Speaker 1: Pushkin. I'm going to start with one that I know
Speaker 1: is near and dear to you. You're an OJ Bronco fan,
Speaker 1: an og OJ Bronco fan, You've had a lot of
Speaker 1: these things, and I want to talk about the new
Speaker 1: Ford Broncho Raptor. And the thing I'll say about this
Speaker 1: vehicle is they should have put more animals in the name,
Speaker 1: like should have been Broncho Raptor, Gator, aucelot, What are you, crocodile?
Speaker 1: I just learned about the II, that little primate that
Speaker 1: can pick its nose with a really long finger. Throw
Speaker 1: that in there. Yeah, the Broncho Raptor. That's my guy,
Speaker 1: Ezra Dyer, the northeaster of automotive journalism who moved down
Speaker 1: south so he could drive more four by fours in
Speaker 1: the mud. He's now the Carolina's editor for Crrent Driver,
Speaker 1: and he was driving big, stupid SUVs before the rest
Speaker 1: of America discovered them. He's going to help us sort
Speaker 1: out this year's crop of SUVs. On deck this week
Speaker 1: are the Ford Bronco Raptor, the Honda CRV, the Genesis
Speaker 1: GV seventy, and of course the all new Range Rover.
Speaker 1: I'm Eddie Alterman and this is car show. I think
Speaker 1: this is the equivalent of, you know, the most luxurious
Speaker 1: luxury car interior. It's not perfect, it's not Apple, it's Samsung.
Speaker 1: The Ford Bronco Raptor takes the already ridiculous Bronco and
Speaker 1: ridiculates it further. Ford bumps the twin TURBOV six out
Speaker 1: to three leaders and four hundred and eighteen horsepower, straps
Speaker 1: on thirty seven inch tires, and fits a suspension that
Speaker 1: travels farther than buzz Aldrin. It's an off road mountain goat,
Speaker 1: but is it the goat? So first of all, that
Speaker 1: vehicle should appeal to me completely because it's an overkill Bronco.
Speaker 1: But my only thing is I feel like maybe it's
Speaker 1: not quite overkill enough under the hood. Everywhere else, of course,
Speaker 1: suspension is ridiculous. It has fender flares that are made
Speaker 1: of half of rubber Maid's annual production. I think is
Speaker 1: now going to Ford Bronco fender flares. I drove it
Speaker 1: out at Car Driver's said best Testing, and it is
Speaker 1: quite a singular machine. Well, it only has twin turbo
Speaker 1: three leader V six. It doesn't have a big honkin
Speaker 1: the eight like they put in the Raptor R and
Speaker 1: it makes a paltry four hundred and eighteen horsepower. Right,
Speaker 1: don't you feel like they pulled a punch there? I mean,
Speaker 1: what they couldn't fit the three point five leader boost
Speaker 1: in it. It's kind of ridiculous, right. But the other
Speaker 1: thing is the Broncho itself is so dog slow that
Speaker 1: this thing feels like to me, it feels like this
Speaker 1: is what the Bronco should have been to start with,
Speaker 1: Like this should be the base Bronco because it actually
Speaker 1: gets out of its own way, and the gearing isn't
Speaker 1: crazy because it's got that ten speed automatic. I love
Speaker 1: a manual gearbox, but in that Bronco with the manual,
Speaker 1: you've got that super short stump pulling first gear and
Speaker 1: the rest of the gears are super lazy, and it's
Speaker 1: just like it doesn't accelerate. I don't know, I think
Speaker 1: this should have been the base Broncho. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: it doesn't help, but they only give you the manual
Speaker 1: with the four cylinder. But yeah, they do offer I
Speaker 1: saw they just come out with a reflash for it
Speaker 1: where they'll jack up basically the four cylinder to the
Speaker 1: V six power and the V six you can make
Speaker 1: a little bit more and they'll give it REV matching
Speaker 1: on the downship. So they've kind of sported up the
Speaker 1: base Bronco maybe before it already realized that they realize that,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, maybe we should have made this thing
Speaker 1: a little bit puncher in the first place, because it's
Speaker 1: a big rig. Yeah, and especially by the time you
Speaker 1: get to the Broncho Raptor, which is like a Bronco
Speaker 1: and a half. You know what, the Ford always leaves
Speaker 1: themselves and out to do a little bit more down
Speaker 1: the line, and they probably figure morons are paying one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand for these things anyway, So let's
Speaker 1: just let's leave ourselves some headroom to drop a three
Speaker 1: point five minute two years from now and go Tedda
Speaker 1: keep some powder dry, right, Yeah, then it'll be the
Speaker 1: Bronco Raptor, are at exactly right, that'll need the awesolet
Speaker 1: edition Texas Rodeo. However, they're going to sell it in
Speaker 1: you know, different regional markets and that'll be there. That'll
Speaker 1: be their big thing. But for me, I just aesthetically,
Speaker 1: I just can't get over those fender flares. And it
Speaker 1: could have been done almost any other way would be
Speaker 1: more elegant than the way they did it. It's funny
Speaker 1: to talk about aesthetics and this thing in the same sentence,
Speaker 1: but I think you're right. It is a little crude,
Speaker 1: and I think this should be sort of the base Broncho.
Speaker 1: As I said, I think it's a wonderful soft, compliant
Speaker 1: daily driver, good enough power. The only thing about it
Speaker 1: is you can't drive it to a funeral. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't wear a Philadelphia Eagles jersey and Oakley blades
Speaker 1: to a funeral. This is like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: such an idiot's car. What's your take on that. I
Speaker 1: would hope someone would drive a Bronco Raptor to my
Speaker 1: funeral and rip some donuts or something. It's got crazy
Speaker 1: wide axles and wider track and I didn't get to
Speaker 1: take it off road really much, but it is supposed
Speaker 1: to be the king of off road of anything you
Speaker 1: can buy right now, and I can see how that
Speaker 1: would be. Triple lockers and crazy approach and departure angles
Speaker 1: and ground clearance and suspension travel like it's kind of
Speaker 1: designed to do the King of the Hammers thing from
Speaker 1: the factory, which is amazing. And ridiculous. It is amazing.
Speaker 1: And I've driven this thing off road and it's almost
Speaker 1: like an autonomous vehicle off road. It just goes anywhere
Speaker 1: you put it, you lock the axles, the thing just
Speaker 1: creeps over everything. You've got those helper spot or cameras
Speaker 1: to show you what's going on underneath. I mean, the
Speaker 1: thing is so incredibly capable off road, this kind of
Speaker 1: a miracle that it drives as civilly as it does
Speaker 1: on road. I feel like it's more civil than your
Speaker 1: average cheap wrangler on road. But here's my problem with
Speaker 1: super duper capable vehicles like that is part of the
Speaker 1: thrill of off roading is not being sure whether you're
Speaker 1: going to get back out. Yeah, so what kind of
Speaker 1: terran do you find with a broco raptor where you're
Speaker 1: really wondering whether you're going to get back out. It's
Speaker 1: going to be something where you might need a chin
Speaker 1: a helicopter to extricate you if it does go wrong,
Speaker 1: because really, how are you going to get that thing stuck?
Speaker 1: I'm sure people will, people will find ways. So there
Speaker 1: is there is that aspect of what is the point
Speaker 1: ultimately here? Yeah, but it's very hard to do, and
Speaker 1: you know, I found the thing totally enjoyable and everyday
Speaker 1: driving I know I was in the minority, but you know,
Speaker 1: I've like I'm missing half a lope of my brain,
Speaker 1: so I think, well, it is Yeah, you're not known
Speaker 1: as a left brain thinker. It is a paradox of
Speaker 1: trucks like the Bronco Raptor. These this genre of off
Speaker 1: road desert racers that we have now with the ramtr
Speaker 1: Ax and the Raptor which spawned at Colorado ZR two,
Speaker 1: is that they're really comfortable on road. You know, when
Speaker 1: you have a foot and a half of suspension travel
Speaker 1: and you know ninety profile tires, guess what that's going
Speaker 1: to ride real nice? Yeah, on the broken pavement of
Speaker 1: our reality. I think that's part of the reason for
Speaker 1: the popularity of these things is that people like the
Speaker 1: way they look. Obviously, and everybody wants to have more
Speaker 1: capability than they really need in their vehicle. But it
Speaker 1: does actually as opposed to like a Lamborghini that goes
Speaker 1: two hundred miles an hour. The crazy part of the
Speaker 1: capability of these things translates to actual enjoyability on the street.
Speaker 1: You're just smothering every thing that comes your way out,
Speaker 1: speed bombs, speed up right right exactly, get a little
Speaker 1: air if you can, You'll land like a cat. You know. Well,
Speaker 1: let's move on to something that's altogether more sane and
Speaker 1: much more mainstream and enters one of the most hotly
Speaker 1: contested segments there is, which is the compact luxury SUV segment,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about the Genesis GV seventy. The GV seventy,
Speaker 1: as the Alpha numerics imply, is the suv version of
Speaker 1: the Genesis G seventy sports Sedan, although I'm not exactly
Speaker 1: sure what the V actually means here, vigorous anyway, it's
Speaker 1: darn vivacious, offering your choice of a two point five
Speaker 1: liter turbo four or a twin turbo three point five
Speaker 1: liter V six. It's also got one of the nicest
Speaker 1: interiors this side of a Bentley Mosan. They just murdered
Speaker 1: it with this one. They knocked it out of the park.
Speaker 1: They picked the exact right midway point in the segment
Speaker 1: between the super Doughey soft squishy Lexus r X and
Speaker 1: then the super taught, you know, super sporty Porsche Mcan.
Speaker 1: This thing is just like splitting it right down the middle.
Speaker 1: What's your take on this thing? They did somehow manage
Speaker 1: to find daylight in a segment that is just relentlessly
Speaker 1: everything is benchmarked against everything else, and there's only so
Speaker 1: many ways you can draw a two box shape. Everything
Speaker 1: tends to kind of look like everything else too, And
Speaker 1: they came up with an interesting look for one thing,
Speaker 1: especially with the grill that you know right away, hey,
Speaker 1: that's a Genesis, and not in a bad way. You know,
Speaker 1: when a lot of companies come out with a you know,
Speaker 1: a signature grill, it's like the Accurate Beak or even
Speaker 1: the OUTI single frame when they came out with that.
Speaker 1: But Genesis, they came out with a cool looking front end.
Speaker 1: It's definitely large, although you know, I hear what you're
Speaker 1: saying that it's distinctive because it's so chromed out and
Speaker 1: so big. But I get a lot of people saying
Speaker 1: it's a Bentley. The point is you know exactly what
Speaker 1: it is when you see it, and you know, assuming
Speaker 1: you don't think it's Eventley, I put it this way,
Speaker 1: it looks way better than it been taken. That's for
Speaker 1: damn sure. You're gonna mistake it for Eventley. Bentley wishes
Speaker 1: it could look like a GB seventy, but also on
Speaker 1: the inside too, it has just fantastic materials and interesting colors.
Speaker 1: When it's got that red interior popping out at you,
Speaker 1: and everything is just so well done in the manner
Speaker 1: of Lexus of your I would say, like you just
Speaker 1: want to spin the dials and push the buttons and
Speaker 1: feel the way the switches were because it's all just
Speaker 1: so dialed in and good. It's funny that you say Lexus,
Speaker 1: because you know Lexus when it came out in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine nineteen ninety they were really exploiting a big
Speaker 1: economic advantage, you know, of the end versus the dollar,
Speaker 1: and they were able to load so much value into
Speaker 1: those vehicles. The Koreans have a slightly different approach. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're totally vertically integrated. They make their own steel, they do,
Speaker 1: but they can deliver so much value for so little money.
Speaker 1: And this thing starts at forty three thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: it's got like one hundred thousand dollars worth of interior
Speaker 1: in it. It's just incredibly good swayed everywhere you can
Speaker 1: get contrast stitching and piping you can get different color
Speaker 1: seatbelts like a Porsche. It's just nuts in there, and
Speaker 1: it's really good to drive. It's the other thing, yeah,
Speaker 1: in which Genesis they weren't always you know, they ramped
Speaker 1: up really quickly into excellent to drive as opposed to
Speaker 1: just trying to be like a softer Mercedes. Is kind
Speaker 1: of where they started. Yeah, and now they're even though
Speaker 1: that's not a you know, a finely honed sporting machine
Speaker 1: like a Macon GTS or something. It's pretty sharp and
Speaker 1: especially with the V six, it sounds good, it's fast,
Speaker 1: it's fun to drive without having that overtly sporty edginess
Speaker 1: that's beating you up all the time like a BMW
Speaker 1: X three M competition or something where you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I get it, it's sporty. Ok. I don't need to
Speaker 1: feel every seam in the pavement all the time in
Speaker 1: my midsized crossover, right. Genesis gets that. Yeah, It's like
Speaker 1: the engine is sporty, but it rides like a jag.
Speaker 1: It doesn't kill you with sportiness. The V six is
Speaker 1: sporty enough. It kind of rides like a luxury car,
Speaker 1: although when you go over bigger bumps, you get a
Speaker 1: little harshness in the wheel impacts. And that's the one
Speaker 1: little area where I'm like, you know, another couple of
Speaker 1: cycles of suspension development, and they could get it to
Speaker 1: the bends. But they move so fast, you know, like
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a new one next year or something.
Speaker 1: They just they cycle so much more quickly than all
Speaker 1: the other brands, and that's what causes them to evolve
Speaker 1: so much faster. Yeah, Like, whatever you think is wrong
Speaker 1: with the GV seventy, just wait a year, right, And
Speaker 1: they're super responsive. That's totally true. And look, this is
Speaker 1: Genesis as a brand, just their second SUV, and they're
Speaker 1: fully competitive. It's incredible. And from what I understand, it's
Speaker 1: you know, we can extrapolate from the GV eighty and
Speaker 1: tied Woods. It's probably very same. Yes, that's true. Don't
Speaker 1: forget it saved his life. After the break, we'll be
Speaker 1: back with a new Honda CRV. Well, let's talk next
Speaker 1: about a vehicle that's sort of ubiquitous and is all
Speaker 1: new for twenty twenty three. And I just drove in
Speaker 1: and I know you did, and this thing is sort
Speaker 1: of like the municipal car for every small liberal town.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about super roof. I'm talking about the
Speaker 1: Honda CRV. This thing is just incrementally better than the
Speaker 1: last one. But that's all it needed to be a
Speaker 1: little bigger, a little quicker, and a little more sophisticated.
Speaker 1: That's the new Honda CRV. Honda is really pushing the
Speaker 1: hybrid versions here. They started just around thirty three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and deliver crazy fuel economy and terrific driving behavior.
Speaker 1: The hybrid system itself is real high end kit with
Speaker 1: a two lead turbo four cylinder augmented with two electric motors,
Speaker 1: one for power and one that's a generator. As the
Speaker 1: kids say, it's electric motor forward. What did you think
Speaker 1: about driving it? I think the last one was utterly
Speaker 1: forgettable in the way that it needed to be to
Speaker 1: appeal to millions of people. The CRV is the new
Speaker 1: Accord or camera in terms of it is the mainstream
Speaker 1: vehicle that everybody buys who doesn't necessarily care about cars,
Speaker 1: but wants a solid, comfortable, reliable, efficient, and on and
Speaker 1: on and on vehicle for their lives that they're going
Speaker 1: to keep for ten years. Maybe. So the thing that's
Speaker 1: great about the new one is that they kept all
Speaker 1: of those attributes, all of the pragmatic things, but they
Speaker 1: also made it more interesting, so someone who does care
Speaker 1: about cars can get it and go all right. I
Speaker 1: like what they did here. I like the style of it.
Speaker 1: I like the design, and everything feels super solid and
Speaker 1: more expensive than it actually is. Yeah, it's better than
Speaker 1: it needs to be. You know. It's not a cynical
Speaker 1: sort of vehicle. And that's what I love about Honda's,
Speaker 1: Like it's sort of the approach they have for Accord
Speaker 1: and Civic. Most people are just going to use it
Speaker 1: as basic transportation. They're never going to change the oil.
Speaker 1: They're going to park it on the street in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: own it for twenty years and forget about it. But
Speaker 1: somebody who's into driving can take in Accord or Civic
Speaker 1: and just ring the crap out of it, and it's
Speaker 1: utterly satisfying. You know. It is just so so good
Speaker 1: and so there, And the best Hondas have this way
Speaker 1: of sort of disappearing under you, so you just sort
Speaker 1: of flow with the thing, you know. The Civic type
Speaker 1: IR does that for sure, and I think the CRV
Speaker 1: does that too, And it's just an incredible effort. It's
Speaker 1: bigger in every dimension, it's much better to drive. They
Speaker 1: really turn it it on with this thing, and you
Speaker 1: can ignore it pretty easily. But I think it's a
Speaker 1: great achievement. It's also an interesting vehicle from an engineering standpoint,
Speaker 1: specifically the hybrid that is just some cool stuff. Basically
Speaker 1: like you've got an electric car with your own onboard
Speaker 1: generator right as opposed to you know, the way that
Speaker 1: a lot of companies do hybrid is, here's a two
Speaker 1: armed horsepower gas engine and here's a five horsepower at
Speaker 1: a little glorified starter motor, and we're going to call
Speaker 1: it a hybrid. The CRVS the other way around. It's
Speaker 1: basically got big electric motors and an engine that can
Speaker 1: basically power those. But it's cool that they made the
Speaker 1: hybrid sort of the flagship, and they don't even call
Speaker 1: it the hybrid anymore. It's just the CRV sport right now,
Speaker 1: it's a sport touring hybrid or it's right, okay, right,
Speaker 1: But they're not like they're not leaning on the hybrid
Speaker 1: part as much as this is the sport this this
Speaker 1: is the one you want if you want to have
Speaker 1: a little more fun and more power actually, yeah, than
Speaker 1: than the gas model and better mileage than the Toyota
Speaker 1: REV for hybrid, and Toyota is the acknowledged hybrid king.
Speaker 1: And you know, never forget that Honda is an engine
Speaker 1: company first and foremost, and they make all kinds of
Speaker 1: stuff like riding mowers and weed whackers and you know,
Speaker 1: four stroked marine engines, and it all starts with the
Speaker 1: engine in those things. They are to me great engineering achievements,
Speaker 1: great masterpieces. And I don't know about you, but you know,
Speaker 1: I'm constantly being asked to recommend cars, and my fear
Speaker 1: is that I'm going to recommend something that craps out
Speaker 1: on somebody. And I always find myself recommending Honda's because
Speaker 1: of that, to lesser extent, Toyota's and maybe Subarus. But
Speaker 1: you know, for people who are not super wrecked in
Speaker 1: the head and totally insane about cars and just want
Speaker 1: basic transportation that's gonna over deliver, I'm always recommending Civics
Speaker 1: and Chords and crbs, and they're just very very good,
Speaker 1: soundly engineered things. Yeah, you can't go wrong recommending a Honda.
Speaker 1: Nobody's nobody's ever going to come back to you and say,
Speaker 1: I hate this thing exactly exactly. Nobody's mad about their Honda.
Speaker 1: Nobody's pissed at it. Everybody's like as opposed to like
Speaker 1: when I recommended the Volkswagen Phaeton. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: like recommending a land Rover. You know, that's Russian roulette.
Speaker 1: And that brings us to the last vehicle in the bracket,
Speaker 1: the all new land Rover range Rover one hundred and
Speaker 1: five k to start for the short wheelbase version and
Speaker 1: the top of the line SV version opens at one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety five thousand dollars. We're not in Kansas anymore, man.
Speaker 1: These things used to be farm implements, and now they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, they fit six Kardashians. And BMW is back
Speaker 1: on the scene. Say more about that. Yes, the range
Speaker 1: Rover is once again powered by BMW VA, just as
Speaker 1: it was in early two thousands. I feel like BMW
Speaker 1: and land Rover are like a toxic couple where it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, they're getting back together, well, maybe this
Speaker 1: time it'll work. At BMW's friends are like, oh, I
Speaker 1: remember last time Ford showed up, and then yeah, they're
Speaker 1: getting married again. Where it's like a death the Nation wedding.
Speaker 1: You spend all this money to go and everyone's growning.
Speaker 1: But it actually the thing is, it does work really well.
Speaker 1: You can see why this keeps happening. I mean, it
Speaker 1: is the most distinctive suv. You look at it and
Speaker 1: you go, oh my god, that thing is just gorgeous.
Speaker 1: That's like the platonic ideal of what a luxury suv
Speaker 1: should be. What's better than that? You know, maybe the
Speaker 1: most desirable suv of all time, And in this generation
Speaker 1: they've done such fine detail work on the exterior and
Speaker 1: to some extent the interior. Like around the greenhouse of
Speaker 1: that thing, there's no gasket. It just butts with the
Speaker 1: glass perfectly. It's just so precisely made, and you look
Speaker 1: around that whole thing and you're like, this is just
Speaker 1: insane attention to detail. The surfacing of it is so
Speaker 1: beautiful and so serene almost and so elegant that you
Speaker 1: almost like, I kind of missed the old crappy one.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I missed the crappy one, but
Speaker 1: that the interesting trick that they pulled that's really hard
Speaker 1: to do is to take a vehicle that has kind
Speaker 1: of I hate the word iconic. But the Rangerover shape
Speaker 1: is iconic, and it's super difficult to tune it up
Speaker 1: for a new generation and not lose the unmistakable look
Speaker 1: that it had, but also make it unmistakably new. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know Bentley's wrestled with that with like Continental
Speaker 1: GT they come out with and you know, come out
Speaker 1: with a new one. Well it kind of looks like
Speaker 1: the old one because well, they settled on their shape
Speaker 1: and they don't want to screw it up. Rangerover managed
Speaker 1: to take that Jerry McGovern sketch on a napkin and
Speaker 1: turn it into something that is clearly the new generation.
Speaker 1: All your neighbors are going to know you've got the
Speaker 1: new one, right, but everybody else is also going to
Speaker 1: know that you've got a Ranger Over that has to
Speaker 1: be what you're looking at is a range Rover. You
Speaker 1: don't have to explain it to anybody. No, you have
Speaker 1: to explain to anybody. And they did it, like you said,
Speaker 1: through all that fine detailing. It just looks slick and smooth,
Speaker 1: but not just like this wind tunnel shaped boring egg. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it's still got the distinctive elements
Speaker 1: that make it a range over right, the floating roof,
Speaker 1: kind of the raised capitals on the hood. You sit
Speaker 1: very high in it, so you can still kind of
Speaker 1: peer down the side of the door to look at
Speaker 1: what you're doing off road. This thing remains amazing off road.
Speaker 1: Nobody will ever take it off road, not in this
Speaker 1: country at least, but it is so incredibly tuned up
Speaker 1: for that stuff. And you know, the wee articulations crazy.
Speaker 1: It can ford a ton of water. But my question
Speaker 1: with this one is is it too la? You know,
Speaker 1: like have they smoothed it out too much? The great
Speaker 1: thing about English car design is that every element is
Speaker 1: sort of its own individual design. The lights are their
Speaker 1: own little thing set into the body. It's not like
Speaker 1: that's smooth Scandinavian style where the lights are sort of
Speaker 1: wrapped around the body and like the same sort of
Speaker 1: form of the body. On this one, it's so smooth.
Speaker 1: It's so like global in a way, and so like
Speaker 1: built for Dubai. You go, is this thing does it
Speaker 1: really read as an English vehicle anymore? Well? If I
Speaker 1: put on my Landrover product planner hat for a moment,
Speaker 1: I would say that their response that I would probably
Speaker 1: be well that's what the defenders for if you or Discovery,
Speaker 1: if you want something that's a little bit more idiosyncratic
Speaker 1: style wise, whereas the range rover has always been this
Speaker 1: bejeweled thing, and this one is moving that further in
Speaker 1: that direction. But to your point, it'll still go off road.
Speaker 1: So if it'll still it'll still do all the silly
Speaker 1: things while looking like that. I can see how you
Speaker 1: say that puts it in the you're flossing in Dubai
Speaker 1: sort of sort of aesthetic realm, right, they should have
Speaker 1: like a Falconer's rod option in the bag. I did
Speaker 1: take a range over off road some years ago, the
Speaker 1: previous generation and the general public doesn't even realize how
Speaker 1: good range overs are off road. So I showed up
Speaker 1: at a jeep club event on Fort Bragg with a
Speaker 1: ranger Over and the guys there said, hey, you want
Speaker 1: to just park and ride with us. I'm like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I can go where you guys go, trust me, And
Speaker 1: I did. And their minds were blown because they've only
Speaker 1: ever seen these things on the street. They've never seen
Speaker 1: one out in the woods and clomping through mud and
Speaker 1: going everywhere they were going, and they're you know, lifted XJS,
Speaker 1: So I think that as long as it retained that ability,
Speaker 1: then the style had to move forward, and it did.
Speaker 1: And the fact that we can debate about it is
Speaker 1: I think a good thing. Yeah. You know, if everybody,
Speaker 1: if everybody agrees on every aspect of the way something looks,
Speaker 1: then it's probably not that interesting. Yeah, and it's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna la too long and be kind of captivating
Speaker 1: for very long. And you know, this thing feels sort
Speaker 1: of ten percent bigger in every dimension except the interior,
Speaker 1: So it feels like it's escalated size on the exterior,
Speaker 1: but inside it's kind of snug. Well, that's that's part
Speaker 1: of the extravagance, the extravagance of wasted space, right. You
Speaker 1: know when you have that the tumble Home, you know
Speaker 1: they could have made the body side straight up and down.
Speaker 1: But when you look at it, like from the back,
Speaker 1: and it looks like you've got a TP on top
Speaker 1: of a square basically because the roof can's in so hard.
Speaker 1: That makes it look cool, but that also makes it
Speaker 1: less practical inside. But look, the least practical things are
Speaker 1: the ones that command the most money. When they're making
Speaker 1: the two door Ranger over the last generation that was
Speaker 1: the most expensive one, and people will pay premium to
Speaker 1: be inconvenient if it looks cool. That's true, Yeah, to
Speaker 1: work a little bit harder for style to suffer a
Speaker 1: little bit. And it is one thing about the Ranger
Speaker 1: over that as expensive as it is and always has been,
Speaker 1: it still represents kind of a bargain because you do say, well,
Speaker 1: what's above this? What am I going to get that's
Speaker 1: better than this for an SUV? And the answer is
Speaker 1: usually there isn't one. Yeah, I mean the g Wagon
Speaker 1: I think is sort of in that same sort of
Speaker 1: zip code, that same sort of you know zone, but
Speaker 1: it's cruder, it's you know, it's not quite as refined,
Speaker 1: and it's more money when you think it's also one
Speaker 1: might say an acquired taste. Yeah, I've acquired it. You've
Speaker 1: got to have You've gotta have a g Wagon attitude.
Speaker 1: After the break, Ezra and I will rank all four SUVs.
Speaker 1: We're back and it's time to decide which of these
Speaker 1: four SUVs make it through to the final round. All
Speaker 1: four of these vehicles are pretty spectacular in their own way,
Speaker 1: from the kind of entry level or starter levels CRV
Speaker 1: all the way up to the range Rover and sort
Speaker 1: of everything in between, where do you net out? Like,
Speaker 1: so I would put the Broncho Raptor last just because
Speaker 1: it has some it is further to go. I would
Speaker 1: agree with that because yes, a you feel like they
Speaker 1: pulled a few punches despite how ridiculous it is in
Speaker 1: so many ways. But also it's a very focused, niche thing,
Speaker 1: and it's always easier to build something that's highly specialized
Speaker 1: and highly compromise. In other way, it's like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: going to be great offer of a get horrible mileage
Speaker 1: and cost a lot and on and on and on,
Speaker 1: but be really good at this one thing. It's a
Speaker 1: lot harder to make something like a CRV that's good
Speaker 1: at a lot of things and appeals to a lot
Speaker 1: of people will out being boring. Like the more you
Speaker 1: spend building something and the more you charge for it,
Speaker 1: the better it can be. Really and so a two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollar range Rover to me is not such
Speaker 1: a huge achievement, you know, it's not a quantum leap forward.
Speaker 1: And to me, that's my number three vehicle in this bracket. Like,
Speaker 1: I think the range Rover is great. I love it,
Speaker 1: super desirable, somewhat non vehicular in its movements, sort of
Speaker 1: like driving a couch. But man, I want one. I
Speaker 1: think they're super cool and I like it's the perfect
Speaker 1: thing to pull into the fancy grocery store with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like I want a Hinkley yacht too, right, I
Speaker 1: want to Wally b. Yeah, but it is easier to
Speaker 1: build a Hinkley yacht than it is to build something
Speaker 1: that's going to be accessible for everybody. As we've said,
Speaker 1: with a lot of cars in that price range for
Speaker 1: that amount of money, it ought to be great. It is,
Speaker 1: but it ought to be Yeah, the execution matches expectations.
Speaker 1: So so I see where you're going. Is CRV and
Speaker 1: GB seventy, which are both excellent vehicles and yet had
Speaker 1: to be built to a price. They had to be
Speaker 1: built to a price, but you can't really tell exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think the one that overachieves there is the
Speaker 1: GB seventy. It's so incredibly good. That's my top pick.
Speaker 1: That's the one I'm pushing forward. It came out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: blew everybody's minds split the segment exactly down the middle.
Speaker 1: The most I think buyer appeal of anything in that
Speaker 1: segment for the widest possible buyer a little bit like CRV,
Speaker 1: to be honest, But the CRV is just like, it's
Speaker 1: not as cool as a GB seventy. You know, it's
Speaker 1: an incredible achievement, and it's incrementally better than the last one,
Speaker 1: which is also a great achievement. But the GB seventy
Speaker 1: is just like, that's a moon shot to me. So
Speaker 1: are we only picking one here? Only picking one to
Speaker 1: go forward? We're only picking one? Well, Eddy, I hate
Speaker 1: to agree with you on everything, but you know, if
Speaker 1: I look at this as which one of these would
Speaker 1: I actually want to go by? Now, Like, if I
Speaker 1: were laying my own money on the line, which is
Speaker 1: the most compelling vehicle that I would want to go get?
Speaker 1: It would be the GB seventy. That's a car that
Speaker 1: I would want to show up in. It's got desirability,
Speaker 1: it's got curb appeal, super comfortable, great user interface, all
Speaker 1: the things all right, and actually, which I regard as
Speaker 1: a bonus anti badge appeal. A lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know what a genesis is still, So you're not paying
Speaker 1: whatever the tariff is on that Mercedes Star on your hood,
Speaker 1: You're not paying that for a genesis. They're strivers. They're
Speaker 1: trying to overtake those other companies, and you can really
Speaker 1: tell from their products. Yeah, they're just trying harder, they're
Speaker 1: working it and they're sweating every little detail. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: want that badge to mean something in the future. I
Speaker 1: still feel like, if you pick up one of those
Speaker 1: right now, you're early. You're leading the way, right, You're
Speaker 1: a thought leader, You're an early adopter. No one ever
Speaker 1: says that to me, but yeah, hypothetically I'm a thoughlier. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable with the GV seventy. Moving on, Okay, great, excellent.
Speaker 1: So this luxury compact SUV slays the range Rover, it
Speaker 1: slays the stalwart Honda CRV, and it slays ultimately the
Speaker 1: multi species Broncho Raptor. Thank you, Ezra. You are hilarious
Speaker 1: and great and so full of insight. Can't thank you enough. Man,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Man. Now, Producer Sam Dingman and
Speaker 1: I get behind the wheel of the GV seventy to
Speaker 1: see what the fuss is all about. I just noticed
Speaker 1: seatbelts are cut. Look, I mean, look at the level
Speaker 1: of detail and this thing. You can tell that the
Speaker 1: guy who designed this designed Bentley's and Lamborghinis. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is so deluxe and it's so beautifully executed. Look
Speaker 1: at this line, this line of chrome that starts at
Speaker 1: the door, the back of the door, goes through the vents,
Speaker 1: kicks up over the instrument binnacle, which is has this
Speaker 1: exposed stitch by the way, then goes through all these
Speaker 1: other vents around to the other door, and just creates
Speaker 1: this kind of seamless connected interior space. And you know
Speaker 1: this design, this eyebrow design over the binnacle kind of
Speaker 1: repeats in the third stoplight. I mean, there's all these
Speaker 1: little touches that are so incredibly thoughtful and smart, and
Speaker 1: just like this is hard stuff to do, especially at
Speaker 1: this price point. I mean, I think this is the
Speaker 1: equivalent of, you know, the most luxurious luxury car interior.
Speaker 1: It's not perfect, it's not Apple, it's Samsung. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: drive it a little, let's take it out. Okay. So
Speaker 1: I'm turning the crystal neurld gear selector to drive, and
Speaker 1: we're going to drive this car in its native habitat.
Speaker 1: I do have to admit turning the knob to shift
Speaker 1: gears did feel a little bit like I was turning
Speaker 1: on a washing machine, It's true. And then you have
Speaker 1: you park it or you put it in park by
Speaker 1: pushing the cycle button. Yeah, okay, now we're back and drive.
Speaker 1: The ride is so supple, the transmission is just silky smooth,
Speaker 1: and yet at the same time there's a little growl
Speaker 1: in the engine. You know, it's sort of having it
Speaker 1: both ways. It's it really is like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: your lexus in your BMW all in one right, right,
Speaker 1: it's that middle ground. It is just absolutely serene. There's
Speaker 1: no wind noise, not a lot of tire noise. It
Speaker 1: just really calms you down and keeps you kind of fresh.
Speaker 1: You know, all the glass is coded non reflective quiet glass.
Speaker 1: I mean you see that in all luxury cars. But
Speaker 1: it's not only the decibel reading. It's also the quality
Speaker 1: of the sound. And the quality of sound is really
Speaker 1: good in here. I think it's really really dry and
Speaker 1: nice and you know. Calming Car Show is written and
Speaker 1: hosted by me Eddie Alterman. It's produced by Emily Rosstec
Speaker 1: and Jacob Smith. Our editor is Karen Shakerge. Original music
Speaker 1: and mastering by Ben Holliday. Our executive producer is Mia Loebell.
Speaker 1: Our show art was designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed
Speaker 1: by Greg la Fever special thanks to Sam Dingman, producer extraordinaire.
Speaker 1: We really had to twist his arm to get him
Speaker 1: in the passenger seat. Our patron saints, as always are
Speaker 1: we Tom Allad and Justine Lane. Car Show is a
Speaker 1: production of Pushkin Industries. If you have this show and
Speaker 1: others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
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