Sam Abuelsamid  0:00  
Coming up on episode 209 wheel bearings, we've got the new Hyundai veloster n with its eight speed DCT the Mazda six on its way out the door and the Toyota gr 86 on its way in. Robbie gets a look at the Cadillac lyric and person has a brief spell with the Chevy Bolt Evie before his battery before it goes back to get its battery replaced. And we've got the new Genesis gV 60, Evie, the Nissan Z, and a little ride and Ford's blue cruise all coming up next.

This is Episode 209 of wheel bearings. I'm Sam Abuelsamid of Guidehouse insights. 

Nicole Wakelin  1:07  
I'm Nicole wakelin of sports car market magazine. 

Roberto Baldwin  1:12  
And I am Roberto Baldwin from Engadget.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17  
So, Nicole, why don't you go first? What did you drive? What are 

Nicole Wakelin  1:21  
Okay, so what I have in my driveway is the 2021 Mazda six, which is a really fun little sedan. So here's the funny thing. My husband has this weird anti Mazda thing. I don't know why he's like, Yeah, I know. Right? That's like what's wrong with your husband? I know that's normally the first set like so we sat down at a monster. I don't know a couple years ago. He's like, I hate monsters. I'm like, all you did was sit your butt in it. What is your problem? you've sat your butt down in the seat. And you don't like it? What's wrong? He just had this like impression that they were these like boring cars and they're not really fun. Right? I know if you could see the look at Roberto's face and I'm like, when did you last get in a Mazda? He's like, I don't know. I was like in college or something. I'm like, so is it some ancient beat up version of a monster that one of your friends was driving? Like maybe I'm like, perhaps your image needs to be updated. So I still am on this quest to get him to like Mazda's this might have done it. He liked

Sam Abuelsamid  0:33  
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Nicole Wakelin  2:20  
he did sort of like a Okay, this isn't so bad. And I came to appreciate it. He appreciated it. Yes, he would. He liked his six foot three husband as he had plenty of room even though this isn't a huge sedan. It looks very small from the outside. But inside there's actually a good bit more room like he sat down in the front seat. My daughter sat behind them and her knees weren't up to her chin. So that was a plus. I like it. Because it looks beautiful. It is $37,290 as equipped the way I got it, which is the signature trim, which has a 2.5 turbo with 227 horsepower, 310 pound feet of torque front wheel drive. So it's a good price and it looks good and it is fun to drive. Of course he doesn't get to drive it he just gets to ride in it because it's a press car and he has no permission. But I enjoy driving it. And today as we're recording this, I am in New Hampshire and we had hurricane I guess he's really only Tropical Storm Tropical Storm already has arrived. So we have torrential rains and horrible wind and I had to drive it about 45 minutes away. It is terrible weather to drive a car. Like you can't see where you're going. There's like a sheen of water on the road. And again, this is front wheel drive. This isn't even like I have an all wheel drive version of this. It's like okay, bring on the crummy weather no front wheel drive handled like a dream. Even with the wind, like I could feel the wind buffeting the car because we had some pretty decent gusts. Still it stays really controlled. So I was genuinely impressed. there's not very many times where you get to test out a car in that kind of weather that the timing works out. I'm like okay, we're going to take our cup my car up there we're going to take the press car we're gonna see how it does and it it did amazingly well and it is incredibly comfortable and still was very quiet like I said, we had guests that were up to 40 miles an hour which is a pretty decent gust of wind to come smack in at you as you're driving down the highway at 65 miles an hour and it was still quiet and with the rain so it kept that sort of passenger calm it was calm and comfortable and relaxed despite the chaos outside with leaves and branches flying off the trees all around us but Mazda your car still in one piece so we're all good nothing hit the car. So I was a fan I liked it and husband scene is warming up to Mazda so I feel like that's a plus gradually moving him towards thinking that monsters are fun. What I need to do is get my hands on a Miata and get him permission to drive it and go now telling the monster is not exciting. Yeah. Or

Roberto Baldwin  4:45  
even the Mazda three just I know. Again with the all wheel drive.

Nicole Wakelin  4:50  
He got one at a rental car like because he travels and he has to occasionally rent a car but he got like the the rental car special like that is not the way to determine if Like a car you've gotten the the lowest trim that some other guy has thrashed and so one of these days I will get him to really truly like monsters but I loved it and I like monsters to begin with. I think they're fun. You know they are drivers cars and they feel like drivers cars. And they look good. I always think that they look super sexy. What this one was machine gray metallic so it's like this really dark gray with this great metallic tint to it. But the Reds that must nobody makes a red car like Mazda. Good Lord, whatever that red is.

Sam Abuelsamid  5:31  
Crystal red. Yes, salt. Crystal red is absolutely the best color.

Nicole Wakelin  5:36  
Is it not the most beautiful? There's so many of my neighbors who has one and I'm like, Ah, there it is. And I just dry it just like sort of. It's like a little bright spot as I drive out of the neighborhood when they're parked in their driveway.

Roberto Baldwin  5:47  
Because someone has to sell their soul that's how that's how they make the red that good. That's a deal with the devil at the Mazda facility.

Sam Abuelsamid  5:55  
I can live with that. Yeah, I'm fine.

Nicole Wakelin  5:58  
I can't I can't deal with that if someone has to sell their soul to get a car that pretty okay, we're all going to see the devil later on. That's fine. Big deal whatever.

Roberto Baldwin  6:07  
Devil went down to Mazda

Nicole Wakelin  6:08  
devil went down to Mazda we can write a whole new song. There's the devil went down to

Sam Abuelsamid  6:17  
there is one unfortunate aspect of the master six as good as it is. Yes. Oh, one will be the last model year. It's going away. There's supposed to be a new one coming probably maybe for maybe next year for the 2023 model. But this year, you know when when the 20 ones when they run when the Mazda dealers route or 21 model models. That's it. That's it generation.

Nicole Wakelin  6:43  
There's another 99

Unknown Speaker  6:50  
plane about

Sam Abuelsamid  6:51  
the infotainment system.

Nicole Wakelin  6:53  
Yes does not have a

Sam Abuelsamid  6:54  
infotainment.

Nicole Wakelin  6:55  
It does not have a touchscreen doesn't have a touchscreen. And I'll tell you what you do. Here's Okay, here's again driving during the hurricane force winds. It was warning me and I'm sure there's a setting somewhere where I can turn this off. But not while I'm driving at 65 miles an hour with the storm you know around me. It gives you the storm warnings. For every county we apparently have 100,000 counties in Southern New Hampshire I now realize there's a hurricane force WIND WARNING and Cheshire county hurricane force winds up warning in coos County. Every single one has its own warning. And every single time it shows up, there's like a close or details that you can get about each warning. You have to spend little nomid hit close spin little knob and hit close spin little knobs hit close. I can't and Okay, and I did that for all of the tropical storm warnings. And apparently we got another frame that was fun warnings so that I had to turn it and do the flood warnings for every county is like okay, I hate this infotainment system. So I'm still gonna wear

Sam Abuelsamid  7:52  
those coming through the realist coming through the traffic

Nicole Wakelin  7:55  
alert. I'm thinking it was probably something about trucks maybe that it was Sirius XM, it could have been the traffic alerts. Like I said I couldn't. This literally pops up in the middle of driving. I'm like, I can't figure out what's making this pop up. I just know that if I want to see anything on that screen, I have to spin and click roughly 5000 times, I could just tap tap tap tap tap, which would have been really easy. Tap Tap, tap, tap, tap, no spin, click spin, click spin click to get rid of them all. I know you

Sam Abuelsamid  8:22  
I can sympathize with that. No, no. I mean, that's that is a very valid complaint. And while I'm not a fan of touchscreens, I can that is definitely a scenario where it would be a lot easier. I mean, granted this, hopefully, hopefully it's not a scenario that happens very often for most people. But you know, bad weather happens, you know, hurricanes, blizzards or whatever

Nicole Wakelin  8:47  
that's in the state cuz like hurricanes, okay, those don't happen every day. But during the winter, a huge swath of this country gets snow that's worth a weather warning every single day. So depending on where you are, you're going to get all these weather warnings and have to do that to get rid of it. I'm like, oh, or

Sam Abuelsamid  9:03  
thunderstorm service on

Nicole Wakelin  9:04  
summer. See? So that was and I maybe I've never had a Mazda when there was really truly bad weather. I'm like, Oh, this is intolerable. But yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  9:13  
I had a BMW or an I don't remember. And I had a German car in Germany. And every so often, like they have a traffic alert that will come up and tell you Oh, there's traffic on this road that you're coming up to or whatever. But it always kept popping up and it would be in German because I'm driving a German car and a German country and I'm like, I don't know what's happening.

Nicole Wakelin  9:33  
You think it was a traffic alert? You might have been for speeding Who knows? Maybe read it. It was in German. It could

Roberto Baldwin  9:39  
have been BMW being like you got to bring our car back. You've had it for too long.

Nicole Wakelin  9:45  
Sorry. Put it in English. I have no idea what you're yelling at me about what's going on. So that was the car in my driveway. But I also drove another car. The same week that I drove the fantabulous Jeep Grand Cherokee, or Grand wagoneer wagon air and Grand wagoneer I had the time to drive the 2022 Toyota gr 86 you guys, this car is fun. It is. I'm so fun. What What were you gonna say

Roberto Baldwin  10:20  
I own a B rz 2014 BRC, I understand that the the the issues with the vehicle, the fact that torque is like somewhere around five or 6000 RPM, you know, the the stereo system is trash. And I have been watching every single video reading every review, and everyone is absolutely in love with these vehicles. And I'm just like, should I sell mine and then a year and then buy it? Why should I do?

Nicole Wakelin  10:48  
Okay, it was so so here. So I was on the second wave, I think of this program. And when I talked to people who had dinner who had driven it the day before, a couple folks said to me, they will have the new ones with an automatic or with a manual on the track that you can drive. But they also have the old one. Don't as much as your heart is going to want you to go right for the new one. Drive the old one first drive it around the track. And we have I think we did like two or three laps The first time you went out? Sure, like okay, fine, whatever. You go out there, you do a couple laps. And you think to yourself, okay, this is fun in the old one. And that was the first one I got. And I'm like, This is fun. I love one car. I love this car. This is really cool. This is really fun. I don't understand why why were people complaint, like you're kind of like, there's not a lot. I mean, there's things to complain about. But it's not this awful car, right? Then you get out of that. You adjust your helmet, you get back into the new one. And I swear I hadn't even gotten to where I can open it up or I'm sort of like in the don't, you don't have to throttle back, you know, you can just open it up, hammer down. I hadn't even gotten that far. And I thought, Oh my gosh, this is not the same car. Like the difference. You can feel it, the acceleration, the handling, how planned it is how much faster I could go. Like I could feel myself pushing it harder immediately. But feeling that the car was more controlled. It was it was a joy. I drove that a lot. I drove it in circles around and around and around and around around. And at the end of the day, I had that sweaty helmet head in the head to go exact directly to dinner with Jeep. And I was like, Hey, good to see I was on a track today. Sorry, I look like this. It was really fun. I feel like they made so many improvements. And you know, when automakers say they make a lot of improvements to a car, sometimes you feel them. Sometimes you think I have no idea what you're talking about you say you improve this you say the improve that maybe on paper or to this super, you know well attuned engineer or sports car driver, they're gonna look and say yes, I can notice that there's a modicum of difference in this vehicle. You don't have to be that person. This is markedly better in every way. And it is an absolute Hoot to drive it. I loved it. I loved it.

Roberto Baldwin  12:54  
I'm so excited about this car so much because I love my BRG. And I like the fact that they took a fun car. And then they like, oh, there's some issues with this fun car, which and we fix those issues. But we didn't screw up the car. Correct. That's the case. Sometimes they fix the issues break away. And they're like, Oh, well, but we got rid of a manual transmission. Or, you know, we got rid of this sort of suspension, save some, you know, we had to save some money because we added a bigger engine or Yeah, the torque band is it's still the same because we started the same engine. But we did this other thing. It's

Nicole Wakelin  13:29  
Yeah, yeah, cuz sometimes they make it either they make it better. And you're like, Well, technically you fix those problems. But now it's no fun to drive and I'm not enjoying it like you fit this one. There's it is that sort of like car that you get into and you on the track you have that moment you're literally think yourself, oh yeehaw this is fine. Like you want to cheer out loud. It is such a joy to drive this. It looks good. I mean, the styling changes even that it's still the same but it's not like it updates it in a way that you don't lose the character the old car you just get the next iteration with improvements. That's

Sam Abuelsamid  14:03  
kind of a it's kind of a chunkier look to it.

Nicole Wakelin  14:05  
Does it sort of like this lower old was lighter spelt? Yeah, it's kind of like honestly, it's a down on its conscious it but it looks fantastic. The only thing that we don't know unless it's come out and I haven't seen I don't think it's going to come out for quite a while is pricing. They said that it will start I believe the word he said was comfortably under $30,000. So 2627 nothing right. And when people push like, okay, which you know, there's two trims are they both going to be under 30,000? And literally he gave exactly the same answer. It will start comfortably under 30,000. So I have no idea how pricing is going to be hopefully the hopefully it's not crazy. I'm going to be nice to think you could get the higher trim without breaking the bank. Yeah, but they don't they say they don't release pricing till closer towards production because they're still negotiating things. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you have no pricing.

Roberto Baldwin  14:57  
So what's what's on the higher trend is that On

Nicole Wakelin  15:00  
the higher trim it adds. Let's see what kind of things that adds it adds. Instead of 17 inch wheels, it's got eight teens, it has this funky little duckbill real rear spoiler. There's adaptive front lighting. I think you get a better audio slightly better audio system. And you get some unique interior accents. There's like all these black and silver accent trims. Um, I that really it I'm trying to think if that's it.

Roberto Baldwin  15:25  
Yeah, I don't care about any of that was

Nicole Wakelin  15:27  
mostly impaired. It was mostly parent stuff and see parents and the spoiler I mean, you can tell the difference a little little duckbill spoiler on the back the little you know, Donald Duck thing going on there. It does look cute, but I don't not knowing if it's like okay, am I paying an extra two grand for that stuff? Or am I paying an extra 500 Oh, yeah. What is it without knowing? Who knows? Right? Without knowing how much they're charging you for that? It's hard to say like what I do that I might do it if it was reasonable. But if it suddenly made it exorbitantly expensive or or crossed some number in my head that I felt was like No, no, no, no, that I might not because there's not these significant

Roberto Baldwin  16:03  
change. I'm more interested in go as opposed to show when it comes to this vehicle. So you're

Nicole Wakelin  16:08  
gonna want the one that starts comfortably under 30,000

Sam Abuelsamid  16:13  
and that's probably the one with the manual transmission. Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  16:15  
I'm definitely Yeah, you can't I don't I mean, I guess you get it with it. You can get it with an automatic but I don't see why you why

Nicole Wakelin  16:24  
you could drive both and I drove both I you know, the on a track I kind of because I'm not an everyday truck driver. And it's harder it's harder if you're not used to driving a manual and attracted to make your shifts the right way. So I had fun driving the automatic but you get I mean, the control you get with a manual. C'mon. Like if you really want a sporty little car, you want a manual transmission? I would absolutely get it with that manual.

Roberto Baldwin  16:46  
Yeah, no, no, no judgment for those who get an automatic transmission. It's totally fine. I'm not. I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy. Who's gonna like make funny for driving an automatic eye for me though. I'm, yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  16:59  
I think it's really I hate when people bash on people because they don't want to drive the automatic you know, what if that's what you want, it's your car, make the drive what makes you happy? As long as you enjoy it, you know, maybe somebody else loves the manual. And that's fine. I just, you know, the fact that there's even like a they're offering one you know, because fewer and fewer cars the fact that they offer it and I know it's exactly the kind of car that you would think they would offer it with. But I mean, you know, the two series have just lost its manual transmission. So and that's the exact kind of car that we write. So they don't you know, so the fact that they still put that on there I give them a gold star and that way people and I do think because fewer and fewer people know how to drive one it does make sense I mean, you have to have an automatic because you know there's far too many people that either prefer it because you just don't like the manual transmission or simply don't even know how to drive a manual so it's like well, they might love your car but they never gonna drive because you're not gonna learn to drive a stick now you know? Yeah

Sam Abuelsamid  17:55  
my my my older daughter actually just bought a 20 1786 earlier this spring and she got one with an automatic she knows how to drive a manual yeah used to actually used to work for drive shop delivering cars and you know, so she spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel of at sixes with the manual transmission. Yeah, you know, she decided that you know, because this is her daily driver car she decided she wanted one with an automatic and she she loves it, you know, so yeah, not

Roberto Baldwin  18:26  
because it's the best it really is one of my favorite cars ever and not just because I own the car but I will drive like all these fancy expensive you know supercars whatever. And then I'll get into that BRC any you know, it doesn't have the power, it doesn't have the power of any of those vehicles. You know, it's it's, but I just the sitting position is just so wonderful in that car. I would when I was reviewing the lamp, dia her recon, I almost mentioned how it was like sitting in my BRC and I'm like, you know what, people are just gonna yell at me they're gonna think I'm insane because the seating position it was just like, Oh yeah, this is this is this is how you should sit when you're driving a sports car.

Nicole Wakelin  19:07  
There's this funny sort of misconception that just because a fancy sports car like a Lamborghini or Ferrari or whatever is a Lamborghini or Ferrari that it is therefore going to be better to every way shape and form in something that's not and there are plenty of sports cars and alternatives to some of these really expensive like, oh my god Wish I could drive it cars that are really really good. Like Yeah, sure if you can drive a Lamborghini if you can afford one Have at it. But it's not like your life is over if you can't because there's really good cars that do many of the same things and in some ways are more drivable.

Roberto Baldwin  19:39  
Yeah. And you can buy it you can actually afford it

Nicole Wakelin  19:42  
afford that without having to fork Yeah, to have your house foreclosed on. You

Sam Abuelsamid  19:45  
know. You don't. You don't have to be a billionaire to, you know, a Silicon Valley billionaire to afford one. Exactly. So speaking of affordable sports cars, I actually have one in the drive way right now as well. I mean, some people would maybe quibble with the the sports car name, but I think in every way that counts, you know, this, this thing is a sports car. And that's the Hyundai velociter. n. And, as you were saying, Robbie, you know, but manuals versus automatics, I actually drove the velociter. And for the first time, a couple years ago, when it first came out with the six speed manual and really enjoyed it, I actually drove it took it on a road trip to Pittsburgh. And it was great. But this one for 2021, they updated it, they added a new eight speed, what Dual Clutch DCT dual dual clutch transmission option. And this is actually probably one of the best automatics I've ever driven Wow. Especially when you put it in edit mode. So on the steering wheel of the velociter. And there's a couple of buttons, you know, one is for the drive mode on the left hand side and the other one is for engages end mode, which basically, you know, dials back this stability control changes the the throttle mapping and the the shift pattern, the shift patterns, and also makes the exhaust louder. So it's actually got to, you know, get that, you know, fun sounding, you know, Bert, because it's a two liter turbocharged four cylinder 275 horsepower. So you know, it's got that kind of Blatt sound, you know, when you back off the throttle, it sounds a lot of fun, and it's so much fun to drive in n mode. This thing this this eight speed dual clutch feels like, it feels exactly the way that if you were driving a manual transmission, you know, and you're a good driver knew what you're doing. It behaves exactly the way you would want to do it yourself. Except it's doing it automatically. You know, as your as when you lift off and you're you're coasting down or you get on the brakes, you know, as you're coming into a corner. It's downshifting. blipping the throttle is a downshift. It's doing all the things that you would do, if you're healing, towing, getting picking just the right gear, as you go through the corner. It is so much fun to drive. And then, you know, if you want to take over, you know, manual control, it's got the aluminum paddles, shift paddles on the back of the steering wheel. So you can shift up or down and very responsive as a as a as a DCT. Always is, you know, they're very quick to shift. Probably quicker than most humans can shift a manual transmission. It's got plenty of power, with 275. And it's got an overboost mode, you know, so it can do short bursts up to like 286 horsepower, the seats and the velocity and don't have a lot of adjustability, it's basically for aft the seat back recline, and height adjustment and that's it, but it fits me perfectly. You know, it's got heavier bolsters, you know, better bolsters on there, so it keeps you in place, when you're when you're driving, when you're going through corners, it's the whole car is very responsive, it feels relatively light, there's, there's only one real dynamic flaw that I encountered with this car. In a straight line, when you stand on the accelerator, it's fine, it goes go straight ahead, no torque steer at all. But if you get on the on the gas, a little bit too hard as you're just as you hit an apex and you're coming out, you will feel some tug in the steering wheel, if the wheels are turned. If they're straight ahead, they're fine. But if you're, if their wheels are turned, you will feel some tugging in the wheels as you accelerate hard out of a corner. And that's one thing you know, some of the some of the better front wheel drive, you know, high performance cars like the Honda Civic Type R, don't do that. So you know, this one, the front suspension is clearly not quite as sophisticated in setup, I don't think it's using a dual axis steering setup, steering geometry the way they the type bar does. But aside from that, you know, once you once you figure out what it's going to do, you know, then you you learn to demodulate a little bit, you know, get a little bit further out of the corner past the apex before you get on the gas and it's fine. And even even when it does give you a tug. You know, it's not like throwing you off into the ditch or anything like that. It's still very easily controllable.

You know, unlike most sports coupes, you know, we'll call it that. You know, this, this, this car has a unique format if you've never seen the velociter it's it's sort of a combat design, you know, almost like a little mini shooting break. kind of car and it's a three door. And you know, compared to the gr 86, which nominally has a backseat.

Roberto Baldwin  25:08  
But I mean it has otherwise

Nicole Wakelin  25:10  
completely uselessly speaking it has Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  25:14  
It has a back seat. It has two seat belts back there. But I don't think you can actually put human beings back there. You might be able to put a dog the size of my Corgi in there, but that's

Nicole Wakelin  25:23  
your dog.

Roberto Baldwin  25:26  
I put the big dog back there. I put Bowie the dirt, the big German Shepherd back there. But then Nico, the little German Shepherd mix. She's just tiny. She sat in the front seat. She's like, oh, there's no room back here for me. And she was not happy back there. Because it has that little because you know, you have the you have the the drive shaft. You had the tunnel there. And he's right. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  25:49  
Yeah, so the, you know, obviously, the velociter, unlike the gr 86 is front wheel drive. But because it's a three door, it actually has an extra door on the passenger side of the car. Why they didn't just add one on the driver side as well. I don't, I've never really quite figured out especially because they actually do have a left side body stamping that support that has a door on that side for right hand drive markets. But, you know, at any rate, the three door you know that that extra door on the drive on the passenger side makes it easy enough to get back there. Yeah, I mean, it's not, you know, for for myself on 511 you know, it's not hugely roomy, but I can sit back there you know, I wouldn't want to take a long road trip sitting back there. But it's adequate you know, for going across town going out to dinner, whatever, you know, take a couple of friends along with you it's fine you know, you're not going to you're not going to be squeezed in there me You might be robbed because you're several inches taller than I am. Or Nicole's your husband. Yeah. You know, for up to about up to about six feet tall, you can you can fit back there without too much difficulty. Daisy had no issue at all back there, I put in a I always have a seat cover that I was throwing there when I take her in a car, you know, put that on there. And we we took it to go to the lake yesterday. And I put my inflatable paddleboard and towels and other stuff in the back. There's you know, decent sized cargo area in the back of this thing under the under the hatch. So, you know, it's it's a fairly practical car, but it's it's a hoot to drive, like I said, and just, you know, as soon as you get in, you know, as soon as you start the car, just put it in and mode every time and you will really enjoy yourself in this car. Even even with an automatic transmission. I in fact, I think if I was buying this as a daily driver, even though I have never in my entire life, I'm 55 years old, I have never owned a car as my personal primary vehicle with an automatic transmission. It's always been manuals, I might be inclined to go with this DCT because it's so

Nicole Wakelin  27:56  
Oh,

Roberto Baldwin  27:58  
that's praise right there that sure if you know,

Sam Abuelsamid  28:01  
I mean, I like manuals, you know, the six speed you know, and this one is fine. It's not the the slickest shifting six speed, but it's fine. But you know, the the way this one behaves, the way this eight speed behaves is really good. And I highly recommend it in and let's see, the this one came with no options aside from the eight speed. So as base, it's just standard velociter and sticker price is 34 755 including $1,005 delivery charge, why they didn't just make it $1,000 or 9995. But it's $1,005 its race is racing red with a black, black on black interior. And the one of the interesting little details, it's got the little n light up end logo in the front seat backs, right around, right right behind your neck. So when you unlock the car, you know if it's if it's darker out, you'll see that little end logo light up in the seat. And then of course, you know, it's it's got you know some of the trim in the signature color for Hyundai's and sub brand which is this pale blue color. So the seat belts and various other little bits of trim around the interior, like the buttons on the steering wheel are in the same shade of pale blue right now which doesn't really strike you as the color for a performance brand. But hey, it works. You know, whatever, I'm good with it. I'm not picky. At least not about that sort of thing. And I really enjoyed this thing. It comes standard with an eight speed eight inch touchscreen. And you know as a modern car from the the Hyundai Motor Group, it does include the sounds of nature in there, which my wife found Very, very, very amusing yesterday on the way I like, especially when I when I hit, you know, trudging through the snow you know, walking through the walking through the snow. She's in a cafe,

Nicole Wakelin  30:12  
the cafe mode, so it feels like Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  30:13  
she liked the cafe. Yeah, yeah, she you know, she thought that, you know, if you're commuting home from work, you know something like the the cafe mode be very relaxing. Yeah. I don't know that. I don't know that I would necessarily have felt that way when I had still had a commute but whatever. Yeah. You don't have to use it if you like it good for you. So Hyundai veloster n awesome little sports car. And yeah, it's a it's just an interesting alternative to, you know, VW GTI, or the, the gr 86. Or, you know, what few, there's not not very many choices, something else in this kind of segment anymore.

Roberto Baldwin  30:59  
Mazda three.

Sam Abuelsamid  31:00  
I mean, there's just, there's, there's fewer and fewer choices of vehicles like this anymore in the US market or really in any market. So if you're looking for something that's a lot of fun to drive, you know, definitely go take a look at one at the velociter end. All right, Roberto, what did you have this week,

Roberto Baldwin  31:21  
so I didn't actually get to drive it, but it got to go to and stare at it and sit in it while they put a towel down so I wouldn't mess it up. But I the the lyric, the new the Cadillac, the I believe it's 2023. Hold on, let me pull up my notes. Oh, no, the 2023 lyric, I went and saw that in LA this week, this past week. And it looks nice. It's it's a nice looking Cadillac. It's their electric, their first electric, it's going to be based on the LTM platform, 100 kilowatt, kilowatt hour capacity battery pack, they're targeting over 300 miles of range, which is if you're I think if you're if you're getting a luxury car, you sort of want that, that extra range, because you're you know, you're paying for luxury prices, you want a luxury car you want you know, you want to feel pampered and when pampered also means like not pulling over as much for for, for charging, it has it it will charge at 190 kilowatts at a supported DC fast charger, which is nice. Cadillac says you can add about 76 miles in about 10 minutes. So if you're you know, throw in double that and you get about 150 miles in 20 minutes. Initially, it's going to be rear wheel drive only, that's the only, but then they're going to have a four wheel drive version, or all wheel drive version coming out later on. The first one will be 340 horsepower, three and 25 pound feet of torque. So you know that should be more than enough for the average person. And it has, you know, Mercedes has their hyper screen, their gigantic screen, it just fills up everything. And it's really a piece of glass. It's the gigantic piece of glass. And then there's three different displays. Cadillac has all their large 33 inch curved display, which is actually one, it's one display with three different segments in it. The segment on the left is has touch controls. Then you have the dash cluster and then the right you have the infotainment screen. They all are they all sort of can power on and off on their own, but they're all the same display. They're very excited about that. I don't think the average person cares if it's three. If it's one display or three displays, I think what they're really going to like is the fact that it starts at $60,000 which for a luxury electric SUV from Cadillac is a pretty that's a there that is a good price. And I told him like he has a sort of undercutting everyone else and they're like, Well, you know, they you know, they don't want to talk about how they, they're trying to everybody else. But uh, yeah, $60,000 if you're a fan of Cadillacs, if you're want an Eevee and you want an SUV, which is pretty much everyone. It's kind of almost a no brainer. Now I didn't get to drive it. I only got to stare at it and sit in it. So I don't know how to drive and maybe it drives great. Maybe it drives horrible. I don't know. So we had to wait until till that happens probably at the beginning of next year. Maybe the end of this year, but you thought

Nicole Wakelin  34:39  
it looks pretty and it was comfy under your butt even with the towel there.

Roberto Baldwin  34:43  
Yes, yes, it was comfy. But even with the towel there. Yeah, I think they did a good job sort of bringing all the Cadillac you know fanciness to an Eevee at a price point that is very competitive. For people who are looking for a luxury brand vehicle that is also an Eevee I it'll be interesting to see how

Sam Abuelsamid  35:08  
for comparison. I'm sorry, go for comparison, the BMW IX which has a similar 300 mile range. And you know, 200 kilowatt charging it's similar size to the lyric starts in the mid $80,000 range. So you're talking a different Yeah, up Yeah. 20,020 plus $1,000 price difference, you know, $25,000 price difference

Roberto Baldwin  35:32  
you get by a lyric, are you a mini SC?

Sam Abuelsamid  35:36  
Yeah. You know, you could you could make the case that, you know, the the lyric is somewhat more attractive than the BMW.

Roberto Baldwin  35:47  
Yes, yes,

Sam Abuelsamid  35:48  
you can not. Some people might disagree.

Roberto Baldwin  35:52  
But yeah, but the large either Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  35:58  
You know, at least it doesn't have that crazy grill. You know, and the lyric does have that cool lighting pattern. You know, when you when you walk up to it, you know, the way the way it wakes up, you know, the the lights in the the facia, I think is kind of neat looking. So, you know, I saw the lyric last year when they did the show car, which basically was almost identical to the production vehicle. Last year, Jim's Evie day in the tech center here in Detroit. And that interior was really impressive then as well. Obviously, didn't get to drive that one either. But you know, what did you think of the design in person having seen

Roberto Baldwin  36:49  
I actually liked the design in person, you know, you're always it's, it's tough when you have that super sloping, rear rear end, where sometimes it looks good, and sometimes it just looks kind of awkward. I think they've, they've erred on the side of good isn't a great, it's not perfect, but it's not awkward. It's i think it's it's, it's it is I think the addition of the vertical lights back there, sort of make it look nicer. And in you know, I think I talked about in the video I did for in gadget where it's sort of harkens back to the Cadillac fins, you know, they have these nice vertical red lights in the back. And in the front, you know that this is the first time they've been able to have vertical headlamps. So the headlights are vertical. And you know, so it's you know, they've done a lot of like, Cool sort of designing stuff. They have the, the crystal or diamond, I forget what they call it, but the the front end looks nicer than the BMW. Which, you know, that's Yeah. But look, yeah, so the front end looks nicer. It's a low bar. But yeah, yeah. And it's, it's it is a Yeah. Kind of to think of the nicest way to say the front end of the BMW is still very polarizing. And most people are still like, really, you're just getting to get make that thing bigger and bigger, aren't you? And BMW is just sticking with their by their guns with that. They're like, yeah, this is what we're doing. You can also get Oh, yeah. And also you can get supercruise on the, the lyric, which is, you know, Cadillac hands free, or gms hands free driver assistance system, which is possibly the best system on the market right now. So you put your hands in your lap and stare at the world, which is nice.

Sam Abuelsamid  38:37  
They also have a new infotainment system based on Android automotive. Yeah, Google Maps and Google Assistant built in there.

Roberto Baldwin  38:47  
Yeah, all that sort of popped up. But I wasn't allowed to use it. It wasn't quite ready yet. So I can't tell you how great it works or how bad it works. Again, like driving. I wasn't allowed to push buttons. I could I get pointed things, but I can't tell you if has any latency. I can't tell you you know if Google Maps is like the integrations as good as what we what we seen on the Pollstar or in the the XC 40 But uh, yeah, no, I think they I think it looks like they have a winner. I mean, if it drives well, doesn't have to drive great if it drives well. If it drives really good if the infotainment system isn't a lagging mess, I think people are going to i think i think Cadillac has I think they're gonna they're gonna have trouble keeping this thing in in showrooms for because I think more and more people are are realizing just how much better an Eevee powertrain is for a luxury vehicle because it reduces that vibration review says that sound reduces all these things that we just heard of, even in the best, you know, even the best s class you still have, you know, you can still you know they do a ton of stuff together. Get rid of the sound. We still started here and you still sort of feel the vibration. And then you get an EQ s, and you're like, Oh, this is what this is about. And I think if Cadillac can can do that with their 60 $60,000 lyric,

Nicole Wakelin  40:14  
yeah, this is incredible. That's the

Roberto Baldwin  40:16  
price is crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty, it's pretty impressive what they're doing. And if that's what they can do with the lyric, you know, I can see, GM overall, like making some really great, potentially inexpensive cars on that ultium platform.

Sam Abuelsamid  40:35  
It's gonna be a very interesting segment to watch. In the next year and a half, two years, there's gonna be a lot of competition in that premium electric crossover SUV segment, you got the lyric, the BMW IX, actually just had. I went to a Ford thing the other day in conjunction with the Woodward dream cruise and had lunch with Darren Palmer's or GM, General Manager of electric vehicles. And he was talking about what's coming next after the F 150. Lightning, which they had previously alluded to an electric Explorer. So there's going to be an electric three row crossovers for Ford and for Lincoln, in the same same segment as the Explorer and the Lincoln aviator. So there's going to be a Lincoln aviator that's going up against this and the rivian r1. S, of course, and all only who knows what else is coming? I don't know when Mercedes is going to launch their their electric version of the the GLC. Is that coming next year, I think?

Roberto Baldwin  41:44  
I don't think so. That sounds right. I'm just gonna say sure. I'm sure. Yes. I'm gonna go. Sure.

Sam Abuelsamid  41:52  
And it will be coming sooner rather than later. Yeah. So you know, and of course, you know, the Volvo XC 90 replacement as well, which is also going to be electric. So there's going to be a lot of interesting competitors in this in this market. You know, they're, I think they're going to be trying some different things with that. And we'll see how we'll see how it plays out. So that wasn't the only Evie that you had some contact with. However, this week,

Roberto Baldwin  42:20  
so I also had, I had them bring me a Chevy Bolt, the brand new bolt, because I driven the old one, like 60 times, I feel like at the by the time it did come out, like I driven like 15 pre productions. I drove it, like three times after it was out. So I was like, well, let's try the new one. I know, it's essentially the same vehicle. And so I got it on Thursday. I was supposed to get it on Friday, and they're like, Hey, can we bring it a day early? I was like, yeah, sure, bring it on. And I'm not going anywhere. I got it. I got it on Thursday. I got to I drove it to the to the supermarket to pick up some stuff. And then Friday had to work. And then after I finished work, my plan was to go drive it around Friday night, get it charged up, and then do some like you know, some some doing do a video I was I was sort of planning out like what I was gonna I was gonna do on video with this thing. And then Friday afternoon, around 2pm 5pm, Eastern 2pm, I got an email from GM saying, Hey, I don't know if you know this, but we just released a recall information, we're going to come we're going to send the the fleet manager is going to contact you and Come get your car. So like our car back, thanks, we would like our car back. Don't put it in your garage, don't you know all the things that GM had announced to the owners of the of the the Chevy Bolt, they were telling me and I said okay, I won't. And so it just sat in my my driveway until they they picked it up like a just a little bit later. And then that was that was the end of

Nicole Wakelin  44:06  
so that's your review of your 32nd grocery store run in the Chevy Bolt.

Roberto Baldwin  44:10  
Yeah, so I didn't get a it wasn't Yeah, the fun. The fun, excitement, or exciting time of my life that I was gonna have the Chevy Bolt, like testing out like different things. Which, you know, I I understand why, even though we'll talk about this some more. But yeah, it was it was interesting. This is the first time I've ever had a car for about 24 hours. And I've been told Oh, we're picking that up because of a recall. So yeah, don't Don't, don't charge it over 90% don't put it in your garage. Don't you know, all the again, all the things they were sort of telling everybody who owned a Chevy Bolt at the time when they decided we're just going to recall every bolt ever made forever. And we'll see you all too. dealership.

Sam Abuelsamid  45:03  
I actually was scheduled to have a Hyundai Kona Evie last December. And the day before it was supposed to be delivered, Hyundai announced a stop sale and recall for the Kona Evie for exactly the same reason. And so that one never even got to me the day before it was supposed to arrive. I got a call from Dr. Shop saying, Oh, yeah, we're not gonna be able to bring you the the Kona. But we'll bring it will bring you this something else instead. And so the the issue here and this is actually I think the third, maybe fourth recall on the bolt over the last six or eight months related to this battery issue, because they've been trying to find the root cause of it. And for those not familiar, basically, there have been some fires with bullets with Chevy bolts when, when they're charging, and battery fires. And we've talked, I think we've talked a little bit about battery fires before but the the fundamental problem when when a battery decides it's going to have a thermal runaway center event, it's really hard to extinguish it doesn't happen very often. But when it does happen, it's really hard to put out those fires because, you know, most fires, you know, fire to have a fire, you've got to have fuel, you got to have oxygen, and an ignition source. And if you take away any of those three, you you won't have fire. So you know, most of the time with a fire. If you smother it, you know, because it's usually getting the oxygen from the atmosphere that we breathe, that if you cover it up and prevent it from getting oxygen, the fire goes out, you know you have a grease fire on your stove, you stick a lid on the top of the pan, the fire is gonna go out. You know you pour water on it. Well, you don't want to don't you don't want to pour water on a grease fire. Please don't ever do that.

Roberto Baldwin  47:00  
That's a bad thing.

Sam Abuelsamid  47:02  
If you're having a bad analogy, having a bonfire outside, if you got a fire pit backyard, you know, pour water on it, you know, or campfire, pour water on it, it's gonna go out because it starves the fire of oxygen. The problem with batteries is they have oxygen in the materials that make up the battery like the electrolyte and the cathode coating. And when it heats up, it releases that oxygen. So even when you starve it of oxygen from the atmosphere and you smother it, it's still going to generate its own oxygen and keep burning for potentially for hours on end in the case of car batteries because they're so large. What and what usually causes a battery fire is a short circuit in the battery. This happens when the cathode and the anode the positive and negative electrodes are actually negative and positive electrodes come in cotton physical contact, you don't ever want those two touching each other if they do, you get a short circuit, you get lots of heat. And then bad things happened. In in the case of what happened with the bolt, and I suspect it was the root cause was the same thing in the the Hyundai's because they were using cells, lithium ion cells from LG Chem from the same suppliers GM produced, most likely in the same plant because they all came they're all sourced in Korea. And what they for the first time in this release on that came out on Friday came out on Friday, at like 430 in the afternoon, on a Friday afternoon, you know, half an hour after the financial markets closed, you know, companies traditionally tried to bury their bad news. Five o'clock on five o'clock on Friday, I get a call from a reporter at the Detroit News wanting to comment on this. I you know, I had already walked away from my computer and I was doing making dinner on the grill. And so my back and read the release. This is the first time they've actually said anything specific about what was causing it. And turns out that apparently, they had a manufacturing issue where the what's known as the separator was getting folded and the tabs were getting torn. And so basically a lithium ion cell or actually any battery cell consists of three, three layers. You got your cathode, your anode, and there's a plastic separator in between that's porous, and that's that allows the lithium ions to pass back and forth between the cathode and the anode without the two electrodes touching each other. While if that separator gets folded somewhere along the line when they're manufacturing it, you might leave a space where the cathode and anode can touch each other. Again, that's bad bass with the Yeah, the the tab is the tab is towards the tabs get torn. The tabs are the terminals that stick out of these pouch cells that they are used to connect them all together. If that gets torn, you can have something again, that's touching the wrong place, or it's causing too much resistance. Heat that that bad for bad. So GE, GM is recalling, originally, when they the first couple of recalls were only covered the 2017 to 2019 models, which have the smaller 60 kilowatt hour lithium pack from the 2020. And 2122 models have a slightly larger 65 kilowatt hour pack, those weren't covered in the original recalls, the new ones cover all of them, because they found that the problem is actually still happening. And so they're gonna bring back all these cars replace all of the battery modules. So everybody that's got one is basically gonna get a brand new battery. So any degradation and performance you might have had from your battery, you're gonna get a full reset. I'll go right back to day one.

Nicole Wakelin  50:54  
That's a favor.

Roberto Baldwin  50:56  
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass because you can't park your car in your garage or you're not supposed to. And you can charge it above 90, which you probably aren't doing regularly anyway, if you want to keep your battery from, you know, degrading, quicker. But at the end of the day, if you have a you know, an old bald, you're like, Hey, I get to start over. It's like a reset button. Which is

Nicole Wakelin  51:17  
kind of cool. Yeah. Unless you're and people just battery now you're buying new bad. Oh, yeah, that's your LG.

Sam Abuelsamid  51:23  
Yeah. So this is this is gonna cost LG about $1.8 billion for this. Yeah, yeah. Not Not a good day for them. But just to provide a little context for this, you know, yes, it's bad when your battery catches fire. But so far, there have been a believe seven, seven instances of this across 120 plus 1000. bolts, which, you know, that works out to about were calculated earlier, about point 00 6% of all bolts have had a battery fire. For comparison, I looked up some stats on car fires with non electric cars. And in 2018, there were 212,000 vehicle fires in the United States, which out of a fleet of 290 million vehicles, amounts to point 07 percent, which is about 10 times the frequency of these bolt battery fires. So yes, it's not good when your battery catches fire. But on the other hand, gasoline cars catch fire at a much, much higher rate than electric vehicles. So, you know, if you have a bolt pocket outside, but don't don't be overly concerned about dangers of electric vehicles, you know, fires are gonna happen from time to time. You know, it's, it's life, but

Nicole Wakelin  52:50  
it's a real issue, but it's not like Oh, dear God, panic. your car's gonna burst into flames tomorrow? Probably not. Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  52:56  
it's not spontaneous. Right? Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  53:01  
It's kind of spontaneous, but it's not like,

Unknown Speaker  53:04  
yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  53:04  
if if your battery's about to catch fire, you'll will see some smoke and you probably smell something,

Nicole Wakelin  53:09  
just get a little tired sitting on the ground. Or your car. Like what happened last night?

Sam Abuelsamid  53:16  
If you're, if you're in the car, get out of the car. If you smell smoke, you know, and, you know, please get away from it as far as you can and call 911. And you should be fine.

Roberto Baldwin  53:27  
Yeah, yeah. Maybe not. I remember when Hyundai put there. When they had their recall. They're like, we're not 100% sure why, but we will keep recalling them. Anyway, we've been working with LG cam trying to figure out why these are. But we're not like, it was essentially like, we're not 100% sure why. And I think GM probably pushed a little bit harder. And now they're like, okay, here's the deal. LG Chem messed up. So where are we calling everything? If you have a Hyundai electric or Kona electric, they're probably going to be I wouldn't be surprised if they extend, extend that, uh, that recall as well, we'll see.

Sam Abuelsamid  54:01  
Yeah, I mean, they Well, they already did the recall on those and replaced all the batteries on the conus. So even though they weren't sure what the root cause was, you know, they already did the battery replacement. So they should be fine. Yeah. GMG took a little longer to do the, the do the replacement part of it.

Roberto Baldwin  54:19  
I'm sure they're probably like, what if we do this?

Sam Abuelsamid  54:24  
So continuing on the theme of new electric cars. This week, this past week was supposed to be the New York Auto Show. No auto show? We're actually yeah, the auto show was canceled. Thanks to delta. Not not the airline, but yeah, like

Nicole Wakelin  54:43  
Delta Airlines. Let's be clear. Delta Airlines. Yay, delta. Very.

Sam Abuelsamid  54:47  
Exactly. Yeah. Big fan, big fan of Delta Airlines. But yeah, not not the virus. So the show was canceled. But and one of the vehicles that was supposed to be unveiled at The show was from Genesis their first Evie the gV 60. What did you think of the gV 60

Nicole Wakelin  55:09  
Say it Say it

Roberto Baldwin  55:10  
I like it and I think it looks like Pikachu. Pika Pika Pika Pika get you

Nicole Wakelin  55:17  
it's the color like color Really?

Roberto Baldwin  55:20  
It has like a little happy face it has like yeah the color doesn't help but it has a happy face everything about the exterior room from what they shown up it did but in blue I probably be like okay, but it's this bright like almost greenish yellow it's it's a Pokemon it's the Pokemon car.

Nicole Wakelin  55:38  
I don't know why they pick this color. This

Roberto Baldwin  55:40  
color doesn't doesn't exude like like a luxury vehicle.

Nicole Wakelin  55:46  
It says cute little affordable crossover. Yeah, you buy right out of college not here's your luxury. Evie isn't the color the color slays me I mean get the color sure have fun colors, but somehow looking at these images it really does just It looks like a Hyundai it looks like it should just be a really cheap crossover at the color. The Pikachu color is not working for me. Pika, Pika, Pika? pika.

Sam Abuelsamid  56:09  
Not not on the agenda Genesis

Nicole Wakelin  56:11  
color, it's fine on a Hyundai it's fine on a key it's fine on on. On a lot of other cars. It's not fine on your luxury. Yeah, it makes it too cutesy.

Roberto Baldwin  56:23  
It does make a cutie and then I don't

Sam Abuelsamid  56:27  
Yeah, I am an advocate for more bold colors. You know, on cars, we absolutely need, you know more in your face colors. But I agree with you, I I'm not sure that this particular shade of slightly greenish yellow works for the Genesis brand, what they're trying to achieve. And then looking at the green tint to it.

Roberto Baldwin  56:51  
Yeah. And then you look inside here, like, Oh, this, this looks like a Genesis as a nice, you know, it's again, nice interior, blue, it's got all this stuff. But you can still see the yellowish on it on the outside through the little side displays for instead of side mirrors this vehicle as well, not for our we won't get it but in other places, they'll have little displays. So you're like, Oh, this is nice. But if someone showed you this, and you're like, Oh, that's kind of cool. And then they showed you Oh, by the way that's inside of this, this yellow, like, why

Nicole Wakelin  57:24  
not work? It's like they don't work together. Like you look at truly you look at the interior, like oh, that's very Genesis. That's beautiful. It looks very upscale, looks very streamlined, very modern. It's like I can get behind this that looks really cool. And what's on the outside, like it's just the, you know, I want to like we need to mock this up just in like silver or something boring and plain just to see if it still has the same sort of cutesy not working, is it? I think it's the color I think it's all the color in these press images they released like Genesis Give me another color of this car, please just so I can see if it's the color that's playing me. Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  57:58  
it I want a nice like a nice burgundy red, or something. That would work really well. But I do like the blue and the interior on this way. I'm looking at the one of the photos of the interior right now. And I just noticed it's got two buttons on there. On the the alpha males on the Giulia and Stelvio they have the the Start button that's in like just below the the the nine, the nine o'clock spoke, the left hand spoke on the steering wheel. And they've they've done the same thing with it. On the right hand. On the left hand side is the drive mode button. On the right, is a yellow boost button. Which

Nicole Wakelin  58:36  
is that? Is that the same color as the car? Is that where that colors?

Sam Abuelsamid  58:41  
Yeah, that's the colors like it's the so

Nicole Wakelin  58:45  
that colors on the interior seat trim. Look at that. You can see like there's contrast. There's piping on the side of the seats, chunky yellowy thing. Yeah, I don't like the yellow thing.

Sam Abuelsamid  58:57  
We'll see if that actually gets into production. The other thing I'm looking at here, I noticed, I'm trying to figure out what the deal is with the, you know, the shifter here, it looks like it's a ball sort of like a glass sphere. And then they've got the control knob for the infotainment, which, you know, we were complaining about the the flush mounted rotary controller on the gV 80. And you know, this one actually has a more traditional cylindrical one that sticks up like like a BMW i drive. So it's not flush. I'm trying to

Nicole Wakelin  59:34  
find silver I mean the little like, bought what is that little their little controller in your hands gonna hit that all the time? If that's a touch sensitive thing?

Sam Abuelsamid  59:43  
Well, it's, I mean, it's the looks like the the transmission selector. What I'm trying to figure out because you've got the reverse neutral drive and park indicators there. Hmm. But I'm not quite sure how that's actually supposed to work. It's kind of weird looking.

Nicole Wakelin  1:00:03  
It's a little. We're gonna need to see this in person. It's a little hard to grok what's happening on that center console in these images?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:00:11  
Yeah, it's it's definitely unusual. Oh, okay. I just looked at the the image looks like it's from the the backs coming from the backseat. So the first image is from the looking through the driver's door. The other one is from the backseat. And now not one. It looks like it's actually something completely different. It's got sort of finger notches in there. It's, it's more it's more of a rotary controller. But it looks like something totally different from the other.

Nicole Wakelin  1:00:49  
Yeah, I think there's something about the angle these pictures. It's just not showing off what we're actually whatever that is. It's not really coming through. It's

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:00  
No you're not, you know, you know what it is? these these are Photoshop renderings. They're renderings. These aren't photos of the car, some somebody I think somebody photoshopped something in there, the one that looks like a crystal ball. And they photoshopped in. I think the other one the the rotary one. Like looks like when you're looking over the drivers shoulder. Because the crystal ball

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:23  
thing actually looks like the crystal ball looks like it's a controller on a spaceship. Like you're just like aliens. Just like that doesn't even look real. It actually looks like

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:35  
What? What? What is that? Fair Thurman? It looks looks like air theramin You know, you're gonna move your fingers across this thing to shift. Yeah, and it's gonna detect as you move your hand across this crystal ball.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:49  
Exactly what you wanted to do. Yeah, no. Yeah, I think you might be right. Because that first step, the first image you're looking at where it's like sort of from the driver's side not from the backseat at looks like a crystal ball. Half a crystal ball, the center console. Watch, that's what it is. We're both well the other one is the mistake.

Roberto Baldwin  1:02:08  
All right. So I made it. I made it so this this thing made it red and it looks it looks less like a Pokemon.

Nicole Wakelin  1:02:15  
Oh Sherry, share it. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  1:02:19  
Okay, I made a red one. Now it looks like now it looks like a

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:21  
Tesla in the show notes. Where Where did you put on?

Roberto Baldwin  1:02:25  
Hold on, hold on, hold on. I gotta save it.

Nicole Wakelin  1:02:27  
Come on, as fast as I can. We've been stressing about this. You're like I'm making it read.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:36  
Well, Robbie's doing this, the just this is built on the same e GMP electric platen electric vehicle platform as the the new Hyundai ionic five, they ke v six and a whole bunch of other upcoming electric vehicles from the Hyundai Motor Group. So it's going to have 300 miles of electric range. and all kinds of other good stuff. 350 kilowatt fast charging. Oh, you know what, I'm just looking at the release here. It actually says the most noticeable feature in gv, 60s interior design is the crystal sphere, a sphere shape shift by wire that intuitively informs drivers when the vehicle is ready to drive. So maybe the crystal is one. Okay. And then the other the other image must be must have been a Photoshop rendering or you know, maybe maybe it was a picture photo of a different prototype that they photographed.

Nicole Wakelin  1:03:36  
Okay, and just for the record, Robbie's read version of this looks so much better like he just put it Oh yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:03:42  
absolutely that yeah, this this looks much more like a Genesis.

Nicole Wakelin  1:03:48  
Yeah, the color the colors the wrong color first showcasing this. I don't know why they pick the this color looks great, though. Nice color choice. Did you have to sell your soul for that Robbie? A little bit.

Roberto Baldwin  1:04:00  
Like let's make let's make it soul crystal red.

Nicole Wakelin  1:04:04  
That looks so much better. Looks entirely different. That looks elegant in Genesis

Sam Abuelsamid  1:04:11  
40 Yep, definitely. All right. Another car that was supposed to be appearing as part of the New York Auto Show actually made it it was supposed to make its appearance a couple of nights before the auto show is the 2023 Nissan Z, the production version, which actually was not much of a surprise, because aside from the absence of the fairlady badge on the rear decklid this looks exactly like the Z promo that was revealed almost a year ago. And I don't know about you, but I like it. Like a car.

Roberto Baldwin  1:04:53  
I did fantastic. It looks beautiful. It's got all the cool stuff for the old Z's. It's got the stuff on the Newsies. It's, you know, it just continues in that design language but made sure that it doesn't look. Just you know, it doesn't look like an old car. It looks like a new updated version. It does. Yeah, it does remind me of the 260s eating my dad knew that I am I centered on a rock, but

Nicole Wakelin  1:05:16  
Oh nice. I've done work. It's what I do

Roberto Baldwin  1:05:20  
need a z car high centered on a rock Be sure to reach out to Roberto Baldwin. I will take care of that for you.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:05:29  
Now, yeah, so they showed they showed two of them one was in the same shade of yellow, which is actually strikingly similar to the yellow on the gv six. This guy yeah. works on this. Yeah, it works on this one. I mean, and this is the same shade of yellow that was on the Z Prado you know, and I said, like I said, aside from the Z, Prado had the fairlady badge, which is what they call the the Z in Japan. Everything else about this looks exactly the same as the the concept, which which is good. They did provide a some more details. It's got a 400 horsepower twin turbocharged three liter V six, which is basically the same engine they've had in the queue 60, the alternative q 60 for a while now for a couple years and also in the Q 50. sedan.

Nicole Wakelin  1:06:21  
I have to read these colors. Okay, the interior color, there's this one bright blue, that's sort of the same blue that's on the outside and you can get the interior in that blue. And it's absolutely fantastic. It's like this crazy bright blue. So it's blue and black accents, but the names okay. siran s Ei r a n blue and there's a yellow Wait a minute. It Kazuki yellow? Is I just want to order that yellow because I want to say that's what color My car is. It Kazuki I'm probably mangling that but it looks like it Kazuki. IKZUCH ii kuzushi suki ik asuci. I'll say that too. Because ucci yellow, because it's not yellow. It gets up. Very fancy. I love it. But the blue that blue interior is unbelievable. Would you say?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:07:11  
Yeah, no, that is fantastic. You don't often see colors like that on the interior. No, you

Nicole Wakelin  1:07:16  
get it on the outside. But the insides never are that pretty that blue hoof I like that.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:07:23  
And it will be available with a manual transmission. Boom. Yep. And it will, it will retain the the rev matching system that debuted on the 370 xe about a decade ago, more than a decade ago. Right, you can turn that off.

Roberto Baldwin  1:07:43  
Yeah, you can turn it off. Yeah. You learn. You can learn learn or not. You don't have to learn whatever.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:07:50  
No, no, no information on pricing yet. Yeah. So coming up next spring. It'll probably be you know, 40 $45,000 to start somewhere around there.

Roberto Baldwin  1:08:03  
It'll be the Supra. That's the car. It's going.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:11  
I like this design better than the Supra. It's a much cleaner design.

Roberto Baldwin  1:08:15  
Yeah, yeah. I think I like this design better than the Supra. And it's made by one company instead of two. So there's that. It's made by the servers made by two companies and built by a third.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:27  
Yeah. All right. last item for this week. Before we get into some listener questions, I had a chance to go for a short drive in Ford F 150. With a product an early version of their blue cruise system, blue Cruise is Ford's hands free, partially automated driving system similar to Chevy supercruise or gm supercruise. And it largely functions in pretty much the same way it combines your adaptive cruise control with the radar that keeps you safe gap from the vehicle ahead of you, and a lane centering system that keeps you in the lane. And once it's active, we can take your hands up, put them in your lap. Do it you will anything except cover your face because the infrared camera needs to see your face and your eyes before it allow the system to function. supercruise came out almost four years ago, and blue crews will be coming out soon via an over the air update to owners of 20 2021 F 150s and Mustang Maki's that have the hardware installed. And this one actually does slightly at launch. It'll do slightly less than the original version of supercruise did four years ago and definitely less have less functionality than what supercruise is doing today. On vehicles like the the escalate and Cadillac CT for CT five, the upcoming Sierra and Silverado. So there's no automatic lane changing capability. It's just a single lane system. And one of the one of the neat things I noticed when I first drove supercruise, back in 2017, was it uses the maps, the high def maps of the highways, to know where curbs are coming up in the road. And depending on what your speed is, it will, it'll look use the maps as long as a forward looking long range sensor basically. And if, if there's a curve in the road, that is, you're going too fast to get through that curve safely, it'll automatically slow the vehicle down from whatever set speed you have it at, as it goes through the curve. And then as you exit the curve, it'll resume what your previous speed was. For some reason, even though Ford is using high def maps, just like like GM, although they're from a different supplier, they're not doing that at launch, which I thought was kind of odd. The other thing that they don't have, they they have the infrared driver monitor system like supercruise. But they they decided not to do something like the light bar system that GM and some other manufacturers are using, where you have the light bar in the top part of the steering wheel rim that really, you know, clearly lets you know what mode the system is in whether it's ready for for blue cruise activation or not. It's only using it's giving you the indicators in the digital instrument cluster which I think is is not always as obvious you know when you know what what mode you're in or when when you when the system can activate, like supercruise You know, it only activates on divided highways launch it'll be about 130,000 miles of divided highways across North America that will eventually grow you know they will add more of this functionality over time via over the air updates. But you know it's a good start. But GM is still ahead of where Ford is with the system. Neither of you have had a chance to try this out Have you?

Roberto Baldwin  1:12:16  
No No but it makes me think of Blue's Clues so they should really change the name because I mean supercruise is already out there. They had to they could have called Blue anything else but they had to call blue cruise they might have just called it blue blue pilot or something. Think of

Nicole Wakelin  1:12:30  
that until you said it now I'm going to be able to think of is it's time for blues cruise. Cruise doo doo doo blue cruise.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:12:38  
Well, for what it's worth GM is suing Ford for coffee or for trademark infringement because they say blue Cruise is too close to supercruise and Ford is fighting back saying that Cruise is is too generic and they want to invalidate GM trademarks for supercruise as well as for cruise cruise automation their their division that's building their Robo taxis so we'll see what happens there.

Roberto Baldwin  1:13:09  
It'll be interesting when the GM Bronco comes out what is the it's the bronco will get the bronco ports you

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:19  
remember that? When the previous the old Hummers came out and Jeep crighton you still Daimler Chrysler at the time they sued GM because the Hummers had a seven slot grille which was the signature thing for Jeep Yeah. They

Roberto Baldwin  1:13:41  
were they they that case Mahindra they sued them for that as well for their little while little Jeep clone

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:49  
yeah Mahindra and Mahindra actually they change the grille so they didn't use the seven slot grille. They had a different grille design, but the rest of the vehicle was a copy of the original military jeeps.

Roberto Baldwin  1:13:59  
Yeah, the relief looks exactly like Oh, cool.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:14:06  
Yeah. mandra last year, I think gave up on trying to import that vehicle to to North America. So all right. We've got a few listener questions. One came in last week after we record the show. It's from the missing smaller car, the smooth the missing smaller cars car guy for all Twitter. He says, of hybrid drive trains now reached mass acceptance in the consumer mindset with vehicles like the Wrangler for by E Maverick, the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid Corolla? If so, assuming it took since 2001 to get there, will the Eevee take as long to reach mass acceptance?

Roberto Baldwin  1:14:53  
I don't think so. And I think that's a lot of that has to do with with regulatory issues. So you're kind of going to start at some Ain't having to buy an Eevee. And that's like 1514 years away if you live in California if you want a new car, and I think the but I think the it's it's sort of plugins and then I'm sorry, hybrids and plug in hybrids have are going to allow people to to, to accept Eevee is a little bit quicker than they did with the hybrid, I think I think that's, I think there was this this whole this whole, like, sort of a hybrid era, these are gross cars, they're not going to be that great. And then, you know, and that was around the same time that the idea of an electric car was Oh, it's just gonna be a really, really crappy slow vehicle. And I think Tesla sort of didn't, you know, destroyed that myth, or relative wealth. Pun intended quickly. And so you know, you'd have Panamera is out Yeah, VT gt e Tron GT is you have the Hummer EV coming out. I think it's I think mass acceptance is going to be a little bit is going to be much quicker than than what it was with with hybrids.

Nicole Wakelin  1:15:57  
Yeah, I think people already like when the hybrid Evie thing they were both sort of new together and kind of almost lumped together. Most consumers had they were electric things that didn't use just a gas engine and then Okay, wait, everything has a hybrid. Oh, wait, there's so many V's and Tesla in particular, like you said, they did so much for making Evie is just like I see Tesla's all the time. They're just another car, you know, very, very quickly, they went from being something unique and special to just their another car. And what's going to take time is just for people to say, Okay, I'm going to buy one good to get a charger. I'm going to live the Evie lifestyle. You know, it's, but I think in terms of people saying, Yeah, yeah, sure. They're just fine. I could handle one. I think they're there. It's just a matter of what are they going to actually ditch their gas engine for the Eevee?

Roberto Baldwin  1:16:41  
Yeah, I think that I'm sorry.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:42  
Yeah. I was just gonna say, you know, in terms of mainstream acceptance, I think it will happen a little faster. And, you know, it's important to keep in mind that, you know, we're actually 11 years into the Evie era now, or more. I mean, if, if you count the Tesla, the original Tesla Roadster, you know, 13 years, you know, that came out the first customer deliveries were in 2008. And the Nissan LEAF 13 started delivering. Wow. Yeah. And the leaf, you know, started hitting customers in late 2010. So we're almost 11 years into the leaf era. So we're still, you know, a few years, I think, from really mainstream adoption of EBS, you know, it's probably, you know, probably in the next three, four or five years, I would say, probably considered mainstream. So it'll be a little quicker than hybrids. But yeah, not not too far off the a similar timeline. Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  1:17:36  
I think I think they'll take time to park them in their driveways, just because it'll take a little time for that switch to happen. But I think mentally people are much more accepting of them already. Like people have bought into the idea of them.

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:48  
Yeah, and plus, people have that, you know, the average Americans but 2.1 or 2.2 cars, I think the Evie is going to be the second car. Initially, it's going to be the car we're just gonna drive around town, we got an Eevee we want to feel better about the environment want to do, and they're going to drive that car, and then that's going to be the main car, and then their gas or plug in hybrid, or their hybrids going to be the car they use for like longer trips. But I backup the backup. But I think the the car that they mostly drive will probably end up being the Eevee just because once you drive, you're like, Oh, this is so much fun. This is way funner than my gas vehicle.

Nicole Wakelin  1:18:21  
Wait,

Roberto Baldwin  1:18:22  
why am I way funner? way better than my caste vehicle? Why Why aren't I driving this all the time? And then they'll realize like, Oh, 90% of the time, I don't go more than you know, 20 miles a day or whatever. Wave funner All right.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:18:39  
from from from AJ. He's, he says, Not exactly a question. But it would be a nice resource, have a web website listed, make model current supply and retail channel normal days of supply will probably help a lot of folks to make informed decisions. So the Cole and I were talking about this one earlier. Automotive news actually does list days of supply for every model. And in there, through their website. It does, it does require subscription. But that's based on national numbers. You know, companies like Cox, automotive also track this stuff, because they do a lot of a lot of their business units deal with dealers. But pretty much every car dealer now, you know, certainly new car dealers on their websites, they actually have listings of their inventory and they'll right you can go to the website for your you know, any local car dealer and see exactly what they have in stock or these days more likely what they don't have. And so you can you can shop through there and filter, you know by color and by model and transmission engine, so you can see exactly what's available and there's also sites like autotrader that you can Search, do a search, you know, for for new vehicles or KBB. I think you can search for new vehicles and see, you know, search for a vehicle and it'll show you give it a range, you know, like within 50 miles, 200 miles, 200 miles, and it'll show you the inventory that's available. So there are a number of places where you can find this kind of stuff, not not my days, they weren't listed by days of supply,

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:24  
right? But the challenge would be to even if they're saying, okay, there's x days a supply of the Jeep Wrangler, okay, but you don't know where those Jeep Wranglers are going. They could all be going to the west coast and you live in New Jersey, they could all be going to Florida. And you live in California to figure out where the day's supply just says what they've got, it doesn't necessarily say what were those are allocated or even if they're allocated in your area, which dealer they're allocated to. So it's, it's if you go to the dealer's website near you the ones that you want to that you're thinking of, you know, okay, this is the car one, you can see what they have, but we just got a new car it was when I talked to them about it. They were able to tell me what they had coming in for like the next month and a half, like they knew exactly what was coming so they can tell you like, okay, we have this many and this is how they're configured and this is what's coming. So if you have a really specific need, a decent dealer should be able to say you don't have a snowball's chance of getting that anywhere or No. Yeah, you can get it we've got one coming. You just got to wait a little bit.

Roberto Baldwin  1:21:20  
Yeah, I got to just order it and just wait, order it whatever long that takes. Depending on the vehicle and chip supply, microchip, semiconductor supplies, we have, oh, this guy's got a lot of microchips, buddy.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:36  
And that's a problem we're probably going to have for a while yet probably well into next year, unfortunately. Alright, last question. From Sean David O'Connor says I'm looking for advice for a car for my parents. My retired parents currently split their time between a house in South Florida and a condo in Chicago land area to be close to my sister, her husband and kids. They bought a 2018 rav4 a few years ago to replace my mom's 2008 Camry Hybrid when the battery became degraded. They've been driving that back and forth from Florida to Illinois, but would like to keep the rav4 in Illinois and fly to Florida going forward sometime this winter, they would like to get another car for Florida. In addition to my dad's 2010 Camry, which has about 80,000 miles. I think this would be a good opportunity for them to get an Eevee since a lot of their trips will be short enough to not worry about range anxiety, and they'll have the camera for longer trips if necessary. Have the current crop of TVs like the Hyundai ionic and Nissan LEAF on the low end. The key in euro VW Audi Ford, Mustang Maki and the higher end and the upcoming ionic five Kia Evie six both looking both look interesting as well. Do you have any some other suggestions or caveats to add to any of my suggestions?

Roberto Baldwin  1:22:48  
It's in a Kia Niro.

Nicole Wakelin  1:22:51  
I know I'm trying to read through the whole thing again I'm like Dennis a lot of information to

Roberto Baldwin  1:22:54  
the I would above the Hyundai ionic I would look at the Hyundai the Kona electric the one that just got recalled last year, but I really liked the Kona electric to get new batteries have they got new batteries in them um the kind of lectures are great it's a it's a great vehicle. As you get older it's a lot tougher to get into a sedan that's why you know as there's a lot of reasons why more and more people buy SUVs but one of them is the you know the ability to get in and out of the vehicle without having to sort of stoop down like you do with a sedan or hatchback You know, I think a small SUV or compact SUV or crossover or whatever you want to call it might be a good choice and I'm I'm gonna say the Hyundai electric the ID for I really liked the ID for except for that the latency that's that's in the infotainment system but I think they're hopefully fixing that with an overnight update. The Maki is great but it's probably a little bit too much of a too much too much car it's it's more of those vehicles. It's more like Hey, what's a Mustang? You know, they're trying Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  1:24:00  
you're getting I agree. I don't think that but I think the Mustang so i like i like the Mustang. The Maki might be my favorite of those little three that are listed there for that. But like I don't think that's decision really what your parents are looking for. They're retired. I don't know that. Hey, maybe your dad's like all about that. In which case like Have at it. But I think Yeah, I do think like an SUV though. It's a lot easier for people to get into like the Nissan LEAF is great. So good, compact little car, but it's it's also very small. And again, retired folks. It's small, it's low. It's tight. That's not always easy to get in and out of. So in terms of accessibility going with something that's an SUV, crossover ish thing is going to be a little bit easier for older parents to deal with.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:24:43  
Yeah, I agree. I think that Robbie's suggestions the the Kona, Evie, in addition to the neuro I think are are both excellent choices, I think and and also the the ID for all of those. Yeah, they have that nice balance of higher what they call h point hit point. So you're not dropping down into the seat, you can basically just get slide in and get into the seat. But unlike more traditional SUVs, you also don't have to step up into them. So I think they're just at the right height for most people to really be comfortable. You know, so I think I think any of those are really good choices, the ionic five, you know, depending on what the timing is, you know, the ionic five is going to be out sometime later this fall. And the Evie six, they might start some deliveries before the end of the year, but most likely probably not told, most of them probably won't be available till January, February. And you know, of what's going to be available this winter, assuming anything is available, because I mentioned chip shortage. those the ones, the ones here that are listed here, plus the Kona, I think are all really excellent choices. And you're not going to go wrong with any of those. And one other one to consider is the Chevy Bolt, Evie, which is the slightly longer version of the bolt. It also has kind of that slightly higher seating position than a traditional car, maybe not quite as much as the ID four, or the Maki or the Nero. But it's another one to take a look at once Of course, once they've got all the batteries replaced, and they start selling them again. And then you know, if you want something, you know completely off the wall. There's always the the Hummer.

Roberto Baldwin  1:26:42  
Yeah, I'll get the Hummer, you make the mom and pop out. My one issue with the bolts, but the V and the end is the regular bolt is that the only charge at 55 kilowatts. That's there. That's because they're all architecture and they call the ball the the ID for is 125. And I think the code is 100. And then anything else new coming from Hyundai like 350 some ridiculous, crazy high because they're using the 800 volt system. So it's you know, if you if your parents are a little older property,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:27:15  
they're probably going to be charging at home. The problem it sounds like they're going to be charging at home. Oh, yeah, they're probably not going to be using DC fast charging very much. And you know, the other advantage because this would be their Florida car. You know, they're not going to be impacted by cold weather. Oh, yeah. You know, the range problem, you know, the range reduction in cold weather. So, you know, really any of these are, are going to be great for anybody living in Florida.

Roberto Baldwin  1:27:40  
Yeah, I think it's there. You're they're gonna be fine. Yeah, they'll be fine. You can get crazy, crazy cheap lease deals on bolts. Every once in a while from Costco if you're a Costco member. I've heard that that's

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:57  
the bet. like Costco occasionally offers the most amazeballs deals on things.

Roberto Baldwin  1:28:01  
Yeah, you can get like a person I've heard that from you can get some crazy lease. leases on the bolt. I know Costco. Also, I saw the other day that they also work with like Audi. So I'm assuming maybe possibly, potentially maybe the Audi is part of the Volkswagen Group. Maybe they'll have an ID for thing. So if they're Costco memberships, keep an eye out for that.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:24  
And I think sometime this fall out, he's also going to be launching the q4 e Tron, which is basically the same thing as the ID four. But with a fancier body, nicer interior, you know, more outtie like interior. So if they want something a little more premium feeling, although I'm guessing, you know, based on the fact that they've got Rab fours and camrys they're probably not that necessarily that interested in a more premium vehicle and luxury, but, you know, if they if they did want to splurge, you know, the q4 e Tron when it comes up might be another interesting choice.

Roberto Baldwin  1:29:00  
Yeah, that's gonna be fancy. All right.

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:03  
Wait, we have one more question, sir. Oh, wait, we

Roberto Baldwin  1:29:06  
got we got Okay.

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:08  
Good question. So my middle name nuisance is apparently following me on Twitter. And notice that I was sitting by a fire pit in my backyard. drinking whiskey with luxardo cherries in it because look, Charta luxardo cherries are amazing. And I just felt like sticking a fork in the jar would have been sort of gauche. So I made myself a whiskey and he said, Nicole has the most excellent taste and cherries, but what kind of whiskey did she drink? So I'm going to answer his question. I was in western Massachusetts with a friend and I went to a place called the Berkshire mountain distillers and it is the Berkshire bourbon whiskey, but is the maple bourbon whiskey that is finished in bourbon aged maple syrup casks. So that is what I was sipping in the fire pit in the picture that I shared on Twitter the other day. That sounds fancy. It's a fancy whiskey whiskey. So this was my fancy yeah Maple bourbon whiskey that I was sipping with my redonkulous Lee overpriced luxardo cherry in the bottom because I really, really good.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:12  
Definitely not gauche,

Nicole Wakelin  1:30:14  
though if I might take us out there with a fork and get him out of the jar maybe.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:22  
All right. I think that's all we've got for this week. Any final thoughts?

Nicole Wakelin  1:30:28  
No, that's it for me.

Roberto Baldwin  1:30:29  
I got nothing.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:31  
All right. All right. We will talk to you next time. Bye bye.