Sam Abuelsamid (00:01) This is Wheel Bearings episode 445 and I am Sam Abuelsamid from Telemetry. Nicole (00:07) And I am Nicole Wakelin from Test Miles and Top Speed. Roberto Baldwin (00:11) And I'm Roberto Baldwin from SAE International. Nicole (00:14) And I can't believe poor Sam still sounds sick. Sam Abuelsamid (00:17) Know I'm feeling much better than I was the last time we recorded but my voice is still a little screwed up. So Yep, don't going for that sound Yeah Nicole would you drive? Nicole (00:21) Okay. He's still got that grumbly thing. Roberto Baldwin (00:30) Batman. Nicole (00:35) Yes. I have the 2026 Kaya, Kaya, Kaya, K4, Kaya. I don't know what I'm just, that's, that's how that's the fam. I've heard it said both ways. ⁓ Kaya K4 hatchback GT line in, I think it's habanero yellow. I should have looked, it says HB yellow on my key tag. And I'm like, wait, that's not a color. I think it's, it's that really like goldish yellowish happy birthday yellow and happy birthday yellow. mean, it would fit. It's a very bright like Sam Abuelsamid (00:40) Ha ha ha! Roberto Baldwin (00:40) That's how they say it in the UK. Happy birthday, Yellow. Nicole (01:05) In fact, we went out for breakfast this morning and we came back out to the parking lot. It was kind of empty when we got there and it was full when we came out. And Russell's like, I don't know which car is ours. I'm like, how do you not remember which car we arrived in when it was that color? Like it's a sea of like dark browns or dark, you know, colors. And I'm like, and there's this like glowing in the corner of the parking lot. It's very bright. It's actually kind of cool. I sort of like, have you guys seen the color? You know what I'm talking about? Roberto Baldwin (01:17) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (01:31) ⁓ I have. Roberto Baldwin (01:32) I'm looking at it and I think it's a top art for their media site for the K-4 Nicole (01:36) Is it? Let's see. I'll have to look if that's because it's, it's bright. Let's see K4 hatchback. I'm going to look at that. That's it. That is in fact it that bright, bright, and it's more yellowy. looks more like sort of gold. It's tamer in this image than it is in real life. In real life. Roberto Baldwin (01:45) Boom. Gold. It's a set. Sam Abuelsamid (01:53) It says sparkling yellow on the website. Nicole (01:56) What does HB mean? ⁓ no, wait, that's exactly what it is. They put HB yellow all in color, but its body is empty. So they have accidentally... Sparkling yellow, is that what it is? Roberto Baldwin (01:58) Happy birthday! Sam Abuelsamid (01:59) Hatchback. That's what the website calls it. think habanero. Well, I know, can you get yellow habaneros? Nicole (02:13) sparkling. Roberto Baldwin (02:17) Now they're like orange-ish. Now it's happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Ella. Nicole (02:17) I don't know, maybe because it was spicy. See, it would have worked for me that name. We're calling it Happy Birthday Yellow. So the Kia K4 Hatchback GT line in Happy Birthday Yellow, which is very bright. So this is the hatchback version of the K4. Basically it looks very different. I think the K4, regular K4, people either loved or hated the design on that. think you were, were you a hater, Robbie? Am I remembering right that you hated it? Sam Abuelsamid (02:25) Ha ha ha. Roberto Baldwin (02:28) Yeah! No, I didn't hate it. was just like, it's just like from the, the, once you get past the B column, you're like, wait, what's going on? Nicole (02:51) ⁓ So you didn't love it. This. See, so this most people really like the look of I didn't I was OK with the K4 sedan, but I do like the look of the hatchback better. It has really good lines. It just is an attractive car ⁓ and it's not this tiny, tiny little hatchback is actually pretty roomy. So when Ross was riding around in it, he six ran like how do you I noticed a lot of times smaller cars like this. Roberto Baldwin (02:53) I didn't love it, this I really like. Nicole (03:15) guys you sit in the front seat and your knees are hitting like the center console on the door like you can't get enough seat room to let your legs be straight he was comfortable in this so that's saying something for a guy who's tall and a car that's small so there's only three trims in this EX GT line and GT line turbo the GT line just has a two liter four cylinder with 147 horsepower 132 pound-feet the turbo ups all that 190 horsepower 195 pound-feet Roberto Baldwin (03:26) Yeah. Nicole (03:44) The turbo is the more fun. had the GT line, but the funny thing is when I first got in, I didn't like to see which trim I had. I just hopped in it and drove and I'm like, this is actually pretty nice. So even not the turbo, it was a pretty responsive little vehicle. 147 horsepower doesn't sound like a lot, but it was plenty and but it was fine. Sam Abuelsamid (04:02) It's not. Roberto Baldwin (04:04) My 1990 Honda Civic hatchback, which I just drove like a madman, had 86 horsepower. Nicole (04:09) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (04:12) Yeah, but it also weighed about 86 pounds. Nicole (04:12) See, so it's right too. but it's still, thought like, this wasn't something sometimes when you, I feel like when they have these two, know, you've got the normal natural naturally aspirated engine, and then you have the turbo, the turbos, the fun one and the naturally aspirated is not just less fun. It's boring. Like they really are like, well, if you hate life, drive this one, otherwise get our more expensive turbo trim. You could get the Roberto Baldwin (04:14) That's true. Nicole (04:38) the regular one in this and be like, Hey, I still love life. It's still fun to drive. So I thought that was really important to point out. Cause I, I feel like that's normally not the case when there's the turbo, the turbo is the good one. The other one is boring. This was still fun to drive. I enjoyed it. We took it into Boston. We took it on a little road trip. was a little bit. This car is a little bit harsh over rough surfaces and it has a little bit of noise to it. Like the wind noise and the road noise you hear a little bit, but I think that's a function of it being an affordable car. One of the things they sort of draw back on is all the stuff they do to make it like luxury cars are super serene and quiet for a reason. And they're expensive to make that way. It takes a lot of extra sound deadening and different things to make it quiet, acoustic glass, all these things. You don't have as much of that. Sam Abuelsamid (05:22) and entire side walls are more than half an inch tall. Nicole (05:25) Exactly. So this one, but the GT line. So the pricing on this car starts at 24, 990. That's cheap. Then it goes, the GT line is 25, 990 and the GT line turbo is 28, 890. So all three trims, even the turbo are under 30 grand, which makes this an incredibly affordable option for a car that is still comfortable. But right, not once about a time, but today that is a deal today. ⁓ do you want to take a guess on Sam Abuelsamid (05:46) by 2026 standards. Nicole (05:55) Destination based on what I can see right now. Tomorrow morning it could change as we all know. Take a guess gentlemen. Roberto Baldwin (05:59) 13 Sam Abuelsamid (06:02) 14. Nicole (06:03) Wow, Robbie was spot on. 13 is what I have. Yeah. So, so 1300. Oh, and it was what? It was 14? Sam Abuelsamid (06:06) was it really? Because I just had this thing a few weeks ago. Roberto Baldwin (06:06) Cha! Cha-cha! Sam Abuelsamid (06:12) No, I don't know. don't remember because I didn't go. didn't cheat and go back and look at them in Roni. Roberto Baldwin (06:17) Alright, thanks for not cheating Sam. Look at you, he's a good person. Nicole (06:17) ⁓ good. he's such an honest soul. ⁓ so. he didn't say he's I didn't see his eyes shift down to look at a paper or anything. so, you know, this is even with that destination fee, it's still an affordable car, which is really kind of nice. And it's a hatchback hatchbacks are so cool. I wish we had more of them. They are so versatile. They give you so much flexibility to carry people comfortably in the back and to have. Sam Abuelsamid (06:21) Or at least I didn't say I cheated. Roberto Baldwin (06:39) Yeah. Nicole (06:45) little cargo room, is what you need. 90 % of the time, you just need a small amount of cargo room in the back of your car. But when you have the weird thing, the big thing, the bulky thing, or just need more in general, you still have that without having to have a giant SUV. I love hatchbacks. I think they're fantastic. I just, I'm like, please do this more. Sam Abuelsamid (07:02) Americans need to get over themselves and get with hatchbacks. Roberto Baldwin (07:02) I- I wa- My friends had ⁓ a Mini and then they had a child. And we lived in a house behind a house in San Francisco. And the landlords, the owners, were a really nice couple and they also, they had a child as well. And they had this giant SUV. And I remember one of the owners, he went to my friend, he's like, you know, now you're gonna have to get an SUV. Their child is like a little toddler. Nicole (07:13) Mm-hmm. Roberto Baldwin (07:30) It's like not like, and for a moment my friend's like, yeah, I'm gonna have to get an SUV. And he's like, wait, wait, why? Why? The mini is fine. We can still fit the kid in the back of the mini. Nicole (07:36) Yeah. It's like you've had a child. You haven't bought an elephant, you know. Right. Sam Abuelsamid (07:37) Haha. Nicole (07:44) So and that's the thing, like this is still a really versatile car and the cargo room behind the rear seats is about 22 cubic feet. It's 59 when you fold the seats down. That's a lot. That's a lot of room. So you really do have a ton of room in this. And for standard equipment, you have like 12.3 inch touchscreen digital instrument cluster. becomes like a panoramic dealio on higher trims. ⁓ Wireless smartphones for connectivity for the car play and Android Auto. You get charging ports up front. You have wireless charging. ⁓ The GT line that I was driving, it's actually really cool inside of mine had like heated seats, heated steering wheel. It's a really nice car and it was fun to drive. It truly was a fun little thing to drive. I was driving it quite a bit in Boston yesterday and it is a great little city car because it's small enough that you can get in and out of crazy parking garages. And when the, I was in the parking garage at the Prudential center, which has one of those roofs ceilings that looks like it's going to clip your car and all the pipes hanging down at various heights. And I know the total and I'm fine in my little car, but you know that that, you know, the lowest height it's giving you is the lowest pipe when all the pipes seem to be the same. And then there's one that drops. You're like, dear God, there was this Ford Roberto Baldwin (08:54) They're so close, you're like, ah, you're all duckin'. Nicole (08:59) truck like an F-150, but it looked higher so I couldn't see the trim, but it looked high coming towards me and I'm not even in it. I'm like, oh man, you are just going to make it. You, you could barely see it. I'm thinking now I'm nervous. I'm like, Nicole, you're up to the, like that guy's seat level is the height of your car. Calm down. You're fine in here, but watching him try to come around like corners in the garage because they're so tight. I'm like, give the man some room cause he really had to swing it. Meanwhile, I'm like, no problem. So it really is. I really enjoyed this car. I am a fan of this car. I had said I would recommend this to people. Like I reckon, you know, you recommend a lot of cars, like people ask you cars, but like I would put this at the top of my list for someone young who, right. Forget like NHTSA, forget IHS. Roberto Baldwin (09:40) I just got a Nicole seal of approval. Sam Abuelsamid (09:43) I I recommended it just by parking it in my driveway. I didn't even have to tell anyone. Yes. Yeah. Nicole (09:48) Right? Was this the one that somebody bought because of you? Right? Roberto Baldwin (09:49) and they went and bought it. Nicole (09:51) So I love this car. I'm thinking, and I, when I did the launch, I thought this is a really great vehicle. Now that I've had it for a week and really driven it, this is really great. Like this is what young, young people should be buying because it's affordable. It's fun to drive. It's great features. You have enough room for you and your friends. You have enough room for your stuff. When you move apartments 85 times, you can still put stuff, right? You can still put stuff in the back. Roberto Baldwin (10:13) That's exactly what I was gonna say. For the 37 times you'll move. Nicole (10:18) Right? So you can fit all your stuff when you're moving around, cause that's what you do when you're young. Uh, this is, this is one of my top picks. mean, even if you're, you're not the kid moving around the young, you know, 20 something, if you're, unless you've got a need for some big SUV for some reason, KIA K4 hatchback. Roberto Baldwin (10:35) you don't. I had a show last night with one of the bands and we had to go up a dirt road to get to this venue. It was very fancy, but you know it's a dirt road and I had the BRZ because my wife had the IONIQ 5 and I drove the BRZ up and when I pulled up it was a fundraiser and as soon as I pulled up the person's like, you're with the band? I did not look like I belonged there unless I was in the band, but I drove it. Nicole (10:49) Yes. Sam Abuelsamid (10:57) Hahaha. Nicole (10:57) ⁓ One of these things is not like the other. Roberto Baldwin (11:02) dirt road and then I had to park in like tall grass like off a berm and I was like, man, whatever BRZ. Yeah. Subaru. mean, Even without all the, it's got the boxer engine. The boxer engine just makes everything okay. Sam Abuelsamid (11:08) It's a Subaru. Nicole (11:09) You were okay. You didn't get stuck. You didn't die. You were fine. You just drove in and then you drove out. See? We've got, we've gotten really sold on the notion that in order to survive anything other than perfect flat pavement, need something that has, you know, a 10 inch ground clearance, big knobby tires, right? Like if you look at a mud puddle, it's like, I can't get through that puddle. And the potholes are that big. Roberto Baldwin (11:31) I need a G Wagon. Sam Abuelsamid (11:35) Well, to be fair, I do live in Southeast Michigan. Roberto Baldwin (11:39) That's true. Sam Abuelsamid (11:40) Yes. Roberto Baldwin (11:40) I hit a Michigan size pothole like two days ago. I was like, where the hell did that come from? And the whole time I was like, just like Michigan, man, one pothole, that's how it starts. Nicole (11:43) Mm. It's like Michigan. It's the same thing here, like, especially right now, because we're having that the rain, that's what kills it. You have rain. You think, it's warm. Spring is here. And the mother's nature is like, ha ha freezes. It gets down to 20 and the pavement just comes out in literal chunks of pavement. And then you have a giant pothole. There is a pothole ⁓ on the main road, nearest our house that surprised everybody. It surprised the whole town that drives this road. You know how I know? Sam Abuelsamid (11:52) Yep. Roberto Baldwin (12:16) Surprise pot. It was like a birthday pothole. just jumped out. Surprise! Nicole (12:18) How I know are the number of hubcaps and bits and pieces of things that are now next to the pothole. I'm like, oh, that's taken some folks. I know, but right. Roberto Baldwin (12:27) If you have hubcaps on your car, just take them off. Steely's always like, it always looks cooler with the the weird Steely's that are either sometimes they're painted black, sometimes they're just silver. Nicole (12:33) Now there's, and you can see, and then you also see the splash. It's not water. It looks like dirt. It's not dirt. It's bits of the paved road that you were, it's just like a pavement little smorgasbord around the entire pothole. So, but even with that, you know what? You could get through it in your BRZ. Just don't nail it. Like look where you're going. Right? So I, I, this is like, I'm looking at this and like, I really like this car. I love the K4. Roberto Baldwin (12:54) It's done now, yeah just look where we Anyway, K4, Nick. Sam Abuelsamid (13:00) This is why when we bought our Civic, what, almost 10 years ago now, we ⁓ went for the hatchback instead of the sedan. Because prior to that, we'd had a couple of station wagons, and we couldn't find a wagon that we liked and could afford. And the hatchback is kind of like the next best thing to a station wagon, because you've got that big opening, so it drives like a car. Nicole (13:11) Mm-hmm. Roberto Baldwin (13:12) Yeah. Nicole (13:24) It is. Mm-hmm. Sam Abuelsamid (13:28) but you have that big opening. when you do need to put something large in there, you just fold that back seat down. You can put big stuff in there like bales of straw, know, it fits. Mulch, lots of mulch. Roberto Baldwin (13:39) Yep. Mulch. I to go. Nicole (13:42) Mulch, the mulch, you can put the mulch in there. Roberto Baldwin (13:45) I had to buy a bunch of some wood to finish some shelves and a box I'm working on. Went through the back of the Ionic 5, which is just a giant hatchback, really. Just a really big hatchback that everyone thinks is smaller than it is. And I have to explain to them like, no, it's really big. They're like, I don't know. I got tall people. I'm like, do you know how tall I am? Right. I'm like. Sam Abuelsamid (13:55) Yeah. Nicole (13:56) Right, seriously. They say that you talk taller than me. Are you doing like the March Madness thing and bringing basketball players with you? What's happening? Sam Abuelsamid (14:08) It's funny. Roberto Baldwin (14:13) Yeah, I don't... Sam Abuelsamid (14:14) Well, know, I mean the Roberto Baldwin (14:15) I don't know. Sam Abuelsamid (14:15) IONIQ 5, that shape, you know, is so very reminiscent of like the early VW Golfs. And those were small cars. And it's got very similar proportions to that, except it's all been scaled up by 30%. Roberto Baldwin (14:29) and the wheels are pushed. Yeah. I think the wheel base is longer than the, than the lucid air. Hold on. I'm going look that up. Someone at Lucid told me that. Sam Abuelsamid (14:38) ⁓ It might Nicole (14:39) wow. Sam Abuelsamid (14:39) be. Yeah, so it looked it. You're right, it does look smaller than it is. Alright, anything else on the K4 hatchback? Nicole (14:51) No, that's it on the K4 hatchback. I love it. Go buy one. I highly recommend it. I'd buy that before the K4. Roberto Baldwin (14:55) It's one and the Deonic 5's wheelbase is one and a half inches longer than the Lucid Air. Sam Abuelsamid (15:02) There you go. Roberto Baldwin (15:03) But if you look at a Lucid Air and Ionic 5 next to each other, you'll be like, no, there's no way. It's just the way that the vehicles are proportioned. Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (15:06) Yeah. Nicole (15:08) Impossible. Sam Abuelsamid (15:12) 20 what you can do with ⁓ visual cues like that. Roberto Baldwin (15:17) I know with the iX, people weren't buying it because they thought it was the size of the X3 instead of a X5. so they didn't, people didn't realize it was as big as it was. It was the big BMW. And so they weren't, know, so they had the, can't say that, but I can say that. Sam Abuelsamid (15:25) Mm-hmm. Nicole (15:33) Mm-hmm. Sam Abuelsamid (15:38) Haha. Nicole (15:40) Save yourself. Don't break an embargo. Roberto Baldwin (15:41) There was, yeah, there was, it's more of an off of record thing. There's a visual, there are visuals that came into, just because the wheels are pushed so far out, so it looks like a smaller car. It's, it's a trick. Sam Abuelsamid (15:56) All right. Well, I had the Infiniti QX60 Sport all-wheel drive. So this is, you know, what? I guess Infiniti's got like three, four models left, all crossovers now. ⁓ And I think the QX50 and QX55 are going away soon, but they'll be replaced by the QX65, which is basically a QX60. Nicole (15:56) It's Sam Abuelsamid (16:23) with the back of the roof sliced off to make it into a quote unquote, coop. ⁓ Roberto Baldwin (16:28) Which again, what's the point? It's if you're getting an SUV. You just removed a bunch of space. Sam Abuelsamid (16:32) Yeah. Nicole (16:34) You removed the SUV-ness from it. Sam Abuelsamid (16:37) I know, but the QX60 doesn't do that. The QX60 has all the SUV space. It's a three row. It is basically Infiniti's version of the Pathfinder. So it is a much nicer, more luxurious feeling Pathfinder. When they did a refresh on it, was it last year or the year before, they dropped the V6 engine that was in there. It used to be a V6 and a nine speed automatic. They dropped the V6, replaced it with the 2 liter variable compression turbo four cylinder, which is, ⁓ you know, it's fine. You know, it's not, when they first announced that thing, we've talked about this before, but when they first announced it, you know, they said, this is going to have the performance of a V6, but much better fuel economy. ⁓ not so much. ⁓ You know, I averaged, I think 21 miles per gallon with it. which is not exceptional. Compared to a lot of other 2-liter turbo four cylinders, it doesn't feel as strong as most of those, which is weird. ⁓ You would think with that variable compression system in there, it added a lot of complexity to the engine. Didn't really give you all the performance and fuel economy that it promised, but they continue to build them anyway. It's a it's a decent engine Let's see. It's 268 horsepower 286 pounds feet of torque and This is this is where this engine differs from most other 2-liter turbos The peak torque comes at 4400 rpm Most of these types of engines, you know, they typically have a peak torque that you know somewhere between 1800 to 2000 rpm up to like 4500 rpm They have that peak torque. This one doesn't have as much low end torque as you would expect. ⁓ Which is, you know, it's for a vehicle this size, it doesn't feel as strong as you would expect. ⁓ Apart from that though, the rest of the vehicle is very nice. know, the interior is really nice. The exterior design, you know, it's a sharp looking three row crossover. ⁓ The one that I had, the Sport was finished in all black except for the lights and the backlit Infinity grille. ⁓ The wheels, ⁓ the black wheels had these little strips of chrome. They're kind of like five multi-spoke spokes and then in between those there's a little strip of chrome around the edge. So you had just enough chrome on there so that when you do hit a curb, you will notice it. So there's that. ⁓ When they did the refresh, they gave it the new ⁓ Android-based infotainment system. So it's got all that, but it also still has CarPlay and Android Auto support. ⁓ So you still have full support for ⁓ Google Maps, Google Assistant built in. You can also hook up your phone. and use that as well. What else? It's just generally a nice vehicle. It's got some nice touches in it. The second row seats, we talked about this before on the Pathfinder and the QX60. ⁓ When you have a car seat mounted in the second row seats and you go to tilt the seat forward, the whole seat tilts up from the forward edge and tilts forward. So if somebody wants to get into the third row, you don't have to take the car seat out to get access to the third row. The whole thing just tilts up together. So that makes it a little easier to actually use the third row. The third row is not huge, but I can sit back there ⁓ reasonably comfortably. wouldn't want to take a long road trip in it, but it's fine. It's got enough ⁓ cargo space in the back for ⁓ multiple carry-on bags, so it's handy. Handy in that respect. ⁓ Let's see, where'd it go here? Just looking for the other, the rear. Yeah, so ⁓ the interior of this, of the blue one, or of this sport version ⁓ is a mix of black and dark blue. So like the seating surfaces are dark blue and there's some dark blue accents on the doors and across the dashboard, which. You know gives it a breaks it up a little bit ⁓ the car. I'll talk about next week is the Genesis ⁓ GV 80 coupe Darth Vader edition which does not do that this This that one's all black ⁓ So with even even with the with the rear with the third row seats up You still have a decent amount of cargo space behind the third row Third row seats folded down. You can put lots of really big stuff in there Nicole (21:44) You Sam Abuelsamid (21:59) You also fold down the second row seats flat. So it's a nice vehicle. ⁓ The pricing on this one ⁓ grand total came to ⁓ $64,380. And the only option on it was the mineral black paint, is what they call it. Everything else was standard on here. You want to guess at the destination charge? Roberto Baldwin (22:29) 15 Nicole (22:30) 1995. Sam Abuelsamid (22:34) ⁓ Robbie was off by just $5. It's $14.95. Nicole (22:37) wow. Roberto Baldwin (22:38) Look at that. Nicole (22:40) Well done, you! Roberto Baldwin (22:40) That's what happens when you're really tired because you had a very busy day. Everything else just fades away to the... All the distractions fade away because you're exhausted. Sam Abuelsamid (22:43) Ha. Nicole (22:48) you Sam Abuelsamid (22:53) ⁓ So that's the 2026 Infiniti QX60 Sport all-wheel drive. All right, let's move on to ⁓ the new BMW i3. ⁓ So, reviving a name, but it's not the i3 that we got used to in the 2010s, which was this little miniature upright carbon fiber bodied EV, short, relatively short range EV. ⁓ that was designed as an urban city car. This is more like the next generation of the BMW 3 Series, except it's all electric and it's based on the same Neue Klasse platform as the iX3. What do you guys think of this thing? Roberto Baldwin (23:40) It looks good. The promise of the Noya class was an 800 volt architecture. It charges really quick, goes really far, and they pulled it off. So even with their 400 volt ⁓ systems, they were doing a pretty good job. they're really going. BMW is going all in, and they are not messing around. Nicole (23:41) Good. What do you think? Sam Abuelsamid (24:01) Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, what, at least on the outside, what they've done with this, you know, with the design, you know, they've gone away from the giant enormous kidney grills. apparently, you know, they're going to be discontinuing the I four from the lineup sometime in the, in the near future. ⁓ Mendez is going to replace it. Nicole (24:01) You Roberto Baldwin (24:21) ⁓ Sam Abuelsamid (24:23) at least for now. Who knows, maybe we'll get something more like the i4 again at some point in the not too distant future. But this, you know, I like the exterior design of this, especially what they've done with the front. We've actually kind of seen this car now multiple times in concept form over the last five years. ⁓ There was the version that they showed at CES a few years ago. where the exterior was all covered in color E ink. Remember that one? The Vision D. And so could change the exterior color. None of that on this one. But they've had a couple of different concept versions of this that were pretty close to the final design. ⁓ So I like the look. I'm less convinced about the interior. Yeah, there's elements of the interior design that Roberto Baldwin (24:54) ⁓ yeah, yeah. Nicole (24:54) I forgot about that. yeah? Sam Abuelsamid (25:19) ⁓ Well, I like ⁓ what they've done. They've got this, essentially it is a heads up display across the base of the windshield. So there's no traditional instrument cluster, but right all the way along the base of the windshield, there's this heads up display, which is pretty cool. ⁓ So you can see all your stuff there right in front of you. It's above the steering wheel. ⁓ Nicole (25:47) Mm-hmm. And it looks like they squished the steering wheel a little bit so you'll actually be able to see it. You know how they do the rounded and it cuts. It looks like it shouldn't cut in regardless of how tall you are kind of thing. Sam Abuelsamid (25:49) It's a combination. Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (25:58) They went too hard on that steering wheel. That's all I'm gonna, it's too much. Settle down. Steering wheel, too hard, too hard. Pull it back, pull it back 20%. Sam Abuelsamid (25:58) Right. Nicole (26:01) There's a lot happening there. Whew. That's, Sam Abuelsamid (26:01) Yeah. Nicole (26:07) wow. Wow, there's a lot happening. that's too real. and so much chrome. my God. Okay. Roberto Baldwin (26:10) but really hard on the steering wheel. Sam Abuelsamid (26:12) ⁓ What do you think of the trapezoidal center screen? Roberto Baldwin (26:18) I'm fine with that. Nicole (26:19) I'm okay with the center screen. Let me go back to it. Flip, flip, flip. I'm okay with that. The little crookedness. I mean, the thing is that it's, there's so many, there's, you know, there's so, the big screens like they do make cars look very boxy. Like when they're just plopped there and they don't have like an instrument cluster that comes off of it to give it some softness, right? Like when you have it move into like when it's two screens in one display, it's a little bit more. Roberto Baldwin (26:24) Yeah, that's Yeah, trapezoids. Trapezoids are cool, Sam. It just looks like an iPad shoved in the car most of time. Nicole (26:46) softer when it's just like screen screen you're kind of like that and that is a big screen so I don't know maybe doing that makes it look a little less in your face you don't like it Sam I sense Sam doesn't like it Sam Abuelsamid (26:56) uh... actually uh... i'm actually okay with the trapezoidal screen that's not the thing that i a complaint about Nicole (27:00) Yeah. What's the thing? I'm like looking through all the interior pictures. What's your, ⁓ what? no, what is, are the vents in it? Sam Abuelsamid (27:04) There's one missing detail. Roberto Baldwin (27:07) is it Vince? Sam Abuelsamid (27:10) It sure looks that way. Nicole (27:12) ⁓ wait, I'm looking real close at the pictures with the dashboard now. Roberto Baldwin (27:16) Didn't people just go drive this? Nicole (27:19) they didn't drive it. think they just saw it. Roberto Baldwin (27:21) ⁓ gosh, I'm so glad I didn't go to that. Nicole (27:23) I think I don't think it was a drive. Roberto Baldwin (27:26) I just got invited from uninvited from 12 things. So like if you're not gonna come you don't want to come look at our things Nicole (27:32) ⁓ I think you're right. Sam Abuelsamid (27:36) It Roberto Baldwin (27:37) Da da. Sam Abuelsamid (27:37) looks like there's no manual vents. Nope. Nope. Nicole (27:39) I don't see any little levers to manually move the vents. Oh man, MB &W fixed the hideous grill and have an actually decent front to your car. And then you remove the vents. I was so excited. then... Roberto Baldwin (27:48) And so close. Sam Abuelsamid (27:53) Then they broke it. It's that one little detail. Roberto Baldwin (27:56) So it's one thing. Again, you know, automakers are like high school. It's like high school. Like businesses are like high school. If one kid does it and everyone thinks it's cool, then all the kids do it. Doesn't matter if it's cool or not in reality or anything. Yeah. Businesses are the exact same way. They're like, well, they're not doing without. They're doing without vents. That must be what people want. No, that's not what people want. No one's asking for this. Nicole (27:59) ⁓ bummer. All the kids do it. Sam Abuelsamid (28:11) Yeah. Nicole (28:11) ⁓ the kids are doing it. I too must do this. Roberto Baldwin (28:24) you just saw one automaker do it and then another automaker did it and so you said, I'll do this. And it's like, yeah. Anyway, just get an old i3, it'll be fine. Sam Abuelsamid (28:33) Yeah. So, you know, 463 horsepower, 476 foot pounds of torque. This thing, this thing can move, I think. And, you know, it's, it's the next generation of BMW's electric propulsion system. So it's their sixth generation. You know, it's, it's an evolution of what they have on the current I4 and IX and everything, which is really efficient. And they're promising, I think, 440 miles of electric range on the EPA test, not just on WLTP, but on the EPA test, which is very impressive. Roberto Baldwin (29:16) Oh man. Here's the thing, is that BMW, I remember when they were talking, you know, modular, the modular manufacturing after the I, you know, the I3 and the I8 and we're all just like, yeah, yeah, whatever, man. Cause it just like, it felt like it took a while. And then finally when we drove the, and they dragged us all to Germany to drive the I4 and the IX, we're like, oh my gosh, they did it. They actually pulled it off. And I think it's the same thing with the Noya class. They showed us all the bits and they kept showing us fun concepts, like you said, with the E Ink and whatnot. And then at end of the day, they deliver is what it comes down to. And it looks like they're electrically excited synchronous motors, which is nice. ⁓ This is the everyone else using permanent magnets. People years ago said there's no way you should use a magnet. a motor without magnets because you wouldn't get the efficiency or the performance and BMW is like, nah, we'll figure it out. And they did. Every time they did, I get, I was at the, when they shared that news, I wrote my article, I posted it online, it was in minutes, I got a text from another automaker asking how they did this. And I'm like, why are you texting me? I don't work at BMW. Sam Abuelsamid (30:15) Yeah, yeah, they did. Go Nicole (30:29) Hahaha! Sam Abuelsamid (30:31) buy one and tear it apart. Figure it out. Roberto Baldwin (30:32) Yeah, yeah, no, it was crazy. It was like, I'm like, who is this? Oh, what is this question? Sam Abuelsamid (30:36) Yeah, 400 kilowatt charging, ⁓ which is some of the outside of China is some of the best you're to get anywhere. ⁓ So, you know, this is this is all on this to this new architecture that shares with the IX3 and and they're also going to be pushing this stuff ⁓ into a lot of other vehicles over the next couple of years as well. So the next generation X5, there's going to be an electric version of that. Roberto Baldwin (30:46) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (31:06) that will also utilize this hardware. Next generation 5 series and 7 series. think BMW was saying this week that while everybody else is panicking and giving up on EVs, BMW is saying, yeah, we think we can get to 50 % EV sales by 2030. Roberto Baldwin (31:30) Yeah, that's the thing. You just got to commit. You have to be Hyundai, have to be BMW, you have to be now, I guess, Toyota and GM. You just got to commit and you get the sales. It's just, you know, when you don't commit, when you kind of half-ass it, that's when you're, well, things aren't happening the way we hoped. Like, because you're kind of half-ass. You got to go all in. Sam Abuelsamid (31:31) Yeah. Nicole (31:34) Go all in and do it. Sam Abuelsamid (31:39) Yeah. Yeah, you gotta commit to it. And the key is, it's gotta, this is something I used to say in some presentations I did. ⁓ Once you get past the incentive programs, at some point, it's just gotta be a better car. And if it's a better car, people will buy it. Nicole (32:14) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (32:18) And that's what BMW seems to be building now. They're building a better car. Roberto Baldwin (32:23) The i4 was better than the Gas 4 series. Sam Abuelsamid (32:26) Yeah. And the nice thing about this one, because this is not built unlike the i4, which is built on a flexible architecture that was shared between EV and gas and plug-in hybrid. This is just a pure bev, which means that when you look in the backseat of this thing, unlike an i4, there's no giant center tunnel for a non-existent drive shaft because they use the same floor pan. Roberto Baldwin (32:53) I don't need that. Sam Abuelsamid (32:54) Regardless of which power it's got this nice flat floor. So, you know, you got lots of lots of room in the backseat ⁓ Yeah, I you know, hopefully we get to drive this thing, you know in the coming months, but You know this this thing looks really really promising Apart from the whole vent thing Nicole (33:17) Oven. Sam Abuelsamid (33:18) Yeah. All right. Let's move on to another actually, I think, kind of similarly sized electric sedan. ⁓ The new twenty twenty six Lexus ES. The ES, you know, never, never been one of Lexus's most exciting products. ⁓ But, you know, it's generally, you know, since the 1990s, it has been ⁓ Lexus's second best selling product after the RX. ⁓ And now the new EX, the new ES for 2026 is launching. ⁓ The drive program is still over a month away, but they're launching this thing and it's going to be available to power trains, either hybrid or battery electric. And they're actually launching the BAV first, which is kind of unusual. Nicole (34:16) That is a different take. It normally goes the other way around, but... Sam Abuelsamid (34:19) Yeah. So the, the BEVs are going to be hitting dealerships starting in the next few weeks with the, the ES 350E and ES 500E where the, the 500 is all wheel drive. The 350 is front wheel drive. 307 miles of electric range. It's got a J 3,400 charging port. Basically, it's all the same hardware that you will find in a Toyota BZ or a Toyota CHR or Subaru Saltera or a Subaru Uncharted. So same stuff, 221 horsepower, 338 horsepower if you get all wheel drive. And the pricing, the ES350, uh, starts at $47,500, um, with, before the destination charge. Roberto Baldwin (35:23) This is the one that's cheaper than the hybrid, right? Like $1,500, it's $2,000 cheaper than the hybrid. Sam Abuelsamid (35:26) Yes. Yeah. Nicole (35:27) Is it? Wow. Okay. Why does that happen? Why would that happen? Why would the what is that to get people to buy an EV? Roberto Baldwin (35:32) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (35:39) ⁓ I guess, yeah. Nicole (35:41) just to like, hey, please consider the EV, please, pretty please. Roberto Baldwin (35:43) They're getting sweet deals on the batteries. They're like, we're Toyota, we're the number one auto manufacturer in the world. If you wanna work with us, you're gonna have to bring these battery prices down. And they're like, all right. And they're like, boom, now we can sell them cheaper. It's really the batteries. Nicole (35:47) Mm. Sam Abuelsamid (35:48) Yeah, so it's tough. Nicole (35:51) That's true. Sam Abuelsamid (35:59) Well, they're Nicole (35:59) could be. Sam Abuelsamid (35:59) also building their own batteries now. So, you know, the destination charge is $1,295. Roberto Baldwin (36:02) Yeah, see you there, you. Wow, that's really low. it's not even really low, but it is. Everything's broken. Sam Abuelsamid (36:10) Yeah. Nicole (36:11) That's... Everything's broken with this story. What? What's happening? Sam Abuelsamid (36:13) So even with destination, 48,795 is the starting price for the ES350E. And then the hybrid, when that arrives, the ES350H will start at 50,995. So about $2,000 more. Roberto Baldwin (36:33) Dun dun dun. So if you want a fancy EV, there's a multiple, that's the problem, we got too many fancy EVs to be honest. But, know, fancy EV is still an EV. Nicole (36:38) It's coming. there's a lot of EVs coming like right now, like all of a sudden these EVs and I'm kind of like, well, it's funny to me where EVs aren't like the hotness at the moment, but yet the OEMs are like, we already have this in the pipeline guys. Roberto Baldwin (36:56) Where are we gonna, I mean, there's the companies that are going all in, they're like, well, we're not stopping now because, you know, they're like, well, this three years, I mean, we have a long-term roadmap. Let's think about like long-term as a company versus. Nicole (37:09) Yes, what's going to happen as opposed to right now? Sam Abuelsamid (37:11) Well, I mean, was basically ready to start production on their EVs and they canceled them. Yeah, right as gas or right as oil prices are $125 a barrel and probably going to $200. Roberto Baldwin (37:13) you That's at the exact wrong time. Nicole (37:18) right, yeah, that's true. Roberto Baldwin (37:26) skyrocketing. Nicole (37:27) But it depends how long it's gonna, well, it depends how long the prices stay where they're, know, because they, fluctuate. They're not a static thing. You know, they spike and then they come down a little. They never go back down to where they were, but they spike and they come down. They spike and they come down. So I don't know if that's gonna be enough to, and because so many people, think, truly when the, not the tariffs disappeared, when the incentives disappeared, we're like, we gotta buy our EV now. We still had, I think a lot of almost ready, Roberto Baldwin (37:37) Yeah. Nicole (37:57) EV buyers were like, right now, let's go. so, right. So it's starting. Yeah. But it's like a slow creep. Like you wonder how you it's, it's tough. It's tough to figure out whether EVs are the right call or not. Roberto Baldwin (37:59) Yeah, there's that spike and then there was the lull and now it's going and now the the EV cells are going back up again. Yeah. that the IONIQ 5 is up 6 % over last year over year. Yeah, so if you're still making an EV, people want, people are still buying it. Yeah. Nicole (38:15) Nice, go Ionic 5. People are gonna buy them, yeah, there you go. Roberto Baldwin (38:24) It's why they say you see it everywhere, more people buy it. Sam Abuelsamid (38:24) ⁓ all right. So have either of you two ever bought or considered buying a car from Carvana? Roberto Baldwin (38:36) I have not. I bought one, there was a startup in San Francisco that was, ⁓ BMW had invested in them. Car Shift, or Shift, I think it was called. And we bought like two cars from them, because they would bring the car to your house and then you could drive it around. If you liked it, you just bought the car on an iPad, essentially. They were used cars, they weren't, know, so we always buy used. And so we used that for a few times and then it just, it went out of business. Nicole (38:37) No, really, not be- Sam Abuelsamid (38:57) Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (39:03) And I remember I wrote an article about it and then Carvana was like, Hey, we do the same thing. I'm like, you don't bring the car to my house until after I've purchased it. Nicole (39:13) Yeah, which is a little different, you know. Sam Abuelsamid (39:15) So, know, Carvana has gotten kind of famous in the used car business, especially during the early 2020s. They were basically buying up every used car they could get their hands on and almost went bankrupt because they spent so much money buying up all these used cars because, you know, manufacturers couldn't build new cars. So everybody was looking for used cars. And so Carvana tried to buy up as much inventory as they could, almost went broke. They managed to turn things around and they're famous for having these car vending machines outside their showrooms. Yeah, well, apparently Carvana is now starting to sell new cars too. They have bought a number of ⁓ Stellantis dealerships in the last six months. Nicole (39:52) that look really cool. Sam Abuelsamid (40:07) And so depending on where you are in the country, like I went and looked here, you know, I saw this, I saw the video on, on TFL Roman and Andre were talking about it. ⁓ you know, I, I tried it here and I went, you know, just went to Carvana, could not find any new car inventory. But when I, when I turned on the VPN and had it show me as being in Denver, then it showed a bunch of new car inventory from Ram, Jeep, Stellantis, Dodge, and Alfa Romeo and Fiat, ⁓ brand new cars that you could buy. And so this is gonna be interesting. If Carvana starts buying up franchises, dealerships from other manufacturers, ⁓ besides just Stellantis, And, you know, using the same approach that they have, you know, they still have the stores open, but you can go, you can just go on the Carvana website, shop for a car and do the entire purchase online. And then they'll deliver it to you after you pay for it. ⁓ And if you've got a trade in, they'll pick up your trade in at the same time. So it's, ⁓ mean, would you... Would you consider buying a car through Carvana, a new car? Roberto Baldwin (41:40) I wanna drive things, but I think most people are like, eh, I'll just buy it. Nicole (41:45) I I think I'm in the Robbie camp because I need to drive it. need to, yeah, I couldn't spend the kind of money you spend on a vehicle without knowing if I like it, driving it. I would have said that even before I did this, I need to drive that. I can't just like, yeah, sure, looks cool. Sam Abuelsamid (42:00) I I think generally, I think we all agree on that. We would want to drive something before we buy it. But then you look at Tesla, you look at Lucid and Rivian and others that are doing direct to consumer sales. And I think there's a lot of consumers out there that say, yeah, no, I'm good with it. I don't need. Nicole (42:07) Mm-hmm. But you can drive a Tesla. mean, you can go to a few. There's a one of their, they don't call them dealership showroom near you. You can go and they do have vehicles that you can drive. Like you can go to a Tesla showroom and drive them if you want. I don't know. Rivian do the same thing. Roberto Baldwin (42:22) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (42:29) Yeah. Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (42:33) I think a lot of people are fine with just like ordering a car and they drive it the first time when they get it. I know it's very, I didn't say it was good. I didn't say it was good. I said it was weird. Nicole (42:40) It's bizarre to me because I don't know that. ⁓ Sam Abuelsamid (42:43) I think it might depend. If you had a 72 hour ⁓ full refund policy or something like that, or seven day refund policy, if you buy it, decide it's not the right fit for you to come back, pick it up, ⁓ as long as you haven't done any damage to it, and maybe it's less than a certain number of miles, then they'll take it away. If you had something like that, I think a lot of people would actually be fine with it. Nicole (42:54) Hmm, okay. Right, right. Probably if you had that like, yeah, if you could just drive it and they said, you know, there's a mileage limit, you can't take it for 5,000 miles while you have it. Just test it out a little bit. Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (43:24) So you can't drive from New Hampshire to California and back. Nicole (43:28) Right. Yeah, that's too much. Sam Abuelsamid (43:31) Yeah. But you know, if it's, you know, say less than 200 miles or something, or less than 500 miles. Roberto Baldwin (43:38) I'm looking at Carvana for ⁓ used Ionic 5s because our lease is almost up. And all the sort of inexpensive ones all have white interiors. I'm like, man, I got dogs. Come on. Sam Abuelsamid (43:48) Ha ha ha. Nicole (43:51) Even if I didn't have white interiors, I'm anti-white interior because I have yet to see a press car with a white or light cream interior that the driver's seat is not blue jean colored. Cause your jeans, and it doesn't matter, it could be the cheapest one or the most expensive one. You get that hint of blue and you can really see it as it starts to wear a little bit, just get a little bit of creasing from use. You can see the creases are white and around the creases it's more blue. Roberto Baldwin (44:02) Yeah Sam Abuelsamid (44:03) Yeah. Nicole (44:18) I'm like, no, I'm not, I wear blue jeans too much because if that's what happens as a press car with five to 10,000 miles, what's it gonna look like in a couple of years, you know? Sam Abuelsamid (44:27) Yeah. I don't Roberto Baldwin (44:27) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (44:28) understand people who buy cars with white interiors. Nicole (44:30) It's a beautiful idea. It's eventual gray. It's like it's color morphing. You're paying for color morphing. I agree with blue gray. Is it a feature or a benefit that your car changes colors as you go? Roberto Baldwin (44:30) No, it's it's eventual gray. That's what I call white interior Sam Abuelsamid (44:34) Yeah. Yeah, but the problem is it's going to be gray with hints of blue. Roberto Baldwin (44:39) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (44:48) Well, speaking of Stellantis, ⁓ apparently they have actually officially, although I think you've been able to do this for a while, but they've officially turned on Tesla supercharging support on Stellantis EVs. They're like the last ones to do it, I think. ⁓ And you can buy adapters from Stellantis. And they also said that starting with the 2027 Charger, when they start building those, that will be their first model that comes from the factory with a J3400 charging port. Nicole (45:23) Yay. I mean, that's good. That's a good thing, I guess. Yeah. Everyone's doing that slowly, but surely, you know. Sam Abuelsamid (45:24) Yeah. I was just looking up Stellantis' EV sales the other day. Last year they sold 11,400 Wagoneer S's, well, 11,399, and about 7,400 Charger Daytonas. So not a huge number of people that are impacted by this yet, but I'm sure that'll change once they finally start selling the Recon. Nicole (45:43) Mm-hmm. Correct. Yeah, theoretically that should bump their EV numbers. Sam Abuelsamid (46:04) Yeah, because those are going to fly off the dealer's showrooms, right? Nicole (46:08) ⁓ mm hmm. Roberto Baldwin (46:09) ⁓ yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (46:11) Okay. Nicole (46:13) Reserving opinion for later. Sam Abuelsamid (46:15) ⁓ Let's talk about scammers and fraudsters. So remember Trevor Milton? Roberto Baldwin (46:24) Yep. me just put a... Nicola. Nicole (46:26) I don't remember him. I'm looking this story up. Sam Abuelsamid (46:26) He Nicole (46:30) Convicted Nikola... yes. Sam Abuelsamid (46:30) was the guy behind Nicola. Yeah, he got charged and convicted and went to prison for committing fraud. ⁓ And then some guy ⁓ pardoned him, so he's back out free again. ⁓ And so he's got a new scam. He bought a defunct ⁓ business jet manufacturer called Cyberjet. ⁓ They launched this plane. Nicole (47:00) But it's not cyber with a C, it's cyber with an S. Like just in case you choose to Google this. Sam Abuelsamid (47:03) Yes, yes, correct. So, know, this is, it's not like a Gulfstream, you know, that can fly, you know, six, seven, 8,000 miles across the country. This is more like a Honda jet. It's a light jet. And ⁓ when they launched the original SJ-30, they sold a grand total of five. Nicole (47:22) Mm-hmm. Sam Abuelsamid (47:31) Not 500, but five. Yeah. ⁓ So, Milton has bought up the remains of CyberJet and now he's pitching this thing ⁓ as a, ⁓ let's see. ⁓ Roberto Baldwin (47:33) Five. Nicole (47:33) Five, like one hand, five. Sam Abuelsamid (47:54) It's all about the AI. Nicole (47:54) Hmm. It's gonna, it's, it's full aerial autonomy. So does that imply, I'm reading through this, you don't need a pilot at all. I just hop on my plane and say, take me to LA. Roberto Baldwin (48:00) All about air. Sam Abuelsamid (48:09) Presumably. Nicole (48:11) I feel like I don't trust that. I feel like I don't trust that. I also feel like it's not going to happen, but also even if it did, I feel like I don't trust that. You guys buy that car first or buy that plane first. See how it does for you. You let me know. Maybe I'll consider one. No, this is never gonna happen. This is never gonna happen. I don't see how this happens. Sam Abuelsamid (48:18) Haha. Yeah. I you know, mean, given Trevor Milton's background, ⁓ I would say this would probably not be a wise investment. Roberto Baldwin (48:43) Yeah, you should not give ⁓ scammers money. ⁓ But we keep giving scammers money. I mean, we still do it. mean, what was the guy with the WeWork? He was Adam Newman, big scammer. And then that fell apart. then Anderson Horowitz just gave him money again for some other ridiculous thing of like a year ago. Nicole (48:48) Words to live by. Words to live by. You should not give scammers money. Sam Abuelsamid (48:57) ⁓ Adam Newman. Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (49:10) So yeah, you're part of the club, you can scam all you want. You're gonna walk away with a bunch of money, everyone else is gonna be disappointed, and then you're just gonna do it again. Sam Abuelsamid (49:24) Yeah, mean, if you're a billionaire investor and you want to throw your money at this guy that set it on fire, go right ahead. ⁓ Roberto Baldwin (49:24) Boop boop boop boop. Nicole (49:31) I feel like you've like and I have no sympathy for that person at this point like the first time I would say like if this you didn't know and he scammed you that sucks for you Maybe you just bought in right but like the second time it's like hey want to give me more money No, no, I don't I choose not to give you more money. That would be my position and I don't know why anybody Would give more money. It doesn't make sense Sam Abuelsamid (49:35) No. Yeah. So the other one who's not necessarily a total scammer, but he's got a mixed history is Malcolm Bricklin. So, know, Bricklin, he's got to be in his eighties now, I think. Yeah, he's had a long history with the auto industry with trying to bring various products to the North American market. He of course, his first success came with Subaru. He was the original importer for Subaru into the US. ⁓ And ⁓ then he convinced the government of Nova Scotia and Canada to build him a factory in Atlantic Canada to build a safety vehicle. That's actually what he called it. It wasn't even called a sports car. was a two seater, know, the Bricklin SV1. ⁓ That lasted about a year and a half before they went belly up. ⁓ And then then he had he was behind bringing you goes to America. ⁓ That didn't go well. Yeah. ⁓ Roberto Baldwin (51:13) especially for the people that bought the U-goos. Nicole (51:15) Right? Sam Abuelsamid (51:18) And then back in the late 2000s, he was back again with a couple of other attempted ventures that didn't go anywhere. I actually interviewed the guy at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. And I'll have a link to that in the show notes. That one was something he called visionary vehicles, which was ⁓ going to bring in some plug-in hybrid vehicles built by Cherry in China. ⁓ That never went anywhere. Nicole (51:29) Really? Roberto Baldwin (51:40) ⁓ no. Sam Abuelsamid (51:47) And then now he's back again, ⁓ this time pitching something called the Bricklin 3EV. Nicole (52:00) Robbie just ended up my entire feelings right there, just so know. Sam Abuelsamid (52:02) Just one big Roberto Baldwin (52:03) It's like, Sam Abuelsamid (52:04) sigh. Roberto Baldwin (52:05) it's, it's just that if you have, I feel like if I just walked, as long as you just, if you have a presentation, like our job as journalists, 90 % of our job is just showing up and turning things in on time. That's it. That's really, as long you can show up, you can turn things on time and you can create a legible sentence with a noun and a predicate and punctuation at the end. Boom. And some verbs. Nicole (52:26) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Sam Abuelsamid (52:30) Don't forget some verbs. Nicole (52:32) Some verbs in there, yeah. Roberto Baldwin (52:33) If you can do that, boom, you're a writer. That's it. That's really it. I feel like for these type of fellows, if you just show up into a room and you dress the part and you say the words and you have some 3D renderings, that's it. That's all you need to get billions of dollars. And I feel like I'm really, I've blown it as a, I mean, I knew it. You're like, hey, I'm going to be a writer. I'm not going to make a lot of money. That's, that's. Nicole (52:54) You have made a mistake, Robbie. Roberto Baldwin (53:01) Every writer, whenever they sit down, they're like, well, I could do this job, or I could do something else which would be less stressful. Nah, I'm gonna keep doing the job where I make less money. Everyone hates me and I work long hours. Sam Abuelsamid (53:12) So. Nicole (53:12) in case anyone was wondering what this job was like. Roberto Baldwin (53:15) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (53:17) So in case you didn't guess it from the name, from 3EV, ⁓ it is an EV and it's a three-wheeler with a single wheel at the rear, because there's such a huge market for those. Roberto Baldwin (53:19) Ahem. Nicole (53:33) I mean, truly. Yeah, no. Why would why do this again? The why? Is this the companies and things that will never happen portion of the episode? ⁓ Things that will never happen. Roberto Baldwin (53:43) Yes, this is... the things that'll never happen. Sam Abuelsamid (53:43) ⁓ yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I just, I don't get, I'm, I'm, I'm at complete loss as to why anyone still pays any attention to this guy. Yeah. He's 87 years old. and, ⁓ so this thing is supposed to start at $30,000. Nicole (53:54) that you're at loss. act. He's 87, wow. Roberto Baldwin (54:09) Sure it is. Nicole (54:09) Okay. Roberto Baldwin (54:10) But you don't even get all the wheels. You only get three of them. For a few thousand dollars less you can get a Bolt with all the wheels. Sam Abuelsamid (54:11) And. Nicole (54:13) You don't even... You're down one wheel. How is it even possible? Sam Abuelsamid (54:21) Yeah, but the thing is, if you do that, if you put four wheels on it, then you have to certify it as a car, not as a motorcycle. Roberto Baldwin (54:25) It's a car. my God. Hold on, hold on, hold on. So I'm looking at this interior photo. That dash cluster is from the Bolt. Nicole (54:35) Is it? Roberto Baldwin (54:36) if you, the one, that is the Bolt Dash Cluster and that, the original Bolt. Sam Abuelsamid (54:36) yeah, you're right it is. That's the only, yeah. And Nicole (54:38) my gosh. Awesome. Sam Abuelsamid (54:42) yeah, I think there's a whole bunch of bolt pieces in there. Roberto Baldwin (54:45) So you could just buy a bolt. Just buy a bolt. Don't get this. It's a new bolt. This is old bolt. Would you like an old bolt that's missing a wheel? Nicole (54:46) Bolt pieces bolted on. Sam Abuelsamid (54:50) Yeah, but. Yeah. Nicole (54:55) Could you, an old boat, minus one wheel, here we go. Have we got a car for you. Sam Abuelsamid (54:57) And only has two seats instead of four. Roberto Baldwin (55:02) doesn't yeah and has a huge it yeah it's like even the design is sort of it's very 80s Sam Abuelsamid (55:12) It's very ⁓ 80s Pontiac, actually. Roberto Baldwin (55:15) Yes, yes, Pontiac, that's what you. Sam Abuelsamid (55:18) That grill, as soon as I saw that grill, I'm thinking Pontiac. Yeah. Nicole (55:19) if you'd like a bolt Pontiac with one less wheel. Roberto Baldwin (55:20) Even the even the little V on the front almost looks like the Pontiac V like from far away. Yeah, this is is this is some shenanigans. This is just cobbled together shenanigans to get money out of people for by an 80s. 87. I am I going to have the energy to scam people at 87? Sam Abuelsamid (55:27) Yeah. It's bad. Nicole (55:42) I mean, you know, if you thought you could get away with it, nah. Apparently some people do. Roberto Baldwin (55:45) I guess. Nicole (55:50) Maybe he's going to think he's been doing it for so long, people will forget who he was and buy into it. Sam Abuelsamid (55:50) Yeah, mean, Roberto Baldwin (55:52) That's just, it's like part of his... Sam Abuelsamid (55:54) with visionary vehicles, there were a bunch of dealers that paid up some amount of money for franchises. And I'm sure he can find some suckers out there that'll pam something for this. Roberto Baldwin (56:10) This is very much, and this is kind of almost, and it's not Silicon Valley thinking, this is just sort of investor thinking, is that everyone wants to be the person who invested in Uber or invested in Facebook. Again, that's how all these oligarchs, that's how they made all this money, PayPal, Uber, and Facebook. They all invested early, those things took off. They invest in so many stupid things that never take off, but they have so much money now they're just gambling with billions of, billions of dollars that belong to other people because they made one lucky choice, the end. These are not smarter than smart people. They are very lucky people. Nicole (56:47) Mm-hmm. Sam Abuelsamid (56:47) And in some cases, they are quite dumber than dumb. think as you get more and more money, you actually become dumber. Nicole (56:48) Mm-hmm. Roberto Baldwin (56:55) Yeah, because no one wants to say no to you. don't have any, no one, because everyone who's around you has some sort of financial incentive to say yes to you, to stay on your good side, whether you work for them or you're a friend who's sort of being subsidized by their lifestyle, you're a hanger on, you're part of the posse. ⁓ And so yeah, you're not gonna say no to these people. so they just, get this, their ⁓ ego gets more, it gets inflated and then. If no one ever pushes back on you, you just turn into a bad person. Sam Abuelsamid (57:29) All right. ⁓ So at the opposite end of the scale is Rolls-Royce, ⁓ which has been around for a while, been in business for a long time. ⁓ And a few years back, now former CEO said, yep, we're going to go fully electric by the end of 2030. His ⁓ successor, Chris Brownridge, ⁓ said, no, we're going to keep building V12s for the foreseeable future. Nicole (57:58) I mean, is anybody surprised at this point when they're doing, when they're backpedaling because it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we were going to do this, this isn't going to work the way we thought. We've changed our mind. Like they're all doing it at this point. Sam Abuelsamid (57:58) Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (58:11) Rolls Royce is such a weird thing because they sell like seven cars a year or many seven cars. It's when I was talking to the, I believe it was the head of design or the head of engineering, doesn't matter, over for some very low quantity car. They were like, we make like X amount of cars a year. Nicole (58:24) Hahaha. Roberto Baldwin (58:38) They could all be V16s. It doesn't matter. Most of the people don't even drive their car that we sell them. They just, they, they buy it, it sits somewhere and it's just, you know, and appreciates, and then they sell it again. And like our carbon footprint is nothing. It's, it's, it's like, you get more carbon for, yeah, it's inconsequential. You know, the carbon footprint of Toyota's lunch menu is higher than this entire company's like, you know, ⁓ vehicle. You know, when you look at Sam Abuelsamid (58:44) Yeah. It's inconsequential. Nicole (59:02) You Roberto Baldwin (59:07) Rolls Royce, sure you're gonna put a V12. EVs make more sense, I mean, these luxury vehicles make more sense as EVs, because there's no rumble. They put these V12s in, and then they do everything in their power to remove the rumble and the vibration and the sound and everything from that V12, from the passenger. Sam Abuelsamid (59:27) There's a reason why Rolls Royces have always had names like ⁓ Shadow and Spectre and Ghost because like you said, they try and make them as quiet as possible. So what difference does it make if it's got a V12 or an electric engine, electric motor? It's irrelevant. Nicole (59:29) Mm-hmm. Roberto Baldwin (59:38) The afterlife. At the end of the day, they could tell people that it has a V12 and put an electric motor in it, because the people who are buying this are not driving it. People who buy S-classes, like, yeah, sometimes people get driven around. Yeah, the executives are like, but if you're buying a Rolls Royce, you're not buying it to drive it, you're buying it to get driven around town. The only person who knows. Sam Abuelsamid (59:55) Yeah. Nicole (1:00:06) Nope. Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:09) Well, unless you buy like a Dawn or a Spectre, because there two doors. Roberto Baldwin (1:00:13) Yeah. Okay, yeah, there's that. But you know, for the most part, you're you're just sitting in the back and you're like, this is nice and quiet. Wouldn't even know. Yeah, yeah, we're delivering your V12. And then you go to the driver, like, hey, it's an EV, don't tell them. Every once in a while, just go vroom. Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:15) But they don't sell many of those. Nicole (1:00:28) Just don't let him know. Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:28) It just has a big V12 shaped case that has an electric motor in the bottom of it. Roberto Baldwin (1:00:36) Yeah, no one is... It's just like a facade. Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:39) And and that has fake exhaust sounds coming out the back very very quiet fake exhaust sounds Roberto Baldwin (1:00:44) Yeah, you just put an exhaust thing, you put a little speaker there, no one's gonna know. It's like the Hemi, it's the Hemi thing. could tell, Slantus could say everything has a Hemi and then just put like a little speaker in the back of the car. No one's opening the hood on their vehicles anymore. Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:51) Yeah. Yeah. All right. And then finally, Corvette is Chevrolet's apparently going to bring out yet another variant of the Corvette for 2027, the new Grand Sport, which apparently they're going to get a larger engine. So the 6.2 liter V8, just not enough. So apparently going to punch it out to 6.7 and Nicole (1:01:02) Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (1:01:29) give it an extra 30 to 50 horsepower. Nicole (1:01:33) Okay, I mean, it's not like it needed a lot more, but I guess you're buying a Corvette, just want all the power you can possibly get. So that's a good thing, right? Sam Abuelsamid (1:01:33) Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (1:01:35) Ugh. When this news came out, ⁓ 401k's all over the world screamed at her like, noooo! Sam Abuelsamid (1:01:41) Exactly. Nicole (1:01:46) Like, no, don't take it out right now, wait. Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (1:01:52) Alright Then we've got a couple of listeners that and couple listener messages first up from Mark L Mark Rown in say I'm looking at buying a Honda Ridgeline and I've gone down the rabbit hole also known as YouTube After some mind-numbing videos. I've seen a few claiming that 2027 model will have some updates both the interior and exterior do look dated and 2027 is supposed to improve both. That being said, a couple of reviews have said there's a good chance of a type R ridge line in the pipeline. Have any of you heard anything on this? No. ⁓ No. Nicole (1:02:29) No. I mean that... Roberto Baldwin (1:02:30) No, especially I don't think there's ever gonna be a Type R Ridgeline. That is Nicole (1:02:34) I don't either. Roberto Baldwin (1:02:35) not Honda's MO. That is a GM MO. Let's just make everything fast. Nicole (1:02:39) Yeah, I don't see that hat that would, mean, no, I can't imagine that. Could it happen? Sure. Any expectation? Zero. Sam Abuelsamid (1:02:42) And No, not gonna happen. ⁓ And even the Ridgeline redesign, that's actually not coming until probably next year as a 2028 model, not as a 27. Roberto Baldwin (1:02:58) Yeah, Nicole (1:02:58) Mm-hmm. Roberto Baldwin (1:02:59) because they just updated like three years ago? Four? Sam Abuelsamid (1:03:02) They did a refresh a couple of years ago. Nicole (1:03:04) The refra, Roberto Baldwin (1:03:04) Yeah, they did Nicole (1:03:04) yeah. Roberto Baldwin (1:03:05) the exterior refresh for years ago. This is the vehicle that my wife got into and she's like, is this an EV? I'm all no. She's like, what's the point? Sam Abuelsamid (1:03:12) Yeah. Nicole (1:03:13) I liked it. liked the originally when it still had, I don't want to say winglets. That's not it. That's an airplane. The, ⁓ the buttresses. Thank you. I winglets in my head. I'm like, no wrong kind of vehicle. I'll say, yeah, I like those. Roberto Baldwin (1:03:18) The Flying Buttresses? Sam Abuelsamid (1:03:21) the first generation. Roberto Baldwin (1:03:25) But it makes it harder to like, it looks less like a real truck. think that's what people, it turns people off. Yeah, that. Nicole (1:03:32) It wasn't Sam Abuelsamid (1:03:32) Yeah, yeah, I when they did the second gen, know, one of the things they changed was, you know, they wanted to make it look more truck like. And so when I mean, when you look at, you look at most pickup trucks, they have a separate cab and bed and, know, it's two separate pieces. So on the new Ridgeline, on the current generation Ridgeline, what they did was it's actually still a unibody, just like the first generation was, but they They put a groove in the metal and put a rubber strip in there so that it looks like the cab and pad are separate. But it's actually all one. If you pull out that rubber strip, you can see it's just one piece of metal underneath there. Yeah. It's one of those visual tricks to fool you into thinking you got something different. Roberto Baldwin (1:04:15) It's a trick. Nicole (1:04:16) It's a trick, they fooled us all. Roberto Baldwin (1:04:22) It's the full unit thinking you got a vehicle that handles worse. Sam Abuelsamid (1:04:25) Yeah. Nicole (1:04:26) Hahaha. Roberto Baldwin (1:04:28) You got body unframed. Psych! Unibody. Sam Abuelsamid (1:04:32) All right, and finally from Mr. Burns ⁓ He left a big actually it was actually three separate messages on on discord because it was it so long but ⁓ he wanted to share some share some of his thoughts with us on the Kia EV3 which Supposedly the EV3 is still coming to the US later this year That's what Kia tells us ⁓ and You know, we're not getting the EV4, although if you happen to live across the Detroit River in Canada, you can go to a Kia dealer in Canada and buy an EV4. You cannot get them here in the US. But the EV3, ⁓ Mr. Burns had a chance to drive it for a number of days when he rented one and ⁓ he got the EV3 Deluxe GT line and he has a whole bunch of ⁓ things that, ⁓ thoughts about this. ⁓ Like the cargo room, ⁓ unlike the Renault Clio Hybrid I had a year ago in the Netherlands, I was able to put a full-size roller suitcase with work-related gear in the back. Plenty of room left for colleagues, more efficient carry-on roller as well. ⁓ Comfortable cockpit, ⁓ Qi-charging, and ⁓ big gulp friendly cupholders. ⁓ Long reach for the flat infotainment screen. Nicole (1:05:52) like that analysis. Big gut friendly. Sam Abuelsamid (1:05:59) So the cars cars compact but I had to lean a bit to get to the right edge of things on the infotainment screen From what I can tell this would be the case in the ev9 as well Yeah, it's I think it's the same It's yeah, it's the same screen they've got on a bunch of vehicles I think including the The k4 Where you've got two two 12 inch displays plus a little Roberto Baldwin (1:06:10) Yeah, that little weird cover. That cover... Steering wheel thing, yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:28) four or five inch display in the middle there that you can't see behind the steering wheel. Let's see what else here. Nicole (1:06:35) That's such a weird placement. I thought I did think about that in the K form. Like why is this here? It's so hard to see. Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:41) Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (1:06:41) It was weird in the EV9 when we drove it first time in Korea. was like, this doesn't make sense. But then there's buttons for the climate control. like, all right, fine. For the actual temperature, I'm like, I never used these. Nicole (1:06:45) Yeah. Yeah, take. It's like it's just a cute little spot to put that in, but you don't ever really need to use it or you forget it's there because you can't see it. Roberto Baldwin (1:06:59) Yeah, I just hit the auto button and just go on with my life. I rarely like change the things unless it's... Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:07) Let's see what else. Left and right stocks thankfully have backups on screen while the steering wheel is blocking key controls. ⁓ Let's see. WTF EU, stop telling me to drink coffee. The EU's regulations for driver assist can kiss my fat American ass. I've never been more nannyed in a car than I was in the EV3. Thankfully, I figured out how mute the stupid speed limit warning indicator and turn off the mom is teaching me to drive lane intervention crap during adaptive cruise control. Nicole (1:07:41) Wait a a minute, Mr. Burns, don't hold back next time and please tell us how you really feel about all that nanny stuff. Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:45) Yeah. Roberto Baldwin (1:07:47) I like that the Europeans are like, you know, we got really good coffee. Maybe you should have some. Like we know you're not, we know you're not tired, but have you tried our coffee? Nicole (1:07:50) You know, please stop. We just think you could use a coffee Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:55) Yeah, just pull over grab Nicole (1:07:55) and there's a cappuccino right there. Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:57) grab a cappuccino. Yeah ⁓ Roberto Baldwin (1:08:00) Have a nice piece of bread. Nicole (1:08:02) some bread, a little bit of butter. Sam Abuelsamid (1:08:04) Let's see. ⁓ The charging experience, once I figured out what I was doing, I charged it circle K twice, once midweek and then near the airport before returning the car. First night, me and my colleague spent 45 minutes charging, recharging, and trying to unlock the charger plug and 400 kilowatt circle K installation. We didn't know how to disconnect until some Dutch girl comes out to unplug her Peugeot. I would just lock and unlock the car. Roberto Baldwin (1:08:04) little bit of European bread. Ahem. Nicole (1:08:22) no. Sam Abuelsamid (1:08:33) May I ask you another question? you seen the circle? Have you been in the circle K for 45 minutes while charging your car next to ours? Yes. What the hell have you been doing for 45 minutes in a circle K? Nicole (1:08:39) haha Roberto Baldwin (1:08:40) Ha ha ha! Nicole (1:08:44) You Roberto Baldwin (1:08:47) Like what do you get? Yeah, that's a lot of time in a Circle K. So when I do my long drives, I have places that I stop that I know because I know there's like a restaurant nearby or something to do or a taco truck. Yeah, something I can just kind of relax and do a thing. Like Circle K, you're like, okay, I guess I'm gonna get a really bad burrito, frozen burrito. I'll throw in the microwave. Sam Abuelsamid (1:08:57) or a taco truck. ⁓ Performance was very nice car solid ran an eco driving mode during our northeastern car since our northeastern offices didn't have many chargers available ⁓ And we learned that there are no circle K's or SO's out that way ⁓ Even an eco move mode the car moved like it was fun not like Polestar too fun But I think I could have been if I tried it in sport, so he liked the performance ⁓ Real vent and climate controls somewhat confusing infotainment Nicole (1:09:40) That's a plus. Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:41) ⁓ It appears this car has the same layout for controls as the EV9. Yeah, we already talked about that. ⁓ And in summary, great compact car and a first EV for a small family based on this week alone. I'm going to be begging my wife to at least try the EV9 for a test drive in lieu of having the roadside SOK and Shell EV chargers and gas stations on the main roads. Roberto Baldwin (1:09:46) Yeah. Nicole (1:09:48) Mm-hmm, yeah. Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:06) I think we could do Roberto Baldwin (1:10:06) You Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:07) nicely with an adapter and a Tesla charging account. Speaking of which, I got between 90 kilowatts to 125 kilowatts charging with CCS2 connections at a 400 kilowatt charging station with the 400 volt architecture. Nicole (1:10:21) Okay. Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:23) So thank you for sharing all that, Mr. Burns. We appreciate it. Roberto Baldwin (1:10:23) There you go. Nicole (1:10:26) Yeah, that was cool. Roberto Baldwin (1:10:28) Just gotta copy and paste it and put it on a site. Boom, car review. Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:30) Yeah. Well, it's Nicole (1:10:31) Yeah, curve it, bam, done. Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:33) all in the Discord. So if you haven't checked out the Wheelbarrings Discord, there's all some interesting conversations going on in there. And with that, I think we will call it a show. Nicole (1:10:46) We're done, people. Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:48) All right, talk to you next time. Bye. Nicole (1:10:50) Bye. Roberto Baldwin (1:10:51) Bye.