A lively Wheel Bearings roundtable swings from practical car buying to big-tech EV dreams and outright fraud. Nicole reviews the 2026 Kia K4 hatchback GT line, praising its roomy feel, responsive non-turbo and turbo options, and low pricing under $30k—while noting ride harshness and noise. Sam covers an Infiniti QX60 Sport’s refreshed turbo-4, then debates BMW’s new electric i3/i3-like concept (design wins, interior quirks). The group also discusses Lexus ES EV pricing, Carvana selling new cars, and a “scammer edition” segment featuring Trevor Milton and Malcolm Bricklin’s questionable EV pitches, ending with broader thoughts on EV rollouts and even Rolls-Royce/Corvette power trends.
Sam's getting better but his voice is still a bit hoarse as he drove the Infiniti QX60 Sport AWD. Nicole had her turn in the Kia K4 Hatchback GT-Line without a turbo and was still impressed.
In the news, BMW has unveiled its new i3, an all-electric 3 series, with up to 440 miles of EPA range and 400-kW charging while Rolls-Royce has decided to keep offering V12s for a while. Lexus is about to start offering its next-generation ES sedan with the battery electric version arriving before the hybrid. Carvana is expanding from used to new car sales by buying some Stellantis dealers. A couple of people with shady business records are back as Trevor Milton pitches an AI powered business jet and Malcolm Bricklin is pitching an electric 3-wheeler. Stellantis EVs can officially Supercharge now and there are rumors of a more powerful Grand Sport Corvette for 2027.
"[1.7s] [SPEAKER_00]: this is wheel bearings episode four four five and I am Sam of Paul Samut from telemetry and I am Nicole Waeclin from test miles and top speed and I am Roberto Baldwin from SAE International on the camp of the airport"
Wheel bearings help your wheels spin smoothly. When they go bad, they can make loud noises and cause vibration, and they usually get worse over time.
Wheel bearings are the components that allow a wheel hub to rotate smoothly with minimal friction. When they wear out, they can cause noise (often a growling or humming), vibration, and uneven tire wear—key symptoms for diagnosing the problem.
"[149.4s] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[149.4s] [SPEAKER_02]: So this is the hatchback version of the K4."
A hatchback is a car where the back door lifts up. It usually makes it easier to load and unload things because the trunk area is more open.
A hatchback is a body style where the rear door opens upward and typically provides access to a combined passenger/cargo area. It’s a key detail when comparing vehicles because hatchbacks usually have different packaging and visibility than sedans or wagons.
"The turbo up saw that 190 horsepower 195 pound feet. So the turbo is the more fun."
A turbocharger forces more air into the engine, allowing it to produce more power and torque from the same basic engine size. The speaker specifically contrasts the turbo trim’s higher output and calls it the “more fun” option.
"[302.2s] [SPEAKER_02]: Like the wind noise and the road noise, you hear a little bit, but I think that's a function of it being an affordable car."
Wind noise is the sound you hear from air moving around the car as you drive. Cheaper cars often have more of it because they use less insulation and soundproofing.
Wind noise is the audible noise created by airflow around the vehicle body, mirrors, and windows. The speaker attributes some of what they hear to the car being an affordable model, implying less insulation and refinement than pricier cars.
"[316.0s] [SPEAKER_02]: It takes a lot of extra sound editing and different things to make it quiet acoustic glass, all these things."
Acoustic glass is special glass that helps block outside noise. It’s one of the things manufacturers add to make the cabin quieter, and it costs more.
Acoustic glass is laminated windshield/side glass designed to reduce noise entering the cabin. The speaker mentions it as part of the extra engineering and materials used to make cars quieter and more “serene,” which increases cost.
A heated steering wheel warms the steering wheel so your hands feel better in the cold. It’s a comfort feature, especially in winter.
A heated steering wheel uses electric elements to warm the wheel surface. It helps reduce numb hands in cold weather and can make the car feel more premium.
"you get charging ports up front, you have wireless charging"
Wireless charging means you can charge your phone by setting it on a pad in the car. No cable is needed, though it may charge slower than a fast wired charger.
Wireless charging uses an inductive charging pad to power a compatible phone without plugging in a cable. It’s convenient, but charging speed can vary by phone and charger design.
Heated seats warm you up using built-in heat. It’s great on cold mornings.
Heated seats warm the driver and/or passengers using electric heating elements. They’re especially valuable in cold climates and can improve comfort during short trips.
"It gets down to 20 and the pavement just comes out in literal chunks of pavement and then you have a giant pot hole. There's a pot hole on the main road nearest our house that's surprised everybody."
A pothole is a hole or broken spot in the road. When you hit it, it can jolt your car and potentially cause damage to tires and parts like wheel bearings.
A pothole is a damaged section of road surface that can force sudden steering and suspension movement. Hitting one can damage tires, wheels, and suspension components, and it can also accelerate wear on wheel bearings.
"The QX60 has all the SUV space to three row. It is basically infinity's version of the pathfinder."
“Three-row” means there are seats in three rows, so more people can ride together. The point is that the QX60 is built to carry more passengers.
A “three-row” SUV/crossover has seating for three rows, usually accommodating up to seven or eight passengers depending on configuration. The speaker uses this to argue that the QX60 prioritizes family space.
"it also still has car play and Android Auto support. So you still have full support for Google Maps, Google Assistant, built in, but you can also hook up your phone and use that as well."
Android Auto lets you connect your phone to the car so you can use apps like maps and music on the car screen. It’s usually easier and safer than using your phone directly while driving.
Android Auto is a phone-to-car integration that mirrors compatible apps to the vehicle’s infotainment display. It typically provides navigation, music, and voice control through your phone.
"So even even with the with the with the third row seats up, you still have a decent amount of cargo space behind the third row."
They’re talking about how much stuff you can carry when the back seats are up. Folding the seats usually gives you a lot more room.
This is about how much usable storage remains when the third-row seats are up versus folded. In three-row vehicles, cargo capacity can change dramatically, so it’s a key real-world consideration for families and road trips.
"You want to guess at the destination charge? uh... nineteen ninety five fifteen uh... robby was off by just five dollars"
Destination charge is the cost to ship the car to the dealer. It’s usually added to the price even if the car itself doesn’t change.
Destination charge is the fee automakers add to cover shipping the vehicle from the factory to the dealership. It’s typically included in the sticker price and can be a meaningful part of the final “out-the-door” cost.
"alright let's move on to uh... the new BMW i3 uh... so reviving a name but it's not the i3 that we got used to in the twenty ten's"
They’re talking about the BMW i3, which used to be a small electric city car. BMW is using the i3 name again, but the new one won’t be the same as the old one.
The BMW i3 is BMW’s compact electric car that originally launched in the 2010s. The speaker notes BMW is “reviving a name,” meaning the new i3 branding is related but not the same as the earlier i3’s design and mission.
"It's based on the same newer class platform as the iX3."
They’re saying the new i3 is built on a similar basic “car foundation” as the BMW iX3. That can mean the cars share some design and engineering choices.
A “platform” is the shared underlying architecture (chassis, mounting points, electronics layout) used across models. Saying the new BMW i3 is based on the same newer class platform as the BMW iX3 implies shared engineering and packaging decisions, which can affect driving dynamics, space, and serviceability.
"[1443.6s] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think, you know, what, at least on the outside, what they've done with this, you know, with the design, you know, they've gone away from the giant enormous kidney grills..."
BMW’s “kidney grills” are the distinctive grille shape on the front of many BMWs. The speaker is saying earlier BMW designs had them made very large, and this new car dials that back. It’s mostly about the look and how the front end is styled.
“Kidney grills” refers to BMW’s signature grille shape. The speaker criticizes earlier designs as having oversized grilles (“giant enormous”), then says this new design moves away from that look. Even on EVs, grille styling can be a branding and aerodynamics/packaging discussion point.
"[1521.7s] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I like the, you know, what they've done, you know, they've got this, essentially it is a heads up display across the base of the windshield, so there's no traditional instrument cluster, but right all the way along the base of the windshield, there's this heads up display, which is pretty cool."
A heads-up display shows important info right in your line of sight, usually on the windshield. That way you don’t have to look down at the dashboard as much. In this case, they’re saying it runs along the windshield instead of using a normal instrument cluster.
A heads-up display (HUD) projects key driving information onto the windshield area so the driver can see it without looking down at a traditional instrument cluster. In this segment, the speaker describes a HUD spanning along the base of the windshield, effectively replacing or minimizing the need for a conventional gauge cluster. HUDs can improve glance time and driver awareness when implemented well.
"[1593.3s] [SPEAKER_02]: Like when they're just plopped there and they don't have like an instrument cluster that comes off of it to give it some.
[1598.5s] [SPEAKER_04]: It just looks like an iPads shoved in the corner."
The instrument cluster is the display behind the steering wheel that shows things like speed and warnings. Some cars keep it separate from the center screen, while others blend it into the same look.
The instrument cluster is the driver’s gauge display (speed, RPM, warning lights), traditionally behind the steering wheel. In modern interiors, it may be separate from the center screen or integrated into a shared display layout, which changes how “connected” the dashboard looks.
"[1623.0s] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking through all the interior pictures.
[1624.9s] [SPEAKER_00]: There's one missing detail.
[1627.4s] [SPEAKER_02]: No, what is it?
[1627.9s] [SPEAKER_00]: What is it?
[1628.9s] [SPEAKER_02]: Are the vents in it?"
Dashboard vents are the air outlets for HVAC (heating/ventilation/air conditioning). When someone says they’re checking whether “the vents” are in the interior pictures, they’re evaluating whether the HVAC design is present and how it’s integrated with the screen and trim.
"[1633.8s] [SPEAKER_02]: Wait, I'm looking real close to the pictures with the dashboard now.
[1637.0s] [SPEAKER_04]: Didn't people just go drive this?
[1638.5s] [SPEAKER_04]: I don't really know."
The dashboard is the area in front of the driver with the gauges and controls. If someone is looking closely at the dashboard in photos, they’re usually checking that the interior features look right.
The dashboard is the main driver-facing control panel area that houses the instrument cluster, infotainment, and HVAC controls. When sellers describe or photograph a car’s dashboard, it often indicates how intact the interior is and whether controls are present or missing.
"...there's no giant center tunnel for a non-existent drive shaft because, hey, they use the same four-pan regardless of which power tray it's got."
The “center tunnel” is the raised structure running between the front seats and into the rear cabin. In many cars it’s shaped to accommodate components like a driveshaft, exhaust, or other drivetrain hardware; EV-specific packaging can reduce or eliminate it.
"So same stuff, 221 horsepower, 308 horsepower, [SPEAKER_00]: The pricing, the ES350 starts at $47,500 with up before the destination charge."
Horsepower is a way to describe how much power the car’s motor can make. Higher numbers usually mean stronger acceleration, though it’s not the only factor.
Horsepower is a measure of engine/motor output power. The speaker cites horsepower figures for the ES350E and ES500E, using them to differentiate performance between the two EV variants.
"Yeah, right as gas or right as oil prices are, you know, sky $25 a barrel. [2248.0s] [SPEAKER_02]: It depends how long."
They’re talking about how expensive oil is. Oil prices can move fuel prices and also change how people think about buying cars.
The discussion is about crude oil pricing (quoted as dollars per barrel) and how it can influence energy costs. When oil prices rise, it can affect fuel prices and broader economic conditions that impact vehicle demand and pricing.
"So, um, have either of you to ever bought or considered buying a car from Carvana? ... And we bought like two cars from them, because they would bring the car to your house... If you liked it, you just bought the car on an iPad."
Carvana is an online used-car retailer known for selling cars through a digital shopping process and home delivery. The segment describes its “buy it on an iPad” style experience and delivery-to-you model, which changes how buyers evaluate risk and trust.
"you look at Tesla, you look at Lucid and Rivian... I don't know you can drive a Tesla... You can go to a Tesla showroom and drive them if you want."
Tesla is a car company that sells directly to customers. Even if there isn’t a typical dealership near you, you can often visit a showroom to see and sometimes drive a car.
Tesla is highlighted as an example of a brand using direct-to-consumer sales rather than relying on the traditional dealer model. The segment also notes that while you may not have a full dealership nearby, there are still ways to interact with vehicles in showrooms.
"I, even if I didn't have white interiors, I'm anti white interiors because I have yet to see a press car with a white or light cream interior that the driver's seat is not blue gene colored. Yeah, and it doesn't matter."
The speakers describe a common upholstery issue: blue denim dye transferring onto light-colored seats. They specifically mention seeing the driver’s seat develop a blue tint and creasing patterns after a few thousand miles.
"[2838.4s] [SPEAKER_00]: This is more like a Honda jet, you know, it's a, a light jet.
[2842.2s] [SPEAKER_00]: And when they launched the original S.J.
[2847.0s] [SPEAKER_00]: 30, they sold a grand total of five, not 500, but five, like one hand, five."
A light jet is a smaller private airplane. It’s usually meant for shorter trips compared to the biggest long-range jets.
A “light jet” is a category of smaller business aircraft designed for relatively short-to-medium range travel. It typically seats fewer passengers and has lower operating costs than larger long-range jets.
"...it is an EV, and it's a three wheeler with a single wheel at the rear..."
EV stands for electric vehicle, meaning the car is powered primarily by an electric motor and battery rather than a gasoline engine. In this segment, the EV label is used to describe a three-wheeled electric vehicle and to frame the pricing/parts discussion.
"All right, so at the opposite end of the scale is Rolls Royce, which has been around for a while and been in business for a long time. And a few years back, their former CEO said, yep, we're going to go fully electric by the end of 2030."
Rolls-Royce is a luxury car brand famous for very expensive, high-status cars. Here, the discussion is about what kind of engines/cars they plan to build in the future.
Rolls-Royce is a British luxury automaker known for ultra-high-end vehicles and long-standing brand prestige. In this segment, it’s used as an example of a legacy automaker making (or reversing) big powertrain strategy decisions.
"You know, when you look at Rolls Royce, like, you sure you're going to put a V12... They do, they put these V12s in and then you do everything in their power to remove the rumble and the vibration and the sound..."
A V12 is a type of gas engine with 12 cylinders. It can feel very smooth, but it also makes noise and vibration—so luxury brands work hard to make that less noticeable.
A V12 is an engine with 12 cylinders arranged in a “V” shape, typically producing smooth power and strong refinement. The segment connects the V12 to the classic Rolls-Royce character—then discusses how engineers try to reduce the noise, vibration, and harshness that come with it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: this is wheel bearings episode four four five and I am Sam of Paul Samut from telemetry and I am Nicole Waeclin from test miles and top speed and I am Roberto Baldwin from SAE International on the camp of the airport Sam still sounds sick I know I'm feeling much better than I was the last time we recorded but okay my voice is still a little screwed up he still got that grumbly thinger yep gone for that sound [SPEAKER_02]: Pat, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Nicole, where'd you drive?
[SPEAKER_02]: I have the 2026 kit, Kia.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kia.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kia.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kia.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what I say in the UK.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how that's the fan.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard it to both ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, Kia, K4, hatchback GT line in.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's have a narrow yellow.
[SPEAKER_02]: I should've looked.
[SPEAKER_02]: It says H.B.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yellow and my key tag.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, wait, that's not a color.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's that really like goldish yellow.
[SPEAKER_02]: Happy birthday, Ella, I mean, it would fit.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a very bright, like [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, we went out for breakfast this morning and we came back out to the parking lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of empty and we got there and it was full when we came out.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like, I don't know which cars are.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, how do you not remember which car we arrived in when it was that color?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's a sea of like dark browns or dark, you know, colors and, and I'm like, and there's this like glowing in the corner of the parking lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very bright.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's actually kind of cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: I sort of like, if you guys seen the color, you know what I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_04]: I have.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm looking at it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's a top art for their media site for the K for is it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's see, I'll have to look if that's because it's it's bright.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's see, K for H back and go look is that that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is in fact it that bright bright and it's more yellowy.
[SPEAKER_02]: It looks more like sort of gold.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's tamer in this image than it is in real life in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says sparkling yellow on the website.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is hb mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Happy birthday.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no wait, it's that's exactly what it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: They put hb yellow all in color, but it's body is empty.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they have accidentally sparkling yellow is that what it is?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the website calls it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think I have a new arrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, can you get yellow, have a new arrows?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, because it was spicy.
[SPEAKER_02]: See, it would work for me that name.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're calling it happy birthday, yellow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Happy birthday, yellow.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the key at K4 has back GT line in the happy birthday yellow, which is very bright.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is the hatchback version of the K4.
[SPEAKER_02]: Basically, it looks very different.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the K4 regular K4 people either loved or hated the design on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you were, were you a hate or robbing and remembering like that you hated it?
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I didn't hate it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was just like, it's just like from the from the once you get past the B call.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_02]: So you didn't love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: This.
[SPEAKER_04]: I didn't love it.
[SPEAKER_04]: This I really like.
[SPEAKER_02]: See, so this most people really liked the look of.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't, I was okay with the K-4's today, but I do like the look of the hatchback better.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has really good lines.
[SPEAKER_02]: It just doesn't attract of car.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not this tiny, tiny little hatchback.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's actually pretty roomy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when Russ is riding around in it, I think he's six-rambling.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I noticed, a lot of times smaller cars like this, tall guys, you sit in the front seat, and your knees are hitting the center console in the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you can't get enough seat room to let your legs, [SPEAKER_02]: be straight.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was comfortable in this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's saying something for a guy who's tall and a car that's small.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's only three trims in this EX GT line in GT line turbo.
[SPEAKER_02]: The GT line just has a two liter four cylinder with 147 horsepower 132 pound feet.
[SPEAKER_02]: The turbo up saw that 190 horsepower 195 pound feet.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the turbo is the more fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have the GT line but the [SPEAKER_02]: And when I first came in, I didn't like to see which trim I had.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just hopped in it and drove, and I'm like, this is actually pretty nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: So even not the turbo, it was a pretty responsive little vehicle 47 horse part doesn't sound like a lot, but it was 20 and but it was my 1990 Honda Civic hatchback, which I just drove like a man had 86 horse path.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it was a way to about 86 pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's still I thought like this wasn't something sometimes when you I feel like when they have these two, you know, you've got the normal natural naturally aspirated engine and then you have the turbo the turbo's the fun one and the naturally aspirated is not just less fun it's boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: like they really are like, well, if you hate life drive this one, otherwise get our more expensive turbo trim.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could get the regular one in this and be like, hey, I still love life.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still fun to drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought that was really important to point out, because I feel like that's normally not the case.
[SPEAKER_02]: When there's the turbo, the turbo's the good one, the other one is boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: This was still fun to drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: I enjoyed it.
[SPEAKER_02]: We took it into Boston.
[SPEAKER_02]: We took it into a little road trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: This car is a little bit harsh over rough surfaces, and it has a little bit of noise to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the wind noise and the road noise, you hear a little bit, but I think that's a function of it being an affordable car.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the things they sort of draw back on is all this stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: They do to make it like luxury cars or super serene and quiet for a reason, and they're expensive to make that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: It takes a lot of extra sound editing and different things to make it quiet acoustic glass, all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And entire side walls are more than half an inch tall.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this one, but the GT line, so the pricing on this car starts at 24 990.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's cheap.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then it goes the GT line is 25, 990 and the GT line turbo is 28, 890.
[SPEAKER_02]: So all three trims, even the turbo, are under 30 grand, which makes this an incredibly affordable option for a car that is still 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: By 20, 26 standards.
[SPEAKER_02]: But right, not once, but it's time, but today, that is a deal today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you want to take a guess on destination based on what I can see right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: 13.
[SPEAKER_00]: 14.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, Robby was spot on 13 is what I have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's just have this thing a few weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, and it was what it was 14?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember because I didn't go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't cheat and go back and look at them in a row.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, he's such an honest soul or at least I don't say I cheated.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or he didn't say, I didn't see his eye shift down to look at a paper or anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, this is even with that destination fee.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still an affordable car, which is really kind of nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a hatchback.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hatchbacks are so cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wish we had more of them.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are so versatile.
[SPEAKER_02]: They give you so much flexibility to carry people comfortably in the back and to have little cargo room, which is what you need.
[SPEAKER_02]: 90% of the time you just need a small amount of cargo room in the back your car.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you have the weird thing, the big thing, the bulky thing, or just need more in general, you still have that without having to have a giant SUV.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love Hatchbacks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think [SPEAKER_02]: I just need to get over themselves and get what it's about.
[SPEAKER_04]: My friends had a mini and then they had a child.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we lived in a house behind a house in San Francisco.
[SPEAKER_04]: And the landlords, the owners, a really nice couple, and they also, they had a child as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they had this giant SUV.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I remember [SPEAKER_04]: One of the owners he went to my friend.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's like, well, you know, now you're not to get an SUV Their child is like a little toddler.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like not like and and for a moment my friend's like, yeah I'm gonna have to get an SUV and he's like, wait, wait, why?
[SPEAKER_04]: Why why?
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like you've had a child.
[SPEAKER_02]: That many is fine.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can still fit the kid in the back of the minute [SPEAKER_02]: So, and that's a thing like this is still a really versatile car, and the cargo room behind the rear seats is about 22 cubic feet.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's 59 when you fold the seats down.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a lot, that's a lot of room.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you really do have a ton of room in this, and for standard equipment, you have like a 12.3-inch touchscreen digital instrument cluster,
[SPEAKER_02]: becomes like a panoramic delio on higher trims, wireless smart phones for connectivity for the car plane and Android Auto, you get charging ports up front, you have wireless charging, the GT line that I was driving, it's actually really cool inside of my head like heated seats, heated steering wheel, [SPEAKER_02]: It's a really nice car and it was fun to drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: It truly was a fun little thing to drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was driving a credit bit in Boston yesterday and it is a great little city car because it's small enough that you can get in and out of crazy parking garages.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when the, I was in the parking garage at the Prudential Center, which has one of those roofs, ceilings that looks like it's going to clip your car and all the pipes hanging down at various heights.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know the total, and I'm fine in my little car.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know that that, you know, the lowest height it's giving you is the lowest pipe would all the pipes seem to be the same And then there's a lot of shit up, you're like, dear god, there was this Ford truck I can F-150 but it looked higher so I couldn't see the trim but it looked high coming towards me and I'm not even in it I'm like, oh man [SPEAKER_02]: you are just gonna make it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could barely see it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm thinking, now I'm never something to call your up to the, like, that guy's seat level is the height of your car calm down, you're fine in here.
[SPEAKER_02]: But watching and try to come around like corners in the garage, because they're so tight.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, give the man some room, because he really had to swing it meanwhile.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, no problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it really is...
[SPEAKER_02]: I really enjoyed this car.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am a fan of this car.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would recommend this to people like I recommend a lot of cars and people ask you cars, but like I would put this at the top of my list for someone on the coal seal of approval.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, forget it, forget it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I recommended it just by parking in my driveway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't even have to tell anyone.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was this one of the somebody bought this because of you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I love this car.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm thinking, and when I did the launch, I thought this is a really great vehicle.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that I've had it for a week and really driven it, this is really great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like this is what young young people should be buying because it's affordable, it's fun to drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's great features.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have enough room for you and your friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have enough room for your stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you move apartments, 85 times, you can stop the stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly what I was gonna say.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right, you can still put the 37 times you'll move right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can fit all your stuff when you're moving around because that's what you do when you're young.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is this is one of my top picks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, even if you're you're not the kid moving around the young, you know, 20 something if you're unless you've got a need for some big SUV for some reason.
[SPEAKER_02]: You okay for hatchback.
[SPEAKER_04]: I had a show last night with one of the bands and we had to go up a dirt road to get to this venue.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is very fancy.
[SPEAKER_04]: But you know, it's a dirt road and I had the BRZ because my wife had the a day on X5 and I did the BRZ up and when I pulled up it was a it was a fundraiser and it's who they pulled up the person's like oh you're with the band.
[SPEAKER_04]: I did not look like I belong here unless I was in the band, but I do think things is not like you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I had a park in like tall grass like off a berm and I was like, man, whenever BRZ.
[SPEAKER_02]: You were okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just stuck.
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't burn.
[SPEAKER_02]: You were fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just drove in and then you drove out.
[SPEAKER_02]: See?
[SPEAKER_04]: Even without all the, it's got the box arranged and the box arranged just makes everything okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got, we've got really sold on the notion that in order to survive anything other, then perfect flat pavement needs something that has, you know, a 10-inch ground clearance big enough to rise.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, you look at a bunch of puddles, like, to be fair.
[SPEAKER_00]: That puddle.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do live in Southeast Michigan.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the poppers are that big.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I had a Michigan sized pot hole like two days ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was like, where the hell did that come from?
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, and then the whole time, I was like, just like Michigan, man.
[SPEAKER_04]: One pot hole, that's how it starts.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the same thing here, like, especially right now, because we're having that the rain.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what kills it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have rain.
[SPEAKER_02]: You think, oh, it's warm.
[SPEAKER_02]: Spring is here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's nature's like, [SPEAKER_02]: freezes.
[SPEAKER_02]: It gets down to 20 and the pavement just comes out in literal chunks of pavement and then you have a giant pot hole.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a pot hole on the main road nearest our house that's surprised everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: It surprised the whole town that drives the road.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like a birthday pot holes.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a number of hubcaps and bits and pieces of things that are now next to the pot hole.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, [SPEAKER_04]: If you have touched on your car, just take them off.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: It always is cooler with the weird steelies that are in it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can see the splash, it's not water.
[SPEAKER_02]: It looks like dirt.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not dirt.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's bits of the paved road.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just like a pavement with a [SPEAKER_02]: So even with that, you know what, you can get through it in your beers.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just don't nail it, like look, we're going right here.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I, this is like, I'm looking to this car.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this car.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why, you know, when we buy our civic, what almost 10 years ago now, you know, we bought, you know, we bought, we went for the hatch pack instead of the sedan, because, you know, we had the prior that we had a couple of station wagons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we couldn't find a wagon that we liked and cut a Ford and the hatchback is kind of like the next best thing to a station wagon Because you get that big opening, you know, so it drives like a car But you have that big opening, so when you do need to put something large in there you just fold that back seat down You can put big stuff in there like bales of straw [SPEAKER_04]: You know, it fits mulch mulch mulch mulch mulch mulch mulch you can put the mulch in there I had a buy a bunch of I had some wood to finish some shelves and and a box I'm working on Went through the back of the uh Ionic five which is just a giant hatchback really Right seriously.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just a really big hatchback That everyone thinks it's small and it is and I have to explain to them like no it's really big They're like I don't know I got tall people.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm like you know how tall I am right [SPEAKER_02]: They say that you tell Tau and me, you know, are you doing like the March madness thing and bringing basketball players with you, what's happening?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, I mean the ionic five, you know, that shape, you know, is so very reminiscent of like the early VW golfs and those were small cars and it's got, you know, very similar proportions to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Except it's all built up by 30%.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the wheel base is longer than the loose at air.
[SPEAKER_04]: The theonic Fives wheel base is one and half inches longer than the loose at air.
[SPEAKER_04]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you look at a lucid air and I out of five next to each other, you'll be like no, no way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just the way of the vehicle report.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: 20 what you can do with visual visual cues like that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know with the ix people weren't buying it because they thought it was the size of the i3 and [SPEAKER_04]: So they didn't, people didn't realize it was as big as it was.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was the big BMW, and so they weren't, you know, so they had the, I can't, I can't, I can't say that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can't say that, I can't say that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't break in a bar.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's more of an offer of record thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's a visual, there are visuals that came into, just because the wheels are pushed so far out, so it looks like a smaller car.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's, yeah, it's a trick.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I had the Infinity QX60 Sport all wheel drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is, you know, what, I guess Infinity's got like three, four models left.
[SPEAKER_00]: All crossovers now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the QX50 and QX55 are going away soon, but they'll be replaced by the QX65, which is basically a QX60 with the back of the roof sliced off to make it into a quote unquote.
[SPEAKER_00]: Coupe.
[SPEAKER_04]: Which again, what's the point?
[SPEAKER_04]: It's if you're getting an SUV.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you just removed a bunch of space.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remove the SUVness from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the QX60 doesn't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The QX60 has all the SUV space to three row.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is basically infinity's version of the pathfinder.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he is a much nicer, more luxurious feeling pathfinder.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they did a refresh on it last year or the year before, [SPEAKER_00]: They dropped the V6 engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just to be a V6 and a 9-speed automatic.
[SPEAKER_00]: They dropped the V6, replaced it with the 2-liter variable compression turbo 4-cylinder, which is, you know, it's, it's, [SPEAKER_00]: It's fine, you know, it's not, when they, when they first announced that thing, we've talked about this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when they first announced it, you know, they said, oh, this is going to have the performance of a V-sex, but much better fuel economy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, not so much, you know, I have just, I think, 21 miles per gallon with it, just not, not exceptional, but, and also, it doesn't compare to a lot of other two liter turbo force owners.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't feel as strong as most of those, which is weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would think with that variable compression system in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It added a lot of complexity to the engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't really give you all the performance and fuel economy that it promised.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it continued to build them anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a it's a decent engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see it's 268 horsepower 286 pounds feet of torque.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is this is where this engine differs from most other two liter turbos.
[SPEAKER_00]: The peak torque comes at 4400 RPM.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of these types of engines, you know, they typically have a peak torque that, you know, somewhere between 1800 to 2000 RPM up to like 4500 RPM, they have that peak torque.
[SPEAKER_00]: This one doesn't have as much low in torque as you would expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is, you know, it's for vehicle this size, it doesn't feel as strong as you would expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Apart from that though, the rest of the vehicle, this is very nice, you know, the interior is really nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: They, the exterior design, you know, it's, it's a sharp-looking, three-row crossover.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one that I had, the, [SPEAKER_00]: the sport was finished in all black except for like the lights and backlit infinity grill the wheels the black wheels had these little strips of chrome fight like they're kind of like five multi-spoke spokes and then in between knows there's a little strip of chrome around the edge so [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, just enough chrome on there so that when you do hit a curb, you will notice it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there's that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when they did the refresh, they gave it the new Android based infotainment system.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's got all that, but it also still has car play and Android Auto support.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you still have full support for Google Maps, Google Assistant, built in, but you can also hook up your phone and use that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: What else?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just generally a nice vehicle.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got some nice touches in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second row seats, we talked about this before on the pathfinder in the 2x60, when you have car seat mounted in the second row seats and you're gonna tilt the seat forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole seat tilts up from the forward edge and tilts forward so you don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if somebody wants to get into the third row, [SPEAKER_00]: you don't have to take the car seat out to get access to the third row.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole thing just tilts up together.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that makes it a little easier to actually use the third row.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third row is not huge, but I can sit back there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, reasonably comfortably, I wouldn't want to take a long road trip in it, but it's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got enough cargo space in the back for [SPEAKER_00]: you know, for multiple carry on bags.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's handy handy in that respect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see, we're good here.
[SPEAKER_00]: just looking for the rear, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the interior of the blue one or of this sport version is a mix of black and dark blue.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like the seating surfaces or dark blue, and there's some dark blue accents on the doors and across the dashboard, which gives it a breaks it up a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: GV80 coupe Darth Vader edition, which does not do that, that's that one's all black.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even even with the with the with the third row seats up, you still have a decent amount of cargo space behind the third row.
[SPEAKER_00]: Third row seats folded down, you can put lots of really big stuff in there, you know, so fold down the second row seats flat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's, you know, it's a nice vehicle, the pricing on this one Grand Total came to 64,380 dollars.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the only option on it was the mineral black paint, that's what they call it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything else was standard on here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to guess at the destination charge?
[SPEAKER_04]: uh... nineteen ninety five fifteen uh... robby was off by just five dollars wow four ten eighty-five well done you that's why i'm just a really tired because you had a very busy day every everything else just fades away to the all the distractions fade away because you're exhausted
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... so that's the uh... that's the twenty twenty six infinity two x sixty uh... sport all-wheel drive uh... alright let's move on to uh... the new BMW i3 uh... so reviving a name but it's not the i3 that we got used to in the twenty ten's which was this little
[SPEAKER_00]: miniature upright carbon fiber-bodied EV short relatively short-range EV that was designed as a as an urban city car.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is more like the next generation of the BMW 3 series except it's all electric.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's based on the same newer class platform as the iX3.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you guys think of this thing?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's good.
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you see?
[SPEAKER_04]: It looks good.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's BMD, the Neoclass 800, you know, the problem to the Neoclass was an 800 volt architecture.
[SPEAKER_04]: The charge is really quick, goes really far and they pulled it off.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, even with their 400 volt systems, they were doing a pretty good job now.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're really going.
[SPEAKER_04]: BMW's going all in and they are not messing around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think, you know, what, at least on the outside, what they've done with this, you know, with the design, you know, they've gone away from the giant enormous kidney grills, apparently, you know, they're going to be discontinuing the high four from the line up sometime in the, in the near future, and this is going to replace it, at least for now, you know, maybe we'll get something more like the high four again at some point in the, in the not too distant future.
[SPEAKER_00]: but this, you know, I like the exterior design of this, especially what they've done with the front.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we've actually kind of seen this car now multiple times in concept form over the last five years.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there was the version that they showed at CES a few years ago, where the exterior was all covered [SPEAKER_00]: oh yeah and so you could change the exterior color none of that on this one they they've had a couple of different concept versions of this that were pretty close to the final design so i i i like to look i'm less convinced about the interior yeah there's there's elements of the interior design that
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I like the, you know, what they've done, you know, they've got this, essentially it is a heads up display across the base of the windshield, so there's no traditional instrument cluster, but right all the way along the base of the windshield, there's this heads up display, which is pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, so you can, you can see all your stuff there right in front of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's above the steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know, so it's a combination wish this steering wheel a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you'll actually be able to see, you know, how the rounded and it cuts.
[SPEAKER_02]: It looks like it shouldn't cut in, regardless of how tall you are kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: They went too hard on that steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's all I'm going to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot happening there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Settle down.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: They were too hard to pull it back, pull it back 20%.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot happening on the steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a really hard and you started well, and someone chrome.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think of the trapezoidal center screen I'm fine with that okay with the center screen when we go back to it flip flip flip [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's the little crookedness.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, the thing is, that's what it's called.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's so many, there's so, you know, there's so, the big screens like that do make cars look very boxy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like when they're just plopped there and they don't have like an instrument cluster that comes off of it to give it some.
[SPEAKER_04]: It just looks like an iPads shoved in the corner.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like when you have it moving to like what it's two screens in one display, it's it's a little bit more softer.
[SPEAKER_02]: When it's just like screens green, you're kind of like, and that is a big screen, so I don't know, maybe doing that makes it look a little less.
[SPEAKER_02]: in your face, you don't like it, Sam.
[SPEAKER_02]: I sense it, Sam.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually okay with the trapezoidal screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing that I have a complaint about.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the thing?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking through all the interior pictures.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's one missing detail.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, what is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Are the vents in it?
[SPEAKER_00]: It sure looks that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, I'm looking real close to the pictures with the dashboard now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Didn't people just go drive this?
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't really know.
[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't drive it, I think they just saw it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh gosh, that's so quiet.
[SPEAKER_04]: I didn't go to that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I don't think it was a drive.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's why I just got invited for uninvited from 12 things.
[SPEAKER_04]: So like if you're not going to come, you don't want to come look at our things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I think you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like there's no.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't see any little levers to manually move the vents.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: Me and MbW fix the hideous grill and have an actually decent front-shark car.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you move the vents.
[SPEAKER_02]: was so excited and then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they broke it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That one little detail.
[SPEAKER_04]: One thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Again, like, like, you know, automakers are like, it's like high school.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like businesses are like high school.
[SPEAKER_04]: If one kid does it, and everyone thinks it's cool, then all the kids do it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Doesn't matter if it's cool or not.
[SPEAKER_04]: In reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, the kids are doing it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, businesses are the exact same way.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're like, oh, well, they're not doing with that.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're doing without events.
[SPEAKER_04]: That must be what people want.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't want to do this.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, that's not what people want.
[SPEAKER_04]: No one's asking for this.
[SPEAKER_04]: You just saw one automaker do it and then another automaker did it.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so you said, oh, I'll do this.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're just like, you know, anyway.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just couldn't all die through it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It'll be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, 463 horsepower, [SPEAKER_00]: This thing is thinking move, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it's it's the next generation of BMWs, um, uh, prop, electric propulsion system.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's there's six generation, you know, it's, it's an evolution of what they have on the current i4 and iX and everything, which is really efficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, uh, they're promising.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think 440 miles of electric range [SPEAKER_00]: which is very impressive.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here's the, is it BMW?
[SPEAKER_04]: I remember when they were talking modular, the modular manufacturing after the I, you know, the I3 and the I8 and we're all just like, yeah, yeah, whatever man.
[SPEAKER_04]: Because they're just like, it felt like a tickle while.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then finally when we drove the, and they dragged us all the germinated drive the I4 and the IX, like, oh my gosh, they did it.
[SPEAKER_04]: They actually pulled it off and I think it's the same thing with the noise class that they showed us all the bets and they kept showing us, you know, fun concepts, you know, like you said, with the e-ink and whatnot.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then they know the day they deliver is what is what it comes down to and it looks like they're retro electric-excited synchronous motors, which is nice.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the [SPEAKER_04]: Everyone else is in permanent magnets people years ago said There's no way you should use a magnet a motor without magnets because you wouldn't get the efficiency or the performance and BMM is like now We'll figure it out.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, every time they did I I get I I was at the If when they shared that news I wrote my article I posted online and we said minutes I got a text from another automaker asking how they did this [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, why are you texting me?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't work had to get up and go buy one and tear it apart.
[SPEAKER_04]: Figure it up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, it was crazy.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was like, but I think I'm like, who is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: 400 kilowatt charging.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, which is some of the outside of China is some of the best you're going to get anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so that, you know, this is, this is all on this to this new architecture, which shares with the ix3.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, and they're also going to be pushing this stuff into a lot of other vehicles over the next couple of years as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the next generation x5, there's going to be an electric version of that that will also utilize this utilize this hardware.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next generation five series and seven series.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, there was BMW saying this week that, you know, while everybody else is panicking and giving up on EVs, you know, we think we can get to 50% EV sales by 2030.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's the thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got you just got to commit.
[SPEAKER_04]: You had to be you'd be hung out.
[SPEAKER_04]: You had to be in your BMW.
[SPEAKER_04]: You have to be now.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess Toyota and GM.
[SPEAKER_04]: You just got to commit and you get to sales.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just, you know, when you don't commit, when you kind of half-ass it, that's when you're, well, things aren't happening the way we hoped.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, because you're, you're kind of half-ass.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got to go all in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to commit to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the key is, you know, it's got to, you know, this is something I used to say in some presentations I did, you know, once you get past the incentive programs, at some point, it's just got to be a better car.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, if it's a, if it's a better car, [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what BMW seems to be building now.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're building a better car.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I thought it was better than the gas force series.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the nice thing about this one because, you know, this is not built, unlike the I4, which is built on a flexible architecture that was shared between EV and gas and plug-in hybrid, this is just a pure bath, which means that when you look in the back seat of this thing, unlike an I4, there's no giant center tunnel for a non-existent drive shaft because, hey, they use the same four-pan regardless of which power tray it's got.
[SPEAKER_00]: This nice flat floor, so, you know, lots of room in the back seat, yeah, you know, hopefully we get to drive this thing, you know, in the coming months, but, you know, this thing looks really, really promising, apart from the whole vet thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: all right let's move on to another actually I think kind of similarly sized electric sedan the new 226 Lexus ES you know the ES you know [SPEAKER_00]: Never, never been one of Lexus's most exciting products, but, you know, it's generally, you know, since the 1990s, it has been Lexus's second best selling product after the RX, and now the new
[SPEAKER_00]: but they're they're launching this thing and it's going to be available to power trains, either hybrid or battery electric, and they're actually launching the bath first, which is kind of unusual.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is, that is a different take.
[SPEAKER_02]: It normally goes the other way around, but [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the babes are going to be hitting dealerships starting in the next few weeks with the ES350E and the ES500E where the 500 is all-wheel drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: The 350 is front-wheel drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: 307 miles of electric range.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got a J-3400 charging port.
[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, it's all the same hardware that you will find in a Toyota BZ or a Toyota CHR or Subaru Saltera or a Subaru Uncharted.
[SPEAKER_00]: So same stuff, 221 horsepower, 308 horsepower, [SPEAKER_00]: The pricing, the ES350 starts at $47,500 with up before the destination charge.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the one that's cheaper than the hybrid, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, it's like $50,000 cheaper than the hybrid.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why does that happen?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would that happen?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would it, is that to get people by any [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, I guess yeah, just to like please consider the EV please pretty please.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're getting sweet deals on the batteries Yeah, so we're to Yoda.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're the number one to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know auto mine.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's true in the world If you want to work with us, you're gonna have to bring these battery prices down and they're like, all right, and I boom now We can sell them cheaper.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really the bathroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're also building their own batteries now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, see there So, you know the destination charge is $1295 [SPEAKER_04]: Wow, that's really good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's not even really, everything's broken.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even even even with even with destination 48, 795 is the starting price for the ES350E.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the hybrid when that arrives, the ES350H, we'll start at 50,995.
[SPEAKER_00]: So about about $2,000 more.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so if you want to fancy EV, it's a multiple, that's a problem.
[SPEAKER_04]: We got too many fancy EVs to be honest, but, you know, fancy EV still need V. There's a lot of EVs coming right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, all of a sudden, these EVs, and I'm kind of like, it's funny to me where EVs aren't like the hotness at the moment, but yet the OEMs are like, we already have this in the pipeline, guys.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I mean, there's the companies that are going all in there, like, well, we're not concerned.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're not stopping now because, you know, they're like, well, this three years, I mean, we have a long-term roadmap.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's think about, like, long-term as a company.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it's going to happen as a person right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, finally, I mean, Honda was basically ready to start production on their EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they can't stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the exact right time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right as gas or right as oil prices are, you know, sky $25 a barrel.
[SPEAKER_02]: It depends how long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably going to 200.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it depends how long the prices stay where they're, you know, because the prices fluctuate.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not a static thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they spike and then they come down a little.
[SPEAKER_02]: They never go down to where they were, but they spike and they come down.
[SPEAKER_02]: They spike and they come down.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't, I don't know if that's going to be enough to, and because so many people I think, [SPEAKER_02]: truly when the terror on that the terrorist disappeared with the incentives disappeared we're like we got a buyer EV now we still had i think a lot of almost ready EV buyers were like right now let's go yeah there's a spike and then there was the law and now let's go in and now the the EV shows are going back up again [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but it's like a slow creep like you wonder how you it's it's tough.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's tough to figure out whether it's the I only five is up 6% over last year of a year.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so if you're still making any of you people want people are still buying it.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to buy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why you see it everywhere for more people buy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, have either of you to ever bought or considered buying a car from Carvana?
[SPEAKER_04]: I have one.
[SPEAKER_04]: I bought one.
[SPEAKER_04]: There was a there was a startup in San Francisco.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was, uh, BMW had invested in them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Car shift.
[SPEAKER_04]: Our shift, I think it was called.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we bought like two cars from them, because they would bring the car to your house and then you could drive it around.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you liked it, you just bought the car on an iPad.
[SPEAKER_04]: essentially they're use cars they weren't you know so we can't be all we'd buy used and so we use that for a few types and then it's just way went out of business and i remember i wrote an article about it and then carvano is like hey we do the same thing and might you don't bring the car to my house until after i've purchased it yeah which is a little different out [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, Carvana has gotten kind of famous in the use car business, especially during the early 2020s, they were basically buying up every use car that could get their hands on and almost went bankrupt because they spent so much money buying up all these use cars because, you know, manufacturers couldn't build new cars, so everybody was looking for use cars and so Carvana tried to buy up as much inventory as they could.
[SPEAKER_00]: They managed to turn things around and, you know, they're famous for having these car vending machines outside their showrooms.
[SPEAKER_02]: That look really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, apparently Carvana is now starting to sell new cars too.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have bought a number of stalantis dealerships in the last six months.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so depending on where you are in the country, like I went and looked here, you know, I saw this, I saw the video on TFL, Roman and [SPEAKER_00]: I tried it here, and I went, you know, just went to Carvana, could not find any new car inventory.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I turned on the VPN and had it show me as being in Denver, then it showed a bunch of new car inventory from ram, jeep, Atlantis, or Dodge, and Alpha, [SPEAKER_00]: And so this, this, this is going to be interesting, you know, if Carvana gets, you know, starts buying up franchises, you know, dealerships from other manufacturers, you know, decides just to let us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, using the same approach that they have, you know, they still have the stores open, but you can go, you can just go on the Carvana website, shop for a car, and do the entire purchase online, and then they'll deliver it to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: After you, after you, after you pay for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you've, I trade in, they'll pick up your trade at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's, I mean, would you, would you consider buying a car through Carvana, a bread and new car?
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to drive things.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I think most people are like, yeah, I'll just buy it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think I'm in the Robbie camp.
[SPEAKER_02]: I, because I need to drive it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I need, yeah, I couldn't spend the kind of money you spend on a vehicle without knowing if I like it, driving it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would have said that even before I did this, I need to drive that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't just like, yeah, sure, it looks cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think, you know, generally, you know, we all agree on that, we would want to drive something before we buy it, but then you look at Tesla, you look at Lucid and Rivian and others that are doing direct to consumer sales, and I think there's a lot of consumers up there that say, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I'm good with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know you can drive a Tesla.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you can go to a few.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a one of their, they don't call dealerships showroom near you.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can go and they do have vehicles that you can drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you can go to a Tesla showroom and drive them if you want.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, a lot of people are fine with just like.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ordering a car and they drive it the first time when they get it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know it's very it that I didn't say or to me because I I didn't say it's good.
[SPEAKER_04]: I said it was weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think it might depend, you know, if you had like a 72 hour, you know full refund policy or something like that, you know, or seven day refund policy Even by decided it's not the right fit for you to come back picking up [SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, as long as you haven't done any damage to it, and maybe it's less than a certain number of miles, then, you know, they'll take it away.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you had something like that, I think a lot of people would actually be fine with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably, if you had that like, yeah, if you could just drive it and they said, you know, there's a mileage on me, you can't take it for 5,000 miles while you have it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just test it out a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you can't drive from New Hampshire to California and back.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, if it's, you know, say less than 200 miles or something or less than 500 miles.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm looking at Carvana for used ionic fives because ours is on our leases almost up.
[SPEAKER_04]: And like all the sort of like inexpensive ones all have white interior.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like man, I got dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_02]: I, even if I didn't have white interiors, I'm anti white interiors because I have yet to see a press car with a white or light cream interior that the driver's seat is not blue gene colored.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: It could be the cheapest one or the most expensive one.
[SPEAKER_02]: You get that hint of.
[SPEAKER_02]: blue and you can really see it as the is it starts to wear a little bit just get a little bit of creasing from use.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can see the creases are white and around the creases it's more blue.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like no, I'm not I wear blue jeans too much because if that's what happens is a press car with five to 10,000 miles, what's it gonna look like in a couple of year?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't understand people with my cars with white interior.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a beautiful idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a ventual gray.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I call it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a ventual gray.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like it's colored.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the problem is it's going to be gray with hints of blue.
[SPEAKER_02]: A gray with a blue gray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it a feature or benefit that your car changes colors that you go well speaking of the Atlantis apparently they have actually officially although you know I think you've been able to do this for a while but they've officially turned on Tesla Supercharging support on the Atlantis EVs they're like the last ones to do it I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can buy adapters from Stalantis, and they also said that starting with the 2027 charger when they start building nose, that will be their first model that comes from the factory with a J-3400 charging port.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good thing, I guess.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone's doing that slowly, but surely, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was, I was just looking up to the last, this is EV sales the other day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last year, they sold 11,400 wagging your S's.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, 11,399 correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: And about 7,400 charger Daytonas, you know, not a huge number of people that are impacted by this yet, but I'm sure that'll change once they finally start selling the recon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, theoretically that should.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because those are going to fly off the dealers showrooms, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Reserving opinion for later.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, let's let's talk about scammers and fraudsters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So remember Trevor Milton?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: Try to remember him.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking the story.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was the guy, but look at the law.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he got charged and convicted and went to prison for committing fraud and then some guy pardoned him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's back out free again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's got a news cam.
[SPEAKER_00]: He bought a a defunct business jet manufacturer called Cyberjet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that, you know, they launched the play.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's not cyber with a sea, it's cyber with an ass.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's correct.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, in case you choose to Google this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, this, this, you know, this is, it's not like a, uh, a golf stream, you know, that can fly, you know, 6, 7, 8,000 miles across the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is more like a Honda jet, you know, it's a, a light jet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they launched the original S.J.
[SPEAKER_00]: 30, they sold a grand total of five, not 500, but five, like one hand, five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Mr. Milton has bought up the remains of Cypriot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, it's it's it's all about the AI.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's gonna it's it's come full.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, a burial autonomy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So does that imply I'm reading through this you don't need a pilot at all I just hop on my plane and say take me to LA.
[SPEAKER_00]: Presumably.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I don't trust that I feel like I don't trust that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also feel like it's not going to happen, but also even if it did I feel like I don't trust that You guys buy that car first or buy that plane first.
[SPEAKER_02]: See how it does for ya [SPEAKER_02]: you let me know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe I'll consider one.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, this is never going to happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is never going to happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: And see how this happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: Given Trevor Milton's background, I would say this was probably not be a wise investment.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you should not give a scammer's money, um, but we keep getting scammer's money, I mean, you should not give scammers money, we still do it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, the, what was the guy with the, we work that, oh, um, Adam Newman, Adam Newman, big scammer and then that fell apart and then Anderson Horowitz just gave money again for some other ridiculous thing if like a year ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so yeah, if you if you you know if you're part of the club You can scam all you want and you know you're gonna walk away with a bunch of money People are gonna walk everyone else is gonna be disappointed and then you're just gonna do it again [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you're a billionaire investor and you want to throw your money at this guy, it's set it on fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go right ahead.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I feel like you've, like, and I have no sympathy for that person at this point.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the first time, I would say, like, if this, you didn't know, and he scammed you, that sucks for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you just bought it, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: But like the second time, it's like, hey, want to give me more money?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, I don't.
[SPEAKER_02]: I choose not to give you more money.
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be my position.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know why anybody would give more money.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't make sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the other one, who's not necessarily a total scammer, but he's got a mixed, mixed history.
[SPEAKER_00]: His Malcolm Brickland.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, Brickland, he's got to be at his 80s now, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's, he's had a long history with the auto industry with trying to bring various products to the North American market.
[SPEAKER_00]: He of course, you know, his first success came with Subaru.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the original imported for Subaru into the US.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he convinced the government of Nova Scotia and Canada to build him a factory in Atlantic Canada to build a safety vehicle.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't even called a sports car.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a two-seater, you know, the Brickland SV1, that lasted about a year and a half before they went galli up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he had, he was behind bringing Eugos to America.
[SPEAKER_00]: That didn't go well.
[SPEAKER_04]: Especially for the people about the Eugos.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then back in the late 2000s, he was back again [SPEAKER_00]: I actually interviewed the guy at the 2008 to try to auto show and I have a lot of things to that in the in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: That one was something he called visionary vehicles, which was going to bring in some plug-in hybrid vehicles built by Cherry in China.
[SPEAKER_00]: That never went anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and uh, now he's back again, um, this time pitching something called the Brickland 3 EV.
[SPEAKER_02]: probably just send up my entire feelings right there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just see now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just one big sigh.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just that, if you have, I feel like if I just walked, as long as you just, if you have a presentation, like our job as journalists, 90% of our job is just showing up and turning things in on time.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really, as long as you can show up, you turn things on time and you can create a legible sentence.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's with a noun and a predicate and punctuation at the end.
[SPEAKER_04]: Don't forget verbs.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's in there, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you can do that, boom, you're a writer.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel like for these type of fellows, if you just show up into a room and you dress the part and you say the words and you have some 3D renderings, that's it.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's all you need to get billions of dollars.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like I'm really, I've blown it as a...
[SPEAKER_04]: you have made a mistake robbing me I mean I knew what did you like hey I'm going to be a writer I'm not going to make a lot of money me that's that's every writer whenever they sit down like well I could do this job or I could do something else which would be less stressful nah I'm going to keep doing the job where I make less money everyone hates me and I work long hours so he's always wondering what this job was like yeah so [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in case you didn't guess it from the name from three EV, uh, it is an EV, and it's a three wheeler with a single wheel at the rear, because, you know, there's such a huge market for those.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, truly, yeah, no, why would, why do this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, the why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this the companies and things that will never happen, portion of the episode?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: The things that will never happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Things that will never happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know, I just, I don't know, I don't get, I'm a complete loss as to why anyone still pays any attention to this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's 87 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this thing is supposed to start $30,000.
[SPEAKER_04]: But you don't even get all the wheels, you don't even get three of them.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're down one wheel.
[SPEAKER_04]: For $5,000 for a few thousand dollars, unless you can get a bolt with all of the wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but the thing is if you do that, if you put four wheels on it, it's going to certify it as a cart.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my god, hold on, hold on, hold on.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm looking at this interior photo.
[SPEAKER_04]: That dash cluster is from the bolt.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it?
[SPEAKER_04]: If you write this, that is the bolt-cluster.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the original bolt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think there's a whole bunch of bolt pieces in there.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you can just buy a bolt, just buy a bolt.
[SPEAKER_04]: Don't get this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's a new boat.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is old boat, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Would you like an old boat that's missing a wheel?
[SPEAKER_02]: An old boat, what minus one wheel here we go.
[SPEAKER_04]: And only has to speak for it.
[SPEAKER_04]: And has a huge, it's like, even the design is sort of, it's very 80's.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very, it's very 80's Pontiac, actually.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yes, Pontiac, that's what you.
[SPEAKER_02]: that grill, so that's how the grill is the key part of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you have the little V on the front almost looks like the Pontiac V, like from far away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, this is, this is, this is this is, this is an arrogance.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is just cobbled together shenanigans to get money out of people for in, by an 87, 87.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm I'm not going to have the energy to scan people at 87.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you know, if you thought you could get away with it, [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe he's going to think he's been doing for so long people will forget who he was with visionary vehicles.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were a bunch of dealers that paid up, you know, some some amount of money for franchises.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm I'm sure he can find some some suckers out there little Pam Pam something for this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, this is and this is very much and this is kind of almost inside Silicon Valley thinking this is just sort of investor thinking Is it everyone wanted to be the person who invested in Uber or invested in invested in Facebook again?
[SPEAKER_04]: That's all all these all regards.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's how they made all this money.
[SPEAKER_04]: They pay Pau Uber and Facebook [SPEAKER_04]: They all invested early, those things took off, they invest in so many stupid things that never take off.
[SPEAKER_04]: But they have so much money, now they're just gambling with billions of their billions of dollars to belong to other people because they made one lucky choice.
[SPEAKER_04]: The end, these are not smarter than smart people, they're very lucky.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in some cases, they are quite dumber than dumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think as you get more and more money, you actually become dumber.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, because no one wants to say no to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: You don't have any, you know, because everyone who's around you has some sort of financial incentive to say yes to you, to, to, to, to, to, to, to stay on your, your good side, whether you, you work for them or your friend who's, you know, sort of being subsidized by their lifestyle, your hangar on, your part of the posse.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, and so yeah, you're not going to say no to these people and so they just, they get this, they're a ego gets more, you know, gets inflated and then if no one ever pushes back on you, you just turn into a bad person.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so at the opposite end of the scale is Rolls Royce, which has been around for a while and been in business for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a few years back, their former CEO said, yep, we're going to go fully electric by the end of 2030.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is successor Chris Brownbridge or Brownridge has said, no, we're going to keep building V12s for the foreseeable future.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, is anybody surprised at this point when they're doing when they're back pedaling, because it's a great way, way, way, way, way, way, way.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were going to do this.
[SPEAKER_02]: This isn't going to work with the way we thought we've changed our mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're all doing it at this point.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rose Royce is such a weird thing because they sell like seven cars a year every minute.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's when I was talking to the, um, I believe it was a head of design or the head of engineering doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_04]: over for some very low, you know, quantity car, they were like, we make like X amount of cars a year.
[SPEAKER_04]: They could all be V-16s.
[SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_04]: Most of the people don't even drive their car that we sell them.
[SPEAKER_04]: They buy it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It sits somewhere and it's just, you know, and appreciates and then they sell it again.
[SPEAKER_04]: And like our carbon footprint [SPEAKER_04]: It's like, it's like, it's more than it's in consequential.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's in consequential.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, the carbon footprint of Toyota's lunch menu is higher than this entire company's like, you know, vehicle.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, when you look at Rolls Royce, like, you sure you're going to put a V12.
[SPEAKER_04]: V's make more sense.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, these luxury vehicles make more sense as EVs because there's no rumble.
[SPEAKER_04]: They do, they put these V12s in and then you do everything in their power to remove the rumble and the vibration and the sound and everything from that V12 from the passenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a reason why Rolls Royce is of all his head names like shadow and specter and ghost because they try and make them as quiet as possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what differs does it make of it's kind of V12 or an electric engine electric motor to relevant.
[SPEAKER_04]: At the end of the day, they could say they could tell people that it has a V12 and put electric motor in, because people who are buying this are not driving it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is like, you know, people with my ass classes, like, oh, yeah, sometimes people get driven around, like, yeah, the executive's way.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you're buying a Rolls Royce, you're not buying it to drive it.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're buying it to get driven around town.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, our machine is like a donner or a specter.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's two doors.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah, yeah, there's that.
[SPEAKER_04]: But they have some of those parts.
[SPEAKER_04]: You just sit in the back and like, oh, this is nice and quiet.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wouldn't even know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, we're delivering your V12 and then you go to the drives or I case an EV doc tell them every once in a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just over room.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just it just has a big V12 shaped case that has an electric motor in the bottom of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's just no one needs it.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, it's just like off the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that has fake exhaust sounds coming out the back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Room, very quiet, fake exhaust sounds.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, just put it exhaust thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: You put a little speaker there.
[SPEAKER_04]: No one's gonna know.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like the hammy.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's the hammy thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: You could tell.
[SPEAKER_04]: Slant's just could say everything has a hammy and they just put like a little speaker in the back of the car.
[SPEAKER_04]: No one's opening the hood on their vehicles anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then finally, Corvette is Chevrolet is apparently going to bring out yet another variant of the Corvette for 2020, 7.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a new transport, which apparently they're going to get a larger engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the 6.2 liter V8, just not enough, so apparently going to punch top to 6.7 and give it an extra
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's not what we needed a lot more, but I guess you're buying a Corvette.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just were all the power you can possibly get.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's a good thing, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: When that news came out, 401k's all over the world's screen, they're like, no, no, don't take it out right now, wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've got a couple of listeners that in couple of listeners, messages, first up from Mark L. Mark, run in, say, I'm looking at buying a Honda Ridgeline and I've gone down the rabbit hole, also known as YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: After some mind-numbing videos, I've seen a few claiming that 2027 model will have some updates.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both the interior and exterior do look dated, and 2027 is supposed to improve both.
[SPEAKER_00]: That being said, a couple of reviews have said, there's a good chance of a type of orange line in the pipeline.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have any of you heard anything on this?
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I don't think there's ever going to be a type artist.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, that's not Honda's ammo, that is a GMMO.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's just make everything fast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't see that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That would, I mean, no, I can't imagine that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could it happen?
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Any expectation?
[SPEAKER_02]: Zero.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's not going out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even the, even the ridge line redesigned, that's actually not coming till probably next year as a 2028 model, not as a 2027.
[SPEAKER_04]: Could they just update it like three years ago for?
[SPEAKER_00]: They did a refresh a couple years ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, they did the exterior refresh a few years ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is that this is the vehicle that my wife got into and she's like, oh, is this an EVM?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll know.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's like, what's the point?
[SPEAKER_02]: I like to, I like to originally when it's still had, I don't want to say winglets.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not it.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's an airplane.
[SPEAKER_04]: The flying buttresses.
[SPEAKER_02]: The buttresses.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And winglets in my head.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, no one's yet to be a galalde.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like those.
[SPEAKER_04]: But it makes it harder to like, it looks less like a like a real truck.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's what people, it makes it turns people off.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a truck like enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, when they did the second gen, one of the things they changed was, you know, they wanted to make it look more truck-like.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when, I mean, when you look at, you know, you look at most pickup trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a separate cab and bed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, it's two separate pieces.
[SPEAKER_00]: So on the new red line, on the current generation red line, what they did was it's actually still a unibody, just like the first generation was, but they put a groove in the metal and put a rubber strip in there, so that it looks like the cabin pattern separate, but it's actually all one.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you pull off that rubber strip, you can see it's just one piece of metal underneath there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a trick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a trick.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of those visual tricks to fool you into thinking you got something different.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a, the fool you in a thinking you got a vehicle that handles worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got body un-frame.
[SPEAKER_04]: Psych, you know body.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and finally, from Mr. Burns, he left a big, actually, it was actually three separate messages on Discord because it was so long, but he wanted to share some of his thoughts with us on the Kia EV3, which,
[SPEAKER_00]: Supposedly the EV3 is still coming to the U.S. later this year, that's what Kia tells us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're not getting the EV4, although if you happen to live across the Detroit River in Canada, you can go to a Kia dealer in Canada and buy an EV4, but you cannot get him here in the U.S.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the EV3 Mr. Burns had a chance to drive it for a number of days when he rented one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he got the EV3 Deluxe GT line and he has a whole bunch of things that thoughts about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the cargo room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike the Renault Cleo hybrid I had a year ago in the Netherlands.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was able to put a full size roller suit case with work related gear in the back, plenty of room left for colleagues, more efficient carry on roller as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Comfortable cockpit, cheat charging and big gulp, big gulp, friendly cup holders.
[SPEAKER_02]: like that analysis.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pick up friendly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Long reach for the flat infotainment screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the car is compact, but I had the lean a bit to get to the right edge of things on the infotainment screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: For what I can tell, this would be the case in the EV 9 as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that'll weird cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same screen we all think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's the same screen you've got on a bunch of vehicles.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think including the, [SPEAKER_00]: the K4, where you've got two 12-inch displays plus a little four or five-inch display in the middle there that you can't see behind the steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: See what else here.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's such a weird placement.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought I did think about that in the K4.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like why is this here?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so hard to see.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it was weird in the the EV nine when we drove it when they when we drove it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Which time in Korea, I was like, well, this is it makes sense.
[SPEAKER_04]: But then there's buttons for the climate control.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, all right, fine, for the actual temperature.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, I never used to.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like just a cute little spot to put that in, but you don't ever really need to use it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or you forget it's there because you can't see it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I just hit the auto button and just go off my life.
[SPEAKER_04]: I rarely like change the things unless it's, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see what else left and right stocks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, I have pack-ups on screen while the steering wheel is blocking key controls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, WTFE used stop telling me the drink coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: The use regulations for driver assistance can kiss my fat American ass.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never been more nanny than a car than I was in the UV-3.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, I figured I'm mute the stupid speed limit warning indicator and turn off the mom is teaching me to drive lane intervention crap during the captive cruise control.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Mr. Burns, don't hold back next time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Please tell us how you really feel about all that nanny stuff.
[SPEAKER_04]: I like that the Europeans are like, you know, we got really good coffee.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe she doesn't have some.
[SPEAKER_04]: We know you're not, we know you're not tired, but we should see if he's a coffee.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a cup of tea, no, right there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Overgrap, grab a cup of tea, no, no, have a nice piece of bread.
[SPEAKER_02]: some bread a little bit of butter.
[SPEAKER_04]: See, a little bit of your peeing bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: The charging experience, once I figured out what I was doing, a charge to circle K twice, once midweek, and then near the airport before returning the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: First night, me and my colleagues spent 45 minutes charging, recharging, and trying to unlock the charger plug and 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't know how to disconnect until some Dutch girl comes out to unplunders at a poosho.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I would just lock and unlock the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: May I ask you another question?
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you seen the circle K, have you been in the circle K for 45 minutes while charging your car next to ours?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes?
[SPEAKER_00]: What now have you been doing for 45 minutes at a circle K?
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, what do you get?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's a lot of time with a circle.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I always, so when I do my, like, my long drives, I have places that I stop that I know because I know there's like a restaurant nearby or a taco truck or a taco truck.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so then I can just kind of relax and do a thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like circle, okay, you're like, okay, I guess I'm gonna get a really bad burrito, frozen burrito, I'll throw in the microwave.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... performances very nice car solid ran in the eco driving mode train our northeastern car since our northeastern offices didn't make chargers available uh... and we learned that there are no circle k's or s's out that way uh... even an eco mood mode car moved
[SPEAKER_00]: like it was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now like pull start to fun, but I think I could have been if I tried and sport.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he liked the performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Real vents in climate controls, somewhat confusing and foot payment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It appears this car is the same layout for controls at the EV 9.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we already talked about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some are a great compact car and a first EV for a small family based on this week alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be begging my wife to at least try the EV 9 for a test drive in lieu of having the roadside SOOK and Shell Plus, Shell EV Chargers and gas stations on the main roads.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we can do nicely with an adapter and a Tesla charging account.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of which, I got between 90 kilowatts, 225 kilowatts, charging with CCS2 connections at a 400 kilowatts charging station with the 400 volt architecture.
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for sharing all that Mr. Burns.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's got a copy and paste and put it on a site.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're a boom, it's a car review box.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bam, done.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all in the, in the discord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you haven't checked out the, you know, the wheel bearings discord, all of some interesting conversations going on in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that, I think we will call it a show.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're done, people.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, talk to you next time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.
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