Car Show, The - Saturday, June 20, 2026

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13. From the icy cold curves of Angeles Crest to the sunny shores of PCH and around the world on KPFK.org,
14. This is The Car Show, broadcasting every Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. here on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles for 53 years.
15. I am your humble host, Mark Vaughn of AutoWeek.com.
16. I am joined this week and every week by my co-host, an attorney specializing in automotive law, Motor Press Guild member,
17. and owner of two Mazdas, an RX-8 and a Miata, Michelle Spencer. Welcome, Michelle.
18. Well, thank you, Mark. It's always my pleasure to be on the car show with you. Unfortunately, this week we do not have Carl. Carl is en route somewhere around Lake Tahoe, we last heard, with the Longtail Rally, with the people with the McLarens.
19. He is having a great time. I think he's driving his 911, right?
20. That's right. So I'm sure next week he'll be able to give us a rundown of all the fun he had.
21. Yeah, he is having way too much fun. He always has way too much fun. I know last week we were joking about how we all hate Carl because he has nice cars and has a great time doing it. We weren't joking.
22. It's just LSE.
23. all right let's dive right into the calendar section so that you know what is going on out
24. there in the world and of course we're going to go to the peterson automotive museum first
25. because that is the best automotive museum anywhere in the world and i've been to
26. many of them i've been to the schlumpf collection in uh france and saw the bugattis and i think the
27. peterson's better so anyway uh the peterson an exhibit is uh actually opened today uh there's a
28. an artist named joshua vidas i hope i'm pronouncing his name right and what he does he's created this
29. exhibit called flat out it an optical illusion they are three cars and they are painted black and white and they on black and white backgrounds parked on a black and white floor And so when you stand there and look at it it as if you stepped into a two dimensional world
30. It's very bizarre. I saw it a year ago or so.
31. He had a showing in the art art district of downtown L.A., not far from the bike shed, that area.
32. and i just uh it was weird you would look into it you would be standing right there and you're
33. looking at you have to look away and see you know the real world the three-dimensional world
34. and then look back it's uh it's a challenge for the eyeballs and for the senses and it's really
35. kind of fun uh he he has done collaborations with brands like nike ferrari g-shock he is uh
36. taking that signature black and white hand drawn aesthetic to the Peterson for a completely unique,
37. interactive installation, even though the AP style book says you do not qualify unique as being completely.
38. But there it is. He will be transforming the gallery into.
39. Well, it's called three dimensional mechanics garage here rendered in two dimensions.
40. And that will include a 1983 Porsche 944, as well as a Ferrari 308 GTS and a Mercedes 450 SL inside the gallery.
41. And they'll be parked there right in front of you.
42. They're three-dimensional cars, and they look two-dimensional.
43. So it's open down at the Peterson at Fairfax and Wilshire.
44. Check it out.
45. And that's not the only thing.
46. What, Michelle?
47. 6060 Wilshire Boulevard is the address.
48. All right.
49. I have more events happening at the Peterson.
50. We've talked about the Italian Car and Motorcycle Cruise-In, which is going to be Sunday, June 28th.
51. That's from 9 a.m. to noon.
52. Will there by chance be a Lancia Appia?
53. Let me see if I'm in town while the 28th.
54. I might be in town.
55. I might not.
56. It's up in the air.
57. So if I am in town, I will be there, I hope.
58. All right.
59. Well, you'll need to pony up $35 to register in advance.
60. It's cheaper than the San Marino Motor Classic.
61. That's right.
62. It's actually not too bad.
63. One-fifth the price.
64. Right.
65. And if you happen to be a Peterson Museum member, it's only $13 to register to display your Italian car and motorcycle.
66. If you have a motorcycle, you could display that as well.
67. All right. So and then, you know, what you can do since this is 9 a.m. to noon is you can wander inside because this comes with your admission and check out the 2D or 3D car exhibit with Joshua Vides.
68. That's right. And you can check out that Mercedes exhibit, which is also spectacular.
69. That's still happening. Yes. And if you get hungry, I have to recommend the Myers-Manks Cafe on the fourth floor.
70. Yeah, I think it's on the first floor.
71. Is it on the first floor?
72. Yeah, Myers-Mack's Cafe is on the first floor.
73. Remember, it used to be a Johnny Rockets.
74. That came to an unfortunate end.
75. That's a whole other story.
76. Right.
77. And then it was that fancy restaurant, and now it's a Myers-Mack's Cafe.
78. Yeah, and it's gotten good reviews.
79. I haven't heard anybody complain about it.
80. It's good, and it's so cute inside.
81. So, yeah, you can do that.
82. And then on Sunday, July 12th, a really, really fun event that Peterson is putting on.
83. It's called America on the Move, and it's a Route 66 centennial celebration.
84. Kicks off at 8 a with a parade of 50 vehicles The Peterson is going to choose these vehicles So you can you know I sure you could try to bribe somebody
85. but there will be 50 vehicles chosen in advance of the parade,
86. and they will represent key moments in automotive history.
87. So they will have some race cars, and they'll have some pop culture vehicles,
88. i.e. Hollywood cars.
89. and it's going to start at the peterson and the museum will have the escorts with the 50 vehicles
90. going down wilshire boulevard all the way to santa monica it'll end at the pier and then there's
91. going to be a party at the santa monica pier at the end of route 66 and it's free to participate
92. if you would like to and you can do the party for free everything but you do have to register
93. ahead of time so they know who's coming.
94. And you do that at peterson.org.
95. I got to go on one of those once.
96. It was a lot of fun.
97. I was in a Type 2 Volkswagen.
98. It's a second-generation Volkswagen van.
99. And Terry Kargis, the museum director, was driving.
100. We had a good time.
101. Oh, how fun.
102. Goes all over town.
103. And they have police escorts.
104. So they block off streets for you.
105. You feel like King Farouk when you drive.
106. Very safe.
107. Very safe.
108. well yeah i'm sure they'll have some volkswagen vans they've got to they're iconic i'm sure they
109. do i think they have the one from little miss sunshine the movie i remember the thing we go
110. around in the volkswagen van and they also i think in the vault there they have the what are the herbie
111. bugs too they have so much there yeah so it'll be fun maybe they'll even take out public can get in
112. on that they can apply yes yes at peterson.org i guess huh yep that's where all the details are
113. and if you want tickets you have to get your tickets but they're free you just have to sign
114. up that's all okay and then if you want to do another all-american cruise in that's going to
115. be held at the peterson on sunday july 26th from 9 a.m to noon they want to have american cars and
116. motorcycles in this show. So get your classics, muscle cars, your custom builds, and even
117. performance cars. Everybody's welcome. And again, $35 to register to display, $13 for museum members
118. at peterson.org. Now, that is not a sold-out event, but there is a sold-out event coming up.
119. This weekend is going on right now.
120. The big NASCAR weekend in San Diego.
121. So this is a first.
122. It's a historic event because NASCAR has never raced at Naval Base Coronado before on this specially built track.
123. But yes, it's this weekend.
124. And the tickets are really hard to come by.
125. They're like 90% sold out.
126. No, they're 100% sold out.
127. Snup for the one hospitality suite that costs $5,405.
128. That's what they found on the website.
129. So that's VIP status.
130. So, yeah, I guess you should just watch it on TV if you can't.
131. Because Base Pass General Admission was sold out long ago.
132. And Grandstand Reserve Seating had a waiting list long ago.
133. And then the Sunday hospitality suite for $5,000.
134. yeah you could probably still get in on that just have all your friends chip in all right
135. yeah you can watch the show on prime video it says here oh great so yeah if you have amazon prime you can get it isn that nice It all there I have that You have that I do have Amazon Prime
136. I watch a show about the apocalypse, basically, called Fallout on Amazon Prime.
137. That's my series I watch.
138. You know, just look out your window.
139. You know, right?
140. It's coming.
141. It's happening right now.
142. It's actually a really cool show because it's based in L.A.
143. if an atomic bomb got dropped in la what would happen after that and yes you get to see tons
144. of burned out cars the buicks would survive though i think probably they're like cockroaches they
145. would survive like general martyrs we did not mean to compare your cars to uh filthy little insects
146. right so get yourself a grand national and you'll survive the uh
147. you're in national so all right uh if you yeah if you can't watch uh if you can't make it down
148. there and like i say if you haven't already bought your tickets to nascar san diego weekend
149. uh don't don't go down thinking you're going to get in because you're right you can't just walk
150. in and it's not going to happen yeah well there is one place you can walk in on june 21st you can
151. You may even catch a glimpse of fabled Rodeo Drive big wheel alpha male Bruce Meyer at the Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance on June 21st from 10 to 4, where they shut down all of Rodeo Drive.
152. So that's also tomorrow.
153. So rather than try and drive to San Diego and be disappointed she can't get in, go to Beverly Hills and you can get in.
154. I guarantee you can get in.
155. There's no limit on how many people are there.
156. It gets really crowded. If you go early, they say, you know, you can, it's,
157. they say it officially starts at 10 AM. Uh,
158. if you go a little bit earlier than that,
159. you can see a lot of stuff and it's not that crowded, but, uh, it's fun.
160. It's a good collection of cars.
161. This is the 31st annual Rodeo drive concours dead egg.
162. Don't you like the way I say that? Yeah. And that father's day, Sunday,
163. June 21st, it's continuing.
164. It's long standing tradition as a celebration of automotive excellence in the
165. heart of Beverly Hills free and open to the public.
166. The annual event transforms one of the world's most iconic streets into an
167. open air exhibition of rare,
168. exotic and vintage automobiles from 10 to four.
169. And all the shops are open too.
170. So you can go in there and check out the shops.
171. And I have found I'm not usually a shopper.
172. I certainly not on Rodeo drive,
173. but I have found that they're actually very friendly.
174. It's not like pretty woman where they were mean to her and wouldn't let her
175. shop not like that at all they're actually very friendly and you can go up and ask them questions
176. about parish fashions that's very nice so are you think you're gonna make it out there for that one
177. uh on the 21st i don't know yeah i think i've got no no i'm gonna be down at nascar san diego
178. oh okay with your press pass no i did not get a press pass i'm just sitting in with toy i'm the
179. guest of Toyota. So, ah, okay. You know, uh, so I'll be there. I'll wave to you guys. Okay. Well,
180. maybe I'll be on, on the TV, on the TV. Yeah. Yeah. We'll look for you. All right. Uh, another
181. thing that is going to be free that's next Saturday, June 27th, the model T hill climb.
182. That's right. The original model T's there's a club. There's a very active group of guys who
183. love these old, old, old cars who have figured out how they drive. I mean, now for us, the clutch is on the left, brakes in the middle, gas is on the right. That wasn't always the case. There was a time when they didn't know that that's how
184. what was supposed to be.
185. And so a Model T has a whole different arrangement of the clutch pedals.
186. I learned to drive one once.
187. You pick it up pretty quickly, but I've completely forgotten it now.
188. So that helps with theft.
189. No one's going to be able to steal the car because you can't figure out how to drive it.
190. This is happening Saturday, June 27th.
191. Model T Hill Climb at 2200 Temple Avenue in Signal Hill.
192. So that's Signal Hill at Hill Street and Temple.
193. Parking is a block away at Browning High School.
194. Browning High School is at Hill Street and Obispo.
195. And then there's a shuttle that'll take you, it looks like a block or so, to get to the hill climb.
196. So the hill climb itself runs from 10 to 11 a.m.
197. And after the hill climb, from 11 to 3, there will be live entertainment, a Model T display, of course, because they're all there already,
198. family games and activities, community booths and giveaways,
199. and food and refreshment available for purchase.
200. Couldn't ask for more than that.
201. In other words, a party.
202. Party.
203. That sounds like a blast.
204. Really.
205. How fun does this sound?
206. A hill climber.
207. It's only an hour, right?
208. And then you can get some, probably, they probably have tacos.
209. I am always in favor of tacos.
210. Yes.
211. Tacos are for the win.
212. All right.
213. So moving on, if you're a Corvette person, this one's for you at the Marconi down here in Tustin.
214. The fourth annual National Corvette Day celebration is happening Sunday, June 28th from 9 to 11.
215. That's at 1302 Industrial Drive in Tustin.
216. and you can show your Corvette for $20 if you're by yourself
217. or if you have a passenger princess, then you pay $40.
218. If you want to spectate, it's $20 and you pay at the door.
219. Do not have to register in advance.
220. And you'll get free coffee and donuts.
221. And if you would like to show your Corvette,
222. just go to MarconiMuseum.org and go to their public events page to register.
223. I'm still beholden to John Marconi.
224. We needed a Ferrari once for some test.
225. And I,
226. cause he was,
227. he won the Ferrari challenge back in the early days,
228. I think twice the whole season championship.
229. And so I knew that he had one.
230. I said,
231. Hey,
232. could you bring that out to where we're testing these cars?
233. Yeah,
234. sure.
235. He brought it out.
236. Great guy.
237. Wow.
238. Nice.
239. There you go.
240. On the other end of the spectrum away from the Ferrari challenge,
241. There's going to be an eighth mile dirt drags at El Mirage.
242. But this is not until July 11th and 12th.
243. It's put on by the Southern California Timing Association.
244. That's the original group from way back when Wally Parks was once the president.
245. Those were the days SCTA and RPM Nationals are putting this on the weekend of July 11th and 12th at El Mirage Dry Lake.
246. It's pretty cool.
247. I think it's going to be hot.
248. might be very hot so just take that into consideration bring a water truck with you
249. a couple of camels whatever it takes big hat sunscreen july 11th and 12th it's for
250. 1936 and older cars powered by flatheads and bangers they're representing a mid-50s
251. or older build style so you can't just show up with a modern car places will be heads up flag
252. drop one eighth mile drags on a hard pack section of the lake and it should be pretty hard packed by the time you get out there It almost like cement Of course the the starting line might get a little chewed up
253. but I'm sure that they're going to make a pro what's the word I'm looking
254. for. They're going to take care of that and maybe move the starting.
255. Yes. They're going to accommodate that. Yeah.
256. Race entries are open now and go to RPM nationals.com.
257. and then slash SCTA.
258. It's too long after that.
259. Just go to rpmnationals.com.
260. I'm sure that'll get you there.
261. So that's, yes?
262. This is so cool that they have not done these in 70 plus years.
263. Really?
264. Oh, the dirt drags, yeah.
265. They do land speed racing out there.
266. And they do those cars, the wind cars,
267. sail land yachts or whatever they call them.
268. for you yeah side by side drag racing back at this lake for first time in a very in decades
269. so 70 years that's how fun so inspection is saturday and then racing on sunday awesome sunday
270. sunday sunday and then uh our good buddy carl pulley of honda sent out the word that july 18th
271. Saturday, July 18th, the Honda American and the American Honda Collection Hall will be open and they're going to have a cars, bikes and coffee show.
272. They've been doing that for what, a year, two years?
273. A couple of years. Yeah.
274. Yeah, they just opened up the new it's like a great museum.
275. You go to the American Honda headquarters there in Torrance and you walk in through the main doors.
276. And on your right is their permanent collection of great old Hondas, motorcycles, cars, weed whackers, outboard motors.
277. And then you continue through that lobby.
278. And then that whole huge parking area is where the car show takes place.
279. They're going to prom.
280. They've promised a large picnic area with shade umbrellas and games like cornhole.
281. Giant Jenga.
282. That could be dangerous if it's really giant.
283. There will be a vintage Accord ride-along experience to celebrate the Accord's 50th anniversary.
284. Man, that's amazing to think that the Accord was 50 years old.
285. Yeah, we talked about it last week on the show.
286. Yeah.
287. Crazy.
288. There will be a Ride for Kids motorcycle charity that raises money for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.
289. You can register and donate a certain amount to receive a free lunch, T-shirt, and event patch.
290. So that would be kind of cool.
291. So check that out.
292. In addition to all that, you can get in the museum, as we said.
293. It's going to be free coffee, a live DJ, food, trucks, vendors, giveaways, and special exhibits.
294. It's the event runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
295. But the gates will open at 730 a.m.
296. If you want to get a really good parking spot for your cool car or motorcycle.
297. Well, shall we move on to news?
298. Is it time?
299. Oh, it's right on time.
300. Excellent.
301. Please go ahead, Michelle.
302. What do we got?
303. What's been happening?
304. Oh, yeah.
305. This came out of a discussion that we had, right?
306. Yeah.
307. Mark and I were talking.
308. What happened to the tariffs?
309. Are people still paying tariffs?
310. And it led me to do a little bit of digging and I found out there's something new happening
311. in July on tariffs.
312. So here's the deal.
313. Background is you might remember on 4 the president imposed the 25 tariffs on all imported vehicles and parts some parts not all And then this year to 2026 our U Supreme Court ruled that those tariffs were unconstitutional
314. and ordered the refunds to be paid to the businesses that had paid them.
315. A little method to be decided before the U.S. Court of International Trade.
316. And then in May of this year, some of the corporations have been working to try to get their refunds, including General Motors.
317. And we found out that GM is trying to get $500 million back.
318. So that's not something just to sneeze at.
319. But what's happening right now is that there are new tariff proposals because the ones that were rendered unconstitutional were under a certain code section that the judges decided was not proper.
320. So they were working on another code section to authorize new tariffs.
321. The other one had to do with declaring a national emergency.
322. OK, right. Now he's trying a different tack to get new tariffs imposed.
323. And they are 10 to 12.5% duties on a bunch of imports from 60 countries, including our friends at the EU who import all of our favorite cars, right?
324. Canada, Mexico, and China.
325. Now, we're probably not going to get any Chinese vehicles anytime soon.
326. But the others, yeah, probably.
327. They want to import vehicles.
328. It's under Section 301 is the new code section that he's working on.
329. And there's going to be a review on July 1st.
330. And there's going to be a review of a new U.S., Mexico, and Canadian agreement.
331. So we're trying to get them to accept that 82% of the vehicle content must be North American in origin.
332. 82%.
333. Yeah, that's a lot.
334. North American. So that would include Canada, Mexico then.
335. Correct.
336. Just like whatever that first North American free trade agreement was.
337. Yep. So, yeah.
338. We've been going around in circles. I mean, it's just, you want to have it be your deal, not the previous guy's deal. And so we're all getting thrown through the ringer here.
339. Yeah, the whole problem, of course, with the automotive industry, which is what we're most concerned about, is that industry runs on predictability and the unpredictability of tariffs and other ideas that keep getting floated around that would affect the automotive industry is really hard on long range planning for products that are in the pipeline.
340. So, yeah, it's really hard for them to come up with what vehicles should we put out?
341. Well, where are we going to make them and all that?
342. Now, I did hear that, of course, the tariffs that went into effect in 2025 did cause some movement of production to the U.S., but it's not as much as you would expect.
343. And why is that?
344. Again, predictability.
345. If they had a heads up on this, that this was going to get imposed, then the manufacturers could make those pivots.
346. But they work on a five-year plan on those things that they're going to put money into.
347. And so we won see any really big needle move on production in North America until a couple years pass and these things kind of stay in place and maybe they would wait and see if there going to be a new administration that doesn make that push so right now they are or are not paying tariffs on imported cars not they not
348. so then have i wonder if boy it's too bad carl wasn't here because he could tell us the prices
349. have gone up or down as a result of that so we'll ask him when he comes back if he comes back
350. Well, he met me with Sasquatch on that trip still.
351. Back with Sasquatch once again.
352. I think they broke up.
353. I think so.
354. He did show up last week, and we thank him for that.
355. Carl, if you're listening, come back.
356. All is forgiven.
357. Well, I don't know.
358. Well, we'll take your Porsche for payment.
359. All right.
360. That would be very nice.
361. So, okay.
362. But it could change again then, right?
363. So all those car makers who built factories in Mexico to take advantage of the USMCA or whatever it's called this week, they are back in business and everything's fine.
364. They're making cars in Mexico and shipping them without a tariff into the United States.
365. Yes. And we're again, we're having a joint review of a new agreement on July 1st.
366. So it could increase that level of production in Canada and Mexico.
367. So do you think that all the money that car makers are saving by manufacturing in Mexico is passed on to us or does it go to them as profit?
368. You're funny.
369. There was a great photo in, where was it?
370. I don't know.
371. I was scanning the news.
372. I forget where I saw this picture.
373. It might have been automotive news somewhere of all these workers at one of the axle companies in Michigan.
374. They had their UAW workers and they had finally ratified this new agreement for them to continue working there.
375. And they were all cheering in a lower right hand corner.
376. You see one of the guys cheering and his T-shirt says, eat the rich.
377. I thought that was great. That was great.
378. rich people uh we apologize but we're gonna come and eat you so all right got it well speaking
379. speaking of american manufacturers american manufacturers yes the right to repair should
380. you be able to fix your own car should an independent fix-it shop be allowed to fix
381. your car. The car makers are saying no. And a couple of days ago, they asked President Trump
382. if he would support them with that. And it was an interesting time. What do you think,
383. Michelle? Do you have an opinion on this before we dive into it?
384. I think that the reason why this is being pushed is because the OEMs, the manufacturers are looking
385. to recoup some of their losses because they've not been selling as many new cars. It's kind of
386. a poorly kept secret that the automotive industry is in trouble right now for sales of new cars.
387. And everyone's looking at used cars and they're looking to recoup profits. And guess where
388. they might do that in the shop because they charge a lot of money to fix cars. So yeah,
389. they are smart actually to try to push for having people not go outside to get things fixed.
390. Well, there is a bill that is on its way, the Bipartisan Repair Act, HR 1566, Senate Bill 1379
391. has the-
392. support of 85% of Trump voters, as well as 86% of Democratic voters. Is there any other subject on
393. which those two groups could be so closely aligned? I think not. The numbers are even higher
394. if you just ask people if they should be able to choose their own repair shop. 99% said yes.
395. So we'll see. Well, there seems to be a disconnect there.
396. it's oh well it depends how you know surveys it depends how you work yeah because i think if you
397. have the ask the average joe you know do don't you want to be able to take your car anywhere you want
398. they'd say yes yeah yeah it's it's all the freedom of america uh the repair act uh says that
399. independent garages and home mechanics should have dealer level access to the critical performance
400. data produced by today's connected automobiles. This is a story written by my colleague Natalie
401. Neff at AutoWeek.com. And the automakers want to keep that state-of-the-art, state-of-the-car
402. information for themselves, especially since so much of their money is made via the service
403. bays, up to 50% of gross profit. So the automakers advanced their own bill, the Auto Care Association,
404. which supports repair, that's the other bill, pinpoints what's at stake.
405. The Auto Care Association says access to vehicle maintenance and repair data is under threat from vehicle manufacturers.
406. OBD2 ports have granted vehicle owners and technicians access to vehicle data to assist with maintenance and repair.
407. However, in the digital age, and that's what we're talking about, that's the difference here,
408. it's not like carburetors and drum brakes.
409. This is OBD2 port.
410. And I think even the OBD2 port is a thing of the past.
411. It's been replaced by something even more sophisticated.
412. But in the past, those have granted owners and technicians access to vehicle data to assist with maintenance and repair.
413. However, in the digital age, maintenance and repair data is now transmitted wirelessly and sent directly and only to vehicle manufacturers.
414. So that is the gist of this here.
415. The people want access to this data and access to their own car to repair it without voiding the warranty.
416. Yeah.
417. Yeah, that's the kicker.
418. Like, you could take it somewhere, but you'll void your warranty.
419. Yeah.
420. The industry is lobbying heavily against.
421. Now, repair is all in caps.
422. That's the name of the House and Senate bills.
423. And the industry is claiming that consumers and the independent shops are already protected by a 2014 voluntary memorandum in which the major companies agree to share diagnostic and repair information with them.
424. But the agreement is non-binding and non-enforceable.
425. So, you know, good luck getting that.
426. You know, I think this might end up being the wrong thing to do if you want to sell more cars, because wouldn't you as a customer say, well, I'm just going to get an older car.
427. And then we have it eventually.
428. Eventually, all those old cars are going to go away.
429. Plus, why not get a new car with modern safety and convenience and comfort?
430. You know, I think that they should,
431. that data, once you buy the car,
432. you should have access to what's in it.
433. It's like you buy a book,
434. but you can't open it and read it, you know?
435. That ain't right, man, that ain't right.
436. Well is there Let move on I think we beaten that into the ground All right So next thing we need to talk about is Tesla Yay I found this article in the LA Times business section on June 14th
437. written by journalist Cara Carlson.
438. Cara with a K.
439. It's called,
440. A Year Later, Tesla's Push for Robo Taxis is Stalling.
441. Extensive article.
442. She really looked into this.
443. And a year ago, the CEO of Tesla, Mr. Musk, announced that he wanted to make this program huge.
444. He wanted to have at least 500 cars on the road driving without drivers and taking people around.
445. And a year later, he has 59 robo taxis and they are only in three cities.
446. Wait a minute. I'm shocked.
447. elon musk over promised has this ever happened before is this unprecedented well you know i
448. could cite a few examples but my favorite to cite it recently anyway is the uh the uh roadster
449. because there were uh 2018 i believe was when people started putting deposits down on the
450. roadster and there is still i just checked today still no date for production and release of
451. roadsters now i'd be the second gen roadster by the way so no he never does this but yeah he's in
452. austin with the robo taxis he's in dallas and he's in houston and those are supposedly the ones that
453. run without a human. Now in San Francisco, our state is a little more restrictive. They do have
454. some robo taxis in San Francisco, but they are all staffed by supervised riders because we require
455. that. And so what's happening is he's just getting clobbered by Waymo. Waymo keeps expanding. Waymo
456. has a very good business model. People like Waymo's, they are trusting them. And they're,
457. I mean, they have their own issues, right? But they seem to be eclipsed by bad press on the
458. robo taxis that Tesla has put out with drop offs not being precise. That it takes 30 minutes,
459. They had actually a Bloomberg reporter go down to Austin and over a period of weeks, he said that pretty much every single time you tried to get a robo taxi, it took a half an hour.
460. And then there was another guy who experimented kind of the same way.
461. And his thing was he wanted to see if he could get one without a person driving in it and to actually get a robo taxi that was self-driving.
462. and he said that that only happened like three times after numerous calls for robo taxis so well
463. you know it is the first time they're doing this so i don't know yeah and it's just going a lot
464. slower than it was predicted yeah i'm sure that it'll come out about the time the roadster comes
465. out so yeah so i mean he was planning on expanding to vegas he wanted to do phoenix etc it's just not
466. happening for it's uh whatever have they were supposed to uh circle all of vegas with the
467. boring company tunnels yeah and i don know the tunnels are working um just under the convention center yes under the convention center there is a way to go i been in those many times Yeah but that it That seems to also have stalled
468. So, yeah, we just had to bring you this news because the article was very extensive.
469. They even interviewed a professor of law from USC, and he said, yeah, it looks like it's just not ready for a total rollout.
470. rollout. And it's too dangerous that they're going to incur legal liability and problems
471. if they push for too quick of a rollout when they're not ready.
472. Well, now, are the robo taxis, I forget, I should know this. Are they also like the Tesla's
473. using just cameras or are they using LIDAR or anything like that? Do you happen to know that?
474. You know what? The article didn't talk about the tech, so I'm not sure.
475. I mean, if that guy is making a safety claim, that would be a good connection to make.
476. Because the cars, are they just cameras or have they since added more to them?
477. Right.
478. You'd think that they would need to, especially because you've seen the way Waymo does it.
479. Yeah, they have so many sensors on a Waymo.
480. Yeah.
481. It looks like a space alien.
482. Okay.
483. Anyway, thank you for that report.
484. We have an update.
485. Autobooks Aerobooks is for sale.
486. we might get chuck and tina on the show to talk about it uh they are it's a lovely bookstore
487. in burbank it's 2900 west magnolia boulevard in burbank it's open tuesday through saturday
488. go in there and say hello to them they're a delightful couple uh they run this uh store
489. you'll almost certainly see jay leno there uh last time i was there i swear it was uh what's
490. that guy, Cumberbatch? What's his first name? Benedict Cumberbatch. I swear that was him. He
491. came walking in there. But there's all these really cool books. They have a book on Lloyd
492. Ruby. Where else are you going to find a book on Lloyd Ruby? They have t-shirts. I bought a
493. Tatra t-shirt. There's nowhere else in the world, maybe some part of Prague, that you could buy a
494. Tatra t-shirt. It's just a really cool facility. If I get too many of these books for review,
495. I take them down and just donate them to there and they put them on the shelves.
496. I asked if they wanted my old Auto Weeks and Tina said, nope.
497. My life's worth nothing.
498. How long has the business been there?
499. Well, they bought it.
500. I don't know exactly when they bought it, but I think the business itself has been there since the or has been in business since the 50s.
501. I think it's moved two or three times.
502. But at this location, it's been there for quite a while.
503. I want to say like 15 years, but I'm not entirely certain.
504. So they are, I think, the third owners.
505. And they just want to retire.
506. You know, they're of that age.
507. They want to retire.
508. So wealthy people of KPFK, one of you go down there and buy autobooks, aerobooks, just to go down at 2900 West Magnolia Boulevard with a suitcase full of cash.
509. Right.
510. And they'll take care of you.
511. Yeah.
512. I don't know.
513. You can also call 818-845-0707 and talk to anybody.
514. Chuck will probably answer the phone.
515. It might be Tina.
516. And just say, yeah, I got a suitcase full of cash.
517. I'm standing outside.
518. The engine's running.
519. I'm ready.
520. And they'll make you a deal.
521. Nice.
522. All right.
523. All right.
524. Speaking of great deals, what have you been driving, Michelle?
525. Are we into this?
526. We're 22 seconds early for the reviews.
527. Oh, good.
528. All right.
529. speaking of good deals if you would like an EV and Mark was asking me about the Ioniq 5 and he said is that an SUV And I actually said no it not And I was wrong Mark you were correct once again It is an SUV
530. Right.
531. And I drove this back in May.
532. It's a 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5.
533. It is the XRT trim level.
534. And this is a sporty off-road IONIQ 5 trim level.
535. And it was just introduced in 2025 for that model year.
536. So what's different about it?
537. Well, it actually has a function where you can use a little dial for your off-road drive modes on the steering wheel.
538. and all you have to do is you can switch for snow mud and sand just with a little twist um on a knob
539. so there's that it also has just the regular drive modes for eco which you always get with evs
540. and your uh uh let's see what else there's two more normal and sport and then you can do a
541. customized my drive mode so you can customize everything but also new for 2025 on this
542. particular trim level and this is a two row it's called a crossover suv uh you have a new
543. nacs charge port which we're seeing on all of the hyundai products you know i had recently test
544. driven the genesis ev is it is it on is it on the the charge port is it on which where is it
545. located on the car which corner is it it's on the right hand rear corner okay so that is the wrong
546. one for some of these tesla chargers so if you have a nax charger you're kind of hosed i know
547. that the the new uh porsche ticon which is also an electric uh sort of an sev looking thing yeah
548. That has, it has the NAX charger port on the left rear corner, which is where you can access the Tesla supercharger network, even the ones with the shorter cables.
549. You know, they're not all created equal.
550. So, and on the other side, the right rear corner, it has the CCS charging location.
551. So I thought that was kind of funny.
552. It is tricky with the SUVs or the EVs where the charge ports are in multiple different locations.
553. They're all over the place.
554. Yeah, it keeps changing.
555. Everybody thought, oh, the CCS, that's going to be the standard.
556. Now, let's all do that.
557. And then they said, no, wait a minute.
558. Look, Elon's got this thing, and it's much better.
559. Right.
560. Right. So on this Hyundai Ioniq 5, this is, by the way, a perennial favorite of Hyundai, and it sells very well.
561. And I actually was also talking to Mark about, you know, is this aged out?
562. Is this kind of not relevant anymore?
563. But no, they actually are selling quite a few of these.
564. and Hyundai
565. as a corporation
566. has sold
567. increased its sales
568. in the US 36%
569. over the last 10 years and it really
570. has a lot to do with their
571. quality has increased
572. and their tech on these
573. is amazing
574. their whole lineup
575. but on this IONIQ 5 XRT
576. this is a
577. 697 volt lift
578. ion battery and it has the 350 kilowatt fast charger. It's at the top trim level right now
579. is the XRT for the Ioniq 5 and so you'll get in this for $47,000 which for an SUV that's an EV
580. is quite reasonable. Don't forget the average price of a vehicle right now the new vehicle
581. in the U.S. is $50,000. So if you can get an EV for under $50,000, you're in good company here.
582. And if you would like to get one of the lower trim levels, those start at $35,000.
583. So the XRT has the sportiest styling in the IONIQ 5 lineup. It's designed for off-roading,
584. as I mentioned. It has a higher clearance. It's got seven inch ground clearance and it's 64 inches
585. high. So you do get a fair amount of headroom inside. It's very comfortable. It's all wheel
586. drive standard on the XRTs. It has a dual motor setup, which gives you 320 horsepower and 446
587. six pound feet of torque. There's a couple of powertrains available. Is that correct? I believe.
588. It is correct. Yes. On the lineup, they have different power plants, but on the XRT,
589. you just get one. Yep. Okay. All right. And then another thing with the XRT is you have your front
590. suspension being an independent McPherson strut with coils and the rear suspension is independent
591. multi-link. So there's 18 inch alloy wheels also that you get on the XRT only and nice things
592. inside. You get power folding and heating side mirrors actually on the outside, sorry, with turn
593. indicators on the back that are super cool. Now, one of the design elements that I should mention
594. on these IONIQ XRTs is that they're very futuristic looking. And so there's sort of a
595. square design and a camo design on the trim around the rear. And it's very distinctive.
596. When you look at the other IONIQ 5s, this one stands out. It also comes with tow hooks on the
597. front and the back. And the other IONIQ 5s do not have those. So you see it right off the bat.
598. They have the flush door handles, they're auto retracting, and hands-free smart power lift gate, which is very nice.
599. So you get a lot of nice amenities for the way you're paying.
600. There are two different battery packs, 63 kilowatt hours and 84 kilowatt hours.
601. The smaller one is estimated, I think the EPA estimates, will provide 245 miles of range.
602. right 84 kilowatt hour pack the larger one is estimated to provide 318 miles of range
603. with the single motor motor rear wheel drive powertrain and between 259 and 290 miles of range
604. with the dual motor version so that's not we're not talking lucid air here it's over 500 miles
605. range but i think that's more than enough for almost anybody particularly owners of one of
606. these. Now, if you did get the XRT trim level, and I've gotten to drive a few of the Hyundais with
607. XRT trim and they pretty competent You know they have I believe they have all tires and like you said Michelle a little bit more lift on it so you can get over some slightly larger rocks
608. And so that the XRT, though, goes down just a little bit in range.
609. But if you were planning to take this out to the desert and then go four wheeling, you'd want to be sure that you charged at some station.
610. Like if you went out to Joshua Trees, there's that new Rivian charging station, for instance.
611. But that's the only drawback I can see to this.
612. And did you enjoy your time in it?
613. I really did, yes.
614. And while we're talking charging, this is one of the standard bearers for quick charging in the industry.
615. It charges within 15 minutes from 10% to 80% of its battery capacity.
616. And it is one of the fastest charging EVs available.
617. I mean, that flies into the radar.
618. I bet nobody knows that about the IONIQ 5.
619. But that's assuming you can find a charger that's actually putting out 350 kilowatts and you don't have to wait in line for it.
620. And your battery is preconditioned, which you said, Michelle, you can precondition the battery.
621. That's an interesting feature also on the IONIQ 5.
622. You can precondition this battery so you can actually get even quicker charging to 80% or higher capacity.
623. And I did actually take this to a charge point and found that on the four chargers, one of them totally did not work at all.
624. And that's such a typical experience.
625. Yeah.
626. Yeah. Well, it depends. You know, if you go to I've found that the Tesla chargers almost always work.
627. I found that the charge point we were going to talk today to the guy from Electrify America.
628. We hope to get him on later, though.
629. They are supposedly getting their act together and Electrify America and and fixing all the charges that needed to be fixed.
630. And, you know, so but the upshot is we are still in the early days of the EV world and we just don't have all the chargers we need yet.
631. Yeah. So, again, my experience was very typical for where we're at in that industry.
632. So interior wise, enjoyed the fact that it has power adjustable front seats, heated seats and lumbar.
633. Oh, so nice.
634. But why didn't they put them ventilated?
635. Hmm.
636. Maybe that draws a lot of power.
637. Yeah, it probably does.
638. It had really nice Bose audio on the RXT, which I don't think you get on the other lower trim levels.
639. And rear AC air vents and USB-C ports, again, new for 2025.
640. very nice feature in all the genesis hyundai and kia are the standard blind spot view monitor
641. in the driver's instrument cluster that's the display whenever you turn on your turn signal
642. a circle pops up in your driver's instrument cluster to show you exactly what is going on
643. in your blind spot to your left or to your right depending on what indicator you've selected
644. and it's beautiful.
645. Yes, you can still use your side view mirror,
646. but you also have a real-time information
647. coming from a camera.
648. So that's really a nice thing.
649. All right, I talked about pricing.
650. All right Yep I think that about it as far as my Hyundai Ioniq 5 xrt good so you liked it thumbs up i thought it was fabulous and it very comfortable i totally would go out and get one of these easily
651. i would say that as once you drive an electric vehicle you you don't want to go back to uh an
652. internal combustion vehicle. I would say that the average family that can afford two cars
653. should have one of them as an electric car. And then the other one, you know, if you need to drive
654. to Tuscaloosa and you don't want to stop and charge a lot, then, you know, take the gas-powered
655. car. But most of your driving, 90% of it can be accomplished in an electric vehicle.
656. And also, it did have a nice capacity in the rear hatch. It has almost 60 cubic feet of storage in
657. the back with the rear seats down uh the frunk was kind of a joke it has less than uh one cubic foot
658. groceries groceries right can you get groceries in there yeah you could probably put a couple of
659. you know a couple and then the bags don't flop over because they're all crammed in there but
660. it does have a frunk it's just very small all right okay thank you michelle i too have been
661. out driving around in a test car.
662. Mine was the Toyota Camry Nightshade.
663. Now, you're thinking, Nightshade, what the heck is that?
664. It is, according to Toyota, quote, a styling package built above the sporty SE trim featuring
665. a sinister, blacked-out aesthetic.
666. Sinister.
667. Toyota's admitting that they're making a sinister car.
668. uh it's sort of it tartar says it blends camry's hybrid efficiency with a bold look including 19
669. inch gloss black wheels black badging and midnight black metallic trim pieces now that the one that i
670. have the the main car most the car is red it does have black wheels and it does have those uh trim
671. things around it i don't know if i would look at that and say sinister i think maybe by the
672. standards of you know other a 20 year old corolla yes it's more sinister than that but uh i don't
673. know i it's it's nice that they are offering something you know like this that does does what
674. it does um but uh so it was revamped the camry revamped last year toyota went uh all in on
675. hybrids according to our friends over there car and driver they uh the camry is no longer offered
676. with anything but a hybrid powertrain.
677. And in fact, this one that I was driving has a little EV button.
678. So if you want to sneak in and out of your neighborhood late at night or early in the
679. morning, you just hit the EV button and off you go.
680. As long as you're not backing up, then of course the backup beeper awakens everybody
681. and they hate you.
682. So just keep that in mind when you're planning ahead for doing that.
683. But it also has one of the, and this is a federal requirement, really irritating seat
684. belt beeper.
685. If you go more than like five or ten seconds, I didn't time it, so I don't know exactly when, it just goes crazy and start beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
686. It's like you were at Chernobyl and you hit the wrong button.
687. It was kind of like that.
688. But these are just minor nitpicks.
689. The charger for the phone is kind of hidden away so that you can't see.
690. Like if you're looking at directions on your phone, I mean, you could pair it with the screen, which you should do if you're going to be doing that anyway.
691. but you can't see the phone while it's charging really okay it's enough of a very very minor
692. complaint overall i was quite happy with this i i don think i personally would get a nightshade trim i don i don know but like i say it nice to have that choice Well Mr Toyota did say no more boring cars about five years ago
693. David E. Davis said that when he started automobile.
694. No boring cars.
695. No more boring cars.
696. So there you go.
697. Did I tell you my Toyota story?
698. I was at the Nürburgring for 24 hours last year.
699. And I'm in the pits with my fire suit taking pictures.
700. And I look over.
701. And there he is.
702. Mr. Toyota itself.
703. I didn't know. Should I say hello?
704. I blew it.
705. I just stopped taking pictures.
706. They should take a picture of him.
707. No, I didn't.
708. But he was driving the
709. Gazoo Racing.
710. The one that we don't get here.
711. The Yaris.
712. That's what he was driving.
713. I cannot imagine driving around
714. that track at night
715. and getting passed by
716. You know, Max Verstappen in a Mercedes AMG GT.
717. But anyway, okay, I'm wandering away from this.
718. Yeah, so you're a Camry Nightshade.
719. Camry Nightshade.
720. The basics of the Camry are, this is why the Camry was the greatest selling car forever and ever.
721. It has everything.
722. It has plenty of room in the back and the trunk.
723. And like I went to Trader Joe's in this car.
724. And there's a net that you can hook up across the back of the trunk to kind of keep all the groceries.
725. You know, you hit the brakes and all your grapefruits go rolling up and you have grapefruit juice all over the trunk.
726. With this little net, you can put that in.
727. It's really quite nice, quite handy.
728. It's got a huge screen for the infotainment screen.
729. It pretty much has everything.
730. soft tex which is fake leather seat fabric and a little contrasting uh inserts of leather on that
731. so it does look nice so i i keep going back and forth between you know the nightshade and every
732. other trim level of uh of toyota but of toyota camry uh this one weighs 3585 pounds which you
733. would think that's actually kind of light for considering the size of car that you're getting
734. So they've done some good engineering there.
735. You can get an all-wheel drive model.
736. So Southern California, we don't really need that.
737. But a lot of climates, they do because winter is long and it helps.
738. The electric motor component of that, because it's a hybrid, is on the rear axle.
739. And then the front axle is driven by the internal combustion engine.
740. Now, it gets to 60 miles an hour in seven seconds.
741. So you're not going to win any drag races in this thing, unfortunately.
742. What kind of MPGs do you think you can –
743. I haven't had it long enough to, like, fill it up and come up with a figure for you there.
744. I will say that, what, it has – it's quiet on the inside, 73 decibel, which is – that's not bad.
745. for being inside.
746. You know, it's comfortable and quiet.
747. It's a very sensible car.
748. And, you know, we are always complaining that the sedan is no longer with us.
749. So anyway, we're out of time.
750. My goodness, where did the time go?
751. I was just swept up by the camera.
752. Stick around for Rhapsody in Black.
753. And we will see you next week on The Car Show.
754. Hey, cats and kittens, chicks and Charlie.