In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. JBS is fresh off the first drive of the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq, and our hosts have some thoughts about the upcoming Cadillac Celestiq. Greg has been spending time with the Lincoln Navigator. The next-generation Ford Ranger is coming, and we've got some thoughts about it. We also discuss some of the electric pickups coming our way (and some that will almost certainly not come to fruition). Finally, in this week's "Spend My Money" segment, a reader selling a Tesla Model Y, and is looking to replace it with another EV and a hybrid, with a budget of $70,000.
Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to the "Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. We have a great show for you this week. I'm going to bring in senior editor for all things green, John Snyder, right now. What's going on, man?
JOHN SNYDER: Hey, how's it going? It's officially summer. And it's finally a little less hot than it was all spring.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. It's actually been pretty nice. It's almost like a more of a spring-like summer. And we had kind of like a summer-like spring, I guess.
JOHN SNYDER: That's Michigan.
GREG MIGLIORE: There you go. We've got a good big show for you. We're going to talk about the Cadillac Lyriq, which John drove out in Utah, right?
JOHN SNYDER: Yep.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that was cool. I drove the Ford GT out in somewhat similar locations. So it's--
JOHN SNYDER: Beautiful country.
GREG MIGLIORE: It is a great place to test drive a car. So we'll lead off with that. A couple of other things we want to get to, though-- the news about the Cadillac Celestiq, or as I like to call it, "Celes-teek." It kind of sounds like an old school luxury liner or something.
This is actually their low volume sort of Halo model. News this week that they're going to hand-build it, kind of, at the Warren Tech Center. John's actually seen it at the tech center, so we're going to talk about that a little bit. Drove the Lincoln Navigator for just a little bit. So, hey, we're talking Cadillac, we might as well be thinking Lincoln as well.
And then a couple of news hits. Spy shots of the next generation Ford Ranger. And John compiled a list of where all of the EV trucks are-- what's going to happen, what's not going to happen, and what is just straight up vaporware. And you should probably just stop even talking about it.
We will spend your money. That's podcast@Autoblog.com if you'd like us to answer your questions about your next car purchase. So the Cadillac LYRIQ. It's electric. It's a Cadillac. You drove it in Utah. What else do people need to know about this?
JOHN SNYDER: Well, there's two versions. There's a rear-wheel drive and an all-wheel drive version. I only drove the rear drive. But it is Cadillac's first all-electric vehicle. And it's one of the first vehicles to use the GM Ultium electric powertrain technology.
So it's got a modular battery pack. In this case, it's pretty much half the size of the Hummer's pack. The Hummer pack is like two LYRIQ packs stacked on top of one another. The rear drive just has one motor on the rear axle.
And I found it was still pretty potent. Let's see, it's 340-horsepower, 325 pound feet of torque. That gets 312 miles of driving range, which is pretty impressive. It doesn't feel slow at all-- I'd say probably like we're talking low to mid sixes for 0 to 60.
And yeah, Cadillac did a bang up job with this thing. I think it looks nice on the outside, but it's absolutely drop dead gorgeous on the inside. Cadillac was sort of given free reign to create new parts and things for the LYRIQ, so there's really no GM parts bin stuff in there. It's all fresh for the LYRIQ.
And you won't see it in other brands. From what I understand, Cadillac will not be sharing these new bits and pieces with the other brands. You will see them in other Cadillac vehicles, though. So this is sort of a new, fresh slate design for Cadillac and sort of an introduction to what they're going to be doing going forward.
So on the interior, that means massive attention to detail. Like, every surface you touch has something interesting about it, whether it's the finish, or the shape, or the way it feels-- the texturing, the patterns. And a lot of these little design elements are repeated in very sort of peculiar places. Like the little entry lights above the rear doors have the same pattern within them, like, beneath the glass-- same pattern that's on the rim of the cup holders and the rim of the rotary infotainment interface.
That just sort of gets repeated in different spots. There's texture on the inside, like, the barrel of the vents-- something that you wouldn't really see unless you stuck your fingers in there or if the light hit it just right. So there's this huge attention to detail. There's a lot going on with the lighting, both inside and out.
It's got the light-up emblem on the front. And when you approach the car, the grille lights up in, like, this almost smile pattern-- pretty warm greeting. And then there's very thin daytime running lights under the hood. And then there are vertical LED lights with the high beams integrated along the sides of the nose of the car.
Inside, you can, of course, adjust your ambient lighting to whatever color using the touch screen. And then there's also, in certain places, particularly the door trim, there's this sheet of metal that was laser-etched to get this pattern. And then behind that is a very, very thin piece of metal, like, almost a foil sort of thing.
And then behind that is where the lighting is so that light shines through that metal. It looks so cool. And there's just really nice-- this had synthetic seating surfaces. They were smoother and nicer than most leather. There will be a Napa leather option.
There are things like-- there's a drawer that pops out from below the center stack. And it's completely lined in, like, this blue leather, in this case. Different trims will have different color schemes. But it almost looked like a jewelry chest. A Rolex watch would look perfect inside that.
And there's just lots of little touches like that all over the interior of the car. And it's very, very comfortable. Also, driving it-- not bad to drive. Like I said, it's not slow at all. It's not super quick, but it's plenty quick.
And the acceleration is very, very smooth. And then there's modes. There's sport mode, tour mode. And then there's a mode called My Mode. Well, there's a snow and ice mode, but there's also a My mode. Where you can configure it however you want.
Because the drive modes affect the acceleration, the braking, the steering feel, and the sort of noise that's pumped in through the speakers for when you're accelerating to simulate. Doesn't really sound like an internal combustion thing, but it rises and falls with your speed like you would expect an engine to. And yeah, just a really awesome car.
Super quiet going down the road. Even on 22s, it rides very well. And they put accelerometers at each of the wheels to measure the frequency of the vibrations coming into the car from the road. And that uses the sound system to predict what frequency of sound would come into the car.
And it uses that to cancel it out. You don't hear anything coming from the speakers, but it does create a frequency that cancels out the frequency of the vibration coming into the car. So it's super, super quiet. And then it drives pretty well in the mountain roads.
Of course, we were at 7,000 feet up in Park City, Utah. And you know, electric motor has none of the problems that a naturally-aspirated engine would trying to maintain speed at those elevations. And it has actual one-pedal driving. There's two levels of one-pedal driving. One of them's more aggressive.
And then, like the Chevy Bolt, there is a regen on-demand pedal on the back of the steering wheel. But instead of this just being, like, a click, it's pressure sensitive. So the harder you pull it, more it brakes. It's like having another brake pedal, which was helpful going downhills and whatnot.
And then, yeah, in the corners, the steering is real precise. And it's got nice low center of gravity. So it feels pretty stable in the corners. I was really impressed with this car.
It was really nice. And yeah, the interior is the big wow factor here.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, it sounds like it. It's been a while since Cadillac, I think, outside of the Escalade, has really had an interior where you were like, hey, it's in the discussion for being best in class. It feels like they, in some ways, underachieved.
You know, they've had amazing engines. They've had edgy design. Whether you like it or not, it's been very edgy in moving the design forward. But it's been a while since they've had a winning interior. So I can't wait to get behind the wheel of the LYRIQ.
I think it looks great. I have driven it, obviously, but seeing the pictures, all the specs-- it all seems to be there. And it does seem to me like they're going for something that's, like, they want to be the best. They're going for a best in class execution, which the last time Cadillac did that, I would say they kind of went for it with the CT6.
They were trying to pitch that as like a flagship, but it was also a little bit of an in-betweener. This seems like one where they really are just going for it. So that's exciting to see.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. It felt like some Cadillacs in recent memory, the interiors haven't been great. It sort of changed over with the new Escalade. But this is one that they should just be absolutely proud of. It's a phenomenal interior. Yeah. Very comfortable.
It's also really roomy-- plenty of room to sort of sit behind my own seating position. There's a sizable cargo space. You're getting a lot of car for, you know, what starts at about $62,000 for the 2024 model. The 2023 is already sold out, and they're taking preorders for 2024 now.
GREG MIGLIORE: How are they positioning this? It does look like it's a little bit off the ground, but you have those big 22-inch wheels. It's got this very sleek design. Are they calling it a crossover? I can't believe they wouldn't call it a crossover. Like, you sound like it drives like a car. What kind of a duck is this, I guess?
JOHN SNYDER: It feels like a midsize crossover. It feels pretty smack dab as that being the definition for it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Got it.
JOHN SNYDER: In terms of size and the sort of position on the road. Yeah, it definitely fits the mold.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Looking at the pictures, that draw is very cool. I could easily see a Rolex, or a Tag Heuer, or something in there.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and then below that, below the center console, there's an open bin where you can stash a purse or something. It's a perfect size for that. And that's also got a little leather thing at the bottom to sort of protect whatever you put in there. Everything you touch is really nice to touch-- really good materials, lots of soft materials, lots of smooth materials, and not a lot of hard plastics. You're hard-pressed to find them in there.
GREG MIGLIORE: I really like the kind of like raked roofline. It's almost got a little bit of like an X6 kind of look there-- only better, I think. It's really kind of tapered in the back. Cadillac has had no problems with design for the last, I would say, 20 years, in my opinion. Some people thought some of the earlier CTS were a little more aggressive.
I've liked all of them for whatever time they've been in. This one to me is even more, like, I wouldn't say out there, but it's a very handsome vehicle. It's really, like, aggressive.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it looks pretty athletic while still looking pretty classic Cadillac design. It doesn't scream at you, hey, look, I'm an EV. I'm weird. You know, it's like, hey, look, I'm a really nice Cadillac crossover.
And it sort of invites you to approach it that way.
GREG MIGLIORE: I bet you we will see a ton of these in Michigan. My question is, will we see more of these on the coasts, across the country? I would like to think so. Because to me, this seems like the kind of car that-- and I thought this about a lot of Cadillacs for quite some time-- if people are willing to give them a chance, like, get out of your BMW and try the CT4 or the CT5-- don't buy what you've been buying for the last 30 years since Cadillac sort of ceded its dominance of the US market-- and try some of these.
And you will say, these products are great. Because when I look at this, this looks like something you could see pulling up to a golf club in Napa or, you know, Greenwich, Connecticut. Like, it's got that real, like, prestigious look.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's totally setting the tone for what Cadillac is going to be doing from here on out.
GREG MIGLIORE: Speaking of, the Cadillac Celestiq. The news in the last week was that they're going to hand build it at the tech center at a facility in Warren, Michigan. That's where General Motors does-- it's, like, the headquarters of its engineering and development across the country. And it all happens in Michigan.
It's actually separate from the headquarters. Backstory you might not know-- they considered selling or sort of ending their lease. I guess they do own the RenCen, which is their world headquarters. Just moving it all to the tech center back during the bankruptcy period-- I think some politics got in there. They were like, maybe that's not the right look.
You know, the government's going to help you guys out and we're going to close your headquarters. Long story short, they have a ton of space in Warren. So they do have a facility. They do have room to build this amazing-sounding Cadillac that is getting very bespoke treatment.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: This is a much different animal than the LYRIQ, let's put it that way. And you actually, by a little bit of a coincidence here-- maybe not-- you've seen it at a development day literally a week before the pandemic started. This is something you did.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. So I got to see the Hummer before that was being shown to people. I got to see the LYRIQ as show car with a complete interior then. And this LYRIQ really stands up to that. And then, yeah, they unveiled the Celestiq to the scarce few of us that were there.
And you know, they're saying it could cost $200,000, could cost well beyond 300,000 if it's optioned. But my gosh, it is a gorgeous vehicle. I was told by designers that the design for the Celestiq actually came before the LYRIQ. So they had that all penned out ahead of time.
And so they're taking their sweet time rolling this out, which I think, with the amount of care that they gave to the LYRIQ, the Celestiq is just going to be incredible. What I saw-- I didn't see the interior, just the exterior. And it was this really long sort of fastback sedan, just very elegant with some familiar-- what is now familiar to us with LYRIQ, some of those elements like the lighting on the grille and whatnot.
But yeah, that car is-- the LYRIQ is like the appetizer for that main course. And I absolutely think that'll be-- the Celestiq will be what basketball players show up to galas in or whatever. It's going to be a really, really nice vehicle. And all-electric, of course.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's interesting they make-- that's what they're going for. A story we ran last week when they made the news, we quote an analyst who mentions, this is the car that could, again, make Cadillac the choice of royalty-- really had that just, like, aspirational feel that is-- you know, and it's also not something that you can easily attain.
You know, that's where you're getting into, like, Ferrari and Lamborghini territory, where it's going to be considerably lower volume, because it's a hand-built type of thing. It's going to be a true sedan in some form, or at least a car is how it's been positioned. According to what we know right now, they're going to spend $81 million to build this thing, or build the facility to build this thing.
And we're looking at 400 per year. That's super low volume. That's less than most Ferraris.
JOHN SNYDER: And seeing just, really, how intricate and detailed the LYRIQ is, knowing that this is going to be five, six, seven times the price, and built by hand, and to be customized pretty much however the customer wants, it's going to be really be something to behold.
And it'll be rare that you actually get to see one on the road. But it will be an exciting thing to see. Yeah. Really, Cadillac's coming back out and making its name and polishing its image as what it will be a luxury EV-maker. And the Celestiq will definitely be their crown jewel, so to speak.
GREG MIGLIORE: Cadillac trademarked Celestiq, LYRIQ, Symboliq, Optiq, and some other ones. We did the story a couple of years ago. So clearly, there's a lot of space for them to expand the electric lineup. To me, this is like-- the electric sort of revolution could be the, like, something for Cadillac where they can get out in front of what other people are doing and really sort of try to maybe regain that lead as far as luxury leadership.
Because right now, they have more in the pipeline and ready to go at a high end level than many of their competitors. And they're being more upfront about it. So I mean, that's where, you know, as you watch things change, people look around, they want a luxury electric vehicle, they want something that's aspirational-- well, what do some of the other makers have?
Well, Mercedes does have the EQS. BMW is kind of dabbling more into electrics, but they've got some things in the works. Suddenly, you look around and you're like, wait a minute-- I could get the LYRIQ next year? That kind of changes things. That's where maybe you pull some people out of their Lexus, or their Acuras, or things like that. So we'll see.
JOHN SNYDER: We will see.
GREG MIGLIORE: So that is-- that's Cadillac. With that, we might as well just do a quick note on Lincoln, round out kind of the-- it's really more of the luxury section than the drive section, but a little bit of both. I did drive the Navigator for just a little bit. It was six figures, over $100,000, as you might expect.
It was a lovely vehicle. It was one of those things where it's large. It's definitely that command kind of feel you get. It's exactly like what it's like to drive a Navigator.
I think I liked it a little bit more than the Escalade I drove about a month ago with the DuroMax diesel. I like the diesel in the Escalade, don't get me wrong. That also had Super Cruise. But I just like the vibe of the Navigator. It's got that art deco kind of thing going on that just-- it feels very unique and special, you know?
It's definitely-- it's imposing. It's cool. You know, it's a lot to handle. But you know, Lincoln has done a good job of tuning it so it's not that much work, let me put it that way. And the inside is just gorgeous.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's another vehicle that is exemplary of excellent interior design, especially in the higher trims and some of the neat colors you can get them in. It's definitely one of the best interiors out there right now. I also really like the exterior of it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Agreed, yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: I was in Japan at the launch of the new gen Leaf several years back. And they had on one wall in their design center pictures with all these other competitors and notes on them from designers. And what they wrote next to the Navigator was, soft blob with no details.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh wow. OK.
JOHN SNYDER: But I disagree. I mean, it's not a very intricate exterior design, but I think it's a good one. It doesn't have to be super detailed to be fancy. It's big and it's imposing, but it's still kind of graceful looking.
And yeah, this is another vehicle that ended up looking just like the concept. The concept wasn't too far out there. The wheels on the concept were wild at the time, but that's what wheels ended up being on this. And now we're sort of used to that design.
But yeah, it's another really nice vehicle. It's got some weird interesting things going on inside, like the buttons for gear selection is kind of-- I mean, it's not a bad layout, it's just kind of strange, oriented in this horizontal line. But it's also what helps make the car stand out and make it feel unique and special.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's funny you mention that concept. I was at the New York Auto Show when they revealed that. And I remember some of the cues. Like, the wheels they did, essentially, bring to production on the Navigator's different trims. But I remember it had this waterfall staircase that came down the side, which they even said, they're like, yeah, we're not doing that.
But they could have in some ways. It really was just, like, an extended running board. The interior was a little far out but. And I would agree with you. I think it looks pretty good on the outside-- it's a barge, it's a refrigerator. But that's what it's supposed to be.
When you say Lincoln Navigator, you expect to roll up in a battleship. You know, you don't want something that's curvy and more unassuming or something. You want the dreadnought.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, you want stature.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. And I mean, with this thing, you are king of the road. You can see everything. It's comfortable. The leather was real nice in there. I was going over the sticker, going through the Monroney here, and it's just like normal leather, but I don't know if it was even a little broken in or something, but it was just so soft and such a good, comfortable interior.
So that's the Lincoln Navigator. I guess we'll stay with Ford here for a little bit and talk some news. We have spy shots of the next gen Ford Ranger. This is basically more like the long cab that we saw. So they'll probably sell a few of these, because people, even in the mid-sized segment, they like a fair amount of room.
For me here, isn't so much that we're seeing these spy photos, because we have seen Ranger variants. And we're going to see a number of variants in the next year or so. But I mean, to me, this is a chance to kind of see, hey, the new Ranger is coming. It's going to be something that is newer when it gets here than the last one was. Let's put it that way.
JOHN SNYDER: For sure.
GREG MIGLIORE: And I think that's good for Ford. I mean, the one that rolled up in '18, whenever that was-- '18 or '19-- that was like an old truck that was sold overseas. And it was new to us. And it's soldiered on for a very long time. I think it's a good evidence of how you can keep rolling the ball out there and hoping it works. It still was very competitive. I mean, we said it was the best in our midsize truck comparison.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's a great truck. I'm really excited to see what the updated one has in terms of features, just because Ford's got some neat features that they can put in these things now-- neat technology, better infotainment. I don't know if they would offer Blue Cruise in this, but maybe.
And then some of the things that they've learned from Bronco, and I would love to see an even more hardcore off-road version of this Ranger than the current generation. And I'm really curious-- when Jim Farley said at the launch of the Lightning that they are working on another electric pickup, I am curious if the Ranger will have an EV version.
I think they could do it. I don't know if they would do the Ranger or do a different truck entirely. But I think an electric Ranger would be a good move. I think doing an electric F-150 was a smart move, because, you know, everyone's familiar with the F-150. Everyone loves the F-150.
Slapping an electric powertrain in it, make it super powerful, and keep those same customers who have been buying your trucks for years. I think they could make that same play with the Ranger. And they could lend it to Volkswagen to make an electric Amarok pickup too-- sort of kill two birds with one stone with that, so to speak. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing what sort of improvements they do to modernize this Ranger.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, same. And I'm interested too if-- I could see it going in a different direction and electrifying the Maverick. I've driven the Maverick as a hybrid. And it's great. Part of me thinks it'd be easier for them to get like range and just make it more of an attainable electric vehicle in that smaller segment.
Other side of that argument, though, is you electrify the Ranger, and you can charge more for it, and probably get your cost back right away. And that also has a little bit more of a status thing. It's interesting.
JOHN SNYDER: Room for bigger battery in the Ranger too.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's true. That's true. We'll see. I mean, Jim Farley just kind of threw that out there.
JOHN SNYDER: I know.
GREG MIGLIORE: People were like, well, what does that mean? Is it electric? Is it a version of something that exists? Is it something all new? Well, I think we're both on to something. It'll probably be the Maverick or the Ranger. And then we'll see.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, either one will be cool.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, definitely.
JOHN SNYDER: Both great trucks.
GREG MIGLIORE: So speaking of electric trucks, you pulled together a list a little over a week ago about everything that's coming out there. It was one of our top clickers of the week-- everything from the electric Silverado, to the scout, to all sorts of things, some of which are definitely going to happen.
They're confirmed, you can order them now, some of which probably will never happen, which I think is interesting. And I think that's a really good roundup too, because for a long time, we've-- there's a number of trucks we've talked about and we're like, hey, this is coming. This might happen.
And then there's just ones that are, like, straight up rumors, which is a good way to put it. So a Fisker electric pickup, that would be awesome.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know--
JOHN SNYDER: They definitely showed one sort of in profile in a picture of, like, their future product plans under a cover. So I don't know if that was just sort of a stand-in or if they actually have maybe a design for it already. Who knows?
GREG MIGLIORE: So a couple, just picking apart your list here, one, I'm very excited about the electric Silverado. I think it looks better than the lightning does. I think they did a good job of differentiating it and making it something different, maybe even cooler. So I'm psyched about that.
JOHN SNYDER: They sort of took the completely opposite track as Ford, where Ford made it just the same truck pretty much, but electric. Whereas the Silverado EV is definitely different in terms of looks than the classic Silverado, which, you know, I like both approaches. And I'm glad that not everyone is taking the exact same approach too.
I really like the look of this Silverado EV. I like those sort of sale panels from the Avalanche. The mid-gate's a neat trick. So yeah, that one's going to be a good one. And there's going to be a Sierra EV too.
So they haven't showed us that, but they have confirmed it and teased it. So I'm curious to see-- maybe the Sierra will be the one that sort of sticks to the pattern of the previous internal combustion version, while the Silverado is the one that takes a little bit of an adventure design-wise.
GREG MIGLIORE: My thought with the Sierra was I was like, I wonder what they'll do with that. Because they could go pretty wild with the Sierra. Because GMC has been kind of, like, sometimes-- they have that, like, blocky almost, like, transformer kind of look.
I could see them doing a variety of things with that. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. There's some other things out here like the Scout, which I think is pretty cool. I think that would be-- you talk about electrification of the Amarok, well, this could be another-- this is another electrified VW. I would be really interested in this.
I think this is kind of a cool kind of niche sort of thing. It looks fairly retro, which I think is kind of good. Volkswagen does have a ton of money. So if anybody's going to try and pull something back like this, they're the ones to do it.
The problem is they don't tend to like-- they've really, I think, failed at making a lot of their cool things totally cross over outside of just straight up, like, you know, greatest hits that they've already done. So I think the Scout could be pretty interesting.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. And I like that there's going to be a pickup version and an SUV version.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: And from the little design sketches that we've seen, the proportions are really neat, especially in the SUV-- sort of Bronco-ish. Reminds me of the Scout that it's inspired by.
It's interesting to me that this might be its own brand. You know, like, a sort of sub-brand. So we'll see what comes of that. I know Volkswagen dealers were kind of like, what the heck-- what are you doing? You never told us about this.
So it's still kind of unclear the tech that Volkswagen is going to take with this. But either way, excited to see the actual product when it comes out.
GREG MIGLIORE: A couple of other ones here, just the sort of unnamed Toyota pickup that's electric. You know, that's interesting. It looks like it's basically an electric Tundra, but more like the size of the Tacoma.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds like a pretty good idea. I think they're overdue for it.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, they're overdue for a lot of EVs.
GREG MIGLIORE: There's no launch date for it, which I think is sometime between now and 2030. OK. Take your time. But I mean, maybe we'll see something sooner.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, when they trotted out all those different vehicles, those sort of different concepts a while back, a lot of them looked pretty good. And they had been working on them for a while pretty quietly, apparently.
But yeah, Toyota is way overdue to start producing some more EVs. So that'll be a good one. Yeah, if they can make it look like the Tundra in sort of a Tacoma-sized package, that'd be great. Just actually give it a little more headroom than the Tacoma.
Make the cabin a little more comfortable for the driver. But they've got room to do whatever with it. So I imagine it could be pretty successful.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, sounds good. All right, so there's some things on here that we've charitably put we don't know much about. Let me put it that way. It's unclear what's next. Things that fall into that category include more like the Lordstown Endurance, the Canoe pickup, the Hercules Alpha, the Alpha Wolf.
I mean, these are just, like, everything from companies that have thrown out a press release, to companies that have thrown out a sketch, to some have been actual concepts. But I mean, we look at somewhere between the back markers, and the vaporware, and the they're out there, but who knows what's going to happen-- I mean, how do you kind of handicap those guys?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's hard to tell. The Canoe seems like it could be a real thing. And I would love it to, because it's a very unique vehicle. It looks completely different than any other truck on this list.
Lordstown Endurance-- you know, who knows with that. They've been going through some rough spots there. But I hope they get some out there, because I would like to try out a truck that has in-wheel motors. That'd be neat.
And then who knows with the Hercules Alpha and the Edison Future EF1. The coolest looking one on here, I think, is the Alpha Wolf.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, for sure.
JOHN SNYDER: And they've got different versions of that. They've got a single cab. But these are all sort of mock-ups. They're design books, really. So who knows if-- the other Alpha concepts we've seen, their other EVs, look really cool too.
So I would love if Alpha was successful and, you know, these saw the light of day. But not really going to hold my breath.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, fair enough. Speaking of trucks, I'll throw some breaking news at you. Maybe you saw this in our Slack channel. It looks like the Nissan Titan could be dead.
JOHN SNYDER: Ooh.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. It's not an electric truck, obviously, which could be part of the problem. But sources tell "Automotive News" that they may pull the plug, reading from their story, for 2024 or 2025. A Nissan spokesman says it remains in the showroom for the 2022 model year and beyond.
I suppose the caveat there could be right now. If true, I'd be a little bit surprised, but I guess not shocked. I mean, if you're looking for, like, hey, like, what can we win with, they never won with this truck. It was a good truck, but, at the end of the day, it did not take market share from any of the Detroit 3.
And it really just probably was, like, kind of fighting for, like, fourth or fifth place, depending on how you look at some of the-- like, where you put the Sierra, if you count that as its own thing. It really was just, like I said, fourth or fifth place with, like, the Tundra-- kind of like a back of a pack truck that never really put any points on the board for Nissan.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what Nissan is up to in the coming years. They're one of those companies that's been kind of quiet lately. I know the Nissan ARIA, the electric crossover with all-wheel drive, is coming out soon.
So I wouldn't be surprised if-- and Nissan's done OK with their hatchbacks and sedans. So that might be where they're placing their focus going forward. We'll see.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. And should note, this report, source tells "Automotive News," so we'll see. We're going to try and get our own story up here. If you're listening to this, probably go-- by the time you listen to this, we'll probably have more details. So be sure to check out the site.
That's interesting. We'll see. I mean, I can totally see why they would do it just because it takes a lot of money to develop a new generation and make it good. I haven't looked at the sales numbers recently. I can't imagine they're all that scintillating, especially in this era of high gas prices.
Little surprised they don't let it putter along for a while, because I would imagine it's still profitable. But maybe not. Building things is expensive. Maybe it's just a situation of cut your losses. But should we spend some money?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right.
JOHN SNYDER: Let's do it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Let's do it. Tim in San Luis Obispo, California writes that he has a 2021 Tesla Model Y. We got an offer to sell it for $12,000 over what we bought it for a year and a half ago. What a market. Now, we're in the market for two different cars. Gas prices are over $6-- at least over $6-- some stations are over seven where he lives. We are looking for one EV and one hybrid. These will be our only two cars. We drive 700 miles twice a year to visit family, so some practicality would be nice to have in one car.
Don't buy one car now waiting for something to come up in the near future if there's something worth waiting for. I'd love to keep the prices at $70,000 out the door for two new cars after any rebates. Looking forward to hearing some ideas from you. Tim. All right, so it sounds like we have $70,000, as I read this, for both cars to work with-- one hybrid, one all-electric. So that's pretty doable. A little tight. But you know.
JOHN SNYDER: With prices being so high right now, it's tricky. But I think there's some options out there.
GREG MIGLIORE: Why don't you start, see what you think?
JOHN SNYDER: All right. So I thought maybe the Tucson plug-in hybrid and wait for 2023 for the price to go down on the Bolt EUV.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
JOHN SNYDER: So GM doesn't have any more federal tax credits to hand out for its EVs. But with the price going down for the Bolt EUV, it'll be starting below $30,000. And the Tucson plug-in hybrid starts about $36, $37,000.
But that's also eligible for a $6,200 federal rebate. So if you just got sort of base Tucson PHEV and a base Bolt EUV, that would leave you with about $4,200 to add in options to either of those. If you take into account the federal rebate for the Tucson, it gives you $10,500 to play with.
So there, you're looking, you could get the Bolt EUV, the higher model with Super Cruise, and then a couple of options on your Tucson. Or in California, if you get more of a rebate there, you might have even more money to play with, in which case, I would look at the Tucson limited trim for the plug-in hybrid, because it's a lot nicer, in my opinion.
But either way-- and if you did the-- yeah, the Tucson PHEV, like a base model, and then the Bolt EUV, the higher trim with Super Cruise, you would be $5 over your budget assuming destination charges stay the same for next year and prices on these don't go up. But that's what I would do.
GREG MIGLIORE: Got it. OK. All right. So there's so many choices out there right now, I can see why Tim writes into us. Because you know, you could really skin this a lot of ways. And it's interesting too, because so many of these tend to fall into the, like, especially in the electrics-- the crossover-ish silhouette.
So you know, that's where I kind of like-- I'm trying to sort of spend which one I think would be sporty versus which one is more of a crossover. So for one, I'm going to go with the Mach-E. It looks like you could get one for about $44, which it's a pretty good size crossover. You know, so there is some practicality there. It's not huge, but it's a crossover.
JOHN SNYDER: It's surprisingly roomy inside.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. So I mean--
JOHN SNYDER: That big frunk.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. And it's also pretty sporty to drive, I think. So you've got that on one end. And I think this is where you kind of got to play with your budget a little bit. If you want more of a base Mach-E, you could get in the low-$40s. And then, you know, that's, like, what, 2/3-- like, 55% of your budget. So you could do that.
Then what I would do on the other side-- let me see if I can find this right here-- is I would go maybe a little bit on the cheaper side, because you've only got about roughly $30 grand to play with, maybe a little under. I would take a look at the Hyundai Ioniq. Like, it's just the plug-in hybrid, you know? You could get it.
And you can probably get a good deal on it, because I believe they've already said that it's-- I think they're going to kill it off. It's sort of done its job as Hyundai's first-- you know, not first, but one of its very significant plug-in hybrids. So you can probably get a pretty good deal on it like that. You know, I've driven it and liked it. And I think it's a pretty solid car.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I'd pick it over the Prius.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's funny. I was looking at the Prius for a little bit, and I really was-- to me, that was almost like Coca-Cola or something. Like, you're not going to go wrong with it. It's just, like, the generic name brand. And I almost felt like, hey, if you're going to go, like, Mustang, well, maybe really go with, like, the Prius to go for that. But I think the Hyundai Ioniq is more fun to drive than the Priuses.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that's how I would shake it up. If you want to go with variety or something different, might look at the Ioniq 5, which this gets confusing-- that's Hyundai's all-electric car. I can see why they're killing the Ioniq, because I'm confused just saying that sentence. It's going to cost you a bit more money.
That's where you probably have to swap out the Mach-E. Maybe you don't want two Hyundais. Maybe go with the Prius Prime in there. The Crosstrek hybrid is still out there, which a lot of people like that. That could be your cheap car, and then you go with the Ioniq 5.
Or one that does kind of-- like, I'll throw this into the mix here, which kind of muddies the waters, but the Escape hybrid. You know, that is out there. You get a little bit of electric range. They're going to do a new model of the Escape coming up, which I think the current one looks pretty good.
So you could kind of get that, and then you can get that for somewhat cheap. I believe that starts under $30 before incentives. So then you've got, like, $40 to go maybe look at something else that might be a little bit more fun.
But officially, I would go with the Hyundai Ioniq and then the Mach-E. And apologies if my numbers don't quite add up there, but those are the two I would look at and then try to make the numbers work, I guess is what I would consider doing.
JOHN SNYDER: Makes sense. Yeah, the Mach-E is just super solid all around. It's a cool design, fun to drive, and nice tech in it. And you kind of can't go wrong with it. It's just such a solid player.
GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. Sounds good. Anything we're missing here, you think? Think we covered it?
JOHN SNYDER: There's a lot of different ways you could slice it. You go for a cheap hybrid, an expensive EV or the other way around. There's lots of sort of options. So if you want to dial some of those in, send us another email. We're happy to sort of help narrow the field for you.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, sounds good. Well, it's officially summer. What's your summer drink that you're drinking these days?
JOHN SNYDER: I've been going back to the Tazo, like, the passionfruit hibiscus iced tea.
GREG MIGLIORE: Very nice.
JOHN SNYDER: Very refreshing. And really good with some lemonade in it. If we're talking about beer, my sister just rolled through Wisconsin and got me some different beers from New Glarus, which is always really good.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. I've got--
JOHN SNYDER: What about you?
GREG MIGLIORE: I've been drinking a lot of just regular iced tea. So I've been doing that. And then if I have a beer maybe tonight, I think I'm going to do a New Holland Tangerine Space Machine, which is a hazy IPA. It's just kind of a nice blend of that hazy IPA, like, rage that really hung over the beer scene for a while-- pretty good.
JOHN SNYDER: Oh. And my sister-in-law got my wife, like, a cocktail of the month subscription. So the last one we had had, like, a root beer syrup with some sort of special bitters. And so we were making basically hard root beer as a cocktail. And it was delicious.
I think Portland Syrups is the name of the company. Yeah, so we went through all that syrup. So I think we're going to do some more of that. Good thing to offer up alongside a Moscow mule-- both pretty easy and refreshing.
GREG MIGLIORE: That sounds perfect. The summer is the best time to kind of try some of those things out. So.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Well, I think that's all the time we have. Send us your "Spend My Moneys" at podcast@autoblog.com. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe to us. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Be safe out there. We'll see you next week.
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