Transcript

Slated to Win? · That Car Show

0:00
There were like 1980s Trapper Keeper looking slates, there
0:05
were futuristic cyberpunk looking liveries.
0:09
It was unbelievable to see, and I've never seen another car
0:12
manufacturer embrace the personality of these cars like I
0:18
saw Slate today. This week on that car show, it
0:23
is a crew show with friend of the show and Lindsay's husband
0:27
Tori Alonso sitting in for Dan. I'm not going to lie, it's been
0:32
a weird week for all of us, but we do have a lot to talk about,
0:35
including the most American cars you can buy in 2026, what the
0:40
Japanese market thinks about the quality of JDM cars that are
0:44
built in the US, and yes, the Slate launch.
0:48
Lindsay and Tori were there and they seem to have been really
0:50
won over by the thing. This is an audio only episode by
0:54
the way, thanks to some technical issues with our
0:57
podcast platform Riverside. So you'll unfortunately miss all
1:02
of Lindsay's impressive new Slate swag, but also thankfully
1:06
my own sweaty self as I melted in my oven of a garage.
1:10
In any case, grab a drink, sit back and enjoy.
1:13
It's that car show. Hey, it's that car show and it
1:19
is good to be back. It's a warm and sticky night
1:23
here in Denver, though it's not hailing.
1:26
So thank you, Sky. Jesus.
1:28
Dan is off tonight taking care of some business, but we do miss
1:31
him. Our old pal Tori Alonso is
1:34
sitting in for him tonight and boy do we have a lot to talk
1:38
about. It has been a very busy week,
1:40
especially for you guys. If you don't know Tori, he's
1:43
been on before his great guest, but he's actually Lindsays
1:47
husband as well. So, so glad to have you here
1:50
Tori. And you guys are both in Socal
1:52
tonight, huh? We are.
1:54
Lindsay, Resplendent and Slate. All of my slate regalia,
1:59
complete with. Regalia.
2:00
So we'll get to that for sure. But I'm I'm about as slated out
2:05
as you can get, right? That's that's right.
2:08
What'd you call her before we hit record?
2:10
Tori Christian Slater. Tori, you must be a fan of the
2:13
comedian. Mark Normand.
2:14
Do you know Mark Normand? I don't, no, I probably.
2:17
Shouldn't. All right, He's a car guy.
2:20
We're trying to get him on the show.
2:21
He's got a roundy 2002. He lives in Manhattan.
2:25
And every once in a while he'll mention the car on his show.
2:28
But his whole comedy is sort of based on like word play and
2:31
stuff. And I think we'd have a lot of
2:33
fun. So if you're listening and you
2:34
know Mark, tell him we're talking about him and we want to
2:37
talk to him on the show. But so Lindsay and Tori, I have
2:40
a question for you. What's it mean for a car to be
2:43
American? I mean to me.
2:48
Did you see this list that came out?
2:50
I did cars.com, they they put together the cars.
2:53
Then we have friends there, obviously the American made
2:57
index and I was shocked to see I guess the the top three.
3:03
Do you do we have any idea what the most American car currently
3:06
on the market is? And this is a car that, through
3:08
content in production, as I understand it, has the highest
3:12
percentage of being American. So this is interesting because I
3:16
have not read the article yet, so that might be kind of fun
3:19
because I don't, but I would if it were me, I would guess the
3:22
Ford Mustang. There's not anything more
3:24
American apple pie than the Ford Mustang.
3:28
But I honestly don't know. I haven't read that article.
3:30
I have no idea. So I'm looking at the top 12
3:33
here. The Mustang is not here.
3:35
Number one is the Tesla Model 3. Which makes sense, right?
3:39
Fremont, CA. OK. #2 is the Model Y assembled
3:44
in either Fremont or Austin, TX? And then #3 the Jeep Gladiator,
3:48
which makes a lot of sense, right?
3:50
I mean, I could. See that?
3:51
I think that, yeah. But we're talking in terms of
3:53
like manufacturing then? Manufacturing then also content,
3:57
right? Like where the parts come from,
3:58
like. Physical components as opposed
4:01
to what is like the ethos represents America and like what
4:05
do you think in terms of somebody says an American car,
4:08
What pops into your head? A Tesla is.
4:10
Probably not. The top of that list I'm
4:14
thinking more like Mustang, Ford truck, whatever, but yeah, if
4:17
you. Look at.
4:18
Physical components and where it's assembled, that's
4:23
different. Yeah.
4:24
And both of those, because I'm thinking the F-150, right, both
4:27
are in the Mustang, nowhere in this top, you know, 30 whatever
4:30
that I can see and what's really.
4:33
Interesting. No, I'm not seeing it anywhere.
4:36
I've seen the Ford Expedition and the Ford Explorer.
4:38
They're probably about 10:00 and 12:00.
4:41
But other than that, it's stuff you'd never think.
4:43
It's the Toyota Tundra, it's the Toyota Corolla, it's the Acura
4:46
Integra, the Kia EV9 made in Georgia.
4:49
I didn't know that Lincoln Aviator's on here.
4:52
But but it's it's, it's a lot of cars.
4:55
You wouldn't think the Camry is on here.
4:58
The Mustang actually is in #22 for what it's worth.
5:01
Number. 20 I mean way down from where I would have guessed it
5:04
would be. Yeah, right.
5:06
I I just, I thought it was interesting.
5:07
And it's one of those things that, you know, doesn't even
5:10
matter anymore. I mean, it's at this point it's
5:13
just image, I guess. And it's it's, it's funny
5:16
because, you know, other than maybe that Jeep Gladiator, these
5:19
are not the vehicles you find like the giant flag decals on,
5:22
right? I mean, these are sure.
5:23
This is. Yeah, it's interesting.
5:25
And, and Dan, who's not here tonight sent over some questions
5:29
for us. And, and, and this is one of
5:32
them, you know, along these lines, it's the 250th birthday
5:36
of our our country, right, Right.
5:38
If you had to pick one car that represents the nation, what
5:41
would it be? And and why a reminder dumpster
5:44
fire is not a car. But what would you?
5:47
What would you? What would you pick?
5:48
Would it be a Mustang? Would it be an F-150?
5:51
Would it be a Bronco? Like if you had to pick a car to
5:53
put in a 4th of July parade with a flag hanging off the back,
5:56
what is it? Oh, I've got my Broncos for
5:59
sure. Yeah, of course he goes with the
6:02
Bronco. I would go with the 57 Chevy.
6:05
I don't think there's anything more Americana than. 1950 no,
6:11
that probably was 100% made in America, right.
6:14
And I bet even the electronics, the tires, the everything down
6:18
to the air filters were probably made in the United States.
6:20
It was a different, different world, world for sure.
6:23
But you know, and, and to me, I think it's a car that is on that
6:26
list and it's, it's the Jeep Wrangler.
6:28
You know, I had one recently for a couple of days.
6:30
I enjoyed that thing so much. I think I need a Wrangler in the
6:34
house. I I just they're, they're such
6:36
great vehicles. You can take take the top off.
6:38
You know, they're powerful enough.
6:39
They're not going to get you into trouble.
6:40
I think it's the last vehicle that you can buy that you can
6:43
still get roll up windows, right?
6:45
They're just, you know, they're just great.
6:47
And we're going to correct you there.
6:50
Yeah, I know. What?
6:51
Oh. I'm going to direct your
6:54
attention to my everything today, yeah.
6:58
I know. And that's because we've heard
7:00
very much about this. We've heard a lot today about
7:03
this. 20 Is it 23/9 for a slate and 20. 495 I believe.
7:08
It's 24995, right. So, so the Wrangler has some
7:13
company in that, in that department, but you guys were at
7:15
the launch, was that today? It was.
7:18
It was this morning. OK, all right, we're gonna we're
7:20
gonna talk all about that. But I was a little jealous.
7:23
Obviously they were giving out some swag if you're watching.
7:26
What? Gives.
7:27
You that. Idea But the last thing about
7:31
Jeep is that also in the news today is that they have recalled
7:34
every Jeep Wrangler made of the JT and JL lines with every
7:40
engine and transmission combination.
7:42
From the 2.2 liter turbo diesel found in international markets
7:46
to the Wrangler 392 and the Hemi V8 here in the US.
7:49
All part of this recall. 1.1 million Jeeps are being recalled
7:53
due to fire risks and they are telling you to park them.
7:57
Outside, SO that's not a good look.
8:00
No, it is not. It is.
8:02
Not on top of the fact that there is no fix.
8:04
Official permanent fix right now.
8:07
Their official stance is visually inspected for signs of
8:12
like heat damage or melting. And repair it if you see it.
8:16
Otherwise just park it outside please.
8:19
Like that's not the most confident, inspiring answer,
8:22
unfortunately. No, no, that's the default like
8:26
solution right now. EVs too, right?
8:28
It's not just the Jeep. If your EV blows up, you know,
8:30
just put it outside. You know it's.
8:33
Has to be safe. Yeah, I.
8:35
Was just thinking about all the little rubber duckies that are
8:37
going to needlessly burn you. Know it's going to be some black
8:40
smoke. Slightly misshapen, slightly
8:44
melted rubber ducks. Yeah, yeah, it's, and this is
8:47
also related to this discussion about what's American and all
8:50
this because I think this is the best article yet.
8:53
And this is thanks to our buddy Maurice Merrick over at at
8:56
Horsepower Heritage. He sends over this article from
8:58
motorone.com, this gem. Toyota and Nissan admit that
9:02
their American made vehicles aren't up to Japanese standards.
9:06
Japanese buyers are not used to buying new cars that might have
9:09
things like thin paint, panel gaps or leftover residue.
9:12
And in fact, they're putting notices on these vehicles that
9:14
are being sold in Japan. The notice on the American made
9:17
Murano states through translation that quote, this
9:21
vehicle is manufactured to specifications intended for
9:24
overseas markets and differs in quality standards applied to
9:27
vehicles destined for the Japanese domestic market.
9:29
GDM. The notice continues stating
9:32
that the SUV may have dust particles in the paint, traces
9:36
of sealant residue, or misaligned or uneven panels and
9:40
gaps. Thankfully, Nissan notes, these
9:44
differences do not affect the vehicle's functionality of
9:46
performance, so you may use it with confidence.
9:49
And Toyota has a similar warning and the Tundra and the
9:51
Highlander, saying that the paint finishes are designed for
9:53
overseas markets and that customers may notice thin paint
9:56
color variations, polishing marks, and dents.
10:00
Go America dense, like dense. A a dent is a bridge too far on
10:06
my new car. I'll put up with a little thin
10:07
paint, you know, depending on on, you know, but a a dent is
10:12
how embarrassing is that? Because I've actually found the
10:15
opposite that that these Japanese cars made in the
10:17
states, in my experience, are every bit as good as the as the
10:20
Japanese made cars. But wild, right?
10:24
They've got to put a disclaimer that the car was made in the
10:26
States. Literally a craft and dent sale.
10:29
That's that's wild. Yeah.
10:31
I mean, that's fascinating to me.
10:32
Like, I remember when I was a kid, I don't know if I had my
10:36
license, but we were at the local Ford dealer and they had,
10:40
you know, the salesman was telling us he goes, oh, yeah, we
10:43
got all these Explorers that came in.
10:44
They were, they went through a hailstorm during transport.
10:48
So, you know, we're giving a screaming deal and I want to say
10:51
it was like $100 off. So it was not the screaming deal
10:56
he wanted you to believe it was, but they were acknowledging like
10:59
this is outside of the normal, you know, what do they call it
11:03
margins or whatever tolerances. We're not we're not going to say
11:08
like a few deads. That's fine, like.
11:12
That's. Wild.
11:13
I also think it's interesting it ties back in with the how
11:16
American are certain vehicles? Because I was thinking about,
11:21
you know, people don't necessarily think about where
11:24
things are manufactured. I think people just assume if
11:26
it's a Japanese, they assume that it's manufactured wherever
11:29
the headquarters are or wherever the company started.
11:32
I didn't realize Toyota was making cars here to send to
11:35
Japan. That's well, I didn't know.
11:37
That neither. Yeah.
11:38
Yeah. You know.
11:39
I mean, and it calls to mind the recent Stalantis Jaguar Land
11:45
Rover collaboration where if all things go forward, then still
11:51
antis will be helping manufacture the defenders here
11:53
or however, you know, the details of that work out.
11:57
So it's, I think it's a lot more muddled than we realize because
12:02
you figure a British car comes from the UK, Japanese car comes
12:05
from Japan, American car comes from here, that's not the case
12:07
anymore. No, no.
12:10
Do you think those defenders were actually better built when
12:13
they're made in the States? I mean, real talk here is this
12:16
like, will the Brits be surprised?
12:18
Will they? Will they have a disclaimer that
12:20
says, you know what, guys? This is going to be better than
12:22
the one they bought that was built in the Uki don't know.
12:25
These are actually great. I know I'm like, I feel like
12:27
there's a joke there. I mean, I mean that I'm I'm
12:31
stuck on the note from Toyota. Like don't mind the dense.
12:33
I call it well and that do you think that would ever fly in the
12:38
States, right. Just the different
12:40
sensibilities, right. That thing is like I don't.
12:43
Think American consumers would think that's fine either That's
12:47
I think that's why it's sticking with me so much is like
12:50
hopefully nobody would be OK with a brand new car arriving
12:53
with dents. Certainly not with what new cars
12:57
are costing these days. You know, it's one thing to be
12:59
in the early 80s when cars were cheap, but I mean, you know,
13:03
with the average price, I mean, they were talking about the
13:05
slate thing today, like the average price of a new car is 50
13:08
something $1000. Now who's going to tolerate thin
13:11
paint, scratches, dents in a brand new car?
13:13
That's that's ridiculous. Well, none of us should, right?
13:16
I mean, you know. But if you're listening.
13:20
And you happen to live in Japan. Please track down one of these
13:23
stickers and send one our way. This will be new wall art.
13:27
I mean, that's it's, it's always fascinating to look at something
13:30
like that that makes it into like the official, you know,
13:34
company literature, if you will. And you're like, what was the
13:38
meeting where they decided that, like when I was a new mom, I was
13:43
in the carpool lane and obviously infant seats are not
13:46
always visible, right? I got a pamphlet in the mail,
13:49
official pamphlet mailed to my home.
13:53
And it was an official Washington state like dot
13:55
pamphlet. Some, you know, a concerned
13:59
motorist had turned in my license plate because they
14:02
thought that I was in the carpool lane by myself.
14:06
And there was an entire pamphlet about appropriate carpool way
14:09
behavior. That's.
14:11
That's so Pacific Northwest, though, that is.
14:13
Like Seattle, land of the Terrans, I say that all the
14:16
time. That is like the caring capital
14:18
that. Is.
14:20
So that's amazing. And and then you don't get a
14:23
ticket or a warning or something.
14:24
You get a an informational you know you get a flit on.
14:28
Pamphlet. I know right?
14:31
I just. Remember holding it going like
14:32
being. Scolded.
14:34
Well, and this happens enough that they've made a pamphlet,
14:36
and then they went to the trouble of mailing it to me.
14:39
Right, right, right, all. For something that was not
14:43
accurate to begin with because there were two of us in the car,
14:46
I think that was the funniest. Part Are you both old enough to
14:49
remember when you could send off for government pamphlets out of
14:53
Pueblo, Co like these to do these?
14:56
No. Television commercials?
14:57
No, you don't remember that. No.
14:59
I mean, it may not be age, maybe we just aren't aware, I don't
15:02
know. I'll be 50.
15:03
You're not that much older than me, right?
15:05
No, I'm. 50 yeah, yeah, and we're all in the same I.
15:07
Guess I wasn't as a kid. Well, maybe you weren't watching
15:10
enough cartoons on on Saturday mornings because that's all I
15:13
remember these, right? Like it was like one of those
15:16
like give a hoot, don't pollute, you know, government for that,
15:18
whatever type. I remember that.
15:20
I didn't know there was a pamphlet available to me.
15:22
I probably won't have them to wait for the free pamphlet.
15:25
Well, this is pre Internet, right?
15:27
And I, I'm sure some of you listening, remember these, these
15:29
ads. But if you had a question about
15:31
a topic, I, I don't know, like I don't, I don't even know, like
15:36
whether or, you know, some sort of disease or something you
15:40
could send off, you know, to, to Pueblo, Co and learn more about
15:43
it, you know, Lyme disease or something, right?
15:46
Or, or, you know, I don't know, the life cycle of, you know, the
15:49
dung beetle or whatever. And they would, you know, so
15:51
you'd send a self addressed stamped envelope, which is
15:54
another thing that probably doesn't send you this.
15:57
So yeah. Flip through our free catalog
16:01
and you'll find a list of hundreds of government
16:03
publications just filled with useful facts about your home and
16:07
how to keep it up. About growing.
16:10
Vegetables in tiny gardens. Even about buying a used car for
16:15
your free catalog that lists all the publications, write Consumer
16:19
Information, Pueblo Co 8109. I was talking to someone from
16:29
Pueblo, Co and they're. Just buried in pamphlet.
16:35
There's gotta be a magical. Government building, yeah, yeah,
16:37
there's. Gotta be a warehouse with
16:39
nothing but dung beetle pamphlets that just no one cared
16:41
to know about, you know? Yeah, Pueblo, Pueblo.
16:44
Colorado, home of the Vintage Government Pamphlet Museum.
16:48
Right this way. Well, just think in 30 years or
16:51
whatever, it's been right, we have gone from having to send
16:54
off to our government for pamphlets and information to,
16:58
you know, the Internet, the World Wide Web or whatever we
17:00
called it to now ChatGPT and basically being able to just get
17:04
any answer to any question instantly at any time.
17:07
It's just, you know, the quickening of, of the pace of,
17:12
of things, you know, But in any case, what a.
17:14
Time to be live, right guys? Yeah.
17:19
I'd kind of like to just go back to the 80s and stay there, if
17:22
I'm being honest. I.
17:23
Well, yeah, especially you, right, You know, with the with
17:25
the cars. I know it wasn't perfect, but in
17:28
retrospect, it seemed pretty, pretty great, didn't it?
17:31
Hell of a lot. Better than where we're at now,
17:32
I think. Yeah, yeah, it's, that's for
17:35
sure. It's so I had a CX50A, Mazda
17:39
CX-50 for a week, a rental, not a press car, a rental.
17:42
Spent my own $400.00 on this thing, but we had our we had our
17:46
big Samoyed mixed dog and I didn't want to return a a press
17:49
car full of white dog here. And it was an interesting thing
17:53
because I've heard so many good things about this car.
17:55
Car and driver goes on and on about the CX-50.
17:58
Now granted this one had 15,000 hard rental miles on it and it
18:01
stunk. Perfectly good car It was that
18:03
or a new Chevy Traverse. And you know, with gas, as
18:06
expensive as it as it is, I figured the smaller vehicle
18:08
would be better. Perfectly good car to drive
18:11
across the country, but just nothing, Nothing special, right?
18:13
It was nothing special. But I had a really interesting
18:16
experience driving back because I dropped my wife and daughter
18:19
off for a memorial service in the Twin Cities.
18:22
And so it was me and the dog driving back from the Twin
18:25
Cities to Colorado. And so I got to drive on some of
18:27
these back roads and things and realized like Nebraska is
18:30
actually quite beautiful once you get off I-80, right?
18:34
You know, there's a lot to see. There's some really beautiful
18:36
small towns in the northeast part of, of, of Nebraska in
18:39
particular, but took some some 2 lane roads through, I guess they
18:43
call it the, the Sandhills area, sort of the central and western
18:47
northwestern region of Nebraska and drove through a town called
18:50
North Platte. I don't know if you know North
18:53
Platte. It's one of these farming towns,
18:55
railroad towns. You know, all these towns are
18:57
like this. The main drag goes over viaduct,
18:59
over the switching yard or whatever.
19:01
And there are. Great elevators and.
19:02
This and that, but very like John Cougar Mellencamp, right?
19:06
And I just happened to be there on the night where all the local
19:10
people were in their cars, you know, basically going back and
19:13
forth cruising. On.
19:15
The main drag, you know, and it was fascinating.
19:18
There's a restaurant called Runza.
19:19
And if you don't know Runza, it's, I think it's pretty much
19:22
Nebraska specific, but it's basically a Hot Pocket.
19:26
You know, this thing. Yeah, you experience.
19:28
Yeah, and it's got ground beef in it.
19:29
They go pretty pretty. Good.
19:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm hanging out with my dog
19:37
in a Runza in the Runza parking lot, watching this, this
19:40
basically this show go go by. And it's so interesting to see
19:43
what these young people, not everyone was young, but what
19:46
these people in this small town, I'm guessing probably 15,000
19:49
people like what these young enthusiasts are buying.
19:53
Because I thought it was going to be like all F1 fifties and
19:56
old American stuff. And there certainly was that.
19:59
There was some really cool like lifted 70s Ford pickups and
20:02
things and Lindsay, Oh, I saw a car like a early 90s Ford F-150
20:08
today. That was, do you remember, they
20:09
did like a splash and they did like a, there was one called a
20:12
Knight Nite. Do you remember this?
20:15
It had like the graphics package.
20:16
I had seen one in years. It was so cool.
20:18
I was and you saw one. Today.
20:20
I saw it today and I I didn't have my my phone was dead.
20:23
And so I wanted to take a picture for you so badly.
20:26
But so I'm sitting here in North Platte.
20:29
They were so cool, right? And they seem tiny now.
20:31
That's the other thing. They seem so small compared to
20:34
like a, a new full size pickup truck.
20:35
But yeah, so there was definitely that era stuff as as
20:38
well. But it was the diversity in cars
20:42
that really impressed me because I you know, there's everything
20:44
from these old trucks to there was a tuned beat mini, right?
20:47
There were a couple of older BMW 3 Series.
20:49
There was a convertible like terrible exhausts, you know,
20:52
fart can exhaust charger civics, you know, Dodge intrepids, if
20:57
you remember those. Oh.
20:58
My God, of course. Yeah, because it was what it was
21:01
the the Dodge Intrepid, the Chrysler Concorde.
21:05
And then there was the Eagle. Something or other they do you
21:10
remember the Eagle brand? There was.
21:11
I do. I was, yeah.
21:14
I, I really called though, I like had a, you know, Will
21:19
Ferrell and old school and like blacked out moment.
21:21
One time at work we were talking about it was when Stalantis, you
21:27
know, Fiat Chrysler became Stalantis.
21:30
And I was in a meeting discussing the name change with
21:35
one of the companies that was doing some work for the company
21:37
I worked for. And one of the people on the
21:39
call said, well, which brands is, you know, Fiat Chrysler or
21:42
Stalantis? And without thinking, I went
21:45
Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Eagle. Oh, that's amazing.
21:50
And I'm like, and yes, I did grow up in the 80s.
21:54
Yeah, yet you don't remember the government pamphlets.
21:56
Go figure. But.
21:58
I was more focused on the cars I guess.
22:00
I think those were called the Chrysler LH cars.
22:03
I think that's what they called those.
22:04
And I remember when those came out, they, you know, they were
22:06
like God's gift. People thought they were
22:08
wonderful, right one the. Design was just so wild because
22:11
that was such a wet shape. I remember seeing an Intrepid
22:14
for the very first time. My dad was in the car business.
22:16
So I grew up around Chrysler Dodge dealerships mostly is is
22:21
what where he he was a finance guy.
22:22
So I was always, you know, he had demos that he would bring
22:25
home from the dealership. And I remember the first time
22:27
that I saw an Intrepid and I was like, wow, this thing is like
22:30
really wedge shape shaped. I remember the windshield was so
22:33
laid back. And yeah, it was, it was, it was
22:36
unlike anything, you know, to go from like an 80s Lebaron to
22:39
something like that was so radically different for that
22:42
company. It was pretty wild to see.
22:45
But you don't see him anymore. You don't see any cars in that
22:48
area anymore. We had a Dodge Dynasty I
22:50
remember for a long time as well.
22:52
And when's the last time you saw a Dodge Dynasty?
22:55
I mean, it's been. It was the real.
22:56
Boxy one. Sort of like a Lebaron, right?
22:58
Yeah. Absolutely vinyl.
23:00
Roof maybe if you, you know, paid up Crystal Hood or not, I
23:03
believe, right? Yeah, that's the one.
23:05
Yeah, Yeah, those are all gone. And yet you see like GM cars
23:08
from that era, you see all those old Buicks smell around, but you
23:11
don't see that Chrysler. Chrysler.
23:13
Dodge. Not so much.
23:15
Not so. Not so much.
23:16
It was just it was really interesting to see what, you
23:18
know, what these kids were into and for, for such a small city,
23:22
there sure seemed to be a lot of automotive enthusiasm going in
23:25
circles. And it was it was kind of cool.
23:27
I mean, I guess if you live there, they're probably not a
23:29
lot of twisty roads. So, you know, you get your car
23:31
and you you go up and down the the main drag.
23:34
But it was cool to see. Again, we always hear kids are
23:36
into cars. Well, these these kids sure
23:38
were. And you know, I was a little
23:40
jealous of the guy with his girlfriend in the 70s pickup
23:42
truck going down to the Sonic or whatever.
23:44
I mean, that guy had it figured out.
23:45
If you talk about going back to simpler days, I think it still
23:48
exists and it's it's in North Platin, Nebraska.
23:50
But anyway. That's cool.
23:52
I think you have to go to, like little towns to get that feel.
23:55
You know, the big totally not so much.
23:57
But I think you get out in middle America, they're still
23:59
dragging Maine and going to Dairy Queen or Sonic, like you
24:02
said. It's just that's cool to know
24:04
that that's still happening. Yeah.
24:06
Absolutely. Yeah, because that's they don't.
24:08
Have to work with their. Problems.
24:09
So you got to figure it out, yeah.
24:12
No GT fours though, so yeah. Well.
24:15
Disappoint, but yeah, you have. To come to that car show for
24:18
that, that's. That's that's right.
24:21
Well, I just got a new windshield in my car and four
24:23
new cup twos. Any any guesses on what that
24:26
total was? You had a windshield.
24:28
Put in the GT4I. I did yeah.
24:31
It's my third windshield. We we crack them out here in
24:33
holy moly, especially when you're chasing a Spider Rs with
24:36
sticky tires. But.
24:38
That'll do it, buddy. Eric, but yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm.
24:42
Curious because I got a rock ship in mind when we were Rd.
24:44
tripping back from Kansas City to Seattle.
24:47
So I'm kind of curious for personal reasons what that cost.
24:52
Yeah, well the total was 4900 the which is a lot for four, you
24:56
know, 4 tires on a windshield and a windshield.
25:01
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and and just the windshield was 1900
25:06
bucks and I think that was the installed price.
25:09
But you know, tariffs and everything else.
25:10
The last time couple years ago was 1200.
25:12
That's what it's gone up in two years is 700 bucks.
25:14
So but yeah, at least now, now I'm good for a while.
25:18
But yeah, that was a shock to the the system.
25:21
I've bought cars cheaper than that.
25:23
We all. Have right 100% so.
25:27
Wow, Yeah, but shout out to Porsche Colorado Springs,
25:30
despite the the price. I mean, it would have cost me
25:32
that anywhere. And at least at Porsche Colorado
25:34
Springs, I can trust them. I know it's going to be done,
25:35
right. All the Pikes Peak drivers were
25:38
there because this was the Friday before the race, right?
25:41
With the Friday before the OH. OK, ended up.
25:43
Sitting down with Jeff's work, you know, in the waiting room
25:45
and this kind of thing, it was very cool to see these race cars
25:48
just driving down from the hill. Yeah, driving down from the
25:51
mountain. No license plates or anything.
25:53
Giant wings, you know, just coming in to get a little air or
25:56
get something checked or whatever.
25:57
And so it was a real hub of activity and pretty special.
26:00
We're so lucky we've got a dealership like that here.
26:02
And I didn't go to the the race this year.
26:05
I heard it was great and good weather and everything else and
26:09
it. Sounds like you did it in a more
26:12
comfortable way though. You still got to see everybody
26:13
and you didn't have to get up in the middle of the night and
26:16
fight the crowds. I mean, it's pretty surreal to
26:19
just walk into the Porsche dealer and have Jeff Swart
26:21
sitting there and, you know, you still got to see everybody.
26:23
And I think I'd. Rather sip an espresso on a
26:25
comfy couch. Totally.
26:27
Right, right, right, right up on a.
26:29
Mountain, Yeah. Shout.
26:30
Out to Jason Schmidt down there who's one of their their master
26:33
techs and he works on a lot of these Pikes Peak cars and he
26:35
took time to take me to my car and show me what was going on
26:38
and this and that and just a hell of a nice guy and it's just
26:42
kind of cool though, you know too that he's the guy that's
26:45
working on Jeff Swartz car, right?
26:46
He's looking at working on my GT4.
26:48
You know you're in good. Company, yeah, so.
26:50
So pretty cool and in good company indeed.
26:52
And all right, so you are festooned in all this Slate
26:57
stuff and I've heard a lot of buzz on Instagram and through
27:00
friends and stuff today about the Slate launch.
27:05
I don't know a whole lot about Slate other than this has been a
27:07
long time coming. They have promised this really
27:10
budget friendly EV pickup truck, which is very basic, but I think
27:15
that's what appeals to me. But start from the beginning
27:19
because I want to know everything there is to know
27:22
about Slate and I want to know about this amazing launch that I
27:24
didn't get an invitation to. But it seemed like a lot of our
27:26
friends were there as well, so it looked like a blast.
27:29
Yeah. Tell me about.
27:30
It again at the beginning, right.
27:31
Well, so they did their, they sort of launched the brand a
27:37
year ago April, so April 2025, they did an introduction of like
27:42
here's the company, here's what we're doing.
27:44
We intend to produce an entry level EV that, you know, we want
27:49
to make EVs accessible to many more people who have been locked
27:53
out because of the price so far. And one of the hallmarks of
27:58
their vehicles is the versatility and sort of
28:02
customizability because there are, it's the same platform, you
28:07
know, same footprint, but you can have it be a pickup truck,
28:10
You can have it be like kind of a Bronco looking with a sloped
28:15
roof. It looks that to me.
28:18
And Tori was with me this morning.
28:20
We were talking about it. That one looks like one of the
28:22
big 2 door Range Rovers from the 90s, which you know, and that
28:27
that's a little Easter egg if you listened to our episode with
28:30
Subaru of America's Dom Infante last week because Dom just
28:33
picked up one of the Range Rovers of those.
28:36
But so there is a slate that is very reminiscent of that
28:39
silhouette. And then they also have a square
28:43
back SUV that looks like a baby defender.
28:46
Tory described it that way and it's very accurate, especially
28:49
from the back. It really does look like a
28:50
defender and you can take the tops off like you do on a
28:55
Wrangler or the new Bronco and they have the bars that come
28:59
down and have it be like a four seater SUV with no top, like a
29:05
beach mobile and infinite possibilities like they're
29:10
making their own wraps. They're going to offer, You can
29:13
see behind me just a small selection of the colors that
29:16
they're going to offer, but they will also you're not actually.
29:18
In the showroom, But yeah, yeah, who's to?
29:21
Say, I mean, look at my, look at my outfit.
29:25
Who's to say whether I am or not?
29:27
And if you're not watching, there's a rainbow of of colours
29:30
behind Lindsay right now, so. Like it is reminiscent of the
29:34
Porsche showroom you know, or design like. 30 Reds.
29:37
I'm looking at like 30 Reds over your right folder.
29:39
So yeah. Yeah.
29:41
And I'm, I'm blocking all the greens, but there's some
29:43
beautiful greens as well. And I mean, I mean, Tori, maybe
29:46
you can talk more about the accessory area because that was
29:49
just as remarkable I. Think it's pretty fascinating.
29:53
So, yeah, I, you know, it's funny because we, so it's kind
29:58
of nostalgic for us because a year ago after the first late
30:03
event, Lindsay and I had our first and pretty much last date.
30:09
And so Slate's always kind of been this weird special thing
30:12
with us because we equated to like an anniversary of sorts.
30:16
So when she said earlier this week, hey, I got invited this
30:19
Slate thing, I put your name on it if you want to come with.
30:22
I, I am not Mr. EV at all. I love old cars.
30:26
I love noisy. You know, I'm not, I'm not an EV
30:30
guy. Ironically, the last couple
30:32
weeks, all of her press cars have been EVs.
30:35
So I've slowly been coming around to, you know, OK, I might
30:38
be able to see myself with this. So what she said it was slate.
30:41
I was like that that'd be kind of cool, you know, right.
30:45
I was like, let's, let's, let's do the slate thing.
30:49
So we're driving to Gardena. It was actually right near the
30:53
Porsche Experience Center across the.
30:56
Freeway. From there, so we're literally
30:57
passing the little muffler man holding the flag on the way.
31:01
And which is super. Cool.
31:03
And we pull up and they have repurposed this building.
31:06
It's super cool, like architecturally awesome.
31:09
They've redone everything inside.
31:11
It's an old brick building. So right off the bat they got
31:15
me. I'm like, this is a really cool
31:16
space. I like it.
31:18
We walk inside after we check in the the bricks are all weathered
31:21
inside. It's kind of reminiscent of like
31:23
something you would see in Nashville, like antique
31:26
archaeology that's like pre purpose, some old factory or
31:29
warehouse, super cool space. We walk in, they've got all of
31:33
these cars displayed on these shipping containers.
31:37
And I was like, wow, these look really cool because I, Lindsay
31:40
went to the first event. I did not.
31:42
And so this was my first time to actually see one in person.
31:46
And I have to say in pictures in in magazines, the truck looks
31:50
really, really tiny. And I was like, who's going to
31:53
buy this? You know, it doesn't look like
31:55
something that really is practical.
31:58
When I saw it in person and all the different configurations, I
32:01
was like, OK, I, I can see now it's almost like a Lego set.
32:05
And it's very modular and you can customize it.
32:08
And there's got to be an infinite amount of ways you can
32:10
customize this thing. But they had the wall like
32:13
what's behind Lindsay right now of all the colors, totally like
32:16
Zondervanch, you know, type of showroom.
32:20
And then next to it, they got all of these different interior
32:23
squares. And you can customize the colors
32:26
of dash inserts on the dashboard.
32:29
You can customize the grill. You can customize literally
32:33
every part of the car. You can take off with simple
32:36
tools and like a Lego set, you just plug in what you want to
32:41
see. And it was, it was such an, it
32:44
was such an interesting concept that I've never seen before.
32:48
Of course, Jeeps, you know, to some extent have that level of
32:52
customizability, but it, this is something literally, I think a
32:56
six year old with an Allen head, you know, bolt or screwdriver
33:00
could, could do. And so to walk through, I mean,
33:03
it was one point. They have a wall of nothing, but
33:07
I'm sure your kids had Crocs and there's little charms that you
33:10
can put on the Crocs to customize them.
33:13
They literally have a spot on the dashboard where they have
33:16
these little charms that you can customize.
33:18
Oh, that's the car. And it's like this is it's so
33:24
it's so out-of-the-box thinking that it just might work.
33:30
And, you know, on the way to the event, I talked to my friend
33:34
Jason Torczynski. I was like, hey, we're on our
33:36
way. The Slate event.
33:37
Are you going to be there? I always check with him to see
33:39
if he's going to be at a press event because, you know, I like
33:41
to run into him and we catch up and he's a Volkswagen guy.
33:44
And he's like, no, I'm not there.
33:46
But David Tracy from the Autopian was yesterday.
33:48
You should check out his article.
33:50
He he's already written it up. He got to drive it.
33:52
And I read the article. And I was glad that I'd read the
33:55
article before I went in because he nailed it.
33:58
This little car has Seoul. It's.
34:02
Yeah. Is it the most, is it the most
34:05
usable car? I don't know yet.
34:07
Do I know who's going to buy it? No.
34:08
Lindsay and I were trying to figure out like who's going to
34:11
be the customer? Who's going to, is it going to
34:12
be college kids? Is it going to be people that
34:14
have a mobile detail business or a landscape business that needs
34:17
something cheap? Maybe nobody knows, but it's at
34:20
the forefront of a crossroads in the automotive space that is
34:26
just really cool. And, you know, we talked to all
34:28
of these people that were on the engineering and design team
34:31
today. They all had come from other
34:33
manufacturers. A lot of them, I think, were
34:35
probably ready to retire. And when they heard about what
34:39
was happening with Slate, every single one of them was like, you
34:42
know what, this is something that I want to be a part of.
34:45
This is me getting in on the ground floor of something that I
34:48
think could be revolutionary. And I stand behind it and I I
34:52
want to be involved. And it was so cool to see how
34:55
personally invested every single one of these people from the
34:59
design teams were with this car, truck, whatever you want to call
35:03
it. And it's, you know, I can't help
35:05
but draw parallels between this and the Volkswagen Beetle when
35:09
it must have come to the US source for the first time,
35:11
because it's such a funny looking little car.
35:15
You know, back then, I mean, it was the bigger, the better,
35:17
longer, lower, wider Cadillacs, Chevys.
35:20
And here comes this funny looking little car that
35:23
absolutely revolutionized the automotive industry because it
35:27
was a car that anybody could buy, anybody could afford,
35:31
anybody could use. It was it was the people's car.
35:34
Anybody can. I don't say this lightly.
35:37
I think Slate could be the next people's car.
35:41
I really didn't want to like this car.
35:43
Ryan and and I left there with just this renewed sense of, is
35:49
this something that I could buy? Could I use this?
35:52
Could I find a spot in my garage for this little car because I
35:55
was so moved by what they're trying to build?
36:01
You mentioned Seoul. What is it that imparts the
36:05
soul, right? Because I I just did this press
36:09
car day where I got to drive, I don't know, a couple dozen cars
36:12
or ever Lindsay did something similar.
36:13
Yeah, some cars did seem to have that.
36:16
Others were they were dead inside, Right.
36:19
So, So what is it? Is it the honesty of the thing?
36:23
Is it you know, is it? Is it that it's what you see is
36:26
what you get that it's not trying to be I?
36:28
Think it's all of those things because, and, and, and what's so
36:31
ironic about it is me personally not being a huge fan of EVs,
36:36
I've always thought they were like an appliance, you know, oh,
36:38
this is just a toaster. This is just a, but for whatever
36:42
reason, this little card, you just look at it and you're like,
36:45
it's, it's kind of cute to look at.
36:47
It's got crank windows. It's very no frills.
36:51
It's, it is, it's what you see is what you get.
36:53
It's not trying to be something that it's not.
36:57
I I, I just love everything about it.
36:59
It's to me, I was telling Lindsay earlier, it's kind of
37:01
like an underdog. You know, you've got all these
37:04
companies trying to outdo one another on bells, whistles,
37:07
wireless, this self parking that this seems to get back to the
37:13
root of driving and I love it. I just it's it's super no
37:18
frills, like there's nothing on the dashboard really.
37:22
You know, there's, there's not much for an interior everything.
37:24
There's a lot of plastic there's but it just seems fun.
37:30
And the fact that you have these these limitless ways to
37:35
customize it and personalize it and make it your own.
37:38
I don't see that with other car makers.
37:41
Sure, you can do stuff to trucks and lift them and put rims on
37:43
them, but I mean, they had, they had an entire slideshow going
37:47
the entire time we were there showing nothing but different
37:51
liveries the different people had created.
37:54
There were like 1980s Trapper Keeper looking slates.
37:59
There were futuristic cyberpunk looking liveries.
38:04
I mean, it was, it was, it was unbelievable to see.
38:08
And I've never seen another car manufacturer embrace the
38:12
personality of these cars. Like I saw Slate today and
38:16
everyone you could tell was just excited to be there and finally
38:20
be able to show this thing off. Well.
38:23
And I think because there are manufacturers, like we mentioned
38:27
Porsche and the Sundarvunch program, but that's not
38:30
accessible to most people. This is something that is
38:34
affordable and accessible. Like we could talk to one of the
38:36
people on the engineering team. And he said when this idea was
38:39
first coming to shape for the company to like when Slate
38:43
itself was first taking shape, they said at that point, you
38:48
know, we're looking at people where a lot of people were only
38:52
making 50,000 a year or that was the median income or whatever.
38:55
And they're like, if the average car price is also 50,000 a year,
39:00
that doesn't track. Like that's not a viable
39:03
situation. So can we make something that is
39:06
more affordable, gives people an entree into the EV space if they
39:10
want it? And one thing that he mentioned
39:13
too, is he said a lot of people were limited in the vehicle
39:18
options that are available. They were being forced to work
39:22
in jobs that they could reach by a bus.
39:25
And they're like, what if we gave them the ability to work
39:28
like way more flexible, open up their options?
39:33
That's fantastic. And then also like the economic
39:36
positive impact of that can't be overstated.
39:39
And I think, you know, you said what gives a car sole, I think
39:43
it's the ability to make it yours.
39:46
You know, when we had Laura on, she talked about she looks at
39:49
cars a lot of times as sort of an extension of like your
39:52
personality or it's a way to show like say something about
39:57
yourself. You can think of it as an
39:59
accessory. And it's, you know, it's how you
40:03
show up in the world. And I think sleep, like, really
40:07
is the embodiment of the ultimate way to say something
40:11
about yourself through your vehicle before you, you know,
40:15
even get out of the car. So it so how, how are these
40:22
customizable elements customized?
40:24
Is this something that does it come from the factory?
40:27
Is this all stuff you can do on your own?
40:29
To your point, Tori, like what do you, is this like going into
40:32
a sushi restaurant? You check off the options on a
40:34
little piece of it. Like how, how does this all
40:36
work? How does this all come together?
40:38
I think both. I think you're able to buy a
40:41
bare bones blank slate, no pun intended, and then you customize
40:47
it from there. You can, I believe there is a
40:49
configure Raider, you know, much like porchos, like we all do
40:53
late at night when you've had a few too many beers and you want
40:56
to build a car but you can't afford it.
40:59
So I do believe that there's boxes you can check.
41:01
But they also said that that what was it, 40,000 or
41:04
something? I mean some ungodly amount of
41:06
service centers that they're going to have.
41:08
And what's really cool about them is they're beating the
41:10
aftermarket to the punch. They're designing all of this
41:13
stuff. They're going to invite people
41:15
to 3D print parts for this car. So they're really embracing
41:20
like, whereas anyone else like, say Porsche, you know, I'm sure
41:24
they probably have a problem with people making parts or, you
41:27
know, they want the proprietary stuff, whereas they're like,
41:31
hey, have fun with it. Go crazy.
41:34
We're putting this out to the world.
41:35
This is your blank canvas. Do what you want.
41:38
Their their slogan is literally we built it, you make it.
41:42
And I love that it's it's they're embracing the
41:45
personalization of this car. But I mean, if you would have
41:48
seen what they had set up today, it was mind blowing.
41:50
I mean they have different arrow trim rings that that can go on
41:54
the wheels. They have different wheels.
41:56
They had a like a Westphalia pop top tent, like what was on old
42:00
VW buses that you could put on. They have, I mean, it, it's
42:05
there, it's an infinite amount of of different ways you can
42:10
customize this car it it, I cannot wait.
42:13
It's going to bring so much color back to the streets
42:17
because so many people are going to design them themselves and
42:20
it's not just going to be dull silver cars everywhere.
42:23
I'm I'm really excited to see all of these crazy.
42:26
You know, you're going to see ones that have Hello Kitty on it
42:29
probably, and you're going to see futuristic ones.
42:31
And, and he even mentioned he was like, you know, we're going
42:34
to, people have already said that if they're, you know,
42:36
Pittsburgh Steelers fans, you're going to see Pittsburgh
42:39
Steelers, you know, on, on slates and, and it's going to be
42:42
cheap enough that they can probably swap them out during
42:45
seasons. You know, if you all of a sudden
42:47
become a Green Bay Packers fan or whatever, you can customize
42:50
it to that, which is really cool.
42:52
Are the body panels plastic? They are, yeah.
42:56
It's like a plastic composite, but then like the door frames he
42:59
was saying actually are bonded to a metal inner structure.
43:03
It's a 5. It's a 5 star crash rated so
43:08
they are safe but I mean I don't think we've seen this in Saturn
43:11
right? I I can't think of another car
43:13
that's had plastic composite body parts but.
43:16
They have made homecomings, right?
43:19
Right. One, one of the things that
43:21
really struck me because so we heard from the CEO and then one
43:26
of the presidents and then we actually got to chat with one of
43:29
the engineering team one-on-one. And one of the things that the
43:33
CEO mentioned because they want to encourage and facilitate
43:37
people customizing these and putting their own spin on them.
43:40
He said, we even went through and made sure that there was a
43:45
particular angle that can be really tough to do a wrap on on
43:49
a car or a particular, you know, shape.
43:52
And he said, we made sure that we minimize those, if not
43:55
eliminated them to make it even easier for you to put the wrap
43:59
on yourself at home if you want. And like they, like Tori said,
44:02
they're going to have these, you know, service centers and
44:06
they're not dealers because it's a direct order, you know, set up
44:10
just like Tesla. You order it online, but then
44:13
you can go to these certified slate centers and they will
44:17
either you could have them do the work if you wanted, or they
44:19
will help you. And yeah, he's like, we wanted
44:23
to make it as easy as possible for you to not only pick your
44:26
wrap, but like Tory said, change out the wrap if you want to.
44:31
Right, right, right. Can you get a bench seat?
44:36
In the bat, I think that. I don't know.
44:38
I didn't see. So they had, they had mock up
44:40
interiors set up that you could actually like switch out the
44:43
little panels. I didn't see a bench seat.
44:46
I did see, I mean, it's just the two seats, you know, normal type
44:49
of seats. But I didn't see a bench seat.
44:51
But that's not to say someone's not going to come up with it, I
44:54
think. I think.
44:56
People are paying attention right now.
44:59
They would be smart to start developing parts for this thing
45:02
because I think it's really going to be that popular.
45:04
I think if they're going to encounter a problem, it's going
45:06
to be that they cannot keep up with the demand quick enough.
45:09
Well. Hell, if I owned like a plumbing
45:11
company, I'm replacing my 30. You know Ford Econoline vans
45:16
tomorrow with these things, right?
45:17
100. Percent.
45:18
And we were even talking about landscapers.
45:20
You see a lot of landscapers down here in the LA area, you
45:23
know, they got Rakes and all their yard stuff and whatever
45:26
else. They're almost always like 80s
45:28
trucks. The Toyotas.
45:29
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
45:31
Exactly, And I mean, when when those things stop running, which
45:34
eventually they probably will, like this is a great option for
45:37
them. It's not gonna, you know,
45:41
electric, you know, I mean, that is the future.
45:43
And especially here in California, you know, the
45:46
engineer had a great point. He's like, you know, with smog
45:48
and everything, he was like, this is, this is a good option
45:51
for everybody in, in Southern California.
45:53
You know, you don't have to worry about that.
45:55
It is, it's a clean car. I and, and honestly, the power
45:59
was more than adequate. They took us down a purposely
46:02
bumpy Rd. because it's like, OK, it's kind of a short wheelbase
46:05
car. Like how's it gonna handle?
46:07
It was fine. I was worried about getting in
46:09
it. I'm almost 6 two and I was like,
46:11
this thing looks pretty tiny on the outside.
46:13
I don't know what witchcraft they did, but when you fit in
46:16
this thing, I probably had another 6-8 inches of headroom
46:21
in it. It was, it was bizarre, like it
46:24
didn't look like it would be that big inside, but
46:26
interesting. Interesting, so tell me about
46:28
the powertrains because I have heard that range can be an
46:31
issue, but I also assume that much like the roll up windows,
46:34
you can option up to other other things right?
46:38
They're probably other powertrains.
46:41
So right now my. Understanding was originally
46:44
there were a couple options. There was an extended range
46:47
battery pack I believe, and then there was just the standard.
46:51
And when they started looking at the data of what people were I
46:55
guess pre ordering or putting reservations in for everyone was
46:59
opting for the bigger, you know, obviously with EV ranges,
47:02
everything. And I think I believe I could be
47:05
wrong, Lindsay can correct me, but if I was paying attention
47:08
correctly, I believe they upped the range like 50 miles.
47:12
Now the range is 205 miles and they're not even offering an
47:17
option. They just automatically upgraded
47:19
the range to that because they were like, it doesn't look like
47:21
anyone wants the 155 option or whatever.
47:24
So everything is going to be 205 mile range now, which is which
47:29
is pretty nice. So will there be an all-wheel
47:34
drive option? So they are famously mum on that
47:39
a little bit. It was kind of a never say
47:43
never. So the CEO talked about the
47:47
range and what he said was that after they launched and they
47:51
announced what the range was going to be consistently like
47:54
Tori was saying what they heard from people was is there any way
47:57
to increase the range because and that was across the board.
48:00
And so they were committed to. And I just checked my notes and
48:05
the starting price will be $24,950.
48:09
And then obviously you option it the way that you want and the
48:12
price goes up accordingly. But he said, we committed after
48:17
we got all this feedback and it was consistently the same thing.
48:20
We said, OK, we need to find a way to increase the range and
48:23
we're committed to keeping the price under 25,000.
48:26
And so as of today, they have done that.
48:29
They're announcing that like Tori said, they've added 50
48:31
miles to the range. And he said they had taken
48:35
pre-orders and then before the event this morning, they opened
48:41
up the actual reservations where you could get a spot in line.
48:45
And by the time he was speaking at the event on the West Coast,
48:48
which was shortly after 9:00, he said, we're already at 10,000
48:51
reservations. Really wow, that's it.
48:55
And I imagine with, you know, as far as range and all that, you
48:57
know, the, the way to more range is it is another, you know,
49:00
motor and battery pack and all that.
49:02
And so that would also have more power and, and, and I'm sure
49:05
it's just, you know, they'll grow into that, right?
49:07
I'm sure that the, that the car is, is built for expansion,
49:10
right? I'm really intrigued.
49:11
You know, I, I, I think it's a third or fourth car for a family
49:14
like mine, it makes a ton of sense.
49:15
You know, five star crash rating, you know, I'd let my
49:18
daughter drive it to school. You know, the utility of a
49:21
pickup especially has a lot of appeal where I've never been a
49:24
pickup, a pickup truck guy. I've never owned one, never
49:26
really desired to own one, but something like this fits in the
49:29
garage. You know, it's just, it would be
49:31
such a great runabout, right? Costco runs that kind of thing.
49:35
I mean, it just, it sort of seems like there really are no
49:38
great downsides. I mean, we'll, we'll see.
49:40
I mean, I know the association with with Amazon and Jeff Bezos
49:44
and all this, you know, they've gotten some grief for for that.
49:47
But it sounds like this is really its own entity and it's
49:49
it's really kind of doing their own thing.
49:51
And, you know, it's. Yeah, I'm intrigued.
49:53
Yeah. What does it cost to put a
49:55
deposit down on one, do you know?
49:57
300 dollars 300. Dollars.
49:58
Oh, even I can afford that, right?
50:00
Yeah, I did read there's going to be some financing options as
50:03
well, but I believe $300 is, is what it that's all it takes to
50:07
reserve your spot for one. And then when it gets a little
50:10
closer to delivery, as I understand, then they'll contact
50:13
you and you know, then you can configure it how you want,
50:16
modify it and then they'll have a little better idea.
50:19
But supposedly according to them today deliveries will start end
50:23
of 2026, beginning of 2027. So they're coming soon.
50:27
Everything's built in Indiana. They've repurposed a huge
50:31
factory up there. The state-of-the-art.
50:32
Beautiful, beautiful factory. This is the old.
50:35
Mitsubishi plant, I think it was no.
50:38
It was they. Said it was not a month printing
50:40
plant or something. OK.
50:42
OK. Maybe I'm thinking of
50:43
Bloomington Normal, IL, but yeah, OK.
50:46
Could be, yeah. I mean, and we were talking on
50:48
the way up, you know, knowing what little we knew before the
50:52
event about who might be the target audience.
50:55
And I was saying, given the price point and the utility,
50:59
like you said, Ryan, my first thought was college students
51:02
because that's a group that needs to move regularly for a
51:06
few years. And you know, the versatility of
51:11
the car, in theory, you could turn it into a pickup truck when
51:14
you're moving into school and moving out and the rest of the
51:16
year you can make it an enclosed SUV that seats 4.
51:20
But what was so interesting when we were talking to the engineer
51:24
was he mentioned and it's kind of what you said to Ryan.
51:28
They're also anticipating that it will be people who kind of
51:31
buy 1 and tuck it away because it gives them the option of
51:34
having a truck without having to go buy one of the big full size
51:38
pickups, which are expensive these days.
51:41
And if you don't need one all the time, but trucks can be
51:44
really nice to have one when you need one.
51:47
And this gives you the option of buying one.
51:49
It doesn't break the bank, You can tuck it away.
51:51
It fits in the garage. It's kind of the best of all the
51:55
world's. Yeah, I, I see this being towed
51:58
behind, you know, R VS. I see this as like the Snowbird
52:01
vehicle down in Florida. You know, when you live in New
52:04
York or Chicago or something, I see this and you know all the
52:07
like beach communities right in California.
52:10
It could almost take the place of like a Myers Manx or
52:13
something, or even a a golf cart, right, where maybe you had
52:15
a golf cart or one of these, you know, you've got a a slate.
52:18
It's just we. Literally sound like a.
52:19
Commercial, but what's that and we?
52:22
Literally were talking about that, you know, you have a lot
52:24
of these communities in Florida and California, these sure,
52:27
everyone's got these golf carts And you know, the engineer we
52:30
were talking to, we, we brought up that point.
52:32
He goes, you know what, in a lot of cases, like those golf carts
52:34
are just as expensive as what we're asking for the slate.
52:37
I mean, those things have gotten really expensive.
52:39
They're lifted. They have wheels on them.
52:41
They got huge stereos on them now like this.
52:43
It, it could essentially, you know, I'll make this point too.
52:47
The other thing that I'm excited to see happen is this may be the
52:51
car that finally gets younger people more interested in
52:56
getting their driver's license, more interested in not taking
53:00
Uber everywhere. You know, this may be the car
53:03
that that kind of gets the millennials and the younger
53:05
generation mobile again. You know, instead of having to
53:08
rely on other people or taking mass transit or because they're
53:12
going to feel like they're not polluting the environment.
53:15
It's an EV that might be the thing that gets them excited
53:18
about driving again, right? Yeah, because and it'll be the
53:21
new hero car of The Villages in Florida for all the stories.
53:24
Oh yeah? Well.
53:26
And then a lot of with all of the customizability and you
53:30
know, you can see the bright colors behind me and they had at
53:35
the event, Tori mentioned they had sort of miniaturized
53:37
interiors and so you could go over and play with you.
53:40
They had pieces set out and so you could see how easy it was to
53:43
swap them out. At one point somebody had put,
53:46
you know, three different colors across the dash, which, you
53:49
know, that's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but
53:52
depending on like if you had one of the amazing 80s exteriors,
53:56
you can color coordinate to your heart's content inside.
54:00
And so I think in a lot of ways, I think one of the reasons a lot
54:03
of people gravitate to vintage cars is because of all the
54:06
bright colors and the joy. A lot of the reason we come to
54:09
driving is because it brings all of us joy.
54:11
And I think these cars are going to help bring some of the joy
54:14
back to everyday life for sure. But just cars in general and
54:19
driving and like Tori said, like, sort of be like a happy,
54:24
you know, entree enticement back into like, hey, driving is
54:28
supposed to be fun. It brings a lot of us a lot of
54:31
joy. And these cars are, you know,
54:33
joy embodied. And so, yeah, I'm excited to see
54:36
what people do with them. You didn't get to drive them.
54:40
You rode them, but you haven't had a chance to drive one, right
54:42
yet, correct. So I'm very interested and I
54:44
trust David Tracy's opinion. He seems to know what he's what
54:47
he's talking about generally. So if he yeah, if he thinks it
54:50
drives well, then I'm guessing it does.
54:52
And so, you know, it's just it, it seems like a very compelling,
54:56
it seems we've talked about this before, but this is probably the
54:58
right car for a lot of people, right?
55:00
And interesting to see like where this pulls people though
55:04
from not just golf carts, but like, where will people jump
55:07
ship, you know, to go to a slate, you know, will it be the
55:11
people like the Rivian crowd, right?
55:12
Especially with, you know, the, the new, you know, R2 or
55:16
whatever. To your point, Tori, is this
55:19
going to be the new people's car?
55:20
Is this like going to be the, you know, what's the word I'm
55:23
looking for? Like, you know, the just the,
55:25
the, the great equalizer, right? I, I, I could see people, to
55:29
your point, like what a beetle used to be, right?
55:31
You you had poor people, you'd have, you'd have wealthy people.
55:34
I mean, it was it didn't really, it didn't really matter.
55:36
It was sort of like the the, I don't know, the anti status car,
55:41
right. And and yeah, I don't know the.
55:43
Universal because. It's been a long time.
55:46
Yeah, yeah. Yep.
55:48
I could see, I could see millionaires in South Beach
55:50
driving this to get, you know, a coffee.
55:53
And I could see broke college kids, you know, working three
55:56
jobs to stay afloat using this. It's it is the great equalizer.
56:01
And I do think it's going to be the next people's car.
56:03
I really feel strongly about that.
56:05
Yeah. Yeah.
56:06
Yeah. So what are you specking for
56:07
yourselves, each of you? How are you specking out your
56:10
new slate? I would, I really liked the one
56:16
that looks like a defender, unsurprisingly, but they it was
56:20
really cool because the ones that they had on display were
56:23
reminiscent of if you've seen the beach break defender livery,
56:27
which is the beautiful blue with a white roof.
56:29
And then it's got the kind of sunset stripes.
56:32
And so they had them done in like Reds, oranges and yellows,
56:35
different variations of that. And actually, and the one that
56:40
looks like a Range Rover, they had in kind of a metallic burnt
56:42
orangey. I mean, I'm assuming it was a
56:45
wrap, you know, Yeah, I'd have to go with the Defender.
56:50
And I mean, I probably would go with some sort of variation of
56:53
like the sunset colors because it just looked fantastic and I
56:57
know it would make me smile. And I have to say, like, we got
57:01
to ride in them. And we both were really
57:03
impressed when we got out and the ride was there was plenty of
57:08
feedback from the road. And like Tori said, we were in
57:09
Gardena, we were near the old Shelby headquarters too, if
57:13
anybody knows where that is. And the roads are not great,
57:17
like they are decidedly in need of some TLC.
57:21
And the cars were super comfortable.
57:24
When you get feedback, it's not vague, like you're definitely
57:27
aware of what's going on in the road.
57:29
You're very engaged, but super comfortable.
57:32
And one thing that really caught my attention because this is not
57:35
the case with all EVs, but the one pedal driving was incredibly
57:38
comfortable. Like some of them, it can be
57:41
quite jerky and this was very pleasant.
57:45
Right, right, right. Yeah.
57:46
How about you, Tori? I really like the open top.
57:49
I think I would go, I think I'd go with the open top.
57:52
I like the kind of exposed roll integrated roll bar, you know,
57:58
on the on the back, like 3/4. And I'd have to do probably
58:01
something 80s vibrant, you know, purple, turquoise, pink, white,
58:06
something that looks like it would be on the beach in, you
58:09
know, Miami in 1985. I mean that that would just be
58:13
so cool. And I can't, you know, during
58:15
the slideshow presentation, they're showing all of these
58:17
liberties on the screen. And like there were a lot of 80s
58:21
kind of throwback inspired liveries.
58:23
I was really impressed. Like I was like, this is this is
58:26
cool. I like where the creativity of
58:28
this is going. And I mean, there were a couple
58:30
that look like, I mean, if you remember trapper keepers, like
58:33
that's kind of what they look like were trapper keepers when
58:36
we were a kid. I just I loved it.
58:37
It was really cool. I'd probably do something like
58:39
that. But I did like the baby
58:40
defender. Like that was even the spare
58:42
tire treatment on it was very reminiscent of the defender.
58:45
A lot of the people that worked, one of the guys that Evan gave
58:49
me a ride and he came from Scout and so you could see kind of
58:53
some parallels with Scout. You could see it.
58:55
It was cool. Everyone just kind of put their
58:57
own little thing in and everyone was so passionate.
59:01
That's what I my big take away was it was so cool to see a team
59:06
that was so passionate and all of their hard work has LED up to
59:10
basically today. You know, I mean, all these
59:13
people were going on, you know, Red Bulls and coffees for a
59:16
week. And Lindsay had a good friend
59:18
that was there that was lovely to talk to you.
59:20
And, you know, you could tell a poor thing was on borrowed time,
59:22
but she was so proud of everything that they had
59:25
accomplished. And, and you could really feel a
59:28
sense of that accomplishment just talking to them and how
59:32
excited they were to finally be able to show it with the world.
59:35
And the fact that they were able to keep the price under $25,000.
59:39
A lot of people said they'll never be able to do it.
59:41
You know, the Reddit pages were just flaming them left and right
59:44
like, oh, they're baiting and switching everybody.
59:46
No, they did it. They absolutely did it.
59:49
And my hands off to them because it's good luck.
59:52
Tron D that you know, the engineer we talked to, he's
59:54
like, you know, it's it's really easy to take the last iteration
59:58
of a car and build upon that and make it something special.
1:00:01
He said we had a blank whiteboard.
1:00:04
And that's where we started. And, and the fact that we've
1:00:07
come this far in so little time and everyone is so enthusiastic
1:00:11
about it. Man, my hands off to him.
1:00:14
I mean, it was a really, really good.
1:00:15
You felt like you were kind of watching history.
1:00:18
That's how I felt. I mean, it was cool, yeah.
1:00:21
I mean, it's a rare, a rare thing these days, right?
1:00:23
So it really is I mean. I've been to press launches
1:00:25
before and you know, they're all, they're all kind of the
1:00:28
same, right? I mean, some are more exciting
1:00:30
than others, but this one, you just felt like a buzz.
1:00:34
It was a weird, you know, electricity joke aside.
1:00:37
Like there was a buzz about it. And it was.
1:00:40
Really cool I was. Very glad we went.
1:00:42
I really was, yeah. Glad you guys went too.
1:00:45
No, this is interesting. It's really, you know, I'd seen
1:00:47
the I'd seen the articles. It's it's interesting, seems
1:00:50
kind of novel, but I don't know that I ever really desired 1 and
1:00:55
I think maybe that's maybe that's changing.
1:00:57
So yeah, stay, stay tuned. I, I think the story is just
1:01:01
getting started and hell, maybe we'll end up with three slate
1:01:05
owners on the the show to go with our Porsches, but that's
1:01:09
going to be our. That's going to be our two car
1:01:10
solution, a slate and a GT4, yeah.
1:01:12
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a great two car
1:01:16
solution for sure. So, well, we're at an hour.
1:01:19
I'm so glad to hear about the slate.
1:01:21
I think it's really cool. Like I said, I'm really excited.
1:01:23
I'm I'm eager to see how this thing plays out and maybe we'll
1:01:26
have someone from Slate on in the weeks to come to tell us, to
1:01:29
tell us more. We'll see.
1:01:30
But yeah, in the meantime, we've got some great episodes coming
1:01:35
up, including the Pebble Beach Concords new president Vince
1:01:40
Finaldi, he's coming on in about 3 weeks and some other great
1:01:42
people as well. Our old friend Lynn Woodward is
1:01:45
coming back in a couple weeks as well.
1:01:46
So it's it's pretty good. So yeah.
1:01:49
So please stay tuned, you know, and, and and don't forget to
1:01:52
tell your friends about us as well.
1:01:54
But it's been a long day guys. Should we wrap this?
1:01:58
I think it's about that time. Fun, but it was long for sure.
1:02:01
Yeah. Absolutely.
1:02:02
Absolutely. Well, I'll hand the the mic to
1:02:04
you here, Lindsay. Yeah.
1:02:06
Well, thank you so much to everybody for joining us.
1:02:08
Obviously, thank you, Jaifori for being here.
1:02:10
Ryan, it was so good to see you. We appreciate all of our
1:02:13
listeners being here, liking, reviewing and sharing the show
1:02:17
with their enthusiast friends. Remember to always be driving
1:02:20
where That car show and we'll see you back here next week.