go up.

Ineos is the clearest example of this.

Yeah.

Graniteers are 5% more expensive for any of you.

In Ferrari, et cetera.

And then there's a third category, which is manufacturers that are clearly trying

to take advantage of this, to sell some more cars

and get some market share, even if it costs them substantial profit.

So Nissan has lowered the price of the Rogue and I believe the Central.

Ford is offering employee pricing to everybody through May or into early June.

Hyundai is also doing a similar program.

They're clearly hoping that if we keep price, if we discount pricing,

people are going to flock to us right now.

Will it cost us because some of our vehicles are built outside of the US?

Sure.

But we have a lot of vehicles built in the US,

and that we might be protected.

Now, these brands doing this across their line,

including on cars that are export, are imported.

So like Machi, which is built in Mexico, they're really.

But they want to bring people in, they want to give the sales,

and they think here's an opportunity to get some market share up.

And here's an opportunity probably to help our dealers a little bit.

If we do a sale right now, then you get warranty claims.

You get service going in through the service department.

Even if we then contract later, we've maybe built enough.

I have a suspicion that it also sends a sign to the president.

Hey, we're committed to this, like, you know, et cetera.

Like these are the, it's mostly the American companies doing this.

You said Nissan also, but they have an enormous amount of manufacturing in the United States.

They do.

Hyundai certainly does too.

Hyundai does too.

Yeah.

And I will say some others, Toyota is up here on the image.

They have said that they're not, they don't expect any increased pricing.

Some other manufacturers, BMW and some lines of models have said

that they're not going to increase pricing to at least June.

They're all kind of trying to figure out, like either we don't bring any

inventory in, we price protect, or we discount.

And that seems to be the Toyota has it.

They've just said we're not going to see that they don't, that they're not

expecting any immediate price increases.

I mean, Toyota is an unusual case because they committed a lot of production in

Mexico for the Tacoma a few years ago before the new came out.

It's a, it's a high volume seller.

It's a brand new product.

It'll be interesting how long they can hold the line on no increased pricing.

Yeah.

I don't think it'll be long if the tariffs remain in place.

I think they're all trying to play it a little bit, David.

Mercedes Benz, another example, has said that they're not going to roll out any

price increases for at least a month, or maybe two months when the news came out

a couple of weeks ago.

They're all trying to figure it out, but there are some that are passing along costs

immediately.

Yeah.

Volkswagen has also said they'll do that.

And then no importing at all is going to have repercussions later regardless of

whether or not tariffs continue or not.

If they don't, they'll just be out of inventory, which is actually fine if you're

a Porsche dealer.

Yeah.

If you continue, well, then they'll need to bring it in and they've got nothing.

I will say, it's anxiety-provoking, if you work, I worked for Porsche, you know, which

is an importer, not a manufacturer here in the US, but Porsche cars are North America.

And I text my friends there, they're all terrified.

There's Americans working for an American company in America.

It's, if you're on the ground with a dealership, you're especially Asian.

As you get me in.

You know, are the cars going to not come here?

If they do come here, are they going to be affordable by anybody?

The stock market responded tremendously well today to the news that some of the large

portion of the tariffs have been paused.

They're super cool.

Yeah.

Which seems like it was probably a pretty good idea, but the auto industry tariff still lingers

and still will have like enormously damaging effects, including significant unintended

consequences.

I presume, unless the intent is also to hurt the American auto industry on the industry.

There's no way around.

I mean, Stellantis, which has factories in the US and the Laundry Canada, Laundry and Windsor

Ontario, has done a bunch of layoffs at factories in both places because they ship parts back

and forth.

If they don't yet know how that will impact the large impacts there.

And obviously every manufacturer is certainly worried both about their specific vehicles

if prices go up because they will need to eventually.

Yep.

Or about the economy as a whole and whether they will have buyers that are in market.

Yeah.

Now on the subject of tariffs, another interesting thing came up about these 25-year personal

import vehicles.

Yeah.

There's been a lot of talk about whether they are going to be in cleared cars that are

not sold in the US.

They are legal to import after 25 years under the current.

So if you import a car, you pay a 3% duty.

That's what it has been.

Yeah.

And now the question is, is it going to increase?

There was initially talk that 25-year imports were carved out of this.

Now there's been, there was this fellow on Instagram who went to the customs office in

Long Beach, one of the big ports, and they told them that they're not carved out.

I have no idea.

We put sounds like your dreams of importing a multiple, I might have to wait a little

bit.

We can 25% more on a multiple.

It's 200 grams.

Yeah.

It's worth nothing.

I can't.

$200.

That's a whole lot of money.

And thankfully that, the cars I've been interested in are worthless.

It becomes, there was a, the language as we had kind of a session saying for the cars that

are coming in under the 25-year law, these sections don't apply, but clearly implementation

of everything there.

And guys, everything.

So the port of Long Beach said no.

We'll see if that's consistent.

We'll see if it's consistent.

Hard to know.

And enormous number of these cars are structured, Japanese cars they're coming in.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So, tariff storm and big, I am encouraged by dropping the reciprocal tariff storm

any days.

I think that's a big positive sign.

It is a sign that the administration does bow to market demands, does bow to consumer

sentiment, which has been almost entirely negative, including from significant supporters

of the president and the Republican Party in general.

They have, they have been almost entirely pushed back on this.

And I think that it's a good sign that we're seeing a pause.

I think that the auto industry tariffs are still a horrible thing for the industry, for

car enthusiasts, for employees.

But I think that it's, we're seeing a good sign that maybe we come out of the tariff situation

in a better place.

We'll see.

Yeah.

We're going to on Wednesday and the market today has been up notably, including auto manufacturer

stock.

Ford is up 9% today.

Clearly the market.

The market.

Exactly what you're saying.

My read on this is that the market is thinking, okay, even though Ford is up and they'll be

negatively affected because the auto industry tariffs were removed.

My thinking is that the market is looking at this and saying, okay, it's pretty clear

that the president will be bowing to public demand.

For the last week at any went golfing and it looked like he was just going to be like,

nope, we're doing this.

And the market was very scared by that.

Now it has become clear to the market that, hey, maybe this guy is going to be willing

to be reasoned with about this issue.

And so we will go down there and maybe Audi Porsche JLR.

Or are correct.

Yeah, maybe they are.

Okay.

Next up moving on to our next news story, gated manual Ferrari.

How could this be a news story?

They haven't sold one since 09.

But 13 years since the last manual transmission from here, what was the last manual

get it for?

For California first generation.

Yeah, which was.

Last 12.

Wow.

Which was, yeah, that era, 10, 11, 12.

Yeah, and didn't so many of them know, but Ferrari's had a product of development has

announced that they, there's a potential to bring in like the manual transmission back.

But it's not going to be for the chorus we might expect.

I thought maybe they would do it for like the 296 and make an enthusiastie sort of car.

It's going to be something with the iconic series, which makes sense.

That's their ultra high end, very, very collectible cars.

And we have been saying that this is what they need to be doing.

And it seems that they're starting to take that to heart, especially because Louis Hamilton

said he wants to be involved with the project that will implement a manual transmission car

back in Salinas.

Successors of the F40s.

This is a public company.

The concept that they haven't already done this is embarrassing.

If I were a shareholder, a shareholder, remember the board, I would be so mad about this.

That you look at Porsche about this news, happy that this possibly coming back, but you

look at Porsche and you look at what they've basically been able to run with this manual

transmission game and run far and run with dollars, what euros as it were, flying out

the back of their running wagon, right, right, right, well said, well done, well done.

You get my point though.

I mean, look crazy that Ferrari has taken them this long given that the clear demand,

and it's not just a man from idiots in the use car market like a lot of the people who want

BMW to change their grill.

This is from people who are paying a million dollars for manual 599s, like these are people

who could be buying cars today new precisely and so it's encouraging to see that it seems

that Ferrari actually does kind of listen to their customers.

It's taken them a while, admittedly, but again, the 911 are approved that there was a case

for this and Porsche capitalized on it and it's just breaking it.

And that was so seven to eight years ago.

I know that was almost as long as last trans manual transmission, maybe those were like

10 plus years ago.

What they did?

The 999.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was a little later.

Regardless, a long time ago, coming up on a decade, so I'm happy to see it.

I know that you're sad that there's no 296, et cetera, however, it makes sense.

They're going to come out with an F40, like they're going to come out with an Icona manual.

But the SP3 was better than any Ferrari that's been made since the end, so we agree?

Wow, absolutely agree.

I mean, it's the F50.

I don't know.

No, I don't know.

Since the end.

Okay, so since the F50, if the S, but the SP3 basically was better than the Laferar, like

you use the Laferarimotor without the hybrid BS, it looked better.

It was cooler and it was lower production, right?

And it was a convertible, which most of the Laferaris weren't.

And now imagine throwing it gated in it.

I pray.

I know I hope it gets made to a V12.

I would love for them to do one of those.

You've got to do it, sir.

They're still doing it in the 12th cylinder.

You've got to assume they do it.

Oh, man, please, please, please, please, let that happen.

I mean, I'll never be able to afford one.

No one will.

You think SP3s are expensive?

Yeah, this is going to go nuts.

Totally.

But what I hope is that that is the case and it further underscores to, oh, maybe we should

continue doing this.

I wouldn't be surprised because remember, that's exactly what the 9-11R did for Portia.

Precisely.

There was a time when Portia was getting ready to phase out the manual transmission completely.

And then the 9-11R happened, they realized there was still demand, the 991.1 GT3 had all

those tips.

No, they kind of coming back.

Now it's a staple of the Portia product lineup and not just on the high end stuff, but

like the manual ones sell for more on the used market.

They have more desirability, etc.

And maybe, just maybe, that means that they might bring it to some of the lower tier

models.

Some of which are hybrids now.

I just reviewed a CRZ today, which is a hybrid manual.

Hybrid manual.

It's possible, folks.

No, it's been doing it for a while.

Just like the, actually, just like the new V12 with the, the old, the old, the old version.

I just can't imagine it going to any other models because there have been so focused on

performance.

And I know it's not going to be.

But what's the wrong change?

Should be focused on is making money, how much money Ferrari makes.

Their profit is $137,000 per car.

They can afford some tariffs.

Do you know what?

Okay.

There was a great list from car industry analysis.

The, it's like a great.

It's going to fall.

I'm going to do it.

Okay.

How many cars do you think other manufacturers need to sell to make as much profit as Ferrari

makes in a single car?

Well, I understand, but they do sell that many cars.

Like Hyundai probably makes more money than Ferrari.

Ferrari, I remember, sure, is the most profitable, the second most profitable after all there.

How many do you know, 50 cars to make as much money as Ferrari does for cars?

But they do sell that many cars, but Ferrari's making enough money.

I know, I know.

But, but again, they're a public company trying to maximize every last dollar and they've

been ruthless about this for as long as we've been sent in.

I mean, there was a time they weren't ruthless about it, but now they're ruthless about

it.

And like, why not throw a stick in there?

Stick it up.

No, agreed.

I'm going to do it.

For a long time, you'll remember I used to take my cars to CarMax to see what they'd

offer me as a trade-in value.

These videos were fun and popular as they would often give me a wildly inaccurate number

for the cars.

Submit your cool car to cars and bids in just a few minutes and you'll be connected with

an auction manager from my team who will help your car go live on cars and bids where

you'll get way more money for your car than trading it into a big box dealer.

Look at how much these cars sold for on cars and bids compared to their trading value.

Here's a trade-in offer and this is the cars and bids result.

Here's a trade-in value and the cars and bids result and this was a trade-in value and

this was the cars and bids result.

Get started now and sell your car on carsandbids.com.

Okay, move on to the next news story, which is the best news story the whole week.

Mercedes Benz admits all the tariffs has announced that they are bringing the AMG E53 wagon

to the United States.

This is a massive deal because the current Mercedes station wagon product lineup for

the last, I don't know, 20 years has been limited to an E350 or an E450 is what it's called

now.

So like a mid-tier six cylinder and the AMG, the top performing AMG.

And it's actually, this is almost designed directly for me.

I went to buy a Mercedes station wagon I've had many and I just realized that the E63

wagon has lost me.

It's gotten too harsh, too powerful, and too expensive.

I don't need any of that crap anymore.

It's just simply too much.

There's a market for those cars, but there will be, but as a guy who's own two AMG wagons

before, I am not that market anymore.

It's just too much.

This is going to be right in the sweet spot of perfection.

It's 577 horsepower, it's still with, with the boost mode, yeah, it's, which I'll never

use.

Yeah, it's not, it's not a low amount of power to be clear.

But if they're doing 577 in this, then the next E63 is going to have 750 horsepower,

you're scoring my point.

And this is going to have like a hundred and some thousand dollar price tag.

It's going to be a great pickup for me as a CPO car in about four years.

That's exactly it.

It also straddles a lot of cars that you want and cars that I want because of the plug

and hybrid.

It's a plug and hybrid, which will be the only plug and hybrid E-Class wagon for now.

It's a plug and hybrid, which actually I really want.

I put an electric car charger at my house specifically hoping that there would be a plug

in Mercedes station wagon.

And here we are.

I'm so happy about this.

Seriously.

I'm just looking around on electric only.

I'm so pumped about this.

I'm so glad they're doing this.

I think a mid to your model is what they should be doing.

I will say my all terrain, yeah, is fast enough, like I'll buy this to placate them because

I'm glad they did it.

But the all terrain is really okay, guys.

Get your mother loving ears on because your big time radio DJ's got news.

PayPal lets you choose how you want to pay for all the stuff.

With PayPal, I can pay in store, pay online, or pay overtime.

What's that?

You want this translated into song?

I hope you're sitting down.

You can pay your own way.

You keep those ears on, you hear?

Don't just pay, baby.

PayPal.

Learn more at PayPal.com.

Build the perfect holiday meal at Whole Foods Market from traditional holiday must-haves

to creative twists.

Everything must pass their strict ingredient standards.

Grab sales on their impressive centerpiece mains with no antibiotics ever, aim to please

with limited time desserts like chocolate, bourbon, pecan pie, and ring in 2026 with sales

on quality seafood.

Shop for your celebration at Whole Foods Market with so many ways to save, terms apply.

You dragged race it against an F-40.

Drag it on an F-40.

I lost.

To be clear.

You won one.

The owner was careful shifting the F-40.

You were not.

You were not careful.

I'm excited about it, but presumably there's no rear-facing third row though.

I don't know.

There hasn't been a lot of details.

I'm curious about that, because the all terrain still has the rear-facing third row.

Yeah, but the hybrid is going to be a six cylinder based on the one that's in my car.

So I assume that it's possible to get a rear-facing third row.

All of them are like, whatever they call them, I get a six cylinder.

All of them are mild hybrids, so they have a larger six third.

But there's like a real plug.

It's a real hybrid with a plug.

I've got to put a battery somewhere.

Then I can take out my third row.

I mean my third row.

I'm afraid they will.

We'll see what happens.

There also hasn't been an AMG third row in a while.

There hasn't been.

Since the 2009 model year, there hasn't been a third row in an AMG.

But this is a mild AMG.

A mild AMG, if it's a three, not a six third.

By the way, these are the first good wheels in the 240.

These are okay wheels.

Okay, I'm really excited about this.

This is not a big news story for most people, but to me, to a guy who wants power, but wants

a calm car like this is the combination of everything I've ever wanted in my life.

And I want to wag and I want to plug in hybrid and here we are.

It's a shame that Donald Trump took all of my money from me in the stock market.

I can't afford this anymore.

Will they bring me a C180D with a cloth seats?

That's what I can afford now.

If you will, I'll buy one too.

You won't.

Staying on the topic of Mercedes, so if you can't quite afford the E3 wagon, there is

a Mercedes for you.

Of course, the C60C.

There's a few.

But if performance is your thing.

The CLA.

I mentioned the C53 specific which will come back to you in a second.

Now, this is the C63, which we knew and loved, and the current one we don't love.

It's a four-cylinder, you said specifically how much it, and Mercedes-Benz agree

is with you.

That it was the wrong call.

They're rolling that back quickly and they're going to be putting in a plug-and-hybrid 6-cylinder

engine from the E53.

Can I make a quick point here?

Can I make a quick point?

The first three new stories.

And by the way, we're not tailoring these.

The first three new stories except for the tariffs one.

For all it's going to do a gated.

I've been saying it for years.

Mercedes should do a plug-and-wagon.

I've been saying it for years.

You've been hoping for years.

And Mercedes is pulling the four-cylinder out of the C63.

I've been saying it for years.

For all years.

But you get my point.

Being correct about that is like, I want you quickly to go to the next news story and

I want you to introduce it.

Okay.

We'll get back to this.

Quickly go to the next news story.

Tell us about this.

There was a news report this week that Alfa has taken a consultant and found a consultant

to figure out what to do with Maquins.

You see where I'm going with this.

Yeah.

But put two in two together.

And one of the options is that they will maybe get rid of Maasarati.

They'll spend all.

So, Stolantis has hired McKinsey and they're going to pay millions of dollars to figure

out what to do with Alfa and Maasarati to disastrous brands that are in a horrible situation.

I have predicted, in fact, dictated to the auto industry the last three news stories

before they happen.

Alfa, call me.

I'll do it for a lot less.

That's certainly true.

McKinsey should be in fear of your consultant.

I'll do it for two things.

Oh.

The new Icona manual.

Oh.

Yup.

Done.

We are probably at the right price point.

Yeah.

No way.

I'm way under.

McKinsey is going to charge $20 million.

It's still good.

There is no question.

It's still good.

True.

Because they don't understand.

McKinsey doesn't understand car industry.

They've tried so long for so many years, but they all live in New York and they just

graduate from college.

And the only car they've ever had is their parents hand me down LR3.

That's every consultant.

Right.

They're lucky.

This is the end of the advertising campaign that Jaguar used.

That's exactly.

So, go back to the previous news story.

Yes.

No.

It's a twin turbo three liter straight six.

Same one using the E53.

They haven't released power figures, but you have to imagine going to be the same as

that car, which means that it's slightly less powerful in the current.

It can't be the same.

There's no way they can go that far down because the new C63 has like two million horsepower.

They, well, they're saying that it was going to be less, but they haven't.

The new C63 has 670 horsepower.

They can't go down to 570, but they can't be that.

They can.

We'll see.

I'm not exactly sure they have been very cagey about how much power.

I will tell you, if you gave me the choice, I've driven that six cylinder because I drove

the new E53 sedan.

I've driven that six cylinder.

I've driven this.

I would take 70 less horsepower without six cylinder.

I think that's all what they're betting.

Day.

I totally agree with that.

And a lot of publications have been saying, this isn't the engine we want.

We want a V8.

Yeah.

I get that.

But like, I don't really have a straight six then a four.

And it kind of moves it in line with like BMW currently has straight six power, Audi

also using straight four.

Also, this is a great, anybody saying that has never driven the straight six.

I've been driving it daily for the last couple of years.

It's a great plus, now there's the plug-in with even more power.

It's a fantastic power train, fantastic.

One of the great six cylinder power trains that has ever existed in our society.

You don't quite the set of six cylinder power trains, that is Sequoia, man.

That's also a good six cylinder, but it ain't nothing on the Mercedes.

You just need to get a 993 turbo, you're good to go, but like, I think, but nonetheless,

it is telling that that fast Mercedes like, if he made a mistake, we'll put six in his

back in Saka.

The worst part, it had all the power in the world, but it was not a good power train by

all the time.

And this is proven, especially if they go down in power, this is proven like horse power

is not the ultimate metric.

The charger EV Daytona proves that also horse power is not the only thing we want.

Prove the law.

We want good.

We want power and we want good and they don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Often when we make orders for lunch, Doug just says, give me good, and that's exactly what

we're doing here.

They're giving us good.

Good.

We can go pass the Alphanus story.

What's the?

Okay, yes.

Willow Springs.

So we got some very good news.

Willow Springs recently has been up for sale.

The facility itself, this is a race track.

It's some race track in Southern California very famous has not changed much since the

1960s, which is why it was used in the four verses for our movie.

But it is recently sold to a private equity firm called Crosshub Repartners.

They joined up with singer automotive design.

Really?

Want to make the purchase.

Yes, to purchase Willow Springs.

Now this is a really good deal for today.

I'm, this is again, it's, it's, it's, it's enthusiastic space in sports carbases.

We're gonna take that.

No, it's a good news story, but he's sitting here like he's shocked.

We talked about that we went through the slides and I also added the story to today's

part.

But he's shocked.

But I didn't read it.

You're a great actor.

And the Academy Award goes to Filippo.

So, what's it?

What's it?

So they're really focused on making a lot of changes that Willow Springs.

Now, again, like I said, Willow Springs, not a lot in the way of safety, they're looking

to change that.

So they brought it, they bring it into a lot of, Alex Wers is going to be doing a whole

thing going over the safety, like safety of the track and improving stuff there.

But they're also going to be adding quite a few facilities.

One is going to be a technology help for manufacturers to come and test stuff, also doing car

storage space, potentially doing a museum, like they have a lot of ideas.

I got an idea.

We'll see if it comes to fruition to be honest, but they want to be more like Sonoma and other

racetracks like that.

I got an idea.

Sure.

Since I gave all the other news stories, there are ideas today.

Here's my idea.

You know how the Nürburgring is this giant racetrack where everybody tests all their stuff

because it's so giant.

It is giant.

Make it bigger.

Here's what you do for Willow Springs.

There's three tracks.

Make them all.

Put them all together.

Oh, one.

Massive track.

Uh-huh.

Massive.

So you got like a track, a track, and a track.

You connect those mofos.

You got a track.

You put it.

This track goes to this track.

Streets of Willow.

Big Willow.

You put it.

You put a big Willow.

Now there's going to be gigantic Willow.

Titanic Willow.

Well, it's going to go all the way to Santa Cruz.

I think.

I don't know where Willow Springs is.

Yeah.

I went there once.

I still don't know where it is.

I think much like Thermal.

They said they're going to still remain open to the public.

So like Thermal, I think there will be like a track that is like that.

They track four members.

And I suspect that's how they will.

It's what things up.

But of course, there are some concerns with this.

One is that it's going to lose kind of the charm like you're saying that it has of it

being like very sixies.

But I think it's.

I think on the flip side of that, it's going to bring a lot of amenities that people actually

want to go and drive cars on a racetrack want.

Yeah.

Let's be honest.

You had to spin recently.

You want safety to be there.

I don't know.

It's fun.

It's a good experience.

You've recovered it very well.

It's a very abnormal job.

They're going to bring more of a modern experience to it.

I think if they balance it carefully and retain some of the energy.

It can be really tough.

It can still be very fun.

I think so.

And I think.

And let's be honest.

Willow Springs has just been out there.

Coming for a little while.

So I'm glad to see this specific racetrack being preserved and like the love of the Southern

California car culture.

Yeah.

Singing around.

And it also means that interesting racing can come to this NASCAR could come to this.

It can be a lot more interesting stuff that like racers that end up on this track.

NASCAR doesn't only do old.

Now they get a lot of it.

They do.

The reason I want to say is, Sonoma race race is going to be managing day to day operations

and the company that manages them is involved with NASCAR.

So I have a suspicion.

They'll connect the dots.

Okay.

And glad somebody bought it.

It's a big deal.

I want to talk.

This is.

No.

I want to talk about the final new story very quickly.

I want you to say it.

Then we move on to it because we got a lot to cover.

Say it.

Move on.

Kia is gunned.

Is hoping to sell 90,000 electric pickups in North America a year.

They said that today.

Move on.

There is absolutely no chance that that occurs.

Yep.

And maybe they will.

Okay.

Now, no, actually, that's an interesting story also with the tariffs because they sell

this truck here, which is called you call it the Tazmon.

They don't call that.

They sell that here.

But it's called the Tasman.

No, it's here on the screen.

It goes to America.

I don't care if the screen.

The screen we're sent.

There's no projections.

I'm going to be honest with you somewhere.

That's probably built.

So, so, but they'll have 100, 400%.

Can't be the Tazmon.

It'll have to be something else because I don't agree with the pronunciation.

You said I don't agree with your pronunciation.

You think it's Tasman?

You think it's not Tasman?

No, I don't.

Because Tasman, it's Tasman.

It's Tasman.

That's like what you say.

That's the word.

It's me like me saying a cure and you being like, I don't agree.

But that's what it is.

All right.

That's what it is.

It's going to have to be a different truck.

Or this truck, built in the U.S.

It is a different truck.

It's based on a chassis that they're also going to hope to build some like people mover type

vans that are going to go on.

That is like an electric thing.

This is not the Tasman, Tasman.

It's not a electric pickup.

Yeah.

It's not going to be a different chassis.

We just don't have designs.

Interesting.

I mean, this could be interesting.

You know, I've been thinking about this a lot.

The only EVs that are like really desirable and have retained value are the ribbons.

Yeah.

The truck SUV EV world is probably where it is.

The scouts are going to be hot.

The scouts have been incredibly hot in pre-order land.

Yeah.

It'll be interesting.

90,000 is a lot.

That means they're going more for like maverick type territory, which will be interest.

I mean, that's not an electric, but they do do a hybrid and like, that's probably,

I imagine that's the size area they're thinking about.

Or like Nissan and Toyota have tried to do.

They want to compete with.

Yeah.

They're not actually full size.

Yeah.

And Ford.

Kia will not be making a full size electric truck.

Are you out of your mind?

They compete.

Ford can sell plenty of F-150s.

Not lightning.

Not lightnings.

Well, if Ford can't sell them, then Kia, and Kia ain't going to show up with their first

truck and it's going to be on an electric full size.

You know, you would have said the same thing in 1998 when the Tundra came out.

Oh, I would have said the same thing in 2005 when the Titan came out.

You know what?

I'd be right.

They had two very successful generations.

They had one mildly successful generation.

I can't recall that one.

The second gen was only sold to Nissan employees in Nashville so they could tow their boats

to the lake.

I hate that fight.

Okay.

Next up is the talk cars segment where we talk about cars.

We have been talking about cars.

Now we do it more.

There's a couple of important things to talk about with the talk cars.

And the most important is the Bentley Dominator.

Now, for those of you who don't know, I'm obsessed with the assault of Brunei and his cars.

Not necessarily with his.

It's actually his brother, Prince Jeffrey.

And he commissioned all these cars in the 90s.

And one of the cars he commissioned was a Bentley SUV, which was called aptly in my

mind, the Dominator.

And they had, they made about 11 of them.

They all were sold to Brunei.

And somebody sent us this one from a model car retailer in Italy.

And here it is.

And I didn't even know they made a model car of it otherwise they would have bought it

years ago.

And Sean, our producer, he said, hey, let's put it on the set.

And I said, no, I'm taking this home.

This is the greatest gift that anybody has ever given me.

The single greatest Bentley Dominator, it's blue blue.

And you know what?

It's a thing at the model.

It's quite ugly.

It's honest.

It's a really ugly car.

I've always said that if I could have any car in the world, it would be one of the

assault and dominators.

And now that I'm sitting here today looking at this wonderful gift that someone has given

me, I completely disavow what I've said before.

I disagree.

I think you should lean into it.

I think you absolutely.

Why is the rear overhang so dramatically large?

It's going to impact your off roading.

You can't off road with this at all.

Anyway.

That's exactly how you would use it is to take your dominator off of it.

I would take my, it's called the dominator.

You don't think I'm just going to dominate pavement?

I'm going to dominate the dirt and hemp.

With being a Bentley, I suspect mineral oil might be what dominates you.

You know, I didn't think about that.

That's a mineral oil, your car.

Your car, yeah.

Wasn't it based on the P-38?

Imagine adding the mineral oil to a P-30 oil.

Doesn't anything you couldn't make it any less reliable.

Wow.

Luckily, there are only 13 of them.

You put a, thank you so much.

You put an S-54 in there and you really have your work out for you.

It is fascinating to me that Bentley had all thought that when they did the Bentayga that

they needed to go back to this to like look at how they had it before.

They were pork ones that when they were, when they were coming out with the Bentayga

in order to conceptualize it, they had Brunei shipped them the dominator's back so they

could take a look at it and see what they did last time.

I have to get, and there were pictures of the cars on airplane tarmac.

So apparently that did happen.

So cool.

Presumably they came in to fix some leaks, too.

Probably they were like, listen, if you send these to us, we'll also make them walk

in the end.

Couldn't it be where it's due?

This model is actually very nice.

Which is especially hard to do because they didn't make the car.

How do you make a model of something that we've seen seven photos of?

Man, those designers took the time, but they invested it well because it's beautiful

and now it's here on our side.

Can you talk about one other SUV?

Can you pull up the Land Cruiser?

You're talking about the Land Cruiser?

I think it's important.

Okay.

Pull up the Land Cruiser, folks.

One of the greatest cars in cars in mid-history is live right now.

He's just going to school.

It's a wild strategy.

I see what it's called.

I'm going to tell you what this is.

I'm going to tell you why it's special.

So the 200 Series Trail Land Cruiser, which is one of the better Land Cruisers, it was

sold from 2008 to 21, because the best is it one of the four.

No, the best is the 300 Series LX700H, which I won.

It's one of the four.

Yeah.

Over trail.

In R.

I prefer Nory.

The point is, he's tired of hearing me talk about the LX700H.

We are.

But can do so.

Yeah, we are, including my wife.

So this is a Land Cruiser, and the Land Cruiser, the 200 Series Land Cruiser, from 08 to 21.

For the final two model years of the Land Cruiser, the 200, they made a heritage edition.

That was a special edition model.

It was not the only one they made.

You could get a regular or you could get the heritage.

And in 20, the heritage was only offered with two rows seating, but for 21, the final

year, they offered it with an optional third row.

And so the, in the minds of a lot of the Land Cruiser community, a 21 heritage, which was

like the special model, final model year, with the optional third row, which really added

a lot to the capability.

I don't know why they didn't do it with the third row and the other ones, because everybody

wanted it.

It is like the dream Land Cruiser, and we have one live right now that is in magnetic

gray.

I think they called it.

Yeah, magnetic gray.

Magnetic gray heritage.

There's maybe a hundred of these, maybe 50 on the planet.

They were expensive when you and hard to get.

This is a really, really, really, really, really, really special car.

In the Land Cruiser world, this is really, really cool.

And so it's live on the site right now and you should buy it or not or you should leave

it for me.

I don't know.

Leave it for you.

I'm done with the car.

I'm off-car.

I just wanted to bring it to people's attention.

No, I want an LX700.

I think that 300 is better.

But there's a good chunk of the community.

The call of it is 99.6% of the community living in 0.4% of the 300.

Wow.

0.4% think that the 100 is better.

No one thinks that the 300 is better except for me.

Sadly, unfortunately, the 300 has been tariffed out of existence.

Anyway, this thing is live right now, and it's the coolest car ever to grace the website.

It's up there.

Can I get it?

Yeah.

Like, I got to buy one of these because I know they're going to hold their value.

I remember this.

I didn't.

I didn't because it still doesn't have self-driving.

No.

It does.

It has self-driving as long as you don't go to zero.

Yeah.

It has adaptive cruise, but it doesn't have anything.

It cuts off 20 miles an hour.

20?

Yeah.

So you can't use it in traffic.

Which is the whole point.

The whole point.

But when you're driving across Africa.

Right.

You're not doing this.

And this one has got a lot of that.

These are great photos, too.

The heritage wheels, the heritage bands.

They are really, really nice.

They're comments went deep on it, immediately, by the way.

Like apparently the stitching looks a little bit different than the numbers of other photos.

This is everything about this car is perfect, except it was in a light front and accident.

And so the grille was replaced with the non-heredic grille.

Now two things about this.

I went on eBay.

The grills are available.

And it's actually the grille in the fog lights rounds.

They're available and they're cheap.

You can get it the whole set for like 800 bucks on, which is relatively affordable, concerning

the value of the car.

Yeah.

You can see it here.

It's very slightly different.

It's like a slightly different color, different bars.

It's very minimal.

I can see how the body shop would have ordered the wrong one.

Yeah.

Or some people might think it looked better, but to be honest with you, there's some folks

out there who might say, okay, anyway, I want to talk also, give us your car segment

please.

Okay.

I was in Mexico City.

Yeah.

For just a little weekend trip.

Yeah.

Shout out to the one person from Detroit that was visiting the same coffee shop and said,

hi.

Did you guys?

I did.

I think I recognized Mexico City.

I love Mexico City cars.

Yeah.

I got a car.

No.

I saw like a hurricane and a McLaren.

Yeah.

That once.

There was a lot of money in Mexico City, but there are no nice cars.

But it's a fascinating blend of, it's a very European feeling city.

It is.

It's a fascinating blend of big American cars, lots of suburban, especially the nice

areas.

Yep.

Lots of every big SUV, lots of old like 90s Chrysler products.

And then there's European car.

Yep.

Pujo.

Pujo Citroen, whatever.

Rebrandos.

And then there's also Chinese cars.

Yep.

Yeah.

And then they had an I. D. H.

D.

One.

Which is like a purpose built just for ride sharing apps trying

a little taxicapting.

And I love the combination of it, that's being why Dee D.

One.

I had the same thought when I was in Mexico City, I was astonished by this unbelievable,

probably no where else on the planet gives you that level of combination of American

and European haired into a place he.

Yeah.

Happy American and now the number of Chinese B.

There are BIDs everywhere, there's Chinese brands that I've never heard of.

Yeah.

By the way, G is all over the place, passenger side, sliding rear door, driver side.

You can see a regular opening rear door.

There's the driver side, regular door handle in the regular place, there's the passenger

side slide for safety when you get out.

Yeah.

Wow.

I just love that, like mix of things in the market.

One thing I will say, the reason for the mix is because the market is not particularly

powerful.

No.

The market can make an enormous amount of regulations and automakers build cars for the

U.S. market.

The Mexican market has to kind of take what's available.

Yeah.

However, the countries that have to take what's available often have the coolest car

markets.

I noticed the same thing when I was in New Zealand.

It's the same thing on Malta.

You end up with just weird crap all the way because it's like Chinese, yeah.

Well, like we don't want to regulate out anybody.

We want to have as much choice as we can.

Pujo, yeah.

Bring it in.

Yep.

But this, Mexico City is really where the Latin American market and the American market

like collager.

Because if you're at the border, it's one of the richest cities in Latin America and

yeah.

So you do get like the large American cars and a lot of like Mercedes Gilles' for some reason

and like.

But low stuff like that.

You saw low wheels.

I also saw my buck, Gilles.

If you're at the border, you don't see a lot of the Latin America spec cars.

It's not the same.

It's more American type stuff.

There's a lot of American influence on the border cities, but you get for enough south.

You get some interest.

It is weird.

I loved it.

Love just walking around and looking at all the cars.

Feels European.

Okay.

We got to talk a new take one.

We got to talk market report.

We got to do market report.

Market report is brought to you by Sean, our producer.

Yeah.

The market report is brought to you by cars and bids.

Go check out carsandbids.com.

If you have a cool car, sell it on cars and bids by clicking the sell a car badge at

carsandbids.com.

Or by using the cars and bids app.

Sean, our producer.

Sean has a heinous Jew wagon.

Okay.

He does.

A lot less heinous.

There's a lot of stuff on the cover market report.

However, the questions this week were the best we've ever had.

Whoa.

Okay.

One is, I wanted to give a quick discussion of the car market in general and I'm curious

what you guys think.

We haven't talked about this before.

Been surprised at our sales.

They've been strong.

They've been strong results on a lot of cars, which when the market is down 3% day after

day after day after day, it's surprised.

Stock market is down almost 20%.

Not after the day it's less.

And maybe by the time this goes live, it'll be even better.

In the last few days, it was down almost 20%.

Look at that 992 GTX.

Well, one of the things I specifically wanted to talk about was yesterday, we had a lot

of recent euro cars bring all the money.

Go back.

That 992 GTX got all the money.

That X3M competition got all the money.

That Audi E-Tron GT, which has been a tough sell if we're being totally honest, got all

the money.

And I was.

I think there was one more.

This Volvo V60 Pulsar got all the money.

Okay.

If you see Pulsar has been getting all the money.

But this is the new body.

And yeah, we sold the 992 Turbo for big money today.

We sold it for 10 grand above sticker.

My assumption is.

It's a trio car.

No miles to be clear, but so my assumption is that there are people who are seeing what's

on the horizon.

We just live through COVID and are realizing if I want to get into a car, I'm going to

buy you.

And they're not wrong.

Porsche is not.

If you ordered a 992 Turbo now, who knows when you'll get it?

You won't.

In a year, it might be three.

They might stop importing them.

Who knows?

They have something for them.

If they might tell you, no, for now, they will actually get enough.

They probably take your order, but they might, I don't know if it goes much further than

that.

I think this is what we expected would happen eventually, right?

As new car prices go higher because of tariffs, as inventory decreases, because of that,

you get an increase in values on the used market.

What I'm surprised by is that it's happened already.

And it's happened when the market is as tumultuous as it is right now.

There's a theory among people who are less informed that the stock market is entirely

for rich people.

But the truth is, significant losses in the stock market points to a non-healthy economy,

which eventually will affect your job and your ability to purchase things.

So I've been a little surprised at the health of this car, brought 113.5, it was a lot

more than I was expecting to be honest.

It's a 222 GT4.

I think we're already seeing either people are hedging against a supply reduction, or

they already think it's here, or I'm not really sure.

It's a little surprising.

My assumption, everybody's come to me and been like, cars and bids is going to do so well

with the tariffs because 95% of the cars we sell are completely unaffected.

That was a possibility, but I also assumed the economy would take such a hit that there

would be no consumer confidence to buy any car, new or used.

That was exactly what I always thought.

That may still happen.

It seems like it's better than we maybe were expecting.

So far.

So far, but I mean, like you're saying, let's see, what does tomorrow bring?

Yeah, don't really know.

So I think yeah, some people who still can afford it are jumping in and going for it.

And I don't think that's a bad move necessarily.

We'll see what's going on.

No, it might not be.

Especially if they can afford it.

Like, if they're sitting here, their job is good, or they're retired, or they have

a lot of cash on the sidelines, honestly, a car might be a smarter place.

I've been thinking a lot about how my cars are probably my most stable asset at the

time.

Yeah.

I mean, let's use that 992 Turbo S as an example.

Do you want a third of you in right now?

If a new one becomes 25% more expensive, suddenly your value of that car stays flat or

increases.

And if inflation is higher, as it may well be with tariffs, okay, well, you just parked

something in an asset that's not the value declining, which honestly right now is a pretty

okay place with bonds.

Yeah.

It's a pretty okay place.

I'm not, by the way, I'm not trying to show for the company.

I would prefer there to be no tariffs at all, and have that affect the company negatively

if it is the case.

I think that the tariffs are a horrible idea and incredibly stupid.

However, it does seem to me like, at least in the early days of looking at this, some

of these, especially some of these euro cars are doing better than I was expecting.

You expect when there's a very tumultuous stock market that people are cautious.

Cautious.

Seems like people are actually taking a little bit different approach.

People who live through COVID, that market recovered very quickly and led to extreme shortages.

I see some parallels here.

Oh, wait, didn't.

Oh, we didn't.

And so it's hard to know which is which.

But this feels more like COVID than oh, wait, because it was kind of created, and thus

could be uncreated relatively quickly.

Today shows it.

Today proves that.

And so maybe you want to get in while you can, I don't know, I don't know exactly what's

going on, but it's an interesting security to grant for that.

Our sale rate has been high, our value on the cars has been strong.

Maybe this doesn't last.

Maybe what happens is the tariffs do significantly impact the economy and people do lose

their jobs.

Confidence goes off.

And then we can't sell anything.

That's also possible.

We're like two weeks in.

We're two weeks in.

We don't know what's going to happen.

But for the first two weeks, I am surprised how it's going to be agreed.

Yeah.

I don't disagree.

Of course, you proclaim that you can read the future based on those past cars that have

come through.

Do you want to make any proclamations about what's going on?

Yeah, I'll give you a proclamation.

No rational person can read the future when it comes to the Trump administration.

Anything could happen at any moment at any time.

I can't predict what's going to happen in six minutes.

Let alone in six days.

I went to shoot the CRZ intros.

Look at my stock portfolio.

It's up nine percent.

I'm like, what the hell happened?

I mean, the zoo parking lot.

What the hell?

Get your mother loving ears on because your big time radio DJs got news.

Paypal lets you choose how you want to pay for all the stuff.

With Paypal, I can pay in store, pay online, or pay overtime.

What's that?

You want this translated into song?

I hope you're sitting down.

You can pay your own way.

You keep those ears on.

You hear?

Don't just pay, baby.

Paypal.

Learn more at Paypal.com.

You know how to make a great meal.

When it comes to the mess, Pal Moloves knows how to handle it.

Pal MoloVoltra removes up to 2.5 times the grease versus dawn non-concentrated.

Pal Moloves' most powerful formula instantly cuts grease,

leaving you with sparkling clean dishes.

Pal MoloVoltra, click or tap the banner to shop now or visit PalMoloV.com.

That sums up 2025 with an election.

We got to move on to questions.

Now remember, you two can ask a question.

You go to carsandbids.com.

You click on the community tab and there will be a posted that says, ask us your questions.

And I will select the best questions.

Not the most I've voted, but the best questions.

There are 245 questions left.

But dude, there are some good questions.

That's why I wanted to make sure we have time for it.

We got decent time this time.

So we're going to do questions legitimately.

Okay.

And the first question, people keep asking us to rank stuff.

I've decided I'm only going to do one per episode.

But the best question, the best rank.

There were a lot of suggestions.

The best rank is rank the e-classes.

This is where the hate will flow.

Why?

Because it has the other questions.

The question the hate.

There's a question that says rank all the previous models.

No.

I'll do the preesses later.

I want to rank the e-classes.

Where are we starting?

From the 124.

We're starting the 124.

Okay.

Now I want to be clear here.

I have owned.

Owned.

Not just driven as press cars.

Like my little auto industry compatriots.

I have personally owned every generation of e-class.

So people are going to be like, you're wrong.

And I'm going to be like, no.

No.

All right.

So it's 124.

You don't want to.

210.

211.

I had a 90.

154.

By the way, that's the other thing.

I didn't just have one of e-classes.

I've had the bet of e-classes.

So let's do this.

All right.

There were six generations.

I'm going to blow everybody's mind.

I already have my ranking.

Please.

It's going to hurt car enthusiasts.

Do you want to be a part of those?

I'll chime in.

All right.

This is going to hurt.

Car enthusiasts are not going to like this.

But this is the truth.

And I have for years, I have owned.

I've had an e-class in my garage.

Some of them I only had for six, eight months.

I've had seven of them I had for many years.

Best?

214.

Yeah.

Second best?

214.

Best?

214.

Yeah.

Second best?

213.

Haha.

Third best?

210.

Over 211?

Just for 100%.

Yeah.

So if you want to hear me say 211,

you better wait a little while.

I love the 211.

I'm going to, I put the 124 after the 210.

Over the 212?

Yeah.

People are going to, people are going to get for the record.

I own a 212.

People on Instagram.

Yeah.

People on Instagram who love the older stuff and the cheap stuff

are going to get mad that we didn't put the 124 first.

But I've owned a 124.

I know about a biodegradable warning harness,

wiring harness, or two.

The car is, was a good start.

You, you, you agreed that it was 214.

213.

214.

211.

Yeah.

Well, as I'm talking, we agreed.

The best ones, the newest ones are simply the best ones.

But there was a period of time that was like,

03 to,

oh, well, it was 03 to 17.

I mean, I have to work.

And those were,

and I loved my 212s to be clear.

The 212s were,

and honestly the 03 E55, the 215,

the 215 would maybe be one of my top three

if I was to rank individual models.

I got about the, the ECC through Wagon,

with the reference to R9.

Yeah, I had one of those that,

wouldn't be near the top.

So cool.

The head bolt motor.

The, the market agrees, by the way, that is cool.

And 156.

But yeah, the, the,

I, I see what you mean in totality about the 212,

because in my opinion of like all the fast AMG,

I still put the E, the, the 215 E55.

The 215, if someone said to me,

rank the AMGs,

the 215 E55 would be really close to the top of this.

I agree.

In fact, I actually think that the more recent AMGs are less

doesn't agree.

It's just that the overall car has gotten

to be such an unbelievably good,

complete package in the 213 and 214 generations.

They're the best.

And, and people who are going to comment,

have never driven one because they drive a lot,

the, the, the, the people who comment on Instagram

and write should of,

they drive older stuff.

But, this, this is the real rank.

I want to be really clear.

I, like I said, I own a 212.

I own a 24 post-face, I have 212 Wagon.

I love it.

I think it's an incredibly good car of driven 50,000 miles

and especially the post-face looked,

especially on AMG.

Yeah.

It's great.

It's a, but every class is great.

Right.

I agree with the ranking.

The, the, the 213 was an unbelievable step up

over the 212.

I would, I would argue that probably the greatest step up

of all of them was from the 12th to the 13th.

The tech was a massive jump.

Proven by the fact that the jump from the 13 to the 14

has been a, it looks like a facelift to be honest.

Are you okay with one, two, four being the thing

that breaks up?

I think it's just so iconic as like a classic Mercedes.

Well, and it's, it's so good.

It's just, it's the classic bank vault build quality

Mercedes known for at the time.

And it's a small, usable handsome Bruno seconds.

Okay.

Here's the question then.

Would you rather have a 212 E350 Wagon or a 124 E320 Wagon?

212.

Kind of rather have the 124.

Oh, for Craig.

Not as a daily driver, but I'm not an old car.

Regardless.

As long as we agree that it goes 214, 213, 210.

I do.

I'll take that.

Okay.

Next question.

Here's a good one.

From writer 17 to Kenan and Filippo.

If you were given a choice between one of Doug's previous cars,

which would you pick?

Previous.

Got to be serious.

Previous.

I've never sold a good car that I had.

Let's see, sold.

That's true.

There's, there's like a lot of truth to this.

About the 360.

Hey, I sold the G-Wagon.

What do you got?

Do your company cars count?

No.

I love, I mean.

O5 Elise.

It was sick.

We had no air conditioning.

Tough.

I fixed the AC eventually.

Oh, I thought it just didn't have it.

No, no, it had it.

It was broken.

Oh.

And I went through the whole summer.

And for some reason in like November,

I was like, I can't take it anymore.

And I fixed it.

I don't know.

I was studying my life.

That's something I would do.

Who was it, Eddie?

You've owned a lot of cars.

If your CTSV wagon were the good one,

manual one.

Then that would have been a choice.

But the good, but the daily, but it wasn't.

The Viper GTS was a great one.

The Viper GTS was, it was great.

The life full.

I mean, I have a soft, I know it's not a good car.

I have a soft, I very much have a soft spot for the defender.

I really love the yellow, the yellow, the yellow.

The only good car I've ever seen.

I'm sorry.

You're not saying the advantage.

The advantage is a good car.

I'm not spreading that around.

Stick 360.

Yeah.

Don't forget that.

They asked it for me.

It's clear by the way.

There was a clear car that I love.

210, 55.

No.

Nissan S cargo.

S cargo.

I really love that S cargo.

I legitimately love that S cargo.

Well, you know, you, for a five grand amount.

You couldn't get one.

Well, it's not six grand now.

It's not like unavailable for five thousand dollars.

I'm not going to pay money for this experience.

Virtuous one.

No, but like if I were given one, what do you got?

Stick 360.

I kind of want to remove that one for the most because that's obviously what I would do.

But I think if, if not that one, I think, I think it's the Viper GTX.

The Viper GTX, like that car was, and the GTX got so many upgrades.

And you got the double bubble.

Yours was the blue with white stripes.

It was like, it was, it was, and it forged in turn.

It was 96.97.

Right.

Yep.

Exactly.

And so that was like, that's like the one in those cars.

I mean, what did you sell yours for?

I bought it for 35 sold it for 34.

Now they're like 100.

So I mean, they're like 70.

No good GTXs are.

Yeah, that was my car.

Mine was not a good GTX.

Well, it was a driver.

It was a very nice car.

Like it didn't have issues, but it was a, it wasn't like a show car.

I agree with you.

Show cars are 100.

Yeah.

So even so, I mean, you own that car at the right time.

I always thought they were cool.

So if I couldn't have the 360, which is what I would de facto choose to be the GTX.

I bought that car in North Carolina, Fukue, Marina.

I'm very familiar.

Yeah.

Very close to where I looked back to Philly.

And it was so cool.

And it had little seat belt covers that said Viper on them.

And every time we would go film a video, Doug would refuse to drive it.

You know what's funny?

I deeply regret now getting rid of that car.

I wish I had spent more time with that car.

I lived in center city Philly.

It wasn't the car for Philly.

If I had that car now, I would really appreciate it a lot more.

Yeah.

It was cool.

It was really cool.

There were a lot of cars pre-minoing you.

And therefore, I don't think about those cars.

There were 25.

That would have been a good car.

There were other good options.

This car goes lived in my memory.

Okay.

Next question from Rose76.

What is your craziest car press launch story?

I don't go to press launches often, because I don't care.

And I really hate it.

Honestly, I hate the whole thing.

I really think that press launches are totally inappropriate,

to be perfectly frank, that they fly the journals out there,

first class, the Hawaii.

And put them in the nicest hotel and give them the nicest meals.

And they say, please write an objective piece about our super legacy.

It's like laughably stupid, right?

But I did back in the day, when I was starting out,

you kind of have to go to them.

You don't have any leverage.

And by the time that you're, when you're a young guy,

the old guys don't want to go to them anymore.

They got families.

They don't want to be on the road going to the press launch

for the facelifted Chevy Colorado short wheel base.

Can I go?

The very first press launch I ever went to was for the Lexus IS,

which came out in 2012, 2011, something like that.

It was the redis lift?

No.

The redisant came out in an O8.

Really?

No.

It was O6, that the...

It competed against...

I mean, the ISF competed against...

It was the next gen.

It wasn't the ISF gen.

Oh, it wasn't the ISF gen.

Then 13.

13?

So probably in spring of 12, which makes sense.

That was right when I was starting out.

Away with the facelift.

Or summer of 12 before it.

I went to the first press launch I ever went to,

which was the Lexus IS.

And I don't remember where it was.

But it was in the west somewhere.

Anyway, I went out there.

And the fellow who ran marketing for Lexus,

he gets up on the stage.

And I'm nervous.

Like I'm young.

Everyone in this industry is very colleague.

They all know each other.

And I'm there for my first press launch ever.

I don't know anybody.

I'm just a little baby child.

I'm like 24.

I'm like sitting there with like the little notebook.

Like, I better take notes on this car.

I don't know what to do.

And the guy gets in up there.

The marketing guy for Lexus gets up there.

And he says, the first thing he says to the room of journalists

before the presentation, he says,

the new Lexus IS is the car for people who want to stop blending in

and start blending out.

And I thought to myself, I've chosen the wrong industry.

I can't believe I quit my job.

This is the worst thing I've ever done in my life.

And anyway, we got better from there.

Not that launch.

Yeah, widely panned that car, by the way, for those styling.

You know what it was? It was in Austin, actually.

Oh, because they took us to a racetrack.

But not the Formula One track, some like little go-car nature.

Yeah.

F-sport.

The big selling point of that car.

Do you remember what it was?

That was the mouse.

No, it was the running lights were underneath the headlights.

That was one of the big things that had helped you blend out.

But the big selling point was that the gauge cluster

It was like the coolest part of the 2012 side car, yes, but no, it was fine.

You never see those around.

Okay.

Anyway, so I don't really have any other crazy press on stories.

I really, really, really, really don't go to them often and when I do, I'm kind of annoying

about it.

I tell the automaker, look, I'm going to be in and out, give me a car or don't, I don't,

if you don't want me to, I'm just not going to come, I just hate it.

Okay.

Next question for Kenan.

From British car driver, hey guys, this question is directed at Kenan as a Ferrari purist.

Do you think the hate on the Roma is deserved?

Not necessarily.

I think that it's like the entry of a Ferrari generally gets a lot of hate.

California got a lot of hate.

Was it a bad car?

It wasn't the best Ferrari, but it didn't make it a bad car.

I actually quite like the way the first time drove.

The same thing kind of applies to the Roma.

When it came out, I wasn't sure about the styling necessarily.

The integrated grille thing is kind of weird, but they do drive very well.

I think they look very elegant.

It's a very simple looking Ferrari.

It's very pretty looking guy.

And honestly, it's only you can use every day.

And it's not a zillion dollars like all the other Ferrari.

It's very expensive.

And Lord knows if you're going to buy one for Ferrari, you want to be on the list.

You got to play the game and add a hundred thousand dollars in options.

That's where they make their money.

I think that it actually is a pretty good car.

I don't love the screens instead of buttons.

I hate that, but I hate that on all modern Ferrari's.

So actually, no, I don't think it deserves the hate that I get.

I will also say entry level cars from any enthusiast brand will always get hate.

Like the boxer, we know how good the boxer came in art, but they still are

viewed as not a real, etc, etc.

Like you could take this list down based model Mustang, based model challenger,

the V6, the four cylinders, they're not, they're not a real, you know, totally.

And so, no, as a, as a pure, so I recognize it's, it's placed in the lineup.

Yeah.

I think it's a very good car.

And, yeah, I don't have any.

I agree.

I think it's great.

Kevin's going to go out and buy a Roma.

It's not the dream car.

I'm not saying that.

It's not the dream car, but it's, but it's, but it's, it's got a place in the lineup

for a public company that wants to make money.

And honestly, it drives well.

Did the Roma spider in Portofino need to exist at the same time?

Well, they don't need more.

They know, but they did for a time.

And that was not the case, but then I felt differently about it.

Here's a question that's coming from a user with the user name Buick.

This is the best question we've ever been asked on cars.

My goodness.

Okay.

Don't read the question.

Let me tell you it and surprise you because it's so good.

The G-Wagon sells so well.

Do you think there's a market for G-Per-Ford to sell a luxury version of their Wrangler

and Bronco under the Chrysler and Lincoln brands respectively?

You know, on its face, this question sounds like the stupid ramblings of someone who doesn't

understand life.

But when you think about it, the name is Buick.

What about a Lincoln Bronco?

So here's the thing.

My answer is mixed on this because the answer is yes.

I think they could sell a luxury version.

Yeah.

I think that those are not the correct brands and they should keep it under the Jeep

and Ford.

Well, Jeep Chrysler, that would be the state.

There's no luxury brand there.

But I don't think that's a good idea generally, but what about a Lincoln Bronco?

I think that Ford could go for a luxury version of Bronco.

So the same way that the Ford F-150 has the platinum or the King Ranch or whatnot trims,

I think there's room for a luxury trim of every offer.

Isn't that the Raptor?

No.

The Raptor is a high-performance version.

Yeah, but it's also loaded with the King, the kind of heated steering wheel, the

King Ranch.

The King Ranch or whatever the Texas edition, whatever the top, it exists, exists

at King Ranch, et cetera.

There could be a King Ranch Bronco.

Certainly, I don't think moving it to the Lincoln umbrellas, the right clock, that's

not what that means.

This point is, it would do a lot for Lincoln as a brand if they had a G-wagon.

What?

You're going to get somebody in there and they're also going to look at the Corsair.

Well, why don't you sell the Lincoln G-wagon to them?

Mercedes Ben sells a lot of G-wagon.

And finally, why isn't the answer to that question?

Yes, Mercedes Ben sells a lot of G-wagons, and then they sell a lot of CLAs to people in

Newport Beach who look at G-wagons and they're like, I wish I could be that someday.

I just don't think Lincoln tried with the Mark LT of them again.

Lincoln tried even earlier than that.

I mean, you think about the blackwood, they used to get $15.

Yeah, but you're talking about trucks and truck buyers, it has now been proven,

want to buy trucks from mainstream brands.

No one wants a Lincoln truck in their garage, they want a Ford truck.

I think that however, a Lincoln G-wagon based on the Bronco.

This is not stupid, is Jim Farley listening to this?

Does he listen to this?

We get a lot of messages from people who work in the auto industry.

I don't think it's that idea, but like the same way that I think every manufacturer

would realize that they can do both luxury and still have a luxury brand.

Cadillac versus GMC Denali. Both exist.

I think that Lincoln is not quite capable of doing an off-road or well,

but I don't think that's the best way to create brand image.

This is how you do it, I think you can fake.

I think honestly, I think that Lincoln should maybe just stop to exist.

No, that is so completely wrong.

I love Lincoln's products, nobody else does.

You don't understand. Lexus exists. Mercedes doesn't understand.

They sell cars.

Lincoln deserves more investment, and I have an idea for more investment.

A Lincoln G-wagon. This suggestion, which ironically comes from Buick.

Right.

This suggestion is one of the great suggestions in the history of the car.

Hasn't Ford done a high-country Bronco?

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, why hasn't Chevrolet done a blazer Denali?

Well, they don't do a blazer.

Chevrolet does a blazer. That's the joke.

I don't know. When I think back on this, why is the G-wagon so successful?

It was a military vehicle that was cool, so it had that.

And then in the 90s, that was kind of when Arnold Schwarzenegger was doing the Hummer thing,

they made a civilian version for him.

That was seen as cool, like kind of a mucher thing.

And then it took off Mercedes-Lini's luxury side of things with it.

To do that now, like to bring a totally new thing and then build around it.

Like it does.

It's a pretty heavy lift.

But the success of the G-wagon is because of this heritage design that was steeped in capability.

And that's what the Bronco is.

It has a heritage design that is steeped in capability.

BMW tried to steal the G-wagon's thunder with the XM and doesn't get it.

They Munich, they don't get it, right?

But this, and remember, I predicted all the news stories this week.

This is it.

Like this is a good, and I've got to give credit to Buick.

This is a great, the guide, this is it.

Like this is the heritage design.

BMW doesn't have that heritage.

So they're not able to actually do that credibly.

But Ford is.

Lincoln doesn't have that either.

But there was never a Lincoln off-roader.

Lincoln was a Zephyr.

I mean, it was a luxury Mercedes off-roader

until they turned the G-wagon into a luxury,

existing product that had a very specific image that they made luxurious.

Sounds like what Lincoln's going to do to the Bronco.

But isn't the product with a specific image that they make luxurious?

I just don't, I don't think you can force that.

I don't think you can recreate that.

They didn't force it with the G-wagon at night.

I think there's also a lot of examples like

Porsche, good looking at a Cayenne.

When it came out, the thought was we're going to have an off-road.

The first gen Cayenne was off-road capable,

and a no modern one is.

Well, because they took the Cayenne in a different direction.

But I don't think there was interest in the off-roader.

There's no interest in grots.

The G-wagon has literally given life to the people of grots.

Like that town.

The Austrians are thankful.

The Austrians, that town every restaurant in grots

should be like, Faken Mercedes Ben.

It's probably like, hey, we would have closed

if it wasn't for the fact that this car has been here for 30 years.

You can't fake it.

You can't just say we're going to regret it.

This isn't fake. The XM was fake.

The Bronco is not fake.

It is a real car with real heritage,

a real design, and real capability.

The Lord should build that line up out more

and have a luxury version of it.

No, I do.

Lincoln, G-wagon.

And you know what you call it?

Because they name their cars.

You call it something like, really big.

How does the navigator...

You're going to have Lincoln rock.

No, too aggressive.

You get my softer, but yeah, something.

You're going to feel the Lincoln Navigator press launch.

I'm going to navigate a press launch on Friday.

How many navigators do they sell?

A lot.

The navigator was that aren't to Uber blacks.

The navigator was pretty popular, especially when it first came back.

So what was the aviator?

Those were high quality products.

The problem is that Lincoln's products cycles are too long.

Yeah.

And the other problem is they don't have a G-wagon competitor.

Okay, I'm coming around to this legitimately,

and it could be Bronco-based.

But in my head of thinking about a luxury Bronco,

the same way that Lincoln, when they did the aviator,

token explorer, the original aviator,

token explorer, change the tail lights.

No, no, change nothing else.

They got to do better.

It needs to be like a full Lincoln version of that,

not just a Bronco with leather.

It needs to be a series like a Bronco with more car.

Yeah, considering the Bronco,

you know, the roof leaks and all that stuff like it.

No, that only happened early on.

But I wonder if there's a market for,

I wonder what it would take,

given that Audi can make a sportback of anything,

which is a completely new roof design,

how hard would it be to just make a non-opening roof on a Bronco?

They don't have that problem, I mean, probably generally.

Like, so make it, but I don't think that this vehicle,

if positioned by the Lincoln brand,

should even have an opening roof.

No, of course not.

But the way that Bronco is thinking of it is,

it's a giant glass roof and it's got a V8

and it feels like it's here, here, here, here.

And also, maybe the roof of the street?

Yeah, the roof is a street of the roof.

See, you're getting on this now.

I'm getting there.

Thank you to you.

I love Lincoln.

By the way, I love the Lincoln SUVs.

I pushed everybody I know towards one.

Nobody has taken me up on it.

The Nautilus is a great car.

It was almost a car of the year.

The aviator I thought it is a great car.

It looks great.

Imagine if you were correct, I'm sorry for saying

that you were wrong.

Imagine if, okay, so you now agree.

Yeah, but I think that it's both.

I think that four should make a luxury Bronco.

And then Lincoln should figure out

what their own product based on that is.

You know what you call it?

You call it the granite.

The Lincoln granite.

The Lincoln basalt.

Jim, you listen.

The Lincoln, I'm looking at a Porsche.

I'm looking at rocks that are like tough.

Saving on your education should be a right,

not a competition.

At University of Phoenix,

you'll get the best scholarship or savings you qualify for.

Simple as that.

Explore scholarship options at University of Phoenix.

Some people think nature is like this,

but actually it's like this.

Mother nature is not all sunshine and rainbows.

Nature can be hotter than a sauna

and colder than an Arctic skinny dip.

That's why Columbia engineers everything we make

for anything nature can throw at you.

Columbia engineered for whatever.

That's what I think it should be named.

What's tough but luxurious?

I like it.

Like black and white.

Black one.

Maybe they should bring back the black game for this.

Bring it would actually work.

Bring it back.

This isn't stupid.

Remember, don't forget Mercedes makes $74 billion

for every G-wagon they sell.

And for what is for another example here was

Jeep and Chrysler.

That's not the right positioning there.

And also Jeep sells $100,000 SUV.

Well, sorry.

Jeep tries to sell $100,000 SUV.

And I think they could go a market with the

Wrangler in their own lineup.

The Grand Wrangler, if you will.

They could maybe.

Wranglers are already sold to really rich people.

It's like shocking.

So they did the money to be made.

Last question because we're over time.

Final question from core to ran.

Doug, if Chevy moves all of its production to the US

because of these tariffs, should they make an actual

competitive K-5 Blazer to celebrate its heritage

instead of basically four variations of the equinox?

Four variations of the equinox.

Excuse me.

Two variations of the equinox.

And then two variations of the tracks.

And the Blazer.

Can you pull up something for me?

Sure.

The answer to this question is, of course, yes,

but it has nothing to do with the tariffs.

This should have happened 10 years ago, regardless.

This is another example of bad product

planning from General Motors.

The mid-circle curve, buddy.

Yep, buddy.

Dude, yeah.

Somebody already makes a new version of the K-5.

We don't need to click on this.

We don't need the one thing.

Oh, what are that?

What are my friends based on?

We don't need Chevy to do it.

Oh, that's so good.

This is the only attractive part of this car.

No, go back to the previous version.

It's just way too dark to be seen on the screen.

Go to the one that had the blue door.

Get no click on that one.

That one, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It had both angles.

What this is?

It's an SRF in the back.

Okay, if I play this from the front

and it's based on a RAV4.

RAV4.

The answer to this question,

and by the way, this is only in Japan.

Another thing the Japanese get that we didn't.

The R34 Skyline, the EVO 6, the GC8 Impresa,

the 22B, the Mitsuoka body.

The answer to this question is, of course,

but it has nothing to do with the tariffs.

I truly think that making the Blazer

not a Bronco competitor

is one of the most laughably bad automotive decisions

that has been made in the last 25 years.

That's right.

And it's proven by the fact

that the Bronco has been a massive runaway success.

The Blazer has been primarily confined

to rental car fleets,

and also nobody,

because in some cases,

even the rental car companies are like,

no, thank you.

Correct, so.

And it's just the kind of stuff you get from GM.

GM does such a good job some of the time

and such a bad job some of the time.

And I don't understand why they don't just do better.

Yep.

That's right.

You would drive me.

And hopefully Mary Barra is listening.

You agree with me.

100%.

It should have been a real K5 blazer without a singular doubt.

If they did it,

there should be a Cadillac version.

And it should be a GY.

For what it's worth,

they have the Tahoe,

which is a good product.

They could have just made a smaller Tahoe.

Yeah, I mean, to do it was, by the way,

is what the Blazer version was.

To do it right,

you would want,

well, there was no Tahoe originally,

to do it right.

Yeah, to do it right,

you would want to do it like the Bronco,

where you do like a ground,

you wouldn't want to just make a small Tahoe.

You'd want to put a removable doors.

They could have.

And it would have been better than the actual door.

It wouldn't have sold, though.

A two-door Tahoe wouldn't sell.

No, but like,

the style, definitely,

and instead of two-door blazer,

it would have been better than the current blazer.

I don't know about that.

It would have been better than the current blazer.

Do it with a Bronco.

Lowest bar,

anybody could possibly.

The current blazer is the worst cocktail.

Except for the Maserati Gran Turismo.

I'm debating this in my head for a second.

Come at me.

Is there any Grand Regan here?

No.

No, no, I'm not.

It's K cross my mind,

but let's get past it.

No, you're right.

Worst car on sale.

Current blazer.

Is it even stolen sale?

And the Gran Turismo,

what is it?

The Blazer EV.

Good car.

Blazer, not EV.

Bad car.

Yeah, the Blazer EV is fine.

The Blazer Regan there's bad.

I want to be clear about that,

because they're inexplicably

they're completely different cars.

Just like the Econox and Econox EV.

Yes, both exist.

Both exist.

Okay, that's our podcast.

Do you have any parting thoughts, Kenner?

Make a G, let's make our manufacturers.

Make a G wagon.

Make a G, everybody's shut.

Everybody's shut.

What is for all?

What is the grots of America?

That's a great question.

Like a secondary country to America

that can be used for manufacturing?

Whatever country it is, it's not going to work.

What a shame.

The answer is probably Indiana,

because there's no other option in the grots of America.

There's no other options right now.

Anyway, watch Trump's going to start

tear-offing Indiana.

As an Ohioan, he'd be through.

He'd be like, yeah, keep Indiana.

A lot of tariffs are coming your way, Indiana.

That's true, actually, even though that.

Anyway, thank you for watching.

We actually appreciate it.

We love everyone and everything,

especially Felipe.

Except for the tariffs.

Except for the tariffs, which we hate.

Goodbye.

You

Tariffs Halt Imports! Ferrari Bringing Back the Manual and a NEW Mercedes AMG WAGON!

About this episode

Mercedes-Benz E450

Mercedes-Benz E350

Mercedes-Benz C180D

Land Rover LR3

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!