Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. I'm Matt Miller and
Speaker 1: I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is Hot Pursuit.
Speaker 2: On today's episode. I want to talk about the mccon
Speaker 2: EV because I know that you're driving it. I think
Speaker 2: that Matt Farrah also bought one, and I haven't listened
Speaker 2: to his podcast in a while, but otherwise I haven't
Speaker 2: heard anything about the mccon EV, so I want to
Speaker 2: get your take on that. I also want to talk
Speaker 2: about some new lap records multiple set by the Corvette
Speaker 2: z R.
Speaker 3: And I really like how I did this too.
Speaker 2: And I want to talk about BMW keeping a beat,
Speaker 2: keeping the V eight in the lineup in the future.
Speaker 3: This is some great goodness.
Speaker 2: So those those three things, plus we can go back
Speaker 2: and recap the auction of the car we were talking
Speaker 2: about last week, the Mercedes are one twenty nine SL
Speaker 2: six hundred. And I also want to ask you about
Speaker 2: a rumor I heard speaking of Matt Farrah and one
Speaker 2: of my former dream cars. Okay, okay, if it's legit,
Speaker 2: if it's kosher to talk about that, I think so okay.
Speaker 2: So let's start with the Macan Portia. Is I mean
Speaker 2: sucking eggs in terms of the stock right, as we
Speaker 2: were talking about last week. I know, I know they're
Speaker 2: taking a huge hit. I think an eight hundred million
Speaker 2: dollars or euro write down this year because of their
Speaker 2: EV business.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Their profit margin is going to slump as low
Speaker 1: as ten percent this year, which is half of what
Speaker 1: management had floated before the IPO.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the stop stock, like.
Speaker 1: You mentioned, has is at its lowest as it ever
Speaker 1: has been. Their market value is half of what it
Speaker 1: was in twenty twenty three, and a lot of that
Speaker 1: is do to problems with.
Speaker 3: Rolling out these evs, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so and the evs are the Tayken and
Speaker 1: the Macon.
Speaker 2: So so far those are the only two evs in
Speaker 2: their lineup, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean we're still awaiting the Mission X, which is
Speaker 1: the successor to the nine to eighteen Spider Hybrid, which
Speaker 1: they had sort of floated as an electric vehicle, and
Speaker 1: we don't have confirmation about whether or not that will
Speaker 1: be electric.
Speaker 2: Yes, by the way, did I see you. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to remember a couple of years ago before we started
Speaker 2: this podcast, I was in Munich and the McDreamy.
Speaker 3: Guy from Patrick Dempsey.
Speaker 2: Gray's anatomy was talking about driving the Mission X in
Speaker 2: like a some beer hall. I'm pretty sure I saw
Speaker 2: you there too. Were you there too?
Speaker 3: I have been in beer halls and Muncheon, Yes, yes
Speaker 3: I have. That could have been me.
Speaker 2: I mean, you don't forget when you see McDreamy right
Speaker 2: talking about driving Porsche's that's true.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed that Orlando Bloom is now sort of
Speaker 1: the new.
Speaker 3: Face of Porsche in a way?
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering is McDreamy feeling slightly replaced because now
Speaker 1: there's another actor?
Speaker 2: Maybe they felt like he betrayed them in going to
Speaker 2: Ferrari when he did that, when he did that movie
Speaker 2: with Kylo Wren of Star Wars.
Speaker 3: I you mean Ford versus Ferrari.
Speaker 2: No, the Ferrari movie where Kylo played Enzo Wait Patrick
Speaker 2: Depsey played one of the race car drivers.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, of course.
Speaker 2: You mean Penelope Cruz played.
Speaker 3: But what's the guy's name? The actor?
Speaker 2: Adam Driver?
Speaker 3: Adam Driver. There you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know Star Wars references, but I do
Speaker 1: know Adam Driver and and I think we decided that
Speaker 1: Penelope Cruz was the reason to watch that movie, didn't
Speaker 1: we decide.
Speaker 2: That loved her, and I think she was also the yeah.
Speaker 3: She's good, she's cool, mistress, she was a mistress.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, so let's get back to the car. I
Speaker 2: expect any Porsche Electric or not to be amazing, so
Speaker 2: as a baseline, right, is that fair?
Speaker 3: Completely?
Speaker 1: And I have to say the review for this I
Speaker 1: still am in the middle of the test drive. The
Speaker 1: review will come out early next week, and I was
Speaker 1: so curious to try it because a lot of the
Speaker 1: problems that we're hearing coming from Porsche have to do
Speaker 1: with the implementation of the mccon specifically both software issues,
Speaker 1: supply chain issues, delivery issues, delays at dealership, all of it.
Speaker 1: And so the problem with doing a product test drive
Speaker 1: is that probably none of those things are going to
Speaker 1: come up in the three days.
Speaker 3: That I have to drive the vehicle.
Speaker 1: So my big disclaimer on this is that I am
Speaker 1: not owning this vehicle. I cannot anticipate what would happen
Speaker 1: after a month or two. And I also didn't have
Speaker 1: to wait a long time to receive my vehicle, all
Speaker 1: of which are legitimate complaints and problems. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to actually simply driving the product for a week,
Speaker 1: Matt To your point.
Speaker 3: It's very good. Yeah, it's to your point.
Speaker 1: Portia is not in the business of selling crap, and
Speaker 1: it does exactly what it's supposed to do, and it
Speaker 1: does it extremely well. I don't think you're going to
Speaker 1: fall in love and have a heart to heart romance
Speaker 1: with the Porsche Macon Ev. But in terms of driving performance,
Speaker 1: and yesterday I drove it from my house in Hollywood
Speaker 1: up Angelie's Crest to Newcomb's Ranch, and I did flog
Speaker 1: it because I really wanted to see what the battery
Speaker 1: was going to do in terms of retaining charge. And
Speaker 1: from the base of Highway to up to Newcombs it's
Speaker 1: twenty six miles and it's very hilly and windy, and
Speaker 1: I lost I don't know ten percent maybe of battery charge,
Speaker 1: which is so wow good, so good, And of course
Speaker 1: it regathered a lot of that coming back down.
Speaker 3: It's so fast.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna incriminate myself, but I would say that
Speaker 1: you can definitely probably hit three digit figures easily in
Speaker 1: this suv on highway too. It's incredibly fast. It really
Speaker 1: smooths out the road over really crappy roads. I mean,
Speaker 1: LA has really bad road surfaces, I would say that
Speaker 1: it felt it's a heavy vehicle, but it doesn't feel sluggish.
Speaker 1: You can feel the weight when you're going around a corner,
Speaker 1: of course, but.
Speaker 3: It's not a sluggish weight. It's just it's just an suv.
Speaker 2: And and by the way, so you, I think, and
Speaker 2: also me to some extent, we're spoiled by test driving
Speaker 2: these really nice cars very much.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but for someone who who doesn't get a lot
Speaker 2: of seat time in these one hundred thousand plus dollar vehicles,
Speaker 2: the interior, the intuitive setup of Porsche, like the build quality.
Speaker 2: It's so solid that I think someone who's not used
Speaker 2: to it is struck by how well they do at
Speaker 2: building cars electric or I see, is that is that
Speaker 2: the case with this as well?
Speaker 3: Absolutely the case.
Speaker 1: It's true, you know, through and through from Porsche engineering.
Speaker 3: It's absolutely tight quality all all of that.
Speaker 1: And I remember saying back in the day before any automakers,
Speaker 1: besides a few startups like Tesla, we're making electric vehicles.
Speaker 1: I would always say the OEMs aren't not making electric
Speaker 1: vehicles because they can't. They're waiting until they have to.
Speaker 1: So by that, I mean, once Porsha decided it needed
Speaker 1: to make.
Speaker 3: It knows how to do it, and it knows how
Speaker 3: to do it well.
Speaker 1: This is this is not a startup trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how to make cars, which I think is really
Speaker 1: one of the negatives about many startup electric car companies,
Speaker 1: which is they don't have experience making cars, and making
Speaker 1: cars is very hard. A car is a very complex thing,
Speaker 1: and so it's really nice to be in an electric
Speaker 1: vehicle that is made by a proper car company because
Speaker 1: PORTIONA knows exactly what it's doing.
Speaker 3: It's been making cars for almost what eighty years now.
Speaker 2: So in my experience, the NVH, which is kind of
Speaker 2: the noise, vibrations, and harshness of electric cars, is more
Speaker 2: difficult to get right than internal combustion engines. We've talked
Speaker 2: about this before, but if you're driving a car with
Speaker 2: a gas motor or diesel, especially, the motor itself makes
Speaker 2: so much noise, so that's kind of the main thing
Speaker 2: you hear experience, and if you're driving an electric car
Speaker 2: you Alex Roy has talked about this. The road noise
Speaker 2: is what you hear in experience, and any squeaks right,
Speaker 2: any rattle, yes, if the headliner is loose and so
Speaker 2: I think it's much harder to get it right on an.
Speaker 1: EV Absolutely, there was none of that in the Macon.
Speaker 1: Of course, it has the you know this this synthetic
Speaker 1: electric drone, which I'm not necessarily a fan of. You
Speaker 1: can turn it off, although sometimes it wouldn't let me
Speaker 1: turn it off, and I wonder I need to ask
Speaker 1: Porscha about what instances wouldn't allow me to turn it off.
Speaker 1: But you're right there. The inside of the car was
Speaker 1: nicely quiet. There was an undue road noise. It just
Speaker 1: feels like an actual proper vehicle.
Speaker 3: I would say.
Speaker 1: There are two charging ports, one on either side of
Speaker 1: the car, and they're kind of tricky to open it
Speaker 1: because you can push on the center screen. You can
Speaker 1: push like a little icon to open them from inside
Speaker 1: the car, and then to open them from outside the car,
Speaker 1: you push your you put your hand on them, and
Speaker 1: then they'll slide open and then I guess I was
Speaker 1: told this in an email. They close automatically when you
Speaker 1: drive away. It's not necessarily intuitive to like. It's not
Speaker 1: just it's so easy as push this button to open
Speaker 1: the charge port and then you can just.
Speaker 3: Push it closed.
Speaker 1: It's a little more complex than that that's a little
Speaker 1: quirk that I didn't think was especially seamless.
Speaker 2: Yep, but I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think let's talk about it that way.
Speaker 2: I love so not a macn but yeah, on my
Speaker 2: nine to eleven, and maybe on all of them, I
Speaker 2: loved filling it up because the gas tank was on
Speaker 2: the front.
Speaker 3: Right, like like an actual race car. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 3: It is so cool.
Speaker 1: I mean the minute you pull up at the at
Speaker 1: the gas station and that's the setup and you just
Speaker 1: get up, get out casually and just walk over and
Speaker 1: like you know, Philip.
Speaker 3: Your car and everyone's feel special. It does make you
Speaker 3: feel very cool.
Speaker 1: I am myself, and then you try to act like
Speaker 1: you don't realize anyone's watching, but you know everyone is.
Speaker 2: Well. I'm going to try and be more level headed
Speaker 2: or even handed when it comes to judging EV's because
Speaker 2: we talked about this last week. Some readers, some viewers,
Speaker 2: some listeners think that I'm too biased against EV's, And
Speaker 2: yesterday I actually sat down with the new chief financial
Speaker 2: officer of the Ford Motor Company.
Speaker 1: Yes, can I just finish on one spot on the
Speaker 1: Macon So the MCON I had the turbo electric edition.
Speaker 1: It's six hundred and thirty horse power, which was plenty,
Speaker 1: and the price starts at one hundred and five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: which I actually think isn't crazy. The total price of
Speaker 1: the one I drove was one hundred and thirty one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. It's significantly more expensive than like an Audi
Speaker 1: electric suv.
Speaker 3: But I don't know. I don't think for this type
Speaker 3: of buyer that's going to be a deterrent.
Speaker 2: Fin A macan buyer isn't the same as like a
Speaker 2: Turbo S buyer, you know, a Kayak Turbo S buyer.
Speaker 1: You're right, You're right, But somehow I think perhaps, well,
Speaker 1: this goes into a bigger question. I was going to say,
Speaker 1: the person who's buying an all electric suv is already
Speaker 1: a different animal, you know, they're not like they're they're
Speaker 1: they're buying an EV for more of a philosophical reason
Speaker 1: than a utilitarian one. But I would say, it seems
Speaker 1: like people don't necessarily want electric Porsches, period, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of what we're finding out, no matter how good
Speaker 1: they are. Like this Macon, This electric Macon is great.
Speaker 1: It's great in terms of how it performs and how
Speaker 1: it's built and everything, but if nobody wants an electric
Speaker 1: Porsche s, it doesn't matter how good it is.
Speaker 3: People don't want them. So that's the big question we'll
Speaker 3: have to find out.
Speaker 2: Well, like I said, I'm trying to be more level
Speaker 2: headed about or handed about EV's because of the critique
Speaker 2: that I think is fair that we got. And I
Speaker 2: sat down with the CFO of the new CFO of
Speaker 2: the Ford Motor Company yesterday, Sherry House, who is so
Speaker 2: like she clearly loves EV's. I was talking to her. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and she's an engineer at heart. She started her career
Speaker 2: at General Motors as an engineer, and she went to
Speaker 2: the General Motors Institute the Kettering University, and then she
Speaker 2: joined some She became an investment banker after her MBA,
Speaker 2: and then she joined some tech companies. She worked for Waimo,
Speaker 2: but then she went to Lucid and she was the
Speaker 2: CFO of Lucid for a couple of years. She brought
Speaker 2: them public. So that's pretty cool experience, yea, But she
Speaker 2: still is. I mean, I could just get the vibe
Speaker 2: from talking to her about a number of different issues
Speaker 2: in love with EV's. You know, she says her family
Speaker 2: obviously her husband also worked at Tesla, so she was
Speaker 2: basically saying, like, you know, they've they've grown, not just
Speaker 2: used to them, but they really appreciate them. I didn't
Speaker 2: ask her directly about, you know, her relationship to EV's,
Speaker 2: but I'm just from the conversation I had with her,
Speaker 2: I was kind of jazzed up myself to give EV's another, sure,
Speaker 2: another go. And obviously I'm going to be driving them
Speaker 2: here and there anyway, but to do it with a
Speaker 2: with a more open mind and to think about them
Speaker 2: potentially more passionately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that she's at Ford now
Speaker 1: because of course when we think of Ford, we we
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think of EV's at all.
Speaker 3: So it's really interesting to hear.
Speaker 1: That there's someone who's truly passionate about them at this
Speaker 1: old American company.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think of right or Wrong. I
Speaker 2: think of GM because of the Hummer right and sure
Speaker 2: the Sierra ev that I drove. Obviously, Ford has a
Speaker 2: successful product in the Lightning, and they had the Maki,
Speaker 2: which which Matt Farrah.
Speaker 1: Was driving for years before the year before you got
Speaker 1: I think Matt kind of missed being in something electric.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, so I guess there are people out there.
Speaker 2: Maybe one day I'll become one of them. Maybe you will, Hannah.
Speaker 1: Oh, I would totally take a Fiat five hundred e E.
Speaker 1: And I know I keep beating that dead horse, but
Speaker 1: that was the most fun.
Speaker 3: I would also take an electric vespa.
Speaker 2: That'd be cute or yeah, you know I would an
Speaker 2: electric vespa.
Speaker 3: Oh, I would for sure take that.
Speaker 1: I would definitely take a zero electric motorcycle. To me,
Speaker 1: the application of for electric motorcycles.
Speaker 3: Is so fun.
Speaker 1: And I know this may be sacrilegious to you, who
Speaker 1: are wearing a Harley Davidson baseball hat as we speak,
Speaker 1: But I got no skin in the game.
Speaker 3: Would give me an electric motorcycle? I don't care. I
Speaker 3: think they're cool.
Speaker 2: No, I don't disagree. I don't know if cool is
Speaker 2: the right word. I would for me. But I test
Speaker 2: drove an Inergica innerjica is that how you say it?
Speaker 2: Like ten years ago, and I had a great time.
Speaker 2: I've ridden zeros, very interesting. If a vespa, If an
Speaker 2: electric vespa was properly powerful and had decent range, I
Speaker 2: would I would rather have that than like the four
Speaker 2: stroke fifty or one twenty five that a salad rather
Speaker 2: have an electric one. I just don't think they're quite
Speaker 2: there yet, and I definitely would not I would not
Speaker 2: want a live wire. I have to say.
Speaker 1: You know, I also wrote the live Wire when I
Speaker 1: was still in New York, and I thought it was nice.
Speaker 3: I thought it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. To me, honestly, Harley is probably not my brand
Speaker 1: of choice. Why wouldn't you want a live wire?
Speaker 2: It's just it's not what Harley's about or anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I understand.
Speaker 2: I mean Harley. I want Harley to be making motor
Speaker 2: that I feel like are barely legal to make. You know,
Speaker 2: they make two Leader twins. I can't believe they're not
Speaker 2: regulated out of existence. And the sound, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't want a catalytic converter on it or a muffler.
Speaker 2: I just want straight pipes.
Speaker 3: I get it. Can we go back to Ford for
Speaker 3: a second.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Can you talk about what you guys talked about or off?
Speaker 2: It was off the record, so no, I'll just say
Speaker 2: I was really impressed with her resume. You know how
Speaker 2: she came up through the ranks in Detroit and then
Speaker 2: in California and did so much with Lucid And I'm
Speaker 2: excited to see what she does it Ford. I'm excited
Speaker 2: to see what Ford does. Frankly, you know, they've had
Speaker 2: bigger and worse problems with EV's than anybody else. And
Speaker 2: Jim Farley, the CEO, seems to be one of the
Speaker 2: only big CEOs that's really I don't want to say
Speaker 2: speaking out against the administration, but against the idea of tariffs.
Speaker 2: Right if they have twenty five percent tariffs from Mexico
Speaker 2: and Canada. Ford isn't gonna be as hurt as GM
Speaker 2: or Stilantis. But he's the only one who's out there saying, hey, guys,
Speaker 2: not a good.
Speaker 1: Idea completely, And I mean talking about Porsche if tariffs.
Speaker 1: If tariffs actually happen, Porsa's gonna lose out considerably, you know,
Speaker 1: even to the point where are they gonna have to
Speaker 1: start making subs in the United States only because how
Speaker 1: are they gonna make any money?
Speaker 2: Right? Well, and that would take imagine how long that
Speaker 2: would take. Because I know they can't use the Folkswagen
Speaker 2: plant to build their evs because it's it's tooled for
Speaker 2: the wrong platform. They would have to build a factory
Speaker 2: from scratch, right, and by the time they're done getting
Speaker 2: that all set up. I mean, look at how long
Speaker 2: Blue Oval City is taking in Tennessee. That would be
Speaker 2: the end of the Trump administration, and who knows what
Speaker 2: the next administration is going to do. You just can't
Speaker 2: operate in the business environment with this kind of uncertainty.
Speaker 2: And obviously the price increases on cars that already are
Speaker 2: too expensive would be insane if we put in twenty
Speaker 2: five percent tariffs.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, I just see this thing from Bloomberg Intelligence.
Speaker 1: It says that if Trump increases tar off tariffs on
Speaker 1: cars coming from the EU to ten percent that are
Speaker 1: currently at two point five percent to ten percent, it'll
Speaker 1: wipe out more than two billion euros of earnings before
Speaker 1: interest in taxes.
Speaker 2: Now, in fairness, by the way, to US, we only
Speaker 2: tear iff them at two and a half percent and
Speaker 2: they tear iff our products at ten percent. So the
Speaker 2: EU started this protectionist yes, sort of back and forth.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, if they really wanted to send
Speaker 2: a message to the Trump administration about no tariffs, they
Speaker 2: should reduce the tariffs that they have on US vehicles.
Speaker 2: By the way, By the way, I wanted to point
Speaker 2: out this story on BMW because as you see, you
Speaker 2: know EV's becoming not only accepted by consumers to some extent,
Speaker 2: and we should point out there's still growth right in
Speaker 2: EV sales. Sure sure, sure you do. See obviously, governments
Speaker 2: are pushing and really trying to steer people towards evs
Speaker 2: because most Western world governments think that they're greener and
Speaker 2: phase out these bigger motors, right BMW after the my
Speaker 2: Dream seven series in twenty twenty two, the seven sixty
Speaker 2: will never make a V twelve again. And I don't
Speaker 2: think they've made a ten cylinder motor since the M five,
Speaker 2: like ten or fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3: Sounds about right.
Speaker 2: The V eight is the most cylinders you can get,
Speaker 2: and I would have thought that's on the chopping block
Speaker 2: soon as well, But apparently, according to Automotive News an
Speaker 2: interview with the BMW executive, it's not.
Speaker 3: This is great news.
Speaker 1: And the main thing that I'm remembering now is like
Speaker 1: when I first moved to New York, every person who
Speaker 1: worked in finance had an M three basically, and most
Speaker 1: of the M three's in that era were V eights yep,
Speaker 1: which is great, and but even at the time I remember,
Speaker 1: wasn't the M three switch to V eight around two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. Six.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was right after the.
Speaker 1: Right and people were concerned about that switch. But actually
Speaker 1: that was a great car. And now at this point
Speaker 1: we're looking back being like, wow, that was such a
Speaker 1: great car. I wish I had one.
Speaker 2: Now at least I am true. You wrote a story
Speaker 2: about that, right, the E ninety two. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I prefer the E forty six M three. But I'm
Speaker 2: older than you, so for me that was like in
Speaker 2: my sweet spot. Yes, yes, but I still want BMW's
Speaker 2: to BMW's to have V eight options in different you know,
Speaker 2: for example, if I had an X five, is the
Speaker 2: INLINE six sufficient, Yes, it really is. But would I
Speaker 2: rather have the V eight the M fifty, Yes I would.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like, you know, I truly don't care
Speaker 1: really as long as something gets the job done what's
Speaker 1: under the hood.
Speaker 3: But theoretically I.
Speaker 1: Totally agree with you do we as BMW said, why
Speaker 1: they're keeping the V eight other than it.
Speaker 2: Sells because Americans want it. No, it's just it's purely
Speaker 2: American demand.
Speaker 3: Well that's simple, yeah, and that's how businesses work.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, this is a great example of
Speaker 1: the automaker listening to what consumers actually want and doing that.
Speaker 2: Yes, and but not being deterred by governments saying you
Speaker 2: can in camp.
Speaker 1: Sure, And we all know the famous Henry Ford quote.
Speaker 1: If I had listened to what people wanted, they would
Speaker 1: have wanted a faster horse or something to that. Yes, effect,
Speaker 1: And that's somehow supposed to prove that automakers have to
Speaker 1: be visionary and forward thinking and plan, you know, decades
Speaker 1: in advance, and all of that is true, but also
Speaker 1: it's sometimes you get you overthink these things, and really
Speaker 1: the best thing is to just give consumers what they want.
Speaker 2: Agreed. Yeah, The problem is consumers don't always want what
Speaker 2: we want them to want, right. I think BMW should
Speaker 2: sell a three series station wagon with the VA stick yeah,
Speaker 2: of course in brown, but they won't.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: You know what, speaking of consumers giving us what we want,
Speaker 2: I want to talk about this Corvette story. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: the z R one is already an absolute monster. One
Speaker 2: thousand and sixty four horse power, right, eight hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty eight pound feet of torque zero to sixty, not
Speaker 2: that it matters, but two point three seconds and the
Speaker 2: top feat of two hundred and thirty three miles an
Speaker 2: hour yeah. I mean it's an absolute beast and it.
Speaker 3: Costs under It starts at like one hundred.
Speaker 2: And eighty or so, that one seventy four.
Speaker 3: Okay, So that to me, that's a pretty good deal.
Speaker 2: To be honest, it's I think amazing. I don't Yeah,
Speaker 2: I personally wouldn't want one because I'd rather have a
Speaker 2: Z six Okay, naturally aspirated you know V eight that
Speaker 2: puts out more than six hundred horsepower tracks.
Speaker 3: That definitely tracks for you.
Speaker 2: But if you want the King of the Hill, this
Speaker 2: is it. And there is a great story in Car
Speaker 2: and Driver that the Corvette team went around to a
Speaker 2: bunch of famous tracks in the US and just knocked
Speaker 2: out lap records.
Speaker 3: This is honestly so cool. And they did it with
Speaker 3: their own engineers.
Speaker 2: That's to me the most exciting part because you always
Speaker 2: hear about, you know, these neurveburgering records. Square they hire
Speaker 2: some amazing driver and they wait hopefully they get perfect conditions,
Speaker 2: and you know that it's very much to me, it's
Speaker 2: still controlled, and I think, well, I would never be
Speaker 2: able to squeeze, you know, ninety percent out of that car.
Speaker 2: I don't think I would be able to do it
Speaker 2: in this car either, but GM has some obviously very
Speaker 2: talented drivers working for them as engineers.
Speaker 1: This Aaron Link, the Global Vehicle Performance Manager, Yeah, out
Speaker 1: there setting on vir setting course records.
Speaker 2: I mean he set so Aaron Link as you said,
Speaker 2: Global Vehicle Performance Manager says, production car course record on
Speaker 2: the full course and the grand course layout, and that
Speaker 2: takes the title, at least the grand course title from
Speaker 2: the twenty nineteen McLaren Senna.
Speaker 3: That is so cool and legit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so lead performance engineer Bill Wise, I'm reading it
Speaker 2: from Car and Driver.
Speaker 3: He set a new track record.
Speaker 2: At Watkins Glen. Brian Wallace, the lead vehicle dynamics engineer,
Speaker 2: broke the production record at Road America.
Speaker 3: Chris Barber Stack Team.
Speaker 2: Chris Barber, the lead development engineer, broke the production car
Speaker 2: record at Rhode Atlanta. I mean, how sweet is this?
Speaker 3: That is crazy?
Speaker 1: And I think we should also point out the McLaren
Speaker 1: Center is a million plus dollar car, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: so to beat that with this like homespun, seeming down
Speaker 1: home group of guys who are the engineers and the
Speaker 1: product managers out there burning it down in.
Speaker 2: A basically two hundred thousand I mean, I don't know
Speaker 2: how much the total price was, but like we said,
Speaker 2: the base price is one seventy four, one seventy five.
Speaker 2: This one apparently had the ZTK Performance Package.
Speaker 3: Definitely they had. They had it souped.
Speaker 2: Up, but you can but these are things that you
Speaker 2: can buy. These are options, right. It just adds a
Speaker 2: rear wing, more aggressive spoiler, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup twos,
Speaker 2: and beefed up suspension, the magnetic ride control.
Speaker 3: I'm sure it's probably a sports car.
Speaker 2: It's probably less than two hundred grand for the whole thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: speaking of value for money, let's talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about this Mercedes auction that we were talking about last
Speaker 2: last week. So my buddy Philip Richter had this Mercedes
Speaker 2: R one twenty nine SL six hundred a two thousand
Speaker 2: and one V twelve Mercedes, and you wrote a story
Speaker 2: about these as well, the R one twenty nine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're so cool.
Speaker 1: They're the perfect era of like end of two thousand
Speaker 1: and one is basically the nineties still, which is the
Speaker 1: ultra cool ERAa of Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls and
Speaker 1: like the best era of rap and all of these
Speaker 1: great things.
Speaker 2: Well, don't forget about grunge, right, I mean, oh yeah, Grunges, Wirld, Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden,
Speaker 2: Alison Chain's Hall nine inch Nails.
Speaker 1: I was listening to ring Finger this morning and thinking
Speaker 1: that is a great.
Speaker 2: Song Jane's addiction. Yeah, I mean, so many insane bands
Speaker 2: came out in the span of I think most of
Speaker 2: those bands, says nineteen ninety nine until two thousand and one. Right. Anyway,
Speaker 2: So this car, it's a halo car for Mercedes. I
Speaker 2: don't think they put the V twelve in anything anymore either, right,
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean they didn't stop for
Speaker 2: a little while longer. But so Philip Richter has a
Speaker 2: cream puff with only one one hundred and eighty six miles.
Speaker 2: He puts it on bring a trailer through this other business.
Speaker 2: This dude Dean auctions it for him. But this is
Speaker 2: a car that he bought it from the first owner,
Speaker 2: and it's always been serviced at the same dealer where
Speaker 2: it was purchased, and it's perfect.
Speaker 1: So this wasn't a very interesting sale. I have to say,
Speaker 1: I think he did pretty good for himself. Because I'm
Speaker 1: on Hagardy dot com right now and I can see
Speaker 1: that the average price for a two thousand and one
Speaker 1: Mercedes SL six hundred in good condition is twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: And this is way better than good Okay, so one
Speaker 3: one in concor condition mint condish is only seventy four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Okay, but this is even beyond that. I mean, this is.
Speaker 3: Still new in the read. It can't be that much
Speaker 3: more beyond it.
Speaker 1: I mean, how much newer can you get than concor
Speaker 1: mint condish.
Speaker 2: I don't know as much about these things as you do,
Speaker 2: but I have seen forty year old virgin, so I
Speaker 2: know that if the toy is still completely wrapped up
Speaker 2: and no one has ever played with it, it's much
Speaker 2: more valuable. I just.
Speaker 1: I do think it's a little weird that I got
Speaker 1: a PR email about this car. This was after the
Speaker 1: fact we had already spoken about it. But then I
Speaker 1: did get an email from someone in a PR company
Speaker 1: like telling me about the car, which is weird because
Speaker 1: most cars I bring a trailer don't have a PR
Speaker 1: company behind them.
Speaker 2: True, And that was as the auction was live.
Speaker 1: You got the email, right, which I mean that's a
Speaker 1: little And then and then you know, to have the
Speaker 1: there was one bidder who bid straight into one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty five thousand.
Speaker 2: All right, so we should say that the So the
Speaker 2: the auction starts on February fourth, It gets a bid
Speaker 2: for two thousand bucks, then a couple more driving up
Speaker 2: to bids, and then all of a sudden, some dude
Speaker 2: comes in and bids one eighty five.
Speaker 3: On some one swoops in and shuts everyone down.
Speaker 2: But this is still four hours into the auction, not
Speaker 2: even right, yes, and then nothing happens for the next week.
Speaker 1: Crickets complete crickets for a week, and then on the last.
Speaker 2: Day someone from Dubai a dealership who.
Speaker 3: His track wreck.
Speaker 1: I looked at his sale, his winning history on bring
Speaker 1: a jailer. He doesn't go for he doesn't go for
Speaker 1: great looking cars. Let me tell you, this is by
Speaker 1: far the best gar he's bought in a while. Just
Speaker 1: bids one thousand dollars more and win wins with no counterbid.
Speaker 2: I can't believe he expected to even get it, to
Speaker 2: be honest, if you see, it's been sitting at one
Speaker 2: eighty five for a week, and then everyone's waiting until
Speaker 2: the last course minute, and so he's like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'll bid one thousand dollars over and then the dude
Speaker 2: who was so enthusiastic that he bid one eighty five
Speaker 2: God doesn't come back.
Speaker 3: There's no repartee, there's no retort, there's.
Speaker 2: No he loses the car for a grand.
Speaker 3: That to me seems so weird.
Speaker 2: To me, I'm doubly shocked because then I read through
Speaker 2: the comments. There were like two hundred different comments, and
Speaker 2: the window sticker was included in the pictures. Everything was included,
Speaker 2: like the seller did an amazing job. The receipts. It
Speaker 2: went for one thirty two new in two thousand and
Speaker 2: one in today's money. I got to figure that's at
Speaker 2: least double. Someone in the comments said in today's money,
Speaker 2: that's two hundred and forty thousand. I also feel like
Speaker 2: in Dubai the dealer is going to put that on
Speaker 2: the floor and get for sure a pretty heaty profit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean in Dubai, I'm guessing probably the market for
Speaker 1: this type of car is not as as healthy. There
Speaker 1: are not as many options for two thousand and one
Speaker 1: Mercedes SL six hundred in Dubai. I'm guessing as in Neptune,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, Right, so it's obviously going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: a big fish and car.
Speaker 2: People love the designer, Bruno Saco, and this was like
Speaker 2: his last great masterpiece.
Speaker 1: Right. I do think these cars are probably slightly on
Speaker 1: the on the rise and value, no question about it,
Speaker 1: this one. I mean, I just can't get over the
Speaker 1: lowm To me, that's honestly such a turnoff. And I
Speaker 1: just roll my like, oh, and that reminds me we
Speaker 1: should talk about this email we got from a listener
Speaker 1: name Rick, and thank you for writing Rick, And I
Speaker 1: totally agree with Rick's point. He brings up a point
Speaker 1: about the economics of quote unquote basically saving a potentially
Speaker 1: valuable car in a garage.
Speaker 3: For its entire life.
Speaker 1: It costs money to store and ensure, and it's a
Speaker 1: constant struggle against rust, dry rot, and nesting squirrels. But
Speaker 1: what a smart investment.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, And he's talking specifically about this SL six hundred,
Speaker 2: So yeah, I have been thinking about this as well.
Speaker 2: Like it not to be fair, my buddy didn't buy
Speaker 2: this from the original purchaser, so maybe he got it
Speaker 2: for less than the sticker, right, but sure, but I
Speaker 2: agree with his with his I've always thought about this.
Speaker 2: If you go and buy a car new, say I
Speaker 2: go out and buy what's a car that, uh Portia
Speaker 2: nine to eleven to car? Okay, you know I would
Speaker 2: love to have one.
Speaker 3: I'd love to see you in one with that flannel
Speaker 3: shirt you got.
Speaker 2: Or you know what, say I go and buy a
Speaker 2: nine to eleven. St while we're on nine to eleven's right,
Speaker 2: this is a car that's very limited. It's a it's
Speaker 2: a dream car for sure, and you know it's going
Speaker 2: to appreciate, or at least I assume it is over
Speaker 2: the next few years guaranteed. But I figure twenty five
Speaker 2: years for sure. Right then I put it away and
Speaker 2: never drive it. If I bought one for two point
Speaker 2: fifty and then you know, in twenty five years I
Speaker 2: only got like three fifty for it, I would be
Speaker 2: pretty bummed out and it would be a horror. It
Speaker 2: would have been a horrible investment.
Speaker 1: Right completely, And think of all the money that you
Speaker 1: spent to store it and ensure it exactly keep it running.
Speaker 1: And this guy Rick such a good point. He says,
Speaker 1: short of bubble wrapping a two point fifty gto, few
Speaker 1: cars are going to beat the S and P five
Speaker 1: hundred index if you're looking for a long term investment.
Speaker 1: And that's so true, and like it just goes back
Speaker 1: to this common sense thing where yeah, some cars gain
Speaker 1: value over time, but most don't.
Speaker 3: And if you buy a car that.
Speaker 1: You truly like for yourself and you drive it, then
Speaker 1: no matter what, you will have had a great investment
Speaker 1: because you enjoyed it. And maybe you make money on
Speaker 1: the back end, and that's a bonus. But the least
Speaker 1: you can say is, hey, I lost some coin on this,
Speaker 1: but I had so much fun in it.
Speaker 3: I was a happy trade off.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree. By the way, on a side note,
Speaker 2: I want to just tell you one thing that in
Speaker 2: the car world, people may not have heard about this,
Speaker 2: but in my day job as a financial news anchor,
Speaker 2: there's a story that I can't get it over. And
Speaker 2: you mentioned the S and P appreciation, right, Okay, the
Speaker 2: S and P five hundred has done very well since
Speaker 2: I was born in nineteen seventy three, like six thousand percent.
Speaker 2: But gold has done even better. Gold is up more
Speaker 2: like seven thousand percent. And I came across a story
Speaker 2: this week that's not about cars, but I still think
Speaker 2: you'll find it fascinating if you haven't heard. The US
Speaker 2: Treasury owns like two hundred and sixty one million ounces
Speaker 2: of gold right at Fort Knox under the Federal Reserve
Speaker 2: year in New York. On its balance sheet. The Treasury
Speaker 2: last valued its gold holdings the year I was born
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three, at forty two dollars and twenty
Speaker 2: two cents an ounce.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: This week gold traded for more than two nine hundred
Speaker 2: dollars an ounce. Wow. The Treasury, on its balance sheet
Speaker 2: is valuing its gold holdings at eleven billion measly dollars.
Speaker 2: If they would mark their gold holdings to market to
Speaker 2: today's price, it would be worth almost eight hundred billion dollars.
Speaker 3: So what does that mean for us?
Speaker 2: Well, for the US, what this means is we're undervaluing
Speaker 2: the assets that our treasury holds. And okay, it's an
Speaker 2: accounting issue. But what they could do through a repurchase
Speaker 2: agreement with the Fed is say, listen, we'll sell you
Speaker 2: this now and promise to buy it back later at
Speaker 2: the same price. What you do is then the FED
Speaker 2: creates seven hundred and fifty billion dollars and sends them
Speaker 2: to the Treasury. General Account and then the Treasury all
Speaker 2: of a sudden is sitting on more than seven hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty billion that it doesn't have to issue in bonds.
Speaker 2: And by the way, that's about one quarter's issuance in
Speaker 2: US Treasury debt, So they could issue only three quarters
Speaker 2: of dead that debt and they normally would in the year,
Speaker 2: and I think could bring interest rates down dramatic.
Speaker 3: I think that's a genius plan. I think we should
Speaker 3: advocate for that.
Speaker 2: I won't claim credit for it. I read this story
Speaker 2: in the FT. Jillian Tett, who's awsome columnist, wrote about
Speaker 2: it there, and today I was talking to on my
Speaker 2: television show. I was talking to Kevin Hassett, who's the
Speaker 2: director of the NA in the Trump administration, and I
Speaker 2: asked if he'd thought about it, and he said he
Speaker 2: hasn't studied the idea, but he thought it was an
Speaker 2: excellent column in the Ft. He also read.
Speaker 1: It, well, does this for me mean I do have
Speaker 1: a plug? I do have a gold plug, like I
Speaker 1: do have someone who can get gold from Africa at
Speaker 1: a good rate. Does this mean I need to buy
Speaker 1: buy some buy more, buy a bar.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think it means Will. I don't think
Speaker 2: it means much for the price. It wouldn't involve this
Speaker 2: repurchase agreement actual sale of the gold. What I do
Speaker 2: think it means is, so I was looking at Harley's today.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to go to Buston and ride motorcycles,
Speaker 2: and I saw at least this dealership, Wolverine Harley Davison
Speaker 2: in Michigan has got a special deal, a financing deal
Speaker 2: one point four to nine percent zero down, which is
Speaker 2: sick right, But I don't want a new Harley. I
Speaker 2: want to buy an older one. And what are interest rates?
Speaker 2: I mean, hopefully I can buy it in cash, But
Speaker 2: if I were going to borrow money to buy an
Speaker 2: older motorcycle, what are interest rates on a used motorcycle?
Speaker 2: Probably like ten percent?
Speaker 3: Probably not that seems wildly high.
Speaker 2: No, but I mean used car interest rates are also
Speaker 2: like nine, ten eleven percent. If you want to take
Speaker 2: if you want to take a loan to buy a
Speaker 2: used car, the lender isn't going to give you the
Speaker 2: kind of rate he's going to give you on a
Speaker 2: on a new car because there's more risk. Sure, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I just if the Treasury would do this plan, maybe
Speaker 2: we could get those rates down, more of us could buy,
Speaker 2: more of us could finance vehicles.
Speaker 3: Well, that'd be good. I think that'd be good.
Speaker 1: I've never financed a vehicle, so I'm really speaking from
Speaker 1: a hypothetical.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I only deal in gold bullion, wow, and corvettes.
Speaker 2: Anyway, that's my fun story of.
Speaker 3: What are you doing for Valentines?
Speaker 2: Let's talk for Valentine's Day? That's a damn good question. Actually,
Speaker 2: I don't have a plan yet.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, never mind.
Speaker 2: No, but I'm thank you for reminding me. I will
Speaker 2: make plan.
Speaker 3: It is Friday. You know, a little token doesn't have
Speaker 3: to be much.
Speaker 2: I will do. I will be doing a little token
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 1: A photo times day, you know, a flower, just a
Speaker 1: little remembrance.
Speaker 2: I probably will take my wife out to dinner. But
Speaker 2: I hate that they charge more.
Speaker 3: I know they do. It's it's unfair.
Speaker 2: You know what I think I might do now, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna try and get somebody not only to babies, hit
Speaker 2: the cads, but to take them out of the house.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great that I will cook dinner.
Speaker 3: But oh, that is so that it's wonderful.
Speaker 2: What about you?
Speaker 3: What's the We're gonna have.
Speaker 1: I'm actually excited about this because Valentine's Day is really tricky.
Speaker 1: We're having a non Valentine's Day party on Valentine's Day,
Speaker 1: and it's called a Bleeding Hearts Party, and we're inviting
Speaker 1: a bunch of friends and it's just an excuse to
Speaker 1: get together and hang out and eat cake and drink.
Speaker 2: But it's not a Valentine's It's specifically not a Valentine's Day.
Speaker 3: Point No.
Speaker 1: I mean, the cake's gonna be shaped like a heart
Speaker 1: for fun. But it's a non Valentine's Day party on
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2: But you can bring your Valentine.
Speaker 3: Sure, of course, you can bring your Valentine.
Speaker 1: You can be sweet, but it's not gonna it's like,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be any sort of thing that makes
Speaker 1: is just like makes people who don't necessarily have a
Speaker 1: Valentine feel.
Speaker 3: Any kind of way. It's just a party to see friends.
Speaker 2: Well that's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an excuse that inclusive of you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you know, I'm all about it.
Speaker 2: And we'll be waiting on this mccon review on Bloomberg
Speaker 2: dot com or on the terminal and then let's see
Speaker 2: what am I driving tomorrow. I'm going to pick up
Speaker 2: a new land Rover Discovery, the New Disco, which I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't really think it's that exciting, but we'll be
Speaker 2: a good car for the snow is on the road
Speaker 2: right now. There's I mean, you know, our roads are
Speaker 2: for the most part salted, but it's coming or at
Speaker 2: least maybe freezing rain. We have on the East coast
Speaker 2: one hundred million Americans under some sort of winter weather advisory.
Speaker 3: That's that's extreme. I hope you shouldn't use that truck
Speaker 3: on the road.
Speaker 2: All right. That's uh, That's all I got then for
Speaker 2: this week.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 2: Hopefully we get some some more good emails.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we will.
Speaker 2: Hot pursuit at Bloomberg dot Mat write us. I'm Matt
Speaker 2: Miller and
Speaker 3: I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is Bloomberg