[♪ rock music playing SUN처럼기기를 맞이다 시리
Welcome to Botch's Offroad.
Join us as we talk about everything from gear reviews to trail stories, tank camping to
rock landing, and everything to do with the outdoors.
Today's show is pretty different.
Our guest doesn't go wheeling every weekend.
He doesn't have any crazy trail stories, but he has seat time and more off-road vehicles
than any of us combined.
We are very excited to welcome Zach from Shooting Cars onto the pod.
Thanks for having me.
How's it going, Zach?
Looking forward to it.
Doing well.
Yeah, yeah.
I figured you'd be a pretty fun one to interview.
I hope I live up to it.
I actually have, I don't know how interested you guys would be, but I actually have a Tacoma
trail hunter in the driveway right now.
And can I, if I text you a video, would you be able to play the sound through the podcast?
I think Alex could edit that in.
I could edit it in.
Let me see if I could send it to you.
I know androids and apples sometimes don't play, but I put a microphone on the snorkel
and it makes some pretty good turbo noises from the factory, which I was pretty happy
with.
Okay, yeah.
You could send it to me on Messenger.
Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
I was about to say, because recently everyone's been trying to figure out if what they've
been hearing is actually real audio or just people putting turbo noises over the audio
clips.
No, I promise you it's real.
It's kind of faint inside, but I have a magnetic microphone that I put on the snorkel itself
and it's pretty wild.
Let me see if I could find the clip.
It's too large for messenger to send.
Oh, that is so dumb.
Okay.
Well, I'll find a way to send it to you.
Maybe get at it in post or something like that.
Google drive would work.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
We can figure that out in the podcast.
I don't want to jam it up, but it's real.
Editor Alex coming at you.
I got the audio recording from Zach was shooting cars.
I am going to put that here and then we'll get back to the interview.
Yeah, they aside from what is the engine and transmission problems people have been having,
but they're pretty slick looking trucks, man.
So the trail hunter that got dropped off this morning, it's pretty cool.
I'll send you pictures in the Google drive as well.
It has an integrated light bar in the front grill that only comes out if you turn your
high beams on, which is pretty cool.
It has fog lights that are led that you can actually change the color of.
So there's a button where you could do orange or white LEDs, yellow or white.
The land.
Yeah, same thing.
Yeah.
Ambers built in Ambers.
That is sick.
It's got a bunch of rigid industries stuff on it and it's really cool.
I'll send you pictures, but yeah.
So you see you've been in the new Broncos.
You've been in the Jeeps, all of them.
Man, how many cars?
Because last time I when I saw you last, you were hitting episode 600.
Where are you at now?
I think we're just past 1600.
Jesus, dude.
So yeah, I've reviewed over 1600 cars, which I mean spans the oldest car I've done is a
1919 and the newest car is obviously a 2025.
So it spans all different kinds of cars.
It's not strictly off road, but it's a lot of off road cars, a lot of classic cars, little
roadsters.
I mean, what have you so but yeah, obviously here to talk about off roading stuff, which
I don't have the most experience with, but I love talking to people that actually do
know what they're talking about because it's a lot of fun.
Oh dude, we can talk about anything.
We were an off road podcast in name only.
Yeah.
So see, what was the first video I saw from you?
It was the SVT contour that you did up in Big Rapids.
Oh yeah.
You know, I just told a story about that car.
I think on another podcast, the collector car feed podcast, that is one of two videos
I've ever made where I was severely hung over in the video.
I think I took two cold showers that morning and I was like, oh crap, I got to film this
SVT contour because all my friends went to Ferris State University in Big Rapids.
And so and it's a huge automotive school.
So the night before my buddy was like, hey, I have this SVT contour.
You should review it tomorrow.
And I was like, cool, gotcha.
Let's do it.
And then the night progressed and I forgot about it and woke up in the morning and he
was like, hey, we still get to film the contour.
And I was like, oh no.
This is editor Alex coming at you.
We have a very brief loss of connection right here.
It happens again a little later on.
I'm not really sure what caused this first one, but you know, yeah, we'll get back to
it.
Oh, he's back.
I could hear you that whole time.
I don't know what happened.
That was weird.
Weird.
Apology.
Yeah.
You have to edit stuff.
Oh, you're good.
I don't mind.
It was actually really funny because you post or you film that video while I lived in Big
Rapids and there's a small part where I'm 95% sure I see my truck.
Really?
Yeah.
That's awesome.
You know, that happens every once in a while.
Someone will be like, hey, you filmed this on my street and I have to go, oh, okay.
It's very weird how small the car world becomes.
I think because I had a civic sigh back then and I can't remember.
Did you email me about it?
I did.
Was it an EP3?
It was.
I remember this email.
I remember that.
And then I think I reached back out and then I think that's when you had the Quad 442,
right?
Yep.
Okay.
Gotcha.
Because you know what's funny?
I was just thinking about that.
I just filmed my first EP3 probably three months ago and I thought about your email and I was
like, man, I never followed up with that guy in Big Rapids, but it turns out I actually
did.
You did?
Yeah.
That's funny.
Yeah.
I really miss that little car, man.
That was an awesome little car.
You know, it's an unloved generation of the SI.
I really, really loved it.
The one I drove was pretty beat up, but even it, that's the nice thing about Honda's.
Even when they're, they have the snot kicked out of them, they're still so fun.
And that just can't be said about American cars.
I don't know.
I've seen some beat up Mustangs that are just so fun.
Okay.
Mustang's fair.
I was thinking more like an 02 Cavalier.
If it gets the snot kicked out of it, that is a dog.
No, but yeah, the EP3, one of my favorite memories was we got a really big snow storm
and I had a truck, but for whatever reason, I decided to take the EP3 out and I would
put it in first and get up to third gear and then just throw it in reverse on the ice and
do a pit remove.
That's awesome.
I love those things.
Just it didn't care.
I could just beat on it and it was just happy and kept going.
Man, it's just something about Japanese.
Same with Toyotas, as I'm sure you guys know.
I mean, older Toyotas, they just, they take an ass kicking and it's, it's nice.
It's one of the best parts of the car.
Yep.
Whenever we actually get to get you in the seat of mine, you'll see it's had the shit
kicked out of it, but she just keeps going.
I'm excited for it.
I need to come up to Michigan and we need to, we need to film something soon.
Hopefully maybe in the spring when the snow has passed and it's not absolutely miserable
to be filming.
Dude, come up in the snow when it's absolutely miserable.
We'll do some snow wheeling.
Like right now.
It's actually, is it snowy up there?
Oh, dude, where are we?
Oh, wow.
Oh geez.
That's why our third co-host isn't on.
He realized he was out of diapers at the last minute.
Oh geez.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude, we got to definitely got to do that because we tried once and my lower ball
joint failed.
I remember, cause you were coming through Illinois if I remember correctly, right?
Yeah.
We're, we did a like 13 or 1400 mile trip and just happened to be going down pretty
close to you.
And I was like, Hey man, in the middle of this, would you like to do a quick review?
Yeah.
And then like an hour later you're like, well, and it was just a picture of the car on the
ground.
And I was like, Oh, that's not good.
We were only like 30 or 40 miles from you at that time.
Yeah.
If I remember correctly though, I think something came up that day, which, so it all ended up
working out.
I think like someone in my family came up, I had to go to my grandparents for some reason
and check on them.
And so it all like ended up working out.
Cause like I would have been off filming and not gotten the text message or whatever.
So yeah, we'll, we'll definitely set something up again.
Um, because I still haven't done a third gen forerunner.
It's the only forerunner I haven't done.
I keep watching you post like all your forerunner videos.
I'm always like, man, still not a third gen.
Well and I'm super excited because I got the privilege of being invited to the fifth gen
reveal.
Is that the fifth gen?
The new one?
Sixth gen.
Oh, is it sixth gen?
Oh geez.
Sixth gen, yep.
Sixth gen for Tacomas.
Right.
So Toyota is actually flying me down to San Diego in January to go drive the new forerunner
before it's released.
Dude, we gotta get you up here to do the third gen before then.
Okay.
Yeah, we could definitely set.
I haven't planned out my January yet.
But I know that trip is January 21st.
So I could get some seat time before that.
It'd be cool to release the Tacoma Trail Hunter, the third gen and the sixth gen all like together.
I think that'd be kind of cool.
And you could honestly do two third gens because I've got that almost OEM one too.
Yeah.
I would love to do that and then just probably hold on to the Haggard one for a couple of
weeks or months and then put that out separately as this sort of Grinch style video.
Oh, my daily being called Haggard.
Well, you sent me one that was real chopped up.
Oh, the crawler.
Oh, yeah.
That one's all cut apart.
No, I'm talking about like, yeah, I've got, so I've got a silver one and a black one.
I think I sent you a picture recently.
So I've got those two for you to do a review on, but the blue one, the crawler, we just
tore that one apart.
That's what I was thinking of.
I thought that was your daily.
And I was like, is that not Haggard?
No.
There you go.
I just sent you a picture of my daily on text message.
Okay, gotcha.
Yeah.
That blue one, man, that thing was so ratchet.
Like, don't get me wrong, the dude built it well.
It's got long travel.
Everything's been beefed up, lockers front and rear, twin stick.
I mean, it had all the stuff, but he just didn't care about it.
Yeah.
Man, I, the amount of time, if I had a dollar for every car reviewed where it was a nice
car, but the owner just didn't care, man, I wouldn't have to make YouTube videos anymore.
I swear.
Like the one that sticks out to me is the 350Z that you reviewed.
Oh God, which one?
Oh, you've done more than one?
Oh yeah.
Well, I did a 07 convertible, 07 HR, and I did an 04 Nissan 350.
Jeez, that's coming up on seven years ago, eight years ago.
Maybe that's the one I'm thinking of.
I also did a Nismo, but the Nismo had like 30,000 miles on it.
So I think that was the 04.
Yeah, that was a high school friend.
It was, I think he had a Pokemon shift knob, if I remember correctly.
Yeah.
I mean, that was like, that was a quintessential high school car.
It was plaster dipped.
It had obnoxious seats, obnoxious shifter.
Yeah.
But there have been cars that have been way worse than that.
I reviewed a car that a guy was actively living in.
Like that was his only domicile was one of the cars.
What was it?
I don't want to out the guy with the video, but it was an older, older car.
Like it was a 1970s to 80s car.
And it was actually up in Detroit and it just had a bunch of laundry in it.
And I was like, all right, this is weird.
And he met me at a park and then, which was fun.
Like I had people meet me in public all the time.
Like I get it.
Like, you know, meeting a guy off the internet, inviting him to your house, you know, right
off the rip is kind of weird.
So it's pretty common to meet people in public.
So I was like, okay, sure, whatever.
And then he ended up emailing me a couple months later and he was like, Hey man, like,
you know, thanks for making the video because that was my living situation.
And I was like, Oh geez.
Okay.
So he was like, I have an apartment now and he has a job now and all that stuff.
So yeah, I mean, I have reviewed the gamut of cars.
What's always been unique about your channel to me is, you know, regular car review, maybe
not so much him, but like that dude in blue, they're always these almost, I don't want
to say perfect examples, but very exceptional examples of whatever he's reviewing.
Whereas with you, you don't care.
You're reviewing anything and get your hands on.
And we see some really cool stuff because of it.
Yeah.
It, you know, I don't limit myself to any shape or condition.
Obviously there've been a handful of cars that I've turned down for safety concerns.
I literally drove an E 30 BMW where the, the transmission was held in with self tappers.
It was non registered.
It wasn't insured.
And the springs had been removed and replaced with hockey pucks.
Oh, it was, it was bad, bad, bad.
And funny enough, I actually ended up doing that review, but ever since then I'm like,
all right, I gotta have some type of base level here.
So like, I always tell people like it has to be registered and insured.
It has to be like a legal vehicle unless we're on private property, which I've done some
videos on private property.
But yeah, I mean, my thinking is that I'll review the crappy version now and the good
version will come later because nine times out of 10, I will post a video of a car that's
in terrible condition.
Exhibit A, I did a Chrysler LeBaron convertible and this car, I mean, the seats were supposed
to be tan.
They were black.
I remember this one.
There was, it was red.
The, the top didn't work.
The windows didn't work.
It was awful.
I released that video that night.
This guy who ended up living a town over from me emailed me and he said, I can't believe
you would review that trash, that garbage.
That was a sin to LeBaron's.
I have this like 40,000 mile teal LeBaron, like come drive this one.
So then I did a review of this like really low mileage, like factory clean LeBaron out
of the crappy LeBaron video.
So that usually ends up happening.
So I'm not too worried about the condition.
And there's a lot of times that that's part of the story too.
I drove a 1964 Cadillac ambulance that literally had sat in a field since the nineties.
They put some ether in the intake, got it to fire over and then called me up.
And the next day I drove it.
Like it had been sitting in a field for 20 years, the day before I drove it.
And that was cool.
There was active moss growing on the rear tailgate, but that's part of that car's story,
you know?
So stuff like that.
Yeah.
It's like I said, that's what really to me sets your channel apart.
That and your little video documentary things.
Those are pretty spectacular.
Thank you.
I love doing them.
It's really fun for me because I just have that kind of personality where like if I learn
about something, I just dive into it one night.
And a lot of those scripts I end up writing in one night, but it's just like six hours
of me just like researching and reading books and all this stuff.
But they're just, they're a lot of work to put together.
Oh, I believe it.
But they're a lot of fun.
They're really rewarding as well.
I will say your Jeep duck and Jeep wave episode, we had Jeep ducks way before that situation
in Canada.
Really?
So back in, see, I had my TJ in 2017, 2016 and 2017.
And we played a game called Duck Duck Jeep, where you'd see a Jeep.
It was mostly on the rslash Jeep page.
You'd see a Jeep, you'd put the duck on there and they were it.
There were maybe 500 ducks and we passed them around the community.
Gotcha.
Huh.
But I, yeah.
That history is just so twisted for some reason.
Maybe I came from a different timeline.
Maybe because I couldn't find any reference to, I searched for like, it always makes
me laugh because I searched these old forum posts and it's just like all like image not
found photo bucket images that are not found.
And it's just like searching, searching, searching.
And I couldn't find a reference older than 2020.
I was looking too.
Maybe you were from a different timeline.
That's so funny.
Yeah.
If I go to rslash Jeep, maybe I can find something.
Yeah.
And please send it my way.
The interesting thing about that, that actually happened since I posted that video.
It happened, oh God, maybe two weeks ago.
The boyfriend of the girl who started the Jeep thing up in Canada actually DMed me.
And he was like, thank you so much for doing the video and speaking light because the girl
actually passed away this summer.
Right.
Who had started it.
And so he was like, oh, thank you for the kind words.
Like it would have meant a lot to her.
And then thank you for the video.
So it's a really cool, again, small world moment where I was like, oh wow.
Like it actually reached like the people that, you know, quote unquote started it, which
was really cool.
Yeah.
That was, it was really sad that she passed away, especially since she reinvigorated something
that I was pretty fond of way back when.
Yeah.
100%.
Yeah, we can talk off air, but I have the guy's contact info.
If you guys would like to try to get him on the podcast to talk about what she was like
and, and sort of more info in that story, I can definitely pass that along.
You know, that could actually be a really cool episode.
I know we've got a couple of Jeep listeners that would appreciate it.
Yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
After this, just remind me and I'll see if I can grab his, his contact info.
Make sure you ask him first.
I don't want to just, yeah, no, 100%.
Yeah.
I wouldn't have you just cold call him or whatever it is.
Cause people do that to me all the time where they're like, Hey, this guy has cool cars.
You should ask him to review it.
And I'm like, well, like who, like, does he know who I am?
And they're like, no.
And I'm like, okay, cool.
So I'm just cold calling this, you know, 80 year old guy that has a secret car collection.
Very, very cool.
Okay.
So on a little different note, I got to know how did you get started working with dealerships?
So it was all kind of a natural evolution, right?
So I started filming cars.
Well first of all, I started building cars.
I had old RX sevens or I had an old RX seven at the time.
It was only one at that point.
You still have one, right?
I don't anymore.
I sold it 2022.
Yeah.
I sold it at the end of 2022 and I miss it dearly, but my life right now just isn't open to a
project car.
That's like the icon of your channel.
I know.
And spoiler alert, the intro, this is a world exclusive.
The intro of my reviews for 2025 actually is the sound of my RX seven.
Because that's why I started my channel with.
But it was costing me five, six, $700 a video just to make one video.
Because it was, to do the cooling system, well the radiator was 350 and all the coolant
was 100 and the new piping was 200 and finding all these vintage parts.
And it was so hard to make a single video.
And I was a high schooler.
So I was like, I have zero budget.
So I thought, how can I start making more?
Because I really truly love the process of making the videos.
I love the editing.
I like adjusting the thumbnail till it's right.
I love meeting people and driving cool cars and all that stuff.
So I was like, how can I keep making videos?
Well, I'll do car reviews, big influences like Doug DiMiro, that dude in blue.
Regular car reviews of which I'm actually now friends with that dude in blue and regular
car reviews.
They're super, super nice.
And it's really cool to like, yeah.
I thought I saw you had met that dude in blue.
I cannot think of what his name is.
David.
Yes, thank you.
I actually have a video with him coming out in a couple of days, I think.
He took me in a GR Corolla for a lap around Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Oh yeah, that's sick.
We have a little, a fun little video soon that's coming out.
I don't know when you'll post this, but that'll be December 14th.
I have a video with that dude in blue coming out.
But basically I asked my parents, I asked my grandparents, I was like, hey, can I borrow
your car for a little bit to make a video?
And I did that for a while, but then I was like, well, if I want to take this seriously,
if I want it to be my full-time job, I have to treat it like a full-time job.
So I need more cars.
So at the time I had, I think it was like maybe 10,000 subscribers.
So I was like, I was still, well, I still am a small fish in a big pond or whatever.
But I was like, manufacturers aren't going to send me anything.
I don't have the following for that.
So what can I do?
I can go to dealerships and offer, basically offer up free advertising if I can just borrow
the car for an hour.
And I went to 14 dealerships in one day, which luckily in the town that I grew up in, they
were all on one street.
So it was, excuse me, it was one winter day.
It was in December of 2018.
I just drove down the street and I stopped at every single dealership and I made up a,
I printed out all these resumes and put them in giant folders and like those like little
clasp folders that I got at the dollar store.
And I went to every single dealership and I gave them a resume and said, Hey, I would
need a car for an hour.
You would get free advertising.
I would get a video.
It's completely free to you.
I get content from my channel and that's it.
And seriously like out of a movie, the first 13 dealerships said no, which was fair.
I mean, I was a kid.
I was like, I didn't call ahead.
I would just walk into every dealership and go, Hey, can I talk to your manager?
And they're like, uh, okay.
So like, you know, kind of the Karen approach.
But the last dealership I went to was the Toyota dealership and they're like, Oh yeah,
100% that's that's it's free to us.
And I was like, yeah, it's free.
So they're like, cool.
Like, and I think I filmed a video like the next day there.
And I lucked out because that dealership actually owned a Chevy dealership and Alexis dealership
in the same town.
So it's kind of a threefold.
Yeah.
So I started off with that.
And then once I, once I had filmed probably for like two or three months at that dealership,
I started emailing other dealerships and saying, Hey, I did this for Toyota of Naperville.
I could do this for you too.
And a lot of dealerships said no again, but a few more said yes.
And then a few more said yes.
And there was a point where I was working with about 20 area dealerships in any given
week, which was huge for sourcing cars.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, and to me, it's really fun watching your newer content.
Just, you know, I've been a subscriber for what?
Seven, eight years now.
Like it's been a while.
Years and years and years.
Yeah.
And, you know, I don't, I don't watch every video, but I watch probably one or two a week
and I can drastically see a difference in quality from when you started or, you know,
when I started following you to now, I mean, they're loads better, dude.
And I really think that having those dealerships to just have new cars all the time like that,
it's really, really helped your, your style grow.
Oh, a hundred percent.
And that's the big thing too.
Like I, I still hope that one day I will be good at this.
Like that, that's still the, the idea in my head is that one day I'll actually be okay
at reviewing cars and that this is all still just a building process because it is.
And I hope in three years, I'm going to look back on the videos I made now and say, wow,
those were terrible, but now I'm better.
Because I watch a video from four or five years ago and it's, it's, I can't watch it.
It's unpalatable.
I watched.
Yeah.
See, what video did I watch from yours yesterday?
The 98 Ram.
That's what nine years old.
Oh, gee.
That was okay.
So that was my technically second review, but the first one I ever filmed was my night
was my white 98 Ram.
That was the car that I had at the time.
I think it, I'm trying to think now, maybe I filmed that first and released it second
or I filmed it second and released it first.
I can't remember now, but yeah, that was one of the earliest earliest ones.
That is awful.
That video is so bad.
I had no microphone, so I recorded with a GoPro and then I had a flip video camera in
my lap.
And if you watch the video, which I cannot recommend you watch the video, please do not.
But if you, for some reason, if you're a masochist and love self-hatred and want to watch the
video, um, my, the, the sound and the video lose sync with one another periodically throughout
the video.
So there's times where my mouth is moving and there's no voice coming out and vice
versa.
And also I think I put like a dead mouse song in the background.
I mean that is like the dump.
Like I could not imagine a dumber thing to do today than that.
But I always tell people when they want to start YouTube, just make a video.
Your first video is going to suck.
Your second video is going to suck.
But your third video might be a little bit better than those first two.
And your fourth video is hopefully better than the first three and so on.
So I appreciate you saying that because literally all of this is I'm just trying to make a better
video than the one I just posted.
That's my whole goal.
I can definitely say that works with podcasts too, because if you listen to our first two
episodes, who was it a little rough?
Yes, it was.
It was frable, but you need those first episodes to start off.
You need a jumping off point and then you can always improve from there.
But there's so many people that are scared of that first episode that they'll never get
a second episode.
You know what I mean?
You definitely should.
Maybe I'll send you a little sound bite from our unreleased episode, the very first one
recorded.
The sound quality was so bad.
Sure.
But that's how you learn.
And you can tweak it from here and there in the same respect of, I've always thought,
oh, I should get, I should buy this $3,000 camera that can shoot 240 frames a second.
But not once have I ever gotten a comment of like, oh, the camera quality is not good.
You know what I mean?
I can honestly say that you're, especially probably the last two years, your video quality
is spectacular.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
But in this, in the same vein for years, people would say, oh, this audio quality is bad.
So I've stepped up.
I've invested the money in better microphones.
I used to mount the microphone on the windshield, which in hindsight is a very dumb thing to
do because every single vibration is recorded through the, so, so I moved to lapel mics
and that was better, but they were wired and every three months a wire would tear and I'd
have to buy another $60 microphone.
And then early last year, I moved to a wireless rechargeable microphone and that's been the
latest iteration.
Maybe in two years, I'll have a microphone that's inside my mouth for the clearest quality
possible or something like that.
They rip out your tooth and then give you a microphone.
Yeah.
Yeah, I just, and then I just won't have eyes, I'll have two 4k cameras and it'll be all
POV and that's just hell yeah.
So your current mic's what a road bike?
My current mic is a DJI mic too.
I believe it's wireless.
It's two 50 for two of them and they have like an air pod style case where their case
also charges them.
I was very hesitant to go wireless for many, many years because I was always worried about
interference, but honestly, I've been using them for, well, the last year and a half and
I've never had a single instance of interference.
It's just been me forgetting to hit record or like personal error, which happens more
than I would like to admit.
Those have the little magnet lapel thing, right?
Yes, so that's what I used to record that Tacoma video was the magnetic mic, which has
been super helpful for like exhaust and intake and stuff like that.
Yeah.
I can say that probably in the last year, your sound quality is, like I said, man, your
videos just keep getting better.
Thank you.
I appreciate that and that's the goal.
Although I will say a little inside baseball, it hasn't come out yet, but December 13th,
I have a 1986 Dodge Ram Charger coming out.
Oh, hell yeah.
I forgot to hit record on the microphone and so that's just GoPro audio, but that's just
between you and me.
We'll see how many people notice.
Yeah.
Don't say anything in the comments.
I want to see if anyone notices.
The audio, it's passable.
It's fine, but if you watch it back to back with any other video, you will notice that
it sounds like inside a fish tank.
Yeah.
So, another gear shift here so we can keep it going.
I can think of probably 10 or 11 off-road vehicles I've seen you review in the last
couple of years.
Which one was your favorite?
Oh, jeez.
I mean, what immediately jumps out at me is the 392 Wrangler.
That was a great one.
Just I mean, that vehicle, it's just the complete package.
It had the power sky roof or whatever they call it, the freedom roof or whatever.
And I mean, it had the exhaust button and every time I got in the car, just hit the
exhaust button and it just, it gurgled and popped.
It was so good.
I had the Bronco Raptor.
I didn't love it, especially for the price tag.
That seems to be pretty tracking with what I've been hearing.
Yeah.
Well, here's the thing.
Why couldn't Ford just put the five liter Coyote into it?
Right.
They have it on hand.
They put it into every F-150 that isn't a super duty.
The five liter Coyote is good enough for the application and it would have sounded right
and probably not lost that much power compared to the three liter twin turbo.
But for $96,000, I mean the suspension, I'll give it, the suspension is worth every penny
because I did not jump it, but let's say a friend of mine did and it was very, very smooth
on the landing.
Ford Motor Company, I did not jump your Bronco Raptor.
A friend of yours did.
Yeah.
Someone I know personally who's devilishly handsome.
The other, my favorite car that I've had this year above all has been the Ford F-150 Raptor
R. That truck is just, and I know it's not like off road, off road, but that is, it's
my car of the year for this year.
Dude, we live in Michigan and people use those on the dunes.
So that's off road to us.
Yeah.
That is, I mean, even though it was like, I think it was a hundred and something thousand,
110, 120 maybe.
Just the sound of it was just, I mean, it made you delirious.
It was amazing.
720 horsepower in a pickup truck is just so good.
I did that once in a Ram.
Which Ram?
I had a old five Ram 1500, two wheel drive, slammed it, put a turbo on it, made like seven
sixty five or something like that.
Was it the five seven?
What did, what motor?
Five seven, five seven Hemi.
Okay.
Gotcha.
I mean, I have a buddy who has a, he has the, was it the three six V six that he has a hundred
shot of nitrous on, which is interesting.
That is interesting.
Is it fast?
It's quick.
It beats V eight like stock V eight trucks.
So he's planning on V eight swapping it in one, but it is, it's a short cab or it's a
single cab short bed manual as well.
So it's a little sport.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think of other off road vehicles.
You know what?
I got to say it and I'm going to get hate for this.
The last off road experience, like truly off road experience I had was in a Nissan rogue
rock Creek.
So this is all they do is they give it a different front bumper, which doesn't really, it increases
the approach angle by like two inches.
They don't touch the suspension.
They give it knobby tires and then they give it an off road load and like special seats
or whatever.
For a Nissan event, Nissan paid for us to, they sent the car to my house and then I drove
it to Indiana and we went to this off road park.
It's called sod busters off road in Indiana.
They do like three mud bog events a year.
I don't know how corporate Nissan found this hole in the wall, but literally the whole
small town turned up because we had seven of these mom SUVs that we wanted to take on
their off road course and the dang things worked so well.
It was stupid.
Yeah.
I have been sod busters.
Yes.
Because we went to, as the Nissan event, we went to a Notre Dame game the night before
they paid for our hotel.
They got us tickets to the Notre Dame game and then in the morning we loaded up and did
this.
It's all in my review, all the footage of it.
I'll have to go find that.
There was this really steep incline and I looked at the Nissan representative and I
was like, I don't think this, this is not a good idea.
Like this thing is not going to make it up that and lo and behold, with enough throttle
and enough gut, you can get up it.
I mean the whole, like the off road team was like, how the heck did none of these get stuck?
It was absolutely wild.
So although I don't think I would buy one of those because I don't like the engine and
I don't like the transmission, I got to give credit where credit's due.
That thing actually ripped.
You know, I actually have a review for you that might be kind of fun.
We'll have to talk about this another time, but we have a guy in our group, he drives
a GMC Terrain.
Yep.
Okay.
What is it?
A 2022 I think it is.
That sounds about right.
It's somewhat new, but not.
He's got three inches of custom suspension on it.
Okay.
And he thinks it's a good off road truck.
I mean, to be fair, I've never watched him wheel it, so I can't say it's not, but it
is just a Terrain, but it's a very different Terrain from what you'd usually see.
So that one would probably be a fun one for you to review.
I would love to do that.
My first ever off-roading experience, and there's a video of this on my channel.
If you type in Pontiac Sunfire, a guy lifted a Pontiac Sunfire and put it on mud terrains.
I saw the green one.
No, it was red.
I think it was a Sunfire.
Let me see.
Yeah.
Lifted 2003 Pontiac Sunfire Sedan review.
I posted this 2019.
This thing, I mean, with enough throttle, it got around.
It did buy.
It was still front wheel drive.
Oh yeah, look at that.
It's got the 2.2 and everything.
Yeah.
And it's an automatic.
And all he would do is he would lock it in first gear and his foot would never leave
the floorboard.
And it was just ran in, in, in, in, in, just everywhere it went.
And this thing took a beating, but we were following, it was a whole Subaru club.
We were keeping up with like lifted, we lifted Foresters and Crosstrek and Legacies and Outbacks
and things like that.
And then here we came and this chopped up Pontiac Sunfire on God knows what kind of
wheels and it did it.
It actually did it.
That thing looks sick.
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah.
I mean, some of my best off-roading experiences have been in the most ill equipped vehicles
probably ever.
I mean, I three wheeled my own Mazda 3 and I have a six foot gash on the bottom of the
car going all the way down and it starts two inches behind the oil pan.
Because I three wheeled it and then I high centered it on a rock.
How's that old girl doing?
You had, because that's the one you had when you came up here, right?
Yeah the Mazda 3, you know, I, I'm very, very fortunate.
Last year I started getting press cars, which is the manufacturer will actually send me
a car to drive for a week, which is great.
It's free gas, it's free tolls.
I get a brand new car every week.
My Mazda doesn't have heated seats, but I haven't not had a vehicle with or I haven't
had a vehicle without heated seats in the last like two years.
So it works out pretty well.
I have 108,000 miles on it.
I still have it.
It's parked in the garage and I actually just got a battery tender in the mail for it.
Because if I don't have to drive it through the salt, I'm not going to drive through the
salt.
But I love that thing.
We took my girlfriend and I, we took it down to Big Bend, Texas for Big Bend National Park
down in Texas.
And there was this trail, there was like this old spa from the 1930s.
That was like this like hot springs thing.
But to get down there was a four by four trail.
And me being me was like, oh, for my Mazda three is all wheel drive.
That's four wheel drive.
So we're like, okay, let's do it.
And we're going down this trail.
And it's you know, it's a little washboardy.
And I don't know what the term is when like, the wheels are doing the opposite thing.
So like the left track would go down and the right track would go up and then vice versa.
I don't know if there's like a word for that.
We call it canvaring, but I don't know that's the same thing.
So like, we start doing that, we start doing that.
And I'm like, oh, this is getting kind of rough.
You know, we're hearing some pinging and ponging happening underneath the car.
And then it starts to get really loud.
And I stopped the car.
And I'm like, oh, like, I think we might have a flat tire.
Because like the front left side is dipping like really, really bad.
And as I'm thinking it, the whole car leans back onto the rear right tire.
And now the front tire is hanging in the air.
So we were three wheeling it.
And so I just throttled it out.
I have a picture of it down at the basin.
And it was all fine.
We went back up, same thing, some dents and dings, but it's fine.
And as we were leaving, there was this Jeep that was pulling onto the trail.
And everyone in the Jeep was just staring at us.
And I swear, the driver did the actual movie thing where he lowered his glasses and looked
at me.
And I was like, yeah, I don't know what to tell you, man.
And we just kept and you know what?
I drove that thing 2000 miles back home, not a single issue and haven't had an issue at
all.
God bless.
Yeah.
A pretty big joke in our community is, you know, I spent $40,000 building out my rig
just to get to the spot I was aiming for to find a stock condo Civic.
Exactly.
But, you know, the off-road stuff is a lot of fun.
And I'm trying to think of other off-road specific vehicles that I've had.
I like the regular Bronco.
I think the regular Bronco is a good bang for buck if you buy them in like the $40,000
range and then fit them yourself.
Because you could buy a stock, you know, a base or near base Bronco for, I think they
started 43 or 44 and you could put 20 grand worth of mods into it and you would still
be 30 grand shy of the Bronco Raptor.
Like that's insane.
So I mean, we were looking for one for my sister like a year ago.
I think we're looking at like 22.
So, you know, a little bit older.
And we were seeing them in like the 25 to $30,000 mark if they had a manual.
And it's like, man.
I've never driven the seven speed manual.
I've always wanted to.
Yeah.
And for some reason, the manual is so much cheaper than the automatic.
Huh.
That is actually really surprising.
Like in the after, you know, in the resale market, for whatever reason, if it's got a
manual, it's significantly cheaper.
Huh.
I would not have guessed that truly.
I think it has something to do with what I would call the JK effect where the off road
vehicles like the Bronco or the Jeep JK or the JL even, they're not really marketed towards
enthusiasts anymore.
They're more marketed towards, you know, Sandy go and taking her kids to soccer.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
Unfortunately.
So, you know, with that being how it is, well, Sandy's not going to learn how to drive a
manual.
She just wants to get in her car and go.
Right.
So it drives the cost of the automatics up.
Yeah.
And, you know, I just drove, I just drove a 2024 Wrangler sport and it had like, I think
it had the hardtop option, optional wheels.
I want to say that that's it.
I mean, it pretty is basic as a Wrangler get.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh, like, you know, this isn't bad brand new for like 38, 39, whatever.
$47,000.
Jesus.
I mean, how it's just, it's so far out of everyone's price range that it's just, and
then the car companies are going to be curious as to why they're not selling units, Stellantis
in general, which is a whole cup of tea situation.
Especially with Stellantis trying to figure out why they're having the lowest sales they've
ever had by like 60% or something like that.
Yeah, it's, it's bad.
And you know what?
I work pretty closely with the Stellantis PR team and they're truly wonderful people.
I mean, they are awesome, awesome people.
It's just, it's, it's just a bad situation and it's a mix of the quality of the cars
are bad.
Well, if they try to make the quality bad, then they got to spend more money and they
don't have money to spend.
I mean, they're really in a corner and so we'll see what happens.
Of all the brands I worry about Jeep the least, there was talks of possibly trying to Toyota
or Honda, possibly buying the Jeep name and, you know, I mean, it's all speculation online,
but man, if Toyota bought Jeep and made actual reliable Wranglers, I mean, that'd be awesome.
I almost would rather see Ford buy Jeep to be honest.
Just you know, from a history standpoint, Ford and Willys made the Jeeps together for
World War II.
There were a couple other little ones in there.
I mean, Banna made a handful, but you know, long gone companies now, but it would be really
cool to see Ford circle back and take ownership of that line.
Yeah, no, 100%.
The military Jeep that I reviewed actually had Ford stampings on it, which was really,
really cool.
I think it was just for the radiator cap and something else.
It was a Willys or Willys built Jeep, but it had four Jeep parts on it, which was really
special.
I think Ford would do that just because their Bronco sells so well that they would have,
basically, they would create a competitor to it.
Toyota doesn't really have a Jeep competitor.
I mean, say 4Runner all you want, but they really serve two different markets.
Very much so.
But no, I 100% you never, never could see Ford buying them, but I would love to see
Ford buy them.
Oh yeah, no, me 100%.
I would love to see GM bring Pontiac and Saturn back as EVs even.
I think Saturn is the...
Oldsmobile would be great.
I think Saturn would be the perfect little economy EV restart.
They did it with the GMC Hummer, which is quite the handful to drive, but they did it.
I have a very love-hate relationship with the EV Hummer.
It's a really cool piece of technology.
I mean, as a gimmicky fun thing, it was really, really fun to have one and go and play with
all the buttons, but driving it, you're driving a nearly 10,000 pound truck that can do zero
to 60 in about four seconds.
So it'll take one rich dad's kid, some 16 year old to try to impress his friends in
a parking lot.
And now it's a 10,000 pound battering ram into some poor family's house or a supermarket
or what have you.
Yep.
I mean, kind of on that front, have you driven the cyber truck yet?
I have.
Again, love-hate relationship with that.
I applaud them for creating a car that doesn't look like anything else.
The number one comment that I get on every new car video is every car looks the same.
And then finally, a company made a car that doesn't look the same and people still hate
it.
It is well, but you asked for something different and this is it's different.
I was going to say to be fair.
Yeah, no, it is ugly, but different is usually viewed as ugly.
That's why, you know, no other car looks like it, but it's you got to applaud different.
It's fine to drive.
It has a really weird steering mechanism that isn't talked about as much because it is steer
by wire, which isn't a new thing in the car industry, but the steering is nonlinear.
So you turn the wheel a little bit and the wheels turn a little bit, but then you turn
it a little bit more and the wheels go to full lock.
So there's no like, it's not like, oh, every inch is five degrees.
It's like, well, the first three inches are five degrees and the next three inches are
30 degrees.
And so driving it is just strange and it's weird to get used to.
What shape was the steering wheel on the one you drove?
Was it a yoke?
Man, I can't even remember.
I have to look up my own video.
I will say the other part of the love part of the Cybertruck is that this one single
video paid my rent for probably about three months this summer.
So respect where respect is due.
And there's a lot of angry comments, but the angry comments were keeping the lights on
here.
I had like a, it was like an oval shaped wheel.
It wasn't the full yoke.
It was weird.
I drove a Model X, a Tesla Model X with the yoke and the yoke is a joke.
It's a horrible steering mechanism.
I was watching a video recently.
I don't remember who did it, but they were talking about how bad the yoke was.
And the main complaint was the nonlinear steering because you know, in an F1 car, which is what
the yoke's based off of, it makes sense because they're not turning that wheel all the way.
So the yoke doesn't get in the way and it's got linear steering, but it's more steering
than what a normal car would have.
But with the Tesla yoke, the wheel still turns almost all the way, but it's got nonlinear
steering.
It goes all the way around.
You have to hand over hand the yoke and your left hand instinctively grabs the top of the
steering wheel, but there's no top of the steering wheel to grab.
So you just kind of punch the air.
That's just terrible.
Yokes do not belong on a normal road drive.
They just don't.
Lexus did it very, very short with their EV, the RZ450.
They offered a yoke and I think they canceled it within the first month or so of production
and went back to a wheel.
It's just, it's not smart.
And people want these cars to be space agey without doing the space agey back work, I
guess.
The Cybertruck, it's weird.
Reviewing any Tesla product is very, very hard to do because there's almost no way to
do it without bias or without considering everything that Tesla and Elon Musk is.
You can't just buy a Tesla because you're like, oh, I want an electric car.
It's like, oh, you're buying it and you want an electric car and you support this and you
support that and you don't support this and don't support that, all of this stuff.
So it's tough, but I was able to get in the seat of one and it was not great.
Yeah, it's funny because I'm actually a big Musk fan, but I'm not a Tesla fan.
Interesting.
You often find it the other way around.
Not here.
Here it's the other way around.
Gotcha.
Okay.
I mean, you got to remember we're from the middle of nowhere, man.
You know, it's interesting because with him being a part of government and there's so
many EV rebates and stuff, but those might go away, which will hurt his business, which
will be interesting.
The whole political situation with EVs is going to be really interesting over the next
four years.
I think a lot of those EV things are going to get walked back and I think we're going
to see a slowing in production for sure.
So right now with the way the EVs aren't selling and when like up here, they're basically
useless in the winter.
So watching that stuff kind of get rolled back a little, I'm not against it because
I'm not going to say there's no future for EVs.
That makes sense for say Chicago.
You're near Chicago.
If I lived in Chicago, I would have an EV period.
But like up here, not even saying it has to be gas or diesel.
I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to hydrogen.
If we can find a way to power a car off, that would be awesome.
Hi, this is editor Alex coming at you from the future.
We had a brief power outage right here, but we got her under control and got right back
to the pod.
Oh, I hear him.
Did you see that happen?
No.
The whole power of my house just flashed and everything.
Oh, that's why it got dark for a second.
Yeah.
I mean, my computer just shut down.
Everything just went dark for a second.
So obviously my internet went out, so I'm on data now.
But wow.
Okay, exhibit A, if that happens overnight and you don't know it and you're trying to
charge your car, you're not going to have miles in the morning.
Nope.
See, this is why we need to fund the technology to power cars off turkey poop.
I feel like that argument might be a little bit biased, but I'll stand behind it.
I mean, if we could figure out how to power them reliably off nitrogen, we can pull nitrogen
out of turkey poop, out of any poop really.
Yeah.
Oh, that's a good point.
So I mean, yeah.
The thing is, my mom works 1.8 miles from their house.
She should definitely have an EV.
Even in winter, if she has a third of the range, which is going to be like still 75
miles.
I mean, I don't think she's ever driven more than 30 miles in her whole entire life in
one day.
Stuff like that makes sense.
Not even for the environmental standpoint, because that's a whole nother bag of worms,
but just for the price of ownership, it makes sense for her to have an EV.
Yeah.
And she's an older lady, she wouldn't have to go to the gas station anymore, especially
at night, especially when the sun's down.
I know that's a big stressor for a lot of people.
She would always be at home plugged in.
She wouldn't have to deal with anything.
And a lot of people, non gear heads are very adverse to the smell of gas, how dirty it
is, the whole process of it.
It makes sense for people, but it shouldn't be required is the biggest thing.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, I'm not anti EV, I'm anti forced EV.
Yeah, I mean, whenever I have an EV at the house for a week, I just know that my week
is going to be a little bit harder because of the amount of miles I drive a week.
I have to consider and I don't have a charger at my house.
So I'm like, okay, well, if I film on Monday and Tuesday, Tuesday night has to be spent
at Walmart charging.
And then if I drive far on Wednesday, I probably got to spend Wednesday night charging.
It takes about an hour or two to do it each time.
So I just have to plan that into my life.
Does it absolutely stop my life?
No, but it's something you have to consider.
You know, I hadn't even, I didn't even fully thought about that.
Like I couldn't have an EV here because I don't have a garage.
So I would have to charge it somewhere else, which would mean, you know, in my situation,
I'd have to drive, oh, we don't even have a free mode.
Yeah, but they got the slow chargers.
I'd have to go to Paranoia.
And that's the other thing.
Now you're relying, you're hoping that when you get there, the charger's in full working
order.
I had a Hyundai IONIQ 6 last year, which is like their electric sedan.
There's the IONIQ 5 SUV and then there's the IONIQ 6, which is the sedan.
And I had like 30 miles of range left and I had like two hours before I was supposed
to film.
So I was like, all right, cool.
I'll, you know, I found a charger along the way.
I'll get it down to like 20% and then I'll charge, be good by the time the it's time
to film, you know, whatever other car I'm filming, whatever.
And I get to the charger.
Two of the bays were taken.
The third charger not working.
So I ended up waiting for 45 minutes for one of the Chevy Bolts to leave so then I could
finally charge.
And now I didn't have enough time for a full charge.
So I got up to like 55 or 60%, went and filmed the video, then drove back to the charger
to top off the rest of the charge.
So it was like, well, this two hour endeavor now just became five and a half hours.
And, you know, aside from the fact that I couldn't just throw a charger outside, I do
live in Michigan and like right now it's really cold out.
That car would not be happy charging at all outside.
No, no, no, no.
And that's another barrier to entry too, is that it's still you have to have, you have
to basically own a home in order to have an EV and at that point own a home with a garage.
Yeah, right. And own a home with a garage that will take 240 and own a home with a garage,
you know, that is set up for 240 that isn't gonna, you know, break your system or whatever.
So there's a lot of stipulations that kind of, you know, keep it from being in every
man's vehicle.
Yeah.
I really think the technology is cool.
And just I don't see in the next 20, maybe even 30 years it being viable for everybody.
No.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's funny, I was down in Oklahoma City or maybe Tulsa.
I can't remember now.
On the trip, actually, funny enough that I went off-roading in my Mazda 3 on the way
down, I reviewed a Mitsubishi i-Mew, which was one of the first electric cars you could
buy.
It was one of the first EGs.
Do you guys remember that?
I do.
That's familiar.
The guy lived in an apartment complex and he had an extension cord running off of his
balcony and down into the parking lot.
There was just this orange cord dangling.
Which also, by the way, if I have any PSA to give you, do not charge an EV or any modern
EV off of an extension cord.
Do not do that.
It will fry your outlets and all the chargers say don't do it.
I didn't read that and I came home to an outlet on fire.
So don't charge with an extension cord.
Man, that really wouldn't work for me.
Yeah, I had a Volvo S60, which is their plug-in hybrid to be fair.
It wasn't a full electric, but as a plug-in hybrid, you get like 30 miles of electric
driving if you charge it up.
This car was wonky too.
It threw a check engine light.
It would start and stop randomly.
So like I would just look out my window and the lights were on and it was running even
though I had the key with me upstairs.
That sounds safe.
Yeah, it was bad.
But I plugged into the wall and I came out the next day and it was still at 0%.
I was like, what the heck, man?
I was charging this all night and I go and look at the outlet.
The outlet is black and charred.
And I was like, oh, all right, so I'm calling an electrician.
And that was a hundred and so dollar mistake.
But I ended up learning, do not charge them off of extension cords.
It's no good.
Yeah, that's just, that's wild, man.
But yeah, well, so we are over an hour now.
We could stop if you need to stop or we could keep going.
I don't care either way.
I can do probably 10 more minutes and then I'm going to go figure out what that power
surge was.
This house is built in the 40s, so it's got some wonkiness to it.
But how do you guys feel about the four by E Wrangler?
Speaking of electric cars and off-roaders.
I don't think I've seen one like seen one out on the trails yet.
I haven't seen one out on the trail.
But my thing with the four by E is, is that the hybrid one or are those full electric?
Those are full electric, right?
No, the four by E is the plug-in hybrid.
So it's the two-liter turbo and then you get like 25 miles of all electric driving.
Because I have thoughts on full electric off-road, but when it comes to plug-in hybrid, that
instant torque would be nice.
It's not that instant.
No.
Well, when it's in EV mode, it doesn't like, I don't think it can go above.
There's a certain speed where it tops out at.
It's not very, it's basically a gas saver mechanism.
It's not very torquey.
Although I will say in the industry, it has one of the best, if not the best crossover
from gas to electric.
It's nearly seamless.
Even the Prius, I mean, the Prius bucks like a Bronco when it switches from gas to electric.
The four by E doesn't, but I was curious if you guys have seen them out on trails, but
apparently not.
And they've been out for, I think, well, my computer is off now.
I think I reviewed one as old as 2021, I want to say.
Sounds about right.
I will say that most of what we see though are Toyotas because we kind of run in a group
that's kind of heavy on the Toyotas.
Yeah.
Sure.
Okay.
So how about the new Land Cruiser?
Yeah.
Nope.
Never seen one.
I've not seen one of those yet.
Well, you're not touching them for under 60K.
They look sick.
They are very sick.
I was fortunate enough to actually have two of them due to a scheduling error, actually.
Toyota sent me the top trim level, which is just called Land Cruiser with the rectangle
headlights.
So I drove that around for a couple of days, had a refrigerator in it, had the nice sound
system, big screen, all that stuff.
And then I get a call on Friday morning saying, Hey, we gave you the wrong Land Cruiser.
We have to come pick it up and we're giving you a base model.
So I, in the 40 minutes that they said that they would be there, I went and filmed a review.
Well, I filmed all the exterior and interior shots of it.
And then they picked it up and all the audio you hear, I'm actually driving the base model,
but you never see it because it's just the exterior video of the other one.
But then I had the base model for a little bit.
I like them.
And it's going to be very interesting to see how the 2.4 turbo does, just like longevity
sake, but they're great to drive and they have all the off-road goodies you could want.
And I'm interested to see what Toyota's play is here, because from what I've been seeing
with the new 4Runner, it's going to be priced pretty similar in a pretty similar price bracket.
So I kind of feel like Toyota's shooting themselves in the foot and putting out competitors of
each other.
Yeah, it'll be interesting in January when we figure out the pricing and whatnot and
actually getting to drive it.
And it'll be, I actually asked the Toyota representative for him, very close with these,
very, very cool.
Actually it doesn't live too far from you guys.
And I was asking him, I was like, what is the difference between the 4Runner and the
Land Cruiser?
And his first response was the typical PR person of, we don't talk about future product,
whatever.
But he said that they basically serve two different demographics where 4Runner is more
camping and like fishing and outdoorsy lifestyle.
And the Land Cruiser is more higher speed, rougher terrain.
And I was like, okay, that didn't really answer my question, but that's what he told me.
And from a use case, obviously the new 4Runner is way different than prior ones, but looking
at prior product line, the Land Cruiser and the 4Runner have always been very similar
with the Land Cruiser just being like a fancier version.
Yeah.
Right.
So I will say Toyota is the king of offering several vehicles that fill the same market.
If you look at any of Toyota's overseas markets, they have the, in the nineties there was the
Corolla, Camry, Caldina and Corona, which were all just small sedans that basically
do the exact same thing.
They look almost identical.
They look identical.
I'll see like a Japanese called Dina and it's actually a Corolla or vice versa and all this
stuff.
Overseas they make like four or five different minivans.
There's the Town Ace and High Ace.
There's the Sienna and then they had some other Cruiser.
I mean, it's just, it's wild, the library of cars that they have.
So we'll see, maybe they know exactly what they're doing and they're going to serve two
different markets or maybe, you know, it's just going to flop and it's going to segregate
the buying population.
You know, I mean, that's why they got rid of the Land Cruiser the first time.
Right.
So we'll see, which technically the Land Cruiser we have now is the Land Cruiser Prado or whatever,
but they still make a full size Land Cruiser elsewhere.
I just wish we could get, do they have a diesel Land Cruiser in the US yet or no?
Nope.
I don't think, man, I just wish we could get any diesel at all.
I'm trying to think.
I think there's no Tundra diesel.
I think their Hilux has diesels, but those not higher in the States anyways.
Yeah, the Hilux definitely gets a diesel, but we don't get those here, which is always
cool to go down to like Dallas or like Southern Texas and you start seeing Hilux's running
around on Mexico plates.
Yeah.
I always take pictures of them because I think they're the coolest things in the world.
I used to live in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
We see them all the time.
Oh, yeah, sure.
But yeah, the Prado, however you say it, that is offered in a diesel overseas.
The Land Cruiser is offered as a diesel.
The Land Cruiser 79, the pickup, that is offered with a diesel and the Tacoma is offered with
a diesel.
Really?
Huh.
We don't even get non-hybrid Tacomas anymore.
Every single Tacoma is a hybrid now.
I'm sorry.
That was Google's AI imagining something.
The new Tacoma is not a diesel.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
I would imagine as such.
But yeah, you know, us here in America, we just hate diesels unless they're pickup trucks.
Yeah.
I don't know why.
I truly, truly do not understand it.
I think it all comes back to dieselgate with Volkswagen.
That's really where it all kind of falls back to.
Partially, I agree with you.
I think that was probably the last nail in the coffin.
But we also tried diesel cars here in the 80s with the Cadillacs and Oldsmobile diesels
and they were so god awful that I think from the 80s on, no one really wanted them.
I don't think that I could say that GM's attempt to take a 350 and make it run on diesel was
really a good indicator for how diesels work.
Yeah.
Well, but that's what everyone remembers.
So even if it was a failure, everyone remembers that being a failure.
Automakers were just trying to do whatever they could to get around the emission standards
of the 70s and 80s and they thought diesel was the answer.
And at least the way that they did it, it most certainly was not.
Have you ever gotten to drive one of those 70s or 80s GM diesels?
No, I have been searching for one for so long.
No one has and the only ones that I've been offered, the person's like, oh, I swapped
it to just a small block Chevy.
So no one keeps the diesel option because they were just so unreliable.
I just want to hear an honest review and I know you would give an honest review.
I want an honest review on how one works.
Oh, you know what?
Okay.
It wasn't, I drove a 1984 Lincoln Continental that was diesel.
That's pretty sick.
Do you know what engine was in it?
He said Lincoln Continental.
Don't look it up.
What year was it?
1984.
I want what year was it?
1984.
Was it a 6.9?
No, no, it was not an IDI, although that would have been beyond bad ass.
What was it?
I'll give you a hint.
It was not made by Ford.
Cummins?
I'll give you another hint.
It was not made in the US.
Isuzu.
Not Japan.
Man, I have no idea.
BMW straight six diesel turbo.
Oh my God, that actually sounds cool.
It was cool and you know what's funny?
It had a bigger turbo on it and I couldn't tell.
I mean this thing was such a cinder block to drive.
Very comfortable car.
But they outsourced the Lincoln Continental to have a BMW straight six diesel turbo, factory
turbo, not intercooled in the early 80s.
That is wild.
Was it at least one of the straight six?
It's BMW so it wasn't reliable.
It was fine.
I mean it blew a ton of black smoke when I drove it, but pretty much any older diesel
would and it did have a bigger turbo so I can't really fault it for that.
But yeah, my buddy sent it to me.
My buddy collects BMWs and he was like, hey, I got something weird.
It's a Continental.
And I was like, oh, are you switching up your formula?
And he sent me a picture of the engine bay and I was like, oh, you swapped it.
And he goes, it's factory numbers matching.
I was like, holy crap.
I didn't even know that thing existed.
But yeah, so today you learned that the Continental came with a BMW diesel in the early 80s.
You have a review of that?
Oh yeah, yeah, it's up on the channel.
This was...
I will have to watch that.
That sounds ridiculous.
It was actually July, 2023.
Let me see if I can find it.
June, 2023.
1984 Lincoln Continental Turbo diesel.
And I'm like talking about diesel cars.
I kind of wish you bought your Renegade that you spec'd out originally, Alex.
That would have been fun.
Yeah, I should have bought that Renegade.
So back in...
Yeah, it was a diesel.
Would have been 2017.
Yeah, what would have been a 2017 Renegade?
Or I would have bought it in 2017, whatever.
But anyways, I had went to the dealership and I was looking at trading in...
At the time I had a Wrangler and a 76 J4000.
And I was just sick and tired of having cars that I always had to work on.
So I was going to trade them in and get a brand new Renegade in bright yellow, Trailhawk,
manual with the diesel.
Jeez.
As far as I know, there's only one that exists.
I ordered it.
They had a list of all the options I could pick and I picked all the options I wanted.
They got the car in.
I drove it one time and decided not to trade in my stuff.
Fair enough.
I did not know that they even made those.
Huh.
Well, I just learned something today.
But I have never seen a diesel manual Renegade.
Yeah.
Huh.
I've seen the diesel ones.
I did get into a fight at a wedding one time over the Mazda CX-5 diesel.
This guy claimed that they were never ever sold here in the US.
And I told him I drove one a week ago and he didn't believe me.
And they only, I think they sold like a couple of them in the US.
2019 only, I think.
And they were only available on the top trim.
So they were like 40 grand out the door.
But they made diesel CX-5s and they sold horribly.
To the point where the Mazda dealer that I borrowed it from actually asked me to do the
video on it because they couldn't get it off their lot.
And they were hoping that my video would stir some attention to the vehicle.
How did this video even do?
Five and a half thousand views.
It's not great after four years.
But yeah.
I can't.
There are some weird diesel options out there.
I think that one was the 2.0 or maybe the one.
I think it was a 2.0 diesel.
In the Renegade or CX-5?
Renegade.
Oh, okay.
That has to be like European like Renault or like Fiat 2.0, no?
Fiat, yep.
Okay.
Well, the Renegade is just the Fiat 500X.
Exactly.
Trying to look here.
Oh, if you want to talk weird diesels, I drove a 2023 Cadillac Escalade diesel.
That was weird.
That is weird.
Duramax?
I mean, IDI's.
Yeah.
That was a factory car that had six miles on it when I drove it.
Drove great.
But I don't know who in the Escalade market was looking for a diesel.
Although it did get like 30 miles to the gallon or something.
You know, comparing that to like an Excursion, because you know, there was a 7.3 and 6.0 in
the Excursions, those would fit the same market.
That Cadillac would be way newer.
I typed in diesel on my channel and three videos down from the Escalade is an 04 Excursion,
which I think was the 6.0, I think.
Yeah, that would have been a 6.0.
Yeah.
Man, I wish you could have drove my Power Stroke before I got rid of it.
Yeah, I know we had talked about doing that.
We never made the dates line up, unfortunately.
Because that thing was wild.
And yeah, because it was always broken when you were free and you were always busy when
it wasn't broken.
Unfortunately, it happens a bit too much in this industry.
Because I mean, that thing was 500, like 500 ish horsepower on a factory transmission.
Geez.
For a truck that should have made 190 horsepower.
Yeah, no kidding.
I think it was probably screaming for dear life.
Yeah, we went through three of them in like four months.
You become pretty much pro at dropping transmissions and putting them back up.
Yeah, it's funny the skills you pick up without wanting to pick up.
Life just throws them in your lap.
But that thing breaking the last time is the whole reason I bought the 4Runner.
And that's been a really great journey.
Yeah, you know what?
It leads to something better, right?
Even though it was supposed, I went to Chicago to buy a 91 Tourist Show or 93 Tourist Show.
Whatever the Bring a Trailer Tourist Show.
I went there to buy it and it had like 70,000 miles on it.
And as I'm pulling into the guy's driveway, the car is going the other direction with
its new owner.
No.
Mind you, I had just driven six hours to buy this car.
Yeah.
Oh, jeez, I would have lost it.
That's insane.
So then I just went to Milwaukee and ended up with a rotted out 4Runner.
You know, it all worked out.
Everything is a silver lining at some point, right?
But all right, dude, that almost an hour and a half.
So that is definitely that's our episode and then some.
Yeah, only one power.
It's not bad.
It has been awesome catching up with you and awesome getting your story out there for our
listeners.
Hopefully we get our handful of listeners over to your channel.
Appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
And I'll put it out on my socials, whatever that means these days.
Yeah.
Sounds good, man.
Well, awesome.
I appreciate you guys having me on.
Thank you.