Speaker 1: This is Mesters in Business with very results on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest.
Speaker 1: If you wanna listen to me wank out about automobiles. Um,
Speaker 1: Hannah Elliott is my favorite automobile reviewer. Uh. The last
Speaker 1: time I had her on, I had people writing me
Speaker 1: and saying, you know, you were like a little puppy dog,
Speaker 1: piddling all over yourself. You couldn't get out of your
Speaker 1: own way. You were so excited to talk about cars
Speaker 1: with somebody. UM. This time I think I let Hannah
Speaker 1: speak a little more than I did last time. UM.
Speaker 1: I tried to keep my excitement in check, especially on
Speaker 1: the broadcast portion, but we did go back and forth
Speaker 1: on some stuff. Uh. If you were all interested in
Speaker 1: the automobile industry E vs. Motorcycles, collectible cars, Ferrari's Formula one,
Speaker 1: well strap yourself in and get eddie. This is two
Speaker 1: hours of automobile wankery with no further ado. My conversation
Speaker 1: with Bloomberg's Hannah Elliott. Hannah Elliott, welcome back, Thank you,
Speaker 1: it's great to be here. I'm oh. I always enjoyed
Speaker 1: talking to you because I'm kind of a car guy.
Speaker 1: And before we get into automobiles, let's just start a
Speaker 1: little bit with your background of your career. Um, you
Speaker 1: were a staff writer at Forbes Luxury. What led you
Speaker 1: to being a writer and what led you to luxury.
Speaker 1: It's a really funny story. I always start out by saying,
Speaker 1: of course, at Bloomberg, I get to write about cars.
Speaker 1: I get to write about the fun thing. Most people
Speaker 1: here write about how to make money. I get to
Speaker 1: write about how to spend money. This was not by design,
Speaker 1: this was not my plan. I did love words and books,
Speaker 1: and I did study journalism in college. I went to
Speaker 1: Baylor University. Um thinking of Brittany Grinder right now, she
Speaker 1: also went to Baylor, so shout out Brittany. Um. But
Speaker 1: I went to Baylor, I got a journalism degree and
Speaker 1: moved to New York. I had interned writing about politics
Speaker 1: and religion. Actually, but saw on Craigslist and add to
Speaker 1: assist the automotive editor at Forbes. And I knew nothing
Speaker 1: about cars. I come from a sports family. I'm not
Speaker 1: a car I still say, I'm not actually a car person.
Speaker 1: This is my job. It's a beat. Did you play
Speaker 1: sports and I ran track? I was going to say
Speaker 1: basketball but now you're short for basketball. But I got
Speaker 1: some cousins who are very good at volley wall. They
Speaker 1: played at s m U. But um, I was a runner.
Speaker 1: My dad ran for Nike in the eighties marathon distance.
Speaker 1: So I come from a big running family. My brother
Speaker 1: played basketball actually in Europe professionally, so big sports family.
Speaker 1: No car anything, I mean my no. I mean I
Speaker 1: did know how to drive a stick shift because my
Speaker 1: dad taught me in his old Ford when I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: mostly because I bugged him just to do it. But
Speaker 1: I had an uncle with like an accurate legend, which
Speaker 1: was probably the nicest car I was ever exposed to. Um,
Speaker 1: and just shared an old Buix Skylark with my sister
Speaker 1: in high school that I was very embarrassed by. So
Speaker 1: not understand. Yeah, and although my sister actually I think
Speaker 1: she kind of liked it, but not interested in cars
Speaker 1: at all. But back to this craigslist at I figured, well,
Speaker 1: Forbes is a good brand, it's recognizable. I know I
Speaker 1: want to do journalism. There's my foot in the door.
Speaker 1: I'll figure it out once I get in and fast forward.
Speaker 1: You know, this was on like two thousand seven, two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, A lot of people got laid off
Speaker 1: in the industry. My editor, who I've been working with
Speaker 1: for a year and a half or so got laid off.
Speaker 1: He was expensive. I wasn't. I was being paid next
Speaker 1: to nothing. So it was like, well, who can write
Speaker 1: about cars? And you know, pick this up because we
Speaker 1: just fired the guy who was covering and which doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense, and so oh yeah, Elliott, you go. And
Speaker 1: Matthew de Paula. I will always be so grateful to him.
Speaker 1: He was the editor at Forbes at the time who
Speaker 1: hired me and really for a year and a half
Speaker 1: took me around every where and just taught me the beat.
Speaker 1: That's how I approached it. This is a beat. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna approach this just like anything else. There are no
Speaker 1: wrong questions. It's just like, this is uh the way
Speaker 1: that I would cover anything. And I always kind of thought, well,
Speaker 1: I'll eventually go into other things. And I did certainly
Speaker 1: do luxury and watch coverage at Forbes and celebrity coverage.
Speaker 1: You know. I got to talk to everyone from Jennifer
Speaker 1: Lopez to a cover story on Elon Musk back in
Speaker 1: the day before anyone really knew about him, which just
Speaker 1: crazy to think about now. You know, Forbes was great,
Speaker 1: and it just kind of was like cars were the
Speaker 1: thing that I did because no one else at Forbes
Speaker 1: was doing them. And then I just never stopped. And
Speaker 1: you know what was the first car reviewed Forbes? That's
Speaker 1: a great question. The first car I remember being allowed
Speaker 1: to drive as a Forbes staffer was probably an event
Speaker 1: to Door, a Lamborghini evented Door. Terrified. Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was ter Yes. I remember Matthew was in the passenger seat,
Speaker 1: so I wasn't completely solo. Matthew Matthew to Paul, who
Speaker 1: was the editor who hired me. There um he was
Speaker 1: still around, And I mean I was terrified, but also
Speaker 1: I was young and dumb enough not to know any better,
Speaker 1: and I think that actually really served me. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what I was supposed to do or not do.
Speaker 1: I just approached it like a journalist, which I was,
Speaker 1: you know, and I still am really proud to be
Speaker 1: a journalist. I think it's the best job. And cars
Speaker 1: are way more fascinating now even than then. I mean
Speaker 1: that was, you know, twelve fifteen years ago, and even now,
Speaker 1: like the car industry is the most exciting industry. It's
Speaker 1: so I was telling a friend that I was going
Speaker 1: to speak with you again and talk about cars, and
Speaker 1: their response was, you know, I love pizza, but if
Speaker 1: I had to make pizza for a living, I would
Speaker 1: hate pizza. Is that the same? Is there still a
Speaker 1: thrill here or are you like you know, no longer
Speaker 1: can smell the roses. That's a really good question. I
Speaker 1: think it actually works to my benefit that I never
Speaker 1: was a car person anyway. I'm not a car person,
Speaker 1: and I always say, here's the difference, because I think
Speaker 1: you've become a car person, whether or not you wanted to. Well,
Speaker 1: I can certainly speak the language if I need to,
Speaker 1: and I feel very comfortable in those circles. But here's
Speaker 1: the difference. I don't go to car things that I'm
Speaker 1: not basically paid to be there. And everyone else at
Speaker 1: the car event, I mean, whether it's a Formula erace
Speaker 1: or you know, a concour I'm paid to be there.
Speaker 1: Yes it's enjoyable, Yes it's glamorous and fun, and I
Speaker 1: really do enjoy it. But I don't go to car
Speaker 1: things on my own personal time. I play with my dog,
Speaker 1: you know, or go buy a flower something else, because yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think, like your your pizza friend, that's it
Speaker 1: would be too much, and it would. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're doing it for a living at a certain point,
Speaker 1: it's so yeah, just to change, even if you love
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Hey, I love the markets and financing,
Speaker 1: but on the weekend, I want to go out on
Speaker 1: the boat or sit on the beach or just something.
Speaker 1: And I really say, look, if your car is the
Speaker 1: most interesting thing about you, you're probably a little bit boring.
Speaker 1: I like to be around people who have a lot
Speaker 1: of dimensions, and cool car is one of them, and
Speaker 1: that's awesome. But to me, that should not be the
Speaker 1: most interesting thing about you. I love car people, I
Speaker 1: love talking about cars, but like, come on, you've got
Speaker 1: to have some depth to so um yeah, that might
Speaker 1: be a little not trying to put anyone down, but
Speaker 1: to me, it's like, if I'm going to spend social
Speaker 1: time with you, you've got to be able to talk
Speaker 1: about more than And that's why you send your angry
Speaker 1: emails to Elliott at Bloomberg. So what sort of automotive
Speaker 1: trends are catching your eye these days? What do you like?
Speaker 1: What don't you like? Well, I think a v like
Speaker 1: electric mobility for lack of a better work is despite
Speaker 1: the fact that we're still, you know, hovering around five
Speaker 1: penetration of e vs, so new sales, that's all it is,
Speaker 1: of all cars on the road. Oh well the cars last,
Speaker 1: it's so but yeah, so it's it's like one thing
Speaker 1: to talk about the hype of evs. Certainly at every
Speaker 1: car show and every car launch and every debut, it's
Speaker 1: all electric vehicles. But in real terms, in the real world,
Speaker 1: I think we can expect to see SUVs that continue
Speaker 1: to get more and more expensive. But what about the
Speaker 1: Aston Martin suv and the and the roles and um,
Speaker 1: you know, Porsche has got a couple of SUVs that
Speaker 1: are going to get close to two thousand if you
Speaker 1: get every but I don't think you know. I remember
Speaker 1: when the first SUVs were really starting to get over
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars. It was like, Wow, this is
Speaker 1: really crazy. This is a utility vehicle, but it's being
Speaker 1: priced like electric car. But now it's just on top
Speaker 1: of that, I mean, Lamborghini Ferrari's coming out with theirs.
Speaker 1: It's just going to continue and there seems to be
Speaker 1: no limit. And let's not forget us vs have the
Speaker 1: biggest margins. They're basically doubling the production volumes for a
Speaker 1: lot of these smaller automakers like Lamborghine Ferrari, so they're
Speaker 1: gonna double production volume and then the profits are just
Speaker 1: look massive. Look back when Porsche was independent, the Cayenne
Speaker 1: save the company completely. And also it's so interesting because
Speaker 1: back you know, the people who are very into these
Speaker 1: sports brands like Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborgini, there's so much philosophical
Speaker 1: angst about well, but we're really a sports car company.
Speaker 1: We're really a you know, uh, supercar company. What is
Speaker 1: our consumer we're going to think when we go into
Speaker 1: an suv? No one cares? No one cares. I mean
Speaker 1: there was all this like polite, Oh what will we do?
Speaker 1: No one will accept our DNA as a true sports
Speaker 1: car company anymore. Nobody cares. Half the people I know
Speaker 1: who won nine elevens have, of course either a McCann
Speaker 1: or a cay in garage. They stay with the brand.
Speaker 1: And the only problem with those SUVs, So I had
Speaker 1: a mccan s. You just go through tires and breaks
Speaker 1: like they're because there it's a big, heavy truck, but
Speaker 1: you can throw it around like it's a sports car,
Speaker 1: and eventually it's like, oh, I got the rubbers and
Speaker 1: I need to replace Uh, I need to replace the
Speaker 1: brake pads. But it drives like a sports car. And
Speaker 1: those have done nothing to diminish the lure of a
Speaker 1: nine eleven. It's other than funding, letting them, letting them
Speaker 1: spend money. Yeah, I mean, it's not like, oh if
Speaker 1: we make an suv now people won't take our sports car. Seriously,
Speaker 1: it just elevates everything. Person I think that will really continue.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look even at even if you
Speaker 1: look at thee to the new nine eleven compared to
Speaker 1: you know, call it a turbo from the seventies, double
Speaker 1: the size. So in fact somebody did, um, what is
Speaker 1: it the por Porsche? Um, not the boxer, the hardtop,
Speaker 1: the Cayman, A new Cayman today is the size of
Speaker 1: the seventies nine eleven. It's just shocking, all right. So
Speaker 1: that's what trends you like? What bugs you? What? What's
Speaker 1: the trend that you find? I wish this would stop.
Speaker 1: This is terrible. Well, honestly, the flip side of the
Speaker 1: coin is, uh, the whole idea that when you are
Speaker 1: creating electric vehicles they tend to be appliances. I find
Speaker 1: that so boring and unfortunate. Um I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means for the future, but I my number one
Speaker 1: thing is car should be fun, even if you if
Speaker 1: it's a commuter car, it should still be fun. And
Speaker 1: I do think there is a place for autonomous driving,
Speaker 1: you know, for for commuting, sure, especially if you can
Speaker 1: set your cruise control so that it starts and stops
Speaker 1: at like in l A you're on the four h five.
Speaker 1: Who wants to be stressed about That's not driving, that's
Speaker 1: just commuting, completely different thing. So I do think there
Speaker 1: is a place for it. But it is kind of
Speaker 1: sad to see how consumers who have been marketed to
Speaker 1: to believe that they are going to be virtuous by
Speaker 1: purchasing an EV and they're going to symbol their you know,
Speaker 1: virtuous status by driving an electric vehicle, that there's somehow
Speaker 1: doing good for the environment. This is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a separate point, but to me, the best thing
Speaker 1: you could do for an environment is to not buy
Speaker 1: a new car, use a car that already exists, use
Speaker 1: an old car. And this goes hand in hand with
Speaker 1: the appliance thing, you know, I just drove the Cadillac Lyric,
Speaker 1: which you didn't exactly necessarily love it because for many reasons,
Speaker 1: but to this particular point, it's just kind of like
Speaker 1: an appliance. It looks interesting that looks are there, but
Speaker 1: driving it could have been from any brand, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure Cadillac used to really mean something. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that's going to have the same pull as the
Speaker 1: Cadillacts of yesterday, especially without the fins um just ps.
Speaker 1: What really bugs me that I have to share, and
Speaker 1: I've been in a bunch of evs. There's just no
Speaker 1: reason to bury the the heating and air conditioning controls.
Speaker 1: And I know, I know you can't expect a Volkswagen
Speaker 1: to be a Bugatti, you know they're the same ownership.
Speaker 1: But I just was watching review of the sharone and
Speaker 1: they brilliantly integrated just three buttons across all of your
Speaker 1: um heating, cooling, fan heating, and cooled seats, just three
Speaker 1: little buttons. You can push it in, you can pull
Speaker 1: it out, or you could just turn them up. And
Speaker 1: you know, we have to pull that stuff. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of companies like to keep them at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the screen. Yes, it's still a pain in
Speaker 1: the neck. Yeah, And I have mixed feelings about this.
Speaker 1: For instance, the new Mercedes cars like the S Class
Speaker 1: and the e Q have this very big, giant screen
Speaker 1: that's curved and it goes across the entire dashboard and
Speaker 1: it's actually very beautiful and it is pretty well designed.
Speaker 1: So I'm not I actually did find it was intuitive,
Speaker 1: and I purposely don't ask for help when I first
Speaker 1: get into a car. I would be able to see
Speaker 1: if I can figure it out. I don't want them
Speaker 1: to show me because that, to me is a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a controlled environment to see if it's intuitive.
Speaker 1: So I don't have a problem with that necessarily, But
Speaker 1: in general, I do like some tangible knobs and buttons.
Speaker 1: Button yes, and if you are having to scroll through
Speaker 1: multiple layers of software to turn on a seat heater,
Speaker 1: that's distracting and annoying. But meanwhile, the flip side of
Speaker 1: that is all of the new Ferrari steering wheels. It's like,
Speaker 1: you don't need anything else. Everything's at your thumbs. Did
Speaker 1: you get in the Roma? I did. I don't love
Speaker 1: I find the exterior of that car just silky, sassy, gorgeous, yes,
Speaker 1: and the interior is a little disappointed from the accouterment
Speaker 1: or the technology, just a little bit of both. I
Speaker 1: mean it's you know, not everything is a four eight
Speaker 1: eight or you know, I've I've kind of been looking
Speaker 1: at the F twelve lately because the eight twelves have
Speaker 1: gone postal and pre pandemic. The F twelve was just
Speaker 1: starting to come down in price, and for any three
Speaker 1: of my cars, like, well, you know, I could save
Speaker 1: a little maintenance and insurance if I swapped three these
Speaker 1: three for that one. And it was it was, it
Speaker 1: was definitely coming I love paying half of the M
Speaker 1: s r P for a three year old car that
Speaker 1: still has most of its useful life ahead of it.
Speaker 1: And um then it just you know, they're up from
Speaker 1: where I was like, oh, you're ten thousand dollars away
Speaker 1: from where I could think about this. So um so.
Speaker 1: So that's a beautiful interior with hard buttons and a
Speaker 1: screen and a separate little screen if by the upper
Speaker 1: for the passenger. Didn't love the roma, so so the
Speaker 1: eight twelve and the F twelve are both just I
Speaker 1: like that environment. The room was just kind of it
Speaker 1: was a little too minimalist interesting. I kind of really
Speaker 1: like the dials, the buttons, the tack like I want
Speaker 1: to feel when I get into a Ferrari, I want
Speaker 1: to feel like I'm talking a fighter plane. What else
Speaker 1: looks really new and interesting to you? What cars resuvs
Speaker 1: are you excited about, even if they're not out till
Speaker 1: four right? Not the lyric hold that off? What else
Speaker 1: this is gonna surprise you? But I really did like
Speaker 1: the Hummer. Ev Everybody I know who's driven it says
Speaker 1: its spectacles. This is a this is a spectacle. Yes,
Speaker 1: nine nine thou plus pounds, and you're gonna be on
Speaker 1: the same level as a school bus basically it height wise. Again,
Speaker 1: if you love the Hummer, you're gonna love it. If
Speaker 1: you hate the Hummer, you're gonna hate it. But what
Speaker 1: I love about it is it's not trying to be anything.
Speaker 1: It isn't. This is a very obnoxious vehicle, you know,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't. It's not trying to hide it. It
Speaker 1: has a point of you, but it's in these But
Speaker 1: it's electric and it's really fast. Um, I drove that
Speaker 1: insane nine thousand pounds. Yes, with launch mode, which also
Speaker 1: is ridiculous There's there's no reason a Hummer EV needs
Speaker 1: to have a launch mode, and I'm telling you it
Speaker 1: pushes you back there. See it's crazy. Well you've seen
Speaker 1: the YouTube videos of the people in the Tesla plaid sure,
Speaker 1: just like having their minds blown. Yeah, well imagine that
Speaker 1: and like something the size of a school best. Basically,
Speaker 1: it's crazy, but I loved it. They did a good
Speaker 1: job with it. I think, you know, good luck trying
Speaker 1: to get one. And I saw they were two on
Speaker 1: Bring a Trailer already. Did you see the one that
Speaker 1: sold on bring a Trailer for I think it was
Speaker 1: around two hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, yeah, there's been several
Speaker 1: that have been going for two plus. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's crazy, but I really did like it. Surprisingly, I
Speaker 1: thought they did a great job of incorporating the look
Speaker 1: of the old Hummer. I mean, the minute you look
Speaker 1: at it, you know it's clearly Amma. But it does
Speaker 1: look updated too. I thought they did a better job
Speaker 1: than maybe, I don't know, a Defender. You know how
Speaker 1: they brought the new Defender in. Yeah, but the new
Speaker 1: so the new Defender has been slagged by a lot
Speaker 1: of people, the folks I know who own it all,
Speaker 1: love it. I mean, the only beef anyone has is
Speaker 1: it's a range Rover, so reliability is yeah, I was
Speaker 1: that it might be in the in the shop every
Speaker 1: now and and And by the way, it's really interesting
Speaker 1: given the lack of availability of of new cars and
Speaker 1: use cars. Go on any used car site and look
Speaker 1: for like range Rover Sport HSSE, which is an expensive car.
Speaker 1: There are tons of them available, and it's mostly because
Speaker 1: the reliability downgrades their appeal as a used car. But yes,
Speaker 1: I was interested in You mentioned the Defender. So I
Speaker 1: know someone in the UK who had the Defender as
Speaker 1: a hybrid and says he get because I think it
Speaker 1: was forty five miles local. So all your local driving
Speaker 1: is ev But if you want to go from London
Speaker 1: to take the Channel to Paris, you can tank up
Speaker 1: and you could make that trip. Yeah. I love that,
Speaker 1: and I and I think you know I am. I
Speaker 1: am neither for nor against EVS. I do feel genuinely
Speaker 1: neutral about it. I think, Okay, they're probably gonna happen
Speaker 1: great um, But it is true that like now that
Speaker 1: I'm living in Los Angeles, I can't drive to Vegas
Speaker 1: in an e V without stopping for a considerable amount
Speaker 1: of time, I mean more than that to try to
Speaker 1: get a recharge. Yeah, I mean realistically, you can't drive
Speaker 1: up to San Francisco and an EV. The hybrid solves
Speaker 1: that problem, that's right. Yeah, and you still have decent efficiencies.
Speaker 1: So and the same thing with the Ranger over that
Speaker 1: HSSE Sport. The new version which looks lovely, is also
Speaker 1: available in a hybrid in the UK. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's here, but what's the Giant Range Rovers the land
Speaker 1: Rover that is here with a hybrid, so you do
Speaker 1: get arguably the best of both worlds. You're not a
Speaker 1: fan of the Defenders. I think they could have done
Speaker 1: a little better. Like the rear box. You know how
Speaker 1: in the rear the rear quarters there's a box there.
Speaker 1: It's a step now, um that blocks a lot of
Speaker 1: vision when you're driving it. I have an X four,
Speaker 1: so I know all about that blind spot back. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's bad. I just think they could have
Speaker 1: done a little bit better. I don't know. To me,
Speaker 1: it just like I think Broncho. You know how they
Speaker 1: brought the Bronco set looks amazing, what a great job.
Speaker 1: Just had the raptor. Oh my god, have you driven
Speaker 1: the F one Lightning? You know? I had it for
Speaker 1: a week. Okay, amazing. Just first of all, if you're
Speaker 1: not a pickup guy or a girl, right, it's immense
Speaker 1: and it's you know, almost to the end exactly what
Speaker 1: the internal combustion version is. So it's immense. But by
Speaker 1: the way, the Bronco. I had the Bronco for a
Speaker 1: week also, and so I have an old jeep rubicon.
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing about the shape of the Jeep
Speaker 1: is it's a great glass greenhouse. You can see everything,
Speaker 1: and the way the fenders are set off of the hood,
Speaker 1: you could see your corners. You really the Bronco is
Speaker 1: a giant rectangle and you can't see anything. I mean,
Speaker 1: your greenhouse is clean and you can see out the
Speaker 1: back and they have great cameras, but you're completely blind
Speaker 1: what's in front of the truck for like ten ft.
Speaker 1: It's other than that, it was a blast. We took
Speaker 1: it on the beach. We want to what into from
Speaker 1: Jeep to Bronco. No, because the Jeep I haveicon and
Speaker 1: it just goes anywhere. And I'm not like a crazy
Speaker 1: jeep guy. But my house is set up on a
Speaker 1: hill and four wheel drive cars in the rain have
Speaker 1: a hard time getting up there, so the snow is impossible.
Speaker 1: And the jeep just it just laughs at everything. It's like,
Speaker 1: yeah for the snow, for degree angle, no no issues. Um.
Speaker 1: If I was looking to replace that, I would consider
Speaker 1: the Bronco Um. Two of my neighbors have one. They
Speaker 1: both love it. One has the convertible and the other
Speaker 1: one has a four door, and you know every I
Speaker 1: had it for a week. I thought it was a blast.
Speaker 1: It seems unstoppable. The the F one fifty was just
Speaker 1: a holy Let me ask you about that. You said
Speaker 1: it was amazing, amazing for a Ford or amazing for
Speaker 1: any V. So I've never had any SUV, and I've
Speaker 1: driven e vs, but not I mean pickup. I've never
Speaker 1: had a pick up Um, and I've driven evs, but
Speaker 1: I haven't really had them for a week or so.
Speaker 1: So the first thing I learned is, and I wrote
Speaker 1: a long review on it, I plugged it in and
Speaker 1: that lights up and the next morning I come out
Speaker 1: and there's no change. Oh it lights up orange. I
Speaker 1: have to really put this in, so now it's lightning
Speaker 1: up blue. And then on a one twenty without a
Speaker 1: special charger, you're adding like two miles, not an out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a trickle. And then what was interesting We went
Speaker 1: to the beach and they were all these fast chargers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well there are semi fast charges. And so we're on
Speaker 1: the at the beach for two hours. And I it
Speaker 1: cost me six dollars and nine cents to add forty
Speaker 1: eight miles, so kind of like three dollars a gallon.
Speaker 1: It seems pretty cheap. Um, it's still like like the Hummer.
Speaker 1: It's stupid fast food size and weight. It's just stupid.
Speaker 1: And it's a full pickup bed. So I dragged out
Speaker 1: to the beach house. I dragged um. You ever see
Speaker 1: the roman arch for hammocks. I had one taking apart
Speaker 1: it's like sixt okay, I threw that in the back.
Speaker 1: I threw a six foot table I had taken apart.
Speaker 1: I threw a big um four burner webber. I just
Speaker 1: loaded up with stuff and I'm like, I got a
Speaker 1: ton more room back here. So I anybody who's using stuff, Um,
Speaker 1: I appreciate having a pickup, but to me, it's like
Speaker 1: the SUVs. So I have an X four the ex
Speaker 1: similar to the X six or g L E that
Speaker 1: rounded back, and friends tell me, oh, look how much
Speaker 1: space you're giving up. I'm like, twice a year I
Speaker 1: fill the back of the truck all the way up.
Speaker 1: The other three days I have to look at an
Speaker 1: ugly wrecktime. I'd rather have something that's a little sexier.
Speaker 1: And if I really need to, I'll either make two
Speaker 1: trips or take two cars or rent a truck if
Speaker 1: that's what I really need. But but some people are
Speaker 1: just can't wrap their head around does the look of
Speaker 1: a car matter to you relative to its utility? And
Speaker 1: if it's not your only car, Hey, listen, if I
Speaker 1: had one car, then okay, maybe I got too many cars.
Speaker 1: So to me, it's not issue. Um, we were discussing
Speaker 1: building a garage. So it's the crossing over into territory.
Speaker 1: A friend said to me, Um, one two is either
Speaker 1: too few or two many. It's like, that's a very
Speaker 1: good point. And and so I'm at the point where
Speaker 1: six cars are either too few. Actually five, I totalled
Speaker 1: my wife's panamara, everybody's fine. It was this was this
Speaker 1: was December, um, the January five or something like that.
Speaker 1: Five miles an hour slowed down to make a left,
Speaker 1: and the person behind me thought I was pulling over
Speaker 1: crossed a double yellow and you look in your review
Speaker 1: mirror in a truck, there's no one behind me. So
Speaker 1: I make the left and shatiboned us and Panamara Forest
Speaker 1: got It was six months old. And the funny thing
Speaker 1: was I got twenty four grand more than I paid
Speaker 1: for the car because the market prices had gone up
Speaker 1: so insane. So other than chipping my tooth and being
Speaker 1: sore for a week, it happened in right in front
Speaker 1: of my dentist building. So when I called and said, hey,
Speaker 1: I chipped a tooth and car accident, I can I
Speaker 1: come in tomorrow, She's like that wasn't you in front
Speaker 1: our building? Wasn't I'm like, yeah, they heard, they heard boom.
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing is the woman who was driving
Speaker 1: the Lexus truck that hit us. She went to the hospital.
Speaker 1: She was fine. Turned out she's fine, She's just nervous
Speaker 1: and whatever. But it was scared and shaken up. But
Speaker 1: my wife and I were like, black and blue car
Speaker 1: accidents are no fun. But you know, the Panamara did
Speaker 1: what was supposed to all the air base came down.
Speaker 1: The only weird thing is as it's happening. I'm like
Speaker 1: trying to recover the skid and I can't. Your brain
Speaker 1: can't figure out what's going on because nothing's operating. You
Speaker 1: can't see, like you're blinded. The steering wheel doesn't respond.
Speaker 1: So when we stopped moving, I went to open the
Speaker 1: driver door and I couldn't open the door, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: something's wrong with the door. And I turned to my wife,
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you okay? There's something wrong with our door?
Speaker 1: And people came running over to the car. They opened
Speaker 1: hard door and took her out, and so I had
Speaker 1: to climb over the seat to get out, and I
Speaker 1: was genuinely shocked to see a car. Um. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just And I'm like a religious signaler and so normally
Speaker 1: I would absolutely swear on a stack of Bibles that
Speaker 1: I signaled. But the fact that the person went to
Speaker 1: pass us makes me wonder, Hey, was this the one
Speaker 1: time I made a left without saying only how much
Speaker 1: of it is my fault? I don't think it was.
Speaker 1: It's not your fault. Normally, when you're making a left,
Speaker 1: the assumption is it's your fault, right, I mean, but
Speaker 1: they crossed the double yellow line, so I don't look.
Speaker 1: New York is a no fault state, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Um But anyway, how do we get on this digression?
Speaker 1: We were talking about trucks and space to keep your cars.
Speaker 1: You got six cars, but now inside three inside jeep
Speaker 1: and the you are potentially looking at Oh I am
Speaker 1: we are at six. I got the f J. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I have a seventy eight f J, which I
Speaker 1: started rebuilding in sky blue with a white roof and
Speaker 1: a black interior. You sent me a picture of that.
Speaker 1: I started rebuilding one in Columbia pre pandemic. Then we
Speaker 1: went into lockdown and they said, listen, we can't hold
Speaker 1: onto the car. We have to We're stuck. Like, go ahead,
Speaker 1: sell it and we'll find another one when this is over.
Speaker 1: So long story short, rebuild a new one, imported to
Speaker 1: the US and January, it sits in customs for two
Speaker 1: months because they're so backed up in Port of Miami.
Speaker 1: Finally get up here in like February March, waiting for
Speaker 1: the last of the documentation to come in, which just
Speaker 1: came in like a week ago. UM. I had to
Speaker 1: get a certified translation of the purchase agreement because you
Speaker 1: can't send them something showing a hundred million pasos in
Speaker 1: in Spanish. They didn't want to hear that a v
Speaker 1: And so the car gets registered this week. So that's
Speaker 1: um so seven is too many. So the trucks are outside,
Speaker 1: the cars are inside. But at a certain point it's
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta make a decision. Am I going
Speaker 1: to build a garage for all these things? And it's
Speaker 1: work keeping six cars? Definitely, Yes, this is a part
Speaker 1: time job, just maintained, making sure the registrations are current,
Speaker 1: and making sure the batteries are and the insurance. And
Speaker 1: I put a trickle charger on the vets. Okay, wait,
Speaker 1: what corvette do you have? Sixty seven, Coop? I didn't
Speaker 1: know that. Ye all these show up on the way.
Speaker 1: I've been looking for a corps. I want to see
Speaker 1: three white Sony C three is the Corvette of my youth,
Speaker 1: like when I was in high school, was still ten
Speaker 1: years before that, but you know, they were used cars.
Speaker 1: Guys would buy a you know, a ten year old vet,
Speaker 1: and like I came very close to getting a sixty
Speaker 1: nine and yellow over black, and the prices hadn't gone up,
Speaker 1: and I started seeing the C twos and I'm like,
Speaker 1: these are just the most amazingly They're just so gorgeous there.
Speaker 1: I you know, I just saw one. I follow this
Speaker 1: thing called hobby car Corvettes, and I just saw they've
Speaker 1: got a white one in my birth year for sale
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, and I really red. Okay, C three series,
Speaker 1: I don't get the automatic California traffic though, I don't
Speaker 1: want to sit in So here's here's the one thing
Speaker 1: you have to know about the old vets, Okay, their tractors. Well,
Speaker 1: we know that with every old Lamborghini, the clutch is heavy,
Speaker 1: the steering heavy. This is where you want an automatic.
Speaker 1: I have drum brakes on this, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: is supposed to be the knuckle of the sea. I
Speaker 1: try and rotate all the cars out on the road
Speaker 1: once a week, although you know, on a daylight today
Speaker 1: when it's raining cats and dogs, it's not it's not
Speaker 1: coming out of the garage. Um, But it is to
Speaker 1: your point, it is a bit of a chore to
Speaker 1: maintain it. Six too many? Do you need twenty and
Speaker 1: a guy or like four? You know we have we
Speaker 1: each have a daily driver. So when I was younger,
Speaker 1: we each had a daily driver and there would be
Speaker 1: a convertible on the garage. So we had an old
Speaker 1: desk l for a long time, and then we had
Speaker 1: a Z four so there was always a fun car
Speaker 1: that we could take out on weekends. And you know
Speaker 1: what a third car? Hey, you start it once a month?
Speaker 1: Who kimes six cars? It's just it starts to be working.
Speaker 1: It's like cats, but for car guys keep acquir you know,
Speaker 1: like the crazy cat lady just keeps taking them in, right,
Speaker 1: That's that's what starts to happen. And once you go
Speaker 1: beyond a couple of cars just for what you need,
Speaker 1: it's well, what is the difference between having four extra
Speaker 1: cars and six extra cars? Not a lot? It's volume.
Speaker 1: It's excessive, right, either way is excessive. But my partner
Speaker 1: thinks I'm insane. My partners at work look at me
Speaker 1: and like, how many cars are you gonna buy? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know, Well, what about during the
Speaker 1: this market, isn't it wouldn't it be a bit smarter
Speaker 1: to put some cash into a car rather than I mean,
Speaker 1: I have my own theories about that, and I've been
Speaker 1: talking to a lot of people about it, But you
Speaker 1: know what, I hear at these elevated prices because I'm
Speaker 1: talking to collective old cars sold cars. Okay, how old
Speaker 1: is old? You know something something twenty years or older, vintage. Well,
Speaker 1: the vet is fifty years old and that's probably appreciated
Speaker 1: quiet it has since I got that. Last summer, in
Speaker 1: the beginning of the pandemic, I kind of accidentally bought
Speaker 1: an R eight on bring a trailer. So my I'm
Speaker 1: sitting outside reading a book and my wife says, John
Speaker 1: from Salt Lake City on the phone, and you know,
Speaker 1: I have bids out on fars and bids and bring
Speaker 1: a trailer like away from the market constantly. And you know,
Speaker 1: my credit card company thinks I'm crazy because you know
Speaker 1: they put the whole and um and I picked Hi,
Speaker 1: can I help you? Congratulations on the car, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what which car? And he said the R eight. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I won that. Really, that's fantastic. I will wait a second.
Speaker 1: Are you sure I was way off the market. And
Speaker 1: as I say that, I'm like, oh, this isn't life
Speaker 1: to tape. You just stepped in it. And he said,
Speaker 1: well tell you the truth. He goes, as you have
Speaker 1: any idea with the reserves, I'm like, no, how would
Speaker 1: I know that? He said, because two days ago I
Speaker 1: spoke to burn a Trailer and they took me into
Speaker 1: Long Reserve. He goes, you just barely beat out the
Speaker 1: reserve and I'm like, why did you lower the price?
Speaker 1: He's like, well, I have a new Ferrari coming. I
Speaker 1: make a room in the garage. Okay. So I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: I've always been a fan of the car. I love
Speaker 1: the gated shifter, and I think the V ten is
Speaker 1: kind of cheating as much fun as it is. The
Speaker 1: V eight in that is is a monster. Um so
Speaker 1: he so everything was. He was a little miffed at
Speaker 1: me because this was April of It took me like
Speaker 1: six weeks to arrange insurance and shipping because nobody was
Speaker 1: doing anything. So he I actually got an email from
Speaker 1: Bring a Trail which is like, hey, what's going on.
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, nobody's shipping cars. He was in Utah
Speaker 1: and I was like, nobody's shipping cars. I can't get
Speaker 1: my insurance company on the phone. What am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: Trust me, I will wire the money in advance. I
Speaker 1: just need to straighten all this stuff out. You need
Speaker 1: the cash I'll send the money today, just him. So
Speaker 1: so it was It was interesting because when the car arrived,
Speaker 1: I had all my paperwork, I had my insurance, I
Speaker 1: had my inspection, but d m V was closed. You
Speaker 1: couldn't register the car. So I would take I would
Speaker 1: take the auction. I would have a whole file, and
Speaker 1: I would go out each morning at seven am. And
Speaker 1: there's nobody on the road. There's no joggers, there's no
Speaker 1: no bicyclists, there's no other cars, and there are no police.
Speaker 1: So my local side roads became at that and that
Speaker 1: lasted about two months, three months, and then you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not an idiot. I want people their bicyclists or
Speaker 1: pedestrians or fun time is over seven am. In the
Speaker 1: beginning of the pandemic, there was a little sweet spot
Speaker 1: in there. It was a huge really get out on
Speaker 1: the road. I remember we drove once from Santa Monica
Speaker 1: and Los Angeles to downtown in about twelve minutes, and
Speaker 1: we were not even speeding that much. It was just
Speaker 1: open nobody. Usually that drive takes an hour at least.
Speaker 1: So I had my like stack of papers. I was
Speaker 1: fully anticipating a calm sation with the local constable saying,
Speaker 1: are you a booster an chance? Um? Years ago, I
Speaker 1: used to do that. I kind of stopped because it's
Speaker 1: a little it's just a little dirty feeling sometimes and
Speaker 1: I would rather charm my way out of a ticket.
Speaker 1: Saw the badges, the courtesies, they don't work the way
Speaker 1: they use. I never had one, but I always just
Speaker 1: thought that was kind of a nice thing. I had
Speaker 1: one from someone I worked with. A long story. I
Speaker 1: did some work for uh, the family of someone who
Speaker 1: passed away, and I got a shield as a thank you.
Speaker 1: And in New York City the shield worked great, but
Speaker 1: once it stopped working. In Nassau County, I I remember
Speaker 1: coming home from somewhere and getting pulled over and the
Speaker 1: cop was like apologetic, and he's like, listen, we we
Speaker 1: just can't. Hey man, you gotta so I learned as
Speaker 1: a kid just painfully honest with cops. Yes, when cops
Speaker 1: only over, it's like the scene from Liar Liar, That's
Speaker 1: how I am. And usually they basically, you know, they
Speaker 1: appreciate not blowing smoke up there behind because they're lied
Speaker 1: to all day long. Must be so right, So you know,
Speaker 1: tell the officer when he says how fast were you going?
Speaker 1: I said, well, officer, as I drove by, I saw
Speaker 1: you and I looked down and I looked at thedometer,
Speaker 1: and he goes and what did it say? It said,
Speaker 1: pull over because this office is going to have a
Speaker 1: few words with you. And they laugh, and yeah, you're
Speaker 1: being honest with them. You don't have to say, you know,
Speaker 1: I was twenty five over. You could say I thought
Speaker 1: you would want to have that down for my future,
Speaker 1: thought you would like to have it yet and you
Speaker 1: want to make you drive too far? That's it's really courtesy.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about some of your favorite columns of
Speaker 1: recent days. Starting with I mentioned Evi's and Harley's. Let's
Speaker 1: combine that Harley, Yeah, tell us about that cool bike.
Speaker 1: No clutch, right, no clutch, you don't have, no gears,
Speaker 1: no oil to replace, none of that. No rumble, no growl.
Speaker 1: What do they do for sound? Does have a sound?
Speaker 1: You know? It's like a worrying sound. It's if you're
Speaker 1: a Harley guy who's going to need the loud pipes,
Speaker 1: you're gonna object. Probably so as a kid writing dirt bikes,
Speaker 1: the expression always loved was loud pipes says, So what
Speaker 1: would you guys say, if you're relying on your alloud
Speaker 1: pipes to keep you safe, yeah, that's your trouble. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta be heads up and and honestly, you can
Speaker 1: do everything right and you can still get in trouble
Speaker 1: on a motorcycle. So I think, yes, loud pipes are
Speaker 1: can be nice, but that should not be your safety plans.
Speaker 1: The problem is when people see you coming, they see
Speaker 1: a little blurp instead of a big car. Your brain
Speaker 1: assumes you're further away. So the pipes kind of compensate
Speaker 1: for that. Uh potentially. And I would say on this
Speaker 1: the live Wire one, there is a noise associated with Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a loud pipe, but you could hear it. Um.
Speaker 1: And actually I am a big supporter. I think it
Speaker 1: makes sense for Harley to start having electric bikes. I
Speaker 1: love electric motorcycles. Actually, the act of riding a motorcycle
Speaker 1: I think is actually made more pure on an electric bike. Quiet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not disturbed by And I admit I am not
Speaker 1: a hardcore biker. I'm not someone who has to ride
Speaker 1: a bike every day. I enjoy it, but hey, I
Speaker 1: love the idea that you don't have to have um,
Speaker 1: you know, ears and nerves that are afraid because you've
Speaker 1: been on the bike all day and it's very loud,
Speaker 1: and it's been vibrating, and you've got the smell of
Speaker 1: the oil and just dirt. You don't have any of that,
Speaker 1: which I love. I and the Live Wire one I
Speaker 1: think is a great example. Zero does a great job.
Speaker 1: Zero is California based UH motorcycle maker and they have
Speaker 1: been around for years now and there's one in front
Speaker 1: of my office that every day. I love them. They
Speaker 1: I think they look very cool, they're powerful, they're nimble, um,
Speaker 1: they don't have any of the cultural baggage baggage that
Speaker 1: Harley might have. Um. And they're well made. They're awesome.
Speaker 1: You can recharge those in forty five minutes too, basically full,
Speaker 1: which is a lot better charging proposition than a car.
Speaker 1: So I'm a big fan. I really liked it. I
Speaker 1: did like the Live Wire one. They're coming out with
Speaker 1: an S two edition which has like a very cool
Speaker 1: livery on it and looks more like an off road
Speaker 1: bike that I think would be cool. Um, So I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to that too. Actually, that company is no
Speaker 1: longer owned Holly by Harley Davidson they've taken on other investors,
Speaker 1: and this is a new company that Harley spun off
Speaker 1: UM to share technology with and stuff. So top luxury
Speaker 1: convertibles from European supercars to US classics. There was some
Speaker 1: great car in that list. Well I can't remember exactly
Speaker 1: what I put on that list, but the first one
Speaker 1: that came to my mind is convertible. I mean, friend
Speaker 1: of mine has driven in spectacular if you can get
Speaker 1: the turbos. Get the turbos. Didn't because he wanted a
Speaker 1: stick shifting, and I think they stop them that I
Speaker 1: don't understand. I don't because they want the turbo to
Speaker 1: be the fastest. And yes, intellectually I understand the duel
Speaker 1: clutches faster than a stick, of course, but you want
Speaker 1: to shift your own. So every and every guy talked
Speaker 1: to that's the one thing they say. It's just really
Speaker 1: it doesn't make It makes theoretical sense maybe, but not
Speaker 1: logical sense to your buyer if you want to sell
Speaker 1: on them, right exactly. I came very close to buying
Speaker 1: a twenty four nine eleven Turbo point two And how
Speaker 1: many miles did I have on it? Not very many
Speaker 1: and just gorgeous white over with a black interior with
Speaker 1: red everything rich terrible love a white nine. It's just spectacular.
Speaker 1: And why didn't you buy it? Because I couldn't rationalize
Speaker 1: the price because because the same price. Um no, I
Speaker 1: think we're we peeked and sort of slipped a little
Speaker 1: bit in price and the price it was offered at
Speaker 1: while we were looking at it, like literally like watching
Speaker 1: the ticker. Yeah, it just kept going up and up.
Speaker 1: It was like watching the guests roll over. But man,
Speaker 1: another convertible I love, back to your point, the Bentley
Speaker 1: Continental GtC. So the only problem with that convertible is
Speaker 1: the coup is so spectacular. Yeah, but don't pull it
Speaker 1: against the I mean the coup for sure. I think
Speaker 1: one year, the year that it first came out, it
Speaker 1: might have been version Version that was my favorite car
Speaker 1: of the year. It's so it's just perfect. Those quilted seats,
Speaker 1: they're just it's so the one. So we all have regrets.
Speaker 1: I have a question about regrets. I came this close
Speaker 1: on bring a trailer. I ended up getting the R
Speaker 1: eight instead to getting a white on white um GtC
Speaker 1: coop not convertible, but it was the eights someone they're
Speaker 1: not which is fine for me, and um, and I
Speaker 1: just didn't pull the trigger or you know before in
Speaker 1: your another column of yours is how to buy cars
Speaker 1: online auctions, and I one of the rules you put
Speaker 1: down is one of my rules, you figure out in
Speaker 1: advance with the prices, and you don't go over that price.
Speaker 1: And the car sold for two grand over as far
Speaker 1: as I want to go. And that's one one of
Speaker 1: them that got away the white And why at the
Speaker 1: time you could not have known that you were so close,
Speaker 1: I mean right, that's why you thought it was going
Speaker 1: to keep my wife's panamera. I So every now and
Speaker 1: then you've got a bunch of people that have been
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, just falling around with the auctions.
Speaker 1: You could tell when someone is in a areus byre
Speaker 1: and and so you want to just have a knockout punch.
Speaker 1: That's sort of don't do the nickel and dime thing,
Speaker 1: right and so, and you know, maybe you pay a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars more, but you just scare everybody away. And
Speaker 1: I was shocked we got that car because the M
Speaker 1: S r P. And you could go to Monroney Labels
Speaker 1: to pull up the original M S r P sticker
Speaker 1: with all the options and what it literally cost except
Speaker 1: Ferraris don't work with that, but it works with most
Speaker 1: other other brands. And the Lunatic Coopard, not a Panamara
Speaker 1: Turbo or a GTS of Fors which is like middle
Speaker 1: of the line paid a hundred and sixties something for
Speaker 1: the car. They literally must have just gone che che
Speaker 1: che ch check every option and so you get to
Speaker 1: pay well less than half of that. That's a great
Speaker 1: deal for a use car. And and then you know
Speaker 1: the insurance company will pay you. Now you have to
Speaker 1: you pay more for market price or a stated value
Speaker 1: with your insurer. But hold that aside. Um, give me
Speaker 1: one other convertible that you really because there's nothing to
Speaker 1: dislike about the Bentley except you know their maintenance is expensive,
Speaker 1: and there they become more reliable for sure. No, the
Speaker 1: seven L T, I mean, if you want to talk
Speaker 1: high high high in supercars. I liked it in part
Speaker 1: because it was quote unquote more drivable than some of
Speaker 1: the contemporaries, just in terms of invisibility. I mean these
Speaker 1: things to me honestly, and I say this knowing we
Speaker 1: are very spoiled people. Yes, they're not relaxing and enjoyable
Speaker 1: to drive in city conditions, well, especially the special Sport
Speaker 1: edition there too. Frenetic, yes, and you know you always
Speaker 1: see the guys who like put them on a trailer
Speaker 1: to five blocks away from there they wanted. I've literally
Speaker 1: seen this at clubs in New York City to some
Speaker 1: unloading and then he pulls it around in front of it.
Speaker 1: Was that because they don't want to put the mileage on.
Speaker 1: I think it's everything you know, cobble stones. They don't
Speaker 1: want to put the mileage on. It's who wants to
Speaker 1: do that. I love my M six because it's got
Speaker 1: the settings for regular and then you can upgrade the steering,
Speaker 1: the suspension and the engine so you could go drive
Speaker 1: like a human. Hey let's have some fun. Okay, full
Speaker 1: blown hole again. And that's a convertible with the stick
Speaker 1: shift and I can never give that up because the
Speaker 1: eight is now also dual clutch, no more stick and
Speaker 1: I just think that's such a delightful car. Um. But
Speaker 1: it's not a hypercar. The McLaren is a hyper car.
Speaker 1: What's the what's the interior like? Is it? It's great?
Speaker 1: I mean it's very like I would say. It's back
Speaker 1: to our conversation about screens versus buttons. It's a nice medium. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, there's enough space to put like a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee. You know, some of these cars don't even
Speaker 1: have a holder. There's there's no cup holders in half
Speaker 1: the Ferrari. Yeah, there are some nods to practicality that
Speaker 1: I think, let's be realistic. Just because you're driving a
Speaker 1: supercar doesn't mean you're not going to have a coffee.
Speaker 1: So with my car club, when we go out, a
Speaker 1: bunch of us will go out, we will stop for coffee,
Speaker 1: throw the cups away, and then everybody gets in and
Speaker 1: drives and go right. Because I hope you still listen
Speaker 1: to the radio in your supercar um and not just
Speaker 1: the sound of the engine. So so some of the
Speaker 1: guys in the group, all of my cars are you know,
Speaker 1: modest comparatory, so my Audie or BMW. Although the funny
Speaker 1: thing is the car that attracts more attention everybody loves
Speaker 1: is the Vet and and it's like that light nasal
Speaker 1: blue with a white interior, like white interior. It's as
Speaker 1: gorgeous as as any car ever made. There aren't many
Speaker 1: in l A that said. A buddy has a Ferrari
Speaker 1: F four thirty without the stick. He got the F
Speaker 1: one in a in a spider and there is no
Speaker 1: radio in that. I mean there is one. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's ever been on the top down the
Speaker 1: v H right over your shoulder. It's astonishing, right, And
Speaker 1: that's his second Ferrari because the F fifty was his
Speaker 1: first love. And then he decided, Uh, life is short,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a convertible. Also, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people are feeling that, you know, you only
Speaker 1: live once in post pandem and you don't know when
Speaker 1: your number comes up. Sometimes you roll and if you
Speaker 1: can afford it. I think we're all feeling that, right.
Speaker 1: So there's a difference between me running around and spending
Speaker 1: fifty grands on a stupid little car and other people
Speaker 1: dropping multi six figures. And you know the thing I
Speaker 1: love about the BMW is my all changes forty bucks
Speaker 1: and you bring the Ferrari in and it's two thousand
Speaker 1: dollars by the time you're done with Oh, I had
Speaker 1: to replace some belts and a filter. I gave you
Speaker 1: a discount. It's that's a different experience in lifestyle. And
Speaker 1: let's just say, if you're gonna be very concerned about
Speaker 1: that type of maintenance on your car or minor you know,
Speaker 1: fixing minor things like things or chips or whatever. You
Speaker 1: probably can't afford the car, because you've got to be
Speaker 1: able to afford the car and what it's going to
Speaker 1: cost comfortably, be able to sleep at night so that
Speaker 1: you're not just being a jerk about it about who
Speaker 1: sits in it or who parks. You gotta d you
Speaker 1: gotta enjoy it. You can't worry about the mileage right
Speaker 1: in fact, crest that amount of resources to spind on it.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think you can afford it. Really,
Speaker 1: His ferraris have what are what have kept me away?
Speaker 1: Because every like the other day they were both in
Speaker 1: the shop and he's like, you want to go for
Speaker 1: a ride? I said, and he's like, I got no cars?
Speaker 1: What do you mean? Where's the eleven? So the struggle
Speaker 1: is real. These are these are very back and forth
Speaker 1: from the Burbs into New York City every day in
Speaker 1: the nine eleven convert doable with a stick. So so yeah, right,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, the struggle is really absolutely so. A couple
Speaker 1: of other pieces I got to ask about Mercedes trimming
Speaker 1: entry level cars to focus on high end. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: have a vivid recollection of when Mercedes was, why are
Speaker 1: you going down market? You're going for volume, you're high end. No,
Speaker 1: we have to do this in order to expand our
Speaker 1: reach and blah blah blah. Yes, what happened they realized
Speaker 1: they don't have to anymore. I think they got tired
Speaker 1: of competing with BMW for the biggest luxury automaker, and
Speaker 1: they started making these super high end um you know
Speaker 1: series uh, with the A, MG, G T, with their
Speaker 1: G wagons that just as we spoke about our over
Speaker 1: two dollar versions, um, they are doing more with the
Speaker 1: my Bok brand, which which was it's it's it's very
Speaker 1: touch and go. Some years they make cars, some years
Speaker 1: they don't. And I've asked them about it and they
Speaker 1: just said, well, you know, some years sometimes right. But
Speaker 1: the years that they do make the my Bok, it's
Speaker 1: so profitable for him. And I just think there they
Speaker 1: were already slicing the pie so thinly. I couldn't, you know,
Speaker 1: my job was to think about this. I couldn't even
Speaker 1: look at a car and tell you what C series
Speaker 1: it was, C Class it was, or you know, the
Speaker 1: A class or is an ear, you know, it's it
Speaker 1: was becoming a very thinly sliced pie. And I think
Speaker 1: the same was happening to margins. But then, you know,
Speaker 1: you start to realize this trend of there seems to
Speaker 1: be no lack of people wanting to spend money on cars,
Speaker 1: a lot of money. And when you start to personalize
Speaker 1: it and offer all of these special editions and way
Speaker 1: to make it your own, especially in the higher models,
Speaker 1: the profits are so lucrative there you don't have to
Speaker 1: make the lower one. Right. Look at BMW, well there's
Speaker 1: no longer one, but there's a two with three or
Speaker 1: four or five. They stopped the six, seven and eight,
Speaker 1: and then on the trucks is an X one x
Speaker 1: two x three x four X free. Now in the
Speaker 1: eyes the electric version, you know, the I X, the
Speaker 1: I three, the I eight of course, which let's put
Speaker 1: a pin on that we need a new car, a
Speaker 1: halo car from BMW that I ate was almost a
Speaker 1: fabulous car. They put that dumb three cylinder engine in there.
Speaker 1: If they would have put the M three twin turbo six,
Speaker 1: that would have been a monster. That would have been
Speaker 1: a like that car for the agent. I love that
Speaker 1: car and everyone. They beat everyone when that came out,
Speaker 1: that hybrid that wasn't Yeah, and now it's like, well,
Speaker 1: what have you really followed that with In terms of
Speaker 1: something that's exciting. They've got evs, but nothing that's really exciting.
Speaker 1: That I ate with a real engine would have been
Speaker 1: the first hybrid supercar out there. So so let's talk
Speaker 1: about hybrid supercars. You did a column on Rema and
Speaker 1: what they're doing for Porsche Bugatti, whoever else so interesting
Speaker 1: Porsche Bugatti brand, this brand, I mean, mate, Remac is
Speaker 1: a young man. When I spoke with him last year
Speaker 1: at Pebble Beach, he was around thirty. Don't really, he
Speaker 1: is a young man together. He's got The amount of
Speaker 1: money that he's got Porsche giving him to make components
Speaker 1: and other things that they won't talk about is fascinating.
Speaker 1: I think this is really it's already his Remax are gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Also gorgeous. Um and I'm already working on They tell
Speaker 1: me they're going to have a production car that I
Speaker 1: can get into in the States, um next month, no kidding.
Speaker 1: And when is it going to be for sale? We
Speaker 1: have no idea, I don't know. Yeah, that's the weird
Speaker 1: thing is like, why are you telling me about cars? Now?
Speaker 1: This is why as a reviewer, this is a problem
Speaker 1: I had with the Cadillac Lyric. They have us in
Speaker 1: a car, but then they tell us, well, it's it's
Speaker 1: not a production version. Right. Well, then it's like that
Speaker 1: means that any thing I say that's wrong with it,
Speaker 1: you guys can just say, well, it was a pre production. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: they've sent a few out but they won't say how many.
Speaker 1: And then the next batch is going to be around
Speaker 1: in so it's it's still a year in the future.
Speaker 1: Might as well claim sculpture. Yeah, get us excited a
Speaker 1: year from now. This is very anti climactic. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: to say, to say the very least, let's talk about
Speaker 1: my favorite column of yours. Want to take up track driving,
Speaker 1: don't make these rookie mistakes. So how often you want
Speaker 1: a track where you're really letting loose? I would say
Speaker 1: five times a year. Okay, yeah, I try to get
Speaker 1: up twice a year, but that's great for me. It's
Speaker 1: like if Fugatti's got something, McLaren, Lamborghini, and Ferrari, they're
Speaker 1: all great about having people on the track. Actually, Masserati
Speaker 1: just had a track day that new to to whatever
Speaker 1: it is to twenty C whatever is the m C. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. That's a very handsome car, Maserati
Speaker 1: MC twenty very good looking car. We had it on
Speaker 1: the track at Willow Springs, which is like the local
Speaker 1: track in l A. It's old track, historic, so you're
Speaker 1: burning through through through tires and breaks like. No, not
Speaker 1: at all. I mean. The thing with with journalist track
Speaker 1: days is that it's a very controlled environment. Which is
Speaker 1: not to say that people don't go off the track.
Speaker 1: People go off the track, but bad habits on the
Speaker 1: track for well, I'll talk about for me, and I
Speaker 1: have no pretense to being a professional car racer. I
Speaker 1: am not pay attention. That's the number. This is the
Speaker 1: number one. I don't believe that I lose focus so quickly.
Speaker 1: I get bored after about two laps really, which causes
Speaker 1: you to be very sleepy on other things. You know,
Speaker 1: it just causes you to flood breaking and you know,
Speaker 1: turn into early. All the other things to me come
Speaker 1: from a lack of attention and focus. All right. So
Speaker 1: we were just up on line rocket one with a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys and you know you're in a full
Speaker 1: no Mexic you have the right and then you put
Speaker 1: the hood on, the helmet on, and you have to
Speaker 1: kind of back your way into the seat, and can
Speaker 1: you even turn your head? You can't. You can see
Speaker 1: why if one drivers have to work out because your
Speaker 1: neur the next day. And and they sent you in
Speaker 1: so tightly. And I don't get panic attacks. I'm not claustrophobic.
Speaker 1: I have no fear of heights. That sort of stuff
Speaker 1: doesn't bother me. They sent me in so tight I
Speaker 1: felt like I couldn't breathe, And for a moment, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is a horrible mistake. You're going to pass out
Speaker 1: from lack of oxygen until you leave the pit lane
Speaker 1: and then you are just so hyper focused that you
Speaker 1: just completely forget your body. Yeah, I forgot how uncomfortable
Speaker 1: I was. The rest of the world fell away. It
Speaker 1: was just me, the wheel, the gas bathing, remember to breathe.
Speaker 1: You don't even think about it. Just autonomous system takes over.
Speaker 1: I will say, I don't know how you lose. Actually,
Speaker 1: this was in a roush Mustang, which is what sevener.
Speaker 1: What do you do in in like a full blown midden?
Speaker 1: Like it's like Ferdinand out in the pasture. I'm just
Speaker 1: looking at daisies. I will say, I will say, I think, um,
Speaker 1: everybody will improve their on street driving by having a
Speaker 1: track day, for sure, because it first of all the
Speaker 1: proper placement of your arms and your knees and your legs.
Speaker 1: I think most people get completely wrong the moment they
Speaker 1: get into a car first time. It's skip barber. You're
Speaker 1: doing these these different skill trainings and these different semi
Speaker 1: courses before you own the track. And the instructor is
Speaker 1: constantly tenant. Both hands ten and two, both hands on
Speaker 1: the wheel with an elbow, and so he's like, you
Speaker 1: drop your hand off the wheel to shift gears, keep
Speaker 1: your three whatever is really what you want to have
Speaker 1: with a ninety degree angle angle. But they want your
Speaker 1: thumbs over lightly slightly light touch. So the skid pad.
Speaker 1: So we got to use the new supers on the
Speaker 1: skid pad. And you know, I'm pretty good at recovering
Speaker 1: from a skid, but it's a little frenetic. And this
Speaker 1: instructor said, dude, just relax, just leave flow. Suddenly, it's
Speaker 1: just light easy, smooth is fast. Smooth is fast correct.
Speaker 1: And the other thing I think really it does really
Speaker 1: teach you is to keep your eyes up and look ahead,
Speaker 1: look where you want to go. If you're looking at
Speaker 1: the corner, it's already too late. You've got to be
Speaker 1: looking at the next one already. And I think that
Speaker 1: really helps you. When you're on the street driving, just
Speaker 1: anticipate where other people are, what they're doing, Stay alert,
Speaker 1: stay focused far ahead, not just down the hood of
Speaker 1: your car, but be thinking like two or three turns ahead,
Speaker 1: and everything else will flow from that, especially when you're driving. Sist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't look thirty ft ahead. You're already to slam
Speaker 1: on the brake. It's going to stop. You have to
Speaker 1: look way past that. It's really interesting. What other rookie
Speaker 1: mistakes do you want to? Um? The other thing that
Speaker 1: I do find myself, I'll just speak for myself, because
Speaker 1: you know why not, UM, don't focus on the other people,
Speaker 1: focused on your own line on the track. That's the
Speaker 1: number one thing, you know. If you if you get
Speaker 1: so that for me, if I get so wrapped into
Speaker 1: trying to keep up with so and so who's in
Speaker 1: front of me, or so and so who I think
Speaker 1: is coming breathing down my back, I'm going to get
Speaker 1: all tents and all anxious and whatever, and I'm not
Speaker 1: going to have the best line going into a turn.
Speaker 1: Come yeah. But you know, um, sometimes you're in two groups.
Speaker 1: One group might overtake another group, you know. Of course,
Speaker 1: then there's always someone who's going to be sort of
Speaker 1: behind the pack, and sometimes you end up lapping them.
Speaker 1: So it can be a little bit like we had
Speaker 1: a guy tap out, not with our group, with a
Speaker 1: different group. He was like, I just stressful. Yeah, here's
Speaker 1: the crazy thing. You're following. The fun thing about the instructors.
Speaker 1: You're in these hopped up seven horsepower Ford Mustang Raush
Speaker 1: editions or the last time we were there was R
Speaker 1: S four's, Non elevens and M three's and they're driving
Speaker 1: street cars. They're driving Ultimus cameras and it's all you
Speaker 1: can do to keep up with them because they are
Speaker 1: so good. But but here's the thing that I kind
Speaker 1: of figured out about halfway through the track day was
Speaker 1: wait a second, I'm in a high performance track tuned vehicle.
Speaker 1: If the camera can make it through with the speed,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure this car can. And once you get
Speaker 1: that in your head, it's like people saying, wow, are
Speaker 1: you a flying around the track. I was just doing
Speaker 1: what he was doing. The assumption is if he made
Speaker 1: it through the earn, I'm gonna make I'm just following
Speaker 1: his Really, see, the driver makes all the difference. I've
Speaker 1: seen some of the pros. They'll take a minivan out
Speaker 1: just for fun and lead the journalists around in a
Speaker 1: mini I mean, it's hilarious and there we're still doing
Speaker 1: all we can just to keep up, because it really does.
Speaker 1: You know, a good driver in a bad car is
Speaker 1: probably always going to be better and faster than a
Speaker 1: bad driver in a good car. So you get to
Speaker 1: go on tracks five times? Yeah, yeah, their cars? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the car. How often you do anything where you're not
Speaker 1: reviewing a car where you're just reviewing the track? Like
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember, did did you do the Was
Speaker 1: it the Lamborghini driving school or the Mercedes? I did
Speaker 1: a Ferrari driver which great memory, which I would just plug.
Speaker 1: You know, every major well worth it, right, completely well
Speaker 1: worth it. Anyone can google Ferrari Driving School, BMW Driving School,
Speaker 1: Asid Martin driving School, any of these, they all have
Speaker 1: driving schools. They are so fun. The instructors are like
Speaker 1: your best code, your favorite coach. They're there to help
Speaker 1: you succeed there. It's fun. You can do it with
Speaker 1: family members, you know, friends, co workers. I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1: And that was to your point, less about the car
Speaker 1: and more to just about improving as a driver, like
Speaker 1: you really can't the average driver is not going to
Speaker 1: be running a Ferrari at the limits of its perm No.
Speaker 1: And it goes back to the point that it makes
Speaker 1: when you do get back on the road. It makes
Speaker 1: that driving so much more pleasant because you're aware of
Speaker 1: what a car can really do, so that you're not
Speaker 1: intimidated just to drive on the highway. I mean, because
Speaker 1: you've seen, even if you aren't driving it yourself, you
Speaker 1: see the instructors do things with cars that are unbelievable,
Speaker 1: and you realize we are normal everyday driving. We don't
Speaker 1: get near the limits what can do. And I recall
Speaker 1: being on the highway a couple of years ago and
Speaker 1: there was an incident that the only reason I managed
Speaker 1: not to plow into this accident in front of me
Speaker 1: was because of the training that they had. So you know,
Speaker 1: there's only so much traction on a tire. You can
Speaker 1: either put it all on breaking and put it on turning,
Speaker 1: but you can't do both, and that's how people get
Speaker 1: into trouble. And I remember saying, I'm I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: stay with the break as long as I can loosen
Speaker 1: up and turn away. But I had to bleed off
Speaker 1: that speed. And you know, if it was skip Barber,
Speaker 1: I would have been the third or fourth car in
Speaker 1: that you kind of realize, Okay, it's weight management a
Speaker 1: lot of the time when you're especially if you're like, well,
Speaker 1: it's it's weird. It's whether the car is sitting on
Speaker 1: the on the back tires or sitting on the front tires.
Speaker 1: And that transition is also where a lot of people
Speaker 1: get control. So so let's talk about one other piece
Speaker 1: you wrote that I have to ask about, which is
Speaker 1: this sort of ode to l A. You did tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about that, and you're kind of
Speaker 1: bicoastalk l A. Tell us about l A and what's
Speaker 1: New York like these days? UM, I would say first
Speaker 1: of all that I love New York more than anything.
Speaker 1: I identify as a New Yorker. I've I've lived here
Speaker 1: for seventeen years. I'm originally from Oregon, but really came
Speaker 1: Do you still have an apartment here, but I do
Speaker 1: have a driver's license. I'm a New York Booster through
Speaker 1: and through. But I will say California has two things
Speaker 1: that New York doesn't have. Actually, I like that. I
Speaker 1: like the seasons. I like the weather in in New York.
Speaker 1: I prefer it because California just boring. No. I love winter.
Speaker 1: That's my second favorite season in New York behind fall. Anyway,
Speaker 1: California has better Mexican food than New York City, and
Speaker 1: it has better car culture. I have to say that
Speaker 1: the right the driving roads in in and around Los
Speaker 1: Angeles especially are world class. And I have been everywhere.
Speaker 1: The roads there are phenomenal, especially during COVID when driving
Speaker 1: was the only thing we could really do. It really
Speaker 1: was wonderful to drive on the canyon roads outside Malibu,
Speaker 1: to drive up Angelie's crests up Highway, to to drive
Speaker 1: out to the desert Joshua Tree. I mean, there's so
Speaker 1: many options specific Coast Highway of course. Um So that
Speaker 1: has been really lovely. Um that said, I'm really happy
Speaker 1: to be back in New York. At the moment. New
Speaker 1: York does seem different since I've left and since COVID.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've recognized. So the residential parts of New
Speaker 1: York are just jamming, but you go into the town,
Speaker 1: it's a little it's it's funny the Bloomberg Building, which
Speaker 1: is now hybrid for now. Yes, a nice sunny day,
Speaker 1: this building is probably what a full strength but if
Speaker 1: you have your choice, it's pouring rain. Why am I
Speaker 1: going to come in today in complete? Unless I have
Speaker 1: a podcast? Um pre war car market? Why is for
Speaker 1: every reason we've just described, Because we're all sitting at
Speaker 1: home looking at bring a trailer with a lot of
Speaker 1: time in our hands. We might have some extra money
Speaker 1: that we haven't spent on travel or you know, we've
Speaker 1: pulled out of the stock market because it's a bit
Speaker 1: scary and we are just putting it into our project cars. Also,
Speaker 1: I think to your point, there's a sensibility of like, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going to happen in the future.
Speaker 1: I'm going to enjoy this now, and things were meant
Speaker 1: to be enjoyed. Cars especially, I mean, it's it's just
Speaker 1: a shame when you see some of these cars and
Speaker 1: they're not really driven and enjoyed. That's always so there.
Speaker 1: I stopped even commenting on cards and bids or or
Speaker 1: bring a trailer about this. But every time I see
Speaker 1: a favorite car come up with like a hundred miles, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like there are some Carrara gts that had very
Speaker 1: low mind as an investment, and you know it's like,
Speaker 1: come on, it's sort of when when the speculators come
Speaker 1: into your favorite space, the neighborhood gentrifies, you have to
Speaker 1: move and all the fun goes out of it. Um
Speaker 1: and there's like a handful of us who want about
Speaker 1: and everybody else shouts them down. But but that's always
Speaker 1: like why buy the car? So so part of the
Speaker 1: appeal of something like um, so I didn't get the four,
Speaker 1: I got three seven the vet because the or the
Speaker 1: sixty three for that matter, with the accidental split real window,
Speaker 1: which is worth a hundred grand more than my car,
Speaker 1: because at that price. Listen, anything you pay less than
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars for you could drive and you'll
Speaker 1: get most of your money back if it's a collectible.
Speaker 1: But to three four hundred thousand allars, suddenly every mile
Speaker 1: you start driving has a dollar figure associated with Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think for all of those cars.
Speaker 1: I think for some maybe, um, really special cars that
Speaker 1: maybe have a particular history or a racing history. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think part of the thing too,
Speaker 1: is there a lot more events that you can use
Speaker 1: your collectible car. Four. I mean rallies, meat ups, um, concourse, completely,
Speaker 1: there's a lot more of that stuff and everyone just
Speaker 1: wants to do it, and you're gonna want to show
Speaker 1: up in something cool. So I think that's driving a
Speaker 1: lot of it too. And I also think it's considered
Speaker 1: cool to drive your car. Now. Hey man, that's how
Speaker 1: I roll. To me. It's it's the thought of saying, well,
Speaker 1: I just spent all this money and time and effort
Speaker 1: to keep this car running and well maintained, you know,
Speaker 1: to say I'm just gonna leave this. It's not good
Speaker 1: for the car to just sit. No. No, it's not
Speaker 1: the only issue I have with that is it's hard
Speaker 1: to find leaded gas for that last column question, Jennifer
Speaker 1: Connolly's nine eleven and top. So it's funny because when
Speaker 1: we saw the movie recently and when he pulls up
Speaker 1: in front of her house on the motorcycle, I leaned
Speaker 1: over to my wife, I'm like, nice, nine eleven. I
Speaker 1: bet that's hers, because why would they leave it there.
Speaker 1: I had no idea that that was a collector's car.
Speaker 1: That guy had loaned it to the two of them
Speaker 1: to the shoot in California too, and they found him
Speaker 1: through um, a couple of guys sort of in the
Speaker 1: leftical world. They now. I spoke with the director of
Speaker 1: that movie. He claims it was a loane, that the
Speaker 1: guy just loaned him. It didn't even charge him, you know, really, yeah,
Speaker 1: just because he's a car guy, he's part of this
Speaker 1: our group. Mean, while your car is the nine eleven
Speaker 1: in Maverick top gun, right, what do I have to
Speaker 1: pay for that price? And he he has some other
Speaker 1: cool cars. I did a little research, So he's just
Speaker 1: a car guy at ten eleven something like that. And
Speaker 1: and what was it Kelly McGuinness at a speedster in
Speaker 1: the first she had a three fifty six. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: actually wasn't a real one if I was a replica.
Speaker 1: It was a replica made by a Canadian company. But still, like, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that that's good. They a frame. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it makes perfect sense, perfect, you know. And it actually
Speaker 1: the whole thing about the f eighteens versus the fifth generation.
Speaker 1: You couldn't stick with the three fifty s. Make it fresh.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about F one. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: Netflix show enormously yep enormously popular. I'm I'm halfway through
Speaker 1: the fourth season. I mean, I know there are spoilers,
Speaker 1: but you know it's still on it. Daniel Ricardo on
Speaker 1: McLaren like, he's such an interesting character, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: ruining for him. And then Carlos says, who moved over
Speaker 1: to Ferrari, Like, here's a kid who just grew up
Speaker 1: worshiping Ferrari. The fact that he's driving for them, you
Speaker 1: could just see like the glee every time he puts
Speaker 1: on that red driver's suit. That that just really interesting.
Speaker 1: The challenging thing is wrapping your hand around the competition
Speaker 1: between the drivers on the same team, because it is
Speaker 1: supposed to be a team, right. Yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: been very interesting, especially this year, to see Lewis Hamilton's
Speaker 1: as he fights his way back to the top and
Speaker 1: how the whole team, you know, goes around him to
Speaker 1: make that happen. I mean, he passed Michael Schumacher in
Speaker 1: like just about every record. Yeah, and to your point,
Speaker 1: it's been great to see how George Russell has really
Speaker 1: taken his role as the supporter so we can get
Speaker 1: Louis forward. They seem to have a really good working relationship.
Speaker 1: I think in in past years with other teams it's
Speaker 1: been a lot more competitive with the drivers on the
Speaker 1: Mercedes team, but George Russell seems to be such a
Speaker 1: team player. He's so young and enthusiastic, and he's so
Speaker 1: good too that he really pushes Louis forward. And you know,
Speaker 1: when you're that age, you could say, hey, my time
Speaker 1: will come. Avenge, the guy who runs the Mercedes Toto,
Speaker 1: what's his total Wolf, such a fascinating character on the
Speaker 1: Netflix show, as is the guy who runs the Red
Speaker 1: Bull team and the guy who runs McLaren. It's really
Speaker 1: it's a cast of characters, which is really um, I'm
Speaker 1: really glad Liberty Media has taken an aggressive stance to
Speaker 1: promoting Formula One in the US. I mean it's actually
Speaker 1: taken years and years to get proper broadcasting, proper promotion,
Speaker 1: proper tracks and tracks. So you have Miami, you have
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, which takes us we don't know those three
Speaker 1: for sure. Vegas is going to happen for the first
Speaker 1: time in this current era next year at some point
Speaker 1: in the fall. I think they still have yet to
Speaker 1: release a date. Miami just happened. I saw the final numbers.
Speaker 1: They're claiming two d and forty thousand tickets, which is insane,
Speaker 1: like Super Bowl plus two Super Bowls. And it's so
Speaker 1: interesting because most of my friends are not in the
Speaker 1: car world, but they were asked asking me about the
Speaker 1: Miami race. They for whatever reason, and this is all
Speaker 1: from Netflix. Yes, And what Let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about Audi and Porsche joining Formula one. What why after
Speaker 1: all these years, you would have thought Porsche would have
Speaker 1: been right in there the whole time. Well, Porsche has
Speaker 1: in the past, had UM supplied parts to Formula One
Speaker 1: in the past. It's been in and out, and of
Speaker 1: course has focused on other racing series, including Formula E.
Speaker 1: You know if they got a team, the racing team
Speaker 1: with Tag Hoyer in Formula E right now. But I
Speaker 1: think what has caused part of this is Formula One
Speaker 1: has announced that they're going to be changing some of
Speaker 1: the rules for the engines in the next few years,
Speaker 1: which will allow UM new and hybrid technology, more hybrid
Speaker 1: technology to be involved in the cars. And I think
Speaker 1: brands like portion Audi are seeing they want to be there,
Speaker 1: they want to be there. It's growing and it will
Speaker 1: really truly help them develop their electric technologies for future
Speaker 1: consumer cars. Since we're talking about Portion AUTI let's talk
Speaker 1: about the area offerings the take Can, especially the Turbo
Speaker 1: spectacular car, the g t Etron other than the fact
Speaker 1: it was a horrible olive drab color, and these are
Speaker 1: really lovely cars, yes, but they're very pricey. When do
Speaker 1: these things sort of become a middle class purchase? And
Speaker 1: I know what I'm talking about Porsche, Like the McCanns
Speaker 1: starts at fifty grand and the Cayman starts at around
Speaker 1: the same price, so they are middle upper middle class cars.
Speaker 1: But when do the evs come down, Well, I think
Speaker 1: we might have to look outside the luxury automakers for
Speaker 1: evs that are are priced in a very affordable way.
Speaker 1: Hyundai has the evs that people are Korean Kia Ionic
Speaker 1: is which brand is that? So those cars are reasonably priced,
Speaker 1: fully featured, it's not like they're missing a whole lot.
Speaker 1: But to your answer your point about Porsche, and I
Speaker 1: don't think we're going to see affordable e vs from
Speaker 1: those guys. For a long time. Why I can sell
Speaker 1: them at the high prices, so why would they need
Speaker 1: to go down at all. I would really consider a
Speaker 1: Tesla plaid the Tesla S except I have a lot
Speaker 1: of friends with Tesla's they're they're very ubiquitous. Well that's
Speaker 1: number one. It's an old design. But my real beef
Speaker 1: is the fit and finish of the interior. Still it's
Speaker 1: still a problem. And even back in the day when
Speaker 1: you would just gently are a matter of fact we
Speaker 1: point out these cars are not well made, it was
Speaker 1: like you had just attacked, you know, personally attacked Elon
Speaker 1: Musk and you were threatening his identity and all. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: but I got into I got into a Taken Turbo
Speaker 1: the other day. It's just a spectacular And yes, because
Speaker 1: it's done by a proper German automaker that has been
Speaker 1: doing this for seventies, was a really well made So
Speaker 1: I I do think just because the long the longstanding
Speaker 1: older automakers have not done electric vehicles until now doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they can't. Just means they haven't had two or
Speaker 1: they haven't wanted to. But now that they're starting to
Speaker 1: make them, we're finally getting actual luxury quality fit and
Speaker 1: finish manufacturing, you know, body panels fitting together properly, software
Speaker 1: that actually works. We are not getting this from Lucid,
Speaker 1: Ribby and Tesla, which are startups. The one thing I
Speaker 1: could say about Tesla, I think there's technology, and their
Speaker 1: software is still way ahead of everybody else's, and the
Speaker 1: over the air updates way ahead of everybody else. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know when we're gonna have like a phone
Speaker 1: that you just put down. Eventually, I want to drive
Speaker 1: into the garage and have the charger to be on
Speaker 1: the floor and right, just just but but that's coming eventually.
Speaker 1: I think that's the peal of the hybrid. Now we're
Speaker 1: still in a transition from ice to ev of course. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of hype around EVIS, But again,
Speaker 1: if you look at the reality of it, you cannot
Speaker 1: drive an electric vehicle ranges you know, about three that's
Speaker 1: kind of the going rate. But that's really under perfect conditions.
Speaker 1: If it's cold, if you're driving fast, I mean really,
Speaker 1: in real world terms, you're going to get like over
Speaker 1: a hundred miles. Maybe that's not really a road trip,
Speaker 1: that's right, all right, So I only have you for
Speaker 1: a couple of more minutes. Let's jump to our speed round,
Speaker 1: starting with best used car for under fifty dollars. What
Speaker 1: would you tell me? Can I say a collectible want?
Speaker 1: I want to C three Corvette? I can find them
Speaker 1: four easily, can find it for you can find a driver. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I think I keep reading these haggardy reports and
Speaker 1: you know Southern Bees reports. Values are going up of
Speaker 1: the muscle cars in general, and I think they look
Speaker 1: so cool. I think they're about to hit their stride alright,
Speaker 1: best collectible under a grand if you can get a
Speaker 1: like on a higher mileage, so you're going to pay less.
Speaker 1: I still think values for those are going up. They have, Yes,
Speaker 1: they have been going up. But I don't see any
Speaker 1: reason why those are not going to stop gaining value. Really, wow,
Speaker 1: I'm going to regret passing on that, honestly, I think so.
Speaker 1: And I don't think mileage matters. I really don't. If
Speaker 1: it if the car has been maintained, if it's had
Speaker 1: at least in California, and they'll first exactly California car,
Speaker 1: call it one or two owners, properly maintained with a
Speaker 1: good ledger of records. Hey, if it's got a lot
Speaker 1: of miles, but it's been taken care for care above.
Speaker 1: What car would you own if money was no object? Uh?
Speaker 1: Mercedes going that's mine? Also, that's a good pick. I
Speaker 1: did not plan that. That's what came from my heart.
Speaker 1: But it's the of if you saw the pull Newman version,
Speaker 1: the sort of light blue with the plaid seats. Oh
Speaker 1: did you see the SLR unlot coope that sold for you?
Speaker 1: Wrote a column on how do you ensure that? I
Speaker 1: mean that was there when they announced the sale. It's
Speaker 1: a made up number. I don't really believe it was
Speaker 1: a private auction orchestrated very closely. But exciting nonetheless, but
Speaker 1: that line of cars is gorgeous. Insane, just insane. Um,
Speaker 1: So forget money at no objects? Just rationally, what's your next? Irresponsible?
Speaker 1: Don't purchase? Well, I know I keep saying this, but
Speaker 1: I really do want to see three Corvette. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep hammering now. I will never replace the seventy five
Speaker 1: rolls roy silver shad. Oh it's so glorious. You can
Speaker 1: get those for pretty inexpensive. The key is to have
Speaker 1: a mechanic who can work on and I do have that.
Speaker 1: Get parts for sure they're everywhere. And do kids pull
Speaker 1: up next to you and tell about great pupa or
Speaker 1: do you do you get that? I've had people send
Speaker 1: me Greay BP, the that's a little Packet's the little
Speaker 1: package I sent me back. And the one great thing
Speaker 1: about that car in l A. You know, it's all
Speaker 1: just a real big ego contest with cars in l A.
Speaker 1: Going out in Beverly Hills, you know, roll up in
Speaker 1: that car, you're keeping your own anybody right exactly center.
Speaker 1: And that car is not an expensive car. It makes
Speaker 1: you feel like a million bucks though, when all those
Speaker 1: other guys have every other thing. It's great. Last two questions,
Speaker 1: what's the fastest car you've ever been in? Oh? Well, Bugotti,
Speaker 1: of course right. And now here's the trick question. Not
Speaker 1: the fastest car you've ever been in, but what's the
Speaker 1: fastest you've ever driven? Well, I would say I was
Speaker 1: on the track in Spain with Ferrari earlier this year
Speaker 1: and I don't know, we probably were one sixty or
Speaker 1: so on the backstretch. That's that's you know, auto speed,
Speaker 1: ye all right, but prober not kilometery. But but I
Speaker 1: hope you're you're paying attention and not getting distracted. No,
Speaker 1: I was in that moment. I was paying attention. I
Speaker 1: think it. I think that that would tend to focus
Speaker 1: your attention. Um. All right, so let's jump to our
Speaker 1: favorite questions that we ask all of our guests, starting
Speaker 1: with tell us what you're streaming these days? What kept
Speaker 1: you entertained during the pandemic? Okay, the most recent within
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, Mayor of Kingstown with Jeremy Renner.
Speaker 1: Have you watched this at all? No, it looks it
Speaker 1: looks like disturbing. It's very violent, but it's very good.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's incredible. Um. The guy from Brotherhood's in it,
Speaker 1: the main brother who played the cop. Um. I don't
Speaker 1: want to spoil anything with that, but I binge that
Speaker 1: completely love it, Mayor of Kingstown. A little bit violent. Um.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing that I just started since
Speaker 1: being here in New York. That was a recommendation from
Speaker 1: Ian who colors my hair, is Hacks and I had
Speaker 1: seen that good, asked it a million times and He's like, no,
Speaker 1: you really need to give it a look. And I've
Speaker 1: watched like five episodes, just back to back to back.
Speaker 1: My problem with binging something like that is there's only
Speaker 1: three seasons. Short season. You kind of want to make
Speaker 1: it fast, don't they know? They really do. I've been
Speaker 1: trying to watch less really violent stuff, and that's why
Speaker 1: although I've been we've been watching Outlander and some of
Speaker 1: the scenes are just, yeah, you know, torture. I will
Speaker 1: admit to covering my eyes at some point. See, no,
Speaker 1: I know I have no problem like literally fast forwarding
Speaker 1: or covering my eyes. Uh. Tell us about your mentors
Speaker 1: who helped shape your career. That's a great question. Um.
Speaker 1: I have to say I've already spoken about Matthew to Paula,
Speaker 1: who was the editor who hired me at Forbes and
Speaker 1: who just saw this like very young trained journalist who
Speaker 1: knew nothing about cars and really helped me, um shape
Speaker 1: a perspective on it. And then Joann Mueller, who was
Speaker 1: the Detroit bureau chief at Forbes when I was there.
Speaker 1: She's now a Axios writing about transportation. She uh is
Speaker 1: just a beacon of hope and light and optimism. A
Speaker 1: true professional journalist. Love her. So yeah, Joann Mueller has
Speaker 1: great content. She's writing for Axios now interesting. Uh, tell
Speaker 1: us about some of your favorite books and what you're
Speaker 1: reading right now. I just finished Bell Hooks New Visions
Speaker 1: of All about Love UM, which is not a new book.
Speaker 1: It's new to me. UM. It sounds a little you know,
Speaker 1: gues she but it's a really beautiful book about how
Speaker 1: our culture UM lacks love in the culture. And it
Speaker 1: just felt reading it, it felt like really just a
Speaker 1: bomb because we all have had quite a chaotic, uh
Speaker 1: aggressive five years, and it has seemed that people are
Speaker 1: really becoming polarized in tribal and you know, and so
Speaker 1: reading that it really was a beautiful commentary on the
Speaker 1: importance of love UM in addition to romantic love, brotherly love,
Speaker 1: love for others, love for self UM, for giving parents
Speaker 1: for not loving you perfectly. UM. It was really a
Speaker 1: great book. And then the other one that I I'm
Speaker 1: still going through is called The Artist Way, which is
Speaker 1: by Julia Cameron. It's an old one. My wife is
Speaker 1: a yes. It's so it's the type of book that
Speaker 1: you just want to reread every like ten years or so,
Speaker 1: because it really does sort of free you up from
Speaker 1: whatever thing you're locked into. It's great for people who
Speaker 1: we're creative as children and every child is created. The
Speaker 1: point of the book is every child is creative somewhere
Speaker 1: along the way that gets pushed out from a lot
Speaker 1: of us. And it's just about being free as a
Speaker 1: creative in any tiny little way. Really interesting. What sort
Speaker 1: of advice would you give to a college grad who
Speaker 1: was interested in a career in either journalism or automotives
Speaker 1: or whatever. Uh, do what you're excited about. Um, I
Speaker 1: would say two things. Don't take a job that's very
Speaker 1: depressing to you, even if you think you should, don't
Speaker 1: do it. Just don't do it. Um. And the second
Speaker 1: one is, take a job where you can see where
Speaker 1: it gets you somewhere else and to a point you
Speaker 1: want to be, even if, yeah, even if the job
Speaker 1: isn't perfect for you in that moment, take it if
Speaker 1: it gets you to a point where you might want
Speaker 1: to be, which is how it worked out for me
Speaker 1: at Forbes. I knew I don't really necessarily want to
Speaker 1: write about cars, but it gets me in somewhere that
Speaker 1: I want to be. So have an open mind, a
Speaker 1: mind open enough to be able to maybe do that
Speaker 1: and to pivot if you need to. Um. And then also,
Speaker 1: you know it's so cliche, but like, don't do something
Speaker 1: that isn't exciting because if you're not excited about it,
Speaker 1: how can you expect your readers, your clients, your your
Speaker 1: colleagues to be excited about it if you aren't really interesting.
Speaker 1: And our final question, what do you know about the
Speaker 1: world of writing automobiles luxury travel today that you wish
Speaker 1: you knew to win years or so ago when you
Speaker 1: were really a young cub reporter. That's a good question.
Speaker 1: I think what I wish I knew about the world
Speaker 1: in general is that you can kind of do whatever
Speaker 1: you want. There are no rules. There's there's no set
Speaker 1: thing that says you can't talk to this person, you
Speaker 1: can't ask that person that thing, you can't try to
Speaker 1: find out more about this just because you don't have
Speaker 1: that background. The options are just do it. Just be
Speaker 1: be bold, be bolder than you think you're allowed to be.
Speaker 1: I think, you know when, at least for me, when
Speaker 1: I was younger, it's all about trying to do the
Speaker 1: right thing and please people, and that's a nice impulse,
Speaker 1: but also you can be a little bit more bold
Speaker 1: than you think you can. Really good advice. We have
Speaker 1: been speaking with Hannah Elliott. She is the reporter covering
Speaker 1: automobiles for Bloomberg. If you enjoy this conversation well, be
Speaker 1: sure to check out any of the four hundred prior
Speaker 1: ones we've done. You can find those at iTunes, Spotify,
Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite podcasts. We love your comments,
Speaker 1: feedback and suggestions right to us at m IB podcast
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot net. Sign up for my daily reading
Speaker 1: list at Rid Halts dot com. Check out my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed at rid Halts. I would be remiss if I
Speaker 1: did not thank the Cracks staff that helps put these
Speaker 1: conversations together. My audio engineer is Jack Holstead. My project
Speaker 1: manager is atko val Brunn. Sean Russo is our head
Speaker 1: of research. Harris Wald is my producer. I'm bearing Rit Halts.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.