We Don’t Really Do Car Reviews
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Car
Ford F-250
The Ford F-250 is a big truck that can carry and pull heavy stuff. People use it for work or when they need a strong vehicle.
Car
Rivian R2
The Rivian R2 is a new electric truck that runs on batteries instead of gas. It's made by a company called Rivian and is smaller and cheaper than their first trucks.
Term
body-on-frame
Body-on-frame means the car's body sits on a strong frame underneath. This makes the car tough but heavier.
Term
ground clearance
Ground clearance is how high the car sits above the road. More clearance means it can go over bumps easier.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a medium-sized truck that many people use for work or fun because it's not too big but still strong. It's good for carrying stuff or driving on rough roads. They might be talking about a new version coming out soon.
Car
Subaru Outback
The Subaru Outback is a car that’s good for families and can drive well in snow or rain because it has special wheels. It’s like a small SUV that can carry a lot of stuff. They were probably talking about how it compares to other cars.
Concept
electric vehicles (EVs)
Electric vehicles are cars that run on batteries and electricity instead of gas, so they don't make smoke from the tailpipe.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how strong a car's engine is and how much power it can make. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster or accelerate quicker.
Term
butt dyno
Butt dyno means how fast or powerful a car feels to you when you're sitting in it, not from any special machine but just from your own feeling.
Company
K&N
K&N makes special air filters that help your car's engine breathe better, which can make it a little more powerful.
Term
engine dyno
An engine dyno is a machine that tests just the engine to see how powerful it is, without the other parts of the car slowing it down.
Term
parasitic losses
Parasitic losses are like the engine losing some of its power because parts like the gears and belts use up energy before the car moves.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
The Corvette ZR1 is a very fast and strong sports car made by Chevrolet. People often make it even faster by changing parts.
Part
downpipes
Downpipes are parts of the car's exhaust that help get rid of gases faster. Changing them can make the car's engine stronger.
Part
catalytic converters
Catalytic converters help clean the car's exhaust so it doesn't pollute the air as much. High flow ones let the exhaust flow easier, which can make the car a bit more powerful.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Corvette is a fast sports car made by Chevrolet. The newer ones have the engine placed in the middle of the car to help it drive better.
Part
heat wrap
Heat wrap is like a special blanket for hot pipes in your car's engine. It stops the heat from hurting other parts and keeps things safer.
Term
fire retardant
Fire retardant means a material that helps stop fires or slows them down. In cars, it can be used to keep things safe from heat or flames.
Term
Nomex
Nomex is a special fabric that doesn't catch fire easily. Race car drivers wear it to stay safe from fire.
Part
turbo
A turbo is a part that helps the engine make more power by pushing more air into it, kind of like giving the engine a breath boost.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous fast car that looks unique and drives really well. People love it because it’s been around a long time and is very special. They might be talking about how powerful one of the models is.
Part
exhaust wrap
Exhaust wrap is like a special blanket for the car's exhaust pipes that keeps them hot inside. This helps the car run better and stops heat from hurting other parts.
Part
diesel heater
A diesel heater is a small heater that uses diesel fuel to make warm air. It helps keep cars or other machines warm when it's cold outside.
Term
Michelin
Michelin is a company that makes tires for cars and other vehicles. They are known for making good tires that help cars drive safely.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV made for driving on rough roads and going on adventures. It looks cool and can handle dirt and rocks well. They were probably talking about cleaning or protecting the truck’s paint.
Car
Volkswagen Id Buzz
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a new electric van that looks like the old VW bus from many years ago. It runs on electricity and is good for carrying people or stuff. They were talking about how much they like it.
Car
Volkswagen Tiguan
The Volkswagen Tiguan is a small SUV that looks nice and is good for families or people who want more space than a car. Lots of people drive them, so you see them a lot. They were probably talking about how common it is.
Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning is a big truck that runs on electricity instead of gas. It’s important because many people like big trucks, and this one is new and clean. They might be talking about how it’s not selling as well as hoped.
Brand
Cadillac
Cadillac is a company that makes fancy cars and SUVs that are comfortable and have lots of features.
Brand
Jaguar
Jaguar is a company from Britain that makes nice, fast cars, but sometimes they are not very popular.
Car
Ferrari 250 GTO
The Ferrari 250 GTO is a very old and special car made by Ferrari. It's famous because it was used in races and is very rare and expensive today.
Car
Ferrari Luce
There isn’t a well-known Ferrari car called 'Luce,' so it might be a mistake or a special version. Ferrari makes very fast and expensive cars. They might have been talking about something rare or special.
Car
Tesla Cybertruck
The Tesla Cybertruck is a new kind of electric truck that looks very different from normal trucks. It’s made to be very modern and use electricity instead of gas. Some people wonder if it will be popular or not.
Car
Ford Maverick
The Ford Maverick is a small truck that’s easy to drive and doesn’t use a lot of gas. It’s good for people who want a truck but don’t need a big one. Someone is excited because their new Maverick will arrive soon.
Car
Ford Lobo
The Ford Lobo is just what they call the Ford F-150 truck in Mexico. It’s a strong and popular truck. They were probably talking about someone’s truck and what it’s called there.
LIVE
Welcome to the Amantz Podcast. I'm Dan. I'm Nick. Welcome back, buddy. Did I go
somewhere? Yeah, for a week. Oh, I've gone for a week. Yeah. Well, that's why Brian's
not here anymore. That's right. Yeah, I'll tell you. I'll let him out. Well, hey, you
know, I mean, technically, you know, he's gone for Valentine's Day, which means
his lovely wife, right, needs some, you know, love and care, minus the love
parts. I was just saying that you're going to hand over the dog. No, I'm going to take
him and take Theo over there. No, never mind. Can't wait for Brian to listen to this
and be like, what? Just some little Easter eggs. No. Yeah. No. Hi, Sammy. Yep. Hi,
Sammy. We love Sammy. I was I want to tell you a good experience I had.
Obviously, we talk about tools all the time. I've been having some
issues with my new shop back from Milwaukee. The hoses fitting the nozzles and
things like that. And I want to give a shout out to them, even though I'm we
everybody knows that I'm a huge fan of them. I wrote them. I sent them a little
video of the problem I was having. And without even questioning it, they sent
me brand new stuff, brand new hose brand new stuff. I haven't gotten it yet.
But it was it shows me what customer service should be. It wasn't jerking
me around saying you need to try this, you should try this. So it's
definitely your fault. This is wrong. It was just the absolutely down down to
the point. And even got the apparently in the video I sent them, it showed a lot of
the other Milwaukee stuff. And the guys like, it looks like your garage is
full of our products. Oh, yeah. Cool. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. It's not about
having it perfect because every product's gonna have, you know, things
happen when you have a company that big, you're gonna run in stuff. Yeah,
it's how you handle it. Yeah, that's just tools. So very cool. I'd hear
that. I mean, I've had experiences like that before I went with Milwaukee
with DeWalt. I had some battery issues and they dealt with it really
well. But yeah, I've had dive deep. I do a warranty at a ratchet, both from
Technin and from DeWalt and they sent me one with no questions asked. Yeah,
just called the number from DeWalt and they're like, Oh, here you go.
Just send you anyone is like, really? I would be curious if you're
listening to this. What companies have you had good experiences with? I
don't I don't want to say we don't have people, but I'm always
curious to know what products out there that have you experienced
incredible customer service with because I always like to to share my
business with those or, you know,
Yeah, what keeps you coming back to a brand? Yeah, that's a good one.
You know, it's all fun. How's your world?
It's good. It's been so, so busy but good. Exciting stuff at work,
getting into some fun projects. I'm passionate about leveraging
some AI stuff to improve some tools, which I love. Speaking of
tools, I love working on tools outside of my home life as
well. So on tools, but not with tools. Got it. Yes. Okay,
fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm working on improving some of
our tools and some of those big deliveries got done, which helps
make my work easier and my team's work easier and things better
for our customers in the long run. So I love those projects
where I get to see like something going to die. I've had for
years come to fruition and get done right. And it's like,
it's so satisfying when you've had it's watching your baby
grow. You do look like you got some passion in your eyes,
which is good. I mean, yeah, we all have our slumps and in
life. And it's nice to have some light at the end of the
tunnel that you want to walk towards. Yep. Yeah, I was
trying to work myself out of a job. Literally, like I want to
I want to do so much that it's like, Oh, here's your new
project. So I have a new challenge. So I'm always trying
to yeah, work myself out of the current. Yeah, the way I was
going to say, I'd like to stay working for you, but I'd like
to work on another project. Yeah, I know. That's just
it. I want to make a lot of what I do is improving our
internal tooling so that my job as it exists now goes
away so it can evolve into something else. It gives me
something new to learn. It gives the employees I work
with an easier life at work less toil less, you know, simple
tasks of just those tasks that are just kind of mind numbing
but need to be done. Like sometimes automation doesn't
work safety things manually. So it's like, Okay, what can I do
in the future to remove that manual toil so that it can be
easier and better for the next person so they don't have
the challenges I had.
It's going to be less monotonous and I don't want to
put a drill to my head to be filling in the square in an
Excel spreadsheet.
Yeah, exactly. But you know, as you've done is you've
ever dove into things like those Excel spreadsheets,
it's a you learn a lot in those processes. And
they're very valuable. It's, you know, you can get really
frustrating at the time, obviously, but you learn so
much in those those slow toil processes that make you learn
all the all the ins and outs and every little detail so that
you know, I enjoy that stuff, not that not the toil so
much, but looking back at it building that retrospective
and like, Okay, what can I take away from this to make it
better for the next person? That's my real passion
comes from I love AI, but I missed the paperclip. I'll
just say it.
Oh, we joke about that internally all the time, by
the way, we're like, you know, can we just like, you know,
have an Easter egg clippy in here? Like, if I type the
right phrase in, just clippy take over co pilot.
I mean, it would have been wonderful if clippy clippy
was AI like that. You're right. I mean, that'd be
great. So we're getting off in the weeds here. Yeah, I
want to talk. And I'm gonna again, this is a sensitive
subject about an article that Oh, yes. If you can call
it that. Daniel, who is the automotive journalist for the
Wall Street Journal car reviewer. Recently, I think
career suicide. Yeah, I don't know. I don't actually I want
people to go see I read it. Because it's kind of well, I mean,
the general the gist of it is, if you drive forward F 250, you
are a Nazi. Yeah. And that sounds really blunt and weird. But
I'll let you go. I mean, you can read article, go read the
article. The way he starts the article, the first two
paragraphs are about Germany and Nazis and things like
that. It's kind of crazy reading it really is. He just he
describes the typical F one F 250 owner as as being, you know, a
plumber and a redneck that toes it around with his his joy
toys and things like that. So obviously, Dan and I try a very
good job to keep things politics out of it. I think Dan has
now Dan Neil, I mean, injected so much politics into
this. He's sort of you're sort of seeing where he stands, which
is fine. Yeah, but maybe not in an automotive review of a truck.
Right. And the comments kind of went off on him. I did not
know those comments for the record. But it was interesting.
I was like, Oh, man, straight to the comments on this one,
which is disappointing in the sense that it was clearly
clickbait rage bait. And we're feeding into it by
telling you to read the article. But we we're not
telling you. And he he on his Facebook page, literally says,
go for the comments. I think it was it was part of his, he's
sort of making himself relevant again.
Yeah, it's a it's very much the definition of media clickbait
and the reason that journalism is not taken seriously anymore.
There's been a downfall of journalism. That's no matter
what side of the fence you're on right or left, the
downfall of journalism is very apparent. It's become sort of
more editorial versus reporting. And there's always a flavor of
that in automotive reporting, especially because it's but this
was not. Well, he's not a he's not a political reporter. He's an
automotive reporter. And in the past, he's been a wonderful
automotive reporter. Yeah, it's sort of just like, what the
hell? Where did this come from? Like, you almost want to
like reach reach out and be like, were you hacked? Yeah,
like this is it no matter what, if I agreed or disagreed, he went
too far.
Yeah, if you if you read the article, I think it's when I say
he shot himself in the foot or basically ended his career. It's
not because he won't be published. It's because he won't be
taken seriously again. Yeah, anybody who's an actual fan of
automotive journalism and reading good articles, or good
reviews, I should say, good reviews is going to look at
this and be like, he's not a trustworthy source anymore.
Which is unfortunate, which is unfortunate. Yeah. We are not
that we are, we have fun doing this, we hope you're entertained,
but we are here for entertainment value. We hope we
bring you some good information. But at the same
time, this is the polar opposite of that where you would go and
for an actual automotive review, you're like, Oh, this is not
an automotive review anymore.
And you know, I think being that we're not automotive
reviewers, but we have reviewed cars before and it's a tough,
it's a tough thing to do because yes, it's a thin line of you
have to tell the truth to the consumer, but you also want to
be hired again to tell the truth to consumer. And if you sit on
there and you absolutely roast the car, that car company is
probably not going to have you back because they don't want
that type of reviews out there. Exactly. So go out and see
it. You know, feel free to comment under under this, you
know, keep it. Again, we are politically neutral here.
But I think it went too far. So yeah, yeah, I like more. I like
to review reviews and stuff like that. But I typically get my
automotive review news from YouTube. Now, I don't typically
read it in print very often. I read the advance magazine,
which I got my new magazine rack. It's very nice. You have a
great rack. Thanks. I will always Doug DeMiro's reviews
have always been my favorite. Yeah, I like I like well, I
like the quarks and features because I like knowing that
stuff. I can read the spec sheet anywhere. I want to
know the weird stuff. Yeah, I like articles that you know, I
like more this honestly, my style is the stuff that's in the
advance magazine. I like the more an adventure, a person
story behind the car. But when it comes to reviews, yeah, it's
more Doug DeMiro recently MKBHD because I like the geeky side of
stuff.
I was gonna say rumor has it the next issue of the advance
magazine. I heard it's very good. It will be very I've
heard it's been very good. I've heard I mean, fabulous.
Yeah, the photography is wonderful. The articles are
wonderful. Everything is wonderful. So yeah, yeah, I've been
enjoying zip tie tuning. He used to work for Linus tech tips,
Linus media, he departed and started his own channel. I've
been really a big fan of that. It's very simple. They sort of
taking over where I think donut fell off. And I'm still a
fan of the old donut stuff. But they sort of fell off due to
some corporate intervention, things like that. There's been
enough about that. But I've been liking to see those
smaller channels come up. They just recently partnered with
the story till now who we've talked about before, and
reviewed a Sherpa, which is a super cool vehicle. He bought
one. Yeah, it's our story till now did the tuning did a review on
the shirt. Okay, really went through it, which was it's a
really fun review. And you should check them out.
That being said, I have tried to reach out to the story till
now. Multiple times I'd love to have him on the show because
he is Pacific Northwest Canada related. I have not gotten
through if anybody knows him, I would love to have the
content. I love his content. I like what he does. I like
how he does it. I think it's very down to earth. So I
just want to put that out there. It's funny that you
say that because like, literally, I sent I've sent him
several emails. And I'm sure being as big as he is that he
gets a lot of stuff. And I may I may be lost in the spam
folder. But yeah, if anybody knows him, at the same time, I
hope he does get a lot up. Still a big fan of his channel
love of cinematography, love seeing the adventures he
goes on. Yeah, it's stuff. Speaking of reviews, and I
haven't watched a ton of them. The new Rivian. Is it the
R2? The new R2 is out. Yeah, and we'll get to our
Carter tip in a minute. The Yeah, the new R2 launch Doug
MKBHD, all the popular people have been putting it online and
driving it. And I'm a huge fan. I would love the R1. When it
came out. I love the R1 s the SUV, the R2 is a natural
progression. It's going from body on frame to unibody. It's
a literally half the cost that starts at $46,000. It's a
perfect little commuter SUV. It's got a pretty good
ground clearance. It's got some really nice features, a
bunch of the R1 components swap over the rooftop 10, the
sleeping system that goes inside. It's huge inside because
there's no engine in the front. And so you have a much shorter
hood, which means even if you're over six feet tall, you can
fit in the back very easily. Are they going to do a truck
version? I don't know. I haven't shown it yet.
Your ranger size? Yeah. Well, you've got the R3 coming out
to which that's the one I'm the most excited about. That's
like a small compact car, right? It's sort of like Outback
competitor. Oh, which Subaru, you know who I'm talking
to you? I'm not happy with you right now. So yeah, yes. I love
the people that sell you. Thank you, Carter Motors, but I'm not
happy with you right now. But okay.
But yeah, I'm excited to see the R3 and I'm still really
excited for the Scout. I think because of the competition.
But the problem is, and the Scout they were recently on
Jay Leno. I feel like they keep the Scout keep Oh, not
Scout. I'm sorry, I'm thinking of the what is the
new mini truck that it was supposed to be 20,000 and then
slate the slate. That's what I was thinking. I'm sorry, I was
thinking it's late. Scout, I don't like them either. And you
know why
that's funny. Um, yeah, I have low hopes for the slate. I had
high hopes was 20,000. But now that we've unfortunately pulled
back to EV. I don't know if it's unfortunate or not enough
about the the math and politics behind it to be honest. I
think it's important to say I don't have an educated opinion
on this with the EV tax breaks. It's good and it's bad. It's good
in the sense that I think they need to be competitive without
those tax breaks. I don't know how much with the way EVs surged
in popularity, I don't know how much they were hurt helping or
hurting the environment based on their power draws. It's one
of those like, maybe it was maybe it's not. But if they're
not cheap and they're not efficient to charge, I mean,
then they're not really doing that much. Well, the grid's not
there. Yeah, that's the plan. So there's not grid where they use
them the most that is here. We have tons of hydropower here and
wind and not solar but you know, it's cloudy all the time. But
yeah, all the the the wind turbines that kill the birds.
Yeah, those. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, they don't ever
recoup the cost on those. Yeah, they don't. The costs
aren't recouped on wind power. They just make people feel
better. But if either way, at $30,000, I don't see this late as
being competitive. There's so many better options at that. I
saw it 20. Oh, yeah, for sure. 20 keeps moving up. And every
time I see a new article, it goes from like 20 to 30, and
then 35. And I think they're going to be to the point where
it's nobody's gonna want it. Yes, exactly. Because it was
Amazon a part of that. Yeah, Amazon was a big investor in
slave. Okay. Yeah. So
let's see, Carter automotive group tip of the week. Let's talk
about ice and internal combustion engines.
So that quick. I didn't send that real quickly. I said to trigger
the audience. Yeah. Yeah.
Actually, I want to talk about oil and horsepower and the
old the old is it true? Does horsepower can you get more
horsepower from changing your oil often? Does it get
better when you change your oil? Yeah, if I leave the old
oil in the old car and I buy a new one, I get more
horsepower. That is true oil new car. Yeah. Yeah. The truth
matters. Yes, you do. Can you get more soft changing your
oil? Yeah, absolutely. The reason is is not because you think
though, it's if it's really old, obviously, but you're gonna
need to flush your engine and do all that. But just changing
your your oil does give you a little bit of horsepower. And
the reason is is because when you drain out the old oil,
you drain about a bunch of sludge and contaminants out
of your engine. New oil is causing friction and slowing
it down. Exactly. Okay, new oil flows better. Simple as
that. Is it a noticeable amount of horsepower? No, that's
your butt dyno lying to you. But my butt dyno's truth. I mean,
that's the only one I trust from all the tests that I looked up
and I did look up the most they saw was three horsepower.
Okay. out of a ship. This was all done on from the sources I
saw. It was all done on a Chevy 350, which is a great test
bed because it's such a basic engine that's been around
forever. But I can get three horsepower with a good
sticker. Exactly. Everybody knows that. K&N sticker.
Absolutely. Even if you don't have a K&N filter. Yeah, you
know who you are. Yeah. Yeah, you can also gain about one
horsepower from losing about 25 pounds depending on the
vehicle. It's not a fat joke. No, I appreciate it. It was
not tiered. I meant from your vehicle. Sorry. Yeah, the
best horsepower mod is to lose weight from your car. But
no, do you gain or actual horsepower though? Yes, your
engine on an engine dyno will produce about one to three
horsepower engine dyno. There's also, you know, there's all
sorts of parasitic losses through the drivetrain. But if
you're on an engine dyno and you change the oil after 5000
miles, you can say one to three horsepower increase, which
kind of interesting. I wonder about the loss through through
the drivetrain system. I was watching Cletus McFarland who
was he has he just did some downpipes on his ZR1 and ended
up with a lot more horsepower. Oh yeah, because you
eliminate to the cats. But I mean, like he's got more
horsepower at the wheel thin. Oh yeah, of course. But just by
doing that was insane. Yeah, on the new vets, if you remove if
you go to high flow cats, don't remove them. If you go to high
flow cats for the street, you can gain like 80 horsepower. It's
a huge amount of restriction. Yes, you're removing
restriction. So you've still got catalytic converters are
still legal. You're just going to a much more expensive
component than the stock one. Speaking of Corvettes in
general and mid engine cars, if you do that, make sure
you look at the pipes because you're adding a lot of heat to
the engine bay. You need to wrap those and they have really
good heat wraps for those but don't be cheap. Again, I don't
mean just mean cheap parts. I mean, go all the way and wrap
them in a heat wrap because you will melt your engine paying
cost or fire. This is an ADHD side trail. Do you know much
about those wraps because it as as a traditional person, I
go, Oh, you're wrapping a pipe with cloth, cloth lights
on fire. Why doesn't it light on fire? Because it's not it's not
Paul. It's not cotton. Okay. Yeah, you're it's it's made by
Haynes t-shirt wrapped around. No, okay. No, you're using a fire
retardant. It's usually like not fiberglass. Sometimes it's
metal but it's usually I forget what it's made out of. It
feels like a like a hose from like a fire engine. Sometimes
it's a steel mesh with what's not asbestos. What's it
like? It's not Nomex. I should look up what they're
made of. Better not be asbestos. No, it's it's I'm trying to
think of it. It's like a it's I think there's ceramic in it.
Anyway, obviously, if you look at if you ever if you ever held
a roll of it, it does feel like it's a fabric, right? But it's
not it's not it's not. Yeah, crazy to watch the videos on it
because you can this that the really good turbo wraps that
they advertise people literally touch them. Yeah, as soon
as they take them off that turbo is glowing red. And
they're like, they make a huge difference. It's insane.
Yeah, if I that's in fact, I forget who it was. I had those guys
come to my shop when I had to lift in here when they're that
911 with a 350. Oh, yeah. And I had they had melted. It melted
something in the back of the car. And I just happened to have
exhaust wrap here. I usually have one or two inch wide
exhaust wrap that I use for various projects, motorcycles,
lawnmower. Yeah. And that's the workshop. I think I had
Oh, I had it for the diesel heater. But I never hooked up that
Brian. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I was going to wrap the tube in it
because it makes diesel heaters perform a lot better. If you in
case you're wondering if you've seen the tests on those, boy,
do we have an ADHD rebel tonight. That's okay. Exhaust heat
shields do really well for exhaust heaters and vehicles
they keep they will burn much much hotter and keep the
exhaust temps down, which is the main risk with them.
They're very low risk exhaust diesel heaters have been
around forever. But you can recycle oil in those. And
they burn really clean with that. So if you can keep all that
heat and exhaust, they can burn more efficiently, a lot more
efficiently, we'll raise about 1015 degrees. So interesting.
Yeah, okay. Yeah. So that's good.
More good news for a VODs members. That's right. The
Michelin deal is back on for 2026.
So the mission deals back on
You have good rich as well.
be of good rich and discount tire. Yeah, which as funny as
it is, I got to use this week, I went and bought new
tires for my wife's car. And it was very simple to go in
there. And if you're in the Seattle area, discount tire
knows who have on says you have to prove you have to prove who
you are. But like, there is fleet, there's there's there's a
process to it. If you're a member, you can figure that out
on the website. But very simple, you know, got my
discount. And then when you with depending on the tires you
get, you can then double that discount by getting a gift
card back. So it's really awesome.
Yep, if you're down and visit in Scottsdale, there's an
advanced kicking tires with discount tire event. That's on
February 22nd.
So I call. Yeah, yeah, Sunday, February 22nd. So yeah, those
Scottsdale events are kicking off. They have been for a while.
Don't miss out on that there. That's more than just come down
and hang out. That's it. That's a see here. One advanced
member will be going home with a $500 discount gift certificate
for discount tire. So that's one tire. I was gonna say
for some of those people down there, that's one tire.
Yeah, exactly. Either way, that's an awesome deal. We're
always doing cool stuff. Hey, speaking of which, I have
Michelin tires on the RA and nobody called me for the
photo shoot when they launched that has a little
job. That is interesting, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, Chrissy, but
we are like the back, backdoor, like step kids, like, yeah, we
exist. But you know, just for tax purposes, for the redheaded
stepchild. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I get you. Okay. Yeah, so
I was a little disappointed about that. I mean, technically
shouldn't they call Shawna? That's true. She doesn't work
for jab jab. No, no, I'm kidding. Anyway, yeah, I'm on
some members. Yeah, shout out. Christoph. Welcome to the gang.
Absolutely. Yeah. I you know, so I'm gonna say something. I
feel like you and I and Brian and Brandon Bimpow. Yeah, are
very responsible. Oh, yeah, for the Pacific Northwest, people
buying all these monkeys and now like, there's groups
popping up. I noticed after Christoph, Christoph, Christoph
announced that he bought the monkey that somebody in that
group who I didn't know said, Oh, you guys need to join this
group, this off road monkeys and groms. I'm thinking, like, we
created that like, I don't want to take credit for it. But I
feel like we have made that flourish. Yeah, we are not the
originals. Well, we're not the street grom people. No, there
was a there's a big grom presence here already. Yeah, but
yeah, we're the original idiots that said, these should go off
road more in the Pacific Northwest. Right. Yeah, we did
the BDR first. Yeah, welcome. Yeah. And now and Moab and Idaho
and I love it. I mean, again, to be clear, a lot of people do
this. But I feel like we were the first idiots to like really
try it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then realize this is a lot of
fun. It is. Yeah. So yeah, welcome to the gang, Christoph.
I think there's that's a growing trend because it's super cheap
and it's so much fun and more doing it.
Todd sanders. Yeah. He has to buy a new house first. Why? I don't
know. You can't drive a house, right? Yeah, you can live on a
monkey. That's right. seat top 10. Yeah, absolutely. No, don't
do that. Those racks don't they don't hold up. They really
don't. So no, I asked about your bonds. Obviously, we talk
we we talk about raptors. We talk about monkeys. These are the
things we love. But yeah, Brian finally got. Yeah, Brian got rid
of a monkey, but he's got like three second time he's owned
that bike, though. I know. So yeah. But if you're into that
kind of stuff, even if it's not a grom, if you're into the
off road stuff, we've got another event coming up
or back, I should say it's off the grid. That's at
Porsche North, Seattle North. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the
off the grid events where you can, you know, it's funny
having a Porsche dealer, but it's really cool because
there's it's offer it's it's off road overlanding vehicles.
And yeah, yeah, everything. Yeah, I like I love these more
diverse things. And then of course, the Avant socials
are back. That's actually, you've already missed it if
you listen to this now, because it's on the 12th. But
those are every month look for those. There are different
locations. This one's in Redmond at which where's
this one at this time? Brewing. Yeah, it's one of which
the brewery starts at the P postdoc. It's a postdoc.
Yeah. Yeah. So go check that. Well, you miss that one.
But go look for these on the calendar. It's a great way
to meet new members. And then another thing from the
Avant's page that made me laugh. So when we square
space did a big upgrade, it changed the way blogs
are created on the page. Our podcast is hosted on a
blog page. But so was the not so secret of aunts.com
slash Dan's drives. And it messed up the formatting.
Okay. And it still works. So you still get to all
the routes and everything, but it makes the photos
look weird and it doesn't really publish right. So we
need to go fix that. My first meeting was at seven
this morning. I have another one at nine. So I'm not
tonight. Yeah, I'm not doing a lot of the online stuff
because I have a full time job plus. So I'm sorry I
haven't gotten to fix that yet. But it's sort of
been like a hidden Avant's page, but somebody called
it out on the page like, Hey, I didn't even know.
I mean, I knew it used to exist, but I didn't
know we had it was so it exists, but there's no
link to it. Yeah, we've talked about it before.
There's a link to it. Yeah, there's not a
published link because it hasn't been polished up
and fixed. And you know, Avant's is they're always
packed. Yes. And just, you know, if anybody knows, if
you haven't done web work before, it's basically a
full time job to manage a website that's as big
and growing as Avant's. And so we get the things
when we get the things when we can. Sorry, it's my
fault. A little bit of a somber note. I want to
talk about a member of the exotics at remnant
town center, and the car world lost her life,
unfortunately, Angelina DeMotto, Jonathan DeMotto's
daughter, who if you were have you been with the
exotics at Redmond town center, when Jonathan
used to come out and take photos, his daughter,
Angelina, used to come out with him. She was part
of the thug team. Everything. Unfortunately,
she lost her life on a road outside of Pullman.
The semi hit her and her boyfriend. And
unfortunately, she lost her life, but kind
of sad. But you know, she is a person that
loved her, loved her Coca Cola, loved her
cars, loved her dad, and she will be missed.
But if you're any part of exotics, you knew
who she was. So just a little shout out to that
family and know that we're you're in our
parish. Yeah.
So I was going to ask you as we're coming
into spring now and things are, I don't
want to say thawing out because we've been
so, so not wet.
It's been so hot and things like that.
Yeah, froze last night. I was sunny all
day, which is weird. There's no snow
anywhere.
Yeah. Are there any tips that we can give
people as far as I mean, a lot of obviously
a lot of the car community didn't really
store their cars this winter because it
no, I didn't have to. They haven't had to.
But for those that had, as far as you
know, kind of bringing them out of
hibernation, is there is there a tip
that we can give today that kind of
starts that process?
Oh, boy, you caught me off guard a
little bit.
Boy, you know, normally, like I said,
you'd go you'd be going through your
de winterization methods, changing your
fuel, things like that. But if you
already topped off with a fuel tank, a
full tank of fuel, then you don't really
have the normal de winterization that we
usually have.
And my my shop's been, no, I don't think
it's even frozen here. No, with the heat
off, like it's been it's been pretty nice.
Typically, this time of year, it's always,
you know, the usual checker fluids.
Start, start the cars, too.
Yeah, start the cars, keep them warm,
go for that test drive, look at your
tires, look at the age of your tires,
if you've got a car that's been
sitting around the R eight, for example,
needs new tires.
They've got depth, but they're six
years old.
Wow. These are the factory Michelin's.
OK. So we're going to go put some new
ones on that.
They get hard over time.
Just got to go take out a loan first.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's always fun.
Oh, there's an advanced discount for
that. There is.
You should do that. This is the perfect
time of year to go back through and
look at those detailing tips we've
had and make sure this is the perfect
time to make sure that wax is
fresh. Even if it's been sitting
there, make sure you look at that
bottle from Rio's garage to see the
optimal temp to put that wax or
polish, polish and wax on.
I was just asking for one good tip,
but you're giving multiple here.
I'm thinking of one of the things I do
normally and it's always this is the
time of year. I think people forget
that even if you're not driving your
car, that wax is not is what it used
to be. Yeah.
It's still good if you just wax it
before you put it away. That's
typically what I do.
This one's got ceramic, but the
trucks waxed.
Actually, this is the truck ceramic
too. It's the Bronco.
That's waxed.
You wax the Bronco.
Yeah, nice.
It's super easy. I've got that
Dewalt.
I just give it a quick once over.
Yeah, super easy.
Saves me a ton of time.
Yeah, I need to do
some more research on the proper
way to buff on top of
clear bra.
I use it.
It worries me.
You can go slow revolutions.
Did they ceramic or that though?
They two years ago, that's probably
fine.
Well, I guess no, that's not true.
Not with yours.
With a normal car, that is fine.
For a car that is like, you know
exactly what I'm talking about.
Yeah, Ben, through some really tight
trails. Yeah, that's not so much.
I'm wondering if those will come out.
And I don't want to.
I mean, at the end of the day, if I
damage it, which I would
do, it needs to be replaced.
And that's my.
It's done its job.
Well, yeah, you may damage the
the S tech, but I was right until
you sell it, unless it's really bad.
But we can try heating it up.
It's bothering me.
Yeah, I understand.
It's bothering me.
Like, you know,
as I'm coming into the spring here
and I'm getting things cleaned up,
I've been doing a little bit of paint
correction with with the buffer
and cut and buff.
And I did I did do some
touch up on some of the rock chips
on the rear of the hips that
I will always kick myself or not
doing that. That was so stupid.
But I mean, I did the same thing.
Yeah, I'm 50.
Not my new one, my old one.
Yeah.
The I was going to say
the main thing I do this time
here is just I give the car a
really deep clean.
I blow out the interior, not just
vacuum it, I vacuum it and blow it
out. It's actually I kind of two
step it. I vacuum it all out and
then I blow it and then I vacuum
it again. Yeah, that helps a lot.
Have you done that with like the
like the like the muscle machines
where you put them on the carpet
and it brings all the dust to the
surface?
So yes, with not good results.
Oh, interesting.
And maybe I'm just doing it wrong.
Maybe I'm too high speed.
But basically what they do is they
put a Velcro pad on a buffer
and then they vibrate the floor
and the dust comes up out of it.
Yes, it works for really dirty
vehicles. I don't think it's as
necessary. And if you do it
wrong, what happens to me
and what happened to me and please
someone messaged me and told me if
I did this wrong.
It kind of like deformed the carpet.
I don't say deformed it, but the
Velcro on it moved.
The Velcro grabbed and then then
the pad was moving. Yeah, so you
can see where they put the
buffer down and it's under the
floor mat. So who cares?
But still I wouldn't do it
again. I don't think it was
worth it. It's not like I think
it's better.
If you've seen an agitator
blower, it's got like it looks
like a handgun blower, but it's
got like a little horn on the
end of it. Yeah, those work
really well.
And I've just used. I've seen
those and then I've literally seen
the little the new muscle guns
that the.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you see, yeah,
I'm deep tissue massager.
That yeah, that I have not done.
That's a good idea. I don't know
if it's it's going to work or
not. I'll try it on the Bronco.
Yeah, because it's got plenty of
Moab dust in it.
Yeah, I tell you.
That's the amount of dust.
Yeah. Well, she's a way I'm
going to give that thing a nice
deep clean.
I wanted to ask you, since we're
getting to the half point in the
show.
What do you think not
not 2026 or not the new
prelude? What was the biggest
let down vehicle?
Or which company had the biggest
failure of 2025?
I don't want to like bash a company
which which do you think just
fell flat?
As far as a car or a brand?
A brand.
That's.
BW.
Really? Yeah.
I don't think they've had a
lot. I mean, obviously, they're
selling cars that
and I like it.
That new ID buzz bus
or whatever. Yeah, I do think
it's kind of cool looking.
Did not do well.
I would personally own one.
But I just don't.
I think that when I when I think
of things that have gone wrong,
obviously, you know, so many
things change in 2025.
We saw, you know, the lightening
go away and
but I really thought that
that was the nostalgia
of that was going to sell
things more.
Yes, a lot, a lot more of them.
And I don't think
I also don't see a ton
of new Volkswagen cars
on the road. I like them just
so we're clear that.
It's always in the Gulf.
But I see a ton of Tiguan's
and a ton of what's the bigger
one. I was going to say Audi
Audi Volkswagen have gone kind
of bland. They have one or two
good cars, but they have this
huge lineup of cars nobody
really notices anymore.
But I was actually going to
say Ford.
OK.
With the amount of recalls
they had in 2025 alone,
which you and I know firsthand,
the quality control issues
they've had and the and
the major failure of the F
150 lightning to sell.
And.
Again, we know and I've been
messaged about it.
They're all over here because
we're Seattle, we're tech.
Everybody bought them here.
Right. And they work for the
people here. There's a bunch
in St. George, actually.
Are they? OK, well, all over.
But I'm saying people are going,
well, you know, nobody bought
them, but they're all here.
They are here.
Yeah, everything's weirdly
here. Yeah.
Yeah. So I think Ford probably
and now that they've just
announced Ford's profits went
in the tank, too, because
they had to retool everything
and they killed.
They were just up.
Everybody's profits were kind of
in the tank because all the EVs
died from the major brands.
The Bolt had one year.
I will say that presentation
that Ford did early January,
but it was amazing, like with
the GTD SC and everything
out. I mean, going into F1,
things like that, by the way.
Of course.
Stuff wasn't.
I mean, go see Hawks.
We're very proud.
Love the Cadillac commercial.
Yeah, that was great.
You know, I'm looking forward
to that. So.
Yeah. And then, of course,
obviously Jaguar, but the Jaguar
is never really there.
It's kind of dead.
So maybe I'm hoping, you know,
Peter, we're talking about that
because, you know, him and Sandy
bought that, that two year old
F types. It was brand new.
The special edition.
But I'd love to see Jaguar
come back. Oh, yeah, me, too.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I mean, they finally got
rid of the loser.
So I'm excited to see if the
company turn around.
I hope they do.
You know, it's funny we're
talking about Jaguar and a
car that I'm seeing a ton
of now, if you don't know,
is the 250 GTO
that was here in the private
collection and sold.
Yeah, it's all over social
media. And David has got it all
over social media.
And a lot of the stories are
coming out about that car and
the fact that one of the
original owners that had it in
white was that had a had
parked it for the winter.
And when he came back, all the
the Jaguar, he parted a Jaguar
dealership or something like
that. And they had taken it
apart to see how it works.
And then that how that that
led to Jaguar building the
F type, the older
hardtop. Oh, yeah, they
taken the car apart.
So that car has such history.
It's great to see it out.
I mean, it got out out here to
I mean, the Pacific Northwest,
we saw it. It was at the Vance,
Vance on the green, but it's
neat to see that car.
He's driving the car.
Yeah. Well, I mean, John Shirley
kept sort of a low profile.
Yes. Socially, yeah, his
cars are known and he shared
them wonderfully. Thanks to
Fred. Yeah. But
David lead is not like he
is all over social media.
He's driving his car. Golf
course. Yeah, it's everywhere.
And which is cool to see.
I'm glad to see it when
somebody who's like that.
Yeah.
It's just two different people
showing the car a different way.
I think it's it's fun to see.
And it's obviously fun to see a
car that we had personal.
Yeah, personal.
I want to see personal contact,
but we personal connection to
connection to a lot of
experience in that car.
But apparently that car has
had some influence on Jaguar
design.
Yeah. So yeah.
Speaking of Ferrari, let's
talk about the new Ferrari
design.
Well, but we don't we have
the interior. They showed
interior pieces.
They didn't really show the car.
The Lucy or Luca.
Lusa Lucy.
I don't know what it is. I don't
know. Ugly electric.
I am so against Ferrari
going full electric.
I do not think that makes sense.
It's not a Ferrari.
If it doesn't sound a lot of
the first of any car in their
line, if it's full electric, I
don't. Oh, full electric.
No, I don't mind the SF 90.
I don't know. I've got six.
I love that stuff.
But and and I'll be honest
with you. It looked really kind
of plasticky and cheesy.
And I wasn't a fan.
And the gimmick with the key
where you put the key in and
the yellow comes out of the key
like there's a screen in the key,
which by the way, if you're
buying a Ferrari, you probably
don't care. But that's going to
be a really expensive piece to
replace.
And it goes in and the color
goes to turn on the car.
And it looks a little
like some of the panels look
like they came out of an
Ineos Grenadier.
And it's just not it
looks functional.
But it looks gimmicky.
Yes. And it looks like it's
going to age like milk.
I think they were too far
down the road to stop.
Into it. And I think they probably
have pre-orders of people.
Yes. People will buy them.
Yeah, as always.
I just the idea of.
You imagine being set up being
being having to tell somebody
I was in a crosswalk and I was
hit by a fully electric Ferrari.
Yeah, I was disappointed.
It all looks functional,
but it looks like the typical.
And I mean this in the worst
way, it looks like the typical
iPads glued to a dash.
Yeah. And like that was ten
years ago and people are over it.
It's just I've never seen a review
like that where they had just
different modules sitting over
a place and you could it just
didn't make sense.
Yeah, it looked like I put one
here, put one here.
And yeah, it's like a Lego.
Like and they didn't even show
the car. Yeah.
So. So who knows?
I mean, hopefully down the road
we're wrong and it turns out
great. I'm always loved.
I always love to be proven
wrong on these things, if I
can. But me, my first gut
reaction is not great.
And that was the overall
consensus on the Internet as
well, it's like, well, it looks
like it is functional, but it
doesn't look good.
No. And that's disappointing,
especially for Ferrari.
I'm trying to figure out the
yeah.
Yeah, there's they described it
as Ferrari water torturing us
with details, dribbling up
details. And I'm like, that
makes sense. Yeah.
Yeah. L-U-C-E.
So I'm assuming there's an
Italian accent on that.
So yeah, Lucci.
Lucci. Yeah.
It just doesn't make sense to
me. So I just
what's your thoughts on that
listeners new for our interior
hit or miss?
And what was your biggest
loser of 2025?
Cybertruck was 24, so don't
name that.
There was a video, my brother
sent me a little thing, some
little kid said, I don't
think the designers knew how
to draw.
Then there's the horrible videos
of people that keep coming out
and finding people put in trash
in the back of it. Don't do
that. Yeah, don't don't
vandalize those cars.
I don't care what your
political reasons are. Kate and
I were out driving around this
last weekend and I saw a ton of
Cybertrucks. I don't know if
like all of a sudden there was
some update and people were
able to drive them more, but it
just seemed like they were
everywhere.
Yeah, I don't know. Again, here
I get it.
Yeah. So the thing
is, is I've heard it drives
pretty well. I just still
think it's really ugly.
Kate, because would you own
one of those? I said if
somebody gave me one, I
absolutely drive the crap out
of it. But yeah, it's not
something I'm going to go out
and buy.
And I think what Elon is
doing shutting down all these
different models and converting
over is telling you a lot about
what the future is coming.
Yeah, investment in robots
is kind of weird, but hey,
easier than sending people to
Mars. You can send robots.
There's a few people I'd like
to send to Mars. True.
Yeah. Speaking of trucks,
not sending people to Mars.
OK, my dad's new Maverick
should be here in four weeks.
New. Yeah, he bought a new
Maverick.
OK, so he drives a Maverick
now. Yeah. But he got a new
Maverick. He loves it so much.
Did he get a Lobo?
No, he got a
the Lariat package all wheel drive
hybrid. OK.
So he got a fully loaded
and my dad is 87 years old.
He doesn't drive that much and he
loves his little Maverick.
And as we're like, Dad,
spend your money like you have it.
Use it. Enjoy your years.
So he's packed it.
Yeah, he's packed it.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, he got it.
He and my brother went to the
dealership. They expect it all
out. They got basically every
single option. Cool.
And then he's got S tech
going on the front. Shout out
to our friends at S tech for
keeping us in business, but
also like we we we practice
what we preach.
He's getting S tech on the front
of it.
He's got the Ford factory mud
guards, a bunch of factory
accessories that he likes and
bed stuff.
My dad still is 87,
but he's still doing side jobs,
doing little plumbing jobs,
stuff like that. So he got the
bed tie down system, the bed
cover.
I had no idea.
I mean, I knew that he bought
the original one, but that
was he just bought that off the
lot.
Yeah, he bought a used one.
Oh, used. OK.
His old his old was a used
one and he bought it for he
bought it with I went say with
I think like 50,000 miles on
it for one owner that had taken
really good care of it.
So my dad got exactly the truck
he would want. He got it in this
red color that he really likes
and has always liked. It's not
bright red. It's like that.
I don't know. We call him
metallic maroonish dark red
that he loves.
And that's cool.
Yeah, I'm excited for him.
So I'm happy for it comes
in in four weeks.
Yep. He got a custom built
custom ordered like they're
giving him the process to the
whole thing.
And so I'm really happy for
him. I'm excited to see it and
get everything done.
And it is so fun to watch
people take delivery of cars.
Like I love that process.
Like, yeah, obviously, you and
I have been always been really
good at helping other people
spend their money.
But like, right, watching
people by a grom talk about
the by a monkey by a monkey.
By a grom. It's not even in
the background anymore by a
monkey. Yeah, do it.
Yeah, thank us later.
Yeah, you can put in the
back of your new Maverick.
That's right. Yeah.
Why does your dad have one
of those?
So that's cool.
I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, I'm excited to see it.
I'll post photos when we get
it. I'll put an advanced
plate or advanced frame on it,
of course. So also, if you
know what a Maverick is, the
smaller truck and this has a
lot, Dan's dad is not a small
man. No, he's six one.
Yeah, he's a tall guy.
Yes, tall guy.
Yeah, and he fits great.
And he's awesome. He's driven
that thing to and from
Maryland to Arkansas to
Maryland four or five times.
So he puts tons of miles
on his vehicles. He doesn't
drive a lot around town, but
he takes long trips and
visits friends along the way.
That's so weird.
I know. I wonder if that
passes to the children.
Weird, right?
They end up being state
patrol people and driving
everywhere. Yeah, I think I think
the old truck will stay in the
family. I don't know if they'll
trade it in and probably, you
know, give it to one of the
grandkids or something.
He's a good grandpa.
Yeah, he's a great grandpa.
Yeah, and a wonderful
carpenter. As we sit here and
look at all the work drywall
and electrician plumber
a roofer and anything.
Yeah, I think he's tall
enough to get to. He'll
still work on pretty much.
Yeah, that's cool.
Excellent. All right.
Yeah, so that's good news.
And I'm excited to, yeah, put
the avance plate on it.
That'll be great.
That'll be great.
I love it. Congratulations,
dad. Yeah, he listens now
because he he hooks up his
his cochlear implants because
he's my dad's deaf.
People don't know and he can
listen to it through Bluetooth.
Well, that's cool.
And that's cool tech.
Yeah, so you can have Bluetooth
directly, you know, beam it
right into your right into your
head. So yeah, so we're clear.
He doesn't need it.
He's really good at reading lips.
Oh, you can read lips, but
yeah, very good podcast.
Yeah, don't whisper around that.
No, we learned that early on.
Absolutely.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
Wait, wait, did you say my dad
has selective hearing even though
he's deaf because if he'll just
turn off his hearing aids and
zone out and go to sleep, he
doesn't want to listen anymore.
Beauty of getting old.
Click. Anyway.
OK, I'll think about it.
Yeah.
Yeah, all right.
Cool. All right.
Well, let's wrap up the show.
For this episode of the
Avance podcast as always, I'm
Nick and I'm Dan and don't
just get there.
Enjoy the drive.
About this episode
Dan and Nick kick off with a shoutout to Milwaukee's excellent customer service before diving into a heated discussion about a controversial Wall Street Journal automotive review that mixes politics with truck culture, sparking debate about the state of automotive journalism. They reflect on the challenges of honest car reviews and share their favorite automotive content creators like Doug DeMuro and Zip Tie Tuning. The episode blends tool talk, industry insights, and media critique with a casual, conversational vibe.
Original notes
We talk about cars all the time, but we’re not out there test driving them very often so we don’t really consider ourselves “car reviewers”. Reporting in general has changed significantly over the years, and the latest “review” on the F250 by Dan Neil in the WSJ shows how even car reviews aren’t safe from bad taste and political soap boxes. In better car review news, the real car reviews on the new Rivian R2 have started to drop and we all seem to think it’s a great step in the right direction EVs as a whole, but we would love to hear your thoughts on it. Dan is more excited for the Scout and Rivian R3, and we both think the new Slate is unfortunately doomed due to increasing costs. Who do you think was the biggest brand loser of 2025? We give our vote to Ford for having more recalls than we didn’t think possible and the huge failure of the Lightning, which should have been an easy win. In really good consumer news, the Michelin and BF Goodrich discount is renewed for 2026 and you can save more than ever by buying from our partners at Discount Tire! Considering how warm it has been in the PNW, it’s getting close to time to get those new summer tires anyway!
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