THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! - Ferrari’s New Fake Gated Manual, Fiat Topolino & Why Doug Won't Buy a Supercar!

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

Have a question you want answered on the podcast next week? Ask HERE https://crsnbds.com/PODQUESTIONS Welcome to THIS CAR POD! Doug DeMuro & Friends offers weekly expert insight and opinion on breaking automotive stories, the car market, and audience Q&A. Thank you to our sponsors!  Mothers - Visit https://mothers.com/carsandbids to find out more and purchase Mothers® products! AutoZone - Get moving on your next project at https://www.autozone.com/?cmpid=VID:US:EN:AD:2611:CRB:AWR:OLV:1x1:GEN:NA:TPR:ATE:GRL:GAL:GRL:GAL:GRL:GAL Warby Parker - Right now, buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs at https://www.warbyparker.com/cars    MOZA Racing - Shop the featured MOZA Racing products at https://mozaracing.com/carsandbids Chapters: 00:00:00 THIS CAR POD! 00:00:16 Ferrari Brings Back The Gated Manual! 00:09:19 Fiat Topolino Is Coming To US 00:18:06 The All New Bentley Torcal 00:20:57 Automakers Return To Regional Designs 00:24:31 Toyota Tacoma Production Returns To Texas 00:33:28 Massive Deals On Polestars 00:37:45 Massive Deals On Lucid 00:43:32 The Tesla Model Y L 00:45:47 Cadillac Vistiq Recall 00:46:43 Jiffylube Is Under New Ownership 00:51:35 Talk Cars 00:52:06 Nick's Selling His Ford Focus 01:00:04 Cars and Bids Events! 01:07:30 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII 01:10:30 Market Report 01:10:38 Lincoln Town Car 01:12:19 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor 01:16:00 Aston Martin V12 Vantage 01:18:59 Porsche 911 996 Turbo 01:22:17 Community Questions 01:22:39 Is Filippo The Only Dent Side Ford Owner With A Coexist Sticker? 01:23:46 When Do You Know It's Time To Let Go Of An Old Car? 01:26:50 Is Doug Interested In Any New Supercars? 01:29:32 What Is The Best Generation Of Lexus RX? 01:33:06 Would Your Car Choices Be Different If you Didn't Have A Family? 01:35:17 What's Your Stand On Food In The Car? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and welcome to this car pod. I'm Filippo. I'm Nick. I'm Doug, and there's a lot to discuss. Let's start with the biggest news story of the year. Ferrari has brought back the gated manual transmission. Philippo, pronounce it. The doici-chilindri manoeale, right?

Yes, the dodici-chilindri manual. This is a really big deal. Excuse me? It's sort of a manual. This is, as far as I'm concerned, it's a manual. And from what I hear from people who have driven it or similar systems, it operates exactly like a true manual right onto the point where you can get the car to buck and possibly even stall. So basically, it is a, it's their regular dual clutch, except they have added a clutch pedal and they have added a shift gate. And it's like by wire.

And it's not really the same thing like it was connected before. But I have a suspicion it's going to feel like it. And I think this is awesome. and my only question is, why did it take them so long? Nick, any thoughts? So my initial reaction is I wanted to be a hater, right? It's a fake manual and it's clutched by wire. But literally this is all I've thought about for the last week.

And once you get past that concept, like that it's clutched by wire, the beauty of it is so you can use it in automatic mode. You can. So if you're in traffic or what have you, you can drive it, you can put it a manual and you won as a super, car with an automatic transmission enthusiast. That's the best of both worlds. Two, and I think the most, I talked to Kennan about this on Sunday, in theory, this technology, if it works, they could put in any car with a DCT. So it could open up a lot of doors to have simulated

manuals in across the range from Perosongways to what have you. So there's a lot of optionality there. And I do think, like, the fact that, like, everything's moving to by wire. You have brake by wire. You have steering by wire. There should be ways to make that work and make it work well. And I do think Ferrari, despite some weird moves recently, probably is going to pay a lot of attention to doing this right. So if it drives well, I'm with you.

I can look past the fact that it's not a real manual. My only complaint is that it isn't a real manual. Aside from that, I'm, like, so here for it. I'm here for the fact that they did it. I'm here for the fact that they brought it back. I'm here for the fact that they perfectly timed the release of this to take the heat off of their awful electric car. And I just think it is a fantastic thing. And I think that anybody who's complaining, I get your complaints, but it's either this or nothing.

Like, wouldn't we rather have this? It's been nothing for a long time. And like since 2010, right, and 15 years. And here is, it's back. And it may not be the same. It may not have to, it may not, I've heard that it has a very similar feel. Because Koenigieg also has a similar situation. And I'm curious how it'll feel, obviously, but that's what I hear.

And if that's true, do we really care that it's by wire? Steering by wire can give us a similar feel, breaking by wire, et cetera, et cetera. One other interesting thing you just touched on briefly, Nick, but I want to really emphasize is it does open up the possibility for more vehicles to do something similar. And I think there's a regulatory play here, too, which is that I suspect they do not have to homologate a second transmission. My feeling is that likely this is just the same dual clutch, but there's like a different little lever. And so as opposed to any sort of regulatory rules they have to go through with a manual or an automatic, whatever, for fuel economy,

I bet they don't have to do that for this because it is still just the DCT. And I think that at the very least, that probably makes it a little bit easier to get on the market, even if there's still a lot of development that goes into it. Do you know what the best part is Doug, you can stall it, you can blip the throttle, you can do all that, but you can't money shift it. They put in technology to be, so you can't, you can't downshift it and do a lot of fun things, but if you've ever had a problem with money shifting, have you? No worries.

I've never, uh-huh, but I've heard that that is a problem in the manual community. Can I ask you a question about that? You say, you know what the best part is, Doug? Why do you bring me into this? I think that you are the enthusiast of money shifting. You seem to bring up money shifting a lot. I merely dispute the story. One particular money shift.

No, it was the piston rings frying due to knocking on the engine and tunes and all that. However, yeah, the piston rings went all right. Thanks to a high speed two one up shift. Let's change the subject to something factual and correct that actually happened, which is Ferrari is releasing this. The other important news bits is this first one is sort of through their tail. Taylor-made program, 1,499 units are expected. Obviously, it's Ferrari, and those numbers may change. It also has a 47.5% price bump over the base.

Basically, it's 200 grand, more or less to do the add the opt for the mail. Which, as someone who swapped a Mercy and a Mercedes now, a manual conversion swap, I mean, like, 200K is actually not that bad of a value. It's going to be more than 200K. You mentioned the tailor-made thing, and it's hard to understand. all the Ferrari games, but basically what the Taylor Made thing means is they're not just sending the transmission through Taylor Made. You have to equip the car through Taylor Made. I bet you they're going to make you tack on at least another 100 to 200 options. You're going to be a million in this. It's going to be a million dollars. But when you think about other crap that's a million dollars,

you know, a manual V12 Ferrari, isn't that what we've all been looking for? The running joke on the internet, especially Instagram, is that they're going to make you buy a luce to qualify for this. They may. I mean, it's going to be stuff like that. However, 1499 units, which in reality is probably 2,000 units, maybe more, and you have to assume that this means that they'll be pretty getable

by Ferrari standards, and you have to assume that this is just the precursor to more. You have to assume they will do a manual mid-engine cars, 296, and maybe SF-90. The sky's the limit if this sells, which, of course, it will. The hybrid gives them an opportunity to move 12 saline,

which have not been strong sellers. Yeah. One more interesting thing is, it's been 20 years since the 355 debuted with the F1 transmission. So we really come full circle to, okay, we had a manual that was actually an automatic, and now we have an automatic that's actually a manual. It's kind of a funny, what's old is new again and what's new is old again. The other cool thing is that this should be on sale pretty quickly. So it's not like we're going to have to wait three years.

Like, this is something real and out there. By the way, it's been 30 years since the 355 debuted with that. Oh, yes. F1. Thank you. Believe it or not. And yeah, but it is interesting how it went, right? Like that all happened.

And then that came out in 97, 98, and within 10 years, the manual was gone completely. And Ferrari had this sort of arrogant attitude about it. But they must have seen Porsche sit here and make all this money and realize there are enthusiasts who will do it. And they developed it in their own kind of special. unusual Ferrari way, and I'm fine with that. It's here. It exists. Rejoice, enthusiasts.

Here's another car you will never have the chance to own or buy. It is interesting. They're going to be, I suspect that they're the first but not the only player. I mean, Koenig has one, but it doesn't really count. Other people will also do this. We've heard for a while about some manufacturers, Toyota included that are thinking about how to do a manual transmission electric sports car, where it's all simulated anyway. And here, Ferrari has proven, okay, we can come out to market with one.

The interest in this car will prove out whether there's enthusiast interest in it. And if there is, I imagine other manufacturers really following suit, if it allows them to connect with enthusiasts in a way that doesn't require a new transmission, just requires a lot of software work. Nick, you think about get one? Yeah, if I could afford one, which I absolutely cannot, and I would be in Ferrari's good graces to, which be allowed the opportunity to, which I definitely am not.

I would consider buying one with those two very strong ifs in place just because you've got to imagine the investment opportunity. As much as I hate talking about cars about investment, like if you're able to buy this for anywhere near a reasonable price, like at it being a limited, the first one back, like this has got to be one that holds its value pretty darned. You know, there's a lot of us who would be thinking about buying it for enjoyment, but you take your investment angle.

If I were going to buy it for an enjoyment, I would buy an F1, 599, swap it with a non-buy wire clutch and be in it for a tenth of the price. Do you think that would be better? What if, but what if that's a million? No, it wouldn't be better, but I would be able to drive the crap out of a 599 with an exhaust and a manual swap without any fear versus a car that's one of 1,499 that I had to be special allocated. You would be like, I'm a little afraid to drive it other than the flex on young children at cars and coffee. This isn't your only Ferrari if you're not out of care. True.

Big news. Okay, what's our next? There's a lot of big news this week. Our next big news story is this, which boy, everybody's been texting me about. Everybody loves it. All right. I'm like, you know, there's things that've been in Europe for years. It's all around.

It has been a year for years. It is now coming to the U.S. We for sale at select fiat dealers in the U.S. for 2026. By the way, it starts out not being street legal, but they will have a kit that makes it low-speed vehicle legal. Apparently. There are two versions. There's a Tobolino, which, by the way, little mouse, that has actual doors and a glass sunroof. And then there's a Deutsche Vita, which is the one shown here, that has the, like, rope, fake doors.

And it's clearly meant to be for beach towns. Nick, can I ask you a question? Please. Yes. You ever thought about replacing some of your doors, your car, your house with rope? You think he hasn't? He has. It has.

I mean, I kind of like the boat vibe there of the rope. Like, it does look like stanchions on the outside of a sailboat. boat. However, I think there's some safety concerns that would probably be flacked. I mean, the Wrangler drives around without doors. Yeah, I don't think the, you've at least got a little higher ride height and some protections there. Everybody mistakenly thinks that doors are a safety feature. It's so funny. They're not. Like, in some cars, the side airbags are contained within the doors, but I don't think very many. And other than that, they're not structural. Like, You could take doors off your Honda Civic and drive around like a Wrangler if you wanted to.

Driving behind Matt Matt's GT3RS, I've been hit with rocks on my forehead when driving a roofless car. Yeah, sure. You got to worry about projectiles. What about a side impact? Like anything is better than nothing or a piece of rope. I have a suspicion in this particular case. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Given that the top speed is 25, first off, I have a suspicion.

You're not going to be behind many G2Rs. Hey, the top speed is actually 19. It has 46 miles of range It takes five hours to charge To those 46 miles of range It takes five hours charged for 46 miles of range This is like we have a power wheels here That has a similar

Yeah probably By the way I will say I'm not exaggerate my top speed I will say from reports in Europe You can actually go faster So I bet it's electronically limited to that If you've removed the limiter You probably got 30 miles an hour

Something thereabouts Yeah It is about $15,000 Would you rather have this or an RSA X type S, Filippo. I would rather have a lot of things before I choose this to Polino. Personal. But I'm giving you the choice between this

and an RSX type S. Don't you think, though, the cross comparison is either a golf cart or like a mochae or moke. I don't know how you say that. I'm not in the market for any of those, nor will I ever be. It's a beach cruiser to just kind of like for people like Doug that are just going from their house to the beach. I love it.

Felipe, did you know that in Canada there was a base model RSX with hubcaps? Fun fact. Steelies? Nice. Yes, steel wheels and hubcaps. It's all they do in Canada. They were going to put steel wheels on the winter tires anyways. It is cool that it's in the U.S.

I love the love for it. I love that people are like really into these kind of cute small vehicles. I struggle to say automobile. Yeah, like the think neighbor that you guys had. Yeah. It's cute. It's charming. I think it helps the Fiat brand.

It's one of like two vehicles for sale on Fiat's website. And so I'm thrilled that it's here. I don't understand who's going to buy this. instead of a golf cart, but whatever. Somebody will because it's cuter. It would look great on a yacht, too. Like people that have like little get-around cars on their yacht. So you're thinking of it sort of as decoration.

Yeah, yeah. For sure. It's a novelty. I mean, no one's buying this for actual transport. On Coronado nearby or on other beach communities, there is a market for these. There is nobody in the world who would buy one of these in the beach community in which we all live. They have to know that, though. For the same price, you can have a six-seater golf cart.

This has two seats. It's laughable. This isn't related to that, right? A mini-moke that we do sell on cars a bit often, is more sensitive than a golf cart. Yeah, it's way... You buy for style. You make style decisions sometimes.

That is the problem. So the press release, which I'll read directly here, it says, it only takes five hours to charge. By the time you're packing up your beach gear, your batteries all charged up and ready to take you to lunch, which we talked about in our group thread. Yeah. One, there's no room for your beach gear.

Two, it definitely would not take five hours to put all your beach gear into it. And then three, why are you getting lunch when your goal is to get to the beach? I thought about it more. I've thought about it more. Here's what I think they mean. You park it at the beach.

Somehow you have a charger at the beach. I can't speak to you, but at my beach here, we don't have a public charger. But if you did, you charge... You go to the beach, then you pack up your gear, and by the time you get back to the car,

it is done charging, and then you go off to lunch in the car. That's what I think they're saying. Now, why do you bring lunch with you to the beach? You're a poor planner. And also, I hope you didn't bring more than one person because it's a two-seater. The good news is that it does come with the luggage rack carrier.

So, I think this thing is so cool. Filippa, what's the IZTA-looking one? Yeah, that's even smaller. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. Weren't you really into the smart crossblade for a while? I mean, couldn't you argue that this is effectively no different? Totally, but I didn't get it for exactly the reasons I'm saying no one's going to get this.

It's ultimately, it's a $40,000 two-seater, and it's not practical. Of course. Well, this is 14,000. So you're, this is. Yeah, but I can get a golf cart, six seats for, for the same money. And by the way, Felipe, you're like, oh, people want style. Go to Carsenvins.com, which is a website, great website. And type in golf cart.

You want to see some stylish golf carts, baby girl? We got them. Put it in. Put it in. I will say, people do decide things for style. I do like that. Oh, my gosh. That thing is so cool.

Yeah. Nick, okay. So you're sitting here. Okay, Nick, how much did that sell for? I can't see it. Four grand. Four grand. Nick, would you rather have that for four grand or a Topolino little mouse for 14, huh?

All right, I take back everything positive I said about the Fiat. What's the range of this? It doesn't even matter. It can't be much worse than the Topolino. Three kilowatt electric motor doesn't actually say a range. If you're driving something like this, you literally wouldn't feel safe, nor would you choose that option if it's any more than like a mile or two, right? Right? Like, this is for very short distances, so, like, effectively, anything over 10 is sufficient. That's a good point. That's a good point.

I think of the other people make a lot of style decisions. Why did you buy a G cabriolet instead of a Wrangler? It's four seats and goes off road. Or why did you buy a knit polo with vertical stripes? For example, yeah. Because I'm going to double my money on the G cabriolet and the wrangler's going to appreciate it. Well, maybe the Topolino will. Is the Fiat Topolino an appreciating asset?

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Give it that mother's love. As you guys may remember, we have spent the last couple weeks working to rest of your really awesome 1973 Ford F-250 with the help of AutoZone. This is a truck that my wife and I inherited from her stepdad, and he was a mechanic. He spent a bunch of time kind of starting the rescuing process on this truck, but unfortunately passed before he had time to finish the job.

And so we've taken over the project, we've taken over the mantle to really get it in great condition. This week, the truck's been having trouble starting, and we think that the battery needs to be replaced. And we're also a little worried about the alternator. Luckily, AutoZone makes it easy by testing my battery and alternate. for free. It's actually one of AutoZone's many free services, alongside battery testing and charging and their free FixFinder service if you have a dashlight on. So it does turn out that the F-250

needed both a battery and an alternator. No real shock. For the replacement, we're going with a Dura-Alask gold battery and Dura-Lask alternator. With the help of AutoZone, that project is complete. Keep following us here, Cars and Bids, to see what we tackle next with the help of AutoZone. All right, move on to the next, move on to the next one. What do we got next? Oh, God. There's a lot. There's a lot. They're going to see that we have PowerPoint. Okay, Bentley released the NorCal. Nick, you see this? The Torcal with a T, yes.

Torcal? Turcal? Well, there's not much to see. The teaser shot basically shows that it... Wait, wait, so to be clear, this is a... Bantega replacement, I believe, right? That is actually... I believe it's not necessarily replacing.

It's going to be an all-EV, their first only electric vehicle. It will be a two-row, five-seater SUV. so their first full EV is going to be an SUV. That's what we know and not much else. Yep. Pretty much. They're going to release it in September. They've invited me to the launch and I can't come.

Nick, would you like to go on my behalf? I think Nick should go. Where is it? The UK. That's a bit far. My Torcal can only make it to about a third of the way to the airport. Nick, don't you want to see the Torcal named after the great places of Toronto? and Calabasas, north of Los Angeles.

I'm sure that's what they were going for. Toronto and Calgary. This is a Canada play. Yeah, yeah. It's actually the El Torquard de Antiquara, a spectacular collection of limestone rock formation in Spain, if you were curious. Nope.

Torcal, Toronto, and Calgary. This is a Canada play, and their next one's going to be the Van Mon. Yeah. For Vancouver and Montreal. Same basic architecture as the other Volkswagen Group EVs, the Kyan, especially. It's going to be an SUV.

Hard to tell from. the spy shot, but like it's kind of like the Bintagga, a little bit like a notch we're in, yep. We'll find out more in a, in two months. I think it's smart in that they didn't, they didn't do, they initially had a concept that was like a two-door, Jaguar, Type Zero-Zo-ish thing. Like, I don't think that the demand is there for these like stylish coups or sedans. Like, they didn't do the Tesla strategy of going like a Model S, like a sedan or Lucid,

like a sedan first. Like SUV, I think is the right platform. Rules did the Specter. And I think all of us were surprised at how well the Spector did, but I think they smartly said, all right, it needs to be luxury, it needs to be, like, like, I think the EV SUV makes a lot more sense than the Continental GT or anything else in their lineup

in terms of what buyers might actually want and appreciate. So it doesn't seem like a bad idea compared to, say, the Luce or many of the other luxury EV concepts we've seen. By the way, one quick... Yeah, plus it just makes more sense for luxury brands. Yeah, one quick question here. it does not replace the vintagia, at least initially. And remember, too, Lamborghini was going to have an EV SUV.

They canceled it. Bentley stayed the course. So they already do have, to our point, it's like the VW platform sharing and all that technology, you might as well do the Bentley version. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Let's keep it rolling with a globe with some cars. All right. This is going to be a quick story. What is that? The chief technical officer, Rovin Moore. had a budget interviews where he basically said, we can't keep designing cars, especially interiors, for world markets. The Chinese market is so focused on technology and going all screens

and having the latest, greatest technology in their cars. But what we're hearing from our European and North American consumers is we want buttons, we want less screens, we want it to be a little bit more simple, we want to be able to click things physically. And so they have spun off and created a side project, Audi, in all caps, different than Audi than just a capital A and without the four circles

in China alongside a local partner there where they can develop cars just for the Chinese market Nick, you know what the cool thing about this is? There's now another Audi brand where you can money ship their cars.

You were really excited for that joke, weren't you? Yeah! Don't worry, they're all AVs, pretty much. Philippo, this is an interesting story. It makes sense to me. Yeah, for a long time we've been going towards a world car

and global development And now I think some automakers, Audi specifically right now, have realized people around the world want slightly different things. There's different markets. They need to make different design and functionality decisions.

And this is probably a good split to actually do that. My concern is people stated preferences like I want less screens don't always correlate with their actual behavior. So one, will they be willing to pay extra for this? Because the cars would be cheaper if they only had one globally

versus having to design two. Two, they say they want more buttons, but as we've learned in some of Doug's reviews, it can quickly become too many buttons. Screens actually make sense. You just have to get over that initial 30-day learning curve of finding where things are. Like, they say they want the buttons, but will the average buyer, not the enthusiast, but the average buyer, when they're faced with an airplane-like cockpit of buttons, actually prefer that versus just getting used to the screens.

I don't think they're suggesting going back to the Panama era, which is all both. Sure. Sure. And to be clear, what they made clear, that they will use the same platforms, engine designs, everything, just they're going to do make some kind of final market decisions. I do think that there has been, especially in Europe, a pushback to a lot of screens and everything being function on screens, as there has been in the U.S. And if you separate out even some audio or basic climate control, that's a big win, but not what the Chinese market wants. The Chinese market wants the opposite. They want screens. They want all the latest technology that some automakers have, especially European and the U.S., American automakers have been left behind in that market because they're not willing to do that innovation or take that risk for the rest of the global markets.

And now maybe they can actually win in each of the markets instead of losing it both. It looks like an Azuzu Axiom. Well, it's weird because the headlights are also red. So I think this is just like a bad AI image. It's not real. I was thinking it was a what's that dog. The Azuzu Axiom. Yes.

I think about it often. I saw one recently. It's beautiful. The later ones had big power. Yeah. Unfortunately, the interior looks atrocious. Well, it could have been better, but it also could have been worse relative to what was on sale at the time. Do you remember the Mitsubishi Endeavor?

Of course. You think I don't know all these cars? The Axi is a beautiful car. It was a cool looking. The Adnever looked like a regular SUV that had been working out. But they're kind of, the Axiom Interior, by the way. It's funny because the Axiom looks so futuristic when it came out, and now you look at it, and it just looks like an old car. Yep.

SUV. Give us our next new story, please. Immediately. All right. The Tacoma. Okay, here's a fun fact. Up until, like, I don't know, 10 years ago,

Tacoma production was, excuse me, up until 2021, Tacoma production was split between San Antonio and two different factories in Mexico. But the current generation Tacoma has been only built in Mexico.

They, Toyota's investing about $3.6 billion to double the size of their San Antonio plant and move all most of the Co-in production back to Texas. All of most. I was wrong. They're still going to keep some in Mara.

It's still going to make some in Mexico. But it sounds like one factory in Mexico doesn't have a product, which makes you wonder, what's coming? Toyota is near U.S. capacity. Toyota is the highest factory capacity of any automaker that builds the United States. And so it makes sense for them to add capacity. I love the idea of the trucks coming to San Antonio. There's a tariff play here. Toyota got smashed on tariffs last year, like almost more than any other automaker from a revenue standpoint. Obviously, they're thinking that if the tariffs are here to stay, and it seems now increasingly like maybe they will be, at least for a while, they can get the Tacoma built here.

There's probably a bit of a pride thing there, too. Americans want a car that's, you know, not necessarily built in Mexico. They might be saying that. But I just love that San Antonio factory. It makes the finest automobiles in the United States. The Sequoia and Tundra. The engines only blow up sometimes. By the way, it's also fracturing and beyond tariffs is we're at the point, the renegotiations for the U.S.MCA, which is the agreement between the U.S. Mexican Canada, restarted last week, two weeks ago, when the U.S. basically said, we're not going to renew

it as is. And so I bet there's also some calculation there of what will we need to deal with? Because even if tariffs go away under a future administration, renegotiating something like the UMCA may take some additional time. and if some of their free trade benefits go away, that also becomes a problem. Nick, yeah. Nick, you want your Toyota truck built in Japan.

Well, so, okay, two things here. One, I do think the most interesting thing about this story is the question, did our terrace working? Like, this was arguably the point of the terrace was to push more manufacturing into the U.S., obviously with the timeline they were rolled out that was not feasible in the short run, but in the long run, the hope was,

manufacturers would make decisions like this. So one could argue as bad of an idea as the tariffs initially sounded, does this soften the blow somewhat? I'm not saying the tariffs were good. It's a lot more complicated. Yeah, they brought Tacoma production to San Antonio, the greatest truck plant in America, and I'm dead serious about that. But that doesn't necessarily mean the tariffs worked.

Like, it's one thing that happened. It was the intended effect of the tariffs. And this is negative effects, too. Yes, quite a few. Secondly, I would also argue that I'm not. entirely sure this is a positive effect. We'll see. We'll see what happens to the price of the trucks on it. Right. Well, I just mean for like American workers, the American economy. But what about for you and me, baby girl? Where are the ones buying the trucks?

So I need to explain something and maybe apologize. So I have been teasing you that Toyota trucks aren't real American trucks. Oh. And I was doing so simply because I didn't want to give you the bragging point that you drive an American truck. Like it was a tongue-in-cheek comment. However, someone made the comment that it came off a little xenophobic. Because it's like saying, oh, an immigrant that wasn't born in America but lives here isn't a real American or what have you. I never thought of it that way in terms of like the cars are humans or that it had like basically they called me a racist. Yeah. And I don't think that was that was never my intent.

And I feel awful that it could even be misconstrued that way. I can't believe you're doing this. This is ridiculous. All the crap. Can I ask you question? Well, it is. I agree. I say some off-color stuff.

I would just say, look, it is so confusing now. what is a American truck? It is not confusing at all. Is it built in America? Well, then it's American. Not really. Most people think of it as Ford, Chevy, GM are the American brands. Toyota is an import, right?

Like, if you go and service your car, you find a domestic vehicle service center, and they support those three, or you go to an import. This is a common conception there. If the VIN starts with one, four, or five, it's American. Am I right, Felipe? That's what the license plate collector crowd thinks for normal Americans who aren't obsessed with cars. You know, it's interesting when you say that. It's interesting when you say that, Nick, because the federal government has something called the Buy American Act, which implores them to purchase American goods.

And in that act, what American goods are is defined. And the way they define it is the way that I'm defining it, which is that it is manufactured in America, even if the company itself is not technically headquartered. It gets even more complicated, right? So what percentage of the parts come from the U.S.? It is not complicated. My truck is built in Texas by non-union labor, and then it comes out and rangers down the street. And my point is, I am...

Not too complicated about that. I am officially conceding that the tundra and Sequoia are American-made, as confusing as that is to my simple brain to wrap my head around that Toyota is an American brand. I can get past that, and I apologize if my comments be we're misconstitutional. The trucks were designed in America. They were designed by Americans. They are only sold.

They are more or less only sold in America and the Gulf. And like yesterday, two of them were sold in Japan. They're only sold in America. By America, I'm including Canada, which is part of North America. And Canada's our brethren, except Trump doesn't think so, but I do. They are as American as me. And I don't know about you, Nick. You get that French-sounding last name, but the rest of them.

Rocon. Nicolas Rochon. Can I ask a question? Wee, we. I am an immigrant. Yeah? But now I'm in America. You're like a Toyota truck.

Am I American? You are... So I thought about this the other day. You are both the most Italian person I know and the most American. Because like you go to Italy for like a month and you speak to people in little Italy, in Italian and make fun of my multiple. Yep. But you then come back and the first thing you do is go to NASCAR. The second thing you do is drive around to 70s F-250.

You do some crazy stereotypical American. The answer to your question is yes. Many miles and a 350 Super Duty, Julie. The answer to your question is yes, you are American. Yes. Now, I don't know how Nick feels about that, but he is, after all. I concede that both Toyota and Philippo are American. Growth.

Growth from Nick. As a convertible driver, I wear sunglasses pretty much year-round. And for the longest time, I've accepted a certain amount of annoyance with them. You start moving, a run, a bike, a spirited drive, and they slide down your nose. You've adjusted them constantly, or they just come off entirely, or maybe they even fog up. I figured that was just the trade-off. Then I started wearing Warby Parker Sport. And what I appreciate is they don't look like performance eyewear.

They're not that competing in the Olympics look. They look like normal, well-designed sunglasses. But the upgrades are where it counts. A nose-slip, nose pad, so they stay put when you're sweating, a wrap-around design that widens your field of vision, and contrast-enhancing lenses that keep things sharp when you're moving. They black 100% of UV, they're polarized, scratch-resistant, and more. I've worn mine hiking on long walks, and they just stay where they're supposed to be.

And Warby does more than sport. Prescription glasses, contacts, online eye exams, and over 300 stores if you'd still rather go in person. It's all in one place. Eyewear that's made to move with you. Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at Warbyparker.com slash cars. That's 20% off any additional pairs when you purchase one pair at W-A-R-B-Y-Parker.com slash cars. Can driving on a track on the sin actually help your real-life track performance? Let's find out. It is impressive. My knowledge of this track is much higher than when I was just looking at maps.

This is much, much more in-depth understanding of how this track is laid out, how the corners kind of flow together. And that is immeasurably helpful. All right, 205 is the last. laugh time I said there. But we're going to pause there. We're going to see tomorrow at Chukwala and realize whether I can deliver similar time. You're going to prepare on a sim so that you don't think about the track? Huge. Way lower risk, way lower cost. Highly, highly, highly, highly, highly recommend. I have to say, the sim experience really was incredibly helpful. Many thanks to Moza for providing those parts. They were instrumental to helping make this track day safe. First of all,

and fun and feel like I knew what I was doing. Sims, recommend it. Give us our next news story, please. All right, Polestar. Polestar, as we talked about last week, no longer allowed to sell cars in the U.S. starting in 2027 model year. That means we're not getting any new poll stars,

including a Polestar 4 with a rear window, which just was released in Europe. But if you want a Polestar, now is your chance? Polestar 4s are about 25 grand off MSRP, advertised. It's like Polestar doesn't have dealers. So this isn't you go to a dealer and you negotiate. They're advertising, uh,

23 grand off of one, 20 grand off the Polestar 3, an additional loyalty or conquest bonus, uh, and pretty generous lease terms. So if you want a Polestar 4, go get it now, I guess,

25 grand off a cash purchase, uh, plus an additional, more if you have owned one or if you have a competing car. Crazy. Yeah, you got to imagine the sales reps there are ready to make some deals. But this picture, if you're watching this is me. This was Thursday.

I think the news was announced on like a Monday. You can get deals allegedly, but I will tell you there was not an employee there. The doors were locked. The short-term strategy for Polestar was like take a couple days off and figure out from corporate what to do. They were truly very confused. Understandably so. Yes, understandably so. And did not know what they want to do.

I will say, by the way, a Pulsar for MSRP for a base one is something like 55 grand. So you're taking 45% off that MSRP. Except that you may not have any servicing. You're never going to be able to trade into a different one. And it's still too expensive. That's what used ones already you're selling for that are like six days old. That's what to the transaction price always was. Unfortunately not, but that was why they weren't.

Well, I mean, everyone's comparing with the FISC and being like, oh, it's the same as getting the fire sale in the Fisker. I think it's different and that Pulsears will still be made internationally. like the parts are theoretically available. Getting them to the U.S. might be tricky. Volvo dealers will service them ice. You can service your fiscler in Manhattan. It's trickier, though. Like, this won't be as tricky as the fiscar,

and I don't think it needs to be as much of a fire sale. Like, it's just going to stop being sold, but it's not going up in flames. Have they announced if Volvo is willing to service orphaned pole stars? They've committed to maintaining service ability, and I don't know whether they're going to do that through their own service centers, which I think there are a few.

you post service centers or through Volvo dealers, but I imagine it'll be something in that realm. They have committed to it just like something. They have to be hoping that they can still get a waiver, right? Like, or change some code. I don't think they're hoping to that at all. I think you know what's wild is all these brands that went into the malls made the mistake of not putting service and sales together. So like you're in for service. You're Nick who's like impulsive and crazy, right? You're in for service and and hey, I've money shifted my TT. They got a new TT sitting right there, and you're like, yeah, that looks pretty nice. Let me take a test drive.

Next thing you know, you're buying. Whereas with these brands that are at the mall, the service center is in some industrial area that is ugly. And you can't have this experience where you're like, oh, and you know what I mean? And so Nick drops off the car, and he's like not looking at the new TT's. They did try that actually at Audi of San Diego. But I think the trade in value of a blown motor team. was a little below my liking. Yeah.

So I ended up passing. But, you know, and what's crazy, too, is the UTC mall, super nice, posh mall where they're in a lovely double date. I mean, there's a lucid, there's a Tesla, there's a plus star. It's all the EB brands. Yeah, like every good 15-year-old. Yeah, like, what is this? What are you going into your junior year?

Look, you and I are a little different, all right? I like convenience and amenities. There's multiple ice cream places. There's boba. Like, it doesn't matter what you're, you don't have to make a decision. You go to the mall. Yeah. Everything from the food court to true food kitchen to Dintai Fung.

You got it all, okay? Good advertising. This is brought to you by the UTC Mall, ladies and gentlemen. You can buy an EB while you're there. You're like, oh, I just wanted to get like an H&M T shirt, but the Polestar 4 is $25,000 off. He's fucking as many brands as he can. And UTC Mall, do your shopping, and then there's a Chipotle in the parking lot. Oh, that would be nice.

That would be nice. moving on from an automaker that has great deals because they legally can't sell cars starting next year to one that has great deals because... Yeah, it's not desirable. Lucid is offering 0% on the gravity for some long amount of time, too. Yep. And it's interesting because I've been trying to buy a car here. I don't know.

It's very difficult for him to try to buy a car. I don't know if you're around here, Nick, but I've been going to the new car dealerships. And you go to the new car dealerships like the Chrysler dealer where I spend a lot of these days. And their advertised deals are 5.99%. Yeah. Yep. You know, like I was over at the Toyota forerunner place and they were like, oh, we can get you 599 for 72 months. And I'm like, what a bargain. What an absolute bargain. So for Lucid to eat that, because they're eating the finance charge, the whole interest, basically of the thing, that's an unbelievable amount of money on a car that ostensibly costs $105,000, but in reality costs a lot less.

Now, we sold, speaking of a lot less, we sold this week a lucid gravity. Did you see that, Felipe? Of course. By the way, zero percent financing and $10,000 in cash. Yeah, I mean, we sold a 26 gravity with only 316 miles on it for 81,500 United States dollars. I wonder if there's a window sticker. I want to know that MSRP. There's not.

This, well, it's, it was, it was a grand touring. So what's that cost? 95. But so currently on their website, it's 95. It starts at 96, 550. Yeah, for 20 to 27, those winners X, uh, 95, but they are offering on their website, straight up 10 grand and lucid credit. 10 grand and lucid credit is that?

We're there. Yeah, what is that? What is lucid credit? I assume it's just moneyed off. But, so we're, We're there. Assume this one, the one that we sold had a couple options and all that. It's probably a 100-stick or 105.

Cars sold for 20 grand off with only 316 miles driven, but I think that's what the market rate is. Yep. It's actually not horrible depreciation given what actual sale prices are. It's an expensive minivan. Nick, you thought about getting in gravity? You should. For the right price, yes, but the styling.

What do you think the right price is? The styling's tough, man. I like it. What do you think the right price is? So the Tesla Model Y, L just came out, which is 63, and I think neither of which are great looking, I would have to, like, be tempted to gravity all day. If they were the same price, maybe, but for 20 grand more, I don't want that thing.

Yes, you do. My favorite part of this story is car and driver, a very reputable, longstanding publication, known for kind of like playing it safe, being friendly to their advertisers and OEMs. Their headline was 2026 Lucid Gravity available with no. interest due to no interest and they just slam the lucid that no one wants to buy it which like it's i'm a hater on this pod and i say some mean things even i wouldn't go that far to be that mean about it like it's pretty wild that car and driver is taking low blows at the lucid gravity which by the way was one of their 10 best last year was it yeah yeah that is a good car it's a good car it's a good car

it's a good car if it when it's reliable i had someone i had a neighbor of mine had there so many problems with There's that got bought back. We've already heard about all the problems that Jason has had over at Engineering Explain. He's had a ton of issues. Those have his air to be precise, but yeah. Then they seem to be pretty, they were both errors that I'm talking about. They seem to be problematic. Then you have the issue of this looks like a van.

It's incredibly expensive. It's got this bulbous styling in a world where we want, we want sharp edges and off-roadiness. It's a tough thing. What about Doug if they offered clutch by wire in it? Ooh, that would change things. Would that chain sinks for you? Yeah. If they offered clutch by wire, here's the two things that would get me to buy one of these cars.

If they offered clutch by wire and they cut the price by 75%. Oh, I'd buy it at that price. So if I could get into a lucid gravity for $27,000 and it had a simulated manual transmission, I would be a buyer. I think it's a compelling product. I wish that there was interest in it. I don't think we've seen really strong interest in any three-row electric car. the Model Y, maybe exclusive. What do you mean? The Kia EV-9 is everywhere.

Has the best lease deals of any vehicle you can imagine right now. And that's true of all EVs. That's true of all EVs. Right. But why? Because there isn't that much natural demand at their MSRPs. I think there isn't natural demand anymore for EVs, period, now that the inside of the world. Yep. Don't you think you could fix the styling by just raising the right height? I don't think it looks that bad. No.

You can do that. There's a setting in the car. Yeah, just lift it and it's fine. Then it looks trucky and mask as much as you want. Not as much as I'd like to, but fine. I don't think it looks bad either, but I am in tuned based on my peer group with what people who have this kind of money to spend on a luxury SUV want their car to look like. Yeah, and it is not this. I agree.

They want range rovers. They want the car to look. They want like rugged luxury, like capable luxury. And that's why the gravity, that's why the rangeovers sell, I mean, all those vehicles, the R1S, which is honestly a pretty similar vehicle just styled better. does sell pretty well. This just wasn't it. And Lucid really wanted to come at this with sort of a wind-swept, simple, kind of more overly look. And it's just, it's not what people want.

Yep. I could have told them day one. If they had called me up, I could have told them day one that this thing wasn't going to sell at $100,000 looking like that. Yep. A couple more quick news stories. There's a new Model Y.L. It is seven inches longer than the Model Y. The Model Y is offered with a third road regardless, but now it actually has some headroom.

maybe and some space behind it, maybe. Yep. It's really hard not to make a comment about seven inches longer, but... Yep, we're going to move on. 63K. So it replaces the Model X. Model X went away.

If you want a three row EV, Tesla now has an option for that. I actually think it had an option, to be clear. A decent, like they should do, why not do this for the model three, too? Like, get rid of all the different models and just make like a shorthy and a long, long boy of each. Basically, the YL, just based on how it looks,

I haven't read anything about it, looks like the stretch is all in the back. Is that right? Correct. Yep. It's all, I think all behind the second row. It's been for sale in China for a while as a vehicle. It's now brought to the U.S.

to fill the Model X because the Model X is gone. Thankfully, it doesn't look as bad as the Defender 130 in terms of, like, them adding length in a way that ruins the design. Like, this looks, it looks fine. Like, most people won't notice. The Defender 130 and the Chevy Trailblazer EXT, live in the same world of like unbelievably insane. Do you remember back when they would, in order to elongate church vans,

they would literally just graft on an extra panel. 100%? The thing they did with like Dodge Ram vans in the 80s. That's what the Defender 130 looks like. I know. I want a 130 so bad in the sense that it meets all of my needs. And I just like them. I can't.

It's just so poorly executed that I just, all I can see is this like diaper on the rear end effectively. Have you thought about a Sequoia? No, I have not. But I'm glad that you're happy. It does have about five, six inches more. Third row leg room, a little bit less, second row leg room, a little bit more third row head room than the regular one,

regular three row model Y, because there probably has a market for this. Let me ask you a big question. Sleep, do you rather have this model Y, L or a used Sequoia? I thankfully for me we are in a market with other options a good answer uh all right uh speaking of three row SUVs uh this is the vistic interior the catalytic vistick is a three row e this is not a news story next quick new story no it this is a legitimate true PSA we talked a few months ago is that it's adding a fourth row this is not a new we talked a few months ago about a Hyundai palisade recall because the power folding seats were not going back up and

did track, which be fortunately kill a child. The Vistick, third row, can do the same thing. So there's a stop sale and a full recall. If you have a Vistick, get that taken care of. And I'll tell you something. Vistick owners out there, all six of you, five of whom are employed by General Motors, five of whom are the wife of a dealer principal

at Cadillac of Bloomington, Indiana. You better get the thing, you gotta get the thing back to the dealership. We care about actual consumer safety here. I don't think the Vistick owner segment and the car pod list. I think there's overlap. I think there's overlap. It's a good, good vehicle. All right. It is a good vehicle, shockingly, but no one's buying it.

Last story is about Jiffy Loob. Yeah, a couple of interesting things here. So they were bought by private equity in a $1.3 billion deal. It was formerly owned by Shell, which is owned it and Quigger Loeb. No idea. So Jiffy Loeb is so interesting in that, like, enthusiasts generally don't go there and it's got a reputation, but a lot of people do. Like a lot of lot. My wife is actually a huge fan of these. Like, because it's just like it's in and out. It's convenient. It's cheap. But one point, this is let you get an oil change while you sit in the car that they're changing the oil up. I know. I try to get them to do my multiple oil change because the oil pan drain was stripped. And they were like, look, this isn't in our computer. It's like, there's so many

issues here. We refuse to do it. But like, they've been delightful. They've done every oil change in our focus. So private equity buying it off of shell, it'll be interesting to see where this goes in terms of like how they turn that into either better or different. But Jiffy Lube is now under new ownership. Owned by Monomoy Partners. Nick, let me tell you where it's going to go. Nowhere.

It's going to be exactly the same as always. I don't know, dude. Do you see what they did to Red Lobster and they took or they took away all the you can eat shrimp but then they brought it back? I mean, like, what's going to happen? I'll tell you this, Nick, if you, if you, you, you, you. You want to, you, the way that monomoy partners will change JiffyLube is that they will, they will tell their people to take multiplas.

If they come in, don't turn it. I don't care if it's not in the computer. You got to do it or tell them you did it. Well, that, that would be interesting. I, I have been thinking seriously about launching my own Jiffy Loop competitor. So, you know, now, now I got to think about the competitive environment. A couple of interesting things. Most Jiffy Loves, all Jiffy Loops are, uh, different.

franchise model, so they're independently owned. As part of this deal, MonoWPriner, also purchased the second largest. So they purchased a bunch of stores. Yep. As a result, which will be interested to see what they try to do at those stores to optimize profit. Shell said that they sold because they are just trying to get a little bit more clarity and like a little bit more focus on their core brands and selling off some of the other properties. Nicky. I know what you could name it.

Nicky Lou? Oh, Money Chef. All right. No, I like Nicky Lou better. Or I don't. All right. Wait, are you actually, is this real that you're talking about this? Kind of.

So my hypothesis here, I know you think I shouldn't share. Do you business publicly? Yeah. Well, if anyone wants to invest or back this idea or validate it. I'll throw you some cash. Tell me what your business plan is. Why are you different from Giffie Lube? And other similar brands that service the bottom of the market.

People just want a quick, cheap oil change. Anyone that has like a European car, which is us fellow European car snobs, all of us, We have to go to the dealer or we go to a high-end indie where an oil change is like $500. And every time I talk about how much I paid for an oil change, everyone's like, oh, I change my own oil and it costs $37. Like I've done that too. It's a pain. It's messy. The leftover oil sits in my garage for literally years until I get around it, like disposing of it properly.

So there needs to be something in between a $30 oil change at Jiffy Lubb and a $600 oil change at Land Rover of Carlsbad. My hypothesis is Nikki Lou, but we'll service that meaty middle where you want like a $300 oil change. I'm going to have like massage chairs and like Pac-Man and stuff to do it while you wait. But you don't need an appointment or maybe you do need an appointment. I'm not sure. But like it's in and out, like in an hour, you don't need a loaner car. You're not leaving the car overnight. They're not going to try to upsell you on blinker fluid and stuff like that.

Like it's going to be for enthusiasts that want an oil change and nothing else. I like my high-end indie. That's the problem. I like that. Maybe. But it takes time. You got to wait there. You got to schedule with them.

You got to leave the car. Then you got to Uber home, all of that. Like, I went something you could do over your lunch break. And they're just, I'm changing your oil. That's it. Go to your indie for actual service needs. But like, you don't need to pay indie rates of around here like $200 an hour plus to get an oil change. So there's got to be something in between where we can just say in and out.

The speed and luxury components are kind of butt-haping. heads here. No, and that's why you'd have to do something in between. It wouldn't be like a true drive-thru, like, Jiffy-Lube, like you might need to get out of your car, but like we would stock all the Mercedes and Acura and all the like luxury brand oil filters. We would use only synthetic baby shell if you've got 1.3 billion lying around like we could be partners in this venture. But like I think there's a way to do this and no one has tapped that middle segment between Jiffie Lube and dealer. All right. I earlier I said I heard you cast I know, no longer. longer feel that way, but I do encourage you to start the business.

It's now time to move on to our talk cars segment, which of course is brought to you by Nikki Loub. Right. Nikki Loop, if you have a car that is nice, but not too nice, but also not too bad. And you don't mind waiting, but not too long, but not too short. Nikki Loob's gotcha. Is that about... We got massage chairs.

Put that in, too. We got massage chairs, folks. You walk right in there plugged in. They look like eggs. I want to talk to talk car segment. There is a lot to discuss today. Starting with Nick selling his Ford Focus on Facebook marketplace. Take it away.

Oh, man. So the first thing I realize is that Chat TPT has sold, has changed the market as a seller. So before I could have dumped this Ford focus on someone that didn't know better about Ford's dual clutch transmission and all the problems, everyone is asking, have you gotten that's because they're going to chat GPT and they're saying, what issue should I be worried about in a 2014 focus? And chat TBT is basically telling them to run far away in the other direction or asking for documentation and proof. So it's educating the buyers in a way that makes it hard to sell cars on, I mean, crappy cars on Facebook marketplace. Yeah, that's tough.

To be clear, this is a 2014 regular Ford Focus with the hatchback with the dual clutch that has failed a couple times. I've got, thankfully, I have a binder full of receipts. Like, I have enthusiast level documentation on it. I took pretty crappy photos, but by Facebook marketplace standards, amazing photos. It's mostly, though, it's still the people, is this available? Yes, nothing. Or, like, weird people that are like, give me your number. Then they're, like, trying to put me into some funnel and offer me wholesale.

Like, I have, or someone else that was like, I will be there at three. Then they text me at 255 saying I've gone a different direction. Like, it is making me really appreciate cars and bids right now because, like, yeah. Of all the inquiries I've gotten, I don't think a single one has been serious. And you're just like dealing with all this to the point where you're like, maybe I do just take the like low ball trade in offers because I don't want to deal with it. And sadly, I don't think Filippe Bocke me, if I'm wrong, the focus is cool enough for cars and bids. Especially not that one.

What are you hoping to get for it? I've listed for $6,500. How many miles? would take anything 65,000 miles. I have the original sticker. It was a $25,000 car new in 2014. One owner, receipts, yada, yada, yada, yada.

Nobody cares. Nick. Nick. Sean, producer, Sean, will give you $2,200 so we can run it over. run it by my wife. If we were going to get rid of it and not get a good price, we want to find someone who's been incarcerated and donated to them. You were on like a rehabilitation tour. The criminal justice system is a whole other podcast. It is so beyond broken. However, people deserve second chances. If I'm not going to make any money on it, then yes, I wanted to just go to

someone who deserves it. Nick, I got a better idea. How about over at Nikki Lubb, you only hire ex-convicts in order to do all the Akira oil changes. Oh, dude, actually, that's a great idea. By the way, I'm serious about running it over. And you just wasted my time because I gave you a good offer and you said I have to run it by my wife. No. Well, that's not a good offer. I can get a better offer right now trading it in a Herman Cook Volkswagen.

No, no, wait a minute. Cook Volkswagen to give you three grand and you won't get a run it over. I'm offering you $2,200 and you can drive your key to pay over the car. Personally, you can do it. it. Oh, that does, that sweetens the pot. We will set it up. Sean, you agree with this, right? Is Sean nodding? Of course not. He's, we will set it up. We will say, he's shaking his head. I got a buddy who's got a junkyard. We can do it at his, at his, at his, at his, at his, at his, yard, and you can run the car over. If we can, if we'll buy it off you for $2,200,

and then you run it over with him. Sean said I can do it if I wear Warby Parker sunglasses, chubby shorts, and I wrap it in Aztec paint protection film. And then if I get injured, I have to use Morgan and Morgan. But if all those conditions are met, then yes, I can do it for that price. I once ran over Felipe's car. Yeah. And so me and Felipe are pretty knowledgeable about the process of running over a car. And we could get this done in like 12 hours.

I'm good without doing it again. I'm good without dinner again. motor. And he is not, it's no three or five. Yeah, basically the head gasket's blue. It leaks so much cooling into the cylinders that there's no way to revive. Like it needs more than a head gasket. It needs a whole new motor, 25 grand and the car's worth maybe eight on a good day if I had to guess.

So now the question is- 05-L-322. It's worse less than your P-38. I wonder if I just kind of get rid of both cars. Like financially, this is a terrible decision. But like, I basically said, here's what I've spent on it. I want to give you a crazy generous offer. I'm not sure I want to give it back to him for free,

although maybe I should. But I'm now in this conundrum of like, I want to give the car back to him, but I'm also looking at what I spent. Aren't you in at like 12 grand? Yeah, so that's the problem. Nick, you're going to just give the car back to the dude for 12 grand and you're going to give us the focus for $2,200.

So for $2,200 you're going to lose out on the $6,500 focus and the PDA? But don't you think it feels wrong to charge him to buy his own car back when he gave it to me for free? Was he formerly in car for him? Was he formerly incarcerated and you feel bad for him? No, but I think he does do charity work. Like, he's a good guy. Who makes bad decisions like owning a P30A and owning an L3A and owning an LF he

and invoke convertible as his other car. So, yeah, dude's got some questionable tasting cars. I do worry that if you give him the P38 back, you're actually not helping him. You're reintroducing something that he literally pushed out of his life. Well, and he's like, I need a reliable daily. He said, I can't deal with this item anymore. You're giving it back. back to him? That's a little... In better condition.

But it's still going to be a problem. Yeah. Nick, don't do it until after you run over the focus with the P-38. We'll deal. Deal. If that's an opportunity, let's talk about the trade-in value. It is an opportunity. We will do that around Labor Day. Tell Sean, we are doing it. Can you bundle in a couple of Nikki Lou B-Reeds? We'll put Nikki Loub on the side of the P-38. And they crush it. Wow. You know? And we'll put Jiffy-Lub on the side of the focus. That'll be the, that'll be the

launch of Nicki Loob is the focus will get crushed. Jiffy Loeb will get crushed by Nikki Loos. This would be a great ad spot. I'm in. Then I could write this all off too as an advertising expense. So Nickyloob is now open, currently taking orders out of my personal garage. Kenan or I will do your oil change for you. Or actually my summer intern.

The economics are going to talk about. I could teach him how to do it. There is a guy on Instagram that is trying to kill a Toyota Corolla. He's doing everything he can possibly do. do to kill it, putting maple syrup in the, doing all kinds of weird things. You could do the same. Yeah? You could become Instagram famous.

I, no, it's a perfectly nice vehicle, both of them. Let's make that not the case. No, I love both of them. If you're going to crush it, it made a little strong. You love, you love the focus? I love my focus. I've learned to like, though, after a 12-year relationship, it has its merits. It's a, like, someone should use it.

Actually, you know what I should do is I should give the focus to the P-38 guy. It's like, here's reliable transportation. and not burden him with the P38. The issue that's not reliable transportation. It is. The clutch will slip eventually over time, but it's only got 65,000 miles. He's got a good 35,000.

What transmission are you on? Second clutch. Second clutch. It's the same trans. It just... Right. Eventually, it'll become clutch by wire. I will say I also had a for-focus of that generation.

Yeah. The hashback. I had a manual, so it's reliable. I bought it for $8,600 in 2016, and then sold it for $6,500. Yeah, five years later, 10 years later. That's like normal depreciation. Right, exactly.

But you're trying to get the same. I don't know. You're going to have trouble. Well, you know, mine's got the black pack. Right. Right. You probably have a sport pack, actually. Thank you.

I want to mention a couple of events that we are throwing. We're throwing an event on August 1st at Avance Fest at Pacific Raceway outside of Seattle. We're going to have something like up to 400 cars. If you want to bring your car to that cars and coffee, we have a community post on cars and bits.com. You can submit your car. and then we will reach out with additional details. So please do that because we want to use.

August 1st at Avance Fest in Seattle. At what raceway? Pacific Raceway is where I have some storied history. Go to the community post. We'll link it below to submit your car. Felipe, what kind of cars are you going to accept? I haven't decided yet. I need to see what comes in.

It's got to be the, if Fiatopoulina, I would accept, but it won't be able to make it there, because I think it's about 30 miles outside of Seattle. So it's going to be tight from a range, Bring a generator. Yeah. I recommend a first generation Honda Crossroad. Crossroad.

If you, for some reason, imported a Land Rover discovery from Australia and, well, Honda Crossroad, or rebadge your discovery as a Honda Crossroad. I'm into it. Did you know that as part of that tie-up, they also rebadged Honda Civics as rovers? I did actually know that incredibly, stunningly. Do you know what the Suzuki-Belano is? Isn't that that that Rav4? No.

No. That's the other one. That's the Suzuki across. Don't confuse these products. The Suzuki Bolano was the esteem. Do you remember the esteem? Oh, yes, of course. I forgot that it was called up.

There was even an esteemed wagon. I, of course. Pull it up while you talk about other events. The only other thing I'll say is... I won't let this die. I told you a Suzuki esteem wagon and then I will let you talk about the events. All right, fine. Nick, this is good stuff.

This is like a 95. horsepower 1.6 liter, but it's naturally aspirated like a 12-cylindry manuali. By the way, of course I know that those people exist. They were for sale in Europe too. Yet as the Bolano. Yeah, I guess so. On Sunday, July 19th, here at the Curzon Bits office, we're going to throw an event alongside Avants. If you're here in San Diego and you want to come, contact Kevin at avons.com to get on the list. It's going to be quite a limited list. It's going to be quite a VIP event. Is it going to be allowed?

I haven't decided yet. Nicky Lubb will be there doing oil changes. There's a lot of... We legally... I have already dropped a lot of oil down here, so it's only fitting. Philippo, go back to the Nick camera angle.

Go back to the Nick camera angle. Now, look, Felipe, look at that. No, no, go back to the Bolano. All right. It doesn't look like a first-gen RX? Does it look at the first-gen-R-X? It looks off like a first-gen-sequia, too, by that definition. No, no, only in the Nick camera angle.

You've got to look into the... the monitor. Look at that. It looks like a first show RX. I thought it looked like the Saboro. I get it. I liked my Sequoia answer better. So reach out to Kevinettevance.com if you're local, want to come to that

and obviously go to the community post for the Seattle event. We're excited to be there. Nick, are you upset that we have a AMG manual swapped AMG wagon on the site? You thought you were the first. You thought you were the only. And not only are you not the first and only worth selling one in

Maryland. All right, baby girl. The first thing is that I made, and I'm stealing your line, yes. I made that claim specific to the 55, not the 63. Even then, I'm not sure I was actually correct in there, but no one thinks I'm actually accurate about anything I say on this spot. That's so true.

I've been chatting with this guy forever. He's a super cool dude. Seems like he did the swap the right way. He did some of it himself, I believe, but he's Mercedes Swap Shop for like the tuning and like there's a lot of similarities. I'm excited to see what it does.

It's a really cool build. And no, I'm not upset at all. Like I honestly have no idea what mine is worth. I'm guessing, like I spent so much doing it that I'm curious. Like, this will be an interesting comp for me either way. And we'll help inform, like, do I hold mine on a long time? Do I sell it because there's an opportunity? What have you?

This one's modded. Mods are always difficult because some people love them, some people don't. Like, I adore all these mods, but I, I could see some people preferring a bone stock one. But it should be really interesting. And this is, I don't know, the 63 is so cool. Like, maybe I should have done a 63 after all. I wanted the 5-5 because it was closer to the SLR in terms of a super-turge V8 if I wanted to swap the SLR.

But I think if you didn't have that very niche use case, then the 63 might be a better choice. I don't know. But yeah, it's cool that you guys got it. I'm glad he chose cars and bits compared to that other site or site. It's interesting that you say that you may have preferred the 63. after stealing my baby girl line because... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Filippo, can we talk about Annapolis for a second?

Maryland, yeah. You agree. Remember how I used to say that I wanted you and me to retire to neighboring houses in Carmel by the Sea? Of course. I now feel that I want us to retire to neighboring houses in Annapolis. Why?

Love Annapolis, also sort of a similar vibe, kind of like a chill, like Bayside Town. I think Annapolis is like a little bit like chiller, baysideier and the C-63 wagon is there. Oh, I was wondering what the tie-in is. That was my next question. And so there must be a vibrant car scene

for God's sake. That's true. There is also in Carmel though for about a week, two weeks a year, which is coming up so quick. Yeah, but the rest of the time the cars and Carmel are all SL-450s, you know? That's so true.

I'll consider Annapolis. I think it is cool that the manual swap Mercedes are out there, it has become like a thing people are doing, and there's now even ones on the, like, for sale. So like, the big shortcoming of AMGs in this era has basically been fixed and they're out there and people are driving them. So excited to see how it does. You know, a lot of people say that if you manual swap a 210, it's better than an E3.9M5. A 210. A 210. Is that what you're going to do? Absolutely not.

I know when a car should have an auto and when it should have a manual. Are you still getting one? Huh? Are you still getting one? What do you mean am I still getting one? It's bought and paid for it. It's in New Jersey getting fed. I don't know.

I haven't heard about it for a while, much like you buying a Jeep Wrangler. Like, I didn't know if that was just something you said or was real. I'm buying a Jeep. I'm doing, I got so many car moves coming this winter that it's going to make Sean's downwheeled head spin. Sean is sitting there right now trying to get wrap his arms around how. Now he asked, because I've committed to it, he's going to have to crush a Ford focus on camera. And what he doesn't know is all the things that are going to happen.

And I'll tell you this, folks, if you're looking for a California legal G-500 cabriolet, it's coming. You're going to be able to-morrow, right? Nick, you want it? Or it'll be yesterday when the pod comes out. Sean's G-Wagon. Oh, Sean's G-Wagon, yes. He means his own G-cabrolet. That'll be on the site eventually.

But yeah, producer Sean's G-wagon ends when the pod comes up. Can we talk about it's at 43 grand right now with 22 hours to go, which is, um, I would like to talk about. It seems like people are not discounting its bad color. I would like to talk about a couple of cars while we're talking about cars just really, really, Okay. Slowly transitioning to market report here.

Car one is this car, which, uh, is going to be live when this podcast comes out. Uh, which is 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer. I got to tell you something. I drove this car. I'm an evo guy. I've always been an evo guy. I'm into evos. I drove this car and I decided I have to get one.

And I'm actively looking for an Evo right now also. Wow. The thing is, the thing is, I know that I, in order to find the Evo I want, I have to strike when it hits because they're so rare. And this Evo, this particular one, it's too nice for me. It's got like 900 miles or something. 960 miles, which has to be the single nicest Evo 8 in the world. It is an absolutely pristine Evo 8.

It is unbelievably nice. It is unbelievably clean. And I drove it and I was like, I'm sold. I love how eager this car is. It's so much fun. I think the six and seven are, I don't want to say a little better. They're all really, that era, it's six to nine are the good eras of Evo. And the problem is the six and sevens are all right-hand drive, basically are all right-hand drive.

And they're all modded to help. This is like the last clean U.S. market, Evo 8 in existence. You and I made that pact of no more BS cars, and I was worried this was a BS car. Right? Like all the lore in the internet is like, oh, it's fun, but like the interior is, like, worse than you expected, you expect nothing of it. It's bad. It's bad. But it's an honest car, and I love how it looks.

I think it's age gracefully. I'm with you. Like, I just get personally excited when I see one around, especially one that's well kept, as that one appears to be. I love my super dearly. I love my super dearly. I've loved the time that I've spent with it. I've owned it for two months. But I think I would rather have this Evo.

I'll lend you down an Evo with and trade you for the Super. How about that? It's impossible to find what I'm looking for, though. I'm looking for an unmodified eight in either blue or red. Yeah, it doesn't exist. But this black one, and this black one's too nice. Even if this was blue, I wouldn't buy it because it's only got an 963 miles. Someone, probably Mitsubishi, if they had any money, should put this car in an Evo museum.

unfortunately Mitsubishi doesn't I think they'd have to use all of their sales profits for the years to get there but I'm excited that this live on cars and bits as you are watching those Doug did a review yeah what are like an incredibly special is that car still in the office right there oh yeah looking at it before you leave go sit in it you know what that is that's that's like a Japanese Mustang it's like all all the money went to power train and drive train and suspension and the interior is trash, but the goal was to keep the price down and make it a fun car for not crazy money without ramping up everything. And I just, I loved driving that car. I'm also a sucker for a vented hood, and I'm literally looking through the vents. Like they're functional, real vents, and that alone is, that seals the deal for me. It just looks good. Such a good looking car. We've transitioned to the market report brought to you by cars and beds, right? Now it's time for the market report. Brought to you by Nikki Loub. Pull up the town car. We posted a video the other day a short

where I was like, there are still cheap cars and people are like, these cheap cars are blow up. Yes, every cheap car ever, that's always been the problem. Here's one that won't. We sold this, Nick, you see this? We sold this town car, 46,000 miles for $7,000. I don't know if those numbers are right, but that's what I remember. That's a pretty damn good. This is a panther

and it's a late panther, and it's a big old, cool American car. It's got a nice boat thing to it. Or you could put a blower on it and have some fun. Nick, you like this car for Remember that the one you saw that was Terminator swapped? Yeah. Yeah. That thing was so cool.

But we also sold a... That was one of those cars I've never reviewed. But everybody's always telling me, oh, cars are big, cars are expensive. No, we sell good cars for reasonable money. And these Panthers, these town cars are exactly that. Good cars for reasonable money. But we also sold a manual swapped grand marquee. Damn.

That's all I want to say. Nick, you're not buying this town car instead of this. What is a marauder cost compared to a little more? I'll tell you something. If I had seven grand, Nick, I wouldn't even touch your focus. I would buy that town car in two seconds. Marauders with miles are 10 to 15. It's just another example of cars and bids selling cars for all levels of enthusiasts.

All levels of enthusiasts. People are like, oh, that 04 STI sold for 100 grand. Yeah, that had one mile on it. There are still good enthusiast cars for sub 10K, and that town car is one of them. Nick, you ever have a Panther? I haven't. I'd be down.

I mean, I love that era of Ford. Yeah. Can I mention another sub 10K car that I was stunned to see sub 10K? What was the deal with it? This Raptor? What happened? We sold the Raptor for $9,500.

Nick, you see this? I didn't think Raptors were that cheap yet. And they generally aren't. They're not, I mean, they're getting lower, right? Like, if I look at lowest price, 16, 17 grand gets you one. Wow. This one had mine. miles, 160,000 miles, and had a lot of flaws that were consistent with heavy use off-road,

right, like a bunch of cracks in the headlight lens, scuffs, scratches, cracks in the windshield, weathered finish on the wheels, tears on the inside, rust, et cetera. I mean, Nick, instead of your trash P-38, you could have had a Raptor. I know. Yeah, you should have. You still could. Honestly, that is pretty compelling. It is so compelling.

It's a 5-4 Raptor, though. That's another thing you're not saying. It is a clean title, though, but it's a clean Florida title. There's some question marks, but it's cool as well. There's a reason it was sub-10 grand, but I love that Raptors, admittedly, the not-the-not-n nicest examples, are getting there. Remember, so Hovey's Garage bought one that was formerly a Border Patrol car, 300,000 miles.

It's sold. The new guy that owns it is still in Kansas. J.R. Garage, which is a YouTube channel I love, still maintains it. Dude's still driving. It's got like 330,000 miles. And like, it's needed stuff, but like, it's a Ford at the end of the day. And, like, the parts are there.

They're available. You can go to AutoZone and get them. Like, at 10 grand, even if you are spending a decent amount of money each year, like, freshening things up, like, that's a pretty cool truck. Yep. Hey, by the way, Nick, speaking of Hoovie, what's your thought on, you watch the Car Wizards Lost Cruces video? You know, that thing's gotten like 670,000 views right now. He makes a pretty compelling argument for Las Cruces in the video. Did you think about maybe moving there?

I mean, it's the same, and someone moves to Arizona. They make the same arguments. Like, anywhere in the Southwest has similar value props. And I agree, like, especially compared to, depends on where you're coming from. I'm not moving. I'm locked into a 2.49 mortgage. Like, I'm stuck. Here's what we heard from Wizard.

There are, you know, it's not as hot as Wichita. there's crime but not where he lives. Here's something he didn't say. Eight character vanity plates in New Mexico. Eight character vanity plates. Does that tip the scales for you? No. I have zero vanity plates right now.

Wow. Really? That's not true. Yeah, well, mostly because I moved everything to California. That's right. California's vanity process also takes months. And so I don't have the patience for that. Montana took, when he did Montana,

it took like 30 minutes. He was like, yeah. Montana, they have like a cannon ink jet that pops them out on demand. Pretty much. You joke, but that is literally called print on demand, and that is almost exactly what it is.

That's one of the benefits of the flat plates, which Montana has in California does. In California, they're making the incarcerated folks do it. And like it... Well, in other states, they also...

I want them driving my focus. In other states, they are also making incarcerated folks do it, but they use a printer and the flat plate process as opposed to the press plate process. It's still done by prisoners generally. Anyway, he's in Las Cruces now.

Filippo, have you thought about a move maybe there? I've driven through Las Crucese. We go to El Paso once or twice a year. Not my favorite place. Felipe, this is a market report on Las Cruces. What I'm telling you is you can buy all the house you want, as long as it's in the Adobe style. You can buy all those of the lights.

To be fair, I would be okay with that. It's the rest of living Las Cruces that I'm not that big a fan. Can you pull up the V-12 Vantage place that Nick wants to talk about? I'm moving to Wyoming if I move just for the record. And that's a strong consideration. You would not be able to handle it. I would winter somewhere else. You would winter somewhere else?

That wouldn't make me a lot of friends with the locals. But yes, no, I would winter in Florida. So the V2L advantage is super interesting. You all sold one for $203,000. Yeah, real money. It is, as far as I can remember, if you only asked to Martin that seems to be holding its value short of the million dollar plus special one-off.

DPS manuals also do. This is specific to the manual ones. Yeah, the sticker on one of these, when new was like 185. Like, it is the only Aston that if you don't count inflation, which Cargai math, I don't, has held its value in the Aston range. A V8 vantage you can get for like 40 maybe.

Like so it is also like to have a better engine than better revving, like a handful of changes. It is worth 200K versus 40, but I just, I couldn't think of any other. Aston products that have held its value that well. All the V12 advantages compared to the V8s are 2x the price, but a manual is 2x the price of the V12.

Yeah, it's notable. The DBS manuals have also held pretty okay. They're in the hundreds compared to 30 or 40. Yeah, but not like this. This is holding sticker. Yeah. Yep. That's it.

Honestly, up until very recently, even the Mercia Logo hadn't held sticker compared, like, I sold mine for, what, 300-ish, and it was more than that new. Like that is for Aston to do that. Agreed. One, if you're Lance Stroll or what have you, like pay attention, maybe we need a clutch by wire situation across the whole range.

Or maybe just put V-12s and everything. I don't know the answer, but that is pretty interesting. They were also pretty limited. Hey, Nick, speaking of Vantages, can I ask you a question? Philippo, can you type in A-S-T-O-N? Ashton. Nick, how come you're not interested in this red one? that we currently have live with the stick.

It is cool. The main reason is because it can't follow in your footsteps again. Right. You'd be like, oh, I got one in front of a bison 20 years ago. First off, it was 10 years ago, and that bison and I are still friends. He sent me a Christmas card this year. Did it? Interesting.

I might have seen him when I was in Yellowstone. No, this is in North Dakota. I don't think they go that far. I took my ass in North Dakota. That's right. I do think for the 40-ish K that these go for, maybe more for the premium on this one being really cool. T.J. Hunt bought one. He's modding it, which is exactly what I would do.

This is why you can't have it. He improved the flywheel so it revs a little better, like put some sound on it. Like, dude, that is really, really compelling. And something I would consider doing had the Simpsons not already done it. You're the Simpsons. Got it. It's a whole thing. I'll man explain it to you later. I get it.

I want to talk about a different car. So we've been talking about 9-11 values generally going up. We have this incredibly nice 996 turbo coming up this week. That's 21,000 miles, 6 feet of manual, the X-Eat performance package, and a color, all of which should help it be kind of a standout result. And it's going to be really interesting to see where this actually lands. There aren't that many low miles to 996s. It's going to be interesting.

Doug, any predictions? Any feelings? deep in the six digits that's yeah 900 grand 800 the real story here that he's not telling you is this is a friend of all of ours and if you become our friends and you're really nice to us

we will shamelessly promote you on the podcast I'll be honest even if you're not our friend but you sell a really interesting card that I'm interested in the value of I might also really good photos worth pointing out like we haven't seen the I don't know I've never been in the car but like it looks incredible it's quite a thing. It's an interesting market too, right?

Like, I truly, 996s and 96 turbos have not had the same appreciation as a lot of 991 manuals at a 997 manuals and 997 turbos. Oh, contrary, monfriere, my frere filippo, 996 turbos are really strong right now.

They've been coming up. They're strong relative to the 50K that they were for a couple years, five years ago. So they've gone up, but they haven't exploded. And I don't know, man. They're selling for 80s. Mid cars are selling for 80s, 90s.

That's a lot of money. I think it is a pretty significant increase. I sit here and think about this. I got confronted on the street the other day, by the guy. Like, all these turbos are so expensive. Like, all these 9-11 turbos are so expensive. Especially being adults, yeah. I think people don't really understand the right way to use them.

Like, I think people buy it. When the numbers get this high, I think people are. I'm thinking they're going to be a GT3, but really it's like this high-speed, like, bullet car that you use to take, like, go from one city to another firing people's dads. You know what I'm saying? It's one of all us. It is interesting how the market has really, really, really started to value all of these cars, including that 996 twin turbo.

I think they're all strong right now. We'll see what this incredibly nice by low mileage and presentation. Nick, you're supposed to die. When are you getting a 9-11? Dude, these pictures really make me want this specific car. Those wheels alone. The wheels are cool. I wanted to put those wheels on my B7S4 back in the day.

Of course you did. You know, it's the right bolt pattern. You could do some stuff. Nick, legit, though. When are you getting a 9-11? You've had a Porsche longer than anybody I know. When are you getting a 9-11? Probably never.

Only because they're so expensive at this point that I would rather just dabble in the like underrated, undervalued cars. rather than a P-30-A-9-11 in particular, such a known commodity that it is always the market-correct price because there's so much demand and supply that it's never going to be a deal. And I'd rather buy an $18,000 a nage that destroys me financially because I think I'm getting a deal,

and there's no such thing in the 9-11 world. That's somewhat reasonable. I want to move on to the question segment. The question segment, of course, is brought to you by Nicky Lubb. Nicky Loub crushed Jiffy Loeb with a P38 Look, if the

Monroney partners or whatever they were called are listening, Monroy. 1.2 bill. 1.2 bill for Nicky Loub. It's got an idea. Cheaper than Jiffie Lube and better. Just for the name.

Not much else. First question is actually for Nick. It's actually from Mrs. Rochon. It's for Philippo. Oh, wow. You're Doug and friends. Do you think Felipeo is the only dense side Ford owner

with a coexist sticker on the rear bumper. Yeah, it's odd. You know, you see one of those trucks and you think maybe they're... We don't have that sticker on there, but we should. They're a certain type of person, and Felipe was a different type of person, if you know what I mean.

Like, let's just say that Felipe and Nick are sitting in their respective, correct positions on the political spectrum. I don't know. He just apologized, and that's surprising. That's true, but I also said the tariffs were producing good results. So the audience can continue to guess

And the people on Reddit can continue to put insane theories as to my political leanings. And I'm here for it. Yeah. Philippa, what's the status of this truck? We still on bad tires? We're still on some questionable tires. But we did a bunch of work with our fenced auto zone, which is exciting. Can we please fix the tires?

Do you ever drive it? Drove it yesterday. And then got a new battery and alternator. And now we're here. Nice. This is a good question. Next one from T4RV8. Dude, Doug, I'm 22.

Just graduated from college. landed my first real job. I own a 2004 four-runner with a 4.7-liter 2UZV-8. Hell yeah. I've got a power train all time. I've had the truck five years, loved it, but it's now got over 200,000 miles, started to develop minor issues. My question is, when do you know it's

time to let go? The answer is when the issues start getting to you. It's purely dependent on your age and issue tolerance. Nick will tell you this story because he's had cars with issues his whole life, but he's let the issues. When he was younger, this many issues would get to him and now this many issues gets to him. And I think that it's really dependent on

your issue tolerance. Yep. I was going to say, so for me personally, I've had this thought before. Sometimes I didn't sell and then I ended up selling like six, 12 months later and regretting not selling it earlier. Generally speaking, when I start to have that thought, should I sell, it is time to sell. Like to me that says I'm kind of tired of it. I'm ready to move on and I can drag it on like you did with the 500 or Sean did with several of his cars and just let it languish being not excited about it for six months? Or I can just say, you know what? If I'm asking the question, I already know the answer. The answer is it's time. I'm also pro people having different experiences. Yeah. And if you've had it for 90,000 miles and you're 22, you've had this for

20% of your life and driven all the miles you've ever driven, maybe it sounds like... I agree. Other than for this particular person, they just graduated college. It is a very volatile job market out there, save some money. Like, I don't know what you're making, but I would say financially, like this is the time one's invest in experiences. Like, go out there, go on dates,

buy nice dinners, go travel. Like, I don't go into debt on a new car. They got the finest. They got Dintai Fung and six other restaurants like Dintai Fung, all available to you. Do you want ramen? They got it. Do you want Udon?

It's a different restaurant, but they also have it. Like, they got everything. If you like Asians. It sounds like a lot of Asian food. there at the UTC Mall. They have pizza? Yeah,

yeah, they do. It's got Bach-Toy on it, though. I do love the... The issue this person's going to have is that they're not going to get a better truck, because there's not many better trucks than a 4th-gen 4-runner with the V8.

You know? You know, behind you, we just sold that 0600 series, which is the greatest Toyota truck of all time. That's not going to be better. It'll be a little better. But I do think, though, that it all depends on your age.

I don't tolerate many issues anymore, but there was a time when I tolerated them all. I will say it is not just age, it's also just general tolerance and ability in your life. So, like, if you were, when you were in college, you could maybe spend time fixing those things, or if you didn't have the car, that was fine. If you have a job now that requires a commute

and you need to be there on time, then maybe those issues become really problematic really quickly. And so that's the consideration, too. It's always hard to get blanket car advice like that. Next question from Alex Goes Racing. This is a question for me, but I'm going to have Nick answer it for me, but for me, not for him. Dear Doug, you mentioned before you were very close to buying a Huracan Starado, which would have been your first time purchasing a new supercar.

Are there any other new supercar as you're interested in buying that fill the experience? Nick, go ahead. I still think the strata would have been really cool. I think that's a great example would be at the top of my list. The answer is no for Doug. by the way, just to finish the... No, I mean, if I'm answering on your behalf, I think the answer is no.

Yeah, they all gotten too expensive. I mean... He's a Sequoia guy. He's going to Toyota and buying new SUVs. When I look at what new super cars cost, I am pretty astonished at the price for what you get. That kuntosh for $600,000, that's like a temerario.

And like, the kuntosh is on an order of magnitude, cooler and more special and more exciting and more everything, except boring, reliable, rich guy go fast has Bluetooth. And I don't think there are any new super. Like, I look at 12 cylinders, and I love how that car looks, and I love how it drives. For $800,000, there are so many cooler cars. I mean, Nick, your mercy for $250, you can't even buy a supercar for new for $250 anymore.

It doesn't exist. And that mercy is cooler than any new supercar. I know. Well, it's like amazing that you have this opportunity. I just could never justify the price of today's modern supercars ever. The Storado actually is an interesting example. I think part of the reason you were attracted to it was is that it was around 300, which is an insanely large amount of money, but by supercar standards, kind of a barge.

And it would never exist today. Like, I think if they came out with a Temerario Storado, first off it would be three years from now, three more years of inflation, which the automakers really take advantage of inflation when it happens. If inflation is 3%, we've got 6% raises in MSRP. And I think they would price that at a half mill. And it used to be that if you bought a supercar for a long time, not forever, but for the last 20 years, you bought a supercar, you could usually kind of maintain the value. Sometimes you'd make money, you wouldn't really lose. I don't necessarily know that that's true anymore, given how the automakers have decided to kind of go after the full margins in some of these cars.

And I just can't imagine spending today's money for a new supercar when there are so many cooler cars. A Diablo. I mean, I could get a lot of Diablo for the price of basically any of these older cars. Yep. Mel, that's why you have a website selling used enthusiast cars and not new rich guy go fast. New rich guy go fast. Don't you worry. We got both for you.

They got like a couple hundred miles old. They've been stamped. Next question. Next question, and this is a very, very good one for me and Felipe. Dear Dougan, Associates, what is the best generation of Lexus RX? I think 1.2. I was going to just straight up to say the second. What?

Really? Yeah. What? Yeah. The question, persisting the question, I apologize that it's a third-gen facelift, but it's not. The third-gen facelift, the third-gen was a tremendously... You know what?

I'm changing my answer to the original RX-400-H. This is the third-gen, isn't it? That's the third-gen. that silver one the second gen, which is the RX400 H, by the way. Yes. I'll agree with.

Yeah. That's fine. The RX 400H revolutionized the whole world. Pull up a second gen. You know, my parents to this day are still driving us, RX33. Like this one, the color's theirs.

To this day, my mom is still driving that car. It's a great car. And the other day, she brought up, this is an interesting thing. I can't believe this happened. The other day I was on the phone with her, and she brought up the fact that she was thinking about getting a Bronco

sport, which shocked me. Wow. And she said that she's thinking, about selling her RX. And I'm like, oh my God, they've had this car, no joke. They bought her to CPU in 2008. They've had it for 20 years. And they said, maybe we could sell it on cars and beds.

And I said, you know what? You could. Ducks mom's car. A Broncosport makes sense because she had to escape, Mousa Tribute, whatever. Yeah. And so it tracks. It's like the new whiteback. She had a luxury experience and rejects it.

The RX is such. These vehicles still look modern. for being 20 years old. Yeah. They have held up incredibly well, reliability-wise. They're still comfortable.

They're delightful. Yep, you're right. I think you're right. The second gen, but I like the hybrids the best because I love... They did so many little details to the hybrids

to make them different. Like, changing the fog lights from that shape to a circle is... Why did they do that? It makes no sense, but they did. There were all these little hybrid changes

that you could tell. It was like a little nod to the people who liked the details like me. Um, that's my favorite RX. Third Gen was a great RX to be clear. No, third gen is among my least favorite. Uh, third gen being this one, I just, I've never liked how it looks.

I thought the interior was, like, like, kind of cool if I had the mouse. I never liked how it looks, but it was a tremendously successful car. This is a generic SUV. The RXB4 was a standout SUV. The second gen was odd looking in a nice way, I think. Yeah, I thought look good. And also it set the- The current one is sort of heinous. You agree?

Yeah, yeah. I kind of. have been into it in the right color and the right trim, but this RX was exemplary at the time. It was clearly the segment leader at the time in a way that the third gen was just a competitor. It was also the second gen is hard, was a hard car because the first gen was such a hit, but it was very conservative. And the second gen, they decided, hey, we're going to try something a little different, but we still have to maintain the success.

It was a difficult car to redesign, and they smashed it out of the park. I think the third gen is definitely more conservative again, yes, but it was a big. hit. That was a good car. They were all good. The second gen comparatively to the market was better, was the best of them. Final. Yeah. All right. I think it's time for one more. Filippo, do you want my parents' old one?

I don't not want it. How many miles? I don't know. Okay, two more. No, we'll do two more questions. I'll trade for a focus. That's a good trade. We need to do two more. One from Stills 400. Dear Doug and Nick, some of your automotive decisions are based on the fact that you have children,

Would your car ownership choices be different if you didn't have a family in tow? What would your daily be? Would you still own SUVs or wagons? I can tell you I wouldn't have a Toyota Sequoia. But you Doug pre-children owned Mercedes SUVs. Sorry, Mercedes Station wagons. Yeah, I don't think my choices would be that different. I also, my daily with my kids is my 9-11 turbo, so I don't think it would be that different, honestly.

And it will be the Supra going forward. Nick, however... Oh, you're entirely different. Oh, yeah. I don't really have any friends. outside of you guys. And we all drive separate. And all the Nicki loop employees.

Yeah, we drive separate to everything because they're car events. So I have zero, if I had no kids, I would just need a seat for my wife, maybe somewhere for the dogs. Oh yeah. So like maybe a two plus two would be good. But like, yeah, I think they would all be like,

the TTRS was great when I was kidless. Is that all the car I needed and then some. So yeah, I think if I could do it all over again, like I wouldn't, who is it that? Oh, my coworker Scott. He doesn't have kids. They're like young. He's got like a Frenchie.

And he's like, oh, I need this like S class. And it's like, dude, what are you doing? Like now is the time to get like a Lotus Elise. Like when you have kids, then go get wagons and sedans and all that. If you were young like the guy with the 22 year old with the forerner, like get the tiniest, sportiest, most impractical car you can and enjoy it because one day that will no longer meet your needs. Then you will be forced to be buying wagons and three row SUVs and boring stuff.

If that's who you are, I've always been a practical car person. That has no real bearing on what, like, I just like practicality, like being able to throw stuff in the back or bring people visit, whatever. It depends on who you are. Filippo, under what circumstances would you buy a Mark 4 Super Turbo? I have zero interest. I will point out my sports card that has back.

What would the circumstance? It's a very practical car. It's a Toyota. It's very reliable. If somebody gave me one, I'd keep it for like a month. Under what circumstances would you buy an exchange chair? More. I don't know.

More than a super. Last question, and this one is for everyone. I wish Kenner was here for this, but it is it. From Jet Steiger, where does everyone stand on food in the car? When is it allowed or not allowed? Well, we know Kenan's response. Yeah, yeah, no food ever allowed. One time he let one person drink something that wasn't water in the car.

That was a big moment. Yeah. I have zero rules. And you can drink or eat anything in the car. I don't care. I think you should, cars are meant to be. use and like your your road trip car you should absolutely eat in the car drinking the car whatever for a more special car maybe take some like reasonable avoidance steps if you're going to open

something be careful if you're going to eat something messy maybe don't in that car in that moment but just be reasonable who cares you should see what my sequoia looks like right that that is the family car and i like that should you should eat in that car kenan would be terrified we just i just went around off-roading through these giant mud puddles and my kids convinced me to put the windows down. They wanted to get wet. Nice. And you should see what I was like.

Did they get wet? They got incredibly wet. The cars all wet. They tried to convince me to open the sunroof, which I did, thankfully, did not do. But other than that, that's pretty bad. That's maybe an extra level far.

If they want to get wet, get out of the car and go in the puddle, but I've never eaten in the SLR. I mean, that car doesn't even have cup holders. You drove to Arizona and you, like, got out and ate? Yeah. I mean, the dog, you needed a potty and all that. I will do, in a car like that, I'll do a crunch wrap Supreme where it's fully in case.

I wouldn't do like a hard shell taco. But for the most part, I'm fine with it. I will say one of my first jobs in high school, I worked at a detailing shop. We would get used car trade-ins. We'd have four hours to make them perfect. The amount of French fries and disgusting stuff that I found in between seats that was like years old and still like not as gross as you would think but also like bizarre it does turn you like you like you just realize some amount of food will stay in the car and never leave unless you unbolt the seats

and manually remove it and even then maybe not so like you kind of have to make a decision early on to say I'm going to go full ken in here and there's no food ever because there's no coming back from it once you open the floodgates or you just say forget it it's a car I only live once and I'm going to let it get destroyed. I think you can come back for it and have it not be destroyed, but have it be used. It's difficult to ever get it back fully back to where it was. You can have a couch and eat on the couch and not have it look like you poured coke all of it. You've never seen our TV room couch. I have all the covers and stuff, but like the amount of kids stuff that's been ruined on it. It's going to get dirty. It's going to get ruined. No, it's going to the landfill.

It can never come back. All right. Fair enough. That was a great podcast. We got Felipe's thing there. Thank you so much for participants. This was a podcast, not our greatest ever. Our greatest ever is when Ryan Lopez is going to come on sometime in the fall. I'm saving it for that. Looking forward to the Avant's events, Felipe will be at the one in Seattle. That's not confirmed, but I'm excited for what's going to be there. And he will take you to dinner.

And thank you, everyone, for watching. As always, it's been a pleasure. Producer Sean and I are going to work out the logistics on crushing next focus. Goodbye, everyone. one. Goodbye. Bye.