Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is
Speaker 1: hot pursuit.
Speaker 2: You ever get a really good car and you don't
Speaker 2: have a ton of good things to Actually, you drove
Speaker 2: the Bentley Continental GT.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 2: I spent last week with it and not in love.
Speaker 1: What you are you saying? It's a really good car,
Speaker 1: but you didn't love it?
Speaker 2: I mean it's very expensive, and you know, it has
Speaker 2: a ton of power, and it has a V eight
Speaker 2: and I like that it has the hybrid system.
Speaker 1: But what didn't you love? I saw your Instagram posts
Speaker 1: about the Matt paint.
Speaker 2: I know that's a horrible choice.
Speaker 1: Questionable choice. Yeah, I've actually not seen that on a
Speaker 1: press car. Yeah, that's a that's a bold move.
Speaker 2: I just thought, for one thing, it's a four hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars car, right, Yeah, and the power train setup
Speaker 2: was a turbo V eight, as you know, with a
Speaker 2: hybrid system. I think that's fantastic. It's almost eight hundred
Speaker 2: horse power, not quite I think seven to seventy one,
Speaker 2: which is wild. And Lamborghinis, Yeah, I know, but guess what.
Speaker 2: The week before that, I was driving a Mercedes AMGS
Speaker 2: sixty three half price two hundred thousand dollars. It also
Speaker 2: has a turbocharged V eight hybrid system with over eight
Speaker 2: hundred horse power and over one thousand newton meters of
Speaker 2: I mean foot pound of torque.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's not a Bentley no, I mean Bentley
Speaker 1: has I think perhaps more of a posh aura about it.
Speaker 2: For Sure's you say one ndred percent true?
Speaker 1: What did you think of the new headlight design and
Speaker 1: the new front grill.
Speaker 2: I think it looks gorgeous. It's way better looking than
Speaker 2: the than the Murk.
Speaker 1: It's really pretty.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Like it's a two door, obviously,
Speaker 2: it feels a little cramped, like it's so plush. Yes,
Speaker 2: I feel like there's so much car, there's so much seat,
Speaker 2: and there's so much everything that there's not enough room
Speaker 2: for little old me. You know.
Speaker 1: It is one of those cars that looks pretty beefy
Speaker 1: and big on the outside, which to me it's cool,
Speaker 1: but then when you get inside it actually feels quite
Speaker 1: a bit smaller as opposed to maybe like a nine
Speaker 1: to eleven that looks pretty small comparatively, but on the
Speaker 1: inside it's like, oh, this is really spacious.
Speaker 2: Great comparison.
Speaker 1: Verse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, total opposite.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I totally get it. And obviously some of
Speaker 1: those things I think are you know, just the feeling
Speaker 1: of plushness and you're coseted and you're in you're in
Speaker 1: your cabin and everything is like really lucks. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that does take up space, doesn't it?
Speaker 2: It a lot? And doesn't leave enough space for me
Speaker 2: the driver? And I mean I feel like I drove
Speaker 2: a bunch of Continentals like around ten years ago, maybe
Speaker 2: eight and twelve, so I've been in a lot of
Speaker 2: different versions of that car, and I used to think
Speaker 2: it felt roomy inside and this definitely does not. But
Speaker 2: the Mercedes has the Mercedes AMGS sixty three as a
Speaker 2: four door.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so it's not really a fair comparison.
Speaker 2: It's not really a fair comparison, but same power train, yes,
Speaker 2: and the Merk does better. And the other thing about
Speaker 2: the Bentley is like it kept flashing these electronic warnings
Speaker 2: at me, like you're not logged in, you're not using
Speaker 2: the app, you know your Wi Fi system isn't working,
Speaker 2: or do you want it turned on or off? Or
Speaker 2: do you know why this or that? You know? And
Speaker 2: all these questions all the time, so that I could
Speaker 2: hardly understand it. I couldn't really get car play to
Speaker 2: work very well. It kept working and then not. And
Speaker 2: with the Mercedes, it was just like get in everything
Speaker 2: works perfectly.
Speaker 1: I mean, we say this all the time, but Mercedes
Speaker 1: has the best technology in the game right now. I like,
Speaker 1: we say it all the time, but we keep getting
Speaker 1: into cars that only prove that point. And I think
Speaker 1: this is the next gen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the brand new one.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Bentley has their new CEO, Frank Wallacer,
Speaker 1: and this is sort of the last car that we're
Speaker 1: going to see that he doesn't really have his hands on.
Speaker 1: And I think he's brought in for a very specific reason,
Speaker 1: which is to sort of take care of these little
Speaker 1: points that you're describing. True, because nothing you said Bentley
Speaker 1: doesn't know about their product. They know they need to
Speaker 1: tighten it up a little bit, which is why they've
Speaker 1: hired the head of Motorsports for a Porsche to come
Speaker 1: over and like tighten it, you know, make it better,
Speaker 1: make it better. It's a great car, but again, like
Speaker 1: there are a couple little things that they need to
Speaker 1: be better.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I was thinking when I was reading
Speaker 2: your story. Yeah, right. You put out a story about
Speaker 2: this like two weeks ago and Wallacer you interviewed him
Speaker 2: as well as driving the car, and I was thinking, Man,
Speaker 2: this guy is just coming in and it takes, you know,
Speaker 2: four or five years to from start to finish to
Speaker 2: build a new car. So obviously he had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with him and nothing.
Speaker 1: To do with this, and this is going to be
Speaker 1: I think one of the last ones that we really
Speaker 1: that come out that debut that I knew that he
Speaker 1: doesn't have his hand on, and I know he's already
Speaker 1: trying to do all he can to sort of ramp
Speaker 1: up the product because the big thing with Bentley is
Speaker 1: their product line is getting a little bit long in
Speaker 1: the tooth and that's going to catch up with them
Speaker 1: and hurt them if.
Speaker 2: You don't still looks I mean, it looks looks fabulous.
Speaker 1: I love what they did to the front. It's like
Speaker 1: some combination of super strong but also sort of feeline,
Speaker 1: maybe feminine even I think it's a really interesting, good
Speaker 1: looking car, and I love I think I drove unlike
Speaker 1: your matte color. You're what was it a Matte red,
Speaker 1: like it.
Speaker 2: Was like a Cranberry red matt which okay. I don't
Speaker 2: know who chose it, but I wouldn't have had I.
Speaker 1: Drove one in gravity gray, which was super cool. It
Speaker 1: was sort of like a shark, a dark shark gray color.
Speaker 2: I like the acid green. I went on the website
Speaker 2: to configure them, and there's an acid green that I love,
Speaker 2: but that looks I did a little survey on Instagram,
Speaker 2: not scientific, but half of the people said, no, go
Speaker 2: for paying four hundred thousand dollars a car. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to put a matte finish on it, which is
Speaker 2: like a ten year old fashion to begin with. And
Speaker 2: it's also it's a very like I don't know, yeah, no.
Speaker 1: It's odd. We have so much to talk about today.
Speaker 1: I feel like, I don't know if you got my email,
Speaker 1: but we've got a lot. We've got a lot to cover.
Speaker 2: You're one of the people, so I get probably two
Speaker 2: thousand emails a day. What. Yeah, And there are a
Speaker 2: handful of people starting with like Mike Bloomberg and John Mickelwaite.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 2: You whose emails. I scan my screen and if I
Speaker 2: see one from you or from Mike, like, I click
Speaker 2: on that first.
Speaker 1: I don't take it. I will take that company so
Speaker 1: very much.
Speaker 2: Obviously, I see all these emails and there's so much
Speaker 2: to talk about that there were a few times over
Speaker 2: the last week where I think I texted you and
Speaker 2: I was like, Yo, we should jump into the studio.
Speaker 1: Totally do this right now, I know, And then we didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we will.
Speaker 1: Also, Matt, do you realize that when this episode airs
Speaker 1: on Friday, it's our exact one year anniversary of doing
Speaker 1: this podcast? Wow? I did not realize that October twenty
Speaker 1: fifth that was the first one that we did a
Speaker 1: year ago, in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. I keep thinking like, how long ago do
Speaker 2: we do start doing this? Like three months ago? Four
Speaker 2: months ago? I guess it's been twelve it's been twelve months. Amazing. Well,
Speaker 2: every single time it's so much fun, So I know
Speaker 2: I agree. All right, So what should we start with?
Speaker 2: What are you writing about on the terminal right now?
Speaker 1: Well, I just we're gonna have a story go live
Speaker 1: about the car trends that we hate and true, this
Speaker 1: really gets people going. I kind of thought, oh, it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's more of a fun story, but
Speaker 1: this really got people upset, and it's everything from By
Speaker 1: the way, I spoke with a couple of automotive analysts.
Speaker 1: I also spoke with Keith Naughton Kyle Stock are some
Speaker 1: of our autos reporters here, and of course surveyed my
Speaker 1: pursuits team and it's everything from fronks and touchscreens and
Speaker 1: electric vehicles in general to somebody on Instagram said their
Speaker 1: pet peeve is people driving alone in Portland wearing masks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually noticed this week somebody driving alone wearing
Speaker 2: a mask. But you know what, Actually the Mercedes that
Speaker 2: I was driving last week two hundred thousand dollars again
Speaker 2: Mercedes AMGS sixty three, totally powerful, total sleeper. Absolutely loved
Speaker 2: the car and some tech that was mind blowing, like
Speaker 2: the digital dash was three D. So it looks like
Speaker 2: it goes into that. You liked it. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: it just knocked me off my seat, except for I was,
Speaker 2: you know, very well bolstered. But one of the things
Speaker 2: it has is the door handles are completely flush and
Speaker 2: they don't come out unless I guess you should be
Speaker 2: able to have them come out when they approached, when
Speaker 2: you approach the car, or when you push the unlock button.
Speaker 2: These weren't coming out unless I pulled the key fob
Speaker 2: out of my pocket and pushed the unlock button. And
Speaker 2: one time I even had gotten out of the car,
Speaker 2: closed the door and my four year old daughter was
Speaker 2: in the back seat. Oh no, and I left the
Speaker 2: keys in and I couldn't get them to pop out.
Speaker 1: See the by the way, those flush door handles are
Speaker 1: listed in the story. And the overriding idea is exactly
Speaker 1: what you're pointing out, Matt, which is that sometimes technology
Speaker 1: doesn't actually represent progress for cars. You know, all of
Speaker 1: these automakers are really trying to grab consumers attention and
Speaker 1: you know, potentially compete with these China, these automotive brands
Speaker 1: that are sort of knocking at the door and every
Speaker 1: you know, there's so much there's so many distractions, and
Speaker 1: so automakers are trying to do whatever they can to
Speaker 1: offer the latest and greatest, but a lot of these
Speaker 1: things actually just end up distracting, annoying. These door handles,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: really care for lane assist and sort of the preemptive
Speaker 1: breaking some of even some of these.
Speaker 2: Preemptive breaking gives me a heart attack every time it
Speaker 2: comes off.
Speaker 1: It's actually kind of scary because it feels like the
Speaker 1: car is not under your control, the car is under
Speaker 1: its own control, which is not a great feeling. I agree,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like that feeling well.
Speaker 2: And it also happens a lot when you don't need
Speaker 2: it to. For example, backing out of my driveway, I
Speaker 2: saw a car go by, and then I continue to
Speaker 2: back out, but it slammed the brakes on anyway, because
Speaker 2: I guess the car was still near enough in the vicinity,
Speaker 2: and it just makes you feel like you've you know,
Speaker 2: you've narrowly avoided a huge accident, so you get the
Speaker 2: same heart pulsing.
Speaker 1: But the surge of adrenaline through your wrists.
Speaker 2: I would suggest, let's go through your list and what
Speaker 2: was at the top of it. What was the number
Speaker 2: one thing?
Speaker 1: The number one thing that I heard time and again
Speaker 1: from analysts, from automotive writers, and from social media and
Speaker 1: friends was touch screens. That's the top thing that people said,
Speaker 1: everything from the skateboard sized screens at Mercedes Benz down
Speaker 1: to the little tiny screens in something like the Farah
Speaker 1: Pro song with the suv where you like there's like
Speaker 1: a touchpad on the steering wheel that you use to
Speaker 1: control audio and things. Tony Sillerno, who works for Jdpower,
Speaker 1: is one of the analysts I spoke with, and he
Speaker 1: just said, studies continually show that most consumers, especially in
Speaker 1: luxury segments, prefer an analog interface. They just do. It's easier,
Speaker 1: it's intuitive.
Speaker 2: But I'm guessing that the manufacturers you talk to know this.
Speaker 2: And the problem is they started these designs five years ago. Yes,
Speaker 2: So now aren't they turning that around a little bit?
Speaker 1: You know? I think some are. I know I refer
Speaker 1: to it consistently, but Bugatti's Turbion obviously that's a way
Speaker 1: higher price point. But they I just remember them because
Speaker 1: they made a very specific point of saying when they
Speaker 1: launched that car that we have decided to keep our
Speaker 1: inior interior analog because we feel that it will age
Speaker 1: better and it's easier to use. That's That's the first
Speaker 1: automaker that I've heard say just outright, we're purposely doing this.
Speaker 2: I think PEGANI might be another one, as long as
Speaker 2: we're reaching for those five million dollar cars, you know,
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 1: One car collector I talked to, Chris Singh, basically says,
Speaker 1: you know, he would buy, for instance, the new Porsche
Speaker 1: supercar whenever it comes along, or some of these other supercars.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't because they're electric, which is one thing.
Speaker 1: But he just loves Pegani because they keep it analog,
Speaker 1: they keep it old school, and obviously this is very
Speaker 1: rarefied air. But I don't think that's lost on all
Speaker 1: of us, you know, whether you're spending two million dollars
Speaker 1: or twenty thousand dollars. We just want something that's easy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to have to struggle.
Speaker 2: Well, and it's also much more classic, right, It's much
Speaker 2: more elegant to have a button or a switch or
Speaker 2: a knob. And really, I imagine that more car makers
Speaker 2: are going to gravitate back towards that to the extent
Speaker 2: that they can.
Speaker 1: You know, it will be really interesting to see whether
Speaker 1: Porscha does that, because of course, in their newest generations
Speaker 1: of the nine to eleven, for instance, they have recreated
Speaker 1: their traditional five gauge dash or behind the steering wheel
Speaker 1: with a digital version of it. And I haven't been
Speaker 1: hearing a lot of people who love that change, so
Speaker 1: I'm very curious to hear whether they can and will
Speaker 1: take it back.
Speaker 2: I think it's a horrible idea as well. But what
Speaker 2: they had before was great. They had five gauges and
Speaker 2: one was a screen exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean that's fine, Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that we
Speaker 1: can we can settle with that.
Speaker 2: I think, all right, what else? I mean, I think
Speaker 2: everyone agrees with you on that point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you know another big thing where giant glass
Speaker 1: roofs in vehicles like the i X from BMW, the
Speaker 1: Lucid Air of course, they're they're kind of all over
Speaker 1: and I, I don't know, this isn't a personal one
Speaker 1: of mine. This this one came from Kyle Stock specifically,
Speaker 1: and I did hear this from other people too, But
Speaker 1: Kyle just said, look, when you have an EV and
Speaker 1: then you put a glass roof over the top, it
Speaker 1: actually just heats the cabin, takes up more battery power
Speaker 1: and range the interior sweltering, and it actually works against you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you're running the IC which runs the battery. So
Speaker 1: I thought that was an interesting one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I personally, I have in the past loved giant
Speaker 2: glass roofs because if the cabin feels so much roomier.
Speaker 2: The first time I ever had that experience was on
Speaker 2: the nine to nine to one that I bought in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: It does feel a lot room here, which is great.
Speaker 2: I loved it. And also in a sports car, especially
Speaker 2: so I'm pretty tall and you are too. When I
Speaker 2: pull up to a traffic light, I often can't see
Speaker 2: the light anymore out of my windshield, and so if
Speaker 2: I have that glass roof like in the nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: I could lean back and see the light and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: But this year I spent a week in the GMC
Speaker 2: Hummer EV, which has of course an all glass you
Speaker 2: know or whatever fake glass roof, and the cabin got
Speaker 2: so hot it was unbelievably hot. I thought like my
Speaker 2: baby was in danger.
Speaker 1: You know, gosh, that is that is not good. I
Speaker 1: had the same experience when I drove a Lucid Air
Speaker 1: from San Francisco back down to LA and obviously, as
Speaker 1: you can imagine, in driving in California, there's just no
Speaker 1: there's no shelter. You feel like you are just out
Speaker 1: on the road in a greenhouse, being boiled alive.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's not a good feeling.
Speaker 2: No, it's horrible.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: They should have some kind of technology. I think Rivian has.
Speaker 2: You can push a button and it turned to some
Speaker 2: electrons that change it toery papers does help. And by
Speaker 2: the way, on the Hummer note, I see at the
Speaker 2: beginning of the story you mentioned the crab walk, which
Speaker 2: is so stupid, like there's no real world use for it.
Speaker 1: Well, as I recall, I sort of mentioned that, and
Speaker 1: you know, the new Mercedes g U I can can
Speaker 1: spin in three hundred and sixty degrees. You know, as
Speaker 1: ways that automakers are trying to offer fun, exciting things
Speaker 1: to consumers. But yes, I'm not sure how much practical
Speaker 1: application these things do have. They just take up battery energy. However,
Speaker 1: another thing that I did here, which was on this list,
Speaker 1: is that oversize trucks and SUVs in general. You know,
Speaker 1: some people just get so annoyed they feel like the
Speaker 1: roads are being overrun by these SUVs. The size of tanks.
Speaker 1: We mentioned the Hummer av. You know, the Cadillac Escalade
Speaker 1: is almost twenty feet long and eight feet wide. It's
Speaker 1: just huge. You know, it has twenty four inch wheels
Speaker 1: that if you add the tires on to them, bulge
Speaker 1: out to thirty five inches. It's huge.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go ahead and disagree with that one
Speaker 2: because I like this. I like them big.
Speaker 1: Yes. I mean one that I actually mentioned in here
Speaker 1: is the G sixty three four by four, the Mercedes
Speaker 1: G Wagon that is like a four by four, which
Speaker 1: I actually really loved. But it is also true it
Speaker 1: did not even fit in the parking garage here at work.
Speaker 1: I had to park it on this sit.
Speaker 2: But only because of the height, right, because that's not
Speaker 2: a yes, no, it's huge in terms of length or
Speaker 2: with it's just really just they're actually pretty compact. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like a big, giant truck and su I want
Speaker 2: to be able to live with my whole family and
Speaker 2: uh my family friends in my vehicle. And actually, almost
Speaker 2: to spite the people who are against large vehicles, I
Speaker 2: want it even bigger, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2: Don't worry about how big my truck is. Get your
Speaker 2: own car, you know you can. You can have a
Speaker 2: smart if you like. Yeah, what do you call the
Speaker 2: little Alfro the little Fiat that you yeah, exactly, get
Speaker 2: one of those and leave me alone in my escalade.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine? I think I wrote that the the
Speaker 1: cyber truck is as long as two VW Beetles together.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the little Fiat five hunder, I mean that's
Speaker 1: even smaller. Yeah, yeah, very hard to die, you know,
Speaker 1: viva ladiferol. What can we say. I'm kind of neutral.
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm all about the right tool for
Speaker 1: the job.
Speaker 2: So crab walk aside, I loved the hummer ev it
Speaker 2: was super fun too, to have that much power in
Speaker 2: such a giant thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's so great. But okay, soaring car
Speaker 1: prices are another one I think we can all relate to.
Speaker 1: I actually did read up on this. Kelly blow blue
Speaker 1: Book reports that the average transaction price of a new
Speaker 1: vehicle in the US was at almost forty nine thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in September. That's up from forty thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and ten years ago, the average vehicle price
Speaker 1: was thirty three thousand dollars. So it's not just you,
Speaker 1: it's not just me. Like it is true, car prices
Speaker 1: on average are going way up. But also according to
Speaker 1: Aaron Keating, who was a COXS automotive analyst, she says
Speaker 1: incentives are expected to be higher for the rest of
Speaker 1: the year, so that should help offset some of these costs.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, when you talk about a four
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars Bentley, It's it's wild how the expense
Speaker 1: of some of these cars, and it's easy just to
Speaker 1: throw around numbers and not really you know, that's that's
Speaker 1: obviously more than I make on my journalist's salary a year.
Speaker 1: It is a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a ton of money, yea. And I mean,
Speaker 2: on the one hand, it makes me feel just like
Speaker 2: an old fogie when I sit around complaining about inflation.
Speaker 2: When I was in high school, you know, when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, forty thousand dollars bought you an amazing
Speaker 2: vehicle like that's a that was a luxury car, Oh,
Speaker 2: for sure, And it's no longer the case. But I
Speaker 2: guess as time goes on, you know, we choose to
Speaker 2: live in a society that wants to overspend and inflate
Speaker 2: its way out of that debt. So that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 2: Also, I think I wonder some part of me wonders,
Speaker 2: if you're a Rolls Royce or a Bentley or a
Speaker 2: Ferrari buyer, how much does it matter whether it's three
Speaker 2: p fifty or four huntre.
Speaker 1: I don't think it might.
Speaker 2: I don't care at all, not at all.
Speaker 1: And we've seen the numbers that you know, the average
Speaker 1: Rolls Royce and Bentley customer owns like two and a
Speaker 1: half Rolls Royces and Bentley's. This is this is sort
Speaker 1: of standard. Same with Bugatti. You know, their average customers
Speaker 1: own multiple anyway, so you know, you know what that
Speaker 1: reminds me of. And this this might transition us to
Speaker 1: our next topic. But I just saw, you know, Ferrari
Speaker 1: debuted their F eighty, their their new supercar, and that
Speaker 1: car costs three point six million euros and they're making
Speaker 1: seven hundred and ninety nine of them, all of which
Speaker 1: have been spoken for, so it's expected that.
Speaker 2: That they're sold out already.
Speaker 1: They're sold out already anyways, and selling all of the
Speaker 1: cars at three point six million each euros will earn
Speaker 1: Ferrari a total of almost three billion euros. Wow, So
Speaker 1: that is just it just shows how profitable these super
Speaker 1: expensive cars are and also the fact that people are
Speaker 1: buying them. You know, it's kind of wild. It's a
Speaker 1: huge money maker for Ferrari. I know we've spoken about
Speaker 1: profit per car before on this podcast, and we've had
Speaker 1: some emails requesting I do have some numbers on that
Speaker 1: not related to Ferrari more general, but it is wild
Speaker 1: to your point that, yeah, car prices are way up,
Speaker 1: and you know, the wealthy people seem to be able
Speaker 1: to afford it.
Speaker 2: I mean, but so are stock prices, right, I mean
Speaker 2: we're looking at back to back years of more than
Speaker 2: twenty percent gains. The well Ferrari shares have tripled in
Speaker 2: the last five years.
Speaker 1: Wild.
Speaker 2: So if you wanted to buy a Ferrari five years
Speaker 2: ago and instead you put that money in the stock today,
Speaker 2: you could buy at least two. Barry Ridholts has a
Speaker 2: whole rant about this, like, if you want to buy
Speaker 2: the newest Apple MacBook, would it be smarter to buy
Speaker 2: that much in Apple shares instead? And he's looked back
Speaker 2: over history and found that the answer is usually yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's not like you can drive
Speaker 1: your shares.
Speaker 2: True, or you can't obviously use them as a MacBook.
Speaker 2: But I just think it's an interesting idea. By the way,
Speaker 2: this Ferrari F eighty I haven't gone that deep into it.
Speaker 1: Can we discuss this?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So it's me think, well, there's the is this
Speaker 2: supposed to be the continuation of like the F forty Yes,
Speaker 2: and the FFC yes, so this is but it's a
Speaker 2: V six.
Speaker 1: Yes, is that twelve hundred horse power? But does that
Speaker 1: you feel better? No?
Speaker 2: Who cares? Like, honestly, who cares at this level? Who
Speaker 2: cares about how much horsepower?
Speaker 1: We are living in weird time.
Speaker 2: I don't care if you have eight hundred horse power
Speaker 2: or fifteen hundred, Like, you have enough horsepower, and it's
Speaker 2: about the experience of driving it, the way you feel,
Speaker 2: not about how fast you get from zero to sixty,
Speaker 2: because it doesn't matter if it's two point five seconds
Speaker 2: or two point seven seconds. And I feel like the
Speaker 2: executives at Ferrari are like, hey, let's do the next
Speaker 2: limited edition supercar with a pity V six, and they'll
Speaker 2: still We'll still sell three billion euros worth of them,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They've got quite a sense of humor.
Speaker 2: Why I'm not gonna ever buy obviously, And one of
Speaker 2: the complaints of you know, people get mad at the
Speaker 2: naysayers on Reddit or on Instagram. They're like, well, you're
Speaker 2: never gonna buy one anyway, Okay, fair, I'm not going to, yes,
Speaker 2: but if I had the money, I still wouldn't buy one,
Speaker 2: because why do I want a V six? Supercar. If
Speaker 2: I want a V six, I will buy a Honda.
Speaker 2: They do really good V six engines.
Speaker 1: You know, I do agree horsepower is a diminishing return.
Speaker 1: It just counts for less and less these days. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I was speaking with the actually Tony Salerno about about
Speaker 1: this from JD Power. You know, after you hit like
Speaker 1: six or seven hundred horse power, there's not a lot more. I,
Speaker 1: with my non professional driving skills, can get out of
Speaker 1: any car, whether or not I'm on a track or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I think that's probably the same for most people.
Speaker 1: So it does sort of get into the area of
Speaker 1: esoteric and hypothetical numbers, because twelve hundred horsepower, you know,
Speaker 1: is not something that's realistic for us.
Speaker 2: It's all about traction control. It's all about your computer
Speaker 2: systems at that point, you.
Speaker 1: Know, you know. But I love how it looks. I
Speaker 1: love how it looks. I think it love I love
Speaker 1: that the front carries over some of this Daytona styling
Speaker 1: that we saw in the twelve cylinder called the twelve cylinder,
Speaker 1: if you will recall the car that I drove a
Speaker 1: month ago, which I actually find very ironic that they
Speaker 1: do still make twelve cylinders. They're just not putting them
Speaker 1: in their hypercar. But I love the design.
Speaker 2: There is a styling queue that I think they've taken
Speaker 2: from the twelve cylinder somehow. They like to put a
Speaker 2: strip on the hood.
Speaker 1: That's the Daytona look.
Speaker 2: Between the bumper and the hood, and they do that
Speaker 2: on the F eighty as well.
Speaker 1: Yes they do. And then of course, like from the
Speaker 1: rear view, if you look sort of from the top,
Speaker 1: I definitely see elements of the F forty, which of
Speaker 1: course is like to me, for anyone from our generation,
Speaker 1: the most iconic Ferrari at the moment, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: sort of squared off.
Speaker 2: With like you're in a slightly younger generation, Hannah, because
Speaker 2: for me, for my generation, it's Magnum p I's three.
Speaker 1: To eighth, right, Well are you gen.
Speaker 2: X Yeah, generation golf, as they say in Germany.
Speaker 1: I'm an elder millennial, so I guess we are different generations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and millennials love the F forty. I obviously love
Speaker 2: it too. I grew up in high school that it
Speaker 2: came out for me, but Magnum will always have for
Speaker 2: someone in my age group. Really, Yeah, that's why I
Speaker 2: wear the Hawaiian shirts, the mustache, the whole thing it's
Speaker 2: all about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so funny with that mustache. I remember when
Speaker 1: I sort of it dawned on me that he was
Speaker 1: considered a sex symbol. It was. It was quite a shock.
Speaker 2: Short shorts, hairy chest.
Speaker 1: What I thought he was a bit camp.
Speaker 2: Wait, he was like Monica boyfriend in Friends.
Speaker 1: Remember, Yeah, I do remember, And that was I think
Speaker 1: that might have been when I sort of realized, oh
Speaker 1: there is something there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The dimples so cute.
Speaker 1: Sure, I'm not into dimples.
Speaker 2: Back to the car, yeah, yeah, So back to the
Speaker 2: F eighty. You liked the styling.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I didn't, to be honest, I didn't really pay much
Speaker 2: attention anymore after I saw that it was a V six,
Speaker 2: because I think they're really that is, I mean it is.
Speaker 1: It's just wild to me that they are not putting
Speaker 1: their biggest cylinder engine in their biggest, big boy car.
Speaker 1: It's funny. It is kind of funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so maybe it'll be fun And like I mean,
Speaker 2: the GTR is a great car. The Nissan GTR is
Speaker 2: a V six, right, so.
Speaker 1: We can't put Nissan GTR and Ferrari F eighty in
Speaker 1: the same sentence that we can't we can't, I do.
Speaker 1: I do think that. You know, Ferrari is still pushing
Speaker 1: toward launching their first electric supercar in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of next year, and they're sticking with it. So it's
Speaker 1: I guess it comes as no surprise that they are
Speaker 1: introducing things along that path, like a hybrid.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, No, a hybrid makes perfect sense to me.
Speaker 2: You can get so much more power, you can get
Speaker 2: ridiculous torque. That's how the Mercedes AMG S sixty three
Speaker 2: makes over one thousand pound feet of torque because of
Speaker 2: the hybrid system. I mean, otherwise you don't find those
Speaker 2: numbers in anything short of, you know, like a diesel truck.
Speaker 2: So I love the hybrid idea, but I just don't
Speaker 2: know why they want to do a V six when
Speaker 2: you're talking about multimillion dollar car. You're not even going
Speaker 2: to make a thousand, So it's not about the environment.
Speaker 2: I guess you're making a statement that your F one
Speaker 2: technology also carries over into your hypercars. That's my guess.
Speaker 1: I think so. And also, let's not forget the Ferrari.
Speaker 1: La Ferrari is a hybrid.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, hybrid's great. It's just yeah, of course I
Speaker 2: got to drive Sergio Marcioni's La Ferraris.
Speaker 1: That is major for like, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, forty five seconds maybe around That is a car.
Speaker 1: I haven't driven. And what did you feel? Oh?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think I exceeded like ten miles
Speaker 2: an hour and it counts. I just was. I loved Sergio,
Speaker 2: you know so, and it was exciting to obviously drive
Speaker 2: the car, even very slowly.
Speaker 1: That's cool. It still counts. Yeah, no, you're putting that
Speaker 1: not true.
Speaker 2: So wait then I've driven two Ferraris, because I've also
Speaker 2: driven the ff Yes, which I adore.
Speaker 1: Great, it's a great car. I saw one the other
Speaker 1: day on the road. I was it was like, it
Speaker 1: looks so different and unusual.
Speaker 2: Those are fantastic. I mean, I know it's already it
Speaker 2: was in last year's bowlmarket list and or two years ago.
Speaker 2: But you can still find them for the cool one hundred,
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty grand, and you know they're going
Speaker 2: to be worth a lot more.
Speaker 1: They're they're so cool. They're so cool and very like again,
Speaker 1: very unusual. I mean driving to work through Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: every day, is a very desensitizing thing because I see
Speaker 1: so many, so many expensive cars, but the FF stands
Speaker 1: out and it's very cool.
Speaker 2: I also like the z BMW's Z three or Z
Speaker 2: three as some would can shoe. Yes, the clown shoe version.
Speaker 1: Of course you do, Matt, of course you do.
Speaker 2: It's le kind of cool. And by the way, MG
Speaker 2: also made there was an MG midget that also had
Speaker 2: kind of the clown.
Speaker 1: Shoe configuration company or the comparison you. I like the
Speaker 1: bread Man, a man of your size and stature.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying from the outside looking in, you know, purple,
Speaker 2: I would be happily. Purple is one of my favorite
Speaker 2: car colors. Honestly, I love a purple car.
Speaker 1: One of your dad shirts in that car. That is
Speaker 1: quite a sight.
Speaker 2: It's a little sad when you put it all together
Speaker 2: like that, but yeah, no, I'm a fan. By the way,
Speaker 2: speaking of dad shirts and dad cars, I spent another
Speaker 2: week with the outgoing Jaguar F type.
Speaker 1: How long have you had that?
Speaker 2: No, No, I got it for I don't know why
Speaker 2: they gave it to me for another week. And rather
Speaker 2: than saying I've already driven that three months ago, I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, yes, thank you, because to me, okay,
Speaker 2: they're not going to make that anymore. It's the end
Speaker 2: of the line for the F type, at least with
Speaker 2: the supercharged five leader in it, and that's a great
Speaker 2: classic motor and it's just it reminded me how much
Speaker 2: fun a simple sports car is. It's not like the
Speaker 2: Aston Martin that I had a few weeks ago, the
Speaker 2: vantage that you've also driven. It's fun, but you're always
Speaker 2: kind of trying to push the limit because it's an
Speaker 2: Aston Martin vantage yea and the but this was I
Speaker 2: felt happy just motoring along, you know, wishing it had
Speaker 2: a stick shift. It doesn't have that, but that's like
Speaker 2: the only thing it doesn't have. It's British racing green.
Speaker 2: It had tan leather interior, it's a rag top. It
Speaker 2: sounds amazing when you get on the gas. And it
Speaker 2: was just such a pleasure, such an elegant design. And
Speaker 2: there's there's still in my opinion, like for a new car,
Speaker 2: it's overpriced because you can buy a C eight Corvette
Speaker 2: for the same price, and obviously I'm choosing the Cate
Speaker 2: Corvette every single day of the week, ob but it
Speaker 2: was it was fun, for a dad.
Speaker 1: I remember loving the F Type when it came out
Speaker 1: eleven years ago and thinking it was such a great car,
Speaker 1: such a great value. And I agree with everything except
Speaker 1: for it came out eleven years ago. True, and and
Speaker 1: it's and maybe in the maybe it'll have a little
Speaker 1: pop in the aftermarket because of all the things that
Speaker 1: you've just described.
Speaker 2: But it still won't go for the new MSR B.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, they know it's at this point it's
Speaker 1: not competitive anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, true, especially at that price. I mean, you're just
Speaker 2: paying for the motor. Really. But by the way, I
Speaker 2: drive a twenty twenty three Dodge Challenger. They came out
Speaker 2: in like two thousand and eight, so that should tell
Speaker 2: you something about my taste.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, the shirts did it? And then the clown
Speaker 1: shoe did it? Tommy Bahama, Yeah yeah, all of the above.
Speaker 2: All right, So do you have driven some I think
Speaker 2: at least mildly interesting cars. Recently we talked about the
Speaker 2: G Class a little bit. Did your spin by the way, yeah?
Speaker 1: Did?
Speaker 2: We'll have to at least big them up a little
Speaker 2: for doing it right, for trying something creative and different,
Speaker 2: even if it's useless.
Speaker 1: Completely and again you know that car is so capable.
Speaker 1: I think I went to a dinner the week I
Speaker 1: had it and sat next to I'm not going to
Speaker 1: blow him up, but he was the founder of the
Speaker 1: founder of a very prominent social media company who only
Speaker 1: drives EV's.
Speaker 2: And okay, that does not limit it.
Speaker 1: I think I think he's gonna he I think he
Speaker 1: might get one. I think. I mean because I had
Speaker 1: it that night and I was raving about it. And
Speaker 1: you know, he had never considered a g wagon before
Speaker 1: because he only drives EV's. But now that there's an
Speaker 1: EV version, he seemed I was like, you gotta try it.
Speaker 1: It's so capable and fun, and they did a good
Speaker 1: job with it.
Speaker 2: The only thing any listener is wondering right now is
Speaker 2: who was it? Right? Did he have a spock haircut?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Does he only eat what he kills?
Speaker 1: Mark? No? No, no, no no.
Speaker 2: Did he almost have a cage match with Elon Musk No?
Speaker 1: No, no, is not not not Elon?
Speaker 2: And I was thinking about Zuck, although I think he's
Speaker 2: thrown his hair out now and he wears like gold
Speaker 2: medallions over a turtleneck.
Speaker 1: It's not It's not Mark either, but anyway, great, great fun.
Speaker 1: And then this week I had the GLC, the new
Speaker 1: GLC hybrid from Mercedes, which weirdly is under embargo until
Speaker 1: next week, so I can't really talk about driving it.
Speaker 1: But that was a bit of a different Let's say
Speaker 1: that was a bit of a less memorable.
Speaker 2: Is it their macn Is it fair to say that's
Speaker 2: their Macon challenger because I think Maccon takes a bake
Speaker 2: sure in that.
Speaker 1: Segment, Yeah, you could, you could say that. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: mccon actually is kind of distinctive. I really like, I
Speaker 1: feel like. So this was the gl C three fifty
Speaker 1: in graphite gray metallic, and you know, I would just
Speaker 1: say not as memorable.
Speaker 2: But fantastic electronics. The end box system was amazing.
Speaker 1: And and I drove that all the way to Palm Spring,
Speaker 1: all the way to Lakinta, which is forty five minutes
Speaker 1: beyond Palm Springs, and back for a wedding this past
Speaker 1: weekend and o it to working back all week and
Speaker 1: only put gas in it once in all of that time,
Speaker 1: which was awesome because I hate having to stop by
Speaker 1: the gas station. Really that actually, yes.
Speaker 2: You're like stopping in the gas station does anybody. I
Speaker 2: love it.
Speaker 1: No, what are you one of those guys that gets
Speaker 1: out and cleans the wind She is clean the wind shield.
Speaker 2: You know you're you're filling up. You get the smell
Speaker 2: of the gas. You're nodding at other dudes to her.
Speaker 1: Other dads about their cars, saying, yo, you know what's
Speaker 1: under the hood. Yeah, yeah, I recognize you. Okay, well
Speaker 1: you can. You can gas up all my cars. Then
Speaker 1: next time you come to la do.
Speaker 2: You have a favorite Do you have a favorite gas
Speaker 2: station in La is No?
Speaker 1: No, no.
Speaker 2: I figured there'd be some old timey, like super stylish
Speaker 2: gas station that you go to.
Speaker 1: There is an old timey, super stylish gas station in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, and I think it's I'm forgetting it might
Speaker 1: be on Santa Monica. It's like it looks like a
Speaker 1: space it looks like something from the Jetsons. It's kind
Speaker 1: of famous. But the thing about that station is and
Speaker 1: it's really pretty and it makes for cool photographs. But
Speaker 1: the gas there is like a dollar more per gallon
Speaker 1: than everyone else, so I don't go there. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: that's like the only one. No, I mean, no gas
Speaker 1: stations around here are just like crummy they're just not.
Speaker 2: No, we have some pretty nice ones in West chest that's.
Speaker 1: Very lucky for you. And you know the thing is,
Speaker 1: I when I was growing up in Oregon, Oregon, you
Speaker 1: didn't pump your own gas, which is awesome. So just
Speaker 1: roll up and have someone.
Speaker 2: Else do it, full service rules. I totally love that.
Speaker 2: So we have a gas station on the corner down
Speaker 2: the street from me and they do full service, which
Speaker 2: is one benefit nice. But the other benefit is they
Speaker 2: have a garage with two lifts in it. And the
Speaker 2: old guy who owns the place is always working on
Speaker 2: classic cars. So he always has like sixties Camaros, Mustang
Speaker 2: C two, C three corvettes, everything, Like I think he
Speaker 2: has a Buick Riviera parked in front of his, like
Speaker 2: a seventies rive in front of his. He always he
Speaker 2: always parks the classic cars that he's working on around
Speaker 2: the gas station like lot to make it look cooler.
Speaker 2: And it works. That's like really working.
Speaker 1: And this is an independently owned gas station. Yep, yep,
Speaker 1: that's I wish that there were those here. I don't
Speaker 1: know any.
Speaker 2: It's quite cool. Currently about four dollars a gallon for.
Speaker 1: Premium, Okay, not so bad. Great.
Speaker 2: If we're wrapping up the car portion of I'm driving
Speaker 2: a motorcycle that I kind of want to talk about.
Speaker 2: Do it okay. So maybe a lot of people are
Speaker 2: going to turn off right now because it's only two wheels.
Speaker 2: But I have a love for Indian because I think
Speaker 2: it's cool that someone is trying to put up some
Speaker 2: competition to Harley. Right there are European cruisers, I know,
Speaker 2: and obviously Japanese cruisers, but there's no real Harley competitors.
Speaker 2: So I've always liked the Indian. I love the Chief,
Speaker 2: and I think the build quality is fantastic. They haven't
Speaker 2: really met I think Harley's performance, and there's some drawbacks
Speaker 2: to like the Thunderstroke versus the Milwaukee eight. Harley's can
Speaker 2: keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I think
Speaker 2: this Thunderstroke is about as big as I can get
Speaker 2: right now. So they're gonna have to make a new motor.
Speaker 2: But the Scout is their most popular line, the Indian Scout,
Speaker 2: and I never really considered it because seems like more
Speaker 2: of a beginner bike, and I know that's probably not fair.
Speaker 2: It's like talking about the Porsche came in as like
Speaker 2: the beginner nine to eleven. But now they have a
Speaker 2: new scout out, a brand new, fully redesigned and there's
Speaker 2: one called the one oh one, which is like the
Speaker 2: top of the line. It has one hundred and I
Speaker 2: think one hundred and ten horsepower, but it's a feet
Speaker 2: forward cruiser and I think it's beautiful. But I so
Speaker 2: Indian lent me one to test drive, and I sat
Speaker 2: in my driveway for a while because I think it's beautiful,
Speaker 2: but I didn't think it would be that fun to drive.
Speaker 2: And last weekend I took it out for a couple
Speaker 2: hours on Saturday, and then I took it out for
Speaker 2: a couple hours on Sunday, and now I've been riding
Speaker 2: it every day after work. Wow, super fun to drive? Really, yes?
Speaker 1: What about it makes it fun?
Speaker 2: So it's kind of soft in the sense that I'm
Speaker 2: used to writing and do Cootti's normally quite a radical difference,
Speaker 2: and so you know, there's there's not that much of
Speaker 2: a friction point in the clutch and you have to
Speaker 2: really spool it up before it gets going. It's not
Speaker 2: a torque monster like an air cool big air cooled twin.
Speaker 2: It's a liquid cool twelve fifty. But it's kind of
Speaker 2: nice on a cruiser to have to take away a
Speaker 2: little bit of that sharp, kick you in the butt
Speaker 2: kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Just easy, like easy.
Speaker 2: When you're easy, when you want it easy, yes, and
Speaker 2: then when you do spool it up, it can go
Speaker 2: fast and the suspension is shockingly the geometry and suspension
Speaker 2: are amazing, Like, im my feet are way on in
Speaker 2: front of you. But I can easily throw it in
Speaker 2: the corners, I can weave between cars. It's got double
Speaker 2: disc brendos, so I can really put a stop on it,
Speaker 2: and so like when I want to get sporty, I can.
Speaker 2: But for the most part I'm just up on Highway
Speaker 2: twenty two, cruising out to Bedford, taking it easy. And
Speaker 2: it's such a good looking, well designed bike like Indian
Speaker 2: does these little touches like the triple tree top is
Speaker 2: engraved and they just go the extra step. I think
Speaker 2: in design that Harley doesn't feel the need to because
Speaker 2: Harley can command a premium anyway, and Harley's got it
Speaker 2: down with the motor.
Speaker 1: So what's the price point on the one you drove?
Speaker 2: They're expensive?
Speaker 1: Are they over fifteen thousand?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think just if you get the one oh
Speaker 2: one version, right, so if you get the base model,
Speaker 2: it's probably like fourteen, and if you get the one
Speaker 2: oh one version, it's seventeen. But for that you get
Speaker 2: the abs, which on the base model is an option,
Speaker 2: so you get some things that are optional. Okay, you
Speaker 2: don't end up spending much more money. And it is
Speaker 2: has just provided me with, you know, this perfect mindset
Speaker 2: on weekends, like it's the best way to get rid
Speaker 2: of stress and you're focused on riding or else you're
Speaker 2: gonna die, you know. But anyway, Yeah, it's it's it's
Speaker 2: really got to the point where I've been like looking
Speaker 2: on the Indian forum, starting to look for starting to
Speaker 2: look for secondhand. It just came out. But I like
Speaker 2: the dealer near me, the kid who works there buys
Speaker 2: the new bike every year, so he's gonna sell this one,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, hmm, maybe I'll pick it up. You know.
Speaker 1: That's what's the seat configuration? Is it just the one?
Speaker 2: It's just one? You know, you can buy a two
Speaker 2: up seat. There might be a uh, you know, a
Speaker 2: way that you could put a passenger on the back.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't subject to anyone to that, but does you
Speaker 2: at all, she will ride with me. On occasion, she
Speaker 2: rides herself, so she doesn't love to ride behind me
Speaker 2: unless there's like a sissy bar and it's totally custom.
Speaker 2: But otherwise she has her own bike. So but yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's just a fantastic product and it makes me,
Speaker 2: It gives me hope that we have more than a
Speaker 2: monopoly on big twin cruisers in this country.
Speaker 1: Do you feel in any way judged or less than
Speaker 1: when you're on an Indian versus being on a Harley?
Speaker 2: No, No, because this is great. Yeah, like I said,
Speaker 2: you know, Indian, I think they do a better job
Speaker 2: in terms of in terms of attention to detail. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, for example, Indian has this round digital dash
Speaker 2: that is super useful and works as a navigation system.
Speaker 2: So even if you don't have your phone with you,
Speaker 2: you don't have to pay a thousand extra bucks for
Speaker 2: like a Zoomo set up. You can just use that
Speaker 2: as the navigation. You know. With other more expensive bikes
Speaker 2: like Dukati will have an amazing digital dash with a
Speaker 2: tft screen, but you have to like have an app
Speaker 2: and also have your phone, and it never connects. It
Speaker 2: doesn't work.
Speaker 1: You can never connect the apps they always tell me
Speaker 1: to and I'm just like now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm like, hey, why don't you just like
Speaker 2: put a nap in there or put Apple CarPlay, Like
Speaker 2: stop trying to pretend you're gonna beat Apple at this game.
Speaker 1: The last thing I need is another app.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But so yeah, it's very cool. It's it's really
Speaker 2: it's really high quality.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. I hope you can get one.
Speaker 2: Maybe, Well, we'll see, fun, we'll see.
Speaker 1: I drove a Scout in twenty fifteen. I was just
Speaker 1: trying to think that might have been the last time
Speaker 1: I was on one.
Speaker 2: I remember you wrote a review for Pursuits.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and I really liked it. Again, like not
Speaker 1: really my thing. You know. I learned on a Ducatti
Speaker 1: and I kind of like dirt bikes and that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. But to your point, I had a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. It's just it was just like relaxing and nice,
Speaker 1: as I recall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know that a couple of you had actually
Speaker 1: mentioned in some emails. It'd be great to know sort
Speaker 1: of in general, the profit per vehicle that we're talking
Speaker 1: about when we talk about these big automakers. And I
Speaker 1: can tell you that Bloomberg Intelligence does have that data,
Speaker 1: and actually Stilantis, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, has the highest
Speaker 1: profit per vehicle across all of its brands. It makes
Speaker 1: about four thousand dollars per vehicle. The next is Toyota,
Speaker 1: which makes almost three thousand dollars per vehicle, and then
Speaker 1: after that it's Hyundai, which makes about the same. So
Speaker 1: I thought that was really interesting. VW as a brand
Speaker 1: makes it looks like around one thousand dollars a vehicle,
Speaker 1: which is these aren't to me. I was actually surprised
Speaker 1: it wasn't more, especially because VW has a lot of
Speaker 1: our favorite luxury brands.
Speaker 2: True. Wow, does that include Porsia, Bentley, Lamborghinis.
Speaker 1: That's just across all brands. That also includes you know,
Speaker 1: the brand Volkswagen.
Speaker 2: Which of course I wonder they're doing so poorly.
Speaker 1: Right there, you have all.
Speaker 2: Those luxury brands and you're only making a grand perr.
Speaker 1: And that's also why Porsche, by far is there, you know,
Speaker 1: makes the most profit.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We used to say when I was a cub
Speaker 2: reporter and I just started a Bloomberg and Frankfurt in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine, we always described Porscha as the most
Speaker 2: profitable car maker in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know about that, but it certainly.
Speaker 2: It was then, is what I'm saying. I was gonna say, oh,
Speaker 2: it definitely was. That was vetted and we used that
Speaker 2: staff for years.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, after one week after its
Speaker 1: IPO in twenty twenty two, I just was reading it
Speaker 1: was it was indeed the most the most valuable automaker
Speaker 1: in Europe.
Speaker 2: Right, But I feel like in terms of profit, Ferrari
Speaker 2: may take the cake. They just have huge well, and
Speaker 2: Tesla also has has huge margins. I know they've been
Speaker 2: shrinking substantially, but Tesla has very big margins. Ferrari has
Speaker 2: very big margins. And you know, Tesla is the biggest
Speaker 2: car maker of all time. And I think Ferrari's even
Speaker 2: bigger than Porsha now right, because Porscha's worth about sixty
Speaker 2: billion euros.
Speaker 1: And you mean in terms of the valuation yeah, market cap?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, not in terms of sales.
Speaker 2: No, No, in terms of their market cap.
Speaker 1: I will say I saw one more note from BI
Speaker 1: that was talking about Ford and their expected losses per EV.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Tesla of course being valued so high as
Speaker 1: an electric vehicle maker. Ford in twenty twenty four is
Speaker 1: expected to lose fifty four thousand dollars per EV, which
Speaker 1: is wild, and next year in twenty twenty five, is
Speaker 1: expected to lose thirty six thousand dollars per EV. And
Speaker 1: I know Jim Farley, who we've had on this podcast,
Speaker 1: has has said that Ford will not launch any product
Speaker 1: that can't make money in the first twelve months of
Speaker 1: the year. But according to Joel Levington, who wrote this report,
Speaker 1: you know, he says that that goal is highly uncertain.
Speaker 1: Just seems like it's it's bad.
Speaker 2: And General Motors, to its credit, has done a much
Speaker 2: better job of dealing with EV losses. You know, they
Speaker 2: just put out a bang up earnings report speaking of
Speaker 2: Bloomberg ye stuff. And I love to go through the
Speaker 2: market caps of these companies. I just said, Porsche is
Speaker 2: a sixty billion euro company, so it's like seventy billion
Speaker 2: dollars if you look at the so Ferrari is an
Speaker 2: eighty six billion dollar company, bigger than Porsche and almost
Speaker 2: exactly twice as big as Ford. Right forward is a
Speaker 2: forty three billion dollar company, and Ferrari's worth eighty six billion.
Speaker 2: But Tesla blows away all of them at six hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty billion dollars in market cap.
Speaker 1: That's insane, that is really and that's amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to give Tesla credit because they don't They're
Speaker 1: out there alone. They don't have a parent you know,
Speaker 1: there's no parent company behind Tesla. No, right, Tesla's Tesla.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean every car company plus like every
Speaker 2: car company together globally is probably still worth less than Tesla.
Speaker 2: By the way, they only have one like American I
Speaker 2: think competitor upstarts oh yes, which is Rivian. And we
Speaker 2: had a Bloomberg story out on the normal Indiana manufacturer today.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought this was so interesting and I
Speaker 1: liked it because it illustrates exactly what I mean when
Speaker 1: I say that making cars is hard. And the headline
Speaker 1: of the story is crack skull, fractured bones show danger
Speaker 1: for Rivian's factory workers. And the story is about workers
Speaker 1: at Rivian's factory reporting incidences and accidents and receiving and
Speaker 1: the company receiving citations and penalties for having a dangerous workplace.
Speaker 2: For instance, they've had sixteen serious violations in the past
Speaker 2: twenty one months. They've had yes serious injuries than any
Speaker 2: other car maker so far in the last well since
Speaker 2: the start of last year. Let's say so twenty one months,
Speaker 2: that's you know, yeah, twenty three and so far in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. And one former employee interviewed by Bloomberg
Speaker 2: said she complained to doctors last year of vomiting bile
Speaker 2: with a Rivian blue hues.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a horror movie.
Speaker 2: After painting automobiles with her out a respirator. And you
Speaker 2: got to ask yourself, not only why would they let
Speaker 2: her paint automobiles without a respirator, but why would she
Speaker 2: paint automobiles without a respirator.
Speaker 1: This is true.
Speaker 2: This is true even at a mom and pop shop,
Speaker 2: if you're painting cars, you need to put on a mask.
Speaker 1: This to me, it's just a clear indicator that there
Speaker 1: are not This is not decades and decades of automaking
Speaker 1: clearly here. This is. This is new. This is new
Speaker 1: for this company. And I can't tell you how many
Speaker 1: times people ask me about Rivian and I say, think
Speaker 1: what you will about the product, But the company is
Speaker 1: a startup mentality, and it's a Silicon Valley mentality that
Speaker 1: is now realizing and recognizing that it's a lot harder
Speaker 1: to make cars, not computers, but actual cars than they thought,
Speaker 1: and this is a clear example, in my opinion, I
Speaker 1: still will fascinating.
Speaker 2: Do you really I've never driven one, I've never been
Speaker 2: in one, but Mariu this week put together on the
Speaker 2: Volvo configurator her dream EX ninety, right, which is I'm.
Speaker 1: A big fan of Volvo.
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of the design. Yeah, I obviously
Speaker 2: don't know. I haven't driven the Ex ninety, but it
Speaker 2: was not like ninety three thousand dollars when she finished
Speaker 2: configuring it.
Speaker 1: It's expensive, I know, I can.
Speaker 2: Get a Rivian with with like the trimotor Arrivian with
Speaker 2: like eight hundred and fifty horsepower for the same price.
Speaker 2: So yeah, all right, that's probably all we have to
Speaker 2: talk about this week.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: That's it, Yes, that's all.
Speaker 1: This weekend, I am going to go to a very
Speaker 1: cool auction in La the arms side of the BUSUS holding.
Speaker 1: It's called the Junkyard. Have you heard about this?
Speaker 2: No, but I already love it because of the name.
Speaker 1: I got to Cindy the link. It's super cool. It's
Speaker 1: basically this hoarder named Rudy Klein who has hoarded cars
Speaker 1: and parts and machines and components since the sixties.
Speaker 2: Do they all look like barn finds, only worse because
Speaker 2: I think I've.
Speaker 1: Seen Yeah, sure you have.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you seen pictures.
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I mean it's crazy, but there are a
Speaker 1: couple diamonds in the rough. There's like this nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: seven three hundred sl that they think they're going to
Speaker 1: get eight hundred thousand and two million dollars on. We'll see.
Speaker 1: And there are tons of Porschas and other things too.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to go to that. I'm super excited.
Speaker 2: Nice. Well, yeah, I look forward to hearing about it.
Speaker 2: I went to a suite like bring a Trailer car
Speaker 2: show at the Coker Farm in Bedford last weekend. It
Speaker 2: was a blast, but mainly because the guy who owns
Speaker 2: the farm, Philip Richter, owed me and Edna, most importantly
Speaker 2: my four year old daughter around his the horse barn
Speaker 2: and they have like Olympic level jumpers there. They actually
Speaker 2: sent horses to the nineteen eighty eight Olympics and incredible.
Speaker 2: So Edna got to see the horses, and then I
Speaker 2: got to see his own private collection, including a packard
Speaker 2: that I can't wait to drive. We didn't have time.
Speaker 1: Well, sounds like we need to have them on the show.
Speaker 2: Yes, we definitely should do that. So yeah, have a
Speaker 2: great time at the junk yard.
Speaker 1: I'll send you pictures.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm having a birthday party for Edna on Saturday,
Speaker 2: so she's actually turning for today.
Speaker 1: This is a really big deal. Do you remember when
Speaker 1: you were four?
Speaker 2: I remember bits and pieces of it. I remember getting
Speaker 2: some chewing gum stuck in the upholstery of my dad's
Speaker 2: blue sixty four Mustang.
Speaker 1: No way, which did you get in trouble?
Speaker 2: I think I got in trouble, which is why I remember.
Speaker 2: I also remember riding on the back of my grandmother's
Speaker 2: Cadillac Eldorado convertible. She had a black one with red leather,
Speaker 2: and if we went to church on Sunday, she would
Speaker 2: take us to Krispy Kreme Donuts in the Cadillac and
Speaker 2: we we would sit up on the top of the
Speaker 2: back seat. You know. Back back then, my parents would
Speaker 2: let me ride around the back of a pickup truck.
Speaker 2: Like now, we have to have rear facing car seats,
Speaker 2: so it's a different.
Speaker 1: That's who I love.
Speaker 2: That cool well, I'm Matt Miller, and
Speaker 1: I'm Anna Elliott and this is Bloomberg.