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Kenneth
Foreign.
Filippo
Hello and welcome to this car pod.
Kenneth
I'm Kenneth.
Doug
I'm Filippo.
Filippo
And happy New year, everyone. It's 2025. Filippo is still writing 24 on his personal checks. 100% he will for another 40 days or so. But it's our first podcast of the new year and we begin with the news and actually a rather dark turn for our podcast. There were some incidents last week. There was in New Orleans. There was a pickup truck that was used to drive through a crowd and kill a bunch of. And then there was an explosion outside of a casino in Las Vegas. Both of these incidents used electric pickup trucks, which was unusual. I saw the lightning pictures that morning and I was like, huh, that's odd.
Doug
It is odd.
Filippo
And then it came out that they were both rented. Now, this is a car news story only in the sense that these are interesting new models. But I'm kind of curious if it will come out if the person. Because they were rented. I'm curious if it will come out that the person, especially New Orleans, specifically chose the lightning because it is heavy and silent and fast. I think it's.
Kenneth
The silence is an interesting point. Yeah. I wonder if that played into the idea there.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
It's like so heavy. Each of the things you said is spot on. It is silent. It is very fast. I actually don't know what trim it was, but they're all relatively fast.
Filippo
Right.
Doug
And they're so heavy.
Filippo
They're so heavy. And you wouldn't hear it. I did read an eyewitness report in one of the news articles. We saw the truck and then we heard him floor it. And I'm like, eyewitnesses are the worst. You did not hear that. But it is interesting. It's interesting. And it'll be interesting to see if that. If that is. Does come out to be a component of this later or if they're ever even able to determine that. But obviously odd to see these trucks in that those back to back news stories. Well.
Doug
And tragic, certainly. Of course, both of them. The lightning is about 1,000 to 2,000 pounds heavier than an F150 than a regular F150.
Filippo
And obviously, depending on F150, faster. Yeah.
Doug
Which is. This is a scary proposition.
Kenneth
And the cybertruck explosion was wild. I mean, it looked like a. Something out of a video game. Like it really didn't.
Filippo
I saw that and the first thing I thought was like, this was not just a cybertruck exploding.
Kenneth
No. A lot of people jump to that conclusion.
Filippo
Really look at these trucks.
Kenneth
Yeah, exactly. But no, definitely not when. Especially when they went like that sound.
Filippo
Did you watch the video? It's wild.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
There's, like, fireworks going on.
Doug
That's an impressive firework imitation.
Kenneth
Thank you.
Filippo
That was.
Kenneth
I like imitations. I like doing that.
Filippo
All right, give us the next news story, please.
Kenneth
Felipe.
Doug
Manual trans 2025. There are 27 vehicles that are available with a manual transmission. That's down a little bit. Yeah, barely from 2024. Do you want to just guess any of them?
Filippo
Yeah, I mean, I. I bet we could.
Kenneth
Yeah, I bet we can probably knock.
Doug
You want to. Can you go?
Filippo
No, I don't want to go through all of them.
Kenneth
I'll give you eight. Eight or so. CT5V Blackwing one. Does the ATS or.
Doug
The ATS hasn't existed for about five.
Filippo
Here's a question I have for you. Before we try to name 27 cars, how many of them are still base models of. There are a couple, but there's like, two.
Doug
Right.
Filippo
It's morphed into just an enthusiast.
Doug
It really has the only base models that come to mind, the Nissan Versa. The Hirio doesn't exist, and the K4.
Filippo
Probably doesn't have it.
Doug
Correct. But the Nissan Versa does have it.
Filippo
Okay.
Doug
The Mazda 3, which is bash, has it. Performance in the base trim, in the premium trim, which is base. And that's it.
Filippo
Wow.
Kenneth
Wow.
Doug
I mean, the set of July is like the sporty version, the launcher, then both. Also the sporty version.
Filippo
So. So the days of manual transmission base models are basically dying with the Versa. Like Mazda would do it anyway because they're sporty and it's offered in the base trim.
Doug
But also those cars are dead. The Versa is, like, the only one left. Yeah, really? That's the really small subcompact today.
Kenneth
So if you want to. If you want to be cool and have a manual, you're getting a cool car. It's interesting.
Filippo
The manual has become, in the US Anyway, solely the purview of performance cars, which makes sense.
Doug
Like, they're not cheaper to manufacture, they're not more fuel efficient anymore.
Filippo
No, that used to be. Those used to be the two big things. They were cheaper to manufacture, they were more fuel efficient, and so automakers would get higher EPA ratings with them. So they could advertise. That was always a big deal. And then because they were cheaper to manufacture, they could lower the base price.
Doug
Can I give you one Versa fun fact that I pulled from the Autopian?
Filippo
I don't think you have a Versa. Fun fact.
Doug
The Autopian could not find a single press photo of an Elantra of a new Nissan Versa with a manual transfer on Nissan's website. They do not exist.
Kenneth
Like trying to find press photo of the first generation Ferrari California with a six speed in it. Really hard to find pictures of that until recently.
Doug
But this is sold right now.
Filippo
Right now. Do you remember those last Mercury Eclipse or Mitsubishi Eclipse pictures where they just took it outside the factory and snapped some photos? Great press. Yes.
Kenneth
By that pond.
Filippo
By a pond.
Kenneth
Man made.
Doug
Do you want to guess which Manu. There's two manufacturers that are tied for the number of model lines that have a manufacturer.
Kenneth
Can I guess? Yes, I think BMW is one of them.
Doug
Correct. Porsche. No.
Filippo
What?
Doug
Porsche only has three model lines that are.
Filippo
How many does BMW have?
Doug
Four.
Filippo
What?
Doug
But they're the one other manufacturer.
Kenneth
M2, right? Y, M4. M3.
Filippo
That's three. What a fascinating Z4 now Karazi 4S.
Doug
But there is one other manufacturer that has four models that are available with the manual.
Filippo
Subaru. No. Subaru.
Doug
No.
Filippo
Subaru. Honda.
Doug
Subaru doesn't sell four.
Filippo
Honda?
Doug
No.
Filippo
Ford.
Doug
Honda has one. The Ford. Lincoln.
Filippo
Mercury.
Doug
No. Good effort though.
Filippo
Volkswagen if you keep.
Doug
No, correct. Only one because the GTI is no longer available with a stick.
Filippo
What? Yeah, they're really screwing us. Plus Volkswagen's going electric. You know, I saw an ID buzz yesterday. I was like, I want that. I think I want one.
Kenneth
They're so cool.
Doug
Yeah, Toyota is. Toyota is.
Filippo
Acura.
Doug
Acura has won the Integra, ASPEC and.
Filippo
Type S. What does Toyota get?
Doug
They have the super, the jerk roll, the 86. The GR86 that's called now. And you have reviewed it. Not a manual form, but you reviewed it.
Filippo
New Camry?
Doug
No, the new Tacoma is the one you put.
Filippo
Didn't I review a manual? I thought I did.
Doug
Maybe. I don't know.
Filippo
I thought I did.
Doug
I haven't watched your Tacoma video.
Filippo
I've done another one since then and I haven't caught up.
Doug
Those are so that they. Toyota and BMW are tied for the most manual transmission cars they offer.
Filippo
Well, Toyota, BMW, the two enthusiast brands.
Kenneth
Well, hats off to all the manufacturers who are still offering manual transmissions in their cars. I'm glad that you know, a lot of people complain that BMWs stop listening to their customers. The cars are so ugly. It's like, as we have said, a lot, but you can still row your own. You can still row your own.
Filippo
Several different cars.
Kenneth
There are a lot of people who say, oh, they're not as good, whatever it's like, well, do you want to row your own gears or not? In my opinion, I'd rather have a third pedal than not. And so I'm glad they still let you in.
Filippo
A lot of cars. Four different model lines, apparently.
Kenneth
Hell yeah.
Filippo
He's been tricked by them that the 3 and the 4 series are different.
Doug
I will accept it though. But can we all pull one out for our favorite manual transmission car, the Jeep Glad Gladiator. That is no longer available with the manual.
Filippo
They're ditching the stick Gladiator, but.
Doug
But the Wrangler is still available. Don't worry.
Filippo
Yikes. Okay, give me our next news story. There are still quite a few.
Doug
All right, Nissan, Honda. We talked last week or a couple weeks ago about how there are talks of them merging and they are under memorandum of understanding about potentially merging.
Filippo
And then there's. Now there's been some conspiracy theories.
Doug
There haven't been conspiracy theories. Just I think that now they're actually having to explain what they might do. And it's becoming more and more clear that the biggest concern is that Nissan will be purchased by a non Japanese manufacturer. So Foxconn approached Nissan, which makes iPhones and also probably cars. I mean, I don't know, the Chinese market, everything. Foxconn approached Nissan about a takeover. And I think that the Japanese government is really concerned about that.
Filippo
Why? They got Toyota, one of the most eminent manual transmission manufacturers.
Doug
Right.
Filippo
They don't need anything else.
Doug
But the Honda CEO recently was asked at a press conference, why are you interested in merging with. With Nissan? And his response was, it's difficult to. That's a difficult question. And then not expand further.
Kenneth
Well, we're focused on Seattle.
Filippo
Yikes.
Doug
So it's clearly there's a lot of pressure to.
Filippo
To.
Doug
To do it. There's a lot of concerns about what happens.
Filippo
I don't understand. Why not just let Nissan do what it does? If you want to take over, get a takeover. There are Japanese brands that are real serious brands. Nissan, Toyota, Subaru. I mean Honda, Toyota, Subaru.
Doug
Subaru, of course, is owned largely by Toyota. Daihatsu, also owned largely by Toyota.
Filippo
Well, great. Toyota's killing it. Then we don't have any problems.
Doug
Right.
Filippo
Mazda, which still makes cars to this.
Doug
Day, so might be partially owned by Toyota. Yeah, it's also partially.
Filippo
When I was a kid, Mazda was more owned by Ford or not. They had some agreement.
Doug
Tribute.
Filippo
The Tribute and the Ranger, the Navajo.
Kenneth
And did they help?
Filippo
The Navajo didn't.
Kenneth
The probe, wasn't that also developed?
Filippo
Yeah. Do you remember what the Mazda version was called. Can anyone here get.
Doug
It wasn't the, the. It wasn't the 323.
Filippo
It was called the MX6, but in Canada. I am serious about what I'm about to say. In Canada it was called the MX6 mystere. You know how it was? The MX5 miata. Yes, the MX6 mystere.
Doug
How's that spelled?
Filippo
It was like M, Y, S, T, E, R, E. I'm not sure how it ended. I never heard it said it was in Canada. The MX3 in Canada was called the MX3 Presidia.
Doug
Oh, very nice.
Filippo
You remember the MX3.
Doug
I do.
Filippo
It had the world's smallest V6. Remember? 1.8 liter V6.
Doug
Vaguely. Remember this?
Kenneth
So they did the MX3 and the MX6, but no MX4.
Filippo
I don't remember if there was an MX4, but I guess maybe not, huh? Yeah. Anyway, that was a good, good call out the Pro. Your mom has one.
Kenneth
My mom did have one.
Doug
Correct. There. There'll still likely be a merger, but it's very clear that it's being driven in large part by fear rather than strategic decisions, let's say.
Filippo
Well, fear based mergers are fine.
Kenneth
Yeah, sure.
Doug
Nothing wrong with fear, right.
Kenneth
A little fear goes a long way.
Filippo
Right. For instance, we all feared when Mercedes Benz and Chrysler got together and boy were we right. That was the worst merger in the history merger.
Doug
I think we'll have a new competitor.
Filippo
I do think to me it does sound like this is being a little bit pushed by the government. Must be. Honda is obviously in a much better situation. Nissan is kind of a disastrous company. And so that's a whole interesting thing.
Doug
Just like Daimler Chrysler, they will of course bill it as a merger of equals.
Filippo
A merger of equals.
Doug
And it will not be.
Filippo
And hopefully, hopefully the result of this is Infinity goes away. We can all hope.
Doug
Or Acura. Or both.
Filippo
Acura. By the way, here's an Acura question for you guys. Why doesn't Acura make a luxury minivan? They are obviously the most BS of the luxury brands. I mean, the most. Not call them bs. The least luxury. Right. Like BMW is like, oh, we don't build minivans. Acura like builds minivans. You know what I'm saying? Mentally you go to the Acura dealer and you're like, you don't have a minivan. Right.
Kenneth
So you're saying an Acura version of the Odyssey. Yeah, is what you're saying.
Filippo
Why not do that? Yeah, I would buy that.
Kenneth
The Odyssey is pretty nice as it is.
Filippo
I know, but you could have the Acura mlx, mlv, mvx. I don't know. That's how they name cars. I don't know how they, they do weird stuff over there.
Doug
They do.
Kenneth
They like to have it end with an X.
Filippo
The SUV's end with an although. So did the sedan.
Doug
So yeah, they like set for the integrity.
Kenneth
The X is silent. It's implied.
Doug
I mean, it's called the Oasis.
Filippo
I mean it though, they should have an Acura minivan. They should also have a lot of.
Doug
Other, like, they don't have a hybrid or an electric car, but they, Sorry. They do have an electric car.
Filippo
I saw ZDX on the road last week. Did. Yes.
Doug
You're gonna send me a photo.
Filippo
I'm not taking zdx.
Doug
You see a ZDX on the street, you said Filippo, Filippo.
Filippo
Fine.
Kenneth
It's beyond your level of understanding.
Filippo
The angles are bad in that car. There's a lot of, there's a lot of. No in the countach. I, I, My phone goes away.
Kenneth
Yeah, it takes. You're focused on driving.
Doug
There's nothing else at all times when driving. Doug's phone is away.
Filippo
That's true.
Doug
I was hoping that he had a dash cam that could take a photo.
Filippo
That's true. But if you were ever going to take your phone out a light or whatever, you don't do the Kutach. You also don't do Courage gt because getting started is hard. The clutch situation is a challenge. Okay, move on to the next news story.
Kenneth
Ah, yes, speaking of performance cars, a.
Filippo
Man standing next to a Bugatti.
Kenneth
Yes, this is the Bugatti Mistral. So this is the final car to be built using the Chiron platform. And this car, their headlights, they illuminate the road.
Filippo
Those are the headlights. Now, over the years, it's changed.
Kenneth
It changed.
Filippo
Let the adult go back to sleep.
Kenneth
So the Mistral has set a new record. It is the world's fastest production convertible. It did 282 miles an hour, which beat out the Hennessey Venom GT, which itself was very impressive, doing 256 point or 265.6 miles an hour.
Filippo
And of course the Hennessey Venom GT, as we know, not a production car.
Kenneth
Right? Well, yes, you said it. But yeah, so this was said at Aerial Asset, which is Bugatti's test track, the Volkswagen's test track, that they have the same one where James May did the, you know, it has that five mile straight that they can do it on. So naturally they Did. And the driver was.
Filippo
You ever look at this on Google Maps? It's wild.
Kenneth
It's incredible.
Doug
I'm much interested in the car of. Does it. Is it actually a convertible or did it just. It's like a T. Top situation.
Kenneth
Let me. Let me show you something. There's no roof, which, I mean, it's a convertible.
Doug
It is. A convertible implies that it can be converted.
Kenneth
I know you live in the. I know you live in the Corvette world where the coupe and convertible both have roofs.
Filippo
What is the deal with that, by the way? Everybody's like, oh, I have a coupe. No, you don't. Nobody has a coupe. It doesn't exist unless you have a C5.
Kenneth
In my mind, it means the roof does not come off the coupe.
Filippo
The roof comes off, which is different from the convertible, where the roof comes off. It is so weird that we just accept the fact that there are Corvette coupes and convertibles, both of which are convertibles. Yep.
Kenneth
And everybody just goes, yep. Sounds right. Yeah. But yes, the roof does come off. And you can put a roof on it, making it a convertible.
Filippo
You know, it's weird. By the way, I admit I have not paid a lot of attention to Bugatti lately. I didn't know there was a con. The whole thing about Chiron was they didn't do a convertible. But I guess the Mistral, they have a convertible. There was no convertible. Chiron. They just renamed it and changed the bodywork a little bit. Yes.
Kenneth
And they only produced 99 of these. So, I mean, it wasn't like it was common. But yeah, 1,578 horsepower is what it took to get it there.
Filippo
282 miles an hour in an open roof car, which.
Kenneth
And of course, to set the record, my understanding is you have to go in one direction, turn around, come back and do it in the other direction and take the average of the tune.
Filippo
And you gotta presume they do it with the roof off. Right. Because the roof can't sustain those speeds.
Kenneth
So imagine.
Filippo
It'd be wild.
Kenneth
Yeah, it would. Because it looks like. I can't tell if those are intakes there. I would imagine that they're related, but, like, you're doing 282 miles an hour with no roof.
Filippo
Oh, it must be. I mean, think about an airplane. Like if you open the door in an airplane. Yeah. That's what it'd be like.
Kenneth
The arrow is so for the win.
Filippo
I mean, it would be insane. This dude has no hair because it got blown off 40 minutes earlier when they did the Run airplanes have a.
Kenneth
Wallace I'm sure was wearing the helmet that's in his hand that matches the car. Oh sure you can buy as a whole it's probably 25 grand.
Filippo
Why does the car say Singh? Is this going to a wealthy Indian customer?
Kenneth
Maybe. I don't know. But none nonetheless. Like it is cool to it is cool. This is the way the showing goes out as we prepare for the tour.
Filippo
It's cool that people are still selling setting top speed records. I do have to say though as I think about the fact that Countach was the fastest car in the world.
Doug
In its day as you often do.
Filippo
And I do think about it.
Doug
Oh I know.
Filippo
Although I would never even attempt.
Kenneth
It was just assumed because nothing because cars were garbage then.
Filippo
It is sad that the purview of the fastest car in the world has become zillion dollar cars like you. There was a time when Countach and Miura and Boxer and 288 GTO were like duking it out. There was a time when you might see the fastest car in the world like parked at a valet stand in your. In your town.
Doug
If you live in Monaco, you're good.
Filippo
But like now these cars are like not attainable. I mean it's sad that the top speed record has. Is no longer a thing.
Kenneth
I refer. I agree. I refer to them as concours cars. Like you'll see when there's a Concord you'll see this like parked at a valet somewhere like car. It's a car week car.
Filippo
These are production cars in a different sense than like when the old days when the Daytona was the fastest car in the world. Just cuz no one made a car with a bigger engine and it just was the fastest. You know that was a cool era.
Doug
We need new categories of like production cars where they've actually made.
Filippo
Yeah Cars.
Doug
Right. Can I say two things that are going to be controversial here? Oh boy. The fact that it's a convertible when it's a purpose built car they're making 99 of. It's just an aerodynamics question. And like what the top does doesn't matter. You're not. You don't have a convertible.
Filippo
But it is an aerodynamic.
Kenneth
It's a huge.
Doug
I know and it's impressive. But the fact that it's convertible, it doesn't feel that notable.
Filippo
Well and. And I mean, I mean it's.
Kenneth
It's because they could. It's not.
Filippo
It's a. It's a good Christmas news story when there's no other news. But it's not a record that we would like. The fastest car is the record. Yeah.
Kenneth
Yes.
Filippo
This is a footnote.
Doug
What I also want to know now is what is the car that can have the top go up or down at the fastest speed? That's the record. I'm actually interested.
Filippo
You know what the answer to that is, is, is cars with tiny tops. Although I just did an NA Miata video.
Doug
Well, it's manual. You could do it at any speed. Good call.
Filippo
Oh, at the high. I thought you meant the top goes down.
Doug
No, no, no, no. At what speed can you still have the top go up or down?
Filippo
A lot of cars first off, Fast and Furious. They did it in a Supra Sport roof by like 70.
Doug
I meant also be able to then put it back up.
Filippo
Well, did you mean that because Nick's mercy, you could buy it on 150. You could do it. And I'll tell you something. Na, you could do it on its own.
Doug
150 on its own.
Kenneth
Based on the way that ria. 60 miles an hour on its own.
Filippo
Okay, give us the other news story which is even more interesting.
Kenneth
So this one really fascinated me. So, Lambert. It was seen at the Lamborghini factory recently. There were a number of cars going in and out. Presumably Lamborghini was using them to benchmark and sort of see how the manufacturers approach things. One was a Ferrari SF90, which makes sense. I'm sure they wanted to see what a market failure car would look like. The other wasn't McLaren Artura. Again, I repeat myself. And the third car that was interesting was the Hyundai Ioniq 5N. I suspect, as you probably do, the reason they did that, I think was because of the transmission simulation that it does where you can shift gears, but it's all electric. And Lamborghini, as I talked about in the last podcast, is pushed back when they're going to do an all electric car. And I wonder if they're not as intrigued as we are about the Hyundai and thinking that this might be the approach to make something fun and have some spirit, even though it's electric.
Filippo
Tremendously interesting. And the fact that they got that car there, you got to assume they don't need a benchmark Hyundai for any other reason. But that car has one very special component to it. And I felt that the component was so special that I made an entire second video just about that. And it was kind of a BS video. But like, I really wanted to make the point to my audience, but also to those who watch us in the automotive manufacturing community that I think that this electric car shifting is the future for performance electric cars. And I am tired of getting into electric cars where you just put your foot down and it goes, anybody can do it. Anybody does do it. You can buy one of those cars now for $22,000 on our site.
Kenneth
Right.
Filippo
This car made it fun in a way that I'm glad someone is paying attention to.
Kenneth
I totally agree. I got to drive that car and it blew me away. I was, I felt surprisingly optimistic about the future of what electric car.
Filippo
It's not a three pedal manual, but it's also not a. Which would be cool, florid and you know, like it's better than that. It, it gave it, it's interesting.
Kenneth
It was. And, but and for a sports car mostly with the exception of the Urus producer, like a company start focusing on that I think is really telling.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenneth
And I'm hopeful that that is what. What comes with.
Filippo
Especially because Porsche said, although I think it was a Porsche racing driver who said that they would never do shifting.
Kenneth
Ferrari would never build an suv. I mean here we are, you know what I mean?
Filippo
I'll tell you though, Porsche, if Porsche's driver probably doesn't speak for the company, but this is Porsche. I mean the Urus uses the powertrain. They all share this. So like it's all being developed at the same time. If Lamborghini is looking at this stuff, then you have to assume it will find its way into Bentley. Porsche, Audi, rs.
Kenneth
Such a great point.
Filippo
Which is interesting because if it does, then suddenly like things have been livened up a little bit. The Taycan should have this. The Taycan should have this. There should not be an electric Boxster that is released without this figure. I don't think there shouldn't be an electric Boxster released at all.
Kenneth
And I think the market will agree with you. Porsche already kind of feels that way.
Doug
I'm supportive of it.
Kenneth
But nonetheless, hats off if this is how it goes. Hats off to Hyundai and Ioniq5n for getting there first.
Filippo
Yep. We will always talk about this as a thing. If this is, if this is.
Kenneth
It's again, maybe we stand.
Filippo
It changed how I feel about performance electric cars. First it was, wow, these are fast and that's pretty cool. And dynamically some of them have been great. The Taycan is dynamically is as better than Panamera probably. But like this made it fun in an, in a totally new way.
Doug
Can I ask a question? Have you ever seen an Ionic 5N? Never on the road.
Filippo
Have you no.
Kenneth
We live in the land of new electric cars. But if they weren't so expensive, I would love to have one. That's awesome.
Filippo
I mean, I think ultimately performance electric car is a weird segment. Type people want performance cars type people on electric cars. Very different people. Yeah.
Doug
But Lamborghini would be the people that straddle them.
Filippo
All right, next segment, we're going to move on to talking about cars, which you've already been doing, but now we're going to especially talk about them in.
Doug
A new segment, not news related.
Filippo
Now I have on our little, little pod dock here in my talk car segment. I have feelings about the new camera. Yeah, Filippo is very curious. I've been.
Kenneth
I'm gonna take a nap now.
Doug
Fury.
Filippo
Filippo is very curious. Okay, here's my feelings about the new camera. The new camera came out for the five model year.
Doug
You were the one of the first people in the country to drive one.
Filippo
Okay, I was. When I reviewed the car, I, I reviewed it as a video journalist. And so they, they usually give you those at the start or at the end of the launch. And just by chance, they gave it to me at the start, so before anybody else. And as I turned in the car, they said to me, you know, you're the first person outside Toyota in the world to have driven the new camera. And now I have this feeling of ownership of it on the street, Right?
Kenneth
Ridiculous.
Filippo
So I'm driving around and I see a new camera.
Doug
There's a lot.
Filippo
And I'm like, I'm like, that's my, that I drove that first. Like I'm thinking that as I'm driving around the other day I saw one getting like an incident, like someone cut one off in an old Camry. Actually, the new Camry got cut off. And I was thinking, don't you, don't you cut off my car?
Doug
What?
Filippo
I don't know. I don't know. But every time I see a new Camry now this is my feeling. It's like, I was there, man.
Kenneth
They really got to you.
Filippo
I was there. It's like Babe Ruth's called shot if you were there. I, that's how I feel about the new Camry. And so every time I see it on the street, I'm thinking to myself, me, do you know, you don't know this, but you're, you're next to the guy who drove it first.
Doug
You don't know this, but if you feel the line where the paint changes color, you can actually feel a little difference.
Filippo
Right. You could have found that out Even if I hadn't driven it first, though. But I have driven it, right?
Kenneth
You know, you've driven a lot of cars that I am envious that you've driven. The Camry is not one of those cars.
Filippo
Well, I'll tell you this, Kenan, you say that if you want to, but when I see a Chiron, I don't feel ownership over the Chiron for good reason. I got 12 million views. Chiron. I got the biggest Chiron video.
Doug
Bought it because of you.
Filippo
That's fine. That's great. People come to me and say that all the time. I bought my XYZ because of you. But the Camry, the Camry, I was number one, okay? And that's my feeling about the new Camry. I have like some personal.
Doug
I don't know. I'm really proud of you for being the first person outside of Toyota. Once they had finished development and we're ready to release the car, to have happened by happenstance, driven that. Except of course, for every port worker. Probably the valet of the hotel where the launch was happening, someone probably gas it.
Kenneth
I mean, he's probably the 27th person.
Filippo
Spouses of all of the employees who took it home in Georgetown, Kentucky. The point is, I feel ownership over the car. Okay, give us your. Filippo, actually, I'm glad that we're next. We can move on from this unusual topic to discuss. When you see a new camera, you're going to think it. Now, when the world sees a new Camry.
Doug
I saw a lot of cameras in the last two weeks. I did think that if I tomorrow.
Filippo
Remember me for the camera. Okay, Filippo, tell us about your holiday.
Doug
Yeah, we. I drove over 2000 miles. 2200 miles.
Filippo
How was the family? They were great.
Doug
We. I saw my in laws. Saw a lot of. A lot of different in laws.
Filippo
Did you? What was the Christmas dinner over at your place there?
Doug
That was a week and a half ago. Let me think about that.
Kenneth
You've forgotten.
Doug
I have. I made it.
Filippo
What did you make?
Doug
Was it a roast made?
Filippo
I mean, give a break.
Kenneth
He was tired after driving 22.
Doug
I made it risotto.
Filippo
Oh, God.
Doug
And I made. Not risotto, risotto. It was very cheesy. On purpose. It was delightful. I had to make some. Some dairy free one. That was harder. But we.
Filippo
For Christmas. My family is also Italian. Although not Italian enough for Filippo. My grandparents all came from Italy. It's not enough for him, but it doesn't count, you know, I qualify for Italian citizenship. But we had spaghetti or as Filipo Would call it. Okay. Anyway. 2,000 miles in your station.
Doug
Yeah. And it was wonderful. Every time I take a long drive, it just. It's so competent. We was, my wife and I and our dog for about 700 miles of it. My mother in law was in the car.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
We did other trips with a bunch of people.
Filippo
Yeah, I agree.
Doug
So good.
Filippo
Listen.
Doug
26 and a half miles per gallon over that. Which includes a lot of trips to mile high and above elevation.
Filippo
Yep.
Doug
It's just so good.
Filippo
So good. I drove mine across country. Not last summer. Summer before 23. And I lament daily the fact that my cross country drives will not be in that car.
Doug
They're just so competent, so good. And our car has 115,000 miles. I've driven a 50,000 miles since I bought it on cars and beds three years ago. And it just like I was thinking because I had 11 hours in the car yesterday to do some thinking, what would I get? And like a new. What else is that?
Filippo
A newer one. I'm gonna sell you mine at the end of it.
Doug
Yeah, probably. What else is that good? Like is an X5 that good?
Kenneth
No.
Doug
Is a Cayenne that comfortable?
Filippo
E class station wagon. Does an E class station wagon. Thank you.
Kenneth
Almost letting him talk about not getting a car. Right on the edge.
Doug
I'm keeping that wagon forever.
Filippo
Cuz truly I'm. It's especially worth nothing because unbeknownst to our viewers, it got hit again.
Doug
Not it was parked in front of our house and somebody hit it.
Filippo
Filippo bought this car out of the main. Okay. He's still got a main inspection sticker on the wheel in San Diego. Is purposefully left it there. It's the only one in existence. Yeah. Pull it up. Yeah, there it is. It's a great car. It's brown. It's a quite an ugly color combo.
Doug
Designo interior design, interior, designo exterior.
Filippo
It got hit again. This time it's brown on brown.
Doug
Yeah. The interior is brown and black.
Filippo
The third row seat was only if they only did it in black.
Kenneth
Which is, I mean.
Filippo
Yeah. Because I got a white interior and my third was also black. Although by the way, my white interior. My wife's only driving that car now. And my white interior ain't so white anymore. Let's just put it that way, kids. There's not a lot of care being given. Noodle. Noodle gets in it every day. Anyway, the point is nothing's like any class white. No, it's just the finest car. It does it all and it's good to drive. This is the thing about wagons. You get the practicality of a crossover, but it's actually good to drive. I make fun of enthusiasts for driving the brown diesel manual wagon. You know the whole thing. But like there is a reason, right? They're pretty good, right?
Doug
And it's like there's not like a super high center of gravity. So if you're going up to the mountains you can have. You're not gonna have fun but like it's competent.
Filippo
You know how much roll my sequoia feels like it has? It's just like.
Doug
Yeah.
Kenneth
Ponderous.
Filippo
It's ponderous. The stage wagon isn't. And it's so comfortable. Although the next gen is so comfortable.
Doug
I know. I have to imagine yours is so much better.
Filippo
Have you mine?
Doug
I have driven yours around town. Like I brought it to the office from your house. If Mercedes wants to loan me an S214, I would. I would take that.
Filippo
I gotta get one as a present.
Doug
You do.
Filippo
I already shot the video.
Doug
Not with the wagon, but I will. I will also say my car is over 10 years old now. It has the stronic use it the entire pretty much the entire time. And a 10 year old Mercedes adapter cruise is still good.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
Well this surprising.
Filippo
Your car distronic will go all the way to zero.
Doug
It'll go all the way to zero.
Filippo
But it won't start right?
Doug
It will.
Filippo
You have to pull the thing. It will start, but only after a few seconds. You have to pull.
Doug
It will start. I at least workshop that it leaves a lengthy gap. But it will start on its own and it will steer on its own.
Filippo
There is nothing better than a Mercedes E class station wagon.
Kenneth
Except the BMW i5 wagon. You say you prefer if like they made a touring of that.
Filippo
That would be only because I want electric. And it doesn't seem like Mercedes is going to do that.
Doug
I mean eventually, eventually.
Filippo
But BMW did it today and I would get an i5 touring. Literally today I would get out of E class wagons after I've had 5e classes, 6e classes and get into it I5. But BMW is not bring it to the US but I have an electric car charger at my house now. I am ready to plug in. No one is making BMW bring it on. No one is making a midsize luxury electric station wagon for me. What is going on? Don't you understand? You would sell 20 to 30 a year.
Doug
Also nobody's making a good midsize SUV luxury SUV either. Because I'm not calling the IX good. And I'm not calling the EQ.
Filippo
IX is good.
Doug
The EQ SUV.
Filippo
What about Tesla?
Doug
You forget about Tesla model YC small. Oh, model X. Yeah.
Filippo
What about, what about the Macan Electric? Oh, for Christ's sake. It's just really gotta narrow down. IX is a great car.
Doug
Favorite.
Filippo
Okay, the IX is a great car.
Doug
Are there any luxury three row SUV's right now? No.
Filippo
The QX80. Sorry, three.
Doug
Low electric SUV.
Filippo
Oh, sorry. We only do big old motors.
Doug
Is the model, sir.
Filippo
Model X. Rivian.
Doug
Don't forget Rivian is eqs suv.
Filippo
Yes, there's a three row in that. And let's also not forget the Kia EV Niner.
Doug
Not luxury. It's my, my definition. I will say though, the lucid gravity will be out soon.
Filippo
Lucid gravity out soon. The rivian is the one.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
And the EV9, you don't think it's luxury? I sat in one, didn't drive it. They drove it in on a sheet. Remember that?
Doug
I do.
Filippo
I sat in one. Seems luxury to me. Seems luxury to me. Just saying.
Doug
Yeah, quintessential.
Filippo
Okay, Kenan, give us your top cars segment.
Kenneth
Yes. So one of the things, you know, it's the new year and everybody has resolutions they've made. And I wanted to make some automotive resolutions for myself to follow.
Doug
I would love to hear what they are.
Filippo
Wow.
Kenneth
There are two.
Filippo
Two?
Doug
Oh, goodness.
Kenneth
Number one. One, buy a Cayenne Turbo. That's the. That is one I'm going to do this year.
Filippo
I want to do 10.
Doug
We have a giveaway. There's an update on that we haven't announced yet. But you could potentially maybe buy a Cayenne Turbo. Well, if you're in the office.
Kenneth
Need some stuff.
Filippo
Yeah. That one is a Doug demuro contest winning automobile. I'll sign it.
Kenneth
Don't. Please don't sign that car.
Filippo
Leave the leather alone. The leather. I'm gonna sign the hood and then we'll PPF over it.
Kenneth
You might, you might, you might walk on the hood for the next owner. But I, I would like that car. But it is a little bit high mileage for what I'm looking for. I want one that's, you know, kind of 78s.
Filippo
Okay, buy a kind. What's the other resolution?
Kenneth
The other one is that outside of normal routine means oil change, you know, whatever. I don't want to. My goal for the M5 is I'm not going to spend more than $2,000 on it this year.
Filippo
Like, including routine maintenance?
Kenneth
No, like just in general. I wanted to keep it to a thousand. But I thought something might crop up. But I want to keep it to. I'm not gonna spend more than two grand on the car. Like for. For it does need like the window tint needs to be replaced at some point. Like it's starting to peel. That will cost some money. But like really outside that. There's nothing that the car needs mechanically. And I need to slow down the spending on it. So that's my goal for this.
Doug
Proud of you for those attainable resolutions and that. Like I'm proud of you.
Filippo
I got a resolution to get to buy a Bugatti Bolied. I'm sorry, Bolide, you said that's not attainable. Manny did it. Can we. Can we do Viper instead of.
Doug
No. Kayan Turbo?
Kenneth
No. I mean the Viper would be nice to have. But I am. I think that the Cayenne Turbo gives me more. More like mental freedom than I need.
Filippo
Let me ask you this two thousand dollar resolution on the M5 spend. What about on the Cayenne Turbo spend?
Doug
Right.
Filippo
You're gonna. Well, here's what's gonna happen is you buy a kind turbo next week and put 30 grand. It'll be like I didn't spend two. I didn't spend more than two. I am fine.
Kenneth
I mean that would be true. But no. The whole point of the client turbo is that it needs a lot less. It's not as maintenance intensive as the M5, we hope.
Filippo
If you want something not maintenance intensive, why not buy a 5th gen 4 runner?
Kenneth
Because that is a garbage vehicle. Drive around it.
Doug
Or like, why not lease a new car?
Kenneth
It's a truck and I don't want something ponderous. Then the Cayenne Turbo is not ponderous.
Doug
Have you considered an S212 wagon? It's been hit a couple times, but I'll sell to you for a good deal.
Filippo
What about E class station wagon, dude?
Kenneth
No, because the ground clearance gave me so driving around.
Filippo
Mine is an all terrain dude. I can lift it. It's liftable.
Doug
You can go on all.
Kenneth
Yes, but yours is still. It's still very much on the depreciation curve. Like it's still. And that's. I don't like losing money to depreciation. I'd rather spend money on maintenance. I'd rather spend money on maintenance than I would depreciate.
Filippo
I actually one time I saw a comment about. That's like Kenan laughs at people who do depreciation. But. But he was willing to put 20 grand a year in his Car. It's like yeah, yeah, my car. Better and better, right? Your car is getting better. Depreciating cars are right by definition getting worse.
Kenneth
And it doesn't. And that doesn't. You don't feel that pain until you go to sell it. Then it's like damn, I lost all of this money. It just evaporated.
Doug
Can I ask you a question, Kenan? So we are in this underground office here and it takes, we've timed it about what, a minute and a half? If every time you want to leave.
Kenneth
Yes. Counting like driving to the elevator, using the elevator and driving up Countach takes like four.
Doug
But Kash is its own problem. Will you be willing to park a Kyun Turbo you buy outside?
Kenneth
Yes. The whole point of the K Turbo is it's a stress free vehicle. I'm not going to that.
Filippo
You're not going to clean it?
Kenneth
I mean I'll clean it occasionally but I probably won't hand wash it often. Like I'll probably take it through a gas station. Touchless, whatever.
Doug
There's a touch station, Bottom hill.
Kenneth
Is that the shell?
Doug
Yeah. Okay, perfect. Tim, can we hold you to both of these things? Yes.
Kenneth
I mean the whole point of this car is like no, I still will make sure it's nice. I'm not going to like just completely trash it. But the point is that I want something that's just. It takes away the. I don't have to spend mental energy on it. The M5 has taken enough of that out of me. And honestly like the other big concern, one of the things I added to our document to talk about is I'm really concerned about Ethereum 9 parts availability. Like the Hella just announced they're not going to produce headlights for the car anymore. Which is something that fails on a lot of those really, you know. Yeah, I've replaced mine. But they.
Filippo
What do you mean they Announce. Does Hella put out a they.
Kenneth
They. Ryan and I were talking.
Filippo
Are you going to buy extras?
Kenneth
I should have. Ryan bought two sets of extras for his car. But I.
Filippo
Why not buy extras as long as they come under the $2,000 cap. Squeeze it in or squeeze it into 24. I'll. I'll give you a buy on the headlights if you want to. Just like a mulligan. How much do the headlights cost?
Kenneth
They're not as expensive. I think it's like 800 for the pair which is incredible because now modern cars like one of your headlights is probably 1800.
Filippo
You're gonna find out here in a couple.
Doug
Luckily my Tail light was broken. That's one less complicated.
Filippo
It's less complicated, but it's still I looked 25.
Doug
It's only 500. Oh, instead of 1,800 or 2,000, the.
Filippo
Front was didn't your panel get impacted though?
Doug
I, I have some.
Filippo
You're going to PDR it?
Doug
No, no, no. I, I, I'm getting a quote tomorrow from a shop to We've been gone for a week and a half and it's been drivable. I'm concerned. But what we'll discover the cost to repair this will be also because and.
Filippo
And you're saying you think it's total. How many miles does it have?
Doug
115,115.
Filippo
What did he pay?
Doug
27.
Kenneth
27.
Doug
150. I'm not that so the on next week's podcast I'll talk more about it once I have a quote. But the side corner was hit the taillight and then the bumper and the quarter panel. So it depends on how badly the panel above it was was injured because.
Filippo
Well, could you PDR that pro?
Doug
I think I'm like 98 sure that it will be easily fixable. There's 2% chance that can I ask.
Filippo
You an honest question? Why don't you just buy a tail light, get PDR the panel, buy a tail light, stick it in.
Doug
Well, it all depends on what the shop says tomorrow.
Filippo
I mean I know insurance is paying for it, but me and Kenneth could knock this out in a long weekend with a couple of cold ones. Hey.
Doug
I will say in hitting it they also destroyed the blind spot sensor that's inside the bumper. And that having had to replace one because it wore that alone is about a grand.
Filippo
This is the problem. As much as I like your car, the benefit of the newer car is I mean that you replaced that because it were you've done brake lines. How much was that? Well, that was stuff's starting to get starting to fail. I mean the car's got 120,000 miles. It lived in Maine.
Doug
Everything is fine now. I've never had to do a single mechanical thing. I would like engine mechanical thing.
Filippo
I love. Well, that motor was stout. I do love that he took the picture here to emphasize the salt water. Hey, just so you know, just as a reminder. Yeah, well, you like salt.
Kenneth
There should have been more of a.
Doug
Clue than I gave end that memory.
Kenneth
Service when you had the break one stuff though rust was rust is an.
Doug
Issue with these which was not when I bought the car, which was three and a half years ago. There wasn't that much talk about in the forums. I did a bunch of research but it was new enough that not that many had rust. Did had rust issues. Well, now they do.
Filippo
Well, yeah. I mean it's how cars age. It won't have any more. Consider more.
Doug
I don't think it's as finite and.
Kenneth
The bodies don't seem to rust as much. No, cars just don't.
Doug
Just the brake lines.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
Which replaced E53X5. Same issue.
Filippo
He had one of those.
Doug
Yeah. I also have to replace the brake lens on that.
Filippo
Okay, next segment of our podcast is the market. We're going to talk about the car market. There's a market report. We call it the market report. The market report is brought to you by the Cars and Bids app. You can download the app on something.
Doug
On the iOS app store.
Filippo
Oh yeah, yeah, right. The iOS app store. There's a lot of interesting market things to discuss that we've all written in here. I want two cars that are dropping like flies. Yeah, like flies. Canon flies when they're going to drop.
Doug
Because sometimes they go up.
Filippo
Right. Well these are the dropping ones. One of them is NAS defenders. Pull up. The NAS defender are weak. We just. And no sale. This one at 35, this is actually a special one. In, in, in. In 94 you want to do a little deep dive on these. In 94, all 93, all the NAS Defenders were four door 1/10. Those have already fallen. In 94 they came back only with a two door 90. They were all convertible. In 95 they only made 500 hard tops. Really? So this is one of 500. It's a rare car and I think they're all white. And they were the only way you could get a hardtop manual. Because in 97 they came back with a hardtop. They were all tips.
Doug
But There was no 96.
Filippo
There was no 96 if you want.
Doug
Because demand was so high.
Filippo
This is no, because they were still trying to get rid of these trash things. If you want the enthusiast choice, it's the coupe manual defender. Okay. This is that. And they're by the way, they're individually numbered out of 500 because it was only a 500 production run.
Doug
What number is this?
Filippo
We know sailed this. I'm sure the plaque is in there somewhere. Yeah, you got to look on the exterior. The plaque.
Doug
It's on the plaque on a Land Rover.
Filippo
It's on the outside.
Kenneth
I know, but I don't know where we've put it.
Filippo
Anyway, the point is we no sailed This I saw the. Oh, wow. 34, 7 53, 750. And I was, that was surprised to me, it, it just looking at those pictures. It definitely did here. There's the plaque. It's number 355, Ken I should have bought. Just look at those pictures. It does have some corrosion. But these were easily 60, 70, $80,000 cars that the manual coupes were special, and they're not anymore. And that's the trend I've noticed all over. It's not just arms.
Doug
No, no, it's all Defenders. All NAS defenders.
Filippo
What happened was the NAS were special because when they came out, they were the only ones you could get in the us. It was the only way you could get a Defender when the Defender first came out, Land Rover boredom. And there was a 25 year rule, so you'd wait 25 years to import otherwise. And 25 years has come. And so now you can import 2000 model year defenders straight from Europe, no problem. And it has dramatically hurt the value of these cars. Now the only way you can register one in California and a couple other states is if you get an NAS truck. But people don't seem to care. We all do. The Montana, the Arizona, the other whatever, South Dakota, and also the imported trucks. People are now going to great lengths to make them cool. And so people are putting in LSV8s, automatic transmissions, cool wheels, cool interiors, you know, heated and cooled seats, all this other stuff. That really sets them apart from the NAS Defenders, which people have really tried to keep mostly stock because they were special. They only made 7,000 defenders for the US market total. And things have changed. And this market is really, really, really starting to slow down. There's still demand for the 97s because that is basically the only way you can get a factory Defender with an automatic transmission. They didn't really sell automatics overseas, but there's not. But demand is slowing and market is coming down.
Doug
It's so different than it once was. Yeah, when we started the site, we always hoped to have NASA finish because they're desirable ones. And yeah, the imports had just started to trickle in and they had a massive value difference between them.
Filippo
These tap, it tapped 100 grand pretty, pretty regularly for nice NAS defenders, even manual transmission ones, which are always worth less. And that has definitely fallen. And now you can get a nice one 50, 60, and you can get a ratty one 30s, which is kind of where they were 20 years ago, though, really not. I mean, I sold mine for 96,000. Mine was in great shape. I Had done a lot of good stuff. This is also the most desirable version. A 97 convertible is the most desirable one. Yep. And it was titled in California. But the point is being made. These are starting to come down.
Doug
They've come down massively in last year.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
I. Imports matter. Imports also kind of recognize that they're not.
Filippo
They're not, they're not better. And the imports people are just. There's all these shops that have. And so we always used to be able to say, well we have a 50 state legal motor and it's a V8. Whereas the Euro ones were cylinder diesels. Well now V8s grow on trees on Defenders. Anybody can get an LS swap Defender. And this old 3 1/2 liter Buick V8 which Rover reappropriated, made 180 horsepower is nothing to write home about. I'm glad I got out of mine, honestly. I. I don't regret it.
Doug
Can you search for defenders generally? Because we have also like. Yeah, so that note, we've done really well with those.
Filippo
The euro ones we sold, we had a crazy number on. On the.
Doug
On a pickup and 132 on the SUV right before it.
Filippo
On.
Doug
On the 130.
Filippo
That's right.
Doug
Or was.
Filippo
I guess this one brought 132 and it was a 6.2 liter.
Doug
There are specific shops.
Filippo
22 this one.
Doug
Then East Coast Defender is doing a bunch of them but there's a lot of other shops. They're doing great like full.
Filippo
Yep.
Doug
Restorations and, and honestly the people who.
Filippo
Buy these, which, which truthfully is the Nantucket, the Hamptons, the, the, you know, that whole set, they'd rather have these. They've got more creature comforts. This is who, this is what these people actually want their Land Rover to be, which is like big wheels and leather and all that. I always liked being an NAS Defender guy because it was kind of a purist car. It was like more of like an enthusiast car. Whereas these are more of kind of poser. You know, I want to be rich in cool, but that's what the market has selected. The market would prefer these trucks and it makes sense.
Doug
The universe of off roaders that are importable has increased a lot. So there's a center certainly. But a lot of Land Cruisers.
Filippo
Yep.
Doug
That are nicer ones that we didn't get. Crossroads that are Honda Crossroads of course important.
Filippo
Do you remember it? I do.
Doug
What was the Trooper?
Filippo
No. Honda Crossroad was the Land Rover Discovery.
Doug
That's right. Nobody's imported one ever. Not exists as far As I can tell.
Filippo
I agree. That's another good point. You, you can, you can. And by the way, a lot of those are now being swapped into leather interiors and so old left J. Land Cruisers and things like that. Right. The, the market of those old trucks has changed. And people don't necessarily want these original NAS defenders when they can get cool stuff with V8s.
Doug
Right.
Filippo
Whether it's Defender or Land Cruiser or.
Doug
Whatever that has a similar like old school SUV look.
Filippo
Right. They get the vibe, but they don't have to deal with the stuff. And there was a lot of stuff.
Kenneth
I don't know. I mean, and I think that, I do think that in the long run, I suspect the really nicely preserved NAS defenders will always command 97s in particular, always command a premium.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenneth
But it is kind of, if you love the Defender, it is kind of nice to know that they've come down a little bit and you can get.
Filippo
Back to one and a 50 state.
Doug
One just like Drywood first.
Filippo
Maybe the other car that has dropped a lot. You both wrote this down and I totally agree. Pull it up. The Tesla Roadster. Tesla Roadster. We are named a Tesla Roadster. The other day. RNM Reserve not meted one at 52. Go back.
Doug
Which is a one owner because we.
Filippo
Had another one on them at 55. I reviewed that one down there, orange in 21 and made it a record at the time. It set a record at the time. And I made a big point about how I can't understand why these cars sell for 50 grand because they're so special in the history of Tesla. Like they're the beginning of this company that has become globally massive. And so the first one's big. That one set a record. They all started coming up, they started getting big money. Things have changed quickly. Quickly.
Doug
And by the way, it's not just on our site. On, on. I've. After looking, I've seen that result. I looked around a little bit. There are a bunch of where the identical cars sold for somewhere in the 80s a year and a half ago and now is in the 50s, I gotta say, big drops.
Filippo
You drove this one?
Kenneth
I drove, yeah. It was the, this was the, the development mule. Yeah.
Filippo
I gotta say though, truthfully, I still think they deserve to be valuable.
Doug
I agree with you.
Filippo
I don't think they deserve to have come down. I think that this car is still special. Tesla is a massive global brand and this was the beginning and it's cool.
Kenneth
And I think it's a, I think it's a time Thing. I mean, I think you can. I think if you bought one and held onto it for a really long time, you're probably right. But in the meantime, I don't know. It's hard.
Filippo
It's hard to surprise.
Kenneth
Why do you think that they've come down all of a sudden?
Filippo
I mean, I think interest in EVs in general has dropped. And I think that the really hot sales, if you look, were in 21, when the market was crazy. And in 21, the people who were spending crazy money on EVs were a lot of, like, crypto y. Like people who now maybe are not in the position to spend that kind of money on e may have bought that as a speculative purchase or as like a trophy. And there are not as many EV trophy collectors in 2024. But I still think it's. I just really believe this car is. Is destined for greatness. Yeah.
Kenneth
I love the. It was fun the way it drove. I thought it was cool. Yeah, it was. It's such a weird experience, but it. You know, you're right. I. As. From a historical perspective, I think it will be an important car to have in. In someone's collection.
Doug
Yeah. But not some value right now. Maybe now's the time to buy.
Filippo
Maybe now is the time to buy. I'm surprised by it because this one with the battery update also did so well.
Kenneth
You've got chargers now in your new garage.
Filippo
I'm not getting a Tesla Roadster. But. But people should. People who want to be in the EV world should do it.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
Okay. Next up. We got a lot of time for questions Questions, questions, questions dot com. Remember, you can ask us. Is that a website? You can ask us.
Doug
I think somebody else's domain. Questions.com seems likely.
Filippo
What domains are passe now? With Google you can ask us questions too. You go to the Community tab. Go to carsandbids.com that's our website. You go to the Community tab and there will be a thing there that says this car pod. Ask your questions and we will answer the questions no matter how stupid or.
Doug
I'm so sorry. Can I go back?
Filippo
I know. What was that?
Doug
How often do you see a CLK gtr? Never. Literally never. Wow. Especially next to it.
Filippo
That's an old picture, though. That's an old picture.
Kenneth
Yeah.
Filippo
That's an old Florida plate. That is that.
Doug
Isn't he?
Kenneth
The rest of these cars are on the road anymore.
Filippo
Wow.
Kenneth
But wow.
Filippo
Imagine you're sitting at a stop. It's not in Florida though. Right? Because doesn't Florida have those hurricane safe stoplights instead of putting them on a string.
Kenneth
Maybe it didn't. Maybe at a time this was. Somebody had to move it from collection to be picked up for something like that to go somewhere.
Filippo
What a crazy image. My God. Okay, questions, questions, questions. Anyway, first question comes to us from Siva 1988. Why did you delete the rich parents video? This is a question for me. Short answer. I've got two answers to this. Short answer is, I don't do drama. At my life stage, my age, my situation, I don't. Don't do drama. I don't want to participate in it. Anytime drama finds its way to me, I move the other direction. Long answer. Because I thought about this a lot and it's an interesting thing. Okay, so I did a video for those who I did a video a couple of weeks ago about this. Common criticism people often say about car, YouTubers, YouTubers and general the only way you got successful is because you have rich parents. Which I think people who are jealous say that in my case it's not true. So I filmed the video and I filmed the video weeks ago. I film all my Sunday videos like at once at the start of the month. And so I filmed it weeks ago. I didn't really think about it. In fact, I forgot that it was even going live, which is how my Sunday videos always are. And I got a note that it was controversial. So I checked it out and there was a lot of drama in the comments and a lot of it was misinformed drama. And like, I saw the top comment with hundreds and hundreds of upvotes was, if your parents weren't rich, then what about all of those summers that you spent on Nantucket with them as a kid? I didn't. My parents have never been to Nantucket until this summer. I went there as an adult. But I think that kind of thing starts to take root in comment sections. There's misinformation and people get crazy and then they start battling with each other, which becomes another thing. And so I deleted it. Because at my life stage, I don't want drama. Yeah, I just don't care to involve myself in drama. But I do want to make another point here, which is this. There are two types of people who watch my videos. Primarily, 97% of the people who watch my videos have been served it on the algorithm or have seeked it out specifically because they're in the market for a car. And they want to watch a car video about buttons. They want to see what the buttons do they want to read the Miata owner's manual, which I just did, and see what weird stuff is going on. And most of those people don't watch every video. You know, they come for the Valkyrie, they come for the car they're interested in buying like a minivan, and then they skip, you know, the enemy otter. 3%, the remaining 3% of the viewers are the people who are like these always online, kind of perpetually offended people. And this is like your Reddit community, your Discord community, the people who like to discuss it. And I find it ironic in these situations because these are the people, they post the threads on Reddit, they're on Discord, and they're like, we don't, we don't do YouTube drama. But like, they actually thrive on it. They like love every time there's any YouTube drama. Did you see that? Rob Dahm did this, you see, Hoovy did this, et cetera, et cetera. And it's just not for me. I just don't like do the YouTube drama thing. So people come to me and they're like, hey, did you see this Reddit? Did you see this thing on Discord? No, I didn't. I won't. I'm not gonna Google it. I don't care. I don't make my videos for those people. And I think it's an important point to mention. People think that a YouTuber's goal is to get as many views as possible, but actually my goal is and has always been to get as many views as possible from non annoying people. I would be happy to surrender those 3% of my audience, just give them up if it meant that I could, but I can't. You have to have those people, but I don't have to pay attention to them.
Doug
That's very fair.
Filippo
So the 97% is who I make the videos for. And honestly, if at this, at this life stage, if something gets dramatic, I'm just out. And I don't care what people say about it, because the thing is, the next video I posted was the Valkyrie, which was my biggest video of the year. People don't care. They just don't care. They just want to see car videos and I just want to make car videos. And if anything happens, if there's weird stuff that goes down, I'm, I don't want to. I'm, I'm good.
Doug
I don't.
Filippo
We don't get in fights with other YouTubers. We've tried. Remember that time I tried to start something?
Doug
I do.
Filippo
Which time I Tried to start something with Freddy on the pod right here. I tried, but I got no problem with.
Kenneth
Well, I mean, he never texted you back anyway, so.
Filippo
Freddie. No, no, we. We were gonna. We were gonna say some stuff.
Kenneth
Oh.
Filippo
But we didn't and we won't. Okay, next question from Yoshi 3000 throughout the. That's the situation with that video. People have asked a lot of people as it was the top upvoted question. There's the response. And by the way, if anything dramatic ever happens again, I won't participate in that either. I just don't care. Yoshi 3000. Throughout the decades have been. There have been infamous. The various decades have been infamous for car combinations like 60s, 70s American muscle 8 supercars, 90s, Japanese sports cars. What do you think defined the 2000s, the 2000s and the future 2020? That is a very interesting question because those decades were famous for those things. The 2000s, I think gets defined by mid engine. I'm pointing to the Courage, which isn't there. Mid engine, like in. From an enthusiast perspective, the last gasp of the mid engine or not the mid engine. The manual transmission analog kind of the peak.
Kenneth
The peak, yeah.
Filippo
I consider it to be the peak. Well, like.
Kenneth
And all manufacturers are doing that.
Filippo
All manufacturers. Like, if you look at every manufacturer, BMW had a V10 5. Audi had an RS4 here with a V8 and a manual. Dodge came out with SRT. Then they had the Charger, the Magnum. All that stuff came out at that era.
Kenneth
All right.
Filippo
Obviously the Ford GT, the Audi R8 came out in that era. That's a great one.
Kenneth
Courage.
Filippo
Everybody did it.
Doug
The Cayman, the A3905, all kind of.
Filippo
Then M3 came out with a V8. Like, this was. This was. I think the 2000s will go down. I've always said this, but I think the 2000s will go down as the 60s of our generation.
Kenneth
I totally agree. We've argued about exactly where you define it starting because it doesn't quite.
Filippo
It doesn't quite line up with the decade. 2000 didn't have that much cool stuff.
Kenneth
There's some cool stuff in 2000, but 10.
Filippo
Yeah, but I mean, yeah, by 10, the autos and the hybrids.
Kenneth
Well, so I think the great inflection point then is the dual clutch, because I think it became. Although it came out in the mid 2000s, really 2010, like, I think 4, 5, 8. Like that was kind of where it started.
Filippo
Which was a. Which Porsche. Porsche essentially was the first to get it into real. Of drivable enthusiast cars in 09, the Veyron had it, but it was purpose built and insane. Porsche had it.
Kenneth
No.
Filippo
9 in the. In their lineup. Volkswagen had it, Volkswagen had it in the GTI and stuff. But like it's true in terms of enthusiast sports cars, Porsche had it in 09. BMW, when did they do DCT?
Kenneth
It was right around the M3, the 9x M3.
Filippo
But it wasn't initially, was it?
Kenneth
Yes.
Filippo
Okay, so 809, those were the cars that first had it. That killed it all. That was the end.
Kenneth
That was the beginning of the.
Filippo
The dual clutch, which I think is one of the great automotive innovations in terms of drivability and enjoyment. And it actually killed it all because once the dual clutch showed up, these automakers couldn't justify producing slower manuals. It was the last thing that held them back was the torque converter was slower. And so like a manual was still a faster option. And then the dual clutch showed up and Porsche was like, why would we make manuals anymore? BMW was like, why? Ferrari, Lamborghini, they were just done. Done. They were out. They were like, this is faster. It's one thing to develop. We're done. And that was the end. At the beginning of the end.
Doug
That's a reasonable story for the 2010s.
Filippo
So that's the 2010.
Doug
I also think there's probably an argument to be made that. Yeah, kind of dark, sporty SUVs, it's kind of a 2010 launch pad.
Filippo
That's an interesting one.
Kenneth
Well, actually, actually expanding on that, I would actually say the 2000s was the beginning of the SUV. That's where it started.
Filippo
Yeah, but like Cayenne Turbo came out in 03. SRT8 came out in 05, but you're.
Doug
Right, 418 that like the big stuff.
Filippo
All started coming in the tens. By the end of the tens, we had a Lamborghini urus, we had a Bentley, we had a. Etc. Etc.
Kenneth
Maybe the tens is the ascendancy where everybody. Performance suv. Yeah. Where everybody did it. And the twenties so far.
Filippo
I mean, I guess performance has to be the thing. Yeah, that's an interesting question. I really think the 2000s, I really think the 2000s go down as the my.
Kenneth
It was my favorite era. Even though it's the one I grew up in. I didn't. I mean I feel lucky to have grown up in the 80s are cool too, obviously.
Filippo
But like nothing good came out of the 80s.
Kenneth
80S, right. He makes this, he makes this assertion that no good cars came out of the 1980s. And everybody's gonna say, well, what do you mean? He says there were two or three. We determined.
Filippo
I don't remember.
Kenneth
It was the Countach.
Filippo
No, no, the Kos is a 70s car. That's one of the buys.
Kenneth
I feel it's a 70s if you.
Filippo
If that's the thing about that, that, that argument that I make. All the good 80s cars either came out in like 89 or the 70s.
Kenneth
Well, okay, yeah, but first generation Golf GTI.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenneth
Didn't that come out in 70?
Filippo
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Didn't that come out in 78 or something?
Kenneth
I don't know.
Filippo
Golf GTI. Mark one. Golf GTI made its debut in 1974. Believe it or not. It's a 70s.
Kenneth
That's a deep 70s car. Way older than I thought.
Filippo
Really?
Doug
Oh, debut 74.
Filippo
Okay.
Doug
Well, it wasn't for sale till later.
Kenneth
Well, the 911 Turbo that came out in the 1970s.
Filippo
70S, the 80s were a disaster.
Doug
The 80s were disaster.
Kenneth
I would say that.
Filippo
88, 89, you have it. You take the late 80.
Kenneth
Well, it was made till 92, I guess, technically.
Filippo
So no, but it was an 80s car. But that's part of my point. Like the 80s were so bad that they, that they co opted 70s cars and it didn't get their stuff together until 88 when they finally started making the E30 M3s and things like that.
Kenneth
Well, they finally figured out fuel injection and smog. Smog was the big killer they had to deal with. Which that kind of factored into the early 1980s and really put people behind. That's why the Countach was the fastest car in the world.
Filippo
Yeah, it is why they put some.
Kenneth
Metal plates on the block to make the displacement bigger. BS company that they were at the time. But I think it's a. I think if the majority of the car's life was in the 1980s, it's a 1980s car. The majority of the Countach production was in the 1980s. It's a 1980s car.
Filippo
The F40W126 Mercedes. Okay. Came out in 1979 and was sold through 1990.
Kenneth
That, that, that's an 80s car. I, I think that fits most because.
Filippo
Because it, because the majority of its existence was in the 80s.
Doug
It defined the 80s.
Filippo
Okay, I disagree. I disagree only so that I can be stormy and make this point.
Doug
Right.
Filippo
But I generally agree with your point. Obviously, as any rational person, what there were. That was kind of what was the 80s?
Kenneth
I forget what the question was now.
Filippo
I do find it interesting that the 80s are ascribed all these interesting cars that came out in the 70s. And when you say, okay, name a car that. That came out in the 80s, that was great. The early to mid-80s. That was great. There's no way.
Kenneth
And it was produced only in the 1980s.
Filippo
Well, I'll take it if it goes through the 90s. Just something that started its life in the 80s. The C4 Corvette. Nope, that ain't gonna be it. That car. The funny thing about the C4 Corvette, it actually became a pretty good car in the 90s.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
Okay, next question, next question.
Doug
What about the first gen Taurus?
Filippo
My case tested. My point is proven. Okay. Hammond, you idiot asked this great question. Also. This is great question. I feel like the first year of this pod was like the typical questions like, what would you build for a zillion dollars? Now we're getting into like the real. Yep. Like. Like when you're painting for gold and the. The sand goes through and you're left with gold ingots.
Doug
That's.
Kenneth
We're in the depths of it now.
Filippo
So that's a very relatable reference.
Kenneth
Right.
Doug
Incredibly.
Filippo
Thanks. Hammond, you idiot. At what point does a limited production run lose its appeal to the car enthusiast? Either there are too many or too few. For example, a five unit production is so rare and already allocated to certain collectors, we may never see them on the road. Or a 5,000-unit run where maybe it's not seen as rare enough. You know, this is an interesting question because was I've never thought about a production run being too small, that I actually don't care about the car. But that's true. There are many cars like that 100. Like the Hennessey Venom we were just talking about. Like, I think a lot of those cars are total BS when they make a 10 unit run. Like the Revtone is cool, but they made it for rich dudes to. To like brag. It's not a special car, It's a rich dude brag car.
Doug
Right. How many units? What's the cut. Cut off?
Filippo
I don't know. But enough that it's not a rich dude brag car. Bar.
Kenneth
It's all with the Richard Bracker.
Filippo
Well, no thousand units though. It becomes not a rich dude brag car because you don't have to be like a special rich dude to get one. You know what I'm saying?
Doug
It's not an allocation. It's not an allocation game. But it's not.
Filippo
It's not one of those. Like I have a great relationship with my dealer and you know I, they put me on the list. I'm on the list.
Kenneth
Great relationship with my team.
Filippo
I, I, I, I bought, I bought four whatevers from them and I'm on the list now. I got on the list.
Doug
So then you're also then at that point say that like a GT3 is too late production. It's too late. Well no, I mean getting an allocation for that is hard.
Filippo
I would argue that, that the really special Porsches fall into the too few. Like the, the discussion then is about allocation and wealth and who gets one and that's not cool. And then for the really the too much cars the discussion is about. Well you. They're too common. You see them like there's, there's actually a nice middle ground.
Kenneth
500 maybe is the number.
Filippo
Maybe. But there's probably more than 500911 sts. And those are.
Doug
Yeah, I guess it depends on the manufacturer. There are some like McLaren that's made so many pretty BS special editions that they lose their meaning.
Filippo
You're right.
Kenneth
There's some like Ferrari that just lie.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenneth
And then Porsche doesn't do that.
Doug
Doesn't play that game to the same it has recently. But doesn't.
Filippo
That's an interesting question too. Like what production run is important to appeal to enthusiasts and what lie. What fake production run is important.
Kenneth
That's probably more important. That's the Ferrari perspective.
Filippo
Seven of these. There's eight of them sitting here.
Kenneth
What number makes people feel special and we'll build a couple extra for our clients.
Filippo
It is an interesting point though because I think it's often discussed discussed that a car with a production run too high. And a good example that's always given is the Ford GT the 054 GT that I have. They built 4,000 of them. The Seagate is another example that's given they built too many of them so that it's never going to be a truly special car. What may be true but I think a really limited car like the Vector W8 has such so obscure. Or the. Or the venom they built 1020. It's almost like not something you're thinking about a lot.
Kenneth
Yeah.
Filippo
It and any car that's so rare that the allocation becomes the story is just rich guy bx.
Doug
Yes.
Filippo
That nobody that's not. This is noise like the new Countach.
Doug
True for any car even. Even at a thousand units.
Filippo
Maybe the Shiron I don't think is noise. The new Countach is noise.
Kenneth
Yeah, yeah it's. That's a very interesting. I'll I'm gonna have to think more about that.
Filippo
Right. There's some interesting nuance there it is. Screw the low volume car. So what's the number? I don't know. It depends on the car.
Kenneth
Depends on the man.
Filippo
But I think it's 1270. I will say career GT.
Doug
Is that right?
Filippo
Career GT F40 and Daytona were all produced in the same number. 12 1300. Yep.
Kenneth
1,311 I think for that's F40.
Filippo
Query of GT is 1270. Daytona's like right there too. It's like 1400.
Doug
So it's a 1,500 1500.
Filippo
Something to think about. La Ferrari probably was also produced in that number. Of course they say only 800. Right. Anyway. Okay. Here's another great question that I've been thinking about since it was asked by big ultimahater6 a common question asker. If you were given unlimited funds and complete access to everything, what would be the best car related YouTube video that you could create? I'm going to alter it a little to YouTube channel channel.
Doug
So like a series of videos.
Filippo
Yeah but I think the answer is that whistle and Diesel already does it. So like pack up and go home. Do you agree?
Doug
Okay. I.
Filippo
He doesn't think.
Doug
I don't agree.
Filippo
But he drove giant upside down.
Doug
Yeah. And I will say there's a Chinese channel that is starting through this. There are a lot of cars that.
Filippo
People can blow stuff up in China.
Doug
No, that's not what I get. There are a lot of cars that have never been crash tested and I think they need to be. Don't you want to know how the Countach would be in a crash test?
Filippo
Yeah, we know but I. I want to see it.
Doug
Do you know that in slow motion.
Filippo
The first Countach prototype was crash tested and is lost to the world. Great.
Doug
I'm sure Lamborghini has done it.
Kenneth
But like that's what the.
Filippo
The original one that Gandini made at that. That made it orange one or whatever.
Kenneth
Gold.
Filippo
Whatever. Well it was yellow. They painted it green and they. They. You know.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
Crash tested in the UK in period had lost to the world. Never. Never to be seen again.
Doug
Don't you want to see? Not. I mean that 500cc is a great one but like a W126 crash into something another car.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
I just want to see all that.
Filippo
I agree.
Kenneth
Crash tests.
Filippo
I Do you have Beamng?
Doug
No, but that's not actually realistic at the limits.
Kenneth
Isn't that like what it's.
Doug
No, it's supposed to be.
Filippo
You're gonna sit here and say that Beam. You're gonna sit here and tell me that Beamng is not realistic?
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
All I do on Instagram.
Doug
I'm really sorry, Doug, is watch those cars. That's not what would happen if you jumped a car off a bridge and then into a pole that then gets hit by a semi truck. That's not. Not exactly what would happen.
Filippo
Not only do I disagree with that, but I think you're wrong. Fine. Then I want to see those, like, hammers. You ever seen the hammers? Let's do it. Let's get a car out there.
Doug
Channel.
Filippo
The answer to this question is I'd get a hammers and I'd smash some car.
Doug
Likelihood of survival.
Filippo
It would definitely be destructive. The channel. It'd be destructive. And also it would be like epic road trips that are insane. Like, we drive a Veyron through the Darien Gap. Like, I don't give. I don't care what people would say.
Kenneth
Yeah, road tripping and then you crash.
Filippo
Crazy road trips.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
Like, yeah, we'd all choose, like, insane hypercars and do dumb stuff.
Kenneth
We'd actually take a Veron coast to coast in Florida.
Filippo
That's. That's what it would be. And it'd be the best. It'd be like Top Gear but on steroids, which is hard to imagine, but if you had unlimited funds, you could do that. And if I was Bill Gates, that's what I would do. Or Elon, he's doing the government efficiency. Dude. Drive a Veyron through the Darien gap. You want my respect?
Kenneth
I think that one of the things that made the later seasons of Top Gear and then a lot of the Grand Tour also a little bit less appealing to me Ultimately, though, was great content still was that they had kind of unlimited budgets and could do whatever I liked when they had slightly more restrictive budgets and still do cool stuff. I've watched the Veyron versus the plane video recently on my way back on my flight back from Ohio for Christmas, and it's so excellent. Yeah, it is excellent.
Filippo
I still remember when I was a kid and that came out and everybody talk all. Every. It was like the biggest thing I did that.
Kenneth
I watched the Aston Martin challenge, too, the very first one, and it was like, yeah, that. But to my point, like, it. Yes, they had a Veyron, but they're also racing a Cessna. It wasn't like, you know, you could go crazy and like. And whistle. Does a great job. But I don't know that that's necessarily the Answer.
Filippo
I think I would. I think we'd make it pretty good.
Kenneth
I think it would be good too.
Filippo
Okay, last two. I'm going to do two more quick questions. Two more quick questions. Two more quick questions, Questions three. I'll do three more very quick questions because they're very quick. Sneedlock, where do you think the bottom is for 3 year old EVS? I don't think there is one 3 year old EVS that have a bottom but I assume he's talking about because he says the Kia EV6 and Mach E that a few years old now are 25. How much more will they drop in the next three or four years? Nissan Leafs are free. I'm not exaggerating about.
Doug
Leaves are literally free. Usually somehow cost money.
Filippo
Something to think about. A used Leaf can't be more than a $3,000.
Doug
They're still be above five with a fortune.
Filippo
We're getting to golf cart levels here. So the answer is. Oh, I think they have. How much more can they drop? Dude, how much you got?
Doug
I think all of these have a floor and It's a between 5 and 10k.
Filippo
A buddy of mine text me the day he said he got offered 25 off on a new F type. Doug, do you think this is a good deal? Because how could, how much more value could it lose? A lot. All of it. It can lose all the value and.
Kenneth
It will, you know the number zero.
Doug
I, I do think that any functioning card has a flag floor and it's around a couple grand. Yeah, five grand.
Filippo
But, but I don't think there's like a floor to these. So if you're thinking because everybody's like oh these maquis are such good deals at 20, I bet I can't lose much more. No, they will.
Doug
They are great deals at 20 though. Both are true.
Filippo
Right Next. Yeah, I agree with that. They are still great deals but they will still lose more.
Doug
You want a functioning car that's three years old, which you do for a bunch of reasons.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
Then it's a pretty good one.
Filippo
But don't think you're going into it that like you've found some infinite money glitch where you're never going to lose. You're going to lose.
Doug
It'll be worth 12 and for that'll be worth 8 and then they'll be worth.
Filippo
Because they're still over producing them.
Doug
Yeah.
Kenneth
Where's a Doug? You gonna lose.
Filippo
Next question from Caliber Orp. Doug, why did you stop reviewing houses? Because of travel. Because of travel cars. I Can get them here. Right? Because you know what the thing about cars is? They got wheels.
Kenneth
That's the great thing about cars.
Doug
You can transport houses.
Filippo
Okay, why don't you get into that business? The answer is because of travel. I got all these kids, kids, they're running around and, and, and so the answer is the house reviews. I did review three houses or something. They were amazing. It was so much fun. People loved them. The videos were great. They did well. They were cool to do. I love, I love real estate and property maybe more than I love cars and. But I. In San Diego, there's only so many houses, you know, like types of houses. Like, oh, here's an Italian style house with a big property. Oh, here's an, a Spanish style house.
Doug
Here's a new mansion, right?
Kenneth
This. I don't.
Filippo
In order to do it right, you got to go to a Swiss chalet, then do an Aspen compound, then a Lake Como villa, then you gotta find some weird thing in, in Brazil.
Doug
I would do that.
Kenneth
Yes. But the thing with homes, I don't think it. I think there are so many different variations of what people do with their houses that you could find, maybe almost.
Filippo
But to do it right, like, like, like allegory in my car videos where I would review a shiron and like the best of the best best.
Kenneth
I don't think it has to be like that.
Filippo
Well, then you do it. By the way, this is, this is another thing. This is another thing. People ask me this. Take, take my idea. I, I did it. It was good, it was successful. If you, if you want to do it, it's yours. There are.
Doug
I'm giving this to you. So many house YouTubers I know, but.
Filippo
There'S a lot of car YouTubers. But like nobody, like, nobody did my video. Like I'm, I'm giving people the quirks and features of house.
Doug
If somebody came to you and said, here's this house, it's a mile from your house. It's really interesting what you.
Filippo
It. Yeah, I don't know if Sean would let me put that on the cards.
Doug
That's an interesting question. Where do we put that doan houses?
Filippo
Okay, last question, last question, last question. And this is a great one. And I really want to answer it. It's from the Sultan of Brunai. Probably not the real sultan, but maybe because checked. I don't know. Hassana Boloka. I haven't asked him. Hey, Doug. The Stelvio quad seems to be a future enthusiast gem compared to the Maan Turbo and the X3 comp. But you really recently said you thought the Julia quad would fall in price once production ends. There's not a question there, but I think he's implying that he doesn't feel that way. Yeah, no, no. You heard of the numbers going to fall in price.
Kenneth
You heard the number zero, right?
Filippo
Here's. And he then says the stubby. The quad portfolios are not appreciating their day. Low volume, have enthusiast appeal. What am I missing? What you're missing is there is a general feeling that the brand is not high quality. The cars were not built in such low numbers, such sufficiently known numbers that, that they're going to be really desirable. It's like C4 Corvette guys. Yeah, there's not a lot of them, but there's not that few of them. Right. And ultimately like the cars are kind of known to not be the best screwed together. And that has a real effect on the secondary market. A real effect. And you're sitting here saying, well, they're low volume and they have enthusiast appeal. Well, M3s are that. I mean, you know, Lexus GSFs are that. They still depreciate. They're going to continue to depreciate.
Doug
You can get a normal, you can get a normal.
Filippo
Normal ones are free, real cheap. Wow. Normal ones are 10 to 15 y.
Kenneth
That's so cool.
Filippo
Honestly, pretty cool car.
Doug
The other element here is that there's nothing that's like def. That is era defining about a Julia Quadri fo. There are a lot of other 500 horsepower automatic sedans.
Filippo
Yeah, you can get an, you can get an M3.
Kenneth
When it came out, it was at 100 more horsepower in the M3.
Filippo
It was a very quickly, quickly they.
Kenneth
Added the competition package and you know, BMW got their, got their stuff together.
Filippo
And Al has and now has exceeded them. Which is kind of the story of Alfa Romeo. Right? Like BMW who has done this and then they did this and then because BMW is like constantly refining because they have huge budgets, Alpha just kind of sat on this car, right. And I just don't think I, I think it's cool as hell when I see a quad, which is very rare. I am always like, damn, this is a cool car. But I don't think it's ever going to be like a car that climbs in value. It was a, it was a mid sized sports sedan. There's a lot of options in this, in this segment and I don't think it's special just because it happened to have an Alfa Romeo badge on it.
Doug
That said they are worth more than an F80 and F5.
Filippo
Yeah. So is an ISF. I mean I, I think they seem to be holding their value pretty well.
Doug
Yeah, but they're not appreciating it.
Filippo
But I don't think we're going to sit here and say like once production ends prices are going to go up because you can't get them anymore. I don't think it's that simple.
Kenneth
I think who cares my. Understand.
Filippo
I don't think they will actually go to zero. I. No, I agreed.
Kenneth
I. I don't think they will either.
Doug
Regular ones will be worth zero.
Filippo
Are worth regular ones. I already. When I see a used regular one, I already am like that's kind of a sketchy car. Like I'm already noticing the type of people who buy them are. Are in. Let's say they're. Let's say they're coming out of G37s.
Kenneth
We get to have takeovers without G37s.
Filippo
Got smashed in a takeover.
Doug
No, because this is not a powerful enough force on there.
Filippo
The four. Yeah. The base car is not powerful enough.
Kenneth
People start modding it.
Doug
Look at that. Verde Visconti Metallic.
Kenneth
Say it one more time.
Doug
No, no, the other one.
Filippo
Yeah, but I would have clicked on that one too. He just wanted to say the Italian word.
Doug
I did.
Kenneth
One more time for us. Filippo.
Filippo
No, Verdi Visconti. Or is he.
Doug
The Italiano?
Filippo
Okay, that's the end of our pod.
Doug
Can I have that car?
Filippo
That's a nice looking car. That is nice looking on every level. Those wheels look great.
Doug
They do. This is a cool.
Filippo
What did this 21 1.
Doug
What year is this great looking car?
Filippo
This is CarPlay fleet 21.
Kenneth
So maybe they don't.
Filippo
They didn't make another one of these though is the problem. There's only one in this color and.
Doug
It has CarPlay Assist adaptive cruise with stop.
Kenneth
Of course you can't have it service here as there's no alpha man.
Filippo
There's.
Doug
Okay, ask.
Filippo
There's what?
Doug
What the can ask. It's a dealer. They suggest.
Filippo
That's true. Okay. Anyway.
Doug
Maserati shop though.
Filippo
That's our podcast. It was the best one we ever did. Yep.
Doug
Without doubt.
Kenneth
Best one so far this year.
Filippo
Best one this year for sure. Thank you all for watching. We went a little long but it's. It's. It's been a while.
Kenneth
We had a lot to cover.
Filippo
A lot to cover. Thank you for watching. And Kenan will buy a Cayenne turbo any day now.
Kenneth
That's the dream.
Doug
Any month. Goodbye.
Filippo
Everyone.
Kenneth
Goodbye.
Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!
Episode Title: Bugatti Reclaims the Speed World Record, and a Bad 2025 for Electric Pickups!
Release Date: January 3, 2025
In this compelling episode of "THIS CAR POD!" hosted by Doug DeMuro alongside Kenneth and Filippo, the trio navigates through a spectrum of automotive topics ranging from tragic incidents involving electric pickups to the evolving landscape of manual transmissions and Bugatti’s latest speed feats. The hosts blend news analysis, personal anecdotes, and audience interactions to deliver a rich and engaging discussion tailored for car enthusiasts.
The podcast kicks off with a somber reflection on two recent tragic events where electric pickup trucks were used in violent incidents. In New Orleans, an electric pickup drove through a crowd, causing multiple fatalities, while an explosion outside a Las Vegas casino was similarly linked to a rented electric pickup (00:07 - 02:17). Filippo highlights the unusual nature of these vehicles in such contexts:
Filippo [00:44]: "But obviously odd to see these trucks in those back-to-back news stories."
Kenneth adds intrigue by questioning whether the silent operation and heavy build of electric pickups like the Lightning played a role in their selection for these crimes (01:08):
Kenneth [00:44]: "The silence is an interesting point. Yeah. I wonder if that played into the idea there."
Doug concurs, noting the unexpected involvement of rented electric pickups:
Doug [01:41]: "And tragic, certainly. Of course, both of them. The lightning is about 1,000 to 2,000 pounds heavier than an F150..."
The discussion underscores concerns about the accessibility and characteristics of electric pickups that make them suitable for misuse.
Transitioning to industry trends, the hosts delve into the diminishing presence of manual transmissions in new vehicles. As of 2025, only 27 models offer manual transmissions, a slight decrease from the previous year (02:24 - 04:04). Filippo emphasizes that manual transmissions have become a niche feature predominantly found in performance cars:
Filippo [03:07]: "The manual has become, in the US Anyway, solely the purview of performance cars..."
Doug and Kenneth discuss the rare models still offering manuals, citing examples like the Nissan Versa and Mazda 3, and highlight the shift towards dual-clutch systems (03:16 - 06:00). Filippo reflects on the nostalgic decline:
Filippo [04:02]: "They were cheaper to manufacture, they were more fuel efficient, and so automakers would get higher EPA ratings with them."
The hosts agree that the shift is driven by technological advancements and changing consumer preferences, making manuals increasingly rare outside performance segments.
A significant portion of the episode addresses the looming potential merger between Honda and Nissan, coupled with concerns over non-Japanese manufacturers, specifically Foxconn, attempting to acquire Nissan (06:42 - 10:06). Filippo and Kenneth explore the implications of such a merger on the automotive landscape:
Filippo [07:58]: "Honda is obviously in a much better situation. Nissan is kind of a disastrous company."
Kenneth raises the issue of governmental pressure and strategic decisions driving the merger, echoing fears of loss of Japanese automotive heritage (07:46):
Kenneth [07:44]: "There's a lot of pressure to do it."
Doug draws parallels with historical mergers like Daimler-Chrysler, predicting similar turbulence and brand identity shifts:
Doug [09:27]: "Nothing wrong with fear, right."
The discussion highlights the precarious balance between strategic consolidation and preserving brand integrity within the Japanese automotive industry.
One of the episode’s highlights is Bugatti’s unveiling of the Mistral, the final car built on the Chiron platform, which set a new world record as the fastest production convertible, reaching 282 mph (11:48 - 15:00). The hosts scrutinize the feasibility and engineering marvel of achieving such speeds with an open-top design:
Kenneth [12:06]: "So the Mistral has set a new record. It is the world's fastest production convertible."
Filippo muses on the aerodynamic challenges and the practicality of maintaining high speeds without a fixed roof:
Filippo [13:58]: "And you gotta presume they do it with the roof off."
Doug questions the significance of the convertible aspect in setting the record, while Kenneth compares it to traditional coupe-convertibles like the Corvette:
Doug [16:03]: "What it is convertible, it doesn’t feel that notable."
The hosts acknowledge Bugatti's achievement but also contextualize it within the broader evolution of high-performance sports cars.
The conversation shifts to Lamborghini’s recent benchmarking activities, where they evaluated the Hyundai Ioniq 5N among other vehicles (17:05 - 20:18). The hosts commend the Ioniq 5N for its innovative electric shifting mechanics, considering it a potential game-changer for performance electric vehicles:
Filippo [17:54]: "This car made it fun in a way that I'm glad someone is paying attention to."
Kenneth shares his enthusiasm after driving the Ioniq 5N, highlighting its spirited performance and potential influence on future EV designs:
Kenneth [18:37]: "I was, I felt surprisingly optimistic about the future of what electric car."
The discussion underscores the possibility of electric vehicles merging performance with driving enjoyment, invigorating the segment with new technological integrations.
Filippo shares a personal story about being the first to drive the new Camry camera, fostering a sense of ownership and pride (20:42 - 24:04):
Filippo [20:57]: "I have feelings about the new camera. The new camera came out for the five model year."
Doug recounts his extensive holiday drive of over 2,200 miles, detailing family gatherings, meal preparations, and a minor car incident involving a taillight and bumper damage (23:40 - 26:55):
Doug [23:35]: "I drove over 2000 miles. 2200 miles."
The hosts blend humor with personal experiences, offering listeners relatable content amidst the more technical discussions.
In the Market Report segment, the hosts analyze shifting market dynamics affecting specific car models:
a. NAS Defenders Dropping in Value:
Filippo explains the decline in value of NAS-defended Land Rovers due to the lifting of the 25-year import rule, allowing a surge of European Defenders into the U.S. market (36:53 - 40:31). This influx has saturated the market, driving prices down and reducing the exclusivity that initially made NAS Defenders desirable.
Filippo [37:06]: "This was one of them. Miracle of the manual coupes were special."
b. Tesla Roadster Price Drop:
The Tesla Roadster, once a coveted collector’s item, has seen its prices plummet from around $80,000 to approximately $50,000, reflecting broader trends in EV market saturation and shifting collector interests (37:06 - 43:37).
Filippo [43:38]: "I think this car is still special."
The hosts debate whether this depreciation marks a temporary shift or a permanent trend in the value of early-generation electric supercars.
The Q&A section addresses various listener-submitted questions, providing deeper insights into both the hosts' perspectives and broader automotive topics:
a. Deleting the "Rich Parents" Video:
Filippo explains his decision to remove a video addressing criticisms about his success being attributed to wealthy parents. He emphasizes his focus on creating content for genuine car enthusiasts rather than engaging in online drama (48:00 - 50:00):
Filippo [49:40]: "I just don't like do the YouTube drama thing."
b. Defining Automotive Decades:
The hosts debate what defines different decades in automotive history, particularly focusing on the 2000s and their significance as the "60s of our generation" due to the rise of mid-engine designs and dual-clutch transmissions (50:03 - 60:30).
Filippo [52:10]: "The dual clutch showed up, and Porsche was like, why would we make manuals anymore?"
c. Production Runs and Enthusiast Appeal:
Discussion centers on how the size of a car’s production run affects its desirability. The hosts agree that extremely limited runs can become exclusive brag pieces, while overly abundant runs dilute a car’s special status (60:02 - 60:30):
Filippo [59:58]: "Maybe the Shiron I don't think is noise. The new Countach is noise."
d. Unlimited Funds for a Car-Related YouTube Channel:
Filippo envisions creating an ultimate car-focused YouTube channel with unlimited funding, featuring wild road trips and extreme challenges akin to an over-the-top version of "Top Gear" (60:48 - 63:56):
Filippo [61:09]: "It would be like Top Gear but on steroids."
e. Depreciation of 3-Year-Old EVs:
The hosts warn listeners about the steep depreciation of certain electric vehicles, using examples like the Nissan Leaf, which Filippo suggests could become worth as little as $3,000 after three years (63:07 - 65:30):
Filippo [64:29]: "A used Leaf can't be more than a $3,000."
f. Why Doug Stopped Reviewing Houses:
Filippo humorously addresses why Doug has ceased reviewing houses, attributing it to the logistical challenges and his preference for focusing solely on cars (65:30 - 71:28):
Filippo [65:44]: "The answer is because of travel. I can get them here."
As the episode winds down, the hosts reflect on the depth and breadth of their discussions. Filippo jestingly mentions plans to sell his current car, while Kenneth shares his automotive resolutions, aiming to purchase a Cayenne Turbo and manage his spending on his M5 (71:08 - 71:28). Doug contemplates upcoming episodes, hinting at detailed discussions on car repairs and maintenance.
Final remarks highlight the episode's comprehensive coverage and the hosts' commitment to delivering insightful automotive content:
Filippo [71:21]: "Thank you all for watching. We went a little long but it's been a while."
Key Takeaways:
Electric Pickups in Crises: The involvement of electric pickups in tragic incidents raises questions about their accessibility and the unique traits that make them susceptible to misuse.
Manual Transmission's Waning Presence: Manual transmissions are rapidly becoming rare, confined mostly to performance models as automakers prioritize efficiency and advanced transmission technologies.
Industry Consolidations and Concerns: The potential Honda-Nissan merger, influenced by foreign acquisition interests, underscores ongoing challenges in maintaining automotive brand integrity amidst globalization pressures.
Bugatti's Speed Milestone: Bugatti's Mistral sets a new benchmark as the fastest production convertible, highlighting the advancing engineering feats in high-performance sports cars.
Innovations in Performance EVs: Lamborghini’s benchmarking of the Hyundai Ioniq 5N signals promising developments in making electric vehicles both high-performing and enjoyable to drive.
Market Dynamics and Depreciation: The depreciation trends of NAS Defenders and Tesla Roadsters illustrate shifting market values influenced by import regulations and evolving collector interests.
Audience-Centric Content Creation: The hosts emphasize their commitment to serving authentic car enthusiasts, steering clear of online drama to maintain a focused and dedicated viewership.
This episode of "THIS CAR POD!" offers a thorough exploration of current automotive trends, personal insights, and interactive discussions, making it an invaluable listen for car enthusiasts eager to stay informed and engaged with the latest in the industry.