In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. We start by discussing the reveal of the incredible BMW XM Label Red, as well as the latest EPA emissions proposal. We review the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6, our long term Toyota Sienna, the Toyota 4Runner 40th Anniversary Edition and the Infiniti QX60. Finally, we take to the mailbag to help a listener spend money on a fun Cars & Coffee/date night car with a manual transmission and rear-wheel drive.
Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
Transcript[THEME MUSIC]
GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to "The Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. We have an awesome show for you this week. We're going to talk about the most powerful road legal BMW ever. You might be surprised by which one it is and also how it looks. We're going to talk about the new proposed EPA rules that will lower CO2 emissions drastically by the end of the decade. We'll get into that a little bit, don't want to be too heavy.
We'll also talk about what we've been driving, the Ioniq 6, the Toyota 4Runner 40th anniversary-- I can't wait to hear about that one-- Infinity QX60, and of course, an update on our long-term Toyota Sienna. We will spend your money, too. With that, let's bring in senior editor for all things electric and green, John Snyder. What's up, man?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Nothing. Just enjoying the nice warm spring weather. I finally have been able to get the beetle out again now that all the salt is off the roads and everything's running well. I'm just trying to think of things I can do to it next so.
GREG MIGLIORE: That could be a podcast.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah. Went from the season of skiing to the season of long, leisurely drives and driving-- driving for fun. Although I think driving in the snow is fun, but those long drives where you just sort of meander and go out to nowhere just-- just for the sake of driving, I love that weather. Here we are.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. It got here quick. I think spring took a long time to get here and now we're, we're almost in like summer. I think it's going to be 85 today, or 81. That's pretty hot for April.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah. And we'll probably still get one more snow day at some point.
GREG MIGLIORE: Definitely.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Last last year we had a snow flurry in May so it might not be over. But, yeah, this is-- I'm happy about being able to roll the windows down and take in the breeze.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Looking to get in some golf this weekend so I'm hoping, I'm hoping I can do that. We'll see. But, yeah so lots of-- our new section's kind of a little all over the place. So we might as well kick things off with this brand new Red Label, Label Red, excuse me. Red Label, I believe, is Johnny Walker, right?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: This is the XM Label Red. 738 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. That's like demon Hellcat figures, right?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: It's wild.
GREG MIGLIORE: And yeah, man. I mean, and then of course, it's got the red accents on the wheels and the grille. So you've got to check out the story. You got to see these pictures, first of all, but I'm a little surprised here that this is the approach they were taking. But it's kind of cool, kind of fun. What do you think?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Well, it's definitely polarizing.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: And it's funny I've had, at gatherings and stuff, I have other friends who have come up and start talking to me about the XM specifically because it's, it's attention grabbing. And most of the comments I've heard have been pretty positive. And this Label Red, I mean, just looking at it is, you know, it's pretty intense. It's a wild looking vehicle, the XM in general, but with all in black, it sort of, I don't know. Tones down some of the weird angles and stuff. But then the red accents highlight things like the kidney grilles, which kind of controversial design there.
But I think it looks really neat. My eye is definitely drawn to it. [CHUCKLES] It's just sort of a ridiculous vehicle, which is kind of fun. I mean, it's this big BMW with, you know, over 700 horsepower, zero to 60 in 4 point-- I'm sorry, 3.7 seconds. It's, it's wild. I mean, it's kind of a superlative, modern BMW, and taking things in a strange design direction. It's still settling into my soul a little bit. It's taken a little bit to get used to it, but I think maybe I like it. I think maybe I like it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, same. I mean it reminds me almost of, like, look I'm kind of into watches and every now and then you'll hear about random, offshoot, like especially Seiko, they'll do just like random styles of watches that are, like, serious riffs on the existing line. I think the weird grille, a little bit larger, a little bit, like, sometimes tweaked as far as the shape, I like it on the muscle cars, I like it on crossovers, and I like it on the electrics. I think some of them were traditional, like the 3 and the 5 Series. I tend to like a more traditional grille usually, but in this thing it works.
I'm kind of-- my mind is kind of blown that they're getting all this power from the 4.4 liter twin turbo V8 with the electric, you know, the electric motor. They really like, I mean in base trim, it's under like 500 horsepower. It's like 480 something as far as just the basic spec of the engine. And then boom, like, almost 300 more horsepower thanks to the electric, the electric assist. So I think that's kind of cool. And yeah, the design department earned its money. Let's put it that way.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. I mean they're taking chances, that's for sure. But, yeah, also, I also like that it's a plug-in hybrid--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: --with a pretty big battery, enough to go about 30 miles on electricity alone, and can go, on electric, up to 87 miles per hour. So if you want to drive it just as an electric when you don't need to tap those full 738 horsepower and you're just doing some, you know, dropping the kids off at school or whatever, you can do a lot of driving just under electric power, which is impressive in something like this, something so powerful and so big.
Usually that range is shrunken down quite a bit and just, you know, the e-Motors, they're more for power than for anything else. But the fact that they were still able to maintain some driving range on this is cool to me.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Sounds good. Well let's do a hard shift over to the news of the day. EPA announced major emissions cuts, this is for new vehicles sold in the United States. It goes through 2032. And the way it breaks down is that if all of the different pieces of this were to come to pass, 2/3 of cars sold would be electric in the next 10 years, which is a drastic change from where we are. You think back to 2013, doesn't seem that long ago, so, you know, fast forward 10 years and that's a dramatic makeover of what people will be buying and how they purchase new vehicles.
So it's definitely interesting. You know, it's interesting to me, too, how they really zeroed in on the CO2 emissions, as well. That's not often an area where it seems like the government fully articulates, or even automakers fully articulate for passenger cars. You tend to hear more about that like in Europe or even heavy duty trucks. You don't see that so much with new cars. Again, there's a lot of pieces to it. Check out our coverage.
Again, to unpack some of this, it really, I would say, like, my instant analysis is that, to me this feels like, like the Biden administration wants reducing carbon footprint and doing so through electric cars to be a big part of its legacy. You know, you don't see one of its agencies, in this case the EPA, take such ambitious action without it being a broader part. And I think, I think it's a good thing. I think a lot of the things you've noticed you'll see when people have sort of distance with this, is it's like how-- do I want this type of car? Or how will I charge it?
I think, broadly speaking, a lot of people are very much in favor of trying out these types of cars and having an open mind, so we'll see. I mean, what do you think?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: I mean, it's ambitious that's for sure. But I mean, it's a 10 year plan. And, like you said, 2013 doesn't seem all that long ago. But think of how much different cars are now from, from 10 years ago, and especially in the last three years. The cars we're buying, there's a lot more EVs on the road, a lot more hybrids on the road. You know plug-in hybrids weren't really a thing then. So it's changed a lot.
And I mean, it's-- I think come 10 years from now, it's not going to seem like, I mean, things will have changed a lot but I don't think it's going to feel like that drastic of a lifestyle change to us as maybe we're expecting right now. I'm glad that this is focusing on CO2 rather than just, you know, fuel economy or anything because that's, CO2 is the important thing. However you can get to lower CO2, whether it's just adding more-- like Toyota wants to do, add more hybrids so there's more miles driven with electric power even if there's still gas powering a lot of these vehicles.
If the goal is CO2, focus on CO2 and there's a various number of ways to get there. But, yeah, we'll see. I mean, with all these things-- the loopholes pop up. Right now folks are saying that this could be sort of a difficult thing to to dial back under another president, but I'm sure the next administration, should they decide to try to unravel this, they'll find ways. And that's just how our government works, you know, two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back. And think it's how it's designed to work, which I don't think is a bad thing.
But that's, you know, I think this is probably just going to be more of that. So I'm not too-- I don't think it's too earthshaking. But yeah, on paper right now, it does seem, it seems pretty ambitious. But I think in the grand scheme of things, it's not all that big of a deal, really.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's a big headline for today. It's certainly creating-- it's making a lot of news. I usually have like the CNN morning show on in the background just to see what else is going on. And it was bigger news than some like huge toxic fire in Indiana, which seems really bad, because it's like, like that's not that far from Michigan and the people like covering it were wearing these big, like, ventilator masks. I was like, great. Let's hope the wind is not blowing eastbound here or north.
But yeah, you know, one callback when you mentioned like 10 years ago, the Obama administration proposed really stricter CAFE standards. And that started to get on track, but it was going to take a very long time. You know, Trump took office in '17, rolled them all back, Biden took office in '21, rolled them all back forward, rolled back what Trump did, and then, you know, you get this. So it will be interesting to see how, you know, like if, if Biden were to run and win another term, then obviously you would probably see a good chunk of this get executed because that's six more years down the road.
If a different President were to take office, priorities could change. It reminds me, too, a little bit of like, like really ambitious prog-- like things that, like, you know, FDR, which I know Biden has tried to compare himself to, Harry Truman, Eisenhower with the Eisen-- with the interstate highway system. Like, these are things that when they're ranking presidents, like, that sort of show up in the Hall of Fame plaque, if you will. So, to me, I'm thinking perhaps the Administration wants electric cars and CO2 emissions to be a big part of it.
Because you could argue this is the most significant like environmental legislation since the Clean Air Act, which was like, what, 1972 or 1970? And that was, I think, that was Nixon so, you know, presidents really like to dig into this. And politically there's a lot of cover for, for Biden because it's also an EPA move, which is a little different than some of the CAFE things that we saw in the last 5 to 10 years. It's interesting. I think it's kind of cool when politics and regulatory affairs and manufacturing intersect.
I think you get a lot of pushback from different stakeholders, but as journalist I just I find it super compelling.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: And the other thing to know is that going forward if this does get enacted and put into play, that becomes part of the playbook for manufacturers, car manufacturers, going forward and they're planning their products 10, 15, 20 years in advance. And so they have to play by those rules early on. And then if things get rolled back, they already have-- I mean that train has already going down the track and it's hard for them to go back.
And it's kind of pointless at that point, too, once they've done all the development for these new powertrains and new technologies, and scaled up development and manufacturing for them, too. Oh, now we don't have to worry about as emissions as much. Let's go back to our old technology. I mean, that's not going to happen. So yeah, once the ball gets rolling, and it clearly is rolling in the eyes of manufacturers already, again this is just sort of-- I feel like it sounds pretty ambitious on paper, but it's going to be sort of par for the course.
And it's going to feel pretty normal going forward, especially when automakers are already driving this sort of change toward EVs.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. When you look at all the press releases that we've seen in the last couple of years about how this car company is going to be 50% electric by 2030, this one's going to be all electric, this one's going to be like, you know, 30%, you know, so it does seem like a lot of car companies are definitely on that path. It tracks with what, and I think most of them are investing most heavily in, you know? Especially you look at Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Tesla obviously, Mercedes, you know BMW, like they all have electric plans.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: And keep going.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, exactly. I don't know anybody who doesn't really have an electric plan, you know. Stellantis and Toyota kind of held out for a minute as far as like what they were going to do. But now they're definitely going down that road, as well.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: For sure.
GREG MIGLIORE: Let's talk about what we're driving today in our current fleets. I kind of go back and forth here between ICE and hybrid and all sorts of things. But the Ioniq 6, that's a big deal car for Hyundai. It's sort of like the hotly anticipated follow up, slightly different shape, to the Ioniq 5, which we all have been very impressed with. I think it's a beautiful looking EV. It's got that almost like, you know, tell me if I'm crazy here, but like 1930s art deco teardrop shape. I love it. So what's it like to drive?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: It's great. So it's got the same powertrain as the Ioniq 5, Kia Genesis GV60. So you'd think it would just be basically-- drive like those. And in terms of acceleration and things like that, it does. But it's got sort of a sportier feel through the suspension-- the way it traces the undulations in the roads, while still filtering out the cracks in the roads and whatnot.
It's definitely more of a sporty ride than the Ioniq 5, which sort of is a little more isolated and cushy. The thing is with this shape, you'd think you would lose a lot of room in this car. And you do lose some headroom, in the front, especially. That sloping windshield, you know, it aims sort of right for your forehead if you're really tall.
I have sort of a short torso. I'm 6 foot, but most of my height is in my legs. So I was fine in it. Someone who's taller might have a little trouble in the front seat.
But there's an incredible amount of leg room, front and rear. I could put my seat way back and still sit behind myself with more than enough room. Kind of crazy how big this thing is on the inside. I mean, when you can put the cab that far forward without a motor up front, I guess it makes a little bit of sense.
But it's sort of an illusion looking at from the outside and then stepping inside and seeing how big it is. I was really impressed with how easy it was to get really great economy in this thing. I started off in the long range all wheel drive.
And I was in Scottsdale, Arizona driving around town, seeing easily into the mid-4 miles per kilowatt hour, which I thought was crazy good, especially for all wheel drive. And then later, I got into the SE rear wheel drive with the long range battery.
And so let's see-- the all wheel drive will do 316 miles on a charge. That's what it's rated. The rear wheel drive will do 361 miles on a charge.
And I was pushing closer to 400 miles if I had extended my drive throughout the day. At one point, I drove from a park back to our hotel about 30 miles. There was a change in elevation, maybe, like, close to 500 feet that I descended over 30 miles, which, depending on how you look at it, that could be, like, one hill in a neighborhood.
Or in this case, it's a gradual decline. But at the end of that, I had-- and a lot of that was through stop and go traffic, a lot of stoplights. And at the end of that, I was seeing, like, 6.2 miles per kilowatt hour. That's what it was reading on the thing, which is insane.
That would be well over 400 miles of range. So I think this would be a really easy one to hypermile. They made some changes with chips and stuff to eke out-- and of course, with the aerodynamic shape of the 6 compared to the 5, it's just easier to get more range out of this thing.
And then the wheel size is another thing. The 18 inch wheels on the SE rear wheel drive help get that 361 miles of range. And I didn't find that with the 18 inch wheels that it suffered anything really in ride compared to the bigger wheels on the higher trims.
So if I were going to buy this car, it would be hard. I'm in Michigan, so all wheel drive sounds good. But iy'd hard for me to not go with the rear wheel drive with all that range, because it's just so efficient. The amount you'd be spending on electricity to charge this-- it's one of the most efficient cars that are, period.
But yeah, other than that, really impressive. It has sort of its own style. Definitely-- on the exterior, definitely looks way different than the Ioniq 5, as opposed to this blocky Robocop looking thing, this is sort of, like you said, an art deco sort of bubble teardrop shape-- real swoopy car.
And inside, it's a little less lounge-like than the Ioniq 5. There's some-- there's some of the same-- like, the screens are the same. Some of the switchgear is the same. But the textures on the door panels and things like that are unique to the Ioniq 6. So it definitely feels like a different car inside.
But yeah, I'm looking forward to getting more time to drive this. One thing that really surprised me about this was how much people thought it looked like a Porsche 911. I know that, you know, there's that sort of ducktail spoiler in the back and whatnot, but stopping at the entrance to a park and asking the attendants there what they thought of the car, it looks like a Porsche.
Oh, man. And the designers were talking about how, yeah, the elephant in the room is people keep saying this looks like a Porsche. But it's designed the way it is because air is air and aerodynamics is aerodynamics.
But yeah, so I don't really know if I buy the 911 thing. But I think it definitely looks good, especially from the rear.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Actually, as I look at it, I can sort of see that kind of, like, ducktail in back a little bit and the way the headlights are-- they're not pop up, but they're kind of-- I can see it, if you really want to look. Let's put it that way
Good looking car. I almost like it more than the Ioniq 5. Like, I don't know quite, just from a design standpoint-- the Ioniq 5 is cooler. It's got more of that '80s vibe. But there's something about-- it's just so throwback. You don't see cars that look like this anymore. So I give them all the credit in the world.
This is definitely on my, like, shortlist of things I'm very excited to drive this year. Like you, I feel like if I had to own it, I'd get all wheel. But to me, that looks like a rear wheel drive car.
So that's intriguing to me as well. The inside, looking at the pictures, it's more different than I thought it would be from the Ioniq 5, just given that, you know, they do share a fair amount of elements. But it's different. It's interesting. It's a different buyer. So. I'm into it.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Another thing about this one, and we saw on the Kia EV9 that they're adding a EV route planner. This has that. So this is the first Hyundai with the EV route planner.
So you can sort of put charging stops into your route and it'll sort of pick the best ones along your way, which is something that folks have been asking for. Tesla has done a good job with that, and not a lot of other people do.
You have to go to third party apps to plan your trips. So this has that in it.
I didn't really get a chance to use that that much. I know there are some limitations-- like, it doesn't take into account how much time you're going to spend at the charger, because that depends on a lot of variables. But there's more tech like that in this-- and that we're going to see in more Hyundai group EVs coming forward.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Sounds good. Well, let's transition back, if you will. Got a couple of Toyotas here-- 4Runner, Sienna. Let's do Sienna real quick. We're going actually trade that later this week, I believe. I was just looking at my calendar. I'm like, oh, John, it's coming over on Thursday or Friday it looks like.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. Depends on when the Bentley gets here.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, it's, like, I mean, just whatever is fine. There's no rush. But that's a funny sentence-- it depends on when the Bentley gets here. Anyway, future podcast. Feature podcast we can talk about that one. It's the Bentayga, right?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, all right. Sounds good. I might try to get to a "Cars an Coffee" with that this weekend. That should be fun. And try to time it when it's not rush hour so you can have some fun on the road with that too, you know?
Anyways, Sienna long termer-- I just gassed it up. I feel like we're just having a conversation, not just podcasting here. So it's pretty full. I do need to dust out all of the sand from it from Gulf Shores. I put 2,000 miles on it from Michigan to Gulf Shores.
We were staying right on, like, the Alabama-Florida border. It's right on the beach. The water and the beaches are so beautiful. We just literally were at the beach for, like, a week. So that was fun.
The Sienna was great. It really was. I mean, super fuel efficient, you know, averaged over 32 miles per gallon for most trips. I mentioned a lot of this on the podcast last week, but it's just a great road trip car. I think you're going to really like it.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah, well, it's going to get more sand in it because it's going to probably end up going up north to our cottage on Lake Huron. So I don't worry too much about that.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK. Well, there's some Cheez-Its and Fruit Loops in there too. I got to get those out too.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Lola will find those and enjoy those.
GREG MIGLIORE: So the dog road home in the Sienna, I thought-- from her vacation-- I thought she would eat most of these. I thought she would take care of this for me. And she apparently was just too tired. So there's a few snacks in there. Let's put it that way.
But yeah, I mean, it's interesting-- I think the navigation-- I'll be interested to hear what you think about it. It's super, like, it's the latest Toyota version of their infotainment navigation. It's very aggressive.
And it was almost making us nervous, because it kept, like, recalculating time and distance. And because we were stuck in these traffic jams, it just kept adding, like, an hour or two to the trip.
And it was driving us crazy. We're like, oh my gosh, we left and it was a 10 hour trip and now it's an 11 hour trip, you know? So I guess that's good, because we stopped in Cincinnati on the way home because we're like, well, we're not going to make it home. I can't drive another four hours.
It's 11 o'clock. I've been driving for 16 hours. So I'll be interested to hear what you think about that. I drove in eco mode a lot too just because I try to sip as much fuel as possible. And I do that around town too, quite frequently.
It's just-- it's not exactly a Testarossa, so there's no real benefit driving it in some other mode-- although you do notice it's a little bit of, like, you know, hamstrung, if you will, compared to some of the different modes you can play with. There's a million ways to open the doors.
I need to do a video of this before it goes over to you. It's like key fob, like, right by the dome light for the driver. You've got the door handle-- a button in the door handle, which is what my son uses.
He likes to push the button. There's probably a couple of other ways that I don't even know about. But it's a great family hauler. I think it's-- I don't know, I'll be interested to hear how your rankings maybe change or don't change after this.
If you don't want a plug-in, this, to me, might be the one to get. A lot of people really like the Odyssey, but this one is a hybrid. And it's more fuel efficient. So you know, there's that. The Kia Carnival, I think, looks really good-- like, really good.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: But, I mean, again, this is a hybrid. So a lot to consider there.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: It's hard to give up that fuel economy of the Sienna. It's really good, especially you don't really lose anything with all wheel drive either.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: 1 mpg or something.
GREG MIGLIORE: You won't notice it.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. And it's got a really configurable interior too. Doesn't have stow and go, but most other things don't.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: And, you know, it has seats that slide-- second row seats that slide back and forth quite a bit. So if you want to convert it from hauling your family to hauling materials home from the hardware store or the lumber store, it's good-- it'd be good for moving offices or moving apartments in too.
But yeah, I drove it briefly for the first drive during the pandemic. So I didn't really get to do the road trip thing with it. So that's what I'm looking forward to doing with it, because that's the great thing about minivans-- just pile everyone in.
Everyone makes themselves at home, sort of cordons off their own corner of the vehicle. And that's their little fort, you know? And yeah, it's just-- it's fun. And like you said with the doors, man, like, kids can just play with the stupid minivan doors for hours.
I remember when we had the long term Pacifica Hybrid, Wally was just obsessed with the doors. He'd want to go out in the driveway, and he'd go in the thing, and I'd press the button to close the door, he'd open it, and then he'd start closing it and I'd open it. It was just non-stop doors. So yeah, having, like, a little Easter egg hunt to find all the little spots from which to operate the doors will be fun for the kids.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: But yeah, I'm just looking forward to having something comfortable to put the whole family in. I mean, that's a hard thing to find. We've got the Palisade that does a pretty good job of that, but not as good a job as a minivan.
And you know, most cars are smaller than the Palisade. And most-- a lot of-- I mean, now, people are going with bigger and bigger cars. But still, a lot of families get by on smaller vehicles. We got by on smaller vehicles for a really long time.
And having that space, it's, like, more luxurious than any other feature that you could put in a car, really, just having that extra space for everybody and everything. And then to be just sipping gas the whole way, yeah, I'm excited to try out some of the tech in it.
I remember one thing about it that drove me nuts was the little spot for your phone, the wireless phone charger, is barely held in by a little, like, plastic lip. And any time I turned a corner, the phone would just slide across this little shelf on the dash. I remember that drove me nuts.
But other than that, I remember there being some good, clever storage, especially up front for the front driver and passenger-- good spots to hold things. So yeah, going to definitely put it through its paces.
GREG MIGLIORE: There's foot stools in the back so you can, like, slide the captain's chairs back, people can put their feet up. Second row entertainment-- we're trying to limit screen time so we just never fired that one up too much. But it's there.
I'm not quite sure-- I think you need to pair it with your phone or something. First I thought it was DVD player, I'm like, well, no this isn't 1928. That's not what that is.
Really nice headphones it comes with. Yeah, it's pretty nice. You can put stuff everywhere. There's a million little cubbyholes. The center console is mammoth. If I don't forget-- or don't remember, you'll inherit a huge bottle of sanitizer, which we just put, like, a jug of it in the center console.
And it fits super easily. So it's a really great place for it. Yeah, sorry to see it go. Our long term fleet, I think, is as good as it's been in a long time. You know, we've got the EV6, which we're all enjoying. I just got through that.
This is very solid. And the 330E, you know, that's a little more of a complicated vehicle, but it's-- I think that's a good thing. You know, it's a lot for us to kind of go through.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the 330E is-- I mean, going from that as a plug-in hybrid to this as a hybrid, I'm curious-- I mean, obviously, having the electric range in the 330E is a good thing. But having just, like, the effortless mileage of-- Toyota's got such a good standard hybrid system that it's a joy to use-- just really pain free and efficient. So yeah, definitely looking forward to getting into that.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Sounds good. Let's transition over to the 40th anniversary 4Runner. I'm kind of jealous. This looked really cool. You must have had fun with it.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. I mean, look cool is about all it did differently from any other 4Runner. But it definitely looks cool. When it showed up in my driveway, my wife was like, what is that? I looked out the window, I'm like, oh, that's sweet.
I love the heritage colored decals. There's a little diagonal stripe on the grille and then it goes all along the side and up behind the window. Those bronze wheels, I thought, looked really good. Just that red paint on that one was really pretty too. But with the bronze sort of accenting and all that, I thought it looked really good.
Up front on the grille, it's got the word, Toyota, spelled out. Instead of just Toyota badge, it's got the words, the lettering, all in that in that bronze finish. It's got those, I think, 17 inch bronze wheels.
It's got that decal across the grille, across the sides. On the rear, it has a 40th anniversary badge on the tailgate. Inside, it's got a little badge on the dash-- numbered badge. This one said, 1 out of 4,040. There's sort of bronze stitching on the seats, and the doors, and the armrest, and the gear shifter.
And then a 40th anniversary logo embossed on the front headrests, and then 40th anniversary logo in the floor mats and that's pretty much it. That's the whole package.
But, man, I got a lot of comments on it, got a lot of looks from people. Going to pick Wally up from school, at the top of the hill, as soon as I walk in the door, his teacher, his principal, and his music teacher were asking me about it. They really like the-- I mean, the graphics, that's what they can see from where they were the red color, that stripe of the orange, red, and yellow, and then the bronze of the wheels.
And that was enough to get them asking questions about it. And it looks really cool, and on a 4Runner, which already looks really cool. But other than that, typical 4Runner. Super squishy suspension, which normally I'd be complaining about, you know, things rolling around on the floor every time I brake or accelerate.
But right now, it's that season where our roads are just absolutely cratered just from all the freeze thaw and they haven't started patching everything yet. So really comfortable going down the road over those really, really bad roads-- just giant potholes as things just slurp them up. Yeah, really just nice to drive.
The tech doesn't bother me as much as I remember that it used to. I think the age of this thing, I've sort of come to grips that this is sort of like a really old platform. And you know, it used to be like, why aren't they updating this? Why aren't they updating this?
And now it's like, they should just keep it as long as they can. It feels like throwback and it feels kind of pure and good in that way.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I agree with you completely on that one.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: I mean, not everybody wants that. But the people that want that, they've got the 4Runner that they can look to-- go find their dealership and get that old school feeling. But yeah, that's pretty much the 40th anniversary.
Oh, my Nalgene bottle-- my 32 ounce Nalgene bottle, it's one of the few cars I've ever found where it actually fits in the cup holder. The cup holders have these inserts that I looked-- I was trying to put it, I was testing out different bottles and it wouldn't fit-- and I looked closer and saw that there were actually inserts.
And said, remove for larger cups. So I did that and was like, oh, this is still not going to fit. Fit perfectly. So you can put two Nalgenes in the front cup holders and two Nalgenes in the rear fold down armrest cup holders. And yeah, I was really impressed with that.
The only other cars I can think of that could do that-- there was a Lexus GX, I think, would fit a Nalgene and the Chrysler Pacifica could. Those are the only ones that I've tested that I can remember that will hold a Nalgene in the actual cup holders.
Usually, you can fit it in-- or not usually, sometimes you can fit it in a door pocket or something. Usually it just has to ride shotgun, or on the floor, or knock it around in some cargo bin. But yeah, passed the Nalgene test. It was great.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's impressive. You'll have to really see what you can do with the Sienna. They said up to 18 cup holders. Haven't counted them all, but there's a lot of cup holders in that thing too.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Toyota really does cup holders well.
GREG MIGLIORE: I was thinking that.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: There was-- I think it was a Tundra once. I was looking at some of my old tweets after figuring out the Nalgene thing in this. And there was a Tundra, I think, that had, like, 13, 14 cup holders. It's just great. Typical Americans, we love our cup holders. But, hey, I bring a lot of beverages along. I'm a thirsty guy.
GREG MIGLIORE: No, I am the same. I like to have the water, I like to have a mug of coffee, sometimes a snack. I'm with you. And Toyota is good too.
It seems like anecdotally, and some Lexus models, you can bring, like, the-- like the wide-- like, almost, like, camping mugs, they don't have handles-- most automakers you can't get those into their cup holders. Ford, like the F-150, you usually can do it. Dodge usually, or RAM, usually you can with their, like, monster center console. You can just put it on the tray next to you.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: But smaller cars, smaller vehicles, a lot of crossovers, even, you can't do that. So yeah, man, I like my drinks on the road-- my caffeinated drinks.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah, it's nice to not have to have them, like, unsecured and within easy reach. One of the little things in life that I appreciate.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's the little things that matter, man.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, well, tell me about this Infinity you've been driving.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah, so I was out in Oregon on my spring break. And that's what I drove. I drove it all over the state. You know, we didn't really use the third row as a third row.
We used that extra space for all our luggage for a family of four for a week of vacationing when we needed lots of changes of clothes for getting muddy and getting wet and stuff. Worked really well. It's been a while since I've driven an Infinity in general.
And this one was well suited to the task-- felt really nice inside, lots of good spots for plugging in phones-- got USB, USB-C, wireless charger. The all wheel drive was really helpful, because we went out onto the coast and visited my best friend from kindergarten, Luke.
And he lives on some property kind of up in the coastal mountains above Nesco in Oregon. And he's got this road that's not paved, nor is it-- there's no gravel or anything. It's just grass and dirt. And when it rains, mud. And they have a little campsite up there.
And so I sort of followed him around. And I was able to get up there when he was telling me stories about the week before-- or not too long before, people had gotten stuck and the truck getting them out had gotten stuck. And it was able to really do these steep, slippery inclines without a lot of slippage on all season tires.
I was pretty impressed with how well all wheel drive sorted out. And generally speaking, it was comfortable going down the road. The suspension is a little stiff. So the ride, which I liked on the sort of-- for something so big on a lot of these curvy coastal roads, it makes going around the corners easier without a lot of body roll and stuff.
But if you were going over uneven pavement, it was bouncing people around a lot. My wife is very prone to car sickness, but she wasn't too bad on this trip. This thing was pretty comfortable. And yeah, like, tons of room.
I mean, it's a pretty small third row. It's smaller than the QX80, but you fold that thing down, it just had tons of room. We had three hard suitcases, a stroller, just a bunch of boots and all this other stuff-- you know, jackets and just throwing stuff in there as we're changing layers for the weather constantly.
And it felt perfectly fine on those wooded roads on the coast. And it looked perfectly at home on the city streets of the Pearl District in Portland. But yes, so I was actually-- I was a little bit surprised at how much I enjoyed driving it and getting reacquainted with this particular Infinity. Yeah, not bad.
GREG MIGLIORE: QX60 is one of the earlier vehicles felt like it's a larger crossover, but it's not enormous-- like, there's a QX80, obviously. It seemed like Infinity was among the first to get that, like, third row in there. And I remember people are thinking, well, what are they doing there?
But now, it's just ubiquitous. Like, everything is three rows, basically. Even some relatively small vehicles-- like, I think the GLB, for example, you can get a third row randomly. And then you fold it down or use it as you see fit. So that's kind of my takeaway on that. And this was a rental, I assume?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: It was-- they have a press fleet.
GREG MIGLIORE: Really? OK.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. I mean, James used to live out there.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, right, right. That's true. So it's interesting because I was going to say when we went to Gulf Shores, we saw a ton of Infinitys as rentals. And I was like, anecdotally, I was like, are they, like, dumping these things into, like, the rental fleets or something? But yeah, that also makes sense, press fleet.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah, one thing I didn't do was take it into the Cascades. Didn't have tire chains and it didn't have winter tires on it. And they'd just gotten a bunch of snow. It was one thing we considered doing.
If they hadn't gotten snow we were going to go up to Bend and look at some of the volcanic stuff. There's just so much to do in Oregon and you have to drive everywhere to do it. But you don't have to drive super far to do a lot of it.
But, man, I can't wait to go back. I can't wait to go back to Oregon-- one of the top states of mine to drive through. And that coastal highway is one of my favorite drives of all time. It's one of the things that made me want to get a Beetle, because that same friend Luke, who lives out on the coast, years ago when I had moved out to Midwest, I went back to visit him and he had a couple of Beetles and we just drove one down the coast and were just bombing down the highways in the rain.
And it just felt like so much fun. It's a memory I treasure very much and really made me want a Beetle. And now I've got that Beetle and I get to keep making new memories.
But going out on those coastal highways in anything, really, is always a treasure. That was just-- those are great roads. You can see-- they get landslides and stuff, so you can see spots where the roads have been washed away in previous years and rebuilt. And it's always an adventure.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds awesome. That's on the list of places I'd like to see. I like that type of climate-- sort of like those two corners of the country, I think, could be fodder for family trips, like Oregon and then North and South Carolina. You know, I know we have some friends who are going to Charleston, which sounds interesting. It's a nice blend of, like, history, beach, good architecture, and restaurants-- just a lot of stuff that you can check out.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah. We saw a bunch of waterfalls. Wally was really excited to see parts of the Lewis and Clark trail. Yeah, it's just really neat out there.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right, sounds good. Well, that's future Spending My Moneys on vacations. You never regret any money you spend on vacation, I think, you know? So you know, it's life experience. But should we spend some money?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Yeah, let's do it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Let's do it. So Matt is writing in. Recently moved to work full time from home, so realistically, he does not need his daily driver anymore. For the grocery getting and just general stuff, he's using his partner's econobox and a 2015 Fiesta ST. OK, doesn't get much use.
So this being the case, he's like, hey, I want to get something that's going to be fun, nights out, cars and coffee, maybe a track day a few times a month. So the criteria is stick shift, rear wheel drive, budget's $40 grand, could maybe push it to $50.
He's been looking at Mustang GTs. Some of the special editions are a few years old-- could be interesting. Or E92 M3s. Let me know what you guys think. So I think you're on the right path with those two, but what else do you thinking there, John?
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Well, it's funny. This was sort of my situation when I had my WRX.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: And it was just sitting there not getting used. And you know, I got rid of it. And then I wanted a new car. And I ended up with the car I had always wanted, which was a Beetle.
So my advice to you is that's a pretty good price range to give you a lot of leeway. And if you can-- and it's something you don't need to drive every day. Like, you've got your partner's car to use-- get the car you've always wanted.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Whatever that is within that price range. Even if it's unreliable or you're going to have to do your own work on it quite a bit, now's the opportunity to do that. That being said, looking at what you've suggested, the E92 M3, that's awesome. I mean, it's a neat time in sort of that model's lineage, the naturally aspirated V8, I believe, which is sort of a neat thing to get right now and hold on to as more cars are going electric.
A V8 is such a car culture touchstone that seems to be a dying breed right now. So if that's something that you're interested in, that's a neat one to have. I probably-- I mean, you've had a Ford for 12 years. Or you have a 12-year-old Ford.
And it's a sporty Ford. And you've had that Ford lifestyle for a while. If I were you-- I mean, I love the Mustang. But I would switch it up. I would go BMW.
I think E92 M3 would be a good one. And you've got some wiggle room. Do your research, look for some of the pitfalls. And you've got enough budget there to avoid some of the mechanical pitfalls that you might run into.
But yeah, so get whatever car you've always wanted that you loved since you were a kid. And if that's the E92, even better.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, well said. I don't think you're going to go wrong. Check out the E92. You can do some research on things you should know before getting into one of those cars. I just did a quick Google search and some interesting stories came up, so I would recommend you check those out.
Whether it's a Mustang, which I don't think you'll go wrong with a Mustang-- you can get a lot of Mustang for $40 or $50 grand, whether it's the E92-- this is one of those moments where I think you would say, what do you want? And try to feed that impulse. So I think that's a good move.
Just looking across the field, I like the 2023 Nissan Z Car. I think that's a lot of fun. It's rear wheel drive, it's a manual transmission. It's a kind of fun throwback design.
Just if you're, like, looking for other ideas, that's one, to me, that kind of does cut through the clutter a little bit. I think it's a lot of fun to drive. It's a little less practical for, like, you daily . Pursuits so that's one where if that happens to be on your short list-- I drove it, I thought it was fun. There's that.
And then if you're-- again, like, John, you mentioned about, like, the V8-- the last call for the Charger and the Challenger as we know them. Could be an interesting thing to get into. Certainly, those are rear wheel drive and V8s, depending on the model you choose. So that could be good.
Another one too I think could be interesting as it really is running up the clock is the Camaro. You know, you're either going to be a Camaro person or you're not. But that could be one want to look at too. So all of the pony cars out there, I think, are worth considering.
And if you've ever been-- like, that's been on the poster on your wall, it sounds like you're in a position right now where now is the time you can make that call.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: And yeah the Camaro, while it may not have the soul of some of the other pony cars, I think it's maybe perhaps the best to drive from a technical standpoint.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Especially with the stick shift. pretty fun to-- if you're going to take it out to a track or something, that'd be one.
GREG MIGLIORE: Of course, Miata. You'll save some money too if you go with the Miata. So you know, those are certainly fun in all conditions. All right, Matt, let us know what you're going to do.
We're very interested to find out. So that's all the time we have this week. If you enjoy the podcast, and we hope you do, please leave us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get the show.
Send us more of your Spend My Moneys. That's podcast@autoblog.com. Be safe out there and we'll see you next week.
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