Does Tesla Still Need Elon Musk? Will Tariffs Hit the Auto Industry? Doug Wants a Special Car!

Summary

Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!
Episode: Does Tesla Still Need Elon Musk? Will Tariffs Hit the Auto Industry? Doug Wants a Special Car!
Release Date: March 7, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of THIS CAR POD!, host Doug DeMuro is joined by regular co-hosts Filippo and Nick. Although Kenan is absent due to attending Amelia Island, Nick steps in to provide his unique insights, especially given his penchant for purchasing unconventional vehicles. The trio dives straight into the week's automotive news, debates the future of Tesla under Elon Musk's leadership, explores the impact of recent tariffs on the auto industry, and discusses Doug's desire to acquire a rare special car.

Tariffs Impact on the Auto Industry

The episode kicks off with a discussion on the new tariffs imposed on the auto industry. Nick attempts to explain the complexities but humorously acknowledges his limited expertise despite being an economics major.

• Nick (00:24): "Despite being an econ major, I'm not the right person."

Doug challenges Nick's credibility humorously, leading to a brief digression about Nick's troublesome Bentley, which has suffered two breakdowns in the past week.

• Doug DeMuro (00:29): "Can we talk about your Bentley real quick?"

The group then delves into the recent tariff changes affecting Canada and Mexico. The automakers have been exempted from these tariffs, a move that has been well-received by the market. However, the situation remains fluid, with Doug noting the complexity of today's auto supply chains.

• Doug DeMuro (01:17): "Those tariffs ain't changing. The China ones, they're not going anywhere."

Filippo and Nick add layers to the conversation by highlighting examples like Honda moving Civic production to Indiana and the broader strategic implications of the Trump administration's policies on auto manufacturing.

• Filippo (01:03): "It changed from two hours ago to now and it surely we'll change again by Friday."

The trio discusses how these tariffs might affect pricing, with Doug expressing skepticism about automakers' ability to adjust prices seamlessly without impacting sales.

• Doug DeMuro (03:59): "From a capitalist economic perspective, I think it's a crazy situation and I hope it comes to an end relatively soon for the auto industry and for many other industries."

Does Tesla Still Need Elon Musk?

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to evaluating Tesla's future post-Elon Musk. The conversation touches on Musk's influence, Tesla's stock performance, and the company's strategic decisions, including the reliance on emissions waivers.

• Doug DeMuro (56:23): "He became more conservative and people kind of held their noses and just were. Whatever. Things have changed and he has now gone pretty far in a direction that I suspect a lot of electric car shoppers are not."

Nick provides an insider perspective, sharing his experience with Tesla's advertising strategies and Musk's approach to marketing.

• Nick (58:29): "When they folded it back into Tesla, we were let go and they paused all their paid search ads, all their Facebook ads, literally all their advertising."

The hosts express concerns about Tesla's sustainability without Musk's charismatic leadership, especially in light of declining sales and rising interest rates.

Special Feature: Aston Martin V8 Signet

Doug introduces the Aston Martin V8 Signet, a one-off special edition that has garnered significant attention. The story unfolds with Doug explaining his interest in purchasing this rare vehicle, despite its non-legal status for US roads requiring certification under the "show or display" rule.

• Doug DeMuro (05:45): "Aston Martin signet was a tiny city car that they made around 2010, ostensibly to comply with rules about lineup, emissions and fuel economy."

Nick shares his attempts to contact the seller and offers to facilitate the purchase for Doug, highlighting the challenges of acquiring such a rare car.

• Nick (08:00): "I called them Saturday, got their voicemail. So I still don't know how much they won or even if it's available."

Doug humorously speculates on the pricing and feasibility of importing the car, while also expressing disappointment over the car's race-oriented modifications.

• Doug DeMuro (08:38): "I was hoping it was just like a signet. Like it would be annoying to use."

Latest News in the Automotive World

Mansari's Modified Cybertruck

The group discusses Mansari's carbon fiber modifications to the Cybertruck, critiquing its aesthetic appeal.

• Doug DeMuro (11:42): "This has been 10 years now at a dealership in the UK."

Filippo and Nick agree that the modifications are purely cosmetic and unlikely to add functional value, further questioning the practicality and marketability of such alterations.

Volvo's New EV Sedan and the Polestar Brand

Filippo introduces Volvo's new ES90 EV sedan, noting its advanced 800-volt architecture that theoretically allows for rapid charging.

• Filippo (24:56): "It isn't even the dealers. Yeah."

The conversation shifts to Volvo's Polestar brand, examining the brand's confusion and lack of clear identity amidst Volvo's broader EV strategy.

• Doug DeMuro (26:05): "Like why did they do this? The Volvo brand. I don't think they needed a new brand."

Chinese Dominance in the Global EV Market

A substantial discussion centers around China's 76% share of global EV sales in 2024, emphasizing China's strategic advantage in EV manufacturing and market penetration.

• Doug DeMuro (22:13): "76% is a 70%."

Doug laments Tesla's declining market presence and Musk's shifting focus, asserting that China is racing ahead in EV technology.

• Doug DeMuro (22:51): "China is shown up and China is here with."

Owner Stories: Nick's Car Experiences

Nick shares his recent experiences with his Bentley Arnage T and QP5, detailing the challenges and eventual sale of the latter via Cars and Bids.

• Nick (29:02): "It's sold. It actually has already been picked up."

The conversation highlights the difficulties of maintaining high-end vehicles, with Nick humorously noting his Bentley's fluid leaks and breakdowns.

• Nick (35:16): "Their CEO said, we're not going to get rid of the brand no matter how bad it gets."

Market Report

Doug presents the Market Report, spotlighting the sale of a 2014 Ford Focus STI and discussing the valuation trends of certain supercars, particularly Aston Martin models.

• Nick (46:21): "The market report is brought to you by the 2014 Ford Focus."

The hosts express admiration for the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, noting its appreciating value despite high mileage.

• Doug DeMuro (50:01): "Aston Martin is a really compelling choice if you can't get into a Ferrari or Lambo."

Listener Questions and Discussions

The final segment features listener questions, with the top inquiry addressing Elon Musk's impact on Tesla's future. The hosts provide their insights, expressing concerns over Musk's leadership style and its repercussions on Tesla's stock and market position.

• Alec Metz (55:08): "How do you think Elon Musk will affect Tesla as a company moving forward?"

Additionally, questions about meeting Hoovy, comments on Scotty Kilmer's claims, and debates over the ugliest supercar are discussed with humor and candid opinions.

• Doug DeMuro (62:01): "What are yalls thoughts on Scotty Kilmer claiming that cars and bids is failing?"

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with the hosts reflecting on their ongoing passion for automobiles, despite the industry's shifting landscapes influenced by tariffs, leadership changes, and evolving market demands. Doug expresses his continued enthusiasm for unique and exotic cars, while Filippo and Nick contribute their own perspectives and experiences, ensuring the conversation remains both informative and entertaining for listeners.

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Notable Quotes:

• Doug DeMuro (00:29): "Can we talk about your Bentley real quick?"
• Filippo (01:03): "It changed from two hours ago to now and it surely we'll change again by Friday."
• Doug DeMuro (03:59): "From a capitalist economic perspective, I think it's a crazy situation and I hope it comes to an end relatively soon for the auto industry and for many other industries."
• Nick (08:00): "I called them Saturday, got their voicemail. So I still don't know how much they won or even if it's available."
• Doug DeMuro (22:51): "China is shown up and China is here with."
• Nick (29:02): "It's sold. It actually has already been picked up."
• Nick (46:21): "The market report is brought to you by the 2014 Ford Focus."
• Alec Metz (55:08): "How do you think Elon Musk will affect Tesla as a company moving forward?"

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the diverse range of topics discussed in the episode, offering insights into the current state of the automotive industry, the influence of key figures like Elon Musk, and personal anecdotes that add depth to the conversation. Whether you're an avid car enthusiast or a casual listener, this summary provides a clear and engaging overview of the episode's key points.

Transcript

[Doug DeMuro]

Hello and welcome to this car pod.

[Filippo]

I'm Filippo.

[Nick]

I'm Nick.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick's filling in for Kenan. Kenan is at Amelia island. And Nick is our insane friend who buys weird cars. You may remember him from buying weird cars. And let's start with the news. Bring it up. Tariffs. Nick, take us through this one.

[Nick]

Despite being an econ major, I'm not the right person.

[Doug DeMuro]

You were an econ major and you make the decisions you make.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Can we talk about your Bentley real quick? Sure. Your Bentley is broken down twice this week.

[Nick]

Yeah. I wish there were tariffs on that thing. I wouldn't have done. Was flat bedded this morning. Yeah, maybe.

[Filippo]

I don't know.

[Doug DeMuro]

Earlier this week it was leaking coolant.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Today it was leaking hydraulic fluid.

[Nick]

Well, technically it was leaking both. The first time it just. The coolant leak was so enormous that it hid the other leak from being noticed as well.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, we'll get back to the Bentley a little bit. Tariffs. Let's talk about tariffs. The situation is changing rapidly and maybe changed by the time that this podcast goes live.

[Filippo]

It changed from two hours ago to now and it surely we'll change again by Friday.

[Doug DeMuro]

We're filming this on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the tariffs rolled out to Canada, Mexico. Absolutely insane. One of the craziest things I've ever seen. Today it was announced that the automakers were exempted.

[Filippo]

But for automakers building cars in Canada and Mexico, not for Chinese car build cars.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, to be precise, those. Those tariffs ain't changing. The China ones, they're not going anywhere. The automakers are exempted, which the market loved because that was a big part of this whole thing, the car. The auto industry has made massive investments in Canada, Mexico, not just for assembly, but in some cases just for part. Then the car's still assembled here. But regardless, parts go over the border. Many times it's like not thought of. It's complicated. And the automakers, tariffs or not, are not going to build a factory tomorrow.

[Filippo]

There's also examples like Honda announced yesterday that they were going to move next generation Civic production to Indiana instead of Mexico. But it's not that simple because a lot of the componentry is almost certainly made in Canada or Mexico.

[Doug DeMuro]

And then you got to wonder, well, what is the Trump administration trying to target with that sort of thing? Do they care about the assembly, the final assembly, like factory workers putting car together? That's would think seem like something they would care about or do they care about the production of the components?

[Filippo]

Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

One, I don't know which is more important to them? I guess both. But which one is being tariff? Like if a car is being assembled in the United States with components compiled from completely elsewhere, is that count? From a perspective, it does.

[Filippo]

It's like a difference between the values.

[Doug DeMuro]

Question, which was so hard, but I.

[Filippo]

Guess that's so complicated. For what it's worth, there has not been particularly clear guidance yet.

[Nick]

Of course the interesting thing I think is the other prominent figure in the Trump administration is Elon Musk, who happens to own a auto manufacturing company that primarily produces vehicles in the US for the US market. Yeah, it's interesting in that Trump and Elon must be talking about this and weighing in on how this is written and who's included or not. But it's. You can't help but sort of wonder is there a little bit of a weird thing going on with that dynamic?

[Doug DeMuro]

And those cars are like heavily built in the US Both the componentry and the actual assembly. Although Elon does have factories in China now they're not building cars for the US and but I'm sure if the opportunity presented itself, Elon would love to sell Chinese made Teslas in the States. Probably be cheaper.

[Filippo]

It just gets so complicated so quickly. And also like the, the impact isn't as clear. I think there's a misconception that what you'll see is the vehicles that are built primarily in Canada or Mexico would have higher sticker prices, but manufacturers can't really do that. You can't suddenly make the Equinox cost more than a Tahoe. Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

Who knows, maybe they would.

[Filippo]

You have to like amortize it across your lineup. But if you don't know the actual full cost of that, you don't know when it's going to be implemented. How do you really adjust the prices?

[Doug DeMuro]

It's also more complicated than you think to raise prices in the middle of a. The whole situation is insane. Definitely a crazy decision that I read today, a poll that 80% of Americans don't agree with these tariffs. From a, from a capitalist economic perspective, I think it's a crazy situation and I hope it comes to an end relatively soon for the auto industry and for many other industries.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I will say one last thing on it. Other industries have. The auto industry has really long supply lines and like supply like the supply chain is long and a lot of dealers have vehicles on lots and a lot of manufacturers like Jaguar has probably a year's worth of vehicles in the US which is good for them. Right. Because none of those vehicles will tariff Even if they were built somewhere where they should be. So like it's not immediate. There's other industries, like sort of some.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cars are the Tacoma has probably a short and it's built in Mexico.

[Filippo]

And like some industries, like technology industry, like the laptops are shipped as they're built pretty much. And so they've already announced, okay, I think Toshiba maybe or Acer, one of the companies that has already announced, okay, the prices are going to go up 10% on April 1. Cars can't, you can't do that. You can't just say the MSRP goes up that day. So it becomes a really interesting.

[Doug DeMuro]

Maybe I would be curious. You say you can't do that, but I don't know that automakers have ever flash faced this before.

[Nick]

No.

[Filippo]

100% not could they.

[Doug DeMuro]

They could, they could raise prices immediately. Uncertainty and then erase sales. Right.

[Filippo]

The only reason that some manufacturers have any sales is because their pricing is competitive. The moment that becomes uncompetitive.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, and they made long term bets based on agreements that were in place, you know, and negotiated, including by the countries, including the agreement that's currently in place that it was negotiated by the Trump administration holding. So insane. Let's move on to political.

[Nick]

I do, as a salesperson, I have to correct one thing.

[Filippo]

Please.

[Nick]

Every car salesman in the world is calling every customer they have right now saying prices are going up 10% APR1 plus your butt down here and sign on the dotted line.

[Filippo]

All right, that's a great point.

[Doug DeMuro]

Speaking of car salesmen, the next story is the best one of the week. Okay, The Aston Martin V8 Sigma is going to sell. I have gotten calls, texts, emails, Facebook posts, YouTube, Instagram. Every person has contacted me about the V8 Signet. I'm probably the number one potential buyer.

[Filippo]

What is the V8 signet? I mean, I know, but for those.

[Doug DeMuro]

That don't, I don't know if the dealer is aware of that. I'm the number one potential buyer, but I'm the number one potential buyer. Here's the situation. Aston Martin signet was a tiny city car that they made around 2010, ostensibly to comply with rules about lineup, emissions and fuel economy. The other brands like Ferrari never had to make a car like this because they were in some large corporate umbrella. But Aston Martin was not, and it still isn't. And so they had to, in theory, they had to make this car in order to comply. The regular Cygnet. And they sold 10,000 of them primarily in London. Then at the very end of the run Some rich guy, never disclosed who came to Aston Martin and said, if you build me a signet with the V8 from the V8 Vantage, I'll buy it. I'll pay the costs, I'll buy it, I'll do it. But you have to agree that you will never build another one. And Aston Martin, desperate for money perpetually since I've been alive, said, yeah. So they did it. And the car is now for sale used. This has been 10 years now at a dealership in the UK. Now, I want the car going to be clear.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

However, I already swore off buying cars, and I mean that even more than my desire for the signet. Okay. So.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

But nonetheless, I'm curious. Part of the problem, part of the reason I swore off buying cars is because it is so owner. It's become onerous to buy cars for me. There's just a lot that is required when I do it, the kind of cars I buy. There's just so much work and specialist labor and all this stuff. And this would be the most onerous of all because it's not technically legal to send to the us you'd have to get it certified for. For us driving under the show or disposal display rule, which you could, because the shower display rule is specific to cars made fewer than 25 years ago, but that are, like, special and can be shown or displayed. So, anyway, it's for sale. We don't know how much it says price on request. And this is where Nick comes in.

[Nick]

I called them Saturday, got their voicemail. So I still don't know how much they won or even if it's available. I have to imagine they've been just flooded with because they're not pricing, putting the price on the website. The only way to call is to find out is a call. And so there's gotta be a lot of people, just for fun calling them. And they must be so annoyed. Anytime, like a car dealership gets a car like this, they're like, we've had 6,000 calls and not one serious offer on it. And I'm sure that's the case here.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's like when someone goes missing, the police get 100,000 tips, but only, like, three of them are meaningful. I think that's it. And to be honest, I'm meaningful. If the dealer would get in touch with me and we have a conversation, I'd be interested in hearing what it cost. I would be a legitimate interested buyer, unlike 99.99% of people talking on the Internet right now about this car. I will say I was disappointed by one thing about it that I didn't know because they never offered this car for sale. There's not a lot of pictures of it around. It's more race car than I expected. It has a roll cage. It has race seats, like real race seats with harnesses. It has like a battery kill switch, a fire extinguisher. I was hoping it was just like a signet.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like it would be annoying to use.

[Nick]

I can seat swap it for you. The cage might be a good idea. But yeah. Here's my offer to you. Two things. One, I'll do all the legwork for you.

[Doug DeMuro]

You'll do your display.

[Nick]

If you pay for it, I'll do paperwork. I will facilitate this transaction and decomplicate it for you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

But I'm curious since hopefully the, the seller's listening here. What's your starting offer here? What do we think this is actually worth?

[Doug DeMuro]

Personally, I would pay a couple hundred grand. I think they're going to want a lot more than that. But I could be talked into a lot more than that under the right circumstances. I've always wanted a special one off car that's like a real one off, not like somebody built it in his garage, but like an automaker built it in special circumstances like the Brunei cars, like the Ford GT90. And this is like the peak dub.

[Nick]

Like it's the quirkiest, stupidest.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I have no doubt we could get it in here.

[Nick]

All right. 75 grand. That's US dollars, not the trash. European currency holler. It's in the uk, Whatever that is. Pounds, euros, francs, who knows Deutsche mark. We got Tarif. You better sell it to him quick, otherwise it won't be able to come in. You have until April 1st.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm legitimately interested in the car. I would love to have a discussion with the seller just to get a little bit more information about the car has almost no miles on it. No surprise. It is unfortunately right hand drive also, which would make it a little bit complicated.

[Filippo]

I mean, it makes sense.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, makes sense. Since only a Brit would commission this vehicle. Nobody else in any other country would have any interest in this trash.

[Nick]

It's so cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

It is so cool. The wide.

[Filippo]

Oh, are there photos of the engine bay in the listing?

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't know. I only briefly perused the listing. I know the car, you know, I want it. Make it happen.

[Nick]

It'd be a good car for you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Figure out what it costs.

[Nick]

The second offer that I want to give to you is if this Falls through. I'm willing to import a multipla for you. Do all the work. I really want one. It seems way more affordable than this.

[Filippo]

Like a tenth.

[Doug DeMuro]

I want to talk multipla in the next segment because there's something to discuss there. Nick has been floating interest in a multipla, which is interesting to us.

[Nick]

I'm frothing. All right. I got rid of a car this last week. It is time to fill that.

[Doug DeMuro]

And the car has replaced it. It's broken down twice in the last week multiple. Okay, let's finish up the news stories, move on to the next news story. Here we get God.

[Nick]

If the Signet is the second most interesting car for sale, this is the first.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is the ugliest thing I ever seen in my life.

[Nick]

So this is the elongation by Mansari of the cyber truck Y. It is largely carbon fiber that they added to the £6,800 vehicle for styling purposes. So you can see there that sort of like extra window, the side flares, all that.

[Doug DeMuro]

It does look like it was added. Like it doesn't look like they removed any of the tests.

[Filippo]

How could you.

[Nick]

Like glue. It's a little sided tape.

[Doug DeMuro]

Double sided tape. Yeah.

[Nick]

Inside you can get a bedazzled Mansari logo on the door cards. There's a handful of other things, but purely cosmetic. There's no functional. Oh, and it's 26 inch rims. And I will use rims intentionally to describe those. So that is it. They described on their website that this brings it up to the Mansari brand promise and vision.

[Doug DeMuro]

What is the cost this vehicle? Do we know?

[Nick]

It's not public.

[Doug DeMuro]

What do you think is more expensive? The V8 signet or the Mansari elongated?

[Filippo]

The V8 signet.

[Doug DeMuro]

You think the V8s. What do you think cost? Million bucks?

[Filippo]

No, a couple. A few hundred. I can't.

[Doug DeMuro]

If it was 300, I would have a real conversation.

[Filippo]

There's no chances.

[Nick]

This better be less than 300.

[Filippo]

But that's what man is worth 75 grand.

[Doug DeMuro]

But that's what Mansari does.

[Nick]

No, I bet. I bet it's at least $100,000 worth of carbon fiber parts.

[Doug DeMuro]

But I bet it's like 300 grand over. Either way, it's the ugliest thing we've seen. Unbelievably, this is not the ugliest Mansory vehicle.

[Filippo]

It's one of the nicer ones.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's quite restrained by Mansory. They don't do much, mostly because the car is already so heinous.

[Filippo]

It's kind of insane. I do not hate the light bar treatment at the top.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, the light bar is cool. They should have done that. Kind of looks like ears or eyes.

[Nick]

Isn't that a regulation thing? You can't. It has to be done aftermarket.

[Doug DeMuro]

Probably, but this would be in the aftermarket.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

I mean, the ironic thing is Mansory primarily makes cars for Europe, but the cybertruck's not sold in Europe. And maybe they sell these things in the States.

[Filippo]

Trying to expand to the Texas market.

[Doug DeMuro]

Maybe they're trying to bring Texans on board. I think even Texans would look at this and be like, nope, this is. Yeah, this is.

[Nick]

It's tough.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is way too showy. Even for Preston Hollow.

[Nick]

The lease deals are getting down. Like, the inventory is getting up. This is not. They're having trouble moving it, so. And the main reason it's not selling is because it's a little too flashy.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

So, like.

[Filippo]

Because it's not carbon fiber.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Carbon fiber.

[Filippo]

That actually removes some of the flashy.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right.

[Nick]

A lack of forged carbon fiber.

[Doug DeMuro]

Heinous thing. On to the next story. Oh, some sort of Suzuki. The chimney. Yeah.

[Filippo]

This is an interesting rendering. Mercedes has said this week that they are planning on building a smaller G Wagon.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Filippo]

There's very little other information.

[Doug DeMuro]

You ready?

[Filippo]

There's clearly a market for this. Smart. Is the right response.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Can't believe they haven't already.

[Filippo]

The normal G Wagon is large and costs 150 grand. You could imagine a 7080 even a little bit north of that.

[Doug DeMuro]

Compete with the small one. New Defender or the. The.

[Filippo]

The GX is incredibly popular. Defender still popular. Ish. People want off roader 1. Off roader. SUVs make a small one.

[Nick]

The Bronco Sport.

[Doug DeMuro]

The G Wagon has gotten to the point where.

[Filippo]

Unrelated.

[Doug DeMuro]

But yeah, they're boxing. It's a smaller idea. Yeah.

[Nick]

Just the Bronco Sport. For the person that got their first promo, their vp. Now they want people to know it's kind of true.

[Doug DeMuro]

I mean, the Broncos PR firm is really killing it. It doesn't have the cred that the regular Bronco ever will. But, like, they sell to a lot of people trying to capitalize on the name just like this will. It does make sense. The thing that's surprising is they haven't already done it. Yep. And I totally see it happening. Also, the regular G Wagon has gotten so expensive and so supply constrained that it's kind of difficult to buy. And Mercedes must be sitting there banging their heads against the wall. Like, if we could Just make more of these. We could have sell more, make more money. Here's a way to make more of them. Probably won't be built in Graz anymore. I can't imagine.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Unless it takes over the production capacity for the Toyota Supra.

[Filippo]

So there's no actual information here. Just confirmation that it is something they're planning on building.

[Nick]

That's cool.

[Filippo]

We'll see more.

[Nick]

I'm into it.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's probably a couple of years away, but you've got to ass this thing is. This would sell so well. It would sell so well. If they could price this like a Defender or even a little bit more than that.

[Filippo]

Who cares?

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, but regardless, this would sell.

[Nick]

So the EQB kind or no, what is it? It is the B whatever. The glsb.

[Doug DeMuro]

The GLB or the glb.

[Nick]

Yes.

[Filippo]

The EQB being the last.

[Nick]

Kind of boxy and small. It is.

[Doug DeMuro]

Mercedes has tried this before. It should be pointed out the GLB is one example. The GLK was the first. You know, Mercedes entered the compact luxury SUV segment with the GLK. It was like 2008 and they decided they looked at the segment and they thought the segment was primarily made of cars that were sort of smooth lined and they knew they had this G wagon. So they come out with the glk, which was supposed to be a kind of boxy version of a small suv. The attempt was to appeal to people interested in G wagons. It had no effect. It appealed to the same people as the X3 and all them.

[Filippo]

But you know the most fun fact about the glb?

[Doug DeMuro]

It's bad three rows. Oh God. I know. Trust me, that ain't a fun fact if you're sitting in the third. When I'm filming car reviews, I get in and out of the car over and over again, filming all the close up shots of the quirks and features. Some cars are easier to get in and out of than others. And with the variety of cars I work with, comfortable pants are a must have. Public rec pants makes this a comfortable experience for my nether region. I'm thrilled to have public Rec as a partner and I'm so excited to try their shorts. Comfortable shorts from public Rec will elevate my style while being comfortable. And comfort is always my top priority when buying shorts. Public rec pants deliver comfort for every occasion with unmatched style. Whether you're heading to work, grabbing dinner with friends, friends, going on a date night, running weekend errands, or enduring a long day of travel. Public rec is comfortable enough for the couch, but Sharp enough for the city. And for a limited time, you can get 20% off at public rec by using the code cars at checkout. Just head to publicwrec.com use the code CARS and you're all set. Oh, and when they ask how you found them, be sure to mention our show. It really helps us out. Upgrade to public rec and feel the difference. All right, give us the next one.

[Filippo]

Oh God.

[Nick]

I, I feel prepared to take this.

[Filippo]

One as well as a former Maserati owner.

[Doug DeMuro]

Maserati.

[Nick]

Yeah, as a former. And then I'm good with keeping that as former. A former Maserati owner. Stellantis and or whoever reports these things. Sales were down 57% year over year. They sold more than or less than half of the cars they sold the previous year. And last year, the previous year wasn't good either. So things are not looking good here.

[Filippo]

They had new products.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, they do have a new Gran Turismo and an MC20, but they've got rid of all the SUVs.

[Filippo]

The Grecale, it was still for sale.

[Doug DeMuro]

Grecale is bad.

[Filippo]

I know, but that was new.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's bad. That was new in 24.

[Nick]

They don't have the excuse that their, their lineup is aging like Jaguar where they're like, we just haven't tried anything for 10 years. Like they're trying, they have some new products.

[Doug DeMuro]

But keep in mind, this is so laughably overpriced. This has to be the most overpriced car maybe in the entire history of the automotive industry. It's up there with the UAB and Puma. That is a deep cut. Figure it out. Yeah, this car is probably $150,000 more expensive than it should be. Nick's over here saying that car costs over 150,000puma. Well, it's so true because $50,000.

[Nick]

I was just in Florida for two weeks and there you see Gran Turismos everywhere and it's because they, they couldn't get into a Ferrari and they wanted that prestige but for the cheap. Now that the Roma and the Gran Turismo are like same ballpark. Who on earth would buy this Stellantis over the Ferrari?

[Doug DeMuro]

The Gran Turismo is still cheaper, but not so much cheaper.

[Nick]

And also you can look over 200 then like, well, the Romas are about 3.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is cheaper. But you also know what's going to happen when you buy this, which is that tomorrow it will be worth eleven hundred dollars at a trade in dealership in Florida. This is a valueless car. It is a bad, valueless car, which is how Maserati makes their vehicles. Except the MC20, which is actually pretty good. The real story, by the way, is that Ferrari outsold Maserati, which is unbelievable because Maserati is the volume brand that's supposed to like. It's like the Honda to their Acura. Imagine if Honda, if Acura outsold Honda.

[Filippo]

I wish Kevin were here.

[Doug DeMuro]

Terrible, terrible, terrible situation for Maserati because they make bad cars. They bastardize their lineup. They bastardize their lineup by radically increasing volume, trying to go after these SUVs, which didn't really sell. Lease payments, lease deals. And this is what you get when that happens.

[Filippo]

I'm still stuck on the fact that they in 2024, released a new small SUV. The small luxury SUV segment is the hottest segment. And they still have, like, how do you. It's overpriced that much.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's overpriced. And people don't trust that brand. They know depreciation is crazy. As a result, lease deals can't be what they need to be. And nobody wants to buy these things. It's laughable. And the car's too expensive to begin with. All the Maseratis are too expensive to begin with. They think they can trade on their brand name, but what they're forgetting is their brand name is destroyed because they destroyed it.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And their CEO said, we're not going to get rid of the brand no matter how bad it gets. But that is what every CEO says right before they get rid of it, of the brand.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, I, I, the Maserati brand is too value to get rid of. Too valuable. But they can't.

[Nick]

They got to pivot.

[Doug DeMuro]

They got to change.

[Nick]

They need to take a leap year, like Jaguar and just find themselves.

[Filippo]

To find themselves.

[Nick]

Not a leap year.

[Doug DeMuro]

A gap year.

[Nick]

A gap year.

[Doug DeMuro]

They need. They need a ski instructor.

[Nick]

Maybe a leap year, too.

[Doug DeMuro]

They need to go to Eldora and be a ski instructor.

[Nick]

They're taking lip some ketamine.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is an EV. That's true. But it's 700 some horsepower and still nobody's interested. I tell you, I've only seen maybe three of these new Gran Turismos. Car's dead in the water.

[Nick]

I saw a couple in Florida.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Filippo]

They looked like probably at a sales.

[Nick]

It was one of those cars you see and you, like, pat yourself on the back, like, wow, I know cars so well. I can tell them apart.

[Doug DeMuro]

And meanwhile, the original came out in 09.

[Nick]

Like, I know, it's insane.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's insane.

[Nick]

You had a beautiful red one on the site recently. Or maybe it's still live.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's still on and it's beautiful and.

[Nick]

I would take that over the new one.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like just because it's going to sell for 30. Pull this thing up if.

[Nick]

Yeah, no offense to the seller, but.

[Doug DeMuro]

It'S a low mile car though. It's a low mile car and it's.

[Nick]

It's so cool.

[Filippo]

It's gorgeous.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is a really cool car. The difference is this one's going to sell for 30. The other one is 250. Yeah, they look the same and don't perform that differently either. Yikes of a brand. Yikes of brand. Okay, next news, they might just drop.

[Nick]

A new merch line and it's like targeted at Gen Z. Like it is the most. It's like a t shirt that's 75 and like has some like hipster thing.

[Doug DeMuro]

That no one will value the concept that they think people are going to buy merch. The brand is no value. I'd be embarrassed to walk around. He wore it ironically because he bought a car. Bought a Maserati for $17,000.

[Nick]

Polo. I bought for 90 from North Sales in Maserati. It fell apart after three, which is so indicative of the brand. Like just trash all around. They can't even make a Polo.

[Filippo]

Do you think that Canon's gonna go to Maserati now? The Ferrari is doing too much volume. Maserati, smaller volume manufacturers.

[Doug DeMuro]

Ferrari is the big brand but Maserati is for the real enthusiast. Maybe that's what they should lean into. Oh, here's a vehicle. Floating. You know about the. This.

[Nick]

No.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, tell them a little bit about the floating car then. Tell them.

[Filippo]

You tell them about the floating car. I'll tell about the.

[Doug DeMuro]

The actual China is all EVs. And so they, they, in order for their EVs to sell, they have to have some sort of cool gimmick. And so there is a Chinese sport utility vehicle that floats for 30 minutes. For 30 minutes, five miles an hour.

[Nick]

That's all you need.

[Filippo]

Fundamentally. You drive into a lake, you only need 30 minutes.

[Doug DeMuro]

After about 20 you're like.

[Nick]

You know that song by Eminem Ido, where he drives into a Lake. Like 30 minutes would have been enough off.

[Filippo]

They would have all been dropped off a bridge.

[Nick]

He was upset with his girlfriend Or Eminem.

[Doug DeMuro]

What does Daito have to do with it? Okay, okay, okay. I don't think Eminem was in that song. But anyway, it's all good.

[Filippo]

I don't know.

[Doug DeMuro]

The News story is.

[Filippo]

Chinese brands were 76% of global EV sales in 2024.

[Doug DeMuro]

Is wild.

[Filippo]

76.

[Doug DeMuro]

Wait, Chinese brands or cars sold in China?

[Filippo]

Chinese brands.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, so that's a globally 70%.

[Filippo]

So keep in mind, they sell zero cars in the US which is the second largest car market, maybe the largest.

[Nick]

Car market in the world.

[Doug DeMuro]

They don't need the us. This is what I'm talking about. This is why the US should continue to incentivize electric vehicles. Because China is shown up and China is here with. We can't even get EVs out the door that are any good, except for Tesla. China's got EVs that float. They're selling 76% of EVs. Eventually the market will be forced to make a transition to EVs. And guess who's going to be there already 10 years ahead of everybody else. Already terrifying.

[Filippo]

In Europe, depending on the country, between like 2 and 10% of EV sales are from Chinese brands. And that's in Europe. And then obviously.

[Doug DeMuro]

And that's in Europe, which is historically anxious about buying cars from outside, let's.

[Filippo]

Say, in their car preferences.

[Doug DeMuro]

And so they won't buy Hondas in Europe.

[Filippo]

Right. They've really infiltrated the. A lot of the developing markets. Then the Brazil market. Chinese EVs are a huge percentage of the EVs. Mexico and other parts of the world, it's notable. 76% the only country without the US.

[Doug DeMuro]

The only countries where Chinese EVs aren't selling are ones that have tariffed Chinese EVs out of existence.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Europe doesn't have that luxury.

[Filippo]

No cheap ones there.

[Nick]

If I'm a manufacturer in China, I would be thinking about buying the name and branding of Jaguar or Maserati. You see, Even at the 25% tariff, Maserati is already 25% tariffing themselves by charging more than that.

[Doug DeMuro]

China did this with Volvo. China did this with Lotus. China did this with. I mean, this is strategy. This is. This is a legitimate strategy.

[Nick]

But I feel like you could buy these brands cheap right now or s. I don't like find old one.

[Doug DeMuro]

It gets them into the West. They'd have to build the cars, not in China.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Which is. Which honestly is one of their big competitive advantages. They're able to build the cars cheaply. Every time we have a segment like this, people like they're using sweatshops. I don't know about that. But they're building them cheaper than they are in state. So they would have to figure out a workaround like a Lot of people can't build them. Canada right now either. Right.

[Nick]

A lot of people don't care. Well, how they're made, if it's ethical. Some people think that's true.

[Filippo]

I agree.

[Nick]

I mean, you know, people buy Walmart because it's cheaper, not because it's like.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, they're not really going up upstream to look at how it's built. But 76% is a 70%, I'm telling you. This is where China dominates. And in 10 years, when the US market forced to accept EVs, as gas prices continue to rise, et cetera, et cetera, people are going to be like, oh, now I need an ev. And who's got the expertise in building them unless we incentivize them in the us? China. Does they build one that floats? Mach E doesn't float.

[Filippo]

Probably.

[Doug DeMuro]

You've been in a Mach E doesn't float. I was in a Mach E taxi in Copenhagen.

[Filippo]

Ooh, how pleasant.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. All right.

[Filippo]

This is the Volvo ES90.

[Doug DeMuro]

ES90.

[Filippo]

ES90. It is their new EV sedan.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

I want to say two things about it and then we can move on. Yeah. It is currently for sale in Europe. You can order already in Europe. We don't know when it's coming to the US. It is obviously the replacement for the S90. And it's EV. It is on an 800 volt architecture, so in theory, it can charge like 140 miles in 10 minutes, which is really notable for places where that is feasible for chargers. Where that is feasible.

[Doug DeMuro]

Rather nowhere. And it is otherwise not even the dealers. Yeah.

[Filippo]

To take the EX90, same, like, interior, same screen, same, et cetera. Sedan. You're done.

[Doug DeMuro]

May I ask you a question about this car? The reason I want to talk about this new story. I have a lot of warm fuzzies for Volvo. I think a lot of consumers do. Honestly. I think Volvo is the one brand that manages to be a luxury brand without being like a only assholes drive brand.

[Nick]

Totally.

[Doug DeMuro]

However, what is Polestar? If Volvo was going to make an electric little. Which is the EX4030. EX30 you got there. If they're going to make an electric big, the EX90, and now they're doing a sedan which looks a lot like the Polestar 2. I'm sure it's bigger.

[Filippo]

It is notably bigger than that.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm sure it's bigger because it's replaced.

[Filippo]

And it doesn't really look like a Polestar 2 other than the bolster dance.

[Doug DeMuro]

If Nick saw one of these, he'd think it was a Polestar 2. So what is Polestar?

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like why did they do this? The Volvo brand. I don't think they needed a new brand. The Polestar brand is confused. The naming makes no sense. The one was a disaster.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like, why not just go with Volvo?

[Filippo]

I, I similarly don't quite understand if they're gonna.

[Nick]

I thought it was supposed to be like an AMG to Mercedes. Like the.

[Filippo]

More initially it was like The Polestar engineered S60. V60 or Polestar were faster. Were faster.

[Doug DeMuro]

But then they've switched it. Although there are still Polestar engineered regular Volvos, which doesn't make any sense. But then they switched it and Polestar is. Now they sent me a Polestar XC60 like 3 weeks ago.

[Filippo]

The V60 is gone. But the.

[Doug DeMuro]

Then they switched it and it became a pure electric brand. But they're also making electric Volvo.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

It doesn't make any sense.

[Filippo]

I think that they thought, okay, we, we aren't confident enough to put the Volvo name behind us. Let's see what name we can put behind a Polestar 2. And they probably regret it. I will. Can I say one other thing about the. The. This sedan. You're familiar with the S90.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

And S90L.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Here's a fun fact. S90L sold in the US made in China. One of two vehicles that I can think of.

[Doug DeMuro]

They are. They pay the tariffs.

[Filippo]

I don't. The S90L is maybe not sold anymore, but it was till a couple years ago. There's one other car.

[Doug DeMuro]

Polestar, the Buick Envision.

[Filippo]

Well done.

[Doug DeMuro]

Polestar has allowed Volvo to do a couple of things.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Create a whole new brand, like with no preconceptions and sell direct.

[Filippo]

That's notable.

[Doug DeMuro]

So I think that's why they did it.

[Filippo]

You're right.

[Doug DeMuro]

But like the Volvo brand to the first point, the Volvo brand was pretty strong. Yeah. The second thing is probably the real reason they did it. But direct sales don't really help if you're stealing. If you're stealing sales from your own products and if nobody's really buying them. And I hate to say it, I like the Polestar 3, but have you seen one?

[Filippo]

Yeah, yesterday.

[Doug DeMuro]

I've seen one.

[Filippo]

Saw yesterday. Yeah. I, I will say I think there is truth to just. They want to be able to do direct sales. They want to be able to experiment more quickly. That's kind of it. Eventually I would not be shocked if they roll back in. By the way, Volvo in other markets also owns Lincoln Co. Which is another manufacturer that does like.

[Doug DeMuro]

Weird Leasing & Co. Notable manufacturer of cars with one spoke of alloy wheels painted a different color than the.

[Filippo]

That's so true.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, I want to take a moment to tell you about another podcast you should absolutely check out. Dr. With Jim Farley. Ford CEO Jim Farley talks to some of his favorite people about what they drive and what drives them to succeed. He has great guests on the show like the British racing driver Vicki Butler Henderson and one of my favorite people, Jay Leno. I've checked out a few episodes of Drive with Jim Farley and I really love to hear his insights. There was a time when we only got to hear from automotive CEOs and press quotes and carefully worded corporate statements. But Jim Farley's podcast is personal and it really shows his passion for cars, which is really cool. And this is a podcast. I'm certainly going to keep in mind my listening routine. Click the link in the description box to listen to Drive with Jim Farley. Today I want to move on to the talk car segment. We got Nick here. Nick's got a lot to talk about. Nick, start us off with the QP5 sale. Nick sold his QP5 on the site.

[Filippo]

You pull it up, that is a Maserati Quattroporte Quattroportex.

[Nick]

It's sold. It actually has already been picked up. We did like the whole Sapay thing, which despite knowing you all and talking about cars all the time, I had no idea how it worked. Really easy. But yeah, it was unusual. So it got listed and got bid up pretty quickly. I think it was at like 15 the first day or so and then like the, the final day, like it was just like one bid won it over what it was at. But I'm thrilled that the guy that bought it is in New York. Actually my airtag is tracking it. So it's in New York already.

[Doug DeMuro]

You left an airtag in somebody else's.

[Nick]

I shared it with him so that he could track it too. I'm like, I'm that kind of a seller and I threw in a keychain. But yeah, it's, it's gone.

[Doug DeMuro]

So the fellow who bought it also bought this really nice E55 and he still has it.

[Nick]

I think he's going to get rid of one and replace it with the other. But yeah, he's, he's an enthusiast of that era. Sedan, which blame him.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was easy to my knowledge. The car sold. It was like title was gone.

[Nick]

It was way too. I mean I was like paid within 48 hours.

[Filippo]

Which unlike when you Bought the car?

[Nick]

Yeah, on Facebook Marketplace of getting titles signed and affidavited and whatnot.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cars and bids makes it happen easy and fast.

[Nick]

It certainly is better than Facebook marketplace for ease of transaction to say the least. But yeah, no, I mean it was so fun. We just posted a video today with like the kind of best hits of all.

[Doug DeMuro]

Break down the cost. I know it's. You got the video out today, but break down the cost. You sold it. What'd you buy it for?

[Nick]

I bought it for 14.

[Doug DeMuro]

14.

[Nick]

I spent 10 on maintenance and repairs.

[Doug DeMuro]

10 on maintenance, repairs and you sold it for 17? 750.

[Nick]

So. And I rented it once on Turo for 250. So I basically I met 18 and I sold it. Or I was into it 24. So I lost six grand on it, which was to be expected I think when I knew I was over 20 and into it that there was just no way. It was.

[Doug DeMuro]

We were all we as a collective friend group, me and the three of us plus a couple other people who don't appear on screen or sometimes they do. We're all a little surprised that you went as far as you did on putting making it as nice as you did painting the wheels. You did pull off clear in front of my house.

[Nick]

Some of it was self inflicted wounds. The alternator might have been my fault for pressure washing the engine bay. I mean like I could have done things a little better.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Or at least more cost. Consciously not better.

[Filippo]

It is one of the Highest Quattroporte Hills QB5.

[Nick]

Especially for the mileage. The mileage is what hurt it. But I just said I want spec, I don't care. Miles. Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

All these 90 miles that were much higher had really low miles. 10,031. 18.

[Filippo]

Yours had 90.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yours at 90. But it was a really nice car that presented really well because you painted the wheels. We later found out the wheels were black originally but it looks so much better in silver. It's like not even describable.

[Nick]

This is just like the 2010-2015 was like the era. Black wheels were actually cool. No offense if you have them but it just.

[Doug DeMuro]

Some cars look good in them but some. This car looks so good.

[Nick]

Like this blue and black don't work as well in my opinion.

[Doug DeMuro]

It really doesn't work.

[Nick]

So yeah, I mean it's. It's gone. I'm sad. It is like I enjoy like this is a trophy. I get these pictures printed out that Frank does. I think they come out like amazing and like it's fun to see all the enthusiasm in the comments. And it's funny, a couple people were razzing me about the Montana license plate thing, which was like, it's annoying. But I. It's my fault. I should remove the plates for the photos or just register California maybe.

[Filippo]

There you go. There you go. The other option.

[Nick]

Yeah, it did pass smog. Like I did it the last day of the auction and it passed uneventfully.

[Doug DeMuro]

I will say I. I don't. I'm not a. I don't do the Montana thing. I don't necessarily support the Montana thing. The one argument in your favor, the car didn't sell in California. So everybody complains about this. I always tell people, people are always like, oh, should I renew the plates? Should I pass smog? Yeah, I always tell people, wait, just wait till the auction's over. Because a lot of times the car doesn't sell in California. You don't have to do that stuff.

[Filippo]

Should say back fees stay with the car. So if you owe back registration, pay that.

[Doug DeMuro]

Did you know that?

[Nick]

I did. I thought it depended by state by state.

[Doug DeMuro]

But like if you're a month or two overdue, I always tell people, whatever. But California back fees stay with the car. So Carver comes back into California, you'll.

[Nick]

Back fees my Celine. Whoever owns that now you've got a couple years of back fe.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, no, you. Oh wait. Because you.

[Nick]

But the guy I had it had just sat in a driveway.

[Doug DeMuro]

He may have had it piano though.

[Nick]

In which case he did not. This was disclosed when I bought it from him.

[Doug DeMuro]

Got it.

[Nick]

And I said, oh, Montana doesn't care and they don't.

[Doug DeMuro]

Regardless, you're going to title the next car in California and let's talk.

[Nick]

Well, I'm trying to title it in the state of California. That is contingent to bonded passing smog.

[Doug DeMuro]

Let's talk about the next car. Have you announced this yet? Do you have a video up yet? It's on your Instagram.

[Nick]

No, we've got a video draft. It'll go up soon. So sneak peek here for those that care.

[Filippo]

Nick, I somehow. There you go.

[Nick]

Oh yeah. There you go. Thanks.

[Doug DeMuro]

Here's Nick's insta. And there's a picture of his.

[Nick]

Oh yeah, there's. If you do that, there's a. A reel of multiples.

[Doug DeMuro]

But this is Nick and his three cars before the QP went and when he. When he had just bought the 2002.

[Nick]

Bentley Arnage T.645 foot pound of torque on a four speed GM automatic transmission.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's a good Trans glorious.

[Nick]

It's called black velvet, but in sunlight it looks purple and then in darker light it looks closer to a black. The interior is called redwood, but it's somewhere between like a red and a brown. So there's been a lot of debate in my household. My kids say it's the color poo poo and keep going on the brown motif. But I say it's a purple Bentley and it is total hoopty status. I got it. One door didn't open. Two windows don't go down. To be clear, check engine light, ABS light, brake light. A general exclamation point of which it doesn't tell you why.

[Doug DeMuro]

This was a car. This was a bring a trailer purchase with hundreds of of failure to disclose.

[Nick]

It's outrageous.

[Doug DeMuro]

Hundreds of just non disclosed issues that it had when it arrived. But you were expecting it because it's in our knowledge.

[Nick]

I was expecting it to be bad. However, like if you're selling a car and a door doesn't open, the the buyer will figure that out pretty quickly. And it behooves you to explain that, you know, like, please explain that I even I was able to fix it myself in like 20 minutes. The amount of things I could fix, like the wheels were insanely dirty. And like you just take like a little drill polisher. They look fine.

[Doug DeMuro]

They do now.

[Nick]

The dude could have spent an hour and had this car present a lot better. But like it was, there was plenty of brown M M's there to say this car has been neglected.

[Doug DeMuro]

Neglected. However, you're getting it back in better shape. Except for the fact that you have had two fluid leaks, different fluids in the last 36, 40 hours.

[Nick]

I think it's. Oh yeah, in the last 36 hours. And yeah, it's time to joke. The coolant, they meant to top up the fluid and left the lid loose.

[Doug DeMuro]

There's a brown M and M thing for you. Should I go to the shop? That leaves the coolant lid loose? Maybe. But if there's also a hydraulic fluid leak when it comes home from the.

[Nick]

Shop, then you don't see it. Right. The one fluid covers up the other and it kind of just swirls. My driveway is such a mess right now. And so I posted on Instagram, like, how do you get rid of hydraulic fluid? The first person's like, oh, dawn, dish up. The next person goes, blowtorch. And they're serious. They're like, just burn it with fire and it'll go away.

[Doug DeMuro]

So I will say one thing, Nick, and I'm excited to See, all of the. Oh, this is.

[Nick]

This is. This morning, I thought about trying to drive it back to the mechanic, but I was worried it was going to run out of fluid before I got there, and that just wasn't worth it.

[Doug DeMuro]

I will say, Nick and I was talking to you about this at Cars and Coffee. I have stopped buying cars, which is sad to me to. I love the cars. I have dearly. I mean, I think they're the coolest cars in the world. Every time I drive them, I'm so happy. But generally, I've stopped buying cars. However, Nick is buying them for us. I know. It's so good. Like, I've always wanted an Arnage. Who hasn't? Right? Who has an Arnage T. That's like the dream. And now Nick has done this. And I actually legitimately think that Nick has been able to prolong my own desire to buy cars by just cycling through. I always wanted a P38. I wasn't really always looking for a QP, but it was nice to experience. I drove it to the doctor one day, the day that I got the bandage.

[Nick]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So you were bleeding in my car.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, the bandage was on before.

[Nick]

Okay.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

I would have disclosed for the way there.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I got to drive the Arnage a couple times. Great. I truly think that your crazy decisions have prolonged my own desire to buy cars. It's been wonderful. It's so wonderful to have you in our lives.

[Filippo]

It is. And thank you for letting us drive it. For example, driving the QP5 made me realize I don't want to own it.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was great. I will say, like, in all honesty, it's a great car, but driving the Arnage was wonderful. But it's not that it made me realize I don't want to own it, but it did make me realize, like, I'm happy to drive it. Five or six. Like, I don't want to purchase it. I don't like purchase it. I want one and I want to drive it and I want to experience it, but I don't necessarily want a friend with one.

[Filippo]

Yeah. And it's the best.

[Nick]

It's the. The only thing better than having a yacht is a friend with a yacht.

[Doug DeMuro]

And you are a friend with a yacht.

[Nick]

Land yacht in chase.

[Filippo]

In this case.

[Doug DeMuro]

Can we talk multipla?

[Nick]

Yes, I. I really want to. Speaking of me enabling you or you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Enabling me and him have always been talking about buying a multipla. I bought an A Class instead so badly. I bought an A Class instead because the multiple wasn't legal when I bought my A class and. And I. The A class experience was so not good that I have no interest in doing this again. Filippo has always wanted a multipla for a lot of reasons, but because he's the cheapest person alive, he not going to do it. So the two of us are sitting here.

[Filippo]

Should we.

[Doug DeMuro]

Most of what we talk about is how we want to multiply, and yet neither of us do it. And then you're doable.

[Nick]

These are not expensive.

[Doug DeMuro]

You come to me this week and you're like, I want a multip.

[Nick]

Tell us the amount of time we've spent debating on getting a multipla. The opportunity cost of that time could have paid for one 10 times over.

[Doug DeMuro]

So what is the deal? Are you. Are you.

[Nick]

I don't even care about the car. I just think we should do it. Like, I just think it would be fun. And honestly, it'd probably be reliable to get me to and from Eli's when it breaks.

[Doug DeMuro]

Are. Are you. Tell us about. Is this real? Are you really serious?

[Nick]

I'm dead serious.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, I'm gonna have you the other.

[Nick]

So the selfish motivation is the YouTube series I do with you all. The idea is I get a car that's kind of beat up. I fix it up, but then I present it nicely and show you that you can find a rough car and sell it for a profit, or at least more than you paid for it. However, I don't want to sell the Bentley right away. I want to hold onto it. I'm enjoying it too much. So this is kind of my summer bling. I can buy it and dump it.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's broken half the time you've had it at the exact.

[Nick]

Exactly. I've had it three months and I've only driven it like 10 times.

[Doug DeMuro]

So, like, enjoying it too much.

[Nick]

I need to. I need to expand that. That ownership. So multiply.

[Filippo]

If you buy multiply, you can't sell the multiple.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, it needs to be in our life. If you buy the multiply and title it here, I bet you he buys it from you.

[Nick]

Because the thing stopping him, well, it'll be no reserve. And he can bet on it. And you can bet on it. I will have done all the hard work. No one sold a multiply on any of the auction sites in the US Anyways that I'm aware. Oh, I've like it. And I want to get one that's a ridiculous spec. Like purple with the like.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, the weird 90s. And I'll tell you this. These now they're becoming available. So I bought that A Class two years ago, and the multipla was just about to become legal. And the early ones, you. You didn't have a lot of choice because you were looking for a few months of production. Now you've got about two years of production you could choose from. Still very hard to find a nice multipla because they were driven hard, but it doesn't exist. You would find one eventually.

[Nick]

The oxymoron, the craziest and interior.

[Doug DeMuro]

Pull it up. Do you. Are you aware of this?

[Nick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I went. I went purple somewhere in this vehicle.

[Doug DeMuro]

The absolute craziest interior in a. In a car that wasn't intended to be crazy that I ever seen.

[Filippo]

Just a practical interior.

[Doug DeMuro]

Anyway, this is an absolutely crazy car. You're serious about?

[Nick]

Yes, I'm dead serious.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right now. After this pot, I'm going to give you Ramy's contact info. Shout out to Ramy at Inbound Motorsports, the greatest car importer in the history. Pull him up. He sold a ton of cars with us. And. And Rami brought my A class over. Yeah, pull up. It was really cool.

[Filippo]

There's so many cool cars.

[Doug DeMuro]

Rami brings over weird stuff. Specifically that Legnum wagon was so cool.

[Nick]

You just gotta. You gotta advise. I don't know anything about values or whatnot. So I just need you to say, like, that's a good deal.

[Doug DeMuro]

Rami is the most honest person in the world. Even though.

[Nick]

So he'll tell me like, one of the doors doesn't open or windows, he'll.

[Doug DeMuro]

Get it fixed for it. Because basically the way I did it with my A class, I was like, rami, look, I want an A class, but I don't want to. I just want to appear at Hyenas airport on this day. Perfect. And he was like, I'll do it. I don't know. Perfect. It did, right? No, you don't.

[Nick]

I'm good with a little fl.

[Doug DeMuro]

Got a guy on the ground in Europe who will. Who will find it for you.

[Filippo]

The hard part is finding it because there's not that many. We've. I've looked. There's not that many lowish mile, decent condition, multiplies because they were just cars almost only sold in Italy.

[Doug DeMuro]

The difference between the multiple and the A class, the A class was sold in Germany where people preserve their cars. The multiples are sold in Italy, where people do not preserve their cars. It's a little harder to find.

[Filippo]

They use their cars for their intended purpose and then they don't have any money.

[Nick]

So therefore, if watchers or listeners are got a line on a good multiply. You can also slide into my DMs. Follow me on Insta.

[Doug DeMuro]

I got a line on a good multiple. Okay, I want to talk about two other things in the Talk Car segment before we move on to the market report. Number one, yesterday, maybe it was the day before, I had a two hour lunch with the fellow who owned my Carrera GT from 2010 to 2020.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

And the way this came about was I, I bought my career GT in Connecticut. It was in Greenwich. However, the second owner of the car and actually the guy who owned it for the longest was in San Diego just by chance. So I sent him a text because I saw it on this number on the service records and I was like, hey man, I'm. I have your career. Gt I think so. I think this is your car. And he instantly replied and was like, yep, here's a picture of it. Let's get lunch. I want to see it again. And so we did. And he had it's There it is.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And he had some great stories about his time with it, including that he could, could never get it into his house and had to leave it at a warehouse that he, that he rented. And never once did he get the car into his driveway because it's so low. I told him I put on an axle lifter flexing.

[Filippo]

Was he jealous?

[Doug DeMuro]

He said as a result it was a 0.8.8 car for him. Like he would drive to his warehouse, take the car around, then drive home. Like he couldn't really use it for anything. And he had fond memories with it. But he bought it for 300, sold it for over 600 and so he felt like he did pretty well. Even though values have gone up since then. He's not pretty good at unhapp himself. He currently owns 21 Porsches.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Including a bunch of cool stuff. 997 GT3 RS2 997 Speedster 718 Spider RS. His daily is a Cayenne Turbo GT and a beautiful 991 Arrow kit car. Not that I'm a Porsche guy. Sounds like it, but it was an interesting thing. I mean, you know, this guy hasn't owned this car in six years. Ish. Five, six years. And he had it for a long part of its life. Life. And it was kind of an interesting thing to meet up with a person such as that.

[Filippo]

That's very cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

Ron.

[Filippo]

I have a lot of questions About Ron, but go ahead. I don't know what they are.

[Nick]

Did he, did you go for a ride in it at all?

[Doug DeMuro]

No. Maybe I should have taken him for a ride. I, I got the sense though that he kind of just bought and sold a bunch of stuff and like he missed the car but like I got the sense he could buy one if he wanted.

[Nick]

He sounds like it and he, and he did.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like he, he, he had his experience and he kept most of his cars. He has a property in, in the rural northwest and he kept most of his cars there. And he said the career GT was just too low and too nice to like bring down the dirt road that his house is on.

[Nick]

I mean 10 years is a good run with any vehicle. Right? Like I got his experience. I don't think any of us held a car that long.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, he remembered. It was amazing because he was like 80, but he remembered everything about the car, the serial number. He was even able to tell me the source of a dent that's on the inside of the driver's door jamb that I've never been able to figure out. And finally he was responsible. I know what it is is how nice. The other thing I want to talk my other talk car segment. I have a little story for everyone. Filippo was involved and I don't have the pictures yet but Filippo and me and others brought all of my cars to one location for a photo shoot the other day.

[Filippo]

Quite, quite a day.

[Doug DeMuro]

Tell us your experience.

[Filippo]

I got to drive a Ford gt not for the first time and it was pleasant. I treat driving other people's cars, it's for a purpose. Like it's to bring that car to that photo shoot. So I'm not like having fun in the Ford gt but it's a pleasant car except for one thing. The blinkers. When the blinkers are on, there's like a little like electrical noise. Y that is so frustrating.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. You don't have the radio and I don't.

[Filippo]

Cuz I'm not going to.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, it is, it is weird the sound the turn signals make.

[Filippo]

I did get to listen to a career GT and a Countach in front of me.

[Doug DeMuro]

If you were driving in San Diego on Sunday at 4 o'clock, you would have seen a Carrera, the GCAB, a Carrera GT, a Kash and a Ford GT all following each other. The five.

[Filippo]

It was quite, quite a, it was quite a scene. And then while we were at the location, an unrelated Ford GT drove by.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes. Like it was an unbelievable experience to have them all out and terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. Okay, I'll. I'll post the pictures next week. If I have them. They're really cool. You know how Mercedes gull wings or Porsche 959s will typically always be valuable and continue to go up in value? It's kind of similar to gold, which is why we've partnered with a company called Acre Gold. Financial experts and big banks agree the value of gold is climbing new heights in 2025 and beyond. So how do you get in? Buying gold can feel complicated and expensive, but Acre Gold subscriptions make it easy and affordable. With subscriptions from 30 to $250 per month, Acre Gold makes gold ownership a reality for every budget. How does it work? Make automatic monthly payments into your stash until you reach the price of an Acre Gold bar. Once you pay for your bar, Acre Gold discreetly ships it to your door. And look at this. A real gold bar that Acre mailed to us. Markets go up and down, but gold has stood the test of time. It's real solid, and now it's easier than ever to own. Secure your wealth and take control of your future. Start [e-mail] okay, market report, let's do it quick because we gotta get to questions. I want to talk STI sale. Oh, wait. The market report is brought to you by Nick. Nick, he has cars and sells them sometimes on cars and pets. Nick drove here today in a 2014 Ford Focus. The market report is brought to you by the 2014 Ford Focus. This, which is on its third transmission.

[Nick]

Yeah, I think Ford has spent more on warranty claims than I paid for the car up front. I could see why they got out of cars after that. We're just going to stick to trucks.

[Filippo]

They certainly stopped making that transmission.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, pull up the sti.

[Nick]

Yeah, but it is a peach.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Focus is a peach on its third trans. And he got here, the first thing he said to me was, I think the trans is slipping again.

[Nick]

It definitely is slipping.

[Doug DeMuro]

We had a black STI go up.05 Hawkeye self bid to 53. We put it together afterwards for around that. I don't remember.

[Filippo]

A little bit over that.

[Nick]

55.

[Doug DeMuro]

55, something like that. 16,800 miles, no mods. Very special car.

[Filippo]

Such a special car.

[Doug DeMuro]

I just want to point out, for all those people out there who think that these are for vaping boy racers, this is a spe. The market is starting to decide these are special cars. Now, I have never been of the opinion that these are going to Take off. People are like, the Japanese cars will have their day, and they will. 55 grand. I don't think there's ever going to be a million dollars. But this. This proves that, like, there is real serious interest in. In. This was our highest sale of anything even resembling a Hawkeye WRX. The other ones were all S209s, which have always been big money. That is. That was very cool to see. And as a big fan of that car. I was 16 when those came out. It was the coolest thing on the road. I'm thrilled that they're like that. Enthusiasts with money and taste and. And who want to preserve them are, like, getting in that. That world.

[Filippo]

Can I ask you a question? Do we think S209 stay there?

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Forever or 70 grand?

[Doug DeMuro]

They're six years old already, and they're still trading for those numbers. The S209 stay there. Absolutely. They're very special cars.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. It looks like they've gone down a little bit, but they're not going to go down to 20. S209s are very, very special cars. There's only 209. They're all individually numbered.

[Nick]

Also.

[Doug DeMuro]

STI ended after that, but cool to see this very cool car do a good number.

[Nick]

That looks like a nice one.

[Filippo]

It was.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was unmodded. If this had been blue, I bet it would have gotten another five grand. It was probably an innocuous decision in 05 to be like, oh, blue or black? O the. They have a black one. I'll get that. Of course, the blue became the hero color and. And definitely would have been better for one you've wanted to preserve, but I love this car. I just can't say enough good things about how much. How special I think these are, and I'm glad they're getting the recognition they deserve.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Aston Martin us.

[Filippo]

Aston Martin. I've noticed over the last couple weeks.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

That Aston Martin values are back up.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Filippo]

Does repe this V9. We have this manual as advantage. They'll end by the time this podcast goes live, but repeat values have been 53 grand. This is admittedly a special color. This sold yesterday. 32,000 miles. Repeats have been sub 50 for forever.

[Nick]

I. I wanted to buy one for a while, and then I just. I'm like, I. I don't think I want to spend that much money on it.

[Filippo]

Right. But they're backup. It makes no. Like, here's one with the same miles. Two years ago, the market was stronger.

[Doug DeMuro]

The market was stronger. They got less, like, the color helped this one. Although if you go back, the color helped a few of these.

[Nick]

So this is also the facelift one with the bigger grill versus. Versus the two smaller girls. Those do tend to bring a little bit more money. The later ones.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, the s. Go back to the Aston page that you had. The landing page, the. The other one that was the dbs brought a lot of money considering the miles and frankly, I don't know the market, I have to admit. But go back to the top. I'm kind of surprised already that this V 1280 because click on it. This car has 90,000 miles. 73,000 miles. This car's like been used as a car which, yeah, totally fine. But oftentimes that really harms the value. I didn't expect. It's a six speed. It's a V12, but the market is actually appreciating Aston's a little bit. It's interesting.

[Filippo]

I'm glad they are because especially seemingly V12 Astons, which makes some sense. There's not that many V12 new cars. Makes sense that there's appreciation. And the manuals, which are incredibly rare because who bought a manual? Aston seem to be doing incredibly well.

[Doug DeMuro]

I think the secret is a little out that they're not that unreliable.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

I think people have started to realize like this car's got 73,000 miles. We get them submitted all the time to us with 60, 70, 80,000 miles. And not V12 vantages and sticks, but astonishment in general. Like, do they have a rep for being unreliable? They're not really. You can actually buy this car and have a pretty exotic experience for like 40 grand in the case of a V8 Vantage. Yep. Their enthusiasts have kind of circled around them.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

When I was, when I bought my V8 Vantage, they were like plunging and.

[Filippo]

To be fair, V advantages.

[Doug DeMuro]

V advantages are still lower than they were during the peak Covid. That's not going to work for V8 Volante.

[Nick]

Heck yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Remember those?

[Nick]

I do.

[Filippo]

Wild car vantages are still all over the the place.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, they're a little all over the place. The early tips are. Are cheap, but a nice later stick is. Is more expensive than it was when I bought one like 10 years ago.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

I also wonder if they're benefiting from the fall of Maserati through Stellantis. The people that would have bought a Gran Turismo. Maybe the Roma is a little out of reach. You say I have 100 to 200 spend on a nice cruiser. Aston is a really compelling choice if you can't get into a Ferrari or Lambo.

[Doug DeMuro]

When are you going to get a radio repeat?

[Nick]

I want. There was one on Facebook Marketplace that had like all this dust on it, but he was asking like running and driving condition and it was like one of those, like, oh, it's a leak. But it would only take $500 to fix. You're like, if it was 500 bucks.

[Doug DeMuro]

You would have done it.

[Nick]

So that stayed away from that. But when the opportunity presents itself, it's. It's on my list.

[Doug DeMuro]

Are any other Aspen on your list? What about a DB7?

[Filippo]

Love a DB7.

[Doug DeMuro]

They're.

[Nick]

They're cool for the right price maybe. I did say I was at curated in Miami 20 grand and they had a V Vanquish that had been manual swapped by the factory.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh no. 3. Yeah, pull up one of those. We sold a few of those and.

[Nick]

Oh, with the manual swap, it is so cool. And I've heard the manual swaps are just. It's like 50 grand or something like that.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's expensive.

[Nick]

It's about the price of the car to do it. So that's, that's tough. But I think you probably do get most of that value out of it. Like you, you spend 50 on the car, 50 on the swap, probably sell for 100ish.

[Filippo]

I don't even think you need to spend 50 on the car.

[Doug DeMuro]

They're cool. They look so good.

[Nick]

I still think one of the. I have, I have diecast models of this car. Car. I, I love, love, love.

[Doug DeMuro]

Still think it's the best looking acid in my lifetime.

[Filippo]

Oh, interesting.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I said it.

[Nick]

I, I agree.

[Doug DeMuro]

Either that or the dbx707 or the signet.

[Nick]

I think all the Zagato ones are.

[Doug DeMuro]

Kind of like, dude, the Zagato long. The Zagato hatchback, I like sometimes think, should I go after one of those?

[Filippo]

Yeah, yeah, you should. Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like they were new 900, but they transacted at 600 and now they sell for 450 and it's like, hm. But the problem is I don't want to lose 450. It's going to be a 220 car in about eight weeks, right? No, two hundred and twenty, I think. Go, pull. Pull one of those up. You know what I'm talking about, right?

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

With the Zagato hatch, It was a V12. I mean D. V12 Zagato hatchback.

[Nick]

Do you know, in period, I mean, I guess Zagato is still around. But like, were they like Mansari, where everyone like didn't get it? Or they always been cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

It depended on the car. Zagato had some uggo cars.

[Nick]

Terrible stuff.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes.

[Nick]

Like an elongation.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is not, though. Yeah, this is beautiful.

[Nick]

That was like a million dollar car.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was. But Zagato went through the whole, this whole period. There were some heinous. Like, just type in Zagato into, into.

[Nick]

Well, it had to be like, one dude, right? So, like, I don't know, I went through, like, my goth phase and then, like my preppy phase.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like, there are some famously bad ones. Yep. Like, remember the Alpha SZ and the rz? Those are probably the most famously bad ones.

[Nick]

Yeah. The Gallardo one was not good.

[Filippo]

The rz, by the way, is beautiful.

[Doug DeMuro]

So you think it's beautiful?

[Nick]

Generally agreed to beautiful is the wrong term. Beautiful.

[Filippo]

It's neat, striking.

[Doug DeMuro]

I reviewed one, it drove great. Weird.

[Filippo]

I remember you called me while filming this and like, I don't know how to put the top on.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. It's like the manual's in the. I need to know how to put the roof on. And you figured it out for.

[Nick]

That's excellent.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, we gotta move on to questions, questions, questions, questions. Two things. First off, before questions, I want to thank the viewer who sent us in this. We got some Carrera GT literature from a viewer. I'm always interested in Carrera gt, Ford GT and Kunta things because I have in my house a giant repository of this stuff. I have every piece of career GT literature in existence. And this is a brochure from back in the day from a viewer named Norman. He sent this in, and it's the concept car and it kind of goes through some of the stuff. And I appreciate that. Thank you. You can send us Carrera GT literature too. You sent it directly to Filippo's house.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay.

[Filippo]

By the way, in that car and driver, also review a road test of the Maserati QP5.

[Nick]

Ooh, I'll have to read that.

[Doug DeMuro]

And there is, there is on the back cover, their 04Z71.

[Filippo]

What a car.

[Nick]

So good.

[Doug DeMuro]

And their truck to advertise its capabilities.

[Filippo]

Some of the ads in that are phenomenal. I, I, I leafed through yesterday, and it's Crossfire.

[Doug DeMuro]

Re. Oh, here's a Ford Freestar.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Minivan comparison test.

[Filippo]

The Odyssey.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, Nick, Nick, your dream.

[Nick]

Oh, Tire rack. Yes.

[Doug DeMuro]

Wheels. And look at the cars. Look at the cars They've chosen to GMC Envoy, Mazda 3 Mustang Mach 1 and a C230 on what appear to be stock wheels. Oh.

[Filippo]

For every enthusiast.

[Doug DeMuro]

How amazing okay, questions. Now remember, you can ask us questions. You go to carsandbids.com, you click on the community tab and then there's a post there that says here are the questions and you ask us questions. Now. This week I used to answer the top upvoted questions, but then I found that the same people were asking the questions like immediately when we go live. And so I've decided to kind of skip around more. And this week I'm going to skip around more on the questions too. By the way, I'm always going to answer the most controversial ones, to be clear. Yeah, yeah, I love those.

[Filippo]

He enjoys that greatly.

[Doug DeMuro]

I like scaring fun Filippo. But there were some other good questions buried further down. However, the first question was very good. From Alec Metz, 2011. I know you don't love discussing politics, but how do you think Elon Musk will affect Tesla as a company moving forward? How it'll affect values of Tesla's new and use. Their stock has fallen almost 30% since the salute. I don't want to talk about stock. I'm not going to be one of those Twitter losers. Curious your guys. I mean, come on.

[Nick]

Well, first of all, this stock thing, yes, it's down 24% year to date. If you look at the last six months, it's actually up like 20%. So all you're doing is saying from the peak of the peak, it's down a little bit over the long run. It's still an amazing hold. And again, I don't care about the stock other than to say like, it's down a little bit right now, but they are doing a bunch of it.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, with regards to the stock, the people. People are free to speculate. The cars. Is an interesting question.

[Filippo]

It is.

[Doug DeMuro]

I have to tell tell you, Elon, when he was perceived as a champion of the world, saving the world making electric cars, was sort of a hero of electric car buyers.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

He became more conservative and people kind of held their noses and just were. Whatever. Things have changed and he has now gone pretty far in a direction that I suspect a lot of electric car shoppers are not. I am asked quite often for card advice by friends, family, neighbors, randoms. I am frequently being asked now about EVs that are not Teslas specifically.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

What EV can I buy that isn't a Tesla? That is. That is still good. I'm getting the question daily.

[Filippo]

And Tesla sales are notably down in the us.

[Doug DeMuro]

Way down.

[Filippo]

They're also way down in Europe by stunning margins.

[Doug DeMuro]

We saw Yesterday they announced 0% on all model threes, which was just refresh.

[Filippo]

It's their newest model, brand new.

[Doug DeMuro]

Refresh. And 0% is a pretty tough offer in a. In a financing world where. Where the fed funds rate is 6.

[Filippo]

Correct. I news report today that there is a real risk. Tesla makes a bunch of money by selling emissions waivers, basically. Right. They don't produce that many emissions. They sell credits to other manufacturers. They may not sell enough cars this year to do that. And so they have obligations around that to say, like telling Stellantis, for example, we'll sell you this many credits.

[Doug DeMuro]

There's a little bit of a risk.

[Filippo]

That they don't because sales are that far down.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's a bad situation. I do think that Elon Musk's behavior is playing out. I also have a feeling that Elon doesn't care that much. He's obviously incredibly wealthy. He's moved on, first to Twitter and now to the government. When I think about him, when I hear from him, it seems like he's sort of forgotten about Tesla in a way. And he's this perennial serial entrepreneur who's like trying to do this thing and that thing and that thing. And the most recent thing is working for the Trump administration. And I'm not sure that he really is working on this that hard.

[Filippo]

The biggest question becomes from a corporate governance standpoint, what happens? So does do Tesla shareholders and their board, which is very friendly towards Musk, change their opinion a little bit over time?

[Nick]

What's interesting. So I and I past life did advertising for Solar City, which then became Tesla, and we were their agency. We were spending a lot of money.

[Doug DeMuro]

Did you know this?

[Nick]

Our biggest client at the time in like, I was like really in the trenches there, like speaking with like their CFO and all these people. When they folded it back into Tesla, we were let go and they paused all their paid search ads, all their Facebook ads, literally all their advertising. And we had like a metrics to say this is profitable. For every dollar you put into the digital market, you're getting $5 back or whatever the number.

[Filippo]

It's always profitable. Yeah.

[Nick]

And we were told Elon does not believe in advertising advertising. He feels the PR he can generate with a single tweet is far greater than the millions of dollars you could spend. And that was true for years.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was.

[Nick]

And. But there is a downside to that strategy, which is if you fall out of public opinion.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Nick]

That does no longer work.

[Filippo]

There's a real key.

[Doug DeMuro]

Both of these are two really, really, really good points. What, what is the, is the board looking at this in a. Do we have to start taking an action here Perspective?

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And is the guy at the helm like who has been so beneficial for this company for so many years, is he now a liability for the company? And this of course is accompanied with maybe a slowdown in the market in general so people aren't buying as many cars and a slowdown in the EV market.

[Nick]

Perfect.

[Doug DeMuro]

And interest rates going up. It's not a good situation. It is already a difficult environment in which you'll be selling cars and they're going to start rolling back some of these EV incentives which frankly benefit Tesla. Um, we'll see what happens. But I have a, I have a feeling the, the juggernaut that Tesla was. It can't, you can't imagine it continues like this given the, the situation. Unless something changed something.

[Filippo]

0% financing is truly crazy because the Model 3 is their only updated model and the Model S has been identical since the last facelift in 2017. Yeah, the Model X, since it came out in 2017 the Model Y is about to be facelifted. Like that's their newest product. That's their, their bread and butter product. If they're struggling to move that.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Nick]

I mean I get that question too of what should I get EV wise if I don't want a Tesla?

[Filippo]

What do you tell me what's hard?

[Nick]

Because on paper the Tesla's still the most compelling and the best deal. So it's like well you should really at least go drive a Tesla to have a baseline for comparison and then if you don't like it, you know, then go on leashacker.com and buy the cheapest thing you can.

[Doug DeMuro]

I, I genuinely agree with you except that that now that other automakers can tap into the charging network, which I think was a bizarre strategic decision by Tesla that eliminated to me what was their primary advantage. They already don't have the best self driving anymore. Now they don't have the charging network advantage. Plus you have to deal with crazy Elon. The other advantages are not significant. They have better range, but most people don't use the full 300 miles. I honestly don't feel that way. I recommend other EVs to people fairly frequently. There are so many other other options.

[Nick]

My real response is I drive a V12 Lamborghini V8, a V8 Maserati. I am the wrong person to ask about EVs. We burn fuel up in air to tech dinosaurs.

[Filippo]

I also we're going to get so many Tesla comments Yeah, but good.

[Doug DeMuro]

Is anything we're saying not true?

[Filippo]

No.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm only interested. You know, I used to fight with the Tesla people on Twitter, but it became clear to me that they're all stockholders. And it's not interesting to me when someone has a stake. It becomes interesting to me if someone is objective and people online refuse to disclose their position. So that's kind of that. Oh.

[Filippo]

Oh, my God. Goodness.

[Doug DeMuro]

I reviewed the model. Oh, yeah, Me and you reviewed the Model X together. It was great. Okay, next question, next question. Next question. From Indorecan. Doug, how did you meet Hoovy after finally meeting him? What's the quirkiest thing you noticed about him? How did I meet him?

[Nick]

Who?

[Doug DeMuro]

You and I worked together briefly on Jalopnik for Jalopnik. And at some point, I left Jalopnik to go start a blog for autotrader called oversteer. Autotrader.com and I hired Hoovy to come and work for me, even though I had never met him before. And he wrote a column like once a week for us, which was great. And at some point, Autotrader paid for him to come to Atlanta and we filmed some videos together. And I believe that was the first time I met him. And now I meet him.

[Filippo]

Great videos.

[Doug DeMuro]

Great videos. And now it's just me and Hoovy talking. Zero production. And honestly, they're pretty good.

[Nick]

Not only zero production, it was straight up bad production.

[Doug DeMuro]

Bad production.

[Nick]

There was like a curtain.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, it was like us in a production studio. But, like, there was a lot of information, like, stuff was said in those videos. To be clear, there are still like 6 unreleased, by the way. They never will be released. They're long gone. But anyway. And then now every year we see who via tax time related follow up.

[Nick]

Question, since you like to steer into the controversy, what is up with Jalopnik and the weird stuff they post about you? They have the 20 automotive youtubers you don't know about, and there's a picture of you when you were like 7 years old as the hero image. It is bizarre.

[Doug DeMuro]

I. I don't. To be honest, I haven't read Jalopnik.

[Nick]

In the years they got beef for some reason, even though you were a prominent part of their history.

[Doug DeMuro]

I have absolutely no idea what goes on there. And unfortunately, and I haven't read Jalopnik in years, I would like to go back there and read them again. I just. They're not. It's not what I hear.

[Nick]

Gawker Media is thriving, so you missed it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, it's been a long, long, long road since the days of Gawker, which I remember very fondly. The other question here is what is the quirkiest thing about Hoovy? The quirkiest thing about Hoovy is that he is not a particularly boisterous person in real life. So true. He is surprisingly reserved to the point where in some of those videos people like Doug is talking so much more than hoo. Well, Hoovy actually is a fairly quiet dude, despite what it appears when he's on camera, because he's almost always on camera just by himself in his videos and especially when he's off camera. Like when we're having lunch with him, we'll often eight of us or ten of us will have lunch and he won't say much at all during the whole lunch. It's kind of interesting.

[Filippo]

But then he turns it on for the cameras, maybe nodded. Those auto tray ones, those were early.

[Doug DeMuro]

But whereas I am this insane always actually so true. You're insaner. Doug.

[Filippo]

Tony, down for the camera.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, you.

[Nick]

Doug, when I go out to eat with you, like the first few times I had to be like. Like this. Like, I'm sorry for my wild friend here, Nick.

[Doug DeMuro]

You are Nick. The. Some of the stuff you say which I cannot repeat on camera. See, this is, this is where you benefit. We can't say the stuff that you say about people, we can't talk about.

[Nick]

You know what? I think that's why I like Florida so much. Is I felt more liberated to be myself. Like there was nothing I could say that would offend someone. And they're like, oh, I heard something crazy earlier today.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick makes jokes that in 1974 would have been thought of as unacceptable to make. Let's just say that. Okay, next question. You can edit this if you want me, but you shouldn't.

[Nick]

Favorite jokes about OPEC and the oil embargoes. For the.

[Doug DeMuro]

For the record, leaded gas, the transition to unleaded fuel. Okay, let's see, let's see, let's see. Okay, next question for. Oh, this is going to be great. This one's for you from SF00005. What are yalls thoughts on Scotty Kilmer claiming that cars and bids is failing? Like, oh, is is Scotty. I don't know. I. You want be honest.

[Nick]

So Scotty pops up all the time now that I'm googling what, what leaks are what his like video of like how to determine what the. The fluid is. Is like my like it Might as well be my homepage. I don't watch it.

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't watch any Scotty because it obviously is insane. And you know what? When I say Scotty's insane, he makes a video like, don't call me insane. And I'm not insane. And I'm sorry. I actually think Scotty's hilarious. He's insane in a hilarious way. Like you.

[Nick]

Yeah, no, my father in law loves him. Huge fan.

[Doug DeMuro]

And he's always.

[Nick]

He's always given me like, hey, Nick, I got a hot tip for you. You know, you don't actually have to change your oil if you just drain out a cord and then put another cord in every couple of months. Can I. I'm like, I don't think that's true.

[Filippo]

What's happening here?

[Doug DeMuro]

He makes it. He's like, I'm quitting YouTube. He makes it. I'm quitting YouTube like, like every six months or so. I love Scotty in a way because I. I respect the hell out of what he does, which is he posts multiple video. I think it's a grind. We post three or four videos a week. It's a lot of work. He posts like, multiple a day. I'm telling you, like, he is legit out there. And the result of that, when you're trying to post multiple days, you run out of topics. Right. And so he does some. Tesla just announced he can no longer stay in business.

[Filippo]

We didn't need to have that conversation about Tesla at all.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, he's already got us covered. Here's a scam about Toyota. Like, he realized, like, he can lean.

[Nick]

Into YouTube like 700 times just in this.

[Doug DeMuro]

So the problem is that. That because of that, he's always. He's kind of always saying whatever he has to to kind of get clicks and end result. I hate to say it because I think he's great, but he appeals to kind of the lowest common denominator. If you're a Scotty fan, you should consider that. Like, you should be wondering, am I doing life right? But anyway, he says cars business failing. He said, everything that I've ever done is failing. And every other YouTuber and every car company, according to him, Toyota, Honda and Tesla are failing just in the last.

[Filippo]

And Ford.

[Doug DeMuro]

And Ford is failing also. So I think he's wrong. We got some private equity cash. All right. Okay, next question. Oh, here's a question from Jack AC. Do you think Volkswagen would have actually sold Phaetons if they were sold as Audis? Yeah. No, they did. It was called the A8.

[Filippo]

And they didn't sell that many of those either.

[Doug DeMuro]

And they didn't. Next question from MO Dolly. Doug, you allegedly have a habit of going speeds. I don't want to say. During your reviews. Have you ever gotten pulled over by the police during your review views? No, I never have. I get this question a lot. Have I ever damaged a car, been pulled over by the police? Never either.

[Nick]

When we were doing that photo shoot you showed earlier of the My Mercy Bentley and Maserati all on Montana plates. We're at a stoplight and a motorcycle cop comes up right next to us. And I'm thinking, oh my God, we are the most conspicuous group of Montana plates this officer has ever seen in his life and will ever see in his life. And you know what he said? He goes, which one of you is Nick? And then he goes, he's a fan of your channel and a fan of you. And thankfully, by association, I got the goodwill that you've endeared.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, I've never even had to test that. I. I'd be curious to. I have gotten pulled over driving my regular cars in regular settings and gotten tickets since I've been doing YouTube usually on that cross country drive I do every summer. But although it's been years even since I've been pull over there, so. But no, never during. Never during a review. I've never had any sort of. Occasionally, police, actually occasionally will come up to me when I'm filming like in a church. But usually they just want to say, hey, see the car, make sure nothing's wrong. You know, they never tell me to move or jerks. They're always nice and I'm always respectful to them. Okay, final question from Julian Evans. Having just seen the Value Progress beast, what is the ugliest supercar in your view? Did you see the Value Progress Beast? That was the Diablo that we talked about last year.

[Nick]

Yeah, horrible.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay. Ugliest supercar without any question, doubt or. Or discussion. Oh, why he goes back to Scotty Lamborghini Veneno. How could not.

[Filippo]

No, no.

[Nick]

There's a Scion for sale right now, by the way, speaking of ugly Lambos.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, a Sian.

[Nick]

Sian.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, I was wondering, the Lamborghini Veneo. Wait, pull out.

[Nick]

No, I think that's cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

What? Nick, you're crazy. Nick, are you joking? It's like. I don't think it's like an Aventador with the ugliest body kit that anybody has ever seen in their entire life.

[Nick]

I mean, that's what it is. This But I think it's cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

Click on the.

[Nick]

I would definitely rock that.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick, are you.

[Nick]

I could think of far.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's just a Aventador with Boltons that are ugly and that extend the length of the vehicle by 20 years. This is the ugliest car I've ever seen in my life. Ever.

[Nick]

No.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, fine. Give me it then. I'm going to need a ugliest supercar in your view.

[Filippo]

I'm not part of the.

[Doug DeMuro]

Give us an ugly car.

[Filippo]

I, I, I got.

[Doug DeMuro]

Give us an ugly car while he.

[Filippo]

Thinks I, I got nothing.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is the ugliest car. You agree with me, right?

[Filippo]

It is certainly striking more than it is beautiful.

[Doug DeMuro]

Keep scrolling down. I. When I remember when they first released it, some of the, like, original wheel designs and stuff were so. Sorry.

[Filippo]

Did the wheels design get better?

[Doug DeMuro]

I, I think a lot of these are. Are wraps or faux or renderings. God, that is the ugliest car. Click on that.

[Nick]

Yeah, that's.

[Doug DeMuro]

You're telling me. That is an attractive car.

[Nick]

That's not a good angle.

[Doug DeMuro]

That is. There's no good angle.

[Nick]

That's a bad angle.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick, you got to tell me, what is the ugliest super.

[Nick]

That is a great, great question. I'm sure it'll. It'll ask Owl maybe.

[Filippo]

No, it's not.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's not bad looking.

[Nick]

I know these haven't said aspark out in a while. We haven't felt like it was new.

[Doug DeMuro]

We got off that.

[Nick]

How do you think they're doing?

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay.

[Nick]

I don't even think they sold a second unit yet. To be fair.

[Filippo]

Not a beautiful automobile.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, wait. I have one for you that I think might be it, because I just googled ugly supercar and one one came up that I was reminded of. Look up the Mitsuoka Orochi.

[Filippo]

Oh, sure. Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know this car? No.

[Nick]

Ooh, not good.

[Filippo]

Earlier, I'm surprised you didn't go for the Puma. Cause you mentioned the car earlier.

[Nick]

Yeah, it's ugly.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, here's another one. Look up McLaren Senna.

[Filippo]

What is the Puma supercar called?

[Doug DeMuro]

Uabian Puma. You're not gonna look up the Senna and humor me.

[Nick]

No, I was gonna suggest it's not technically a supercar, it's a super truck. But the Spyker pecking to Paris.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, yeah. Spiker peeking to Paris.

[Nick]

That is one of the ugliest vehicles ever.

[Doug DeMuro]

That is pretty bad. Spiker peeking to Paris or pecking? It's going to peck all. It's going to peck all the way to Paris.

[Nick]

I Think this looks at that thing.

[Filippo]

Man, I. I'm so into this.

[Doug DeMuro]

This came from the era when the sports car companies were just trying to make bigger versions of their sports car.

[Nick]

This so much, they went in a Photoshop and they just elongated like mansari.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like, man, I love it too. To be clear, if whoever has this, I buy this instead of the eight signet y 75 grand. Oh, I want to leave you guys today with a part. Oh, wait. Berton Mantid. Berton Mantid. That's the answer.

[Filippo]

Berto, man. What?

[Doug DeMuro]

B E R T O N E M a N t I d e.

[Nick]

11 that will piss you and Kenan up. But I, I, I, I stand on this, and I will regret this one day. When Kennan get one. The 612 Skag Hane.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's known to be hane, though. It's kind of a drawback of it. I want to leave you guys with a parting thought today.

[Filippo]

Please do.

[Doug DeMuro]

Which is that if Filippo were to get money, he would buy a Volkswagen XL1 and a Polestar 1 1. He'd have. You know how we'd get like. We'd get like, a McLaren F1 and a F50.

[Filippo]

That's such a good point.

[Doug DeMuro]

He would have.

[Filippo]

I want the Pular one.

[Doug DeMuro]

I do own the XL one and a Pular one.

[Filippo]

No, I don't want the Pulsar one, but I want the XL one.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, but you'd have a daily and you'd be like, you know. You know, Doug, a Pular one's only $36,000.

[Filippo]

They're annoyingly expensive.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, dude, they're not. Someone sent. They're not. My point is, this is the person who Filippo is.

[Nick]

Thank you for that part.

[Filippo]

Parting thought.

[Doug DeMuro]

Do you have any. Do you have any final thoughts for us to end the pod?

[Nick]

No, I don't.

[Doug DeMuro]

You think.

[Nick]

Thank you for listening.

[Doug DeMuro]

You think the Nino looks good?

[Nick]

I don't think it looks bad. I would say on like a scale of 1 to 10, it's just an.

[Doug DeMuro]

Eventual with the ugliest body kit ever designed. Value progress.

[Nick]

Okay, the. The CLK GTR is just a body kit.

[Filippo]

We gotta send this now?

[Doug DeMuro]

No, no, but it isn't. It isn't.

[Nick]

It's a wide body, you know? Same, same.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's a Renton body.

[Nick]

Renton.

[Doug DeMuro]

The rent on it is. It's not particularly attractive.

[Nick]

No, it's. It's gorgeous.

[Filippo]

This is much more beautiful than the.

[Nick]

My had the same car.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, Nick, it has been an absolute pleasure having you here in the office. Thanks. Thanks for coming all the way down here in your Ford Focus. Because all your other cars are broken.

[Nick]

It technically runs just leaky.

[Doug DeMuro]

Even the Ford Focus is broken.

[Nick]

Yes.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Nick]

No, I mean the Bentley.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I understood. Goodbye, everybody. Thank you so much for watching our greatest episode yet.

[Nick]

Goodbye.