A hybrid car uses both a regular engine and an electric motor to help it run better and save gas. This means it can be more efficient and produce less pollution.
Car
Toyota Gazoo Racing GT
The Toyota Gazoo Racing GT is a sporty car made by Toyota that emphasizes performance and racing features.
Car
Toyota LC
The Toyota LC stands for Land Cruiser, a big SUV from Toyota that is great for off-roading and also very comfortable.
The Toyota GR Corolla is a sportier version of the regular Corolla, designed for better performance and handling. It's made by Toyota's special racing division.
The Toyota GR Yaris is a fast and sporty version of the Yaris, built for performance and fun driving. It's designed with features that come from rally racing.
The Porsche Carrera GT is a supercar made by Porsche, famous for its powerful engine and sporty design. It's a rare car that many car enthusiasts admire.
The Lexus LC is a luxury sports car that looks really cool and has a lot of powerful features. It's one of the top models from Lexus, which is known for making nice cars.
The Mercedes-Benz G550 is a fancy SUV that looks tough and can go off-road. It's known for being luxurious inside while still being able to handle rough terrain.
Term
OE
OE means Original Equipment, which are the parts that come with the car when it's made. They are the same parts that the manufacturer uses.
The Porsche GT4 is a sportier version of the Cayman, which is a small sports car. It has better performance features for driving fast, especially on tracks.
A straight six is an engine type that has six cylinders lined up in a row. It's known for running smoothly and being balanced, which makes it a popular choice in many cars.
AMG stands for Aufrecht, Melcher, and Großaspach, and it's the part of Mercedes-Benz that makes their fastest and sportiest cars. They take regular Mercedes models and make them much more powerful and exciting to drive.
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Hello, and welcome to this car pod.
I'm Kenan. I'm Flippo.
And let's start with the news.
The biggest news is this.
Okay, I gotta say this.
I gotta say it.
Toyota's doing this launch of the GRGT.
We're filming this on the third.
They are announcing the car on the fourth,
and then you're watching this on the fifth.
You're gonna be like,
why aren't they talking about, we don't know yet.
Yeah, what do we know?
Not much.
They're gonna make a sports car.
It's gonna be a crazy one.
V8 is my understanding.
That's what I've heard.
Hybrid V8, right?
We hear a lot of stuff.
Okay, but we know that that's gonna be
the Gazoo Racing GT, at least one of them.
Toyota, based on the Lexus brand,
Toyota seems to be one of the few automakers
whose total fuel economy, whatever,
they could get away with an NAV8 if they wanted to.
Don't you think?
Oh yeah.
Because the LC and all them have it.
Oh, so they don't sell it, they're not gonna.
The volume's not gonna be that significant.
But yeah, they must have enough, we'll go room.
But my understanding is that there's gonna be,
they're gonna have three different models
that are all somehow based on this,
because you're racing GT.
The pictures show three different vehicles.
Presumably there's a Lexus, maybe a convertible,
maybe a GT, three type thing, a Scion.
Nice.
Thank you.
Nice callback.
Anyway, no one knows is the answer.
Except that you listening to this.
You will know.
And you'll be like, these idiots!
And you'll be right.
But I wanted to talk about it
because we are aware of it
and we will cover it next week in greater depth
once we find out more.
And then you will get our patented, excellent analysis.
Yes.
It's exciting to see Toyota,
we talked a few weeks ago about how they are,
they have revitalized.
They've gone from the most boring automaker,
making the most boring mid-sized sedans
to like actually making cool cars.
And this is a good step forward.
I think Toyota, certainly of all the mainstream brands,
Toyota probably has the most exciting product.
Even separate from this car.
You have the GR Corolla in other markets.
You have the GR Yars, which is amazing.
Obviously the Supra, obviously the BRZ,
whatever the Toyota version is called.
Well, we, a Subaru guy's called and we call it the BRZ.
Do you know what it's called?
Yeah, the GR 86.
There's good stuff.
And then you have all the GRD Pro cars,
which are also really cool.
There's one of them back here.
Is it in shot?
Oh yeah.
Oh!
And you can't see the Camel Fenders from the shot.
So that's good.
That's a blessing.
I walked by a minute ago.
Man, they're more aggressive than I remember.
I passed one on the freeway,
coming in today on the Carrera GT.
Wow.
I'm like, wow, it's another one.
Everything about that car is shocking.
I think the interior is the worst thing
that when you open it.
It's a Toyota on the passenger side.
Then the seats, the camo seats.
It's a lot.
It's a lot.
I was on Ferris podcast and he said,
it looks like Dana White designed the interior.
It's not wrong.
It's so true.
That is exactly what it looks like.
That's kind of a deep cut reference.
But it's true.
But it's very accurate.
But this is cool.
I mean, obviously the LC 500 is dead, right?
No.
Plus it'll be sportier.
Excuse me.
Is it not dead for 25?
It's not dead.
No, no, no, no, no.
The IS is dead, remember?
And I don't think they've announced
that they're canceling the LC.
They will be announcing that they're canceling the LC.
By the time you listen to this,
they will have announced that.
That'll be, they just continue the hybrid ones.
Nobody got it anyway.
They're going to bury that in the announcement
for this car and the LC is going by the way.
But anyway, look at the GR.
This seems like, given the Gazoo Racing moniker,
they of course make the sportiest trim of the RAV4.
That's a fact.
It will actually be like a sports car, better handling.
The LC 500 was a grand tour.
I suspect that this will be
a little bit more sports focused.
Oh, for sure.
Now the question is,
is it going to be like a super car like the LFA?
No, I mean,
I think this is going to be like the, I don't know.
This feels more like it's going to be AMGT,
like SLS to AMGT.
Yeah, where is this picture of what it's going to feel like?
Is this a Toyota picture?
Cause this looks a lot like
an LC race skin does a Toyota,
which is a cool idea.
It's a 10 year, the LC came out a decade ago.
So we could have sped that up a little,
but well, I'm excited to see it
and we shouldn't talk about it anymore
cause we don't know what's going on,
but we will talk about it.
We will give our patented high quality analysis.
Next though, I want to talk about something
that we can give our high quality analysis on,
which is the G-Wagon Cabriolet.
Yeah.
Kenan, what are your thoughts?
I love that they maintain the tradition of hideousness
with that, that vehicle.
I actually think, I think,
well, you must, everybody assumes
you must be really thrilled about this.
I have, I have two minds.
Yes.
I have two minds.
I said on this podcast before that I,
the first off, this is a teaser shot
that Mercedes Benz has finally shown
a couple of teaser shots this week
of the new G-Class Cabriolet.
And I had said,
and they had announced a couple of months ago
that they were going to do this.
I had said on this very podcast
that I would buy the car if it had two things.
Number one, if it wasn't too expensive,
cause I'm worried they'll price it like a special model
and it'll be 350, that's some ridiculous.
And number two, if it wasn't showy
in a way that I deem inappropriate.
And the pictures make it seem like
number two is not actually going to be a problem.
This looks like a regular G550
except for the spare tire, like it looks.
Now, well, here's the bomb they're going to drop on us.
This is actually OE.
They're going to leave it on the car.
It's like the Vysoc package on the GT4.
So you can't get rid of the hideous Porsche logo
on the back.
Well, you're stuck with it.
That's what it is.
No, I think it's going to look great.
And I actually think it'll look best in black
cause it'll hide the top a little.
So in a sense I want to do it
because I could sell my old one
and I could sell my Sequoia,
two cars condensed into one,
which I'm really into these days.
Wow.
Right?
Yeah.
I still have a V6.
Yeah, which is fine with me.
I love this six cylinder engine.
It's a straight six.
It's a straight six in my E-Class.
Is it not the same motor in this car?
I should.
We don't know any anyway
because I wouldn't be surprised if this is accompanied
with a facelift or something
and there's a powertrain change,
but it seems like they're going to bring this
to market pretty quick.
Like it's happening.
Yeah.
I assumed it would be years away
when they made the announcement,
but now they've already got photos.
I mean, they've got an Austrian plate on it,
which is where they filled them.
That's exactly right.
Nice little nod there.
Yeah.
It does just seem like they found a way
to take off the roof.
Yeah, it's great.
It's what you want it to be.
It is, interestingly,
it is a two-seat, two-row roof,
which you don't ever see.
I don't remember the last two-row convertible.
They're very uncommon.
It takes an enormous amount of chassis rigidity away.
Well, I don't know.
Every 911 convertible?
Two door.
Two door.
So it's four, you're right, obviously.
Because yeah, a lot of cars have,
but it's a four-door convertible.
Did you blip it in with the top?
Yeah, but that had a roof.
The Wrangler has a...
The Wrangler and the Bronco.
It's not a power like a soft top.
So it'll be opening to see what they've got.
No, that's two doors.
It'll be interesting to see
what the architecture is underneath.
There must be some cross members.
There is on my two-door G-Wagon.
Well, I like that they put Camo
where that hideous window would normally be.
We know what that's gonna look like.
We know there will be a window there
and it's gonna be ugly
and they wanted to cover it up with a Soto
and I don't blame them.
Top down on a four-door
is gonna look very odd.
The reason you don't do convertible four doors,
there's a lot of reasons,
but one of them is
you basically have to keep the door lines
because otherwise you'd have to give it up for both doors
and then you have a real rigidity issue.
And by keeping the door lines,
it means that even when the roof is down,
you're gonna have a lot of side.
Hope you like side.
You get used to it.
I would say my suspicion is gonna be
that there's gonna be some sort of big sunroof thing.
So like you press the button once
and it becomes like a big sunroof.
Like your Fiat.
Like your Fiat.
You press it again and it's all the way down.
I also, there's something I was gonna say.
Now the second mind of this that I am is,
do I really wanna drive around on a convertible?
Yes, you already do.
Like I feel bad for my children.
You already do though.
You already do it.
Like you gotta get a kid off at school and then,
I mean it's so embarrassing.
The spec matters.
You can't actually get black.
You gotta get like something like stronger than the 1980s.
And you gotta put on the stronger than 1980s wheels.
No question, yes.
No question.
But even then, it's such an embarrassing car.
Think of the people who are gonna buy this car.
I know, it's gonna be something.
So are they gonna bring just a normal version to the US
or are they only gonna bring AMG to this car?
They haven't announced that,
but this is clearly an AMG.
My fear is that they're only gonna bring AMG versions
to the US because they want their highest trim level.
Makes sense, especially because production
is so constrained generally.
Like why not sell the one that's the most valuable?
Which then makes it even more embarrassing
because it'll be very loud and.
I will say, if they did an electric one,
it would be hard not to buy it.
I was noting that this does not have the EQ tire cover.
Yeah, but remember the regular tire cover
is optional on the EQ car.
Wait, no, the G, the EQ technology G has sold so well.
I know, it's been a tough run for that car,
which is such a shame because it's such a good car.
Anyway, the G Cabrio is coming.
Filippo, would you buy one if you were me?
Yeah.
Yeah, but you make all sorts of decisions
if you were me.
I will note that there's a bunch of companies
that make convertible G-Wagen.
Rabbit sells one that's a four door one.
Other companies also make a version
and it looks exactly like this will.
So we kinda know what it'll look like.
No, it's not gonna be surprising.
No.
It will be ugly.
So the question then becomes,
is it gonna be too expensive?
Could I reasonably replace two of my vehicles
with this vehicle?
Hard to believe.
Yeah, I agree.
The regular G-Wagen is five seats, right?
Yeah, it's a five-seater.
And wide enough.
So that's good.
Yeah.
Because your G is four.
My G is five seats.
There's a middle seat there.
It's interesting, in about 2002 or something,
there was a requirement to have all seats
have three point belts.
That became a requirement sometime in the early 2000s.
And for the G-Cabrio, Mercedes' response to that was,
they simply stopped offering any seat belt in the middle.
So it became a four-seater at that point.
Okay, I got it.
So anyway, G-Cab, this is a big deal.
This is the biggest news story of the week.
For the 10 people that care, it's a huge story.
No dude, it's a lot of us.
And aside from me, and maybe including me,
all these people are terrible.
I heard that conversation on the smoke entire pod
and you're right.
It's just, how could I drive this thing around?
That's the problem.
It solves so many problems for me.
The spec matters.
But it creates the ultimate problem.
I really hate driving around cars that give you
a certain, the spec is that it needs to be
like a very soft color, and it needs to be the right wheels.
I think a random person sees us on the road
and they're like, that guy's like, complete.
Like even if you got, yeah,
but you see us a quarter of us here at Upro,
what's your thing?
No, the car, people think I'm a man of the people
which I am.
No, I think you just get attention
from the people you don't want attention.
Yeah.
Like the three I've got, I've got three of them
and I, oh man, that's so cool.
I got a four by four squared and all that.
You got those like.
For the first drive, they're cool.
Yeah, that's true.
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Okay, move on to the next news story.
Oh my God!
Oh my God!
Folks, this is the biggest news story of the week
aside from the G Cabrio and the Toyota GRGT.
France.
As a nation.
Is selling their concept cars.
Fresh carbon owns part of it.
So Renault, which is a company that makes cars
in France is having a big concept car sale.
GM did this in 2009 and my only regret in life
is that I didn't have money to buy those cars.
Is this a recession indicator?
Yeah, it could be.
Okay, independently?
No, they just don't, they ran out of space.
Okay, so they're selling a bunch of concept cars.
Can you go to the thing?
Look at this.
Look at this.
They're all white.
That has you written all over.
I am obsessed with concept cars.
I'm the only person who cares about concept cars
and I am truly obsessed with the idea
of buying old concept cars.
I have tried many times from automakers
that I work with to buy old concept cars.
They always say no.
That!
Look at this thing.
Look at this thing.
There are some incredible ones.
This is unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
Now all of these cars that sold Bill of Sale,
presumably no VIN,
you'd never be able to import it,
you'd never be able to drive it,
title it all that, which is so sad.
If this was happening in the U.S.,
I would buy half these cars.
That's a Clio pick.
Clio, I know.
You layer that's a Clio pick.
With six wheels.
With six wheels.
And it looks like,
man, did they put that together
the day before the auto show.
It wasn't even an auto show car.
This was done purely internally,
apparently to add skill to apprentice metal workers.
Boy, did they not add very much skill.
No!
This is amazing!
You couldn't do this.
So true.
I would like to see you try to do this
in your little half garage.
Couple of colors.
Go back out to the deck up.
The deck up is so cool.
Look at this.
I want this, I literally cannot explain to you
how much I want this car.
And all these concept cars
are gonna sell for $11,000.
You know the best part,
the deck up just looks like a car.
Like if you look at the interior photos,
it's just a car.
The interior is pretty standard,
but the exterior,
I would not say looks like a car.
I would, I think it has a Chevy Avalanche style
truck bed for one thing.
Whoa.
Okay, wait.
Go, I don't know if it's on the one you're looking at.
There's also a kangoo that has a,
like a bike storage thing.
Wow.
Like an active kangoo.
Like an active kangoo.
A kangoo Avalanche.
Dude, this is honest.
I'm dead serious when I say this.
I think I'll find it.
And go to the right.
Go to the right, go to the right.
Go to that.
I'm dead serious when I say this.
I am legitimately, truly to borrow one of your words
said that I won't be part of this.
All I wanna do is buy an old concept car.
They're selling them.
This is like this week.
Go one more.
Look at this.
Two more.
Oh my God.
There you go.
That's the photo.
The breakup.
I could have the deck up and the breakup.
The one after this,
the next photo on this is a modus
which is what that car was called
with seemingly no changes except for the wheels.
Giant sunroof.
Cool wheels.
Cool wheels.
Yeah.
Phone dials.
I truly, truly, truly want nothing more
than to be a part of this.
I am so sad, aren't you?
Yeah, let's go.
Wouldn't you drop another grand for a deck up?
It's, oh my God.
That looks, Filippo, look at this.
Go back one.
Look at that.
Great.
Wow.
Boy, if only they had made that,
maybe they wouldn't have had to.
So Carlos going out of the country in a...
They made weird cars and sold them too.
It's not like they're actual cars
where that much weird.
I'm telling you though, this,
first off, do you agree that this looks
like some sort of bison from the side?
It's got like a bison look.
It's got vibe.
It's going on there.
I'm so sorry, Ken.
Can you keep going on that article
and go to where you see the Clio?
He does kind of have a point.
You know, it looks like a bison.
It's front heavy.
For sure.
It's front heavy.
That is, oh, this is there.
Yeah, it is kind of a bison.
All right, leave these photos
and go to where you see the Clio.
The six wheeler?
Yeah.
Just go around a little bit.
All right, and then keep going.
Oh my God, what is this?
Right, this is a Laguna?
This looks like a Laguna to me.
No, but it's a wagon that they never made.
There was a Laguna, but it was trash.
There was a Laguna wagon.
It didn't look like this.
It looks very similar.
This is very similar.
With rolled rear windows.
It looked forerunner.
Are you not familiar with the Laguna wagon?
No, no, dude.
You're right, the Laguna wagon.
I remember that interior from the Laguna wagon.
You're right.
My man.
Looks like something from the cone heads.
By the way, there's a hubcap of the passenger seat.
Well, I've noticed some stuff hanging off the bottom
of some of these cars.
The cars are never presented well.
Outside of that, the Laguna wagon looked like that.
No.
It did.
What are you gonna say about the six wheel Clio?
Okay, go find the six wheel Clio.
It's at the top.
I think it might be a lot of good race cars stuff.
They only put it across the best.
Like a fair, like a few number of photos.
Can you go through it right?
This is a disaster.
I know.
The site makes it a bit tough.
Yeah.
What is this?
What?
What?
What?
Wait, this isn't even AI.
Go to the next picture.
No, no, it's weird.
It does look like an AI error.
It is a rental that I don't remember the name of,
with another one stacked on top of the rear.
But why are there like 17 doors?
There's two cars.
I don't know.
Credit to the car.
What the hell?
They didn't know how to make a door long.
So they're just like copy-paste,
copy-paste, copy-paste.
This is the weirdest thing I've ever.
You think that's only one door?
If you go to this photo.
No, it's only the doors.
But it doesn't make sense.
Credit to car scoops.
Go to carscoops.com and find their article about this.
That's not fake.
It's wild.
Filipe, we need this.
It's got a motor in the front.
That's why it's got some doors.
That's where a lot of cars have their motor.
You need doors to get to the motor.
Well, I think of French engineering
that is what I picture.
It looks kind of like a smattering of very confusing cars.
I can't believe I'm not part of this.
Why, what is that?
What is that?
These are all of Frosch and France.
I think we got to go, Doug.
Oh my God.
This is like, it's like this week.
Let's go.
I truly would buy five of these cars.
I'm not joking.
I would buy the decals.
I would buy the six wheel pickup.
You can bring them into the country.
You can never drive them.
They can never move.
But they can live in the warehouse.
You'd have to bring them in as furniture and a container.
Isn't that what these are?
Yeah, kind of.
I mean, yeah, I would classify that thing
as furniture for sure.
No, this is art.
Oh, true.
This is French art.
True.
That's a great point.
This is up there with Monet.
Of course, it is to advance from here to understand,
but it is, yeah.
This option does have estimates.
Yo, yeah, what's it?
I'll give you an estimate.
I'll give you an estimate.
That's on all of them.
The 12th brand.
There's also a lot of models, I think.
There is no way that any of these cars,
especially this one,
sells for more than $12,000.
They're also models of them, by the way.
They're in this vault.
They ran out of space.
Unsullable or priceless.
It's the same transaction.
And they're looking, they ran out of space
and they're looking at thinking,
what can we sell?
And the first thing that comes to mind,
how about that car with all the doors?
It's really long.
Thank you.
And it's got half another car on top of it
and an engine in the passenger compartment.
That's one of the ones we ought to sell.
With a few exceptions,
they estimate six to 8,000 euros for everything.
All of it?
Any event, yeah.
That feels...
That is 12 grand.
I'm right on.
They do have models.
We could buy some models.
I truly want the six wheel.
I want the deck up more than anything.
I would bring that here
and I would pay somebody to get it right.
The six wheel, three to six,
each thousand euros is what they estimate.
Three to six thousand euros.
There's also a rental Twingo gangster.
When you think about it,
you could build your own...
Gangster crew, I'm sorry.
You could build your own six wheel clio for a bull.
The price of a clio, which is nothing.
And then a couple of days in the shop.
Some cold ones.
A couple of cold ones.
Okay, we gotta move on.
This is a new story no one's gonna care about but us.
We need to move on to real stuff.
People are gonna stop watching.
I submit for that 21X Levy and Goliath,
which is what that car satchel is being described.
Oh, it was built for a film that we've never seen.
A French...
Of course, yes.
They probably made all the sense to the director.
They describe it as utterly crazy experience
and unique unlike anything else.
And I do agree with both of those descriptors.
Two to four thousand.
Two to four thousand, that's two to four thousand too much.
Unless you need doors.
If you need a lot of doors.
If you have whatever that car is
and you need to spare doors.
Your dollar per door ratio is very high.
There were like 14 doors on the car.
Pretty impressive.
Okay, move on to the next.
Oh, okay, this is a somber story.
And this fellow has dressed in black.
He knew he would be fired.
This is Jerry McGovern.
He was formerly the design chief of Jaguar.
He has been fired.
So we talked a few weeks, months ago,
about how Jaguar Land Rover has a new CEO.
One of the first things that that CEO has done
now a couple of months in
is fire the person design chief.
He was also the guy behind the Type 00 project.
He was one of the people that was most advocating
for Jaguar's relaunch, that marketing campaign, et cetera.
That's the thing.
The design is not what bothers me with the car,
to be totally honest.
I don't love it, but I don't think that it's that crazy.
It was the campaign that was so insane.
At the same time, he's not wrong conceptually.
This might be the path forward for Jag.
You know when that campaigns came out?
November 19 of 24.
Wow.
It's been over a year.
And you know what we still haven't seen?
A person with a car.
I will say Jerry McGovern, Gary McGovern.
I have no idea.
Jerry has been there for 21 years at Jaguar Land Rover.
He designed the Defender that you owned.
Yep.
He also designed the Avoc.
The Avoc is a big deal.
The Avolar is the most beautiful Land Rover of all time.
Ranger of Classic exists.
Oh, wow, wow.
I knew he was gonna say Classic.
You're gonna sit here and advocate
for the Ranger of Classic.
How beautiful, do you want one?
Yeah.
We're gonna get to that later in this podcast.
Have you bought a car yet?
No, but it's been a week.
We'll get there.
How long you think it took me to buy the 993 Turbo?
It took me an hour, me and Sean.
I just remember it going on for months.
We talked about it two weeks ago.
About my Mercedes in like a week.
All right, regardless, he is fired.
And it's a shame because I think Jaguar
was headed in the right direction.
That is one of the weird things
about having a directionless company.
No matter which direction you decide to take it
and no one's going to like it, it seems.
I mean, I think that-
This car got a lot of positivity.
I think the car looks kind of cool, to be honest.
But I don't know.
I think Harry Mack have did a video on this
where he talked about how there's so many
American consumers on the East and West Coast
that want something electric that's cool
and kind of luxurious.
And so it actually makes sense in a lot of markets.
But I just don't, I don't know.
The Jag brand is just a difficult one to shape it.
The fact that he's out suggests to me
that there's more turmoil going on than suggested.
They also have had a, like Jaguar Land Rover
has not had a great six months.
Well, yeah, that's true.
But over the last year, it was almost pitched to us
like Jaguar knows what we're doing.
Like we have, we're doing a rebrand.
We came up with this concept.
We have some ideas.
And the fact that the chief creative officer is out
makes you kind of wonder either they're going back
to the drawing board about their ideas or admittedly
in this span, also the whole EV thing has failed.
Not failed has significantly declined,
which has its own implications for Jaguar,
which was intending to rebrand as an EV company.
But then also maybe this direction
isn't what they're going to do.
The thing is they're going to kill him.
The surprising thing is they had,
no, the brand has too much equity.
It does.
Look, think about MG, dude.
He worked at MG.
This is a story every British car industry person
worked at British Leyland for some period.
You couldn't avoid it.
This is a storied car brand, just like MG,
which became a storied car brand for China.
That's right.
I'm doing a piece I'm going to Norris to film an XK140.
And I was looking back in Jaguar's history.
In the 50s, Jaguar stood for not only speed,
but reliability and like toughness and beauty.
And it had all of these really interesting elements
that should have been a genetic launching pad
for the company would then go to.
The E-Type that came out,
which was also one of the most beautiful parts.
E-Type changed the world in the 60s.
Changed the world in the 60s.
They owned the world until 1970.
And value too.
They were also like a really great value
compared to Ferraris and other cars like that.
Those four-door sedans,
people thought they were beautiful.
They were very special.
So if only they could get back to there.
The back of that Jaguar says winner Le Mans 1951, 1953.
If only they could get back to that,
but I just don't know,
I just don't know where you go with the brand
to do something.
It's tough.
It's a tough situation.
The brand has a lot of brand equity.
However, that doesn't necessarily translate
to a lot of sales, just as Ask and Martin.
Precisely.
And Jaguar is kind of in almost a worse spot
in terms of that.
A less premium version of a brand,
Ask and Martin, that isn't doing that well themselves.
Right.
Precisely.
So what do you do?
That's right.
It'll be interesting to see what they do,
but I think I have a suspicion
if this fellow, Jerry McGovern,
who was quite successful.
Yeah, yeah.
Quite.
Over many years at Land Rover
and had risen to Chief Creative Officer.
One thing I find weird is they're pushing him out now.
Instead of, there was a lot of negativity
associated with the rebrand a year ago,
but he's still stuck around.
There's a new CEO.
As of two months ago.
So he's rethinking the whole thing.
Which is what, presumably, he was tasked with.
You kind of have to.
You can let the Jaguar brand linger
for a while and do nothing
and then come back eventually.
Look at Bugatti.
They don't sell any cars right now, period.
Bugatti is actually a good example, I would think,
because that brand languished for a long time.
Until Romano Artioli came back
and showed us the EB110, our dream car.
That's right.
Yeah.
Dude, another thing Italy did right.
Next news, Troy, please.
All right.
Oh, Filippo's excitement here.
This is the next generation delivery vehicle.
Mail truck.
Yeah, that's not another Renault concept.
Yeah, it turns out.
Developed by the Alshashcroft Corporation.
They are out.
They've delivered some number to the US Postal Service.
They're out.
They're around.
I want to tell you a little bit about them.
About 70% of the order will be electric.
The remaining 30% will have a Ford
TurboCharge 2 liter under the hood.
What platforms are they?
No, sorry, Alshashcroft Corporation is building it.
The engines and some components are coming forward.
It's built in Wisconsin?
Built in Wisconsin.
Wow, look at you.
We get an Italy story.
We get a Wisconsin story of Filippo's.
I know.
We got all.
You're sourcing around.
They are obviously the old Grunman mail trucks.
They've been around for forever.
They apparently cost $10,000 each
to maintain per year on average,
because they're well past their lifetime capacity.
Don't they have Iron Duke four-cylinder?
Yes, but at this point, they're all 40 years old.
Government's buy it up, used FIERROs.
They're trying to keep them running.
There's a used FIERRO lot somewhere in Indiana
that the government's pulling parts off of.
They were designed to be very space efficient
to be really practical for what the USPS does now,
which is less carry letters and more carry packages.
Automatic emergency braking,
rear view camera for the first time,
which seems helpful.
Even the EVs don't creep forward
because if you're delivering mail,
you want it to stay stopped.
There's some real thought that
they won't run if you're not buckled in,
which seems like something that's gonna,
I suspect we'll see some mail carriers find ways around.
Yep, I see them buckling and then sitting around.
No, no, there's that buckle that you could buy.
Oh, not that you should anywhere.
But they're cool.
One fun fact.
My understanding is that the Oshosh Corporation
can sell this to other people
to not just the US Postal Service,
but they cannot use that duck bill
for an end at all for anybody else.
That was developed in collaboration with the USP.
It is difficult for me to overstep.
Couple things.
First off, I bought stamps the other day
that have this truck on them.
Second.
Wait, really?
Yeah, yes.
There's a whole USPS mail town
and the whole town is mail delivery
and there's a couple of them in that.
You look it up.
I'll give you that time.
Thanks.
They've delivered the first ones
to Augusta and Athens, Georgia.
If you live down there in Clark County
or Columbia County, Filippo, you know,
then you can have your mail delivered to this.
Oh my God, they are on it.
I'm telling you.
You gotta pull.
Also, the old one's also on it.
Is it?
Yeah.
Oh, I'm gonna throw away that stamp.
Well, you're gonna pull it up.
It is just one stamp that has old, two that has old one.
It should be looking for platypus truck.
250 years of delivering stamps.
Mail town, that's what it looks like to me.
250 years of delivering, that's what it is.
So look, it's a, go to images.
It's a town that's the mail delivery.
There it is.
And if you scroll in or zoom in
or whatever, the new mail truck, there it is.
And then the top left and top, top is old one.
Oh, legacy.
I don't want any of that.
I'm gonna cancel those stamps.
Yeah.
But it's out.
Finally, we'll see other things.
By the way, they've also ordered like 9,040 transits.
Do you think, you know, for a while when I was a kid,
they were delivering the mail,
at least in my neighborhood in Denver,
with Ford wind stars.
You used to be able to also,
like rural mail carriers used to be able to,
I think still can purchase other.
Yeah, they're on vehicles.
Look up wind star mail truck.
Can I ask you a question?
And I'm serious about this.
Do you think I can review one of these?
Yes.
Can you get me?
USPS, please.
Using your contacts in Wisconsin.
Can you get me a review of one of these?
Yeah, we had these all over Denver when I was a kid.
Yep.
Please, if you are with the Oshosh Corporation.
This one looks like DC.
Or with the USPS.
Send us a note.
Send us a note.
I wanna review your wares.
I promise I won't review the duck bill one
if I'm not allowed to do some sort of
complicated copyright agreement.
I'll do whatever you need me to do.
Embargo.
Yeah.
The one thing I won't do is travel to Wisconsin
in the winter.
So unfortunately we're gonna.
It will wait till the spring.
We're gonna have to wait until the mail truck
comes to San Diego.
Which by the way, it's a great climate for mail trucks.
It is.
Send us some.
By the way, 120 miles of wrench.
That's not much.
No, but presumably they did a bunch of work
to figure out the average length
of a bear carrier's route.
It makes sense.
I'm sure it's pretty.
Although they do not have the,
they developed it purposely so they could
easily swap out batteries.
Cause they know that they won't need to swap out batteries.
Long life.
Or also like 10 years from now
if they're keeping these for longer
they'll have new battery tech.
But not the fastest chargers.
Well, it probably doesn't need the charger overnight.
It doesn't matter.
They probably factored all this stuff in.
You go to the post office at the end of your shift
you plug in and you start the tech.
Can I ask you a question?
Yes.
As a person, are you thinking about
getting a Grumman LLV for yourself?
No.
Okay, next news story.
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Oh, don't show the Diablo.
What is going on here, Trump?
Oddly, this is Filippo's story.
Of course.
Full service gas pump, but he's filling it up himself,
which is interesting.
I have to put gas in it.
I don't want your filthy hands touching my car.
Look at this.
This is so full.
Put that camera away.
Get it out of here.
There's a 95 escort back there with no plates.
This is great.
What a picture.
Incredible.
What is this news?
This is news.
It's got a Diablo.
We think we talked about this before,
but the Trump administration announced today
the rollback that they are starting the process
for a fuel economy standard.
So under the Biden administration,
there were a more aggressive cafe standards
that pushed what across each company,
what the minimum fuel economy would have to be by 2031.
It was set to 50.2 miles per gallon cafe,
which is different than what's on your window sticker
or what your car actually gets.
It has gone down, the administration is requesting
that it goes down to about 34.5 by 2031.
So massively lower standards.
The Trump administration is then saying
that will lead to cheaper vehicles for people
because they believe that the fuel economy standards
were costing consumers money.
Mixed evidence on whether that is actually true,
but that is today's news story.
There has been some news that the EU
is going to remove or relax their ban on gasoline cars.
California as well.
Yep.
Interesting.
This has, by the way, been cheered
by all of the US manufacturers.
Although GM less so than Solantis, I will say.
Well, GM probably has an advantage
against some of these guys.
Solantis has zero advantage against anybody
on anything fuel economy related.
They'll exclusively sell them.
What do you mean, the Wagoneer S?
Is that even still for sale?
Are we sure?
No, they've obviously come up with some of these,
but the majority of their sales are trucks
that are not very fuel efficient.
This will help them notably
and will mean that they can continue to invest in V8s.
GM is also building a V8 plant,
transitioning on their plans to V8.
Clearly the US manufacturers especially
are responding to our, in favor of this,
will build towards this.
I don't know exactly what position I should take on this,
how I should feel about it,
but I will tell you, it seems to me
that the people were not ready for some of the mandates
that the government was setting up.
So there's multiple different mandates, right?
So the transportation when they came in
to power nine months ago, 10 months ago, 12 months ago.
What month are we in?
11 months ago. 11 months ago.
All the numbers, but the right one.
Yep. Filippo.
Cut all of the EV mandates, right?
So those went away.
The CAFE standards are for all the other vehicles
that are gasoline powered.
Relaxing those might have the,
instead of manufacturers need to invest less
in the next generation of gasoline engines
or in transitioning away from gasoline engines entirely.
Counterport to that is those better fuel economy standards
mean that we use less fuel,
less greenhouse gas emissions, et cetera,
which may have longer term impacts too.
Yeah, obviously.
Also, if cars less fuel efficient,
you're gonna use more gas, it's more costly to you.
There's kind of some mixed effects here.
Right. Right.
I mean, it's in it,
and that's kind of why this is a difficult task.
Neither party necessarily has it right.
There are definitely some negative outcomes
in both scenarios.
Also, this is not a surprise, by the way.
This is not like a surprise news story.
This is just formally they've started the project.
It will be interesting though,
if EU also pushes back their EV mandate.
A lot of these things were trumpeted
very, very significantly over the last five years.
And a lot of these things have been rolled back.
We've seen it with private automakers,
and we've now seen it with public government,
which is related also, of course.
Trump is the only president in history
who's ever had a Diablo.
Yep.
Would have been hard for, you know,
with Taft to have a Diablo, but yeah.
Wouldn't have been hard for Obama.
Obama, you think Obama can't go buy a Diablo?
He had a 306. Rich.
That's true, but then again, Joe had a C2.
You know what he had, Obama?
A 306. He had a 99 to 04 Grand Cherokee.
Wow. Is that true?
Yeah. Really?
He had a 99 to 04 Grand Cherokee.
Good, Jen.
He had a four later.
Obama had a four later.
Trump's got a 57.
You know what I'm saying?
A Grand Cherokee.
Great car.
Four to the straight six.
That Grand Cherokee.
Not a bad, Jen.
Yeah, the 99 to 04s.
Had a four later, straight six.
That was a base grand Cherokee?
I bet you 10 grand.
No, what can I say?
If I'm right.
I believe you, that was the base.
He could have had a larger,
depending on the Grand Cherokee.
He could have had a larger Grand Cherokee.
He may have had a 47.
Those are the tumors.
Yeah, that, Jen.
The next gen had bigger.
The next gen also had a 57.
And a 37.
The four later went away.
Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.
He didn't have an 05.
Obama has standards, dude.
Thank God.
He could only accept so much plastic in his interior.
He caught half.
Nobody's serious had an 05 Grand Cherokee.
Okay, unless you had an SRT8.
Obama wouldn't ready for that.
Okay, move on to our next news story.
Oh, football.
So, Cadillac is coming up soon,
and Cadillac has announced they're going to be revealing
the livery for their Formula One car
during the Super Bowl.
One of the Super Bowl ads.
This is exciting to me for a couple of reasons.
So, one thing I want to clarify,
they're not revealing the F1 car itself.
That does not happen until it's like that.
It might be around that timeframe
because the Formula One calendar,
we start thinking March.
Wait, they're participating next year?
In like 90 days?
2026, that's correct.
Yeah, Cadillac enters the sport.
Very excited.
We have to get in on this.
I also have to say it was very apparent
when I was at the Mexican Grand Prix
because Sergio Perez, Mexican driver,
will be one of the drivers on the team.
A lot of Cadillac gear everywhere.
There are a lot of people wearing it.
So, people are excited,
but I think it's very exciting for two reasons.
One, there are a lot of American Formula One fans now.
When I was young growing up,
I was an odd, ostracized child for a number of reasons,
but one was that my love of F1.
Yeah, yeah, ostracized by the F1 community,
by the Ohio teenager community.
No, people, Formula One was not common growing up.
Yeah, not at all.
Now it's so big that, yeah, the Midwest has a team,
and they're going to have an ad during the Super Bowl.
I mean, that's kind of thrilling for me.
Presumably this ad will not really be touting Cadillac's,
it's not an ad for the Vistik.
No, no. What could it is?
Well, what if they do the Vistik in the liver?
You know what they should do
is that good famous Porsche ad
where all the cars are driving through the desert.
That's what Cadillac should do.
All the cars, and then at the end,
they all drive into a whiteboard with the Formula One liver
because they can't actually drive with the car.
Because that isn't being revealed yet.
No, exactly, but nonetheless, very exciting.
They just wanted to do this obviously as a huge ad campaign.
And I think, I don't know if this will push more American fans
to be involved with Formula One,
but I think that it is cool.
For me, as an American, having another American team,
I mean, Haas is there, of course,
but Cadillac, they have GM on the grid is pretty cool.
I'm going to tell you this,
as someone who's not into Formula One at all,
this makes me slightly into Formula One.
Wait, hold on a minute.
I think you said that if they did actually
take part in Formula One, you would watch.
I would not watch anything, but I will cheer.
And by cheer, I mean, I will wait for you to text me
whether Cadillac has won.
I'm going to get you a Cadillac F1 hat.
That's what I'm going to do for you.
Oh, that's nice.
Oh, you know what?
If that happens, I'll wear it on this podcast.
Deal.
Mark it, put it in your calendar, Douglas.
It's brilliant marketing, because sports fans are likely,
like the same people that watched Super Bowl
are likely to be people that might be into Formula One.
Sports, yeah, absolutely.
Totally agree.
Very excited.
Can't wait to see it.
Moving on to the next story.
Ah, yes.
Now, you look at this and you think to yourself,
that looks like an NSX.
And sure enough, it is.
Pininfarina's decided they're going to go back and revisit
the NSX, and they're going to be doing kind of a redesign.
So it's going to be, this is based on the first-gen NSX.
It has a full carbon body, six-speed manual transmission,
a tuned Honda V6.
All really cool stuff.
They're working with JAS Motorsport to build this car.
And unlike the Ferrari, remember the 355 thing
that was mostly kind of BS, and it was terrible.
This actually looks like it's going to be kind of cool.
The coolest thing I think is the rear of the car,
this lighting treatment they did, looks.
The front end looks good, too.
I think it all looks good.
Yeah, let me bring this up, because I think it's good.
Yeah, Pininfarina NSX, or the Tensei, which means birth.
What?
What?
They're calling it the Tensei, which is rebirth.
I think this is actually, this actually looks good.
Can I get one of these?
How do I get one of these?
What do I have to do?
I can't.
I think live in Japan, maybe.
Have to live in Japan?
No, I actually don't know.
They've been announced very much.
They got NSXes in America.
We got one right over there.
Apparently they have shown it to people
and gotten started to get orders.
Well, they've shown it.
Yeah, they've shown it to people.
No, no.
We're looking at it right now.
They've shown not just images to people
in November at Fuji Speedway.
It sounds like it'll be cool.
What I did not realize is that Pininfarina
worked with Honda to create the NSX concept.
No, it was something else.
It was like the ASX concept.
It became then the NSX.
Well, you say that.
But in my world, only one person
worked with Honda to make the NSX.
Oh, so you guys say it's Senna?
Aaron Senna.
I will also note, to be fair to you,
the 1984 HPX concept, pull it up.
It doesn't really look like the NSX
in any way, shape, or form.
It's this, it's that.
Wait, it's right there.
It's that.
It also doesn't look like Pininfarina.
That looks like a deep.
Oh, no, no, I don't know.
That looks like it was a Ferrari,
not the Mythos, but there's the one before that.
You know, the one, it was white.
And it was like the fun opened up
that looks so Pininfarina.
Needless to say, this didn't make production.
I like this NSX Resto Mod thing.
I love all the Resto Mods, unlike you.
I think they're all cool.
I welcome them all.
I just wish they were like available.
Like singers, I think you can buy a singer
if you call up the singer people and say,
hey, I'm a rich guy.
You like that heinous, terrible.
That's cool.
And anything you can do to make the 355,
and I'll tell you something.
I tell you what, it didn't make the 355
any more reliable.
That's what you were going to say,
and they did not.
I asked them about this.
You can modernize it in a cool way.
Like this is a cool car.
No, it isn't.
I do think one of the drawbacks
of all these Resto Mods is that
at the end of the day, after the glossy photos,
you're kind of left with the car.
Under the skin, you get in,
it's probably going to be a 1990 NSX interior,
which isn't really that,
like if they really went the whole way,
like Singer does, that would be cool,
but I bet they won't.
I don't think that they're taking NSXs.
I would not be surprised
if they did some stuff to modernize the interior,
but nonetheless, they really have been focused
on more advertising than doing stuff
to the exterior of the car.
Well, I think as far as execution
for some of these Resto Mod projects go,
I think that is probably the most compelling one I've seen.
I will be clear.
I don't think they're taking NSXs
and Resto Modding them.
I think they're building something new.
Well, I'm down for that.
Let's find out.
I'm looking at the stories
and it says that there's not,
none of this is confirmed yet.
It's just pictures up.
Next news story, please.
Do we have any other news?
Yes, one more news story.
So if you're in Russia and you had a Porsche,
a lot of people had a tough week.
So the Porsche vehicle tracking system, PVTS,
in Russia specifically recently had a huge malfunction
that basically had affected hundreds of customers
and they were not able to start their cars.
Now that's a problem if you live in a cold place,
like I don't know, Russia,
and you maybe want to get somewhere
and you go to start your car.
Yeah, no, you can't get anywhere.
Kind of an irritating problem to have.
You don't think this is a big deal?
No, it's certainly a problem.
It's certainly a big problem
since it speaks to something larger.
If they were affected by this,
what other markets could be, you know?
Well, yeah.
That's the thing that's a little scary.
Some of us still drive cars
that can't be controlled by robot oil.
Right, now I understand that you want to have tracking
to make sure that your car,
particularly in Russia,
if it gets stolen,
you want to make sure that you can get it back.
I understand that it adds a lot of value.
However, the fact that the potential trade-off of that
is that you might not be able to start your car
because the satellite fails, that's your thing.
It's a little problematic.
Yeah, seems like a big problem.
You think they deserve it, don't you?
No, I don't.
You think they deserve it.
Flippo, listen, Russia's in that whole war situation
from the Ukraine.
We're able right now,
I think this is a rare time in American history,
we're able to say stuff about Russians
that we weren't able to say like five years,
that we maybe have thought,
but we weren't able to say.
You could say it.
You're a PN.
Take a swing, Flippo.
You're a PN.
Say what you want to say about Russia.
It is certainly problematic
that a product that a manufacturer makes
is not sufficiently reliable,
like their technology stack is not sufficiently reliable
to make the product actually function.
Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax,
and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
Well, I'm letting go of the worry
that I wouldn't get my new contacts
in time for this class.
I got them delivered free from 1-800 contacts.
Oh my gosh, they're so fast.
And breathe.
Oh, sorry.
I almost couldn't breathe
when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order.
Oh, sorry.
Namaste.
Visit 1-800-contacts.com today
to save on your first order.
1-800-contacts.
He had the chance to say something about Russians
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We have to move on to the talk cars segment
which is sponsored by Ryan Lopez's drift car.
Okay.
One of our team members is a drift car here.
He's a team member.
He's, I love this when we get to find out
our employees are actually team members.
Who, I didn't know I was on a team.
It's like Cadillac, one of the one.
No, I know who those team members are.
All right, I want to talk.
I had an incident the other day.
Oh no.
Kuntash broke down again.
Again?
Gosh.
Was it also on the highway or are you good to send?
I don't remember where it was,
but I'll tell you this.
It broke down and a tow truck driver came
and picked it up.
Just like last time.
And it's at the shop.
And the tow truck driver said,
are you sure that that little tow hook under the car
can is enough to winch it onto the tow truck?
And I said, yeah.
Have been a long time ago.
I'm sure.
So the Kuntash was so reliable for a year and a half
where you touted the two and a half years.
All you talked about was this car
has been problem free.
Well, George Evans serviced it.
It was fine.
I will speak to that.
And I think that that's what happened.
The car got a big service three years ago.
Three years has come up.
It's literally actually three years.
Evans got it three years ago like this week.
And I think that it's aging in now to some stuff
that weren't replaced during that service
because it wasn't needed.
And so you're getting into that point.
So the question is, do you undertake another kind
of large service, maybe take the car
out for another two months
and replace some more stuff that's aging,
or do you start fixing stuff as it happens,
which is obviously what I'm currently doing
as I'm breaking down.
This particular one was the clutch master and slave cylinder.
Not a big deal.
I've been told it's for the master and slave together
it's a thousand bucks plus install.
It's not a big deal,
but having the car be reliable is important.
Obviously that the original thing,
which was the distributor the first time it failed,
that was also only like a thousand bucks.
Not a big deal.
It's just, you know, stuff happened.
My view on it, if you want my opinion on it,
is that like, I think it is wise
while George Evans, who's not a young man,
still serves these cars is like,
I wouldn't, maybe you don't,
I mean, don't send it to him once a year every,
but maybe every couple.
I'm thinking about in 27, send it to him.
See how 26 goes.
I will say, you know, it's interesting
that the Kuntash gets a lot of crap.
None of these problems have been Kuntash related.
The distributor is anything that can happen
to any old car and happens all the time to old cars.
Because master and slave cylinder on a clutch,
this isn't like, oh, because they installed a radiator
one inch from the battery, it melts the terminals
and you have to replace it every day.
Like it is none of that stuff.
Car's 42 years old.
42 years old, this stuff happens.
And also, I drive it as if it's an acceptable thing
to drive frequently.
Like I drive it at least twice a week
and I drive it like to the post office.
And like I drove.
Which also helps.
It helps, certain things it helps,
but certain things it hurts, right?
There are some wear items that actually do wear with use
and some that are actually improved with use.
But it's nonetheless broken out again.
I need a new master cylinder
and I was on the phone with our shop here, Gary Bobaleff.
And Gary said to me, he said, these master cylinders
said everything was pretty easy to find
up until a couple of weeks ago
when Lamborghini's parts distribution warehouse
was destroyed in that UPS plane crash in Louisville, Turkey.
What bad, well, I mean, obviously a tragedy, but.
The bad looks on the Louisville Lamborghini parts.
The fact that that strikes so close to home for you is crazy.
So they, apparently, I mean,
if you look at the pictures from that plane crash,
a lot of buildings were destroyed.
I'm not surprised.
There are warehouses all throughout the Midwest
for various companies because it's easy in the Midwest
to access the East Coast and the West Coast
and send parts all over the place and whatever.
But how about that?
I wonder what was in there?
Yeah.
Like was there a Diablo, like, rear engine cover?
What stuff's gone?
Was there actual engines transmission?
What stuff's gone?
What really, I mean, all those parts
are basically any part of this value.
Yeah.
And so what stuff's gone?
He said he can get a new one from Europe,
but it takes two weeks instead of a day.
Big deal.
Yeah, it's no problem.
It's no problem.
Although now you have to pay tariffs on that, you know?
Probably.
But it's only 600 bucks.
That particular part is only 600 bucks.
Is this changing your perception
and your mental appreciation of the Kuntas?
Not yet, because again, none of the problems
that have happened have been Kuntas-specific.
I know a lot of people with old cars
and this happens to all of them,
like master-slave cylinders, distributors.
These are kind of common old car issues.
Well, it's like even having to have a car rebuilt.
It's an old car.
Stuff fouls up.
I don't see how, up so far in my experience,
I don't see how the Kuntas
has been worse than any,
attempting to drive any other 40 or 50-year-old car every day.
The thing is, it's your only old car.
The 993, older two at this point,
that's a 30-year-old car, basically, but.
Are you asking me about the Hamilton collection?
No.
Boy, am I not.
Because I've been thinking about it.
I wanna be really clear.
I've been thinking about it.
I wanna be really clear.
I'm not.
Okay, I wanna go on a little tangent here
because I've been thinking about this.
The Kuntas is a little difficult to own.
It's an old car.
Yep.
The Hamilton collection gets on this whole thing
with Christian Von Konigs.
And we talked about it a little on the pod,
but I was reminded of something.
Oh.
Hamilton Collection had a Kuntas, a white Kuntas.
They took it to Evans, did a massive service.
A year later, they sent it back to Evans,
did another massive service.
A year after that, they sold it.
The Kuntas isn't for
people who.
Take your time.
Put it together slowly.
People who attained money and bought the cars
that those type of people have.
The SF 90s and the Bugattis.
Not an EB-110.
To have a Kuntas, not an EB-110.
To be a Kuntas owner, it requires,
I mean, this thing breaks and I'm laughing.
You're right.
I'm not sending an Instagram DM
to Christian Von Konigs eggs complaining, right?
Like this is part of it.
This is part of owning an old car.
This is part of the enthusiasm
that comes with these vehicles.
And I think that certain people on the social media
who are celebrated only,
if we were celebrated primarily for their financial gains
and their acquisitions are not prepared
to own cars such as these.
And that's that.
My statement I would add to that is like,
specifically with the Konigs egg thing is like,
that is a new expensive car.
You do not expect to have to deal with issues
that you deal with with the 42 year old car.
You sure do with the Konigs egg.
But I think the car.
Look, I don't disagree with that,
but I understand why someone in that position
would be frustrated by the experience.
That's what really hit me and made me think about it.
I think you kind of do this is everyone knows
this is like a one warehouse.
Like they're doing an operation.
Like they're on the cutting edge.
They're trying to make all this stuff.
And I think if you want to go down that road
as a guy with money, you're going to be disappointed
because stuff is going to break
and stuff isn't going to work right.
If you want to go down.
And by the way, Hamilton does a video the other day
saying that Tesla is one of his all time
favorite car brands.
This tells you kind of where like where,
where their mindsets are with these people
who have big, big collections that and a lot of money.
As opposed to like pure enthusiasm where it's like,
of course, and I'll tell you,
when you saw it with the Koenigsegg response,
some of the, some of the owners were like, yeah, they break.
I love my Koenigsegg wouldn't change it.
And some were like, this is the worst thing in the world.
And it kind of separated them based into those categories.
Are you an enthusiast who is tolerant of these things?
Or you rich guy go fast.
Or you rich guy go fast.
I will say, I think once you just turn them on a wealth,
you expect that you can pay your way out of that.
And I think some of you go to Evan's every year
because you think if I throw 50 grand out every year
it'll be reliable.
And I think some of these guys get upset
when they learn that's actually not true.
Which requires both money and a tolerance
and an acceptance and a capability
that I think if you are used to just paying your way out of it
it doesn't provide.
Which I think that comes back to a point
that you've always made that when we see these cars
actually being used and driven,
it's like I have so much more respect for that.
Not just because the car is cool.
It's hard.
Because I know, and I know having owned
an old Italian exotic car that like how hard it is.
It's really hard.
It's hard.
You go to a dealer by an SF90, pay 300 off sticker.
Any rich guy can do that.
It is legitimately hard to have these cars
and I'm here for it.
And I understand that that's one of the reasons
that I don't think Kuntosha is really rocking it up
and in value, people really believe
that it's difficult to own.
I'd rather own it and deal with the difficulty.
And I'm sitting there, it's broken down
and it broke down in front of my house actually.
And I'm sitting there looking at it
and I'm thinking this is the coolest looking car
in the world.
I don't want to say it's charming
but you just know it's a part of it.
And whether it strikes you today or tomorrow,
you don't really know but that's kind of,
it's a point A to point A car.
You don't ever use it if you have to go somewhere.
It's all about the experience.
And it's, and I think it's part of the experience
and I am charmed by that.
And I understand how there are people who wouldn't be.
But I think the enthusiasts of this type of thing are
and so has it lost the luster?
Zero.
Still my favorite car I am.
I would say I would not, I don't want to deal
with that period.
Not for you.
Speaking of things you don't want to deal with,
how are you going on finding a car
which you announced last week you were going to be doing?
Yeah, yeah.
I've been talking to a bunch of different sellers
of primarily 991 and 11's.
Yeah.
But some others in there too.
I reached out to a 981S and some others.
There were some influences in our group of friends
that maybe gave poor advice.
We're going down the blockster route already.
No, no, no.
I just wanted to consider one, you know?
But I think a 991 base cab is what I want.
I do have, I'm in conversations with a few.
One did sell for more than I thought
was market appropriate, so I kind of let that one go.
That's going to happen a lot too, but you know.
We know the market really well.
We run an auction site where we know
literally what people want to pay.
And so I'm not in a rush.
I want to buy a car quickly.
I want to buy a car relatively quickly,
but I'm not going to overpay for that privilege.
I would.
Yeah.
Because you know what, you know what?
The thing is you're not willing to overpay
by even two grand.
That's a lot of money.
Yeah, but somebody else will.
That's the thing, you're going to continue
to lose these.
And the markets keep going up.
The markets are not.
The other thing is you were,
the thing you haven't conceptualized yet
is that you were depriving yourself of the opportunity
you got, like the opportunity to enjoy this car at all.
That's assuming I'll enjoy it.
I mean, I'm very actively pursuing it.
At least he's aware.
I am legitimately actively pursuing it.
I've been looking with a level of through your chance
for about a week and a half.
It's not unexpected that I have fun.
I'm sure he's going to enjoy it.
I'm sorry.
I thought, yes, I didn't realize.
The primary purpose of a sports car is not enjoyment.
No, I do think you have to be willing to overpay
maybe a little bit.
And I think the market on those cars is rising.
There is a guy who's been posting
on the Rennlist career GT section
looking for a cheap career GT.
He made his first post in 2011
and he bumps it every couple of years
and he hadn't bumped it in five or six years
and someone replied, are you still looking?
And he said, yes, this was like six months ago.
The dude's been looking for a cheap career GT
since they were $300,000.
And obviously not quite the same situation
but if that market is rising,
paying two grand over today makes it a deal tomorrow.
I don't think it is rising.
I think Bournemouth is looking about to get their temps.
You know?
It's a lot of time.
I think they are still appreciating.
They're looking for a cheap career GT.
That's insane.
Don't beat this guy.
The reality in the 991 market
is that there's not very many manual 991s.
There's a lot of PDK 991 cabs.
I could buy a PDK 991 cab relay
for 20 grand less than a manual will cost today.
They're everywhere.
It's harder to find a manual
that's not a manual.
He still wouldn't do it.
He'd be looking for one that's
two grand less than a manual will cost.
Therefore, the demand is higher,
meaning that the market to buy that me,
the compression of time, you need to act.
Wouldn't you rather I buy the one that I actually want
instead of one that isn't what I want?
Yes.
Quickly, you need to act.
What do you want?
Because a few cars have come up
and you've rejected some for reasons that weren't...
Last week, all you said in this podcast,
you won a 991 with a stick.
Yeah, yeah.
And some models?
There is like one for sale that is reasonable
that I've not reached out to
because there's no photos
and the spec is not one that I'm not interested in.
Now he wants a, he's the right spec.
That wants to be able to go to the PCA and say,
oh, nice spec.
He is a Porsche guy.
Nice spec, you got the watch for that spec.
I reckon now from my experience with other cars
that it would be nice to have heated seats
in a convertible, something like that for you.
You can drive top down almost any day,
but it'd be nice to have heated seats.
Dude, the level of luxury that you're living in.
Most of them, most of them,
you added heated seats after Marcus,
your career journey.
I do not have heated seats in many of my cars.
Yes, in half of them you do.
Yeah, but not half.
A little bit over half, a little bit over half.
Think about it.
Oh my God, that was a dumb response.
There are things where I think my enjoyment of them
and my wife's enjoyment of the car
would be a little bit higher if I weigh the time
and so I wanted to do that.
I just, I have...
You should see my emails and texts.
There are a lot of conversations about it.
I'd like to review what you're saying to these people
because like, I've seen you negotiate
on cars before.
When do you clamp down?
Like when someone takes a low ball or what do you do?
No, no, there's like many conversations.
I also recognize that in a market where there's,
just like in an auction site,
there might be somebody that's willing to pay more
and that's okay.
Just gotta weigh a little bit.
Yeah.
It's not like I need to spend the money by tomorrow.
No, if it takes an extra week, that's fine.
Pursue.
Act in you to pursue.
And so, but it's gonna end up being a 718, PDK 718 base.
Thank you.
I just don't wanna buy a car
and think it's a different color than what I get.
You know, I wanna make sure I do my deal.
Oh my God, that's the enormous shade throw.
Kenan bought, wow, wow, wow.
Felipe, do you wanna say it?
Do you wanna explain it?
Oh my God.
I can't believe that happened.
Wow.
Wow, he is throwing more shade at Kenan than I thought.
I will have to bring up, I'll have to find,
I wish I had the picture.
I probably can't pull out the picture.
Kenan thought he bought a Rosso Corsa for our answer.
Which, when you look at the picture of it, hold on,
let me, I'll bring it up, hold on, give me a second.
It was Rosso Barquetta.
Which is a better color,
but not the color Kenan wanted.
No, beautiful color, if I'm honest.
I actually, I loved it.
Being a better color.
But you know, you wanna be sure.
I actually agree with you, by the way.
I legitimately think it looked Rosso Corsa.
It 100% did.
I'm saying this for the joke, not because I care.
I would have asked for the PPG label.
Well, I tell you, Felipe.
I didn't think I had to, it looked red.
Felipe would have asked for the guy
who made the PPG label.
Right, right.
You know what, it was a glossary at the time.
It was what?
The glossary was different.
The face, in 1998 they switched to PPG.
Your talk cars is that you drove a Viper.
Do you wanna feel us out with that?
Yes, we have a Viper that's coming to,
it's gonna work relatively soon,
the Doug's gonna review.
It's a Gen 1.5.
It is one of the Ronald McDonald cars.
So it's really cool.
It's the Catcatchup Mustard.
They only built 166 of them, very cool.
166, and a lot of people swapped out the wheels
because people think they're ugly.
Everybody.
But I think they're amazing.
I agree.
And I also didn't, I forgot they built it
in three different color combos.
White with blue, white wheels, that.
And I think there's one more.
I think it's silver with...
Yeah, that's so true.
I forgot about that.
They're three, yeah.
I remember, when I was a kid,
I remember seeing pictures of these
when it first was launched
and thinking that is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
And I have to tell you,
I have been in love with that color combo my whole life.
I have never seen a Ronald McDonald Viper
until it showed up in the whole world.
I totally agree.
Even living in the Midwest,
I have not seen one either.
But it is, so I drove this car just around
because whenever the cars show up for dog,
I like to go and shake them down a little bit,
just make sure they're okay.
And I have to say, I loved the way that it drove.
I was shocked at how much I liked that car.
And I'm just reminded that I really, really,
really, really, really want our first gen.
I love my SL65.
But it's time already.
I mean, I'm not saying already,
but like I've like, I can't stop looking at that Viper.
It's behind Doug and it is the coolest looking thing.
We're selling the SL65 at the end of the day.
Not yet.
Compromise on his manuals only stands for 30 days
with an SL65.
No, I'm gonna hold on the SL65 for a little while.
There's some other things I have to,
I want to do with it yet, but.
They are such, that's the most different you can get
with while still having a convertible.
Yes.
You get a G-Wagon convertible.
Yeah.
You get a G Laundale.
I could get a crossblade.
That's more like a Viper than the SL65.
That's pretty different.
Not even a convertible, though.
That's a Barquetta.
That's true.
The Gen 1.5, by the way.
Gen 1.5, fascinating car.
Well, the 1.5 is interesting because it's got the body
of the first gen, but which some would argue
is also the body of the second gen.
Let's be clear here.
It's a second gen car.
But the Roadsters were beginning and once they,
once they went to the.
Ride pipes.
The rear exit exhaust.
They were Gen 2s, two Viper people.
To the community, they called it a 1.5
The coupe then became.
The Gen 2.
We collectively agree there's only three generations
of Viper, Gen 1, Gen 3, and Gen 5.
Of course.
Of course.
But Gen 5 is the third gen Viper.
Correct.
It's very confusing, hard to keep up with,
but you figure it out eventually.
It's very odd because it still doesn't have
exterior door handles.
No.
And it still has the window cut out.
But the other second gen Viper's do.
You know what it's got?
Confuse it.
Ronald McDonald.
It looks so cool.
But what are they thinking?
It's hard to see, by the way, but there are red.
And are there yellow accents inside too?
Or is it just no?
Just red accents inside.
But they're not attractive.
I mean, I want to be clear.
I don't find this car to be attractive.
No.
Nonetheless, I want it deeply.
Exactly.
I agree.
I don't know why I like it so much.
Because it's absurd.
It is just.
As these cars age, their speed becomes less important
and the absurdity and the experience
and the overall feel is what's exciting.
And this car has it in droves.
Yes.
And our producer who drove the car and he said to you,
if you were into these cars,
you must have been dropped on your head as a child.
And I must have been.
Because I think that there's so.
I just don't forget that he's got a bad color G-Wagon.
He's got a bad color G-Wagon and a silver tip frog.
But I think that one of the things about the Viper
is it just is crude and it doesn't
pretend to be anything else.
It's kind of honest in the way that it is.
That's what makes it fun.
It's a big engine, manual transmission, rear-wheel drive.
That's it.
Yep.
As you say.
But I love the car and it lives much better.
I hope you get one.
And I can't believe we're selling the SL65.
I'm not selling the SL65.
The SL65 will be gone by Valentine's Day.
Mark my words.
My Valentine will be Kenan in a Viper.
I'm not saying it's going to be gone by then.
I still love the car.
To move on to the market report, which
is brought to you by Filippo's Drink Glass.
Trade coffee.
Where'd you find this?
We received that from trade.
You're welcome to trade.
The market report is actually brought to you
by the Kia Stinger, which is the subject of today's
market report.
Are you aware of what's happening in the Kia Stinger
market?
No.
These things are cheap.
Whoa.
Cheap.
Are you surprised, though?
It's an amazing car.
Yep.
It's honestly the best car I've ever rode.
Wow.
No, but it's top.
I've owned 37 cars.
It's top.
It's top 27.
Whoa.
And yeah.
Really?
And the fact that they are, one of them
was a second gen Prius.
And by second gen, I mean gen 1.5.
Nice.
Nice, well said.
Come on.
These cars are starting to get into the high teens,
low 20s.
This is 365 horsepower.
If you get the GT2, which we would.
Right.
Can't tell you what it adds.
You're thinking about it.
You're thinking.
No, it's a great car, though.
How often do you wish that you hadn't committed to a Porsche
because you're finding out other cars are good deals
and you could have had them instead?
No, I'm not interested.
You don't want one of these.
Did you ever drive mine?
No.
But I love the car.
He still may end up with this, to be clear.
Like, he doesn't have a Porsche yet.
I love the car.
GT2.
Yeah, GT2.
I think it's a phenomenal car.
I'm not that surprised that they're cheap,
but I am surprised by how cheap.
Yeah.
These things drive so wonderfully.
28, I think that's low 20s.
They're nice and pure, good tech.
And I'm telling you, the steering is great.
The powertrain is one of the truly one of the best powertrains
in any car I've ever owned.
I love this engine.
I'm sorry, Karajaji.
No, this is the best.
The V10 from Formula One is the best.
It's not.
It was never used in any F1 car.
Period.
It was designed.
But it did.
Yeah.
He could build something out of Play-Doh and say
it was designed to look like whatever.
Listen, listen, listen.
I'm just going to, I'm sorry.
I won't toy.
My hero, Ayrton Senna, won the Phoenix Grand Prix in 1990
with a derivative of this car.
He basically, they, of course, should
build the Carrera GT that derived it for him.
He drove through downtown Mesa, past the Mesa City Hall
at 250 miles an hour in the Carrera GT,
a sort of an early version.
A different driver drove a different car
with a different engine that's not that one.
You're getting your footwork history all wrong.
But Mesa City Hall was there.
That's the only part of that story that is actually.
I don't think it is.
The race track, though, is the Phoenix Grand Prix,
which is a real thing somehow.
The race track was.
Yeah, I know.
I agree with you.
It's sad that they're not doing it anymore with the Carrera GT,
but maybe we can bring it back.
We have one after all.
Let's have them close the street.
Let's go to Arizona.
225, past the Mesa City Hall.
Stinger GT, one of the all-time great cars.
I also want to talk about the smart cross-blade market.
Yeah, please.
I got a text today from Supercar Ron.
You know, Supercar Ron.
He's a nice fellow.
I actually legitimately liked Supercar Ron a lot.
I drove his Aston Valkyrie.
Show him about his F40.
Yeah, his F40 got hit by some guy.
And he texts me and he says, I was bidding on this
and I can't believe it sold for $51,000.
And I told him, go back to the,
I told him, I said, we've actually had five of these.
They all sell for stupid money.
And I'm not surprised at all.
In fact, I was the highest bidder on this one
for a long time, or maybe that one.
And then I had to let it go
because it had gotten too much for me.
And he said, I really wanted it,
but I wasn't about to pay $51,000.
I'm just here to tell you,
the smart cross-blade market is strong.
The market's consistent too.
A thousand miles, $55,000.
More than a thousand miles, $38,000.
Well, the thing about this is your category.
There's no smart cross-blade
that has more than 2,000 miles.
15,900, buddy.
Well, that one didn't have a title.
Don't forget.
Fine, 5,500.
Well, right.
So the spread for miles of these
is between zero and 6,000.
And so the spec is the same.
So the market values the low-mile card, right?
That's the only distinguishing factor.
Yup.
That's so hard to accrue that name.
It's almost 5,500.
Oh my God, I don't want to add that.
950.
Anywho, we sold another one for 51,000.
We are the place.
We have never seen one for sale anywhere else.
Well, if we have no other claim to fame,
we are the place to sell your smart cross-blade.
I can't believe the fellow trying to sell this,
put a Mercedes-Benz license plate on it.
He's proud of his heritage.
He should be proud of the fact
that he's driving a smart cross-blade.
Forget about Mercedes-Benz.
I would want nothing to do with them if I had this car.
Anywho, these cars are gonna be legal in two years.
Will you import one?
I'm not committing that, especially for 51.
I guarantee that's what they sell for in Europe.
Yeah.
Yeah, I see.
Fun fact.
If you've never seen one for sale,
you've never been to Centro Pay
I've never seen one for sale.
Littering the sidewalks with for sale signs on them.
I don't think I've...
Is that right?
Yeah, that was my fighting memory of the South of France.
My friend Ryan did see one I did not get to see.
I've seen a couple.
Can we talk about the 1977, 9-11?
What's that?
Well, we sold the 1977, 9-11
that a dude spent 12 years building in his garage.
I remember that.
It's a very cool story.
Very cool story.
It was sold this week for 128,500.
Yeah, what's the story?
Which means that you can add value
by doing something in your garage.
Well, I mean, yeah, you gotta wait for them.
12 years of cold ones.
Yeah, a lot of cold ones over a lot of years.
So what's the story?
My understanding was that he wanted to build
some crazy car that was his ambition for this car.
It took him, you should have said 12 years.
And so he just in his garage
just started doing all of this to it.
That's incredible.
It looks great.
He did a beautiful job.
Now, when you say that, it's like,
okay, this seems like it'd be hacky.
I don't think so.
I mean, granted, the looks are up to you
if you like them or not.
But the fact that someone can put this car together
and it looks this finished is very...
No, it looks like a factory racing car
or a team member in a cup car.
Fabricating stuff himself and making stuff.
So I mean, it's almost a little bit more art
than anything else.
I mean, look how clean the installs and stuff is.
Although admittedly, I'm not,
you and I are not the biggest supporters
of modified cars.
Actually, you aren't either, for that matter.
This is really impressive.
It's a well done car.
You've done well.
It's pretty cool.
And the fact, I mean, then it brought serious mind.
People recognize the specialness of the build.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think that I have to give my credit words to you.
I think that this is a really impressive car.
Beautiful car, beautiful build.
Did really well.
Thrilled, we had the chance to sell it.
Exactly. I'm really touched when people bring those cars to us.
Also, it's so cool when the person that built it sells it.
Yeah.
Three owners from now, if unfortunately whoever buys it
doesn't keep it for long or whatever,
it will lose its specialness
because they won't know why they made that decision.
The seller here knew exactly what he did,
why he did it and could speak to that.
And that made it really a cool off.
Honestly, it's documented a lot.
Like a lot of the comments, like it's nice to have this.
One of the great benefits of our site is you can look back on this.
It will be attached to this car forever.
Yeah. I think it's very cool.
It's cool stuff.
And it's also important when the builder of a BMW wagon
with a Maserati 4.7 liter V8 swap sells that car.
Right, totally. 100%.
You see this?
Yeah, this is so cool.
20 grand, by the way.
That's pretty cool for 28.
Totally. I mean, it's a ridiculous thing.
And who knows if it's going to be reliable
even in the slightest.
No offense to the builder of this.
The components that went into it were not reliable when you.
Well, there's a Nissan manual transmission.
That one is, you're right.
Sorry.
The Maserati transmission is actually pretty solid.
It's not a Maserati transmission.
Our engine is pretty solid.
Yeah, that 4.7 is so bad.
And presumably when it was out, he probably did some work.
I didn't really look that good.
Honestly, it looks like it's easier to service
than a Maserati.
Cool as hell.
I love a good build.
Even though I'm not a modern car guy,
I love a good build.
OK, we've got to move on to the questions.
The questions are sponsored by Kenan's selling the SL65.
I'm not selling the SL65.
You want to buy Kenan's SL65?
You send us an email at Sean at carsandbids.com.
That's S-E-A-N at carsandbids.com.
You send us an email there, you make an offer.
It's going to be like eBay, OK?
No.
Or Cars and Bids.
Something like that exists.
No, I'm not selling the SL65.
I still very much enjoy the car.
It's going to stick around for a while.
However, if someone popped into Sean's email at 40,
are you thinking about it?
No, one day, if it goes, it'll be on the site.
OK, we have some great questions this week.
I also want to remind people to ask questions.
Go to carsandbids.com.
Go to the Community tab.
And then there's a post there that says questions, questions,
questions, and you post your questions.
We need questions.
We have 494 comments last week.
Give us more this week.
We thrive on it.
I read every single one, and I rounded up
what I consider to be the best.
I will also say, if we have not gone to your question,
one of our holiday specials shows.
We're going to do a lot of questions.
So, not a shot.
First question from ThomasR3818.
Somehow this was the highest upvoted question.
Doug, you don't make it a secret
that you film at least partially,
you film at least all of your videos
in the San Diego Zoo parking lot.
Now that they've announced parking will no longer be free,
effective January 5th, will you be on the hunt
for a new filming spot?
Yeah, no, what I'm going to do is
I'm going to expense my zoo membership to the company.
I think that it's actually great.
I'm flippin' a lot.
You're like, oh, God, he's expensing more crap.
There is a separate monthly parking membership,
but it exists. It's not bad.
No, no.
I'm expensing my whole zoo membership.
And your family will get to joy.
And we will not only see baboons,
but I will be able to, for free, film my videos still.
Because to be clear, the parking thing
is only for one car.
You can't switch it from,
you have to manually switch it from one car.
Yes, I've read into it.
They give you a sticker or something?
They don't give you a sticker.
It's by the license plate.
So I guess you took the license plate,
put it on each car you reviewed,
it'd be the same, but it's for one car at a time.
I looked into this because I'm annoyed about it.
Well, I got to figure out what to do.
I don't know what to do.
I'm very nervous.
I will tell you, they claim January 5th,
but it's December 5th already,
and I've been over there.
It was over there yesterday, every other day, basically.
And there's no infrastructure set up to take number, payment.
Oh, by the way, here's a great parking payment story.
Okay, I was in DC, I don't know, six weeks ago.
And I go down to the mall there.
You know the mall.
That's not a shopping mall, but a shopping mall.
The national mall where they have the Capitol,
the Smithsonian, the Washington Monument,
the Trump Fellow that lives.
Anyway, I'm down there and I street park.
It's pretty easy.
It's not a problem.
It was during the government shutdown.
There was no one there.
The government was shut down.
I parked the car, and there's kiosks.
And when you start, I swear to God,
this is what I'm about to tell you was true.
I took a picture of it for you, in fact.
When you start the kiosk,
it's managed by the National Park Service, the kiosk.
And it's just a little electronic kiosk.
And your first choice, before you pay for parking,
it says, would you like to, number one,
pay for parking?
Number two, make a donation.
That's incredible.
I'm like, I certainly don't want to make a donation.
So if you ever wanted to make a donation
to the Park Service, you could write them a check,
mail it off, or you go down to a parking kiosk in DC
and you can make your donation right there.
Not sure how tax deductible that was.
Right. Fascinating.
I'm curious on that one.
That is, wow.
Do you think anybody ever makes a donation?
No.
They showed up to park their car.
Right.
We could really make a donation.
They wanted to get through it as quickly as you can.
You know, it's such a good time before we go.
I'm going to make a quick donation.
You know, that was it.
I already parked my car, I came back to the car.
It was so nice.
I'm going to make it.
They had offered.
I guarantee the only people who press that,
press it by accident, and then I rate
that their $5 has not paid for parking.
Yes.
Did you pay?
Even though presumably, no, no, no.
The parking enforcement is not.
No, I made a donation.
Presumably the parking enforcement is not
necessarily a sexual ploy.
That in itself was probably a donation.
Next question from Ada Tiara, something, something.
This is a good question for you,
and I know what your answer is going to be,
and I only left it in for you.
If you had to have a two car garage with the same engine
in both cars, what would it be?
C8 and E39M5.
Yep, that's pretty easy.
Got one of them already.
That sounds good to me.
Not my garage.
No, that's actually, that's the goal one day.
I have a Formula One car, and I encourage you to.
It's a wishbone kitchen in Jomalun London holiday.
Ginger biscuit is back.
You guys, I have my brand new holiday scent.
It literally smells like a fresh baked ginger cookie.
I mean, who wouldn't want this?
Notes of ginger, roasted hazelnut, and vanilla.
The kind of gift that's as fun to give
as it is to receive.
I am so excited because they now have it available
in a travel spray, fits right in your bag.
Shop ginger biscuit only at Sephora.
Happy holidays from Meredith in Jomalun London.
Imaginary Formula One car for you.
You guys are even intolerable.
I stand by the.
Not just a Formula One car, Aaron sent us.
They won Phoenix Grand Prix, we need to deal with it.
Aaron sent a won the Phoenix Grand Prix,
we in the Carrera GT.
Different bodywork, slightly different bodywork.
There's a lot of good options.
W12 Bentley.
I mean, you would get a W12 Bentayga
and a Continental Flying Spur Speed.
SL65 Black Series and a G65.
Ooh.
I was trying to go more quirky.
Oh, like every car, like a Super and a Grenadier,
which both use BMW engines, the same BMW engine.
You know what you can do in F-50 in a Formula One car?
That's an actual Formula One car.
That's a really driver.
Or a F-50 with sort of the ESP, two-car glove.
Yeah, perfect.
How about this?
A Saturn Vue red line and a V6 Accord.
But remember, you didn't have to get the red line
to get the Honda V6.
I know, but I won the red line.
What do you think I have?
You can have a Corolla and an Elise.
Yeah, Corolla XRS, which was a damn cool car.
A Navara and a Sienna.
Yeah.
That is a good one.
That's a good one.
Can I posit a different one?
Especially for you, a single man.
S2000 and an S2000.
Hell yeah, AP-1 and AP-2.
Oh, it's a different engine.
Oh, that's true.
There's so many good options.
There are actually a lot of good options.
All of which have been said, but I agree with you,
Correa, and by the way, the correct answer
is probably the Mercedes 4-Liter AMG V8,
because that was in hundreds of,
or the Porsche Audi Volkswagen 4-Liter,
which is in, you could have an RS on an RS6,
you could have a Panamera, and it's been in every car.
Was the VKM.
10 TDI from the Twarga and the Q7, anything good?
Besides the Twarga and the Q7.
I have a suggestion.
Just get a Correa V10 TDI and no other car.
That's all you need.
That's all you need.
All you need.
Or that in a second engine, because you will need that.
You will need the parts car.
Okay, next question from Fo 59.
I only put this question in because I want to address
one of the underlying assumptions.
I don't actually plan to answer the question, but you can.
What were some of the most unusual or unexpected daily
drivers of the supercar and hypercar owners
that you've reviewed?
I never would have guessed a Toyota Sequoia
for someone with a Kuntas 4 GT, Correa GT, and 993.
I don't daily a Sequoia, okay?
How would you describe it?
I don't know, but I have,
until I drove this car to the office this week,
I haven't driven this car in so long.
There's cobwebs everywhere.
I don't use this car.
That's the underlying assumption that I'm attacking here.
But if you describe this to somebody,
you would say, I have a couple of dailies in my sports cars.
The car I use the most is a convertible G-Wagon.
That's what I, when people ask me, that's what I say.
Because I don't want to say Sequoia
because I don't want them to know.
And I don't want to say 993 Turbo
because I don't want them to think I'm an air vent slat.
And you don't want to say E-Class Wagon.
Well, that's my wife.
Yeah, that's what I do say.
I haven't driven a Mercedes-Benz station wagon.
What's it to you?
I've been driving a Mercedes-Benz station wagon.
It's so good.
I know.
I didn't drive it for months for some reason,
but it's so good.
I knew a couple of people.
There was one I knew he had a bunch of supercars
and his daily was a mini GP2.
That was actually pretty cool.
Well, he wanted the harshest car to be his daily.
Yeah.
I mean, he liked supercars though.
So it was more relaxed than his F40 and his F50.
And so, it's all spectrum-free.
I think I knew something.
I'm trying to remember a bunch of weird choices.
A lot of kinds.
I know a lot of people who have like...
I'll tell you the weirdest.
The most surprising to go along with the question.
Even though I swore I wouldn't answer the question.
Years ago, I reviewed a Bugatti EB110
with Romano Artioli, our Italian man.
Yep.
And the guy who owned that EB110
kept it in a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport
with a collection of supercars that is indescribable.
He has since sold all of them,
but he had every single supercar.
He had F40, F50, Crea GT, Ford GT,
new, old Ford GT, XJ220, 959.
I mean, I was in this,
I've never seen like it before.
MC12, everything was sitting in this collection.
And I reviewed his EB110.
And we had lunch together.
He was the nicest guy and his son was there
and they were both wonderful.
And after I, during lunch, I said to him,
we had bento boxes.
Oh, nice.
And I said to him, I said,
you know, you got all these incredible cars.
I mean, it was like every supercar we ever talk about.
Yeah.
Kuntash, Diablo, all that.
XJ220?
Yeah, he had an XJ220.
And he said, I said, what are you daily?
What's your daily?
And he looked at his son and he said,
what year is it?
And the son was like 2001, 2002.
He was like, yeah, yeah.
It's a 2002 Toyota Land Cruiser.
Wow, no kidding.
Dude just has a hundred series.
Dang.
Okay, next question, next question,
next question, next question, next question.
Oh, this is a good one from Pallaghi.
Dear Doug, when I asked you about the new Tesla model,
why about eight months ago,
you mentioned that you weren't reviewing,
I thought you weren't reviewing
because you don't like Elon anymore.
Did I ever?
You answered the pot,
it was simply because cars were not
on the road yet.
But since then, there are a lot out there
and still no video.
So I have to ask again, why haven't you done it?
Do you not like Elon?
What about that?
Why haven't I done the new model one?
I don't know.
Get me a new model one.
I mean, they're everywhere.
They're everywhere.
I think I missed my chance.
I think you missed your chance.
I wasn't paying attention and they're gone now.
It's one of those weird cars
that they just come out so quickly
because there's not that much lead up.
Tesla just starts to produce them.
They don't really have a PR department
where they're trying to get more coverage of it.
And then they're just kind of everywhere.
This is the thing I got into.
I got into the Cybertruck
because we ran one on Turo.
I got into the Model 3
because Tesla PR did reach out to me.
I assume Tesla has laid off all their PR people
as they had at various points throughout their existence.
So they're probably not reaching out again.
Flippo, do me a favor.
There's so many Model Ys.
Go on Turo and find me a new Model Y
and I want to review it so Pallagi can be happy.
I have nothing against Elon,
nothing more against Elon
than I had against him two years ago.
There's so many Model Ys.
A new one's on Turo.
Yeah, yeah, Turo's.
Okay.
I haven't actually checked but Turo's.
It's done in the office by this time next week.
Done.
A pronto.
Anyway, and then that video
will go up sometime in April.
Ah, it's a little backlog.
Okay, next question from Trestle Point Motors.
Auction question.
This is for you.
Any thoughts on adding a reserve off
slash reserve reach slash reserve lifted
or whatever a prominent location
once the vehicle reaches the reserve coming off?
Five thoughts on that.
There have been a few times
when I missed it in the comments of sale.
Our general opinion,
our opinion.
You can do whatever you want.
Yep.
But we ask that you fall forward.
We advise, however.
You can do whatever you want.
People bought the Chevy Avalanche.
So you can do whatever you want.
It's a great truck.
The split tailgate, I know.
The mid-gate.
Jesus.
And they did a 2,500.
They did.
But we have found that when you announced
the reserve is off, it kills bidding.
That's what we have found.
Now it's a different story.
People say this,
they ask us this question a lot
because at Barrett Jackson,
they're always like,
oh, the reserve's off.
They don't do that at Barrett Jackson
because it's all no reserve.
But at Meekum.
Ah, but in that situation,
it's a bunch of drunk, excited people in a room
and the reserve going off adds to the excitement.
When you're in one of our auctions,
what we generally find is that announcing that
turns the tide a little bit.
People think that they're overpaying.
Yeah.
That it's like, oh, the reserve is off.
I must be paying too much.
And I have watched repeatedly
over and over and over again
when reserve comes off and the seller announces it,
bidding stops.
Now if you wanna do it as a seller,
you're welcome to.
If you think as a strategy it works for you,
then do it.
It's by all means you're welcome to
and we have sellers who do do it.
But I wouldn't.
I really think you're cheating yourself in the foot.
Yep.
There are probably some exceptions.
Like if there's like a lot of conversation about,
oh, there's no chance this means reserve.
And you're like, no, like actually.
You're getting there.
You're getting close.
I'm being really reasonable with what the cards were.
Because I've also seen auctions
where people have been like,
I would have bid if I had known
it was gonna sell for this cheap.
Right, which is also insane.
Just bid.
Also, well, we'll then work with you
if you're the under bidder to put a deal together
if it doesn't be a reserve.
Like bidding is the right thing.
Right, you wanna end up the high bidder.
Right, also a lot of people will comment on that,
but it's like, well, should have bid.
Should have bid, yeah.
I think that our general advice
and our experience looking at thousands and thousands
of these is just, if you're a seller
and it passes the reserve,
keep that information to yourself.
Celebrate on your own,
but just let it keep chugging along.
Yep.
Yeah.
Best thing you can do.
Deeply, deeply, deeply feel that way.
Yep.
Next question.
This one is from Porky Polak.
Oh, Doug, you've said multiple times
that you buy all your cars in the press launch spec.
To my knowledge, you've succeeded this in all cars
besides the 4GT.
Any reason besides available,
you want blue instead of red with white stripes.
The 4GT is an interesting situation.
There weren't ads for the 4GT.
There was only one ad ever for the 4GT
and it was a Super Bowl commercial
with a car with red car with white stripes,
but there were no other ads and that was it.
And however, there were three press cars,
three 4GT press cars,
and they had a red, a white, and a blue.
And so when you read all the magazine tests
from that era, and actually when you look
at all the press photos and stuff,
the pictures are actually kind of evenly distributed
between those three colors
and the magazine hero cars
are distributed between those three colors.
And Ford never really had like an official
kind of launchy spec of the car.
I still think white with blue stripes
is the best looking 4GT.
I think heritage looks like a clown.
Mm-hmm.
Noted again.
I agree.
And I actually do not love the midnight blue
with white stripes, but the market has become obsessed with it.
But regardless, to me, any one of those three
is sort of the press spec
because the three press cars were those three colors.
And I bought my car from a journalist
who was there in period who bought the car new.
And he remembers, you know,
having those three 4GT press cars on track
at the launch, the red, the white, and the blue.
And then they made their way around to magazines
and you can see tests with all of them
if you read all the magazines.
And I have every single 4GT magazine.
Do you?
They were, Karl collected them
and I got a stack of 05 4GT literature.
You ever want to read a 4GT comparison test?
I do, actually.
If you wouldn't mind, I would like to read that.
I never have to.
Yeah, I want to see.
It's actually interesting.
I've always been like, what do I do with these?
And now as you say that, maybe I'll read them.
Felipe, you got any final words for us?
We were just talking about our experience on auction.
So I looked it up.
We have had 33,000 auctions end.
We have 33,000 auctions end.
We've sold $725 million worth of cars.
$725 million worth of cars.
725 million cars.
So we've seen a few auctions.
33,000, and yet people still take better pictures.
You're an idiot.
I'm not taking better pictures.
I'll go to my grave.
It'll be on my screen.
Here lies Kevin Rawls and he asked to take better pictures.
Oh my God.
That's all I got.
V number 33,000 and something.
Next week.
Carsabits.com.
Next week, Felipe is going to have a 991
right here in the office.
We'll see.
No, we will not see.
No way.
Things move quick.
No, they don't.
Not with you.
Try to do it.
Things can move quickly.
Goodbye, everyone.
Goodbye.
About this episode
Exciting automotive news takes center stage as the hosts discuss Toyota's upcoming GRGT sports car, rumored to feature a hybrid V8 engine. They also dive into the new G-Wagon Cabriolet, sharing mixed feelings about its design and practicality. The episode highlights a unique opportunity to purchase rare concept cars from France, sparking a lively debate on the value of such vehicles. Additionally, the hosts touch on the implications of recent automotive industry changes and share personal anecdotes about their own car experiences, making for an engaging listen.
Have a question you want answered on the podcast next week? Ask HERE https://crsnbds.com/PODQUESTIONS
Welcome to THIS CAR POD! Doug DeMuro & Friends offers weekly expert insight and opinion on breaking automotive stories, the car market, and audience Q&A.
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CHAPTERS
00:00:00 CAR NEWS
00:00:10 New Toyota GR GT
00:03:51 New G-Wagen Cabriolet
00:10:17 Chubbies
00:11:38 Renault Concept Cars for Sale
00:19:09 Jaguar Chief of Design Fired
00:24:12 New USPS Mail Trucks
00:28:54 Aura
00:30:22 Trump's Rollback on Fuel Economy Standards
00:35:07 Cadillac Superbowl Reveal
00:37:36 Pininfarina NSX
00:40:42 Porsche Malfunction
00:42:15 Brunt
00:43:49 TALK CARS
00:44:10 Doug's Countach Broke Down AGAIN
00:48:22 Owning a Countach is not for Everyone
00:52:34 Filippo's "Buying a Car" Status
00:57:54 Kennan's Ronald McDonald Viper Thoughts
01:01:45 Market Report
01:01:57 Kia Stinger Market
01:04:31 Smart Crossblade Market
01:06:37 12-Year 1977 Porsche 911 Build
01:08:33 BMW with a Maserati Engine Swap
01:09:14 QUESTIONS!
01:10:15 Will Doug Have to Find a New Filming Location?
01:13:15 2 Car Garage with the Same Engine
01:15:38 What Daily Drivers Do Supercar Owners Drive?
01:18:12 Why Hasn't Doug Reviewed the New Tesla Model Y?
01:19:40 Why Doesn't Cars & Bids Announce When Reserve is Reached?
01:21:55 The Ford GT Press Color Situation
01:23:47 Cars & Bids Updates
#thiscarpod #dougdemuro #carsandbids
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