In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder and Road Test Editor Zac Palmer for the final episode of 2020. They've been driving some interesting cars, including the Nissan GT-R, the new Nissan Armada, a Mercedes-Benz GLA and a pair of new-gen Kia Sorentos. They talk a bit about an interesting new EV called the Ace from Alpha Motor Corporation. Finally, the trio takes turns talking about their favorite cars they drove this year. Enjoy, and we'll be back with more episodes in 2021.
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GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to The Autoblog Podcast. I'm Greg Migliore. Joining me today on the phones, a couple of my co-workers and friends, Senior Editor for All Things Green, John Snyder. How are you doing, John?
JOHN SNYDER: I'm doing pretty well. I can't complain.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Sounds good. It's the last show of the year. We'll kick it over to Road Test Editor, Zac Palmer. How are you doing, man?
ZAC PALMER: I'm doing good too. I'm ready for 2021. Hopefully, better things ahead than 2020, at least partway through the year. We'll see.
GREG MIGLIORE: I'll tell you what though, not all things about 2020 were bad, like the Autoblog Podcast. That's a great thing. And we're going to end things here with a pretty good show, kind of a cheesy teaser, I guess. But we got a great show for you. We're going to talk about Godzilla, Nissan's GT-R. Zac spent some time in that. I'm very intrigued to hear what he thinks about it. Any time you drive the GT-R, it's a lot of fun. And I think it's always a very interesting experience.
I think it hits different people in different ways. We'll stay with the Nissan family, and talk about the Armada. Hey, they refreshed that, believe it or not. When you talk about really old products, the Armada was pretty old, and it's steaming back in with something a little newer. We also have the Mercedes GLA. I drove that around last week. It was pretty fun. I really enjoyed it, got some decent pictures of it. Check out my Twitter handle for that. And then John had a very quick turn. He drove the Kia Sorento. He drove them, I think, last week, and his story's already up right now.
A couple of news items we're going to hit. The Alpha Ace, no, that's not a World War I fighter plane. That is an electric vehicle. More on that in just a bit. We'll close things out with our favorite cars that we drove in 2020. Let's jump right in with Godzilla. What did you do with the mighty Nissan GTR there, Zach?
ZAC PALMER: Man, so I had it in what was one of the first snows of the year here in Michigan. Nissan fitted it with Bridgestone Blizzak tires.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, nice.
ZAC PALMER: Which were epic for the inch or two of snow that we got. So you could say that, you know, one of the more fun things I did with it, was a lot of circles in some abandoned parking lots. Yeah, that was definitely one of the better highlights. But now, Godzilla, this was my first time in it. I had never driven the GT-R before now. I might be one of the last automotive journalists in the world to not have driven this car at this point.
I mean, and that sort of just speaks to the age of it. I mean, it's been around since 2009 at this point. So that's a lot of years. Obviously, they updated it, made a bunch of changes for 2017, which is the car I'm driving now. They haven't done a lot since then. But you know, my impressions over the week of driving it, was it still holds up. It's not this super old dinosaur that you shouldn't even consider versus a Porsche 911 or a Corvette, or any of those sports cars.
I still think that the GT-$ name holds up, and yeah, it's a lot more livable than I feel a lot of other reviews have termed it. You know, people have said over the years, you know, the transmission is super difficult to live with. It jerks you all over the place, super harsh, and all these things. But this car actually, you can drive around on a daily basis. And if you're smooth with it, if you're not really going at the throttle when it's cold, or you're really, really getting aggressive with it, you can put the dampers in comfort mode and off you go as a nice daily driver. But obviously, it has that bite as well that everybody loves with the GT-R.
being from an older era, it feels more raw than a lot of new sports cars out there these days, which has its pluses and it's minuses. One of the minuses is, as you're cruising, you know, 75, 80 miles per hour on the highway, the exhaust is droning away. And it's loud, and it's noticeable. And you know, I took about an hour long trip with it over the weekend that I had it. And by the end of that, I was like oh, my god. I wish that there was like a quiet exhaust mode on this thing that would make the drone go away.
But when you get it out in the back road, you're like, wow, all these sounds are authentic. There's no fake pumped in audio hitting you with anything. None of the way that it drives-- it doesn't feel synthetic or like a digitized sports car in any way. You get some clunking from the transmission. It's very raw in that way, sort of different than a Porsche 911. Where in that thing, you know, it's very luxurious on top of being just this world beating sports car, at the same time.
So you know, and the transmission, I think, is also worthy of some discussion. It's different than pretty much any other dual clutch transmission out there in how it operates. We've gotten a lot better over the years in that, you know, when you floor it, and you're like in sixth or something like that, it will instantly drop down the second, and off you go. Eh, not so much in the GT-R. We go, six, five, four, three, two, and then you're off.
So it has to sequentially shift through all those gears that way, which is not something you see in pretty much any other automatic sports car these days, and it actually encourages use of the paddles. I was constantly using over the week, especially when I was out drifting around in the snow there, as I mentioned off the top. But no, I mean, one other thing where this car really holds up is, that famous launch. That was really the big deal with the GT-R straight off the bat. You know, this thing was faster from a dig than pretty much anything.
It blew the world up with that launch control. And there was a whole lot of controversy over, oh, it voids the warranty. You launch it too many times, things are going to break, blah, blah, blah. Not the case now. And you launch it like pretty much any other car these days. It has launch control that you can probably thank the GT-R for. And it's super fun, revs the car up to 4,000 RPM, drops the clutch, and your spinning the rear tires, kicks it out sideways. It's honestly one of the more involving launch control experiences that I've had, versus other cars like a Porsche, where it just kind of hits you with a hammer and you're off, there's like no wheel slip at all. You just go, versus this thing.
You're counter steering. It's a very, very fun and involving experience. So I will leave it at that for now, but yeah, the GT-R, it's expensive these days at $120,000, but it is still a magnificent sports car that the Nissan has on the market for you, so.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's interesting that, you know, you point out a couple of things that I think are very salient for the GT-Rs. Again, it's very old. I was trying to figure out any real major changes. And there really aren't any major ones to it in quite some time. So I actually feel much more confident weighing in on it. The paddle shifters are amazing. Because I'm thinking back to the last time I drove it, which has been a couple of years. I'm looking at Car and Driver says they got this thing to go to like zero to 60 in 2.9 seconds, which the GT-R is impressive, but 2.9 seems pretty quick to me to 60 for GT-R, even though the car is known for a lot of like, mondo performance. That seems pretty quick to me.
And honestly, what kind of blows me away-- I'm going to date myself here. Starting price is like a $1.15, six figures for a GT-R. I mean, to me, there's so many other things I would spend my money on when you're getting a six figure territory. Like, I remember when it started like 6999, if you will. Now granted, that was like 2008. But I mean, really seems like the GT-R is getting expensive. There's a lot of 911s that you could get for 150 grand, 120 grand, you know. And I would definitely go that way as opposed to the GT-R.
But it's-- I think in some ways it's indescribably cool. And for some people, it's like if you're a GT-R fan, nothing else will do, you know. This is your car. And I totally get that, you know. I don't know. Do you have any experiences in the GT-R in your long and decorated career, John?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, back in the winding road days, we had one for a little while. But man, yeah, that was like close to a decade ago that I drove that. But Zach used the term raw a couple of times. And that really is how it felt to me. It was just such a raw vehicle, and it was great. It was a lot of fun for, you know, especially, as a younger guy, who you know, whose back doesn't get sore after you know, a couple of hours of driving, and who doesn't get fatigued from the sound and everything.
But I remember it was a lot of fun. And yeah, the shifting experience is memorable. It sticks out, and that launch. I'd be interested to drive the current GT-R, you know, after it's been updated a bit. But yeah, it was a long time ago, but it was there were some things about it that were very memorable.
GREG MIGLIORE: What I think is interesting about Nissan, and for like the GT-R's launch control, is it does still really have that like, kind of pull you back in your feet in your seat feel. It's really like, invigorating. And it's a different approach. Because to me, that's what launch control is supposed to be actually. I did an Audi TT-RS. This is actually a couple of years ago. But it was like almost too sanitized. I mean, yeah, once you're going, it was like amazing. You know, you're going really fast, and the car is obviously super capable. But it was just like hit this button, do this, pull that, and then let go, and away you go. And It was like it was like too easy, you know.
The GT-R, seems like there's that degree of fear. Which I think if you're driving the GT-R, a healthy dose of fear is probably a good thing at times, you know. It's not like an old school Viper, but you know, it's not exactly like, you know, and I don't know, something a little more easier to manage. So any final thoughts on the GT-R, Zach?
ZAC PALMER: You make a good point with the fact that you should have a certain level of fear driving this, because it is all wheel drive, but it's not an all wheel drive car that is going to save you and drive somewhat conservatively as in all whell drive car, say, like a 911 Carrera 4, or like you say, an Audi, say like an Audi RS6, RS7. Now, this thing is super, super rear biased. And it'll bite you if you're not careful.
And I mean, the power goes to the front wheels to really yank you out a corner as well. But it will really, really play with the rear end a lot more than I thought going in. But obviously, I found that out really, really quickly with it, and it's just so fun in that way, in that it sort of does feel like a rear drive car, sort of the best of both worlds there, in that you get that playful feeling, but also fantastic acceleration out of corners, and just so much grip wherever you go. I mean, I felt like I couldn't come anywhere close to exploring this cars full handling abilities on the road at all. I mean, you need a racetrack for it, even with the Bridgestone Pizzak tires, there's just endless, endless grip out there with it. So yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's fun to get a car like this when it snows. It really is.
ZAC PALMER: Oh, my god, yeah. I cannot even imagine how grippy and great this thing would be with summer tires and warm weather. Because it was just fantastic throughout the snow. By the end of it, man, it was covered in salt, road dirt, and oh man, it was a really cool site, honestly, to see a GT-R in that state. Because well, typically, you don't see that with people that spend $120,000 plus on cars. You don't always drive them through the winter. But if you have a GT-R, you absolutely should, because it's so fun.
GREG MIGLIORE: Absolutely. I've always enjoyed the GT-R's all wheel driveability, in that sense too, and that you do have that degree of like, sure, it's snowing out. It's all right. You know, because even with a Corvette or a Mustang, sometimes it's like, OK, maybe we leave that one in the garage for a little while. Or you get like something else to kind of, you know, have for the winter. But yeah, a GT-R, you know, get the Blizzaks on it, and away you go.
So I'm also curious, speaking of refreshed or new Nissan products, you had the Armada. Which, man, I mean, the Armada to me was ancient. I mean, it's like, it is old school in every respect, but they updated it. So what did they do, and then what did you do with it, Zach?
ZAC PALMER: So with the Armada, it is updated. However, it's basically another mid cycle refresh of the same car, which if you go and read the first drive, I have the full lineage of this thing, because it goes back a long ways, all the way back to the Nissan Patrol, actually, which was not in the previous decade, but all the way to the one before that. So it's getting old at this point, because the Armada is basically the Nissan version of the Infiniti QX80.
So 2017, we got the current Armada. And now, we have this refresh, which adds a lot of good stuff, I think. The main updates, the most important ones for me, were the interior. They completely redesigned the center stack, which looked straight out of like 2010 before this. Now, it has a huge 12.3 inch screen, wireless Apple car play, HD graphics, has all the newer Nissan switchgear that looks really nice. Just all around makes the interior a lot more usable, with better climate control buttons, and better tech.
But beyond that, most of the interior is about the same. It's still this big three row SUV, big captain's chairs, lots of room. And it still drives the same too. I actually drove a 2020 Armada, I want to say like a year, year and a half ago. They haven't really changed at all, how it drives. It still drives like a comfortable big truck. And because it has that Patrol lineage, it has some off road capability too. I didn't take it off road, didn't check at all for any rocks or anything like that. But you do have that chassis underneath you that you know, feels like it has some off road capability to it, as you're going over bumps and small little craters in our Michigan roads.
So overall, I mean, the Armada, yeah, it's a lot better now. And it has this awesome tech in it. And you know, the front facia got a bit of a redesign, has a nicer grill, the new Nissan logo, some better lights up front. But it's still that same basic truck that it's been for the last many years. And previous to this, I probably would have had a Ford Expedition, or now, the new Tahoe, or suburban over it. And this update still, I would not have the Armada over either of those. You know, they get better fuel economy. I think that they look nicer. And just overall, much nicer interiors as well. So a welcome update, but not enough to actually push it over the edge as far as being one of the best big SUVs in this class for me.
GREG MIGLIORE: I drove the suburban last week, and I know a number of us have been through the Tahoe, and they're both really good. So to me, it seems like light refreshes to the Armada is not going to be enough to get it past the GM SUVs. And plus, we always talk about how good the Expedition is. And it's like, sort of like a Ford versus Chevy battle, that like, you know, old rivalry, if you will. So yeah, I mean, to me those two are really at the top of the hill. You really got to bring it to get past them. And you know, so yeah, I guess what I'm saying is, is I didn't think the Armada was going to storm in and win the segment, but it sounds like you're kind of confirming what I thought, but go ahead, John.
JOHN SNYDER: I'm just curious to check it out with the updates. I drove this just a little over a year ago, the 2020, and yeah, it definitely did feel its age. But at the same time, it was pretty nice. It didn't have some of the same design cues as the Infiniti, but it came pretty close to feeling Infiniti in quality, in terms of luxury. It felt like sort of a luxury vehicle. And it wasn't too hard to drive around, despite its size. And that 5.6 liter V8 is pretty nice. But yeah, I'm curious to check it out now that it had a little nip and tuck. I'm curious, Zach, did it have the sort of almost pleated leather on the door panels?
ZAC PALMER: It did, yeah, John. I thought that was a really cool touch. It felt not of this time, of this decade, but I thought it was really nice. And your point of it feeling sort of like a luxury vehicle on the inside, is well taken, because to a certain degree, yes, it does have a premium feel that you don't get in many other Nissans at all. That makes sense, given the price. I had the Platinum. Nissan hasn't released pricing yet for the '21, but we're looking at a $70,000 plus Nissan SUV here, which is, you know, no small amount of change.
JOHN SNYDER: That's the trick there, isn't it?
ZAC PALMER: For a big Nissan. You know, it might feel a bit like the QX80 in that luxury way inside, but the price isn't that far off from the Infiniti either, so.
GREG MIGLIORE: 5.6 liter V8 is a pretty good engine. I think that might be the best part of this thing. I've liked that Nissan and Infiniti have used that for years. It's a very solid engine. I like that. It's you know, it's old school V8. Since the Armada-- go ahead, Zach.
ZAC PALMER: Oh yeah, was just going to say, it would be great if they could eek out a little more fuel economy out of it. Because even with rear wheel drive, highway NPG maxes out at 19. So you do not get into the 20s like you would in say, a Tahoe, or Expedition, with their much more fuel efficient engines. And especially, like you mentioned with the suburban there, Greg, you can get a diesel in those things. They get pretty crazy mileage, versus this aging Armada.
GREG MIGLIORE: So check out the Blaz-- excuse me, not the Blazer, the diesel story written by-- I want to say it was Ronan Glon, one of our contributors. He compared the Tahoe's diesel fuel economy to that of the Chevy Blazer. Which when you're talking about vehicle sizes, that is a pretty big gulf. Let's put it that way. So yeah, we'll leave it there with the Armada.
All right, so from a very large SUV to a relatively small crossover, let's talk about the 2021 Mercedes Benz GLA 250, very handsome vehicle. It's pretty fun to drive. We did, I'd say, a pretty vigorous ratings meeting earlier this week. That's where we talk about what the score is going to be for the vehicle. We do it on a scale from one to ten. Most things don't get a one. Most things don't get a 10 either. But they generally fall between like six and eight, nine, somewhere in there. I feel like this one came up with a seven and a half. Is that right, Zach?
ZAC PALMER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Something like that.
ZAC PALMER: 7.5.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, 7.5. So it was not an editor's pick, trying to let everybody in behind the scenes here, peek behind the curtain. And to me, this is like a very competitive segment. There's a lot of different things. The analysis of the conclusion we finally came down to with like the GLA is, it's actually pretty good. Powertrain's pretty good. It's pretty good looking. Interior is quite nice, depending on the trim you get. Mine was pretty nice. But the one I tested was 47 grand. So you expect a pretty nice interior for that. And it's fairly functional.
I put $200 worth of groceries in the back. No problem. I actually was a little nervous. Because I thought, well, am I going to be able to get-- you know, I was making a pretty big grocery run for the holidays. And I thought, well, is it all going to fit in here? But holiday ham, two cases of beer, waffles, all sorts of things, fit back there. I was pleasantly surprised. But to bring it together, it doesn't hold as much stuff as say, the GLB, which is based on the same chassi, which looks like an SUV to me.
And I just, in some ways, maybe it's because I haven't driven the GLB, and I haven't experienced its faults. But Associate Editor, Byron Herd, was in on this ratings call a couple of days ago. And he concurred. He's like yeah, no, GLB is better. It's better than the GLA. And that's kind of where I land, is like, if I can get like an SUV like that, that's what I would want, even if it's in this segment. And it's kind of barely in this segment. It's like a three row compact air quotes crossover thing. It's certainly weird. But you know, again, it is based on the same underpinnings and all that.
So yeah, I mean, I like this. It's very nice. But I just, there's other things in the segment I would probably get beyond this, you know, including things by Mercedes. The Volvo XE40 is quite nice. The Mazda CX30 is very nice. Like, you don't have to spend this kind of money to get this style functionality and this amount of like, you know, I would say, this amount of design too. Because it's a handsome vehicle, but it's, I mean, it's OK. I mean, it's not like the most gorgeous crossover thing you can get. The grill is really nice. And you know, check out my Twitter feed. There's some nice pictures of the headlights, you know, the night falls, if you will.
But I don't know. I liked it. It's a fun car to have. All these Mercedes commercials on TV seemed like the thing to drive in mid-December. Handles pretty nice. Steering is light, but pretty good. But that's about it, you know. We didn't give it like best in segment editors picked sort of thing. And I mean, that's kind about where I left it. You know, I mean, very nice vehicle. It's the right vehicle for some people, but that's about it.
You know, in some ways, I think it's interesting too. I'd like to hear what you guys think. It feels like Mercedes is almost over covered in this area. You've got the A-Class, the CLA, the GLA, the GLB. And all of them can cost more than a very nice C-Class, if you want to get enough stuff on them. So I don't know. I know this is a segment that's considered to be red hot, but I don't know, give me a 45 grand C-Class.
JOHN SNYDER: It's kind of weird segment. It's kind of weird segment. And BMW as well, with like, there's multiple choices. It's just a lot going on there. And I feel like some of the maybe, not luxury automakers, compete maybe just as well in this segment. I mean, look at Mazda and the quality you can get in their upper trims for less money. I like the GLA, and I just think the competition is-- there's so much. It's almost over saturated. It's hard to choose something in the segment.
But that said, if I were going to get a GLA, I'd end up probably spending more than I want just to get the features that I want. Mercedes has some cool features that can really make the car feel nice, you know, especially on the interior with lighting and technology, and things like that. But yeah, I would probably tack on a lot of extra cash just to make this feel like what I wanted it to be. I think I could step into a GLB and not spend as much and be happier.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, and I think you make a really good point on the Mazda front there too, John. I think a CX30, or especially a CX30 Turbo would be a lovely alternative to GLA, if you were not willing to spend the full Mercedes's money for it. Like you said, you will miss out on some of those super nice features, in that Mercedes has better driver assistance features. Their infotainment tech is far beyond what Mazda is offering in their cars these days.
But for the performance you get, for the utility you get, and even the looks, that the Mazda is one of the best values out there. And then, and then even then, you know, Greg, your point of there being competition within Mercedes with the GLB, you know, the GLA looks-- you know, it's sort of sporty and interesting in that way. But I'd argue that the GLB looks even cooler. It's sort of this cute like mini G Wagon type styling, that really pulls me in, especially in certain colors with the right wheels. That little crossover can look really cool.
And I was just reading over my first drive of the GLA from earlier this year, GLB only costs $370 more from a base price, versus the GLA. So you're really not looking at much of a price difference at all if you want the extra space, and the more traditional crossover looks, than the sort of like raised hatchback on stilts jellybean GLA.
JOHN SNYDER: The GLB reminds me, it looks kind of like the GLK.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: Which obviously, I love. We own one still. And you know, that's what it looks like to me. So I just definitely more gravitate toward that design for sure.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I agree completely. I went on I think the last-- well, the last generation of the GLK launch. It was an awesome press trip in like the foothills of-- I want to say, like, North Carolina that kind of bled into Tennessee. It was just one of those really fun like pre-COVID press trips, if you will, like years ago, if you will. And the GLK was just a really fun thing to drive, light off road courses, things like that.
But to your point, John, it had character. And I just didn't feel like the GLA had a ton of character to it. It's just sort of this like, like, lifted hatchback thing. Not all that different than the GLC, which I remember a guy walking by my house looked at it, and was like-- it's interesting, when I'm cutting my grass, to sort of like, almost like watch what people think of the cars. And one guy, I remember, was like, oh, that thing is cool. Because it was, like, I feel like an AMG variant of some form or the other. I don't remember what. So it had the big spokie wheels and the grill, and all that.
But another guy was looking at it, and he's like, what is that? It's like it's a lifted hatchback thing? You know, like a guy who just you know, I remember-- one of my neighbors whose into cars who gets what like Mercedes does with these things, but he was like totally confused. He's like, I just don't get it. It's like this high off the ground, but you're telling me it's a crossover. But it looks like a car. And he's like, why would I want that? And I'm like, I don't know. Why would you? You know.
And i think that's sort of the trap that the falls GLA into. But as much as we're kind of ragging on it, it's still very nice. It still is very competitive, of course. If you need a smaller, like crossover style vehicle. It's definitely worth looking at, if that's what you're looking for. I do think there's better ways to spend your money. A couple of things I do want to point out, though, is the power train is quite good, that turned 21 horsepower to 58 pound feet of torque in line turbo four, very nice. The double clutch transmission is great.
What else are we looking at here? Oh, and then the infotainment system. That's what I was looking for here, is I scanned this window sticker here. It's a $1,750 option to get sort of the larger, more sophisticated infotainment package. But I think it's the best version of what Mercedes has done with this. I think they're finally getting it right. For a long time, I thought it was too complicated, that like most thing in the center console, I never thought worked particularly well. It works quite well now. It seems like they've got like the haptic feedback down. It was very easy to just do stuff like with the infotainment system.
You know, when you could change the like the radio station, and just mindlessly look for good music, to me, that's the sign of like hey this infotainment system just works. You don't have to think, oh, do I want to throw in a podcast? Do I have to stop the car to make this thing work? Do I want to devote 20 minutes of my life to figuring how this would be? It just worked. So to me, that's pretty high praise, you know. I don't know.
In this segment, you start talking about $1,700. Your car gets expensive. If it were like a C-Class or an E-Class, that's not bad. You know, you expect that. So you know, I guess if this is your size Mercedes, it's a pretty good one. If you prefer different shapes and sizes of Mercedes, I think there's better ones out there for a lot of people, including the C-Class and the GLB, so. But let's leave it there.
I think what might be a better value is the Kia Sorento, which they just redesigned. I think it looks a lot like the Telluride. But I'd like to hear what you think, John.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I had actually two of these. They were both the top trim level, the SX Prestige. One was front wheel drive, and one was all wheel drive X-Line, so raised up a little bit with some of those Telluride like styling cues. I was thoroughly pleased with this vehicle. It was very nice. I've driven the past couple generations of Sorento, and never really, you know, it's always been a good car and a good value, very practical. But this one gets the treatment that Kia has been giving their, you know, cars that have begun to make the brand more memorable, like, think Stinger or Telluride.
I sort of feel like Kia is in this golden age. And the Sorento got an update right in the center of this golden age. And they just did a fantastic job. The styling is good. It's not sort of a carbon copy of the Telluride. It sort of stands out in some different ways. It's a little more sporty and stylish. The interiors, very nice in the cars that I had, two very different interiors too. But both very nice, good materials, super comfortable, very spacious.
And it's kind of an interesting car, because it's a smaller three row. It has three rows of seating. The third row is just two seats. But I was really surprised with how comfortable I could get back there. The second row moves forward and back. And so you can sort of compromise with the person in front of you to, you know, bargain for more foot room. And if you do that, if you've got room for your feet, your knees are pretty high, but you've got plenty of headroom. It's comfortable. It's really nice. I was surprised with how usable this third row felt. I wouldn't put an adult back there every day. But if I had to put a teenager back there, you know, two, three times a week, or put an adult back there you once a week, twice a month or something, I would not feel bad doing that at all.
And yeah, it has this nice multimedia interface. It sort of reminded me of the infotainment system that was in the Genesis G80 that I just drove, the updated G80. a totally different look to it, it's like a re-skinned version, had this cool sort of blue and pink neon hand-drawn almost icons in the menus. Everything worked really well. The driving assist works beautifully.
And I had it in the snow too. So I got to test out the front wheel drive and all wheel drive in the snow. This was the 2.5 liter turbo charged version. So 281 horsepower, 311 pound feet of torque. It felt very torquey. That torque comes on at 1,700 and it's still there at 4,000, and before it starts dropping. So this has some, you know, it's not a fast car, but it definitely has some low end grundt.
I was spinning the front tires quite a bit fighting with the traction control in the front wheel drive car. The all wheel drive car, not so much. But the front wheel drive car, you know, it's got some torque steer. It feels pretty sporty. The suspension too, is a little more on the sporty side, a little bit stiffer than the previous version. The last one was sort of squishy, soft. This one, it responds better to steering inputs.
And yeah, overall, I was really impressed with it. It seems like a really good compromise for someone who maybe needs a three row sometimes, but still has to park it in a parking garage, or drive it on one way roads in a city, and navigating bikes and stuff. And I feel like you get a lot for the value too.
There's also a naturally aspirated version that I haven't tried. And then there's going to be a turbo hybrid coming out real soon. And then there's going to be a plug-in hybrid coming out soon. So there's going to be a little bit for everyone with this thing. And yeah, it definitely feels a lot more special, a lot more well thought out than the previous Sorento. And yeah, I liked it quite a bit. And definitely, if you're looking at something like the Highlander, definitely look at this. The Highlander, you're going to get more cargo room behind the third row. The Sorento, you're getting a much more usable third row of seating though.
GREG MIGLIORE: I think that's a really good point. I like your analogy there of like, sometimes, you might need a third row. You know, we have one child and one dog. And you don't always need a third row, but sometimes you do. And you know, I think to me, that's a very apt description of a vehicle that like, what could we put like our tent in? What could we, you know-- but also maybe, you know, go out to dinner in like a downtown area, you know. And like, that's where having driven the suburban in a crowded downtown area, we went and looked at some lights a couple of weeks ago. It's not great in a crowded downtown area. A slightly smaller vehicle is a little more maneuverable, especially if like you know, like restaurants were open, and we could go to them, that sort of thing, as it is, there really wasn't much of a problem. People just had to get out of our way.
But Sorento is something that to me, is appealing, especially in an area like you know, like in Ann Arbor, or something. You know, that's kind of neat, I think. You know, again, you drove it. I didn't. But just looking at the pictures and your stories, man, I think this is a really striking vehicle. This is like right up there with the Telluride, I think, as far as like, Kia just taking an aggressive design stance, and then rolling it out like across their model line.
I think it's really tough for car companies to do that. They always end up with like, you know, one of the vehicles doesn't look right, or doesn't quite wear it well, if you will. But car number two, slam dunk, I think. Looks good to me.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, and I should mention too, that this has the blindspot system that won our 2020 technology of the year in the Telluride. So you go to signal, and you get a camera feed, you know, if you signal to the left, it replaces your speedometer. And instead of having a dial there, it's a circle with this camera feed. And you could still see your speed It's just the number. And then if you signal to the right, it shows you you're right blind spot in the tachometer. And it's a really wonderful system. Just a really great way to just add another layer of security and confidence when you're driving, around especially, when you're watching out for bicycles and whatnot.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, and I really like that feature too. And with all this Telluride talk, I guess it really begs the question, which would you have? Would you have the Sorento or the Telluride? Because I know the prices aren't very far off. But the use cases seem to be generally similar, but there are some slight differences here and there. I don't know. You've driven them both now, John. Do you have any preferences?
JOHN SNYDER: If I didn't have dogs, and I wasn't constantly taking very large amounts of cargo and people and animals up north, I would probably stick with the Sorento. I like the sportiness of it. And I like just the smaller footprint of it. As my life is now, with a second child and dogs and lots of cargo to bring long distances, I would get the Telluride, or you know, the Hondai Palisade, which is actually in the running for cars to replace our GLK.
GREG MIGLIORE: Make sense. I mean, that's exactly the case that I would imagine for it as well. Anybody that needs the maximum amount of cargo, go for the Telluride. Because it's not as though that car doesn't look fantastic on its own. I mean, it looks like a sort of a mini Landrover type deal, whereas, the Sorento just feels a lot sportier, you know. They're both interesting in their own ways, I feel.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, the Telluride is a little more rugged, while the Sorento is a little more chic, I guess.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yep, yep. Sounds good. I think that's all the cars we've been driving. That's a pretty robust review section. We'll do a couple kind of fun items here to close things out. But John, you wrote about Alpha Ace this morning. I was just looking at the headline, and my mind is going through all these different things. It could be like British sports car from the 1960s, like I said, World War I fighter plane. So many different things. Cartoon character on Mickey Mouse clubhouse. But what in the world is Alpha Ace?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, no relation to Alfa Romeo. This is Alfa with a ph, not with an f.
GREG MIGLIORE: Right, tell the lawyers, right.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, Alpha Motor Corporation is a startup out of Irvine, California. And they have two electric vehicles currently in the works that we know of. And this one, they just revealed late last week. It is a small sort of coupe hatch sort of thing, very sort of retro looking. And it reminds me quite a bit zeitgeist of the-- oh, I'm sorry, the spirit of the Honda E with sort of retro styling, but this simple minimalist interior.
We don't have a ton of information about it. We don't know the power figures, but we do know they project over 250 miles of range, and zero to 60 time of six seconds. It has two seats, plus, what they describe as two compact rear seats for occasional use. So I don't know what exactly that is. They don't show that in pictures.
But what really strikes me about this is the way it looks, and the fact that, you know, it's not a an SUV or a pickup that have been flooding the electric startup marketplace lately. It goes sort of a different direction with this little urban run-about. And it shares a platform, an electric platform with another vehicle, a utility vehicle, called the Icon, which they've know teased a little bit. But Alpha plans to introduce it next year.
They say they're going to start delivering these in 2023. We'll see. But I just thought was an interesting little car, and another one to add to the list of electric startups that we'll see if they actually make it.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, the design, just like you mentioned off the top there, the Honda E, it really strikes me as if they sort of converted the Honda E a hatchback to a coupe. And that's about what the styling feels like, minus the big chunky fenders that I'm seeing on it now. It's cute. It feels retro, feels old fashioned. It has a pretty minimalist interior with the big Tesla like slab screen in the center. But it does look like it has more style and some interesting materials and whatnot on the interior itself.
Who knows if all that will actually transfer over to a real production car down the line. But I really do like where they're heading with this one. It's sort of the EV that I would picture myself driving on a daily basis, you know, this really cool looking small, probably pretty good handling, vehicle. You know, the range figures right now are looking pretty awesome too. Like, a Honda E, you know, if it was rated by the EPA, it probably around 100 miles or so, whereas they're talking 265 miles, which is well, that's a lot more than 100, so.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, well, this says it weighs 3,600 pounds. So it must have a pretty big battery in there.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah. For such a small car. To be fair, it's a little bit longer than the Honda E too. This is maybe a foot, ten inches longer than the Honda E. Or you know, like the Mini SE. But from the pictures, you can't really tell. But it's just a neat little look. It scratches an itch, the same itch that makes me want to go out and buy a classic Beetle and maybe convert it to electric. You know, I could save myself a lot of heartache and elbow grease, and buy a new car that is little two seater with some extra space in the back that's not super fast and not slow, and it looks really cool, and looks really fun, maybe not super practical. And it doesn't have to be super practical.
GREG MIGLIORE: I think that's the best way to put it right there is, you know, you mentioned that there's all these electric trucks and SUVs that companies are trying to roll out and sort of build their business around. Yeah, let's have a fun electric coupe. That sounds good to me. One that looks good, and you know, evokes design language from a bygone era. Yeah, sign me up. It's kind of a toy car, but so what? I think that's awesome. I think it's a great way to you know, for electric propulsion to become more mainstream. It also should be available in different segments, whether it's super practical, whether it's not practical, whether it's performance, whether it's pure fuel economy, I think there's certainly an entry for, hey, it's fun. We're going to try and build this. Let's go.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, for sure.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds cool. See Alpha Ace. Check it out. Pictures are really neat. Yeah, I definitely see a lot of Honda E in it. And it's cool. I see a little bit of--
JOHN SNYDER: We'll hope have more details-- we'll hope to have more details in the coming months. Alpha says they will be introducing new variants of this before it goes on sale.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Sounds good. Let's close this show with our favorite cars of the past year. We're working on a list of a number of different things. It touches on like best, favorite, and then most disappointing. I imagine that'll be up on or about at some point in the next couple of weeks, because there's only a few days actually left in the year by the time you're listening to this, but I'll toss it to you guys. We'll keep it casual. It doesn't even have to be what you put in that, if you put anything in it yet. But favorite cars in the past year that you were able to get into?
ZAC PALMER: Well, my answer is pretty easy. It's the Lotus Evora GT. I mean, just from a pure driver's perspective standpoint, I don't think that there is-- at least I haven't driven, haven't experienced any car that brings me as much joy driving as that car did over the week that I had it. Everything about it feels like it's engineered and made to make a driver happy. And it's the right amount of fast. It's perfect to drive on the road. I imagine it's utterly brilliant on a racetrack. It looks fantastic. It looks like an exotic. Just every, every aspect of this thing was a joy. And even made me overlook some of the negative parts of it.
Like, you know, it has a super glitchy alpine infotainment system, and water leaks then when I wash it, yada, yada. But no, there's no car that was able to touch me in that itch that we all love as a driver's car like the Lotus could. So, hands down, that one.
JOHN SNYDER: I drove a Lotus Exige Coupe back in 2013, maybe. And that's still, you know, definitely top ten, probably top five cars I've driven.
ZAC PALMER: I'm not surprised. This one's going to stick with me for a while.
JOHN SNYDER: Lotus does some really interesting things with their lineup. And they are just pure driver's cars.
GREG MIGLIORE: How would you, John, favorite car of 2020.
JOHN SNYDER: Polestar 2.
GREG MIGLIORE: Wow, OK. Nice.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, that one really stuck with me. You know, I like that it's not-- I drove the Polestar 1 too, you know, I drove both of those cars this year. But the Polestar 2 is just more impressive to me. I like, A, that it's all electric. But it feels like a muscle sedan. It feels like something that could go up against you know, a charger or something in spirit. But it's its own thing too.
There's a little bit of Volvo still in there that you can see here and there, but less so than the Polestar One. But it has a unique styling, unique materials, a unique operating system. It uses Google Android for its infotainment, and it works fantastically. And things like the turn signal sounds like a digital metronome or something. It sounds unlike any other turn signal I've ever heard. So it just felt really special all the time. And in addition to that, it was a riot to drive. And it's not out of reach for a lot of people. It's something that a lot of people could actually go out and buy without having to take out another mortgage.
I considered the G80. That's what I picked as my best car of the year. And it's hard not to pick the Corvette at the same time. But the Polestar 2 would be the one that I actually want to go out and buy.
GREG MIGLIORE: Got it. That's a tough act to follow here. You know, for me, I've got a lot of ones. When it comes to favorite, you can kind of throw it open, and it's like, well, what's your favorite. You know, I mean, I even considered the Land Cruiser, which there's nothing new about it. I drove the Heritage edition, which means it's actually just really old, and they're putting fancy wheels on it and charging you a little bit more. Which, by the way, it's actually not a bad deal. I thought about that.
I thought about-- I drove the Cayman. Let's double check here. I drove the Cayman T, which is very nice, very simple, but very just fun to drive. The NSX, memorable, but I mean, nothing really to see there. But I ended up with my favorite car of the year one I just wrote about, which is the McLaren G2. This is a grand tourer I would say in name only. It's a super car. It's a McLaren. It's got a brilliant 600 plus horsepower engine. It looks the part. It feels the part.
But what I liked about it was kind of classy. To me, the GT part, I don't know, if you check out the first drive done by one of our contributors about a year ago, [? Basem Wazzif ?] actually makes a great point, that they don't really water this car down in any way that you'll notice. It's still highly capable. And that was my take too. But it was slightly, maybe easier to drive, especially on the roads around like, you know, just the surface streets, if you will. And then when you were able to get onto the expressway, which I purposely did very late at night when nobody was around, and I could actually open it up and have some fun, it's a McLaren.
Everything you want the McLaren, it's there. I've been lucky to drive some McLarens, like the 650, the 675 Long Tail, which I took out at the Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs. So I really like McLarens. I feel like when I look in my auto journalism career, it's a brand that I've been able to kind of watch its growth. Really, before 2010, McLaren, you know, they were totally hooked up to Mercedes with the SLR. Before that, you got to go back to just the iconic F1. You know, John, you talk about like sort of capturing the zeitgeist. I mean, the F1 in the '90s, I don't know, to me, that car was the standard in so many ways.
But it's one thing to have these like shooting stars, it's another thing to actually have a portfolio of performance cars that fit different lifestyles, different price points. And to me, in that sense, the GT was illuminating. It was a car that you know, it starts in the like two tens, I think, which really puts in a lot of different people's price range, if you will. You know, GT-R is like you mentioned, over six figures now. You know, it's like, yes, it's a very expensive car, but you don't have to like own the Detroit Tigers to get it. You could play for the Tigers, maybe. I don't know. It's slightly more accessible, if you will.
But it's a lot of fun. The steering was good. Interior was very basic, but it still was very pleasing. And again, you know, it's an amazing car. And it's certainly something that as 2020 winds down, it was one of the highlights for me, certainly, in the automotive space, for what I got to drive I considered the Defender. I drove that couple of months ago. That's amazing from the fact that the Defender is back, and it does look very cool. And the interior is really interesting too, with just that rail they have going down the middle. It's sort of like, I would say that, to really just go on a tangent here, it's a cross between like a G-Class and like a Wrangler interior. Like, parts of it look really basic and cheap, if you will. And parts of it are super dressed up. But that was another one I considered as well. Very interesting vehicle.
But yeah, I mean, just pure favorite, give me the McLaren GT. It was a lot of fun. Any other thoughts on the last podcast 2020?
JOHN SNYDER: Hey, if we're throwing out any honorable mentions, I'll throw out the 911 Targa 4S. I had a pretty magical-- I want to say was about five hours with that car over the summer, perfect summer day. It was like 75 degrees, sunny, had the top off. We sort of hold that 911 as the standard for sports cars in the world. And the 992 is still it. You know, you can hardly beat that experience. And I think with the top off, makes it all the better. So that would be second after the Evora for me.
ZAC PALMER: That's a good second.
GREG MIGLIORE: That is the second. That would be first, I think, for a lot of people. It's so fun you're driving a lot of cars. I mean, even in the pandemic, we got to drive some cool stuff. We did it in a little bit of a different way. In some ways, we got to spend more time with the cars, because we weren't swapping them every day, which I kind of liked, you know. You could drive a car, and not worry about what are you going to write about it. Drive a car, forget about it, and then come back to it in a day or two and see how you feel, discovering new things, and you know, I think that's a good way to put it. We'll see what lies ahead in 2021.
Thanks for being with us this week, guys. Safe and happy new year to you and yours. To everybody else out there, thanks for listening. We've racked up over 500 some episodes of The Autoblog Podcast. We definitely appreciate you, our loyal listeners. The Autoblog theme song is actually untitled. But it's by a band called Skyway Traffic. Our producer, Eric Meyer, is the composer and recorder of it. So obviously, if you like him, you can find him on SoundCloud and other great platforms like that. Happy New Year. Well let Skyway Traffic take us out.
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