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Drive Thru News #72 - When is Technology too much Tech? · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

0:00
Welcome to Brake Fix's Drive Thru News, your monthly recap for everything fast,
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fascinating, and usually four-wheeled.
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We're serving up a fresh batch of automotive headlines, motorsports madness,
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and car-adjacent curiosities, all with zero wait time and maximum flavor.
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From Formula 1 drama to concept car debuts, with garage-built legends to
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the quirkiest stories rolling out of the state of Florida, we've got your fix.
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So grab your coffee, buckle up, and let's cruise through the latest in the world
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of wheels with a side of entertainment and just a dash of tire smoke.
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Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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Wait, did you just use your left arm?
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What's going on there?
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It's not like he can't use it, he just can't lift shit or do big movements.
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Well, what's that seatbelt he's got on his shoulder there?
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It's his- What is that?
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… arm brace.
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Oh, it's the other one.
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Oh, you can't use your right arm.
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Oh, okay.
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Yeah, I had surgery on my, my right shoulder.
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For some reason I thought it was your left.
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No, that would fucking suck.
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Right?
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'Cause that your dominant arm, right?
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You wouldn't be able to do anything.
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So I'm, I'm much more independent than I thought I was going to be- Yeah
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… because it is my right arm, and I can do all this shit over here, so Did you get a
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knob for the steering wheel in the truck?
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No.
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I didn't.
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I don't need that shit.
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What are you talking about?
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Oh, well, you're getting one for Christmas.
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Just needed to confirm you didn't have one, that's all.
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You're giving me a knob for Christmas?
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It sounds like something you would do.
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I, I kept thinking about that song.
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Remember when we were ki- how does it go?
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It's the, the one arm purple people eater.
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Is that you now?
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The one-eyed, one-armed flying purple people eater.
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One-eyed, one-armed flying purple people eater.
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Well, you're in good spirits.
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You look good.
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Thank you.
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So you're gonna be in that sling for how long?
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Six weeks.
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Wow.
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I- if all goes well, and I've, I, I actually have, have physical
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therapy three days a week.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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It's $30 copay a pop, for, that's for the first four weeks, and then it can drop
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to two depending on how things are going.
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But it's, it's all about range of motion right now, and so far my range of motion's
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actually been really, really good.
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They're very pleased with how things are progressing.
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Well, that's good.
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So if that continues, by the time I come up for Lemons to hang out, I
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should not be in the sling by then.
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So let me ask you, they put you under anesthesia for this, right?
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Yes.
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Yes.
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What car fantasies did you have while you were in sleepy time?
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I dreamt that Volkswagen was still making cool cars.
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That Maserati didn't exist.
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Well, that one might come true.
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That Lance Stroll was not in F1.
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And that Lewis Hamilton was leading in, in points, and Ferrari
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was leading in constructor.
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So that's, like, three lies and a truth in there, right?
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Well, we're glad to see you back in the studio.
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Obviously, we're gonna keep track of your progress.
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And, you know, The Beatles put to the side.
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Your up-and-coming racing career is put on pause, but that's okay because
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there's always fun-filled automotive news to talk about every month.
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Always.
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Always.
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And as you can tell, as with previous episodes- You are not prepared
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I have prepared exactly zero.
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I didn't even do what I was talking about I was gonna do for the F1 segment, so.
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I was wondering.
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I was gonna put you on blast and be like, "All right, Brad, you're fully prepared.
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It's time to go. It's time to talk F1." So I did watch some of the, the races.
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Well, well, we'll get to that.
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We'll get to that.
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We'll get- I know.
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I know.
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I know
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I don't want to totally go back to last month, you know, when we talked
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about the end of car culture and how car culture was dead and all
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those kinds of wonderful things.
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I want to talk about something that sort of spawned another conversation,
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which is when is tech too much tech?
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And the article that got me there, unfortunately, is a Cybertruck article.
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The headline kind of speaks for the rest of the content because y- if
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you're not a techie, maybe it doesn't matter, maybe you don't care, maybe
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you get it one way or the other.
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But basically, Tesla gives Grok, which is their AI, direct
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control over your car settings.
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And I thought to myself, "Do I wanna hand over control of my cyber dumpster
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to Grok AI to make changes unwillingly or without any sort of notification?"
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Absolutely not.
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I don't think AI should be controlling vehicles at all, ever.
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Well, isn't that the whole self-driving Johnny Cab that we're leading towards?
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That's gonna be all AI.
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I don't think Elon should be controlling AI.
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I don't wanna focus on the Cybertruck thing too much Well, I could argue
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a difference with the Johnny cab.
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Oh.
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'Cause if I'm getting into a cab, I've surrendered myself, even if it was a
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driver-filled cab- Yeah … to whatever they're doing, and the video monitoring
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that they're doing in that vehicle, right?
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It's my personal vehicle, get the fuck out.
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Yeah.
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I would argue that Waymo drives better than most cabbies do, but, you
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know, I'll leave that where it is.
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The reason this Grok AI Cybertruck article is a catalyst for where I wanna take the
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conversation about when is tech too much, is that I do think this is too much.
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You should not have some benevolent AI overlord suddenly changing
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settings on your car overnight, and then you get in the car.
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John Summers has talked about this.
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Every setting change they make on one of these new EVs, you just learned
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how to drive the car, and now we've changed all the settings on you and you
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have to relearn how to drive the car.
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Unfortunately, this is the Apple method.
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Every time a new operating system comes out, we still can't figure
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out how anything works, but the only thing that is tried and true
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is that Photos app still sucks.
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Regardless of what version of iOS you're on, that's always garbage.
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But the point is, you have to kind of relearn everything
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every time an update comes.
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There was another side to this that got my attention because it was something that
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happened to us directly, and Brad, you, I know you love jumping on the, what problem
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does the Pacifica have now bandwagon.
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Well, how, is the, is the Pacifica sentient now?
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I, well- … well, here's the thing, right?
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Did it brick itself just because it didn't wanna live anymore?
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Did it- No … commit Pacifica suicide?
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No, better still, right?
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It threw a random code, and it made no sense.
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And my wife was like, "It threw a code, and then it went
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away, and then it came back.
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It's being weird." And you know, stuff was happening with her,
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you know, multifunction interface with her phone. Some, some weird
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electronic stuff was happening, right? And so I was like, "All right.
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Let me hook the Autel scanner up to it." Did you try unplugging
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it and plugging it back in?
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Dude, it's, it's such an appliance sometimes.
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So I get out my scanner, and I've never had a problem with the Mopar products,
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even though the ECUs are encrypted, especially my big Autel, it never has
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a problem communicating with the car.
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And so this time it freaked out, and it was like, "I can't
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recognize the ECU is here." And I'm like, "Oh no, we're in trouble.
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That's not a good sign.
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Like, something's really wrong, right?" But you drove home, and
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the car ran, and it was all good.
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So long story short, I ended up, by hook or by crook, I figured out if I used
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the little scanner, it actually gave me a code, and then we looked up the code
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online, da da da, and all this kind…
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You know, the, the normal circus of events that occurs when you end up with a check
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engine light and you don't take it to the dealer to pay them 90 bucks just so they
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can hook up the same scanner you're using.
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It came back with something very benign.
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It actually ended up being the little pop-up sensor that's under the hood.
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It got stuck in a weird position where it was, like, not closed but not open,
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so the car freaked out, and it was like, "The hood's open, but wait, it's not
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open, but it is open, but it…" You know, and this whole back and forth.
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And it was because I had topped off her windshield washer fluid.
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That's what started this whole chain of events a week prior.
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And so I'm like, "I guess the button got stuck. You know, spray it with
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some lithium, make it go up and down. It's all good." And then the code,
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we cleared it, and it went away.
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But it was really weird that the car was, like, fighting me and
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doing all this kind of stuff.
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In a moment of innocence, my wife turns to me, she goes, "Why can't the car
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just tell us what's wrong with itself?"
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And I had that epiphany, and I was like, boom, why is this so difficult?
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Why aren't the codes in the system?
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Why don't they come up on the screen?
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Why can't you go into even, like, I don't know, like a dealer mode, put in
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a pin, and it shows you the diagnostic.
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Why do I have to have this really expensive tool that not everybody has
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or has access to, to be able to go in and read a stupid code that- You just
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answered your own question I, I guess.
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But- The tool that not everybody has Because everybody has to go
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to the dealer to get it read.
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How do the dealers get revenue?
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From service.
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I k- I know.
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It pains me.
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But I, I, but as a technologist, I'm like, in the year of our Lord, 2026, the
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cars are not quite sentient, but they should be able to tell me more than P152F.
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Come on, give me a little bit more than that, than just tell me, "Hey,
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the hood release sensor is stuck." They could display that on the screen.
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But see, to that point, I think some of the more expensive cars,
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like I think Mercedes and stuff will tell you exactly what's broken.
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I feel like with all the tech in the cars, it would be nice to have that option.
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There are some benefits to maybe making the cars a little bit smarter.
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Wouldn't you say, Tanya?
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There's no point, because the vast majority of people wouldn't know what
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to do with that information anyway.
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So why bother having memory space for the car to be able
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to tell you what its codes are?
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Okay, okay.
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So I will counterpoint and say, why do we have so many idiot lights then?
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Why doesn't it come up and say, "Windshield washer fluid low." Why is
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there a stupid icon that's easily mistaken for another icon that no one knows what
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all those Egyptian hieroglyphs mean unless you go and look 'em up in a book?
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That's a good question for cars built in the last X years.
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Cars previous to that was not a possibility because you
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didn't have these screens.
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Right, right.
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Now cars with screens, I mean, that's fair enough.
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It could come up in the middle and say, "Windshield washer fluid,
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maintenance." Although some cars do come up and take control of the instrument
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cluster and say, "Service due."
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Yes.
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Well, whatever that means.
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Service what?
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I don't know.
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Does it need an oil change or a valve cover gasket?
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Who knows, right?
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But I guess my point there is in the glove box we have a what?
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300-page manual that no one's ever read, that just takes up
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space and weight in the glove box.
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Why couldn't that be on a PDF that's in the system that you pull up and
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it's, you know, when the error comes up it says, "This is how you refill
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your windshield washer fluid."
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They could just flash a QR code up that you scan.
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There's that, too.
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Why are we printing books in 2026?
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It makes no sense.
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There should just be a piece of paper in your glove box with a QR code on it that
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says, "Scan here to see your driver's manual." And I'd be okay with that.
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I really would.
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That's the upside to technology.
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You could do something like that.
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And so as a result of all that, I mean, obviously we weren't gonna run and rush
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to the dealership to fix the hood sensor.
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Like, literally put some grease on it and be done.
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I went down this path of then exploring what could I do for my now 12-year-old
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Jeep, because it has that 8.4 inch screen and all the fun Uconnect stuff,
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and this, that, and the other thing.
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The company that makes those screens for Chrysler, that's infotainment.com,
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it's the Uconnect system.
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There's actually an upgrade for the Jeep.
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You can get CarPlay, both wired and wireless.
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There's, like, a new version that came out even, like, two years ago.
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Would you venture to guess how much it costs to replace that head
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unit in a Jeep Grand Cherokee?
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My guess- Uh-huh.
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Here we go … $7,500.
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No.
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Oh man, no.
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No, no, no, no, no.
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I would have considered it if it was a three-digit number, up to $1,000 I
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would've… To me it would be worth it to have the modern system with
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the off-road pages and, like, all the new stuff and CarPlay, and everything
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that's missing, like built-in, you know, na- modern nav and all that.
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And it is a very easy install, 'cause I watched the video on their website.
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No, it is $2,000 to replace that unit.
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And that's just an infotainment unit, and it's apparently it's coded to
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your car, so you have to send them your VIN and all this, so they do all
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that, you know, when they serialize it before you get it, and then you just
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drop it in and it's supposed to work.
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Like, because it does contain settings that you can change in
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other modules in the system, so it's designed to work with it and all that.
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So that's a little scary, but the videos I watched of people doing it and they're
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like, "Oh yeah, it's like three wires, plug, plug, plug, put it back in and
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it works." And I'm like, "Oh, okay."
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But two grand?
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Ah.
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If it was 1,000 bucks I'd, I think I would spend the money.
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Yeah.
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But that's all right.
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You know, we got all this AI.
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Maybe I can go in and hack the current one and flash the firmware or something with
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Claude or Groq or something like that.
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When is tech too much tech?
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This one's gonna seem a little strange.
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Like, why are you gonna talk about diesel and the price of diesel When
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we're talking about technology.
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There's this alleged, I'm gonna put air quotes, "alleged" diesel shortage.
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I don't understand it because there's reserves of home heating oil, which is
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diesel, and there's not diesel for our truckers, and that's why the cost of
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everything is going up again despite the fact that we're gonna credit everybody the
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tariffs that we should have never had in the first pla- you know, all this nonsense
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that's going on in the political space.
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Tanya, what was the prices that we saw on the road for diesel?
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Uh, we went on a little trip together.
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Started with number seven.
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That's in the state of Pennsylvania 'cause of all their taxes.
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$7 a gallon on the highways for diesel.
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Good Lord.
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Right?
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So today I had to fill up.
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I had to take a trip for work.
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I paid 6.50 a gallon, and it was just like, "Oh, my God, so
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painful," because I was like, "I'm not gonna make it down and back."
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I was going pretty far.
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I was going about 100 miles away.
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So that said, the whole time I was sitting there in traffic just chugging
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away, taking two and a half hours to get where I'm going, 'cause, you
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know, the average speed is 12 behind somebody that doesn't know how to merge.
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And so I'm just watching the, you know, the flow meter just go down.
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Like, that's another $6.50.
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That's another $6.50.
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It's all good.
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I learned something today 'cause I visited one of the meccas for
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data centers on the East Coast.
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In the area that I was in, there's over 55 data centers in that technology corridor.
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So just let that number sink in for a second.
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55 data centers in that area.
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And so we're on this tour, you know, blinky lights and this and that
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and water cooling and not water cooling and all these, you know,
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the things that people get hives about talking about data centers.
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So I got to see the inside of the belly of the beast of one of the more modern
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data centers that has been brought online in the last couple of years.
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As part of the tour, I was like, "What about renewable energy?
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What about this?
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What do you do about that?
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Da, da, da, da, da." And then, you know, they always have an answer, and
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they can deflect, and they can tap dance around it one way or the other.
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"Oh, yeah, we do this and blah, blah, blah that." And, and so we got to
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talking about, for whatever reason, somebody mentioned something about
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what happens during a power outage.
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I said, "Oh, that's really interesting." So I, you know, my ears kinda perk
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up, and he starts talking about their backup power and how actually they
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have to switch to backup power in some areas of the country more often
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than not or other parts of the world.
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And oh, by the way, when it's super hot and it's 100 degrees plus the beltway
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area, they, they move to backup power because they try to take a load off
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the grid and, you know, all this stuff.
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And I'm like, "That's really interesting." And so I raise my hand,
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and I'm like, "Excuse me, but what is your backup fuel source?" And
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he kinda looked at me puzzled like nobody had ever asked him that before.
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And I had an idea in my head what it ought to be.
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I'm gonna ask you guys a bold-faced question.
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What do you think their backup fuel source is at these data centers?
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I'm sure it's petroleum-based.
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Uh-huh.
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Would you like to guess which one?
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It's not natural gas?
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That's what I thought it was gonna be.
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Their backup power system Is diesel?
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Is good old diesel.
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Yeah, I mean, those are the two choices really on gens.
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Just like the electricity bill's going through the roof.
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Wonder why the price of diesel is skyrocketing?
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Because they have to have not hundreds of gallons of diesel, not thousands of
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gallons of diesel, they have to have tens of thousands of gallons of diesel
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to keep these data centers up and running if they're using diesel backup.
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They said they cannot lose an ounce of uptime.
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And when they come off the grid during the summer times and all this kind of
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thing, whether it's here or if it's in Texas or in California or whatever,
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that's where the diesel's going.
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That's why we don't have any.
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Instead of doing s- something different or using a different energy
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source, renewable energy, whatever.
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No, just good old diesel.
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But there's no emissions problem.
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People wonder why people are protesting.
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So now, now- Uh-huh … not to make this a whole tech conversation, but the
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people that are complaining about the air emissions from a data center- Yes
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well, uh, n- okay then.
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If they're rolling coal- They are … presumably.
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They are.
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Then no wonder then people are, are choking and getting lung issues when
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the data center is in their backyard.
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Yeah.
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All right, that makes sense now I'm just like, I was beside myself,
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and I was like, "This has such a trickle-down effect into the automotive
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community, it's not even funny.
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How do we fix this problem?
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We don't, because it's too far gone at this point.
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I mean, they're not gonna rip out those backup generators, and they're not
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gonna stop using them." You know, they, they're all, "Well, we don't use them
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that much." And I'm like, "Oh, okay.
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Yeah, sure." 'Cause you're just gonna let diesel, which is hygroscopic,
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sit there and absorb water?
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No, you're gonna burn through it and make sure that it gets constantly replenished.
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And to me, the telltale sign was like, "Oh, well, we have
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deals with petroleum companies." I'm like, "Oh, I'm sure you do.
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Hmm." They aren't gonna just leave vats of it sitting around.
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They're gonna have contracts that say they have priority in- Delivery
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in an emergency situation where they're gonna get filled first.
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Or they're gonna get first right to fuel too, because the world
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stops if these data centers stop.
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I mean, you might have to put in a DVD and not watch Netflix.
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We literally said the same thing, yes.
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Again, being a technologist, I wasn't in denial, but it was just one of those
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things that I just wanted affirmation that, "Oh, yeah, they're using natural
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gas. Like, like, that, yeah, that's, that's fine, right?" I mean, not
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that that's great either, but okay.
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But it's better than diesel.
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I mean, come on, right?
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Well, it's only better in the sense that nobody's running
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their cars on natural gas.
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We need to switch, right?
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We can switch over.
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Natural gas.
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You can burn that in a diesel engine with minimal conversion.
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We could do that.
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Come on now, let's go.
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Got all this natural gas sitting around.
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I feel like we're in this weird reboot of, like, the Gilded Age of, like, the
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turn of the 20th century, early 1900s, all the robber barons and the factory towns.
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It was nothing but smoke stacks.
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It's unsustainable.
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It is ridiculous.
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And, and seeing some of the technology that's even retrofit into these data
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centers, I'm sitting there scratching my head and I'm like, "Why'd you guys
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do it that way?" And what's funny, my colleague was like, "Because
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it's cheaper to do it that way."
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And I'm like, "But that's stupid." Cut off your nose to spite your face, right?
19:58
Speed the market if there's an easy way to do it.
20:01
Yeah, but how many of these freaking colossus do we need at the end of the day?
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That's the thing.
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I need to be able to pull up cat videos faster- Oh, my God … and
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have AI tell, summarize them for me.
20:13
Which leads into the last piece of this technological rant, right?
20:17
Which dives us headfirst into what the hell's wrong with Volkswagen,
20:21
which is a constant thing this year.
20:23
This next article, they're on the- … brink of collapse, and they
20:27
talk about you can now play Tetris in six Volkswagen cars on your
20:31
screen, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
20:33
And there's, like, 19 other games that are in this multiplayer game hub
20:37
on these new ID series Volkswagens for the low, low cost of $149 a year.
20:43
Which is powered by a data center, right?
20:45
'Cause it, over the air, and this and that, and blah, blah, blah.
20:49
Like, come… Who needs this?
20:51
Like, does your car need to be a Nintendo?
20:53
Like, I don't get it.
20:55
Can I just say, I think our generation, it's definitely the
20:58
last generation that would survive if the internet just disappeared.
21:03
Yes.
21:04
Yes, because we didn't have it when we were kids.
21:07
We would be totally fine.
21:09
If we needed to know something, hello, we'd go look it up in a
21:13
book- Uh-huh … at the library.
21:15
You know-
21:18
Yeah … they still have those.
21:19
Libraries still exist.
21:19
They're still a thing.
21:20
People probably don't realize that.
21:21
The only- There, there would just be one minor inconvenience for people
21:26
like me is, like, all my music.
21:28
Like, I, I abandoned Apple Music and CDs and all that stuff to listen on
21:32
Spotify, but if that happened, the internet just disappeared and there was
21:37
no connectivity, I would just pull out my CD case that's, like, 500- Yeah, yeah
21:43
CDs deep and just start plugging away on that.
21:45
I do that sometimes anyway, because you know what we were talking about
21:48
on our most recent road trip, and it was just like Spotify's cool
21:52
and they got all these mixes and playlists and whatever, but sometimes
21:55
you just wanna listen to an album.
21:57
You wanna listen to how that album was put together and arranged,
22:01
because they put a lot of thought and effort into that arrangement.
22:04
It evoked an emotion.
22:06
It was trying to tell a story.
22:07
It was making a statement.
22:08
I mean, not to get on a whole diatribe about music, but there is a huge
22:12
relationship between music and cars, as we've discussed in the past.
22:15
Yeah.
22:15
But I'm with you, Brad.
22:16
I mean, sometimes I just pop the CD and let it roll from track one to the
22:19
end, because that's what I wanna hear.
22:21
I wanna hear how they put it together.
22:23
Yeah, maybe we're the new boomers, 'cause boomers felt the same way
22:26
about records, and that's why people are going back to that.
22:29
I feel like technology's gone way too far.
22:32
Just not, not even for cars, just in general.
22:35
It's just gone way too… Why do we need smart refrigerators to tell us
22:39
when our milk is, you know- Yes, 100%
22:41
low or we need… You know, you know how I do that?
22:43
I open the fricking refrigerator and I can eyeball it and say, "Oh, yes, I'm
22:48
running low on milk." That's the whole Zuckerberg concierge AI agent thing if
22:53
you listen to any of that stuff, where it's like, "We're gonna create a persona
22:56
for you that knows everything you want before you even want it, because we have
23:01
all your data, and it's all gonna be like Black Mirror at the end of the day."
23:04
Ah.
23:10
I guess what this article says to me People are spending way too much time
23:15
sitting around in their cars In a parking lot, if you look at the photos.
23:19
Yeah, 100%, right?
23:21
Why would you sit around in your ugly Volkswagen to play these video
23:25
games if you weren't just sitting around waiting for it to be charged?
23:28
I guess that's the problem, right, that they're trying to solve is the boredom of
23:33
sitting there waiting for it to charge.
23:34
And, and I think you just touched on it, the boredom of charging it.
23:37
Back in the day, pre-internet and pre all this fancy BS, I was sitting around in
23:43
a parking lot in cars with my friends, but it was like midnight, and we were-
23:47
Sitting behind the Dairy Queen, yeah
23:49
eating Taco Bell, or we were talking shit, or eating Shitwiches and
23:53
Peeps, and like listening to music on our CD players and everything.
23:57
We weren't playing Tetris.
23:59
Or 19 other games.
24:01
So there's always, there's always someone sitting around in a parking lot doing
24:05
something, but I think part of the problem, and this, not to go down on an
24:08
entire rabbit hole that I go through with my therapist, is like people in general
24:13
have a hard time just sitting in boredom.
24:16
Yes.
24:16
Read a book.
24:17
Yeah, how about we pull out any number of books?
24:19
Eric's got a plethora of books sitting there behind him.
24:22
Going back to the, hello, the library that I was talking about earlier.
24:25
No, Barnes & Nobles is a library.
24:27
It's a place where you get books.
24:29
If that's the definition of a library, it's Barnes & Noble.
24:32
Yeah, but Barnes & Noble you gotta pay.
24:34
At least the library you can borrow.
24:36
Oh, you mean it's free?
24:37
We don't wanna own anything these days, so we wanna borrow books.
24:40
We don't wanna own them.
24:41
You wanna, you wanna take them on a payment plan.
24:46
Subscription for books.
24:48
But seriously, like people can't just sit around and be bored.
24:51
That's why they've got all these stupid computer games on their phones, and
24:54
all this other BS, and just people need to be stimulated and entertained.
24:59
Well, I think we've given ourselves ADHD.
25:02
It's not a genetic thing anymore, you know?
25:04
Yeah.
25:04
But here's the thing, this is where it goes back to what
25:06
I was just talking about.
25:08
To run all that stuff in your Volkswagen, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, goes back
25:12
to these data centers which are running on backup power that is powered by diesel,
25:17
which is why diesel is $7 to $10 a gallon depending on where you are in the country.
25:21
Well, that's not the only reason that it's that expensive.
25:24
There happens to be a coincidental issue that is also- It is turtles
25:29
all the way down to the bottom.
25:32
Also contributed, when you blow up refineries that are, that are making
25:35
some of this stuff, and you shut them down, and fuel is a global market-
25:39
Yes … the repercussions are far- Ah … far-reaching, beyond the localized point.
25:47
What are people more concerned about?
25:48
That refinery that disappeared off the face of the earth, or the Amazon data
25:52
center that was in a similar geographic location that suddenly… Is anybody's
25:56
packages delayed as a result of that?
25:58
I don't think there was an Amazon center in the same vicinity, but okay.
26:02
There was.
26:03
You didn't hear about it?
26:03
It got vaporized.
26:05
What?
26:06
Yes.
26:07
Why, why do we need a data center so somebody can run-
26:12
Tetris on their car screen.
26:14
Tetris itself, the file, is not very big.
26:19
Correct.
26:19
Why can't it just be sitting on a hard drive in the car?
26:21
Considering it fit on a Nintendo 1980s cartridge yes, it should
26:26
take up about two kilobytes.
26:29
Yeah.
26:29
You don't even need an Apple smartwatch.
26:31
I'd swear to God you could have played that on one of those old bippity-bop
26:35
LCD watches like we used to have with like the… You remember the
26:37
ones you would get with like- You could play Tetris and s- you could
26:40
create it on your TI-82 calculator.
26:43
That's what I'm saying.
26:44
There was no horsepower.
26:46
You don't need… So, so why does it need to be over the air?
26:49
Why can't it be on a hard drive in the car?
26:53
You want the gaming hard drive?
26:55
Okay, here's 100 gigabytes of just stupid BS games.
26:59
Listen to you boomer-ing.
27:00
A hard drive?
27:01
What's a har- a hard drive?
27:02
What's that?
27:02
What are you, what are you talking about?
27:03
Because everybody is addicted to the subscription model.
27:07
Pay to play, pay as you go.
27:10
They're not getting my money.
27:11
They're not getting my money on the fact that I'm not buying one of these cars.
27:14
For $149 a month I'm gonna get a subscription to a gaming platform.
27:19
Yeah, why not get Xbox Live in your car?
27:21
Why this garbage playing Tetris from 40 years ago on your Volkswagen,
27:26
and your controller is your phone?
27:28
Well, I'm not gonna get it in my car.
27:29
I'm gonna get it like a real human being in my house.
27:32
Well, well I mean, come on.
27:33
And play as God intended on your sofa.
27:36
Because see, the problem is you can't charge your car at your house because
27:40
nobody has 220 in their garage, and again, it's turtles to the bottom.
27:44
You save the $150 a month, you get yourself a Switch.
27:49
It doesn't need to be over the air anything.
27:51
You've got the console with you, you take it wherever you go.
27:54
You always have a gaming console then.
27:56
Have you seen the price of those things lately?
27:58
It's out of control.
27:59
Well, the, the new Switch 2 is, yeah, 500 bucks.
28:02
I mean, the Xbox is $1,000.
28:04
Still cheaper than, over time, a subscription.
28:07
Oh yeah, of course.
28:08
Of course.
28:09
But nobody does those long-term mathematical gymnastics, so it's all good.
28:17
All right.
28:17
Speaking of Volkswagen, since we went there, and just technology-ridden
28:22
things, Brad, you brought this one up, like, minutes after I did.
28:26
Ugh.
28:28
This is not a GTI.
28:30
To me, this is the GTE.
28:32
All electric, rear wheel drive, equivalent horsepower to the ICE-powered current GTI.
28:40
They are calling this the most powerful GTI has ever built.
28:43
It's an EV.
28:44
But is it really a GTI?
28:46
First of all, why does it look like a Nissan Leaf?
28:48
Because this is the one you can play Tetris on.
28:50
It's- Horrible … it's, yes.
28:53
It's horrible.
28:54
If you told me this was the new Hyundai, I would believe you.
28:58
Yeah.
28:58
It's, it's the IONIQ GTI.
29:00
GTE, GTE.
29:01
The, 'cause what does the I stand for in GTI?
29:04
I just wanna bring that up as a point of contention here.
29:07
What does I mean?
29:08
Do you guys know?
29:09
Injection.
29:10
Correct.
29:11
Grand Touring Injection, because it was a non-carbureted car.
29:16
It had fuel injection.
29:18
It was revolutionary.
29:19
Er.
29:21
There's no injection here.
29:22
That's why I say this is GTE, for electrical.
29:25
And- And it's terrible.
29:27
It is terrible.
29:29
Everything about it is terrible.
29:31
It's just badge engineering.
29:32
1,000%. It's VAG engineering.
29:39
Newsflash, ID.Buzz has been delayed to 2028.
29:42
Is anybody surprised?
29:44
I see one every day, actually.
29:46
And what do you think?
29:47
I like 'em.
29:48
They're bigger than I thought they were gonna be, actually.
29:50
They are, they are very big.
29:50
They are very big.
29:52
So more on Volkswagen.
29:54
I don't know how many times we have to say this.
29:58
They're closing more factories, closing more factories, all the
30:00
cars are on the chopping block, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
30:03
It's the end of Volkswagen as we know it.
30:05
They're in dire straits.
30:06
And then they come up with stuff like, "Hey, we're gonna put Tetris in
30:08
your car for 149 bucks," or whatever.
30:11
Give the kids what they want.
30:12
I, I guess.
30:14
But I don't care about any of this stuff anymore.
30:16
Like, I don't even wanna- I, I don't even care about factories closing.
30:20
It- to me, it's sort of almost irrelevant, because this is what's important.
30:24
This right here.
30:25
That article's a year old.
30:27
It doesn't matter.
30:28
It's happened to come up in my feed, and I didn't realize it.
30:31
Let's just say this was foreshadowing, but now it's really happening,
30:35
'cause the VR6 is gone, and the five cylinder's right behind it.
30:39
Which is funny, because a more recent article says that Audi wants to keep the
30:43
inline five if they can figure out how.
30:46
Let's put air quotes around "if they can figure out how."
30:49
They can figure out how to make it a business case, but if no one's buying
30:52
the cars, they have no business case.
30:53
Nobody are buying these cars.
30:55
Correct.
30:56
Which leads me to say, Brad, I'm very sorry, but your RS3-powered
31:03
Golf R is never gonna happen.
31:06
Never gonna happen.
31:07
That's fine.
31:08
I've, I'm happy with my $2,500 Beetle.
31:13
I don't need a $50,000 car, period, let alone a Golf R. They say
31:19
they're still, they're supposed to be still making that, allegedly.
31:22
Lies.
31:23
Lies.
31:24
And it doesn't matter, because as you're gonna tell us about later,
31:27
Tanya, Mazda has a solution to this problem, so I'm looking forward to
31:31
hearing more about that as we go along.
31:33
In other news, Volkswagen's discontinuing SEAT.
31:37
Brad, I bring this up only because you mentioned it the last time we talked about
31:41
this, which was literally last month, when we were talking about Bugatti divesting,
31:46
and things going away, and whatever.
31:47
And you're like, "When's the next brand gonna drop?" Well, here it is.
31:50
VW's getting rid of SEAT.
31:52
Boom.
31:53
The Spanish brand is gonna be gone.
31:55
Now, I also decided, like we did with the Luche, I said, "Co-pilot, why can't
32:02
we have nice things? Why can't we go back to the days of the Corrado, to get
32:07
people excited about Volkswagen again?" Not Tetris in their cars, and GTIs
32:12
that aren't GTIs, and things like that.
32:14
So I said, "Look," I said, "All right, co-pilot.
32:16
If we took all of the US-based Volkswagen design language going into 2027, if
32:24
we reimagined the Corrado, what would it look like?" What do you guys think?
32:28
Just before I show you what it came up with, what do you
32:31
think it's gonna look like?
32:33
It's gonna be an SUV.
32:39
She says an Aztec.
32:41
What is Aztec in German?
32:44
Yeah, it's still Aztec.
32:47
Although I take it back before you get to that, because actually I think AI does
32:52
really well at envisioning car designs.
32:56
So actually they may do a really good job.
32:59
So I take it back.
33:00
I'm ac- actually excited now to see the output of this.
33:03
I still think it's gonna be an SUV.
33:04
You guys ready for this?
33:05
Ready?
33:06
Yes.
33:06
I'm ready to be disappointed.
33:08
Pendulum swung.
33:09
This is what Copilot came up with when I asked it to redesign
33:12
the legendary Corrado for 2027.
33:15
Don't let me down, Copilot.
33:17
What do you think?
33:17
What do you think?
33:18
Ass.
33:23
It's a Volkswagen Bengal-era 6 Series What the fuck is this?
33:28
Is it really that bad?
33:30
It's like the Scirocco they tried to bring back.
33:33
But sort of like an A5 before the A5 got four doors?
33:37
With, like, an RT on front end.
33:39
I'm trying to figure out what it is.
33:41
If you told me this was a new Volkswagen model and did not use the word
33:46
Corrado, then my gut reaction would be something cle- completely different.
33:51
But because you used the word Corrado, nope.
33:55
Would you accept this as a Scirocco?
33:57
Nope.
33:58
I would accept that as a CC Coupe.
34:01
I don't think it's that big.
34:02
We don't have any dimensions on this because it just rendered it the way it is.
34:06
Well, ask it for dimensions.
34:09
All right, the wheels are ugly because it asked me what wheels I wanted it…
34:13
'Cause it had a whole bunch of questions it asked me, and I was like, "Yeah,
34:16
use the wheels from the whatever, and use the this from, the design cues from
34:20
that and the other thing, and, you know, blend these all together." But I said,
34:23
"Stick to the US-based models that are currently available going into next year."
34:27
The wheels suggest it's electric.
34:29
Even AI is making electric cars now.
34:32
I know, but I didn't tell it engine type.
34:34
I just said, "Show me what it would look like using what we know today." And I'll
34:39
be honest with you, I would drive that.
34:41
It looks better than the GTI.
34:43
I'm just gonna leave that out there.
34:44
Whatever that thing was we saw earlier.
34:46
That's a hard pass there, bud.
34:48
If I haven't convinced you, well, did you see this?
34:52
This is where they're going instead.
34:54
Have you seen this thing?
34:55
This is the new A2.
34:57
This is the new design language from Audi, and the A3 is going to be very similar.
35:01
Look at that Corrado rear end.
35:02
This is why I asked Copilot to reimagine a Corrado.
35:06
You should have asked it to retro reimagine it.
35:08
Look at those raw leather seats there.
35:11
Is she giving it the finger?
35:13
I think that's what she- no, one, two, three.
35:14
Look at that.
35:15
Look at that.
35:16
So would you drive my Corrado or this thing?
35:18
Let's go back.
35:19
Let's look at my Corrado again.
35:20
Would you drive this or that?
35:23
This- I- Or that … would drive a 2001 Volkswagen Beetle.
35:28
Oh, oh, okay.
35:29
Well, let me, let's go there one more time.
35:30
So would you drive this or that?
35:33
This or that?
35:35
This reminds me of that song.
35:36
You could do her this, or you could do her that.
35:39
Or you could do her this, or you could do her that.
35:41
All that to say the new Audis are ugly, as we know.
35:44
That new Volare thing is heinous.
35:46
But I think it was funny because there was another article that came out about
35:50
how quickly the new Volare came to market.
35:53
And now, Brad, I had a duh-doy moment, as you like to call them, because it
35:56
didn't dawn on me that that car came out so fast because all they did was
36:02
take the Lamborghini, whatever that thing is called, Ter- Terramaro, Camaro,
36:06
whatever the hell that thing is called, and they basically re-skinned it.
36:09
I mean, how long does it take to re-skin a car that already exists
36:12
that's going into production?
36:14
So that's exactly what they did with this new, new Volare thing.
36:19
Dude.
36:19
I mean, okay, wait, this or that?
36:23
This or that?
36:24
Definitely not that.
36:27
This thing is terrible.
36:29
If that's what they're spending their money on, they need to stop that and
36:32
put the money into the inline five.
36:34
Because how much is it really gonna cost Audi to make the five cylinder
36:38
compliant with the 2027 EU smog standards?
36:42
It can't be as much as creating a car that nobody wants, like this thing.
36:48
But if that wasn't enough madness from Audi, it says there's a new thing
36:55
coming online called quattro ultra.
36:59
Ultra.
36:59
It's like, wait, what?
37:01
So as I dug into what quattro ultra is about, the fact that all the new Audis, to
37:09
a certain degree, are no longer quattros that we knew or we thought they were.
37:14
They're actually the Volkswagen 4MOTION system with the synchro and the, the
37:18
Haldex and all this other kind of stuff.
37:19
There's a front-wheel drive biased heavily, and then the rear end eventually
37:24
catches up when you're in, you know, in the deep doo-doo kind of stuff.
37:27
The ultra disconnects the transmission from the rear when
37:30
you're not using all-wheel drive.
37:32
The torsion s- keeps it a traditional permanent mechanical- Right
37:36
quattro.
37:37
Now we have two forms of quattro, quattro and quattro ultra.
37:41
Quattro ultra is the 4MOTION system that, you know, Volkswagen's had forever.
37:45
And then we've got regular quattro, which I think is going to be an up-charge.
37:49
So if you want the mechanical all-wheel drive, you have to pay more for it.
37:53
Wouldn't it be cheaper in the long run just to develop and
37:56
have one all-wheel drive system?
37:59
I mean, that's what they've been doing forever.
38:00
Then why do they feel the need to go with two?
38:03
Why not just go back to having all-wheel drive and front-wheel
38:06
drive and just leave it at that?
38:08
They're saying because it's more fuel efficient.
38:11
So basically, you're, you have a front-wheel drive car until you
38:14
engage it to be all-wheel drive.
38:16
Ultra.
38:16
Can you push the ultra button?
38:18
If you want a fuel efficient car- Don't buy an Audi.
38:21
Yeah, just buy a fuel efficient car.
38:23
Yeah, I mean, it makes no sense.
38:24
Like Then just make it front-wheel drive because you still have
38:28
all the added weight- Thank you.
38:29
Thank you … from when it's four-wheel drive.
38:32
Thank you.
38:33
Yes.
38:33
So if you have all the added weight, just leave it fucking, the drive shafts
38:36
connected, the prop shaft, whatever.
38:39
So it's a marketing thing.
38:40
People psychologically don't just want a front-wheel drive car.
38:45
You know, they've got in their head that, you know, in inclement weather, like rain
38:50
or snow or whatever, they need all-wheel drive, which is not true, as- Correct
38:54
you know, anybody that actually knows how to drive knows it's not true.
38:58
But casual buyers want all-wheel drive just for the f- for the
39:04
security that it sort of brings.
39:07
It's all those Subaru commercials.
39:09
It's the Subaru effect.
39:10
The VR6 is gone.
39:11
The five cylinder is gone.
39:13
V8s are extremely taboo.
39:15
Every new Audi's gonna be a four-cylinder turbo that weighs 5,000 pounds,
39:19
carrying around all this basically dead weight of an all-wheel drive that
39:22
doesn't do anything until you hit a button, which is not when you need it.
39:25
It's all predictive sensors- Oh, my God … that allegedly- It's AI.
39:30
Yeah … in 250 milliseconds, before you start even slipping, it
39:34
will reengage the all-wheel drive electromagnetically or mechanically.
39:38
Until it doesn't work because some plastic thing broke.
39:42
Yeah.
39:42
You mean until it doesn't work because it's an Audi.
39:44
1,000%, yes.
39:46
Yeah I mean, that sounds, that, that sounds overcomplicated to be
39:50
overcomplicated A system that uses an array of sensors to analyze
39:54
driving data, wheel slip, steering angle, and driving mode every 10
39:59
milliseconds, predicting traction needs 500 milliseconds into the future.
40:04
Into the future.
40:06
It's using predictive analytics from the AI.
40:08
In the year 2000.
40:08
That's why you pay 150 bucks a month.
40:12
It's all technology.
40:13
See, this is a technology forward episode, 'cause that's where we've gone with cars.
40:16
But wait, there's more.
40:18
They take all that data, all that data that the sensors are reading, and
40:22
they record it, and they store it at the data centers- At the data centers
40:25
and then they sell it so that they can make money back on the back end
40:30
to advertisers and people that are gonna use all that data against you.
40:34
Circle of life.
40:35
Well, yes, and then there's the fact that they will look at the output
40:38
from those sensors and say, "Well, you depressed the accelerator for
40:41
too long, and too hard, and too deep, and therefore avoided your warranty,
40:45
and we're calling the cops on you."
40:46
It'll void warranties.
40:47
Insurance costs will go up- Yeah … because you were
40:49
driving at a high rate of speed.
40:51
Accel- you accelerated too quickly from a traffic light.
40:54
But instead, you were beached on top of the snow, and the wheels
40:58
were turning, and you were doing 100 miles an hour, and you weren't moving
41:00
because the all-wheel drive now sucks.
41:04
How do you know?
41:05
How do you know?
41:06
Can we go back to, like, 2004?
41:08
Well, I don't wanna go back to 2004, where there were still levers in the floor
41:12
pan, and you have to engage your transfer case or get out and lock your hubs.
41:16
Like, I'm done with those days, and I'm not talking about Audis.
41:19
I don't think Audis were like that in 2004.
41:20
No, no.
41:21
2004, pickup trucks had… I mean, the Jeeps had the, the transfer case lever,
41:25
uh, and some pickup trucks did, but everything else you could get… I mean,
41:28
there was a mixture of, like, push button four-wheel drive and stuff like that.
41:32
And how reliable were those?
41:33
'Cause I know how the Audi systems worked.
41:35
The original Quattros had a vacuum diff lock, which the vacuum lines
41:39
rotted, so that never worked.
41:41
The second gen cars had an electric one.
41:43
Tonya, you remember, you could hit that diff lock button till
41:46
it broke, and it didn't matter, 'cause it didn't do anything.
41:49
Okay, but, but, but, but, okay, but still, okay, so pulling on this thread,
41:53
what years were, what, what generation, what years were those generations?
41:56
Oh, those were way back, '80s and '90s.
41:58
Okay, well, that's not what I'm talking about.
41:59
Talk- I'm
42:02
talking about the year 2004.
42:04
Peak car.
42:05
Peak car.
42:05
Yeah.
42:06
Peak car in the year 2004, and even still, with the issues that were
42:10
happening back in 2004, with the onslaught of, like, new technology and
42:14
everything, the cars were still cheaper to maintain and work on than they are now.
42:18
I would rather have something go wrong on a car back then than now.
42:21
But 2004 Audis, how many of those were S4s with blown cylinder heads and bad turbos?
42:27
It didn't matter anyway, 'cause the diff lock wasn't gonna
42:29
work when the motor was dead.
42:30
Yeah, but you're just talking about Audis.
42:33
And still, I would rather repair one of those S4s than have to do the timing
42:38
chain guide repair- Oh, yeah, on the V8s
42:40
on the V8 S4s.
42:42
Yeah, forget that noise.
42:43
Or I guess 2004 was when those, the, those were out, or maybe it was a
42:46
little bit later, but I, I digress.
42:48
I would still rather pay for something back then to break and go
42:51
wrong than to pay for all those new electronics to break and go wrong now.
42:55
I just feel like this is one of those moments where we start talking about
42:59
Quattro isn't Quattro and Quattro Ultra and all this nonsense that
43:03
they're trying to put together, which I'm sure there's a subscription fee.
43:06
And it's that moment where I realized everybody in the chat that has a roundel
43:11
on their hood stood back and said, "Whoa, brother, our shit's complicated
43:15
at BMW," and then Audi's like going in a whole different dimension.
43:20
We need none of this stuff, none of it.
43:23
And I watched some of these videos too of, like, repair shops going back
43:28
in and, like, servicing this stuff, like five years later, 10 years
43:31
later, you know, whatever it is.
43:32
Some of this stuff that now we take, like the DSG transmissions, and
43:35
it's like it's all made of junk, and it's very hard to service.
43:39
I was just showing Tanya a video earlier about a DSG motherboard issue, and the…
43:45
it's inside the transmission, inside the hydraulic fluid, and the sucker comes
43:49
off like a fruit roll-up with a drywall scraper because the motherboard's,
43:53
like, melt inside of the transis.
43:56
And I'm like, "We need none of this stuff. None of this is important."
43:59
Like, what happened to transmissions that shifted with your broken arm?
44:03
They weren't fast enough.
44:06
They didn't get me out of the Circle K parking lot fast
44:09
enough with a .002 shift speed.
44:12
Have you ever watched a street automatic that isn't an exotic car actually shift?
44:18
They're still dog crap slow.
44:21
But why do they need to be fast?
44:23
That's my point.
44:25
That's my… It's all, it's craziness.
44:26
Where is everybody going at 50 million miles an hour?
44:29
To go bumper to bumper at 12 miles an hour, 'cause that's the
44:32
real speed, let me tell you that.
44:33
Street cars should be straight automatic, and track cars and race cars should
44:38
be manual, and then that should be it.
44:40
It sh- why are we overcomplicating all this shit?
44:42
And why aren't street cars limited to, like, 80 miles an hour?
44:46
Whoa, wait a second, Mr. V8 and all the things.
44:49
It's 'cause of the sound.
44:50
Four cylinders sound like garbage.
44:52
Never have too many hurse purrs.
44:56
Hey, we can have 200 horsepower V8s.
44:59
That's called the '70s.
45:00
Limited to 80 miles an hour.
45:02
Talk about waste of money, weight, and fuel.
45:05
This reminds me of when Jeremy Clarkson drove the Mark 5 GT-R, the R-35, in Japan.
45:14
I, I don't know if this is true or not, maybe it was for entertainment value or
45:17
whatever, but it was like the car will not go over a certain mile per hour
45:21
until it knows, GPS triangulated- Correct
45:24
that it's at a racetrack.
45:26
Then it will unlock all the features and all this other extra stuff.
45:29
That was a Japanese, like, law thing with Nissan or whatever.
45:32
Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
45:32
Yeah.
45:33
So that's kind of what reminds me of you're talking about.
45:36
I mean, that's coming.
45:37
They've been talking about that in California for a while, right?
45:39
So that, it's next.
45:41
How would police departments and local jurisdictions make money if they
45:46
didn't have speeders to pull over?
45:48
All the- That's why.
45:49
They have speeders to pull all of our time.
45:51
If you're saying you're l- in the example case that was brought up, if you're
45:55
limited to 80 miles an hour, unless you're somewhere in the middle of the desert,
45:59
you can bust the speed limit all the time.
46:02
I wouldn't say 80 miles an hour.
46:05
I'm leaning all the way in to cars can't go faster than 65.
46:09
But that doesn't stop someone from doing 50 through a 30, like they do right now.
46:13
Cars need to read the speed limit signs and only go the speed limit.
46:17
You're going too technological, technological- Uh, yeah, we're
46:21
back in the technology thing again.
46:22
Now you need the data center computer to read back and forth to the sign.
46:28
You know what?
46:29
Cars should have zero restrictions.
46:31
Every car should have 1,000 horsepower.
46:34
They should all be Challenger Demons, yes, at the end of the day.
46:37
Yes, every- everybody should have a Hellcat Challenger Demon
46:39
red eye, purple- People eater
46:42
Ultra.
46:43
Yeah, with Ultra.
46:45
It's like a Marvel comic series.
46:47
But no, let's wrap out this Volkswagen conversation on a high.
46:51
Brad, I think you'll be very excited about this.
46:53
Remember last month we talked about the OEM plus generation?
46:56
All these OEM plus, OEM plus.
46:59
Well, guess what?
46:59
The OEM plus generation has voted.
47:02
And you know what the GOAT of Golfs is?
47:04
It's the Mark 4.
47:05
What?
47:06
Voted the GOAT of GTIs of all time, it's the Mark 4 By one, one guy.
47:13
Yeah And basically, the reasoning is because it had the most diversity,
47:18
the most different engine packages, options, et cetera, et cetera,
47:21
that we'll never get today.
47:23
Boom, Mark 4 for the win.
47:26
The legendary 1.9 liter TDI.
47:30
Well, think about it.
47:31
There were two 1.9 TDIs in the Golf at that point.
47:35
There were three different VR6s, the 12-valve, the
47:38
24-valve, and the, and the 3.2.
47:40
Then you had the 1.8 turbo, then you had the 2.0.
47:43
In Europe, you had the 1.6 16-valve.
47:45
There was a 1.4 liter something or other.
47:47
There was a supercharged motor.
47:49
The Golf came with so many different options, and then you add in the
47:52
body styles, different trim options.
47:54
So you could get it as a wagon, as a two-door, as a four-door, technically
47:59
three-door, five-door, and a wagon.
48:01
Yeah, it's the most versatile GTI of all of them, of all time.
48:04
The GOAT of Golfs.
48:05
Look at that.
48:06
And when, when did they stop production?
48:08
Uh, 2005
48:11
And a few into '06, so technically 2006.
48:14
And when was the peak?
48:16
2004 was peak car.
48:17
We know that.
48:18
There you go.
48:18
I rest my case.
48:21
If I had a time machine, if I had a DeLorean, I, I would go
48:24
88 miles an hour, back 2004.
48:26
You know, that's a stretch for a DeLorean.
48:28
That, that, like, literally pegs the needle on that car to go 88 miles an hour.
48:31
But you wouldn't be able to do that because you would've been limited
48:33
to 80 mile an hour speed limit, so you'd never be able to travel-
48:37
Based on Eric's, Eric's laws.
48:39
The computer says no.
48:41
But since we're talking about DeLorean there for just a
48:45
second, you reminded me, Brad.
48:47
It took a lot of data centers to make these two things come to life.
48:50
It's a video and, and some pictures.
48:52
I don't know who did this.
48:54
There's definitely some people behind this that are in the know.
48:57
Let's talk about the future of Mitsubishi and this Starion AI concept.
49:04
Look at this car.
49:05
Uh, is that Jackie Chan?
49:06
I don't care.
49:07
I don't know.
49:07
Look at this thing.
49:09
This is the Starion GSR reimagined.
49:13
I would own this in a heartbeat.
49:15
It's a Mark 3 Supra.
49:17
This is amazing.
49:19
It looks like a Mark 3 Supra.
49:20
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
49:21
It looks like a Starion.
49:22
Come on now.
49:24
Here's the other- look at this.
49:24
Look at this.
49:26
Look at this.
49:27
Is that a car that really needs to come back, though?
49:30
Yes!
49:31
Yes.
49:32
You know why it's fake?
49:33
It has a manual transmission.
49:35
This is some AI bullshit right here.
49:40
I would almost prefer that they bring back an Eclipse.
49:43
I'm glad you said that because I showed this to a guy who's a big
49:47
Mitsubishi guy, Mitsubishi diehard.
49:50
He's had Lancers and other stuff.
49:51
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
49:52
Do those people ex- are, are th- is that a real thing?
49:56
I, I mean, I, I, I don't know, but- No, it's AI, believe … maybe
50:00
that guy was AI too.
50:01
I don't know, but my point is- No, no, no.
50:04
I, I mean, I, I mean P- yeah, yeah.
50:06
Go ahead.
50:06
What?
50:06
Okay.
50:07
Well, my point is I showed him this car, and he said, "Is that, is that, like,
50:09
legit?" And I said, "I don't think so.
50:11
I think it's just some AI stuff."
50:13
But let's just say Mitsubishi decided to make good cars again, and he laughed.
50:18
A- and I said, "What do you think?" And he goes, "I'd buy that before I
50:21
bought the next version of the Lancer." Yeah, 'cause they ruined that too.
50:24
This would be an amazing triumphant comeback for Mitsubishi.
50:30
Like, can you imagine?
50:31
I like this picture with the Z 'cause I'm like, ooh.
50:35
I, I know I, I have opined over the Z for quite a long time, but
50:39
I'm just like, ah, that Starion concept, that's, that's pretty sexy.
50:44
I like those flares.
50:46
It looks like a Japanese Mustang.
50:49
I mean, do you … You know what the old Starion looked like.
50:51
It's not bad-looking.
50:52
I like it.
50:52
No, that's hot.
50:54
Yeah.
50:54
That's hot.
50:55
I'm sorry.
50:56
So that's never gonna happen.
51:06
Tanya, you've got something here.
51:06
What is this?
51:07
Well, I guess speaking of concept cars, possibly also AI generated probably.
51:13
It's getting hard to tell.
51:15
I mean, I don't know what this is.
51:16
The T-tops make it feel like a 300.
51:18
They call it this, the Kaze.
51:21
I don't know that I hate it, but I don't know that I like it either.
51:24
I think the color is a problem.
51:26
I like the color.
51:27
I don't like the flares.
51:28
That's throwing me off 'cause I'm, I'm not focused on the T-tops,
51:31
which is what I need to focus on.
51:32
I think if, if the flares were body color, it'd be better.
51:34
I agree.
51:36
Those flares are terrible.
51:37
I do like the T-tops though.
51:39
As someone who had two Camaros with T-tops- It's a good look Get rid of
51:45
this JC Whitney stuff on the hood.
51:47
Yeah.
51:47
Get rid of these flares or make them body colored or something.
51:50
I like the duck tail.
51:52
I think that looks cool.
51:52
That's very, very '80s.
51:54
A lot of cars had that kind of style of spoiler back in the day.
51:57
But, but yeah, I agree with you, Brad.
51:59
The T-top kind of works.
52:00
I wanna see a picture of it with the T-tops on, but all we see
52:04
is this jabroni taking it off.
52:06
I wanna see a picture of it with it on, because how goofy does
52:08
it look with the T-tops back on?
52:10
It shouldn't look goofy.
52:12
It should look pretty standard, pretty normal.
52:14
I mean, basically this is like, I mean, it's not AI because it's, it's
52:18
someone took a Z and added a bunch of different body kits to it and
52:22
made a custom roof, T-top roof on it.
52:25
Nissan, if you're listening, go for it.
52:27
I like the front end.
52:28
I like this whole diffuser set-up they got going on here.
52:31
That's pretty cool.
52:32
I'd consider it.
52:33
I think Nissan needs to do that, and I think they'd probably
52:35
have a, they'd have an audience.
52:38
All right, Tanya, this next one, I teased it earlier.
52:41
You have found the solution to the Golf R problem.
52:45
Well, I mean, there's no official channels for this, right?
52:50
So who knows if it's real or not, but there are some rumors flying about
52:55
the mill saying that Mazda could be bringing back the Mazda Speed3.
53:01
So basically the current Mazda 3, but with 300 horsepower and all-wheel
53:06
drive, which sounds like cool numbers.
53:10
The current Mazda 3 all-wheel drive is 250 horsepower.
53:14
Yes, this is a 50 horsepower bump.
53:16
I think the only thing that would make this more attractive is if
53:20
they actually put a manual in it, but there's no indication of
53:23
what transmission would be in it.
53:25
But in the rumor mill, you know, would this compete against a GR Corolla?
53:30
Definitely would kick the butt of a GTI.
53:33
You need this badge right here, Tanya.
53:35
Mazda 3 R. Look at that.
53:39
Look at that.
53:40
That's the most important thing.
53:41
This is the Spirit Racing concept they call it.
53:45
What's to say you couldn't get a chip for yours and suddenly have
53:49
the same power output as this?
53:51
Is there anything on this or any indication that they've done some
53:55
additional modifications to the engine to get it to 300 or is it just software?
54:00
Is it Grok changing the settings?
54:02
There's no indication that this is even real.
54:05
Oh, well, there's that, too.
54:06
I like it, though.
54:07
I mean, I think that is the answer.
54:09
I think Mazda would be stupid not to build this.
54:13
Some Midnight Club stuff right here.
54:15
Come on now.
54:16
Okay, so speaking of Asian cars, we were on a recent road trip.
54:20
We spotted one of these Kias on the highway, and my wife goes, "What
54:25
is that?" And I said, "I don't know," because you don't see too
54:28
many station wagons on the road.
54:31
Then we debated whether or not it was a station wagon or not because of its belt
54:34
line and its roof line and this and that.
54:36
I mean, it's legitimately a hatchback.
54:38
Kia calls it the K4 hatchback.
54:41
And so I'm like, "Well, that's really kinda cool." Now, the color that it
54:44
was in was not this, I don't know what to call this color, copper.
54:47
It was in another kinda beige-y white color.
54:49
It didn't look that great.
54:50
When I've, I've looked at it in photographs in other
54:52
colors, I don't mind it.
54:54
So I got really excited because I looked at the price point for this, and it's
54:58
one of those, huh, didn't realize it was gonna be under $30,000 kinda car.
55:03
And I'm like, "Well, that's super interesting." As I dug in deeper into
55:08
the technical specifications of the car, that's where things sort of became
55:12
extremely pear shaped very quickly.
55:15
I kept looking at the one that we were, you know, running alongside of the highway
55:18
going, how does this car even move?
55:21
And what I mean by that is if you look at the base model of this
55:27
K4 hatchback, it is a two-liter, high compression, four-cylinder,
55:33
non-turbo, making a whopping 147
55:40
horsepower and 132 foot pounds of torque on a car that weighs 3,200 pounds.
55:47
You don't need to be a scientist to figure out that that power to
55:50
weight ratio is pretty abysmal.
55:52
So then you start looking to the upper packages, and the GT Turbo, I
55:56
skipped straight over the GT model because I don't want anything with that
55:59
naturally aspirated anemic power plant.
56:02
So I looked straight at the GT Turbo, and I was thinking, "Oh, maybe, maybe just
56:06
maybe it's gonna make decent numbers."
56:09
It clocks in at 190
56:13
horsepower with the turbo, and weighs slightly more.
56:16
So then I thought about it and I said, "Look, okay, apples to apples, my station
56:20
wagon from the year 2003, Brad, peak car, weighs right around 3,200 pounds,
56:26
makes 225 horsepower. Maybe it's about the same." But the difference is I've
56:32
got 2.8 liters of cubic displacement.
56:35
This thing has 1.6 and a snail.
56:37
So I'm like, "It's not gonna be the same feeling. It's not gonna
56:41
have the same torque. It's gonna be slow either way you look at it." So
56:45
unfortunately, as excited as I got, it was sort of like a rollercoaster.
56:49
"Ah, this is gonna be amazing." Then it was like, "It's over.
56:51
Boom, done."
56:52
'Cause all the numbers stink.
56:54
This should have a six-cylinder, end of story.
56:57
Brad has his hand up.
56:58
Go.
56:59
You are not making an apples to apples comparison.
57:01
Why's that?
57:02
Because your wagon didn't come with a 2.8 liter stock, it
57:05
came with a two liter stock.
57:06
And how much power did the two liter make?
57:08
110, maybe.
57:09
115 horsepower?
57:11
Yeah.
57:11
Yeah, yeah.
57:12
Okay, so 115 horsepower on a 3,200 pound car.
57:15
It's already doing better with the base motor.
57:17
Next.
57:18
But my car did come with that engine, just not in the United States.
57:21
But not, where is this being sold?
57:24
Well, we're not worried about a 20-year-old Volkswagen.
57:26
We're talking about a Kia- You are.
57:27
You brought it up.
57:28
You brought up your 20-year-old Volkswagen- I know … that has
57:31
a complete custom engine swap.
57:33
It's engine, trans, everything, and you're trying to compare it to
57:36
this new car that's off the line.
57:39
No, what I'm trying to compare to is the power to weight ratio.
57:41
What I was- But your wagon didn't just get fat over time when it got the bigger…
57:46
How did, how much did it weigh with the two liter?
57:48
Oh, a lo- 'cause the, the VR6 is heavier, so I don't know, probably a
57:51
lot less than, it's probably closer to 3,000 pounds with a two point slow.
57:54
Okay, so, so 200 pounds less and 30 horsepower less.
57:57
What I'm getting at is I was making the reference of, like, real life.
58:02
I could go feel, like, maybe what the GT Turbo feels like.
58:06
No.
58:06
Yeah, I could go to the dealership and test drive it.
58:08
I get it.
58:09
Well, how is driving your Volkswagen with a completely different motor-
58:13
Oh … the same feel as this car?
58:15
You wanna have the feel of that car, you gotta go get one that doesn't,
58:18
that has a two liter in it Ugh.
58:20
My point is- It's okay, your logic is faulty No, my point is that
58:25
driving a car with less than 200 horsepower over 3,000 pounds is
58:30
going to drive a certain way, right?
58:32
It's going to be kind of slow.
58:35
The only thing I can compare it to without going to the Kia dealership is my car with
58:40
200 horsepower that weighs about the same.
58:42
That's the only thing I can go on.
58:44
My car's not super fast.
58:46
If we have any listeners that have a two liter or two point slow Mark 4
58:52
Volkswagen Jetta wagon- Why are we, why are we talking about Volkswagen?
58:55
… that would love to bring it to the local Kia dealership for Eric to do a apples
59:00
to apples comparison of a 25-year-old Volkswagen and a brand new Kia with the
59:06
same, with similar features and setup, please reach out to us in the email.
59:12
I'll, I'll put it to you this way, Brad.
59:14
Tanya.
59:14
Tanya has driven my car.
59:16
She knows what it's like.
59:17
She's driven other VWs of the era.
59:19
She knows what it's like.
59:19
I guess what I'm getting at is, your R32, the one in your dashboard
59:24
confessional, told us that you sold to Carvana and all that kind of thing
59:27
after having it for a bunch of years.
59:29
Your R32 made 50-plus more horsepower, and you had a chip and all this kind
59:35
of stuff, and blah, blah, blah, and this and that and the other thing.
59:37
But it weighed a lot more than my car did.
59:40
And on a spirited drive one afternoon, I wasn't walking you, but, uh,
59:45
you weren't catching me either.
59:46
So it was like, but that's the power to weight conversation, right?
59:49
That's the, what I'm trying to draw the comparison.
59:52
But the only thing I have to go on is- That Kia must kind of drive
59:57
like a 20-year-old car that was overweight with not enough power.
1:00:00
That's what I'm getting at.
1:00:02
It drives like a 20, 26-year-old car.
1:00:05
You wanna know why?
1:00:06
Go test drive a Honda HR-V that weighs probably the same, and can't get it
1:00:11
out of its own fucking way, and has less horsepower than the turbo version.
1:00:14
So there you go.
1:00:15
They're slow AF.
1:00:17
There are plenty of modern-day cars that are slow AF.
1:00:20
But, but, but to someone that's not Eric or one of us, it's perfectly adequate.
1:00:25
It is a perfectly fine mode of transportation.
1:00:30
To go to the grocery store and to sit in stop-and-go traffic, they're fine.
1:00:34
I'm glad you brought that up, because I did get the opportunity to go on
1:00:38
a test drive in a new Honda HR-V, and you're 100% correct, Tanya.
1:00:43
To that person, it was like, "This car's zippy and fast," and I'm
1:00:46
sitting there going, "It is beating its brains out to get to 60 miles an
1:00:51
hour," and it feels like it's going fast because it's making all this
1:00:55
commotion, and it's not going anywhere.
1:00:58
If you want to do some, some comparisons, I guarantee that I could beat a Honda, a
1:01:03
2026 Honda HR-V, in my 41-year-old Audi.
1:01:08
This is a drag race we need to do.
1:01:11
Actually, we took your car to the drag strip.
1:01:13
It did, like, the quarter in 17 seconds or something like that.
1:01:16
I think I have the slip somewhere.
1:01:19
Yeah.
1:01:20
I think it was.
1:01:20
So if, if the new Honda is at that, that's pathetic, right?
1:01:23
That's what I'm saying.
1:01:24
That's what I'm getting at.
1:01:25
That's often my gauge, a- admittedly, this backwards comparison.
1:01:30
I guess that's what I'm trying to say is, like, you can't judge a book by its
1:01:33
cover because that was the revealing part of this Kia, is that it looks cool,
1:01:38
and you're like, "That's neat, and it's different." But suddenly it's like,
1:01:41
"Wah, wah, wah," the motor's garbage.
1:01:43
I mean, under 200 horsepower at 3,200 pounds, no thank you.
1:01:47
Is the motor garbage, or is the car too heavy?
1:01:52
And is the car too heavy because of data centers?
1:01:59
Because data centers is now, is the new because chips.
1:02:02
Because chips, yes, 100%.
1:02:05
And speaking of because chips, and we're still kind of talking about the Hyundai
1:02:08
family, Hyundai warns the US may be next in line for a wave of cheaper Chinese EVs.
1:02:14
And I read this and I was like, "What are we afraid of? Why do we care?"
1:02:18
Does it really matter anymore if BYD starts selling cars in the United States?
1:02:23
I might drive one.
1:02:24
I'd ride in one.
1:02:25
I'd go f- I'd go t- for a test drive.
1:02:27
The fact that it's made in China doesn't really scare me.
1:02:29
I'm not gonna connect it to my Wi-Fi anytime soon.
1:02:33
As far as cars go, does it get me from point A to point B?
1:02:36
But the Kia K4 can get you from point A to point B. I'd rather
1:02:42
have the electric motor, at least it … You can feel the torque.
1:02:45
132 foot pounds of torque in a 3,200 pound car is pathetic.
1:02:50
I'm just poking the bear now.
1:02:52
God bless it.
1:02:53
Well, speaking of other EVs and concept cars, I don't even know
1:02:57
why I put this in here, because I'm the only person in our whole
1:03:01
community here that likes French cars.
1:03:04
And this doesn't matter because it doesn't matter if the Pope designed
1:03:07
it, Renault's not gonna make it, and we're never gonna get one.
1:03:10
So who gives a crap about the new Renault 8 rear wheel drive coupe?
1:03:15
That does look pretty hot, though.
1:03:16
It looks really good.
1:03:18
The back screams 914.
1:03:20
1,000%, yes, right here.
1:03:22
It is ridiculous.
1:03:24
This is the Gordini.
1:03:25
Apparently Gordini is back, one of the famous designers is back at Renault.
1:03:29
If you look at pictures of the original Renault 8, it's not far off, guys.
1:03:34
This is what we're talking about.
1:03:35
It lost two doors.
1:03:37
It did lose two doors, but it looks better as a two door.
1:03:40
They did a great job.
1:03:41
Now, put an Alpine badge on that, sell it all day long.
1:03:45
Done.
1:03:46
Too bad it's just AI.
1:03:47
Oh, well, my dreams are shattered.
1:03:55
Brad, we were just talking about new cars, and I wanted to just go into lost
1:03:59
and found here a little bit, because it's inevitable that this happens, right?
1:04:02
So we go on this road trip, we go to this big family event.
1:04:06
Sitting there, and my wife's aunt nudges me and she says, "Hey, so I'm
1:04:10
thinking about buying a new car."
1:04:12
And I'm like, "Oh, God, here we go." You have to temper yourself and be
1:04:16
like, "Look, I could easily turn on the fire hose and inundate you with
1:04:21
all sorts of stuff, and then you'll never wanna talk to me again," but I
1:04:24
actually like her, so I didn't do that.
1:04:27
And I, I listened to what she had to say.
1:04:29
And so she was like, "Look, we donated our…"
1:04:31
Brad, this is peak car, "Donated our Buick LaCrosse." I just… And
1:04:37
your face, your face says it all.
1:04:39
Buick LaCrosse, okay?
1:04:41
So she donated her Buick LaCrosse to her son.
1:04:45
That got her son out of a $350 a month lease that he was
1:04:49
leasing a Kia, of all things.
1:04:51
And I said, "Okay, that's just kinda funny and ironic." And so they
1:04:55
are a two-family car even though her and her husband are retired.
1:04:58
He's got a Jeep WK 2, and she doesn't like driving it 'cause it's
1:05:02
a little too tall, it's a little too this, it's a little too that.
1:05:05
She's used to her Buick LaCrosse.
1:05:06
I'm gonna say it again, Buick LaCrosse.
1:05:10
Which Buick LaCrosse was this?
1:05:12
This was the sedan Was it, like, the first gen LaCrosse?
1:05:16
The late '90s, early 2000s LaCrosse.
1:05:18
Is it the one that's based off the Impala?
1:05:20
It's the one that looks like your grandmother drove it to the post office
1:05:24
and back three times and never again.
1:05:26
'Cause the first LaCrosse was, like, literally peak cars, 2004.
1:05:30
Yes, yes.
1:05:31
That's what I'm talking about, yeah.
1:05:33
Okay.
1:05:34
Yeah, it's not the little SUV thing they came out with later.
1:05:36
This is, like, a sedan.
1:05:37
It looks like- This is the old, an old LaCrosse.
1:05:39
Not a new LaCrosse.
1:05:40
No.
1:05:41
This is an old LaCrosse.
1:05:41
This is an old LaCrosse.
1:05:42
Like, she's had it forever.
1:05:44
Forever, okay.
1:05:45
And so whatever.
1:05:46
It didn't even have a ton of miles on it, and, you know, they went through it and
1:05:48
made sure the brakes had been serviced.
1:05:50
Like, the car's in good running shape, 'cause it doesn't have a ton of miles.
1:05:53
So she figured, "Look, I'm gonna donate the car to my son.
1:05:55
I'm gonna get a new car for myself.
1:05:57
I'm gonna get something nice." And I was like, "Okay." And so she was looking
1:06:00
at cars, and she got together with her daughter, and being non-car people,
1:06:04
I think they did the right thing.
1:06:06
And this goes back into our theme about technology.
1:06:09
They sat down with ChatGPT, and after ChatGPT stopped making the same face you
1:06:14
made after they typed in the words Buick LaCrosse, ChatGPT, being non-car people,
1:06:19
they said, "Look, this is what I drive. This is what I've test-driven." 'Cause
1:06:23
somebody convinced her, and it wasn't me, to go test drive a new Tiguan, and
1:06:28
I told her, unfortunately, I would not wish a Volkswagen on my enemy right now,
1:06:32
'cause it's, they're just not worth it.
1:06:33
So we had that whole conversation, and that was after she said, without me
1:06:37
soliciting a response, that she had gone to test drive the Volkswagen and
1:06:41
she didn't like it because she thought it was gonna be really nice and it
1:06:45
ended up feeling really, really cheap and she didn't like the way it drove.
1:06:49
And I said, "That's really interesting."
1:06:51
And then I went into my whole soapbox about how I wouldn't wish it on my enemy.
1:06:54
That being said, the rest of the list- That came back was kind of interesting.
1:06:59
Her daughter is leasing a Volvo XC90, so we know those are super posh and really
1:07:05
nice, and it's the big Swedish excursion suburban thing, and that's all good.
1:07:09
But she took that off the list because ChatGPT basically said, "The Volvo's
1:07:14
gonna bury you in maintenance." And she's like, "I don't want a car
1:07:16
that's going to do that." So the four cars that were left on the list, a
1:07:21
Hyundai, a Kia, uh, I don't remember which ones off the top of my head.
1:07:25
The new Buick SUV, the little one, which is basically the Vauxhall Mokka,
1:07:29
and I steered her away from that.
1:07:30
I said, "In, in your stack rank, the new Buicks, they're either
1:07:33
Chinese or they're British.
1:07:34
They're not the Buicks of old.
1:07:36
So get that out of your head right now.
1:07:38
You're not gonna like it, but don't take my word for it.
1:07:40
Go check it out yourself." And then again, those Hyundais and the Kias, and
1:07:43
then ChatGPT is like, "The car you need, best power, value, safety rating," blah,
1:07:50
blah, blah, blah, blah, "is one of my cars that I have my eyes on, the Mazda CX-50."
1:07:55
So the sort of wagon, kind of going back to what we were talking about with the
1:07:58
Kia K4, sort of wagon, sort of SUV thing.
1:08:02
And so she hasn't gone to test drive it yet, and I was not
1:08:04
trying to push it or oversell it.
1:08:06
But I was like, "I think you will find that the Mazdas are a cut above
1:08:10
the rest of the stuff that's on this list, especially in this price point."
1:08:14
So my girlfriend actually has a brand-new Mazda CX-50.
1:08:18
Oh, yeah?
1:08:18
What color?
1:08:19
Uh, it's like the dark gray blue.
1:08:21
It's actually really nice.
1:08:23
It's- Right?
1:08:24
Right?
1:08:24
It's not, it's not fast.
1:08:26
It's the hybrid.
1:08:27
I mean, it's a hybrid.
1:08:28
Okay.
1:08:28
So it's got some torquems, but it's not, like, super fast.
1:08:31
Um, but it is very posh and very nice to…
1:08:33
It's a nice place to be, a nice cabin.
1:08:35
Yeah.
1:08:35
We took it on a road trip not too long ago.
1:08:38
It was very nice.
1:08:39
The brakes leave a little to be desired- Yeah … but I, I like it.
1:08:43
It's, it's got some hips.
1:08:44
It looks good.
1:08:45
It does look really good.
1:08:46
And the right color, they look amazing, too.
1:08:48
Yeah.
1:08:48
So that's good to know.
1:08:49
And so I actually steered her towards the hybrid 'cause I said, "Look, if you
1:08:53
wanna buy something nice, and you wanna get some fuel economy out of it," I mean,
1:08:56
she's coming out of a, I'm gonna say it again, a Buick LaCrosse from Peak Car.
1:09:01
She's not going for performance.
1:09:02
She's going for that luxury feel, right?
1:09:06
So I I'm just dying over that.
1:09:10
I mean, apples to apples, like before, I think the Mazda might be the option
1:09:15
for her Anybody that I talk to nowadays that's looking for a new car, I direct
1:09:20
them to Mazda 100%, yes A car that I am lusting after right now, and if I was in
1:09:26
the market, I'm not in the market, I'm still like, "Well, I, I could do the…"
1:09:30
I really want a CX-90 Dude, y- I'm right there with you.
1:09:33
They're awesome They're so good-looking Yeah That inline six, it's just,
1:09:38
th- they're just nice vehicles All the torque comes there, too.
1:09:41
My God.
1:09:41
I'm hoping to pick up one of those, like, secondhand.
1:09:43
That's what I'm thinking.
1:09:44
Like, you pick up the tail end of when they decide to not make them
1:09:47
anymore, like the last two years.
1:09:49
You get it from CarMax with, like, 10,000 miles on it, and
1:09:52
then you've got a slamming deal.
1:09:54
You know what I mean?
1:09:55
Yeah.
1:09:55
I'm just waiting for the boys to get out of daycare The CX-50 looks better than the
1:09:59
CX-90 It depends on what you're going for.
1:10:02
Yeah, it depends on what you're looking for.
1:10:03
If you want the big SUV, the CX-90 looks good, especially in the right color.
1:10:07
'Cause some of the, the lighter colors, not so much.
1:10:09
The darker ones kind of hide.
1:10:11
The back is a little bulbous, but it- Yeah … it works with the right color.
1:10:15
It looks killer in that, like, dark red.
1:10:17
Yeah.
1:10:18
Oh, that red is so good.
1:10:19
Oh, so gorgeous.
1:10:20
Yeah.
1:10:20
The Mazda red is so good.
1:10:21
The 50, in my mind, is, like, where Subaru should have taken the Outback.
1:10:27
Yes.
1:10:27
But they never went there.
1:10:29
They went full woke.
1:10:30
Outback, or you mean Forester?
1:10:32
Any of those.
1:10:33
B- well, the Out- the old Outback.
1:10:35
'Cause if you add in a little bit more cladding and made it a little bit
1:10:39
more, oh, I don't know, REI, Land's End, Eddie Bauer edition for that
1:10:44
Mazda CX-50, you'd have- LL Bean.
1:10:47
Yes.
1:10:48
You would have, like, a modern Outback, right?
1:10:51
'Cause the Outback is, has gone totally a, in a different direction now.
1:10:54
I don't understand what that is.
1:10:56
'Cause she was surprised that I was recommending to look at Japanese cars
1:11:00
instead of German cars, knowing, you know, my background and all that.
1:11:03
And I said, "Again, I would not wish them on my enemies right now because there is
1:11:08
just buffoonery going on at Volkswagen."
1:11:10
I feel that anybody looking for new cars, I'm steering them all Japanese.
1:11:14
Like, I'm not steering them- To German cars?
1:11:17
No.
1:11:17
No way, no way.
1:11:19
Even for myself.
1:11:19
Like, I f- the older I get, the more I just want a nice
1:11:22
enough car that just works.
1:11:24
I would buy an old European car, an old Mercedes, an older BMW, an
1:11:29
older Volkswagen- 2004 peak, baby
1:11:31
Porsche.
1:11:31
O- old Volkswagens you mean?
1:11:33
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:11:35
That's why you have a fleet of them.
1:11:37
I mean, you know, hey, you gotta go with what you know.
1:11:39
But peak car, right?
1:11:41
Obviously.
1:11:42
But yeah, not anymore.
1:11:44
They're, they're d- it's just not there anymore.
1:11:45
I mean, I, we don't need to beat that horse.
1:11:47
So I thought that was fun.
1:11:48
I thought that was interesting.
1:11:49
And, and I was really impressed, 'cause she showed me the report
1:11:53
that ChatGPT had put together.
1:11:54
And I said, "You know what? Some of this is very solid buying advice, but one of
1:11:58
the things that it leaves out is sort of our institutional know-how and keeping
1:12:04
up with the news and what's going on."
1:12:05
For instance, I said, "One of the things you'll find with the Hyundais and the
1:12:09
Kias is if it's a two-liter turbo, those motors are notorious for having cylinder
1:12:14
head problems," and that doesn't come up anywhere in ChatGPT's reports, right?
1:12:18
'Cause I don't know what its sources are.
1:12:19
It could be looking at Consumer Reports, and Consumer Reports isn't
1:12:22
gonna list that kind of stuff.
1:12:23
And I said, "The other thing is, like we just talked about before, that
1:12:26
1.6-liter turbo, it's underpowered.
1:12:29
It's a big, heavy car with not enough get-up-and-go." And I said, "You're
1:12:33
gonna feel that when you drive it." So those are the things that
1:12:35
aren't in those types of reports.
1:12:37
But from a financial sort of, like, you know, based on safety ratings
1:12:40
and money and blah, blah, blah, I think ChatGPT actually did a really
1:12:44
good job of giving solid advice.
1:12:46
I, I gotta say this You're harping on that car having less than 200
1:12:51
horsepower and it being dog shit slow.
1:12:55
Anybody that I talk to, like, like I feel like we are in an extreme
1:13:00
minority when it comes to car feel and, like, speed and stuff like that.
1:13:06
Like, like when they talk about, like, the fastest they've ever been in a car.
1:13:09
Oh my God.
1:13:10
Like, think, think about, like, th- you and me a- and Tanya, think about the
1:13:13
fastest, literally the fastest you've ever been in a car, whether it be
1:13:18
driver, passenger- Yeah … whatever.
1:13:20
What's your number, Eric?
1:13:21
Buck 65.
1:13:22
Tanya?
1:13:23
It was about that with Anita.
1:13:25
Yeah.
1:13:26
I, me too.
1:13:26
I did a buck 65 on the highway in both a motorcycle and a car.
1:13:30
You talk to the average person, they'll tell you 85.
1:13:35
Yeah.
1:13:36
90, 100 miles an hour.
1:13:38
They were flying.
1:13:38
Yeah.
1:13:38
And they was like, "Oh my God, I was going so fast. I was doing 100 miles an hour."
1:13:42
It's like- In modern cars, you can't even tell you're doing 100 miles an hour.
1:13:46
I know.
1:13:46
Yeah.
1:13:46
But, but my point being, like, that car that Eric is, like, poo-pooing
1:13:51
because it's got less than 200 horsepower, perfectly adequate
1:13:54
and fine for the normal driver.
1:13:56
The only reason they move is 'cause they've got nine-speed transmission,
1:14:00
of which the first five are all granny gears to get it moving.
1:14:04
And then after that, it's just momentum.
1:14:06
Volkswagen did the same thing with the two liter that I keep bringing up.
1:14:10
Wow.
1:14:10
They put the 424 in it to get it to move, did they not?
1:14:13
They did, and it's a beautiful transmission.
1:14:14
I'm using your own knowledge against you.
1:14:17
Yes, but I used it for performance reasons.
1:14:20
And you know what the top end of that trans is?
1:14:22
It'll still do 150 miles an hour, even in a 424, so we'll leave that where it is.
1:14:27
Or not connected to a two liter.
1:14:30
I was gonna say, the two liter?
1:14:32
Downhill on the side of a cliff.
1:14:33
It was connected to a smaller motor, a 1.8 with a big snail on it.
1:14:36
1.8 with a giant snail.
1:14:38
But I say all that to say, like, yes, that car is underpowered for people like us.
1:14:43
Yeah.
1:14:43
It's not underpowered for, say you're buying a car- Majority of people … for
1:14:46
your 16-year-old kid that, and, and you've got it like that where you
1:14:50
can buy a brand-new car, 'cause we've had this debate and everything too.
1:14:53
You don't want them to have too much horsepower.
1:14:54
You get them this car, and it's perfect.
1:14:56
But hold on, hold on.
1:14:57
I don't know what the specs are.
1:14:59
Maybe Tanya can look it up or ask Gemini.
1:15:01
But I guarantee the performance feel of a Buick LaCrosse- is
1:15:07
a lot more than a new Kia.
1:15:09
And that's the thing.
1:15:10
For instance, you drive a Camry these days, 300 horsepower.
1:15:14
Maybe you got one of the old V6 Camrys with, like, 300 horse from,
1:15:17
like, not even 10 years ago, and you decide to get a new car, and
1:15:21
everything is four-cylinder turbos.
1:15:23
You step backwards.
1:15:24
You're gonna feel it.
1:15:25
Like, you didn't come from a Coyote-powered Mustang.
1:15:28
It's not that big of a jump, but it's a jump.
1:15:30
Those Camrys are not sub-30 grand.
1:15:33
No.
1:15:34
Hold on a second.
1:15:34
If you're gonna be in the sub-30 grand category- Here we go.
1:15:37
Buick LaCrosse specs.
1:15:39
Get your minds blown.
1:15:41
Okay, the peak car, 2004 Buick LaCrosse.
1:15:45
3.8 liter, right?
1:15:47
Yes.
1:15:47
3.8 liter V6?
1:15:48
Correct.
1:15:48
Is it the 3.8?
1:15:49
Oh, shit.
1:15:50
They had a 3.8 liter V6.
1:15:52
They weighed- That's big
1:15:53
th- depending which trim, it was 3,494 or 3,569, 3,571 pounds.
1:16:01
Ooh.
1:16:01
Peak Buick.
1:16:02
203 to 240
1:16:07
horsepower, baby.
1:16:08
Wow.
1:16:09
Oh, c- could you, you could, 'cause you could get the supercharged one.
1:16:12
You could get the- Yeah … 3.8 supercharged from the GXP.
1:16:15
0 to 60, 60.5 seconds.
1:16:18
No, 0 to 60, the answer is yes.
1:16:21
The Buick LaCrosse would've smoked.
1:16:24
But I guess the point is, how many torquems does that Buick LaCrosse make?
1:16:29
'Cause that's what you feel.
1:16:30
It's not horsepower, it's torque.
1:16:32
And when you have a car that weighs 3,200 pounds and makes 132 foot pounds
1:16:37
of torque, you don't feel anything.
1:16:39
It's completely numb.
1:16:41
Let's go to the Car and Driver article on the Buick LaCrosse.
1:16:45
This is why Lost and Found exists.
1:16:47
We've gone down a rabbit hole.
1:16:49
Where's Gemini?
1:16:50
Okay, w- well, let me pull up Gemini.
1:16:52
Oh, here we go.
1:16:52
Here we go.
1:16:52
Here we go.
1:16:54
The 3.6 liter V6, 240 horsepower, 225 foot pounds of torque.
1:17:00
We're gonna call that double, just to make the conversation easier.
1:17:03
You get out of a car with that kind of torque into a car that has
1:17:07
half as much torque, Honda, Kia, whatever, you're gonna feel that.
1:17:12
You're gonna n- you're gonna feel that immediately.
1:17:15
Damn, this car was, was a bullet.
1:17:17
Was a bullet.
1:17:19
It's shaped like one, too.
1:17:23
See, it's a sleeper.
1:17:24
That Buick LaCrosse is a sleeper.
1:17:27
Man, zero to 60, 6.7 to 7.4 seconds.
1:17:30
That's pretty quick for a front-wheel drive with all them
1:17:33
4000- Quarter mile, 15.3 to 16.
1:17:35
Ooh.
1:17:35
Ooh, faster than your Audi.
1:17:38
Look at that.
1:17:38
Mm. Not by much.
1:17:41
But it weighs twice as much.
1:17:44
That car's, like, 2,400 pounds.
1:17:46
That thing's, like, 4,000 pounds.
1:17:48
That's- No, it's 3,500.
1:17:49
So it's got- That's a lot … 1,000 pounds.
1:17:50
It's got a cool thousand on it.
1:17:53
Okay.
1:17:54
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
1:17:55
Up, up, up, up.
1:17:55
So, okay, so, so, so, here, so here we go.
1:17:58
Buick LaCrosse, zero to 60, according to Gemini, 8 to 8.5 seconds for the base V6.
1:18:06
For the Kia K4, 2025 to present, the base two liter, 8.2 seconds.
1:18:14
Right in the middle.
1:18:15
7.2 seconds for the 1.6 liter turbo.
1:18:18
So tell me again that it's too slow.
1:18:20
Why you gotta hit me with numbers like that?
1:18:22
I'm talking about feel, brother.
1:18:24
I'm talking about feel.
1:18:25
In your sphinct-ometer, you're gonna know that that Kia is slow, even
1:18:30
though on paper, light to light, it's just as fast as that Buick LaCrosse.
1:18:35
Doesn't have the same feel.
1:18:36
You know that.
1:18:37
You get out of a, a 1.8 turbo GTI into a Mustang, and they could
1:18:41
both be making 200 horsepower.
1:18:43
The Mustang's gonna feel faster, 'cause it makes more torque, end of story.
1:18:48
AKA Fox Body, right?
1:18:49
Where they made 400 foot-pounds of torque and 200 horsepower.
1:18:53
It's the way it is.
1:18:54
It's the way of the world.
1:18:55
Anyway, I think the Mazda is the call for her, and I wish her the best of luck.
1:19:00
And w- I'll report back if I find out what she ends up buying, but
1:19:03
she is LaCrosse-less at the moment.
1:19:10
You guy- Personally, I think she should've got the LaCrosse.
1:19:14
At the end of the day- Yeah … you know, parents, that's what
1:19:18
you do for your kids, I guess.
1:19:26
Let's see.
1:19:27
We have some Tesla news.
1:19:29
Tesla admits that the Cybertruck has defects.
1:19:32
It extends its warranty to eight years.
1:19:34
My God Not before people having apparently to pay $7,200 to replace
1:19:40
a part, quote, "they knew does not meet our reliability standards."
1:19:47
It's a non-important part, like the power conversion system.
1:19:50
I know.
1:19:50
You know, the thing that delivers battery power to the electric motors
1:19:54
to make that 9,000-pound behemoth move.
1:19:57
What's an extra $7,200 when you paid 100 grand for it?
1:20:02
I mean… It's that Elon math.
1:20:06
But seriously, what could go wrong?
1:20:08
Brad, since you've been laid up with your arm and your s- post-surgery, you have
1:20:12
had time to watch the new Grand Tour.
1:20:16
What do you think?
1:20:16
Never even watched the first Grand Tour.
1:20:19
First episode was good.
1:20:20
It was very reminiscent of old Top Gear.
1:20:24
They have good chemistry, uh, with each other.
1:20:26
Obv- obviously they've been doing their own thing, Throttle
1:20:28
House, for a long time.
1:20:30
What about the train guy?
1:20:31
The train guy is very quirky.
1:20:33
He's supposed to be kind of like the James May, but he's
1:20:37
more James May than James May.
1:20:39
Except he can actually drive.
1:20:41
The train guy can actually drive.
1:20:43
He grew up in the same neighborhood as Jenson Button, and then Jenson Button
1:20:46
actually does a cameo on the show.
1:20:48
He drives, you know, the three cars as, like, their version
1:20:51
of the Stig or whatever.
1:20:52
So the, the first episode was good.
1:20:54
The second episode I couldn't really get into.
1:20:56
They were in, um, uh, Singapore.
1:20:59
Okay.
1:20:59
And I just, I, I couldn't get into it.
1:21:01
Like I, uh, I, I got, like, partway through it.
1:21:04
I never finished it, and I haven't been back to it 'cause I actually
1:21:06
have been working and stuff, so.
1:21:08
I do recommend watching the first show and giving the, giving them a shot.
1:21:11
Uh, they're not as stupid with their jokes as Tanya was thinking they were
1:21:16
gonna be, s- seeing some of, like, the trailers and stuff, like how
1:21:19
they were talking about the cars and- Right … if they were women or whatever.
1:21:23
They're, like, s- stupid shit like that.
1:21:24
I haven't seen any of that.
1:21:26
I, I think it's good.
1:21:27
It's different, but it's, it's got the same feel.
1:21:30
You were gonna say vibe.
1:21:31
That's the word of the year, vibe.
1:21:33
It's giving- Vibe … Top Gear.
1:21:36
It's giving Top Gear.
1:21:40
That's awesome.
1:21:41
I don't know.
1:21:41
I, I, it's gonna be one of those things where I let enough episodes stack up
1:21:45
and I'll watch it over the winter when there's nothing else to watch, especially-
1:21:48
Yeah … when there's no Formula 1.
1:21:49
I think that's a good idea.
1:21:50
Uh, it's sort of like Traders: New Blood.
1:21:53
My daughters are all anxious to wa- and I'm like, "I don't want
1:21:55
that anticipation of every week." I'm like, "Just let them stack up.
1:21:59
You guys don't follow social media.
1:22:00
We'll watch it all and, you know, we'll binge it and be done with it
1:22:03
instead of this like every week, 'Dad, is there a new episode?'
1:22:05
'No, it hasn't come out yet.' 'Dad, is there a new episode?' 'No.'" Same
1:22:08
thing with Top Gear or Grand Tour or whatever it's called this month.
1:22:12
Well, I appreciate that, Brad.
1:22:13
I'm gonna put it on my to-watch list for the wintertime, and
1:22:16
then we will go from there.
1:22:18
Yeah.
1:22:18
We'll, we'll have another review once we've all finished the series.
1:22:22
Do a special episode about that.
1:22:23
It'd be pretty cool.
1:22:24
Do a apples to apples comparison of- … of Grand Tour to the old Grand Tour.
1:22:30
Yes.
1:22:31
Y- there is a power to weight difference there.
1:22:32
You know, Clarkson got heavier as he got older, but, you know, hey, whatever.
1:22:35
Well, well these guys only have 150 horsepower though, so.
1:22:38
Oh, there, yeah, there it is.
1:22:39
There it is.
1:22:40
See, there it is.
1:22:40
So, so they're dog shit slow.
1:22:41
They're terrible movers.
1:22:43
Well, since I'm not watching the Grand Tour, I am always reading new books and
1:22:48
getting in contact with new authors, especially in the automotive space.
1:22:51
It's always interesting, another book pops up, and being tied to the Society
1:22:55
of Automotive Historians, they're always talking about, "And here's a new book
1:22:58
about this car," or, "Here's a new book about this season of racing," or, "Here's
1:23:02
this untold story about some backmarker from," you know, whatever it is.
1:23:06
And so I'm like, "Wow, there's another book being published about
1:23:09
car stuff." This time around, we actually did an episode for Automotive
1:23:13
History Live to kinda continue where we left off from the, the summertime
1:23:17
symposium at the Studebaker Museum.
1:23:19
And we were reached out to by Heidi Lewis, is a journalist from San Diego, and she's
1:23:25
affiliated in some ways with the San Diego Auto Museum, and she wrote a really
1:23:30
cool book Called Louis Mattar's Fabulous Car, and it talks all about the Cadillac
1:23:36
that went cross country 6,000 miles without stopping from San Diego to New
1:23:41
York and back, back in the early 1950s.
1:23:44
So it's very kind of STEM focused, but it's actually a picture book not just
1:23:48
designed for kids, but for adults too.
1:23:49
So both my wife have read it, my daughters have read it.
1:23:53
They said it's really good.
1:23:53
She sent a really cool care package.
1:23:55
This is an advance copy of the book, but it is coming out very, very soon
1:23:59
in honor of the anniversary of Route 66, and we're gonna be launching
1:24:03
the final version of the episode during our Route 66 coverage as well.
1:24:08
So that's coming up.
1:24:08
But if you wanna see the episode with Heidi that we did with Lauren
1:24:12
from Revs as my co-host, that's available on our Patreon now.
1:24:15
But you can also pre-order Louis Mattar's Fabulous Car everywhere books are
1:24:20
sold, and that's, uh, not libraries.
1:24:22
That's Barnes & Nobles and Amazon and other book retailers.
1:24:26
And I also wanna give a shout-out to guest of the show Cheyenne Cain, who you
1:24:30
might remember came on and talked about the documentary that she created about
1:24:35
Ed "Isky" Iskenderian, the legendary cam father of the drag racing world.
1:24:40
And sadly Isky passed away not long after we did the episode together with Cheyenne.
1:24:45
She reached out and she said, "Guess what, guys? I'm no longer on the indie
1:24:49
film scene, you know, doing private showings and stuff like that. The movie
1:24:52
is coming to streaming on October the 2nd." You're gonna be able to pick that
1:24:56
up through Apple first and go from there.
1:24:59
So we've got details on how you can get it, where you can get it, all that on our
1:25:03
website, and along with our affiliates.
1:25:04
It's over at Garage Style, Collector Car Guide, Society of Automotive Historians.
1:25:08
Wherever you like to get your news, we've got those articles up so you can dive more
1:25:12
into the Isky story and the documentary.
1:25:14
And spoiler alert, we are hoping to have Cheyenne back to do a director's cut
1:25:19
with William Big Money Ross, John Summers the motoring historian, and myself to
1:25:24
kinda go behind the scenes on the making of the movie after we've actually seen
1:25:28
it, talk to Cheyenne directly about, you know, some of the things that are
1:25:30
in the movie and things like that.
1:25:31
So looking forward to that.
1:25:33
Look forward to that video up on Patreon as soon as we get that in the
1:25:36
can, as they like to say in the biz.
1:25:41
All right, rich people thangs.
1:25:43
I found another one, a Harrington special.
1:25:46
What do you think?
1:25:47
Would you put this on your Christmas list?
1:25:49
2022 Harrington Junior Ferrari 365 Daytona convertible in black with a red interior.
1:25:57
How much does it cost?
1:25:58
Current bid is $1,500.
1:26:02
Ooh.
1:26:03
This is a Mecum's Nashville event.
1:26:05
I saw one of these in person, not this body style.
1:26:08
I actually saw a Ferrari Testarossa pontoon fendered version of
1:26:12
one of these Harringtons.
1:26:13
They had it at Prancing Horse of Nashville.
1:26:15
It was super cool.
1:26:16
I'd never seen one of these Harringtons in person, but getting up close, these
1:26:20
are really, really cool go-karts.
1:26:22
Again, I think we need a Legends series in these authentic-looking cars.
1:26:27
I think it'd be super cool.
1:26:29
Legends of Le Mans go-karts.
1:26:31
I still think that's a thing.
1:26:32
Simeone Museum, if you're listening, you guys need to do that.
1:26:36
And other things that I'm adding to my Christmas list, I need another
1:26:40
watch like I need a hole in the head-
1:26:42
but I think I act- I really want this.
1:26:44
I really do.
1:26:46
This is the Tachyon.
1:26:49
Apparently, these were out, and then they went away, and now they're back.
1:26:53
But the idea is a 270-degree needle sweep, a replica of a VDO gauge out
1:26:59
of a Porsche 964 that counts the time and then resets and sweeps back,
1:27:03
and it keeps doing the tachometers.
1:27:05
This is the coolest $200 watch ever What do you think, Brad?
1:27:10
You've got a big assortment of watches.
1:27:11
What do you think?
1:27:12
I like it.
1:27:13
This is cool.
1:27:14
Yeah.
1:27:15
I've seen a couple with that, like, sweeping minute hand or whatever.
1:27:19
Yeah, yeah.
1:27:19
The single arm.
1:27:20
Yeah.
1:27:21
It's g- I think it's a cool concept.
1:27:23
I, I, like you, I don't need another watch, and i- if I was looking for
1:27:27
another watch it wouldn't be one of these.
1:27:29
I'm looking for something a little more specific.
1:27:31
Oh, yeah?
1:27:31
Well, you want a, you want a TAG Heuer Carrera?
1:27:33
Is that what you want?
1:27:34
Actually, my dream watch is a TAG Heuer Monaco.
1:27:37
Yeah, there you go.
1:27:38
Or as they say in the horology biz, my Holy Grail watch.
1:27:44
I think this is cool, I really do, and I, I, what I want to
1:27:48
know though is, is this legit?
1:27:50
They have one watch in two different bands.
1:27:52
Like, I wanna know somebody that bought one of these the first go around.
1:27:56
What do you mean legit?
1:27:57
Just 'cause it has two different watch bands?
1:27:58
No, no, no.
1:27:59
What I'm getting at is, like, you would think a watch company
1:28:01
would have more than one watch.
1:28:03
Like, I was talking to William about this and I said, "Okay, fine.
1:28:06
Where's the Ferrari version of this?
1:28:08
Why does it have to be a Porsche face?" Like, this whole concept could
1:28:11
be done with just about anything.
1:28:12
I mean, if you wanted old school, you know, Mark 1 GTI
1:28:16
face, why can't you do that?
1:28:18
Why is it a Porsche one, right?
1:28:19
So I was kinda thinking, like, once they figured out the mechanism,
1:28:22
they could have, like, 10 different versions of these, but they
1:28:25
have these two and that's it.
1:28:27
For me, it's weird for a watch company to basically only have one
1:28:31
watch, especially when they say they're reintroducing the watch.
1:28:34
So I'm kinda like, "Well, well, hold on. Well, what were you doing the entire
1:28:38
time the watch wasn't around?" And so at that moment it makes me think,
1:28:43
like, is this legit or is this a scam?
1:28:44
Like, if I give them my credit card information, am
1:28:46
I actually gonna get a watch?
1:28:48
You will, but they won't be there to service it much longer afterwards.
1:28:52
Because if you think about it, that other company, who is it?
1:28:54
Rallynetics?
1:28:55
Mm-hmm.
1:28:56
I don't think they're around anymore.
1:28:58
Really?
1:28:58
I have that watch, and I, I go into their site to, to, I guess,
1:29:02
look for stuff and they, I don't think they make watches anymore.
1:29:06
Oh, wow.
1:29:07
So there's, there are a ton of these niche, like, one-off brands that
1:29:11
are out there that have some little special thing to them that they,
1:29:15
they think is unique and everything, which this is, yes, this is unique.
1:29:18
Um, but then they, they, they're fly by night.
1:29:20
They disappear.
1:29:21
So do you think it's worth it?
1:29:23
If you were like, "Eh, I don't care about 200 bucks," do you think it's worth it?
1:29:26
Yeah, if you like the watch, buy it.
1:29:28
I think it's a legit company.
1:29:29
I don't think it's a scam.
1:29:30
Okay.
1:29:31
So if you like the watch, I would buy it.
1:29:33
Personally, I really l- like it with the black face, the black, uh,
1:29:36
case, and the black and red strap.
1:29:39
I think that- Yeah, 100% … looks real slick.
1:29:40
That's the best looking one.
1:29:41
Yeah.
1:29:41
Yeah.
1:29:42
Yeah.
1:29:42
Of the two.
1:29:43
I mean, we only have two to pick from, but the, of the two, yeah.
1:29:46
Yeah.
1:29:46
I, I would buy it.
1:29:47
For 200 bucks, I, I feel like it's a gamble worth taking.
1:29:50
I just wouldn't expect much from it.
1:29:52
Once you get past the novelty of it, I wouldn't expect much from it Worst
1:29:56
case scenario, you call the credit card company and say, "Hey, I got screwed.
1:29:59
Refund me the money and send me a new card," kind of thing, right?
1:30:02
Yeah.
1:30:02
And, and I don't think that's gonna be the case.
1:30:04
And, you know, to your other point about, like, why couldn't you do this with,
1:30:07
like, a, a Volkswagen face or an Audi face or, or whatever, there are people out
1:30:12
there that make custom faces for watches.
1:30:15
If you give them the dimensions and you tell them what you want,
1:30:17
they could definitely take this watch, you could take it apart and
1:30:21
have a Volkswagen face put in it.
1:30:23
Yeah.
1:30:24
It's all a matter of how much money you wanna spend.
1:30:26
I just feel like the company could do it themselves.
1:30:29
Like, it's a missed opportunity, right?
1:30:31
But they may not even be making the watches.
1:30:33
They may just be drop shipping them from somewhere else.
1:30:36
From city of industry China.
1:30:38
Yeah, no, I, I gotcha.
1:30:39
For sure.
1:30:42
Don't forget, if you're looking for that extra special automobilia to complete
1:30:46
your garage, office, den, or man cave, be sure to check out GarageStyleMagazine.com
1:30:51
for a list of upcoming auctions and events, along with a curated list of items
1:30:55
going up for sale all over the country.
1:30:57
Because after all, what doesn't belong in your garage?
1:31:00
Well, with that said, Tanya, we've picked our gifts for the upcoming
1:31:04
holiday season on this episode, but we gotta take a trip down south to
1:31:09
Florida, talk about alligators and beer.
1:31:11
Florida.
1:31:28
I watched Swamp People while I was on our road trip, and, uh- Oh, why'd you do that?
1:31:33
… we can have a whole sub-podcast about Swamp People if you'd like.
1:31:37
Hmm.
1:31:38
Okay.
1:31:39
Which one Swamp… Oh, Swamp People.
1:31:41
Is that, like, weird reality?
1:31:43
Yeah, where they go and hunt the alligators.
1:31:44
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:31:45
No, I've never seen that.
1:31:46
You only need to watch one episode, and you've literally watched all of them.
1:31:51
No, I'm good.
1:31:52
I live down there.
1:31:55
Not Florida, but… Ba-da-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.
1:31:59
Yeah, right?
1:32:00
So this first Florida Man story, let's go.
1:32:03
Florida Man, Florida Man, driving in a Chevy pickup.
1:32:09
Posing as a popo man.
1:32:12
Not Florida Man, Arizona man.
1:32:15
Oh, my God.
1:32:16
What is going on here?
1:32:17
So this dude in a Chevy pickup truck, he's got some blue and reds
1:32:21
in the windshield, the dash, and he pulls over somebody in a Tesla.
1:32:26
Who knows why?
1:32:27
And then he calls, I guess, for backup.
1:32:30
He calls the cops, who show up and then realize he's not really a police officer.
1:32:35
No.
1:32:35
And arrest him for- No … impersonating a police officer.
1:32:38
And now they're trying to figure out how many other times he's
1:32:41
done this to other people.
1:32:42
And the people in the Tesla obviously were let go 'cause, you know, there was no
1:32:48
substantiation of having them pulled over.
1:32:51
I will say, this happened to me once.
1:32:54
What?
1:33:00
And it was actually a little bit scary- Uh-huh … because it was at
1:33:04
night, and it was, like, late at night.
1:33:07
Okay.
1:33:07
This was a long time ago, 'cause this… I was in the Audi.
1:33:10
Okay.
1:33:11
And I was coming home, and I was coming around the school-
1:33:15
Okay … from that side, from the shopping plaza around the school.
1:33:19
I made the left, and I'm coming down, and I wasn't doing anything.
1:33:22
I was just trundling along.
1:33:24
And then I make the right, and all of a sudden, like out of nowhere, there was
1:33:29
a car that was coming, and then, like, he follows me into the neighborhood,
1:33:33
and then had these lights in the grill, and it just kinda, like, flashed.
1:33:39
And, and I, and I stopped, and then he stopped.
1:33:42
And then he pulled up next to me, and he was, like, creepy as fuck, and he was,
1:33:46
like, looking out the window, this man.
1:33:48
I put my car in reverse.
1:33:50
So I'm like… I reversed away from him, and then he sat there.
1:33:54
I'm like, "The fuck do I do?" You J turn and you do a burnout.
1:33:57
A- and I don't remember if he moved or what, but I actually then put
1:34:01
it in first, and I sped around him, and, like, tore through the
1:34:03
neighborhood, and he never followed me.
1:34:05
So I don't know what the fuck that was about.
1:34:07
That's wild.
1:34:08
So I don't know if this was something similar.
1:34:11
And then I kinda kept driving around, and then I called home, and I was like, "Mom,
1:34:15
the weirdest shit happened." I was like, "You need to, like…" And, like, she
1:34:19
came, like, out, and she, like, met me.
1:34:21
She was, like, on the street corner.
1:34:23
And I'm like, "I don't think he's following me."
1:34:27
That's wild.
1:34:28
But public service announcement: Be careful, 'cause there
1:34:30
are weirdos like this.
1:34:34
Yeah, but I mean, come on.
1:34:35
He's, like if you look at the lights on this, would you stop for this pathetic
1:34:40
looking Amazon cherries and berries?
1:34:42
I'm just gonna say, how stupid was the Tesla driver?
1:34:45
Or- I mean- … is it that built-in system where the Tesla cars stop
1:34:48
when there's flashing lights?
1:34:49
Like they're not- I don't know … supposed to move.
1:34:50
I mean, I would've, I probably would've kept going and been questioning
1:34:53
what the hell this person was doing.
1:34:55
Look at the Explorer behind him.
1:34:57
He's got like rhino bars, and he's got a light bar, and I guarantee
1:35:01
he's got stuff in the grill.
1:35:03
Yeah, but undercover cops who are driving, I mean, there are occasions
1:35:07
where officers are driving sort of a more personal car that is decked out.
1:35:12
I don't know, man.
1:35:13
Like this is some made in China junk.
1:35:16
But what, what would immediately throw me is the Chevy.
1:35:18
I'd be like, "Chevy badge?" Yeah, like what is this?
1:35:21
They don't use Chevys.
1:35:22
They don't have a contract with Ch- yeah.
1:35:26
Now, I have seen on the beltway, there's guys that will go down in
1:35:30
old Impalas and Chargers and stuff- Mm-hmm … with some fake cherries and
1:35:33
berries, and they go down the left lane hauling ass till everybody gets out
1:35:37
of their way kind of thing, you know?
1:35:39
And I'm like, "That's super illegal," and I've seen it happen.
1:35:42
I wouldn't have stopped for this guy.
1:35:43
I don't think I would've- No freaking way … stopped for that guy.
1:35:45
No way.
1:35:46
And the cover of darkness with the candlelight, well, he was behind
1:35:50
me, but with no illumination.
1:35:52
And it was like a, it's been so long now.
1:35:54
It was like a Durango-y type.
1:35:56
I mean, it was like a big- Oh … truck that like- Yeah … and
1:35:58
it had the lights in the grill.
1:35:59
And, and sometimes there are those Durangos that, I mean, maybe not
1:36:03
back then, I don't even know anymore.
1:36:04
But I don't know, the guy was creepy AF.
1:36:07
I didn't get a good vibe out of it.
1:36:09
I got the fuck out of there.
1:36:10
I was like, "You're gonna have to come pull my ass over." For real.
1:36:14
Come find me.
1:36:15
'Cause the next stop, the next stop was gonna be straight out of the
1:36:17
neighborhood to the police station.
1:36:18
I was like, and I wasn't gonna stop till I- No.
1:36:20
No … rolled up there with the horn blaring.
1:36:22
No, 100%.
1:36:24
Trust no one.
1:36:25
Public service announcement, trust no one.
1:36:26
And you know what?
1:36:27
A police officer that came to high school one time said exactly that, particularly
1:36:32
that if you ever felt, if you were in a place that was very deserted and you had
1:36:37
somebody, like a cop, and you weren't sure, he said it's completely legitimate
1:36:42
to just like put your flashers on, slow down, give some sort of signal, and keep
1:36:46
going till you find a space that, a place where you feel safe to, to pull over.
1:36:52
Yeah.
1:36:52
Now, I don't know if that flies anymore.
1:36:54
Who knows?
1:36:58
We'll leave that for a different podcast episode.
1:37:01
Meanwhile.
1:37:03
In Miami-Dade County.
1:37:04
So watch.
1:37:05
What is this?
1:37:06
It's a Sentra.
1:37:07
Yeah, yeah.
1:37:08
It's a Sentra.
1:37:10
Now watch the car control of this guy.
1:37:12
He doesn't realize it's a front-wheel drive?
1:37:14
Keep watching, and start counting the number of cop cars that are around.
1:37:18
I mean, we passed two already.
1:37:20
Yeah.
1:37:21
Four, five, six, seven, eight.
1:37:25
Holy smokes.
1:37:26
A whole- 10.
1:37:27
There's a SWAT team there 11, 12.
1:37:28
Good Lord, everybody's there 13, 14, 15,
1:37:31
16.
1:37:32
I like the guy that was slow rolling by, like he didn't know what was going on.
1:37:37
How many cops does it take, 18, 19, to pull over a Nissan Sentra?
1:37:43
That looks like- Look at that bumper
1:37:44
a bumper everywhere.
1:37:44
That bumper's got Ultima vibes.
1:37:46
That looks like every Nissan in the greater Washington, DC area going around
1:37:50
the Beltway, just parts hanging off of it.
1:37:52
Man, he's just going.
1:37:54
I mean- Oh, we lost the bumper.
1:37:55
He's lighter now.
1:37:56
Power to weight ratio just went up.
1:38:00
How did you not stop him?
1:38:01
Who was he signaling to?
1:38:02
Did you notice he was waving at… He slowed down and yelled at those
1:38:05
people on the side of the road.
1:38:07
"Get the hell out of my way." That's why he's waving.
1:38:09
We're, "Oh, you missed. You missed." What are you, what are you trying to do?
1:38:12
He's not even going that fast.
1:38:14
I just love the fact that they tried to pit maneuver a front-wheel drive.
1:38:18
Oh, now he just bump drafted him.
1:38:19
He just sped him up.
1:38:20
He got real wiggly, though, doing that.
1:38:23
I haven't watched this far, but we know how it ends.
1:38:25
Oh, that's where the motor blew, that's where the motor blew up.
1:38:27
Got close.
1:38:28
Just stay in it, stay in it.
1:38:29
Look at that car control.
1:38:31
Talking about Colton Herta recovery.
1:38:33
Oh, well his airbags went off, that's why.
1:38:35
He couldn't see what the hell he was doing anymore.
1:38:37
Unreal.
1:38:38
Look at all those cop cars, though.
1:38:40
There's at least 10 right there.
1:38:42
He was shirtless in green pants.
1:38:44
There.
1:38:45
Yeah, that's, then he, he ran into the swamp after that.
1:38:47
That tracks.
1:38:49
Yeah.
1:38:51
100%. But speaking of tracks, because it haven't had it happen in
1:38:55
a while, and just to remind people that Florida is still Florida.
1:39:00
Oh, God.
1:39:01
What wouldn't be a story in Florida if it didn't involve meth and a
1:39:05
lawnmower, and getting pulled over?
1:39:07
We'll just leave it at that.
1:39:08
Oh my God.
1:39:09
Again?
1:39:13
That's all you have to say.
1:39:14
There was meth involved and a lawnmower, and somebody got pulled over.
1:39:18
Done.
1:39:20
All right.
1:39:20
What's this last Florida Man story we got going on here?
1:39:22
So I don't know where this is, but watch this racing series.
1:39:27
Oh, I've seen this before where they try to put the cars on the
1:39:30
trailer while they're on track.
1:39:33
Yes.
1:39:33
Yes.
1:39:34
This is the most bizarre demolition derby I've ever seen.
1:39:39
I mean, it is a form of demolition derby.
1:39:40
This is like Night Rider when he drives into the back of the truck, right?
1:39:44
What does their insurance rider look like?
1:39:47
This is a Cletus McFarland thing, right?
1:39:49
It has to be.
1:39:50
I think it's the first car that can get up on the trailer and stop- Yes
1:39:53
wins.
1:39:54
Well, the objective is to get up and stop.
1:39:57
How are they not breaking the trailer?
1:39:59
Oh, well.
1:40:01
Look at this van.
1:40:02
This van is gonna do it?
1:40:03
Get the hell out of here.
1:40:04
Nope.
1:40:05
Oh, goodbye.
1:40:08
He's fine.
1:40:09
He gets out.
1:40:09
He's fine.
1:40:10
People pay to watch this.
1:40:12
This guy's got, like, some turbo jets.
1:40:14
He hangs on, then he, like, downshifts.
1:40:17
And he's like, "Nope. We're going again." That's a Scion xB.
1:40:18
"Going again." Oh, no.
1:40:20
Oh.
1:40:21
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
1:40:23
Now, that's the tactic is to ram and get jammed.
1:40:28
And wait for that Intrepid, I think.
1:40:30
Look, look.
1:40:30
Oh, yeah.
1:40:30
Now they got two on there.
1:40:32
Wow.
1:40:33
Again, I say people pay for the privilege.
1:40:37
See, these people don't buy Tetris for their car because they are
1:40:43
watching this spectacle instead.
1:40:47
Could've had a Buick LaCrosse.
1:40:48
The Buick LaCrosse would've survived.
1:40:50
It was here for all of it.
1:40:52
All right.
1:40:52
Well, it's time we go behind the pit wall and talk about Motorsport News.
1:40:58
I am so glad that IROC is back.
1:41:01
Mad props to Jeff Gordon for winning the Freedom 250 IROC exhibition.
1:41:06
I also thought it was really cool that guest of the show,
1:41:08
Tommy Kendall, was there as well.
1:41:10
And then when we had spoken to him, he had no intentions on going
1:41:13
back to racing, so I'm glad to see that he got back behind the wheel.
1:41:16
So, this is cool.
1:41:17
Good for Jeff Gordon.
1:41:18
I still think this race was… That's all I'm gonna say.
1:41:26
Do we even have results from the America 250?
1:41:28
Do we know who won?
1:41:30
Kyle Kirkwood with Andretti Global.
1:41:32
Is it because, like Monaco, he qualified first?
1:41:35
No, I don't think he definitely did.
1:41:37
I think there was a lot of upset because, like, Newgarden was,
1:41:40
like, eighth, Scott Dixon seventh.
1:41:43
Surprisingly, Romain Grosjean was 10th.
1:41:46
Former.
1:41:46
Former Formula 1 driver.
1:41:48
Did you watch any of the race?
1:41:49
I didn't bother, 'cause I was just like, "No, thanks."
1:41:51
I watched some of it, and then I got bored real fast.
1:41:54
Because the track was meh.
1:41:56
The track is meh, and then it's like, you're just, like, waiting
1:41:59
to see an accident because it's so bumpy and unsettling to the cars.
1:42:04
Yeah.
1:42:05
Speaking of tracks that are meh, one of our members posted on
1:42:09
Discord Adelaide is getting a course design change because every track
1:42:14
needs to be like a Tilke track.
1:42:16
I don't know.
1:42:16
Meh.
1:42:17
Like, this is another one that, like, who cares?
1:42:19
It's not that great.
1:42:21
I, I, I'm not a big fan of street courses anymore.
1:42:24
Sorry, I'm kind of sort of over it.
1:42:26
Just like we're gonna talk about in the Formula 1, the new Madrid ring.
1:42:30
Ugh, what a… Ugh, never mind, I'm just gonna leave that where it is.
1:42:34
That being said, I just wanna point out that our fall Voices of
1:42:38
Endurance legends have been announced.
1:42:41
We're gonna have Rob Dyson and Butch Leitzinger from Dyson Racing
1:42:44
on September the 30th, followed by Scott Pruett on October the 14th,
1:42:48
and Danny Sullivan, Mr. Spin and Win himself, on November the 18th.
1:42:53
So if you want to be part of the live studio audience for those Voices
1:42:57
of Endurance sessions, log on to motoringpodcast.net, go under series,
1:43:02
click on VOE, and there's a sign-up form there, and we'll send you the details,
1:43:05
and you can be part of the crowd.
1:43:07
Or send in your questions so they can get answered on air.
1:43:10
So we're looking forward to that as well.
1:43:12
In other news, just some virtual stuff, I just wanna shout out MiE Racing.
1:43:17
There is a new Screen to Speed season two that kicked off at the tail end
1:43:21
of August, so we weren't able to cover this on the last drive through episode.
1:43:25
But it is a women's sim racing category that is part of the Global Esports Games.
1:43:31
You can still get involved, learn more about the program over at Init Esports.
1:43:36
This press release will be in our show notes, but you can also check it out over
1:43:39
at MiE Racing, or go to initesports.gg.
1:43:43
And in other virtual racing news, I just wanna talk quickly about
1:43:50
updates to Assetto Corsa rally.
1:43:55
They dropped their latest release, and one of the coolest things that they
1:43:59
added to it is the long wheelbase, what's called the Group 4, not to be
1:44:03
confused with the Group B Audi Quattros.
1:44:07
It's very rare that the long wheelbase early cars show up in any rally games.
1:44:11
The only one that had it was WRC Legends or whatever it was.
1:44:14
The one that came out before EA bought the entire franchise and
1:44:18
then just put it all together.
1:44:19
The other cars that they added were the Peugeot 206 and the Polo Rally car.
1:44:24
So I'll say this, I did record a video.
1:44:26
We're showing it here in the background.
1:44:27
You can check it out on our standard YouTube page.
1:44:30
I did it in the snow at Monte Carlo and, you know, it's a lot of fun.
1:44:34
The Audi handles exactly the way I thought it would.
1:44:36
It's like a lawn dart, you know, 911 going in reverse.
1:44:40
It's extremely nose-heavy.
1:44:41
You look at the apex and suddenly you're six feet from where you wanna be because
1:44:45
it just plows like a broken ox cart.
1:44:48
If you work with it, do the Scandi flick, you get used to the rhythm of it, you do
1:44:52
some left-foot braking, things like that.
1:44:54
It's very pliable, it's very amenable, and so it'll begin to play ball.
1:44:58
It's just, you know, you gotta drive it old school, and that's sort of the fun
1:45:01
part about AC Rally is that it's meant to be driven like the cars were meant
1:45:06
to be driven, not jam the handbrake and watch it slip around the corner.
1:45:10
If you pull the handbrake in this car, it doesn't do anything.
1:45:13
It just does whatever it feels like because it, it's completely useless.
1:45:17
Even though, in this video, I hadn't played since the last
1:45:19
time I reviewed AC Rally.
1:45:21
As you can see there, I'm crashing into the wall.
1:45:23
I was pretty rusty, but it didn't take much to get acclimated to the Audi
1:45:29
and then get better with it, and I did some more runs in the rain and a,
1:45:32
and in the sand and stuff like that.
1:45:34
And so it is a lot of fun.
1:45:35
The game's getting a lot better.
1:45:37
Really recommend it for rally fans.
1:45:39
If you haven't, you know, made the switch 'cause you're waiting for, you know, the
1:45:42
official one point whatever version to come out, I've been living with it since
1:45:47
the very, very first release, and it keeps getting better and better and better.
1:45:50
So the other thing that they added in this release is, like,
1:45:52
photo mode and custom liveries.
1:45:55
Those are pretty cool for some folks.
1:45:56
I don't really care.
1:45:57
Just more cars.
1:45:58
Actually, more than more cars at this point, I need more stages because we're
1:46:02
not getting the full Monte Carlo Rally.
1:46:05
It's like a couple stages inside of the Monte Carlo Rally.
1:46:08
Where's the rest of it?
1:46:09
Where's the African rallies?
1:46:11
Where's the Japanese ra- … All that stuff that you see on
1:46:13
the normal WRC type of games.
1:46:16
What I hear is it's so slow because they're actually going out and laser
1:46:20
scanning the actual routes, and that takes forever because there's so much detail
1:46:25
in a rally course versus something like a road course like you would see in Assetto
1:46:30
Corsa Evo and, and things like that.
1:46:32
Again, super cool.
1:46:33
Check it out.
1:46:34
Highly recommend.
1:46:35
I don't think a console version is coming out anytime soon.
1:46:39
At the same time that AC Rally got updated, Evo also got an update.
1:46:42
It's up to version 0.9.1.
1:46:44
It includes now the Audi R8 and some other stuff.
1:46:46
But more importantly, right-hand drive FD RX-7 has been added to
1:46:51
the game, and that's pretty cool.
1:46:52
That's a lot of fun.
1:46:54
It's not a neck-breaker like some of the other cars might be, but it's, it sits in
1:46:58
a fun spot with the 964 and the NSX and some of the other cars that are there.
1:47:03
The next version that's dropping maybe in a month or two is going to be the
1:47:08
first time that they add the free roam.
1:47:11
to AC Evo that they promised, which was supposed to be there from day one.
1:47:15
That's gonna give it a Forza Horizon type of capability, and I believe
1:47:19
you're gonna be able to drive around the town that surrounds the Nürburgring.
1:47:24
So from what I gather, they're also adding the Nürburgring at that point.
1:47:28
I'm cautiously optimistic about what that's gonna be like, and so I look
1:47:31
forward to the, the latest drop of AC Evo.
1:47:34
I don't have anything to really report on any of the other titles
1:47:36
that I've been trying up until this point, because they haven't had any
1:47:39
major releases or major updates.
1:47:41
It's just been a bunch of patching for, like, Le Mans
1:47:43
Ultimate and stuff like that.
1:47:44
So nothing, nothing really huge to talk about there.
1:47:47
But we'll keep you apprised as we know more, and obviously, you know, keep the
1:47:50
pulse on all the endurance sports car and endurance racing as we come to the
1:47:54
conclusion of the season here very quickly with Petit Le Mans right here at the tail
1:47:59
end of September, leading into October.
1:48:02
So that said, our motorsports news is brought to you in part by Enduraverse,
1:48:06
powered by Hyperdev, America's premier endurance racing community.
1:48:10
Visit the site and start off as a free explorer member today, or become
1:48:14
a VIP member at www.enduraverse.com.
1:48:18
Before we wrap out the episode, it's time for our GTM Trackside Report.
1:48:23
We are still very much to the side of the track, 'cause we haven't gotten there yet.
1:48:27
But we are registered.
1:48:28
The car is running.
1:48:30
There's very little left to do, and we're not gonna talk about it much more,
1:48:34
'cause we're probably gonna jinx ourself.
1:48:35
So that's all you need to know about that But there was something
1:48:39
really neat that happened this month, and we've been blogging about
1:48:43
the car on the other website, on the GTN Clubhouse side of things.
1:48:47
One of our listeners and guests of the show actually wrote to us from California,
1:48:52
and he said, you know, we were going back and forth, all this correspondence,
1:48:55
and he was very encouraging, and it's really cool to know that, you know,
1:48:59
somebody's been following our story.
1:49:00
And he said, at some points, he goes, "My heart goes out to you guys,"
1:49:04
and at other points, "I'm laughing."
1:49:05
And he goes, "I've been through it all," because he was there at the
1:49:09
first Lemons race, running with one of the founders of Lemons in California.
1:49:14
So his history with Lemons goes back 20-plus years, and he goes, "I've
1:49:18
been there, I've seen it, I've done it all." And so he's rooting for us.
1:49:22
He's been super encouraging, and so we've turned that whole dialogue back and
1:49:25
forth into a blog post that you can read.
1:49:29
And there's some great links to some of the articles that he wrote
1:49:32
for, like, the LA Times about the experience, and this and that.
1:49:35
And so we included all that in the blog, and so that'll be in the show notes.
1:49:38
And I thought that was really cool.
1:49:39
It was very sweet to hear from a fan, and, you know, we're paying
1:49:42
attention and we're rooting for you.
1:49:44
So I thought that was very encouraging.
1:49:46
So yeah, join us in October at Summit Point.
1:49:49
October the 24th-25th weekend.
1:49:51
If you happen to be in the neighborhood, stop on by and see us.
1:49:53
It's gonna be a really, really good time.
1:49:55
So other than that, we, w- I think our next report will be
1:49:59
what happened after the race.
1:50:00
We might even have to delay the drive-through just so we
1:50:03
can get a recap on Lemons.
1:50:06
So we'll see.
1:50:06
We'll see how it goes.
1:50:07
Cross our fingers it goes well.
1:50:08
Right, guys?
1:50:09
Mm-hmm.
1:50:11
That's all we're gonna talk about with that.
1:50:12
That's it.
1:50:13
Do we have any special announcements?
1:50:15
Actually, we do.
1:50:16
I sort of alluded to it when talking about the, uh, track-side report there.
1:50:21
W- Since we didn't have much to talk about in terms of the Focus, we're
1:50:24
just gonna leave that where it is, we did decide to overhaul our club site.
1:50:28
So when you go check out that blog post and check out the other blog posts
1:50:32
about our progress up until this point, this has been a long time coming.
1:50:36
There's still plenty to do on the new site, but the new style is right in
1:50:41
line where we've always wanted to be.
1:50:43
It's much cleaner, it's fresher, it's easier to designate which part of the
1:50:46
site you're in, and stuff like that.
1:50:47
So check it out over at club.gtmotorsports.org.
1:50:50
And if you're an existing member, log in and check out all the cool stuff
1:50:56
that's now available on the dashboard.
1:50:59
Some of it you know, some of it you might have actually forgotten about.
1:51:02
So it's well worth logging in and checking out all the cool new stuff
1:51:05
over on the clubhouse website.
1:51:07
And if you're not quite ready to hit the track, don't forget that you can
1:51:10
find tons of upcoming local shows and events at the ultimate reference for
1:51:13
car enthusiasts, collectorcarguide.net.
1:51:17
If you're hearing us for the first time, be sure to jump back into our podcast
1:51:21
catalog and check out other programs we offer, like The Ferrari Marketplace, The
1:51:25
Motoring Historian, Voices of Endurance, Automotive History Live, Formula
1:51:30
Fanatics, Brake Fix, and of course, The Drive Thru And I also wanna add a
1:51:35
quick shout-out that we got noticed, along with some other big names in the
1:51:40
automotive podcasting world, and mad props to our very own MPN creator William
1:51:45
Big Money Ross, for the episode he did with Chris Mealy from Prancing Horse.
1:51:50
I was actually there and did the production on that particular episode.
1:51:53
So we look forward to doing more great stuff like that.
1:51:56
But I thought it was really cool that we were mentioned alongside of MotorWeek,
1:52:00
CarCast, That Car Chat, and others.
1:52:02
And you can actually find the post on Instagram from Get Car Curious,
1:52:07
where they called us out in reference to manuals and stick shifts.
1:52:11
I guess maybe they were saying we're dinosaurs or something like that,
1:52:13
but we do cover, a lot of times, about being the manual holdouts.
1:52:17
But I do feel that we will get picked up on Get Car Curious more
1:52:21
often than not, just because we're a pretty big show compared to the
1:52:25
other 200-some-odd car podcasts that are out there according to the stats.
1:52:29
I thought this was really cool to get noticed and to get recognized by a
1:52:33
social media outlet, being there with a bunch of other really big names.
1:52:36
So I thought that was pretty slick.
1:52:38
Yes, definitely, definitely really cool.
1:52:40
And if you enjoy our various podcasts, there's a great way for you to
1:52:44
support our creators on the MPN.
1:52:47
There's tons of extras and bonuses to explore on our updated Patreon page.
1:52:51
Learn more about our bonus and behind-the-scenes content, get early
1:52:54
access to upcoming episodes, or support our 24 Hours of Lemons team when you
1:52:59
consider becoming a Brake Fix VIP by visiting patreon.com/gtmotorsports.
1:53:05
And, as always, thank you to our co-host and executive producer Tanya, and to all
1:53:11
the fans, friends, and family who support Grand Touring Motorsports and the MPN.
1:53:17
Without you, none of this would be possible.
1:53:21
Little drone.
1:53:24
Apples to apples.
1:53:26
That's a game, you know.
1:53:27
Is it?
1:53:29
So how- Hold on.
1:53:30
I'm gonna kill my kids.
1:53:31
Just… I'm gonna kill my kids.
1:53:36
I'm not actually going to, but I- They texting you?
1:53:39
It's a mind reader.
1:53:40
No, he's screaming in the monitor.
1:53:42
"I want the song again. Daddy."
1:53:47
Oh, it's, it's all blurred out.
1:53:50
Here.
1:53:51
Adam, say hi.
1:53:53
You got a visitor.
1:53:53
Good night.
1:53:55
He's admiring all your cars and stuff.
1:53:57
Oh, nice.
1:53:57
He's very much a car guy.
1:53:59
Very nice.
1:54:00
Who should also be in bed.
1:54:03
Can you go to bed now?
1:54:06
You guys carry on and I'm going to deal with this.
1:54:08
I'll be right back.
1:54:09
These are the blue- these are the blueprints.
1:54:11
And we're out
1:54:25
The Drive Thru is our monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations
1:54:29
like collectorcarguide.net, Project Motoring, Garage Style Magazine, The
1:54:33
Exotic Car Marketplace, and many others.
1:54:35
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of The Drive Thru, look no
1:54:38
further than www.motoringpodcast.net.
1:54:41
Click About and then Advertising.
1:54:44
Thank you again to everyone that supports the Motoring Podcast
1:54:46
Network, Grand Touring Motorsports, our podcast Brake Fix, and all
1:54:50
the other services we provide.