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Subaru of America’s Dominick Infante · That Car Show

• 0:00
  I've always preferred people lie to me, look and.
• 0:04
  Now we know. Please say I'm good looking, I
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  don't want to hear the truth. Today on that car show, it's
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  Subaru of America's Director of Communications, R Pal, Dominic
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  Confante. We touch on everything from
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  Subaru's unique space in the American automotive landscape to
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  their commitment to manual transmissions, to their unique
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  approach to EVs. Dominic's the real deal, with an
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  interesting back story and some real insight into the business
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  of cars. Oh, and he's got a secret garage
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  full of old British stuff too. Stay tuned, It's Subaru's
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  Dominic Infante, and it's that car show.
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  Welcome back to this week's episode of That Car Show.
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  I'm Lindsay and I'm here with Ryan, and this week we are
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  joined by our friend Dominic Infante, the Director of
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  Communications for Subaru North America.
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  Dom and I met at the Goodwood Revival actually a few years ago
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  during a record heat wave that saw them lift the period correct
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  costuming dress code for the first time ever in the history
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  of the event. It was a memorable time for
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  sure, and we've been friends since then.
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  We've been lucky to meet up when we're in the same town, which is
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  often at an auto show. Dom has had roles at the
• 1:14
  University of Miami and a Chrysler before coming to Subaru
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  more than 14 years ago. He is a real enthusiast and a
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  driver. He is known for putting together
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  truly memorable press trips which really showcase the
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  capabilities of Subaru's cars, and he has quite a unique
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  collection himself. We love Subaru here on that car
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  show, and we're excited to welcome Dom to the show today.
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  Hi Dom. Hello.
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  Hey, good to see you guys. Yeah, of course, not happy to
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  have you. So you are like truly, you know,
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  you live the enthusiast life. You have a great Instagram feed.
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  It's always fun to follow along on your adventures.
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  So can you tell us a little bit of how you got into cars?
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  Were you always a car guy? And then talk about a little bit
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  of your career path and how you found yourself where you are
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  today at Subaru. Yeah, sure.
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  I mean, yeah, I was always a car person.
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  I don't know why, you know, my parents told me I made car
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  noises before I spoke and I can genuinely remember seeing my
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  first E type, first Corvette, things like that.
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  I, I, those are in in my memory and for some reason cars always
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  spoke to me. My parents weren't car people.
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  They did on a few interesting cars, but I think by accident,
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  you know, I don't think my my dad owned an old cord, coffin
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  nose cord A10, but literally he drove it in New York City as a
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  beater car. The accidental.
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  Enthusiasts. 20 years old or something.
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  And then my mom had a Chinquichento when they, when
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  she lived in the Bahamas and we had a mini, a Mini milk in the
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  Bahamas as well. I grew up in the Bahamas, born
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  and raised in the Bahamas, which is a little weird, but ended up
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  moving to the US when I was about 12.
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  So but I was in the cars over there and you know, it was just
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  one of those things. I was always a big fan of cars
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  and I think the only car my father was really into, he he
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  custom ordered a Volkswagen Beetle from Germany be sent to
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  the Bahamas with the big sunroof.
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  And so that was like, I think that was remained his favorite
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  car that he ever owned, but not a car person.
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  And I just got into it And then, you know, I think like many
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  people reading car magazines, I grew up in South Florida.
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  So there were always interesting cars and I was very lucky that a
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  good friend of mine, Marcello, his father is Italian and
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  obviously, well, I'm kind of Italian too, but his father's
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  actually from Italy, He's from Capri and he was a real car
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  maniac and he was always getting new cars.
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  He owned, he's a very famous chef.
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  He owned all these restaurants and so he was and he knew all
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  the car dealers. So we always got a new car.
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  So it was always something interesting at his house and
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  then Marcello would get his hand me downs, you know.
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  So we started off with a Michelle, had a 280Z and then
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  Alfa Romeo GTV 6. I was very lucky.
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  I my, my first car was a Fiat X-19, which was, which was as
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  wonderful and awful as they are known to be, literally
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  hilariously fun to drive. It was a great car to learn on
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  because he had 0 horsepower and you learn about momentum.
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  He learned to pick lanes. You could tell who's slowing
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  faster, who's accelerating faster than anybody else.
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  So it made me really think through driving and from there,
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  after many accidents, within about a two-month period getting
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  my license, we we suddenly I had a used Honda Civic.
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  Look at that I. Was I had AI had a good run
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  there for a few months. I was pretty cool.
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  And then brown, brown Honda Civic, which was actually great
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  car. Actually, I'm not going to not
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  going to say anything bad about that.
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  That was a great car and that, you know, really I was very
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  fortunate. I was a Formula One fanatic
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  before. You could really watch Formula
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  One all the time because I could read about it in road and track
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  and which I did and had. He's great writers, Rob Walker
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  and Ennis Ireland, who used to write about former drivers.
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  And it's funny, I'd read about these things and, and and
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  thought it was just great, but I had no idea who Sterling Moss,
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  Fangio, all these people were. My father maybe had a little bit
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  of knowledge, but I didn't really know.
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  He wasn't really into, into cars or into racing, but they
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  wouldn't know them 'cause they would, they would happen to go
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  to Bahama Speed weeks, right, 'cause you had all the great
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  guys would come down there in the early 60s when my parents
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  were living there. And so they, I think you just
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  went to the races because that's what you did.
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  There's only, it's an island. There's only so many interesting
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  things you can do. And then you're bored and you're
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  like, oh, something's going on, let's go to that.
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  So they were there, but they don't remember any of the
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  drivers. But yeah, anyways, I kind of got
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  really into cars and, and in in my into the motorsport side of
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  it was through reading about it and in magazines, probably like
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  a lot of young people. And then, you know, all of a
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  sudden we could watch stuff on TV.
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  I'm like, this is incredible. I can watch every Formula One
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  race, you know, before it became super popular.
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  But yeah, so they were always kind of kind of what I looked up
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  to was, was, you know, the drivers of the Gillville News
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  and Nigel Mansell and stuff and dating myself.
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  But, you know, those were the guys I remember being really
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  into. And, and it's funny because I
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  really, it was in my mind, it was the NASCAR was not a not a
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  draw for me because the cars weren't as cool because they
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  were still stock cars back then, right?
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  So they were Fords, but they were like the ones your parents
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  drove, right, right. You know, I look at Formula One
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  and like going, oh, Ferrari, you know, Aston Martins and you
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  know, all these, you know, very. Integrational, yeah.
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  It seems way cooler. Why am I not?
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  Why am I watching this? But now, yeah, now I now I
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  learned a little bit. I worked for Chrysler and we did
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  NASCAR with Chrysler, obviously back then with Dodge for a while
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  when they were still in it and got, I was very fortunate to get
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  to go to some NASCAR races and eat a giant Turkey leg and see
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  some of that stuff in, in person, you know.
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  So it's been, it's been fun. Yeah.
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  And then and then into Subaru, I, you know, you got into a
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  rally, you know, there were so many rallies, great rallies to
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  go to, you know, and following Petter Sulberg and all.
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  So I actually, I've been with with Subaru for 21 years,
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  actually, not 14. So it's been a while, yeah.
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  Even better. Yeah.
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  And to say though, that, you know, as a Florida Gator, I did
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  work for University of Miami, but I, I did not do a good job
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  on purpose, but I. By design, right?
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  No worries, I got you. No, a great, it was a great
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  place to where I, I actually started off as a journalist and
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  she was saying, you know how I got into it kind of always was
• 7:17
  kind of a writer and wanted to go into being, I don't know,
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  maybe Rd. track car driver or something like that was trying
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  to figure out couldn't really see a path towards that.
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  So I ended up getting a a job with a business magazine and I
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  became a business writer and was doing that and finally convinced
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  the editor of the publisher to let me write about cars.
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  I'm like, look, we can sell car ads if I write about cars,
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  right? So that's how I started
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  reviewing cars. And then I learned about the
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  world of automotive PR. And I'm like, well, that looks
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  actually really cool. And so I asked a couple people
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  and they're like, yeah, just get some PR experience.
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  So I got a job with the University of Miami.
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  I got a job, became the head of became the director of
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  communications for the School of Business there and started doing
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  PR and then an opportunity that almost became a career path.
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  And then an, an opening came with, with Chrysler to work for
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  doing regional PR. And then I went to went to the
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  Kremlin, as I say, had to go to Detroit, moved to Detroit.
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  You had to go do your time. Yeah, did my time in Detroit.
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  It's actually great because you know, when you get there, you
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  have access, you, you know, you can talk to the engineers and
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  then talk to the designers and then go to this giant design
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  studio and you're seeing cars that are 1020 years out that
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  they're working on like future, future stuff.
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  And for a car for a car geek desk was just a Rata.
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  You know, to see all of that and to know all and get to know the
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  designers and see what they're doing.
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  And they're so far thinking in the way that they attack and
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  approach everything. It's just so great.
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  And then had wonderful engineers.
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  Do you know who are explaining, you know, the, the, the smallest
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  pinpoints on a car and, and how much effort goes into creating a
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  car? And like, there are guys who who
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  do nothing but work on the motors for windshield wipers,
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  you know, but they're trying to make it the best.
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  You know, it's really fun to see all that insider stuff.
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  And then, you know, I think what shocked me about the auto auto
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  industry was I was like, look, this is such a gift to be a part
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  of this. This is so wonderful.
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  How can you not be a car enthusiast?
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  And, and they weren't. And what you understand is like
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  for a lot of people, yeah, there were car guys in there, but
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  these were just good jobs in Michigan and that's why they
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  wanted to work there. And, you know, so that's was
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  kind of a revelation to me that, you know, not everyone's an
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  enthusiast in the industry. There are some, there are some
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  who are just like, it's just cool.
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  But they could have worked for someplace else.
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  And, you know, for me, I don't think it would have been quite
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  as cool as if I was doing PR for Whirlpool or not that it's not a
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  wonderful company. But you know, in in my mind, I'm
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  like, I get to talk about and work with cars on a regular
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  basis. This is great.
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  And then, then and then took an opportunity to come to to come
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  to Subaru and kind of kind of been there ever since.
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  And that's been fun just because you know, it was a, you know, a
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  little bit little bit smaller company, but you could do a
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  little bit, a little bit more creative things because you were
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  doing with like a smaller groups and things like that.
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  So it became a great asset. And then, you know, I really,
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  you know, kind of bought into the the philosophy of the
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  company, which is, you know, so philanthropic and, and so so
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  into giving back to the community and doing things like
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  that. We actually, you know, we're
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  part of our goals. You know, one of our goals is
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  like, is essentially we called our love promise goals.
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  Our, our old CEO Tom Doll came up with this thing called the
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  love promise, which is, you know, trying to live your life a
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  certain way and, and to give back to communities.
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  And, and, and through that, one of our goals, like we have to go
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  do some good deeds, you know, 'cause without that I'm actually
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  a terrible person. This makes me be good for like
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  at least a day or half. Hour.
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  You know where I could go do something.
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  We you know, we, we donate locally to the full abundance.
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  We we actually grow vegetables at our very Subaru, but we have
• 10:52
  like a garden and we actually grow vegetables and, and with
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  through the employees and we actually donate them to a, to
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  food shelters. And, you know, we, we do a lot
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  of things like that. And you know, we, we're always
• 11:03
  allowed to volunteer. So you can, you know, take work
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  time to go volunteer and then we'll do things here, the
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  possible pack boxes and things like that around the holidays
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  for people and not just around holidays.
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  I mean, we do a lot of that. Like I'm just saying we just did
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  our impact report. We did our employees donated
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  15,000 hours to local communities.
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  You know, you know, that's just our employees.
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  It's not, and that's not any of the giving that we actually do.
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  You know, we donated 26,000,000 through our Share Love event.
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  So we, we, we donate every year on a basis like that.
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  So for a small company, we are giving back a lot.
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  And so that actually, you know, you do feel good about that.
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  It is a genuine vibe and I hope people actually understand that
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  we know it's not just advertising, you know, that the
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  company really, we do try inside as well.
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  And I think that helps, you know, hopefully the way we deal
• 11:52
  with our customers when we go. Well, that's well and good, but
• 11:56
  tell us about the dogs. Yeah, yeah.
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  Because I think that is a stroke of marketing genius.
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  You know, you, you know, you're at the LA Auto Show and all of a
• 12:05
  sudden there's a pen of puppies up for adoption.
• 12:07
  I mean, how do you not stop by the Subaru?
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  It, it is and, and it's, it's funny, you know, it's just one
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  of those things that we're, we're really trying to redefine
• 12:15
  ourselves. We looked at our customers and
• 12:18
  our customers gave us a lot of feedback.
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  So, you know, a lot of times, you know, when you're in
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  industry, you know, you get hate mail like my car, it stinks, it
• 12:27
  broke down on me, blah, blah, blah.
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  We were getting all these say these, these letters from from
• 12:31
  customers that they loved their cars and they bonded with them.
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  And you know, they were and they always gave us advice on what we
• 12:37
  should do with the cars. But the car, but they.
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  Were taking the time to write in and tell you how happy they
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  were. Every single thing that they
• 12:44
  think we should change on the car, they wanted us to do, you
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  know, so, you know, it's like it's like being in a family.
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  I I can criticize my sister, but you can't, right?
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  You know? Right, right.
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  They're very protective in that way, but they also do tell us
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  what they want. But we looked up here like,
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  well, OK, who really are our customers?
• 13:00
  Because we'd always chase this customer at that point.
• 13:03
  I think it was like a sentiment that, you know, inside that
• 13:05
  people were trying to make it the, the Subarus a little bit
• 13:08
  slicker, wanted to be almost like a German car company wanted
• 13:11
  to be a BW. And we looked at our customers.
• 13:13
  That's what they wanted. You know, when we looked at
• 13:15
  them, what we did, you know, we saw like a psychographic right.
• 13:19
  We know you call it through the marketing folks.
• 13:21
  And one of the things they noticed was that 80% of the are
• 13:24
  owners like they own pets. And then when we looked into
• 13:28
  that a little bit deeper, the majority own dogs.
• 13:30
  So not that there are cat owners and they do reach out.
• 13:35
  They don't like show. A cat in a in a in a in a in an
• 13:38
  improper light. We do get complaints if we ever.
• 13:40
  We did do an ad a few years ago where we had the the Barclays
• 13:45
  the the dogs who who drive the cars.
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  Their pet was a cat and they went to a rest stop and it said
• 13:51
  no pets allowed and they had to leave their cat in the car.
• 13:53
  Now we checked with ASPCA, we checked with everyone.
• 13:57
  The windows were down just the right amount and everything but
• 14:00
  hilarious. That's where you got to think
• 14:03
  about these. Cat.
• 14:04
  Owners were not happy and they were like, how dare you leave
• 14:06
  the cat in the car? It's like, well it says no pets,
• 14:09
  but also these scenarios aren't real.
• 14:13
  These dogs aren't really this. Is magical, but not.
• 14:17
  But it's been so fun. It's been, it's been really fun
• 14:19
  with that advertising. But it did, it did kind of look
• 14:21
  and we did more dogs in the ads even because it was so organic.
• 14:25
  It's so natural for our, for our brand to be involved with pets
• 14:29
  that way. And then, you know, when we were
• 14:31
  looking at things to do, we, we designed the way we do the auto
• 14:35
  shows a few years ago, about 8 years ago.
• 14:37
  And we were looking at what we could do and, and you know, I
• 14:41
  would say my brilliant part in that was give people someplace
• 14:47
  to sit down and they'll stay longer.
• 14:49
  Yes, because if you've ever been to an auto show, you're walking
• 14:51
  around. Your feet are dead, right?
• 14:54
  If I could sit down somewhere, I would just stay here.
• 14:56
  I would hang. Up we talk about that all the
• 14:58
  time here of like Subaru has created a true respite in the
• 15:01
  middle of Yahoo show and it's delightful.
• 15:03
  So yeah, I'd love to hear more that.
• 15:05
  Was the idea, once you come in there, it's an Oasis from the
• 15:07
  rest of the show, right? And we actually at one of our,
• 15:10
  our, we come a retailer meeting, our dealer meeting every year.
• 15:13
  We worked with a local shelter and we thought it'd be a neat
• 15:16
  thing to adopt some dogs. And it went very, very well.
• 15:20
  So much so that people were renting cars to drive home.
• 15:23
  They were taking the dogs, you know, was in Vegas and they were
• 15:26
  taking the dogs and they drove home to Colorado and they drove
• 15:28
  wherever because they were, you know, because we had an area
• 15:32
  where they could bond and play with the dog, not just see it,
• 15:35
  you know, sadly can't stop or whatever, play with an adoptable
• 15:39
  dog. And we're like, well, we should
• 15:41
  do more of this. And the auto show was the
• 15:44
  natural progression from that. And we started doing that and it
• 15:47
  became a thing like everyone knows.
• 15:48
  And you know, when you go there on media days, as you guys know,
• 15:51
  when you're, when you're there, I'll talk to the folks from
• 15:54
  other car companies and they're like, God, we love coming over
• 15:57
  to your, it's always just great. We get a smile.
• 15:59
  They come over here and it's so smart.
• 16:01
  You know, we love that you're doing this.
• 16:03
  And so it's part marketing. It's part, it's part intelligent
• 16:06
  marketing, I would say, but it's also part partly true to the
• 16:09
  brand. The artifice isn't really that
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  much in the sense. And we work with every single
• 16:15
  auto show we do in the US, big or small, We do, we work with
• 16:19
  local, with local shelters. We pay them for their time and
• 16:23
  for the cost that it would take to bring the dogs over.
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  And we do get a lot of dogs adopted, you know, thousands of
• 16:29
  dogs that get adopted. And it's just a, it's just a
• 16:32
  nice piece of the show, right, That we get to add on and
• 16:36
  everyone's happy. Could you come?
• 16:37
  And you'll see a line of people, the pet dogs, the people who
• 16:40
  want to go see the cars, they're happy, they're looking at cars.
• 16:43
  And the people who don't necessarily get dragged there
• 16:46
  have the kids. They're over the plane.
• 16:48
  Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a nice. Day out, you know, it's gonna
• 16:51
  make it hopefully a little bit, a little bit fun.
• 16:53
  Everybody wins and I'm and like you said, it's not an artifice
• 16:56
  like you guys are quite literally putting your money and
• 16:59
  your attention where your mouth is and you're actually living
• 17:03
  this, you know, like you said, the love promise and the focus
• 17:07
  on giving back and improving the community.
• 17:09
  And it is. And it's such a treat to go to
• 17:11
  the show and see the dogs and spend time in the, you know,
• 17:15
  Subaru National Park and just, it makes you want to hang out.
• 17:18
  Well, that was, you know, that's another one of the things when
• 17:20
  we were looking, we created this share of the love.
• 17:24
  So everyone has a sales event around the holidays.
• 17:27
  And when we looked at what our customers were doing, you know,
• 17:30
  giving back and philanthropy were a big part of what they
• 17:32
  were doing, part of their interest when we went.
• 17:35
  And, and so we're like, well, OK, what if we do that?
• 17:38
  But instead of providing a discount, we'll take the
• 17:39
  discount, we'll donate it to a charity.
• 17:43
  So we came up with six charities and we, you know, what are they,
• 17:45
  what we let we once again, we kind of reached out and want to
• 17:49
  see what our, what our customers would do.
• 17:51
  And national parks were a big part of that.
• 17:53
  So National Park Foundation, then ASPCA because of the pets,
• 17:57
  you know, so we, we started with these initial, these initial
• 18:02
  charities and then we said, OK, but that doesn't mean everyone's
• 18:05
  going to want that. So we allowed our retailers to
• 18:07
  localize it in their talents. So if there's a particular, you
• 18:11
  may live in Sandusky, OH, and there might be a particular
• 18:14
  charity that does a lot of great work there, you could nominate
• 18:18
  that to be part of that. And so the, the retailer can
• 18:21
  then put sales from his store can go towards that.
• 18:25
  But you you the the customer always has a choice they can
• 18:28
  select but you would add. That to the list of that.
• 18:30
  Town because the local charity that you may have been impacted
• 18:33
  by. So once again, it was like kind
• 18:36
  of a national, a natural growth of what we were kind of already
• 18:39
  doing and kind of bringing that down.
• 18:41
  And then of course, then after that, the retailers get behind
• 18:44
  it and then they start getting involved and then they're like
• 18:47
  they're holding dog adoptions at the at their stores.
• 18:50
  And so it kind of was one nice thing.
• 18:51
  I kind of grew out of it. And like I said, a lot of us was
• 18:53
  from our, our CEO TomTom. He was the person who was very
• 18:57
  big for him to give back. And then, you know, I joke, I've
• 19:01
  been here for 21 years and I'm still kind of a newbie at
• 19:04
  Subaru. And so are our current COO is,
• 19:08
  is the same, you know, he, he'd, he's been here for over 30 years
• 19:12
  when when he got the job and you know, he'd kind of come up with
• 19:15
  with Tom as well as he'd spend his own time in the field.
• 19:18
  And so he saw how important that was as well.
• 19:20
  So we're we're carrying it forward.
• 19:22
  So it's great. I mean, and then we're you know,
• 19:24
  we're, you know, we're named, you know, part of Forbes's, you
• 19:27
  know, we're like the top three brands for social impact, things
• 19:31
  like that. So it does pay off and it it's,
• 19:33
  it's difficult, you know, you don't see it initially
• 19:35
  advertised all the time or anything like that.
• 19:36
  We don't really focus on a lot of that.
• 19:38
  But we are, we are living that life rather than just kind of
• 19:43
  making an ad and saying, OK, here you go.
• 19:45
  Yeah. No, I love that it's.
• 19:47
  And so for people who haven't had a chance to see the auto
• 19:50
  show presence kind of the the display, can you just talk
• 19:55
  quickly about what it looks like and how you came up with that
• 19:58
  setup because it is so unique and notable and it really sticks
• 20:02
  with you? Yeah, we wanted you really to
• 20:04
  feel like when you're at a especially the big shows, we
• 20:06
  have the big kid. So LA, Chicago and New York, you
• 20:10
  are stepping into Subaru land so it feels like you're in a
• 20:13
  forest. We have ATV showcasing, you
• 20:16
  know, beautiful vistas of national parks.
• 20:19
  You pump in scents. So it smells like you're in kind
• 20:21
  of in in the wild kind of a thing.
• 20:24
  There are there are park benches, you know, there are
• 20:28
  things like that. There's a little fire, you know,
• 20:30
  cookout fire pit and, and things, you know, so it, it
• 20:33
  feels very like you're gone, you've gone camping or you're
• 20:36
  going out to the trailhead. All that feel to it.
• 20:39
  Yeah, it, it, it really is unique.
• 20:42
  It's an Oasis inside a show. Like if you're in the, you're in
• 20:45
  New York City, you're at the show, you're in the Javid
• 20:47
  Centre. But then there's this little
• 20:49
  Oasis of just like this greenery and, and it's just beautiful.
• 20:52
  It's a beautiful thing. And it's like, it really feels
• 20:53
  really nice. And, you know, it's a great
• 20:55
  place. Sit down.
• 20:57
  You know your feet are sore. We're going to Subaru.
• 21:01
  Yeah, yeah, hopefully. With the fire pit, I'm like, we
• 21:04
  need some, you know, marshmallows and Graham
• 21:06
  crackers. We're going.
• 21:08
  Yeah, it's got. In a little corner and we still
• 21:10
  have our motorsport stuff too. Yes, yes, that's.
• 21:13
  The kind of thing, yeah, the rally, the rally history and
• 21:16
  activities are well represented as well.
• 21:17
  It's, you know, and I mean, it's kind of brilliant on your part
• 21:20
  because you guys spend your time there during the show and you've
• 21:23
  created this beautiful space to spend time.
• 21:25
  To be, I know it's. Everybody.
• 21:27
  You know, but I, I, I've been going to auto shows since I was
• 21:29
  like 12 and you know, they were like sometimes in the middle of
• 21:32
  a mall, sometimes in wherever and, and you know, and it, and
• 21:36
  it was great was I was able to, when I started with Chrysler,
• 21:40
  Chrysler did some pretty cool stuff for media days for the
• 21:43
  Detroit auto show. And you know, it's really weird,
• 21:46
  you know, in my mind, you know, then when I kind of can't start
• 21:49
  taking over the auto shows and in in my mind, it was like, you
• 21:51
  know, we're doing all of this work and then the public never
• 21:55
  sees it. So we'd use incredible, we'd
• 21:57
  build these incredible facades and and create these great
• 22:00
  things. Like, you know, we did like, you
• 22:01
  know, like with the Dodge Viper, it was a giant box,
• 22:03
  jack-in-the-box and it burst open and snakes came out and
• 22:07
  there was a car in it. These are really wonderful, cool
• 22:09
  things that unfortunately also maybe injured some people, but
• 22:13
  that's fine. But you know.
• 22:15
  That's another story for another time, no?
• 22:17
  I'm sorry, but like, wow, wouldn't it be great to have
• 22:20
  this for the public? So everything you see in a media
• 22:23
  day now, like at a for a Subaru, the car comes up like it's
• 22:25
  coming up at a, a volcano like we did a few years ago, things
• 22:29
  like that. That happens all the way through
• 22:30
  for the the rest of the week. So you're not missing out on
• 22:33
  what the media saw. Just for.
• 22:36
  That one day it's like, well, why don't we just use it for the
• 22:38
  whole time and, and, and then that way, you know, makes sense.
• 22:41
  You're advertising your costs a little bit better.
• 22:43
  And I shouldn't be saying any of this because our competitors are
• 22:46
  always thinking no. But this is what we like to
• 22:49
  bring our audience and and even for us, like I'm learning, you
• 22:52
  know, I didn't realize that that was something that would
• 22:54
  typically have been done just for the media day.
• 22:58
  And I think that's so smart. Like it's this is This is why we
• 23:01
  don't wish people on. I wish every young car
• 23:04
  enthusiasts could go back to those old Detroit auto.
• 23:06
  Shows I know. They were you would, the money
• 23:11
  that was spent on those things was just was crazy.
• 23:13
  But man, it was cool. Mercedes created an ice rink and
• 23:16
  had professional ice skaters, Olympic ice skaters skating on
• 23:20
  an ice rink. You know, you, you'd build these
• 23:22
  incredible auditoriums that would just be torn down.
• 23:25
  So you had like a Colosseum in the round and all these really,
• 23:28
  really amazing things. It was a really fun time and it
• 23:32
  it was great. I know the economies have gone
• 23:34
  away and then, you know, you know, everyone says auto shows
• 23:38
  are, are, are dying. You know, they're just not as
• 23:40
  big as they were. But it's, it's really when the
• 23:43
  corporate side of it looks and they're saying, you know, they
• 23:46
  were looking at more from the media days aspects.
• 23:50
  So yeah, Detroit isn't what it used to be, and people aren't
• 23:53
  doing as many intros as auto shows, but you're still
• 23:55
  forgetting the consumer, the person who wants to walk in.
• 23:57
  There we don't. Think that we're, you know, for
• 23:59
  some of the brands like, you know, for a Mercedes or a
• 24:01
  Porsche, you know, you're such an established brand and, you
• 24:04
  know, those customers are so established.
• 24:05
  We still think we need to be out there on the floor.
• 24:08
  And we want you to hopefully be surprised by how nice a car is.
• 24:12
  And I think, you know, people always like, you know, very
• 24:13
  sensible Subaru and, you know, they're safe, but, you know, but
• 24:17
  but like, yeah, they're actually a lot nicer when you think get
• 24:19
  in there, try one out. Hopefully you'll see if you'll
• 24:22
  you'll be gravitating towards buying one.
• 24:24
  Can I suggest that you bring the giveaways back?
• 24:27
  And the reason I mentioned that is, yeah, I was one of those
• 24:29
  kids back in the day at the Chicago Auto show.
• 24:31
  I still have my metal Scion key chain.
• 24:34
  I still have my injection molded New Beetle, you know,
• 24:37
  Volkswagen, you know, I I still have them.
• 24:40
  I'm 50. You know, I can't, I can't throw
• 24:43
  those away. So I would love to see some sort
• 24:46
  of giveaway from the next Super Booth.
• 24:48
  Is that or is that in the works? I, no, I, I, we don't, we hadn't
• 24:51
  really done giveaways so much like that in a long time.
• 24:55
  I, I, I know that that was a thing.
• 24:56
  And also the brochures had gone away.
• 24:58
  I used to collect all the brochures.
• 25:00
  You know, it's like, oh, I got the.
• 25:02
  I know, yeah, We were just talking to John Childenko about
• 25:05
  that because he was saying that shaped his writing a lot.
• 25:09
  He would go to the automotive like go to the auto shows and
• 25:12
  collect all of the marketing materials and it was we one
• 25:16
  thing we were commenting it was like the amount of text that
• 25:19
  used to be present, yes. But you.
• 25:21
  Know there was a lot to read. It was.
• 25:24
  It was reading the turn nothing like you would look at the old
• 25:27
  BMW brochures and the you know, the the options that you can
• 25:30
  actually get would be a manual sunroof in a cassette play.
• 25:34
  You know, and brochure was huge, but I'm like, that was a lot of
• 25:38
  crafty writing going into that, right?
• 25:39
  The advertising guys were working overtime because, yeah,
• 25:42
  there's only so much you could say about the car.
• 25:43
  And then when you start getting into all the options, it was,
• 25:46
  there was nothing. It's like, oh, custom formats,
• 25:48
  you know, it's very. Nice.
• 25:50
  You know, look at. Them that's that's wow, that's
• 25:52
  right, that's right. But you like around the, the,
• 25:55
  you know, the, the hall with that bag like it was, you know,
• 25:57
  Halloween, right? You're collecting your booty and
• 25:59
  then you'd bring it home, spread it out on your bed.
• 26:02
  And I remember dropping down. Those there really.
• 26:04
  There were some nice, you know. Oh yeah, some nice worked on by
• 26:07
  some of the the manufacturers. Absolutely.
• 26:09
  The we would see the press kits wind up on eBay days later.
• 26:15
  Really. You're.
• 26:16
  Kidding. Stuff like Corvettes and Vipers
• 26:18
  and yeah, there's a secondary market of people who really
• 26:21
  wanted to buy and Ferrari, anything Ferrari, yeah.
• 26:24
  Yeah, I bet, I bet does that. Make sense?
• 26:27
  Yeah, Well, and I mean, we talked about that a lot.
• 26:29
  Like that's one of the reasons that we share a lot of the
• 26:31
  events that we go to is because not everybody has the chance to
• 26:34
  attend. So we like to take our audience
• 26:36
  along with us. So that's kind of another
• 26:39
  illustration of yeah. You need to provide the content.
• 26:41
  Right, you know, and now. It's all about content and we,
• 26:44
  we consume content in so many different ways.
• 26:46
  But yeah, but now it's so much more visually, you know,
• 26:50
  received. So you're like, OK, you need to
• 26:52
  make room for someone who's going to be shooting video for
• 26:56
  Instagram or for whatever, right?
• 26:57
  Right, right. So.
• 26:59
  It's kind of a new, you know, that wasn't part of the we used
• 27:02
  to do used to do long leads and short leads, which were long
• 27:06
  leads for the were for the car magazines and then the buff
• 27:08
  books, you know, and then you would do the short leads would
• 27:10
  be for more like newspapers and things like that.
• 27:13
  Sure. In the old old days when?
• 27:15
  Yeah, yeah, things have changed so much.
• 27:18
  It was like the the so the whole cycle of how you do reveals of
• 27:21
  cars that's changed. You know, it's much faster, it's
• 27:24
  much closer to the on sale date. All those things are different
• 27:26
  now. Let me let me ask you, Dom, So
• 27:29
  in your role, I assume that you monitor what automotive
• 27:31
  journalists write about your products, what content creators
• 27:34
  create around your your products.
• 27:36
  We saw something very interesting, of course, play out
• 27:38
  recently with the launch of the Ferrari Luche EV where, where
• 27:41
  journalists were so afraid to say anything bad about the thing
• 27:44
  that they stooped appraising like the door handles, right.
• 27:47
  So in your position, do you do you value honesty or flattery is
• 27:52
  a sweet spot somewhere in the middle.
• 27:53
  But I, I assume you monitor this and you, you know, you kind of
• 27:56
  know what people are saying. I've always preferred people lie
• 28:00
  to me. And now we know.
• 28:04
  Please say I'm good looking. I don't want to hear the truth.
• 28:07
  You know, I, I, you know, there's it is it, it works for
• 28:12
  you in many ways when you get criticism.
• 28:14
  So you know, if, if you think something should be different on
• 28:18
  a car, you know, or, or maybe we know the consumer is doing it,
• 28:21
  but there's always, you know, when you work for a car company
• 28:24
  there the the truth is at some point you've got to, you've got
• 28:26
  to cost out things and there's things you want basically, OK,
• 28:30
  we think there might be more value in it or whatever.
• 28:32
  So if the media pick up on things and say, oh, it really
• 28:34
  should have this, it does. It does often help us sway, you
• 28:40
  know, the engineers and the, and the product planners and things
• 28:43
  like that. We'll start like, OK, we should
• 28:45
  consider this. Maybe it is and maybe something
• 28:47
  will be of value to the customer and then you can then, you know,
• 28:51
  you know, I'll leave that to the marketing guys, but they can,
• 28:53
  they can then take that to a focus group and say, OK, if we
• 28:56
  did this, we think this would improve, you know, because
• 28:59
  there's there's, there's, there's so much in the industry
• 29:02
  and the design that's inspiration and what you think
• 29:05
  people are going to want in the future.
• 29:06
  But you can't always get everything right.
• 29:08
  So it's great to say, OK, you know, you're hearing a lot about
• 29:11
  these, you know, about Tesla style door handles, people don't
• 29:14
  like them. You know, why do we have those?
• 29:16
  Well, it's all we know why it's Arrow.
• 29:18
  You know, fuel economy standards are, are what they are.
• 29:21
  Then they go forward and you have to meet a corporate average
• 29:24
  standard. And so you're always trying to,
• 29:27
  you know, it, it makes, it makes cars sometimes be less
• 29:30
  individual in terms individual looking in terms of their
• 29:33
  styling. But it, you know, why it's, it's
• 29:35
  always going to be for Arrow or for something like that to try
• 29:38
  to improve economy. But so like, like I said, but
• 29:41
  criticisms in certain areas, yeah.
• 29:43
  And I don't know that the criticism of the of the Luche
• 29:45
  will make it styled differently. It may sell perfectly.
• 29:50
  I haven't driven it. So, you know, and then there's
• 29:53
  always someone who likes something that, you know, you
• 29:55
  know, we used to have this, this, this guy that would, who
• 29:58
  would talk to us. He was a brand expert.
• 30:01
  And he, he, he said, you know, it's actually, if everyone likes
• 30:04
  something right away, it's actually not a good product.
• 30:08
  You need a certain amount of people not to like it because
• 30:10
  otherwise it's not interesting. If everyone says yes, that's
• 30:14
  nice, you know, right. So it's, you know, it's.
• 30:17
  Lying or you missed the mark. Yeah, you know, you know, good
• 30:21
  is the enemy of great, right? So you it's fine, it's fine, but
• 30:25
  you're not striving to be a little bit.
• 30:27
  Different, right? You should be a little bit of.
• 30:28
  Turmoil in a design, you know, to look and like look, hey,
• 30:31
  we're super. We've always had turmoil in our
• 30:33
  designs, right? So, you know, we didn't get by
• 30:36
  on our looks. We got by because we had great
• 30:38
  vehicles, you know, cuz and then you know, and like I said, we're
• 30:41
  it's almost like a family thing. So you know, when the Bug Eye WX
• 30:45
  came out, you know, everyone criticized the styling until we
• 30:49
  changed it and there was right whoa, we love the bug eye.
• 30:52
  What did you do? Right, exactly.
• 30:54
  Why did you do the Hawkeye then? We changed the Hawkeye and we
• 30:56
  was like, well, look, the Hawkeye was great, you know?
• 30:58
  So there's always that, you know, there's always that.
• 31:01
  So that changed the market where, you know, you need to let
• 31:04
  where people will start getting used to a design and then and
• 31:07
  then liking it. And if you go back long enough,
• 31:08
  you know, they're really old, actually, how old I am.
• 31:11
  I can remember the Bengal butt on the BMW 7 Series, which it
• 31:15
  was like, oh, this is like, what is this a spaceship?
• 31:17
  It's crazy, right? It's the worst thing I've ever
• 31:19
  seen. And then like three years later,
• 31:20
  you're like, looks pretty good. Like all right, you're fine.
• 31:23
  Yeah, yeah. Well, like you said, turmoil, I
• 31:26
  mean, you could, you could look at that too as like turmoil
• 31:29
  creates discussion, that creates engagement.
• 31:31
  If people are talking about you, a lot of people have the
• 31:34
  philosophy. That's not a bad thing.
• 31:35
  Yeah. So it's interesting.
• 31:38
  It was interesting to watch that design though.
• 31:40
  And I mean, you know, there were a lot of, there was a lot of
• 31:44
  interest around that car, right, that very a lot of interesting
• 31:46
  interior to a lot of interest. So we'll see where it goes.
• 31:51
  And you know, but then at the same time, you know how many
• 31:53
  they're going to really sell, you know, and and at that level,
• 31:57
  at that cost, what is that customer looking for?
• 32:00
  I don't know. I don't really see that data.
• 32:01
  I don't know when necessarily. I don't work for Ferrari, I
• 32:04
  don't work for Ferrari dealership.
• 32:05
  I don't know what that person's really going to want.
• 32:08
  You know, I remember there was a beautiful F430 at a cars and
• 32:16
  coffee I went to and the guy it was red and the guy inspect the
• 32:20
  entire interior in blue Alcantara.
• 32:23
  And I mean the entire interior. Every single surface except for
• 32:28
  the carpet was covered in blue Alcantara and and.
• 32:31
  He's like, we tried to do the carpet.
• 32:32
  They said no, Yeah. Like he had a there was a
• 32:36
  optional fire extinguisher there that was in a blue Alcantara
• 32:38
  holder. Like it was, it was insane.
• 32:40
  The whole thing was just like this and like I was.
• 32:43
  Committed. You, you wouldn't slide around
• 32:46
  in the seats like this really got it all.
• 32:48
  You know you want to sit down and not slide in because you
• 32:51
  just like stick obviously. You're just.
• 32:54
  Very interesting. I wouldn't have chosen it
• 32:57
  probably, right, but somebody did.
• 33:00
  And and that's the great thing about cars in my mind, you know,
• 33:02
  they were, there are people whose dream car was a Lincoln
• 33:04
  Continental, right, You know, or a Ferrari 250 GTO or 275 GDP,
• 33:10
  you know, or an Aston Martin or whatever.
• 33:11
  Everyone, it's all individual. And I, I've always liked that.
• 33:14
  And I always say it's fine. You should like whatever you
• 33:17
  want. Like, I can see a car and I
• 33:18
  would hate a car and I'd be like, why would they?
• 33:21
  What would make you buy that? Like, what is wrong with you?
• 33:23
  But that person worked hard. Then they bought that car and
• 33:26
  I'm like, hey, he's happy and that, OK, whatever, right.
• 33:30
  You know, she wanted that. So it's like, OK, Yep, fine.
• 33:33
  You know, that's at least her car people in their own way.
• 33:37
  And that's why I, I approve of. Right.
• 33:39
  I, I'm, I'm happy that there are car people out there and people
• 33:41
  who really enjoy their cars. Yeah, because it's, you know,
• 33:44
  look at that next to a house, right?
• 33:46
  That's like the biggest. That's it.
• 33:48
  So. Hopefully you really like that
• 33:49
  product. And you, you really operated
• 33:51
  Subaru operates in a really unique space.
• 33:53
  I think you touched on this before, but there's a sort of
• 33:56
  duality, right, where you're sort of like the every man,
• 33:58
  every woman car, right, with all this goodwill, but you're also
• 34:01
  an enthusiast brand. And that is that, you know,
• 34:04
  that's a bloodline that runs strong through the years.
• 34:08
  And there's been a lot of talk about manual transmissions
• 34:10
  lately. I think there was an
• 34:11
  announcement by Subaru about some, you know, some future
• 34:15
  commitment to the manual transmission.
• 34:16
  Can you touch on that a little bit?
• 34:18
  Because I I'm curious about what Subaru's business case is.
• 34:22
  You know, as much as us enthusiasts love the the manual,
• 34:26
  what's the, what's the business case for keeping a manual?
• 34:28
  Is it, is it the credibility with enthusiasts?
• 34:30
  Is it? Yeah.
• 34:31
  I, I, I mean, there, there's that part of that's the
• 34:33
  engagement with the vehicle, right?
• 34:35
  It's a little bit when you're shifting your own gears a little
• 34:37
  bit more to it than that. And that, that was like a JDM
• 34:40
  announcement. It wasn't really Subaru, OK
• 34:42
  America, but it is interesting in in how people perceive their
• 34:47
  cars and want their cars to be. But you know, automatic
• 34:51
  transmissions work great and they've gotten better and better
• 34:53
  and better and they get better fuel economy.
• 34:56
  And it used to be in the old days you'd have a manual got
• 34:57
  better fuel economy, right? That's not true anymore where
• 35:00
  it's kind of flipped around. So it's really there for the
• 35:03
  enthusiasts because it was always, it was, it was cheaper
• 35:05
  and I got better fuel economy if you got a manual.
• 35:08
  And now it's like the engagement factor.
• 35:09
  So it's really interesting when we look at Subaru BRZ, like
• 35:13
  almost 80% of the buyers choose manuals.
• 35:16
  That's awesome. It's.
• 35:17
  One of the highest take rates of manuals, WX and VRC are both
• 35:20
  very high take rates for for manual transmissions even though
• 35:23
  we offer automatics on both. And then when we look at the
• 35:27
  Toyota sales, you flip it, the majority, 80% are automatic.
• 35:32
  Interesting, interesting. It's the, so they're, you know,
• 35:34
  basically the same cars, some minor differences on the GRE 6
• 35:37
  and the but it's just for whatever reason, maybe it's our
• 35:41
  rally heritage or whatever, the Subaru customer is looking for
• 35:44
  the manual and wants the manual. You know, when you look at
• 35:47
  Porsche also who make flat engines, maybe that's what the,
• 35:50
  the link is. You know, they're, you know, all
• 35:53
  of a sudden Porsche was like, you know what, our, our, our
• 35:55
  buyers in America really want manuals.
• 35:58
  You know, even though we can show that this PDK is faster,
• 36:02
  it's faster shifting, it's more efficient, you know, it's better
• 36:05
  in every way. But they want a manual.
• 36:07
  And, you know, there is something to that.
• 36:09
  Like there, you know, you're controlling your car in a
• 36:12
  different way. You know, you're, you're
• 36:13
  interacting with the car. Maybe there's something to it,
• 36:16
  you know, But, you know, you the writing's on the wall.
• 36:19
  You can see it's, you know, numbers decline and then people
• 36:24
  aren't learning, you know, like, yeah, Valley, Valley Park WXTS
• 36:30
  recently. And yeah, you know, they're
• 36:32
  like, sorry, Sir, would you mind parking yourself?
• 36:34
  The the guy who knows how to drive one of those isn't here.
• 36:37
  Gladly, right, it's good, yes. It's funny, though, because in
• 36:42
  Ferrari's now teasing a manual again and of course you're going
• 36:45
  to have to buy 10 Lucchese to to get one.
• 36:47
  But you know, it's, I feel like, you know, it'll turn into really
• 36:52
  a niche product. The Ferrari, right?
• 36:53
  You had the gated shifter, right?
• 36:55
  It was the coolest part, you know?
• 36:58
  Yeah, you could make click click noises.
• 37:00
  I mean, pretty darn cool does. It get.
• 37:02
  Better than that. No, no, no.
• 37:04
  And, and it's it, it then it's also, I think, in that rarefied
• 37:10
  world of the hypercar, in a supercar, you know, what
• 37:12
  separates them from something else, you know, and what was
• 37:15
  always a symbol of Ferrari. What was that that now I don't
• 37:18
  know what we're going to do about the left knees of the
• 37:22
  people who are old enough to afford the Hooray.
• 37:25
  Are they going to be good enough to to actually, you know, press
• 37:29
  it down? But hey, I don't know, you know,
• 37:30
  but I remember with the, you know, the fight for the Viper
• 37:32
  Viper, there was every now and then some people were like, you
• 37:36
  should make it automatic. And I remember the Viper team
• 37:39
  being very adamant to the hell of like, get the hell out of
• 37:42
  this meeting. You know, they were, you know,
• 37:44
  they were we are. It was going to be a manual, you
• 37:47
  know, But I guess at the end of the day, you know, the
• 37:51
  consumer's always right. Yeah, yeah.
• 37:53
  You know, manual Ferrari would be really cool.
• 37:56
  I think it wouldn't support that.
• 37:57
  Yeah. Well, it's such an inherent part
• 38:00
  of Ferrari, at least for our generation.
• 38:05
  And I'd like to thank people younger than us too.
• 38:07
  That's just, and you touched on it makes it a much more engaging
• 38:11
  driving experience. So it just depends on what you
• 38:15
  want. Yeah, I think you're in such an
• 38:19
  enviable position with Subaru right now because it's just, you
• 38:22
  know, it's just no one's got a bad word to say about Subaru.
• 38:26
  Everyone loves Subaru, whether you're an enthusiast, whether
• 38:28
  you're a regular person. It's just, and I know it's it's
• 38:31
  earned, right. It's hard earned through your
• 38:33
  your, your programs and all this.
• 38:35
  We got complaints here, we got criticism.
• 38:36
  You know that, you know, we know our cars aren't perfect.
• 38:40
  But I can. I can always promise you that no
• 38:44
  matter what Subaru you drive, it will be safe.
• 38:46
  It'll. Be it'll be put together well,
• 38:49
  you know, those were not always things I could convince you
• 38:51
  about other cars, right. But I know that you know about
• 38:54
  our products. You know, we're confident at
• 38:56
  least in that standpoint. You know, we we do make a good
• 38:59
  car you may not like. You may not like.
• 39:01
  It's performance. You may want this or that, but
• 39:04
  it it it will inherently be a, a, a good automobile, yes, and
• 39:09
  you know, you know, the all will dry.
• 39:12
  I remember, you know, after driving Subarus for a while, I
• 39:16
  drove my my ex mother in law's. I drove her, her, her Toyota
• 39:20
  Camry and I was just like, you know, shocked at the way that it
• 39:23
  felt so different. Uh huh.
• 39:25
  Front end was so different. Everything was different about
• 39:27
  it. I'm like going, Oh no, I'm like,
• 39:28
  I've been so used to all-wheel drive now.
• 39:31
  Yes, yes. Front wheel drive and I kind of
• 39:33
  forgot how a front wheel drive car drove after.
• 39:36
  We don't test those cars. We do test competitive,
• 39:39
  competitive products here and there.
• 39:41
  But the first time kind of driving around in an older 1 and
• 39:44
  I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 39:46
  I've kind of gotten used to the way our cars will handle.
• 39:49
  And cuz it's always a bit, I don't know where all of our
• 39:53
  customers go, but I mean, those of us who drive a little faster
• 39:55
  and push, sure. Like even an Outback will, you
• 39:59
  know, it'll set properly in the corner.
• 40:00
  It's got a low center of gravity and it's got all-wheel drive.
• 40:02
  Once it gets into that corner, it will hold that grip.
• 40:04
  It's got great mechanical grip. And that's inherently part of
• 40:08
  the design of the, of the all-wheel drive system.
• 40:10
  And, and that flat engine keeping that weight down low
• 40:12
  now. And like now we're seeing that
• 40:14
  going into E VS, you know, much easier to keep the weight down
• 40:17
  low, but the, the weight is much higher.
• 40:20
  You know, I think that's something we've been very good
• 40:21
  about is our, our EVs are very lightweight for EVs, which is.
• 40:29
  One of the design experts, it's keeping that mask down when you
• 40:33
  get into some of these new Revs, man, they are, they are
• 40:36
  heavyweight. They are really heavy.
• 40:38
  And I never thought about it until I was having one of my
• 40:42
  cars towed as I have a lot of old English cars and they they
• 40:47
  like riding on the back of a flatbed near.
• 40:49
  And there I was talking to a guy and he's like, yeah, I guess I
• 40:51
  had to get a was picked up a Tesla and he's like he he was
• 40:54
  like the whole car was his whole truck was just trying to yank it
• 40:58
  up there. Yeah.
• 40:59
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, all. Of a sudden, you know, it looks
• 41:01
  like a normal car, but it's like almost 7000 lbs.
• 41:04
  You know, it's, it's, it's a lot of a lot of weight out there
• 41:07
  that used to. Be like.
• 41:07
  A different way, well, it translates differently into the
• 41:10
  impact it has when you when you do have an accident when you do
• 41:13
  it. Yeah, yeah.
• 41:14
  It's true Weight is, you know, it's good and bad in terms of in
• 41:17
  terms of crash, right? Too much is a bad thing, yeah.
• 41:20
  Right. Interesting.
• 41:21
  And it's just a different world we're moving into with, you
• 41:23
  know, and there are there are, you know, some great engineers
• 41:26
  out there who are able to mask the driving dynamics of that
• 41:32
  weight and make the car feel very light and fun, you know,
• 41:35
  And I think that's something, you know, we'll look forward to
• 41:36
  as we're going into and progressing into more and more
• 41:39
  EVs in terms of our brand. We're looking OK, how do we make
• 41:43
  the car still have that feel of a Subaru, have that feel of a
• 41:48
  lighter car and a more fun to drive car rather than being, you
• 41:52
  know, there's this heaviness that the DV's bring.
• 41:55
  We both, Lindsay, we both really liked.
• 41:57
  Is it the trail Seeker? Oh, yeah.
• 41:59
  Oh, we thought that. We both drove it independently
• 42:01
  but thought it was fantastic and.
• 42:03
  Yeah, we both got to drive them at the different press kind of
• 42:07
  Guild events that we have in our regions.
• 42:09
  I was at Mud Fest with Carly, who is wonderful, by the way,
• 42:12
  from Dom's team. He's great.
• 42:13
  I was with. Miranda.
• 42:15
  Yeah, who was also wonderful. We love, love your whole team.
• 42:18
  Really would have to say hi to Aaron too.
• 42:21
  And we'll give them a pass today.
• 42:25
  Yeah, Yeah, a great. Team and I mean that's you know
• 42:28
  hopefully they're they're they're they're fun to be with.
• 42:31
  But yeah, that I just the weekend in a in a long weekend
• 42:35
  at a trail seeker and it is. Yeah, tell us about that, about
• 42:39
  the event and everything and what you guys were doing.
• 42:42
  Well, actually I was just, that was just me on my own, but I
• 42:45
  just, you know, if we can. But the thing with the I, I hope
• 42:48
  that that people will pick up, you know, we, we designed those
• 42:50
  cars in conjunction with Toyota and we really did share the
• 42:55
  design work and that was important to us.
• 42:56
  You know, we shared engineers, you know, they all worked on the
• 42:59
  platform together because that's, you know, going forward,
• 43:01
  that's the kind of, you know, intelligence you need to gather.
• 43:04
  So just buying something from them wouldn't have helped us get
• 43:08
  that knowledge. But you know, it was in and you
• 43:11
  can, you know, you know, then the trail seeker, we did a
• 43:14
  little bit more of the, the chassis work on that car.
• 43:17
  And it feels a bit more to me like a like more of a Subaru.
• 43:19
  It looks a bit more like a Subaru definitely, and it's just
• 43:23
  so usable and that's why I think we do well with those products
• 43:27
  is so many EVs out there are trying to show you how
• 43:33
  futuristic they are. Yes, you know, so that when you
• 43:36
  but you shouldn't get in the car and then be like, all right, how
• 43:38
  do I start this? How do I put this in the drive?
• 43:41
  At least with our products you can get in OK, that's the AC.
• 43:45
  That's why I put it in drive. That's the start button, you
• 43:48
  know, you can get in and just drive away and it's usable in a
• 43:52
  sense that, you know, maybe some of the earlier products weren't.
• 43:55
  I just think that especially the trail seeker, which has all that
• 43:58
  room in the back, you know, super comfortable.
• 44:00
  It's very quick. It's I just, I think that I
• 44:04
  really, I really enjoy the car. Like we just came up with the
• 44:07
  Uncharted, which is also really quick, really fun to drive.
• 44:11
  You know a. Smaller, A smaller product size,
• 44:13
  Cross track size. And then we have the Getaway
• 44:16
  coming out. That's the three row EV.
• 44:18
  So that'll be towards the end of the year and that's gonna be
• 44:22
  probably one of the the fastest Subarus ever made.
• 44:24
  It's gonna be. Really quick, yeah, kudos to
• 44:27
  your team 'cause that's a great name for a car.
• 44:29
  I know a great name for a Subaru, The Getaway and.
• 44:32
  It allows you to get away. I was a critic.
• 44:35
  I didn't like the name at 1st and and then and I'm making
• 44:40
  something like really a really warm to it after we actually, as
• 44:43
  we got closer and closer to the reveal of that car, it's like,
• 44:45
  you know what, it's growing on me.
• 44:47
  I think it's actually pretty cool, you know, And then with
• 44:50
  the power aspect of it, you know, and it makes sense.
• 44:52
  It's like, you know, that's what our owners do, right.
• 44:54
  You know, a Subaru has to be in the Subarus are an everyday car
• 44:58
  that can do a little bit of extraordinary things on a
• 45:00
  weekend, right. So you can go off roading.
• 45:03
  You can do these things on the weekend.
• 45:05
  Yeah. Driving through a car wash on
• 45:07
  Sunday night. Monday morning it's going to
• 45:10
  work taking kids to school. It's doing all the things that
• 45:14
  the car needs to do. And that's the great duality
• 45:17
  I've always enjoyed about our products.
• 45:19
  Yeah, they're really, really good in snow.
• 45:21
  You know, yes, yes. I got to, I got to put, I had
• 45:25
  the Forester Wilderness for the Avance women's off roading event
• 45:29
  up here at Dirtfish and it snowed the day that I got it in
• 45:32
  mid March, which we were not expecting.
• 45:34
  So I got to put it to the test and it was fantastic.
• 45:39
  And I think I told you because I got to take a Forester Touring
• 45:42
  to the event a year ago this March, so March of 2025.
• 45:47
  And like you were commenting on sort of the multi purposeness
• 45:50
  and the like extreme, you know, capabilities of the cars.
• 45:53
  Because when I finished the First off road day with the
• 45:57
  Forester, a couple of the corner workers came up to me and they
• 46:00
  said, you know, we have loved watching this car do the course.
• 46:04
  It's so good, and we're not going to lie that when you first
• 46:07
  pulled up, you looked like a soccer mom that had made a wrong
• 46:10
  turn and somehow found herself on the off road course.
• 46:13
  But I mean it. They're phenomenal.
• 46:16
  And the, you know, the Wilderness was even more so
• 46:18
  because it's designed for off roading.
• 46:20
  But I think it really speaks to the fact that the touring also
• 46:23
  did it no problem. And that's the street.
• 46:25
  Tires. Higher end street tires, the
• 46:28
  whole thing. So I have loved sort of
• 46:30
  surprising and delighting people on the offer days with the
• 46:33
  Subarus. They are shocking and that's
• 46:36
  like one of the things that you know, my background when I
• 46:39
  joined the company, I'd come from truck and Jeep.
• 46:43
  I did GPR Chrysler and so the the launches were very different
• 46:49
  than everyone else. Like we were trucks going to
• 46:51
  show how it tows, like it tows something.
• 46:54
  They have all-wheel drive. I mean 4 wheel drive.
• 46:56
  If you're going to take them off road, you're really going to do
• 46:57
  something. So I came into it with that
• 46:58
  mindset and and then when we started doing some of the stuff,
• 47:03
  I was like, let's see if we can do some off road, you know,
• 47:05
  create an offer, of course. And the car was always better
• 47:08
  than I thought it would be to the point where we took it to,
• 47:11
  we were at an event, this is very early on when I started, we
• 47:13
  were doing something with the Forester.
• 47:15
  And this hotel we went to had a course that was set up by Hummer
• 47:19
  to, to the Hummers, you know, the old Hummers.
• 47:22
  And now they were just not really using it for something.
• 47:24
  Jeep people would come and use it.
• 47:26
  And I remember the guy going, he's like, you know, this was AO
• 47:29
  5 forest or O 6 forest or something.
• 47:31
  He's like you, you can't bring that thing.
• 47:34
  And I'm like, well, it's fine. Like we're just here to test it,
• 47:36
  you know, let us just go out there on the course.
• 47:38
  And there were there was only one thing.
• 47:40
  There was a there was a test for articulation, which is obviously
• 47:43
  the one thing, you know, you, you don't do without a buy on
• 47:46
  frame. And it's all, you know, that,
• 47:48
  that, you know, offer a Jeep style suspension system.
• 47:53
  Other than that, he was just like, I can't believe it went up
• 47:55
  that I can't believe it did that blah, blah, blah.
• 47:58
  You know, we have just outed Hollyoaks out in Detroit this
• 48:02
  week, just two days ago. And we took a forester, not just
• 48:08
  a regular forester, one of the Moabs, they have a, they have a
• 48:13
  Magna designed a climb out there.
• 48:16
  And it's an exact duplicate of a, of a, of a climb that they do
• 48:20
  in Moab really. And you know, and the guy was
• 48:23
  like, he's like that made it look easy.
• 48:27
  He's like, I'm very surprised by that.
• 48:29
  We've had other cars out here, brands I'm not going to mention
• 48:32
  that have not done that. And I'm like, yeah, they've
• 48:34
  always been a little better and they've always had better ground
• 48:36
  clearance. You know, even stock like, you
• 48:38
  know, now pack has had everything else.
• 48:40
  Then you, you throw the wilderness packages onto them
• 48:43
  and they really do have a tremendous, but it's also, you
• 48:47
  know, a lot of, a lot of companies will use very
• 48:51
  sophisticated, very expensive suspension systems to achieve
• 48:56
  that off roading. And that's kind of the great
• 48:59
  thing about the Subaru is like, you know, we're, we're doing it,
• 49:02
  but much more simply, much less expensively.
• 49:06
  And, and also the net means much easier to repair and change and
• 49:10
  all that stuff. So, you know, it, it, they are,
• 49:13
  they all drive some is really good.
• 49:14
  I remember the first time I drove one in snow, 'cause I, you
• 49:17
  know, being from Florida, I had moved to Michigan.
• 49:21
  I may or may have not gone off the road and, and snow before.
• 49:25
  And I remember driving in a forester in a, in a massive
• 49:27
  snowstorm and I'm like going, Oh my God, this thing is absolutely
• 49:31
  amazing. It really is better.
• 49:32
  I mean, people have a friend who's gotten, you know, working
• 49:37
  here and it's just huge. Finally drove in a really big
• 49:39
  heavy snowstorm. He's like, it's really is better
• 49:41
  and I'm like, boy, are you lying to you for all all these years?
• 49:44
  I'm like, you know, come on, like this is like I'm telling
• 49:46
  you it's. It's a great system.
• 49:48
  I think the reason people love Subaru is they are Subaru is
• 49:52
  everything most people need in a car, right?
• 49:55
  And it's done really, really well.
• 49:57
  And I think even even bigger thing is that authenticity is
• 50:00
  just missing in so many avenues anymore.
• 50:03
  And Subarus just feel authentic, right?
• 50:06
  Like what you see is what you get, right?
• 50:09
  You know, that that that traction with your all-wheel
• 50:11
  drive system, that's because of mechanical reasons, right?
• 50:14
  It's not necessarily software, right?
• 50:16
  Like you get that feel in some cars, right?
• 50:18
  So, yeah, it's just it's it's they're wonderful.
• 50:22
  One of the best all-wheel drive systems I've ever driven in
• 50:25
  snow. I'm Midwesterner.
• 50:27
  I mean, people swear by by Subarus.
• 50:29
  I think it's a better system than Audi's Quattro, to be
• 50:32
  honest. So anyway, my two cents but.
• 50:34
  Well, also, you know, like I said, once again, you know, like
• 50:38
  with an Audi, most of the cars until recently, and they've
• 50:41
  always been sedans, so they didn't have the ground clearance
• 50:43
  where we've always had that ground clearance, which actually
• 50:45
  makes a big difference in snow, you know, And you know, look, I
• 50:49
  apparently I'm a terrible PR person because I took me a long
• 50:52
  time to convince my niece to buy one.
• 50:54
  But like she, she lives out in Portland and they're very
• 50:58
  outdoorsy people. And, and she and her husband are
• 51:03
  what I would call say the nice version is fiscally
• 51:06
  conservative, Very, very fiscally conservative.
• 51:09
  They hold on to their cars for a long time.
• 51:12
  And they they'd moved out there And I'm like, you know, the guys
• 51:14
  you need like, yeah, like Subarus are everywhere, but we
• 51:16
  don't need one. And they're funny, right?
• 51:18
  For their wedding, they were going to go look at a venue
• 51:20
  that's really looking at Hood, at Hood Mountain or Mount Hood
• 51:25
  and really pretty. But they couldn't get up there.
• 51:27
  They got stuck. And she had how to fit because
• 51:29
  it was a very affordable product, which I'm good.
• 51:32
  I'm glad she's very sensible. But but they're still outdoorsy.
• 51:36
  He rock climbs, they camp all the time.
• 51:39
  And so finally they're like, and you know, obviously she was with
• 51:42
  my sister and a Forester goes right by him, climbing right up,
• 51:45
  zipping right past him and. So funny, maybe.
• 51:48
  We should get 1. And so we got her into and.
• 51:51
  What sealed the deal, though, was that the the Forester
• 51:54
  wilderness, it could carry a roof, tent, rooftop.
• 51:57
  OK, there you go. So they were just using that
• 52:00
  this week and I saw she was posting they were out.
• 52:02
  They took their their one year old Walt, very cute little kid.
• 52:06
  They took Walt's first camp, first camping trip and.
• 52:09
  In the Subaru they're using. The tent and everything, and
• 52:11
  they're like just right out of one of our ads.
• 52:13
  Yeah, yeah. They've got the dog, they've got
• 52:16
  the baby, they've got the whole thing.
• 52:17
  It's like, Yep, Yep. That's kind of, that's kind of
• 52:20
  who we are, you know, And look, it makes me smile every time I
• 52:23
  drive along and I'll see a an older Subaru when it's
• 52:26
  completely covered in stickers. Yeah, yeah, Marks and all that
• 52:29
  stuff. And OK, you know, it's OK.
• 52:31
  We're, we're, we're, we're cool with who we are.
• 52:33
  You know, we're not trying to impress anybody.
• 52:35
  And that's a great thing. Like you know, you take any
• 52:36
  Subaru it looks way better dirty.
• 52:38
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I see it looks better.
• 52:40
  You see a Forester covered in mud after you're done with it.
• 52:42
  It looked way cooler than the I know, right?
• 52:44
  He's like, yeah, that looks, that looks right.
• 52:47
  Damn, I got a story for you real quick.
• 52:48
  I had a Forester Wilderness Press car early this spring.
• 52:52
  So there was still snow, you know, in the mountains here in
• 52:55
  Colorado. And of course we all know
• 52:56
  Subaru's the official state car of Colorado.
• 52:57
  But I was doing a piece for Autoblog and I the, the idea for
• 53:01
  this piece was to drive to the top of Pikes Peak in winter.
• 53:03
  Well, what I didn't realize is that they stop you about 2/3 of
• 53:06
  the way up right where you hit the snow.
• 53:08
  But in this adventure, I was the only crazy person up there that
• 53:10
  day. I got to meet a lot of the
• 53:12
  people that actually work on the mountain, right?
• 53:13
  The the the Pikes Peak Rangers and the people that work and I
• 53:18
  told them what I was doing and they said, well, we all Dr.
• 53:20
  Subarus, this is what we all drive our personal vehicles and
• 53:23
  what we wouldn't give to have our work vehicles.
• 53:26
  Subaru as well, right, because they just think so highly.
• 53:29
  I'm thinking there might be a marketing opportunity there, the
• 53:31
  little Co branding with the America's mountain.
• 53:34
  But but these are people that drive these conditions every day
• 53:37
  and if we're up to them, that's what they would be driving would
• 53:40
  be a Subaru. I thought that that's great.
• 53:42
  Nice. Great to hear.
• 53:43
  I do have a, a good Pikes Pikes Peak story.
• 53:47
  We we're introducing the O 6 STI and WRX, which is the Hawkeye,
• 53:53
  right? You know, and we did it at Pikes
• 53:57
  Peak. And as you know, like Pikes Peak
• 53:59
  is a public Rd. other than the actual race, they will not shut
• 54:03
  it down. But we wanted to do this event.
• 54:05
  So you basically we had to get there at 4:00 AM and only half
• 54:09
  of it was paved at that point. So you, we met, you stopped in
• 54:13
  the middle, you drove double your X down and back up on the
• 54:17
  pavement. But STI you drove all the way to
• 54:20
  the top and back down on dirt. And I don't know, I'll tell you
• 54:25
  nothing will help you focus like driving it down in an STI on
• 54:31
  dirt sliding and looking at a 14,000 foot drop off with no
• 54:34
  dark wrinkles. Talk about a motor.
• 54:37
  One of the most terrifying things I've ever done.
• 54:41
  But but a very, very memorable press trip.
• 54:43
  And in the whole thing, we were done by 9:30 in the morning
• 54:46
  heading back down. But I mean that that was like I
• 54:48
  said, that will focus the mind. You know, you're not thinking
• 54:51
  about anything else while you're doing it.
• 54:52
  And you know, and look, that's probably why we love cars,
• 54:54
  right? I mean, you can, it is escapism.
• 54:58
  You can jump, you can do whatever you want.
• 55:01
  Go for a drive, go to a pretty area, go to the woods, go to a
• 55:04
  park, do something like that and try and get rid of whatever your
• 55:08
  problems are for the day. Right.
• 55:10
  Yeah, it's, it's the freedom you're living.
• 55:12
  All yourself driving that's that's right either.
• 55:14
  Way you're ahead of the game, I know.
• 55:16
  Well, so I have one last question for this visit.
• 55:21
  You mentioned old English cars. I would love to hear because you
• 55:25
  always have such an interesting collection.
• 55:28
  I would love to hear what's in your garage these days.
• 55:31
  Well, some of them aren't in the garage because they're getting
• 55:34
  worked on, but turn to farm. Yeah.
• 55:38
  Yeah, well, I have an Austin Hilly 3000 that I've had for
• 55:43
  many years now. Yeah.
• 55:45
  Every day I look at Bring a Trailer and I just watch the the
• 55:48
  prices plummet on that car, knowing how much money I've put
• 55:52
  into it, right? You're like I have.
• 55:55
  A gift. Actually, you know, knock on
• 55:56
  wood, it's actually running pretty well right now.
• 55:58
  But that's got an aluminum head. It's got triple webers, a 45
• 56:05
  Weber is on it. It's a tremic 5 speed.
• 56:08
  So it's a very early Healy. So it had a side shifter.
• 56:12
  If any Healy fans are out there, they know how how bad that
• 56:15
  transmission was. That was a a transmission that
• 56:17
  came out came out of a truck and it hung off the side of the
• 56:21
  transmission because like, you know, how much were weirder can
• 56:23
  you get? Because the transmission really
• 56:26
  made it a pain to drive, you know, but it looks so cool
• 56:29
  because it had this shifter was out of the side of the
• 56:32
  transmission telling you like why is this happening?
• 56:34
  Yeah, yeah, very, very cool. So that car is pretty, pretty
• 56:38
  set up. It's got some other stuff done,
• 56:40
  suspension and and things like that.
• 56:42
  And I'll never ever get the money out of it, but that's
• 56:45
  fine. I don't care.
• 56:46
  It's it's it's a fun car. It's an authentic driving thing.
• 56:49
  It's got that great owl. Then there's a Jaguar C type
• 56:52
  race car, a Proteus solid aluminum that is a currently
• 56:56
  leaking even more oil than it normally does and it actually
• 57:00
  it's. Overachieving.
• 57:02
  Trying to figure out what we know.
• 57:03
  They always say yeah, a big cat marks marks his territory.
• 57:07
  Well, no. So all about.
• 57:09
  Perspective, right? Definitely been doing that and
• 57:12
  then the one of the more normalized cars would have been
• 57:15
  the this my I have an 88560 SL which is the German antelope.
• 57:20
  So I, I, like I said, I was reenacting the Battle of Britain
• 57:23
  here with German, English. And that's, that's actually not
• 57:27
  good. That's pretty, pretty solid.
• 57:28
  It needed some stuff and I got it.
• 57:30
  But you know, there I, I personally are in a tremendous
• 57:34
  value for what you can get into what those cars are.
• 57:37
  And they, they feel so unique. They smell differently.
• 57:40
  They're great. And I used to work at a Mercedes
• 57:42
  dealer in the 80s, you know, and those were like such cool cars.
• 57:48
  I think I bought 1 specifically because I wasn't allowed to
• 57:50
  drive it. Like I could shuttle other cars
• 57:51
  around, but I wouldn't let me in that first time.
• 57:54
  I'm like, actually the coupe is better.
• 57:56
  But anyways, but they, that was like, no, they were, they
• 57:59
  wouldn't do that. And then I, I just bought a
• 58:02
  which is no one's seen yet because I'm having worked under
• 58:06
  it. Obviously it's English a an 80s
• 58:10
  two door Range Rover. Oh nice.
• 58:12
  Never, we never got the Range Rover, the 2 door Range Rovers
• 58:16
  here. And I tell you when I was a
• 58:18
  child, one of those, there was an early one of those in the
• 58:20
  Bahamas near where I lived. I remember seeing a white 2 door
• 58:25
  and the guy, I don't know where it had come from, you know, but
• 58:28
  it had a box air conditioner on the roof.
• 58:31
  So it was just. No.
• 58:34
  Sitting on the roof of this thing that I think you just had
• 58:36
  air vents going down and but it was a very striking vehicle.
• 58:39
  I remember seeing it all the time and going that is so cool.
• 58:42
  And I think it was just in there in my reptilian brain.
• 58:46
  And the one day I was in, I went earlier this year to the
• 58:50
  Goodwood members meeting, which I'd never done.
• 58:52
  I was like, yeah, yeah, I just want to kind of go see what the
• 58:54
  members meeting is like. And it was really cool.
• 58:57
  It was great. But the day before I went to a
• 58:59
  car show and Kingsley is a company that makes customized
• 59:03
  high end restomod, basically Range Rovers.
• 59:06
  And they had a bunch of the two doors out there.
• 59:08
  And I'm like, man, those are so good looking.
• 59:10
  And I saw and it was still not very expensive.
• 59:14
  And it's because it has the the least loved engine, the the VM,
• 59:17
  the Midori, the Italian. It's got the Italian turbo
• 59:20
  diesel which is. Supposed.
• 59:22
  To be awful but it's really interesting in it it has four
• 59:26
  individual cylinder heads it's a straight 4 turbo diesel but it's
• 59:30
  got individual cylinder heads so you get to repair them
• 59:33
  individually instead of going wooden at a time I don't know
• 59:36
  and like you should probably swap that engine yeah I want to
• 59:40
  give it a shot yeah yeah you know the guy before me had spent
• 59:42
  a lot of money getting that car running and and and going so but
• 59:46
  it looks cool as can be it is like super cool because I just
• 59:50
  sold I had a Land Rover series 3 which I sold right ago that I'd
• 59:54
  had which is actually a great car but I don't have a farm or
• 59:57
  anywhere to really off road in it and just wasn't you know it I
• 1:00:01
  was the coolest guy picking up Chinese food in the car everyone
• 1:00:06
  loved it what. More do you want?
• 1:00:08
  It was wonderful, but like I said, it's like driving, you
• 1:00:10
  know? It's like driving in an old
• 1:00:11
  aluminum shed down the mountain. You know which?
• 1:00:15
  Yeah, cool. Factor Rich I.
• 1:00:16
  Think rustic is the word so. Is the Range Rover right hand
• 1:00:21
  drive? No, it's left hand drive.
• 1:00:23
  It's Ashgar. So they only they they didn't
• 1:00:26
  have a diesel for Spain and Italy and that's why they
• 1:00:29
  marketed with these and they eventually moved the TDI as
• 1:00:32
  their own interesting TDI into them.
• 1:00:34
  And but but for whatever reason, for tax reasons in Spain, Italy
• 1:00:38
  is, you know, having a a diesel was was a big deal.
• 1:00:42
  So I I kind of want to drive around and see how slow it is
• 1:00:44
  and then my. Where you get the air
• 1:00:47
  conditioner for the roof. I have a yeah, well, I have the
• 1:00:49
  guy who's who did the other Land Rover for me and yeah, he's
• 1:00:52
  already telling me what we should swap it with.
• 1:00:54
  He's like, OK, just swap it. I'm like, no, no, it runs.
• 1:00:56
  It's like it's in. We don't want, you don't want,
• 1:00:58
  you don't want to kill a horse that can still run.
• 1:01:00
  Sorry about saying killing horses but.
• 1:01:04
  We love animals here on. Our show, you know, you know, I
• 1:01:07
  would obviously take it off the track.
• 1:01:08
  I would I would I would have it put into a splinting let that
• 1:01:12
  blink you that's. That's that's right.
• 1:01:14
  And that's what. You're gonna do with the car.
• 1:01:15
  Horses like the next auto show, right?
• 1:01:17
  There's an idea. Adopt A horse.
• 1:01:20
  I got to see one of those I'm. Kind of intrigued by it though,
• 1:01:23
  like I would really. Yeah, I got to see.
• 1:01:25
  One of those two door Range Rovers at Car Week last year.
• 1:01:28
  I had never seen one in person and they're so cool, so I'm
• 1:01:31
  excited. You'll have to come back and
• 1:01:32
  tell us once you get a chance to really experience it if you're
• 1:01:36
  going to keep it the way it is, what you're going to do.
• 1:01:38
  Led me down to, you know, and I'm like, I keep telling myself,
• 1:01:41
  you know, I need to get something into get get back into
• 1:01:43
  something, you know, more reasonable, like an Italian car.
• 1:01:46
  I don't have any Italian cars. Like I really need an old
• 1:01:48
  Italian car. It'll look, it'll look so
• 1:01:50
  reliable next to these other guys, right?
• 1:01:52
  Oh wow, right. You know, we could all use an
• 1:01:54
  old Italian car. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:01:56
  Just. Good advice, I know.
• 1:01:57
  Yeah. Those spiders are cheap.
• 1:01:59
  Get them out. Get out there and buy one.
• 1:02:01
  Totally. I.
• 1:02:02
  Think we have we have Dom's 2 answers for the BS market list
• 1:02:05
  is because we Haggerty does the bull market list so we do the
• 1:02:09
  that car show BS market list as you know so the Mercedes and the
• 1:02:13
  Alpha. Damn, I'm I'm great with that
• 1:02:15
  because like I can tell you exactly, we'll not make you
• 1:02:17
  money in the future. I can tell you which car to
• 1:02:19
  choose, you know, but I also, I, I feel there's, I don't know if
• 1:02:24
  other people do this, I go and bring a trailer and, or I'll
• 1:02:27
  look at the car ads all the time and I'll see a car that I have
• 1:02:30
  no use for whatsoever. Like there was for sale the
• 1:02:33
  other day was a 1994 Jaguar XJ12 sedan and it was just perfect.
• 1:02:40
  And it was like $16,000, you know, and I have no place to put
• 1:02:43
  I don't need it. I don't need it at all.
• 1:02:45
  But I'm like, I just like I want someone to save that.
• 1:02:48
  Don't, don't ruin that. Take care of that car.
• 1:02:50
  Give it, give it the support it needs, you know, and pay the
• 1:02:56
  with $3,000,000 it will cost to drive.
• 1:02:58
  Drive it to 200 miles, getting 9 miles per gallon, you know,
• 1:03:01
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:03:02
  I think we can all. They take it that time.
• 1:03:05
  It's so cool, you know, cars are transported to a different
• 1:03:08
  place. It's wonderful.
• 1:03:09
  Yep. Yeah, that's true.
• 1:03:09
  It's it's going back in time and I think we can all relate to
• 1:03:12
  like, OK. But like you said, I have no use
• 1:03:14
  for this. I have no space for it, but I
• 1:03:16
  want to care, take it like. I want to make sure that it is
• 1:03:19
  shepherded well. And a lot of us have fallen into
• 1:03:22
  the trap of like. All right.
• 1:03:25
  I've always said if I was in that category, I was like a
• 1:03:27
  billionaire, you know, and you have access to all this stuff,
• 1:03:30
  it'd be very difficult for me to buy like something like a, a
• 1:03:33
  Bugatti Veyron or something. As wonderful and as cool as they
• 1:03:36
  are as an engineering, and they're fast and so quick, but I
• 1:03:39
  could have like 80 other bad cars that would probably give me
• 1:03:47
  way more joy than just, you know, hitting 200 miles an hour,
• 1:03:50
  which I can't really do. No, if you look.
• 1:03:53
  Cool. And don't get me wrong, I, I,
• 1:03:54
  you know, if anyone's out there waiting to give me one, I would
• 1:03:56
  totally take it. But.
• 1:03:57
  Yeah, you know, you'll give it a good.
• 1:03:59
  Home I'd have way more fun buying a a $35,000, you know,
• 1:04:04
  perfect Alpha GTV 6. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:06
  You know. Buying little cars like that I
• 1:04:08
  would like rather do a bunch of goofy cars than than maybe the
• 1:04:11
  one crazy car. For sure.
• 1:04:13
  Well, because you can actually drive them and that's something
• 1:04:15
  that we talk about and I think that's something we've all
• 1:04:18
  connected on is like we are drivers and enthusiasts.
• 1:04:21
  And so something that you can actually use in your daily life,
• 1:04:23
  like you said, to pick up the Chinese food, that's a lot more
• 1:04:26
  valuable to me. And like you said, it brings me
• 1:04:28
  a lot more joy if I can get in it and drive it, you know, even
• 1:04:31
  just to the store to get eggs or whatever, like that's you can do
• 1:04:34
  that every day. So being able to use it, that
• 1:04:37
  means a lot more to me. And if you can, you know, if you
• 1:04:40
  can convince a young person to get into cars because of it, and
• 1:04:43
  that's just better. And hopefully that'll happen.
• 1:04:45
  Hopefully they'll put down their phones at some point and be
• 1:04:47
  like, hey, you know what? I know I just met a kid the
• 1:04:51
  other day from we were just working with car and driver and
• 1:04:54
  they have one of their young guys who's on the team there.
• 1:04:58
  He's one of their car Gophers. And you know, he's got like 15
• 1:05:03
  cars all in parts Neons. He's got Subarus, he's got all
• 1:05:08
  these cars and he's he's building and wrenching on and
• 1:05:10
  like that is awesome. I'm so happy to see this, this
• 1:05:13
  really young kid, you know, getting in and being enthusiasts
• 1:05:15
  to that level. I love that.
• 1:05:17
  That's awesome. Well, we really appreciate you
• 1:05:20
  joining us this week, John. Obviously, we barely scratched
• 1:05:23
  the surface. You have so many stories.
• 1:05:25
  So we will have to do this again, but for now, we will say
• 1:05:29
  thank you to everyone. Thank you to you especially for
• 1:05:31
  joining us and thank you to our audience for joining us this
• 1:05:34
  week on that car show. We appreciate you being here and
• 1:05:37
  we appreciate you sharing the show with your enthusiast
• 1:05:39
  friends. Please consider liking,
• 1:05:41
  subscribing and leaving Five Star Review.
• 1:05:43
  Remember to always be driving and we'll see you back here next
• 1:05:46
  week. Thank you.