September 19, 2023 • 30 mins
Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in the creation of a Ford F-150? This episode serves up a hearty mix of insider information, exciting new updates, and industry discussions. Our special guest, Brian Bell, Ford F-150 marketing manager, spills the beans on the 2024 model updates set to change truck industry standards. We cover the advent of the pro access tailgate, the transition from a 3.3 liter V6 engine to a 2.7 liter EcoBoost V6 engine, and the swap of the Limited trim model for the Platinum Plus model. We also take a moment to acknowledge two emerging stars in car sales.
As we delve deeper, Brian offers an exclusive look into the production and ordering process of the F-150. He shares the thought process behind the introduction of the Coast to Coast grill, LED headlamps, and the clever simplification that enhanced the order process. We also discuss how this simplification extended to the production process, leading to a notable increase in the quality of the truck. For those eagerly waiting for their F-150, we squeeze out some information about the delivery timeline and where to place your order.
We also chat about the new 2.7L twin turbo V6 engine, offering improved horsepower and torque compared to its four-cylinder predecessor. As we wrap up, we can't help but look forward to what the 2024 model will bring and we extend an open invitation to you, our listeners, to join us for our live show every Saturday morning. Get ready for a comprehensive exploration of Ford's journey to maintain their truck sales dominance. It's a thrilling ride you won't want to miss!
Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to another In-Wheel Time Podcast, a 30
minute mini version of theIn-Wheel Time Car Show that airs
live every Saturday morning 8to 11am central.
Yes, it is the In-Wheel TimeCar Talk Show and coming up.
We'll speak with Brian Bell,the Ford F-150 marketing manager
(00:26):
, about the updated 2024 F-150.
Conrad has this week in AutoHistory and we'll get you caught
up on the stories making carnews this week.
Howdy, along with Mike out ofthis World, mars King, conrad
DeLong.
We always need more, jeff Zekin.
I'm Don Armstrong, glad thatyou could join us on this
(00:47):
Saturday live broadcast.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'll do a quick shout out, please.
I met a couple of young salesprofessionals this past week, a
young lady by the name ofMerriam and a young man
nicknamed Ramp.
They work at a Subaru storehere in Houston.
Met him earlier this week.
Young folks eager to go out andsell cars.
So congratulations on that andgo sell something.
Go sell something.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Good, well, I think that F-150 sales in that
department have not waned any.
For what?
Four decades something likethat.
Yeah, top of the heap, top ofthe heap.
And for a reason Ford managesto when they do updates, they
(01:31):
don't turn anybody off, theyturn a lot of people on with the
updates that they do.
Man, I sure like that new 2024that's coming out.
Yeah, my 2022 has now got youknow 30,000 miles on it.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I'm going to have to go buy me a brand new one.
I need a new one.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, I'm going to be freshening the F-150 lineup for
24 and planning to doubleoutput of the hybrid variant as
it seeks to maintain the truck'ssales dominance.
The updated pickup goes on saleearly next year.
It was revealed Tuesday aheadof the Detroit Auto Show.
(02:08):
It includes freshened hybridtrimmer and raptor variants with
new design elements andimproved tailgate functionality.
And I don't want to steal anyof his thunder, let's just talk
to him now.
Brian, good morning to you.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Good morning.
Thanks for having me on the airand I'm excited to be here.
I'm also excited to hear you'reready for a new 24-mile a year.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I'll bet you are Send it and you know I'm going to
have to make a request.
Can I make a request, of course?
Okay, I want the Dallas PressFleet to be the very first to
get a 2024 model and I want meto get the phone call from you
(02:55):
guys and go.
We have it for you.
Come and get it and so have itdelivered to my house.
I want to drive thisimmediately.
Now I understand that the 2024model this is just a refresh, if
you will.
The underpinnings are prettymuch the same as they have been
here in the past few years.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, you know, we freshen the look of the truck
and we added a some great newfeatures and technology for our
customers.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I want to talk about the tailgate.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Oh.
Of, course, our new pro accesstailgate.
We are the most excited aboutthat, right.
I mean we, you know, we, we, wereally pride ourselves in
knowing how our customers usetrucks and when we we want to
look at the tailgate and saidhow can we make it better for
customers, we developed thistailgate with a swing door in
the middle of it so it worksstill as a traditional tailgate,
has this swing door thatactually works when you're
towing a trailer.
So you know, if you, if youlook at it at our customers,
(03:47):
about 75% of our customers tellus they tow trailers with their
trucks.
So it's an important thing forthem.
I mean, and I do right as well.
So when you're towing thattrailer, to have that swing gate
that'll open up and work withthat trailer so that you can get
those items in and out.
For me it's the boat right, Ican get my boat gear, my coolers
, things like that, out of thetailgate without reaching over.
Well, I've got the truck, theboat, on the back, right where
(04:08):
we just think it's a.
It's a really, really usefultool, another way to improve
that F-150 to really help thosecustomers.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, I can't wait to see the way that it works, and
I know that there'll probably belots of videos out there about
how it works probably onealready, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah, and we may run one here in just a second,
because I've got it off the Fordwebsite.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, very good.
So that's one of the things.
The other thing is is that youguys are gonna make some Changes
when it comes to engines.
You're gonna drop the 3.3 literv6 and replace it with the 2.7
liter EcoBoost four cylinder.
Now you know, as an old car guy, you're gonna go wait a minute.
(04:47):
You're going first you go froma V8 To a v6 and now you're
gonna drop it down to a four,but the four banger has more
guts to it than the six did well, just just for clarification,
our 2.7 liter eco boost is a v6.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Oh, it is, and we have a competitor that might
have a 2, 7 with a four cylinder.
Ours is a v6 and, you're right,it produces 400 horsepower 325
horsepower, 400 foot pound oftorque right.
So the it's a it's a torquemonster engine and we're really
excited to make that thestandard engine for the truck,
thinking it's gonna be great forthose customers a 2.7 liter v6
(05:23):
eco boost yeah, well, go ahead.
Phenomenal motor it really.
When people drive it, they justyou know they love it right.
It does so many things well.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And the other thing that I understand, that you guys
are going to actually have theplatinum plus Replacing the
limited top trim model.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, so you know it, we took that limited.
It's been around a long timeand it's a great series for us.
But there's some confusion onthe name and the showroom and
and so we thought it was a greatopportunity to kind of Pull all
that luxury vehicle up underone name and have it be platinum
in our showroom, with theplatinum and then the platinum
plus package on it, you know, tokind of help customers and and
(06:05):
help build that platinum brandup.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
But, and you guys are actually really pumping up the
hybrid.
I understand.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah, so hybrid is a real advantage for us.
I mean, we call it the, the,the and solution power trainer.
I like to think it was theultimate institution power and
it's got power and fuelefficiency and Pro power on
board right.
So the the no other gas vehiclein the segment has that
capability to have a mobilegenerator with them, you know,
(06:32):
and so you can take up to 7.2kilowatts of power with you
anywhere you go.
And we, you know, we hear suchgreat stories from all over the
place about how people are usingtheir pro power on board system
.
We actually last week heardabout a, a Dentist up in Maine
that Does it has a mobiledentist office.
They take it to very ruralcommunities and give free dental
work to people that need it,and you know they used to, you
(06:55):
know, have to take trucks withtheir generators and gas cans
and things to power it.
They now just have a powerboost hybrid that pulls their,
pulls their mobile dentaltrailer and they power that
whole mobile dental trailer withpro power on board right.
It gets your teeth fixed, it'scurve service.
You know we hear about thingslike that and there's so many
stories about saving weddingsand, and you know the, the, of
(07:17):
course, the outages in Texas,that where the pro power on
board, the power boost, helppeople, and so we're really
excited to kind of help spreadthis technology even farther.
So you know, we're planning todouble our mix of the of the
engine and we've dropped theprice by $1900 to do that.
So it's actually the same priceas our 35 eco boost engine now.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
That's impressive.
Yeah Well, you know you.
You have to stay number one,and the way to do that is doing
these updates and changes.
That goes with the market atthe time.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, we've been the truck leader for 46 years and
again, like I said, we we reallypride ourselves on Learning the
customer and knowing thecustomer and knowing how they
use their truck and and tryingto help them get more use out of
it.
We think of the truck as a tool, right, every people who buy a
truck.
They need a truck to do truckthings.
It's a tool for them.
We want to make it the besttool in your toolbox.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, now wait just a minute.
You know, not everybody usestheir truck for work down here
in Texas.
It's all about the look, myfriend.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
You know that there are Appearance but but when you
look at our usages even thosefolks that that buy it once they
have a truck, they find usesfor it right.
They learn that the hope usefulthe truck could be.
I personally I like to think ofit as the perfect vehicle.
It does everything well right.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Well, that's why you sell so many of them.
And let's, let's face it, Imean the, the back seat of the,
the four-door, I mean it mightas well be an limousine.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It's just as comfortable.
Right All the room, leg room,ride, comfort, quiet it's
everything you need.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Now for all of those tech guys.
I understand that you guys havebumped it up to the 5G LTE
modem.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
We have.
So we put some technology inthe truck as well.
We've standardized the 5G LTEmodem in the truck so that when
we get those over there updatesthey'll be faster and quicker.
And if you use the truck as aWi-Fi hotspot to power up to
your 10 devices, it'll of coursegive you a faster service for
that.
But we also added some othernew technologies to the truck.
We standardized our great12-inch touchscreen all the way
(09:18):
through the lineup.
We've got the new BlueCruisecommon that'll actually do lane
change assist.
We put a heads-up display inthe truck so people don't have
to look down and in our heads-updisplay you can actually have
different views.
If you're towing a trailer, ifyou're going off-road, we change
the views in it to really behelpful to you, right?
So we've put some other newtechnology in the truck as well.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well go ahead, mr.
I like heads-up displays.
I mean, I love them.
I mean the fact that you'reputting even more information up
there to me is just wonderful.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
And the trailer view is a great idea as well, because
if you're pulling a trailer,how many times do you look over
your shoulder and take your eyesoff the road to make sure
you're in the right position?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Or maybe I'll make sure that the trailer's still
back there.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I've been known to do that.
Yes, I have too.
Was that my?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
trailer that just came by.
It passed me by.
Yeah, Wait a minute, what'sthat going off into the ditch?
But oh, that's my trailer.
Yeah, there are those kinds ofthings.
I wanted to talk to you alittle bit about the Blue Cruise
technology, the Hands Free.
Sure, you know I've had someexperiences with the Hands Free
(10:23):
driving and I will tell you thata lot of it has to do with the
markings on the road, and if themarkings on the road aren't
there, you could get intotrouble pretty quick.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
So you know I've driven quite a few miles with it
and you're right, sometimes themarkings on the road thin, but
the truck tells you and it tellsyou to grab onto the steering
wheel.
It comes along very quickly andhelps you pay attention.
And you know, when you use BlueCruise there's a camera that
watches your eyes to make sureyou're paying attention to the
road.
And so my experience with it onlong trips is I think I pay
better attention than evenwithout it.
(10:56):
Right, you're watching the road, the trucks making sure you do,
but at the same time, when youget to your destination 10 hours
later, you're not nearly astired or exhausted, you're
fresher through that trip.
I was surprised by that thefirst time I used it, from St
Louis to Detroit, how thatfeeling was with me.
And now we're making it evenbetter right, so that we've
(11:16):
improved it.
You know works with even moreroads, it changes lanes for you
and it has better lane centering.
So you know we're continuallyimproving that technology as
well.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I want to ask you about where the truck is being
built, and is the UAW strikegoing to affect the delivery of
the 24 for the spring?
Speaker 4 (11:42):
So the F-150s are built at our Dearborn Assembly
Plant and an assembly plant inKansas City and at this point
the plant that the union isstriking is a different assembly
facility, so it doesn't impactF-150.
But I know we got great peopleon both sides of that trying to
work through it and hopefullythey get to an agreement soon.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, is it the Rouge plant that the truck is being
built?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, the old Rouge plant at Dearborn.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, oh, that's awesome, but you guys have other
assemblies for the F-150.
I mean, you can't make them allin one place, right Too?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
many.
We make them also in KansasCity.
We've got a fantastic facilitydown there, our Kansas City
Assembly Plant.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I've actually got a segment coming up about plants,
so it's lead right into it.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
That's good to know.
Okay, so let's talk aboutdelivery to the dealer.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yep, so they'll come out to dealers the first part of
next year.
We're taking orders now.
The order banks are open.
You can go on Fordcom on ourbuilding price and spec out what
you're looking for and go toyour dealer and order it and
then they should be in showroomsfirst part of next year.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Now doing my homework here.
Somewhere I read the fact thatyou've kind of cut back on some
of the individual orders, as faras you know, the individual
things that are available toorder, and you've packaged them
up to make it simpler to buy.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, so F-150 has been a fairly complicated
vehicle for our customers toorder, so we spent quite a bit
of time these last couple ofyears really trying to make it
easier for them.
We still got a great fulllineup all the way from our work
truck XL all the way up to thePlatinum Plus and, of course,
raptor and Tremor.
Right, because we've got thefull lineup.
We're just making it simplerfor those customers to order.
So an example is Raptor now isdown to six ways to order it.
(13:32):
Really, you know, really easyto order and we reduce
complexity across our lineup byover 90%.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Well, I'll never forget, when I first started
doing this many years ago withreviews and that sort of thing,
I talked to one of the guys thathandles the press and I said so
how many options are there?
There are so many that I can'teven count them all, because if
you really want to get down toit, you can change axle ratios,
(14:00):
transmissions, all of thesedifferent things that you can
customize for your truck, andthat's what makes it really
unique, especially for the guythat's using the truck for work.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
But I think on the assembly side of things,
simplifying the build has provenincreasing the quality, because
when you don't have so manychoices to make, everything's
consistent in how it's puttogether.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
It really.
You know, simplifying it reallybenefits all the parties
involved.
We're going to make it a loteasier for customers to go in
and spec out their truck.
Of course we're going to makeit easier to engineer and
manufacture.
By simplifying it we're alsomaking it easier for dealers to
stock right.
So when dealers stock thatinventory it's tough for them to
figure out what to stock.
So really all parties involvedare going to benefit from this.
(14:47):
And you know we used a lot ofdata to kind of help decide what
features went together.
We also had dealers help us.
It's been a long project tomake sure we did it right and,
like I said, customers can gosee that now on Fordcom.
We still have a full line ofaccessories on there that
they'll see as well.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
So, Brian, do you know Mike Levine?
Of course I do.
Well, you know Mike used to bedown here in Texas.
Yeah, oh, yeah, Well, hey, hey,Mike John, we love Mike Levine.
And listen, when we get to seeMike Levine which is rare
(15:27):
because he's become a superstaramong the press you know it's
always good to give him a nudgeor, you know, give him a hard
time.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Oh, Mike's fantastic.
I was actually, you know,working with a company when he
was a journalist and, you know,got interviewed by him numerous
times and then getting to workwith him.
He is fantastic.
He's still full of energy andgreat ideas and he just, you
know, it doesn't get any betterthan Mike.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, he is definitely full of energy.
And here is the famous MikeLevine line Well, we don't talk
about future product, that's thefamous line.
Yeah, so he's gone to the otherside and now he knows the lingo
, that's for sure.
So he's full of it.
Well, yeah, anyway, so we canorder them now.
(16:14):
They're going to be indealerships in the spring, you
say.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, First part of the year.
After the first of the yearthey'll start to show up in
showrooms.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Okay, very good.
Well, one of the things that Iwas doing, my research here I
get online and I start lookingat all of the stuff that's
available and the changes.
You know, the grill seems tochange with the trim level.
Was I just?
Was I out of my mind when Inoticed that?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
No.
So what we have from our XL, stxand XLT and Tremor, they use
what's called our new Coast toCoast grill, where the grill
actually goes around theheadlamps and it has an we're
standard LED headlamps in thetruck and those headlamps have
like an orange signature lightin them.
And then our Lariat, king Ranch,platinum and Raptor have a more
traditional kind of, you know,a standup grill that has also a
(17:01):
new grill, a new headlamp that'sgot our white signature
lighting in the C-clamp design.
So we really tried to you know,when you sell this many trucks
and you have the kind of series,we tried to help differentiate
it and give some different looks.
And frankly, that new Coast toCoast grill that's going to be
on our highest volume.
It looks fantastic.
It's got a bit of a retro feelto it from that you know 80s
(17:22):
kind of 90s truck in there andthen at the same time it's just
got this really strong, wide,powerful stance.
And then of course, ourhigh-end grills are really, you
know, really premium and drawout that tradition that
customers are used to the lastfew years with our C-clamp
signature lighting design.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, well, you guys did a great job in that regard
and we sure appreciate youtalking to us today, and please
forgive me if I offended you inany way, but I was kind of
surprised at the 2.7 being a V6and not a four-cylinder.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
So we launched it.
You know the engine launched asa 2.7 V6 in 2015.
And it's been a big part of ourlineup and, of course, we've
improved it over the years andnow standardizing it, making
that the standard engine withall that capability.
Right, it's got greatperformance, great horsepower,
torque numbers, great fueleconomy for customers.
(18:16):
You know, we really think it'sa really good move to make that
the standard powertrain of thetruck for those customers.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Anybody anything else ?
No, I was.
I think it makes sense on theV6 because to me that's where
you're gonna get a little moretorque, like you're talking
about.
You're getting a lot moretorque out of that than you
would like an inline for, Ithink yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Yeah, 400 foot pounds .
And you get of course with that, with the technology unit, that
twin turbo direct fuelinjection, it's that torque
curve comes out very quickly, soyou get that torque really,
really fast.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
And that's important to the truck buyers, because I
would think there are some truckbuyers that would be a little
less excited about a fourcylinder versus a V6.
They're gonna want, you know,they're gonna want the more
power available.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, that's because of the torque thing and the
whole idea behind towing.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, Brian, it's great to talkto you and we sure appreciate
you taking the time out of yourSaturday to talk to us.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
No, I appreciate you having me on.
Let me talk about the new 24ball of air F-150 again.
Anybody wants any information?
Go to Fordcom.
We've got all the informationthere that they can find about
the truck.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
And be sure to post it on our social media.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
And be sure to tell Michael Levine we said hello.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
I will do that right now.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
All right brother take care.
Have a great Saturday you too,All right time now on the
In-Wheel Time car talk show forConrad's this Week in Auto
History.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Well, I thought an important person in time in the
automotive history.
It was 35 years ago thatlegendary auto designer Bill
Mitchell passed away in 1988.
And if you look at his history,he started with a 1949 Cadillac
the origination of tail finsand then actually he moved on to
(20:01):
the Corvair Monza SS, whichdoesn't look like a what you
think a typical Corvair.
I actually think there's a lotof Opal GT in that.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Oh, Corvette.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Corvette, corvette and then well, you mentioned
Corvette.
He was involved in the CorvetteSpecial Racer, which was the
race car Corvette for the 63Corvette, and then he was also
the designer of the 63 CorvetteSplit Window.
And the Split Window was verycontroversial.
Zora didn't like the SplitWindow, but Mitchell loved it
(20:38):
because of the design of it.
He thought it was veryimportant for it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, it wasn't.
One of the main reasons is theycouldn't get the glass to go
totally across.
Yeah, the glass technology hadbeen advanced.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
And then in 64 they did, they took the Split out of
it.
Mitchell also had a 1966Oldsmobile GT two-seater built
which was, you know, big 425front wheel drive two-seat
Oldsmobile, which I thought waskind of a cool thing.
And then in 66 he did a CorvairGT as well.
Again his involvement in theCorvair side of things.
(21:11):
Mitchell was also the designerof the original Corvette Mako
Shark from 1967.
If you well, that's the 65Riviera.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
We saw it, it went by Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
And then and Mitchell , his love of the Buick brand
and he did a lot of thedifferent Riviera's through the
years and that was always one ofmy favorite, the little boat
tail on the Riviera which waskind of an iteration of the
Corvette rear glass as well.
And then he did the Astro-1,the Astro-2, and the Astro-3,
(21:48):
which are all considered designstudies of future Corvettes.
I need that chair.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Look at that chair, isn't it awesome.
It's got a Cadillac logo on it.
Christmas is coming.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
So and then you know also, mitchell did the 1970
Camaro and the 1970 throughactually lasted through 81
Camaro.
We're all a bit of Mitchelldesign.
That's the, that's the MantaRay Corvette that he did as well
.
And then the final thing wasthe Ponti 1977 Pontiac Phantom,
(22:28):
which was his final design, wasthe Pontiac Phantom.
He was involved in the MonteCarlo's as well, the 7073 Monte
Carlo's which I always thoughtwas the start of that personal
luxury car, the Grand Prix MonteCarlo, that whole generation.
This is the Phantom.
If you look at the Phantom,mitchell had a very retro view
(22:49):
of things.
You know the red inside fenderswhich is a retro thing out of a
50s model Buick, and you lookat the nose on that Phantom and
you can definitely see thePontiac family to it.
So very, very famous personwithin car design.
He'd worked with Harley Earl inhis early season at General
(23:12):
Motors and then ran GM designlater in his life and huge
impact on automotive designthrough time.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Very good.
Thank you, sir.
Of course the big story todayin the news is the UAW Strike at
the Detroit three and we'regoing to talk more about that
the top of next hour.
In the meantime and in betweentimes we have the recalls not a
lot of them, but in operativerear turn signals on the Subaru
(23:44):
BRZ and the Toyota GR86.
Rear view camera image may notdisplay on the several KIAs the
Sorento, the Sorento Hybrid andthe Sorento PHEV for 22 and 23.
The Audi e-tron GT and the RSe-tron GT.
(24:05):
Insufficient sealant on thehigh voltage battery.
That's not good.
No it's electrifying and I thinkevery Taycan from Porsche is
being recalled for 2023.
And I don't get a list of allhere, but insufficient sealant
again on the high voltagebattery, clearly sharing it with
(24:27):
the Audi e-tron.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
All $100,000 plus cars.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah.
So I know that we have a lot oflisteners that have $100,000
plus cars, don't you agree,george George?
George, george does.
Yeah, he definitely has$100,000 car.
Us markets share for electricvehicles rose to 7.2% in January
(24:52):
to July period, according tonew vehicle registration data
from Experian.
With Tesla spurring demand withescalating price cuts
throughout the year, New US EVregistrations rose to 655,000 in
the seven month period, for a67% rise over the year earlier
(25:14):
period when EV share was 4.9%.
Total new light vehicleregistrations for the seven
months about 9.1 million.
So you can see, in comparisonit's really kind of tiny If you
look at the overall.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
And if you took away the government subsidies for EVs
, I imagine the market sharewould fall.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, tesla outweighs them all 59.5% share of the EV
market.
All of the rest of them are inthe single digits or less.
So you know they're gettingthere, but it's gonna take a
long while and I think thatthere are a lot of reservations
about diving into owning an EV.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Well, if you kind of watch, If you watch the news
this week Pete Buttigieg wasfussing about he couldn't get
his EV car charged somewherebecause I guess somebody had
parked in front of the chargeron him.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
No, that wasn't him, it was secretary.
It wasn't him at all, it wasthe lady.
Secretary of transportation orsomething like that.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Whatever?
Yeah, but it was.
They were making a big dealabout taking this EV road trip
and they got burned.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah not literally, but I was called no.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I mean that yeah, literally yeah.
They ran into a lot of issueswith chargers not work stuff
that we run into all the timenow.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, they had a nice they had a nice engine ice car
parked in a electric spot.
Reserve it for her.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, well, I will tell you that I drove through
the Whole Foods parking lot,where my famous EV charger is.
It's all rusted.
This is, this is an EV go Okaycharging station.
It's all rusted, looks likeit's been there for decades and
then it doesn't work.
Wow one time I went and onetime I went there and it didn't
(27:10):
work, so could you think it's a?
Whole foods.
No, I know of all places.
Well, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
So the government's gonna spend billions of dollars
Upgrading all of these chargingstations at your expense.
Yeah, well, yes well, there's alot of things that they do at
my expense that I'm not sure todo something you don't want time
now for a quick break.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
We'll be right back here on the in wheel time car
talk show.
Stay with us.
The original group of loopytortilla restaurants will have
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(27:51):
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(28:13):
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The award-winning in wheel timecar talk shows available on the
most popular podcast channelsout there in 30-minute episodes.
We realize our three-hour liveshow can be difficult to catch
(29:42):
in its entirety, so now you canlisten every day to a convenient
, fresh 30-minute episode.
Check us out on Apple podcasts,spotify, google podcasts,
amazon music and audible, alongwith a dozen more in real time
as the most informativeautomotive guest interviews and
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Conrad's car clinic and thisweek in auto history, along with
automotive news headlines.
(30:03):
Our live broadcast here isevery Saturday, 8 to 11, central
on in will time calm, theiHeart app and on YouTube.
Be sure to say hello when we'rebroadcasting from the tailpipes
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Now it's easier than ever tohear about all things automotive
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You're invited to join fellowcar enthusiasts and becoming
(30:24):
part of the ever-growing inwheel time car talk family.
Don't forget those 30-minutepodcast episodes on your
favorite podcast channel.
That's it for this podcastepisode of the in wheel time car
show.
I'm Don Armstrong, inviting youto join us for our live show
every Saturday morning, 8 to 11am Central on Facebook, youtube,
twitch and our in wheel timecomm website.
(30:46):
Podcasts are available on Applepodcast, spotify, stitcher,
iheart podcast, podcast addicttune in Pandora.
Welcome to another In-Wheel Time Podcast, a 30
minute mini version of theIn-Wheel Time Car Show that airs
live every Saturday morning 8to 11am central.
Yes, it is the In-Wheel TimeCar Talk Show and coming up.
We'll speak with Brian Bell,the Ford F-150 marketing manager
(00:26):
, about the updated 2024 F-150.
Conrad has this week in AutoHistory and we'll get you caught
up on the stories making carnews this week.
Howdy, along with Mike out ofthis World, mars King, conrad
DeLong.
We always need more, jeff Zekin.
I'm Don Armstrong, glad thatyou could join us on this
(00:47):
Saturday live broadcast.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'll do a quick shout out, please.
I met a couple of young salesprofessionals this past week, a
young lady by the name ofMerriam and a young man
nicknamed Ramp.
They work at a Subaru storehere in Houston.
Met him earlier this week.
Young folks eager to go out andsell cars.
So congratulations on that andgo sell something.
Go sell something.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Good, well, I think that F-150 sales in that
department have not waned any.
For what?
Four decades something likethat.
Yeah, top of the heap, top ofthe heap.
And for a reason Ford managesto when they do updates, they
(01:31):
don't turn anybody off, theyturn a lot of people on with the
updates that they do.
Man, I sure like that new 2024that's coming out.
Yeah, my 2022 has now got youknow 30,000 miles on it.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I'm going to have to go buy me a brand new one.
I need a new one.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, I'm going to be freshening the F-150 lineup for
24 and planning to doubleoutput of the hybrid variant as
it seeks to maintain the truck'ssales dominance.
The updated pickup goes on saleearly next year.
It was revealed Tuesday aheadof the Detroit Auto Show.
(02:08):
It includes freshened hybridtrimmer and raptor variants with
new design elements andimproved tailgate functionality.
And I don't want to steal anyof his thunder, let's just talk
to him now.
Brian, good morning to you.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Good morning.
Thanks for having me on the airand I'm excited to be here.
I'm also excited to hear you'reready for a new 24-mile a year.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I'll bet you are Send it and you know I'm going to
have to make a request.
Can I make a request, of course?
Okay, I want the Dallas PressFleet to be the very first to
get a 2024 model and I want meto get the phone call from you
(02:55):
guys and go.
We have it for you.
Come and get it and so have itdelivered to my house.
I want to drive thisimmediately.
Now I understand that the 2024model this is just a refresh, if
you will.
The underpinnings are prettymuch the same as they have been
here in the past few years.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, you know, we freshen the look of the truck
and we added a some great newfeatures and technology for our
customers.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I want to talk about the tailgate.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Oh.
Of, course, our new pro accesstailgate.
We are the most excited aboutthat, right.
I mean we, you know, we, we, wereally pride ourselves in
knowing how our customers usetrucks and when we we want to
look at the tailgate and saidhow can we make it better for
customers, we developed thistailgate with a swing door in
the middle of it so it worksstill as a traditional tailgate,
has this swing door thatactually works when you're
towing a trailer.
So you know, if you, if youlook at it at our customers,
(03:47):
about 75% of our customers tellus they tow trailers with their
trucks.
So it's an important thing forthem.
I mean, and I do right as well.
So when you're towing thattrailer, to have that swing gate
that'll open up and work withthat trailer so that you can get
those items in and out.
For me it's the boat right, Ican get my boat gear, my coolers
, things like that, out of thetailgate without reaching over.
Well, I've got the truck, theboat, on the back, right where
(04:08):
we just think it's a.
It's a really, really usefultool, another way to improve
that F-150 to really help thosecustomers.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, I can't wait to see the way that it works, and
I know that there'll probably belots of videos out there about
how it works probably onealready, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah, and we may run one here in just a second,
because I've got it off the Fordwebsite.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, very good.
So that's one of the things.
The other thing is is that youguys are gonna make some Changes
when it comes to engines.
You're gonna drop the 3.3 literv6 and replace it with the 2.7
liter EcoBoost four cylinder.
Now you know, as an old car guy, you're gonna go wait a minute.
(04:47):
You're going first you go froma V8 To a v6 and now you're
gonna drop it down to a four,but the four banger has more
guts to it than the six did well, just just for clarification,
our 2.7 liter eco boost is a v6.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Oh, it is, and we have a competitor that might
have a 2, 7 with a four cylinder.
Ours is a v6 and, you're right,it produces 400 horsepower 325
horsepower, 400 foot pound oftorque right.
So the it's a it's a torquemonster engine and we're really
excited to make that thestandard engine for the truck,
thinking it's gonna be great forthose customers a 2.7 liter v6
(05:23):
eco boost yeah, well, go ahead.
Phenomenal motor it really.
When people drive it, they justyou know they love it right.
It does so many things well.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And the other thing that I understand, that you guys
are going to actually have theplatinum plus Replacing the
limited top trim model.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, so you know it, we took that limited.
It's been around a long timeand it's a great series for us.
But there's some confusion onthe name and the showroom and
and so we thought it was a greatopportunity to kind of Pull all
that luxury vehicle up underone name and have it be platinum
in our showroom, with theplatinum and then the platinum
plus package on it, you know, tokind of help customers and and
(06:05):
help build that platinum brandup.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
But, and you guys are actually really pumping up the
hybrid.
I understand.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah, so hybrid is a real advantage for us.
I mean, we call it the, the,the and solution power trainer.
I like to think it was theultimate institution power and
it's got power and fuelefficiency and Pro power on
board right.
So the the no other gas vehiclein the segment has that
capability to have a mobilegenerator with them, you know,
(06:32):
and so you can take up to 7.2kilowatts of power with you
anywhere you go.
And we, you know, we hear suchgreat stories from all over the
place about how people are usingtheir pro power on board system
.
We actually last week heardabout a, a Dentist up in Maine
that Does it has a mobiledentist office.
They take it to very ruralcommunities and give free dental
work to people that need it,and you know they used to, you
(06:55):
know, have to take trucks withtheir generators and gas cans
and things to power it.
They now just have a powerboost hybrid that pulls their,
pulls their mobile dentaltrailer and they power that
whole mobile dental trailer withpro power on board right.
It gets your teeth fixed, it'scurve service.
You know we hear about thingslike that and there's so many
stories about saving weddingsand, and you know the, the, of
(07:17):
course, the outages in Texas,that where the pro power on
board, the power boost, helppeople, and so we're really
excited to kind of help spreadthis technology even farther.
So you know, we're planning todouble our mix of the of the
engine and we've dropped theprice by $1900 to do that.
So it's actually the same priceas our 35 eco boost engine now.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
That's impressive.
Yeah Well, you know you.
You have to stay number one,and the way to do that is doing
these updates and changes.
That goes with the market atthe time.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, we've been the truck leader for 46 years and
again, like I said, we we reallypride ourselves on Learning the
customer and knowing thecustomer and knowing how they
use their truck and and tryingto help them get more use out of
it.
We think of the truck as a tool, right, every people who buy a
truck.
They need a truck to do truckthings.
It's a tool for them.
We want to make it the besttool in your toolbox.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, now wait just a minute.
You know, not everybody usestheir truck for work down here
in Texas.
It's all about the look, myfriend.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
You know that there are Appearance but but when you
look at our usages even thosefolks that that buy it once they
have a truck, they find usesfor it right.
They learn that the hope usefulthe truck could be.
I personally I like to think ofit as the perfect vehicle.
It does everything well right.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Well, that's why you sell so many of them.
And let's, let's face it, Imean the, the back seat of the,
the four-door, I mean it mightas well be an limousine.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It's just as comfortable.
Right All the room, leg room,ride, comfort, quiet it's
everything you need.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Now for all of those tech guys.
I understand that you guys havebumped it up to the 5G LTE
modem.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
We have.
So we put some technology inthe truck as well.
We've standardized the 5G LTEmodem in the truck so that when
we get those over there updatesthey'll be faster and quicker.
And if you use the truck as aWi-Fi hotspot to power up to
your 10 devices, it'll of coursegive you a faster service for
that.
But we also added some othernew technologies to the truck.
We standardized our great12-inch touchscreen all the way
(09:18):
through the lineup.
We've got the new BlueCruisecommon that'll actually do lane
change assist.
We put a heads-up display inthe truck so people don't have
to look down and in our heads-updisplay you can actually have
different views.
If you're towing a trailer, ifyou're going off-road, we change
the views in it to really behelpful to you, right?
So we've put some other newtechnology in the truck as well.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well go ahead, mr.
I like heads-up displays.
I mean, I love them.
I mean the fact that you'reputting even more information up
there to me is just wonderful.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
And the trailer view is a great idea as well, because
if you're pulling a trailer,how many times do you look over
your shoulder and take your eyesoff the road to make sure
you're in the right position?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Or maybe I'll make sure that the trailer's still
back there.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I've been known to do that.
Yes, I have too.
Was that my?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
trailer that just came by.
It passed me by.
Yeah, Wait a minute, what'sthat going off into the ditch?
But oh, that's my trailer.
Yeah, there are those kinds ofthings.
I wanted to talk to you alittle bit about the Blue Cruise
technology, the Hands Free.
Sure, you know I've had someexperiences with the Hands Free
(10:23):
driving and I will tell you thata lot of it has to do with the
markings on the road, and if themarkings on the road aren't
there, you could get intotrouble pretty quick.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
So you know I've driven quite a few miles with it
and you're right, sometimes themarkings on the road thin, but
the truck tells you and it tellsyou to grab onto the steering
wheel.
It comes along very quickly andhelps you pay attention.
And you know, when you use BlueCruise there's a camera that
watches your eyes to make sureyou're paying attention to the
road.
And so my experience with it onlong trips is I think I pay
better attention than evenwithout it.
(10:56):
Right, you're watching the road, the trucks making sure you do,
but at the same time, when youget to your destination 10 hours
later, you're not nearly astired or exhausted, you're
fresher through that trip.
I was surprised by that thefirst time I used it, from St
Louis to Detroit, how thatfeeling was with me.
And now we're making it evenbetter right, so that we've
(11:16):
improved it.
You know works with even moreroads, it changes lanes for you
and it has better lane centering.
So you know we're continuallyimproving that technology as
well.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I want to ask you about where the truck is being
built, and is the UAW strikegoing to affect the delivery of
the 24 for the spring?
Speaker 4 (11:42):
So the F-150s are built at our Dearborn Assembly
Plant and an assembly plant inKansas City and at this point
the plant that the union isstriking is a different assembly
facility, so it doesn't impactF-150.
But I know we got great peopleon both sides of that trying to
work through it and hopefullythey get to an agreement soon.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, is it the Rouge plant that the truck is being
built?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, the old Rouge plant at Dearborn.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, oh, that's awesome, but you guys have other
assemblies for the F-150.
I mean, you can't make them allin one place, right Too?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
many.
We make them also in KansasCity.
We've got a fantastic facilitydown there, our Kansas City
Assembly Plant.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I've actually got a segment coming up about plants,
so it's lead right into it.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
That's good to know.
Okay, so let's talk aboutdelivery to the dealer.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yep, so they'll come out to dealers the first part of
next year.
We're taking orders now.
The order banks are open.
You can go on Fordcom on ourbuilding price and spec out what
you're looking for and go toyour dealer and order it and
then they should be in showroomsfirst part of next year.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Now doing my homework here.
Somewhere I read the fact thatyou've kind of cut back on some
of the individual orders, as faras you know, the individual
things that are available toorder, and you've packaged them
up to make it simpler to buy.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, so F-150 has been a fairly complicated
vehicle for our customers toorder, so we spent quite a bit
of time these last couple ofyears really trying to make it
easier for them.
We still got a great fulllineup all the way from our work
truck XL all the way up to thePlatinum Plus and, of course,
raptor and Tremor.
Right, because we've got thefull lineup.
We're just making it simplerfor those customers to order.
So an example is Raptor now isdown to six ways to order it.
(13:32):
Really, you know, really easyto order and we reduce
complexity across our lineup byover 90%.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Well, I'll never forget, when I first started
doing this many years ago withreviews and that sort of thing,
I talked to one of the guys thathandles the press and I said so
how many options are there?
There are so many that I can'teven count them all, because if
you really want to get down toit, you can change axle ratios,
(14:00):
transmissions, all of thesedifferent things that you can
customize for your truck, andthat's what makes it really
unique, especially for the guythat's using the truck for work.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
But I think on the assembly side of things,
simplifying the build has provenincreasing the quality, because
when you don't have so manychoices to make, everything's
consistent in how it's puttogether.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
It really.
You know, simplifying it reallybenefits all the parties
involved.
We're going to make it a loteasier for customers to go in
and spec out their truck.
Of course we're going to makeit easier to engineer and
manufacture.
By simplifying it we're alsomaking it easier for dealers to
stock right.
So when dealers stock thatinventory it's tough for them to
figure out what to stock.
So really all parties involvedare going to benefit from this.
(14:47):
And you know we used a lot ofdata to kind of help decide what
features went together.
We also had dealers help us.
It's been a long project tomake sure we did it right and,
like I said, customers can gosee that now on Fordcom.
We still have a full line ofaccessories on there that
they'll see as well.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
So, Brian, do you know Mike Levine?
Of course I do.
Well, you know Mike used to bedown here in Texas.
Yeah, oh, yeah, Well, hey, hey,Mike John, we love Mike Levine.
And listen, when we get to seeMike Levine which is rare
(15:27):
because he's become a superstaramong the press you know it's
always good to give him a nudgeor, you know, give him a hard
time.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Oh, Mike's fantastic.
I was actually, you know,working with a company when he
was a journalist and, you know,got interviewed by him numerous
times and then getting to workwith him.
He is fantastic.
He's still full of energy andgreat ideas and he just, you
know, it doesn't get any betterthan Mike.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, he is definitely full of energy.
And here is the famous MikeLevine line Well, we don't talk
about future product, that's thefamous line.
Yeah, so he's gone to the otherside and now he knows the lingo
, that's for sure.
So he's full of it.
Well, yeah, anyway, so we canorder them now.
(16:14):
They're going to be indealerships in the spring, you
say.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, First part of the year.
After the first of the yearthey'll start to show up in
showrooms.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Okay, very good.
Well, one of the things that Iwas doing, my research here I
get online and I start lookingat all of the stuff that's
available and the changes.
You know, the grill seems tochange with the trim level.
Was I just?
Was I out of my mind when Inoticed that?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
No.
So what we have from our XL, stxand XLT and Tremor, they use
what's called our new Coast toCoast grill, where the grill
actually goes around theheadlamps and it has an we're
standard LED headlamps in thetruck and those headlamps have
like an orange signature lightin them.
And then our Lariat, king Ranch,platinum and Raptor have a more
traditional kind of, you know,a standup grill that has also a
(17:01):
new grill, a new headlamp that'sgot our white signature
lighting in the C-clamp design.
So we really tried to you know,when you sell this many trucks
and you have the kind of series,we tried to help differentiate
it and give some different looks.
And frankly, that new Coast toCoast grill that's going to be
on our highest volume.
It looks fantastic.
It's got a bit of a retro feelto it from that you know 80s
(17:22):
kind of 90s truck in there andthen at the same time it's just
got this really strong, wide,powerful stance.
And then of course, ourhigh-end grills are really, you
know, really premium and drawout that tradition that
customers are used to the lastfew years with our C-clamp
signature lighting design.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, well, you guys did a great job in that regard
and we sure appreciate youtalking to us today, and please
forgive me if I offended you inany way, but I was kind of
surprised at the 2.7 being a V6and not a four-cylinder.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
So we launched it.
You know the engine launched asa 2.7 V6 in 2015.
And it's been a big part of ourlineup and, of course, we've
improved it over the years andnow standardizing it, making
that the standard engine withall that capability.
Right, it's got greatperformance, great horsepower,
torque numbers, great fueleconomy for customers.
(18:16):
You know, we really think it'sa really good move to make that
the standard powertrain of thetruck for those customers.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Anybody anything else ?
No, I was.
I think it makes sense on theV6 because to me that's where
you're gonna get a little moretorque, like you're talking
about.
You're getting a lot moretorque out of that than you
would like an inline for, Ithink yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Yeah, 400 foot pounds .
And you get of course with that, with the technology unit, that
twin turbo direct fuelinjection, it's that torque
curve comes out very quickly, soyou get that torque really,
really fast.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
And that's important to the truck buyers, because I
would think there are some truckbuyers that would be a little
less excited about a fourcylinder versus a V6.
They're gonna want, you know,they're gonna want the more
power available.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, that's because of the torque thing and the
whole idea behind towing.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, Brian, it's great to talkto you and we sure appreciate
you taking the time out of yourSaturday to talk to us.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
No, I appreciate you having me on.
Let me talk about the new 24ball of air F-150 again.
Anybody wants any information?
Go to Fordcom.
We've got all the informationthere that they can find about
the truck.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
And be sure to post it on our social media.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
And be sure to tell Michael Levine we said hello.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
I will do that right now.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
All right brother take care.
Have a great Saturday you too,All right time now on the
In-Wheel Time car talk show forConrad's this Week in Auto
History.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Well, I thought an important person in time in the
automotive history.
It was 35 years ago thatlegendary auto designer Bill
Mitchell passed away in 1988.
And if you look at his history,he started with a 1949 Cadillac
the origination of tail finsand then actually he moved on to
(20:01):
the Corvair Monza SS, whichdoesn't look like a what you
think a typical Corvair.
I actually think there's a lotof Opal GT in that.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Oh, Corvette.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Corvette, corvette and then well, you mentioned
Corvette.
He was involved in the CorvetteSpecial Racer, which was the
race car Corvette for the 63Corvette, and then he was also
the designer of the 63 CorvetteSplit Window.
And the Split Window was verycontroversial.
Zora didn't like the SplitWindow, but Mitchell loved it
(20:38):
because of the design of it.
He thought it was veryimportant for it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, it wasn't.
One of the main reasons is theycouldn't get the glass to go
totally across.
Yeah, the glass technology hadbeen advanced.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
And then in 64 they did, they took the Split out of
it.
Mitchell also had a 1966Oldsmobile GT two-seater built
which was, you know, big 425front wheel drive two-seat
Oldsmobile, which I thought waskind of a cool thing.
And then in 66 he did a CorvairGT as well.
Again his involvement in theCorvair side of things.
(21:11):
Mitchell was also the designerof the original Corvette Mako
Shark from 1967.
If you well, that's the 65Riviera.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
We saw it, it went by Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
And then and Mitchell , his love of the Buick brand
and he did a lot of thedifferent Riviera's through the
years and that was always one ofmy favorite, the little boat
tail on the Riviera which waskind of an iteration of the
Corvette rear glass as well.
And then he did the Astro-1,the Astro-2, and the Astro-3,
(21:48):
which are all considered designstudies of future Corvettes.
I need that chair.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Look at that chair, isn't it awesome.
It's got a Cadillac logo on it.
Christmas is coming.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
So and then you know also, mitchell did the 1970
Camaro and the 1970 throughactually lasted through 81
Camaro.
We're all a bit of Mitchelldesign.
That's the, that's the MantaRay Corvette that he did as well
.
And then the final thing wasthe Ponti 1977 Pontiac Phantom,
(22:28):
which was his final design, wasthe Pontiac Phantom.
He was involved in the MonteCarlo's as well, the 7073 Monte
Carlo's which I always thoughtwas the start of that personal
luxury car, the Grand Prix MonteCarlo, that whole generation.
This is the Phantom.
If you look at the Phantom,mitchell had a very retro view
(22:49):
of things.
You know the red inside fenderswhich is a retro thing out of a
50s model Buick, and you lookat the nose on that Phantom and
you can definitely see thePontiac family to it.
So very, very famous personwithin car design.
He'd worked with Harley Earl inhis early season at General
(23:12):
Motors and then ran GM designlater in his life and huge
impact on automotive designthrough time.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Very good.
Thank you, sir.
Of course the big story todayin the news is the UAW Strike at
the Detroit three and we'regoing to talk more about that
the top of next hour.
In the meantime and in betweentimes we have the recalls not a
lot of them, but in operativerear turn signals on the Subaru
(23:44):
BRZ and the Toyota GR86.
Rear view camera image may notdisplay on the several KIAs the
Sorento, the Sorento Hybrid andthe Sorento PHEV for 22 and 23.
The Audi e-tron GT and the RSe-tron GT.
(24:05):
Insufficient sealant on thehigh voltage battery.
That's not good.
No it's electrifying and I thinkevery Taycan from Porsche is
being recalled for 2023.
And I don't get a list of allhere, but insufficient sealant
again on the high voltagebattery, clearly sharing it with
(24:27):
the Audi e-tron.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
All $100,000 plus cars.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah.
So I know that we have a lot oflisteners that have $100,000
plus cars, don't you agree,george George?
George, george does.
Yeah, he definitely has$100,000 car.
Us markets share for electricvehicles rose to 7.2% in January
(24:52):
to July period, according tonew vehicle registration data
from Experian.
With Tesla spurring demand withescalating price cuts
throughout the year, New US EVregistrations rose to 655,000 in
the seven month period, for a67% rise over the year earlier
(25:14):
period when EV share was 4.9%.
Total new light vehicleregistrations for the seven
months about 9.1 million.
So you can see, in comparisonit's really kind of tiny If you
look at the overall.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
And if you took away the government subsidies for EVs
, I imagine the market sharewould fall.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, tesla outweighs them all 59.5% share of the EV
market.
All of the rest of them are inthe single digits or less.
So you know they're gettingthere, but it's gonna take a
long while and I think thatthere are a lot of reservations
about diving into owning an EV.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Well, if you kind of watch, If you watch the news
this week Pete Buttigieg wasfussing about he couldn't get
his EV car charged somewherebecause I guess somebody had
parked in front of the chargeron him.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
No, that wasn't him, it was secretary.
It wasn't him at all, it wasthe lady.
Secretary of transportation orsomething like that.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Whatever?
Yeah, but it was.
They were making a big dealabout taking this EV road trip
and they got burned.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah not literally, but I was called no.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I mean that yeah, literally yeah.
They ran into a lot of issueswith chargers not work stuff
that we run into all the timenow.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, they had a nice they had a nice engine ice car
parked in a electric spot.
Reserve it for her.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, well, I will tell you that I drove through
the Whole Foods parking lot,where my famous EV charger is.
It's all rusted.
This is, this is an EV go Okaycharging station.
It's all rusted, looks likeit's been there for decades and
then it doesn't work.
Wow one time I went and onetime I went there and it didn't
(27:10):
work, so could you think it's a?
Whole foods.
No, I know of all places.
Well, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
So the government's gonna spend billions of dollars
Upgrading all of these chargingstations at your expense.
Yeah, well, yes well, there's alot of things that they do at
my expense that I'm not sure todo something you don't want time
now for a quick break.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
We'll be right back here on the in wheel time car
talk show.
Stay with us.
The original group of loopytortilla restaurants will have
you telling your family andfriends just what the original
recipes mean.
When it comes to the bestFajitas in southeast Texas,
founders Stan Holt invite you tovisit the original loopy
tortilla near I-10 and highway 6.
Here's the original house thatinspired the design of all the
(27:51):
rest and the original charm thathelped make loopy tortilla the
go-to destination for HoustonTex-Mex.
Speaking of original, nothingcan compete with the original
lime pepper marinade.
That everyone will agree makesloopy tortilla award-winning
beef Fajitas the best anywhere.
Loopy tortilla Katie is anotherlocation that gives you the
same quality and serviceHoustonians have come to expect
at loopies.
It's located just off I-10 ofthe Grand Parkway.
(28:13):
At Kingsland Boulevard in Katiefind yourself an Aggie land.
Head to the loopy TortillaCollege Station, located just
around the corner from KyleField.
It's a great place to enjoythose famous frozen margaritas
before or after the game.
Head at East to Louisiana.
Stop in at the loopy tortillain Beaumont.
It twos on I-10.
It can't miss it.
The original group of loopytortilla restaurants Invite you
in for the best Tex-Mex.
(28:34):
Anywhere you own a car you love, why not let Gulf Coast Auto
Shield protect it?
Houstonian John Gray invitesyou to his state-of-the-art
facility to introduce you to hisspecialist team of auto
enthusiasts.
We promise you'll be impressed.
Whether you're looking tomassage your original paint to a
like new appearance, apply aceramic coating, install a paint
protection film, nano ceramicwindow tint or new windshield
(28:57):
protection called Exo shield,gulf Coast Auto Shield is where
Houston's car people go.
Curved your wheels instead ofbuying new one, I'd have them
repaired.
How about a professionallyinstalled radar detector?
Gulf Coast Auto Shield doesthat too.
Get a peek inside the shop andlook at the Services offered by
getting online and heading to GCAuto Shield comm.
Better yet, stop by theirfacility at 11 to 75 South Sam
(29:19):
Houston Tullway, just south ofthe Southwest freeway, and get a
personal tour.
Gulf Coast Auto Shield is yourplace to go for all things
exterior.
Call them today 832 930 5655 orGC Auto Shield comm.
The award-winning in wheel timecar talk shows available on the
most popular podcast channelsout there in 30-minute episodes.
We realize our three-hour liveshow can be difficult to catch
(29:42):
in its entirety, so now you canlisten every day to a convenient
, fresh 30-minute episode.
Check us out on Apple podcasts,spotify, google podcasts,
amazon music and audible, alongwith a dozen more in real time
as the most informativeautomotive guest interviews and
new car reviews, along withpopular features including
Conrad's car clinic and thisweek in auto history, along with
automotive news headlines.
(30:03):
Our live broadcast here isevery Saturday, 8 to 11, central
on in will time calm, theiHeart app and on YouTube.
Be sure to say hello when we'rebroadcasting from the tailpipes
and tacos cruise in Auto Ramand the Houston auto show, among
others.
Now it's easier than ever tohear about all things automotive
all week long.
You're invited to join fellowcar enthusiasts and becoming
(30:24):
part of the ever-growing inwheel time car talk family.
Don't forget those 30-minutepodcast episodes on your
favorite podcast channel.
That's it for this podcastepisode of the in wheel time car
show.
I'm Don Armstrong, inviting youto join us for our live show
every Saturday morning, 8 to 11am Central on Facebook, youtube,
twitch and our in wheel timecomm website.
(30:46):
Podcasts are available on Applepodcast, spotify, stitcher,
iheart podcast, podcast addicttune in Pandora.
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