Sam Abuelsamid  0:01  
Coming up on episode 208 a wheel bearings we've got a lot of stuff to drive, the Audi su seven Lamborghini or us the 1957 Mercedes Benz 300 sL the Toyota Sienna the Hyundai Santa Cruz, the Nissan Frontier, the 2022, Jeep, wagoneer and Grand wagoneer. We also talk about the new Lamborghini cone Tosh the return of the Acura Integra and the possibility of a Nissan compact electric pickup all coming up next. 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 improvements are already on the way thanks to your generosity. So if you want to be part of an automotive podcast like no other head to patreon.com slash wheel bearings, media

This is Episode 208 dub wheel bearings I'm Sandra ball salmon from guide us insights.

Nicole Wakelin  1:04  
I am Nicole wakelet. And this week we'll go with autobytel.

Roberto Baldwin  1:07  
And I am Roberto Baldwin from Engadget.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13  
And this week, I am going to start things off because Robbie is still waking up from his first night back on the stage last night. And Nicole is digging up some information about the cars that she drove. So this this week, I've been driving the right. I think I just did Yeah. I've been driving a 2020 Audi Sq seven that remarkably is still in the press fleet after you know two almost two years now, and it's only got about 5300 miles on it. So yeah, the the Sq seven is the I don't know if they sell an RS q seven here in North America. I don't think they do. I think they still I think they offer one in Europe. But this is the higher performance version of Audi's three row crossover SUV thing, which is really more kind of wagon ish than kind of in between crossover and wagon. Because it's not that tall, especially after what we what we drove earlier this week that Nicole I'll talk about later. You know, it actually doesn't feel that that big. And so, you know, when I say three row, it's nominally three row, it has a couple of extra seats at the back behind the second row. But they're, you know, certainly not not big enough for for almost any adults. And, you know, I think kids are probably not going to be that comfortable back there in that third row anyway. But what makes the Sq seven special, is it has a twin turbocharged four liter V eight with 500 horsepower, and it'll do zero to 60 in under four seconds. And it has big alloy wheels and, and big tires. And it actually drives remarkably well for what it is, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't feel like a meal 5000 pound plus vehicle. You know, it's, it's quite, it's quite, it's quite nice to drive. It's got fantastic seats in it. If you've driven if you've checked out any recent Audi's in the last two, three years, you'll be quite familiar with the current generation of the MMI infotainment system, which Audi has moved away from their MMI control knob moved to a dual touchscreen layout. So you've got a touchscreen at the top at the top of the center stack. It's not, that's not the stand up tablet type touchscreens that we see on a lot of vehicles today. It's it's more integrated into the dash, that's where you'll find the infotainment stuff. And then down below at the bottom of the stack is the second touchscreen, which is primarily for things like the climate control. I'm you know, I'm I prefer to have especially the climate control with physical knobs, you know, I like to you know, if I want to change the fan speed, like to just give it a quick twist or same with the temperature. This one works okay. One of the unique things about Audi's approach to touchscreens is that they have haptic feedback. So you actually, and you actually can't just tap on the screen like you'd typically do on on, on a glass touchscreen, you actually have to press on it. So it's, it's kind of like pressing a physical button, except that there's no contours there. So you still have to look at it. But you get the press and you feel a click when you do that. So it's somewhat like the the former home buttons that Apple had on the iPhones or actually on their current Touch, touch pads on their laptops, where it doesn't actually move but you feel you has a haptic feedback that feels like it's clicking. It works fine. It's it's responsive. There was no lag Enos to the system certainly no lag Enos to the power train and the saying 500 horsepower was fantastic.

But even though this thing sounds great, like, as soon as I fired it up, I picked it up from the airport on Wednesday morning after returning from from New York City. In as soon as you fire it up, you know, the quad exhaust pipes. It sounds like a high performance VA. It's got got a nice rumble to it. But I remember the first performance Audi I ever drove back in about 2007 or eight, which was an RS four convertible. And this one still had the old naturally aspirated, flat plane crank 4.2 liter V eight, which was the same engine that you would that was in the first generation are eight. And, you know, that engine, you know, that thing would rev to over 8000 rpm. I know it had you know, it had it was a classic, you know, flat plane crank the eight You know, it, it sounded more like a Ferrari than, than a rumbling American VA. You know, this has the Sq seven has some of the flavor of of a typical, you know, American v eight in terms of its sound. But it doesn't have it doesn't have the it's smoother, it doesn't have the rumbling you know, kind of that that kind of that pulse, that slight low frequency vibration that you get in it, and like a Chevy small block or, or Ford coyote VA. So it's it's a it's a lovely vehicle. It's also very expensive. How expensive is a particular one? This particular one, including delivery. And keep in mind, this is a 1990 model. So I think the prices are actually up slightly from this, but it's 99,303 $190 including delivery. And it doesn't have all of the available options on it and a lot of options but not not everything. It does have the executive package. The driver assistance package, the heads up display, the dual pane, glass sunroof, the Bang and Olufsen audio system, which is $5,000. Sounds very good. $5,000 good. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Laser had like package. One interesting detail. I noticed when I was photographing it on the on the front grille, front grille redundant on the grill. There are two, what would it look like? look very similar to the devices that were on the front of that Mercedes EQ s that you recently drove Robbie, where the EQ S has laser or LIDAR sensors, or a LIDAR sensor and a dummy LIDAR sensor. This one appears to have the exact same thing on the grill, it looks exactly like the Vallejo scalla LIDAR sensor that Mercedes is using. Except it's not a LIDAR sensor. When when this was originally developed a few years back, you know, and it came out around the time that the current generation LDA came out which launched with it was one of the first vehicles to launch with LIDAR. And using that same LIDAR sensor. And Audi had plans to introduce their a traffic jam pilot system, a level three partially automated system, which they never they equipped the cars with the sensors. But they never released the software for it. Because there there was no regulatory framework yet. And they couldn't figure out if it was legal or not, or where it would be legal. And so in Europe, they actually built these with a LIDAR sensor. So there's just like on the EQ s, there's two of them one on either side of the, the outtie badge, the four ring badge and the grille. And I believe that on the European versions, on the one side was a LIDAR. The other side was a radar sensor that had a cover on it that looked exactly like the LIDAR for the same reasons that Mercedes, he has to dummy to give it that symmetry because you don't want you know, a sensor sitting on just one side of your grill. Right, I believe. Yeah. So I believe on one side, you know, they had the radar on one side, the LIDAR on the other side, since they never released the Sq seven with the LIDAR in North America. It has a radar sensor that looks like a LIDAR sensor, and then a dummy on the other side. So

Nicole Wakelin  9:41  
let's have balancers that must be balanced and equal and otherwise your car will tip to one side, the math.

Roberto Baldwin  9:48  
What was it the discovery, everyone discovery came out and the rear of the car was definitely not symmetrical and everyone made fun of the rear of the discovery when that Land Rover rediscoveries, I think everyone's like, well, we don't want to be that.

Sam Abuelsamid  10:04  
Yeah, or the Nissan Cube? Oh, yeah, the Nissan Cube was also asymmetrical, because it had the glass that wrapped around one c pillar at the back. And from the side to the back. So yeah, I guess, you know, the symmetry is a weird thing. Some, you know, symmetry adds character, but not everybody likes character, apparently. So. So, the Sq seven, you know, really, if you're looking for a high performance SUV, that not quite as high performance as, say, an Audi s5 M, or x six m, or or Mercedes AMG, I guess this would be equivalent to the jle, maybe some more between the GLA and the GLS. It's not quite as high performance as those. That would be the RS q seven, which we don't get here. I don't think. But it's, you know, if you if you're a fan of Audi, and you want something in that, you know, that kind of performance range, I think this is a great option to take a look at. And you know, it's it's a really attractive, big wagon. Yeah, so it looks good. It drives really well. The ride quality's very good, considering the size of the wheels and tires on it. So I'm enjoying it.

Nicole Wakelin  11:32  
So what's your verdict? Are you for a while I have a question for you that haptic screen, would you rather have a screen with a haptic feedback? If you could pick or choose pro haptic feedback? Or against it? Like, did you like it? Or did you like I had to get used to this?

Sam Abuelsamid  11:47  
It doesn't bother me. I think the thing, the thing that takes more getting used to, I think Cadillac has in the past offered to have had a haptic screen with their, their infotainment system. But in that case, it was still just a tap to collect it.

Nicole Wakelin  12:05  
Right? Just

Sam Abuelsamid  12:06  
tap it, you don't actually have to press it. What's different about this, and what takes getting used to is the fact that you actually have to press the screen, like pressing a button, as opposed to just tapping it and getting some feedback.

Nicole Wakelin  12:20  
I kind of like the idea. Because I find so often I think I've tapped the screen. And sometimes you're like, Oh, wait, I didn't tap that. Then you tap it again. And if the screens had a little if there's been like, a half a second lag, you're like, oh, now I'd have to twice. Now I've done something I didn't want to do. Yeah, kind of like the idea that it's like, yeah, so this, it's given me some feedback. I have in fact, touch that button.

Roberto Baldwin  12:38  
You did the thing you thought you

Nicole Wakelin  12:39  
didn't think you thought you did before you did that thing you thought you did again. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  12:44  
And there's less likelihood that you know, you're gonna get frustrated, you know, if you thought you tapped it, and nothing happens. Yeah, if you don't feel the feedback, then you know, it hasn't registered. Then. So I think it's actually probably actually a good thing. Okay. Yeah, of course it yeah, it also means that, that you're going to, you know, have probably even more prominent fingerprints on the on the screen, because you're really pressing microfiber cloth in the center console.

Nicole Wakelin  13:10  
I've given up on the screen, like their cover with fingerprints. And I'm like, yo, it's I don't even I've given just, exactly. Just your screen will be covered with fingerprints. 30 seconds after you clean it. Okay, so I had only one car that I drove that was in my driveway this week. And that was the 2021 Toyota Sienna limited in a color that I'm not a fan of sunset bronze mica, which is kind of a shiny, brownish color. And like, it's not attractive color. I don't like it. My daughter and husband both immediately thought it looked like baby poop. So you know, I feel like given a poop in your life, you don't need it in your car to when you have little kids but whatever. So not a fan of that color. But but so this is it's new this year that a lot with the with the Sienna. There's a hybrid engine, it's a 2.5 liter four cylinder total is 245 horsepower, and 176 pound feet of torque. It moves. I mean, it's good. You don't I like that hybrids. Now. Like there was a time when hybrid engines felt like hybrids, you always knew you were in a hybrid. It always just felt like you would hit the gas and you're like, are we are we gonna go? Is it off? Or is it just hybrid because they don't feel anything happening. This is responsive. Like you move Toyota does a good hybrid engine and this one is no exception. It's got that roomy, interior with cubbies galore. Like your family, you want to have 8000 cupholders, a spot for every last random McDonald's toy and the rock the kids picked up at the park and that flower that has to be protected in a cupholder till you get home and it has all of that. So it has all the features that you want a minivan to have. And it's comfortable. It's you know, you're driving a lot with kids you're running around and it's a tiring day and especially if these memories when the girls were little my biceps were like, stronger than they ever were because you're constantly lifting kids in and out of a car. So you're moving a lot and lifting a lot. you're lifting grocery, like, it's nice to just sit down in a nice, big, comfy chair that is your driver's seat and just sort of relax. And that's exactly what you get in this era. It's it's a good, it's a good option and the fuel economy with the hybrid, which is a big deal. It is. Actually this is the most even fuel economy on the planet. 36 City 36 Highway. So the combined is in fact 3636 36. I know right? That's really higher math, but good job, Sam.

Sam Abuelsamid  15:39  
So I have an engineering degree

Nicole Wakelin  15:41  
Exactly. See totally worth that you figure that out like that. I was averaging Actually, I averaged a little higher, I was averaging like more towards 38 was just kind of cruising along. So it so it lived up to that. And then some which I feel like is a good thing. Because the other thing you worry about when you are family is the budgets tight because there's so much going on with the kids and so many things pop up. It's not you know, it can be tough to budget when you have kids. And I feel like this is a good choice. From that point of view from the not good point of view for budget actually

Sam Abuelsamid  16:12  
considering that, you know, this is not an inexpensive vehicle,

Nicole Wakelin  16:16  
as opposed to say from the not budgetary point of view. This one which again, was limited. It has, you know, it has a leather interior, it has a 12 speaker JBL audio system with a subwoofer and an amplifier are. So it's got some stuff in it. And this total price on the one of my driveway is $50,010.

Roberto Baldwin  16:39  
That's a lot. That's a lot of scratch for dragging your kids around town. They can still they're Happy Meals everywhere.

Nicole Wakelin  16:45  
It's a lot of scratch in it also, I mean, there's the rear seat entertainment is included in there, which is 1400 bucks, which you know, bumps the price up a bit. But who needs that? Does anybody really need a rear seat entertainment screen where now you have like tablets that are like super durable for kids, and then you can take them with you wherever you go. I don't even think I would buy one now. Would you get one of your kids were little.

Sam Abuelsamid  17:10  
Right now. As you said, everybody's got mobile devices. But you know, 15 years ago?

Nicole Wakelin  17:16  
Yeah. But 15 years ago, yeah. But in 2021 I can't actually see I never really thought of I can't actually see spending $1,415 on a rear seat entertainment system, when you probably already have devices that your kids own, that will do the job. Yeah, that

Roberto Baldwin  17:33  
you have like a $500 tablet or even even that you can have like 100 and something dollar tablet, right?

Nicole Wakelin  17:38  
They make like friendly tablets to that are super cheap and all kinds of durables. You can practically like throw them out of the window and they'll just bounce right along and you can pick them up. Not that you should be letting your kids throw anything out of the windows but you know, it happens if they do kids or kids. So rascals, those rascally little things so that's that's the cheer to see. And I liked this car I mean, I really like it a lot. I'm I've never personally owned a minivan I made it through all of my little kid mom years without a minivan because I never liked the the sort of aura of your like your mom and a minivan I'm like, No, I can't be that I can be a mom. I can have you know, food on my shirt because my kids got food on me I can have my hair in a ponytail and look like a grub but I am not driving a minivan but if vans are so much better though, they are better I mean what would you do i would i did SUVs I had like like they're better than disease. Yeah, but

Roberto Baldwin  18:35  
they're not or open slide the slide there's

Nicole Wakelin  18:39  
like cool factor. Is it cooler to drive any minivan or is it cooler to drive any SUV if you're like I cannot stomach the minivan life is here like cooler

Sam Abuelsamid  18:50  
SUVs die they have that cool factor but if you're if you're hauling that kid around you got to load that kid into a car seat. Yeah, it's so much easier to do that it's the height of every van that it is an SUV

Nicole Wakelin  19:02  
and the big thing too is that I always found like every time you went somewhere with another like you know we're all going to the beach with another mom and now we have two of us in four kids. So we need to have something with three rows of seating for sure you can't get by and you know five person SUV, but also kids love to go to the backpack and in an SUV they will just climb over the middle row and their feet hit the roof. Then you have these nice little scuff marks on your ceiling. If you have an a minivan especially with the pastor you if you only got like a captain's chairs you knows they will actually walk I mean over the console between the two but still you take your wins over the console into the backseat. So you don't have these scuff marks on your ceiling. Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  19:43  
I'm just gonna say exactly, I guess it's three words stolen go. That's it. I know. We I have rented a minivan. I have I have a very expensive Lamborghini in my driveway and for the show and for a trip are taking. I rented a minivan. See? Yeah. They're

Nicole Wakelin  20:00  
not cool but dang it those dogs are useful.

Roberto Baldwin  20:02  
Yeah we're taking the dogs with us and so I was like well we could get an SUV but forget that you get a minivan you're nice and squishy and it's the best.

Sam Abuelsamid  20:16  
The best but to the to the to the pricing conversation Yeah. If you don't need that that rear seat entertainment system and you know all the other goodies you still you know you can get the bass Sienna le starting it you know under around 35,000

Nicole Wakelin  20:33  
which makes it much worse what wheel drive it's still I mean, it still has most of it like you lose the like the luxury stuff but how much do you care about leather seats? How much do you care about the fancy if you're truly on a budget, don't get the limited and pick a color other pick a color other than bronze sunset bronze mica and it will look prettier sitting in your driveway.

Sam Abuelsamid  20:53  
Yeah, Ruby flare pearl.

Nicole Wakelin  20:55  
Ruby was added color is that like bright red?

Sam Abuelsamid  20:58  
That is B it's like a burgundy red.

Roberto Baldwin  21:04  
Weird.

Sam Abuelsamid  21:05  
It's a darker red. They need to put more sport learn minivans that color. bright yellow. Need a bright yellow. Yeah, I

Nicole Wakelin  21:13  
need those colors. You need those colors.

Sam Abuelsamid  21:18  
Green lime green,

Nicole Wakelin  21:19  
like a lime green minivan. That would be weirdly cool. Like like, yeah, I can't have my labor. But check out my minivan.

Roberto Baldwin  21:27  
I always get excited when I see someone who's taken like a Honda Odyssey or to Sienna or even an old Chevy Astro van. And they've like slammed it and put like nice wheels on it. I'm like, Yeah, because in the 90s that was like a whole sub genre of car culture was the minivan with the you know, 15 you know, 15 inch speakers in the back just like that. That's my jam. Just open it up.

Sam Abuelsamid  21:53  
Anyway, minivans are dope work, work. Were the old mid engine toy. Previous popular for that sort of thing.

Roberto Baldwin  22:03  
Um, I felt like back then it was really the Astro van. And the Astros Okay, what was it the safari? Was it What was it called? Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  22:13  
that was the GA version. The GMC Safari, GMC Safari. And the Ford aerostar

Roberto Baldwin  22:20  
Yeah, the the that was sort of because it had that sort of cool wedgie. Look it just Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  22:26  
yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  22:28  
And the commercial Chevy Chevy Astro Astro a drove around like Saturn or something. It was a very I've had that the song for that commercial stuck in my brain.

Nicole Wakelin  22:39  
I did not even remotely remember this commercial. But now you know what I'll be googling. As soon as we're done recording.

Roberto Baldwin  22:45  
There was there was someone I worked with who was a big like, Chevy Astro van fan. And I sent him that ad and he'd never seen it before. And I'm like, do this Remember that? This this ad has been stuck in my brain since it's like driving in spacers after that auto times. Okay, so I have a feeling

Sam Abuelsamid  23:05  
a lot of that's going to come back in 2023 when the production ID buzz arrives. Oh yeah, I think we're gonna see a bunch of those done up that

Roberto Baldwin  23:13  
that's gonna be that that's gonna be the cool van. I actually just had someone who asked me about minivans like, What? What? Oh, wait, it was it was on the show. I've had I've had wait for hours asleep after a very, very after like a 20 hour day yesterday. So that was I think that

Sam Abuelsamid  23:31  
was in the questions. Last it

Roberto Baldwin  23:32  
was it wasn't a question like hey, someone asked me about vans and we told Wait a minute.

Unknown Speaker  23:38  
We just did that. Why did that happen?

Sam Abuelsamid  23:44  
All right, go back and take another quick cat nap while Nicole

Nicole Wakelin  23:48  
Okay, so two other vehicles to talk about these were first drives that happened in the last week or so and they're kind of compete but kind of don't depending on who you ask. I have drove the 2022 Nissan Frontier and I drove the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz the Santa Cruz you would say it's a compact pickup truck but Hyundai would not. They call it a sport adventure vehicle

Roberto Baldwin  24:13  
adventure

Nicole Wakelin  24:15  
sport adventure vehicle.

Roberto Baldwin  24:17  
I mean you can get weird about things like that.

Sam Abuelsamid  24:21  
Every automaker is here

Nicole Wakelin  24:22  
to make her adventurous and like it's a compact truck. So you know call it what you will. It looks a lot like a compact pickup truck. But it has a really short bed so it's it's even. I think it's gonna be like more Maverick like when the maverick comes out. You know because of Maverick squishes everything down a little bit. But the Santa Cruz they talk about that one first. They did a great job with us. It does have that very comfortable. SUV. ride an interior you don't feel like you're in a little rough little truck. It has pretty affordable pricing. It starts at only 23 990. So let's call it 24 It gets a nice big infotainment screen Apple CarPlay that kind of good stuff. You've got two different power trains in there. There's a 2.5 liter four cylinder with 191 horsepower, and also a turbo charged. That brings it up to 281. I think I would go for that that turbocharged one because 191 isn't a lot of horsepower for even a modestly sized sport adventure vehicle. I said it right. So, so I would go for that one gets good fuel economy. And you do have front wheel or all wheel drives you can pick but it's all wheel drive. It's not four wheel drive, and I think that's probably the big differentiator between it right now and some of the other compact trucks out there. It has that light off roading capability. You want to drive it on a sort of a rough road you want to drive it off the you know, you're you're going up to the cabin, you've got to drive across this rock you know, muddy fairground it's fair season everywhere. You're cool, but if you want to really really go off roading, probably not because it's not a four wheel drive vehicle and there's a little bit of a difference between those things. So has good room for cargo can has good capacity for towing it can tow up to 5000 pounds. And it was a nice comfortable ride. It's quiet, it's responsive. So it does a good balance of having that SUV inside. A little bit of truck like you know, business in the front party in the back just in the back just a little bit of a party a little party. Party it's a

Roberto Baldwin  26:26  
it's a get together it's a get together with with some goods around a mullet.

Nicole Wakelin  26:31  
Honey is gonna be like Thanks, guys. Appreciate that description.

Sam Abuelsamid  26:34  
Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  26:36  
it's the honey bullet. So it but it's a good bullet. It's the volley that you know what the guy wearing that mullet is he's just embracing it and you're like you do you do? That is an awesome mullet. Yeah, so I really liked it.

Sam Abuelsamid  26:48  
Maybe Maybe instead of SAE instead of sport activity vehicle maybe our compact truck maybe that is the actual category we're talking about here is is Moloch trucks. That's an awesome new Maverick truck.

Nicole Wakelin  27:03  
Can we start writing all of our reviews guys go forward mullet trucks and make that a thing. I want that to be a thing and like someday someone will say Where did that come from? Right here? Well, there's podcasts. We have various podcasts we brought that term to you your copyright

Sam Abuelsamid  27:17  
2021

Nicole Wakelin  27:20  
so I liked I liked the Santa Cruz I think it's a good truck. I think it's not the truck persons truck it's more someone who just wants that little extra capability a little versatility to tow to put stuff in the back for your day to day you know it makes sure runs to Home Depot to the garden center it carries Come on guys, what does it carry? Well in the back mulch, yes. Mulch in the back. Yeah, so it does that it has nice little sort of the way that the bed is made there's plenty of ways for you to put like you know, two by fours and plywood and stuff on it to create multi level situations and partition things off so I was a fan of the Santa Cruz overall. literally drove the Santa Cruz last three days of one week went home for the weekend and then drove the frontier. The Frontier is a more tricky truck in fact they just call it a truck go figure they have no weirdos,

Roberto Baldwin  28:10  
we know what's going on in Nissan

Nicole Wakelin  28:12  
non creative names like compact pickup truck or whatever we got a malignus sport adventure vehicle over here so so this is the same even though it's it's all new, it's not really because they introduced the power trains. I want to say for 2020 was it I don't think it was this year I feel like it was last 120 it was so it was for 20 years to 21 Okay, so the power trains are the same. So if you've driven a frontier you've already you've already seen the power train so you know how that is. That's that's nothing new. What they did is they've they've given us styling update, the safety features the interior, the interior, the old frontier, it was old man it was so dated. It felt so plastic fantastic. And it was just, it was not a great interior there was you know you could say it has the capability it has the power. It can do all the stuff that I want it to do but do I really want to sit in this all day new frontier is really nice. They did a fantastic job upgrading the interior it the suspension system is very, very smooth. You drive over the potholes or over rough pavement, you're going to be totally fine. It has you know they have the the Pro X and the pro 4x you got the Pro X which is rural driver, the pro 4x which is the four wheel drive, but they get a combination of like skid paid skid plates and upgraded shocks and things to make it so you can legitimately go off road in places you think you might not be able to and they took us on a pretty good off road course that had some you know steeps, ups and downs it had some rocky bits where the you know the rock sort of want to slip on your wheels and it still climbed right up. And they have this they have a neat off road available off road camera, that it's really cool. It gives you a great view but it automatically turns If you're in for low, so it's like if you don't think about it for low and you're at low speeds, it comes on. So boom you need for low, you probably want to see exactly what's around your vehicle. So that's kind of cool. I thought that was a neat little feature. So I liked it, you know, get you get an eight inch infotainment screen, you get a halfway decent audio, you get a nine inch screen on top trims, and they put in a premium 10 speaker Fender audio system. So you get all sorts of fancy when you move up the lineup. So I liked it, I think it's a good step, a good step forward, and it has the capability that you want. That's really you know, Santa Cruz to frontier Santa Cruz is not about being a capable off road, crazy truck, the frontier you can do that if you want to, you can get that trim, or you can take it down a level and just make it kind of like your Santa Cruz and make it just a run around town and carry much truck. But I was I liked both of these, I think they did a good job on these two little trucks.

Roberto Baldwin  30:55  
Cool. You know, I'm always happy when Nissan does anything good right now, because there's a lot, there was a long time where they weren't really they're just doing things. Okay, like good enough. And now I feel like they're they're, they're really sort of coming out of the good enough phase and back into the good. And I will continue to say this, that it started with the Nissan Kicks, which is still a great little cheap, inexpensive kicks.

Nicole Wakelin  31:20  
Everyone loves the kicks. It's but it gets some it gets some crap because it's not the most like it's the kicks. It's an entry level, you know, a little crossover situation. And like all well, it's not a super responsive engine. It's not aggressive. I'm

Roberto Baldwin  31:32  
like, Dude, it's not a sports, not what it is. If you don't, yeah, if you don't understand the market, and it's Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  31:40  
I mean, the kicks is not going after, you know, the Nissan Z buyer, it's going after people who in the past would have would have bought, you know, a versa or Central. Yeah, it's after that market, you know, people people that can't do that, either aren't interested in something sporty or or can't afford it.

Nicole Wakelin  31:58  
Right. So I mean, I think they did really well with that. And I think they continue that with the frontier the updates that they did to this. Like I said, the engine didn't change the power trains the same. So that's not different. So you've you've pretty much got that already. If you drove that you you know what it's like, but the improvements elsewhere in how well it handles and sort of the technical things they did to make it a more capable vehicle and just the interior update alone Egads. It feels like an entirely. It's an entirely new truck. If you were looking at a frontier and you were thinking, Oh, I don't know. This just feels so old school and outdated. Go drive the new one because it's entirely different. And you will be pleasantly surprised. It's it's genuinely competitive now with things like the Ranger in terms of the ride in the interior in the Tacoma, it was so far behind before. Now it's brought itself back up.

Roberto Baldwin  32:47  
It was so it was so rental car ended up and that's how I mean, I've rented a frontier. That's

Nicole Wakelin  32:54  
and it was a rental car no matter what you got the nicest, fanciest one you could buy. You're like, I'm still on the rental car. Oh, no, this is the top trim. Okay. Doesn't feel like that anymore. Now that is completely.

Sam Abuelsamid  33:06  
The previous generation frontier debuted in 2004 17 years.

Nicole Wakelin  33:11  
Not 2004. Really?

Sam Abuelsamid  33:13  
Yeah. I'm looking at it right now. launched in October 2004. You know, it had some some minor refreshes along the way. And don't forget, during the lifespan of the current generation frontier, there was actually a Suzuki branded version of it. The the Nissan supplied the Suzuki the Suzuki quatre. Remember that?

Nicole Wakelin  33:33  
Oh, really? I didn't even know that.

Roberto Baldwin  33:35  
Yeah. What about this?

Sam Abuelsamid  33:38  
He's no longer in the US market. He dropped out of the US market 11 years ago in 2010. And, you know, when noted for that, there was a version of the current generation frontier badged as a Suzuki. That's bad.

Nicole Wakelin  33:55  
It's, it's making some good progress. Like this is a this is it's worth not just saying like, Okay, oh, good job. Okay. It's a nice, nice, nice job with your new new truck. It's like, Oh, nice job nice on you stepped up your game, you're fixing it, you're you're actually making marked progress as you introduce new things and not just putting enough of a bandaid on it to make it look better. You're really genuinely uplifting some of these vehicles and making them better.

Sam Abuelsamid  34:20  
Yeah. So So would you say that the new frontier is it competitive and competitive in that mid, that mid size truck class because you know, you've got quite a few good choices in there. Now. You've got the Ranger. There's the Tacoma the GMC Canyon, Chevy, Chevy, or Chevy, Chevy, Colorado and Canyon. So there's like four pretty strong competitor. Yeah. Well,

Nicole Wakelin  34:47  
I happen to be I had to write something up about it and the Ranger and there's certain things when it comes to like, and the Rangers are pretty like capable off road. You know, that's, that's when you're gonna go off roading and for sure, you can do that. It's pretty competitive like When I was writing it up, I had to compare it to the Ranger, the Tacoma and the canyon, I actually had to do like these comparison write ups. And it didn't win on all of them but it wasn't like of the slides that I did one thing the frontier came out ahead and the other trucks came out ahead everywhere else. It was always close it was always like for you know, for for one or the other. So it is genuinely competitive. And it sort of depends what you're comparing, like, you know, the frontier has better infotainment from the get go than the Ranger does. You know that's that's something does that matter to every buyer? Maybe Maybe not. But then the Ranger has a better assortment of standard safety features from the get go, you know, so you're you're giving and taking in one spot or another but I do feel like it's competitive. And I think, especially for the off roading capability of this, you know, people like to go off road in their fun little trucks. And for the people who are looking at those trims like the tremor or for the Ranger and you know the the pro forex in this one, this gives it a run for the money. It's really a capable truck, but it's still the interior. The interior upgrades on this make it truly feel like it's competitive with the rest of that segment.

Roberto Baldwin  36:09  
Good job nice.

Sam Abuelsamid  36:09  
Alright, Roberto.

Roberto Baldwin  36:11  
Oh, yeah. What have you been driving driving some weird, crazy stuff this week? So let's start something old

Sam Abuelsamid  36:17  
and something

Roberto Baldwin  36:18  
was something old and something new. So let's start with the new. I drove the Lamborghini odus. This week, this is their, the Lamborghini SUV. And I know people are like, Oh, it's not really a Lamborghini. It's not this. It's not that I can't believe they're making you know, the Lamborghini Otis is the best selling Lamborghini ever. Period. Hands down. You can't that yeah, it yeah, it starts at like $220,000 because it's a Lamborghini. But it's also the cheapest Lamborghini you can buy.

Nicole Wakelin  36:52  
It's really the cheapest. Yes, it's the best.

Roberto Baldwin  36:57  
I think it's cheaper than the Huracan I believe it's

Nicole Wakelin  37:00  
$220,000. It's the cheapest Lamborghini that just makes me laugh. Like our cheap car is almost, you know, is more Oh,

Roberto Baldwin  37:07  
it's a little bit it's a little bit more than her a con. It's, it's, it's just scooch more. So it's one of the least expensive Lamborghinis that you can buy. It is a I actually, when they're asking me what car I wanted. I wanted to go full Lamborghini and get the hook on. But I was driving from San Francisco down to Monterey. It's a two hour drive. There's traffic. There's this there's that there's whatever. And I got to Otis and I've driven it before I did the drive program for it. And I was like, oh, but then when I was driving down there, and I you know, I had a lot of stuff going on. And I realized I'm like, Oh, wait, I have a massage seats. And every time I hit a bump in the road, I'm not being jostled about. And you know, all these sort of this sort of niceties of an SUV with with the growl and the insanity and character of a Lamborghini. And so I would I buy if I had the money and I was buying a Lamborghini, I would probably get the Huracan. And but I was, but I understand I understand the buyer for the orders. I understand the person who's like, I want a Lamborghini, I've always wanted a Lamborghini, I would love to own a Lamborghini, I have children, or I have you know, my husband or my wife doesn't want to drive this type of vehicle. You know, they don't want to be you know, they don't want to sit down two inches off the ground. They don't want to like deal with scissor doors, they don't want to deal with all the the sort of lifestyle that comes with with a Lamborghini. So we're gonna get the orders, and we're gonna have a grand old time, and you're gonna have a great time because it has a twin turbo V eight, it's a four liter and it has 641 horsepower, and 626 pound feet of torque. So you're still getting that's a lot so it's it's it's it's Yeah, it is a lot and it has that even in like the sort of Eco mode it's still like

Nicole Wakelin  39:14  
an eco mode

Roberto Baldwin  39:16  
it's not what doesn't kill mode, but it's the least it's the least insane mode.

Sam Abuelsamid  39:22  
mode maybe

Nicole Wakelin  39:24  
least insane and then yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  39:27  
so like it's Yeah, it's it's like the comfort mode but even in comfort is like everyday

Nicole Wakelin  39:35  
imitation of the engine there I'm impressed with that.

Roberto Baldwin  39:37  
I've been driving it a lot. I expected you know just to be burning THROUGH THROUGH THROUGH fuel. I expect it to be okay, this thing's gonna get like 12 miles to the gallon or something insane and the let me find it. The EPA rated much mileage is a 12 city 17 Highway. I was getting 23 I was driving on the freeway, I drove all the way down and all the way back. And I was 23 miles per gallon. And I was just like, How is this even possible? I

Sam Abuelsamid  40:16  
mean, that's remarkable for

Roberto Baldwin  40:18  
me. Yeah, that was insane. I was you know, I'm cruising like 7080 miles an hour, I

Nicole Wakelin  40:22  
guess. Trying to were you trying to like hyper mileage and let it go?

Roberto Baldwin  40:28  
Yeah, you know, you're on the freeway. I'm sure as soon as I take it to like, the hills. I'm gonna pull that down to like 10 miles. As soon as I started, like, Yeah, but just like driving around, like, you're like, Oh, we got to take the Lamborghini on a trip. It's not going to suck siphon all the fuel, or all the money out of your bank account. I was just like, I was like, No, and then on the way there I was like, 23 something another way that I'm like, Okay, well, maybe it's sort of off and on the way back, same thing and I was like, Huh, all right. You know, it's like a two hour drive. It the, you know, since

Sam Abuelsamid  41:05  
Lambourn Lamborghini is part of the larger Volkswagen family and in fact is technically owned by Audi, which means that this thing actually shares probably a lot of components with that Sq seven that's in my eyes is looking at that engine. It's basically the same engine, but boosted 50 horsepower,

Roberto Baldwin  41:26  
up to 11. It has is the the the infotainment system is branded Lamborghini but it's definitely like the MMI which is good, because if you don't know a Lamborghini infotainment system, it's gotten better over the past few years, but supercar infotainment systems are just notoriously not that great. Because that's not what you buy the car for.

Nicole Wakelin  41:48  
buying it for all the luxury and the power and the look at my cool car you like infotainment

Roberto Baldwin  41:52  
math, no one cares. Like sometimes you can plug in your phone and you'll get CarPlay but most times you won't. Like sometimes you're just like, okay, what's this route? Forget it. So yeah, it has the sort of branded Lamborghini branded Audi MMI it's got the dual screens so your your climate control is on the second screen which is like Sam I like physical buttons for for climate control. But it's it's fine. But everything in there is all designed around that Lamborghini brand. There's like little like little cages above all the little buttons. I don't know why. So you know, don't ask it looks cool. Does

Nicole Wakelin  42:32  
it look cool? Roberto, the little cages about the buttons does look cool. Okay, so that's why you just answer your own question. It looks cool. Let's

Roberto Baldwin  42:38  
put that on there. The start stop this the the power you know the the turn it on, you have to lift up a little red gate like you're you'd like lift it up.

Nicole Wakelin  42:48  
I always feel like those are like I watched too many movies in the 80s where everyone had to flip the little door up before you push the buttons to launch the missiles. missile launch button in the car.

Sam Abuelsamid  42:58  
That's exactly what we watched the Suicide Squad last weekend. And that that happened when they had to dispose of one of the members of the team when they weren't doing what they were supposed to. Oh yeah, you slip up the little button and

Nicole Wakelin  43:10  
you flip a little switch and you are serious. Whatever the button does under left underneath that little cover whatever it does, it's going to be impressive.

Roberto Baldwin  43:17  
Yeah and that's that's what you know that Lamborghini is going for it's it's a Lamborghini. And also it's also like the typical Lamborghini where there's no like like drive you have to use the shifters to put it into gear. So the first time you get into it, you turn it on and you're like oh there's a there's like a button for Park and then you pull the thing back for reverse but to go forward you got to shift the the right paddle. And then and you're still in automatic you can you know you can do paddle shift, you know manual, but you had to go forward you got a book, and I had to drop it off with the with the valets. And I forgot to tell him so I don't know. I'm sure they probably figured it out because it's Monterey car week. And I sure at that point,

Sam Abuelsamid  43:59  
yeah, they were Yeah, the valleys valleys during Monterey car week probably have to go through a training process for all of these super car front

Nicole Wakelin  44:09  
stations and combinations to how you have to drive a car. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  44:12  
This is how you get in and out of McLaren. This is how you turn on a Ferrari This is

Nicole Wakelin  44:16  
how these doors open this is how this steering wheel moves

Roberto Baldwin  44:20  
no matter where you think Audi put the START STOP button they've moved it you know stuff like that. You're looking for the Porsche it's on the other side like on the other side. Yeah, yeah. drove it down to that for Monterey car week. I I really liked the car. I think it's I you know, I understand why people buy it. I understand why a Lamborghini made it I remember during the drive program. I walked over to somebody for Lamborghini homes that you are going to sell so many of these and they have they have and that's you know, it's like people getting angry

Nicole Wakelin  44:55  
know how many they feel like you're the numbers guy you know all these numbers. Sam, come on. Can you always have numbers at the ready? How many have they sold? You can see his face right now guys, he's like, Oh, God, okay. Ready? She put me on the spot.

Roberto Baldwin  45:10  
They have they have like a little

Sam Abuelsamid  45:12  
Lamborghini doesn't they don't usually get included in the

Nicole Wakelin  45:17  
snow.

Sam Abuelsamid  45:18  
I'm not sure I got to look it up.

Nicole Wakelin  45:21  
Okay, I'll let you off the hook for this one I did ask you to like have a weird number.

Sam Abuelsamid  45:27  
But you know, it's not surprising that the Auris is the top selling Lamborghini because the same is true over at Porsche, we're, you know, ever since the Cayenne was introduced, it's been the best selling Porsche. So it's, I would expect nothing less

Roberto Baldwin  45:41  
Indian people who get angry at those vehicles for whatever reason, those vehicles mean that you can, again, you can add Porsche, they can make 50,000 different variants of the 911. And we're at Lamborghini that gives, you know, selling a lot of odorous says to folks who want the Lamborghini, you know, name and power, but not the, you know, weird sitting down position and jostled kidneys. But that allows them to make, you know, 1000 variants of the hurricane and 1000 variants so the event to door and you know, a brand new Khun Tosh, you know, all these weird little things. They they they get paid for by these SUVs from these performance brands. So yeah, so don't hate on the odors because, or the cayambe. Because they allow, because later on, you're going to see something cool from those automakers, because they can sell the orders and

Nicole Wakelin  46:33  
and that's kind of the case with all them like people get on an automaker for things that they produce that they don't really feel are like, cool, and slick and exciting. And you know, living up to their performance, heritage or whatever I'm like, Yeah, but sometimes you have to produce cars that actually make some money to let you produce the cool slick performance thing that's, you know, frankly, batshit crazy, you need some money from somewhere and maybe that run of the mill car for them for their lineup that might be what does it so back off, give them a break.

Roberto Baldwin  47:01  
Let people buy the car, you don't take as cool so the automaker can make the cool thing that you like,

Nicole Wakelin  47:07  
exactly, just hold up balance people's circle of life.

Roberto Baldwin  47:14  
And then I drove something very old and sorta is like, I guess one of those bucket list things. I drove a 1957 Mercedes 300 s l roadster if you the 50s sL I think everyone knows the goldwing. The goldwing is the official favorite car of every human. If you ask people who are really even into cars, and you say oh, what about that? Mercedes? Oh, yeah, that's my favorite car. It is it is the official favorite car of of non car people. It's like the second or third official favorite car of car people. Yeah, so I got to drive the the Roadster version of it and it was out. Standing. It was it was wonderful. And it's it's, it's also a nice reminder of just how far car technology has come. Because especially since about the early the mid 80s, things start getting a bit better. Like when it comes to like stopping and turning and

Nicole Wakelin  48:17  
the basics,

Roberto Baldwin  48:18  
the basics a you know, suspension. And before that it was just like, okay, here's four tires and, and a stick with a wheel at the end of it that's connected to those tires. And we threw an engine in there. And there's an idea of brakes, and we're just gonna shut those ideas. Let's just go think power into stopping. Yeah, it was great. You know, it doesn't have any of the things that you expect from you know, a modern car. So it has the giant steering wheel because he doesn't have power steering. It had drum brakes. So you had to anticipate braking far more than you would on a modern vehicle. It's just like, Oh, dear, I think that guy may be doing something, namely start slowing down. That's sort of but yeah, as for speed for speed manual transmission, which of course I was a big fan of this vehicle had a whopping 240 horsepower, which you know, 1957 that's a lot of horsepower.

Nicole Wakelin  49:19  
You have to say you got to qualify it for the year. It's in like right now you're going okay, but 1957 Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  49:27  
that's a lot of horsepower. A lot of horses from a from a three liter straight six. So yeah, that's, that's that's, it sounded great. It felt great. It it doesn't have stocks there inside this. So you have the steering wheel. And then inside the steering was like a concentric circle, and it's three quarters of the star of the Mercedes star. That is what you use to for the indicator lights. So you turn so while you're driving you can you turn this inner circle left or right The little blinkers Come on.

Nicole Wakelin  50:01  
How hard was that to do? Is that totally awkward?

Roberto Baldwin  50:04  
Well, you know, once you when you do it, it's fine. The problem is, is like, every time you come up to an intersection, you have to turn, you know, you have that muscle memory of every single car ever. And you're reaching, you're reaching out there for that stock. That's not that doesn't exist

Nicole Wakelin  50:18  
in your arms randomly in the front seat alien

Roberto Baldwin  50:21  
everything. And I left it on once and it doesn't have like, left right indicators. It has a little light at the top of like, sort of a Christmas tree of lights, you know, like, it just blinks red. And so I'll act and then you know, the gentleman's like a it doesn't auto turn off, which I should know that because I've own cars where it does it automatically. And I forgot, I'm just driving along cuz I'm just having the best day ever. And I'm trying to make a video of this car and I can't because I'm just like, so happy that I'm driving this car, and I see this little red light flashing. I'm like, What did I do to this car? What am I Oh my god, how much is and then I asked. And then I asked the gentlemen, how much is this car? He's like, oh, like 1.2 million? I'm

Nicole Wakelin  51:02  
like, Sure, sure. Sure. Sure. So you know, no worries there.

Roberto Baldwin  51:06  
No worries. And then I'm like, going, Yeah, yeah, they're going to going is the going that's that's that's something that's that's always gonna be again, everyone's favorite car. When you show it. They're like, Oh, what do you own a goldwing. I mean, everyone who's who's in kind of in the cars, not even in the cars they remember they know that going I think it's the the official everyone favorite car. But that roadster was just so nice. It was just just this pure mechanical driving experience, the gears are a little bit further away than you anticipate. So the first couple times I kept like, going from second into like some sort of mystery third, I'm like, a little bit further over, like, mystery third going into, yeah, 2.5 gear. I'm trying to remember what else was as you know, it's all like sort of Chrome inside. And it has a teeny tiny little mirror. Like mirrors were like such an afterthought. In the 50s. Like, I just learned something. You know what I have to see I have this compact with a mirror in it. I'm just gonna pop that out. And then that'll be good. It'll be fine. That's fine. So yeah, it has, and it has a little that that sort of passenger or driver side mirror. And I don't like to get in the, it's up above in front of the windshield. So if you get in the car and you haven't adjusted it, you're like, I think there is an adjustment, but I didn't want to mess with anything.

Nicole Wakelin  52:33  
Are you telling us were you just afraid you like I'm gonna adjust this and like break off this mirror and it's gonna cost you $25,000 to get a new one on there.

Roberto Baldwin  52:39  
Yeah, yeah, it's funny cuz I asked the gentleman on mic when you have this. When you let you know, journalists drive it. Do you have to like replace the clutch? Because not every journalist drives a manual transmission, but not every journalist feels comfortable enough to say, you know what, I'm not very good at this, which is unfortunate, because you should just be upfront about what you're good at and what you're bad. I you know, it's easy. It's it's very important as a journal or just as a human when they say hey, what's your track experience? If you've only been on the track once? Say once? Don't be like, Oh yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  53:13  
I'm good. I've been to different track events where somebody in the first lap of a presumably new ish OEM car didn't really really know how to drive a stick and brought it back after one lap on the track. Yeah, like seized up to one of them seized up to the point that they had to just like we will leave it when the event clears. We're going to bring a flatbed in here because we literally cannot move this car. Oh my god.

Roberto Baldwin  53:36  
Yeah. So if you don't know how to drive a manual, have a no shame in that because no one no one sells manuals. So how are you? How are these parents going to teach their kids how to drive a manual if they've never driven a manual and stop yelling at millennials for not knowing how to drive manuals because no one's taught them because you all bought automatic transmissions that's your fault they don't know how to drive

Sam Abuelsamid  53:57  
this I didn't see your the good. I bought manuals all along and I taught both the kids how to do it the tried

Nicole Wakelin  54:06  
my one daughter was like I don't want to learn mom I refuse and the other one tried and we basically just stalled the car 852,000 times in the parking lot at the high school to the point that one of the it was like late like after school but the teachers still their teachers like Are you guys okay? I'm like we're fine. We're trying to learn how to drive a manual. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Roberto Baldwin  54:26  
The you tried or you tried and you and you did it. But most people most of the people like I see you post those like millennials don't know how to drive manuals. Those people haven't those people haven't driven a manual since 1992. So and they definitely did not teach their children or even attempt to teach their children how to drive a manual so shut your pie holes. Anyway. Exactly. 300 sL 1957. I absolutely adored it. It was magical. It was a it was a bucket list vehicle. I like to I was talking to Gentlemen, when you ever you drive an old car or an older car, you kind of forget like the heat that comes off the car. Like it doesn't like every anything free like 1980s early 80s it's just there's always just heat coming out because the firewall is like a you know, two centimeters thick. So everything that the car is doing is

Sam Abuelsamid  55:20  
there's no insulation there.

Roberto Baldwin  55:22  
Yeah, there's zero insulation is nothing it's just like, engine a thin sheet of like metal or aluminum. Just you Yeah. And yeah, that was great. He's like, yeah, I'm like, I'm like you kind of forget about that. He's like, yeah, it's really bad on the Gold Wing because now you're trapped inside at least in this you're like it's open air so this is what's

Sam Abuelsamid  55:41  
better ventilation.

Roberto Baldwin  55:42  
You know if you're a millionaire

Sam Abuelsamid  55:44  
was this one privately owned or it's belong to Mercedes,

Roberto Baldwin  55:48  
I believe it belongs to Mercedes they have a they have a lot of vehicles in their in their fleet. They're the ones that let me drive the simplex the 1902 vehicle. I drove a pagoda right after this like in 1963. Wow, go to the to ADSL which was also flat. It was automatic transmission, but you could you know, all both of these vehicles, you still feel you know, especially for that time, just that Mercedes luxury, like it's, it's that they were on brand, especially for that time, and you know, like in 1957 that car for 1957. I'm sure that car fell 10 years into the future. So availa ran drove one of these cars, car Gable drove one so it's Yeah. I'll keep talking about the car. So I'll just stop.

Nicole Wakelin  56:33  
So you kind of sort of liked it.

Roberto Baldwin  56:34  
Okay, I kind of sort of liked it. If you have an opportunity drive an old roadster, it doesn't have to be a 300 sL, they cost so much money that it terrifies you to take a left turn.

Sam Abuelsamid  56:47  
But you might want something, you know, a little, you know, a little more affordable, you know, just so you get the experience of it, you know, get it on an old Austin Healey sprite or an MGB or something. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  57:02  
Just cruise around, have some fun.

Sam Abuelsamid  57:05  
Alright. So, moving on then, this week, Nicole and I were both separately in New York City. And we were both there for the same purpose, but on different days, which was to drive the new Jeep wagoneer and Grand wagoneer. Nicole, why don't you go first, what, what did you think of jeeps that actually they're very, they're very first full size SUVs because they've never built something this large before?

Nicole Wakelin  57:35  
Well, I have to start by saying that you're talking about what cars you learned how to drive on, I learned how to drive a car on a 1982 Jeep Grand wagoneer. That's actually what my parents had. So I have like, and I took it to college, and you can fit a completely illegal number of your friends into that thing when you're an irresponsible college student. And it was brilliant. Yeah, so I remember the old wagon here. And it was fabulous folded paneling on the side. Now, the new one I it the level of luxury in the Grand wagoneer because they have the wagoneer and the Grand wagoneer. And they've got two different power trains and the Grand wagoneer comes with more standard blow your mind. luxury. You were talking about when Roberta when you said something that's very of the future, the interior that Grand wagoneer holy but jeebus there are so much tax so much scream so much. Like there's so much just so much everything, they even have a screen on the passenger side. That is like you know, when you put a screen protector on your laptop, so the guy next to you can't see what you're typing. If you are driving, you cannot see it. So it actually does work. So like the end you have access to some controls, but not all of them. But it's it's your own little screen. And when it's not in use, it just kind of looks like you know, like if you turn off an infotainment screen, you have that sort of piano black like section of dashboard. It is unbelievably huge. It is it's big. It's also it's really, really big. It's big, it is big. It's like there's a Sherman tank and then right below it, the Jeep Grand wagoneer like right right next to each other.

Sam Abuelsamid  59:20  
It's huge. For reference, it's it's actually slots in between it's a little bit bigger than like a standard wheelbase, Cadillac Escalade, but smaller than the long wheelbase. The suburban sized escalator already knows too.

Nicole Wakelin  59:38  
So it is a big thing as

Sam Abuelsamid  59:40  
well for four inches longer than the base Escalade.

Nicole Wakelin  59:42  
Yeah, so your average escalate is smaller than this and it but the inside I gotta say it rides beautifully. The inside truly is amazing. They had this one. I don't know what the color was called Sam. It was like a light blue. I think it may have been called a GAVI or something like that, but it's a light blue. Interior that is just so cool like it's got these tan accents I mean you're you're buying a luxury car you're buying something that is has I don't have the pricing in front of me it is not cheap. It feels every bit like a luxury car inside of there and then you can do all the stuff that a Jeep can do they had us take not the Grand wagoneer but the wagon ER and a little off road thing. So you can you know you got one wheel popped in the air as you're going over the sort of like I was calling moguls, I don't know what you call them. I call them moguls as you're going over those moguls Okay, I so you know and you get one wheel you know a good four feet in the air and inside the vehicle you just feel a little bump, bump, bump Bump, it doesn't

Sam Abuelsamid  1:00:43  
tear, it's a true Jeep.

Nicole Wakelin  1:00:44  
Yeah, it's it's a Jeep, it is in every way a Jeep, just a really beautifully well equipped, okay, one of my favorite random details that the interior designer shared with me at dinner. So on the wood dashboard, there's this like piece that kind of divides it up and it goes across the length of the dashboard. And in it it says Grand wagoneer in metal on the on the passenger side. And you look at it and it almost looks like like you'd think there would be like thick letters that have been like recessed somehow into the wood. No, he said it's actually so thin. It's like a tiny little thin, wee little tiny piece of metal that sits on top of the wood. So it's not it looks like it's set into the wood. It's just this tiny piece of metal that says it's

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:27  
beautiful wood to it's an open pore wood. It's gorgeous, gorgeous.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:31  
The interior this thing blew me away. I mean it dried beautifully. It's got all the Jeep Enos, it has capability What is it? I think the Max Tow rating is 10,000 pounds on this.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:42  
up to 10,000 pounds up

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:43  
to 10,000 depending on how you get into

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:46  
the interior color. It's Yeah, they call it blue a gobby.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:49  
Oh my gosh, it is

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:51  
it's like a fabulous color.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:52  
It's definitely not for everyone color. But man, it makes this it makes this car feel like something truly, truly special. So I I was a fan, I drove the wagoneer and I drove the Grand wagoneer. The Grand wagoneer gets a little bit more beefier of an engine, you don't suddenly drive the wagon here and feel like oh, gosh, this isn't enough. You know, you get more out of the Grand wagoneer. But it's not like you feel lacking in the wagon here. What do you think, Sam?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:19  
Yeah, so I also really liked it. So as you said, you know, you get right now there's only VAT engines available in here. The the standard wagoneer has the 5.7 liter Hemi with about just shy of 400 horsepower. The the Grand wagoneer gets the 6.4 liter, which is I think 472 horsepower, something like that. When they showed the concept. First last summer, I think August or so August or September of last year, the Grand wagoneer concept. They showed it then with the plug in hybrid four by e power train. And they declined to talk about that at all this week is that we're not talking about that. Anything like that This week, we're talking about

Nicole Wakelin  1:03:07  
future product line. We cannot comment on future product.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:03:10  
Yes. But but it's it's coming. You know, I mean, they made it pretty clear during still anthesis Evie day that plugins are coming to everything in the jeep lineup in the next couple of years. My guess is we'll probably see the the wagon, the Grand wagoneer for by he probably by the by the end closer, either later in the 22 model year, or the beginning of the 23 model year. And the big question is, will it keep the two liter four cylinder that's in the Wrangler or combine that with maybe a V six or even a V eight engine? The V eight would be kind of interesting because now you're talking, you know, if they use the six, four, probably do the five, seven. So you know 400 plus 100 horsepower. So you're looking, you know, over 500 horsepower easily from the plug in hybrid v eight Grand wagoneer which would be an interesting combination. But, you know, this is this is a big vehicle. You know, not it's not substantially bigger than you know, an escalator Tahoe or navigator standard wheelbase model. It's about four inches longer. But it was interesting that they chose to do the drive program from Manhattan so we started off in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan and drove out to Westchester County drunk, went across the George Washington Bridge and out into Westchester and drove around some country roads out there, did some off roading, had lunch and then came back. And especially on the return trip coming down the Henry Hudson Parkway into back into New York City. You realize you know that road if you've if you've never driven on it, it's what I think three lanes on each side. Basically a six lane highway, three lanes in each direction and there's There's literally no shoulders. And the lanes are not particularly wide. They are, you know, in the, you know, in the center, if you're in the left hand lane in the center, there's a jersey barrier right there. So there's no shoulder, you know, you're basically up against the jersey barrier, and you got traffic on the other side. And you feel the width of this vehicle, you know, you're constantly, you know, on the lookout to make sure that you're not scraping something on others either side. Yeah. So it's, it can be a little nerve wracking in that kind of environment. I was surprised when they said, you know, that New York, the New York area is actually the the number one market in the country for SUVs and for Jeep, which I guess, you know, when they talk about that, it's actually the New York metro area. So I think a lot of people live outside of the city, you know, in Connecticut, and you know, Westchester County and jersey, and you know, that that whole region, are driving these big SUVs. And of course, you do see a lot of big SUVs in the city in Manhattan as black cars, right, a lot of Escalades navigators, that sort of thing, you know, being used as black cars. So it's it's a little nerve wracking driving something that large in an environment like that. But when you get on the country, even though these things weigh between, depending on the configuration between 62 and 6400 pounds, curb weight, so we're talking a three ton SUV. It actually doesn't feel like it weighs three tons. It's surprisingly nimble feeling driving on twisty back roads. And you know, and then of course, there's the off road capability. One thing that that the Grand wagoneer and the waggener offer that you can't get on any of the GM or Ford full size SUVs is a two speed transfer case. None of those other competitors have a four wheel drive low mode, with the with this one with the Quadro drive. Two, they've got three different four wheel drive systems. There's the base Quadro track one, I think, and then quadrate track two and then Quadro drive two, you can get up to a 48 to one crawl ratio, which, you know, for comparison Wrangler, you know, I think is the standard Wrangler, you can get up to 78 to one and the new, the new off road package they just launched with the forget the name of it is only 100 to one crawl ratio. So you know this thing can, assuming it'll physically fit. If you go places on the wagon here that you just can't go in any of those other full size SUVs. Now, are you going to take your $100,000 luxury SUV into those kinds of environments? Most people probably not but maybe with the with the the regular Waggoner. Yeah, you might just do that. So the thing

Nicole Wakelin  1:07:52  
is, I had an interesting conversation again, dinner conversation with some of the folks at Jeep talking about that, like who I get that what this does that you can't you're not going to find in other SUVs likeness is that offer capability? You could do some crazy stuff in this if you want it to, but are you going to do it in a car that? Is that expensive? And if you scrape those wheels, Egads. That's a lot to replace those scraped wheels on your fancy car, like, are you going to do this? And there's sort of opinions are like, well, you might you might not, but sometimes, knowing that you can, I mean, how many people buy a truck and never really use the capability of that truck? You're never hauling more than like a cut? Yeah, right. So you might not but then you could if you wanted to, you could. And there's a certain sense of security in that and also the luxury aspect on this. If you want a luxury car, but you don't want the sort of flash of the escalator, like someone sees an escalator and you're like, oh, and escalator. Everybody knows, right? escalator has a certain image, like, you know, Jeep has a totally different image. So you're like, Oh, I went for this fancy Jeep, you're a different personality a different person. So in terms of the you buy

Roberto Baldwin  1:09:03  
stuff from LL Bean? Yes.

Nicole Wakelin  1:09:05  
Yes, exactly. So you're you're sort of it fits in with a lifestyle that's a little bit different. It's like it's a little more rugged, a little more active, a little less concerned with looking super special and important and more like no, I want all that I don't need to put it in your face. But I like the idea of that capability. And I do want a luxury car. But I don't want to drive in escalate, you know.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:09:29  
And you know, it's a very different luxury feel than you get in either the escalator the navigator. You know, the the navigators got a more kind of traditional type of luxury feel to it. The new escalator is a more modern luxury. Now, for lack of a better term, and this thing kind of falls somewhere in between, it's very contemporary, but it also got some of that traditional feel to it. And it's Think it's a, it's a really nice balance of those, you know. And then, of course, you've got all those screens everywhere, you know that you can get up to seven screens and this thing. Yeah, if you get the rear seat entertainment package on the Grand wagoneer, you've got four across the front, because you've got the cluster in front of you the digital cluster, the center, the center, infotainment display. Then there's another one down below, which has your climate controls at the bottom of the center stack, and that one can actually articulate to open up doors behind it

Nicole Wakelin  1:10:30  
up that is so cool. It like flips up, poof, you have storage comes back down thing, you have a screen,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:10:34  
right, and then then the passenger screen. And then the two rear passenger entertainment screens, and then another one in the rear in our center console for the rear climate controls. So seven different displays. There's USB ports everywhere. So if you need to plug stuff in charge stuff, you there's no shortage of USBs. You know, there's six in the front row. A couple more in the back, and then more in the in the third row as well. And did you try sitting in the third row, Nicole,

Nicole Wakelin  1:11:05  
I did actually come back in it. It is it was either every single automaker says, Oh, no, you can use our third row, it's easy to get to you can sit back there. And then sometimes you're like yes or no, right? You get in the third row of the wagon here. And you think, Oh, I can sit back here. And I actually had there was someone at the event who was like six foot two, I think he said, So six foot Plus, I had him do the sit in the front seat, adjust your seat, now sit in the second row. And now sit in the third. And you could have six foot people in there and you still set it's not like suddenly, like when you get a tall guy. It's like well, now my knees are like shoved under my chin as I'm trying to sit back here. Oh, spread out, get comfy. There's plenty of room in that thing.

Roberto Baldwin  1:11:47  
As a tall guy, I can tell you, we do ruin everything.

Nicole Wakelin  1:11:49  
You do ruin everything you taught, but you know what you won't ruin, you won't ruin the driving experience in the Jeep Grand Cherokee because our grand wagoneer because there's plenty of room for you.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:12:01  
And, you know, one of the things that really impressed me about this thing was, you know, around, especially in Manhattan, but you know, in that general area, a lot of the roads can be pretty rough. You know, there's a lot of potholes, you know, kind of uneven pavement, and the ride quality in this thing was shockingly good. You know, you can you'll, as you drive over, you know, some of the frost heaves and things like that, you, you'll hear it, you'll hear a little thump, you know, and you might feel a little bit, but there's, the body stays remarkably stable relative to what the wheels are doing. And you don't really feel any head toss going around. And of course, in the Grand wagoneer you've got 24 ways and seats, the Justice front seats with massage capability, which I took advantage of. So yeah, I mean, I think that this thing is gonna be really, I think it's, it's gonna be a really strong competitor to the other players in this in this market. And I think jeeps gonna have another winner on their hands with this one,

Nicole Wakelin  1:13:04  
you know, and their pricing app. Go ahead.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:08  
I was just gonna say The Price Is Right, right now at launch. They're only launching with four wheel drive models, no, no, no rear wheel drive models. The and so the, what's available now is the the series two, four by four, starting at 71 as 1500. So 7272 five, for the series, two wagoneer, four by four, going up to the series, three grand wagoneer. All also for buy for just shy of $105,000. But there will be later in the model year, two wheel drive models starting with the series, one wagon at 5859 and 59 and a half just shy of $60,000. And it's not cheap, but I think that this is going to be a really strong competitor in there. Oh, I

Roberto Baldwin  1:14:00  
just noticed comparable the rest of the line to the rest of that market. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:14:05  
You know, we've talked about destination charges before and oh, yeah, two grand writing. Music. Yes. $2,000 charge on this. Whoo. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin  1:14:19  
That have that. I actually thought when I had to put that in, in the one story that I was reading, I'm like, oh, they're not gonna like that on wheel bearings. $2,000 that's too hot.

Roberto Baldwin  1:14:30  
That's a lot of just like, oh, what am I paying for this? You know what stuff

Nicole Wakelin  1:14:35  
but there was something else I wanted to relate talking about the people who would like this and the appeal like everybody knows what an escalator is. Everybody knows some of these and certain person when I was coming out of coming out of the city on the start of the drive. It was very congested traffic. It was merging from you know, five lanes to one because New York City and very congested and a trash truck like a full on city of New York trash truck. Turns out and kind of turns directly in front of me and I'm like, Okay, I'll let him go. And the guy gives me like a thumbs up and I was like Did he just thank me for kind of sort of letting him in because that's the most not New York thing I've ever seen. But then we ended up next to each other to traffic. Right? I'm like so I wrote He's like, you know, roll down the window, roll it down, and it's the guy driving this trash truck and he says, What is that? What are you driving? I have never seen that. I was trying to figure out what that is. What is that? And when I told him what is like that's amazing. Can you buy that is that out there? I that is so cool. And it's just like random Joe driving a trash truck is like sees this and recognizes it is something new and different and cool. And I thought the number of outrageous expensive cars this guy probably see is driving through New York City in an average day. And the one that got him to like, Hey, lady, roll down your window, is the Jeep Grand wagoneer that says something about how it looks in the appeal. This is gonna have for people

Roberto Baldwin  1:15:53  
cool, but did you don't know but like that, like a half mile later, he had somebody with a juke he's I love the window.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:06  
What What did you think of the Macintosh audio system?

Nicole Wakelin  1:16:09  
I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was really good that we when we first got in, it's a you know, you forget to do this and press cars. Somebody plays with it. You're like, why does this all sound weird. And my drive was like, wait, they've messed with it. So he resets everything. And you know, to like, sort of like factory reset, almost put it all in the middle. And then play with it a little bit. It has fantastic sound. I mean, if you want that, the bass sound in that I had my legs sort of was touching the side door and I could feel like boom, boom, boom, boom, reverberating through the door against my leg. I thought the Macintosh sound system was incredible. And it but it does always make me think a little bit of Halloween because it's got green and logo comes up like kind of green and it has that sort of typical Halloween font is just what Macintosh uses for their font. I feel like Halloween like every time I see that

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:03  
I've done like reviews of like Macintosh like, like I did their their their high end weird, crazy turntable. And now all I can think about is Halloween. But I don't think that's what they were going for. But now

Nicole Wakelin  1:17:17  
they're going for either but I'm like you should have picked a different font. Sorry, guys.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:22  
But you know what, one of the things when they when they launched the the concept again last summer that this carried through now into the grandchild. And into Wagoner's is the app that runs on the Uconnect five infotainment system, you can launch an app that gives you a simulated version of the signature Macintosh meters, the blue backlit meters. So you get a virtual version of those meters on your screen in the vehicle while you're driving.

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:51  
Yeah, that was a big deal for them. I remember when they launched they were like, look at this and then it turns out like the color correction was wrong. Like don't use those photos. I was like

Sam Abuelsamid  1:18:01  
what? All right, next up. While you were in Monterey, Robbie, you saw a new Lamborghini.

Roberto Baldwin  1:18:11  
I saw a new old Lamborghini is I think that's the best way to describe it. I saw the brand new, but not really new. Okay, I saw the new kinda new Khun Tosh. So the cool Josh is like the official supercar period. It's the supercar that everyone talks about. It's basically anyone Gen X. For Gen X. We all owned. I think they handed them out. As soon as you turn five. Everyone who's Generation X got a Lamborghini Khun Tosh poster to put on your wall. And it stayed up there. Well into the 90s. It was the Yeah, the Khun Tosh it set the bar for every Lamborghini introduced after it. It set the bar for the really like supercar design. And it's it is, so it's the 50th anniversary of that vehicle. And Lamborghini decided, hey, let's make a hybrid coupe Tosh. And they did. And they they're made 112 of them. And the reason 112 cuz that's the project number for the kutai when it was originally created. So they're trying to figure out like, well, how many should we make we want to I want to make a few because it's not we don't want to like be the company that like resurrects old, you know, brands, they you know, they we want to look forward that was like their whole thing is like, we want to keep looking forward. We don't want to like dwell on the past but they felt like the the cooltouch was such a, an iconic vehicle that they had to do something for its 50th anniversary, but they wanted to do something very, very small. And so they made 112 actually they made 113 because they have one so 120 or sold to the masses. And then the one that was at car week masses. I know the masses and when I say masses 112 people who've already purchased one they all sold them out already are gone. They're gone. They're gone. You're not yet there. Those are they saw these cars A while back. They had assigned a bunch of MBAs. They had to throw down all the monies in the world.

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:26  
How much is this? Do we know how much this is?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:28  
2.2 point 6 million. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  1:20:32  
6 million. A lot. A lot. Yeah, it's especially Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:20:35  
it's all the money. All the money?

Roberto Baldwin  1:20:39  
Um, yeah. So there's, there's, there's one there's zero. So the one at at at Pebble Beach or at the quail or Monterey car week, whatever you want to call it? The one they were showing off was zero. So that's Lamborghinis. And then there's 112 that have been sold to individuals. Which means that the chances of any of us ever driving it are pretty much slim DIN rail. I couldn't sit in it. I wasn't allowed to sit when I was shooting video of it. My Can I sit inside? They're like, No, I'm like, Yeah, that makes sense. Because there's only one and what if I have a gun on my butt or something? And so what happened to that 2.0 we had to redo the upholstery cuz that. Yeah, but why would he have gum on his butt? But he did? Yeah, no, it was it's it is. I really appreciate how much it looks like the original cone Tosh without being a carbon copy of that vehicle. I mean, there's there's regulatory issues you have to deal with the the original kotak shouldn't have to deal with you know how to be taller. But you know, there's all these like little touches like the the original Khun Tosh concept vehicle in the front in the grill, it said Khun Tosh. Sorry, the dogs are going crazy.

Nicole Wakelin  1:21:53  
The dogs excited about it. I mean, they want to see this car. They're excited. Hey, well, if I had that already, which I don't, you know.

Roberto Baldwin  1:22:06  
So the original on the original concept vehicle in the grill, it's at Khun Tosh. And then that didn't that didn't really go into production. But on this vehicle, they they brought that back. And you know, it doesn't have a wing, which I know a lot of us think when we think Hoon touch, we think the big giant wing but the original Originally, it didn't have a wing. They added that later. So it doesn't it

Sam Abuelsamid  1:22:25  
didn't come along till about 1980 or so.

Roberto Baldwin  1:22:27  
Yeah, yeah. But everyone like that's the one everyone has on their wall. So it doesn't have the wing. But it has a lot of those sort of styling cues that those air vents on the doors that they make it like a bit of a triangle, that sort of telescoping top roof where it's sort of like comes down into a V. Yeah, the the flat lights in the front. It's like everything is like oh, yeah, that's that's a cool touch. And it looks so much better in person doesn't pictures. So if you've seen the pictures, and you're just like, I don't know, it looks better in person. I saw the pictures. I was like, Oh, this looks cool. And then you see it in person when they take the everything off, like, Oh, this looks much cooler than then then the photos I think they're, they're a bunch of cards that are sort of like that, where you're like, and then you see any person like Oh, so if you're if you're on the fence about it, you know, I don't know when you're gonna see in person actually at a car show, go to a car show.

Nicole Wakelin  1:23:20  
Every time you ever give her show,

Roberto Baldwin  1:23:22  
they'll drag out number zero and you can check it down.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:23:27  
And it looks like it does have the little cover over the over the Start button. You have to flip up just like on the wrist. Yeah, I was just looking at the photos. Yeah, it's so I have to confess, you know, when I was a kid, you know, when I was growing up the 1970s I was not a fan of the contest. I was part of the other group. So you know, at that time there were there were two supercars, there was Tosh and the Ferrari 512 BB. And I was a Ferrari guy. I was not the Countach guy. And so I had posters of the Ferrari. In fact, I still have one. I still have a picture of a Ferrari 512 in my office. And that was that was my car was the Ferrari 512 BB. And then I actually was a much bigger fan of the Lamborghini Miura, which was the predecessor to the Countach. I love that car. That thing was gorgeous. That kotak just never did it for me. But I do like this new one. I think it's it's a it's a more sophisticated design in some respects, you know, it draws on the, the elements of the original, especially the, the, like the 70s era. Khun Tosh is before they put the the fender flares on and the wing and everything. So the first generation of production montage is this one draws a lot more from those than then from the later ones.

Nicole Wakelin  1:24:57  
Yeah, I mean everything about you not being a fan of the Khun Tosh I I'm struggling to still podcast with you, but I'll get over it. Yeah, I

Roberto Baldwin  1:25:07  
know I think I mean, I the Mira was it's just an unbelievably beautiful eyelash a vehicle. But yeah, I think that that kutai just really set the standard for everything else. And it is a it's a hybrid. It's a hybrid like the CN. So it has a it has capacitors as Super capacitors instead of a battery. It has even though it the the it's like LPI 800 dash four so large, longitudinal longitudal. Yeah, so the engine placement, I can never be totally lost. Yeah, that word. It places the transmission

Sam Abuelsamid  1:25:45  
in front of the the engine.

Roberto Baldwin  1:25:48  
I don't know I didn't ask. It's it's pretty much whatever this is

Sam Abuelsamid  1:25:51  
that that was the thing about the V 12. You know that from the coin toss up through the event adore that there were always arranged with that you had the V 12 in the back and then the engine was actually in front of the that, or the transmission was in front of the engine in the center tunnel. So you had an almost direct link from the shifter back when they still had actual shifters instead of this push button nonsense. You had an almost direct link to the, to the to the transmission, because it was literally under your elbow. Yeah, in those cars.

Roberto Baldwin  1:26:25  
I'm curious like because Okay, so it has 800. So it's the 800. But it actually has eight and that's supposed to signify the power but it actually has 814 horsepower, but they won four sounds weird. 800 sounds nice. And 531 pound feet of torque. So when you give a coun Tosh owner 814 horsepower, and 531 pounds. How long do you think it would if it was a manual transmission? Like how many I don't know hours before they melted the clutch like to one and a half?

Nicole Wakelin  1:26:56  
45 minute one an hour and 45 minutes or an hour? 35 minutes?

Roberto Baldwin  1:27:01  
Yeah, it's just Yeah, it's a lot of power. Zero to 62 and 2.8 seconds cuz you know, kilometers. It is Yeah. It's it's a really pretty car. It's very expensive, where none of us are going to be able to drive it unless Lamborghini later on says, You know what, yeah, but you can drive it on track. And you can only go you know, five miles. Well Miss naked three miles, you can go three miles. If this vehicle. Yeah, so that the new kotak can't get out of first gear. You can't you do not, you know, do not touch anything, don't do anything. Don't make things

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:38  
to cause any problems with everything

Roberto Baldwin  1:27:40  
it was. I feel like that was the big news of the show. The New York Auto week was the Khun Tosh. I know Audi had Yeah, it had the sky sphere and there was a new Bugatti and there's some other things. And then there was also some news that came up after that.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:27:59  
Yeah. Accurate made a little announcement as well.

Roberto Baldwin  1:28:03  
with drones. They

Nicole Wakelin  1:28:06  
looked so cool.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:09  
Yeah, so you know, something that Acura fans have been clamoring for for what probably 20 years now. Is the return of the Integra. The Integra is coming back next year. And they released a teaser image of it. And that's all they're not telling us anything else right now. But they, they they claim it will be true to the original. So what do you think about an Integra coming back?

Nicole Wakelin  1:28:37  
I think it's kind of cool. It was such like an iconic car for Integra once upon a time. I mean, that's what everybody wanted was a big deal. So I think bringing

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:46  
the original Acura

Nicole Wakelin  1:28:47  
Yeah, I mean, it was it was the thing my the first another old car that Nicole wakelin had. My husband's first car that he bought after he got married was in fact an Acura Integra and he loved that thing and he drove it until it was like honey is done. You need to move on to something still works. But he loved that. So I think it's kind of neat. I think if they can capture some of the spirit of the original in whatever it is they decided to do with the new one. I think that could be kind of fun. But I don't know how you part of what made it neat. It was like I said the first accurate was Heidi I don't know I think it'll be neat. I'm excited for it. I think a lot of people who are a fan of that car are going to be excited to see it come back and to see what they do with it. And I think it could be good. I

Roberto Baldwin  1:29:36  
can love this love love to have own it Integra. I think when they came out it was Yeah, it was like the first accurate was very important for them. But it also like sort of goes back to where I was trying to become that performance brand that it originally launched with that sort of precision engineered you know, started with the NSX a few years ago. Now we got type s coming to everything apparently I think the the Integra was one of those sort of missing missing elements from from this sort of rebranding to being what they were originally. And I think the, I'm curious to see what they, what they bring out. And I'm sure there's going to be a type s version of it, and it's going to be cool. I hope, you'd always, you know, be always, you know, cross your fingers and hoping something cool.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:25  
Yeah, when when Honda launched the Civic Type type bar here in the us a couple of years ago, I loved driving that car. I didn't necessarily love looking at it so much. You know, I mean, for for me, at my age, I was a little stabbed at the top, shall we say, in terms of styling, you know, that when you Although granted from you know, from the driver's seat, you can't see the wing, you know, because it's shaped so it's just above the line of the the rear glass. So when you look out the rear window, you don't you don't see it at all. And that's what I tell people, it's like, Just close your eyes climbing the car, and then you can open your eyes and drive and you don't have to worry about what it looks like just drive it and and what what I what I had always hoped was that they would do a replacement for the eye LX you know, and basically put all the good mechanical bits of the type bar into, you know, into a compact Acura you know, that was more restrained in its design. And hopefully, that's what they come up with, you know, with with this Integra is basically just drop all the type bar stuff into a compact sedan that, you know that you can drive without grabbing the attention of every police officer that's driving down the road and, you know, still be able to, you know, have a great time driving it. And I'll be curious to see what they do from from a powertrain perspective. I mean, there is a new Civic Type are coming sometime, I think in the early part of next year. And you know, hopefully whatever they do to that goes into the Integra and maybe even a little bit more and interesting, because when the Integra originally launched, Acura was in North America only brand and everywhere else in the world the Integra was sold as a Honda which is why it was the first the very first Type R was the Integra and eventually type are became a Honda only thing. And they did type s for for Acura. So I'm sure that you know, whatever whatever they do, you know, the hot Integra is probably going to be a type bass rather than a type bar. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Alright, one last story. Before we get into a couple of listener questions. Nissan is apparently considering a compact electric pickup truck, which I think I don't know about you. But I think it actually makes a lot of sense. You know, if if this compact pickup truck thing starts to take off with the the maverick and the the Santa Cruz Nissan's got their new Evie platform that they're going to use for the ARIA that's launching, actually, it's going to be early in 2022. Now they've pushed it back a few months. using that as the basis for pickup truck, I think could actually be really interesting, you know, have something that's smaller, more affordable than, say a lightning or rivian or a GMC Hummer for that matter. What do you think about that?

Nicole Wakelin  1:33:35  
I think people are going to be excited about that idea. I think it's a neat direction for Nissan to go. And I, I do think there's compact pickup truck segment is sort of taken off, you know, between what we already have and the new stuff that we're getting this a little bit smaller, like the maverick I think there's a lot of potential there. And I think people want the they want to move towards EBS I, the bigger pickup truck guys might be a little bit more nervous about it with the idea that you know, if you you're out there somewhere doing really tricky things, it can be hard to get your vehicle charged, but that but the compact pickup trucks, you know, a lot of those aren't necessarily you can go off road on them, you can do that kind of stuff, but they're a lot more likely to find themselves less out there where there's going to be a way to charge it and you're not you know, I think that makes having an Eevee a little bit more usable for compact pickup truck buyers. And I think Nissan doing that as is a good idea I be anxious to see I'm curious to see what they're going to do with it. I think it's a positive move.

Roberto Baldwin  1:34:34  
It kind of makes a bit more sense because you know, the moving a pickup truck requires a lot of power, which means more battery and battery adds more weight and it's just this like you know, you go round and round. To add more rain you're gonna need to add more weight but if you add more weight, you need to add more battery to add more. And so I think that compact truck is sort of a really nice, it'll be a nice happy medium. I think they're definitely going to be keeping an eye on what's the standard cruising the maverick and see how those sell after the initial excitement of them? And I think if it's if it's if it ends up playing out as well as we think it will. Because I think there's there there is a genuine desire for smaller pickups and like not everyone needs something the size of a Manhattan studio apartment. So yeah, so I think and you know, that would I mean, to me that makes that again, I think that makes a lot more sense. I mean, the F 150, the F 150, whatever, you know, definitely 50 lightnings gonna sell because it's the F 150. But for for a lot of people, I think small pickup trucks make more sense. And a small pickup truck gets an Eevee because you're not going to be doing like you said Truckee truck things. It Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And it'll be interesting to see if Nissan is the first to sort of come out the gate with a small Eevee

Nicole Wakelin  1:35:55  
I think Sam, let's

Sam Abuelsamid  1:35:56  
answer a couple listener. I know. I agree. Totally. I think that, you know, we talked earlier about you know, Nissan just starting to do some more interesting things and being more competitive. And I think if they were the first ones to launch a compact electric pickup, I think that could be something that really sets them apart from the competition you know, certainly sets them apart from Maverick and Santa Cruz. And I think that there's a lot of potential there. I think that could be a really cool product for them. That I think we'll we'll get some good attention i think i think it'll get some customers. Alright, let's, let's answer some listener questions. First up, Brianna Wu asks, Is yellow a great color for a sports car or a terrible color?

Nicole Wakelin  1:36:40  
It's great anything that's colored like a Skittle is great on a sports car. It has to be that that that shocking green, that shocking orange, that shocking yellow? If it looks like a Skittle. it's acceptable in a sports car.

Roberto Baldwin  1:36:52  
It's you know, it's weird. Is that yellow? there's a there's such there's like a tiny little tint variant that immediately makes it look like a school bus or a taxi. As long as it's orange.

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:03  
Yeah, it's too orangey Yeah, if

Roberto Baldwin  1:37:06  
you can stay away from that and move towards the more yellow pearl than it Yeah, it's it's outstanding. But uh, yeah, you gotta be very careful. I think there was a calling and someone was telling about that was yellow. That looked it ended up looking like a taxi. Like someone spent a lot of money on a Rolls Royce.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:37:21  
Oops, a yellow and actually saw Colin in Manhattan for the first time.

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:29  
The real world

Roberto Baldwin  1:37:30  
it's a it's a big big car. Like driving it. driving it is like driving a locomotive. It's just like, here we go. Nothing's getting away.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:37:42  
I I agree though. And anything bold, bold colors on sports cars are great. I love it. I have become so unbelievably bored with anything that's black, white or some shade of silver and gray because they're everywhere. That bold colors are more bold colors are needed. You know whether it's yellow or green or orange, whatever, just put it out there and especially on a sports car. Yeah. All right. Next up from I am nuisance on Twitter. I've been hoping to see a convertible Bev battery electric vehicle. I think it would be easier to do since you start start with an electric skateboard that is stiff. Who do you think will be first to do it not an exotic? Who's going to build an electric convertible I

Roberto Baldwin  1:38:33  
am like I am with I am nations. I really just want a convertible EV and I for the life of me. I cannot i can't i because you have GM. The GM is that really convertible You know? And then you have Hyundai Hyundai is like pretty far out there with you know,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:38:53  
they never ever done a

Roberto Baldwin  1:38:54  
convertible Mazda is behind everybody Mazda Ford I'm sorry Mazda, Toyota, and Honda are sort of lagging so it is a it's a tough one and Ford is is coming up but Ford may

Nicole Wakelin  1:39:13  
four it's not doing sedans anymore

Roberto Baldwin  1:39:15  
yeah, they're not even doing cars. No, but they are things you could do this a Maki Mustang. Mustang is the last car so

Nicole Wakelin  1:39:22  
maybe we'll have a maybe that's it.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:39:27  
But but not Yeah, but yeah, not a Maki but but actually a true must offer money the next generation birthday is coming up

Nicole Wakelin  1:39:34  
proper Mustang, and that would be it.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:39:37  
Yeah. And I think that they I think that they will they are going to do an electric Mustang like a true Mustang coupe and convertible. I think I think it's going to be Ford. I think later in the decade. We will see Mazda do an electric Miata. Oh, yeah. But that I think the Mustang is probably going to be the first

Roberto Baldwin  1:39:55  
Yeah, that makes I think that makes the most sense. That

Nicole Wakelin  1:39:57  
makes sense looking

Roberto Baldwin  1:39:57  
at everyone else because everyone if you're if you're having To catch up you're going to be going sport compact, you know SUV because you need to get the you need to get those numbers and that's where the market is. And it's after you've already established yourself and you have the cars on the market which Ford is already doing, I think Yeah, the Mustang convertible sounds like the best. That's the winner. If it's not that then I don't know, Volkswagen something the house.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:40:22  
Could be. could be maybe, you know, an ID three convertible,

Roberto Baldwin  1:40:27  
the show, Rocco.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:40:29  
Alright. Back to show Rocco one more time,

Roberto Baldwin  1:40:34  
forgot to Scirocco.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:40:35  
Alright. Finally, Rachel Connelly asks, my eight year old son loves cars more than anything, he wants to know if there will ever be flying cars.

Roberto Baldwin  1:40:46  
I have a lot of thoughts on this. I have. I've written this, this article. And I think the article was at some point, I just like there's no such thing as a flying car. Because people are trying to veto Evie tolls, which is essentially giant drones that people fly around it. They're just really really fancy helicopters with a lot of things in them, we cannot be trusted entirely to drive on the road. The idea of giving us the ability to now fly seems like a bad scene. Because when you wreck a car on the road, you know, you've you know, it's a it's horrible and you know, you create new, there's potential for collateral within your area. If you mess up in the sky, you fall out of the sky, you you've landed on houses, you're it's and the FFA, FFA the Future Farmers of America are very. The FAA, you know, they have to they keep track of the sky and eat, you know, they they're moving towards taken care of, you know, looking at vetoes and seeing how those work. But we can't even fly drones in cities like you can't fly a drone within like the city of San Francisco, you can't fly drones near airports, you can't fly drones. And those are just the tiny little drones. So imagine cars flying I think it's it. I think we the idea of the flying car is it's it's fun. And we always talked about in the Jetsons didn't really help us like think that it wouldn't happen. But I think at the end of the day, like though the the it's gonna be those times those those he vetoes those, those vertical takeoff and landing giant drones that people get in and fly around from point A to point B but even that is it that's still a little bit of a ways off for most people because it's expensive. You got to build the infrastructure, you got to deal with the FAA, you can't be near airports because you're gonna get in the way of actual giant jets. It's, it's super complicated. And there's a reason why Uber sold their business.

Nicole Wakelin  1:42:42  
There's a flying cars, there's a company that is now pretty much gone bankrupt Terrafugia, they had a facility at the local airport in my town, which is a small airport, that they were approved for doing test flights and testing out we were the first ones in the nation, I think to officially make flying cars road legal. I don't know the rules around all of it. But we're the first ones going to Hampshire. And then they pretty much laid everybody off and are done as of February of this year. So that was our brief moment of shining glory for flying cars, and they died. So yeah, but I don't. And when you looked at what they had, it really just looked like a drone, a big drone that you could sit in like yeah, I don't. They're

Sam Abuelsamid  1:43:27  
the older stuff was more like a sort of car like with folding wings

Roberto Baldwin  1:43:32  
folding wings. Do you want to fly in something with folding wings? And let's it's like military gray. Bill, he's built three of these. He's got an engineering degree and should be fine.

Nicole Wakelin  1:43:45  
You have to you have to like how many hours do you have to train for your pilot's license? Like it's an ungodly number of hours you true? Whatever we have to do to actually certify people to be okay in a flying car. I feel like the driver's ed version of flying cars is not going to be acceptable for people to put giant things over my head and flying through the air. So I don't know maybe someday in the far distant future, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. I know I like the Jetsons to I feel bad for your son your kid but yeah, no. Yeah, sorry, dude.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:44:17  
Yeah, I think anything anything that is capable of flying, you know, by its nature inherently has to be designed as an aircraft first. So it's it's really an aircraft that happens to be able to maybe drive as opposed to a flying car. So it's more of a driving plane flying car. And you know that these Evie talls I mean, these these things are going to be air taxis. They're not going to be things that almost anybody owns. Yeah, they're not going to be able to go by and Evie tall. In most. In fact, in most cases, most of these things are being designed to be to fly autonomously without even a pilot. Some of the early ones will have pilots, but these are aircraft. They're not cars. They may provide taxi like services. But they're still not car because you can do that you can

Roberto Baldwin  1:45:05  
do a taxi with a helicopter right now.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:45:09  
Yeah. Oh yeah. I saw, we saw a whole bunch of them in Manhattan, you know, just picking up and dropping people off at the pier from from our home. Looking at my hotel room, I guess I'm coming in and out all the time. But they're, as you said, they're really expensive and are noisy and they need dedicated infrastructure for landing and it's, you know, it will we'll have air taxis but unfortunately, I don't think we're ever really going to have true flying cars. Just

Roberto Baldwin  1:45:40  
Just enjoy the car on the ground. And then when you want to go somewhere, you can get it. Maybe Maybe in the future getting evil tall or right now you can just get a helicopter ride. You could just get a helicopter ride around somewhere

Sam Abuelsamid  1:45:50  
every second. Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  1:45:52  
you could just you just make friends with the guy who owns a helicopter or just go to Manhattan or Hawaii or the Grand Canyon or whatever and just get in the helicopter and enjoy the view.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:46:03  
For what it's worth those Evie talls should actually be potentially safer than traditional helicopters because you've got multiple motors, multiple rotors, you're not relying just on one engine and one, one rotor to keep that thing in the air. And so they they should have a little more redundancy and they should be safer and certainly a lot more energy efficient. But yeah, that's that's still a ways out there. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. See you guys next week. Talk to you next time.

Roberto Baldwin  1:46:36  
Bye, everyone.