The Toyota MR2 Return, Driving a Kia for Canada Only, The 2nd Generation Seltos, and Why Car Seat Design Matters

Hello and welcome to the Auto Guide Show. This week, Kyle drives a new Kia EV. We talk about a new Kia SUV, is the Toyota MR2 coming back, and later we will talk seats. But first, a word from our sponsor.

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Okay, so kicking things off Kia this week has unveiled. Well, they keep calling it the new Kia Seltos, or the next generation. So since there's already a 26 on sale, I assume it'll be the 27. And it's going to come out pretty early next year. This could be one of the first 27's available. It's new. It's interesting. It's new. It's bigger. It's a couple inches wider, a couple inches longer. But I think one inch shorter, height wise.

So it's got a wider sort of look and stance. And it totally has Kia SUV styling. Some angles looks like a baby EV9. Other angles that looks like a baby tell you right, but it's unmistakably Kia. The only difference is the headlights are built into that giant black grille. They're actually in there, sort of hidden in and camouflage, but they're in there.

Sorry, decide the big long daytime running lights are not like on top or they're not part of the daytime thing. It's interesting. And it's got the most key of wheels I've ever seen.

Yes, I mean, Kia is as we'll talk about later on this, like Kia is definitely carving out its own little spot in the entire landscape for the wildest, coolest wheel designs.

Yeah, this headlight treatment. It's like the teleride was a preview of things to come. It's funny to me because, you know, I don't know about you, but I make fun of, you know, people driving around with really dark tinted headlights.

They're like, oh, cool. You made your headlights worse. And it's like, you can't even see these until they're actually turned on. And it's also that meme. It's the BMW meme about the grille growing bigger and bigger on the front until it's just the whole front end.

You're right. It's like they put this the grille from the teleride on this, but it's such a smaller vehicle. They couldn't put the headlights whereas in the teleride, they're sort of still beside the grille. So it's like, oh, we got to put them in.

And I really want to see that closer, first of all, because I bet they obviously haven't tinted the headlights. I can't even do that. It's illegal. But if they paint it black, they're surround behind it. That's interesting, because they're obviously LED. And I wonder if they don't need any reflection and the LEDs just shooting straight out.

If there's a small little projector bulb in there, we just don't see, but I mean, it's cool. It's almost like hidden headlights from back in the day where you'd have a little flapper roll.

Yeah, I'm not against it, but it's it's something.

And the interior is way better. Not that it had a bad interior, but it's keys and tears recently have been great. And this has the dual 12.3. I think it is inch screens under one panel, like pretty much all the vehicles have.

And they do it well, because it's it's not sticking way out of the dash and distracting. It's just kind of nicely laid out. And the interior looks premium. And there's going to obviously be more space for rear seat passengers. That's why it's a little bigger. So that's all good.

Engine wise, there's three engines. Global leaks. This was the global launch. The only of it in front will drive manual transmission versions and other markets saw that.

Yeah, a six-speed manual Celsius.

But the and it's still one six turbo. It's just the low output. It makes about 180 horsepower instead of the 190 we get. So 180 horsepower manual from low drive Celsius. That could be fun.

Yeah, we don't get that. We get the 190 1.6 T in the high higher trims is what they said. So I don't know if we'll be like, now we're just the top trim or maybe the top two. And otherwise is that same two liter. That's like hundred.

I should know this 130 or 147.

Yeah, less and less torque. So yeah, that's always kind of been the.

It's actually what's prevented my own family from buying one is we did want to get the top trim and we're on a second tip trim and driving it.

We're like, oh, like it's. It's not slow. It's just. It's not swift. But the big news that the kind of set as an aside because I don't have the details yet is there's a hybrid coming in 2026.

So that means it's obviously not ready for launch. And like I said, this is supposed to be a somewhat early launch. But I would wager by summer fall. It should be around.

So I don't know what the hybrid system is going to be because as we know.

And Kia has all sorts of electrified solutions in North America. They have fully V's. They have plug and hybrids. I assume this will just be a regular hybrid. So I don't know.

I don't know if it's going to. I can't imagine it's going to be the one six turbo hybrid that's in the Santa Fe. But that would be amazing. That's what's shoved in here.

That would be one torquy little SUV that would suddenly could be one of the most kind of best best performers.

Yeah. I mean, you kind of have to use that one, I think.

All the other hybrid systems. Maybe they can be paired with Kia's all wheel drive. But all the other hybrids are front drive only.

And the two liter hybrid. I don't think it's in any Kia's sold in our market. But it was in it's in the Sonata hybrid.

I don't know if no, that's the one six or one six or one eight.

It's a smaller engine. Anyway, the Sonata has a two liter unique hybrid setup.

Maybe this could be paired with it. And then you'd have roughly corolla cross hybrid outputs. But yeah, like my money would be on a detune version of the 1.6.

Because if this is bigger, this is closer to the size of the sportage now, like it's slightly bigger. I mean, still 178 inches long. It's not that long.

It's definitely below the compacts. I would wager maybe they take the turbo off their 1.6.

If that's possible, like if the 1.6 turbo can match to that hybrid, maybe the 1.6.

Normal could somehow or maybe that a launcher transmission or hybrid system could be paired to all wheel drive. That makes sense.

I mean, we drove it. It's numbers physically seem lower than the competition, but it drives way more powerful than it is.

Because if the 1.6 turbo, you're not going to get really good fuel economy numbers, which is the point of the hybrid in this class.

Yeah, it makes 250 horsepower. That's also kind of cool.

Yeah. I think that the Sonata is a little over 200 horsepower right around 200. So maybe that is the.

And currently the Sonata, at least in our market, that's the only car that has that setup. So this would be a good way to spread the.

Spread the setup out to other ones. And then I'm sure the Kona would get it as a mid cycle facelift.

Well, I've driven the Kona hybrid in Europe, but that is front wheel drive only. That's why we don't have here.

And I, I mean, maybe, maybe they are just going to put that in here because there's enough southern U.S. that would buy a front wheel drive hybrid.

And they don't worry so much sort of like before did with the escape plugin. Who knows.

Yeah. And that was a notoriously great seller for.

Exactly. People.

People want all wheel drive. They don't necessarily need it, but they want it.

So moving on from one Kia with vertical headlights of the very corners of the body to another, you were.

You just got back from driving a car overseas.

I did. Yeah. I came back from Spain to drive the 2026 Kia EV4. Now for American listeners, you're probably like,

oh, that's weird. That's not listed on the website anywhere.

That's because it is indefinitely delayed.

The EV4, we saw the New York Auto Show earlier this year, and it was meant to come to both Canada and the U.S.

And yet some things have happened in the last eight months.

What's changed? Why, why won't the EV4 or 5 go to the States and, and I want the EV6 come to Canada?

Yeah. I don't know. But it's almost like the price got doubled or something.

It's very strange. It's almost like instead of giving customers more choice, certain decisions have been made that make affordable cars less affordable.

Anyway, after that, this is when it launches, it will be the most affordable new EV you can buy in Canada by undercutting the upcoming Chevy Bolt by $3.

But it's way bigger. Yeah. And I also want to point out that that is free destination pricing.

So depending on destination delivery charges, the Chevy might actually be cheaper.

Anyway, this is a compact car as the name implies. It's roughly the size of a K4.

It's built on, well, Kia calls it the EGMP platform, but it's a 400 volt architecture instead of 800.

And it is largely based on the same platform as the K4. So it is a gas engine or gas platform adapted for EV use.

That price, that low low price does come with a smaller battery pack, but it's what 390 kilo meters, which is 240 ish miles.

So still pretty good for a terrible car that would probably list for around $30,000 US if it went there.

Good space. A lot of tack, a lot of standard safety stuff.

Some challenging angles to its styling.

It definitely has styling.

Yeah, I like certain parts of it. The front, I think, looks pretty good.

And the rear three quarter at certain angles has kind of like a Cadillac CT4 or CT5 kind of vibe to it that I like.

But when you look at the car and profile, he is doing that thing where it pretends a sedan is a hatchback really aggressively here.

And like there's a disjoint with the little winglets above the window lines. So that all looks bad.

From certain angles, it looks like the back of the car is still loading.

That's the only way I can describe it.

And the amount of metal between the tail lights is just like the proportions are off.

It does mean that the trunk is enormous when you open it.

But the problem there is that it's an odd shape.

Like it doesn't go very deep. So when you open the trunk, you don't have a whole lot of horizontal clearance.

So fitting large items is still going to be odd.

And then there's a big lip at the bottom, too.

So it's like a four inch drop from the lip to the actual float floor.

So it's very strange that part.

But this drives very nicely.

It's very comfortable.

It drives like a premium sedan.

Really.

I like that.

Yeah. So I mean, in this size and in this price category, this is doing something different.

I think it drives a lot better than the leaf.

And while I can't say how the new bolt drives, we've driven the old bolt.

And this is basically the same with the new battery pack.

So I can't imagine it's going to be much different.

Yeah, I think Kia is on to something here.

And then as Mike you hinted earlier, this is going to change up the EV lineup pretty substantially.

And Canada and America's Kia electric lineups are going to be completely different.

Because Kia Canada is going to kill the EV6 and have this and the Celto's is Celto's ish size or sportage size.

EV5.

You've seen it.

I feel like it's somewhere between those two in terms of size.

So sorry, I'm just looking at the pictures.

I don't honestly.

You saw in person.

So I'm sure it's a little different.

It's going on with Kia's car design.

I mean, the SUVs, we were kind of hoping front of the grill, but they're distinct in their SUV.

But it's like someone forgot to say being completely different just to be completely different isn't always good.

So these are my two takeaways on images.

As I don't think Kia will want to necessarily agree with my thoughts.

But from the profile, which you described, it looks like an EV6 up until the back doors.

It looks like one of those cars or someone tried to put their own pickup bed on it, but it doesn't fit.

And then it has an ill-fitting cap on top of it.

It looks like two different cars from about the right where the rear axle is.

Whatever is behind it doesn't match what's in front of it.

It's very strange.

And then I totally see on the three-quarter you're talking about.

It has CT4 and CT5 tail lights.

They look so similar.

But then it's got this weird bulbous chunk of metal between them.

The tail lights see each other.

Does it really stick out like the picture makes it look like?

Or is it more flatter?

Yeah.

It does.

Yeah.

So if you're looking completely in the profile at the rear, you see one tail light and then a clear extension of the tail.

Yeah, again, it looks like it would.

If that was just a regular trunk hatch thing.

It actually looks really cool, but maybe too.

I don't know.

It's like someone grabbed the trunk and just pulled on it.

Yeah, to me.

Almost like those cargo planes that are a regular plane and they're trying to chunk on top to fit bigger things.

No, that clientele trunk is very weird.

Yeah.

That's the thing.

So you just said it.

It's like someone took a piece and kind of just extended it.

It feels like in profile.

Someone took, they had a vector image of the whole car, right?

And then they grabbed a few of the nodes at the tail and they were just like,

yeah, that's just extended it.

And they even said in the presentation, it's a long tail design.

You're like, oh, yes, it is.

Yeah, that's a, that's some overhang on the back.

Maybe that's it.

I mean, being an EV can have this short front overhang.

So it's trying to give you more of a weird drive.

Look.

But maybe someone did on, on AutoCAD or whatever they're designing it with.

I accidentally slipped with the mouse and dragged those nodes along.

Or maybe it was a clay model.

I got a little too hot and the backs are debelt.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Sorry.

I don't know if we covered this.

Is this front drive?

This is OK.

So this is front drive for now.

There will be an all wheel drive model that comes, which gives an advantage over Chevy and Nissan.

But currently it is just front drive.

And the top model does something like 340 miles of range.

Or 552 kilometers.

Sorry, not top model.

Top distance choice.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it.

I think they all will drive.

Yeah.

If they keep the price.

I mean, we're taught just Canadian culture where we are.

So the all wheel drive version of this, not much over 40.

You'd have something there for sure.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I know I'm making fun of the style, but inside looks great.

And like you said, it drives great.

And I think it succeeds though, because EVs do need to still look different for the people who are going to probably buy this.

I don't think people, I mean, the bulk kind of proved it.

A more regular looking EV just didn't work as well, even though that's what everyone wants.

So it's a, it's a cash 22 I think right now.

Yeah.

It's interesting because you look at BMWs and like that's why we think it's successful is that a lot of its EVs look just like the regular models.

But then people maybe don't want that.

So yeah, I'm curious as to how it does.

And the pricing starts right where the gas K4 leaves off, which I think is really interesting because if someone goes into the dealership looking at a top K4.

Maybe they'll drive this and be impressed by how much smoother it is to drive.

I have to point out for anyone that visits on a guy calm and everyone listening should Kyle did a commendable job capturing the lead photo for the gallery.

You like it looks great in the same.

Like you found the angle where kind of hides the back and the front like the front because of the short overhang in the width.

Like it looks really aggressive and whatnot.

And then you see how the back continues.

I don't know if it's because you like hit it into the hill behind it, but yeah.

I thought of this.

This is why that's the lead image.

All right.

Well, I mean, I hope it's successful just for the market.

And I'm sure it'll do quite well because kids sell well here for Americans who want this car.

I mean, hopefully it sells well here.

And then if the tariffs ever change, which they do quite often, maybe they'll get down the road.

Yeah, here's hoping.

So on our last bit of news for the week, speaking of price.

There's been the long-rooted MR2 or MRS or MR or whatever the trademarked a million names to I guess keep us guessing.

That's allegedly coming for sure.

There's been mules running around in Japan and other places and I think two of a little mid engine car.

Don't expect this to be the MR2 of old and it really can't be.

You can't have a vehicle that's small and that little and pass the safety and whatnot.

And plus I'd also sell it for a profit.

Yeah, and you don't need it to be that slow because it's just power so ample today.

So with an article saying like it could be C8 Corvette money, which is a lot.

It's not like we're saying it's Porsche 911 or McLaren money.

It's not crazy, but its thing was it was cheaper than a Mustang or around that price when it first came out.

And this new one's not going to be like that.

But it's probably going to have performance that's closer to what the current outgoing super is.

And it totally makes sense because we talked last week about the GRGT.

There's nothing below it now between it and the BRZ.

So you're not going to bring out an MR2 that makes 250 horsepower to fight the BRZ that's already down there.

So if this is like a 350 400 it perfectly splits the gap.

You're giving a super another break.

It's a good to hire kids like here's our back to basics drifty front wheel drive fun car.

This will probably be a serious track performer.

And then there's our super car.

Yeah, I am.

Yeah, I mean, thinking about this a lot this week about how, you know, the super disappearing.

And like you said, now there's going to be a huge gap between the flagship and the 86.

Oh, well, I guess the GR Corolla is actually the closer one to the GT in terms of price.

But that's a huge gap.

And so do you need to have a super around all the time?

Maybe not.

Maybe the super takes a few years off.

And in that time this comes out.

And you have instead of having a full lineup because I don't think the market can really support five GR models.

Then this comes and this fights around C8 money.

Like maybe it's a little bit less.

That's fine.

Maybe the top models are around a C8 because honestly, that's where the super was too.

And getting a mid engine car kind of puts this in a different sort of target buyer in my mind.

It's it's a little more extreme.

Yeah, I think this is a good move.

And I mean, we also know as Celica is coming.

We don't know if that'll be GR branded.

But if it is.

Like that kind of mixes up the order, right?

Of like, you know, the 86 should be below.

Celica, but an MR2 should be between them.

That was the 80s and 90s.

Like things can change.

Well, I also think.

I wasn't even thinking the curl till you mentioned it.

Like I'm thinking of their pure sports cars.

The rear drive.

You know, no compromise really.

So that's why the 86 to this to that.

And then the GR Corolla.

That's what I think the.

Celica is going to be.

It's going to like we've said many times.

It'll probably be a coupe version of that or something on those lines.

And then those of you.

Those two like this is your practical performance.

But.

Am I wrong to think this is what should have been a new NSX back in the day.

Like this is this is going to be a probably a lightweight high powered rear drive mid engine.

And none of the extra weight or hybrid probably.

If it has a two liter version of the one six making Florida tourist power.

It could be a fun little thing.

I.

I don't know.

I actually like where the NSX went.

I know that it got heavy and complicated.

But it was about pushing the boundaries of where tech was at the time.

If you take it from like that perspective.

Kind of like what Alexa said last week with the LFA right.

It's like if you frame it within that.

Then the second gen NSX kind of made sense.

But I agree that like honestly.

The hypothetical that we're all thinking about here is around 400 horsepower.

Fairly lightweight mid engine.

That recipe sounds fantastic no matter what the car is called.

So yeah, like I'm excited.

Show me.

Show me what you have.

Yeah.

Well, that's what a C8 is.

It's a 450 horsepower mid engine.

Yeah, that's the car class.

So yeah.

Yeah.

And I think that we've said that she has going to be a lot the GTs can be a lot.

So this could also help sort of take some of the maybe attention away.

Suddenly there's two more affordable with this and the Celica coming out.

Yeah.

I kind of like the the weird like circular nature of this to where it's like.

You know, the Lotus of Laura.

And I mean now it's the mirror and it has different powertrains.

But the Evora used a Toyota V6 and was basically a grown up mid engine.

And then we have an MR two sort of in a way.

And then we have something that vaguely kind of fits in the frame of the current Lotus.

And it'll actually just be a Toyota instead of a Lotus using a towed engine.

So this could be like a GR MR two G limited.

You know, bring back the old names at all this video game people know because that's where they're targeting this at, right?

It's going to be the 30 to 50 year olds that remember the MR two fondly and probably never owned one because they were too young.

But now have money to buy one.

Yeah, for the sake of it not being a weird alphabet soup.

I guess they'd have to go with GR MRS.

Or GRS.

Yeah.

The letters are going to take some jublin.

Uh, GR MR two.

Let's go with it.

Yeah.

All right. Well, that is it for news and reviews on the AutoGuy show.

But give a motors.

We are going to take a longer break and then Kyle and I will back with Greg and someone from Nissan to talk about seats.

And then I'll be back with Colin to do sort of a F1 year and wrap up.

But we'll still have our segment going forward.

And then Kyle will be back to talk about what's ahead.

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Alright, joining us now is the man who knows all things seating.

It's Justin Samins from Nissan.

He's a veteran engineer of 14 years.

Welcome to the show, Justin.

Yeah, thanks very much guys for having me.

Alright, sounds good.

So one of the things we're going to talk about today is headrest technology.

Sort of how it's changed over the years.

And some of the things you guys have been working on to make it safer and more comfortable.

So why don't you take us through some of those some of those new innovations?

Yeah, absolutely.

So our headrests.

There's quite a few regulations and design considerations that go into a headrest that probably.

A lot of people don't realize or recognize, but they're very specifically and very finely tuned to the millimeter to achieve regulatory performances and IHS performances to.

And Nissan targets the highest level safety standards for their headrests.

There's quite a bit of, you know, it comes up a lot in our in the industry as from IQ us.

And from, you know, the surveys that we see from, you know, maybe they're too close or they have a hard time adjusting them to the right position.

Or maybe there's a lot of understanding misunderstandings about the importance of proper positioning and why they're designed the way they are.

You know, at Nissan, we take a very detailed and intentional approach about designing it for that safety first mentality, but also to optimize it for the comfort and the usability for the customer.

Why don't you talk a little bit about specifically into the headrest like I know we've all sat in different cars and you're like, this just doesn't feel right.

And it can kind of throw off the experience of driving, especially for car reviewers like us, we get in a lot of different cars.

Maybe you like as a consumer, you buy one and you just get used to it.

But when you get in a different car every other week or so and you're like, geez, this one feels like it's like pointing into the back of my skull or this one super overly soft.

Tell us about some of those adjustments and, you know, refinements that you guys have made.

Yep, so the back set is obviously that key, you know, that feeling difference that the customers will often point out going from one to another vehicle.

We target very specifically to optimize that back set so that it remains safe, but also to give that customer feeling and a lot of that has to do with positioning the surface profiles and the inflection points.

And also the adjustment angles and how it, you know, how it positions relative to the torso and, you know, your position in the seat.

So the IHS tests in particular, we're measured for, you know, how the body is positioned and absorbed into the seat during a rear impact.

And we have neck and head injury criteria that are monitored and rated against.

And those very specific criteria are all met with a very stringent and careful approach, but it's more the, a lot of times when you see our maybe our older headrest maybe dating back to a decade ago, they were maybe like forward facing.

And so when you push your head into it, you kind of kind of have the sensation that it's pushing your head down and forward.

So we took a lot of feedback from customers and really took a, you know, a new approach to how we design where that forward most point is how the structure is behind the headrest, the density and the firmness of the foam that maximizes and boosts the comfort.

And it also makes so that that that profile isn't a, you know, contributing to that closeness feeling, but also doesn't inhibit or or degrade the safety performance.

I'd like to hear your thoughts just on how seating has evolved in the last.

I've noted a spot noticed that especially in the last probably half decade, but maybe decade or so.

It feels like seats have become a bit of a differentiator for obvious reasons because it's where we you sit in the car.

That's where you spend literally all your time and things like massages, lumbar support, added safety.

It's to me, it's like there's even speakers right behind your ears and some cars, you know, why just talk about how that's evolved and how, you know, for some companies it can be a pretty key differentiator.

Yeah, and I would say at Nissan, we pride ourselves very much on not only the tech that we put into our seats, but a very strong focus on our comfort.

And I feel like that's where Nissan's really been able to prove its technical capabilities in our performance and our comfort.

So you may have heard of our zero gravity seats and those, you know, maybe sounds like just a catchphrase as a term, but it actually backed up by almost a 10-year study with universities that went into the very specific details to minimize fatigue.

And it used the natural body position that was studied in the International Space Station to kind of achieve that weightless, you know, the form that your body takes in a weightless environment.

And so it's backed up by a lot of data and a lot of science. We took blood samples of test drivers to measure the lactic acid.

And we monitored movements and how many people, how many times people adjusted in their seats after a long drive.

And there was a 50% reduction in overall fatigue when we developed this new system. And to me, it really proves out in the customer experience.

I find that sort of thing fascinating because we go on these first drives fairly often, right? We experience new cars early on.

And so many times we hear about stuff like that, Justin, where you spent years, years getting all this data.

And so it could be tough for us to go and, you know, sit in a seat or something and just after 15 minutes or even a day for a first drive to say,

Oh, well, it's comfortable or it isn't. The amount of work put in is fascinating.

I have a question because great kind of teed this off already of, you know, there are speakers in the backs of some of Nissan and Infiniti's headrests.

How much of a back and forth is that with you versus, you know, like the design team that says, look, we have this killer feature we have to include it. How much of a challenge is that?

So yeah, we have partnered with that with bows and the kicks and clips with some of the QX 60s and the QX 80s and, and that's a really exciting new technology that we're bringing into seats, the sound bubble that Nissan calls it.

I think it's a really great feature. It's very effective and it's something that the customers have been really pleased with.

And it is something that, you know, it's a new technology and it's challenging for all the packaging and those ultra near field, you know, frequency speakers and getting them integrated into the vehicle.

And, you know, it's extra mass and it's extra styling and packaging, but at, you know, and making sure that it meets all the same safety and comfort requirements is a challenge, but it's something that we've been able to execute well.

Yeah, I mean, I'd say so. It's really impressive in the QX 80 in particular. That's that up.

Yeah, the QX 80 is one of the most comfortable seats. I think I've been in this year. I have a leaf actually booked for three weeks coming up for over the holidays, so we're going to be a lot of family halls back and forth across the city.

So I'll get as, as Kyle mentioned, like I'll actually get a lot of time in the seats, so I really get to experience what it's like in many different conditions, energy level points, so it'll be interesting to see how it is overall.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, honestly, that's one of the things that keeps me in seats for as long as it has is when I get to work on a project, I know that it's something that the customer is going to experience and that it's going to get written about in the in the journals.

And it's something that I get to take a lot of pride in when I see the media reviews come back very, you know, positive on a vehicle that it helped develop.

And it's something that, you know, we take a lot of pride in in that here at Nissan is especially the comfort because, you know, it's one of those things that, of course, behind the scenes, there's the durability and there's the safety.

But, you know, the customer experiences the comfort and the styling and I think Nissan does, you know, we're among the best and comfort in my opinion.

What do you brought up? Sorry, all that durability?

Well, because I'm actually asking durability because seats today, well, I mean, the cars aren't old enough, but seats seem to stand up better.

Like anyone knows a car from the 90s, early 2000s, you go get it used and usually the bolster on the driver's side is completely worn through to the foam or this leather is all cracked.

How much or how hard is it to design a seat and you haven't all set up, but then you need to make sure the materials also durable, which might take away some of the comfort aspects of what you wanted.

Yeah, absolutely durability is a huge focus in how we develop the seat and the materials themselves.

We put our tests through hundreds and hundreds of our seats through hundreds and hundreds of tests during development and, you know, material selection and, you know, foam design and profiles and there's ingress, egress patterns that are constantly developing and so, yeah, we will take, you know, if we'll buy back vehicles and study how they've worn differently than how it works.

We have durability teams in Arizona that put them through, you know, very high-paced durability cycles and durability is a huge challenge because they're not used the same and we test them with, you know, with robots, but everybody's unique and everybody's, you know, uses their seats different and, you know, sometimes you'll get seat covers back to have a tear through them because the guy had a screwdriver in his pocket.

Not so many things that you can, there's a lot of things that can happen to the seats that are very difficult to prevent because they're just used by so many different, you know, people types and different situations.

All right, well, last question here. I know you got to run. What do you think is next in the, like, on the next horizon here for seats?

Yeah, I think, like you mentioned, a lot of those massaging features are getting more popular. The sound bubbles are becoming more of a, you know, customer demand.

I think there's always new and evolving safety regulations that, you know, that kind of have us balancing and optimizing for comfort and safety, optimizing for comfort, maintaining top safety.

And so there's new materials, always new designs. We're always pushing limits on styling and there's, yeah, I would say that there's quite a bit for the future of seats and implementing a lot of those technologies and bringing those technologies down the grades and bringing them, you know, the luxury feature sets down into, you know, the mainstream market.

Justin, thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. Great interview. Yeah. Thanks very much.

Hello, and welcome back. We have called a month again, joining us. The F1 season is over. I mean, people who heard this last week was already over, but we've even talked about it. We'll get to that in a bit, but some pretty big news drop earlier this week.

Some that I don't think many were expecting.

Helmut Marcos out at Red Bull. There were rumors and within like the same day, the rumors were confirmed that he's, he's gone.

So old, currently, Helmut, who's, as I read all the quotes of people talking about him, apparently said some relatively racist things over the years.

He's a surprise surprise. He's probably the least offensive thing you probably know.

He's, you know, wild. I always enjoyed. He would just say the most frank things. You know, he had no filter. He just, he was old school and he just said stuff that, you know, he'd say people were crap and they'd be like, what?

You know, and you would ever also sure if it was just him trying to push people's buttons, right? Or he really believed it.

But, but he was, you know, like just very even recently when he, you know, he was the one who came out and said that Antonelli was purposely let Norris buy or whatever and everybody got on.

And then Red Bull had to apologize. So I mean, I think it's a, it's his time. I think he's like 82 or something.

I mean, like most people retire almost 20 years before then. So that's what the craziest story I heard. And maybe this is what pushed it up is apparently.

He's the one who signed Arvid Lindblad as a rebel driver and Alex Dune and apparently never discussed it with anybody.

So I heard the last one he just got in almost like he knew he was on his way out. So he made sure it happened before he left almost like it.

I don't know if it's because he believes in the guy so much or it was just a big, you know, throw it back at Red Bull.

Yeah, like I, how does a company work where like I could only imagine if I signed contracts that nobody else knew I guess it may, yeah, I could see that happening.

And if you've been there for so long, you know, he just strong arms the legal team or something or has his own private lawyers write something up and, you know, I imagine you could contest that in court if it wasn't gone through the proper channels internally.

But yeah, yeah, he's gone. It's, you know, Red Bull's max is the only one left from this sort of the dream team of you just a couple of years ago.

Well, it's like any sport, right? You can get away with a lot of behavior and whatnot if you're winning like how many athletes are terrible people but the hometown fans cheer them because they're winning and then as soon as they start losing, they turn on them.

It's like that's like the higher ups at Red Bull were letting Marco and Christian just sort of basically do whatever they want and try to bury everything. But now the Red Bull's not doing so well.

Okay, let's get rid of these guys. Yeah, you know, yeah, and I'm sure helmets, you know, man, he's been around since the dawn of time.

So if he's stuck running a longer, he might have been like coming to the thing in a in a purse.

So maybe there's such an interesting decade where you have people like still working like this trying to, you know, run the United States.

And then like others are completely winding down and they're just happy to have someone make their food and look after them. And it's, yeah, it's quite a difference.

It is indeed.

Well, so our next story.

Yes, so this is an interesting different things for those who are watching. That's a picture of Colton Herta, who's the, you know, basically going to be running a F2 car all season long.

So the interesting thing, what, what I kind of got to this is first of all, Indy car or the FIA changed their how they sort of evaluate and give points out on your like super license in order to get a former one seat basically.

So one of the problems with a lot of these guys that different teams have been wanting to hire even McLaren over the years is that they didn't have enough points and you weren't getting many in Indy car.

So now for next year they're going to change the point system. Indy car will get a lot more points for like races, wins, et cetera. And what that means actually I'm sure frustratingly for Colton Herta is that all he would need to do is have one practice session.

And he would have the sufficient amount of points to race in Formula One.

And that's not happening because Cadillac already wants to be a future Formula One drive for them. And so now he signed up for an entire year of, you know, F2 racing and then related to that.

Yeah. And then related to that is that it might be a humbling year for him because the past three days they've been doing F2 testing at Yasmerina and he wasn't in the top 10 for any of those three days.

Again, it's just testing, you know, if that may not be it, but still looks kind of doesn't look good.

So we'll see. And I think he knew that it's going to be, I think that they kind of like really said, it's not about him winning a championship.

They already know who's super talented. It's about him getting to know the tracks, the process of working sort of in, you know, and F, you know, it's not Formula One, F2, like just being around that, right?

He's getting him exposure. So I think that's, that's good, but still could be a bit of a blow to your ego if teams not great cars that great. That's not what you're used to.

Let's see.

Well, I mean, talking about not doing so well in a blow to the eagle and sort of reality thinking in.

Have you seen what happened to poor Jack Duwen?

And so far I did look.

Yeah, so he's it's a he's basically in super formula now in Japan, right?

And which is like, I'd say it's pretty equivalent to F2, maybe even a little higher.

Apparently it's regarded as a little bit higher than F2.

Like the cars are actually a little faster.

And so yeah, apparently, so none of the crashed out of one of the cars, he did it apparently three days in a row.

It just happened the three days in a row, same corner corner.

It's Suzuki. So I mean, I know that track from virtual racing so much. And I know the corner and it's that.

Yeah, it's, I don't know the names, but it's sort of near the beginning.

There's two rights really quick before you go into the tunnel.

And they're almost like 90 and you got to go slow for the first one and slow for the second.

And that first one, he just keeps hitting the inside curve, which is launching him to the outside curve.

Then he gets in the gravel and made the entire barrier.

Yeah, no super formula cars are awesome. I, I would love, and I'm sure someone's done it, but like, maybe not.

I don't think I was on it recently, but I love an F1, a super formula in an Indie car.

Like modern brand new 2025's all lined up and not race, but just time attack.

Like I'm really curious where they all line because I would, I think super formula might be faster than Indie, but I don't know enough about the inner workings.

Because none of them race at the same track. I go three of them. So that's perfect.

Yeah, so totally it's not on my list of things to talk about today, but, but the in that super formula testing.

There's also this is going back to our discussions. We've had earlier in your other, what's the name, Collie, Rovan Pella, who's the WRC champ, who's now.

I think is going to race in Formula One for Toyota in the future, whatever.

So he was there doing three, the three days of testing, whatever, and apparently did none of them, because he had this, he wrote about what it is.

Some sort of medical condition where he is like apparently there's like calcium particles in your inner ear and they were making him dizzy.

And so I like it's temporary, but I guess he had that. And so he couldn't do any of the testing.

And so it was just kind of a big wash for him or sucks.

Yeah, that sucks. Yeah. So I sure everybody think about the team. They're all there. They're like, they're all ready to go.

You know, all the money to cost to get them there. And they're like, oh, yeah, you're dizzy. You can't race.

See, you know, months later.

Yeah, it's it's unfortunate when I mean, again, any sport, but with racing because of the danger and speed when just these.

Not random, but these medical issues that have nothing to do with what you're doing come up and then that's it. You can't race anymore.

Yeah, I can only imagine like how many like some days you wake up and you have like a crappy migrant, you feel like trash and like, imagine that was you.

You go to your miles an hour. Yeah, yeah, you'd be like, this sucks. You know, no thanks.

So I did a very quick preliminary on documented search about the cars. And five years ago, allegedly, the F1 car was about nine seconds faster than super formula around Suzuki and qualifying.

Okay. And it was about 13 to 14 seconds faster than F2. So yeah, it is in the middle there. And I would say that's like I said, super formula in any car.

That's probably pretty similar compared to F1. So interesting. Yeah, they're cool.

Yeah, they're just sleuthing away. I guess sleuthing on the fly. All right, last one because we are getting a little on time. We got to talk about this.

This is just a really weird statistic that I found and I couldn't I wouldn't believe it. If I didn't see it, we were looking at it. And so people apologies to if you're listening and not.

It's a comparison of the, you know, basically the points and the position finals for every driver from last year and this year.

Would you believe that yes, all this year, we're all like, Oh, Lewis Hamilton, you know, sucks. And the car is bad and the bubble. He's not, but all these comments, 156 points.

That's a lot fewer points than last year. But he's six in the end this year versus last year. He was seventh.

So he actually finished higher up in the points this year, just by having a lot fewer points. Then in 2024, which is like, I never would have believed that it wasn't looking at this.

But yeah, because the points are so congested at the top, like between Norris for staff and in past year, they're all over 400. I mean, Norris had less than for staff and did last year.

Yeah, ran away with it. But I mean, that makes sense. But there was what two people in the 300s under him. And this year, 300s is down to fourth.

I guess Russell will be still fourth. The two things that are interesting to me looking at these is remember Perez, like terrible driver for both such a let down did nothing for them.

Well, it came eight last year. And where's the replacement for him this year? Oh, they're anywhere on there at all. And he has 152 points. What a Hamilton got this year 156.

Yeah.

So all the flack he took. I mean, I know how much to take a flack about his bad here, but I don't think anyone.

If he didn't look at the point, so Hamilton was bad as Perez was last year.

Well, yeah, he was or maybe Perez wasn't given the credit. And I don't know if you saw or social media.

People often like saying like, maybe we were too harsh on for us. And he's even been like, yep. Yeah, well, because he he it was that we were talking about the same.

The defense that defense that you could get on land on North. So basically running off the track was.

It wasn't great. And it was also just not well played in terms of door better places. If you're going to slow him down, there's better spots to do it.

And Perez was really good. I mean, we saw Paris did exceptional defending to help max out over the years, like exceptional defending.

So that's why Perez is back in another car next year. So yeah, no, I'm like boat test was the same for Hamilton. Like I'm really looking forward to Cadillac can even have a.

A lower mid pack quality car like those guys could surprising at the points a couple times easy. It just depends on.

I mean, it's such an unknown with Cadillac and all the good engine at least, at least they don't have to have that variable, but you think they could put together a decent car and arrow package with what they have and everyone else is from scratch, but.

I love to see Perez and boat test on this top 10 list.

Yeah, you never know what Williams is got two cars there this year. I never want to thought that last year. So yeah, they've really started turning it around, but unfortunate for them and asked and who started turning it around.

It's like pronouncing all new cars. So is it because you had years to slowly catch up because you don't have the funds and the capability or so we'll see since we've talked about the defense and the championship.

I love I mean, you're a max fan, but I know you're also reasonable, but I love the max fans who are crashing out online saying, you know how nor should I got the five seconds for passing legal on this and that.

And you know what yes or no, I think the reason they didn't give it to him was it was such a blatantly aggressive move by you key, but I love everyone like FIA's gifted to him, nor one like they gave it to him.

It's like okay, let's say he gets five seconds and Charles would always get ahead of him and he can't pass Charles.

Do you think McLaren's going to sit there and lose a championship when Piaszries and second and not have Piaszries just back all the way back to fourth to give Norse the way like.

Norse was winning the championship regardless. That penalty meant absolutely nothing.

Even if they give him a five second penalty, he would have still won if he hadn't passed him on that corner. He just would have passed him on the next. It's all very irrelevance.

He'd be like, oh, he'd been behind Charles and George and wouldn't got passed them. Well, he was eight seconds ahead of Charles at the end.

And he would have pounded him and made Charles wear it as tires faster, but again, even if he couldn't pass him, Piaszries would have like, I know there's a legend tension and number one, number two.

But like anyone's going to be like, well, my teammate can win if I just go back to spots, and I don't have a chance. I might as well.

So like, yeah, he was winning no matter what there was absolutely no scenario where that penalty would have cost in the championship unless he crashed.

Correct. If I'm like a super objective, I feel like you could argue they could both get a penalty.

But that's not really like that's sort of outside the spirit of the rules, right?

Like it's sort of within the law of the rules, but not within the spirit.

And I'm just like, I think it actually makes sense here where they were just like, you know, first of all, you can penalty get it or don't get it was also irrelevant.

So it's kind of like just like that didn't happen. It's just this is this is a racing incident. Let it go.

Um, you could penalty. It's it's kind of it was irrelevant to you. He's race anyway. So.

Well, and, uh, I mean, the worst part was Norris even doing the booth like that.

It's funny to do Piatry and crashed like he should, he should have backed out like he was way too aggressive.

But again, it worked.

And five seconds would have meant nothing. I mean, I'm not saying, well, he could have got 10 seconds.

Like, okay, now you're just making longer penalties somewhere. Yeah, it was, it was irrelevant, right?

So, so, but yeah, I mean, I think overall I can crash to Norris. Like what a, I was, you know, you know, I'm a max bet.

I love that he made the last several, you know, months of the TFU ship exciting.

Because otherwise, it was a little, uh, a little dry. But, uh, it, it, you know, was, if you scripted it, I, you know, I don't know if you could have written a better script, right?

So, um, it was great. I'm really looking forward to another year. It's, I'm gonna have to sit here for months and months with no F1 and just follow the rumors.

That was the, there's one race. That was a red bull. But Max really cost himself and people are like, yeah, that was, was it Spain or whatever?

He totally, he, that's where he got, he punted George Russell. He got upset. He drove into the side of the road.

Yes, that was it. Yeah. And he cost a championship. He even admitted that that was a mistake. He said that afterwards. He regrets doing it.

Um, and he knows, yeah, totally. If he hadn't, if you just stayed calm and like lost the place and not done and, but, but that he's aggressive maneuver there.

And he's also said like it's, it's, you know, yes, that's a mistake. And that's a mistake that Max for staff is gonna make because he's, you know, got hotheaded.

And then that's also the same person that, you know, it's like you can't, you know, sometimes separate all those items. But yeah, I mean, I think if, if Max is looking at what in my win this year, that's probably the number one reason.

Right. So yeah, you're, you know, or a full start of the season where the car totally sucks. That, that too.

But you're right. If, like, that's his driving persona and if you take that away because that's not how he drives. Does he win the last five races? Like he's, oh, driving a car because he's so aggressive from.

And the two, like, one more race this year, he probably championed the way things are going. McLaren had a better car, but they didn't have an answer for Max. And it's actually so interesting because of all the variables.

And I think McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, like you expect they're gonna have decent cars. Ferrari, hopefully rebounds. And then we just talked about the Williams variable, Cadillac and Audi is gonna be pouring money and like create like, yeah, they will.

Yeah, I love to have like eight or nine drivers for the first, like, seven, eight races really fighting. You know, as the season goes on, some teams figured out now there's don't the difference.

But a couple years ago, remember when I asked him, Martin was right up there with Red Bull and McLaren and Mercedes and it looked like you're gonna have four or five teams. I'd be, I'd be a great start. I just hope one team doesn't nail it from the start.

I agree. Let's, let's like, I go back to some season, it's like 20, 10, or ever. And the first seven races were all one by a different driver. And I think the first six races all by different teams. So it's like, man, if we can get that, it just, it creates the jeopardy. And like this, you don't have this massive spread up a couple points up here.

And everybody else has like 16 points at the bottom. You have, you know, everyone with a very even spread of points and that makes it so that each, each time you win a race, it's much more important. You can move up like you could only get like eight points more than somebody else, but move up like three positions in the championship.

So figures crossed for good. Yeah, 2026 racing. And it's two more cars. So that's two more cars that won't get points every race. So it's a little more important to be in that top 10, too.

It is, it is. All right. Well, thanks for joining us. We will still be back next week. And then we'll probably get from there, look forward to the new year. It's crazy because starting in January, all the rumors will start with the cars. And I mean,

Ford Red Bull is going to debut in like the second week of January. So, yeah, there's no rest. So which is awesome. I look at what you see with these new cars look like because I think there's going to be a lot of different interpretations to the rules.

And then everyone will eventually find B1 package that works, but because of wildly different looking cars. So probably not new six wheelers, though.

All right. We'll talk to you next week. All right. Thanks, Mike.

All right. So that's just about wraps things up on the auto guide show, Brachy by eBay Motors Kyle. We've mentioned it alluded to it before. Tell us what you're up to this week.

I flew out to Spain for most of the week to drive the EV4. And it was a wonderful little break from cold weather. And the roads were great. The food was great. And the car was well.

As I said, pretty darn good. And people should go read the full review at auto guide.com if they want all of my thoughts.

And are you driving anything this week? Oh, yeah. I'm sticking with a theme here.

For Ben Fruit for American listeners and readers and viewers. I am in the 2026 Kia EV9 GT, which is odd because we definitely saw that debut a year ago in L.A.

And yet now, again, weirdly, for some unknown reason, it's on a definite hold in the US. So it's the high performance version of the EV9 with more power, not that it needed it as a three row SUV. And the fake shifts and fake engine notes from the Ionic 5M.

I mean, we'll get to what I'm driving in a second. So I'm not too jealous. But I'm a little jealous of you driving basically the EV6 GT powertrain in the giant box of a vehicle. And in front of remember at the show, it has like ridiculously wide tires, I think, too.

Yep. Yeah, it does. It's a, and I was bringing it home in the snow right after just being in Spain all week and traffic was terrible. So I was going down side.

Excuse me. Side street is just being like, oh, I really don't want to scratch these wheels. I'm like, it's a lot. But I'm looking forward to having fun. But I feel like I feel like you probably have the more fun vehicle this week.

It's going to say what a terrible week for us to have like, I have a 636 horsepower CV yours is five something like not the best week to win whether it's been. But yes, I have the Land Rover Defender Octa. So does the top dog of the Defender family. I mean, if you look at pricing, it's like there's the 90 to 110 to 130 in there. And you know, the five digits just barely breaking six digits. And then this one's like almost 200,000. It makes quite a step up. This is going after a different market.

And like I said, that's the high power 4.4 liter turbo V8 from BMW 636 horsepower. That's about as much as it makes anywhere. It sounds like it. The launch in this vehicle is hilarious and violent because it is an off road vehicle. It's core. So when you pound it, your nose is looking at the air as the front wheels are trying to stay on the ground. And on the got to do it once or twice because then it started to snow. But

yeah, it's a beast in them. I'm quite enjoying it. I have the regular version. Now most of our colleagues all over North America are driving the one that gets the off road package, which is the 20 inch. I think wheels with the all train tires and other stuff.

minus 22 inch all seasons that it comes with standards. So this is really the like Mercedes AMG G 63 competitor. Like it couldn't be any more close. A road version of an off road SUV with a crazy powerful boosted V8. So yeah, my thoughts will come soon.

Interesting. And then so you're staying on trend and staying in basically the same vehicle next week.

Yeah, I have two next week. And they're both very and they're very similar too. So next week I start my three week adventure with the Nissan Leaf looking forward to it. I'm going to use it over the holidays. I have a I actually have a brand new charger.

I'm from Spark EV. So I can never say the name. But Canadian built a charger. They just launched them like today when you're listening to this this Monday. And I get to see how that is plus how living with the Leaf for three weeks is to see now if you're in the suburbs and

you have a home charger. Is it really that terrible to have an EV or is it that easy? Like I'm just going in as like, what's it like because you hear both sides. Some people say it's like it's better and some people say it's terrible. Whatever.

And then also have an an ID buzz and that's for a special event at my son's school and I'll have a full story on that. So yeah, I'm going to have the all EV driveway of a bright blue leaf and a white and yellow buzz. So I'm going to

I'm going to look like a trendy person in the neighborhood. Yeah. That sounds like a blast.

Whatever. Yeah.

I just have I have something that will blend in very well. Despite it being fairly new. It is the 2026 Hyundai Palisade hybrid. I'm already seeing them everywhere. So I expect mine will not get nearly as much attention as yours.

But I'm very curious to live with it for three weeks because it is the hybrid and I only got to drive that briefly back in October.

This is going to be a really good test for me to see just how well it deals with everything over the holiday season. I like the new Palisade, although I don't like the off-roady version that much.

But I do like this. It's the calligraphy trim. So it's the top model. I feel swanky. And I really want to see if it if it can convince me that people don't need to buy premium SUVs.

This is so fancy that it's now nipping at the heels of things like I mean Buick is an obvious one, but low bow or accurate. So yeah, that's my that's my holiday vehicle.

I don't know if it's because we're in the car industry and car people, but I too have seen them everywhere. And it's very distinct. That's why I always catches my eye.

So I don't know how much you will blend in or maybe it's just because we know like, oh, there's the new one with it's crazy headlights that are like light bars pretty much. It's really cool.

Yeah, yeah, I think it looks great at night and the metallic finish deep pillar does give it some range over vibes. So maybe it will get some attention, but not as much as a buzz or a bright blue leaf.

Yeah, all right. Well, that wraps up the auto guide show. We will be back next week. We will have more special guests. We'll have some special episodes over the holiday. So until then we'll see you later. So long, everybody.

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