Sam Abuelsamid (00:01)
This is episode four hundred and seventy seven of wheel bearings. I'm Sam Abuelsamid from Telemetry.

Roberto Baldwin (00:06)
And I am Roberto Baldwin from SAE International.

jill ciminillo (00:10)
And I am Jill Ciminillo. freelancer at large. I think that's where I'm settling. Freelancer

Sam Abuelsamid (00:14)
There we go. I like that.

jill ciminillo (00:16)
at large.

Roberto Baldwin (00:17)
I like Rad Lady about town, but you can try that next week. There you go.

jill ciminillo (00:22)
And Brad Lady About Town. I can I can do that. Who identifies as tall.

Roberto Baldwin (00:26)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:29)
all right.

Roberto Baldwin (00:30)
Listen,

in a in a room full of fifth in a room full of third graders, you're you're a you're towering.

jill ciminillo (00:36)
I'm

Sam Abuelsamid (00:36)
There

jill ciminillo (00:36)
I'm still short, trust me.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:37)
you

Roberto Baldwin (00:39)
I started to say

Sam Abuelsamid (00:39)
you would have been

Roberto Baldwin (00:40)
fifth graders and then I I jumped it back a few grades.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:43)
You you would have you you would have been tall compared to many of the kids that showed up at our door last night for hell of a.

Roberto Baldwin (00:49)
There you go.

jill ciminillo (00:50)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (00:51)
The yeah. Someone stole our bowl last night.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:57)
I I did not leave the bowl outside.

Roberto Baldwin (00:59)
We

we we went to a family thing. We don't have a lot of trick-or-treaters. So we just stuck a bowl out with a bunch of candy. And we were kinda hoping like the kids would just steal all the candy. And like two teenagers showed up. Like the only two of four teenagers. Not kids, teenagers, like the entire time we were gone. And they were like having the discussion 'cause we have a camera for the door. They were having discussion about the candy. Like, should we take more than two? And then they took more and I was like, Good for you, kids. And then they one of came back like had their back to the candy and then ran off

with the bowl like a like a raccoon.

Sam Abuelsamid (01:31)
Huh.

Roberto Baldwin (01:32)
Which I'm like, just take all the candy. Just pour the candy in your backpack. Why'd you

jill ciminillo (01:35)
Leave the bowl.

Roberto Baldwin (01:36)
leave the bowl it was it was a plastic bowl we don't use for much anyway, so it's fine. It wasn't a good

Sam Abuelsamid (01:41)
Well we

Roberto Baldwin (01:42)
bowl. It was a plastic meh bowl. But still it's it's

Sam Abuelsamid (01:44)
We we

Roberto Baldwin (01:45)
funny.

Sam Abuelsamid (01:45)
we we have not actually done the Halloween thing here at our house for several years because this is the first time in probably five years that I've actually been home on Halloween. I've

I've usually been traveling somewhere on Halloween. And so, you know, we actually went and got a little pumpkin, got some candy, and you know, we got we've our our neighborhood has done a lot had a lot of turnover in the last few years, so we've got a lot of younger kids now. You know, some of the older older folks

Yeah, a lot a lot of the older folks have moved on. So we got a lot got a bunch of young families now. And so they started showing up around five o'clock, a little after five o'clock was the first ones that showed up. And then we I s you know, started giving out the candy and like by six forty five it was all gone. And so said, Okay,

Roberto Baldwin (02:34)
yay.

Sam Abuelsamid (02:36)
I'll you know, turn off the light, blow out the candle and the pumpkin and close the door and

Yeah, we didn't have anybody else show up until like eight thirty or so. My wife had and I had sat down to watch a movie and the doorbell rings at about eight thirty and so I look at look at my phone and it's some some teenagers out there. It's like, come on guys, take the hint. Lights are all off.

jill ciminillo (02:58)
Nobody's home.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:00)
We're not

Roberto Baldwin (02:59)
Get out of here.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:01)
we're done. We're all sold out. Come back next year. Yeah. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (03:04)
Sold out. Come back next year. Come back earlier. Yeah, th the teenagers

come out real late. They're just like, Hey, candy? And like half their friends like, What are doing, man?

jill ciminillo (03:12)
Any anything left?

Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:14)
The the one one of the best costumes we saw though was it was one little girl probably about mm seven or eight years old, wearing a pale blue suit, had her hair pulled back and had David Bowie Ziggy Stardust arrow painted on her face.

Roberto Baldwin (03:31)
Elaine's song.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:33)
Yeah. all right.

jill ciminillo (03:35)
Yeah. Well, I always

host a a Halloween party. So, yeah. With adults. With adults.

Roberto Baldwin (03:39)
Like with adults or children? okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:42)
Huh.

jill ciminillo (03:44)
but yeah, so I was pretty proud of my costume this year. but I don't think I I finally had to bring out name tags because I don't think people quite got it. But I thought it was perfect because I right? I thought it was good. so

Sam Abuelsamid (03:53)
I saw the picture. It was good. Yeah. Yeah.

jill ciminillo (03:57)
I was a Mac and my husband was a PC, and that is who we are

in real life. And so I had like a t shirt on with a Macintosh Apple.

And he was like wearing a suit and glasses and I was like, This is perfect. I just needed him to carry around his surface.

Sam Abuelsamid (04:11)
Ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (04:12)
Yeah, which is embarrassing to be honest.

jill ciminillo (04:14)
I mean, isn't it though? I was the cool kid for once. I was super excited

about that.

Sam Abuelsamid (04:21)
all right. what have you been driving, Jill?

jill ciminillo (04:25)
so I am currently in the Lexus RX 500H. And it is, you know, I every time I drive the car, I always forget how great it is. And, you know, it was one of the original crossovery type SUVs many moons ago, and it has just continued on and soldered forth, and it has just done so well in its segment. And again, every time I get behind the wheel,

I I'm reminded of how awesome of a vehicle it is. It the seats are comfortable. The driving position is really good. The acceleration on the 500H is really smooth. I think I I think it's like 366 combined horsepower. and it it just is so nice. And and it's not spa you know, it's not sporty. It's not you know, zoom zoom.

You know, it doesn't have the the really good like turning maneuvers, but it's just nice. And everything about it

Roberto Baldwin (05:26)
I just want a nice

SUV. I just want a nice SUV and I wanna get around town.

jill ciminillo (05:31)
Yeah. And that's it. And it's comfortable. It's great for long drives. And, you know, I did not take a road trip in this, but funny story, I forgot my garage door opener in the GR Corolla that I was driving last week. And it

Roberto Baldwin (05:44)
no.

jill ciminillo (05:45)
was handed off to a journalist who lives three hours away who was not going to be returning the vehicle for like two weeks. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. I need the garage door opener sooner than two weeks. If you go on my Instagram page right now, you'll see a video that I created of

me and what I have to do without my garage door opener because I'm not just in a single garage. I am in a multi-unit building. And so that means I have to double park

my car in the alley, run around the building, go in the front door, climb up a flight of stairs, go in through the alley, open the garage door, run down a ramp, you know, cover up the sensor so that it doesn't close before I can back into the

Roberto Baldwin (06:23)
Battle a battle

a wizard.

jill ciminillo (06:26)
I mean, it's just like I, you know, I already got my workout for the day. I didn't need I didn't need this. But yeah, so every time I would go out of the garage and try and come back in, I had to do that. So I'm like, this is a reminder, do not forget the garage door opener in another test car. so circling back to didn't take a test drive, but the journalist who had three hours away who had the garage door opener was at an event in Elkhart Lake this week.

And there was a journalist from Chicago who was also at the same event. And I was like, okay, can you two

Roberto Baldwin (06:58)
Mm.

jill ciminillo (06:59)
have a conversation? And can you pass off the garage door opener and bring it to me? Well, the journalist who lives in Chicago isn't Chicago proper. They're out in the suburbs. So I had to take, you know, an hour drive out to the suburbs to and then back to way better than three hours and three

Roberto Baldwin (07:16)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (07:17)
hours out and then three hours back. That would have been like six hours. So

So two hours I will take over six hours, but it gave me some really good seat time in the RX and dragged my husband with me. And we both thought it was just really comfortable and it was super zippy and and it was funny because you know, you get all of these left lane lurkers that are going like fifty-five miles an hour in in the in the passing lane, and so and they won't move. They won't move. And so I'm like zipping around him and he's like, And you call me an aggressive driver, and I'm like, It's the car.

The car is just so smooth, it's so good, it wants to go faster than this.

Sam Abuelsamid (07:53)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (07:55)
It's not me, it's Takar. Please.

jill ciminillo (07:56)
It's not me,

it's the car. It's totally the car. but the the vehicle I was in was a let's see, it was the so 500 H all-wheel drive. And it was the F Sport Performance model. So the okay, so this is not so pretty. the base price for the car is $66,200. And it added yeah, I know it's like gulp.

But it added a lot of options in addition to that. like twelve thousand dollars worth of options. So the ass tested price was

Roberto Baldwin (08:35)
Wow.

jill ciminillo (08:35)
seventy-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars. But yeah, it it added the orange brake calipers, you know, the appearance package, the convenience package, the heated and ventilated power outboard seats for the rear. yeah, it added it added a lot of things. and

I loved all the things. I loved all the things. I I you know, it it's in in the week that I've had this car, I really don't have anything negative to say about it except for that sticker shock that I just had there looking at the at the price.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:09)
The so the the five hundred H has the hybrid max powertrain, right?

jill ciminillo (09:16)
it has the two point four liter four cylinder turbo hybrid. So three hundred and sixty six horsepower. They don't call it the hybrid max.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:20)
Yeah. Yeah, so that's that's different from the traditional

Toyota hybrid system, which has an E C V T. And yeah, I I like that one. It's a l it's a lot more pleasant to drive than the

jill ciminillo (09:33)
Yeah, it does it has the six speed automatic, yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:36)
Yeah. Okay. yeah, so you don't get that that motor boating sound when you're accelerating where it revs up to four thousand RPM and just sits there, you know, for several seconds. It's yeah.

jill ciminillo (09:46)
Mm. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (09:48)
Wee It's having a little fun.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:50)
feels much more natural to drive.

jill ciminillo (09:52)
It does. It I mean, like I said, it it's not sporty, but it's still pretty zippy and fast when you need it to be. And you know, three hundred and sixty-six horsepower was plenty, probably more than I needed. And it was I I don't know. I just it is a joy to drive and it is just luxurious and comfortable and $79,000.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:15)
It's not not inexpensive, but you know, it's a Lexus and you know, which means that it'll probably, you know, run for the next twenty plus years without without any major problems.

jill ciminillo (10:27)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:28)
So yeah, cool. All right. Any any other thoughts on the the Rx five hundred H?

jill ciminillo (10:37)
You know, I it I would say if you have the money to spend and you're looking for something that is not over the top, you know, look at me, I think this is a really good, understated, luxury vehicle that drives really well and is just gonna like you said, it's gonna last for twenty years and it's gonna be super comfortable.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:57)
So, you know, at that price point, you know, nearly eighty grand. Yeah,

jill ciminillo (11:00)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (11:01)
there's there's a lot of stuff that you can you can get at that price point. you know, like say a Volvo X C sixty, or you know, a Genesis G V eighty, you know, or you know, I think even at like a you know Porsche McConn starts somewhere around there, you

jill ciminillo (11:22)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (11:23)
know.

Would you would you select the the Rx over any any of those or, you know, anything else in that price range?

jill ciminillo (11:32)
I mean it would be it would be tight between the G V eighty and the Lexus R X because I really love the G V eighty, but if you don't need three rows, you know, the Lexus R X, you know, it comes comes in there. But even now I think the Genesis is more of a CMI car. It's very noticeable. Whereas I feel like Lexus flies under the radar. So

You know, it's one of those vehicles that if you are not looking to attract attention and you wanna fly under the radar, the the RX is the car for you. Whereas everything else, I would say even including the Volvo is a little bit more showy.

So it just depends on on what you're what you're looking for in a car and what you're willing to spend.

Sam Abuelsamid (12:20)
Yeah. All right. Mr Baldwin, what about you?

Roberto Baldwin (12:25)
I drove the Cadillac Optic V. It's the the V version of the optic, the electric their electric SUV. I don't know why you need a V Optic, to be honest. To be perfectly honest.

Sam Abuelsamid (12:39)
Ha ha

Roberto Baldwin (12:41)
I think the Cadillac Optic is a a fine vehicle without it having going a little faster.

jill ciminillo (12:48)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (12:49)
it does it's not a sports car. It doesn't it doesn't increase the handling, doesn't make it like

that much better. It just you go fast in a in a faster in a straight line, which is

jill ciminillo (12:59)
You go faster, faster.

Roberto Baldwin (13:00)
yeah, which you have an EV. You're already going faster in a straight line. So sure. If you want the V go for it. I I generally I like the the Cadillac Optic. I think Cadillac's EVs are actually quite nice. I think the Escalade IQ is a little over just too much. It's a little too much for for what it is. the Optic

I my biggest here's here's my big th okay, here's my two big things. A still no Android auto, still no CarPlay. still annoying as I'll get out whenever

jill ciminillo (13:30)
Ha ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (13:31)
I use it. I try not to be annoyed. I try to like set it up the way it is supposed to, you know, so I can still do the things I want to do. Doesn't do the things I wanna I still like a lot of things that I use that are, you know, on phone protection

jill ciminillo (13:42)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (13:43)
projection that GM or Cadillac or Google does not have.

I c you know, there's and there's nothing I can do about that. That is a decision by Cadl by GM with their EVs, which are sure, you do you you do

jill ciminillo (13:57)
And it just means you pick up your phone.

Roberto Baldwin (13:59)
Yeah, you do you GM with that. I think everyone's had you know, we've had that fight a billion times. it is it's a nice small EV, but I also hate the electric doors. Just

jill ciminillo (14:14)
The electric doors, why?

Roberto Baldwin (14:16)
because you you

Tick. When you when you use the door, there is a first of all, electric doors are dumb. Just absolutely there's no reason. Mechanical doors have been working for decades, and then I was like, hey, let's do electric doors. No. No, let's not do electric doors. How about we just keep doing mechanical doors? So I don't have to explain to people how to use a door when they get in the car. So there's that. Also, there is a split second delay. There is a latency to the doors on the Cadillac optic. So when I

When I hit the button there is a l I if I pull too quickly, the door doesn't open. It's like click I like pull, nope, and then it opens.

jill ciminillo (14:57)
so you mean like on the outside, not on the inside?

Sam Abuelsamid (14:59)
Yeah,

they're the they're the door handles that pivot out. Yeah. They're they're pivoted at the front. Kinda like on the the Hyundai Ionic five and the Kia E V six.

jill ciminillo (15:07)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (15:08)
But the

Ionic five and the E V six, those are mechanical doors. They pivot out, but at the end of the day they're mechanical

Sam Abuelsamid (15:12)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (15:13)
doors. They're not electric.

Sam Abuelsamid (15:14)
Well, on on the top trim levels they're they're motorized, but on the on the other trims they're they're just straight up mechanical.

Roberto Baldwin (15:21)
Yeah, which is what you should be using in cars. I'm sorry.

Sam Abuelsamid (15:24)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (15:25)
I I've not found an electric door that I'm like, Wow, this is great. It's always been like, we've engineered a problem. Cool. We've

jill ciminillo (15:34)
Well I mean it

Roberto Baldwin (15:36)
taken something that works and made it worse for the sake of cleverness.

jill ciminillo (15:41)
Well my worry with like the especially like the the Lexus had the E latch is like if you get trapped, okay, in front they have an emergency release button, but they don't have in the back seat. And

Roberto Baldwin (15:52)
Yeah, it's

And if you're making an emergency release button, you've already got the mechanical door. So that's at the issue.

jill ciminillo (15:57)
You you've you've already

created you

Sam Abuelsamid (15:59)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (16:00)
engineered a problem into the into the situation.

Roberto Baldwin (16:03)
So

Sam Abuelsamid (16:03)
Yeah, it's it's it's

just like like on the Rivian R one when they the second generation R one, they added the electronic door latches and the mechanical one is literally two inches away from it. You know, and I I've asked RJ Scarinch about this. Why did you do this? And, you know, it gives a bunch of excuses about you know, it allows us to do a bunch of other things, you know, like controlling, you know, the child locks, you know, through software and things like that, you know, so you don't have to go back and hit the the little switch on the

But it's still it's dumb.

Roberto Baldwin (16:34)
What?

No, no, no. The child locks through software. That's not

Sam Abuelsamid (16:38)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (16:38)
an excuse. I'm sorry. You've just Anywho, beyond the the

jill ciminillo (16:42)
Tell me how you really feel.

Roberto Baldwin (16:43)
the one that beyond the thing that just every time I go to open up like that was very frustrating. It's actually a very nice car to drive.

I I enjoy driving it. I think it's a it's a nice Cadillac. I think the Cadillac the lyric is a g is a very good EV. I think it's head and shoulders better than the blazer. I know the blazer is supposed to be less expensive, blah blah blah, but the blazer just feels like a l a a lump of lead when you're driving it. Meanwhile the lyric feels very nice. I the same thing was with the optic. It feels like a very nice EV. I drove it around, I filled it with band gear because apparently it's all I do now is fill cars with band gear. Drove it into the city.

It's you know, it's their small SUVs. I found parking very easily and I everything was great and it you know, except for the the the annoying doors and the fact that I couldn't use car play to t like, hey, go to the place that I usually go and then I'm like, No, wait, hold on. Here's where I'm going and then, you know, you gotta tell. also, a fun little thing that GM's been adding to their to their Monronis, which as far as I could tell

Is they are the only people to do it. Is a California emissions requirements includes GM 1772 and CCS adapters. Six hundred dollars.

Sam Abuelsamid (17:58)
Ooh.

Roberto Baldwin (17:59)
There is not a California emissions requirement that's really real. There's not a it's it is yeah. And so I kinda did some quick looking and I found something. what is it? GM spokesperson told GM Authority EVs registered in California states adopting carb.

Require a specific emission certification which includes enhanced warranty coverage for certain propuls propulsion related parts resulting in a five hundred dollar charge that'll be applied to select twenty twenty six model year EVs. In certain situations, based on market dynamics, Cadillac may provide a five hundred dollar credit. If provided such credit will be f reflected on the Monroni. what? What are you talking about?

Sam Abuelsamid (18:44)
it it's it sounds like another hidden price increase.

Roberto Baldwin (18:46)
It is a hidden price increase. It's re it's yeah, no. And then and this one it's six hundred dollars, but I guess that's because you get the seventeen seventy two and the the C C S adapters, which you're buying a Cadillac, just give those just give the people that. Like just give it to Why why are you doing that?

Sam Abuelsamid (19:03)
Well and

the and the seventeen seventy two adapters, you can buy those, you know, a good one, like the ones from Electron for about a hundred bucks and the the CCS adapters are about two hundred bucks. So they're it it's like it's like Apple's pricing for memory and storage. Yeah, they're they're

Roberto Baldwin (19:21)
Yeah, it's it's it's

Sam Abuelsamid (19:23)
it's a Cadillac, so we're gonna jack it up.

Roberto Baldwin (19:25)
We're gonna jack it up. So yeah, so I I'm I'm not too keen on this weird yeah, this emissions requirement shenanigans that they have added to this thing, which even if it's five hundred as opposed to the six hundred, come on. Really? This is the fr I was like I was looking through I'm like, what is this thing? And then I looked it up and apparently it's a thing because California something about warranty coverage, which is like, don't you have a warranty on your vehicle?

Like how is the w it's

Sam Abuelsamid (19:57)
I mean, you know, I I know that they you know, there's a you know, for the batteries, I think in California they're required to do ten years, hundred and fifty thousand miles. You know, that's part of carb requirements. But I've never that's the first time I've ever heard about anything related to the to the to the or to the adapters. Or

Roberto Baldwin (20:15)
Charging you for it. Yeah. Well, I think it's I think it's five

hundred dollars and they just threw the adapters in to sort of

Sam Abuelsamid (20:23)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (20:23)
like obfuscate like the fact that they were just they're they're charging you five hundred bucks that no that no other automakers charging they're charging you five hundred dollars for the warranty that they already probably have.

Sam Abuelsamid (20:36)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (20:36)
So which is mm anywho, so yeah. So yeah, so it's it's it it's a good vehicle.

Mired in a decision that's not the vehicle's fault, the the car the you know phone projection, car play, Android auto, and mechanical and and electric doors. It's just like why you've you've taken two things that really really annoy me and sort of messed up.

Sam Abuelsamid (21:02)
But at least it's got mechanical mechanical vents.

Roberto Baldwin (21:05)
That's true, it does have mechanical events, which I'm I'm a I'm a fan of, so so good on that. but it's just just there's just so there's all these things that people that automakers have been adding to cars.

They just why? You you're you're not solving a problem. It's it's you're not you're creating more of a problem than anything. And then this weird five hundred dollars. You're like, hey, because you live in California, it's gonna be five hundred dollars more. Why? Just cause.

Sam Abuelsamid (21:32)
Because we can.

Roberto Baldwin (21:33)
Just cause

jill ciminillo (21:33)
Because

Roberto Baldwin (21:34)
even though it's an EV, mm, just cause. We got a you know, warranty. I'm like, do you not believe in your products? Hey, five hundred bucks.

so let's see the standard price for this puppy was sixty seven thousand three hundred dollars. It is not cheap. again I I'm just gonna say go for the regular optic. That's the one it's

jill ciminillo (21:54)
I liked the regular optic.

Roberto Baldwin (21:55)
about fifty two thousand. this thing has what is it five hundred and something horsepower? The regular optic has four I think it's five twenty and the regular optic has four seventy. Looking, looking, looking looking, looking.

Sam Abuelsamid (22:09)
Something like that, yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (22:10)
440 dual so it

Okay, there we go. so it's four forty or five nineteen. Yes, there's more power. But you kinda don't need it 'cause you a Cadillac optic. What do you it's it's Cadilla I I always feel like Cadillacs unless you're getting the C T V the you know the C T five V or whatever, with a man of transmission that has like proper chassis and and you know cornering and handling and it's it's a fun car. Cool. An SU a small SUV from Cadillac? No. You don't just wanna cruise around.

In a nice, comfortable car. That's yeah, you don't yeah, you're not What you who do you doing? You're racing you're racing Hyundai's? What's going on?

Sam Abuelsamid (22:50)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (22:51)
Settle down. Settle.

jill ciminillo (22:52)
Maybe, maybe they're racing.

Sam Abuelsamid (22:54)
You know, I mean a Cat Cadillac is in Formula One now. They're in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA, yeah, they're they're a racing company now. They're a racing brand. And so they they wanna they wanna spread that love to their entire lineup.

Roberto Baldwin (23:07)
I guess. Anyway, this thing had all wheel drive. It felt great. Again, it was a really nice vehicle. I'm I'm I might like it more than the lyric outside of the annoying parts that are part of it. and I really like the lyric. I know.

Sam Abuelsamid (23:19)
Except the lyric has those same annoying parts. It has

jill ciminillo (23:22)
No,

Sam Abuelsamid (23:22)
the same door handles.

jill ciminillo (23:22)
Lyric has Apple CarPlay.

Sam Abuelsamid (23:25)
that's true. The lyric does have car play. Yeah. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (23:27)
Yeah, so

jill ciminillo (23:27)
Like you can forgive a lot if you have Apple CarPlay.

I'm just gonna put that out there.

Roberto Baldwin (23:30)
it's it's

yeah, that's that's wop w listen, I've written the article. It's on Ars Technica if you wanna see me vent about this. but yeah. Anyway, twenty twenty seven Cat Like Optic, cool car. If you really need to go fast on a straight line, I guess you can s pay the the the V tax. but then you're also gonna get s hit with a f weird f if you live in California, some weird five hundred dollar like

thing and if someone comes at me and be like, you know, that's what you get in California, you gotta pay more for everything, I'm like, shut up.

We get paid more than everyone else too. That's the other it's it's yeah, it all kinda works out. Plus we got everything in California. If I wanna go snowboarding and surfing the same day, I can do that.

jill ciminillo (24:17)
So there, take that five hundred dollars and eat it.

Roberto Baldwin (24:20)
Well, I don't want that five hundred dollar, that's still stupid. So anyway, yeah, Cadillac Optic. fun fun comfortable, very nice, luxury small SUV with a with with door handles that just will irritate you if you're like me. The end. There's your

Sam Abuelsamid (24:44)
well I had I was amazed that for some reason they still have the Volvo EX thirty and the press fleet here because

jill ciminillo (24:52)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (24:53)
Volvo had previously announced that they were discontinuing the EX thirty in the US market. But

jill ciminillo (24:59)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (24:59)
you know, got and I've I've driven the EX thirty a couple times before, but always the dual motor version. this was the single motor. so it's two hundred and sixty eight horsepower

two hundred and fifty three pounds feet of torque. So th the EX thirty is the the little baby Volvo. it's a it's a little hatchback. I really like the size of the EX thirty. you know the the back seat, you know, is a little on the tight side for l you know, taller adults. like Robbie would probably not be comfortable sitting behind me. but you know it's it's manageable for for shorter trips and it's fine for for

Roberto Baldwin (25:38)
Jill.

Sam Abuelsamid (25:38)
you if you got kids or or for Jill. Yeah. It can easily fit a couple of Simonillos. so

jill ciminillo (25:39)
No no like me

Roberto Baldwin (25:40)
If you got children or Jills in your life, it's gonna be yeah.

jill ciminillo (25:46)
Easily.

Sam Abuelsamid (25:47)
yeah. yeah. And it has a a sixty nine kilowatt hour battery, which is good for a rated range of two hundred and sixty one miles. And it's it's a surprisingly quick little car. even even in the single motor version.

Roberto Baldwin (26:02)
Just weirdly quick.

Like you like the first time you drive, you're like, Whoa, what's

Sam Abuelsamid (26:06)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (26:06)
going on here? And they didn't have to have a V or anything to it.

Sam Abuelsamid (26:09)
That's right.

jill ciminillo (26:09)
No V no V necessary.

Sam Abuelsamid (26:11)
Yeah. It's just it's just a standard EX thirty single motor. so the you know it does it it has like completely conventional door handles. so you know you you stick your hand in the little loop there and you pull and the the the door handles just you know the doors just open up. There's no

Roberto Baldwin (26:29)
Para

Sam Abuelsamid (26:29)
no latency. well actually there is a little bit of latency because most of the time the you know the key f the fob does not actually have any buttons on it.

And most of the time when I walk up to the EX thirty, and I had I had the same experience the last time I had one. it does not actually unlock when you walk up. And so, you know, they give you a fob and an NFC card. And most of the time I end up having to pull the thing out and tap the NFC card on the B pillar to get it to unlock. And then similarly when I get in the car, I have to put it put it down, put the NFC card down on the the

near where the wireless charging pad is in the the center console in order to get the car to start. Now, this may just be a case of the battery in the fob was dead. I don't know. I didn't really feel like trying to pry the thing open and replacing it. because I you know only had it for a few days. So but you know this is the second time I've had this problem with an EX30. actually for for that matter I had the same problem with the the Polestar 4. So maybe it's a Volvo Polestar thing.

I'm not sure.

Roberto Baldwin (27:36)
they've had problems with software, so which is like evergreen for most automakers to be honest.

Sam Abuelsamid (27:38)
Yes, they have had a lot of software problems. That's true.

fully manual vents. and but then everything else is in the touch screen. Yeah, 'cause you know, this was supposed to be the low cost Volvo. when they originally announced it, they were targeting a price point for the US market of like thirty five thousand dollars. They never quite got it that low because tariffs and stuff, 'cause it was originally made in China, then they added production in

in Belgium and the ones that come to the US come from Belgium. but although according to this Monroni major sources of foreign parts content China eighty percent Belgium ten percent so it's mostly they're shipping parts from China to Belgium, assembling the car in Ghent, Belgium and then shipping it to the US. So that's probably why. But the you know all

Most of the other functions are in the center touch screen. So things like mirrors. If you want to adjust the mirrors or any of the climate control, there's no physical controls for any of that. there's two window switches in the center console and then a button that says rear. Or you know, it's a a a a haptic button, a touch button that says rear. so come on guys. I mean, I know you're trying to keep the

Roberto Baldwin (29:00)
Rare.

Sam Abuelsamid (29:01)
cost down, but give me a break.

Which is a shame because this is a really fun little car to drive. You know, it's very nimble. You know, it's got a lot of that kind of almost GTI taste to it, you know, in terms of its dynamics. but it's actually rear wheel drive as opposed to front wheel drive, like a GTI. and and and is genuinely enjoyable to drive, except for all of the the software nonsense that is just too much.

Roberto Baldwin (29:31)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (29:34)
base price

on this well actually the only option on this one was the climate package for five hundred bucks. and I'm not even sure what that actually includes. 'Cause it doesn't it doesn't really break

Roberto Baldwin (29:46)
No. Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (29:48)
it out here. Probably,

jill ciminillo (29:48)
He did things of some sort?

Sam Abuelsamid (29:50)
yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (29:50)
Probably.

Heated side mirrors, maybe?

Sam Abuelsamid (29:53)
Yeah.

grand total on this came to forty thousand seven hundred and forty five dollars. you wanna guess at the destination charge?

Roberto Baldwin (30:02)
sixteen hundred.

jill ciminillo (30:04)
eighteen hundred.

Sam Abuelsamid (30:06)
Robbie gets it. It was twelve ninety five.

Roberto Baldwin (30:09)
twelve ninety five, especially with all that shipping from China to Belgium, the from Belgium to here.

Sam Abuelsamid (30:13)
Yeah.

so you know, n generually nice little car, fairly efficient, but it won't be available here for much longer. you know, I don't I don't know if they're even still shipping them here. So it's probably basically whatever's left in inventory or buying a used one at this point.

Roberto Baldwin (30:32)
Yeah,

this is the car that like everyone was very excited about. I know a bunch of people who put down payments on and then it just kept getting delayed and delayed 'cause of software issues and delayed and then everyone just sort of gave up and got either other things or just sort of gave up and then the, you know, E V credits went away and it was yeah. It's kind of a bummer 'cause

Sam Abuelsamid (30:51)
Yeah.

Yeah, 'cause you know, we we were actually thinking about one of these, you know, before we bought our E V six. you know, when they first announced it, you know, I was thinking, yeah, this is a decently sized car. And the first time I had a chance to drive one out in LA for you know, just a short period of time during the LA Auto Show a few years back, before it went on sale, you know, I had had about an hour or so with it and it was it was a l a lot of fun to drive. but you know, then started noticing these other

quirks about it that were just I knew were going to be annoyances and so we dropped our plan and and then like you said it kept getting delayed so just dropped

jill ciminillo (31:31)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (31:31)
the plans for for one of these.

Roberto Baldwin (31:33)
W one of the things when I'm looking at cars is like, will this annoy my wife?

jill ciminillo (31:37)
Ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (31:38)
Yes, I

Roberto Baldwin (31:38)
Because I think there

there's some things that we will accept as auto journalists because we're just sort of used to like doing these you know, driving these cars and we understand like those some of these cars are electric, some of these cars, you know, the the electric door handles, the the the the the phone projection thing. There's always like little things that we just like, all right, fine, whatever. But I then I go ba I I think backwards I'm like, Will this annoy my wife? And I'm like, if it does, that means it's gonna annoy a lot of people.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:03)
Yeah.

yeah, and and even you know, that that is something that, you know, is always a consideration in our household as well. and you know, there's like on the E V six there are a couple of minor annoyances that, you know, bug my wife. Like the fact that it will not stay in eye pedal mode from one ignition cycle to the next.

jill ciminillo (32:22)
that is so annoying.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:24)
Yeah. and she was just mentioned

Roberto Baldwin (32:24)
You should have like a setting

where you just like whatever setting I put it in, just keep that.

jill ciminillo (32:29)
Well the new Kia E V three,

w they have their new like iPedal three or whatever, and apparently that does stay through the cycles with whatever you select. So

Sam Abuelsamid (32:39)
Okay. Well

I'll I'll I'll check that 'cause I'm I'm getting one for a couple of days this week, so I'll I'll

Roberto Baldwin (32:45)
Yay.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:46)
I'll check I'll try that out. but you know, other otherwise, you know, I mean the the other you know, a couple of other minor annoyances with the car, my wife still loves the the car despite that. and actually fixed the problem with the the the phone warmer in the E V six by turning it off.

And I bought a couple of MagSafe charging pucks and just velcroed that on top of the existing wireless charger. They're like ten bucks on Amazon. and they charge it

Roberto Baldwin (33:19)
there you go.

Sam Abuelsamid (33:19)
twenty five watts. Velcroed that on there. Now you just drop the phone on it, it holds in place, actually charges it at a fa a reasonably fast speed. and doesn't doesn't overheat the phone.

jill ciminillo (33:32)
love that you call them phone warmers. I know, right?

Roberto Baldwin (33:32)
But how do you keep your hands warm? Like

Sam Abuelsamid (33:35)
Ha

ha.

Roberto Baldwin (33:36)
you drive and you're like, my hands are so cold, let me pick up my phone for a little while.

Sam Abuelsamid (33:40)
I also had a couple of days with the Infinity QX sixty five. the twenty twenty-seven Infinity QX sixty five sport all-wheel drive. So for those not familiar with the QX sixty five, it's basically a QX sixty with the back of the roof shaved off. and

jill ciminillo (33:56)
Yeah. Faspect.

Sam Abuelsamid (33:58)
yes, it's the fastback version. Yeah. and

Roberto Baldwin (33:58)
It's a co or a coupe as people are now. 'Cause everything's a coupe now.

Sam Abuelsamid (34:03)
and and you know, because of that they of course also ditched the third row seat. but other than that

Yeah, there's there's some minor design tweaks, but it's basically the same car. which means it's got the two liter variable compression turbo, which as we've discussed before, has always been always seemed like a cool idea, but never really seemed to work as well as it's supposed to. You know, two hundred and sixty eight horsepower, two hundred and eighty six pound feet of torque, nine speed automatic. you know, it it's always been kind of a disappointing feeling engine.

and and not terribly fuel efficient. It's only rated at twenty two miles per gallon. but the QX sixty five is one of the the first cars that comes from the factory with those MagSafe chargers. It's got the the the got those built in, got two of them. So you can

Roberto Baldwin (34:53)
Yay

What do you want to do with it? Well, you know It does have magSafe chargers, so

Sam Abuelsamid (35:00)
So Yeah.

jill ciminillo (35:03)
Winning.

Sam Abuelsamid (35:04)
Yeah. So, you know, I mean this the it's really it's really nice inside. The seats are very comfortable. my wife was impressed, you know, when she saw that it when she saw that it's labeled as zero gravity seats. and then I explained to her that you know, it's just some branding that Nissan and Infinity put on all their their seats and you know, they're fine. They're

Roberto Baldwin (35:24)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (35:24)
They are super comfortable.

Sam Abuelsamid (35:25)
they're they're good seats. but you know.

Are they really zero gravity? I don't know. But

jill ciminillo (35:32)
I think they're comfortable.

Sam Abuelsamid (35:33)
they they are comfortable. They are they are very comfortable. this one, you know, had the premium package with the head up display, motion activated lift gate, the tow hitch and wiring and everything for towing. the total price on this one came to sixty thousand two hundred and sixty five dollars. you know

It was it's fine to drive. It's you know the tw twice twice now they've Yeah. Well,

Roberto Baldwin (36:03)
It's it's it the there's so many there's so many better c vehicles on the rail. That's the problem with the infinities right now.

Sam Abuelsamid (36:11)
you know, in in recent years they have twice introduced, you know, these coupe crossovers. You know, they had the QX fifty five first and now the QX sixty five. And both times when they announced them, they invoked the old Infinity F X.

jill ciminillo (36:24)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (36:25)
And you know, said, Yeah

You know, we we introduced the first Coupe SUV with the FX. and now we've you know, this is inspired by that. And it's like nah, it's

Roberto Baldwin (36:39)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (36:40)
not the same. You know, especially if you ever drove the F X fifty with the with a five liter V eight in it. That was a nice car. I

jill ciminillo (36:49)
Ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (36:50)
I loved the FX fifty. This is not the FX fifty. No.

jill ciminillo (36:54)
You're like, this is not that.

Roberto Baldwin (36:55)
I I

think I think Nissan as a whole, and I've said this before, they make really great inexpensive vehicles.

Sam Abuelsamid (37:03)
Yes.

Roberto Baldwin (37:03)
And I think I really like the leaf. I like the Arya, even though it's

Sam Abuelsamid (37:06)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (37:06)
gone now.

jill ciminillo (37:08)
The area.

Roberto Baldwin (37:08)
like

I think as a company as they're like re you know, set it you know, redoing themselves, rebrand re you know, starting over, whatever they wanna call it, they're doing a you know, a pretty good job. I think if they could, they would probably drop infinity, but you can't, because if you drop infinity, that's a big red flag. And so you can't you know, you have to keep infinity, but you can't really you don't have the money to invest that like, you know, you know

the Hudney Motor Group does with Genesis or with B BMW or Mercedes or, you know, Lincoln. You don't have that you don't have that type of money to invest in your your your luxury brand. So we're getting these vehicles that are just like, hey, they're a little bit better, but they're not Yeah, they're they're sort of they're they're not keeping up with what everyone else is putting out right now. And just because they just don't have the budget. It's not, you know, it's not like they're they're they're not trying. They just don't have the money.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:03)
Yeah.

Well, I mean they they are bringing back a a sedan in a couple of years based on the new Nissan skyline. so you know they'll have another sedan in the lineup, which is good. That's a step in the right direction.

jill ciminillo (38:17)
With a manual transmission.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:19)
Yes, yeah. So yeah, that will be that'll be exciting. Yeah, th that's the problem.

Roberto Baldwin (38:21)
Which we're all gonna love and then four people will buy. Well, you know, if

jill ciminillo (38:24)
Yeah, that's fair.

Roberto Baldwin (38:25)
you can if you can get enthusiasts, you know, if you can get the Miata B R Z W R X people like who are just like in their thirties.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:35)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (38:35)
If you can get those people to buy it, then you're like, You're golden. You're gonna you know.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:39)
The yeah,

the the the ones, you know, that you know love the idea of, you know, driving a rear wheel drive, manual transmission sedan, but just need a little bit more space than what you get in a BRZ or a Miata. You know, something a little

Roberto Baldwin (38:51)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:52)
more practical. Yeah. Just go

Roberto Baldwin (38:54)
I think

Sam Abuelsamid (38:55)
just go go buy one when it comes out.

Roberto Baldwin (38:57)
I like to believe there's a market for that. I c but you know, fingers crossed. It's a it's

Sam Abuelsamid (39:01)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (39:02)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (39:03)
it's like it's it's it's like the wagon. We all love a wagon. America

Sam Abuelsamid (39:07)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (39:08)
doesn't want a wagon.

Sam Abuelsamid (39:09)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (39:09)
That's fair. That is that is very fair. And it should be brown with the manual transmission.

Sam Abuelsamid (39:14)
Yeah

Roberto Baldwin (39:14)
Yeah, brown manual

s a turbo and a d a turbo diesel brown manual transmission

Sam Abuelsamid (39:15)
and a diesel.

Roberto Baldwin (39:20)
rear wheel drive wagon. That's all we want. Maybe all wheel drive, you know, if you go snowboarding like I did.

Sam Abuelsamid (39:24)
Yeah. all right. So enough of that. Let's let's move on. so let's start off with Joe, both you and I were in Huntsville, Alabama this week,

jill ciminillo (39:37)
We were.

Sam Abuelsamid (39:38)
with with Mazda. you wanna tell everybody what we saw?

jill ciminillo (39:43)
Yeah, so it was it was an interesting trip. I wasn't quite sure. Like we were we were invited to go to see the Millionth Vehicle off the line at the Mazda Toyota manufacturing plant down in Huntsville. And this is a 50-50 joint venture with Toyota and Mazda. And you know, and so I wasn't quite sure what to expect other than, we're gonna see the Millionth vehicle. Well, what they did is the day before we went on the plant tour, we actually got to take a tour of

Some of the projects that Mazda has had a hand in, or MTM has had a hand in bolstering, you know, with the idea of building a pipeline of workers into the factory. And you know, starting in the sixth grade. So we went to junior high school first and we got to see the Fuse program where they were kind of inspiring kids to be creative. And, you know, we watched kids create little model cars made out of like

paper and straws and tape where they would put an egg in it and crash it up against the wall. You know, there was a a kid there who was doing a 3D, like he created a 3D model on his computer and then was printing it on a 3D printer that was supplied by the grant that MTM had given them. You know, it was you know, kids creating music, but it was it was a very interesting class that I I'm like, man, I wish they would have had this when I was in school because it was just, it seemed like it was educational and fun.

At the same time, the teacher was there to be a facilitator, not like an educator. And so then we went to a high school where they had another program that was created by the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing. I and that was called the Light program, where they embedded a MTM employee in the school to kind of help train the teachers, train the kids how to be better employees. So I mean, I don't I don't know if you noticed it, Sam, but the first thing I saw is the kids were like clocking into class and they had like to

Sam Abuelsamid (41:40)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (41:41)
you know, put their thumbprint in to clock in to show that they were being they were on time to class. And, you know, they teach soft skills in the class like interviewing, resume building, but also personal finance. And, you know, they play the game of life where, you know, they they kind of, you know, go through and they have real world scenarios and learn how to deal with these scenarios in real world. And then, you know, we went to a college where they had the fame program.

And that is thing I know I couldn't I

Roberto Baldwin (42:11)
Sorry.

Sam Abuelsamid (42:12)
Ha ha.

jill ciminillo (42:14)
couldn't I couldn't get that out of my head the entire time. I thought people were gonna break out into dance. but and I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but it is a manufacturing kind

Sam Abuelsamid (42:23)
Federation

for Advanced Manufacturing Engineering.

jill ciminillo (42:26)
Yeah, and and so teaching the kids like literally how to be a an industrial employee. And but it was all really fascinating because, you know, MTM was contributing to these things in the community. And then you go to the plant and you see you know, kind of the the pipeline in progress and how like these people who are there who were super happy by the way, like I don't think I've ever been to a plant where people have been happier. And

You know, in in it was they have the Apollo and the Discovery line, which is the Toyota and the Mazda lines, but they don't call it the Toyota and Mazda Lines because it is just one plant, joint ventureship, and going on the tour and I I don't know, it was just it was a really interesting experience to see, you know, how much the MTM is contributing to the community and how much the community then cares about this plant.

And I mean I'm sure that a lot of it was mugging for the camera and, you know, the the happiness, you know, that you you see put on for media visiting, but it just seems like such a good idea. And they wouldn't tell us which was the millionth vehicle off the line because they build both the Toyota Corolla Cross and the Mazda I they I know, I know. They wouldn't they wouldn't tell you there was you the Mazda C X fifty. Neck and neck is what they say.

Roberto Baldwin (43:40)
What? The the whole reason?

Sam Abuelsamid (43:44)
They c it was a it was a photo finish. They both came off the line at the same time. Suppo

Roberto Baldwin (43:47)
That's not how that works.

Sam Abuelsamid (43:49)
no.

Roberto Baldwin (43:49)
Come

jill ciminillo (43:49)
No,

it is not. but so they had

Roberto Baldwin (43:49)
on. That's the whole

reason to make you d to drag you out. I mean it's

jill ciminillo (43:54)
I know.

Roberto Baldwin (43:54)
sure it's great that they showed. The idea of kids having to clock in is ridiculous, by the way. Be a better employee. I do love the idea that you're teaching them like real world economics, like how like life skills in order to like because we didn't teach they didn't teach us any of that. So of course I

jill ciminillo (44:07)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (44:07)
got into horrible like, you know, credit card issues when I was in my twenties. But that's cool. But like thumb hey, be a better employee.

jill ciminillo (44:14)
It's funny.

Roberto Baldwin (44:15)
Like lock clock in. I'm like, nope.

That's not no.

jill ciminillo (44:17)
be on time to class and so you know, you have to be on time to work.

Roberto Baldwin (44:19)
Yeah, but you're already on

just on time the class. The the the the creating the the the the and the the sort of muscle memory they're like, you need to you know, you you're on the clock, this is when you do this thing. That's weird. But the other stuff sound sounds good. But they won't even show you that they won't even tell you what the millionth car is.

Sam Abuelsamid (44:37)
Well

jill ciminillo (44:38)
No

Sam Abuelsamid (44:38)
what

you know, what one one thing is you know, because they're you know, the Corolla Cross and the C X fifty are not they're not sharing a platform. Yeah, they're two different vehicles. One's a Mazda platform, one's a Toyota platform. But the the two cars that they had out there that they called the millionth cars were you know, were also examples of how they're they're sharing technologies between the two. So for example, both of them were painted in Mazda's

signature sole crystal red metallic paint. So even the including the Toyota. and then the Mazda had a Toyota hybrid powertrain in it. So

jill ciminillo (45:18)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (45:19)
yeah, there was there was some sharing there. but you know the the fame program that you mentioned Jill which was at Calhoun well it's actually a national program, I guess. But you know, we were visiting it at Calhoun Community College. you know that's you know was originally designed as a

as an adult education program. And most of the most of the people going through it are actually adults, you know, that are you know, they're working employees. the but they have had some kids go straight out of high school, you know, and I think last year was the first time that they had kids go into it, you know, and to to get into the FAME program you have to apply and then basically go through an interview, like a job interview to get into it. And they've had, you know, the the the first batch

They had four high school graduates go straight into the FAME program. the rest, you know, some of them are Mazda employees. And for for Mazda employees that are going through this, you know, what what they're doing is they're they're you know, these are employees that are regular, you know, workers on the line. And th when they come out of this, then they're eligible for skilled trades jobs. So jobs like electricians,

Roberto Baldwin (46:33)
Sure.

Sam Abuelsamid (46:34)
pipe fitters,

jill ciminillo (46:34)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (46:35)
mill rights.

you know, doing maintenance on the equipment as opposed to just, you know, assembling stuff on the line. and so one of the the cool things is, you know, for Mazda or for MTM employees, you know, that want to apply to go into this, if they get accepted into the into the the program, they are twenty hours a week in class,

jill ciminillo (46:59)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (46:59)
but they get or no, it's two da two days a week. So I think it's sixteen hours a week.

in class at the community college and three days working back in the plant, but they get paid for the full forty hours a week. so

jill ciminillo (47:13)
Yeah, plus benefits.

Roberto Baldwin (47:13)
Sure.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:14)
yeah, so they're you know, they're getting the education and they're s

Roberto Baldwin (47:18)
Pay.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:19)
they're still making their their regular wage and they've got their benefits and everything. So especially for you know employees that might have a family, you know, you know, they're they're not they're not having to take extra time away, you know, to go, you know, for the training.

Roberto Baldwin (47:33)
Yeah, you're not doing a night class

in addition to your forty hour week so you're just exhausted

Sam Abuelsamid (47:37)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (47:38)
all the time.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:38)
Right. So that yeah, that was pretty cool. and the

jill ciminillo (47:42)
Well and

all they have to do is commit to staying at Mazda Toyota Manufacturing for two years after they graduate.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:49)
Right. So as long as

Roberto Baldwin (47:51)
That's whatever.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:51)
they stick around for an extra two years, then they they paid it off and and they're you know, then they can do whatever they want.

jill ciminillo (47:58)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:58)
but you know, by when you graduate from that and you get a skilled trades job, you know, your salary goes up significantly, going from

Roberto Baldwin (48:05)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (48:06)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (48:07)
regular workers to skilled trades.

Roberto Baldwin (48:09)
I mean forty five hundred team members, that's what they say here. That doesn't count like all the ins you know, all the other things that have come up in this area. There's there's likely suppliers that are there. Yeah. Yeah,

jill ciminillo (48:19)
There's like three thousand additional jobs, they said. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (48:22)
At at the at the local suppliers. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (48:25)
so y you know, you're talking whenever one of these these facilities opens up in a in a region, I mean that's so many jobs. When people need job people need jobs. That's it. That's all there is to it. We

Sam Abuelsamid (48:37)
And and they're good

paying jobs, you know. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (48:38)
We don't work we don't live in Star Trek unfortunately. Which also

sounds like a pretty sweet job if you w live in a Star Trek world.

Sam Abuelsamid (48:43)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (48:44)
But you know, yeah, these are good paying jobs. I remember even the the meta plant in in

in Georgia, like they were like, This is a really great job. Like we didn't have this before and now we do. And then there's all these other jobs and you know, my you know, one person was like, Yeah, my boyfriend works at this you supplier and like, you know, we we both make good money and we're very happy. So yeah. Again that but I I'm still like the weird like high school you got to clock in thing is so kinda we

jill ciminillo (49:09)
was I thought it was really interesting and

Roberto Baldwin (49:12)
Everything

else is fine, but like clocking in at at school, I'm just like they're already taking your it's such a weird that's a weird thing.

jill ciminillo (49:20)
It's weird. I I don't know. I didn't think it was weird. I thought it was kind of interesting.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:25)
one of the interesting things at the high school, you know, they they've got a whole bunch of different we we went we only went through two different class areas. One was basically a CAD lab, you know, where they had computers and and the the students were, you know, drawing stuff, doing CAD modeling, things like that. And then we went into the paint and body shop, where,

jill ciminillo (49:46)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:47)
you know, they're learning how to do body work, learning how to you know, learning

Roberto Baldwin (49:50)
Cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:51)
how to paint cars.

And the guy who who teaches that was actually a graduate of that program. So, yeah, this school started in the nineteen seventies. He was a graduate of that program, went worked out you know, worked in body shops for about ten, twelve years and then came back to teach. and he's been teaching for a number of years now. And w you know, when when MTM built this plant, you know, they broke ground in twenty eighteen and then, you know

twenty twenty was when they were finishing up the plant and you know, starting to hire and you know,

jill ciminillo (50:29)
Well

Sam Abuelsamid (50:29)
needed to train everybody and of course, you know, some stuff

jill ciminillo (50:32)
Covid.

Sam Abuelsamid (50:32)
happened in twenty twenty. and so they they they you know, they were figuring out, okay, how are we gonna train these people coming in? And one of the things they did is some of them some of the people that they were hiring, you know, the people that worked in the body shop and paint shop, or in the repair areas of the plant,

is they sent them to this high school to take

jill ciminillo (50:54)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (50:54)
classes there. because one of the things they need to learn how to do is you know, painting and and touch up, you know, by hand. You know, 'cause normally the painting is done by robots, but you know, when they get to the end of the line and they do the inspections, you know, if there's any flaws in the paint, any scratches or any little dings that need to be fixed up, you know, they they do that stuff by hand. and they fix that and fix those things up.

And so, you know, they did the training at this high school, which was kind of cool. and yeah, so like you know like you said, there's about almost eight between the plant itself and the suppliers, there's a bunch of suppliers that are on site on the same campus with the plant, and then others that are relatively nearby. There's a total of almost eight thousand people across the plant and the suppliers, and then other more widespread jobs beyond that.

so yeah, so the the the two the two millionth cars were were a a red CX fifty and a red Corolla Cross.

Roberto Baldwin (51:56)
That's not how numbers

work, but sure, whatever you say Mazda Toyota.

jill ciminillo (51:59)
Huh.

Sam Abuelsamid (52:00)
Ha ha ha.

all right.

jill ciminillo (52:05)
Yeah.

But I I thought it was just really cool to see, you know, the symbiotic relationship between the town and the plant and vice versa.

Sam Abuelsamid (52:12)
Yeah. so you know, while we're there, I think we each of us had a chance to sit down with Tom Donnelly, who's the CEO of Mazda North America. So I'm gonna drop my conversation that I had with Tom in here. and we will be back in a few minutes. but if you're watching live right now, if you're one of the people watching live, we're we're gonna continue on from here. everybody that's watching this after the fact, after I edit that in here.

We'll be back in about 20 minutes.

Tom Donnelly (52:42)
So a lot of numbers on this page. This just speaks to the significance of the plant, which I think you're gonna spend some time at tomorrow. So you know, an investment that goes back to 2018, significant investment for us on Toyota. overall, 7500-ish employees between the MTM employees as well as the supply base that's here. For us, this is a cornerstone element of our pathway towards five hundred thousand vehicles.

But for

Sam Abuelsamid (53:12)
For North America.

Tom Donnelly (53:14)
US. Yeah. Yeah, for US. So specifically, you know, we're celebrating or recognizing a couple milestones, the million vehicles that will be produced here. for us, our pathway to 150,000 unit production capacity here. So there's a number of things that are meshing here in the next few weeks. and that slide was intended to represent that. Sort of flipping it on a different axis now. This looks at the timeline from

The imagination or envisioning of MTM to the various milestones and frankly the headwinds that we have had to deal with, right? So COVID, supply chain shortage, chip shortage, all of that kind of stuff. The establishment of a second shift, ramping up a workforce, ramping up a supply base, all of that, yet building momentum to contribute to strengthening our brand and our business here in the US and and what that is meant for meant for.

our dealer partners as well as us. What you see represented here is the life we're living every day, right? I mean, you know, the the uncertainty in the marketplace, the affordability challenges, a lot of global economic issues as well as global auto industry issues, and how we're trying to overcome it, and as we'll speak to here, you know, the importance of MTM. So have a US

Manufacturing footprint, having a more stable supply base here in the US, and what that means just in terms of planning and and really our strengthening our business quality as well. This speaks to I'm sorry, if you go back to that, I'll be brief on this. We've had an operating philosophy for the last 10 years, and you may have heard me say it, brand value management, it speaks to what I just talked about, strengthening our brand. But I've talked about how

This plant, the introduction of CX50 have been foundational towards that, which really put us on a different plane in that regard. What you see on that slide is a number of other elements that we've progressed on to strengthen how our brand is viewed in the marketplace. Next slide. This speaks to the segment that CX50 competes in, along with CX5. You know, so having two vehicles in this segment has been absolutely additive.

clearly from a volume perspective, we're on a pathway to 250,000 units with a vision for 300,000 units in that segment. Clearly, key contributors towards our 500,000 unit ambition. We see these as two very different vehicles, two very different customer profiles, and that's why it has been additive and not substitutional for us. The introduction of CX50 hybrid a year or so ago, not surprisingly given what's happening in the marketplace.

timing. Yeah, yeah. Very fortuitous timing and a good plan has been very beneficial for us. I think you're aware that later next year we'll introduce CX5 hybrid, our own proprietary Mazda hybrid system, future ambition for out of their hybrids as well, just given where the marketplace is. So we feel like we're well positioned and you know, obviously it's been a boon for us right now. what this slide talks about is really what you experienced today.

So it goes beyond just building a manufacturing facility. So our presence here, how we are contributing to the local economy, how we're contributing to the workforce development, our work in the community. It really is who the Mazda brand is, you know, what we represent in Hiroshima on a different scale here in Huntsville really speaks to who we are and how we want to partner in the community and with our employee base as well.

And then finally, I've said this a couple times already. you know, as we reflect on what our ambition is towards 500,000 units in the horizon, the brand we want to be, MTM is a cornerstone element of that. CX50, the significance that that has represented, both from a volume technology as well as the workforce here at MTM. So it's really the pieces coming together to continue our advancement towards.

What is our vision twenty thirty and our future ambition?

Sam Abuelsamid (57:37)
Okay. So let's let's start with the brand. Please. you know, here we are, you know, October twenty twenty sixth.

Tom Donnelly (57:47)
What

Sam Abuelsamid (57:48)
What does the Mazda brand mean to you personally today? And and where do you see the the brand evolving over the the coming years? I mean what what what is Mazda today?

Tom Donnelly (58:03)
Well, I mean, we're a brand, I'll speak to the product part of it and then I'll elaborate on the brand part of it. So Mazda's a brand that is known for a couple of key things, our driving dynamics, as well as our design. And we feel like those are really distinctive elements of how customers have appreciated the Mazda brand really over our fifty plus years. Recently, we've been recognized for safety.

And between consumer reports and IIHS as well. So, but that speaks to really our human centricity, one of our core values of focusing on the driver, the occupants, and what that represents. In terms of the Mazda brand, you know, we're a brand that, beyond the product parts of it, has values around taking care of the customer, the Japanese concept of Omotanashi.

We feel like that is very true to who we are and something that is unique for who we are as a brand. I referenced earlier the term human centricity. It's our product development and RD philosophy, but that extends on to our relationship with our customers as well. So there's a number of things that we feel are very unique and distinctive about us, particularly in the segments we compete in, the price points we compete in.

that we are focused on I'd say strengthening the recognition of that in the marketplace. obviously a hyper-competitive market right now where it's just challenging overall. So to the extent that we can strengthen what we're known for and really advance ourselves with specific communities and connecting with our customers, that's what our focus is on.

Sam Abuelsamid (59:54)
Okay. The r the reason I asked that question is I recently finally had a chance to drive the new CX5. Okay. and it's it's very good in many ways. And you know, from a design perspective, it certainly still expresses, you know, what you talked about in terms of you know kind of the the Mazda look and feel. but it seems like it has gotten softened a little bit in terms of some of the the the the vibe, the Mazda vibe.

that I feel I didn't I didn't feel some of that in what regard the it seems a little bit softer in the driving dynamics, the powertrain, and especially in the interior, you talked about human centricity, but I i I I almost feel like it's gone, you know, like it it's piv this this particular model has pivoted in a lot of ways in the direction that a lot of the industry has gone with moving

Forwards putting everything in that center touch screen, touch controls, and taking away some of that that human contact with the vehicle. And you know, I I didn't have the same feeling from driving that one that I traditionally have had from Mazdas. And I, you know, I I still drive my my 1990 NA Miata. and but you know, I've driven you know all the Mazdas over the years, I you know.

More recently I you know, I was driving a C X ninety a few months ago. Okay. And you know, it still has that, but the the CX five seems to have lost that and I'm just wondering it lost some of it. And I'm just wondering if that's kind of a direction that Mazda is shifting towards going forward.

Tom Donnelly (1:01:36)
first of all, I'd say I appreciate the feedback. I would say we've we've heard elements of that. I mean with CX5 there there there's an evolution to there's an evolution to the design of it. It's still very much recognized as a CX5. You mentioned the N-Car technology. I mean, that's where the marketplace is moving. So that is new in a sense for us. But I would say our our DNA.

will continue and we will continue to refine our driving dynamics and what that represents, the design of what CX five is. you know, we'll always listen to the voice of the customer and what feedback they're pro they're providing in terms of refinement opportunities. But there's no no change in direction. I mean, if anything, we want to make that stronger and more distinctive in the marketplace because we feel like that's a

That's white space for us. Well not white space because we're there already. But strengthening that would

Sam Abuelsamid (1:02:39)
An area

that a lot of your competitors aren't necessarily going for.

Tom Donnelly (1:02:44)
Right. Yeah. So that would be the white space part of it. We feel like we can continue to strengthen that. I would flip it a bit and say we're absolutely trying to refine the the customer connection part of that. So getting more recognition of what makes us different and unique in the marketplace and trying to enhance the customer's appreciation for those characteristics and values.

So, you know, on the driving dynamics part of it, to the extent that that contributes to a a safer vehicle, you know, the design and what that represents in the individualism of things. So those are things that we continue to try to listen to customers, refine and focus on, but there really isn't a change in direction or change in philosophy.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:03:41)
Okay. Well that's that's good to hear. you know, and I'll certainly be, you know, keeping a close eye on future Mazda products. yeah. now let's pivot a little bit to what you know what we saw this morning, you know, which is a lot of the the training efforts, you know, you know, starting, you know, at the elementary school level and and working on up, you know, to to build a a pipeline of people that have the skills

you know, to to find, you know, careers, you know, to find good careers, you know, whether it's with Mazda or, you know, with other companies, you know, I think that's that's really important for for companies to be investing in that to help, you know, to help to help educators understand, you know, what you know, what need you know, what are the things that kids need to learn. and and even at you know at the adult level, what you're you know, doing the support with fame and and everything else.

that's great to hear. Is that is that something that Mazda is also involved in in the other markets where you participate? I mean, is there anything like that in Japan? Or is I mean is there even a need for that in Japan or in Mexico where you also have a factory or or other locations?

Tom Donnelly (1:04:57)
Yeah, I I can't speak in in great detail about that, but I'll go back to our origins. in terms of being in Hiroshima, our involvement in communities. I mean, going back to, you know, 1945 and contributing to the complete rebuilding of of Hiroshima. I mean, that is who who we are as a brand, who we are as an organization. So specifically to our work here in Huntsville and this

Hopefully came through in the presentation as well. It goes beyond just building 150,000 cars here. It's being a good corporate citizen. It's contributing to the local economy. It's contributing to the ecosystem, both in terms of the education and the community overall. That's who we are as a brand and who we want to continue to strengthen ourselves in the communities that we operate in. So a lot of what you saw here today, we other

presence in Southern California, Chicago, things like that with similar programs that we partner via the Mazda Foundation on. But it's it's really something that we feel like our employees have embraced, our dealers have embraced, and we want to continue to strengthen our involvement in the communities that we do business in. It's just, it's just, it makes you feel good and and it makes our dealer partners feel good as well.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:22)
Do you know roughly how much Mazda invests in all of these various types of educational efforts?

Tom Donnelly (1:06:30)
in terms of

Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:32)
Financially.

Tom Donnelly (1:06:32)
financially. I don't have a specific number for I mean it's seven figures plus, but I don't have an exact number for ya. All right.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:41)
you mentioned dealers. you know, are are you encouraging your dealer network to also get involved you know with for example, working with community colleges, you know, to provide opportunities for you know young people or or you know any anyone you know that's going through training programs in in local institutions across the country where Mazda may not have offices, you know, or or factories.

is is that something that's also happening?

Tom Donnelly (1:07:11)
yes, and and I would expand upon that. we continue to be I don't know what word I would use. I was gonna say amazed, but that's not it. It's you know car dealers are arguably the most community centric businesses in most of the cities they operate in, right? You know, whether it's little league teams or things like that. I mean, they they have been historically very, very involved and and very charitable in that regard.

As we have over the last, let's say, three to five years looked to expand our community involvement and really focus in the right communities and the right areas, we've continued to be really amazed by the enthusiasm and the willingness to do more and partner with us. Perhaps not surprisingly.

In the last 12 months or so, we've gotten much more focused in a couple of different areas. what you experienced here today, I would say separately. There's an initiative that we just launched a couple months ago around, this gets back to communities, coaches and what they mean in their communities with young people, and really being great mentors and resources for them.

So there's a common thread there in terms of the areas and the communities that we get involved in. And that's something that we feel passionate about. And you you will see a lot more from us in the I would say the weeks and the months ahead.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:08:51)
So when you talk about coaches, is that people working either for Mazda directly or with your supplier base or with dealers that you know are maybe volunteering in schools or educational institutions

Tom Donnelly (1:09:05)
There's a lot of

Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:06)
as to provide kinda kinda mentorship opportunities?

Tom Donnelly (1:09:09)
There's a lot of that. And and let me go back a little bit and then I'll expand upon that. there's a stat, and you'll get the you'll you'll get directionally what I'm saying. Like 70% of kids who participate in youth sports quit by the age of 13 because for a lot of reasons. Some of it's financial, some of it they're just burned out, right? I mean, w I don't know if you played sports as a kid, but

The environment that I participated in compared to the environment now is a lot more expensive. And it's just hyper competitive. It's not fun anymore for kids. So providing an outlet where kids can maintain that fun and the enthusiasm for it is something that is, again, aligned with our values. So I was a high school coach a thousand years ago. it's something I feel passionate about.

We continue to see our employees and our dealer partners involved in communities as youth sports coaches, in schools, as volunteers. So it's something that as we've engaged with our dealer partners on the why behind it, there's been a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of momentum that is building around that. So we're continuing to refine our unique approach to it, but it's something that we feel really represents who we are as a brand.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:34)
you know, what building on that, you know, I I graduated from what was then GMI, now Kettering University. And several years ago I met with the the president of the school. and we were talking about you know some of the things that they do in the in the Flint, Michigan community, you know, working with schools in that area, elementary and middle schools and high schools and their involvement in things like first robotics. And one of the things that struck me that he mentioned was that

you know, with young girls especially in technic you know, in technical education or math science. you know, one of the problems with one of the challenges with trying to get them into those fields is that so often they kind of drop out, you know, by the time they're six, eight years old and they're moving off into different directions away from those technical fields. And it was interesting today, you know, in the f the the middle school that we went into.

Yeah, there was a number of girls in the class. As we went up the chain, you know, to the the high school program and then to the the the fame program, there was fewer and fewer girls in those classrooms. you know, is is part of is is any part of what you're doing also to help, you know get help get young girls into those into that pipeline, you know, of science and technology and and math.

you know, to help build up some of that.

Tom Donnelly (1:12:06)
Yes. And I'll I'll reference this pivots a little bit. we have a number of employee resource groups, and one of our first and one of our biggest is women in leadership. And one of their focus areas is exactly that. So there's a group of Mazda employees that come from our R D community, come from our product planning community that have backgrounds in exactly what you're describing. They have met with a number of

universities in the Southern California area. And it's focused primarily in those areas. And I think Drew could probably get you some additional information on the the contributions and the effect that that has had. But I I think it's appropriate that you, you know, you you mention that and I'm pleased that we have this employee resource group that I mentioned that that is focused in areas like among other things. But that is, you know, you triggered that

Thought in my head when you mentioned it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:06)
Okay. is there anything else that you'd like to bring up about any of this before I give you your time back?

Tom Donnelly (1:13:15)
We couldn't be more pleased with being here this week to celebrate a number of milestones, the millionth vehicle, our pathway to 150,000 units, the effect that our presence in the Huntsville community has had on the Mazda brand, the employee base. So there's a number of things to celebrate. We feel like the Mazda brand's in a really strong position, going back to one of your earlier comments. so we feel really good about where we are and

The Huntsville community. All right.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:46)
Well thank you very much.

Tom Donnelly (1:13:47)
Thanks,

Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:49)
All right. continuing on. let's stick yeah. so let let's stick with Mazda for a minute. you know, a couple of things that came out this week. the Mazda CX seventy is dead. It's it's kaput.

Roberto Baldwin (1:14:05)
Well.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:14:05)
It is no more. it is now just as it should have always been, really. It's a CX ninety with two rows.

So now you can get a CX CX ninety with two rows or a C X ninety with three rows. That's it. and then Mazda also announced that they are killing off an engine that they introduced a few years ago that never actually went on sale in North America. it's the Sky Active X, which

jill ciminillo (1:14:36)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:14:37)
was kind of a cool engine. Did you ever get a chance to to drive that one, Joel?

jill ciminillo (1:14:41)
I did. I was trying to remember. It w it was the very it was wow, I think I was still at Barrington Broadcasting at the time. It was a long time ago. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:14:50)
Yeah, it was like twenty eighteen when they did that.

jill ciminillo (1:14:53)
And they I I feel like they took us into California somewhere and we were driving around there and they like initially wouldn't tell us what car it was gonna be in and then lo and behold, it was not in any car, but yes.

Roberto Baldwin (1:15:06)
He

Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:06)
Yeah.

It w yeah, it was it was in twenty eighteen. It was it was in near Irvine it was in Irvine, near Mazda's North American headquarters. and they had they had some prototype Mazda threes with this engine in there. they they did sell it in the Mazda three and I think also in the C X thirty and the C maybe the C X three in Europe and in Japan. but they've now they're now discontinuing it. So this this engine

is what was what they called a spark controlled compression or let's see har spark controlled

Roberto Baldwin (1:15:43)
If it seems like

Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:45)
charge com con compression ignition engine. So it was kind of sort of like a diesel in the way it worked. Had a sixteen to one compression ratio, but it ran on gasoline. and you know it was meant to be significantly more fuel efficient.

And it was under certain conditions. you know, th this is a concept that's been floating around for a long time. you know, that started off as something called HCCI, so homo homogeneous charge compression ignition. and you know, with those, you know, that was basically a a kind of a diesel engine that ran on gasoline. But because because of the way gasoline burns, you couldn't actually run it on in the

compression ignition mode all the time. It can only do that under certain conditions. and so sometimes it would run as a spark ignition engine like a conventional gas engine. Sometimes it would do compression ignition. and I drove a couple of different prototypes at various times from GM with this technology in there. And it was kind of interesting. but you know it never actually made it into production. And then what Mazda did was they came up with

a way to control the the combustion better by using yeah, so basically you what you had was a really lean air fuel ratio in the combustion chamber that went in there. And then they had a direct injection that would spray in just a little bit of fuel and then use the spark and they had pressure sensors in the combustion chamber th and they would look at the pressure and then use you know

they use the spark to ignite that little tiny bit of fuel to use that to kick off to manage the pressure so you got it at the right range because the pressure varies obviously based on ambient temperature and humidity and all kinds of other stuff. So to make it more consistent, they use that and it generally worked pretty well, but it only really gave it about a I think about a ten or fifteen percent improvement in fuel efficiency over a regular spark

ignition engine. And it was added a lot of complexity to it. And

jill ciminillo (1:17:57)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:17:57)
so

Roberto Baldwin (1:17:57)
It's like the

the the D sound variable compression motors are like, and then you saw the real

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:02)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:03)
world like

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:04)
Yeah, exactly.

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:06)
Like you did a lot of work for two extra miles per gallon. Cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:09)
Yeah.

yeah. So the Sky ActiveX is dead.

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:16)
RIP, Skyactive X.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:20)
but Toyota, at least in Europe, has announced their next generation hybrid system.

jill ciminillo (1:18:28)
Hm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:29)
And so, you know, Toyota's been talking a lot over the last several years, you know, about you know doing a multi pathway approach, you know, having EVs and hybrids and plug-in hybrids and fuel cells. And so in order to

try to optimize better for you know having multiple different powertrain options in a vehicle. They've designed their next generation hybrid system. And instead of the naturally aspirated instead of the 1.8 liter and 2.5 liter four cylinders they use in most of them today, they have a new one point five liter four cylinder engine design. And it's tilted way back. and and then they have a new

more compact hybrid drive unit with integrated power electronics and inverters. and they say it'll have fifteen percent better fuel economy than the current generation hybrids with similar power. and because the engine has been tilted back looks like probably about thirty or forty degrees from vertical, it'll have allow for a lower hood line. So they can put this into a car.

and have a nice low hood line. and then you know for the electric version of that, they've still got that nice slow hood line. So it you know it looks it'll look more like you know, it'll it'll look less different between the electric and the the hybrid versions. so you know it's should you know give them some benefits that way. yeah I said fifteen percent better fuel efficiency. They're not saying yet when it's going to launch.

but the fact that they're talking about it right now means it's probably gonna come pretty soon for Toyota because Toyota doesn't tend to talk about this stuff, you know, way far in advance. and last year at the twenty twenty five Japan Mobility show, they showed a Corolla concept as an E V. And it had, you know, like a really short hood, low hood line. and that car is probably

something like what the new cr what the next generation Corolla is gonna look like. and it's probably gonna have this powertrain in it.

Roberto Baldwin (1:20:53)
Sure.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:20:58)
and then continuing with hybrids, GM's finally gonna bring some hybrids out again.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:05)
I don't even

jill ciminillo (1:21:07)
This is me holding my breath.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:12)
Sure.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:13)
yeah, GM has has had a whole bunch of hybrids over the last 20 years and never seems to stick with them. you know they they the they started off with a mild hybrid in the Silverado back about two thousand two thousand five. Then they brought out the two-mode hybrids, and then they brought out the the Volt, and then they brought out a new hybrid system in the Malibu and the mid

twenty like twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. that was the last one that they sold and it was discontinued in twenty nineteen. and a couple of years ago Mary Barra said, Yeah, we're gonna we've decided we're gonna bring hybrids back into our North American lineup and then they never said what they're gonna put it in.

jill ciminillo (1:21:56)
Ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:58)
and

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:59)
Which is I mean it's pretty on par for for GM. They're like, We're gonna do a thing. Can you get more details? Mm come on. A little anything? Nah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:08)
Yeah.

So I mean the only hybrid they've had in recent years is actually in the Corvette. you know, the E Ray,

Roberto Baldwin (1:22:14)
Which is

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:14)
now the Grantsport X and the Z R one X have a hybrid system, but that's really more of a performance hybrid system. but what they announced this week was that they are going to invest a bunch of money in their Lansing Delta Township plant, which is in Lansing, Michigan. and so they haven't said which vehicles the hybrid system is gonna go into.

but since the Lansing Delta Township plant opened twenty years ago, the only vehicles it's ever built are their three row crossovers, the GMC Acadia, Buke Enclave, Chevy Traverse, and they used to also build the Saturn a Saturn version, I can't remember what it was called now.

jill ciminillo (1:22:56)
Was it the view?

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:59)
no, the view was the hmm? No,

Roberto Baldwin (1:22:59)
Yeah, the V U E? The V U E view.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:23:03)
the view the view was the compact crossover. It was like equinox

size.

Roberto Baldwin (1:23:10)
Mm. No.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:23:11)
Can't remember. Anyway, it started

jill ciminillo (1:23:11)
Can't remember.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:23:13)
with an R, but it it doesn't matter. that's long gone anyway. but so you know, presumably it's gonna go in those. And you know, they're not saying when, but you know, last week when we were at the GM forward event in New York, they also announced that those three row crossovers are going to get GM's new central compute architecture in 2028. So

most likely what we're gonna see in 2028 would also be four years since the current generation of the those crossovers debuted. so about the right time frame for a mid-cycle update. So probably what we'll see in 2028 is those vehicles get a mid-cycle update with that new central compute architecture and a hybrid all at the same time.

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:01)
Okay. I guess she I mean I just she just don't want I guess they don't just wanna go up against this the this this you know, the C R V and the RAV4 where people where the money's going. I mean if you

Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:13)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:14)
look at like Hyundai's like our hybrids are kicking ass. Like everyone's like doing great in hybrids

jill ciminillo (1:24:18)
Everybody's hybrids are kicking ass.

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:20)
and then G Brit and GM's like maybe we should do that.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:24)
Well, I mean I wouldn't be surprised if they also put it in the equinox and terrain, you know, to go up against those vehicles, sometime in the not too distant future. But they're gonna start with the three rows, I think. you know, and of course, you know, that segment, you know, you've got the Toyota Grand Highlander, the Palisade and the Telluride, all with hybrids now. so, you know, there's there's lots of hybrid competition to go up against.

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:50)
Yeah, but the big money's in the middle.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:53)
Yeah. Well, that's

true.

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:56)
But they're looking at like individual you know individual money versus overall money, I think.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:04)
Yeah, well and you know, those three row crossovers, you know, they're at a higher price point. you know, they th the yeah, they've got

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:09)
Yeah, you get a l there's a larger profit margin on those.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:12)
more margin to work with in terms of pricing, you know, to absorb some of the cost.

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:19)
Well, I mean cool around twenty twenty eight.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:23)
Yeah, eventually.

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:26)
Good job guys.

Should have done it like three years ago, but okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:30)
Yeah. so Ford just keeps announcing putting out announcements related to the Fathom without actually showing us the Fathom in its final form.

jill ciminillo (1:25:42)
Ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:44)
and this week they had two two bits of news on the Fathom. one, they have produced more than five thousand of the unicastings for the Fathom truck. yeah, so they're they're going through and debugging the

you know, that equipment that's that's gonna build those. So, you know, the unicasting, you know, the the Fathom is gonna be built up its main structure is built of two of these large scale die cast, aluminum die cast parts and the the the battery pack itself. and you know I I reached out to Ford to say, so what kind of yields are you getting on these things? Yeah, 'cause that's been one of the problems in the past. When you're making these really big die castings, is how many of the ones that come out of the die are actually usable?

And they declined to say how many, but

they've made more than five thousand of them. Yeah. We Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:26:34)
We made a bunch. How many are usable? We made a bunch. I

mean I've printed a lot of stuff on my three D printer. How much of it's usable? Well I

jill ciminillo (1:26:42)
Bunch.

Roberto Baldwin (1:26:42)
printed a lot of stuff on my three D printer.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:26:43)
Yeah.

and then the other news is the Fathom's gonna have bi-directional charging. so though it'll be able to do the kind of home power backup stuff that they promised with the F one fifty Lightning.

jill ciminillo (1:27:01)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:27:03)
but at a much lower cost. Well, sort

Roberto Baldwin (1:27:05)
That they promised.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:27:06)
of at a lower cost.

jill ciminillo (1:27:06)
The tape. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:27:09)
so like with the Lightning to do the the home power backup, the way they did it was they had

DC, you know, s you had to you had to have their Power Station Pro charger, which they, you know, to their credit, they bundled with the truck. So this was an eighty amp charger with a CCS connector on it. So you had to use that. And then it was outputting direct current from the battery through the charger, and then you had to have their home integration kit, which was you know basically an inverter and a transfer switch.

that when it when your power went out and it was started to draw power from your truck, the transfer switch would flip off the connection from the grid and so you weren't feeding power back into the grid and then it would send the power into your house. that kit, the hardware alone was like four thousand dollars. And then you had to pay to get it installed. And if you were lucky and had a setup kind of like what my house has where the

circuit breaker panel is on the wall that separates the house from the garage, you could probably do that installation for about two to three thousand dollars. if you if you were less lucky and you had a circuit breaker panel that was on the opposite end of the house from where you parked the car, or you had a detached garage and you had to do a trench to run the power line from the garage

to you know, into your house. I I remember Motor Trend, you know, wan they wanted to ha have this system set s installed for one of their riders out in LA. And it turned out to be like eighteen thousand dollars. Because it was an older house, it only had a hundred amp panel, so we had to upgrade the hundred amp panel to at least a hundred and fifty amps or preferably two hundred amps, trench from the garage to the house and all kinds of other stuff. And so they they didn't

Roberto Baldwin (1:29:13)
I mean I can dig

a hole. I don't need someone to c I can do that. I'll dig the hole and then you guys do everything else. So that's gotta take at least, you know, two hundred dollars off right there.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:29:22)
At

at least, yeah. so this new system it is using the e box in the the Fathom, which is their combined box that has their power electronics, their onboard charger and inverter and everything. All that stuff is in one box. So it's actually gonna output AC, alternating current, and their new charger that supports bidirectional.

is now only six hundred and fifty bucks, so it's half the price of the old Power Station Pro. and if you're just using it so you can use it in a couple of ways. they've got their home power management stuff, which basically you know it when you know it looks at when your what your time of use rates are for your electricity and during peak charge periods, peak periods, it can actually

feed power into your house without feeding it back into the electr into the into the grid and reduce the load that you're pulling from the grid into your house and just using some of the power from your battery and then for the power backup for the full power backup system then they also have a control box which sounds like it's gonna be about two thousand bucks for that but either one of those you

You still have all the same other problems with installation. so it could still cost you anywhere

Roberto Baldwin (1:30:52)
Wait, hold I'm

Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:53)
from two thousand to fifteen thousand dollars to install this.

Roberto Baldwin (1:30:56)
So wait, so what's the two thousand why am I paying what's the control box do?

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:00)
that manage so it that's gonna have the transfer switch and it's gonna manage switching things on and off so you're not feeding power back into the grid.

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:11)
so it's still expensive.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:13)
Yes.

jill ciminillo (1:31:13)
Ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:15)
But it's ha it's ha it's it's it's

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:15)
I was like, six fifty. No wait. It's twenty six hundred.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:19)
it's it's half the price of the old one for the hardware. Yeah. But but you still have the

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:21)
Well that the old one was ridiculous and it dishes uselessly expensive.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:24)
installation cost depending on the configuration of your house. So

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:27)
Yeah, your home is

I mean, that's just that's anything you're gonna with. You know, if you put solar in you're gonna have that

jill ciminillo (1:31:30)
A newer home, less expensive.

Living in Chicago, probably pretty expensive with like 1920s era like electronics.

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:37)
Yeah, that's

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:37)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:39)
Yeah, that's that's you know you do anything in an older home. It's g I'm like a a friend of mine is having their they have to do their entire house has their electrical system has to be ripped out and redone. And it has nothing to do they don't have an E V. That's just that's just what they gotta do now.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:51)
Yeah. No one of my one of

jill ciminillo (1:31:53)
Do it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:54)
my neighbors was recently d doing that. Yeah, they were having basically having their whole house rewired, you know, 'cause it was a a house from the nineteen forties and basically having the

Roberto Baldwin (1:32:03)
Yeah, they're doing the same. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:32:04)
whole thing rewired. They put in a two hundred amp panel and rewired everything. And I think that was somewhere between ten and fifteen thousand dollars. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:32:15)
It's a lot.

Electricity. It's crazy.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:32:20)
Yeah.

all right. So I I have previously been an advocate for if you're buying an EV for the first time to consider buying a used

Roberto Baldwin (1:32:33)
Whoops.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:32:33)
one. because you could get really good deals on used EVs. That's what we did last year. you know, because you know unfortunately for people who bought EVs new, the depreciation on EVs traditionally has been extremely high. And so you could get screaming deals on used ones.

That's becoming less the case now as more and more people are saying, you know, there's great deals to be had on used EVs and

Roberto Baldwin (1:33:00)
Yep.

If it like a year ago, man, that was that was those are the golden days. That was the solid days of of of used E Vs. You're like, I can get a Ionic five for like three dollars and

Sam Abuelsamid (1:33:11)
Yeah.

Well the like the E V six we bought, you know, buying an equivalent one with similar mileage on it, you know, one one year newer now, is I was I was looking it up. It's they're generally about four to five thousand dollars more expensive than what I paid. and according to IC Cars, they've found that used E V prices have gone up by almost ten percent since September of twenty twenty five.

Roberto Baldwin (1:33:39)
People finally

figured out those batteries don't just die. That was the great thing about the used EVs, is like people were like, well they're not worth much because the batteries are dead and then everyone finally like people like us ruined it. We've ruined it for everyone.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:33:52)
We told them the truth.

Roberto Baldwin (1:33:53)
We told everyone the truth and now they're like, you mean the batteries don't no.

jill ciminillo (1:33:56)
Stop telling people the truth, dang it.

Roberto Baldwin (1:33:58)
now the ten percent, that's a lot. Sorry everyone.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:01)
Yeah. I mean th you know, they're still they're

still, you know, a lot cheaper than buying a new car. but, you know, it's it's a little more expensive than it was. hybrids have gone up five percent in the past year, used hybrids, and gas cars have gone up only zero point three percent.

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:20)
Yeah, 'cause gas is a billion dollars a gallon now.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:26)
So you

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:26)
I d I I just

died driving my BRZ. Just rolling and down

Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:30)
Ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:31)
the hills.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:34)
used D V D prices now average just five hundred and seventy nine dollars more than gas cars compared with twenty two hundred and twenty seven dollars a year ago.

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:45)
Well, you know.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:49)
all right. let's see what else. and speaking of used EVs, there's a very interesting one up for sale right now. a first generation Toyota Rav4 EV. and it's they're only asking two thousand dollars for it.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:09)
Cool. There's like two of those in Marin. 'Cause I saw them both on the same day.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:14)
Ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:15)
So there are at least two yeah

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:18)
I've I've seen

a couple of these on the road when I've been in California at various times.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:21)
Yeah, there's a couple of them

in in California. Two thousand bucks. That's

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:27)
yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:27)
a pretty sweet deal, regardless, even

jill ciminillo (1:35:28)
And and it still drives.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:30)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:30)
Yeah, it's a it's

a two thousand two. it still has its original battery. so the those first generation RAV4s, Toyota built them with nickel metal hydride batteries. So it was based on the same technology that they had in their hybrids until relatively recently. and it was originally rated at I think ninety five miles of range, from about a thirty yeah, about a twenty seven point four kilowatt hour battery, which is actually pretty efficient.

These were based on the the original first generation RAV4. and I don't know how many you know, how how it doesn't say how far it'll go now on a charge. Yeah, probably.

Roberto Baldwin (1:36:10)
Yeah, it doesn't have their

jill ciminillo (1:36:12)
Ten miles. No.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:36:16)
But you know, it's possible that you know, if it's using the same cells that they used in their hybrids, you could probably rebuild the battery, get it you know, get a newer you know, a newer used Toyota hybrid battery and basically rebuild this with newer cells from a hybrid. and you know and basic and probably get back pretty you know in the leaks at least sixty to seventy mile.

range. and the other interesting thing about this one is the that first generation RAV4 was the only car besides the GME V one that used the magnet charger. So,

jill ciminillo (1:37:00)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:00)
you know,

it instead of you know conventional plug, it had an inductive paddle that you stick into a slot.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:06)
That the little paddle you slid

in. Yeah. It's like a little

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:11)
And this one apparently comes with two magnet chargers, home magnet chargers that plug into NEMA fourteen fifty plugs. They're they're bundled with the car.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:23)
Well, there you go. If you live in where is this thing? Colorado. You know what? I'm surprised Tommy hasn't bought it. Tommy and Roman over at T F L. They're probably right now they're probably driving it home right this moment.

jill ciminillo (1:37:33)
Maybe they will now. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I wouldn't be surprised if you know, buy it and trailer it back to Colorado.

all right. and then Rivian. they're their their vans are actually selling pretty well. yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:55)
I've driven this van, it's not boring. Tim's

I'm gonna call Tim and tell him that's not that's not cool. It's not boring, it's fun. But it's also a

Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:01)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:03)
van. Like a big delivery van is just fun to drive, unless you're a delivery person, I'm sorry. But if you're just like a regular person might be who never gets to drive a big delivery van, you're like

Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:14)
I mean so far, you know, th I mean they've been s the sales through the end of September. you know, they had three months of sales of the R two, which just launched, and you know, in July they had eleven hundred and seventy deliveries of the R two, eleven hundred and eighty two in August, eleven four in September. those same months they sold they delivered almost twenty nine hundred

each month of the delivery vans. so so the

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:46)
Each month?

Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:47)
the the van is actually their second best selling vehicle behind the R one. So so far through the first nine months of the year they've sold twenty four thousand four hundred sixty eight R1s, that's R one S and R one T in Canada and the US. thirty four hundred and fifty six R2s and fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty five vans.

Roberto Baldwin (1:39:08)
That's I I don't know man. I feel like killing Bright Drop was that was show s so short sighted. 'Cause I drove the Bright Drop van as well. I drove a lot of these vans to be I drove a lot of these E V vans. It was really nice.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:39:18)
Yeah. Well you you had an e transit too, didn't you? Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:39:22)
I drove an eTransit as well. Yeah. I just I don't I I don't know, the Bright Drop thing was that was such a great little van. I mean people were coming up to me on the street while driving around San Francisco be like, Hey can I buy this? And I'm like, it's not mine

jill ciminillo (1:39:35)
No.

Yeah. No, I see the ribbon.

Roberto Baldwin (1:39:37)
But good fri good on Rivian

for s for for sticking to it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:39:40)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (1:39:40)
Yeah,

I see them everywhere in Chicago. I don't like I don't know that I see really any other Amazon trucks other than the Rivian ones now.

Roberto Baldwin (1:39:48)
Yeah, it's mostly Rivians.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:39:49)
There they're

there most of the ones you see around here are the the Rivians. There are still some of the the big box vans, the gas vans, or or maybe diesel, that they use for some deliveries, but the vast majority of the ones you see around here are the Rivians.

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:06)
Yeah. I live near a Amazon distribution center so they're everywhere.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:09)
Yeah. so Volkswagen is getting into the used E V parts business. so their their plant in Zwickau, in Germany, is being s has been set up to dismantle forty one hundred vehicles a year. so you know, basically they're turning it into a pick and pull facility. where

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:35)
Cool.

jill ciminillo (1:40:36)
huh.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:36)
so they're you know, they're taking

vehicles that have been retired for whatever reason and they're tearing down and, you know, selling, you know, good condition used parts for their all their various EVs.

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:50)
That's cool. You could get it so so if you could crate the Harlequin by just like I want a

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:57)
Yeah. Without having to paint one.

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:59)
blue and then I want a yellow door and a blue door and a green door and a red door on my ID three. Alright. Here we go.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:11)
yeah, they they they've been building they started production of the ID three there in late twenty nineteen. and they stopped building gas vehicles at that plant in mid twenty twenty. and you know they've been building ID threes, ID fours and ID fives there along with various other MEB vehicles from for Audi and Cupra in that same plant since then. so yeah, so they're they're basically taking apart

cars and they're gonna sell used parts for you know repair parts.

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:44)
jobs for people and you know, used parts are cheaper than new parts. Yeah, recycling.

jill ciminillo (1:41:48)
Re recycling things. I mean that's always good.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:50)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:52)
Everybody wins.

jill ciminillo (1:41:54)
Yeah, very

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:54)
if you

need a

jill ciminillo (1:41:54)
funny.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:54)
new door or a hood or any other parts for your

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:56)
Just I'm telling

you, get a different color. Just start swapping out. And then find a

Sam Abuelsamid (1:42:00)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:42:00)
friend another friend has an ID three and like five find like four friends and you guys can swap as many parts doors as you can and then go to to this plant and and order some other doors. And then yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:42:16)
and then same time VW also apparently has suspended development of the ID Golf,

jill ciminillo (1:42:25)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:42:25)
which was gonna be the replacement for the ID three.

and it was supposed to come out in twenty twenty eight and be based on VW's next generation platform, which is I forget what they call it here. but this was the platform that's being developed.

using technology from Rivian, so it's got Rivian's electrical architecture and and a bunch of other stuff on their their all their software. it was supposed to launch in twenty twenty eight. They have paused development of that because they don't have enough money. They're

jill ciminillo (1:43:02)
Hm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:03)
they're they're they're losing so much money, you know, they're having to delay programs.

Roberto Baldwin (1:43:09)
No, I think it's a Volkswagen. Yeah. We gotta build those scouts still.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:14)
Yeah.

and then Flock yeah there's a y a guy on YouTube published a video. He is selling a device called the the Flockomatic, which

jill ciminillo (1:43:32)
Ha ha ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:43:34)
Ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:36)
which is designed to hide your license plate from license from license plate reading cameras. and what it is is a piece of glass that you mount

Over your license plate. it's an electrochromat electrochromatic glass. and you know it's kind of like the what they use for the the glass roof and the Nissan Leaf and a couple of other cars, as well as for windows and stuff like the Boeing seven eight seven. and it's controlled by an Arduino and when and it and uses GPS to and it's tracking from sites like D Flock, which track

where there are flock cameras. And so

jill ciminillo (1:44:18)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:44:19)
when you are driving in the vicinity of a flock camera, it it will actually de-energize. So it it when it's energized, the glass is transparent and you can see the license plate. but when you drive

by a camera, it de energizes, the the plate goes opaque, so you can't read the the license plate, and then it automatically goes transparent again.

Roberto Baldwin (1:44:47)
I mean I I understand, but it just seems like

Sam Abuelsamid (1:44:52)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:44:52)
Some cops yeah. 'Cause

now you've you're you're obscuring the vi well in the visible spectrum you're obscuring your license plate.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:45:01)
Yeah.

jill ciminillo (1:45:02)
And

and I mean I think that's I know in Illinois that's not kosher. At all, ever.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:45:07)
Yeah, it's it's probably

Roberto Baldwin (1:45:07)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:45:08)
not legal anywhere.

Roberto Baldwin (1:45:10)
'Cause I th I I 'cause it my I've originally I'm like looking at it and I'm like, maybe they're what it's doing is over, you know, so

jill ciminillo (1:45:16)
Like reflecting

or something.

Roberto Baldwin (1:45:17)
So

like a lot of there's for years there was a lot of like you could buy glasses or you could you know, a lot of infosec people were are are hoodies and so you would overpower any cameras with the infrared with infrared LEDs. So

jill ciminillo (1:45:31)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:45:31)
regular people can't see it, but it'd be so bright that someone tried to take a picture with a camera, you couldn't see. It would just be like there's flash and so I was like, maybe it was that but I don't think you could get it bright enough, especially during the day. Like at night you could do it, but I don't think you could do it with 'cause you could do

this whole same system without the without the glass issue but instead use like that's a bummer. Still, you know, that's how much people hate Flock.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:45:54)
Yeah. Yeah, it says here, yeah.

Yeah it says here ev every state has some r kind of restriction on license plate covers. they're legal in eight states, including Illinois, where the car used for testing in the video is registered. States that haven't banned covers outright still require the plate to be legible and they may not obscure the plate in any way. Depending on where you live, you could still get pulled over just for having a cover on your license plate, even it's as clear as glass all the time. So

Roberto Baldwin (1:46:21)
Where?

Sam Abuelsamid (1:46:23)
it's there.

There's there's a there's a link in the article in the Jalotnik article to the YouTube video if you want to check it out. but you know, w we are not given the questionable legality of this, even though even though, you know,

Roberto Baldwin (1:46:37)
Yeah, I would just

Sam Abuelsamid (1:46:39)
flock and well license automatic license plate readers are of dubious benefit, I'm not sure I would recommend anybody actually buy this and put it on their car.

Roberto Baldwin (1:46:47)
Infrared

LEDs brightness. How many l how many knits of brightness do they got these LEDs? These infrared LEDs now.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:46:56)
Ha ha ha.

and then finally, probably not a great idea to buy your engine parts off of Timu.

Roberto Baldwin (1:47:09)
no.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:47:10)
Have either of you two ever bought anything from Timo?

jill ciminillo (1:47:11)
I

no I have not.

Roberto Baldwin (1:47:13)
I have

I have not I've asked people and they're like, Yeah, I bought some stuff and it was fine, but it took like a hundred years to get it. It was like it's all like sort of weird and hit or miss and so I've never bought anything from Timu. Every time I like open the app there's always like, spin the wheel and he's like, Spin the wheel, spin the wheel. I'm like, god And then

jill ciminillo (1:47:27)
Yeah. I don't I don't wanna open the app, you know? I I I don't want the app.

Roberto Baldwin (1:47:33)
and then the app goes away and then I get rid of the app and then I just never care about it again.

jill ciminillo (1:47:37)
No, I've I've had Timu bots approach me, they want to sponsor me or something for content and I'm like delete, delete, delete, delete.

Roberto Baldwin (1:47:45)
Like I like the

idea for some reason like bots like you're on the street and a robot becoming Hey Jill, you wanna You wanna do some stuff? You wanna partner up for some branding? I don't know why that's in my head, but

jill ciminillo (1:47:55)
Yeah, but I I I've had them reach out to me a couple of times.

It's very weird. But no, do not buy tumo parts for an engine. I think that would be a given.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:48:03)
yeah,

apparently there are a number of Chinese manufacturers selling especially parts for Chevy small block engines. that and they're selling them through Timu. So you can get you know, small block cylinder heads for just three hundred and fifty bucks assembled and shipped. but

jill ciminillo (1:48:26)
And now you know why.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:48:28)
yeah. yeah, these are these are not very good.

if if they work at all, your performance is probably gonna be really bad. based on, you know, the the shape of the combustion chambers and these things. And it's just yeah, just don't buy your parts off of Timu. You know, go find you know, find a local you know, wrecking yard. you know, find find a car that's been crashed from behind and you know buy buy the engine parts from that. Don't don't buy on Timu.

Not a good idea.

Roberto Baldwin (1:49:05)
It's very interesting. I liked it that someone bought it and then they made a video and be like, guys, guys don't

Sam Abuelsamid (1:49:09)
Yeah. Yeah.

jill ciminillo (1:49:13)
Do it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:49:15)
Bad stuff.

All right. that's it for this week. Thanks everybody for listening and we'll be back next time. and and while we were talking, eight thirteen AJ commented that Ford is two years behind. and I think that one came through when when we were talk Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:49:37)
That was about the charging. The bi

bi bi directional charging.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:49:41)
Yeah.

so we will talk to you all next time. Bye.

Roberto Baldwin (1:49:48)
Bye.