Sam Abuelsamid  0:00  
Coming up on episode 219 of wheel bearings. We've got the Jeep Grand Cherokee L the BMW M five el Pino, B eight, the new F 150 Raptor, updated GMC, Sierra's new Mercedes, SL and more. All that coming up next. 

this is episode 219 of wheelbearings, I'm Sam Abuelsamid from guidehouse insights

Nicole Wakelin  0:52  
I'm Nicole Wakelin. I'm just gonna say my own stuff from Nicolewakelin.com and you can find me on Twitter and Instagram just a critical Wakelin and see all the cool stuff I put up all week

Roberto Baldwin  1:00  
haha excellent I'm Roberto Baldwin. I'm just saying gadget this week's I don't want to step on your your your public. The city publicity sorry, it's early for me.

Nicole Wakelin  1:14  
This was this is our second take doing this because Sam forgot like who he writes for the first time.

Roberto Baldwin  1:21  
Sam I don't know what I do.

Nicole Wakelin  1:23  
I'm Sam, I'm Wait, hold on a second.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28  
All right. The call. What do you been driving?

Nicole Wakelin  1:31  
Trucks, just trucks. I'm all trucks all the time. Right now. What I actually have this week was the Ford F 150. Raptor. And although there's a lot to love about the Raptor, it's Halloween Week and the color is code orange metallic, so I Lindzen feel like I'm driving a driving like a giant, super powerful capable pumpkin down the road

Roberto Baldwin  1:54  
like Mega pumpkin. Yeah, it's

Nicole Wakelin  1:56  
it's No, I don't know what you would feel like, if you're Cinderella.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:59  
Right? Well,

Nicole Wakelin  2:01  
I think Cinderella would be jealous. She'd be like, I got the stinking coach and she's got a raptor What did I do wrong? So yeah, it's awesome. I don't know what you're gonna do with it the other like 11 months of the year, but in October you are in the moment with this color. So it's a raptor. Everybody knows Raptor. Like it's got this stupidly powerful engine, it's got a 3.5 liter how high output V six 450 horsepower, 510 pound feet of torque. It has all of the off road goodies you could possibly want to go out into the desert and drive fast and just have some fun. I have not done that in the Raptor as we have no desert, I have taken it off road. Here. I was just driving around town, which is kind of a wholly different experience. We had torrential rain here in New Hampshire, and I had to drive it about an hour and 45 minutes home earlier this week at night from an event for New England motor Press Association. And I was honestly thinking like, Okay, this could be torture because big truck high winds, you know, off road suspension system, which is notoriously bouncy and unwieldy. If you're going you know, on a highway, it's one thing in the dirt, but on the highway not so much, actually really would really well. Considering the number of vehicles that I saw that were not handling the water really well. I thought okay, this is actually okay, it was good. driving around town. It's just fun, although I'm parking in the furthest spot in the parking lot once again, because it's so big. I'm afraid I'm gonna like take out lesser vehicles, and I won't even notice it. But I did have fun with this. And there's a couple of features that aren't necessarily raptor features. They're just f1 50 features. There's two things that I absolutely love. One of them is the power tailgate that you can power down and power it back up so you don't have to lift it up just like click click a little little right in the handle. Super easy to use. But the coolest thing about the f1 50 right now and everyone's gonna be like there's way cooler things. No, this is the coolest thing is that center console table that deploys when you fold the gearshift down. Yeah, that you push a little button, the gearshift goes, whew. And it folds completely flat. And then the center console just has a lid that you fold out on top of that. So that entire very large space just becomes a table whether you're doing work or whether you're just like having a snack on the go. Personally, it's our cookie table because every week yeah, cookies every week at crumble cookies. My daughter actually calls it NAT now she's like we have a truck with a with a cookie table. But it is such a neat, such a neat feature like you think of the number of times you're trying to do something real quick in your car and you're balancing stuff haphazardly on a cup holder and around the gearshift when you have a little table. It doesn't sound like a big deal. But I use that thing like half a dozen times in the week that I've had this truck. So I'm a fan. The only thing that's you know, maybe not so much a fan of his fuel economy because it's not the bestest. Oh, I just lost it. I had it and I wrote it down. But you're not going to get oh 16 miles per gallon. Is your combined fuel economy for the Raptor, given that gas cost, what does it cost? Where you are now? Roberto, do you have to say something

Roberto Baldwin  5:05  
about near my house is probably between 460 and 480 a gallon.

Sam Abuelsamid  5:09  
Ouch. So for our for premium, because you want to be me

Roberto Baldwin  5:13  
really, yeah, I'm only I only use premium for my cars because it's

Nicole Wakelin  5:17  
premium. So you're gonna have to sell a kidney to fuel this thing. If you live in California, you might get away with not having to do that in New Hampshire, it's a little bit cheaper here. It's like $3 and change here still. But as gas prices rise, that's going to hurt. So it's not something you necessarily want to take on a long distance road trip just for that reason. But otherwise, I mean, it's a fantastic truck, and it has style for miles. I mean, people love it. And it has this big aggressive grille. It has all the things you would want. It's like I am in an off road desert racing truck. Look at me. It's like oh, okay, I have a look, because it has all of that. So that's my thoughts. Does

Sam Abuelsamid  5:56  
it have the full down seats? The full flat seats on the front?

Nicole Wakelin  6:01  
I you know, I'd even play with it, it probably does. I have a million option packages. I don't know, I didn't play with that I was too busy playing with the interior work surface as it's officially listed on this. But you know, what I'm gonna play with tonight as the pro power on board, and I'm going to use the pro power thing. It's Halloween, we're recording this. And we always plug in a little thing in the garage that plays music. I'm gonna plug it into the back of the truck and leave it right in the back of the truck in the driveway playing our Halloween music for the trick or treaters tonight. So I'm gonna make use of that too. Excellent.

Sam Abuelsamid  6:29  
Yeah, so it's been, it's been probably three or four years since I drove a Raptor, the previous generation Raptor, haven't driven the new one yet. My biggest impression of the previous raptor was that the suspension felt really soft, and kind of mushy. And going around corners. So it was a lot of body roll. And under heavy braking, there was a lot of dive. It's great, you know, if you're going over, you know, big boulders and stuff at high speeds. But just driving around town, it just kind of felt kind of floppy. How does this one feel by comparison,

Nicole Wakelin  7:06  
I feel like it's better. But it is still a truck that is tuned to be in the dirt. It is not tuned to be on pavement. So when you start going fast, you do notice like if you're if you're cruising down the highway, even at high speed, you know, yeah, rivers doing a great imitation that you guys can't see it our little zoom call. If you if you have uneven pavement or you have like a little bit like a seam, you will feel it bounce like it, you will feel it you get tossed a little bit. You just have to it just it's almost like it just takes a little getting used to as weird as that sounds, you know, if you're driving a sedan all the time you suddenly climb into this, it feels very unwieldy, and huge and sloppy, you drive it for a little bit and you just kind of learn it a little bit and get a little bit more comfortable. I feel like it's better than the old one. But nothing's gonna change the fact that this is an off road truck that's designed to go racing through the dirt and through the desert. And when you're, you know, if you take a corner fast, you get a good bit of body roll. If you hit bumps in the road, it's gonna bounce and sway does it do it to a point that it feels like unsafe for unwieldy in a way that makes me think, oh, I don't want to drive this? No, it's just something you have to be aware of. And I feel like it's one of those compromises you have to make. If you want a truck that is this capable off road, if you really want this kind of capability. There's a price to be paid. And that means that you're not going to be as comfortable and controlled driving down the highway as you would in just a straight up regular one. f150. But it's nothing that I feel I feel like it's a fair trade. And I do think it's better than the last gen.

Roberto Baldwin  8:36  
You should you should have all wheel drive.

Nicole Wakelin  8:39  
What have I driven the TRX? Is that? Yes, I have driven the TRX compared to the TRX Is that what you're going to ask me? Oh, gosh, I have to like head to head. It's been a little bit since I've been in the TRX uh, you know, the drive that we did with the TRX they had us on mountain highways. And we were going pretty decent highway speeds, you know, and and it was very those very loopy sort of swoopy you know, you're going around the highway when you get really into the Swoops. It does the same thing I think that this does you feel that this is on big tires and big shocks and that it's designed to bounce so you feel the same thing. I don't know that I would say one is superior than the other. It's been a little while since I've driven a TRX I mean, it's been a good bit but I don't I think it's one of those things you'd have to drive you truly have to drive both. I think the TRX does better though and I think this is just a ram thing. The interiors are better. The Raptor has a really nice interior but if you want a truly stunning interior that is just amazing. Ram has it beat so if it was like oh, well they're both kind of got that off road sloppiness would then what do you start looking at? I would start looking at interiors and RAM wins.

Roberto Baldwin  9:56  
Off Road sloppiness

Nicole Wakelin  9:57  
off road sloppiness that's a thing off road floppiness on the highway. That's what it is.

Sam Abuelsamid  10:03  
I drove the TRX I think in like June or July, and it seemed to me and the same is also true of the, the gladiator Mojave. You know, both of them, you know, designed to run at high speeds, you know, the desert. But, you know, they, they both seem to have a lot better body control than I remembered from the last raptor I drove. How, you know, how they, you know, obviously, you know, they're not sports cars by any means, but they they did seem to move around less than then I remember of the Raptor. And that's, that's why I'm curious about how the new raptor compares both against those as well as the old one.

Nicole Wakelin  10:46  
Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't enough of a difference that I'm sitting here thinking like, oh, yeah, the Raptors way sloppier than the TRX. It's nothing dramatic. So I suppose I would be really cool to drive them back to back. Maybe I'll get lucky. And I'll get a tear driveway on Monday. Just because it's hard when you don't.

Roberto Baldwin  11:03  
When you have a week between cars and you're like, Wait, how is this car compared to that? Right? And

Nicole Wakelin  11:08  
you're like, in between? I've driven a hot hatch a luxury sedan and a sports car now what was that truck like four months ago? So it gets a little hard. But yeah, I definitely would say it wasn't something where I'm thinking oh, yeah, this Raptor is horrible. This is really sloppy. Compared to the TRX I think it would be splitting hairs a little bit. I just think the interior the quietness overall, the TRX is is better than what you have in the in the Raptor.

Roberto Baldwin  11:35  
Yeah. I think sample the FCA trucks have been a little bit more of a nicer ride on the road. Yeah. For trucks.

Nicole Wakelin  11:46  
Well as a whole. I mean, if you were comparing Yeah, straight up epic over Ram 1500. Ram wins, hands down. It's so much smoother.

Roberto Baldwin  11:52  
So someone said Nicole, that Eric right now? Yeah, somebody

Nicole Wakelin  11:55  
sent me two weeks now. That FCA still Lantis? Who? This week? Oh, sorry. Yeah, we're saying the wrong company. There is no

Roberto Baldwin  12:03  
see.

Nicole Wakelin  12:04  
So yeah, so that was my week in the Ford F 150. Raptor pumpkin chariot that I had. But they were Yeah, so that was my vehicle this week. Or we could talk the other stuff later. We're gonna do like all the trucks all at once. Sam.

Sam Abuelsamid  12:18  
What let's let's come back to that later. Cool. Did also did you say what the price of the Raptor was?

Nicole Wakelin  12:23  
I didn't there's no price on my Monroney. But the starting price on this Filipina is 64. So okay, I'm gonna go with this one. I mean, I'm looking at the list of optional equipment that's on here. This one's probably a good chunk more, I'm gonna say at least five to $10,000 more than that. So it is. It looks amazing. It would be incredible to take this off road and really race it through the desert, but you got to be able to pay for it and you got to be able to pay for its gas.

Sam Abuelsamid  12:52  
Okay. Roberto, what about you? What do you been dressed up?

Roberto Baldwin  12:57  
I went to Well, up until recently because of you know, pandemic and all that jazz. BMW would have this annual test fest where they would bring us out and we would drive a bunch of BMW both on the track and on the road. And the two vehicles I want to talk about the most I'm not allowed to talk about yet. One of the M fork coupe. The other one is the two series coupe. I can't talk about them. I drove them. I can't tell you what, how it was the drive but I can't say that I drove them that's so that's that's fun. I did also drive the alpino B eight. Which I love the story of Alpena I think it's coachbuilders they're they're you know, they they're essentially making like something like an M car into something fancy. It's like the my Bach of BMW is out Pina. And the fun story is that they kind of they started as a typewriter company. So if you ever go to Germany, and you have a chance to go and they let you tour it, I got a chance to tour it a few years ago. There are typewriters out Pina typewriters, you can like look at and take pictures of. And that's what I did a few years ago when I went to Germany and toured the Alpena factory, but the BA is an amazing vehicle. It's it is big, it is expensive. It is beautiful. It is it's gonna set you back Hold on $140,000 for the the X Drive with VH all wheel drive system, the alpino it is it's just a wonderful car to drive it's it I think for I think right now for BMW they spent a few years trying to to really be Mercedes a little bit trying to less cost less less performance more luxury. And I think that really sort of hurt them as an automaker because they are not Mercedes, Mercedes, Mercedes, Mercedes, you it's it's you can't as an as an overall automaker, you just can't beat Luxuria Mercedes because that is their jam. So I think they, you know, within the last generation or so of vehicles, they've sort of stepped back and decided to go more performance. And that's what it felt like on this drive. Of course, they also had all the M vehicles but the Pina, you know, you get this 4.4 liter, VA was 612 horsepower. I was driving through the desert, it was out in Palm Springs. It's huge. It's comfortable. It's quick. It's it was it's beautiful, like forest green. I can't say enough, like wonderful things about this very expensive vehicle. I drove the the, the B seven in Europe a few years ago when I did a LP a drive. And this is the fastest I've ever driven a car on a road. But it was the autobahn. And it was I was doing over 200 miles an hour. And it just felt solid as a rock. It was amazing. And it was Yeah. And so if you're rich, and you're looking for something that's that's that's comfortable, but also has a little bit of performance. The it's tough to beat the alpino $140,000 140 140.

Sam Abuelsamid  16:12  
That's not crazy.

Roberto Baldwin  16:13  
But you get a little badge inside. It's like a metal basket. Right on the center console. It says Alpena and then you get a little special shifter. And there's a little like alpino bits on the outside so people know your sin. It's like a total bargain. Yeah, yeah. It's yeah, it's you're just you're getting a little you're paying a little something something for what else did I drive Hold on, there was a lot of vehicles that I drove. So I have to see which ones I can and cannot talk about. embargo five, I did drive the M five on the track. And it was fun. I was trying to see what I can say okay, I can say I can say that I have driven the m two and the m two Cs and competition. I still think the two series is the spirituals the successor, the spiritual successor of what the three series was, which was you know what the five series was. But the M five I expected it to be a little bit more unwieldy than it was. And it wasn't I drove it on the track. It was it was a blast. Most people are you know, people who are buying an M five are never going to take that thing to a track. It's not really a track car. But you can and it does really well. So yeah, I drove them five I also drove a right hand drive mini classic. What are the some around the midnight? Do you still get those? The little ones? Yes. So they let me I've actually already driven this car. You take it on the road, like just No, no, no, they don't they would they we there's a there's a skid pad they're at we're at thermal in Palm Springs, where BMW has their competition school where they'll teach you how to drive, like a like a maniac on the track. And so they had a couple Mini Coopers there. And Mini Cooper classics. And we yeah, we got to drive one, which is one I've driven before. And it was a little right hand drive green Mini Cooper. And I absolutely adore driving those those tiny mini coopers as a big guy and a small car the way that you think I'm six three,

Nicole Wakelin  18:16  
so you think you look ridiculous. I wish I'd seen that.

Roberto Baldwin  18:18  
I have some pictures. I'll drop the pictures and the thing. But you you you think okay, first it's hard to get in. So that's just a given because how tall I am. But once you're driving the sitting position because they they move you know, the Mini Cooper they move the wheels out they put the the the engine in the sideways. And so you have a little bit more you have this have more space than you anticipate inside of a vehicle even in these old ones. Once you're in it and you're driving, it's fine because the steering wheel doesn't come down like a traditional steering wheel. It's more like a bus. So it doesn't hit my knees. It doesn't like I have

Nicole Wakelin  18:53  
just described driving this teeny tiny little car like driving a bus I guess.

Roberto Baldwin  18:57  
It's like that. Yeah, the steering wheel is set up like a bus. I actually have more room for my legs and arms. And this 90s ish classic mini cooper because it's the same old old timey design aesthetic they just never changed than I do in a Lamborghini her con couldn't roadster because in the her con i My leg is rubbing against the steering wheel so when I'm driving I have to move my right hand up and down because the because the Roadster has less has less leg room you can't put it back all the way so yeah, so whenever someone's like hey you I'd rather her car and roadster I'm like nah, that's okay.

Sam Abuelsamid  19:38  
No thank you.

Roberto Baldwin  19:38  
It's a wonderful car. The regular con i fitted but the Roadster I was just just because the just because it's a roadster you lose space. So tiny old Mini Cooper. It's definitely something I would. I would spend money on for whatever reason and we got to auto cross the mini se the little electric mini which was super fun because you get that Evie torque and an autocross I did horribly by the way because it was the first thing I did in the morning and first got a whole bunch of cones

Nicole Wakelin  20:11  
did they get stuck under that I

Roberto Baldwin  20:11  
didn't hit any cones. I was just like, two seconds behind the person who other people, which is horrible on a small track it was it was really bad. And while I was doing it, I was like, Why do I keep I just wasn't I wasn't pushing it. It was too early in the morning for me to you want to wait you need more coffee before I did need more coffee. I really blew it. So yeah, so anyway, so yeah, a lot of BMW plus I have the Subaru Outback wilderness right now that I'm shooting video for the World Car of the Year. This week. You I think you both have already driven it. I want to go drive over things. Oh, okay, so Nicole's driven so there's two

Nicole Wakelin  20:49  
things in it that

Roberto Baldwin  20:52  
I when I picked up a friend and there was like this big bump in the road so I went and towards the bump. As opposed to you're like hold on hold on. So today I might take it out and find some it's difficult where I live to find off roading that isn't private land so I'm gonna see if I can find something I just know I

Nicole Wakelin  21:11  
found it very offroad I find it very fun I thoroughly enjoy driving it was very capable. The nice stretches of like bumpy dirt with little bitty rocks you didn't really have to slow down on and you could open it up I'm like we this is fun

Roberto Baldwin  21:27  
yeah they gave me some chunky all seasons on it and I'm very I just been driving it on the on the freeway doing you know the regular just kind of driving around errands type thing. So next couple days I got to do some some proper review driving and yeah, I like it it's a

Sam Abuelsamid  21:46  
it's the nice thing about the new one series and two series is they have a somewhat more modest grill mean that they have a more reasonably sized yes I

Roberto Baldwin  21:57  
can I can say that the grill is like the old timey grill no yeah yeah no no Bugs Bunny grill no nothing it's very

Nicole Wakelin  22:07  
nice more modest at this point like yeah it was that still makes it here

Roberto Baldwin  22:12  
but it's like it yeah like an eighth of the size of the grill it could be is what it could be just huge giant thing and the new the two series coupe it it looks the back looks nice it looks really nice it I really liked it I like that's a proper coupe. I mean they throw in the word coupe on everything I mean SUVs a coupe everything anything with like a slight like incline.

Sam Abuelsamid  22:38  
You see the tiniest little thing it does have a vertical rear window is a coupe.

Roberto Baldwin  22:41  
Yeah, anything Yeah. At

Nicole Wakelin  22:43  
least straight up. It's officially a coupe.

Roberto Baldwin  22:45  
Yeah, if it's not if it's not at a 90 degree it's it's it's now it's a coupe or a coupe if you're fancy and you say cheers to your friends when you leave a party.

Sam Abuelsamid  22:55  
Or Ciao.

Roberto Baldwin  22:56  
Ciao, ciao ciao All right. All right, buddy. You're from your from the same small town I'm proud we never slow it down there. Mr. Turner Continental.

Sam Abuelsamid  23:09  
Alright, well I had a second white three row Jeep SUV in the driveway second one in a row. But this time instead of the wagon here I have the grand cherokee L which is the the three row version of Jeeps midsize SUV so this is comparable in size to you know Ford Explorer, Hyundai palisade Kia Telluride but the one I have is the summit reserve trim, which is the the high end top of the line one, which, interestingly enough, despite having price tag that's see roughly about $13,000 less than the wagon arrows driving has, you know, quite a bit more equipment and has some equipment that I would have liked to have had in the wagon here. So this this is basically fully loaded, it's got everything it and it also has the optional 5.7 liter Hemi so it's the same engine that was in the wagoneer but it's it's a more manageable size. You know, we were talking before we started recording I was looking up the specs on the wagoneer again for review and writing and the the wagoneer compared to a Ford Expedition or a Chevy Tahoe is about four inches wider. Not including the mirrors which is why it seems to fill fill the lane so much because it literally does fill the lane

Nicole Wakelin  24:39  
it explains why driving it I felt like it just I'm just gonna Sideswipe all the things anything within 10 feet of the road. You're giving it up like

Sam Abuelsamid  24:48  
or as soon as I got into this grand cherokee it you know, I immediately felt much more relaxed, you know, because it just didn't feel so massive. You know, it's a much more manageable size for, for driving around town, or anywhere else for that matter. So this is a stretched version of the grand cherokee that the the regular two row Grand Cherokee is about to launch. It's the new generation three, you know, the third row is, you know, obviously a lot smaller than what you get in a wagon here, but it's still useful for for a couple of adults for for shorter trips or for you know, teenagers kids back there, you know that it's good for that. And this one as the summit reserve, that it actually has nicer seats than what I had in the wagoneer they're a little more supportive, the wagon, your seats are bigger and broader and flatter. This one's a little more supportive. It's got adjustable thigh support, which you didn't have in the in the big one. And it's also got massage, and,

Nicole Wakelin  25:51  
you know, the adjust? I do, because you do

Sam Abuelsamid  25:58  
I do because my, my proportions are such that, you know, like, if you measure my, my legs, the distance from my hip to knee is long, and so on a lot of seats, I feel like, you know, I'm missing something like there's an empty space underneath my thighs when I'm driving. So that's why, you know, depending on what kind of seats are in the car, you know, if it's got, if I can angle the the seat cushion, you know, I try to angle it. So it's kind of the front is pointed up, angled up a little more, or if it's got, you know, adjustable thigh support, I'll pull that out. Because it for me, it's more comfortable. Okay, yeah, as we've talked about before, you know, everybody's body's different. And so, you know, for some people that's going to be useful for others. It's not, but I like having that. And then of course, you know, it's also got massaging seats, which I would have liked to have had on the trip to Indy, but then you know, I'll take it for you know, they're, they're really good massaging seats in the, in the Grand Cherokee, oh, it's got the same 10 inch infotainment system with the 10 inch screen with Uconnect, five, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support built in there. And it's just, you know, a lot, it's got a lot of the same kinds of things you find in the wagoneer just kind of scaled down a little bit, you know, a little, maybe not quite a little less than seven eighths a little more than three quarters. So you know, but about 13 sixteenths scale of the, of the wagon here, which, as I said, is much more comfortable for me to drive I like it a lot better. Because it does have the Hemi instead of the Pentastar V six, it is still quite thirsty. And unlike the wagon here, the Hemi is not equipped with the torque mild hybrid system on this one. So you end up with only marginally better fuel economy been getting a little bit but 18 and a half miles per gallon versus 17 and a half for the for the bigger wagon here. The design of the new Grand Cherokee it has it's got the same kind of design language that you see on the wagoneer. This this new Jeep design language. You know where instead of the the Grand Cherokees traditionally have had the grille kind of sloped back, it was a little bit taller, it's shorter and wider on this one and kind of slumped forward a little bit more. Very similar to the wagon here. And I think you know, I think it's a good look. And as I was writing about the wagon here earlier this morning, I was thinking about the design of it. And I realized one of the things I like about this this new Jeep look is they've gotten the opposite of the rest of the industry and haven't made the seven slot grille stretch all the way from the top to the bottom of the front facia, you know, it's it's much less ostentatious looking.

Nicole Wakelin  28:52  
It's there but it's not like in your face like certain other brand. Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  28:56  
you got a jeep. Yeah, but yeah, it doesn't have to get over the head. Yeah. So yeah, pretty much all the options in this grant in the summit reserve trim, including a really nice what it called to Tupelo leather, leather seating and surfaces and open pore wood trim, which as we talked about last time, I prefer that over the the glossy wood. This one's got the optional air spring suspension so you can move it up and down. It's got four wheel drive, four wheel drive, two range system, so you got 48 to one crawl ratio. If you want to go off roading in it. This one has the optional Macintosh audio system in there as well. Which

Nicole Wakelin  29:50  
What did you think of that? Did you think it? Did you think it was good? Like did you like the Macintosh? Was it amazing or do you play with it?

Sam Abuelsamid  29:57  
I do. I mean, it generally sounds really good. I had when I drove it in the grand wagoneer. The summer, when we did the drive in New York, I was more impressed with it, then this, this particular one, this particular vehicle, there, when I, when I turn up music, I think there's a bad speaker or something somewhere. If I turn it up too much, there's a rattle, and one of the speakers haven't quite been able to isolate. So there's something in general, the Macintosh System is a really good car audio system. I mean, all these high end car audio systems now, you know, sound really good. And over, you know, over the years of listening to too much really loud music, you know, my ears are not as not as good as they used to be, shall we say? And so, you know, there's there's subtleties that I can't always hear anymore. But it sounds really good to me. And I don't think anybody's gonna be disappointed if they, if they get this system.

Roberto Baldwin  31:02  
Do you have a Do you have music that you get? Oh, sorry, I was gonna ask, do you have music? Do you typically listen to the test to test sound systems? Like, is there songs? Is there like certain things are you just like turning

Sam Abuelsamid  31:17  
trash, I try a mix of different stuff, you know, some Led Zeppelin, AC DC, and some classical music and some jazz. So I got through a bunch of different stuff. And, you know, everything generally sounds really good on this one. Aside from the one bad speaker and you do and because it's a Macintosh, if you go into the UConnect system, tap on apps, and you can tap on the Macintosh app, and it brings up the little virtual version of the Macintosh classic Macintosh meet meters in the same you know, blue color that they've always had on their audio equipment. So

Nicole Wakelin  31:57  
I want to call a guy who writes for US news is that I ride with a lot I rode with him on the drive program, and he's super into the audio thing like he picks it all apart and he has certain music that he listens to he was over the moon about this Macintosh system like I thought it sounded good. But he like you were saying Roberto he has certain music and certain things that he listens for it's like oh, it hits this it hits that hits the other thing I'm like, so is good. Okay, but he like a little tiny little you know, finesse to things that I'm like okay, he's impressed I think it sounds amazing

Roberto Baldwin  32:27  
ring and

Nicole Wakelin  32:31  
he loves the little dial thing he's like whoa, so

Roberto Baldwin  32:34  
yeah, that's that's the most exciting thing driven

Sam Abuelsamid  32:39  
99% of people that aren't audio files will love it. They'll have no complaints about the audio system in this thing at all you know and the 1% Well, you know, they'll find something to complain about about almost any audio system except for the built in their home theater

Roberto Baldwin  32:58  
$20,000 or the sound

Nicole Wakelin  33:01  
like I live in an apartment with like no no heat no electricity but myself is my my my radio my stereo is kick butt look at this but you can't eat Who cares

Roberto Baldwin  33:12  
who cares.

Sam Abuelsamid  33:15  
So all in this grand cherokee l came to $68,725 which is not inexpensive but you can also get you know the grand cherokee L for a lot less than that if you start at the the base models like you start with a Laredo the for two wheel drive. Laredo starts at 38,006 35 and 40,006 35 for the four wheel drive and it goes up from there you know as as is usually the case with whatever trim level you choose. So if you're looking for a three row SUV in that mid size class that we've talked so much about, you know, this is I think you know if you were to go like the middle of the lineup you know with latitude limited Okay, come on. This is highly competitive with the likes of the Telluride or the palisade or you know or Explorer. And then if you want all the luxury stuff, you can go quite a bit more expensive than that.

Nicole Wakelin  34:22  
I have a question Do you think it matches up like because with Telluride and palisade I feel like the interiors of those are really quite good especially for the price

Sam Abuelsamid  34:30  
of an explorer. With explorer with grant

Nicole Wakelin  34:37  
we were saying before on your list of vehicles you can

Sam Abuelsamid  34:41  
determine in terms of size you know the class size, it's it's in that same size class in terms of the interior I think the the the Hyundai and Kia have better interiors and he explored us and then you know this kind of goes beyond that. I haven't I haven't had a chance to take a look at the those mid level trims that are on here that are, you know, in that same price class with Hyundai and Kia to see what those are like, but, you know, generally, you know, anything from still Lantis in recent years has been really good. Yeah, this is, this is more this is this is the kind of interior that you would expect in a Genesis. Yeah, so I guess, you know, the, the summit, and this, this The interesting thing about Jeep and, you know, the same was true with the the wagoneer and the grand wagoneer. They kind of the Jeep brand is kind of spanning across multiple categories. Now, you know, at the bottom end of, you know, the entry level of the Jeep brand for any of their models, you know, they're priced more closer to, you know, what we would consider the mainstream brands, you know, the Ford Chevy's and, and Hyundai's and Kias, and then they continue on up into what we would consider the premium brands. So the summit reserve is really, it's more comparable to a Genesis GVHD than it is to, to a Hyundai palisade or Kia Telluride in terms of what you're getting the equipment you're getting on it and, and the level of the fit and finish and materials in it. And in that context, you know, 68,000 for this versus, you know, comparable to slightly more for a GVHD I'd say it's very highly competitive with with that vehicle. And probably better off road than the Genesis.

Nicole Wakelin  36:34  
Probably.

Sam Abuelsamid  36:37  
It is a Jeep after all, and the Genesis you can't get it to range, four wheel drive system, things like that. Alright, let's move on. So there was some topic that we talked about last year, before the two of you joined the show about the right to repair bill that was on the ballot in Massachusetts last fall, which passed by I think, a fairly wide majority. And that that right to repair bill was for vehicles, that was demanding that automakers make the the telematics diagnostic data that they have available, open, open that up to make it available to independent service providers. So rather than just being available to dealers, it would be available to anybody to access that. And there were some at the time I you know, I support right to repair. But I also had some concerns about the way that particular measure was structured, because of, you know, opening up vehicle connectivity data to anybody, you know, and that, you know, I think has had the potential for some cybersecurity issues. And pretty much all the automakers were opposed to that particular measure, but it passed anyway. And so now Subaru has responded. If you buy a 2022 Subaru in Massachusetts, you no longer have access to Starlink. telematics it's not even offered they just turn it off. If you buy it in Massachusetts. They just they decided not Yeah, just this week, they announced that they're disabling it. So for all the 2022 models so if you buy a Subaru and Massachusetts no conductivity for you. What do you guys think about that?

Roberto Baldwin  38:33  
I think I'm in the same boat as you because on one hand the the right to repair is I mean that's a huge thing. I mean there's a lot of I mean we can go back to to Apple who's fought this John Deere especially has been very anti right to repair which is put a lot of farmers into you know, essentially stock pain you know, way more money than they should to get their their tractors fixed. And then with the automakers I think there's you know, there there are things that you should be open to, you know, individuals or to third party shops, but again, with the privacy implications of tellem telematics like you go to, you know, third party shop and random mechanic is you know, he sees a he or she sees like a girl or a boy who's bringing a vehicle in and they you know, take Hey, I'm gonna be a stalker, it's so it's yeah, so that's that's my you know, that's the there's this concern. I mean, I don't I don't know if that's is going to be if that's going to be worse than if he brought it into the dealership where you pay a lot more money to be stalked by a creeper. So it's Yeah, telematics is such a weird thing that they have to give access to. To widen access to when it comes down to it. So I I don't know where I saw this one to be, to be perfectly honest. On one hand, I'm like, yes, we need the right to repair on the other hand, I'm like, people deserve their privacy. And I'm curious The telematics information, how was that? I mean, is it relevant? Is it how relevant is it to to fixing the vehicle as opposed to? Do you need that information in order to fix the vehicle?

Nicole Wakelin  40:13  
No. But I wonder if it's not like if it's one of those things, Roberto, where it's not like you don't necessarily need the telematics to fix the vehicle, right. But is there some part, you know, all that code and everything, there's a lot of complexity back there, and you don't know what pieces integrate with whatever? What other pieces behind the scenes? And you wonder if, by giving you this extra stuff, do we also give you all this additional information that you don't need? Like how much you know, opening one thing? Do you open them all? You know, and, and even if you don't need it, it's like, well see, the bigger can turn this off, we've turned off these 18 Other things, we can't turn off one without turning off the other. And like you said, you don't want necessarily want the guy fixing your car to know where you live, where you work, where you take your kid to dance class, like, I get the I get it, I get it. I don't know how you fix that. I don't know how you would determine you what information you could give and what information you couldn't or where you could as a consumer, could you, you know, make it available now but not available then like I don't know, I don't know how you would do it.

Roberto Baldwin  41:12  
I mean, it can be it's a it's a problem that can be solved. Within software, you can firewall certain data, but it's very, very expensive. And if we've learned anything over the last few years, when it comes that automakers have learned anything over the last few years is that software is super difficult. It's ask ask Volkswagen and the infotainment system and the ID three and the ID four. It just it's incredibly difficult. It's far more difficult than I think automakers took into the consideration beforehand, because they were using a lot of just sort of off the shelf stuff or they built like very, you know, very easy to use, easy to build and sometimes very easy to hack systems. And so now you have this situation where Subaru isn't Ford Subarus and Volkswagen Subaru, you know, they have they have money from Toyota, but they're not Toyota. Can they afford to go through and fix this and, and then had to pull all these vehicles in, because they don't have all the air updates, and then push the code, and then hope everything works? Because you know, it's, it's going to be difficult for them to to test this. Because now you're testing it on the road with real people, or just turn it off. They're like, You know what, let's just turn it off. And I think that's where that was your solution is either solution portable. Yeah, yeah, when you get it comes down to like, Okay, we're going to be spending millions of dollars to fix this problem, or hundreds of 1000s of dollars or however much. And they looked at that. And then they looked and they got a spreadsheet out. And then they looked at how much money they were going to lose from monthly subscribers to Starlink. And they said, You know what? Not enough. Yeah. This is this is what the spreadsheet says in the spreadsheet says we can't separate this data from this data, like, in a way that's affordable, or is or makes makes makes sense financially for us as an automaker, which

Nicole Wakelin  42:54  
is fair, I mean, I get it.

Sam Abuelsamid  42:58  
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch as we go forward, as automakers are relying more and more on connectivity for revenue streams, and, you know, GM at their investor day a couple weeks ago, we talked about this, I think, you know, but they're, they announced their ultra phi platform for for software to allow developers to bring third party apps into GM vehicles on their new GM new GM vehicles. And they, during the investor day, they talked about doubling their revenue over the next nine years by the end by 2030, from 140 to $280 billion, with a lot of that additional incremental revenue coming from services built on conductivity. And, you know, I'm skeptical if they can actually get that much more revenue out of that. But that's, that's a whole other issue. But every automaker is looking at conductivity as a way to, to generate new revenue streams. And even for a smaller player like Subaru, you know, that's, that's going to be something important that they're going to have to consider. And so the companies are going to have to figure out a way to do this, and maintain security of these systems. So that, you know, if you open portals for third party service providers to get in and do stuff with the vehicle, you know, either extract data from the vehicle or provide services to customers, they're going to have to find a way to do that without allowing bad actors to get in and do either take remote control of the vehicle or steal data or you know, any number of other things, bad things that could happen. So it's going to be a challenge for everybody over the next the next decade to figure this out. Speaking of over the air updates, a lot of customers that bought ford f 150s, the 21 Ford F 150s over For the past year, as well as the Mustang maki have been waiting anxiously to get their blue cruise system enabled via an OTA update the vehicles were most of these vehicles were built with the hardware to support blue cruise. And that's Ford's hands free system like supercruise. Turns out, they're going to have to wait a little longer, like into the first quarter of 2022. That was supposed to be out about now. And there was a report that came out a few days ago. And I reached out that it was delayed. And I reached out to Ford for clarification on that. And it's not Bluetooth itself is not actually delayed. There. That's actually the the cars that are cars and trucks are shipping from the factory now. Have it on there, and it's enabled. But for customers that got their vehicles earlier in the year that are waiting for the over the air update, Ford is still having some challenges with the OTA update system. And rather than risk pushing it out and maybe breaking somebody's vehicle, they're they're holding back on doing the OTA updates until they get all those issues sorted out. And so that's going to be some time after the first of the year. According to Ford.

Roberto Baldwin  46:21  
I'm on one hand, I mean, that's, that's good, because you're there. I mean, if it's a security concern, if it's a braking concern, or like all these concerns that you should be worried about when it comes to over the air updates or just updating, you know, vehicle, great software, that's great. On the other hand, everyone, you know, there's probably a lot of people that f1 50s or Maki's that we're going to drive a long distance to visit family for Thanksgiving or for Christmas or for whatever holiday, you know, they may be celebrating or just for the you know, the winter break. Even kids get time off for winter break. And they were like, Yeah, I'm going to use blue cruise on the interstate. It's going to be Oh, no, wait, nevermind.

Sam Abuelsamid  46:57  
Wow. My hands on the wheel. Yeah, you

Roberto Baldwin  47:00  
still have adaptive cruise control. And most of the time, I mean, super cruise, blue cruise. i My hands are like literally hovering over the car most of the time. Like I can't, like I

Nicole Wakelin  47:09  
can let go the wheel, but I'm still like, any minute now. Technology's gonna fail me and I'm gonna hit a tree, and I don't. And I'll work so there's

Roberto Baldwin  47:18  
so many Yeah, so yeah. I mean, I'm always a fan of having safer vehicles, as opposed to, let's say a beta that you had to pull back on. That just makes cars stop. Tesla. I'm just gonna say Tesla doesn't matter. What are

Sam Abuelsamid  47:33  
you gonna do? Or am I gonna mainly turn into oncoming traffic? You know? Yeah, just

Roberto Baldwin  47:37  
for funsies. Yeah, so yeah, if you if you have to delay software for the sake of safety or security or privacy, then it's fine. Especially if it's only like a few months.

Sam Abuelsamid  47:49  
Right? Yeah. All right. Roberto, you got a chance. Like, I think it's probably a couple of months now to finally go to finally try out the new Mercedes Benz SL. And that embargo finally lifted this week. Tell us about it.

Roberto Baldwin  48:07  
So I didn't get to drive the Mercedes SL, I have been invited to drive it now. And in some at some future date, but I was allowed to sit in it while they drove it around with me in the car. So So automakers what they'll do is they'll have these like test vehicles that they're testing. And occasionally, they will say, Hey, this is a highly anticipated vehicle, would you like to come and sit in the car while an engineer drives it and talks to you about it? And that's what I did. And it's a very odd thing to to do and to write about. Because you're not driving the car. You're just sitting in the car while someone else drives it. So it's, it's sort of this very weird, I assume what's what it's like when I put my friends in the test vehicles that I get a review because I get at home? I'm like, isn't this great? And they're like, Yeah, this seems great. And you know, they're they're basing their their experience on how I'm driving said vehicle. I mean, they're going to so but you know, from from from sitting in the car, it felt a bit more nimbler. It felt a bit more sporty. And though that's what Mercedes has been going for, with with the new SL, I think, you know, they kept saying that, you know, we customers are saying this and you know, we're hearing this and you know that they wanted something that was a bit more light that wasn't as bloated as the previous generation SL. And so that's what they built and from from from the passenger seat. That's what it felt like it's a very pretty car. It's comfortable. I think when you when you get a Mercedes there is the and the SL is an AMG vehicle. So there's, you know, it's going to be it's going to have that AMG, you know, fun and power and performance, but it's also a Mercedes so you have to sort of, you have to have that comfort level and there you have to have the ability to drive around town, and then pick a fancy people up and drive them around and drop them in fancy places. Not that I am fancy. I'm the least Fancy person that sits in the Mercedes that anytime but others, you know, they still want that that very comfortable, luxurious Mercedes experience and you know for a car its size and for what it does it has that so from from my experience sitting in the passenger seat in Colorado on the on the freeway in traffic and on a mountain road. It was a very comfortable experience. Unfortunately we didn't get to put the the roof down, not the roof the top down. While we were while I was driving because we drove through a lot of where we were driving, there was a lot of dust. And so I didn't I didn't get that other people did who were on that trip got to do it, but not me. But it's it's it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. I'm not I'm not sad. But yeah, so I look I really I'm really looking forward to driving it in. I don't know whenever whenever that is going to happen in next few weeks or a few months. And I will have more information once that happens. But yeah, so I mean Mercedes, when you talk to the like people who are sort of on the peripheral of cars. If you show them the Mercedes Gullwing or the Mercedes SL roadster from back in the day, that's automatically their favorite car. There are two sort of like, like favorite, like Zeitgeist vehicles. It's the gullwing and the Roadster that killed James Dean. Those are the two the Porsche roadster are speedster that those are sort of like people see those like, oh, yeah, that's my favorite car. Oh, yeah, that's my they don't have to know anything about the vehicles. They just know. They're, they're shiny and silver and they look cool. And I think the so the SL has a lot. The new SL has a lot to sort of live up to it doesn't have gullwing doors though, unfortunately, it because it's a roadster and the doors are off.

Sam Abuelsamid  51:49  
But one one interesting thing that they changed on this one is they went back to a soft top instead of the retractable hardtop that they've had in the last couple of generations. Did they? Did they talk at all about why they chose to do that?

Roberto Baldwin  52:03  
I'm trying to think back on their drive. I don't think they talked about it. Um, I when it comes to these sort of vehicles, the softtop Yeah, I cut out it was it was quiet. It's, you know, it's Mercedes they're gonna work their darndest to make sure that even their soft top is quite is definitely not a Wrangler. It's, uh, so I you know, our Bronco Yeah, it's it's definitely not, you know, but it is, you know, it was quiet with it on there. I think there's, you know, they're soft tops, or are they the seal is really nice on those at that I'm always sort of amazed at how well Mercedes does their soft top convertibles with the it's just like, it's like hermetically sealed even though it's a soft top. So I think it's probably a little bit of weight, a little bit of cost saving a little bit of, you know, engineering. I mean, the engineering of a hardtop is a bit more difficult when you when you make it retractable versus a soft top. It's so overall you're saving, you're saving a lot of of everything really from from from money to weight to everything in between for a little extra, you know, what do you call it protection from the elements? And I'm sure that they're probably going to sell more of these in California where it's it's, it's, that's, you know, I'm sure that the main areas are California, Florida, and the places where you don't really get a lot of weather. Well for you don't think that their target? Yeah, they're not there. I don't think there's a big a big pool for Mercedes, SLS, Roadsters in Montana, or there's probably someone someone's buying it, but that that car is being garage, one person. Yeah. That person is garage in it. And they've got a private

Sam Abuelsamid  53:48  
racetrack

Nicole Wakelin  53:51  
and other cars to drive and all the other weather that they

Roberto Baldwin  53:53  
have to encounter and other cars that drive Yeah, I drove an old Mercedes SL.

Sam Abuelsamid  53:59  
I forget what year? Yeah, you talked about more than one array this summer.

Roberto Baldwin  54:02  
Yeah, Monterey, and that was outstanding. I absolutely love driving old cars, though. So that's just the old carner issue though. It could have been anything really if it was an old car. It's bad.

Sam Abuelsamid  54:17  
Excellent. All right. The for 2022 GMC is launching a refreshed version of the Sierra, which actually drove the summer Melfa proven proving grounds when they were showing off the new version of supercruise. It's going into that and at that time, the trucks that we were in still had the interior all covered up had camo on the the front so we couldn't see the revised front end. But they've actually revealed the done the full reveal on the the new Sierra. There's also an updated 22 Silverado coming which we haven't Chevy hasn't shown off yet. And I think Nicole, did you did you see it when you were here in Detroit? Actually, no they did. It was an online virtual reveal.

Nicole Wakelin  55:09  
Yeah, this wasn't actually when I was there for the nactoy drive. It was separate from that. They flew some folks out to Detroit to take a good look at their two specifically the two new trims the Denali ultimate and the 84x. Denali Ultimate is the next step up in the Denali it takes it even further towards luxury, and the 84x is the next step up in off roading and takes it makes it more rugged and more off Rody. The first day they had them both their first we couldn't drive them, where we could get a good look at them. They had designers they're talking about why they did what they did, and what they were going for. And all the little details of it. Here's the thing GMC is like it's not like a luxury luxury brand, but it's like an upscale brand. Right so it's kind of like in the middle between the average car and the Mercedes genuine luxury stuff

Sam Abuelsamid  56:01  
and bridges like well, we're talking about Jeep earlier.

Nicole Wakelin  56:05  
Yeah, it's like it's like in the middle right. And depending on when you got in their car something we're like okay, like okay, feels it feels like their base trim is still fancier than other guys base trims of their vehicles, right. But they didn't always nail it on how nice they got inside. I need to tell you this Denali ultimate The thing is beautiful, like the quality of the materials, the attention to detail that they put into the interior and the exterior this I was genuinely impressed. You don't feel like they phoned it in at all. They did some like on the outside. Okay, they have this they call it Vader Chrome and all I can think of is Darth Vader. And I don't think that's what they mean at all. But all I could think of was Darth Vader. And they have this on the Chrome on the grill. They have the badging is that same Vader Chrome and it gives it kind of a neat little finish. They have these 22 inch wheels that are different than they are on other vehicles in the lineup. It gets standard stuff like the multipro tailgate, and there's a Denali premium suspension and adaptive ride control, you get power six steps, but really the way they did the looks on this and it's like when you're buying a luxury vehicle, you want the performance okay, you can get the performance in other versions of Sierra if you want the performance, but you want it to look really pretty. Holy cow like there's all these leather trims. They have Mount Denali is like embossed onto some of the fabric and leather trims and an etched into some

Sam Abuelsamid  57:31  
topographic map of Denali. Like there's

Nicole Wakelin  57:34  
so you look at it, you're like what is that you're like, oh my gosh, that's the top that how cool like it's the Denali premium. They put it that map in there. There's like a micro suede headliner. The seats we were talking about seats, 16 way power adjustable massaging front seats, Sam, your thighs will be properly supported in this vehicle. It was but it looks and it's not. What I really liked was everything felt like a package like sometimes you want you you sit down in these really nice vehicles, you're like, oh, wow, they really did use a really nice leather. But there's no design to this. The design is just met or oh, there's this beautiful wood but it doesn't match up with the leather or just doesn't feel cohesive. This is this is a stunning interior. I know I was raving about rams interiors because we're talking about just in general Salinas does a really good interior right now. I think GMC has done really well on this Denali ultimate. I think when you know you see the pictures and it looks good in the pictures when you see it in person. And you you actually feel the materials and see the texture of it and you sit down and you take a seat. They did a phenomenal job in this. So I think this you know, it's not just oh, we're going to put ultimate on the end of the Denali and call it something fancy. No, we're putting ultimate on the end of the dolly. And we really did make this even better than the existing Denali terms. So I was super impressed with it. But I'm an interior person like I want my interior my fancy car to feel like the interior of a fancy car I don't like it to feel phoned in. The other thing that they did was the 84x and that one they're going for more of an off road kind of thing. And it does the same thing it has they it's weird it's it's not the elegance of the Denali ultimate but they did the same thing was like we're gonna give it these really cool interior look that is very unique to it but again, makes it feel a little bit more rugged, a little more durable, but still looks like something special. It doesn't have the same like refinement of the Denali premium but are all Denali ultimate but it shouldn't because it's looking to be a little bit more rugged enough roadie, and they did so much stuff to make this a genuinely capable vehicle. There's like a giant list. They have special springs in this that can travel more. They have a two speed transfer case with selectable drive modes. They've got front and rear electronically locking differentials. They've got a unique offer I see in suspension that they've calibrated specifically for this, it's not the same way as it is in other versions of the Sierra. There's a transfer case shield. They've got like these special wheels with you know, 18 inch black wheels with mud terrain tires. And they've done a lot to make it not just more capable and it's a giant list of the features, but they've made it look unique to its class and unique within the car lineup. So two new trends got a really good look at them. genuinely impressed. And my feeling was that if you looked at the GMC Sierra and you've thought, okay, yeah, it's cool inside but it's not really as cool as I feel like it should be when these come out, give them a look. Especially that Denali ultimate go look at it because the interior this these, they've done an amazing job. It's like they've leveled up and done something much better.

Roberto Baldwin  1:00:51  
I was looking at the price so the Denali ultimate, and they better put up some, they better stepped up.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:00  
But it feels like if you're buying a truck like that, right, you're that same guy who's buying $140,000 Mercedes, you're not prices only a small part of it. You know, you're looking to have the experience of driving in a luxury vehicle and you don't want it to be in a sedan you want it to be a luxury truck. And like I said, I haven't quite felt like GMC knocked it out of the park with the car before didn't quite It was like they were nice, but they weren't really luxury this way. You're like, wow, okay, so this is not cheap. But I would pay for this. It really looks stunning in person. Really, really beautiful interior.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:36  
What, I don't know if we talked about it last time. But the the Hummer, you drove the Hummer when you were here for the nactoy drive. I was the interior and that was it. Was it production representative? Or was it still kind of prototype? Not really entirely finished.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:54  
I believe it was pretty it didn't feel prototype. So although there could have been components in there, they didn't specifically say it was prototype, so I'm gonna say it was either production or pretty darn close to it didn't have any of the hallmarks of not being ready. I think the thing that's different about the Hummer is Hummer is just think about the brand what it was before it was the electric vehicle. Just big, great, big, big everything big, big climb over stuff. Big wheels, big, big vehicle, big gas consumption, big everything. It was big. And when you sit down in the Hummer, it feels very nice, but it still has that sort of chunkiness to it in a good way. Nothing's cute and delicate and light. It's all like yeah, you could this is a this is a burly vehicle I can take on anything it has this rougher tougher interior to it the accents nothing's nothing's cute and delicate and like you know there's no oh, this is finesse this is that it's like that's metal. That's, you know, leather. That's yeah, you can do anything. It just is much more much more aggressive and in your face. And there's nothing teeny tiny, delicate, everything's big and large and bold. You can drive it to the moon, you drive it to the moon if you want to. Yes, yeah. So it's a very different interior. Upscale but not aiming for that same kind of like this is a luxury vehicle feel that the Denali Ultimate is aiming for.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:03:19  
Okay. One of the one of the other things that's changing for the, the 22. Sierra is the base engine, the the 2.7 liter turbo four cylinder that they offer. It's getting 20% more torque, same same horsepower as before, but it's getting it's going up to 420 foot pounds of torque which is a lot for a four cylinder engine. That's, that's comparable to what you get with the the 6.2 liter V eight that's in the in the Denali.

Nicole Wakelin  1:03:50  
Yeah, yes.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:03:52  
See what else turbo yo yo. And then the 13 and a half inch touchscreen center touchscreen is in there. It's the the new infotainment systems based on Android automotive C. And it's got full Google automotive services Nursey at Google Maps and Google Assistant and all the other stuff that they offer in there so much yet with the the Pole Star.

Nicole Wakelin  1:04:19  
Yeah, and it does get a version of supercruise that is supposed to be trailer capable. Yeah, to be able to use Supercross. Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:04:27  
I tried that out this summer.

Nicole Wakelin  1:04:27  
How was that?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:04:30  
It's really good. It's It's really impressive what it can do, you know? And yeah, I've always been a little dubious about hands free driving systems, you know, with with supercruise and blue cruise and others. Because, you know, they say reduces the driver workload. Yeah. You don't have your hands on the wheel, but because you're, you're having to supervise it more. It's creating new cognitive workloads. And so it's it's different. It's not I don't find it to be as relaxing, as you know, some people claim to be able to take your hands off the wheel and sit back and just watch the road and, and be, you know, constantly vigilant, you know to take over at any moment when it you know when the system doesn't know what to do. But when you're towing a trailer, if you've ever told a heavy trailer, that is, you know, that can be kind of a nerve racking experience, you know, under normal conditions. So, if you can take your hands off the wheel, and you don't have to worry about steering, and you can focus more on you know, just, you know, watching for the, you know, watching the road, but also, you know, feeling for the, you know, with the trailers moving around in ways that it shouldn't be. I think that that might actually be a better use case than just normal driving hands free.

Nicole Wakelin  1:05:47  
Did you try it with a trailer? Sam? Did they let you try it with the trailer? Yeah, we

Sam Abuelsamid  1:05:51  
trying it? Yeah, we were Yeah, yeah, we we try to towing a 5000 pound trailer, we also got to try out the auto lane change, which is a new feature of this. So now you know that currently on the escalate. And on the CT, four and CT five, you can get supercruise. And it's got lane change on demand. So if you just tap this, turn signal stock, it the sensors will look to see if the lane is clear. And then it'll change lanes for you with your hands off the wheel. The the updated system that's watching with Sierra and it's going to be provided to the other vehicles as an OTA is actually automatic overtaking. So you don't even have to tap the turn signal stock unless you want to override it and you don't want it. So if it sees if if the vehicle in front of you is going slower in your set speed. So if you're set at 70 miles an hour, the vehicle in front of you is going 65 or 60. It'll look to see it look to the left, see if the lane and it always prioritizes passing on the left as it should use proper Lane discipline, it'll, if it's clear, it will move over to the left lane, pass the vehicle and then go back into the cruising lane and get back in the lane you were in originally. And only if you decide you don't want it to change lanes, then you just tap the turn signal stock and it'll cancel so it won't. So it'll let you know before it does it and you have the opportunity to override it and tell it not to do that.

Nicole Wakelin  1:07:19  
I did get to try that I didn't they didn't have a trailer that we could tell. But they have the new supercruise in the Hummer. And I did get to try those first time I tried supercruise period the end. So I don't have any old version versus new version. But I did think like it was it was a little weird, but it worked really well like to just be on the highway. No, you're coming up on that car, you're like, okay, it should stop it, just stop it just stop or slow down. And then it's like, no, I'm just gonna turn the left lane, we're gonna go round, and we're gonna come back at it. What I liked about it is it sometimes with all these hands free type stuff, you feel like the spot where it determines it needs to slow down is either way too early or way too late. So you get nervous as a driver, because you like it's not really seeing that or you think now I look like a nervous driver, the people behind me don't know why I'm slowing down, I thought the supercruise was really good at saying like, this is about where normal person or human would say I need to get into the other lane or brake and it would do that. And I thought that was That was impressive. Although it like I said it gets a it takes a little getting used to that it's not really slowing down because it knows it's just going to speed up change lanes and come back in just like you wouldn't slow down if he didn't have to. But I thought that was neat. But I did not get to experience the towing to see how that one

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:30  
was one of the interesting things that the GM is doing, when you're towing is obviously, if you've got five or seven or 10,000 pound trailer behind you, you're the way the vehicle responds is going to be different take your stopping distances are longer, you know, the vehicles not, you know, you can't change lanes as fast and those sorts of things. And so what it does, it actually estimates it based on your acceleration and braking, it estimates the weight of the trailer. So when you go to accelerate, and you've got a trailer hooked up, you know, for a given amount of throttle input, you under normal circumstances, you would get a certain amount of acceleration. And if it sees the acceleration is less than it's assuming that you've got either heavy payload or a trailer behind you. And so it estimates what the payload or trailer weight is, and then it automatically adjusts the the following speeds. So your gap if you're if you're towing, if you're if you're driving without any payload or a trailer, at 70 miles an hour, you're you've got might be, let's say 50 meters, you know, at 70 miles an hour. Probably gonna be a little more than that. But, you know, just for example, and then if it decides, Okay, you've got a 5000 pound trailer hooked up, it will automatically increase that to say 100 meters or 150 meters to make sure that you've got enough distance to safely stop or respond to things that might be going on, even when you've got that trailer hooked up. So that's, you know, they did some really smart things in there, which, hopefully, when Ford gets around to adding trailer and capability with blue crews, they do something similar. And Ford's case, they actually have the sensors built into the trucks now to actually measure the load at the hitch and also on the bed. So they can, they can directly measure that instead of estimating it based on the vehicle responses.

Nicole Wakelin  1:10:26  
That's pretty slick.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:10:28  
Yeah. All right. Next up, this is actually came as a result of one of the questions that was submitted from burn Baron housing. But as the next financial crisis looming, and had a link to a story, and Jalopnik, which then linked to the original story from Consumer Reports about consumers paying too much for car loans. And looking through this, this article, you know, Consumer Reports did a study, they they got data on 858,000 car loans from 17 major auto lenders, and found some pretty startling data in here in terms of the payments that people were making the interest rates that they were getting, and how much people were paying for cars, it turns out actually looks like most of the data is actually from used car loans, which is actually more problematic. I think, in most cases, new car loans is especially if you are at least the the examples that they referenced in the article are all from Used Car Loans. You know, with new car loans, you know, most most new car loans are done through the captive lending arms of the automakers like Ford credit or GM Financial or it's the Lantis is financial arm. But when you go to buy, if you need to finance a used car, you're kind of more out in the weeds, you know, any anything's possible as to where the financing is going to come from. And a lot of times, you know, used car dealers will, you know, they, they will sometimes go to some shady sources to get the financing. You know, in the article here, there's a graph showing the total amount of American auto loan debt from 2010 when it was point seven 1 trillion, so $710 billion. It's now $1.42 trillion in 2021. So W What was that? What was that? Telaga? Holy cow? Yeah, went from 710 billion to $1.42 trillion in the last 10 years. And not a money the the startling thing from this data they found is just the range of interest rates and payments that people are making. They give this example of a Maryland residents resident with the head good credit, finance the 2018 Toyota Camry with a 19% APR loan? Why monthly payment of $823 for a 24 Us 2018 Camry that's like buying it on a credit card. why would

Nicole Wakelin  1:13:19  
why would anyone okay, what's super confuses me about that is it's not even like oh, your car payments kind of high? Why would you set yourself up for that kind of car payment? For used Camry like their thing? If you're that? What my head wants to explode with that?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:38  
Yeah, the this particular loan was due to be paid off in late 2025. If the borrower goes the full term, yeah, how much is it gonna be spent? $59,000. I can't agree. But who

Nicole Wakelin  1:13:55  
cares? I mean, not not. I'm nothing against camera. He's great little today. And like, I love the camera. I love you till you do. You're great, but I'm not paying $59,000 for one. Oh my Lord. So where does that come from? Are people just not? So is it really the car industry? Or is it the consumers just need a lesson in credit?

Roberto Baldwin  1:14:13  
I think there's a I think it's well, I don't know if it's I think it's a bunch of different I think a customers need a lesson in credit. No one. No one is taught like how to do like real financial finances in high school. Instead, we have all these other classes, but I didn't know about how finances work in high school. Because you think oh, well just 20% So I'm just gonna pay $20 Extra No, no, no, no, that's not how it works. It's always you know, the way the rate the way credit is, is is offered up to people especially in a high and also buying a car at a dealer used or new. It's such a high stress because they're just throwing numbers at you. And they're essentially it is a they're just trying to confuse you. They are continuously like trying to confuse you so people and I think people send up a get super stressed out and sign things and sign up for things that they don't realize what they're doing because it is such a well we got to do because someone's come someone's going to come and get this car and you need a car right away and it's I think it's there's a lot of issues are going on right here where there's a people just don't understand how APR is work be the sometimes that's maybe they're where they're buying the vehicle is where they're at. There's also the idea of, well, this car just exploded, it doesn't work anymore. I need a car right away, and you just sort of take whatever's first. And then the shakiness of buying a vehicle from from from car dealerships. I mean, we can talk about, you know, there's a great dealership, this is great, but every you know, every time I've gone to buy a car, there's always somebody who's trying to pull one over on us every time every single time.

Nicole Wakelin  1:15:51  
And it's either the fight really like we know what we're doing right? The three of us are like pretty we walk in, we know what cars are what we know it's being offered, you can't tell us it's one thing if it's another we're the we're the consumer that the other dealership doesn't want, because we actually know enough to get exactly what we want and not pay more for it. And if you're not going to, if you're not, if you're trying to sell me a line, a bowl, I'm going to know when I'm out, I'm out. But I feel like every time I've walked in without feeling like you said Roberta, there is something this is the last word on the law, we will never get another one. This is the last car in the history of cars. No, it's not you have another truck. Like there are other cars out there. Even if I don't get this car from you right now at that price. There is another car even now where things are where supply is tight. And maybe you can't get your seats with a fi extender, but you can still get a car that's gonna work for you. There's still a car out there like, don't just walk out of a dealership like Well, that's if I wanted that one. I had to buy it. I had to buy it right now I had to pay 19% Oh, he didn't. There are other options like I don't know, I feel like people are just don't panic in the dealership, people take a deep cleansing breath and walk away and think about it and come back, they are going to sell you something. If you don't buy what they had, and another guy buys it, they will find something else to sell you at a price you can afford it at a rate that you they're not going to be like you want to buy a car. No, we're not selling you when you didn't buy the first one we're out Forget it.

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:12  
Especially in the financing room. That's when the person's like using all this like fake essentially fake math. Like they're like well, you terrible thing we went in I went bought a car once where the the most wanted pay was 350 a month. And then he kept saying, well, you're gonna save this much on gas and this one. So even though it's 425 it's really 350 a month. I'm like, No, that's not how this works. Because now my interest is going up because

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:33  
that's that's the way it works. Really look at the Tesla website, if you go to test Yeah, like purchase,

Roberto Baldwin  1:17:39  
there's the purchase price and then the car. Yeah, you are presented with a default to your effective price, your effective price, which is a scam, because you're going to have to pay for more, you know, your insurance is going to go up but your you know, and especially the insurance your starts going up because you're getting a new car or getting a newer car or whatever, versus your old you know, whatever you're getting rid of it's yeah, it's it is it's it's a lot of have a lot of situations, like sort of, against the consumer to get them hosed. Essentially, buying a car. And you really have to, you have to go in and say to yourself, I'm going to slow everything down. Yeah, I'm not in a hurry. Take the whole day, don't go in, and and be willing to walk away. Always be willing to say you know what? I'm done. Because when you do that, that's when they find the car you said you wanted. And that's when they find the purchase price that you want. And when you say, You know what, this isn't working for me, I'm going to leave. That's when they that's when you get to

Nicole Wakelin  1:18:41  
eat. I think people genuinely are afraid to walk out Roberto, I think you're right. They think if I walk away, the deal is going to get worse. I'm going to pay a higher percentage rate, I'm going to get a lesser car, it's going to be a higher sticker. I'm not going to get I'm going to my deal is going to get worse. No, it's not like there's so many

Sam Abuelsamid  1:19:00  
was the other way around.

Nicole Wakelin  1:19:02  
It's the other way around. Don't be afraid no matter how much you want that car if it's not a financial deal, like and take a deep breath. He said don't go in and say I gotta buy a car in the next two hours. No, Saturday, we're gonna buy a car yourself the whole day, like so that you can walk away and say, I'm not going to get pressured into this. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, even just you know what, I'm going to go get myself a coffee and I'll come back to you and half an hour like just give your brain a second to really think about what they're offering and know that they are not going to let someone who wants to buy a car today. Walk away without a car, they will find a car that fits your budget and that fits you and it might not be you know, the perfect. You might not be not buying that $140,000 Mercedes, but you certainly aren't buying a $60,000 used Camry either. Don't do that. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  1:19:50  
Yeah, I'm surprised that the loan debt isn't higher because the prices of used cars right now is the worst time to buy a car. Don't buy a car right now unless you absolutely buy positively have to that's another day

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:02  
your engine blows up on the side of the road. If you have if it's

Roberto Baldwin  1:20:05  
if it's running, and you think it's gonna last, you know, at least another 18 months, just stick with that car right now because right now is the worst possible time to buy a car. But I'm surprised that the the auto loan debt isn't higher didn't jump as as much as I anticipated between 2019 and 2021. You just shows a tap? It's always Yeah, it just looks like it's a steady climb. Well,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:25  
well, this is data from second quarter of this year. So last spring,

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:30  
okay. Okay, so not quite so it could actually.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:35  
Numbers. Yeah. Oh,

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:36  
my God. Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:37  
if if we were to look at it right now, or at the end of the year, it will be significantly worse. But you were saying earlier, Nicole, but you know, that they won't, they won't have something to you know that, that you'll get a worse deal later. In fact, it's almost always the opposite. Because you got to think you have to remember is car dealers, they, they bought those cars, they paid for them, they're in most cases, they're financing those cars, they didn't pay for them with cash in most cases, unless it's a used car lot, you know, with a lot of old cheap cars. You know, they usually they're financing, they're paying interest on those cars. So it's in their interest to move that metal out. You know, and they would prefer to sell you one now than later. Yeah, so they, they, they want to get this out. If you're if you wait another day or another week, chances are, if that car hasn't sold, you will get a better deal on it. So if you're always the reason, it's always tear advantage to wait.

Nicole Wakelin  1:21:42  
Yeah. And there's a reason like when you walk into a dealership, they ask you right away, you know, once you want to test or something, can I get your name? Can I get your phone number, can I get your email, it's not because they just want to keep in touch with you, because they like you, they want to make sure that if you walk away, they can call you and email you and follow up with you back because they want you to buy a car. So it's like they want their they're going to sell you know, they're not going to be like, like, we give up on her she was here for half an hour and she's done. No, they're going to be after you like hey, so we know that we didn't work out but we got this better one and a better price or an a better this or a better that they're going to want to sell you a car and like unless you need a car this instant walk away if it's not what you want, and don't get sucked in by the bling. And by the idea of a new car like and don't get flustered by it. The whole goal in that office is to fluster you into just saying yes, yes, yes, sure, whatever, just get me out of here. Don't let them do that. Just don't let that just you know, be strong people don't let them do that.

Roberto Baldwin  1:22:39  
If your bank or credit union like offers you the opportunity to get pre approved to get pre approved for financing. And you can go into your bank and say, hey, you know, I'm thinking about buying a car, I want to pay this much if you can get it and they're like, oh, yeah, we can get you for like 4% or 3%, or three and a half percent or whatever. Do that and have that ready? Because you might if the dealer is like, Oh, we can do a 2.6% you're like, okay, cool, I'm getting a better deal. But if they go in, and they like, well, what's the percentage? Right? And they're like five, you can right there say? Well, that's cool, because I have this already have a loan ready to go?

Nicole Wakelin  1:23:10  
I don't need you and your stinking five,

Roberto Baldwin  1:23:13  
I don't need you and your five or your 14 or Gosh

Sam Abuelsamid  1:23:17  
19 Yeah, it's it's insane. Some of the numbers?

Nicole Wakelin  1:23:22  
Just raise I don't understand. I don't understand. It's the poor person, whoever you are. We're really sorry. Why didn't you talk to us first?

Roberto Baldwin  1:23:30  
Sorry. That's yeah. And you know, they're like, oh, it's only that much a month. But then they spread it over years, this insane percentage rate probably. And so you're like, Oh, I'm only paying $200 a month. Yeah, but you're paying 25% APR for the next 20 years.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:23:47  
It's definitely to your to your benefit. Especially if you're buying a used car. Most of the time, if you're buying a new car, if you can get financing through the the manufacturers financing arm, then you can, you can often get a better deal there. But if you're buying a used car, you're almost always going to be better off, like you said, Robbie, going to your bank or your credit union and getting pre approved, you know, look at what your budget is how much you can afford, and say, Can I get pre approved for a $10,000 loan or a $15,000 loan? What's my interest rate going to be? And as you say, you walk in there and say, This is my budget. I want a car for this price, you know, and what can you do? Because the you know, especially on the used car side, you know, they're working with a bunch of different lending providers. And usually the the the, the dealership is getting some percentage back for that, you know, for sending them the business, you know, they get essentially get an affiliate fee for sending that lender. That business. So if if you're paying 19% There's a good chance you know, One or 2% of that is going right back to that dealer that you bought from. So be be very thoughtful and don't rush into this stuff.

Nicole Wakelin  1:25:11  
It's a big purchase, don't feel pressured, you wouldn't like buy a house on the spot because there was no other house you could buy, don't buy a car on the spot because you think there's no other car you can buy.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:25:21  
Yeah, I mean, it is the second biggest purchase most people make after their house. So alright, let's answer a few other listener questions here. We've got hit everything else. Yeah. Okay. Speedmaster, on Twitter asked. I remember a few years ago, Ford made a big deal out of using aluminum in the F series to save hundreds of pounds? Why isn't this idea gaining more traction? Or is it and I missed it? Well, I think, you know, given how much of a big deal Ford made out of it, I don't think that you would see other manufacturers, you know, saying, hey, look, we copied Ford on the series. But you know, what, what we are seeing, you know, in Ford kind of went all in with aluminum bodies and beds for the F series. But what we're seeing with a lot of manufacturers they're using, using more of a mixed material approach. So there we are, there is more aluminum being used. They're also using high strength Steel's and it deciding what materials to use, where on a vehicle is a complex process? Because it depends on you know, is it a structural component or not, you know, and, you know, when you use something like aluminum that is lighter, you know, but it's less dense, it's also not as strong. So to get the strength you need, in some places, you have to actually make it thicker. So that offsets some of the weight savings, some or all the weight savings. So what you see from most manufacturers is using a, you know, a combination of a lot of different things using different grades of steel, different grades of aluminum, some cases, some carbon fiber or magnesium, all kinds of different things to try to get to their their weight targets. Any other thoughts?

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:09  
No, I think you're right. And I think who was it? Was it that I can't remember the truck? What did I just try? Was it the tundra, I want to say they have like aluminum but they have like crossmembers underneath it to give it extra support that are like, you know, steel so that like you're talking about the combination. Others aren't going all in with just the aluminum bed, but they're coming up with ways like how can we mix and match these materials? I think that's where they're tending to go because although as far as I know, the bed is doing fine on the floor, there's still this like that, like it didn't Can I can crush it beneath the heel of my foot. And so people are still a little bit nervous about how how well it's gonna hold up. I mean, I think they've already proved that it's gonna be fine. You know, but

Sam Abuelsamid  1:27:48  
yeah, well, Chevy did do a commercial a few years ago, where they they had a front end loader with a bunch of cinder blocks that they brought in and dumped the cinder blocks into the bed of an F 150. And they were heavy enough that it actually did tear the aluminum the bed of the the aluminum bed of the truck. And then when when they launched the the new the current Sierra GMC Sierra a couple years ago, they reprise that ad with a video because one of the options you can get on the Sierra is a carbon fiber bed. And so they did that with the carbon fiber and that stuff just bounced right off of it didn't even scratch it.

Nicole Wakelin  1:28:30  
So they had us with a carbon fiber bed. They have one of those they get handed us a baseball bat. And they said, How about it? And they've literally really I'm like, really? I'm like, smack they're like Nicole I'm like, oh, okay, smack they're like hit it like you mean it? I hit the thing as hard as I could. There were some burly guys there that like one guy hit it so hard. The Bat snapped in half. You wouldn't even know where to touch the bed and he wailed on it. So this carbon fiber beds there's something

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:55  
Yeah, the break tough. Alright, from AJ at Gupta AJ asks, BRC are God six strictly your gut feelings?

Roberto Baldwin  1:29:07  
I own a B or z. So that's, I mean, my gut feelings at the BRC looks better. But that's just me because I want to be busy. My gut feeling is I like to be that looks cooler. But it is really just down to what do you think looks cooler? AJ? Because it's the same time

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:28  
brj 86 I like to go go for the GR 86

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:33  
There you go. They

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:33  
do look at sex. There you go. I had like, okay, gut feeling. Boom, there you go.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:40  
I'll take whatever one I can get my hands on because there's not a reference to the fight over. Alright, David Levine. This was actually a question that came in last week after we recorded that. This is about the the Hertz Tesla deal. I was wondering if the equity group that now owns hertz has a large stock position in Tesla. And this is a great way to manip this would be a great way to manipulate the stock to their advantage, how many years will it take to fill the order? So I don't know. It's possible that there's some, some cross ownership between the hertz, you know, ownership group now, and, and Tesla, you know, they may own some Tesla stock, and I would, frankly be surprised if they don't own some Tesla stock. A lot of people do now. But, you know, yeah, would be an interesting way to manipulate the stock. But yeah, in that case, it's also kind of, kind of obvious. I mean, the SEC knows who owns large chunks of Tesla stock, they know who owns hurts. And if they were doing something like this, you know, that could be problematic, and could have the FCC coming after you. As far as how many years will take to fill the order, the announcement was that they expect these to be filled by the end of 2022. So a year, roughly a year. And with Tesla, having two new factories supposed to come online, early next year. You know, they're gonna have all hell of a lot of extra production capacity that they don't have today. So they'll have plenty of plenty of room to build cars for for Hertz. Yeah. And I'm sure that they're probably looking for deals at other rental companies to, to sell cars to as well. You know, this, and it's funny how, when this deal was announced, everybody, you know, all the investors got all excited, and they ran up the stock price again this week, you know, and any other automakers hear the announcement announced, you know, selling, they're selling 100,000 cars to a car rental agency, you know, their stock would be going down, because the reason why usually sales to car rental companies are low margin sales. Yeah, yeah, or no margin sales, because they usually sell them to the rental companies as a last resort to get rid of excess inventory. And, yeah, it's possible that that's, you know, part of this deal. Another piece of this deal as well, is that I think that Uber is actually paying a significant chunk to get the to get Hertz to buy these cars, because Uber made an announcement last year that they wanted to have. And Lyft also made a similar announcement that they wanted to have their, their drivers switch over to all electric by 2030, which is fine. But it's also hard for them to do because hurt Lyft and Uber don't own any of their vehicles. They don't, you know, they don't operate their own fleets. They rely on drivers to bring the vehicles. But drivers can't always afford to buy cars like Tesla's or other EVs. And so 50,000 of these 100,000 cars that hertz ordered, are actually set aside to rent to Uber drivers, you know, through their short term rental programs that they have. And these are subsidized loans. So my guess is that Uber is actually probably paying for a significant chunk of at least those 50,000 cars.

Roberto Baldwin  1:33:21  
It's yeah, it's you know, there's there's a reason why you saw a lot of Nissan's and rental fleets for the last couple years because no one was buying Nissan's, they just weren't doing very well as a company. Their cars weren't that exciting. There's a sort of long in the tooth and yeah, so we'd like seeing a bunch of Nissan's in the rental fleet like a so like, the Tesla's in the rental fleet, you're like, okay, but then anything that happens with Tesla like inflates the price and the Tesla prices is it's it's inflated, it's it shouldn't be Tesla shouldn't be worth more than companies are selling millions of cars. Regardless of how they're, you know, they Elon says they're changing the world or whatnot. But, you know, the stock market isn't the real world, the stock market isn't the economy. The stock market isn't? Yeah, it's not an indicator of how the real world works. Because if it was, yeah, it would be a it's it's you know, it's fun gambling, with with with your with your it's fun gambling with your retirement, that's what

Sam Abuelsamid  1:34:23  
boy, but

Roberto Baldwin  1:34:24  
those Tesla's need to have I feel like those Tesla's need to have I don't know how they're if they're going to be able to pull it off. Or when I get into a rental car, I want CarPlay or Android Auto, because I don't want to like figure out how to use it. I just want to plug my phone and go to the place I want to go and listen to my music or my podcast. I just want to

Nicole Wakelin  1:34:43  
when he rents a car he because he doesn't know I'm better equipped to know exactly which cars do and don't he's like, this is what's in the lock. click click click OK. Which one of these do I take? I'm like that one probably hasn't and that one probably has it. So he literally looks for cars which one to take based on whether they have Apple CarPlay or not. Yeah, I don't say your point is valid.

Roberto Baldwin  1:35:00  
If there's like a higher value car, they're offering a higher value car and a lower value car if the higher value car doesn't have CarPlay I'm like now, just because I have places to go I you know, I'm just I just need four wheels, a steering wheel, and a map to tell me how to get to this place. And this,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:35:15  
this this area that I want to figure out. Yeah,

Roberto Baldwin  1:35:19  
I don't I don't want to learn in tune. I don't want to Yeah, I just want to get to where I want to go. So it'll, it'll be interesting.

Nicole Wakelin  1:35:27  
You've been on a plane flight or something or whatever you're like, I just want to get to my hotel. I just want to get to where I need to be. I don't want to futz around with having to figure out how to get navigation to work on this stupid thing. Let me use my Apple CarPlay.

Roberto Baldwin  1:35:38  
Yeah, so we'll see how that how that works. I wonder if they'll be selling like little, little little. You know how when you when you get a car, sometimes they try to sell you the Tomtom GPS system. You're like, what what year is this? We all have phones.

Nicole Wakelin  1:35:51  
Welcome to 1995.

Roberto Baldwin  1:35:53  
I'll still like see it pop up. Be like would you like I'm like no, what? No. And so I wonder if they'll like be placed like renting or selling little phone holders. So you can just like pop your phone onto the house. So you can see where you're going like, well, at least I got Google Maps on my phone. And it's not that's not a knock against Tesla's infotainment system. It's just like, you know, that's when you just want to get in and use something that is you're already in a in a weird, unfamiliar car. You just want to have something that's familiar in a city that you don't know or town or country or whatever. And just that's just yeah, we'll see. Yep, agreed. It probably won't happen though.

Nicole Wakelin  1:36:36  
We'll see.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:36:38  
All right. And that is all we have any final thoughts?

Nicole Wakelin  1:36:45  
Final thoughts? Happy Halloween? I guess no one's gonna hear this half after Halloween. Hope your hall was good on Halloween. Hope you stole all the candy you wanted to steal from your kid.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:36:54  
Lots of Hope you got lots of Reese's and snickers you know full size? High Value and

Nicole Wakelin  1:36:59  
what's the worst candy? What's the one you hope you don't get? Raisins? hope none of you got raisins. What is wrong with you? Raisins in their candy?

Roberto Baldwin  1:37:09  
like raisins just even as a little kid? I like raisins. But what's a bad candy? Although circus peanuts.

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:16  
Oh, Smarties are kind of a bad like Smarties

Roberto Baldwin  1:37:19  
circus peanuts here. Even a circus peanut? Toffee like orange peanuts. They don't have any flavor. They're just big in orange and puffy. Like what is this thing? Okay, like styrofoam

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:31  
peanuts. I hope you got Snickers and Reese's. And if you're a lunatic like Roberto, I hope you got some reasons. Well,

Roberto Baldwin  1:37:37  
I mean, I like raisins. I don't know if I want raisins over. Like, like sauerkraut. He's backtracking. No, I like raisins. I got raises. I wouldn't be upset if I got like a circus peanuts though. I'd be I'd be angry or change or a pencil. Come on. Sticker was a sticker. Unless that sticker is like no, no.

Nicole Wakelin  1:37:58  
We hand out king size candy. So we got it covered. kingsize candy. All this Yeah, we're the word that makes my husband happy. We have taken extra mortgage to buy it all but you know, it makes my husband happy. So.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:38:13  
All right. We'll talk to you all next week. Bye.

Nicole Wakelin  1:38:17  
Bye, everyone.