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Join Jill and Tom as they break down everything that's going on in the auto world.

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New car reviews, shopping tips, driving green

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electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of great guests. This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast.

C

All right. This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast. I am indeed Tom Appel, publisher of Consumer Guide Automotive. Thank you so much for joining us this week. When you have a chance, when you have a moment, please check us out@consumerguide.com Check out our 2026 Best Buy picks while you're there. You can also just listen to back episodes of the podcast right there on our homepage though you should subscribe, I highly recommend that. But yeah, check us out. All right. In the guest chair today in the co pilot chair is Brendan Appel of the Sons of Speed. Jill had to visit her parole officer. So Brendan, thank you for hopping.

A

You are very welcome. Appreciate the invite and always a pleasure to appear on the podcast.

C

Yeah, we haven't talked to you in a bit, so good to have you back on the show. Tell us a little bit about you and what Paul does and Paul Harold and the Sons of Speed. And We Are Motor Driven.

A

Yes. So Paul is my partner over at Sons of Speed and we concentrate on trying to really drive the soul out of every car and get down into what it's like to drive it. And so we partnered with rides and drives over there with Harvey Briggs and Jen Jensen of Auto Exotica in the Median to form a group called We Are Motor Driven. And we also have our own podcast, although it's been on a little bit of a hiatus due to some various issues. But we hope to get it back up and running shortly and you can find us at we are motordriven.com yeah, let us know.

C

We don't need to have a visit to promote it. Let us know when your podcast is back up and running. It was very good. I enjoyed listening to the show.

A

Yeah, it was a lot of fun to make. And again, it's just if, you know, various health and scheduling issues. It really is a testament to you, Tom, how you've kept going week after week with this thing for, what is it, half a decade or longer now?

C

Yeah, six years.

A

Because this is not. People don't realize it's. It takes a lot to get this done on a regular basis. And so kudos to you, and that's why you're. You're at the top of the charts where you belong.

C

Well, thank you for the kind words. Jill has been very flexible, too, and she. We. We actually scheduled to record on Mondays so that she can catch press events later in the week. And that has worked pretty well because she's here 80, 90% of the time. So that's great. So I've got some news here that falls right into your ball field here. Right. And that's Corvette news. You are. You used to be a Corvette owner or are you still a Corvette owner?

A

So as of like a month ago, I am no longer a Corvette owner.

C

Okay.

A

I did sell my beloved Smurfvet C7 transport. I nicknamed her Smurfette to a great car guy in the area. And so I am Corvetteless at the moment. But, you know, seeing. We'll see what Chevy can do to. To coax me back in, I just. Unfortunately, with my busy schedule, I wasn't driving it enough. And it wasn't really fair to the car to leave it in the garage all day long. It's kind of like having a puppy and then leaving it home all day.

C

The. It's funny. Chevy may have done exactly what you asked it to for. For 2027. There is a refresh of the vehicle that brings with it a new base engine. And it's a pretty big upgrade. They went from a 6.2 liter engine. What was that, 490 or 495 horsepower up to a 6.7. Yeah, they call it the LS6. That's the name of the new engine.

A

And I'll tell you, Corvette people prefer the LS designation of motors over the LT. That has been ruling the roost since the C7. The LS just has a greater reputation. But yeah, 6.7 liters and 535 horsepower, which represents a minimum of a 30 horse. Sorry, 40 horsepower jump over the previous gen and finally gets the base model up over that 500 mark. But it's really more interesting is even in the base form because they introduced, obviously, if you haven't Heard yet? The Grand Sport is now coming back, but in base form. It's amazing because it pushes this base model now in, in just absolutely base based form. 7. We're talking 75, 000. Probably out the door with the destination fee. You can drive this car over 200 miles an hour.

C

Now that is crazy.

A

Yeah, it's $75,000 get you 200 miles an hour out of a car that you didn't build yourself and probably would kill yourself in. But so, I mean, for an actually legitimate supercar, remember, 200 miles an hour,

C

I mean, that's fast.

A

Ferrari's, you know, kind of. That's like the benchmark of a, of a good modern day Ferrari back in the day. I mean, anything that hit 200 miles an hour is just considered almost a spaceship because modern, you know, a modern car for the 80s would, you know, barely hit 120, 135 if you were lucky. So, yeah, this is really, that's a huge milestone. So good for Chevy. And this new engine just seems to be a hit with everybody who's, who's driven it, seen it, heard it. But yeah, we're really looking forward to it.

C

One of my favorite facts about this, it's super interesting to me that aerodynamics matter this much. But if you get the Z51 package, your top speed drops five miles an hour.

A

Yeah. And that's the funny thing, is that you get it reminds me of the Cannonball. Was it the Cannonball run? One of the Cannonball movies, I think had a Lamborghini Countach and the one they were using didn't have the giant wing on it, which when I was, you know, 12 years old was like the coolest thing in the world.

C

But that wing, probably, it was a poster. It was a poster on the walls of like half of all males.

A

Yes.

C

Under the age of.

A

Including mine. I had that one up on the wall. But you know that that wing was. Well, the aerodynamics in the car were terrible, but the wing probably dragged 15 miles an hour off the top speed of that car. So the one that they had in the show was actually wingless and would have gone a lot faster than the one that everyone thought because it had the wing, it must be faster, but that's not the case. So, yeah, the standard aero treatment on the current Stingray is the way to go if you want top speed. But that Z51 package is just a killer on the track. I mean, I know you want downforce on a racetrack and you know, quite honestly, if you're going 200 miles an hour. You want a little downforce. You don't want to be floating away into, you know, never never land. So it's, it's a trade off that with the, with the base. You know, 535 horsepower will get you there. But if you want to go over 200 comfortably, you probably should get a 01.

C

I wonder how many base, base vehicles without Z51 are actually sold. It seems so fundamental to the car that I, I wonder. I, I would expect that 80 or 90% of base Corvettes come with the Z51 package.

A

I think you're right on the money there because what you, what you see driving around is almost all Z51s off the bases. You very rarely see one. It's almost as, it's almost very rare to see a totally base Corvette. Even though they do sell them and there are people, I see them for resale sometimes. But most of them are RZ51 packages for sure.

C

Interesting. Okay, so we've got the base with Z51. The stingray starts under 75 grand. There's the Grand Sport that's back and that's a lot of bodywork. So that's not going to go 200 miles an hour. And then what?

A

It looks gorgeous. I mean.

C

Yeah, absolutely.

A

The only thing, you know, out of the sort of the pictures that we have seen so far, they have the ubiquitous. It's admiral blue, white stripes and it's got the red interior. But man, is that, have you seen this red interior? No, no, it's, it's a lot of red. It is headache inducing red. I mean, just think of red everywhere. I don't know if I'd go that direction with the interior color. But it looks, man, it looks great from the outside.

C

I, I just got out of the BMW M5 Touring that had what a great. Oh my. It's a fantastic car. But the red interior was killing me. Yeah, it was like after a while. Yes. I'm too old for that red interior. It was killing me. And I love that car. I love that car so much.

A

So what I will say something about that car. We had it over at the rally and man, oh man, oh man. I mean, if you want to restore your, your faith in and just fun automotive vehicles. Holy Moses. That thing is just a beast.

C

I, if I had one complaint, and I've complained about this, about German cars before, I would like an engineer to tell me what the chassis setup should be. And I just want that. I don't want all this adjustability.

A

Yeah, there's way too many options.

C

Yeah, I want PhD.

A

Yeah. Because Paul has an M2 and I just go set this up and he. So he's my German engineer, although he's really Italian, so I'm not sure how well that that comes across.

C

But.

A

Yeah, I know what you mean exactly.

C

It's too much stuff to decide from. Oh, so that's the Grand Sport that starts around 86 grand. What was used, what used to be called the Blu Ray is now the Grand Sport E Ray.

A

Blu Ray is what you want era. Yeah. In your DVD player or your old DVD player.

C

Yeah. And that, that was the only hybrid Corvette still. And that was. There was an E axle up front. So that got you all wheel drive.

B

Yeah.

A

Now what, what Chevy has done with the Corvette is they've gone to the X moniker a la BMW, ironically enough to indicate when they're using a front axle motor to drive the front wheels and give you all wheel drive. So they have the ZR1X which is the top, top of the line. That one's running, what is it, 15, 61 horsepower. Some insane number that I can't even believe is still real. And then, and then now they've replaced the E Ray with the Grand Sport X. So it's basically, essentially it's the E Ray but in. And I'm not sure if there's any difference whatsoever. I'm sure there are and I'm sure somebody's going to comment on the, on the podcast and we encourage you to do so and let us know if there's. What differences there are because it's still the wide body, it's still the, the front electric motor and you get the all wheel drive and the grip on the launch is insane. I mean they're talking, you know, basically around 2 seconds to 60 with that and without it it's 3 seconds. So under 3 seconds, that's crazy.

C

Z06 return 670 horsepower. That is not a push rod engine. That is the multi valve 5.5. That engine turbocharged flat plane crank, which makes for crazy exhaust sounds. It does crazy wonderful exhaust sounds. The ZR1 is that engine. But turbocharged more than a thousand horsepower, which again It's. That car's 200 grand. So you know, that's two of the first house I ever bought. But on the other hand, a bargain compared to Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

A

That's the thing that Corvette's always brought to the table is, is bargain performance. And they've been, you know, doing it to Porsche and BMW and now, now they're up there with McLaren, Ferrari and Lamborgh where they're just. I love watching these videos where the ZR1 and the 01X especially is just spanking cars worth five times as much money. And no, it's not a cheap car, but it is a very capable vehicle.

C

It's kind of really a great halo car for Chevy, you know, because the value thing and then you still get to preach about engineering, so it's cool. And then there's this. Is the ZR1X on sale in the US now?

A

Oh, yes.

C

Yeah, people are okay.

A

People are achieving extraordinarily low quarter mile times at local drag strips. So much so that they're getting told not to come back because you know, you run a nine second car in, in most drag strips and they want a full roll cage and fire suppression systems and all those things because you're under 10 seconds. Which was happening with the Dodge Demon, if you remember back in the day

C

when I remember that.

A

Yeah, yeah. They're basically were actually used it as a marketing ploy to say like band at local racetracks because it's too fast and it's like yes, technically it is but man, these, the ZR1X is even faster than the Demons were down the drag strip just because of that grip is insane. And you've got, you're putting 1500, over 1500 horsepower down to the pavement to all four wheels and it's pulling immediately.

C

And that's all wheel drive.

A

That's all wheel drive. The 01 rear wheel is running. I think it's. Is it 10, 64 horsepower?

C

Yep, yep.

A

And it may not be 1500, it may be 1200 horsepower with the 01X. So I apologize.

C

It's crazy.

A

Yeah, it's, it's, it's up there. I mean it's just, it's so much power. I think it is around 1200 horsepower. So my, my apologies. You can retract all of those comments about how I was completely wrong about the horsepower. But yes, it's. And if they ever do a ZORA that they've, they've been, you know, that's been the rumor forever that they're going to do a ZORA edition. And it's. That one would be just an insane number along the lines of like the 1500 horsepower that I'm thinking in my

C

head, I remember when the E Ray was rumored that it would be called zora.

A

Yes.

C

And that, that didn't happen. And that seemed like a cool car because it would have Been kind of tech and forward thinking. But Zora, we're talking about Zora Arcus Duntov, the father of the Corvette and a man who played a. Who left his fingerprint all over the small block V8. An important guy in the development of not just the Corvette, but Chevy and Chevy powertrains. And the small block V8 today, not really related to that engine, but it is historically in that line. Exactly.

A

The godfather of Corvettes.

C

Yep. Yeah. Cool, dude. All right, so that's the Corvette story. Basically. For 75 grand you can go 200 miles an hour.

A

Yes, you can.

C

I'm going to change topics entirely. Are you ready?

A

Yes. Let's go.

C

Volkswagen's in trouble. They Volkswagen's in a really weird situation right now where I think that if you're an American consumer, you're not feeling this at all. They sell the Atlas, the Atlas Cross Sport and a bunch of other small crossovers. And their lineup here is appropriate to this market and sells reasonably well. Volkswagen's problem is multifold in that they invested very heavily in electric vehicles. And part of this was because they had been embarrassed by diesel gate. And I think everyone still remembers this is a long time ago now. They were basically cheating on emissions testing and their diesels weren't nearly as clean as we thought they were. And the ramifications in every country were different. But here in the US they were buying back your diesel cars. They bought back mine, which was crazy. So yeah, my wife had a Jetta touring wagon. Beautiful car, wonderful car, six speed manual, 44 miles to the gallon. Everything about that car was fantastic except that they had to buy it back.

A

Yeah. And then they had to fund electrify America as penance.

C

I think that was funded by like $2 billion or something like that. So a lot of money. But Volkswagen, Volkswagen's troubles are interesting. They have trouble in China where the market is shrinking, especially for outside companies. Outside being non Chinese, domestic companies are hurting. And this is true for General Motors, for BMW, for Mercedes. A lot of companies are having a hard time selling cars in China right now. Western Europe, interestingly, a little bit like North America never recovered from COVID So. So sales fell during COVID and during the chip shortage and never came back. And part of the problem there is that Western Europe doesn't seem to love Volkswagen EVs and China, Chinese carmakers, especially BYD and companies like BYD are selling cars in Europe pretty well. They have something like, yeah, there's something like 8% of the market.

A

So I just got back from a little While in Paris and around Paris and I was amazed at how many BYDs, big SUVs really. I mean for, for Europe we're driving around and we actually had a Volkswagen. We had a Volkswagen. It was essentially a little minivan. You could do seven seats but we, we put the back, back seats down and created some more luggage space. But honestly, great, great car just to drive around northern France and. But I was quite amazed at how many BYD's that I had never even seen at all anywhere were, were flying around in Paris.

C

Yeah, this is a big threat to the European auto community basically in general. These Chinese cars have got a stronghold here. They're selling their value plays for consumers. They do cost less than the home market EVs that come from Volkswagen or Fiat or wherever or from Renault. So big problem. But Volkswagen's other interesting problem too is that they have spent considerable money developing an EV platform that didn't work. And we've talked about this before, but they have a division called Caryad. And one of the things Jill and I have talked about is branding things that suck. And by calling giving this division a name, we have something we can point our fingers at. And it really didn't work for them. They've been buying Chinese technology for their cars and they've been throwing money at Rivian, big chunks of money. And at some point, if you keep giving a company billions of dollars, you're going to run out of money.

A

Well now what does it look like for VW with Scout entering the market in a year?

C

I don't know. I don't know because Scout has changed. Remember Scout was going to be an electric car company. Really good looking pickup, really good looking crossover. And now they're EREVs, Extended Range Electric vehicles. They may not even start with an electric vehicle at all. So what that company is supposed to be has changed.

A

It's amazing to see that happening in real time because you're right, it started as this is going to be electric and then electric kind of went off a cliff for a lot of automakers, including Volkswagen. And they've quickly pivoted that to that, that B rev or EREV type setup, which I think is great. I mean for me it's the best of both worlds because you essentially have a plug in hybrid, so so to speak that you don't ever have to worry about running out of battery power as long as you can find a gas station. So I just wonder how much that's going to help Volkswagen's bottom line. Because you're right, I Mean, with the trouble they're in now, they could use anything they can get.

C

My problem with E revs is that we still don't know if people will buy them. We, we really haven't seen one hit the market and be popular yet.

A

Right.

C

It could be popular the way it looks.

A

I mean it's going to be. If, if anybody could do it, it would be the Scout because it is such a gorgeous vehicle and the quality of the, the mock up, I mean we've seen in, in person mockups, sort of prototype vehicles and man, are they just, absolutely, just stunning.

C

I really do. They're great looking. I love the heritage design. They did actually draw from that late 70s look that's so appealing. So that works nicely. The last word on this Volkswagen story because we have to take a break is that Volkswagen is looking to cut its capacity globally from 12 million units to 9 million units. So yeah. And they're getting into huge trouble in Europe with the, with the German labor union IG Matal and, and we'll see where this goes because it's a political disaster for Volkswagen to be laying off people in the home market.

A

Oh, yeah.

C

So we'll see. It's not going to matter that much to Americans. The cars we have are probably going to stay here unless they decide to kill the Jeddah, which doesn't sell that well. I think the Golf will stick around just because they're importing it and they, they can kind of, they got some pricing, they've got some pricing strength on that. The, the, I just drove the GTI and it was over 40 grand. So that's a lot of money for a Golf and it's totally worth it. Yeah.

A

Such a great car.

C

All right, we're gonna take a break. When we come back, we talked to Bodhi Grimm of the podcast Kilowatt.

A

Stick around questions or comments, Drop us a line at carstuffinsumerguide.com that's carstuff@consumerguide.com

C

this

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episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money. When you bundle your home and auto policies, the process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. What's up, baby? It's Bretzky and I'm here to tell you that spinquest.com is giving out free sweeps coins. All you got to do is purchase a $10 coin pack, and guess what? They're going to give you the coins from a $30 coin pack that lets you play all your favorite games like Blackjack, Wanted, Dead, or Wild. And we're talking real cash prizes, baby. Spin Quest.com Spin Quest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Welcome back to the Car Stuff Podcast.

C

And we're back. This is the consumer guide Car Stuff Podcast. I'm Tom. He is Brendan. Brendan Appel of the Sons of Speed sitting in for Jill this week. Jill has a parole officer meeting. Hope that goes well. Joining us for the first time ever is Bodie Graham. Bodie is the host of the excellent Kilowatt podcast. Bodie, how are you, sir?

B

I'm good. And thanks for such a kind introduction. You and Jill are very supportive. So it's. I'm happy to be here and I'm happy to have met you both.

C

It was actually suggested by Believe. And that's, that's the, the platform by which you and I support our podcast, that we listen to you and maybe have a developer relationship with you. And I listen to your podcast and I love your podcast.

B

So thanks, buddy.

C

Yeah, I've been listening to that. I like it. But tell us about your podcast and why you do it.

B

So Kilowatt is a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, and autonomous driving. And no politics. So if, if I appreciate that. Yeah, if that's what you're looking for, you're. You're not really going to find it on that show. But if you like the tech that goes into EVs and, you know, renewable energy and autonomous driving, you will. You'll definitely find it at Kilowatt.

C

The, the interesting thing is that your show is in two parts, Right. You cover Tesla separately from other electric vehicles.

B

Yeah, that came out of necessity. So when I started in 2016, you know, there was Lucid that was just kind of showing off their car, and there was Tesla and that was it, you know, and, and everybody, every car company was like, we're going to have 20 EVs by 2020. And that did not work out right. So it just kind of naturally structured itself to where EVs were specific to everything but Tesla and then what Tesla was doing because they were actually selling cars at the time.

C

Yeah, it's interesting, too. I was trying to follow, like, Stellantis made a bunch of noise for a while about evs they were going to be launching and there was the halcyon concept and then there was going to be the airflow and that didn't turn into anything. And I think all the electrification of the Ram is now on hold or canceled. I don't think there's any electrification coming there at all. So I bothered to like learn stuff, to take notes about coming product and none of it happened.

B

I saw the Ram Rev in 2025 at CES and it was not only it was a huge vehicle, but it was awesome looking and yeah, nothing. Three months after ces. Nothing.

A

Yeah, that was the one that I, I remember seeing and going, this is really cool. And especially with the range extended version, it was just going to be, oh, this could solve a lot of problems. And then we didn't hear anything about it after that.

B

No, no.

C

It's interesting talking about big pickups because General Motors committed in a pretty big way. Right. They've got Silverado, Sierra and the Hummer and they're still building all of them though in relatively low volume. But they haven't backed off. I. I don't know if this is going to serve them well. I don't know what's happening in 2026 yet, but if you have a thought on that, Bodie, I'd love to hear it.

B

I mean, I think they'll still continue. I don't think they're going to abandon it like Ford did, but they definitely have other thoughts. They haven't disclosed as to what they're going to do with their EV pickups, whether those become extended range EVs, which makes a lot of sense for those larger pickups, especially people who want to tow. Although we don't really have any pickup trucks that are extended range at the moment that we could test with. I mean, BYD has the shark, but it's. It's not a big pickup truck like the Sierra or the, the Silverado.

C

Right. Actually, Brendan and I were just talking about E revs and how they seem like a great idea, but there isn't really any proof of concept vehicle out there yet. There is. There is no era that Americans can buy.

B

Well, there was the Volt, so that's been here.

C

The Volt. That's a good one.

B

Yeah.

C

And people sort of bought the vault, although for the most part no one understood it, including David Letterman, if you remember that fiasco.

B

Yeah. So the people who had a Volt love the vault. The people, you're right. 100%. I don't. I think people just thought it was more like A hybrid or plug in hybrid type of a thing. I don't think they understood what the Volt was, was actually doing underneath the, the hood.

A

They had that weird marketing campaign where they were taking them to gas stations and having people ask why you're bringing an electric car to a gas station. They were trying to explain how the system worked and they, they, they did their best to try to get the word out. We understood it in the industry, but I'm not sure how many people outside of the inside really got what that vehicle was.

B

No, I had a co worker who had a Volt or. No, his, her cousin had a Volt and I didn't understand it until she explained it to me and I was doing the podcast at the time or starting it at the time.

C

Yeah. So for people who don't know, the Volt was basically a plug in hybrid, but it was more advanced than that. And one of the things about the Volt was that technically the engine was never, the gasoline engine was supposed to never touch the wheels. It was supposed to power a generator that delivered the electricity to motors that drove the wheels. However, there was a certain condition by which there was a direct mechanical condition between the engine and the wheels, which for some reason pissed off people. I don't know why. And it was just on the highway, it was just a kind of a, almost like an overdrive situation. But yeah, I remember trying to explain that vehicle to people. They didn't get it and they were always just mad like it only goes 40 miles on a charge and it's like, yes. And then you try to explain that most people don't drive 40 miles in a day and no one really wants to hear that.

B

Yeah. And people like would go months without having to put any fuel in their tank at all just by that little battery.

C

So, yes, that's, that's basically our E Rev experience here in the United states, I think.

B

100.

C

Oh, there was, there was the Fisker Karma. Oh yeah, all six of those.

B

I know. Yeah. Unless you're a Leonardo DiCaprio, I don't know if you could afford one.

C

So tell us a little bit about what you think is happening right now. We're in a very strange lull in the marketing of electric vehicles. Some manufacturers are bringing out more and Toyota's getting credit for addressing sort of a gap in the situation. But these vehicles are on their drawing boards for a long time. I don't want to give Toyota too much credit, but the tax credit is gone. EV sales seem to be flat, but not as Terrible as they could have been. Right. They're running about 6% of total sales. It's not a disaster. Where do you think things are going?

B

Well, it kind of depends on where you live. Do you live in Europe? Do you live in the uk? Do you live in the us? You know, places like New Zealand and Australia are seeing a tick up in EV sales. They're slowly just gaining more and more of the market just because there's really affordable evs in those places. Same with Europe. And the UK has got a lot of subsidies right now on evs in terms of the us which, you know, I'm not sure where most of the folks who listen to the show are located, but I would imagine it's probably the U.S. in terms of the U.S. you know, we don't have a ton of options for EVs, but the ones we do have are decent. It would be nice if they're more affordable. But right now, the way that things are going with gas prices and just everything component wise or part wise, costing so much evidence, EVs in gas vehicles aren't that far apart when you go to buy a new one. So having the ability to look at maybe something that might cost $50,000 for an ICE vehicle or $52,000 for an EV, it kind of makes better sense to go with the EV now. You know, buy what you like, buy what makes you happy. But if you look at it, you're not paying a bunch of maintenance costs, you're not paying for the, especially if you can charge your home, you're not paying a bunch to power the vehicle. And we're learning that EVs have a much longer lifespan than what we thought, and it's even longer in a lot of ways than ICE cars.

C

It's funny that there was that period of time and VinFast came in sort of at the end of this period of time when people were freaking out about the potential for an EV battery to fail. And there were stories out there of Tesla batteries being very, very, very expensive to replace. But I don't know how many Tesla batteries actually needed to be replaced. There were just so many Teslas out there that there were some bad, bad apples in the bunch. But, but, but ultimately what are we hearing now? That the EV batteries are easily going 300,000 miles. Does that sound right?

B

They are. There's a lot of. And Brendan, jump in here because I talked over you a couple of times, so feel free to talk over me, sir. But there's a lot of technology out there that is aside from like battery chemistry. There's, you know, we have like things like that are dopants and that go in batteries. And if to make this very easy, a dopant, like if you were making a hamburger, a dopant would be the seasoning that goes in the hamburger to make it taste better. Right. A coating would be like the ketchup you put on top. So there's all of these different additives that battery manufacturers can add to batteries that do different things to kind of suit the purpose of that battery. But there's also things like the university or the Cambridge University, they came up with this constant or consistent pressure on a battery. So battery breathes just like we breathe in kind of if you charge the battery, it expands a little bit. When you discharge it, it contracts a little bit. And they found that if you have a constant pressure of 181 psi, you can actually extend the life of that battery. 181 psi. It's got to be. It's a Goldilocks.

C

Wow. Yeah, it's pretty specific.

B

Yeah. If it, if it's not, if it's a little bit more or a little bit less, then you're going to have in some cases catastrophic failures. You know, so it's, it's not to say that if it's 180, the battery is going to blow up, but there could be causes. If it's too much, there's going to cause problems with the cathode side. And if it's too much, too little, it's going to cause problems with the anode side.

A

Where are we at with potentially having finally a solid state battery that really works?

B

Who you asking?

A

That'd be for you, buddy.

B

Okay. Because there, there are people out there who are saying it's a, it's right around the corner, Toyota being one of them. Right. I think in 2028 is when they want to show off their solid state battery. I don't, I don't know how close we really are. There are some especially Chinese manufacturers that are out there testing, but it's really hard to know what they're finding in terms of results. They do have some hybrid type batteries, like semi solid state batteries, I guess it's not a hybrid, it's semi solid state, which means that it's not a liquid electrolyte or a solid electrolyte. It's more like a gel that are out there. You know, it's, it. I don't think we're as close as some manufacturers or battery companies want us to think we are, but I think we're definitely closer than we were in 2016, which was, it was always right around the corner.

C

Yeah, it's always five years away.

A

Well, that's what makes it hard to know is, okay, let's say you're on the cusp of maybe I'll buy one.

C

Maybe.

A

Maybe I'm thinking about it. And one of the things you're thinking about is, well, I've heard about this new battery technology coming out, and should I just sit and wait for it? And then on the, on the flip side of that, you're looking at the manufacturers going, is this like vaporware that you're, you know, you're going to talk about for the next five years and it's never actually going to materialize? Or are you not talking about it because you don't want to cannibalize your current crop of cars and the batteries that are in those and you want people to still go buy those. But then, like, we're just, they're just going to drop on us fully functional solid state batteries in like a year and a half and be like, okay, here they are. And that's the dilemma, I think some people are in, is to whether to make that jump or not. Because it is an investment. You're spending even, you know, even for like a Model y, you're spending, sure, 45, $55,000 on a vehicle, and nobody wants a vehicle that's going to be sort of obsolete or at least surpassed in great measure by something that's coming out imminently.

B

So I'll, I'll give you an example. When Tesla announced the 4680 battery cell, they were putting them in early on. 4680 is just the size of the battery cell. They were putting them in early Model Y's that were built in Texas. A lot of people in the community who were buying Teslas at the time, Model Ys, they're like, well, I'm going to wait because I want this new battery to sell, which is supposed to be more energy dense. And there's just all of these benefits that were supposed to come with this cell. And while Tesla was putting the cells in those cars, the technology wasn't quite figured out yet. So there really wasn't any advantage to getting a 4680 cell that would be noticeable by the average person versus an LFP battery or, you know, the, the 3640, whatever they're called, the smaller battery cells that Tesla puts in the Model Y's.

C

Is there, is there any Battery technology we're waiting for that we're not talking about very much. I know Stellantis just invested in a couple of companies that we're developing. Is it sodium ion technology? Do I have that right? Is that going anyplace as far as

B

you know, it sounds like right now sodium ion is a better fit for like stationary storage, like to power your home. But it doesn't mean that it can't be. It's just not. It's, it's, you know, sodium is very readily abundant throughout, you know, planet Earth. So we're not relying on, you know, maybe something that comes from one specific part of, of the planet. So it makes it a little bit, or could make it a little bit cheaper. Not as reliant when it comes to supply chain slowdowns, that kind of thing. But in general, it's not as energy dense even as an LFP battery from my understanding. It's not to say that there isn't one that is. But you know, LFP batteries don't tend to very energy dense, but they are also super robust. You can charge them to 100%, not see much battery degradation.

C

Have we seen much movement to LFPs, which is lithium iron phosphate? It seems like a lot of people have moved to those for base vehicles or base versions of their vehicles.

B

Oh yeah, 100%, because you can charge them to 100%. So you can have like a 250 mile range car. If you were to do that in with nickel manganese phosphate batteries, you would be, you know, 80% of that is what you could charge to most of the time. So, you know, 200 miles. Whereas the LFP battery, you could charge to 100 almost every single time without seeing much, if any, battery degradation.

C

Interesting, interesting. So are you an EV owner?

B

I have a Model Y and I have a Kia Carnival hybrid.

C

Okay. How's the Model Y working out for you?

B

Oh, I love it. I mean, if you listen to my podcast, I don't always have the nicest things to say about Tesla, but I also share that same feeling with like Ford and GM and especially Stellantis. Man, Stellantis drives me crazy. So it's not that I'm picking on them as a, as a general rule. So people are tend, tend to be surprised when they say when they find out I have a Tesla. But no, I love my Model Y. It works great.

C

I want to talk about some other stuff too, but speaking of Stellantis, do you have any impressions of what's going on with Stellantis and le? It's a really interesting business model right now, and it's mostly contained in Europe, but we could see it technically in Canada or Mexico relatively soon.

B

Yeah, I mean, you've been talking recently because I also listen to the car stuff podcast and every week and I love it.

C

Well, thank you.

B

You're welcome. I've had a couple of thoughts about the Polestar stuff. Any Chinese company that's coming into America, Ford has talked openly about, like partnering with a Chinese brand to bring something here in the US that would be Ford branded but built on Chinese technology, that kind of thing. I mean, they do that same thing in, in China. So it's not, it wouldn't be crazy for us to have other manufacturers here in the US that were from, you know, countries like China and. But they would just partner with a joint venture with US Automakers and that's what Stellantis. To bring it back around to your question, that's what Stellantis and Leap Motors have. They have a joint venture that Stellantis owns 51 of, but they also still hunt us, also is invested like 20% of Leap Motors. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a Leap Motors car that was, or at least the platform that was a Dodge or a, you know, Chrysler. We'll see what happens with Chrysler.

C

But yeah, this is a thing I've argued before and this is way off topic.

B

Okay.

C

Fiat, when Stellantis started bringing in Fiat to the US they really should have brought it in as Dodge. It was, it was a huge vanity thing to bring in the Fiat brand again. But yeah, you might be able to sell Leap Motor cars. For people who don't know, Leap Motors is a Leap Motor singular Chinese car company that are being, its products are being distributed in Western Europe right now by Chrysler, by, by Stellantis, and with some success, I believe.

B

Yeah, I think they have a plant in Poland and a plant in Spain. So I mean, they're, they're being built there as well.

C

All right, so you're not just about electric cars and automotive technology. You're into music to talk about that.

B

Okay, so I hear your recommendations often. And I had a captain early on when I was a brand new guy and he was a huge jazz fan and I lived in Idaho and he used to volunteer for the Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Idaho and he was friends with Gene Harris. So one of the things early on that I got, like in my early, early twenties even I might not have been twenty yet, was a cd. It was Bobby Bland and BB King live at the Coconut Grove, and it's called Together Again. And it starts off with Let the Good Times Roll. And it is the most out of any song that I've ever listened to my life. That particular version is the most electrifying version, if I can bring it back to me, of any. Any music. Like, every time I hear it, it improves my mood. It is just fantastic. And hearing them do a little bit of crowd work here and there. Twice in my life, I had a chance to go see B.B. king, and once I sold the tickets because I was broke and couldn't afford to get to where he was playing. And the other time, I just was like, I'll catch him next time. And then he passed away. So one of the biggest regrets of my life. So I was a big BB King fan, but together with both of those two guys, it's fantastic.

C

Speaking of crowd work, B.B. king has an album called Live at Cook County Jail, which is absolutely spectacular. It's one of the greatest live albums of all time. And he's fantastic with the crowd. It's so good. But he's there with a full orchestra. Obviously, he's not being paid for this, so he's just a good guy going to entertain the inmates. But, Bodhi, remind us, how can people listen to your podcast?

B

If you want to want the easiest way, you can go and just search up Kilowatt. There's all sorts of different versions of Kilowatt. The mine will typically show like an. Not an animation, a drawing of a Scout Motors pick pickup truck with some solar panels and stuff in the background. But you can do that or you can go to 918digital.com that's 918digital.com and you can see, you know, everything I'm working on there.

C

Sounds good. Bodie, thank you so much for your time today.

B

Thank you very much. It was nice meeting you. Nice meeting you, Brendan.

A

Nice to meet you.

C

Sounds good. Thank you. Yeah, it was great talking to you. That was Bodhi Graham with Kilowatt. We're going to take a break, and when we come back, quiz time.

A

Questions or comments?

B

Drop us a line at Car Stuff Consumer guide dot com.

A

That's Car Stuff Consumer guide dot com. Welcome back to the Car Stuff podcast.

C

All right, we're back. This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast. I'm Tom Appel. He is Brendan Appel. No direct relation that we're aware of, but the Appels. It's odd. It's statistically unlikely.

A

It is very statistically unlikely. But here we are.

C

There was an Appel who I think was CEO in the 90s of 3M. And people would ask me if I was related to him. And I, I'm not.

A

And I get the writer on, on the Simpsons sometimes too.

C

Oh, yeah, I see that. Yeah. I'm proud to have my name there. And I hope some people associate me with just good comedy writing.

A

Exactly.

C

All right, before we get going, because it is quiz time, remind people how they can check out the Sons of Speed and, and get a hold of you and follow you guys.

A

We made it super easy. If you just go to sonsofspeed.com you can find us.

C

There you go. Sounds good. I am car guy Tom on Twitter XM bluesky. Also, I'm just Tom Appel on Facebook. So if, if you want to see the weird stuff I do, Taking pictures of old TV shows, that's on Facebook. Yeah, Gunsmoke is a great one for that. The other great, great one is Perry Mason.

A

Oh, yeah.

C

Like everyone is on Perry Mason like before their careers start.

A

And what Tom does is he finds pictures of, of actors who, you know, but before they were known and they're appearing in some bit roll on one of these TV shows. It's hilarious. I love it.

C

If you want to irritate my wife and daughter, pause the TV so you can take a picture of someone they don't care about. It's good comedy. All right, it's quiz time. And today's quiz, I think is a topic you'll enjoy. Are you ready?

A

I am, I am. Let's go.

C

Today's topic is Corvette, exclamation point.

A

Alrighty.

C

Five questions.

A

Well, here.

C

Yeah, yeah, five questions plus the bonus question. The bonus question, of course, always related to the topic of the day. You need three for an official victory.

A

All right, let's do it.

C

And Jill's been on a hot streak,

A

so I definitely got to do better. You know, I hear every time that I lose that Jill would have won from Jill.

C

Oh, man. Producer Randy used to always check in with his totals at the end of the the show and he generally would have won as well.

A

Yeah, exactly.

C

All right, so Corvette, America's sports car back to 1953. Actually, the first question relates to 1953. Brendan, what was the name of the Corvette's first engine? Was it The Blue Flame 6 or the Red Devil 6?

A

It was the Blue Flame 6.

C

It was. And it was an interesting engine. It was. It was a push rod engine. It wasn't a flathead. And I think it was dual carved and like something like 155 horsepower. It's made fun of now because it's not a V8, but actually, in the day, it didn't suck.

A

No, no. And that's the thing is, like, most people don't realize the Corvette because it's such a sports car. And now 200 mile an hour in base form sports car. Back then, it was more just like a cruiser. It was almost like the 55t bird was, you know. Yeah, very. Just get out, you know, had it top down, wind in your hair. It was not a sports car until Mr. Duntov came around and said, you know what, we need to drop a big feed in this thing and make it a sports car out of it. A true, proper sports car. And that's. That's when. That's why he's considered the godfather of the Corvette.

C

And that happened really fast. Right. The six stuck around for like, just one more year.

A

Yeah.

C

And then I think the V8 became standard.

A

Yep, yep. And then it. And then it got bigger and bigger. I think it started with a 283 and then then 327 and later three, you know, 350, 427, 454. It's been in a lot of. A lot of sizes, but they've generally gotten bigger and faster as they go along. Except for the late 70s.

C

It's interesting to think, too, that the Vet was somehow in parallel development with the Thunderbird because the Thunderbird got so big and fat.

A

Yes.

C

And the Corvette stayed the sports car. Actually, by the second generation, the Corvette very much became a real sports car.

A

It definitely did.

C

Like, no question.

A

It was racing at the end of the first generation.

C

Yeah.

A

And winning.

C

All right, second question. Are you ready? You know, this one. What was the Corvette's gap year? Was it 1983 or 1984?

A

83. One of those exists. It's at the museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It's the only one.

C

Yeah. It was funny that.

A

The story behind the saving of it is hilarious.

C

Also, I believe if you look at a calendar. Not a calendar, a catalog from 1984, early in 1984, they show 15 inch wheels that never showed up on a production car. But I think they're around that 83.

A

They probably are. And what happened was, is they had a change in general, man, general. Plant managers and a bunch of guys basically stuck it in the back after the last guy's last day. The first guy's last day, I should say, covered it up. And then when the new guy showed up, they just, you know, kind of left it there. So they hit it you know they didn't because all the rest of the prototypes got crushed. And then it ended up over at the museum, which is the best. That's just. So go take a look at it. You can see the one and only 1983 Corvette.

C

Crazy. All right, you have two points. You're in good shape here. The 1984 Corvette featured a branded fuel injection system. Was that called Crossfire Injection or tuned Port Injection?

A

That would be the infamous Crossfire Injection. Not very well remembered.

C

That was such a cheap out. That's so weird.

A

I wonder if they got the name from that Rolling Stone song.

C

Wait, what? Rolling Stone, son.

A

Or is it Crossfire Hurricane?

C

Oh, is it? Yeah.

A

I could play the riff in my head, but I can't get the name of the song out of my mouth. Can't get no satisfaction.

C

Okay.

A

Born in a Crossfire Hurricane.

C

Yeah. Crossfire Injection was weird. It was simply two throttle bodies, one for each bank. And then in. In some artful underhood decorating, they more or less the manifold more or less went across the. The v and the V8, giving it kind of a cool look. It. Nothing about that look turned into horsepower.

A

No. No. And then of course they made it with the four plus three, which is the craziest gearbox ever to hit a Corvette. And you just had this very odd combination of poor fuel injection and weird gearbox.

C

Someday we need to talk about it. That was the Muncie, right? The Muncie four plus three, I think.

A

I don't know. I know the. If Muncie was the four, but I. I don't know who made the fourth three, if that was Muncie or if Borg Warner had anything to do with that, but.

C

All right, even though time is tight, I need to ask was the deal with that? You were in a gear. It was a four speed manual, but if you hit the gas hard, it downshifted.

A

Yeah. And then like. And then it would up. It would give you like overdrive gears when you were in fourth gear just cruising. It would. It would. It would upshift for you. I think it would also then downshift if you were in one of those upshift gears.

C

But just one gear.

A

Yeah, it wasn't a lot. It just added a gear that you didn't have to shift to.

C

So. And that disappeared right away after that model year. Right.

A

Nobody liked it. Such a long lines of crossfire.

C

All right, you've already won. You've got three out of three. Question four. What was the largest engine Californians could get in a Corvette in 1980. Was it a 5 liter or a 5.7 liter V8?

A

Well, I mean, that was on the height of the California Air Resources board and I think it was the five liter.

C

Yes. And it was awful.

A

Yeah,

C

it was actually called the California Corvette. It came only with an automatic and only with a 5 liter V8. It was 180 horsepower. Everyone else on the planet could get a. A5.7 with 190 horse or an available 230 horse V8. So you could get some real horsepower there by the standard of the era. And then Californians got on the window sticker in exchange for losing 7/10 of a liter and 10 horsepower. A dollar fifty credit.

A

Yeah. Yes. It's like reminds us of the. Of the COVID chip shortage credits that they used to handle.

C

Yeah.

A

You didn't get heated seats. Here is 50 bucks.

C

What a nightmare. Finally, how many Corvettes did Chevrolet sell in 2025? Was it about 26,000 or about 16,000?

A

26, I would hope.

C

Yep. Yep. Way down for some reason from 2024. But I guess sales are up again this year.

A

Yeah, that might have something to do with the ZR1. The Great Wall of buttons went away, which is an interior change. And I forget if that was for 24. 5.

B

I think.

A

I think 25 was the last year. The great wall of buttons.

C

So for people who don't know, describe that, you'll probably describe it better than.

A

There was a literal wall between you and the passenger. On top of which sat all of these controls that you could, you know, change. The, I think was heating and air conditioning. So it was all the H vac stuff. There might have been some other switches there that you. And it was very divisive, literally and figuratively, because a lot of people didn't like it. But it also just divided the cabin. And so they've. The new ones have a more conventional looking interior. It looks really great.

C

When I saw the first C8 interior picks, I actually thought that was a joke.

A

Yeah, it does kind of look. I mean, it's one of those things. You're just like, how did this get past someone's design development? You know?

C

Yeah, someone should have said no. Right. All right, bonus question. Are you ready? You're five for five. You can go six for six now. Lyons, Illinois was settled in 1820 and is largely understood to be the first Chicago suburb. I need you to tell me which of the following is not a Chicago suburb and is indeed a fake community. Are you ready?

A

Okay, let's do it.

C

I've got four communities here. One of them is fake. Campton Hills, Lily Lake, Homer Glen, Arcade Woods.

A

The only one I recognize on that whole list is Homer Glenn. I know that's real. What the heck were the other ones? Are you sure these are suburbs of Chicago?

C

Yes, yes.

A

My whole life.

C

Campton Hills, Lily Lake and Arcade Woods.

A

I gotta. This is a total guess, but let's go. Arcade Woods.

C

Correct, sir. All right, perfect.

A

I ran the table.

C

How about that? Campton Hills is in Kane County. 11,000 people. Lily Lake is in Kane County. That's 11,000 people. Homer Glenn is in Will County. 24,000 people. And Arcade woods is fake. Nice job.

A

Well, thank you very much.

C

We're running out of time here. But you recently went out and did a little shopping.

A

Yes. So we are in the process of picking up a camper trailer. As you know, I have a 1500 Ram Limited. And the worst thing you can probably do is go online and ask people's opinion as to whether that thing can certain other vehicles. Because you will start a firestorm. Let's just put it that way. So at some point we thought we needed to upgrade this, you know, half ton to a three quarter ton. And we, we did so by shopping an F250 Godzilla motor 7.3. Great engine by the way. Gasoline built to, you know, bulletproof specs. It will never, you know, break our or run out of power. However, what I just quickly, both my wife and I quickly discovered is that's a lot of truck. I thought the F, you know, the, the 1500 was a, was a decently sized vehicle. I mean it's, it's hard to park, it's, it's big. It barely fits in my garage. The F250 just takes that to another level. The Super Duty is a very capable vehicle, but holy moly. If you are not under load, the rear springs are so stiff that it really just rattles the fillings out of your teeth and bounces like a pogo stick over rough pavement. On smooth pavement it's fine. But I didn't realize how much truck 3/4 ton is. And I can't even imagine like what a one time actually comes back feeling like. But that thing was unweighted. Very, very hard to basically contemplate as a daily driver. So we didn't get it.

C

Interesting how, how heavy is the trailer you're thinking about towing?

A

It's going to be about £6,800 I think on unweighted and probably another thousand and once you load it up. Okay, well so towing limit. But you know, about payload, which I discovered too. So.

C

Yeah, I had an engineer once and I think it was a Ford engineer who's talking about how half ton pickup trucks often advertise fantastic towing capabilities like in the 10,000 pound range. And it was his opinion that if you were getting anywhere close to that, you should probably go to a three quarter ton. Yeah.

A

And that's my pusher luck that made us look in the first place. But yeah, we shall see.

C

Yeah, well, cool. You'll have to keep us posted on that. Brendan, thank you so much for stepping up this week. We appreciate it.

A

Pleasure. My pleasure.

C

Tom, Great conversation. Thanks to Bodie Graham of Kilowatt. Thank you to Brendan of the Sons of Speed. Thank you as always to producer Margaret. Let's talk more about cars again next week. Next week.

B

Remember to check us out@consumerguide.com the Car

A

Stuff Podcast is produced by JTurn Media.

B

To advertise on the show, please drop

A

us a line at carstuff at consumerguide.

C

Com.