Cruise control streamed live every Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Eastern. Watch us live on Facebook and YouTube. Details are in this podcast episode information. Jackson and. Everything You Need to know about new and used cars. Industry news will fix or repair your car on the air. Fasten your seat belts and let us take the wheel. Your ride is about to begin. It's come true because you're on cruise control with control Welcome to Cruise Control. You're on air. Automotive Magazine.
It's that time again to buckle up the seat belts and head out and get ready to talk about what's going on in the automotive industry. And there's no one better person to join me on that trip than Liz Jackson. Les. How are you doing? Hey, just great. Yes, great, Fred. As usual, we're having fun you know, imparting the knowledge that we've gained in the last week about the auto industry, of course.
We've been doing this for many, many years. So we're kind of I like to think of us as sort of walking libraries. What do you think? Oh, OK. Well, let's give some more of that information. And that involves something brand new from Volkswagen. They are reviving a tough truck name from the past to enter the pickup truck market in the U.S.. Plus, it signals also on a different note, an entry level. E.V. is in the making.
And, you know, that's good news for a lot of people that want to dip their toe into the world of electric vehicle. ABS absolutely. And Mitsubishi is also doing some electricity. They've revealed it's their plug in hybrid Outlander, which is, I think, going to sell very well. Yeah. I do, too. And speaking of electrified, also, we're going to talk about the Range Rover sport, which gets hybrid editions and even still has a V8 as an option as well. So we'll talk about that. Well, you're right.
And I, of course, am going to be reviewing our Air at the Wheel review this hour. The brand new Mini Cooper, which I've been scooting around in this week, It's it's a mini what can I say? Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I'm sure. I'm sure. And you're going to have a full at the wheel review for us of that and a whole lot more. You never know what's going to happen here on cruise control.
Don't forget to check us out at cruise control Radio.com, where you can like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. It's all there. Liz Jackson have memories of the scout. It was the International Harvester Scout. Yes. I remember seeing a bunch of those around here in Northern Virginia many, many years ago. Yeah, I had one for a very brief period.
I was given it because someone couldn't get it started and they had started to like pull apart ignition switches and that and it was in Brooklyn, New York, and it was sitting there. So I had to go in there where my dad worked and what happened is someone stole the wheels off of it when it was. So it ended up being scrapped.
And for the drive, it was a two wheel drive version, but I thought it would've been fun to dump a diesel in it or something and and just putter around in it, but never got it, never got a chance to do that. But now, who knows? Maybe we'll get a Volkswagen Scout to check out and we'll tell you about that and a whole lot more when we come back on Cruise Control your on Air Automotive Magazine. Stay tuned. Cruise Control is your on Air Automotive Magazine.
Check us out at Cruise Control Radio.com Cruise Control. Hey, welcome back to Cruise Control, Les and Fred. Here we are rolling along, as is Volkswagen. Oh, yeah. Because they're they're going big guns here. Their first thing they're launching is an all electric pickup sounding familiar, isn't it, Fred? It seems like it's something they want to. That's that's right on a plane. Yes. Right. And a rugged SUV and they're bringing a name back. It wasn't their name. Right.
But it's a name any of us have been around for a number of years. Would remember. It's the scout, which is a good name. Yeah, it's a great name. And of course, it belonged to International Harvester. The scout was really ahead of its time. It was a two door and a four door SUV body on frame, you know, built Tuff Corn Binder, right? Yeah, that's true.
You know, and so Howard Dees, who is CEO of Volkswagen AG, has said after Volkswagen's success, successful turnaround in the U.S., we are now taking the opportunity to further strengthen our position in their most significant growth markets of EVs, including a highly attractive pickup truck and our SUV segment as a group. This is going to be a kind of a stand alone brand or sub brand. The Scout brand. And it's it's interesting. It's interesting to see what will come out of it.
It almost looks like the old international scout, in a way, you know, it's very square. A little. Yeah, a little bit kind of boxy. Do you think International Harvester just let that name kind of fade away? They didn't keep keep it up with it as far as the. Yeah, they didn't keep up their trademark name, so they lost it just like Ford lost G t 40. Mhm. So yeah, I'm excited to see what what these things are. Obviously they've got a lot of competition.
The Ford Lightning, the Hummer, EV and Vivien and a whole bunch of other people. But you know what, hey, it's going to get exciting. Will these have be much will they be more capable than their current offerings. Probably. Um, it's kind of an exciting time. I'm kind of excited to see what they come out with. Aren't you absolutely. I like all of this going on. I'd like to see them do more cars, but we all know that's not happening. No, that's not happening because this is what people want.
But yeah, it sort of, it sort of has like a Land Rover take on it too, doesn't it? It does. It does. You know, kind of a kind of a European square concept. Yeah, kind of look for it. Yeah. So well well, that's about all we know on that model. But we do know a little bit more on this model, which is from the folks over at Mitsubishi. Actually, a lot going on at Mitsubishi. They've got their lineup being completely freshened up and it's a lot of good news there.
They're going to reveal the Mitsubishi Outlander plug in hybrid at the Twin Cities Auto Show, which is a unique place to reveal it. I don't know why, but it is they modernized Outlander. I'm supposed to get into one of these pretty soon. I'm actually looking forward to it because I think it's a great vault. Yeah, it's it is. You know, Mitsubishi, they promised us two years ago that they were going to be bringing out a bunch of new models. Yep. And they've kept that promise.
I've never heard of the Twin Cities Auto Show no. No, I haven't either. But what's interesting about this plug in hybrid is it has motors on the front and rear Do we have anything on range? I don't think we have anything on range. Oh, electric range. It is a four probably system um, and the the drive battery has been increased to allow the ability to operate more frequently in the electric mode.
Um, but increased capacity of the battery and a larger gas tank, it's all good, I guess, but I don't know what the range is on this. I guess around 32 I would, I would think somewhere between 35 and 24.25. Yeah. But good looking vehicle and certainly one that we want to check out. I have a regular outlander coming up in the rotation and we'll have an at the, we'll review of that when, when that becomes available. But good stuff.
Now over at Mercedes they're celebrating 55 years of AMG and they have a way of doing it with this shirt in I think it was 45. Didn't think it was that old. Yeah and it will be making the trip into the world of electrics as we've seen already that they are doing that. But when we come back we'll tell you a little bit more about this Mercedes amg c l.a 45 addition 55 only 55 of these are going to be made so they're probably sold out already. Yeah. Oh, probably.
We'll tell you about that and more when we come back. On Cruise Control. I'm Fred Stobbe. He is Liz Jackson. We'll be right back. Who's control Welcome back. Welcome back to Cruise Control. We were just finishing up on the Mercedes. Actually, we weren't finished just starting all the the AMG. 55 years and it's the 55 edition 55 that they're putting out in honor of that. Aha. The one we're showing a picture of is kind of a fun shiny black finish with of course, red bimbos.
Pretty slick, pretty slick and I think pretty fast. Would that be a reasonable statement? Yeah, it is the addition. 5519 inch AMG Cross spoke forged wheels. It has a aerodynamics package and an amp night package. A lot of appearance here, but also a lot of power as well. Yeah, that's that's what AMG is all about. Here's the key takeaway, Les. If you buy a clay 45 edition 55, you get a customized AMG indoor car cover 00 k made of care resistant synthetic fiber
OK. Yeah. And more importantly, there's a two tone classic red and black Nappa leather interior. I always like that. I like a black car with a red interior. I think that's that's a pretty safe combo. It's not something I would choose myself, but it is it is pretty striking looking. Yeah. And if there's only 55 of these coming to the U.S. market, so probably, you know they're snapped up by collectors probably already. Yeah. So so there you go.
We just told you about a vehicle you probably can't buy. Yeah, we, we hope you enjoyed it. You're never going to own one. How about this? Let's talk about one you can buy and the 2023 Toyota Highlander one of my favorite crossovers. Yeah, it's a nice it's a nice crossover rides nice. It has a new high efficiency turbo gas engine and new dual 12.3 inch screens for limited and flat platinum models power folding mirror mirrors, ad convenience and improved wireless charger location.
Now what they've done they've made a four cylinder turbocharged 2.4 liter engine that delivers £309 feet of torque which is more than the 3.5 LIDAR V6 at £263 feet of talk that it replaces. And this pretty, pretty impressive torque numbers.
Also it's going to increase fuel efficiency and decrease emissions and it is got a manufacturer estimated number of 24 miles to the gallon so that's an improvement over this V6 and this is something that we've watched throughout the years four cylinder engines pumping out three £309 feet of torque some of them up at almost 400 horsepower. It's pretty amazing numbers from a little four cylinder isn't it.
Do you think do you think that something that large over time that that the engines might kind of take a lot of where? I always thought that I always thought that it was better to have a bigger engine that worked lighter than a smaller engine that you had to rev up and and turbo charge. Yeah. Now so obviously engine get nowadays a production turbocharged engine. Do you get less life out of it because you're boosting it? It doesn't seem to be the case so far.
Yeah. I mean, it's like the old days, but yeah, replace that. It's external. Yeah. But it's, you know, you just I always kind of worry about that, that man, you know, a small displacement, but obviously the engineers and marketing people have done some serious study on that issue. Typically, too, they're not only small displacement and boosted, but some of them, even the booster engines have pretty high compression ratios. So you wonder about that. Yeah. That's right. But but there you have it.
The Highlander, you know, the the V6 is kind of going away. People talk about the V8 going away, but the physics going away. Well, P6 is are going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This also is this was a funny take away from this press release. It says they have a mid-century modern inspired soft tex trim seats, wood fabric inserts and bronze colored stitching and mid-century now, not mid-century homes.
You know, they were big windows and things like, well, big windows and slender blond furniture or light brown. It was never and every home had to have a rolling drink making cart. Bar. Bar cart. That's right. Yeah. But Soft Tex is another thing I'd like to talk about for a minute. People might not know. It's actually a synthetic leather, and it's pretty nice. It is nice. I work in an outback wilderness that had it, and you could just wipe it down, you know?
And it didn't feel like cheap vinyl seats. It was very soft yeah. The name Soft Tex. And I wouldn't mind I wouldn't mind having it in a vehicle, you know, I think I think it was very nice. No, I wouldn't either. I it leather requires some maintenance. Yeah. Soft tech yeah. As you say, just wipe it down. Yeah, wipe it down. So that's that's your term for this week. Soft tex. It's a synthetic leather and I don't know what it's made of.
Yeah. And it's it's not like the old German Tex ten, which was the vinyl in German cars in the seventies. It was, but it was, it was not soft it was like sitting on a Formica counter perfect for that road trip. Perfect for that. Exactly. Hey, you're listening to Cruise Control, your on Air Automotive Magazine. We're glad you're along for the ride. I'm Fred Stobbe. He is last Jackson. We got a lot coming up here.
Yet on this edition, we're going to talk about how one auto executive is not too excited about electric vehicles will tell you why he's got an issue with them. We're going to talk about the Range Rover sport which is an electrified edition. Range Rover is also going to have a fully electric version down the line. And you drove the mini Cooper, which I did. Very cool. The latest Mini Cooper. The latest Mini Cooper. I love I love this shots of the original Mini Cooper.
Who is your gun? Kind of fun. Nice stuff. I still think that's one of the coolest looking little car. That's the color, by the way. Yeah. That's sort of a green. Yeah. Yeah. So fun little thing many put together with it with an original mini and the current mini considerable difference in technology. Yeah, just a little bit difference in technology. I think the NAV system was basically some on paper. Yeah. It was holding up a big road map.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So a lot coming up on cruise control. And we've also got a lot of great vehicles we're going to be driving as well. You are in the Ford Bronco right now right I drove the Ford Bronco will. I'll review that in a week or so. Getting the marquee, getting another new escape wow. And something else that I can't think of offhand. I'm going to get the Subaru BRC with. It's got one of three pedal cars, three pedals, a manual transmission.
I'm I'm looking forward to driving the BRC. You and I talk about it a lot on the show as a as a cool car, as something like an auto crossover or cool first car. And it's fun. It will be fun to be in it because that's gotten a lot of upgrades so I'm kind of excited about that. I also have the key, a Nero hybrid, which is getting crazy miles to the gallon even around town. It's like like deep into the forties. So that's pretty, pretty cool stuff. All coming up though, on cruise control.
So stay tuned. We'll be back and we've got plenty more to go. We are live every Saturday at 10 a.m. Eastern. Watch us on Facebook and YouTube. Details are in this podcast episode. Information Cruise Control. Welcome back to Cruise Control Your on Air Automotive magazine. Fred Stobbe here along with less Jackson. We're glad you're along for the ride. Join us for our trip around the automotive industry. A lot to talk about still. Still because there's just so much going on.
And so an interesting one. I found this interesting article about this on on car buzz. But I you had a little bit of trivia before the break before we get into this article. And it involves a question the maverick right? The Maverick, which of course, the new maverick Ford truck. But back in 1970 Ford made a Falcon derivative called the Maverick oh right. But that was not the first maverick car model. So you now know.
But I imagine most people would would not believe that there was a maverick earlier than that. But it was in 1958 when the James Garner popular TV show Maverick was running. Big deal. Sure. Yep. And Jeep was a sponsor. And one season they decided that they would make a Jeep model just paint and trim and call it the maverick, but they didn't copyright the name. Now it's interesting. I wonder if any of those still exist that would be really interesting.
Yeah I probably somewhere and maybe you know if it's just paint and trim, maybe someone just repainted it and didn't care, didn't know about it. It's air show, but nowadays, you know, or how would you know maybe somebody could just recreate it and you wouldn't know. But that's, that's true. Maybe plus trim tag, who knows? Plus Ford would probably sue you. Yeah, it's it's well, we talked about this earlier in the show where International Harvester owned Scout International.
Right. No longer makes passenger vehicles. They just make trucks, medium duty and heavy duty trucks so I guess they didn't care about keeping the scout name or maybe they did. And and Volkswagen bought it from them, right? That's right. Well, just like you're similar to the way Plymouth bought the Roadrunner. Roadrunner image for rented it from Warner Brothers right back in the in that model days hey, why not? I mean, it's it's kind of good for everybody.
Yeah. Well, let's jump into our next story after that trip down trivia lane and that's first talent is the CEO Carlos Tavares says there's some serious issues on the horizon for sustainable oil transport.
And he was talking at the Financial Times future of the car 2022 conference he said the material shortage at least at the still Qantas brands are set to keep going and more than that his outlook on the whole EV transition had a rather bleak spin on it and he says models like the Jeep Wrangler for XY the Grand Cherokee Forex as well as the brands complete lineup of upcoming EVs will continue to be challenging to produce due to material shortages
the industry is experiencing and that will of course become more acute as domantas transitions to a fully electric brand. He said that the industry wide shift to electric vehicles is only going to exacerbate supply chain issues. They won't be going away any time soon, and especially when it comes to batteries. And he predicts that by 20, 25 to 20, 26, demand for increasingly complex batteries will reach new heights as brands compete or begin their trends complete
or begin their transition to electric vehicles. And the EVs may become bad for business as costs are transferred to consumers. I, you know, what we talked about here is you may never own a car, maybe owning a car or SUV will become a thing of the past and they'll all be leased. Yeah, I think that's pretty likely also, I don't think he's wrong about what he's saying. I think maybe he's overestimating technology advances.
And also, I don't think if there's one brand that doesn't really have an urgency to go electric, it's cheap. Mm. So I think he's got a lot more breathing room before the the big switch, which still is ten years away. Yeah. Yeah. He's just signaling that what are we going to do about what are we going to do about shortages in that and. Yeah, well, I mean, I'll say nobody's really talking about fixing up the electric grid. At all. You know, we, we better start talking transfer.
You know, everyone's going to come home and charge their electric vehicle up at night because people are not going to wait. They're not going to just not going to do it. They want to charge it up right away. You know what happens then? Or does it happen something that's catastrophe? It all goes bad and then we just throw billions of dollars at it.
Well, once again, in the words of so of Winston Churchill, Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they've exhausted all other possibilities. It's true, sir. I think that's probably true. Yeah. Yeah. So this an interesting article about you've heard of these the term shotgun exhaust where it's less common now, where people remove the mufflers, they rev the engine up to put fuel into the exhaust and then. Right. It backfire, it backfires. And I have to say, I like it loud.
You like it, but I don't like that sound. That sounds like the gun going off. Right. It's also illegal. It's also illegal. There's a law in New York, especially in New York, if you're caught with that, it's a big, big fine. Now, in California, they're going to use cameras with microphones. Yep. That can determine sound activated enforcement. It's a sensor that activates when he hears a loud noise and then takes a picture of the offending vehicle. Some people are saying it's kind of too new it.
I have to I'm going to quote the car buzz article because it's funny. It says it's too new to pinpoint offenders in traffic except if you're the dude driving the purple Subaru W R X with the Eiffel Tower as a rear wing. Yeah yeah. So and that's a direct quote from car buzz. But yeah, this is SB built SB 1079 um there are, are some severely loud exhausts they're popping in and you know, it's some of them sound like a shotgun to me or louder. I'm very familiar with this.
I've, as a matter of fact, I'm working with the Alexandria's in Arlington City governments about it. But New York City and Knoxville, Tennessee are already using these and they've cut down these violations by about 80%. Yeah. And I've measured those cracking exhaust that over 120 decibels, which is way beyond safe limits and humid air is typically the guy also has the sound system pumping where you're. Oh, yes. And, and it's loud in your car. It's like, that would be loud.
And it was coming out of my speakers you know, you wonder about hearing issues for four. Well you don't wonder actually any EMT will tell you that these people are going to have severe, severe hearing loss before they're 40 years old. Right. And that's a long way to go to that's yeah. Yeah. So a little bit of technology there. Let's talk let's get back into our talk about some new vehicles though and this is well that's the stripped down version that's the new basement. That's the base model.
I don't recommend that by the way. It's it's you don't need air conditioning, but so but wheels are extra wheels and doors. There's a little bit bit more about. Yes, Range Rover sport. It has a lot of technology. And here these are electrified vehicles. Talking about sound it has a 14 fine 1430 watt amplifier.
Oh man next generation cabin air purification filter and it is electrified performance they are extended electric hybrid to six cylinder and GM gasoline engines mild hybrid technology and an all new twin turbo V8 will be available in 2024 and then they're going to have a fully electric model coming out as well but nice looking vehicle especially don't get the base model though that that might be a little bit too much yeah but pretty plain when we come back
you're going to take a ride in the Mini Cooper the brand new one. We're anxious to hear about that so stay tuned to cruise control cruise control is your on Air Automotive Magazine. Check us out at Cruise Control, Radio.com Control and welcome back to Cruise Control. Now for the mini portion of our show, I don't mean a small portion. I mean, I'm going to review the the new Mini Cooper s hard top to door. Of course, they don't call me Mr. Sporty for nothing brand.
And anyway, we've we've both Fred tested beanies in the past. This is, of course true to the to the whole legacy of minis. It's it's the same vehicle actually. It's that color that's actually called British Racing Green for metallic number four. There have been a number of different British racing greens I did not know that. Yeah. Triumph just won one. No that was, that was Jaguar that actually had that originally and then AMG British Leyland had its version of Triumph had its version.
If you remember, triumphs were sort of a yellowish green OK. Anyway, someday I'll ask you why British racing green? Why not red or blue? I don't know, but OK, I don't. But in any case, this particular one has what signature trim. It's an option. Now, the signature trim is the keyless entry. Of course, sunroof and panoramic, by the way, sunroof, moon, roof storage package. You can't store much in a minute. No. So what are they give you as a storage?
Well, under seats and a couple areas in in the back in the trunk of the trunk. There's a little things to to store a little bags to store things in OK you know it's just kind of a nice thing he did front seats but not power they're manual seats, doors on climate control. You know, no, a manual transmission. This is part of the signature trim package for $4,000. Now, remember, you have a rare car there because I mean, he's getting rid of all manuals. That's right. This is a six speed manual.
And by the way, it the clutch and the shifting is the smoothest quietest simplest most elegant clutch in shifting I I've experi since too many, many years. It's it is just as they used to say like slicing butter. Yeah. But it really is nice. Yeah. So that's what you get for $4,000. OK, and you and then the touch screen navigation is $1,000. Now, we were talking about this over the break. Many still don't offer Android, Auto and Apple CarPlay and you know that's just not good.
But that's so strange because it's just, you know come on guys. I guess I guess there is a licensing cost to it maybe. Well but these are you need to buy the navigation so because you can't I don't know. It's $1,000 for the NAV system. It works fine. And it's, you know, it's a touch touch screen you get other other things. It's Oh, actually, I take that back. It is now offering with this Apple CarPlay, but not Android Auto but not Android.
You may have to buy $1,000 phone to make it yeah, you might have to. Yeah. So it, you know, at least at least they're they're getting somewhere but but the the standard mini without this navigation package, you don't get any of these compatibilities. Obviously, you get Bluetooth Mm. So, you know, that's, that's in there. Otherwise the usual goodies with, with many and that is to say sport wheels, these are summer tires on this particular model.
That's part of the trim package. OK, summer tires means great handling, not so great ride. Minis are always for me kind of a stiff ride choppy. Well, there's hardly any wheelbase too. Hardly any wheelbase. And when you get summer tires that's all about performance and there's lots of performance. Yeah, they're quick. Yeah. But then if you drive it in the winter, you got to have another set of wheels. You got to have it well, yeah. Or you can drive these tires, but, oh, I wouldn't do it.
In fact, I drove it in the rain the other day and it's pretty squirrely. OK, as you might expect, there's summer tires, summer performance tires, dynamic cruise control all those other goodies, it still has on the middle of the dash, the the little all of the toggle switches and the leftmost toggle switch is to turn off the stop start. Mm. Which in a mini is really annoying. The stuff start most of the time it shudders, I bet.
Yeah. It's just, you know, keep it running and you which you can, but you always it always defaults to to not now the seats are done and I love the name Chesterfield Leather Malt Brown I don't know whether to drink that or smoke it there. These are these cross stitched that's it's a beautiful color. It's kind of a chocolaty color. They're just gorgeous stitching extremely nice. It looks like an expensive leather handbag OK, beautiful. And and they're comfortable.
They don't they don't have too much bolster, but just enough so but again, they're manual seats, so which drives my passengers crazy. Now, do you think that was because of chip shortages or it's just manual? I you know, honestly, I don't know. But, you know, this is minis are not inexpensive considering it's it's not a basic car, but it's a it's a simple everyday runabout. Fun car.
Virtually no rear leg room, maybe five inches when I'm not tall, but when my seat's back where it belongs in the passenger seats there's I measured it was was it was seven inches tall that a vestige your back seat you know yeah it's it's seat it you can put your hat on it or a small pad or a banana. Yeah maybe a nice pet it would be nice for pets. That's right. But it's very smooth to drive on on the road. Very quiet. Mm. Slower speeds on, you know, residential streets.
It's tires are pretty noisy, but otherwise it's a mini. Everybody loves them. All your friends all stop. Oh, look, it's a mini. It's, it's just great. So. And the fact is, you can carry a full weeks groceries in what there is of a trunk, that's for sure. That's for us. For bags. Right. OK, yeah, that's about right. Yeah. Total price. 34, 850, including the destination charge of 850, which these days is, is a guessing giveaway yeah. 33 miles to the gallon highway. 23 on the road. I'm averaging
maybe 30. Wow. That's not bad. Well yeah, because you know we're not, we don't try to nurse them. Yeah. All in all, a cool car. But I would prefer if I could, if I had one. I prefer larger wheels or smaller wheels. Larger tires. Gotcha. All right. Well, let's hope so. There you are at the wheel of the Mini Cooper. We appreciate it. Time for me to say I'm Fred. Stop. I'm last. Jackson, we're going to see you down the road. I cruise control streams live every Saturday starting at 10 a.m.
Eastern. Watch us live on Facebook and YouTube. Details are in this podcast episode information.