Aston Martin Vanquish Volante & When Car Tech Goes Too Far

Hannah and Matt discuss when car tech goes too far - and which automakers are admitting it. Plus, Matt drives the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I'm Hannah Elliott and
I'm Matt Miller.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is hot pursuit.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Coming up on the show today, we talk about Hannah's
deep dive into how some car makers are pivoting away
from the newest, highest tech on which they were initially
all in.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, basically, you know what, just because it's new doesn't
mean it's.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Great, right, Totally agree.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
This is something actually that I think you mentioned to
Ola Pollenius recently, So.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yes, exactly, this is coming out of multiple conversations, especially
in Munich at the IAA show. But it's kind of
industry why. It's really interesting to note.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
All Right, that is coming up on today's show, and
I think we're probably gonna all agree with you, because
if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably somewhat of
a purest when it comes to cars.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Probably and also maybe just a sensible person who likes
intuitive logic and common sense these you know, common sense
isn't really necessarily that common apparently, and we don't need
all of these gizmos and doodads and gadgets.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Totally agree, totally agree.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
We like a few of them, though.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
First off, though, I want to talk about what I
think may be the most beautiful new car that I've ever.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Had my hands on.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Your love, I am absolutely in love. And to be fair,
we get to drive these, you know, high priced super
luxury vehicles. It's not often that I'm driving the newest
Nissan Sentra, right. Oh, but this has been a string
of exceptional weeks for me. When it comes to getting
press cars, I am and it's not that so so.

(01:54):
For example, I had the Rolls Royce Ghost a couple
of weeks ago, and obviously it's a five hundred thousand
dollar car. Almost everything is going to be good about it.
And I just wanted to say this because I was
thinking about it and someone was asking me why I
complain about these things? Oh, I do try and highlight
the downsides of these vehicles, because there are clearly going

(02:16):
to be so many upsides to a half million dollar car.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Sure, But as we often stress, price and how good
something is for the task whatever that task is are
not necessarily related. They're not should be related. But you
can't use price as a as just an indicator.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I mean, I'm just saying though, as as a baseline.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
And I used to say this all the time, but
I've stopped saying it because otherwise they would be on
every show. Like I typically get to test drive cars
that cost eighty or ninety or one hundred thousand dollars.
They're brand new, they're sent to me by the manufacturer,
so they're obviously going to be really good.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Plus they're super.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Modern, they're gonna be efficient, they're gonna shift well, they're
gonna you know, compared to whatever you had as your
first car in high school. They're gonna be they're gonna
blow your socks off. So what I try and do
is pick out the things that aren't so great without
having to say, like, everything else is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well, I think we have to talk about how you're
defining quote unquote really good. Because of course, yes, any
car that's new in the market today is going to
be better than one from thirty years ago, for sure
in terms of efficiency and engineering. That's just called progress.
But I think these cars should be evaluated within their

(03:40):
competitive set, how do they stack up against the other
cars in that segment and in that price point that
a consumer might be considering. Because at the end of
the day, we're trying to tell people, hey, if you
are seriously considering buying this car, this is what you
need to know about it. This is the con text,
and this is how it stacks up against other of

(04:03):
its contemporary.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well cars, that's a fair point.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
So the car that I'm talking about is the Aston
Martin Vanquish, and I am driving the Valante version, the
twenty twenty six Aston Martin Vanquished Volante.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
I guess that means convertible in some language.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
In Aston Martin.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yes, And I will say that I don't know very
many people who could afford to buy this car.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I mean it is.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Also surely that's not true, Matt, all right.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
I mean because because of where I work, Sir, I
know a lot of very rich people. But in terms
of regular dudes who live near me, you know, like
the guys I see at school pickup, are not going
to buy a car that costs the base price of
this vehicle as four hundred and eighty three thousand dollars,
and as it is optioned, the one I'm driving, the
suggested retail price is five hundred and ninety five three

(04:56):
hundred dollars. So it may be a million dollar more.
It may be, you know, this may be the most
expensive car that I have ever driven outside of the
Bugatti Chironne that I was lucky enough to drive.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
In Germany, more than the Rolls Royce Royce.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I haven't, to be fair, I haven't driven all these
Ferraris that you drive. I haven't shared the Ferraris, so
the ff this.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Is more than a couple of Ferraris as well.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's going to be more than a lot of those.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
It is an incredibly expensive So I'm just saying, like,
I can't compare this to many other vehicles that are
in the same you know, stratosphere, because there just aren't
that many.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Right, Yeah, and you know, Okay, granted, this is a
gorgeous supermodel of a car. I think it's the best
looking car I've ever Cetely, no one is arguing that
at all. But I do think, and I've said this
before many times before, Aston Martin's are overpriced. This is
this isn't. To think that you're paying over half a

(06:00):
million dollars for an Aston Martin convertible is frankly insane.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
I would do it.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
I would do it because listen, if you if you're
gonna buy a six hundred thousand dollars car, I have
to assume that means you have rather you have many
multiple millions, and I don't know about that. I haven't
seen a modern Ferrari that looks this beautiful. The lines
actually remind me of the seventies Ferrari Daytona Spider three

(06:31):
sixty five, the one that the one that Don Johnson
drives in in Miami Vice. Although his is just a
Corvette dressed up as a Ferrari, but I think it
is incredibly, exceptionally beautiful. It is so powerful eight hundred
and twenty four horse power from a five point two
liter twin turbo V twelve. I at one point, driving

(06:53):
to work this morning, I looked down and realized, without
knowing it, I was doing consecutive uh.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yes, yes, specific do we want to get?

Speaker 3 (07:05):
And I think in order to buy a six hundred
thousand dollar car, you have to have multiple millions of
dollars of liquid.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Ask yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
If I had, you know, ten million dollars in cash,
I would definitely buy this car. I can't think of
anything else that looks this good that's coming out new.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Now.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
If I were you and I went to all these
collector car shows and auctions, maybe I would find an
actual nineteen seventy two Ferrari Daytona three sixty five Spider instead.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Oh yes, but that wouldn't be a fight. Eight. I
love the I love a forty eighty.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, I agree, it's a beautiful car.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
I think i'd probably just from reading about it, because
I haven't driven either one. But I think I would
rather drive the fore or buy the four fifty eight
because remember we were talking to Mark Royce from General Motors,
and he said, when they were looking to benchmark the Corvette,
they got a forty eight and they were like, this
actually isn't as good as the four to fifty eight,
So they sold that one and got the four to
fifty eight instead.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
And the four to five. I just think the eighty
eight is a little more distinctive. But I will agree
with you that it's both beautiful cars.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
I'm and we don't have to get off subject, but
I've been looking at lately three sixties, three fifty fives,
three sixties and what's the four thirty to try and
decide which one you'd buy if you're looking at one
of those kind of around one hundred thousand dollars Mark,
But let's put that aside for now and just talk

(08:35):
about this car because it is absolutely beautiful. The convertible
top mechanism works great. It doesn't have many of the
things that previously Aston Martin would have these blemishes or
these weird kind of anachronistic features that you thought like
this doesn't look.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Up to date, huge as question marks like what is
what are they thinking?

Speaker 2 (08:59):
But this does I think for the most part, it
checks everything. It fixes that box. You've driven it? What what?
What's your take on it?

Speaker 1 (09:05):
I extremely beautiful, extremely powerful.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
To me.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
It felt very wide. It feels it's a big car.
It feels wide. It takes up a lot of space
within the driving lane. I thought it drove pretty pretty great.
I would have liked to. I mean, it's it's not
a nimble It's not a nimble car like you might

(09:30):
expect from a nine to eleven. Yes, sorry to say that,
it's not quite as nimble and elegant even as some
of the Ferraris even like a Ferrari Roma. To be honest,
I know that sounds crazy. It's just it's more of
a it's more of a touring car.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
That doesn't sound crazy, and actually so you can change
modes by swinging the dial that surrounds the start button.
And I've noticed that, you know, those cars will have
normal and then Sport and then track or whatever. Normal
mode for this car is GT mode, so they know
it's a GT. And actually when I was I walked
out to my driveway to get in it for the

(10:08):
commute this morning, and it's you.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Know, the hood is so long.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
It's a big car.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I thought, Man, this thing is huge, and it yes,
you know, honestly terrifies me a little bit to drive these.
The Rolls Royce was scary for me to pilot around
because it's so big. And if I heard it, I'm afraid,
a I'm gonna be liable and be you know, Jerry
and the guys at Rolls Royce are never gonna talk
to me again.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Matt. You'd be far from the perse first or the
last press person too.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
I don't mind, like you know, if I if I
hit a wall with a Camaro, but if I do
it with you know, these six dollars cars. In any case,
I when I got in it and I drove it,
and I took it down the Bronxburg Parkway, over the
Cross County, down the Sprain Brook to the sawmill to

(10:57):
the Henriette's the Westside Highway, So that is a commute
that a lot of Yes New Yorkers, And and even
at five in the morning, you still get some wheel
to wheel action, you know, like considerable especially and I
actually didn't have any problem planting it exactly where I
wanted to. I will say, the only the only problem

(11:19):
they had, or the only concern I would have with
this is when it's in full automode.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
And of course you can't get it.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
In a stick, which was another topic I.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Know I talked to.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I was talking to Laurence Stroll about this a couple
of months ago, and he was like, we could do it,
and I was like, you'reantimistic.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
He's just was.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Saying that to me, I think, and you know, he's
the billionaire owner, so he's like, you, we can no
but his beingcounters are gonna be like, dude, we cannot
do that. But so when you have it in full
auto mode, uh, and in sport, it down shifts so
quickly that it is really scary, and I worry that

(11:55):
I won't.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Be able to keep control of the vehicle.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
So I instantly put it back into manual and drove
with the paddles, because when it steps down to like
fourth or third and you're already doing eighty or ninety,
not that I was doing that speed, all of a sudden,
you're doing one thirty and you're like whoa, and that
would be illegal, and I would never do that.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
On public roads.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
So I prefer to keep it in the manual paddle
shift mode because you have more control over the acceleration,
which is like when you touch the pedal hard, it's
like a hellcat. You get real slippage right away.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Right, And I don't necessarily think that is a good thing,
to be quite honest, scratching it, you know, well right,
for a car, it would be nice if it was
a little bit more predictable or confidence and confidence inspiring.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
So my point is that for the most part, I
thought it was really confidence inspiring it. There were no
times when I was worried about rubbing somebody else or
scraping the barrier, and I was weaving fairly New York.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
The only control issue I had is when I dropped
the hammer in automode in sport, it just downshifts so
quickly that you're all of a sudden you're accelerating so
much with eight hundred and twenty four horse power, it
really is. It felt a lot faster than the Mercedes
GT sixty three se performance that I had, which also

(13:24):
was eight hundred horsepower and one thousand foot pounds of hork.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
But probably half as expensive.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Literally, well, no less than half is expensive, right, It
was two fifty.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
That's what I keep coming back to, to be honest.
And I just looked up the numbers on Bloomberg Intelligence,
our data side of things. Bloomberg Intelligence says that vehicle
prices at Aston Martin are more than four times the
average price at Mercedes and more than two and a
half times the average price at Portia. And I know
what they're trying to do. They need cash, but I

(13:55):
just don't. The Aston Martin to me would be like,
if I already have all those other cars, then I
will also get that too.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, I mean you have to. This has got to
be for the woman who already has everything.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Of course, we're talking very hypothetically, but also that's the
great thing about cars. We all like to dream, and
we all like to imagine if if we could, this
is what we do. It's very aspirational. That's a wonderful thing.
We're all dreaming here.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I also think this is just gonna be such a
rare vehicle you're not gonna see. You'll see a lot
of vantages. Probably you're not gonna see a lot of
Vanquishes out there. And when you do, I recommend you
spend some time to really look at the vehicle.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
If you can get in it.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's very comfortable, even for someone of my height, which
is I.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Was gonna ask you, Oh yeah, it's the seating is
very low.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
It's low, but which I like legroom, and I'm all
leg You know.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
We've discussed this, so I think I.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Think they've nailed it on almost every level. Of course,
I would prefer a stick.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
It's obviously not going to happen.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
This is more of a GT cars you point out anyway,
so maybe you don't need that. And I felt the
driving experience is I can't wait to get out of
this studio and go drive it right now.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
And for the record, I would say that this Vanquish
is steps better than previous ass and Martins. The cars
are continuing to get better, they're continuing to improve, They're
all going in the right direction. I think they understand that.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
So as much as I'm in love with this vehicle,
and how could you not be for six hundred, they
better make something amazing. I do think it is the
most beautiful new car in existence. There is a flaw,
and it's similar to a flaw that I noticed that
really kind of irked me on the Rolls Royce, and
we're going to talk about that next because this gets

(15:47):
exactly to the heart of your story on Bloomberg dot
Com right now and on the Bloomberg terminal that's coming
up on the show. I'm Matt Miller along with Hannah Elliott.
There's more Hot Pursuit coming up right after this. Now,

(16:08):
let's talk about Hannah's latest piece on carmakers needing to
pivot away from some of their new fancy tech. And
tell me about I mean, this is something you kind
of talk about to some extent with regards to the
Mercedes volume Knob, But tell me about how the genesis
of this story.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
I mean, we talk about this type of thing pretty regularly,
and it was the volume Knobs at Mercedes that really
kind of crystallized the idea in my head because when
I was in Munich at the IA Show last month
for the debut of the new GLC, which is mercedes
top selling suv. You know, multiple board members at Mercedes

(16:48):
were very open about the fact that hey, yeah, by
the way, we are bringing back the real roller switch
on the steering wheel that you operate with your thumb
that control the volume that everyone loved in Mercedes, that
no one had a problem with. They had gotten away
from that with a haptic version, and Mercedes folks were
very open saying we're gonna go back to the roller

(17:10):
thing because everyone loved it, and we realized we didn't
need it, like we just didn't need it. No one
was asking for the new haptic style, and I thought
that was great. And then when, for instance, Tesla had
their big problem with their electronic door handles, obviously we
talked to Franz von Holshausen, the Tesla designer, about that,

(17:31):
and Franz told us, hey, we're actually going to reconfigure
these electronic door handles that have been criticized as a
safety handard hazard. That really got me thinking, you know what,
there is a moment when automakers right now are being
a little bit more introspective and they're saying actually, we're

(17:53):
going to listen to consumers and really read the market here,
and we're not just going to throw new things at
you because we can, or the dirty little secret just
because it'll save us money. Which is another aspect of
some of this new tech that we can talk about.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Well, I can imagine one of the ways that at
least those car makers who can afford it, or those
selling cars to people who can afford to pay for it,
is at one point the whole industry went to everything
on the screen, like every even the climate control was
in the screen.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Or the the aravins.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yes, we're screens exactly. And what consumers want, even consumers
who love new technology, is actual buttons and knobs, especially
for the things that you need on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right completely. Another example which I thought was so interesting
is Lincoln, which had put their active park assist in
a lot of their vehicles for a couple of years.
I spent a bunch of money developing this pretty actually
pretty well working system that would automatically park your car
for you, and Lincoln would look at their consumer data,

(19:00):
consumer data that they capture in the cars, and they
realized nobody was using it, like nobody was using this
active park assis thing because you know, you can park
your own car, you don't need it. And so Lincoln
just announced that for the twenty twenty five model year
they're taking it out because no one used it and
they don't need to put it in. So that's another
example of just this idea that you're saying that we

(19:21):
don't need necessarily new things that are are answering a
question that nobody's asking.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
That's that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
I think I don't one hundred percent agree with that,
because Okay, so we had that park assist, you know,
automatic park assist on our twenty twenty g Wagon, and
I used it a fair amount because.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
That's also a car.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
You don't I didn't want to scratch in Berlin. Yeah,
And the only problem with it is that it's a
little bit finicky to activate, and but after I figured
it out, I would use it a fair amount. When
I was driving this Rolls Royce Ghost a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Also, I.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Was like, all right, I don't want to risk trying
to park this thing myself because it's a boat and
I don't want to even nick the paint. But again,
it was it was a little bit too difficult to
activate and use.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
And you mean that because to activate it you have
to get the car in a very specific position.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yes, I have to go very specific.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yes, Yes, I've experienced that too. It's like you have
to do everything exactly just so, and I think that's
why it doesn't get used. Maybe you're the exception, Matt,
but I don't. For me, I don't have the patience.
I'd rather just take the risk and park it myself.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
I don't know how much of it is the fact
that I'm always driving test vehicles, so I don't have
time to live with and experience them.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
So in the car that you know, my wife and.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
I bought and we used it on a regular basis
when I had enough time to figure it out. I
did use it more often, especially in tight spots in Berlin.
You know, for some reason, they think all cars should
be the size of a Fiat Panda, and so it
was more necessary. I feel like if I if I
actually owned a Rolls Royce Ghost, I probably would figure

(21:12):
it out to the point where I could use it
on a regular basis, and hopefully car makers because I
think that's great functionality, like the auto park. Yeah, I
mean you may be good at parking, and my wife,
for example, is amazing at parallel parking.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
It's on how confident I'm feeling that.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
I am not very good at it.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
And I'm also horrified of scratching rims.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
And that's the worst sound in the world.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
And for some reason, I mean, this is another sort
of It's not a high tech thing, but I wish
car makers would get away from giant wheels, you know that.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Have no sidewall.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
You rolls.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Yeah, and I hate it on all cars, Like I
want sidewall, and I also want the wheels to be
protected by the rubber on the tire so that when
I do hit a curb it's not a you know,
five thousand dollars mistake. So I like park assists.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
But yeah, I get that. You know, we should say
too that just trying something out in a new car
and then walking back from it is not a new thing.
This has happened in the history of cars. And one
perfect example of this is do you remember in the
eighties and nineties those automatic shoulder belts that were attached

(22:24):
to the to the car when served to you, Yes,
which I actually thought was the height of sophistication. Growing up.
I thought it was very cool, but those were prone
to twisting and sticking, and half of those doors were
so big anyway, it was not elegant to like engage it.
So those went away, especially when what's the word driver airbags?

(22:50):
When airbags became standard, that basically did away with the
safety harness. Did you have a car have a car
with a safety harness on it?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Well, by safety harness you mean the little ard the
seat belt.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yes. Have I ever owned a car that had that?

Speaker 3 (23:05):
I don't think so, although there have been cars in
which I wish that was. Keep in mind, I scooted
my seat all the way back, and I lean the
and I lean the seat back, so I can usually
grab it pretty well. But no, I I can imagine
that those would break easily and you'd need to pay

(23:25):
money to fix them.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
So you know what I would always do too, is
just you could unclip the shoulder section, so the little
modular would run across the top of the door with
nothing attached. And I would just always unclick the because
I had actually had an accurate legend at one point
in college, and I just unclicked it because it was

(23:47):
annoying and it didn't really work.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Interesting. Interesting.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
One modern tech feature that the that the Ghost had,
which I wish more car makers would give you is
instead of reaching out to close the big doors, and
I have this problem in my Challenger, and it is
actually like a major first world problem with the Aston.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Martin as well.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Rolls Royce has just a button that you hold in
the console and the door closes automatically for you.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Have you ever closed it on your leg?

Speaker 2 (24:20):
No?

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Do?

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Okay, I have done that.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Doesn't it have some sort of safety mechanism that make
sure it doesn't?

Speaker 2 (24:29):
You know?

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, there is a safety thing. You have to keep
your finger on the button.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yes, true, Yeah it won't.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
You can't just push the button once and the door
closes no matter what not, Like you have to keep right,
You have to keep your finger on the button. If
you take your finger off, the door stops, which is
a nice little thing.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Can I tell you the major complaint that I had
with the Rolls Royce Ghost and the major complaint that
I have with this Aston Martin Vanquish and one that
I would have in plenty of cars, certainly in nine
to eleven's is car makers had developed, especially luxury car makers,
high end car makers had developed the most beautiful analog

(25:07):
gauges and and a lot of cars like a Rolls
Royce Ghost that was a selling point. They have the
gorgeous white face and they have these platinum yeah exactly
arms and so beautiful and when I'm operating a motor vehicle,
I want to see that kind of thing. Now they've
gone to these screens in the dash the aston has

(25:29):
its have it And I get that they're configurable somehow
if you fiddle with it, and maybe you have your
own favorite configuration, but they're just so ghetto compared to
a car that you're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for.
You want the analog gauges, and I imagine this is
a way that they're just saving money.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yes, it's transparent, this is This is something that has
been bothering me because Porscha just announced the interior for
the twenty twenty six Cayenne Electric suv and that interior,
I was hoping that maybe they listened to customers and
they decided to go back to at least a couple

(26:11):
of the dials in the dashboard being analog, because as
everybody knows, Porsche has five gauges. They went down to
a few being computerized, and now they're all computerized. And
I thought, for a second, maybe Porsche would, you know,
go back to some actual analog old world gauges. They

(26:32):
did not do that well, and now I mean the
whole thing is a computer screen.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah, I was the amount of money that they're not
making right now. They've had profit learning after profit warning,
the stock has been actually cost they don't really they
need to save money where they can.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
And the development what about making cars people want right.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Well, the development cycle of these cars is also multi year.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
Right. Even if they decided, like when they had a
GTS launch in Sevilla last year and you said to
Oliver Blooma, here, Blooma, I really don't appreciate these digital gauges,
he probably would have said, like, well, we need to
save money right now, so we're putting these digital gauges
on a two hundred thousand dollars car.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
But I only wish you'd been that Fach.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
We're developing a new nine to eleven Hannah, and it's
going to have actual analog gauges because that's we know
what everyone wants. It's going to have a handbreak instead
of an electric button because that's what we know everyone wants,
I know, and it's going to have an optional stick
because although it's expensive, we charge multiple hundreds of thousands
of dollars for these nine to elevens, and so we

(27:45):
are going to give the customer what the customer.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Choose, because that is long term thinking about. Yes, it's
going to cost more money, but in the end, if
we sell more cars, then it's worth it.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
If anybody should put actual beautiful platinum analog, I was
gonna say Rolls Royce. If Rolls Royce doesn't do analog gauges,
I mean they don't need.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
But also Porsia because think of all the racing history
that built up the Porsche brand and racing and like
real chronological timekeeping pieces are so integral to each other.
It just would make it's like a sporting it's a
sporting brand, it's motorsports. Every piece of motorsport history has

(28:29):
tons of gauges and timekeeping machines.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
And I know a car enthusiast is so much more
likely to wear a traditional mechanical watch mechanical, even though
the Apple watch can do so much for you, right,
you'd rather have the tics.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Well, the other thing too is anytime for this article
about the tech I keep going back to, but if
you you know, I spoke with the editors from Edmunds
and from Kelly Bluebook and they both said, flat out,
all of our research indicates consumers are so overscreened. Period.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
I mean, and these are independent third parties. This is
separate from the automakers trying to tell us what we
want or what they think we should have. I mean,
I don't know how much more clear you can get.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Well, hopefully, you know, if it takes five years from
start to finish to develop and then sell a car,
maybe we're going to start to see more ages.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
I would love it.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
All Right, That does it for this week's show.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Remember to follow and subscribe to Hot Pursuit on Apple, Spotify,
and anywhere else you listen. You can also send us
your comments and questions. Email us at hot Pursuit at
Bloomberg dot act.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
For sure, and check out my columns and stories on
Bloomberg dot com and the Bloomberg Business App. You can
also go there for car reviews, events and stories that
you won't find anywhere else. Find it all at Bloomberg
dot com s lsh Pursuits slash Autos.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
I'm Hannah Elliott and I'm Matt Miller will be back
in your podcast feed again next week