Sam Abuelsamid  0:00  
Coming up on episode 263 of wheel bearings, you've got the Volvo C 40, the Chevrolet Bolt, the VW ID buzz, the Kia Sportage, jeeps, new EVs, the Chevy Equinox, Evie, the Lexus RX, and more. All that coming up next

this is episode 263 of wheel bearings and we're back now after the break for traveling, concerts and assorted other stuff. I am Sam Abuelsamid from Guidehouse insights.

Nicole Wakelin  0:37  
And I am Nicole Wakelin from the FAST Women podcast. I am a virtual

Roberto Baldwin  0:41  
Baldwin from

Sam Abuelsamid  0:42  
gadgets. And Robby why don't we start with you because you drove something that not many people, certainly not many people from this side of the Atlantic have driven?

Roberto Baldwin  0:51  
Yes, blindly. We've waited so long, I drove the ID buzz. Finally 2017 They're like, Hey, look at this car. And it was like, Oh, my God, look at that. It's amazing. And then they're like, Yeah, it'll come eventually. So I finally I went over to to Copenhagen, and they stuck me in the car. And I drove it into Sweden. And back, I went over the bridge from that TV show the bridge. So we just drove over that bridge. Yeah. kept telling everyone from the TV show. And people are like, What are you talking about?

Nicole Wakelin  1:24  
You bought the bridge, you don't I don't know about this bridge over driven over.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28  
So there's there there is a bridge between Copenhagen and I forget the city on the Sweden side, basically, across the channel between Denmark and Sweden. And there was a show that was on I think it was on FX here. I don't know. There was they did a remake of a show here called the bridge. And it was a remake of an original Danish or Swedish show by the same name. And basically, cops it was a procedural drama with a cop from each side of the bridge, trying to solve a murder

Roberto Baldwin  2:05  
that someone was murdered and then left on the bridge. Right where the where the country

Sam Abuelsamid  2:09  
so what jurisdiction the jurisdiction was unclear. Yeah. Okay, yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  2:15  
Anywho so I drove over that bridge. Just the weirdest aside. The ID buzz I grew up the so Okay, so there's a lot of caveats into this. I drove the IB ID buzz Yes, but I drove the European spec, which meant it was the short wheelbase version, it only has two rows. It doesn't have the third row doesn't have the long wheelbase that will get here in the United States the battery pack that they have over there 70 Some it doesn't matter because they wouldn't tell me what the battery pack was coming to the United States there's a lot of things that they're like you get to drive this this this vehicle and here are all the European specs but we can't tell you the US specs because between now

Nicole Wakelin  2:55  
so it was it could be very different or just to sketch different scope different

Roberto Baldwin  2:59  
someone heard that it was going to be nine inches longer. The wheelbase for the for the American version, which makes sense in order to throw that third row in there. I actually really liked the the short wheelbase version just because you know it's easier to park I don't have a lot of friends so I don't need a third row you get you know you have this nice story is there enough room in there with the dog for the dog so Oh yeah, totally enough for him for the for the dogs? Yeah, you put especially if you put those seats down perfect. It's the perfect dog vehicle it's what the Honda Element should be if it were an Eevee is essentially what it is Johanna l element official car of the dog walker. So yeah, so I drove it it was fun it wasn't it wasn't fast because it's a van it wasn't you know it didn't have tight steering because it's a van it's everything that it's exactly what it's supposed to be which is so many vehicles are trying to be a little bit more than they're supposed to be they don't quite reach where they're supposed to be and they're very few vehicles are kind of exactly where they're supposed to be one of them is the Kia Soul the first time you get into cold soul you like oh this is exactly what this vehicle needs to be. Same thing with the ID buzz it's exactly what it needs to be. It's comfortable it's easy to drive. It's you know it's got room you got plenty of room in the front you got plenty of room in the back one of the issues I did find was that there were no there was no rear climate controls and no vents back there. But again, I have no idea if that's going to be like that when it comes to the United States. Right but all the sort of hype around it. You know, we've all been waiting for it. It is exactly what it's supposed to be. It's and and the the their their infotainment system works fine. works there's no lag No Well, I mean everything's gonna have a little bit of lag but like know it not like before like you turn the car on it comes off. Yeah, you know.

Sam Abuelsamid  4:54  
Driving for five minutes before Oh, this screen finally.

Nicole Wakelin  4:58  
Did you join us

Roberto Baldwin  4:59  
when you swipe It follows your finger as opposed to a swipe. And then like a little wait and seeing how it feels and then swipe like everything it's supposed to do. It does. So yeah, it was it was nice it you know, it's going to be vehicle to load, which is a big selling point for me. Because this seems like it'll be like maybe a second car for, for some people or maybe a first car for others. But if it's a second car, and it's at your house, if you do vehicle to load, you can use it to like power your house, or you know,

Sam Abuelsamid  5:27  
did they say how much power it'll be able to put up? Now, they didn't tell

Roberto Baldwin  5:31  
us anything. Again, the only thing we know, the only thing that really carries over is the 170 kilowatt charge rate. Which is I wish it was I wish it was a for you know, 800 I wish it was above 200, especially for a vehicle that's sort of built for road trips, and for camping. And for all that I wish it was, you know, 220 I wish it was you know, I wish they had gone a little the extra mile and put it on an 800 volt architecture. But they didn't 170 is fine. It's about 80 I'm guessing we'll probably get an 80 Something kilowatt hour battery pack over here, we'll probably get about 240 When it comes to range, maybe 250. You know, I think they're there. The the answer I got well is between now and then we don't know, you know, battery technology might get better, the chemistry might get better, you know, the package is going to be larger so that we might have a larger pack. There was a lot of like, we're not really sure. So we're not telling you kind of. So we have a year before it gets here. It supposed to be it's launching in Europe this year, it's launching United States next year. So the Europeans will have it, they'll test it out, they'll get you know, there'll be essentially the guinea pigs for that first year. I typically tell people I'm like if you want a car and unless you really really want it wait to the second year of it be out the first year is always when they find you know, weirdness. You know, if you look at all the big hype cars that have come out this year, almost all of them have some little weirdness that's happened because it's the first year I can

Nicole Wakelin  6:59  
think of is the fact that the wheels are falling off of the BZ for x so

Sam Abuelsamid  7:04  
long as the wheels don't fall off.

Roberto Baldwin  7:06  
You're doing alright. Yeah, as long as the wheels don't fall off, you don't have like, it was an engine failures, some engine issues with Ford and some of their vehicles and yeah, Bronco,

Sam Abuelsamid  7:15  
the bronco. VSAN 2.7. liter v six was dying.

Roberto Baldwin  7:20  
Yeah. So you know, there's, that's, that's sort of to be expected because you made we've made 1000 of them, and they all seem to be okay. Now you have to make 100,000 of them. And when you're doing that, that's when you find out oh, there's this issue. And, you know, that's its first year just sort of shaking things out, you know, the BRC and the GR 86. And they're weird oil issue. So the Europeans get to figure that out with the ID buzz on the first year, any wheels fall off or anything like that the Europeans will have to deal with that. And hopefully, by the time we get it, all that'll be sorted out. I am looking forward to the vehicle. I like it, I have no again, no idea how much it cost. Literally no clue. $50,000 Probably, maybe in the 40s It'd be nice if they started at 40 We're gonna get a rear wheel drive and a all wheel drive version over here. I drove the rear wheel drive version of it, driving it around Copenhagen and the city I was in in Sweden, people were like, Oh, they were very there's a man who, who followed us and who came over and talked to me and my co driver about the vehicle we're like, Hey, you want to take pictures and sit in the car? We don't care go for it. And he's like, yeah, and he was all excited. And then we found out that he like had talked to other people he had a shirt with all the VW with all the microbuses on it a hardcore

fan. He had a polo are who Yeah, yeah, so we were like we were we were like oh my Yeah, your watch. So it buzz the hype. If you're expecting like some sort of crazy super machine that's not what it's supposed. This is not a Ford Super van. It is not a Ford Super van. It is exactly what it should be. If you ever driven a Microbus which are a kind of difficult to drive be slower than molasses. Yeah, this

Sam Abuelsamid  9:10  
is probably going to be a lot faster than Oh,

Roberto Baldwin  9:12  
yeah, it's it's a it's a lot quicker than classic bus but it's you driving around.

Sam Abuelsamid  9:17  
What 4050 horsepower

Roberto Baldwin  9:21  
because like 46 horsepower from I think somebody had the 1.6 home I know there was they were just not you know, zero 16 about five, six minutes was the old so yeah, downhill tailwind. Now well will tell I'm looking forward to driving the long wheelbase all wheel drive version when it comes over here. Again, I will drive this vehicle again and again and again. I'm happy that it's here. This is like one of those vehicles that I was really excited about that the Honda II never get Nahai. The ID buggy never get the ID buggy but there's the Meyers Manx that's coming and now we have the ID buzz. So yeah, what got any questions for me? For

Sam Abuelsamid  10:00  
one thing, the the city on the other side of the bridge is Malmo.

Roberto Baldwin  10:06  
Yeah, that sounds right.

Sam Abuelsamid  10:08  
I'm looking at Google Maps.

Nicole Wakelin  10:10  
Just to clarify.

Roberto Baldwin  10:12  
I'm sorry, the city of Malmo it was very delightful. That's our most Swedish

Sam Abuelsamid  10:16  
sweet sweet. Sweden is always a delightful country.

Roberto Baldwin  10:19  
It is a delightful Country

Nicole Wakelin  10:20  
Fair.

Roberto Baldwin  10:21  
Yeah. So there you go, Malmo and Copenhagen to great taste tastes great together.

Sam Abuelsamid  10:30  
But ya know, the buzz you know, they they've done I mean it's it's not exactly like the original concept was but it's close enough and I think I think it is a cool looking van it's probably the probably the coolest looking van since the the second generation Toyota previa Oh, yeah, not the first one that was more boxy but the second one it was kind of sleek looking. Space Pod.

Roberto Baldwin  10:58  
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a cool van. I remember the Chevy Astro. Remember Chevy Astro. I remember the the Astro was huge especially in the speaker seat and the the the aftermarket radio scene like that that was the official car like I have 70 subwoofers in the back of my vehicle was the Chevy so we're getting back vans are cool again. Right? Just got to talk more people and get in more vans. Everybody else if they're cool again, vans and wagons are great for EVs too, because there's just so much space. So just put up giant battery and and so it'll it'll Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how it went when it comes over here. Interesting to see like what sort of packages you can get. I mean, I would like it if they have just like a rubber floor like the old element where you just hose it out.

Nicole Wakelin  11:45  
That was that was the best feature that I don't know why

Roberto Baldwin  11:49  
people like I put carpet in here and like rarely do we though. Like I'm wearing shoes.

Nicole Wakelin  11:56  
Shoes, we don't need carpet, we're fine.

Roberto Baldwin  11:59  
And any car that I've had that I take like outdoorsy like when I had my WR x I had rubber had like the rubber like everything inside because I got on top of

Sam Abuelsamid  12:09  
Jeep Jeep Wranglers. Does your Wrangler have carpet or rubber

Nicole Wakelin  12:15  
mine has got I can't I know that we have these like really rugged rubber floor mats on it but I don't I honestly I'm trying to they go so close to the edge. I don't know if it's just rubber all through or if it's carpet under there. I don't

Sam Abuelsamid  12:27  
know if they even do carpet and wranglers I don't think

Nicole Wakelin  12:29  
they do they even but do we have these like floor mats that could I feel like they could hold a gallon of water like they're really deep crevices so when in the winter when you've got snow on your boots, you suddenly look in the car like there's a lot of water I should I feel like I should just take this out in

Roberto Baldwin  12:45  
a tiny little river I feel like a little pond floating around in the floormat I spilled a giant iced tea once in my WR x and it just went all into the giant rubber format and it was perfect I just

Sam Abuelsamid  12:55  
shake and you know the Bronco you know has rubber floors but they even have drain plugs in the floor so that you can hose it out and it'll drain right out you don't have to dump anything out it just goes automatically

Roberto Baldwin  13:09  
get rid of carpet I don't like carpet and houses

Nicole Wakelin  13:13  
in a car because to even if you have floor mats if like if you have any kind of if you get assaults on the carpet like living doing you get second you get like the single Yeah. So it is there forever. You have a little white ring and then it just expands as it gets wet and then you have this big circle. It's like trying to get a spot out of your shirt and you're like oh my god and then it dries and you have this horrible stain on your shirt. That's what your floor looks like and you're the carpet and your your floor looks like forever in your cars

Roberto Baldwin  13:40  
it just says get rid of the carpet and all together how

Nicole Wakelin  13:43  
about get rid of the carpet that each of us $2 on the invoice price right like

Sam Abuelsamid  13:49  
maybe three maybe

Roberto Baldwin  13:51  
in the summer I do love driving without my shoes which I think I for some reason outside of California and Hawaii is weird. I don't understand it's hot. I'm just gonna drive without my shoes. I wear flip flops I get in the car I don't want to have a flip flops

Unknown Speaker  14:03  
that's that's that's danger

Roberto Baldwin  14:04  
I just I drive my stuff yeah they get stuck on things I move the other way and I drive with my it's yeah I don't want carpool

Sam Abuelsamid  14:12  
and you get better sensitivity there you know when your module yeah you can

Roberto Baldwin  14:17  
you can wrap your toes around the clutch you know a little bit get a little grip on there exactly. Like a little monkey I do I actually do that actually grip the like the clutch like a little monkey and my my BRC

Nicole Wakelin  14:30  
didn't know that I drive like a normal human with my shoes on and don't use my monkey toes to get the collection car. I just want to clarify that.

Sam Abuelsamid  14:37  
In the far north. You can't Yeah, you have to wear shoes. You know, your round

Nicole Wakelin  14:41  
may go to your feet. I get frostbite even in July. Is that what you

Sam Abuelsamid  14:46  
mean? Can you even take a shower without your shoes on?

Nicole Wakelin  14:49  
No, you never you have to wear shoes all the time.

Roberto Baldwin  14:53  
I tweeted that once and everyone was appalled. Like everyone who wasn't from California was like I can't believe what Why do

Nicole Wakelin  15:00  
you think it was illegal to drive without your shoes on for some reason we're doing

Roberto Baldwin  15:05  
some things. I was the whole thing and ladies, our parents my parents told me it was illegal to drive and then

Nicole Wakelin  15:13  
my dad told me that I think it was my dad what I'm googling is driving me that your shoes on legal, but I swear I thought it was illegal. He said that to me. And I've carried that with me my whole life.

Roberto Baldwin  15:23  
Yeah, I remember parents telling everybody and then we all looked it up one day once we had like the internet and it turns out it wasn't

Nicole Wakelin  15:29  
federal or state laws prohibit driving a car without shoes. Today years old. Well, there you go.

Roberto Baldwin  15:36  
Go ahead, try without shoes, like like me with your monkey toes.

Sam Abuelsamid  15:41  
All right. All right. All right. Speaking of driving, Nicole, what have you been driving,

Nicole Wakelin  15:47  
I was driving the 2023 Kia Sportage ex pro prestige all wheel drive to get the full

Sam Abuelsamid  15:56  
complete title out there or name access.

Nicole Wakelin  15:59  
But you know what? It was funny somebody was reading the title of like some new TV that came out and it was like the new Panasonic X 543 100 c dash four dash nine and like suddenly car names seem really easy. Yeah, so I think the tech industry has them one upped with the crazy names. So the sportage is all new for 23 I had it this week to drive just you know knock around town which is great, but I did the launch for this and they had us take it off road so they have certain trims that are like the X layers an X Pro and there's an X line I have the X Pro which is the most off roadie and a lot and it's kind of funny because you know when they say a car can off road and it's not something you traditionally think of like sportage is not what you think of to take in the dirt. You're you're really kind of skeptical, anything okay, fine, whatever. Like that's cute. You think that's going to offroad and it's not. But you know what? Yeah, cuz a lot of the times it's occasionally like my, my standard is if I could take a Camry on it. I'm not really off roading like that very often is the case. If a Camry can do it. It's not an off road vehicle. No matter how many cute little names you give all your technology. This however, did things that a Camry could not do. When we were out there. They really had us take in the dirt. They really had his take it off road. It was this nice little technical course to show and it's not like Jeep off roading. It's not like Bronco off roading. But in pretty impressive for you know, a two row SUV. And the X Pro gets a little extra ground clearance I think it's one and a half inches extra ground clearance compared to other trends within the lineup. And it gets this like drive mode selector that has normal sports smart and snow I believe four modes. So it's it can actually if you want to do that little bit of light off roading you got you know a little lake you want to go to and there's a little off road trail, you know, you gotta go to the out in the field or whatever, not rock crawling people but like light off roading this can actually do it. I was I was really impressed when we drove this. So it has under its little hood, a 2.5 liter four cylinder engine, 187 horsepower, 178 pound feet of torque. It goes it's not a super aggressive vehicle. If it's something you're looking for a really, really super aggressive drive, you're not going to get it but it is more than competent to get itself out of its own way. And it was fun to drive. It's got an eight speed automatic transmission. It's a nice car to drive. It's a nice pleasant SUV for the family. I have to comment on the color because my daughter commented on the color. It's this kind of green color, like a dark green, not like a bright emerald like a darker green. And she said what do you think she like I don't like the screen. So many she's like, I don't know where they call it swamp green. It's actually jungle green. But in her head, she's like swamp green. And the more he stood there and looked at it, I'm like, I can see that. It's like this very dark kind of mossy color. That is jungle green or swamp green if you're sarcastic teenager things that I really liked. This is one of our first cold mornings in New England where you have to wear shoes all the time. And I turned on the heated seats and a heated steering wheel and I swear everything was warm and about 2.5 seconds. Like you didn't have to wait at all I could instantly feel my cold fingers warming up on the wheel, which is a big thing. Given that it's cold here so much I was very happy with this. I wasn't waiting for it to warm up so it warms up really really quickly. A couple other things I just think are just nice touches. The lights on the interior, you don't actually push lights, it's like a little tap, tap, tap tap and you get a light tap tap tap it goes out. So it's kind of neat that it's a little tap light. And also I just had forgotten them and Rooney in the car before the show and I was running out to the car to grab them and running and it doesn't have like a puddle light but just the just the light in the door handle like right where they handle this kind of lights up on approach when you have the key in your pocket. And it's kind of nice, a little bit of light so that you can you can kind of see what you're doing. So I appreciated that when

Sam Abuelsamid  19:45  
you're out in the off road. You know the the puddle lights not gonna be that helpful in the dirt. So you know seeing the door the door handle is probably the more useful tool so

Nicole Wakelin  19:53  
it's kind of nice. Also, there's got its you know, it has a nice interior. The interior is its kid It does a really good job of making their interiors feel a little bit more than what you're paying for. Which I always think is nice. Everybody likes to feel like they they've gotten a good deal and you will because it does feel like a more a pricier car in terms of the looks in the comfort than what it actually costs. And you get things like this one has the dual 12.3 inch display like for instrument cluster and for infotainment so it has a very tech like of the future kind of vibe like you're feeling like you're buying a new car that has all the cool stuff, which I like so the price oh wait, what do you think the destination is? Guests guest guest guest oh wait, wait wait, who said what 1295 was Sam and 200 was Robbie Robbie's gonna win because it was 1215 which are both really close to 15. So that gives this term and again the X Pro prestige all wheel drive sits at the top of the lineup. It is $38,555 so it's not a cheap a cheap SUV but you're getting a pretty like you get a lot for that price. And it feels like it it looks like it the styling and everything is very modern everything look, you know, because it's all new for this year. There's nothing like it or last year sort of, you know, it looks very automotive forward. Instead of fashion forward automotive forward in how it's designed and how it looks. I like it. I mean, this is a this is a car I'd be perfectly happy driving if I was looking for to or SUV especially for family, good cargo room, comfy ride all that good stuff.

Sam Abuelsamid  21:29  
Yeah. And while you were describing it, I was looking to see if they offer the turbo four cylinder in the Sportage and they do not. There's so it's just you have that normally aspirated 2.5. Or there's a hybrid. Yeah. And a plug in hybrid variant.

Nicole Wakelin  21:48  
I wouldn't say it's just the straight up hybrid read drove. I mean, the Drive Program was a little while ago now and I'm drawing I'm truly drawing a blank. I'm 99% sure it was just the straight up hybrid. I liked that hybrid engine. I liked that powertrain. I thought that was really good. I was a fan. I'm almost positive. It's just straight up hybrid, forgive me for not remembering which months after the fact may didn't look it up before I sat down. But yeah, that was I thought sort of the the two I was I liked the hybrid. I just felt like that was a little extra. There. So if you're looking for a little bit more, more performance, a little bit stronger performance, I would say the hybrid feels that when you're behind the wheel. So

Sam Abuelsamid  22:25  
yeah, and the hybrid Scott, the 1.6 liter turbo, with the you know, with the added electric propulsion, and I actually had one of those, I had had the hybrid back in June. And you're right it you know, if you do want that a little bit of extra performance than what you get with the gas one, then the hybrids a really good choice or the plugin, which will get you over 30 miles of electric range to Right. Excellent. All right. Well, I've driven a couple of different EVs. Since we last spoke, I had first up the Volvo C 40, recharged twin ultimate, which is the so the C 40. When you first look at it, it looks like it's basically just an XC 40 with the roofline chopped off to give it a coupe ish profile. And I'm not going to call it a coupe because it's not a coupe. But it's a fastback crossover, when you look at it in, look at it closer, and you compare it to the XC 40 There's actually a lot of, you know, a lot of little detail differences, you know, that that set it apart from the XC 40. And, you know, it's I think it's, it's a cool looking vehicle. And I drove it back in February, March, April, earlier this year, Palm Springs when they did the Drive Program, and was really impressed with it there. So this is the set, it's built on the same platform as the pole star to the and the Pole Star to launched with the same dual motor all wheel drive configuration. They've since added the single motor which we talked about a couple of weeks ago. But the C 40 only comes as the dual motor. So that's 402 horsepower and 486 foot pounds of torque, which is quite a lot. You know for me this this thing is quick. It's it's shockingly quick for what it is. You know, it's got traditional, you know, Volvo interior, you know, that's kind of modern, semi minimalistic, it's not ostentatious. So it's not minimalist, but it's not ostentatious. You know and the the look of the interior is the same as what we've had on the XC 40 You know, since it came out, or five, four or five years ago, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, the rear seat is I can sit it you know, I can put the driver's seat you know where I would be on 511 and I can sit behind myself but I don't have a whole lot of clearance. But there is adequate headroom despite the roof profile. There's there's, you know, it's definitely adequate headroom and we took it during Labor Day weekend to go to the lake and go paddleboarding had my wife, one of her friends and Daisy, as well as paddle board in the in the cargo area and a couple of beach chairs, you know, so it definitely passes the paddle board tests, I was able to put the inflatable paddle board and a couple of beach chairs and sorted other detritus back there and still have room for three adults in a corgi inside, so that was good. No, no complaints from the backseat passengers. The C 40 and the XC 40 recharge the electric versions are the first of all those were the first of all those to get their Android automotive based infotainment system. So it's basically the same system. It's in the pole star. But it does have a different UI in here where the Pole Star has got like four quadrants on the screen. On the Volvo's they've got like four horizontal bars for the the current running things that are there. And works fine. Log into if you have a Google account, you can log in there, download your apps. One thing that was a little disappointing, you know that they there is a ChargePoint app that you can download in there. Electrify America has an Android app in addition to an Apple app on iOS app. But the they have not put it in the Play Store for Android automotive yet, which is a little odd, you know, I would think that they would want to get that in there for for since a lot of the cars with Android automotive happen to be EVs. That so they're, you know that and when I took it to to charge it. at my local EAA station, it was only charging at about 40 kilowatts instead of the 150 kilowatts it's capable of. And like the Pollstar two that I had recently, when I tried to use my charging cable, my 9.6 kilowatt charging cable at home,

it would not charge it would not properly connect. So apparently it's got the same software in there with the same bug in there that that pole star told me about there's a software issue that it would not authenticate with my chart, my particular charging cable, there's something about it, it wouldn't work. So I did have to use the charger that came with the car. But that worked fine. Charges it up, does a full charge overnight. And about you know, six or seven hours I think it's a 78 kilowatt hour battery pack. The the C 40 does not have a particularly impressive EPA range. 226 miles, the Pollstar the two the dual motor, Pollstar two is a little bit more than that. I think it's about 235 for something somewhere around there. But you know, it's, it's, it's adequate, you know, anything over 200 Miles is fine, it's going to be it's going to take care of most people's needs without any issue. Bottom line price on this, basically the C 40 comes with everything pretty much standard $60,540 and bids on the destination charge 920

Nicole Wakelin  28:45  
is gonna go 1325

Sam Abuelsamid  28:48  
Robbie once again 1095. So that's the Volvo C 40. Which, you know, if you want a compact, you know, stylish looking Evie with you know, fastback profile, you know, sort of Cooper's profile that is feels, feels premium rides, really roll handles, well, it's quick, you know, definitely worth a look. The other thing that I had earlier this week when I was out in San Francisco and I saw Robbie there on Tuesday night was a Chevy Bolt. I was out there for a couple of days, because Crews was doing an event at their headquarters and we'll talk a little bit about that later. And I had some other meetings with with some other companies in the Bay Area. So I got a Chevy Bolt to Lt that I was driving around for a couple days and had the the Bolt EV earlier this summer. was really impressed with that I'd previously driven the bolt in its original form before they updated it. Gave it a new updated hairier, bigger battery. And I've always liked the bolt. And same thing with this one, you know, driving it around the Bay Area, mostly highway driving. So, you know, driving 6570 75 miles an hour, had the air conditioning on a lot of the time because it was it got fairly warm, because there's a lot of glass area on this thing, which is great because you got lots of visibility. But sitting out in the sun, it also means it gets a little get a little warm, sitting in the sun lots solar load, and still managed to average about 3.5 miles per kilowatt hour, which would have worked out to about 230 330 ish miles of range. It's rated at 259. EPA, which is combined. You know, so that's, you know, in city driving, it's not hard to approach 300 miles with a bolt, especially if you're using the one pedal drive mode, and you're maximizing that region. You know, highway driving any EVs going to do worse, this one did better than pretty much anything I've driven recently on highway driving consistent highway driving. I like the way the bolt drives, it's great in a city like San Francisco, where it can get crowded and maneuvering trying to parallel park can be a challenge. Because it is it's got a nice compact footprint to it, which is which is really good. It's roomy. As I said, one of the things I like about it is the visibility out of it. the BeltLine, especially like from where from your from just behind you down to the A pillars, it dips down quite a bit. So it's really you see a lot out of this thing and you sit fairly upright in it. Which is you know, it's not, it doesn't feel like sportscar. But it handles quite nicely. I've always liked the handling of the bolt. And you can see everything around you, which is great. So the bolt that I had, the sticker price on the Monroney is $36,165. But you know, this was a 22 model. And this was the two Lt. So on the 22 models that might still be around, GM is giving like $6,000 discounts on them, because they had already announced once they announced the price on the 23 model year cars, which were cut by roughly $6,000. So they applied the same discount to the 20 twos. So if you can find a 22 model, you're gonna get this one, the two LT that which is the upper trim level for about $30,000 out the door. And the the one LT the base model you can get for 26 and a half 27 Roughly including delivery. And one of the things I like that GM has done in recent years is they actually include the destination charge in the price that they advertise. So whatever price they they say if it's $26,500 that includes the destination charge which is I think what everybody should be doing so this you know, I liked I liked the bolt still like it I you know I think it's aside from the fact that the DC fast charging is limited to 50 kilowatts. Everything else about this, you know, I definitely recommend this to people if they're looking for a smaller but still roomy car

that, you know that drives well. It's very efficient, very energy efficient, easy to park. Definitely definitely worth a look if you're looking for an Eevee and a 26 and a half grand starting price. This is the cheapest Eevee you're going to find by a wide margin with over 200 miles of range. Alright, so this week was the the return of the Detroit Auto Show. After a three and a half year hiatus. How was it? The repairs there? There were cars. There were some people there.

Nicole Wakelin  34:31  
Yeah, you go.

Sam Abuelsamid  34:33  
I went today. Yeah. Yesterday I was traveling yesterday was the media day as we're recording. We're recording this on Thursday night. Wednesday was the media day. I was on my way back from San Francisco. So I did not go on the media day but there was still open the media today and was also the industry preview day. And I went down I had some meetings with a few different companies that are today. And I took a walk around the floor and you know saw the stuff

Nicole Wakelin  34:59  
I think He got the better day of the two because I understand yesterday was a bit absolute, shall we say? off kilter? Because there was President Biden decided to visit? Yes. All well and good except Joe Biden. It's when media day you're messing everybody up. So he was freaking out because I was

Sam Abuelsamid  35:18  
seeing pictures in my Instagram feed of people showing our long line for security. I think if you try to figure out what's going on, because yeah, that's never happened before The App Show, even when there were, you know, five 6000 media there, right. We never had that kind of lineup for security.

Nicole Wakelin  35:35  
Apparently, it was just a security. And if you got in at the right time, the security was okay. If you didn't get in at the right time. haven't helped you getting through the security that was so tight for the President, which I get the President needs a security. But then if you're trying to leave at the wrong time to apparently, at some colleagues who couldn't get out the door, they wanted to get out and it's like, you should go out this way. You should walk that way. You'll go around there. Come back. She's like, I think I walked a mile. And I haven't really gotten out of the the area yet to the street, I just believe Yeah, she's like, this is where I live now. So it was chaos a little bit yesterday. So I think you lucked out.

Sam Abuelsamid  36:09  
Well, it's funny. I was, I was talking to somebody today who was there yesterday. And she said that, you know, she was in the line for like 45 minutes or something like that. It was slowly moving forward. And then just as she got up to towards the front of the line, they said, Okay, everybody can go in now. Apparently, he had left the building left. So they said, Okay, security's done. He could walk in a caravan and we don't care now. And this morning, you know, I just flashed my badge just blocked in. Yeah, nothing. Yeah. So

Nicole Wakelin  36:44  
you chose well, yes, I

Sam Abuelsamid  36:46  
did. I got lucky. And you know, to be fair, the few vehicles that were being announced for the auto show that were kind of irrelevant. I had already seen before I had been pre briefed under embargo and written stories about them anyway. So let's talk about a couple of those. Let's start off with the electric Jeeps. Jeep had their four four by E day last week for me. They they showed off they revealed their first three Evie Jeeps. And one is for Europe, only the other two are both Europe and North America. So let's start with the Europe model. So earlier this year, Jeep published a couple of images of a cute little yellow crossover that they said was going to be their first Eevee and that that vehicle is the Jeep Avenger, bringing back a name that I don't think anybody was particularly clamoring for. But the Jeep Avengers a comp a subcompact crossover that is actually smaller than the Renegade, which is why they're not even gonna bother.

Nicole Wakelin  38:02  
Really smaller than the Renegade. I don't think they realize that.

Sam Abuelsamid  38:05  
Yeah. Like when you see the pictures of it in isolation. It doesn't look like it's particularly small because it's got the feel fairly big wheels for the size of the the vehicle. Yeah, but yeah, they said it's quite a bit smaller and a renegade. Oh, it's a wee little thing. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin  38:23  
Yeah. Okay, that makes sense an upbringing here. But the fact that it's the Jeep Avenger, and it has nothing to do with the Avengers is breaking my brain, I just I can't like it's not it's not a superhero in any way. Well, color me disappointed.

Sam Abuelsamid  38:38  
So the the vendor will have about 250 miles of range, Europe market only, maybe maybe a few other global markets, but but definitely not North America. Then the next two that they showed off, are going to be coming. They in fact, they're going to be built here. We don't know which plants are going to be built in. But they're going to be built in North America and for the North American market and exported to Europe. And that is the Jeep recon, and the wagoneer s. So let's start with the recon. What do you think? It looks like it looks

Roberto Baldwin  39:09  
cool shorter than it is when you look at it like a three quarter angle and then they show a profile like Oh man, that's a really long

Sam Abuelsamid  39:16  
it's the same size as the Wrangler.

Nicole Wakelin  39:17  
It's another Jeep that you can take the doors off of, and it's gonna have the rim the nut, the removable roof, the power folding roof. Yeah, I like it.

Sam Abuelsamid  39:27  
And you can take off the rear rear quarter windows and the back windows. Well, yeah, it's gonna

Nicole Wakelin  39:31  
be kind of cool. So it's like the is it bigger or smaller the

Sam Abuelsamid  39:35  
same size. They said, they said it's about the same size as the Wrangler. But the difference is, you know, when you look at the Wrangler, the Wrangler body, the body is actually pretty narrow. Yeah, you know, because you've got these big fenders on it and the body is narrow, which means they're inside. It feels narrow. It's not, it doesn't feel particularly wide in the right. This one, when you look at it, it looks more It looks like kind of a cross between a Landrover defender, a bronco. And the front end of the new Grand Cherokee. That kind of it's

Nicole Wakelin  40:07  
like a it's like when you get those dogs that are many breeds, it's like yeah, it's a terrier Labradoodle or something.

Sam Abuelsamid  40:13  
And so, but that what that means is that the, you know, the body actually stretches out closer to the perimeter of the vehicle. So it's, it's gonna be quite a bit wider inside.

Nicole Wakelin  40:23  
So it's like, so it's the wranglers like, slightly beefier brother.

Sam Abuelsamid  40:29  
Yeah, slightly more refined. Brother, if

Roberto Baldwin  40:32  
you're a lawyer.

Nicole Wakelin  40:34  
He's like, he's, he's got the stockier build of the two. Yeah. I like it. I think it I think it looks great from what they said. And we don't really have any details other than doors come off roof folds grill is lighted. Like we don't have the details of the powertrain at all. But, I mean, I sort of just judging looks, and I

Sam Abuelsamid  40:56  
have a style off road capability. Yeah, it's got the wheels pushed to the corner. So really short approach and departure and are really steep to approach and departure angles and lots of ground clearance and everything. It's it'll be what people expect of a jeep.

Nicole Wakelin  41:12  
The grid is a ladder grill. How cool is the grill the grill is really cool, guys. It's cool. It's all lit up. It's like because I'm an Eevee so I'm gonna make my grill electric. Yeah, it looks cool. I love how it looks like

Roberto Baldwin  41:25  
the Wrangler most people should buy to be honest. Yeah, probably. Right. The

Nicole Wakelin  41:29  
people who buy a wrangler and who never intend to do anything like don't necessarily Wrangler. They want they want the style, but they don't maybe want the roughness of it. This looks like this is gonna be because

Roberto Baldwin  41:39  
that's your jam. Yeah, yeah, you know, I want to do a little off roading.

Nicole Wakelin  41:43  
Just a little bit of off roading. But no, you don't you want to recon.

Sam Abuelsamid  41:47  
Well, you you want to know that? You know if for some reason you ever decided to go to the Rubicon Trail or tomorrow lab? You're capable of going just answer in

Roberto Baldwin  41:59  
the neighborhood.

Nicole Wakelin  42:00  
Yeah, just found yourself there. Oops. Well, I guess this is how I'm going home. You can still do it. I was driving

Sam Abuelsamid  42:05  
across Utah. And I found myself pulling, you know driving past assignments and welcome to Moab. So I said, What the heck,

Nicole Wakelin  42:12  
let's go. Let's give it a go and see what happens. What could go wrong?

Roberto Baldwin  42:18  
Let's roll our jeep onto the side because I don't know what I'm doing. But I got all the things I bought all the things shouldn't have rolled? Well, you don't really know what you're doing. Did you bring a spotter? Uh, what?

Nicole Wakelin  42:31  
What's that? Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  42:35  
And then the other one that they showed us is the wagoneer S, which we were told, is roughly the same size as a Grand Cherokee, and in many respects, looks a lot like the Grand Cherokee, you know, especially like the roofline and everything. Although it's a little sleeker looking a little looks a little more a little more stylish is the front end is quite a bit different. It's got quite a different take on the on the Jeep front end, you still have the seven bars, their signature lighting and everything. So this is a lot smaller than the wagon years we have today. And they said it's going to offer about 400 miles of range, zero to 60 in about three and a half seconds. So what do you think of this one?

Roberto Baldwin  43:25  
Three and a half seconds? Why? Why? Where are you going?

Nicole Wakelin  43:28  
Because you can because you can

Roberto Baldwin  43:31  
you know, I look at this and I'm like, Oh, the Pacific is gonna be dough.

Sam Abuelsamid  43:37  
Electric Pacifica that will be a Superman.

Roberto Baldwin  43:42  
No, looks fine. It looks nice. It's you know, it's exactly what people want, who are looking for a wagoneer we're looking at the high, you know, jeeps either you you're living this off road dream or you're living in the hot, you know, you want an American Land Rover. And I think that's what they're doing it they did a good job with this. Well,

Sam Abuelsamid  43:59  
I think, you know, what I was thinking when I saw this, you know, when I saw the way to describe this, you know, because it's the same size as the Grand Cherokee. So, you know, why would you need to Jeeps that are the same size and the same basic form factor? Oh, no. And you know, but I think what they're trying to do with the wagoneer sub brand, you know, it's it's going to be Jeep and wagoneer like you have Land Rover and Range Rover rovers are the more luxury premium models and then the Land Rovers you know, and they still have the off road capability of the Land Rover. They're just fancy. Yeah, they're just fancier so that's that's what this wagon here S is probably going to be is the the fancy Jeep, the fancy

Nicole Wakelin  44:43  
G I think it looks I I'm happy to see both of these. I'm I'm excited to see them both. I think this and the Recon are both going to be pretty, pretty good vehicles. I think they're going to be positively received and we we don't know how it's all gonna work out till we get more than the cursory information addition which

Roberto Baldwin  45:01  
remember that the 500 E was the best Fiat absolutely was FCA, which is now part of the Lantis. It's got it. Yeah, just do what you did with that car, but you know, update it, whatever, but

Nicole Wakelin  45:15  
and everything will be fine. Yeah, well to be a happier place will be.

Sam Abuelsamid  45:19  
So the Recon and the wagoneer s are both launching in 2020. For the Avenger for our friends in Europe. Will, they'll be showing it at the Paris Auto Show next month, and then it goes on sale early in 2023. And by 2025, they will or 25 or 2425 by 25. No sorry about 24. But the other 24 they will have for battery electric jeeps, both in North America and in Europe. And you know, for those that might be a little disappointed by the recon, thinking that oh, no, they're not going to have a Wrangler. Evie, there will in fact, be a battery electric Wrangler, too.

Roberto Baldwin  46:00  
There will be about I mean, I just found out that they've been they've been teasing that thing for

Sam Abuelsamid  46:04  
Oh, yeah. And by by the end of 25, early 26 They're gonna have EVs in every market segment that jeep is in today. So from the renegade up through the wagoneer the big wagoneer there will be electric version battery electric. Definitely. All right, another Eevee that was shown before the auto show, but is on the show floor so if you're if you happen to be going down to Huntington place as it's now known, no longer no longer named for the racist former mayor of Detroit. It's it's on the Chevy stand. The Equinox Evie, which is supposed to have a starting price when it launches next fall of $30,000. With with with a 250 mile range. What do you what do you think of the equinox? Evie?

Roberto Baldwin  46:57  
I think it's I mean, you know what, after driving the bolt a UV and just being so impressed with how much that how much GM has learned. Building Evie is just between the bolt and the bolt up and it's still on the old it's on the old architecture. So yeah, yeah. So with Altium I think, you know, and $30,000 I mean, how can Yeah, and no one's cared about an equinox until now, to be honest.

Sam Abuelsamid  47:22  
I mean, that's Truer words. And despite that, it's still the second best selling Chevrolet buy and the Silverado. Yeah. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin  47:29  
Yeah. It's just like, I think I, you know, I need a car. It's sort of just sort of invisible. It's an invisible car up until now

Sam Abuelsamid  47:37  
that they sell at times, like wonderful.

Roberto Baldwin  47:40  
That's like the Ford Escape. The Ford Escape is sort of invisible. It's just sort of there. But they sell a ton of them. I remember when I did a drive program once, like, what do you think and I'm like, it doesn't matter. People are gonna buy this because it's just it's the right price point. It's what people want. It's not it doesn't have to be flashy or exciting. It just does the thing that people want. And I think the equinox did that forever. And now it looks cooler.

Sam Abuelsamid  48:07  
Now, it's actually surprisingly quite a bit longer than the gas Equinox as well, it's like seven inches longer than nine inch longer wheelbase.

Roberto Baldwin  48:18  
So you're gonna get some more a bit, yeah, base.

Sam Abuelsamid  48:22  
They'll have two battery sizes, and front wheel drive or all wheel drive. So the front wheel drive extended range, one is supposed to have 300 mile range. And then for the all wheel drive, extended range, it'll be 280. And, but 290 horsepower with the all wheel drive. So it's, you know, I think that this is probably actually going to be the most important Eevee that GM launches in the next couple of years. Oh, yeah. The Silverado, you know, is gonna get a lot of attention. But yeah, it's and they're gonna sell a ton of them. But it's, it's gonna be really expensive. Way more expensive than this. And, you know, this is probably going to, you know, between somewhere, you know, starting at 30 Probably max out somewhere in the low, mid 40s. You know, so it's right in the same ballpark. As a typical gas compact crossover, you know, the same size. I think, I think this is this thing's gonna sell like crazy.

Roberto Baldwin  49:23  
Oh, yeah, it's gonna be the invisible car. Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin  49:25  
I agree. I mean,

Roberto Baldwin  49:26  
it looks way cooler than the current equinox and looks more exciting, but it's also going to continue that invisible sort of like car that blends into the background that everyone's buying.

Sam Abuelsamid  49:37  
All right, the other new car that was announced at the Auto Show, and this one actually was revealed, as part of the show, it wasn't, it wasn't revealed a week ago, you know, and then just put on the stand. This was actually shown as part of the event is the 2020 Ford Mustang Ford Mustang. Not the marquee but the The gas Mustangs, and it's built on an updated version of the same platform as the current Mustang. But provides styling. What do you think of the design of this one?

Nicole Wakelin  50:13  
I like the interior changes more than the exterior changes. Is that fair? That's perfectly fair. I don't know. What do you guys think?

Roberto Baldwin  50:25  
It's just I mean, it's a it's a, it's, it feels like a design refresh, more than anything, but it's gonna be

Nicole Wakelin  50:32  
inside. But it's like, yeah, the outside isn't.

Roberto Baldwin  50:35  
Yeah, like it's a little angrier. It's a little.

Sam Abuelsamid  50:39  
I went to a backgrounder last week and saw it, you know, in private before the show. Yeah. And that was one of the things they acknowledged that they were, they were never entirely happy with the design of the the front end design of the current Mustang of the s 550. And so they wanted to do something different. And yeah, I agree. It looks angrier. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure I agree. It looks better.

Nicole Wakelin  51:05  
Maybe that's it like it's it. I don't know. Maybe that's why I'm not super smart. Like, wow, this looks so much better. I'm like, well, it looks different. It's been altered.

Roberto Baldwin  51:15  
Someone's getting punched. That's what's the new mass thing we're gonna punch somebody,

Nicole Wakelin  51:20  
you're gonna find somebody? Like it looks. I don't think it looks bad. I just think it's not it's not like this. I know. It's an all new and all that. But it doesn't make this like huge leap forward on the outside, although I'm fine with how it looks. I do think the inside looks dramatically different with the screens. So like, truly when you look on the outside like oh, yeah, okay, they revised it almost feels just refreshed it like it doesn't feel all new ish. Then when you look at the inside, and you compare the old one to the new one, suddenly, there's a dramatic difference. You're like, okay, yeah, this is all new. And it looks much I think the inside makes it like the old one. It looks dated just because of the way the instrument cluster was done. And the other things can't this very old school gauge style. At least that's how it seemed to me now. screens everywhere you look screen

Roberto Baldwin  52:07  
screens. I I'm, you know, they have those weird faux metals like leather rockers. Yeah, rockers, which weren't rockers, they only went one way. And they were plastic, and they felt plastic. And you're just like, oh, five bucks. 10 bucks. 20 bucks. 100 bucks, throw the extra $100 Bring up the price of the car, another $100. And just make these like, nice, like metal like a mini like debate? Like, if many can do it. I can do it. And now they just like, Yeah, you know, just get rid of them.

Nicole Wakelin  52:38  
So does the inside. Have you seen this in person? Sam? Yeah. And does the inside look not just the style that we see in the images? But does it? Is it better quality wise? Do you think it looks like they did some they spent the $100 Robbie just asked him to spend to make things

Sam Abuelsamid  52:54  
better? Yeah, no, it definitely looks more premium. Yeah, the materials, you know, look a little better. The one of the things that they talked about, you know, the the interior design leaked the color and materials lead. She talked about how, you know, words, synthetic materials, you know, where they like plastics and stuff where they traditionally would have done something that looks like animal training on air, like a leather type of training. They got rid of that and went for, you know, something that is in more obviously synthetic? You know, technically they call it a technical graining. You know, and there's a couple of different surfaces, you know, depending on what trim levels you get, you know, one that they refer to as white noise, you know, that, you know, there's not, there's not a distinct pattern to it, or certainly not a repeating pattern that you can detect in there. Yeah, I mean, it definitely looks a little more premium. And you know, with the big screens, and so, the, the screens on on all but the base EcoBoost version, there's one large panel that spreads across in front of the driver and across the center of the dash. But there's kind of a step in there. So the senator touchscreen is a little bit closer to you. And there's a third, the same 13.2 inch display that they have on a bunch of the other newer Fords and Lincoln's is there and then a 12 and a half inch cluster display. One of the one of the funny things that it talks about the for the cluster, you can pick from a bunch of different design themes in there. And one of the themes that you can select is for the gauges is Foxbody Mustang. So the gauge, there's is a digital representation of the gauges you would have gotten on a late 80s Mustang like Oh, that's funny. I like the one I had. There's a few other themes you can you can choose from We're talking about how they, you know, kind of what the strategy was with us. They talked about, you know, trying to pull in, you know, looking for what younger buyers are looking for. And that's funny, you know, thinking about it afterwards, you know, when they created the original Mustang, you know, when they were conceiving it 50 years, or 60 years ago, you know, the goal was to try to create something to appeal to people who are, you know, the baby boomers that were just starting to hit driving age or hitting, you know, 16 1718 years old. And, you know, at that time, you know, GM brought out the Corvair. And, you know, there were other things, other small cars that were appealing to a younger buyer, you know, younger drivers. And so they created the Mustang to appeal to those people. And, you know, it's still appeals to, you know, those same people that were 16 and 19,

Nicole Wakelin  55:57  
the exact same people,

Sam Abuelsamid  55:59  
the problem is, those people aren't going to live forever, well, maybe it's not a problem. But, you know, the reality is, those people are not going to live forever. And so they need to attract younger buyers. And so, you know, younger buyers are often looking for technology, and, you know, and how to personalize it and personalize the car in different ways. And so hence, you've got these big screens, and, you know, they get rid of the the twin pod dash layout, like they've had for many years, going back to the originals. And you've got these screens, and different themes, lots of animations, they, they used Unreal Engine to create the graphics and the animations on the screen. So it looks really cool. Which, you know, is fine doesn't necessarily make it drive any better. But, you know, it is what it is. And one of the interesting technical changes and features that they created, they've gone to an electric park brake, like most new cars have. But on the GT, you can get what they call the electric drift brake. And they worked on this with lawn getting Jr is a drift racer. And so instead of, on most, most of the trim levels, you get just the usual, kind of pull up switch on the dashboard that you often find on newer vehicles for the park brake. And that's what you get on most Mustangs. But if you get the GT with, I think it's the performance pack, or you know, there's certain option packages, you get what looks like a traditional park brake lever,

Nicole Wakelin  57:33  
I can see that the interior shot that I have up on my screen must be that cuz it looks like there's a traditional parking brake just to the set like right by your side, like it's on. Yeah, like,

Sam Abuelsamid  57:44  
it actually activates an electric park brake. Yeah, when you go in and into the menus on the screen, you have to go. Normally, it acts like a regular park brake. So it engages, you know, for relatively slowly. But when we go into the menus, and you go into track mode, you can turn on drift brake. And so when you pull up the handle, it's almost instantaneous, like five times the brake pressure that you get from a mechanical cable operated. That could be fun. And yeah, so they, you know, because they had they were working with getting on this. And the original, the original thought was, you know, to make it so you can, you know, you can pull it up, you can control how much braking force you get from it, you know, by the position just like you would with a mechanical one. And he said no, no, for drift brake, I just want it on or off. And when it's on, I want it on like now, you know, full full braking force to get to initiate. So that's what they did. That's what they did. Because he's kind of neat doing it in software you can do she can do that. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see how that how that works. Engine wise, still get the 2.3 liter four cylinder EcoBoost and the five liter coyote V eight, both with more power, supposedly more efficiency this time. No more manual transmission with the four cylinder though. But V eight, the GT you still get a manual. And they said they were selling less than 10% of the four cylinders with a manual. So they said we got

Nicole Wakelin  59:22  
our certified spine. It doesn't make sense to make it

Sam Abuelsamid  59:24  
Yeah, half of the VA customers go for a manual. So they said yeah, we'll do that one. So ha,

Roberto Baldwin  59:32  
that's a good that's a nice number. Good job VA.

Sam Abuelsamid  59:35  
And then customers. What was what was really well, I wasn't actually at the reveal event last night because I was just arriving home from San Francisco. But they they actually had some surprises that they didn't tell us about it the background or they announced Dark Horse, which is the Mustang Dark Horse is the new To prove higher performance variants, so this replaces the current Mach one. So you're going to have something like 500 horsepower from the Dark Horse Mustang. And then there's going to be a whole series of, or a couple of dark horse track cars. So the Dark Horse s, both the Dark Horse s and the Dark Horse are our tracking only models, they're not street legal. The Dark Horse s is designed for just regular track days unique to the track driving on the track. The Dark Horse are is designed as a for like single make race series. So something like you know, MX Mazda MX five cup or Porsche Carrera cup, that sort of thing. So they're looking at setting up some single make race series for the Dark Horse are. And then they also showed off the the upcoming GT three Mustang for the GT, FIA GT three class for racing. And also a GT four variant that's going to be a little lower performance a little lower price as well. So lots of Mustang stuff yesterday.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:15  
Oh, so Mustang fun to be had

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:18  
on the street or on the track. So let's see. Ram made an announcement to actually just before the show that third discontinuing the Ram 1500 Diesel, which probably surprised anybody. But if you if you still want to ram diesel, Ram 1500 Diesel, better get your order in now, because production ends next February. After that, No more.

Nicole Wakelin  1:01:48  
No more bye bye.

Roberto Baldwin  1:01:50  
You need to haul stuff without a gigantic giant truck. Yeah, 1500. Diesel.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:01:57  
Even even with a heavy load, you know that that three litre diesel still gets great fuel economy, it doesn't really seem to degrade the fuel economy at all. All right, one more. And then we'll have a final segment that Nicole and I actually recorded last week. Yes. But before we get to that, the reason I was in San Francisco, hanging out with Robbie, we visited cruise headquarters and Cruz is the automated driving company that GM acquired in 2016 16. They've been working on autonomous vehicles for GM. And in June of this year, crews finally got their permit to allow them to do paid driverless rides in San Francisco. And we got to tour cruise headquarters and see their hardware labs and all the stuff they're working on and see the origin the latest versions of the origin, which is their purpose built Robo taxi. And we went for a ride. And how was it? Well, what do you think Robbie,

Roberto Baldwin  1:03:08  
it was uneventful, which is exactly what it shouldn't be. There was there were there were two instances where while I was in the vehicle, people who are parked alongside the road, they open their door. And it's slowed down a bit and made sure there was no vehicles coming in. There was a vehicle coming, but it was pretty far away like a block away. And it put its left blinker on and went slightly into the other lane, and then it came back into its own lane. And then it happened again. And it did it again. And then. And then it took me back to where we were it was pretty. Yeah, it's a little you know, it's a bit more cautious than your average driver, which is a robot. So I'm fine with that takes a little bit longer for it to make a right turn these middle longer for it to go at a four way stop. left turns. And as someone who's had to deal with these vehicles in San Francisco, it's better than it was like because before you'd be stuck behind one taking a left turn like oh, this is gonna take all day.

Nicole Wakelin  1:04:03  
I'm never getting there.

Roberto Baldwin  1:04:05  
Exactly. Yeah. So it's it's definitely not as aggressive as say the person who ended up giving me a ride later, after the event in the lift.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:04:14  
Yeah, I had my first opportunity to ride in when a cruisers vehicles and these, these vehicles that they're running right now are modified Chevy bolts. And I had my first ride in one of the cruise bolts back the end of 2017. And that was the last time that they did media rides until this week. And they at that time, the car, worked. It did all the things. It made all the right decisions in terms of where to go when to go. But it was really rough. And the way I describe it is if you've ever been in a car with a teenager that just got their learner's permit, and they're trying to learn how to drive a car They're always a little bit too hard on the brake a little bit too hard on the gas, they drift a steering wheel instead of smoothly, you know, putting in, you know, brake steering angle. And that's what the bolt was like, in 2017. Yeah. Now there was none of that it was smooth, refined. It was, you know, way better than any cab driver I've ever been in been with. You know, over, it's been almost 15 years since I had my first ride in an automated vehicle at CES in January 2008. I wrote in the Chevy Tahoe that won the DARPA Urban Challenge. And I've written in many different autonomous vehicles since then. And this was the very first time that I have been in an AV on public roads, with no safety driver, no minder from the company, they just handed me an iPhone with the cruise app on it, and said, Here you go, putting your destination anywhere in the service area, which is about a third of the city of San Francisco, right now. And it'll take you there. And 10 There was no prescribed route, it's, you know, that wherever you want to go, you can put any, any random address in the area, it'll take you there. And so, for the next 40 minutes, I just kept putting in different destinations. And that took me there, you know, you know, as soon as I put in the destination, showed the, the route that it came up with on the map on the screen in front of me, and then went on its merry way. You know, when was making a left and unprotected left turn, waited for the left turn signal, there was some pedestrians crossing on the sidewalk and it pulled slightly into the intersection it waited there until the pedestrians are clear, then you know finish the turn it you know when there was somebody double parked and you know unloading some stuff from their car, you know, it pulled up. But you know, it was pulling up behind it. Slow down east over a little bit so it could see it around it to see if it was all clear. When it saw it was clear that went around and continued on its way towards the end of the ride. When we got back to the restaurant, that was the staging area. There was a four way stop there. It pulled up to the the four way stop, stopped, started to go. And just as it started to go some pedestrians decided to cross the street there. And so it stopped and waited for the pedestrians to get clear and then proceeded on its way. So yeah, it was it was really, really good. This this was the best of experience to date. Now, granted, you know, 930 on a Tuesday night in San Francisco, you know, in the northern western part of the city. I don't know what those neighborhoods were

Roberto Baldwin  1:07:54  
Richmond District essentially the rest of Richmond and Pacific Heights. It's it's pretty it's of the city. It's pretty chill area. Yeah, driving around.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:01  
So there was not a huge amount of traffic. But there was some, you know, and a fair amount of pedestrians to deal with. So it did it did good. I was impressed.

Roberto Baldwin  1:08:14  
And it seems they seem to be doing what they're supposed to do.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:17  
And then they also announced that on Monday on the day before they call vote, the CEO of cruise announced that within the next 90 days, they're going to be adding driverless Robo taxi services in Phoenix and Austin, Texas. And they've been testing in Phoenix for a while doing deliveries with Walmart for about a year and a half now, so they know the Phoenix area. But they have never tested in Austin. They have no they've not done any mapping. They haven't done anything in Austin, they're starting from scratch. And they expect to be up and running with driverless Robo taxis in three months. Wow. So that'll be interesting to watch to see how that works out.

Roberto Baldwin  1:08:57  
Yeah, I asked him about the other 70% of San Francisco and they, you know, they said that they're doing this this 30% At night during you know, between 10pm and 5:30am because they wanted to sort of slowly roll out they wanted to prove that it'll work. And so now they're they're they're talking to the city about permitting for more of the city and extended hours so I you know, it wasn't it was it, they told me it was more of a this is we don't want to just jump into the fire we want like ease up to the fire the fire slowly approach the fire and you know, they had the hiccups. They had the the one vehicle that was pulled over by the cop and then pulled away and then they had all of them like trapped at one point. They had a bunch of them trapped at an intersection at one point and then they had a there was a there was an accident with a left turn left unprotected left turn and so you know the the response was these are hiccups. These are parts of you know, scaling and stuff are like okay, the learning process the learning process. I mean, it's it's definitely nowhere near as horrible as what's happened with like Ubers

Sam Abuelsamid  1:09:59  
testing They haven't killed anybody yet.

Roberto Baldwin  1:10:01  
Yeah, yeah. So So you know, that's always a plus. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:10:08  
All right. And the only other thing we've got for this week, last week, Nicole and I recorded a segment that I put on the Patreon feed for our supporters there. And that was our impressions are driving impressions of the new Lexus RX. And I will drop that in here. The two of us were both out in Santa Barbara. Was it last week week before?

Nicole Wakelin  1:10:34  
It's a blur? My last couple weeks have been a blur Sam it was.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:10:38  
You were in Santa Barbara, to drive the new 2023 Lexus RX. We drove it from a hotel in Santa Barbara up into the hills into the wine country to a winery and get to try four different flavors. At least four different flavors of the RX I don't know how many flavors of wine you tried.

Nicole Wakelin  1:11:01  
The the wine that was offered after the trial was over there were like five different kinds. There's more wine than there were our x is.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:11:10  
So we saw that we saw the new RX in June, Toyota Palooza THON. And in Plano, that's when I did the glute global unveiling of it. And I don't know about you. But when I saw it, aside from some changes to the front face of the grill area, to kind of give it a little bit less of the spindle look at struck me is not looking dramatically different from the previous Arex.

Nicole Wakelin  1:11:40  
Now it was it's a very small for what they say it they say they got rid of the spindle grille in favor of I think they call it like a spindle body or something. They actually had a name for it like it was fancy marketing speak to me like we didn't make it quite so like in your face. So I definitely think that's true, but I don't Yeah, I didn't think that it was this giant change. Like you look at it, you kind of have to almost look at it really truly right from the front before you think oh, wait, this is different.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:12:09  
Yeah, I mean, the greenhouse that the glass area and the roof and everything looks virtually identical. You know, if you didn't know better, I think that they were the same parts. Facts, they may well be that they're not true. And you know, the shaping, the sides have been subtly reshaped, but not dramatically. So. But you're right, yeah, the the grill is the main thing that's changed. And kind of the top part of the spindle where it flares back out again at the top has been made more solid. So it doesn't look so much like the spindle

Nicole Wakelin  1:12:43  
looks. I do like that because I've always felt like the spindle. I know that it's a signature thing for them. But I felt like it was a little much depending on the vehicle some you know which exact Lexus you're looking at. Sometimes like, oh, that works. So the times you're like, oh, Lord. Okay. Is there anything besides this grille on this car?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:00  
You know, it works great on the LC. And maybe on the LS, but most of the other ones, it's kind of hit and miss.

Nicole Wakelin  1:13:08  
Yeah, exactly. All right.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:11  
But the rest of the vehicle is completely different. Yeah, even though it's exactly the same length as before. Yes, it does have I think about a two and a half inch longer wheelbase,

Nicole Wakelin  1:13:23  
which is supposed to make the legroom better, but we don't have a measurement of how much better because they have that yet.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:13:29  
They haven't given us those dimensions. And we didn't we didn't have a back to back to compare it against the old one to try it out. But it should also help with ride quality a little bit. A little extra wheelbase never hurts there. It's also 200 pounds lighter, depending on the configuration up to 200 pounds lighter wood. That's definitely a good thing. And for the first time, I think ever since the original RX came out 25 years ago, there's no visa extension. Oh, really? Yeah, there's no no visa extensions.

Nicole Wakelin  1:14:06  
This time around. That was the first time I knew that it didn't have I didn't realize that was like the first time ever.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:14:12  
Yeah, from from the very beginning. It's always had V six engines and whether it was just a straight up gas V six or a hybrid. It always had a V six engine in there. And now it's all four cylinders, with a mix of 2.4 liter turbocharged four cylinders and 2.5 liter naturally aspirated four cylinders, depending on which configuration you get

Nicole Wakelin  1:14:35  
are very, I literally have it in front of me and I still feel like I have to look at it because it's one of those like a 2.5. But that's terrible. But that's not that that's the hybrid but that's not a hybrid. It's very confusing.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:14:46  
So let's start from the from the base bottle, the RX 350, which in the past would have been a 3.5 liter V six. Now it's a 2.4 liter four cylinder turbo, front wheel drive all wheel drive. 275 horsepower. I'm, what did you think of this one?

Nicole Wakelin  1:15:02  
I thought it was good. Actually, I didn't, I thought it was responsive. That was the one I drove for the very first leg of the various legs. They had a striping, we drove from the hotel to the winery that sort of served as the hub for the program. And I thought it was nice. I mean, traffic wasn't super heavy. It was little bit of highway a little bit of winding roads. And I thought it was a nice well mannered engine option. It's not gonna knock your socks off. It's not super aggressive. But I also didn't feel like it was underpowered.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:15:29  
No, I agree. And in fact, you know, the, the turbo four has considerably more torque than the old V six did similar amount of power but more torque. And with the lighter weight, it feels a little more a little a little more sprightly.

Nicole Wakelin  1:15:48  
Rightly, I like that word.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:15:51  
It definitely feels more responsive, driving it, which, which I think is a good thing.

Nicole Wakelin  1:15:56  
I think anybody who drove the prior generation that drove that would would agree that if you especially if you did it back to back, you probably see a big difference. Yeah, and this one is better to drive.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:06  
So next up in the lineup is the RX 350 H, which is the standard hybrid, we used to have a 450 H, which was a V six hybrid. This is the 350 with a 2.5 liter four cylinder. So this is what something has been doing the last couple of years. As they redesigned some of their vehicles. It started with the Highlander, the Highlander also had a V six hybrid combination. And when they redesigned it, it went to a four cylinder hybrid lot more fuel efficient it's got 33 miles per gallon per gallon combined rating for the for this one or not. That's what they're estimating right now because it's not it's not officially certified yet, but 33 is pretty good for vehicles type and 246 horsepower 233 foot pounds of torque. What do you think about this one?

Nicole Wakelin  1:16:59  
I like this one this actually have the power trains in there for them we drove this is sort of my fate. This is the one I go for. I thought this was the because it was it was balanced it it's gonna get a little bit better fuel economy, we don't like he said, we don't have the numbers. I thought it handled nicely if it had enough. I was pleased with this one and I thought it accelerated relatively smoothly while I was driving it didn't have any of that sort of Herky jerky thing they be base engine gets an eight speed out of this gets a CVT and I thought it was a decent CVT on this one. See,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:34  
I think maybe the problem was, I made the mistake of driving this after I drove the RX 500

Nicole Wakelin  1:17:40  
Oh, that was a mistake, Sam.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:44  
After driving that one, this one felt kind of sluggish. And it's it's got the classic Toyota Lexus Hybrid system, like you said with the CVT, which means that, you know, when you're accelerating, you can hear the engine rev up to 4000 rpm and sit there while you're accelerating waiting for the vehicle speed to catch up to it. And I found this one less pleasant, particularly compared to the last RX I drove, which was the 450 H, you know, with the V six and, and the same hybrid system, you know, that one felt a lot stronger. That one was, you know, closer to about, I think, a little over 300 horsepower, with that combination, whereas this is 246. And even though it's lighter, this one felt less fun to drive or

Nicole Wakelin  1:18:36  
you are Matt on this one. See, I drove this one. I had the plugin before this one, I we had a 15 minute drive that we like literally they gave us because they had one plug in hybrid, that it was kind of like if you want to get behind the wheel just so you can have a few minutes behind the wheel. Drive it, but you got to bring it back 15 minutes. So I had a really short drive in that. And then I went to this one. So maybe that colored my opinion a little bit.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:19:00  
Yeah, they only had the one plug in. And it was a European spec plugin. So we don't we don't know the full specs of that one. But we can we can speculate on that.

Nicole Wakelin  1:19:09  
We don't even know like, that's the Euro spec one. Even if we do have that had it here, which we don't yet would it be that way? Or would something change? Like we drove another version? You may or may not ever see on these shores? And yeah, so

Sam Abuelsamid  1:19:23  
yeah, so the plug in hybrid is launching right away in Europe. Right? Whereas we're not going to see that one until sometime first half of 2023. So sometime, probably probably later in the spring that want to watch in the US market. And the main difference with the plug in hybrid, besides having a bigger battery, they again, they didn't give us the full specs of what we were driving. But I think we can probably pretty safely assume that it's going to be roughly the same as what's already in the rav4 prime because that powertrain is already certified EPA certified and everything, and in the rav4 prime, that one has, you have the front hybrid drive system with the 2.5 liter engine, and also a rear electric motor with 100, or sorry, with 53 horsepower, and 89 foot pounds of torque, which gives you a combined total of 302 horsepower with that plug in hybrid powertrain, and it's all wheel drive only. And in the rav4, I think it's rated EPA rated at about 40 or 41 miles of electric range with the 18 kilowatt hour battery pack. Because this, the RX is a little bit bigger than the RAF, a little bit heavier. That will probably drop to somewhere in the low 30s. Probably Probably about between 32 and 35 miles of electric driving range, which is still really good.

Nicole Wakelin  1:20:59  
Yeah, that's that's not bad. I mean, it's slow, but it's still a decent Evie range, you know?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:04  
Yeah. So, you know, for most people to do their daily driving without using any without using any gas, as long as you're plugging in every night. Right, so. So that's the the RX 450 H plus. And then the fourth and final variant is the RX 500 h f sport performance, which has the same 2.4 liter turbo that's on the bass 350. Plus, it adds a new version of Toyotas hybrid system. And this is the first one that they've done, at least with a transverse engine. That is not that doesn't have a CVT, it's got a standard six speed automatic. And because this is the performance variant, 367 horsepower, 406 pounds feet of torque. This one really gets up and goes.

Nicole Wakelin  1:21:59  
It does. It's definitely the most aggressive a lot. But when they were I can't remember the fuel economy numbers that I'm trying to find them that Lexus gave us their estimates, because like you said we wanted six numbers. So it's it's it's a little bit of a drop, they're like,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:22:14  
well, it's slightly better to the base on the base. 350 is 24. The 350 H is 33. This is 26. So you get a couple more miles per gallon than the base model. significantly better performance.

Nicole Wakelin  1:22:27  
Yes, that's true. I don't know. I feel like when you buy a hybrid like you're, you're buying it because you're trying to get better fuel economy and I guess, you know, save the planet, whatever. But I mean, you're like trying to do that. But you also want that fuel economy. And I feel like you're getting a lot more performance with this one. But your fuel economy bump is so small compared to the the gas engine you don't I mean, I don't know if it

Sam Abuelsamid  1:22:50  
I mean, that's why they call this one the F SPORT because this is the performance model. So it's performance first, but what you're what they're doing is they're giving you the performance without sacrificing fuel economy. I can

Nicole Wakelin  1:23:03  
look at it that way. Yeah, if this was just a straight up gas engine, the numbers would be way worse. Yeah, so maybe that's it, I just my brain is like no hybrid should I'll be better and this one's like, oh, wait, like it's, it just dropped so much from the nonperformance hybrid that freaks out my brain a little bit.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:23:18  
You know, it's it's, it's also what got what they're calling direct for all wheel drive. So it also like the plug in hybrid, it also has an electric motor on the rear axle. But unlike the plugin, and also the 350 h which is also all wheel drive. On the regular hybrids, they bias it towards front wheel drive and it basically only kick in the the rear electric motor when you're looking for maximum acceleration, or when you're getting slipped on the front wheels. So it's basically front front wheel drive with some rear drive added on as needed for for SLEEP control. This one is biased more towards the rear and more better balanced and doing at least some front to rear but not not side to side torque vectoring to help with the vehicle dynamics and and to help it turn in a little better. And driving on some of those curvy roads. We took the the 30 Minute loop out from the winery with this one and on the the curves there's you get before you get back out to kind of the highway there's a quite a twisty bit of road there. This was surprisingly fun to drive more more fun than I've ever had in an RX Yeah no I do I generations of RX

Nicole Wakelin  1:24:43  
It was fun but you know I would say that overall that I found this this RX to be you know some of the effects of the styling doesn't strike you as immediately different when you drive this it does feel like a new RX it does feel like they have this the looks of it may not seem like a giant leap forward. driving it, you're like, oh, they put some work into this, the power trains, the handling all of it, you can really feel it. Each one of these has its own unique feel to it. They're there for very different, you know, driving styles, I guess or driving characteristics to them. But they do feel like it's all a step forward for the RX. So I think, I think people who are looking at the RX or people who are, you know, they're fans of it, or considering it are going to be really pleased with what Lexus did in this generation. Yeah, I

Sam Abuelsamid  1:25:30  
totally agree this, you know, this one overall, across the board drives way better than than any previous version of the RX. Yeah. Alright. So the other thing that, you know, besides power trains that has been substantially changed is the interior. There's no more trackpad.

Nicole Wakelin  1:25:50  
The lower the trackpad is gone. I hated that thing. I hate it. It was, it was pretty awful. It was awful. And they were always like, No, you know, we made it better. I'm like, No, you just made it awful in a different way, every time they tried to change how it didn't how it never worked. Right. And the new system is so good. It's so good. I really, really liked the new system. Do you like it? Sam?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:26:13  
Yeah, it's it's definitely vastly superior to the previous generations of Lexus infotainment, there's still a couple of issues I have that are common, you know, because the, the basic underpinnings of this are shared across Lexus and new Toyota vehicles. So it's the same basic infotainment system slightly different skins on it. from a functional standpoint, my My only real complaint with it is this as a 14 inch touchscreen, so it's a pretty good sized touchscreen. But Toyota and Lexus IS decision to only allow you to have one thing on the screen at a time, you've got a lot of screen real estate, they're not having the ability to have a main larger pane, and then a smaller pane for your navigation on the on the big pane. And then your media controls on the smaller pane. So you could, you know, hit fast forward or pause and things like that. Without without having to switch modes, you know, just having have it readily accessible there. And I've had the same complaint complaint with the newer Toyota. It's a fairly minor complaint. Because you can also do a lot of that stuff with voice control through assuming the voice control works,

Nicole Wakelin  1:27:34  
but I feel like I feel like it's pretty good. Like I tried it and I I feel like it's better than some of them less often did I find myself yelling at it, you know, you'll do that. You just have to say, Hey, is it just hey, Alexis, you are sensitive or doing like, hey, Alexis, turn off the radio. You know, I never got to that volume. So listen to me more, and heard me eventually. And I'd love that it responds it knows whether it's the driver or the passenger. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:04  
Because if you look up on the headliner, there's too much there's a microphone on each side.

Nicole Wakelin  1:28:10  
It then responds in that direction, if the passenger you'll

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:13  
hear it coming out of the speakers on one side of the other

Nicole Wakelin  1:28:16  
makes it feel like oh, it knows me, it sees me.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:20  
Well, therein lies the problem. So when I've, when I've tried this system previously on on the NX, and on the tundra, and the BC 4x It actually worked really well. And the voice control always worked really well. But there was something in the vehicles that they had at this drive. pre production software. I don't I don't know what the the issue was. But I was driving, Tanya gastic Yeah. And it absolutely refused to respond to my voice. Really? Yeah. She would. She would say hey Lexus and do whatever and it would work just fine. It was perfect. Every time I said hey, Lexus nothing. It just completely ignored my voice. You didn't matter whether you're in the driving seat. I tried from both sides. Is it make a difference? Nope. And even if you know if Tanya said hey, Alexis, and then I tried to give it a command. It would still ignore me.

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:14  
It's like no not having it. Yeah, it's like no what I didn't have any troubles with mine. It's your voice and I

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:20  
think I'm the only person that had an issue with it at least on the day we were driving.

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:26  
Interesting. I wish I driven your car right after like the exact one that you drove right?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:31  
Like this is in four different cars and the 353 50 h the 500 h and the plugin all I tried to get in all of them and none of them would recognize would respond to my voice

Nicole Wakelin  1:29:43  
now I want to know if any of the other guys on the program have it like it because you know I didn't have that problem Neither did I lean me to Tony but there are women's voices I wonder if it was something was off with it truly like detect

Roberto Baldwin  1:29:55  
did acknowledge

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:56  
that you know, still pre production software still some calibration to do so. Maybe they'll maybe that was it, I don't know. But presumably somewhere in audio

Nicole Wakelin  1:30:05  
engineer is playing your voice over and over trying to see symbol recognize it. And if he's calibrated it right now.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:13  
You know, the the RX won't be going on sale till later this fall probably like late November, December timeframe. So they've got some time still to fix this and like I said, it has the system has previously worked fine for me in other Toyota vehicles. Yeah. You know, even you know, after I complained to complain to Toyota about that, you know, the lack of having to, to windows on the screen, they said, Well, you can just do it with your voice and I tried my voice and it always worked really well. But the except in the RX for whatever reason, and universe

Nicole Wakelin  1:30:47  
doesn't agree with you the two windows thing because when you say that, that is, it is a lot of real estate to not be able to do that. I didn't really find it a problem that when you send I'm like, Yeah, you know, what, if I was really driving and using this every day, I'd want to be able to have the smaller window with this, you know, big one for navigation or whatever small one for other functions. Yeah, that's that is weird on a 14 inch screen.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:31:07  
Yeah. Okay, now, I'll try remember, did they give us pricing information yet?

Nicole Wakelin  1:31:12  
Now? Okay. I don't. I don't, I don't believe we have any pricing.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:31:18  
Yeah. So I think that'll be coming closer to onsale. This fall. The I think the 350. The 350 H and the 500. H are all going to be built here in the US, I think in Georgetown, Kentucky is where they're building those. And then the plug in hybrid will be imported from Japan. Something again sometime next year. And yeah, I mean, overall, just huge improvement. Yeah. Regardless of what you might think of the design, and lack of change of the design, the driving the interior, everything else about it. Really good. was really, really overly overall impressed with this thing.

Nicole Wakelin  1:32:07  
Yeah, same. I thought it was really good. I thought it was a good series of changes that they made the overall improvement. We have little nitpicky things to pick on, but it's good if you can find our nitpicky things.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:32:19  
Yeah. All right. Well, that's it for the 2023 Lexus RX, first drive impressions. And with that, we will say goodbye for this week, and we'll talk to you next time. See ya. Bye bye.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:35  
Bye.