THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! - Tariffs Halt Imports! Ferrari Bringing Back the Manual and a NEW Mercedes AMG WAGON!

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

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and welcome to this car pod. I am Kenan. I'm Philippo. And we start with the news, and specifically tariffs, which is our leading story for the third fourth time time in a row. Toroita Tacoma is coming over the border. A lot of tariff conversations this week. Now, just before we went live today, or before we recorded this,

they announced a 90-day pause on tariffs. Some tariff. However, that 90-day pause did not have any effect on the automobile industry, tariffs, which are still going full speed ahead. Yep, and those are 25% tariffs on cars coming from anywhere. There are some exceptions for vehicles that are built within the USMCA zone, but honestly, those are still unclear. Yeah.

I don't want to rehash a lot of the stuff we've talked about over the last couple of weeks, but the interesting stories this week has been how manufacturers have responded to these tariffs, and there have been some varied responses. Yeah, two real categories of responses. Response one is we just aren't going to bring cars into the U.S. for a while. So Audi has, which has about 60 days. Which, by the way, is insane. Well, not from the manufacturing perspective, but like, I worked for an automaker that imported cars.

That is insane. I will, let's start with with Porsche. Porsche said last week, or at least there were reports last week, that they're not importing anything. And if it's on a ship right now, it's not coming. I don't know that Porsche has made a official statement on this topic yet. But it was discussed in a boardroom situation, correct? Yes.

It was discussed. No, it was a dealer call. And it leaked out that they are going to not. So Porsche's, the leaked thing that Porsche is going to do is not import any more cars to the United States, which was the first of these companies that this came out. And I thought at the time, this was a week ago, that it was an unbelievable response to this, considering that's kind of the whole business. But then, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover have also said they're not importing any cars.

And it makes some sense, right? Porsche excluded. They have some real inventory on the. the ground already. Yeah. So Audi has about 60 days of inventory in the U.S. Yeah. Now, is that a dealer, like, is that appropriately distributed?

Probably not. But nevertheless, they have a little bit of inventory. Dealers can keep selling cars. And clearly, Audi is hoping, if we don't import any cars right now, we won't owe any tariffs. Right. And we hope that tariffs will go away the next 30. The automakers who are not importing are taking a bet that the tariffs are going

to go away quickly. My, my assumption is that the fear for the automakers is if they do import some cars and then the tariffs do go away quickly, there will be a, a tranche of cars that was imported from April 5 through May 10 or whenever the tariffs go away that have a 25% tariff on them. And then those cars will never be sellable. Or they'll have to eat the car. Or they'll have to simply eat that.

And they think that they won't need to. They think that by sitting, they might be able to just avoid that. And by using on the ground industry, they might be able to avoid that. Now, Jaguar Landover, that's probably easy to do. There's a lot of inventory, especially for Jaguar. Land Rover, less so. Yeah. Mexico. So this is their leading product, probably globally, certainly in the United States.

That's a tough vehicle. They have all new lineup. The Q6 is a brand new vehicle, which should also be one of their big volunteers. Is Q6 also built in Mexico? I believe it's built in Germany. They got a lot of day supply on that, though. It just came out. How many can be a deal there's already big discounts, not only more, of course. The second, there's actually three categories. Second category is manufacturers that have said, yep, we're going to be adding the tariffs really clearly. We're going to be marking it as a transportation fee, basically. Yeah. And prices will go up. Nios is the clearest example of this.

Yeah. Graniteers are 5% more expensive for any vehicles. In Ferrari, Ferrari, et cetera. And then there's a third category, which is manufacturers that are clearly trying to take advantage of this to sell some more cars and get some market share, even if it costs them substantial profit.

So Nissan has lowered the price of the rogue, and I believe the Centra. Ford is offering employee pricing to everybody through May or into early June. Hyundai is also doing a simple. similar program, they're clearly hoping that if we keep price, if we discount pricing, people are going to flock to us right now. Will it cost us? Because some of our vehicles are built outside of the U.S.?

Sure. But we have a lot of vehicles bills in the U.S. and that we might be protected. Are these brands doing this across their line, including on cars that are export, are imported? So like Maki, which is built in Mexico, they're really. But they want to bring people in. They want to get the sales and they think, here's our opportunity to get some market

share up. And here's our opportunity probably to help our dealers a little bit. If we do a sale right now, then you get warranty claims. You get service going in through the service apartment. Even if we then contract later, we've maybe built enough. I have a suspicion that it also sends a sign to the president. Hey, we're committed to this, like, you know, et cetera. Like we, these are the, it's mostly the American companies doing this.

You said Nissan also, but they have an enormous amount of manufacturing in the United States. Hyundai certainly does too. Hyundai does too, yeah. And I will say some others, Toyota is up here on the image. They have said that they're not, that they don't expect. any increased pricing. Some other manufacturers, BMW on some lines of models have said that they're not going to increase pricing until at least June. They're all kind of trying to figure out, like, either we don't bring any inventory in, we price protect, or we discount. And that seems to be

the- Toyota has it, they've just said we're not going to see any- They said they don't, that they're not expecting any immediate price increases. I mean, Toyota is an unusual case because they committed a lot of production in Mexico for the Tacoma a few years ago, before the new one came out. It's a high-volume seller. It's a brand new product. It'll be interesting how long they can hold the line on no increased pricing. Yeah. I don't think it'll be long if the tariffs remain in place.

But I think they're all trying to play it a little bit day by day. Mercedes-Benz is another example, has said that they're not going to roll out any price increases for at least a month or maybe two months when the news came out a couple weeks ago. They're all trying to figure it out. But there are some that are passing along costs immediately. Yeah. Volkswagen has also said they'll do that. And then no importing at all is going to have repercussions later. regardless of whether or not tariffs continue or not.

If they don't, they'll just be out of inventory, which is actually fine if you're a Porsche dealer, maybe. If they do continue, well, then they'll need to bring it in and they gain nothing. I will say, it's anxiety-provoking if you work. I work for Porsche, you know, which is an importer, not a manufacturer here in the U.S., but Porsche cars North America.

And I text my friends there. They're all terrified. These are Americans working for an American company in America. If you're on the ground at a dealership, you're especially anxious. Oh, you've got to be in terrifying. You know, are the cars going to not come here? If they do come here, are they going to be affordable by anybody?

The stock market responded tremendously well today to the news that some of the large portion of the tariffs have been paused. Which seems like it was probably a pretty good idea. But the auto industry tariff still lingers and still will have like enormously damaging effects, including significant unintended consequences, I presume, unless the intent is also to hurt the American auto industry on the industry. on the industry. There's no way around. I mean, Stalantis,

which has factories in the U.S. and a lot in Canada, a lot in Windsor, Ontario, has done a bunch of layoffs at factories in both places because they ship parts back and forth. They don't yet know how that will impact. Right. There's large impacts there.

And obviously, every manufacturer is certainly worried both about their specific vehicles if prices go up because they will need to eventually. Yep. Or about the economy as a whole and whether they will have buyers that are in market. Yeah, yeah. Now, on the subject of tariffs,

another interesting thing came up about these 25-year personal import vehicles. There's been a lot of talk about whether they're going to be included or not. These are cards that are not sold in the U.S. that are legal to import after 25 years under the current. So if you import a car, you pay a 3% duty. That's what it has been. And now the question is, is it going to increase?

There was initially talk that 25-year imports were carved out of this. Now there's been, there was this fellow on Instagram who went to the customs office in Long Beach, one of the big ports, and they told them it is they're not carved out. I have no idea. What sounds like your dreams of importing a multiple might have to wait a little bit. Well, he's okay paying 25% more on a multiple because it's $200. It's worth nothing. $200, that's a whole lot of money.

Thankfully that the cars I'm interested in are worthless. It becomes, there was a, the language Asverin had kind of a session saying for the cards that are coming in under the 25-year-law, these sessions don't apply. But clearly, implementation is everything there and guys everything. so if the port of Long Beach said no, we'll see if that's consistent. We'll see if they got in. Hard to know. That is a major port where an enormous number of these cars are shipped. Japanese cars are coming out.

Yeah, absolutely. So tariff storming big. I am encouraged by dropping the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. I think that's a big positive sign. It is a sign that the administration does bow to market demands, does bow to consumer sentiment, which has been almost entirely negative, including from significant supporters of the president and the Republican Party in general. They have been almost entirely pushed back on this.

And I think that it's a good sign that we're seeing a pause. I think that the auto industry tariffs are still a horrible thing for the industry, for car enthusiasts, for employees. But I think that we're seeing a good sign that maybe we come out of the tariff situation in a better place. We'll see. We're filming this on Wednesday, and the market today has been up notably, including auto manufacturer stock, Ford is up 9% today. Clearly the market is saying exactly what you're saying here.

My read on this is that the market is thinking, even though Ford is up and they'll be negatively affected because the auto industry tariffs were removed, my thinking is that the market is looking at this and saying, okay, it's pretty clear that the president will be bowing to public demand. For the last week, and he went golfing, and it looked like he was just going to be like, nope, we're doing this. And the market was very scared by that.

Now it has become clear to the market that, hey, maybe this guy is going to be willing to be reasoned with about this issue. And so we will go down that room. And maybe Audi, Porsche, JLR are correct. Yeah, maybe they are. Okay, next up, moving on to our next news story. Aha, gated manual Ferrari.

How could this be a news story? They haven't sold one since 2009. But 13 years since the last manual transition. 13 years. What was the last manual gateway? Florida. Florida, California, first generation. Yeah, which was, yeah, that era, 10, 11, 12.

And didn't sell many of them. But Ferrari's head of product of development has announced that there's a potential to bring the manual transmission back. But it's not going to be for the car. we might expect. I thought maybe they would do it for like the 296 and make an enthusiast-y sort of car. It's going to be something with the Icona series,

which makes sense. That's their ultra-high-end, very, very, very collectible cars. And we have been saying that this is what they need to be doing. And it seems that they're starting to take that to heart, especially because Lewis Hamilton said that he wants to be involved with the project that will implement a manual transmission car back into line.

A successor to the F-40 is how we get up. This is a public company. The concept that they haven't are. already done this is embarrassing. If I were a shareholder, a member of the board, I would be so mad about this. You look at Porsche. Yeah, happy that this possibly coming back. But you look at Porsche and you look at what they've basically been able to run with

this manual transmission game and run far and run with dollars, euros, as it were, flying out the back of their running wagon. Right, well said. Well done. You get my point, though. I mean, crazy that Ferrari has taken them this long, given that the, clear demand. And it's not just demand from idiots in the used car market, like a lot of the people who want BMW to change their grill. This is from people who are paying a million dollars for, you know,

manual 599s. Like, these are people who could be buying cars today new. Precisely. And so it's encouraging to see that it seems that Ferrari actually does kind of listen to their customers. It's taking them a while, admittedly. But again, the 9-11R approved that there was a case for this. And Porsche capitalized on it and has just been raking it. And that was seven, eight years? I know. That was almost as long as the last manual transmission. Yeah, those were 12 maybe. Those were like 10 plus years ago, would they?

Well, the 9-9. Yeah, yeah. It was a little later than that. But regardless, a long time ago, coming up on a decade. Yeah. I'm happy to see it. I know that you're sad that there's no 296, et cetera. However, this makes sense.

They're going to come out with an F40. Like, they're going to come out with an Icona manual. Like, the SP3 was better than any Ferrari that's been made since the Enzo. We agree. Wow. Absolutely agree. I mean, that's on question. I don't know.

I don't know anything about it. Since the end, so. Okay, so since the F-50, if the S-P-3, but the SP3 basically was better than the La Farrar. Like, it used the La-Ferrari motor without the hybrid BS. It looked better. It was cooler, and it was lower production, right? And it was a convertible, which most of the La-Friars weren't.

And now imagine throwing it gated in it. Oh, and I pray. I hope it gets made it to a V-12. I would love for them to do one of those. You've got it. They're still doing it in the 12 cylinder. You've got to assume they do it. Yep.

Man, oh, please, please, please, please let that happen. I mean, I'll never be able to afford one. No one will. No one will. You think SP3s are expensive? Yeah. It's going to go nuts. Totally.

But what I hope is that that is the case and it further underscores to for, oh, maybe we should continue doing this. I wouldn't be surprised because remember, that's exactly what the 9-11R did for Porsche. Precisely. And I'm hoping. There was a time when Porsche was getting ready to phase out the manual transmission completely. And then the 9-11R happened.

They realized there was still demand. The 991.1 Gt3 had all those tips. Now they're coming back. Now it's a staple of the Porsche product lineup. And not just on the high-end stuff, but like the manual ones sell for more on the used market. They have more desirability, et cetera. And maybe, just maybe.

That means that they might bring it to some of the lower tier models. Some of which are hybrids. Now, I just reviewed a CRZ today. Which is a hybrid manual. Hybrid manual. It's possible, folks. He's been doing it for a while. Actually, just like the new V12 with the oval.

I just can't imagine it going to any other models because they've been so focused on performance. I know. But what Toronto should be focused on is making money. Do you have yet? How much money Ferrari makes? They make a lot. Their profit is $137,000 per car. They can afford some tariffs.

Do you know what? Okay, there was a great list from car industry analysis. It's like a great. Oh, God. He's going to speak this new story. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Okay. How many cars do you think other manufacturers need to sell to make as much profit as Ferrari makes in a single car?

Well, I understand, but they do sell that many cars. Like Hyundai probably makes more money than Ferrari. Ferrari, as member service is the most profitable, second most profitable of there. Hyundai need to sell 56 cars to make as much money as Ferrari does per car. But they do sell that many cars. But Ferrari is making enough money. I know, I know, but again, they're a public company trying to maximize every last dollar. And they've been ruthless about this for as long as we've been sentient.

I mean, there was a time they weren't ruthless about it, but now they're ruthless about it. And like, why not throw a stick in there? No, no, agreed. I'm glad they're doing. If you've been watching my videos for a long time, you'll remember I used to take my cars to CarMax to see what they'd offer me as a trade-in value. These videos were fun and popular as they would often give me a wildly inaccurate number for the cars. Submit your cool car to cars and bids in just a few minutes, and you'll be connected with that. an auction manager from my team who will help your car go live on cars and bids where you'll get way more money for your car than trading it into a big box dealer. Look at how much these cars sold for

on cars and bids compared to their trading value. Here's a trade in offer and this is the cars and bids result. Here's a trade in value and the cars and bids result. And this was a trade in value and this was the cars and bids result. Get started now and sell your car on cars and bids.com. Okay, move on to the next news story, which is the best news story the whole week, Mercedes-Benz, admits to all the tariffs, has announced that they are bringing the AMG E53 wagon to the United States. This is a massive deal because the current Mercedes StationWagon product lineup for the last, I don't know, 20 years, has been limited to an E350 or E450 is what it's called now. So like a mid-tier six-cylinder and the AMG, the top-performing AMG. And it's actually, this is almost designed directly for me.

I went to buy a Mercedes station wagon. I've had many. and I just realized that the E-63 wagon has lost me. It's gotten too harsh, too powerful, and too expensive. I don't need any of that crap anymore. It's just simply too much. And there's a market for those cars. But as a guy who's owned two AMG wagons before, I am not that market anymore.

It's just too much. This is going to be right in the sweet spot of perfection. It's 577 horsepower. It's still with the boost mode, yeah. It's, which I'll never use. Yeah. It's not a low amount of power, to be clear. But if they're doing 577 in this, then the next E-663 is going to have 750 horsepower, underscoring my point.

And this is going to have like a hundred and some thousand dollar price tag. It's going to be a great pickup for me as a CPO car in about four years. That's exactly. And it also straddles launching cars that you want in cars that I want because it's a plug-in hybrid. It's a plug-in hybrid, which actually... It's a plug-in hybrid, which actually I really want. I put an electric car charger at my house specifically hoping that there would be a plug-in Mercedes station wagon. And here we are.

I'm so happy about this. Seriously. My wife will drive us thinking around on electric only. I'm so pumped about this. I'm so glad they're doing this. I think a mid-tier model is what they should be doing. I will say, my all-terrain is fast enough. It's fast enough.

Like, I'll buy this to placate them because I'm glad they did it. But the all-terine is really okay, guys. Yep, you dragged race it against an F40. Drag dragged it on an F40. I lost, to be clear. You won one. Yeah. Well, and the owner was careful shifting the F40, and you were not.

You were not careful with you. I am excited by this. Presumably there's no rear-facing third row, though. I don't know. There hasn't been a lot of details. I'm curious about that because the all-terrain still has the rear-facing third row. Yeah, but the hybrid is going to be a six-cylinder based on the one that's in my car. So I assume that it's possible to get a rear-facing third row.

All of them are like whatever they call them. My goodness. Hurricane six cylinder. Yeah. All of them are mild hybrids. So they have like a larger standard. No, no, no. But this is like a real plug-in.

I know. It's a real hybrid with a plug-in. We've got to put a battery somewhere. They're not going to take up my third row. I'm afraid they will. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. There also hasn't been an AMG third row in a while.

There hasn't been since the 2009 model year. There hasn't been a third road on AMG. But this is a mild AMG. M-53, not E-603. By the way, these. These are the first good wheels in the 214. These are okay wheels. Okay, I'm really excited about this.

This is not a big news story for most people, but to me, to a guy who wants power but wants a calm car, like this is the combination of everything I've ever wanted in my life. And I want a wagon and I want to plug in hybrid, and here we are. It's a shame that Donald Trump took all of my money from me in the stock market. I can't afford this anymore. Will they bring me a C-180D with a cloth seats? That's what I can afford now.

If you will, I'll buy one too. You won't. Staying on the topic of Mercedes. So if you can't quite afford the E53 wagon, there is a Mercedes-40. So, of course, the C-60s... There's a few. But it performance is your thing.

I mentioned the C-53 specific which I'll come back to in a second. Now, this is the C-63, which we knew and loved, and the current one, we don't love. It's a four-cylinder. You said specifically how much it... And Mercedes-Benz agrees with you that it was the wrong call. They're rolling that back quickly, going to be putting in a plug-in hybrid six-cylinder from the E-53.

Can I make a quick point here? Can I make a quick point? The first three news stories, and by the way, we're not tailoring these. The first three news stories, except for the tariffs one. Ferrari's going to do a gated. I've been saying it for years. I've been saying it for years. Mercedes should do a plug-in wagon.

I've been saying it for years. You've been hoping for years. And Mercedes is pulling the four-cylinder out of the C-63. I've been saying it for years. For a year. But you get my point. Being correct about that is like predicting that the sky is blue. I want you quickly to go to the next news story and I want you to introduce it.

Okay. We'll get back to this. Quickly go to the next news story. Tell us about this. There was a news report this week that Alpha has taken a consultant and found a consultant to figure out what to do with Monsoron. You see where I'm going with this. You see where I'm going to do and two together. And one of the options is that they will maybe get rid of Mazzarati.

They'll spin it off. Alfa Romeo has, Stalantis has hired McKinsey and they're going to pay millions of dollars to figure out what to do with Alpha and Maserati. to disastrous brands that are in horrible situation. Yep. I have predicted, in fact, dictated to the auto industry, the last three news stories before they happen, Alpha, call me. I'll do it for a lot less.

That's certainly true. McKinsey should be in fear of your consultant. I'll do it for two things. Oh, the new Icona manual. Oh, yep, done. At an F40. We are probably at the right price point, yeah. No way, I'm way under.

McKinsey's going to charge $20 million dollars and it's still going to fail. There is no question it's still going to fail. Because they don't understand. McKinsey doesn't understand car. Consultants don't understand car industry. They've tried so long for so many years, but they all live in New York, and they just graduate from college.

And the only car they've ever had is their parents hand-me-down LR-3. That's every consultant, if they're lucky. This is how you end up with the advertising campaign that Jaguar used recently. That's exactly. So go back to the previous news story. C-63, they're going to put in. What is it? So it's a twin turbo three-liter straight-6.

Same when using the E-53. They haven't released power figures, but you have to imagine going to be the same. as that car, which means that it'll be slightly less powerful in the current. It can't be the same. There's no way they can go that far down because the new C63 has like 2 million horsepower. Well, they're saying that it was going to be less. The new C63 has 670 horsepower. They can't go down to 500, but 603 with it.

They could. We'll see. I'm not exactly sure they have been very cagey about how much power. I will tell you. If you gave me the choice, I've driven that six cylinder because I drove the new E-53 sedan. I've driven that six-cylinder. I've driven this. I would take 70, like.

horsepower that's six-cylinder all what they're betting day long i totally agree with that and a lot of publications have been saying this isn't the engine we want we want a v8 yeah i get that but like i just way rather have a straight six than a four and it kind of moves it in line with like bmw currently straight-six power of Audi also using straight-so also this is a great any public anybody saying that has never driven the straight six i've been driving it daily for the last couple of years to great plus now there's the plug-in with even more power it's a fantastic power trend fantastic one of the great six-cylinder power trains that has ever existed in our society.

You don't quite the set of six-cylinder power trains. That, the Sequoia, man. That's also a good six-cylinder, but it ain't nothing on the Mercedes. Just need to get a 993 turbo. We're good to go. But nonetheless, it is telling that that fast Mercedes, like, if he made a mistake, we'll put six in its back in the car. The worst part, like, it had all the power in the world,

but it was not a good power train. And this is proven, especially if they go down in power, this is proven, like, horsepower is not the ultimate metric. The Charger EV Daytona proves that also. Horse power is not the only thing we want. Proof a lot. We want good. You want power and we want good.

And they don't have to be mutually exclusive. Often when we make orders for lunch, Doug, just says, give me good. That's exactly what we're doing here. They're giving us good. All right. Move on to the, we can go past the Alpha News story. Yeah, yeah. What's the, what's a little?

Oh, yes. Willow Springs. So we got some very good news. Willow Springs recently has been up for sale. The facility itself. This is a racetrack. This is a racetrack. in California, very famous, has not changed much since the 1960s, which is why it was used in the

Ford versus Ferrari movie. But it is recently sold to a private equity firm called Cross Harbor Partners. They joined up with Singer Automotive Design. Oh, really? Want to make the Porsches, yes, to purchase Willow Springs. Now, this is a really big deal. They're using today. This is, again, it's enthusiast. It's enthusiast, it's enthusiast, it's a good news story, but he's sitting here like he's shocked. We talked about that we We went through the slides on advance. I also added this story to today's podcast. But I didn't read it.

You're a great actor. And the Academy Award goes to Philippa. So they're really focused on making a lot of changes at Willow Springs. Now, again, like I said, Willow Springs, not a lot in the way of safety. They're looking to change that. So they brought it. They bring in. Alex Wurz is going to be doing a whole thing going over the safety, like safety of the track and improving stuff there.

but they're also going to be adding quite a few facilities. One is going to be a technology hope for manufacturers to come in test stuff. They're also doing a car storage place, potentially doing a museum. They have a lot of ideas. I got an idea. We'll see if it comes to fruition, to be honest, but... I got an idea. They want to be more like Sonoma and other racetracks like that.

I got an idea. Since I gave all the other news stories, their ideas today. Here's my idea. You know how the Nureberg ring is this giant race track where everybody tests all their stuff because it's so giant? It is giant. Make it bigger. Here's what you do for Willett Spring.

You know how there's three tracks? Make them all, put them all together. Oh, one massive track. Uh-huh. Massive. So you got like a track, a track and a track. You connect those mofos. You got a track, you put a, this track goes to this track.

Streets of Willow, big Willow. Now there's just, now there's just Willow. You've heard of Big Willow. Now there's going to be gigantic Willow. Titanic Willow. Well, I's going to go all the way to Santa Cruz. I don't know where Willow Springs is. I went there once.

I still don't know where it is. I think much like. thermal. They said they're going to still remain open to the public. So like thermal, I think there will be like a track that is like that. They track for members, and I suspect that's how they will split things up. But of course, there are some concerns with this.

One is that it's going to lose kind of the charm like you're saying that it has of it being like very 60s. But I think it's, I think on the flip side of that it's going to bring a lot of amenities that people actually want to go and drive cars on a racetrack want. Let's be honest. You had a spin recently. You want safety to be there. Like as part

of the experience, you've recovered it. well and it was very admirable job. They're going to bring more of a modern experience to it. I think if they balance it carefully and retain some of the heritage, it can still be very fun. I think so, too. And let's be honest, like, Willis Springs has just been out there

flounding for a little while. So, like, I'm glad to see, like, this specific racetrack being preserved and, like, the love of the Southern California car culture, sticking around. And it also means that interesting racing can come to this. NASCAR could come to this. It could be a lot more interesting stuff that, like, racers that end up on this track. NASCAR doesn't only do old as now. got a lot of road courses.

The reason I want to say is Sonoma Raceway is going to be managing day-to-day operations and the company that manages them is involved with NASCAR. So I have a suspicion they'll connect the dots. Okay, I'm glad somebody bought it. That's a big deal. I want to talk, this is, it is a good news story, or it could be bad, we'll see. I want to talk about the final news story. Very quickly,

I want you to say it, then we move on to it because we got a lot to cover. Say it, move on. Kia is going, is hoping to sell 90,000 electric pickups in North America a year. They said that today. Move on. There is absolutely no chance that that occurs. Yep. Maybe they will.

Okay. Now, no, actually, that's an interesting story also with the tariffs because they sell this truck here, which is called, you call it the Tosman. They don't call that, sell that here. But it's called the Tasman. No, it's here on the screen. They don't. They don't care of the screen.

The screen were set. Digital projections are fine. I'm going to be honest. It's somewhere that's probably built. So, so, but they'll have to be the Tazmon. It'll have to be something else because. I don't agree with the pronunciation. You said it a minute ago.

No, no, I don't agree with your pronunciation. You think it's Tasman? You think it's not Tasman. No, I don't remember what I said. Because Tasman, it's like what you say. Tasman, that's like what you say. That's the word. It's being like me saying Akura and you being like, I don't agree.

But that's what it is. All right. All right. The point is, it's going to have to be a different truck or this truck but built in the U.S. It is a different truck. It's based on a chassis that they're also going to hope to build some like people mover type vans and other thing. That is like an electric thing. This is not the Tasman, Tasman.

It's not an electric pickup. Yeah. It's like on a different chassis. We just don't have designs. Interesting. I mean, this could be interesting. You know, I've been thinking about this a lot. The only EVs that are like really desirable and have retained value are the Rivians.

Yeah. The truck SUV EV world is probably where it is. The scouts are going to be hot too. The scouts have been incredibly hot in pre-order land. Yeah. So it'll be interesting. But 90,000 is. 90,000 is a lot.

That means they're going more for like Maverick type territory, which will be interesting. I mean, that's not an electric, but they do do a hybrid. And like, that's probably, I imagine that's. That's the size area they're thinking about. Or like Nissan and Toyota have tried to do, they want to compete with... They're not sure full size. And Ford. Kia will not be making a full-size electric truck.

Are you out of your mind? They compete heavily in the same thing that... Ford can sell plenty of F-150s. Not lightning. Not lightnings. Well, if Ford can't sell them, then Kia ain't going to show up with their first truck and it's going to be an electric full-size. You know, you would have said the same thing in 1998 when the Tundra came out.

Oh, I would have said the same thing in 2005 when the Titan came out. You know what? I'd be right. They had two very successful generation. They had one mildly successful generation. The second gen was only sold to Nissan employees in Nashville so they could tow their boats to the lake. I hate what mom and dad fight.

Okay, next up is the Talk Cars segment where we talk about cars. We have been talking about cars. Now we do it more. There's a couple of important things to talk about with the talk cars. And the most important is the Bentley Dominator. Now, for those of you don't know, I'm obsessed with the Sultan of Brunei and his cars. Not necessarily with his decision. actually his brother, Prince Jeffrey.

And he commissioned all these cars in the 90s, and one of the cars he commissioned was a Bentley SUV, which was called aptly in my mind, the Dominator. And they made about 11 of them. They all were sold to Brunei. And somebody sent us this one from a model car retailer in Italy. And here it is. And I didn't even know they made a model car of it. Otherwise, I would have bought it years ago.

And Sean, our producer, he said, hey, let's put it on the set. And I said, no, I'm taking this home. This is the greatest gift that anybody has ever given me. The single greatest. Bentley dominator. It's blue, blue. And you know what? Now that I'm looking at the model, it's quite ugly.

It's heinous. It's a really ugly. I've always said that if I could have any car in the world, it would be one of the Sultan's dominators. Stand by it. And now that I'm sitting here today, looking at this wonderful gift that someone has given me, I completely disavow what I've said before. I disagree.

I think you should lean into it. I think you absolutely... Why is the rear overhangs so dramatically large? It's going to impact your off-roading. You can't off-road with this at all. Anyway. Right, because that's exactly how you would use it is to take your dominator off-road. I would take my...

It's called the dominator. You don't think I'm just going to dominate pavement. I'm going to dominate the dirt and him. But being a Bentley, I suspect mineral oil might be what dominates you. That's true. You know, I didn't think about that. That's a mineral oil era car. Although, wasn't it based on the P-38?

It was. adding the mineral oil to a P38. This is why you think you couldn't make it any less reliable. Wow. Luckily, they're only 13 of them. Man, you put a... Thank you so much. You put an S-54 in there and you really have your work cut out for you.

It is fascinating to me that Bentley at all thought that when they did the Bentega that they needed to go back to this to like look at how they did it before. The report was that when they were coming out with the Bentega in order to conceptualize it, they had Brunei ship them the dominators back so they could take a look at it and see what they did last time. I have to give... And there were pictures of the cars on airplane tarmacs, so apparently that did happen.

So cool. Presumably, they came in to fix some leaks, too. Probably they were like, listen, if you send these to us, we'll also make them walking again. Credit it where it's due. This model is actually very nice. Which is especially hard to do because they didn't make the car. How do you make a model of something that we've seen seven photos of?

Man, those designers took the time of it, but they invested it well because it's beautiful and now it's here on our set. Can we talk about one other SUV? Can you pull up the land cruiser? You're talking about the land cruiser? I think it's important. Okay, pull up the land cruiser. Folks, one of the greatest cars in Cars and Bids history is live right now.

He's just going to school. It's a wild strategy. I'm going to tell you what this is. I'm going to tell you why it's special. So the 200 series trail land cruiser, which is one of the better land cruisers. It was sold from 2008 to 21 because the best is that... One of the four? No, the best is the 300 series LX 700 age, which I want.

It's one of the four, yeah. Over Trail. Philippo's leaving Doug King. I prefer Nori. The point is, he's tired to hear me talk about the LX 700A. Right back here, we all. But we are. Including my wife.

So, this is a land cruiser, and the Land Cruiser, the 200 series of land cruisville from 08 to 21. For the final two model years of the land cruiser, the 200, they made a heritage edition that was a special edition model. It was not the only one they made. You could get a regular or you could get the heritage. And in 20, the heritage was only offered with two. seating, but for 21, the final year, they offered it with an optional third row. And so in the minds of a lot of the land cruiser community, a 21 heritage, which was like

the special model, final model year with the optional third row, which really added a lot to the capability. I don't know why they didn't do it with the third row and the other ones, because everybody wanted it, is like the dream land cruiser. And we have one live right now that is in magnetic gray, I think they called it. Yeah, magnetic gray. A three-row magnetic gray heritage. There's maybe a hundred of these, maybe 50 on the planner.

They were expensive when new and hard to get. This is a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, special car. In the lane cruiser world, this is really, really cool. And so it's live on the site right now, and you should buy it or not, or you should leave it for me. I don't know. Leave it for you. You're off car.

I'm done with car. I'm off cars. I just wanted to bring it to people's attention. No, I want an LX700. I think that 300's better. But there's a good chunk of the community. The whole is 99.6% of the community. You're giving 0.4 to the 300.

Wow. 0.4 think that the 100 is better, and no one thinks that the 300 is better except for me. Sadly, unfortunately, the 300's been tariffed out of existence. Anyway, this thing is live right now, and it's the coolest car ever to grace the website. It's up there. It's up there.

Magnetic, Heritage, 3-Row. When these were new, I was like, I got to buy one of these because I know they're going to hold their value. I remember this. And I shouldn't. I didn't because it still doesn't have self-driving. No. It does. It has self-driving as long as you don't go to zero.

Yeah, it has adaptive cruise, but it doesn't have... But it cuts off 20 miles an hour. 20. So you can't use it in traffic. Which is the whole point. But when you're driving across Africa, right. Right. And this one has done that.

And this one has done that. These are great photos, too. The heritage wheels, the heritage bag. They are really good. Comments went deep on it immediately, by the way. Like, apparently the stitching looks a little bit different than it does some other photos. Everything about this car is perfect, except it was in a light front and accident, and so the grill was replaced with the non-heritist grill. Now, two things about this.

I went on eBay. The grills are available, and it's actually the grill in the fog lights rounds. They're available and they're cheap. You can get the whole set for like $800 some, which is relatively affordable concerning the value of the car. Yeah, you can see it here. It's very slightly different. It's like a slightly different color, different bars. It's very minimal.

You can see how the body shop would have ordered the wrong one. Yeah. Or some people might think it looks better. To be honest with you. There's some folks out there who might say. Okay, anyway, I want to talk also. Give us your talk car segment, please. Okay.

I was in Mexico City for just a little weekend trip. Yeah. Shout out to the one person from Detroit that was visiting the same coffee shop and said hi, by the way. Did you notice? I did. You got recognized Mexico City. I love Mexico City cars. Yeah.

There are not exotic cars. No. I saw like a Huracan and a McLaren. Yeah, that once. There was a lot of money in Mexico City, but there are no nice cars in this city. It's a fascinating blend of, it's a very European-feeling city. It is a fascinating blend of big American cars, lots of Suburbanes, especially in the nice areas. Yep.

Lots of every big SUV, lots of old, like, 90s Chrysler products. And then there's European cars. Yep. Pujo. Pujo, Citraud, whatever. Robrenos. And then there's also Chinese cars now. Yep.

Yeah. I had an Uber that was a B-Y-D. D1, which is like a purpose built just for ride-sharing apps, Chinese little taxi cab thing. And I love the combination of this. Pull this up, B.YD-D-1. I had the same thought when I was in Mexico City. I was astonished by this unbelievable,

probably nowhere else on the planet gives you that level of combination of American and European in one place. Deep American. And now Chinese. There are BIDs everywhere. There's Chinese brands that I've never heard of. Yeah. By the way. G's all over the place.

Passenger side? Sliding rear door. Driver's side. You can see it. Regular opening rear door. There's the driver's side, regular door handle in the regular place. There's the passenger side slide.

For safety when you get out. Yeah. Wow. I just love that, like, mix of things in the market. One thing, I will say, the reason for the mix is because the market is not particularly powerful.

No. And so, like, the U.S. market can make an enormous amount of regulations and automakers build cars for the U.S. market. The Mexican market has to kind of take what's available. However, the countries that have to take what's available often have the coolest car markets. I noticed the same thing when I was in New Zealand. It's the same thing in Malta.

You end up with just weird crap. All the weird. Because it's like Chinese, yeah. Like, we don't want to regulate out anybody. We want to have as much choice as we can. Pujo, yeah, bring it in. Yep. But this, Mexico City is really where the Latin American market and the American market like collage.

Because if you're at the border. It's one of the richest cities in Latin America. Yeah. So you do get like the large American cars. and a lot of like Mercedes GLSs. Yeah. For some reason. But low spec.

You saw low wheels. I also saw my buck GLS. The, if you're at the border, you don't see a lot of the Latin America spec cars. It's not the same. It's more American type stuff. There's a lot of American influence on the border cities. But you get for enough south. You get some interesting.

It is weird. I loved it. Love just walking around and looking at all the cars. Feels European. Okay. We got to talk market report. We got to do market report. Market Report is brought to you by Sean.

Our producer. No, the market report is brought to you by Cars and Bids. Go check out Cars & Bids.com. If you have a cool car, sell it on Cars and Bids by clicking the Sell a Car Bards. Bards. Or by using the Cars and Bids app. Sean. On iOS.

Our producer. Sean has a heinous G-Wagon. Okay. He does. There's a lot of stuff I want to cover Marker Report. However, the questions this week were the best we've ever had. Whoa. We've got to get to the questions.

But Market Report, there's two things I want to talk about. Oh. One is, I wanted to give a quick discussion of the car market in general. And I'm curious what you guys think. We haven't talked about this before. Been surprised at our sales. They've been strong. There have been strong results on a lot of cars,

which when the market is down 3% day after day, after day, after day, it's surprised. Stock market is down almost 20%. Now after today, it's less. And maybe by the time this goes live, it'll be even better. But in the last few days, it was down almost 20%. Look at that 992 GTS. Well, one of the things I specifically wanted to talk about was yesterday,

we had a lot of recent Euro cars, bring all the money, go back. That 992 GTS got all the money. That X3M competition got all the money. That Audi ETRon GT, which has been a tough sell, if we're being totally honest, got all the money. We sold a 992 turbo today. I think there was one more. This V60 Polestar got all the money. Okay, V60 Postar has been getting all the money, period.

But this is the new body. And yeah, we sold the 992 turbo for big money today. We sold it for 10 grand above sticker. My assumption is... It's a two-o car with no miles, to be clear. I know, but still. My assumption is that there are people... who are seeing what's on the horizon.

We just live through COVID and are realizing if I want to get into a car, I'm going to buy you. And they're not wrong. Porsche's not, if you ordered a 992 turbo now, who knows when you'll get it? You won't.

It might be a year. It might be three. They might stop importing them. Who knows? They have stopped importing them. They might tell you no for now. Yeah, they will. They probably take your order,

but they might. I don't know if it goes much further than that. I think this is what we expected would happen eventually, right? As new car prices, we go high because of tariffs, as inventory decreases because of that, you get an increase in values in the use market. What I'm surprised by is that it's happened already. And it's happened when the market is as tumultuous as it is right now. You know, there's a theory among people who are less informed that the stock market is entirely for rich people. But the truth is significant losses in the stock market points to a

non-healthy economy, which eventually will affect your job and your ability to purchase things. So I've been a little surprised at the health of, yeah, this car brought 113-5. It was a lot more than I was expecting, to be honest. It's a 2022 GT4. I think we're already seeing either people are hedging against a supply reduction or they already think it's here or I'm not really sure. It's a little surprising.

My assumption, everybody, everybody's come to me and been like cars and bids is going to do so well with the tariffs because 95% of the cars we sell are completely unaffects. That was a possibility, but I also assumed the economy would take such a hit that there would be no consumer confidence to buy any car new or used. That was exactly what I always said. That may still happen. It seems like it's better than we maybe were expecting. So far. So far.

But I mean, like you were saying, let's see what does tomorrow bring? Don't really know. So I think, I think, yeah, some people who still can't afford it are jumping in and going for it. And I don't think that's a bad move necessarily. We'll see what? No, it might not be. Especially if they can afford it. Like, if they're sitting here, their job is good or they're retired or they have a lot of cash on the sidelines.

Honestly, a car might be a smarter place. I've been thinking a lot about how my cars are probably my most stable asset at the moment. Let's use that 992 turbo-bos as an example. To run a 30 green right now, if a new one becomes 25% more expensive, suddenly your resale, your value of that car stays flat or increases. And if inflation is higher, as it may well be with tariffs, okay, well, you just parked something in an asset that's not. that's not devalue. Declining.

Which honestly, right now is a pretty okay place. With bonds declining, that's a pretty okay place. I'm not, by the way, I'm not trying to show for the company. I would prefer there to be no tariffs at all and have that affect the company negatively if it is the case. I think that the tariffs are a horrible idea and incredibly stupid. However, it does seem to me like at least in the, from the early days of looking at this, especially some of these Eurocars are doing better than I was expecting.

You expect when there's a very tumultuous stock market that people are cautious. cautious. It seems like people are actually taking a little bit different approach. People who live through COVID, that market recovered very quickly and led to extreme shortages. I see some parallels here. 08 didn't. Oh, he didn't. And so it's hard to know which is which, but this feels more like COVID than 08 because it was kind of created.

Yeah. And thus could be uncreated relatively quickly. Today shows it. Today proves that. And so maybe you want to get in while you can. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know exactly what's going on, but it's an interesting situation.

32 grand for that at $16. Our sale rate has been high. Yeah. The value on the cars has been strong. Maybe this doesn't last. Maybe what happens is the tariffs do significantly impact the economy and people do lose their jobs. Confidence goes off and then we can't sell anything. That's also possible.

We're like two weeks in. We're two weeks in. We don't know what's going to happen. But for the first two weeks, I am surprised how it's going to. Yeah, I don't disagree. Of course, you've proclaimed that you can read the future based on those past cars that have come through. Do you want to make any proclamations about what's going there? Yeah, I'll make a proclamation.

No rational person can read the future. when it comes to the Trump administration. Anything could happen at any moment, at any time. I can't predict what's going to happen in six minutes, let alone in six days. I went to shoot the CRZ intros. I went to shoot the CRZ intros. I look at my stock portfolio. It's up 9%.

I'm like, what the hell happened? I mean, the zoo parking lot. What the hell happened? That sums up 20, 25 in a nutshell. I don't know. All right. We got to move on to questions. Now, remember, you two can ask a question.

You go to Carsandbids.com. You click on the community tab and there will be a poster and says, ask us your questions. And I will select the best questions. Not the most upvoted, but the best questions. There were 247 questions last. Yeah, a lot. But, dude, there are some good questions.

That's why I wanted to make sure we have time for it. We got decent time this time. So we're going to do questions legitimately. Okay. And the first question, people keep asking us to rank stuff. I've decided I'm only going to do one per episode. Okay, I think that's why. question, the best rank, there were a lot of suggestions.

The best rank is rank the E classes. This is where the hate will flow. Why? Because it has one of the other things. There's a question that says rank all the Prius model. I'll do the Priuses later. I want to rank the E classes. Where are we starting?

From the 124. We're starting the 124. Yeah. Okay. Now, I want to be clear here. I have owned, owned, not just driven as pressed cars like my little, like little auto industry compatriots, I have personally owned every generation of E-Class.

So people are going to be like, you're wrong, and I'm going to be like, no. No. All right, so it's 12-24, 210, 210, 2-11, 2-12. I had a 500-E. I had a 93, 1-24-5-30. By the way, that's the other thing.

I didn't just have one of each E-G class. I've had the best of E-G class. So let's do this. All right. There are six generations. I'm going to blow everybody's mind. General or like AMG. No, general, including the AMGs.

I'm going to blow everybody's mine. I already have my ranking. please it's gonna hurt car enthusiasts do you want to be part of this or is it just dug it i'll chime in all right this is going to hurt car enthusiasts are not going to like this but this is the truth and i have i have for years i have only i've had an e-class in my garage some of them i only had for six eight months i've had seven of them i had for many years best 214 yeah second best two 13 third best 210 really over two or Just for...

Oh, 100%. Oh, yeah. So, so far... If you want to hear me say 211, you better wait a little while. I love the 2-11. I'm going to... I put the 1-2-4 after the 210. Over the 2-12?

Yeah. People are going to get mad. For the record, I own a 2-12. People on Instagram, people on Instagram who love the older stuff and the cheap stuff are going to get mad that we didn't put the 124 first. But I've owned a 124. I know about a biodegradable warning harness, wiring harness or two. The car is

Was a good start You agreed that it was 214, 213 to 10 214, 212 to 10 12 to 11 Yeah We're startingly agreed The best ones

The newest ones are simply the best ones But there was a period of time that was like 03 to Oh well it was 03 to 17 I mean as it were And I love my 212 to be clear The 212 is great. And honestly, the 03 E55, the 2011 E55 would maybe be one of my top three if I was to rank individual models.

Don't forget about the ECC3 wagon with the refragment of 2009. Yeah, I had one of those. It wouldn't be near the top. It's so cool. The headbolt motor. The market agrees, by the way, that it's cool. And 156. But yeah, I see what you mean in totality about the two-load.

Because in my opinion of all the fast AMG, I still put the E-15, the 21-E-55. If someone said to me rank the AMGs, the 211155 would be really close to the top of this list. I agree. In fact, I actually think that the more recent AMGs are less desirable. It's just that the overall car has gotten to be such an unbelievably good complete package in the 213 and 214 generations. They're the best. And people who are going to comment have never driven one because they drive a lot. The people who comment on Instagram and write should of, they drive older stuff.

but this is the real ranking. And I want to be really clear. I, like I said, I own a 212. I own a 24 post-face-lil have a 2-12 wagon. I love it. I think it's an incredibly good car. I've driven it 50,000 miles in the last three years. Especially the post-face-liped, especially the non-Ampie.

Yeah. It's great. But every E-Class is great. Right. I agree with the ranking. The 213 was an unbelievable step up over the 2-12. I would argue that probably the greatest step up of all of them was from the 12th to the 13. The tech was a massive jump. Proven by the fact that the jump from the 13 to the 14 has been...

It looks like a facelift, to be honest. Are you okay with 1-24 being the thing that breaks down? I think it's just so iconic as like a classic Mercedes. Well, it's... It's so good. It's just the classic bank vault built-quality Mercedes is known for at the time. And it's a small, usable, handsome brunosecals. Okay, here's the question then.

Would you rather have a 212 E-350 wagon or a 124 E-320 wagon? 212. I'd rather have the 124. Oh, for Craig. Not as a daily driver, but I'm not an old car. Regardless, as long as we agree that it goes 2.14, 2.10. I do. I'll take that.

Okay. Next question. Here's a good one. From Rider 17 to Kenan and Felipe. If you were given a choice between one of Doug's previous cars, which would you pick? Previous. Got to be. Previous.

I've never sold a good car that I had. Let's see sold. A lot of truth. There's like a lot of truth to this. He's mad. About the 360. And I sold the GWagon. What do you got?

Do your Porsche company cars count? No. I love, I mean. 05 Elise. It was six. Yeah, with no air conditioning. Tough. I fixed the AC eventually.

Oh, I thought it just didn't have it. No, no, it had it. It was broken. And I went through the whole summer. And for some reason, in like November, I was like, I can't take it anymore. And I fixed it. Atlanta. I sold it.

I don't know. I was 25. That sounds like something I would do. I was an idiot. You've owned a lot of cars. If your CTSV wagon was a good one. Manual one.

Then that would have been a choice. It's a good daily. But it wasn't. The Viper GTS was a great one. The Vipergapr. The Vipergapr. I mean, I have a soft, I know it's not a good car.

I have a soft, I very much have a sole spot for the defender. I really love. The NAS 90. Yeah, the only good car I ever saw. I'm surprised you're not saying Vantage. The advantage is a good car.

I'm not surprised you're not for a stick 360. Yeah. Don't forget that. They answered for me is clear, by the way. There was a clear card that I love more. 210, and 55. No. Nissan S cargo.

S cargo. I love that escargo. Yes, you really did that. I legitimately love that S cargo. Well, you know, for five grand. You can get one. It's not six grand now. It's not like unavailable.

Yeah, for $5,000. I'm not going to pay money for the experience. I'm not going to purchase one. No, but if I were given one, what do you got? Stick 360? I kind of want to remove that one from the list because that's, obviously what I would use. But I think if not that one, I think

I think the Viper GTS. Like that car was in the GTS got so many upgrades. And you got the double bubble. Yours was the blue with white stripes. It was like it was. And it forged internals, 96, 97. Right.

Yep, exactly. And so that was like the one. And those cars are, I mean, what did you sell yours for? What did you buy? I bought it for 35, sold it for 34. Now they're like 100. So I mean. They're like 70.

No, good GTSs are much hard. It was not a good GPS. It was a driver. It was a very, nice car. Like, it didn't have issues, but it wasn't like a show car. I agree with you. Show cars are 100. Yeah. So even so, I mean, you own that car at the right time. I always thought they were cool. So if I couldn't have the 360, which is what I would de facto choose would be the GTS. I bought that car in North Carolina, Fuqua Vorena. I'm very familiar. Yeah, and I drove it.

Very close to where I live. Back to Philly. And it was so cool. And it had little seatbelt covers that said Viper on them. Yep. And every time we would go film a video, Doug would refuse to drive it. could be hated driving. You know what's funny? I deeply regret now getting rid of that car. I wish I had spent more time with that car.

I lived in Center City, Philly. It wasn't the car for Philly. If I had that car now, I would really appreciate it a lot more. Yeah. It was cool. It was really cool. There were a lot of cars

pre-mind knowing you, and therefore I don't think about those cars. Because there were... 210.55. That would have been a good car. There were other good options, but that car goes, lives in my memory. Okay, next question from Rose 76.

What is your craziest car press launch story? I don't go to press launches often, because they don't care. And I really hate it, honestly. I hate the whole thing. I really think that press launches are totally inappropriate, to be perfectly frank, that they fly the journalists out there first class to Hawaii and put them in the nicest hotel and give them the nicest meals.

And they say, please write an objective piece about our Subaru legacy. It's like laughably stupid, right? But I did, back in the day when I was starting out, you kind of have to go to them. You don't have any leverage. And by the time that you're, when you're a young, guy, the old guys don't want to go to him anymore. They got families. They don't want to be on the road going to the press launch for the facelifted Chevy Colorado short wheelbase. So, can I go? The very first press launch I ever went to was for the Lexus I.S.

Which came out in 2012, 2011, something like that. It was the redesign. No, the redesign came out in 08. Really? No, it was 06 that the, that the, it competed against, I mean, the ISF competed against the E9N. It was the next gen. It wasn't the ISF. Oh, it wasn't the ISF John. Then 13. 13. So probably in spring of 12, which makes sense. That was right when I was starting out.

Oh, wait, with a facelift. Or summer of 12. I went to the first press launch I ever went to, which was the Lexus IS, and I didn't remember where it was. But it was in the West somewhere. Anyway, I went out there, and the fellow who ran marketing for Lexus, he gets up on the stage. And I'm nervous. Like, I'm young. Everyone in this industry is very collegiate.

They all know each other. And I'm there for my first press launch ever. I don't know anybody. I'm just a little baby child. I'm like 24. I'm like sitting there with like the little notebook like, like, oh, I better take notes on this car. I don't know what to do.

And the guy gets in up there, the marketing guy for Lexus gets up there. And he says, the first thing he says to the room of journalists before the presentation, he says, the new Lexus IS is the car for people who want to stop blending in and start blending out. and I thought to myself, I've chosen the wrong industry. I can't believe I quit my job.

This is the worst thing I've ever done in my life. And anyway, we got better from there. Not that launch. Widely panned that car, by the way, for the little styling. You know where it was? It was in Austin, actually, because they took us to a racetrack, but not the Formula One track, some, like, little go-carty track. And an IS 350.

Yeah, exciting. F-sport. The big selling point of that car, do you remember, what it was? Was it the mouse? No, it was that the running lights were underneath the headlights and like a little... That was one of the big things that had helped you blend out.

Yeah. But the big selling point was that the gauge cluster would move like the LFA. I forgot about that. That was like the coolest part of the 2012. It's not a bad car, I guess, but, man. No, it was fine. You never see those around.

Okay, anyway, so I don't really have any other crazy personal stories. I really, really, really don't go to them often. And when I do, I'm kind of annoying about it. I tell the automaker, look, I'm going to be in and out. Give me a car or don't. If you don't want me to, I'm just not going to come. I just hate it.

Okay, next question for Kennan from British car driver. Hey guys, this question is directed at Kennan. As a Ferrari purist, do you think the hate on the Roma is deserved? Not necessarily. I think that it's like the entry level of Ferrari generally gets a lot of hate. California got a lot of hate. was it a bad car? It wasn't the best Ferrari, but it didn't make it a bad car.

I actually quite like the way the first-gen drove. And the same thing kind of says, it applies to the Roma. Like, when it came out, I wasn't sure about the styling necessarily. Like, the integrated grill thing is kind of weird. But they do drive very well. I think they look very elegant. It's a very simple-looking Ferrari. It's very pretty-looking.

And honestly, it's something you can use every day. And it's not a zillion dollars like all the other for it. I mean, it's very expensive. It's very expensive. And Lord knows if you're going to buy one for a Ferrari. Ferrari and you want to be on the list, you got to play the game and add $100,000 on options, and that's where they make their money. But I think that it actually is a pretty good car.

I don't love the screens instead of buttons. I hate that, but I hate that on all modern Ferraris. So actually, no, I don't think it deserves the hate that it gets a lot. I will also say entry-level cars from any enthusiast brand will always get hate. Like the Boxster. We know how good the Boxster came in are, but they still are viewed as not a real, et cetera, et Like you could take this list down Base model Mustang,

base model challenger, the V6, the four cylinders, they're not real, you know. Totally. And so no, as a purist, I recognize it's placed in the lineup. Yeah. I think it's a very good car.

And yeah, I don't have any issues. I agree. I think it's great. Kenan's going to go out and buy a Roma. It's not the dream car. I'm not saying that. It's not the dream car, but it's got a place in the lineup

for a public company that wants to make money. And honestly, it drives well. Did the Roma spider and Portofino need to exist at the same time? Well, They don't anymore. They know, but they did for a time.

And that was not the case. Then I felt differently about it. Here's a question that's coming from a user with the username Buick. This is the best question we've ever been asked on Carth & Business. Don't read the question. Let me tell you it and surprise you because it's so good. The G-Wagon sells so well. Do you think there is a market for Jeep or Ford to sell a luxury version of their Wrangler and Brankle

under the Chrysler and Lincoln brands, respectively? You know, on its face, this question sounds like the stupid ramblings of someone who doesn't understand life. But when you think about it, the name is Buick. What about a Lincoln Bronco? So here's the thing. Huh.

My answer is mixed on this. Because the answer is yes. I think they could sell a luxury version. Yeah. I think that those are not the correct brands, and they should keep it under the Jeep and Ford. Well, Jeep Chrysler, that would be a mistake. There's no luxury brand there.

I don't think that's a good idea generally. But what about a Lincoln Bronco? I think that Ford could go for a luxury version. into Bronco, the same way that the Ford F-150 has the platinum or the King Ranch or whatnot trims, I think there's room for a luxury trim of every offer. Isn't that the Raptor? No. The Raptor is a high-performance version.

Yeah, but it's also loaded with stuff. It's got a heated steering wheel. The King Ranch. The King Ranch or whatever, the Texas Edition, whatever the top exists existed. King Ranch, et cetera. There could be a King Ranch Bronco. Certainly, I don't think moving into the Lincoln umbrella is the right call because that's not what that is.

But I think his point is. it would do a lot for Lincoln as a brand if they had a G-Wagon competitor. You're going to get somebody in there and they're also going to look at the Corsair? Well, why don't you sell the Lincoln G-Wagon to them? Mercedes-Benz sells a lot of G-wagon. The styling would have to be so different,

and it doesn't align with Lincoln. Why isn't the answer to that question, yes, Mercedes-Benz sells a lot of G-Wagons, and then they sell a lot of CLAs to people in Newport Beach who look at G-Wagons, and they're like, I wish I could be that someday. That's fair. I just don't think Lincoln tried with the Mark L-T,

and then again, with the Mark L-L-T. I can try it even earlier than that. I mean, you think about the blackwood. Yeah, but you're talking about trucks. And truck buyers, it has now been proven, want to buy trucks from mainstream brands. Nobody wants a Lincoln truck in their garage. They want a Ford truck.

I think that it's... However, a Lincoln G-Wagon based on the Bronco, this is not stupid. Is Jim Farley listening to this? Does he listen to this podcast? We get a lot of messages from people who work in the auto industry. I don't think it's not an idea, but like the same way that I think, I think, every manufacturer would realize that they can do both luxury and still have a luxury brand Cadillac versus GMC Denali.

Both exist. I think that Lincoln is not quite capable of doing an off-rider well, and I don't think that's what buyers are today. To create brand image, this is how you do it. I don't think you can fake. I think, honestly, I think that Lincoln should maybe just stop to exist. No, that is so completely wrong. I love Lincoln's products.

Nobody else does. You don't understand. Lexus exists. Mercedes? I don't understand. They sell cars. Lincoln deserves more investment. And I have an idea for more investment. A Lincoln G-Wagon. This suggestion, which ironically comes from

Buick, right. This suggestion is one of the great suggestions in the history of the car business. Why hasn't Ford done a high country Bronco? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Why hasn't Chevrolet done a blazer to Nali? Well, they don't do a blazer. Chevrolet does a blazer. That's a joke.

I think I don't know When I think back on this like why is the G-Wagon so successful You know it was a military vehicle that was cool So it had that and then like that was in the 90s that was kind of when Arnold Schwarzenegger was doing the Hummer thing They made a civilian version for him like that was seen as cool It kind of macher thing And then it took off of Mercedes lean to the luxury side of things with it

But to do that now like to bring out a totally new thing and then build around that And it is it's a pretty heavy list But the success of the G-Wagon is because of this heritage design that was steeped in capability. And that's what the Bronco is. It has a heritage design that is steeped to capability. BMW tried to steal the GWagon's thunder with the XM and doesn't get it. In Munich, they don't get it, right?

But this, and remember, I predicted all the news stories this week. This is it. Like, this is a good, and I got to give credit to Buick. This is a great, this is it. This is the heritage design. BMW doesn't have that heritage. So they're not able to actually do that credibly. But Ford is.

Lincoln doesn't have that either. There was never a Lincoln off-roader. There never was a luxury Mercedes off-roader until they turned the G-Wagon into a luxury car. But they had an existing product that had a very specific image that they made luxurious. Sounds like what Lincoln's going to do to the Bronco. An existing product with a specific image that they make luxurious. I just don't think you can force that. I don't think you can recreate that.

They didn't force it. With the G-Wagon, it naturally is also. a lot of examples like Porsche, looking at a cayenne, when it came out, the thought was, we're going to have an off-road, the first-gen Kyan was off-road capable,

and no modern one is. Well, because, they took the Kyan in a different direction. But I don't think there was interest in the off-rooting. There's no interest in Grots. The G-Wagon, the G-Wagon has literally given life

to the people of Grots. Yeah. Like, that town... The Austrians are thankful. The Austrians, that town, every restaurant in Grots should be like, thanking Mercedes-Benz. Like, hey, we would have closed if it wasn't for the fact that this car has been here for 30 years.

You can't fake it. You can't just say we're going to regret it. The XM was fake. The Bronco is not fake. It is a real car with real heritage, a real design, and real capability. Ford should build that lineup out more and have a luxury version of it. Not a do. Lincoln G-Wagon.

And you know what you call it because they name their cars? You call it something like really big. How does the Navigator? You're going to Navigate a press on. No, too aggressive because that's more softer. But yeah, something. You're going to until the Lincoln Navigator Press launch. I'm going to Navigator press launch on Friday.

How many navigators do they sell? A lot. The Navigator was... That aren't to Uber Blacks. The Navigator was pretty popular, especially when it first came out. So was the Aviator. Those were high quality products. The problem is that Lincoln's product cycles are too long.

Yeah. And that they don't... And the other problem is they don't have a G-Wagon competitor. Okay. I'm coming around to this legitimately, but I... And it could be Bronco-based, but in my head of thinking about, like, a luxury Bronco, the same way that Lincoln, when they did the Aviator, took an explorer, the original aviator,

took the explorer, changed the tail eyes. No, no. Change nothing else. They got to do better than that. It needs to be like a full Lincoln version of that, not just a Bronco with leather. It needs to be a seriously well-done car. Right.

And considering the Bronco, you know, the roof leaks and all that stuff, like, no, that only happened early on. Yeah. But I wonder if there's a market for, I wonder how, what it would take, given that Audi can make a sportback of anything, which is a completely new roof design, And how hard would it be to just make a non-opening roof on a Bronco?

They don't have that problem anymore, generally. Like, so make it, what, but I don't think that this vehicle, if positioned by the Lincoln brand, should even have an opening roof. No, of course not. But the way I'm thinking of it is, it's a giant glass roof and it's got a V8 and it feels like it. And the screens here, here, here, here. And also, maybe the roof is a screen. Yeah, the roof is a screen.

See, you're getting on this now. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. I love Lincoln, by the way. I love the Lincoln TVs. I pushed everybody at a note towards one. Nobody has taken me up on it.

The Nautilus is a great car. It was almost the car of the year. The aviator, I thought it is a great car. It looks great. I'm coming around. You were correct. I'm sorry for saying that you were wrong. Imagine if, okay, so you now agree.

Yeah, but I think that it's both. I think that Ford should make a luxury bronco. And then Lincoln should figure out what their own product based on that is. You know what you call it? You call it the Granite. The Lincoln Brat. The Lincoln Basalt. Jim, you listen?

The Lincoln. Are you looking at a Porsche? I'm looking up rocks that are like, that are like tough. Because that's what I think it should be named. Well, tough but luxurious. Like Blackwood. Blackwood. Maybe they should bring back the Blackwood name for this. It would actually work.

Bring back. This isn't stupid. Remember, don't forget. Mercedes makes $74 billion for every G-Wagon they sell. And for one of the other example here was Jeep and Chrysler. That's not the right positioning there. And also Jeep sells $100,000 SUV. Well, sorry.

Jeep tries to sell $100,000 SUV. and I think they could go out market with the Wrangler in their own lineup. The Grand Rangler, if you will. The Grand Ranglers. Ranglers are already sold to really rich people. It's like shocking. So there's money to be made. Last question, because we're over time.

Final question from Core 2 RAN. Doug, if Chevy moves all of its production to the U.S. Because of these tariffs, should they make an actual competitive K-5 Blazer to celebrate its heritage instead of basically four variations of the Equinox? Four variations to the Equinox. Excuse me. Two variations of the Equinox. and then two variations of the tracks and the Blazers.

Can you pull up something for me? Sure. The answer to this question is, of course, yes, but it has nothing to do with the tariffs. This should have happened 10 years ago regardless. This is another example of bad product planning from General Motors. The Mitsuoka, buddy. Yep, buddy. Dude, yeah.

Somebody already makes the version of the K-5. We don't need, click on this. We don't need the one-thil. Oh, look at that. This is, my friends. It's based on a raft for. We don't need Chevy to do it. Mishahooka.

This is the only attractive picture of this car. No, go back to the previous picture. This is way too dark to be seen on the screen. Go to the one that has the both the blue. Click on that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it has both angles. What this is... It's an SRI from the back.

A K-5 blizzard from the front, and it's based on a Rav-4. Rav-4. The answer to this question, and by the way, this is only in Japan. Another thing the Japanese get that we didn't. The R-34 skyline, the Evo-6, the G-C-8 Impreza, the 22B, B, the Mitsuoka Buddy. The answer to this question is, of course, but it has nothing to do with the tariffs. I truly think that making the Blazor not a Bronco competitor is one of the most laughably bad automotive decisions that has been made in the last 25 years. That's right.

And it's proven by the fact that the Bronco has been a massive runaway success. The Blazer has been primarily confined to rental car fleets and also nobody, because in some cases, even the rental car companies are like, no, thanks, though. And it's just the kind of stuff you get from GM, you know. DM does such a good job some of the time and such a bad job some of the time. And I don't understand why they don't just do better. Yep. And on that, you agree with me. And hopefully Mary Barra is listening.

You agree with me. 100%. It should have been a real K-5 Blazeman. You know what? Singular doubt. If they did it, there should be a Cadillac version. And it should be a G-Wagon. For what it's worth, they have the Tahoe, which is a good product.

They could have just made a smaller Tahoe. Yeah. I mean, to do it right... Which, by the way, is what the Blazor original was. To do it right, you would want... Well, there was no Tahoe originally. To do it right... Yeah, it was...

To do it right, you would want to do it like the Bronco, where you do like a ground... You wouldn't want to do removable doors. They could have. And it would have been better than the actual... It wouldn't have sold, though. A two-door Tahoe wouldn't sell. No, but like, style differently instead of two-door blazer.

It would have been better than the current blazer. I don't know about that. Would have been better than the current blazer is the lowest bar anybody could possibly bar. The current blazer is the worst car on sale. except for the Maserati Grand Turismo. I'm debating this in my head for a second. Come at me.

You're thinking Grand Reconier? No. No, no, I'm not. It's crossed my mind, but I skip past it. No, you're right. Worst car on sale. Current Blazer. Is it even still on sale? And the Grand Turismo, which isn't... The Blazor A.V. Good car. Blazor not EV. Bad car. Yeah, the Blazory V is fine. The Blazor Regular is bad. I want to be clear about that, because they're inexplicably. They're completely different cars.

Just like the Equinox and Equinox TV. Yes, both exist. Both exist. Okay. That's our podcast. Do you have any parting thoughts, Kenner? American manufacturers, make a G-Wagon. Everybody should. Everybody should. G-Wagons for all.

What is the Grots of America? Oh, that's a great question. Like a secondary country to America that can be used for manufacturing. Whatever country it is, I think it's not going to work. What a shame. The answer is probably like Indiana because there's no other options. The Grots of America. There's no other options right now.

Anyway, why? Watch Trump's going to start tariffing Indiana. As an Ohio, and he'd be thrilled. He'd be like, yeah. Indiana, a lot of tariffs are coming your way, Indiana. That's true, actually, even though that... Anyway, thank you for watching. We absolutely appreciate it.

We love everyone and everything, especially Felipe. Except for the tariff. Except for the tariffs, which we hate. Goodbye. Goodbye.