In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder and News Editor Joel Stocksdale. In the news this week, Ford has teased some sort of high-performance Bronco, Nissan unveiled the Z Proto, Hyundai revealed the next-gen Tucson and GMC teased the Hummer EV's "Crab Mode." Our editors break that all down for you, and share some insights and opinions before they turn to the cars in their own driveways. This week, they've been spending time with the 2020 Mercedes-AMG G 63, as well as the 2020 BMW Alpina B7.
Transcript- Hey, everybody. This is "Autoblog Podcast" producer Eric here. I'm just hopping in quickly at the beginning of the episode to let you know that this episode of the "Autoblog Podcast" is brought to you by the "SoFi Daily" podcast. Reaching financial independence starts with having the right information, so every weekday mornings, SoFi keeps you up to date with important business news and stock market happenings and how they affect your financial life. So get your money right and search for SoFi-- that's S-O-F-I wherever you get your podcasts. On with the show.
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GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to the "Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. We've got a great show for you today. Joining me on the phones today is senior editor for all things green, John Snyder. What's up, man?
JOHN SNYDER: Hey, how's it going?
GREG MIGLIORE: It's going well. I'm in a good mood. It's Wednesday afternoon. We got a lot of cool things to talk about. And on the other line is news editor Joel Stocksdale. How are you?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Doing all right. Hanging in there.
GREG MIGLIORE: I tell you what, Joel, you actually have the best framed up version I've seen you on our Google Hangouts in, like, basically since we went to, like, quarantine. Normally, it seems like the lighting is kind of dark or something. Like, you've got it, like, straight on, nice lighting-- so compliments there. As far as, like, virtual etiquette, you're just crushing it today.
JOHN SNYDER: People can't see this, but I would post-- if this was a painting of Joel, I would put it-- I would hang it on my wall.
GREG MIGLIORE: Of the three of us, he is by far the best setup. Normally it's fine, but it's like-- I think you're in, like, your, like, living room or something with the sun coming in. This is just perfect. I'm in my basement. John looks like he's crashing on a couch somewhere. So there we go. But you guys probably want to hear what we're going to talk about this week on the "Autoblog Podcast." Nissan Z car-- it's back, big reveal on Tuesday night. Hope you stayed up for it, if not, we're going to break it down for you.
GMC is bringing the Hummer back on October 20. They also sort of laid out a few teasers on Crab Mode, which we'll tell you what that means a little bit. They're really playing this one, I think, kind of close to the vest. John has a little bit more insight as far as the EV power train. He can tell us some of it. Some of it he's got to keep under wraps, but we'll break that down.
The Hyundai Tucson, not the most exciting vehicle, but it looks wild, I think, so we're going to talk about that. And of course, the Bronco news-- Ford released-- well, it's not a spy shot, it's definitely, like, a teaser shot of something that could be the Raptor or the Bronco Warthog. I don't know, they both seem pretty cool to me. You guys have a preference before we get into the drives? Which name would you go with, I'm curious-- Bronco or Warthog?
JOHN SNYDER: You mean Raptor or Warthog?
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure they're going to go with Bronco, but--
[LAUGHTER]
JOHN SNYDER: I don't know, Raptor's recognizable, but Warthog is-- I like what that conjures up. I'm going with Warthog.
GREG MIGLIORE: Me too. It was an awesome fighter plane, I think, in World War 2, somewhere in there.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: It's modern.
GREG MIGLIORE: Modern one? OK.
JOHN SNYDER: The Thunderbolt 2 is nicknamed the Warthog-- the A10.
GREG MIGLIORE: A10, yes.
JOHN SNYDER: It's basically a plane built around a giant gun, which is kind of wild.
GREG MIGLIORE: Well, that makes sense for a fighter plane, for a war plane. How about you, Joel?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Well, Raptor would make the most sense to me, because everybody knows what a raptor is-- like, it's the fast offroad one. And it would-- and it's a good name too. I mean, whether you're thinking--
JOHN SNYDER: Toronto Raptor.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, whether you're thinking of big fast dinosaurs or cool fast birds. I mean, Warthog sounds cool too. And I associate it with the Warthog Jeep in the "Halo" video games. But I don't know, it just seems kind of--
JOHN SNYDER: Forgot about that.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, it just seems kind of crazy to let all that brand recognition go away. Yeah, it just-- I don't know, Warthog seems fine, but maybe not the best choice marketing wise. But also, it's probably going to be a cool enough SUV that it's not going to matter that much.
GREG MIGLIORE: I kind of like the idea of a Warthog-- just, like, those things are, like-- it fits more of like that squat kind of low-- lower shape of the Bronco, for what it's worth. I don't know. Lot you could do with it there, we'll see. What's in a name? Who knows? So we did drive some cars-- not the Bronco, Warthog, or Raptor, but I drove the Alpina B7-- comes in at $153,000. It was a beautiful car-- one of the most beautiful shades of green I've ever seen on an automobile. That was gorgeous. It was expensive, let me put it that way. And John drove another beautiful Mercedes in this case-- Mercedes AMG G63, right?
JOHN SNYDER: That's correct.
GREG MIGLIORE: Awesome. Sounds good. We're going to talk about those in our drive section. Might get into the Kia Sportage if we have some time, but let's just jump back into the news section. We were having a great conversation on Broncos, let's just go with that. Ford sort of dropped this teaser out of the middle of nowhere, and everybody is like, well, what is that? Didn't we already see that? What's going on there? What is this?
So it was a bit of a sleight of hand. It was very subtle-- kind of a cool way to do it, I think. And it's out there. Check out the picture on Autoblog. It'll give you some good, like, insight as to what we're talking about. A picture's worth a thousand words whether they're written or on audio. But I mean, I think it makes a ton of sense for them to expand the Bronco range in this way.
I think the competition in this segment is going to be crazy. You know, we're going to talk about the Hummer here in a little bit, but, like, the Wrangler with a 4x E-- I mean, that's electric. You know, the Wrangler, of course, is there in the first place. It's sort of like the one to beat, if you will, which is what Bronco is going after. And then you start to lump in other things, like, well, the Jeep Gladiator shares some of the same purposes-- different body style, got the 4Runner, a bit bigger, but it's also-- can do many of those offroad things. And then you just start going off in all sorts of different directions-- Land Cruiser, G63, even, that we're going to talk about. You know, and depending on what you're going to do and how much you're willing to pay, you know, there's some things out there.
But I mean, we expected this. In some ways, I kind of wonder, like, how soon we're going to get this. I don't have a lot of intel, maybe you guys do on this. But that seems like a pretty aggressive move. And I think to me, that speaks to just how competitive this segment is going to be that they're already, before it's even launched, saying, hey, look our "Halo" vehicle Raptor thing is on the way. So that, to me, is interesting.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. And just the fact that the picture they tweeted out shows this thing, you know, all four wheels in the air, it's like, oh yeah, definitely, like, a Raptor going on here. I associate, like, all Raptor marketing with being airborne. So I loved seeing this photo and really nothing else-- no other context to it, because it does speak volumes.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, and this photo, it almost looks like a spy shot, because the car is in camouflage. And there is no other information given with it. All it was was this photo. And Ford isn't officially saying that this is what it is, but also, like, you can go and see their replies and things and it's like, they know that we know that this is the-- this is the fancy, like, Raptor or Warthog kind of version. And it definitely looks cool, and it definitely makes sense to have something like this, because the F-150 Raptor has been hugely successful, and everybody's been pining for another Raptor version.
And people were expecting it to be the Ranger, because there already is a Ranger Raptor. But I think this makes more sense for them, because it's different than-- it's even more different from an F-150 Raptor than a Ranger Raptor would be. I always kind of felt like one of the issues if they did it with the Ranger would be that the price would get a little bit too close to the F-150 version and people would be like, well, I can get the bigger, faster one for not that much more money, and that would be kind of an issue for Ranger. But if you want an SUV and you want something with, like, removable top and doors and an SUV body style, that's a more compelling case for the Bronco. Now--
GREG MIGLIORE: I'm kind of intrigued by the Ranger Raptor, just to jump in there real quick, just because I really like what the Ranger is. To me, it's a very right size pickup truck. But I'll jump back out. Continue your thought.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: So the other thing, though, that is really confusing to me is, why is Ford showing this now? Because the regular Bronco isn't even on sale yet. And it's going to be a few months still before they actually hit dealer lots. And I mean, usually, you roll out kind of a special, high performance version of a car later in that vehicle's lifecycle to kind of revive interest and kind of get a little spike in sales and a little bit more attention.
And like, again, this thing isn't-- the regular one is not-- it's not out at dealers yet. We're not in year one yet, basically. And they're already like, hey, we've got even another one. And it just-- it's weird, because I felt like Ford was in a really, really good spot as far as hype and attention and good press with the Bronco reveal just a couple months ago. Why not just ride that for a while?
And, like, even though Jeep is showing off, like, a possible V8 version of the Wrangler and a plug-in hybrid version, for them to show that stuff this year makes a lot of sense, because you've got this Bronco coming out, and it is a legit competitor to Wrangler in every measurable sense, at least on paper. So it makes sense for them to try and do something to kind of get a little attention back to Wrangler.
I don't know, it just seems like-- it seems like Ford is, like, jumping the gun. And I don't know if they're more worried about Wrangler than they should be. I don't know. It seems like a really strange move. And--
JOHN SNYDER: It would be great if Ford just, like, didn't utter another word about it for, like, a year and a half. All we got was this one photo for, like, a good long while, and just have us all speculating about it and even forgetting about it and then hit us with the real thing.
GREG MIGLIORE: I'm OK with it. To your point, Joel, it's very unconventional. And I mean, not to repeat myself, but I kind of said this before-- like, the thing's not even on sale yet, and they're already showing us the Halo. Like, what's going on here? You know, and again, it's unconventional. But at the same time, like John just said, maybe this is all they do.
You know, you sort of, like, put, like, the idea of the Warthog looming in your, like, competitors-- you know, make them nervous, get people fired up about it, and then you don't say anything for a while. You know, part of me thinks if they really are that nervous about, like, Jeep and, you know, the GMC Hummer that seems a little, like, unnecessary, because the Bronco just has generated so much interest that, like, you know, I don't think you need to, like, go, like, every time one of your competitors makes an announcement, you need to reply in kind. But who knows?
I mean, I like John's move. Like, just put it out there, kind of wink, let everybody know it's coming, and just, you know, leave it there. Let people wonder. Let people wonder about the name, then focus back on the other vehicles. And the other thing is, who knows what this thing is? You know, trademark filings sometimes are, like, dead on, and sometimes they're not, you know? And so we'll see. I don't know. Either way, I'll be excited about it. That's for sure.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. Well, and regardless of name, we know that this is the high performance one. We've seen spy shots--
GREG MIGLIORE: For sure.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Of a Raptor Warthog type vehicle before with beefed up trailing arms and control arms and huge tires and fender flares. So regardless of name, we know that the performance version is coming. It just seems like it's coming really soon and just seems kind of weird to be talking about it already.
GREG MIGLIORE: And I think it makes a lot of sense, obviously, that as they're developing and, like, finalizing the vehicle, that they're doing it all at once. I mean, whenever I would go to Corvette events just in general, that's a good example. It'd be like, oh, wow, the Z06, you know, what did you guys-- you know, how did you guys come up with this? They're like, well, we did it all at once.
You know, we didn't just, like, do the Corvette, and then think, oh, boom, maybe we should do some performance, you know, editions. No, they do it all at once, and it's more organic that way. So I guess we can leave it there, but we-- you know, speaking of other big reveals and things this week, the Nissan Z car-- impressive, I thought. They did a livestream on Tuesday night, check it out. Joel, you wrote the story. You also went to a backgrounder. I think they it'd be good. I'm going to kick it over to you. Give us, like, the cliff notes version of what we need to know about it, and then, John, you and I can jump in and break it down. But in case you missed it, Z car-- what do you think? Tell us, Joel.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Well, I think it looks great. And there's a lot to talk about and also not a lot to talk about all the same time. This car is officially called the Nissan Z Proto, and they were very careful to emphasize that this is not a concept. This is a real running prototype that has gone through some thorough development. There's still development left to do. So this is also not a production car, but the production car should look very similar to this and probably almost identical to this and should have the same sort of powertrain. It's coming down to mostly kind of little specifics and things.
As far as the outside of the car, it's kind of a blend of, like, every Nissan Z car in history. At the front, there's a lot of 240Z and 350Z, because the headlights have this slightly rounded, sort of slightly scalloped shape, very much like the original 240Z. And the grill is this kind of boxy rectangular shape that's also kind of similar to a 240Z except without a bumper. It's also kind of tall enough that it sort of evokes the 350Z.
Along the side, it has a high profile very similar to the 370Z. So it's got a long nose, got kind of fast back, and it's got this sort of 240-inspired rear pillar, just kind of like the 370Z does right now. And at the back, it's got these really cool rectangular LED lit tail lights that are hidden in this black panel, very much like the 300ZX from the 1990s.
And so it's got lots of Z retro characteristics. We've actually got a whole story highlighting all of the little retro details. And actually, some of the other retro details include the Z badges on the rear pillars and also the diagonally placed fair lady Z badge on the trunk lid, which both of those, that's a throwback to the original 240.
GREG MIGLIORE: Cool.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: So that's the way it looks. As far as what's under the skin, Nissan didn't have much to say. All they said was that it would have a twin turbo V6 and it will have a manual transmission. And there's an automatic in development, which, I mean, it makes sense. There's going to be people that want the automatic. You can complain as much as you want as an enthusiast, but, like, there are reasons to have an automatic in a sports car. But regardless, we're really happy that there is going to be a six-speed manual.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I imagine this will be one of the cars where the take rate of the manual transmission is actually really high-- kind of like the Miata. But yeah, I'm super happy about that, that they're continuing on with that tradition.
GREG MIGLIORE: I feel like they got the design almost pitch perfect. When I looked at this, I was watching everything on my phone last night, and I was just like, wow. Like, one thing I think is really impressive about this is how they do sort of meld, like, multiple generations of the Z car into one, but also it looks like its own thing. You know, I think the Mustang for a while was quite retro-- you know, when they went into the more retro body style over 10 years ago now.
The Camaro has evolved and I think gotten sharper, if you will. But you know, neither of-- I think those cars have successfully combined several generations and put them under, like, one current thing. You know, this is, like-- it's like a rolling tribute to the Z car and it's heritage. And I love that-- I mean, everything from, like, the silhouette to the tail lights, which, to me, that's a brilliant design flourish.
So it looks so good. It speaks to especially people of my age who remember that original car from that time and place. It's very cool. And frankly, I think it looks like an Aston Martin. When I first saw the pictures, I was like, this looks like the DB-11 to me-- just, like, in, like, you know, profile and those headlights up front. I am very impressed with how it looks.
JOHN SNYDER: I would like to see it in a different color.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
JOHN SNYDER: You know, from certain angles, I love it-- most angles, in fact. It's just the front is-- I don't know, I'm not too sure about that rectangular grill. It's, like, very, like, in your face. It could use a little something to break it up. You know, like, the original one had a bumper. It's just a big black rectangle. And maybe that would look better on a different color.
I also think this yellow sort of-- and the lighting and whatnot in these photos sort of hides some of the other details like the hood bulge and whatnot. So in another color, that might all come together better. But I love those headlights. I love the overall shape of the car. The profile is amazing. The way the hood meets the windshield meets the roof meets the tail, it's just-- I love that those lines are there.
And yes, from the rear, it looks fantastic. Even, like, the badge placement, I think, is just right. It all looks really, really nice from the rear, and especially those tail lights. Those are just downright cool.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's interesting they call it a prototype, which they even went out of their way to put, like, in the press release. The only part of this that I think looks truly concepty to me is that grill. And you know, again, to, Joel, your point, they're saying this isn't a concept, it's, like, a working prototype and all that good stuff. It's still-- I feel like there's a little bit of a concept vibe to it. Like, once we see it on the road, like, it seems like that grill-- the grill reminds me of some of those amazing concepts you would see, then, like, that's all they were was like-- like, you guys may or may not remember this-- the original Chevy Volt concept. And then they actually revealed the Volt and it looked nothing-- not nothing, but it did not look like that concept that they said was what it was.
And that original concept had so many cool cues that it looked a little fake. That grill is, I guess, it's bugging me, if you will. There's something about it that I like, but, like, if it looks just like that, sure. OK, I'm fine with that. But I feel like once you get it on the road, they're going to do stuff to it or, like, I don't know. Things like that have a way of, like, sort of getting crappy on the way to production-- I don't know, to use a technical term. I don't know.
But otherwise, this is one of my favorite reveals of the year, to be honest. The Z car is something-- I remember the first time I drove one. It was back in 2008, I was at Auto Week. The car was actually under embargo, and we were going to put it on our cover that following issue. And I'm really dating myself here. And the car was literally going to be unveiled that week at the LA Auto Show.
But we had the car because we were like, you know, it was pretty close to launch. They gave us a car, we put it on the cover, and you know we could drive it. It was a press car. It just was, like, under embargo. And I remember driving it sitting in the basement thinking, wow, this is freaky. This is-- I'm going to take this thing home, and it's going to be wild. But I better not screw it up.
So that was cool. So I've always-- I didn't honestly grow up really liking Z cars all that much. But then when I, like, really got into them, I definitely fell hard. I was like, this is an amazing car. You know, you start to, like, learn more about it-- so to me, the history, the great tradition of what Nissan has done with this car over the years-- I have high hopes for this.
I don't know, Joel, you went to some of the background-- like, backgrounder, if you will, with this-- the backgrounder is what I'm trying to say. Do we know anything about, like, platform? Or, like, did they give a power range, anything like that? Because all I'm seeing is twin turbo V6, which sounds good, but, like, tell me more. You know?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Well, yeah, that's how we all felt. But it was specifically a design roundtable. We were talking with designers. And they were abundantly clear that they were not talking about specifics. We can make some educated guesses, though. As for a twin turbo V6, what seems like the most likely option would be the engine that's in the Infiniti Q60 coupe right now, which is available in two different outputs. There's a 300-horsepower one and a 400-horsepower one.
And that seems like a really good power range. The 400-horse one would put it right in striking distance of, like, Supra and Mustang and Camaro. And it would have the added bonus against the Supra in the fact that it is going to have a real manual transmission. So that's what I'm putting my bets on is that that's the engine that they're going to use, because it's ready, it's got about the right power, and, like, Nissan has already experimented with that engine in Z cars before.
A few years ago, they brought a customized Nissan 370Z to Sema, and it had the Q60 red sport 400-horse engine in it. So that seems like the likely choice, because it exists, it's designed for a front engine, rear-drive layout, and it probably isn't too terribly expensive. Like, you could possibly see the GTR engine showing up, but that's a very expensive engine, very high tech, probably not ideal for this car.
And that's actually something else that they did talk a little bit about in the backgrounder, that the Z and the GTR, they're making sure that they are very distinct characters. The GTR is, like, the technological tour de force. It does everything super fast, super well. It's designed to take on super cars, whereas the Z, they're really aiming for more kind of traditional sports car criteria and goals, like, to make it fun and engaging and something that you want to take out on a back road all the time. It's not overly powerful. It's not overly technological. It's just fun. I mean, obviously, it'll be quick, but the priority is to make it a fun sports car-- kind of like a big old Miata.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good to me, man. I don't know, do you actually know anything about the platform? That's not something that seems to be publicly available. That always is a question I get when it comes to these, like, sports car, you know, projects. You know, I mean, Toyota and BMW collaborated on their cars. In this day and age, it's not all that odd. You know, Toyota and Subaru collaborated on a different sports car. So any intel on that?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Not really, but we do know for sure it's 100% a Nissan project. So that'll be kind of another bonus point for any song over the Supra-- hey, it's a Z, and it's all Nissan underneath. It's not a BMW or an Audi or a Mercedes. It's a Nissan through and through. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with the Supra being BMW stuff. Like, it's a very good car. BMW can make some good stuff. I wish they'd make better stuff sometimes. But it'll be fun-- it'll be cool for, like, the Nissan diehards that, like, they can say, yeah, my Z is 100% engineered by Nissan.
JOHN SNYDER: Now, I'm curious to see what sort of content Nissan offers in this, because, you know, the current Z just feels so old without-- you know, it's so obsolete in terms of--
JOEL STOCKSDALE: It's literally 10 years old.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. And you know, from these photos, it looks like a decent interior. You know, it looks like a digital instrument panel. And you know, there's a touch screen in there. I'm curious as to what sort of amenities they'll offer in this-- you know, how much are they going to give to the Z fans who have been suffering without these things for so long?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I mean, I'm sure it's going to be on par with any modern Nissan. I mean, when the 370Z came out, it was on par with every other Nissan. It's just that every other Nissan has changed--
JOHN SNYDER: Right.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Two or three times since they came out.
GREG MIGLIORE: Did Nissan give any, like, background? I'm sure they didn't, but why they sort of let the existing Z car, like, ferment for so long? Like, you don't generally see that, that a company would let such a spotlight vehicle, you know, molder, you know, and get moldy like that. I don't know. To me, that was a weird play.
I get that it's not the most important thing they're doing, it's not the most important segment. The current one was there if you really wanted one, but did they say anything? I mean, sometimes companies do, like, a mea culpa. I don't know.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: No, they didn't say anything. I did ask something about, like, was it hard to get this project off the ground, because, like, the Z had sat for so long. It kind of almost seemed like Nissan was going to just let it die. But they didn't really say much about it. And they made it sound like it actually wasn't hard to get this project going.
They were talking about how the Z is such an integral piece to the company's history and the company's DNA-- "DNA" in quotes, because every automaker talks about that. But yeah, it sounded like it actually was not that hard of a proposition. I'm guessing-- I'm guessing Supra just had bigger fish to fry than the Z, because I'm guessing that there were probably plenty of diehards that just love Z's that still bought them.
And they were like, well, we can let this go a little bit longer. We need to go worry about Altima, and that thing is getting old, and it's getting eaten alive by Accord and Camry and all those guys. And they're like, we need to sort our volume leaders before we worry about this kind of low volume car.
GREG MIGLIORE: Makes sense. Makes sense. You guys have a favorite generation of the iconic Z car?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Well, I've never been super-- I've never been super into Z's. I like them. But I'd say-- I don't know, like, I kind of feel like each one kind of has its charm. I think I've got a bit of a soft spot for the 350Z, because it was a very-- and it still is a pretty bold redesign of the car. There are some very subtle hints at older Z's in it, but it's very much its own car. It's very much kind of its time. It's this kind of angular, geometric kind of beefy, streamlined looking thing from the mid-2000s. And I kind of dig that. But, like, I like the classic Z, the first generation, I kind of dig the '80s angularness of the third generation one. And I really like the '90s 300ZX.
GREG MIGLIORE: So you like all of them, is what you're saying?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: All of them, I think, except the second generation, which kind of-- like, no offense to anybody that likes them and owns them, but that just always struck me as sort of, like, a flabby version of the original.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I'd agree with that completely. I love the first gen. To me, that's, like, looks like an F-type in some ways. It's like that gorgeous, like, you know, look with those headlights in those proportions, just from that time, from that place, from, you know, just the zeitgeist of sports cars, you know, in that maybe 15-year period. I would put the original one right up there with it.
And then just from, like, a geeky perspective, I always kind of really liked the third generation. I just-- I feel like that, like, '80s one-- '83 to '88-- '88, yeah, as I look at our story-- I like that one. It was just-- it was so '80s to me. And one of the interesting things about the Z, though, is I really feel like it embodied the generation that it was in, you know, as far as, like, style. Like, look at that '80s car, the third gen-- could that be more '80s? Then you look the '90s one from '89 to 2000, the fourth Gen, that is so '90s, you know? Like, that's what a lot of sports cars looked like.
Fifth gen, you know, your favorite there Joel-- the 350. That is so 2000s. And it's funny as I look at how spread out these generations are-- if anything, they probably could've let the 370 cook for a few more years. These are very long generations. They don't change this car all that much. It's a Halo, and it is what it is. And I've always liked the 370 more than the GTR. It's just more my-- more my thing.
I prefer the, like, the elan it brings to the, like, discussion in it's driving dynamics. Kitera's fine, it's fun. I drove one of the Woodward Dream Cruise one time-- that stands out randomly. But for me, this is, like, the Nissan sportscar. So, John, what is your favorite generation of the Z car?
JOHN SNYDER: Probably the first gen-- the Datsun. I actually-- so long ago now, but a buddy of mine from Wisconsin, who he and his dad have a shop there and he actually had a 240Z-- a 240 or a 280-- but he drove here to Michigan when we went to a concert together. And I got to drive that around. It was really, really fun. The little teeny tiny shifter knob on the stick shift felt like a video game-- and just a charming little car. It could get pretty squirrelly at high speed, but it was fun. It was fun to drive.
GREG MIGLIORE: Cool.
JOHN SNYDER: That said, I do love the current gen quite a bit, even though it's feeling old. I have driven the snot out of that car on various occasions. And it's just a blast to drive.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that sounds perfectly like an amazing story, actually. The new Z car, whatever they ended up calling it-- we've got a piece on site, you know, hypothesizing about that as well-- I mean, it really makes you want to drive an old one. You know, I've been able to drive some, like, sports cars, especially, like, the first gen ones. And I actually M really getting into, like, '80s cars too, just because I feel like it's, like, a recent past, if you will. Like, it takes you back, but not all the way back.
Like, they're a little more drivable than some of those early '60s sports cars. I drove a 1969 Alfa Romeo one time. It was the Spider. That car's-- it wasn't too tough to drive, but there was some challenge there, if you will. So I would love to drive an old Z car. But having driven a few cars from the '80s-- not even in vintage situations, just having driven them in the '90s-- like, the car industry did come a long way as far as making your cars, like, drivable in, like, 20 years there. And then, of course, it's night and day compared to now. You guys have a preference for the name? I'm curious-- what do you think they should call this thing?
JOHN SNYDER: I don't know.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: That's helpful, John.
JOHN SNYDER: That's a tough one. Just pick a number and add Z to the end.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that's true. I know-- go ahead, Joel.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: So I think it should be called 300ZX. And the reason-- I've got a couple of reasons for that. One, it sticks with-- assuming that it's getting the twin turbo three-liter, which seems pretty likely, that sticks with the naming tradition that they've had since the start with giving the number based on the displacement.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I mean, 300 fits. And having it as ZX is just a nice nod to the very first twin turbo Nissan Z, the 300 ZX. Plus, like, the ZX designation kind of came about with kind of a big generational shift. And this seems like a pretty big one going to forced induction engines over naturally aspirated. So that's what I like. I know that there's been some talk of maybe doing 400Z, since it could have 400-horsepower and it would be a larger number than 370, which marketers, I think, would probably like.
They don't have to explain, yes, it's like-- they don't have to explain, oh, it's a lower number, but it's a faster car. And admittedly, 400Z is a nice round number and sounds newer. But I think they should stick with tradition. The thing is, I feel like most Z buyers would understand having the lower number, because they probably understand the naming scheme. And even if they don't, if they named it 300ZX, it would be kind of cool, because it's echoing back to one of the more beloved versions of the Z.
GREG MIGLIORE: I would go with-- I like 400ZX. I think it rolls off the tongue quite nicely just from the marketing perspective. I think it's tough to go backwards with a car. You know, it just-- putting it to, like, 300, I don't know, I feel like that might confuse people. Even though, sentimentally, I kind of like the idea of using, like, 300 in the name, and then-- I think 400Z, and then maybe a break from tradition, they could make ZX if it was, like, a slightly different variant.
You know, I realize that's not exactly historically correct, but I mean, you know, it doesn't have to be exactly, you know, perfect to history. You know, you can rewrite it a little bit as far as, like, cars and names and things like that. So yeah, I'd probably go with, like, 400Z, maybe 400ZX for, like, a special variant, that sort of thing. But that's a lot on the Z car.
Check out our coverage on site-- lots of great stories. We've mentioned a few of them. We've got the reveal. If you want to go back and watch that livestream, please do check it out. It's a pretty good livestream. It's relatively quick. You can see it for yourself. Check out Joel's story, check out Zach's story and all the styling cues. Of course, please weigh in on the comments. Let us know what you think. What do you think of this car? Let's leave it there.
Another reveal-- they're coming. It's the season of reveals. The Hyundai Tucson. Monday night, Jeremy Korzeniewski covered this for us. Normally, you might say, hmm, crossover, that doesn't really fit in with some of these things. But it's very important for Hyundai. And what really, I think, stood out to me was the design. I think this one really stands out. It's a little eccentric-- some might say it's a bit much-- but what I love here, and you see this in the Sonata and the Elantra, that Hyundai is going back to being Hyundai, I think.
They're taking risks. This is like-- to use a sporting analogy-- this is like a high profile, high octane offense where they're throwing the ball a lot. They're not always connecting, but it's splashy. And that's what they're doing here. And that, to me, is who they are. I like the grill. There was some Slack discussion about, ugh, what are they doing there? But I think they-- they got-- they got a lot of it. Maybe not all it, but I like it. What do you guys think?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I'm in-- I like it. I think it's pretty cool. I think the overall profile is maybe a little bit conventional. But that's kind of what you're going to get with a crossover. There's not that much you can do with kind of the body shape. But all the detailing on it is awesome. I love the grill. I love how the daytime running lights are hidden inside the grill. Like, it's all of these individual little triangles that-- the grill is made up of triangles, it's just that when you fire it up on either side of it, a whole bunch of them light up in LEDs. And it looks really cool.
I like the-- I like the kind of sort of robotic technological kind of edgy surfacing on the sides and the aggressive tail lights. I think it's really cool on the outside. I'm quite excited about it. And I feel like this, along with stuff like the new Elantra, the new Sonata, and the Genesis line, a lot of the new Kias-- I really think that Hyundai Kia is kind of the global car design leader right now.
Like, they are the ones that are killing it. I'm excited. And even the interior, I think, looks really cool with these, like, deep dual cowles and, like, trim that runs from the center stack up into the dash and then back around onto the doors. It's just-- it's a really neat thing.
GREG MIGLIORE: That is a bold statement-- the global design leader. OK, hot take.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I'm going to stand by it, too.
GREG MIGLIORE: All right.
JOHN SNYDER: I-- I like some things about it. It's a little bit busy for my taste-- just a few too many lines in the bodywork. But I do really like that lighting in the grill. I think that's super clever and really unique. It'll make it stand out, makes it memorable. I do like the lighting in the rear too. I like the rear in general.
And the profile, the silhouette is so-so. It is those extra lines, you know, below the belt line-- the character line that runs down the side of the car and then kind of wraps around the back too. And the lines below that on the doors is just a little much for me. But I don't know, I think this is one that will probably likely grow on me over time the more I look at it.
In fact, as I look at it now, there are some things-- I'm starting to understand how this is a cohesive design language, and it sort of comes together nicely despite the busyness of it all. I do really like that interior, too-- it reminds me of the old Subaru Tribeca and the way it sort of wraps around the driver and front passenger.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: This was the good part of the Tribeca design.
JOHN SNYDER: Exactly. Yeah, it kind of feels like your own personal spaceship or something. But it's done elegantly here. And yeah, it all seems to come together nicely. It looks like there's some nice mood lighting in there, lots of little storage pockets and stuff. I dig this interior quite a bit from what I can see so far.
GREG MIGLIORE: Tribeca, man-- we're really flashing back to the aughts here. That's another car drove at Auto Week, like, 10 years ago. Anyways, let's talk about the GMC Hummer. I actually sat in on a virtual press conference roundtable with GMC and Buick vice president Duncan Aldred. He has been running the show over there for a few years now. And you know, they do these sort of, like, background briefings with reporters.
This one was more about the business, but they did sort of tease out what the plan is for the Hummer. October 20, that's the reveal-- set your calendars. I think it's going to be a really interesting one. I can't wait to see what the final product looks like, if you will, or whatever they end up showing on the 20th. You never know these days.
They showed off Crab Mode. They didn't show it off, they threw a teaser video with a crab in it. So I guess I should really be specific about what I'm saying here. And that's about it. John, you probably know way more about this having not gone to this. But long story short, I'm intrigued. I think the Hummer is going to be polarizing, frankly, for General Motors. I feel like some people are going to be like, what is this?
You know, I think-- I don't know, I think they need to get a little more of the EV side of it out there. They've said something like 1,000 horsepower and some crazy torque figure that they need to convert into actual real world torque. 0 to 60 is impressive-- I want to say it's about three seconds. So it's definitely going to be, like, a Tesla fighter. It's got the offroad chops to compete with the Bronco, the Wrangler.
Although by my count, it looks like this thing's going to be a bit bigger than the Bronco and Wrangler. It's more like a four-door version-- be my guess, although I'm sort of transposing my old vision of what, you know, the Hummers used to be. So maybe this will be a little bit smaller. I don't know.
JOHN SNYDER: Did they let you see it at all, the vehicle in its totality?
GREG MIGLIORE: No, it was a Skype call. No, we didn't-- we didn't see it. But it was more just like, hey, this thing is coming out there. I mean, who knows-- maybe the reason they did this, Ford threw out that Bronco teaser as they were nervous about GMC-- I don't know. You wouldn't think so considering GMC said almost nothing, but I don't know. Who knows? But you actually know a bit more about this than I do, John. You went to a backgrounder. I know some of this you probably still can't say, but I mean, what's your take on this? Is this going to be good? I mean, I don't know.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I mean, it looked cool. It's big. But yeah, I saw the pickup prototype, and then I saw they had-- I don't know if it was a working prototype, but they had a model on the floor of the SUV too. You know, from the front, they both look the same. We've seen the Hummer grill already-- the light-up grill. And yeah, removable roof panels-- the pickup has these sort of sail panels behind the cab, you know, connecting it to the bed there.
And it rides very, very tall. The SUV has a slightly shorter wheelbase than the pickup. And it also had removable roof panels. And that one had the spare tire mounted on the back. The pickup that I saw had the GMC multi-pro tailgate on it. And then inside, they've got huge, like, 30-inch displays that, you know, these big continuous displays, and then some design theme-- like, a lunar sort of design theme with, like, the topography of the Sea of Tranquility and whatnot on the floor mats and on the speaker covers.
And that had some things that-- like vents that sort of mimic the look of the I-shaped tail lights-- like, the letter I shaped tail lights. But yeah, they didn't tell us a lot about, you know, specific figures. There's going to be, I believe, multiple versions of the powertrain that-- it's going to use ultium, which is the new modular electric power train.
So I imagine, you know, if the 1,000-horsepower one's going to have several motors-- you know, at least two, but probably-- maybe three. And then they'll probably have lesser versions with fewer motors. But yeah, that's basically what I know. But yeah, I saw it, it looked great. It looked-- it was big. Yeah, it was definitely a big boy. And it definitely looked like it could do the business offroad.
GREG MIGLIORE: I'm excited--
JOHN SNYDER: Excited to see it again because, you know, this was all from memory. You know, we couldn't take cameras or anything, so.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOHN SNYDER: It'll be cool to see it again and actually have photos that I can look at.
GREG MIGLIORE: Any thoughts on this, Joel?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Well, so, the crab mode is-- I mean, that's mostly what I can go off of, because I haven't seen anything from GM, and I haven't talked to any of the guys there. So I'm going mainly off that trailer. But the crab mode is-- it's interesting. I am not entirely sure how practical that's going to be, because--
JOHN SNYDER: Right.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Because it's not, like-- it's not like a-- it can't turn the wheels, like, perpendicular to the length of the car so that it can go straight sideways. It's a little bit at an angle. So wherever you're going, you're not going directly sideways, you're going a little bit forward too. So you've got to kind of keep all that in mind. So I'm not entirely sure all the places that's actually going to be useful, but it is kind of cool.
And it also-- like, I'm a little bit excited, because-- and we're going to do another flashback to, like, 15 years ago on vehicles-- reminds me of quadra-steer that you could get on GMCs back in the day-- the, like, Sierra Denali. That it could either do, like, super sharp low turn, low speed opposite steering so that you could have, like, a super tight turning radius, or it could do slight parallel turns for highway stability-- basically kind of sort of, like, pass it for four-wheel steering but amped up a bit, so that you can do, like, extra type maneuvers and things-- actually kind of like what the Mercedes S-class is getting now, except GMC had it 15 years ago.
I'm assuming that the Hummer is going to be able to do some of that stuff, because if you're going to engineer in that amount of turning angle for the rear wheels, you're probably going to have a couple of ways you can play with that.
JOHN SNYDER: Right.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Actually, it would be kind of interesting if-- like, I have no idea if this is going to be it, this is just me kind of being like, oh, this would be cool. It would be kind of cool if you could have the rear wheels and the front wheels-- yeah, actually this is probably not going to be capable. Basically, do you remember the Jeep Hurricane concept? Again, this is from, like, 15 to 20 years ago. But it was their, like, dual V8 engine, like, kind of Hummer-looking thing, and it could turn all of its wheels out so that it could do zero radius turns. It could literally turn, like, even better than a tank turned, because it's just, like, this little tiny little zero radius circle.
It would be cool if it could do that. But I'm also-- I'm just thinking to myself, like, you'd also have to get the front wheels to also do that thing. And, boy, that would be a mess of a steering rack to try to engineer for basically a party trick. But it'd be cool.
JOHN SNYDER: It would be cool. I too sort of doubt the usefulness of crab mode. I can't really think of a lot of situations, like, on or offroad where I need to go slightly diagonal, you know? But I think if they have, you know, some sort of four-wheel steering system on there and they can make it do that, they probably said, why not? Let's do it and call it crab mode. So I think it's fine. And who knows, maybe there's, like, that once in a lifetime event where you're stuck and the only way for you to get out is to go diagonally, then you'd be pretty happy that you had it.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, I mean, I guess there's probably maybe times when you're offroading and you might have gotten yourself into a spot that you're like, oh, I can't quite make this. I need to-- and it'll take a 30,000-point turn for me to actually kind of wiggle it out. That might make it a little bit easier.
JOHN SNYDER: Especially since the vehicle's so big, you know, too. You can see yourself getting in some tight spots with it.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, so there may be some uses for it. But it's definitely getting into sort of niche edge case kind of scenarios.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how they justify their thinking behind it when it comes time to actually reveal it or, you know, when people start driving it.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's a cool party trick, I guess. And it seems like with so many other things in the segment, it's good to have your own sort of, you know, thing you can point to and say, well, look, ours could do that. And then considering it is such a-- it sounds like it's going to be such a large vehicle, you never know. I mean, like, a Wrangler is generally pretty nimble, especially, like, a two-door.
You know, I'm sure the two-door Bronco will be the same way. Who knows? You know, if, like, the SUV in particular is as big as, you know, it sounds like it could be-- I mean, it's been a while since I've done a lot of offroading. But I'm just good enough at it to get myself into trouble, so maybe somebody like me is just bad enough to get himself also into trouble, this might save me. I don't know. But speaking of offroaders, G63 AMG-- that's not going to be cheap. Did you drive it on your lawn, John?
JOHN SNYDER: No, not this time-- not yet.
GREG MIGLIORE: What's stopping you?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, I don't know. I guess-- yeah, I don't know. I don't know what my thinking was. I think Kat was following me in her car. I think I did it just to-- just as a goof.
GREG MIGLIORE: You know, take down the value of your house by about $100 or something.
JOHN SNYDER: But anyway, yeah, this thing is cool. It's in this red color. It's called Jupiter red. And it's a really nice paint. There's not, like, metallic. There's no flake in it. It's really nice. And I've got the Monroney here. This one comes out to $182,545. But you know, it just-- seeing a G Wagon in my driveway used to not really do it for me. The last generation was just uncomfortable. The seating position was weird, it was difficult to drive, the old steering was just, you know, made your arms tired. And the whole thing always felt like it was-- it would tip over.
This generation just feels so well sorted out. And they took the decades of people complaining about certain things and fixed them. It's very comfortable seating position, it doesn't feel like it's going to tip over on the on-ramp. You know, the interior's really, really, really nice. This one has a lot of carbon fiber, which I like. Well, I don't always like that, but it looks really good in this instance.
Yeah, it's just-- it's sort of a splashy flashy G Wagon. Feel a little bit like "Big Little Lies" or something when I go to pick up Wally at kindergarten in it. But yeah, it's cool. And Wally loves it-- my son. He really digs it, and he's wanting to just sit in it. I put a car seat in it. There's not-- putting Wally directly behind me, he doesn't have a lot of leg room. There's not a lot of rear leg room, at least behind my seating position.
GREG MIGLIORE: But your son's, like, 5'10, right?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, he's actually 4 foot 1 now.
GREG MIGLIORE: Gotcha.
JOHN SNYDER: Kind of nuts-- going on 6 foot 4. But otherwise, it's very comfortable. It's easy to get in and out of. The seating position, like I said, it's not just comfortable, but you have a really good view of the road. The verticality of the windshield, you know, it's not the best for aerodynamics, but it's pretty good for visibility. You don't have these angled a-pillars, you know, taking up your view whenever you turn your head. It's just generally fun.
It sounds great. It's a blast to floor it and to use that paddle shifters and turn on the sport exhaust and rack up the sport suspension to it's different setting. And it's actually a joy to drive.
GREG MIGLIORE: Is this the same one we actually had February of last year? Or is this a different G63? I'm just going through looking for driver's notes and realizing that we had AG63. Looks like we have stock photos, so it's red, so it's hard to tell if this is the same one.
JOHN SNYDER: The one we had--
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh no, it was gray.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it was, like, blue or gray-- a dark color. It definitely wasn't the same one. And man, I love that red on it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, yeah, that's amazing.
JOHN SNYDER: Looks really good.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I have a soft spot for the G63. I think it's just-- you know, there's a fun note in these driver's notes we did before, that the G63 outsells the 550, which is kind of hilarious when you think about it. But it makes a ton of sense, actually. You want the power, and nothing else will do. I think it is, I wouldn't say night and day difference between, like, the driving characteristics, but this generation, there's a demonstrable improvement as far as the steering and the handling compared to the old one. You know, it's still a work mode.
JOHN SNYDER: I'd go so far as to call it-- I'd go so far as to call it a night and day difference. The last one was a drag to drive.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
JOHN SNYDER: And this one is much better.
GREG MIGLIORE: You think so?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I would say night and day also. I hated the old one. I hated it. I hated it. I hated it. It had terrible handling. It had terrible steering. It had terrible interior space. And it was a chassis that was ill-suited for the amount of power that those AMG engines could put out. It's like-- it was-- it was bad. But--
GREG MIGLIORE: What's your point? I liked all that. I thought all of that was great. I love the fact that you were, like, all over the place like you're riding some, like, you know, amusement park ride.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Like, here's the thing-- like, when--
GREG MIGLIORE: You may be right.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: When a Jeep Wrangler has better handling characteristics than--
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Than what you're building, you've done something wrong. Like, maybe it's time to say-- maybe it's time to change things.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. But yeah, man, the funny thing about that last time we had the G63 was we had a blizzard. And I remember I went to the office on a Monday morning, and it was really coming down. And my son had, like, a, whatever, year checkup pediatricians. So I went home at lunch, because, like, half the-- you guys probably didn't even come in that day. Like, literally nobody was there. I'm like, all right-- I actually wore sweatpants, as I recall. So I wore sweatpants to the office and left at 11:30.
And we get home, and I'm like, you know what? Let's go the pediatricians. No reason to cancel. We have, like, one of the most capable armored tanks of a vehicle anywhere. Let's go. So it was fun. Yeah, do you happen to know how much yours cost, John?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, this one came out to $182,400.
GREG MIGLIORE: Oof.
JOHN SNYDER: I'm sorry, $182,545 in total.
GREG MIGLIORE: So your G Wagon was actually $30,000 more than my AlpinaB7 which I drove, which is insane. That's the price of, like, a decent Mustang. You know--
JOHN SNYDER: Well, the red paint on this alone is $6,500.
GREG MIGLIORE: Come on.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Come on, that's straight up price gouging.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it's crazy.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's a little ridiculous. Is there any difference in this red paint versus, say, the red paint you might get on, I don't know, a CLA that costs about $30,000?
JOHN SNYDER: I don't know. It's got some-- it's got some expensive options on here-- 22-inch forged AMG cross-spoke wheels are $4,450.
GREG MIGLIORE: I would do that. I don't think your kid needs to go to college for all four years-- just three is probably enough. He's tall.
JOHN SNYDER: It's got top speed delimiter.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK, so you can literally go as fast as you want across your lawn?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: And as far as aerodynamics allow.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, it says it'll do 149 miles per hour. But that delimiter is $2,200. The carbon fiber is $3,700.
GREG MIGLIORE: So wait a minute-- they're charging you $2,200 to basically probably take something off the car?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah. That's--
JOEL STOCKSDALE: It's probably barely even that. It's probably we plug in a computer reader, and it changes some code, and now you can go faster.
GREG MIGLIORE: Good times. All right.
JOHN SNYDER: The silver brake calipers are $1,500.
GREG MIGLIORE: I would do that. Those look sweet-- just looking at the website. That's worth $1,500. You don't need to eat for a couple of months. That's fine.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. So it goes from $156,000 to $182,000 pretty darn quickly.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: That's expensive.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a car for the very rich.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I'm just thinking to myself, is that, like, I would probably buy, like, a Bentley Bentayga instead, because-- I mean, it doesn't have the presence of a G Wagon. And obviously, it doesn't have the offroad capability, but who buys a G63 and plans to actually take it somewhere that you need all three diff locks?
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to go anywhere where I'm going to scratch that paint.
GREG MIGLIORE: Need crab mode at that point.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah.
GREG MIGLIORE: Which would probably be $30,000 on the G Wagon.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: And the Bentayga has an even more special feeling interior. It's got, like, the Oregon stop air vents things. And it's got just wood and gorgeous leather everywhere.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, the Bentley craftsmanship is just outstanding. It would definitely feel very special. But this one-- I mean, I love the Mercedes interiors now with the different colored interiors-- mood lighting and stuff. They just have nice ambience, and they're very comfortable.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, Mercedes interiors are very good.
JOHN SNYDER: But they don't have that, you know, that hand built sort of uber detail that Bentley does.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Mm-hmm.
GREG MIGLIORE: The-- I'm wondering how much a Rolls Royce Cullinan costs-- probably more.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: It's more.
GREG MIGLIORE: Cross-shopping this segment-- I mean, hey. I mean, the funny thing about Bentleys, I've often found-- I spend a good deal of time in a GTC driving up and down the California coast a few years back, and it just-- it's such a comfortable car, the interiors are so good. I've always found Bentleys, this is going to sound weird, easy to drive. So like, when you're thinking about, I need a really expensive crossover, the Gelandewagen is still a lot of work to drive, even in its, like, more evolved form. So that's where I can see your Bentayga point. I actually would probably still go with the G63, because I just really like big rough and tough offroaders.
I mean, you know, if I made a short list of vehicles that I would want for fun or even for practical, like, I need a car, it would literally include, like, 4Runners, Broncos, Wranglers-- like, things that aren't even super practical, but I could make fit my lifestyle. So I mean, that's how I would come down. Any other Galendewagen thoughts there, John?
JOHN SNYDER: Arnold Schwarzenegger, if you're listening, I would love to drive your electric one that you had built.
GREG MIGLIORE: Me too, actually. That sounds pretty awesome. All right, well, let's go to-- compared to John's SUV, it's basically economy class in the BMW Alpina B7. It costs a very low rent $153,000 is what the sticker said. This one actually started at $143, so we just added a few, like, few of the optional packages on it.
Mine was a gorgeous shade of forest green. And with all of the, like, things that Alpina did to it, those big spokes wheels, the calibers, the chrome tail lights in back-- the interior is gorgeous. You know what, it kept coming-- the thought that kept coming back to me is this reminded me of cars that you would see at, like, a Concorde from the '50s-- where those cars were just gorgeous. You know, and it was, like, a different time, a different place. I think that's the third time I've said that this podcast-- drink, I guess, if you're playing the Greg drinking game.
But like, I mean, some of those cars really had presence, you know-- from the fins, the grills, the colors. And it all worked in harmony. Certainly, you still see that today, but, like, it's rare that a car-- a modern car hits me in that way. It just-- it seemed like such a rolling dessert tray of decadence and luxury. So the presence to me was outstanding.
It's a lot of fun to drive. It's got a bi-turbo V8 with 600-horsepower. So yeah, there's plenty of giddy up. I actually forgot how much I like the 7-series. We always talk-- go on and on about the S-class, which I would say-- I know there's a new one that we did show you earlier in September, but even having driven recently-- somewhat recently-- driven an old one, it's a very good car.
Generally, we've ranked the 7-series behind it. I would probably still do that. But candidly, the 7-series is very, very good, I think. It handles well. The steering is very good. Obviously, this one, I have the Alpina dressings on it to really kind of further color my vision of the 7-series. It's a strong car. And I think-- I really like what Alpina does. They've really grown in the last, probably, 10 years. They've expanded to more vehicles across BMW's lineup.
It's somewhat of a unique thing in the car business to have this, like-- I mean, they're not in house, but this, like, very, like, I don't know, close relationship with-- don't call them a tuner. They do not want to be called a tuner. Call them, like, I don't know, a cousin automaker-- I don't even know what to put it, because, I mean, they really are a tuner if you want to be honest about it. But you don't see that too much.
You know, it's not like even how AMG or BMW and M or anything like that. It's like-- it's very much its own company with its own culture. I really enjoyed driving this car. I was super psyched. I have a lot of pictures-- really motivates me to find time to try and write a few thoughts on this thing too, because it's impressive, I thought. And I've always liked Alpinas. So yeah, and that's my mini review of it.
JOHN SNYDER: Yeah, they just-- they have a lot of little touches that, you know, in addition to the extra performance, but just like-- for me, it's the little touches-- you know, the badge here and, like, thumb distinct, like, wheel here, and, like, these little things that make it feel special and make it feel customized and doted upon and thought over. That's what really draws me to these Alpinas.
GREG MIGLIORE: It also has a good deal of, I think, just awareness and excitement in the BMW community. I was talking to a friend who formerly owned a 5-series-- he owns something else now. But-- he owns a Cadillac Escalade, actually. But I mean, when I was like, yeah, I'm getting 7-series. It's like, oh, that's cool. You know, you guys get many of those? Like, not really, you know. And he's like, yeah, blah blah blah. And we're talking, like, it's an Alpina. He's like, oh, wow, OK.
Just because, like, I mean, that's where this job is so cool. It's like, Alpinas are not even things you can get that easily. You know, they are that rare, distinctive thing that-- I mean, you know, when you're talking about luxury items where you want to maybe show that, you know, you, like, are a car connoisseur, getting an Alpina, I think, is a great way to do. It shows that you have taste, I think.
Are they a little overpriced? Yeah, maybe. You know, I mean, you're paying for a lot. That being said, I thought it was cool that Burkard Bovensiepen-- I'm not sure I got that out right, but it's cool to see the name on that little placard right below the shifter. That was pretty cool. Long story short, I had dinner a few years back at the Geneva Motor Show with-- it must've been his father, Andreas.
It was a BMW trip, and one of the things they wanted to do was get us more acclimated with some of the Alpina people, because they were trying to, like, get American journalists to write more about Alpina, which I thought was actually a really cool thing. And the conversation was, I thought, very cool because he really expressed to all of us just, like, how they really care about the details in this car-- in these cars.
Like, they know that, like, AMG and M and all the other, like, performance brands do different things. But they were like, look, you know, this is-- this isn't for everybody, but it's, like, a different flavor of the BMW if you'd like that. And it was a really cool dinner. It was, like, the night after the first press day at the Geneva Motor Show. It was in, I think, the French section of Geneva. The wine and the food was pretty good. I miss the Geneva Motor Show the more I think about this-- so one of the cooler shows you can get to.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, there is a lot that I like about Alpina. I really think their designs are very tasteful. They look sporty, but not aggressive and brash. They still look luxurious and elegant. And I love their multi-spoke wheels. They're so pretty.
GREG MIGLIORE: Best part of the car-- you know, cheesy to say that, but the wheels are amazing.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. And I like-- I like the little touches-- like, the blue gauges. That's been a signature of theirs for a long time. And I like that kind of their tuning seems to be like, we're going to make it faster and handle better, but we're also going to make sure that it's still just as comfortable as ever. And I think that also makes a lot of sense for the 7-series in particular, because there is an M branded 7-series that has the B12, but to me, that just doesn't make any sense to have an M7 or even, like, an M760, because it's a huge, huge car. It seems kind of-- I don't know, it seems kind of silly to have, like, a sort of sporty track oriented version. It's like, yeah, you made it fast, but also, like, this is not something that was ever really meant to go fast. I mean, you know what I mean.
GREG MIGLIORE: I mean, I've taken a 7-series around Monticello. I don't know what you're talking about. I think it was an amazing on the track. You're right though, Joel. It's not a handling car. If anything, it's fun to take a car like that somewhere where it's not supposed to be and like, you know, slide the tires and get a workout through the steering wheel. But yeah.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: And a couple of the other nice things about Alpina is that their name hasn't been plastered on as many vehicles as possible. Because I mean, the, like, semi-sporty models of BMW are like M full model designation afterward. I mean, like, the full M cars are, like, M4 and M3, but then you've also got, like, M435 that's not as powerful, but is sort of sporty.
And, like, even on the M cars, like, there's M badges everywhere, whereas Alpina is way more subtle about it. And I think that helps Alpina's brand feel a little bit more special. Because, like, you can get an M on almost anything, but you can't get an Alpina on everything. That's kind of special. And what's funny about all that is that the Alpina B7 is not the most expensive 7-series, the M760 is, which I'm sure it's because of that B12 that isn't really shared in anything else. But it's kind of funny that you can buy a version of the 7-series that probably will get more oohs and ahs from people, but it's not the most expensive one.
GREG MIGLIORE: So let's do a poll here-- would you take the 760 or the B7?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: B7.
JOHN SNYDER: B7.
GREG MIGLIORE: Make it a three way, make it a hat trick-- I agree. Just to me, that-- it's-- they're both 600-horsepower. And the last time I drove that V12, it was like driving a battleship-- a cruise ship. Like, the hood flies up. You know, it's like-- it does some weird things low on the band. Once you get it going, it's kind of fun. Don't get me wrong, I love a V12. V12 is amazing.
There's, like, not that many that you could buy out there. So to me, it's like-- you know, you do get some cool points for that. Let's put it that way. You've got the Alpina which looks very elegant when you're parking it, you know, wherever you park your 7-series. But then in conversation, you know, somebody's like, oh, what's that? That's cool. You know, you kind of slip in that, yeah, it's packing a V12, I mean, that's pretty big bragging rights when you think about it.
So that's the only thing that makes it close. Like, if it was a really powerful V8 or even a V10, it's not even close. For me, I still go B7, but it's a little tougher call, just because it's so fun to say, hey, I have a V12. OK. Do you now? All right.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Oh, so fancy.
GREG MIGLIORE: I mean, to me, that's just, like, such a-- you know, what other car is a V12 that you can buy? You know, it's insane. You know, it sounds like something you'd hear about in a 1930s Bugatti or something. You know, like, I don't know. But it was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful car.
I pulled up to get some pizza in it, and they brought it to me which is amazing. And they were just like-- they were taking notes like, OK, we have your order, we're going to run it out to you. They're just like, what kind of car is this? I'm like, an Alpina B7. They're like, OK-- park over there, we'll get it out to you, because it's not a car, you know, that people see very much. Let's put it that way. But, yeah, it's a cool car-- a lot of fun. We'll leave it there. Any final thoughts this week on absolutely anything? We'll do a quick lightning round of free chat. The floor is yours, Joel.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Well, it's been fun to have lots of reveals and stuff again. This summer-- I mean, summers are usually a little bit on the slow side, but with the pandemic going on, it's been-- the summer has been a bit of a drag. So it's been kind of exciting to finally have big reveals like the Z and the Tucson and, like, the Bronco before that, and, like, the Hummer in about a month. Like, it's fun that things are ramping up again. I'm excited.
GREG MIGLIORE: I'm with you there. You know what I like too is actually, work is work, if you will, but then sort of coming back at, like, 8:30 and you're like, let's see what the new Z car looks like. It's better than anything on TV last night. So I like that too. How about you, John?
JOHN SNYDER: I like eggs.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Eggs are good.
GREG MIGLIORE: Eggs, some spinach, some feta maybe. That's what's in my fridge right now-- might make some of those.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: That's actually sounding really good right now. I may be a little hungry.
JOHN SNYDER: I love a good Shakshouka-- you know, the sort of hash with tomato sauce and then you-- you know, you cook it in, like, a cast iron, and then you carve out little wells and crack the eggs into those little spots and then put the whole thing in the oven for a few minutes. That's my jam.
GREG MIGLIORE: I was trying to do that last-- like, maybe a weekend or two ago. I was actually carving out the spot for, like, the eggs to break up the hash browns, because they were frozen, and I broke the knife off, which is crazy. I'm like, this is, like, German engineered, like, stainless steel or something. Like, how did this happen? So I had to throw it all out, because I didn't-- like, I was like, I think I got all the knife out of there, but do you really want to be eating your hash browns and wondering, did I get all of this really sharp steak knife out of my eggs? So we'll try again this weekend.
And we'll try again next week with another show of the "Autoblog Podcast." Thanks for listening this week. Be safe out there. By the time you listen to this, we'll be right on the edge of fall, which is my favorite time of the year. Have a great weekend. We'll see you next time.
[THEME MUSIC]
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