Car Show, The - Saturday, June 13, 2026

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1. Thank you.
2. This is Ralph Nader, and you're listening to Radio Powered by the People, KPFK, 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, and across the globe at kpfk.org.
3. From the icy cold curves of Angeles Crest to the sunny shores of PCH
4. and around the world on KPFK.org, this is The Car Show,
5. broadcasting every Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. right here on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles for 53 years.
6. I am your humble host, Mark Vaughn of AutoWeek.com. I am joined this week and every week by my co-host,
7. an attorney specializing in automotive law, a Motor Press Guild member, and owner of two Mazdas,
8. Michelle Spencer. Welcome, Michelle. Thank you, Mark. It's always a pleasure to be on the air
9. with you and talk about cars. And we are also lucky to have auto industry veteran executive
10. analyst at iccars.com and host of the nationally syndicated The Drive with Lauren and Carl radio
11. show. You already have figured out his first name. Ladies and gentlemen, Carl Brouwer. Welcome, Carl.
12. Hey, great to be on with you guys yet again. And looking forward to talking about all things
13. car related, especially Los Angeles car related. And there is certainly a lot of car
14. stuff going on here. Let's just dive right into it, shall we?
15. With the calendar of events. Tomorrow,
16. that's right, tomorrow is the San Marino Motor Classic.
17. That is actually tonight, if you're one of the fancy rich people,
18. you can go to the Symphony of Cars Gala. That's probably sold out.
19. But you can still look at SanMarinoMotorClassic.com
20. and see if they have any tickets. I think the gala tickets are
21. $350. So think about that long and hard. That's a lot of hubcaps for your car. The general admission
22. for the show is $45. That's also at sanmarinomotorclassic.com. The show itself runs
23. Sunday, June 14th. That's tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. called by somebody the best car show
24. in Southern California. That's probably true. I don't think there's a fancier. It's like Pebble
25. Beach South in a lot of ways because they have Pebble Beach winners that show up there, cars
26. that showed at Pebble Beach. Now, they used to, as we all learned last year, they would wait until
27. the week after Pebble Beach so that they could get all those cars down there in Lacey Park in
28. San Marino. But that did not work out so well because last year was like 100 degrees and
29. it was a little bit too hot. So they moved the date up to June 14th, which is tomorrow.
30. and you can go there.
31. SanMarinoMotorClassic.com. They have everything from muscle
32. cars to AACA classics.
33. What is that? American Antique Automobile
34. Club of America or something. So those big
35. tuna boats that they show at the lawn at Pebble Beach What are those things Duesenbergs and old Cadillacs and Lincolns and V16 this and that And there is also going to be rumor has it
36. there's going to be at least one Lancia Appia there.
37. So be sure and check that one out.
38. And if there is a People's Choice Award,
39. I will pay you $11 to vote for me.
40. So again, San Marino Motor Classic.
41. We're trying to get Aaron Weiss onto the show.
42. He's been a long friend of the car show for many years.
43. But I guess he's too busy out there stapling flyers onto phone poles around San Marino.
44. So, Aaron, we're looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.
45. If there was a Lancia Appia out there, wouldn't it be its second entry into the People's Choice category?
46. It is good that you brought that up because it won third in class last year in post-war preservation.
47. Just because I knew one of the judges and he disqualified the other two cars in the five car field.
48. and whatever it takes, man.
49. It's dog eat dog out there.
50. A win is a win.
51. Win is a win.
52. Scoreboard, baby.
53. Right.
54. Okay.
55. And speaking of scoreboard,
56. the LA Roadster 60th show and swap
57. is going to be at the Fairplex in Pomona,
58. June 19th and 20th.
59. There's something like 900 Roadsters show up out there.
60. So pretty much everybody in LA
61. who has a 32 Ford is going to be there.
62. And it's a really nice selection.
63. And you'd think, has this art form run its course?
64. No, it has not.
65. So check out laroadstershow.com for that one.
66. Right.
67. I mean, just the Grand National Roadster Show is a big hit.
68. Tons of people were there.
69. So I think this is still a very viable car show concept.
70. 60th anniversary.
71. 60th.
72. That's right.
73. Who was around for the 50th?
74. Show of hands.
75. I was there.
76. Yeah.
77. None of us were there for the first one?
78. Ah, weak.
79. I could have been.
80. I think I'm the only one old enough that I could have been.
81. It could have wheeled me out there.
82. Probably should have left me there, been raised by Rogers or something.
83. Okay, Michelle, what's going on down in your former home there?
84. Well, next weekend is the big weekend in San Diego for NASCAR.
85. And this is a huge deal because NASCAR has never raced before at the Coronado Naval Base.
86. Or at any military base.
87. Right.
88. And so this will be a 3.4 mile, 16 turn street course that is going to be on the base.
89. and having gone to many, many Coronado Speed Festivals at that venue,
90. it's so massive that this will actually be a no-brainer for them.
91. This will be very easy for them to pull off.
92. And so if you don't already have tickets, good luck,
93. because I remember hearing at least two months ago that it was very slim pickings that were left.
94. but you do have to be to get on the base.
95. You do have to show ID.
96. And so don't get upset about all those rules.
97. If you do have tickets and all that,
98. make sure you bring your valid IDs.
99. Okay.
100. Driver's license for us citizens or a passport.
101. If you are not a citizen yet.
102. And if you would like to get your tickets or try to arrange things for this
103. weekend,
104. go to the NASCAR San Diego site.
105. And it basically just go to NASCAR and you get directed to San Diego So if you also want to try you go to the Country Fest and KSON is sponsoring that and that will be
106. in Petco Park on Saturday
107. night before the
108. finals. All right. So
109. go to KSON.com
110. for your tickets for that.
111. Yeehaw!
112. Which would be such a blast. I don't know
113. who the lineup will have, but
114. that would be a great
115. way to blow off some steam in between
116. things. It's going to be country music
117. though, right? Yes, sir.
118. So you're saying it doesn't really matter
119. who shows up because that's all the same, right?
120. Well, that's rude
121. and no.
122. Oh, my mistake.
123. Sorry.
124. There's ballads, there's
125. rock stuff, there's...
126. There's no rock stuff in country.
127. Yeah, oh really? I suggest
128. you listen to Keith Urban.
129. I prefer to remain ignorant
130. about so many things.
131. All right. All right. A place with no we're going to get hate mail from country music fans.
132. All right. A place with no country music whatsoever. June 21st.
133. Concours on Rodeo. That's Father's Day. Take dad someplace he actually wants to go on Father's Day.
134. Concours on Rodeo. They are celebrating their 31st running of this.
135. Now, I know I always humbly brag, but I was there at the first one and it was not a weak cover story
136. because Ferrari wanted to introduce, I don't even remember what it was,
137. like a 348 Spyder or something.
138. And so they called up our buddy Bruce Meyer and they said,
139. hey, I'm not going to do an Italian accent
140. because I've already offended enough people in the country sphere,
141. that they said, we would like to do a show.
142. We want to shut down Rodeo Drive and introduce this car.
143. Can you do that?
144. And so Bruce said, sure, I'll do it.
145. And he did it.
146. And he is still a vital part of that event.
147. It runs from 10 to 4 p.m. on Rodeo Drive, right where all the fancy shops are.
148. I don't know any of the fancy shops.
149. Michelle?
150. Yes.
151. So you have Chanel.
152. You have Giorgio Armani.
153. Yeah.
154. That's enough.
155. Okay.
156. Is there a Target there?
157. Well, there is a Target, but they call it Target, I think.
158. No.
159. Okay.
160. Anyway.
161. I'll go to the Fendi shop.
162. I like Gucci.
163. I like Chanel a lot.
164. So all those stores are open. And so one of you, if you take two people, one of you can look at the cars and the other one can go shopping.
165. Now, you notice I didn't say I didn't discern. Yes. Which of them?
166. Very, very, very nice. I'm making progress. Making progress, baby.
167. You are free and open to the public.
168. The annual event transforms one of the world's most iconic streets into an open air exhibition of rare, exotic and vintage automobiles.
169. I think the Rodeo Drive Committee themselves wrote that sentence.
170. 10 to 4 on June 21st.
171. That's fun.
172. I've been to, I think, almost all of them, and they're always good.
173. They're going to try and celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
174. I don't know exactly how they're going to do that,
175. so you can go there and find that out.
176. That's interesting.
177. Maybe they'll make everyone walk down to the pier.
178. I mean, it'd be a bit of a hike, but, you know, who knows.
179. That's where Route 66 ends, Santa Monica Pier.
180. If you want to walk down to a body of water,
181. The Model T Hill Climb is going to be in Signal Hill, which is near Long Beach, which is near the L.A. Harbor.
182. That's a really stretch as far as a segue.
183. But the Model T Hill Climb takes place Saturday, December 27th.
184. The actual hill climb will be from 10 to 11 a at 2200 Temple Avenue Signal Hill So that at Hill Street and Temple in Signal Hill There parking a block away at Browning High School Hill Street and Obispo
185. And a shuttle will take you to where the hill climb is. That sounds like fun.
186. That's got to be the safest motorsport in the world, right? Because Model Ts can't get going that fast.
187. Especially uphill. Especially uphill. Until somebody hot rods them.
188. So that is Saturday, June 27th from 10 to 11. And then the rest of the day from 11 to 3,
189. They have live entertainment.
190. I don't know if they're going to have country music.
191. They might.
192. Model T display, family games, activities, community booths,
193. giveaways, food, and refreshments available for purchase.
194. Model T, they should have swing music.
195. Okay.
196. Well, now that we've made that suggestion, they'll do it.
197. Carl, what's going on at the Fabulous Peterson?
198. They are having their Italian car cruise in on Sunday, June 28th.
199. So you got a little time to prepare for that one.
200. But from 9 a.m. to noon, you can head over there and see some beautiful Italian machinery.
201. Don't know if there'll be any Lancia launches over there that someone might drive up.
202. But otherwise, you'll see lots of Italian cool cars there, 9 to noon on June 28th.
203. And you can go to Peterson.
204. That's all E's in there, P-E-T-E-R-S-E-N.org, to register or to attend.
205. By the way, my only claim to fame related to this show was years ago, they had it, and I decided to drive up in my 2005 Ford GT.
206. I thought it'd be fun to drive over there in a very non-Italian car.
207. In fact, some would say kind of the antithesis of certain Italian cars.
208. and to their credit they let me in and i just parked on the roof uh in my own little area and
209. but they uh they they didn't throw rocks at me or anything well there's got to be a way to get an
210. italian connection to that right ford tried to buy ferrari and uh see there you go buffed and so
211. they made the gt out of that rebuff rebuffle well it might not have been good that my my plate my
212. personalized plate on that was n it was e-n-z-o-b-t-r that was my personalized plate on there
213. they still let me in wow i was gonna say just the antithesis the arch enemy showed up you should uh
214. you should talk about uh country music carly you're on a roll i know i'm on a roll speaking
215. of rolling uh we actually had to do a little bit of research to find out what the heck was going
216. on with this next event. Michelle, what did we find? All right. So those of you who were fans
217. of the Electrify Expo, which was a place where you could go and experience all EVs, you could
218. take a ride. Some of them had people who would drive you around and other people would let you
219. drive. And it started off here in Irvine, actually, and then it moved to Long Beach.
220. and now it has morphed into a different event but now it's called demo days demo days festival it
221. will be at the rose bowl so a completely different venue also they're taking over all the parking lot
222. it won't be inside the rose bowl and the part we had to research is was this just a spin-off or
223. what, but it seems as if Electrify Expo is just not happening and this is replacing it.
224. And the Expo people are producing it. Okay. So it's being called a dedicated premium zone
225. inside of the event, which will have the cars. So there are going to be other things there,
226. electric skateboards, which they've always had, electric bikes, which are of course catching
227. on very much in Southern California.
228. But they'll also have UTVs.
229. And this year, you can actually do some different things than you could do before because they
230. have so much more room.
231. The brand lineup has been announced to include Tesla, Toyota, Lucid, Suron.
232. I'm not sure that that's a car, but it's some sort of brand that will be-
233. I think that's an electric bicycle or something.
234. Bicycle.
235. Okay.
236. VW, Hyundai, Polestar, and of course Can-Ams, which are, well, they're not cars, but they're fun.
237. Ford will be there, GoTrax, LeMond, Kia, Hankook Tires, and I'm just going to skip over a couple
238. others. And oh, Amazon Autos. I wonder if they'll have the Slate there. Interesting. Okay. Slate is
239. the Amazon pickup truck that is very basic and can easily be customized. And it's an EV pickup truck.
240. So, you know, by that point, I think both Carl and I will have investigated the Slate on June 24th.
241. They have a program where they're going to tell us more about Slate. So I'm going to be there. So
242. by the time we actually go to this, we'll have something more to say about Slate. Sorry to
243. Yeah, so that's okay.
244. And so they're going to have a kid's zone.
245. They'll have a lot of food.
246. They're going to have electric motocross.
247. So you can watch that.
248. And here's another thing they said is you can park on site, $20, just enter off-road
249. bull drive.
250. The new thing this year is the purpose-built off-road demo course.
251. And you can do ride-alongs with the drivers.
252. And what they will demonstrate are hill climbs, articulation mounds, side tilts, and switchbacks for the trucks, SUVs, and crossovers that are being shown to have that capability.
253. They'll also have a dirt course for the UTVs and side-by-sides.
254. And you get to drive those if you're there.
255. They also have, if you would like to ride a dirt bike, you can ride an electric dirt bike.
256. But you have to bring your own helmet and your own gear.
257. and they only want experienced dirt bikers for that.
258. Not just a regular biker.
259. You have to know your dirt, okay?
260. People are going to say they're experienced.
261. I don't see any problem with that, sure.
262. I don't know how you prove your credentials.
263. Are you too drunk to drive, sir?
264. No, I'm not.
265. Okay.
266. And for your Tesla people,
267. this is an interesting thing
268. that I had never seen Tesla do before,
269. but they're going to have a place
270. where they're going to demonstrate
271. full self-driving mode on site and they're going to call it the hands-free zone and you do get to
272. experience that you can hop in a tesla and experience the full self-driving mode okay i i
273. just want to say um that rose bowl is full of people uh hiking and jogging and riding bikes
274. in a circle around the rose bowl yeah if that is the area into which these that hands-free zone
275. goes, I would be terrified. But we'll see. We'll see what happens.
276. Well, I really hope that they have those people cordoned off.
277. I hope so.
278. This would only be a concern if there's any record of self-driving cars ever having a problem. We
279. know that has never happened. So why are you so worried, Mark?
280. Yes.
281. Good point. Thank you, Carl.
282. We're all with the sarcasm. Thank you, Carl.
283. Yes. All right. What else do we have, Michelle? We have another event down in your neck of the
284. woods.
285. Yes for your Corvette people you need to be down here in Tustin on Sunday June 28th from 9 a to 11 for the fourth annual National Corvette Day celebration at the Marconi Automotive Museum 1302 Industrial Drive And this will include I sure events and food and stuff for kids to do
286. Free coffee and donuts, it says.
287. Yes, of course.
288. Marconi is very focused on raising funds to help at-risk kids.
289. and so there was always kids uh kids activities at their events and if you want to uh enter as a
290. driver it's twenty dollars you can bring a guest to show your corvette with you for forty dollars
291. spectators pay twenty dollars at the door and if you want to register to show your corvette go to
292. marconimuseum.org there we go thank you michelle uh we got just one minute left i'm going to quickly
293. fire off a few more events.
294. There are 8th Mile Dirt Drags
295. at El Mirage, July 11th
296. through 12th, put on by
297. SCTA and RPM Nationals.
298. You want to go there, go to
299. rpmnationals.com
300. slash
301. a whole bunch of other stuff. Hopefully, there'll be
302. a good link there. I don't know how they're going to
303. do that because maybe they move the drags
304. drip over
305. as the dirt gets more chewed up.
306. We'll see. It should be fun. Also,
307. So July, man, at El Mirage is going to be hotter and high Hades.
308. There's a show Saturday, July 25th called Old World Motoring.
309. And I might even bring the Lancia there.
310. 1919 Bay Street, Los Angeles.
311. A curated exhibit of post-war automobiles.
312. That looks kind of cool.
313. Michelle, you got 30 seconds for Suby Fest.
314. Go.
315. Suby Fest has been announced to be on Saturday, July 25th from 3 to 10 p.m.
316. That's the afternoon time slot they chose last year.
317. Then they are returning to Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.
318. So go ahead and sign up at SubiFest.com if you'd like to show your Subi.
319. Excellent. Thank you, Michelle.
320. And we are right on time diving into the news.
321. Let's see. Scroll down to the news.
322. Oh, Michelle's starting us off.
323. Our legal expert, Michelle Spencer, take us to court.
324. Yes. All right. So Disney, you might recall I had announced earlier that Disney license plates were going to be available.
325. These are Disneyland license plates, not just Disney, but Disneyland.
326. And I asked people if they were interested to go ahead and sign up with the state treasurer's office in their interest list.
327. Well, it was tremendous response. And so the state treasurer has announced that she will be submitting an application package to the DMV to go through a review there and then seek the approval process.
328. And this is going to take a few months, but if approved, there will be new Disneyland themed license plates that will be available for us in California.
329. Yeah. So and I would probably want one for the Miata because they're going to be blue and my Miata is blue.
330. And I would probably want to get e-ticket on there. Do you think anyone else would want e-ticket?
331. I think somebody's probably taking that. You can find a new way to spell it.
332. Hey, whatever happened a couple of years ago, we announced that they were going to have endless summer license plates in the state of California.
333. And they looked really cool. I never followed up. Have you heard anything about that?
334. Not enough interest. So it got canned.
335. I know
336. I would have bought one
337. Disneyland license plates
338. sounds like a Mickey Mouse
339. all those guys who have those
340. season pass stickers on their car with the mouse ears those people will get them and there are a lot of them And what about wasn it like Club 7 or Club 77 What like the
341. special... Club 33.
342. Oh, is that it? Okay.
343. And so when these different groups,
344. they're little groups of enthusiasts for Disneyland
345. and they go together to Disneyland
346. and when they meet, you know, they encounter
347. one another, they have a dance-off like
348. West Side Story.
349. Oh my goodness.
350. Okay, that's not true.
351. No, that's not true. They don't do that, Mark. They sing different musical numbers from Disney songs. That's what they do. They don't dance off.
352. Oh, Michelle's saying none of this is true, you guys. Stop it. Michelle, take us to some more truth about the Accord.
353. Yeah, all right. Did you know that the first Accord debuted in the U.S. in June of 1976?
354. No way.
355. Yeah, Honda's all excited the Accord is 50 years old.
356. And just look at the market right now.
357. And a lot of sedans have been cut from the lineups,
358. but Honda has always kept the accord.
359. So this has continuously been in the lineup for 50 years.
360. And there's not a lot of sedans who could make that mark.
361. And when it was first introduced, just a couple of facts about it.
362. It was a three-door hatchback, which is fun.
363. And it's been made in America since 1982,
364. because Honda has their plant in Ohio.
365. They have generated more than 13 million units out of that Ohio plant since 1982.
366. That's a lot of sedans.
367. And in the last 50 years, it has remained the best-selling sedan in the United States.
368. What about the Toyota Camry?
369. I thought Camry and Ford Taurus were the big sedans in the last 50 years.
370. They were big.
371. Who's that Accord was?
372. I'm putting up a flag on that.
373. Oh, I see.
374. We'll dig into that.
375. I'm pretty sure the Taurus and the Camry have eclipsed, not Mitsubishi eclipsed, but have eclipsed the Accord at least in some years.
376. As far as the record for best-selling sedan?
377. Best-selling sedan or best-selling car even.
378. I think this Taurus, sadly, was the last best-selling car in America that was made by an American car company.
379. and it's been Accord or Camry ever since.
380. And I think Camry has owned it more than Accord for the last 10 years, give or take.
381. Carl knows this stuff.
382. He works at IC Cars.
383. He's a senior analyst.
384. So at least this part of the show is accurate.
385. That's right.
386. Just keeping the numbers game going here,
387. Honda is projecting that they're going to sell,
388. they're going to meet the mark of 15 million sales of Accords this month.
389. Yeah. And I was saying, um,
390. I was thinking that Accord is ready for a glow up since she's 50 now she needs
391. a facelift. And I guess what Hans is going to do that.
392. They listen to me. So they are going, uh, to, uh,
393. introduce a new look for the Accord coming up.
394. so look for that all right as long as it doesn't look like a four-door uh you know sedan suv combo
395. because everyone thinks suvs are all that all the rage now you know so we lost our we lost our
396. avalon turned into our toyota crown you know all these high high riding sedans but whatever but
397. carl isn't there a talk that the sedan is coming back that maybe people are starting to tire of
398. SUVs and maybe the sedan or some new thing will come Have you heard Yeah You know how everyone like got sick of wagons because they were associating them with old old old guys who were driving their family around and then minivans came in and it didn
399. take long for those to have their rise and fall.
400. And then it was like, yeah, I'm not driving a minivan.
401. Well, yes, Mark, there is our, there are indications that there are certain demographics,
402. mostly younger as in like millennial and younger who see SUVs as mom and dad's family car.
403. and they're not interested in driving mom and dad's family car,
404. just like maybe our generation was not sure about wagons
405. and the next generations weren't sure about minivans.
406. So there are rumblings that everyone from Buick to Mitsubishi
407. will be introducing sedans again.
408. All right. Looking forward to that.
409. Speaking of great changes in the auto industry,
410. did you know that General Motors is becoming an energy company?
411. That's right.
412. Have you ever heard of sodium ion?
413. Okay, I will pay a free set of hubcaps to anyone on staff who can tell me the chemical, whatever you call it, signature for sodium ion.
414. NACL.
415. NACL.
416. NACL.
417. NACL.
418. NACL is table salt.
419. Oh, I'm embarrassed.
420. Oh, crap.
421. Close enough.
422. NACL.
423. NACL.
424. NACL.
425. NACL.
426. Okay, in all fairness, I did not know that before I wrote this story.
427. What is it?
428. It's NACL.
429. Oh.
430. So ion is a plus.
431. The word plus or the symbol plus?
432. Symbol plus.
433. Okay.
434. And A plus.
435. And A plus.
436. So sodium.
437. So what they're going to do is they're going to make ginormous batteries.
438. These things weigh 50 tons.
439. That's five zero tons.
440. And they're about 20 feet long, 10 feet high, eight feet wide.
441. And these things, they're going to make these out of sodium ion instead of lithium ion, LFP, LMR, all these other chemistry, solid state, which who knows where solid state is.
442. But GM is going to start building sodium ion batteries for stationary storage use.
443. That means that if you have like a data center or something, you can just park a bunch of these outside there, charge them up when electricity is cheap and drain them when electricity is expensive.
444. So charge them up from midnight to 6 a.m. and drain them, I don't know, whenever you want, whenever there's a big demand for it.
445. They're partnering with a company called Peak.
446. So they are going to do that.
447. Now, the thing is, this will not take place for at least in the next decade or about thereabouts.
448. I think it's OK, five years from now. So, yeah, that would be into the next decade.
449. Now, quickly, I'll just tell you and then we'll move on to the next topic.
450. What are the advantages of sodium ion batteries?
451. 20 to 30 percent cost savings versus comparable batteries of other chemistries over the 20 year service life.
452. and that service life is very long.
453. They're good for 10,000 to 20,000 cycles.
454. That means 100% down to 0% or more likely 80% to 20%.
455. That figure, say 20,000 cycles,
456. is 10 times that of regular batteries in electric vehicles.
457. So sodium ion has that advantage.
458. They don't produce anywhere near as much heat
459. as a typical car battery.
460. So you don't have to use energy and money
461. to make that energy to cool them.
462. So they are just passively cooled.
463. They're mounted sort of on a tilt
464. so the heat goes up and escapes on its own.
465. Passive cooling.
466. They are, let's see, a 20-foot container.
467. can power 300 homes for 24 hours.
468. That just gives you sort of an idea about it.
469. And sodium is one of the most common elements on the planet.
470. No one country controls the supply,
471. so we will not be slaves to fill in the blank,
472. whatever country is being bashed this week.
473. We can make it all from our own supplies right here.
474. So that is one quick update.
475. Wait a second.
476. You said this thing.
477. What were the dimensions?
478. of the battery well the way that they presented that you can make it any dimension you want
479. so you can you can stack as many of these cells as you want and make it as big as you want the
480. the one that they showed us there and their implication being that the typical sale of a
481. sodium uh ion battery would be in this container that's 20 feet long 10 feet high and eight feet
482. wide so it's not as big as a shipping container so they should they should so they should use
483. that in the Hummer and lighten the Hummer up
484. a little bit. I like it.
485. Thank you. Carl will be here all week,
486. ladies and gentlemen. Try the Veal.
487. I'm not trying to passively
488. aggressively make fun of the
489. Hummer's weight, the Hummer EV's weight. Not at
490. all. Okay, but you've got to admit
491. since you brought it up, you've got to admit that
492. that Hummer is responsive.
493. It's not slow. It doesn't lean
494. in corners. It is
495. heavy. No, it just chews
496. up tires and creates all that
497. particulate from tires which i from my understanding is like this theoretically worst thing that a
498. human can breathe but otherwise there's no problem i like it yeah there we go there we go carl with
499. commentary i love it oh forward commentary uh what do we want to talk about next is somebody
500. because i don't want to i don't want to hog the uh hog the script here we could scroll too late
501. too late right i'll say it yeah you're kind of in oh we're out of news are we out of nudes
502. No, we got IC cars.
503. IC cars, baby.
504. Oh, Carl, take it away.
505. Our senior analyst at iccars.com, Carl Brouwer, ladies and gentlemen.
506. Yeah, so a couple weeks ago, I teased the price of fuel and how kind of frightening it is.
507. And it's exciting because there's rumblings that maybe it'll go down at some point, not too distant future,
508. like we can stop trying to shoot each other in the Middle East.
509. But for now, it's still scary high and has gone up $706 on average.
510. The annual, the average car, it's $706 higher to run it for a year than it was in January today.
511. And then it's gone up more for some cars than for other cars.
512. Like the Toyota Sequoia had one of the highest fuel cost increases.
513. It was $1,623.
514. That's how much it went up.
515. That's not the annual budget.
516. That's how much it went up since January with the price of the fuel.
517. So we just looked at IC cars, all the different drive trains out there, and we saw how much they went up.
518. And so gasoline cars, it went up $706 because of this price increase.
519. In conventional hybrids, it went up $486 annual fuel budget, higher by $486.
520. Plug-in hybrids, annual fuel budget went up by $291.
521. And electric cars, get ready to be smug, Mark, went up by $11.
522. So you're saying that electric cars are better than internal combustion?
523. Okay, thank you, Carl
524. Easy, easy
525. It's almost like if oil prices go up
526. Electric vehicles aren't very heavily impacted by them
527. It's kind of bizarre
528. So yeah
529. But if you were wondering exactly how much And how much you suffering If you driving a normal traditional gasoline car Versus a hybrid versus a plug hybrid versus an ev those are the numbers that i just quoted to you
530. and then yeah the sequoia is up by 1623 the suburban 1542 armada 1513 and again this is not
531. the annual budgets the budgets for these things are now like in the threes like the low to mid
532. three thousand dollars annually but that's how much they went to operate to operate one of those
533. big SUVs is over $3,000 a year. And that price has gone up by over about $1,500 compared to the
534. same time a year ago. Wow. Yeah. It's a painful reflection on what happens when gas goes from,
535. on average, $250 to $400, or in our lovely state here, guys, $400 to $650. So it gets expensive.
536. But the other thing I was going to bring up is what we did is we didn't just look at the fuel.
537. we did something more sophisticated than just, well, what's the car's EPA rating?
538. Okay, here's how much it went up.
539. We actually looked at how far cars are driven.
540. So all those numbers I just gave you aren't based on just fuel efficiency numbers.
541. They're based on how these vehicles are utilized.
542. And we can tell that through our data.
543. And so it's not just that you drive a Sequoia that doesn't get the best mileage,
544. but it's that you drive it all over the place all the time,
545. probably because it can pick up the kids from soccer and you can go on vacations
546. and you can go off-roading and all.
547. So when you have a heavily used type of vehicle that doesn't get the greatest fuel efficiency,
548. for example, a three-row SUV,
549. you get kind of the double whammy effect.
550. But real quick, since we're talking
551. how far cars are driven,
552. we also released a study.
553. I'm giving lots of IC cars study data today.
554. Which cars are driven the most and the least?
555. And we did it by drivetrain type.
556. So gasoline cars are driven 13,323 miles a year on average.
557. Interestingly, hybrids are driven 14,696 miles.
558. They're driven about 10% further every year.
559. than gasoline vehicles, which to me says enough people are starting to figure out that, hey,
560. if I drive a lot, maybe a hybrid would save me some money on fuel efficiency. And they're buying
561. hybrids and they're driving them more. And then also interesting, plug-in hybrids, which
562. theoretically have even more advantage, they're only driven 11,660 miles, which to me might also
563. suggest people are realizing, well, if plug-in hybrid, it's kind of like an electric vehicle
564. if I don't go too far every day. So they're buying them and they're using them for local commuting
565. more than family vacations and driving all over. And then finally, EVs are 11,880. So funny that
566. EVs and hybrids are almost the same, but EVs are actually driven a little further than plug-in
567. hybrids on average. And then the other, there's a whole bunch of data on our website. The only
568. other thing I would want to say that's kind of interesting is if the average gasoline car is
569. driven 13,323 miles, it's pretty cool or crazy or whatever you want to say that the Tesla Model 3
570. and the Tesla Model Y are driven 13,759 miles on average for the 3 and 13,538 for the Y.
571. So the Model Y and the Model S are driven on average further than the average gasoline car.
572. So apparently these Tesla people, they really believe in their cars and or they have enough
573. infrastructure and confidence in the infrastructure to use them more than the average guy filling his
574. gas tank, which you're supposed to think electric car, oh man, I can't go anywhere. I'll be stuck.
575. I can't get fuel for it. I can't recharge it. Well, these Tesla people have figured it out, apparently.
576. Well, and I can add something to that. Another thing that they told us at this GM program that I went to earlier this week,
577. GM has launched something called Energy Pass, which is one universal interface for public charging.
578. So and I actually tried it out and it works.
579. There nothing worse as we have all experienced than trying to charge an electric car in some strange part of the state with some little pedestal charger you never heard of You know you try the 800 number you try plug it in you give them all your credit card and it doesn work Well this thing called Energy Pass which
580. is being launched by General Motors, will sort of combine everything all together. So you just
581. download it all onto either your MyChevrolet or MyCadillac or MyGMC app. And then you go up to
582. one of these chargers and the chargers are have you heard of iona ionna those uh it's a new bunch
583. of stations uh i think their goal is 30 000 stations of course my goal is a pulitzer who's
584. knows that either one of us will get it but uh iona tesla electrify america are set up on it now
585. and evgo and charge point are coming soon so uh you will be able to get it's a seamless it's the
586. best thing ever you just pull up and plug in and it works and uh gm is going to start uh making that
587. nax charging protocol the one used by tesla on their evs in the future so everything should be
588. groovy yes that that's the idea can i just because because that's again that's the first thing if i've
589. never gone to a gas station and had it say sorry we don't like your car or your network you're not
590. allowed to fill up gas here so that you don't like your fuel filler neck yeah yeah you're not allowed
591. to fill up here and all so that is a huge thing to address also mark i didn't know this so i will
592. be contacting the pulitzer committee and talking to them thank you that's that's all that's necessary
593. i mean daniel won one so nominations get it wrong the nominations now while you still can okay one
594. news item. It has nothing to do with anything.
595. Toyota is going to build
596. a Gazoo Racing
597. branded go-kart.
598. Is that great? Is that the
599. best news ever? Yes. It actually is.
600. I will
601. point out that last year, at last
602. year's SEMA or CES,
603. Toyota had this
604. I think it was SEMA show.
605. They had this really cool Toyota
606. side-by-side.
607. It had a four-cylinder
608. engine mounted in the back looked really cool haven't heard a thing since then so you know
609. are they going to build the go-kart they say they are who are we to doubt anybody but the expected
610. cost is going to be around 2400 and maybe sold in markets outside of japan so keep all that in
611. mind but i thought that was interesting a little bit of uh news news and information
612. I like it.
613. All right.
614. All right.
615. And we are,
616. we are actually,
617. we're 38 seconds ahead of schedule.
618. We're going to dive right into the reviews.
619. Carl,
620. do you want to do the car,
621. the thing that we both went to up in Seattle,
622. or do we want to do the other one?
623. Let's do what we both went to and then I'll do the other one.
624. Carl and I,
625. we wind up on a lot of the same press junkets and we were up in Seattle.
626. It was two weeks ago.
627. I lose track of time.
628. You know, it's just the memory is the second thing to go.
629. I think it was last week.
630. All right.
631. Thank you, Michelle.
632. It was last week, but it took me a second too, Mark.
633. So yes, we're there.
634. Oh, it's only going to get worse.
635. Okay.
636. So Carl and I were both up there, guests of Ford.
637. And why you say Ford?
638. Well, you can say Ford.
639. You can also say Filson.
640. Who out there driving a car, listening to this show, has ever heard of Filson?
641. F-I-L-S-O-N.
642. Who in this studio chamber here has ever heard of Filson before this?
643. Show of hands.
644. No hands Okay Filson they started out making they were outfitting the guys going up to Alaska for the Klondike Gold Rush
645. That was what was that? Eighteen ninety six to ninety eight or something.
646. So they had a store in Seattle and they made coats and blankets for these guys.
647. They have been doing that nonstop. And now since Ford had to sort of part ways with Eddie Bauer.
648. Remember, there were Eddie Bauer editions of just about everything in the world.
649. They, but Eddie Bauer kind of had its own troubles.
650. And so Ford has now partnered with Filson.
651. Yay.
652. So I don't know, Filson, that sounds like an insult,
653. but it's apparently not.
654. It's a legitimate company making excellent products.
655. So we saw some of them being made that were not made.
656. Now most of their stuff is made overseas, but this was,
657. I didn't see any child slave labor.
658. So I don't know where that accusation came from,
659. Only adults. We saw some adult slave labor, but not child, so it's okay.
660. We do not suspect Ford or Filson are engaging in child or adult.
661. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle, our legal representative.
662. They're not violating any child labor laws.
663. Thank you.
664. Saving us from ourselves. Thank you, Michelle.
665. Okay, anyway, so the Ford Bronco has got a, as you may recall, they've already got the Bill Strop Edition, the Heritage Edition, the 60th Anniversary Edition.
666. Now they're adding to that the Filson Edition.
667. Now the Bronco Filson, make sure you get that order right because it's important to them anyway.
668. It gets new trim, softer suspension, added sound insulation.
669. It has aerodynamic improvements that make the wind noise better.
670. And most impressively, you get the engine from the current Bronco Raptor.
671. So you get a three liter turbocharged V6 making well in the Raptor makes 418 horsepower.
672. We don't know how many it's going to make when the Filson is comes out in early 2027 priced in the mid 70s.
673. But it sounds like a very good drivetrain.
674. Carl, what did you think?
675. We both saw it, but didn't drive it.
676. Well, it's a cool idea, which is we're going to take all the capability for going off-road on the Bronco,
677. and that includes things like the Sasquatch package and the trail turn assist and the low-speed cruise control,
678. trail control, which is like low-speed cruise control.
679. So we're going to do everything that we can on these Broncos, standard equipment, to make them go well off-road.
680. and we're going to give them the bigger engine from the Raptor,
681. probably tuned a little less aggressively
682. so it's not so jumpy with the throttle, not so performance-oriented.
683. And then we're going to put things on the Bronco that it's never had,
684. like front ventilated seats, not just heated,
685. but heated and ventilated front seats and heated rear seats
686. and a digital rear-view mirror and power-retracting running boards.
687. So now it's easier to get in and out of
688. because there's a running board to step on,
689. but it retracts once the car's moving
690. so it doesn't get ripped off when you're going aggressively off-road, which it's also.
691. So as much off-road capability as possible, as much plush comfort, quieter, like you said,
692. high-quality leather seats that use double stitching, very Filson-inspired because of the kind of material that Filson uses.
693. So that's the idea.
694. And they had a nice story, which I think I believe them, where they said that somehow they were talking to Filson
695. and they realized that the Bronco people were having concepts of what the Bronco should be
696. when they were in its development and early stages of launch,
697. on the wall of their design studios to inspire them.
698. That included Filson, the brand, and the Rugged Outdoor Equipment,
699. apparel that they make and philson supposedly had broncos up on their walls saying these are
700. the lifestyle type people and these are kind of like qualities that the bronco has that we want
701. in our clothing and then somehow somebody talked to somebody it was like wait a second who are you
702. using for inspiration well we're using you for inspiration so uh supposedly that was supposed
703. to be 2019 i think that they first uh started doing that so you know it was a match made in
704. heaven maybe yeah so but i i think it's a cool idea like like in my opinion mark if someone was
705. like you can have any version of the bronco you want right now this would be a very high on my
706. likely choice because of that combination of features yeah but in mid 70s that's that's a lot
707. of dough uh and the the bronco starts at a much more reasonable price i have it somewhere here
708. in my story at autoweek.com where you should go and read it everybody uh the uh the pricing
709. of a bronco well keep talking carl and i'll can i can i offer a comment when i was putting some
710. photos from that event um that were posted in autoweek.com in your article one of the cool
711. things on the interior and i have to say the philson influence is really noticeable on the
712. interior i liked those satchels they're like leather satchels inside the door and behind the
713. drivers and the passenger seat so that you can stash things in there and then snap it closed
714. i i don't think i've ever seen that in a car before very yeah it was it was full of those
715. and that's one product that philson makes and they showed us there's this room upstairs in
716. philson where these crazy looking bearded guys make all these little satchels and you know they
717. they sort of like allowed one of them to speak and he's like hey look at this that we made we're
718. gonna make this and we allowed one to speak one one of their products their trolls or gremlins
719. or something? They're very tall.
720. And still they enlighten you
721. on the making of the satchels. Yeah, so they
722. make all kinds of, Filson makes all kinds
723. of stuff. There's probably some website like
724. Filson.com or something. But okay, the price of
725. a Bronco starts at $42,490.
726. I believe that's probably without
727. destination. So less than $45,000
728. you can get into a Bronco.
729. And this one's in the mid-70s.
730. The top range for a Bronco,
731. at least according to Kelly Blue Book here,
732. oh, I should be citing I.C. Carr.
733. Sorry, Carl. Is $81,000.
734. $1,990.
735. So, you know, you're bumping up once you add destination, you're bumping up on $85.
736. So it's not the Philston.
737. Yes.
738. That's the most expensive version of a Bronco, you're saying, that's currently priced.
739. Because we don't know the pricing on Philston, but we're guesstimating.
740. I was told that it was mid-70s.
741. Yeah.
742. But again, you know, that 42, 43 sounds good and scriptable.
743. There's no Sasquatch package.
744. That's not leather interior.
745. That's not material turn assist.
746. So by the time you're getting what you're getting on the Filson on a regular Bronco, you're probably within five, certainly $10,000 of that price anyway.
747. And you're not getting those cool satchels that Michelle just described.
748. Now, Carl, the thing that has always gotten me about the Bronco is the roof.
749. It's not it's all the whole thing is it can be removed and it's removed in sections.
750. Now, that has to have some effect on NVH noise, vibration, harshness or whatever you want to call it or wind noise or something.
751. And that has been somewhat mitigated in this Bronco Filson.
752. But wouldn't it behoove Ford to offer a Bronco with a welded-in metal roof full of sound insulation?
753. I would agree.
754. They just acknowledged, like, this one's roof doesn't come off.
755. And by the way NVH refinement ride quality road noise wind noise all much better Yeah the Toyota Ref no the 4Runner was like that Remember they came out and you could take it off and then they sealed it up later and they just took off like hotcakes
756. Right, right.
757. I think they want to stand out in this crowded field as the rugged, you know.
758. And in fact, I asked after they listed all these changes, I asked the chief engineer, well, does that mean that Bronco is more civilized?
759. And the PR guy like immediately leaps in, you know, like the well sideways leaps where a goalie is trying to stop the ball from going in the net.
760. He says it is not more civilized. So, OK, it's not civilized.
761. OK, less civilized as ever. Don't you ever think that it's we're going to civilize this car.
762. It's as uncivilized as it's ever been. We are just as crude as ever.
763. We ride the nets. We spit in the gutter. We swear.
764. Yes. And is there not pricing, but is there interest list or can you order it now?
765. Yeah. Is it July?
766. July they've taken orders.
767. All right.
768. And in early 27, you can buy.
769. Production. Okay.
770. Yep.
771. Yep. Okay. But for something that you can buy right now and which is far more civilized, Carl, tell us.
772. Yeah, this is definitely kind of the antithesis.
773. talk about no NVH because there's not even explosions going on.
774. I was fortunate enough relatively recently to drive the new Polestar 5,
775. which is their newest model.
776. Polestar, which was maybe the most creative naming convention
777. in the history of auto brands.
778. This is their newest model, and it's got the highest number, 5.
779. And it's a very capable and luxurious sedan.
780. so think they actually told us that's a great way to describe it it's um a porsche panamera
781. in terms of functionality and it's a porsche taikon in terms of uh drivetrain philosophy and
782. performance so uh that's kind of what it looks like too it looks like kind of a cross between
783. both those vehicles very swoopy uh four-door sedan very attractive it looks good and there's
784. two versions a dual motor is the quote-unquote base model with only quote-unquote 748 horsepower
785. and 599 pound-feet of torque, and it does 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds,
786. and it'll do 400 in – they have the range in the European thing,
787. which you've got to always –
788. WLTP, right.
789. Yeah, but it's 421 miles in European, so even with the lower conversion,
790. it's like 350, 360 for US.
791. So that's a good range, and 155 mile-an-hour top speed.
792. That's the base dual-motor one.
793. And then if you go for the performance, which is also still got dual motors, but it's called performance, it's 884 horse, 749 pound feet of torque, 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds.
794. And it still has 155 mile an hour top speed and it's 346 miles on the European thing.
795. So it's just over, I think, 300 in the US testing.
796. but and that one's got crazy stuff like the bigger wheels 1610 watt bowers and wilkins audio system 21
797. speakers and some kind of upgraded exterior stuff like high gloss uh black uh trim versus the kind
798. of matte trim that's on the base model and towing capacity for both models is 5500 pounds and it's
799. got 112 kilowatt hour battery which as battery sizes go that's pretty large thus the higher
800. Yeah, the range, as I just quoted, that's why.
801. And it does have 300 kilowatt hour max charging, so you can get from 10 to 80% in 22 minutes, even on that big, ginormous battery.
802. And a 14.5-inch touchscreen and a 9-inch instrument cluster.
803. So this car was cool and it was driven as part of a launch on what was called the Polestar Grand Tour Sweden to the Sahara And it started at Gothenburg the plant where they building these things in Sweden and it ended at the Sahara Desert
804. It was something like 6,000 kilometers.
805. That's about 4,000 miles.
806. Went through, it was 20, it was five weeks, like 20 or 30 days, whatever I think it was,
807. it was a long time.
808. And I drove it from Malaga, Spain to Gibraltar, which was pretty awesome,
809. both in terms of the car and the roads we were on,
810. but also those areas in that region I'd never been to before.
811. We stayed two nights in Marbella, Spain,
812. which is, it felt very much like Newport Beach.
813. Saw lots, in one like one hour timeframe,
814. I saw three of those new Ferrari SUVs,
815. which I will not say,
816. cause I know I will destroy the name,
817. but I know you can say it.
818. Giorgio Sangue.
819. That's it.
820. Saw three of those in a matter of like,
821. it was not even less than an hour.
822. It was like 45 minutes.
823. I was like, that's the third one of those I've seen.
824. So it was like a little Newport beach out there in Marbella, Spain.
825. But the car is very fast.
826. It's very, it's not light.
827. I think it weighs like 5,500 pounds.
828. It's funny, it can tow 5,500 pounds.
829. I think it also weighs about that much.
830. But like so many modern cars that weigh too much in my mind, theoretically, when you're
831. driving, it's like, it doesn't feel like it should go around corners this confidently
832. and this fast, given its curb weight.
833. But it does.
834. and really refined, awesome seat comfort, awesome audio system, very fast.
835. The first time I kind of stepped on it to get around a car, it was like, whoa-hoo.
836. So we like it.
837. One thing I'm noticing, just looking this up here,
838. the price in Europe is well over 100,000 euros, like around 120.
839. Any idea what it will cost when it gets here?
840. And when did you say it will get here?
841. I believe it will be here before the end of this year I think in fall actually I think by like
842. September you should be able to buy them and um yes I believe they have not given official U.S.
843. pricing but I think you could probably take the conversion on euros and figure which I think as
844. my understanding was somewhere around 130 so that is a lot of money man that is it is a lot of money
845. but what's a taikon that's got those same performance figures right right it's going to
846. That's a good point. And if you look at it, and Carl spent days with it, so he has a much better sense of it.
847. But just looking at pictures of it here, it looks pretty nice.
848. It's attractive. Inside is very plush. And it's cool, by the way. It's called a 4 plus 1.
849. So it's got this very fancy second row seat that's got all the space you'd need.
850. And it's got a center console between the seats that has like another set of controls for climate and all the crazy things you can do back there.
851. uh you know but then you can flip up that center console and there's a third seat belt there and
852. all so you theoretically could have five people sitting in it if you needed to sure well well
853. we'll see what the heck that's cool that you got to drive that on that great route did you see any
854. of the famous monkeys in gibraltar no not other than my fellow uh automotive journalists no but
855. uh i did i did i i could see africa it was clear enough to that and that was just awesome guys
856. you're standing there on what is technically British soil as you probably already know
857. and you look to either side and there's coastline and that's Spain because it's really Spain but
858. it's a little piece of Britain inside Spain and then you're looking across what looks about I
859. think it's somewhere between 10 and 12 or 15 miles certainly visibility is easy if there's
860. any kind of clearness and there's mountains over there and those are Africa so uh it's kind of cool
861. to be at that location yeah that that is neat I I been there not all the way into Gibraltar but at the border of Gibraltar and I looking out there and there nothing but haze So as with everything else Carl has a better time and sees more stuff Yeah Right
862. And he has cars.
863. All right.
864. For now.
865. Yes.
866. Enough.
867. One downmanship.
868. A couple of,
869. a couple of more things here.
870. Let's see.
871. The movie toy story five is coming out and there are,
872. so Porsche did three,
873. three 9-11s oh carl's shaking his head did three 9-11s in toy story livery so what there's a buzz
874. light year there's a jesse and there's uh who's the woody and uh you know i i think if you go to
875. auto week.com you can see pictures of them i think the buzz light year looks okay i i don't know why
876. they afflicted the the rest of it and actually the woody doesn't look bad actually probably the
877. Woody looks the least offensive of all of them.
878. But the Jesse, I don't know what to do.
879. That's what I want to say when I tell my friends about the new 911.
880. I got the least offensive one.
881. Well, they're all one-offs.
882. They're going to get raffled off for charity.
883. Thank you.
884. Yes, I don't know who's going to buy them.
885. But anyway, we have the same person who got that Sally, you know, the Sally cars.
886. The Sally Carrera.
887. You know, that guy should buy all three of them and add to the garage next.
888. Yes, he should.
889. We have a minute left.
890. In that environment, they're OK.
891. It's like, OK, I'm going to keep having the like toy car inspired Porsches.
892. Then that's OK.
893. We have one minute left.
894. Carl will not be here next week.
895. Carl is going to be once again on another fabulous.
896. Geez, I just hate that guy.
897. Carl, where are you going to be next week?
898. I'm flying to Portland and we will be driving from Portland to Santa Barbara on the sixth long tail rally.
899. And this is the sixth one for me.
900. I'm one of three people who's been on all of them from 21 to 26.
901. And those are like supercars, right?
902. Yeah, I'll be in my Turbo S and I'll be surrounded by McLarens and Lambos and at least one Ferrari and all.
903. It'll be fun.
904. Well, try to keep your head up.
905. If you need someone to hate, ladies and gentlemen, pick Carl Brouwer because he has everything that we do not.
906. In the meantime, next week we'll get somebody else to come back,
907. and we are looking forward to seeing all of you next week right here on The Car Show.
908. The Car Show.
909. The People's Game returns to KPFK.
910. You're invited to join host Alan Minsky every Friday evening from 5 to 6 p.m.
911. He's diving deep into the upcoming action on the pitch and the fierce politics, economics, and culture behind the scenes.
912. From host nation corruption to global human rights, to get the world's game like only Pacifica Radio can deliver,
913. tune in this Friday at 5 p.m. and every Friday until July 26th, right here at 90.7 FM KPFK,
914. or stream it live at kpfk.org.
915. The People's Game, where sports meets the real world.
916. The benefits of donating your used vehicle to KPFK
917. include funding new and existing programming
918. as well as increasing community awareness.
919. You also benefit by being able to reduce your taxable income.
920. There's no need to deal with the hassles of selling it
921. and you support public radio in the process.
922. To donate your vehicle, please call 877-422-4222.
923. 7 KPFK Auto, that's 877-