THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! - Porsche Sells Bugatti, US Bans Chinese Cars, Trouble At Stellantis And More! THIS CAR POD EP109!

Episode Date: May 1, 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!  Quo - Try Quo For Free Plus 20% Off Your First 6 Months at https://Quo.com/CARS Mothers - Enter to win 1 of 5 Mothers x Cars & Bids Detailer Bags, a $100 Merch Gift Card, and a Ceramic Care Suite! Giveaway runs 5/1 – 5/31 Enter here: https://mothers.com/pages/giveaways Warby Parker - Right now, buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs at https://www.warbyparker.com/cars   DirtFish - Bid now to support DirtFish Women in Motorsport charity auctions at https://carsandbids.com/user/DirtFishWomeninMotorsport Chapters: 00:00:00 This Car Pod! 00:00:14 Porsche Sells Bugatti 00:06:24 Chinese Cars Are Here 00:13:55 Chinese V8 00:19:07 Why Ford Killed Shelby 00:22:52 Stellantis To Focus On Four Brands 00:28:06 Promaster Lawsuit 00:29:13 Doug Went To Mothers 00:33:03 Talk Cars! 00:33:24 Doug's Peaked For 2-Seaters 00:44:27 La Jolla Concours 00:50:40 Kennan Drove A Mach-1 00:57:45 Market Report 00:58:08 Lotus Elan 00:58:34 Ford Fiesta ST 00:59:49 Dirt Fish Auctions 01:00:38 Community Questions 01:01:16 Should The Miata Go Mid Engine? 01:03:05 Would You Buy A Car From A Competing Site? 01:05:32 If You Remade Your Ferrari 360 Video Today, What Would You Choose? 01:08:50 Why Did You Review A Base Tesla Model Y? 01:10:55 Did You Know The Mazda 3 Designer Is Running For Senate? 01:13:20 Key EarthRoamer Video Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And welcome to this car pod. I'm Kenan. I'm Philippa. I'm Doug. Ryan Lopez is off camera. Let's start with the news. Yes, Bugatti is the big news story of the week. Porsche is divesting. You heard about this?

Of course. This is a big story. Portia has had some financial troubles. They used to make a lot of money. Now they make very little money. They decided to sell their stake in Bugatti to private equity. Yep. You don't have any thoughts on this?

Just for context on them as a whole, operating profits in Q1 were down 22% every year. They do maybe need some cash. Porsche need some cash. Their profits fell something like 90% between 24 and 25. They only made $479 million last year. That's all they made. It's a tough life out of that. To be fair, their expenses must be unbelievable.

Revenue was like this and expenses were like this. You've seen the factory. Yeah. They got a lot of German fellows in overalls. They got that bridge. Yep. That's expenses maintained. So they sold their stake in Bugatti and Rimack, which is like the same.

I've never really understood it. A few years ago, there was a joint venture of Bugatti and Ribb. I've never really understood it, and now I don't have to. It's all sold. But you still have to understand the joint venture. I don't. JV. Come on.

Do you have to do that. So is Porsche and is Volkswagen completely out of Bugatti now? I remember there being a weird situation where, yeah, sorry, Volkswagen is fully out of everything Bugatti remats. Wow. That's a big deal. That is a big deal. I mean, Volkswagen is what resurrected Bugatti, in essence, gave us the Veyron and started the whole thing. Is that true, Felipe?

No more Volkswagen and Bugatti. So what's going to happen? I don't know, but HOF Capital, Hoff Capital, very proud of Bugatti. It's like up there and their list portfolio companies now. Oh, God. They own a 45% stake.

The remount screwboans, a 55% stake, obviously. I suspect nothing will happen. This is it. So the Volkswagen lineup went, this is sad, because the Volkswagen lineup went from the very lowest tier company, SCOTA, all the way up.

Huh? Say app. No, I said what I? set all the way up to Bugatti at the very, very top, right? Yeah, that is a wide. They had Lamborghini. You could go. Lamborghini, Bentley, the whole, there was this whole gamut.

And, wait, they have opal, right? No, so I mean, so that's open. Oh, right, okay. Because that would have been the, yeah. Sand still exists. Nope. Nope. Nope.

And now they get, there's, Bugatti's gone. Lamborghini is our pinnacle brand. To be clear, Bugatti's still around. Yeah, but, let me tell you something. what happens when private equity owns a car company? It's not Volkswagen, the thing that made Volkswagen special with Bugatti, at least when I was a boy,

was that Volkswagen had this fellow named Ferdinand, like the Bull, and he was in there at the Bugatti, and he just decided that he would spend whatever it took to create this absolute, iconic, world-class ultra-car that was the fastest thing anybody had ever imagined. and private equity has the exact opposite opinions. Do you know what I mean?

Like, they lost money. I mean, Porsche straight, Volkswagen straight lost a ton of money on Bugatti. Yeah. Yep. Initially. Presumably they've made money since then. I think it helps to monetize costs. So what now it's all over.

Plus they can't share. I mean, remember, the Veyron had a Passat Keefab. They may very well still have some parts sharing. You can do that even if you're not co-owned. I know, but we're all sad about it. I don't have any emotion whatsoever about it. Well, I'm shocked at that. You don't have emotion about a nice thing.

I'm stunned. Or anything at all. Bugatti in your mind isn't a special thing. Like, when I think of the car world, I think of Bugatti as sort of the pinnacle brand. And the cool thing about Bugatti, the cool thing about Koenigieg was that you couldn't meet the guy. The cool thing about Bugatti was that it was developed by a real company,

if we're honest. I feel like in 2021, when the joint venture with remotes was created and, like, ownership went to Porsche. for a portion of it. Yeah. And then the rim off group for the rest. That already changed the fundamental. Yeah, but Porsche is Volkswagen.

Volkswagen is Porsche. They have been ever since they were making cars for that fella back in the 40s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My view on this remains... Hey, what fella? You know, you remember him. You know what I hear about that guy? I don't like him.

The point remains Volkswagen is out. Yeah. What is... They did say when they started the joint venture, like, we're combining the, like, new technological aspects of what... Red Moths, which was doing a lot of EVs at the time, with the, like, expertise that we, as the Porsche brand that Volkswagen have in building cars. Don't you just trust Bugatti less now?

Any desire I had to have a Veyron, which was actually some desire, some actual desire, definitely have kicked it around. I have less desire today. Yeah, there will, yeah, without any support for those cars. I mean, they still exist. There's still maybe French, maybe Italian, maybe Croatia, we don't know. Volkswagen had the money. We never understood.

Volkswagen had the money to spend to keep. stuff around for the Veyron. I don't see that happening going forward. Still a billion-dollar brand. That's a guess for what Bougat. Yes, but it will eventually be a car that was made, you know, 30, 40 years ago at some point in the way, are we really going to continue to support this thing?

Volkswagen might have said yes, to keep the brand-acquil. They were only briefly Italian. And it was a completely different operating. But you hear a Bugatti. But the factory was beautiful. No, no. That's a common misconception. I know.

I agree. They're French. They, this guy in a, this guy is. Still, though. This guy in Italy, his name was Romano Artioli. He bought Bugatti for a brief period and moved the whole thing to Italy. Smart.

And then it all went belly up and then Volkswagen bought the remnants from him and brought it all back to what they consider to be France. In great Italian tradition, it completely failed. And the factory was beautiful. But it's still there. What is Romano Artioli's legacy? The Lotus Elise, the name for the Lotus Elise. His granddaughter.

He owned Lotus. and name the lotus at least after his granddaughter. Regardless, it is now no longer... Yeah, part of it. But they have some private equity money, and that's going to work. Everything's going to go great. Can't wait for the tour beyond. Move on to the next news story.

Oh, Chinese cars. My God! Chinese cars have been absolutely blowing up. I go to the Wall Street Journal. They're not literally. Front page of the Wall Street Journal there. And, no, they're not blowing up. My God, quite the opposite.

They're very nice. The party. The party will be happy with us. I go to the front page of the Wall Street Journal and there's an article about Chinese cars and I click on the article, which I was interviewed for apparently on background. No, it was fine.

You could have a better quote. It was all good. Yeah, I know. I don't have much interesting to say. However, I click on the article, go through the article, and I've discovered something interesting. Some of the Democrats, those are the people

in the Congress, have introduced the most ridiculous bill where they want to ban Chinese cars not only from the U.S. where they're essentially already banned for a variety of reasons from being built or made or sold, but from even entering the United States.

It is a wild. By the way, Bernie Moreno, who owns a lot of car dealerships in Ohio in the research. He also is in support of this. He's part of it, too. Big surprise. But like Jamie Raskin,

who's like one of your lib heroes is part of it. And even entering, so here's what they're going to do. if the libs get their way. Here's what they're going to do, okay? You're coming over, you're a tourist from Mexico, which, by the way, here in San Diego, I see a Mexican car. It's the most frequent license plate I see aside from California, right? Do you agree? I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds I see every single day.

And a good portion of them are Chinese cars. Because they have a compelling product that sold in Mexico. You come up to the border. Okay, you're in a Kia Rio, you're good, you can go over. Oh, you're in a car. Let's check the vina. Let's start with L. I'm so sorry. you can't come over. You're just a tourist driving a car. You're not allowed to bring it into America for a day to go to SeaWorld. Yeah.

These people are so stupid. I want to give a little bit of context because it's vaguely important. So right now, Chinese cars, if they are broadly not allowed in the U.S. and face very steep tariffs if they do come. And the Trump administration has basically said, on top of those tariffs, we won't allow some manufacturers. Generally, I'm oversimplifying a little bit. He, President Trump, opened the door a little bit during a speech a few weeks ago,

saying maybe we can, with the right terms, allow some Chinese manufacturing. If they manufacture them in the U.S., but they're a Chinese brand. Which I totally support. Yeah. We'd allow it for the Koreans. Right. And there's been a little bit of a reaction to that of both Democrats and Republicans, a Democrat for that letter, saying, no, we shouldn't allow the Chinese cars here under any condition.

Jamie Raskin, who seemed until today like a fairly reasonable individual, views Chinese cars even driving in America as an existential threat to the car industry. And why is that? It's because someone might see them and say, damn, that's a pretty good car. Jamie Raskins' exit. By the way, he's a congressman from suburban Maryland.

There's no production in his district. He views an existential threat that we might see Chinese cars and decide, oh, they're actually not so bad. Yeah, which, by the way, is the premise of that Wall Street Journal article is. In the border towns, They name El Paso, but San Diego is true here too.

You see those cars, and they are appealing. When I was interviewed for this article, I was on the phone while I was driving, Sean's G-Wagon, actually. And I told at the end of our interview, I told Ryan Fulton who wrote the story, I told them I'd seen several Chinese cars while we were talking. Yeah. But over the ban now. They can't even drive over the border. By the way, I do feel for the people that drive Buchan Visions or the law rule base that's 90. What about that?

Imagine if Jamie Raskin, of course, there's no idea about any of this stuff. But imagine if he knew they're already Chinese cars. They've already infiltrated. The Buick Envision has already infiltrated our country. And the long wheelbase, S-9? And presumably some number of Teslas that were built in China and sold in Canada, which was allowed. They've come over the border. God knows where they are now.

Oh, no. Aren't there even probably other Volvos? They were probably some of those. Only the S-90 was built there. I think for a little while, Polestar 2 is built in China. Oh, my God! Don't hold me to that. Jamie Raskin.

We got to ban the Polestar 2. Don't worry, though. The consumer, the car buying public has already done. Can I read a quote from Bob Lutz? Because I sent this to you earlier, but I find it to be one of the best quotes. Okay, right, go ahead. Bob Lutz.

Can you describe Bob Lutz? He's like the quintessential American. He was an auto-in-day. Also wild. Yeah, insane. He said that he had an epiphany earlier this decade about how advanced. When is this, Bob Lutz is, I'm looking at his 94. When is this quote from?

1993. The quote is for the, in preparation for this article. You're kidding. Bob Lutz has still given interviews? I believe so. That's what that. That's not doing. That's what it was.

Apparently in this article he's quoted us saying that earlier this decade, he had an epiphany about how advanced Beijing had become when he bought a Chinese made Buick Envision. Bob Let's just a Buick in vision. Because of the total silkeness and sweet refinement, he said, I thought, boy, if they know how to make Buick's like this in China, they obviously know how to make great cars. Pull up a picture of the Buick Envision. For those of you don't know,

the Buick Envision is the single most mediocre vehicle manufactured and sold in the United States in the last 15 years. Please go back to, yeah, I mean, honestly, any of them, but the first, yes, I do. It was that one that was really so offensive. Boy, I'll tell you, Bob Lutz, if they can build a Buick like this one, America doesn't stand a chance.

It really stirs the soul. 180 horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder, and the cloth seats were pre-stained. The total silkeness and sweet refinement of the vehicle. The truth of the matter is, of course, this car was not available to consumers because it was such a big hit with Hertz. There weren't any left over.

What a shame. Couldn't buy one. You couldn't find one. High demand. Anyway, Chinese cars banned from America in theory. That's what the libs want. However, it would be really bad if it happened because the next news story is,

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Probably. They're not my favorite. They're not my favorite of the manufacturer. He has a favorite Chinese car company. My favorite is MG. Because it's a heritage. Exactly. Just like my grandpappies.

Anyway. All right. At the Beijing Auto Show, they revealed additional information about a platform that they actually talked about at CES. But they are thinking about launching great wall motors, WM, named after, indeed, the Great Wall. the GF subbrand, which is a great faith. But they have a...

The old G-WM-G-F. They have teased that they... The Trump people are concerned about Chinese cars being sold in the United States. I reviewed a car called the Feng Cheng Bao. What was it called? The Fing-Bow... Leopard 5, but that was a loose translation. But don't forget about the B-Y-D-Seal and the dolphin and other nice animals.

That's true. They had a car called the dolphin. Regardless, they've announced that they're working on a V8, a 4-liter turbocharged mid-engine V8, and a carbon fiber monococ chassis. To take on Ferrari. Yeah. Your company is going to get taken down by GWM. Yeah, let me tell you something. I feel okay.

We're going to be fine. No, no. Ferrari's moved on to six-cylinder power trains, plug-in hybrids. And the V-12 SUV that they currently build. Oh, speaking of SUVs, well, also said that this V-8 is going to find its way into the tank, which is a giant bulky thing that they make. It's a big SUV. So Ferrari's over here...

Mid-sized SUV. Ferraris over, yeah, but it looks bulky. It looks bulky. It looks bulky, but it isn't. Ferrari's over here with their six cylinders, and they're losing Formula One, unlike Cadillac who wins. And...

Not so. Close enough. Great Wall is coming in with a V8. Now, why is a Chinese company developing a gasoline power train of any kind, let alone... They've made clear that this is not aligned with current trends in China.

But they want to compete internationally, and they do think that especially in the U.S. and especially in the supercar segment, they need a V8. I'm reading between the lines here and the belief that Great Wall thinks that the barriers for the United States for Chinese cars to enter may fall. Yeah, I do imagine they all sort of thinking maybe about the Middle East where there is some appetite still for... The Great Wall never fell. Yes, they certainly are thinking about that. A lot of the Chinese manufacturers, especially this week the Beijing Auto Show, is read. There's been a lot of kind of press cycles and interviews. A lot of them are saying we do expect that we'll be trying to establish a dealer base or production in the U.S. in the coming years.

There's certainly an outlook towards that. Chinese manufacturers, the competition in China in the automotive space is quite tough. It's tough to have profits. The Chinese automakers want to sell cars not just to China. They need two to survive. Yeah. Fundamentally. There's like 100 Chinese brands. And profits are massively declined because of a huge price war that is happening, driving prices down.

BID is one of the largest has had quite horrible earnings in Q1. They need to expand to Europe. They need to expand to the U.S., which is, if they're successful, likely be their second largest market after China. That expansion matters. And they think that if we bring, I think Graywall Motors is thinking, if we bring engineering from, they have an engineer that was a chief engineer from McLaren for a while. Right. Known for a reliability.

This is not a reliability play. This is a performance. And they think that it can work. And so clearly they're taking steps towards that. I think that it's interesting. I'm not sure about cool, but I think that it's interesting that they're taking steps towards that.

I don't think cool. Didn't you just say it's cool that they're taking steps towards that? Clear, I think. Roll the tape back. Roll the back. I don't remember what I said. I just vamp.

I don't know. Regardless. Definitely kind of an odd situation, especially considering the, at the simultaneous with this V8, you have Jamie Raskin trying to ban the thought of Chinese car. in America.

So they're named after the Great Wall and we have a great wall of our own. We got a Great Wall. Yeah, it's the Border Patrol at the thing looking at Vins trying to figure out if your car was built in China. Oh, I'm sorry, your Model 3 was built in China. You can't come.

Go back and find a Model 3 that was built in Texas. You come right over the border. Silly. Dumb lawmaker BS. Repeated reminder that lawmakers have no idea what's going on. Speaking of people have no idea what's going on. And speaking of MG and Great Wall,

our great Chinese. Where is this going? The day I was driving in by Kuntash. Sure. Yeah. And they barely knew what was going on. Let's be honest. I pull up next to it, a stop late there.

Up the street, actually, just up the street. I pull up next to an MG. Like a real MG? That's interesting that you say that. I think they're all real MGs, which is why when the guy said to me, wow, I haven't seen one of those in a while. I said to him, I haven't seen one of those since I drove the Cyberster. How did he react?

I didn't actually say that. Shut us. But most of it because A would be dumb, and B, you can't be hurt over the car. He's talking to me. I'm like, dude, don't. All right, next one of these. Ah. Oh, wow.

All right, Shelby. So we've been talking, the Dark Horse and the Dark Horse SC for Supercharge. Very cool car. Our out now have been talked about. They've been revealed. Yeah. There's been an open question of why they got rid of the Shelby GT350 and Shelby Gt 500 nomenclature. We have learned this week that Shelby was a,

apparently taking an $800 per vehicle cut of the Shelby-branded models. And that was enough for Ford to decide. We're done with that. We're keeping our $800. And the Shelby name is meaningless to us. They are, sorry, the Shelby name is worth less than $100 then. So now they're like, everybody's trying to cut costs in here or there. We got the tariffs to deal with.

And so Ford decides to cut heritage. Tens of millions of dollars were paid out. Therefore, how many could they have sold? 14,000 units of the GT 500, that's 11 million, and apparently it's another 20 plus million for the GT 350. $800 a car. It's real money. I mean, it's real money.

I would argue that it probably, we'll see what happens with the dark horse, which I think is lovely. It has not been a great seller. There appears to be one in the office. It's not a dark horse, GT. I don't know what that is, but I knew when I saw a GT350, I knew what that was. Right.

Is it worth those in the office, too? Is it worth $800? Probably. That's the question. Yeah, I mean, the Shelby brand has been so inexorably linked to the Mustang since its inception. Well, and to dodge. Well, he did work for Christ's for a time. Last car, Carol worked on was the Vicer Friper.

I agree with that. Like, there's all these Ford Shelby's, and there's all these Chrysler Shelby's. What the hell's going on? The GLH, a great vehicle. Very great vehicle. It goes like hell. But I don't know how I'm in two minds about it because the Dark Horse is really cool, but I agree, like when I see the Shelby badge

as a Midwestern. I know what that means. Probably worth the 800 bucks. Shelby had such a, there was such a following there. I wonder if it also prevented them from using Cobra because they ditch Shelby but for some reason

didn't bring back Cobra, which they haven't used it so far. You'd think that's where they would have gone if they wanted to get a Mustang performance trend, but instead they came up with this new one, which is Dark Horse, which I think's been a little bit confusing to enthusiasts, to be honest. Is that the new Shelby? I don't know.

Cobra must do it. Shelby? They must on it because they Shelby Cobra. Like that was where that came from. Maybe so. I mean, Mustang Cobra was also a thing for a long, long, long, long time. I've decades and decades. It might be related there. Who knows? I don't know where the trademarks lie. $30 million.

Some big amount of money went to Shelby. Now, I think Shelby deserves a big amount of money. They got a cool brand. For God's sake, didn't we all love the Chrysler Laser Shelby? Oh, the Daytona. Remember the Daytona? Yeah, the one from... Yeah.

Front-wheel drive, hatchback, Shelby, do you remember this car? Oh, you do? You do not. You were living in Italy. No, not that one. What year was that like? Doge Daytona Shelby. I'm not talking about the real Shelby Daytona.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Of course I remember this. This. Yeah, of course. We hosted one. Let me tell you something. This car had at least 140 horsepower.

We'll find out. Let's see. The Shelby Z. I don't think it even. Sold by Auto Obscure Garage. 174 horsepower. 200 pound feet, though. This thing was a mover and a shaker.

I think of a good looking on. This car was fine looking. If you're ready for it. Oh, yeah. Oh, I want that in my life. It is so shiny. Are you disappointed that you're not a part of this? Yes, I am.

I've always wanted to review all these 80s Chryslers. None of them work right. Now that Ford is no longer paying them, maybe they'll come out with other partnerships. Maybe we can get the Dodge Dart back. All right, give us our next news story, please. I'm good. All right.

Speaking of the Dodge Dart. Yeah. There is a report that's exclusive to Reuters this week that Stalantis is going to focus the majority of its investment in four brands. They have 14 brands, as we've talked about before. Those brands, dead. No, that's not actually true. Those brands will have some, like, platform sharing and, like, crop out. That's not even really what they said.

And maybe some local. You are totally out of character, out of, out of, line with what actually was reported, which is that they're going to focus on a couple brains. God, I just click on Stalantus and hit news to pull this story up. And the thing is coming up is Stalantis noise employees complain of nosebleeds, migraines, vomiting. Detroit News, Stalantus H.Q ailment complaints, what we know. Stalantis HQ investigated by Michigan after employee illnesses. Stalantis workers raise health concerns at Auburn Hills H.Q.

Oh, my God. I will give the actual information. The reliability is so bad. It's infecting the people. They are still going to make all the brands, to be clear, they currently have. Although they have made clear that they may dispose of some in the future. That may not be the word they use, but that's what they do. Yeah, I hope not.

But they will obviously still do some, like, badge engineering platform sharing with other brands and have some region-specific products. I want to make a point. Can you name the four brands, Kenan? Yeah, it's Kenan and I will. Please. It's Jeep, Alfa, Mayo. No. Wait, sorry, the four that survive.

Yeah, Jeep. Jeep. Alfa. I guess ram. I don't remember the other two. That's really unfortunate. What are they? There's four.

You can only remember two? Well, those are the only ones. Can I tell you why I don't think this is? What are they? Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, and Fiat. The reason I don't think this is a big news story, they already are only focusing on the primary brands. What are you talking? Brands got them.

Brands like Chrysler that has a minor facelift. By the way, did you see that Chrysler is reportedly legitimately considering making an off-road Pacific? I did, and I decided not to turn it. include it? You know what makes me sad about that? I wouldn't buy it. Even though last week I said I want an off-road minivan, I don't want an off-road Pacifica. I want an off-road Sienna.

I don't trust the Pacifica. Listen, I think this is great and I'm thrilled that you're doing this, Chrysler. I don't trust your vehicles to go off-road. Where I want a Sienna. Give me a lifted Sienna. Give me a lifted audits. Toyota, you listen? Basically, what they've said is, is Jeep Ram, Pajone Fiat are going to receive the largest

investments in new platform? new engine, new power trains, whatever. And the other brands will also share those, will benefit from that technology development, but we'll have kind of smaller budgets. It is interesting not to call out Dodge as a brand that they're focusing on. They sell one product.

Yeah, but until yesterday, they sold one unbelievably popular product, which was the Challenger and Charger. Oh, sure. You're right. I'm sorry, they sell two products. I forgot about the Challenger entirely. Or the Charger or whatever it's called. You get my point, though.

Like, it's interesting that there's not a focus on trying to, Like, those cars were some of the top sellers for years, and there's not a focus on trying to, like, make... Because if you think about the other Pujo Fiat and the truck brands, there's not a Dodge Charger in there. I also don't really get... Like, RAM will certainly be truck, chassis development, et cetera. Jeep will develop all the SUVs,

and I imagine there'll be a Durango that is shared with in that, whatever. Fiat and Peugeot, I don't understand what they're going with for differentiation. I imagine Peugeot will be slightly... Fiat will probably be their low-cost brand because their largest markets or South American markets. Yeah. And Pesjo will be the European brand.

You need Pujo for Europe or for France specifically. You need Fiat. You can't get rid of Puget because the French government will lose their mind. I'm surprised that they're investing in both. I imagine Fiat will have to be their like cheap tertiary market development for cheaper cars.

And Jeep, honestly. Fiat is the car version and Jeep is the SUV version. You know, Jeep overseas is to become very different from Jeep in the States. The cars are like not even related. For example. What's that? Not the Dodge Avenger, the Jeep Avenger.

You go to Italy and there's Jeeps and I'm looking at him. It's an Italian brand. Yeah, it is. It is now. And it's like, what is this thing? It makes sense. I think it makes sense the four brands they're choosing to focus on. I am interested to see what will happen to the other brands, but unlike you who thinks

they're going to go away. I think they're still going to get cars. They will just not be the recipient of the primary focus. Jeep obviously has to be the big one because it's the only one that has real clout. No performance component is somewhat interesting, though. There's no Maserati Alpha in that. They'll make cars. That's what I'm saying.

Like, with no Dodge, you're not focusing on Charger Challenger. I don't think Pujo Fiat creates a car that the Charger Challenger could be. So then you're thinking, wait a minute, isn't that still a priority? We want our V8s. Well, no, the V8s are for the Rams. It's electric. We want our V8s! There's no Charger sold with a V8 currently.

It's going to be like tomorrow. I will say Jeep, of the Solantis brands in the U.S., Jeep has a 47% market share. Ram has 34%. And then the rest of the Stalantis brands in the U.S. And RAM has what? 37, 34%. You know, if you had looked at that five years ago, when Dodger was still selling the charger and the Challenger,

those numbers wouldn't be the case. Right. Or 15 years ago, when it was all branded Dodge would be different. Yeah, definitely that too. All right, what's our next news story? Oh, yes. Speaking of Chrysler, I can't believe we're going to talk about this. This is just such a great story.

We're going to tell the story. All right. All right. This is a RAM Promaster. it is advertised as having a nine-speed transmission. And indeed, the transmission has nine speeds. There's nine gears. There are nine gears, but there's a lawsuit,

a class action lawsuit right now that it is intentionally programmed to never go into gears eight or nine. This is what the lawsuit alleges. Alleges, yes. That the transmission is, for various reasons, still in just even though it's a nine-speed automatic, has programmed it so it will never reach eighth gear

and ninth gear. Now, I know what you're thinking. Oh, no. What will I do without my gears? When you rebuild the transmission, you'll have two, you don't need to... They said, was that gear made in China? You can't come in here. You can't use this one.

It is just such a great... That's ridiculous. Also, what are the damages? Right, that is a great question. Yeah. Are you saying it's a fuel economy? Right, that's the only one I can think of. But the EPA...

It's EPA, so it wouldn't have gone up to eighth or ninth for testing either, yeah. All right, move on to our next story, please. Oh, yeah, me and mothers. Folks, this is a massive deal. This is the biggest new story of the week. We are partnering with mothers. Yeah. Mothers makes the finest detailing products in the world, on the planet.

And we are now partnering with Mothers. We've got Mothers stuff over there in the thing, in the podcast set. We are going to have Mothers products integrated. There's going to be all sorts of cool Mothers things that come out of this. I want to tell you a story. I went up to their headquarters. which are somewhere north of here. Yep.

Maybe it's Orange County. Maybe it's Los Angeles. We don't remember. Nobody knows. And they were great. We met all the mothers people. It was a lovely experience. I met mother.

Wait, there's a mother? I met mother. She is real. She is a woman. She is mother. You know, I never really thought about the name, but it's actually because there's a mother. There is a mother.

Mothers, to this day, despite being this big, detailing powerhouse is a family-owned company and mother is at the top. Wow. Yeah. And then her son's like how? She has two sons who run the business. And then there's obviously like employees and like an office and all that.

They were they were real car enthusiasts. It was super fun going up there and meeting them. We got to see all their cool cars. At one point, I tried to make my own details. How did that go? Let me tell you something. There's a fellow there at the mothers and he sits in the lab all day long. He's got a 100 series thing.

Oh, clean, I assume. He sits in the lab, well, I'll tell you a story about that. He sits in the lab all day long, and he makes the things. The concoctions. Yeah, he's like a wizard, kind of. He said that if anybody who enters the parking lot and parks their car, it's considered to be fair game that you might have a product test on your car. He said to the point where when, like, plumbers come by, they're like,

because those are like the dirtiest car. They're like going out to the plumbers' trucks without necessarily, even asking and just kind of spraying and wiping. That's life at mother. Anyway, we have a partnership. There's going to be a lot of cool stuff that comes out of this. A lot of cool stuff. You're going to love it.

You, the audience member, are going to love it. Can I say something we're doing to celebrate? Yeah, what are we doing to celebrate? We are giving away five massive prize packs. There's a link in the description below. Each winner is going to get a co-branded bags of cars and beds and mothers. I have one of these bags. Have you seen it?

No, because you took it. You ain't getting it. Damn. What if I... Unless you win the giveaway, yes. Which, you know what? Your cars are always so filthy, you really need to enter that. I have a story about it.

He needs more than just... I know. He needs me. I'd clean my car this weekend because I was going to drive it and I cleaned it and we have all the mother's products. And then it rained. And now there's water spots. Now you understand.

And I understand. And I understand. And I understand. I understand. I obviously will clean it again in weeks and it'll be fine. Good news. We got mothers products over there. Behind...

Behind... The detailer bag, which is co-branded and really cool, is loaded with with the gold ceramic line, a bunch of towels, a $100 gift card to the Cars and Bits merch store, everything you need to get your car auction ready. So there's five of these, and you can, how can you win? You go into the link in the description, mothers.com pages giveaway to enter.

The link will be live when this podcast goes live. This is a big deal. Mothers and Cars and Bids begins, and my formulas will be concocted. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Okay. Can you name any single tool on display in this photo?

Tool? What do you mean by tool? The product? He's a machinery. Oh, like the lab stuff? What do you mean? The microscopes? The boroscopes? The stethoscopes? The seismometers? All right. Let's move on to the top car segment.

The tolet car segment this week is brought to you by Felipe's water spots. I want to talk about... I'm a little annoyed by them. I want to talk about a few things. There's actually three really... important things I want to talk about. Oh, okay. Actually, for me only two.

But maybe we can get Ryan Lopez involved in something else. I want to talk about this. I have decided, I'm announcing on the pod today. Wow, this is official. I've decided that I've peaked with two-seater cars. The three that I have, I can't do any better, and I'm not going to.

I'm going to keep them for the foreseeable future, and that's it. I can't afford anything that I like more and I don't want anything else. I've thought about all of the options. You don't know how many times I've Googled exotic car and then scrolled hoping that there's something I forgot.

So I've moved on to four-seaters. I've got the three-two-seaters game over, four-seaters. So I made a little list, of, and now that I have the kids, they like participating in the cars anyway. I'm going to start accumulating four-seater cars, like I accumulated two-seater cars. My initial plan was that one car in my garage would have four-seats, and that would be my family car.

That is no longer my plan. I'm just going to start kind of adding them as I see fit. Oh, they're going to, they're going to, because you already hash out of two four-seater. Well, we don't count the G-Wagon because it's an insipid driving experience. So you're going to just keep at it. The street in front of your house is going to just be. No, they're all going to be parked in the car. office. So. Sure. Why not? It's not foolish or anything. Here's what I'm looking for. And I am

dead serious that I am like ready to start buying these cars whenever they start appearing. Okay? Great. Dead serious. These are the cars on my list. First off, that E55 AMG wagon from 2001, the S210 with a third row week. Me and Rami are still looking for one. We're going to find that car. That's not even really part of this. That's its whole separate thing. The four-seaters I'm looking for that will live in the 993s world. My plan was originally. I have the 9-93 for a year to sell it, get other cars, have kind of a lineage of four-seater cars. Now I'm just going to go willy-nilly.

I appreciate this approach. Mark 4-Supra-Turbo. It's time. I want a stock Mark-4 Super Turbo, Renaissance Red, post-Faclift ideally. Bring it to me. I want an E30M3 Sport Evo. I think I have a neighbor with one. I'm going to test drive it on Friday.

Can you describe for me the difference between the E-30 The E3M3 Sport and the Sport Evo. I don't know the E30M3 line. Filippo. Very simple. Yeah. The sport Evo is the one that the rich guy. Fair enough.

No, it was a little more dialed in. It was a little more focus. Actually, it was a little more power, too. And one of the problems with that car was that it was... The S-14 is a little enemic. But they added lots of stuff to it. Like, even the arrow is obviously one of the bigger things they messed up. They even put rubber, like, filler in, like, hood gaps to make sure that it was perfectly smooth for Arrow, which is crazy.

But it's like a, it is a special car. They cost an absolute fortune. But, you know, he's going to find out if it's worth it. Mark four super. I don't even care. I just want to start getting these four-seater and having the experience because I truly think I've maxed out my two-seater experience. And so, like, let's just, let's go a different direction. You know, this, yeah.

Well, this happens. We've seen this happen lots of time. I'm not getting rid of the two-seaters. I just truly think that I can't do any better. And I'm certainly not trying to earn more money to get to a point where I can get a better car. Yeah, yeah. So Ferrari 612.

I'm ready. I want a 612. Yeah. But I'll do it if I have to. I'd rather have a late OTO. You know the OTO. Yeah, of course. One-to-one.

Fleetbo doesn't know what the... No, I knew that. That's okay. Go back to sleep. Next guy. Delta Integrala, Evo, Evo, too? Yeah. Hell yeah.

I'm Mitsubishi-Lancer Ivo 6, left-hand drive only. Wow. And this one will surprise the audience the most, because all these are manuals. But this one's a tip. The Jaguar XE Project 8. Nice. I want something that Harry Metcalf has breathed on. He is my idol.

That's going to say, you recently watched a Harry garage video on this vehicle. Well, that's not why I put on the list. I put it on the list, and then I watched the video, which made me even more happy that I put it on. on the list. Harry Metcalf, a living legend. Yep. I don't know if he was actually responsible for any of do with this car,

but he's got one. He's got a purple one. He was. I don't, I assume it's nebulously because it's the project eight and the project yeah, whatever. Anyway. His car is cat delete. Which does not mean what you think it means. It's not that doesn't mean cat a little converted deleted. For these cars, there's a giant graphic that you could get. The Jaguar side

profile, the actual cat on the side of the door, and it runs the length of the car. It's like the most aggressive. Harry's car is the best jokes you've ever made. But I only want the car with cats, and it's plural, by the way, because it's on both sides. There is a giant cat graphic on the side of this car that literally goes from the very rear to the front door. Yeah, pull one up. X-C Project 8. They were going to make 300, although Harry says they actually made less.

And look at this cat. If I want this cat car and I want it now and I want it with cats. Got to have cats. I want to tell you something. This car has 600 horsepower and it's... I also like the XE generally. Okay, that's the weird take that isn't supported by anybody else. The good-looking small fit-in.

Okay. You can get a used one for like four. I was looking there too. Auto-trader, let me tell you what's on an undertrader right now for X-E's. There's like a hundred of them, right? More than that, I'm sure. 99 of the 100 are four cylinders for six grand. Yeah, yeah.

And then there's one Project 8. I do want to throw out there. Look at this cat. We have here at the Cars and Mids Office two of the things on that list already. Yeah. Has that influenced your decision in any way? Yeah, I drove the 612 and the Super. I loved them both.

They were already on my list, but I've driven them, and I'm like, yep, they should be on my list. So I'm going to consider. So my point is, yeah, I'm just going to start buying it. I love this for you. I'm not going to wait until one's gone and do a hole. Oh, this one's out, this one's in. We're just going to start accumulating a four-cylinder cars. We have peaked with two-seaterers.

It is time to move on to the next realm of car. When one comes up, I'm ready to buy a Supra literally right now. So when you say four-sears, it doesn't mean just two-door four-seaters. You mean four-seaters? I guess. Apparently, initially this started because I wanted a, only two-door four-seaters because of the kids. But then I was poking around in the Supra over there.

Yeah. I'm already, like, dangerously close to outgrow. I need to get a Super like yesterday. We're like, it's tight back there. And so then it hit me like, maybe I should add some four-seaters. And that's how we got the Delta Integralade the length. These are cars I've always wanted, minus the project date, which I didn't want until yesterday.

Although Harry, in his video, on the Autobahn, hits 200 miles an hour. Yep. Yeah, Harry is real. Let's, I. This car does 200. How many sedans ever built have done 200 miles an hour? Seriously. Yeah, not my E60M5 has done it.

The E6DM5, yeah. What else? A lot of these BS cars are limited and stuff. Yeah, that's true. This thing will do 200. You've never even been in a car that does 200. I have, but admittedly, I've never been 200 about a hour. I mean, yeah, it's more like a theme for you.

It's like an overarching thing. I've been in the room. You've been in the room. Yeah, you've been in the room. Okay. Anyway, we're going on four-seater cars. Are you ready for this? because there might be six, eight more cars in this office.

I'll be honest, you've owned that 9-11 for what? Six months? Yeah. Never been in it while moving. I don't think I'm sad in it. Yeah, but it doesn't impact my life. It's around. And I appreciate that.

Yeah. Aren't you going to appreciate it if a super's around? No, I'm just ready for the text when you inevitably actually don't want these cars. What do you mean? I love the 993. It's been great. We will get that text. I'm over cars.

It'll happen. You won't get it if I get a super turbo because I tell you, I drove that white one. What I'm most worried you don't forget about. There is nothing greater than driving a Mark 4 super turbo. Really? One of the great experiences. You want to know why? Yeah.

Because you know that nothing you do can possibly break the power train. Except that. You can money shift it like Nick of the TTRS on an on ramp, and it will still continue to ride. Unless you're Rob Freddie and you break it constantly. You remember his? He was always, super turbo was always broken. He probably had a 1,400 horsepower. Yeah, he did.

I'm going to go with 320. Always figured. Right there. at 3-20. Felipe was shocked to learn that it had more than 276. In my head, they all have 276. But what you need to understand is all those cars that were rated at 276 in Japan, when they were sold outside Japan, they gave them the correct horsepower ratings.

The Super actually had a few differences between the Japan one in the U.S. Like the 3,000 GT, they just openly gave the correct horsepower number in the U.S. and lied in Japan. The gentleman's agreement. The other thing I want to talk about is, yeah, over the years the Super got like different things of the engine to make it fast. and it boosts up the torque number. Horsepower stayed at 276.

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We went to the Concours. We went to the La Jolla Concours Delagons. Yes, we did. A sacred event to us. Kenan participated. Kenan cleaned the... out of the Carrera GT. Did you see it?

I did. It looked great. And then I saw it here in the office looking great. And then I saw it looking great again. Well, yes. I posted a story on my Instagram. So Saturday night the night prior, the concours are all held on Sundays.

And the night prior, it rained like crazy. The weather was very, I mean, it was unbelievable. The amount of water in La Jolla was just like really insane. So I naturally, who had spent six hours on Friday, dialing in the career GT, GTI, was very nervous about this. The CareerGGT was in the garage during all that, but the next morning, Sunday morning. The next morning we went and it was raining. We woke up and it was pouring when we were leaving to go to the car.

Yes, and I was apoplectic. But we got all of my detailing stuff together. I'm like, well, so be it. All of his mother's detailing products. Yeah. So we put all that, like all that stuff. We got it in the car. We got the car.

Being in a Carer GT while it's raining is scary. He was very careful with it. Doug understands. that caused reputation, but we got there. It wasn't that bad, actually. I cleaned the car up initially, then started to rain some more. I cleaned a little bit more, then it rained again. And so what I said was, in essence, I cleaned the car two and a half, three and a half times maybe.

But then it did stop raining. The sun came out and all was beautiful. It was. And you know what? The Courage of Dutie was a big hit. It was. Because I realized something. All those people who have air-cooleds, who go to Concours events, the Courage of T is like their God.

They're like, oh, I got a... What if I thought the night. I got a long hood, and this is what I... Oh, wow. You know, those people don't care about the 19-18, and it's a hyper-traft. Yes, so we were in the hypercar classes for the Currier G-T was, and there was some heavy metal. I didn't submit it for judging, which I now think was a mistake,

because looking at the rest of that class, it was like Waira Zonda, you know what I mean? Yeah, right. Like Curr-G-T was like the Conquor's car of that class, you know, manual, brown interior. Yes, it was. It was crazy that a park-it, we were between a Bugatti-Varon, Super Sportively.

And a gumpert Apollo. It was a wild lineup, of course. Like I said, park it here next to the Bugatti. Yes, we were very happy about. But nonetheless, it was a wonderful event. We had a great time. We had a great time. We always do.

Philippo even came temporarily. I even came. I was there for some amount of time. Yeah. Yeah, wearing a suit jacket. And Doug was dressed nicely, not wearing a T-shirt. I know. It was surprising.

Yeah. It made me put on a suit. I didn't. I wasn't going to, and then I saw a picture of Doug wearing a dress shirt. And so I put on a shirt. suit. What were you going to wear? Hawaiian? Yeah. Anyway, that was the thing.

Four-seater fun cars and concours. Those are my talking points today. You know, you could get a vintage Ferrari for two plus two and then take that to a concourse. Should I put one of those masks? I literally did a dive into every four-seat vintage Ferrari and I came to the conclusion they're all ugly. And then includes the 612, by the way, but at least it drives well. I drove that 6-12.

What an unbelievably athletic car. It is just so sporty. acceleration and steering and handling. It is incredibly athletic, despite the fact that it's as long as a Toyota Highlander, which is not an exaggeration. It is so athletic, so good. And the 612 has benefits from this wonderful power train,

which was the wrong engine. I remember everybody said that at the time. It's the old engine, and the new engine is out with the 599. Well, from a reliability standpoint, as ages come, the 612 actually is like the car. Yeah. That is like the most reliable Ferrari from that era. Yeah, it is.

The 575 drive train, which it has is very stout. You still have to do a belt service on it, which you don't with the 599's engine. But yeah, and the fact you can do the conversions, because again, the 575 came with a six-speed, as did the 6-12. It's a really appealing car that's gotten a lot of flack for the way it looks. But I think in a dark color with the challenge wheels. Yep. Which is all the OTOs. All the OTOs.

I knew what they were doing at the end. At any minute, one of these cars could be in our life. That would be cool. I'm there for all of it. I really actually, believe it or not, despite what I've said in the past, I would like for you to get the E30M3 because I'm alone as a BMW guy in our friend group, and it would be nice to have another M owner in the group again. I've only ever had one BMW.

Yep, an E36 M3 sedan white with a five speed. Yeah, years ago. Yeah, quite one BMW. Wow. It was faster than the one you're going to buy. I've always been an E30M3 fan. I've driven a bunch of them. I love them.

I love how they look and I love how they drive. I know they're slow. But they are just some of the most communicative, kind of bare bones, sporty. Like, it is just a wonderful experience. And I think that the next generation of car in general lost a lot of what made the E30M3 so special. I think the E36 grew a bit too much, became a bit too plastic, lost a little bit of just the overall, simple, basic focus. And that was true for basically every brand in the 90s.

this E30M3 just there was in the E30 in general just had this wonderful um like basicness about it that was just so perfect the way that car draw yeah I don't totally agree I think the E36 M3's interior is definitely not the nicest place to be the E30m3 the E30m3 is nicer than E36N3 for sure yeah but it's it's still not that nice it's fine but I wouldn't call it nice um but the E30 I don't know I like the E36 BMW I like six cylinder power the 90s the core competency engine I really think, looking back on it, I prefer the E28M5 to the E34M5, and I prefer the E30M3 to the 36M3. The next generation, the 90s plastic cars, I don't think they drove as well. I don't

think they were as athletic. And I think BMW didn't regain that again until the next generation of cars, which of course is your M5 and E46. The best era, MW. Yeah, the golden era. Yeah. I love the E36M3, to be clear. I think it's a great car. But we're comparing it against E30M3, which is really one of the more like just basic stripped down. It's just like when everybody asks us to rank stuff. It's like they're all good. They're all really good.

I hope you're ready for it all the way. Well, if it's for Felipe, I can take it that. We've already done Prieta says. What else could it be? Okay, bring on the American car situation. Yes, so I recently went up and reviewed a couple of cars that are coming to cars in bids very soon. One was a 1969 Mustang Mach 1, red,

with a fireman license plate that it was a deep, stiff salute to America. It was very cool. It's a four, for those of your end of those cars, it was a 428 Cobra Jet car with the intake on the hood so I had the shaker hood and all that. And at four speed, it's like the one you want.

How much more manly was that car than Filippo? If you had to rank them. Not even the same species, no, no, no, no. You. Not even the same species. No offense. That car, like, was hairy-chested, scary. It's like, the steering is like, you know,

kind of not, not, I give myself a scary too. Easiest car I've ever done a burnout in. It was like, I just breathe on the throttle. It's like everything you aren't. It really, like, it really is like antithetical to you as like your spirit. Yeah. It's not the same.

But it was so cool looking, sound. No, it is not efficient because it's a 7-liter V8, in essence, the 428. But I love the way it looked. I thought it was really cool. But, of course, like, not particularly precise to drive. You know, everybody talks about an American car, so I can't believe these giant engines and they're all floating. It's like, well, you drive a modern one and they're all pretty good.

You drive one from the late 60s and you're reminded how all over the place that car was. Yeah, you can, if you go back with American cars at all, you can get where they got the reputation. Like, if you're to drive American car today, you don't understand why people say American cars don't handle as well as European cars. You drive a new Mustang, Gt350, whatever that is. And you're like, this is pretty good. But you start going back even a little bit. And then if you go back a lot bit, it's like, oh. Right, and they sold a gazillion of them at the time.

I'm like, oh my God, people bought this. But only to Americans. But only to Americans. And it is cool as hell. No question. Like to look at and to listen to, it is really... It's coming up on the site. It's coming up on the site.

It's also going to be at the Velocity Invitational, that one with a bunch of other cars that we've selected. It will be there on May 29 through the 31st. Really exciting. It's at our first in-person auction event. You can still bid like you would normally on the cars and bids out through the platform. But the car is going to close there on the 30th. And it's really cool. It's going to go live on the 12th.

You can take a look at it. Velocity, this is going to be great. So whether you're going to be able to bid, but then is there going to be like a bid caller in person or are they just going to end? Is there going to be a screen? We will have some. He's going to have a screen. Yeah. Like it's like an iPad.

If you're there in person, we can help you get set up to bid. If you're not already, you can also bid obviously from the app while there or anywhere in the world. If you want to be there at the event, check the link in bio or check the description below for a coupon code to the Velocity. This is so exciting. How many cars are going to end right there on the premises? We'll have something like we're targeting 15. We may exceed that by a little bit. This is in Sonoma?

It's Sonoma Raceway. Kenyon, the cars are going to end right then and there. It's very exciting. This is a very exciting event. The car is really cool. Yeah. And it is a nice one, so definitely go check it out. But I also drove another car, another American car.

Just yes, this is the other day. You did all this week. I did, yeah. On Monday, I flew up and did that and flew back. Tuesday, I then did another car. I drove, so I drove at Daytona, Cup replica. When I say Replica, Shelby Daytona.

Shelby. Not the one. Not the 80s one. No, this is the one. No, this is the one. Everybody's seen Ford versus Ferrari. Everybody likes to focus on the Ford GT. This was the first American car to go out and actually kick ass at Le Mans.

And it won the 1965 Constructors Championship. Like, huge deal. This is like this upset the tables with Ferrari. But this replica, when I say replica, it is, it is the, there's a spectrum to that word, right? And I say this at the beginning of the video. When you say replica, a lot of people picture these badly cobbled together fierras that look vaguely like Ferraris from a distance. Yep. If you've had a couple to drink.

This car is on the other end of that spectrum where it is built beautifully. It has billet lower, billet control arms, a hand-welded tubular chassis, a built 331 V8 with electronic ITBs. I mean, it is a serious car. And I got one looking at it and talking about it, I tell the story of the Daytona, the original, why they're so iconic because it's a great story of like American engineering and coloring. I love that story. But also, then I talk about this car, and then I get to drive it at the end. And initially, I was a little scared of this because it is a race car. It is stripped out.

Getting in is really hard. You've got to climb over a roll cage. The seats are very narrow. You're in, it's really tight. I get in the car, instantly comfortable with it. I could not get over how well dialed in it was. And that thing was so damn loud. And I was, like, you watched in the video, I am like so happy and so just like, at one point,

it's rare that I do this because I talk a lot. I stopped talking and just like went for it. And just so you could hear the engine and get the experience. At one point, the car was vibrating so violently. It actually knocked out the camera for a second. And then it came by and was like totally out of focus. But that's how visceral and alive this thing was. And the way I phrased it is the spirit of the original was really alive in this car.

Does it think you want a car from this era? Yeah. I have become, my eyes, thanks to the Kuntosh largely, have been open to these older cars and the experience they offer because you can't be doing or thinking about anything else. Like, you can't focus on it. Are we ready to go down this path? You know, should I add the Espada to my list of four-seater car?

Well, no, the spot is on my list. I'm going to take that one for the team. Are you going to get a Viper? Are you going to go get something from the 60s? No, no, I still think I need to do a viper because despite being made in the 90s, that thing is from the 60s. It's about as close as you can get. It's short of one of these replicas, not that one, but like a super form.

Yeah, well, so it kind of makes me wonder because I am going to do this car eventually. I'm taking my time with it, but it was like, I wonder if I'm going to like this thing a lot more than I thought I'm going to do. The Viper? The Viper, yeah, because I light, I mean, this thing, I got out of this car, much like you do with the Kuntosh, and I was like, I'm tired, my ears hurt,

I have a headache, and I've never been happier. I don't want to touch it for a while. Right. But like, you don't want to drive that, maybe even once a week, but it was just like, I just couldn't get over the experience how cool it was. Yeah.

And it just opened my eyes, these visceral cars. I know, I'm getting more into old cars myself. As the modern car has just become, faster and more BS. Point and shoot BS. It's plenty fast. It's 400, this car had 44 breakhorse power at the wheels.

And it doesn't weigh much, yeah. You went and drove a Daytona, Ferrari Dayton as well. Like, these are the experiences. It's time, maybe we just should start focusing our way into old. Let's lean in. Let's lean on into the old stuff.

I'm just saying, like, a lot of people write them off. It's like, until you, if you have the ability to experience one of these cars, if you're given the opportunity, you absolutely should do So it opened my eyes to how special they are. Yeah, that makes sense. I totally agree. I totally agree that the feel,

the nature of those old cars is really, really, really special. They're alive in a way that new cars are just not. And can't be either. By the way, both videos coming on the Cars and Bids channel. Cars and the Bids channel, the cars we sold. Daytona's not going to be on in velocity. It's to be determined. But like, but the video will be live on the cars of the Bids there.

The Mac 1 will be up there. Next up, I want to move on to the market report. The market report is brought to you by cars and bins. That's what this is. Really? Yes. Yes. You didn't realize we were trying to sell you.

But we are. Gotcha. We're not doing this for fun. The first thing, the first bit of market report, Kenon, can you pull up over there on the website? Can you type into cars and bids.com, Elon. So we just sold a Lotus Elon for $23,000. That car is so cool. I don't know if it's higher low.

This is a market report. I am merely reporting. Back to you, Felipe. Great. Let's talk about Fiat... $23,000. Here, I'll stay on theme. Let's talk about other cars for $23,000.

Go to the Fiesta ST that we just sold. This is a really nice Fiesta ST for 25. The sticker on this car, the window stickers that's in here, was $23,000. Yeah. The fact that Ford and no other manufacturer is selling a small... small hot hatch in the U.S. is what is driving the price of these to stay incredibly stable and above MSRP despite having 14,000 miles. Yep.

There's no downward pressure on these. So these are going to stay. And you can't buy a newer version of it. And people want it. Because it's a great experience. You know, I understand why Ford killed their cars. Like, I understand the reasoning. And ultimately it has worked out for them from a, I think, larger from a product perspective.

but this era, this and the Focus ST and the Focus RS, they were all excellent cars. Man, imagine if they kept going down that road. Yeah, no, and I agree with you. The market is interested in the car still at what it costs, more or less, because it was a great car and there's nothing else that you can get. If you want a hot hatch. What else you get the GTI?

You can get a GTI still, which is around the same money, to be honest, for a base GTI. This is more engaging. Right. And it's smaller and it's a feel. feels more raw, I think, and it's... Not only. Better steer. But it's notable. The other auction that I want to talk about really quickly, if you type in Dirtfish,

we are doing a bunch of charity auctions alongside the folks at Dirtfish. We have an incredible selection of auctions that the Durfish team have curated their great kind of right driving school up in Pacific Northwest, including a Leia Block signed her race suit, a bunch of racetrack experiences, and a bunch of other really cool experiences. These are all for charity.

100% of the proceeds good to Dirtfish Women in Motor Street. sports program, go check them out. Private group tour of the singer headquarters. I know, it's pretty cool. If you're at the singer. Spike Ferristin, this is your chance. That's so true. That's so true. For up to 65 guests. It's already up to 7 grand.

Yeah, it's kind of a cool thing. But yeah, please legitimately do check these out. They're all for a good cause, and they're kind of fun. Okay, that's cool. I want to move on to questions. Yes, questions, questions. The questions, of course, are brought to you by Kenan Z-39M-5, the greatest car of manufactured. That's correct. That's specific one.

You can ask questions for next week's pod. You go to Cars and Bidz.com. You click on the community tab and then the podcast question section. And last week you said that the people weren't the questions weren't very good. The questions weren't great last week. This week they were voluminous. There were a lot of them. They were also pretty good.

We could do better. Give us your questions. Please give us your questions. We want good questions. Good, good, good questions starting with from oink oint doink. Do you think, do you guys think that the Miata should go the way

of the C8 Corvette and go mid-engine? You know, it's kind of a ridiculous question on its face, the idea of the Miata, a cheap car being mid-engineed, but there was a time when I was a child when Felipe had not yet existed,

that there were actually a lot of cheap mid-engine cars. Toyota made the MR2, Pontiac had the fear, It wasn't like out of the realm for this to happen. There were like mid-engine sports cars. It was like a thing. The Honda beat, for God's sake, was like four inches long.

And that's all gone. Obviously, if the Miata wanted to be its most capable, it would be cool to have a mid-engine cheap car again. Yeah. I don't think anybody's doing it or planning on it. Yeah, it's interesting because, yeah, the Miata's focus was being like, their design brief was the Lotus Alon, the original one, not the, the one we just sold, which was a classic British roadster. Engine up front, re-roll drive, super lightweight, very high revving. Like, that was kind of the focus.

But it is interesting. The idea of a mid-engine Miata. I'm not sure if the Miata specifically should go mid-engine. It's not really what it was thinking of. That's not its point. It's never been. But that wasn't the Corvettes either. Well, the Corvettes was always to be the most kind of advanced supercar fighting car for less.

I do think that it would be cool if there was some. movement. I honestly, I wish the MR2 would come back. I think the SW20 MR2 is one of the coolest damn cars ever to exist, and I just wish it would come back. I really, really, really, really do. I actually think the GT86 program, it should have been a mid-engine two-seater sports car. They're going to be like, it's a mid-engine, it's a front mid-engine. Yeah, rear mid-engine. True. True! Next question from calling down 27, dear Doug, does cars and bids, being cars and bids mean you would never buy from a competitor? If the perfect supra or 9-11 Gt2 came up

for sale and bring the trailer, would you buy it? I'm not buying any 9-11 GT2s, Colin Dowd. I just said I'm off two-seaters. Well, he's not listening. Not listening. He's unbelievable. Incredible. No, remember, I said a couple of weeks on this podcast,

I will not buy any more Porsches. Except if the right GT2 comes along. No, I'm done with two-seaters. Oh, I'm serious. I am done with... I have zero interest. If the right GT2 came along, I'd say, cool, I'm not buying it. Zero interest, not buying two-seaters anymore.

You know, my understanding is when you make these hard lines in the Sambore, are they flexible? No, not. I think this could still have. In one way. Which ones have I been flexible on? I was off cars. I'm off cars.

Then you bought two cars in that same year. Three years. I was off cars. Three long years. I'm not buying any cars this year. The same year bought a Carrera GT. Okay. But.

If the car, Leah, if the Super. I'm definitely not getting more two-seaters, truly. I've done on my mind. I don't have space. It doesn't add anything to my life. but if the right super came and bring the trailer, I'd buy it. I'm going to tell you something, and I'm not going to get too far into this. Cars and Bids people have bought cars on Bring the Trailer,

and Bring the Trailer people have bought cars on Cars and Bids. That's all I'm going to say about that. I think that if the right car list, you buy it, you know what I'm saying? And none of us can afford to buy cars from Armisothabee, so that's that. But yes, I think that that... You know what they sold this week? What did RMS last week? They sold a bunch of stuff in Europe, okay?

And it was like, yeah, I have 50, for 10 million euros. Yeah, Monica for the historic. You know what else they sold? They sold like Jackie Ix's, like, pocketbook or something. It wasn't exactly that, but it was like from this. It was like, it was like Fangio's like mechanics notes or something. And they sold like a bunch of stuff like that.

And it for like the estimate was like $3,000. And some of it sold for like 80,000 euro. But it was like old school like stuff. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'd do that. Maybe we can't.

We can't. The fees are too rich for my blood. Right, yeah, 12%. No, I completely agree with that. The answer to the question is if you would buy a car on other platforms, I would because sometimes you have a choice. I ain't selling on other platforms. Let me tell you that, especially after some recent sales.

You know, Cars and Bids is the place. It's all I'm going to say. Factually. Next question from Joe Suway. This is a great question that's devoted to me, but I think we should all really think about it. Okay. Do you, Doug, if you were to purchase a vehicle today to recreate a vehicle. what you did for your channel with the Ferrari 360, what would you choose?

So the question, that, that car like blew up the YouTube channel, got a lot of attention, started things off. Yeah, that's important to contextual. What would you do if you were trying to do that today with a car? I think it is. You couldn't have a 360. It's like not interesting. No, no.

I mean, I don't even know a lot of the supercars. Like, a lot of people found out that they don't really garner that much attention. I mean, Tyler Hoover talked about this when we bought the Varon. There's waning interest over, like, after like, three videos. Hamilton collection is out there. they're clickbaiting people trying to get people to click on his, the Tesco was bad. What would you do?

Like what? And assume you can't have that kind of, you don't have that kind of money to spend. Like, what would you actually do? Well, I mean, I kind of did, granted I didn't have that long. The SL-65, I was shocked at how much attention that got. There are a lot of interesting cars, I think,

if you buy something that is notoriously unreliable and you live with it. It's got to be bell-curvy enough. Like, an SL-65 is a little bit too obscure to, like, I think the reason the Ferrari resonated, it was, it was like a Ferrari. A Ferrari, yeah. Which doesn't matter anymore. I just don't...

I think Tavarish has taught us that you can do that rebuilding a P1 or Matt Armstrong with a shoe run. He also taught us you can do that with Pimp My Ride vehicles. Yeah. So something that, like, resonates with people, but... Do you think the Pimp My Ride car gets more than two big videos? Oh, of course. Like that Ferrari, I rode that thing's trajectory.

Non-challenge grill for a whole year. Bulbous non-challenged. And nothing quite replicated that. Even in your own. That's true. I mean, I don't know. It's just such a different landscape now. It's like, it's hard to imagine.

Because you were just, wow, this guy has a, that's how I found you was, wow, this guy has a Ferrari is doing stuff with it. Think a car is enough. I don't think there's like a single car anymore. I think like a story and like a build can still kind of work for the right car. You know, when I reviewed that low-res car? Yeah. Oh, yeah. If you did, like, took that to the McDonald's drive through.

Yeah, that would still work. That would still work. That would go viral. Unfortunately, you can't. You could get some great content out of driving a low-res car through the McDonald's drive-thru. But you've reviewed that ferret tank or whatever. Yeah. How did that do?

I think it did well, but that was back when all the videos blew up. I don't know the answer. But I would do, you would have to be something so absolutely ridiculous that it like also did well with shorts and like did well. Shorts is a key. I'll tell you, get an ass bark owl. Yeah, there you go. All it takes is. Fumily.

That's the problem. It also has to be a car you can buy for about what the 360 cost, you know, because other, like, if I had a zillion dollars, could I think of something? Yeah, I would make an iceberg car. And what it would be is, would it know? Well, that's, you would click on it to find out, wouldn't you? That's one video. Do seals live on it? That's another video.

It depends on the answer to part one. I don't even know if that is. part one. I don't think part one is the melting. I think I'm going to make you watch like six videos before you find out it. See, he's still got it. Yeah, that's right. Greatest mine in YouTube. Dear Doug, from Drake, dear Doug, just watch the

question about the, just watch the video about the Tesla model. Why? Why did you choose the base? I'll tell you what happened. You know the story here? Yeah. First off, I think the base, you know, it's interesting. I got a lot of hate in the comment, are you just the base? Of course it's terrible. People said something like that.

It's like, wait a minute. Your brand, who you kind of weirdly awkwardly shill for on Twitter, produces this car. Yep. It's a car they make. Yeah. And of course it's terrible. This is a vehicle that is manufactured by the company.

If they're not proud of it, if they think it's terrible, why is it on sale? I think a big story of the Model Y is the value prop. I think that's honestly the primary story of that car. I don't think, I think it does a lot of stuff well, but I think the value proposition is the thing that it does the best. and the base car has the best value product. And people in the comments, they didn't know what outright said this,

but it was sort of implied, you should review the good one, but talk about how cheap the base is. We don't do ads here, folks. That's how they did newspaper ads back in the 90s. Come on in, we get leased it for $99 bucks, and then you show up and there's like one car on the lot. This is a car they make.

They sell it. What am I supposed to do? We reviewed it. We borrowed it, we got it on Turro. We reviewed it. It was kind of mediocre to be it. But it's a product they manufacture. Like, I'm not, you can't blame me for it being bad.

Call Elon. It is funny. When I started reviewing electric cars, you reviewed an EV, you were a lib. People would get in the comments, pick. You are a Democrat. You're so pro-EV. I can't believe you're doing this. This is horrible.

Real cars have gas engines. Like, I would get so much hate about being a liberal. And now you review. And if you don't say good things about a Tesla, Now you're a liberal. Yep. Wild. You've got to say good things about the electric car.

The world of wildness. It is amazing how quickly things. Jesus. I wanted to ask one last question here, which is kind of an interesting one. I don't know if you know this. Ryan Five ever asks, I know you don't do politics, wink, but do you know that Mallory McMorrow, a United States Senate candidate in Michigan,

won a design competition to design what would become the 2018 Mazda 3? Do you know, have you been following Mallory? I know that she is, her husband is Ray Wirt who is in the car world somehow. Mallory's husband, Ray Wirt, founded Jalapnik. There we go. And was the original editor of Jolapnik, along with what's his name, the crazy guy who moved back to Hungary. The Gawker Media crazy guy. What's his name?

I was curious where to go. Keep going. You remember the guy. Nick Denton. So Nick Denton and Ray Wirt there were they started Jolobnick. And she became a. state senator in Missouri and is now running for U.S. Senate in Missouri. Michigan.

I'm sorry, Michigan. And like it seems like a possibility that should may actually get elected, which is interesting. The people of Michigan, which includes your family, will not take kindly to Missouri being mistaken here. Dude, I would be honest with you. I live in Michigan way more. It's interesting, isn't it? It is interesting.

She designed? Did you know about this? No, I did not. Did you know she was running for Senate? Yeah. Oh. There you go. I'll tell you why I support Mallory.

She's a Democrat. She's a car person. You know, one time, I'm going to tell you a story. One time I went to the White House there in the Washington, D.C. And parked in the White House Oval. There was a Mazurray. This was during the Trump years. It was a Maserati Grand Turismo.

And I was thinking, okay, okay. Somebody I'm not going to vote for a next. The car world is going to be fine. We have a car person in the White House. Who is it? these people. Who was it? I don't know. Not in the Senate. No, no, this was in the White House

ellipse. Not the Capitol, the White House. This was someone who worked in the White House is driving around in a Grand Turismo. We had an inn, Felipe. And now Jamie Raskin is going to ban people for driving here from Vancouver. Oh, my God, I was just trying to go to Palm Springs

for the winter. They won't let me in. Okay. That's that. So much. It's ridiculous. It's the stupidest thing I've ever in my life. It is a tough proposal. Okay, you got anything else?

No, best car pod ever. You don't have anything else you want to plug? I do ask you one thing. I got one thing. The key channel, where six videos in to the key channel, which Sean is in charge of. And the video this week includes our very own Ryan and Joe spending time in an earth rumor, which I'm incredibly jealous of. And I'm, please do go watch it.

I've seen like a rough cut and it's fantastic. Cool. So I'm excited for that. That's podcast with our hand. Yep. Thank you all so much for watching. Hi, Ryan. Goodbye.

Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Later.