Rivian R2 îs the Perfect Car? New Ferrari Reveal and Ford in Trouble!

Summary

Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!

Episode: "Rivian R2 Is the Perfect Car? New Ferrari Reveal and Ford in Trouble!"

Date: February 13, 2026
Host: Doug DeMuro
Panel: Filippo, Nick

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Overview

This episode dives into several major automotive news stories, including Ferrari's groundbreaking new EV interior, Doug's first impressions of the Rivian R2, industry news about Toyota and Ford, innovations in Chinese EVs, and lively banter about collector cars. The hosts also tackle Q&A from listeners and share updates on their own car adventures.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Ferrari Lucci EV Interior Reveal

(01:17–08:16)

• Ferrari has revealed its new electric vehicle, the "Lucci" (meaning "light" in Italian), a significant departure in design.
  • Jony Ive (of Apple fame) and his design firm reimagined the car’s interior: minimalist, material-focused, and inspired by Apple’s ethos.
  • Interior showcases a vintage-inspired, ultra-light aluminum steering wheel—no carbon fiber for the first time in years.
  • Quote (Nick, 02:34): “There's zero carbon fiber anywhere. They decided carbon fiber is dead. It's no longer cool.”
  • Paddle shifters persist in the EV, likely to manage regenerative braking.
  • Return to more tactile, physical buttons and switchgear, distancing from capacitive touch.
  • Big swappable screen can turn toward the driver—a rare feature.
  • The team debates criticism of the new design as “not Ferrari,” but Doug points out that modern Ferraris are already highly screen-dominated.
  • Quote (Doug, 05:53): “A lot of people are complaining ... have only been in a 360, and so they don't like any screens in a Ferrari. This is way better.”
  • Concern that as an EV and a potential four-door, it’s a radical break for the brand that will alienate purists but could set trends.

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2. Rivian R2 – First Drive & Impact

(09:02–17:27)

• Doug is among a select few who’ve driven the upcoming Rivian R2 and is extremely positive.
  • Compares R2 favorably to a Toyota 4Runner but more modern, better riding, similar off-road capability, better tech.
  • Quote (Doug, 11:06): “Probably the best EV I've ever been around.”
  • Predicts it will outsell the R1, which now risks being cannibalized.
  • Rivian has strategically targeted the “regular buyer,” not just enthusiasts.
  • Importance of a global reach—the R2 aims to be available outside North America, unlike R1.
  • Expansion of production in Illinois and a new Georgia factory for future market growth.
  • Discussion about why past automakers and plants (Mitsubishi/Normal, IL) struggled due to location and management.
  • Sharp banter around whether the R2 will become as ubiquitous as the Toyota 4Runner in SoCal.
  • Rivian R3 will address enthusiasts, while R2 is aimed at the mainstream.

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3. Grand Tour Reboot & Media Personalities Shuffle

(19:21–24:01)

• Top Gear’s successor, The Grand Tour, is relaunching with new hosts: James and Thomas (Throttle House) and Francis Bourgeois (train influencer).
  • The team is cautiously optimistic but notes skepticism about Francis’ fit.
  • Emphasis on chemistry—sometimes unexpected combinations work on camera.
  • Humor about who would best fit the new show’s dynamic, including jabs at each other’s quirks.
  • Quote (Doug, 21:25): “I’m not sure which spectrum, but everyone knows—you’re crazy, Nick. They do.”
  • No confirmed release date for the show yet.

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4. Toyota Leadership Change & EV Highlander

(24:01–34:16)

• Toyota names Kenta Khan as new CEO, shifting toward building a “war chest” for bold moves.
  • Some concerns that a finance-focused leader could stifle enthusiast models.
  • Quote (Nick, 25:33): “Letting the bean counters make the decisions is often not the best path forward for innovation ... sounds like we’re going to enter another bland era.”
  • Past CEO will remain chairman; transition aligns with Toyota's record profits.
• New Highlander will be all-electric, breaking with Toyota’s past caution on EVs.
  • A little risk-averse: “Not a hybrid, not available with an ICE motor...” (Nick, 28:23).
  • Toyota is leveraging overlap with Grand Highlander, 4Runner, Land Cruiser, allowing experimentation.
  • Subaru partnership means badge-engineered twins—Subaru will get its own version of the Highlander EV.
  • Many brands now share platforms/bodies, repeating 1990s “badge engineering.”
  • Highlander EV: three rows, 320 miles of range, could open new options for families wanting an electric three-row.

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5. Chinese EV Innovation: Nio Battery Swaps

(36:23–39:04)

• Nio, a Chinese EV brand, surpasses 100 million quick battery swaps (about three minutes each) at 3,800 stations, including Europe.
  • Owners lease the battery separately—makes for easy battery tech upgrades and eliminates battery health concerns in used EVs.
  • Dramatic implications for rapid, widespread EV adoption and challenges the need for “home charging.”
  • Quote (Doug, 37:24): “If I could do an R2 with a battery swap, I’m there.”
  • Battery leasing model could reduce range anxiety and make EVs more practical for apartment dwellers.

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6. Ford in Trouble & Chinese Competition

(39:10–44:25)

• Ford faces tough financials: surprise tariffs, lost subsidies, and EV losses totaling $5.4 billion in 2025.
  • Tariff credits on North American-made parts were retroactive to a less favorable date, hurting Ford’s bottom line.
  • Quote (Doug, 39:52): “Between the tariffs coming in and the subsidies going away, it seems like we’ve hurt our own auto industry more than ... whatever the goal was supposed to be.”
  • Ford’s CEO Jim Farley is well-liked by enthusiasts, but Ford’s EV strategy is shaky.
  • Strong rise of Chinese automakers—BYD surpasses Ford in global sales, 20% of new cars sold in Mexico are Chinese.
  • BYD and Nio show rapid capability, innovation, and international reach—co-hosts note this is a tectonic shift in the global market.

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7. Mercedes AMG News: Engine Choices & Confusion

(44:29–47:36)

• Mercedes is reverting to six-cylinder AMG models (GLC 53) after a brief, unpopular shift to four-cylinder performance engines.
  • No announcement yet of a new E63 AMG; speculation it might not return in a recognizable form.
  • Debate over AMG’s confusing, overlapping and inconsistent product naming.

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8. Talk Cars Segment – Personal Adventures

(48:36–54:13)

• Hosts share adventures from the Eurocar road trip and discuss imported enthusiast cars.

  • Highlighting the pros and cons of European wagons, quirky models like the Fiat Multipla, and the Fiat 500 Abarth’s surprising racing reliability.
  • Lively banter about keeping up with Top Gear/Grand Tour comparisons.

• Nick’s E55 AMG Wagon Purchase & Manual Swap Project (54:44–58:56)

  • Rare US E55 wagon, bought cheap due to mileage/condition, will be manual swapped at DC Motorworks.
  • Quote (Nick, 56:10): “[The manual swap] spoke to me as a value play … I wanted to find a M113K … and see how I like it.”
  • Doug reflects on the increasing difficulty and rarity of finding E55 AMG wagons.

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9. Market Report and Collectible Car Trends

(74:17–79:57)

• Ferrari 458 Market Soars
  • A 1,400-mile Ferrari 458 Spider sold for $380,000, similar to or exceeding SF90 prices, indicating a collector rush for last naturally aspirated models.
  • “This further proves my continued theory that … mid-2000s hybrid-era is the era … already starting to see cars from that era eclipse later cars that are better.” (Doug, 76:22)
  • Modern analog performance, design, and lack of hybrid/electric intrusion are highly valued.

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10. Listener Q&A

(80:09–95:16)

• Covering minivan choices for Ohio winters (Answer: Toyota Sienna with AWD), updates on Doug's former A140, Pajero Evolution market trends, shifter placement ergonomics, Nick’s regret over selling the Murciélago, and why few American cars feature in their collector stables.
• Memorable closing quote (Doug, 93:14): “I am proud of the fact that [the Ford GT] was designed in America by an American and built in America and is an American car for an American brand ... I think that is the greatest American car ever built.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Doug on online Tesla criticism (64:13): “I haven’t gone on Twitter in years … Those people are still out there. And I was so here for it.”
• Nick on car content creation (92:02): “I have a very supportive wife ... I burn the candle at both ends. I’m trying to pare that back a little … now I’m just showing up and you guys do all the hard work.”
• Filippo, regarding badge-engineered Toyota/Subaru EV twins (33:12): “We're back. Fully back ... Like the Solterra and the BZ4X is embarrassing how similar and bad they are.”
• On Nio battery swaps (37:24): “If I could do an R2 with a battery swap, I’m there.” – Doug

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic | |------------|--------------------------------------------------| | 01:17–08:16 | Ferrari Lucci EV Interior Reveal/Design | | 09:02–17:27 | Rivian R2 Review and Industry Impact | | 19:21–24:01 | Grand Tour Relaunch, New Hosts | | 24:01–34:16 | Toyota CEO/Strategy & All-EV Highlander | | 36:23–39:04 | Nio Battery Swaps & Tech Implications | | 39:10–44:25 | Ford’s Financial Woes, Chinese Competition | | 44:29–47:36 | Mercedes AMG Engine, Index, Naming Confusion | | 54:44–58:56 | Nick’s E55 AMG Wagon Manual Swap | | 74:17–79:57 | Ferrari 458 Market, Collector Car Discussion | | 80:09–95:16 | Listener Q&A, Personal Car Stories |

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Tone & Language

The tone is conversational, insightful, and irreverent, filled with in-jokes, good-natured teasing, and detailed car nerd discussion. They shift seamlessly from technical analysis to cultural commentary and personal anecdotes, creating an engaging "car friends hanging out" vibe.

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For New Listeners

• This episode delivers a fast-moving, highly detailed look at the car world, new trends, and the panel’s opinions on what’s hot, what’s overdue, and what mistakes are being made by automakers.
• You’ll also enjoy the hosts’ honesty—especially their willingness to highlight both their own wins (and misadventures) in car ownership and industry skepticism.
• Stay tuned for Doug’s increasingly desperate quest for an ultra-rare W210 E55 estate and Nick’s manual swap saga.

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Summary

If you want sharp, candid automotive talk from real enthusiasts—whether it’s the next big EV, collector car market trends, or why you should (or shouldn’t) buy a Multipla—THIS CAR POD! delivers expert insight, a dose of skepticism, and tons of laughs. This episode is packed with breaking news, deep dives, and the kind of personal car tales you only get from true obsessive gearheads.

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Transcript

[Filippo]

Today I love him. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same experience.

[Doug]

The greatest love story of all time.

[Filippo]

Why did you leave me?

[Doug]

Why did you betray your own heart?

[Filippo]

A film by Emerald Fennell Heathcliff, Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi Kiss me and let.

[Nick]

Us both be damned.

[Filippo]

Wuthering Heights Original songs by Charlie XCX now playing only in theaters. Experience at an IMAX.

[Doug]

Rated R under 17. Not admitted without parent this episode is brought to you by FX's Love Story. John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bessette join host Evan Ross Katz on the official podcast for FX's new series Love Story. John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bessette and go behind the scenes with cast and special guests featuring Sarah Pigeon, Paul Anthony Kelly, Grace Gummer and Naomi Watts. FX's love story John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bessette. Wherever you listen to podcasts Foreign. Hello and welcome to this car pod.

[Filippo]

I'm Filippo.

[Doug]

I'm Nick and there's a lot to talk about this week. A lot. Buckle up. Get started with the news. Ah, yes, this is Ferrari.

[Filippo]

The Ferrari Lucci, which means light in Italian. Oh, here's what's in the news. We thought that we'd known for a while that Ferrari was going to make an ev. We thought it was going to be called the electrica or electric. No, it's called light different. But it's in the news because Joni, I've who famously worked at Apple for a long time as their industrial Designer, designed the iPhone 4, the iPad, the Apple watch, a bunch of older Mac computers. His design firm designed the interior of this car and Ferrari's done like a whole PR thing about it and it's kind of interesting. It's obviously departure from their normal, from their prior language. So I wanted to go to Ferrari's site to go through it. You can really understand what, what Joanie, Ivan, his team did.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Filippo]

They have a steering wheel input.

[Doug]

I want to start with that. I love how the steering wheel.

[Filippo]

I know, it's so cool.

[Doug]

It's like a really cool, like vintage. You're going to go past it?

[Filippo]

No, no, I'm going.

[Doug]

But it's a really cool vintage looking steering wheel.

[Nick]

I love the steering wheel. It, it reminds me of producer Sean's 360 in a lot of ways. It's lighter.

[Doug]

It's even older though. Like it's even more, it looks more like the old school, like wood wheels in the old stuff.

[Filippo]

It's really cool and it's supposed to be incredibly light. Apparently their use of CNC machined aluminum means that it's lighter than their prior steering wheels by a substantial mark.

[Nick]

All right, you might be getting there. But one notable thing that I think is interesting. There's zero carbon fiber anywhere. They decided carbon fiber is dead. It's no longer cool. So they use different materials throughout but refuse to do decorative carbon fiber. Yeah.

[Filippo]

It's also interesting for the mount paddle.

[Nick]

Shifters in an EV. Also interesting.

[Filippo]

Very interesting.

[Doug]

I've been in EVs that I've shifted, but in most EVs that have paddle shifters, they use it to control the regen.

[Nick]

Yeah, sure. Maybe that's what they case in this one. It's not the Kia style fake shifters.

[Doug]

So what are you gonna say? You're gonna complain about it? What are you gonna say? I'm not complaining about any. A lot of people online hate it. They all really.

[Nick]

I gotta complain.

[Doug]

People think it looks too modern and not Ferrari.

[Nick]

You know, I think it looks very Ferrari. I don't love how the screen is integrated. I don't think that there is a way to do it elegantly. So I feel their pain. And on an EV you need a big screen. But that to me, if they could find a Bentley style treatment where it's hideable or it could like disappear into the dash.

[Filippo]

Fun fact. By the way, this turns, it's on a swivel so you can face it towards the driver, which.

[Doug]

That Cadillac voyage I just reviewed had that and I was like, more people should do this.

[Filippo]

There we are.

[Doug]

This looks like a Jeep Wrangler dashboard. Does it not? Or like some sort of mid tier.

[Filippo]

Looks a little Ford GTE with the circle vents.

[Doug]

Yeah. But like the Ferrari's done circle vents. But like just a simple plane of horizontal.

[Filippo]

I'm into it. Hopefully it's not body color painted in plastic.

[Doug]

I'm surprised I've never seen this before. Where the car introduces the driving area and the dashboard before they've announced anything else. And by the way, we're going to be calling it the loose. Do you agree?

[Nick]

Of all the words that he said, I wouldn't have pronounced any of them the same. Including Johnny. I've.

[Filippo]

Joanie, I've. Is that how he says it?

[Nick]

No, I'm sure you're correct, but I that phonetically do not say it that way.

[Filippo]

A couple of things that are interesting. A bunch of toggle switches and physical buttons which is a good return after a lot of capacitive touch for other things. The screens are kind of cool. The gauge design, I think to find me Cool. It's a couple of screens layered to give a 3D effect.

[Doug]

I think it's especially a lot of the complaints I'm seeing. I think those people haven't been in modern Ferraris, which are already screen dominated. And I have to say, in a lot of modern Ferraris, the screen setup isn't. I don't know if you guys have spent time in brand new Ferraris, but the screen setup isn't great. You're doing it all in the steering wheel with these controls that aren't perfectly mirrored to what's actually going on. A lot of the infotainment is in the gauge cluster screen rather than in some sort of center screen because it's all driver focused. This is definitely a more traditional way to do it. Like, people are like, this isn't very Ferrari. Well, I have a suspicion if the people who are complaining that got in an 812 or in an SF90, they would have the same complaint.

[Nick]

Also that complaint. It's an ev. We're already way past that. This isn't a normal Ferrari.

[Doug]

The great irony of this is we're all debating this interior. And the truth is, the car's not gonna be popular, success, or desirable.

[Nick]

It's an EV Ferrari. This is more sacrilegious than the SUV or. I'm sorry, what do they call it? The sports activity vehicle?

[Filippo]

No, that was.

[Nick]

The X5.

[Doug]

Was called.

[Nick]

No, but Ferrari. Also, they wanted it to be the Ferrari utility vehicle.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

They did not want to call it an SUV.

[Doug]

I think BMW might still call the X5 the sports X5.

[Filippo]

The sav. They.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Filippo]

I think this is cool. Obviously, Joni Ives, like, his thing is all, like, material, and the reason that Apple's so popular is that it's very material. Glass, metal, circled edges.

[Nick]

Yeah. This picture right here that they nailed, that should be the new standard for all Ferraris.

[Doug]

I agree. And I think any complaints about it are not taking into account that this really is an improvement over brand new. I think a lot of people are complaining, like, have only been in a 360, and so they don't like any screens in a Ferrari. This is way better. Yeah. Go into an interior of a. See the whole thing. The whole thing is this. There is no center screen, and all of it is controlled with little steering wheel pads. It's a lot. It's a lot to deal with. It really is. And I think that this new Joni Ives thing is a significant improvement. I really do.

[Nick]

Joni was like Steve Jobs, right hand man, too. Like, he's A big deal.

[Doug]

Like all of this, everything is controlled with switches like this. It's on the steering wheel primarily, but it's all done with that kind of stuff.

[Nick]

Don't you think it's interesting that they're declaring the death of carbon fiber? Like that is something. Ferrari charges 100 grand for various carbon fiber things and they're outright saying, we think it's played out. We're tired of it. If it's decorative, we're not into it. It's only for function.

[Doug]

I think I would argue that all of the decisions they make are for purpose and function. And in an electric car, we know we're not saving weight, so we're just gonna put aside the fiction that that's what carbon fiber is for. I have a suspicion carbon fiber will retain its existence in other Ferrari cars.

[Nick]

I kind of agree with them that I think carbon fiber is a little played out especially.

[Doug]

Yeah. But it's played out by the pretenders. And Ferrari's one of the trendsetters.

[Nick]

But all carbon fiber in interior is pretty much pretenders there. There's a couple times where they actually fab it. It's usually an overload.

[Doug]

Dude, I could argue. I mean, black wheels like that.

[Nick]

Those are over.

[Doug]

Those are all every Ferrari's got. You know what I mean? Like, at the end of the day, like, you can. You saw. They're going to keep doing carbon fiber. I promise. They make too much money off the op.

[Nick]

They have to. As a publicly traded company, they've been ripping their customers off with hundreds of grand of the stuff that does no functional benefit or minimum.

[Doug]

Oh, man, it's amazing. We still get press cars, but we do.

[Filippo]

They're trendsetters. They got to move on.

[Nick]

Apparently.

[Filippo]

They've been working together for the last five years.

[Doug]

I think this looks cool. I think it's great. I think that it is absolutely irrelevant because much more interesting to everybody is going to be this car. How it looks, how it drives, what it is. There's been speculation it's going to be a hatchback or a four door.

[Filippo]

They have confirmed four door.

[Doug]

If that's true, like, why are we talking about the interior? We're on a four door electric car.

[Nick]

Maybe that's why they're introducing this offensive part of the car. They want us to focus on this.

[Filippo]

This is the only way they're going to get any attention on the car. That's positive.

[Doug]

Yeah. Y Right. Yeah. Because people would gloss over the benefit of this interior, which is okay compared to what is going to be significant drawbacks of the vehicle itself.

[Nick]

Enzo wouldn't take an elevator. And now they're making EVs.

[Doug]

Huh? That's true. That's true. Enzo, in my opinion, was afraid of elevators. I don't think this is teased out in reality, but I've made this point.

[Nick]

It's in Wikipedia.

[Doug]

If it is in Wikipedia, it's because I've been saying it for so long, it is fake. I had this thing with Ken and where I told them that of course Ferraris are old school, because Enzo would see an elevator and he'd hear the ding, and he'd get freaked out. Enzo was, like, famously pastoral and, like, you know, he never traveled outside Italy. He was famously of his era, if you will. And so I have this thing that he was afraid of. Telephones and elevators. But I don't think any of that was actually true.

[Filippo]

Or maybe it is.

[Doug]

Okay, move on to the next news story, which is the huge news. The Rivian R2. I drove the Rivian R2. I'm one of a select few, one.

[Filippo]

Of, like, 10 at the most.

[Doug]

All right, there's me. There's Marquez, who we love, who's much more legit than I am. There's Jerry, rig, everything also, we love. And then there's some fellow from Motor Trend. Sure. And Matt Watson also. And this is going to be a fantastic car. Are you worried that this car is going to be the only car because it's so good?

[Filippo]

We already. We live in Southern California. Live in San Diego. I see a lot of R1s.

[Doug]

Yeah. R1s are around.

[Filippo]

This is going to be the only other car you see as many of is four Runners. And this seems like it combines a rivian and a 4Runner.

[Doug]

It's like a Rivian and a 4Runner in one car.

[Filippo]

And that's all there is in Southern California.

[Doug]

I totally think that. And I made the point to them that I think it's gonna, like. No one is gonna buy an R1 now.

[Filippo]

No.

[Doug]

And they're like, no way.

[Filippo]

You want third row? You want to pick?

[Doug]

Tesla just canceled their third row.

[Filippo]

There's a trim on the Model Y I think is available.

[Doug]

They now just added a. But they had the third row on the Model Y before, and nobody bought a third row. Huh.

[Filippo]

You know where else they had a third row?

[Doug]

Not a lot less.

[Nick]

Had a back face.

[Filippo]

Based on what you said in your review, which I legitimately watched, all of which is not always true.

[Doug]

Oh, wow.

[Filippo]

This is going to be an. Has the potential to be an incredibly.

[Doug]

I am even More positive about this car now than I was when I was doing the video. I just, I think it is. And by the way, since that time between when I recorded the video and now, I have seen pricing which is not revealed. Not allowed to disclose pricing. It could be a billion dollars. However, it isn't and it's actually quite compelling. And that makes me like the car even more. You know, it's funny because they, they spent a lot of time talking at this launch about how it doesn't have some of the R1s cool suspension stuff like air suspension, but by virtue of being a smaller and unibody vehicle, in my opinion it drives just as well, if not better. Yeah, this is a fantastic car. Especially for the price point. This is a fantastic car. I truly think one of the very best EVs. I think that probably the best EV I've ever been around.

[Nick]

Wow. Wow. Better than the Lucha.

[Filippo]

Well done.

[Doug]

The Teslas when they first came out were also unbelievable cars. But this reminds me of that. This is like a Tesla, but without the kind of weenie played out styling.

[Nick]

Tesla's like hanging it up and saying we're just quietly exiting and going into robots and Rivian sitting in their stride.

[Doug]

Which is good.

[Filippo]

I mean Rivian needs to. Right, like financially, financially this very much needs this car.

[Doug]

It's very important that it succeeds. And I hear from a lot of people that they're excited by the R3. Mostly I hear that from enthusiasts. I think, I think that this car will sell to regular people in massive numbers.

[Nick]

It's like your Sentra review did all the views on YouTube. Even though us enthusiasts could care less. This is going to appeal to a lot of people. And the R3 is all our budgets.

[Doug]

Imagine a 4Runner, except like in the modern era, better ride, the similar off road capabilities, much more power, better technology.

[Nick]

And the styling, the styling. So many EVs, the styling is so bland or weird and polarizing. Yep, this we're all used to. It's not polarizing and it's pretty attractive.

[Doug]

Pretty attractive. I was truly astonished by just the overall level of competence that this pre production car that I was driving had. And I can't imagine they don't sell a zillion of these. My point on the R1 is that like Rivian's like, no, there's going to be people who want the R1. I don't think that the R1 is visually distinct enough or distinct enough in other ways. The reason that the full size Range Rover still sells even though they have Other models is that the full size Range Rover has this kind of boss look and presence. To me this looks just. And in fact they had an R2 and an R1 next to each other and the design student did a walk around. It's hard to tell them apart. Even though there are massive physical size differences, the appearance is so similar. I don't think people are going to say I want an R1 for the clout because I don't think honestly there's going to be significant additional.

[Nick]

It'll be people that want the size. I fall into that category.

[Doug]

It'll be people who want the size or 1200 horsepower. Yeah. But this is already doing 0 to 60 in some incredibly quick. I can't remember what I'm allowed to talk about.

[Filippo]

Come out with a higher power version of S1. This is the hard part of being a small company.

[Doug]

Right.

[Filippo]

Like a large manufacturer. If Ford built these, they would have a redesign of the R1s coming in a year or two. Rivian almost certainly can't. They don't have the engineering resources. They don't have the factory resources to do that. And so we will probably have to deal. They will probably have to accept that R1s sales and R1t sales probably go down for a while till they can actually invest in. Till R3 comes out. Till whatever they want to have come out before it. Yep. And then they either sunset.

[Nick]

I'm sure they modeled that out though and said all right, we'll cannibalize a little internal sales but we will reach such a massive more audience between the price point and the size that it doesn't matter.

[Doug]

This car is going to hit. It's also global to unlike the R1s which are not really available for sale in other markets. You don't think that matters? Model Y is the best selling car in the world. How is this not a Model Y? But better explain that. Explain that Mr. Shrug. Mr.

[Filippo]

Tesla has had sales infrastructure across the world.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

For 15 years now.

[Doug]

But there was that time when they didn't.

[Filippo]

Decade, I should say. Sure. But I haven't seen Rivian make moves yet.

[Doug]

They're ready.

[Filippo]

Really do that.

[Doug]

This thing will be the pride of Turkey. This thing. When you go to Islamabad, they're going to be everywhere. This thing will be the number one best selling car in Kuala Lumpur, second only to a rebadged 2009 Honda Accord.

[Filippo]

Largest jump forward. You know the Normal, Illinois factory better start producing a lot of cars.

[Doug]

Well, they're building a factory in Georgia. Did you know that yes, they're building a factory in Georgia.

[Nick]

The state?

[Doug]

No, United States. Georgia, America. But it's like a union.

[Filippo]

Later in Illinois, they've retooled the Normal factory for the R2.

[Doug]

I don't know what's going on. I didn't ask factory questions. I didn't want to get into it. One of the things they told me about the factory in Normal is that it's hard to get to it. I think this is why Mitsubishi failed. This is a theory, one of several I'm going to posit on automobile maker. Not really. And the reason is they had this factory in Illinois and when they wanted to visit it and say, no, you got to make a different car, they had to go, they had to fly to Chicago and then they had to take like a three hour bus ride to the factory. And I think that that like nine hour experience, they were just like, you know what, we're going to let them continue building the Eclipse because it's just too hard to go down there. And I think by building the factory in Georgia near the Atlanta airport, that's.

[Filippo]

Easy to get to.

[Doug]

You see my point?

[Filippo]

The plan is for the R2 to shift production to Georgia in 2028.

[Nick]

You know, Doug's the kind of guy that says before the podcast we got to start taking this more seriously. I then posit the theory that Mitsubishi is dead because they were inconvenient to his favorite airport.

[Doug]

My favorite airport.

[Filippo]

Nobody's favorite airport, I'll tell you that much.

[Doug]

Atlanta, you can fly it on. You love Atlanta. Normal, Illinois, it is impossible to get to. This is all real. Okay, remember, keep in mind the Normal, Illinois factory has given us now several great products. The Plymouth Laser RS Turbo, that was the first. And the Eagle Talon Mitsubishi Eclipse and now Rivian.

[Nick]

Speaking of, on the last pod we asked what was the worst re badge or relaunch?

[Doug]

Eclipse Cross.

[Nick]

Eclipse. Yep, we missed that. Yeah, big mess. That was a tough retro, you know, relaunch, relaunch of an historian brand.

[Filippo]

Are you worried that the Georgia factory in Social Circle, Georgia is an hour away from the Atlanta airport?

[Doug]

No, I'm not worried about it. Personally. I legitimately though, I truly think this is a massive success car. And if they actually follow this with R3 next year or maybe early the year after Rivian, like, yeah, even in the world where EVs are not as popular, not as successful, this will be the market.

[Nick]

This is such a good car.

[Filippo]

It's interesting. I distinctly remember your Lucid Air video where you were basically like, this is an incredibly good car because it is the Lucid Air.

[Doug]

Reliability aside, probably probably the best ev.

[Filippo]

But it did always feel like that didn't have the market fit. This feels like incredibly good car from early impressions and also the right for the market.

[Doug]

I think if the market was really looking for $120,000 luxury sedans, the Lucid Air would have been a massive success. But ultimately it's not. Nor is it looking for $100,000 minivan.

[Nick]

And more relevant, the Gravity is a design flop that makes will never reach this level of success. Like the Gravity is a minivan. This looks cool.

[Doug]

I don't necessarily consider it a design flop. I think it's too expensive and I think the look is not great. But to your point, this is and more than even model Y, people want boxy. Look at Telluride, look at G Wagon. These are global. You know, look, there's a global design interest in these boxy vehicles that now Rivian has come out Agreed.

[Filippo]

They've it's nailed it.

[Doug]

Sell in America, it's going to sell in Canada and it's going to sell in Kuala Lumpur and the rest of the world.

[Filippo]

Kuala Lumpur included maybe.

[Doug]

What is that rebodied Honda Accord. You know I'm talking about Proton Perdana.

[Filippo]

Oh, the Proton, yeah, the Malaysian brand.

[Doug]

That's what I'm saying. Kaloa. No, I know you think I'm making any of this up.

[Filippo]

I wanted the viewers to know that you were right. Support for today's episode comes from Square and they've got some big updates. During their biannual releases event, they rolled out a bunch of new tools to help local businesses run faster, faster, smarter and honestly, just with way less stress. From AI that answers real business questions to tools that simplify orders and track every dollar it's built for people actually running businesses day to day. I've personally seen Square in action a lot. Like when I go to my local coffee shop with producer Sean at Ultrea Coffee in Ocean beach. They just have everything dialed in, tap to pay, text receipts instantly, no awkward waiting around. It feels modern and easy. And you can tell that the system behind the counter just works. They use Square and it shows what's cool. Now is Square AI. You can literally ask, what were my top sellers last month? What's my slowest day? And it gives you the answers right away in a chart or report. And their new financial suite also helps you see where your money's going, allows you to compare supplier prices and even automatically set aside money for taxes or slower Months. And Square just launched its most powerful tools yet, designed to give local businesses a competitive edge without the complexity. If you're ready to sell smarter, run faster, and stress less. Right now, you can get up to 200 off Square Hardware at square.com. go CarPod. That's S Q U A R-E.com G-O/CarPod. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today.

[Nick]

All right.

[Filippo]

Speaking of.

[Doug]

All right, here's the deal about this Grand Tour situation. All right. What are you gonna say?

[Nick]

Nothing.

[Doug]

I'm not gonna say anything. I have a lot of faith that it's gonna work out. They finally have confirmed, after we already knew it, that the Grand Tour, which was. Okay. So there was Top Gear, and then they got kicked off the air for hitting somebody or something.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

They went over to Amazon and did the Grand Tour. This is Hammond, James May, and Jeremy Clarkson. Then eventually they retired because they got old.

[Filippo]

And rich.

[Doug]

And rich. And then the Grand Tour stopped. And now the Grand Tour has restarted, except it's with three new people.

[Nick]

Yep.

[Doug]

James and Thomas, who we know from Throttle House. They're delightful humans, Delightful folks. Great YouTube channel. If you haven't already seen it. Go watch it right now. Literally stop watching the podcast.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug]

Or listening. And then there's the other fellow.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Francois something, the train guy.

[Nick]

That's all I know. He's in the train.

[Doug]

There's been a little. There's been a little anxiety in the automotive community that Francois Bourgeois, maybe.

[Nick]

Francis.

[Filippo]

Francis.

[Doug]

Okay, thank you. Maybe isn't like the. The, you know, person we were hoping would for.

[Nick]

Right.

[Doug]

And I think that they have really gone out of their way to try to pitch us to make sure that we believe that he's right.

[Nick]

Right.

[Doug]

Like, even in Throttle House's, like, opening announcement video, they had to be like, he's good, but he might be.

[Nick]

He might be.

[Doug]

I don't want to say anything yet. I think it's totally inappropriate to, like, to, like, make those kinds of statements now. I truly believe that. So I'm totally willing to let it happen and see what. I just think it's odd because none of us. We don't have, like, a.

[Filippo]

We don't know a knowledge of this.

[Doug]

But a lot of people that you.

[Filippo]

Think would be good on cameras together aren't. Yeah. And people that you might not know that. Well, that might not, like, from the little information you have, feel like, yes, they'd fit. Well, do. Yeah.

[Nick]

I totally agree on. On this podcast, Filippo and I work really well together, and we let our Weird.

[Filippo]

Quirky.

[Nick]

In real life, slightly, you know?

[Doug]

Yeah. Someone.

[Nick]

Someone who's.

[Doug]

Nick.

[Nick]

You know Nick. Everybody knows.

[Doug]

I'm not sure which spectrum, but everybody knows. You're crazy. No, Nick, they do.

[Nick]

Filippo and I are the James and Thomas and you are Train Boy. You collect license plates.

[Doug]

Nick, you're insane. You're literally insane.

[Nick]

I've done nothing crazy, okay?

[Doug]

I'm just gonna move on from that.

[Filippo]

Do we know when it's coming out? We don't yet. Right.

[Doug]

I haven't paid attention to yet. No.

[Nick]

I'm excited.

[Doug]

Do you think that any ill will I have towards the train fellow is because I. My. Yeah, yeah. Is like I said, is because I myself am jealous that they didn't bring me on the show.

[Filippo]

I think there's. Should somebody tell you about their travel schedule? Because I think that would make you quickly unjeal.

[Doug]

Do they go past the Hyundai building?

[Filippo]

I think they go past the Hyundai building on the 405 at least weekly. Yeah.

[Doug]

No, I thought about this. That I belong there in this picture next to a 350Z.

[Nick]

That is your kind of car.

[Doug]

And I'm upset.

[Nick]

Ryan Lopez should have been the third.

[Doug]

Ryan Lopez, he would have been good for you folks. Ryan, he's one of our people.

[Filippo]

He's in a lot of the content on the Carson Bitch Channel.

[Doug]

He's in some of the content. So he comes in today, he's late.

[Filippo]

Typical.

[Doug]

He says, do you know this story yet?

[Filippo]

No.

[Doug]

He comes in today, he's late. He's late for the. He comes in and he says, I'm sorry I'm late. He says, my air conditioning broke at home and I couldn't sleep. Now it's February and even here in San Diego, we checked, and last night it got down to 50 degrees. That's what it. He said his air conditioning broke. So anyway, that's a tough break for him.

[Filippo]

That's a tough one.

[Nick]

Send. We're going to create a Gmail account. Ryan needs help.

[Doug]

12Mail.Com producer Sean doesn't even have air conditioning. All he has is a bad color. G Wag.

[Nick]

Yes.

[Filippo]

I will say I am excited that they finally formally announced that they're the Grand Tour host. Because that probably means that we're getting closer, that we're closer to seeing some good.

[Doug]

I am excited. I'm legitimately excited to see this come back. I have to be honest. I had kind of stopped watching the Grand Tour with the guys. It had kind of run its course by the end. But I'm truly excited for the new Cast to come back in. I think most people I know feel the same way.

[Filippo]

We don't know Francis, but we do legitimately love Thomas and James.

[Doug]

Yeah. No, and, and I could see myself loving France.

[Filippo]

I've watched.

[Doug]

I'm ready for it to happen.

[Filippo]

We just don't know.

[Doug]

You got any thoughts on the people?

[Nick]

No, that's it.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

I, I, I didn't watch Top Gear ever.

[Doug]

Oh yeah, that's right.

[Nick]

I didn't watch the ground tour.

[Filippo]

Move on.

[Doug]

He doesn't know anything. Move on to the next news. I'm going to clip Nick. Any thoughts on this?

[Filippo]

Nope, nope.

[Nick]

I have no idea what's going on.

[Filippo]

Nope, nope, nope, nope.

[Nick]

All right.

[Filippo]

Toyota announced today that they or a few days ago really that they've they have a new CEO.

[Doug]

Was it actually announced that Toyota is abdicating the throne because he thinks that the fun path that he had set the company on is not the right path? No, no. So he's just old.

[Filippo]

He's not been the CEO for the last few years. There was a guy who was the CEO for a bit who's going to remain as like the chief commerce officer.

[Doug]

We had been told he had set a new direction for the company though.

[Filippo]

He is still the chairman, he is still above the CEO, just not as involved day to day. Koji Sato who has been for the last three years is going to become the vice chairman and the chief industry officer and then the finance guy, Kenta Khan will become the CEO.

[Doug]

The direction of Toyota in the last few years the the is clearly been set on a more enthusiast friendly, fun car.

[Filippo]

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens.

[Doug]

He clearly like it has become clear quickly. Like there have been high performance versions of a lot of cars. I mean when I was 16, Toyota was like the most boring, bland like people laughed at how kind of bad it had gotten kind of brand.

[Filippo]

It's gonna be interesting. So in the press conference I'm gonna read you a couple quotes from Kenta Khan. They include that his mission is to create a war chest for the car company to take courageous challenges. And he also said I'm a guy that loves numbers, I'm a guy that loves money. I always think about money and creating a financial foundation so that we can make good cars.

[Doug]

Nick, what do you think about the fact that he loves numbers and money?

[Nick]

I feel like letting the bean counters make the decisions is often not the best path forward for innovation for are certainly enthusiasts. Right. Like that's sounds to me like we're going to enter Another bland era.

[Filippo]

Maybe.

[Nick]

I don't know. I don't know the guy.

[Filippo]

It's interesting. So he, he was actually Aki, Toyota's like personal secretary for a long time. They're very close. And so I do wonder if some of the like passion for cars has been instilled in him as a result of that. It's also interesting. Toyota owns a lot of things, right. They own large stakes in Subaru. They own a lot of Subaru which we're seeing come play out in a lot of their EV decisions. They have a bunch of other kind of development things. And it's interesting how much of the actual running of the company and how many of those decisions come to him versus will he be more focused on the financial structure things even as CEO.

[Nick]

I think too you got peacetime CEOs, wartime CEOs. The automotive industry is heading through a lot of change. Like EVs, hybrids. Toyota has famously sort of have leaned into hybrids and sort of shied away from EVs. Although new story coming soon to the contrary. But it's going to be a tricky time where you do need someone who's a little bit more cautious just to say, do we want to be like Ford and invest all this money in EVs and then write down $5 billion of losses? Do we want to ignore them entirely and let BYD take our position? It's a tough time. So I think you do need someone who's pretty rational and careful.

[Filippo]

I don't know. It's really interesting. All in all the. During the press conference somebody also did ask him whether he is a car guy and he kind of said eh. And the former CEO said that he loves minivans like the Vox.

[Doug]

Does it bother you that this guy is like you?

[Filippo]

I'm just jealous.

[Doug]

You're jealous.

[Filippo]

You got better hair, Toyota.

[Doug]

Thank you.

[Filippo]

Toyota has had a record year in a lot of ways. They've pushed up their. Yeah. Thanks to the Sequoia CD Pro, they've pushed up their targets for next year. And the kind of the communications, the expeditions that they communicate out. It's kind of a weird time to transition out cos when the last CO has had a generally poor.

[Doug]

Well, sometimes people retire. Filippo moving to a different role.

[Filippo]

Ish.

[Doug]

Sometimes people just want to spend time with their kids.

[Filippo]

They just want to have fun.

[Doug]

Which takes me back to the Johnny Joni I've thing. This guy designed the iPad and the ipod and the itouch and he's still working.

[Filippo]

Yeah, he also sold all these tech.

[Doug]

Guys end up Moving to Costa Rica. Once they realize the havoc they've wreaked on the world from their tech jobs, they all like move off grid to Costa Rica. Rica. That's like the usual path, by the way.

[Filippo]

Not only that, but he started a company called Love from alongside another designer and OpenAI purchased it last year for six and a half billion dollars.

[Doug]

This dude could be just chilling.

[Filippo]

He could be chilling, but I think he loves working Ferrari.

[Doug]

All right, this is the Toyota situation. There's more Toyota coming momentarily.

[Nick]

There we go.

[Doug]

You want to talk about this?

[Nick]

Sure. The new Highlander is going to be all ev.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Nick]

Not a hybrid, not available with a ice motor or anything like that.

[Doug]

Hard to believe.

[Nick]

You could see the design language. So the Highlander's always been a little soft and rounded and kind of inoffensive. I wouldn't say that this is bold, but it reminds me more of like the new Telluride in terms of it's a little more edgy, a little bit more angular.

[Doug]

No, I agree with that. It's more aggressive than compared to all the other. He's right. All the other islanders have been kind of swoopy. Except for the third gen Highlander, which is the greatest designed vehicle in American history.

[Filippo]

And you're calling that one not swoopy?

[Doug]

In Riderland it was harder. It was more aggressive. Pull up a third gen Highlander. Pull up a third gen Highlander. I want to see it.

[Nick]

But it is again, as we just talked about with Toyota, they have sort of not done a lot of all EV ones and this is one of their most important vehicles. It is the midsize SUV that a lot of families pick. And I think that's why they've always been kind of vanilla with it, is that they just, they don't want to offend the soccer moms or the people that just want a point A to point B vehicle. So this is by Toyota standards a risky move.

[Doug]

It's super risky, I think, to go full. Oh, you're not going to.

[Filippo]

No, we looked at it long enough. Enough. By the way, the third gen 403 or Highlander still basically the Highlander.

[Doug]

No, the third gen Highlander is still basically the Highlander. I agree.

[Filippo]

No, no, like it is still the one for sale. Pretty much.

[Doug]

No, there's, there's a 4th gen.

[Filippo]

It looks like I, I, there's a grand Highlander.

[Doug]

I am astonished that they go all electric with this. So the big rivals like the EV9 and the Ionic 9, which are actually selling in pretty good numbers, but not like the Highlander. I mean this is taking one of the most popular products in going ev Now, Filippo's retort is going to be, wait a second. They have come out in the last couple years with the Grand Highlander gas powered and that car has been a massive success to the point where it now seems like what they're really poised to do is have a gas and an electric Highlander. One will be the Highlander, one will be the Grand Highlander, but it sounds like they're going to be about the same size.

[Nick]

I also think the 4Runner now has a third row and a lot of people got the Highlander for the third row. So you kind of already have a few. And frankly the Land Cruisers also in there, they've got a lot of overlap. So I think they can kind of risk the Highlander brand and then if, if people don't like it, that's fine. You've got three other Toyota SUVs of the same size.

[Doug]

I am nonetheless a little bit surprised. Land Cruiser does not offer a third. By the way. It's a quiet.

[Nick]

No, I know it doesn't. But I mean in terms of the, if you want a mid sized Toyota suv, right, you got choices. If you don't want.

[Doug]

I am a little bit surprised though that Toyota, who sat out the EV game for the last 20, right. Tesla Model XS comes out in 12 volt's. 10. These are the first EVs 20 years ago and Toyota's been taking a wait and see approach and then they finally jump in, they cancel their most popular vehicle in favor of a full electric. It's like, damn. Okay, that's pretty legit.

[Nick]

If you were going to risk a nameplate, wouldn't it be the Crown Signia? I guess it's more recently redesigned.

[Doug]

That car's, that car's not selling.

[Nick]

No one's buying, selling. So replace it.

[Doug]

I think what they're, I truly think what they're trying to do is create a alternative electric Highlander, gas Highlander. And what that's going to be is the electric Highlander and the Grand Highlander, which probably has a stronger nameplate. Now people think it's more luxurious, whatever.

[Nick]

Now the Wagoneer did the opposite though.

[Doug]

Well, the Wagoneer is bad. Yeah, it's bad, I know, but putting.

[Nick]

Grand in front of it, maybe it makes it sound less bad.

[Doug]

I think that putting grand in front of it makes people think that it's bigger and more luxurious. And so you could buy the Highlander, it's an ev, which is cool. Or you can buy the Grand Highlander, which is grand and it's cool. Either way, they'll have a car for you. In this segment.

[Filippo]

Their current positioning of the Grand Highlander, which I think doesn't. The base one doesn't have a hybrid and maybe all Highlanders now are hybrid. I don't remember.

[Doug]

It's cheaper than the regular Highlander.

[Filippo]

Apparently there was a problem here already clearly that they're trying to kind of fix it. The Highlander, you'll remember, didn't got a small facelift in 24, but didn't get a full redesign. The Grand Highlander was a whole new model. I bet it's aging out. Why replace? The question was a car that already exists.

[Doug]

The question was do we replace it with a fairly similar sized vehicle or do we do something a little bit more rapid?

[Filippo]

Especially when everybody else. The Telluride, the Palisade are a little bit bigger than the Highlander. Yeah, they're more grand Highlanders. I think they needed to adjust to compete and they may as well reuse.

[Doug]

The great irony of course is these two cars, basically identical, have them on sale. These two cars, basically identical. And Toyota's like, yeah, that's no problem, no big deal.

[Filippo]

One interesting thing, you may recall that the BZ, what used to be called the ZB4X, not just the BZ, has a twin called the Subaru Solterra. The BZ Woodland, which is the wagon version, has a twin at Subaru called the Trail Seeker.

[Doug]

I'm getting a BZ Woodland next week. I cannot wait.

[Filippo]

The chr, which has just been announced, has a twin at Subaru called the.

[Doug]

Does it?

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Doug]

Oh yeah. I gave you this. You didn't know this until I gave you it.

[Filippo]

Of course I knew.

[Doug]

What is it?

[Filippo]

It's called the Uncharted. The Highlander EV will also have a twin head Subaru.

[Doug]

Really?

[Filippo]

Which will mean that Subaru for the first time ever has two three row SUV's.

[Doug]

I can't believe that, you know, we. I thought we got rid of badge engineered twin cars in like 1996.

[Filippo]

We're back.

[Doug]

We're back.

[Filippo]

Fully back.

[Doug]

Like the solterra and the BZ4X is embarrassing how similar and bad they are.

[Filippo]

Apparently they're better. Apparently they're better.

[Nick]

They are better.

[Doug]

They're like more affordable and the range is longer. I truly can't wait for the BZ1 same.

[Filippo]

The Subaru ones tend to be cheaper. Makes no sense. Regardless, the new Highlander, three rows, either six seats or seven. Only two seats in the third row. 320 miles of range in at least one of the trims. It'll be interesting.

[Doug]

Looks fine. I think it makes sense. It is amazing to me the number of people who ask me. I want an electric three row and the only thing that is available to them is the EV9 and the Ioniq9. EV, yep. Yeah, 9 and Ioniq9, which are popular. I have a ton of friends who have bought these vehicles simply because it was kind of the only game in town.

[Filippo]

And now Honda's entering it.

[Doug]

You don't like Toyota? Maybe even too.

[Filippo]

That's what I meant.

[Doug]

You don't like how this looks, I assume, right?

[Nick]

No, I do.

[Doug]

Really.

[Filippo]

Have you seen the back though?

[Doug]

You're going to end up with one, aren't you? All talk about you getting some cool something.

[Nick]

We gotta get my wife into something new this year.

[Filippo]

Yeah, EX90. They haven't sold many, but so they're around.

[Doug]

I love the EX90.

[Filippo]

They've sold like 4000 last two years. It's tough.

[Nick]

What I'm gonna do if my wife doesn't make up her mind on what she wants. I'm gonna do one of those Christmas things where you just show up with one on.

[Doug]

I did that once. Yeah, we get a car beforehand.

[Nick]

We already did that. No, no, no. I went like pure surprise. I made a huge financial decision without your input.

[Filippo]

That's a great SNL kit. All right.

[Nick]

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[Doug]

Okay, next news story. There's a car coming out of a parking garage in Asia.

[Filippo]

This is Nio. Nio is a. Is a Chinese EV manufacturer and they are the only ones that are doing battery swaps at scale. Yeah. So here's. They've done over 100 million battery swaps.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

100 million.

[Doug]

Yep.

[Filippo]

It's like real technology. This is not.

[Doug]

So it's. We've done a couple hard drives into a.

[Filippo]

You drive into a Neo Power building, it takes about three minutes on average.

[Doug]

Three minutes.

[Filippo]

You leave with a fully charged battery pack. It basically changes it from the battery pack not really being yours. In the same way, the battery pack.

[Doug]

Is no longer yours. However, the benefit is that you get a swap as quickly as a fuel.

[Nick]

You don't have to worry about your full range, anything.

[Doug]

You show up with the depleted battery and you come out with a fully charged battery that they've been sitting there charging and you're on your way. In three minutes.

[Filippo]

We've known that this technology existed.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

It is stunning that it's actually been in use for enough to get to a real number.

[Doug]

Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you something, this changes. If I could do an R2 with a battery swap, I'm there.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

They have about 4,000.

[Nick]

Can they do this on.

[Filippo]

Is it only all of their NIO products? I think.

[Nick]

Okay, so they're the manufacturer.

[Filippo]

They're the manufacturer of the car.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

And they have something like 3,800 swap stations, including some in Europe, and they're planning on building another thousand this year.

[Nick]

What's cool too is you could buy a used EV and like, you don't have to care about the Health of the battery. Like, you could just.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, what do they do about. That car will come in and the battery's at 60%, and then they replace it with one. You know what I mean?

[Filippo]

It changes.

[Doug]

It. It.

[Filippo]

It changes differently. The battery being something. My recollection, which I. I might be slightly incorrect, is that you lease the vehicle and you lease the battery pack separately. Like, the battery pack is not part of the car.

[Doug]

When Tesla talked about doing this, one of the things they talked about was you have to have, at some point, eventually go back and get your battery again.

[Filippo]

Oh, no. I think that just straight up, you don't remember that.

[Doug]

That was like, the thing about, we can do the swap. And they did it in one of those Elon Musk presentations on camera. They, like, did it, but he was like. But it came out that, like, you would have to eventually go back and get your battery again.

[Filippo]

Yep. But my understanding is that just the battery is something that you're renting.

[Nick]

Really?

[Filippo]

You're renting it for a youth.

[Nick]

In theory, I think this would drive much more widespread EV adoption.

[Doug]

Totally.

[Filippo]

I also wonder what will happen.

[Doug]

Like, you don't need chargers anymore.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug]

At homes, the apartment dwellers and the street parkers.

[Filippo]

Yep. And will it mean that you. As technology improves, maybe now you'll suddenly have a new battery pack that has twice the range.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Because battery tech has improved or whatever. It's interesting. Interesting.

[Nick]

Yeah, it is. Or it's like, you know, you're. You're kind of broke and you're like, I can only put $5 of gas in. Like, give me the. Give me one of the crappy batteries.

[Filippo]

I don't think that. Yeah, maybe, maybe. I think it's incredible. It's insane.

[Doug]

Incredible. Amazing technology. Another Chinese innovation. Which brings us to our next news story.

[Nick]

Ford had a tough Q4 slash last year. They got hit with what they're calling a surprise tariff. They were expecting, what, 400 million, and it ended up being 900 million.

[Filippo]

Here's what happened. They expected that they would be able to apply credits for the usmca. So basically, for parts produced in Mexico, the US Or Canada, those are tariff exempt. You'll get credits for them. They thought those would apply going back to May, but actually they apply going back to November, something thereabouts. And so it's much less tax savings.

[Doug]

For the year than expected.

[Nick]

I thought. The more interesting thing is they said they lost $5.4 billion on EVs last year. So. So those subsidies going away, which I'm sure is the point you're about to make makes it really difficult for American auto manufacturers like Ford to continue doing that.

[Doug]

Between the tariffs coming in and the subsidies going away it seems like we've hurt our own auto industry more than any. More than whatever the hell the goal was supposed to be for the tariffs and the depletion of the subsidies.

[Filippo]

Yep. I do have an interesting question. Jim Farley well liked in the car enthusiast community because he's a car guy.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Is he a good CEO for Ford? Well I really don't know anymore.

[Doug]

I don't think that Jim Farley made. This isn't a Jim Farley decision. The. The EV. The EV write down is going on with every right now.

[Filippo]

Sure. But you got to wonder GM doing better financially. They have been relatively on track with expectations that they've set with with Wall Street. They've been producing about the number of cars gross profits. Where do they want to be. Ford's has not been consistent I think.

[Doug]

That Ford made on electric cars that was seemed like the right decision at the time.

[Filippo]

They had two cool.

[Doug]

Yeah but they were spending a ton of money developing other stuff and the lightning was a massive thing that they had to deal with that has now been completely diminished. They also put in a huge amount of money into Rivian and other they.

[Filippo]

Said that years ago.

[Doug]

Yeah but there were other EV investments that they made that they like completely wrote down and had massive paper losses.

[Filippo]

They also did shift away from all lower priced vehicles and that and non SUVs which is now they're going to bring back.

[Doug]

They announced that that might come back. We to don't want wants sedans back. Give us the EcoSport with the EcoBoost.

[Filippo]

Nice. But yeah tough little news cycle for Ford.

[Doug]

It is interesting isn't it? I thought the whole tariffs thing was supposed to help the car the Americans.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Also what happened with that?

[Filippo]

It's. It's going to be one of the new stories that's vaguely car related. That's going to be interesting to watch is there's a new bridge that's been built connecting Detroit and Canada.

[Doug]

Detroit and Canada. You can go from Detroit to Canada.

[Filippo]

I recognize the phrasing that's weird but that is the best way to describe has been paid for entirely by the Canadian government and a little bit by Michigan. The president of the US has said that he might block the opening of it but it's interesting because it's like a major shipping port back and forth. Because the current bridge they're gonna keep it. It's My understanding. But it's privately owned. Are you aware of this?

[Doug]

No. That's interesting.

[Filippo]

The Ambassador Bridge is partly owned and also a major blockage to bringing things in and out.

[Doug]

Ten years ago in the Bay Area, they opened. They had the Bay Bridge. They connected San Francisco and whatever's on the other side there. And then they built a new Bay Bridge and they called it the New Bay Bridge. And clever. They took away the old one. And I think that what they should have done instead was stop maintaining it, but still allow people to drive on it at a lower toll amount, sort of at their own risk. Do you know what I'm saying? And just after a while, that would become untenable. But then you have two bridges. Just let it happen. You know what I mean?

[Nick]

Just let the pores fall into the water.

[Doug]

I don't even think it would be poor for a while. I think it would be like whichever one is. Is has less traffic. But then eventually, yeah, I think there would become like.

[Nick]

Like the real life Hunger Games or Beast Games of the world.

[Doug]

Yeah. But it would save people a lot.

[Nick]

Of time with these heavy EVs too. Like that. That would get more interesting.

[Doug]

I'm talking about double the bridge traffic. The, like the output. The bridge traffic. Instead of just one, you got two.

[Filippo]

Like that's upper, lower level of the.

[Doug]

George Washington, Something like that. But here there's an upper lower on both bridges. You know what I'm saying?

[Filippo]

Can I legitimately recommend that you do a Wikipedia deep div. Ambassador Bridge. It's fascinating. The bridge was publicly traded. Oh, the corporation that owned the bridge. Publicly traded. And then a guy named Manuel Moran, who's like a billionaire from Growth Point, slowly bought it.

[Doug]

So we could have just. We could just own the only link between Detroit and Canada if we wanted to. Not anymore, though.

[Filippo]

Apparent. Well, that one. The other bridge isn't open yet.

[Doug]

The point of this is that Ford's in trouble and it's all going to hell. And NIO is winning again. What did I hear about Ford and BYD in terms of sales?

[Nick]

BYD overtook them in global sales.

[Doug]

That's interesting.

[Filippo]

Byd Conversation of a partnership between them.

[Doug]

Byd, a company that no one had heard of. Build your dreams 16 months ago.

[Filippo]

Which is not what it stands for, but nevertheless, it's a backronym. Yeah.

[Doug]

Is a company that no one had heard of 16 months ago is now selling more cars than Ford people.

[Filippo]

They have karaoke in their car.

[Doug]

Nio has done 100 million battery swaps. Like this is it. Sean told me that in Mexico. 20% of cars sold in Mexico are Chinese now. Yeah, this is it. They're selling in Canada. This is it. You're seeing it happen in real time. Something I've been screaming about on this podcast for now 8, 10 episodes.

[Filippo]

The entire length of the time that BYD has been around.

[Doug]

Totally. BYD didn't even exist when we started this podcast. And I said that one day there will be a Chinese company that overtakes us all. And now it has happened. Next news story, please.

[Filippo]

Established 2003 if you're here.

[Nick]

Yeah, slightly off. All right.

[Doug]

I don't think this is real. I'm gonna put my head in the sand about this news story.

[Filippo]

All right, this. The Mercedes has announced the GLC 53. This is an E something, sorry, C something, but they've actually announced the GLC 53 which is a six cylinder AMG car. So the GLC 63 most recently and the C63 have been four cylinder, turbocharged, twin charged. Nobody remembers. But that's going away. The GLC 43 is going away and it's going to have a turbocharged 3 liter inland.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug]

You believe this is a big news story because.

[Filippo]

Because AMG made a big deal of going to four cylinders and now they're going back to the six.

[Nick]

You were quite critical of that C43 if I recall.

[Doug]

So you're not going to say the thing about you think the E63 is canceled?

[Filippo]

I didn't say that.

[Doug]

The big news story here is that there is talk that there will not be another E63. Nick, you're an E class AMG man.

[Nick]

I am.

[Doug]

After I was first. Why don't we talk about what you want to talk about here? Year they still have not announced a new E63.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug]

The C63 was a four cylinder something or other that was bad.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug]

Do we think this E63 with a V8 is gone?

[Filippo]

Remember when it was gone for a couple years anyways?

[Doug]

Yeah, but that was some sketchy stuff that no one wanted to talk about. Mercedes stopped selling and remember it did come back. There was a final edition 2023 model year before the transition to the next E class. But the new E class came out for 24 or 25. It's been out for like two years and there is no E63 on the horizon. There's an RS6, there's an M5. We don't see an E63. There's an E53 now. That's been out for a while. I filmed A video with it. Never posted it. That's an interesting point.

[Filippo]

You filmed the video with the wagon. Is that coming out?

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah, someday. But the E63 still eludes us.

[Nick]

I mean, wait and see kind of makes sense. It's like okay, one minute we were all going EV and then we were worried about CAFE standards and all that.

[Doug]

Yeah. So just going to wait and see through the whole generation car. We're not sure. Probably the last E class. Excuse you. This is my beloved car. I've owned every version of it.

[Filippo]

Buy it now, buddy. By the way, we're combining a bunch of things and talking about this primarily because Mercedes own numbering system and naming system is bad. For example. Pull. There was already a CLE53 that had this engine, but now it's going to replace the C63 and the GLC4. Basically there's a inline six Mercedes Benz.

[Doug]

Naming's gotten tough. I had that AMG GT4 door E performance GC63s.

[Filippo]

That wasn't quite right, but sure it was.

[Doug]

It was as close as anyone's going to get. Yeah, and they're just, you know, anyway.

[Nick]

You know, the sales training that I took says, you know, you don't want to call anything like good, bad, ugly or small, medium, large because you're dissuading people.

[Doug]

Right.

[Nick]

So we say good, better or best. Those are your options. Kind of like large, extra large, like Mercedes. Isn't that conundrum? They can't say, oh, this is the wimpy one.

[Doug]

I am, I am legitimately interested in what happens with the E6353 situation.

[Nick]

I hope it comes back.

[Filippo]

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[Doug]

Okay, we gotta move on to the talk cars segment. The talk car segment is brought to you by Haggard Hagerty, which is the greatest automotive insurer in existence. You insure your stuff with Hagerty, right?

[Nick]

Sure do.

[Doug]

Me too. Do you? You don't have any enthusiast cars? Yeah, yeah, that seems right.

[Nick]

Yep.

[Doug]

What about that Porsche? You don't have a Hagerty policy on that?

[Filippo]

It's my daily.

[Doug]

I love Hagerty and they insure all my cars and I gotta up my insurance policy on some of them.

[Nick]

Yep. My dad actually sent me an article they wrote on the 63T bird.

[Doug]

Oh yeah.

[Nick]

So they've actually got some pretty good magazines content.

[Doug]

We truly love Hagerty. We are thrilled that they are our sponsor. Including our sponsor for the Eurocar road trip.

[Nick]

Yes.

[Doug]

Which is the next.

[Nick]

So much fun.

[Doug]

There's one of the Euro cars behind me. Do not buy this car. It's for sale right now.

[Nick]

By the time people are watching this, it will already be ending or ending in like the next hour.

[Doug]

Yep.

[Filippo]

So that's your chance. We have a couple of great videos we did.

[Doug]

We took the Euro cars on a road trip. We imported. Me and Nick imported Euro cars. An Audi A2 and a Fiat Multipla, which, by the way, yikes on that multiple.

[Filippo]

Such an incredible car. Not saying that's an incredible example of it, but it's such an incredible.

[Doug]

Whoever ends up with this.

[Nick]

No, don't drive it home.

[Doug]

Even if you live in San Diego. No, you get that thing flatbedding.

[Filippo]

No, it's great.

[Nick]

He just said, I've driven it thousands of miles or kilometers.

[Doug]

You have not.

[Nick]

I have took it to LA multiple times.

[Doug]

I did a direct quote in the office from Nick a minute ago. Filippo said, there's.

[Filippo]

Don't.

[Doug]

When you move it, there's no power steering fluid in it. Nick goes, oh, there is power steering fluid in. It is just in a bottle in the passenger seat.

[Nick]

See, there's a small leak which has been disclosed.

[Doug]

It's been disclosed but not fixed.

[Nick]

I don't want to top it up and leak on your floors here. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Thank you. Yes, it has been a problem. Yeah.

[Doug]

Anyway, bad car. And the A2 is a good car and the 500A bar is a great car.

[Filippo]

It won that the drag race. It was the fastest of the track.

[Doug]

The Eurocar road trip was excellent. We had a lot of fun doing it. We drove these cars out somewhere. We stayed in some desert hotel we went to. We managed to find the world's only farm to table restaurant in Lake Elsinore or wherever the hell we were. And it was great. It was lifelong.

[Filippo]

Okay. The episode that came out today, we're filming this on Wednesday, was us at a go kart track. Yeah, that Fiat is just so fun around a go kart track. Turns out a go kart track is the right size. You don't need more speed than it has. It was like just such, truly, such a blast. And then Sean went out and our camera guy went out just to do laughs in the Fiat. And the Fiat held up beautifully.

[Doug]

Beautifully.

[Filippo]

And I drove it home. It was great.

[Doug]

Yeah, no, the Fiat's great. It's a great car. It's actually well known and well documented. It's. It's durability and quality is well documented.

[Filippo]

Let's start with this. My. I have not treated that fiat 500 bar cabriolet nicely right. Goes to redline often, gets an oil change once a year, gets nothing else. That's. None of this is news. Yeah, it has. Hasn't complained ever.

[Doug]

Yeah, and he can go around a.

[Filippo]

Go kart track many, many, many times.

[Doug]

Did we leave in all the clips of you having to jump start it or did we.

[Filippo]

That was the battery issue. It's not the car's fault. The battery was seven years old. As a new battery, it starts right up.

[Doug]

Starts right up, folks.

[Filippo]

And honestly, with a jumper pack and then started right up.

[Doug]

Does that multiplus start right out?

[Filippo]

Yeah, except for that one time.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Yeah. Great. I replaced the battery like you. And then I replaced the crankshaft position sensor, which was the part that was acting up. So.

[Doug]

And look at you now. You can drive around in this car. As long as power steering is not a priority, you can drive around.

[Nick]

I mean, it. It works fine.

[Doug]

How often you top up the oil?

[Nick]

I haven't ever. Good. What? I. Two questions for you. One, I. I think the feedback was largely positive on the series, but the comments are overwhelmingly Doug. Gear. Top Gear. You guys want to be Top Gear, blah, blah, blah. Is it possible to create content like this without being compared to care?

[Doug]

Thomas and James are figuring all that out right now.

[Nick]

Okay.

[Doug]

And the Francis Bourgeois. They're going to figure all that out. Me and you and Filippo. It was three guys in the desert with a producer giving us challenges. Any comparison is unbounded, unintentional.

[Nick]

Are we going to do another one of these?

[Filippo]

No, no, no.

[Nick]

What if we all get E55 wagons?

[Filippo]

Then what's the challenge?

[Nick]

We'll figure it out.

[Doug]

Okay, we got to move on and Talk about the E55 wagons.

[Filippo]

I guess I say one thing.

[Doug]

You bought a car on the side.

[Filippo]

I got to say the Multipla. Okay. We removed all the seats from the Multipla and fit a full go kart into it.

[Doug]

That's all fit.

[Filippo]

You could have still fit three adults.

[Doug]

And if it wasn't leaking, that's the.

[Filippo]

Best car in the world.

[Doug]

If it wasn't leaking more fluids than are contained in a fluid transporter, then it would be great.

[Filippo]

That's the best car. Not that one specifically. The Multipla is the best.

[Doug]

A new Multipla would be great.

[Nick]

If you go look for a used Multipla in Europe, you will be surprised how high percentile of because they were all used.

[Doug]

One of the best. They were reliable.

[Filippo]

That JCD 105. My dad had an ephemera weekend. He had 350,000 kilometers is bad.

[Doug]

And if you buy it, you will regret it.

[Nick]

Doug, quit trying to alter the outcome of our bet. I shall prevail.

[Doug]

I'm not even concerned anymore about the bet. Now that I've. Especially now that I've seen that car run.

[Nick]

I think because this will come out. No, I can't say what the number is. Later we will reveal what our bet was.

[Doug]

I can't believe the A2 is.

[Nick]

I'm getting awfully close to the lower threshold. Threshold?

[Doug]

Aren't you shocked by this? To me, they're all these cars are well beyond what they're worth.

[Filippo]

Well, we did the picture of that one with the good headlight.

[Doug]

That's fair place. That's nothing. That is that car's only issue. There was some air conditioning. Oh. Sometimes the AC like will not blow as well. Is that disclosed? It's fine.

[Filippo]

Can we make sure that.

[Doug]

I want to be clear.

[Filippo]

Every flaw that I'm aware of on the 500 bar is disclosed. I've wrote a really long comment.

[Doug]

The A2 is honestly a really clean car in really nice shape. It's just dull. But if you just want to use a car as a car to like drive around. I hope though that all three of these cars have the same fate that happened to the A class that I imported, which was that it gets destroyed while parked on street in Oakland. Okay, we got to move on. Nick brought up the E55 wagon. Nick, tell us. Tell us what happened.

[Nick]

What happened? I finally bought a car in the city site. I have sold six cars now or five and a half since. The multiple hasn't ended yet. Yeah, I've never bought a car on the site.

[Doug]

Never bought a car on the side.

[Nick]

The there were two auctions ending on Monday. A B5RS4 which frankly is the car I wanted more but required a little bit more out of pocket. And then this. And I think this E55 is interesting. 200,000 miles which is high for this. So there was like 150 to 180 of these. Under 200 total made in terms of the wagon. E55W211 sold in the US sold in the US so very rare car to begin with. Like I've been looking for one for six months. I think I've seen one or two pop up.

[Filippo]

Wait, you've been looking for six months but you haven't brought it up to us?

[Nick]

Well I've been looking since I got an SLR and decided my real goal here is I want to manual swap the slr but I'm. I'm too afraid to do that on that expensive of car. So I wanted to find a M113K which is not the same motor but close enough enough and manual swap that and see how I like it. Yeah. So finding another 55 motor. AMG. This was the ultimate one. Cuz it's a dad car. It's cool. It's rare. I've never had a wagon but they generally trade for 30 to 50. I would say this one's mild up. It had an accident. It has an active check engine light. It has some other. It spoke to me as a value play because if you're going to tear it apart and manual swap it you don't want to like the most perfect nice one ever which I also drove.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

So this one came across and I thought hey let's. Let's see.

[Doug]

It also actually looks okay considering the mileage. I. I personally think. I personally think that Flint gray is the best looking color. I would only get silver cuz that was like the color and that's what I do. But I think that Flint gray looks.

[Nick]

Baller on this car.

[Doug]

It looks so nice.

[Nick]

The silver one. I did find one in the matching. Not exact but close enough to my slr but it was going to end up being probably double.

[Doug]

So you bought this car, you're gonna manual swap it. So you're not even gonna bring it here?

[Nick]

I'm not even. I don't even want to drive it. I'm sending it directly to DC Motorworks in Atlanta. They're gonna swap it for me. They think it'll take about a month.

[Doug]

So mid March they Do Mercedes Benz manual swaps.

[Nick]

They've done like 10 or so on.

[Doug]

On what cars?

[Nick]

Every. They've done black series to. They've done like R classes and random stuff.

[Doug]

They've done our class so they're not gonna have a column shifter maybe not in our class.

[Nick]

I think they haven't done our class. They've done stuff. They've done a CLK55 so they've done the motor.

[Doug]

Oh really?

[Nick]

They are not using the crossfire trans. We're going to use one out of an 06 plus Mercedes which presumably is.

[Filippo]

Actually the same transmission.

[Nick]

No, they've made some improvements. There's a lockout difference. Cameron over there was trying to bring me up to speed a little bit but I'm just trusting him that it's going to turn out good and if not, I think think we'll be in it probably under 30 to have the first manual swapped E55 wagon. Someone will want it. I think I'll want it. I think I'll enjoy it.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I think you'll love it.

[Nick]

You are skeptical if I can pull it off or not but we'll find out.

[Doug]

No, I think you'll be able to pull it off for sure.

[Nick]

Do you think it'll take a while?

[Doug]

I think that it'll take a while and then you'll tire of the car. But I'm thrilled, honestly. I had one of these. A lot of the cars that Nick buys I had first. No, I had one.

[Nick]

No, you had the 63.

[Doug]

Yeah, but this Much different.

[Nick]

Yeah, much different.

[Doug]

More power.

[Nick]

Yeah, not supercharged.

[Doug]

I always preferred this and when I was looking for my 63 back then in the days before cars and bids and bring the trailer and all these things, the only way to find an AMG station wagon, I swear to God this is true. There was a thread on MB World forums, I'm dead serious and it was E50, it was in the E class AMG section and it was the wagons for sale thread and you would, if you wanted one, you would Visit the thread 10 times a day and I did and one day one popped up and I was first and that's how I got mine. I didn't want that car. I. I got a pewter E63 wagon. I wanted honestly a silver 55 wagon but it was what was available. Well and look at you now.

[Nick]

If you're lucky I'll let you take it first.

[Doug]

Well then I later had a 212 which is a significantly better car. I. That would be cool to manual swap, although that was also. No, no, that had a. The AMG had a.

[Filippo]

This is the best looking E class wagon.

[Nick]

Yeah, I'm excited for it.

[Doug]

Wow. The best looking E class. No, I like the 213s and the 214s look best. No, no, there's no question about that.

[Filippo]

No, that's insane. I agree. There's no question about the statement, but.

[Nick]

I definitely answer certainly for 17. What's interesting is I test drove over the weekend an SRT10 RAM, which I've wanted forever. Yeah, I was like, this one was a little rough, but I was pretty disappointed.

[Filippo]

They were asking for a driven one, four door automatic. That is just a pickup truck.

[Doug]

Had you never driven one before?

[Nick]

I tried to. And the sellers are always so sketchy that like half the time the car doesn't exist or like it's being worked on or whatever. So I've seen a lot and I've never gotten seat time. I was underwhelmed and they wanted 17.5. He dropped the price to 17.4. But it's like, man, for the same money as a Ram pickup, I got a supercharged AMG wagon. So I'm pretty thrilled with it. You know, I'm all about finding value, whether it's a pristine Mercedes McLaren SLR roadster that might have had a small trunk fire or a free Range Rover P38 given to me from a subscriber. I like to get a good deal. But let's talk about a different kind of asset that appreciates slightly better than a Free Range Rover. Acre Gold. Inflation's harder than a V10 at Redline Gas parts. Even car washes are through the roof. Acre Gold lets you invest in 24 karat gold bars for just a few bucks a day. It's like buying a classic car that never rusts. The value of gold is up 70% year over year and experts are predicting continued momentum. No finance degree needed, just pure shiny gold delivered straight to you. Subscriptions start at only 30 bucks a month. Go to getacregold.com and enter for free to win two 5 gram ancient gold bars ending at the end of the month. That is February 28th. Protect your money and keep it golden. Get acregold.com that's getacregold.com now back to the car talk.

[Doug]

I want to take this time in the podcast since we're talking to AMG Wagon to tell us everybody that I am still on the hunt for a facelift. W210 facelift is important. E55AMG wagon with a third row. I am desperately searching. I will pay. I will do whatever it takes. Now I announced this last week and if you have one of these, they didn't sell them in the us. They have them in Europe and Asia and such. Facelift. Here's the quality. It's the quality today. Facelift. That means 2000 and up. And by the way, tell from the steering wheel, if it has steering wheel controls, it's a facelift.

[Filippo]

You can't tell from literally anything.

[Doug]

That is complete. The rocker panels, the front end treatment, the rear end treatment. There's this entire interior.

[Filippo]

You didn't say the rear end, front end. No, no. The treatment.

[Doug]

Well, the trim, the way it looks.

[Nick]

Like the E39 facelift that only Canon can tell.

[Doug]

The car also drives significantly better post facelift. That's the real reason I want it. So facelift. So that's 2000, late 2000 and up. Facelift wagon, third row, silver. If you know of such a car, left hand drive. This is 2000. 2001, 2002. I would probably consider a right hand drive.

[Filippo]

Are there a right hand drive one?

[Doug]

If you know of such a car car, email us at. Sean that's s e a narsarsandbids.com Sean carsbids.com Now last week I announced that I was looking for this car and many people reached out with the usual stuff and I forgot, I forgot that even though this, this is exactly how I found my993, it also led to an enormous amount of BS. People are like here's one and it's a pre facelift. Here's one doesn't have a third row. One guy sent us a long email, Sean, talking about how I should instead look at C class AMG wagons and then sent pictures of all of them as if I have never heard of the C class.

[Filippo]

Thank you for your passion.

[Doug]

I know, I know it's there.

[Filippo]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Doug]

Thanks for watching. Appreciate it.

[Filippo]

Are you not also, if you're a Mercedes expert, you know factually that that car didn't exist.

[Doug]

We, we've. There are three rows. Can you pull up S210E? I want a picture of the car on the thing throughout my entire rant. Whoever's editing this, throughout my entire rant, I want a giant picture picture of the car on the site. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This, this exact thing. This.

[Nick]

That's a.

[Doug]

See that's a pre. Okay, there you go.

[Filippo]

That car.

[Doug]

Oh that's that car but in silver and with a third row.

[Nick]

And we gotta have those Wheels.

[Doug]

Yeah. Well those are OE wheels I'll find.

[Nick]

Yeah, those are sick.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

This car, this is what I want. With a third row in silver. I don't care where you are, even if you're in Kuala Lumpur and your primary daily driver is one of those Parode was Protons that I just mentioned. You get me one of these, I'll buy it.

[Filippo]

Congratulations. Thank you. You think that when you get this car you will learn how to drive a manual transmission.

[Nick]

You know I, I was wondering you.

[Doug]

Were just waiting to pull that out.

[Nick]

Maybe we could do a collaboration where I had a professional driving instructor kind of give me some pointers.

[Filippo]

I think that might be wise.

[Nick]

The problem was at the time I, I had the mercy and let's just say the clutch pedal pedal felt a little different between a multiple and a Murcielago.

[Doug]

Oh sure. That's his, that's his.

[Nick]

The.

[Doug]

You know, I think he had sold the mer.

[Filippo]

I think so too.

[Nick]

Been driving as a manual for a while.

[Filippo]

So this man stalled whilst trying to start a drag race.

[Doug]

A drag race. And that happens actually. But the real surprise is he did in a diesel which has so much low end torque and a light clutch that usually you can just kind of.

[Filippo]

Installed in a Taco Bell drive thru. It's a whole problem.

[Doug]

I want one of these. Flo. Are you doing anything to find it for me?

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Doug]

I'll give you $1,000 if you find me one.

[Filippo]

Well, think about it.

[Nick]

I would like a car GT jacket.

[Doug]

And I'll, I want to, I want to give another cars that I think you'll appreciate. Do you remember back in the day when I would review a Tesla and if I said anything negative there would be thousands of people on Twitter who would lose their mind?

[Filippo]

Absolutely.

[Doug]

Okay. I haven't gone on Twitter in years. Obviously it's a cesspool. It's a complete disaster and so no one really goes on it anymore except crazy people.

[Filippo]

It's called X now.

[Nick]

Yeah, whatever.

[Doug]

Okay, so I'm on it. The other day I, for some reason or another I had to go on it. There was some.

[Filippo]

Oh, did you want to respond to an emergency alert? Did you want to see the emergency alert? It's a real problem where a lot of governments when they issue like state governments when they issued emergency alert they actually just link to an X post. To see the post you need to have an X account and it's really a problem.

[Doug]

So I had to go first. I clicked on the Twitter link or X whatever for the first time in Probably a year, year and a half. And I clicked on it and it was just after we had put up some reel where we talked negatively about Tesla, like in the last pod. I don't remember even when it was something. And those people are still out there. And they're all still out there. And I was so here for it. They are still. And I assume a lot of them are bots. Like, they. None of them have real people as profile pictures or none of them have real locations. Like, I assume a lot of them are either bots or like, Elon Musk doesn't accept bots. Yeah, yeah, right. There's no bots at all on that platform. But those people are still there being like, Doug is paid by Big Auto. Like, Doug needs gas cars to survive. Like, and. And I don't even respond anymore. So I'm looking at it and I'm. I'm realizing they're spinning themselves up because I'm not even responding to defend myself. They're just getting each other, like successively angrier.

[Nick]

I'm turning into Facebook.

[Doug]

It's just like the boomers. And then it reminded me of something. I'm gonna tell a story here that I haven't told you guys.

[Filippo]

Whoa.

[Doug]

Many years ago, when we launched Cars and Bits, there was a fellow, and I hope he sees this. This is why I'm telling this story. There was a fellow on the Twitter and he was in Western Pennsylvania and he was very critical of cars. And later I determined who he was and his association with a competitor of ours. And he would constantly be talking up the competitor and talking down cars. And eventually it just annoyed me so much that I spent an hour, went way back in his post history and found some racist tweets that he had posted from 10 years ago, as you.

[Filippo]

Did at the time.

[Doug]

So then the next time he talked badly about cars and business, I had screenshotted and linked the tweets and I was like, is this you? And within 30 seconds, he had locked down his profile, blocked me. He was scared. Cause he realized that I knew who he was. And I found out that he'd done racist tweets. And you know what? I regret it. I regret doing it. Cause he was actually kind of fun to back and forth, complain with. And I went on the Twitter and he is still on there complaining about cars and bids. And I'm like, you know what? But he's unlocked his profile and I'm like, you know what? Going to bring up your racist tweets anymore. And I hope that someday we can have again, very uncivil, inappropriately angry discourse. And I regret, I regret the airing of the racism. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I actually enjoyed the back and forth compile.

[Filippo]

I really need the off camera version of the story.

[Doug]

That's the whole story? That's the whole story.

[Filippo]

Fascinating. Yeah, I'm proud of. No, I don't know if I'm proud of your growth on this or not. Is that growth?

[Doug]

I'm not sure. Like, I think the correct thing to do would be like, hey, this guy is a racist. Right.

[Filippo]

But I think, like that's acceptable now.

[Doug]

I think in some ways. And it was 15 years ago and all this stuff. But most importantly, I just miss arguing with the fellow. And now he's blocked me and all this stuff, which he should have. Cause I know he's a racist past. You know, like if somebody knows you.

[Filippo]

Have racist past, you block them.

[Doug]

But that was something that reminded me of recycling.

[Nick]

You block.

[Doug]

So that was something that I was reminded about when I went on Twitter. I was like, you know, I wonder what that guy's doing now. Cause I hadn't looked at his profile in like two years. And sure enough, his most recent post was complaining about cars and bits.

[Nick]

Fascinating.

[Doug]

Yes, fascinating. Anyway, deep regret.

[Nick]

I think it's great you added them.

[Doug]

Have you really?

[Nick]

Yeah, I think the best thing you can do with people like that is just hold up a mirror and let them just see how they look and sound.

[Filippo]

Is that how you feel when we send you the clips we have to cut out of the podcast? Podcast sometimes.

[Nick]

No, I, I, it, it is not uncommon that someone will say, here's how you behaved. And I think gone ahead. And I say, I wish I hadn't done it that way. And I hope this gentleman took all of that.

[Doug]

But I guess my, my point is I don't get in a lot of Internet fights anymore. Like back in the day when I was really fighting for my life, I was, But I, there, there was a part of me that really had fun. You know what I mean?

[Filippo]

You used to engage more.

[Doug]

Yeah. Oh yeah. Including with the haters. And that was what hit me with the Tesla thing. I signed on to Twitter. I was like, oh my God, the haters are still here. Holy crap, I can't believe people are this. And then I was like, what about that guy? The racist hater guy?

[Nick]

That's where this, all the haters, a lot of them. Now I think you can have those conversations on Reddit and the way that Twitter used to be. There's a little bit More thoughtful, a little bit more intelligent. But like I, I got an alert on Reddit the other day for your slash, Doug demero.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And like, man, people say weird like about me. The problem even I'm like, nobody. And they were like talking smack on me.

[Doug]

The problem I have on Reddit is it's like all it's Reddit is seems to me to be like a much smaller cross section of reality.

[Nick]

I think X is becoming that a lot of the normies have left.

[Doug]

When this guy was racist. I think it was a more Reddit is becoming like 13 year old kind of basement kids.

[Nick]

It's like, I don't think so anymore.

[Doug]

23 year old basement kids, but it's not like reality.

[Filippo]

Keep in mind that Reddit has a billion people active every month.

[Nick]

Sure.

[Doug]

However, the people who post like in the cars area I think is different than people who are posting like cooking tips. And I think some of it is very useful and I think a lot of it is kind of sketch people.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Which is a shame. Like if you go and see some of the complaints about us or about any of the car youtubers, it's like.

[Nick]

Something really cool about Twitter was it was it used to be more intelligent people that had done like deep cuts and deep research and unique insights. Reddit does attract that kind of clientele where there are people that are like going a little bit past the surface level and I do learn stuff from it versus I don't think that's true.

[Doug]

But I think that's not happening in like the general subreddits where you just where like the whatever sounds right gets upvoted and stuff. I think that happens more like in more specific ways, ones where you find out more.

[Nick]

The types of insults I get are like, I hope that guy has problems with his BECM module on his P30, like deep insult and rude. But like that is just like, oh, your mom's fat or whatever. Like it is like deeply specific.

[Doug]

Before we move on from talk Cars, this podcast is gonna go way long. I want to talk about your F250.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Yes, me too.

[Filippo]

My F250 is still at my late father in law's lower driveway Dirt Lauder.

[Doug]

We were gonna tow it home with a Bentley and a U Haul.

[Filippo]

Yeah, that didn't happen.

[Doug]

Shockingly that didn't.

[Filippo]

But a gentleman named who runs Iconic Automotive in Northern Arizona reached out. Actually his wife Stephanie reached out to me on Instagram and said, hey, Dave runs a shop. He can go out.

[Nick]

Take a look.

[Filippo]

Dave went out last Sunday Took a look at the truck, did a little bit of diagnostics and he's going to have it towed. We're going to have a towed next Monday to his shop to do a little bit of work. We got to maybe drop the fuel tanks, clear out some old gas. That was one of the problems. Flush out the car, maybe rebuild it that do a little bit of other work and then it will be ready to be shipped down, down here to me. Do you. And I'll be ready to drive. Tires aside, I gotta get new tires.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Like it's, like it's gonna happen. It's gonna be here. Dave has been incredibly helpful on President's Day.

[Nick]

They're getting it.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Do you think President's Day is in like a week?

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah. Next Monday.

[Filippo]

Oh, we're gonna get it to the.

[Doug]

The shop as you said. Well, let me just ask this. What do you think the chances of any of this?

[Filippo]

It's all, it's all happening.

[Doug]

I don't think Dave's gonna let you.

[Nick]

Get it to a qualified mechanic. Cars like this are not that complicated located parts are available also in Northern Arizona.

[Filippo]

Like what they told me is that he, his shop mostly does like diesels and a bunch of like fleet vehicles for the local government, but he grew up working on carbureted old trucks.

[Doug]

When do you think we'll see this car? Like then Flippo's got to get it here.

[Nick]

I'll be in Phoenix this weekend through Tuesday, so I might pop up, go meet Dave.

[Filippo]

Please do. Dave's a great guy. He races out at the racetrack outside of Phoenix. Oh cool.

[Doug]

Well, I'm pumped that it's now at least legitimately in the hands of a qualified human being.

[Filippo]

I, I, I am too.

[Nick]

Felipo. And an F250, that'll be a sight.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Who do you think will get their car back first? Me with the manual, E55 or you with an F250?

[Doug]

You know what's funny, by the way? The super bowl halftime show, Bad Bunny had an F250 out there on the Philippe.

[Filippo]

Not quite my gen.

[Doug]

The super bowl halftime show, not The Alternative America one had an F250, but the Bad Bunny one had an F250 with Puerto Rican license plates on it. This is right up Filippo's alley. I want to give a quick shout out. We had an event here. I don't remember. What was it?

[Filippo]

It was for, For Avance, a great car community.

[Doug]

Avance, which was awesome. We had a great, it was a.

[Nick]

Great, it was Fun.

[Doug]

It was fun. We had a great time. Anyway, fellow came up to me at this event from Diecast Talk. You go on Instagram, you follow him. Diecast Talk. And he got me this.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug]

Which is a Sequoia TRD Pro Diecast.

[Filippo]

No way.

[Doug]

And he. And it's my exact car, except there's a red interior, which I wanted.

[Filippo]

And no mods.

[Doug]

What do you mean mods?

[Filippo]

My car Debad removed the running boards, which.

[Doug]

This car has the running boards removed. I painted the wheels a lighter.

[Filippo]

Also remove something else.

[Doug]

You just never had a roof rack. No, I know.

[Filippo]

You removed something else.

[Nick]

You extended the cold start to be longer because you just wanted to enjoy that.

[Doug]

Anyway, he gave me this and he said, look, he says he makes these diecast cars. And he said usually he does like super limited runs. They sell it in like 10 minutes. And I remember when the Sequoia came out, I had not known about it right away and it sold out immediately, but he saved one for me and I have it and I'm so thrilled. And also, I am back on my Sequoia. I am in love with my Sequoia again. I have no interest in an LX overtrail anymore. I am in love with the Sequoia.

[Nick]

That makes one of you.

[Doug]

Yep. It's so good. It's so you. But the problem, the thing that you don't understand, you've never gone off roading and you've never had a family. And so you know what the funny thing is? He's. He's making fun of me. But in. In four years or whatever the usual timeline is, he's going to end up with a Sequoia.

[Filippo]

He's going to end up with a TRD off road.

[Doug]

Yeah, or like a. Or like a. A capstone or an SR5. Some BS sequoia. He's like, you know, I always like these things.

[Nick]

You are correct in that I will get a newer, better version of what you currently have.

[Filippo]

Oh, God. We can't go down this road.

[Doug]

He only buys cars that I've already owned.

[Filippo]

We can't go down this road.

[Nick]

Says the RRC owner. Can't go down this road.

[Doug]

I had an L320.

[Nick]

Lick my P38 boots. All right.

[Doug]

Lick my BECM module.

[Nick]

Yes, it's probably broken. All right. It's raining out right now. I suspect it's getting waterlogged.

[Doug]

We've. I got to move on to the market report, which is brought to you by. By Ryan's air conditioning, folks. It's broken and it's it's right now it's 61 degrees here in San Diego. I don't know if he's going to make it through tonight.

[Nick]

He informed me he has both a fitted sheet and a duvet. So I think one strategy Ryan might want to try is just the fitted sheet just sort of take the duvet off.

[Doug]

Sean, meanwhile, has never had air conditioning at all. Ryan's I couldn't sleep in the middle of winter anyway. Market report's brought to you by Ryan's air conditioning, which, God, we hope a miracle will come and it'll get fixed before it gets up to 66.

[Filippo]

We're really having a battle. Bad weather here.

[Nick]

We'll build some buffer into the filming schedule for air conditioning.

[Doug]

All right, I want to talk about the 458. Can you pull up the 458?

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Doug]

We sold the 458 yesterday. Did you see? Big money. This was a 458, which is. Which has become kind of a darling in the used Ferrari community for good reason. The 458, the last NA Ferrari, the first Ferrari that adopted this design language, which kind of sense permeated throughout the entire lineup. We sold a 1,400 mile car that also is rare. Ferraris used to have super low miles as kind of a matter of course, but they've become so usable and so relatively reliable, people are using it a.

[Nick]

Lot more and just mass produced.

[Doug]

Yeah. So this car had 1400 miles on it. Yeah. One of them we sold the 48,000 miles, 30,000 et cetera. But when we sold the 1,400 miles on it sold for $380,000.

[Filippo]

That's real money.

[Doug]

And our friend Sam, whose air conditioning works, he made the point that 45 8s are almost more expensive than SF 90s.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

SF 90, which is Ferrari's newest, you know, supposedly almost hypercar with 8,000 horsepower that nobody wants. And they can't find anybody to buy used ones. They're selling in the low 400s. And this is a 380 number. Not even a speciale or whatever, like just a regular 458 Spider.

[Filippo]

Yep. A base like that is a low spec. SF90 surely is less than this.

[Doug]

This further proves my continued theory that that mid 2000s, I guess, whenever hybridization took over, over era is like the era. And we're already starting to see cars from that era Eclipse later. Cars that are better. Right. Like the Ford GTs and this and the SF90, which is laughable. Like the market, the used market, the enthusiast Collector market certainly knows what it wants.

[Filippo]

It is kind of interesting that the 458 is getting this kind of recognition. Obviously it's a beautiful car. The styling did set the tone for Ferrari for a decade after this car came out. But it's also Unlike the Ford GT, the 054 GT manual raw in a way that the new 4 GT isn't. This is an automatic car.

[Doug]

Yeah. This has computer, the only real thing. And I was going for it was the last NA car. But it wasn't even like the last gas car or even the last V8 car. But nonetheless the market is really cool.

[Nick]

It's also weird that imagine that you now bought this car with 1400 miles. You're afraid to put miles on it. Maybe, probably. But like it's a 458. Like yeah, it's hard to drive but it's not really a collector car.

[Doug]

Maybe. But I think that this sale proves that super low mile 458s are continue clearly more and more valuable. I have a suspicion that good low mile 458s become really valuable someday as sort of the end of an era. You know if I were to have bet on this 10 years ago, I would have put my money on the 430. It feels it's more mechanical. They've still made manuals. Like it has sort of this last old school feel. Whereas this is a dual clutch car that was made in larger numbers. But that's not what the market has shown. The 430s continue to be shockingly cheap for what they are. And 458s never got cheap, even high mile style ones.

[Filippo]

I do think it's a little bit of a. The 458 I think is a more beautiful car than the 430.

[Doug]

I agree.

[Filippo]

More, more striking, more modern looking. The 430 looks totally like an old car now.

[Doug]

Yep, agreed. But yeah, it's surprising nonetheless. I'm like really shocked because it is kind of a more. It's dual clutch on, you know. Yeah, it's not quite like a little.

[Filippo]

Bit like you buy a 430 if you want a Ferrari from that era. And also a gated 430 is real money. Like a factory. That's right, is real money. But this, even if you're considering a new Ferrari or just barely used, this might feel like the more analog older version.

[Doug]

No, I think that's exactly it. I think the nav8 the sound and yes it probably feels more connected etc. No massive screens like N296 which is also an awesome car. But the market is making a decision here. 380 is real money. You can go buy a lot of new cars including new Ferraris for either that or damn close to it. Yep.

[Filippo]

And loves 458 and about three cas.

[Doug]

You ever thought about a 458? You rather have an SLR than a 458? Yep.

[Nick]

Yep. That's all I got to say about that. I, I, I like the 430 if anything because they could manual swap it or buy it manual. But yeah, they are really pretty cars. Yeah. Get the next gen. The better one.

[Doug]

Yeah. That's what you do. I had an OC6.

[Nick]

They're pretty cars. 380. What you could buy a Ford GT.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Nick]

A 506. Can you?

[Doug]

Yeah. Mild one but not a, not a, not a bad car like a bad car.

[Nick]

Not a 1400 mile one.

[Doug]

You could buy a driver 4054 GT for a red one. For sure.

[Filippo]

For the.

[Nick]

But if you're super into Ferraris you definitely want a Ferrari. You want a DCT and you want almost 600 horsepower. I, I get it. It's not me.

[Doug]

It is a very good sweet spot this car. If the mechanical isn't quite your biggest priority but instead like performance and stuff without going too modern. This car is a good sweet spot. I do think for me I, there's a lot of things I like more about the F430. The most of which is the fact that it's still a sick but also it just to me it's more, it's more of like an old school type car. But I still think this is awesome.

[Nick]

Yep.

[Doug]

And the market does too.

[Filippo]

Clearly the market is thinking about it as a long term play. Right. Like if you want a driving buy.

[Doug]

A higher488 also proven with speciale and speciale apparatus values which are crazy.

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Doug]

Should we move on to questions?

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Doug]

Okay. I want to move on to questions. The questions are brought to us by Nick Rochon and his YouTube channel.

[Nick]

Oh thank you.

[Doug]

Yeah, absolutely. Go to Nick Roshan. Pull up Nick. Oh yeah, pull up the Nick YouTube channel. Let's just leave it up there for a minute.

[Filippo]

Is this, this is the Carson Bits account homepage.

[Doug]

See what the Carson Bits account. This is the Nick Roshan YouTube channel. It is excellent. This video. A little underperformer.

[Nick]

A little bit. A little bit. I think people are tired of the multipla. It's been a lot.

[Doug]

We're all tired of the multipla.

[Filippo]

I Want to be clear, I do believe that I've watched each of these videos. This is not my personal YouTube.

[Doug]

The next owner will be. Will be especially tired of the Multipla within a couple of hours of picking it up. It's a great car, the Multipla.

[Filippo]

It's an incredible car.

[Nick]

Not bad. I'm so happy that I did that for multiple reasons, much like the multiple reasons. Yeah, there you go. The E55 is my bellwether to manual swap an AMG. The multipla was my bellwether to try importing a vehicle and understanding how the process work. So I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun. It just checked all the boxes a little quicker than like a Murcielago might.

[Doug]

Okay, next I'm gonna. The questions are all really good this week. And remember, you can ask us questions. You go to carsandbids.com you click on the community tab and there's a post in there that says, questions. Ask us your questions. Oh, and then that's where you can ask.

[Nick]

Oh, I tried to slip in one for my sister. Did you see that?

[Doug]

Yeah, about. Your sister's trying to get a van or something from Ohio. She's in Ohio.

[Nick]

What minivan should my sister get?

[Doug]

She wants a van that can handle Ohio winters. The only four wheel drive minivan available today is the Sienna, which also happens to be the best minivan. So she's good. Get that.

[Filippo]

But different option. Chevy Astro.

[Doug]

Ooh, pull up. Have we still make those?

[Filippo]

No, of course not, Nick.

[Nick]

I don't know, man. Do you think I'm shopping?

[Doug]

For 25 years since they've made the Chevy Astro, we have one live right now.

[Filippo]

Right now.

[Nick]

Live with four wheel drive.

[Doug]

Where is it? It must be in Ohio. Oh, it's in Florida, actually.

[Filippo]

Unfortunately, this has a camper package, but if those are.

[Doug]

Those are seats. Those become seats.

[Nick]

Wow. Nick, it looks new to me.

[Doug]

You got to get her to get. One of the things that I think this wheel design really benefited from was.

[Nick]

She'S trying to kidnap children.

[Doug]

If the center part haul hers around, quality van. If the center part matches the other side, it looks like a modern vehicle. You know, these were sold, I think, through 05.

[Filippo]

I think that's correct.

[Doug]

Which is crazy to think about. The Ford GT was on sale.

[Nick]

Kristen and Scott. It sounds like a Sienna or an Astro.

[Doug]

You gotta find a Sienna. It's hard. All right, next. First question from Baja GP Doug, your A140 is dead. I owned it for 6 months in Texas. Sold it on cars and bids it was totaled by an old lady in a minivan. I mentioned this actually in one of my own videos a couple days ago. My question is this. You said you're not sentimental about your old cars. However, do you go back and look them up to see your current state of existence knowing that your 1 of 1 USA 140 dies by an old woman in a minivan while parked on the street. Are you at least a little sad? No. Next question. I am thrilled you're set.

[Filippo]

I saw that car during car Week because the current owner, until it got hit, lived in the bay and they came, brought it down. It was great to see it again. Yeah, I had missed it.

[Doug]

Yeah. Well, you're the one. Next question. From Corch Carson, ig Doug and background characters. Harsh, the two of you.

[Filippo]

Harsh. That's as bad as bringing up the module.

[Doug]

Why. Why have you not reviewed a Pajero Evolution yet? The same reason I don't review any car yet. I haven't found the right one. But I will. Don't worry. We got a Z32 300 ZX coming, which is a big deal. I've been asked about that car for years and years. We finally found the right one. Now it's here. Now we're reviewing it. When a great Pajero Evo comes that's being for sale on the site, we will pick it up. I need a stick. That's one of the big problems. They're almost all automatics. A lot of them were heinously modified. We can find a nice clean stick and then we will get it here and I will review it and Sean will pay to ship it here.

[Nick]

The market report on that one is interesting. I want to buy one. I've been looking for one for a while.

[Filippo]

Yes, that be cool.

[Nick]

They.

[Doug]

I've never had one.

[Nick]

Initially there was a lot of hype and they were selling for decent numbers.

[Filippo]

They're down.

[Nick]

They're down and out. Down enough now that it doesn't really make sense to import like the multiple really. If you import and then sell, like, maybe you get your. There's certainly no like profit arbitrage.

[Doug]

So there's like we're capped on the number of Padre.

[Nick]

The market's really shifted down. Maybe it starts to stabilize, but. But I think it's slowing down the influx of new ones for sale.

[Doug]

It is interesting. I'll give you a little market report which you were going to talk about with the RS4. Like one thing that I've noticed now repeatedly is that if you really want A car that becomes legal, if you can just wait 24 months, the market will be completely different. The R34 GTR is tanked after two years. The B5 RS4s, which were 100 grand, are now nice ones, are, like lucky to find the 60s.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Cheap ones are in the four.

[Nick]

The competitor site who, you know, may or may not be involved with a Twitter poster. We don't know. Sold one for like 45.

[Filippo]

Yeah. I mean, like we solve one from the 90 around.

[Nick]

I bid on that one. That went to 86.

[Filippo]

Five. Yeah.

[Nick]

I bid up to like 85.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Doug]

Which that car later sold for 85.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug]

There's a million examples. Pajero Evo is a great example. But there's a million examples of. Once the car is legal, there's a mad rush. People have always wanted more to get it and then the market floods with them and they. They absolutely crash.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And that's Pajero Evo, I think.

[Nick]

Or at that 24 mark where I. I'm eyeing them because I think they're going to start picking values again.

[Doug]

20S.

[Nick]

Yeah. I mean, I think if you want a manual and you're more picky about condition and rust and stuff, which Nick's not, you need to spend 30s to get a decent one.

[Doug]

A lot of them are.

[Nick]

They're available for twenties.

[Doug]

Yeah. And they're. I bet automatics are. Are. A lot of them were rough. That's one of the things I learned about Pajero Evos when I was thinking about conditions doing it, is that a lot of them were driven hard and they were off roading, you know. Yeah, there's that too. Next question from Auto autopsy. Question for Sean. How much junk mail do you get when the pod blasting your email? I'll tell you the answer. You want to know the answer? You can find out. You just send him an email. Sean. Carsandbids.com that's s e a n carsandbids.com by the way.

[Filippo]

Shout out to that guy. He's. We talked about sobs a lot, but in Arizona.

[Doug]

Next question from SoHo. This is a great question. Or maybe so.

[Nick]

Joe.

[Doug]

The career GTs shifter placement seems completely unique. Not replicated by any other cars, to my knowledge.

[Nick]

Literally behind you.

[Filippo]

Untrue. And over there.

[Doug]

Jeez.

[Filippo]

The Fiat 500 Abarth and the multiple.

[Doug]

This is the. I'm reading the question. I didn't write the question. That was going to be most of what I said. And yet it's also considered one of.

[Nick]

The greatest background characters are offended by this one.

[Doug]

What is the driving experience like with the shifter in that position? Why is it good and why has it been replicated? Okay, the driving experience is fantastic with the shifter in that position because it is right next to the steering wheel.

[Filippo]

And both will have the two.

[Doug]

The huge benefit and the reason that every sports car should be like this is because it's just less of a distance for you to take with your hand. So you're boom, boom, boom, and you can do it a lot quicker. And I really mean that. I really think it's great. The Courier gt, as these guys are pointing out, is not the only car like that. The car actually that I most associate with that shifter placement is the Alpha Spyder, which used that shifter placement from the 1960s all the way through the mid-1990s. Any Alpha Spider, any old Alpha Spider that we've had will have it. And you can click on. Yeah, like that. The shifter is in the exact same thing. It's mounted high. You can see. It's almost laughable how it's, like, mounted where the air conditioner, you know, controls ought to be. But they do that for the exact same reason. These were driver's cars. And you can see. Yeah, right there. Same exact thing. Almost the exact same placement. The reason I think most cars, and then there are others, too, the Civic Si, the hatchback Civic Si was like that rubber boot. The reason I think most cars don't do it is because it actually takes some real design and engineering work to get a shifter placed where controls should be. Like, in this car, stuff had to happen to make this work. They had to move stuff out of the way. And all this crap in the multipla, which is sort of like that. The shifter's higher. It's the same kind of thing. Like, there's a lot of controls that ended up having to get pushed in a weird way up. And so it's actually kind of a complicated thing. But I think if you were to ask, like, you know, car enthusiasts about their dream shifter placement, it would be there. But it comes with some real sacrifices. The career GTs radio is mostly unreachable from the driver's seat as a result of that, that it's pushed so far into the dashboard.

[Filippo]

The Fiat does it perfectly.

[Doug]

The 500 Abarth. Yeah.

[Filippo]

The shifter's there. Not in the way of anything.

[Doug]

Show us.

[Nick]

I'll show you.

[Doug]

The shifter's pretty low. It just happens to be in the middle thing. It's not in the center. That's not the same.

[Filippo]

Yes, it is.

[Nick]

It's getting there.

[Filippo]

It's quite high.

[Doug]

It's not similar at all.

[Filippo]

It's incredibly similar.

[Doug]

No, the Carrera GTs is like literally here.

[Nick]

Oh, look at that poor RAV4 in the background.

[Filippo]

Floor car.

[Doug]

Wow.

[Filippo]

I accused our photographer.

[Nick]

I was like, just give me whatever you got in cash and we'll call it a day.

[Doug]

Photographer took it over by the RAV4 to make the Abarth look better.

[Filippo]

I really accuse him of trying to compare it to that RAV4, which looks tough.

[Doug]

Okay, question from FBMAT 51 question for Nick. Now that some time has passed, does Nick regret selling the Murcielago?

[Nick]

Sounds like a question you submitted.

[Filippo]

I do.

[Doug]

Okay, next question.

[Nick]

There's much more nuance to it. That car was very special. I really had a lot of fun with it. I know the new owners had a lot of fun with it too. Mercy's continue to rise. So financially, I look at it and say, like, would be a good place to own and see the values go up. I think the manual experience. I do miss having an automatic. And like the V12 and the exhaust gave a sense of occasion. The SLR does not have. That being said, the SLR for my season of life is so usable. Like, it is almost a daily supercar. Like, I could drive it to Arizona and back without having a headache or not having AC or a functioning roof. So, like, I think what I got is a good for me for my use case right now. But the emergency was so special. And I do see friends getting Diablos or Countaches, and they look at it with a sort of a lustful gaze, you know, and they're like, Mercy.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Nick]

Compared to, you know, like a Countach.

[Doug]

I think that I.

[Nick]

A lot of, A lot of. A lot of people are saying they kind of regret the Countach, you know.

[Doug]

I definitely don't regret the Countach, but I do wish I could add another Lambo without being perceived. And what would it be, Guy?

[Nick]

What would you get?

[Doug]

Probably a gated pre LP Mercy. Oh, oh, oh, yeah.

[Nick]

And pewter.

[Doug]

I think your color was a. Was. Was a. Embarrassment to the car.

[Nick]

No, I, I love that color. And I think a lot of people.

[Doug]

Took the craziest design car of all time and put the most subtle.

[Nick]

No, that's, that's. That's why it worked for us. That don't need. Oh, look at me.

[Doug]

I'm a famous dude. That car, you're right. That car was certainly not a. Look at me. You turn on that car. The exhaust, people upstairs would complain. Is there a bomb going off in your.

[Nick]

If, if you're the kind of guy that buys a chrome Porsche Carrera GT jacket, then yes, maybe that color is not for you. For us subtle men of refined taste, the Grigio on terrace is a lovely.

[Doug]

Color for the car. I, I, I do love that car. I think one nuance that the, the audience, a lot of the audience kind of still doesn't get, even though we've talked about a little bit, is that like you're not a collector. Like your goal wasn't to just accumulate stuff. You want to accumulate experience.

[Nick]

If, if I had both space and money, I would have kept it easy.

[Doug]

We all would, right? Like every one of us would keep every car. But like at the end of the day there becomes a constraint whether it's me with 4 car garage or Leno with 100. Like at some point there is a constraint and you can't keep them all and, but you do want to have varied experience.

[Nick]

It was so even the other day I saw, I heard one like just like move. And I was like, I miss that sound. Like there's just a lot of things that were really special about the car.

[Filippo]

You're gonna be back in Lambo.

[Doug]

I agree, by the way, that the engine has moved on them, but not crazy.

[Nick]

Not crazy, but it's moving in the right direction. If you're owning, owning one every month that goes by, you're thinking, all right, I'm a little bit better in terms of the investment in this car.

[Doug]

Speaking of next question is from Alex. D. Question for Nick. How do you have enough time in the day for a full time job? YouTube, lowballing people on Facebook, Marketplace, working on broken cars and all the cars and bids filmed. That's a good question.

[Nick]

I saw this in advance.

[Doug]

If we need to cut this, we can.

[Nick]

I have a very supportive wife, first of all. Like she picks up so much slack. I think she puts up with a lot from me and occasionally I way over commit myself. So I mean, I think I burned the candle at both ends for a while. I'm trying to pare that back a little bit as I just like my YouTube channel. I'm no longer gonna be like, oh, I need to post weekly or I'm gonna lose all my cred. Like I don't care. You all do all the hard work here. I just show up and you turn the camera on and then we say things that may or may not get cut. But it is a lot for sure.

[Doug]

Nick is, he's got a Deal. He's got a deal happening right now.

[Nick]

How ironic, huh?

[Doug]

Okay, last question. Last question. This is an America question, so you'll like it. This is from Sir Yamilot.

[Nick]

Oh, yeah. I wrote down my ncs.

[Doug]

No, this is different than the one you wrote. Last question. This one's from Sir Yam. A lot. We've gone way too far. Filippo gets a 911 instead of a Corvette. Filipo said he wanted a Corvette. Got a 9 11.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Kenan gets a Mercedes instead of a Viper.

[Filippo]

Well, that was a mistake.

[Doug]

My questions are, do you feel like there's a negative connotation owning an American car after a certain age? And two, would you consider another special trip with a gang where everyone has an American car?

[Filippo]

For the record, we did that. I had an American muscle car. I won.

[Doug]

I want to tell you something, and I'm dead serious about this. Every time I drive my Ford gt, I am proud of the fact that it was designed in America by an American and built in America and is an American car for an American brand. And I mean that with all seriousness. I think that is the greatest American car ever built. And so whether Filippo has some embarrassment about driving an American vehicle or whether Nick drives a Ram SRT10 and then decides in the end to buy an E55 station wagon, there are some of us who still wave the red, white, and blue.

[Nick]

I'm down to do an American adventure. I have a Focus.

[Filippo]

I had a Focus.

[Nick]

Yeah, no, they're.

[Doug]

How come you guys don't support our nation? You guys all between. You have like eight.

[Filippo]

Somehow I have become a German car guy. All my cars are German except for the car.

[Doug]

Got three German cars built in Mexico. Built in Mexico, but going to be sold and not an American brand new Ford F250.

[Filippo]

Wait, what am I saying? We're good.

[Doug]

You don't have a Ford F250. Honey, until that car moves under its own power.

[Nick]

How about we.

[Doug]

Or moves at all, honestly, take an.

[Nick]

Adventure trip to Normal, Illinois.

[Doug]

Nick, why don't you have an American car? You often come on the pod and say crazy stuff.

[Filippo]

He does.

[Doug]

He has a.

[Filippo]

No, wait. The Ford Focus is your wife.

[Doug]

Why don't.

[Nick]

Yeah, that's true. I already disavowed it.

[Doug]

You disavowed it earlier. You can either take credit for it.

[Nick]

It or I. I don't really care about this one.

[Filippo]

But you don't. Your in laws have.

[Doug]

You don't want an American car. You don't believe in America.

[Nick]

I'm a citizen of the globe.

[Doug]

Oh, my God. Here we go. Wait.

[Filippo]

Let's talk about the fact that in this video, you drove almost exclusively in one of these videos in a C5 Corvette. So you.

[Nick]

I love that Corvette, too. I. I would love to do more adventure series. I hope you all have both a budget and resources to do more of them.

[Doug]

I don't think we have the desire. I think that's our primary issue, is that no desire.

[Filippo]

You and I, let's go.

[Doug]

You guys have fun. Meanwhile, I'm going to be driving my actual American car that actually belongs to me, guys. And by the way, built in Texas hardcore.

[Nick]

It shows. It shows.

[Filippo]

San Antonio, though.

[Doug]

San Antonio. Best city in Texas.

[Nick]

Agreed.

[Doug]

Okay. All right. It's been an absolute pleasure. Nick, do you have any parting thoughts for us here on the pod?

[Nick]

Bid on Filippo's car. Yeah, yeah.

[Filippo]

Bid on my car.

[Nick]

I think he deserves it.

[Doug]

Thank you. Best pod we ever did. Go watch James and Thomas on the Grand Tour there with the other fella. Goodbye.