Sam Abuelsamid  0:00  
Episode 192 of wheel bearings brings an updated lineup is Roberto Baldwin joins Nicole Wakelin and I in place of Dan Roth who just started his new job. We talk about the rip snorting Dodge Durango Hellcat that just left Nicole's driveway. Robbie takes a ride in the new lucid air Grand Touring and contemplating moving his house with the GMC Sierra Denali HD diesel. While I ponder how the Chevy Volt might have evolved into the Toyota rav4 Prime. in the news, Toyota launches beyond zero, Cadillac prices its first EV and Stellantis kills the too expensive Georgio platform.

Dan Roth  0:36  
Did you know you can support wheel bearings directly? Head to patreon.com slash wheel bearings, media and you can become a patron today. Your contributions will help fund the platforms and tools we use to bring the podcast to you. And exclusives and improvements are already on the way thanks to your generosity. So if you want to be a part of an automotive podcast, like no other had to patreon.com slash wheel bearings media

Sam Abuelsamid  1:05  
Welcome to Episode 192 of wheel bearings. changing it up again this week. I am Sam Abuelsamid from guidehouse insights.

Nicole Wakelin  1:14  
And I am Nicole wakelin. From let's go boston globe this week.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:19  
Right globe. And who's that other guy?

Roberto Baldwin  1:23  
Hi, I'm I'm Roberto Baldwin, and I'm from the internet. Write for a couple different places and it's Yeah, I'm newly freelance so I just it's it's it's it's anarchie over here right now.

Unknown Speaker  1:42  
Oh, yeah.

Nicole Wakelin  1:44  
You just rotate a different one every week like pick one you want to talk about? So this week you work for Engadget.

Roberto Baldwin  1:50  
Okay, right. Tech blog extraordinare and gadget, which,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:55  
yeah, Robbie, you are joining us as our full time replacement for Dan Roth, who's gone on to the I'll say the gray side because he's not he's not really NPR. So he's not on the dark side. He's on the he's under gray side doing internal comms employee Communications at Ford. But he'll be Dan will be joining us from time to time for some special stories like the one like the interview we did with Peter Egan a few weeks back, and you know, various other things that don't conflict with his job. But Robbie, tell us a little bit more about yourself. What's your history? What do you know? What have you been doing?

Roberto Baldwin  2:27  
Oh, dear. Um, so I am a automotive journalist. I transferred from Tech to automotive full time about five ish years ago. It's funny because I was a car nerd Far, far longer than you know, way before I was a tech nerd. I had you know, I was working on cars before I didn't have a computer tells 21 but as a small child, my parents had me working on cars with them. My parents had challengers and javelins and whatnot. So I they My mom is more of a carpenter than my dad. My dad is an airplane mechanic. But you know, we we learned how to work on cars. I learned how to work on vehicles from my dad. I learned how to drive from my mom because my dad drives very slow and sometimes in the left lane, which is just it's it's incredibly frustrating to be in the car with him. I hope he's not listening to this.

Sam Abuelsamid  3:22  
Alright, well we appreciate you agreeing to to join Nicole and I and we're looking forward to this. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. So why don't we dive right into the garage? Nicole? You had something kind of interesting this week. What were you driving

Nicole Wakelin  3:38  
I know and they literally just took it away like you hit record you said ready to record and I heard it start up in the driveway and disappear. I had the Dodge Durango Hellcat our this whole week. Which was I love it. I love it. Can I just say that's my whole review. I love this house.

Sam Abuelsamid  3:56  
What did you really think of it?

Nicole Wakelin  3:57  
I Yeah, right. It's you know what it is? It's because there's this element. I feel like there's this element of crazy to kind of anything that dodge does these days. like can we put a Hellcat in it? Sure. You know it could be a tricycle or put a Dodge you know badge on the side of it. Just stick a Hellcat engine in there and it's brilliant. It makes no sense but it's brilliant. I was what is this like 710 horsepower 645 pound feet of torque this thing moves and it sounds amazing. He said I'm inside my house in the back of the house and they just came to pick it up and I could hear it start up in my driveway. It sounds brilliant. It looks brilliant. It wakes up your neighbors which is kind of fun. I loved it. I loved it. I if I had you know more than just my husband and I and my soon to go to college daughter and I had any reason at all to buy an SUV that large that I could come up with. It would be on my list because it's just such a fun redonkulous vehicle to drive.

Sam Abuelsamid  4:57  
Robbie, if you have you ever driven any Have the health like driven the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk or the Durango Hellcat yet?

Roberto Baldwin  5:05  
I have not driven the SUV variants of the hellcats. And I feel like those to me those actually make a little bit more sense than then then the sedan the charger, the challenger, etc. Because those cars are they're bricks, they're bricks, they go really fast. But you're you're kind of like, well maybe it'll handle up now Not really. But in an SUV, you know what you're getting when it comes to handling. And so you get this, this raw power and an SUV to go quickly for no reason other than to go quickly in a straight line. And you use any throw your kids in the back, and it has all the utility of the SUV with the ridiculousness of the Hellcat.

Sam Abuelsamid  5:49  
And, you know, certainly I can't argue with the the whole premise that the Hellcat is absurd, you know, especially in the 2020s. You know, as and I think, unfortunately, you know, as as an enthusiast, you know, I think it's days are probably numbered, you know, I don't think

Nicole Wakelin  6:08  
I'll say that I'm not listening to Lalalalala listening.

Sam Abuelsamid  6:13  
You know, I think that, you know, the practical reality is you will probably have Hellcat vehicles from from Detroit for a few more years yet, but, you know, I think that we're, well, frankly, you know, still antas is running out of things to put the Hellcat in that they that they could reasonably put it in, you know, they've got the ram tr x now, which I'm getting one of those in a couple of weeks, and then the Durango you know, and I've been fortunate enough to drive a few of these hellcats you know, I drove the track Hawk a couple of years ago, and had it in early February. And you know, one of the things that the you know that the SUVs have that the the the cars don't have is all wheel drive with the with the Hellcat engine, which means you can actually put that power down on the road I I did zero to 60 runs on cold wet pavement, early February morning with the trackhawk you know, like three and a half seconds, which is ridiculous.

Nicole Wakelin  7:10  
Yeah, that's kind of the brilliant thing about it. I mean, like you said, the sedans are just these bricks that you want to handle better than they do, but they're really straight line drivers. But you're not expecting to take your Durango or your truck hop over to a track I mean you'd like to, but the reality is, most people won't. But it's, it has all the fun and that sort of visceral feeling of power and the sound of it. And that just excitement of if you know you mash the gas getting on the highway, you you're getting press back in your seat, and so your kids and they're giggling about it, you know, you get all that. But then when it snows, you're good to go. It's not suddenly like you have to say okay, this sits in the garage, because there's no way I'm taking this out on the snow. I'm not going to you know, wrap myself around a tree. No, this is perfectly fine. In the snow. In fact, we had because you know New Hampshire, we had three inches of snow last week and the roads were a mess. No one really expected it. It was one of those like, oh, we're gonna get a dusting. And suddenly we didn't get a dusting. I was out and I'm like, I'm in that 700 plus horsepower SUV that could like you know, raced down the highway if I was so inclined. And yet I am just driving along handling the snow, no problem. And you can't do that in very many vehicles.

Sam Abuelsamid  8:20  
They still have winter tires on it.

Nicole Wakelin  8:22  
No, it did not have winter tires. Even it was just I think it's just all seasons, but they were not winters. We don't it's weird. We get a mix of vehicles with them without winters up here. A lot of our stuff just comes up with all seasons.

Sam Abuelsamid  8:33  
So as just as a general SUV, setting aside the power train for the moment, what do you think of the Durango? How does it compare against other largeish? Three row utilities?

Nicole Wakelin  8:47  
Yeah, I think you know what, I think it's good. It's one of those it has a very dis sort of distinct character. It has a very dodge character. Nothing is delicate, or refined, or pretty. It's all very sort of bold in your face in terms of the styling inside and it's even that with just the look of it and the comfort of it. It's big and comfy and cushy. There's nothing like don't expect a little sport seats to hold you in. Don't expect it to look all elegant. It's a sort of beefy, comfortable interior. I like the idea of having this if you have kids because it feels like it would withstand what kids do to a car like i don't i don't want a luxury three row SUV that I'm going to worry about my family getting into with their winter boots and their cup of milk that they spill and the mandarin oranges they spill everywhere when we go through the drive thru at McDonald's. I want a car that I feel like it's going to survive that and be like okay, well I cleaned this up, but it's going to be okay. It's very it has the sense of being sturdy enough and comfortable enough and sort of like an upscale feel without being delicate. It's not a delicate card is the big beefy vehicle in every way but it has all this stuff like you got a million cupholders you got real rear seat, enter infotainment, you know it has the If you need to work as an SUV, so I I'm a fan of the Durango even the not Hellcat version,

Sam Abuelsamid  10:06  
so you make your kids eat their fruit before they get their fries.

Nicole Wakelin  10:10  
They don't get well now that now they can get whatever they want cuz they're teenagers like I'm getting the fries. They're a little they would not get the fruit the fries it was just the fruit I was that mom but I mean really seriously, it's mandarin oranges in sugar syrup. I was doing the best, you know.

Sam Abuelsamid  10:26  
All right. So, last week you had the Highlander. This week, Durango? which one I owned her Durango.

Nicole Wakelin  10:34  
I like the Durango cuz I like the big, bold large in your face feel of the Durango. If you want something more refined, the Highlander is a great choice. It's not like one is bad and one is good. Me personally, I just like that big bold feel of the Durango. I like the look of it on the outside. I like the feel of it on the inside. It feels tough. It feels like can stand up to stuff so Durango

Sam Abuelsamid  10:58  
did this. The Durango does the new drank the 20 2021. Now I guess is the only one Durango have the new Uconnect five system in it or is it still the older system? I can't remember if

Nicole Wakelin  11:11  
I'm drawing a blank because I was just in they updated

Sam Abuelsamid  11:13  
the interior on the Durango this year.

Nicole Wakelin  11:15  
Yes, it does. Have you connect five sir. I mean, a bunch of FCA vehicles. They are still in his vehicles. I'm like, wait, what did this one have? Yeah, it does have Uconnect. Five, which if you haven't, have you had you connect five vehicles? Yes.

Sam Abuelsamid  11:26  
I've had it in the Pacifica. Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  11:28  
I like you connect five. I think it was a nice upgrade. But I was I've always been a Uconnect fan. I think it's more like one of the more intuitive, easy to use systems like if you're the passenger, and suddenly your driver says, Can you do this, you can do it without wanting to take a sledgehammer to the screen. After two seconds, you can find exactly what you want. So I like you connected, this one's just faster and a little bit more slick. So they did a nice little upgrade.

Roberto Baldwin  11:50  
You can x like that, like the Hyundai's experience, you just get into like, Oh, this is a essentially like a tablet. I know how this works, because I've been using a phone or tablet for the past 10 years. But don't try to like Gussy it up with, you know, some sort of insane UI system. They're like, this is what you're used to enjoy.

Nicole Wakelin  12:08  
Yes. And I think that's how it should be. I mean, we all plug in our phones to you know, have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because we like what we know, just let us kind of sort of have what we know. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Give us a nice easy tablet like system. Everyone will be happy.

Sam Abuelsamid  12:22  
So Robbie, have you tried the new Uconnect? The Uconnect five, which is based on and Android automotive? We tried that one yet?

Roberto Baldwin  12:29  
I let me think what's the last? No, I haven't I haven't tried Uconnect five yet. Okay. Um, I but yeah, but I mean, you know, you can afford I was like, well, this is fine.

Sam Abuelsamid  12:41  
Yeah, and, you know, five, the interface for five isn't dramatically different. You know, the big thing is instead of being built on Q and X, like the previous versions, where it's it's on Android automotive, but FCA still antas took a different a little bit different path from most of the other automakers that are doing it, because they didn't they opted not to include the Google automotive services. So you don't get Google Assistant, Google Maps, the Play Store. They're using Alexa and TomTom TomTom maps and forget. And they've got their own little marketplace that you can download apps on. So it's still it's running Android underneath it just it doesn't look like it. But other automakers are using the Google automotive services part of it. So how much was the Durango Hellcat?

Nicole Wakelin  13:33  
The Hellcat? The base price on this is? Are you ready at 1995 mine has

Sam Abuelsamid  13:40  
your average family.

Nicole Wakelin  13:42  
Your average family sedan totally in budget. Mine had some extra little bells and whistles so mine came out at $92,360 It's a lot. That's a lot of dogs. But it's like it's luxury. It's it's luxury car territory for the person whose goal for luxury isn't I want the fanciest leather in open pore wood and carbon fiber and genuine Chrome for the person whose luxury experiences trading for one hour I want that engine that's that's what you're sort of paying for with that. Yeah, it's trading fancy for fast if you want fast, go with the Durango if you want fancy go with the escalator.

Sam Abuelsamid  14:22  
So, you know, I mean, there are other fast SUVs out there, you know, you get the BMW X five M and x six m, the AMG, Mercedes AMG utilities. I assume you've driven driven most of those. Yep. How and you know, there there is similar price point in that, you know, 90 8090 to close to 100 grand price point, would you if you're spending that kind of money, would you take the Durango over that over one of those other options?

Nicole Wakelin  14:52  
Yeah. Me personally, I might. I mean, I like the Durango. I like it's not a Whether one of these is really better or worse than the other, they all do the same thing. They all give us powerful stuff. But there's something very, like out of control aggressive in a good way, about the drag. It's just like, it's like in your face. And you don't get that the other, you know, other vehicles you mentioned, they have power, they will move, they've got it, but they, they're nice about it. They're like polite about it. And they have a different interior vibe. Especially Mercedes that is like a refined, beautiful, luxurious interior. But it also feels really delicate again, my kids are the mandarin oranges. I wouldn't want to put kids in there, you know? So I think it's a little bit it's a little bit how you're going to live like, not just do you want to luxury vehicle what kind of luxury do you want? Do you want to refine luxury? Do you want to bold in your face? luxury? Do you want something that's just, you know, you got older kids, you're not worried about the interior? Or, you know, you are worried about the interior? So it's not? I think they're very different. I know they compete, but they're very different. Alright, Robbie,

Sam Abuelsamid  15:59  
what did you drive?

Roberto Baldwin  16:00  
So I drove one car, but I sat and another and I think sitting in the other is probably more exciting than than the vehicle actually drove. And so I sat in the lucid air grand tour in addition, this week, last week, it is the the version of the vehicle that is targeting 517 miles of range, which when people think about electric cars, for better or worse, they're still concerned about range. lucid, is essentially just populated with former Tesla engineers. Peter, the CEO, rollin C. Rawlinson, the CEO is sort of the head engine, the head head designer of the Model S. So you know, you have this, this entire Evie legacy that's starting this new company. And it's a very nice car, it was a release candidate. So you know, there are panel gaps. You know, they're very upfront with me, they're like, well, it's, it's an early release candidate, but we wanted to get you inside the chassis, the suspension, everything's about 85% done right now. So, you know, they're they're still working on on how it rides. But for the most part, you can see, I think they, what their what they wanted me to see was the evolution of what they've done. I've written in the betas I've written in, in mules. So they went okay, this is what we're doing. This is where we're at. And you know, it was built at their facility in Arizona. So they're building a factory in Arizona, they're already building release candidates, they're going to be building production vehicle soon so it will you know, it's it's lucid is one of those Evie companies that I think has a very good chance of actually making it. There are a lot of Evie automaker startups out there, who you sort of look at what they're doing, and you know, how much money they have, and how much money they hope to get. And, you know, the, the road to the Eevee is, is just strewn with the carcasses of Evie startups. And I think rivian has a better chance just because of their, you know, their their deal with Amazon. But I think lucid is one of those companies. It's it's, it's it's gonna make it and you know, they're targeting German, German luxury vehicles that that you know, that's, that's been the target all along? Well, not all long, but within last few years as they're, they're building out these vehicles. And, you know, they're trying to hit above what you can get inside of a Model S and you know, sitting in it, it does feel nicer than a Model S my les is nice. It's fast. It's everything we know about the Model S but the interior is definitely not up to par with BMW or Mercedes. lucid is trying to be the Evie company that's on par with them.

Sam Abuelsamid  18:44  
Yeah, that's I mean, that's always been one of the knocks on on Tesla, especially the s and the x, you know, they were priced like Mercedes and Audi's and BMW. But, you know, they didn't feel like luxury cars. Of course, you know, you were paying the premium for that electric powertrain. But you know, for with lucid, Peter and Derek Jenkins, the chief designer, you know, they, they really, were targeting those premium brands and wanted to get that whole premium experience. And I remember the first time I got I met them and got briefed by them at the LA Auto Show, I guess about four years ago, before they publicly showed the car. You know, they walk through and describe, you know, the idea of having a car that's got exterior size of a Mercedes E Class, but the interior volume of an S class and I know you're you're pretty tall, you're several inches taller than I am. And I saw you sitting in the backseat, what would you think of the backseat roominess of or the front seat for that matter?

Roberto Baldwin  19:43  
Um, you know, they're both You know, I'm six foot I'm six foot three. So sitting in the front and the back I was I was comfortable in both, you know, that that Evie platform, you know, a lot of automakers are able to show you like, hey, look, you know, we can push the wheels out. We can, you know, expand the wheelbase. We give you more room inside the cab and I was comfortable in both areas. You know, the front seat was comfortable, the back seat was comfortable, comfortable. You know that and that's, that's really the luxury. what people are looking for when they're looking at an S Class is they want to be comfortable in the front seat, but they also want to be comfortable in the backseat, you can't sort of, it's not a trade off when you when it comes to a luxury sedan, you can't say well, the front seats are great, but the back seats are really tight. That's that, you know, that's a coupe that's a that's you know, that's that's a car that's that's much cheaper, when you're when you're talking about luxury sedans, you need the person in the backseat to feel just as comfortable, even more comfortable and a lot of instances than the person who's driving and, you know, it was it was a comfortable experience, for the most part, you know, they you can still fail, you know, they're still working on the dampeners. They're still working a lot of the chassis. But the seats were it was much nicer than when I did the mileage run with them, where they just had a like, a fit essentially just like a bench back there. But you know, in both instances, they all had leg room, I had headroom. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't uncomfortable. At any point, I didn't feel like I was being squished. It was definitely not the economy class of flying.

Sam Abuelsamid  21:13  
One of the the interesting design details in the front seat is the the touch screen for the climate controls and some of the other controls. Talk about that a little more, you know, how did that how do you think that's going to work out.

Roberto Baldwin  21:28  
So they have, you know, they have the traditional, they have the dash cluster, they have the infotainment screen, and then they have a screen, you know, third screen to the left for additional auxiliary functions. But then they have this fourth screen, in that that retracts from the dash into the center console comes out and that's where you control your your infotainment system and you can you know, you you can get you get access to controls for the vehicle settings, sport mode, Comfort mode, etc. And you tap on it, and it'll it'll retract, and you can put things underneath, you know, there's a little storage area under there and then you tap on again, it comes back out. I feel like that's going to be a fun gimmick initially for people like, hey, look at this retract. And then I can put things in here and then I hope but I think in the long run, people might put things in there but for the most part they're they're going to have it extend out and then retracted maybe once a week to get you know, maybe their their Fast Pass or you know, something that they need to keep in their car, but they don't need access to at all times. You know, it's a it's a fun little thing. It's, it's, it's a bit like, you know, the, the Corvette where I had the secret like little, you know, you push the button and then the info team disappears and you put things in that little cubby hole. Yeah. And nobody knows about me, it's a bit like that. That's like, Oh my god, this is fun. It's great. You can put things in here. But then you realize as time goes on, you're gonna put something in there and you're gonna forget about it, and you're gonna open it up, you know, six months later, and it's all melted. You know, maybe you stuck some some some lip balm some chapstick in there now it's all just a mess.

Nicole Wakelin  23:06  
Yeah. I feel like that is one of those things that you think it's gonna be really cool. You see, like, that is the neatest thing. I'm gonna use that all the time. And then you completely forget about it.

Roberto Baldwin  23:16  
Yeah, people are gonna shove things down there that they need every once in a while. And then they're gonna and then of course, you know, two weeks and they're like, what did I do with that? What did I do with my What did I do with my my fast track so I could get over the bridge. I need to pay my tolls. What I do that thing?

Sam Abuelsamid  23:34  
What do you think of the design, the exterior design of the car,

Roberto Baldwin  23:38  
I actually quite like it. It's, it's, it's it, you know, you still get that sort of futurism that comes with the V's that I think more automakers are sort of kind of pulling back from recently because, you know, they want to sell more V's to more people. You know, you can't sell an AI three to more than a couple 1000 people. But I you know, I think it's it. It's always funny when I'm in a car and I'm being driven by somebody, or you know, it's and someone pulls up and it's like, oh my god, they're looking at it, they're taking pictures or whatever or they're like making you roll down the window. If it's just me driving out in the real world, like with the machi and people were following me and taking video and taking pictures and pulling over and talking to me while saying trying to take photos of the car that feels organic. Whenever I'm with someone for some reason in my paranoid brain I'm like, I wonder if this guy's a plant. person like is just it's just like one of the engineers at lucid is pulling up next to us and be like, hey, that car is awesome.

Sam Abuelsamid  24:37  
You know, automotive PR people would never do anything that would they never heard of such a thing.

Roberto Baldwin  24:46  
But you know, they're you know, they're they're did see some genuine enthusiasm from either a regular human or a plant for the vehicle. I you know, I do like to design I think it's it you know, They it's one of the the first production vehicles that have lighter on it and I think they've integrated that in there really well without it, you know, the cup on, you know the puck on top. And so it's you know, I think it has its fans, like the Model S has its fans when it comes to design. And we'll see I mean, it really comes down to you know, you can make the most beautiful car in the world to automotive journalists. But that doesn't mean the public wants it and so we'll see how that how that pans out for them.

Sam Abuelsamid  25:29  
In Nicole Have you had a chance to check out the the air you know, when it's it made appearances at auto shows in the past?

Nicole Wakelin  25:35  
I haven't I really haven't gotten a good look at it. So I'm listening to all this with great curiosity. My thing always with some of the movies they do is they and I really have to have to see it to see if this holds that but is the idea that they're so clean and Evie ish inside that they come off kind of bland, like I sort of one an Eevee to still look, I wanted to still look like a car, I wanted to still have the stuff that a regular car has the kind of, I don't know, the pretty leather seats and the contrast stitching and this sort of personality. I don't want it to look like a console on the bridge of the enterprise. I don't want it to be like completely plain. I don't like it that plain. I like a little bit of stuff going on inside a car. And sometimes I feel like they're too plain. That sounds like a weird complaint. But

Sam Abuelsamid  26:19  
no, no, I think I think that's a totally legitimate complaint. You know, I know that, you know, when I first talked to Derek Jenkins about it, that was one of the things that he highlighted was, you know, that they wanted to make this really feel like a luxury car, you know, to have it feel the, you know, like it belongs at that price point. And I think that, you know, they've they've largely succeeded at that. And, you know, not having that Stark, minimalist kind of interior that you find typically on a Tesla.

Nicole Wakelin  26:52  
Yeah, like everyone says, like, my husband loves Tesla's me and theirs, but I get inside me like against them. I know, right? They feel it, they always feel to me, like they forgot something like, Oh, we should have done another level of stuff here. We forgot this extra treatment. It's like, no, that's how it's supposed to look. And I guess from your clean, you know, living in the future kind of thing. It works. But I still want my car to feel like a car with all the little bits and pieces that make it pretty and feel like it has personality and I don't, I don't like

Roberto Baldwin  27:20  
I want to be able to reach out to Tesla

Nicole Wakelin  27:21  
people are going to kill me. But

Roberto Baldwin  27:23  
whenever you I want to be able to reach out and touch uh, something tangible, like it has tangible buttons, you know, these rollers, which are really nice for volume controls and for for climate control, I want to be able to do that without having to like turn my head, which a couple buttons, push a thing and I'm like, Okay, now I turn the volume up. And I haven't been paying attention because everything's on an iPad now. I think there's there has to be like the, the, the tangible I want something I can hold and my muscle memory knows this is there. I can do it without you know, taking my my eyes off the road and it gives me something that my body feels like I'm still part of an organic universe.

Nicole Wakelin  28:02  
Yes, I agree.

Sam Abuelsamid  28:04  
Cool. All right. You want to share some thoughts on the Sierra?

Roberto Baldwin  28:08  
It is huge. I got

Sam Abuelsamid  28:13  
ADHD, right.

Roberto Baldwin  28:14  
I did. I had that I had a 2500 HD with the with the huge diesel engine. The I think it's the 6.6 liter. Yeah. 6.6 liter VA Duramax diesel engine. It is um, I'll say again, I'm six three, I stood in front of it. And it came up to my, uh, my we like your armpit area, my nipples. What's an appropriate like, what that's a weird area does your shoulders not sounding Yeah, just below my shoulders? How's that it's a weird area to describe without sounding weird. It's an odd and, you know, you as you know, as a tall person, you know, I'm going to have a bit more visibility than someone who is, you know, five foot 11 five foot six, so they have less visibility as they're driving this gigantic machine. Um, you know, one of the first vehicles ever drove was a tractor. So I always have a little soft spark soft spot in my heart for diesel engines just because it reminds me of working on a farm. But it is it is. It's insanely huge. It's just so tall. On the inside is it's typical truck. You know, it's it's I don't think an American truck has been built that I feel comfortable behind the wheel. You know, even before we had extra cabinet extended cabs, I always felt like the truck cab was wasn't built for as tall person. And even as we have, you know, essentially inside of the vehicles or sedans now, even then it doesn't feel comfortable. I've never felt comfortable in an American truck in a way that I would in a vehicle just because of the dimensions who they're building this vehicle for. I don't know if they're not building them for tall people. They've always said you know what, no one over 60 one's ever going to buy this thing. Everyone else is gonna buy it. Or if they're overseas, they don't care because they have how much torque this thing? 910

Sam Abuelsamid  30:10  
Do you ever need to move you know, you just hit the toe strap to your house and just, you know, just take yank it I get along.

Nicole Wakelin  30:16  
I always say visa just like take your house right off the foundation. If that's something you need to do, that's the vehicle you need.

Roberto Baldwin  30:23  
Yeah, I was I was disappointed I didn't, I was supposed to use it the tow something and that sort of fell through. And that's why I had the I had it. Um, and so I didn't have anything to tow I didn't have any tree trunks to rip out of the ground. They weren't gonna let me in the redwood forest at any point with this thing with the chain. So it was it was you know, it's it's, it's it's large, it's comfortable. For you know, a truck. It has a million cubbyholes. There's, it's cavernous on the inside, like most modern trucks, it is, you know, you can put anything you want in the back and not worry about, you know, bogging it down. You could again, I could drag my house office foundation and down the street. And it would have been fine. It was it wouldn't have had the strain there wouldn't have been that like few seconds of the truck maker and no, it was just

Nicole Wakelin  31:15  
your house would have been a shambles, but the truck would have been totally fine.

Roberto Baldwin  31:18  
There would have been totally fine. You know, it and I this these vehicles they have you know, they have all these this tech, which I wasn't, you know, able to use the I was very excited about the idea of using the trailer, the trailer system that allows you to see through the trailer, which is the camera

Sam Abuelsamid  31:37  
on the back of the trailer

Roberto Baldwin  31:40  
is really cool. And it disappears, like like, like it's the the predator or

Nicole Wakelin  31:47  
just somehow work that into the name may need to change whatever it's called in calling the predator trailer system.

Sam Abuelsamid  31:52  
It's a cloaking device for your trailer.

Roberto Baldwin  31:56  
Was it a Klingon? Was it was a bird of prey and predator prey? Yeah, the Klingon bird of prey system. It has the the, the fact that the the has the tailgate with the step is great because it's so damn tall. You know? Yeah, that was helpful. We went to going to Home Depot and buying mulch, which is

Nicole Wakelin  32:18  
a fancy schmancy the whole 85 function tailgate thing on the Sierra, do you like it?

Roberto Baldwin  32:25  
I kind of like it, I kept pushing the wrong button. Because there's two, there's two buttons on the on the tailgate and one of them unlatches the the the step and the second one opens the tailgate. And what would happen was I would try to close the I would try to open the tailgate. And instead I would open that I would open the step and I was like, I push the step close. And then or I'd be trying to close the tailgate and I actually hit the button for the step and then it would open and I was like, and I

Nicole Wakelin  32:57  
don't feel it. I remember doing the same thing. Like someone would want to see it like can you check on people who want to sound like oh, yeah, and so the tailgate, I know if that's not what I want to show, you do this, and then you do that, and then it opens. Yeah, I kept doing it backwards. But I figured if I had it in my own hands for more than a week, I would begin to remember how the tailgate worked.

Roberto Baldwin  33:13  
Yeah, it's definitely like that week of learning. And then once you have it for a week, week, you're like, look at this, I can just walk up to, I'm super cool. I

Nicole Wakelin  33:20  
can open this tailgate 20 different ways.

Roberto Baldwin  33:23  
You want to see me tap dance down the back of my truck. So you know if you know the hitch guidance, I I pride myself as someone who's really good at backing trucks up to trailers, but I would love to I tried that the hitch guidance system. But overall, I mean, if you need something that's going to haul a planet, maybe a moon, maybe not a planet, but you know, it's, it's there. I still have, like Pluto sighs like a Pluto like a Pluto or whatever, right? A planet but like quiet, you know, not quite Mercury's something a little bit like,

Nicole Wakelin  34:00  
so like a Death Star you could have like,

Roberto Baldwin  34:03  
they could, instead of trying to blow it up, they could just thrown some trees around it and then just turn it off. And they're like, Ah, so yeah, it's it's it is a for the person who needs to haul or tow anything, essentially without needing to without needing a truck driver license. You could you could probably get this. It but other than that, it's it's it's it's slightly ridiculous. And what was the price for it? You know, it's nearly $80,000 for this. Yeah. 72 the one I got? Yeah, it's the nali I had the whole I had the whole you know, four wheel drive crew cab, I could bring a whole crew with me. If I was allowed to do that. Maybe in a few months, I'll get my crew together. I don't know dance crew or crew. One of the bands. Yeah, yeah, throw one. It wouldn't be a great band, it would actually would be overkill because I don't have It's Oh, it is definitely overkill for I would think 90% of the people who are probably going to buy it.

Sam Abuelsamid  35:05  
That's for what it's worth most of the HD trucks, you know, the 2500 3500 series trucks are, the majority of them are sold to commercial customers, they're not sold to individuals. And usually, you know, it'll be like the owner of the construction company or the plumbing company or the you know, the, the owner of the ranch will buy by themselves at Denali, you know, and by the the base level work truck versions of those HDS for all their employees, you know, to use, and then, you know, they'll buy themselves a nice luxury Denali, or, you know, an F 350, Ltd, or platinum, something like that. Yeah. And drive around in those,

Roberto Baldwin  35:46  
everyone else gets the base 1/5 f150. And they show up. It's completely immaculate. It's completely clean. They jump out and they're like, hey, you're not supposed to be doing that. And they jump back in the truck and bro.

Sam Abuelsamid  36:01  
Exactly. Alright, so I had the Toyota rav4 prime x sc. And as I was driving this, I was, you know, thinking about it. And, you know, back in 2010, I was actually working at GM and Communications at the time for for a short period. This was around the time that they were launching the original first generation Chevy Bolt, sorry, volt, the V with a victor, the volt, not the bolt, still pissed about the ridiculous naming anywhere

Nicole Wakelin  36:35  
to call the bolt, Evie, and

Sam Abuelsamid  36:38  
don't get confused. So when they were launching the volt, you know, and the way it worked typically works in the auto industry is that, you know, you have the the product development team, you know, they'll be working on the vehicle for, you know, 234 years. And then about nine months or so before job one, they kind of handoff most of the responsibility to the launch team that's working with the assembly plant that's that's going to be building this thing. And so the time I was there, you know, the volt team had already handed off production, responsibility for the gentleman volt to the launch team, they were working on getting them built. And the the team, the development team had already moved on to the next project, which was going to be something called the crossbolt. They showed a concept of this in early 2010. It was basically a crossover a compact crossover. They showed that is built on the bolt platform using the same power train and everything. And they worked on that well into 2011. And then Dan Akerson, who was then the CEO of GM, you know, after they went through their bankruptcy, decided to kill that program, and said, No, we're not going to build that because, you know, people might actually want to buy that. Instead, we need to build a Cadillac based on this on this platform, and sell it at a price point where we can actually have a significant profit margin. And the result was the Cadillac LR, which was that little cool looking coupe. You know, that was the pet the plug in hybrid powertrain from the volt. But it was also like $77,000, and about three people bought them, I think, I think I think over the course of three model years, they sold less than 2000 of them. Wow, totally. Terrible. Yeah. And the crossbolt died, it did never never got produced. If they'd continue down that path, the kind of vehicle that would have ultimately resulted was something very much like the rav4 prime, which is the plug in hybrid version of the rav4, which is now toilet is best selling vehicle, they sell something like 450,000 rav4 a year in the last two years. In the US, you know, almost a quarter of them have been the hybrids. And now they have the plug in hybrid version, which has basically is the same thing but with a bigger battery, and more powerful electric motors. So this rav4 prime is the most powerful rav4 you can get combined total of 302 horsepower. It's got plenty of drunk it's got an 18 kilowatt hour lithium ion battery that sits underneath the rear cargo floor and the rear seat and it's officially rated at a Ford 42 miles of electric driving range by an EPA rating. And you know, I took this thing out I charged it up and I went for a drive you know I put it in Eevee mode. And you know, put it you know when you can you can select a mode where it forces it to stay in EV mode. And even with that, you know you still have like a buck 200 horsepower more than 200 horsepower between the two motors. You know the one more powerful motor in the front axle. So, and then a 53 horsepower, rear axle motor. So it's all wheel drive. And I drove 43 miles of mixed driving some highway driving some suburban, some urban city driving, I got 43 miles before the engine finally kicked off, which is really impressive. I mean, this, this is a bigger heavier vehicle than the volt ever was. And it goes higher the her on a charge than then that little volt. I mean, the volt is a nice car, but it was it was small, it was cramped, it was a four seater, you know, it didn't have a whole lot of space inside, you know, this thing, this is just a regular rav4 you know, it's got plenty of room for somebody your size, Robbie, and, you know, to haul the kids around. And you can use this as you know, it's, it would be a great, you know, family vehicle, if you got, you know, just upload kids, if you don't need a third row, you know, it's a great, you know, basic, you know, compact upper compact size crossover, that I think is actually also pretty cool looking, I like the current generation of the rav4, I think it's a, it's a good looking vehicle. And you can just drive it like an Eevee you know, and then you know, when it's time to take a road trip, you know, to see your grandparents or, you know, whatever else you want to do or drive to Disney, you just keep driving, you know, it's like the same kind of thing I've said about the the Chrysler Pacifica plug in hybrid, where you just, you know, drive it, you know, your do your daily driving, you know, just plug it in at night, unplug it in the morning, do all your daily driving without using any gas, and when it's time for a road trip, then keep on going and, you know, stop the gas station.

And, you know, it's not inexpensive, you know, the starting price of the rav4 prime is for the ESI trim level is 38,250 bucks, and the x SC, which has some some extra stuff built in 41,005 75. But because it's got that 18 kilowatt hour battery, that means it's eligible for the full 70 $500 federal tax credit. So you know that that knocks it down into the low to mid 30s. You know, depending on what options you get the one I drove, you know, have basically all the options in it, which brought it up to just shy of 50,000 delivered. But you know, it still gets you down to like 42, and you live in California, and you'd have no other, you know, the other incentives they have in California, like you do the 15 $100 purchase rebate available from the state of California and various other ones, it's actually not a not a bad deal. And you know, when you consider the fact that you're going to use way less gas, I mean, even in hybrid mode, it's still, you know, rated at 38 miles per gallon, which, you know, for a vehicle this size, you know, that's, that's pretty impressive. You know, I think, you know, this is a great option. And the only other plug in hybrid of this type available. Well, that's actually not available yet that hopefully will be available at some point in the near future is the Ford Escape, which is also rated at like 40 or 41 miles of electric range. But the escape plug in hybrid is not going to offer an all wheel drive option. So if you want all wheel drive, you're limited to just this one. And there's also going to be the Lincoln Coursera, which is based on the escape platform, which will have a rear electric motor for all wheel drive. So, you know, I think that, you know, this is this is a, this is a fantastic option for somebody that's thinking about going electric, but isn't quite ready, or, you know, maybe your lifestyle means that you're not quite ready to fully commit to a battery electric vehicle. And, frankly, you know, the moment the options in this kind of crossover are still somewhat limited, although there's a bunch more coming, the there's the VW ID four, that's you can get now, the Hyundai ionic five that's coming out in the next few months. So there's, there's more options coming out, of course, there's the Tesla Model y. But, you know, the advantage, you know, what the Toyota and Toyota has been doing hybrids for more than 20 years now, they, you know, they've got this thing nailed, they know how to do these things. And, you know, Toyota has got a reputation for reliability that is well deserved, you know, and, and service and, you know, customer service, you know, something that, you know, going with a battery electric from Tesla. Maybe a little questionable, you know, if you have any issues, you know, actually getting it fixed. You know, you go to a Toyota dealer, anywhere in the country, and, you know, I'll have it fixed for you, you know, usually most often the same day. You know, worst case it might be a day or two if they have to get parts from a warehouse. But you know, that's that's gonna be pretty rare. currents with a Toyota. So if either of you had a chance to drive the rav4 prime,

Nicole Wakelin  45:06  
yeah, I did have a chance driver to get back I like you I was a fan I thought it was, it was a good choice. And you know, it was funny, there was a point where I sort of was this on the whole plug in hybrid things are like well, either, you know, just get a regular old hybrid or go with an Eevee. But like, like I was talking about the options with the V's, they aren't the same as what you get with vehicles that are still a hybrid or plug in hybrid, they still feel like cars, or Evie, sometimes don't, you know, on the inside. And I really liked the Toyota rav4. I thought there are four is good. I enjoyed driving it. I thought that it was it did exactly what you wanted to do. You know, you want to be able to plug in and take advantage of that when you can, but you don't want to feel like Oh God, if I can't forget my car, I'm going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. It rides a good balance and it gets a good fuel economy. And that it doesn't it's weird, because now it doesn't matter to people as much like right now on in April of 2021. Because so many people are not driving and commuting the way they were before. Like that was a much bigger deal. If you weren't talking early 2020 where you could take the cost of that car, and very quickly do the math and say, Oh, I'm gonna save a ton of cash on my on my daily commute. Suddenly, now you either don't have a daily commute, you know, it's from your, your bedroom to your office downstairs. And it's a little bit harder to rationalize it. But I think that the rebates help, especially if you're in California, because you get extra goodies you don't get everywhere else. But I think it's it's a good, it's a good like taking that like training wheels, like you're really the tricycle like at the height, just a straight up hybrid, you're kind of like if the training wheels stage when you get a plug in hybrid. So eventually you will take those training wheels off and you will go fully v. So it's a nice like intermediary step that gets you used to plugging in without feeling the Panic of not being able to.

Roberto Baldwin  46:53  
Yeah, I haven't, I haven't had a chance to do the the prime I've driven the rav4 hybrid and the regular rav4. And I am a big fan. You know, I'm it's, it is it's Toyota quality. It's you know, the redesign is much nicer than, you know, I really like I like the way it looks. You get to edit, and it's again, it's a Toyota so you feel like it's bulletproof. You know, the world's gonna end and the only thing left is going to be Toyota's,

Sam Abuelsamid  47:19  
and even after your last pair of glasses is broken, it

Roberto Baldwin  47:23  
everything yeah, you can't you can't read everything in the library anymore, but you can still drive your drive your Highlander, you can drive your RAM for two, I don't know, lenscrafters I suppose it didn't seem like that was that big of a deal for that guy. And in retrospect, it just go to the there's got to be some glasses other people are wearing somewhere. But yeah, so the, the, you know, the, the the idea of the plug in hybrid 42 miles. And that, that that's insane when you think about it, you know, when a couple years ago, you know, you got the you know, you get 80 miles on an eagle. Yeah, you know, a pure electric vehicle. And you know, that, that, you know, that was that was because of that platform, but you know, now you get a plug in hybrid that takes care of everything you need to do during the day without ever jump, you know, dipping into the gasoline in your engine, my brother owns a volt. And he's a big fan, and he likes the idea of you know, he tries a hyper milot and you know, but the rav4 you see, that's the thing that everyone wants a crossover or small SUV. Everyone wants to be able to drive something where they don't have that anxiety of of, you know, the range anxiety in California. I live in California, so I was like, Oh, well, there's a charger there the charger, there's a charger there. The rest of the country isn't like California. And you know, it's it's sometimes it's difficult to explain to people in California the rest of the country isn't like us. We're not we don't have the charging infrastructure. And so you know, having something that like Nikolas thing was sort of like training wheels to teach you you know what you don't drive more than 50 miles a day. And so maybe in a few years you know you you are you know, you keep your your rav4 prime or whatever other plug in hybrid you have and the other view your second vehicle as you age out of that you're like no, maybe we can get an Eevee for that. So now we have this this plug in hybrid that we're not we're barely using gas and then we have an Eevee for other trips around town and so it's it's Toyota's Evie strategy is weird, but the their their hybrid strategy is on point. I mean, they are the kings of the hybrid. And I've driven the Prius, the Prius Prime the preemie, I'm just not a fan of that vehicle. But I really like yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  49:43  
you get the advantages of a Prius Prime without the weirdness.

Roberto Baldwin  49:47  
Exactly. And the backup sound in a Prius Prime that happens in the car.

Nicole Wakelin  49:53  
Why are they telling me like I know what gear I know that I'm going reverse. I am doing the reversing. I am actively the one reversing. Why are you warning me I'm going in reverse. I drives me crazy. I have someone who didn't believe me. So it was like in my driveway and I had my daughter we're currently just record so that she believes me see reverse it beeps inside the car.

Roberto Baldwin  50:13  
My friends bought one they had one for a few years. And they they, they they read the review that I had done it that the previous prime and they were like, You're right. I think they didn't Yeah, again, I don't think people just really loud. I had the video guy with me, we're like, it doesn't make any noise outside. Really, he's like we can kind of hear

Nicole Wakelin  50:34  
inside, it's like boo, boo, boo boo. Like I know what I'm doing.

Roberto Baldwin  50:39  
The backup camera comes on, I'm in reverse. I know. This bothers

Nicole Wakelin  50:43  
you reverter because it drove me crazy.

Roberto Baldwin  50:47  
But it's all the great technology that's in the Prius Prime and put into a vehicle that is that as for most people is useful, what people want. And it's powerful. You know, there's current driver did something about how it outran the super in a few different tests or whatever.

Nicole Wakelin  51:06  
And I you know, and I do agree is that if you're going to go with hybrid technology, I feel like Toyotas got that like they're there when you can feel really confident with him and they've just ditched their gas power train altogether for the Sienna, you can no longer get just a gas Sienna, there's only the hybrid Sienna so they're like all in they got this.

Roberto Baldwin  51:26  
Yeah, they know what they're doing. Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  51:28  
I wouldn't fact I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Sienna prime launch, you know, within the next year or so, to compete against the Pacifica hybrid Pacifica plug in hybrid.

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Sam Abuelsamid  52:13  
Speaking of Toyota and electrification, this week, they announced I think, I think they announced it in conjunction with the Shanghai Auto Show. The there there are electric plan, and they're launching a sub brand called Beyond zero. Which I'm not sure exactly what actually goes beyond zero. I mean,

Roberto Baldwin  52:36  
isn't that one isn't one beyond zero? All

Sam Abuelsamid  52:38  
depends which direction you're going. I mean, it could be negative one,

Unknown Speaker  52:42  
I guess. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  52:42  
I mean, is it good? Is it gonna? Is it gonna consume co2 from the atmosphere and and turn it into a fuel that you can then pump back into?

Roberto Baldwin  52:51  
Every car? Every car has a tree planted on?

Nicole Wakelin  52:54  
An all I can think of is like the ice cream place? Do you guys have subzero ice cream near you? They like make it No,

Sam Abuelsamid  52:59  
I've heard of it. But

Nicole Wakelin  53:01  
that's all I can think of is sub zero ice cream and expect the car to make ice cream. But go ahead.

Sam Abuelsamid  53:07  
So beyond zero or Bz is going to be there or be Zed is going to be their their sub brand for battery electric vehicles going forward. And they're planning to launch by 2025. Toyota and Lexus are going to watch 15 new battery electric vehicles today. They have let's see zero, none. There are no battery electric Toyota's that you can buy at least in North America right now. And they're going to watch 15 across the two brands, including seven Bz models for the Toyota brand as part of an a portfolio of 70 electrified models. So basically they're putting hybrids into everything else and watching seven, seven Bz models for Toyota. And the first one that they've shown is Bz 4x

Nicole Wakelin  54:05  
where are they really calling isn't really that how you're saying? Bz 4x v v concept? Bz 4x that rolls right off the tongue, we're not missing some other presentations.

Sam Abuelsamid  54:15  
That's what they're calling the concept. Okay, they don't keep that exact nomenclature for the for the production models, but

Nicole Wakelin  54:23  
it's like Jeep had the 4x e but it's actually four

Sam Abuelsamid  54:26  
by which kind

Nicole Wakelin  54:27  
of like, okay, four by E that kind of that works I but this Bz I Okay, go ahead.

Sam Abuelsamid  54:34  
So that they launched this looks like a midsize crossover, you know, maybe roughly rav4 you know, maybe between a rav4 and and a Highlander size. I think it's probably closer to rav4 on the outside and maybe more Highlander sized on the inside because it's electric. Not a lot of details yet. I think you know, we'll probably see a production version of this. You Probably in 2022 What do you guys think of this?

Nicole Wakelin  55:06  
You know what I would love to see them design an Eevee that doesn't have it really squared off snout like, look like they've chopped the end of it off. Like I get that they don't need to grow there. But could you like taper that sucker down? So it doesn't just look like

Roberto Baldwin  55:20  
it's a bit? Yeah, it's a bit like the Sphinx where its nose was cut off. It's

Nicole Wakelin  55:25  
really nicely sculpted on end and like, whoops, got a little carried away. Well, let's leave it like that.

Sam Abuelsamid  55:30  
Well, it figure it works for Tesla. And I mean, that's a Tesla did on the model three.

Nicole Wakelin  55:34  
Yeah, but I still doesn't mean I have to like it. I certainly can't wait, why can't we make it pretty in the front? Like, it's like, oh, now that we don't need like a fancy honey comb, girl, let's just lock that right off and do nothing.

Roberto Baldwin  55:45  
Yeah, we don't need that anymore. So whenever

Nicole Wakelin  55:49  
we forget, forget it.

Roberto Baldwin  55:50  
rare. Yeah, we got the Erase tool in

Unknown Speaker  55:55  
this chapter.

Roberto Baldwin  55:56  
Nothing, nothing, we don't need anything up there. Because we don't need anything up there. You know, it has the you know, it's, it mirrors the current design philosophy of Twitter with everything with the sharp angles and the more aggressive stance and, of course, that weird front end. That's been, it's not just lopped off, it's almost like concave. And, you know, I, sometimes I, I questioned how it is, when it comes to BVs. Toyota and Honda are both just like, ah, we don't know. Well, everyone else like moving forward, you know, likely it? Well, we, you know, we have hybrids, why do you? What do you want from us, we then we have fuel cells, like, okay, it you know, it's so it's it, they're sort of, you know, almost half heartedly coming out with, with their, their BTV news and our platform. And then, and I can sit there and, and, and question them all day, but they're, you know, they also have, again, we talked about the prime, which is a great vehicle, it's, you know, it's for most people, they they'll be dipping into the gas, you know, once or twice a week. But I'm happy they're doing something and I'm sure it's it's all for, you know, for Europe and for China, in order to meet regulatory constraints in order to sell vehicles in those those areas. And then we'll we'll eventually probably, maybe get something here that I'm sure they're gonna keep a sharp eye on what happens with the ID four. And literally every other you know, Evie crossover that's coming out before they make a decision for the United States because they you know, it's all about that spreadsheet for sure.

Sam Abuelsamid  57:35  
Yeah, well, I think I think they are gonna they're they have said they are going to launch some battery electrics in North America in the next two years. And I would not be surprised if this is the first one that gets launched. or something, you know, something like this is the first one that gets launched. What it What about the the interior?

Nicole Wakelin  57:56  
I was just gonna see Did you check out that? The interior of this how the instrument cluster looks? What is that giant trace situation?

Sam Abuelsamid  58:05  
It's, it's a little weird. Yeah, you get this kind of channel, that it goes back to a digital instrument cluster, that's right at the base of the windshield. So instead of putting the cluster right behind the steering wheel, it's moved it forward, which I think is actually not a bad idea, you know, again, gets it gets it closer to where you know, closer to where you see a heads up display,

Nicole Wakelin  58:29  
right, like your line of sight is more in line with the road you don't have to look as far away from the road. That makes sense. Yeah, it's just it's I'm not

Sam Abuelsamid  58:34  
sure you need that channel on either side of it. It's it looks a little odd.

Nicole Wakelin  58:39  
It looks like for someone that just throw something there because they're like, I need to like like throw something up there. I don't know if we'd hold something like But the worst spot to put stuff in your car like you don't want to store stuff directly in front of your face but doesn't if you can't you imagine someone like just tossing their key or tossing something up there and then

Roberto Baldwin  58:57  
yeah, I take my wallet out of my pocket when I drive and what if I if I threw it up there the first time I accelerate just to pull people up into my lap onto the ground now I'm doing now I'm reaching in onto the ground. I'm not driving safely. It looks like a halfpipe for some skater. Or maybe something sort of snowboarding x game halfpipe it's a it's a weird decision.

Nicole Wakelin  59:18  
So my theory is that's gonna be one of the things because this is just a concept because you know, it's never gonna look just like this when it comes out. Maybe that will get toned down a little bit.

Roberto Baldwin  59:28  
I hope so. Yeah. It just sort of just get rid of it and just have it maybe they didn't want it floating but they have the infotainment table if it was

Nicole Wakelin  59:35  
just floating if they just got rid of those that side. Like you said, half pipe the channel thing I think it would not look, I don't know I'm looking at a picture of it on my lap right now on my computer. Maybe in person. It makes more sense than it does looking at it on the screen. But

Sam Abuelsamid  59:50  
I don't know. I'm trying

Nicole Wakelin  59:51  
to give him the benefit of the doubt Sam in person. It's a whole different car. It looks entirely different. It makes total sense.

Roberto Baldwin  59:58  
Even from the side view, it's been Yeah, that's that's I feel it's it's very concept. So you can see where the, the steering column has this like very large like cowl, sort of moves up and down. And, you know, I feel like where it's at, you're, you're always gonna have the top of the steering wheel blocking your view of whatever something that's happening on the

Nicole Wakelin  1:00:19  
when you look at that. You're right, because when you look at that one picture that's just like head on is if you're sitting in the driver's seat, you can see the top of the steering wheel actually does cut in to whatever they're displaying. It looks like they have a fake display of like the speed. It does cut the bottom of that right off.

Unknown Speaker  1:00:35  
Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  1:00:36  
it's also right in no cuts off, you know, some of the windshield I don't even know if it's if it's illegal. Can you cut off the show? Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:00:45  
I mean, with within Richard?

Roberto Baldwin  1:00:47  
Yeah, yeah, I, you know, you know, I'm just gonna say that I am a big fan of the Maki and the it for the idea of just sticking to display right on the column. And making it just this very nice, small display with just a few things. That's all you need. I'm like, I this is, I love this. This is I love this display,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:05  
put the essential information that you need while you're driving, you know, and grant, you know, this is not a particularly large display, you know, it's, it's, I think, similar in size to what you get into the ID four and the Maki. It's just that it's pushed out, you know, to the base of the windshield, which is a little weird, but but at least it's in front of the driver instead of being off in the middle of the dashboard. Like the Prius. Yeah. Which I've always hated. It's always drug.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:32  
No, it's just put your eyes in the right spot, I get that it sends your eyes in the right direction and keeps them higher instead of lower, which is always a good thing to reduce the amount of time your eyes are away from the actual road but but I do like Like you said, I like them really simple. I the instrument clusters that you can configure 852 ways. I never configure them 800 ways. I'm like I just want to see how fast I'm going. That's really I don't need I don't need to know everything. I don't need a new scroll at the bottom. It's like you're watching like the news and there's like a ticker tape at the bottom. You're like guys, stop. I don't need all this information about my car right now. Speed

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:09  
nav prompts if I'm using nav Yes, and blind spot monitor alerts. You know if you've got that

Nicole Wakelin  1:02:17  
I'm not a blind spot monitor alert fan because I've been told that we need a new england setting. So we're we cut fast. I feel like I'm always getting an alert that I'm cutting someone off and I'm like, He's fine. guys stop beeping at me. Fine.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:30  
He's gonna sensitivity control I think

Unknown Speaker  1:02:32  
Exactly.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:37  
Cadillac lyric Cadillac the other day, made some announcements as they move towards production on the lyric. When they initially announced the lyric last year, they said that it was going to launch in China in mid 2022. And then in the US late in the year, they've actually moved that whole program up throughout the course of the pandemic they've been working away on this thing they pulled it ahead it's going to start production in the first quarter of 2022 in Spring Hill, Tennessee where the plant that was originally created to build Saturn now it's going to be an Eevee plant going forward and it's it's priced starting at just $60,000 you know and the the production version looks almost exactly the same as the showcar that they showed us last summer and the only real difference is they they got rid of the the exterior camera mirror stocks and replaced it with regular optical mirrors. But what do you guys think of the lyric

Nicole Wakelin  1:03:40  
I think it looks good. I love how the charging port looks on it. I mean that seems like such a silly small thing but that the way that door kind of shifts down I think the charging port looks really cool

Roberto Baldwin  1:03:51  
Yeah, it's I but I also think the charging port is a bit like that that that that retractable display because it's so huge that you know the first time you do it you're like hey look at this but then the second time you do it you realize that the cables now hitting the charging port door and then eventually now you're going to have to go to Cadillac and get your charging port door fixed because the charge

Sam Abuelsamid  1:04:12  
will be all scuffed up wishing

Nicole Wakelin  1:04:14  
you gesture on whole thing it was so cool until you said that and I'm like he's 100% right that's gonna be a challenge isn't it

Sam Abuelsamid  1:04:21  
a be curious to see how he's doing because they out he has basically the same setup but they're charging port door on the E Tron where it comes out and down like that and be curious to see if they're having any issues with with those getting scuffed up although granted you know the cables you know are especially the the DC fast charge cables are pretty stiff. So once you plug it in, you know they tend not to hang down very much they tend to pretty much pretty much straight out. But what about the the interior of this thing you know you've got that 33 inch LCD, display curved LCD Display across the front. And this is going to be one of their first ones with their new infotainment system that is also on Android automotive. And but they're using the full Google suite. So you can see on on one of the images there, you got the google assistant and Google Play Store and Google Maps and the instrument cluster. What do you think of the interior design?

Roberto Baldwin  1:05:25  
I like it a lot. I mean, you still have like tangible buttons, even. And you have, and we can be concerned about privacy when it comes to Google. But I still use Google Maps, I still use, you know, all these these systems. And the fact that now you can have Google Maps in the cluster, for where I'm going, as opposed to using my smartphone. I mean, that gives Cadillac back that, you know, that control over what the the person who's who's driving is seen because, well, now, you know, I

Sam Abuelsamid  1:05:55  
plug in my phone, so I can use Google Maps. And I can reply to text messages with my voice. That's pretty much it. Everything else is sort of, you know, I could do that over Bluetooth for music, or for audible or whatever. And so this gives them you know, that that sort of screen real estate and that brand real estate back, instead of giving it up completely to Google or completely to Apple, and you know, because they have the Play Store, they haven't said exactly, you know, what apps are going to be available in there. There is the potential I think, to download other mapping apps like TomTom, or here or sygic just launched their own that you might you may be able to download different different navigation apps and use those, whether they'll display in the cluster like Google Maps does, I don't know. But you know, I think there there will be alternatives to Google Maps if you don't want to use that. And and it also still has support for Alexa voice services. So if you don't want to use the assistant, if you want to use Amazon, you can use that. And it also has support for CarPlay. So if you connect your phone, you can use Siri.

Nicole Wakelin  1:07:04  
I like how it looks. I actually love these really like these long curved LCD screens. I like not having it split up. I like just having this one long space. As much as I complained about cars being too clean when they're TVs I like that clean. infotainment is one big like, just one big screen. So what is it 33 inches of screen is cool, but not a fan of the ginormous row of those hot, I can't tell if they're just touch buttons or their actual buttons that are like below the screen.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:07:31  
They're their touch buttons. They're touch sensitive. I think they do have haptic feedback, but they are touch sensitive buttons. Okay,

Nicole Wakelin  1:07:38  
that's a lot of buttons. That is a giant row of buttons.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:07:42  
Yeah, well, I think, you know, I think a lot of the stuff like climate control, you'll be able to actually do that with voice through google assistant and just say, you know, I'm cold, raise the temperature, things like that. So you won't even most of the time really have to touch them.

Nicole Wakelin  1:07:56  
Well, then why do we have a giant row of them, hide them make them less giant rove? I don't like the giant roll. You know what else like the Corvette has that giant row of buttons to inside the Corvette that I wasn't a fan? It's like, What? Why are there 850 buttons on in a straight line when you sit down in this car? What is happening? So yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  1:08:13  
I think what that comes down to is the person who's going to buy this, which is usually a boomer at this point.

Nicole Wakelin  1:08:19  
20 year olds are behind us. What do you mean, this isn't like a millennial

Roberto Baldwin  1:08:23  
display. And so they, they still want a button, even if it's a haptic feedback, something that they can push dagnabbit Hey, my brain. And my brain boomers were born in the 20s. DAGMAR

it so you get that I, I like the idea of the Playstore integration, because one of the biggest issues, especially when you have an Eevee is that you need directions to a charging station. And the fact that now you can get you know, Evie apps now working CarPlay. And if you can get like electrify America, which for some reason still doesn't work in CarPlay. But if you can get something like that, and you can use that on your display, as opposed to looking down at your phone, every you know, you know, a couple minutes to figure out like, Where am I going to pick up this to get my car charged, which is a huge deal for you know, any Eevee at least for the next, you know, 510 years until we actually have infrastructure that that's built out to where you're not like, you know, sort of freaking out when you're driving on a long trip and you realize, Oh, God, I have to charge. I got to go find the Community College.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:09:33  
Yeah, well, actually, that's, that's where the chargepoint stations nearby me here are is that that was not Community College, the parking garage there. And that's, that's when I had the rav4. That's where I went to plug it in, because I was trying to charge points out which now has Android, or at least there's a beta version that supports Android Auto. And so I was using that through Android Auto and found a couple of bugs with it. That report Back to charge point. But that's that's getting there, you know, so you'll actually be able to, if you've got the charge point app on your phone, you set up your account on there, it'll, it'll, you can hit that app, it can show you locations of where, where charges are nearby. And when you go and plug in, you can activate the charging directly from the screen, you don't have to tap your phone on it or anything, just plug in and hit start charging. So that and they have they have that for iOS already. So you can use that in CarPlay. And they the Android version, the Android Auto version will be coming out sometime soon. I'm curious what you guys think of the lighting on this thing, both the C pillar as well as the the front lighting, you know, because the like the the front in particular, you got that? You know, as you walk up to it, you know, it does this little dance of all these LEDs, you know, kind of smiles at us you know to say hello as you're walking up

Nicole Wakelin  1:11:03  
the room and I kind of okay with the light. I mean, I don't love it. But I I like when cars have acts like puddle lights. I know that's the silliest little thing. Like when the petalite in the Mustang looks like a Mustang. I'm like he cute. Like I like the little lights and stuff. I'm all about these little light accents to make my life happy. So I think it was kind of fun.

Roberto Baldwin  1:11:26  
You think everyone had out he's like, really? Now you guys want to do this?

Unknown Speaker  1:11:33  
Alright,

Roberto Baldwin  1:11:34  
I like to I like the lights. It does remind me of that. That that one whale that has that that sort of grill across its mouth.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:11:43  
Oh, like a blue whale?

Roberto Baldwin  1:11:45  
Yeah, he just it swims. And he uses it to sort of filter out all the plankton so it gets food that way.

Nicole Wakelin  1:11:53  
I'm trying to mimic with his hands what a whale looks like. Talk with my hands. So like I get what he's trying to say now.

Roberto Baldwin  1:12:03  
patreon will now just have me making hand gestures. This is how a whale looks everyone. And he's got this, then I'll do the little drawings of the whale look really bad. And it'd be the worst version of Pictionary ever. But if you have I think differentiation from everything else that's on the road is is sorely lacking in ice vehicles. Everything sort of looks like everything else from from more than 50 feet away to the average person. So I think this, this is going to be like, Oh, look at this, I think I think that's why the Maki when I had it, like got so much attention because it sort of does look a little bit different from everything else. More so than you know, your average ice vehicle. So I think Doing this will help Cadillac at least, like put a stake in the ground. And when you see it, you know, that's a Cadillac.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:12:51  
Yeah, and, you know, like we talked about earlier with the Toyota, you know, when you don't have the need for, you know, a traditional grill for cooling, you know, you just need a small opening to cool the battery that you want something up there and because otherwise, you're just gonna have this expanse of blank body work like you have on a Tesla. And, you know, how do you distinguish different brands, you know, this, I think this is an interesting way to, to set Cadillac apart, you know, give it a different look, you know, to move a little bit beyond what current Cadillac faces look like and give it something that's different.

Nicole Wakelin  1:13:32  
Well, and you know, you're talking about the boomers wanting their buttons to push. Also, if you're a boomer buying a Cadillac, you kind of want everyone to know that you got yourself a Cadillac, like fancy car, and it, it adds another element of like, I just didn't get a Cadillac. I got a really cool Cadillac. Look at my lyric. It's the fanciest so it kind of falls in line with that idea of who would be buying this one.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:54  
Yeah. During the briefing they did the other day. Rory Harvey, who's the the head of global Cadillac. Now, one of the things that he mentioned during this event was going forward, Cadillac will not be introducing any more new internal combustion vehicles. So they're going to do updates on the ones they have. So you know, the escalate is going to get some updates it xT 465 66. But going forward, every new Cadillac that's launched is going to be electric. And our goal is by 2030. They'd like to be selling nothing but EBS. This is the first and then the next one in the lineup is going to be the Celeste stick, which is going to be their big flagship sedan, which is kind of interesting looking. They haven't shown it, they're going to show it publicly, I think sometime this summer. And that's going to be that's going to be a competitor for I think, or maybe even above something like the lucid air Grand Touring. It's going to be Built in Detroit, very low volumes, and they've talked about a very high price point that, you know that the the lyric is going to start at 60 grand, and at 60 at 60 grand price point, you get 100 kilowatt hour battery pack three, over 300 miles of range. And supercruise are all standard for that 60 grand. We don't know, I'm guessing that there will be plenty of options that take it up closer to 100. But that's that's actually a surprisingly reasonable price. It was it's less than what I was expecting for this car.

Roberto Baldwin  1:15:35  
Yeah, the price points it's it's, it's, you know, especially when you get the federal and state tax credits, you know, this is going to do well and LA, especially as you get

Sam Abuelsamid  1:15:46  
older now at least GM doesn't have any federal tax credits available. They they'd sold Oh, yeah.

But depending on what you're right by Congress from this infrastructure bill, they might have some new incentives, federal incentives

Roberto Baldwin  1:15:58  
available. But I say GM and Tesla they, you know, they're just like, Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm sure GM has lobbyists and Tesla has Ilan texting.

Nicole Wakelin  1:16:08  
Alright, so yeah, Tesla has Ilan lobbyists.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:12  
Cadillac, lyric, BMW, i x. Which one would you choose?

Nicole Wakelin  1:16:23  
Oh, I don't know. Look,

Roberto Baldwin  1:16:26  
I you know, I like to. I like the way the lyric looks. Compared to the next. Just the I know. That's a weird thing to say.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:36  
I don't think that's weird. That's not that attractive.

Roberto Baldwin  1:16:44  
Yeah, the front end. The front end is it's so I don't know. And it's all sharpened. stabby it's like a paper craft. Paper pedestrian

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:54  
friendly.

Unknown Speaker  1:16:56  
Yes. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin  1:16:58  
Yeah, I have the personality. It just there's more personality going on in the lyric.

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:04  
Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to go that's a toughy

Nicole Wakelin  1:17:12  
it's not a toughy I really don't like BMWs right now lyric. Oh, my God. I can't pick the two giant. I don't like I'm gonna go Eric. The the beaver teeth in the front. I can't I don't know what's happened. Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:27  
I'm gonna I'm gonna have to say lyric. You're right. I'm gonna have to say lyric I like I sort of like the the sort of almost deconstructed interior of the of the i x. But at the same time, I stopped driving around. People have to look at me. And they were going to judge me. So

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:45  
it's like being a green bubble and mess and Apple messages. last item. Still lantis formerly known as FCA, Fiat Chrysler and PSA has decided to kill the GA platform. So this is the the platform architecture that they developed for the alpha male Stelvio and Giulia and back in 2014, when they first announced it, Sergio Marchione talked about this being the, the basis for at least eight new models across fi and Chrysler, and, you know, hundreds of 1000s of units a year. And this was gonna be their premium rear wheel drive all wheel drive platform. You know, it was supposed to be the basis for the new, a new version of the challenger, a replacement for the Challenger and the charger and the Chrysler 300. And it's dead now. They're not gonna they're not gonna do anything with it going forward, except there's going to be one more Mazda rottie midsize crossover. That's basically a derivative of the Stelvio. And that's it. Nothing else. Because it's just too expensive. It's good, but it's expensive.

Roberto Baldwin  1:18:57  
Yeah, at least we got the Giulia and Stelvio out of it. I mean, those are two wonderful cars that I would never buy. I would maybe lease for six months. But you know

Nicole Wakelin  1:19:07  
what, because you've worried that it would last beyond six months.

Roberto Baldwin  1:19:11  
Well, I mean, I'm sure it would last at least eight months to get at least a three you know, yeah. If you get the three year war, okay, if you get a three year loan, or a three year lease with a three year warranty, you know if and all the phone calls you get you just say yes to every phone call about your car warranty. you're you're you're golden. I LOVE LOVE, LOVE THE Julia. I don't care what variation. Okay, it's the low end. Okay. Everything about the Giulia is just a wonderful car. I really liked the Stelvio. But yeah, it's expensive, like you said, and at some point, you have to look at the future and be like, well, we need to consolidate. I

Nicole Wakelin  1:19:46  
love the Julia. I'm with you. I love the Juliet's. Like my favorite car, don't care how reliable it is. I love that thing. And people can mock me all I could buy one I'd be like, sure. I don't care if it spends half its life in the garage. The other half of It's life. It's gonna make me so happy. I would still buy it.

Roberto Baldwin  1:20:05  
Yeah, I, when I lived in San Francisco, I, you know, you get a lot of cars BMWs you know, I, whatever, I had the Julia and one of my neighbors who would walk, he would walk his dog every night and he'd come, you know, I'd be outside or what? And he would talk to me about the cars. And I had the Giuliani parked on the street. And he's like, that doesn't seem like the kind of car you need. You should have parked on the street, you should put that in your garage. Really? Julia above everything else that I had had. That was the car.

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:31  
Because it looks so different cuz you never see them. So when you do see when you look at it, and you think what, whatever that is, has to be special and should be taken care of, you know?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:39  
Yeah. And like, Nicole, you just spent a better part of a week in a Stelvio driving cross country with Rebecca.

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:47  
I did. And yeah, that's I mean, I I'd never spent more than I don't even think I've had one for a press loan for a week. So I've only ever spent like, you know, eight hours at a time in any of them I think you know, for like on it on a drive. But the Stelvio was fantastic. I really had no complaints about it. It was comfortable it did it everyone was sassing us the whole way one person gave me like your driving cross country he just put up like the roadside assistance number for Alfa Romeo is a comment. So and I'm like, okay, fine, you know, fine, do that. Whatever. But we didn't have any issues. It handled beautifully. And we had, we didn't have any snowy weather, but we had some crummy. It's just mucky weather. Apparently, when they sand the roads in Denver, they use a pound of sand for every square inch of roadway. So like sand everywhere, you know, and so it's like so it was kind of pain in the neck to driving. So even the nice driving and the not nice driving weatherwise It's a great vehicle. I loved it. I it was comfortable. I mean, we drove across the entire United States and I think and I never felt like get me out of this. It's loud. I need a break. It's uncomfortable. I need a break. It was it was comfortable right up until the time that we got to the hotel each night. So I loved it. I'm a fan.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:59  
You know, I've driven both the the two liter versions of both, you know the Giulia and Stelvio as well as the Quadro folios and I am a huge fan of the Quadro folio that that twin turbo 2.9 liter V six is just, it just sounds so incredible. You stand on it. The one the one issue with those though, is if you're driving into Central Ohio, the the the turbo they recommend or actually I think it's might even say it requires premium gas. And I took the the Stelvio quadrifoglio to drive to Columbus for a Honda fat from my home, near Ann Arbor. And once I got off of I 75 and turn in towards central Ohio. It's like none of the gas stations in the small towns had anything but regular gas. And I suspect that they were probably not more than like 82 octane. So like, you know, and I needed gas because it's not the most fuel efficient car in the world.

Nicole Wakelin  1:23:08  
How did that work out?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:23:10  
I put it in just enough gas to make sure I could get to Columbus. Yeah, and and then filled it up with premium when I got there and you know, made sure not to not not to you know, get too hard on the accelerator while I was driving, which actually, when you're driving in Central Ohio is a wise thing to do anyway, you don't want to drive too quickly there because every little towns got a sheriff's deputy waiting behind every tree. We're ready to ready to write you a ticket for going half a mile an hour over the posted speed limit. So yeah, it worked out okay. I got back safe and didn't the car wasn't making any weird noises when I got back so I think it was alright, it survived.

Roberto Baldwin  1:23:51  
That's good. Did you whisper I'm sorry, to the car as you're

Sam Abuelsamid  1:23:59  
petting petting the fender trying to keep it calm.

Roberto Baldwin  1:24:04  
I'm sorry, I'm feeding you McDonald's.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:24:07  
It'll be okay. I'll Don't

Nicole Wakelin  1:24:08  
worry. There's a fillet the next state over I'll

Sam Abuelsamid  1:24:11  
get you the good stuff as soon as we get to get to a decent town. Let's let's get a couple of listener emails before we wrap it up for today. First up Ken brank. And this is actually kind of related to something you were talking about earlier with the Sierra Robbie. In Episode 188. you're discussing commercial driver's licenses in conjunction with the F 350 which Dan had been driving. With these trucks it's more likely that the requirements kick in based on what you're towing. In California for instance, travel trailer over 10,000 pounds. g VW or a fifth wheel over 15,000 pounds require a non commercial class a license. Most states base the requirements on the towed trailer. Some combine the weights a common misconception is that folks think it's the actual Wait, that establishes the requirement California at least it's the weight rating that sets the requirement. So Rob, you don't have a commercial driver's license do

Roberto Baldwin  1:25:11  
i do and i thought about getting one and then someone pointed out that if you have a commercial driver's license, and you get pulled over with your regular driver's license, you get really hosed because you have this commercial driver's license like you you're here held to a higher expectation. I was like yeah, I don't want to be held to that I haven't been pulled over and oh my god like eight years which is considering what I do I'm like wow, that's pretty good. And so but I don't want it when I do get pulled over for doing for driving too quickly. I don't want to be extra zapped because I got the commercial drivers

Nicole Wakelin  1:25:48  
zap that's an official term

Roberto Baldwin  1:25:50  
I was extra is extra that extra zapped in the in the in the bank account area.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:25:55  
Yeah, now the think that the heaviest trailer I've ever towed was let's say like 12,000 pounds, you know, a conventional trailer was 12,000 pound trailer on a GM heavy duty pickup drive but 10 years ago, and you know, that was drunk driving the you know, the three ton truck pulling a four or no a C six ton trailer behind it through the mountains of West Virginia, you know, and I had like five minutes of coaching from a GM engineer before we started I told small trailers before that but never anything that big and I said yes no problem Yeah, just you know it's got we've got the trailer brake control that uses the the the variable nozzle turbo for engine braking when you're going downhill you know when you turn on the brake trailer brake control, it'll crank the the veins in the the turbo back to give you more back pressure and slow you down without actually hitting the brakes or downshifting. So it was just rely on that you'll be fine enough Okay, fine. No problem. It worked out. Okay. Still here.

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:00  
I think the same thing I've done I did. I'd haven't done any kind of heavy duty towing was on a ram program again, never just on my own it was on a program and it was the first time I'd heard anything significant. And I actually was my drive partner was a guy who does towing stuff all the time to master Dolly just pickup truck talk plus SUV. I think I got it right. I may have mangled that name a little bit. But he was like, Tim, I don't I am. So I don't know what I'm doing is like you got this and it was great to have someone sitting in the passenger seat to kind of like, this is how this works. You're fine. I'm like, Okay, now it has someone coach me through this. This is not so hard. But when you look at that they're like get in there and show that you're like what, you know,

Roberto Baldwin  1:27:39  
is someone saying, you know, you got this you got this like okay, as opposed to wrong.

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:44  
He doesn't seem to be jumping out of the truck in a panic. So I feel like I do have it.

Roberto Baldwin  1:27:50  
I'm texting 911.

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:53  
Just in case, he seemed pretty lacks. So I thought okay, if he's not panicking, I'm doing okay.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:27:59  
All right, last one, from Adam, jack alenko. And Adam says, I mean, I'm a I'm a Patreon supporter, or sorry. I mean, a Patreon supporter is kind of like a boss, right? Regardless, I hereby forbid, Sam from leaving the show. That is all. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'm sticking with this till the bitter end till the last person has stopped listening and downloading. I'll be here. He says I'm confident the show will be as entertaining still be as entertaining and informative ever. And if you have ever have listeners on the show, again, I'm game. Well, I would say that based on this first outing with with you, Robbie, that it has, I personally think it has lived up to expectations which, you know, it's a low bar for us. But yeah, I think this is gonna work out just fine. And we will definitely have more live zoom shows with listeners again in the future. And said, you know, Dan will be back from time to time with some special stories. But I'm, I'm so glad you agreed to join us, Robbie. This is this has been fun and, and Nicole is always great to have you here.

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:11  
Yeah, this is working out. Hey, I want to can we do we have time to do one more question. I have a question someone. It's on Twitter. So it's not in our show notes. So like, I'm gonna have to read it from my phone. It's from Adam J. And he said, can you tell us number one, the cars you're all currently own drive. And number two, your favorite car you've driven in the last year? Sam, you go first.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:32  
Okay, so in the garage. We have a 2017 Honda Civic hatchback, which is my wife's primary vehicle that she drives but I occasionally drive it as well. And it's bright red. Race. Red, I think is the official color name. And sitting next to that is my 1990 Mazda Miata, which you know, talked about once or twice in the past. And that's that's my toy. And then I would say my favorite car that I've driven in the last year. It's a it's a tough choice. You know, I think just as a as a pure favorite, I probably have to give it to the Corvette the CA Corvette, which I think is just such a fantastic car. In so many ways it's and especially when you consider the price point. And what it what it does for that price point is just remarkable. But I also really, really enjoyed the Mustang Maki it has for for the time being at least it is my favorite. Evie. What about you, Robbie?

Roberto Baldwin  1:30:39  
So we have two vehicles, the one we purchased, which is a 2014 BRC manual transmission will drive. It's the tall man's Miata is what it is. I don't fit in the Miata. I wish I did. But I don't my head always hits the the roof or the cover or whatever. There's

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:58  
an easy fix for that. You just never put the top up which is what I do.

Roberto Baldwin  1:31:02  
Yeah, either. It's raining, it's whatever or I rip the seed out and I bolt in a new seat which I did with my my roadster when I was a kid and we just ripped the seat out, put new holes in and I pulled it back and then you can never move the seat. And then we also have a this was a gift a 2004 Jaguar x type the Ford Mondeo, a fancy

Sam Abuelsamid  1:31:25  
fancy car

Roberto Baldwin  1:31:26  
that we had the fancy we had the Mondeo sport elite is what I like to call it. It was a gift from my father in law because it turned out the resale price on that thing is almost zero. They were gonna they were trying to sell it they were trying to trade it in they were only gonna get like 1000 bucks. 500 bucks for it. So they gave it to us. It's a three liter it's all wheel drive. We use it mostly for the dog we take used to take the dog to the dog park we used to run errands around town every check engine light imaginable comes on all the time. But for them you know, it does what it's supposed to it gets us around town. It's a it's it's a weird little car. I wish he had purchased the wagon. Yeah. Oh, that would have been better for the dog. It would Yeah. And and it would it would be a wagon that would have been very excited about that. But you know, it's it's a you're a proper

Sam Abuelsamid  1:32:15  
journalist. You do prefer station wagons.

Roberto Baldwin  1:32:18  
Oh, my. So So

Nicole Wakelin  1:32:21  
is it Brian brown and have a manual transmission to complete the you know,

Roberto Baldwin  1:32:26  
it has to have a manual transmission. Yeah. If he had gotten the wagon with the manual transmission, I would have been like, and he took Here you go. And I'm like, oh, I've been very excited even with all this sort of, like, you know, for Jaguar issues that that arise. And then my favorite car that I've driven this year and this really brings me back to my old wr x they used to have that the engine blew about eight years ago was the STI series white. And and I'll explain why. First, if you own a wr x or an STI, you learn how to drive it. Like it's you can't just get behind the wheel and drive that car. Like that second second gear is like this is super short. It's built for like flying up hills and jumping over. I don't know through rally or rally car. So it's got a very weird, you know, the the, the gearing is very weird. Everything about is sort of odd and you have to get used to it. But if you have that ingrained in your DNA from driving one for a while, whenever you get into an even a new one, you're like, Oh yeah, this is it. And I really love it because I live in the East Bay of the Bay Area. And while we have, you know, nice twisty roads over here near my house, they're also pitted and they're full holes. And you know, I've had two advantages and both of them it's just like it's it's it's it's teeth jaren everything else it's very you can't shoot video over here because the roads are too tough. I usually will typically go over to Moran where the roads are much nicer and you can get some nice hair pins and but that STI it didn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter with an

Sam Abuelsamid  1:33:56  
STI or forests

Nicole Wakelin  1:33:58  
right it's designed to render forests

Roberto Baldwin  1:34:00  
and so it's fine and so that yeah it i think it's it's its partner style jazz as a former wr ex owner and it's part the idea that I could just go just all out in this vehicle and it doesn't matter how you know bad The road is it'll take it and it'll just wants you know if you know how to drive it. It's ready to go and it wants to give you more

Sam Abuelsamid  1:34:22  
cool okay,

Nicole Wakelin  1:34:23  
I guess that leads me so we have two cars, one's hobbies, one's mine so my husband's normally driving he has a 15 Cherokee Trailhawk because you know red toe hooks and skid plates are cool. So he loves it. He loves that he loves those and I like it too. It's I like jeeps and I have a 2010 charger but it's like your base most boring is you know rental special charger that I bought at the time because remember this kids with a sticky hands and the mandarin oranges. That's the age they were at when I bought it. But it's still like it's fun to drive a charger I like I like having it so it's I like Big great big cars now you know I like the Durango is an SUV so much. So those are the two cars that we have. favorite car is like a hard one because I feel like I'm like listening to you. I'm like, Oh yeah, the Maki Oh yeah, that there's a lot of good cars that are doing. So I'm just going to pick something that you guys didn't say. So I'm going to go with what I just had a few weeks ago which was the NSX

Unknown Speaker  1:35:21  
because oh yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  1:35:23  
cuz it's it Yes, it's it's expensive. Most people are never gonna sit in it. But the thing was, I still feel it was the most livable supercar I've ever driven like you could you can drive it every day. And you don't feel the harshness if you want to, you know, track it, go for it. But if you just want to use that car to get groceries and your grocery list is short. Yeah, you can do it. It's it's a very livable car and just oh my god, is it pretty and fun to drive. So that would be my favorite car that I've had in the last year.

Roberto Baldwin  1:35:53  
It's so wonderful. I thought when I got the review unit that I drove up, I don't know is over a year ago. It had 6000 miles on it already. And and if it was a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. Ready, ready for it? Yeah. But it was it's an NSA. I can take this to the Honda dealer. It was just so wonderful to drive. I drove it to Santa Cruz, I drove it around the Bay Area, and I absolutely loved it. And I and when we were shooting video, a guy was riding his bike and he he was talking to us about it. And I was like, yeah, it's you know, it's you get supercar feel and look, but you also get that that Honda Acura, yes. You know that, that reliability? And he's like, yeah, I have a Ferrari. And my friend has a Ferrari. And I'm like, Okay. And he was like, Yeah, my friend's Ferrari has to be sent back to Italy, he won't have it for 18 months. Oh, my God, for mine when I have to, I had to schedule an oil change. And that's going to take four months. Wow. I'm like, yeah, if you had this, and so he was very interested in the NSX. Because he had spent all this money on the Ferrari. And then he's like, well, I don't, should I drive it? I have to get No, I mean, you should be fine. But the idea that, you know, you have to send your car away his friends to send his car away to get fixed. And the idea that just to get an oil change requires a very special appointment.

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:12  
And I know it gets if you're spending the kind of money that those cars cost, maybe you've got, you know, four other cars in the garage. But still, if I'm going to buy a car that's that much. I want to be able to drive it I don't want to have to think like, Oh, well, I'm gonna have to shuffle this thing off. Like you're saying for the next four months, six months, eight months, wherever to have maintenance done it. I just want to go down to the Honda dealership and have things taken care of, you know, and and so I liked that. It was like I said, it's the most livable supercar I've ever driven. I loved it. It was beautiful. It was fun. So that's my number one car over the last year.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:37:44  
All right, excellent. Well, that's another show wrapped up. Thank you very much, both of you. Anything that you're doing this week that you want to mention to you, or anything that people should be on the lookout for?

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:58  
I guess my next week is topic is going to be something I can't talk about yet. Well, I drove it but I can't give you drive impressions or I'd have to kill you because it's all embargoed. So I will have

Sam Abuelsamid  1:38:07  
pictures of it on Instagram.

Nicole Wakelin  1:38:10  
Yeah, I had drove the Wrangler for by he there plug in hybrid in Texas. I just got back day before yesterday. So yeah, so be able to talk about it and what that was like, I think the embargo lifts on the 26th. So yeah, I can't tell you yet. But I will be able to tell you about a week. All right.

Roberto Baldwin  1:38:31  
Robbie, I'm actually going on vacation, which means I have to rent a car, which right now is actually very difficult. All the car, all the rental services sold off a bunch of their their, their inventory in order to stay afloat. And now as everyone's getting vaccinated, people are going on vacation. And now they're the the supply and demand issue is become quite an Yeah. So either. I'll tell you how it was easy, and it wasn't a big deal at all. Or I'll tell you about the horror of not having a car while stuck on an island in the middle of

Nicole Wakelin  1:39:03  
actually should be stuck in an island. So you know,

Roberto Baldwin  1:39:06  
I know I'm just like I'm trying to

Nicole Wakelin  1:39:08  
feel free Oh, I couldn't rent a car while I was on my vacation. And that island I don't know that I can prescribe for you, Roberto.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:39:14  
And I'll be meeting up with the the team from Yandex, the Russian search engine company to learn about their their little rover delivery bots, autonomous delivery bots that are running around downtown Ann Arbor now.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:27  
Whoa. All right.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:39:30  
Thanks, guys. See you next week. Bye.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:40  
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