In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski. They kick things off this week with some news. The Chevy Bolt and Bolt EUV will be discontinued. The McLaren 750S gets revealed and a four-door new flagship McLaren are rumored. Did Chrysler show dealers an electric 300 replacement, did we spy a new compact Ram, and are we closer to a production version of the Genesis X Convertible? Also, Greg recently visited Michigan Central Station, which Ford is revitalizing.

In this week's fleet, your hosts discuss driving the Genesis Electrified GV70, Chevy Tahoe RST Performance Edition and the Polaris RZR XP. Finally, they take to Reddit for this week's "Spend My Money" segment.

Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.

Video Transcript

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GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to the "Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. We've got a great show for you this week. We're going to talk about the end of the Chevy Bolt, perhaps the return of the Chrysler 300, a smaller Ram that was spied, and a few other news and hits and things like that going on in the world.

We drove some cool things, the Genesis GV70-- that's electric; the Chevy Tahoe-- that's definitely not electric; and the Polaris RZP XP. So with that, I will bring in the man who drove that or maybe wrote it, I guess whatever the term would be, that senior editor for all things consumer, Jeremy Korzeniewski. Welcome.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Thank you, Greg. It's good to be here. And yeah, the RZR XP is definitely not electric. And people generally refer to them as riding--

GREG MIGLIORE: OK. OK.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --as opposed to driving. But yeah, it's-- you could go either way.

GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good. We will spend your money. Not your money specifically, Jeremy. But we will spend some money later in the show. If you have a Spend my Money Question or you just want to get into the podcast mailbag, that's podcast@autoblog.com. Shout-out to our producer Eric Meyer, who does a great job cutting this whole thing together. And, of course, he does the soundtrack as well.

So with that, let's just jump right in. The Bolt is dunzo. I think for a long time, people confuse this with the Chevy Volt. Literally, I was at the press conference in Detroit where they said Bolt. And everybody, all the journalists, kind of, looked around. They were like, what did they say? This thing's called the Bolt?

So right off the bat, it was a good name. Both are good names. But I do think there is some challenges there. It definitely evolved into a very solid product. It had that, sort of, infamous battery issue a couple of years ago, prompted a large recall. And, you know, to me, that, kind of, dented the image.

But they are retiring it. They've, sort of, kind of, hinted that it may come back, though. So the big takeaway in the near term, though, is it was a very-- like, relatively low-cost electric car that basically anybody could get into. And that goes away. So that to me is the big-- that's the big takeaway, the most salient point.

And I thought it was overall a very, very good product. It really did. Outside of that recall, it was an affordable electric car. It, kind of, morphed into, like, a crossover, if you wanted to go that way, the EUV. But I'm sad to see it go for now. But I think they're going to replace it with something else. The big deal here, I think, is they're going to use a more modern battery technology in the future Bolt, should they decide to reprise that name.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Right, yeah, I'm sad to see it go. I was recently car shopping myself. And we were looking at electric vehicles. And the Bolt and then the Bolt EUV, which is the slightly larger, a little bit more crossovery version came up in our conversations. And we ended up just disregarding it as a viable option because it is-- it's just-- it looks like a boring vehicle. It's not perceived as a premium offering. And I think that's probably OK.

The real problem is that pricing has, kind of, crept out of the Bolt's favor, I think. Like, when the vehicle was initially launched, it was so much less expensive than, you know, the premium EVs. It was really, kind of, seen as, like, a Nissan Leaf competitor. And the EV market, kind of, moved upmarket from that.

I think once Tesla came out with the Model 3 and then Model Y and then, you know, lopped nearly $20,000 off the price of a whole bunch of them, that really brought those aspirational vehicles into, you know, potential pricing discussions and competition with the Bolt. I think the Bolt probably could have stood on its own as a standalone product, except that it just-- it didn't-- I think it didn't appeal to people in the same way that, like, you know, a Tesla does.

And I think that's really what-- you know, that was probably its biggest downfall. It just doesn't look like a premium product. And when you are looking at the EV segment, the EV marketplace, you just have to ask your question-- or ask yourself the question, what kind of-- you know, what kind of product is it that I'm looking at.

It was front wheel drive only. It doesn't charge as fast as some of its competitors. And it just doesn't have the, kind of, cachet of some of the competitors. And it's not just the Bolt. The same thing is happening with its, you know, biggest rival for low-cost EV sales, the Nissan Leaf. That's getting phased out in favor of a more expensive product, the Aria.

So I mourn the passing of, you know, these first-- well, I mean, the second generations of first-generation EVs. The Bolt second-- is a second-gen product currently. The Leaf was a second-gen product. But they, kind of-- you know, vehicles were developed really early on in the EV game. And I think that, kind of, came back to haunt them later on.

GM is moving in a different direction with their Ultium platform. And that's the direction that they're going to go with it. And I think that's a good thing. You mentioned what they were going to come out with as a replacement. It's definitely going to be Ultium based whatever it is. You know, it's going to have the newest technology, the fastest charging. And it's going to be built on, you know, same platform, use the same kind of cells that every other GM electric vehicle uses.

Hopefully, it's not just the Equinox EV, which is probably going to be an attractive base price. The low-end Equinox EV is probably going to be priced similarly to the most high-end Bolt EUV. I would love to see GM come out with, like, a proper bolt replacement using the Ultium architecture and not just rely on the Equinox EV to take up the mantle.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I think the other part of this too-- and it does make a ton of sense where they want to, sort of, have one battery technology and then scale it across all their vehicles. That just makes--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Right.

GREG MIGLIORE: --sense especially the newest one. But also, there's a little bit of, like, survivor approach here. They're going to build the Silverado EV at this factory. And it's-- I think it's "Or-yon" not Orion. It's "Or-yon" Township and, like, northern Oakland County and--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I did not know that I. Didn't know that's how you pronounced it.

GREG MIGLIORE: So I think it's "Or-yon". But it looks like Orion because it's Lake "Or-yon" is the city. But it may be Orion Township. It-- I digress.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I have no idea.

GREG MIGLIORE: But they need room to build this thing.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: And that's where they build the boat right now. So I mean, do the math. What's going to do more for GM? An Electric Silverado or, you know, a 10-year-old electric car?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I mean, personally, as I said before, I-- I'm mourning the loss of the, you know, low-cost, entry-level EV. But the Silverado EV is a much more important product. If they needed a spot to build it, it makes sense that they would choose that location.

And the other-- another issue is people love to see these vehicles built in the United States. And they have to be built in the United States to qualify for the biggest government rebates. And they can't use any, you know, Chinese or many other countries. But predominantly, it's China. They can't use any of those minerals. Or basically, major parts of the batteries can't come from those locations.

Well, they're basically telling us that-- I mean, low-cost EVs-- looking at that another way, low-cost EVs are getting legislated out of existence. You-- it's hard to pay American labor wages. And it's hard not to use the lowest cost battery, you know, systems possible and still make a profit on an electric vehicle.

General Motors was seemingly doing that with the Bolt. But, you know, after all the battery fires, battery replacements, all of that, it's not super surprising to me that they're moving on from it. And it also makes me wonder how much profit they're making on each one of those vehicles.

It's certainly not as much potential profit as they could make on a Silverado EV. You know, Ford's earnings just came out. And they showed they-- you know, their electric division, if you, kind of-- what's the word? Amortize, amorterize, or whatever--

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --the costs, they're losing about $60,000 per electric vehicle that they're selling right now. I don't know that that GM is the same way. GM's been at this game a little bit longer with the-- with EVs. But, you know, you've got to wonder what the profit margin on a Bolt is compared to some other potential vehicles, especially since it's running its own one-off battery system and--

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It's just-- it's not feasible probably in a dollar and cents world to continue building it and offering it at the price they were offering it at. So none of this is surprising. Like I said earlier, I just hope that something new comes to market from General Motors and other automakers that fills in that, you know, gap.

Because instead of starting at $40,000 for electric vehicles, it would be really nice if there was something viable in that $25,000 to $30,000 and even $35,000 at the higher end range. Say, the $25,000 to $35,000 entry-level electric vehicle is going to cease to exist after this year. Hopefully, something fills that gap soon.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that's a great number there from the Ford earnings. I mean, we consider a Mach-E, which is, you know, a little more of a premium, middle of the market offering--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: --starts at, like, $41,000 and then, like, you know-- and it's across the Ford electric lineup. I mean, that's a pretty big hole--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: --for everything to come out of. And then when you look at, like, the Bolt, which started under $30,000-- you know, I mean, I don't know. I can only imagine how much they were losing. It's older battery tech. So maybe some of that already been paid for. But either way, it probably wasn't a very profitable spot to be when it's also a small compact car and crossover. So they don't make--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Then the huge recall--

GREG MIGLIORE: --a lot of money there.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --wouldn't help any.

GREG MIGLIORE: That-- yeah, I mean, just when you look at this, it's almost like, of course, they did this. Was the product still pretty good? Yeah. But was the image damaged by that recall? Big time.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: Is the battery technology old? Yeah. Do you need a place to build a Silverado? Uh-huh.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: I mean, it's a slam dunk when you, like, kind of, sketch it out there.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: So--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It's still sad, though. It's-- it was--

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --a good product. It had matured past its first generation, which honestly, looked pretty dorky. It was a--

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: --nice car to drive. But it looked like, you know, a cheap hatchback, if you're honest.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: The second generation fixed some of that. It looked a lot better. But I mean, if you park a Bolt and a Leaf next to a Tesla Model 3 just standard range rear-wheel drive, the Tesla looks and feels, like, much more of a premium product than the price gap might indicate it is. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that the Model 3, you know, was selling for a lot more money just a short little while ago.

With how much Tesla's dropped off the price of that, suddenly, people might be looking at that and-- you know, looking at the Model 3, the base one, and saying like, you know, that's, kind of, tempting at that price. And full disclosure, I made that decision myself.

Well, my wife and I did. We were looking for an EV, and we ended up with a standard range Tesla Model 3 rear-wheel drive. And after the $7,500 tax credit that we're expecting to get next year, it really made a solid case for itself as a low-cost EV. So, you know, there's that end of it too.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, and I mean, the way Chevy's going to fill out the lineup in the near term is the electric Equinox, the electric Blazer, the electric Silverado, you know, if you're looking to get into an electric Chevy, like, they're going to have multiple choices for you.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: And they've already preverified that they'll qualify for the max tax credit, which is important. You know, if you're--

GREG MIGLIORE: That's right.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: When you're at this, like-- you're talking about the entry-level electric vehicle market, price is a huge driving factor. That's why we call it entry level. The potential of getting up to $7,500 tax back, assuming you've got that much in liabilities-- most people do-- then, you know, that's a big thing. Like, if you're looking at a $30,000 or $35,000 Equinox EV, the idea of getting $7,500 off your taxes the next year is a pretty compelling argument in its favor.

GREG MIGLIORE: Cool. So let's shift over to the news out of McLaren. There's the 720 replacement is the 750.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: We've left the entry level segment.

GREG MIGLIORE: We have. We've decided to step-- go from, like, $30,000 to $330,000.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Oh, yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: And so talk about the new car. I mean, to boil it down, it's just-- they do all the McLaren stuff. They do faster, lighter, slightly different styling. I would love to drive one. And then the other news that we can, kind of, like, go back and forth on is it sounds like McLaren is going to build a four-door vehicle--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: --at some point by the end of the decade. So cool car. Let me put that away for the 750. I think the last McLaren I drove was the GT, which is their daily driver, which is back in, like, I think 2020. So it's been a minute, I think, since I've driven a McLaren.

They're always fun to drive. They're easier to drive than you might think too. Good steering, decent visibility. They sound good. I can imagine this would be the same way. And I think this four door is probably a good move for them.

You know, McLaren, you talk about a company founded by Bruce McLaren, all that F1 heritage. McLaren still has, like, the third or fourth most F1 titles of all time. But I mean, if Ferrari could do, like, a crossover, like, thing, so can McLaren. I think they just play on such a razor's edge as far as like, you know, the financial stability of their company.

I know they, like, essentially sold their headquarters in Woking in England, which I actually went to one time. Beautiful place to hang out. Amazing factory and museum to, like, F1 cars. But they need every day they can get. And I think if they can maybe expand the customer base a little bit to compete with the Urus and the Aston Martin DBX, I think they, kind of, need to do that.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: So.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, totally. So I have driven a 720S. I've actually driven them a couple of times. I did the-- I had a loan at my home on a hardtop 720S. And then I did the first drive on the 720 Spider.

And it was, I mean, in my mind, revolutionary as far as supercars go. The power from the turbocharged V8 in those things is-- I mean, it's unbelievable. And I've driven some other turbocharged supercars, some Ferraris-- not turbo, but the Lamborghini Gallardo, some of the really high-end versions. And I mean, the-- nothing accelerated in the heart of the power band like that 720S McLaren. Just absolute insanity and addictive.

So the 750S is, you know, the next generation, the next iterative product in that range. It's 30 more. So is it going to be 30% better? Heh, don't think so. But it is more powerful and lighter than the 720S. That car's biggest issue is putting power to the ground.

You know, if you didn't have your tires at optimum temperature and if there was even a whiff of moisture on the ground, that rear-wheel drive platform is going to be struggling for traction. This is not an all-wheel drive car. But, you know, that's-- I mean, really, that car was so impressive that I figured this 750S is going to be just that much more amazing to drive. So hats off to those that can afford it. Enjoy it. It's-- I mean, it's pretty sweet.

As far as four doors go, yeah, they definitely need to get into that market. You said, you know, Ferrari can do it. Lamborghini can do it. McLaren, you know, they've got the racing pedigree. But no one's going to-- there isn't going to-- there's not a single McLaren fan out there that's going to be like, oh, that's going to diminish the-- you know, the integrity of the brand.

People don't think of McLaren-- I don't-- at least I don't believe that people think of McLaren in the same way that they think of like Ferrari and to a lesser degree Lamborghini. So yeah, they really should enter that space. They're talking four doors. Who knows what that means? If it didn't come out in some sort of, you know, SUV-esque form, I'd be surprised. I can't think of any reason why McLaren shouldn't do that.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. No, I agree. I think it'll probably look pretty good too because I think an area that McLaren has shined in is unique design. So--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, kind of, unique design compared to, like, Ferrari and Lamborghini. Like, you definitely-- no one sees a McLaren and they're like, oh, is that the latest Lamborghini? It's, obviously, a McLaren.

I wish that some of their models looked a little bit more different like they had. Like, I have to-- I have to look closely as like, OK, what is this? This is a-- this is a 570? Or this is a 720? They've all got, like, a similar, kind of, swoopy, rounded off, wedge shape to them. I think you have to pay more attention to pick out your various McLaren models than you do-- you know, than you do with Ferrari, for instance.

But then, again, someone showed me a picture of Ferrari not that long ago. And they said, which Ferrari is this? And I was like, I'm not really sure. Like, I had to look at the details to figure it out. Like, OK, it's this splitter and this tail light. So it's this version of this model. So yeah, I mean, when you're talking about supercars, they all have-- they have to look a certain way. So it's part of the game.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right, so let's shift over back to electrics to an electric 300. This could be related to the next Dodge Charger. Reportedly, dealers maybe got a preview of this, which a lot of times, this happens. I remember back when the Viper was coming back. The dealers, sort of, saw these, like, mock-ups. And sometimes they actually would see, like, the car or, like, a rolling, kind of, chassis type of thing--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: --just as a preview. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think you want to bring back that 300 name to keep the Chrysler brand, kind of, having that attitude. And, again, like I said, it makes sense because we know there is going to be a replacement to the Charger and Challenger. And Charger and Challenger and 300 are related now.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: Why wouldn't you use that same, sort of, philosophy to update the 300? So I, kind of, think this is a-- like, a must-do, actually, for Chrysler.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, especially when you look at the products Chrysler currently has in their portfolio. It is, oh, Pacifica. Period.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: You know? So they've said that other vehicles are coming. We've seen bits and pieces of the Airflow, which we expect to be coming. If-- I can't think of any reason why they shouldn't leverage the platform is going to underpin the next, you know, ridiculously powered Dodge-- ridiculously powerful Dodge muscle car, this time, electric.

That's going to be a platform. They're going to have the battery technology. They're going to have them rolling down assembly lines. They really should do a Chrysler version as well. The-- I think the big question is, what direction are they going to take the Chrysler brand?

You know, Dodge is now pigeonholed itself as, like, the performance of the American performance brand. And I don't-- you know, I think that's a good thing that they've got, like, that all to themselves, especially now that Pontiac no longer exists.

Dodge is the muscle brand. Chrysler has to establish itself. You know, it can't just be an expensive Dodge. That does-- that just doesn't make any sense. It-- you know, they don't-- they need to figure out how to make it more Lincoln than Mercury in Ford terms. It can't just be like a slightly restyled, rebadged Dodge.

It's got to be something with its own unique selling proposition to, kind of, fill out the Chrysler portfolio. And they can't-- you know, they don't want to step on Alfa Romeo's toes either. So they-- I mean, Stellantis is, kind of, a premium heavy automaker right now with the wares that they offer in the United States. So it'll be interesting to see where they peg Chrysler, where it finally lands.

Hopefully, they make it, you know, attainable American luxury. I think that's what made the 300 stand out so well when it initially came out in the, you know, mid-2000s. It was clearly a premium product. Everyone saw them going down the road. They recognize it as, you know, of-- if not luxury, then at least a premium product.

And it was still attainable. It wasn't priced out of the reach of people. So they could legitimately make a decision like, OK, do I want the Dodge? Or do I want the Chrysler? I think they need to follow that same model in my opinion and make it premium but attainable for working class Americans. And if they do that, I think they will have a good shot of, kind of, re-establishing Chrysler as a real player that, you know, people are thinking about and a household name again when talking about car shopping.

GREG MIGLIORE: As the outgoing 300 shows, when you do it well, you do it with good design, nice interiors, you know, for a long time, a powerful V8 engine, people will buy that car. They will subscribe to the notion of Chrysler is some level of aspiration. So I think they could certainly do it again.

I think it's also important for Stellantis to have Chrysler to be-- it doesn't have to be like a super power brand. But it needs to exist.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: Because right now, I-- when I tell people, like-- you know? And I'm industry insider. I cover stuff. Most of the people who are around me at least know, like, the vernacular that I use. When you say Stellantis, people still don't know who the hell you're talking about--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: --you know? FCA was bad enough. And it stood for Fiat Chrysler Auto. So I think there's still just some symbolic meaning in having the Chrysler brand exist. Because the headlines are, if they ever did close it, Chrysler closes. And then what do probably 85% of people think that, like, the third of the big three is out of business?

So you just-- you can't have that. Nobody picks up the nuance that, but wait a minute. Like, Dodge and everybody is still around Ram because it's cheap. It's-- people just-- that's lost.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: So I think you want to keep that around. I mean, there's still the Chrysler building in New York. I think this is an area you want to be strategic. Like, you don't need to relaunch it in, like I said, some super power brand. But a 300, a Pacifica maybe something else. That's all you got to do.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: Keeps the sign up.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I mean, remember the-- it used to be three fractions in the Chrysler lineup. There's the Chrysler brand. There was Dodge, which was, kind of like, the most mainstream of all. And then there was Plymouth, which was, kind of like, the entry into, you know, the Chrysler portfolio with a slightly lower cost decontented a little bit brand.

They got rid of Plymouth and made everything just Dodge or Chrysler. And then they totally let Chrysler wither on the vine. You know, they gave Dodge exciting cool, fun things. I mean, they didn't do-- they didn't do a good job with the Dodge brand in a lot of ways either. Like, you know, there's no-- for a long time, there was no entry-level Dodge. You know, the 200 was gone.

The-- it used to be a Neon and then a Caliber. And all those things were gone. And they've really never filled that space properly, which is, you know, sad. But where do they-- like, even with the Chrysler brand, where do they do that? Like, where do they-- where do they make the entry level, entry step into the brand?

I don't think it's going to be Chrysler. It's probably going to be Dodge. But then, you know, like, look at what they-- look at the Hornet. It's priced very high. I don't know. It's-- they're in an interesting spot right now, you know? I always thought, like, well, that's what they brought in. They got Fiat. Fiat can be, like, the entry into-- you know, the stepping stone into the company. And right now, they don't really have that.

So it'll be interesting to see where they go with it. I don't think that they can make Chrysler into that. Can they move Dodge down market and still, you know, keep that hot rod performance brand credibility? I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Maybe they don't want to play in the entry level, you know, space or positioning at all.

But, you know, I don't know. We'll see. Like I said, I see Chrysler as a premium, attainable, American luxury. And I'd like to see him go in that direction with it.

GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds pretty. Good sounds pretty good. Let's go in a different direction with Ram. We've seen some spy shots of the smaller version of the-- I guess the 1500 for lack of a better way to put it. I think this is, kind of, overdue at this point. That's how it looks. Headline for news editor Joel Stockdale is a scaled down 1500.

Yeah, I mean it's-- you can't see much through these camo chats, although, you know, the grill, it does look like a Ram, maybe even a little bit of a jeep. You know, we've, kind of, thought for a while it's going to be a unibody. So I mean, it's-- in some ways, this is moving quite down the food chain, if you will, which I think makes sense.

You don't really need-- you know, I don't think you have to have, like, this really rough and tough thing in there because you've got so many different versions of the Ram right now. But I do think they need something smaller, so.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Well-- so when you-- so the Bodie is the Ford Maverick, right? That's-- that has proven to be extremely successful. Ford cannot build enough of them. And they're-- you know, if you were lucky enough to get onto the order slot and you're getting one delivered, your car is immediately worth $5,000 more than what you paid for it. That's what the Ford Maverick market is like right now.

So that has proven that there is a huge appetite in the United States for an entry-level, usable pickup truck. You know, we don't-- not every American buyer wants to toe the moon. You know, they don't need to carry their entire house with them. A small entry-level, reasonably priced pickup truck that has enough capability for people and their lawn projects and their Home Depot runs and stuff like that, huge market as established by the Ford Maverick.

I'm a little bit-- I'm a little bit surprised it's taken this long actually for-- for Stellantis/RAM to get this ball rolling to the point where we're seeing prototypes on the road because they-- they sell these things already in many countries all around the world, you know? And by all accounts, they're good products that they sell well, people like them. There's the RAM-- what is it-- 700 and then thousand, something like that, they call them. That they don't sell, they start with the 1500 here in the United States. There's the-- the Fiats have different names too. I think one of them is the Toro.

But, you know, it's-- they've-- they've got these vehicles, they've got the platforms. They're already being built. You know, they basically-- I think the hang up is being able to build them in the United States at a factory where they don't have to pay importation taxes on them, you know. But I mean, that's-- that's why Mexican production is so popular.

So yeah, I'm a little surprised it's taken this long. I like what I see from the spy shots. It looks like a fully competitive product. I'm sure it's front wheel drive base, just like the Maverick. Our spy shots show that there is indeed a rear axle and half shaft. So there's-- there's going to be all wheel drive. It wouldn't surprise me if they followed the same Maverick kind of blueprint in offering a low cost entry level model with something like a twist beam or axle. And then the all wheel drive is probably going to have a more sophisticated multilink setup, which is what was spied, if you look at our story. So I'm excited for it. I think the United States wants it. Buyers in the US want this product on the market. And I hope it's not too far-- too far from now that it actually shows up.

GREG MIGLIORE: I did an interview with the Rams CEO, this is close to 10 years ago, at the Detroit Auto Show. And I remember he kind of, like, made fun of, like, when Ford-- Ford and Chevy were both going down-- like, the new Colorado, the new GMC Canyon, the Ranger was coming back. And he was just kind of like, "what do they want?" Like, this isn't, like-- we don't see a market for that. And I mean, I guess, he was wrong, first of all. But he was definitely right for RAM strategy as far as, they didn't do it. You know, this is eight, nine years ago. And I think it was a big missed opportunity. And I think it's a point too where, you know, I don't know if the midsize truck segment is really where you want to go at this point.

The Maverick has been, like, the secret sauce. It does better than the Ranger, and for a variety of reasons. I think if you're looking Ranger, you probably just find your-- talk yourself into an F-150. But if you're thinking truck and you don't need F150, Maverick is really the answer.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: And I think a smaller RAM would be the way go. I think that really slots right in, like a Maverick Fighter. I think Raum brings a lot to the table. They bring a lot of creative things to, like, their interiors, and their design. Plenty of good engines from the International portfolio that they could choose. So yeah, I think a Ram Maverick Fighter would be-- would definitely be a win.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, useful but efficient. That's the way to go here. I think useful, like, overly useful and inefficient, they've got-- you know, there's a ton of options. And I think, you know, why isn't there a Dakota? Probably because there's still two Rams. How long has Ram been selling the Ram, what do they call it, the Classic?

GREG MIGLIORE: Classic. It's the last generation Ram.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Exactly. They just keep pumping them out and they keep selling them. And I don't think that they can make a Dakota much cheaper than they're just selling the old Ram for. You know, so-- so like, why aren't they doing that? Well, probably because of that. Like, they're probably selling all the RAM classics that they can pump out. But yes. So I could see them disregarding that mid-sized market, but I mean, they could have-- it was a total missed opportunity. You brought it out. You interviewed their CEO 10 years ago. They had these Fiat-based products on the market for a really long time.

They'd even rebadged them as Rams in several markets. They had this product ready to go way before Ford came out with the Maverick. They really could have capitalized on an underserved segment. And now, they're playing catch up and they didn't have to. That's, I guess, outside-- outside of our pay grade making product decisions for big companies, but it's hard to view that as anything other than a missed opportunity.

GREG MIGLIORE: I mean, to your point, you look at a Ram classic, it's like, $30,000. And I'm looking at it and it's on the Ram website. They're offering a sale right now, 10% below MSRP. I almost can't believe, like, I'm looking at the old truck.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: Like, I knew they-- I obviously-- we both knew they did this. I admittedly, I kind of forgot about it. When did the current generation of Ram launch, like, 2019?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, I think probably 2019, something like that. Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: So you're, essentially, buying a '20-- really, like an '18 truck that's badged '22 that if you go back, like what, 10 years before that, it's like a 2000-- you're buying a brand new 2009 Ram at this point.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, exactly.

GREG MIGLIORE: If that's what you want to go with. And for what it's worth, that could be 100% the right move for somebody.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: That is like a 100% an OK strategy.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, it's not like it turned into a bad product overnight or anything.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It's not as good as the current one, but it's also $15,000 cheaper than the current one. So like, you know, it's a super smart strategy by-- GM has been known to do that in the past too. I think they-- what do they call it? They don't do the classic, I think that's Ram. But GM does-- was it custom or something like that but they call it, which is kind of odd naming.

GREG MIGLIORE: You can have it any way you want it as long as it's outdated.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

[CHUCKLE]

Yeah there, you go. New tagline. You heard it here first.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. No, it's-- in some ways, that's mind blowing.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right. So let's look to the future with the Genesis X. This is the amazing convertible that I believe first saw about a year ago at the New York Auto Show. Great looking vehicle. You know, it's kind of like an old school, almost, like, just long hood, long wheelbase, short deck in the back, lots of lighting. It looks like, you know, classic, but also futuristic. We all love the concept. There's a trademark out there that it sounds like it could be maybe on its way to production under the name GT90, perhaps. We'll see. Car Buzz is reporting it.

Cadillac has thought about doing this for years. They never really did. You've got the Celestiq, but that's, like, super low, super expensive and super low volume. But they might do this. And honestly, I just got out of the GV70 Electrified, You did too somewhat recently. They have awesome design.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: So I think if there's a brand that could pull this off and it's trying to elevate its brand because it has zero history, sure. You got to do stuff like this.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah and they've done a couple of these high end concepts. They've done coupes, they've done fastback things. They've done the convertible, the one we're talking about right now. And each one of them has been extremely well received. They're gorgeous, they're beautiful. People are like, oh yeah, you should build that. You should build it. You should build it. The question is how much could they sell it for?

How much are they going to invest on having a Halo product when they're still trying to establish themselves with their mainstream sedans and crossovers? Maybe now it's the time, you know? I just got done saying, like, we don't make the big bucks making these decisions. We can look back on it and say, like, "oh, that was a missed opportunity. They really should have done that." But it's probably a little bit different when you're the one writing checks and figuring out where to invest the money and where not to invest it.

And getting back to the Chevy Bolt scenario, you're probably looking at a lot of different aspects to it. Where are we going to build it? How much are we going to pay for the labor? How much can we sell it for, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? I hope now it's the time. These things are absolutely gorgeous and I would love to see Genesis have a true flagship product. You mentioned, Cadillac. Cadillac's done-- tried this a couple of times with the first, the Elante, which was kind of a disaster of logistics. Flying specially equipped airplanes around with Italian bodywork and then putting American V8 engines and all that and then selling them here.

And then they did the XLR, which was like the Cadillac Corvette, except with the Cadillac Northstar powertrain. And they even-- they even did a coupe version of the Volt, the Cadillac ELR. And none of those were successful products, really. So there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. I think, you know, Cadillac is a brand that's kind of ripe for that kind of thing and people expect Cadillac flagships. Genesis is still trying to get their name out there. It would be kind of an unexpected move from a brand like Genesis, but it could really do a big of the heavy-- a lot of the heavy lifting that Genesis needs for people to know the Genesis brand.

Like, they put these things on commercials that are absolutely beautiful. In they're like, "what is that?" That's a Genesis. "What's a Genesis?" And they're going to look it up and they need that. They need that name recognition right now. So maybe now the time. I hope it is.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right. Sounds good. So speaking of the time, this is perhaps overdue. But the train station in downtown Detroit, just on the edge of it. If you've ever driven into the city, perhaps for the Auto Show, maybe you live in the area. It's a huge eyesore, obviously. Ford is taking the almost Herculean task of revitalizing it. They're going to make it a, like, a center for a number of Ford employees. But it's going to be a whole campus for all sorts of things. Some of that may be, like, advanced technology autonomous stuff. You know, I talked to-- I was able to get, like, a minute with Bill Ford, who's the executive chairman at this kind of ribbon cutting event. And it sounds like they haven't totally figured out exactly what each of the teams is going to do there.

Either way, taking one of the city's biggest eyesores and making it very stunning building, I think, is going to be one of the biggest parts of his legacy, let's put it that way. I went to the Book Depository, not to get too insider here, but that's this other building next to it that is going to be an incubator. And Ford is sort of the behind that as well. And this is, like, phase one of the campus opening. So it's really cool. I will just say this, you know, if you're from the area, from the region, this is really going to be something worth checking out. And it's going to be for a large part, open. They're going to have restaurants. They're talking about having a boutique hotel.

You know, what I saw, it was a week ago at this point, was very impressive, very well intended. It was cool. There was a celebratory air. They were passing out champagne, even before, you know, Bill Ford gave his remarks. So yeah, check it out. I have a story on the site. It's been up for a few days at this point. But if you're interested, check it out. Some nice pictures. You can see what the building I'm referencing is and then the larger part of the project, which is this towering 1913 train station that will be done soon.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. I'm just-- I'm just going to say, growing up in-- in the Great Lakes area, area I was born in Toledo. Every time we drove up into Detroit, which was quite often, we'd pass that building. And you know, you describe it as an eyesore, and rightfully so because it got-- when was it last use, in the 80s, I think?

GREG MIGLIORE: '83, or '87, somewhere in there.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. So I was a youngster when it was last used. But I remember driving by it and just being, like, super impressed by this imposing-- this architecturally very interesting building. I am always in favor of restoration. The problem is, it's much more expensive to restore a building like that to its former glory than it is to raise it and build new on the site. But I am absolutely not in favor of that as a strategy. I like the idea of spending the money and doing it right. I mean, I live in a house that was built in 1885. Like that's--

[CHUCKLE]

I do that on purpose, like, it's-- it's kind of like an obvious thing to me, that you take this thing and you lovingly bring it back. So I'm super happy that they're doing it. I have to wonder what some of Ford's shareholders think about this. Is it a pet project of Bill Ford's? Is he trying to establish a legacy? How much of Ford's money, the company, is being used to do this versus Bill Ford's personal money? You know, there's a lot of questions that if I were a shareholder, I may be interested in. Not me, personally. When I say "I", I mean, like the greater "we". The people in general who care about such things.

If I were a shareholder, I'd be, like, yeah, do this. You know, I'm willing to take a little bit less money on my-- because I believe in the restoration. And I believe in making this thing beautiful again. I really hope that it is as stunning when it's done as it probably was when it was first built. I think it's great for Detroit that this is happening. And 50 years from now, if it is part of Bill Ford's legacy as what he left, you know, as a person, not just a-- not just named after-- not just the name of the company, but him individually as a person, I'm all for it. I think that's great. I'm excited about the first time I actually get to walk inside and see.

GREG MIGLIORE: I walked through it in June of '18, back when they-- 2018, not 1918-- when Ford first bought it. And you know, it's what you would expect in there. But it's also, like, a very unique office space. And what they're also arguing is that this isn't just like a vanity project, that it's going to be a place people want to work. Like, Bill Ford said, "hey, we've received no shortage of people who are raising their hand who want to work there." They're way more excited about working in this place than they are just, like, one of Ford's many office structures, you know, here in the suburbs. So he argues that this is going to help them attract talent who want to live in-- it's in a really cool neighborhood called Corktown.

People are going to want to come here from around the country, around the world. So for what it's worth, I think the questions you lay out are things I laid out a few years ago. And I was like, really, you want to invest in this 110-year-old train station, 105 at the time, like, maybe you should build another electric car. That's a very fair point to make, but I mean, I think he's got the logic. I also happen to agree with him. I think as a guy who's from the region, like, good. Take a risk. Do it. I think we're all going to be better for it. So this is one where it's, like, you know, I think he's going to find a way to make this work and it's going to be a part of, I mean, remaking the city skyline, which is just outstanding.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Maybe he should have bought Twitter.

GREG MIGLIORE: Well, if you want to talk about ways to wisely spend your money. I think, you know, revitalizing an iconic structure is much better than going on a social media platform.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Hey, I'm just saying, there's a lot of ways that rich people spend their money and you kind of scratch your head financially and say, like, really? But you know, OK. I'd rather see Bill Ford spend his money on revitalizing this iconic thing than pet vanity projects of whatever those may be-- Twitter.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I mean, I think we can maybe leave it here that's the big difference between Elon Musk's approach to executive leadership and what Bill Ford's approach is.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Anyway.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I mean-- all right. So let's--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: We collectively digress.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the Genesis GV70. We'll kind of blitz through the review section. We had a pretty beefy news section, but we'll run through these. You and I have both driven this at this point. You drove it-- where did you drive it, in North Carolina?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: No, Georgia.

GREG MIGLIORE: Georgia. OK. So a little bit warmer when you were down there than it is probably here right now even. Electric Genesis, I think it looks great. I drove the all wheel drive prestige version, which came in at $75 grand. I imagine you probably drove maybe a couple of the trim levels. There's a couple of them. I was super impressed. What did you think?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It's a beautiful car. That's like walking up to it and walking away from it, your first and last thoughts are, "that is a premium product," which is great for Genesis. The nitty-gritty of it, there's some issues. It doesn't have the range that-- that a flagship product might really need to have. That's kind of, like, my biggest potential demerit is, if you're comparing it to some of the other flagship EVs out there, you know, it's 100 miles shy in range compared to some of those. But not every EV needs to have 300, 350 miles of range. What is it, like, 230, 240 miles of range, something in that vicinity?

GREG MIGLIORE: 236.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: 236. Yeah. So that's it's kind of on the low end for an EV that came out in 2022 as a 2023 product. A little on the low range.

GREG MIGLIORE: Little light, yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. Yeah, if that's enough for you though, it's a great product. It's a joy to drive, a joy to look at. Super pleasant to sit in, whether you're driving or as a passenger. It's a really nice, nice vehicle.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, the interior is gorgeous. I have a review that's going up. [INAUDIBLE] said Wednesday, I think it's going up on Thursday. So by the time you're listening to this, check it out. I compared it to Mercedes, just because of the aesthetics. Like, the one I drove was this kind of like creamy white leather going across. Lots of very nice trim and finishing. Like, it's just-- it reminded me of like the EQS, not quite at that level obviously, but like, they went for it. It looks like a world class luxury car. And it even had that kind of airy, like, clean electric field that you would expect. Not like old money, more like looking towards the future.

So love that part of it. I fast charged it. That worked out pretty well.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. It does have good fast charging. You know, what is it, 250 kilowatts, something like that I think?

GREG MIGLIORE: Something like that, yeah. I didn't totally top it off. I just kind of needed to, like, fill it up so I wasn't giving it back to the fleet guys you on fumes, such as they are.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: So to speak, yeah. You know, here's the last thing that I'll say about it. When you say American luxury, you have an idea of what that means. When you say, German luxury, you have an idea of what that means. When you say Japanese luxury, again, you have an idea of what that means. Genesis is currently defining South Korean luxury. You know, they are setting the standard. they're-- they're creating a whole new segment. And when you get into a Genesis, it's nothing like getting into a Lexus.

It's nothing like getting into a Cadillac. Nothing like getting into a Mercedes EQ, something. Like, they've all got their established areas that they excel in. And Genesis is currently defining South Korean luxury. And I think they're doing a brilliant job at it. Like, the idea that they want-- their marketing people told me that they want to be, quote, unquote, "distinctly Korean." And I think that's where they're really nailing the-- the design. They don't look like anything else. You see it. You might not know what it is, but you certainly don't mistake it for a BMW, which, I think, is really important. And hats off to their designers for really stepping out there and doing such a good job hitting it out of the park.

GREG MIGLIORE: I think that's a big transition from where they were back when Genesis was housed under the Hyundai brand. And they were kind of OK with you thinking it was a Lexus or a Mercedes from a distance. I agree with you completely. I think they're not only defining luxury for South Korea, I think they're also defining it just for the luxury segment, in general. I think they've brought something new to the conversation. They've weaved a lot of different things, like, some people thought their cars looked like Bentleys, almost cartoonishly at first.

But I think they're really pulling it off. The only thing they don't have right now is just that widespread name recognition. And they're trying to get there, you know? They're doing that, you know, golf tournaments. They're talking about doing that Genesis X concept. I think they will get there because the product is just so good right now.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I think Genesis future is very bright. I think money that's being invested in there now from parent company, Hyundai group, is going to be well invested in the brand's future. I think they're going to see big dividends moving forward. It wouldn't surprise me if 10 years from now, if Genesis was mentioned in the same breath as Lexus, Acura or Cadillac. Right now, they don't have that kind of recognition of being, like, a household name that everybody knows. But I don't think that they're far from achieving that. And I think they're definitely going to.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right. So let's go back to a product that's a little bit older. This is the Chevy Tahoe. It's been around for a while. And I enjoyed it. I had it for a week. I drove-- what's interesting about this is it's not just like a regular Tahoe. It's the RST Performance.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Oh, that's what you had. OK.

GREG MIGLIORE: So it comes-- yeah, it comes in at-- mine came in a little over 81. So it's a lot, but just curious, do you know what the RST Performance is? You know what I'm talking about?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. Oh yeah, I do.

GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, you do? All right. Because for what it's worth, road test editor, Zac Palmer, sent me an email he was, like, "hey man, the fleet didn't exactly tell us. Have the performance one. And I was like, "oh." And then we both kind of like went back and looked at the story because this nominally debuted at the Detroit Auto Show, apparently was the only reveal that actually just was kind of on display there, as opposed to some of the bigger, flashier ones. But it's a really cool thing. It's the V8, a little bit more power. Better air intake, cat back exhaust. The air intake looks cool. I popped the hood. It's kind of got this red filter thing going on. It looks cool. Get a little bit more horsepower, so it gets you up to 433.

That's 13 more, 7 more pound feet of torque, 467. 0 to 60 for a Tahoe is 5.78, is 5.78. That's pretty quick for a Chevy Tahoe.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: Basically the quickest version before was more like 5.9, which that still kind of blows my mind that the Tahoe can go that quickly. And then what you do is you get into a bunch of cop stuff. It's basically like cop suspension, cop spring and chassis calibration. It's 0.04 inches lower, so that's about 10 millimeters. Really nice brakes on this thing, they're 25% larger. Scrubs about six feet of stopping distance. The brake pedal feels a little bit different and it rolls on 20 inch aluminum wheels. Plus, the badges are-- like, all the badges, Tahoe, the RST, Rally Sport truck, which is already kind of cool. They're black.

So you get that with-- this one was red. It's just a really cool looking SUV. So I had a lot of fun driving it. It sounds good. I'm writing up a road test on it and I do have a video review that's going to go into the auto blog garage, probably at a later date as well. But if you're listening, this Tahoe review is going to come out probably next week. So look for that. And I just kind of thought, you know, who this car is based-- or truck is for? It's basically the person who maybe had like an Impala SS about 10 years ago, maybe you got a Pontiac G8. I don't know. Maybe you liked the Impala SS from '94 to '96.

It's sort of like the Tahoe SS that you kind of-- the sort of Tahoe SS that you were hoping for. So-- because it's already got that big V8. They can't really put anything bigger in there. Let's put it that way. Well, the regular RST, not the performance, but the regular RST is still a 5.3 with no additional power.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: They're kind of-- is it good marketing or bad marketing? I don't know. The fact that none of us really know what this thing is until it shows up in our driveway tells me it probably could have been announced and promoted a little bit better. But I mean, the way that I'm looking at this, the specs are there. Like, if Chevy would have rolled this thing out and called it the Chevy Tahoe SS, we all would have been, like, "oh, what's this?" You know, because we know what "SS" means. But Chevy does have history with the RST badge as well. But it's always just kind of been a-- like, appearance package more than anything else. They had the RS for forever.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: think there were periods in the 80s where the Camaro RS was extremely popular. This is RST, which I assume stands for Rally Sport Truck, without looking it up.

GREG MIGLIORE: You got it.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: All right. So--

GREG MIGLIORE: First used in 1987.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Well, there you go. So now it's rally sport truck performance edition. So I'm, like, eh, is that, like, really the way that you want to do this? I don't know. It's what they did. But the product itself, the specs sound great. The brakes, the handling, the engine, everything about it sounds like right on the money. I looked it up. It's about $8,500 more. That's like-- that's what it--

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: That's what it adds. This feels like $8,500 worth of equipment.

GREG MIGLIORE: Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're spot on because it includes basically, like, everything from the luxury package, if you will. So you get all the safety and interior upgrades. You're getting all of that stuff, which I think is actually probably worth a good chunk of it. You're getting the 6.2 liter--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Which is huge.

GREG MIGLIORE: It's a big deal, yeah. There are other ways to step into it if you don't want all this other like performance stuff. But I mean, this is a pretty good way to do it. Let's put it that way.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: And then you get all the chassis stuff. So-- and there is a bit of appearance stuff here too. I think it's a good move. And this is not to be confused with-- there's another, like, performance, quote, unquote, version, which basically gives you the V8 and the dual exhaust. And it does give you magnetic ride control for about $3,800, but you get nothing else. And to your point, it is a little confusing that two guys, three guys, if we bring Zack into this, we're only vaguely aware of this thing existed. There's also another thing like it that's-- I'd almost call it like a scat back. Like, what Chrysler did, where you could get the big Hemi V8 and nothing else.

That's kind of out there too. But overall, I mean, if I were getting a Tahoe, I would really look at this, you know? It's-- the way I would put it is, because it's not cheap. You kind of have to make that mental calibration. This is kind of where my draft of the story is ended. I think I need to polish it. It's like, what kind of Tahoe are you going to buy? Are you going to buy the one that's like $50 or $60, like the low end Tahoe, or are you already going to get a bunch of stuff? Because if you're already going to get north of $70 and you want to drive something fun and fast, yeah, spend another $8 grand because you're getting a bunch of luxury stuff baked into the whole package.

But if you're looking to get more like the Tahoe family hauler, 5.3. If you're looking to spend $65, then obviously don't do this.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah. I mean, look in-- a couple of observations, just glancing around and seeing how many High Country badges I see on the road, I think, a lot of people are already spending the money on these things. So this is like a more performance-oriented premium offering alongside something like the High Country, which is, like, the more luxury premium. My second observation is there is an RST suburban. So what are the chances that next year, we see an RST performance Chevy Suburban, I don't know. We'll see.

GREG MIGLIORE: I mean, the one thing I would say is it is a larger vehicle. I don't really know if you're going to get the benefits of using some of these performance chassis things. But you know what, that's never stopped a truck maker from you know, doing the stuff. So--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It's kind of funny, we're splitting hairs. Like, well, it's not-- you know, the Tahoe is big, but it's not as big as the suburban.

GREG MIGLIORE: Right. I think you make a great point though. Like, there are-- like, having more options at higher price point is just where the market is. You know? Like, Chevy will help you spend your $70,000 to $80,000 on your Tahoe however you want.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, however you want to spend that money.

GREG MIGLIORE: I would rather have this--

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Me too.

GREG MIGLIORE: Then a High Country.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, me too. I actually-- not to get too far into the weeds here in this discussion, I am not digging these super premium high luxury trucks and SUVs. Like, I wrote an opinion piece on it a little over a year ago where I basically said that full size trucks are the best and worst vehicles that you can buy in America right now. You know, you can buy a perfectly nice pickup truck or SUV with all the things that you want on it for $55 or $60,000. Or you could throw exclusive cowhide on it, big, huge Chrome badges, filigree gauges. Like, all these things that do absolutely nothing to the ownership experience other than look cooler to you. It's absolutely not my thing.

Would I buy at High Country? No. Would I buy an RST Performance? OK, yeah. Yeah, I get it. I get that-- I get the reason of existence here. Just my two cents. I'm never one to tell someone how they should spend their own money. You know, I'm never one to say like, "oh, you made a poor decision here." It's your money, you buy what you want to buy. You want to buy a High Country, go right ahead. But there's like literally no good reason in my mind to spend that extra $20,000 on cowhide, as opposed to some other lower grade of leather, which is still very high grade, and filigree gauges and big, like, belt buckles inside-- inside the vehicles, basically how it's adorned. So just my two cents. I'd rather see them offer these things in like in like a performance package, as opposed to a Chrome dipped package.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. So it sounds like Ram and sometimes Ford is definitely not the-- not your jam when it comes to the higher trims. Chevy, the High Country, can be very of that mood as well.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I'm not saying that's a bad product, you know? It's just, I didn't wear Ed Hardy shirts when those were super popular either. I didn't get the-- I didn't get the, like, your sequins add twice-- make it twice as expensive. Just it wasn't my thing. And like these Chrome dipped premium pickup trucks and SUVs aren't my thing either. But that's just me.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right. So tell me about this Polaris off road ride, as you corrected me earlier, which is good. What was that like?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: OK. So have you ever driven one of these, or ridden one of these side by side?

GREG MIGLIORE: I have not.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: So here's how kind of how to look at it. It's anything that you picture yourself doing in a Jeep Wrangler or a Ford Bronco, you can do in something like a RZR, except you can do it at like four or five times the speed. So whereas, you go, like, rock crawling in a Wrangler, you go bounding over rocks in something like a Razor. And-- so it's-- think of it as a very specific product niche. Like, it's for those people who are willing to spend $20,000 to $30,000 on a vehicle that they're only going to go off road in and-- you know, just discretionary fun. Put it that way. Discretionary fun.

That seems like a lot of money. But there's a whole heck of a lot of people who buy Broncos and Wranglers with $30,000 of off road options on them and then they risk damaging their super pricey daily driver vehicle on the trail. So if you're thinking about who is it that's buying these things? It's those same people, but they're making an informed decision and getting the dedicated off-road vehicle and the dedicated on road vehicle. And they are an absolute blast to ride. So specs, it's got, I think, 114 horsepower, which I pointed out in my ride review report that that's about the same as my 1990 Jeep Wrangler had. But it weighs about half the amount and it has way more suspension forgiveness and travel.

So that kind of tells you what the thing is capable of doing. These things get up and boogie. And they do it on the kind of terrain that it's actually difficult to even hike across. You know? And they do it at speed with reliability and durability. So some of the most impressive products, I think, right now in the powersports industry are these side by sides or UTVs. The Polaris Razor XP is the best selling sport side by side in America. It has historically been since it was released in 2014. And it's certainly not going to give up that position anytime soon. It's just it's a stellar product, aimed right in the heart of the marketplace. And it does everything as well as you expect it to be able to.

GREG MIGLIORE: So you, spending your money-- and we'll get to this in a minute-- would you rather just get like an old like an old Wrangler, like, a beater off roader, spend your money that way, or spend your money on, like, a brand new Polaris product? Which way would you go for, like, you're-- you're up North, your UP cottage, what would you do?

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: So the big issue, the big deciding factor here is use case because these Razors are not street legal. There's some provisions in certain states where you can throw a plate on it that allows you basically to get from trail to trail. But you cannot use this as a daily use vehicle. It's-- it's solely an off-road toy. I don't-- I don't exist in the price bracket where $20 to $30,000 for a sole off road toy is in my wheelhouse. So if you're asking me, personally, what I would do? Well, I could get double duty out of something like a Wrangler. But the Razor is just an absolute blast.

The good thing is you don't have to-- like, if this appeals to you, you don't have to buy a brand new $25,000 Razor XP. They exist for those out there that want them. But if you get one that's three or four years old, you're going to pay half that and you're still going to have a blast on it. So you know, thank the wealthy off roaders for keeping these things on the road and keeping them available if you want to buy one on the used market. And actually extra plug for Polaris here. The Polaris exchange is a really great place to find used models.

And yeah, I mean, buy a used one and if you find out that this is something that you and your family are absolutely loving, and then you can justify the $21, $25,000 on the new one after a few years of proving that this is like a family lifestyle item for you, then that's what you should do. I certainly don't think people should just, like, "oh, I love this idea, I'm going to go rush out and blow $30,000 on one of these things." That's not me. That's not how I would do it. But I'm also-- also not going to tell people, like I said a minute ago, how to spend their money. So you know, it just depends on how much discretionary income you have, I guess.

GREG MIGLIORE: So what I need you to do right now is tell somebody how to spend their money.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: So we just-- we kind of walked right into that one, but hey, we got to have some fun here. So this comes from our cars, where we like to just cherry pick some things from Reddit every now and then. If you're on Reddit, hopefully, you know, you're reading some of the Autoblog stuff that makes its way over there. And if you want to get a Spend-My-Money, I believe the queue is open. The cupboard is bare. That's podcast@autoblog.com. This one I thought was cool because I like the Kia Stinger. And the writer currently has a 2023 Kia Stinger GT2 all wheel drive with no mods, considering swapping it for a 2022 Audi SQ5 Prestige with a sport package. Why? Expecting another child. Worried the car seat in the back won't be-- it'll just be tight and then having room for everybody to sit back there on longer trips.

I mean, that's what you'd expect of Stan. They do have-- the family has a 2023 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy, very nice SUV, for the longer trips, but he's looking for something sportier for The daily driver. So basically, it's kind of a binary question here. Stay with the Stinger or move over to the Audi SQ5, over to you.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I would absolutely stay with the Stinger for my long drives, I would use the Palisade. It's a very, very nice car. If you really want to spend your money, to this person who wrote this, I would direct you to the Genesis dealer for all the reasons that we've previously talked about the Genesis GV70. I wouldn't get the electrified because that's not what you're looking at.

But if I were shopping for an Audi SQ5, I would end up at the Genesis dealer with a GV70 and the 3.5 liter twin turbo V6 engine. It is more powerful, more luxurious in my mind, a nicer vehicle and nicer package overall than the SQ5. So if you're looking to spend money, I would not spend it on an SQ5, I'd probably spend it on the GV70 3.5 twin turbo. But if you're just asking me, should I trade in my stinger on an SQ5 when I've already got a Palisade in my driveway, the answer would be no. I would keep the Stinger as a performance vehicle and use the crossover for crossover things when necessary.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, you already have a sporty sedan, which is about to be no longer a thing. So you know, there's that. If you're-- like, to your point, if you're looking to just change things up a little bit while you're at that Genesis dealer, check out the G70, which is related to the Stinger. It's a lot of fun to drive. You could do that too. Genesis has been thematically part of this podcast throughout the different segments.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, I know.

GREG MIGLIORE: But I think you probably want to, you know, this is one where you maybe hold your cards. And you could always see-- you know, see how it works out too. Like, maybe you get those car seats back there, and you find that you do need to take the Kia on some longer drives. You're like, "this just isn't going to work." Like, I've put a car seat in the back of a Stinger before. It's a little tight. I can only imagine trying to get two back there. But you do have the Palisade Calligraphy, which is a beautiful, large crossover. So I think you probably want to see just how much of a problem this is before going over to the SQ5. Unless of course, you just want the SQ5.

JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Exactly. If you just want it, and you've got the cash for it, I think you should buy it. You know? Like, I'm all for spending the money on the thing that you want. My other question would be, is-- because you know, I've never tried to put car seats in a Q5 or SQ5-- and the SQ5, you should know if you're listening, is a Q5, but the sportier more premium version of it. How much bigger is the back seat and rear door opening of the Q5, SQ5 then the Stinger? I don't know, like, I'd have to get my tape measure out and figure that out.

I don't have kids, so I'm not I'm not throwing child seats in it all the time. But I'm just wondering how much greater utility there is on the Q5 platform versus the Stinger platform. You might need to step up, like if you really need the utility, you might need to step past the SQ5 anyway and go up a model in size. So I don't know. I don't think it's-- I don't think it's a lateral move that I would personally suggest making. But man, if you take an SQ5 out and you've got the money for it and you love it, then absolutely, you should do it. But yeah, it's not something I would advocate for.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right. Sounds good. So that's all the time we have this week. Jeremy, good hanging out with you, good catching up. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get the show. Again, send us your Spend-My-Moneys. I'll say it for the third or fourth time, podcast@autoblog.com. Be safe out there and we'll see you next week.

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