In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Electric, John Beltz Snyder. They're both jazzed after driving the off-road-ish and totally sublime Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato. John recently drove the new GMC Acadia, Greg spent some time in the Toyota Camry, and they also discuss Autoblog's long-term Subaru WRX. In the news, the Porsche 918 Cayman and Boxster are reportedly ending production, while it's officially the end of the road for the Nissan GT-R and Volvo S60. Fisker has officially filed for bankruptcy. Cadillac has shown off a couple cool Blackwing special editions in honor of Le Mans. Finally, we reach in the mailbag and help a listener pick a sporty convertible in this week's Spend My Money segment.
Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
TranscriptWelcome back to the auto blog podcast.
I'm Greg mcleary.
We have an awesome show this week.
I'm thinking Lambeau as in, we've been driving the Han Strato.
Uh with that, I'm gonna bring in senior editor for all things electric.
This is definitely not an electric car.
John Snyder.
That should be your full title.
What's up, dude?
Uh man, I'm good.
Yeah, that was, that, that Lamborghini was something else for sure.
It was my favorite uh uh wine that you've had recently was thanks for the Lambo dude.
And then you drove away because we traded cars uh this week.
So uh good times, good times.
We'll talk about that.
A couple other things that are uh it's not a strato but they're interesting things.
The new GMC Acadia completely redone for 2025 a very important vehicle for GMC and General Motors as a whole.
We also have a similar vein, the new Toyota Camry.
So uh with that, we'll also get into our long turbo, the WRX, which is a lot of fun.
And uh we have some news about certain cars that are meeting the end of the uh the road as well.
As a company, Fisker that appears to be about at the end of the road as well.
We will spend your money and this is a good one.
So that let's jump right into this Lamborghini Uan Strato.
So you're probably asking yourself.
Ok, what is this?
I think I know what it is.
Let me tell you in simple terms.
It's an off road, Lamborghini Rican, it's lifted 1.73 inches.
You still get the familiar V 10 with 602 horsepower seven speed transmission.
Um But it's like they took the canvas of the Iraan and did all this kind of crazy like mad Max sort of stuff to it.
It really does look like a post apocalyptic vehicle with like the roof rack, the wheel arches that flare out.
Um The off road lights, it was just so much going on.
Uh basically, you know, doing some research before getting into the car.
Lambe showed a concept in the mid 20 teens.
Then they just said, hey, we're gonna build it.
Boom.
Here it is.
Um And it's, it's wild as hell.
I had a great time with it.
It uh they're, they're only gonna make uh 1499 of these things.
So it's super low, uh you know, low run.
It's, I mean, my kind of like to sum it up in one sentence is, it's, it's basically just like a flex for like a Lambo owner.
Because nobody else is really gonna have one of these.
It's, it's almost like if you're, you know, the starting quarterback for, I don't know, the Lions and like half your offensive line and the punter has Ferraris and Lambeau.
Well, hey, you've got the UAN Strato, you know, because you're the quarterback.
So it's, you know, it definitely is a status thing.
Um, you know, I, one thing I thought is the off road part of it didn't make it that much easier to drive, which is something I thought would, I just drove and I can't believe I'm saying this, the Porsche 911, the car two weeks ago, that was noticeably easier to drive than a normal 911.
The view was better, you could look out and just see around you and you weren't as concerned about, you know, you know, running the sports car over the uneven pavement.
That is Michigan um, in the very similar themes, I think n of the car versus Han Strato.
Uh and I think some of it is the proportions as well.
Uh But that's, you know, kind of my mini take.
What did, uh what did you think of this thing?
Um It was interesting, like you said, I mean, it's, it's not particularly easy to drive, you're still like super low to the ground.
Um despite having that little bit of extra clearance.
Um and, you know, just there's a lot to get used to in there too.
Uh, particularly the, the, the one thing that had thrown me off was the, uh, the turn indicator, the little toggle on the steering wheel, um, that like after, you know, two days driving and I just, you know, started to get the hang of it.
But, you know, doing that.
Well, I don't know, I, I tried to keep it in manual mode most of the time just because it was really, really fun to shift and let the, uh, let the engine sting a little bit.
Um, but I will say it was, it was quite comfortable.
Um, but I was surprised that at how, um, yeah, just comfortable going down the road.
It was even over sort of crummy pavement.
Um, having the extra little bit of suspension and, and a little bit of extra sidewalks.
It was wild.
Um, W rated altering tires.
Uh, uh, you know, it's still, um, yeah, comfortable to drive around.
Uh Yeah.
Um, but yeah, take some effort.
Yeah, I, um, the things that were different to me were definitely the, the, the design stuff and the aesthetics.
Um, you know, it's still have that rawness that I felt in eons that I've driven before.
Um, you know, the steering, the steering was familiar, like in like in Uan sense, but it was different because these wide, like Bridgestone, if it, it's Dueler Dueler tires, they added a different vibe to the whole chassis setup.
Um, but yeah, I mean, in that sense, the driving was, it was just, it was definitely different and it was easier over broken roads, you know, like train tracks, you know, whatever, just normal daily driving.
It was a bit easier, not as easy as the 911 the car.
But, you know, I mean, they, they are fairly different vehicles even though there are a lot of similarities.
Um, yeah, it sounded good, man.
Let me tell you, um, you know, step on it, you know, in an open road and it just, it sounds like, you know, missiles are launching from behind your ears.
That V 10 is still the V 10.
Yeah, can't see out of it because there's that cover going over the bank.
I can't see anything, man.
You can't see a thing out of this thing.
But yeah, and it's, it was bright orange.
Uh, my son very aptly described it as a tiger car, uh, because we had there's several different liveries you could get.
I mean, my guess is if you're buying this Lambo, we'll do whatever you want frankly.
But there's some like sort of options to choose from.
We had the orange one with 63 on the front hood.
Um It looked cool as hell orange.
Um, it had the roof rack.
Uh I had the different lights on, I did a brief uh sort of sunset photo shoot, uh which was cool every week.
This is the best time of year for like test driving cars every week.
We've had something come through the fleet.
That's been pretty cool.
And I feel like Wednesdays and Thursdays.
I've just been driving until sunset.
So it's a nice hobby to have.
Um, yeah, this was a, a nice car.
You just want to take it out and, and cruise.
Um, you know, and it's like, not just, you know, your curvy back roads, it was fun to get on the highway with this thing.
It just, you know, fire it down there.
Yeah, down the straight away.
Um, yeah, great, great vehicle.
Um, in, in many, many ways.
I, I, like I said, I really like using those, those pedal shifters.
I, I like column mounted paddle shifters, especially when they're, you know, nice and big and you could sort of grab them from, from anywhere.
Um, the, all the little toggles and switches were neat.
Uh, I really liked having to flip up the little cover for the, for the initial that, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, it's just so many little quirks and details in this car.
Um, and yeah, just everything about it sort of looks different.
Feels different, works different.
Um, you know, from getting into gear to using the, the little infotainment screen that is there.
Um, but yeah, my, my kid was also, um, going nuts over this as we're pretty much everyone, you know, you're out.
Yeah.
Yeah, you'd see truckers, you know, just their, their face in the side view mirror, just checking you out the whole time you're coming up on them.
Uh Yeah, you get a lot of attention, you park at a where, you know, you get people coming up to you and, and you know, cracking jokes and, and asking about different things and yeah, super neat.
Car.
It um yeah, flipping up the cover to turn the car on.
That's just so cool when you have to do that.
That is, that is a pretty neat, uh, element.
I, um, yeah, I mean, the way I kind of, you know, to sum it up, the driving is better and also worse than you might imagine.
Uh, just to, to like visibility.
Uh, I, I really, again, like the design, uh, and I've been lucky to drive a few Lambos as I kind of look back.
I drove a regular Uan back in 16 at, uh, out at Willow Springs, which is for sale.
If you have $2.3 million I believe that's, uh, the track is for sale, not the car, uh, very memorable and the car was very, um, very drivable.
You know, you would think you'd be very intimidated but, um, it just, it was very drivable on that track.
It was a closed course.
So, I mean, all I had to do is basically keep it on the road.
You know, it's not like there was any competition elements.
Uh, but I also drove a mclaren 675 long tail uh that during that same track session.
So it was cool and I drove a, a Kash back in around that same time.
It was a street drive.
It was a 19, I wanna say 90 K so that was pretty wild.
Uh pretty 89.
It looks like as I'm checking my notes here, uh I'd remember buying, buying that poster at the book fair.
That's cool.
Oh my God.
So I mean, I would rank this.
It's up there.
I still gotta probably go with as far as memories, you know, I think it's, it's a little unfair to say this because like this was street drive, it was a brief street drive.
Uh Whereas how do you rank that ahead of a track drive?
Willow, right.
Um or one of the most iconic cars that we all grew up liking.
So I mean, maybe it's third out of the three Lambos I drove but still better than like 99.9% of everything else I've ever driven from an experience standpoint.
Um Yeah, it's, it's definitely memorable and it makes me want to get in the, this is another low run car but the new Kunta uh just to see how that um I mean, you know, seriousness to see how it kind of holds up and carries that sort of Lamborghini standard.
So it was cool man.
Yeah, I will say like after I got out of the car um after I drove it from your house to my house, I got out and I felt sort of odd.
I, you know, my, like, my skin was vibrating, you know, um, and, and there's only been one other car that sort of given me that, that weird sort of buzzing sensation.
And that was the, um, the Ferrari 458 Italia.
You know, you take that out on the road for, for a while and just sort of meld man and machine for a bit and get out and, and you just feel different after word and, yeah, definitely had that experience with this and it's, um, that's something that happens, uh, often if, if ever it was definitely more intense than the Maserati MC 20 that I drove last fall, uh, in many ways.
Um, but I, I, it was a little more forgiving than the Maserati too.
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
Yeah, I, I felt, uh, sort of a lot more comfortable, um, you know, uh, adding power new corners and things like that.
Um, I mean, the, this all wheel drive system on this is, is pretty good.
Yeah, so that's a really good point too.
It really sorted everything out, you know, very smoothly and if there was ever a car where you think they might maybe either get too cute or not think it through it would be this thing.
But no, it was very compliant.
Very agreeable.
Mhm.
So, yeah, gonna, gonna miss it, gonna miss it, gonna miss it.
We are gonna have a, uh thoughts piece.
I think we're gonna, we have a podcast.
You're listening to it and then we're looking to have a road test coming up uh, later on in the summer.
So check all that out.
Uh It's, it's pretty cool.
So, uh there's really no way to transition over the Toyota Camry.
But uh, hey, everything we drive is in the supercar and they're all important in their own way.
I drove the new XSE trim.
Uh This is the 2025 model, uh that all wheel drive.
It's basically the top of the line, uh Camry for the new model year.
Uh I think it's very much worth it.
The car I drove cost a little over 45 grand, which is right about the average new car cost in the United States.
And when you think about it, it's a hybrid that gets uh 44 combined uh MPG.
That's spectacular.
So, roomy interior.
This one had the red leather.
Um, the trunk is huge too.
I had uh camping chairs, golf clubs and baseball equipment in there all at once.
You're finally wrapping up like the spring sports season for my son.
So I'm not like a rolling like sporting goods store um with all these press cars.
Uh, but when I drove this car, it made me think if you need some space, you know, whatever your family situation is you should not overlook the Camry.
Like, don't just run and go get the latest crossover.
Don't just be like, oh, I'll go get the rev for whatever.
Look at the Camry.
Um, it, there's a little bit just because you're driving a car, a sedan, there is that degree of, I hate to say sportiness, but just because there's so few sedans it's almost by default.
This is sporty.
Um, but a very nice, well equipped roomy car.
Yeah.
And especially, you know, with those, those, uh, X, you know, appended trims, um, those are, are a little bit sportier than the rest of the lineup.
So you might be on to something there.
Um, but yeah, I haven't driven it yet.
I was supposed to do like a, a winter drive in it, um, this past winter but then they canceled it because we didn't have any snow.
All right.
Yeah.
Uh, kind of a bummer of a winter.
But, um, but yeah, I mean, it's sort of a, a do everything sedan, especially, you know, as a hybrid with, uh, you know, that's the phenomenal fuel economy.
Um, you can drive it, uh, have a little bit of fun with it, you know, it's not slightly boring and then, yeah, like you said, you know, room for people and all the things that come along with people, especially when you've got kids.
Yeah, I, I would agree with that.
I think, um, you know, the XSE trim I think is definitely the most attractive trim.
I mean, design is subjective, but this one gives you uh you know, a little more of the design elements, special 19 inch wheels as opposed to some of the like the base ones that really give it a sleek kind of look.
Uh and you get a lot of stuff too.
Uh There's a premium package which is about four grand and that will give you the nine speaker JB L audio.
You get some more safety features like a panoramic camera and moon roof.
I like those.
Um Yeah, it's interesting.
I wrote in my notes that I'd probably scratch those to get it to more like 41 grand.
I don't know, I, I really kind of like panoramic cameras, the more I use them and the moon roof is really nice in the sedan.
So I don't know, maybe I'll go ahead and edit through my story here.
Um But point being is you can get it much cheaper even in the XSE trim if you just kind of a little more ruthless with the options uh in the refresh for 2025 is it's all hybrid.
So there's that they got rid of the V six and the TRD trim which uh Rizik wrote this in one of his, either his first driver is buying guide like we all like those, but it's hard to really say how many other people did my guess.
Is, it wasn't like, it's not like a manual transmission as far as options, but it's a little more niche than some of this other stuff, especially when you're a Camry.
Um, but, and also the other part too is the design aesthetics.
It's not a crazy makeover, but it looks a bit like the Prius now, which is the new sort of family design and I like that a lot.
Toyotas are attractive now.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
The, the little bit of makeovers they've been doing have all been going in the, in the right direction, um, across the line up, basically.
Yeah.
Um, and also I would say I've, the last couple Camry I've driven, I had the red, uh, interior with, again a lot of leather in it.
It's a nice interior.
I would, you know, the color won't be for everybody.
But I would say if you're looking at a Camry, at least look at this option because it's, it's nicely done.
I didn't love the infotainment Toyota Infotainment.
Uh, the last few years have, they're not the worst.
They're definitely not the best though.
I think they're a little hard to use.
Hard to figure out.
Um, I would need more time to figure out if I truly dislike this one or it's just a little harder to pick up.
But I, I didn't love that either.
So, but that's a camera.
Um, I guess now that we've gone from Lambeau to Camry, we'll go to Acadia, what uh what, what was the New Arcadia like?
Um It was, you know, it's much more like the Traverse now.
It's, it's a little bigger.
Um But uh yeah, we talked about the Traverse uh a few episodes ago and um you know, had the, you know, through the off road trim and the, and the street trim, um you know, Arcadia is doing the same thing.
It's got the 84 and the Denali um uh but they only have uh one of the base trim is the, the elevation trim.
So, so it doesn't go down quite as far as the uh Traverse does.
But um in many ways, very, very similar cars, you know, same platform um using the same suspension, um you know, getting from one to the other.
It was super familiar, especially now that they're very comparable in size, except for the interior design in the Acadia is much superior.
It's, it's really, really nice interior um in both the 84 and the Denali, um the generally had more, you know, power this, you know, sort of thing.
Um uh But even the, the 84 which is considerably less money, um still had a really nice interior.
Um And uh fairly roomy I could sit uh almost comfortably if I put you, I'm, I'm 6 ft.
So uh put the driving the driver seat in the perfect position, put the second row seat in the a nice comfortable position.
Behind that and then my got in the third row behind that, my knees were just touching.
I could ask the, you know, the me in, in the front two rows to sort of adjust a little bit.
Um, they'd still be comfortable and, and then the, the person in the third row would be comfortable too for kids.
It'd be, it'd be fine.
Uh, either way and there's plenty of head room.
Um, the Acadia only comes with captain's chairs, there's no bench uh for that.
But um, just like with the diverse, the, the off road version was my favorite.
Um, the 84 the 80 Acadia, 84 it was really fun, um And really good on the road super comfortable.
Um And then, yeah, we actually uh and bombed down some dirt trails and, and through sand, loose sands and, uh you know, put an off road mode for that allows for a little more wheel slippage and you could actually um accelerate through the sand.
Whereas if you put it back into normal mode, the traction control would just so sort of slow you down thinking it was, you know, just completely losing traction.
Um And then we actually GMC brought out uh a some sort of earth moving device and dug up these sort of trenches, ruts so we could get the wheels off the ground, um which is uh you know, more than pretty much anyone will do in their k but um it did it just fine, um, really good, uh, sort of torque vectoring all wheel drive in the 84 and then, um, just a fabulous suspension, really good suspension, um, in the 84 and the, the Denali, if you get it with a 20 inch wheels, um, I'm sorry, the 22 inch wheels, you get the, uh, you get a version of that suspension as well tuned differently but, you know, the, the higher, uh, sort of frequency based suspension, um, but it's just, it's a really good suspension.
You, uh, don't get a lot of body motion.
You don't feel, um, the harshness from, from the roads and, uh, yeah, it just adapts really well.
You can hit rut going at speed and the car doesn't get upset at all.
Um, but yeah, very, very nice.
The interior design is beautiful.
The exterior design is, is really nice too, you know, it's a little more truck ish than before.
Uh, taller grill.
Um, in the back.
It's got the quad exhaust tips that are sort of squared off what they said.
They were inspired by the, the C eight Corvette, which I can see that, um, the, uh, cargo space is huge.
Um, it's absolutely enormous.
Uh, like II, I think probably best in, best in the segment for, for, yeah, for behind the third row.
Um, and, uh, yeah, you could put a lot of people in it, um, and a lot of their stuff and everyone would be, be comfortable.
And uh with the Acadia over the Traverse, you, you've got a, just a nicer interior, um a little more uh thoughtful design, little less, uh you know, hard plastics um that you're touching.
Uh It's a few grand more if you're comparing, you know, trims, uh apples to apples.
Uh but it, you'd have to decide how much, you know, the, the extra plastics and stuff in the Traverse would, would bum you out.
But um yeah, it definitely feels more premium in the Acadia kind of going reading your story and going on.
You know what you're saying?
It feels like the Acadia is finally sort of uh achieving its potential.
I'll be interested to see if maybe sales go up and if GMC can, you know, maybe steal a little bit, a little bit of market share with this vehicle.
Um You know, full disclosure, my wife drives a 17 Acadia and it was an interesting model for the time because it was kind of a tweener.
They made it a little bit shorter than the Traverse, which was enormous of that generation.
And now I think that's kind of uh a little bit, it was, I think a little bit smaller than the uh the Buick uh blanket on the buick, but the Buick three row crossover and now it's like when you're buying this vehicle, you don't want something that's a little bit like a land rover, you know, range rover sport, you want a ton of space, you know.
So I think it makes sense to make it larger uh the interior in the old Traverse.
And then, like, you know, our Arcadia was always kind of, it was good for 2017, but it's not great for now.
It definitely felt like the tail end of the two thousands interiors.
Just it was a little bit nicer.
You could even see it with the refresh, which uh you know, I think I actually, I forget if this was a press loan or just like a loaner from the dealer getting the oil changed, you could see the upgrades with the infotainment and better materials right away.
So I I'm interested to get inside this one.
I mean, it's uh you know, I think they, by giving it that kind of sierra look.
Uh we've already seen that on the terrain.
It looks truly more premium and I'm also kind of interested that the off road element in the past, it really wasn't something that was ever very capable.
This sounds like there is not that most, you know Acadia owners would use this, but it sounds like there's a little bit of performance sort of what we're seeing from off road performance, like what you're seeing from like Hyundai and Kia with their off-road trims.
Yeah, you don't get a lot of, of ground clearance.
I, I think the uh 84 gives you an extra uh 1.2 inches, um, which, you know, it's already, isn't a ton of ground clearance but, um, you get those all three tires, um, that don't really affect the drivability on the street.
Um, still quiet, still comfortable, um, still stable.
Um, but yeah, it's just, you know, between that and the, the suspension, uh, and the all wheel drive, it's just, it feels like you're not gonna get stuck anywhere and, and, and if you do, you know, come across a, a fallen branch or something, you're, you're not gonna have a problem getting over it.
Yeah, that's that sort of thing.
There's, um, recovery hook uh, in case you get stuck.
Um, and you know, it just, it looks cool, it looks super cool.
It's got the marker lights on the, on the wheel arches and uh, yeah, the, the big, the big wheels do a lot to, uh, I mean, the big tires do a lot to, to give it some presents.
Um, but then, yeah, you get inside and it's pretty luxurious.
You've got really great tech.
You've got a huge uh infotainment screen, uh, running Google built in, you've got a digital driver display and it's a digital instrument panel and you could take your Google Maps from your infotainment screen and send it right in front of you um, in the drivers display.
So you, you know, got your directions right in front of you.
Um, and then you can have something else going on in the infotainment screen.
You don't have to keep looking over there and switching back and forth between menus, which is nice when you're driving on a first drive in, in a, in an unfamiliar place.
Um, and then, yeah, super cruises is optional across the, the entire lineup too and Super cruise just keeps getting better.
Yeah, I drove it.
I have the suburban that you dropped off when we traded the Lambeau.
I haven't super cruised in it yet, but I intend to and I did Super Cruise and the new equinox ev, um, and the new Silverado ev, uh, about three weeks ago and was very impressed.
They just keep getting it better and better evolving it, making it more, um, you know, smarter and without overs selling it too.
Yeah.
And, and, and they're adding many, many, many miles of roads.
I think they're close to 750,000 miles of highways in the, in the US and Canada now, um, that it works on and a lot of those are, you know, two lane highways and stuff now and highways, you know, that aren't, that aren't controlled.
Uh, yeah, they, they've got intersections and stuff and it will make you take over when you're approaching a busier intersection or something like that.
Um, but it, it gives you a little nudge through the seat, the, uh, sort of haptic, um, vibration in the seat.
That is sort of a nice way.
To a really nice way.
In fact, to, to get a driver's attention better than beeps or flashing lights, in my opinion, doesn't freak out the passengers.
Um, and, uh, it's, you can't miss it.
So, yeah, Super Cruise, I dig it.
All right.
Well, the opposite I would say of Super Cruise is driving a stick shift.
Uh, Subaru WRX, which is in our long term garage.
You, uh, you had it recently and, um, you know, we've got some fun summer driving stuff coming up with it.
But, uh, what did you do with it for your time with the wrecks?
Well, Byron and I did that comparison between the, our long term and the, uh tr uh the, the WXTR which is actually going away.
Um But so we did that with it and that was really interesting because there's not a lot different with it.
Um There's no power difference, there's really no visual difference.
It's, it's a suspension wheels, tires basically.
Um, is, does the bulk of the, the work on the tr.
Um So we did that.
You can read about that.
I think maybe you and Byron have even talked about that on the podcast already.
And then, um, let's see, I took it up north.
Uh, I, I drove it up to my college, you know, I, I, you know, did all the regular daily driving duties along with, you know, running out and, and having fun with it just because it's I just absolutely in love with it.
Um, but yeah, I took it, uh, took it up north.
Um, you know, it, this one doesn't have eyesight, so no adaptive cruise control, uh, didn't miss it as much as I thought I would.
And then, um, yeah, the rolling at, you know, the, the speed limit up in northern Michigan is, is 75.
So, you know, you can guess how fast I was going.
Um, but, you know, and it was on, that was the only time where I was, like, I wish maybe there was one more gear or that was geared a little bit differently because those revs just sort of sit, they are pretty high up in the rev band and, and just sort of groans and I feel like, you know, if, if I could just, there was one more year, it'd be a little bit quieter.
I'd be getting better fuel economy.
Uh, I'd be a little less tired, uh, at the end of the drive.
But, um, other than that, the pretty good road trip car, I was, uh, uh, it, it brought me back, um, when I, when I had my 04 WRX, I took it on a cross country, a couple cross country road trips and it, you know, it doesn't, first watch doesn't seem like the, the ideal road trip car, but it'll handle, you know, pretty much any road that you're likely to come across on, on a journey like that.
Um, whether it's dirt roads or, or, you know, you get rain or, or snow or whatever.
Um, it just gets better then.
But, uh, but yeah, I was able to fit a ton of stuff in it.
Um, a lot of room in the, in the trunk.
Uh, I, you know, bring a bunch of stuff up to the cottage so, um, packed it, packed a bunch of stuff in there and had room left over.
And, uh, yeah, I just, I really, really like this WRX.
Just, it's so good to drive.
It's so playful.
Um, so, you know, it's just right on the border of being, um, uh, I don't wanna say it's uncomfortable but like, you know, the, the suspension is pretty stiff in this thing.
Uh, that was one thing the tr did really well.
Was it sort of provided a lot smoother drive, which was not something I expected.
Um, but yeah, I, I'm completely enamored with this generation of WRX.
Sounds good.
Yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward to getting another swing through it this year with, uh, with some summer, you know, summer tires on it and just the warm weather, you know, kind of heat up those tires have some fun, really feel.
Uh, what it's like as a sports sedan.
You know, I, I drove it in the dead of winter when it was a, uh, it was a winter beater is what it was and it was great at that.
You know, it's fun driving a stick shift car with those, that winter, those winter tires through the snow.
It was really performed like a champ.
But, you know, I, I'm ready for the other side of the coin, so I'm looking forward for that, uh, this summer.
So you're gonna have fun.
All right, let's talk some news.
Uh, it is in the last, probably week or so.
We have heard it is the end of the road for the Nissan GTR, uh, the end of the line for the Volvo S 60.
And it appears to be the end of the line for the current 718 Boxer Caymans, which, uh, the Porsche sports car is obviously, which will, uh, then, uh, become electric is what we're hearing.
So of the three that are, you know, likely departing there, there's a bit to unpack here, um, having recently driven the 718.
Uh, that one.
Actually, I keep thinking, I, I, it sounds like there's gonna be a little bit of an overlap.
So if you still want to get like an internal combustion 718, there will be some time to do that before they phase over to the electric while I'm excited about the electric, you know, 718.
I kind of think that might be a car where I, I think there's a strong case to still having a sporting ice model, uh, for those who just want that summer top down uh experience and that kind of sound, that visceral feel.
Um, you know, to me it's not in no way, any sort of commentary on the viability of electric cars.
I just look at this as like it's a sports car and I think I, having recently driven the 718, they've been very taken with it.
Uh, you can check out I had a column that I put up, uh towards the end of it was like June 1st or something.
It was like my summer kickoff column.
It's just, I think there's a time and a place for things like that.
And I think that's, you know, again, that's, that's one that kind of hits the most for me.
Yeah, it's not something, you know, especially in the snow belt.
It's not something you're gonna drive all year round.
So, um, you know, it's, you're not gonna, generally not gonna daily drive it.
Um, so the, you know, the, the gas, the emissions thing is, is a little more of a moot point.
The, the, those cars aren't the biggest offenders.
Um, and, uh, the thing that worries about me worries me about, uh, how it is, you know, how much is it gonna cost and is going electric and put it out of, you know, price it out of, of people's reach, um, for, for people who would, you know, what a fun, affordable Porsche.
Um, but yeah, that, that concerns me, but I, I do think also, you know, the Boxer is, is a, is a cool fun fit for the car too.
Uh, so yeah, I kind of agree with you there.
Uh II I don't mind uh, the internal combustion thing in it and it does seem like, um, it should probably be the lowest on the priority list for Porsche.
Now you can check out the spy shots.
We have 7718 Boxer ev, um, which shows a pretty good looking car.
I'm sure it's gonna be great to drive.
It's gonna be awesome.
Yeah, it's if you like um you know, like the Makan or something, the Makan ev uh you like that sort of mission.
E I believe that's their like design language.
It's gonna look great and it's gonna drive like crazy like bonkers.
So I mean, you know, and again, this all comes from a leaked dealer document.
So, uh you know, more on this to come, it sounds like the platform is flexible.
So if they did decide to keep an ice option, they probably could.
So we'll see on that front.
Um But less likely to be around at all uh as reported as the GTR is done.
Uh This is not shocking in any way.
Uh It's actually been a minute since I've driven the GTR.
Uh you know, Godzilla is always a lot of work uh to drive when you talk about cars that um you know, really kind of beat you up.
I drove one and uh 14.
Uh it was, I think this might sound crazy.
It may have been the first press car I drove at auto blog.
Uh lets see.
Yeah.
So it's been longer than that for me.
Yeah, it was back in my winding road days when I, yeah, at least one of my more recent times it was with the current publication.
But uh we did have one in 17 or 18 somewhere in that late teens.
I think we all got through it or some of us did.
Um But I mean, at the, at this point in its current form, it's definitely a dinosaur.
Um So uh you know, we'll see what they do next.
Maybe they decide to bring it back, use the name for an electric sports car.
That could be cool, obviously.
Um Yeah, I don't see Nissan abandoning that nameplate.
I mean, it's very strong and proud part of their heritage.
Um Yeah, if you go to like their II, I got, I was lucky enough to go to their Zama collection in Japan and see a lot of their old cars and, and yeah, super, super proud of, of the GTR uh moniker and yeah, I don't, I don't see them abandoning that uh entirely at, at any point ever, man.
I remember 17 years is a long time though, for a current, the current run.
Oh yeah, I mean, you know, the, if you've got a, a good iconic car that's sort of rare, you know, low volume, uh, you can kind of get away with that, you know, it's, it's got its own sort of lore and story to it and, um, yeah, it's, it's been around for a while.
I mean, they, how long did they keep the last generation Z around?
Yeah, that's true too.
That is, um, that car aged and aged and aged and, uh, they, um, you know, even though the all new, new one still maintained some elements, I forget how they sliced it up of the old one to basically, to allow them to do it because for companies to do things like the Z uh or the Z, you know, like the BMW Z four on the supra, you many companies have to team up.
It's very tough to do it alone in these things.
Like somebody does the chassis and the engine and somebody else, they each design it their own way or somebody does the chassis, somebody else does the engine.
Um, so Nissan kind of, I think a little bit ham and egg this current one.
And then they, you know, they did what they had to do it from a styling perspective and they improve the dynamics.
So it's, um, you know, it's something that's much more contemporary.
So, uh yeah, uh the, the S 60 gone too.
We had a long term, uh S 60.
Uh it Auto Week, we had a long term S one here at auto blog, uh S 60 here at Auto blog.
So it's always a very uh premium sedan.
Uh But I think the way Volvo is trying to align their, their lineup, the S 60 for now doesn't fit in its current form.
So they, they had to move on from it.
Yeah, a little sad but I mean, not totally surprising but um but I'll miss that.
That was, I mean, we, I had fun in our long term, the, the, the, the, uh, plug in hybrid system.
That was the interesting plug in hybrid system.
Um, but yeah, I mean, they're, they're bringing, you know, brand new electric stuff that, uh, you know, they're gonna find slots for all these, you know, current customers in that lineup.
Um, yeah, it'll be interesting, um, to see when, when the ex 90 the ex 30 are we all here, um, where, where the XS 60 owners sort of shake out in terms of that.
Yeah.
Uh, so speaking of end of line for cars, I Fisker went bankrupt on Monday to no one's surprise.
They've been warning, uh, the industry about this since like February.
Uh, you know, it's, it's sort of just like the sequel to the first Fisker, you know, their products looked interesting.
Henrik Fisker talked a great game.
Uh, but the end of the day they just ran out of money, uh, you know, you look at their, the filing, uh, you know, the car business, you need hundreds of millions, if not billions.
And they just, their assets were listed.
Here we go.
The assets filed in the paperwork in Delaware Court were between 500 million to 1 billion and their liabilities were actually less than that, but it certainly wasn't enough to keep any sort of a positive, you know, money churn the cash flow going in the direction that consistently needed to go.
They had some weird recalls, stuff like that.
Uh They put some of their cars, they did like a fire sale for a while.
Uh, it did remind me a lot of the first Fisker where they had like, uh, I believe there are a bunch of their cars got destroyed and like a hurricane and then they had some highly publicized fires and they just literally ran into, I mean, literally a hurricane and figuratively a hurricane and that's happened to them twice.
It seems like, um, you know, it's, I, I'm not surprised by this at all.
They joined Endurance, Lordstown Endurance in the, the current scrap heap of EV makers.
And, you know, I mean, it's, it's so hard when you don't have, uh, you know, a whole other lineup of cars that can sort of support you while you get, you know, your, your new EV off the ground.
And, uh, yeah, it just, it, it costs a lot.
It's risky.
Uh, I was hoping Fisker would do it, but, yeah, ran, ran problems, um software problems, you know, lots of uh different things.
So, uh so I'll be interested to see, you know, if anyone ends up with their assets again, that's true to, you know, uh kept going.
Um uh I don't know if anyone, the ocean might not be as sort of iconic enough on a, on a vehicle for, for everyone to sort of doing a continuation of that.
But I give him credit and that they went for a more mainstream vehicle.
Like the Ocean is a crossover that a lot of people could probably get into versus the karma, which was uh basically a luxury sedan that was, you know, competing against the model s at the time, you know.
Yeah, so I mean, it's, yeah, that's a situation too where I, I don't really think anybody needs to swoop in and try and get the ocean.
Whereas, you know, lots of companies actually literally did their own spin of a karma including Bob Lutz, you know, uh if you put a V eight and one and sold it as something.
Um So, you know, we'll see they did have a fairly interesting like potential line up of vehicles, but they never got them out and then the Ocean received some pretty bad reviews too.
Yeah, I mean, it's tough when, you know, money is the biggest thing and when you start with, when you start off with the affordable car, you know, it seems like the successful start ups, um, launch with their, you know, crazy halo car.
Um, you know, find some deep pockets and, uh, you know, make, make some money with that, build their reputation up with that.
And then from there work their way down, um, the line up to the more affordable ones.
But, uh, yeah, it, it was, I was hoping they could, you know, sort of upend it and, and start with the affordable one and, and work their way up.
Um, because, I mean, we need more affordable evs but wasn't in the cards this time.
It reminds me a lot of the early 20th century when a lot of these, uh, sort of car barons would, you know, like the Dodge brothers or, you know, people would go off, start their own company with Dodge worked out.
That's a bad example.
But like other, you know, guys of that time they'd start off, they'd have a car company, they build one car and then they'd run out of money, uh, and then they go back and work for General Motors or somebody or they'd get bought up by General Motors.
You know, that's kind of how GM came to be as they collected all these other car companies and brands.
Um, but yeah, I mean, we're at this kind of like reset of the car business, you know, we're trying to figure out, you know, what, you know, what will be driving these cars that we're all driving, you know, what will be the mix of evs, what will be hybrids, what will be still gasoline, diesel, et cetera.
And companies, they're having a tough time without enough collateral to make these, you know, these risky plays work.
You know, you just, they don't have enough time and money.
Many of them makes what Rivian has done all the more oppressive.
Yeah.
And, and, and Tesla.
Yeah.
Bog Tesla.
Uh, yeah.
II, I think, um, but yeah, again, those, they, they started with more expensive vehicles and work the way down.
But, I mean, that's what sort of Fisker Fisker did the old way the first time around and it didn't work.
So, I don't know.
Yeah.
Do you remember that Tesla did actually sue Fisker, um, 15 years ago, ish, 16 years ago, uh, saying that they, they basically stole trade secrets.
Um, yeah, it was crazy.
Yeah, it was, um, a little bit of a legal wrangle that didn't end up going anywhere.
I remember covering it at the time, but there is a lot of trade secret warfare going on with Tesla over the years.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, and we'll see what's next for Henrik Fisker.
He's certainly, uh, you know, this is his second car company that's gone under but he's also one of the better designers of the, you know, nineties and two thousands.
You know, Aston Martin BMW Mercedes.
So, yeah, I was really looking forward to some of the, the designs he had drawn up that Fisker Alaska in particular looked really cool.
I would love to have seen that.
Uh All right, I will close up the new section with.
Did you just happen to see the Lamar special edition uh Cadillac CT, uh CT five V black wings.
Uh pretty cool.
Uh Let's see, check it out.
They are, uh they're on pictures around the site, stories on the site just kind of celebrates Cadillacs uh racing heritage and they have the cars uh drawing on some of the history going all the way back to different prototypes and one of uh one of the older Cadillac racers from the early fifties, which is one of my uh sort of favorite generation of Cadillacs.
Um Yeah, check out those pictures.
They're pretty good.
Cadillac Lemon, the lemon.
There you go.
There you go.
Cadillac series 61.
It's a deeper cut, but it was the one of the first Cadillacs to go to Lamar in 50 in 1950 itself.
Uh Briggs Cunningham uh set this up.
So, uh pretty cool.
I like these kind of deep cuts.
Uh It's almost like, you know, it's summer.
Uh it's the summer solstice actually, but football is not too far away and I like it when teams roll out these like old throwback jerseys and uniforms and that's kind of how I look at this stuff.
So.
All right, let's spend some money.
Uh Hello.
I'm the late fifties.
Empty nester.
I have a daily, daily driver is a 2018 Ford F 150 which we tow our camper with and carry bikes and kayaks.
And it's a great time of year for that.
Uh, but I'm looking for a fun sporty youth car in the 15 to $20,000 range.
That has to be a manual and, uh, it either has to be a convertible or he needs a sunroof, sunroof.
Um, want the, he wants the sun to shine.
So there we go.
Uh, live in Iowa.
So the winter is a thing for sure.
Uh, but I really would like to daily this car.
So fair enough.
All right.
Um, I'm thinking Miata Ford Mustang, Ecoboost.
Uh, his wife has a Mack E so wouldn't mind another Mustang.
I can see some, some threads with that, uh, or his impractical but fun choice in early two thousands.
Porsche Boxster.
The maintenance scares me though.
I know I'm probably forgetting some awesome choices that have Emanuel and are in some way open air.
Uh, looking forward to hearing from you and I love your podcast.
Hey, thank you for writing.
Uh, so I'm gonna just tee this up right away.
This is not the most responsible answer.
I'm gonna go with the early two thousands boxer though.
I have really been liking that car specifically this summer.
Uh, one of my neighbors has a red one.
I think it captures that early 2000 styling.
I think they're still relatively affordable.
If you step up just even to the, uh, the next generation of Boxers and Caymans, the price does go up exponentially.
Uh, so, I mean, I think these are still a fairly good deal whereas the other ones still are, they're in that kind of tweener of, not quite old enough to be discounted, but not, but still kind of new enough to be contemporary.
So if you go all the way back and get the OG, I think you still could get a decent deal.
Uh, it's something I feel like I kind of wanna do before the price goes up.
Uh, and also I think just the, um, just the look and vibe of these things, their interiors hold up pretty well, just whenever I see when I make it my business to kind of look inside, uh, if you look at Haggerty, they have a nice price evaluation tool and you can kind of see what, um, you know, where the current values actually stand.
But in my opinion, the first generation, um, which the code name is 986 is still actually a little bit of better value than the 987 which followed it.
So that's what I would do.
That is purely based on the fact that I really like Boxers and Caymans right now.
I think thinking a little more practically, you know, a Mustang Ecoboost would be fine with the maki as well.
Although, uh, you know, you're gonna need some snow tires for that in an Iowa winter.
I think you also, I mean, I will say this is emotional and fun as the Boxer is.
It will be your toughest, uh, winter driver.
So that's just something straight up.
You gotta figure out and I will make that my like sort of full disclosure and final thought.
So, what do you think John?
I was originally uh, going to agree with you.
Um, that's, you know, my first instinct and, you know, I, you know, probably should just go with my gut on this but, you know, give me a little more thought.
Um, mini convertible, mini Cooper convertible, uh, you know, front wheel drive.
Um, so you could get, uh, you know, a little more use out of it.
Um, especially if you get some snow tires for it.
Um, really fun.
Um, and something a little different, uh, but definitely like sporty, uh, different kind of sporty but definitely sporty.
Um, and then it's too easy not to say it.
Uh, a Wrangler, get a Wrangler.
You know, you can do the, you can get the convertible stuff, maybe not the kind of sport you were thinking of, but uh, might be able to do some of the duties of your Ford.
Um, and uh, yeah, you, you definitely soak up some sun in that and definitely use it year round just a thought.
But Yeah, the, the boxer is.
Yeah, that's where my heart would land too.
The other thing is the price for those are still reasonable enough that you could get some sort of winter drive, you know, find like an all wheel drive forward edge or something to get you through with heated seats.
You know, that's 10 years old that will help you survive.
Maybe, um, say December to late February, like the way the winters have been around here lately, you could probably drive a boxer, you know, through much of it.
Uh, Iowa strikes me as, even though we're farther north here in Michigan and we're surrounded by Great Lakes in Canada.
It, Iowa strikes me as having a harsher winter just because of like the winds coming off.
Maybe the flatlands.
I don't, I'm totally making that up, but it strikes me as one where like, maybe the water even helps us to have a less harsh winter these days.
I don't know.
But I, I would definitely consider that because as much as I would love to go out and drive a boxer right now in late November when it's sleeting and, you know, who knows?
That would give me a little bit of pause.
So, yeah.
All right.
Um, let's see.
Any summer things you wanna highlight John and your lifestyle things I will do this.
Uh I had instead of going with what I've been drinking lately.
Well, what I've been drinking lately is a late harvest Riesling with black from Black Star Farms.
It's a winery up north in Michigan and this week I made a huge batch of pesto pasta, which we've been eating a couple days a week.
So that's sort of my like final thoughts, life thing.
Uh You could look up recipes like New York Times Cooking App has a great one.
You can find it Google it or in this case, I totally like went the easy way out.
We use some Pesto from a jar from Costco and just some curly noodles.
And we have been growing basil this year.
So I kind of ripped those up and threw that on top of some cheese, like I said, a glass of white wine.
Nice summer, nice summer eating for the solstice.
So I will throw it over to you, educate our readers in something huge Pesto fan.
Um You know, and like, yeah, you can get a basil plant at Trader Joe's for like three bucks, four bucks and it, and they're huge.
I've got one right now and I use, I use that all the time.
We've been making our own pizza.
Yeah, it's good for that.
Um uh we finally found a recipe that we like and we've been totally perfecting it, uh perfecting the dough.
Um So that's fun, you know, letting it rise and waiting and proofing and all that stuff.
But yeah, we, we had Pesto uh this past week as well.
Um uh really delicious also right now is a good time for um, again going the pasta route.
Uh anything with like fresh tomatoes, uh and uh asparagus, you can still do asparagus.
Right now.
We actually had uh a pasta with tomatoes and asparagus, sauteed the tomatoes and asparagus together and tossed it all um with like rigatoni.
Um It was really good, really good, nice and, and sort of refreshing.
Um not to eat the recipe called for, for more butter than we put in.
So we, we held off a little bit otherwise it would have been a little too rich for, for this heat.
But like, man, I wanna, I wanna make like a uh was it aglio?
Yeah, that's a good one.
I, that super simple.
34 ingredients.
That's a good one to make this time of year too when you something that's uh that hits, but it's not too, you know, too heavy for these stifling summer nights.
So, and, and back to the pesto thing.
Uh I really, we make up a pesto pasta usually with a, a far fly and we'll take grape at the end, very end.
We'll take, you know, grape tomatoes have and um some uh arugula leaves and just for a toss at the end.
Um, so they're fresh, they, they sort of wilt just a little bit, give up just a little bit of their and their moisture and um blend really well and taste really good with that.
That pesto.
All right.
Well, consider adding some pesto pasta to your summer, uh, meal planning.
If you enjoy the show, please give us five stars on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get the podcasts, send us your, spend my money.
So we'd love to spend some more money on Boxers and Caymans.
If that's what you're looking for, uh, be safe out there, enjoy summer and we'll see you next week.
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