In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore welcomes the newest Autoblog staffers, West Coast Editor James Riswick and Assistant Editor Zac Palmer. First, the trio talk about the cars they've been driving: the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace and the 2019 Lexus LX 570. After that, they recap the exciting 2019 Geneva Motor Show, and all its highlights, disappointments and oddities. Then they answer some listener mail about the new Toyota Supra before closing the podcast with the Spend My Money segment.

Transcript

GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome to another episode of the "Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore, editor in chief of Autoblog and your host. Joining me today are our two newest team members, assistant editor Zac Palmer joining me today in studio and west coast editor, the newly minted west coast editor, James Riswick joining me on the phone from, of course, the west coast. Welcome, guys.

JAMES RISWICK: Hello.

ZAC PALMER: Thanks for having me.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. So a little background on both you guys. Zac was a-- briefly a contractor. Probably the shortest contractor we've ever had for like two weeks. We're able to bring him on full time. He's an assistant editor. Comes to us after an extended internship, successful internship, at Autoweek magazine, and he's now, you know, one of our-- again, one of our newest staff members. You've been here since October, right?

ZAC PALMER: Yeah, I've been here actually since the start of September is when I was a contractor. And then, yeah, just like you said, you guys brought me on full time as an assistant editor. And here I am on my first podcast.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool.

ZAC PALMER: So loving it.

GREG MIGLIORE: What has been the biggest surprise of your time at Autoblog?

ZAC PALMER: Biggest surprise? Man, that's a tough one. Probably the march of the news cycle, honestly. When I was at Autoweek before, we didn't write nearly as many news stories about everything. But here at Autoblog, we obsessively cover the news.

So we hit everything that there is, and you know, just keeping up with that has-- has been a lot. But I've really grown into it, and I love it. So yep.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool, glad to have you. And for many of you listeners, you will be familiar with the dulcet baritones of James Riswick. He has been on the podcast before. Another one of our longtime contributors. He's worked as a part-time editor for us. We're really excited to bring him on full-time now.

First week was, I believe, the week of February 25th. You've seen James' writing in Edmunds and other places. Veteran industry editor, James, welcome.

JAMES RISWICK: Thank you very much, Greg.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. What-- how's your first week or so been at Autoblog?

JAMES RISWICK: Oh, you know, just pretty good. Diving in with Geneva Auto Show this week, so been very busy. And I think we're going to do some fun and great things.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. What-- just briefly tell everybody a little bit of your back story. You know, you worked at Edmunds for like, you know, long time. You've been around, loved cars. Who is James Riswick?

JAMES RISWICK: Well, I was at edmunds.com for about 10 years. That was pretty much the first place I really worked, and then I went freelance for about two years just to do kind of a wider variety of things. And I moved to Portland from Los Angeles in that-- in that span of time, and now I'm on board at Autoblog full time. Because for a lot of that time as a freelancer I was working two weeks or two days a week, you know, manning the site. So probably saw things that I wrote, and things that I edited, and videoed, and photographed, and yada yada.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. All right, so let's jump right in. All three of us have been in Jaguar's I-Pace, a pretty cool car. The one we have here in Michigan, it just left our fleet, is-- it's a shade of blue, but I actually call it purple. It's a very-- it's a bright color. Let's put it that way.

I really enjoyed it. I actually thought it was a pretty good value for about $80,500 for the range you get, for the style you get. I think it's really cool. Only I I don't like is the infotainment I don't think is great, and you cannot see out of the back at all in my-- from my five foot, say, nine height and the way I position in this thing. But what did you guys think? Let's start with you, Zac.

ZAC PALMER: So yeah, when I first walked up to the I-Pace, I hadn't seen it in person before. And I think that the photos are honestly a bit deceiving when it comes to the size. It was a lot smaller physically than what I thought because it's, you know, they call it an SUV, but it honestly feels a little bit more like a hatchback or a car to me. You know, there's not the big plastic cladding on the sides of it. And you know--

GREG MIGLIORE: Thankfully there's not the big plastic cladding on it.

ZAC PALMER: Thankfully. Thankfully, yeah. And it has a really great luxury car look that way. So it-- you know, if you're put off by the crossover SUV thing, don't be. Go look at it, and I-- I think you'll be happily surprised there.

I was also super pleased driving it. You know, the thing is a riot to drive. It's really fast, 0 to 60 and 4.5 seconds. And with the battery down low below the floor, great center of gravity. Handles well. Quick steering.

The only thing-- and I wasn't really feeling the brakes, you know, with-- with the regen. I just wasn't great for any kind of performance type of driving in that-- in that manner. But I really, really like driving it.

Beyond, you know, like-- you were talking about the infotainment system there. The thing that irked me the most about the interior were the climate control knobs where you-- you adjust the-- the automatic climate control in the seat. And they're pretty slow to respond. And it's-- it's actually the same knob that you use to adjust the temperature and the heated seats, so you press it once and it's supposed to go to the heated seats.

Well, it takes a second, and then you go ahead and twist it, and you're adjusting the climate control. But then you wanted to do the seats, and it's-- it's just not very intuitive. If they had made those separate buttons, I think it would have made everybody's lives a lot easier. But that's the march of technology with all the touch screens and everything.

Besides that, I thought it was packaged really well. You know, that-- the-- that's a really long wheelbase, so there's a ton of room on the inside. I was really impressed with how much backseat room there was, actually, for how small of a car. Yeah. No, it-- it's a really really great first entry from Jaguar in the electric vehicle world, I think.

GREG MIGLIORE: Well said. I think you're spot on with the appearance, too. When you actually see the car in real life, it's-- I would really call it basically a slightly lifted and chopped sedan is kind of what it is. They-- they gave it the Pace sort of designation, like, to put it into their crossover lineup, but to me this is really closer to like a sedan-hatch kind of thing, which I think is good. It drives pretty well.

It doesn't drive like, you know, a really bulky crossover or things like that. There is a good amount of room in the back seat-- a rear facing convertible car seat for my 13-month-old son fit very well, which is a little unexpected. When I took a look at that roofline I thought, oh, this-- this is going to be fun, but it worked out pretty well. So James, which-- what was your flavor of I-Pace out there on the west coast?

JAMES RISWICK: Well, I had the-- well, they're all the P400s, so they all actually have the same electric motor and battery pack. It's not like-- like Tesla where there's different varieties. In fact, their standard only electric motor aligns with the Tesla 75, so we have the same one.

Mine was white with a white-- with a red interior. And kind of building on what you guys said, like, it-- it is astonishingly quick. It has that effortless, immediate, you know, electric motor kick in the-- kick in the back, so to speak, when you-- when you take off in the thing.

Jaguar actually-- it has something called the active sound design system. And so besides removing some of the electric whine you'd normally get in an electric car, when you're in dynamic mode, it actually adds just kind of cool, kind of purr noise to it. It's kind of like a futuristic exhaust, and they just have the volume just right so it's not like all Jetsony and hokey.

It's kind of cool. It adds to the the character of the car. And especially for something that's supposed to be performance-oriented, I think that that's important. Because just having the electric whine, it does remove an element of an involving performance car that is inherently otherwise removed from the electric car.

The other thing that's really cool about the I-Pace is just how much grip this car has. It has all-wheel drive. It has sticky summer tires, 20-inch wheels, which I'm guessing were not on the car you had in Michigan at the moment, and those wheels are pushed to the corners. The-- the battery is mounted low. It's in the middle of the chassis. It is a 50-50 front to rear weight balance, and there's an adaptive air suspension.

So all of that adds up to just, like, astonishing grip around corners. It-- it really is something to drive. You know, a lot of those elements, specifically the battery mounted low, that's going to be a common thing for all electric cars that kind of have the skateboard-style platform. But all of those other elements, plus the fact that Jaguar's just really good at tuning a car to perform around corners and just handling in general, better than most, really adds up to a car that, frankly, if I didn't drive the Mustang Bullet last year, the I-Pace would have been my favorite car I drove all all of last year. Just blew me away.

GREG MIGLIORE: I'm really interested to see how we score this thing when we give this an Autoblog score. I think Reese has a ratings meeting on the book. That's how we come up with-- listeners, that's how we come up with our ratings is we have a meeting, we, you know, do score sheets, we add them up, then we argue about it and come to a conclusion. I am really excited to see where this one scores out because I think a lot of us had similarly positive, you know, outcomes for this car.

So let's just-- let's go to the cliche. Tesla fighter. You like this thing better? Do you think it's more special than, you know, what Tesla's putting out there?

JAMES RISWICK: I would say what the-- the main thing-- I think in general I think it's a better-made car. The interior is far nicer than the Tesla. Both the Model X and the Model S feel a lot bigger than this. The X literally is a lot bigger than the I-Pace. The S is kind of similar.

But the thing that kind of holds-- the-- the thing that will always be in Tesla's corner is its supercharger network. And this isn't just against the I-Pace, it's against all other electric cars for the foreseeable future. Sure, there's, you know, when I got the press car, I-- I had the little charge point sticker on it, or the the little fob thing you get for charge point stations. But those are not as reliable. They-- they-- there's nothing in the app that'll tell you if they're occupied, what exactly the voltage available is. The same thing with looking for a public charger.

So if you're sticking around town within that 200-plus miles of range, you're fine. But if I wanted to drive to Los Angeles tomorrow, well, that's going to be an issue. Because maybe I'll find a charge point station, but I have no idea if they're all occupied, or if it's functioning. And then I'm completely screwed because now I'm stuck at an Arby's in Eugene, Oregon.

So-- but that's-- that's not just Jaguar. That's all the companies. It's kind of surprising that a lot of these-- these established OEMs haven't come together on some sort of consortium of supercharger networks. Something really big and robust, because they know that electric cars are coming. They're all working on them, and yet this kind of fundamental question that Tesla foresaw and addressed so long ago isn't being addressed by the major OEMs.

And I think it's going to be an issue, especially if electric cars do become more prominent. And with these greater ranges, you know, you can go further until you need to recharge.

GREG MIGLIORE: It's definitely, you know, the big question. Like the technology is there for the vehicles, but then where is the infrastructure, and who pays for the infrastructure, and how do we incentivize the infrastructure? It's-- and who does that fall upon? Is it a state? Is it a federal thing? Is it upon businesses, which would probably scale it quicker than if, you know, you know, other ways about doing it?

It's-- that is the issue. And I think it's interesting, too, how Tesla has sort of thought a step ahead, which is great. But yeah, I mean, it's an issue that you're going to see for Jaguar and all other EV makers. I think a company like General Motors with the Bolt, and, you know, previously the Volt. You know, they-- they had the money, the scale, and the resources to do this, so I think that's where you could have seen some leadership. It's not just on them, but they're one that could have done that. You know, obviously other companies, as well.

So that's the next big question. I mean, is who does-- what burden does this-- you know, where does this fall? So I guess we'll see.

JAMES RISWICK: And the other thing is, you know, if electric cars become so widespread, I think the answer is probably the car companies don't do it. The car companies don't make gas stations now. It's probably Shell, and Exxon Mobil of this world. If electric car companies become wide enough, well, who has the stations already to charge us money for and keep those companies in business in the future?

GREG MIGLIORE: I'm surprised, honestly, nobody has stepped in and filled in this void, if you will. It seems like it could be very lucrative. I mean, the positive, you know, image you would get by getting into this space would be almost unbelievable. You know, every-- you know, every politician would theoretically want to support you if you-- you know, you market it properly. I mean, this just seems like such a great opportunity for a third party business or an existing car company, or business, or supplier, or somebody to get into.

So I guess we'll see. Any other final thoughts on the I-Pace? Guess that's it for the I-Pace. We've paced it out pretty well. So let's-- let's shift gears from, I guess, I don't know, the opposite of an electric Jaguar is a hulking dinosaur SUV probably? The Lexus LX 570. You guys got to go back in time, you rolled around in that thing.

I'm actually driving this car tomorrow night. So I've driven it before, but you guys were in it more recently. James, we'll go to you. What do you think?

JAMES RISWICK: Well I-- I really test the LX 570 because I drove it up to Mt. Hood when it was very snowing. So the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, it's like halfway up the 11,000-foot Mt. Hood volcano. And it usually, with a lot of ski places, you go-- the lodge is at the bottom of the hill and then you take the ski lift to the top.

No, no, this is the opposite. So in fact, you have to drive your car up the damn mountain, and when you have an LX 570 that is helpful. Because this has a serious four-wheel drive system, and it has an adjustable suspension. And I tell you, that thing feels resolutely capable. Very confident on that, even though I did not have the traction tires or the chains that they implored me to use.

Never had any problematic moments. It just kept trucking up that mountain. And importantly, it came trucking down the mountain, as well. It just didn't turn into a three-ton toboggan, which would have been terrifying. But otherwise, it is an absolute hog on gas. 13 miles per gallon.

The Toyota 5.7 liter V8 really likes gas. It's in the Toyota Tundra I currently have. It gets 14 combined. So that is a problem, especially considering a Lincoln Navigator gets close to 20 combined. So the other-- Navigator is also substantially larger inside, especially in terms of its third row seat.

Now, the LX 570 in most ways is a clone of the Land Cruiser, but there are some key differences. One of which is that the second row seat is power sliding in the LX 570, and that does create a-- a substantial amount of extra leg room for those in the back. Their legs are still-- there knees are still up in their chin because of how close the seat is to the floor, and those-- and because of the design of that, those seats actually fold laterally up against the wall when you have the third-- the three row model.

Now, I think you guys have the five passenger, two row version? Is that right?

GREG MIGLIORE: That's correct, yeah.

JAMES RISWICK: So that does free up a lot of space. But there's-- you can't get the same number of options on that five passenger one as you can on the seven. So ultimately, I think yeah, you lose some space, but then it's like $5,000 for-- no, not five. I don't know the exact number, but it is some substantial amount more expensive. I think it's ultimately worth it, though.

GREG MIGLIORE: So I think I've always liked these monsters old SUVs. It's just a thing. I'll put it to you. Land Cruiser or Lexus LX 570 there, Zac? What do you think?

ZAC PALMER: I'd have to go with the Land Cruiser just almost on looks alone. You look at the big LX grill, and it's like the amount of grill that is on this car, they want people to think that's how great it is off-road. And it obviously is a great off-road, but I'm going to go with the traditional looks of the Land Cruiser way over this Lexus and the extra luxury you get there. It's just not really worth the extra price for me, either.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, me too.

JAMES RISWICK: I'm going the other way. Because besides the sliding second row seat, it actually has a different suspension. It has an adaptive air suspension. Raises, lowers, and it does improve the on-road handling by quite a bit, to the point that I was surprised. The Land Cruiser, when I had that last year felt, extremely trucky. And this one still feels pretty trucky, but not to the same extent. It really does make a pretty substantial difference.

GREG MIGLIORE: Look at James being all logical, and here we are trying to pick, like, you know, which one we like more. I would do Land Cruiser, as well. I-- it-- that is quite the ride when you drive that thing. It's-- it's a little all over the road, but I don't know. I-- I still like the Land Cruiser sort of brand itself. I like the image. It's-- I think it's cool.

I think it's-- when I look kind of top to bottom, Toyota has a really strong lineup of SUVs right now. They have a ton of, like, old SUVs. The forerunner, it's like, you know, they're more than willing to, like, give you an old, like, body on frame sort of truck-SUV, if you want. They're blocky, they're in your face.

Just Land Cruisers, I think it's a cool thing. But the LX is-- it definitely offers, like, the suspension and some more, you know, good, usable features. I think if you're-- you're looking at purchasing one of these, you know, obviously there's some strong merits there. But yeah.

All right, let's move on. I think we've-- we hit that pretty hard. Moving on to the Geneva Motor Show. You guys were both in the trenches this week checking out, you know, all the big reveals from over in Switzerland.

I think it's been a pretty good show. It's definitely had a green hue, if you will. Lots of electric things. Some crazy supercars.

If you're listening to this by the time this podcast drops, you will have our editor's picks. Those will be on site. I actually have not tabulated them yet. All the votes are finally trickling in.

So if you're listening to this, check out the site. We'll tell you which ones reign supreme, if you will. But very briefly, what stood out to you? We'll start with you, James.

JAMES RISWICK: Well, it's funny you said that there's a green tinge to it. I'd say there's literally a green tinge to it. Because there's the Lagonda all-terrain concept, the Aston Martin SUV, and it is really cool-looking. It is spectacular, and it is also incredibly green. Love green cars.

And then there's the Bentley Continental GT number nine, which is the most spectacularly green car I have ever seen. The exterior, there's some green on the-- on the wheels that's matching. The leather's green inside. There's little-- there's little gold trim on certain dials. Then that gold is matched in the stitching, and oh, my goodness. I think it's the nicest interior I have ever seen.

So I was overwhelmed by green cars of the Geneva Auto Show. Just not the green that we would typically think of.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah, I think that the green we were talking about, that's probably going to do pretty well in our editor's picks. One of them being the Pininfarina Battista that I know I've already talked to several of our other editors, and they were super impressed with that car. Now, that is an electric hyper car, and it has a zero of 60 time faster than a Formula One car. They say sub 2 seconds.

Now, that-- you get there by having 1900 horsepower and 1,696 pound-feet of torque, which is a ridiculous, ridiculous stat to hear. Electric, gas engine, what have you. Now, they get-- the-- the battery pack is actually from Rimac, so you know that it's coming from a place with, you know, a-- a high performance pedigree.

And man, you just look at the car, and, you know, it has that classic Italian Pininfarina style. You know, you might look at it from the front. It looks a little like a Ferrari. Then you look at it from the, back and I see some McLaren to it. But I think that it's absolutely gorgeous, and there's 50 of them coming to North America. Whoever buys them, they're stupid lucky, and they're going to have a ridiculously awesome car.

GREG MIGLIORE: I was surprisingly into the Kia Imagine Concept. It's-- I think we called it a high riding sedan. It's electric, not surprisingly. I mean, there's a lot of crazy concepts and cool cars in Geneva.

You know, Kia actually has a pretty good track record of wild concepts, but I was not expecting this one to really catch my eye. I really-- I really liked the big headlights, those crazy wheels, and it's just something that I think Kia would do well to incorporate some of this stuff-- not all of it, because it's-- frankly, it's a bit much. But you know, this is a nice-- it shows some attitude for Kia, and I think you see a lot of that in Geneva.

You know, it's-- it's definitely a wild look. Yeah. I mean, there were a lot of cool concepts. A lot of things from, like, you know, obviously the tuners. It was cool to see Pininfarina show some strength because you know, they've had a bit of an up and down last decade or so. You know, it's the-- you know, the downturn in the economy about 10 years ago was not kind to the-- those historic coach builders and design houses.

So it's good to see that they're kind of sort of finding-- finding their new level. They're dabbling in sort of car making, which is interesting, but cool. I mean, it seems like every year Pininfarina, like, picks a famous family member and then rolls out a concept that they named it after. So, you know, that is what it is.

I think the CX-30, the Mazda, the crossover there, looked pretty good. I think that's a smart-- smart-looking thing for them. And then another one I actually was really into was the Alpha Romeo crossover thing. It was called the-- the Tonale. It sort of sounds like, I don't know, it sounds almost trucky. You know, Tonale, like how many tons, or whatever. But that to me is is pretty sweet-looking.

So lots of eye candy from Geneva. Yeah, what else-- what else do you guys like?

JAMES RISWICK: Well, the-- the CX-- the Mazda thing, I think, is probably the most important thing from Geneva in terms of the United States market. It's a mid-- it-- it does feel-- it's-- it's going to seem like Mazda is adding yet another SUV that's similarly sized to their other ones, but the fact of the matter is there actually is a sizable gap in between the CX-3, which is one of the smallest subcompact SUVs, definitely has the smallest interior of them, and then the CX-5.

And we looked at the numbers this morning, and in terms of size that CX-30 is about the same size as, say, a Nissan Rogue Sport, a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. Just kind of-- it is an in-between size. So there-- there was a gap there, and it now fills it.

And it looks fantastic inside and out. It shares its platform with the new Mazda 3. The only thing is that name.

Ranging from it's going to be difficult for people to search for that car online because of it's just adding a 0. And the reason it-- it is the CX-30 and not, say, the CX-4 is because there is a CX-4 that is sold in China.

However, I would note that car companies have been naming cars different things in different markets from-- since, like, the beginning of time, including Mazda. So the idea that we couldn't have it be called a CX-4 in every market but China, and China gets a special name for its version, it just doesn't make any sense to me. I think it's going to cause them more problems than they realize.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. How about some disappointments, oddities, things that, you know, stood out to you guys that were just a little too far afield?

ZAC PALMER: So one of the things that I think stood out was something that was at Geneva, but was revealed a couple days before that. And that is the-- the Honda electric prototype. Now, we saw the Honda Urban EV before, but this one is a lot more production-ready. And we got the range, and it's about 125 miles.

So that is definitely aimed more at the European market than it is the US market, because most of the time, you know, we have everybody moving towards EVs with above 200 miles. And that's what you need to be competitive nowadays.

So you know, it's incredibly cute. I absolutely love the styling. But as far as the actual range that you're going to get out of this, and how much money it's going to cost, it's a bit of a disappointment for me. I wanted to see something a bit more from Honda there. I--I feel like they have the know-how and the engineering strength to come out with a better EV.

GREG MIGLIORE: I didn't love the Aston Martin concept. It seemed very derivative. When I looked at it, I thought it was a McLaren almost. Which McLarens look great, but I kind of thought Aston might do something a little bit more aggressive. So I wouldn't-- I would-- probably not fair to call it a miss, but I had similar levels of disappointment, you know, for this car. Any misses for you there, James?

JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. The fact that I'm going to miss the CLA shooting break that will not be sold in this country. That thing's gorgeous, especially when you get it-- oh, and in yellow? Oh, my goodness. And then it has-- oh, so it's a wagon, it's available in yellow, and in certain markets you can get it with a manual transmission. I would buy that car.

GREG MIGLIORE: That's car of the year here.

JAMES RISWICK: And buy that car. But we can't get any of that here. Not the wagon, not the manual, and yeah, not yellow. That's certainly out of the question. So either I don't buy that, or I just going to have to move to Holland or something where I can buy that car. But very disappointing. That's a big miss for me.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah, I'm sure we'll get at least four or five different shades of gray instead of that yellow.

GREG MIGLIORE: Slate gray, sedan automatic. It's everything you want, right?

ZAC PALMER: Exactly.

JAMES RISWICK: I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility. You could get a [INAUDIBLE] A class or even a CLA in the color, so the color is a possibility. But the manual and the shooting brake wagon.

GREG MIGLIORE: Should we start a crowdfunding thing to get them to bring it to the US? Not that they need the money, but I don't know, a petition?

JAMES RISWICK: I would be-- I would-- I would settle for a CLA shooting brake tour x. You know, throw an-- I own an Audi L [INAUDIBLE], so I have no problem with fender flares and a lift. So I would accept that as a trade-off. But that thing is very pretty, and why not?

GREG MIGLIORE: I-- I'm with you. They should bring that thing here. It looks awesome. Any other final thoughts from Geneva, other than we probably all wish we were there?

ZAC PALMER: Another thing that I didn't mention earlier that I actually weirdly dig was the Giugaro Kangaroo.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that was wild. That was very wild.

ZAC PALMER: That is crazy. You know, it-- it looks like a supercar in appearance. They call it an SUV. You know, at-- at the base ride height, 4.7 inches of ground clearance. But then somehow using some crazy technology that we certainly won't be seeing on any production car anytime soon, they bring it all the way up to 10.2 inches of-- of ride height for off road mode.

And it's in an awesome orange color. Just it's crazy technology that, you know, these are the kind of things you see at the Geneva Motor Show that sort of just knock you off your feet for a second. Be like, wow, this is cool stuff.

GREG MIGLIORE: I have a notebook from one of their press conferences a few years ago. and I forget what concepts they showed, but they had like-- oh, they had crazy, like, split wing doors. There were, like, two of them. One was kind of a crossover. I'm blanking on the name.

But I mean, would you talk about Geneva, they really just-- every year it's like they do something cool. And this one is-- this is cool. Very-- it definitely is eye-catching, that's for sure.

JAMES RISWICK: Any-- any-- any word as to why it's called the Kangaroo, besides it being able to raise and lower? Because it's kind of a wacky pants name for a-- for a high-end sports car. Usually they're not-- usually they're named after bats and, you know, slinky, really dynamic creatures. And not-- no offense to the kangaroo. But I'm thinking with that, that's more like the odd little SUV thing, not this crazy orange hyper car.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. Perhaps they gave it that name because they actually do call it an SUV. Like, they-- they don't say anywhere that it actually is a supercar. But that's-- that's their-- their words.

JAMES RISWICK: That-- that's an SUV, I guess we're all going to start liking SUVs a lot more.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. The joke's on us. They're like, yeah, let's call this thing the kangaroo. We'll-- we'll see what those auto journalist think. We're going to call it-- yeah. But from that, I guess we'll bounce on forward.

We're gonna go to the mailbag. We have a Spend My Money coming up. But before that, we actually got a question this week which I thought was pretty cool. It came from a Toyota salesman asking if the Supra is a hit or a miss. And I actually found that kind of interesting.

This is a fairly old letter, actually. I think it even came in before the car was revealed, but the gentleman was asking, how do I explain this to my customers? Like what is the Supra? People are a little confused, I guess, when they are coming in.

Perhaps that question has been answered. But I think now that we have the hindsight of having seen the car in the flesh, we can answer it even better. So I will just put it to you guys. Hit or miss, supra? James, you have strong feelings about this. Go first.

JAMES RISWICK: Yeah, I-- I like the Supra. I'm kind of excited about it. For one, it's a rear wheel drive, long hood, short deck, sports car coupe. Love those. I own a BMW Z3, so I do not have a problem with the BMW lineage that a lot of the Toyota faithful seem to be really offended by.

Now, I get the fact that the last Toyota Supra was-- was just a masterpiece and a-- a halo vehicle for Toyota of its time, but that car today would be pushing $80,000 if they made a comparable car today. And that's just not viable. That's a Nissan GTR, and that hasn't exactly been a role-- you know, they sell, oh, I don't know, between three and four of those every year basically. But that's not really just a smart business case for Toyota to make.

The other thing is Toyota has Lexus, and they have the Lexus LC. In many ways, that is their technology halo car. So what the Supra, you get a lot of the same elements that was always in the Supra. It's a two person sports car. It does have an inline six engine, even if it's made by BMW rather than Toyota.

And I think in general, it-- it's a good thing. Are we really going to complain that there's another really cool sports car out there? And the fact that, OK, so you have BMW-- a lot of engineering going on there. But I tell you, every single Lexus that I've driven recently, and even Toyota's, such as the Toyota Corolla hatchback of all things, were really impressive to drive.

They have their chassis suspension steering down exceptionally well. Frankly, I've enjoyed driving most of the Lexuses I've driven recently, apart from the LX 570, more than the BMWs I've driven. So I can only view the Supra as a potentially great thing that I'm really excited to drive.

ZAC PALMER: I am a bit more mixed on the Supra, honestly. So I love that it's here, and I love that, you know, it's a rear wheel drive sports car inline six engine, all this stuff. But I wish that Toyota would have done it. You know, this is similar to, you know, the BRZ, Scion FRS, Toyota 86 thing. You know, it's-- it's the second one of those, you know, where, you know, Subaru did a vast majority of the stuff with that car, BMW has done the vast majority of the stuff with this car. Obviously, they-- they split at a certain point, and Toyota took over from there.

But I think that Toyota has the engineering know-how to make an incredible sports car. And it's not as though they're a small car company or anything. They're one of the largest car companies in the world. Everybody else is able to make their own sports car, so to say. But for some reason, Toyota does not.

Now, that's not to say the car will be bad. I'm sure the car will be fantastic to drive. My-- my biggest disappointment about the car itself is that it doesn't have the option of a manual transmission, which I feel is-- you know, it-- in today's age, it's more acceptable. But this is a Supra. You know, you know who's going to buy this car. It's going to be car enthusiasts like us, like you guys listening, and we like driving manual transmissions.

And you know, obviously it's just the eight speed set off from the BMW Z4. That's what you get. And you also look at the-- everything else you can buy for about this price point, and you have to really, really want a Supra, I feel, to go after this car. You get a lot of great car for the money, around $50,000 You know, you're looking-- one of my favorites at this price point is the Shelby GT 350. And you know, for similar money, you can have that car with manual transmission, and it just-- just doesn't quite all add up.

So in summation, like, I'm right in the middle between hit or miss. Like I love the fact that it's here, but there are so many, like, ifs. That if Toyota had done this, I feel the car could have been a million times better. And the BMW will always be some sort of cloud over its head for enthusiasts for years to come. At least, in my point of view.

GREG MIGLIORE: So I'm going to break the tie here, because we've got hit, we've got I'm going to call yours a miss. Because it sounds like that's where you're leaning. I guess we call it a hiss, because you're right on the fence.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: I think it's a hit. I think it's not a-- like a grand slam home run to use a baseball analogy, but I think it's definitely a hit. I think it looks good. I expect it will drive well. I think all the BMW mechanicals and, like, reinforcement and development, I think that's a good thing. But I also admittedly come to this a little more detached.

Of course, I like Supras. I think they're cool. I really was rooting for them to bring the name back and the idea back, but it-- it honestly did not bother me that BMW was so involved in this. I just think it was a scalable way to bring back an icon.

Perhaps, you know, there's other cars I do feel more strongly about, and I could see where, like, you know, to some people, this is like Ford and Chevy teaming up on the Mustang and the Camaro. Like they think this is, you know, blasphemous, and I guess I'm just not in that camp.

I don't approach this as, you know, perhaps as passionately. I like this car. I like both cars, and I have-- I have no issues with it. But you know, Zac, I think you have a-- a vocal group of people who totally agree with you.

I talked to some of the Toyota folks at the Detroit show, and they were-- they were very aware of, like, this group of people who was not loving that they sort of chose to team up with BMW on this one. And they were-- they wouldn't call it a problem, but they were-- they were aware of it.

So there's-- I mean, there's no wrong answer here, obviously. But it's like, people-- you know, I think there's a lot of strong passions and emotions around this car, but I'm going to call it a hit. So that's where we land. You know, hey, I-- great question, that's for sure.

I think you can't get a better question than a hit or miss on the-- you know, on the Supra. So-- so yeah. Cool.

All right, so why don't we move on to Spend My Money? You guys ready to spend some money?

JAMES RISWICK: Let's do it.

GREG MIGLIORE: All righty. Just a thank you to Chaz for writing in about the Supra. I do appreciate that. This week's Spend My Money comes from the r/cars thread on Reddit, which is great. We've done a lot of AMAs on Reddit. Really cool. Hopefully you all enjoy Reddit and reading some of the Autoblog stuff that makes its way over there.

What we did is we pulled this question from the What Car Should I Buy mega thread. So I will sum this up. It's a rather lengthy question. All right here.

So the budget is about $30k to $40k. This person currently owns the '05 Nissan 350Z with 900-- with 96,000 miles. The question is, is it worth it to buy a Tesla Model 3? Commutes about 60 miles four to seven days a week. Gas cost is about $50 to $60 weekly, so that's basically what they're doing right now.

Loves the 350z. Hey, it's a great car. We all-- you know, we've all driven that car. It's a lot of fun. Had it for six to seven years, and it's in decent condition. Good condition. MPG is hurting the wallet. Basically keeping the Z is an easy option. They already like it, but they are a bit toward between keeping this and then going down the EV route.

So would it be cheaper to buy an efficient car like the Model 3, or just stay with the Z, keep paying for the gas, but you don't have to have that outlay? So they're kind of asking us to do a little cost analysis. I think obviously long term, you would save some money getting an EV. But you know, an EV like a Tesla is at least $35,000, so you know, you probably aren't going to save money even over the long term. You know, you're talking about a really decade plus as far as, like, saving that money.

So I don't think you're going to actually save just in that raw, if you crunch numbers on the spreadsheet. You know, the bigger question here is, do you keep the 350 or go with the Model 3? So James, we'll kick it over to you. What are your thoughts on this? And then any other cars you want to bring in.

JAMES RISWICK: Well, I guess the thing is if you're talking, is it-- is it Tesla or 350z? So either you keep that car, or you buy a Tesla and nothing else is on the table. And if that's the case, well, really, if you're-- you're spending like $60 a week, as you-- as he-- as he says, for gas. Well, if you're going to be spending, let's say, $40,000, because I'm going to assume you don't get the base bottom basement Model 3, that's going to take you 666 weeks before that $60 per week in gas is wiped out.

So in other words, it can take you a really long time for it to actually be cheaper. But of course, you are getting a new car. So that's really the main thing you should be considering. Do you want a new car more than just the cost of putting gas into the 350? Because generally, it's still going to be cheaper to be putting gas in. But also maintenance costs, yadda yadda.

Really, you just have to decide, do you want to get rid of the 350? Is it time for something new? And importantly, do you actually like the Model 3? I know it might be a little difficult to test drive one, but that's kind of an important thing for you to decide, especially since you've had this car for so long and you do seemingly like it. And it's a 350z, so it's a very characterful car.

So if you're going to get rid of it, you better make sure you really love the Model 3 more than just the fact that it's electric. Because, you know, the-- if you don't, well, then you've given away your beloved car and you're now stuck with a Tesla.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. Like you say there, James, the question really is whether you want that 350z or you want to go with-- with the Model 3. Like the money argument isn't really that-- that big of a deal because you're, of course, going to be spending more-- more with the Model 3, at least short term.

And about the test drive. With the most recent news, Elon has actually said that you can get a Model 3, drive it up to 1,000 miles or for a week, and then give it back if you don't want it. So that actually might help answer your question if you're willing to front some money for that. And if you're really really considering going for the Model 3, driving it, you know, comparing it to your 350z.

Because it-- it-- you really, really love the 350z, it's going to be a huge departure going to an electric vehicle. Obviously, you don't have that wonderful 3.5 liter V6 anymore. The awesome sound that that thing makes. You might be missing that after a while.

The other-- the other way, you might not. You might love the acceleration from the Model 3 even more depending on how much money you want to spend on it. So that's kind of why I'd say, you know, maybe you can find a friend with a Model 3, something like that. But it really depends, you know, how much you really love that 350z-- if it's worth it for you, I suppose.

JAMES RISWICK: Interesting thing about the Model 3, one thing you could consider about trying it is that there are certain Model 3s available in car sharing services. Such as-- or just Getaround is just one. There are some available in a variety of different locales.

So you could try it for a couple of hours. You could try it for a couple of-- for, you know, like a day driving it around. It will cost you money, but that's money that could potentially save you from making a decision you might regret. And also I would consider looking at some of the other electric cars, because there are some pretty solid ones. However, Hyundai Kona electric obviously isn't as cool as a Model 3 or 350z.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I think-- I feel like there's a lot of layers to this question here. If you have a 350z, and you've had it this long, and you still kind of love it, I almost feel like this might be maybe a keeper car for you. Like you just-- you know, if you don't want to commute with it, you just put this thing in the garage and then go-- go buy something else, you know. This is your fun-- your toy car. It-- it sounds like you're building up some memories.

Maybe you keep it, and then you find something else that's more practical to-- to drive. I don't know if economically you can keep both, so there's-- there's that layer to it. Your drive is long enough that it might be worth checking out a diesel or something where you could get those-- like, you didn't specify if it's a highway or not. But if it is 50, 60 miles, you could get some good, solid, you know, diesel fuel economy on the highway there.

What I would say is keep the car and then look at a Model 3, and figure out if-- if you really want it. Because frankly, it's a totally different drive character, too. You're talking about, like, you know, essentially a sports coupe from, at this point that it's like 10 years old versus a brand new electric sedan. You know, it's a very different drive character.

And then, you know, I would check out, like, you know, see what the Chevy Bolt does. It's not as-- not as cool, but it's still pretty cool, I think. And then go from there. And I think, you know, long kind of rambling answer, I think you kind of want to keep the 350z. It's just judging, reading between the lines here, I think you keep that, and then you find something that's a little more practical for a commute. And if that's the Model 3, great. If that's something else that might be a little cheaper, maybe that's the route you go.

Cool. Any other thoughts on this, guys? Any other possible recommendations? All righty, cool. Well hey, thanks-- thanks for the question that we actually took from r/cars. So I wouldn't say thanks for writing, but thanks for being on the market for a car there, and thanks for listening, everybody.

Guys, it's been fun to do the first official podcast with both you guys as staffers. We'll do more of these. Yeah, it's been good. Any-- any final thoughts there, gentlemen?

ZAC PALMER: Thanks for having me here. I really enjoyed it.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. James? You're on staff. You're on the podcast.

JAMES RISWICK: Yeah, thank you. I'm just going to go enjoy it-- it's very snowy here in Portland, so I'm going to go enjoy that and hope that it doesn't stick on the ground. Because people can't really drive in snow here.

GREG MIGLIORE: Awesome. It was like 15 degrees when I drove home to let the dog out earlier. So it's not snowing, but it snowed last night. So I don't know, guys. This winter is just never ending. But the podcast is. So be safe out there. If you liked the podcast, please give us a five star rating. We're available on Spotify. We're on YouTube. We're on the Autoblog website, of course, and of course, Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. We'll see you next time.

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