Unknown 0:04 This is wheel bearings. I'm Dan Roth Unknown 0:08 on Sam Abuelsamid Unknown 0:12 not paying attention here Unknown 0:15 after a dramatic pause. I'm Rebecca Lindland. Unknown 0:18 Yeah, it's perfect. That's it's drama. That's right. So welcome back. It's Episode 96. And you are both in Chicago for the Chicago Auto Show. Unknown 0:30 Such as it is. Yes. Unknown 0:32 But we're not recording in a single room. We didn't. We didn't. stuffy nose in a booth. So Unknown 0:38 anyway, yes, Unknown 0:41 Rebecca is one floor up. Unknown 0:44 Yeah. And it is windy. And knowing a little bit but not as cold as it's been in the in last week. I think. Unknown 0:51 Well, it's a lot colder than it was earlier today was it was like in the mid 40s today and supposed to get down to 16 tonight. I think Unknown 0:57 it was very cold when we went to some event this evening Unknown 1:03 was it I mean there's still acres and acres a carpet is it all iced over Do you have good traction on the carpet there look Unknown 1:10 at look at the carpets all inside the cold is on the outside. Unknown 1:15 Really liked the show, though. You know, it's they claim is the largest consumer show, I assume by attendance. Unknown 1:22 But it's probably also by floors. Unknown 1:24 I was gonna say it was a square footage. Unknown 1:27 This this Unknown 1:28 massive, its massive, but it's the kind of show that you can, it's not so crazy. And it's not so overrun. So it's a lot of domestic journalists. And you get to see people and cars, which usually at other shows, you have to decide either you're going to see people or you're going to see cars, it's almost impossible to do both. So I like this show. It's manageable. Unknown 1:50 And actually, interestingly enough, we actually did have some news from some of the non domestic automakers here though, like Subaru, and little bit from Volkswagen and, and and Land Rover as well. Unknown 2:05 Yeah. Which we can touch on. I'm assuming that's what we want to do at some point during the episode anyway, but Unknown 2:11 come back around to that. Yeah, Unknown 2:12 yeah. And then Ford had their big announcement about adding 500 jobs to their Chicago plant, Unknown 2:18 right? That's right. Well, let's talk about what we've been driving. First of all, Unknown 2:22 okay, well, Unknown 2:24 I would love to start us off this week, because I Unknown 2:28 know Florida, Danny, what have you been driving Unknown 2:31 the 2019, Mitsubishi Mirage, g4, and it's easy to make jokes about this car. But I like it. Unknown 2:42 It's it's like a little underdog. And of course, the main issue with it is that this is 18,500 something dollars worth of underdog and at that price it does become difficult to make a case for it but there's there's some kind of charm about the the Mirage that every time I drive it it just I don't hate it. And I realized that it's not really the right car for this market but it's a brand new car at a you know a low price that you can get the dispersion is the SE I think so it's pretty well equipped as far as small cars go in the segment and it comes with the warranty 10 year 100,000 mile power train warranty I think five years 60,000 miles overall warranty there's a seven year or something other I think it's the thing corrosion or something more to say you know if that's important to you it's not a terrible deal I'm sure that Unknown 3:51 nobody pays retail Unknown 3:52 let me let me ask you this Dan I mean you and I both driven the the key a real I don't know have you driven the new real yeah Unknown 4:00 Rebecca I have not no Unknown 4:02 okay so the Kia real was also about 18,000 and change. It's a brand new car comes with a warranty. Not 10 years. Granted that comes with a you know warranty for several years. What makes the Mirage a competitive or better than the real Unknown 4:22 Oh, nothing. Unknown 4:25 It's it's certainly it's not the near the top of the class. I was thinking about this. So in its class are things like the RS, which feels like a Cadillac. The last one I drove compared to the Mirage there's the and now the IRS is just the Mazda to based ers. We don't get the Jerez hatch. Do we any longer they killed that I'm Unknown 4:51 still they still saw the RS hatch. Unknown 4:53 Okay. Unknown 4:54 Yeah, I just had one a few months back. Unknown 4:56 Okay. So I must be confused about what they actually killed. They killed something. Unknown 5:02 But the the ers hatch is feels more cushy, it's about the same price Unknown 5:10 and it has more power. It actually drives better in a more enthusiastic fashion. Which when you get down to this end of the market, enthusiasm is sort of a did is what you make it Unknown 5:28 but the you know, there's, there's the the ers, the masa to the Rio, Unknown 5:36 all of the other choices I think are probably better cars. What I like about the Mirage is just how quirky it is, and it feels like it to me, it's like, this is the car that if Tractor Supply sold cars. This is the car they'd sell. Unknown 5:56 feels like Unknown 6:02 you're saying it feels agricultural. Unknown 6:04 Yeah, it does. It's it's, you know, somebody on Twitter commented today like, oh, the entity sounds bizarre. Oh, yes. Yes. quite busy. And it's, it's quite the flagellum, it really it vibrates the whole car quite a bit. And it's, it's got 74 horsepower, something like that. But on the whole, I'm impressed by because A, it's not for this market. I keep saying that, like, this is a car that was developed for really for the Asian market. And it's really this is a city car. And in those respects, it excels Unknown 6:37 it has that that small engine that probably gets you around some taxation things and as also just relatively economical but doesn't feel weak, it's it's teamed with the CVT the body structure is got a quite a bit of high strength steel in it, it has impressively low coefficient of drag, you know, Unknown 7:01 you start looking at the car, you go, okay, for, you know, for what it is, it was designed to be exceptionally inexpensive to manufacture and sell. And so sometimes when I'm trying to fall asleep, I've had too much coffee too late at night, I sit there and I think about these things. Like, how would I make a car like what is the cheapest possible way to make a car that's not you know, it doesn't sacrifice anything, it can run on the highway, it can go in town, it's easy to park and you don't really you don't give up much. Except for some prestige, I suppose. And that's really what the Mirage is. The problem is that everything else in the class is that as well. And they're better. Unknown 7:46 Why do you want your fuel economy is running out? Because it's I mean, it's got 3643 for fuel economy. Yeah, 36, 3043. Unknown 7:55 I mean, that's, that's high. Unknown 7:57 Yeah, I haven't clocked I haven't I haven't filled up. So I don't know what the the mileage is. And it really it's resets the average every time you start it. So I will figure out what exactly my averages I expect I'm in the mid to high 30s, which isn't isn't great. Like, I would expect better mood of a car with less than 100 horsepower from three cylinder engine and pretty light curve wait. But I'm also asked me to do things like commute 90 miles in a mix of highway and stop and go and that's going to trash any cars fuel economy to a degree. So Unknown 8:39 on the other hand, you know, you Unknown 8:41 you talked about the one you're driving is you know, 18 for you can get the Mirage g4 starting at 14 eight with a manual transmission, right. And, and for that price, you know, it does include a seven inch touchscreen display that looks like it's got our play and Android Auto support in it. So that's, you know, you know, Unknown 9:04 under 15 grand, and as you said, you know, you can probably get some screaming deals on these things, you know, I'm sure Mitsubishi dealers would be more than happy to give you a reasonable discount off of that sticker price, you know, your, you actually do get some decent features in there, you know, for at a price point that is, you know, less than much any new car currently available. Unknown 9:27 It's about as cheap as you're ever going to get a brand new car and it rides and handles, okay, they keep tweaking it, it's it's been around, since I think about 2012, it's gone through a mid cycle refresh. And this is the, this is the g4 se. So this is the sedan has a trunk on it, which I actually like the way this looks better than the hatch. But the hatch even though it's a little shorter is probably the more functional choice. Unknown 9:54 But you know, it's, it's a legitimate car. It's just at this end of the market. It's easier for us Unknown 10:00 wheels and self propelled and, you know, Unknown 10:06 legitimate Unknown 10:07 I mean, think about it, right, this cars is it's got, you know, it's got that that touchscreen audio system. I think you can even upgrade it to something with like, 300 watts, it's loud. So that's, you're gonna go deaf. Part of that is the tires. But I think also when you need that lightweight things like Unknown 10:25 the car itself was loud, not not the audio. So Unknown 10:28 yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. The the car itself is a lot of road noise. The the weirdest driving dynamic to me is, there's something funky going on with the steering. And I think it's probably because it's electric power steering, and it shuts off until you dial in a little bit of torque to the steering. You know, it has must have a sensor that says, Oh, he's turning a steering wheel, he wants some some electric boost, and then it kicks the bump on or kicks the assist motor on or however it's set up. I haven't looked at it. But there's this weird Nazi feeling just slow off center. And it did that feels very strange. And all of a sudden, you get assists, so you over you know, putting too much angle and it Yeah, so there's that audience the Unknown 11:12 overall sort of mood in the interior is Unknown 11:19 not Unknown 11:21 not cheap. It to definitely like, you know, to a price, it reminds me a lot of like a super beetle when they were new, that just, you know, it's a basic car. And it's not that expensive. And if you want something luxurious, this is not the car for you. But if you need a car, especially if you live in the urban core and don't, you know, Unknown 11:41 don't go super long distances or something like that. This is a car that because we don't have mass transit everywhere, this is an option. Unknown 11:48 No, actually, I mean, you know, that's, that's actually a very valid point. You know, we, we make fun of this car for some utterly valid reasons. But, you know, the reality is, you know, new cars have gotten really expensive. Yeah, and, you know, most people can, you know, most, most people probably can't really afford to buy a new car, you know, at, you know, the average transaction prices are, you know, somewhere around $35,000 or more now, you know, a nice compact crossover, which we'll talk about in a minute, you know, is, you know, to $40,000, right, yeah. And that's, that's kind of crazy, you know, for, for the average person, you know, the average American that, you know, needs basic transportation that's going to be reliable, you know, that gets them where they need to go, that, you know, they're not looking for something exciting, you know, but they, they want something that they can count on, you know, that's you know, part of the problem is, you know, you can you can buy used cars and I you know generally you know, that's a highly recommended practices to buy used cars because with the depreciation you can save a lot of money buying a used car, but then there's also a significant risk associated with that if it's out of warranty You know, you're responsible for anything that breaks on that you've got to pay for that out of pocket to fix it if you know if you need to get to work you know, that's that's a problem you know, the car like this you know, it does come with a warranty you know, and you know, modern cars no matter how cheap are generally pretty reliable. Yeah, so, you know, this you know, I mean this this is this is not you know, generally not something I would buy but I can I can certainly understand why there's a significant portion of the population that would and should buy a car like this if they need transportation Unknown 13:42 Yeah, it's personal it's better than the boss right Unknown 13:46 yeah well yeah I mean it's you know in a lot of places in the US that where that is absolutely true Unknown 13:52 you know if there is no bus you have no choice Unknown 13:55 yeah and so you know for this price point it's got Android Auto it's got Apple Car Play you know is it control a it does I mean that's the thing and as you say it's Is this something that you know an enthusiast is going to buy no but for for basic good transportation and that warranty is 10 years on hundred thousand miles I mean that's really significant you can you know there are deals on it I you know you can get a lease for like 189 a month I mean not you know that's what you spend at Starbucks on a week practical but to be fair the 199 Unknown 14:36 crisis I ever saw were like Chrysler to hundreds before they brought up that late the last one right I saw them for like 89 a month for like 1500 down Unknown 14:48 currently grow up for a while they were doing $49 a month leases on the 500 he California Unknown 14:55 freezing but um, but yeah, I mean, it has keyless entry has push button start, which is on the left of the dash, like a Porsche 911, Unknown 15:06 right, Unknown 15:07 has air conditioning, power windows, you know, Unknown 15:11 it has best Bluetooth. And, you know, I did, yeah, that audio system didn't sound that good. And the cars a little loud, dynamically, it's, it's actually not terrible dynamically, because it's light. So like cars, you can sort of flip around, it has, I guess a Unknown 15:26 bit, it's a slow car, you can drive fast. Unknown 15:29 Yeah, and it Unknown 15:29 keeps up with traffic, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't have a problem there. It's definitely sometimes you got to put your spurs into it. But yeah, that's, that's to be expected. Um, you know, there's, there's not anything wrong with it. And I feel like it gets a bad rap, especially from those of us who have the cushy position to drive cars would never be able to afford on a regular basis. Unknown 15:54 I think this is a good example, though, where we have to put ourselves in the consumer shoes we have to look at, at the consumer that that this vehicle to, and that may not be any of us. But if somebody you know, it's, it's a new graduate, you know, it's somebody that may be there, they're in retirement, and they, they want to spend their money on something else. But it is, it's still a new car, it's still has safety features, that a seven or eight year old used car isn't going to have, right, you know, a backup camera, you know, things like this, and, and Android Auto and, and, you know, Apple Car Play, there is some argument to be made that, yes, they can be distracting. On the one hand, on the other hand, they can provide a safety and, you know, a safety element to it. So, it's, you know, there is a market for these types of vehicles. Yeah, Unknown 16:52 and having Android on Car Play means that you also have access to navigation in the car. Yeah, you know, so, if you, if you need guidance system, know where to go, it's, it's there for you, you know, so that there's, there's a lot there's definitely a lot to recommend, you know, as, as basic transportation here. Unknown 17:09 Yeah, we can have fun and I can say like, yeah, I didn't hate it. And, you know, it's, it's okay, Brianna Wu, actually sit on Twitter ships, like, I just want Mitsubishi to be okay, as I go is definitely okay. You know, it's, Unknown 17:24 but it's, that's true. It's not the best car and it's class. But in this class, it's actually very competitive. There's a lot of, you can get a lot of car for your money, and you have to shop I think all of the the suspects that we mentioned, and maybe some that we forgot, because you're going to find the one that that suits you the best and fits your needs. And, you know, depending on where you are, where you're going, you know, service and support are important to you, too. So if the Mitsubishi dealer is near you, that's something to think about. If the Mitsubishi dealer is the only one that can find Nance you that's also something to think about. Or if they'll give you a better deal. You know, like, those are a lot of concerns that auto journalists having, you know, a week with a car, not having to pay for it and having to deal with those practices to practical concerns we don't think about but, you know, it's, it's an option in that end of the class. And it's, it's, it's not a it's not a choice that anybody should should be ashamed of, is definitely like you said, Sam, it's not what I would pick. But I was, you know, was charmed a bit by it because it has an underdog spirit, you know, and I think the only one with a triple and I like that little growl. Unknown 18:39 It's sort of like the last Sunday, you know, they were a little Unknown 18:44 Yeah, it was a mirage. Unknown 18:47 The Patriots as underdogs, really, like Unknown 18:53 I said it was a mirage, Unknown 18:58 a mirage showed up the same day they had their big story parade in Boston so Unknown 19:02 the big fabulous parade you mean Unknown 19:04 so obliterated by commute I'm still waiting to figure out how much it cost because you know taxpayers are footing the bill for the gridlock and the extra police and then the pollution from all the cars idling I looked around at all the stuff next to me in in the gridlock and it was just a bunch of chumps all in there patriots gear headed into town I'm just trying to get to work i was i was so aggravated Unknown 19:30 we need better mass transit Unknown 19:32 yeah Unknown 19:35 and the Mirage also has started this which is also a very useful feature Unknown 19:40 I you know, it's like it's hard not to be impressed with the amount of value you're getting in cars these days and the Mirage is easy to make fun of but I think it's actually a little harder to put yourself outside of yourself and and really appreciate it for what it is and where it fits in the market. I mean people make the same thing he's some kind of jokes about the IRS but the the IRS is solid choice i mean Unknown 20:02 i think the third generation yours is actually pretty decent Unknown 20:07 right like cheap cars Unknown 20:08 I think what the Mirage I think where it really fall short is when you do start comparing it to things like the Kia Rio, the Hyundai Accent, and the and also the residual value that those vehicles are going to probably maintain. Oh, yeah, you know, then the mirage. So I think that's where you start to run into some some real comparisons. But again, I it's better than the bus. Unknown 20:35 Yeah. Unknown 20:36 All right. Well, let's move on to what you two are driving, you're driving the same thing, you both got to spend some time with the Mazda CX five. So who wants to go first? Unknown 20:47 I'm good. Unknown 20:49 Okay. So, you know, I've always been a fan of Mazda, you know, I like the brand. I like, I like what they do with cars, and, and, and their utilities. And, you know, Unknown 21:01 I've liked the CX five when I've driven it in the past, you know, particularly this current generation, you know, Mazda Mas, you know, especially, you know, in the segments that competes in the, you know, the price points it has competed in, it has generally had some of the nicest interiors, you will find, you know, in, you know, in the mainstream segments, they, they have done a really fantastic job of executing over the last seven, eight years. That said, this particular cx five is 2019 cx five that I just had, and Unknown 21:37 Rebecca had the same one. I the same one. I think the the signature with the new 2.5 liter turbo Unknown 21:46 as good as it is, I'm having a really hard time dealing with a $40,000 price tag. Unknown 21:53 What? Yes. 39 $39,330 Unknown 21:59 delivered. Oh, mine is $39,905 to live. Unknown 22:05 Oh, you had a better one? Yes. It is that some option? I was missing? I don't know. But Unknown 22:11 what was yours? I had a signature cargo Matt little illuminated dorsal templates. Yeah, for 400 bucks. I couldn't live without those. The snowflake white pearl paint. Looks good with that and have tan interior. Yeah, no. Mine had a black interior rear bumper guard, retractable cargo cover, and the roof rack with side rails. Unknown 22:36 Oh, ok. So mine had I didn't have the fancy paint. But I had a front and rear bumper trend package. For me, it's $650. Unknown 22:49 Okay. That's probably the difference. Unknown 22:51 So eight basis. So this, so the signature all wheel drive based at 36, 890 Unknown 22:58 for the MSRP. And then these other crazy little options that they added. And then delivery was 985. So it topped out at 39, 905. Unknown 23:11 Okay. But Unknown 23:13 masa doesn't have a premium brand. So like, unlike say, Honda where there's Acura, there is no, they never, they never launched a body. So there's a room and monsters lineup when you've got the signature, this is the top model of the CX five, you can certainly get a cheaper one, right? Unknown 23:30 Yeah, I mean, you can, you can get a front wheel drive cx five to leader, you know, starting at $25,000, which is actually pretty reasonable. And, and even, you know, the mid level trends, you know, you get something like, the, the grant, you know, the grant touring starts at 31. Or, you know, Turing's 28. So, you know, one of those, you know, even a touring, you know, which is the second term level up, you know, that has the 2.5 liter engine, you know, that's, you know, something like that, you know, up to, you know, the low $30,000 range, I think, is fine. I, you know, I highly recommend those, and I have recommended them to people in the past, when they, when people come to me saying, you know, I want to get a small crossover, you know, the CX five is usually, you know, one of the vehicles at the top of the list that I recommend, because I, I really liked the way it drives, I'd like the way it looks, you know, I always like the, you know, the way that they execute the interior, you know, very comfortable, good seats, you know, lots of features in there, you know, it's just this, you know, as the, these, these latest ones, you know, with the, the turbo, you know, the grant touring reserve, you know, and the signature, you know, they just, it seems like it's a step too far, because I don't think that there's, I don't think you're getting enough extra with those trim levels, versus even the grand touring with the 2.4, what is the normally aspirated 2.5 to just supply the price point? What do you think, Rebecca? Unknown 25:03 I agree, I mean, what the way that I, when I usually get a car, I'll drive it around for the day and, you know, kind of make notes and sort of, look at it, experienced that, and then I look at the price because I don't want to have, you know, and I kind of think, Okay, how much would I expect to pay for this vehicle and I almost fell over Unknown 25:26 the next five, because I think, you know, my, my personal vehicle that primarily sitting in the driveway is a is a Unknown 25:38 Buick Encore that i think i think had a price of about 31, and it doesn't have a few features. It doesn't have it doesn't have keyless entry. It doesn't have an electronic lift gate. There's a couple things it doesn't have. But it's also $31,000 as opposed to almost $40,000, then we start to get into what else could I buy for that. And that's, that's what I start to think about them as well. You probably get a mirage for Unknown 26:09 that price difference. Unknown 26:14 Exactly. So so I had something. And I had a 2019, Lexus uX 200, which is their smallest crossover. I had that a couple of weeks ago. And it's a Lexus. And it starts at 37 two and the one that I had topped out at 41, 560 Unknown 26:35 so you know it was what is that 15, 1600 dollars more for a really really well equipped Lexus Unknown 26:47 and but but what Unknown 26:50 what features that the Lexus have that the Mazda didn't have Unknown 26:55 probably a really obnoxious infotainment system because that's Unknown 26:58 what Unknown 27:00 what's Unknown 27:02 the Mazda does have support for car plan Android Auto now, so Unknown 27:06 it does it does and, and Lexus only has Apple Car Play, it does have Amazon Alexa as well. But, you know, the driving experience was really nice. with the, with the Lexus. And I still get back to the fact that you have to look at residual value as well, you know, and, and the Lexus is going to maintain its value, but more than the Mazda and, you know, it was just, it was a really, you know, it was a fun little car to drive around it and the Mazda is to, but, you know, and, and, and to your point dandy, it is true, that monster doesn't have a luxury brand. But I just think that, you know, I just, I had a hard time and I've actually reached out to friends of mine at at Mazda. I just saw them here in Chicago. And I said, I got it, I need some explanation. Yeah, you know, what is your competitive set when you price this vehicle? What were you comparing it to? And unfortunately, I haven't heard back yet, but I'm, I will be really curious to see what they benchmark for this the next five? Unknown 28:15 Well, I wonder to whether it's meant to not actually sell that many but shift perception of monster because monsters in this place where they're very small automaker comparatively, and yet they they at least occupy some mindshare right now, and they need to do something Unknown 28:37 to differentiate themselves, almost like what BMW has done on a different level, right, they need to come up with that unique mas thing and they they're working on and I think they're doing a pretty good job, but they have to continue to move beyond like, yeah, mas are sort of cheap, fun cars. Because even now, they don't really have that top of mind of the buyers, right buyers are going to go for for sure IPS or you know, Volkswagens or or whatever they don't necessarily go from AWS to soft time. Unknown 29:07 And they've certainly, you know, tried to shift the brand up market over the last several years, you know, that they tried, they tried to create the perception of Mazda as more of a premium brand, but one that is also, you know, while still retaining they're, they're fun to drive attitude. Unknown 29:24 Yeah, and I think the things that you get on this search top term to you get the Napa leather and maybe they're a little too subtle about it. Because if you look around and you start to compare the spec sheet, you see the things that are eat real luxury car features that you don't get on the lower terms that you can get here. And they do they make a difference. But I think you're right. Like, it's not a not a powerful enough difference. Or it's not obvious enough to really make you feel like it's worth that money. It's certainly nice, but nobody's going to, you know, for honestly, for me, I guy every like, Look now, lot of red is fine. I don't even need real hides. Unknown 30:03 I mean, it's a little bit like putting, you know, really expensive, really expensive appliances in in a mid level house. Yeah, you know, it's sort of like, okay, that's great. But you're not going to get your money back, Unknown 30:23 right, Unknown 30:25 you put these crazy a wolf range, you know, that's, that's 10 or $12,000 and $100,000 house, you're not going to get that back. And so I do appreciate that they want to move up market. And there's definitely opportunities there. And, you know, and perceptions that people feel like, you know, monster has this, it's a unique vehicle, you don't see them everywhere. And not everyone has, they're not ubiquitous, you know, and they do have a certain emotional appeal. And there and they certainly are very, very fun, you know, to drive by, at the end of the day, you know, this buyer that that crossover, you know, five passenger cross over First of all, it's an unbelievably competitive segment right now, especially, but, you know, there they tend to be quite practical, you know, they want a nice looking vehicle, but I think 40 grand just a lot of money on this particular size of vehicle. Unknown 31:29 So do you think that it's in the right place though, where you've got some buyers are coming up and some buyers are coming down. And this is sort of at the crossroads where you've got that downsizing buyer who has money Unknown 31:41 and then you Unknown 31:42 hear that that up and coming buyer who's stretching a little but wants something nice, that different. quirky, and it Do you think it's ideally positioned, or you think it's a little bit off, Unknown 31:53 I just, I think that if they, if they took it down a couple thousand dollars, I could being more competitive, I just think when when consumers look and see that 3839 range, I just I I struggle with that for for this size, you know, and we we will, I think we're going to talk a little bit about the blazer, the Chevy Blazer, and that is that has a lot of personality. And I think it's even actually a little bit bigger. And that tops out at about account like 4041, and you're 42 in that range. So I just, I think there's so much competition we talked, you know, about the Honda passport. So it's, there's just, there's so much competition in this particular space that I think you really have to justify, you've got to be able to justify why you're looking at this kind of this kind of money. Unknown 33:00 Go ahead. Unknown 33:01 I was just gonna say, you know, compared the, the Lexus UX to this and I think the UX is really, you know, a size class down, it's more like cx three sides, right? The End x is more the, you know, the direct competitor writer. Oh, yeah. And, and, you know, the, the NX does start at about 38 or $36,000, you know, and so, you know, I think comparably equipped to something like this, like a cx five signature, you know, it's, it's closer to, you know, about the 44, $45,000 Unknown 33:34 range. But yeah, I agree with you, I think, you know, if, if this, you know, kind of topped out maybe a couple of grand, cheaper, you know, in that 37, 538 Unknown 33:44 range, I think it would, it would feel more palatable, you know, I mean, it's clearly, you know, it's clearly still fairly pricey, but I think just the, the perception of it, I think, I think maybe Mazda, it, maybe trying to move a little bit too aggressively to create that premium feel, are that cream, the premium perception of the brand, you know, with its with its pricing, and maybe it's not quite ready to be there yet, with with these vehicles, I don't know that there's enough enough that extra that you're getting, you know, in stepping up to one of those top to trim levels on this thing, the justify the cost premium. Unknown 34:22 Well, but they're there. So before we move on, though, we should talk about that 2.5 liter turbo engine? Unknown 34:28 It's great. Unknown 34:29 Yeah, Unknown 34:31 yeah, like, here, here's a lot of fun. Unknown 34:34 Yeah, it's got lots of power, you know, 250 horsepower, 310 foot pounds of torque, you know, it goes, you know, especially when you put it in a sport mode, you know, it's got plenty of get up and go, that's not an issue at all. Unknown 34:47 Well, I mean, that that's almost, I just got to be double the torque of the CX five, when it originally came out. I remember there was, there were two engines. And the two liter, I think, was the one you hit with the manual, and boy did that everything was working. But it was fun to drive. Unknown 35:02 Yeah, the, the, the two, the two leader is naturally aspirated two to five, which I think is the base engine in here. Now, I don't think you can even get the two leader in the CX five anymore. So the two five naturally aspirated 187 horsepower, 186 foot pounds of torque. So yeah, I mean, it's about 80% more torque, what the turbo then you get with the naturally aspirated engine, and you can definitely feel the difference, it's definitely got plenty ago. And, you know, one of the, you know, one of the things they've added in here, you know, for the 19th is there g factoring system, which is, it's kind of a, an automatic trail braking system, you know, as your as you're going as, as your cornering, you know, it'll it'll, it can back off the engine talk a little bit, you know, as you're going through corner. So you get the text to your cornering backs out the engine torque, just enough that you get a little bit of weight transfer onto the front wheels. And that helps you get a little more grip on the front wheels. And it'll turn in a little bit better, you know, and, you know, skill driver, you know, can do the same thing by just modulating the accelerator a little bit as you go through the corner. But you know, this, this does it for you. And it doesn't really seamlessly it just, it helps it turn in really nicely and really smoothly. Unknown 36:24 It's like kind of like the CX five we always said that we wanted right with it's like this is great, but needs to be quieter and more powerful. And sounds like the last I might have been even a cx nine. But I was impressed by the last couple months I was and they finally figured out how to make them quiet. And they've also found the figured out how to make them powerful. And so the very competitive and the six five is the best selling Mazda I think of all the vehicles they make, at least in the US that it sells better than anything else. So if the contract super Luxe version, I guess this is the place to do it, Unknown 36:59 and there it's certainly very, very well equipped at that price. I mean, there's heated and cooled see, you know, heated, heated and cooled in the front, there's heated in the back. There's a heated steering wheel. It's got a lot of creature comforts, but I still did not feel like I was driving in nearly $40,000 vehicle. Like, it looks great. You know, it's got nice proportions. It's it's very kind of modern and clean looking. But I don't know I just I had a really had a hard time getting over that price point. I also didn't get very good fuel economy around town. Oh, yeah. I bet. You know, I mean, it says it's rated it Unknown 37:43 but And granted, I didn't drive it as much as I normally would, for a variety of reasons. But I was I I was clock clock 40 miles and mostly around town. I did. I was on the highway for about the 15 miles of that. And I got point. Unknown 38:04 Oh, that's actually that's worse than I thought I was going to get like 18 and a half or so Unknown 38:09 I averaged about 22 over the week. And that, you know, included some driving, you know, when it got particularly frigid last week, but it also included a bunch of highway driving on Monday of this week, you know, when it was quite a bit warmer. I mean, it was in the Upper 20s low 30s on Monday, you know, Unknown 38:30 so, you know, cold weather is always going to deteriorate your fuel economy anyway. But yeah, I only managed about 22, even with some with a bunch of highway driving. So, yeah, it was it was kind of disappointing on the fuel economy side as well. Unknown 38:46 Yeah. But I think, you know, Unknown 38:48 it's hard to expect that a car is that way, about 3500 pounds or so Unknown 38:58 I think it's probably closer, 37 Unknown 39:02 pound car with 250 horsepower. Like, yeah, that's, that's about what a turbo charged 3700 pound car with that kind of power. Unknown 39:12 Yeah, Unknown 39:14 I would say, you know, if you're, if you're driving it in a sporty manner, I would say yeah, that that's, that's a perfectly legitimate statement. But, you know, in my case, you know, I was using it, I drove to, you know, from my home to Dearborn for one meeting. And then, you know, to Farmington Hills, Michigan for for a couple other meetings, you know, and I was mostly, you know, cruising on the highway, I just set the cruise control at 70, approximately, and, you know, let it go. And, you know, so I wasn't doing any anything particularly aggressive with it. And, you know, still did not get, you know, particularly impressive fuel economy. Unknown 39:53 Yeah. I mean, every turbocharged car I've owned that has been about that size and weight with that kind of power has returned about that. Unknown 40:01 Well, but it's, but it's rated. I mean, the city's 22 Highway 27 combined 24 and I typically get pretty close to what the rating is, you know, it's usually it's within a mile or two, but I just I was I was a little surprised that it wasn't it wasn't a little bit better than that. It may be I was driving more aggressively I was certainly on a lot of curves and up and downs. You know, the other thing that surprised me was that actually has a pretty poor small grading of three Unknown 40:37 and it's got a fuel economy greenhouse gas rating of five. So, you know, it's, it's not really a super clean, I don't know, I just, I wanted to really like this vehicle, as you said at the beginning. I you know, Maz is a great brand, and I think they do really good products. But there's a couple things that were I was a little surprised about on this one. Unknown 40:56 I'm actually I'm surprised that the fuel economy is, you know, so off as well, because it doesn't just actually run like partial Miller cycle at certain, like throttle opening certain conditions. Unknown 41:11 Yeah, it does. Yeah. Unknown 41:13 So, again, like it's a little baffling that it doesn't get better fuel economy. Unknown 41:17 Yeah, I took a picture to make sure that I was like, really looking at it correctly. Unknown 41:22 Yeah. So I don't know, maybe I'll get an opportunity to have it again, and drive a little bit more, Unknown 41:27 maybe you'll get answers at a monster once they Unknown 41:29 Yeah, that would be helpful as well, for sure. Unknown 41:34 Alright, so do we want to talk about the blazer? Unknown 41:39 Sure. Okay, Unknown 41:41 well, you're the only one is driven it Rebecca's to tell us all about it. Unknown 41:45 So, um, I, I really enjoyed this vehicle. I i think that that General Motors did a nice job. And, you know, I, I always think that, you know, GM doesn't really suffer engineering issues. I they, I think they do a good job. It it drives Unknown 42:08 in this very wide steady competence stamp. And so I felt like, you know, I felt like it was it was going to be able to kind of tackle we weren't on particularly challenging roads in San Diego. And we actually did not get the opportunity to take it off road, which I was kind of disappointed about. And I think, you know, Unknown 42:31 the purists are going to be very offended that it's not a truck based STV, it is car based. But that's what the market requires these days. And so, you know, and that's, that was a decision that they made that if they were going to come out with this five passenger vehicle that you know, is really similar to the passport it's, it's a more personal kind of vehicle that it was going to be what the market demands, and then that's the crossover right now, it does have two rows. It's a it's five passenger, they consider a mid size crossover. I so it will compete with the escape that comes out. It's it's bigger, Unknown 43:13 it's bigger than the equinox. I felt like it was much board a year than the equinox. Like I would really I would really consider buying the equinox. But I would consider buying the blazer. It does that a lot more personality to it Unknown 43:30 certainly does. from a design perspective. Unknown 43:32 Yeah, hi. Like the design of it. I know people that are also split on that. But Unknown 43:38 I liked the design of it, too, especially the RF version, which I call real sexy. I just had a nice again, as a nice aggressive stance to it. The interior is basically lifted directly from the Chevy Camaro, which I think is a good thing. And then the the technology they've done a lot of work on the technology making it more interesting is making it easy to understand to to interact with very easy to pair your phone, things like that. The towing capacity is 4500 pounds, which is really good and and also has Chevy's trailer in package so that's available on the six all wheel drive versions of it. And they've got two engines they're both made it to the nine speed transmission there's a 2.5 liter in line four cylinder and the much be fear a 3.6 liter be sex, which is really the dominant engine and what they expect most people to choose from. So the base MSRP is 29 995 Unknown 44:40 which I love when they do that they want to get something under 30 that RS that I mentioned it has a much more urban kind of look to it, that's actually set up 41, 795 Unknown 44:53 but then the one that has everything is the premiere and that's 43 895 Unknown 44:58 and I think feel like you know this, this particular buyer again, similar to that passport is somebody that single empty nester maybe has one kid probably not a little bit more affluent a little bit more you know adventurous has has or wants to have the perception of an active lifestyle I and but you know I think it's I think it's got good cargo good capability it was certainly really I did enjoy driving it and but again we didn't go off road with it at all Unknown 45:36 all of the out of it is it was really good i you know i i can't say that I struggle particularly with with visibility I but it was fine I mean the rear you know the the it they did this this clever like third little round porthole almost at the D pillar and so that helps with your obviously they have blind spot monitoring and detection and stuff so but just for your peer visibility they do the backup cameras excellent and then they did do these little portholes at the at the end of the D pillars so that you can see out of the out of that as well Unknown 46:20 yeah and you know you mentioned that you didn't get a chance to drive this off road and I'm not I don't think that Chevy's really pushing this as as much of as you know the adventure vehicle as Honda is with passport and but more of the you know personal on road crossover right and interestingly there was reported last week I think that they have also recently renewed the their trademark on the Trailblazer brand that is it all so perhaps you know they're planning you know whether it's a derivative of this or maybe something based off the the Colorado pick up you know a bit size you know SUV you know off road oriented SUV that they'll use the Trailblazer brand on and and target that one more directly at something like you know the Wrangler and the upcoming Bronco Yeah, as as an alternative, you know, that fills yet another niche in the head is the GM SUV lineup. Unknown 47:27 Well, you know, I don't think they actually need to make this an off road capable vehicle. Like, that's not what people are buying them for. I'd say even what people buy Wranglers for, you know, so they need to fill it with the features that people are going to find. It sounds like what they really want is the crossover equivalent of a Monte Carlo Unknown 47:56 person, luxury car from the 70s. Yeah, you know, Unknown 47:59 okay. So it's like a Unknown 48:01 Yeah, I think is kind of, you know, maybe falls, you know, kind of halfway in between, you know, Camaro and Monte Carlo, you know, a little bigger and roomier obviously, than a Camaro, you know, but kind of with that, yeah, a little more. And from a design perspective, at least a little more of that Camaro. attitude. Yeah, Unknown 48:21 yeah. And when I say money currently to like duck in here, I do not mean the embarrassing w body money's Unknown 48:26 I mean, the, the, the proper 1970s, early 80s, 90s, Unknown 48:30 right? colonnade Monte or Yeah, anyway, Unknown 48:34 right. Or maybe, maybe the SS Unknown 48:36 Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I do think that, um, yeah, the only reason I bring up the off road is because it was so emphasized with Honda with the passport. I mean, most of our time was spent off road. So it's just kind of funny how, how each brand chose to launch their these very similar vehicles. I but I do think that this, I think the blazer is certainly very capable. I again, I had a nice sense of confidence with it. My driving partner, who shall remain nameless, is known as one of the more cynical people in the industry. And even he liked it, like, very reluctantly, Unknown 49:26 very reluctantly. But so I did write a little review on my I'll do a quick self promotion, I have a new website, Rebecca drives calm and and so I did my do my quick little 200 words or less review on there about the blazer if people want to want to read it, but Unknown 49:44 include the links in the show notes. Unknown 49:46 Yes, thank you. But I think it's either what I like about this size vehicle. What I like about this, the looks of this vehicle is that it does it it just it to me, it just gives that sporty fun single feeling that, you know, so much of our world is family oriented, which is fine if you have a family but somebody like me, who doesn't, I don't want to be in a mommy Moby all you know, I just don't Unknown 50:19 Yeah, I think for for some of those folks who who have that asset and their lives vehicle that doesn't outwardly sort of give, give that or off either, you know, Unknown 50:33 yeah, I think it's, you know, it's kind of like, they had this stuff kicking around, they sort of read rejiggered a bunch of stuff they they had already and I think they made a pretty good vehicle, the people that are complaining about it, they're going to complain about anything, it wouldn't matter. And I mean, they Unknown 50:49 could have brought out a brand new blazer like the old style style blazer and they still want a complaint. So Unknown 50:56 did you get a chance to drive the force older version or just the V six Unknown 51:00 you know what I was looking back on my notes and I only got to drive that the V six and then I wasn't sure if maybe they didn't have them there, but I thought they had and so I think they may have only had a couple there. Obviously, they're intending that most of most of the people will get the 3.6 liter be sex. Unknown 51:20 Yeah. And, you know, given that this thing has a 4200 pound carb way, you know, that's why I asked the question. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's not exactly spelt. So Unknown 51:33 financial vehicle. I mean, it's why, you know, again, it's, it's wide and has nice proportions, but definitely a masculine stance to it. Unknown 51:46 Yeah, no doubt about that. Unknown 51:49 All right, right. Hopefully, at some point, get an opportunity to drive it. I know, Sam, you you will definitely get an opportunity to drive it. So Unknown 51:58 yeah, it's already in the front free free. Unknown 52:01 Oh, is it? Okay. Unknown 52:02 Yeah, I'm ready. I saw them. I saw them post it. Unknown 52:06 Well, I will. I will ask about that one. And someday you may get GM cars and in your neck of the woods again, Dan, but I yeah, maybe not. Unknown 52:18 You know what, if they don't want to sell any they don't have to send them here for a stock that's fine. Unknown 52:22 Well, Unknown 52:24 let's do some other topics Unknown 52:27 or one yeah, so do we do want to chat about what was in Chicago briefly or there's a couple other things we could talk about but um. Yeah what what sort of the top of your mind to to cover Unknown 52:41 I really liked the Nissan Pathfinder that we saw the Rock Creek edition it's it's kind of cosmetic it has some unique I think it's a roof rack, some accoutrements about $1,000 I Unknown 53:01 version add on, but it kind of gives them It gives a Pathfinder some fun personality. Unknown 53:06 It's supposed to be like a more rugged, like off road he kind of thing Unknown 53:12 well, it doesn't really appearing that way. Unknown 53:14 Yeah, it's a it's, um, it definitely gives that more rugged appearance. Unknown 53:21 Although, you know, I will say that the, the Pathfinder is actually surprisingly capable off road, you know, even without this appearance package. Nissan did an event in Carmel not last summer, but the year before and you know, it was it was focused on trucks and utilities and they had the Pathfinder the Armada and the Titan there and they actually they had an off road course that we drove the the Pathfinder on back then and it did shockingly well for what is a fairly large three row crossover yeah I was really impressed with that I did not expect it to handle you know that that kind of terrain with you know, what, the kind of capability that it did so, you know, now you know, it kind of looks more the part you know, I doubt it's, it's any more capable than it was but that's you know, that's not necessarily a problem because I think, you know, it's, it's got some some serious jobs Unknown 54:23 Yeah, and I love great rim rim there's on their 18 inch dark finish aluminum alloy wheels and and they just look fantastic. I thought it really added a lot to the vehicle Unknown 54:34 and being a teens that means it actually has some sidewalls. You know, if you're gonna if you are going to take it off road, you know, you are less likely to destroy, you know, one or more tires along the way. Unknown 54:46 Yeah, Unknown 54:47 it is one of the better looking Pathfinders. I've seen this sort of generation and Unknown 54:55 every every one of the mums price it actually did so well off road when you tried it because after every single path Fender I've ever driven is driven so miserably they're just big and family trucks to hurry and just you're surrounded by a lot of loose not not nothing's Lucite. It's relaxed fit. I guess it's the design it's just just big thing and it was close. Unknown 55:15 Yeah, you know, I mean, you know, it's it it's not a Wrangler. But you know for for what it is you know, I mean it's it's able to go you know, you know, through mail forwarding some reasonably deep water you know going over some you know it's it it's got some decent ground clearance you know, so it can go over some you know, go down some some to track trials and things like that so you know, you can take it to places like you might not expect you know, a big family wagon to go Unknown 55:48 hmm and and and in this dark green that I think that it's a fantastic shade to put on this night. Unknown 55:53 Yeah, yeah, I love that dark green. Unknown 55:56 So what else do we see at Chicago we saw let's see the Jetta GL Unknown 56:01 there was Unknown 56:02 which is, which is the new Jetta which we both driven then really liked. And they put the dti power train in it. So 228 horsepower, 258 foot pounds of torque. And, you know, all the is basically a four door sedan dti. You know, which is what the deal is going to always been. And yeah, that's, that's a good thing. Unknown 56:21 Yes. No, nobody's gonna complain about that, right? Unknown 56:25 I'm not Unknown 56:27 for me. The other big thing that I saw was the RAM, multi gate. eyes lit tailgate on the RAM. 1500 pickup truck. Unknown 56:37 Oh, yeah. And now everybody's fully into the act with the trick tailgates Unknown 56:41 they are, but so I had this, I had the Ram 1500 I, a few weeks ago, I think, I think around Thanksgiving, I had it. And first of all, I, I loved the vehicle. It's a great truck. Yeah, it's so great. It's won so many awards. However, at five feet tall, I could not get in and out of the pickup truck bed, if I put the bed down. If I put the the tailgate down, it covered the only foot well that I had, which is the license plate to get into the vehicle. So then I would have to, like kind of, you know, I would have to put my bomb on the tailgate and swing my legs over to get in. And if it's dirty, it's gross. I don't want to do that. If it's wet, I'm getting wet. So, you know, no access to the pickup truck bed was really annoying. And while I realized that I'm the size of a 13 year old, there's, there's still, you know, a lot of people with arthritis with any kind of physical limitations, an aging population, you know, most or even, even, Unknown 57:47 even, even, you know, if there's something, you know, Unknown 57:52 we have your ball that you need to reach into the bed to get, I mean, you've got to reach over that tailgate together if it especially if it's something that might have slid forward in the bed, you know, that that can be quite a reach to get in there. And, and like you said, you know, because the only step back there was, you know, on the bumper itself, once you put that tailgate down, you lose that right and this, this new multi action tailgate or multifunction tailgate really addresses that you know, so you can still open it like a standard truck bed or it also splits in the middle actually split 6040 and swings out to the side so and it's in a way it's it's similar to what you can do with the Honda Ridgeline except the original line is it's just, it's just a single piece tailgate and it'll swing out to the left, it's only hinged on one side, this one is hinged on both sides, which is an advantage because it gives you flexibility. If you need to carry something along, you can leave either side of that open and hang, you know, hang it out the back and still have the other side closed. But also you know it you know, because you know, the two halves are shorter, you know, it doesn't switch out as far so you don't need as much room as much clearance behind the truck dash swing that thing open. And then when you when you do swing it open, you have access to the tailgate bumper and they also added made available a new hideaway step to you know, the extends down even further from the bumper. So you can step on that in that step up to the bumper and an end of the end of the bed. Unknown 59:23 Yeah, and that was super easy to use as well as you say it text underneath by the muffler. And then you just pull it out just with with your your foot, you can just bring it out and then you actually just kick it back in and it pops back in again. And it provides you with a very easy ingress and egress to to the bed which is really well aligned really well made. So that so that door I was actually on I did two hits for Fox Business News and Fox News Channel on this and he will let against you Unknown 59:59 we work we were looking at the at the hinges on this and the hinges on that hold each of the door pieces to the bed itself. I do the truck itself. Rather, they're there about 10 inches of forged steel. And it's all one piece I mean, these things are significant because the tailgate, it felt it has I believe it's a it's a 2000 pound weight. And so and then the this step has, I think it's 600 pounds. So it was it's very capable, it's really well done. It was not cheap to do this, it is quite different. And oh and by the way, it's available on any trim level as an option. And it's I think it's 995 that it's going to be that is the option and then the center the optional Center staff as another 295 to it. But the I will say that the GM the GMC and pro lift gate has more utility it's certainly more complicated and it's only available on upper trims. But it's competitive to that. And this is just a simpler version of it solves a lot of problems but I'm still a little partial to the to the GMC version. Unknown 1:01:24 Well, one thing that that ram mentioned is that you know the the GMC version when you if you open like the middle part of that tailgate and drop it down. If you have a trailer connected, that won't work. Whereas the ram tailgate, you can swing those open with a tailgate or with a trailer connected and you don't have to disconnect the trailer up you can still get access to the bed, Unknown 1:01:51 right? So there is some there's an improvement in if you're trailing with the functionality of it the Unknown 1:02:00 the GMC version of this does, you know, it really does more things it gives you a workspace that you know it does several different iterations. So it just I think it kind of both of them are worth looking at. I you know, I've spent some time in both trucks they you know, there's certainly I like the way that each of them drive they both drive smaller than they look I and and you know, which is always nice because it's a big truck but you don't feel like you're slogging it around, you know, especially in a suburban environment. Or I usually am driving but I did like that multi protocol data from GMC a lot. Unknown 1:02:42 Speak. Speaking of big trucks, Unknown 1:02:45 GMO Chevrolet also had the new Silverado HD here, which is enormous Unknown 1:02:54 like it Do you think it's because they're styling wise, they've moved on a bit from where they had been more I want more conservative, what do you think it just how it looks, Unknown 1:03:04 it's really big Unknown 1:03:09 is Unknown 1:03:10 it is it, it's, it's, you know, while it's 10 inches longer than the previous version, this version, you know, Unknown 1:03:18 they have, you know, one of the one of the interesting thing that's happened over the last 15 years or so is there's been a real, you know, the manufacturing the, the three tried automakers, and really kind of split their heavy duty trucks, apart from their light duty trucks, you know, used to be, you know, if you go back to, you know, the 99, even in the late 1990s, and you look at, you know, the heavy duty versions of the full size pickups versus the light duties purely from a visual perspective, you would have a hard time noticing any, you know, visual difference, you'd have a hard time picking them apart without looking at the badges and over the last decade, they really split them and, you know, really moved the heavy duty trucks up up the line more and something that was interesting, you know, going back to it was 2009 when for launched it was like two generations ago of the F 150 I was at, you know, an event that Dr. event at their Romeo proving grounds and Michigan for that truck. And, you know, they talked at that point, you know, this was right after the financial meltdown, you know, and, you know, gas prices were still you know, in the 350, $4 a gallon range or more. And one of the things that they talked about at that time is that as the light duty trucks have moved up and moved up, and capability at that point, they were, you know, kind of encroaching on where the the 2500s where the bottom of the the heavy duty truck lines and a lot of buyers were actually stepping down to the light duty trucks, they had enough capability to meet their needs. And so what they've done in in the years since that is they've continued to move the heavy duties further up, you know, giving them more towing capability and the, the GM trucks now, you know, all of the, the, I think the 3500s, you know, both the gas in the diesel now have, you know, over 30,000 pound towing capabilities, which is, it was insane. You know, the, the diesel the 3500 diesel, Dooley dual rear axle, rear wheel has 35,500 pound towing capability now, Unknown 1:05:40 but, you know, they have done some, you know, they've done a lot of refinement on these trucks. Yeah. One of the interesting things that money. Doron who's the the comms manager for the first Chevy trucks, you know, he gave me a walk around on the thing showed me some of the details. You know, in the past, if you had a block heater, or especially for the diesel engines, you know, for when it's cold, you know, you would have the, you'd have this extension cord dangling out from usually from underneath the Unknown 1:06:12 underneath the hood between the hood and the grill, you know, where you plug it in, and they've actually integrated all that on this one. So, on the the lower front air damn on the side on the driver side, there's a little door there, you open that up and that's where the plugins and you just plug right into that almost like on an EV so you don't have this thing that you don't have this, you know, cord dangling out for the block heater, you know, they've got the side steps on the side of the bed, their standard, you know, ahead of the rear wheels and, you know, like the, like the the rear step on the RAM, you know, that has, you know, 600 pounds, I think Unknown 1:06:50 capability, you know, it was it was like 580 pounds on the the the sidesteps on the HD you know so you can step up there and reach into the bed to get some Unknown 1:07:01 what else. Oh, another interesting detail. You know, a lot of the, the HD trucks are used for snow plows. But, you know, obviously you don't have you don't leave the plow on there year round. You know, in the summertime, you know, the people that operate plows, you know, they usually take the paws off and they use those trucks for other things. And the past you know, they would have to, you know, cut up the bumper or cut up, you know, part of the front facia to get the you know, to mount the plow on their on on these new ones. Now, you can if they've designed it so you can just take that you can just you know, take a couple bolts out non bolt that front piece there put out your plow and then when you take the plow off you can just take that piece back on there and it looks looks normal so you know they spent spent a lot of detail time on things that you wouldn't normally think of but you know that actually make a difference to the people that are using these trucks these are also the first the first heavy duty truck that have automatic four wheel drive you know so that you you know it'll automatically shift between two wheel drive and four wheel drive based on road slough you know that's never been done on a four on a on the heavy duty trucks before so lots lots of interesting details on the stuff Unknown 1:08:21 that's where innovation is happening is the big trucks Unknown 1:08:25 yeah it is and the price points are going up as well and RAM also introduced a luxury version of some of their commercial vehicles and really reflecting that the trend towards luxury better that's really overtaken the the truck market that the true track market Unknown 1:08:48 and tg was it before the shower or during where Ford introduce their new 2020 Super Duty with the enormous push rod VA Unknown 1:09:00 was actually just before the show. Yeah, they they announced a new 7.32 new engines actually for the 2020 Super duties 7.3 liter gas engine and some new, new redesigned version of the 6.7 liter diesel as well. Unknown 1:09:20 Yeah, and I tried to land up something with Ford. So we'll hopefully have something soon where we're actually talking with with somebody about that truck as I was really interested, like, you're going back to the push rod engine. And there's a lot of reasons for that. And I think they're solid reasons, but just to sort of hear how they work through that decision process and Unknown 1:09:42 that have them let us down easy that you're probably never going to see what one of those tensions in a Mustang and you shouldn't expect to Yeah, we go, we got a little nuts for big, big displacement. But that's not that's not what it's for. Unknown 1:09:57 So yeah, I mean, there's, there's some, some stuff happening at Chicago, which, you know, they they they make a good case for themselves for for being a Unknown 1:10:10 I guess a one of the premier shows around around this the season around the circuit. Unknown 1:10:16 Yeah, well, I mean, one of the, one of the big you know, one of the main bits of news that has typically has come out of Chicago, you know, when there is news here, and there usually isn't a whole lot of new product introductions and near Chicago, but this 10 this does tend to be the place where they make a lot of news around the big trucks, especially the heavy duty trucks and the commercial trucks, Unknown 1:10:38 yes, but even but the old Landrover unveiled the new evoke here yeah which is you know, they're not even in at the Detroit Auto Show. So it's you know, there's definitely a difference here but yeah so they so Landrover showed the new evoke base price of just over $42,000 2.2 point O liter engine four cylinder turbocharged engine but it looks great I mean it's just it's very appealing it actually reminds me a lot of the Bobo xc 40 which is a friend of mine drop thurs hers off it was Tiffany blue with a white top and it was just adorable, the Volvo but the but the evoke has that same very very appealing styling and it's gray proportions. It's there's just something this to me I think is a more elegant I version and certainly more luxurious than something like that blazer that we talked about before but still a very personal vehicle a very personal ride and perfect or for singles or empty nester kind of, you know, smaller families and just a great I think it's just, it's just a beautiful view for vehicle. Unknown 1:12:00 Well, yeah, well, and bringing it back around to you know, we've talked about the CX five earlier, you know, I mean, this is, this is in that same class that compact that see segment crossover class as the CX five but, you know, this, you know, as a Land Rover, you know, the land rover is the other brand that like Jeep, you know, everything they sell has real serious, off road capability, right. And, you know, so, the evoke, you know, lives up to that it, you know, it can go, you know, pretty much anywhere and, you know, this is a this is a vehicle that I think, you know, as a premium utility, small utility, you know, I think really lives up to that, you know, both in its exterior design and its interior execution, you know, and they they announced the pricing or the US version of the evoke which starts I think it was 42, 651, 49 Unknown 1:13:02 Oh, yeah, when it goes on sale this spring, you know, so that's a little more than than the CX five but I mean, if you're in that $40,000 range Anyway, you know, this this may be a more appealing option to you than than the than the Mazda? Unknown 1:13:17 Yeah, I mean, it's certainly going to give you more status you know, it's probably not going to be nearly well as well equipped until I'm looking at the brochure now you're getting an understanding of their trim levels and such but Unknown 1:13:29 yeah, I mean, you can probably get this up then you know upwards of 60 grand if you load it up Unknown 1:13:34 right but it is also it is unabashedly and unmistakeably premium I mean that the tires on it or just you know it's almost it's it. It's almost at the edge of cartoonish because the tires are so gigantic, smaller vehicle but it didn't cross that line. You know, they just pulled it back enough. And as you say it's incredibly capable, incredibly capable off road. And so you know, I just I just think it was it was a great looking vehicle. It was cute because they had Joe Eberhardt is the president of Blender over North America and he's a he's a big music fan as well. So they had a local band playing that he himself had found and you know it just it showed it showed a nice personality and I side to to this brand Unknown 1:14:25 one it's basically picks up some some Vilar Unknown 1:14:30 yeah she's so hard hard to argue with the way that one looks Unknown 1:14:35 absolutely um. Unknown 1:14:37 I wonder also like I'm trying to remember the original evoke had a lot of actually was basically an LR to with a different top hat and so had a lot of Volvo xe 16 and two so I wonder how far they've moved it from there Unknown 1:14:54 well I think this shares the same platform with the the Jaguar he pace Unknown 1:14:59 okay Unknown 1:15:00 yeah i think it's it's it's it's new new architecture Unknown 1:15:05 so not not bad Jaguar Jaguar is good stuff Unknown 1:15:11 not a bad place to be no Unknown 1:15:15 all right what else yet Unknown 1:15:18 I would cover the high points pretty well here it was Unknown 1:15:21 it was the 30th 30th year anniversary Unknown 1:15:25 and the accurate Unknown 1:15:27 yeah 3030 years ago at the show the 1989 Chicago auto shows where both of those cars were were announced the other sex didn't go on sale for another you know year and a half after that but the the Miata did go on sale later that year and you know that we we saw you know they had the first NSF serial number one on display here with with one of the latest versions and they also Mazda show 30th anniversary special edition of the the Miata with certainly going to build 2000 globally it'll be available both the coop and the other the RF hard top and the convertible which is the proper way to get any Miata Unknown 1:16:13 and you know it's got you know special racing orange paint scheme only 500 of them are coming to the US and they're they're starting to take pre orders for them so if you like me army out of fan you might want to consider getting one Unknown 1:16:31 yeah that's a pretty slick looking me outta um, it's it's got a nice, yellow r&g kinda huge It looks very very bright enthusiastic about being a good drivers car yeah Unknown 1:16:45 yeah I actually am at the party that monster had this evening I got a chance to meet Tommy Montano, who was one it was the original designer of the mass of the Miata. And I asked, I said at the time, did you know that you are designing this legendary vehicle? And he started laughing He goes, No, yes, we were just designing something that we could afford to buy. Unknown 1:17:11 But that's kind of the beauty of the Miata is that if, you know, just incredibly authentic, incredibly organic, Unknown 1:17:19 yes, the best MTB ever made. Unknown 1:17:21 Yeah, exactly. But that's what he said was that they all had those, you know, he had a little fee of 500 spider, you know, he he had he himself has those small cars, his colleagues have little mg bees and such and math but they wanted a new one that they could actually afford and and the Unknown 1:17:39 board and that would be reliable. Yeah, exactly. Unknown 1:17:43 Yeah, I bet your your me out. It doesn't markets territory nearly as much as an MTV or a Spitfire Unknown 1:17:49 do not at all that it's 29 years old. And, you know, still doesn't leak oil Unknown 1:17:57 possible. Unknown 1:17:59 Hey, Mazda, right. Unknown 1:18:02 That's, that's true. Unknown 1:18:04 Okay. Well, we had some questions if we want to touch on those real quick before we started to, to move. So one question left over from last week. And this is just a little bit inside baseball. But I thought it might be just worth touching on, Unknown 1:18:20 how do you get cars did they follow us to wheel bearings, because we built a previous relationship where obviously smaller team that big guys, and they're not going to throw cars at everybody calling themselves we Unknown 1:18:31 called Small, Unknown 1:18:32 right? So this is from Twitter, I think the username is I am banana or the handle. So Unknown 1:18:38 yes, I think that's true. We, you, if you start off in, you call yourself a blog, you either have to do the hard work to build an audience or you have to start from somewhere that had an audience and then split off like we, and every day now, I expect, at least on my end, that they're going to tell me I can't have any more cars. And, you know, Unknown 1:19:01 in my case, you know, because of my, my primary job as an analyst and industry analyst, you know, and I think the same goes for you, Rebecca, you know, that's part of why we, you know, we get access to the press cars, you know, because, you know, we're, we're evaluating the products that they're putting out there, and it the, what we glean from, from driving these cars, you know, we get an understanding of what kind of Prop you know, what they're putting out there, how it fits in how they, you know, how the different manufacturers compare. So, you know, in addition to do, you know, doing reviews here on the show, and other venues, where we write stuff about these cars, you know, we're, it's also feeding into the work that we do, as analysts, you know, to understand the industry and, you know, to help out the clients that we work with, you know, to understand what's going on in the space. So, that's, that's part of why, you know, I certainly Part A big part of why I get access to these parts, Unknown 1:20:05 right. And likewise, it's you know, for me, if I'm evaluating a company even you're from a financial standpoint, I'm not a stock analysts were just looking at, you know, all I will often get asked about their financial performance. And, you know, if I'm driving, you know, if I drive the GMC Sierra, or the Chevy Silverado and I think I, you know, I'm not so sure about this, then I can potentially look and say, you know, they could have a hard time selling this product. On the flip side, if I say, look, this is absolutely fantastic, you know, then I can say, you know, I think the chance probably going to do okay, because they've got some really good product in the lineup. So and, and also, it's great to have the opportunity to compare and contrast to either to look at things and say, you know, this is why I'm, you know, maybe I prefer this small crossover over that ball crossover, because we get to drive different products at different times. So, I, you know, and I, but I do think it just overall, it just gives us a better understanding of what's in the marketplace, how this brand will be performing and who they're going to appeal to, with a certain product, or whether a product is going to be appealing at all. Unknown 1:21:29 Yeah, and our audience may be small, but they're mighty Unknown 1:21:34 about quality, not quantity, right? Unknown 1:21:35 Yeah. Well, you know, and speaking of our audience, you know, I just want to touch on something else as well, you know, we, I know, I know, personally, that there are quite a few people that listen to the show that work in the auto industry, you know, that work for various automakers and suppliers, and, you know, so I, you know, I, I run into them, you know, various events that I go to it auto shows and conferences, and, you know, we appreciate that you listen. And, you know, we, we'd like, we'd love that. And, you know, we love the feedback. And I know that there's a lot of people that listen, that are also, you know, involved, either they're involved in development of various other electronic control systems or automated vehicles, or even these infotainment systems. And, you know, Unknown 1:22:30 even for those that aren't, you know, right now is actually in, especially in Detroit is getting to be a tough period, or there's a bunch of people getting laid off as manufacturers, particularly GM right now, but you know, also Ford and I'm sure even FCA and other manufacturers are shifting their workforce trying to get new skill sets in to adapt to a changing marketplace. And so, you know, one of the, you know, there's there's lot of new software techniques, new electronics that are coming on stream and understanding of that, you know, one of the ways that for people working on this stuff to understand that stuff better is there's a lot of good developer conferences where you can learn a lot of stuff, you know, especially talking to other developers. One of those is the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference, and Nvidia does seven of these around the world. Now, the first one of 2019 is next month in San Jose, and I'll actually be there attending that is a they also have a track for analysts there. But you know, for anybody that's listening, if you're interested in attending, they've got over 500 different sessions and tech talks there, including a whole bunch that are focused specifically on automotive, various automotive aspects from infotainment systems to simulation, automated driving systems, if you're interested in going video has actually given us a discount code, which will include in the show notes. It's MC x Navigant, that's MCs and Avi I ga and tea and I'll put that in the show code and the show notes that that use that discount code if you register and you'll get a 20% discount off your off the cost of your your past for the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference in Silicon Valley. Unknown 1:24:24 That's awesome. Yeah, Unknown 1:24:28 good time. Unknown 1:24:29 Yeah, no, it's it's a great conference. And, you know, you get to attend to a Jensen Lang keynote, which is a fascinating event, if you've never experienced one. But there's, there's a lot of great, you know, it's a great opportunity to learn and to talk to other developers and engineers that are using these same tools, you know, and, and also, you know, to learn directly from the folks at Nvidia, you know, about the, the software frameworks that they have, and all the all the stuff that they have all the time rules that they have available. So, you know, if that's if that's an area of interest to you, you know, check it out and use that discount code for 20% off, Unknown 1:25:11 I'm surprised to hear that FCA is having last two I guess they don't follow that closely. Unknown 1:25:15 They haven't they haven't announced it. Yeah, they haven't announced any layoffs or any intention to do any last. But I you know, I strongly suspect that in the not too distant future, we will hear, you know something about, you know, them shifting, you know, trying to make adjustments in their workforce, you know, to get different skill sets. And because basically, everybody's trying to get a lot more software people in there to deal with electric vehicles, electrified vehicles, automation, and, you know, more advanced communications and infotainment systems. So, you know, that's, you know, those are tough skill sets to find. So, you know, if, if you can develop those skill sets, okay, I'll for yourself that you can buy them have a better chance of keeping your job going forward. Unknown 1:26:02 Yeah, I think it's important to note that it's not that the industry is contracting, it is changing, changing a lot. And, and the, the requirements of the jobs are changing, because the face of mobility is changing. And so it's you know, it's difficult because people with, you know, 2030 years of experience are getting like though I'm but it's, it's really a matter of just the demands of the job, that the requirements that manufacturers need to keep up with Silicon Valley to keep up with the pace of mobility changes, is really the challenge that they're facing Unknown 1:26:45 happens in every industry to a degree, anytime there's an upheaval, Unknown 1:26:51 it's a little different now, because what cars are and how they're incorporating some software in tech. And that tech is coming from other places in there. There are other approaches. I mean, Unknown 1:27:03 the Unknown 1:27:04 Silicon Valley approach is very effective in a lot of ways. But when you're talking about moving that into a, an automobile, Unknown 1:27:15 you can't necessarily be as quick and as nimble. And that was another sort of topic that we, we touched on. I know, Sam, you dug into it on Twitter a little bit why cars don't use state of the art of cutting edge electronics, and even goes all the way down to the materials that they're made of, you know, the silicon in the chips, you know, I, I very flippantly Unknown 1:27:42 in, not, not flippantly, I suppose, but I, you know, off the cuff posts, like cars are not phones, they cost $30,000, people keep them for 12 years there a power plant, they are technology and communications and a safety cage all on four wheels. So they're not phones, and that kind of like phone software thing isn't necessarily better, it's just another way to do it. And at a certain point, Unknown 1:28:10 that discipline crosses with the car discipline of, hey, this has to last from like, you know, minus 70 degrees to 150 degrees in the in the sun and work and be reliable for a decade and costs $30,000 So, Unknown 1:28:25 yeah, and have 30,000 different parts to it, Unknown 1:28:28 right. Yeah. And, and, you know, not be susceptible to things like electromagnetic interference, I mean, you know, you've got 150 in some cases, 150 separate computers in the car operating, you know, everything from your power seats to your power windows, and, you know, your, your sequential turn signals, and all kinds of other fancy stuff that that, you know, that there's, there's software and every one of those things, and, you know, that was always all these electronics in the vehicle. It's funny, I was talking to somebody reached, you know, the wiring harness for some vehicles today is so big, so heavy and so complex, that it can take eight or nine people to unpack a single wiring harness from the box and install it into the car on the assembly line. Wow, that's, that's insane. That is just absolutely nuts. Unknown 1:29:22 Well, that's why I mean, imagine what it would be without something like, can, yeah, you know, Unknown 1:29:27 but, you know, in order to make all this stuff work, and make it work reliably, over time, in these really harsh conditions, you know, you said, you know, temperatures, you know, that typically, the design specs are usually from minus 40 Fahrenheit, to 120 degrees Fahrenheit is what things are designed for, you know, but it is also humidity, you know, from desert, you know, dry to, you know, 200% humidity and rain, and, you know, Unknown 1:29:55 it's got to be sealed against against whether you got vibration, the, you know, when you hit those potholes and rumble strips, all that vibration, you know, this stuff to not fall apart. And so, you know, what typically happens is, the electronics that go into these vehicles is not, you know, the latest and greatest stuff that comes out, you know, that came out last week, you know, it's stuff that is usually by the time it gets into the vehicle, you know, it's usually at least 234 years old, you know, since the original version of it was introduced, and then it's been made automotive grade in order to withstand those kinds of conditions over the lifespan of the vehicle. And so, you know, that's, that's why, you know, you have this different kind of life cycle for this stuff, you know what, you know, why it's usually not state of the art, we, as we move into automated vehicles, that's, you know, it's going to become more advanced, you know, that we're going to be using more advanced parts, but, you know, you were talking today, you know, you know, when we get, you know, like, certainly, oh, partial automated vehicles in 2020, 2021, Unknown 1:31:03 they're using an Nvidia is Xavier chip, that's a chip that was announced in 2017, that will have been three years, you know, between the time it was announced are actually 2016, it was first announced in 2017, they first really started sampling it, you know, by the time you know, it's going to be almost four years by the time it actually gets into production vehicles, because, you know, it's got, everything's got to be tested and validated. So, you know, and by the time that card have been on the road for 10 years, now, you're talking 12, 1415 Unknown 1:31:35 years old, you know, and the, you know, it's, it's got to continue working, it can't it's not like to follow him that you throw away every two years and buy a new one. So it's, it's a, it's a very different kind of use case. Unknown 1:31:50 Yeah, Unknown 1:31:53 I have nothing else to add, just sort of my my theme for this this episode. So Unknown 1:32:01 we're at about an hour and a half. So I did, it's probably a good time to call it unless there's anything else either if you wanted to add, but I think we've done a pretty full show. Unknown 1:32:12 I agree Unknown 1:32:13 a week. All right. Yeah, Unknown 1:32:14 well, good. In the meantime, please head over to Apple podcasts. leave us a review, drop us some feedback into the review section of the pod catcher of your choice otherwise if podcast Apple podcast isn't isn't where you do it, that's the big one. If you want to get in touch with us, where it will bring is cast at gmail. com. You can of course, also comment on the post wheel bearings dot media. The Twitter handle is at wheel bearings cast the only valuable is the a and cast because we're modern like the kids. Unknown 1:32:50 But thank you for listening. And here's hoping something interesting happens before the next show Unknown 1:32:56 that All right, I'm sure it will. There's never a dull moment in this business us. Unknown 1:33:02 Thanks guys. Unknown 1:33:04 Bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai