Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / 7,100 Miles of American Backroads in a Subaru Crosstrek

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7,100 Miles of American Backroads in a Subaru Crosstrek · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30-minute mini version of the In Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: 8 to 11 am Central.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Just ahead we join Andy and Mercedes Lilienthal with an update on their world road trip they just concluded.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: We'll also give you my thoughts on driving the 2020.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: 5.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Chevy Blazer I had here 2,000.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: No, I had 202 Chevy Blazer EV and Jeff has the Motor Minute in this segment of the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Howdy, along with Mike, out of this world Mars.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: We always need more.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Jeff Zekin, I'm Don Armstrong, glad that you could join us for our Saturday.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Little coffee clutch At least that's what we're going to call it.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, look what the cat drug in Ladies and gentlemen live from.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Are you guys in Oregon?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I don't even know where you are anymore.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Are you in Oregon.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Yes, we're back home All right.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Did Mr Mars fix the audio for you?
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: Can you hear us now A little louder?
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: We're trying to use this and we're we're starlinked up, so we'll make do with what we okay, well, good, because we can hear you, just fine.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Just thought you'd like to know that great okay, so, so you've been on a little trip, just a little trip a tad.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, how many miles was that little trip A tad?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how many miles was that little trip?
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: It was just over 7,100 miles in 21 days.
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: 29 days, 29 days, oh my God 7,000 miles.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Are you guys still Go ahead?
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: Over 3,100 miles of gravel and dirt, so over 3,100 miles of unpaved roads.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And you're still married.
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: Yes we are we actually finished the entire trip on our 21st wedding anniversary, oddly enough.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's cool.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: 21st wedding anniversary what are we?
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: going to do for our wedding anniversary?
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Let's go drive across the country 9,000 miles.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah yeah, let's do.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Country 9,000 miles.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: It'd be fun.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what they said.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: All right, so what thing was this?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: This was the Transamerica Trail.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: That's correct.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: So the Transamerica Trail was mapped starting in the 1980s as a way to cross the United States, mostly on dirt and gravel and rural roads, farm roads, back roads, and it took uh them about, uh, about 12 years to map this out.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: Starts in nags head, north carolina, and finishes in port orford, oregon that's if you do the entire east to the west jaunt, which we decided to to do.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: We touched both coasts, their waters, and we averaged 25 miles an hour through the whole duration of 29 days.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Let that sink in.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, you know.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So they let you out of the insane asylum just for this little interview today.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: Oh no, we have to go in it after this, god and okay.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: So what did you drive?
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: What did we drive?
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: We drove the car behind us here.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: Let me switch over to the front facing camera.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: Hopefully that works.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: So this is a 2025 sub Crosstrek Wilderness and it's got a few minor modifications to it.
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: Obviously, you've got the rooftop tent on the top.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: You've got an awning over here From ARB yeah, from ARB and then we have the Raleigh Innovations Light Bar and Baja Designs lights, and we're gonna see if we can get down here.
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: Underneath here are some primitive racing skid plates, and those were absolutely critical to this trip.
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: We did some off-roading in Colorado.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: That was pretty impressive.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: We have a Rika Seeker wheels.
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: We have BFGoodrich KO2 tires on here those were mod and then, if you pull across to the back, here we have a rigged supply swing-away tire carrier with another full-size, fair, five-gallon fuel factor 55 recovery point and then on the inside, well, let's start.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Let the outside first.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: You had four max tracks, extreme uh vehicle recovery boards that were on this as well, along with the trash rooms here, yeah, and then on the inside, we had an eco flow power system that allowed us to charge the phone.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: It was actually charge our phones, charge our arv bridge and uh, we basically, you know, we basically lived out of this thing for for, uh, you know, 29 days did the tent come off of the car when you stayed in it, or did you crawl up into the tent up above?
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: No, we would crawl into it.
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: So it opens up like a flip book.
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: You can see it's this, get over here.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: I don't know where you're going, it's a square thing and then it'll open up like a pop-up book, and that's where the tent resides.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And how did that work out for you when you were in the mountains of Colorado?
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: So it's funny 29 days.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: 28 of those days were above 90 degrees.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: So we, just like, could not get away from the heat.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: And six of them were above 100, severe humidity.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: But one night in Colorado we actually woke up with ice on the tent and everything else.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: We had freezing temperatures.
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: We had 111 degrees in Moab.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: But the tent works pretty well.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: It's a Thule tent.
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: It's a Thule tent.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: It's a Thule tent.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: It's available through Subaru actually it's one of their accessories and it's got a ladder that supports it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: So you've got a ladder that supports it when it flips open and it's pretty roomy.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: It's kept us dry during thunderstorms in Tennessee and yeah.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Well good, You're alive and well.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Did you take a bath anywhere along the way?
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Not necessarily a bath, but maybe two or three well-needed showers.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, I had to ask that question because I'm thinking well, so they're camping out and the 29 days and all those miles, 100 degree heat, yeah, and I'm not thinking grandma's closet with her hats and her old, you know, mothball smell.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not thinking that, but all right.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: No, no yeah.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about A lot of campgrounds.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: I was just going to say so, while you're talking about that, we've got some of those stills that we downloaded that I was telling you about.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Now that you've shown us the car, we're going to kind of play them while we talk, just kind of in the background.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to ask you about the car.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Now I have actually driven a Subaru Outback Wilderness and I have to tell you I was pretty impressed with it.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: It had just enough power for the city use.
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: How did it do off-road?
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: So this is actually the Crosstrek Wilderness.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: So this has the 2.5-liter normally aspirated engine in it and we went as high as about 12,680 feet.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: You know who the navigator was.
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: It was counting 1680 feet.
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: You know who the navigator was.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: It was challenging and it was pretty surprisingly capable off-road.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: You know we have behind us here three four-wheel drive vehicles with low range gear and all that stuff, and the Crosstrek with the X-Mode actually did really well off-road.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: We had a slightly larger tire size on there, a little bit of a lift in the rear, not that you know, because we were, we had a lot of gear with us but it did pretty well off-road.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: Now, when you did get around that 12 000 mark, it really did start to lose a little bit of power.
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: Everything is going to get a little wheezy up that 12 000 feet.
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: There's not much air up there, right, but um, overall it did really well.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: When we got to the top of Cinnamon Pass we had one guy in a Toyota Tundra come over and say how did you get out there?
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: I'm like well, we drove.
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: And he's like, did you just drag it all the way up?
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: I'm like no, it has quite a bit of ground clearance and the X-Mode, like I said, works pretty good as a simulated low range.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: So what kind of transmission does this thing have in it?
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: It's a CVT.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: It's a CVT, okay, so it's constantly obviously a variable transmission.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: So you don't have gears, and so I guess when you're starting from a stop heading uphill, it's at its lowest point, where it's wound up, I guess enough to pull you from wherever you are up the hill.
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: Right, correct, correct.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, there was.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: We had one instance where we were trying to go do California gulps, which is almost 13,000 feet, and there was snow over the easier way up and so we tried the harder way up, which is much more of a steep incline, very abrupt, and that was the only time where we simply ran out of oxygen and the CVT was like no, nope of the oxygen and the cvt was like no, nope.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: I had to bypass that route but otherwise, like 99 of the things we asked of it, it did.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: It was a mountain goat did you have any issues with the vehicle engine transmission anything at all in your truck?
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: no, I I'll tell you what we're standing in front of, our own personal prospect here.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: But this little thing behind us not her this thing is incredibly.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: I was absolutely shocked how stout and durable it doesn't mean that it's.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: It's almost got 7,500 miles on.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: It doesn't have a single rattle.
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: It was so stout, it was way more durable than I expected and it was very comfortable too.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Very comfortable.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: It's very important, especially when you're being bounced around.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: You know off pavement the majority of the time is it?
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: there's one thing we could review would be the air conditioning, because we use it every single day.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: It's fabulous.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, so did it.
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: keep up the air conditioning.
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, the air conditioning.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: Never let us down.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: The whole thing just worked.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: Every single thing worked.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: Every modification that we did to this vehicle the primitive racing skid plates, for example I would not have done this without those Well, and the rigged supply-spare tire carrier was so instrumental we used our jerry can multiple times and, believe it or not, we ended up I think it was at 12,000 feet.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: We gave five gallons to a Jeep sorry, a Willys that had a fuel cell, but he was running out of fuel and so they gave us $20 for it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: We're like, hey, we would have paid it forward because you know you, just up there you don't have gas stations obviously.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: So, out of all these trips you've taken in the past year, how does this rank?
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Top three, top five, number one, since there were no breakdowns, since everything was smooth as silk.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: How do you rank this one of all your excursions?
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Boy, I think that would include the Baltic Sea Circle Rally with the.
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: ID.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: You know, I think that would include the Baltic Sea Circle Rally with the ID.
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I think this is definitely top three trips I've ever done.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: What was really interesting is like it was within our own country, right, and I mean like we've both been to all 50 states before and seeing the states from this rural, you know, perspective was really neat.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: You know, I didn't know what to expect when we took those first mountain roads, well, and there were a few dozen different birds.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: We've got a bird app because we're kind of geeky like that.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: We heard so many birds every morning that we never even heard of and you know, we talked to a lot of locals and we saw how they lived and that was so neat.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: And we've traveled all 50 states before but not in this manner.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: So for me I would say, probably top two of this last year baltic sea circle rally with a id buzzer for the day tv that we did nine countries, 16 days in um and almost 5 000 miles was uh, it was, you know, probably the other best one how did you put together the number of changes and where did you buy the equipment to make the changes to the vehicle?
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: yeah, so this has been um probably a year in the making and you can buy a lot of these parts and accessories, like, for instance, the Thule rooftop tent or the crossbars and things, through Subaru directly.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: The other companies you can order directly from them online.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: So primitive racing rig supply, rally innovations, baja designs, ecoflow.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: We had our instrumental power setup and alternator charger.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: That was so important for us.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: You know we used the Starlink Mini.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Those are all available online.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: I'm sure that there are retailers that sell them brick and mortar as well.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: How did you decide what items to make that change to buy all those things?
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: How did you come up with that?
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Or just past experience?
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of experience all those things.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: How did you come up with that?
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: It was just past experience.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, for example, a rally, innovations and um.
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: These are companies we've partnered with in the past and we know them, trust them.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: Uh, the bf goodrich ko2s literally all of our vehicles are right on bf goodrich ko2s or.
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: KM3s and I trust them, I know them, I know how they perform.
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: We didn't have a single flat tire in over 7,100 miles and those tires, I mean they took a beating, yeah yeah, and I mean, for instance, max Trax recovery boards.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: you know we're used to the MK2s.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: We carried the extreme boards here because we knew Mississippi and Oklahoma had a lot of flooding and the mud.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: We didn't want to get mired in mud.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: But MaxTrax also has a new light board and those are also good for small SUVs and you know all-wheel drive vehicles like the CrossTrac here.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Well, for instance, I'm really interested in how you drilled down to find out your skid plate, the supplier for the skid plate on it, why you went with them.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Are they the only ones that make a skid plate for this car?
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: No, they're not, but we have used them before.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: The Crosstrek that we own has their skid plates on it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: The owner, blake Lynn, bought it from a gentleman called Eklund and I've known Paul for years and now we've known Blake for a long time and I knew that their products were top-notch.
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: They make a lot of rally car stuff.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: We've used them in TSD rallies before too, yeah so the skid plates were something that we knew we would need and, frankly, had we not had them, we'd probably have a crushed oil pan, a crushed exhaust.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and still be stuck up in the mountains if we didn't have them.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: And they're based here, just outside of Portland, so they're local and they're made in the US, along with a lot of other companies that we use.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: How did you mount that great big laptop or whatever it was that you were looking at?
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I just caught a brief glimpse of that.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: How did you mount that up there on the dash?
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: glimpse of that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: How did you mount that up there on the dash?
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: For you were doing your routing?
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: And yeah, so that's a garment tri-land, so that's a suction cup mount for it.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: So me, as a navigator, I use paper maps primarily and turn by turn, roll chart directions, believe it or not.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: And we used onyx uh, the onyx app for dispersed camping, for learning trail conditions, wildfires, all sorts of stuff.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: So Onyx was wonderful for that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: And then Andy used the Garmin Tread GPS for his routing and just keeping on track.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Have you guys posted all this stuff online that we can?
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: You know people I know that this is going to be shown around the world that people can go to on your website.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Perhaps that you could list all this stuff and where you get it and that sort of thing.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: Sure, no.
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: So what?
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: To answer your question?
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: We have a whole ton of Instagram stories and our highlights.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: You can see a lot of the products that we use.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: You can see how we use those products.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: We'll be writing stories about this trip and people will be able to see some of the sponsors and some of the companies that we partnered with in order to see exactly which gear we used, and we've tagged them, too, both on social media.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: We've listed them out, and then we can also put a gear list and a products list on our website too.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: That has everything, in case people wanted to buy the jet, trekking to exactly the products that we use.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Well, I think on the next trip like this, what you need to do is you need to have the in-wheel time camper that you can tow behind it, and we'll all just be back there with you, supporting you all the way.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: You can help take the rocks out of the brakes.
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: That was one thing we kept getting were rocks stuck between like this Mike can do that, mike, that's his job.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mike is the only one here that's got non-surgical back.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we'll put him down there.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Hey, I've got a question before we go 21 years of marriage what's in store for the next 21 years traveling?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: What are you up to next?
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: She's smiling there.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: That Mercedes is smiling.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: You can't see it.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, didn't mean to interrupt.
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: Oh well, we've got the Alcan 5000 coming up here.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: That's a 5,000-mile, 10-day times-free distance rally.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: It goes up to Alaska.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: We're going to be leaving late August for that.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: It'll be the 10 days in September.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: So we're going to be doing that we're going to announce which manufacturer soon as to who we're partnering with for that.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: And then just more travel, more adventures.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: You never know With us, you never know.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're going to call us when you decide and you got everything in order.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: You're going to call us so we can have another confab here on the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show and give us all the details.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: You'll be the first one to know.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Well, we love you guys.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Congratulations on a job well done.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: We look forward to the stories soon, and especially the announcement of where you're going and what you're driving Sounds good, thanks, appreciate it.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: Thank you, congratulations, thank you.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: Love you guys.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: All right, thank you.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Congratulations.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you, love you guys.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: All right, let's see Just ahead a review of the 2025 Chevy Blazer EV and Jeff's Motor Minute, after a quick break here on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
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• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Youtube and Facebook Time now for Jeff's Motor.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Minute.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, cadillac we haven't talked about them in a while.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: But the F1 team.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: They have seven drivers that are on the short list, so Cadillac has identified some potential driver.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: They're not just keeping it to F1.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: They're going to go into F2 as well.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Some of the retired drivers are maybe contacted, but because of what you want, they haven't contacted you.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: No, they haven't contacted me, but for other things they're going to probably reach out to me for.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: So it becomes the newest manufacturer since Haas joined in 2016.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: We're talking about Cadillac and the Andretti team.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: The team boss, graham Loudon, is currently looking.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: He's in charge of all the drivers and wanting to know who's going to be joining the team.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: We know, and I know, that Brian Hurta, who's in the Indy racing, is part of that.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: He's probably going to be one of the drivers as well.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Thank goodness they're talking to Mick Schumacher.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: They're talking to some ex-teammates of Hamilton Versappen, red Bull driver Sergio Perez, max Versappen.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And then also Valtteri Botas is also in the run.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: It could be Valerie too.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: You never know, valerie Valtteri.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of Ts in there, so it's Valtteri.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: So that's what I look forward to.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: They're making their selections Again.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Don says none of us have been contacted, but we'll see.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Well, we're going to direct it all to Jeff.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Well, we're going to direct it all to Jeff.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go, he's our Formula One leader there you go.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: And on another note, last week's NHRA we had the driver I forgot to put my list down the driver that lost a finger and a pin put in his thumb on that crash they had at NHRA.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: That was bad.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was bad.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Lost a tire.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: There we go.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, time now for this hour's car review.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to drive the 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Final assembly location Ramos, arispe, mexico.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, come on, that's what it is.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: It comes in three trim levels LT, rs and SS.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I had the SS, all-wheel drive.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: This is a small, what is considered a small SUV.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: The wheelbase on it is like a limousine.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: It seats five.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: This year, the new SS trim debuts.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: The vehicle itself was all new in 2024.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Long wheelbase makes a visual that is definitely noteworthy.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: You stand out away from it and you look at it from the side and you're thinking, my God, the wheelbase goes on forever.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: To me, this is one of the sharpest-looking designs in the EV class overall Sculpted sides, complex modern grille without a blank grille panel in it.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I can't stand that.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Why did they do that on those electric vehicles?
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like well, we don't know what to panel in it.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I can't stand that.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Why did they do that on those electric vehicles?
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like well, we don't know what to do with it, so we'll just put a blank panel in it Because there's no radiator.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, fastback.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Sloping roofline with integrated sunshade over the rear glass.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: What I liked about it?
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: The big wheel, well, filling the wheel wells with tires, and it looks good.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: What could use improvement?
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Nothing High marks for exterior design.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: On the inside, interior, highlights include 17-inch huge infotainment screen that melds behind the instrument cluster.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Screen Works well.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: It looks good.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Operating system is excellent and is easy to understand and operate.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Comfortable seating with nice materials throughout.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Love the shifter stalk on the column.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: It removes the bulky shifter down on the console to leave room for your cell phone charger, cup holders the stuff that you really need.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: How often do you use the shifter?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I like the stock that they've come up with.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: It works well.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: You've got the same one in your Buick Cargo room.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Plenty behind the second row of seats.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: What I like overall great user-friendly design.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Great family vehicle.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: What could use improvement?
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: It should come with its own trophy Engine.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Well, it's all electric.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: It's rated at 615 horsepower.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: That's a lot.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: my friends 650 pound-feet of torque.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: It is obviously electric.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So electric motors direct drive Miles per gallon.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: If you want to drill it down to that, they claim 92 in the city and a highway of 77, for a combined of 85 miles per gallon E, which is electric.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I got 2.7 miles per kilowatt hour and I didn't do the math because I don't know how to do it.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's over 238.7 miles.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: What Mars?
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: I said no, I don't, that's so why?
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: So if they're going to drill it down and give me a figure that I can understand 92 miles per gallon in the city, e and 77 highway for a combined of 85, why can't they put that on the window sticker and say here, this is it.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: No, instead it's 2.7 miles per kilowatt hour.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: You do the math.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to do the math.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: No, not for that.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: 238.7 miles, I drove it.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Plenty of power, what could use improvement?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know Nothing.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Ride and handling Rode great, like a great big limo and it was heavy.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: The weight 5,730 pounds, and it felt like it.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: It felt like a big, heavy limousine.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: But you know what?
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: It only takes a few drives and that goes out of your mind.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: You don't really think about it, it was more than a NASCAR car, pretty much.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, base trim price $60,600.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Now, keep that in mind, $60,600.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Price is tested $64,180.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: You can get in one of these not the SS model for $44,600.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: If you're in for an EV, I would definitely check this out.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: It still has the $7,500 tax credit.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: It's not going to be lasting much longer and, of course, you know GM is about to pass on those tariffs, at least in some form.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: So keep that in mind.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Now competitors the Ford Mustang Mach-E starts at $37,995.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, the GT model which you would compare this one that I drove.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Remember, I told you that it was $64,000.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: $66,000, yeah, the.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: GT model on the Ford is $56,490.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact let's just do it that way the Tesla Model Y compares favorably to it.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: The performance model of the Tesla Model Y is $52,880.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: And the Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT, which is their performance model, $57,100.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: So it's right in there with those.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: It's not in the high end, but it's still in there, yeah.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Well for an electric car it fits, yeah, and with the review that you just gave it and it's a sharp-looking vehicle, yeah, you could get all that money.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I tell you, man, I really liked it.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I don't think I rode in that one, but we did see it.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's a nice car.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: It is very nice.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: The address here is info at inwheeltimecom.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: We'll be back right after this quick break.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Coating, install a paint protection film, nano ceramic window tint or new windshield protection called ExoShield.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go.
• 27:27
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• 27:30
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• 27:32
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• 27:34
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• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Better yet, stop by their facility at 11275 South Sam Houston Tollway, just south of the Southwest Freeway, and get a personal tour.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Call them today 832-930-5655 or gcautoshieldcom.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: The award-winning Inwheel time car talk show now reaches 5.3 million folks each year.
• 28:03
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• 28:14
  Speaker 1: The in-wheel time car talk show has informative automotive guest interviews, new car reviews, along with popular features, including Jeff's car culture, the latest new cars, cruise ins and racing dates.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: It's InWheelTimecom.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Join us.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, iheart Podcast, podcast Addict TuneIn, pandora and Amazon Music.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Keep listening and we'll see you soon.