Chinese Cars Coming to USA! Filippo Bought a Porsche!

Summary

THIS CAR POD! EP93 – Chinese Cars Coming to USA! Filippo Bought a Porsche!

Podcast Summary – January 9, 2026 | Host: Doug DeMuro | With: Filippo & Kenan

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Episode Overview

In this packed episode, Doug DeMuro and co-hosts Filippo and Kenan dive into a slew of hot automotive topics: Filippo’s big Porsche purchase, the arrival of Chinese cars in the U.S., major car market news, and a raft of enthusiast updates and Q&A. It’s classic THIS CAR POD!—fast-paced, irreverent, and insightful—with colorful banter and deep car-nerd knowledge.

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Filippo Bought a Rare Porsche 997 Targa 4S ([00:09]–[10:32])

Key Points

• Filippo’s new car: A rare 997.2 Porsche Targa 4S, black, 90,000 miles, manual transmission, recently purchased from a meticulous owner in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Specs and rarity: Basalt Black, BBS LM wheels (OE wheels also included). Manual Targa 4S models are especially scarce; less than 1,500 of this variant were ever made globally.
• Ownership experience:
  • Filippo is new to 911 ownership and feels exhilarated by the car.
  • Appreciates the 997.2's improvements over earlier models, calling it “delightful to drive and use without being like a precious car. You can just use it and drive it.” ([02:29])
• Community inside-jokes: Filippo admits to past frugality, now “lifestyle creep has really taken over.” Doug and Kenan roast (and celebrate) his transformation into a true Porsche guy.
• Market trivia: The Targa 4S was so rare even many Porsche dealers in its era never saw one on allocation.

Notable Quotes

• “It is a 997.2 Targa 4S. It's a wide body car. Yeah.” —Filippo ([00:21])
• "It's such a good car. I get the 997 love." —Filippo ([02:22])
• “There was a time when we did this podcast where I was worried that none of us would ever buy a car... And then we all did.” —Doug ([10:40])

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Chinese Cars (and Tech Partnerships) Coming to the U.S. ([11:08]–[16:45])

Key Points

• Chinese brands (BYD, Geely, Zeekr) eye U.S. market:
  • Companies are planning U.S. entry, leveraging multinational factories to potentially sidestep certain tariff barriers.
  • Geely already has a U.S. presence via Volvo's factory in South Carolina.
  • Mexican-assembled Chinese cars already sell (e.g., MG-branded EVs) and Lotus, Buick, Polestar, and others offer Chinese-made models in North America.
• Tariffs and hurdles:
  • Panel discusses the complexity of U.S. import tariffs, regulations on Chinese tech (like chips), and possible political headwinds due to anti-China sentiment.
• Historical parallels:
  • Comparison drawn to the Japanese and Korean automotive invasions, noting the U.S. public’s slow warming to foreign automakers.

Notable Quotes

• “You could build that [a factory]. I think a long weekend with a couple cold ones, you and me could put together at least a small factory.” —Doug, on automaker 'end runs' around tariffs ([12:43])
• "They've hinted at they're going to find a way around the tariffs...they're going to release a plan in two to three years for when they'll be in the U.S." —Filippo ([12:35])

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Sony & Honda’s Afila Car Launch ([18:21]–[22:48])

Key Points

• New joint venture: Sony and Honda are launching Afila, an EV brand, starting with a $90k sedan to be sold, at first, only in California (direct sales, likely at malls).
• Branding missteps: Panel pokes fun at the car’s tagline—“Autonomous. Sound. Visual.”—calling it nonsense and deriding the Afila name.
• Market skepticism: Afila’s 300-mile range is seen as subpar versus competitors like the Lucid Air; hosts believe range is a real market differentiator, though Doug is less convinced.

Notable Quotes

• “Autonomous. Sound. Visual. Boy. That wasn't run by anyone.” —Doug ([20:05])
• “Afila is the stupidest name I've ever heard in my life.” —Doug ([22:48])

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U.S. Performance Market News: TRX, Charger V8, Subaru STI ([23:33]–[29:50])

Key Points

• The Ram TRX truck returns: With 777-hp supercharged Hemi V8; panel is thrilled but notes the price now starts at over $102k, still undercutting Ford's Raptor R.
• Dodge Charger gets a V8 after all: Despite initial all-EV plans, the new Charger will have a V8 option as well as six-cylinder, reversing earlier announcements.
• Subaru STI rumors: Subaru will announce something STI-related at the Tokyo Auto Salon; possibility it’s just an appearance package, but hosts express hope for a new performance model.

Notable Quotes

• “The TRX is back. But not only is it back, it’s back with a serious engine.” —Kenan ([23:36])
• “If they come with a full line of six cylinder V8s, four doors, special editions, they did it again with another great car.” —Doug ([27:04])

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End-of-Year Market Results ([31:45]–[36:03])

Key Points

• Overall U.S. new car sales up 2% in 2025.
• EVs struggle: Market share dropped to 6.6% vs 11.2% a year before; EV tax incentives expired in October, dampening sales.
• Hybrids surge: Especially at Toyota and Honda—50% of Toyotas sold were hybrids in 2025.
• Buyers shift: Consumers gravitate towards lower trim, less expensive models; high-end/over-spec cars are sitting on lots longer.
• Kia & Hyundai continue to outperform, outpacing industry growth.

Notable Quotes

• “So it’s interesting because the implication here is that auto industry is actually relatively healthy. Sales were actually up, which was a surprise.” —Doug ([34:22])

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Arizona “Autobahn” Proposal ([36:34]–[41:02])

Key Points

• Legislation proposes unrestricted speeds in rural Arizona ("reasonable and prudent" standard) on long, empty highways.
• Realistic expectations are tempered—panel expects (at most) test programs or limited interstate stretches.
• Comparison to Montana's previous experiment with no daytime speed limit, and practical discussion on American driving behavior.

Notable Quotes

• “No one's in like in the middle of nowhere with a Ferrari ready to go 150... they're going to go what they feel comfortable.” —Doug ([39:30])

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“Talk Cars” Segment: Personal Fleet Updates ([41:37]–[58:59])

Key Points

• Doug is “back on cars”:
  • Eyeing an LX700h Overtrail and a W210 E55 wagon, plus a wild (pipe-dream) interest in the De Tomaso P72 supercar.
  • “My sports cars have three pedals and my SUVs have three lockers.” —Doug ([42:58])
• Kenan’s Mercedes SL65 update: Recently serviced (overspend, as usual). He's debating selling it to get a Gen 1 Viper (“I will commit to getting a Viper in this calendar year, 2026.” —Kenan, [54:43]).
• Filippo’s projects: Will appear at the Avant Pit Stop event during Arizona Car Week, then retrieving a classic 1973 Ford F250 (debates DIY towing to save costs, in classic Filippo style).

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Market Report ([61:11]–[66:54])

Key Points

• Insane LX470 Auction:
  • 2003 Lexus LX470 with 583 miles sold for $67k—low for such mileage but “not actual mileage” Arizona title, repaint, and reupholstered interior created a dice roll for buyers.
  • Extensive panel debate over legitimacy and best use-case for such a “new old” Land Cruiser.
• Matt Farah's NSX-T Sale:
  • Sold for $167,510—right in line with comps for late-model, manual NSXs in good colors and condition.
  • “NSX market is surprisingly well-defined.” —Filippo ([67:35])

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Q&A Segment ([68:13]–[85:18])

Highlights

• Doug’s brief foray into house reviews: They performed well, but Doug didn’t want a travel-heavy lifestyle. Suggests "house reviews" as a billion-dollar YouTube idea for anyone willing to travel ([69:01]).
• Delta Integrale love/hate: Unbeatable hot hatch, impossible to service in San Diego (“You want to go on Lancia Facebook pages to try to find parts and deal with Italians?” —Doug, [72:17]).
• CVT transmissions: Underappreciated for their efficiency and performance in daily-driving applications, despite enthusiast disdain ([78:51]).
• Best depreciated luxury EV buy? Panel splits: Filippo likes Lucid Air for range and comfort, Doug sides with Taycan for drive quality, Kenan prefers the look of Audi E-Tron GT ([81:01]).
• Travel-for-review dream cars: Kenan—McLaren F1 or 250 GTO; Filippo—Fiat Panda 4x4, Piaggio Ape, “three towns over”; Doug—long list, refuses to choose ([84:25]).

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Notable Banter & Memorable Moments

• “Autonomous. Sound. Visual.”—The panel widely mocks this as the worst tagline ever ([19:49]).
• Filippo’s hot dog challenge: He’ll buy a hot dog (with toppings!) for anyone who shows up to the Avant event in Mesa, AZ with the coolest car ([57:13]).**
• Doug on rare Porsche ownership as a recession indicator: “This is a recession indicator. The market’s doing great.” ([09:32])

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Timestamps – Quick Reference

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------|---------------| | Filippo’s Porsche | 00:09–10:32 | | Chinese Cars to USA | 11:08–16:45 | | Afila (Sony-Honda EV) | 18:21–22:48 | | TRX, Charger, Subaru STI | 23:33–29:50 | | Market Recap | 31:45–36:03 | | AZ Autobahn Proposal | 36:34–41:02 | | Talk Cars Updates | 41:37–58:59 | | Market Report | 61:11–66:54 | | Q&A | 68:13–85:18 |

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, irreverent, detail-rich.
• Expert but accessible—hosts use their own purchase and ownership stories as teaching tools.
• Lots of inside jokes, ribbing, and authentic camaraderie throughout.
• Frequent attributions to each other's quirks (esp. Filippo’s frugality, Kenan’s maintenance obsessions, Doug’s buying habits).

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For First-Time Listeners

THIS CAR POD! EP93 delivers a perfect blend of breaking industry news, car buying adventures, market insight, and unapologetic banter. If you missed the episode, use this summary as both cheat sheet and entertainment—the conversations are timeless for any car enthusiast, and the laughs are just as valuable as the stories.

Transcript

[Filippo]

Foreign.

[Doug]

Hello and welcome to this car pod.

[Kenan]

I'm Kenan.

[Filippo]

I'm Filippo.

[Doug]

And we start with the news. And the biggest news is Filippo. Filippo bought a car.

[Filippo]

He did buy a car.

[Doug]

You gonna tell us? Put the camera on me because you can see it. Yeah. All right. Look at it. That's it. That's it.

[Filippo]

That's all you need to know.

[Doug]

Tell us about it.

[Filippo]

It is a 997.2 Targa 4S. It's a wide body car. Yeah.

[Doug]

Rare, rare car, these Porsche. Louis, already correct.

[Filippo]

Basalt black. 90,000 miles.

[Doug]

Is it basalt black?

[Filippo]

It is.

[Kenan]

What paint coat is it?

[Filippo]

Somebody will tell us in the comments. It's been delight. I got it right before Christmas and then went out of town for a couple weeks. But it's been.

[Doug]

It's such a delightful car.

[Filippo]

Is it a manual? It is a manual, obviously.

[Doug]

What other questions would people ask? What's the mileage?

[Filippo]

90,000. 90,000.

[Kenan]

And I got a question.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

You got some wheels?

[Filippo]

Yeah, yeah. So it's on BBS. LM. I have luckily, luckily the OE wheels, which are Carrera 2s. And those will be going on this week, just not in time for filming today.

[Kenan]

That's tough.

[Filippo]

And then if anybody wants to buy some BBS's.

[Doug]

If you want to buy a set of curb rash BBS only on one wheel.

[Filippo]

I do want to say I bought it from a guy named Luke who took phenomenal care of it. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Took great care of it, like truly put in a bunch of time, effort, money. 33 grand in the four years he owned it. To like make it quite perfect. He upgraded a bunch of things, refurbished a bunch of things. It's a lovely car.

[Doug]

So how do you feel? You're a Porsche guy now?

[Kenan]

Serious car.

[Filippo]

I drove it here today. It's just such a good car.

[Doug]

You're a Porsche guy now. Such a good guy. I'm not a Porsche guy. So I'm curious, you only like two. Well, two. I have two Mercedes.

[Filippo]

All right. I would consider you a Mercedes guy. So that tracks me and Hoovy. Yeah.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Filippo]

And Ed Bull.

[Doug]

How do you feel? What's it like?

[Filippo]

It's so good. It's such a. Like I get the love. I had not driven a 911 period.

[Doug]

And this is your first real.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

I mean, every car you've ever bought, ever in your life added together is probably only half as expensive as this car.

[Filippo]

We're not half, but we're like barely getting to that number.

[Doug]

So there's a lot of news for you, like firsts for you. It's so good.

[Filippo]

We cleared out space in my garage. So it lives in the garage. Kenan, you're welcome. The car is vacuumed. The interior since owning it.

[Doug]

Wow.

[Filippo]

So it's a whole new Felipe.

[Doug]

The car is so good.

[Filippo]

I get the 997 love. I had not driven one before, but it's just such a good. You get in and it's so immediately familiar.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Filippo]

And just so delightful to drive and use without being like a precious car. You can just use it and drive it.

[Doug]

That's the best thing about Porsches is that they're. They're fun but also relatively practical and usable. So good.

[Filippo]

And also obviously 907.2 target 4s manual is just incredibly rare, which adds some coolness.

[Doug]

Do you want to talk about why you chose the Targa?

[Filippo]

It one came up for sale. Here we are. They never come up for sale. The last public sale that we can find is for a manual DO2 target 4s was years ago.

[Kenan]

Right.

[Filippo]

A couple years ago. They come up and it had like.

[Doug]

200,000 miles or something.

[Filippo]

It wasn't really a computer. Yeah. Luke, who I bought it from, spent a year or so looking before this one popped up at a dealer in New Jersey in 2020. They're just really rare. Special body style. It is the most practical of the 911. There's a hatch. There's a hatchback, which we learned only when Doug did a video with that. There is a hatch. Go watch Doug's video. The most practical 911.2s are known to have fixed a bunch of the 97.1 problems, which are probably overblown. IMSR message is not as significant as people think they are.

[Doug]

The interior upgrade is a big.

[Filippo]

Interior upgrades. They're just so good.

[Doug]

LEDs, so excellent.

[Kenan]

Well, Filippo, I for one am very proud of you. Thank you, my friend. Group can no longer say that you're pulling a Filippo by not buying a car he did commit to buying, especially.

[Doug]

Because he bought big. But I will say this. I will say this. I am anxious for about the number of Porsches we have.

[Filippo]

We have too many Porsches in our group.

[Doug]

I got a Porsche. He's got a Porsche. Nick's got a Cayenne. He never talks about it because he doesn't want to be a Porsche guy, but Nick has a Cayenne. Our buddy Sam's got something. I don't remember.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Is that all? There's too many Porsches.

[Kenan]

You are doing the other German Manufacturers.

[Doug]

We have a friend who has. We have a. Another friend who has a 997 GT3S. And then there's Edison. So what do we do? What do we do about that?

[Filippo]

I think we lean in, we start wearing a lot of Porsche clothing. We wear the Porsche design watches.

[Doug]

I don't want to go down this road. Spike's already got this covered.

[Filippo]

He's got the old Porsches covered.

[Doug]

I think all the Porsche people are Spike's people and he's got that done.

[Filippo]

We're out of luck.

[Doug]

We gotta be more generalist.

[Filippo]

Let's sell.

[Doug]

I gotta get rid of my993 now. You forced my hand.

[Filippo]

Great.

[Doug]

How many miles have you driven this car?

[Filippo]

I was gone for the vast majority of my ownership. So far, I think I've done 250 miles or something.

[Doug]

Wow.

[Filippo]

Which isn't bad for being at home for about a week of owning it.

[Doug]

Yeah. It's just so good.

[Kenan]

Do you go out to the garage and you see it and it's like, oh, my God, what did I do? Are you excited?

[Filippo]

No, no, no. Pure excitement. I mean, there was money spent. I don't really, I don't.

[Doug]

You're not one to spend money lightly.

[Filippo]

No, I am not.

[Kenan]

This is a man who used to cross shop fruit for price.

[Filippo]

I know life has changed and it's not for the better. I should go back to cross shopping fruits for the best prices. I still do in my head. Don't worry.

[Doug]

The lifestyle creep has really taken over.

[Filippo]

Yeah. But I don't feel any level of regret in the least.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Doug]

I mean, it's a car you can get out of pretty easily.

[Kenan]

Oh, very.

[Filippo]

And I have like service records going back to when it was new. A bunch of important works and done.

[Doug]

Say someone writes into us at Sean carsandbids.com S E A narsarsandbids.com say they write into us.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And they say, I give you 85 today. You sell it.

[Filippo]

I would have to think about that. There comes a price point where it's like, why would I not sell it? But it's not a car that I'm interested in selling. Unlike Canon, I plan on keeping this for at least a while.

[Doug]

I will say this. I worked at Porsche when this car was being. When it was around. I didn't start there. I didn't start at Porsche until 10. So I wasn't around for this specific car and the launch of this car. But I remember that the Targa 4s and the Targa 4s's and in addition to the 4s, there's also a base car, just the standard Targa 4. The Targa 4 base is rarer than a manual Cayenne. The 4s was a little more common, but I remember we were doing maybe 15 units a month. It wasn't something the dealers were actively even trying to sell. A lot of dealers had never seen one. They were very, very RA cars. Obviously, in. When the 991 came out and the Targa roof changed, it became like the hottest 911, which it still kind of is. But during this period, it was a very, very, very special car. And one of the distinguishing features is this little silver line that goes down the car. Only the Targus had that. And that's how you.

[Filippo]

That's how. You know, my understanding is that something like 1500 were built for dot 2 target 4s's, which is really rare by 15.

[Doug]

For global or for us?

[Filippo]

I believe global.

[Doug]

That wouldn't surprise me.

[Filippo]

But don't quote me on that. Haven't done that much fact checking. I'm not one of those Porsche guys.

[Kenan]

So it's only slightly more common than an F40.

[Filippo]

Slightly more common than F40.

[Kenan]

So we see an F40 and we see that it's like, damn thing.

[Filippo]

That's a trim.

[Doug]

That's a trim. An F40 is a whole car.

[Kenan]

I agree.

[Doug]

You know, I want to talk about F40, actually.

[Kenan]

Technically, it's a trim of a 308 in a way.

[Doug]

You know what?

[Kenan]

You know what's hit me underneath this?

[Doug]

You know what's hit me about F40s? Everybody's always like, oh, I got an F40 for sale. Non cat, non adjust. They're like, oh, that's like the thing. Because the only difference between the F40IS catalytic converter and adjustable suspension.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Doug]

And they're all always like, it's a desirable non cat, non adjust. Example. I want a CAT adjust. I want the worst one. They never come up. Find me the worst one.

[Kenan]

Well, I have to imagine a lot of the CAT adjust cars have either been de catted and fixed static suspensions put in their place. They've been kind of made that way.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah, that's true. The CAT adjust cars are all non kitjust now anyway. But everybody's like, so proud of this when they were announcing an F40 for sale. And like, I want the cheapy. Find me a CAT adjust that's been hit. That's what I'm looking for.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Kenan]

We want pictures of it on a track on the Nordschleife sideways.

[Doug]

I want. I want it to have. I wanted the engine block to have been destroyed in some sort of over rev. That's what I'm looking for.

[Kenan]

Mischief. Just didn't quite get it.

[Doug]

So here we are. That's. That's the big news of the week. Filippo's got a 997 Targa and last night he was over at my house and he was eyeing the 993 and he admitted he would be interested in one of those.

[Filippo]

Unfortunately they're just three times the price.

[Doug]

It's interesting. He's already going down. This is why I'm done. The only other Porsche I want is a996 GT2. But I'm definitely not doing that next. And I am done. I will never have another Porsche.

[Filippo]

Oh, yeah. You want to like. How were we shaking on this short.

[Doug]

Of the 996 GT2. I would shake. Ish.

[Kenan]

You'd shimmy.

[Doug]

I'm not interested in any of them. I like yours. I think it's cool as hell.

[Filippo]

I'm very into it. It's been just. It's such a good drive.

[Doug]

It's been a bit of a kick in the face for us all to accept the fact that Filippo.

[Filippo]

I know who is.

[Doug]

How should I put it?

[Filippo]

How will you put it?

[Doug]

He's a careful. And he's a man of modest existence. Yeah. Is driving around in a 997 Targa. It's like, wait a second.

[Filippo]

I don't get how this happened.

[Doug]

This is a recession indicator. The market's doing great.

[Filippo]

It's odd as a decision but I. From like a practicality financial standpoint, I do think I can get out of it even money at literally any point. The rarity factor kind of helps.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Even as 907.1 do drop a little bit. Um. So I'm not worried about that. They're relatively reliable. I have to do a. I'm going to do a little bit of preventative work and get it checked out just to make sure that it all doesn't need anything. But it's like, shouldn't be that costly to own. Should be to get out of. Is everyday drivable. I'm like not worried about it in that way. My wife is incredibly worried every time she goes out to the garage that.

[Doug]

She'S going to damage it.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Is it PPF on the front? Maybe the rest will get ppf, maybe it won't. I don't want to put it out. That outlay of cash.

[Doug]

Uh, it is A lot of money. And I, I generally it's rare that unless you scrape like a, the wide body on your garage when pulling in.

[Filippo]

Never done that.

[Doug]

Most people have never done that anyway.

[Filippo]

But I'm incredibly excited.

[Doug]

I'm proud of you. I'm so thrilled you got a car. You, you went hard. And so did he last year.

[Filippo]

He has more torque than the world.

[Doug]

I. There was a time when we did this podcast where I was worried that none of us would ever buy a car because I knew you wouldn't. And I was off cars.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And I thought he wouldn't. And then we all did.

[Kenan]

Actually, you know what? Yeah, that's true. We all. Look at this.

[Filippo]

I bought two cars in 2025, by the way.

[Kenan]

Yeah, one was an accident. You didn't mean to love that though.

[Doug]

All right, let's move on to the real news. We'll get back to the 911 later. There's a lot more to discuss about it, but we'll get back there because we have a picture of Trump and China and what appears to be a zeekr.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Chinese EVs are going to come to.

[Doug]

The US well, I already see them. I. One of the other day I was driving around.

[Filippo]

Oh, from Mexico.

[Doug]

The other day I was driving around and I saw an MG just like my grandpappy's old one.

[Kenan]

The heritage is there, alive and well. Made in China.

[Doug]

It was an electric crossover from Mexico, but it reminded me, it reminded me of those drives with grandpa.

[Filippo]

So we've all known this is going to happen eventually. And there are a few Chinese made cars for sale in the U.S. fun fact. Are there now there's one technically for sale. The Buick Elytra is for sale technically, sorry, the Lotus Elytra. But for the last few years the Buick envision a few of them exist in Pre Terra. The S90L.

[Doug]

Well, and the Polestar too. A few of them are pre tariff. And when you go to Canada you'll see Model 3s with LVINs.

[Filippo]

Really?

[Doug]

Yes. Or you did. I think they also have put a stop to all.

[Filippo]

Yeah. The reason it's in the news is ces, which is like the big consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas is this week right now. Not a ton of car news, but a ton of like tech, et cetera news. And one of China's largest automakers is BYD builder Dreams. Build your dreams. And Geely is the other like large competitor. And Geely this week has said that they're going to have start they're going to release a plan in two to three years for when they'll be in the U.S. but they also really clearly hinted at the fact that they have factories in the US because Geely owns Volvo and Volvo does have a factory in South Carolina. They have factories in the US that they could use and that will likely be a part of their engine to the US So basically Chinese EV but making something else.

[Doug]

That hits me. You ever been to a factory? It's like a corrugated metal building. You know what I mean?

[Filippo]

Sure.

[Doug]

You could build that.

[Filippo]

I think what we'll see for the tooling.

[Kenan]

That's a little bit harder there.

[Doug]

I think. I think a long weekend with a couple cold ones, you and me could put together at least a small factory. Like they're not. It's not like a house where you gotta have like right.

[Kenan]

Where you gotta respect the living.

[Doug]

Right.

[Kenan]

Factories you don't have.

[Doug]

The whole floor is just cement. I mean you can just do this in a weekend. Huh.

[Kenan]

So is ours. You know what? We're most of the way there actually. There are no clocks down here.

[Filippo]

Our lease does not allow factory work.

[Kenan]

Doug doesn't allow us to reunionize.

[Doug]

This week over the Christmas holiday I tried to teach my son about the marriage in a car production line where the body. I don't think it landed.

[Filippo]

Yeah. But basically they've hinted at they're going to find a way around the tariffs. Right. At this point the Chinese automakers are huge multinational conglomerates that can build factories other places and they've made very clear that they will. In Europe they've made huge inroads. BYD that I mentioned earlier is coming out with a bunch of additional vehicles In Europe, there's the take rate. There has been stronger and stronger and stronger and it was only a matter of time before they announced plans to.

[Doug]

Enter the U.S. okay, a couple questions. First off this, it's not really an end run around the tariffs. Like I think, I don't know, I'll speak for President Trump. But in my view if this car is being made with American labor agreed.

[Filippo]

Not an end run tariffs at all.

[Doug]

Not only is it not an end run around tariff, but isn't that what we're hoping for with the tariffs with.

[Filippo]

China there's a little bit more complexity because we also have a bunch of other regulations in place that don't allow some Chinese technology, including a lot of chips to be used in products sold in the U.S. so there's a bunch of additional elements here where the Chinese automakers will need to work.

[Doug]

Isn't our iPhone like all Chinese Yeah.

[Filippo]

It'S getting a little specific.

[Doug]

Okay, here's another question, and this one is more theoretical. And you don't have to answer if zeekr or BYD or Geely, they might be the same company. They might be doing.

[Filippo]

They're not.

[Doug]

If they decided to build in Greenland, would that count as America?

[Filippo]

It really depends on whether we've acquired.

[Doug]

Not yet. All right.

[Filippo]

But they're coming. By the way, Zeekr minivan is what Waymo uses in their current.

[Doug]

How is that allowed, by the way?

[Filippo]

I don't know.

[Doug]

Okay. I will say I have been. I'm not surprised that they're thinking about. Okay, maybe I do think it'd be a lot of work for the Chinese automakers to get into the U.S. not only do they have to build here and apparently avoid these chips and create a dealer network, but there's a lot of anti. I don't know if you've been paying attention, but there's a lot of anti China.

[Filippo]

Okay. I've been thinking a lot about this in. I think it's usually specifically about Italy just because I have the most exposure to that. But across Europe, Chinese automakers 10 years ago were like the cheapest cars you could buy. Were derided for that same thing. Cause there's a lot of animosity there too. And now they're everywhere because they made competitive cars.

[Doug]

But there's a political issue. It's beyond just, oh, this is cheap crap. Which is how we thought about the Korean cars when they showed up 30 years ago.

[Filippo]

There is no country more racist than Italy, especially towards.

[Doug]

Yeah, but Italians also don't have a lot of money. Americans have a.

[Filippo]

Turns out.

[Doug]

And they don't have as much choice with their vehicles. Americans have more choice and more money and also generally are a little bit anti China. By the way, we have this road sign in the back that says 88. We're not. We're not advocating for China here. My God. Move on to the next news story.

[Filippo]

Wait. Well, one more comparison point before we get to Japanese brand. The US Was not very pro Japan when Toyota Honda started selling here. And now large it will take.

[Doug]

You know what happened, though? They weren't pro Japan until they realized that Japanese cars functioned properly. But already now all the cars function fair unless you buy. Unless you. That's Chrysler. You're getting a car that works. And so the Chinese don't have that advantage. And they have a big disadvantage. And they're being built in a country that we. Except for whoever put that road sign.

[Filippo]

Up, we are questioning did you decide to wait to buy an iPhone until they move production to India?

[Doug]

Is production in India?

[Filippo]

It will be.

[Doug]

I love the Indians. Love the Chinese too. I love the whole world at this point.

[Filippo]

Let's move on.

[Doug]

You're right.

[Kenan]

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[Filippo]

A Fila. Yeah, this is not a joke. So this is a Fila. It's a new car company. It's a joint production between Sony and Honda. It was revealed a while ago they actually have a new SUV that's not pictured here that they just revealed at cs. They have started production at Honda's plant in Ohio.

[Doug]

Well, it's about time because the prologue has been canceled. And by the way, Honda hasn't announced that yet or even implied it, but it will. And I remember the prologue was supposed to be a stopgap before this came out and then this was delayed like crazy. And the prologue was like grappling along just trying to find three people a year who wanted to buy it. And it's failed at that. And so finally this is here.

[Filippo]

Can I tell you the tagline? So this is the a fila one, which will be about $90,000 for the base trim of it. It's a expensive trim.

[Doug]

How are they gonna be sold? Through what dealers are they asking?

[Filippo]

It's gonna be California only to start with first deliveries we've been caught.

[Doug]

What is Honda's role in this? Is there Honda dealers? Do I have to go to the Honda dealer to buy this car? I'm not spending $90,000 on the Honda dealers.

[Filippo]

So far, they're selling only in places where you don'.

[Kenan]

Dealer.

[Filippo]

Which California includes.

[Doug]

Okay, so they're going to be at the mall.

[Filippo]

They're going to be at the mall.

[Doug]

I don't want to.

[Filippo]

I think they're all either. Can I.

[Kenan]

Point of sale. Not a great situation for you in general, whether it's buying groceries or buying a car.

[Doug]

I do sometimes go to the grocery store. If they were at the grocery store.

[Kenan]

Oh, well, there's a move. You know, nobody else is doing that. You want to get some apples? You want to get an Ophelia or whatever it's called.

[Filippo]

Can I tell you the tagline that's on their website? It's three words. Autonomous, sound, Visual.

[Kenan]

That's worse than was a body spear. What was the Aston Martin one? Body power. Soul.

[Doug]

Beauty. Soul.

[Filippo]

Autonomous, sound, Visual.

[Doug]

Visual. Boy. That wasn't run by anyone. But they are starting to build them. They're building a $90,000 sedan.

[Filippo]

They also are building.

[Kenan]

Yeah. There's one thing we've learned with new companies. Definitely start with a sedan. You work for Lucid.

[Doug]

And the brands make it be Sony and Honda, two brands well known for their expensive luxury goods.

[Filippo]

Okay. The car itself is wild because they use a. They're basically advertising it as like a way for them to put a bunch of their tech in things. So there's a bunch of AI LIDAR. You can play PlayStation games inside.

[Doug]

Can I ask you a question?

[Filippo]

It's weird.

[Doug]

Do we have to get this?

[Filippo]

Do we have to buy it? No, no.

[Doug]

Like the world. Does this have to come.

[Filippo]

I was really.

[Doug]

Can we just.

[Kenan]

We got a lot of. Can they focus on something else?

[Doug]

I actually am excited for Honda's pair up with Sony about EVs. I truly am. Because we've been hearing a lot about the enormous amount of money they've invested and all the tech that it's going to come. And so far, Honda's EV attempts have been meager, to say the least. This doesn't seem appealing.

[Filippo]

It doesn't seem appealing. It's 300 miles of range at the most. That's not competitive for a large luxury sedan. The Lucid Air is 500.

[Doug]

When we bring up EVs on this podcast, you get into a big range thing.

[Filippo]

I think it's like the market differentiator.

[Doug]

I don't think that range is something people care that much about. Lucid's got that one that'll drive from here to Poland. As long as most of the drive is on a ship.

[Kenan]

Yeah, right.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

As long as. As long as you drive it onto a ship and then it drops you off in France, it can in fact get to Poland.

[Kenan]

Yeah, okay.

[Doug]

But no one cares.

[Filippo]

I don't think that's true. And I think it's a little bit of a testament when you control for size, like large sedan to large sedan to large sedan. I think it's a little bit of a. Of a demonstration of their advancement, their technology, their actual investment in making a really competitive next generation.

[Kenan]

I think America. For American consumers, range is one of the largest objections to EVs. Everybody says, I don't have 500 miles.

[Filippo]

I'm not gonna use it.

[Kenan]

But then they.

[Doug]

Cars that have 500 miles, people still don't buy.

[Kenan]

Yeah, right, exactly. And nor do people really need that range. If you actually analyze how you use a car. They just want the comfort of 300.

[Doug]

Is like a pretty good standard.

[Filippo]

How did you not get further? It's like when you look at an old American car and they had a 17 liter V8 and it made $100, like how did you not?

[Doug]

Because I don't think that they're focused on it. I don't think that this is. I don't think that. I think their target was probably 300 miles range because that's what all their competitors do. And I think they were like, that'll be fine. I think they're probably right. I don't think it's going to sell in any respect. No matter how they sell.

[Filippo]

No, they're not expecting it to.

[Doug]

How they sell it, where they sell it, or who it will not sell. What brand name it's this will not sell. Also, Afila is the stupidest name I've ever heard in my life. Do you agree with that?

[Kenan]

It's up there.

[Doug]

It's up there. Lucid Air.

[Filippo]

Way better.

[Kenan]

Oh, definitely.

[Filippo]

It's a Fila by Sony, Honda Mobility. If you're curious for their full name. It's a Fila. It's a Fila. A Fila one.

[Kenan]

So what you're telling me is everything on the website is named stupidly, including their tagline, the Car. The car.

[Doug]

They're doing the one thing like Polestar, which is already leading to a bunch of bs.

[Filippo]

It really.

[Doug]

I. First off, I just reviewed a Polestar. Don't remember which.

[Filippo]

You review the four?

[Doug]

Yeah, I guess.

[Filippo]

Did it have a back window?

[Doug]

No.

[Filippo]

Is that. That's a four.

[Doug]

Okay. So the four is cheaper than the three.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And smaller.

[Filippo]

Well, because.

[Doug]

So I bought the three. Oh. It's. It's actually a lower number than the four. Even though it's a nicer car.

[Filippo]

That's how you know that it's been out for longer.

[Doug]

Imagine if the BMW 8 Series was a front wheel drive hatchback. That's what we're talking about.

[Kenan]

That's.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

That's rough.

[Doug]

All right, move on to the next news story. There's more good stuff.

[Kenan]

Oh, this is exciting.

[Doug]

The TRX is back.

[Filippo]

Yes, it is.

[Doug]

The TRX is back.

[Kenan]

This is so exciting. It's back. But not only is it back, it's back with a serious engine. If you go to their website. My understanding is if you go to their website, they can get to the engine. It's. This is exactly what it says.

[Doug]

Hell yeah.

[Kenan]

It's got a Hemi V8.

[Filippo]

You're joking.

[Kenan]

Nope. They know their customers really well. But it's got a 777 supercharged 6.2 liter goddamn V8.

[Filippo]

And yeah, it's got the signature growl. Let it rip.

[Doug]

You know, I'm of two minds about this. Believe it or not.

[Filippo]

Really.

[Doug]

I love the Rho. I think the RH is so unfairly hated on.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I agreed. But it still exists. There's just more.

[Kenan]

777 horsepower. 600.

[Doug]

What the hell. Yeah, I want to see it.

[Kenan]

Oh, yeah, right. It's right down here. And there's a button where you can. Because hell yeah, it's gonna hemi V8.

[Doug]

Oh my God.

[Kenan]

And you can press a button and it makes noise.

[Doug]

They're crappy. Start, stop.

[Filippo]

Button.

[Doug]

The horrible plastic. Start, stop.

[Filippo]

But you can't tell it's plastic on it.

[Doug]

No, you can't. But that's the same one. Been using and everything since the Dodge Dart.

[Kenan]

But I love that.

[Filippo]

But it's.

[Kenan]

I am so happy that this is back. It's just a ridiculous truck. Does 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds.

[Doug]

Pretty wild. It's nice to have it back. I agree. 777 horsepower. You going to get one?

[Filippo]

No, but.

[Kenan]

Nick Demon V8. But yeah, but it ain't cheap. Base price of it starts at 100 2005.

[Doug]

What is a Raptor R, though.

[Kenan]

I don't know what a Raptor are, but it's close.

[Doug]

Raptor R is 114. Raptor R has always been more expensive. T Rex was always the value and it's still the value. However, Rho is so good.

[Filippo]

The art show will continue.

[Doug]

I still haven't seen one on the road.

[Filippo]

I saw one. I saw it last weekend and I almost took a picture of something.

[Doug]

I'm astonished. Like, they're so good. I know you like the Hurricane.

[Filippo]

I like the Hurricane.

[Doug]

You drove that Charger with the Hurricane and it was great. Revit.

[Kenan]

You didn't.

[Doug]

Oh, you weren't here.

[Filippo]

I wasn't here.

[Doug]

That's the mistake you make when you leave. Instead of next week, I'm getting the Outback. Not the same.

[Filippo]

I'm excited about that.

[Doug]

Yeah, but it's not the. You want to drive the six pack, buddy?

[Filippo]

Well, I will say I don't want to drive.

[Kenan]

I want to drive this. Can you get one of these soon?

[Doug]

Yeah, Presumably.

[Kenan]

This is so cool.

[Doug]

So they're back with the trx. Is our next new story, the Charger. Move on to the next.

[Kenan]

Yes. Boom.

[Doug]

The charger's got a V8 back, which. Which actually is unfortunate because I just reviewed the six cylinder and. And I filmed it all and it's already gone. And I was like, I think they're gonna do a V8. Maybe I didn't know. And now they are. They screwed me over.

[Filippo]

Yep. They're gonna. They originally said it was gonna be just ev and then it was gonna be there was gonna be a V6 version or straight 6 version. And now the V8.

[Doug]

V8. How much power is this thing?

[Filippo]

You know, I think they haven't announced which V8. Yeah, they haven't yet known. Decided, or rather they haven't yet announced whether It'll be the 5.7, 6.4 supercharged or not. You gotta assume eventually.

[Doug]

I drove the Hurricane. Standard output Charger. I loved it. I don't know that I would spend what they ask.

[Filippo]

What do they ask?

[Doug]

It's like, too expensive. Like more than a Mustang. But I would argue, and I apply this to a lot of goods, it's also a lot more car than a Mustang. So, like, you're really. You're ahead in a way.

[Filippo]

It might be longer than a TRX.

[Doug]

And it's a hatch.

[Kenan]

If that's what you're after.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

You're heading away. It turns out if you park dimensionally, you are ahead.

[Doug]

It's. It's cool. I like the six cylinder. I'm thrilled they're doing a V8. The V8s are back.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug]

Meanwhile, Zeekr's over here. We're going to come to America. We don't want it. We want this.

[Filippo]

There will certainly be a Hellcat one too. You got to assume. Yeah, of course. Then there'll be a Hellcat red eye and then there'll be a Hellcat.

[Doug]

And you know what? I have to tell you, if they do that, I don't see why this is worse than the outgoing one. It's not like it started as an EV and got a lot of hate. But I think if they do come with a full line of six cylinder V8s, four doors, special editions, they did it again. They succeeded again with another great car. And I love how it looks.

[Filippo]

Unfortunately, they will have taken three years off of the market. Yeah, and that's tough.

[Doug]

It was a mistake, but we all thought EVs was where it was going to go. You installed an EV charger in your hip.

[Filippo]

Convenient. What's a charge?

[Kenan]

That's not what I was expecting him to say. But it is pretty amazing. If they're able to turn the tides that fast and be able to put. It's like. Well, then I sure hope Porsche can figure the thing out with the Cayman quicker.

[Doug]

Well, these Chrysler, for God's sake, these are powertrains in a car with a massive front. So probably now Porsche, who knows? I mean, I don't know where they were going with those cars.

[Kenan]

Batteries are big. Rip that out.

[Filippo]

Batteries are big, thin and long.

[Doug]

They're thin and long. That's part of the problem is like some of these cars, when the automakers say it wasn't engineered to be a gas engine, a lot of times it's true. A lot of times they're lying to us.

[Kenan]

We'll see.

[Doug]

Again, I'm still waiting for that diesel Mazda 6.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Doug]

Any day now.

[Filippo]

Any day now.

[Kenan]

Forget about that car with frequency. As did the rest of the world.

[Doug]

Okay, next story.

[Filippo]

I have been paying zero attention.

[Doug]

Subaru saying new STI is coming. They haven't said anything about it.

[Kenan]

No, but they said they're going to announce it at the Toyota Auto Salon. Right. Which is on Friday when this airs. So we don't know they're going to.

[Doug]

Bring it really soon.

[Filippo]

Yeah, there will be a new Mr. 2 there too.

[Doug]

Now, it could be one of those things where it's a appearance package. They've done this before. Remember the BRZ STI or whatever it was called?

[Filippo]

BRZ ts.

[Doug]

You get my point? And it had like red stuff and we're like, oh, it's coming. It's going to have 800 horsepower. And it didn't.

[Filippo]

No, no.

[Kenan]

Yeah, but this is. I don't know, this seems. If they're going to do this to the wrx, you have to imagine they know the demographic for the car. They know what people want. I would imagine it's not just going to be an appearance.

[Doug]

Later in this news segment, he's going to report on how bad WRX sales were this year. So maybe they're hoping. I will say Subaru is also on a pretty significant product offensive. If you can name any two of the new Subarus, I'll buy you an STI of the new Subarus.

[Kenan]

Unfortunately, I only know legacy models.

[Filippo]

Damn. It's a good joke.

[Kenan]

Thank you. Thank you. I knew you'd like that.

[Doug]

There's a new Forester that just came out. There's a new Outback that came out yesterday afternoon. There's a Trail Seeker and there's a Sun Runner. What's the last one called?

[Filippo]

Uncharted.

[Doug]

Uncharted. Uncharted.

[Filippo]

And of course the Solterra has been refreshed.

[Kenan]

Unchartered. Just like it's.

[Doug]

Solterra is not still on sale, though.

[Filippo]

Still on sale. Refreshed? No, still on sale.

[Doug]

Refresh. I don't accept it.

[Filippo]

I'm so sorry. But it's on sale and it's free.

[Doug]

Fresh. What I'm telling you is that I don't accept it. It is not good.

[Filippo]

Subaru needs to do something with the WRX. We'll talk sales around 44, 41 last year. It's hefty.

[Doug]

It still outsells a lot of the other sporty. Like, what does BRZ.

[Filippo]

How many WRXs do you think?

[Doug]

It was like 10,000. But how many BRZs are they selling right around there? Yeah, like how many Supras? Like, like.

[Filippo]

But like this is a. They don't sell them present anymore. They might. I don't think they do. This is the only sedan. I took that off now.

[Doug]

Yeah, that's true. They have gotten rid of like, it's.

[Filippo]

Like a standalone vehicle at this point.

[Doug]

Maybe they should give us a Forester STI that we've always wanted. You know what they should do is give us the Crosstrek STI that we actually want. If they give us a Crosstrek sti.

[Filippo]

Wouldn'T you be happier when I was in Japan, especially in like the mountain towns where there were like people visiting from the town but like live up there. Might want something sporty and have money. There were so many levorgs and levorg STIs. Especially the last gen levorg STI.

[Doug]

Oh, I would give it.

[Filippo]

Which is like the wagon sti. Like there's demand in their home market for this too.

[Doug]

They do the offer that in their home market.

[Filippo]

They don't offer it sti.

[Doug]

No, but they offer a wx, the.

[Filippo]

Levorg wrx which you saw a ton of. Truly. But they were last gen levorg STIs and current gen.

[Doug]

It did always surprise me that they didn't do this. I always got the sense that Subaru felt like they wanted to be a different automaker. They realized there were sales they were leaving on the table, but they like didn't want to be the automaker of the vape guys anymore. And now and so they went after Outback and they, they went after Crosstrek and all that and, and, and Nick bought one. Not crazy regular other Nick. But maybe they decided they want to sell some cars.

[Filippo]

Yeah, but I was wrong. They sold 3,000 BRZs.

[Doug]

That's the thing. So they're selling 11,000 WRX, but that's.

[Filippo]

Down from 20 last in 2024.

[Doug]

20,000 BRZs? How many?

[Filippo]

No, no, sorry. That's down from 20,000 WRX.

[Doug]

Yeah, I know it's lower, but it's segment competitive. It's about where Everybody Miata's like 12. When I did the review, the one the other day, it's like around there too.

[Filippo]

Weird decisions. This will do well for not very much work is my point.

[Doug]

Maybe. I mean we'll see. It needs more power. It needs to have 420.

[Filippo]

It won't.

[Doug]

Okay, next news story. Oh, Filippo, this is your favorite news story.

[Filippo]

I would like to talk about some end of year results.

[Doug]

A Chevy dealer in Florida with a.

[Filippo]

Kia dealer behind it and I believe.

[Doug]

Chrysler, Jeep and Costco.

[Filippo]

Man, my literal dream.

[Doug]

Okay, so what you want to talk about your end sales? I want to talk about them too.

[Filippo]

I'm going to lead with some fun facts.

[Kenan]

Okay.

[Filippo]

Overall new car sales were up 2% last year.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Which really was different than any of us expected.

[Doug]

Yeah, I agree.

[Filippo]

Dodge Sales down 28.

[Doug]

Well, they killed off.

[Filippo]

Here's a fun fact for you though. What do you think? Sold more Charger, Daytona EVs or Alfa Romeo's?

[Doug]

You know you have this in here as a gotcha, but I would assume the Charger. Is Alpha still selling cars?

[Filippo]

Alpha still sells two cars. The tonale The Julia and the Tonale.

[Doug]

Yeah, they're bad though.

[Filippo]

Yeah. The fact that Charger with their or Dodge with their EV that nobody likes.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

But remember, at one point sold more than Alpha.

[Doug]

At one point they got the lease deals down to like $83 a month and they would come and shine your shoes.

[Filippo]

That helped the shining the shoes.

[Kenan]

That was valuable. That was a real value value add. Hop it is.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Nevertheless, they sold more of those. WRX sales are under 11,000 last year.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

And then here's two fun facts for you. EV sales down. Especially after the EV instead of ended in December. EVs were 6.6% of new car sales, 11.2% last December.

[Doug]

So that's a big deal because that implies EV sales are down almost 50%, which from 11.2 to 6.6, we don't have a full year because the incentive only went away October 1st. But just, just comparing December to December, which is an apples to app comparison, 11% to six and a half.

[Filippo]

But hybrid sales up. Really, really not.

[Doug]

Well, you know, I want to, I want to question that. What's a hybrid? My East Station mic, not a hybrid. What do you mean?

[Filippo]

It needs to be propelled. I need to have some amount of electric.

[Doug]

Okay, well then my Sequoia is a hybrid. I'm getting 12 miles per hour.

[Filippo]

Your hybrid and 50% of Toyota sales last year were hybrids. Hell yeah. And the Sequoia certainly counts. Also. Every new Camry is a hybrid. Next year will be more cuz every.

[Doug]

New RAV4, every Sienna, there's a ton more. Now the CRV, the Tucson, everybody's getting hybrids.

[Filippo]

But hybrid sales also really up at Honda. One thing that was interesting, looking across each of the automakers, like end of year earnings, they a lot of them pointed out that the lower trims of their vehicles are the ones that had the most sales growth. So Ford was the most explicit about it. But they're going to start building more lower trim Mavericks. The escape's gone. But Bronco sports Broncos because that's what's selling in a way that before it was like Toyota was selling all the TRD pros in the world. Ford was selling the Sasquatch Broncos. But now as those vehicles have matured and as gotten a little weaker, you're buying the, you're buying the less Ford lower trim out.

[Doug]

So it's interesting because the implication here is that auto industry is actually relatively healthy. Sales were actually up, which was a surprise. However, it seems to be maybe lower trim cars, which is proven by that list we saw, you and me looked at the other day of the cars that had the longest days on the lot, a day supply and it was a lot of high end stuff. It was the Lexus LX overtrail, God's car.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug]

But it was also all the hybrid four runners and Tacomas. Surprising, actually. But that's the top.

[Filippo]

Overall new car prices were not notably higher in 2025 and 2024. But I do like actual sale prices. I do think that was partially driven by a change in mix to the lower trim levels that offset some actual price increases.

[Doug]

Instead of the promised recession. People are still buying, but they're just reining it in a little bit. Yep.

[Filippo]

And by the way, they're also selling a lot of trucks. No surprise.

[Doug]

What's going to happen to the Kia Telluride?

[Filippo]

It's going to do well. Kia sales were up something like 6% year over year last year, maybe a little more than that.

[Doug]

So it outpaced the market. So gained share.

[Filippo]

Sure did.

[Doug]

There you go.

[Filippo]

Kia and Hyundai were by far the most success. Really? Really.

[Doug]

Boom. Another big year of Kia, Hyundai. Meanwhile, Volkswagen's still trying to figure out what to do about an electric van.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Volkswagen not.

[Doug]

You know, this isn't a good story we have in here because it happened weeks but we haven't covered it. That they did announce, confirmed that they're taking a model year off on ID Buzz. People have been saying it's canceled. It's not canceled. They're going to take. They're going to take the year off because they have a lot of stock and I bet you they'll come back 27. But whenever someone does this, whenever an automaker does this, they always come back with a different product. And I bet you there's going to be some changes. Either they're going to give it more powertrain and more range like a lot of people have been asking for, or they're going to give a short wheelbase or drop the price or maybe, just maybe, they'll put a cup holder in the second row.

[Filippo]

Don't get your hopes up. God willing. I will say just to get the numbers correct. Kia sales up 7% year over year. Hyundai up 8%. Toyota also strong year, up 8%. Ford up 4%.

[Doug]

Yeah. Now part of it, I wonder. Toyota had a lot of new products last year.

[Filippo]

It was expected. Hyundai, Kia, not really true for them. They have a lot of new products at the very end of the year. I think 2026 will be a big year.

[Doug]

Well, the Palisade was new throughout the whole year. But I'll tell you that wasn't propelled by Ioniq 9 sales. Okay, move on to the next thing.

[Kenan]

Yes, the Arizona Autobahn. So currently there's legislation, you heard about that proposed in Arizona that will return the speed limit in like rural areas which is like 50,000 people or less than like towns in these areas to reasonable imprudent which means there is no speed limit. Now they are also going to. There are going to be larger alleged DE restricted parts of highway. But the thing is this is all again this is a proposal. This is something they want to test. There's a pretty good chance this legislation gets killed anyway. But what I found that was interesting about this is like with the DE restricted like spots they're saying it's going to be DE restricted during the day and 80 miles an hour at night, which kind of.

[Doug]

Which I accept.

[Kenan]

And like there are pretty. There are pretty large stretches of Arizona you just want to get through. There ain't nothing there.

[Filippo]

You are not going to hit anything to my life.

[Kenan]

Yeah, you know this better than anybody but imagine you being able to rip on like an autopon in a German car.

[Doug]

You'd get sighted, remember in Montana. That's what happened. That's what killed the it.

[Kenan]

Right. So.

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Kenan]

So the.

[Filippo]

So reasonable and prudent. Is that the rule?

[Kenan]

Reasonable, imprudent? Yes. Now if this work, they're going to do a test they want to propose. They propose it. Sorry. They propose that they're going to do a Test on Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Yuma for a year. Is the proposed.

[Filippo]

That's not the section I do. I know if I'm going to my in laws. We leave the eight in Yuma, which makes sense. We don't only drive through.

[Doug]

That's the thing you're complaining about this but Phoenix instead I drive the full way through Arizona. I would go through Phoenix every single year.

[Filippo]

I would do that.

[Kenan]

Well, if this works, they said they're going they would expand it to large sections of the Interstate 10, 17, 19 and 40 as well as a pretty large section of the 15.

[Filippo]

I want them to do it just for the two lane roads, the 95 from Cuba to Quartz.

[Doug]

They're never going to do that.

[Filippo]

And then all the roads from Quartzite to Prescott.

[Doug]

This is interesting. It's interesting. I have a strong suspicion we'll pass. You know it's funny because Arizona is actually one of the most heavy enforcement states about speed laws. You know, Arizona's a pretty conservative state and those states really empower the Police. And it's incredible when you drive through Arizona, I mean, I'm just scared, especially as a Californian, you put your cruise control on a little over the speed limit and if you go over 90 in Arizona, it's like a felony. It's so insane. The laws are just so draconian about speed. It's laughable that they of all places would come up with this.

[Filippo]

Right?

[Kenan]

Well, they're citing other states. So right now there are nine states that have speed limits over 80. They're also looking at Montana, which is has said that even with higher speed limits they've not seen significantly higher crash rates. Now that does not apply to the national average, which has seen an increase in death rates from traffic accidents since 2019. So I don't really know exactly how this would pan out. I would be interested, of course, if they test this. I think it's fascinating for, especially for you. And you know, I would change my route.

[Doug]

I will say this as someone who actually drives on the roads in the lot of ways, the state roads, it'll never happen. It'll only be on the interstates. I promise you there will never be a two lane road.

[Filippo]

Turns out when you have visibility for miles in every direction.

[Doug]

Well, that's the other thing. Rural northeast Nevada, those are de restricted. There aren't police. So like.

[Filippo]

But we do not advise doing anything.

[Doug]

One of the things that I've learned though, driving through the middle of nowhere, which I, you know, I spent an enormous amount of time in my life doing this. No one's in like in the middle of nowhere with a Ferrari rate to go 150, you could make the speed limit, whatever, nobody cares. They're going to go what they feel comfortable. And I was thinking about this with my driving cross country with my dog and all my stuff. Would I speed it up? Not really. I would probably still go whatever I go, which is probably 80, 80, 85. I don't know.

[Kenan]

You probably, yeah, you'd feel comfortable maybe overtaking someone at 100 or whatever. But like, I think also, I mean, at least from my experience on the German autobahn this summer, you kind of get it out of your system and then when you have to drop the speed back down, you're like, you're fine with it. Like it's like, yeah, it's fine, but you like to cruise like 130km an hour.

[Doug]

In Germany you have these autobahns between cities people actually are trying to get between. But in the States, like if you're driving on i40 there between in northern Arizona, off through New Mexico, Albuquerque. There's not like people who are doing that drive. It's all big trucks and people on long road trips and no one's sitting there trying to. So, like, this is a cool idea and I think it's neat and it would be fun as a car enthusiast, but they'll still cite people for going really fast. And the people who are gonna use it already are probably doing this.

[Filippo]

Yep. Right.

[Doug]

They're going as reasonable and prudent as they feel.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Is reasonable and prudent.

[Kenan]

I don't disagree with that. Nonetheless, an interesting case. We'll see if it gets to. If they pass this, if they test this and we'll just see what happens. But I would love to see the circle with the slashes in it would be cool.

[Doug]

Well, when Montana did it, there were two signs. One said day speed limit, reasonable and prudent. Night speed limit, whatever it was.

[Filippo]

Reasonable and prudent's a long set of words to put on a speed limit.

[Doug]

Yeah, well, so does speed limit. It all works. But remember how Montana, how it ended in Montana is someone got sighted in a Camaro going 100 and he argued that was reasonable and prudent and he took it all the way to the state supreme court and eventually it was decided. This is silly to have to litigate this. Let's just make a darn speed limit.

[Kenan]

Yeah, don't disagree.

[Doug]

Anyway, regardless, it may not pass.

[Kenan]

It's very likely it won't pass, but nonetheless, pretty cool and interesting.

[Doug]

People are talking about it. One can dream.

[Filippo]

Agreed.

[Doug]

We got any more news? No, it's the end of the news. The news took up everything. But we haven't been on the pod for weeks.

[Filippo]

I know it's been weeks.

[Kenan]

Missed you too, Felipo.

[Doug]

Amy. So we had a lot of news. Forgive us. We can move on to the talk cars segment now. And there are several very important talk cars things. But I'm going to start with announcing first and foremost right here on the podcast, that I am back on cars.

[Kenan]

Woo. All right, that's great. Fantastic.

[Doug]

For the last three years, I've been saying I'm off cars and I don't want any more cars and I'm not getting any more cars. And finally last fall, I started to crack about the 993 Turbo and I bought that. And now I'm like full fledged. I'm ready to buy a lot of stuff. Let's get it going.

[Filippo]

Well, addiction is a real problem. I do suffer from this.

[Doug]

I want an overtrail LX700H. Okay, I'm ready to do that now. We, me and Filippo and Sean have been talking to the. There's only three CPO LX700H overtrails in the country for sale. We've been talking to one of the dealers, which is Woodfield Lexus in the Chicago.

[Filippo]

Are you hoping that this helps you get the car?

[Doug]

If you work at Woodfield Lexus, the asking price on the one they want, they have 112. We're firm at 93. I don't think this is a bridge that can't be. Can't be bridged. A gap that can't be bridged.

[Kenan]

Well said. You must be a writer.

[Doug]

Anyway, I want an LX700H over trail, and I'm ready.

[Filippo]

Triple lockers.

[Doug]

Triple lockers.

[Filippo]

Say it. Say the line.

[Doug]

I told Filippo over the weekend, my sports cars have three pedals and my SUVs have three lockers.

[Kenan]

That is great.

[Doug]

Time Sequoia's gone. I've mentally. I've already made it. I've already made it all happen. By the way, if someone wants my Sequoia, please. It's great.

[Filippo]

Great.

[Doug]

It's got a bad carfax, scratched wheels. The running boards are off it, and the windshield is cracked.

[Filippo]

It's a clean title, though.

[Doug]

Yeah. In addition to that, I got Rami.

[Filippo]

You know, Rami Inbound Motorsports on cars and bits.

[Doug]

Inbound Motorsports. Rami, the greatest person of all time. I have him looking for an E55 station wagon for me out of Europe or Japan. We're not sure where it comes w210. 210. So 2000-2001-2000-2001. That's what we want to get. Need a third row ready to do that.

[Filippo]

You have one if you're a listener in Germany or Japan.

[Doug]

More likely if you're in Japan listening to the pod. I'm back on cars. I'm ready to buy.

[Filippo]

I'm so glad.

[Doug]

Let's do it.

[Filippo]

I've missed on cars, Doug.

[Kenan]

It's. It's. I forgot how manic he is, though. When he's on. When he's off cars, it's like it's all theoretical. But now he's like, I want it now. Give it to me now. I want it now. And it's. It's. He throws a lot of proposals about cars that he wants.

[Doug]

And that is the other thing I want to talk about. There's one other car that's really tickled my fancy. Really. Over the holidays.

[Kenan]

What could that Be.

[Doug]

And I'm not gonna buy it, but I want it. And it's the D. Tomaso P72, you know.

[Kenan]

Yeah, you know the one. Yeah. Yeah.

[Doug]

Okay. So there's all these upstart supercar companies and I don't want to put any piece of any of them. Okay. Like zinger. We did the review. It was cool. But like I'm not buying one of those. This is interesting to me.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Doug]

This car is appealing to me. Y the company is in like, like Singapore or something. The car is built in Germany. The engine is a Coyote V8 just like the old D. Tomasso.

[Kenan]

All used American V351 Cleveland.

[Doug]

Yeah. The Mangusas and the Panteras. So it's so beautiful.

[Kenan]

It is achingly beautiful.

[Doug]

It's a three pedal manual.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Kenan]

Gated six speed, I think.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Now they want two, two and a half. And they're all, they claim they're all sold out. So it's not a. It's a pipe dream. But I'm looking at this thinking because I said a couple weeks on the pod, there are no new cars that I put on my list that I'm interested in. This has some appeal to me. It is so beautiful.

[Filippo]

The interior is wild.

[Doug]

The interior is cool. The exterior is cool.

[Kenan]

The other thing is, so they do a track only version with a V12 and I want I boy I would love it if they would bring a V12. I just looked like that.

[Doug]

I want the reliable one. I want a Coyote V8. Like how cool is this look? Look at that. Like, this is a beautiful car with a beautiful interior. There is a configurator up on their website which stole about a half hour from me even though it's all sold out. You telling me you don't want one of these?

[Kenan]

No, I. 100% no.

[Filippo]

It's quite pretty, quite special.

[Kenan]

So I like Como.

[Doug]

Yeah, it is of all of the BS that's out there. And there's a lot of BS upstart supercar manufacturers. And I'm not going to say Rimac, but people have said it.

[Filippo]

That's an odd one to choose, but okay.

[Doug]

This is not bs. This is beautiful manual.

[Filippo]

Cool picture on Lake Como. We're doing well.

[Doug]

If I could get like, if I could get one for half price. Oh sure. At the right price.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

Firm at a million.

[Doug]

You gotta wonder, are they really sold out? Are they really selling them at two and a half? Have you ever seen one? You know what I mean? Like you gotta wonder is what's really.

[Kenan]

The Story Pagani, which is an established manufacturer, continues to produce the Zonda after all this time. So I'll bet if you gave them enough money they'd make you.

[Doug]

But I don't want to give them enough money. I want to give them half. It's a different thing. People go to Horacio and they say, hey, hey, I want to spend. Give you 10 million to make me a new Zonda. I want to go to these guys and say, hey, I'll give you half the money to make me another one. I don't know if that's going to be met.

[Kenan]

Well, shrewd negotiation.

[Doug]

You can't tell me this isn't cool.

[Kenan]

I agree.

[Doug]

This is the only new car I'm interested in.

[Kenan]

It's so cool.

[Filippo]

Except for the LX700H Overtro.

[Doug]

Yeah, which I already said no. But in terms of sports cars, I haven't been interested in a sports car since the Carrera GT went out of production. Until this. What are the.

[Filippo]

What are the doors? Cool.

[Doug]

They're cool doors, dude.

[Kenan]

Cool doors.

[Doug]

I don't know the answer to that.

[Kenan]

It is such a cool car. I can't believe this appeals to you. I mean it's so much Ferrari P4 in it. Well, obviously.

[Doug]

Yeah, the configurator. You can configure it to look like a P4. Look at that. Look how mean that looks. That's a modern car. Are you kidding?

[Kenan]

Yeah. I can't believe.

[Doug]

That is so cool. And all these things out there with all these zivers and zavers and Zenvos.

[Kenan]

Zenvo.

[Doug]

That's what I want.

[Kenan]

Yeah. Okay. All right. Well that's great. Thanks for that useful piece of consumer advice. Love a 2 million dollar car for a million dollars. Wouldn't we all can't afford not to buy it.

[Filippo]

If you're D. Tomasso and you either want Doug to review it and or offer you half price for it, you know where to reach us.

[Doug]

What do you think the secondary market is like? Okay, so they made 72, but did they make 72? We don't.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Doug]

Because there's an Inquirer section on their website, but it also says it's sold out. Well, I want to inquire.

[Kenan]

Can't believe Germans are building a car that looks this beautiful.

[Doug]

Germans are building this? Germans are building this.

[Kenan]

So that means it will have one catastrophic engine flaw despite being a coyote.

[Doug]

Coyote. It's a coyote. Dude. It's going to be awesome. So what does a secondary market look like? Does anyone know this car exists? I don't know if there's an owner. I bet you that most of these sold to people who are in questionable legal situations. Friends. I'm ready. I'll get you out of your. Your DiTomaso. I'll give you one, too.

[Filippo]

Today, right before the feds impound it. Do it now.

[Doug]

Don't you agree with me, though?

[Filippo]

That's probably no comment.

[Kenan]

Highly accurate. Highly accurate. Very cool. Love that car.

[Doug]

I want this car.

[Kenan]

All right.

[Doug]

Can I get one?

[Filippo]

Hey, if you got the money. I don't, and you can inquire.

[Doug]

I don't have the money. If you are the money and they're.

[Filippo]

Sold out, I. I do wonder whether DiTomaso has it in the US are they?

[Doug]

If they did, they would be show or display only.

[Filippo]

If somebody's got one here.

[Doug]

I'd like to be showed or perhaps displayed. One of these cars.

[Kenan]

Look at that shifter.

[Doug]

Yeah, this is beautiful. This is like the Porsche people with their stitching. This is actually beautiful.

[Kenan]

That's actually cool.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

This is, like, truthfully cool.

[Filippo]

Yep. Incredibly.

[Doug]

Filippo doesn't like this car.

[Filippo]

I think it's beautiful.

[Doug]

Okay, Cannon, tell us about the SL65. I have a comment to make about this.

[Kenan]

So it recently came back from its first service with me, and as per the usual, I overspent on it. On it. I had originally intended to spend about two grand on it and spent 4,100 on it, which I detail in a video on my own channel. Very soon, I go into everything that was done with it.

[Doug]

Two grand. I said, okay, what does that mean? He was like, two grand. He got mad at me. I was. Two grand is what it means. Yeah, it was.

[Kenan]

It was four, but it was. It was just. I dealt with a bunch of. Of silly stuff, and I talked about in the video that there are. The thing we found was that it is leaking some coolant, some oil. So. So I'm kind of monitoring that to see exactly.

[Filippo]

Like a while ago.

[Kenan]

Well, one of the things we replaced was the coolant expansion tank, which was cracked. And guess what's in that coolant. So we're keeping an eye on, like, what exactly is going on with the car. But it's like, it. It doesn't help that I've been, like, on a Viper. On a Viper Focus, and the car just cost me $4,100. And it's like, I think it's gonna need more service. And so, like, you ready for a Viper?

[Doug]

We got a nice third on the site.

[Kenan]

I want a gen 1 or a 1.5. But. But yeah, I don't know. I'm in two minds because the other thing is I then drove the car to my friend Ryan Larissa on the highway. Not de restricted, but I still exercise the engine a bit and my God, that is one of the great engines.

[Filippo]

V12 and that's all six in a way.

[Kenan]

It's one of the great powers.

[Doug]

A luxury Viper.

[Kenan]

Yeah, it is. You know, everybody calls it a German Viper. I guess it's a luxury Viper but like it's not as unruly as the Viper is. Like, you know, that's why it's a luxury Viper, Right? Well, yes, but I think that means that it's nicer put together. It doesn't actually share that much in common with the Viper. It might, you know, big power. The whole point of the Viper is that it's the big power they both share. Yeah. And they're both rear wheel drive. But the Viper is like just raw. And this is just not. There's nothing wrong about it.

[Doug]

Have you thought about a yellow red?

[Kenan]

A yellow red. You mean a red yellow parked over there? Someone would say the car is more red than yellow. But yes, I have thought about that. I like that car a lot. The ketchup and mustard. I. So I don't know what I want to do. I. I still have.

[Filippo]

Have.

[Kenan]

I'm still not sure I really. I love drive. I just love that engine. But you only get to experience that on the highway and around town.

[Filippo]

It's kind of pedestrian or light to light, man. Especially burn out every light.

[Kenan]

Especially when you use first gear. It just like, just. It won't put the power down.

[Doug]

Especially when you're dropping four grand to get it serviced.

[Kenan]

Yeah, it's like that's a lot. And I, I did like a lot of. Like a lot of the little. Little things that needed to get lower control arms, for instance. And I go into. Into a lot more detail about this.

[Doug]

Does it drive better?

[Kenan]

It does. I got an alignment done on it and balanced the wheels and we also did. There's. You can adjust the wheel bearings which is odd. But it drive. It drives so like arrow straight now and so smooth. And it's just. It's just effortless. Everything in that car is effortless.

[Doug]

Way 4100 into a Viper gets you a motor top end rebuild.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Done.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Kenan]

Yeah, exactly. So I don't know. I don't know. I still don't know.

[Filippo]

Find it on cars and beds within the next of years.

[Kenan]

Couple month.

[Doug]

Yeah. You going to sell it? You're going to sell it.

[Kenan]

I mean, I committed to selling it at some point. I'm not keeping this car forever. That was never my intention.

[Doug]

But last time we were on the pot at some point you said August. Then I had like got you down to like March or something. Is that still a thing?

[Kenan]

Yeah, somewhere in there.

[Doug]

Did you buy it?

[Kenan]

October? I bought it in early October. Yes.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug]

So it could be a six month thing.

[Kenan]

Yeah, which is fine. Like the. The goal with this was to cycle through cars and get a varied number of experiences.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

So I support it, but I don't know, I just. It's such. I just. I love the engine, but I just wish it were more special around town.

[Doug]

Your other story on this talk cars is that you spent merely $1,300 on the M5 this year.

[Kenan]

I made a goal last year that I was not going to spend more than I said two grand initially. And I think I stretched it to 2,500. But I still didn't spend more than $1,348 is all I spent on the M5.

[Doug]

But wait, don't you feel that spending the $4,100 on the other car kind of negates the success at spending the 1300 on the M5?

[Kenan]

It was never a part of the.

[Doug]

Initial, but I mean, okay, yeah, you didn't spend more on your M5. Instead you bought an E60 M5, put a motor in it, $35,000. Hey, but guess what?

[Kenan]

Well, yes, but if you have a second car, you have to do maintenance. That's just life. Like that's how it goes.

[Doug]

Well, so. So, so this is like an end run around your little goalie goal here, isn't it?

[Kenan]

It. Well, it wasn't. I said on the M5 the goal was to get the M5. This is the story is the goal is to get the M5 to be reliable. And it was really solid all year.

[Doug]

That the whole point of the goal was to get away from your compulsive overspending on cars. And what ended up happening was you spent $4,100 on this SLC.

[Kenan]

I don't think I overspent. It was stuff that it needed. I don't think it was overspent.

[Doug]

I agree with you're giving him this.

[Filippo]

I mean, when we have to maintain it on countach maintenance, it doesn't impact your understanding of the courage you tease right now. No, but.

[Doug]

But the spirit of the law. You don't follow the letter of the law like you always do. Why Would I Trying to see if Kennan cannot spend a lot on cars.

[Filippo]

Write a better law.

[Kenan]

Well, I like cars to be well maintained. Like, I like it to work.

[Doug]

All right. Do we have a new resolution for 26 on anything?

[Kenan]

I think I'm gonna maintain the resolution on the M5 and not spend two grand again to prove to you year back to back that that car is reliable once it's sorted. And I think that's going to happen again. I don't really like. I do. There's some. It needs to go in for an oil change.

[Doug]

Okay. What about the SL65? You're gonna sell it?

[Kenan]

It's gonna be gone this year.

[Doug]

Can you put a 26 goal to get a Viper?

[Kenan]

I have been thinking about that.

[Doug]

Are you ready to commit?

[Kenan]

I think. Are you ready to commit in the calendar year? Yes, I think I can commit to getting Gen1 Viper.

[Doug]

I think I can commit. That was a Filippo style commit, I would say.

[Kenan]

Fine, fine. I will not be like Filippo. I will come, I will be like Filippo, and I will buy a car. I will commit to getting a Viper in this calendar year, 2026.

[Doug]

Wow. You heard it here first. He's gonna drive a manual V10. Only the finest you made.

[Kenan]

You made a point to me that, like, the fun car should be manual. And it's like, although my daily is manual, it's like, you know, I. I've.

[Doug]

Really started to lean into this more and people get mad at you. Like you're. You always say manual everything. You don't need your whole personality to be manual. For me, at least, like, the. The rare amount of time that I get driving a fun car when I'm not. Not, you know, with my family or committed to work or doing this or that or traveling. The rare amount of time where I once a month, where I get it, really get into a car. I don't want it to be a point and shoot. I want to drive the car. And hopefully that's your case.

[Filippo]

There's something. Yeah.

[Doug]

Manual V10, dude. Me, the courage GT, you and the Viper, and anyone who's done a manual swap on an Econo line. Ooh.

[Kenan]

Oh.

[Filippo]

Is that something anybody has done?

[Doug]

We'll find out. Write to us at Sean carsandbids.com that's s a n carsandbids.com Felipe, you got any cars aside from the.

[Filippo]

Talk about.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Filippo]

Aside from the gorgeous 997? Yeah. Dot two, as we said in the community. All right. On the 25th of this month, on the 23rd or Friday, the 23rd I and some other people from Cars and Bids are going to be in Scottsdale for the Avant pit stop during Arizona Car Week. Learn more the about the event at on our events page and then come say hi.

[Doug]

Will there be a 190E Evo 2 there?

[Filippo]

God willing.

[Doug]

Relatedly, where is this?

[Filippo]

It's in Mesa, Arizona.

[Doug]

Mesa, Arizona.

[Filippo]

The warehouse during Arizona Car Week. There's a bunch of events. There's a bunch of like in person auctions. A bunch of great car events around Scottsdale and Phoenix will be there.

[Doug]

So if you live in Arizona or.

[Filippo]

If you live in California, you want to come say hello.

[Kenan]

Okay.

[Doug]

Okay. But what about people in New Mexico?

[Filippo]

You don't. You're not New Mexico. Are you aware of how far Phoenix is from New Mexico?

[Doug]

Well, a lot of California is about that far too. So this is over in the warehouse in Mesa. If you live in Mesa, you know where this is. It's right off of the 87. The warehouse looks cool next to the. It's like a shipyard going on there.

[Filippo]

The warehouse looks incredibly cool. So I'm really excited for the event. And then after that, I'm going to go pick up the 1972, 1973 F250.

[Doug]

Down the street from the warehouse. There's a Mickey's Hot Dog. And Filippo will buy you a hot dog. I will. If you come to this event, Filippo will buy you a hot dog.

[Filippo]

I feel like I need more than just. There'll be food there, I believe.

[Kenan]

I don't know.

[Doug]

I don't feel the need to personally.

[Filippo]

Buy your hot dog.

[Doug]

Filippo will personally buy whoever shows up with the coolest car.

[Filippo]

I will.

[Doug]

Filipe. I will take you down Broadway there in Mesa, Arizona to the Mickey's Hot Dogs. And he will buy. It's open till 11pm Perfect. And he will buy you a hot dog.

[Filippo]

That is my commitment to whatever you want on it.

[Doug]

He'll get you toppings. He'll even put them on for you. If you want that relish crap that people sometimes put on hot dogs, he'll do it.

[Filippo]

I endorse this message.

[Doug]

Okay, you're taking the truck back.

[Filippo]

And then I will have to go take the truck, pick up the truck from Northern Arizona and drive it home.

[Doug]

Fleetwood's got some 60s truck. He's trying to.

[Filippo]

It's a 1973. It's built in 1972, based on a 73 model year. 73 model year. It doesn't say that anywhere, but like.

[Doug]

What'S the title say?

[Filippo]

73. So it does say that somewhere have the title. I'm gonna go, I'm trying to figure out how to best get it home. I'm cheap and I don't want to pay a transporter to it.

[Doug]

I want to do it myself. I want to do it myself. He's not going to tell you the truth here. But last night he comes over, he's like I think I'm going to bring this truck back by myself. He goes, I can't believe it, but I've been getting shipping quotes for 1,000 bucks. And I'm like all right, well what's the alternative? He goes, well U haul is. I can rent a u haul for 300 bucks. I said, well wait a minute. U haul you 300 bucks and then fuel hauling a hulking old truck is going to be another 200. So you're 500 bucks.

[Filippo]

That's savings.

[Doug]

Meanwhile you're towing using a box truck with a trailer through Arizona and California pulling a seven an old pickup to save $500. Yeah, not to mention it's going to take you two days to do it.

[Filippo]

It won't take me.

[Doug]

Oh well, the day up and the day back. I'm just gonna go visit my in.

[Filippo]

Laws anyway so I gotta be up there.

[Doug]

It'll take you a full day to bring this truck back.

[Filippo]

California highway, 55 miles an hour.

[Doug]

So I don't know what you value a day of your time at but let's call it because you. Let's call it 125baht and then there you go.

[Filippo]

So. So that's the math that plays out.

[Doug]

You're doing this to save like 350. 50 bucks. You could just call a guy.

[Filippo]

That's three days of my time. So the math works out in my favor. I think I'm actually kind of looking forward to this. I think it'll be.

[Doug]

You're looking forward to driving a large empty U haul box truck.

[Filippo]

Well, no, no. I also need to bring home a china cabin for my mother in law's house.

[Doug]

You're kidding. You're kidding. So you all have in laws. So you have put. Wait a second. Second you does it. Is it just the cabinet?

[Filippo]

Yeah, yeah. The cabinet won't fit in our station wagon. They'll barely.

[Kenan]

But you realize how hard that is strapped down one thing into an open thing.

[Filippo]

I don't know how to strap things.

[Kenan]

Yeah, I.

[Filippo]

You're wrong. You're wrong. I actually do. Dude, move.

[Doug]

This is going to be a disaster. Can we be there when you arrive?

[Filippo]

Yes, of course. Although I got to figure out where to bring the truck to get worked on cuz it's very hard to find a shop that'll work on an old.

[Kenan]

You think it's going to be like Top Gear where he like opens it and the china cabinet has just fallen.

[Doug]

Sh's upset. Sean's upset. And if you want to know why he's upset, send us an email @sean se. I will.

[Filippo]

I will throw out there just to use our platform. If you're an automaker that wants to prove the towing capacity of a vehicle and you wanted to just.

[Doug]

You want me to get a car for you, what do I have? When are you doing this?

[Filippo]

The weekend of the 23rd.

[Doug]

The weekend of the 23rd.

[Filippo]

I have tow at least like 5,000.

[Doug]

I have the Temerario. Are you interested?

[Filippo]

That tow five, it's got the torque to do it. Got a lot of power.

[Doug]

But you know, if you're.

[Filippo]

If you're somebody that wants to prove that you have a real truck truck or a real suv, you know this.

[Doug]

Is actually an opportunity for General Motors because he gets a Ford, right?

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

So you could be that Ford doesn't run. But the. But the 2500 Duramax runs brilliant. All right, folks, if Jeff, if you run PR for General Motors, this is your opportunity. If Mary Barra is watching this, this is your chance to prove to the world Philippe will make a video. It'll get 6,7000 views.

[Filippo]

You appreciate that?

[Doug]

Okay, we got to move on to the market report. Remember Mickey's hot dogs on Broadway?

[Filippo]

Coolest car at the Avant pits up.

[Doug]

You got to have the coolest car and I'm going to be the judge of that. So Flippo's going to send me pictures all night. Okay, we got to move on to the market, which of course is brought to you by Filippo's Wheels. And I'll give you the market report on those. They're worthless.

[Filippo]

Do you have any Idea how much BBs are worth?

[Doug]

I know. I want to talk. Let's just. Let's only do the LX because we got to move on to comments because the LX is so good.

[Filippo]

Good. Okay, so earlier this week we sold a Lexus LX 470.

[Doug]

Did you watch this auction at all?

[Filippo]

Canon A100.

[Doug]

Dude, you should have because the comments were off the rails.

[Filippo]

Okay, so here the. The. The truck is insane. Here's a truck that is. That shows 593 miles on odometer.

[Doug]

Okay, 593 miles on a land.

[Filippo]

583 excuse me, on a land cruise.

[Doug]

So this is you. You know you're going to get like everything.

[Filippo]

It's reportedly what what the sellers it sold for $67,000 which is less a lot of money but less than you expect a 600 mile.

[Doug]

And there's a reason for that.

[Filippo]

It has a not actual mileage title in Arizona which by all accounts, by all here's my understanding after doing a bunch of research on this. Toyota used to sometimes give trucks right off the production line to like trade schools and like instructional facilities where people learn to work on those trucks.

[Doug]

Already I have a tough time believing it. That is what the seller can claim.

[Filippo]

Yeah. And there is evidence that Toyota has historically done this.

[Doug]

This is a $70,000 vehicle that they just gave to a trading. Right.

[Kenan]

Nothing. Yeah, nothing. Better learn to repair a vehicle on a brand new one that has no issues.

[Filippo]

It's. It's what they used to do.

[Doug]

You want legitimately too bad we never got to oil change not broken in yet.

[Filippo]

Legitimately. That is something that Toyota truly and Lexus truly did. But there's a not actual mileage title.

[Doug]

That's problem number two.

[Filippo]

It was first titled in 2024 and also it's been repainted and the interior has been re uploaded.

[Doug]

Okay. And that's problem number three. But so we don't know the mileage and the typical giveaways of mileage. The exterior condition, the interior condition have all plates.

[Filippo]

But by all but everything else really does prove out that it is like the every correct engine bay underbody related proves out that it is indeed a really low mileage. Look at that other body. It's the cleanest 100 series in the world.

[Doug]

Now the seller didn't have the documentation either conveniently or he just.

[Filippo]

I don't think there's anything malicious happening. I think they just.

[Doug]

But he didn't have the documentation and he said some tow truck driver put the mileage wrong and that's how it got an NAM title. I don't understand that the tow truck driver was he the one titling it? It didn't make sense to me. Clearly the car has super low miles. The market I think would have valued it at 100. With documentation. Yeah, with not documentation. The market valued at 67. I don't know what the actual mileage is and it's clearly low.

[Filippo]

I suspect that the mileage shown on the odometer is correct.

[Doug]

I have a suspicion it might be also. However, it also may have sat outside in the sun for 20 years. It did.

[Filippo]

And that's why he repainted it. Correct?

[Doug]

That's what I said.

[Filippo]

The interior apparently had some tears in the leather, which makes sense also if.

[Doug]

It sat outside the sun for 20.

[Filippo]

Years, it is a weird automobile. $67,000 seems like a lot of money for that. But at the same time, if you want the single cleanest lx.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Or you want to pull the chassis off of it or you want to pull the motor out of it.

[Doug]

It's a little bit of a dice roll because none of this stuff could be was verified or could be verified.

[Kenan]

I. Yeah.

[Filippo]

What do you think happens? Do you think it get transported?

[Kenan]

I think if you wanted a new 100 series and you. You want drive with Lexus Land Cruiser.

[Filippo]

Look at the engine bay photos. It is wild. That is not somebody cleaning an engine bay photo. That's an engine bay.

[Doug]

That's clearly car had super low miles wild. Or. Or maybe the. The mechanic. The trade school just replaced the whole thing yesterday.

[Kenan]

Yeah, exactly.

[Filippo]

The underbody is insane too.

[Doug]

The underbody's insane. I mean it just is. There's no question. However, the Lemon squad report noted that some underbody looked like it had been painted. So there's all these like I'm not sure abouts and that's a little bit of a dice roll. Now if you're a 100 series fan, and I am. I think it's the greatest Land Cruiser of all time. A low mileage 0607 is already selling for that. This.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

A 20,000 mile. 0607 is already a 67. So this number is actually pretty reasonable. And frankly I think it's worth the dice roll. You don't have documentation on the mileage. You don't have documentation the history. But hell, I mean just like just go at it right. Like here's this one was bid to 78 with 7,000 miles. This one 18,000. Remember when sold for six.

[Filippo]

Remember when in 2021 we thought that like that result for that 2006655 was like a record breaking result at the time. Time. And now that this is a $100,000 car which.

[Doug]

And it's an 03. And there's a really important distinction. This is. But the one we sold is an 03 and it's a really important distinction because Everybody wants those 607s. So anyway, it's a very unusual auction crazy thing. I think the number was completely correct for the car.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

I think it would have been 100 with more documentation. I think it could be 40 if some stuff emerged that wasn't accurate so I think this number is exactly right. I don't know what you do, it's just an insane. What would you do with it?

[Kenan]

Sell it. What do you do with it? I have, I have. I think you just. I really think it's a great case to just drive it.

[Doug]

I agree. If you're like I've been trying to okay LX overtrail Sequoia if but what I really want is an LX is. Is an 06 a 100 series cuz it's the best motor, the best era.

[Filippo]

If that's what you wanted.

[Doug]

67 won't get you a new Sequoia or a new but it will get you a new.

[Filippo]

That's an interesting point.

[Doug]

A new old one.

[Kenan]

Yeah so that's my, my take on it anyway.

[Doug]

That'd be cool.

[Kenan]

Im up. Yeah get to live like it's 2003 again.

[Doug]

If you loved your 100 series and you want a new one, there ain't a lot left.

[Kenan]

Nope, that's true. Nor would you want to use a lot of them. This one is perfect.

[Doug]

This one has a non extra mileage title, it's been painted etc who knows.

[Filippo]

It is a discount Incredibly low mile, hundred series but yeah right. How weird.

[Doug]

It is a weird one too though cuz it's this mid. You know in the 100 series world there's the 100.1, the 100.2 and the 100.33. Okay. And this is a 0.2 which was great. It was a great car but it you know you want a 0.3 and the 0.1 sometimes had rear lockers, you know the whole situation. I do and you want to. You prefer a Toyota, this bit of an off color like everything about it is a little. You always prefer the Toyota Farah nsx. Should we talk about that and then move on?

[Filippo]

Yeah we should.

[Kenan]

Oh yeah. So yes, Matt Farah sold his 2005 NSXT with us for 167,510. It was yeah serious money for one of these cars but I mean great, great presentation owned by him, low mileage, late production, manual. I mean it had everything going for it. I love this picture in particular of him driving. Yeah, that's great.

[Doug]

He told me he was looking for a little bit more but I think.

[Kenan]

It was near as.

[Doug]

Makes no difference to the number that he gave me privately. I don't know if he's talked about it on his pod but near as makes no difference. Number that he gave me private is right around there. And I. Based on me, I then looked at some comps, and I think this was about where it should have been. You had some lower miles, cars sell for a little more. You had some higher miles, cars sell for a little less. This was kind of right in between.

[Filippo]

The NSX market is surprisingly well defined. Yeah, like truly there. There's. There are comps around, and there was a one that like 15,000 miles that sold for just a tiny bit more. There's a little 23 that actually defined.

[Doug]

The 0205s because they were basically all identical except color. And color can be a real distinguisher. And obviously this isn't one of the more desirable, you know, you want. The blue is what Ken and I are looking for.

[Kenan]

For.

[Doug]

Yep, that's true. Okay, we got to move on.

[Kenan]

Or yellow. Honestly.

[Filippo]

Yeah, that car.

[Kenan]

Oh, maybe not the lc.

[Doug]

Didn't I drive that one?

[Kenan]

No, I think I did.

[Doug]

I don't think I drove one.

[Filippo]

You drove the one. You drove the next one.

[Doug]

Then I want to. I want to move on to the questions, which are of course brought to you by Filippo's Wheels. I got some questions about Filippo's Wheels.

[Kenan]

We all.

[Doug]

And the questions. You can ask us questions, and you should. Folks, please, we need your question. You go to carsandbids.com, you click on the community tab. There's a podcast questions thing. We make a post. It says ask us questions. You post in it. It all works great. Okay.

[Filippo]

It's delightful.

[Doug]

We got a bunch of good questions this week. I was able to go through weeks of questions because we haven't done this podcast in weeks and really get to some really good ones. Okay. Starting with the first question from Unbae. Unbi. Doug, why did you do house reviews like five or six years ago? Filippo, why did I do it? They were so good. They were good.

[Kenan]

They were great.

[Doug]

They were great. What happened to that?

[Filippo]

We should go back. I would go to houses with you.

[Doug]

Let me tell you what happened. I realized that I wanted to do house reviews. You did. And I did three or four, and that was that.

[Filippo]

And they performed well.

[Kenan]

Did well.

[Doug]

They did great. They blew up. But what hit me was this. Here's what hit me. I realized that if I was going to do house reviews, the best way to do it would be like the cars, where you have variation, where you do a. A Plymouth Voyager one week and a McLaren F1 the next week. And the only way to do variation is if you travel. Because unlike the cars, this is a key thing. About houses. They don't move. They're in place. Yep.

[Kenan]

You can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house.

[Doug]

That's generally true. So it hit me that to do it right, you'd have to travel. And this came the house reviews I started doing right at kind of the end of my desire to be on the road every day. However, audience, I'm giving this to you. If you want to have a big YouTube channel like Mr. Beast, go do house reviews. Travel all over the world. Review a crazy chalet in Switzerland and then a wild desert thing in Palm Springs and then a rainforest rain tree in Brazil. That is a billion dollar YouTube channel right there.

[Filippo]

Right there.

[Doug]

I'm giving this to you. I'm letting you have this audience. You don't even have to email Sean.

[Filippo]

You may not be the first to the.

[Doug]

No, dude. If you look at. There's not like I do them like crooks and features like this. Why is there a telephone here? Like, people should be doing this.

[Filippo]

What about you? I should go. Let's go. I'll book a flight right now.

[Doug]

You could maybe get a di Tomaso P72.

[Filippo]

If only you would in a few years.

[Doug]

Anyway, that's why I did it and that's why I stopped. Okay, next question. Next question. Next question.

[Filippo]

While Doug reads questions I do want to throw. Kenan just did a review with a McLaren 12C Spider.

[Kenan]

Go watch it.

[Doug]

Yes.

[Kenan]

You're typing my name. It should come up. Yes, There it is. Yes. So I just did a review with this. It was lovely. I was really surprised. I'd never driven an MP412C and this thing drove just really. It's a really impressive car. Having spent a lot of time in 458s and driven. This was like, I can't believe these are worth half of what 458s are. The driving experience is commensurate and the build quality too, that is purely based.

[Doug]

On brand and perception of reliability.

[Kenan]

It's those two things and that's the key perception of reliability. These cars. So there is so much support for these things. The really early MP4, 12Cs were hard to deal with. It was their first attempt at building a mass produced car. The slightly later cars like this one became. They made a lot of improvements right away.

[Doug]

I know you say that, but I was behind a Fisker Ocean the other day.

[Kenan]

Well, they didn't make any improvements, but. But the owner of this car, he's also had it essentially since new. There was one guy who had it for like, six months before him. And then he owned it the rest of the time. And he has all the service stocks. And he said the car has been incredible. Very, very solid.

[Filippo]

Go watch the video.

[Kenan]

But, yeah, go watch the video. It was a lot of fun to make, and we'll see how it does.

[Doug]

The next question is from J. Curry 3. And this question is for me, but I'm going to direct it to Ken. And who can answer us? Dear Doug, your car list is incomplete. How can it not include a Delta Integral?

[Filippo]

I agree.

[Doug]

First, there's a Countach, hopefully an F40. A Delta, you'd have the holy grail of 80s Italian cars. It's also quirky. Four seats for the fan family. Kenan, tell them why.

[Kenan]

Nowhere to work on this.

[Doug]

You want to find a guy. You want to work this. Jay Curry 3. You want to come to San Diego with some tools and you want to go on. You want to go on lancha Facebook pages to try to find parts and deal with Italians? Huh?

[Filippo]

I'll help.

[Kenan]

We have to deal with one every week.

[Doug]

You want to do it? You do it.

[Kenan]

It's. It is. There are, like, there are exotic car shops in San Diego, but a lot of them just don't. Don't work on that car. Like, it's. There's just no one who specializes.

[Doug]

I think eventually, if I really cared, I could find one. I might have to go to la, but I don't want to do that. But, no, I don't love the car that deeply.

[Kenan]

Exactly. The headache per value, like, how much you love it is just not worth it to you, I don't think. At this stage.

[Doug]

At this stage, I do love an Evo 2 integral. One of the coolest things in the world. You ever driven one?

[Filippo]

No. I would love to, though.

[Doug]

It would change your life. You. You wouldn't be a Porsche guy after that.

[Kenan]

That.

[Doug]

Oh, look at that wing. I'm telling you, this is one of the best. This is the best driving hot hatchback I've ever experienced in my life.

[Kenan]

Wow.

[Doug]

It's so tight, so tossable. The power is perfect. The seats are insane.

[Filippo]

You know, I wrote that lesson.

[Kenan]

I did, so I picked it.

[Doug]

Go to the seats.

[Filippo]

Thank you.

[Doug]

Show us the seats. They're so bolstered. Let me tell you something. For 80s car seats, you can only get seats like this in an F40.

[Filippo]

And this.

[Doug]

It's so cool.

[Filippo]

I. I would maybe the yellow bird. I dream of having one modded seat. This would be like an ultimate car for me. It's up There.

[Kenan]

Well, well.

[Doug]

Okay. J J3.

[Kenan]

Hey, you paid maybe more for that than 3.

[Doug]

Why don't you come here and work on Filippos? Why don't you come over since you want to.

[Filippo]

Sadly they're no longer 50 grand, but.

[Doug]

Yeah. But you can go in for 100.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And you can get out of it for 100. Yeah. And you just hope it doesn't throw a rock because if it does like buy.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug]

You do an EV swap at that point.

[Filippo]

Can I ask a question of my own?

[Doug]

Yeah. All right. While.

[Filippo]

While you were we're about talking with integral, that R8 popped up.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

And is there a singularly more desirable R8?

[Doug]

No.

[Filippo]

Than this.

[Doug]

Oh, interesting. Overall certainly the most desirable first gen R8.

[Filippo]

I know, but I kind of mean. Oh. So this is a first gen v10 plus stick coupe.

[Doug]

They only made in ter and.

[Filippo]

And it's a paint to sample and it's 14,000 miles.

[Doug]

They only made like a few dozen stick v10 pluses or something. It's an incredibly rare so low.

[Filippo]

And it is a Gen 1.

[Doug]

It's a Gen 1 because none of the Gen 2 cars had sticks.

[Filippo]

Right. But none of the Audi RA people call it.

[Doug]

Most of that relates to the switch between the single clutch and the dual clutch. And so if you have a stick, it's not like that huge of a deal. But the fact that it's a V10 with a stick, it's wild, insane and low miles.

[Filippo]

And a special call like this has to be the most desirable R8.

[Doug]

Oh yeah, I guess it is. I mean a late R8 GT probably. There are some special versions of the second gen that currently sell for more.

[Filippo]

Yeah. But although it's already a 219.

[Doug]

Yeah. Are there? Well, what is it? What? The R8 just went away and the GT at the end was like a 280 car I think with us from the sticker.

[Filippo]

So yeah, we. I think that current V like V10 performances are in the high one hundreds.

[Doug]

This is a cool car.

[Filippo]

This by the way, I think has room to go still given.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

This although didn't exist was a pretty desirable car.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Because manual swapped. All right.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

But from the factory.

[Doug]

I mean if there is any bone in your body that thinks that the R8 will someday increase in value, it's this car that will be leading it. This is the Diablo SU30. The downdraft countach the paint to sample Carrera GT of the R8 world. Like it is this car specifically. If the R8 is ever going to go up. This car will be at the very top of every list of cars to own.

[Filippo]

101 color. I don't know how wild.

[Doug]

Okay, we got to move on to the next question from EJ20, head gasket. Actually, no, I'll do that one next. But from Michael, EJ2. This is a question a bunch of people are asking. Hi, Doug. You mentioned in your Doug Awards video that GM gave you several options for concept cars to review. What were the other options and why did you pick the Voyage? Okay, I chose the Voyage. When I reviewed the Voyage, GM Voyage, concept car, Cadillac Voyage, they had sent me a list of heritage cars that were running that I could review. I specifically wanted to review a newer concept car because I think concept stuff from the 60s isn't quite as interesting. First off, a lot of it had to function and they weren't even thinking in the way that, like, weird stuff. What are they in the 80s, they come up with all this bizarre crap that would be funny today. And I think the 60s stuff is less funny. I wanted something modern. They only offered me three modern cars. And the other one was. The only one was a Cadillac that just wasn't that unusual. And the only other one was a Buick called the Buick A Vista, a V, I, S, T, A. Hey, do I regret not doing it? Maybe.

[Kenan]

Wow, that looks really nice.

[Doug]

Maybe the next time I go to Detroit, maybe I do.

[Kenan]

The Avista has a odd amount of like Tesla model S like in this.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

But it's from 2008.

[Kenan]

Yes. Wow.

[Filippo]

This is chassis. 400 horsepower. Yeah.

[Kenan]

Wow. This is a cool car.

[Doug]

This is A. Oh, 2016. I'm completely wrong. The Camaro chassis is older, but the car itself is a twin turbo V6. From the rear 3/4, it looked just like Hyundai generated. Anyway, it didn't happen. I chose the Cadillac instead.

[Filippo]

I think you made the right choice.

[Doug]

Now, a lot of people. Well, I do think from a thumbnail perspective, the Cadillac pops more with the covered wheel arches. It looks like some weird future thing. This looks more like a rational car, beautiful car. And you know what? It would have saved Buick. The question most people were asking though was why didn't I review the cn? And I'm going to answer this delicately because I was shared some information about the CN that I'm not sure that it was intended to be public facing. But I'll say it delicately. The CN isn't running.

[Filippo]

Can I put the less delicate version of that?

[Doug]

No, I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to get anybody in trouble at gm. But currently the CN is not running and it's not, it's not probably not going to be running for a while. And so I offered to buy it and I was dead serious in my offer and I still am. And, and I told them that when I went there I reiterated my offer and they chuckled and I was like, no, no, you don't understand, I'll buy. But they claim they're not interested, which is wild to me because it's not even running. It's a 20 year old non running Cadillac. If this was a Deville it'd be 600 bucks on Craigslist.

[Filippo]

It's quite a Cadillac free if you pick it up.

[Doug]

Anyway, so the CN wasn't offered and to be honest, I was actually a little surprised that Heritage Collection, a lot of the 60s 70s stuff is running because back in that era concept cars weren't as much of a thought exercise. They would do weird bodywork and stuff, but mostly it was a powertrain and a car that had to run. Later concept cars became a lot less runny and so I was surprised they even had the ones they offered me. But the CN was not one of them and there were very few modern ones I think that are really in good order sadly. So that was the answer to that. Next question from. Next question from Arch 18. Oh my God. Do you want to hear the take that people hate for me the most?

[Filippo]

Oh, I might agree with you based on the question.

[Doug]

Do you think the CVT is overhated? It's not the enthusiast choice but they keep in the power band. Smooth acceleration, great efficiency. Yeah, I think the CVT is like one of the most underrated automatic innovations in the world.

[Filippo]

Fully agreed.

[Doug]

People hate how they sound, but you're always in the power band.

[Filippo]

Yep. You're just living in the power B. You're at the most efficient spot always. Now some CVTs are bad, but in a good sense.

[Doug]

Some CTs are unreliable.

[Filippo]

Some CVTs aren't that great at staying in the power power band.

[Doug]

They just sit there.

[Kenan]

If they're not great at that, then that's their whole purpose.

[Filippo]

Well, some people, some manufacturers aren't that good at engineering is what it is.

[Kenan]

I would be curious to drive if a real sports car manufacturer made one as like a concept.

[Filippo]

It would make.

[Kenan]

It would be very interesting.

[Doug]

It would probably be an electric car is my guess. No gears and power band is kind of always achievable and you can always just stick there is my guess.

[Filippo]

You know where I think CVTs have failed. They failed because they've tried to replicate the automatic experience.

[Doug]

They should have leaned in. Well, they did that because they. The problem really, in my mind comes from Nissan, who.

[Filippo]

Who.

[Doug]

Who made him. The. The NVH was so bad.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

That. That really killed it in everybody's minds. But they're so.

[Filippo]

That is the pinnacle of efficiency and we should support that.

[Doug]

It is. And it's the pinnacle.

[Filippo]

Performance. Yep. It's the right balance of performance.

[Doug]

You in power band?

[Kenan]

I like to.

[Doug]

You know how you.

[Filippo]

Well, of course.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah. Compared to a manual, it's not for enthusiasts, but if you're thinking about automatic transmissions, dual clutch is great, but you're still going through gears. You still have to go down to the bottom of the rev range at some point and come back up. Now, in cvt, it's more fun, but in a cvt you just sit there. You sit there.

[Kenan]

I know, but an electric car is more efficient in delivering power.

[Filippo]

Of course.

[Doug]

Of course.

[Kenan]

Yes, it is more efficient, but sometimes it's more about the experience than the efficiency.

[Doug]

Yeah, but I guess my point is.

[Kenan]

Just like, I understand, but. No, I understand you.

[Doug]

From an efficiency and a performance perspective, it's actually pretty good. So you think about cars that are efficient, performance cars. They should have CVT's like the Honda Prelude.

[Filippo]

Agreed.

[Doug]

Okay, last question, last question. Last question for Filippo from stealth. Model 3, depreciated Taycan versus depreciated Model S, Plaid versus depreciated Lucid buy.

[Filippo]

All three for less than the price of one new buy.

[Doug]

Gotta go. Taycan, though, right?

[Filippo]

I do. Lucid. Really? I love lucid air.

[Doug]

It's not gonna work. It's not fun.

[Filippo]

There are some reliability concerns.

[Kenan]

That's the Porsche, by the way.

[Doug]

Lucid.

[Filippo]

Had a great year. Fun fact.

[Doug]

Well, they're selling the minivans now.

[Filippo]

The Gravity, which is also Uber's like Waymo competitor, is based on a Lulu. Gravity, which is 5,000 sales right there.

[Doug]

Did they punch them all? They punched them all at 12:31.

[Filippo]

You gotta wait. I would do a Taycan or a Lucid. I wouldn't do a model.

[Doug]

You would do a Lucid.

[Filippo]

I think it's the most range by far. It's the most spacious of those cities.

[Doug]

It is the nicest.

[Filippo]

It is just the nicest.

[Doug]

But the Taycan is built better and drives better.

[Filippo]

You know, it depends on my preference.

[Doug]

And it's more fun.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

You know, I'd rather have the model.

[Filippo]

This has got more power.

[Kenan]

Audi rs gte.

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Doug]

Really?

[Kenan]

Than A Taycan, I think it's so pretty.

[Doug]

It's pretty. But the Porsche drives better.

[Filippo]

It's the same.

[Doug]

You're a looks man, I'm a drive man. But that's the difference between the two of us. There's not much I can do about that.

[Filippo]

How different can it be?

[Kenan]

Be? That's what it is.

[Filippo]

They're different.

[Doug]

The Audi's softer. It's. It's like the difference between a prelude and an F1 car.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Kenan]

But this would serve daily. Or maybe a print. I have fun cars to drive. This would be a daily.

[Doug]

Well, if you want a daily, you're not buying any of these. You buy. You buy an A, right?

[Kenan]

Oh, how could I be so stupid?

[Filippo]

Because remember, it's autonomous sound, visual.

[Kenan]

Right? The three great elements of any driving experience.

[Filippo]

Autonomous sound, visual.

[Kenan]

Sound, visual.

[Filippo]

Obviously.

[Doug]

Okay. Should we do one more?

[Filippo]

Last one. One more.

[Doug]

Dear Doug, you make a. From EJ20 head gasket. Dear Doug, you make a point about not traveling to review cars, but GM lured you out with the prospect of two hot production cars and of course the concept. This begs the question, which other concept or one off cars would get you to travel on your own dime to review? I want to be clear about this GM thing. I was going there already. Okay.

[Filippo]

What are you trying to do? Like protect your reputation?

[Doug]

I don't say yes to things. I was going. Nobody's gonna write it now. I was going to D.C. and I figured I might as well just stop in Detroit. And it was so worth it. And it's. I filmed three videos in one day, which I never do.

[Filippo]

What's the third?

[Doug]

ZR1.

[Filippo]

Oh, yeah.

[Doug]

And all three killed. Honestly, if you watch all three of those, you can't tell that I filmed three videos in one day. Only from the sun. The position of the sun, which sets early in Detroit.

[Filippo]

Detroit?

[Doug]

This time of year.

[Filippo]

What do you think?

[Doug]

I'd go shoot. What would you go shoot?

[Filippo]

You would definitely. The bilas is long. You would definitely go shoot the pin and Farina. But I didn't.

[Doug]

I was literally in Lake Como and they were in. Wherever they are turned. I was with my family.

[Filippo]

What were you thinking?

[Doug]

They brought it out of the thing too. They told me they wiped it down.

[Kenan]

Wait, the Atel design Columbus.

[Filippo]

That's what I meant. Yeah.

[Doug]

The Ital design Columbus. They. They said that. Come on and do it it.

[Filippo]

And I was. I'm not going to do that, Doug.

[Doug]

I. With my family, I would literally. There is no car on the planet. You could call me up and say, there's a McLaren F1. You could spend the whole day with it, two minutes from where you are, and I would be like, I'm good. I'm.

[Filippo]

You can choose. You. You can fit most of your family in. That's okay.

[Doug]

I just. If I'm on family trip, I get.

[Kenan]

Doesn't matter.

[Doug]

If the family trip is to mes, it's to the Mickey's Hot Dogs of Mesa, Arizona. Family trip car. Anything. They don't overlap. There's one over another.

[Filippo]

You could have fed the entire family. And some other families in the Columbus, though.

[Doug]

What? I don't know. What's yours?

[Filippo]

Oh, there's so many.

[Doug]

Give me yours.

[Kenan]

Mine.

[Doug]

What's the number one car you travel for?

[Kenan]

McLaren F1, of course.

[Doug]

Really? That's it?

[Kenan]

Probably. I mean, 250 GTO is on that list, too. After watching Harry's video, it's like, my God, what an experience. 330p4. Like, there are some pretty serious cars. Like, I would. Absolutely. But I'll travel for a lot of cars. I just did. Firm a car.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Kenan]

So, like, I'll travel for a lot.

[Doug]

But those are your top, top ones.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

I got nothing. Top of mind.

[Doug]

Hit one. I got so many, I can't name them.

[Filippo]

That's right. Right.

[Doug]

There's so many cars on my list, I don't even want to get into it.

[Kenan]

I got a girlfriend. She's in the next town over.

[Doug]

School. What a. Come on, give us. I got nothing. Give us something.

[Filippo]

I don't know.

[Kenan]

You would go to the next town over to drive a Fiat Panda 4x4.

[Filippo]

I would go three towns over for that.

[Kenan]

There it is.

[Doug]

Fiat Perfect. If you have a fiat panda 4x4 and you live in La Mesa, give us a call.

[Filippo]

Piaggio Ape. I'll go even further.

[Kenan]

See, look. Yeah, he's got cars.

[Doug]

If you have a Piaggio Ape and.

[Filippo]

You live in Escondido, a FIA Uno turbo.

[Doug]

All right, we're done. That's the end of the pod. It was our finest ever. We're back. We're back in your living rooms and in your hearts and minds we're back.

[Kenan]

You're back on cars.

[Doug]

We're back. I'm back. And Zeeker's coming for us. Let's go get ready.

[Filippo]

Goodbye.

[Kenan]

Goodbye.

[Doug]

It.