Sam Abuelsamid 0:00 Well welcome to Episode 157 of wheel bearings. I'm Sam Abuelsamid from guidehouse insights. Rebecca Lindland 0:09 I'm Rebecca Lindland from Rebecca drives. Sam Abuelsamid 0:12 And Dan is off actually trying to make a living today so he's unavailable to join us. He's got some some projects that he's running up against the deadline on so it's just the two of us today. So Rebecca, what have you been driving Rebecca Lindland 0:26 so I have been driving the 2021 kia seltos it's kind of small, almost SUV. They market it as an SUV, but it's actually a size of vehicle that I really like. You can fit for comfortably in it five, if you're you know, running errands or going to lunch or something when we are allowed to go to lunch again with your colleagues. And you know, it has a nice ground clearance here. Nothing crazy. I just I'm really fond of this. Eyes a vehicle. I think it's practical for a lot of households. So the the key is also is that it starts at 21 990. They've got about 1100 and $20 of destination charge on it. It's interesting because the the meroni that came with my media car didn't match my experience and it started from the very beginning when I couldn't get the door open with the supposedly standard keyless entry. So this car didn't have keyless entry. It didn't have push button start it didn't have automatic air. And it's funny because I get so used to those things and I think we get so used to those things that we're very, very spoiled. But I will say four and I guess I applied this mostly to women. But you know when we I dropped my key in my handbag and I don't even think about it, but you No, I do. I mean, my own car, Coco doesn't have keyless entry. And I will say from a safety standpoint, like when I got home late from airports or walking to my car, it is important, I think, particularly for women that you do invest in keyless entry. When you're shopping for a car, whether it's used or new, it doesn't matter. The idea that you're not fumbling for your car keys as you're walking up to a car, really, in any situation, I think is important. And I think that that's one thing that, you know, a lot of people you know, as we've talked about before, cars are 1011 years old. You may not realize, you know, if you've never had keyless entry, you don't realize how convenient it can be. But for me, it was also a safety issue of not being distracted when you're walking up to your car, you know, being able to just go up, get in and lock the doors right away. There's just that feeling of you know, it's it's one less thing to distract you from Getting into your car safely. So I will tell you know, and particularly women out there that I would look at keyless entry as something that is, I would consider essential in when you're shopping for a new or gently used car. And the other thing that I'm very, very spoiled because I love auto air, and it's it seems to be still misunderstood. So auto air is, you know, you can just set it and forget it. And I love that so my preferred temperature is 70 degrees. And I know the good systems don't blast you with with super hot air in the summer and freezing cold air in the winter. It will warm up in a separate location within the engine and then feed start feeding more appropriately temperature to air into your cabin. But I like the fact that you can just set it forget it and it's one less thing to worry about. So again, not having it was was something that I had to kind of fumble with it and get used to it. This didn't even have the temperature dial. I mean, it only had a dial it didn't have the actual specific temperature. Sam Abuelsamid 4:08 So blue to red. Rebecca Lindland 4:10 Yeah, exactly. from blue to red. Right. So it was really old school, which you can was good for me, you know, to experience. It did have a lot of safety features on it. It did have, you know, the blind spot Collision Warning, rear cross traffic alert, things like that. So there were, you know, was kind of a hodgepodge of things that it did have, you know, in terms of new technology, overall, the driving experience was excellent. I actually had to go down to JFK to pick up my sister, which was a good 45 miles from my house, so I got some good driving in with it. road noise was pretty minimal. You know, cabin comfort was nice. It doesn't have you have to either use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. And then that work to Android Auto worked pretty well for me, so I didn't have any issues. We Sam Abuelsamid 5:00 also have the standard on dickeya interface on the screen as well. Like just, you know, just for radio, I mean, no Now, obviously, but right, Rebecca Lindland 5:09 it just had the radio just a black and white screen with the radio on it. Okay. Yes. And voice control works pretty well, too, once I had, you know, Android Auto activated and, and even without it, I was able to change the radio station and, and things like that. So, you know, again, it's funny to not have a map that even shows, you know, something like that, but it was overall, you know, the infotainment system was was totally adequate for the job. And again, the Android Auto worked really, really well and pretty seamlessly, and I would assume that Apple CarPlay would would do the same. I you know, it was comfortable. I mean, this thing is, you know, again, $22,000. It's for that price. I think it was really, really competitive within the segment. I do think You know, the the sticker that I had the the, what's supposed to be the S turbo, you're starting to get into that 2627 28 range. And I always just go to the fact of like, Okay, what else can you get for that price? And you know, I think about things like the, the Hyundai venue that I really, really liked a lot. And I think these are very, very similar to it. So, you know, shop both of those vehicles, when you go and look at these things, because I do think that, you know, there's a lot as you start to get into that 2728 29 price range, you can get a lot of different things. Sam Abuelsamid 6:41 Yeah, I was just looking at the specs. And you know, when we first saw the seltos I think it was at the LA Auto Show, where they unveiled it last November, which seems like a million years ago now, but you know, at the time, I looked at it, and, you know, my assumption was that you know that because This was, you know, priced, you know, relatively low, you know, 21,000, I think was, you know, the base price. That, and and talking to James Bell from Kenya, you know that this was based on, you know that this was key is a variant of the venue. Right. But in fact, this is actually really a size class up from the venue, it's quite a bit larger. Yeah, you Rebecca Lindland 7:22 know, it is quite a bit larger, because I did feel that go ahead. Sorry. Sam Abuelsamid 7:25 Yeah, you know, just I just pulled up comparing the specs, this this thing is almost 13 inches longer than a venue. So it's a, it's a more than a longer venue. And the wheelbase is like four inches longer than the venue. So it's, it's a quite a bit larger vehicle. And, you know, so it, it makes sense is obviously going to be a little more expensive than in the venue. And you know, the venue doesn't offer things like a turbocharged engine option, you know, you only have one power train option in the venue, right. burnings kept fairly simple. Rebecca Lindland 7:58 It is, I mean, And I definitely did feel like this was a little bit larger vehicle than the venue because a neighbor down the street that and I drive by their their driveway which is pretty close to the road and I can stay have a one of those cool like kind of China gray colored venues there. And so I would sort of look at it and and and compare and I think the venue sits lower also, the ground clearance on the seltos is seven just over seven inches. And you can definitely see that also, you know, again, I think it's it's a good it's a good solid vehicle. I'd love to drive one with all of the accoutrements and kind of get that the full full luxury, quote, luxury of you know, the full option fully optioned out experience in it. But you know, again, like once I was in it, and once I had the temperature, right. It was it was a good experience overall, I think it's definitely a vehicle deserves to be test driven deserves to, you know, be in that comparison shopping when you go. I also just, you know, key is just doing a lot of things really, really well and like Hyundai as well. And so I think, you know, it's it's just a good it's a good product overall was solidly built, no rattles you know, all those switches and the buttons and everything were intuitive and the cloth the you know, the cloth seats were really nice. I mean, again, it's, it was sort of this weird, you know, car that you can't buy, but from a spec standpoint, but from a overall driving experience. Oh, the other thing it didn't have was power seats. It was just, it was just sort of funny to be in a car like that, but it was a good experience. So overall, Sam Abuelsamid 9:49 I liked it. Well, that's great. You know, going back to what you're talking about with the keyless entry. You know, fortunately, you know, almost all new vehicles have Now, you know, except for, you know, in some cases, the base models have some lower cost vehicles. But, you know, the vast majority even even things like the Kia Rio, you know, except for the base trim level, you know, you've got keyless entry available. And, you know, the specs for the seltos indicate that it should be standard on there. So, I think, you know, most likely, you know, this particular situation, a lot of times the, the cars that are in the press fleet are pre production vehicles that are shipped over, and they're not necessarily exactly the right spec of what's going to go on sale. And so that's probably the case here. You know, I'm surprised that you know, that they shipped over a car, you know, I mean, this is probably a car that was built, you know, maybe for another market, you know, but that they shipped over one that didn't have some of those features, but you're I agree with what you're saying, you know, the rationale for having keyless entry. You know, it is, it is more than just a convenience feature. You know, in some cases, it's actually can actually be a real value. Safety Features well, Unknown Speaker 11:02 right and that's one thing also Rebecca Lindland 11:05 that I want to emphasize to our listeners is that when you are shopping, some of these things seem like like almost like overkill like oh why why would I need that? But you really on those test drives, you've got to prep, try out some of these features. Try out like rear cross traffic alert. I've spoken about this before. When you are in a parking lot, especially with SUVs, everyone has SUVs. Now, when you're trying to back out having that rear cross traffic alert, having that pedestrian alert, things like that, that rear camera, that and those sensors that are picking up things that you can't see on that test drive. You know, it's funny because you always do they have an assigned route and you chose to do this that and they know I am all about take it in situation. That you have that you experience if you have to parallel park regularly parallel park that car when you're on a test drive, because I'll tell you one of the things that again, like you know, somebody who sits sits closer like the a pillar, the width of the a pillar is really important to me. And there's been times when visibility has been pretty compromised. If you drive that car on your regular route and do the things that you do in that car, it's worth spending the extra time you're investing, you know, 10s of thousands of dollars in this thing. Whether it's newer use, it doesn't matter. It's drive it in your experience the way that you live it. Sam Abuelsamid 12:38 Yeah, no, I totally agree. And, you know, that's what we try to do every week with the cars that we're driving is, you know, use it the way the way normal people would, you know, obviously, we don't have access to test tracks. We don't go out and do instrumented testing with vehicles, you know, the way you know, current driver or Motor Trend would do. But, you know, we're just trying to experience And set to the degree that we can, you know, the way an average consumer would, and, you know, give that kind of feedback, you know, hopefully, you know, provide something useful to the listeners. Unknown Speaker 13:11 Right, Sam Abuelsamid 13:12 exactly. So, you know, what would you What would you take this over the venue or you know, or even, you know, like the Kia Sportage or, you know, other options, you know, so this is really, you know, based on the size of this vehicle, it's really more in the compact rather than kind of in between compact and subcompact in terms of size. It's 172 inches long, so it's a little bit smaller than, you know, a CRV or escape or rav4 Unknown Speaker 13:43 Yeah, so I Rebecca Lindland 13:48 I think it depends on your household and and your budget. I think that you know, when I think about vehicles, like the Buick Encore gx, which was a four or five 6000 dollars more than the top of the line seltos. But man, that thing was super, super nice. I think that you know, it depends on your budget. If you are maxed out at 25,000, then I think this is a good option. And also think keep in mind too, you know, what's in that price range? What can you get on the used car market, you know, versus the new car market. So, I think that it's still it's definitely worth a test drive. And but it's also worth trying other you know, other size vehicles I liked this size, I don't you know, I was trying to buy the fuel economy is rated at 25 up to 30 with 27. And so, you know, one of the competitors that comes up to is the Subaru Crosstrek which I think is a really, really good vehicle as well. So, you know, so they're listing the Hyundai Kona as the competitor Which I think I had the Kona last year, rather than the venue. I, so yeah, I mean, I think it's, again, I like the styling of it a lot. Also. So, you know, there's, as we've talked about before, there's not a lot of bad cars out there. I think that I would definitely look at the cross track for sure. I wasn't crazy about the Honda HRV. I haven't had it for about a year and a half, probably two years now. But I remember it being fairly tinny. And not, you know, there's Honda's always tend to, I should say, they often will have a pretty loud road noise. And that was not the case that I felt with the with the Kia seltos. The other thing too, that you mentioned, is the infotainment system. You have to see which infotainment system is is easy for you is economically friendly for you. is intuitive makes sense. You're not fighting with it all the time. You know So, again, these are kind of some of the things that I would look at when you're when you're testing the seltos against things like the Kona, the cross jack and the HRV. Sam Abuelsamid 16:12 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. When you're going to do a test drive, you know, you probably gonna have your phone with you but you know take a USB cable with you and you know, plug in your phone and see what it's like to actually pair it go through that whole process. You know, see what it's like to use you know, the, your your phone with that vehicle. You know what that what that experience is like? Rebecca Lindland 16:33 Exactly. I mean, the Sportage is quite is larger than this and gives you more than sgb feeling. You know, in my mind, but, ya know, you've got to test these things with your phone with your lifestyle, what is it to load and unload. You know, I liked the fact that with that only seven inch ground clearance, you can get heavy items into the back easier. All that kind of stuff just plays into Whether you're going to be happy this, these sort of emotional solutions, as I've called them, you know, how is it to live with it? Sam Abuelsamid 17:07 Yeah, you're right. The Sportage is about four and a half inches longer than this one. So, you know, it's kind of, it's kind of this step. As you go, you know, the, the, the venue is 159 inches long, the conas 164, then the seltos is 172 and 176 and a half Sportage. So it's kind of, you know, there's somewhere in there. There's one that's going to fit your your lifestyle. Unknown Speaker 17:30 It's a Goldilocks thing. Yep. All right, Rebecca Lindland 17:35 you were in a much fancier vehicle Sam Abuelsamid 17:37 than I was a little bit fancier, a little bit more expensive, driven this one as well, but it had a turbocharged four cylinder engine, it was a compact crossover. So you know same thing right. Now I had the the the BMW X three x drive 30 e, you know, yet another example of BMW is cumbersome naming strategy. So This is the latest, that's the plug in hybrid variant of the x three. Unfortunately, BMW has opted not to offer the new ix three, which is their full battery electric version in the US, for the time being, I think most likely because they probably took a look at, you know, Audi and Jaguar and realize that the ix three is probably not going to have enough range to really be competitive at the price point. And so they're like waiting, wait until the next generation are actually waiting till the next you know, which is a dedicated Eevee rather than conversion comes out next year. Right But the, the 30 e is the plug in hybrid version. So like most of BMWs other plug in hybrids, it uses their their two liter turbo four cylinder and it's, there's an electric motor sandwiched between the engine and the transmission, eight speed automatic transmission in this case, it's a wheel drive as well. And it has a range all electric driving range, officially rated at 18 miles. I went and you know, went for a drive, you know, had it fully charged up, drove around through variety of conditions, you know, you know, urban suburban highway conditions, I actually got 23 miles of range out of it before the engine came on and stayed on in regular hybrid mode. Rebecca Lindland 19:26 Wow, that's awesome. I don't think I got that. I think I got maybe one. I did get more than 18 though, but yeah, so that's that's really really good. Sam Abuelsamid 19:37 Yeah, it is, you know, which, you know, nothing, nothing wrong with that. And the x three is a nice vehicle. It's got a really nice interior drives. Well, you know, this is basically you know, think of it you know, like an elevated three series hatchback, you know, wagon. So, you know, it's not, I wouldn't, I wouldn't really call it a full blown SUV but you know, Now there's bmw, bmw, these are sport activity vehicles, they don't make sport utility vehicles. But you know, there's plenty plenty of cargo space in the back, you know, we took it to go to the lake on a Saturday morning and you know, had had the inflatable paddle board and a couple of beach chairs and assorted other detritus in the back and, and then Daisy and our daughter Sophie in the backseat. So there was plenty of plenty of room inside it's comfortable to drive. And, as I said, gets, you know, really good fuel efficiency, even when you get into hybrid mode. After the battery's been depleted, you're still getting you know, 35 to 40 miles per gallon, which I think is really good for a vehicle this type. It's got plenty of performance 282 horsepower, combined from the engine and the electric motor. And even when you're in electric drive mode, there's there's plenty of performance, you know, as long as you're not you know, shotgunning it You know, you've got different drive modes to choose from, there's an eco mode, there's comfort mode, sport mode, in, you know, Comfort mode or Eco mode, you know, you can accelerate it at reasonable speeds, you know, so you're not sitting there trying to feather the accelerator, you know, it, it will actually, it shows you on the gauge, you know, the limit of Where, where, if you go beyond this, it's going to turn on the engine, and it'll actually try to, you know, as long as you're not really getting hard onto the accelerator, it will basically try to keep it near right near that limit and keep it in electric mode. And, you know, so that's, that's nice. Yeah. So you can, it's really easy to drive around electrically. So the, you know, the reality is, most people can do most of their driving. Now, most of their, you know, they're driving around, you know, if you if schools were open and you could actually take your kids to school and drop them off and pick them up and do your shopping you You could do all that sort of thing without using any gas and this thing the the one that I had had the M Sport package on it and and assorted other options, you know. So the, the base price is starts at like $48,000. So it's, you know, it's not inexpensive. It's fairly pricey, but you know, it's for BMW, it's actually not totally unreasonable. I am this week driving another BMW that we'll talk about next time. That is not as nice as this and cost $50,000. So, we'll come back to that one next time. The the one that I had, it didn't come with him and Ronnie but building one as close as I could on the BMW website. It came to just about $60,000 delivered. So you know, it's a fairly pricey vehicle but you know, it's a BMW so you get what you get, you know, so nice interior, really nice seats, the M Sport Package, you know, it comes with nice sport seats and Including adjustable thigh support. So all that sort of stuff, all the all the Driver Assist systems. So you got adaptive cruise control and Lane Keeping Assist, and actually lane centering. So it's good. You know, I was I was impressed with it, I liked driving it. And I generally I've always liked driving BMWs plug in hybrids ever since, like probably about three years ago that I first drove the the seven series plug in hybrid with basically the same power train in it. And, you know, it's it's really smooth and seamless and quiet. You know, when it does transition from electric mode to hybrid mode, the engine starts up, you don't feel it at all. I mean it is it's really just transitions. The only thing is you'll, if you listen carefully, you'll hear the engine Come on, but you won't feel anything at all. So it's great in that respect. You know, if you're wanting to go At least partially electric, but you're not quite ready to make the jump to a full battery electric vehicle. And you want something premium, you know, I mean, there are obviously other options, you know, at lower price points. But if you want something, you know that feels premium and gives you that ability to do a lot of your driving electrically. This is definitely one worthy of consideration. Rebecca Lindland 24:23 Yeah, I've really liked it. It sounds like we had a very, very similar experience and a similar vehicle because looking at mine, mine did have a sticker with it. It started at 49 545. And that includes the 995 destination and then as tested was 60,005 45. So I think it's very, very similar. Sam Abuelsamid 24:42 back now, Rebecca Lindland 24:43 right? I got 34.7 miles per gallon. And that was including 65 miles of driving an Eevee mode only. And you know, just I had a really, really good experience. I talked about it a couple of episodes ago, but I think you're right I think that it's a good option of that if you want a plug in electric without going full battery electric, I think this is a really good small family car. You know, there there was it was it was quite roomy, very, very comfortable. I've had BMW for a long time. So for me it was it was compared to putting on my favorite slippers, because I just got it and I was like, oh, Sam Abuelsamid 25:26 three before I Rebecca Lindland 25:27 die two threes, and then I moved to the x five, which was way too big for me. But yeah, so And it's funny because that was 10 years ago now that I had, I think my x five was a 2011. And it's funny because now you know, to your first point of their naming convention, they have X 234567. Like I definitely could have found one in the middle I probably would have gotten an x four and still been in the brand because I ended up getting rid of the x five because it was just too big. But you know, I do think That this is a great a great vehicle for if you've got the type of lifestyle that you're doing a lot of intown errands, you know, or like even the new lifestyle of working from home, and just needing to get out every once in a while, you can do an awful lot of that in Eevee mode, I you know, I I am looking at getting a high speed charger installed in the house because the trickle charging was painful 14 hours, you know, to get about 20 miles. So you know, again, it doesn't matter if it's just sitting there, whatever, it doesn't matter that now I did just lose power for five days in the tropical storm that we had this week. So obviously that would be sub up. And that's again to your point. Sam Abuelsamid 26:46 That's one advantage of a plug in hybrid. Exactly. Rebecca Lindland 26:49 To your point of you know, that's why having that dual fuel option is really, really good because you're not going to get an agenda You know so I think that there I like this idea I like that combination of being able to have Eevee mode when you want it and and when you can use it and then just gasoline so I like this car a lot. Yeah. Oh, you know, the other thing too I felt a couple points that I made earlier I think I love the infotainment system and the heads up display in this. It was really, really good. I think that gesture control is a total waste of money to reinforce that. Sam Abuelsamid 27:30 I would definitely agree with that. It's Unknown Speaker 27:32 it's a total gimmick. I mean, really, I just end up doing it Sam Abuelsamid 27:36 with my finger. Yeah, when I'm pulling my finger around two inches away from the knob to just I could just twist that knob with more far more precision. Yeah. I'm I'm curious to see when BMW finally gives up on the job. Rebecca Lindland 27:51 Right? Yeah, move on. Sam Abuelsamid 27:54 All right. So let's let's get into some of the the news of the past week. We had a little analysis from Ford last week. You want to talk about that. Unknown Speaker 28:04 Oh, was that mean Jim? What's Jim? Sam Abuelsamid 28:08 Jim? Jim. Rebecca Lindland 28:09 Yeah. Jim and Jim. So yeah, so Ford is transitioning from the Jim Hackett three ish year era to the Jim Farley era, which I think I think that will be a really interesting transition for them. You know, Keith notton from Bloomberg. I, he he tweeted out something like this is his eighth, Ford's covering his eighth Ford CEO. And one of the things that I feel like, needs to be conveyed. You know, Jim Farley has been there for 13 years. And I think he's, I think he's, he's the obvious transition after Heinrichs was unceremoniously released. But I think Jim, really, I would love to see him convey that Why is he the right person? What is he going to be doing? How is he going to be doing it differently or motivating the culture of Ford and motivating the stock price? Frankly, I think that that is one of his biggest tasks is to show Wall Street, why he's the right guy and why it's going to be different this time. And, you know, Mark Fields was let go because one of the reasons was the stock price was abysmal. And under Hackett, the stock price fell even more. And Sam Abuelsamid 29:34 there were there were a lot of other reasons why Mark Fields, Rebecca Lindland 29:37 I realized there was internal reasons why Mark Fields was let go. There's external reasons of the stock price, but you know, the external measure of that is the stock price. And so I think, you know, conveying to Wall Street and the industry is something the message of what the Farley years are going to look like. Think is really critical. Sam Abuelsamid 30:01 Yeah. And, you know, I, I have, I've developed a lot of respect for Jim Hackett over the last couple of years, you know, watching closely, you know what Ford's been doing. And, you know, there's things that I've seen that I'm not at liberty to talk about. But, you know, I think that he has put them on the right path. You know, to, you know, to his credit, I think he's done a lot of good for Ford over the last three years. But, you know, his, his personality, and, you know, he's, let's just say he's not the most dynamic person out there right now. I think, I think he's the kind of person that with the people that he works with directly internally. I think he's good at giving them you know, the direction and the vision and, you know, getting them you know, to do their do their jobs, doing what they need to do to succeed. But I think he's, he's not the kind of out there person that's going to inspire you know, investing And, and especially retail investors, you know, he's clearly no Elon Musk, right? Thankfully there, there is no one else like that. But, you know, I think Jim Farley, you know, is you and I, you know, we've seen him speak many times, you know, publicly, we've spoken to her privately, as well. And he is, I think, I think he's the kind of person who can definitely put a face on Ford, that will be more inspiring to outsiders, you know, he, he's able to articulate the story of what he wants to do and, and, you know, what, why are they doing what they're doing? Right, um, more so, you know, so I think it's, I think he's probably a better communicator, especially an external communicator than Hackett. And you know, from what I've seen, you know, he and Hackett were very much on the same page as far as the direction they went. wanted to take the company. So I don't expect to see any notable changes in the direction for Ford over the next several years. But just, you know, maybe more, maybe a better job of articulating what that vision is. And I think a big part of that is going to come with, you know, seeing the products that are going to be coming out over the next 12 to 24 months. Right? You know, because ultimately, that's what it comes down to is, what is the company actually selling brand, if they can, if they can execute on the product plan, and get vehicles like the new f150, the Maki, the Bronco, and other stuff that's yet to get to be shown on on sale, get them built correctly, avoid the kind of fiasco they had with the Explorer last year, then I think that that will really inspire a lot more content Confidence in Ford, and then you know, going forward, you know, as they move into more into the mobility realm and get, you know, get their automated driving program commercialized, getting more of the electric vehicles, especially the electric f150. And the transit. I think those two, you know, I mean, those are the electric f 150. And the transit are not the sexy products. I mean, that's, that's the Maki. But I think from a, from a business standpoint, there, I think those are actually far more important to Ford than the Maki will be, you know, both in terms of volume, but also in terms of the kinds of customers that are going to buy those that want those and need that type of vehicle. And, you know, taught me when I interviewed Jim Farley last fall, and I'll put a link to that, to that recording in the show notes. Yeah, one of the things he talked about quite a bit there, you know, was Ford's strengthen Commercial Vehicles, you know, they understand the commercial vehicle market, and from a business perspective and people look it forward and they get excited by Mustang. But, you know, it's selling super duties and F 150s and transits to commercial customers. That's what makes the money. That's Rebecca Lindland 34:17 right. That's what makes the most out of mine. Right? Yeah, exactly. Sam Abuelsamid 34:20 That's what makes the Mustang possible. Yeah, for sure. And so I think, you know, when, when they get those vehicles into the marketplace, I think it'll show that, you know, Ford can really produce, you know, electric vehicles that also play to their strength. Yeah, right. In the commercial sector. Rebecca Lindland 34:39 Yeah, no, I think so, too. And, you know, I think that Jim is authentic. I think he's believable. I, you know, and not to say that Hackett isn't but as you said, He's, he's a very, very different type of personality. And I think that, you know, I like Jim's global background as well, he's had experience overseas. And I agree, I think that he's been behind the scenes, pushing a lot of what they've been doing on that product side. And, you know, sitting down with him, he is believable. He's likable, he's responsive. And, you know, I'd love to see him, you know, in meetings, you know, with a lot of, you know, small group meetings and such, you know, with people, I think the dealers are like him as well. And that's important, and I think they can get excited. It's funny, because when I realized he was 58, he looks like he's 40. I mean, he looks like he's exactly the same as he's, as he was when he joined the company, which is impressive. From it from all the stress that he's, you know, that they all have, but, you know, I think that he's, he's a little bit of like a kid in a candy store. And that's can be a very appealing trait to be able to Convey the passion and excitement and authenticity that is necessary I to execute on plans like they do have. I totally agree, I think from a product standpoint, and they've done a lot of good things and also from Lincoln, of course has been revitalized as well. And while Kumar go ultra was one of the key operators of that, and he's been promoted as well. I do think that that is, again, part of that whole realm of senior leadership within Ford understanding who's in the marketplace, and what it takes to buy. So it was it was speaking of Lincoln, last week, I think it was last Friday. We had a little small group session with Matthew McConaughey. And I have to say, so it was for national relaxation day or something stupid like that. And Sam Abuelsamid 36:59 Well, there's anybody that's gonna relax. Rebecca Lindland 37:04 Right? But you know, he didn't unfortunately we didn't get to speak directly with him by he was he he was also very, very authentic. And one of the things that I really related to was he talked about his 88 year old mother, and she's in you know, she doesn't she didn't live with them but he said in March we went and got her and brought us brought her home to, you know, to live with us to go through COVID together, and you know, and to get through this pandemic, and that was something that I very much related to, because I'm dealing with the same your mom mom is 86 and she's living with my sister and, and but it was one of the first things that he talked about and and what his family is going through and stuff and it was just, it was very, very real and very relatable and very down to earth and he was incredibly encouraging to there was another woman that was on that was a Behavioral cycle psychologist, specialist and she lives by herself and, you know was talking about kind of trying to keep her spirits up and stuff and, and he was so encouraging and it was it was a really, you know, again like those stupid commercials that I don't think do him justice I think that his I think his personality and he came out more authentic and there's commercials I think you always have to kind of take them a little tongue in cheek when I first got to Kelley Blue Book back in 2015 we started doing something called the Matthew meter to see how the response was and who was who was actually shopping the Lincoln site and I will tell you that there was a measurable difference in terms of of income and education level of who was shopping the link and brand after the after the commercial started airing. So I think he's been really good for the brand as well, but it was definitely very interesting and I'm really I really I grew to have a more of an appreciation for him as an actor. I think he's amazing. He does. He's just done incredible things. But as a person, I think that I it was it was cool to see him on for, you know, the hour and change that we had with him. That's good. Sam Abuelsamid 39:14 Yeah, it was like so. So let's stick with Detroit for the next one. The Cadillac lyric finally got its public reveal last Thursday night. It was originally supposed to be shown back in April, we were supposed to go to LA to see it. We saw it in March at the GM design done. That was the last time any of us saw each other in person. Exactly. And, you know, then they they obviously cancelled that and they did an online reveal on Thursday. What do you you know, now that the world has seen the lyric, you know, what are your thoughts? Rebecca Lindland 39:49 So Frankly, I didn't have power yet. And I have not backtracked to to watching the reveal itself. But you know my thoughts on it. I think that it's it's in that type of vehicle is the right type of vehicle for an Eevee market, I think it needs to be luxurious. I think it needs to be nice, you know, it needs. It's kind of that stunning, a smooth, elegant SUV that I think is appropriate for an EB market. So I wasn't, you know, I think it was a little bit funky looking back in March, which does seem like a lifetime ago. But, you know, I think that this is the type of product that could move people to Cadillac if they believe that Cadillac can produce the same kind of technology that Tesla does, because that's really who they're competing with. Sam Abuelsamid 40:45 Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, Tesla is their, that's their target with this vehicle. You know, and it's, I think, I love the design. You know, I think what they've done what the design of this You know, taking, you know, going to the next generation of Cadillac design, you know, it's it's got some echoes of you know where we are today with their their current generation of design language, but it's something that is even more contemporary and you know sets their the electric Cadillacs apart from the what they have today. Yeah, very much so. And the interior is just fabulous on this thing. You know, that 33 inch display panel and one one solid display all the way across. Unknown Speaker 41:33 It reminds me of the Porsche icon. Sam Abuelsamid 41:36 Yeah, except the icons actually several separate Unknown Speaker 41:39 races. Sam Abuelsamid 41:40 Right. This is all one just one one seamless display all the way across from from the a pillar all the way across the across the center stack. And, you know, I think, you know, the design is great. You know, I was at a luncheon Cadillac launching back in December. with Steve Carlisle and and others from from Cadillac, and he talked at the time about what they were planning to do with, you know, with their electric vehicles and one of the things that Carlisle said at the time Steve Carlisle's the president of Cadillac. He said that, you know, 300 miles is table stakes for print. Absolutely. Yeah. You absolutely cannot go out with less than 300 miles and they were better targeting, you know, having 400 miles available. Yeah, that's impressive. They read they reiterated last week, you know that they will have over 300 miles on all variants of the lyric going forward. That's that's not that's not an issue. So I'm not concerned about range. They didn't get into any specific specs on this. The one disappointment that I have is the timing. Unknown Speaker 42:57 I know Unknown Speaker 43:00 I just I feel so Unknown Speaker 43:04 I feel like Rebecca Lindland 43:07 I wait. I mean, they're they're definitely late to this party, but I would rather have them late and good or ideally perfect, then toss something out that isn't ideal and isn't perfect. And that and that. I mean doing 2022 late 2020 too late. Well, that's Yeah, I mean, yes, a year to 18 months earlier. It would be great. But it's not. And Unknown Speaker 43:44 it is what it is. Sam Abuelsamid 43:45 Yeah. You know, I mean, back in late in the fall of 2017, GM held an event where they announced that they were going to do 20 ATVs by 2023. And so far, at least here in North America, they've added Zero EBS to their lineup. And that's almost three years ago now. Yeah, so it's it seems pretty clear. You know, the first one is coming is the the Hummer, which is going to be next fall, you know, Fall of next year. Yeah. So it seems pretty clear that at the time that they made that announcement that they really hadn't started work on any of these vehicles. I mean, obviously, they were working on the technology that worked on the batteries, the power electronics, the motors, but they hadn't actually started work on any of those 20 vehicles, because they showed an image, you know, of 20 vehicles with silks on them, but didn't actually show any of those vehicles at the time. So obviously, they hadn't, you know, they had nothing. Rebecca Lindland 44:42 So it's a bold move. It's a bold statement to make when you don't Sam Abuelsamid 44:46 have much well, and even even the lyric, you know, they showed the made the original announcement and showed a rendering of it in January of 2019. A year and a half more than a year and a half ago, when they unveiled the XT six you As it during the process of that, that event, you know Carlyle put up this, this render the sketch on on the screen, you know saying this is going to be our first electric Cadillac, and you didn't give any indication of timing except that it would be, you know, that they had at that point they were going through a cadence of, you know, a new new product every six months. And he said, you know, after that, that current product cadence is done, then we'll be introducing this, you know, so they, you know, we were kind of expecting, okay, you know, sometime, you know, like 2021, maybe, you know, but it's going to be a full year beyond that. So, that's, that's the only unfortunately, but, you know, to what you said, you know, even in 2022 this is this market for EBS is still going to be a very small market. I mean, we're probably looking at no more than three or 4% of the market. Rebecca Lindland 45:51 And that's like tripling it. Yeah. Like 1%, right. Sam Abuelsamid 45:57 So, you know, it's good. It's you know, it's not like they're, you know, going to be coming into a huge market at that point. It's, you know, still going to be a tiny market. But it would be nice if you know, with all the GM has said about, you know, wanting to be a leader in EBS wanting to go all electric, you know, if they were able to bring something out a little bit sooner than that. Yeah. But Rebecca Lindland 46:22 no, when they and I, I will be the first one to admit that I should know this, but I'm going to ask you anyway, when they talk about all electric, to our earlier conversation about pH, D, Bs and the convenience of dual fuel or dual power, what are they really talking about here? Sam Abuelsamid 46:40 They meet all electric Mark. Mark Royce has made it very clear in multiple Rebecca Lindland 46:45 that's what I was afraid of. I was I was I was a Sam Abuelsamid 46:49 GM is done with hybrids. They're not doing any more hybrids. And they've discontinued all the hybrids they had. They so that's Rebecca Lindland 46:55 what I was, I was afraid that I was. I was hoping that I was Miss reading these things. Nobody wasn't. Sam Abuelsamid 47:01 So there is not going to be a plug in hybrid Corvette to anybody that was wondering about that. There's not going to be any other hybrid or plug in hybrid vehicle from GM. You know, they discontinued the volt. They dropped the Malibu hybrid. they discontinued the Cadillac CT six plug in hybrid that was sold here, you know, that they sold a few hundred of, I think, you know, they still have a couple of plug in hybrids in China. But even those are ultimately going to be replaced with battery electric vehicles. So he said they're not doing any more hybrids going forward. It's, it's all battery electric. That's it. Unknown Speaker 47:40 And what is the logic there? Sam Abuelsamid 47:44 You know, there. Obviously, there are additional costs with doing a plug in hybrid. It's, you know, overall, it's not as efficient as a battery electric vehicle. You know, you're carrying around an internal combustion powertrain and electric power. Train, you know, so it's it's a compromised thing. And they've decided to, you know, make the investment and you know, they they think they feel they got they got far enough along in battery development that they felt that they could they can get their battery costs down to a point where it's cost competitive and there's no point in doing a hybrid or plug in hybrid anymore. They're just gonna go all in on the on the batteries. Rebecca Lindland 48:30 The thing is so for me, it's the battery technology is absolutely critical, but the charging speed is is the other part of that I mean that is the fork to the knife in this situation in my mind. You know, the only reason that range and range anxiety is a thing is because of charging time and access to stations. We all Should have gas range anxiety, because you run out at 300 miles, let's say, but we don't because it's familiar and gas stations are convenient and Sam Abuelsamid 49:11 68,000 gas stations in the United States right now. Rebecca Lindland 49:14 Exactly. And so the idea that, you know that the battery technology, it's also about that recharging technology, the refueling aspect of it is just as critical to the success. I've said before, and I will say it again, we have, we have to do a better job of conveying to the consumer, why an Eevee is is a better solution to their mobility than a gas powered vehicle is. And right now it doesn't look like it's more convenient to the consumer. It doesn't appear to be more convenient, it's not more convenient. And it's not better from the from the values that people have. You know, when you think about something like the iPhone, or an iPad or, or you know, even a laptop, and I realized it's not 100%, apples to apples, but no pun intended. Unknown Speaker 50:13 That was a good one. Rebecca Lindland 50:15 But my point is that people were willing to adopt the technology of Apple because it was better. It wasn't technology they asked for, like Steve Jobs said, but it was better. It was perceived to be better, even if the reality wasn't there. And so I think we as an industry need to do a really good job of conveying to people why Evie V's are better, and and that's why they should buy them. It's not just about the environment, because people don't care enough. Sam Abuelsamid 50:45 Right. And, you know, to their credit, you know, automakers are starting to invest more in the charging side of it. This is something Yes, as we saw, aside from Tesla, you know, they, until fairly recently, they've been reluctant To invest in the infrastructure side of it. Rebecca Lindland 51:02 Well, they don't invest in gas stations. Right? Well, Sam Abuelsamid 51:04 exactly. Yeah. You know, they never owned the liquid fuel infrastructure. And I felt that they didn't need to invest in the electric charging infrastructure. Right now they're seeing, you know, especially as they start to reach the point where, you know, they're no longer going to have the incentives, you know, tax incentives to get people to buy them, they have to find the other reasons to, you know, to convince consumers to buy these vehicles. And, you know, so you know, GM made their announcement with Evie go, that, you know, they're going to put in a bunch of DC fast charging stations in urban and suburban areas, and locate them at places like grocery stores, you know, places where people are going anyway. Right? You know, in order to accommodate those people that can't charge at home. You know, and make it fast enough to charge so that you know, you can you can do your driving you go in you do something you're going to do anyway you You don't have to go out of your way. That's the key is not having to go out of your way and not sitting there your car for an hour waiting for it to charge. You know, you go, you go go to the grocery store, you plug in the car, you go in, do your shopping for the week, and you come out 20 or 30 minutes later, and your car's charged up. Right and and then you drive home, you know, so even if you don't have access to charging at home, you you're not going around looking for a charging station. It's there where where you want to be, right. So, you know, those are the kinds of things and then you know, in the case of what Ford's doing with fordpass you know, aggregating multiple charging networks, you know, to again, trying to make it as seamless and reducing the friction and the ownership experience. So, you know, these are the kinds of things they need to do and just need more of it. Yes, I agree. Completely. Yeah. All right. Next up, something not electric. Rebecca Lindland 52:56 Oh, should we stay on electric though and talk about Hyundai. Sam Abuelsamid 52:58 Okay, let's let's do that. Let's Let's stay Unknown Speaker 53:01 seamless, Sam Abuelsamid 53:03 though. Hyundai. We're recording this on Monday morning. Hyundai made put out a press release last night that they are creating a new brand called ionic. And details on this are a little bit sketchy at the moment. Back, let me just check and see if Oops, sorry about that. Just want to see if I got an email response back from Hyundai on a question I had, and I had not seen anything yet. So what they announced was, you know, currently there's a car called the Hyundai ionic, which they launched a few years ago, which is a compact hatchback. It's on the same platform as the Kia Niro. And, you know, it's designed to be electrified across the board, not electric electrified. So there's three variants of the ionic there's a hybrid, a plug in hybrid and a battery electric version. The battery electric version currently gets 170 miles of range. Unfortunately for you know, for Hyundai, you know, it's a car and a form factor, you know, compact hatchback, you know, kind of similar shape but you know, a lot less weird looking than a Prius. That is out of fashion today. And you know, it's sad okay, but it hasn't been a huge seller. But you know, that's been their, their brand for electrified vehicles. Now Hyundai is going to have a distinct brand. And what's not clear is when they say distinct brand, is this going to be a standalone brand like Genesis, or Pollstar, for Volvo? That is electric only. And this is what I onic is going to be it's going to be electric cars going forward like electric vehicles, cars and crossovers, or is this going to be a sub brand, you know, so are they going to have are they going to be called Hyundai's? Or are they just going to be called ionics? And ionic five ionic six out of seven, or are they going to be Hyundai iyonix you know where, you know, it's more like Volkswagen In their ID three or ID electric vehicles ID three ID four and so on. What do you think about all this? Rebecca Lindland 55:08 So I'm just looking at some of the of the stories that are out about it. their cars, they're calling it the ionic sub brand at but then in the next and it says that means ionic could become much like, like to Hyundai what Pollstar is to Volvo. So I agree with you. I think it's unclear. My issue with this is it plays into what I just spoke about before. About I it reinforces that these things are weird and different. And that is the only thing I don't like it reminds me of the of the Audi e Tron, which I love that car and I want it to be the Q six. I don't want it to be weird. I don't want it to have a weird name, a different name. I want it to be seen. Mostly integrated into the showroom where it's sits side by side with internal combustion engines that this is just an alternative power train alternative power source for a consumer. It's not a different, weird thing. I don't know. I just that was my first reaction was that the amount of money that needs to go into, into educating consumers on the familiarity of the ionic brand, when they already have a familiar brand in Hyundai? Everyone already knows Hyundai they don't always know how to pronounce it. It's like Sunday, but they know that it exists and and, and the awareness level of the Hyundai brand is is I would imagine pretty high. Sam Abuelsamid 56:49 So as you're speaking, I did get an email from Brenda Ramirez confirmed that they will be sold through Hyundai dealers. It'll be the hundred ionic five, six ionic five is the first one crossover that's coming in the fall of 2021. So it's, they're thinking of it more like their end brand. So I still, Rebecca Lindland 57:15 I still am not a fan because I feel like if we are going to Unknown Speaker 57:19 push on to the consumer, that these vehicles are Rebecca Lindland 57:26 as good if not better than internal combustion engines, they can't be weird. They can't be this special thing, this different thing. It I would rather promise from a strategic standpoint. I would rather just have it be presented as an alternative like diesel is to gasoline, or you know, that kind of, you know, a USB versus a USB C. It's i just i I don't I don't understand the need to isolate these vehicles, because I think it's isolating. I don't think it's elevating them. I think it's just isolating them and the amount of money that will go into even promoting this ionic sub brand. It's like Volvo with Pollstar. Volvo is a really good name that everybody knows why isolate these vehicles into a separate compartment. I don't get Sam Abuelsamid 58:26 that. Well, and, you know, for Volvo in particular, you know, they're also going to have battery electric Volvo's. Yeah, so, so, it's not like the pole star is gonna be the only one with electric vehicles. You know, in this case here, you know what Hyundai's doing? sounds almost the same as what Toyota tried to do in the late 2000s. When they decided we're gonna make Prius Yes, it's still popular. We're gonna make it a separate sub brand, you know, family, and they had the they launched the Prius V and the Prius C, you know, and You know, by the by the time those cars came out, you know, they had just had a few years where they were they did okay. But, you know, at that point, hybrids in general were becoming more mainstream. And you could get hybrid variants of pretty much everything in the the Toyota lineup. And, you know, today, you know, the Prius, the Prius V and c are gone. The the regular Prius, you know, is declining in sales year over year, and the most popular hybrid, Toyota is the rav4. Right? Yeah. So, why why you would do this instead of just, you know, integrating it more cleanly into the Hyundai lineup doesn't quite make sense to me. I'm not sure that this is a good idea. Rebecca Lindland 59:46 I agree. I agree completely. And it's interesting because we hadn't talked about this at all beforehand. And so but I think that we're very much on the same page, that it's, I just, I feel like the the marketing dollars that need to go into educating consumers and and increasing brand awareness for Hyundai ionic 567 is just I think it's money that could be spent elsewhere. Sam Abuelsamid 1:00:16 You know, especially given that, you know, when Toyota did the Prius family? Yes. Everybody knew what a Prius was. Rebecca Lindland 1:00:23 Right? Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 1:00:24 2007. Prius was, you know, it wasn't the biggest selling vehicle in the world, but it was pretty it was doing 250,000 right. 250,000 a year. Yeah. And even people that didn't own a Prius knew what a Prius was, right? Whereas today, Hyundai's selling you know, maybe 25,000 iyonix a year. Nobody knows what an ionic is, unless you happen to have been in a Hyundai Dealer. You know, I've never seen any marketing for the ionic. You know, I like it. It's a nice car. But, you know, nobody knows what it is. Rebecca Lindland 1:00:58 I think we need to live in California to see the Marketing. Sam Abuelsamid 1:01:01 That's that's probably true, although they do sell the hybrid. Nationally, the plugins Rebecca Lindland 1:01:07 they're probably focusing their marketing dollars and in California. Yeah, but yeah, so that's sort of, you know, and again, my, my whole thing is just, we can't expect a consumer to consider an Eevee if we keep making them weird. If we keep isolating them, we keep putting them in a separate area, or these are, you know, these are the different ones. No, you put them all in the same showroom. You walk around, oh, this one's electric. This one's gas. This one's diesel. This is a PA Yeah. And you give them it's that, you know, it's that it's, it makes them more familiar. It keeps them all at the same level. You're just giving a consumer a choice. It's like you know, like when you go shopping for ground beef and they'll say at 2015 you have 1885 different levels of If they don't have them in you know you don't have to go over to the separate section they're all together you pick which one suits your dietary needs best. Let's just do that with these mobility these power trains this, this you know how you get from A to B? I just I just I feel like we need to stop making these things different Sam Abuelsamid 1:02:24 and you know, to you know Audi for example you know when I spoke to them at the LA Auto Show last fall we talked about e Tron and you know the the way they described it, you know, because when when they first started talking when they first introduced the E Tron the the original e Tron, you know, they were referring to it as the E Tron quattro, and then eventually just dropped that and just made it just the E Tron. And the way they they're, they describe it now is that the original e Tron there, you know, sort of like the aura quatro. You know, it's the earth Tron and E Tron is just going to be the the suffix that they add to their plugin vehicles going forward. So you're going to have like the the q4 e Tron, which is going to be the battery electric e Tron. And you know various other models as they go forward just like they they've done with quatro. And originally quatro was a single standalone model. Now quatro refers to all wheel drive, Audi's, right, Ron is going to that's going to be what tells you, you know, the Q for the Q seven or whatever it is, as a plug. And that's how they're that's how they're moving forward with that. So, you know, maybe, you know, maybe that's what Andre does, you know, something like that. I don't know. But, um, I agree. I don't think that this is necessarily the right approach. And I think that this might be a waste of resources. Yes. Rebecca Lindland 1:03:54 Yeah. That's, that's the main thing to me is that it's is this is this the best you have resources at this time for consumers. And and I, I'm not, I'm not there either. Sam Abuelsamid 1:04:07 Okay. Well, speaking of resources, Mr. Gordon Murray, always want to know from the time I was a kid when I first started following Formula One in the 1970s his work, you know, he was a he was the technical director, chief designer at Brabham, back then Robin Formula One. And he created some of the most amazing Formula One cars, you know, today, you look at f1 cars, and they all pretty much look the same. You know, when you looked at f1 cars in the 70s and early 80s, you could always tell the, the one that probably came from Gordon Murray, you know, his his mind works in a different way. You know, he had the bt 46 b fan car, which was unbelievable. And, you know, there was the bt 54 Five, I think was the one you know, they were using a turbocharged four cylinder BMW engine that he wanted to lower the center of gravity, you know, when they first started using that engine, you know, like most four cylinders, it stood upright, you know, perpendicular to the ground. He said, Why can't we tilt it over on its side and run it that way. So we get a lower center of gravity. And so BMW built a new new engine block for it and tilted it over like 80 degrees off vertical. And, you know, all kinds of wild stuff. And then he got out of Formula One, and started doing road cars. And he created something called the McLaren f1. Yes, the small thing. I mean, they only sold 106 of them. Yeah. So not at all. No, no. Yeah. Which was, I think, you know, up until last week, probably the my favorite Favorite supercar of all time. Yeah. It's certainly I you know, if I had a choice between a Bugatti and an f1, or any contemporary McLaren, for that matter, I would take the f1 in a heartbeat. Yeah, three seater driver in the middle, that BMW v 12 engine. I, you know, in the early 90s, in like 9394, I spent some time over in England. We, you know, the company I was working for at the time, Kelsey Hayes, we were doing abs and traction control development, a test track and, and in England near near Coventry called Myra. And, you know, it was the track that was used by a lot of different companies in that area, including McLaren. And, you know, before the McLaren, the f1, went into production, we got, you know, for several months, we were seeing them out there, you know, two three times a week and I got a chance one day by the control tower, you know, there while the driver was inside, checking in, you know, it was sitting there With the engine cover opening up checking this thing out, it was amazing getting to see this thing up close. Rebecca Lindland 1:07:05 That was before cell phones so you can take. That's right. Sam Abuelsamid 1:07:08 And even if I had taken a picture, you know, I mean, I would have been thrown around so stop my phone and the dust and thrown me out. So couldn't couldn't do that sort of thing. But it was an amazing sight to see and his car was so tiny. And Gordon Murray's done a new vehicle called the T 50. Rebecca Lindland 1:07:30 Dunning Sam Abuelsamid 1:07:31 Yeah, it's it's amazing. And, you know, he he said, you know, he's got nothing against electric vehicles, but you know, he wanted to do, you know, the, the ultimate analog supercar? You know, so there's no electrification on this thing. You know, it's got a four liter bespoke v 12 engine developed by Cosworth that revs to 12,100 RPM mc 606. horsepower this car you know one of one of the things that Murray's always focused on is lightweight. You know, the the f1 you know, you look at a Bugatti, you know, weighs about 3500 pounds. Yeah, the f1 was just over 2200 pounds. This one is actually 986 kilos or about 20 178 pounds. With 660 horsepower. It's unreal. What do you think of it? Rebecca Lindland 1:08:29 I think it's stunning. I mean, it's just and you put it perfectly. It's, it is a true analog car just about the driving experience. I mean, the way that it opens up is this huge front hood and that's how you actually get into the car. It looks like a rocket ship from the back. It's just it's stunningly stunningly gorgeous. You know, I I don't I don't spend nearly enough time in supercars but I did get a chance to drive with Scotty bright. I did get a chance to drive the Bugatti Sheeran and that was an incredible experience. I mean this thing is you know, it's for 100 people they're making 100 of them. And I will say that when you think about these young having recently met a couple of people that are both collectors but users and drivers of these super cars, I think that those hundred people are you will appreciate them I mean when you when you only have to pick 100 people you're going to get people that that get it that that look and say you know this is this is this is what's driving what driving is about and you know, it's funny I think about sometimes like I complain a lot about infotainment systems and things like that. But you know, in Bugatti is world, they actually preferred to keep that stuff all to a minimum because also a As the vehicle you can tell, when that vehicle came out, when you look at something like the T 50, it is your only responsibility in that car is to drive it. That's it. It's not Sam Abuelsamid 1:10:12 about you as a manual transmission, Rebecca Lindland 1:10:14 even as a male. It's not about connecting with the outside world, it's actually about connecting with this incredible machine that is fully, fully dependent upon you to execute properly on it. And we don't we, you know, when you think about self driving cars and all those sensors and everything that I'm a fan of, this is not that and that's really cool. I love that. Sam Abuelsamid 1:10:43 You know, the funny thing about the f1 when they originally planning it, you know, today I mean, you know, it's this iconic machine that you know, everybody wants, you know, they they go at auction. I think the last time that sold at auction went for something like $18 million and you know, the The f1 was one of the first road cars to be priced at a million dollars. And the original plan was for a production run of 300 cars. It sold so poorly, even after one overall at the 1995 24 hours a month. They could not sell those things. People didn't understand, you know, like, why would I want that? You know, nobody wanted them. And so they actually cut production short after only 106 cars, of which about 25 of them were race cars, you know, so there's only about 75 fewer than a road cars f1 road cars, which, you know, when you think about that today is mind boggling that, you know, people, you know, wealthy people, you know, almost fight over the opportunity to buy, you know, limited production Ferraris, and Lamborghinis and bugattis and McLaren couldn't. A McLaren a brand that had won so Many f1 championships and so many races, you know, could not sell 300 cars Rebecca Lindland 1:12:06 395 it was a very, very different world aways. You know, the tech world hadn't was only you know, internet. Right was, I mean, it was only just starting. And, you know, that's I mean, the So I was thinking about, you know, having grown up in an area that's pretty, very fortunate for pretty wealthy. And I remember when my neighbor down the street, he, he created a product that we all use every day and he sold it for 10s of millions of dollars. He didn't move which was always amazing to me. And but they had one of the first VCRs and they also had a Sony Betamax and this was in the 80s. And y'all remember and they had a collection of cars. It's why I could identify the exhaustion of a Ferrari by the time I was 12 years old because we live in culdesac they lived at the end, and they would go back and forth with these exotics that were unbelievable. And I would lay in my bed, because they would sometimes leave early in the morning, I'd lay in my bed or be in my bedroom that overlooks the road. And I'd be like, Okay, which one is that? And then I'd be able to look outside and identify. But, you know, it was the, the, I mean, the idea you know, when you think back of wealthy people back then it was a different world. They didn't you know, the fact that this that these people, they spend so much of their money on cars was seen as and as almost lowbrow. You know? Like, why didn't they invest in a yacht or, you know, three or four homes like that was you're not to say that people didn't have exotics. But, you know, it's just kind of it's just sort of funny. The, the mentality, I think was different than and now that you know, the some of the some of the people that have famous car collections You know, Jay Leno and you know, the tech people out in Seattle that go to exotics at Redmond Town Center, every week, which is the largest collection, weekly collection of cars and coffee for exotics in the, in the country. And we think that's probably the world. I it's, you know, it's a different mentality. Those guys are all now in their 40s in their, in their 50s 60s 70s. That's, you know, the the guys that started something like that are in their late 50s. And 3040 years ago, you know, 30 years ago, they didn't have money to spend on these kinds of cars. So I think it's, you know, it's just the market is different is different now. Sam Abuelsamid 1:14:38 Yeah, well, hopefully, Mr. Murray will be able to sell all 100 of these t 50. I don't think you'll have any problem selling them this time. Unknown Speaker 1:14:45 I don't think he will either. Sam Abuelsamid 1:14:49 All right. Well, with that, why don't we wrap it up for this week? Rebecca Lindland 1:14:53 All right. Sounds good. Sam Abuelsamid 1:14:55 Yeah, that's good. We need to talk about Masada, Rafale. There's not really much to say they're Rebecca Lindland 1:14:59 not Right. He's got bat engines. That's it. I took away Sam Abuelsamid 1:15:04 Ghibli. Okay in the Ghibli. Yeah. That's all right. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai