In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor John Beltz Snyder. After some banter, including the discussion of an excellent tomato sauce recipe, they get into car reviews. Greg has been driving the Mercedes-AMG GLE 53, while John has been testing the BMW M4 CSL and Buick's new Envista crossover. There's lots of interesting news this week. Chevy revealed the 2024 Traverse with new looks, a new engine and on off-road(ish) trim. Hyundai gave us a glimpse at the wild styling of the next Santa Fe. Dodge might bring back the Stealth nameplate as an SUV, and that has implications for the Durango as well. Ford, after repeatedly raising prices, has turned around and significantly discounted the F-150 Lightning across all trims. The first Tesla Cybertruck has rolled off the line as a pre-production prototype. Finally, we reach in to the mailbag and help a listener decide what to do with cars for himself and his kids in this week's Spend My Money segment.
Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
TranscriptGREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to "The Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. We have an awesome show for you this week.
Lots of stuff to get to. But with that, I'll bring in senior editor for all things electric, John Snyder. How are you doing, man?
JOHN SNYDER: I'm doing pretty good. How about yourself?
GREG MIGLIORE: Pretty good, pretty good. This is a busy show here. We've both been driving some pretty expensive, pretty nice German hot rods in different shapes, you know?
You've been in the Buick Envista. That sounds-- a lot of people are really interested in that. So we'll have to talk about that too.
And we'll blitz through some news. Lots of SUV news this week. Traverse, Santa Fe, Dodge Stealth-- hey, that might be an SUV.
And, of course, a couple of electric trucks, including one from Tesla and one from Ford, and we will spend your money. So, a pretty big show here, but yeah, I meant to tell you I actually made the sauce you dropped into Slack about a week ago. The Marcella--
JOHN SNYDER: Marcella Hazan? Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, easy stuff. I was-- we were making ravioli for dinner. And I was like, I've got to tell John that. And since we're here now on the podcast, I might as well tell, you know, several thousand, a few listeners thousand about it as well.
It's the easiest sauce you can make. Stick a butter, can of tomatoes, onion, salt. You're done.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's so interesting that you use butter in it. I've never put butter in my tomato sauce until I came across this recipe. And then the onion, you just cut it in half, put it in there, and then you just take that out later. And it feels, like, kind of a waste of the onion, but I read some people say you could take the onion that's been soaking in the tomato sauce and use it to make, like, bruschetta or, you know--
GREG MIGLIORE: That's a good idea.
JOHN SNYDER: --sort of ratatouille or something with it. So I think next time I make that that I will save that onion and do something delicious with it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Super easy if you guys are-- we like to spend everybody's money. But if you need some cooking tips, just Google this one. Super easy.
I actually was doing something else, and I was like, oh man. I need to pull together something for dinner. And that took less time than whatever else I was doing-- like, making my kids lunch or something, you know? It's just three or four ingredients, and you're done.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's wildly easy and wildly delicious.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. One other thing-- this is a little more car-relevant.
"The Lincoln Lawyer" just dropped on Netflix. If you guys like cars, it's not a car show at all. It's a legal thriller.
But tell you what. There's like a '60s Lincoln in it and a newer Lincoln Navigator. I just wrapped up the first half of it.
They split it five episodes in July, five in August. That is my casual just tip if you like cars, you like Lincolns, and you like legal thrillers. It's definitely-- it's like a Michael Conley book. It's like that John Grisham kind of vibe.
JOHN SNYDER: Cool, cool.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I don't know. I think it's not bad to watch.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I haven't seen it, but you know, I love spotting cars in shows. Just watched the 2010 version of "The Karate Kid," and there's a Volkswagen Scirocco in it and--
GREG MIGLIORE: Nice.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Belongs to-- his name is not Mr. Miyagi in this one. It's Mr. Han, I think, but--
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, OK.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, he's, like, constantly working on this old Scirocco. And then he-- I won't spoil what happens to it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Tell you what. You want to do some car spotting, the new "Top Gun" is actually pretty good too. Totally-- I meant to bring this up on an earlier podcast. I-- not really the biggest fan in the world, whatever.
Saw the first one like everybody did, and it's on Amazon. It's free now. And vintage Porsche, a lot of cool jets. It's not a bad way, if it's like a summer night and you need to just be inside with the AC on. Another wreck, I would say.
JOHN SNYDER: It is a really fun movie too. I liked it.
GREG MIGLIORE: It was. Yeah, it was good.
JOHN SNYDER: I mean, the first "Top Gun" is, like, one of my favorite movies of all time. So it's hard to-- you know, I was worried that this would, you know, not live up to that at all. It would just be a big disappointment. But no, it was really fun.
GREG MIGLIORE: I would actually say from a movie standpoint-- obviously, it's 40 years newer. The movie itself I thought was better. Just, like, the production, the overall-- like, it wasn't as, in some ways, schmaltzy, you know? And I mean, spoiler alert, somebody key dies in it.
You know, like the original one, I guess. But they managed to-- it's a little crisper, I thought. So, I don't know.
Man, so we've really gone off the rails here. I guess I'll jump in and talk about the GLE 53. This is an AMG SUV.
Mine came in at 93 5. So, not cheap. I wrote a review about it that's probably going to go, I think, next week. So if you're listening to it, come back.
If you want to know more about this SUV, it'll be up on the site next week. I think. The big premise that I had here was, like, that an AMG can kind of be whatever you want it to be at this point. A few years ago, especially 10 years ago, it would have been like, no, this is not an AMG.
It doesn't have that 6.3 liter, really 6.2 liter, V8. It's an SUV. Like, what are you doing to me?
But this thing is it's got the straight six. It's turbo, 429 horsepower, really potent, feels quick it's got a lot of AMG stuff on it.
It's got 22 inch wheels. It's kind of lower than maybe the normal-- or it looks lower. Let's put it that way. It as the flares compared to the normal GLE. Slammed, if you will. This has the night package, the AMG night package, which--
JOHN SNYDER: Nice.
GREG MIGLIORE: --it is really sweet looking. So I mean, my mind was changed a little bit. I sort of would say if you're looking for a midlife crisis car, don't get the Corvette. Don't get the 911 because for a lot of people in their middle age, they still have a lot of stuff to do. So, get the SUV. Just upgrade to the AMG.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. How did it sound?
GREG MIGLIORE: So, there was a turboy sound that was not ideal. It sounded good, I think. But I also was very aware I was driving a turbo inline six. Let's put it that way.
It has the quad exhaust, if you will, which looks good. Did give it a little bit of almost like a flatulence sound too. So there's that, you know?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, let's see. I drove the E53 coupe a while back.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, the coupe. OK.
JOHN SNYDER: And that's one thing I really liked about it was the sound of it. I love the whiny whoosh of a turbo intake and, you know, and the sort of crackling little exhaust you get from it. I don't know. My whole conclusion that I came from with that was that, you know, I really didn't miss the V8.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK. Same, actually. Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: I love a good German I6, you know, turbocharged. It's plenty good for me.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, interior in this one was really good. It was kind of like a-- it was black, then kind of like a like a creamy-ish, if you will. They called it macchiato beige. Spilled a little bit of coffee on it.
So it didn't show up at all, if you will. It's actually a little slightly dated. I saw some other sites called it, like, dated, if you will.
It's not like the screens everywhere that you see in some Mercedes. But I like that. You know, there was 12.3 inch in front of you, IP, and then the same 12.3 inch, like, for the infotainment. And then you got a fair amount of knobs and buttons.
And I really like that. I was like, this is what I want. It's the best of all worlds.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, those hyper screens that they're putting in some of them now can be a little overwhelming visually, especially. But I do like their functionality. They work pretty well once you start to get used to it.
It takes a little bit. Takes a little time to get to know it and understand how it works. But yeah, it's something still kind of refreshing about just a nice, big, but not too big screen that doesn't take up the entire dash.
GREG MIGLIORE: What I like too-- this goes back to my kind of original premise is like, it's an AMG. It felt authentic. It kind of looked the part.
But I could do stuff in it. Put the whole family in it. We put stuff in the back. We went to a farmer's market-- an Eastern Market, actually. Got some good pictures-- actually, the Detroit book festival, which was pretty cool.
JOHN SNYDER: Nice.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, and you know, if I was in, say, the E53, tons of fun. Or the coop, like you were in, also fun. It would have been a little less comfortable to do that.
So, that's kind of my argument is like, you can have a lot of AMG fun with this, but you're still in a pretty big SUV. So, I don't know. It would-- I feel like maybe if you're, like, add 10 years to the odometer of life--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --maybe you just go to a sedan, and you're like, I don't need to haul all this stuff. But for me, it's like, I could see why you would opt for this and still want the AMG stuff.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you get the good family hauling sort of package, but you still get to enjoy that fun little engine and the cool AMG touches.
GREG MIGLIORE: Since Marcedes brought back their straight six, that, to me, has really enlivened the products that it's in. You know, in the AMGs, you get the turbo. And that's where, like, I don't feel the trade off.
Like, this isn't like, oh, it's like some turbo wave-boosted four cylinder. It's like, no. This is a legit engine with some prestige to it and power, you know?
So yeah, I'll be excited to drive when Stellantis brings out their hurricane straight six that I think they're going to use in different vehicles. I believe it's actually out in some of them already. But you know, it's definitely a kind of engine that I think has a very unique character to it. And it shines through in this vehicle. So--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, the Stellantis one, I drove the Wagoneer with the I6, and that one sounded kind of funny.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
JOHN SNYDER: But it might have just been the one I was in. It just was making some weird, like, hooting sounds and whatnot. But I remember.
I had a Cherokee, an XJ Cherokee with an I6. And that was my first time driving an I6. And just the torque you get is pretty surprising even in a naturally aspirated one. Yeah, they're fun little engines.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, so let's talk about this M4 that you've been in. This is the CSL, which is kind of cool.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Tell me about it.
JOHN SNYDER: Speaking of, you know, I6s, this is a--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: --twin turbo I6. They upped the boost on it to give it, I think, 40 more horsepower. So, it comes out to-- let's see. I think 543 horsepower. Yeah, 543--
GREG MIGLIORE: It's a lot.
JOHN SNYDER: --horsepower and 479 pound feet of torque. That's the same as the M4 competition that it's based on. Only comes in rear wheel drive. So, even though it's got a little more power than the M4 competition, it's still a little bit slower, maybe 2/10 slower to 60 miles an hour. But man, this thing is hardcore.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: I mean, you open the door, and you see these, you know, fixed back, deep, deep bucket carbon fiber seats up front. The rear seats are deleted. The front seats are bolted in place.
If you want to adjust the seating angle, you got to get out some Allen wrenches. And if you want to adjust the height, they recommend taking it to a shop. But you can slide it forward and backward no problem. But man, those seats are uncomfortable.
When I was getting some photos just near my house, you know, move the car 90 degrees in one direction. Get out, take some photos. Turn it so it's facing front, get out, take some photos.
By the end of that, I feel like I had bruises on the backs of my legs just from getting in and out of those seats over those really hard carbon fiber bolsters. Not very comfortable to sit in for a long drive. And the suspension is just super crashy.
Every little bump, every little piece of rumble strip in front of a-- it jolts you really hard, and it's loud. So it's really meant for a track. This is not-- I would not want to daily drive this thing. No way in hell.
But it is really, really fun. Super fast, a lot of really, really good cornering grip, really easy to break the tires loose. But you can go in the menu and just totally adjust the amount of traction control, which is great because we had a lot of rain while I had it. So, yeah, every time I'd even just feather the throttle from a stop. I would get some wheelspin in the back.
So, I was constantly, you know, dialing in the amount of traction control I wanted. But yeah, beautiful car. Tons of carbon fiber-- carbon fiber hood, carbon fiber roof, carbon fiber trunk lid, carbon fiber accents, carbon fiber seats, carbon fiber center console.
GREG MIGLIORE: Man.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, no cup holders. You do get a wireless phone charger, though.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's a little unexpected. OK.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and then where the rear seats are, there's just two divots under a cargo net. And there's a little sticker that tells you not to put, you know, luggage there. No bags. It's meant for helmets.
I suppose you could put small handbags or a backpack or something back there just fine, but they don't want you putting a lot of weight back there. And either way, it's tough to get to whether-- you know, no matter what you're putting back there because the seats don't fold forward. So if you want to put anything back there, you kind of have to reach from between the front seats. And so I don't know.
Yeah, not a very practical car, but it feels pretty special. I don't know if it feels $140,000 special, especially for something that, you know, you can't-- you're not going to want to drive often, you know? I'd much rather get just the regular M4 competition and have the all-wheel drive and, you know, seats that are more adjustable and a few more creature comforts.
I'd rather just get a regular M4. I mean, this was, I mean, so much-- probably so easy to overcome the grip on the tires with this thing. I don't need that much power, you know?
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: But it was really fun to drive when the conditions were right and on the right roads. But you really had to go find them. It handles really well.
Super, super sharp, responsive steering. Very pointy. But yeah, there are much better ways to spend $140,000. But you know, BMW, if you're a big BMW fan, you know, this is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the M division and bringing back the CSL name. And yeah, if you're a BMW loyalist, maybe this is going to be your track car.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, for me, this isn't probably how I would spend a buck 40, let me put it that way, because, you know, I would be more-- like, I want to drive something on, like, open roads, maybe somewhat near my house. But, like, open roads and public roads, they're, you know, a little unpredictable.
You know, you want good roads. But like, this thing's a track demon to the point where, like, you know, it sounds like it's borderline drivable unless you're on a track. And that reminds me of things like the Shelby GT350R.
You know, what was it? The Camaro-- I think it was the ZL1, or was it the 1LE, I'm mixing up things, where it was like, you know, the Camaro I'm thinking of was so basic that it literally had, like, one speaker just for there to be the door chime. And you had, like, the back seat delete option.
Like, you know, they're not selling a lot of these. But hey, it's cool they make them. You know, I noticed--
JOHN SNYDER: This one's limited to 1,000 units, I think.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. So it's a toy. It's a collector's piece. You know, I don't know. I tend to like a little more balance. Like I'd rather spend six figures and get, like, just a really good 911 that I could daily drive and enjoy--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --going to the post office.
JOHN SNYDER: Totally what I would get would be a 911.
GREG MIGLIORE: What do you think of the grill?
JOHN SNYDER: It's fine. I don't mind it. They took out some of the slats and whatnot to give it a little more airflow and to lighten it up. This thing is, you know, between removing the seats and putting carbon fiber where I think it's 240 pounds lighter than the M4 competition. But yeah, I mean, the grill doesn't bother me too much. I'm sort of more on, if you're talking to our staff, I'm more on the side of Zac Palmer than Jeremy Chrzanowski when it comes to the new kidney grilles.
GREG MIGLIORE: I think between you and me and Zach, we could sort of stage our own little resistance here because I don't mind it either. It's definitely a case by case basis thing, you know? Like, I think there are certain BMW where you're like, well, that's a lot. I don't know if they should be doing. But I think in this case, it totally works.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and it's got, like, nice little accents on it that are repeated elsewhere on the car, you know? They've got those red stripes across the hood and-- oh, that hood is really cool, though.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, it is.
JOHN SNYDER: The hood, you see the carbon fiber-- you know, they don't paint the entire thing. So you see some carbon fiber through it. They paint the regular paint color on in the shop, and then they stencil on the red outlines for those carbon fiber pieces. And it looks really cool.
GREG MIGLIORE: I like when--
JOHN SNYDER: And it is--
GREG MIGLIORE: --companies do that.
JOHN SNYDER: It is super light. Go ahead.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, I was going to say, I like when companies use the carbon fiber as, like, design elements like that too, especially with, like, the paint and the color scheme. But go ahead.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's kind of neat and artistic. But what I was going to say is that hood is just really light, you know? Lifting up the hood, popping the hood, is just incredibly light. You can definitely see how much lighter the carbon fiber is than aluminum or whatever.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, cool. All right, so there's really no easy transition from, like, a really sharp edge Bimmer to the Buick, but it's a Buick Envista, and it looks pretty good. I know that's kind of where, like, the conversation started with it. Maybe another thing would be to back up and remind everybody what the Buick Envista is. So--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --you know, what is this thing?
JOHN SNYDER: It's Buick's new entry level crossover, and it's one of those things that's kind of-- what is a crossover? Because this is-- it only comes with one powertrain. It's a 1.2 liter three cylinder turbo.
And it only powers the front wheels. There's no all wheel drive option. The EPA classifies it as a station wagon.
It's actually longer in wheelbase and overall length than a RAV4, which is a-- and then the Encore GX, which is, those are compacts. This is considered a subcompact. So it's kind of a weird vehicle, but it's Buick's new entry level crossover.
Starts a little below $25,000 with destination. And yeah it's-- with the refreshed Encore, they said that was the first Buick with looks inspired by the Wildcat concept. This is the first one that's the first, to use their words, full expression of the Wildcat designed from the ground up. They borrowed from that.
It's obviously not a two door electric coupe, but you can see definitely in the pointy nose and sort of the wide shoulders in the back and sort of the sleeker silhouette. You do see a little bit more of the Wildcat in it. But yeah, I think it looks really good. Pretty nice to see it going by.
It's really comfortable, surprisingly spacious inside. Like I said, the extra wheelbase and length, that'll give you extra legroom front and rear. Headroom wasn't terrible. It was pretty good up front. And then in the rear, someone like James Reswick, who's, what, like, 6'3 or something--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: --might have a little trouble. I'm six foot, had no problem sitting back behind my own driving position. But yeah, pretty simple straightforward vehicle.
There's really not a lot of options. There's just three trim levels to choose from. And yeah, I drove the Sport Touring, which, you know, not quite as nice as the Avenir but still some interesting materials, neat textures without just putting the regular, boring, grainy, hard plastic everywhere.
There's not a lot of surface to cover up. So it's pretty easy to jazz up the surfaces you do see with little stitching or some minor accents or, you know, just little trim pieces, things like that. So it doesn't feel like a penalty box driving in it, and it's comfortable, and it's quiet. You don't really hear the engine, and it handles the crappy roads pretty well, doesn't transmit a lot of the vibration or sound into the cabin. You can have an easy conversation.
It's nothing particularly special to drive. You can get the front wheels loose really easily, but there's a good low end torque from the turbo. It'll spin those front wheels, which is kind of fun.
But it doesn't feel particularly slow either. Let's see. I forget what the-- I think it's 137 horsepower and 162 pound feet of torque, which is ample for this. I didn't feel like I was struggling to catch up with, you know, highway speeds to merge onto the highway.
There's no CVT, thank goodness, just a six speed automatic. And decent fuel economy-- 30 miles per hour combined. So I mean, if you want something that, you know, is pretty straightforward and affordable but not cheap feeling and not completely dreary to look at this, is not a bad choice.
GREG MIGLIORE: I think it's a really interesting take on this segment where you've got all sorts of different choices in it, if you will. And Buick hasn't really had anything that was super distinctive in a while. So I think it's kind cool, if you will, that they're getting into it with something credible. This is related to the Chevy Trax, which, you know, you might remember in the past, that was not a very attractive looking vehicle. I've seen a few of them, and they look-- I think they look outstanding for the segment. I would put the Envista into that sort of segment as well.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, you're up against things like the HR-V, which has gotten a lot better. You know, you made the comparison with the Corolla Cross too. So-- I think the Hyundai Kona as well.
Like, there's a lot of different things in this segment, and they've all gotten a lot better, you know? Not all of them, but many of them have. Some are still pretty crappy. But at this price point, you could get something that doesn't feel like a penalty box anymore.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, I didn't realize the exact size of this thing when I just was looking at it. And then I'm like, oh, wow. This is the segment this thing plays in? That's pretty wild, man.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah, it's a subcompact, you know? So it's up against the ones you just mentioned. But like I said, you know, it's going up against the Corolla Cross, but it's got sort of the interior passenger space of a RAV4.
Doesn't quite have the cargo space, but-- you know, it's a little low on the cargo space. That's what you get with that sort of crossover coupe roofline. But still, you know, it's got the utility of a lift back and better than just a plain old trunk.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. I think, you know, another thing that stands out, too, are, like, the numbers, you know? $25,000 price range and then, like, a 1.2 liter turbo charged engine. That's so small. 1.2 liters--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --I remember Ford had that one liter that they were putting in, like, the Fiesta for a while. But you know, that's a small engine. But it sounds-- the horsepower, 137, and I think you said 162, I think I've seen in that.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's respectable for a small crossover.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, yeah, and it definitely-- and it's just, you know, sometimes, those three liters can sound pretty rough. But like I said, with no CVT and, like, really good sound deadening, you just really don't hear it all that much, which is nice. And what you do hear is, you know, so filtered through that you don't hear the raspy roughness of the three cylinder.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, so let's transition over to another GM SUV. This is the new Chevy Traverse. Zac Palmer covered it on Monday of this week. It's got some things that the traverse doesn't necessarily usually get, like Z71 trim.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: In Slack, we were kind of talking about how they seem to be kind of Tahoe-izing it, if you will, which is interesting because, you know, the original premise of these crossovers was if you don't want a large body on frame SUV, we can provide you a large three row crossover, primarily in the design cues. But hey, if you need to do some light off-roading with your Traverse, it's there for you now.
You Know, I think it's still a decent value. They did some things like, you know, LED lights, things like that which are more widely available. Still as, you know-- yeah, I mean the interior, I think, is a pretty big step forward too looking at some of these pictures. It's still a large Chevy crossover.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and I mean, the traverse has always just bored me to death.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: A lot of it is its looks. And this-- I mean, this just looks a little more appetizing particularly the exterior. Just a little more character. That Z71 looks pretty cool. I love the sort of lightly off-roadified SUVs. I think they're great, you know?
The Telluride X Pro is, you know, one of those things where you're like, I just-- it's kind of cool. It's nice to know-- you know, it'll be great in the winter with the all-terrain tires. And you know, I'd be happy taking a Z71 Traverse to a campsite or driving around on some of the dirt trails that passes sort of roads up north. Be a fun way to, you know, get to the next town over.
Just go to the scenic route through, you know, where you see all the Polarises driving by and stuff. You can drive around in some sand and through some puddles. And yeah, it just looks better. It looks a lot better.
GREG MIGLIORE: The Traverse always had kind of just, like, this, like, hulking look to it. You know, at times, they've been able to dress up the Acadia to make it look a little bit better. But it seems like the Traverse, they never were able to really do that.
So I mean, I think this is a big improvement. Yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily going to grow sales, but it's a big improvement, you know? And you know, it's 2.5 liter engine. Can still tow up to 5,000. Like, you know, we both said, it's huge.
And you know, the interior, I think, is the area where the old one was very dated. So this is something that can, again, make it a little more competitive with, like, things from Honda, Toyota, Jeep, you know? You name it.
It seems like you can't get away with just, like, well, it's a mainstream brand. The interior is just whatever. You can't do that anymore. And it looks like Chevy is executing on that with the Traverse.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and you know, the first interior has always been pretty dreary unless you get the really higher, fancier trims. But this, you know, this looks a little more appetizing. I like the dual screen driver display and infotainment screen. Still with a volume knob and still looks like there's some actual buttons across the bottom.
But I think just that little curved, that single screen thing, I mean, they have the same thing in the Buick Envista. It can take an otherwise drab interior and make it feel new and fresh, and it gives it a focal point, you know? So you're not looking at a sea of plastic. It definitely looks nicer. And I much prefer the looks of the RS and the ZL1, Z70-- I'm sorry, Z71.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: ZL1.
GREG MIGLIORE: ZL1-- that would be an interesting Traverse.
JOHN SNYDER: That would be.
GREG MIGLIORE: Track-focused.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. I really like the looks of them compared to, like, say, an Acadia. I like black accents and, you know, red accents and off-roady stuff or techie-looking stuff much better than chrome.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: I'm tired of chrome. I think maybe the world's starting to get a little tired of chrome in their American SUVs and trucks.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, sounds good. Well, let's look over at this Santa Fe. I mean, you want to talk about crazy design, I did not see this coming.
JOHN SNYDER: No.
GREG MIGLIORE: We're going to see the full reveal, like, later this month, but, you know, pictures are out now, and this thing is wild. Like, I mean, it looks like a Ford Flex on steroids. You know--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, if a Flex, like, had a baby with an Ioniq 5 or something.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, and with a Land Rover kind of mixed in maybe from certain angles. Like, this thing is wild. The tail lights are-- I haven't seen tail lights this low on a vehicle.
It might just be how it looks in the pictures, but that's like almost, like, straight up '70s. The front is crazy. I think it's very cool looking, though. I mean, in real life, it's going to be like, what in the world is this thing, you know?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, the lighting is going to be, I feel like, the thing that either turns people on or off. It's going to be the divisive part of it just because it's so different, those little H headlights with sort of the pixels and the light bar. You could put just normal headlights on it, and it would have looked a lot more normal.
But the lighting that's on there really sort of accentuates the squared-offness of the front end of it and just the boxiness of the car in general. Really, really boxy, which, hey. I like it.
GREG MIGLIORE: I do too. I do too.
JOHN SNYDER: It's-- yeah, it's different than everything else. It's good to have options. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But I really like the Santa Fe already.
So, you know, seeing it a little more spiced up and modern, happy to see it. Be interesting to see what happens with current Santa Fe customers if they-- you know, how many of them move up into this one or, you know, move on to other more pedestrian designs that they're used to. And then how many people are going to come to this specifically because of the looks? How many sort of conquest sales will they get because this is so fresh and different? Be interesting to find out.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's definitely, I think, a risky play because I like the current Santa Fe, and I think it's a very attractive vehicle. It's--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it is.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, it's pretty well done. So, like, you're taking a risk by going this way. I mean, there's some people that are going to be like, what the hell is that? That's not what I want. And maybe they'll have a run on 23 models or whatever, you know?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: You are going to turn some people off with this thing, but you know, you might get some people, some new people to your brand. So it's a-- I think it's a big level risk because it's-- definitely, it's a-- well, lucrative maybe isn't quite the word because it's-- obviously everybody's competitive on price there.
But it's a high volume part, you know? This isn't like BMW is going to slap a huge grill on their track sports car. You know, it's like-- although BMW took a risk with that grill, which they've used quite prolifically.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: But it's not a niche play. So--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's like right in the middle of their lineup sort of, you know? Like, sort of the larger part of the SUV segment without going to the three row. These are what-- this is the segment that people are buying in droves right now, and yeah, you better hope that enough people like the design. But I mean, looking at the interior, the space is unique. I really like that sort of tray for the phones with some buttons right in there and ports, lots of-- you know, it's like very tech-focused.
GREG MIGLIORE: Reminds me of a Polestar almost interior a little bit.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and there's that digital display for the HVAC and whatnot that a lot of-- Hyundai has been going to and a lot of other companies have been going to, which, I don't know. Sometimes, that's a little frustrating to deal with if if you just want to press a button. But at least they still have knobs for temperature control and whatnot. But it looks good, and you know, there's a lot-- looks like there's lots of little unique storage spaces inside.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, no. I think the interior on this one, sort of like with the Ioniq 5, could really-- definitely it could be sort of like the tipping point where, like, maybe you're, like, eh, I don't know I feel about this. But then you get inside, and you're like, well, OK. You know, this is-- it's usable.
It is what it is. So you know, I mean, I guess we'll see. Like I said, it's definitely a bit of a risk as far as, you know, what they're trying to do here. You know, it's kind of wild.
JOHN SNYDER: It's going to depend on how the newness of it affects pricing too, you know?
GREG MIGLIORE: Ah, that's a good point.
JOHN SNYDER: If they can keep it in line with, you know, what they've been telling Santa Fe at, you know, and still offer the huge amount of content that they offer, it'll make it seem like a value just by what you get in these cars in terms of comfort and convenience and tech. But yeah, if they end up raising the price on it quite a bit, it'll be a little iffy.
GREG MIGLIORE: The Santa Fe sold 61,142 units so far this year according to the numbers most recently available. Looking at the sales figures for Hyundai, that puts it at, I believe, it looks like Elantra is 74. And then you've got Tucson with 100.
So, that's its third best selling vehicle. You know, that's an important thing, you know? The Palisade is only about 39, you know? The Kona is 30-- call it 38.
These are important vehicles. Santa Fe is up 6% this year too. So--
JOHN SNYDER: Nice.
GREG MIGLIORE: --it's a risk. But I like it. It's a car business. You can't just always be the same. So--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Well, you can, but then--
GREG MIGLIORE: You can, but people get bored.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Unless you're the Wrangler or the 911, you really can't get away with it.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: But change is coming at Dodge maybe. The Durango maybe-- the Durango seems like there's some question marks. But the report that we have is that they're talking about replacing it with the Stealth name, which, if you're of a certain age, you might remember that as a sporty coupe based on a Mitsubishi platform, which was-- a lot of people liked it. That was kind of a fun little car-- high school car, in some ways, if you will.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: So, I mean, that's what I think when I think of the Stealth. So, it's a good name, though, in general. I think there's enough people either won't remember that or will like the name or won't care.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: So it could be a good name for an SUV. And then the Durango might-- it could sort of move up market and become basically more like, you know, like a body on frame thing, which is an interesting move for Dodge. It gives them another product.
And that somewhat makes sense, you know, because the Durango being a bit larger and body on frame, it's already a pretty beefy SUV. You could do that if you wanted to do that for Dodge. You know, like we said with Santa Fe, it could be a good volume play.
And then you bring something a little bit different in, is the Stealth. So, lots of love and hate for bringing back the Stealth name. People think it's blasphemous. I think enough time has passed that it's fine.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. I mean, like you said, not really an icon, you know?
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: But I don't know. It is kind of weird to put the Stealth name on something huge unless this huge thing kind of takes design cues from the stealth aircraft. Then--
GREG MIGLIORE: Ah, that could work. The stealth bomber-- there we go. I didn't think of that one.
JOHN SNYDER: But yeah, there's not-- doesn't-- you know, a big Dodge SUV doesn't really scream sneaky--
GREG MIGLIORE: No, unless they try to do electric or something. I don't know.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. But I want to see them bring back Avenger.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, I'm OK with Avenger going to the past. It just-- it probably be good for search because, you know, "Avengers," whatever. Big movie, right?
So-- I remember driving a Dodge Avenger Heat when I worked for "Autoweek." And I remember literally a couple people picked up the keys to like, so what's a Dodge Avenger Heat? And it was like, not much, you know?
That era was tough for Dodge. I remember driving a Caliber RT that, like, overheated in the basement, basically. It's just like, I'm sitting there, like, got to turn the engine off. I'm just watching the temperature gauge go up. But that thing was actually pretty fun to drive.
So, I digress. If you're in the market for a Dodge Stealth, just looking on the "Autoblog" listings, we have them. Cars for sale.
1990 to '99, you can get on with 95,000 96,000 miles for about $7,000. That could be fun.
That one has the more conventional headlights. If you want to go with the pop up headlights, you got to go all the way back to '92. And this one is expensive. It's $23,000, but it only has 12,000 on the clock.
JOHN SNYDER: Ah.
GREG MIGLIORE: So, I don't know. I think I'd go with the early '90s one. These have a lot of miles on them. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Fun car. Here's one that--
JOHN SNYDER: I do like pop-up headlights when they work, when they--
GREG MIGLIORE: When they work, yeah. So, that's a Stealth. Get a little more businessy. Lightning price cuts, pretty significant.
One of our top clickers this week actually as far as reader interest. Base truck, according to the subheads, 10 grand less. My kind of thought of this is that there's sort of like correcting a little bit now that maybe, you know, the supply chain is eased a little bit and demand is kind of maybe leveled off.
They're still selling plenty of them. So it seems like it's reasonable to try to find where, you know, go back to where this truck could have been. But I mean, man.
I mean, I remember it was whatever it was last year that went all the way up. And now it's coming back down. So I mean--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, that was--
GREG MIGLIORE: It's a roller coaster.
JOHN SNYDER: --price spike. Yeah, it went up a lot. So, coming back down, you know, sort of halfway back to, you know, the starting base price of about $40,000 right now with this price drop, we're at about $50,000 with destination. Destination on it is almost $2,000. So--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, yeah. No, it's interesting just to see the price wars. The best thing to do is check out our full story here.
Ronin breaks it down. You can just see, you know, the pro is 10 grand less all the way up to the Platinum, which is $6,000 less, which, actually, the Platinum is down to about 94. It was darn near close to six figures--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --if not over.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: So I mean, you really don't want to have a six figure F-150 right out the door. I think you want to keep the F-150 under six figures even in this day and age, if you can.
JOHN SNYDER: Ideally, although, you know, you can offer special versions, and--
GREG MIGLIORE: That's true. That's true.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I'd like to see some special Lightnings, like--
GREG MIGLIORE: Well, there you go.
JOHN SNYDER: --the Flash.
GREG MIGLIORE: The Flash sounds good.
JOHN SNYDER: But yeah, I'm relieved to see some sanity coming back into the pricing here. And hopefully, you know-- I mean, that's going to force the hand of other automakers too. You know, the Silverado EV starting, the first one they're offering starting at, you know, $70,000 is pretty hefty.
But that one's got just 450 miles of range, which is kind of nuts. So it'll be interesting to see how these all shake out in terms of pricing versus the competitors. And you know, the range-- you can get away with charging more if you have more range.
But yeah, you can only-- right now, you can only get the Lightning with the extended range battery in the XLT and Lariat. The Platinum automatically, I believe, comes with the extended range. So that's-- and you can't even order a pro right now--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: --still. So--
GREG MIGLIORE: I tell you what. I drove the pro last year and loved it. It was just the amount-- it's so much value there.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Part of it is like, in your head, you think, well, it's like a work truck. Great. Infotainment was great.
Just so much there. Advanced, you know, infotainment that you wouldn't have gotten even five years ago. So I think, you know, I'm really intrigued. I know you drove the Silverado work truck, the EV. So it's going to be really interesting, you know, sort of price war and competition there, you know-- Ford versus Chevy, of course, but you know.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, yeah. It'll be good. It'll be good, yeah.
And there will be cheaper versions of the Silverado coming out, also with less range. So those will be, you know, seeming a little more sane as well in the future. But it'll be interesting to see if they can eventually drop the price on those. Yeah, $70,000 seems like a lot, but also, 450 miles of range in a truck that you use as a generator as well might make sense to some people.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, well, close out the news section with another electric truck. This is the Cyber Truck. They've made one of them.
First one came off the line. It's reality. You know, they've joined the ranks of Ford, Chevy, and Endurance.
The Endurance was here. It's already gone. But you know, snarky comments aside, it's a big milestone.
You know, there's well over a million, 1.6 million orders. I mean, this thing is going to be, I think, like, one of the hottest, you know, vehicles of the year for its design, and I read somewhere that people are comparing it to, like, the Mercedes G-class. It's going to be that kind of a status symbol initially.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: So, I like the design too. I really do. You know, I like wedge-shaped design aesthetics, you know? Child of the '80s, you know? So--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --hey, it's a thing. It's here.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's kind of hard to picture a world where you see these all over the place.
GREG MIGLIORE: Rodeo Drive, maybe.
JOHN SNYDER: But eventually, you know, based on, you know, the amount of pre-orders for this and Tesla's ability to eventually ramp up production, you know, four or five years, it's possible that these are going to be everywhere. But it's just hard to envision it just because it's such a weird looking thing. But it'll be interesting. Eventually, this will be-- it'll feel normal to us.
GREG MIGLIORE: Eventually.
JOHN SNYDER: Which is why, you know, them getting the first pre-production assuming prototype built is such a big deal. And yeah, we've been waiting for this for a long time. It'll be interesting to see in detail sort of what changes carried over from the original one we saw at the launch.
There's that we can sort of make out that giant single wiper. But you can't really tell-- what else is there, you know? There's maybe a steering wheel that's an actual steering wheel and not a yoke, but it's hard to really tell anything else. The photo we have of it, you know, there's all the staff standing around it. So--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: --people working there. But--
GREG MIGLIORE: The internet seems to think that was by design, but they're like-- I don't think that was it. I think that's just a group family shot, if you will.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah, I'll be curious to see what the final feature set looks like.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Tesla stock is up this week. I don't know if it's as a result of this or not. It's up $20 to about $200-- we'll call it $295 as of just this Googling.
That's up 7.42% in the last five days. So, the world, the stock market likes trucks maybe. It's coincidence, but you know, obviously, that's-- it's a positive sign for Tesla.
JOHN SNYDER: And it'll be another interesting piece of the price war puzzle.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, definitely.
JOHN SNYDER: Because Tesla, you know, they'll change their prices, you know, on a weekly basis if they want to and be interesting to see how the legacy automakers have to respond to that with their electric trucks.
GREG MIGLIORE: Ford and Chevy have somewhat sketched out where they're going to play. But then when you look at-- with some variance, obviously. But when you look at, like, just the different price points for the Model Y, the Model S, Model X, you can start to get a sense of where this is going to fit. Like, it's-- I don't think it's not going to be like a $200,000 truck.
Like, it's a mainstream vehicle they're going to make a lot of. So they'll be very aggressive, I think. Very interesting to see how aggressive they get. So, speaking of money, should we spend some money?
JOHN SNYDER: Sure.
GREG MIGLIORE: Let's do it. This is a good one. Andy writes, long time listener of the podcast and regular viewer of your website.
Thank you. Spend my Money is one of my favorite segments, and I'd like to see what you think of my situation. My daughter is in high school and drives an '08 Honda Civic EX-L with the 1.8 liter and auto-- yeah, an automatic.
I bought her this a few years ago to drive to school, practices, and her part time job. It only has around 80,000 total miles on it. It's been a great school car so far.
Now my son will be getting his school permit soon, and we will be needing another car. My thoughts are as follows-- buy my son another cheap car based on some of his preferences, buy a nicer car for my daughter, who will be going to college in about two years and pass the Civic down to my son, buy a new car for myself-- OK-- and hand my car down to my daughter and the Civic down to my son-- so the trickle down effect. His car is a 2019 Accord EXL two liter turbo with a 10 speed auto with only $58,000.
He loves it, especially in sport mode. Nervous about releasing that to his less experienced drivers. Both learned to drive with this car primarily, though, so they do know what they're doing.
He would put it in eco mode to dull the throttle when they are driving. Naturally, he suspects they will use sport mode as he would have at their age and I would have as well. Initial thought, he says, is option two. Maybe a newer, smaller sedan like the Civic or a compact SUV.
As you can tell, I'm partial to Hondas but would consider a comparable Toyota, Mazda, or Hyundai. Solid reliability is a must. Speaking of Hyundai, my wife drives a 2020 Palisade Limited, which they like very much. So, there you go, John. Right in your wheelhouse.
JOHN SNYDER: Yep.
GREG MIGLIORE: Here's the budget. For option one, it's 10 grand, and under 15 grand for option two. New car for him would be about 50 grand for a sedan or a two row SUV.
Would be open to a hybrid. He gets around 28 to 32 MPG with his Accord when driven conservatively. And obviously, fuel efficiency would be a positive. On his new hybrid Accord and CR-V are interesting, and the new Toyota Crown is intriguing in the lower trims for the fuel economy. As much as I would love to say the manuals, it just doesn't fit our family needs right now. I get that.
I'm going to drive the new Accord hybrid perhaps as soon as next week. So, I'll update that on a future podcast. But all of that, where do you land on this, this menu of options we have here?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. But I won't have-- I won't unpack it all in detail. I will tell you I would go with option three.
GREG MIGLIORE: Three, OK.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, get yourself a new car. Pass down the other cars. That's sort of how it worked for-- well, I got my sister's hand-me-down car was my first car. It was a Blazer, and that was great.
And then, you know, she went off to college, and I forget what she got after that. But yeah, just, I think, keeping the two cars you have in rotation and getting yourself something is a good way to go. Let's see. Honda-- you like Hondas. Maybe a Pilot Trail Sport if you want to get yourself a little something fun.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's a good one, yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: That one sounds kind of intriguing to me. Like I said, the sort of lightly off-roadified crossovers are appealing to me. So, it depends on what your specific tastes are, but that'd be one possibility. There's just so many things that you could buy in that $50,000 range. Maybe you could get yourself a nice little Acura.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you could have some fun with that. Yeah, so what I tend to think of is leaning towards either confirming his sort of impetus to go with option two because you could get a decent car in that price range. I think that's solid.
You know, because again, you could get like a, you know, a relatively new or lightly used vehicle, again, in that area. And I think, you know, like a civic or, you know, a RAV4, lightly used, you know, I think those things are going to be pretty reliable. I also do like-- not to sit on the fence, but I also like option three, which is where-- and here's why.
You're getting a new car for yourself. And then to your point, John, you're keeping it all in the family. You know, you know the Accord. The kids know the Accord.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: And you know, I think, you know-- like, everything is known here, you know? So you can pass that down. The Civic is still there. You know, maybe your son decides to do some mods for it.
You know, it wouldn't be the first time somebody in high school decided to mod out a Civic or something. And that's sort of there for you. And then you get the new car.
I mean, you know, you're the adult. Maybe you should get the new car, right? You know.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: And you know, and the other thing too is say you're going to spend 50 grand on like a new car, whether it's, you know, like a new Honda SUV or, you know, Sedan, or you want to maybe go off the board and see if you get something, like, sportier from, like, Mazda. You're getting a new car. And the other two options, it sounds like you have to consider used. Option two, you could probably go new for the price point you're willing to spend.
But you know, you could also end up going used for that as well. So I think in some ways, the easier-- not easier, but I think the least amount of-- or the least amount of unknowns is to get yourself a new car and then trickle everything down. And I think that's kind of a logical play.
That's probably what I would do. I also think it does depend a little bit on your own personal preference. Do you want a new car?
You know, if you like your Accord, and you're like, I really want to keep driving this thing, it's four years old, you know, maybe it is the smart play to go with option two. I think it does trickle down a little bit to, like, you know, are you in the mood for a new car? Because if you're not, obviously that changes the other two-- tips over the other two dominoes.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. I'm thinking, man, if you could find-- I don't-- it's been a minute since I looked at used prices of a Honda CR-Z. And if you went with option two, maybe you could get your daughter-- I don't know what your daughter likes. She might just prefer to have the Accord. I was just thinking-- following a little thread there, but--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, there's-- yeah, if you go with option three, you get to just explore exactly what you want and don't have to worry about making someone else happy because what they get is what they get. And it sounds like what they're getting is good.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, no, definitely. Yeah, yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: And I wouldn't be too worried about putting things into sport mode. It doesn't change the car all that much.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I kind of was thinking that too. Like, I-- it's been a minute since I've driven the Accord, but I don't recall sport mode turning it into, like--
JOHN SNYDER: Something unsafe. or--
GREG MIGLIORE: --you know, like an NSX or something from the '90s. I could be wrong. Like I said, I think I'm going to drive one next week. So I'll put one into sport mode and see if it is different than I remember.
But I tend to agree with you on that, John. But also, I mean, you know? Andy knows his kids. You know what I mean? If they're going to put it in sport mode and then, like, mentally, that changes how they act--
JOHN SNYDER: Right, yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --like, it may not change the car all that much, but it may make somebody, like, you know, like a street racer. Well, that's a different set of problems, if you will because--
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: --you know we all did knuckleheaded things when we were that age with cars, you know? And cars were not as fast back then, let's put it that way, in many instances. I mean, 50 grand, the world's your oyster.
Honda CR-Z is a very interesting take. Totally forgot about that. I drove that at MIS, Michigan International Speedway.
JOHN SNYDER: Oh, nice.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's totally random. I mean, I'm looking at things here. Nissan Ariya, that's under 50.
You know, you mentioned the Pilot. You could load that up. You could get the new RX from Lexus if you want to go down that road. Dodge Hornet-- that's--
JOHN SNYDER: Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid if you're looking for--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yes.
JOHN SNYDER: --for fuel economy. But that might be a little bit too close if you've already got a Palisade in your stable. It might be--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: --you might want something a little different.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, no. I mean, like-- yeah, I mean, so many different things. Ioniq 5, you know? You want to go electric, you can do that for under 50. So yeah, let us know what you do.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, let us know what option you pick, and then--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: --and then, yeah, we can--
GREG MIGLIORE: Maybe we can do some more follow up. Yeah. Well, good luck.
Good luck to you, Andy. Thanks for writing in. That's all the time we have. You have any summer beer plans there, John? What do you-- what do you drink these days?
JOHN SNYDER: Oh man, I was at a friend's child's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. And in the bottom of the cooler, I found an Anderson Valley Blood Orange Goza, which--
GREG MIGLIORE: Blood oranges this summer-- oh, it's great.
JOHN SNYDER: And the Anderson Valley Gozas are just such tremendous summer beers. They're super crisp and a little bit salty. And when you put the blood orange in it, you get that tanginess, and it's already, you know, a little sour. I'm going to be going around to some of the smaller supermarkets around town, some of the local not chains, and looking for whatever Anderson Valley they have in stock because I just forgot how excellent that beer is. It's so refreshing.
GREG MIGLIORE: There is a Sheboygan Brewing Blood Orange Honey, which is pretty good.
JOHN SNYDER: That's their one-- I don't really like a lot of their beers, but that one I can drink.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: Their brewery is kind of right near our cottage.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
JOHN SNYDER: So we go in there sometimes, and you know, sometimes they have something on tap that's decent. But that's the one of theirs that-- yeah, it's pretty good. And actually, you give it to people, you know, who come visit, and they all seem to like it too.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right. Well, that's all the time we have this week. If you enjoyed the show, that's five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get the Autoblog Podcast.
Please send us more Spend My Monies. That's podcast@autoblog.com. Be safe out there. We'll see you next week.
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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 …
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 …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by News Editor Joel Stocksdale. They lead off with the 2024 Dodge Charger reveal, followed by various EV startup news including the reported death of the Apple Car; rumors of a tie-up between Fisker and Nissan; and when we'll finally …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor James Riswick and News Editor Joel Stocksdale. Joel shares his experience checking out the Tesla Cybertruck in Chicago. James leads a discussion concerning GM's track record with the Ultium EV roll-out and the company's history with …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Associate Editor Byron Hurd. They start out talking about Scout's new facility in South Carolina and what Volkswagen Group wants to do with its new truck and SUV brand. From there, they briefly revisit the General Motors F1 …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Electric, John Beltz Snyder. This week, they've been driving the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing, Kia Seltos and Autoblog's long-term WRX (which has a CD player). They discuss the Chrysler Halcyon concept and what it means for a possible …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor James Riswick. We kick off the week by reviewing cars we've been driving, including the new Lexus GX, Land Rover Defender 130 Outbound, Jaguar F-Pace, Hyundai Kona and our long-term Subaru WRX. Next, we break down …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Electric, John Beltz Snyder. In the news, F1 snubs Michael Andretti, Jeep shows off the electric Wagoneer S, Mazda reveals the updated 2024 Miata, Mary Barra talks about future plug-in hybrids, and Rivian is set to …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by News Editor Joel Stocksdale, and they cover a wide range of topics. They discuss refreshed models from GM and VW including the new Blackwing Cadillacs, the Chevy Equinox, and the GTI. They also talk about the upcoming Jeep …
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. They kick things off with a roundup of the week's news, and of course the first photos of a pre-production electric Dodge Charger Daytona are the first topic. After that, the pair chat …
