Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Behind the Scenes of the 2024 Ford F-150: New Updates, Production Insights, and Industry Trends

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Behind the Scenes of the 2024 Ford F-150: New Updates, Production Insights, and Industry Trends · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another In-Wheel Time Podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In-Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, it is the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show and coming up.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We'll speak with Brian Bell, the Ford F-150 marketing manager, about the updated 2024 F-150.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Conrad has this week in Auto History and we'll get you caught up on the stories making car news this week.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Howdy, along with Mike out of this World, mars King, conrad DeLong.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We always need more, jeff Zekin.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, glad that you could join us on this Saturday live broadcast.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I'll do a quick shout out, please.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I met a couple of young sales professionals this past week, a young lady by the name of Merriam and a young man nicknamed Ramp.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: They work at a Subaru store here in Houston.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Met him earlier this week.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Young folks eager to go out and sell cars.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: So congratulations on that and go sell something.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Go sell something.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Good, well, I think that F-150 sales in that department have not waned any.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: For what?
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Four decades something like that.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, top of the heap, top of the heap.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And for a reason Ford manages to when they do updates, they don't turn anybody off, they turn a lot of people on with the updates that they do.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Man, I sure like that new 2024 that's coming out.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my 2022 has now got you know 30,000 miles on it.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: I'm going to have to go buy me a brand new one.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: I need a new one.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to be freshening the F-150 lineup for 24 and planning to double output of the hybrid variant as it seeks to maintain the truck's sales dominance.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: The updated pickup goes on sale early next year.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: It was revealed Tuesday ahead of the Detroit Auto Show.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It includes freshened hybrid trimmer and raptor variants with new design elements and improved tailgate functionality.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And I don't want to steal any of his thunder, let's just talk to him now.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Brian, good morning to you.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Good morning.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me on the air and I'm excited to be here.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: I'm also excited to hear you're ready for a new 24-mile a year.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I'll bet you are Send it and you know I'm going to have to make a request.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Can I make a request, of course?
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want the Dallas Press Fleet to be the very first to get a 2024 model and I want me to get the phone call from you guys and go.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: We have it for you.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Come and get it and so have it delivered to my house.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I want to drive this immediately.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Now I understand that the 2024 model this is just a refresh, if you will.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: The underpinnings are pretty much the same as they have been here in the past few years.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we freshen the look of the truck and we added a some great new features and technology for our customers.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about the tailgate.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Of, course, our new pro access tailgate.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: We are the most excited about that, right.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: I mean we, you know, we, we, we really pride ourselves in knowing how our customers use trucks and when we we want to look at the tailgate and said how can we make it better for customers, we developed this tailgate with a swing door in the middle of it so it works still as a traditional tailgate, has this swing door that actually works when you're towing a trailer.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: So you know, if you, if you look at it at our customers, about 75% of our customers tell us they tow trailers with their trucks.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: So it's an important thing for them.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, and I do right as well.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: So when you're towing that trailer, to have that swing gate that'll open up and work with that trailer so that you can get those items in and out.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: For me it's the boat right, I can get my boat gear, my coolers, things like that, out of the tailgate without reaching over.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: Well, I've got the truck, the boat, on the back, right where we just think it's a.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: It's a really, really useful tool, another way to improve that F-150 to really help those customers.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait to see the way that it works, and I know that there'll probably be lots of videos out there about how it works probably one already, if I'm not mistaken.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and we may run one here in just a second, because I've got it off the Ford website.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, very good.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: So that's one of the things.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: The other thing is is that you guys are gonna make some Changes when it comes to engines.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: You're gonna drop the 3.3 liter v6 and replace it with the 2.7 liter EcoBoost four cylinder.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Now you know, as an old car guy, you're gonna go wait a minute.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: You're going first you go from a V8 To a v6 and now you're gonna drop it down to a four, but the four banger has more guts to it than the six did well, just just for clarification, our 2.7 liter eco boost is a v6.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Oh, it is, and we have a competitor that might have a 2, 7 with a four cylinder.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: Ours is a v6 and, you're right, it produces 400 horsepower 325 horsepower, 400 foot pound of torque right.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: So the it's a it's a torque monster engine and we're really excited to make that the standard engine for the truck, thinking it's gonna be great for those customers a 2.7 liter v6 eco boost yeah, well, go ahead.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: Phenomenal motor it really.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: When people drive it, they just you know they love it right.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: It does so many things well.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And the other thing that I understand, that you guys are going to actually have the platinum plus Replacing the limited top trim model.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know it, we took that limited.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: It's been around a long time and it's a great series for us.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: But there's some confusion on the name and the showroom and and so we thought it was a great opportunity to kind of Pull all that luxury vehicle up under one name and have it be platinum in our showroom, with the platinum and then the platinum plus package on it, you know, to kind of help customers and and help build that platinum brand up.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: But, and you guys are actually really pumping up the hybrid.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I understand.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so hybrid is a real advantage for us.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: I mean, we call it the, the, the and solution power trainer.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: I like to think it was the ultimate institution power and it's got power and fuel efficiency and Pro power on board right.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: So the the no other gas vehicle in the segment has that capability to have a mobile generator with them, you know, and so you can take up to 7.2 kilowatts of power with you anywhere you go.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: And we, you know, we hear such great stories from all over the place about how people are using their pro power on board system.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: We actually last week heard about a, a Dentist up in Maine that Does it has a mobile dentist office.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: They take it to very rural communities and give free dental work to people that need it, and you know they used to, you know, have to take trucks with their generators and gas cans and things to power it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: They now just have a power boost hybrid that pulls their, pulls their mobile dental trailer and they power that whole mobile dental trailer with pro power on board right.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: It gets your teeth fixed, it's curve service.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: You know we hear about things like that and there's so many stories about saving weddings and, and you know the, the, of course, the outages in Texas, that where the pro power on board, the power boost, help people, and so we're really excited to kind of help spread this technology even farther.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: So you know, we're planning to double our mix of the of the engine and we've dropped the price by $1900 to do that.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: So it's actually the same price as our 35 eco boost engine now.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: That's impressive.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, you know you.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: You have to stay number one, and the way to do that is doing these updates and changes.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: That goes with the market at the time.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we've been the truck leader for 46 years and again, like I said, we we really pride ourselves on Learning the customer and knowing the customer and knowing how they use their truck and and trying to help them get more use out of it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: We think of the truck as a tool, right, every people who buy a truck.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: They need a truck to do truck things.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: It's a tool for them.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: We want to make it the best tool in your toolbox.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Well, now wait just a minute.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: You know, not everybody uses their truck for work down here in Texas.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: It's all about the look, my friend.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: You know that there are Appearance but but when you look at our usages even those folks that that buy it once they have a truck, they find uses for it right.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: They learn that the hope useful the truck could be.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: I personally I like to think of it as the perfect vehicle.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: It does everything well right.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Well, that's why you sell so many of them.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: And let's, let's face it, I mean the, the back seat of the, the four-door, I mean it might as well be an limousine.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: It's just as comfortable.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: Right All the room, leg room, ride, comfort, quiet it's everything you need.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Now for all of those tech guys.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I understand that you guys have bumped it up to the 5G LTE modem.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: We have.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: So we put some technology in the truck as well.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: We've standardized the 5G LTE modem in the truck so that when we get those over there updates they'll be faster and quicker.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: And if you use the truck as a Wi-Fi hotspot to power up to your 10 devices, it'll of course give you a faster service for that.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: But we also added some other new technologies to the truck.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: We standardized our great 12-inch touchscreen all the way through the lineup.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: We've got the new BlueCruise common that'll actually do lane change assist.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: We put a heads-up display in the truck so people don't have to look down and in our heads-up display you can actually have different views.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: If you're towing a trailer, if you're going off-road, we change the views in it to really be helpful to you, right?
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: So we've put some other new technology in the truck as well.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Well go ahead, mr.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: I like heads-up displays.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, I love them.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: I mean the fact that you're putting even more information up there to me is just wonderful.
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: And the trailer view is a great idea as well, because if you're pulling a trailer, how many times do you look over your shoulder and take your eyes off the road to make sure you're in the right position?
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Or maybe I'll make sure that the trailer's still back there.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: I've been known to do that.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, I have too.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Was that my?
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: trailer that just came by.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: It passed me by.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Wait a minute, what's that going off into the ditch?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: But oh, that's my trailer.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there are those kinds of things.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the Blue Cruise technology, the Hands Free.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Sure, you know I've had some experiences with the Hands Free driving and I will tell you that a lot of it has to do with the markings on the road, and if the markings on the road aren't there, you could get into trouble pretty quick.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: So you know I've driven quite a few miles with it and you're right, sometimes the markings on the road thin, but the truck tells you and it tells you to grab onto the steering wheel.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: It comes along very quickly and helps you pay attention.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: And you know, when you use Blue Cruise there's a camera that watches your eyes to make sure you're paying attention to the road.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: And so my experience with it on long trips is I think I pay better attention than even without it.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: Right, you're watching the road, the trucks making sure you do, but at the same time, when you get to your destination 10 hours later, you're not nearly as tired or exhausted, you're fresher through that trip.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: I was surprised by that the first time I used it, from St Louis to Detroit, how that feeling was with me.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: And now we're making it even better right, so that we've improved it.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: You know works with even more roads, it changes lanes for you and it has better lane centering.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: So you know we're continually improving that technology as well.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you about where the truck is being built, and is the UAW strike going to affect the delivery of the 24 for the spring?
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: So the F-150s are built at our Dearborn Assembly Plant and an assembly plant in Kansas City and at this point the plant that the union is striking is a different assembly facility, so it doesn't impact F-150.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: But I know we got great people on both sides of that trying to work through it and hopefully they get to an agreement soon.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, is it the Rouge plant that the truck is being built?
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the old Rouge plant at Dearborn.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, that's awesome, but you guys have other assemblies for the F-150.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can't make them all in one place, right Too?
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: many.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: We make them also in Kansas City.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: We've got a fantastic facility down there, our Kansas City Assembly Plant.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I've actually got a segment coming up about plants, so it's lead right into it.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: That's good to know.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about delivery to the dealer.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: Yep, so they'll come out to dealers the first part of next year.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: We're taking orders now.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: The order banks are open.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: You can go on Fordcom on our building price and spec out what you're looking for and go to your dealer and order it and then they should be in showrooms first part of next year.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Now doing my homework here.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Somewhere I read the fact that you've kind of cut back on some of the individual orders, as far as you know, the individual things that are available to order, and you've packaged them up to make it simpler to buy.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so F-150 has been a fairly complicated vehicle for our customers to order, so we spent quite a bit of time these last couple of years really trying to make it easier for them.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: We still got a great full lineup all the way from our work truck XL all the way up to the Platinum Plus and, of course, raptor and Tremor.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: Right, because we've got the full lineup.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: We're just making it simpler for those customers to order.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: So an example is Raptor now is down to six ways to order it.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: Really, you know, really easy to order and we reduce complexity across our lineup by over 90%.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll never forget, when I first started doing this many years ago with reviews and that sort of thing, I talked to one of the guys that handles the press and I said so how many options are there?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: There are so many that I can't even count them all, because if you really want to get down to it, you can change axle ratios, transmissions, all of these different things that you can customize for your truck, and that's what makes it really unique, especially for the guy that's using the truck for work.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: But I think on the assembly side of things, simplifying the build has proven increasing the quality, because when you don't have so many choices to make, everything's consistent in how it's put together.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: It really.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: You know, simplifying it really benefits all the parties involved.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: We're going to make it a lot easier for customers to go in and spec out their truck.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Of course we're going to make it easier to engineer and manufacture.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: By simplifying it we're also making it easier for dealers to stock right.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: So when dealers stock that inventory it's tough for them to figure out what to stock.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: So really all parties involved are going to benefit from this.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: And you know we used a lot of data to kind of help decide what features went together.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: We also had dealers help us.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: It's been a long project to make sure we did it right and, like I said, customers can go see that now on Fordcom.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: We still have a full line of accessories on there that they'll see as well.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: So, Brian, do you know Mike Levine?
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Of course I do.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Well, you know Mike used to be down here in Texas.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, yeah, Well, hey, hey, Mike John, we love Mike Levine.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: And listen, when we get to see Mike Levine which is rare because he's become a superstar among the press you know it's always good to give him a nudge or, you know, give him a hard time.
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: Oh, Mike's fantastic.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: I was actually, you know, working with a company when he was a journalist and, you know, got interviewed by him numerous times and then getting to work with him.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: He is fantastic.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: He's still full of energy and great ideas and he just, you know, it doesn't get any better than Mike.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he is definitely full of energy.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And here is the famous Mike Levine line Well, we don't talk about future product, that's the famous line.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's gone to the other side and now he knows the lingo, that's for sure.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: So he's full of it.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, anyway, so we can order them now.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: They're going to be in dealerships in the spring, you say.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, First part of the year.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: After the first of the year they'll start to show up in showrooms.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, very good.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that I was doing, my research here I get online and I start looking at all of the stuff that's available and the changes.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: You know, the grill seems to change with the trim level.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Was I just?
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Was I out of my mind when I noticed that?
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: No.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: So what we have from our XL, stx and XLT and Tremor, they use what's called our new Coast to Coast grill, where the grill actually goes around the headlamps and it has an we're standard LED headlamps in the truck and those headlamps have like an orange signature light in them.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: And then our Lariat, king Ranch, platinum and Raptor have a more traditional kind of, you know, a standup grill that has also a new grill, a new headlamp that's got our white signature lighting in the C-clamp design.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: So we really tried to you know, when you sell this many trucks and you have the kind of series, we tried to help differentiate it and give some different looks.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: And frankly, that new Coast to Coast grill that's going to be on our highest volume.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: It looks fantastic.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: It's got a bit of a retro feel to it from that you know 80s kind of 90s truck in there and then at the same time it's just got this really strong, wide, powerful stance.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: And then of course, our high-end grills are really, you know, really premium and draw out that tradition that customers are used to the last few years with our C-clamp signature lighting design.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you guys did a great job in that regard and we sure appreciate you talking to us today, and please forgive me if I offended you in any way, but I was kind of surprised at the 2.7 being a V6 and not a four-cylinder.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: So we launched it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: You know the engine launched as a 2.7 V6 in 2015.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: And it's been a big part of our lineup and, of course, we've improved it over the years and now standardizing it, making that the standard engine with all that capability.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Right, it's got great performance, great horsepower, torque numbers, great fuel economy for customers.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: You know, we really think it's a really good move to make that the standard powertrain of the truck for those customers.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Anybody anything else?
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: No, I was.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: I think it makes sense on the V6 because to me that's where you're gonna get a little more torque, like you're talking about.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: You're getting a lot more torque out of that than you would like an inline for, I think yeah.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, 400 foot pounds.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: And you get of course with that, with the technology unit, that twin turbo direct fuel injection, it's that torque curve comes out very quickly, so you get that torque really, really fast.
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: And that's important to the truck buyers, because I would think there are some truck buyers that would be a little less excited about a four cylinder versus a V6.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: They're gonna want, you know, they're gonna want the more power available.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Well, that's because of the torque thing and the whole idea behind towing.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Well, Brian, it's great to talk to you and we sure appreciate you taking the time out of your Saturday to talk to us.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: No, I appreciate you having me on.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: Let me talk about the new 24 ball of air F-150 again.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: Anybody wants any information?
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: Go to Fordcom.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: We've got all the information there that they can find about the truck.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: And be sure to post it on our social media.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And be sure to tell Michael Levine we said hello.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: I will do that right now.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: All right brother take care.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Have a great Saturday you too, All right time now on the In-Wheel Time car talk show for Conrad's this Week in Auto History.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: Well, I thought an important person in time in the automotive history.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: It was 35 years ago that legendary auto designer Bill Mitchell passed away in 1988.
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: And if you look at his history, he started with a 1949 Cadillac the origination of tail fins and then actually he moved on to the Corvair Monza SS, which doesn't look like a what you think a typical Corvair.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: I actually think there's a lot of Opal GT in that.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, Corvette.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: Corvette, corvette and then well, you mentioned Corvette.
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: He was involved in the Corvette Special Racer, which was the race car Corvette for the 63 Corvette, and then he was also the designer of the 63 Corvette Split Window.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: And the Split Window was very controversial.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: Zora didn't like the Split Window, but Mitchell loved it because of the design of it.
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: He thought it was very important for it.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: One of the main reasons is they couldn't get the glass to go totally across.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the glass technology had been advanced.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: And then in 64 they did, they took the Split out of it.
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: Mitchell also had a 1966 Oldsmobile GT two-seater built which was, you know, big 425 front wheel drive two-seat Oldsmobile, which I thought was kind of a cool thing.
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: And then in 66 he did a Corvair GT as well.
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: Again his involvement in the Corvair side of things.
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: Mitchell was also the designer of the original Corvette Mako Shark from 1967.
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: If you well, that's the 65 Riviera.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: We saw it, it went by Go ahead.
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: And then and Mitchell, his love of the Buick brand and he did a lot of the different Riviera's through the years and that was always one of my favorite, the little boat tail on the Riviera which was kind of an iteration of the Corvette rear glass as well.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: And then he did the Astro-1, the Astro-2, and the Astro-3, which are all considered design studies of future Corvettes.
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: I need that chair.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Look at that chair, isn't it awesome.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: It's got a Cadillac logo on it.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Christmas is coming.
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: So and then you know also, mitchell did the 1970 Camaro and the 1970 through actually lasted through 81 Camaro.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: We're all a bit of Mitchell design.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: That's the, that's the Manta Ray Corvette that he did as well.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: And then the final thing was the Ponti 1977 Pontiac Phantom, which was his final design, was the Pontiac Phantom.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: He was involved in the Monte Carlo's as well, the 7073 Monte Carlo's which I always thought was the start of that personal luxury car, the Grand Prix Monte Carlo, that whole generation.
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: This is the Phantom.
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: If you look at the Phantom, mitchell had a very retro view of things.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: You know the red inside fenders which is a retro thing out of a 50s model Buick, and you look at the nose on that Phantom and you can definitely see the Pontiac family to it.
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: So very, very famous person within car design.
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: He'd worked with Harley Earl in his early season at General Motors and then ran GM design later in his life and huge impact on automotive design through time.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Very good.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Of course the big story today in the news is the UAW Strike at the Detroit three and we're going to talk more about that the top of next hour.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: In the meantime and in between times we have the recalls not a lot of them, but in operative rear turn signals on the Subaru BRZ and the Toyota GR86.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Rear view camera image may not display on the several KIAs the Sorento, the Sorento Hybrid and the Sorento PHEV for 22 and 23.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: The Audi e-tron GT and the RS e-tron GT.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Insufficient sealant on the high voltage battery.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: That's not good.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: No it's electrifying and I think every Taycan from Porsche is being recalled for 2023.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And I don't get a list of all here, but insufficient sealant again on the high voltage battery, clearly sharing it with the Audi e-tron.
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: All $100,000 plus cars.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: So I know that we have a lot of listeners that have $100,000 plus cars, don't you agree, george George?
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: George, george does.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he definitely has $100,000 car.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Us markets share for electric vehicles rose to 7.2% in January to July period, according to new vehicle registration data from Experian.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: With Tesla spurring demand with escalating price cuts throughout the year, New US EV registrations rose to 655,000 in the seven month period, for a 67% rise over the year earlier period when EV share was 4.9%.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Total new light vehicle registrations for the seven months about 9.1 million.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: So you can see, in comparison it's really kind of tiny If you look at the overall.
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: And if you took away the government subsidies for EVs, I imagine the market share would fall.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tesla outweighs them all 59.5% share of the EV market.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: All of the rest of them are in the single digits or less.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: So you know they're getting there, but it's gonna take a long while and I think that there are a lot of reservations about diving into owning an EV.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: Well, if you kind of watch, If you watch the news this week Pete Buttigieg was fussing about he couldn't get his EV car charged somewhere because I guess somebody had parked in front of the charger on him.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: No, that wasn't him, it was secretary.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: It wasn't him at all, it was the lady.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Secretary of transportation or something like that.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Whatever?
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: They were making a big deal about taking this EV road trip and they got burned.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah not literally, but I was called no.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: I mean that yeah, literally yeah.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: They ran into a lot of issues with chargers not work stuff that we run into all the time now.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they had a nice they had a nice engine ice car parked in a electric spot.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Reserve it for her.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I will tell you that I drove through the Whole Foods parking lot, where my famous EV charger is.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: It's all rusted.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: This is, this is an EV go Okay charging station.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: It's all rusted, looks like it's been there for decades and then it doesn't work.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Wow one time I went and one time I went there and it didn't work, so could you think it's a?
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Whole foods.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: No, I know of all places.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Well, you know.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: So the government's gonna spend billions of dollars Upgrading all of these charging stations at your expense.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, yes well, there's a lot of things that they do at my expense that I'm not sure to do something you don't want time now for a quick break.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back here on the in wheel time car talk show.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Stay with us.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: The original group of loopy tortilla restaurants will have you telling your family and friends just what the original recipes mean.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the best Fajitas in southeast Texas, founders Stan Holt invite you to visit the original loopy tortilla near I-10 and highway 6.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Here's the original house that inspired the design of all the rest and the original charm that helped make loopy tortilla the go-to destination for Houston Tex-Mex.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Speaking of original, nothing can compete with the original lime pepper marinade.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: That everyone will agree makes loopy tortilla award-winning beef Fajitas the best anywhere.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Loopy tortilla Katie is another location that gives you the same quality and service Houstonians have come to expect at loopies.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: It's located just off I-10 of the Grand Parkway.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: At Kingsland Boulevard in Katie find yourself an Aggie land.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Head to the loopy Tortilla College Station, located just around the corner from Kyle Field.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: It's a great place to enjoy those famous frozen margaritas before or after the game.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Head at East to Louisiana.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Stop in at the loopy tortilla in Beaumont.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: It twos on I-10.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: It can't miss it.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: The original group of loopy tortilla restaurants Invite you in for the best Tex-Mex.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Anywhere you own a car you love, why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it?
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: We promise you'll be impressed.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Whether you're looking to massage your original paint to a like new appearance, apply a ceramic coating, install a paint protection film, nano ceramic window tint or new windshield protection called Exo shield, gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Curved your wheels instead of buying new one, I'd have them repaired.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: How about a professionally installed radar detector?
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Get a peek inside the shop and look at the Services offered by getting online and heading to GC Auto Shield comm.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Better yet, stop by their facility at 11 to 75 South Sam Houston Tullway, just south of the Southwest freeway, and get a personal tour.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Call them today 832 930 5655 or GC Auto Shield comm.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: The award-winning in wheel time car talk shows available on the most popular podcast channels out there in 30-minute episodes.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: We realize our three-hour live show can be difficult to catch in its entirety, so now you can listen every day to a convenient, fresh 30-minute episode.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Check us out on Apple podcasts, spotify, google podcasts, amazon music and audible, along with a dozen more in real time as the most informative automotive guest interviews and new car reviews, along with popular features including Conrad's car clinic and this week in auto history, along with automotive news headlines.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Our live broadcast here is every Saturday, 8 to 11, central on in will time calm, the iHeart app and on YouTube.
• 30:10
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• 30:17
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• 30:21
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• 30:26
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• 30:31
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the in wheel time car show.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning, 8 to 11 am Central on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our in wheel time comm website.
• 30:46
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