Why Chevrolet Beat Discontinued - Damino Media

What Happened To The Hummer?

CNBC:

In the early 1990s, one of Hollywood's biggest action stars pestered a
U.S. defense contractor to sell him a truck the American military had
famously used in a war with Iraq.
And so America got the Hummer.
The angular, militaristic go anywhere truck became an emblem of 1990s pop
culture, a coveted status symbol sought by celebrities and a sometimes
mocked and vilified example of just how far America's newfound love for
sport utility vehicles had gone.
The Hummer was huge, brash and often brightly colored, and it became a
favorite choice for adventurous buyers who didn't mind attracting
attention. And then it was gone.
As parent company General Motors collapsed into bankruptcy.
I would say there probably isn't many more iconic vehicles of this century
than the Hummer. I would put like the Hummer, the Prius, the Beatle.
I would say they all existed for a time and were so incredibly popular and
their popularity has faded for all of them.
But I mean, Hummer was so ubiquitous at one point in terms of representing
that overly emasculated, aggressive, almost stereotype.
The Hummer had a brief life spanning just under two decades, but it made a
lasting impression.
The vehicle that would come to be called a Hummer actually began as the
U.S. military's High Mobility Multi-purposed Wheeled Vehicle.
The name's cumbersome acronym H M M W V landed the truck with its nickname
Humvee. It was first developed in 1981 by U.S.
defense contractor AM General.
It was most notably used in the first Gulf War, but the kind seen on roads
and highways later on came about because as the story goes, Arnold
Schwarzenegger saw a convoy of Hummers in Oregon while filming a movie and
decided he had to have one.
Upon seeing them, he would later say he could see himself driving the
vehicle in the mountains and in the desert.
Schwarzenegger reportedly lobbied AM general repeatedly for one of the
vehicles. At first, he demanded one of the same Humvees the company had
sold to the military, but he was refused since the truck was not street
legal. Then he began asking AM general to make a civilian version.
He even flew out to the company's headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, to
make his case. The contractor eventually created a civilian version in
1992 and named it the Hummer.
Schwarzenegger was there for the unveiling of the vehicle and drove one of
the first specimens off the assembly line.
By many measurements, the Hummer outdid every other passenger vehicle on
the market. It had a full 16 inches of ground clearance.
That's over nine inches more than the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.
It was also seven feet wide, almost as wide as the biggest street legal
semitrucks, making it stable and resistant to rollover, despite its
height. The civilian version came with a more comfortable cabin geared for
cruising and commuting rather than combat.
But the truck did retain some of the features found in the original
version. There's a vehicle that was extremely capable of going anywhere
off road. So even if most owners never actually took it off the pavement,
the vehicle did have the credibility behind it.
Owners of the vehicle knew that it could go really far off road if they so
desired. And the capability of that vehicle was part of its credibility.
And the Hummer was a success for a while.
Gm bought the brand in 1999 and expanded the lineup with progressively
smaller models called the H2 and H3.
By 2002, General Motors was launching the Hummer brand in a big way with
the H2, which was a smaller version of the smaller, more consumer
friendly version of the H1 that was heavily based on GM pickup.
Heavy duty pickup mechanicals.
And the timing of it was sort of fortuitous for General Motors because the
second Gulf War was starting and all over the news, all you saw were
military Humvees storming into Iraq.
And right about that time, General Motors launched the H2.
So it was able to capitalize on it was able to capitalize on current
events at the time. It also made it a very polarizing vehicle because
Americans were either in support of the war or they were really, really
against it. Eventually, every celebrity seemed to have one.
Schwarzenegger himself owned at least seven at one point.
Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson had six.
At its peak in 2006, Americans bought more than 71,000 Hummers.
The vehicle was an oddity in the marketplace, huge, blunt and aggressive.
But that appears to be part of what people liked about it.
It was a vehicle that absolutely could not be ignored.
I think the fact that there were so many of them that were painted bright
yellow sort of spoke volumes about the fact that this is the view that
people really want to be seen in.
I mean, people generally chose pretty extroverted colors to go with this
vehicle. You know, the vehicle was, of course, extremely often capable,
but there were a relatively small number of people who actually use it for
that purpose. Really, it was a fashion statement.
For some people was even a political statement.
And most of all, it was a vehicle that vote for those who were really into
the product. It was something that they really wanted to show off and be
seen in. However, there was also backlash against the truck, which critics
viewed as an obnoxious gas guzzler.
The original Hummer H1 got about 10 miles per gallon, the smallest of the
lineup, the H3 got 14 miles per gallon with an automatic transmission in
the 2010 model year.
To activists and other critics, the vehicle became a symbol of excess and
the American addiction to fuel at a time when prices were beginning to
climb and the country was fighting wars in the oil rich Middle East.
In one high profile case, a dealership in West Covina, California, was
vandalized, including 20 Hummers valued at about $50000 each.
The perpetrators spray painted messages on several of the damaged trucks,
including gross polluter and fat, lazy Americans.
Apart from the environmental backlash.
Rising fuel prices and a grueling recession spoiled America's taste for
big vehicles. Hummer sales fell from their 2006 high to 55,986 in
2007, 27,485 in 2008.
And just 9,046 in 2009.
Unfortunately for Hummer, as the decade progressed, after a decade
progressed, fuel prices went haywire in 2008.
All the sudden, it made the Hummer look very unfashionable because he was
a vehicle that got maybe 10 miles a gallon when gas prices were shooting
up to near about $4 a gallon across the country.
And all the sudden it looked very out of step with the times and it looked
like a dinosaur. And sales fell off like a rock.
They Hummer did introduce a smaller multi-culti H3, but by that time, I
think that damn, that's pretty much already done.
To make matters worse, General Motors itself had collapsed, the largest
U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
GM put several of its brands to the axe, including Pontiac, Oldsmobile,
Saab and Hummer.
So I think for for those times when General Motors was looking at what
they should do as they were going through bankruptcy, moving forward,
Hummer was a brand that they had to unload.
I mean, even if you look at what their pickup truck sales were at the
time, those had just fallen off the cliff as well.
So it was clear that Americans are not interested in these larger
vehicles. All of the things that had made it appealing.
It's big, loud, brash attitude were now liabilities.
GM would later try to sell the brand to Chinese investors, but that deal
fell through. The strange thing is that as prices have fallen from an all
time high set in 2008 and as the U.S.
has pulled out of the recession, customers have run back to sport,
utilities and trucks.
Fast forward to today and now, although smaller, not Hummer size, SUVs are
nearly 50 per person of the new Khazaal in the United States.
So what's old is new again, essentially, I think that's that in fromwhat
everything. But it seems like it certainly is the case here with Humarr as
well. But it is possible the brand could have a second life.
At least two reports have said GM is considering bringing the Hummer back
as part of a fleet of electric and hybrid sport utilities and trucks.
Gm didn't comment on the report, but a move like that would allow the
automaker to capitalize on the Hummers, military pedigree and adventurous
image while keeping in step with what GM CEO Mary Barra calls GM's all
electric future.
Over the years, even Schwarzenegger has been seen piloting Hummers,
running on alternative fuels.
One of my Hummer has been turned into a hydrogen Hummer.
And that, of course, emits no greenhouse gases at all.
And the other Hummer has been turned into a biofuel Hummer and that one
now releases emits a 40 to 50 percent less greenhouse gases.
So I think those are the kind of initiatives each individual of us can
take. Reviving the Hummer could also be a relatively inexpensive way for
GM to broaden its truck lineup at a time when Americans are scooping up
pickups and sport utilities at an unprecedented rate.
Several industry watchers have said the shift toward utilities and trucks
and the new car market is here to stay.
If that is true, automakers are likely to keep trying to carve out new
niches to distinguish themselves and squeeze higher margins out of each
purchase. Big, butch, off-road ready vehicles are once again the order of
the day. The longtime off-road favorite Jeep Wrangler has climbed from
eighty four thousand six hundred fifteen units in 2008 to two hundred
84,615 units in 2018.
And Jeep added the gladiator pickup truck to its Wrangler lineup for the
2019 model year.
While GM has off-road capable vehicles, it doesn't really have one that
directly replaced the Hummer, nor one that could directly compete with the
Wrangler. Having a dedicated, off-road oriented brand could be a boon to
GM and its ongoing war for truck and SUV dominance with its Detroit
rivals. So I think that it does make sense from a manufacturer standpoint,
but also it seems like the consumer base is there.
I mean, how much hype was there around the Jeep Gladiator launch?
I mean, tons. I mean, people are, you know, still very excited about that
vehicle you know, a year later.
The gladiator is actually a revival of a pickup truck Jeep sold in the
1960s.
In similar manner, Ford plans to revive the Bronco, another once popular
utility vehicle.
Toyota brought back its Supera sports car.
Honda pulled the passport name out of its archives for a new sport
utility. When automakers reintroduced brands, they can take advantage of
nostalgia while also saving money they would have to spend introducing
customers to a totally new product.
Even a brand is notorious as Hummer is still a recognized one.
The Hummer was certainly a polarizing vehicle, but reviving it in this
market is starting to look like a smart bet.

Why Ford Will Stop Building Cars | WheelHouse

Donut Media:

- The Mustang, the Thunderbird,
the Crown Victoria.
Since 1903, the Ford Motor Company
has been responsible for some
of the most iconic cars ever.
But as the world changes
and new trends emerge,
Ford has announced the company will
stop selling sedans in North America.
When I head the news, I was shocked.
I asked my coworkers what they thought.
But they were speechless, too!
So on this episode of Wheel House,
we're gonna find out why.
The American Automotive industry
has always adapted to the world around it.
Cars have helped shape pop
culture, but if you look closer,
cars are a product of the
time, and not vice versa.
Cultural and socio-economic
events influence
car design more than one
single person ever could.
It may be cliche, but the Model T changed
how the world viewed cars
in the early 20th century.
Automobiles were seen as a luxury,
and therefore inaccessible
to common people.
Rather than court aristocrats,
who already owned luxury motor carriages,
Henry Ford chose to pursue a demographic
that had been neglected,
blue collar working people
who didn't know they needed cars.
Not only was the Model T
redefining how cars were sold,
it was also revolutionizing
how cars were made.
In 1913, Ford introduced
the automated assembly line,
which brought production time down
from 12 hours, to two and a half.
The Model T was probably
the most famous instance
in which a car company succeeded
by adapting a new business model.
(upbeat disco music)
Fast forward to 1973,
American cars were gigantic,
inefficient, but looked cool as hell.
Small Japanese imports
felt wimpy by comparison.
The Chrysler Imperial Le Baron
was the biggest of the bunch,
clocking in at 19.6 feet.
The 439 cubic inch, 7 Liter
V8 cranked out 208 horsepower,
and got a whopping 9.8 miles per gallon.
Pretty extravagant, but
all the extravagance
of the early '70s was short-lived.
OPEC, short for the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
is a group that includes Venezuala,
Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
The organization was
outraged that the U.S.
had supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war
and proclaimed an oil
embargo against the U.S.
The price of gas nearly tripled
over the course of the next year.
Suddenly, those small,
efficient Japanese imports
didn't look so bad, they had
great MPG and were reliable.
That meant that drivers
didn't have to wait
in long lines to fill up on gas.
And the Japanese weren't the only ones
giving car manufacturers a headache.
The federal government introduced
the CAFE regulations in 1975.
Cah-fay? Cah-f? C-A-F-E?
Cah-fay, is how I'm gonna say it.
The Federal government introduced
the CAFE regulations in 1975
to improve fuel efficiency
in U.S. produced vehicles
and light trucks.
This throttled back performance,
a pretty important selling point
for American vehicles at the time.
Gone were the days of the muscle cars,
and thus began the era
of small, cheap, and efficient commuters.
The only American made vehicles
comparable to Japanese imports were cars
like the AMC Gremlin and Ford Pinto.
Notoriously crappy beaters.
Cadillac even came out with the Cimmaron,
an 88 horse power sports
luxury abomination,
that delivered neither luxury
nor sport in terms of ride quality.
American car manufacturers were destroying
their reputation by trying to compete
with Japanese sedans,
and they were losing.
However, consumers were
finding that they could
still get the power and room they expected
from U.S. made vehicles by purchasing
one of the few vehicle
types which were not
subject to CAFE regulations, trucks.
(slow instrumental music)
U.S. manufacturers like
Ford and Cheverolet
focused on making their trucks better,
because the market demanded it
and they were less
restricted by regulations.
As their car division became
less and less relevant,
their trucks surged to
the front of the pack.
Cut to present day,
the F150 is the best-selling
vehicle in America
and Ford just hired a
new CEO in Jim Hackett.
The previous CEO was laid
off because of stagnant
stock prices, rising production costs
and so-called uninspired vision
when it came to the Ford product line.
Historically, Ford has always had
rigid leadership and business models.
And Hackett's free-thinking
methods are all but rigid.
In addition to quoting
theoretical physicists,
Hackett uses words like fitness,
Auto 2.0 and design
thinking when explaining
the direction he has planned for Ford.
But when it comes times
to actually describe
what all that means, Hackett
falls a little short.
I guess you could say he doesn't hack it.
That was stupid, alright. (laughs)
The new CEO might sound more like the head
of a new-age start-up rather
than a major car company,
but to be fair, he does
have some progressive ideas
that could usher in a new era for Ford.
Whether that's good or bad is up to you.
Hackett's vision for
Ford is to transform it
from a car company into
a mobility company.
His emphasis is to make smart
vehicles for a smart world
and focus on developing electric vehicles,
self-driving systems and
ride-sharing systems.
The company recently
acquired a majority stake
in an autonomous vehicle
engineering firm, ArgoAI.
They've invested in Japanese
tech company SoftBank
and rolled out a plan to invest
11 billion dollars in
electric vehicle development,
soon to be built in Detroit.
I tried looking up what ArgoAi
and SoftBank actually do,
but their websites are incredibly vague,
yeah they do autonomous
vehicles and technology.
With all that expensive
innovation happening,
something has to be sacrificed.
The sacrificial lambs are the Taurus,
the C-MAX and the Fiesta.
The Focus line was gonna continue
as a weird lifted variant
thing called the Focus Active,
but Ford was planning on
building them in China,
making them subject to the new tariffs.
Tariffs that put a 10% duty tax on top
of what it already takes
to import goods from China.
So Ford said "Alright, nevermind."
And canceled the Focus Active altogether.
This means the Mustang is Ford's
only traditional car left in their line-up
for the foreseeable future.
Those Pep Boys really
like them burnouts, huh?
Hackett and the Board of Directors at Ford
saw the competition with Japanese sedans
and cross-over SUVs as a losing battle,
Americans have been
loyal to Japanese sedans
since the '70s, which is when they
started topping best car lists.
Plus, Ford sees 90% of sales coming
from trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles,
so contextually, as much
as we might not like it,
this move makes sense,
it just really sucks
to imagine that there might be a day
without any Ford cars on the road at all.
(melodramatic instrumental music)
Thanks for watching Wheel House.
We look at the issues that affect
you in the car world every week,
so hit that yellow subscribe
button right there.
We talked about tariffs
on a previous episode,
check it out right there.
The Director of Marketing at Kia
said he learned a lot
from it, so that's cool.
(laughs)

2019 BMW X5 Test Results; Which Cars Should Be Brought Back From the Dead? | Talking Cars #187

Consumer Reports:

We talk about our final test
results on the 2019 BMW X5.
We answer audience
questions, including
one about electric vehicle
range in cold weather.
And we talk about the trend
of bringing back old vehicle
names, and what ones
we would bring back
if we had our choice--
next, on "Talking Cars."

Hi, and welcome
to "Talking Cars."
I'm Jennifer Stockburger.
I'm Mike Quincy.
And I'm John Linkov.
So we are back at the track,
Post Detroit Auto Show,
and ready to set into kind
of our normal routine.
We're going to start with
news, and it actually
is news that's kind of an
expansion of the Detroit Auto
Show.
And it's this trend of
resurrecting old car
names into newer models.
And we're not talking about
ones that have continued--
Corollas and Cherokees-- but
ones that died off for a while
and now they've brought back.
For better or for worse.
For better or for worse.
So Ranger, Bronco, Supra--
there was a bunch of them from
Detroit--
Blazer, Passport, Gladiator.
John, why do you think
this is a trend, a strategy
to bring these back?
Oh, goodness.
They're running out of names.
They don't want to
do alphanumeric--
Ford QX962B75.
Well, it didn't work
well for Lincoln.
I mean, they changed
all those things.
Back and forth, right.
I mean, some of it's nostalgia.
These are names with
a lot of equity--
capital, if you will.
So they're going to
attract people to them.
They're going to get a
nostalgia sake-- oh, I
remember my Supra and such.
Now is it attracting
who they want to?
Is it attracting people
who are about to retire
or people even in their 50s
versus the younger buyer who
doesn't care about what
the Bronco was and only
remembers OJ was driven
around in a Bronco?
That's where they might
remember the Bronco.
If even that-- I,
mean they might even
be too young for that.
It's funny, because we
talk about getting younger,
and Consumer Reports
is no different.
We all need to get younger.
However, still the vast majority
of wealth in this country
is controlled by baby boomers.
So these kinds of
names are going right
to the heart of that market.
Yeah.
And I will say I do think
there's-- you talk about
nostalgia-- there is this
general trend back towards
simplifying.
I think of the tiny houses
and living off the grid
and definitely even--
I have a 19-year-old nephew
who took all of my albums--
Journey and The Clash--
The vinyl.
Yes, the vinyl, to play
them on his turntable.
Not Apple iTunes or--
Spotify.
Spotify or Pandora or anything,
but albums on a turntable.
And I do think
there is-- they do
know these names from some
story we told them maybe
or something.
I do think there's some younger
audience coolness to some
of those names.
But they might be disappointed
once they get into it.
You're talking before
the Jeep Cherokee.
That was a loved model--
that squared-off Jeep.
And it really was--
It ran for a long time.
Start of the SUV craze,
or at least kept SUVs--
made an imprint
right on the market.
For me, I don't care if
they call it the Ford Brick.
I don't care if it's the
Toyota Brick if the car is not
a good vehicle, if
it's not enjoyable,
if it's not well-constructed
or thought out.
And that's like the Jeep
Cherokee-- doesn't really
perform well in our ratings.
Not a fuel efficient
vehicle, it's
a little compromised in size.
It's just not a good vehicle.
So losing equity in that
name if you don't build back
a good vehicle.
Yes.
I think it does
get people in them.
But it almost seems
like Hollywood.
I mean, Hollywood can't
come up with a lot
of original ideas for
movies so they keep
rebooting all the old ones.
And some of the names
that were resurrected
like the Volkswagen Beetle,
the PT Cruise, the Dodge Dart--
they didn't work out so well.
They weren't a success,
to John's point.
Exactly what John said.
They rocketed up
with initial sales--
oh, my gosh, nostalgia.
And then they plummeted in
sales once people drove them
for awhile.
Because they weren't a good car.
So here's kind of a fun
game-- if you could resurrect
any old name, old
car, what would it be?
Well, you know, I gave this
about two seconds of thought.
It didn't take me long.
The car that I would love
to see back from the dead
is the Saab 900 Turbo SPG.
Yeah, I know, why?
I don't know.
Saab was early into
turbo-charging,
they were early
into 16-valve heads.
They had front-wheel drive.
They were doing stuff that a lot
of other companies hadn't done.
I just love them.
They're weird, they're
quirky, they're different.
And, honestly, they were last
sold in 1991-- the SPG model.
And it is totally my Saab story.
Oh, my goodness.
Good one.
You set him up for it.
That was good.
I did.
I teed it up and
he just took it.
You?
Anything you'd bring back?
So I'd bring you back the
original Toyota Celica
all-track turbo.
In that I think that the market
doesn't have a lot of that.
They haven't an Impreza
WRX, but there's
nothing that's all-wheel
drive in the affordable stage.
And I owned a front-wheel
drive Celica GT.
I liked that car.
And it's kind of--
that was the attainable
car as a teenager, early 20s.
Yes, I had a five-foot poster
of a Lamborghini Coupe.
As all did.
I had a giant picture
of the [INAUDIBLE]..
That was one of the
things I looked, like,
oh, that would be great, great.
But that era-- that's
what I could drive and get
into and own.
That was real.
I look back fondly with that.
And for all the faults of
turbo-chargers in that era,
I think that there's
a hole in the market
for that type of vehicle.
And what's interesting
about that choice is I
know you're a big fan of Audi.
And in some ways, that was
kind of a less expensive--
The everyman's.
Audi Quattro.
I mean, when the first
Quattro came out in the US,
sure it was five-cylinder, and
turbo-charging and all-wheel
drive, and the all-track had a
lot of that going on as well.
And I owned an Audi
Quattro later in life.
And the Toyota was probably
be far more reliable and less
impact on my pocket as my
'83 turbo Quattro coupe was--
Quattro, yes.
So mine was very--
again, we'll go back
to practical and
my own nostalgia.
But I've said before how much
I loved like the Ford Flex,
right?
So I think that's a great
family car, tons of room.
I'm very wagon nostalgic.
So what if they had
put panels on that
and called it the
Country Squire?
I drove that LTD wagon
all through the end
of high school, college.
I'm a wagon fan.
Again, I would probably want
like the Flex all-wheel drive
on it.
But if they'd called that Flex
the Country Squire, who knows--
The fake wood.
Might have done better.
Just continued to
talk about the Jeep
Grand Wagoneer or
Wagoneer coming back.
We all remember
the pantwood panels
on the side and nostalgia.
Who ever thought we'd be
nostalgic for fake wood?
Me.
Me.
So cool.
All right, well, we've
got to get out of the past
into the present.
It was kind of fun, I'll admit.
I enjoyed our little
back-up to our old days.

All right, so from
the track, we have
just kind of finished
testing of the 2019 BMW X5--
so obviously an
important car for BMW.
We all have had--
I just had one
chance to get in it,
but I certainly
have impressions.
John, thoughts on the X5?
Look, it's $70,000.
You expect it to be a really
good vehicle and it delivers.
It delivers in the comfort, it
delivers in the performance.
What's interesting is BMW has
kind of gotten a good balance
with it.
It was a very rough,
sporty, autobahn-ready model
for previous generations.
And this has, again, a great
balance between ride comfort,
performance--
it's not a Porsche Cayenne
off the block from the start,
but it rides a heck
of a lot better.
Yeah, they're quiet.
It's incredibly quiet.
I mean, you drive down the
road at 70 miles an hour
in that vehicle, and
you lower the window
and you realize how quiet it
is and how much wind noise
and road noise
it's keeping out--
highly impressive vehicle.
Yeah, now just to
clarify, I didn't say--
ours was the three-liter turbo
six, eight-speed automatic.
So I just wanted to
throw that in there.
Your impressions?
I was all ready to not
like it, because kind
of what John said about
it being so expensive.
And we've pinged a lot
of recent BMW's controls
for being way too complicated.
And it's almost like
you-- when we're
checking out cars at
night to drive home,
that goes through my head.
OK, how difficult
is it going to be
if I take this car to adjust
the seats, to adjust the radio,
to adjust the climate control?
And sometimes we'll get a BMW--
or our last-tested
Lexus LS and just say,
I don't have the
patience for this.
I'm tired, I want to go
home, forget about it.
I don't want to repeat
everything that John said,
but I think he's 100% right.
I like this car way more than
I thought I was going to,
because it's so quiet
and comfortable.
The controls are not
ideal, but they're
kind of as we talked about,
the best of the lousy systems.
You know what I mean?
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I'd say that--
They did not frustrate me.
I well put that out there.
And that sounds like a pretty
low bar, but it's a real bar.
I was not frustrated by them.
There was a lot
of redundancy, you
could operate them
different ways.
I think the company is
evolving with their controls.
I think their first
iDrive drove us crazy.
It was a pioneer.
I mean, no one was used to
something like that either.
Right.
And now this one
is a lot better.
So a couple of things struck me.
One was, like you
say, the big stuff.
I was surprised when
I was taking notes
that it was turbocharged.
There was no turbo lag-- we
have talked about turbo lag.
No hesitation.
This turbo spinning
up before it can
do its job and that
hesitation off the line.
It had none of that.
It was super, shifts were great.
One thing that struck me when
I was in it in two aspects
was the visibility.
It is pretty good.
I mean, it's relative, because
many of those sloping SUVs
are so poor,
particularly to the rear.
This was pretty good.
I was like, whoa.
I was very impressed.
The proof is it's
always being signed out.
Yes, right.
I booked it a month
ago for a trip
I was supposed to take
to Portland, Maine--
which, with all the
snowstorms, ended up
cutting it back to Boston.
Incredibly easy to
drive, super comfortable.
BMW owners, of which I'm not,
will find the iDrive a very
short learning curve.
People new to the vehicle
will see it a bit steep
and then it'll drop off
and become familiar--
like you said, a lot
of redundant controls.
The screen is huge and the
Apple CarPlay integration
is fantastic.
Wireless.
Wireless.
Takes a little getting used to,
but you could charge the phone,
but you can connect to Carplay.
Waze is like--
I think it's about this big.
So it's easy.
But with the redundant
controls, you
can scroll your radio
stations or your XM stations
or whatever music you're running
from Spotify, for example,
without disturbing that screen.
And a lot of other ones you
have to go on the screen,
change it, change
it, go back to Waze.
No, it's really well done.
It's really well done.
Well, one other
thing-- the optional--
we bought a premium
package on ours,
which drove the price
up a little bit.
But it had this amazing--
integrated visibility--
heads-up display.
It was so good, because
it showed navigation.
When you're changing
audio, it showed that.
But in the heads-up
display, you didn't
have to do this type of thing.
You could just look
kind of through it.
Really well done.
I thought the heads-up
display was clear.
Turns were just right there.
I thought it was great.
And the seat heaters heat
the armrest in the center.
That's a good point.
And the wheel.
I did use the
wheel in this cold.
We have logbooks that we
keep for all the cars.
And one of the comments that
I loved about that were elbow
rests--
a feature I didn't know that
I wanted until I tried it.
Until you had it, yep.
And I think one other thing--
and you mentioned it--
this balance that BMW
found between sporty
is the ability to select
those drive modes.
You can make it a little firmer
steering a little more weight
if you're on the sporty side.
I sit in the comfort
side-- so where
it's a little less maybe
steering feel, better ride,
et cetera.
So there's a lot for that
money that you can tailor.
So ratings will be out soon.
So we're all done with the BMW.
Maybe this car lives
up to the hype.
Yeah, this car really
could live up to the hype.
I'm interested in
seeing what people--
what owners say about
it, because that's
been kind of a
trend. the 5 Series,
the 3 Series, the
balancing-- but does it mean
the ultimate driving machine?
Their slogan for decades.
Does that mean they're no
longer really that vehicle?
Are they more of the ultimate
comfort driving machine,
where the balances at with
what their true fans are
going to think.
Maybe they don't
care about that.
They just want new
people to the brand.
Or have they managed to get
both somewhere in the middle?
So, again, great vehicle.
We're going to move
on to some questions.
We're super psyched
because we have
four, but four video questions.
We love them.
We especially like
to see you guys,
so keep them coming
either by video or email
at talkingcars@icloud.com.
Let's see the first one--
Ravi from Ontario.
Hello, "Talking Cars."
Love your show.
Would you consider testing
electric vehicles at three
different temperature points?
For example-- at
zero degrees Celsius,
20 degrees Celsius and, say,
30 or 35 degrees Celsius?
So based on the weather
in Ravi's video,
it's pretty clear
why he's concerned
about battery life in the cold.
It's pretty snowy where he is.
So I think each of us has our
stories about decreased battery
life in cold weather.
Mike, anything to add for Ravi?
Well, it kind of
goes to our testing
and how we've seen drop-offs.
And we have a number
of Tesla's here
at the track as well
as a Nissan LEAF.
And we're in the process
of kind of measuring just
when the electric vehicle
sits how much do you lose just
when it's sitting there?
So we're going to have
that information out soon.
And it also kind of
it goes in lockstep
with what we found when we
first started testing hybrids--
just a regular
gas-electric hybrid,
they're seeing a drop-off in
fuel economy in the colder
months as well.
John, we've had some really
cold weather here recently.
So any-- I know you've had
it one particular occasion.
I had it a number of years ago
with the first Nissan LEAF.
We got it, took it
home, because I had--
there was a certain
amount of range.
It was one of those things
where I live close enough,
I could drive it home and back.
Gabe usually takes a lot of the
cars early, but with that range
and even when we
first delivered it,
it was much shorter
than he could drive.
And got home and seemed
like I head 38, 40 miles.
And then put it in my
garage, got up the next day
and it's cold and it's wet.
And I had to turn on the
lights because it was dark
and run the windshield
wipers and the heater.
And I started realizing on my
ride, I can't run the heater.
Oh, my gosh.
Again, early, first
generation Nissan LEAF.
Totally understand-- newer
technology at the time.
But, yeah, I had a roll
off the highway to a stop
and it had a little turtle icon.
And I think the turtle was
upside down at that point.
I had to get picked up
with one of our trailers
about four miles from work.
Didn't quite make it.
Didn't quite make it.
So, yes, not just range
anxiety, range failure.
But it's kind of the limitations
of electric vehicles,
you don't normally
think when you--
say you get into your
five-year-old Corolla
and it's cold out, you
start up the engine,
you get the heat going.
You don't even think
twice about it.
But with an EV, well,
that's what you think about.
Heat and cold--
extremes of either.
Yeah, so to your
point, we're attempting
to quantify some of that,
compare some of that.
It's really kind of
tough, because when
you're doing comparative
testing in anything we do--
you look at our
test procedures, we
have limits on wind
and temperature.
It's really hard
to get consistency.
I mean, literally we were at
zero degrees here yesterday.
We will be 50 degrees
here tomorrow.
So we kind of battled that,
but we are attempting, Ravi,
to make some quantification
of what the losses are.
But if you are an EV owner,
be aware that those ranges
will be affected by the
cold-- to John's story.
I'm interested to
know what people see.
Give yourself the buffer--
charge it a little longer,
plug it in even when
you might not think
if the temperatures are low.
So, yeah.
Be interesting to see.
Our second question is
from Mike in Chicago.
Hey, "Talking Cars," Mike
here from Chicago, Illinois.
On my 2017 Honda Ridgeline,
the oil percentage
is still showing 70%.
It's been almost a year.
The owners' manual
says, yeah, if it
doesn't go all the way down
to 20, just wait a year
and do it yearly.
Is that going to be OK?
It just seems like a long time.
Thanks, I love the show.
So, yeah.
This idea of letting
the car monitor oil life
rather than saying,
you know, every 3,000,
or 5,000, or 7,500.
Any advice for Mike?
From Mike.
From Mike to Mike.
And Monticello isn't even here.
He's not even here.
One of the things
I was wondering
when we were looking
at this question
was how many miles
on your truck?
How often is it driven?
Is this a daily driver?
Is this just a weekend driver?
Because that's going
to affect how much
you're working the
engine, how much it's
coming up the temperatures.
Is it being worked hard?
Is it being worked light?
But generally, the idea is--
I talked to Big John, our chief
mechanic here at the track.
And he says the
operative words when
it comes to the onboard
monitors and what's
in your owner's manual
is whichever comes first.
So within a certain amount
of mileage or time--
whichever comes first.
So that, in essence, is
the answer to the question.
Right and we did-- and
Mike didn't give a mileage,
so it's hard.
But if his manual says yearly,
then stick with that, Mike.
So, yeah.
But at 70%, you must be driving
it very nicely or not too far.
And a good truck, by the way.
And a good truck.
Right, right.
Next is Noah and he's got some
questions about a first car.
Hi, "Talking Cars," I'm
a big fan of your show.
I'm 14 and in a few years
will be getting my license.
I'd like to get a new
car around that time,
but don't know what
I would choose.
My budget would be $5,000
and I would love a sedan,
but it would be OK
with hatchback or SUV.
Also, I'm going to be six
foot around that time,
so I'd like one
with good headroom.
Thanks for answering
my question.
So, Noah-- of course, this
is kind of near and dear
to my heart.
I've been through this.
I also have a 14-year-old
son and he looks every day
at which car will be his.
His aspirations are a bit
higher than yours, Noah,
but he would love some giant--
How much are you
guys spending on him?
I don't know, apparently a lot.
The Lamborghini poster.
So outside of model, Noah
threw out like a $5k.
And that's a very typical--
$5,000 is about what
the normal teenager--
and maybe even a
stretch for some--
of what they can
afford in a used car.
And my advice is,
don't buy too soon.
And I say that
because at $5,000,
we are just starting
to see cars--
used cars-- where you can get
one with electronic stability
control.
And that, we think,
is a huge benefit
for young drivers like Noah.
It was mandated-- has to be on
all new cars 2012 and later.
Like I say, there's
models that are just
starting to eek into that
$5,000 range with it.
If you wait a couple more years,
Noah, until you're 16, maybe--
just maybe you'll start to
see that price point include
automatic emergency braking
and some of the other safety
we love.
Our tagline is, buy as much
safety as you can afford.
So, in going through
our use list,
vehicles that might fit
that bill in either--
either now or in a couple
of years, Honda Fit.
Noah, you said you
were six-foot--
you're thinking you were going
to be six-foot tall, that's
deceptively roomy.
I actually picked vehicles where
our headroom measurements gave
four or five inches
above our 5'9" tester,
so hopefully he'll fit.
Mazda 3, Tucson, Toyota
Corolla, and Accord and Camry--
they're going to be in there.
And the ones I picked have
years of good reliability.
I was going to say--
to make this list, they
need to be reliable,
do well in our testing,
and all that stuff.
Right.
So any others you thought
might be good ones to look at?
I actually took a peek at
your notes before we started.
And those really were
the ones to pick.
I find it interesting that
as automotive safety evolves,
we began by saying years
ago, make sure you get
your car with anti-lock brakes.
And then it's, make sure you
get a used car with stability
control.
And now we're getting
to forward collision
warning and automatic
emergency braking.
Which, just as a
side note, it means
that cars are getting so much
better than they used to be.
And these are the
kinds of things
that you need to look
for as a used car buyer.
And the trickle-down.
It's coming quicker and quicker.
I think the Hyundai Tucson is
a great option in that it's not
the level, in people's minds
in the appreciation of a Toyota
Camry or the Honda Accord.
So you might get a really
good deal on a Tucson.
Right a newer Tucson.
On a newer-- yeah, you might get
a newer year than you think--
than the Hondas and the Toyotas.
Yeah, you can get an
older Honda or Toyota,
but you might get a newer
Tucson for the same money.
So, Noah, we love that you're
already thinking about this.
Keep your tally
for a couple years.
Look for safety and enjoy.
That'll be exciting to hear.
I like that he can see in
the future how tall he is.
So if he has some lottery
numbers or maybe Super Bowl
picks.
Maybe the doctor
told him, we hope.
There we go.
So one last question we have--
Sean from Pensacola.
Hey, "Talking Cars," I hope
you're having a good morning.
Longtime listener,
love the show.
I currently drive a 2009 Toyota
Highlander-- six-cylinder--
love the car, but it is getting
kind of long in the tooth--
what with 185,421 miles.
Love the car, but it's
time for me to replace it.
I'd like to either get
a hybrid Highlander--
2012 model or newer--
or a little more money,
a hybrid Volvo XC-90.
I don't know what the
reliability is on the Volvo,
but I know Toyota--
Highlander in particular--
has a stellar reliability.
So, Sean is looking to replace
his venerable Highlander.
His question drew some very
clear emotions-- particularly
from you, John.
Advice for Sean?
So, look, I would stay away
from the Volvo XC-90 hybrid.
In our reliable
survey data, we've
seen a lot of
troubles, particularly
with the electronics or
the touch screen and stuff
like that.
I actually have a
friend who bought
a first year, or maybe a
second year, XC-90 non-hybrid.
And it was in the
shop so often, he
was given a Land Rover to
drive as the service vehicle
so to speak, and it
was more reliable.
And he had it for a longer time.
That's hysterical.
From the Volvo dealer?
That's not the Land
Rover reputation.
I mean, the Highlander
itself was a great vehicle.
If it served you
well, stick with it.
And stay with the regular
one, in my opinion,
because the V6, with the
eight-speed automatic,
gets really good fuel economy.
I wouldn't even
move up to a hybrid,
because you're
going to be spending
a lot of money for that hybrid.
And then a couple miles
per gallon difference
in fuel economy, you're
going to take a long time
to pay that difference off.
Yeah, unless he has a
short commute, the hybrid
might show some benefits,
but I agree with you.
Yeah, well, the stop and go--
the hybrid benefits.
If that's how Sean drives.
Sometimes people buy and
drive hybrids not necessarily
to save money, but just to
be kinder to the environment.
But I love this story
because it reminded me
of something happened with
my neighbor many years ago.
He had a Lexus GS, and he just
had it in his mind that he--
the point of his
life, he's like,
I want a Mercedes Benz S-Class.
I can get a great used
one, and what do you think?
And I said, well,
you know, Jason,
you're trading probably one
of the most reliable vehicles
in Consumer Reports
Survey for one
of the least reliable vehicles
in Consumer Reports Survey.
But he had this bee
in his his bonnet.
He got the S-Class and,
probably in a month,
absolutely regretted it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we've said before,
if you love it, do it.
But at least you'll be
housed with the information
to know what your risks are.
And this is a big jump
from the Highlander
to the-- in terms
of reliability.
You know, and a lot
of times we say, look,
if you have that S-Class, if
you have that Volvo or something
else that's expensive to
repair and repair-prone, then
spend the money for
the extended warranty.
Now we don't recommend
getting a Highlander
and getting the
extended warranty.
You take that couple
grand, bank it.
And when you have a repair,
you have money for it.
But it's going to--
the other bank is
bankrupt and there's
potential of these
other expensive vehicles
to bankrupt you in
keeping them on the road.
Like my old Quattro.
Yeah, not to mention
the inconvenience
of having to do it.
Well that's all we've got.
It's all about giving
you the information
to make your choice.
As always, keep the
questions coming.
We love them.
Talkingcars@icloud.com.
If you want any more
information about the items
we talked about today,
see the show notes,
and we'll see you next time.

All right, so Sean's
looking to replace his.
Gimme just a beat.
[BEATBOXES]
Oh, sorry.
Wiki wiki wiki wiki.

Ford Focus RS: The Last Great Hot Hatch | The New Car Show

Donut Media:

- My mom would not like this car.
(exciting hip-hop music)
(car engine revs)
Guys, you heard the news.
Except for the Mustang and a
new, weird, lifted Focus thing,
Ford said that they're
gonna stop making cars!
(imitates crying)
What?
Which means, no more hot hatches!
Which means, no more Focus RS.
In fact, they've already
stopped making the RS in April.
And there's only a thousand
of these puppies left
for the U.S. market.
That's it.
I think I might cry again.
What's out there on the dealer lots
is all there is, folks.
So, should you go out there and buy one?
Well, luckily for you,
Galpin lent me a brand new 2018 Focus RS
so I can tell you all about it.
This is the new car show.
Hatchbacks are the (bleep).
They haul your friends,
they haul your stuff,
and they look so cute doing it.
So what's not to like?
Well, I guess a really slow hatchback
would be something that you're
(sad music)
not in love with
but this one's not slow.
I gotta tell you,
life is a lot better with
a sweet sounding 2.3 liter
ecoboost engine with 350
horse power under the hood.
With that power and 350
pound feet of torque,
the Focus RS is more powerful
than the Civic Type R and the STI
which you can't even get
as a hatchback anymore.
This is a track car in
a practical car wrapper.
(car engine roars)
Now, this car isn't as crazy, boy racer,
video-gamey as the Civic Type R
but more extreme than the Golf R.
This color is called Race Red
and it is gorgeous and loud
and draws a lot of attention
and makes me definitely
want to turn down my stereo
at the Starbucks.
(loud upbeat music)
It's sporty yet civilized
when you're just poking around town
but you can tell at a moments notices
she's ready to roll!
(car engine roars)
There are four driving
modes to chose from.
Normal mode, perfect for cruising through
the school zone when you
gotta pick up your baby bro
and the principal's there
and he doesn't like your hot hatch.
He doesn't like your
cracks and your burbles.
You can definitely tell
that the suspension is tuned
for handling and not for rough pavement
but it's totally livable.
Just not for my mom.
My mom would not like this car.
She would say it's too bouncy.
Sport mode opens up an exhaust valve
to release that beautiful
crackly crack crackle.
It enhances steering feed back
and quickens the throttle response.
Big Brembo front calipers are
cooled by actual break ducts
that actually go through the front bumper.
The 19 inch wheels are
forged and they're wrapped
in super sticky Michelin Super Sport tires
that add tons of grip.
For 2018, they added a Quaife LSD
which handles torque
distribution to the front wheels
so you can take full
advantage of all that power.
In Track mode, things get serious.
It very, very noticeably stiffens up
the two-position adjustable shocks.
The (beep) gets real stiff.
It kicks stability control down a notch
and tells the all wheel drive system,
hey, all wheel drive system!
You gotta allow for tighter cornering!
Last, but certainly not least,
is Drift mode which gives
the all wheel drive system
a unique set of parameters for,
what else?
Sweet, sweet, beautiful,
smooth, four wheel drifties.
(car tires screech)
For it's final year of production,
Ford gave the RS some special equipment.
In addition to the Quaife LSD
and Dynamic Torque Vectoring,
it gets a gloss black rear
spoiler and mirror caps,
which look very nice
against this red paint,
standard nav with a
huge eight inch screen,
heated front seats,
and a heated, leather
wrapped steering wheel
which comes in clutch in this 110 degree,
Souther California weather.
But, if you live where it snows,
all wheel drive mixed with
the warm butt and warm mitts
is a very compelling package.
I've heard I have a
very compelling package.
Funny, cute-ish, and I make
a million dollars a video.
Hit me up!
The Focus RS starts at around $41,000
which sounds like a lot
of money for a Focus
because it kind of is a
lot of money for a Focus.
While the power, the noise,
and the track-sculpted looks
start to justify paying
that amount of coin,
it's when you actually get in the car
that you think, huh,
did I pay too much money for this Focus?
The leather trimmed RECARO
seats grip to your sides
and have beautiful,
luxurious faux-suede inserts.
To be honest, they're a little
tight on your fat boy host.
If I were gonna get this car,
(muffled electronic voice)
Shut the (bleep) up you
(bleep) phone (bleep).
(upbeat music)
If I got this car, I would
definitely get the RECAROs
and hopefully it would
motivate me to go to the gym
and potentially have less beer a week.
Stay in school, kids, drink your milk.
When you're driving it,
the car is planted but
you're sitting up kinda high.
Sorta like a bus driver.
You know what, it actually reminds me
of when I used to drive
a bunch of Volkswagens.
It feels a lot like a Mark 3 Golf
which I don't care what you guys say
is my favorite genre.
You can get this car with a back-up camera
but you don't have any
help in your blind spot
so keep your head on a swivel.
What you do get is a lot of dash.
It's just the normal Focus dash.
The only difference is
this group of gauge pods
all wrapped in carbon fibber.
There is so much that is
awesome about this car.
For a track Focus 350
horse power hot hatch,
it's actually surprisingly quiet
and absorbs the pot hole filled streets
of Los Angeles very well.
There's also a sweet-sounding
10 speaker Sony stereo,
dual climate control,
and remote keyless access
which I don't know why we mention anymore.
It's in every single car.
And, yeah, it's a $40,000 Focus.
But is a Focus that's focused.
There's plenty of room to carry groceries
or track wheels and tires and a jack
and it's still a completely practical car
that just so happens to sound like this.
(car engine roars)
(groans)
The Ford Focus RS might be
the perfect, fun, daily
driving, track car for me.
Or you.
So don't wait until it's too late
'cause this is truly the end of an era.
This is the end of the post
Evo fun compact car era.
This is all of your faults.
And mine because none of us bought these.
Yo, so as you guys probably know,
YouTube does not pay us to make videos.
Because of that, we work
directly with advertisers
and that allows us to bring
you guys new videos everyday.
I would like to know,
what advertisers you would
like us to work with.
So, we put together a little survey.
You can click a link in
the description below.
If you fill out the survey,
give me your email address.
I'll pick one of you and
I'll send you 50 bucks
from my pocket.
It's my Lambo fund.
I love you.

The Try Guys Surprise Eugene With His Nightmare Car

The Try Guys:

- (dramatic classical music) We are back
at JP Logistics on our second day
for my dream car makeover.
Or my nightmare car makeover,
I have no idea because I have zero clue
at what the guys have in store for me.
- And now the fun begins!
(evil laughing)
- Hoping they stick with something
that looks like fancy, slick, sexy.
- We can do anything.
- Anything.
- Anything?
- [Together] Three, two, one.
- Oh no! (cry laughing)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(upbeat music)
(dramatic drum beat)
Yesterday, Ned, Keith,
and Zach worked with Edwin
to fully detail my car.
Today, my three best
friends are going to be
working with a professional car wrap team
to change the entire exterior of my car
to whatever dream design they have.
And at the end of the day
they will reveal my new car.
I'm excited to see the end result,
my three best friends would not betray me
and give me something crazy.
(upbeat rock music)
- So, Eugene did a great
job babysitting my child
and I want him to do it more.
I want him to feel comfortable around Wes.
Cars are fun, you know what's more fun?
Keeping the world and your family safe,
so today, I'm gonna turn
Eugene's car to a safety net.
So we need to take his
car and baby proof it.
(baby cooing)
I want it to be soft, (dinging)
I want it to be plush, (dinging)
I want it to be colorful. (glimmering)
- I got just the thing for you guys.
- Oh
- Yes!
- You guys want fluffy.
- He's gonna love this.
- And a steering wheel, too.
- [Zach] The thing people
don't know about Eugene
is that he has this
rough and tough exterior
but on the inside--
- [Keith] Soft.
- [Zach] Actually really sweet and cuddly.
- [Keith] So caring.
- [Together] Wow!
- Wow.
- That's not dangerous, right?
You can't see how fast
you're going or anything.
- Yeah, I don't know if it's safer
but it is definitely more baby friendly.
I want the baby to just have a play ground
inside his car.
- Oo and like a permanent car seat.
- Yes.
- [Keith] So we put a permanent kid's seat
in the back of the car.
- [Ned] Should we take the tag off,
we're keeping this right?
- Yeah, take the tag off,
he's not gonna want to return this.
- Yeah, we're taking the tag off.
- Yeah, for sure.
Baby proof on the inside,
dangerous on the outside.
I want it to be a racing car.
- So you want like a Fast
and the Furious type of look?
- Yes.
- iS what you want?
- [Zach] You could put
a spoiler on this car.
- Absolutely, it's a couple
steps that's it's gonna take--
- Oh, don't tell us, no spoilers.
- Oh. (laughing)
- You jackass.
- That's good though, right.
That was good.
- That was good.
- That was good.
- I'll give you that one, give you that.
- Whoo!
- Spoiler.
- [Together] Whoo!
- This, my friend, is an
aerodynamic piece of plastic
that will bring Eugene from mere mortal
to racing god.
- I need you guys to bring it to the car
so I can see exactly where
the middle is gonna be at.
- Okay.
- So let's place it on there,
we just gotta bolt it
on the back of the trunk
and you'll be pretty much done.
- So we're--
- [Ned] That sound permanent.
- So we're drilling, we're gonna bolt it.
(mimicking drill buzzing)
And once that's on.
- It's good.
- That's on.
(dramatic hip hop music)
- My name's Aurian, I'm
from Fantazy Motorsports
in Thousand Oaks, California.
We're a custom automotive shop,
we pretty much do anything
from vinyl wraps and paint protections
up until audio and video.
Pretty much you name it,
we can make it a dream.
- So you really are the
guys who can pimp my ride?
- Exactly.
- [Eugene] Oo.
- [Keith] Look how sexy it is.
- [Aurian] We got a fish scale on there.
- A fish scale?
- Whoa, it's like it changes color
depending on where you are.
Whoa!
- So we have some
visions for Eugene's car.
We want to present him
with a magnificent car
that just screams I love my best friends.
- We want his car to remind him of us.
- Okay.
- [Keith] I really want my
face on the front of the car.
I want people to see Eugene
coming and think Keith,
like a monument of me on
the front, like an old ship.
- You want to be this,
this is what you're saying.
- Yes, I want essentially--
- Oh my God, is that an option?
- Yes!
- Essentially that, maybe even bigger.
- Our faces big, Try Guys' colors,
Try Guys mobile.
I want it to be loud,
bright, colorful, Try Guys.
Like racing stripes, did you
ever see the JoJo Siwa car?
- [Edwin] Man.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- [Ned] That's gonna be us.
- [Zach] And that's gonna be Eugene.
(laughing)
- Yeah.
- Alright guys, so we went ahead
and got everything you guys asked for.
- Oh you...
- [Together] Did Everything?
- I think, 99%.
I brought along Mina here,
one of our wrap specialists--
- How ya doing?
- At Fantazy Motorsports.
A few things over here I actually brought
if you guys wanna follow me.
- Oo.
- Oh, wow!
- Wow!
- Look at all these cuties!
- Look at this.
- We're gonna go head and
cut out those triceratops
and place them anywhere
we feel is necessary.
This is for you guys.
- Oh.
- Oh!
- You wanna go ahead and open it.
- Oh my God!
Yeah!
(ta-da music)
- He's gonna love this.
- So vinyl is flexible material,
It can actually go and
act pretty much as paint
but printed.
- So it's not paint?
- It is not paint, no, it is applied
almost like a giant sticker
or like a screen protector.
You can either do a graphic
design that's printed
based on a template you give us
or we can actually do
just one solid color.
You can actually have
leather, suede finishes.
So what we're gonna do is we're
gonna start with the sides
and the difficult parts first.
- Wow, it's perfect!
- So magnets in place.
- [Ned] We kinda want all in.
- [Aurian] Go ahead and
apply some masking tape.
The application process is
first it's the preparation,
that's the most important part.
Make sure there's no dust, grime,
or anything that can actually just be seen
through the vinyl.
(laughing)
What did we do the other video for?
- A car wrap can be seen a two things.
You could see as a protection
over the vehicle's factory paint
or you can actually see it
as something crazy and cool.
You can jazz it up a little
bit with a matte finish
or even a super high gloss
with a diamond sparkle in it.
It's become a very big
trend in the market lately
and it's the cheapest way and
the best alternative to paint.
Now that we've cleaned the vehicle
and we've gotten it ready,
we're gonna go ahead and
peal the backing out here.
- [Keith] It's like a
giant strip of duct tape.
- Oh, he's getting dimples
all over the place.
- That's okay.
- It's not a problem.
- Dimples are charming.
- Now, once you lay it on the car,
that's when you get your heat gun
and you actually go over the edges
and make sure you don't
get any stretch marks.
We're gonna pretty much
escape air out of the vinyl.
So I'm gonna go head and start heating,
the heat is gonna loosen up the material
and allow it to conform to the vehicle.
- [Together] Oh.
- One, two, three.
Great, right now we're
gonna take our thumb
put it in there.
Oh, yeah.
- [Ned] Oo, yeah.
- [Keith] Oh, it's not quite hot enough.
- [Aurian] Cool thing about
vinyl is it's memory oriented,
so we can take a piece,
we can punch through it,
it won't rip, it'll take
shape of your actual fist
and then you'll actually
go ahead and heat it
and it'll disappear, it'll come right back
to the way it was.
- [Keith] Wow.
- [Aurian] So, it's very cool.
- [Ned] It's kind of like doing
and arts and crafts project.
- It's so much like summer camp.
- Yeah.
- So now that the vinyl is stuck
and applied on the vehicle,
we're gonna go ahead and
cut in between the seam,
between the fender and the door.
- Okay.
Everyone shut the fuck up.
- Okay, you got this.
- I need to focus.
(low dramatic music)
- [Zach] We believe in you Ned.
- I said shut the fuck up.
- He's got a knife, he's got a knife.
(dramatically exhaling)
Bro, that was good, that was good.
- Wow!
What are we gonna do about the dents
and broken parts?
- We'll cover it.
- [Ned] Wow.
- With the triceratops.
Alright Zach, so we have
the easier part of things,
these are actually die cut,
so all they actually have to be done
is cut around the triceratops.
- Oh, so I don't even need to
worry about getting it right.
- You don't even have
to do half the things
that they're doing over there.
- [Eugene] If someone wants
to do a full custom wrap job,
how much, on average, would
you say that would retail for?
- Well, it does depend on
the vehicle and the graphic,
solid colors will start
anywhere from about $2800
to about $3500 for your average sedan.
The highest ticket was
probably about $65,000
and that was on an Audi A7.
- On an Audi?
How much does an Audi A7 cost?
- About $65,000.
(laughing)
Stick it on there.
- Gonna just tick it on
- Just stick it on there.
- Oh! (laughing)
- [Aurian] It's coming to life.
- Oo, okay, alright! (laughing)
Wow, that's great.
- There you go.
- One thing I know about Eugene,
he hates when things are neat and orderly
so we're gonna have things on this car
just a little, just a little off.
- When we look at cars and
we're driving our cars,
they represent who we are.
Some people, they don't really care,
it's something to get you
from point A to point B.
Other people who see it as a
representation of who they are.
- So what you're saying is when
this new version of my car is revealed,
it's going to be a
representation of my personality?
- Oh, you're gonna love it.
It's gonna say Eugene all over it.
- Great.
- I think we understand exactly where
you guys are trying to go with this,
we'll take it from
here, we'll get it done.
- You don't want us to
stay around and do more?
- It might take a while.
- So you want us to leave?
- I'd love you guys to stay
but the professionals
will handle it from here.
(determined rock music)
(dramatic drum beat)
- [Zach] Hey guys, how's it going in here?
- It's going well.
- [Zach] Where do you
want us to be placed?
- [Aurian] Keep walking a little forward.
- [Zach] Let's shuffle.
- [Aurian] A little forward.
- [Zach] You want to
do a countdown for us?
- Three, two, one.
Go ahead and look.
- Whoa!
- Whoa!
- Oh, yeah!
- Wow, look at that!
(hip hop beat)
- Now this is ready for a street race.
- [Keith] Wow, this is incredible.
- [Ned] How stupid.
- [Zach] How?
- It's like the outside makes
the inside look even better.
We are best friends, oh it fits perfectly.
- [Keith] Oh, oh
- Whenever I'm felling down,
whenever we're having just disagreements,
I'm just gonna look at
this car and remember
(laughing) we are...
- [Together] Best friends.
- Yes!
- Yes!
- Yes.
- [Keith] You brought our dream to life
and Eugene is going to
be so happy with this.
- [Aurian] Glad we could
make it happen, guys.
- Oh, get over here, oh my God.
- Thank you.
(dramatic drum beat)
- Hey Eugene, hey.
- Hi.
- Thanks for joining us, we're
very excited to show you--
- You guys look too happy,
you look too pleased with yourselves.
- Oh, we're proud of ourselves,
absolutely we're pleased with ourselves,
are you kidding me?
- [Ned] You're gonna actually like this.
- Before we show your
magnificent new ride,
your new whip, we've prepared a few words.
- Oh, God.
- Eugene, (romantic music) I love you.
And let this car be a
testament to our relationship.
- Oh, God.
- And prove that you can be
the Letty to my Dom any day.
- I'm not Letty.
- You're Letty.
- No, I'm not Letty.
- Eugene, I love you.
- Oh, God, guys.
- Let this car be a
testament to our relationship
and you can babysit Wes anytime.
- Eugene--
- No! (laugh crying)
- I love you and let this car be
a testament to our relationship--
- [Eugene] No.
- For I know that there are some times
you are not with us and
that pains you deeply.
So now with this car, we
will always be with you
in your heart and on your parts.
- Oh, God!
Somebody kill me now.
- We have been working
tirelessly for the past too day
to restore your car, to detail it,
to wrap it, to pimp your ride.
Are you ready to see?
- No.
- Introducing your new car!
- [Together] In Five--
- He's gonna be so happy.
- [Together] Four.
- We're going to make a monstrosity.
- [Together] Three.
- We're gonna make it safe.
- [Together] Two.
- I think they're gonna
give me a sexy ass car,
they know that I have to drive this.
- [Together] One!
Yeah!
- Oh no! (laugh crying)
Oh no!
Oh no!
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(sobbing)
- He's so happy, he's crying.
He's crying with joy.
- He loves it.
- [Ned] He loves it, he loves it.
- Oh, you guys.
- When we saw the look on Eugene's face,
(inspirational music)
it made me cry.
You know one of the
reasons that I do what I do
is to bring joy to the people that I love.
And when I can bring that
level of joy to Eugene,
that he's literally crawling on the ground
'cause he's so happy,
it's a beautiful thing.
- Oh dear God.
Why did you do to the inside like that?
- Well, I wanted it to be soft
so that Wes can feel comfortable.
- And you love tigers--
- And you could feel comfortable.
- Wild cats.
- Yeah, roar.
- We put a lot of money into this car
but the gift of surprising
a dear friend, priceless.
Some things I really want
to point out to you, Eugene.
- Oh my God, the spoiler.
- Spoiler!
- Look at that spoiler!
- You're gonna be fast
and furious in this ride.
- Today we changed the world.
We let Eugene finally have a ride
that was as impressive
and eye catching as he is.
- [Ned] Oh, you do look like Letty.
- I will fucking kill you.
- That is just what Letty would say.
What if we each leave a hand print?
- Oh yeah.
- [Keith] Oh yeah.
- Use our hands.
(laughing)
Come on in Eugene.
- [Keith] Come on in Eugene.
- Okay.
- The water's great.
- Oh, God.
- [Keith] Yeah.
(laughing)
- How do we look?
- [Crew Member] Good!
- Pretty good.
- There are hand prints.
- [Zach] There are hand prints.
- It's kind of like an artist's signature.
- Those are ours.
- Didn't that ruin the detail job?
- Yes.
- [Zach] Yeah.
- I know our audience
loves to watch me do things
I don't really want to do
like babysit Ned's baby
but I ended up loving his baby.
Or sit in Keith's lap,
but I already love Keith.
This surprise car makeover video
single handily the worst thing
that has ever happened to me
in my entire life.
And I was in the closet in
an Asian family in Texas.
(laughing)
(upbeat funky music)
I have to drive this every day,
I had to drive this home.
Just driving home, I got honked
at, people pointed at me,
they were taking pictures.
Someone actually gave me the
middle finger for no reason
and then through all of it,
they turn and they see me,
sitting in the driver's seat
and they think, wow, what a dick.
If you are a car brand that
wants to help me find a new car
I actually need to buy a new car.
That was part of the reason I
volunteered my car for this,
I do need a new car.
(upbeat music)
Oh, when will this nightmare end?
When will it ennnnnnd!

The End of Honda Reliability

Scotty Kilmer:

rev your engines here's a recall on the Honda Odyssey minvans again are being recalled
if you recall what I say about them
don't buy one they've had nothing the
problems engine problems transmission
problems especially with the automatic
transmissions well the 2018 to 2020
Honda Odysseys are being recalled two
hundred and forty one thousand of them a
lot of people out there with them they
have a wiring problem that can cause a
fire bad enough that the transmissions
broke all the time in them I had a whole
bunch of customers have to get new ones
on those things but now they got wiring
problems and they say that well if it's
rubbing they'll move it out of the way
and tape it over and if it's been
damaged they'll repair it you know I
mean even that sounds like a half-baked
effort to fix the thing turns out the
wiring going to a third row power outlet
may have been put in incorrectly when
they built the things in the first place
and then it chafes and shorts out now
owners aren't gonna be told until
mid-march this is February right now but
isn't that great you know they know
there's a problem they're gonna have a
recall but they're not gonna notify
anybody until March if I thought there
was a fire hazard somewhere I'd warn
people right away I wouldn't wait time
to tell them all these companies they
fight those recalls because they don't
want have to fix anything for free and
admit that they made problems it's just
ridiculous
I mean if they know there's a problem
they should be immediately recalled and
not be months from now when they decide
they're gonna tell you that there's a
problem from Scott if you own one of
those you might check the power outlet
wiring see if it's rubbing on something
see if it's starting to short out and if
your power outlet doesn't work they get
behind it the man they fix it right now
and not wait a month
Timothy says Scotty I'm curious about
courtesy when it comes to buying your
own car parts by my own parts is it
frowned to bring it to a mechanic and
have them do the labor it's better let
them do the whole job it's definitely
frowned upon by almost all mechanics for
various reasons one part of the way
mechanics make money is by making a
little bit of profit on the parts you
take an ad off you're gonna make a man
of course a lot of guys will just do it
if they're slow on business they'll
accept your parts but don't just charge
more labor she's gonna pay the same
anyways but the main reason is guys like
me frown upon it it's because one you're
assuming you diagnosed your car
correctly then you know what's wrong and
you brought the correct parts and did
you bring the correct parts I have had
customers in the past or regular
customers and they'd bring me parts that
they bought online guess what they
didn't fit or they were just completely
wrong and they had to be sent back so if
I got their cars taken apart it bought
it online what am I gonna let it sit
there on my driveway for a few days
while I wait free returns and get it
back now that's the one of the big
reasons mechanics frown upon it you
might not diagnose it right and you
might not get the right part either or
even worse you oughta bought the
cheapest part you could buy cuz you want
to save money right well that cheap part
might be junky what if it doesn't work
even though it fits on the same electronic
part then the mechanic is sitting there thinking did he diagnose it wrong is this part
good is it bad having bad parts as a
repair man's nightmare
so your best to let the mechanic handle
it cuz then if he gets the run part it's
his problem not yours
oh says afternoon scotty I got a question I'm
thinking about to use Dodge Challenger
with a v6 I like the look of the car and
I'm not driving like a psycho but I'm
worried the previous owner would beat it
I'm not a curse to the family any
stretch of the imagination but people
like the way those challengers look you
are looking at a v6 the real crazy people that
buy challengers they all get the v8 they
never would be seen dead with the v6 so
if you find one and it seems alright can
I get to a mechanic like me have him
check it out and if he says it's a
decent car it could be good don't pay
that much the challenges are the v6 a
very low resale value because everybody
wants the v8 but there is a less chance
of it having the heck beat out of it
with the v6 versus the v8
first car says Scotty I'm thinking
what's the best alternative toriel
Tacoma I want to spend six to eight and
I can't find a good Tacoma and this
price range yeah they're very hard to
find because people like them and if
they do saw him they know they're worth
a lot of money and they get a lot so in
that case I'd say look at Ford Rangers
and Nissan frontiers I know people can
say hey Scotty you don't like Nissan's
no I don't like Nissan's but the frontiers
are probably the best thing that
they make I got customers with them and
they're still decent little pickup
trucks are driving around it and there's
tons afford rangers out there look out
there and I mean you never know
now if you see a F150 it's a
bigger truck but I had a customer get a
great deal from older man who can't
drive anymore had sixty thousand miles
on and he got a good deal on it looked
like a brand-new truck so you never know
what you're gonna find when you start
looking hi hi 113 says do you think I'd
be fine to take my 97 saturn sl1
on a road trip the cars hundred ninety
one thousand miles road trips 260 miles
round trip I changed the oil recently do
you feel lucky movie highway mileage
I'm assuming it's highway miles it's
equivalent to 10% city so if you got 260
miles to the highway it's like on 26
miles stop and go in a city which you
wouldn't think twice about right it's an
old car I mean what is it 23 years old
now maybe the engine will blow up and it's
finally worn out well if it does you can
always just abandon it and take a bus
back if you want but I mean like I say
260 miles on highways like 26 miles to
stop and go traffic it doesn't really
hurt things so it runs good otherwise
why not you know the thing isn't worth
much and I'm sure if you bought it used
you didn't pay much for it so who knows
that could go quite some time sensible
to use the car like that as a knock
around work car and don't make a point
of taking trips with that something's
gonna break it might be stranded in the
middle of nowhere
Freddie an aunt says hey Scotty I'm
thinking of purchasing the 2009
Volkswagen Jetta with a standard tranny
I know you're not a fan of the brand but
it's a good idea to potentially buy now
the standard transmissions yes they're
more dependable but that's an 11 year
old Volkswagen Jetta Volkswagens are
money pits as they age all the plastic
crap on them breaks as they get all
cracks engine parts are plastic the door
handles are plastic another single
customer in the last two decades had
bought a vote swear you never bought
another one there are horrible cars in
the end
fun-to-drive zippy and all that get good
gas much but they're endless money pits
as they age if you like gambling it's a
2009 you didn't say what the price was
if it's really cheap it is a standard
hey maybe you can get a few years out of
it who knows but don't put any serious
money into that thing because they're
endless money pits all the Volkswagen
products man say scotty I got
an 07 honda with 127k
miles when I shift into any gear it makes
a loud noise should I do anything or
leave it alone all right here's what you
do which is contact Honda I had many of
my own personal customers with those
odyssey's get free transmissions because
their automatic transistors were garbage
they made it wrong they had all kinds of
problems pray they'll fix your
transmission if they don't I'd get rid
of thing as fast as I could because when
they make that loud noise eventually
it's gonna need a new transmission and
if you got to pay for it it's many many
many thousands but I've had so many
problems if you whine and gripe and look
up the recalls and look up the technical
service bulletins you might be able to
talk them and have given you a new
transmission on that thing because
they've had so many problems with the
automatics on that give that a try but
if they want you rev it fast or you gonna spend thousands and thousands on a
rebuilt transmission and they're crappy
transmissions and those you rebuild it
you got 125,000 out of this one you
won't even get that out of the rebuild
it's just yours fix it'll never last as
long mars says I got a 2017
Buick LaCrosse four-door sedan
front-wheel drive for eighteen thousand
nine hundred one owner $29,000 it's
clean should I buy it no run away from
it at that price they're not making them
anymore
it's a discontinued model it's a three
year old American car 18900 is
absolutely ridiculous they're not made
all that well as I said they're not even
making it anymore the thing has hardly
any residual value realized once a car
manufacturer isn't making cars anymore
and Buick the only thing they're doing
is SUVs they're not making cars anymore
the value of those cars goes down the
toilet if you could get it really cheap
like five six grand go ahead and take a
chance but that kind of price run away
they're out of their minds trying to get
that kind of money for a vehicle that
they don't even make anymore
Jenny Vegas 95 says Scotty I got a 2015
Audi a3 the a/c smells like chemicals
when I first turn on the car it goes
away after a minute I thought it might
be a coolant but I don't see any coolant
leaking out well you can get seepage you
got all kinds of things what you want to
do is figure out what the smell is
now we mechanics have sniffing machines
that could smell stuff I would stick my
refrigerant identifier in there turn on
if it started beeping it means it's the
a/c is losing refrigerant gas and that
can leak at such a slow level the a/c
might work for quite some time but
you're gonna smell it
now if it is coolant eventually of course it's
gonna start dripping somewhere now if
it's a slow drip and it takes a long
time what you do is you have somebody
put ultraviolet Leak dye into the
cooling system then if it is leaking in
the dash there's a drain hose for the AC
anything that gets in there I'll drain
out of there you look down there with
one of these UV lights and yellow
sunglasses if you see it's glowing in
there you'll know that yes the heater
core is leaking and it's just starting
to seep so it's not pouring out but
you'll see it they'll know you need a
new heater course Anthony batts assess
Scotty I got a 2001 toyota 4runner
the car runs excellent I was rear-ended
and the tailgate was smashed and
15,000 miles I think it's worth to be
repaired it depends and what it mainly
depends on is how bad the damage was
if the frame and stuff isn't damaged
it's the tailgate hey there's plenty of
junkyards you can get used parts from
I'm assuming you don't have collision I
mean probably if you had collision and
saddles nineteen years old they probably
totaled the thing look around you can
find you stuff go ahead and put them on
but if the frames bent and axles it's
our howling and stuff and that needs
replacing there now you'd say to you
time to get rid of it because it's
nineteen years old, so if you never want
to miss another one of my new car repair
videos, remember to ring that Bell

Here's What I Think About Buying a Mitsubishi Car

Scotty Kilmer:

Rev up your engines!
Mr Grape says, Scotty what do you think about
Mitsubishi are the new ones reliable and how
about the old ones, do you think the brand
will ever make a comeback,
ok here's the thing, Mitsubishi always made
somewhat cheaper cars, that was their thing,
they sold cars that cost less,
now if you don't mind a standard transmission
they can last a long time, I've had customers
get 200-300 thousand miles with the ones with
the standard transmissions,
but they make terrible automatic transmissions
and they break all the time and they still
do,
but if you want a cheaper car, and say you're
going to buy a brand new car and you're the
type of guy that buy a new car every 5 or
6 years,
you go out and buy a Mitsubishi you probably
won't have too many problems the first 5 or
6 years, go ahead and if you're going to buy
another one, there's nothing wrong with doing
that,
but if you're cheap like me, and you want
to buy a used car like I do and buy a 10-12
year old Toyota and then drive it for another
200-300 thousand miles you won't be happy
with Mitsubishi,
Steve Bait says, I have a 2000 Toyota Sienna
with over 200 thousand miles, the timing belt
has never been replaced should I replace the
water pump and tensioner and seals,
well if you're planning on keeping it a really
long time, yes that would be a good idea to
do, but at the same time, realize that is
a non-interference engine, and if the timing
belt ever breaks, nothing is damaged,
so if you want you can just wait and if it
breaks, tow it to a mechanic and have him
fix it, it doesn't hurt anything, but if you
want to have trouble free driving, yes I would
change the water pump and the seal and the
tensioner and the timing belt with that kind
of mileage on it,
but if you don't care and you just drive it
around town when it breaks you can just tow
it to your mechanic and have them do the job
then,
it will not hurt anything,
Eddy says, I'm working on a 1997 Dodge Ram
Van 2500 it has a belt tensioner that rattles
when it's on, but it's solid when it's off,
do I need to replace it or tighten something
up, replace the belt first, it could just
be a bad belt, when the belt is worn the tensioner
will go to as far as it can go until it can't
tighten anymore and then it's going to rattle
around,
it might just need a belt,
now if the belt doesn't fix it and it still
rattles, get a new tensioner and get an OEM
tensioner, don't go to a discount auto parts
store and buy the cheapest one you can buy
because those things, a lot of time they rattle
even worse than the one you had so, don't
go too cheap buying a tensioner if you need
one,
Abraham says, Scotty my car has recently been
displaying the check engine light and the
car would hesitate, based on this what do
you think it is,
ok I' not the great car mechanic that can
forecast the future,
check engine lights come on in your car if
means there's a trouble code set,
there are over 2,000 different trouble codes
it could be,
so the first thing you want to do is, go to
like Auto Zone if you don't have a scan tool,
you can buy a scan tool for like $20 now a
days, but if you don't go to Auto Zone, they'll
scan it, they'll give you a code, then you
go to my website, scottykilmer.com and to
go the ask scotty section and give the code
and I can analyze the code for you, but I
can't guess without having that code because
there's over 2,000 different ones and there's
no saying what it is without that actual code,
so if you never want to miss another one of
my new car repair videos, remember to ring
that bell!

So You Want an Acura/Honda NSX

Fitment Industries:

If there's been a car we've all wanted
at least once in our lives, it's this car.
It's the car that gets
confused with a Ferrari
by pretty much everyone.
It's the car that, for some reason,
has appreciated an astronomical amount
in the past five years because
that's just what cars
are doing this season.
It's almost the only car you'll see
with a 100,000 miles or more because
you could actually drive
these things religiously
and they wouldn't break.
They are the car.
That was, like, the
flippy floppy headlights.
It had a reliable motor.
A proper exhaust zone.
And it's still considered one of
the best cars you can buy, even
though they're 30 years old.
That's sad.
I'm Alex, AlexFI on Instagram,
and today, ladies and gentlemen,
we're gonna be talking about my
high school sweetheart of a car,
the Honda NSX.
(hip hop music)
(revving engine)
If you're just jumping in,
don't forget to subscribe and
hit the little bell button,
so we can take the YouTube
algorithm into our own hands.
That's all I got, actually.
Thank you very much.
And if you're looking for aftermarket
wheels, tires, or suspension,
be sure to hit up fitmentindustries.com.
Where we've got it all.
For your newly acquired NSX.
Or, if you just got an MR2
because those are the closest thing
that you can get to at the time.
Which is okay.
We don't judge.
The Honda NSX or as it's
name here in the U.S.A,
the Acura NSX is a two
seater, mid engine sports car
that was manufactured by Honda.
It's origins takes us
back to the year of 1984,
where Honda was being a little bit curious
like most kids in college
and wanted to try a way to compete with
the VN V8 Ferrari engine brilliance,
exotic thing that was
happening at the time.
There was all sorts of battles going on
between Ferrari and
Lamborghini and Porsche
and pretty much everybody overseas.
The small thing is, though,
is that Honda really didn't wanna
have their car just
randomly start on fire.
They wanted it to be weird.
Like, they want it reliable,
and they didn't wanna
charge an arm and a leg.
They just wanted to charge an arm.
They started by introducing
something called
the HPX, which was the Honda
Pininfarina Experimental.
But that acronym didn't
really make the cut.
The NSX would hit the showroom floor
and featured some beautiful design work
done by chief designer Masahito
Nakano and Shigeru Uehara.
It had all the good good,
with interior styling
from like an F-16 fighter jet.
Like pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.
It had influence and changes from
the one and only Ayrton Senna.
- You don't feel the speed, in a way.
You just don't feel the speed.
The car is so stable and so comfortable.
- When it was going through
it's final development stages,
which ultimately resulted in the car
actually being shipped
it's happy ass back.
It's reproduction sent more rigid
because he said the initial test run
felt a little bit, and I quote, "fragile".
- Ah, Fra-gile, that must be Italian.
- Soichiro Honda was personally involved
in the execution of this car as
the supreme advisor for Honda.
Pushing the company to become
the technological champion
like it was in decades past.
He would get as detailed
to stop a shipment
of NSX's on the U.S. port
because he didn't like
the variation of the Acura logo
that was on the car at the time.
He would then have them replaced,
the old emblem's destroyed
so that the car can meet his expectations
on how he wanted the car to be perceived.
Which is, in fact, pretty gnarly.
In terms of going all out,
Honda wasn't really pulling any punches.
They'd invest in over 25
billion dollars into this car.
Actually they didn't.
They only invested about 140 million.
Not so impressive now, is it?
Kind of a let down.
Doesn't seem like as much money anymore.
Let that sink in.
The car would be introduced with
an all aluminum body, a three
liter V-sick engine, V-tech.
What?!
It was awesome.
And an optional manual or
automatic transmission.
It had pretty much everything
an everyday driver car
could possibly want.
I mean, have you ever actually been
in a legitimate super car before?
Let me explain to you how actually painful
it is to do just about
anything in one of those cars.
This is really neat.
However, it's not easy to get in
if you're anything bigger than me
which is pretty much
like a 14 year old boy.
So, like, you get in and
you got, let me just,
you gotta, okay, hold on, let me just.
Oh God, my hair.
Okay, and...
Now, you're in.
Awesome.
I have about five inches of clearance
through the front windshield,
which is fantastic.
I can see absolutely nothing through the
six inches of side window that I have.
But I look really cool.
Now, if I wanna look behind me,
the great news is I can't see a thing
because there's glass
in the way and a wing.
Which means if I wanted to
look behind me, I can't.
The good news is, though, is
that if I'm looking to pass,
I can just look here, great.
I see a control module for the hood.
And over here, I have what looks like
the free version of a window,
and if I wanna get an
actual window that works,
I have to pay an additional DLC.
So, in terms of driving
this, you can't see a thing.
Now let's get out.
So I can just, let me just,
don't wanna scratch the head.
Oh, God.
Okay, let me just get out, watch the head.
We're good.
And then after all of
that, you have to do it all
like it wasn't painstakingly
difficult to get in and out.
Because if it looks like
you're having a tough time,
you're gonna look like
that one guy that was
trying to get out of a
Lamborghini in a gas station;
it was really hilarious and it went viral.
The NSX on the other hand
had practicality in mind.
With the vehicle's
ergonomics being built around
the driver being actually able
to see where it was going.
How awesome.
Even the long tail and the short nose,
the NSX would maintain a
beautiful weight distribution
with an all aluminum frame that would have
never seen before in the
world of cars, at the time.
Yokohama would even make over 6,000 tires
specifically for the
application of the NSX.
And a whole bunch of different models
to make sure it was what we wanted.
The double wishbone suspension would grace
the NSX for the fact that
it was perfectly paired
for the specifications Honda needed
to make a banger of a car.
This car was pretty much
perfectly crafted from the get go.
From the shifter to the iconic motor
that outpaced the Ferrari 328 at the time
in terms of displacement,
horse power ratios.
It had it's own quality control
on having a plant specifically built
for the production of the
NSX at the Tochigi Plant.
The 200 plant workers
could take as much time
as necessary to assemble
these state of the art cars.
Which, unlike most factory jobs out there,
if you've worked at one,
that just doesn't exist.
And NSX was the only car that
was really getting built.
Even through, like, the
welding and everything
and the rivets and all that stuff.
Everything was done exactly
how they wanted it to be done.
When the first gen got release,
it received a massive amount of publicity.
And although it never really took off
like a proper production car,
it really was never Honda's intention.
The car would receive a face lift
to ditch the pop up headlights.
Boo.
And also sent some improvements
to the engine, aerodynamics,
put in a three point two
liter and a few other items.
It would be discontinued in 2005
and would die away until it's revival
just about two-ish or so years ago.
The second generation,
while not much of a history behind it,
is way completely different.
It featured a twin turbo
three and a half liter
with some electric motor
goodness, a nine speed automatic
and some new materials to
make it a blast of a car.
However, just like some
of the other new cars
taking on the older legacy
cars, and what we know of them,
it didn't really just hit the mark
like the first generation NSX.
It's kinda like when you go Taco Bell.
Like, you're not mad.
You still got your tacos, you
still got your burrito box.
You just wish you would've spent
the extra five bucks and went
to the taco joint on the side of the road
that smells like exhaust fumes
because everything is just better there.
And you've gone there since you were five
and you know the dudes
that's gonna get you
the steak tacos with the cilantro
and the onions and the
red sauce is so good.
But we're not here to teach
you about the history.
Oh no, son.
We're here to help you decide on
if you actually want a
Honda-slash-Acura NSX
and if it's the appropriate
car for you there, bud.
So, you want an Acura-slash-Honda NSX.
Well set down your Honda hat
and grab your Mountain Dew,
because we're about to dive head first
on if these cars are actually
what you would want to
pick up 30 years later.
The first thing to remember is that
if you've managed to
snag a Honda NSX, just...
(clapping)
Good on you.
I am proud of you.
NSX's are inherently a bit difficult
to get your hands on.
Especially if you're on a budget.
The ones that are available
have a few quirks.
Most that you'll find will be affordable
are gonna be automatics.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But the car more
appropriately behaves with
the short shift feeling manual.
The rest were likely totaled
and all the other ones that
are manual and non-totaled
are gonna take you at right around
that 50,000 dollars mark,
especially right now.
That's usually the mark if you want an NSX
with about 100,000 miles.
Pricing, it's not going down.
So if you're on the fence,
I would recommend snagging
one now versus later.
You might be wondering,
"Hey Alex, how come a mediocre owned by"
"six previous people, 130,000 NSX is"
"going for 90,000 dollars?"
"Or 50,000 dollars?"
"Or 70,000 dollars?"
That is a great question, me.
And here's why.
The cars were almost
always properly driven.
Because of the fact that they were built
to be daily drivable, that's
what a lot of enthusiasts did
with these things when
they first came out.
They drove them.
They had no negatives, like a Ferrari
that had like the tin can
metal exhausts that fell apart.
Or the Lamborghinis that
required 15,000 dollar
tune up every other season
you drove it 300 miles.
It was a Honda that you could
see through while you were driving.
You could own it, and it could get
maintained relatively easy.
Like, it was just a car
that you could drive
and it looked like an exotic super car.
It was driven like a normal car.
The NSX is one of those cars that,
if it doesn't have any miles
on it, it'd be a shame.
The car itself can handle almost anything.
They're reliable.
They drive well.
They can be taken across the state
or country with minimal issues.
And everyone is still going to be
taking pictures of it.
Even if they're not a car person.
'Cause it looks like a Ferrari.
It looks like an exotic car,
and people think that it is.
Take the badge off and
nobody would be the wiser.
If you're looking to modify an NSX,
it all comes down to the
pockets my good friends.
Because you could do anything.
You want a super charge it?
You can do that.
You want a turbo charge it?
Sure, why not.
Wide body it?
Absolutely.
Wheels?
Yeah.
You're usually looking at some
Japanese high end wheels
for something like this.
Like TE 37s are in tons of these cars.
Or Weds Sports for the one pieces.
Or even NKS.
You may even find some German wheels
like BBS is hitting these cars as well
because the body style can make
pretty much anything look perfect.
Tires end up staying around like
the Toyo and Falken lineup
versus anything else.
So most people are running
moderate staggered setups.
But mostly Meaty's kind of boys
because they want it to keep
looking aggressive and mean.
Although Air Lift and Acura started
to get popular in these cars,
you'll still see quite
a few people running
BC coilovers or the
Fortunato's coilovers as well.
Which by the way, if you're looking
to pick up a free set of coilovers,
we have a t-shirt giveaway
going on right now.
You can pick a t-shirt,
gets you automatically entered in to win
and you get a really cool
shirt that has Godzilla on it.
Some of the negatives
of this car are the fact
that it's pretty hefty
financial investment
to get into one of these cars,
and you almost immediately have to throw
a bit more to update the look of the car.
It is still 30 years old.
They can carry quite
a bit of tax with them
and parts aren't getting
any easier to find.
The V6 isn't inherently speedy,
and it doesn't carry the same howl
as it's super car equivalent.
But it doesn't really need to
as long you're not expecting that.
The NSX is a car for an enthusiast
that wants a forever car.
A car that they've wanted to own forever,
and enjoy for more than
the occasional drive.
Because the Honda NSX is
a car you have to drive.
It's a car that demands your attention.
And the history that follows this car
is likely one of the most influential
stories in automotive history.
It was Honda's answer
to telling the world,
"Yep, bud, we still got it there."
"And if there's ever a time
you need us to come back,"
"we can give her a shot again."
So what would you do for an NSX?
Let us know in the comment section below
and let's try to keep it PG.
Actually, no.
The more I think about
that, the more I know
that would be a terrible
thing for you to do.
Instead, just let us know what you'd
like us to talk about next.
Also, we'll be heading to SEMA this year.
Again, for the third year.
It is so much fun.
So, let us know what you
want us to talk about.
You can drop us a DM or a comment
so we can start planning that out.
If you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires, or suspension,
be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com
I'm Alex, from Fitment Industries
and we will see you guys and gals later.
I almost lost my coffee.
Peace.

5 Cheap Luxury Cars That Fool People Into Thinking They're Expensive!

Vehicle Virals:

Hey guys Cristian here, and yes I'm back.
So there are many cars out there that continuously
fool people into thinking they are very expensive
to buy.
But the truth is, a lot of those cars are
actually pretty affordable, as in like cheap.
Today I'll show you 5 perfect examples.
And if this video gets 5K likes, I may consider
creating a part 2.
So right before I get into the 5 cars I want
to share something with you all that's going
save you lots of money on holiday shopping.
I mean who doesn't want to know how to save
money.
All you need is honey.
What's honey?
Honey is a free browser extension that automatically
looks all over the web for the best promo
codes when ever you're shopping online.
This means you effortlessly get the best deals
every single time on over 20,000 sites including
very popular ones like Amazon, eBay, auto
parts warehouse, Walmart, target, best buy
and more!
I actually have to buy a gift for my father,
here let me show how easy you can save money.
It's super easy to install.
just visit joinhoney.com/vehiclevirals click
add honey, confirm your selection and now
you'll automatically be able to save money.
I decided to get a few essential car cleaning
products for my dad.
At the checkout page, this dancing coin pops
up.
Hit apply coupons.
And now you wait while honey searches for
the best possible promo codes to save you
money.
And look at that, saved $25 for doing absolutely
nothing.
Guys there is no reason why you shouldn't
get honey today, it's free and installs in
just 2 clicks, plus imagine all the money
you or a loved one can save while shopping
for the holidays.
Get honey for free at joinhoney.com/vehiclevirals
that's join honey.com/vehiclevirals.
Now kets get on with the video.
First car on the list is the Mercedes CLA
250.
To most people, a Mercedes is a Mercedes,
which is why many may classify the CLA 250
as an expensive car to buy.
Well this specific model, that's not quite
the case, consider it an entry entry level
mercedes, that’s right, I used the word
entry twice.
This car’s sole purpose was to target younger
buyers while having a low enough price point
to compete with low class cars from other
manufacturers.
Actually was a pretty smart idea.
Get you into their ecosystem at a lower than
usual price point and next thing you know
it, you’ve upgraded into an actual C class.
Of course the CLA 250 has some comprises for
a Mercedes that once carried a brand new sticker
price of around 30K.
Instead of a RWD system like most Mercedes,
this car is FWD.
In fact it was the first FWD Mercedes offered
in the United States when it first released
for the 2014 model year.
IDK a FWD Mercedes, eh just doesn’t sound
right just like FWD BMW, yet they both offer
models like that.
The CLA 250’s interior is another giveaway
that corners were cut to accommodate a lower
price point, It doesn’t look bad, it’s
just that the materials and refinement you’d
normally find in a Mercedes aren’t quite
there, but that is expected.
Ride quality has been described as a bit too
harsh for car with Mercedes Badge by many
auto journalists and the performance numbers
you get out of the powerplant isn’t really
that exciting, well at least for car enthusiasts..
It’ a 2L 4 cylinder turbo engine that produces
208HP and 258lb-ft of torque.
Combine that power with the overall car weight
of around 3300lbs and A 0-60mph sprint happens
in 6.5 seconds.
Here’s the thing, the CLA 250 is not a bad
car to own, it definitely has its positives.
The exterior design looks absolutely stuning
in my opinion.
It has the right touch of sportiness and looks
much more expensive than what they sell for.
Gas mileage is a plus factor as well courtesy
of the 2L engine.
26MPG city and 38MPG highway which is very
impressive if you ask me.
And it comes equipped with a dual clutch system,
which is a big surprise for a car of this
price point.
You can easily find them used for around 11K
and ones with lower miles for around 12K.
You’ll end up with a relatively quick and
efficient car with a premium badge.
You won’t get air suspension or massaging
seats but you still get the Mercedes badge
that’ll have many thinking you paid much
more for the car.
Second car is the Chrysler 300.
While this car here won’t trick any car
enthusiasts into thinking it’s more expensive
than what it actually is, non car people now
that is a different story.
The unmistakable front end sort of represents
something it’s not.
A Rolls Royce?
Or maybe a Bentley.
Or even both.
And I don’t think that was done by accident.
The Chrysler 300 has always sold very well
over the years for a reason, By making this
model look more high end than what it really
is, it’s been able to survive in the market
for as long as it has.
It’s been around since 2005 then receiving
an update in 2011 and now it’s only one
out of 3 cars offered chrysler on their website.
I’ve personally driven a 300 many times,
I mean who hasn’t?
Every time I was in a situation that i needed
a rental car, Entreprise always provided me
with one of these.
First thing you notice about the 300 is that
it’s a big car.
You can see it and you can definitely feel
it when you’re driving.
It has a bit of a boat feeling, but the positive
of it being a large car is the amount of space
you get inside.
You can easily fit adults of all sizes in
the front and in the rear.
Imagine that, roomy rear seats, something
that seems like a dying feature nowadays due
to sloping exterior lines.
Road trips are comfortable, the ride is smooth
and very quiet.
As far as power goes, the 300 comes equipped
with 3.6L V6 that produces 292HP and 260lb-ft
of torque which is more than enough for most
people.
Sometimes you snag a steal and find a 300
S or 300 C that comes equipped with the more
capable hemi powerplant.
A 5.7L V8 that produces 363HP and 394lb-ft.
But if you go that route just prepare for
fuel efficiency to take a major hit.
Overall if your looking for a cheap way to
get into luxury well the Chrysler 300 can
be a good choice.
It’s packed with a ton of features you’d
normally wouldn’t get for the price, the
muscular exterior design resembles an executive
level car and if you debage it, you may fool
a bunch of people when out on the road.
Reliability wise, eh it’s not that good.
people always say you’ll never forget your
first chrysler because for most it’s normally
their last because of how unreliable than
can be.
Which is probably why you can probably find
them for cheap second hand.
I was able to find 2015 models for around
a little under and a little over 10K.
Third car on the list is the Genesis G70.
Okay so this car here is not necessarily cheap
in price but hear me out.
It definitely looks much more expensive than
what it goes for even if it is an extension
of the Hyundai brand.
Let’s call it attainable or affordable rather
than cheap.
The genesis badge alone fools just about anyone
that it’s some sort of an exotic brand cough
cough bentley, and all the features that come
equipped rival those found on more popular
german luxury cars like the BMW 3 series,
Mercedes C class and Audi A4.
And unlike those cars which are commonly seen
on the road, the G70 can probably attracts
much more attention.
I mean Genesis in general doesn’t have much
brand awareness among the general population.
They only offer 3 cars at the moment and no
SUVs or trucks.
They are the G70 which is all new for the
Genesis brand, the G80 which was formerly
known as the Hyundai Genesis and the G90 which
was known as the Equus.
The G70 is a sweet looking car in my opinion
and where you can really see it’s prestige
is on the front end with that massive grill,
very unique bumper design and that very distinctive
badge.
The interior is equally as impressive, quality
materials used throughout and laid out nicely.
As far as performance goes you can get the
G70 in two different variants.
A 2L turbo version that produces 252HP and
260lb-ft.
Or a 3.3L twin turbo V6 that produces 365HP
and 376lb-ft, it’s the same one used in
the Kia Stinger GT, fun fact the entire G70
uses the same platform at the Stinger, which
is why looking at it from the side you can
see some resemblance.
The G70 just focuses a bit more on luxury
while the Stinger GT leans more towards sportiness.
But don’t get me wrong, the G70 can be sporty
as well especially if you have one with the
sport package installed which includes brembo
brakes, a sportier exhaust, 19inch wheels
wrapped in pilot sport 4s michelin tires and
even a traditional 6 speed manual transmission.
You heard me right, a traditional 6 speed.
Gotta love what the Koreans are doing with
their cars, once known for cheap and rather
unreliable cars, now are actually producing
some quality ones.
I think Hyundai did a good move by serating
Genesis as it’s own brand in 2015 because
let’s be honest badges matter to people
more than they should.
You can find a Genesis G70 for around 29K
and while that may sound like a lot to many
people, on the road it can pass off for a
car that is worth twice that price.
4th cheap car on the list is the Maserati
Ghibli.
Now this one is a real shocker.
We are talking about a car that has depreciated
by more than 75% in just 2-3 years.
That honestly has to be a record.
And even though the Ghibli is considered an
entry level Maserati, it still has a starting
price of around 71K.
And now you can find them for well under 20K
second hand!
Of course there is a reason for that.
High Maintenance cost and poor reliability!
It’s sad because many people already know
this about Maserati cars which is why you
can easily find them at such a low price.
Funny story, A buddy of mine went to go look
at one recently.
2015 with around 50K miles selling for just
25K.
Keep in mind he was driving a Toyota Camry
at the time.
I told him don’t do it, unless they offer
him a good deal on an extended warranty either
that or that the dealer can prove that all
the major services have been performed.
To make a long story short, he didn’t listen
to a word I said and purchased the car on
his terms.
2 days later, guys two days later, the engine
light was bright as hell, followed by the
brake light, the car started to misfire and
shake, the pads were low, the rotors were
warped and now my friend has pay 10K out of
pocket to fix everything.
That’s almost half of what he paid for the
car!
Anyways let’s talk about some positives
about the Ghibli.This a businessman car, Driving
one of these will get you lots of attention
and compliments, I mean after all it is a
Maserati even if it is an entry level one.
Very few cars at this price point can attract
as much attention.
Another positive thing that really stands
out about the Ghibli is the exhaust note.
Maserati absolutely perfected this on their
cars.
I guess you can partially give credit to Ferrari
for assisting them with the engine.
The base version one and the S Q4 variant
are turbocharged V6 engines, the lower spec
one produces 345HP and 369lb-ft while the
S one produces 406HP and 404lb-ft.
If you want others to believe you just received
a promotion at work well then get a Ghibli,
but remember you’ll be taking a risk when
it comes to reliability.
But hey some would rather gamble to have a
more exciting car.
Like me!
5th and final car is the Cadillac ATS. first
launched in 2012 as a smaller and more affordable
and some would say a more fun size alternative
to the CTS.
Sadly it didn’t get much attention though
because of the big spotlight the CTS had on
it.
Auto journalist loved the ATS for the most
part, especially when they had a chance to
drive the AST-V.
So why didn’t it sell well?
Let’s put it like this, Cadillac aimed directly
at BMW’s 3 series playing field a market
that is so exclusive and hard to compete in.
On top of that it seems like Cadillac in general
has been tanking over the years and they simply
aren’t what they used to be.
Their push to gain the trust and attention
of younger buyers seems like a failure.
Many still think Cadillac cars are only driven
by older people.
Reliability is also a concern.
They are among one of the autobrands that
always tend to place towards the very bottom
of most dependability lists mainly due to
bad electric failures.
I’ve personally like cadillac.
I was a big fan of the Escalade growing up,
and I’m also a fan the bodystyling of the
CTS and ATS The lines and angles are so unique
and they really do separate themselves from
what seems like copy paste designs used throughout
the luxury segment.
There are many engine variants available from
2012 through 2019, but the ATS’s I was able
to find for hte most affordable price from
years 2015 was the 2L 4cyl turbo variation.
It produces 272HP and 295lb-ft of torque making
it a pretty capable car performance wise.
Best part is that you can find them for around
16K which is more than 50% less than what
their sticker prices once were.
Cadillac discontinued them back in 2018 so
you won’t find them new anymore, but why
go new when you can save all that money getting
them used.
Remember guys 5k likes and I'll create a part
2.
As always thanks for watching, till next time.
.

Here’s Why You Need to Buy a Toyota FJ Cruiser

Scotty Kilmer:

it's time for show-off Sunday, where
everyone has a chance to show off their
own car and here's this week's winner,
I needed to get a new car and I really
didn't like the idea of driving off the
lot and having my car immediately
depreciate, and that's when I came across
the FJ Cruiser I was looking for some
that was incredibly reliable was made
with common model parts, the FJ is made
with 4runner Tacoma and Tundra parts, so
they're easy to get, it's very unique
it's fun, and it really retains its value
because they last forever
which explains why they've been going up
in value since they left the North
American market in 2014 and the
worldwide market in 2018, they've
actually been appreciating and after
having it for about a month I can see
why, thankfully I was able to find one
with only 10,000 miles on it, and it's
practically brand new,
it's unique it's over the top and I love it,
thanks to Scotty Kilmer for inspiring
me to buy a used truck, in 2007 the FJ
Cruiser debuted at the Detroit Auto Show
as a concept vehicle, Toyota never
intended on manufacturing the FJ cruiser
but it received so much attention that
the normally risk-adverse Toyota Motors
took a chance, and decided to
mass-produce it, the FJ Cruiser has its
roots in two Toyota's most iconic trucks,
the fj40 Land Cruiser and the prado Land
Cruiser, both renowned for their
reliability their off-road capability
and just absolute durability, and to
retain this they built the FJ cruiser in
the prado plant in Houma Japan and by
Hino Motors, where they also used the
body-on-frame design and the suspension
of the parado land cruiser on the FJ
the FJ was actually designed and tested
in Southern California which makes sense
it's feels like it belongs here, it's
really great for weekend activities it
excels on the sand gravel and on the
dunes, but it makes for a really good
daily driver as well it's incredibly
safe, and the off-road capabilities can
deal with the terribly maintained Los
Angeles roads, another great thing about
the FJ is just how versatile it is, and
how many modifications are available to
fit all of that versatility depending on what
you want to do with it
and again Toyota did something a little
against character, the company tried
something they had never tried before,
which is during the design phase they
invited in aftermarket parts makers and
accessory makers to come in and take
measurements, so that the aftermarket
parts would be available immediately
upon release of the FJ, and this has
really created a very large market in
modifications, there if you don't like
something about the FJ you can change it
as an homage the FJ cruiser has a
headlight and grille assembly that is
the same as the one that was on the fj40,
which was originally designed to
resemble the eyelets of a samurai
warrior mask as it was built initially
as a military vehicle, another
interesting note about the FJ is that
it's the only model in Toyotas fleet
that actually has Toyota spelled out
across the grille as opposed to having
the Toyota emblem, the hood scoop is
completely non-functional but hey it
looks cool
the FJ also has a very angled windshield
much like the fj40 Land Cruiser and
there are three wiper blades, one of the
downsides of this setup as far as the
angle of the windshield is that small
rocks and gravel might kick up and
pretty much every FJ owner I've talked
to has had to replace their front
windshield if not once several times in
there and they're not cheap, FJs
come standard with a roof rack, it's a
really cool looking roof rack, but
unfortunately it creates a lot of cabin
noise along with the very angled front
windshield and it's fairly useless, if
you're doing any serious camping or over
landing you'll want to get an
aftermarket roof rack, the FJ is a kind
of a four-door, it's really a two-door
with two smaller or suicide doors really
not convenient for backseat passengers
especially if you've got family or kids
but they look cool and they swing out
really far if you're in a tight parking
spot which you usually are in the FJ, unless
you're off-road or fielding a river
which you can because the seats are
water resistant, the floorboards are all
plastic allowing for very easy cleanup,
the FJ is actually designed to handle up
to 28 inches of water with a lifted air
filter and a body designed to
push water away, Akio Nishimura the lead
engineer of the FJ said the plastic
might look cheap but it's way easier to
clean up in the end, the FJ comes with a
traction control off button, a rear diff
Locker and the a track control which is
really all you normally need, the
four-wheel drive controls are manual the
engineers really wanted you to have the
feel of being in a four-wheel-drive
vehicle as opposed to going with the
electronic system, and you'll notice the
dummy buttons on the dash which are for
modifications, light bars etc, the FJ also
has a 115 volt 400 watt power inverter
which is great for camping and power
tools, the Toyota factory radios are
pretty good, it's a six disc CD changer I
mostly used the Bluetooth but it's got
some good sound to it, there is a gauge
for rock crawling that I have
no idea how to use, an outside
temperature gauge that I also don't know
how to use cuz I live in Los Angeles, and
an
illuminated compass, the driver has his
own glove box in the FJ Cruiser, which
actually is good because there's no
storage in the FJ so I'll take what I
can get, apparently a lot of the fj's
came standard with a sat-nav unit and
that's where it's at so you could keep
an eye on the road and reference to your
location, at first I thought wow they
just didn't have a lot in 2012 you know
it's really sparse and simple in here
and then I see stuff like an auto
dimming rearview mirror and a backup
camera and I realize the other things
were actual choices they made, Toyota
long before it became popular and other
similar kinds of trucks, they put a
inverter in the back and you know it's
great for camping a lot people use them
for refrigerators but
it's just not enough space back there
for more than two people on a weekend
trip, if you have a family it's not the
ideal vehicle for road trips etc but
with these two guys it's just the right
size, in 2008 Toyota launched the trail
teams edition of the FJ cruiser, only
2500 will be manufactured each model
year, containing a Toyota Racing
Development components such as 17-inch
alloy rims, and Toyota Racing Development
brakes
Bloustein sport-tuned shocks, rock rails
a skid plate running the length of the
undercarriage and various other bells
and whistles to increase the off-road
performance of the vehicle even further,
for the trail teams edition Toyota
ditched the iconic white hood that
you'll see on most FJ cruisers and
painted the trail team models one solid
color, each year a specific custom color
2012 being radiant red, and adding those
accents to the seats and in the 2012
edition is the only Edition to have the
accent on the steering wheel
they also blacked out several components
like the mirrors and body trim pieces
when I purchased the FJ it had had the
Bluestein shocks removed Fox 2.0 shocks
installed with a coil over and
two inch level and lift, the FJ Cruiser
is powered by Toyotas v6 4 liter
variable valve timing engine, which puts
out about 239 horsepower at 5200 RPM and
271 foot-pounds of torque, in the city
you get about 17 miles a gallon, on the
highway about 22, it's not as as bad as I
would have thought it would be,
I've had other SUVs that got
far worse than this, it's a fairly
efficient engine and as everyone
knows it's very very reliable and
hopefully will last quite a long time
the FJ Cruiser is a really unique
vehicle, so there's no wonder it created
a unique enthusiast community around
them, you can find a really great group
at FJ Cruiser forums.com where there
are people all over the world who own an
FJ and get together to help each other
out, thanks again to Scotty Kilmer for
having me on his channel allowing me to
show off my new to me
2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser trail teams
edition
well that was this week's video and
remember to have your car video
highlighted here on my channel check
this out
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