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C
Hello and welcome to this car pod.
A
I'm Kenan.
B
I'm Filippo.
C
I'm Doug. Ryan Lopez is off camera. Let's start with the news. Yes. Bugatti is the big news story of the week. Porsche is divesting. You heard about this? Of course. This is a big story. Porsche has had some financial troubles. They used to make a lot of money. Now they make very little money. They decided to sell their stake in Bugatti to private equity. Yep. You don't have any thoughts on this?
B
I mean, they're just for context on them as a whole. Operating profits in Q1 were down 22% year over year. They do maybe need some cash.
C
Porsche needs some cash. Their profits fell something like 90% between 24 and 25. They only made $479 million last year. That's all they made.
B
It's a tough life.
C
That's tough, to be fair. Must be unbelievable. Revenue was like this and expenses were like this.
A
You've seen the factory. Yeah.
C
You know, they got a lot of German fellows, overalls.
A
They got that bridge.
C
Yep.
B
Expenses maintained. So eating and winter hard.
C
They're sold their stake in Bugatti and Rimac, which is like the same. I've never really understood it.
B
A few years ago, there's a joint venture of Bugatti and rim.
C
I've never really understood it and now I don't have to. It's all sold.
B
But you still have to understand the joint venture.
C
I don't JV do that. So is Porsche and is Volkswagen completely out of Bugatti now?
B
I remember there being a weird situation where. Yeah, sorry. Volkswagen is fully out of everything. Bugatti, Rimac.
A
Wow.
C
That's a big deal.
A
That is a big deal because that's. I mean, Volkswagen is what resurrected Bugatti, in essence, gave us the Veyron and started the whole thing.
C
Is that true, Filippo?
B
No more Volkswagen and Bugatti.
C
So what's going to happen?
B
I don't know, but HOF Capital, HOFF Capital, very proud of Bugatti. It's like up there in their list of portfolio companies now.
C
Oh, God.
B
They own a 45% stake. The Rimac Group owns a 55% stake. Obviously, I suspect nothing will happen.
C
This is it. So the Volkswagen lineup went. This is sad because the Volkswagen lineup went from the very lowest tier company, Skoda, all the way up. Huh?
B
Sayat?
C
No, I said what I said all the way up to Bugatti at the very, very top. Right?
A
Yeah.
C
That is a wild. They had Lamborghini. You could go Lamborghini, Bentley, the whole. There was this whole gamut. And wait, they have Opal, right?
B
No cell. Lansis has Opal.
C
Oh, right, okay.
B
Because that would have been the.
A
Yeah.
B
Seat still exists.
C
Nope, nope. And now there's Bugatti's gone. Lamborghini is our pinnacle brain.
B
To be clear, Bugatti's still wrapped.
C
Yeah. But let me tell you know what happens when private equity owns a car company. It's not Volkswagen. The thing that made Volkswagen special with Bugatti, at least when I was a boy, was that Volkswagen had this fellow named Ferdinand, like the bull. And he was in there at the Bugatti and he just decided that he would spend whatever it took to create this absolute iconic, world class ultra car that was the fastest thing anybody had ever imagined. And private equity has the exact opposite opinions. Do you know what I mean? Like they lost money. I mean, Porsche straight, Volkswagen straight. Lost a ton of money on Bugatti.
B
Yeah. Yep.
C
Initially, presumably they've made money since.
B
I think they helped cost.
C
So what? Now it's all over. Plus they can't share. I mean, remember the Veyron had a Passat key fob.
B
They may very well still have some parts. Sharing, you can do that even if you're not co owned.
C
I know, but we're all sad about it.
B
I don't have any emotion whatsoever about it.
A
Well, I'm shocked at that. You don't have emotion about a nice thing. I'm stunned.
C
Or anything at all.
B
Or anything at all.
C
Bugatti in your mind isn't a special thing. Like when I think of the car world, I think of Bugatti as sort of the Pinnacle brand. And the cool thing about Bugatti the cool thing about Koenigsegg was that you could meet the guy. The cool thing about Bugatti was that it was developed by a real company.
B
If we're honest, I feel like in 2021, a joint venture with RIMAC was created and like ownership went to Porsche for a portion of it and then the Rimac group for the rest. That already changed the fundamentals.
C
Yeah, but Porsche is Volkswagen. Volkswagen is Porsche. They have been ever since they were making cars for that fella back in the 40s. My view on this remains.
B
Hey, what fella?
C
You know, you remember him?
A
You know, the more I hear about that guy, the more I don't like him.
C
The point remains, Volkswagen is out.
B
Yeah.
C
What a.
B
What they did say when they started the joint venture. Like, we're combining the, like, new technological aspects of Rimmats, which is doing a lot of EVs at the time, with the, like, expertise that we, as the Porsche brand and Volkswagen have in building cars.
C
Don't you just trust Bugatti less now? Any desire I had to have a Veyron, which was actually some desire, some actual desire, definitely have kicked it around. I have less desire today.
A
Yeah, there will. Yeah. Without any support for those cars, I mean, they still exist.
B
They're still maybe French, maybe Italian, maybe French. We don't know.
A
Volkswagen had the money.
C
We never understood.
A
Volkswagen had the money to spend to keep stuff around for the Veyron. That's not going to. I don't see that happening going forward.
B
Still a billion dollar brand. That's a guess for what we got.
A
I mean, yes, but it will eventually be a car that was made, you know, 30, 40 years ago at some point in the. Are we really going to continue to support this thing? Volkswagen might have said yes to keep the brand active.
C
They were only briefly Italian and it was a completely different operation.
A
But you hear Bugatti, the factory was beautiful. No, no, that's a common misconception.
C
I know the French, they come. This guy, this guy in Italy, his name was Romano Artioli. He bought Bugatti for a brief period and moved the whole thing to Italy.
B
Smart.
C
And then it all went belly up. And then. And then Volkswagen bought the remnants of him and brought it all back to what they consider to be France.
A
Great Italian tradition. It completely failed and the factory was beautiful, but it's still there.
C
What is Roman Artioli's legacy?
A
The Lotus Elise. The name for the Lotus Elise, his granddaughter.
C
He owned Lotus and named the Lotus Elise after his granddaughter.
B
Regardless, it is Now Bugatti no longer. Yeah, part of it. But they have some private equity money and that's going to work.
C
Everything's going to go great. Can't wait for the tour beyond. Move on to the next news story. Oh, Chinese cars, my God, Chinese cars have been absolutely blowing up. I go to the Wall street tour.
B
Not literally.
C
Front page of the Wall Street Journal there. And no, they're not blowing up. My God, quite the opposite. They're very nice. The party. The party will be happy with us.
A
That is right.
C
I go to the front page of the Wall Street Journal and there's an article about Chinese cars. And I click on the article, which I was interviewed for, apparently on background. No, it was fine. I loved it.
B
Could have given me better quotes.
C
It was all good. Yeah, I know I don't have much interesting to say. However, I, I click on the article, go through the article and I've discovered something interesting. Some of the Democrats, those are the people in the Congress, have introduced the most ridiculous bill where they want to ban Chinese cars not only from the US where they're essentially already banned for a variety of reasons from being built or made or sold, but from even entering the United States.
B
It is a wild. By the way, Bernie Moreno, who owns a lot of car dealerships in Ohio, of memory serves, he also is in support of this.
C
He is part of to big surprise. But like Jamie Raskin, who's like one of your lib heroes, is part of it. And even entering. So here's what they're going to do. If the libs get their way, here's what they're going to do. Okay, you're coming over. You're a tourist from Mexico, which by the way, here in San Diego, I see a Mexican car. It's the most frequent license plate I see aside from California. Right. Do you agree? I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds I see every single day. And a good portion of them are
B
Chinese cars because they have a compelling product that's sold in Mexico. Yeah.
C
You come up to the border, okay, you're in a Kia Rio. You're good. You can go over. Oh, you're in a car. Let's check the vinyl. It starts with L. I'm so sorry, you can't come over. You're just a tourist driving a car. You're not allowed to bring it into America for a day to go to SeaWorld. Yeah. These people are so astute.
B
I want to give a little bit of context because it's vaguely important. So right now, Chinese cars, if they are broadly not allowed in the US and face very steep tariffs if they do come. And the Trump administration has basically said on top of those tariffs, we won't allow some manufacturers. Yeah, generally, I'm oversimplifying a little bit. He President Trump opened the door a little bit during a speech a few weeks ago saying maybe we can, with the right terms, allow some Chinese manufacturing, if they manufacture them in the US but they're a Chinese brand, which I totally support.
C
Yeah, we'd allow it for the Koreans. Right.
B
And there's been a little bit of a reaction to that of both Democrats and Republicans. But a Democrat wrote that letter saying, no, we shouldn't allow the Chinese cars under any condition.
C
Jamie Raskin, who seemed until today like a fairly reasonable individual congressman, Maryland Chinese cars, even driving in America, existential threat to the car industry. And why is that? It's because someone might see them and say, damn, that's a pretty good car. Jamie Raskin's exit, by the way, he's a congressman from suburban Maryland. There's no production in his district. He views as an existential threat that we might see Chinese cars and decide, oh, they're actually not so bad.
B
Yeah. Which, by the way, is the premise of that Wall street journalist in the border towns they name El Paso. But San Diego is true here, too. You see those cars and they are appealing.
C
When I was interviewed for this article, I was on the phone while I was driving Sean's G Wagon, actually. And at the end of the interview, I told Ryan Felton, who wrote the story. I told him I had seen several Chinese cars while we were talking.
B
Yeah, but we're banned now.
C
They can't drive over the border.
B
By the way, my. I do feel for the people that drive Buick envisions or the. What about that 90?
C
What about. Imagine if Jamie Rascal, of course, has no idea about any of this stuff, but imagine if he knew there are already Chinese cars. They've already infiltrated. The Buick envision has already infiltrated our country.
B
And the long wheelbase and presumably some
C
number of Teslas that were built in China and sold in Canada, which was allowed. They've come over the border. God knows where they are now.
B
Oh, no.
C
Aren't there even. Probably other Volvos? They were probably Volvo.
B
I believe the S90 was built there. I think for a little while. Polestar 2's built in China. We're fine here.
C
But God, don't hold me to that, Jamie Raskin. We gotta ban the Polestar 2. Don't worry, though. The consumer, the car Buying public has already done.
B
Can I read a quote from Bob Lutz? Because I sent this to you earlier but I find it to be one of the best quotes.
C
Okay, go ahead.
B
Bob Lutz. Can you describe Bob Lutz?
A
It's like the quintessential American.
B
He was an auto CEO.
C
Yeah.
B
Also wild. Yeah. He said that he had an epiphany earlier this decade about how.
C
When is this. Bob list is. I'm looking at 94.
A
When is this quote from 1993?
B
The quote is for the. In preparation for this article.
C
I believe he's still given interviews.
B
I believe so. That's what. That's what it implies. Apparently in this article he's quoted as saying that earlier this decade he had an epiphany about how advanced Beijing had become when he bought a Chinese made Buick Envision.
C
Bob, let's Buick Envision because of the
B
total silkiness and sweet refinement he said, I thought, boy, if they know how to make Buicks like this in China, they obviously know how to make great work.
C
Pull up a picture of the Buick envision. For those of you who don't know, the Buick Envision is the single most mediocre vehicle manufactured and sold in the United States in the last 15 years.
B
Please go back to. Yeah, I mean honestly, any of them.
C
But first.
B
Yes, I do.
C
It was that one that was really so offensive. Boy, I'll tell you, Bob Lutz, if they can build a Buick like this one, America doesn't stand a chance.
A
It really stirs the soul.
C
180 horsepower, 2.4 liter, 4 cylinder and the cloth seats were pre stained.
B
The total silkiness and sweet refinement of the vehicle.
C
The truth of the matter is, of course this car was not available to consumers because it was such a big hit with Hertz.
B
There weren't any leftover. What a shame.
C
Couldn't buy one, you couldn't find one.
B
High demand anyway.
C
Chinese cars banned from America. In theory, that's what the libs want. However, it would be really bad if it happened because the next news story is you know what's wild?
B
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B
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A
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C
Great Wall, Filippo's hero company.
B
Probably they're not my favorite of the manufacturer.
C
He has a favorite Chinese car company. My favorite is MG because it's a heritage. Exactly. Just like my grand pappies.
B
Anyway, all right. At the Beijing Auto show, they revealed additional information about a platform that they actually talked about at ces. But they are thinking about launching Great Wall Motors. Gwm, named after indeed the Great Wall. They're the GF sub brand, which is great faith, but they have a.
C
The old GWM gf, they have really
B
rolls off the top.
C
The Trump people are concerned about Chinese cars being sold in the United States. I reviewed a car called the Fengcheng Bao. What was it called? The feng cheng bao. Leopard 5. Leopard 5, but that was a loose translation.
B
But don't forget about the BYD Seal and the Dolphin and other nice animals.
C
That's true. They had a car called the Dolphin Hand.
B
Regardless, they've announced that they're working on a V8, a 4 liter turbocharged mid engine V8 and a carbon fiber monocoque
C
chassis to take on Ferrari. Yeah, your company is going to get taken down by gwm.
A
You know, let me tell you something. I feel okay. We're going to be fine.
C
No, no. Ferrari's moved on to six cylinder powertrains, plug in hybrids in the V12 SUV
A
that they currently build.
C
Oh, speaking of SUVs, Great Wall also said that this V8 is going to find its way into the tank, which is a giant bulky thing that they make it's a big suv. So Ferrari's over here, mid size suv, Ferrari's over. Yeah, but it looks bulky. It looks like it's a G wagon. It looks bulky, but it isn't. Ferrari's over here with their six cylinders and they're losing formul unlike Cadillac, who
A
wins and not so close enough.
C
Great Wall is coming in with a V8. Now, why is a Chinese company developing a gasoline powertrain of any kind, let alone.
B
They've made clear that this is not aligned with current trends in China. But they want to compete internationally and they do think that especially in the US and especially in the supercar segment, they need a V8.
C
I'm reading the lines here and the belief that Great Wall thinks that the barriers for the United States for Chinese cars to enter may fall.
B
Yeah. I do imagine they also are thinking maybe about the Middle east where there is some appetite still for the Great Wall never fell. They certainly are thinking about that. A lot of the Chinese manufacturers, especially this week, the Beijing auto show is wrapping up. There've been a lot of kind of press, cycles and interviews. A lot of them are saying, we do expect that we'll be trying to establish a dealer base or production in the US in the coming years. There's certainly an outlook towards that. Chinese manufacturers, the competition in China in the automotive space is quite tough. It's tough to.
C
The Chinese automakers want to sell cars, not just.
B
They need to survive.
C
Yeah. Fundamentally there's like 100 Chinese brands and
B
profits are massively declining because of a huge price war that is happening, driving prices down. Byd, which is one of the largest, has had quite horrible earnings in Q1. They need to expand to Europe. They need to expand to the U.S. which is, if they're successful, likely be their second largest market after China. That expansion matters. And they think that if we bring. I think Gray Wall Motors is thinking if we bring engineering from. They have an engineer that was a chief engineer for McLaren for a while.
A
Right. Known for their reliability.
B
This is not a reliability play. This is a performance and they think that it can work. And so clearly they're taking steps towards that.
C
I think that it's interesting. I'm not sure about cool, but I think that it's interesting that they're taking steps towards that.
B
I think they're cool.
C
Didn't you just say it's cool that they're taking steps towards that?
B
Clear. I think.
C
Roll the tape back.
B
Roll it back. I don't remember what I said. I just vamp. I don't know.
C
Regardless Definitely. Kind of an odd situation, especially considering at the simultaneous with this V8, you have Jamie Raskin trying to ban the thought of Chinese cars in America.
A
So they're named after the Great Wall. And we have a Great Wall.
C
We got a Great Wall. And I. Yeah, it's the border patrol at the thing, looking at VINs, trying to figure out if your car was built in China. Oh, I'm sorry. Your Model 3 was built in China. You can't come go back and find a Model 3 that was built in Texas. You come right over the border. Silly, dumb lawmaker bs Repeated reminder that lawmakers have no idea what's going on. Speaking of people who have no idea what's going on. And speaking of MG and Great Wall, our great Chinese.
B
Where is this going?
C
The other day, I was driving in my Countach. Sure. Yeah.
B
And they barely knew what was going on. Let's be honest.
C
I pull up next to. At a stoplight there up the street, Actually, just up the street, I pull up next to an mg. Like a real mg. It's interesting that you say that. I think they're all real MGs, which is why when the guy said to me, wow, I haven't seen one of those in a while, I said to him, I haven't seen one of those since I drove the Cyberster.
B
How did he react?
C
I didn't actually say that, but I should have.
A
But mostly because A would be dumb, and B, you can't be heard over the car.
C
He's talking to me. I'm like, dude, don't. Yeah. All right, next one of these. Ah.
A
Oh, wow.
B
All right, Shelby. So we've been talking. The Dark Horse and the Dark Horse SC for supercharged very cool car are out now. Have been talked about. They've been revealed.
A
Yeah.
B
There's been an open question of why they got rid of the Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT500 nomenclature. We have learned this week that Shelby was apparently taking an $800 per vehicle cut of the Shelby branded models. And that was enough for Ford to decide, we're done with that. We're keeping our $800 and Shelby name. The Shelby name is meaningless to us.
C
They are.
B
The Shelby name is worth less than.
A
So now they're like, everybody's trying to
C
cut costs in here or there. We got the tariffs to deal with.
A
And so Ford decides to cut Heritage.
C
Tens of millions of dollars were paid out.
B
Therefore, how many could they have sold?
C
14,000 units of the GT500. That's 11 million. And apparently it's another 20 plus million for the GT350. Wow. 800 a car. It's real money.
B
I mean it's real money.
C
I would argue that it probably. We'll see what happens with the Dark Horse, which I think is lovely. It has not been a great seller. There appears to be one in the office.
B
There is. It's not a Dark Horse gt.
C
I don't know what that is, but I knew when I saw a GT350, I knew what that was.
B
Right. There's one of those in the office too.
C
Is it worth 800? Probably.
B
That's the question.
A
Yeah. Shelby brand has been so inextricably linked to the Mustang since its inception and to Dodge. Well, he did work for Chris for a time. For last Carol worked on was the first. And Viper.
C
I agree with that. Like there's all these Ford Shelby's. There's all these Chrysler Shelby's. What the hell is going on?
A
The glh, a great vehicle.
C
Very great.
B
Yeah.
A
Goes like hell. But I don't know, I'm in two minds about it because the Dark Horse is really cool. But I agree, like when I see the Shelby badge as a, you know, as a Midwestern, I know what that means.
C
Probably worth the 800 bucks. I think Shelby had such a. There was such a following there. I wonder if it also prevented them from using Cobra because they ditched Shelby but for some reason didn't bring back Cobra, which they haven't used since 04. You'd think that's where they would have gone if they wanted to get a Mustang performance trim. But instead they came up with this new one which is Dark Horse, which I think has been a little bit confusing to enthusiast. Enthusiast, to be honest. Is that the new Shelby? I don't know.
A
Cobra must, they must own it because the Shelby Cobra, like that was where that.
C
Maybe so. I mean Mustang Cobra was also a thing for a long, long, long, long time. But I wanted decades.
A
It might be related there, who knows? I don't really know where the trademarks
C
lie, but $30 million, some, some big amount of money went to Shelby. Now I think Shelby deserves a big amount of money. They got a cool brand, for God's sake. Didn't we all love the Chrysler Laser Shelby. Oh, the Daytona. Remember the Daytona?
A
Yeah, the one from.
C
Yeah, front wheel drive hatchback Shelby. Do you remember this car? Oh you do? You do not. You were living in Italy, which, what year was that? Like Dodge Daytona, Shelby. I'm not talking about the real Shelby Daytona.
B
Oh yeah, no, of course I remember this.
C
This.
B
Yeah, of course. We hosted one.
C
Let me tell you something. This car had at least 140 horsepower.
B
We'll find out.
A
We'll see. The Shelby Z, I don't think it
B
even sold by auto pure garage. 200 pound feet though.
C
This thing was a mover and a shaker.
A
This car was fine.
C
If you're ready for it.
A
Oh.
B
Oh, yeah. Oh, I want that in my life.
A
It is so shiny.
C
Are you disappointed that you're not a part of this?
B
Yes, I am.
C
I've always wanted to review all these 80s Chryslers. None of them work. Right.
B
Now that Ford is no longer paying them, maybe they'll come out with other partnerships.
C
Maybe we can get the Dodge Dart back. All right, give us our next news story, please.
B
I'm good. All right.
C
Speaking of the Dodge Dart.
B
Yeah. There is a report that was exclusive to Reuters this week that Stellantis is going to focus the majority of its investment in four brands. They have 14 brands as we've talked about before, those brands dead. No, that's not actually true. Those brands will have some like platform sharing and like that's not even really what. And maybe some local.
C
You are, you are totally out of character, out of line with what actually was reported, which is that they are
B
going to focus everything I said.
C
God. I just click on Stellantis and hit news to pull this story up. And the thing is coming up is Stellantis noise Employees complain of nosebleeds, migraines, vomiting Detroit Stellantis HQ ailment complaints what we know. Stellantis HQ investigated by employee illnesses Stellantis workers raise health concerns at Auburn Hills HQ oh my God.
B
I will give the actual.
C
The reliability is. Is so bad it's infecting the people.
B
They are still going to make all the brands to be clear they currently have. Although they have made clear that they may dispose of some in the future. That may not be the word they use, but that's.
A
Yeah, I hope not.
B
They're going to dispose but they will obviously still do some like badge engineering, platform sharing with other brands and have some region specific.
C
I want to make a point.
B
Can you name the four brands? Kenan?
C
Yeah, it's. It's Ken and Kenan and I will please.
A
Js, Jeep, Alfa Romeo.
B
No, wait, the four. Four that survive.
A
Yeah. Jeep Alpha, I guess. Ram.
C
I don't remember the other two.
B
That's really unfortunate.
C
What are they?
B
There's four. You can only remember two.
C
Well, those are the only ones. Can I tell you why I don't think this is.
B
What are they? Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat.
C
The reason I don't think this is a big news story. They already are only focusing on the primary brands.
B
Jeep has gotten the brands like Chrysler. That has a minor facelift.
C
By the way, did you see that Chrysler is reportedly legitimately considering making an off road Pacifica?
B
I did and I decided not to include it.
C
You know what makes sad about that? I wouldn't buy it. Even though last week I said I want an off road minivan. I don't want an off road Pacifica, I want an off road Sienna. I don't trust the Pacifica. Listen, I think this is great and I'm thrilled that you're doing this. Chrysler. I don't trust your vehicles to go off road. Where I want a Sienna. Give me a lifted Sienna. Give me a lifted Odyssey.
B
Toyota, you listen. Basically what they've said is probably not is Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat are going to receive the largest investments in new platforms, new engine, new powertrains, whatever. And the other brands will also share those, will benefit from that technology development, but we'll have kind of smaller budgets.
C
It is interesting not to call out Dodge as a brand that they're focusing on.
B
They sell one product.
C
Yeah, but until yesterday they sold one unbelievably popular product which was the Challenger and Charger.
B
Oh sure, you're right. I'm sorry, they sell two products. I forgot about the Challenger entirely. Or the Charger or whatever it's called.
C
You get my point though. Like it's interesting that there's not a focus on trying to like those cars were some of the top sellers for years and there's not a focus on trying to like make. Because if you think about the other Peugeot, Fiat and the truck brands, there's not a Dodge Charger in there.
B
I also don't really get like Ram will certainly be truck chassis development, et cetera. Jeep will develop all the SUV's and I imagine there'll be a Durango that is shared than that. Whatever. Fiat and Peugeot, I don't understand what they're going with for Differentiation. I imagine Peugeot will be slightly. Fiat will probably be their low cost brand because their largest market, South American markets.
C
Yeah.
B
And Peugeot will be the European.
C
You need Peugeot for Europe, for France specifically. Yeah. You can't get rid of Peugeot because the French government will.
B
Will lose their mind. I'm surprised that they're investing in both. I imagine Fiat will have to be their like cheap tertiary market development for cheaper Jeep.
C
Honestly, Fiat is the car version And Jeep is the SUV version. You know, Jeep overseas has become very different from Jeep real estate. The cars are like, not even related.
B
For example, not the Dodge Avenger, the Jeep Avenger.
C
You go to Italy and there's Jeeps. And I'm looking at them, I'm like,
B
it's an Italian brand.
C
Where have. Yeah, it is, it is now. And it's like, what is this thing? It makes sense. I think it makes sense. The four brands they're choosing to focus on. I am interested to see what will happen to the other brands. But unlike you, who thinks they're going to go away, I think they're still going to get cars. They will just not be the recipient of the primary Focus. Jeep obviously has to be the big one because it's the only one that has real clout.
B
No performance component is somewhat interesting though. Right. There's no Maserati Alpha in that they'll make.
C
That's what I'm saying. Like with no Dodge, you're not focusing on Charger Challenger. I don't think Peugeot Fiat creates a car that the Charger Challenger could be.
B
Yeah.
C
So then you're thinking, wait a minute, what, Isn't that still a priority? No, we want our V8s.
B
Well, no, the V8s are for the rams. It's the electric. That's.
C
We want our V8s.
B
There's no charger sold with a V8
C
going to be like tomorrow.
B
I will say Jeep of, of the Solantis brands in the U.S. jeep has a 47% market share. Ram has 34% and then the rest market share of the Stellantis brands in the US and RAM has what, 37, 34%.
C
You know, if you had looked at that five years ago when Dodge was still selling the Charger and the Challenger, those numbers wouldn't be the case.
B
Right. Or 15 years ago when it was all branded. Dodge would be different.
C
Yeah, definitely that too. All right, what's our next news story? Oh, yes, speaking of Chrysler, I can't believe we're going to talk about this.
B
This is just such a great story.
C
We're going to tell the story, move on.
B
All right, this is a Ram Promaster. It is advertised as having a nine speed transmission and indeed the transmission has nine speeds.
A
There's nine gears.
B
There are nine gears. But there's. There's a lawsuit, a class action lawsuit. Right now that it is intentionally programmed to never go into Gears 8 or 9.
C
This is what the lawsuit alleges.
B
Alleges, yes.
C
That the transmission is for various Reasons Stellantis, even though it's a nine speed automatic, has programmed it so it will never reach eighth gear and ninth gear. Now, I know what you're thinking. Oh, no. When you're like you without my gear,
B
when you rebuild the transmission, you'll have two. You don't need to, they said.
A
Was that gear made in China? You can't come in here. Can't use this one.
C
It is still such a great plus. What are the damages, right?
A
That is a great question.
B
Yeah.
C
Fuel economy.
A
Right. That's the only one I can think of.
C
But the EPA.
B
The EPA. So it wouldn't have gone up to 8th or 9th for testing either. Yeah.
C
All right, move on to our next story, please. Oh, yeah, me and Mothers. Folks, this is a massive deal. This is the biggest news story of the week. We are partnering with Mothers. Yeah. Mothers makes the finest detailing products in the world, on the planet. And we are now partnering with Mothers. We've got Mothers stuff over there in the thing, in the podcast set. We are going to have Mother's products integrated. There's gonna be all sorts of cool Mothers things that come out of this.
B
Yeah.
C
I wanna tell you a story. I went up to their headquarters.
B
Yeah.
C
Which are somewhere north of here.
B
Yep.
C
Maybe it's Orange County. Maybe it's Los Angeles. We don't remember.
B
Nobody knows.
C
And they were great. We met all the mother's people. It was a lovely experience. I met Mother.
B
Wait, there's a mother.
C
I met Mother. She is real. She is a woman. She is Mother.
A
You know, I never really thought about the name, but it's actually because there's a mother.
C
There is a mother. Mothers, to this day, despite being this big detailing powerhouse, is a family owned company. And Mother is at the top. Wow. Yeah.
B
And then her son's like how she
C
has two sons who run the business. And then there's obviously like employees and like an office and all that. They were real car enthusiasts. It was super fun going up there and meeting them. We got to see all their cool cars. At one point I tried to make my own details. How did that go? Let me tell you something. There's a fellow there at the mother's and he sits in the lab all day long. He's got a. He's got a 100 series, I think. Oh, I assume he sits in the lab. Well, I'll tell you a story about that. He sits in the lab all day long and he makes the things, the concoctions. Yeah, he's like a wizard, kind of. And he's wearing a lab. He said that if anybody who enters the parking lot and parks their car, it's considered to be fair game that you might have a product test. He said, to the point where when like plumbers come by, they're like. Cause those are like the dirtiest cars. They're like going out to the plumber's trucks without necessarily even asking and just kind of spraying and wiping. That's life at mothers.
B
Anyway.
C
We have a partnership. There's gonna be a lot of cool stuff that comes out of this. A lot of cool stuff. You're gonna love it. You, the audience member, are going to love it.
B
Can I share something we're doing to celebrate?
C
Yeah. What are we doing to celebrate?
B
We are giving away five massive prize packs. There's a link in the description below. Each winner is gonna get a co branded back to the with cars and beds and Mothers.
C
I have one of these bags.
B
Have you seen it? No, cuz you took it.
C
You ain't getting it.
B
Damn. What? What?
C
What? What if I. Unless you win the giveaway. Yes.
A
Which you know what, your cars are always so filthy. You really need to enter that or go park in their car.
C
He needs more than just.
B
I know I cleaned my car this weekend because I was going to drive it and I cleaned it and we have all the mother's products and then it rained and now there's water spots. Now you understand and I understand you're paid. I honestly will clean it again in weeks and it'll be fine.
C
Good news. We got mother's products over there behind Lion Lopez.
B
The detailer bag, which is co branded and really cool, is loaded with the gold ceramic line, a bunch of towels, a hundred dollar gift card to the cars and bits merch store. Everything you need to get your car auction ready.
C
So there's five of these and you. How can you win?
B
You go into the link in the description mothers.com pages giveaway to enter the link will be live. When this podcast goes live.
C
This is a big deal. Mothers and cars and bids begins and my formulas will be concocted.
B
Okay, can you name any single tool on display in this photo?
C
Tool? What do you mean by tool?
B
The machinery.
C
Oh, like the lab stuff.
B
Yeah.
C
What do you mean? The microscopes, the borescopes, the stethoscopes, the seismometers. All right, let's move on to the talk car segment. The talk car segment this week is brought to you by Filippo's water spots. I want to talk about.
B
I'm a little annoyed by them.
C
I Want to talk about a few things? There's actually three really important things I want to talk about.
A
Oh, okay.
C
Actually for me, only two, but maybe we can get Ryan Lopez involved in something else. I want to talk about this. I have decided and I'm announcing on the pod today.
B
Wow. This is official.
C
I've decided that I've peaked with two seater cars. The three that I have, I can't do any better and I'm not gonna. I'm gonna keep them for the foreseeable future and that's it. At 40, I can't afford anything that I like more and I don't want anything else. I've thought about all of the options. You don't know how many times I've googled exotic car and then scrolled hoping that there was something I forgot. So I've moved on to four seaters. I've got the three two seaters. Game over, four seaters. So I made a little list of. And now that I have the kids, they like participating in the cars anyway. I'm gonna start accumulating four seater cars. Like I accumul two seater cars. My initial plan was that one car in my garage would have four seats and that would be for my family car. That is no longer my plan. I'm just going to start kind of adding them in as I see fit.
B
Oh, they're going to. They're going to because you already actually have two four seater.
C
Well, we don't count the G wagon because it's an insipid driving experience.
B
So you're going to just keep at it. The street in front of your house is going to just be.
C
No, they're all going to be parked in the office, so sure, why not?
B
It's not foolish or anything.
C
Here's what I'm looking at for and I am dead serious that I am like ready to start buying these cars whenever they start appearing. Okay, great. Dead serious. These are the cars on my list. First off, that E55AMG wagon from 2001, the S210 with a third row. We, me and Ramy are still looking for one. We're going to find that car. That's not even really part of this. That's a whole separate thing. The four seaters I'm looking for that will live in the 993's world. My plan was originally I have the 993 for a year to sell it, it get other cars to have kind of a lineage of four seater cars. Now I'm just going to go Willy nilly.
B
I appreciate this approach.
C
Mark 4 supra turbo. It's time. I want a stock Mark 4 supra turbo Renaissance Red Post facelift. Ideally, bring it to me. I want an E30 M3 Sport Evo. I think I have a neighbor with one. I'm going to test drive it on Friday.
B
Describe for me the difference between the E30M3, the E30M3, every sport in this sport evo. I don't know the 30M3 lineup, Filippo.
C
Very simple.
B
Yeah.
C
The Sport Evo is the one that the rich. Fair enough. No, it was a little, it was a little more dialed in. It was a little more focused. Actually was a little more power too. One of the problems with that car was that it was.
A
The S14 is a little anemic, but they, they, they added lots of stuff to it. Like even the Arrow is obviously one of the bigger things they messed with. They even put like rubber, like, like, like filler in like hood gaps to make sure that it was perfectly smooth for Arrow, which is crazy. But it's like a, it is a special car. They cost an absolute fortune. But you know, okay, he's gonna find
C
out if it's worth it or Mark 4 super. I don't even care. I just want to start getting these four seaters and having the experience. Cuz I truly think I've maxed out my two seater experience. And so like let's just, let's go a different direction.
A
You know the.
C
This.
A
Yeah, well, this, this happens. We've seen this happen lots.
C
I'm not getting rid of the two seaters. I just truly think that I can't do any better. And I'm certainly not trying to earn more money to get to a point where I can get a, A better car.
B
Yeah.
C
Yeah. So Ferrari 612. I'm ready. I want a 612 stick swapped or. Yeah, but I'll do it if I have to. I'd rather have a late oto.
A
You know the Oto one to one Fleeto doesn't know what that.
B
No, I knew that.
A
That's okay. Go back to sleep. Next car.
C
Delta Integrale. Evo 2.
A
Hell yeah.
C
Evo. Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6, left hand drive only.
B
Wow.
C
And this one will surprise the audience the most because all these are manuals, but this one's a tip. The Jaguar XE Project 8.
B
Nice.
C
I want something that Harry Metcalfe has breathed on. He is my idol.
A
I was gonna say you recently watched a Harry's garage video on this vehicle.
C
Well, that's not why I put it on the list. I put it on the list and then I watched the video, which made me even more happy that I put it on the list. Harry Metcalf, our lord, a living legend.
A
Yep.
C
I don't know if he was actually responsible for anything with this car, but he's got one. He's got a purple one.
A
He was. I don't. I. It's nebulous because it's the Project 8 in the project. Yeah, whatever.
C
Anyway, his car is cat delete, which
A
does not mean what you think it means. It doesn't mean. Catalytic convert deleted for these cars. There's a giant graphic that you could get. The Jaguar side profile, the actual cat on the side of the door, and it runs the length of the car. It's like the most aggressive car, is
B
the best jolly you've ever made.
C
Thank you. But I only want the car with cats. And it's plural, by the way, because it's on both sides. There is a giant cat graphic on the side of this car that literally goes from the very rear to the front door. Yeah. Pull one up. XC project eight. They only made 300. They were gonna make 300. Although Harry says they actually made less. And look at this cat. If I want this cat car and I want it now and I want it with cats and gotta have cats. I want to tell you something. This car has 600 horsepower and it's.
A
It's.
B
I also like the XC generally.
C
Okay. That's a weird take. That is supported by Anybody else?
B
Good looking, small city in.
C
Okay. You can get a used one for like four. I was looking there too. Autotrader. Let me tell you what's on Autotrader right now. For XC's, there's like 100 of them, right. More than that, I'm sure 99 of the hundred are four cylinders for six grand.
B
Yeah. Yeah.
C
And then there's one Project 8i.
B
I do want to throw.
C
Look at this cat.
B
We have here at the Cursor Mids office. Two of the things on that list already. Yeah.
A
Has that influenced your decision in any way?
C
Yeah. I drove the 612 and the Supra. I loved them both. They were already on my list, but I've driven them and I'm like, yep, they should be on my list.
B
Someone to consider.
C
So my point is, yeah, I'm just going to start buying. I. I love. I'm not gonna wait till one's gone and do a whole. Oh, this one's out this one's in. We're just gonna start accumulating four cylinder four seater cars. We have peaked with two seaters. It is time to move on to the next realm of car.
B
When one comes up.
C
I'm ready to buy a Supra literally right now.
A
So when you say four seaters, it doesn't mean just two door four seaters. You mean four door four seaters and four seats?
C
Apparently. Initially this started because I wanted only two door four seaters because of the kids. But then I was poking around in the Supra over there. Yeah, I'm already like dangerously close to outgrow. I need to get a Supra like yesterday. We're like, it's tight back there. And so then it hit me like, maybe I should add some four seaters. And that's how we got the Delta integrale, the length. These are cars I've always wanted, minus the Project 8, which I didn't want until yesterday. Although Harry in his video on the autobond hits 200 miles an hour.
A
Yep. Yeah. Harry's real. Let's I this car does 200.
C
How many sedans ever built have done 200 miles an hour? Seriously?
A
Yeah. Not many E60 M5's done it.
C
The E60 M5?
A
Yeah.
C
What else? A lot of these bf cars are limited and stuff.
A
Yeah, that's.
C
This thing will do 200. You've never even been in a car that does 200.
B
I have, but admittedly I've never been 200.
A
I mean, the point. Yeah, it's. It's more like a theme for you. It's like an overarching thing.
B
I've been in the room.
A
You've been in the room? Yeah. Okay.
C
Anyway, we're going on four seater cars. Are you ready for this? Because there might be six, eight more cars in this.
B
I'll be honest. You've owned that 911 for what, six months?
C
Yeah.
B
Never been in it while moving. I don't think I've sat in. Yeah, but it's like it doesn't impact my life.
C
It's around and I appreciate that. Yeah. Aren't you going to appreciate if a Supra's around?
B
No, I'm just ready for the text. When you inevitably actually don't want these cars.
C
What do you mean? I love the 993.
A
It's been great. We will get that text. I'm over cars. It'll happen.
C
You won't get it if I get a super turbo because I tell you, I drove that white one.
B
What I'm most worried about.
C
There is nothing greater than driving a Mark 4 super turbo. Really One of the great experiences. You want to know why? Why?
B
Yeah.
C
Cuz you know that nothing you do can possibly break the powertrain. Except that you can money shift it like Nick of the TTRS on an on ramp. And it will still continue to ride. Yep.
A
Unless you rub Freddy and you break it constantly. You remember his, he was always with super turbos, always broken.
C
He probably had a 1400 horsepower.
A
Yeah, he did.
C
I'm going to go with 320 right there. At 320. Felipe was shocked to learn that it had more than 270.
B
In my head, they all have 270.
C
But what you need to understand is all those cars that were rated at 276 in Japan, when they were sold outside Japan, they gave them the correct horsepower ratings. The Supra actually had a few differences between the Japan one and the US one. Like the 3000 GT, they just openly gave the correct horsepower number in the US and lied in Japan.
A
The gentleman's agreement.
C
The other thing I want to talk about is. Yeah, over the years the Supra got like different things of the engine to make it faster and it boosts up the torque number. Horsepower stayed at 276. What an odd coincidence.
A
Buying glasses used to be one of most annoying experiences on the planet. You walk into some store, the styles all look like they were designed in 2004. The lighting's bad, and then they hand you a price tag that makes you wonder if those frames were made out of like recovered Ferrari Formula 1 carbon fiber. I'm just trying to see. I don't want a spreadsheet to figure out what's happening here. That's why I'm obsessed with Warby Parker. Nothing comes close on quality, price and selection. Once you buy from them, you realize how much easier they've made the whole thing. They're virtual. Try on is a total game changer. You point your camera at your face and you can see the frames and try them on in real time. I've tried other virtual try on features that feel super janky. But with Warby Parker, it actually works. You can genuinely tell how a pair is going to look and fit before you ever click buy. And the price Prescription glasses start at just 95 bucks. You used to have to choose between flimsy and outdated frames or spending half of your paycheck on glasses. With Warby Parker, they just fixed that. Plus, it's not only prescription glasses. They do contacts, online, eye Exams, sunglasses all in one place. They've got over 300 retail stores across the United States. If you'd rather go in person. And here's a cool one. For every pair they sell, they give a pair to someone in need. Over 20 million pairs distributed so far. Pretty hard to beat that right now. Buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs@warbyparker.com cars. That's 20% off additional prescription pairs when you go to warbyparker.com cars.
C
We went to the Concours. We went to the La Jolla Concours d'. Elegance.
A
Yes, we did. A sacred event to us.
C
Kenan participated. Kenan cleaned the F out of the Carrera Gt did you see it?
B
I did. It looks great. And then I saw here in the office looking great. And then I. Some things happen. And then I saw it looking great again.
A
Well, yes, I, I posted a story on my Instagram. So Saturday night, the night prior to Concorders are all held on Sundays. And the night prior it rained like crazy. The weather was very, I mean, it was unbelievable. The amount of water in La Jolla was just like really insane. So I naturally, who had spent six hours on Friday dialing in the Courage gt was very nervous about this.
C
The Courage was in the garage during all that. But the, the next morning.
A
The next morning we went and it was raining.
C
We woke up and it was pouring. When we were leaving to go to
A
the castle, I was apoplectic. But we, I got all of my detailing stuff together. I'm like, well, so be it.
C
All of his mother's detailing products.
A
Yeah. So we put all that, I got all that stuff. We got it in the car. We got the car. Being in a Carrera GT while it's raining is scary. He was very careful with it. Doug understands that car's reputation. But we got there. It wasn't that bad, actually. I cleaned the car up initially. Then it started to rain some more. Then I cleaned a little bit more, then it rained again. And so what I said was, in essence, I cleaned the car two and a half, three and a half times maybe. But then it did stop raining. The sun came out and all was beautiful.
C
It was. And you know what? The courageous tea was a big hit. It was because I realized something. All those people who have air cooleds who go to Concours events sense the Courage is like their God. They're like, oh, I gotta.
B
What about the 959?
C
I got a long hood and this is what I. Oh, wow. You Know those people don't care about the 918. It's hyper trash. Yeah.
A
So we were in the hypercar class. That's what the courage.
C
There was some heavy metal minute for judging, which I now think was a mistake because looking at the rest of that class, it was like, why Rosanda? You know.
A
Right.
C
Like Courier GT was like the, the, the Conurs car of that class. You know, manual, brown interior.
A
Yes, it was, it was park, it was crazy that I park it. We were between a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and a gumpered Apollo. It was, it was a wild lineup of cars.
C
The guys said park it here next to the Bugatti.
B
Yes.
A
Which we're very happy about. But nonetheless it was a wonderful event. We had a great time, as we always do.
C
Filipo even came temporarily.
B
Was there for some amount of time.
C
Yeah, yeah.
A
Wearing a suit jacket. And Doug was dressed nicely, not wearing a T shirt.
B
I know, it was surprising.
A
Yeah.
B
It made me put on a suit.
A
I, I did.
B
I wasn't going to. And then I saw a picture of Doug wearing a dress shirt and so I put on a suit.
C
What were you gonna wear? Hawaiian.
B
Yeah.
C
Anyway, that was the thing. Four seater fun cars and concours. Those are my talking points today.
A
You know, you could get a vintage Ferrari for two plus two and then take that to a Concorde.
C
Should I put one of those masters? I, I, I literally did a dive into every four seat vintage Ferrari and I came to the conclusion they're all. And that includes the 612 by the way. But at least it drives well. I drove that 612. What an unbelievably athletic car. It is just so sporty. Acceleration and steering and handling. It is incredibly athletic. Despite the fact that it's as long as a Toyota Highlander, which is not an exaggeration. It is so.
B
It looks longer.
C
So good. And the 612 has benefits from this wonderful powertrain which was the wrong engine. I remember everybody said that at the time. It's the old engine. And the new engine is that with the 599. What? Well, from a reliability standpoint, as ages come, the 612 actually is like the car.
A
Yeah.
C
That is like the most reliable Ferrari from that era.
A
Yeah, it is. The 575 drivetrain, which it has, is very stout. You still have to do a belt service on it, which you don't with the 599's engine. But yeah. And the fact you can do the conversions because again, the 575 came with a six speed as did the 612. It's a really appealing car that's gotten a lot of flack for the way it looks, but I think in a dark color with the challenge wheels.
C
Yep. Which is all the Oto.
A
All the Otos. Yep. We knew what they were doing at the end.
C
At any minute one of these cars could be in our life.
A
That'd be cool. I'm there for. I'm there for all of it. I really actually, believe it or not, despite what I've said in the past. I would like for you to get the E30M3 because I'm alone as a BMW guy in our friend group and it would be nice to have another M owner in the.
C
I have only ever had one BMW.
A
Yep. An E36 M3 sedan, white with a five speed.
C
Yeah. Years ago. Go.
A
Yeah.
C
One BMW.
B
Wow.
A
It was faster than the one you're going to buy.
C
I've always been. I've always been an E30M3 fan. I've driven a bunch of them. I love them. I love how they look and I love how they drive. I know they're slow, but they are just some of the most communicative, kind of bare bones, sporty like. It is a. Just a wonderful experience. And I think that the next generation of car in general lost a lot of what made the E30 M3 so special. I think the E36 grew a bit too much, became a bit too plastic. Lost a little bit of just the overall simple basic focus. And that was true for basically every brand in the 90s. This E30 M3 just in the E30 in general just had this wonderful basicness about it that was just so perfect the way that car drove.
A
Yeah. I don't totally agree. I think the E36 M3's interior is definitely not the most nicest place to be.
C
The E30 M3 interior is nicer than E36 M3 for sure.
A
Yeah. But it's. It's still not that nice. It's fine. But I wouldn't call it nice. But the E30, I don't know. I like the E36 BMW. I like six cylinder power, the 90s.
C
I really think looking back on it, I prefer the E28M5 to the E34M5 and I prefer the E30M3 to the E36M3. The next generation, the 90s plastic cars. I don't think they drove as well. I don't think they were as athletic and I Think BMW didn't regain that again until the next generation of cars, which of course is your M 546.
A
The best year, the golden era.
C
Yeah. I love the E36 M3 to be clear. I think it's a great car. But we're comparing it against E30M3 which is really one of the more like just basic, stripped down.
A
It's just like when everybody asks us to rank stuff. It's like they're all good.
C
They're all really good today. I hope you're. I hope you're ready for it right away.
A
Well, if it's for Filippo, I can take it.
B
We've already done Priuses. What else could I it be?
C
Okay, bring on the American car situation. Yes.
A
So I recently went up and reviewed a couple of cars that are coming to cars and bids very soon. One was a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 Red with a fireman license plate. That is. It was a deep stiff salute to America. It was very cool. It's a for, for those of you into those cars. It was a 428Cobra jet car with the intake on the hood. So it had the shaker hood and all that and a four speed. It's like the one you want more
C
manly was that car than Filippo. If you had to rank it them
A
that my car you not even the same species. No offense. That car like was hairy chested, scary. The steering is like you know, kind of not. Not particularly great myself a scary easiest car I've ever done a burnout in. It was like I just breathe on the throttle and it's like everything you aren't it really like it really is like antithetical to you as like your spirit.
B
Yeah.
A
It's not the same but it was so cool looking sounded. No, it is not efficient because it's a 7 liter V8 in that essence the 428. But I, I loved the way it looked. I thought it was really cool. But of course like not particularly precise to drive, you know the car that's.
C
You know.
A
Everybody talks about American cars. I can't believe these giant engines and they're all floating. It's like. Well, you drive a modern one, they're all pretty good. You drive one from the late 60s and you're reminded how all over the place that car was.
B
Yeah.
C
You can if you go back with American cars at all you get where they got the reputation. Like if you were to drive American car today. You don't understand why people say American cars don't handle as well, as European cars you Drive, Mustang GT350. They're great, whatever that is. And you're like this is pretty good. But you start going back even a little bit and then if you go back a lot bit, you go back
A
to the beginning where.
C
Oh right.
A
And they sold a gazillion of them at the time. I'm like, oh my God. People bought. But only to America, but only to Americans. And it. And it is cool as hell. No question. Like, to look at and to listen to it is really.
C
It's coming up on the site.
A
It's coming up on the site that's also going to be at the Velocity Invitational. That one with a bunch of other cars that we've selected will be there May 29th through the 31st. Really exciting. It's at our first in person auction event. You can still bid like you would normally on the cars and bids out through the platform. But the car is going to close there on the 30th and it's. It's really cool. It's going to go live on the 12th. You can take a look.
C
Velocity. This is going to be great. So the. Were they going to be able to bid but then is there going to be like a bid caller in person or are they just going to end and is there going to be a screen? Is there going to be a screen?
B
We will have.
C
He's going to have a screen.
B
Yeah. If you're there in person, we can help you, help you get set up to bid if you're not already. You can also bid obviously from the app while there or anywhere in the world. If you want to be there at the event. Check the link in bio or check the description below for a coupon code to the Velocity.
C
This is so exciting. How many cars are going to end right there on the. On the premises?
B
We will have something like we're targeting 15. We may exceed that by a little bit.
C
This is in Sonoma.
B
It's Sonoma Raceway tenant.
C
The cars are going to end right. Right then and there.
A
It's very exciting. It's. This is a very exciting event. The car is really cool. It's. And it is a nice one. So definitely go check it out. But I also drove another car, another American car. Just yes, this the other day. That's going to be.
B
You did all this this week?
A
I did, yeah. On Monday I flew up and did that. Flew back And Tuesday I then did another car I drove. So I drove a Daytona coupe replica. Now when I say replica Shelby Daytona, Shelby Daytona Coupe, replica.
B
Not the one Shelby.
A
This is the one. Everybody's seen Ford versus Ferrari. Everybody likes to focus on the Ford gt. This was the first American car to go out and actually kick ass at le mans and it won the 1965 constructors championship. Like, huge deal. This, like, this upset the tables with Ferrari. But this replica, when I say replica, it is, it is the. There's a spectrum to that word, right? And I say this at the beginning of the video. When you say replica, a lot of people picture these badly cobbled together fieros that look like vaguely like Ferraris from a distance. Distance. If you've had a couple to drink, this car is on the other end of that spectrum where it is built beautifully. It has billet, lower billet control arms, a hand welded tubular chassis, a built 331v8 with electronic ITBs. I mean, it is a serious car. And I got one looking at it and talking about it. I tell the story of the Daytona, the original, why they're so iconic, because it's a great story of like American engineering culling. And I love that story. But also then I talk about this car and then I get to drive it at the end. And initially I was a little scared of this because it is a race car. It is stripped out. Getting in is really hard. You got to climb over a roll cage. The seats are very narrow. You're in, it's really tight. I get in the car instantly comfortable with it. I could not get over how well dialed in it was. And that thing was so damn loud. And I was like. You watched in the video. I am like so happy and so just like, like at one point. It's rare that I do this because I talk a lot. I stopped talking and just like went for it. And just so you could hear the engine and get the experience. At one point, the car was vibrating so violently it actually knocked out the camera for a second. And then it came and was like totally out of focus. But that's how visceral and alive this thing was. And it, it, the way I phrased it is the spirit of the original is really alive in this car. And it was very satisfying.
C
A car from this era off. Yeah.
A
I have become. My eyes, thanks to the Countach, largely have been open to these older cars and the experience they offer because you can't be doing or thinking about anything else. Like there's. You can't focus.
C
Are we ready to go down this path? You know, should I add the Espada to my list of four cities?
A
You should. The spot. Well, no, the Espada is on my list. I'm going to take that one.
C
Are you going to get a Viper or are you going to go get something from the.
A
No, no. I still think I need to do a Viper because despite being made in the 90s, that thing is from the 60s.
C
It's about as close as you can get. It's short of one of these replicas. Not that. Not one, but like a super well.
A
So it kind of makes me wonder because I am going to do this car eventually. I'm taking my time with it, but I was like, I wonder if I'm going to like this thing a lot more than I thought. I'm going.
C
The Viper.
A
The Viper, yeah. Because I like. I mean, this thing, I got out of this car, much like you do with the Countach, and I was like, I'm tired, my ears hurt, I have a headache, and I've never been happier, but I don't want to touch it for a while.
C
Right.
A
But, like, you don't want to drive that maybe even once a week. But it was just like, I just couldn't get over the experience, how cool it was.
B
Yeah.
A
And it just opened my eyes. These visceral cars.
C
I know I'm getting more into old cars myself as the modern cars just become faster and more BS I want to shoot BS.
A
It's plenty fast. Like, yeah, it's 400. This car had 444 brake horsepower at the wheels, and it doesn't weigh much.
C
Yeah. You went and drove a Daytona. Ferrari. Daytona as well. Yeah. Like, these are the experiences. It's time. Maybe we just should start focusing our way into all.
B
Let's lean in.
C
Let's lean on into the old stuff. My.
A
I'm just saying, like, a lot of people write them off. It's like until you've. If you have the ability to experience one of these cars, if you're given the opportunity, you absolutely should do so. It opened my eyes to how special they are.
C
Yeah, that makes sense. I totally agree. I totally agree that the feel the. The. The nature of those old cars is really, really, really special.
A
They're alive in a way that new cars are just not and can't be either.
B
By the way, both videos coming of the Carson bids channel cars and the
C
bids channel the cars we sold.
B
The.
C
The day is not going to be on in Velocity.
A
It's. It's to be determined. But, like, but the video will be
B
live on and the car will be up there.
C
Next up, I want to Move on to the market report. The market report is brought to you by Cars and Bids. That's what this is, really? Yes, yes. You didn't realize we were trying to sell you, but we are.
A
Gotcha.
C
We're not doing this for fun. Now, the first bit of market report. Kenan, can you pull up over there on the website? Can you type into carsandbids.com, elan, so we just sold a Lotus Elan for $23,000.
A
That car is so cool.
C
I don't know if it's high or low. This is a market report. I am merely reporting back to you, Filippo.
B
Great.
C
Let's Talk about Fiesta $23,000 here.
B
I'll stay on theme. Let's talk about other cars. For $23,000, go to the Fiesta ST that we just sold. This is a really nice Fiesta St for 25. The sticker on this car, the window stickers that's in here was $23,000.
C
Yeah.
B
The fact that Ford and no other manufacturer is selling a small hot hatch in the US Is what is driving the price of these to stay incredibly stable and above MSRP despite having 14,000 miles. Yep. There's no downward pressure on these.
C
Yeah.
B
So these are going to stay like,
C
people can't buy a newer version of it.
B
People want it because it's a great experience.
A
You know, I understand why Ford killed their cars. Like, I understand the reasoning and ultimately it has worked out for them from a, I think largely from a product perspective. But this era, this and the, the, the Focus ST and the Focus rs, like, which also, they were all excellent cars. Cars there like, man, imagine if they kept going down that road.
C
Like, yeah, I agree with you. The market is interested in the car still at what it costs, more or less because it was a great car. And there's nothing else that you can get. If you want to get the gti,
B
you can get a GTI still, which is around the same money, to be honest. For a base gti, this is more engaging.
C
Right.
B
And it's smaller and it feels more raw, I think. And it's. I get it.
C
Better steel.
B
But it's the other auction I want to talk about really quickly. If you type in Dirtfish, we are doing a bunch of charity auctions alongside the folks at Dirtfish. We have a incredible selection of auctions that the Dirtfish team have curated. They're a great kind of. Right. Driving school up in Pacific Northwest, including a Leah Block sign, her race suit, a bunch of racetrack experiences and a bunch of other really cool experiences. These are all for charity. 100% of the proceeds go to Dirtfish Women in motorsports program. Go check them out.
C
Private group tour of the singer headquarters.
B
It's pretty cool.
C
If you're at the singer Spike Fariston, this is your chance. That's so true.
B
That's so true.
C
For up to 65 guests.
A
It's already up to seven grand.
B
Yeah, it's kind of a cool thing. But yeah, please legitimately do check these out. They're all for a good cause and they're, they're kind of fun.
C
Okay, that's cool. I want to move on to questions. Yes, questions, questions. The questions, of course are brought to you by Canon Z39M5, the greatest carver manufactured.
A
That's correct. That specific one.
C
You can ask questions for next week's pod. You go to carsandbids.com, you click on the community tab and then the podcast question section.
A
And last week you said that the people weren't. The questions weren't great.
C
The questions weren't great last week. This week they were voluminous. There were a lot of them. They were also pretty good. We can do better. Give us your questions. Please give us your questions. We want good questions. Good, good, good questions. Starting with from oink oink, doink. Do you guys think that the Miata should go the way of the C8 Corvette and go mid engine, you know.
A
Oh, that's interesting.
C
It's kind of a ridiculous question on its face the idea of the Miata, a cheap car being mid engine. But there was a time when I was a child, when fully built had not yet existed that there were actually a lot of cheap mid engine cars. Toyota made the Mr. Two, Pontiac had the Fiero. It wasn't like out of the realm for this to happen. There were like mid engine sports cars. It was like a thing. The Honda beat, for God's sake, was like 4 inches long. And that's all gone. Obviously, if the Miata wanted to be its most capable, it would be cool to have a mid engine cheap car again. Yeah, I don't think anybody's doing it or planning.
A
Yeah, it's interesting because, yeah, the Miata's focus was being like their design brief was the Lotus Elan, the original one, not the one we just sold, which was a classic British roadster. Engine up front, rear wheel drive, super lightweight, very high revving like that was kind of the Focus. But it is interesting, the idea of a mid engine Miata.
C
I'm not sure if the Miata specifically Should go mid engine. That's not really where what it was thinking of. That's not its point. It's never been.
A
But that wasn't the Corvettes either.
B
The Corvettes was always to be the most kind of advanced supercar fighting car for less.
C
I do think that it would be cool if there was some movement. Honestly, I wish the Mr.2 would come back. I think the SW20 Mr.2 is one of the coolest damn cars ever to exist and I just wish it would come back. I really, really, really, really do.
A
I actually think the GT86 program, it should have been a mid engine two seater sports car.
C
They're going to be like, it is a mid engine. It's a front.
A
Yeah, rear mid engine.
C
True, true, true. Next question from Colin Dow 27. Dear Doug, does cars and bids being cars and bids mean you would never buy from a competitor? If the Perfect supra or 911 GT2 came up for sale and bring the trailer, would you buy it? I'm not buying any 911 GT2s. Colin Dowd, I just said I'm off two seaters. Well, he's not listening. Not listening. He's unbelievable.
B
Incredible.
C
No, remember I said a couple of weeks ago on this podcast I will not buy any more ports Porsches except
A
if the right GT2 comes along.
C
No, I'm done with two seaters. Oh, I'm serious. I am done. I have zero interest. If the right GT2 came along I'd say cool, I'm not buying it. Zero interest. Not buying two seaters anymore.
A
You know my, my understanding is when you make these hard lines in the sandboy, are they flexible?
C
No, not I think. Which ones have I been flexible on?
A
I was off cars, I'm off cars. Then you bought two cars in that same year.
C
Soft cars, cars, three long years.
A
I'm not buying any cars this year. The same year bought a Carrera gt.
C
But if the car, Leah, if the Supra, I'm definitely not getting more two seaters. Truly, I've not on my mind. I don't have space, it doesn't add anything to my life. But if the right super can bring the trailer, I'd buy it. I'm gonna tell you something and I'm not gonna get too far into this. Cars and bids. People have bought cars on bring the trailer trailer and bring the trailer. People have bought cars on cars and bids. That's all I'm going to say about that. I think that if the right car lists, you buy it. You know what I'M saying.
A
And none of us can afford to buy cars from arm Sotheby's, so that's that. But yes, I think that.
C
You know what they sold this week?
A
What did rm?
C
They sold a bunch of stuff in Europe. Okay. And it was again, I have 50 for 10 million euros.
A
Monaco for the historic scene.
C
You know what else they sold? They sold like Jackie Icks like Pocketbook or something. It wasn't exactly that, but it was like from. It was like. It was like Fangio's like like mechanics notes or something. And they sold like a bunch of stuff like that and. And it. For like the. The estimate was like €3,000 and some of it sold for like €80,000. But it was like old school like stuff.
A
That's cool. Yeah, yeah, I'd do that. We can. We can.
B
The fees are too rich for my blood.
C
Right.
A
Yeah, 12%.
C
No, I completely agree with that. If I. The answer to the question is if you would on other platforms. I would. Because sometimes you have a choice. I ain't selling on other platforms, let me tell you that. Especially after some recent sales, you know, cars and bids is the place. That's all I'm going to say factually. Next question from Josue. This is a great question that's devoted to me, but I think we should all really think about it.
B
Okay.
C
Dear Doug, if you were to purchase a vehicle today to recreate what you did for your channel with the Ferrari 360, what would you choose? So the question that car, like blew up the YouTube channel got a lot of attention, started things off.
A
Yeah. It's important to contextualize.
C
Do. If you were trying to do that today with a car, I think you couldn't have a 360. It's like not.
A
No, no. I mean, I don't even know a lot of the supercars. Like, a lot of people found out that they don't really garner that much attention. I mean, Tyler Hoover talked about this when he bought the Veyron. He. There's waning interest over like after like three videos.
C
Hamilton collections out there. Clickbaiting people trying to get people to click on his. The Jesco was bad.
B
Yeah.
C
What would you do? Like what. And assume you can't have that kind of. You don't have that kind of money to spend. Like, what would you actually do?
A
Well, I mean, I kind of did Grant. I didn't have that long. The SL65. I was shocked at how much attention that got. There are a lot of interesting cars. I think if you buy Something that is notoriously unreliable.
C
It's got to be bell curvy enough. Like an SL65 is. Is a little bit too obscure to like. I think the reason the Ferrari resonated it was like a Ferrari. A Ferrari Ferrari.
A
Yeah.
B
Which doesn't matter anymore.
C
I don't.
B
I think Tavares has taught us that you can do that rebuilding a P1 or Matt Armstrong with a. With a shoe run.
A
Yeah.
B
He also taught us you can do that with Pimp My Ride vehicles.
C
Yeah.
B
So something that like resonates.
C
Do you think. Do you think the Pimp My Ride car gets more than two big videos?
B
Oh, of course.
C
Like that Ferrari. I rode that thing's trajectory non challenge grille for a whole year.
A
Bulbous, non challenge.
B
And nothing quite replicated that even in your own.
A
That's true. I mean, I don't know. It's just such a different landscape now. It's like, it's hard to imagine because it was. You were just, wow, this guy has a. That's how. That's how I found you was wow, this guy has a Ferrari. He's doing stuff with it.
B
I think a car is enough.
C
I don't think there's like a single car anymore.
B
I think like a story and like a build can still kind of work for the right car.
A
You.
C
You know when I reviewed that low res car.
B
Yeah.
A
Oh yeah.
C
If you did like took that to the McDonald's drive.
B
Yeah. That would still work.
C
That's the work that would prank. That would go viral.
B
Unfortunately you can't like conceptually you could
C
get some great content out of driving a low res car through the McDonald's drive thru.
B
But you reviewed that ferro tank or whatever.
C
Yeah.
B
How did that do?
C
I think it did well. But that was back when all the videos like blew up. I don't know the answer, but I would do. It would have to be something so absolutely ridiculous that it like also did well with shorts and like did well shorts.
A
I'll tell you what. Getting aspark.
B
Yeah, there you go. All it takes is a few million.
C
That's the problem. It also has to be a car you can buy for about what the 360 costs, you know, because other like if I had a zillion dollars, could I think of something?
A
Yeah.
C
I would make an iceberg car and
B
what it would be is would it melt?
C
Well, that's. You would click on it to find out, wouldn't you?
B
That's one video.
C
Do seals live on it? That's another video.
B
It depends on the answer. To part one.
C
I don't even know if that is part one. I don't think part one is the melting. I think I'm gonna make you watch, like, six videos before you find out what melts.
A
See, he's still got it.
C
That's right.
B
Greatest mind on YouTube.
C
Dear Doug from Drake. Dear Doug, just watch the question about. Just watch the video about the Tesla Model Y. Why did you choose the base? I'll tell you what happened. You know the story here.
B
Yeah.
C
First. First off, I think the base, you know, it's interesting. I got a lot of hate in the comment. Are you just the base? Of course it's terrible. People said something like that. It's like, wait a minute. Your brand, who you kind of weirdly awkwardly shill for on Twitter, produces this car?
B
Yep.
C
It's a car they make.
B
Yeah.
C
Like, what do you mean, of course it's terrible. This is a vehicle that is manufactured by the company. Company. If they're not proud of it, if they think it's terrible, why is it on sale? I think a big story of the model Y is the value prop. I think that's honestly the primary story of that car. I don't think. I think it does a lot of stuff well, but I think the value proposition is the thing that it does the best. And the base car has the best value prop. And people in the comments, they didn't. No one outright said this, but it was sort of implied. You should review the good one. But talk about how cheap the base. Yeah, we don't do ads here, folks. That's how. That's how they. That's how they did newspaper ads back in the 90s. Come on in. We can lease it for 99 bucks. And then you show up and there's like, one car on the lot. This is a car. They make. They sell it. What am I supposed to do? We reviewed it. We borrowed it. We got it on Turo. Yeah, we reviewed it. It was. It was. It was kind of mediocre, to be honest. But it's a product in manufacture. Like, I'm not. You can't blame me for it being bad. Call Elon. It is fun. When I started reviewing electric cars, you reviewed an ev, you were a lib. You were. People would get in the comments like, you are a Democrat. You're so pro ev. I can't believe you're doing this. This is horrible. Real cars have gas engines. Like, I would get so much hate about being a liberal. And now you review, and if you don't say Good things about a Tesla. Now you're a liberal.
B
Yep. Wild.
C
You got to say good things about the electric car. The world of wild.
A
It is amazing how quickly things.
C
Jesus. I wanted to ask one last question here, which is kind of an interesting one. I don't know if you know this Ryan5 ever asks. I know you don't do politics, Wink, but do you know that Mallory McMorrow, a United States Senate candidate in Michigan, won a design competition to design what would become the 2018 Mazda 3? Do you know. Have you been following Mallory?
B
I. I know that she is. Her husband is a Ray Wirt who is in car world somehow. Mallow.
C
Ray Wirt founded Jalopnik.
B
There we go.
C
And was the original editor of Jalopnik along with. What's his name, the crazy guy who moved back to Hungary. The Gawker Media crazy guy. What's his name?
B
Just curious. Keep going.
C
You remember the guy? Keep going. Nick Denton. So Nick Denton and Ray Wirt, there they started. Then she became a state senator in Missouri and is now running for U.S. senate in Missouri and Michigan. I'm sorry, Michigan. And like, it seems like a possibility that she may actually get elected, which is interesting.
B
The people of Michigan, which includes your family, will not take kindly to Missouri being mistaken here.
C
Dude, I'll be honest with you. I live in Michigan way more. It's interesting, isn't it?
B
It is interesting. Should she design?
C
Did you know about this?
B
No, I did not.
C
Did you know she was running for Senate?
B
Yeah.
C
Oh, there you go.
B
Pay attention to.
C
I'll tell you why I support Mallory. She's a Democrat. She's a car person. You know, one time I'm gonna tell you a story. One time I went to the White House. There in the Washington D.C. and parked in the White House oval, there was a Maserati. This was during the Trump years. Was a Maserati Gran Turismo. And I was thinking, ovaries. Okay, okay.
B
Somebody I'm not going to vote for next car.
C
The car world is going to be fine. We have a car person in the White House. One of these people.
B
Who was it?
C
I don't know.
B
Not in the Senate. Like.
C
No, no. This was in the White House. Ellipse. Not the Capitol, the White House. This was someone who worked in the White House is driving around in a Grand Turismo. We had an in Filippo. And now Jamie Raskin is people from driving here from Vancouver. Oh, my God. I was just trying to go to Palm Springs for the winter. They won't let me in. Okay, that's that so much, it's ridiculous. The stupidest thing ever.
B
It is a tough proposal.
C
Okay. You got anything else? No.
B
Best Carpod ever.
C
You don't have anything else you want to plug?
B
I do actually have one thing. I got one thing.
C
Thing.
B
The Key channel. We're six videos in to the the Key Channel, which Sean is. Is in charge of. And the video this week includes our very own Ryan and Joe spending time in an Earth roamer, which I am incredibly jealous of, and I'm. Please do go watch it. I. I've seen, like, a rough cut, and it's fantastic, and so I'm excited for that.
A
Best podcast we've ever had. Thank you all so much for watching Kyran. Goodbye.
B
Goodbye.
A
Goodbye. Later. It.
Episode 109 – Porsche Sells Bugatti, US Bans Chinese Cars, Trouble At Stellantis And More!
Released: May 1, 2026
In this week’s episode, Doug DeMuro, Kenan, and Filippo dive into seismic shifts shaking up the automotive world: Porsche and Volkswagen walking away from Bugatti, legislative drama over Chinese cars entering the US, Stellantis’s future brand strategy, and classic Shelby and Mustang heritage on the chopping block. Doug also shares his new, very specific car collecting pivot and the crew offers their fresh market report and classic engaging banter. If you want to know where the car world is headed (or just want some laughs and deep-cut insight), this is your podcast.
Memorable Moment:
Doug laments the “end of an era” feeling: “Any desire I had to have a Veyron…definitely have less desire today.” (Doug, 05:50)
Notable Quote:
Bob Lutz on his Buick Envision (“Total silkiness and sweet refinement…I thought, boy, if they know how to make Buicks like this in China, they obviously know how to make great work”) (Filippo, quoting Lutz, 12:22)
Memorable Quote:
“There is nothing greater than driving a Mark 4 Supra Turbo. One of the great experiences. Because you know that nothing you do can possibly break the powertrain…” (Doug, 42:39)
A wide-ranging, witty, and deeply “car person” episode, this is must-listen material for anyone fascinated by how car industry history, politics, and goofy passion all intersect. Whether you’re heartbroken over Bugatti, shocked at Congress’s ideas, or plotting your own car collection pivot, the pod’s blend of insight and irreverence delivers.
To participate, send your questions via the Cars and Bids “Community” tab—Doug will roast (and maybe answer) them next episode. Watch for upcoming videos and charity opportunities on the Cars and Bids YouTube channel!