In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Associate Editor Byron Hurd. They start off discussing a couple of vehicles they've both driven — the 2024 Ford Maverick Tremor and the 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge 2WD. From there, they pivot to Byron's first drive of the 2024 Porsche Panamera, and then from there it's on to more electrified luxury in the form of the new Cadillac Lyriq. After that, it's on to news. Rivian made a big splash last week. Not to be upstaged, Cadillac decided to get in on the action by teasing an electric V model, the Opulent Velocity Concept. After that, it's time for a future classic; this week, it's the Dodge Magnum. They end the episode by spending listener Isaiah's money on some used stick-shift transportation.
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've got a great show for you this week. We're going to talk about the Maverick Tremor, Porsche Panamera. Our first drive just went up, the Cadillac LYRIQ. We'll dip into the world of EVs with the Volvo C40 Recharge.
And we'll also talk-- staying with EVs-- we'll talk about the new Rivians. There were a couple of them. Also we'll look back and look ahead at the history of Cadillac's long-running V series. Believe it or not it's 20-years-old. We'll spend your money and we'll also talk about a Dodge Magnum.
With that, let's bring in associate editor Byron Hurd. How you doing, man?
BYRON HURD: Hey, doing pretty well. It's spring-like here. It seems like it hasn't really stopped being spring-like since about, I don't know, December. It's, uh--
GREG MIGLIORE: It's kind of weird.
BYRON HURD: It's a little wild. Another day of 70 degrees. The Blackwing's already out of the garage.
GREG MIGLIORE: There you go.
BYRON HURD: It's a good season so far.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's interesting. I went to a Cars and Coffee last weekend, and the turnout of humans was pretty good. But outside of a few vintage Porsches that I don't really think ever get fully winterized, it wasn't too much of a car turnout. But I've noticed almost everybody in the neighborhood that has, sort of a garage toy, seems to be getting it out, you know, putting some fresh gas in it.
I have a neighbor who was running out the fuel in his lawnmower and running some fresh fuel through his Mustang. So I was like, hey, 'tis the season right here.
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: That being said, it snowed 48 hours ago and this weekend looks pretty nasty. So I don't know, man. It's one of those weird springs where it's not even Saint Patrick's Day, but I've already golfed and grilled and another swim-- or, excuse me, another rite of spring that I'm forgetting. But at the same time, I don't know. Last year it seemed like we had kind of a very elongated, late winter, you know. It felt like it got into April and it just never really warmed up. So we'll see. We'll see.
All right. Well, let's talk about this Maverick Tremor, which we traded last week. You know, you actually literally came and picked it up. So thanks. Good to see you. Like, I have a lot of thoughts. I kept driving around and putting notes in my phone. It just-- it was one of those vehicles that kind of stuck with me.
Here's how I would really sum it up though. I liked it. I think it's a fun little truck. I think the Maverick is a creative, interesting product. But I think this specific trim, the Tremor, a bit overpriced and I wouldn't do it. So what do you think?
BYRON HURD: Yeah. I'm on board with you. And this seems to be kind of an issue with everything Escape platform really, whether it's the Escape itself or the Bronco Sport or this. And, I mean, calling it Escape platform's kind of a bit of a misdirect, because this is obviously very different from what the other things they build on it. But they all get so expensive once you load them up. And, yeah, I mean, this was $38,500 or something like that, as it was set up.
And, I mean, you know, we consider that the Maverick hybrid launched with a price tag under $20 grand before you fees and all that kind of stuff. It has since crept up. But this is nearly double that much, almost exactly double the original MSRP of the base truck. And granted, you know, you get the turbo and you get the all wheel drive and the big knobby tires and it does sound decent for what it is.
I mean, it's a difficult platform, I think, to really extract a ton of performance from at this point because you got the Maverick, which is kind of like the biggest, heaviest, tallest, like, least sporty variant of this whole thing. And, you know, then we throw in big, soft tires and all that stuff at it too. So, you know, it's kind of a mixed bag in terms of, like, actual driving fun. But I was really impressed by it. This was the first time I've actually driven any Maverick.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, wow. OK.
BYRON HURD: I got to sit in one. Yeah. It's been-- I sat in one at that preview event that they had right before it launched. And so, like, I'd experienced the interior and I'd gotten to walk around it and, you know, kind of feel it out, but I hadn't driven one yet.
And I was just kind of surprised that-- they did a really good job making it feel like a truck. And I'm sure a lot of it was just omitting sound deadening and kind of like strategically making it so that certain sounds resonate through certain parts of the body to kind of give it that kind of-- like, the truck has kind of like an empty body feeling to it. It really feels like every noise, every creak, every growl from the engine kind of, like, echoes through all the bodywork. And they manage to do a pretty good job replicating that with a unibody truck.
So I was impressed by it, kind of as a whole. But I kind of agree with you. I feel like once you get above about $30,000 the value proposition on a Maverick starts to fade away pretty quickly. So this one's definitely pushing that at nearly $40 grand.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's-- you know, after saying that, I also did look at it the other way in the sense that the average new vehicle transaction price is kind of hovering-- it's about $44. For a while it even kind of got up to $48, which is-- that-- once it got above $40 that kind of just blew my brain, but also forced me to reset what the cost of a new vehicle is.
So in that context, I do think, hey, it's interesting. It's functional in many different ways. This ultimately replaced the-- the Ford Focus was the mission. So in that sense you get a great value and something that's way more fun to drive. So I think that's the counterargument. I still think it's too much money. I'm right there with you. Like, it's just-- it's, yeah. I mean, it's too much money. It's plain and simple.
But I like the interior too a lot. They did a lot of, like, trucky things inside with the-- you might have noticed those little, like, screws on the door poles. I think they were, like, Phillips. You know, lots of just little wedges and cubby holes, things to put your phone in and your water in. I assume they would probably say in the marketing materials it's more for, like, you know, your hammer or your Swiss army knife. But it's great for what people actually use it for.
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: It also had a sliding rear window, which I think is kind of cool. Like all the things that made it feel like a truck only smaller, I mean, that's exactly what it is. So-- and I liked how it looked too. That was another thing I wrote down here. It's a squared off truck that, I mean, frankly, in some ways you could take the front end of this and make it look like a pretty good sedan with those headlights and just very blocky grille.
You know, it looked pretty good. I think that's-- it's the right look. In some ways I think it looks more like a true Ford truck than the Ranger does, probably because it is, because the Ranger is, you know, genetically it's a truck built overseas, whereas the Maverick is more of a whole cloth design they created for this segment.
So I liked it. Did you actually haul anything in it or get any mulch or anything?
BYRON HURD: No. I only had it for about two and 1/2 days, so I didn't get to do a ton of fun stuff with it. I've got a whole list of truck stuff to do.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: Unfortunately I just haven't had the time to get any of it done. So such is life.
GREG MIGLIORE: I wish-- in some ways this truck came about a month too early. You know, give it a couple more weeks I could have probably gone and got some mulch, maybe get some dirt. I have to get this strip of grass that the dog has dug up every year like clockwork. She just digs a trench in the spring. I put some grass down and she digs it up. So I need to fix that.
But, I mean, it's funny. I like it. I just think it was overpriced. And if you were-- so you're not going to buy the F-150, let's just say, in some, like, fake argument. Do you get the Maverick or the Ranger?
BYRON HURD: I think personally I'd probably end up with the Maverick, just because I don't think the Ranger does anything so much better that it would suit my needs any more adequately than the Maverick would. I feel like if I'm going for anything more than a Maverick can do then I need to jump all the way to F-150 and actually have something that's going to tow a trailer, or, you know, something like that, like, something that I'm actually, like, you know, looking for a real big truck experience with.
The Ranger, I think, like, I don't know that it suffers for the Maverick's existence because I think they can coexist. And obviously, you know, Ford does too. But it's definitely a little more challenging to go, I think, from Maverick to Ranger than it is to go from Ranger to F-150. It's kind of a weird leap of logic there for me.
GREG MIGLIORE: I'd do Ranger. I just-- I kind of-- your point's spot on. You don't get much more with the Ranger as far as pure functionality than you do from the Maverick. But I think car buying purchases can be kind of like visceral and emotional. I just kind of like the Ranger a little bit more. I also think I might probably look at, like, a Chevy Colorado or the new, you know, the Gladiator. There's a variety of options that I actually might pick ahead of either of these. So, yeah.
Let's talk about this C40 Recharge single motor ultimate extended range. What a beautiful name. Volvo-- it's kind of like a coupe-styled crossover that we both drove. You know, again, interesting vehicle. I am doing a five thoughts on it. Sometimes we do nine thoughts. Sometimes we do 10 thoughts. Sometimes we do 19 thoughts, as James Riswick once did on, like, I think it was a Mercedes G-class Pro. He had a lot of thoughts. But I had five of these. But give me one of yours. What'd you think of this thing?
BYRON HURD: I actually-- I liked it quite a bit. I drove the dual motor version of this back when it launched, I guess it was a year or two ago now.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: And that car, like, it managed to feel very small and simultaneously very heavy. And this doesn't feel quite as overwhelmingly large. Even though I think it might-- actually because of the extended range it might actually be as heavy or heavier. It's something to do-- just the-- I think having the single motor and just one driven axle actually makes it feel a little bit more alive and a little bit more nimble, a little less kind of like, you know, stuck to the road I guess.
But I liked it quite a bit. And I was surprised by the range we were seeing from it. Because when I had it, it was pretty cold. I think even the day that I brought it to you, I think we were just seeing snow flurries.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: And it was still at something like close to 80% range. I think I was still showing 200 miles or more on the estimate on the dash, which is pretty good for cold weather. I mean, I would expect to see that, you know, down in like the 150, 160 range. And so I was looking at the actual capacity. And so it makes sense, you know, given the temperature and the fact that it's the extended range model.
But I was impressed by it as a package. I'm still not completely sold on those entry level Volvo interiors. I mean, they look good, but it's still a little too Tesla-ish for me, a little too stripped down and kind of like playing it futuristic even though we're just really trying to save some money. You know. But it looks a bit frugal. We'll put it that way. Not a bad design, just, you know, you can tell where they saved a little money here and there.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Fair enough. I tried to charge it, which did not go well. I wrote that in my five thoughts thing here. It-- I mean, it wasn't a disaster. I didn't need to charge it because, again, like you delivered it with 80%. But I took it to a ChargePoint station and it kept saying-- I think the vernacular or the term was something like "failure to initialize."
And I plugged it in. I unplugged it. I messed around with the app. Yeah, no dice. It just didn't work. ChargePoint got me for $2 bucks, which, whatever. I guess that's the way the world works. So that was frustrating. And I wrote this in my story. But-- it might be up by the time you listen to this. And I was like, I don't blame anybody here.
It's just-- it was one of those things that didn't work. And the stakes were low. It was a ChargePoint close by. I didn't really need it. I simply-- I had someplace to be, like, 10 minutes later. And it was across the street from the charger. So I'm like, OK, you might as well pull in and get, like, maybe 10 miles of range. Just do it. You know, you're going to be sitting here drinking coffee. You might as well do it while you're plugged in. So--
BYRON HURD: Right.
GREG MIGLIORE: So it didn't work. Again, not really calling anybody out on that. This ChargePoint has been a little finicky for me. So I tend to think it was more like the charger, maybe some user error here, but also frustrating. You know, I think it's a little bit-- you know, speaks to the issue that we all have observed with public charging is sometimes it just doesn't work or you have to think a little more than you should. And that can be frustrating. You know. I don't-- again, it's not an indictment. It's just it was a pain. That's how I would put it.
Yeah. I'm with you on the interior. Kind of Volvo-y. You know, very-- I don't know. There were like some things where the trim was so-- like the door, like, inserts I thought were weird. They were so minimal that in an already bland interior it was like almost like the car was trying too hard to be minimal, which is the opposite of minimalism. So there's that.
I don't really like the infotainment anymore. I feel like this Google-powered everything is a little bit of a. Pain that maybe some of my, you know, my own bias because I moved back to an Apple iPhone after doing Android for a while.
The driver display though is very good in front of you. That's Google-powred. That's really good. So it's not all bad. I did think-- anecdotally I've experienced this in a few Volvos. The HVAC, the heating and cooling, air conditioning, heating, it's just a real pain. It feels like it's either blowing too hard or, like, it's taking a minute to spool up.
It feels like whenever I'm in a Volvo it seems to fog up. Now there's no quantitative way for me to document that, other than, no other car I get in seems to, like, fog up like a Volvo does. And it's just-- I feel like there's something going on with the system, like the way it's somehow calibrated, that just, it's frustrating. I can't quite put my finger on it but it bugged me. So--
BYRON HURD: Interesting.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. But it's-- you know, looking at the price, this one was just under $60. But we had the Ultimate, so it had like everything. So not a terrible deal in that sense. You get-- this one was rear wheel drive, the first rear wheel drive Volvo along with the XC40 since the 1990s. So that's kind of cool little bit of trivia.
And I would probably-- given that the price isn't that much, I would probably go with the all wheel drive version. It's basically, do you want all wheel drive or do you want 40 more miles of range? Which, 40 miles is not nothing. In real world driving, hard to say how much that actually would factor in. But the cost difference is not that great either, a couple grand. So-- and it's a considerable more, you know, greater performance. So, yeah. Any other thoughts on the Recharge single motor ultimate?
BYRON HURD: I kind of more like the Volvo EVs kind of in general. I realize that it's like having had another EV come through, which we'll get to here in a bit. Just-- we seem to be in like a weird kind of unstated battle over how it is you're supposed to start an EV. Where, like, you have the Teslas and the Volvos and all that where it's just kind of on when you get in, and you just kind of put it in drive and go.
Or I don't know, Tesla decides you want to drive and then you go. Whatever the rules are there. But essentially, like, you have that version versus the kind of traditional where you have to actually, like, get into a car, press a power button, put it in drive, like the way you do with an ICE vehicle, you know. And it's kind of disconcerting to go from one to the other because you will-- I think-- and this probably is going to bother people who are first-time owners, just that kind of nagging feeling that maybe you didn't shut the thing off when you got out of it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: Even though, like, everything went normally and it seems like everything's fine. Like, especially with an EV where in the back of your mind it's like, what happens if this just runs all night or something? Do I wake up tomorrow and I can't go anywhere? You know. Like, just the anxiety from that kind of situation I think would be off-putting to some people.
But obviously, you know, like, with Tesla it's not an issue and their owner base is plenty happy with it. So it's clearly a preference and the kind of thing that people get used to. But I find it interesting that we've kind of, like, diverged onto two paths there for no apparent reason.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. I don't get that either it. After like three or four days of driving the vehicle, I got used to it. But it's a little-- it's a little weird. So it goes. All right. I think we hit that pretty hard. Tell me about this Panamera that you drove, I believe in Spain?
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: How was that?
BYRON HURD: I got to go to Sevilla and drive the Panamera. It was fun, and honestly a very interesting and informative trip. We got to drive them both on street and on the track. We went to a Circuito Monteblanco, which is about, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes west of Seville. I mean, you're getting pretty close to Portugal at that point. And just, you know, a beautiful area, not a straightaway in sight.
The Panamera itself, this is essentially the-- they're calling it a third generation. But it's the ultimate extension of the existing platform. This is the last version of the Panamera that will ship on this platform. Obviously we'll get more powertrains, but this is it. No more refreshes. It's just from this on to the next one, which is probably going to be either an all electric or a far more electrified Panamera. So this is really kind of like last gasp for the big ICE options. And the turbo e-hybrid that we got to drive on track is still a twin turbo V8 with the electric assist.
The real story with this car though is the overhauled suspension. So they had an air suspension before. That's nothing new. But now they've switched it up, got a new dual chamber air system that is standard, and then on top of that a crazy hydraulic no sway bar, fully hydraulic, just insane setup on the Turbo E-Hybrids that can do all sorts of crazy stuff. It'll literally, like, lean the car into turns, like the opposite of what you'd normally do when you're actually, like, you know, experiencing normal weight transfer in a car to literally just, like, take all the motion out of the body from your driving perspective.
So the idea with this was, we're Porsche. We can do fast. We can do performance. But the Panamera and the Cayenne, these are supposed to be luxury vehicles. They're not supposed to be just sports cars. So with this new suspension they can create a softer, more isolated ride without compromising any of the performance that the Panamera had to begin with. It's still got 670 some-odd horsepower in the Turbo E-Hybrid. It still goes like stink. But it is heavy. We're still talking like 5,300 pounds. Like, it's a big, chunky car. But it moves.
And the new suspension actually makes it feel like it shrinks quite a bit more than the curb weight would suggest. So it's tight, it's compact, it's powerful. It actually, like, feels like a sporty car. But the way it rides and the tricks they can do with that suspension-- it will literally lift the nose when you slam on the brakes to take away brake dive. It is very strange to watch.
And we'll have some photo and some GIFs accompanying the story so you guys can check all that out. It should be live by the time you hear this. Take a look at it. Just some of the stuff they can do with this new system is absolutely wild. We're not going to see anything huge in terms of, like, power increases or stuff like that from this generation, just because it's not a, you know, ground up redesign. There's not even a Turbo S yet.
But we're seeing kind of the pieces come together on the final Panamera here before we go to electric. And it's an impressive kind of technological tour de force, very German, very, we're going to solve this with engineering, expensive engineering, not just, eh, everybody will be fine, living with kind of a not so soft luxury Porsche. So an interesting solution and a complex one, but one that really pays dividends on the road.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK. That sounds good. How was the setting over there in Spain? I don't think I've ever quite been to that part of Spain.
BYRON HURD: It was beautiful. And I was there last year for Range Rover Sport.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
BYRON HURD: And there was a huge difference, just in the weather this year. Everything's green. Last year it was very dry, fire danger everywhere. Like, you know, trying to tell people in Spain not to smoke. Good luck. Like, it was just, you know, it was-- everywhere we went they were telling us not to pull off the road because the hot exhaust might light a fire.
This year everything was green, beautiful, lush, and just a nice relaxing drive. We actually shared our hotel with the Spanish women's soccer team. It was right after the-- the same time they had their big win. So, you know, like, we literally weren't allowed to walk in and out of our own lobby sometimes because we couldn't get too close to the soccer players. It was like-- it was a whole thing. So quite an experience.
But an interesting area. We were in kind of a, like, gentrified industrial area, one of the tallest buildings in Andalusia. So that was all neat. But quite a trip, quite a car.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right. Sounds good. And I think you're finally getting back on Eastern time here as we pulled an hour from your wristwatch right as you were trying to get readjusted. So that's always-- it's always tough. Yeah.
When I used to travel more I actually didn't mind dealing with daylight savings time, just because your internal clock was always somewhere else for, like, a third of the month. So, you know, whatever. You come back from Sima, you'd fall forward in November and, you know, finally maybe your hangover and your, you know, Vegas would seep from your veins and it would be like almost Thanksgiving. So different time.
All right. Let's talk about the Cadillac LYRIQ, which-- I drove that a few years ago now at this point, a couple of years ago. And I was really impressed with it, the interior, the exterior design. It's a really intriguing product. And then since that time Cadillac basically didn't really build all that many of them.
Finally they're starting to get them out there. This is the year that GM CEO Mary Barra says is the year of execution. So I guess that means we're finally getting some press cars from Cadillac LYRIQ. And you drove it. What did you think? This must have been the first time for you, right?
BYRON HURD: Yep. Yeah. This is a-- first time behind the wheel. And this is a pretty loaded up model. And it says it's about $83,500 and change. So this is a dual motor all wheel drive and loaded up.
It's got Super Cruise, which I got to play with a little bit. The automatic lane changing is quite impressive. And when I say automatic lane change, it doesn't just mean, oh, you tap the turn signal and then it does the rest for you. As you're traveling down the road, if you come up on slow traffic while you have Super Cruise enabled, it will decide to pass those cars for you. So you don't really get a choice unless you disable the feature.
But, like, so I was out on the freeway yesterday. And, you know, of course had my-- had Super Cruise set at the speed limit. Came up on a slightly slower car and sure enough Super Cruise took care of it for me without me even having to think about it. In fact, I was distracted by kind of enjoying the hands-free experience that when the turn signal came on I wasn't expecting it and looked up and realized how close I'd gotten to the car in front of me. And sure enough the Cadillac took care of it.
So that's impressive. I'm not big on self-driving or, like, the semi self-driving and all that kind of stuff. It doesn't do anything for me. I'd rather be the one driving the car. That's kind of why I'm in this business to begin with. But it is impressive to see it working that way, and impressive to see it think, like, for lack of a better word.
Like, it made the same decision I would make in that situation and that's what I want from these systems. So it's cool to see progress being made, even if it's not the kind of thing that I'm about to run out there and buy. So pretty impressed by this. And just about everybody I think is going to get the chance to drive this car while we've got it. Because everybody wants to play with the LYRIQ. So we'll get some stories out of this too. So.
GREG MIGLIORE: It reminds me a little bit of the the Celestic from a design standpoint, only, you know a third, less than that of the price.
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: So honestly, when I look at it, I would consider, as I look at EVs-- if I could get a low end one it's definitely one I would consider purchasing because I think it has a very unique design aesthetic, which is something I look at, kind of a throwback. Again I was very impressed with everything, stem to stern about the car.
It's-- even around metro Detroit, where it seems like you see prototypes, you see cars a year before they're sold for the general public, the LYRIQ still is getting attention, whenever I see different people in it. Like, I have a neighbor who has one. And the other neighbors are always like, what's this? You know. And usually I'm used to that being, you know, me with the press cars. So definitely an attention-getter.
BYRON HURD: It is. And honestly, like, the interior on it is what really blows me away. And I had gotten to see the interior, because, again, I did a preview event back in, I don't know. It was snowing and it was years ago.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: But it just-- if all Cadillac interiors kind of started at around this baseline, nobody would ever complain about Cadillac interiors. Like this is like easily, honestly, a better interior than Escalade by far, if you ask me. The only complaint I have is the over-reliance on the piano black, the gloss black, whatever you want to call it.
Because while, like, everything looks gorgeous, so many of the surfaces that you touch regularly are finished in that. And, like, yesterday when I was just trying to get a couple quick photos before I hand it off to whoever's driving it next, I was struggling to keep stuff clean enough, literally just to grab a couple smartphone pics and, like, change menus and stuff on the screen.
So it's the one thing that, like, it's been driving us crazy for like the last 10, 15 years. Because it became really popular, like, right after, like, 2000 or so, everybody started doing this piano black thing. And it really hasn't completely gone away, especially because it blends nicely with all the touch screens that we're putting in everything.
But keeping it clean, keeping it scratch-free is a chore. And so seeing how much they rely on it is a little disappointing. But apart from that, I really have no complaints about that interior at all.
GREG MIGLIORE: No, I agree with you. That's basically, when you look at it, you're like, why hasn't Cadillac been doing this all of the time? You know. It really has that sort of sense of, you know, futuristic, but also kind of like gravitas that goes to the past that, you know, many, many other Cadillacs have certainly been lacking. So, yeah. It's pretty nice.
I drove it at a North American Car of the Year testing. And this was a while ago. I'm trying to remember if this was '22 or maybe even '21. And they were still wiping cars down very thoroughly because of, you know, it was still very pandemic-y at that point.
And I remember one of the folks came out and was like, oh, you missed a spot with your, like, crazy Clorox wipe because there were still fingerprints all over the-- all of that piano black trim. And there's acres of it. But you know what? It's-- we used to ding them for making interiors that looked cheap.
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Now the criticism is, hey, this actually looks pretty swanky for a pretty reasonable price. Bob Lutz had a great line once about how we spent a lot of money on these interiors to make them look expensive. They just didn't look that way. And as you can imagine, like, nobody tells it like it is more than Maximum Bob.
And I forget which Cadillac it was, but it was like, you know, late 2000s Cadillac, early 2010s. And that was really spot on. You know, they'd have all this wood trim. They'd be, like, purple. The leather would be in there but it wouldn't even really look like leather. So hopefully they're putting those days behind them.
BYRON HURD: Yeah. Well-- and even more recently than that I was on a drive for the Cadillac XT6 when it launched. So this would have been, I mean, five, six years ago at least at this point. But still we had-- I was driving with-- I actually-- had been Doug Demuro. I don't recall. It might have been one of his last, you know, pedestrian programs before he just went off and did YouTube forever.
But we were driving. We had somebody from GM in the car and we stopped for one of our breaks. We were asking about the dash materials because we had been touching and clicking and tapping and all the things you do on a first drive. And he said, "Oh, well, it's wood because we only use wood in Cadillac. It wouldn't be anything but plastic."
And we looked at each other because when we had pushed on that dash trim, nothing about it had said wood to us.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: So either he was mistaken, which is unlikely, considering he was literally in charge of that project, or it was wood but it didn't feel like wood, which sort of defeats the purpose. Like, if you look at something and it doesn't give you the sensation of the material you expect, that doesn't meet your expectations.
So, you know, it's certainly something they've improved on in recent years. And, you know, the XT6 being kind of slotted beneath Escalade permanently doesn't do it any favors. But, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, well, if you're putting the money and the time into it, why does the final product still not impress? And here we are.
GREG MIGLIORE: No, it's-- GM interiors have been uneven across different vehicles, different vehicle lines. Even in the same car there would be, like, part of it would look amazing and then you would get to, like, you know, the door panels. And it's like, wow, this is the same rubbery plastic that you see in an old Chevy Equinox and it's in this other thing, or it looks like it. So very uneven. But at the same time, when they do it right, it's as good as anybody's. It really is.
So, let's talk-- while we're talking Cadillac, let's talk about the opulent velocity concept, which, that's kind of cool, as that's looking at a way forward here for the vaunted V history here as well. So you wrote that up, both those pieces. If you are-- I don't know what the weather's going to be.
You could be skiing or you could be golfing this weekend or on the patio, but if you're doing so and you want to have some fun time go back and check out Byron's retrospective of the last 20 years of the Cadillac V line. So that's my plug for the site. But tell me about this concept.
BYRON HURD: Well, it's-- we don't really know much. I mean-- and hopefully Cadillac's actually going to show something at Sebring so we can get an idea of what this thing is. Because they sent us kind of like a blurry little teaser video--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: --that's, like, intentionally out of focus. And you can kind of-- like, the image is kind of like superimposed on itself a few times. But it looks like it might be a coupe or a sedan instead of-- I was-- when we heard about this I was expecting it to be like the OPTIQ but with the Blazer EV SS powertrain or something like that, right. Like, a, you know, a crossover with some punch that builds on an existing Ultium thing that GM could kind of just kind of out the door.
This looks like, I don't know. There are images of this where it almost looks like a Camaro.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: So, yeah, I'm intrigued. And obviously, you know, if we're going to get an all electric V model, you know, Cadillac performance has never been a slouch. So if they're going to do it then they're going to do it. So it's intriguing.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. I think it's-- Cadillac could use something, like, maybe whatever we think this is, I think they could get some of the discussion going as far as where they could definitely put the brand going forward. It's a cryptic teaser. But it's in that sense it's a pretty good teaser because we're talking about it, we're excited about it.
We've got a Sebring coming up, which, hey, we'll see what happens there. Sometimes Cadillac and Chevy will show stuff there. And that's always-- there's another rite of spring when you can watch Sebring and, you know, it definitely feels like spring usually at that point.
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Looking back at the last 20 years of Cadillac V, when I looked at your list of some of the milestone cars, I found myself drawn to the ones that were actually less successful than some of the more, like, you know, commercially viable and well-received ones. Like, the STS-V, I like that car a lot. It had the Northstar V8. It was a big car.
There weren't many things like that at the time. I thought it had more of a presence than the CTS. Yeah, I really liked that car. I remember having conversations with my brother in the, like, early 2000s about how, like, a used one of these things would be a lot of fun.
They were not cheap at the time, of course, because they weren't new back then. But I just like that, like, kind of, again, the presence that that car had. STS-- what is that? When they went to the alpha numeric nomenclature, whatever, that was what the old Seville was, right?
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's-- we're thinking of, you know, throwbacks and different parts of the podcast. But I like that one. The CTS-V wagon with those taillights, what a rocket ship. I don't know if there were any cars that symbolized just how good GM could make a car at a time when the company was in such a dark place, you know, 2007-8-9.
I remember literally preparing to write, like the GM bankruptcy story and some of the financial issues when I worked for Autoweek. And we had a CTS-V in the-- or a wagon in the basement. And it was just this gorgeous thing with those taillights.
I went to a reveal for it actually at the-- a hotel. I forget where they did it. I want to say it was like the Birmingham Townsend, which is this pretty nice hotel in metro Detroit, or somewhere like that, where they were clearly trying to get the, like, the Cadillac name to be associated with, you know, very much like what rich people, I guess for lack of a better way to put it.
And funny story about that event. I was fairly young at that time, early 20s. And one of the Cadillac guys handed me his keys, or tried to hand me his keys, assuming I was the valet. I was like, well, actually I'm the reporter for Autoweek.
But my hair was a bit darker back then. And, you know, the dress code was a bit more formal back then too. It seemed like every event you would dress up, you know. Now people wear whatever they want for press events. So, I don't know. What stands out to this-- from this list to you? And I know you are a Blackwing owner.
BYRON HURD: I mean, I'm kind of with you in that I think some of the most interesting ones are the ones that never really made the performance headlines. I mean, like, the XLR-V, which, you know, was really more Corvette than Cadillac.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: And, like, to your point, like, we were talking about this list as I was building it in our work channels. And we were talking about how well some of these designs have aged, and looking at, like, some of the old art and science, like, stuff, like when the kind of squared off Cadillacs really kind of kicked into high gear.
You look at the STS. It aged really, really well.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: Maybe better than the original CTS did so.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yes. Yes.
BYRON HURD: So, like, looking at of these, like, the XLR looks really good now. And, of course, the CTS wagon looks great. But the one that really disappoints me the most is really the CT6-V, because that was an amazing looking car and we got so little of it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yep.
BYRON HURD: And, you know, it would have been wonderful to see that twin turbo V8 actually, you know, do work if we'd gotten some proper V-models out of that. So it's interesting. Listen, it's surprising-- like, for as kind of aggressive as GM has been with some of its performance brands over the years-- like, you look at what they did with SS for a while with Chevy, where it was just like, we're going to make an SS version of everything.
And it really felt like Cadillac was going to do that for a bit. And that's why we saw, kind of like, the XLR-V and everything, you know, in the early days. But they really kind of dialed it back to just the core models. And so you see a lot of repetition in this list because they found the formula and they just really stuck with it and did it.
And that's why we have the CT5-V Blackwing now because that is the distilled essence of CTS-V in its most technologically advanced form, for now anyway. So it's coolest and it was fun to put together. And it's got me kind of, like, thinking about browsing classifieds for an XLR-V.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
BYRON HURD: I don't know why.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right.
BYRON HURD: It's not a car I would ever actually want to own. But I'm just curious what it would cost now. So--
GREG MIGLIORE: That would be a fun car for maybe a couple of summers, you know. And it would be a lot of fun to drive. I drove an XLR on a track in-- I can't remember the name of it. It's basically suburban Chicago, whatever that-- it's like kind of like a like a car club sort of track out there.
BYRON HURD: Audubon?
GREG MIGLIORE: That's what I think it is. But it didn't sound right. But I do think that is right actually.
BYRON HURD: I think that's what it is.
GREG MIGLIORE: But, yeah. That was a fun car to have on the track. And it was, again, pretty unique. And I also really liked the CT6 Blackwing on here as well, with that, you know, that engine that you mentioned that begat, you know, a whole line of cars, well, two of them anyway. But the engine itself was definitely a solar flare. I thought that car was the right size of-- the right blend of power and size too. I drove a purple one around town back in, let's say, '15, '16, somewhere in there. But pretty memorable.
So, it's different. Looking at the history, I kind of wonder if they needed to break off with, like, changing V into V-Sport. And now it's Blackwing is what V was. You know, to me they really changed the essence of what the whole program stood for.
I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I don't know if V necessarily meant as much to, say, AMG or M did to even your casual enthusiasts. I think it-- I mean, it probably didn't. But I think it was building towards that. You know, both those programs are much older than the V line was. So we'll see.
BYRON HURD: And it made things a little extra weird too when they came out with the Escalade V.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yep.
BYRON HURD: And suddenly it was back to, like, this is it. Like, this is the most you're getting. And, you know, you get the supercharged V8 and everything that you get in the five Blackwings. So it is--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: --really the most V you could expect to get out of an Escalade. Because, honestly, like, where are you going to find the kind of corner-carving performance you would expect from any of their other models? It's just not, you know, it's just not realistic.
So it's-- I don't want to say they watered it back down or anything like that. But you can kind of tell that after the whole Blackwing thing fell apart they've been a little bit adrift with their branding. And so it's kind of-- like, it's nice to see that V is going to continue, that we're going to see a V in the electric era of Cadillac.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
BYRON HURD: What that actually looks like though, you know, remains to be seen.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Hear hear. All right. So let's do one more throwback to the Dodge Magnum. You did a feature classic on this piece, on this car. And future classics-- we do maybe one every couple of weeks. We talk about a car that's just sort of maybe out of the contemporary realm.
You can still probably get one of these. Around here you can definitely get one of these. But cars like that. They're still available but we think they're going to probably be showing up in Cars and Bids and Hagerty maybe five to 10 years from now in more, you know, with the value sort of going back up.
And like I told you, I was like, anytime you do a story on the Magnum, we got to talk about it on the podcast, just because I-- I always liked the Dodge Magnum. I thought it was a very cool wagon. Yeah. Do you think this is a-- I mean, when it's a future classic, do you think this is going to be-- what do you think its future holds?
Do you think-- like, I don't think this is a con-core classic. I think this is more like a, you know, I'd say almost like a Jeep Cherokee, like an XJ is right now, where a nice one's pretty expensive but you can still get a cheap one that's kind of rusty and you still see them on the road. So--
BYRON HURD: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --you know. Something like that.
BYRON HURD: Yeah. It's definitely in that realm. I mean, it's not like-- we were just talking about the CTS-V wagon, which was made in just ridiculously small numbers. And they actually made them with a stick shift. So that, you know, like, the few of those that are actually out there, when they come up they sell for-- they pretty much have been selling for more than MSRP since the day they have arrived.
The Magnums were a dime a dozen for a long time. Even the SRT8s, which, at the time were, you know, top dog. But we look back at them-- this was the LX platform before it got all the upgrades that we associate with modern LX. So there were no Hellcats back then.
The SRT models didn't even have a limited slip differential. It was a straight up open differential with a little, like, brake-based traction control type stuff. But nothing-- you know, no real effort to actually, like, make a drag performance car or anything like that. Besides, of course, you know, 6.1 liter V8, which never hurts.
So, you know, you can buy the SRT8s for-- I mean, they're going to cost you, and probably cost you more than the performance would justify. But they're crazy cool, especially the refreshed SRT8s because you only got essentially a model year and a half out of those. So they're very few and far between.
And there's some cool things you can do with this platform. Obviously because they carried it forward, you can swap Hellcat engines into them if you want to. People have swapped Viper engines. Even Mopar had a Ram-- or I'm sorry, a Viper SRT-10 powered Challenger at SEMA years and years and years ago.
So these are kind of like LEGO cars. You can do a lot of stuff with them. Honestly that's what makes them very, like, popular targets for thieves because, you know, the street racers, they'd wreck a car. They can go buy another one for parts and swap whatever they need. It doesn't matter how old it is. It'll all bolt over. It all fits.
Even the interiors in the new ones, which were much nicer than the old Magnum, all that stuff pretty much will bolt right up. And most of the seat frames and everything are pretty much identical. They just got re-skinned with the new interiors for the Charger, the Challenger, and the 300.
So-- and you look at Europe, where they had the-- the Magnum was essentially done as a Chrysler 300 Estate as they would call it over there. So, like, there are so many different versions of this car, so many different permutations of its powertrains that are still out there, which I think are going to keep it alive for a long time.
Because it's kind of like a Jeep where, like, yeah, you go buy an XJ and maybe it's a little tired, but you can throw parts at it and have effectively a refreshed brand new car because the support is there. Right? And I think the LX cars will be like that too, because as long as there are 2023 Hellcats running around, the 2007, 2006 Magnums have a steady supply of replacement parts. So it's a nice, deep, if a bit, you know, truncated little field there that you can get into.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK. All right. So let's go ahead and spend some money-- a little bit of a segue to some vans and wagons. Isaiah writes, "Long-time listener of the podcast. Really enjoy the show and the dialogue." Hey, thanks for listening. We appreciate that.
"This is a for fun spend my money, but also considering pulling the trigger on it." So OK, I like that. We're sort of asking for a friend, but might actually do it. Right? "Budge is $10,000 and under. Must be a stick shift. After driving a stick shift Mitsubishi van on deployment and working at a dealership I fell in love, so to speak--"
Hey, great language, turn a phrase there.
"--with the Fiat 500 Abarth at the top. But I also love the Volkswagen and would consider something with more practicality than my two-door Wrangler or looking just for something that's easier to get in and out of." His grandmother is partial to the Fiat though. Any wagon options? And no SUVs or trucks. And I'm just kind of synthesizing here. "I appreciate you all in the past inputs, hence the Wrangler."
So, I mean, this is very much a podcast tailored to many of the cars you have owned of in your past. I got a couple here. I will say this, if you and your grandmother both think the Fiat 500 Abarth is the choice, I kind of think you've answered your own question.
Because that car's a little bit of a handful-- to use the cliche, a pocket rocket. That's exactly what that thing is. If you looked it up in Webster's dictionary you would see a Fiat 500 Abarth under the term "pocket rocket." Or perhaps, Andre Rachaad, the younger brother of Maurice Rachaad-- hockey players from the 1950s for the Montreal Canadiens-- deep cut. But Andre Rachaad was known as the "Pocket Rocket" as well.
All right. So that's my deep trivia. I would also say, looking at just some just random listings, you could get a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen with the diesel, front wheel drive with the stick shift-- it's got about 91,000 miles on it, and it has the six-speed manual. And the sticker for this is-- we'll call it $10,600 according to CarGurus.
So you want to spend about $10 grand and you said you like Volkswagens? That is a little less, like, serious than say Fiat 500 Abarth. Although the thing about the 500 in general is those doors kind of swing out. You could really get in and out of it. It's not as bad as you might think for a very small golf cart of a car. So some things to consider there. Those are my two choices. What do you think, Byron?
BYRON HURD: Well, you nailed the Jetta Sportwagen, which I had, like, waiting on my screen. I was like, oh, this is going to be great. But you beat me to it. But I looked at a few of these. There's actually-- there's some fun stuff you can get in this category if you're willing to accept something with some miles on it.
I found some Honda Civic SIs, which, obviously not a wagon, but you can find. If you're willing to go back to, like, 2004 or '05 you can get the EP3 Civic Si hatchback, which only had 160 horsepower, but it had that cool, funky manual transmission that was like way up on the dashboard. And it was basically like the size of a modern Honda Fit, which doesn't exist anymore. But you get the idea.
So that's a fun option. You can actually find for that price. Fiesta STs with some miles are actually fallen into this range. That's a good alternative to the Abarth because you're getting the kind of like, you know, the tiny little four cylinder with tons of power and the noisy exhaust and all that fun stuff.
And I owned a 2016 Fiesta ST for a while. I really enjoyed that car. So that's a solid option. But even a regular Fiesta-- you know, it doesn't have to be an ST. You can get-- anything-- just stay, of course, away from the powershift transmission. Since you want the manual you won't have to worry about that.
But there are a couple other, like, weird little things you can find in here too. Like a Mitsubishi Lancer isn't a bad choice in this category. They're fun, sporty and inexpensive. You can find them just about anywhere, certainly be able to find them in your price range.
And if you're really feeling brave you can go with an older MazdaSpeed3 or VW GTI. Reliability on those, definitely more questionable, especially if you're dealing with a lot of miles on the Mazda in terms of engine. But for body and, like, weird electronics would be probably your biggest issue in the VW. So, you know, it's all about the miles of the car, the condition of course. But for $10 grand you can get a lot of fun, weird little manual things if you're feeling adventurous.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. That's-- I think we kind of came at this from different ways. But that gives you some choices there for a theoretical scenario that, hey, maybe Isaiah will go ahead and look at one of these. And I think they-- you know, we mentioned, say, the XLR is just a fun car for a couple of summers. A couple of these things here could be fun for a couple of years and then, you know, move on, get something else. You know, be more practical. But that's life.
BYRON HURD: When if-- especially if you like the little Fiat, the Jeep Renegade was sold in all wheel drive with a manual transmission for just a couple of years. And that's a good little combination. Because you get a little turbo engine, all wheel drive, six-speed. It drives like little baby hatchback, tons of fun. But you don't pay the, like, you know, performance sporty vehicle tax. So.
GREG MIGLIORE: The Jeep Renegade was a vehicle we rated highly in our small crossover comparison a few years ago. I also drove one the night that-- I don't know how to put this-- the night COVID started. In Google Photos it shows you back, like, you know, two years ago, four years ago, et cetera. And one showed up on March, like, 12th or something, so exactly four years ago.
I had the Renegade overloaded with groceries, and then the next day it was like, hey, this is a pandemic. You know, our office closed for allegedly two weeks and we're still doing this podcast over Google Hangouts. So that's just a weird bit of trivia. I looked at that. I was like, wow, what a weird car to have when you really have to go shopping for, you know, at that time we thought it might be a couple of weeks. And yeah, hey it worked out, got me through. It's kind of fun car to drive.
So, all right. Well, that's all the time we have. If you enjoy the Autoblog podcast-- well, first of all, send us your Spend My Moneys. That's great. The podcast at autoblog.com. Five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, hey, wherever you get your show. Be safe out there and we'll see you next week.
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