In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski. In the news, BMW revealed the Neue Klasse X EV, Jeep Wrangler drops the V8, Ford Mustang gets a 810-horsepower supercharger kit and Shell leans into EV charging. We look back on the life and designs of Marcello Gandini. We discuss the various automatic shifters that are now on the market. We talk about driving the Mercedes-Benz CLA, as well as the 2025 Mini Countryman JCW and the electric Countryman SE. Finally, we help a listener pick a newish truck or SUV for around $40,000 in this week's "Spend My Money" segment.
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 to talk about the BMW Neue Klasse. Stick around. We'll break that down, if you're curious, how I just slipped into German. We'll tell you what that is. And it's definitely pretty cool.
It's the end of the road for the V8 and the Wrangler. Jeep will celebrate with a special edition for the 392 on its way out. We're going to supercharge the Mustang. Well, we're not going to. But there's a factory-backed kit that will make it comparable with some Hellcats. There's some fighting words.
We'll talk about some of the latest news from the EV world. That's the best way to boil that down. And Marcello Gandini dies at 85. We'll talk about some of his most memorable designs. We road tested the Mercedes CLA 250 4MATIC and the MINI Countryman JCW and the EV. We will spend your money.
A few other surprises will probably drop into the show if we have time. With that, I will bring in senior editor for all things consumer, Jeremy Korzeniewski.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Howdy, Greg. I'm happy to be here. Happy to talk about muscle cars, overpowered Jeeps, and European classics.
GREG MIGLIORE: I like it. Actually, that's a pretty good way to summarize the intro. Maybe that's what I should have said right off the top. But now you've got the long and short version. So you can jump around in the show, figure out what you want to listen to. Yeah, man. Last time I talked to you on the show, it was, like, I think, kind of warm out. It's snowing right now. It feels like hardcore winter again.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It's been so weird here in the Midwest. Like, looking out in my yard, it's funny to see that literally everything is in bloom. Magnolia trees in my neighborhood are, like, 3/4 of the way through their only bloom session of the year. And yet there's snow falling. So yeah, welcome to springtime in the Midwest.
GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome to springtime in the Midwest. We'll see. Last year, we had a very cold April. It didn't really warm up until May.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: But then when it did--
GREG MIGLIORE: So we'll see.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --it really overcompensated because it--
GREG MIGLIORE: That's true.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --got hot and humid. So I'll take a slow, gradual, like, move into summertime. That would be fine with me.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. It doesn't seem to be the-- it's, like, you know, tidal waves hitting each other. And then we get eventually to the other side. So--
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: There you go.
GREG MIGLIORE: --we shall see. Neue class. People have probably been wondering, what is this thing? You went to Europe. It's been a few weeks at this point, almost probably over a month. You got to see it. Your story, of course, is on site. Let's break it down. What is this thing?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Well, it's really a sea change for BMW. We've seen the-- OK, so first of all, Neue Klasse. That is my terrible German pronunciation. In English, that just means new class. So for the remainder of the show, for the sake of not getting ourselves tongue tied, we can just say new class. But Neue Klasse is the proper pronunciation.
So yes, the New Class BMW is exactly that. We've seen the sedan form already. It's been floating around for actually a couple years now, but most recently in its most finished form. I did take a look at that when I was across the pond. But the big news is the Vision Neue Klasse X.
So this represents the new class in crossover slash SUV form. BMW kind of is nodding to its history with the New Class. Long-time followers of the BMW brand may realize that this is not the first New Class. The original New Class hails all the way back to the early 1960s. And it really is the vehicle that most directly modernized BMW from prewar to postwar vehicles.
The Neue Class or the New Class originally was a mid-size sedan. It started with 1.5-liter engines, graduated to a 1.6, 1.8, 2.0 as it continued going on. And all the way into the 1970s, this New Class kind of led the way for BMW. And it is actually what morphed into the BMW 5 Series that we know and love today.
So to say that the original New Class was monumental for BMW is an understatement. And the fact that they've decided to name this new vehicle architecture that will be coming out here very shortly the New Class kind of tells you exactly how BMW sees it. The original New Class was a major shift in the company. The new upcoming New Class is going to represent a similar kind of shift, an absolute change, a redirection, if you will, from the BMW that we know today to what BMW believes customers are going to want in the future.
The most obvious change is in styling. You look at the New Class, the Vision New Class X, next to a, say, current BMW X3 or BMW X5, and they couldn't be more different. They are-- you know, one is arguably-- but a lot of people would say overstyled. And then the new one, if anything, is maybe a little bit too restrained.
I think, probably, when it does come out in actual production form, we'll see a little bit more expressive styling in the vehicles that actually will be inspired by the Neue Klasse X when they make it into production. We'll probably have-- you know, they won't be quite as slab sided. They maybe will have a little bit more depth to the styling, you might say. But we've been assured that basically 80% of what you see is what is planned.
Oddly enough, even though the first thing that you might want to talk about with the Vision Neue Klasse X or the other Neue Class or New Class sedan-- even though styling is the first thing you want to talk about, it might actually be the least interesting part of the vehicle. Everything about the car is rethought, re-engineered.
The chassis is completely new. It's built on the principles of BMW with, you know, being fun to drive and being, like, having an emotional connection, or so they say. No one's actually driven it outside of potentially BMW engineers. But they say it's going to be a BMW. You're definitely going to tell.
But man, you step inside the thing, and it is like-- it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what you might what you might say. It's not mid-century modern. It's not Bauhaus. It's not-- it's not, like, anything other than restrained and subdued, especially when compared to what we know of BMW today.
You could see it from the steering wheel, which is very interestingly styled, the way that the spokes come out. You can see it in pictures on our site. The control surfaces, there's multi-function buttons on the steering wheel. There's a touch screen. There's no rotary controllers to be found anywhere.
Seating surfaces are made from recycled materials, recycled fish nets. There's all kinds of textiles inside, very little of what you'd consider, like, leather or even faux leather. It'll be interesting to see how much of that makes it into production. But they say that those were chosen on purpose. And they say 80% of what you see is what they're planning.
So there's a lot of questions that the Neue Klasse of vehicles in both sedan and SUV form-- a lot of questions remain unanswered. How much-- I mean, the biggest one is how much of what we're seeing in these conceptual or, as BMW says, these visions? How much of that is going to translate? And in what does translate, how clearly or how close is the vision to what is actually going to be in production? We're going to have to wait and see.
Another big part of it is personalization, too. BMW's doing a lot when it comes to the idea-- in the same way that you might buy an iPhone or you might buy an Android and you might-- you know, you want to change your background. You want to change your ringtones. You want to change volumes. You want to change colorways, pathways, all those kinds of things. You might even want to map buttons in a certain way. And BMW is going to allow you to do that with its upcoming software updates.
We played around with a little bit, everything from what the car sounds like as you hit the accelerator pedal to the color pathways. And you can even download your Instagram feed using an app on BMW's latest infotainment system. And you can actually have your own Instagram feed scrolling through as the background photos on the infotainment.
So I guess take everything that you know about BMW right now or everything you think you know about BMW right now and put it aside because a lot is going to be changing. And it's all being previewed in this new class of vehicles.
GREG MIGLIORE: Well, I think that's a pretty good way to sum it all up right there. Nicely said. I'm curious. When you-- and you saw these things in the flesh, right?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Correct, yes.
GREG MIGLIORE: Is there anything that maybe won't come through, like, you know, when you're scrolling through your phone, looking on the site? In the pictures, anything that, like, is worth, you know, really calling out that is-- maybe it's an Easter egg. Maybe it's just a little bit of a surprise and delight type of feature on these things.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yes, definitely. I would say mostly inside. What I saw in the exterior of the vehicle, I think, translates into photos pretty well. The inside, I think, if anything, BMW could be accused of being a little bit clinical in its interior furnishings and designs and styles at present. And that's probably been the case for a good long time.
The Neue Klasse is the exact opposite. It's warm. It's inviting. It's comfortable. It's fabrics and textiles instead of plastics and, you know, leathers. That's really the biggest thing that you wouldn't get from looking at it in photos or on videos that you really feel immersive when you're opening up the doors and actually getting inside.
It's so, so anti what I think of BMW right now. That's honestly the biggest thing that stands out.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK, sounds pretty cool. Well, check out that story. If you're listening to "The Autoblog Podcast" over the weekend, scroll on back. Jeremy actually works the weekend. So I'm sure he'll keep these things front and center for your viewing pleasure. Check out the story that went up this week. And it's a good one, pretty interesting stuff.
So let's shift gears. We're going to go domestic here. It's the end of the road for the Jeep Wrangler V8, which we knew. But the 2024 Wrangler Rubicon 392 goes out with, as it seems like all Stellantis models do, with a final edition, which I think is a fitting end for this very powerful Jeep. I've always personally liked this engine a lot, the 6.4-liter one. It sounds great. And you also get things like a winch, big tires. And they're just going to make 3,700 of these.
So, you know, I would say this. I'm sad to see the Wrangler lose the 392. But for me-- and I know you're kind of a Jeep guy as well-- the 392 was kind of like a party trick for the Wrangler, something that they put in there in response to the fact that after decades of not having really any domestic competition, suddenly the Bronco showed up.
So it's like, OK, Jeep is like, how can we counter that? What can we do that's different? It's very, you know, Stellantis, Mopary-- Fiat, Chrysler as it has been in the last five, six years. And I think this was definitely going into, like, the standard playbook. But to me, a Jeep does not have to have a V8. Like, a Wrangler does not have to have some big, crazy hot rod V8 in it. So it was cool. I think these things will be collector's items. But so it goes.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. I mean, I totally agree with you, completely unnecessary, but if you are a car guy, unnecessary in a really awesome way. You can do amazing things with gearing. I used to have a 2.5-liter, four-cylinder Wrangler with a five-speed manual. You put the-- I don't remember what the torque was, pretty low, somewhere, you know, maybe 120, 130 pound-feet. I don't know. A far cry. It's like what one cylinder of the 392 puts out.
But you put the thing in four-wheel low and put it in first gear and-- I mean, nothing's going to stop it. It'll climb up anything. Take your foot off the clutch. Let it start climbing. And you barely even need to nudge the accelerator because that's what Jeep does. They've got these two-speed transfer cases with extremely ultra-low gearing. That's literally what four-wheel drive low means.
So does a Wrangler need a 392 cubic inch, 6.4 liter if you prefer, V8 engine with way too much horsepower? No, it absolutely does not. Is it cool that they put it in there? Yeah, it's really cool. It works on the road a lot better than you might think. It makes the Wrangler, you know, kind of into more of a highway cruiser than it's ever been and, you know, one that'll also send strips of rubber down the pavement when you get onto it in 1/4 mile.
So, you know, is it cool? Yeah. Is it necessary? No. Then I think the real question is, if this is going away, what are they going to-- what are they going to replace it with? Are they going to just abandon the overpowered off-roader segment entirely? That seems doubtful. I mean--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Greg, you used the term Mopary a little bit ago in the--
GREG MIGLIORE: It's a technical term.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, but it's apt. And if you know anyone who's been watching Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge for the last decade knows exactly what you mean when you say Mopary. There's definitely going to be something, you know, stupid power that they'll replace it with. I don't know if it's going to be a Hurricane Inline-Six. I don't know if it's going to be an overpowering of the 4xe plug-in powertrain. I don't know. Is this the end of stupid performance in Jeeps? I don't think that's likely.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right. So we'll stay with this topic here. It's definitely not the end of stupid performance in Mustangs. As the Challenger Hellcat is on its way out, speaking of final editions for all those different Mopar muscle cars, Ford decided to unveil a $10,000 factory-supported Whipple supercharger kit that will get your Mustang to 810 horsepower, which seems like an awesome idea for almost any Mustang tuner fan. And now you get factory support, which I think is-- for me, that makes this even more compelling.
It kind of blows my mind to think of 810 horsepower in a Mustang. I've driven, you know, the Shelby GT500. These things have had a lot of horsepower. But this still seems-- you know, again, it's probably along the lines of a 392 Wrangler. It's a little gratuitous, a little gluttonous. But hey, it's all good. I'm here for it. It's a muscle car. It really takes the Mustang to muscle car status.
I don't think I would probably upgrade my Mustang in this fashion just because-- I mean, it's certainly cool. I like it. Just I like some of the other tactics they've taken with the less powerful models, you know? I'd probably go, like, Dark Horse or something, a little more of a proportional response. So what do you think of this thing?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Well, I mean, I'm all in favor of it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: We're talking about--
GREG MIGLIORE: I'm not against it either, just to be clear.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Oh, no. Yeah, no. Yeah, I didn't get that impression. So a regular Mustang GT is 486 horsepower. The Dark Horse is 500 horsepower. This is 810. I mean, that's pretty great, up to 810. But even more important, torque is up to 615 pound-feet, which is nearly 200 pound-feet more than what the stock makes.
I mean, anyone who follows the aftermarket will be able to tell you that there's no way to get that kind of power increase from 486 to 800 or 810 and 418 pound-feet up to 615 pound-feet for $10,000 and have a three-year 36,000-mile factory warranty on top of it. I mean, it's a kind of a slam dunk.
And its 49-state legal. So if you're listening to this and live in California, sorry. None of this applies to you unless you kind of want to skirt the rules. This is a Whipple kit, too. Ford and the Mustang has kind of a little bit of a long history with these--
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --Whipple superchargers. That's been a popular upgrade for, I mean, several generations. And Whipple sells a kit, too. And theirs is $9,295. But then you add a $700 warranty. And that makes it about the same price.
But Whipple says that their kit is not currently emissions legal, whereas Ford is saying, yep, we've already done the work. I assume it requires some sort of-- well, not assume. It clearly requires some sort of ECU flash. But I mean, Ford's done the dirty work for you and are offering it for roughly the same price. So I mean, by all means, Mustang owners, upgrade your cars.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, sounds good. Yeah, Whipple superchargers and Mustangs, I do think, are synonymous.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Oh, absolutely.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, let's go back into a little more of the serious realm, a little less whimsical and fun. Shell announced plans this week to close about 1,000 stations and invest in an EV network. A lot of this will be to position itself to take advantage of the growing electric vehicle space and other markets, like China.
But broadly speaking, some of these implications will impact the United States. What, essentially, they're trying to do is make it so there'll be more chargers controlled by Shell and make them more accessible to everyday drivers, make the experience of charging your car a lot more like filling up your car with gas.
Joel Stocksdale drove to Chicago last month for the Auto Show and the EV9. He had a great experience. And he purposely said he didn't do a lot of planning ahead just to see what it would be like, knowing that he had a very capable vehicle with a lot of range. And I think he had a plug with him. So worse comes to worse, you just find an outlet and wait it out. So he knew he had some margin for error there.
But looking at this news, I think it could be good for consumers, ultimately, in the US, especially if you could pull into a Shell station and there's just a couple of chargers for you, especially if they're fast ones. I think Shell also wants to look at this holistically and make it so-- it's like even gas stations aren't the greatest place to spend time. But I think they want to make it so if you pulled into, like, a charge station, you know, there's coffee shop, like, places to go to the bathroom, Wi-Fi, all the basic things that you would need in, well, a gas station.
So I think it's interesting Shell bought up another charge network. And I believe they are behind Tesla and maybe somebody else. They're in the top, at least, five as far as companies that are in the charging space, which I think is interesting. And it does seem like a forward-looking move to me.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, absolutely. It goes along with the next piece of news that we're going to talk about. But, you know, I happen to be an EV owner myself. Mine's a Tesla. And I can tell you one of the reasons why I ended up with a Tesla and not another EV is access to the Supercharger network. You know, Joel's experience, he drove a Kia EV9 from Detroit to Chicago and had a flawless experience.
That's what I've come to expect with the Tesla Supercharger network is a flawless experience. The more additional chargers are out there and available besides Teslas and, you know, besides the Electrify America and the other large ones-- the more there are, the better. Competition is going to be good and just availability even more so. And it's going to become more and more important as more and more electric cars end up on the roads, which leads us to the next point that we were going to talk about.
More and more electric cars are naturally being sold. It's just a fact. You'll probably see a lot of headlines. You have over the last couple of months. And I'm sure you will over the coming months and years that there's a lot of people that are not ready to buy an EV just yet.
However, the numbers are still drastically increasing. You know, it was-- I remember when I first started covering electric vehicles in the early 2010s. And, you know, the numbers were like fractions of a percentage. Last year, the number, it was-- I think it was over 8% of all vehicles sold in the United States were EVs. So I mean, that's drastic. That's huge. And the more are out there, the more are going to need to plug in and charge.
However, a lot of people are extremely concerned about the government forcing them into electric vehicles. If you follow Autoblog and have an open mind, you'll realize that's not the case. No one is forcing people to buy electric vehicles. But what they have been doing is making regulations that are going to force automakers into offering them and offering them in much larger quantities than they even do currently. But the federal government has just literally this week announced that it is lowering the standards of certain calculations that would have forced car companies to massively increase the number of electric vehicles that they are selling unless they wanted to pay millions or potentially even billions of dollars in fines.
So here's a quick overview of the math. I know that this isn't interesting. But it is important just to establish the reasoning behind this rule change and why it's important. Currently, a Ford F-150 Lightning, which is the electric truck, is rated at the miles per gallon equivalent of 237.7 miles per gallon.
That's not what you'll see on the window sticker. But that is what CAFE, corporate average fuel economy, rates it as, wildly inaccurate, wildly overstated. They were going to correct that wild overstating starting for the 2027 year by reducing that MPGe from 237.7 to 67.1, massive, more realistic estimate of its real-world efficiency, for sure, when compared with a gasoline-powered Ford truck.
That was a 72% drop. It was going to happen in 2027. Instead, there's going to be a gradual reduction starting that year. It's going to go slowly and end up in 2030, three years later, at 65% reduction, which is even smaller overall than the one that was going to happen in 2027.
So there's the math. What that means for car companies is that their current electric vehicles are going to give them much more leeway to continue selling gas-powered vehicles in the numbers that allowed them to continue raking in profits. And for consumers, the end result is going to be more choice between whether you're ready to buy EV. Or if you're not ready to buy EV and you want to stick with gasoline, there's probably going to be more choices available for you to do that thanks to these new government regulations that were just this week passed by the Biden administration.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, sounds good. Way to break it down. I think in this podcast, we're going all over the place, from V8s, to environmental regulations with chargers in between, and of course, the Neue Class.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Well, it is the automotive industry, you know?
GREG MIGLIORE: Indeed. Indeed.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: A lot of different directions it goes.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, One Direction is a band. So don't really know--
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Are you trying to bring in a new audience, Greg, to the podcast?
GREG MIGLIORE: There we go. There we go. All right, let's close out the news section with Marcello Gandini passed on, famous designer for designing the Countach, many, many famous designs, the Stratos. We have a list of his most significant ones. And I mean, outside of like that Lambo and a few other things, I think they're all significant, actually. It really becomes subjective as to what was his best because he has so many great things.
You know, I think you put the Lambo on there as yours. Or did you go with the Miura? That was another good one, too.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I did both. I did the Miura and the Countach.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I also wrote he did a lot of small cars.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Autobianchi A112, Audi 50, Volkswagen Polo. Yeah. One thing that he said is that he believes that just styling a vehicle is-- he said just styling is not fun. He believes that a true vehicle has to be designed from the ground up. And style is a result of its overall design. So man, but if you look at his listing of vehicles that his name is attached to, unbelievable.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, just the number and the depth of it is super impressive.
GREG MIGLIORE: I would love to drive the Miura. And I would love to drive the Alfa Romeo Montreal--
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yes.
GREG MIGLIORE: --which is one that I think people sometimes forget, gorgeous cars.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yes.
GREG MIGLIORE: I did get to drive the Countach in Miami--
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Oh.
GREG MIGLIORE: --if you want to talk about a great setting.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Was it white on white?
GREG MIGLIORE: I did drive a white one. I also drove a red one.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: OK.
GREG MIGLIORE: So there are a lot to drive. It's like driving a truck while laying down that you can't see out of would be the way-- because the seats are so angled. But beautiful car. It just-- I think back to, like, looking at the way that car-- you know, its dimensions, its proportions, its angles, I mean, it's so Gandini. And, you know, it's-- I mean, I don't think it's overstating it to say that a lot of people like cars because of Gandini's cars, you know? He really, you know, did some great work, obviously.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, that's a great way to sum it up. If you're an automotive enthusiast, you are definitely familiar with his designs, even if you're not familiar with his name.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that's true. All right. All right, so we've got a few things to get to. We will spend your money. That's coming up on just a little bit. That's podcast@autoblog.com if you'd like to get in on that or the Mailbag. We have some road tests. And then here's something that we were talking about in Slack. I thought it would just be kind of fun to throw it around the horn here.
When you think about automatic shifters, there's a number of ways-- for a long time, it was very-- it was console mounted. Then it was-- now we're back to stocks. Then there were knobs. There's push buttons. There's all sorts of different things. And I feel like as I've-- I mean, just frankly growing up over the last 40-something years, you noticed which version of this, which genre, was most common in what type of vehicle.
But I guess tell me if I'm crazy. It feels like this is the most I've ever seen all sorts of different approaches at once. Like, I feel like there always was like a prevalence leading towards one or two. I mean, I just drove a Mercedes with a stock. I'm in a Genesis with the console-mounted, like, shifter. You know, it was in a knob in the Maverick.
It's just-- it's like the world is your oyster. You know, GMC was really the push buttons for a while. Do you have a preference? I suppose it might depend on segment.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It does depend on segment. You know, I grew up in a family of muscle car enthusiasts. And, you know, four on the floor is-- yeah, four on the floor, that means a four-speed manual transmission in the center console.
That's kind of what I grew up with. And that's what I have always thought of, like, oh, a performance car has got to have a console-mounted shifter. I don't feel that way at all anymore. Like, the whole idea that, like, oh, you have to have this or else you're not that is a little bit silly to me and more and more so as stick-shift transmissions fall by the wayside.
And don't get me wrong. If I have a choice between an automatic and a manual, I'm taking the manual 10 out of 10 times. Well, 9 out of 10 times, depending on the kind of vehicle that we're talking about. But if it's offered, I want it. And that is, you know-- real long-time drivers may remember console-- or excuse me, column-mounted manual shift levers. I've driven a couple myself. That is the exact opposite of sporty. You don't want a column-mounted manual transmission. So if we're talking manuals, obviously there's only one place for it to be.
In an automatic, I just don't care anymore whether it's on the console. In fact, I've gotten to the point where I actually prefer the stock shifter that comes right out of the steering wheel. It's a spot that doesn't take up space necessary for anything else or even useful for anything else. You very rarely interact with it if it's an automatic vehicle. So why put it someplace where it could be better used-- where that space could be better used elsewhere?
Push buttons, I've yet to find a push button that I feel like offers me some sort of benefit over any other system. Genesis has this weird orb knob thing.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: You know, it's kind of neat looking but completely unnecessary, you know? So as I've gotten older, as I've gotten more practical, give me a column-mounted stock shifter that gives me up, down, push to park. I'm a happy camper.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, it's interesting. In this Mercedes that I'm driving or was driving, just the column stock is so much better than like what you were referencing, those old, like, '70s to '80s column-mounted-- like, you had to pull down, pull back. If they were manual, then it's like a whole other, like, ball of wax just to try to figure out which of them-- maybe three or four, probably three gears you're trying to figure out.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, exactly.
GREG MIGLIORE: That was a lot of work and confusing. But I like the stock one now. I do think there's a lot of value in having that clean pass through in the interior, which car companies-- you know, it's almost like those Pontiac Firebirds or something, you know, old Camaros, where they had that big, t-shaped, automatic console-mounted shifter that was meant to affect the idea of a sporty dynamic, whether it was or not. But I like having that clear space. And knobs, buttons, to me, they're about the same. I don't know. I like slash dislike them, depending on the car.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, we're going to talk about the-- you were just talking about the Mercedes. We're going to talk about the Mini in a little bit. And they've moved the shift stalk into a little cubby, like a row.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, weird.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, a row of toggles and whatnot that sits underneath the infotainment. You know what? It's out of the way. And it's easy to understand. So whatever. I just think, you know, all these designs are unnecessary for something that we all know intuitively how it works. I wish that the car companies could just kind of get together and say, like, you know what? This design works. This design is good, you know? We're going to go with this.
Like, could you imagine if every car company decided, you know, oh, we're to going to-- you know, we're going to change the way that turn signals work, or we're going to change-- something that's super obvious that we just get intuitively, they're doing that with shifters for what great gain? I mean, I don't see one. Do you?
GREG MIGLIORE: No, it's-- it's definitely a part-- it's always been an area that I think car companies could get creative and probably do the whole concept better. But I don't know. It also seems like, at times-- and maybe we are-- they're overthinking it.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. Yeah, well, that's what we do.
GREG MIGLIORE: Should we talk about this Mercedes I've been driving?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I'd like to hear about it.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, this is the CLA 250 4MATIC with a column-mounted stalk shifter, which allows you to get the thing going in forward, reverse, or whichever way you want to go because--
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Forward and reverse?
GREG MIGLIORE: Forward and reverse, there you go.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Nice, nice.
GREG MIGLIORE: Can you believe it? It's a Mercedes. It can do stuff. I liked it. It's been a long time since I've driven the CLA. So, you know, there was a lot familiar but some things that were a bit different.
One thing, I looked at the price. And the sticker on this one is $54,380. It's a lot of money for a CLA. I remember when they launched this thing that it was like the first Mercedes along with, I think, the GLA to come in under $30,000 at the time. So now, obviously, everything's way more expensive. And this car, with options, starts in, like, the-- or without options, starts in the mid $40,000s.
So I mean, if you look at the Mercedes lineup, everything is more expensive. This is still basically the cheapest you can get. But it's more expensive.
Now, on the other hand, I would say it really does feel like a Mercedes, you know? It's just a little bit-- you know, a little bit smaller. The interior is very nice. Mine was macchiato, which is a nice setting, kind of cream. There's aluminum trim. I queued up the purple ambient lighting just to be different. That was kind of cool.
You know, it's got a couple of 10-inch screens. One's for the driver. One's for the infotainment. So it's a really nice interior. I liked it. Again, this is where I think you get inside, and it feels like a Mercedes.
Outside-- a few years back, they kind of dialed the styling back. Like, the CLA was sort of something different, almost like a-- like, they still call it a coupe. But to me, it's much more in line with the rest of the sedan lineup than, you know, maybe the CL or something that comes to mind that had that more kind of steep roofline.
But they've dialed it back. And it still-- to me, at this point, it feels mostly like a Mercedes sedan, so less distinctive but also overall very good. I think when this car costs $29,000, $29,500, it felt pretty cheap in different ways. The interior did not feel Mercedes-like.
And I'm going back 14 years ago at this point through my depth of memory. That was, like, very much an entry-level Mercedes. This feels more, like, just the first rung of the Mercedes lineup. And I'm kind of splitting hairs. But that's kind of how it feels.
I think it does feel worth it for $54,000, which includes options with things like heated seats, the winter pack, the premium pack, all the different stuff you might want. That's where you get that extra, like, $8,000 plus.
And I got to mention the color, hyper blue. Speaking of Miami, it looks like a "Miami Vice" color. It's gorgeous. I'm running up kind of a short review, like a five, six, seven thoughts. We'll see where I stop.
And the color made me like a celebrity. Like, everybody noticed it. I looked out my window one morning while I was sipping some coffee. And some guy had his phone out. He was, like-- I think he was either videoing it or taking a picture. But, you know, I like it.
This one, if you haven't driven the CLA in a while or you haven't checked up on it, they did update the powertrain. It has, like, a light hybrid system. You get 13 more horsepower. I can't really say I felt that. Some of it may even be, like, parasitically lost. Like, it's not like it's, you know, much more powerful. Let's put it that way.
And it has the eight-speed automatic transmission. This is dual clutch. For a long time, this thing had the seven speed. So again, that was a tweak they made a few years ago at this point. But again, it's been a few years since I've driven this thing.
So overall, I liked it. It's attractive. It's different than how I used to position the CLA but probably more where Mercedes is going with all of its cars pulling in the same direction. And we've seen a new CLA concept in the last, probably, year or so, where it looks like CLA will probably be shorthand for electric in not too long. So I liked it.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, what'd you say the price was again?
GREG MIGLIORE: Out the door, it's $54,380.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. Man, that--
GREG MIGLIORE: That was my thought, too. Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. I mean, that's what I'd expect. But man, that's a lot of money for such a small vehicle, you know? Like, are you-- you know, you want the brand. I get it. People want the brand. And that's what it costs to get an entry-level Mercedes. That's what it costs to get an entry-level Mercedes.
I cannot imagine pulling the trigger on something like that myself. But, you know, a lot of people have a lot more expendable income. And, you know, a lot of people lease cars, whereas I typically buy. So the lease payment on something like that might not actually be that bad. I don't know.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's true. That's true. So we'll stay German here. Let's talk about the Mini Countryman. JCW or EV? Your call, man, to go first.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yep. Well, I mean, I'm going to roll them-- I'm going to package them up. You know, we've kind of gotten used to seeing most car companies create-- let's call them bespoke-- designs for their electric vehicles.
You know, BMW is kind of one of the few companies that is really leaning into, we're going to offer a car, and we're going to make the same basic vehicle available to customers, whether they want gas, whether they want electric. They've done that with things like the 3, 4, 5 series with the I4, I5, and even the I7, which is 7 series.
It's the same basic chassis, suspension design, interior dimensions, all that. They changed the look slightly to show that one's gas and one's electric. And yeah, they offer them. And that's kind of what BMW is doing because, you know, for those that don't know, BMW owns and runs the Mini brand. That's what Mini is doing with the new Countryman.
You also may not know, because they look so different, but the Mini Countryman is the same chassis or platform as the BMW X1 and X2, not coincidentally. There are electric versions available in various markets along with the gas ones that we get here on the X1 and X2. And they all use similar drive train motor and electric battery componentry just like the Countryman uses a very similar four-cylinder engine range, turbocharged four-cylinder engine range as BMW X1, x2.
All right, that preamble out of the way, Which one do you want? is the question. Interestingly, we drove the John Cooper Works Countryman, which makes 312 horsepower and all-wheel drive. And it felt like way overwrought to me. I just can't imagine a fan of the Mini brand being willing to accept a Countryman that is so large while also still wanting what they refer to as the go kart driving.
You know, like, how big is too big for something that's supposed to feel like a go kart, you know? Like, in my opinion, we've surpassed that line. The last Countryman was toeing the line. The new Countryman has pole vaulted over that line to me.
And if you think that I'm crazy in saying that and that the countryman is still small, that's just because you haven't looked at the new Countryman in comparison to the old first or second gen. The second gen was a whole size class bigger than the first gen. And this new third gen is a whole size class bigger than the second gen was.
So I mean, we're not talking measurement distances in inches anymore. We're literally saying, like, oh, it's a foot longer, a foot taller, and a foot wider than the original countryman. So that's kind of-- I don't know-- maybe a long-winded way for me to say that I don't get the Mini Countryman John Cooper Works, the 2025.
I just don't know-- I certainly am not looking for something that drives like a go kart that's that size. Do I think that Mini shouldn't have a vehicle that size? No, sure. That's fine. You know, like, are we going to hold them to only producing, like, miniature cars because the brand name is Mini? Some people might. I'm not willing to go that far. Build a Countryman.
But, like, if you're going to do that because people want bigger cars and they want the space and they want the practicality, well, then give them the practicality. I just don't know who's going out and buying $55,000, $60,000, you know, compact SUVs and then wanting them to be like super sport vehicles that they, like, pretend are race cars.
So did I like the vehicle? Yeah, it's a nice car. Do I think that the John Cooper Works is the right outlet for that? No, I don't. The regular Cooper S is probably going to-- Countryman S is probably going to be more the speed of what I think American buyers are going to be wanting, a little bit less aggressive.
And why I say aggressive? I mean like driving down a road with potholes. Do you want your Mini Countryman to feel like a supercar, like that stiff? I don't think so. And that literally is how stiff it is.
So then we've got the electric version. I drove the Countryman SE, which has almost the exact same horsepower rating as the Countryman John Cooper Works. In fact, it has one more horsepower and a lot more torque. Of course, it's lugging around a huge battery pack, which means it's heavier.
But that heaviness, that substantialness, so to speak, of the electric model made it a lot more tame. It's still on the stiff side like you'd expect a Mini to be but not like go kart that has very little suspension travel. So it just made a lot more sense to me.
It's not like a perfect slam dunk. I would like to see them-- I would like to have seen them push the boundaries a little bit more in technology. They've got a brand new electric platform coming out with a 2025 model year. And it's only mid pack and range of in things like range and things like charging speed, kind of the boring parts of an electric car but the necessary ones that you have to think about.
It just doesn't make sense that it's only comparable with the Nissan Ariya and behind vehicles that have already been on the market for a long time like the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, and Hyundai, Kia, Genesis E-GMP vehicles. It can't charge as fast as those. And it can't go as long on a single charge.
So that's a little disappointing. But again, not every vehicle has to travel 300, 400 miles on a charge. A lot of people, that's way overkill for. My own Tesla Model 3 can do about 270 on a charge. And it has not been a drawback. But again, it's got availability on the Tesla charging station.
So I'll sum it up by saying the Countryman is big. It's practical. It's going to make sense and be attractive, I think, to a lot of American buyers who are looking for a practical compact SUV. I just think in the two forms that I drove back to back, the SE electric model just made more sense and was the more interesting of the two, even though the John Cooper Works one is the model that's actually aimed at driving enthusiasts.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's funny how when you get EVs or hybrids of different elements, how a lot of times they end up being the enthusiast, the performance variant. And what you're saying, I would agree with, not just as far as, like, the dynamic of the car but the segment in which the Countryman competes. To me, I think I like what you're saying. I agree with you. Obviously, I haven't driven these. But that would be my preference as to which one I expect I would like more.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, and there's going to be-- they put us in the highest-end spec of all these models to start out with. I suspect that as you move down the range into the heart of the market, into the middle, that the gas-powered Countryman will be more like what I experienced in the electric SE. It's probably going to be softened, toned down a little bit.
We didn't even talk about the awesome kind of, like, interior change that they've made in these things. Like, Minis have historically had this, like, very interesting, unique, very full of character interior design. But they used to do that through, like, toggle switches that were an ergonomic disaster, gauges that were round and in places where they were blocked by the steering wheel, difficult to see.
They've managed to keep a very interesting style, round gauges, round screens. But they've made it more practical and easy to use. The center screen's now a touch screen. The little, itty-bitty dials that used to be behind the steering wheel have been moved to a head-up screen that you can actually see.
And it's a much more usable vehicle. It's a lot more friendly to people who want to drive the thing on a daily basis while still looking cool, unique, and different from anything else. And, you know, they've gotten rid of all the chrome. They've really dialed down the kind of crazy toggles.
But they haven't gotten rid of the unique aspect to it, which I think is a very good thing. And people are still going to be able to be expressive with it. There's going to be a lot of different colorways, a lot of different textiles, that will allow people to personalize the Mini the way that they want to.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK, sounds good. Any final thoughts on these two Minis?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I mean, I think these are the Minis that are probably-- if any Mini is going to break into the mainstream and kind of revitalize the brand that has kind of been waning in popularity since the original Cooper came out-- well, the original BMW-owned Cooper came out. These ones, are they going to recapture that same kind of magic? No. But are they going to move the sales needle in the right direction? I think absolutely they will.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK. Sounds good. I think-- where did you drive these again? I think we slightly buried the lead here. Where did you drive these again?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: We flew into and out of Lisbon, Portugal. And we actually drove them near the coast of Portugal. And it was very, very narrow, very, very curvy, windy, exactly where you'd think a Mini would fit in, so really beautiful scenery right on the coastline of Portugal.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Let's spend some money. This is a pretty good one, I think. Dan writes, I just took a sales job and will be driving more and need a newish mid-sized truck slash SUV. Leasing may not be an option, given the mileage. So I'm looking to buy. Looking for a low-mileage truck or SUV, new or used, depending on the price. I live in Colorado. So I need four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.
I'd like something comfortable with heated seats with all of the safety features. I also want to do some minor off-roading in things like dirt, rutted roads, and mud, and all that good stuff. I'd like it to get in the mid 20 miles per gallon. OK, that's a lot of different things going on there. I would like to keep the price under $40,000, but I am flexible. Dan.
All right, so there's a lot to work with here. $40,000, that is plenty of budget, I would say. And, you know, I think you open yourself up to having a lot of fun here. But I'll kick it over to you, Jeremy. What do you think?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: My official suggestion is going to be a Honda Ridgeline.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, OK.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. You know what? It's not the most fun vehicle. But it's extremely capable. You mentioned you're going to be doing a lot of highway driving. You are going to find that the Ridgeline is going to offer the smoothest, most comfortable, and quietest ride of all the trucks. You're going to get a lot of the utility of a pickup truck but a lot of the comfort of a crossover.
Also, the V6 engine is nice and powerful, punchy. Honda's all-wheel drive system with torque vectoring is excellent. I tend to like it in the higher-end trims, like the HPD, that kind of thing.
And I did a little search. And you will find those falling into the range of your budget. So my official choice is going to be a late-model, low-mileage, slightly used Honda Ridgeline, all-wheel drive, in an upper trim, with all the accouterments that you might want.
My "if that's just too boring for you" pick would be a certified pre-owned Land Rover Defender. It's the exact opposite of what I just described. It is the "I'm going to take a flyer and get something more interesting" pick. You can get it with four-cylinder power. That is going to put you in the mileage range that you want to be. It's definitely going to be off-road capable.
You didn't mention if you needed-- how much usability you needed for a rear seat or anything like that. The 90 series is going to be your least expensive. It's a two-door. The 110 and 130-- the 110 would be the middle of the range with a bigger back seat and probably the one I would go for.
But yeah, much more interesting vehicle. You're going to be pushing the budget, though, if you're looking at Defenders. You said you were a little flexible on that. So, you know, if you can go up just a little bit, a Defender is a lot of fun, very interesting, and very off-road capable. But, you know, as the consumer editor for the site, I would try to steer you in the direction of something like a Ridgeline.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, the Ridgeline is-- I guess that's the right choice. When I really think about it, I tend to agree with all of your rationale. I've spent a fair amount of time in Ridgelines, like almost all of the generations through the years. It really is the right answer for truck buyers who want a truck but also want something that, frankly, doesn't really drive like a truck.
You know, you can get some of the off-road goodies on it. And I think that dresses up the look. It does give you some more capability, which is probably about all you really need, given that Dan says it's kind of light off-roading. So I'm going to concur with you on that.
Now, I'm also going to kind of take your Defender option and take it in a couple of different ways. I got to throw the Tacoma at you. It's not going to be comfortable. I'll tell you that right now. But Tacomas also tend to run for a very long time. So what you may be losing comfort, you'll make up for in reliability.
They're so much fun, especially if you get one of the different TRD trims, very capable off-road. At that point, you're almost like, well, Greg, why don't you just recommend a Wrangler or something? But I'm trying to keep it somewhat-- like, the Tacoma is-- I think it's more comfortable than a Wrangler. I think there is some means of, like, daily driving approach to it.
I think also, I would look at our West Coast senior editor. James Riswick just drove the new Ranger. I have not, but I'm very intrigued about how that's going to drive. It's now built in the United States. It's definitely retuned compared with its-- I believe it was its Australian underpinnings.
So we expect it'll be a little more comfortable, at least that's kind of what he hints at. It starts at $34,000. And I mean, that's one of the great things about this question is for $40,000, you could get almost anything, you know, whether it's new or used, depending on what you want it to be.
I found the new Chevy Colorado to be a pretty well-rounded vehicle. So that's something I would look at. And you certainly can come in under $40,000 for that one, even with some off-road goodies. So I would look at some of the domestic midsize trucks. If you want to make a very rational play, though, the Pilot is definitely-- excuse me, the Ridgeline.
I guess you could get the Pilot, too. Get the off-road trim on it. But the Ridgeline is, I think, a very smart choice. You know, obviously, an XJ Cherokee would be a ton of fun. But it's not going to be comfortable or reliable. So this is a fun question.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. Yeah, pretty cool. I just checked myself on the Land Rover Defender pricing. And I found I was right. You might have to go add $5,000 to your budget to get a certified pre-owned-- $5,000, $6,000 to get a certified pre-owned Defender.
But I'm looking at-- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I'll call it-- call it 20 or so Defenders less than $50,000 certified pre-owned with a warranty. So, you know, it is an option. Is it the smartest option? Absolutely not. Is it one of the more fun options? Yeah, I think so.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Just make sure you do get that warranty. It is a Land Rover product. And as much as I like Land Rovers and would tell you to look at them, I also would never buy one or pay that kind of money for one without having it covered under warranty by the manufacturer. So please accept that caveat there if you do decide to take that suggestion.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, I kind of forgot-- almost like an elephant in the room here-- a used or even new Subaru Forester or Outback. You know, you could get some of the off-road trims on those. And that would be a lot of fun. I think, obviously, an Outback or a Forester is pretty reasonably comfortable to daily drive. And then if you get one with some of those, again, off-road goodies, hey, you know?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. My mind--
GREG MIGLIORE: That's a nice balance, too.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: My mind immediately went Subaru, especially considering that our writer lives in Colorado. And if you've ever been to Colorado, you've seen more Subaru's per capita than almost any place else in the world.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: So my mind did go Subaru first. But then when I considered the Ridgeline, I was like, eh, that's more interesting to me, especially because a lot of people don't realize just how advanced Honda's torque vectoring all-wheel drive system is as seen in the Ridgeline. I personally have done-- under Honda's supervision, have done some, like, figure eight drifting in open grass and muddy, rutty conditions in a Ridgeline with that all-wheel drive system and was absolutely shocked at how much fun I had doing it.
So a lot of people think of the Ridgeline as, like, oh, it's a boring, utilitarian choice. Get it off road, and it is honestly, surprisingly good. And, like, it makes you feel a little bit like a superhero in your ability to control drifts with that torque vectoring system. So I mean, yeah, it might be a little bit more boring. But if you don't really care about that, its capabilities and its abilities are excellent.
GREG MIGLIORE: The TrailSport starts at $44,980, which is slightly over budget for Dan, but he said he was flexible. And that's a new one. I don't think the TrailSport is new for '24. I think it's been around for a couple of years. So that makes me think take maybe 10,000 miles on the clock. Dip it into, like, the $30,000s for your sticker price. And I think it's a win-win because it's also, I think, the best-looking Ridgeline.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, I like the TrailSport. What was the HPD? I thought that is pretty good, too.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, yeah.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I like way that that one looks. And some of the colorways on that are pretty cool. So yeah, I mean, there were a lot of things that I thought of, you know, Mavericks. And, you know, he wants off-roading, so Tremor, all those kinds of things. But ultimately, I'm sticking with my two choices.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, sounds good. Well, that's all the time we have this week. Send us more of your Spend My Money. So that's podcast@autoblog.com. If you enjoy the show, please give us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. It helps us get the word out. It'll help more car fans and car buyers learn about "The Autoblog Podcast."
We'll give a shout out to our longtime producer, Eric Meyer. Have a great week, everybody. Be safe out there. Thanks for hanging out, Jeremy. And we will see you all next week.
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