The Big Three are in Big Trouble, Industry Collapse Here? Nick Bought a Multipla?!

Summary

Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! Episode: The Big Three are in Big Trouble, Industry Collapse Here? Nick Bought a Multipla?!
Release Date: July 25, 2025

---

Introduction

In this episode of THIS CAR POD!, host Doug DeMuro is joined by friends Filippo and Kenan, with Nick filling in for Kenan. The trio delves into significant automotive news, discussing trade deals, the struggles of major automakers, innovative car features, and listener questions. This comprehensive summary captures the essence of their insightful discussions.

---

1. Trade Deals and Tariffs

a. US-Japan Tariff Agreement

The episode begins with Filippo and Kenan discussing the newly announced tariff deal between Japan and the United States. As of the recording on July 25, 2025, Japan agreed to impose a 15% tariff on cars imported from the US, a reduction from the previous 25% tariff. This move is viewed as a strategic shift to boost American car sales in Japan by allowing US-built cars that meet Japanese safety standards to be sold without adhering to Japan's stricter requirements.

Kenan [00:16]: “The Japanese automakers understandably are excited about this, or at least as excited as you can be when you go from basically zero tariffs to 15% tariffs.”

Filippo highlights Japan's significant ownership of US debt, suggesting that the trade deal serves as a diplomatic strategy to maintain financial stability.

Filippo [01:19]: “Japan owns an enormous amount of US Debt. So Trump was smart to make a deal with Japan early…”

b. Potential US-European Tariff Deal

Kenan adds that Europe is nearing a similar trade agreement, although details remain unclear, particularly regarding the inclusion of European-built vehicles.

Kenan [01:36]: “Europe is apparently close to a very similar deal. It's still unclear if it will include vehicles that are built in Europe or not at a 15% tariff amount.”

c. Impact on the Big Three Automakers

The discussion shifts to the repercussions of these tariffs on the Big Three—General Motors (GM), Stellantis, and Ford. GM reports a significant financial burden due to tariffs, with Q2 alone costing them $1 billion and projecting a total impact of $4-5 billion for 2025.

Kenan [04:02]: “GM says that tariffs have cost them $1 billion and they expect that over the course of 2025, tariffs will cost them $4 to $5 billion…”

Stellantis faces a $3 billion loss year-to-date, attributing part of this downturn to its pivot toward electric vehicles (EVs) and underperforming models like the Dodge Charger and Wagoner.

Nick [03:36]: “They are clearly paying a huge amount and it's tremendously difficult and problematic for their business.”

Filippo criticizes Stellantis for prioritizing Japanese and British automakers over their American counterparts, leading to financial strain.

Filippo [04:45]: “It's absolutely abhorrent. It's ridiculous. The concept that they would prioritize Japanese…”

---

2. Mercedes-Benz EQ Withdrawal from North America

The podcast highlights Mercedes-Benz's recent decision to cease sales of its EQ electric vehicles in North America. This strategic move involves exporting EQ models manufactured in the US to other international markets.

Kenan [06:39]: “Mercedes eq. Mercedes eq. EQS SUV.”

Filippo points out the overwhelming presence of EQ models in dealerships, reflecting market saturation and possibly low demand.

---

3. Ford's Recalls and Quality Concerns

Ford has announced its 90th recall, the highest in automotive history, raising concerns about the brand's quality control. Despite launching popular models like the Bronco and Mustang, Ford struggles with reliability issues, as exemplified by Nick's personal experiences with his Ford Focus.

Kenan [16:42]: “Their 90th recall, no less.”

Filippo and Kenan discuss whether Ford's openness to issuing recalls contrasts with brands like Tesla, which prefer over-the-air updates to address defects. They speculate that Ford's commitment to recall transparency may reflect deeper quality assurance challenges.

Nick [18:09]: “I'm a big Ford guy. I've used the recall on my Focus twice now.”

---

4. Toyota Supra’s Next Generation: Ending BMW Partnership

Toyota announces that its upcoming sixth-generation Supra will feature a proprietary 400 horsepower four-cylinder engine, marking the end of its collaboration with BMW. This decision underscores Toyota's confidence in developing its own high-performance engines and a belief in the market's appetite for a uniquely Toyota Supra.

Kenan [21:12]: “The remaining part is that, as a result of the weird consolidation that has happened…”

Filippo expresses surprise, noting that the Supra's success in collaboration with BMW demonstrated a viable market for Toyota's sports cars.

Filippo [22:17]: “So I'm surprised that they feel like they want to do this. My guess is that the subtext here is BMW does not see a Future for the Z4…”

---

5. Faraday Future's FF91 Minivan with AI Features

The trio discusses Faraday Future's latest innovation, the FF91 minivan, which incorporates advanced AI features, including a literal face screen. Despite Faraday Future's tumultuous history with limited vehicle sales, the company remains active with new technological endeavors.

Kenan [27:59]: “The makers of the FF91. Yes, obviously large SUV. The company still exists apparently.”

Filippo shares a personal anecdote about Faraday Future's elusive press events and the skepticism surrounding their ambitious AI integrations.

---

6. Upcoming Automotive Events

a. Road America IMSA Sports Car Weekend

Kenan and Filippo announce their participation in the IMSA Sports Car Weekend at Road America on August 3rd, hosting the first-ever Cars and Bids Trackside Cars and Coffee event. They invite listeners to join them for racing excitement, car showcases, and potential giveaways.

Kenan [48:07]: “We're hosting the first Cars and Bids Trackside Cars and Coffee event during the IMSA Sports Car Weekend at Road America…”

b. NASCAR Race Moves to San Diego

NASCAR has relocated a race to San Diego's Coronado Island, replacing the Chicago event. Nick humorously claims he might drive the pace car, adding a personal touch to the news.

Nick [32:03]: “I will be driving the pace car. I will be acquiring an SRT10 RAM…”

---

7. Market Report: GR Corolla's Resale Strength

Kenan and Filippo examine the Toyota GR Corolla's impressive market performance, noting its superior resale value compared to competitors like the VW GTI and Subaru WRX. The GR Corolla maintains a lower depreciation rate, making it an attractive option for enthusiasts concerned about long-term value.

Kenan [50:45]: “The GR Corolla has held its value better than any of the other entrants in the space.”

Filippo highlights that limited editions, such as the Circuit Editions, further enhance the vehicle's market appeal.

Filippo [52:26]: “The circuit seemed to be holding in the high 30s or around 40.”

---

8. Listener Questions

a. Ranking BMW 7 Series Generations

Listener jsj33 asks the hosts to rank the BMW 7 Series generations from best to worst. The panel debates, ultimately ranking the E38 as the best and the E32 as the worst, with the E65 (Bengal edition) following closely.

Filippo [57:41]: “The worst is the E32…”

b. Obscure Car Features

Another listener inquires about the most obscure car feature that made sense but never caught on. Filippo mentions his desire for climate controls on the steering wheel, reminiscing about features from past decades.

Filippo [62:00]: “I've always felt the answer to this question is climate controls on the steering wheel.”

c. Relocation of the Podcast

A listener asks where the Cars and Bids team would relocate if they had to move out of San Diego. Filippo humorously suggests Princeton, New Jersey, citing proximity to major drug companies and Lake Como.

Filippo [67:39]: “I think we'd move to Princeton in New Jersey. You know why? Because all the big drug companies are there.”

d. Chinese Automakers in the US Market

A question probes whether Chinese auto brands could attain the same US market share as current top sellers. Filippo draws parallels to Japan's post-WWII resurgence in the US automotive market, expressing optimism if Chinese brands can overcome initial consumer skepticism.

Filippo [68:07]: “Do I think the Chinese could... move past some of the opinions that people may have about the quality of their products? Yeah.”

e. Favorite Cars in Movies/TV Shows

Listeners inquire about favorite cars featured in movies or TV shows that aren't primarily known for their association with media. Nick and Filippo share examples like the Mercedes G Wagon in The OC and the ML320 in American Beauty.

Filippo [70:34]: “Kevin Spacey's wife was like a Realtor in the suburbs in 1998, and she drove an ML320. It was just like, perfect.”

---

9. Personal Stories and Anecdotes

a. Nick’s Fiat Multipla Purchase

Nick shares his experience purchasing a Fiat Multipla from Stuttgart, detailing the complexities of importing a car from Europe, including dealing with repaints and transportation logistics.

Nick [41:21]: “I will do a YouTube series for the channel, sort of showing what it's like to import a car that's 25 years old…”

b. Ford Focus and Other Car Issues

Nick recounts multiple issues with his Ford Focus, including multiple transmission replacements and a persistent check engine light, highlighting ongoing reliability problems.

Nick [18:09]: “I've used the recall on my Focus twice now.”

c. Franchise Memories

Filippo reminisces about his time selling Saturns in college, providing a nostalgic glimpse into the past automotive sales environment.

Filippo [13:15]: “I was at a Saturn dealership in 2008. This is a real story… None of this is made up.”

---

Conclusion

The episode concludes with the hosts expressing excitement over upcoming events, sharing final thoughts on automotive trends, and engaging in playful banter. They reaffirm their commitment to delivering insightful and entertaining automotive discussions for their listeners.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Kenan [00:16]: “The Japanese automakers understandably are excited about this, or at least as excited as you can be when you go from basically zero tariffs to 15% tariffs.”

• Filippo [01:19]: “Japan owns an enormous amount of US Debt. So Trump was smart to make a deal with Japan early…”

• Nick [18:09]: “I'm a big Ford guy. I've used the recall on my Focus twice now.”

• Filippo [57:41]: “The worst is the E32…”

• Filippo [68:07]: “Do I think the Chinese could... move past some of the opinions that people may have about the quality of their products? Yeah.”

• Filippo [62:00]: “I've always felt the answer to this question is climate controls on the steering wheel.”

---

This episode provides a thorough exploration of the current automotive landscape, offering listeners expert insights into trade dynamics, corporate challenges, and emerging market trends. Whether you're an industry insider or a car enthusiast, the discussions on THIS CAR POD! deliver valuable perspectives on the evolving world of automobiles.

Transcript

[Nick]

Foreign.

[Filippo]

Hello and welcome to this car pod.

[Kenan]

I'm Filippo.

[Nick]

I'm Nick.

[Filippo]

Nick's filling in for Kenan, who's still gallivanting around the world. Let's start with the news. There's a lot to cover today.

[Kenan]

There is. All right, first up, Japan and the US Announced earlier today, today's Wednesday that we're filming this, that they have agreed on a tariff deal that applies 15% tariffs to things imported from Japan. Notably, it includes cars. So cars generally were not include were previously all under a 25% tariff that then there are different car v. Different countries for other things. Now it's going to be 15% for cars imported from. From Japan. The Japanese automakers understandably are excited about this, or at least as excited as you can be when you go from basically zero tariffs to 15% tariffs. Other parts of this news include that the Japan, as a part of this, will start allowing vehicles that meet U.S. safety requirements to be sold in Japan. So previously, if you wanted to sell a car in Japan, you also have to meet Japanese safety requirements, which are a little bit different, a little bit stricter. In some. Some areas. They will no longer allow that, which in theory, the Trump administration hopes will mean that more US More American built cars are sold in Japan. Will that happen often? For sale and buying are two different things. But that is a big news item. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Japan owns an enormous amount of US Debt. So Trump was smart to make a deal with Japan early because the spare thing was pissing off some of our biggest debt holders. And so I'm not surprised. Japan's already got a deal, as does the UK Some of our close friends. We're still waiting on the Honduras trade deal.

[Kenan]

I will say other news from today is that Europe is apparently close to a very similar deal. It's still unclear if it will include vehicles that are built in Europe or not at a 15% tariff amount. And I will also note, as with any, any part of this, this is what's been said by the White House and the Japanese government, but it's kind of coming from a mix of information. We haven't seen the actual deal. Things may change.

[Filippo]

Europe, Europe as a whole.

[Kenan]

Europe as a whole. Well, the eu, which negotiates on behalf of many European countries.

[Filippo]

Not Switzerland. No. So any Swiss made cars, Nick? Monteverdi. You won't be able to get a Monteverdi. You know about this car?

[Nick]

No. Koenigsegg and Volvo are the only Swiss cars I'm aware of.

[Filippo]

Oh.

[Kenan]

Oh, okay. All right, all right. Just move on. Move on group that's not happy about this very much.

[Nick]

Can you explain why I'm wrong there?

[Filippo]

Filippo, pull up the Monteverdi.

[Nick]

Swedish. They're Swedish. Swedish and Switzerland are different places.

[Filippo]

Correct. Actually, he wasn't kidding. He wasn't kidding.

[Kenan]

No, he was not kidding.

[Filippo]

Two minutes in, pull up the Monteverdi Safari. Nick, this will excite you more than anything. You will hear about today. The Monteverdi Safari. Go to Images. This was, I am not joking, the International Scout and this Swiss company called Monteverdi made a luxury version of the International Scout and sold it like in the late 70s. I swear this is true.

[Nick]

No, I mean it's like a La Forza and an RRC made a baby. Like that's pretty cool.

[Filippo]

It's a little older than both, but.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Isn't that wild?

[Nick]

Yes. Wildly off topic of the Japanese tariffs, but I am here for it.

[Filippo]

Well, Safari would have been tariffed at a different rate.

[Nick]

The interesting thing about the tariffs is because they negotiated 15%. The rumor is that the domestic, the U.S. manufacturers like Ford manufacture a lot of cars in either Mexico or Canada which are subject to a 25% tariff. So in theory, this could hurt. Potentially some of the US made cars that aren't made in US but like Japan would have a advantage over a car built in Mexico. From strictly a tariff perspective.

[Kenan]

The lobbying group that represents the Big Three has put out a couple of press releases today alone saying this is bad.

[Filippo]

It's absolutely abhorrent. It's ridiculous. The concept that they would prioritize Japanese and they already did it with British over US companies that make cars in Canada and Mexico. But there is still American companies. The money flows to Detroit. And on that subject, Filippo, tell us about General Motors and Stellantis. Right. Didn't Stellantis also make this?

[Kenan]

Stellantis issued a huge loss that we'll talk about in a second or announced a huge loss in Q2 that we'll talk about in a second in Q2 alone. Admittedly, tariffs went to effect in Q2. GM says that they that tariffs have cost them 1 $1 billion and they expect that over the course of 2025, tariffs will cost them 4 to 5 billion dollars, which has hit massively their operating profit, as you'd expect. So yeah, they're not thrilled. I will say at the risk of going too far into detail, cars that are built in Mexico and Canada, the tariff only applies to the portion of the vehicle's contents that are not made in the U.S. it's like part of the USMCA agreement. There's a bunch of math that honestly nobody's figured out, probably including the federal government.

[Filippo]

Yeah, but it does. They are clearly paying a huge amount and it's tremendously difficult and problematic for their business. The photo that you have there, I believe that's the Renaissance center in Detroit and across the river there is Canada. The photo was taken from Canada. Was the photo tariffed?

[Kenan]

Yes, if it was sold, if it was produced, yeah. If they printed it out and imported it, yeah. Digital media, not yet tariffed.

[Nick]

NFT.

[Filippo]

So. So General Motors, they're not talking about a $1 billion loss, but they said they've paid a billion in tariffs this year.

[Kenan]

1.1. Yeah. Which is just in Q2. And on A. When tariffs were not fully in effect yet. Correct.

[Nick]

Yeah. I don't. Stellantis did say not just a tariff payment, but they posted an actual significant loss of $3 billion year to date. And we're in July, for those that are not aware. So half of a year through.

[Filippo]

That's the first half, they posted a 3 billion loss. Well, they're going to blame tariffs, but wouldn't you also want to blame the fact that they make bad cars? Does that. Is that factor in at all?

[Kenan]

Yeah, GM still made money. For the record, they were still profitable in the first half and the second quarter. Stellantis has some other issues.

[Filippo]

Yes, two things. First off, GM spent a billion on tariffs and they were still profitable. That tells you just how much money these companies make and how profitable how much money is in these companies. But you know what the great drawback of it all is? Everybody's like, oh, these rich executives take home all this money while the workers slave away, but they have to live in Detroit. So, like, it's really. They really get you. It's really like, oh, yeah, you made all this, but you gotta. You gotta buy a house in Auburn Hills. Second thing, the.

[Kenan]

The Auburn Hills community will be angry.

[Filippo]

I saw a Jeep Wagoneer s yesterday.

[Kenan]

Wow, they're right.

[Nick]

Yeah, yeah.

[Filippo]

Oh, yes. They are not around.

[Kenan]

I mean, to the extent that you expect any new EVG product to be around. By the way, one fun fact, talking about EVs, we don't have this in here, but Tesla announced today that in California, sales were down 24% in Q2 year over year.

[Filippo]

Which brings us beautifully to the Mercedes Benz story, which I want to go back to this in a second, but Mercedes Benz announced today, this week that they're no longer going to sell any of the EQ products in North America. This isn't global but in North America.

[Kenan]

And they produce the SUVs in North America. So they're, they're going to export vehicles that they build in the US to other countries that might be interested in buying an EQE SUV and an EQS suv. I'm sorry, let me say the full name. A Mercedes eq. Mercedes eq. EQS suv.

[Filippo]

No, no, no. It's just, it's just, It's Mercedes Benz EQs.

[Nick]

They will. Anyone who ordered one that's supposed to come in before September is still getting it. So the six of you listening that maybe fit that scenario, be rest assured. However, they're just, they're, they're going to stop. It's like Jaguar. They're just going to take some time off and let it.

[Filippo]

Let's see what happens is no one, no person has ordered one, but there are still tens of thousands of orders flooding into dealerships that the dealerships do not want under any circumstances. I go to these Mercedes Benz dealerships and they've got EQ products parked on any surface, any flat surface they can find. I mean, it's like a disaster. This whole thing is sort of an interesting, an interesting product discussion here. So General Motors is paying all this money in tariffs. It's a huge impact on their business. Stellantis reports a $3 billion loss and part of that is got to be because they went, they pivoted pretty hard towards electric vehicles and some of the choices they made were not supported in the market.

[Kenan]

The Dodge Charger, which is what you're referring to, and the Wagoner s not selling, certainly has impact to them also fundamentally across their portfolio brands. We're talking about Stellantis. They have a lot of weak aging product. They also acquired some of these companies in the last couple years and have not really invested anything in them. And if they want to sell cars, maybe they should build good ones.

[Nick]

Maybe.

[Filippo]

I think Stellantis company owns Opel.

[Kenan]

Yes. And Vauxhall.

[Filippo]

Yikes. They like have every bad brand. Look at that picture.

[Kenan]

There are some great brands in here and brands that I think are putting out, despite what I just said, some pretty good products. Unfortunately, they're all not selling many of them or selling poorly or selling in really low margin areas. Subcompact cars in Europe don't have a large profit margin. What does have a large profit margin?

[Filippo]

Can you see the products that Lancha currently sells?

[Kenan]

Yeah, they have a new Yipsy lawn. They have a new one, the new Epsilon.

[Filippo]

Okay, I think that's it.

[Kenan]

Is it not?

[Filippo]

That's it. That's the only car the Launcher brand is selling.

[Kenan]

But yes, automobiles makes really cool cars. Peugeot makes cool cars. The. The French brands are making interesting cars.

[Filippo]

And then this entire company rests on the back of the Jeep Wrangler.

[Kenan]

This entire engraved RAM 1500. That's it.

[Filippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Nick]

Chrysler is also down to one vehicle, the Pacifica. I mean there's a few logos here that are really just a car.

[Kenan]

Fiat sells the 500e.

[Nick]

I think they're counting the Abarth separately from Fiat.

[Kenan]

I don't even think they sell it. I don't think there's any models.

[Filippo]

I think that most of these are one car. Fiat. Fiat. Does Fiat. Yeah. Does Fiat the 500e? 500. But that's like non existent.

[Nick]

Basically they're kind of Dodge and Ram separately which fine. But like.

[Kenan]

Well they split up a decade.

[Filippo]

But by doing that what Dodges even are even exist?

[Kenan]

Just the Charger, the EV1.

[Nick]

Oh yikes.

[Kenan]

Yeah yeah, yeah.

[Nick]

Although it's coming out in gas.

[Filippo]

The Durango is still around.

[Kenan]

Is it?

[Filippo]

Maybe. Oh I believe it. It's still on sale. Oh, I forgot about the Hornet.

[Kenan]

Also the Alfa Romeo Tonale as a result the toenail.

[Nick]

This is. This is very bad. I kind of feel like this is at the beginning of the big short where Michael Burry's like I looked all the. The mortgages in the portfolio and it's bad but like because not only do they have all these crap brands and products, but they're leasing Charger EVS for like $99 a month with zero that if so I will understand that finance department will. Will ultimately hold the bag. But this is not going to be good.

[Filippo]

That that price is not actually I would lease one at that price would be getting rid of.

[Nick]

It's. It's not but it's not. I'm. I'm exaggerating but it's not far off from the truth. Like they will. The residuals that they are claiming on their leases are so out of whack with what actually be worth that I think they're going to be holding an even worse amount of debt in like three months or three years when those come up to.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

I have a suspicion that part of their $3 billion loss is actually some of those leases that you're talking about coming due from three years ago on 22s when the market was already starting to cool. Right. And you're talking about 4 by ES that they had high residuals on because they were high residual cars. And you're talking about all these other products that now there's, the market has fallen off.

[Nick]

The leases are exactly like the mortgages where the exotic dancers in Vegas. Seven mortgages. Like it's the exact same thing with Dodge.

[Kenan]

They do have seven Dodge Hornets. Yeah, yeah.

[Filippo]

I want to be clear though, this is, this, I don't think this is an industry wide issue. There are some very successful brands right now. It's just Stellantis is in a tough spot. Stellantis is working on executives. They're going through CEO changes. It would be very difficult to be running this company right now. The amount of stuff you would have to do is absolutely enormous. There's brand consolidation, there's probably getting rid of some brands. There's. There's just completely re engineering and creating new products. I think it would be a really, really, really tough place to be running this company right now.

[Kenan]

Solantis does have a new, a new CEO as of two weeks ago, Antonio Filoza. And he has said very publicly in presenting this news that there's going to be some tough medicine, I think were his, his words coming because they need to cut costs massively, obviously in order to have any chance of living.

[Nick]

Look at our previous news story with gm. They can afford the tariffs.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Nick]

What they do, they killed off Saturn, they killed off Pontiac.

[Kenan]

They killed, they really planned ahead. They went back in time 20 years. They looked and made the product plan.

[Nick]

And we took some really crappy brands. We need to shed all this dead weight and then double down on our core.

[Filippo]

That is actually what happened. I mean, I was there. I was selling Saturn at a Saturn dealership in 2008. This is a real story. I was a Saturn salesman. Not that I haven't told this story that many people, but it's real. And I swear none of this is made up.

[Kenan]

Luckily, it's a no haggle situation. It's a good, it's a good environment.

[Filippo]

Let me tell you something. In 08, we were haggling. You walked in. If you wanted an outlook, if you wanted an outlook, we would do whatever you wanted. And people would come in and say, I'm looking at the Acadia, which was broadly the same car. And we'd say, please, please, please.

[Nick]

Anyway, funny enough, true story as well. I worked at a Daewoo dealership and we looked down upon those Saturn people. We said, those city slickers, those.

[Filippo]

Did you actually.

[Kenan]

No, no.

[Filippo]

I worked at a set. You think I'm kidding. I worked at, I sold Saturns. I was a Saturn salesperson. At Saturn of decay. You know, if I was at home, I have my business card still, I swear.

[Nick]

We'll have to find that picture.

[Filippo]

Do you not know about this?

[Nick]

It rings up. I actually thought you worked for Daewoo, to be honest. But I knew it was like a crap brand that's no longer around.

[Filippo]

When I was in college, I sold Saturns. But anyway, the point is, I remember that was going on then and we were terrified because, you know, GM was cutting these brands and initially the thought was that Saturn would get sold off to someone else. That fell through. But then they cut. They cut Saturn, they cut Pontiac, and they cut Hummer, and they had to make those decisions and focus on like a more like realistic core that was focus onable. And yeah, that picture there is.

[Nick]

I mean, you probably need to cut the Hummer again, for the record, unsolicited advice to gm.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I mean, it's all.

[Kenan]

I will say Stellantis, as a result of the weird consolidation that has happened or the weird consolidation of all these manufacturers under the Stellantis umbrella, is in a tough spot because I think the French government would not support them shutting down any of these. And there's weird union tensions and governmental tensions as a result, too. It's a tough spot.

[Nick]

I think you don't shut them down. I think you sell them to the Chinese and the Vietnamese that are looking to establish brands and have some cred and just offshore the rest that you're clearly not good at.

[Filippo]

And that's not out of the realm. And by the way, the French government holds stakes in these brands already, don't they?

[Kenan]

Yep, they sure do. That's good. You know what? No one prepares you for credit. It's amazing how big a blind spot the world of credit is. As I became an independent young adult, it took a lot of research and running into unexpected surprises to figure out what to do in the confusing world of credit. I take my finances really seriously. But even with that mindset, it's still really easy to make a misstep or just not know how your score is affecting your life. And that's why I really like what Ava is doing. Ava is a credit building app that makes it so easy to improve your credit fast so you can get better rates on loans, pay off debt faster, and keep more money in your pocket. They've completely taken the stress and confusion out of it. You can be approved in five minutes. There's no credit check and no interest. Just a smart tool that helps you build your credit automatically in the background by paying for the bills and subscriptions you already have. I wish I'd had something like Ava when I was just starting out. Most members see their credits start to improve in under a week, and it's only $6 a month. And Ava reports on your on time payments to all three major credit card bureaus daily. That consistent reporting makes a huge difference. You can take control of your credit right now. Download the AVA app. That's ava. And when you join using our promo code carpod, your first month is totally free. That's promo code carpod. Thanks to Ava. And now go get yourself some good credit. Let's talk about the third of the big three, Ford.

[Filippo]

Ford today announced a recall.

[Kenan]

Their 90th recall, no less.

[Filippo]

No. Ford has apparently announced 90 recalls. You know, people are making a big deal out of this, but I want to say something. I want to say something about this because I think about Ford a lot. When you're winning, sometimes you got to lose a little, you know? But you know what I'm talking about. You see Wimbledon, right? Center doesn't go up there and just win, win. He loses a lot. So I guess my point is Ford has issued the most recalls of any automaker in the entire history of automakers and nhtsa, the governing body of the recalls. But they've also made the Bronco, the Bronco Raptor, the Bronco Sport, the EcoSport. See what I'm saying? Do you see kind of where I'm.

[Kenan]

Going with it, right? Very successful vehicles all, especially that last one, which is pronounced EcoSport, despite the fact that it should be EcoSport by all branding decisions. Regardless, it's a lot of recalls.

[Filippo]

Their name got recalled.

[Kenan]

Right? I don't know what all these recalls are for. Sometimes there are, frankly, low impact recalls that automakers do. And I also do wonder if Ford is a little bit more open to doing recalls than some other manufacturers. Where Tesla famously tries every single option to avoid actually issuing a recall. They do a lot over their updates to try to fix things or try to circumvent problems. I wonder if Ford is just a little bit more willing to engage.

[Nick]

Yeah, they stand by their product. I'm a big Ford guy. I've used the recall on my Focus twice now.

[Filippo]

So, Nick, how many transmissions you gonna throw in your focus?

[Nick]

2. 50,000 miles. I have a check engine light on it right now too, but that's all right.

[Kenan]

Just sounds like a Nick situation.

[Filippo]

Wait, hang on, Filippo. You're giving Ford the benefit of the doubt here.

[Kenan]

No, no, no. I'm trying to add more before we.

[Filippo]

Got on this podcast that they've issued more recalls in the next five automakers combine. Is that what you believe?

[Kenan]

Yeah, sure, that's true. Yeah.

[Nick]

A lot of people are saying that, look, it's problematic.

[Kenan]

And so when Jim Farley came on as a CEO of Ford a few years ago, the Explorer had just like the new Explorer had just come out. And there were a lot of recalls for that, a lot of recalls for the Mach E. And he talked a lot of the time about how Ford really needs to invest in quality and will be investing in quality and additional testing to make sure that they stop that. Clearly that initiative has failed massively. But when you're doing okay, maybe nobody cares.

[Nick]

Could it be that they. They don't have Mercury and all the other brands, so all of their recalls are under one moniker, like, everything's Ford instead of like, oh, we have Chrysler that has one product. Dodge that has one product.

[Kenan]

We won't go neither can or any of the other brands.

[Nick]

Lincoln's great, but maybe, maybe there's something they're just not peanut buttering it around.

[Filippo]

One interesting thing that Ford is doing, and I mean this sincerely when I say that you wit, they're winning. Like, they have undoubtedly the most exciting product lineup maybe any big volume automaker.

[Kenan]

Really. That's the line we're going with, the most exciting product lineup with their lack of cars. Raptors.

[Filippo]

In the last few years. They came out with Mach E, which was. Which was like the only electric car that was a hit aside from the Teslas. They came out with Bronco, which was this widely, really excited thing. They got a new Mustang out. They got Bronco Sport out, which has been, at least from my perspective, like a massive, massive hit. What other new Fords have been. Have been out? Nick, you follow the brand.

[Kenan]

The Mustang has plummeted in sales.

[Filippo]

New Ranger and the Raptor version, the new Bronco. Raptor. The new raptor version, the F150, which everybody's obsessed with. There's all these like cool new Ford products. The Maverick has been like the most excited talk car. Filippo's still freaking out over the Maverick.

[Kenan]

Especially now that there's an all wheel drive hybrid. Yeah, yeah.

[Filippo]

And not to mention the new Mustang, which has not been a huge success, but is pretty cool. The Lightning, right? The Lightning was a massive hit when it came out.

[Kenan]

I think Ford has done well legitimately.

[Filippo]

They have these amazing, amazing products. I do feel terrible for their PR folks because every time I talk to them, it's like they're launching these Incredible cars and every one of them just seems to have issued issue after issue. But quality, I wonder if there is some prioritization of like let's bring this to market and make it cool and you know, kind of quality be damned. It seems like that's, that is the case.

[Kenan]

I think also like if you're watching Tesla, that was their strategy for a long, long time. Still might be just get the product out and then you can fix the rest. It's harder if we're using infrastructure that doesn't allow the same level of over there updates and also where you kind of need to maybe support your dealer network a little bit and get people into that, which might be an element here too. But they gotta work on getting cars out that don't need recalls. If you're more than the five next largest recallers combined, you're in a tough spot.

[Filippo]

Everybody I know with new Fords is having problems. Everybody I know. I mean do you not. You don't know anybody with new Fords because you're not a man.

[Kenan]

I don't know people with new cars, not from that kind of family.

[Filippo]

But my neighbor down the street just put a transmission in his Expedition. I got another. My buddy Dave got just put a transmission in his Raptor. These are like four year old cars.

[Kenan]

It's your buddy Nick just put a. Will need to put a new transmission in his Ford.

[Nick]

I guess I just got my dad into an Expedition about three months ago.

[Filippo]

But yeah, a new one, a brand.

[Nick]

New one, a used one.

[Kenan]

Okay.

[Filippo]

With a V8, of course.

[Kenan]

All right, move on to another equally important news story which is that Toyota has announced that for the next generation Supra, which I believe is the sixth generation Supra, which should come out in like 2027 or something like that, it will not be with BMW. It will have its own apparently 400 horsepower four cylinder engine that Toyota is developing.

[Filippo]

Horsepower four cylinder. That makes sense because they already got a 300 horsepower three cylinder.

[Nick]

Hate you for that.

[Kenan]

Oh, stole my joke. I don't sure they're splitting ways. The one product that they build with BMW will no longer be built alongside BMW. I will say the Supra was about two times as successful as the Z4 in terms of sales. Maybe that proved to Toyota that there is a market for sports cars. Also Toyota in general is leaning into that with their gr Yaris and the Jerk Rolla and other like performance oriented products. Maybe they decided that there's. Clearly they've decided that there's a business.

[Filippo]

Case for doing surprise to me, because Toyota's point with teaming up with BMW, which was sort of a left field combination like that, was a surprise when it happened. Toyota's point at the time was that they didn't see a business case for singularly developing a sports car. That they, it only made sense if they could share development costs in production. And in the case of the Supra, although I like the new Supra a lot, like it is a BMW, it is more BMW than Toyota. It has been a powertrain, it has BMW switchgear, it's made in Graz, like, you know, in Austria, like that. It's not how I think of my Supra. Nick and I are Mark, Mark four guys.

[Nick]

Of course.

[Filippo]

Yeah. So I'm surprised that they feel like they want to do this. My guess is there this, the subtext here is BMW does not see a Future for the Z4, which has, which has not really been a big hit since the first two generations. The original Z3 and then the original Z4. So maybe we'll get a nice little Supra out of this whole thing.

[Kenan]

It sounds like we will. Whether you want a 400 horsepower four cylinder Toyota engine. Maybe a different question.

[Filippo]

What do you mean? That's all I want.

[Kenan]

I think that part of the success of the Mark V Supra has been that it's an engine that is very tunable and has a great aftermarket support. If it's a newly developed engine, there might be some questions about that.

[Filippo]

You know, that's a really good point. When the Supra first came out, that engine was not in its infancy but close to it. And I remember there was a lot of criticism that all the old super. One of the things that made it so cool, it's still a straight six, which is cool, but it was tunable. And that engine in the end has now been put in every car ever made, including the trucks built in France.

[Kenan]

Yeah, the B58, the Grenadier. The Nes Grenadier, that's right, yeah.

[Filippo]

And it has kind of become a bit of a darling of the enthusiast tuner community in the years since that car has come out. And it actually earned its stripes as a Supra. I think the new Supra is so cool. Mark V. Love it.

[Kenan]

I also love the Z4 and I love the Z4 available with a stick now. I kind of want one as a result, but.

[Filippo]

But you will never get one. So anyway, this is kind of cool. I'm curious to see also what happens with the next gen GR86. If Toyota's recommitting to sports cars and Nick and I are here for it, we will buy one used.

[Kenan]

It's worth noting for those wondering.

[Nick]

Ten years.

[Kenan]

Yeah. It's worth noting for those wondering whether they'll keep working with Subaru. Toyota owns a large portion of Fuji EV Industries, which is Subaru. So I suspect there's closer ties there.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, they just came out with those two new cars.

[Kenan]

Yeah, the Subaru Uncharted, which is also a Toyota chr, by the way. Uncharted has CHR in it. Probably a callback to Toyota.

[Filippo]

Wait a sec, let's go back. The cars I was referring to are the Toyota BZ4X.

[Kenan]

Just busy.

[Filippo]

Subaru Solterra, which now there's a longer version of, which I actually kind of like and sort of want.

[Kenan]

There's also a longer version of the Toyota.

[Filippo]

Now, that appears to be a Toyota Crown Cross.

[Kenan]

No, no, no, no. It is much smaller than that. It's a Toyota chr, which hasn't, I don't think, been revealed in the US as a new model. So Subaru beat them to it. Which also happened with the Trail Seeker.

[Filippo]

Which is the Toyota canceled the C HR years ago.

[Kenan]

There's a new. The CHR had a new generation in Europe. It wasn't sold in the us and now maybe they'll bring it back to the US as an ev. This is also an ev, the Subaru Uncharted. It was revealed last week, and that's all that our people want to know about it.

[Filippo]

No, no, no. I want to know a little bit more. I want to know a little bit more. So the Subaru Uncharted.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Filippo]

This is based on the chr. That's true.

[Kenan]

That is a fact. Also, it's in the name uncharted.

[Filippo]

It has 340 horsepower and 300 miles of range.

[Kenan]

Yeah, it seems like a solid offer because it's a small suv, so that's real power.

[Filippo]

It's not attractive. What's the Solterra Long? What's the Solterra Long?

[Kenan]

The Solterra Long is called the Trail Seeker.

[Filippo]

The Trail Seeker. Is that true?

[Nick]

I really hope so.

[Filippo]

I gotta tell you, I really like how the Subaru Seeker looks like. I legitimately, kind of, every so often, I think to myself, what would I buy if I never was into cars? And for years, I thought to myself, I hoped that I found my way to a Honda Accord hybrid. I hope that, like, that would be what I would have gotten. I hope that I Would have done enough research and ended up with a Honda Accord hybrid.

[Kenan]

That's a good choice.

[Filippo]

Yeah, it's the best and for the best car, for non car people. And I thought that right up until I saw a Subaru Trail Seeker. And now I hope I find my way to a Subaru Trail Seeker. If I was never into cars at all.

[Kenan]

By the way, a Toyota version of this does exist and you can. I don't remember what it's called.

[Filippo]

From now on when I turo cars, I'm going to first look for a Subaru Trail Seeker and then everything else.

[Kenan]

If you're touring in Portland, Oregon, there's a chance. And then you can drive 280 miles.

[Filippo]

Well, that's true. I don't like to turo EVs because you never know. Okay, do we have any other news?

[Kenan]

I have to talk. We have to talk about this. All right. Faraday Future, you remember it?

[Nick]

Yes.

[Kenan]

The makers of the FF91. Yes, obviously large SUV. The company still exists apparently. And they went all in on AI. If you're ever like really bored, go to the Faraday Future website.

[Nick]

All right.

[Kenan]

It is an experience, just truly an experience. They had a press event last week where they announced their new minivan which has a face.

[Filippo]

It's literal face, Nick.

[Kenan]

It has literal face. This is a screen that might be.

[Nick]

In front of your moving car. And watch it like that seems dangerous.

[Filippo]

You know, that's an interesting point. Online have people like in front of the face interacting with it. Yeah, yes, that's.

[Nick]

That's just what you want, is to train your kids from an early age to just run in front of a car to see if it has spongebob on it.

[Filippo]

I will not hit your kids. It'll see your kids and it'll say, oh, hi. And it won't hit them. The face will come out.

[Kenan]

There it is at heart and in every other way except for the screen. A great wall motor, something a Chinese made and Chinese sold minivan. Will it ever actually be sold? Who knows? But it does have AI.

[Filippo]

The FF91 was never sold.

[Kenan]

It was technically was sold. For the record, they sold like two.

[Filippo]

I'm on the website right now and it's still saying that you can Pre order an FF91 SUV. I have a Faraday Future story for you, Nick. You know what I've learned about my stories? Filippo likes them a lot, but he hates that I tell them on the podcast because.

[Kenan]

No, I love them.

[Filippo]

Okay, here's my fair day future story. I'm at the LA Auto show maybe four years ago, everybody at the LA Auto. I go on the press days, right? It's only me and the press. And then all automaker people. Automaker people come up to me. They know they recognize me. They're like, oh, hey, it's Doug. Automaker people came up to me from Faraday Future. And I was like, oh, what are you guys working on? Thinking like, we're gonna have like a con, a fun conversation. And they're like, oh, we can't tell you. And I'm like, you're out of. This was five years ago. I'm like, you're out of your mind that you. I didn't say this to them, but I was thinking like, are you joking? Like everybody knows you're not coming to market. And five years later they, whatever they were working on never showed up. And it was like they were being so secretive about it. Come on.

[Kenan]

They didn't want to want to tell you about their one on one, bespoke private AI.

[Filippo]

I saw that on the website and.

[Kenan]

This is the fx. Super one is what the MPV is. By the way, Paul Walker's brother was part of the reveal for the fx.

[Filippo]

Hey, super one, go up to the very top of the website. Is that the top for you? Yeah, on the top for me it talks about how they just got $100 million in funding. Who do you think? Okay, we got.

[Nick]

Clearly.

[Filippo]

Do we have another news stories? We can't.

[Kenan]

No. But I do want to Talk about the FF91.2.0 versus F91.2.0 Futurist versus FF91.2.0 Futurists Alliance.

[D]

All right, if you're a fan of cool cars, IMSA Racing and this podcast, you've got to check out what's happening at Road America. On Sunday, August 3rd, we are hosting the first Cars and Bids Trackside Cars and Coffee event during the IMSA Sports Car Weekend at Road America. Cars and Cars and Bids is the ultimate online auction platform for enthusiasts. Whether it's modern sports cards, analog classics, race cards, quirky builds and anything in between. And for the first time, we're bringing that energy trackside with an awesome lineup of enthusiast cars, the Cars N Bids crew. And yes, Filippo and I will be there in person too. Come hang out with us and watch some racing. And if you've got a cool car, submit it by clicking the link below for a chance to be part of our Trackside Cars and coffee event. We already have some amazing submissions and we'll be sending out our invitations soon, so don't wait. Whether you're bringing a car or not, come join us on Sunday, August 3rd. Check out our trackside cars and coffee and watch the incredible IMSA sports car racing with us.

[Kenan]

There is one more news story that we want to talk about really quickly, which is that NASCAR announced today that they will be in San Diego on Coronado island at the, I believe at the Air Force base there. Sorry, at the Navy Air. Whatever words.

[Filippo]

What a lib.

[Kenan]

At the Navy raging base on North Island Coronado. They will be there for a race. There will no longer be a Chicago NASCAR race, but they will be in San Diego.

[Nick]

And what hasn't been announced yet is that I will be driving the pace car. I will be acquiring an SRT10 RAM. And whether they allow me or not, I will be doing a parade lap.

[Filippo]

Hey, you know what? When is this happening, Sean? I want to drive the pace car. Sean's always like, what do you, what opportunities do you want to have? And I'm like, none. I want to drive the pace car for this. For this race.

[Kenan]

If you're a NASCAR San Diego weekend planners, reach out to our content.

[Nick]

We will host you here at the Cars and bids headquarters.

[Filippo]

You can sleep at the office. We have a shower. The water pressure is terrible, but we have a shower. We don't have any towels. You have to bring your own towels. Okay, Filipo, move on. Oh yeah. No, no. Do these last few seconds.

[Nick]

Yes, yes. I prepared a toast. Where's the camera? Akira, you've done some quality things over the years as a former TSLX is gone.

[Filippo]

Folks. This is a big deal. When I was.

[Nick]

We are pouring one out for the homies.

[Kenan]

Oh, jeez.

[Filippo]

When I was a child, a wee child accurate came out with a mid size sedan called the Vigor. Ok. Acura came out with a midsize stand called the Vigor. Nick might call it the Vigor. It had a five cylinder engine. Things were great.

[Kenan]

I don't remember that.

[Filippo]

They came out with the TL in 96 and it had a five cylinder engine. Things were great. And then they came out with that amazing tl. I'm doing a little eulogy here. Then they came up with that amazing TL in 04. Well, okay, first from 99 to 03 there was that TL that destroyed the transmissions that every one of those you see, which is none, because the transmissions are all dead, but everyone you see is on its 38th transmission. Then in 04 they came out with that TL which is the probably the greatest Honda sedan of all time. Right the 0408. Then they gave it that beak note. I mean, this is thousands. It's gone. Now. A mid size Acura sedan no longer exists. For the first time in my Acura. I'm so sorry. For the first time in my lifetime.

[Kenan]

I appreciate the integrity of that eulogy and how much of a legend the TL is.

[Filippo]

Wow. Wow. Thank you.

[Kenan]

Thank you two.

[Nick]

That's great.

[Kenan]

You see, please don't pour water on our set, just carpet.

[Nick]

I specifically chose water instead of coffee for that.

[Kenan]

I appreciate that.

[Filippo]

This podcast has gone off the rails. The TLX is gone. Acura is canceled. They only have one car left, which is the new Integra. And I gotta be honest with you, if you had told them the sales figures of the new Integra when they were launching the new Integra, I have a suspicion they would never would have launched it. And so the Acura lineup is down to one car.

[Kenan]

But the Integra now has a color matched front grill. So that's something. And they do sell three SUVs. Can you name them? Nick?

[Nick]

MDX, RDX and ZDX.

[Kenan]

Okay, I'm so sorry. They sell four SUVs.

[Filippo]

Yeah, they have the ADX also.

[Kenan]

Yeah, I forgot about the ZDX.

[Filippo]

No, the Acura's SUV business is. Kira, I'm sorry. Love them Yex. But the car business is gone. I mean this story is repeated with every automaker. No surprise. It's just funny. I mean the midsize Acura sedan system is just such a mainstay. Like that's always that. Literally my whole life they've had one. And I have started to wonder what other sedans are just going to die. Jag killed the XJ. When does the BMW 7 series just die? When does the Audi A8 just die?

[Kenan]

The A has got to be close, let's be honest. Yeah, the others have a market at a marketplace. But like Ford doesn't make any cars anymore except for the Mustang. Like it's an inevitability.

[Nick]

When Doug was working at Saturn and I was at Daewoo, the Ford Taurus and the Toyota Camry were everything. So the. I do think that whole segment's dead or on life support at this point.

[Filippo]

We had a mid sized sedan. Can you name it? Filippo, you.

[Kenan]

Your family had Alexis?

[Filippo]

No, no, no, no. When I worked at Saturn, what were we selling?

[Kenan]

Of course the L200 and L300.

[Filippo]

No, no, no. This is after that.

[Kenan]

Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot the era. I was thinking of the golden era of Saturn, not the later when in.

[Filippo]

Gems Saturn was like 92, like the first year. And then it got worse progressively.

[Kenan]

They were such good cars. The S series was such a good.

[Nick]

Sky, the Ion redline. There was some Lotus Esprit.

[Filippo]

Never forget the Lotus Esprit used the same steering wheel from the Saturn S.

[Kenan]

It's a good steering wheel. It's actually an atrocious steering wheel if we're being honest.

[Filippo]

I want to talk about the Leno's law thing. California Senate Bill 712. Nick, we're good. We're all set here. The transportation committee passed at 14. Oh and they actually expanded and it's actually been improved. I did a deep dive into the bill this morning. They've kept all the provisions in about collector cars 35 years enough. But they added an interesting thing which is that even if you do not have a collector car beginning next year, 81 and up no longer has to do smog. And each subsequent year they are removing cars one more year from smog. So 81 in 27, 82 and 28 etc. And so even if your car isn't collector, those cars are going away because right now the standard is 76. So it's actually been expanded. The collector provision is still in there for 35 years. Cars that are 35 years old and have collector insurance and collector plates. And now that it's passed the transportation committee, I have a suspicion it's going to go to our buddy Gavin Newsom, Nick's right hand man and he's trying to be all conservative and I bet he signs this thing.

[Nick]

Do you? I saw a semi viral Instagram post that said that they quote unquote gutted it because they were going to do historic plates and you had to have collector car insurance. Something else.

[Filippo]

I want to make a really clear point about the collector insurance thing and I really wish people would just shut up about this until the bill passes. But I'm going to just say the point. We're going to move on. People are like, if you have to get collector insurance that means you'll have to have the car garage. It's only for rich people now folks. The insurers will figure this out. You will be issued an insurance policy for your beater. I promise. Just don't let not talk about it until the bill passes. And then there will be insurers who show up with collector insurance for you also. Just shut up for a few more months and then we'll be fine. Everything will be fine. I promise. I promise. The insurers aren't going to let this market just go Collector insurance is undefined in the statute. So all you have to do is show up with some sort of paperwork that says collector and they'll accept it. They don't know what they're talking about. It's going to be fine.

[Kenan]

Also, will there be historic plates?

[Filippo]

Like, will that be has historic plates currently? Oh, that's true.

[Kenan]

You never see them, though.

[Filippo]

They have no benefit. In fact, they only have a drawback, which is that you can only use them if you're driving the car, like, to an exhibition. So there's no reason to have. And so no one does. But now they obviously will become popular.

[Kenan]

Yeah, Nick will have to get them. It's a good update. Go Jay leno.

[Filippo]

Good update. So 1991. Well, 92, because this doesn't go into effect until 2711 of 27, but. So that will mean that, like, 92. 93 model year. Nick, you're gonna be all set.

[Nick]

Sweet. All my 80s cars.

[Kenan]

You will buy 80s cars because of the results.

[Filippo]

Okay, I want to move on to the talk car segment. The talk car segment is brought to us by the Cars and Bids app, which is like cars and bits, but an app. Nick, do you use the Cars and bids apparently app?

[Nick]

I do, religiously.

[Kenan]

Good.

[Nick]

It's a good app.

[Filippo]

Okay, I want to talk about something interesting that hasn't been discussed yet.

[Kenan]

Is it about the elephant or. No, Wilmer.

[Filippo]

That hasn't been discussed, Elmer. Now, I want to bring up a topic that nobody here has covered that we haven't talked about that I've just thought of.

[Kenan]

I'm so scared.

[Nick]

All right.

[Kenan]

Like, actively frightened.

[Filippo]

It's just hit me in the face. A couple of minutes before we recorded this podcast, Nick. Nick sent a Mercedes G Wagon result to our friend group via text message, and he made a big thing about the price that it sold for, which shocked me because Nick doesn't pay attention to anything like, including prices and mileage.

[Kenan]

Yes. But he borrowed a G Wagon last week, and therefore. Now let's think about it.

[Filippo]

That's the thing. So Nick's been borrowing Sean's G Wagon, and he's now paying attention to the G Wagon market. And I want to break the story right here, right now that I think Nick is interested in a G Wagon. Nick, will you tell us your thoughts?

[Nick]

I. Well, I specifically. So I liked Sean's G Wagon, other than it was, like, too normal and good. So a G55 or 63, that's kind of stupid. A G65 would be amazing, but I think they're real money.

[Kenan]

We would respect you more.

[Nick]

Yeah. Well, then that's maybe worth an extra five grand or so. But I think it's a higher premium.

[Filippo]

Though, that I have correctly deduced that you are interested and looking in G wagons.

[Nick]

It's on my list as a potential option, yes. I am not ruling them out, that's for sure.

[Kenan]

Sure.

[Filippo]

And that's because you spent the time with Sean's car.

[Nick]

Yeah, and I didn't. I only drove it basically from here, then to a dermatologist. But it was. It was nice. I felt very like. I actually went through like, Rancho Santa Fe area. So I felt. I felt like I belonged for the first time in my life.

[Kenan]

Did you miss your Bentley? Because you also drive your Bentley through Rancho Santa Fe, and that feels fitting.

[Nick]

Yeah, but the. The G wagon feels just like. Like I'm. I'm one of the cool kids, but I'm not. Like, the Bentley stands out, right? And it like, draws all this attention to you and you get imposter syndrome. The G wagon just feels like, okay, I'm like a. I'm an average Joe here. Like, I'm. I'm one of the good soccer dads, but I'm not like.

[Kenan]

And the wealthiest zip codes in America. You are just an average Joe. Yeah.

[Nick]

Yeah, that's what I want to be.

[Filippo]

Okay, so Nick's thinking about a G. Nick, what else are you thinking about?

[Nick]

Well, I'm thinking about a G, but I just sent a deposit. Or actually not a deposit, the whole frickin thing. A wire this morning for a Fiat Multipla.

[Kenan]

You own a Fiat multiple? Basically. Congratulations.

[Nick]

I mean, it's in Stuttgart somewhere. A lovely listener. Parth, if you're listening. Thank you. I was like, I saw this one. I like it. But the photos suggest that they're hiding something. I'm nervous about it. They're asking top dollar and he's like, dude, I live in Stuttgart. I have Monday off. I will go look at you. He FaceTimed me, took me around it. He drove it along with another buddy. They both work, I believe, at Mercedes corporate. And they're like, it drives grade. Here's the close up here. Here's this. There was like some overspray that he's like, oh, that's actually just like Armor all over here. This door definitely needs repainted, but gave me like the full ppi and then like, wouldn't take any. I was like, can I send you beer money? And he's like, no.

[Kenan]

Shout out to him.

[Nick]

Yeah. So super legit. The car pod slash cars and bids community coming through. And I was like, all right, you know what? I've been looking for six months. I'm never going to find perfect. This is as good as it's going to get. It is the ugly green with the blue interior. And I started to realize that that was a must have no longer a nice to have.

[Kenan]

So hallelujah, it's gonna take it.

[Nick]

It's gonna take two months to get here. They ship it. I'm not flying it because that would cost more than the car itself to fly it over here. So we are gonna put it on a barge or a cruise ship or something like that. We'll figure out if I'm gonna get.

[Kenan]

Tariffed on a cruise ship. Yeah.

[Nick]

I don't know how any of this works. Shout out to Rami at IM Inbound Motorsports. He sells a lot on the site. He's on the leaderboard, actually. But he's helping facilitate all this for me, thank God. And then I will do a YouTube series for the channel, sort of showing what it's like to import a car that's 25 years old. The hoops you have to jump through and the surprises along the way.

[Kenan]

And you will then sell it to me at the end.

[Nick]

You will. You can bid on it. It will be no reserve. Fine.

[Filippo]

The way it works is that it goes on to. They call it row row, Nick. I'm surprised you're not interested, especially in that.

[Nick]

I think he mentioned something about it.

[Filippo]

That means roll on, roll off. So it goes. It drives into a cargo ship. A car specifically fit for cargo.

[Kenan]

A cruise ship, if you're. Nick.

[Filippo]

A cruise ship, I guess, doing the famous cruise from Emden, Germany, to whatever port Galva, Houston. Port of Houston.

[Nick]

We're bringing it straight to San Diego. And I do expect all of you to come to the port with me to receive it.

[Kenan]

100% they can all fit in the car.

[Nick]

The first drive has to have all six of us sitting cheek to cheek.

[Filippo]

Do you have Global Entry, Nick?

[Nick]

I can look into that.

[Filippo]

If you have Global Entry, you can go into the port area. There's something called a TWIC card, but I think Global Entry also gets you in. If you don't, you probably won't be able to. Or at least you won't be able to easily. You'll probably need a customs broker to do it for you. Or maybe Rami can hook you up. I have Global Entry. I'll pick up your Multiple on me and Filippo.

[Nick]

Dude, that'd be sick.

[Kenan]

You think I pay for that?

[Filippo]

Nick, the port situation is great. I'm thrilled for you. It's going to take forever. It takes a long time for these cars.

[Nick]

I was told two months maybe. You get lucky. And it's a little shorter, but yeah, it's late July.

[Filippo]

It's about a month on the water. But the car often has to wait. It's to the west coast because your car will go through Panama, which is legit. But the car often has to wait a couple weeks on one side for the boat. And then there's port processing on our side.

[Kenan]

This is so exciting though.

[Nick]

Yeah. I didn't even know about the car until this car pod and you guys kept talking about it and I'm like, they keep talking about it. Someone needs to actually do it. And then lo and behold, I'm now.

[Kenan]

It is you who will do it, which is wonderful.

[Nick]

Also, my wife listens to the podcast and she's like, oh, so we're getting a multipla. She said that last week to me and she's like, this is why I listen, is to learn more about what you're doing because you don't talk to me enough. And so, yes, honey, we're getting a multipla. I actually haven't told her yet.

[Kenan]

I sent money, so you have until Friday morning.

[Nick]

No, yeah, I'll just let it go live now. I won't bring it up tonight.

[Kenan]

So I'm legitimately, incredibly excited.

[Filippo]

You also got another car. I heard that your car was sold from an out of state business to you recently.

[Nick]

Yes, yes, that is true. Nick's Car Blog LLC has sold at Edmunds Appraised Value a Lamborghini Murcielago. So I got a speeding ticket in the Mercy and I started to just think like, oh, maybe not having Montana plates would be a good idea. I also, after the manual swap, I have driven it a ton and I tried to smog it before and I failed due to readiness. Basically, I hadn't gone through enough drive cycles or what have you. I saw, I scanned the codes because I wanted to see if the manual swap had any errors. And not only did I have no errors, but it said, hey, your cats are now ready. You could pass smog. So I went into smog. The guy, like, could barely drive a manual. It was horrible. But he passed it. I didn't. With the aaa, from where I parked it, they have to hold it at a certain RPM for a certain amount of time. And I don't know the whole thing was sketch, but I passed smog.

[Filippo]

My smug guy lets me do all that myself. He doesn't want any part of the.

[Nick]

Liability of touching any of my cars. Next time I will insist on that. But, oh, well, it's the same place that did my Bentley, my Land Rover. So I figure they have a, you know, less. Less accurate eyesight than some other places. But I then went to the DMV and basically, yeah, you have to explain, I sold it from my Montana to me personally. And multiple people at the DMV were like, congratulations on your Lamborghini. Like, you must be so excited. And I'm like, yeah, no, I'm just trying to be less sketchy. But like, you know, you play along with it like they're. They're not in on it, apparently.

[Kenan]

Well, I do feel bad for Nick's Car Blog llc, which no longer has that.

[Nick]

Yeah, it has no vehicles, but the multipla will probably go to Montana for, you know, reasons for illegal. Yeah, not tax evasion reasons.

[Filippo]

No, you don't have to do Montana. I'll register here in Mass for you. Nobody cares about those cars though. I've often thought about that. If I got pulled over in like a multipla and the cop was like, you're out of state driver's license, out of state plates. I'd be like, take the car. I don't. I actually do. Not anymore. If you're going to give me grief, I simply want the car gone. I'm not going to deal with the fallout from this. I just want you to take the car. Okay, I need to move over to the market report. Do you understand that? I have something very exciting to share. The cars and bids merch store is live with more designs than ever before. That's right. You can now wear your love of quirks and features with T shirts, hoodies, keychains, and yes, even license plate frames. Because nothing says, you know, your quirks and features like proudly wearing our merch. We've got high quality shirts that are perfect attire for car events. Doug Score shirts, car spotter shirts, even a shirt with God's chariot itself. Kennan's E39 M5. I already have a few of the items. They're super comfortable, very cool, and honestly, way more stylish than my usual Wardro. So head to merch.carsandbids.com to check it out. That's merch.carsandbids.Com Grab your merch and show the world that you support this YouTube channel. We move on to market.

[Kenan]

Can I say one last thing? Because it's next week.

[Filippo]

Moving on.

[Kenan]

No, we gotta mention it. We gotta mention it. You gotta mention it. Next. One last thing before we move on to the market. Report next week. Next weekend, I and Kenan and others from the Cars and Bits team will be at Road America for IMSA Sports Car Weekend. We're hosting a Road America.

[Filippo]

You're going to be in Wisconsin.

[Kenan]

I'm so excited for that. I lived in Wisconsin for six years. I miss Wisconsin. I'm just excited to be back in Wisconsin, truly. I'm going to drink some spotted cow. I'll have some cheese curds. It'll be a great, great weekend.

[Filippo]

America's Dairyland.

[Kenan]

We are running a cars and coffee that's literally next to the track in the paddock area. Area. We're going to have some really cool cars that are brought there by some fans of cars and bids. We'll also have some cars that are actually for sale there. And you can meet with. You can meet us. We'll have some surprises, some giveaways. So if you're going to be there, come say hi. If you have a cool car, let us know. There's also a community post up where you can let us know about that and we can hook you up with some discounted tickets and other fun stuff.

[Filippo]

I'm going to tell you a little Wisconsin fact. Wisconsin has the most interesting license plate type of any US State.

[Kenan]

State.

[Filippo]

Nick, you're going to like this. This is especially exciting for you. It's the collector plate. Pull this up. Filippo, pull up the Wisconsin collector license plate. This is a true story. Nick, that will change your life. You're going to get a Nick's law going through the California State Senate trying to get this.

[Nick]

I do like that color.

[Filippo]

The Wisconsin collector license plate is issued to a vehicle collector, not to his cars. And he can move it around from car to car like a dealer plate. So if you're a core collector, you don't have to smog them all, you don't have to title them all. You get this collector plate and you can just move it between car. Isn't that crazy?

[Kenan]

That's brilliant.

[Nick]

That should be the next Leno's law. We know several collectors here in California that got wholesale dealer licenses just for that purpose.

[Filippo]

So no, they all run legitimate wholesale dealerships. What are you talking about? That's crazy.

[Nick]

Can I run a legitimate Montana llc?

[Kenan]

As legitimate as something that you run can be? Yeah.

[Filippo]

One last thing.

[Kenan]

In Wisconsin. I'm sad that they went to seven digit plates.

[Filippo]

I mean we all run out. I was thinking about this the other day. The number of states down to that run that have six digit license plates is down to like 12. We are all coming to an end here. It's all, we're all, we're all ruining the world. Actually. That's the number of states with three letters, three numbers, which to me is like a license plate, you know, 1, 2, 3. Now there's all these four letter things. I can't agree. Market reports on the GR Corolla.

[Kenan]

Yeah. All right. I've been watching this as the owner of a hot hashback, right? Wow. The GR Corolla has held.

[Nick]

He's got. Dude's got a GTI and he has a complex about it. Hot hat.

[Filippo]

I pay attention to the market.

[Kenan]

All right, who doesn't? The GR Corolla has held its value better than any of the other entrants in the space. My GTI was 2023 with 13,000, 12,000 miles when I bought, had like a 35k sticker. I bought it for 22 and that's what they go for. The new WRX, not a hatchback, but called the same market. This GR Corolla, which had like a 45k sticker, it's a little bit higher. Sold for 38. They have maintained like they've had, they've depreciated 20ish percent. But compared to all the other ones that depreciate seemingly 30, 40, 50% in the first two years, the GR Corolla has not. And I think. Yeah, please.

[Filippo]

Can I tell you one thing I've noticed specifically the circuit editions have held their value better. So that was a circuit that marizos obviously, but that was always gonna be the case because they were limited the circuit. When I went to the launch, I was astonished when they told me that they were gonna make like 75% core and 25% circuit. The circuit was the one with all the. With like, it was the Junior Corolla, but it actually had like nice stuff in it, like more equipment. Equipment. And I assumed that the type of buyer wanting a GR Corolla would want the more equipment. And what ended up happening was they made more cores. And so the cores are still doing okay. But if you go back to that list, you can see we sold a core for 31. The circuit seemed to be holding in the high 30s or around 40. I think there's more market demand for the circuits because they're rarer. They were rarer new and they're rarer still.

[Kenan]

That is certainly true. And also it's the most enthusiasty of them. It's the most high performance of them them. But the core MSRP was also notably lower. So this is all, even at 30 grand, that has appreciated less than any of the other cars. I suspect that people actually like the Jer Corolla in a way where they don't really love the new Mark 8 Volkswagens or the new WRX. And I suspect people think they'll be reliable. You buy a gti, you maybe have some concern that it's a car you might not want to own 20 years down the line. Gir Corolla maybe even though it's a 300 horsepower three cylinder, you don't have that same concern.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I mean, GR Toyota always has stronger resale than basically all of its competitors, in part for this reason. It's one of the reasons I bought my Sequoia. Not necessarily because I honestly thought it was better, but in part because I felt that the resale would be stronger long term. And I think a lot of people think that about these cars also, to be honest, the GR Corolla is really cool. Of all the hot hatches, I think they're all cool. The Golf R, your car, the wrx, which again isn't a hatch, but same deal.

[Kenan]

Like, like they're all cool.

[Filippo]

But the GR Corolla, there's just something, it has us something special, you know.

[Kenan]

It is certainly just the coolest of these cars. Without a doubt. Like the fenders are wide, it's all wheel drive. It just like seems more special.

[Filippo]

Do you ever wish you had one?

[Kenan]

No.

[Filippo]

Okay. Okay, Nick, give us your market report topic for the day before I do.

[Nick]

That on live now this week he also claimed that he is an Italian convertible. I do. And so he's really stretching here.

[Kenan]

Do I. I'm sorry, how would you define my convertible? Yes.

[Nick]

What kind of.

[Kenan]

You replace it with a 458 Spider, which is an Italian convertible.

[Filippo]

Yes.

[Nick]

About as much of a hot hatch as a gti. It's an Italian convertible nonetheless. Okay, now that I've called you out for that, I wanted to call it the Z8. That ended today. Wild Z8 values are a little all over the place. This one actually had ran before and did not make reserve. Just shy of 200. It brought in 251. The bids were $1,500 at a time, then a thousand dollars at a time for like forever basically. They kept going and going and going. A couple people wanted it, but it was presented extremely well. Kenan did a video that was like Top Gear level production. I mean, just geeked out on the car. Like, I'm not a Z8 guy. Like, to me it's just a spicy Z4. And that video made me want one and be like, oh, this car is actually way cooler than I ever gave it credit for. So, yep, I think just kudos to the cars and bids team, to the seller, to the buyer as well. Like, it's a unique color. I like that it has the Alpena wheels, but it's not an Alpena, which is really important.

[Kenan]

So it's not an automatic result.

[Filippo]

Killer, killer Z8 market is odd. I. I've. I'm off and on. I've considered a Z8 because it fits my ethos of supercars from regular car makers, which I like. I'm a big, big, big fan of, of. I don't know if it's a supercar, but it's in that league and it's such a cool thing. And the values really are all over the place. Euro ones with miles sell like 100, and this is 250. Like, it's a. It's kind of. Yeah, we've sold quite a few at this point.

[Kenan]

In the 130s, we've sold some.

[Nick]

It's a shame that the. The Z8's not like the 8 series or even an E39 where they're affordable to an enthusiast. Like at 250k, that is. You've got some serious opportunity cost.

[Filippo]

But.

[Nick]

But it is really cool.

[Filippo]

Wild one, though it's not that crazy money for considering how rare and how special it is. You can get Z8s in the low one hundreds. Which is, which is. Which is a little bit of a surprise considering how special the car, how rare and how bespoke and one off. I mean, that interior is one of the most exciting, bizarre, like, special interiors. And you show up at a car Show With a Z8, you're like legit. You're like. In my mind, you're like almost on the level of Ford GT, you know, Ferrari 458.

[Nick]

Legit.

[Filippo]

Even though you spent less money.

[Nick]

It's kind of. It gives me a little bit of Spyker C8 vibes in that it's like a very tasteful, refined grand tour.

[Kenan]

Also, that steering wheel does give spiker vibes. Yeah, well.

[Filippo]

So remember who designed the Z8?

[Kenan]

Filippo's idol, Henrik Fisker.

[Filippo]

Henrik Fisker designed the Z8 and he's Filippo's idol because he pulled all of his money out of his Fisker company and bought a giant property in Los Angeles.

[Kenan]

Props to him.

[Filippo]

That's what he wanted to do. Okay, we gotta move on to questions, questions, questions. Now, you yourself can ask questions. If you go to carsandvids.com, click on the Community tab, there will be a post in there that says, ask your questions and then we'll ask them. Now, this week, some of us. And I'm not going to name names, but it was. Filippo forgot to make the post asking about questions.

[Kenan]

Sorry.

[Filippo]

However, a random user did instead. So we still have questions.

[Kenan]

Thank you, random user. That's a sign that we've made it, thankfully.

[Filippo]

Yeah, that's right. That's a sign that we've made it. We know we're somebody now because Portia111 actually made the questions for us. And I got to say, even though it wasn't an official questions post, the questions were tremendously good and insightful. Like, this week, some of my favorite questions we've had. And I'm going to start with Hamu. No, I want to start with jsj33, who asked the following question. I enjoy watching your card ranking videos from best to worst, and I want to continue doing it. I have stopped doing it because we've done a bunch of them, but I felt like it kind of. We kind of played it out. But he did a good one. He asked, will you rank the BMW 7 Series generations from best to worst?

[Kenan]

No, thanks.

[Filippo]

Okay, Nick, let's do this.

[Nick]

You want to go first?

[Filippo]

Okay. From best to worst. Well, let's talk about it a little bit first.

[Nick]

Well, the first one's easy.

[Filippo]

We agree that the worst. Well, worst is tough. There have been some bad ones.

[Kenan]

So there's a. We'll go from what, like E32. Sorry, 32.

[Nick]

Right.

[Kenan]

Okay.

[Nick]

E38. The sporty shorty.

[Kenan]

The E38 is a clear number. One for sure. Yeah.

[Filippo]

You think that's the best?

[Nick]

Easily.

[Filippo]

Okay, okay.

[Kenan]

The E65. No, that's a six series. That's a seven series.

[Filippo]

That's right.

[Kenan]

E65.

[Filippo]

The ones in. Okay, here's the ones that everybody knows. I'm. The ones that everybody knows were the E32, the E38, the E65. That was the Bengal one.

[Kenan]

Yeah, that one.

[Filippo]

And then the new one. But there's a couple in between which maybe you don't know.

[Kenan]

I forgot about them.

[Nick]

We can just call those all current.

[Filippo]

There's the F01, then there's the G11 and the new one's called the G70. But here we, here, let me, let me tell you what the ranking is worst. And it's hard to say this, but the worst is the E32. The worst is the E32.

[Kenan]

I don't know about worst.

[Filippo]

And that's hard to say because the Bengal one is so terrible and because the E32 introduced the V12 in this type of car, more or less.

[Kenan]

Also, the Bengal one isn't great. Neither is the F01.

[Filippo]

The F01, though, is like a nice car. The E32 is. I'll be honest with you. There's not a single E32 in the world that isn't clapped out.

[Kenan]

No, no, no. We sold that one. That was imported from Europe with a manual and that was nice.

[Filippo]

We sold an E38.

[Kenan]

Oh, you're right. Yep.

[Filippo]

That was, I drove that car. It was nice.

[Nick]

I put, I put the Bengal one as second for me.

[Kenan]

Second worst or second best?

[Nick]

Second best.

[Filippo]

Do you. Second best?

[Kenan]

Wow.

[Nick]

I, I am, I, I, I think Sandy Cohen driving in the Orange. The OC TV show, it, it changed the world. It, it literally coined the term Bengal. But it was just so luxurious. Yeah, it just to me, like the.

[Filippo]

Max, like if Nick could be. If there's any opportunity for Nick to be 04 rich, he will do it.

[Nick]

I love the E65 Bengal butt more than Filippo likes breathing heavily into the microphone. It's just my favorite thing in the world. So number two. But the E38 goes above that. So E38, E65.

[Kenan]

I will weirdly maybe agree.

[Nick]

The rest are below my line. So the rest just tie for last.

[Filippo]

Okay. To me, the worst. I'm not going to count the E23 even though it was a 7 series just because such an old school situation. To me, the E32 is the worst. Then the Bengal one is second worst. A facelift bangle, I would maybe not say is so bad, but undoubtedly the early facelift Bengal cars are terrible.

[Kenan]

But when you think seven series, you think E38 followed by the E65. You just do. When you think seven series, you think of that one. It solidified that car in BMW's lineup.

[Filippo]

Yeah. Okay, well, that's fine. When I think of, of certain things, I think of other bad things. That doesn't necessarily mean that, that I'm.

[Kenan]

Glad you come up with something good on the spot there.

[Filippo]

I did in my head come up with something good, but I don't think we should say it on the pot. Okay, so E32 is the worst. Sean likes us to go from worst to best. E32 is the worst then the Bengal one.

[Kenan]

Pre space. I don't have any love for the F01. The fifth generation.

[Filippo]

Yeah. The next worst is the F01 because there's some reliability issues. Okay. But here's where I'm going to go crazy. Next worst is the G11.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

The two best. The two best are the new E and the E38.

[Kenan]

I'll agree with that. The new one, which I don't think looks beautiful, has a lot of presence and that is something.

[Filippo]

Finally brought class.

[Nick]

Not class.

[Filippo]

The new one finally brought a statement back. Car has not made a statement since Bengal. And at that time the statement was heinous and bad tech.

[Kenan]

Nick, I. I will give my ranking slightly different. E32 is the worst. I'll agree with that. I think the F01 second worst. G11's third worst then Bengal, butt new and then E38. We're just off by a couple there. And Nick is.

[Filippo]

God knows, single cars are also terribly unreliable.

[Kenan]

I know. No, no, I know it's a bad vehicle.

[Filippo]

But I like that once Sandy Cohen drove that car from every minute. After that, that car became terrible.

[Nick]

He was a public defender standing up for good. Like helping Ryan get out of juvie. It was.

[Filippo]

You've only watched the first season, haven't you? You've only watched the first.

[Nick]

You know, Sean was in the OC as an actor.

[Kenan]

Sean was in it. He sadly did not drive an E65.

[Filippo]

Next question from Hamoud. Question for all. What's the most obscure car feature you've ever seen that made sense but never caught on? I put this in here because I've always felt the answer to this question is climate controls on the steering wheel. I've begged. Every time I meet a designer at an auto show, they come up to me and they're like, oh, Doug, I watch your videos, I love your videos. And I say, what do you do? Oh, I'm a designer. Can you please put climate controls on the steering wheel? And they say to me, oh, okay. So then they think to themselves, okay, so this guy's nuts. This guy's nuts. I've always wondered what Doug was like in person, and he's nuts. You are looking at the 04 Prius, which I believe was the last car that ever had climate controls on the steering wheel. And it does have.

[Kenan]

It's the only one I can think of.

[Filippo]

Well, American cars had it commonly throughout the 80s and 90s. Like Lincolns and Cadillacs, they pretty much all had it in that era and then they did away with it and it's gone. All I want is climate controls on the steering wheel. Nick. Why can't I have this?

[Nick]

I don't ever really. Mine stays at 74. Like I probably wouldn't use this to be honest, but. I'm sorry.

[Filippo]

You don't ever turn up the fan. Speed, speed.

[Nick]

Rarely.

[Kenan]

I don't believe in auto H vac.

[Filippo]

Yeah. I mean I don't have auto climate. I'm not rich like Nick. So like I don't have auto.

[Kenan]

What?

[Filippo]

I don't have auto climate control.

[Kenan]

Yeah, not in the countach. You're right, it didn't exist.

[Filippo]

Or my Ford gt I don't have in any of my cars.

[Kenan]

Well, luckily you have a couple modern ones. What, what feature?

[Nick]

I just came up with a new one actually which is in similar Ford cars have the keypad where you can lock your keys in the car.

[Kenan]

I do love that it doesn't work.

[Nick]

As well now with keyless entry you got to have like a little place to hide the key so that it doesn't unlock. But it's so handy when you're going on a run, going swimming, like trading cars with friends. Which apparently is a thing we do.

[Kenan]

I do love that. Totally. I would love for more people to do that.

[Nick]

And then the stretches that I had were an AMG SRT M RS version of every car, an off road version of every car, including minivans. Like the R63 needs to come back. Split tailgate and SUV's needs to be the door.

[Kenan]

It still exists.

[Nick]

Umbrellas built into the doors.

[Kenan]

Common.

[Filippo]

No, it's not common. There's only a couple cars.

[Kenan]

The X5, the Range Rover, two of the best selling luxury.

[Nick]

It's okay, but it hasn't caught on in the sense that every car. That should be the default method. And then you have to explain yourself when you do a different style.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Nick]

As opposed to the other way around.

[Filippo]

You know what killed the split tailgate, Nick, was the power tailgate. Because it's very difficult. It's very difficult to make the power, you know, like it work properly. And it.

[Kenan]

Only BMW and Range Rover have done it.

[Filippo]

But yeah, they do. But. But it must, there must be some cost and some engineering because only those cars do it.

[Nick]

I also like the design cue on the Z8 as well as my arnage that you can hide the radio with a piece of interior trim and make the radio disappear. That should be cars in the future like the tech will become antiquated. And the fact you could just hide it. Yeah.

[Kenan]

And given what the radio looks like in your car, it's thankful you can hide it.

[Filippo]

The S2000 has that and the SLR has that.

[Kenan]

That true.

[Filippo]

The S2000 did the best though, because you can hide the fate the head unit of the radio, but then there are separate radio controls elsewhere, but only like the ones you would frequently use like the volume knob and things like that. It's kind of cool.

[Kenan]

Two that come to mind for me. I legitimately liked Saab's like night panel. And like, especially in cars that have a lot of touch screens, it's hard to figure out how to decrease the brightness of all of them now. And if you just like at night, make it all all much dimmer or off would be great. Thing that should not have taken off. But I miss Volvo for a little while on the key fob, there was like a heart rate sensor inside the car. And it would tell you on the key fob if there like a light that shot that blinked if there was somebody in your vehicle. And Volvo's claim was that if there was some, you're going back to your car late at night, it's in a parking lot, you would know if there was somebody hiding in your car to abduct you. This is a real feature. I'm not making this up.

[Nick]

How weird.

[Kenan]

And it obviously didn't take off for so many reasons, but it was kind of cool. Yep.

[Filippo]

I agree.

[Kenan]

It's a real feature.

[Filippo]

I think it's probably better for leaving a child in the car seat by accident. But regardless, or an abductor, maybe the.

[Nick]

Child was wanting to watch the TV in your front bumper.

[Kenan]

Their marketing was 100% about safety. So that you went back to a car and there wasn't somebody in it. That's it.

[Nick]

Also remember the Mercedes feature where it tells you every hour to get a cup of coffee?

[Filippo]

Oh my God. You know what I learned? My Toyota does that depending on how I'm driving. And so like sometimes I'll go the whole day and it doesn't tell me, but sometimes like 20 minutes into my drive, it'll tell me.

[Kenan]

And it's like you should reconsider your driving style. Yes.

[Filippo]

Okay, next question from Marco Camargo. If cars and bids had to relocate out of San Diego or the SoCal area, where would it move? I'm assuming it was established there because of the weather, the car culture and different vehicle exposure. The reason that it was established in San Diego is Because of my wife. My wife got a job there and I moved with her, and I was like, yeah, all right. And then we started the company just randomly. We were like, all right, let's do this. I met a guy there, and then Filippo moved there, and Nick's already there, so we're all good. Where would we move, though? Filippo, do you agree we'd move to Princeton, New Jersey?

[Kenan]

That's an interesting question.

[Filippo]

I think we'd move to Princeton in New Jersey. You know why? Because all the big drug companies are there. And I think you dress for the job.

[Kenan]

You want drugs, drug dealing companies. I will also say you're then halfway to Lake Como, and that's nice.

[Filippo]

Interesting. That didn't factor in for me. But I suppose that being halfway to Europe is. Is a component of our relocation to Princeton. We could, but. But the drawback is we'd have to fly out of Newark, which is the worst airport on planet Earth.

[Kenan]

The PHL airport's there.

[Filippo]

Okay. I want to do two more very quick questions. One is from German excellence, not taking in the current or future administrations into account. So, Nick, we can't talk about your man Trump. Stop. Do you think there will be a time where Chinese auto brands have the same US Market share as the current top sellers? Or will there always be unease about Chinese vehicles in consumers mind lines? Here's the answer. Okay. In 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States with planes and bombs and all sorts of stuff. You may have heard about it. It was called Pearl.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

30 years later, they were selling cars to Americans. And 20 years after that, they were the dominant players in the United States of the United States in most vehicle segments. So do I think the Chinese could. Could move past some of the opinions that people may have about the quality of their products? Yeah. Yeah. I think if you can get over the fact that they bombed us.

[Kenan]

The Japanese, that is.

[Filippo]

Yeah, The Japanese bombed us and then started selling Subaru SVXs. Then I think a little bit of a gap.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

I think you could probably get over the fact that the Chinese are known for making stuff that goes on Amazon. Do you have a different take?

[Kenan]

No, that's the right take.

[Nick]

Yeah. I had a less colorful example, but the same conclusion. Mine was going to be if people were willing to buy Fisker Oceans after everything Henrik Fisker did, then we can forget.

[Kenan]

I'm going to tell you they weren't.

[Nick]

Well, to an extent, yes.

[Filippo]

Henrik Fisker is Filippo's. I. Filippo still looks at the Zillow listing for that house with awe okay, final question from Mike Spy. From Mike Spy. What is everyone's favorite car from movies or TV shows that are not necessarily known for being the cars from the movies or the TV shows? So not like the DeLorean, but like sort of a secondary car. The instant ones that came into my mind were all the cars in the Sopranos, which were so perfectly cast. The Mercedes station wagon that the wife drove and the. The. The Suburban that the. That Tony drove. And they have. The P38 was in that at one point, and all those came to mind for me. What. What do you got?

[Nick]

I have a laundry list here. I gave this one a lot of thought. Obviously, the E65 in the orange county driven by Sandy Cohen comes to mind. The OC as the kids call it these days. Entourage had amazing cars throughout out. Turtle got an H2. They all got Aston Martin DB9s. At some point, for whatever reason, there was a QP5. He got a Rolls Royce Phantom, like legit 04 rich cars. Bruce Almighty. He got a Selena 7.

[Filippo]

That was a hero car in the movie, though.

[Nick]

That doesn't. It was, but it wasn't about cars. Like, it wasn't like Fast and the Furious or what have you. I also think there's a yellow Defender and she's all that 90s movie for you there.

[Kenan]

Oh, we're.

[Filippo]

Nick.

[Kenan]

Nick knows.

[Filippo]

I got a good one for you. I got a good one for you in American Beauty.

[Nick]

The Realtor with Kevin Spacey.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Yes.

[Filippo]

Kevin Spacey's wife was like a Realtor in the suburbs in 1998, and she drove an ML320. It was just like, perfect.

[Nick]

That's perfect.

[Filippo]

It had just come out. It was like. It would have been like what you had, you know, it was like the perfect product placement for that.

[Nick]

For that show, for perfect casting. I put Landman as well as Yellowstone. The female anti hero drives a brand new Bentley Continental GT in both of them. And I feel like that is good for sort of like a high maintenance, wealthy woman of that stature. And then the last one is layer cake. I have to mention that legally they had a yellow P38. They had a Bentley Arnage. They had one other really cool car that I'm drawing a blank on. But basically two of my last three cars were in this movie in the, like, almost identical specs.

[Filippo]

So that's fair. Filippo, you got any or you haven't seen a movie? Filippo has never watched a movie. He only listens to npr.

[Kenan]

I do listen to.

[Filippo]

He sits there. He sits there and he's like, oh, my God. I don't know what happens on npr, but that's what I think the people who listen to it say. Okay.

[Kenan]

Hard to argue with facts.

[Filippo]

Filippo, thank you so much for being a part of this, Nick, thank you. You get a crystal elephant. Elephant.

[Kenan]

Wow.

[Filippo]

Look, there's a crystal one and a. This is pure coincidence. Nick, do you have any final thoughts? This was definitely our best podcast.

[Kenan]

Without a doubt.

[Nick]

Definitely our best pod. But I never have any parting thoughts. I wish.

[Kenan]

Come say hi to Kenan. And I say hi to sports car.

[Nick]

Yeah, go to imsa. Go to imsa and say hi to Filippo.

[Filippo]

Yeah, you're gonna get a Diablo problem?

[Nick]

No, but I know someone who is getting a PPI done tomorrow. So I'm hoping that there will be a possibility of having a Countach, Diablo and Mercy, all three on the same drive sometime, whenever you get back.

[Kenan]

Wow.

[Filippo]

Filippo, are you selling your Fiat?

[Kenan]

Yeah, I'll be selling my Fiat in August, I'm told I do want to make a video where I disclose every single flaw that I can find. And I will ask for my friends producer film Karab Nick here to make sure that I'm thorough in my disclosures, because I was told last time I drove it that there was some smoke and I hadn't seen that before. I need extra eyes.

[Nick]

And it's Italian sports car in my.

[Kenan]

Italian convertible, which is. It's all factually true. It's a. It's a manual.

[Nick]

You're hot hatching your convertible sports car.

[Filippo]

Yeah, you're.

[Nick]

You're killing it, dude.

[Kenan]

I'm so sorry. You're gonna say that GTI is not a hot hatch. It has the same amount of torque and it's a997,911.

[Filippo]

I. I do a little bit. I do question a little bit. Calling the Fiat on Italian. It was made in Mexico, but never.

[Kenan]

I'm sorry, is it not Italian? Fiat Abarth. It's an Italian brand.

[Filippo]

You're doing a little bit of stretching, I guess. Is Bugatti French? Do we think Bugatti's French?

[Kenan]

Do you call the BMW Z4 German car? It's built in Austria. Do you call it a German car?

[Filippo]

You're right. You know what? You're right. You got an Italian kid a rage over British.

[Kenan]

Or are they Polish?

[Filippo]

I don't know even what that means. Are you talking about Slovakia, where they build the Defender?

[Kenan]

I was thinking. I. I figured it was a chance they built something.

[Filippo]

Poland. Slovakia and Poland. We gotta edit all this out.

[Nick]

All right, everybody, that's almost as bad as confusing Switzerland and Sweden.

[Filippo]

No, you guys don't know Europe.

[Kenan]

You guys, I made a mistake on where the Ranger sport is built. I couldn't remember.

[Filippo]

I guess no countries there are different. We'll go over them next week. Goodbye everyone. Thank you for watching.

[Kenan]

Goodbye.