December 21, 2022 • 36 mins
In our penultimate round, the contenders are the Ford Bronco Raptor, Genesis GV70, Honda CR-V, and the Land Rover Range Rover. Car and Driver Senior Editor Ezra Dyer and Eddie go round for round with the middleweight class and crown a winner. Eddie then takes us on a very luxurious drive.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. I'm going to start with one that I know
is near and dear to you. You're an OJ Bronco fan,
an og OJ Bronco fan, You've had a lot of
these things, and I want to talk about the new
Ford Broncho Raptor. And the thing I'll say about this
(00:37):
vehicle is they should have put more animals in the name,
like should have been Broncho Raptor, Gator, aucelot, What are you, crocodile?
I just learned about the II, that little primate that
can pick its nose with a really long finger. Throw
that in there. Yeah, the Broncho Raptor. That's my guy,
(01:00):
Ezra Dyer, the northeaster of automotive journalism who moved down
south so he could drive more four by fours in
the mud. He's now the Carolina's editor for Crrent Driver,
and he was driving big, stupid SUVs before the rest
of America discovered them. He's going to help us sort
out this year's crop of SUVs. On deck this week
(01:22):
are the Ford Bronco Raptor, the Honda CRV, the Genesis
GV seventy, and of course the all new Range Rover.
I'm Eddie Alterman and this is car show. I think
this is the equivalent of, you know, the most luxurious
(01:45):
luxury car interior. It's not perfect, it's not Apple, it's Samsung.
The Ford Bronco Raptor takes the already ridiculous Bronco and
ridiculates it further. Ford bumps the twin TURBOV six out
to three leaders and four hundred and eighteen horsepower, straps
(02:07):
on thirty seven inch tires, and fits a suspension that
travels farther than buzz Aldrin. It's an off road mountain goat,
but is it the goat? So first of all, that
vehicle should appeal to me completely because it's an overkill Bronco.
(02:29):
But my only thing is I feel like maybe it's
not quite overkill enough under the hood. Everywhere else, of course,
suspension is ridiculous. It has fender flares that are made
of half of rubber Maid's annual production. I think is
now going to Ford Bronco fender flares. I drove it
out at Car Driver's said best Testing, and it is
(02:50):
quite a singular machine. Well, it only has twin turbo
three leader V six. It doesn't have a big honkin
the eight like they put in the Raptor R and
it makes a paltry four hundred and eighteen horsepower. Right,
don't you feel like they pulled a punch there? I mean,
what they couldn't fit the three point five leader boost
in it. It's kind of ridiculous, right. But the other
(03:12):
thing is the Broncho itself is so dog slow that
this thing feels like to me, it feels like this
is what the Bronco should have been to start with,
Like this should be the base Bronco because it actually
gets out of its own way, and the gearing isn't
crazy because it's got that ten speed automatic. I love
a manual gearbox, but in that Bronco with the manual,
(03:36):
you've got that super short stump pulling first gear and
the rest of the gears are super lazy, and it's
just like it doesn't accelerate. I don't know, I think
this should have been the base Broncho. Well, I mean,
it doesn't help, but they only give you the manual
with the four cylinder. But yeah, they do offer I
saw they just come out with a reflash for it
(03:57):
where they'll jack up basically the four cylinder to the
V six power and the V six you can make
a little bit more and they'll give it REV matching
on the downship. So they've kind of sported up the
base Bronco maybe before it already realized that they realize that,
wait a minute, maybe we should have made this thing
a little bit puncher in the first place, because it's
a big rig. Yeah, and especially by the time you
get to the Broncho Raptor, which is like a Bronco
(04:17):
and a half. You know what, the Ford always leaves
themselves and out to do a little bit more down
the line, and they probably figure morons are paying one
hundred and twenty thousand for these things anyway, So let's
just let's leave ourselves some headroom to drop a three
point five minute two years from now and go Tedda
keep some powder dry, right, Yeah, then it'll be the
(04:38):
Bronco Raptor, are at exactly right, that'll need the awesolet
edition Texas Rodeo. However, they're going to sell it in
you know, different regional markets and that'll be there. That'll
be their big thing. But for me, I just aesthetically,
I just can't get over those fender flares. And it
could have been done almost any other way would be
(05:00):
more elegant than the way they did it. It's funny
to talk about aesthetics and this thing in the same sentence,
but I think you're right. It is a little crude,
and I think this should be sort of the base Broncho.
As I said, I think it's a wonderful soft, compliant
daily driver, good enough power. The only thing about it
(05:20):
is you can't drive it to a funeral. You know,
you can't wear a Philadelphia Eagles jersey and Oakley blades
to a funeral. This is like, you know, this is
such an idiot's car. What's your take on that. I
would hope someone would drive a Bronco Raptor to my
funeral and rip some donuts or something. It's got crazy
wide axles and wider track and I didn't get to
(05:43):
take it off road really much, but it is supposed
to be the king of off road of anything you
can buy right now, and I can see how that
would be. Triple lockers and crazy approach and departure angles
and ground clearance and suspension travel like it's kind of
designed to do the King of the Hammers thing from
the factory, which is amazing. And ridiculous. It is amazing.
(06:06):
And I've driven this thing off road and it's almost
like an autonomous vehicle off road. It just goes anywhere
you put it, you lock the axles, the thing just
creeps over everything. You've got those helper spot or cameras
to show you what's going on underneath. I mean, the
thing is so incredibly capable off road, this kind of
a miracle that it drives as civilly as it does
(06:30):
on road. I feel like it's more civil than your
average cheap wrangler on road. But here's my problem with
super duper capable vehicles like that is part of the
thrill of off roading is not being sure whether you're
going to get back out. Yeah, so what kind of
terran do you find with a broco raptor where you're
really wondering whether you're going to get back out. It's
going to be something where you might need a chin
(06:51):
a helicopter to extricate you if it does go wrong,
because really, how are you going to get that thing stuck?
I'm sure people will, people will find ways. So there
is there is that aspect of what is the point
ultimately here? Yeah, but it's very hard to do, and
you know, I found the thing totally enjoyable and everyday
driving I know I was in the minority, but you know,
(07:13):
I've like I'm missing half a lope of my brain,
so I think, well, it is Yeah, you're not known
as a left brain thinker. It is a paradox of
trucks like the Bronco Raptor. These this genre of off
road desert racers that we have now with the ramtr
Ax and the Raptor which spawned at Colorado ZR two,
is that they're really comfortable on road. You know, when
(07:35):
you have a foot and a half of suspension travel
and you know ninety profile tires, guess what that's going
to ride real nice? Yeah, on the broken pavement of
our reality. I think that's part of the reason for
the popularity of these things is that people like the
way they look. Obviously, and everybody wants to have more
capability than they really need in their vehicle. But it
(07:56):
does actually as opposed to like a Lamborghini that goes
two hundred miles an hour. The crazy part of the
capability of these things translates to actual enjoyability on the street.
You're just smothering every thing that comes your way out,
speed bombs, speed up right right exactly, get a little
air if you can, You'll land like a cat. You know. Well,
(08:17):
let's move on to something that's altogether more sane and
much more mainstream and enters one of the most hotly
contested segments there is, which is the compact luxury SUV segment,
and I'm talking about the Genesis GV seventy. The GV seventy,
(08:39):
as the Alpha numerics imply, is the suv version of
the Genesis G seventy sports Sedan, although I'm not exactly
sure what the V actually means here, vigorous anyway, it's
darn vivacious, offering your choice of a two point five
liter turbo four or a twin turbo three point five
liter V six. It's also got one of the nicest
(09:02):
interiors this side of a Bentley Mosan. They just murdered
it with this one. They knocked it out of the park.
They picked the exact right midway point in the segment
between the super Doughey soft squishy Lexus r X and
then the super taught, you know, super sporty Porsche Mcan.
(09:26):
This thing is just like splitting it right down the middle.
What's your take on this thing? They did somehow manage
to find daylight in a segment that is just relentlessly
everything is benchmarked against everything else, and there's only so
many ways you can draw a two box shape. Everything
tends to kind of look like everything else too, And
(09:48):
they came up with an interesting look for one thing,
especially with the grill that you know right away, hey,
that's a Genesis, and not in a bad way. You know,
when a lot of companies come out with a you know,
a signature grill, it's like the Accurate Beak or even
the OUTI single frame when they came out with that.
But Genesis, they came out with a cool looking front end.
(10:10):
It's definitely large, although you know, I hear what you're
saying that it's distinctive because it's so chromed out and
so big. But I get a lot of people saying
it's a Bentley. The point is you know exactly what
it is when you see it, and you know, assuming
you don't think it's Eventley, I put it this way,
it looks way better than it been taken. That's for
damn sure. You're gonna mistake it for Eventley. Bentley wishes
(10:33):
it could look like a GB seventy, but also on
the inside too, it has just fantastic materials and interesting colors.
When it's got that red interior popping out at you,
and everything is just so well done in the manner
of Lexus of your I would say, like you just
want to spin the dials and push the buttons and
(10:55):
feel the way the switches were because it's all just
so dialed in and good. It's funny that you say Lexus,
because you know Lexus when it came out in nineteen
eighty nine nineteen ninety they were really exploiting a big
economic advantage, you know, of the end versus the dollar,
and they were able to load so much value into
(11:15):
those vehicles. The Koreans have a slightly different approach. I mean,
they're totally vertically integrated. They make their own steel, they do,
but they can deliver so much value for so little money.
And this thing starts at forty three thousand dollars and
it's got like one hundred thousand dollars worth of interior
in it. It's just incredibly good swayed everywhere you can
(11:38):
get contrast stitching and piping you can get different color
seatbelts like a Porsche. It's just nuts in there, and
it's really good to drive. It's the other thing, yeah,
in which Genesis they weren't always you know, they ramped
up really quickly into excellent to drive as opposed to
just trying to be like a softer Mercedes. Is kind
(11:59):
of where they started. Yeah, and now they're even though
that's not a you know, a finely honed sporting machine
like a Macon GTS or something. It's pretty sharp and
especially with the V six, it sounds good, it's fast,
it's fun to drive without having that overtly sporty edginess
(12:19):
that's beating you up all the time like a BMW
X three M competition or something where you're like, okay,
I get it, it's sporty. Ok. I don't need to
feel every seam in the pavement all the time in
my midsized crossover, right. Genesis gets that. Yeah, It's like
the engine is sporty, but it rides like a jag.
(12:40):
It doesn't kill you with sportiness. The V six is
sporty enough. It kind of rides like a luxury car,
although when you go over bigger bumps, you get a
little harshness in the wheel impacts. And that's the one
little area where I'm like, you know, another couple of
cycles of suspension development, and they could get it to
(13:01):
the bends. But they move so fast, you know, like
there's gonna be a new one next year or something.
They just they cycle so much more quickly than all
the other brands, and that's what causes them to evolve
so much faster. Yeah, Like, whatever you think is wrong
with the GV seventy, just wait a year, right, And
they're super responsive. That's totally true. And look, this is
(13:22):
Genesis as a brand, just their second SUV, and they're
fully competitive. It's incredible. And from what I understand, it's
you know, we can extrapolate from the GV eighty and
tied Woods. It's probably very same. Yes, that's true. Don't
forget it saved his life. After the break, we'll be
back with a new Honda CRV. Well, let's talk next
(13:56):
about a vehicle that's sort of ubiquitous and is all
new for twenty twenty three. And I just drove in
and I know you did, and this thing is sort
of like the municipal car for every small liberal town.
I'm not talking about super roof. I'm talking about the
Honda CRV. This thing is just incrementally better than the
(14:16):
last one. But that's all it needed to be a
little bigger, a little quicker, and a little more sophisticated.
That's the new Honda CRV. Honda is really pushing the
hybrid versions here. They started just around thirty three thousand
dollars and deliver crazy fuel economy and terrific driving behavior.
(14:37):
The hybrid system itself is real high end kit with
a two lead turbo four cylinder augmented with two electric motors,
one for power and one that's a generator. As the
kids say, it's electric motor forward. What did you think
about driving it? I think the last one was utterly
(14:58):
forgettable in the way that it needed to be to
appeal to millions of people. The CRV is the new
Accord or camera in terms of it is the mainstream
vehicle that everybody buys who doesn't necessarily care about cars,
but wants a solid, comfortable, reliable, efficient, and on and
(15:18):
on and on vehicle for their lives that they're going
to keep for ten years. Maybe. So the thing that's
great about the new one is that they kept all
of those attributes, all of the pragmatic things, but they
also made it more interesting, so someone who does care
about cars can get it and go all right. I
like what they did here. I like the style of it.
(15:40):
I like the design, and everything feels super solid and
more expensive than it actually is. Yeah, it's better than
it needs to be. You know. It's not a cynical
sort of vehicle. And that's what I love about Honda's,
Like it's sort of the approach they have for Accord
and Civic. Most people are just going to use it
as basic transportation. They're never going to change the oil.
(16:00):
They're going to park it on the street in Brooklyn,
own it for twenty years and forget about it. But
somebody who's into driving can take in Accord or Civic
and just ring the crap out of it, and it's
utterly satisfying. You know. It is just so so good
and so there, And the best Hondas have this way
of sort of disappearing under you, so you just sort
(16:21):
of flow with the thing, you know. The Civic type
IR does that for sure, and I think the CRV
does that too, And it's just an incredible effort. It's
bigger in every dimension, it's much better to drive. They
really turn it it on with this thing, and you
can ignore it pretty easily. But I think it's a
great achievement. It's also an interesting vehicle from an engineering standpoint,
(16:47):
specifically the hybrid that is just some cool stuff. Basically
like you've got an electric car with your own onboard
generator right as opposed to you know, the way that
a lot of companies do hybrid is, here's a two
armed horsepower gas engine and here's a five horsepower at
a little glorified starter motor, and we're going to call
(17:08):
it a hybrid. The CRVS the other way around. It's
basically got big electric motors and an engine that can
basically power those. But it's cool that they made the
hybrid sort of the flagship, and they don't even call
it the hybrid anymore. It's just the CRV sport right now,
it's a sport touring hybrid or it's right, okay, right,
But they're not like they're not leaning on the hybrid
(17:29):
part as much as this is the sport this this
is the one you want if you want to have
a little more fun and more power actually, yeah, than
than the gas model and better mileage than the Toyota
REV for hybrid, and Toyota is the acknowledged hybrid king.
And you know, never forget that Honda is an engine
company first and foremost, and they make all kinds of
(17:52):
stuff like riding mowers and weed whackers and you know,
four stroked marine engines, and it all starts with the
engine in those things. They are to me great engineering achievements,
great masterpieces. And I don't know about you, but you know,
I'm constantly being asked to recommend cars, and my fear
(18:13):
is that I'm going to recommend something that craps out
on somebody. And I always find myself recommending Honda's because
of that, to lesser extent, Toyota's and maybe Subarus. But
you know, for people who are not super wrecked in
the head and totally insane about cars and just want
basic transportation that's gonna over deliver, I'm always recommending Civics
(18:38):
and Chords and crbs, and they're just very very good,
soundly engineered things. Yeah, you can't go wrong recommending a Honda.
Nobody's nobody's ever going to come back to you and say,
I hate this thing exactly exactly. Nobody's mad about their Honda.
Nobody's pissed at it. Everybody's like as opposed to like
(18:58):
when I recommended the Volkswagen Phaeton. Yeah, I mean it's
like recommending a land Rover. You know, that's Russian roulette.
And that brings us to the last vehicle in the bracket,
the all new land Rover range Rover one hundred and
five k to start for the short wheelbase version and
(19:20):
the top of the line SV version opens at one
hundred and ninety five thousand dollars. We're not in Kansas anymore, man.
These things used to be farm implements, and now they're like,
you know, they fit six Kardashians. And BMW is back
(19:42):
on the scene. Say more about that. Yes, the range
Rover is once again powered by BMW VA, just as
it was in early two thousands. I feel like BMW
and land Rover are like a toxic couple where it's like,
I don't know, they're getting back together, well, maybe this
time it'll work. At BMW's friends are like, oh, I
(20:04):
remember last time Ford showed up, and then yeah, they're
getting married again. Where it's like a death the Nation wedding.
You spend all this money to go and everyone's growning.
But it actually the thing is, it does work really well.
You can see why this keeps happening. I mean, it
is the most distinctive suv. You look at it and
you go, oh my god, that thing is just gorgeous.
(20:26):
That's like the platonic ideal of what a luxury suv
should be. What's better than that? You know, maybe the
most desirable suv of all time, And in this generation
they've done such fine detail work on the exterior and
to some extent the interior. Like around the greenhouse of
that thing, there's no gasket. It just butts with the
(20:50):
glass perfectly. It's just so precisely made, and you look
around that whole thing and you're like, this is just
insane attention to detail. The surfacing of it is so
beautiful and so serene almost and so elegant that you
almost like, I kind of missed the old crappy one.
(21:10):
I don't know if I missed the crappy one, but
that the interesting trick that they pulled that's really hard
to do is to take a vehicle that has kind
of I hate the word iconic. But the Rangerover shape
is iconic, and it's super difficult to tune it up
for a new generation and not lose the unmistakable look
(21:33):
that it had, but also make it unmistakably new. Yeah,
and you know Bentley's wrestled with that with like Continental
GT they come out with and you know, come out
with a new one. Well it kind of looks like
the old one because well, they settled on their shape
and they don't want to screw it up. Rangerover managed
to take that Jerry McGovern sketch on a napkin and
turn it into something that is clearly the new generation.
(21:56):
All your neighbors are going to know you've got the
new one, right, but everybody else is also going to
know that you've got a Ranger Over that has to
be what you're looking at is a range Rover. You
don't have to explain it to anybody. No, you have
to explain to anybody. And they did it, like you said,
through all that fine detailing. It just looks slick and smooth,
but not just like this wind tunnel shaped boring egg. Yeah,
(22:19):
you know, I mean, it's still got the distinctive elements
that make it a range over right, the floating roof,
kind of the raised capitals on the hood. You sit
very high in it, so you can still kind of
peer down the side of the door to look at
what you're doing off road. This thing remains amazing off road.
Nobody will ever take it off road, not in this
(22:40):
country at least, but it is so incredibly tuned up
for that stuff. And you know, the wee articulations crazy.
It can ford a ton of water. But my question
with this one is is it too la? You know,
like have they smoothed it out too much? The great
thing about English car design is that every element is
(23:01):
sort of its own individual design. The lights are their
own little thing set into the body. It's not like
that's smooth Scandinavian style where the lights are sort of
wrapped around the body and like the same sort of
form of the body. On this one, it's so smooth.
It's so like global in a way, and so like
(23:25):
built for Dubai. You go, is this thing does it
really read as an English vehicle anymore? Well? If I
put on my Landrover product planner hat for a moment,
I would say that their response that I would probably
be well that's what the defenders for if you or Discovery,
if you want something that's a little bit more idiosyncratic
(23:48):
style wise, whereas the range rover has always been this
bejeweled thing, and this one is moving that further in
that direction. But to your point, it'll still go off road.
So if it'll still it'll still do all the silly
things while looking like that. I can see how you
(24:09):
say that puts it in the you're flossing in Dubai
sort of sort of aesthetic realm, right, they should have
like a Falconer's rod option in the bag. I did
take a range over off road some years ago, the
previous generation and the general public doesn't even realize how
good range overs are off road. So I showed up
(24:30):
at a jeep club event on Fort Bragg with a
ranger Over and the guys there said, hey, you want
to just park and ride with us. I'm like, no, no, no,
I can go where you guys go, trust me, And
I did. And their minds were blown because they've only
ever seen these things on the street. They've never seen
one out in the woods and clomping through mud and
going everywhere they were going, and they're you know, lifted XJS,
(24:51):
So I think that as long as it retained that ability,
then the style had to move forward, and it did.
And the fact that we can debate about it is
I think a good thing. Yeah. You know, if everybody,
if everybody agrees on every aspect of the way something looks,
then it's probably not that interesting. Yeah, and it's probably
not gonna la too long and be kind of captivating
(25:12):
for very long. And you know, this thing feels sort
of ten percent bigger in every dimension except the interior,
So it feels like it's escalated size on the exterior,
but inside it's kind of snug. Well, that's that's part
of the extravagance, the extravagance of wasted space, right. You
know when you have that the tumble Home, you know
they could have made the body side straight up and down.
(25:33):
But when you look at it, like from the back,
and it looks like you've got a TP on top
of a square basically because the roof can's in so hard.
That makes it look cool, but that also makes it
less practical inside. But look, the least practical things are
the ones that command the most money. When they're making
the two door Ranger over the last generation that was
the most expensive one, and people will pay premium to
(25:57):
be inconvenient if it looks cool. That's true, Yeah, to
work a little bit harder for style to suffer a
little bit. And it is one thing about the Ranger
over that as expensive as it is and always has been,
it still represents kind of a bargain because you do say, well,
what's above this? What am I going to get that's
better than this for an SUV? And the answer is
(26:18):
usually there isn't one. Yeah, I mean the g Wagon
I think is sort of in that same sort of
zip code, that same sort of you know zone, but
it's cruder, it's you know, it's not quite as refined,
and it's more money when you think it's also one
might say an acquired taste. Yeah, I've acquired it. You've
(26:43):
got to have You've gotta have a g Wagon attitude.
After the break, Ezra and I will rank all four SUVs.
(27:03):
We're back and it's time to decide which of these
four SUVs make it through to the final round. All
four of these vehicles are pretty spectacular in their own way,
from the kind of entry level or starter levels CRV
(27:28):
all the way up to the range Rover and sort
of everything in between, where do you net out? Like,
so I would put the Broncho Raptor last just because
it has some it is further to go. I would
agree with that because yes, a you feel like they
pulled a few punches despite how ridiculous it is in
so many ways. But also it's a very focused, niche thing,
(27:49):
and it's always easier to build something that's highly specialized
and highly compromise. In other way, it's like, yeah, it's
going to be great offer of a get horrible mileage
and cost a lot and on and on and on,
but be really good at this one thing. It's a
lot harder to make something like a CRV that's good
at a lot of things and appeals to a lot
of people will out being boring. Like the more you
(28:11):
spend building something and the more you charge for it,
the better it can be. Really and so a two
hundred thousand dollar range Rover to me is not such
a huge achievement, you know, it's not a quantum leap forward.
And to me, that's my number three vehicle in this bracket. Like,
I think the range Rover is great. I love it,
super desirable, somewhat non vehicular in its movements, sort of
(28:33):
like driving a couch. But man, I want one. I
think they're super cool and I like it's the perfect
thing to pull into the fancy grocery store with. Yeah,
it's like I want a Hinkley yacht too, right, I
want to Wally b. Yeah, but it is easier to
build a Hinkley yacht than it is to build something
that's going to be accessible for everybody. As we've said,
(28:55):
with a lot of cars in that price range for
that amount of money, it ought to be great. It is,
but it ought to be Yeah, the execution matches expectations.
So so I see where you're going. Is CRV and
GB seventy, which are both excellent vehicles and yet had
to be built to a price. They had to be
(29:16):
built to a price, but you can't really tell exactly exactly.
And I think the one that overachieves there is the
GB seventy. It's so incredibly good. That's my top pick.
That's the one I'm pushing forward. It came out of nowhere,
blew everybody's minds split the segment exactly down the middle.
(29:37):
The most I think buyer appeal of anything in that
segment for the widest possible buyer a little bit like CRV,
to be honest, But the CRV is just like, it's
not as cool as a GB seventy. You know, it's
an incredible achievement, and it's incrementally better than the last one,
which is also a great achievement. But the GB seventy
(29:57):
is just like, that's a moon shot to me. So
are we only picking one here? Only picking one to
go forward? We're only picking one? Well, Eddy, I hate
to agree with you on everything, but you know, if
I look at this as which one of these would
I actually want to go by? Now, Like, if I
were laying my own money on the line, which is
(30:18):
the most compelling vehicle that I would want to go get?
It would be the GB seventy. That's a car that
I would want to show up in. It's got desirability,
it's got curb appeal, super comfortable, great user interface, all
the things all right, and actually, which I regard as
(30:38):
a bonus anti badge appeal. A lot of people don't
know what a genesis is still, So you're not paying
whatever the tariff is on that Mercedes Star on your hood,
You're not paying that for a genesis. They're strivers. They're
trying to overtake those other companies, and you can really
tell from their products. Yeah, they're just trying harder, they're
(30:59):
working it and they're sweating every little detail. Yeah, they
want that badge to mean something in the future. I
still feel like, if you pick up one of those
right now, you're early. You're leading the way, right, You're
a thought leader, You're an early adopter. No one ever
says that to me, but yeah, hypothetically I'm a thoughlier. Yeah, yes,
(31:22):
I'm comfortable with the GV seventy. Moving on, Okay, great, excellent.
So this luxury compact SUV slays the range Rover, it
slays the stalwart Honda CRV, and it slays ultimately the
(31:44):
multi species Broncho Raptor. Thank you, Ezra. You are hilarious
and great and so full of insight. Can't thank you enough. Man,
thanks for having me. Man. Now, Producer Sam Dingman and
I get behind the wheel of the GV seventy to
see what the fuss is all about. I just noticed
(32:09):
seatbelts are cut. Look, I mean, look at the level
of detail and this thing. You can tell that the
guy who designed this designed Bentley's and Lamborghinis. I mean,
it is so deluxe and it's so beautifully executed. Look
at this line, this line of chrome that starts at
(32:34):
the door, the back of the door, goes through the vents,
kicks up over the instrument binnacle, which is has this
exposed stitch by the way, then goes through all these
other vents around to the other door, and just creates
this kind of seamless connected interior space. And you know
(32:58):
this design, this eyebrow design over the binnacle kind of
repeats in the third stoplight. I mean, there's all these
little touches that are so incredibly thoughtful and smart, and
just like this is hard stuff to do, especially at
this price point. I mean, I think this is the
equivalent of, you know, the most luxurious luxury car interior.
(33:22):
It's not perfect, it's not Apple, it's Samsung. Okay, let's
drive it a little, let's take it out. Okay. So
I'm turning the crystal neurld gear selector to drive, and
we're going to drive this car in its native habitat.
I do have to admit turning the knob to shift
gears did feel a little bit like I was turning
(33:44):
on a washing machine, It's true. And then you have
you park it or you put it in park by
pushing the cycle button. Yeah, okay, now we're back and drive.
The ride is so supple, the transmission is just silky smooth,
and yet at the same time there's a little growl
in the engine. You know, it's sort of having it
(34:06):
both ways. It's it really is like, you know, it's
your lexus in your BMW all in one right, right,
it's that middle ground. It is just absolutely serene. There's
no wind noise, not a lot of tire noise. It
just really calms you down and keeps you kind of fresh.
(34:30):
You know, all the glass is coded non reflective quiet glass.
I mean you see that in all luxury cars. But
it's not only the decibel reading. It's also the quality
of the sound. And the quality of sound is really
good in here. I think it's really really dry and
nice and you know. Calming Car Show is written and
(34:58):
hosted by me Eddie Alterman. It's produced by Emily Rosstec
and Jacob Smith. Our editor is Karen Shakerge. Original music
and mastering by Ben Holliday. Our executive producer is Mia Loebell.
Our show art was designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed
by Greg la Fever special thanks to Sam Dingman, producer extraordinaire.
(35:24):
We really had to twist his arm to get him
in the passenger seat. Our patron saints, as always are
we Tom Allad and Justine Lane. Car Show is a
production of Pushkin Industries. If you have this show and
others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
(35:44):
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and
uninterrupted listening for just four ninety nine a month. Look
for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions. To find more
Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to podcasts that the
Pushkin. I'm going to start with one that I know
is near and dear to you. You're an OJ Bronco fan,
an og OJ Bronco fan, You've had a lot of
these things, and I want to talk about the new
Ford Broncho Raptor. And the thing I'll say about this
(00:37):
vehicle is they should have put more animals in the name,
like should have been Broncho Raptor, Gator, aucelot, What are you, crocodile?
I just learned about the II, that little primate that
can pick its nose with a really long finger. Throw
that in there. Yeah, the Broncho Raptor. That's my guy,
(01:00):
Ezra Dyer, the northeaster of automotive journalism who moved down
south so he could drive more four by fours in
the mud. He's now the Carolina's editor for Crrent Driver,
and he was driving big, stupid SUVs before the rest
of America discovered them. He's going to help us sort
out this year's crop of SUVs. On deck this week
(01:22):
are the Ford Bronco Raptor, the Honda CRV, the Genesis
GV seventy, and of course the all new Range Rover.
I'm Eddie Alterman and this is car show. I think
this is the equivalent of, you know, the most luxurious
(01:45):
luxury car interior. It's not perfect, it's not Apple, it's Samsung.
The Ford Bronco Raptor takes the already ridiculous Bronco and
ridiculates it further. Ford bumps the twin TURBOV six out
to three leaders and four hundred and eighteen horsepower, straps
(02:07):
on thirty seven inch tires, and fits a suspension that
travels farther than buzz Aldrin. It's an off road mountain goat,
but is it the goat? So first of all, that
vehicle should appeal to me completely because it's an overkill Bronco.
(02:29):
But my only thing is I feel like maybe it's
not quite overkill enough under the hood. Everywhere else, of course,
suspension is ridiculous. It has fender flares that are made
of half of rubber Maid's annual production. I think is
now going to Ford Bronco fender flares. I drove it
out at Car Driver's said best Testing, and it is
(02:50):
quite a singular machine. Well, it only has twin turbo
three leader V six. It doesn't have a big honkin
the eight like they put in the Raptor R and
it makes a paltry four hundred and eighteen horsepower. Right,
don't you feel like they pulled a punch there? I mean,
what they couldn't fit the three point five leader boost
in it. It's kind of ridiculous, right. But the other
(03:12):
thing is the Broncho itself is so dog slow that
this thing feels like to me, it feels like this
is what the Bronco should have been to start with,
Like this should be the base Bronco because it actually
gets out of its own way, and the gearing isn't
crazy because it's got that ten speed automatic. I love
a manual gearbox, but in that Bronco with the manual,
(03:36):
you've got that super short stump pulling first gear and
the rest of the gears are super lazy, and it's
just like it doesn't accelerate. I don't know, I think
this should have been the base Broncho. Well, I mean,
it doesn't help, but they only give you the manual
with the four cylinder. But yeah, they do offer I
saw they just come out with a reflash for it
(03:57):
where they'll jack up basically the four cylinder to the
V six power and the V six you can make
a little bit more and they'll give it REV matching
on the downship. So they've kind of sported up the
base Bronco maybe before it already realized that they realize that,
wait a minute, maybe we should have made this thing
a little bit puncher in the first place, because it's
a big rig. Yeah, and especially by the time you
get to the Broncho Raptor, which is like a Bronco
(04:17):
and a half. You know what, the Ford always leaves
themselves and out to do a little bit more down
the line, and they probably figure morons are paying one
hundred and twenty thousand for these things anyway, So let's
just let's leave ourselves some headroom to drop a three
point five minute two years from now and go Tedda
keep some powder dry, right, Yeah, then it'll be the
(04:38):
Bronco Raptor, are at exactly right, that'll need the awesolet
edition Texas Rodeo. However, they're going to sell it in
you know, different regional markets and that'll be there. That'll
be their big thing. But for me, I just aesthetically,
I just can't get over those fender flares. And it
could have been done almost any other way would be
(05:00):
more elegant than the way they did it. It's funny
to talk about aesthetics and this thing in the same sentence,
but I think you're right. It is a little crude,
and I think this should be sort of the base Broncho.
As I said, I think it's a wonderful soft, compliant
daily driver, good enough power. The only thing about it
(05:20):
is you can't drive it to a funeral. You know,
you can't wear a Philadelphia Eagles jersey and Oakley blades
to a funeral. This is like, you know, this is
such an idiot's car. What's your take on that. I
would hope someone would drive a Bronco Raptor to my
funeral and rip some donuts or something. It's got crazy
wide axles and wider track and I didn't get to
(05:43):
take it off road really much, but it is supposed
to be the king of off road of anything you
can buy right now, and I can see how that
would be. Triple lockers and crazy approach and departure angles
and ground clearance and suspension travel like it's kind of
designed to do the King of the Hammers thing from
the factory, which is amazing. And ridiculous. It is amazing.
(06:06):
And I've driven this thing off road and it's almost
like an autonomous vehicle off road. It just goes anywhere
you put it, you lock the axles, the thing just
creeps over everything. You've got those helper spot or cameras
to show you what's going on underneath. I mean, the
thing is so incredibly capable off road, this kind of
a miracle that it drives as civilly as it does
(06:30):
on road. I feel like it's more civil than your
average cheap wrangler on road. But here's my problem with
super duper capable vehicles like that is part of the
thrill of off roading is not being sure whether you're
going to get back out. Yeah, so what kind of
terran do you find with a broco raptor where you're
really wondering whether you're going to get back out. It's
going to be something where you might need a chin
(06:51):
a helicopter to extricate you if it does go wrong,
because really, how are you going to get that thing stuck?
I'm sure people will, people will find ways. So there
is there is that aspect of what is the point
ultimately here? Yeah, but it's very hard to do, and
you know, I found the thing totally enjoyable and everyday
driving I know I was in the minority, but you know,
(07:13):
I've like I'm missing half a lope of my brain,
so I think, well, it is Yeah, you're not known
as a left brain thinker. It is a paradox of
trucks like the Bronco Raptor. These this genre of off
road desert racers that we have now with the ramtr
Ax and the Raptor which spawned at Colorado ZR two,
is that they're really comfortable on road. You know, when
(07:35):
you have a foot and a half of suspension travel
and you know ninety profile tires, guess what that's going
to ride real nice? Yeah, on the broken pavement of
our reality. I think that's part of the reason for
the popularity of these things is that people like the
way they look. Obviously, and everybody wants to have more
capability than they really need in their vehicle. But it
(07:56):
does actually as opposed to like a Lamborghini that goes
two hundred miles an hour. The crazy part of the
capability of these things translates to actual enjoyability on the street.
You're just smothering every thing that comes your way out,
speed bombs, speed up right right exactly, get a little
air if you can, You'll land like a cat. You know. Well,
(08:17):
let's move on to something that's altogether more sane and
much more mainstream and enters one of the most hotly
contested segments there is, which is the compact luxury SUV segment,
and I'm talking about the Genesis GV seventy. The GV seventy,
(08:39):
as the Alpha numerics imply, is the suv version of
the Genesis G seventy sports Sedan, although I'm not exactly
sure what the V actually means here, vigorous anyway, it's
darn vivacious, offering your choice of a two point five
liter turbo four or a twin turbo three point five
liter V six. It's also got one of the nicest
(09:02):
interiors this side of a Bentley Mosan. They just murdered
it with this one. They knocked it out of the park.
They picked the exact right midway point in the segment
between the super Doughey soft squishy Lexus r X and
then the super taught, you know, super sporty Porsche Mcan.
(09:26):
This thing is just like splitting it right down the middle.
What's your take on this thing? They did somehow manage
to find daylight in a segment that is just relentlessly
everything is benchmarked against everything else, and there's only so
many ways you can draw a two box shape. Everything
tends to kind of look like everything else too, And
(09:48):
they came up with an interesting look for one thing,
especially with the grill that you know right away, hey,
that's a Genesis, and not in a bad way. You know,
when a lot of companies come out with a you know,
a signature grill, it's like the Accurate Beak or even
the OUTI single frame when they came out with that.
But Genesis, they came out with a cool looking front end.
(10:10):
It's definitely large, although you know, I hear what you're
saying that it's distinctive because it's so chromed out and
so big. But I get a lot of people saying
it's a Bentley. The point is you know exactly what
it is when you see it, and you know, assuming
you don't think it's Eventley, I put it this way,
it looks way better than it been taken. That's for
damn sure. You're gonna mistake it for Eventley. Bentley wishes
(10:33):
it could look like a GB seventy, but also on
the inside too, it has just fantastic materials and interesting colors.
When it's got that red interior popping out at you,
and everything is just so well done in the manner
of Lexus of your I would say, like you just
want to spin the dials and push the buttons and
(10:55):
feel the way the switches were because it's all just
so dialed in and good. It's funny that you say Lexus,
because you know Lexus when it came out in nineteen
eighty nine nineteen ninety they were really exploiting a big
economic advantage, you know, of the end versus the dollar,
and they were able to load so much value into
(11:15):
those vehicles. The Koreans have a slightly different approach. I mean,
they're totally vertically integrated. They make their own steel, they do,
but they can deliver so much value for so little money.
And this thing starts at forty three thousand dollars and
it's got like one hundred thousand dollars worth of interior
in it. It's just incredibly good swayed everywhere you can
(11:38):
get contrast stitching and piping you can get different color
seatbelts like a Porsche. It's just nuts in there, and
it's really good to drive. It's the other thing, yeah,
in which Genesis they weren't always you know, they ramped
up really quickly into excellent to drive as opposed to
just trying to be like a softer Mercedes. Is kind
(11:59):
of where they started. Yeah, and now they're even though
that's not a you know, a finely honed sporting machine
like a Macon GTS or something. It's pretty sharp and
especially with the V six, it sounds good, it's fast,
it's fun to drive without having that overtly sporty edginess
(12:19):
that's beating you up all the time like a BMW
X three M competition or something where you're like, okay,
I get it, it's sporty. Ok. I don't need to
feel every seam in the pavement all the time in
my midsized crossover, right. Genesis gets that. Yeah, It's like
the engine is sporty, but it rides like a jag.
(12:40):
It doesn't kill you with sportiness. The V six is
sporty enough. It kind of rides like a luxury car,
although when you go over bigger bumps, you get a
little harshness in the wheel impacts. And that's the one
little area where I'm like, you know, another couple of
cycles of suspension development, and they could get it to
(13:01):
the bends. But they move so fast, you know, like
there's gonna be a new one next year or something.
They just they cycle so much more quickly than all
the other brands, and that's what causes them to evolve
so much faster. Yeah, Like, whatever you think is wrong
with the GV seventy, just wait a year, right, And
they're super responsive. That's totally true. And look, this is
(13:22):
Genesis as a brand, just their second SUV, and they're
fully competitive. It's incredible. And from what I understand, it's
you know, we can extrapolate from the GV eighty and
tied Woods. It's probably very same. Yes, that's true. Don't
forget it saved his life. After the break, we'll be
back with a new Honda CRV. Well, let's talk next
(13:56):
about a vehicle that's sort of ubiquitous and is all
new for twenty twenty three. And I just drove in
and I know you did, and this thing is sort
of like the municipal car for every small liberal town.
I'm not talking about super roof. I'm talking about the
Honda CRV. This thing is just incrementally better than the
(14:16):
last one. But that's all it needed to be a
little bigger, a little quicker, and a little more sophisticated.
That's the new Honda CRV. Honda is really pushing the
hybrid versions here. They started just around thirty three thousand
dollars and deliver crazy fuel economy and terrific driving behavior.
(14:37):
The hybrid system itself is real high end kit with
a two lead turbo four cylinder augmented with two electric motors,
one for power and one that's a generator. As the
kids say, it's electric motor forward. What did you think
about driving it? I think the last one was utterly
(14:58):
forgettable in the way that it needed to be to
appeal to millions of people. The CRV is the new
Accord or camera in terms of it is the mainstream
vehicle that everybody buys who doesn't necessarily care about cars,
but wants a solid, comfortable, reliable, efficient, and on and
(15:18):
on and on vehicle for their lives that they're going
to keep for ten years. Maybe. So the thing that's
great about the new one is that they kept all
of those attributes, all of the pragmatic things, but they
also made it more interesting, so someone who does care
about cars can get it and go all right. I
like what they did here. I like the style of it.
(15:40):
I like the design, and everything feels super solid and
more expensive than it actually is. Yeah, it's better than
it needs to be. You know. It's not a cynical
sort of vehicle. And that's what I love about Honda's,
Like it's sort of the approach they have for Accord
and Civic. Most people are just going to use it
as basic transportation. They're never going to change the oil.
(16:00):
They're going to park it on the street in Brooklyn,
own it for twenty years and forget about it. But
somebody who's into driving can take in Accord or Civic
and just ring the crap out of it, and it's
utterly satisfying. You know. It is just so so good
and so there, And the best Hondas have this way
of sort of disappearing under you, so you just sort
(16:21):
of flow with the thing, you know. The Civic type
IR does that for sure, and I think the CRV
does that too, And it's just an incredible effort. It's
bigger in every dimension, it's much better to drive. They
really turn it it on with this thing, and you
can ignore it pretty easily. But I think it's a
great achievement. It's also an interesting vehicle from an engineering standpoint,
(16:47):
specifically the hybrid that is just some cool stuff. Basically
like you've got an electric car with your own onboard
generator right as opposed to you know, the way that
a lot of companies do hybrid is, here's a two
armed horsepower gas engine and here's a five horsepower at
a little glorified starter motor, and we're going to call
(17:08):
it a hybrid. The CRVS the other way around. It's
basically got big electric motors and an engine that can
basically power those. But it's cool that they made the
hybrid sort of the flagship, and they don't even call
it the hybrid anymore. It's just the CRV sport right now,
it's a sport touring hybrid or it's right, okay, right,
But they're not like they're not leaning on the hybrid
(17:29):
part as much as this is the sport this this
is the one you want if you want to have
a little more fun and more power actually, yeah, than
than the gas model and better mileage than the Toyota
REV for hybrid, and Toyota is the acknowledged hybrid king.
And you know, never forget that Honda is an engine
company first and foremost, and they make all kinds of
(17:52):
stuff like riding mowers and weed whackers and you know,
four stroked marine engines, and it all starts with the
engine in those things. They are to me great engineering achievements,
great masterpieces. And I don't know about you, but you know,
I'm constantly being asked to recommend cars, and my fear
(18:13):
is that I'm going to recommend something that craps out
on somebody. And I always find myself recommending Honda's because
of that, to lesser extent, Toyota's and maybe Subarus. But
you know, for people who are not super wrecked in
the head and totally insane about cars and just want
basic transportation that's gonna over deliver, I'm always recommending Civics
(18:38):
and Chords and crbs, and they're just very very good,
soundly engineered things. Yeah, you can't go wrong recommending a Honda.
Nobody's nobody's ever going to come back to you and say,
I hate this thing exactly exactly. Nobody's mad about their Honda.
Nobody's pissed at it. Everybody's like as opposed to like
(18:58):
when I recommended the Volkswagen Phaeton. Yeah, I mean it's
like recommending a land Rover. You know, that's Russian roulette.
And that brings us to the last vehicle in the bracket,
the all new land Rover range Rover one hundred and
five k to start for the short wheelbase version and
(19:20):
the top of the line SV version opens at one
hundred and ninety five thousand dollars. We're not in Kansas anymore, man.
These things used to be farm implements, and now they're like,
you know, they fit six Kardashians. And BMW is back
(19:42):
on the scene. Say more about that. Yes, the range
Rover is once again powered by BMW VA, just as
it was in early two thousands. I feel like BMW
and land Rover are like a toxic couple where it's like,
I don't know, they're getting back together, well, maybe this
time it'll work. At BMW's friends are like, oh, I
(20:04):
remember last time Ford showed up, and then yeah, they're
getting married again. Where it's like a death the Nation wedding.
You spend all this money to go and everyone's growning.
But it actually the thing is, it does work really well.
You can see why this keeps happening. I mean, it
is the most distinctive suv. You look at it and
you go, oh my god, that thing is just gorgeous.
(20:26):
That's like the platonic ideal of what a luxury suv
should be. What's better than that? You know, maybe the
most desirable suv of all time, And in this generation
they've done such fine detail work on the exterior and
to some extent the interior. Like around the greenhouse of
that thing, there's no gasket. It just butts with the
(20:50):
glass perfectly. It's just so precisely made, and you look
around that whole thing and you're like, this is just
insane attention to detail. The surfacing of it is so
beautiful and so serene almost and so elegant that you
almost like, I kind of missed the old crappy one.
(21:10):
I don't know if I missed the crappy one, but
that the interesting trick that they pulled that's really hard
to do is to take a vehicle that has kind
of I hate the word iconic. But the Rangerover shape
is iconic, and it's super difficult to tune it up
for a new generation and not lose the unmistakable look
(21:33):
that it had, but also make it unmistakably new. Yeah,
and you know Bentley's wrestled with that with like Continental
GT they come out with and you know, come out
with a new one. Well it kind of looks like
the old one because well, they settled on their shape
and they don't want to screw it up. Rangerover managed
to take that Jerry McGovern sketch on a napkin and
turn it into something that is clearly the new generation.
(21:56):
All your neighbors are going to know you've got the
new one, right, but everybody else is also going to
know that you've got a Ranger Over that has to
be what you're looking at is a range Rover. You
don't have to explain it to anybody. No, you have
to explain to anybody. And they did it, like you said,
through all that fine detailing. It just looks slick and smooth,
but not just like this wind tunnel shaped boring egg. Yeah,
(22:19):
you know, I mean, it's still got the distinctive elements
that make it a range over right, the floating roof,
kind of the raised capitals on the hood. You sit
very high in it, so you can still kind of
peer down the side of the door to look at
what you're doing off road. This thing remains amazing off road.
Nobody will ever take it off road, not in this
(22:40):
country at least, but it is so incredibly tuned up
for that stuff. And you know, the wee articulations crazy.
It can ford a ton of water. But my question
with this one is is it too la? You know,
like have they smoothed it out too much? The great
thing about English car design is that every element is
(23:01):
sort of its own individual design. The lights are their
own little thing set into the body. It's not like
that's smooth Scandinavian style where the lights are sort of
wrapped around the body and like the same sort of
form of the body. On this one, it's so smooth.
It's so like global in a way, and so like
(23:25):
built for Dubai. You go, is this thing does it
really read as an English vehicle anymore? Well? If I
put on my Landrover product planner hat for a moment,
I would say that their response that I would probably
be well that's what the defenders for if you or Discovery,
if you want something that's a little bit more idiosyncratic
(23:48):
style wise, whereas the range rover has always been this
bejeweled thing, and this one is moving that further in
that direction. But to your point, it'll still go off road.
So if it'll still it'll still do all the silly
things while looking like that. I can see how you
(24:09):
say that puts it in the you're flossing in Dubai
sort of sort of aesthetic realm, right, they should have
like a Falconer's rod option in the bag. I did
take a range over off road some years ago, the
previous generation and the general public doesn't even realize how
good range overs are off road. So I showed up
(24:30):
at a jeep club event on Fort Bragg with a
ranger Over and the guys there said, hey, you want
to just park and ride with us. I'm like, no, no, no,
I can go where you guys go, trust me, And
I did. And their minds were blown because they've only
ever seen these things on the street. They've never seen
one out in the woods and clomping through mud and
going everywhere they were going, and they're you know, lifted XJS,
(24:51):
So I think that as long as it retained that ability,
then the style had to move forward, and it did.
And the fact that we can debate about it is
I think a good thing. Yeah. You know, if everybody,
if everybody agrees on every aspect of the way something looks,
then it's probably not that interesting. Yeah, and it's probably
not gonna la too long and be kind of captivating
(25:12):
for very long. And you know, this thing feels sort
of ten percent bigger in every dimension except the interior,
So it feels like it's escalated size on the exterior,
but inside it's kind of snug. Well, that's that's part
of the extravagance, the extravagance of wasted space, right. You
know when you have that the tumble Home, you know
they could have made the body side straight up and down.
(25:33):
But when you look at it, like from the back,
and it looks like you've got a TP on top
of a square basically because the roof can's in so hard.
That makes it look cool, but that also makes it
less practical inside. But look, the least practical things are
the ones that command the most money. When they're making
the two door Ranger over the last generation that was
the most expensive one, and people will pay premium to
(25:57):
be inconvenient if it looks cool. That's true, Yeah, to
work a little bit harder for style to suffer a
little bit. And it is one thing about the Ranger
over that as expensive as it is and always has been,
it still represents kind of a bargain because you do say, well,
what's above this? What am I going to get that's
better than this for an SUV? And the answer is
(26:18):
usually there isn't one. Yeah, I mean the g Wagon
I think is sort of in that same sort of
zip code, that same sort of you know zone, but
it's cruder, it's you know, it's not quite as refined,
and it's more money when you think it's also one
might say an acquired taste. Yeah, I've acquired it. You've
(26:43):
got to have You've gotta have a g Wagon attitude.
After the break, Ezra and I will rank all four SUVs.
(27:03):
We're back and it's time to decide which of these
four SUVs make it through to the final round. All
four of these vehicles are pretty spectacular in their own way,
from the kind of entry level or starter levels CRV
(27:28):
all the way up to the range Rover and sort
of everything in between, where do you net out? Like,
so I would put the Broncho Raptor last just because
it has some it is further to go. I would
agree with that because yes, a you feel like they
pulled a few punches despite how ridiculous it is in
so many ways. But also it's a very focused, niche thing,
(27:49):
and it's always easier to build something that's highly specialized
and highly compromise. In other way, it's like, yeah, it's
going to be great offer of a get horrible mileage
and cost a lot and on and on and on,
but be really good at this one thing. It's a
lot harder to make something like a CRV that's good
at a lot of things and appeals to a lot
of people will out being boring. Like the more you
(28:11):
spend building something and the more you charge for it,
the better it can be. Really and so a two
hundred thousand dollar range Rover to me is not such
a huge achievement, you know, it's not a quantum leap forward.
And to me, that's my number three vehicle in this bracket. Like,
I think the range Rover is great. I love it,
super desirable, somewhat non vehicular in its movements, sort of
(28:33):
like driving a couch. But man, I want one. I
think they're super cool and I like it's the perfect
thing to pull into the fancy grocery store with. Yeah,
it's like I want a Hinkley yacht too, right, I
want to Wally b. Yeah, but it is easier to
build a Hinkley yacht than it is to build something
that's going to be accessible for everybody. As we've said,
(28:55):
with a lot of cars in that price range for
that amount of money, it ought to be great. It is,
but it ought to be Yeah, the execution matches expectations.
So so I see where you're going. Is CRV and
GB seventy, which are both excellent vehicles and yet had
to be built to a price. They had to be
(29:16):
built to a price, but you can't really tell exactly exactly.
And I think the one that overachieves there is the
GB seventy. It's so incredibly good. That's my top pick.
That's the one I'm pushing forward. It came out of nowhere,
blew everybody's minds split the segment exactly down the middle.
(29:37):
The most I think buyer appeal of anything in that
segment for the widest possible buyer a little bit like CRV,
to be honest, But the CRV is just like, it's
not as cool as a GB seventy. You know, it's
an incredible achievement, and it's incrementally better than the last one,
which is also a great achievement. But the GB seventy
(29:57):
is just like, that's a moon shot to me. So
are we only picking one here? Only picking one to
go forward? We're only picking one? Well, Eddy, I hate
to agree with you on everything, but you know, if
I look at this as which one of these would
I actually want to go by? Now, Like, if I
were laying my own money on the line, which is
(30:18):
the most compelling vehicle that I would want to go get?
It would be the GB seventy. That's a car that
I would want to show up in. It's got desirability,
it's got curb appeal, super comfortable, great user interface, all
the things all right, and actually, which I regard as
(30:38):
a bonus anti badge appeal. A lot of people don't
know what a genesis is still, So you're not paying
whatever the tariff is on that Mercedes Star on your hood,
You're not paying that for a genesis. They're strivers. They're
trying to overtake those other companies, and you can really
tell from their products. Yeah, they're just trying harder, they're
(30:59):
working it and they're sweating every little detail. Yeah, they
want that badge to mean something in the future. I
still feel like, if you pick up one of those
right now, you're early. You're leading the way, right, You're
a thought leader, You're an early adopter. No one ever
says that to me, but yeah, hypothetically I'm a thoughlier. Yeah, yes,
(31:22):
I'm comfortable with the GV seventy. Moving on, Okay, great, excellent.
So this luxury compact SUV slays the range Rover, it
slays the stalwart Honda CRV, and it slays ultimately the
(31:44):
multi species Broncho Raptor. Thank you, Ezra. You are hilarious
and great and so full of insight. Can't thank you enough. Man,
thanks for having me. Man. Now, Producer Sam Dingman and
I get behind the wheel of the GV seventy to
see what the fuss is all about. I just noticed
(32:09):
seatbelts are cut. Look, I mean, look at the level
of detail and this thing. You can tell that the
guy who designed this designed Bentley's and Lamborghinis. I mean,
it is so deluxe and it's so beautifully executed. Look
at this line, this line of chrome that starts at
(32:34):
the door, the back of the door, goes through the vents,
kicks up over the instrument binnacle, which is has this
exposed stitch by the way, then goes through all these
other vents around to the other door, and just creates
this kind of seamless connected interior space. And you know
(32:58):
this design, this eyebrow design over the binnacle kind of
repeats in the third stoplight. I mean, there's all these
little touches that are so incredibly thoughtful and smart, and
just like this is hard stuff to do, especially at
this price point. I mean, I think this is the
equivalent of, you know, the most luxurious luxury car interior.
(33:22):
It's not perfect, it's not Apple, it's Samsung. Okay, let's
drive it a little, let's take it out. Okay. So
I'm turning the crystal neurld gear selector to drive, and
we're going to drive this car in its native habitat.
I do have to admit turning the knob to shift
gears did feel a little bit like I was turning
(33:44):
on a washing machine, It's true. And then you have
you park it or you put it in park by
pushing the cycle button. Yeah, okay, now we're back and drive.
The ride is so supple, the transmission is just silky smooth,
and yet at the same time there's a little growl
in the engine. You know, it's sort of having it
(34:06):
both ways. It's it really is like, you know, it's
your lexus in your BMW all in one right, right,
it's that middle ground. It is just absolutely serene. There's
no wind noise, not a lot of tire noise. It
just really calms you down and keeps you kind of fresh.
(34:30):
You know, all the glass is coded non reflective quiet glass.
I mean you see that in all luxury cars. But
it's not only the decibel reading. It's also the quality
of the sound. And the quality of sound is really
good in here. I think it's really really dry and
nice and you know. Calming Car Show is written and
(34:58):
hosted by me Eddie Alterman. It's produced by Emily Rosstec
and Jacob Smith. Our editor is Karen Shakerge. Original music
and mastering by Ben Holliday. Our executive producer is Mia Loebell.
Our show art was designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed
by Greg la Fever special thanks to Sam Dingman, producer extraordinaire.
(35:24):
We really had to twist his arm to get him
in the passenger seat. Our patron saints, as always are
we Tom Allad and Justine Lane. Car Show is a
production of Pushkin Industries. If you have this show and
others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
(35:44):
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and
uninterrupted listening for just four ninety nine a month. Look
for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions. To find more
Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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