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Good And Bad Cold Weather Advice

Wheel Bearings
Wheel Bearings
Good And Bad Cold Weather Advice
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Nicole is back after driving both the Hyundai Palisade and Kia K4 GT-Line turbo. Sam did some truck stuff with Hyundai’s trucklet, the 2025 Santa Cruz and Robbie has some tire feedback. Ford has confirmed its plans to offer extened range EV powertrains in large trucks and SUVs. Someone has developed a wide-body kit for the already wide new Dodge Charger Daytona, and VW has teased a new $21,000 EV that will be revealed next month. Nissan apparently doesn’t want to just be a subsidiary of Honda and is looking for other partners. Subaru has unveiled the new Forester hybrid coming this spring with 35 mpg. There’s a Faraday Future FF91 on bring a trailer. Tesla sales are crashing all over the place and apparently, most of them still don’t have the hardware needed for unsupervised self-driving. Finally we answer a listener question about starting… Read More »Good And Bad Cold Weather Advice

Buy While You Can

Wheel Bearings
Wheel Bearings
Buy While You Can
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This weekend Nicole is visiting her daughters and Robbie is taking care of a family medical emergency, so Sam is joined by Perry Stern and Stephanie Brinley. Stephanie has been driving a Toyota GR Corolla on winter tires and Perry has the new GMC Terrain. Sam drove a Honda Ridgeline Trailsport to Ohio to visit Honda’s new EV hub. In the news, is there a chance that GM could sell a rebadged version of Hyundai’s Korean Staria minivan? Kia is sending its more affordable EV5 electric crossover to Canada, but has no US plans for it. VW has also cancelled plans to bring the ID7 sedan to America. Polestar has put together winter rally special versions of all three of its current models. In the auctions, someone actually paid over $71,000 for a Honda CR-X. Sam and Steph drove the new Toyota 4Runner, on road… Read More »Buy While You Can

Swagoneer

Wheel Bearings
Wheel Bearings
Swagoneer
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We finally drive the electric Jeep Wagoneer S along with the Hyundai Tucscon, Mercedes-Benz CLE Cabrio and VW Jetta

Do You Want a Luxury Minivan

Wheel Bearings
Wheel Bearings
Do You Want a Luxury Minivan
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We’re back from CES having seen the Honda 0 Series, Afeela and Faraday’s next hope for relevance plus we have NACTOY winners and an electric RV

Live From Las Vegas

Wheel Bearings
Wheel Bearings
Live From Las Vegas
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This week, all 3 members of our crew are in Las Vegas from CES recording from separate hotel rooms with terrible wifi. Nicole finished her stint with the Buick Envoy, Robbie had the Land Rover Defender 130 and Sam had the new Infiniti QX80. In the news Faraday Future is still not dead somehow and it’s going to be unveiling new lower cost EVs at CES that we’ll see and talk more about next week. Over at TFL, our pal Andre has been re-engining his Soviet era Buhanka van with an LS V8 and chronicling the multi-month effort on video. Nicole wrote about whether the construction of the Cybertruck might have helped mitigate the damage from the New Years Day explosion in Las Vegas. Q4 2024 sales numbers are coming out and contrary to all the naysayers, EVs aren’t quite dead yet. At CES, Toyota… Read More »Live From Las Vegas

Happy New Year

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Wheel Bearings
Happy New Year
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In the final show of 2024, Nicole discusses her experiences with the Buick Enclave, while Robbie shares his Hyundai Ioniq 5 charging journey. News highlights include a potential Honda-Nissan-Mitsubishi merger, affordable electric vehicles from Toyota and Subaru, and a new safer EV chassis design from CATL. The team reflects on favorite drives and 2025 expectations.

Charging The Charger

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Wheel Bearings
Charging The Charger
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This weeks show is a bit different. Robbie is dealing with some family stuff, Nicole is at DisneyWorld wedding and Sam is headed to Omaha for Operation Frodo so no regular review section until next week. Instead, Sam and Robbie recorded a discussion on the death of Cruise and the future of automated driving. Sam also had a conversation with Chad Kirchner about our first drive experiences of the new Dodge Charger Daytona. Sam also interviewed Dodge CEO Matt McAlear and Charger chief engineer Audrey Moore. Links Sam’s initial review of the Dodge Charger Daytona The Kirchner Report RIP Cruise Operation Frodo Wheel Bearings has launched a Patreon. If you like the show and would like to chip in toward the cost of producing and hosting it you can join at https://www.patreon.com/wheelbearingsmedia

Tacos At Every Charger

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Wheel Bearings
Tacos At Every Charger
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This week, Robbie didn’t drive anything, but Nicole got time with the Ram 1500 RHO and Honda Civic Hybrid hatchback while Sam had the Kia Niro PHEV. At Art Basel Miami, Jaguar showed off its new design direction with the Type 00 Concept and it’s different. Toyota is taking advantage of its joint venture factory with Mazda to offer Soul Red Crystal as an optional color on the Corolla Cross. Carlos Tavares has been ousted as CEO of Stellantis. Hyundai has a new version of the Palisade coming and Genesis is building a race car to go to Le Mans in 2026. Nissan’s Ariya can use Superchargers now but it needs an extra adapter for its adapter. Ion Dynamics has a cool little mobile EV charger and we recommend tires for winter driving in West Virginia. Get your Wheel Bearings merch at https://shop.wheelbearings.media Links Ram… Read More »Tacos At Every Charger

Let’s Go Racing

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Wheel Bearings
Let's Go Racing
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This week Sam has been driving the Ford Ranger with the 2.7-liter V6 and Kia Carnival Hybrid. Nicole had the Toyota Tacoma and Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Robbie had the outgoing VW Tiguan. In the news, Acura has a new entry-level crossover, the ADX and Toyota is working on a new generation Celica. California’s governor has a plan to preserve EV incentives in the states if the Trump administration pulls the plug, and it doesn’t include Tesla. Cadillac is joining the F1 circus in 2026 and Dodge is slapping some big money on the hood of the new Dodge Charger Daytona and Jeep Wagoneer S. ConnectDER has a solution for installing EV charging on older homes and smaller apartments. Edmunds range tests the Chevrolet Equinox EV and decides to unload their Fisker Ocean while they still can and we answer listener questions. We’ve updated the… Read More »Let’s Go Racing

Are Bad Font Choices A Bad Sign?

Wheel Bearings
Wheel Bearings
Are Bad Font Choices A Bad Sign?
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The whole team is back this week with lots of LA Auto Show news. Nicole drove the Audi SQ8 around Los Angeles for the week. Robbie had the new Toyota Land Cruiser. In the news, Jaguar has launched new branding ahead of the reveal of concept version of its next new EV. Stellantis talked about the STLA Frame platform for its new EV an EREV large trucks and SUVs, and we spoke with Stellantis executives including NA COO Antonio Filosa about where Jeep and the other brands are headed. Nicole got to try out the new GMC Sierra EV Denali. Lotus is also bringing out some EREVs. We also discussed some of the products announced at the LA Auto Show including a refreshed Genesis GV70, new VW Tiguan, the Hyundai Ioniq 9, and the NACTOY finalists. We also answered some listener questions. Links Nissan N7More… Read More »Are Bad Font Choices A Bad Sign?