In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. The two talk about their experiences in the 911 Turbo and Turbo S Cabriolet, then pivot to talking about the BMW M3 Competition on the Indiana Nürburgring. They follow that up by discussing driver assistance systems, given recent experience in the 2021 Cadillac Escalade with Super Cruise and Hyundai's Highway Drive Assist. After that, they get into some news, talking about the new Lotus Emira and Genesis G80 Sport. Finally, they wrap up with a rather interesting two-for-one "Spend my Money" edition where they help two listeners with different car buying conundrums.Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to "The Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. This is episode 686. Joining me, today, is road test editor and fleet manager, Zac Palmer. How are you?
ZAC PALMER: I am doing pretty swell, this morning. How about yourself?
GREG MIGLIORE: I am fired up, ready to talk about two of the most expensive, most capable Porsche's you can buy on this show, a lot of great stuff. We're also going to talk about your experience on the Indiana Nürburgring and the BMW M3. We're going to get into our long term Hyundai Palisade, and your experiences with Super Cruise of the Cadillac Escalade, touch on a few news items, Lotus, Genesis, maybe a little bit about the BMW 2 Series. We'll run through that quickly.
Then we have two spend my moneys. One came in, literally, right before we hit record. So we said, hey, what the hell? Let's roll with it, so yeah, man.
I spent, basically, last week rolling around in the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabrio. That means 640 horsepower. That means the top comes down. It's a pretty amazing car.
It was a beautiful shade of blue. Inside was truffle brown. Yeah, in a couple-- this was a few months ago. But since these cars are pretty comparable, I think you drove just a regular Turbo with, I believe, the hardtop. I mean--
ZAC PALMER: I did.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I mean, I feel like we probably agree on this premise, and we can go from there, again, into some of the nuances of these cars. But to me, this is, like, the 911, right now, like this is the best the car has ever been. Stylistically, I feel like they've cleaned up some of the things of the past that got maybe a little overwrought when the car got bigger, say, 10 years ago or so.
And then just the power. It's just, like, an endless buffet of, OK, we're going to do this. I mean, honestly, I think it was about a 60 horsepower jump from the last Turbo S to what I drove. That's staggering, you know?
And they did a lot of things, like involving the piezo injectors and some of the airflow, which were pretty neat tricks, you know? Things that I haven't heard about since I-- like I went on an Aston Martin trip, a few years ago. And they were, like, kind of telling ways they were just maximizing that existing footprint, and chassis, and just systems that the car uses. So to me, this is, like, you know, we talk a lot about vaccines and things. This is, like, the highest efficacy of the 911 as it stands. So that's kind of my take on it.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, the way that you let that off there, this is peak 911. And if what you really care about is going fast in a straight line, yeah, absolutely, peak 911. Obviously, we have the GT3 now, that I don't think either of us have driven yet for those that want the more back to basics manual transmission track level performance.
But for, like, a real super car performance, the Turbo is definitely top notch. I am pretty jealous of your having driven the S Cabrio. The coupe was utterly ridiculous in how quick it was. I can only imagine what that feels like with the top off with the wind in my hair.
That adds a whole another, I guess, dimension of speed to that experience, because that really is, like, the main takeaway from this car is just how stupid quick it is. It's almost hard to put into words how fast it accelerates. You know, the Porsche goes and claims mid twos for it. Honestly, it feels like that, 100%, when you drop the hammer on the launch control.
I know that I gave a couple of friends rides in this thing in my week when I had it, and these were people that had been in super fast cars before. Just utterly flabbergasted at how quick it is, and it puts a whole lot of other cars to shame. You have to get into something, like a McLaren 720 S or other kind of super car, to get this level of speed in a road car, which is rather shocking. Because it comes in this Porsche 911 package that looks relatively normal and that we're used to seeing it on the street, but has that wild side to it.
GREG MIGLIORE: I turned on to Woodward Avenue. Obviously, a very famous road here in metro Detroit. I had it in sport mode. I had the top down at this point. It was a beautiful-- this is probably, like, the middle of the day. The sun was coming up, and I just dropped the hammer. And I feel like, maybe in your story use, you used the term, like eyeball sucking or something.
ZAC PALMER: I did.
GREG MIGLIORE: Like where it literally feels like your face is going to melt, and I thought to myself, damn, he's right. Literally, you hold on, and it's like you're going into a wind tunnel. It awesome, so there's that. And when you look at the capability of this car, you know, I called it a super car, and I'm not shy about throwing that term around.
Because if you're going to have sort of the performance, the raw horsepower, and then some of the other, like, aerodynamic gizmos-- you know, traditionally, a 911, we could talk about this all day, whether it's a super car, whether it's not. But when you're going to trim it out this way, in my mind, it's a super car, especially when you look at all the different, like, things they give in the Turbo and the Turbo S model.
So it's really something. I mean, I enjoyed using the different-- like the drive modes, if you will. You can turn a knob right in the steering wheel, and it just goes right into, like, wet mode, sport mode, normal mode, whatever it's called. Actually, at one point, I was out, driving on a Friday morning. And just this downpour kind of came out of nowhere.
And the car flashes and says, consider going into wet mode. I think I will. That's a good idea. And then it was like, drive cautiously, or something to that effect. I was like, yeah, you know, I think that's probably a good idea. My car, of course, said, all wheel drive, too. So you kind of get that extra degree of stability, it's a riot.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, the wet mode thing is pretty cool. I've driven a few different 911 versions, now, and they all have those wet mode sensors, where they actually have little sensors in the wheel wells that will detect the water splashing up against it. And it's really unique. And there's no other car that I'm aware of out there that can actually detect water on the road and tell you, hey, maybe use some sort of wet driving mode, whereas the 911 has it.
And it's really neat. I tried it out, and you know, it sort of sends more power to the front. It doesn't let you get it sideways, I suppose. It definitely makes it a little safer. But just, in general, you know, on that topic of, like, ease of driving and safety almost, this car, it might seem super intimidating from the numbers that we throw around and whatnot. When you're in the driver's seat, it really isn't a difficult car to drive or anything like that.
Like it's not, like, a Hellcat that's trying to rip your head off at every moment around. It's, honestly, just as easy to drive as a 911 Carrera forward or any other 911 out there, you know? It's not a super, super car in that it's going to wear you out and beat you up. And you have to be clutching at the wheel with both hands for fear you're going to send too much power to the rear and spin out.
No, it's just super, super easy to drive, and that's been a sticking point with turbos, I feel, of the last couple of generations. Obviously, the original ones were a bit hairy. I know the original one had the widowmaker nickname, so we've come a long way from those super hairy turbos to this one that is just like-- well, it's a luxury grantor that also has super car performance.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I think that's a great point. Because if you-- like this almost, to me, wouldn't be your first 911, if that makes sense. Like you can get a ton a car on any number of 911s, before you get to this price point, and frankly, that's probably the right move, if you will. Like plenty of power, plenty of it looks like a 911. You get everything you need much lower in the Porsche 911 lineup, and that's great.
Buy say, you've been driving 911s you know? Obviously, at this point, you're probably a pretty fortunate individual. And you're like, well, I know what I'm doing, but I want more power. And I want more of the tricks that I can't get on more of a base Carrera.
Step up to this, and that's where, I think, you can reward yourself, especially if you have some high levels of driving skills, too, you know? Maybe that's where you might say, I want to take this car, and try, and reach more of its limits, like on a track or something. But to your point, if you don't, it's still not that hard to drive, you know?
I mean, the steering is direct, very linear. It gives you a substantial feel to it, but it's not going to break your wrists. I mean, I've driven Miata's that are much more difficult to handle, and keep on the road, and do what you want them to.
So yeah, I mean, it's-- you know, actually, I like to take this kind of loop, where I drive it up to the M1 racetrack North of the city. And the roads around there get kind of, like, broken and bumpy. And that's one of those moments, where when I did it in a McLaren, last summer, you get a little nervous. Because you're lower to the ground. You can't see as well.
You get-- like that's where the intimidation of driving a specimen like this really comes up. The 911, I'm just like, oh OK. Yeah, there's a pothole. OK, I got this. It's fine.
And that's, also, I think, another point that was to kind of bring this full circle. Like, say, you're in the market for a supercar, but you don't want to be, like, in a submarine, like a Lamborghini, like the Huracan Evo, or any number of McLaren's, whether it's the 650, the GT, the 720, you know? Still, I mean, you're not-- McLaren's, I actually think that's an interesting example. They're fairly driveable, but even the NSX is a little challenging to see out of for, like, a third of the price. You know, the 911, you don't have to have as much of that level of intimidation.
It's more just like respect. You're driving a car that costs as much as a pretty nice house. Get past that. You can still see things. It handles and steers. You know, respect the power. You know, respect the transmission, which will pull you back with those quick shifts from the eight speed.
But it's also something that, like, you know, you can do. And that's when I try to frame this is, like, the 911 is its highest evolution. The 911 is a supercar. To me, the GT 3 is, like, a different animal. It's comparing like apples to bananas or apples to giraffes, you know? You're going to, like, different things.
Because that, to me, I haven't driven this new generation of GT 3. I mean, that, to me is where you got to really know what you're doing, and our West Coast editor, James Riswick, knows what he's doing. Check out that review that we put up a couple of weeks ago. If you just search for that, that gives you a good flavor of just a different flavor, if you will, of the 911.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, and the GT3 is probably more my personal speed if I were out there in the market with a couple grand to spend. Haha, but my God, if you want a daily driver, I think that the turbo absolutely is the answer for this. The age old, which 911 question when you have over $200,000 to spend. I'm sure so many people have that question, right?
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. It did bring me back to the notion, like I drove the Cayman, last fall, and enjoyed it immensely. And sometimes, I just get that feeling, like maybe this mid-engine layout. That's kind of what you want, you know? But then it's like, I always go back to whatever I drive, the 911. No, to me, the 911 is the car for Porsche, and I think it is for a lot of enthusiasts too.
Now, if you gave me, like, a Cayman, or a Boxter, or I could get screaming deal on one, or I just found one I liked, I would not hesitate for one second. I have a strong attachment to both the Cayman and the Boxster. I drove them in Mallorca about seven, eight years ago, and just enjoyed them immensely.
I drove the GTS versions. I drove them on a track. So if you have that kind of connection to those cars, I would, obviously, encourage you to get one too. But it does kind of go back to like, do you want the car that you see in movies that Robert Redford drives, that any number of famous people drive, that aspirational Porsche? Yeah, it's still the 911, but I don't know.
We could get even more into, like, some of the little features of this. My take on this, too, is there's a lot of, like, Porsche greatest hits on the Turbo and the Turbo S, different features that aren't necessarily new. But they're, like, improved or optimized.
You know, I don't know if any stood out to you other than just the raw, crazy power increase. But to me, it just felt kind of like listening to, again, the highest evolution of the 911. There wasn't anything on here that blew my mind, like when you drive something that's different, or a radical redesign, or a new generation.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, so I guess one feature that I thought was really neat, as I was just walking around, and messing with buttons, and checking it out, is the active arrow on this thing. It actually has an active front splitter, which is something that I haven't seen on, well, like, any production car. So you throw it into sport plus mode. It's only in sport plus that it does this, but it extends this sort of rubbery, plastic, front splitter that is, otherwise, tucked up under the front bumper.
And it, basically, lowers your ground clearance by about, I'd say, about two-ish, maybe two and a half inches or so. Obviously, it gives you more downforce, and it's just a really, really neat way to go about having this car that has super high downforce and shoves you into the ground. But at the same time, you can put that back up into a normal mode and have great ground clearance when you drive it around the city or wherever. And that, to me, is just, like, extremely cool stuff. You know, there's also the side front intakes.
They're also active in that those vents move forward and down, basically, just depending on what downforce mode you put it into. And then I had a lot of fun watching the air brake and back. Every time you'd slam the brakes with any decent amount of force, that air brake would fly up behind you.
It's, obviously, not doing me a whole lot of good on the road. It's definitely a track thing to actually lower your braking distances, but it's just really, really cool to see those kind of race car, like, things, supercar-like features on this 911. Those are things you definitely don't get on just a regular 911 Carrera version.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, you know, you're really getting very sophisticated. I actually think the 911, right now, is a very-- maybe it's always been this way. I guess I'm not old enough to really go back to, like, the '70s, the '80s, and really, have driven those cars in their time and place. But to me, the 911 is very precise. It's very technical.
It's a car that offers you a lot of features that can enhance your drive and do it in a very measured way. It's a car that it's not just an idea. It's like, literally, everything in a very logical, kind of German manner counts. There's everything you need, nothing you don't.
And honestly, I watched Ford versus Ferrari the night before I drove this. It just happened to be streaming randomly, and then I took it to a race track. And I was like, man, I want to track this thing. So a lot of these features of the Turbo, the Turbo S could really make a difference.
The brakes, mine had carbon, ceramic, composite ones. I mean, their standard on the S model. I think they're an option base Turbo. While those are some good brakes, let me tell you, those things really-- it's like the brake feel is just like-- it's like that, like right there. If you're listening to this, you can't see me putting my hands together. It's like like that, you know? Some of the better brakes you'll get on almost any car, better than the NSX, better than McLaren's.
Which, if I recall, the last McLaren I drove, I didn't really like the brakes as much. Very natural, holistic feel, very direct. So yeah, I think we hit these 911's pretty hard. They are a riot. Any other thoughts?
ZAC PALMER: Man, I'd say, if you're thinking of buying one, probably do it. You're going to waste just about any other car out there that isn't a Taycan Turbo or probably a Tesla Model S Plaid at this point.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yes.
ZAC PALMER: Nobody will keep up.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's true.
ZAC PALMER: It's just so fast, so, so fast.
GREG MIGLIORE: It is.
ZAC PALMER: And that's got to be the final thought.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, no, I agree completely. It will pull your nose and your eyeballs back into your skull. It is that quick, so we can leave it there. Let's talk about the M3, which you took to the Nürburgring. Why don't you tell us about this?
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, Nürburgring in quotation marks, I suppose. To be more specific, the Indiana Nürburgring, or the Schweinefiletring, as the locals call it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Got it.
ZAC PALMER: So this whole idea came about, you know, just because we're still in COVID here. So we're not flying internationally. We're not going to the actual Nürburgring, so what's something to do with a brand new BMW M3? Well, it's German, so we should take to the Nürburgring.
Well, we can't take it to the Nürburgring, so how about we go to the Indiana Nürburgring instead? And that is where I took this, so my ride for it, specifically, was the BMW M3 competition. So that's the 503 horsepower version of the M3 that comes standard with the automatic transmission, not the manual. It's about a four hour drive down from Michigan to this area, which is near Bloomington, Indiana.
If you're unfamiliar with the state, that's towards the south end of Indiana. And once you're there, you end up on this loop, which the locals have drawn out to mimic the actual shape of the Nürburgring. So if you go and read the story online, actually, basically, titled, What's The Indiana Nürburgring, you'll see the map. And you'll see the Google Maps outline.
It is near a dead ringer for the actual Nürburgring, just super sized. So you have the actual North Schleiff. Then you have the GP track that the F-1 guys race on in the bottom left corner. Basically, you take this. It's about 175 miles of roads, and they're all incredible driving roads that you wouldn't expect there to be in Southern Indiana.
You sort of think of Indiana as, like, this farming corn state that there's not a whole lot going on as far as hills, rivers, lakes. But this place will surprise you. It's actually full of hills, rivers, and lakes, and basically, roads that never stop turning, never stop going up and down. And it's an absolute riot if you have a fun car.
Obviously, I had the M3 Competition, so I had an extremely fun car out there. Brief take away, the car is fantastic out on those roads. Those roads have a little something to offer for any kind of a car be it low power, high power. It's definitely better if you have something lightweight that handles really well though.
I mean, the new M3, I know there's a whole lot of consternation about the way it looks. I actually came away after driving it for so many hours. It was four hours down there and, like, five hour round trip around the ring, then another four hours back. I looked at it a lot, and I ended up sort of changing my opinion.
And at the start, I thought, this looks OK, I guess, to, OK, I really actually like the way this car looks. I don't know if that's just me getting used to it or what, but I found myself actually being more and more drawn to the design. Then actually driving it down there. Wow, this car, once again, similar to the 911 Turbo. Really, really fast.
I actually made a comparison to that 911 Turbo in my story in that, so long as you're not taking it from a dig, as long as you're going, like, 40-ish some miles per hour and up, it's just about half a beat off from that 911 Turbo that we were singing its praises for being so quick. And that's, obviously, something you have to watch out for when you're on roads that are wide open, like this. You don't want any speeding tickets. You don't want to be too irresponsible out there, so that's one reason why maybe a slower car might be more fun. Because you can actually stay in the throttle and wring it out more.
But no, there are a lot of super tight, technical sections that the M3 really, really excelled at. You know, there's a whole lot to like about this M3, I think, that don't really write it off based on the looks. I learned a lot about the car down there, and it's really, really a proper M car.
One of the other things that I was a little, I guess, suspect about going in was it's 3,890 pound curb weight, which, yeah, that's pretty heavy. But they do a whole lot of wizardry and work in the suspension to make it feel like it's more like a 3,500 pound car or maybe even a little less than that.
So overall takeaway, Indiana Nürburgring, go, absolutely. You're going to have a riot, pretty much, no matter what you drive, and BMW M3 Competition, proper M car. It earns the M3 name, and you're going to like it. And I would drive the manual, too, though, because both are brilliant, whether you get the manual or the competition with the automatic.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's the Indiana Nürburgring, and that's the BMW M3. I haven't driven this new version of it yet, so reading your report, I found that very interesting. One quick coda to the segment, if you will, I'm starting to like the grill. I don't have any issues with it. I do have some issues with it, but aesthetically, it's weird.
But if you look at grills over the years, even some old BMW grills from, like, the '20s, '30s, they had some weird periods of, like, the '50s, the grill hasn't always been as subtle as people want to make it out to be, you know, especially on a car, like the M3. It's good to be a larger grill with more pronounced, like, active, cooling features anyway. So I kind of like the whole splitter to top of the grill look. I'm warming up to it, so that's it. Did you eat anywhere cool or enjoy any food at the Nürburgring?
ZAC PALMER: I did. Actually, I ate at this place called Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Rolls.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK.
ZAC PALMER: Which is in Nashville, Indiana, not Nashville, Tennessee.
GREG MIGLIORE: Well, this is just super confusing. You went to the Nürburgring and ate in Nashville.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, right? It makes a whole lot of sense, but yeah, really great cinnamon rolls. They live up to the name. And if you're looking for something that maybe isn't breakfast, maybe more like lunch or dinner, there are a whole lot of pork tenderloin restaurants around too. That's actually where the name comes from, Schweinefiletring. So if you're a pork tenderloin enthusiast, that's just another excuse and a place to stop along the way.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. Sounds good. I am getting hungry. It's a little past lunchtime, so yeah, sounds good. So let's talk about a couple other cars that we spent a bit of time in.
Hyundai Palisade long term update, but let's start with the Cadillac Super Cruise. And they both have kind of the same threads here, because my take on the Palisade is that it was a pretty easy driver up North with all the driver adaptive features, driver assistance features.
But you had supercruise, which is, like, driver assistance on steroids. And this is the new, latest version of it. No one at Autoblog, but you, has driving it, I believe. So what did you think?
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, so once again, I took a little bit of a road trip to test this one out just because, well, that's the only way to test out supercruise. You have to find yourself on a highway that GM has mapped with a lidar and precise GPS mapping, and that's where it works. So I took about a 350 mile road trip with this guy, and I came away really, really loving supercruise.
I had only spent, like, a short period of time on the highway in CT6 before this, and I can definitely say that the updates that Cadillac has made to this new version of supercruise makes it even better. The big, I guess, upgrade to speak up here is the automatic lane change, which some cars actually already have.
So if you happen to have a BMW with its driver assistance systems that has auto lane change, Tesla's also have auto lane change. But now, it's part of the supercruise portfolio, so you just have the turn signal. And it automatically moves over to the left or right, just super easy for you, works pretty much every time, except if you're on, like, a very tight radius corner.
I found that it's struggled there a few times, but that was the only area, where it was semi-problematic. Beyond that, though, I really think that, like, any sort of a Cadillac, especially the Escalade, with supercruise is probably the ultimate road trip car in that it's the most relaxing. You can arrive to your destination feeling the most relaxed and not fatigued in the least bit. It's because the car is doing itself.
I mean, when I say that, it's doing it itself, and you really don't have to do anything with the steering wheel, I mean it. You're sitting there for hundreds of miles at a time and staring straight ahead, as the camera watches you, and the IR blasters watch you. And it's just doing it.
It works really, really well with their system of radar sensors and front camera, keeping the lines. The only times that I actually felt like I needed to nudge the steering wheel here and there were when I went into construction zones or when a semi truck decided to edge over into my lane as they want to do.
GREG MIGLIORE: And that's where, I think, General Motors really is getting it right supercruise, unlike, say, Tesla, who is marketing it as, truly, like an auto pilot. You know, Cadillac, Chevy, General Motors is saying, hey, you got to drive. But this could really help you, and I do think that's the right approach. So in a large vehicle, like the Escalade, that's a lot of work to drive somewhere, like, say-- I don't know. --up North.
Not in the sense of, like, a Jeep Wrangler or a Miata requires inputs, and steering, and corrections, and full attention. You always need your full attention when driving, but you know I mean. It's not like it's a very invigorating experience. It's still a very large battleship of a vehicle that you want to keep your eyes on the road for.
Supercruise can make that a little bit less work and can help you out, so we named it our Tech of the Year, a few years ago. And this version is even better. Speaking of Tech of the Year, we named-- basically, it was Kia's safety suite of technologies, including lane departure warnings and all sorts of different things, automatic braking.
Tech of the Year back in 2020 was our last sort of major tech of the presentation before the pandemic. We're working on spooling that back up, but the system in Hyundai vehicles is, basically, the same thing. And we have many of those features in our long term Palisade, and I just took it on a pretty long road trip. I want to say, it's like 320 some miles door to door.
I drove well up North, as we say here in Michigan, into the upper Peninsula, which, if you look at a map, it's kind of funny. Many times, cartographers will think it's part of Canada or Wisconsin. It's quite amusing, but no, it's part of Michigan. And it's a good, long drive, and then I drove back.
So you're talking, like, 640, 50 miles just in a single couple few days, and all of these features, I thought, really made a difference. The adaptive cruise control is spot on, you know? I'm kind of coming up with a short update on just how all of these made my life easier, and I mean, literally, it's point and shoot.
You know, you set it. It's easy to engage using the buttons right there in the steering wheel, and it modulates speeds. Even on hills, it was you keeping me at a consistent pace. Lane departure warnings were spot on.
You know, it's nice when you also have those cameras that you can engage using the turn signals. Those are quite helpful. After having had the Palisade for probably six weeks, I realized I've had a pretty good, long stint in this car, actually. Five weeks, at least. You really get used to it, especially in certain circumstances, where maybe check your mirrors.
You glance your other mirror, and then it's like, boom. Yep, see that guy's grill in the camera? I'm good to go, so that really-- the cameras really help, if you will, on the sides. And if you do screw up, you know, you hit the button. You don't see somebody.
You don't get the warning. It has a very aggressive intervention. It'll push you. It'll push you back towards your lane and try to stop you from going too far, and that actually happened to me. I was coming around a curve, and I think I was kind of, like, just wandering, if you will, as one want to do on, like, a curvy bend of an Expressway, where there's a lot of room.
It's easy just to kind of go a little wide, if you will, and it pushed me back. Like, dude, you're wandering, and there is a car here. And I was like, OK, fully awake. OK, here we go, and obviously, everything was fine.
But it was like, oh, hey, that's how it's supposed to work. So I was glad it did, and yeah, the Palisade's a great road trip vehicle. You know, I mean, obviously, these systems is we honored in our Tech of the Year, a couple of years ago, now. Very good. Not quite at the level of supercruise or autopilot, if you will, but very usable, very of the times.
You're not really breaking-- you are breaking a little new ground. But it's really just, in some ways, to go back to our 911 thoughts. It's the highest evolution of existing technology cameras, lidar, some intervention, cruise control, stuff that's been around for years, but all working together to keep me safe, keep my dog safe. You know, it was a good drive up North to meet the rest of my family.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, so I was actually in the Kia Carnival, here, as of late, that has all of those exact same driver assistance features that we have in the Palisade. I was in a Kia K5 GT, I want to say, like a few months ago, and I actually wrote a story about all of these driver assistance features in both Kia's, Hyundai's. And Genesis' have them, as well, now, Genesis, Genesis', whatever you want to call it.
And honestly, as far as, like, non-luxury manufacturers, I would probably put the Hyundai group system as the best out there with their highway driving assistant. It keeps the lane nearly as good as an actual supercruise does. Obviously, you do need to have your hands on the wheel when you're using it, so there is that. But it's really, really good at actually keeping those lanes, the adaptive cruise control. Like you said, super smooth.
It never makes any herky, jerky moves on you, and once again, I was really enjoying those blind spot cameras, where they show up in the little gauges there on the side. They don't make all that much sense at night, or really, in the rain. I was struggling seeing much of anything at night and in the rain with them. But in the day, they're fantastic.
Those combined with actual blind spot sensors in the mirror and the blind spot collision avoidance, as you just tested out there, it's almost impossible to hit somebody in your blind spot, unless you force the car over there, which is really important and good. Because that's where a lot of highway accidents happen.
People just move over, and they don't realize anybody is there. And boom, now, somebody's smacked someone in the rear fender, and somebody's spinning out. And other people are getting caught behind. So yeah, all these are really, really good safety systems that, hopefully, make an actual difference on the road.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, they did for me. So moving along to a car that's probably a bit trickier to drive, the new Lotus, revealed this week. This is-- I mean, it really caught my attention. It's just how this thing looks. You know, obviously, we'll include the link in the show notes here.
It's got a lot of the like the Lotus things you would expect-- Turbo 4, 3.5-liter V6, aluminum bonded chassis-- like all the Lotus things are offered in evidence here. This is like the best Lotus I can remember in quite some time. I believe they-- as far as looks.
I believe they, like, sort of say they're trying to summon the spirit of the Esprit, if you will. You know, it's funny. We talk about Lotus designs. They always are harkening back to something from years ago that was great. And it's like, wow, OK, that doesn't really look like that, but sure.
But I mean, check out the story. News editor Joel Stocksdale wrote this up this week. It's a really beautiful car, and I think to me, this, in some ways, really helps Lotus get back on the map a little bit here in the really high-end performance crowd, reminding people that, hey, this is an interesting vehicle, interesting car, if you're in the market for something such as this. You know, like I said, no real surprises here, but just for me, it was like, just, wow. I didn't think it would look quite like this, and they did a great job.
ZAC PALMER: It is so pretty, isn't it? Just like jaw-droppingly pretty. I didn't expect it to look this good either, you know, especially based on what the Evora looked like. The Evora looked pretty average, as far as I was concerned. It was sort of disproportionate in some ways, and not exactly flowing and pretty, whereas this, this Lotus, it's legitimately pretty, and you could call it beautiful, even, which you can't-- it hasn't always been a thing throughout Lotus's history.
They haven't always made beautiful cars. They made amazing cars to drive, but this one has an actual sports car-like beauty to it that I was not expecting, you were not expecting, I don't know that anybody was expecting.
And the fact that you can still get that screaming 3.5-liter supercharged Toyota engine in it, and a manual transmission, and the interior looks modern and nice with an infotainment system that isn't an aftermarket unit from Alpine, it looks like the real deal. And actually, I think it has some capability to steal more sales from, say, like the Porsche Cayman than the Evora ever did, that's for sure. With an actual-- a nice interior, with a few luxuries and whatnot and, obviously, the looks, too.
I am psyched to drive this thing. As far as sports cars under $100,000, this is right at the top of my list for cars I'm excited about now.
GREG MIGLIORE: Same. And aside from just the novelty, I feel like I would tend to skew towards a Cayman just because, hey, I want Porsche to back up my money, if you will, versus like Lotus. But if you can sort of push that aside, yeah, this has the whole new, special vibe about it that, I mean, you're not gonna-- you'll see a Cayman, or a Boxster, or cars, Porsches, on the road. No matter where you live, you will not see-- even in Heffel, England, you will not see many Lotuses rolling around.
ZAC PALMER: [LAUGHS]
GREG MIGLIORE: So yeah, super psyched about this one. And it's always interesting when Lotus does roll out a car, because it happens very seldomly.
ZAC PALMER: I know. And this is going to be the last gas one, too. So this is it, folks. And it looks like it's going to be a good one.
GREG MIGLIORE: It's interesting, too, just to really quickly follow up on that. Jeremy Korzeniewski, our consumer editor, just wrote a column a couple of weeks ago saying, if you want an awesome gasoline-powered car, now's the time. And there was a little part of me that was like, mm, be a few years. You'll still be able to get some things for a little while, but not for everything. And like in the case of Lotus, they're rolling the credits and playing Journey here. This is it for gas-powered Lotuses, or so they say. So if you want one, you gotta get this one.
Will you probably be able to get a gas-powered Corvette for a few more years, and the Mustang? Probably. But this is. It's gonna be electric after the next generation of Loti roll out. So kind of cool.
ZAC PALMER: Extremely cool.
GREG MIGLIORE: Well, let's talk about the Genesis G80. This is hardly enormous news here, but frankly, I just think this car looks so good. This is the sport model. You wrote this. Basically, it's a little bit sportier styling-- which I think it already had-- and you get rear wheel steering. Which, you're really starting to see things on Genesis, cars and SUVs, that are-- I mean, this is high-level stuff that you would see on like Porsches or some, like, AMGs.
And Genesis is giving you a lot of capability, and to me, like, I'm really taken with their designs. I really think they're good-looking vehicles, both the crossovers and the sedans. So why don't you just take us real quickly through what this is?
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, so this is the G80 Sport model. So we've had just the standard G80 previous to now. That was a new car a year ago. And I know that we've had a few editors drive it for us that really, really liked it. It's an awesome E class, I guess, alternative. But just like the previous G80, this one is getting a sport model.
Now, we haven't been given engine specs, transmission, any suspension stuff. But it will be sportier than the current one. So expect, maybe, some stiffer dampers, maybe some bigger anti-roll bars, stickier tires. But we know for sure it's going to have rear-wheel steering, which is a very, very neat feature that should hopefully make it feel a bit more agile. And we also get slightly different styling. Basically, there's a lot more grill at the front, which is sort of hard to do with the old one. That one was already mostly grill. This one is even more grill at the front.
And then, your typical sporty bunch of dark accents. And there's an optional red interior that I really dig, too. You can actually go a red exterior with the red interior, which I'm still a pretty big fan of. So if you're looking, maybe, at like an E Class, maybe like the E450 with the inline six, this G80 Sport looks like it might be a pretty decent alternative. And I bet it's going to cost a lot less than the Mercedes or a comparable 5 Series as well. And because it's a Sport, I can almost guarantee it's gonna handle pretty good. So yeah, I'm pretty excited for it.
GREG MIGLIORE: The Genesis lineup right now, I think, is, if we were gonna do a design, like, lineup ratings, just what brand has great-looking cars, what brand doesn't, I would say they consistently have some of the most beautiful vehicles out there. They're aggressive. Some might say it's a little-- and by "aggressive," I mean they're going for it.
They're going for a real unmistakable beautiful look. The cars themselves, I think, can manage to be a nice blend of, like, you know, they make a statement, but they're not gaudy. Although some of those headlights and the curves, it gets a little closer to a more aggressive look than you'll see in some other brands.
But it's a good-looking lineup. I applaud them for actually trying to create an image here based on style. It's like what Infiniti did 10 years ago, frankly. They really had these styled-up cars that, frankly, were very good. And in some ways, if you like, Infiniti has gotten a little more back to the pack in terms of design. But yeah, they're really beautiful cars.
So let's spend some money.
ZAC PALMER: Let's do it. Money-spending time.
GREG MIGLIORE: OK, all right, so let's see. This one comes from Josh in Dallas-Fort Worth. He says Hi, Greg and Jeremy. Jeremy's not here today, but he also says hello. Love the show. Thanks for keeping Saturday lawn-mowing sessions interesting with your podcast.
Glad to hear we can help. I need to cut my grass. We had an interesting Spend My Money piece a few weeks back about a gentleman who had two cars, which opened up a host of different options about which ones to sell and which ones to buy. He has a similar sort of first world dilemma.
He has a 2012 Ford F-150 King Ranch with the Twin Turbo V6, which was his daily driver for many years. And during the COVID lockdown, he spent a lot of time perusing classifieds. Hey, who didn't?
He picked up a CPO Cadillac ATS-V with the six-speed manual Recaro seats last October-- it's a 2016 model-- to split daily driving duties with the truck. So hey, that's awesome. That's a good way to spend the pandemic, I guess-- buy a Cadillac. So congrats for sort of going for it.
To complicate things, he also put a refundable deposit down on a Ford Lightning, because who could resist a new $28,000 truck, you know, factoring in that $12,500 tax credit that I think you and I have discussed. Even if you don't need one, you're getting one of the-- what appears to be one of the best, most capable electric vehicles, F-150, on the market? Like, hello, I don't know a better way to spend $28,000, frankly. So yeah, I'm paraphrasing Zac in a little bit of a more dramatic manner, but I think that's what he was thinking.
ZAC PALMER: It is. [LAUGHS]
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, so that's the fleet. He may or may not follow through with the order. OK, so here's the Spend My Money part. He's driven the ATS-V long enough to enjoy it, but he wants to find himself grabbing something unique, track-worthy gas-powered cars, something like that, before they go extinct. Other parameters, needs to be a manual or a good DCT, should be track-capable, high-powered, naturally-aspirated six or V8, and he would like to keep this car as a little bit of sort of, maybe, an investment, see if it will hold its value or appreciate.
Here's the options. Keep the ATS-V and the 2012 F-150, no Lightning. So basically, do nothing. Keep the ATS-V, buy the Lightning, sell the '12 F-150. Option C, with a budget of $40,500, is by a-- up to us-- and then hold on to one of the trucks.
So it's sort of like go all new and then buy something else. I suppose there could be an option D, where we just do whatever we want. And Zac, I will kick this one over to you. And I should warn everybody, stay with us. We have a bonus Spend my Money. Go ahead, Zac, what do you think?
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, so I'm going to go straight to option C here, and I'm gonna say, go and buy a Mustang Shelby GT 350 and keep your Lightning reservation. Go-- I guess it's an all-Ford garage now. But if you want a unique gas-powered vehicle, the manual transmission, track-capable, naturally aspirated, I don't think that there is a better option out there right now than a slightly used Shelby GT 350.
You're probably looking towards the top of your budget to get a really nice one-- around $50,000-- but you can get what is currently my attainable dream car, is a Shelby GT 350. I don't think that there's any more fun car out there for that price.
And it's definitely going to make better noises than your ATS-V. It's also probably going to be a little more fun than your ATS-V to drive, and just maybe a little bit better on track. Honestly, your ATS-V on the track is a fantastic vehicle. There's nothing wrong with that thing out there. It was engineered and designed to be on the racetrack. However, a Shelby GT 350, to me, is just a little bit more focused and a little bit more fun out there.
And yes, keep the Lightning. Greg, you summed that up already perfectly. There's really nothing left to be said there. Get the electric F-150.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, so I think we're in agreement there. Just the '12 F-150, it's done its turn. It's done its time. I think I'd move on to that. Get the electric F-150. You're not gonna regret that.
Probably get, like, an in-house charge or something, too. I use the mobile charger that came with the Mach-E. Not sure if the truck has a different one, but it worked great. Many areas also offer you like a credit-- either a refund with your bill, or even a tax credit-- as far as installing some infrastructure, like in your garage. I would probably go ahead and do that in some form, too. So short answer, get the Lightning.
The ATS-V is a little tougher for me to give up, because, frankly, that's a car that I really like. I like how it looks. I like how it sounds. The interior is OK. But to me, that's almost like one of my go-to options.
You know, like, well, if you want something that's taken a bit of a depreciation hit, and you can get it, and there's not a lot of things out there, that's kind of one of the cars I like to play and spend my money. And frankly, I think you just gave the perfect answer there, Zac, as far as going with the GT-350. I mean, that is the perfect answer. I think you thread the needle.
So I'm gonna throw a couple other options out to Josh here that, frankly, aren't quite as good as Zac's answer, because that's the best blend of performance and track capabilities. I would look at a 392 Challenger or Charger as far as naturally-aspirated. That's a great sound. It's an amazing V8. It gives you plenty of horsepower.
The track part of it, not so much. I don't know just how serious you are about the track. I mean, if you like fishtailing around tracks and, you know, paying for extra tires, think Mopar. But as far as just naturally-aspirated engines, that 392 is pretty sweet.
And then, I would also-- this is going to be a little counter-intuitive here-- I would actually look a little bit at Lexus. The 5-liter V8 that you can get in the LC and the RCF, I believe, are just-- it's a great engine. Again, not nearly as good on the track as the GT 350, but it's a different look. It's a luxury sports car, and it's a pretty cool engine. So just a different take, I guess, if you will, if you're willing to kind of just think about this in a different manner. But those would be, I'd say, other options.
ZAC PALMER: I really like the idea of the Lexus RCF, actually. And there's an RCF Track Edition that is probably about a year old at this point that is slightly more focused. I think they were a bit overpriced and not exactly worth it from the factory, but maybe you can get one that's taken a bit of a depreciation hit, and that could be, like, a weird, sneaky alternative to a GT 350.
GREG MIGLIORE: That's right, that's right, all right let's move on to question number two let's see here we have this just came in this morning and it came in directly to Zack so I said, hey, we got to just throw this on the podcast so this one comes from Rob. All right, this is random. I'm a 59-year-old dude who just sold his 20-time Mitsubishi Evolution SE. Only 340 SEs were brought into the United States. I didn't know that, did you? Kind of cool?
ZAC PALMER: I did not. Fun fact.
GREG MIGLIORE: And the SST, which is shorthand for dual-clutch automated transmission, which was kind of crazy in some of those old Evos, but I liked it. I'll say that. Car was a blast to drive. At "Auto Week," we had a long-term, I want to say '09 Evo, and it was really amazing. It was a lot of work to drive, though. The chassis, I still have vertebrae issues from it.
ZAC PALMER: [LAUGHS]
GREG MIGLIORE: Wants to replace it with the new BMW M3-- OK-- or the 2022 VW Golf R. Jeez, this is like the "Autoblog" Zac Palmer Spend My Money edition here. So--
ZAC PALMER: It is.
GREG MIGLIORE: I have to have the manual transmission, as they are more fun, and it won't be a daily driver. So a lot of self-awareness here. All right, here's the problem. Let's see, his wife has a few back issues, and she did not like the Recaro seats in the Evo.
Those Recaro seats, let me tell you, like I just said, those are something. It was a little loud. Road noise-- I mean, that's an understatement. It was pretty loud, and it was kind of rough-riding. Willing to pay the big bucks for a new M3, in a way, it might be hard to flog a car with almost 500 horsepower. The new 2022 Golf R has caught his attention. He'd like to take it to the local track and not feel entirely guilty, whereas the BMW, at the price point, might make him feel guilty.
So just for clarity, he wouldn't feel guilty driving a Golf R at the track. The M3, he might? I don't know, if you can obtain an M3, I wouldn't feel guilty about that at the local track. I mean, so it goes.
I digress. Wants to be able to take the car from San Antonio to El Paso-- that's almost 600 miles-- with some semblance of comfort, and a quieter interior than the Evo. Well, I think that'd be almost anything. Power front seats would be good and helpful-- I agree. What are your suggestions? If I keep this car for the next 11 years-- which I probably will-- I'll be 70. I also want to think about getting in and out of the vehicle at that age.
He's 6 foot 4. He finds the 2022 Golf R intriguing. It sounds very Evo-ish, only more refined. So in this case, you have literally driven all the cars that he is questioning. I'm just gonna turn this over to you, and if I have any final thoughts, I'll add them.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, yeah. So leaning towards Golf R, I think, is a very good way to lean, because as you read my story, the headline was it's way more fun now. Basically, I was honestly not a huge fan of the Golf R before the Mark VIII generation, but the new all-wheel drive system makes it a lot more fun and it definitely makes it a little bit more like your Evo, give it that little tail happiness to it. It's also really, really quick, which is obviously fun and great on a track. And the fact that you can get it in manual is really awesome.
The one that I drove was the DSG. I have no qualms with that DSG at all. It's a fantastic transmission, and it would actually be a pretty good, I guess, way to transition from your Evo with the dual clutch to the Golf R with the dual clutch.
One car that I will bring up if you don't go Golf R, which I think is a very good idea here, is a Civic Type R. Now, I know it's front wheel drive, which is just different from your Golf R, which is all wheel drive, obviously way different from the M3, which is far more expensive and rear wheel drive. But you say you want something fun. It doesn't have to have gobs of horsepower. It just needs to be fun. You can really, really flog it, and it has all of the creature comforts that your wife might want.
A Civic Type R has a lot of those things. And honestly, I think that if I think back to when I drove a Type R, when I drove the M3 with the manual, when I drove the Golf R, I honestly had more fun in that Civic Type R than all of those cars, if we're just counting like pure fun as the actual decider here.
Now, if you want something that is more luxurious and more comfortable, it's gotta to be the Golf R. If you're willing to make a couple of sacrifices, I think that you might actually be surprised by the Civic Type R, so long as it's something that you might like looking at.
But seeing as you own an Evo, those things are not exactly subtle. A Civic Type R might actually be up your alley. So I just wanted to toss a third thing in there to maybe complicate your decision even more. [LAUGHS] But Golf R or Civic Type R, I think, would be my final two answers.
GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds pretty good. I would concur with both of those. So Rob and Josh, let us know what you're gonna do. If you have any follow-ups, more questions, we'd love to spend your money. That's podcast@autoblog.com. If you want to get the latest news from "Autoblog," you can get that on your smart speaker. It's called the "Autoblog Daily Digest."
Say, hey, Google, play the news from "Autoblog." You'll get our latest news. The stories will be, basically, read out to you. So you can listen to "Autoblog," listen to "Autoblog" the website while you're working out, walking the dog, whatever you want to do. And of course, if you like the "Autoblog Podcast," give us a five star rating. Subscribe to us on Spotify, iTunes, wherever you get your podcasts. Be safe out there, and we'll see you next week.
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