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Hi, and welcome to Talking Cars. I'm Jennifer Stockburger.

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I'm Mike Quincy. I'm Michael Crossen. So as you can see, we are not at home.

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We are coming to you from the floor of the New York

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International Auto Show, as we do every year.

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It's a nice, short jaunt for us from Connecticut to New York.

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And we've been taking in the show.

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Usually, there's some themes that we see.

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The first one I see is that there's really

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something for everyone here, be it the racing enthusiasts,

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the off-roader, the wilderness guy in their pickup truck,

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or girl, but one thing struck, I know,

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us as we were walking around the floor, an that is

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this concept of affordability.

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Mike, I'll start with you. Mike Q, as opposed to Mike C. But yeah.

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We need nicknames. We do. [LAUGHS]

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Absolutely. When you're walking around and looking

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at all the manufacturers, what is prominent to all of us

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is a lot of Nissan Sentras out there.

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Yeah. A lot of Chevy Trax out there.

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Really affordable cars. Not just out there, but right in front, the most prominent spot

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on a show floor that people are going

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to see right when they walk in. On the stage at Hyundai, Tucson Santa Cruz.

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Right. Not the top level. Not the Genesis cars.

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Absolutely. Yeah. Affordability and practicality seems

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to be the most important thing going on right now.

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Yeah. And you wonder, is it manufacturers

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realizing the average price of a new car keeps going up

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and up and up? People talk about EVs, how much they cost,

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and maybe they're sensing a shift

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that the market is ready to start embracing much more

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affordable-- if you want a new car, it has to get cheaper.

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Yeah. And don't get us wrong.

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There's-- the fancy cars are here.

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They're here, but they're not-- to your point, Mike,

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they're not the most prominent. So I wanted to talk too about a couple that are particularly

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popular, not only with Consumer Reports,

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but with buyers in general.

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And the first one of that which is taking tremendous prominence

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is the Toyota Camry.

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Right. Again. Up until the pickup trucks took over, best selling car

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in the country. Super reliable every year, but new Camry coming for 2025.

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Mike C? Yeah. It's-- I mean, it's exciting thing, right?

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You don't get a new Camry every single year, and we're always very hopeful with the Camry,

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because they always do a pretty good job. So you know, it looks cool.

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Can't wait to actually get our hands on the one that we purchased and get to experience it for ourselves.

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Yeah. I got to shoot a video with Anatoly the great.

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Yeah. And the cool thing is that every model, every trim line

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is going to be hybrid. So there's no more V6.

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Right. No more standard four cylinder.

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All wheel drive is going to be available-- [INTERPOSING VOICES]

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--on all the trim lines. Blind spot warning is now standard on all the trim lines.

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Toyota wasn't-- Right. --and now is, yeah.

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So and I actually-- I think the styling is kind of slick.

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Yeah. It shows that when you think of how kind of cool the Prius--

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I mean, I think the Prius looks pretty racy.

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Yeah. That same kind of theme, that slick styling is featured,

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I think, in the new Camry as well.

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I think-- I saw certainly, a lot of slope-y sedans.

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Yes. A lot of slope-y sedans.

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Keeping too with the affordable and the slope-y sedans

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was the Kia K4. Absolutely. Yeah.

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Replacing the Forte. Right. It's bigger, which kind of seems to be the trend as cars age,

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I guess. If you want to call this the new Forte,

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it's really just the replacement. Yeah. So I think two inches wider, two inches longer.

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There are two motor options.

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140 something horsepower. You got it 147 two liter.

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Yeah. A 1.6 turbo that's 190 horsepower.

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You got it. Yep. And it looks pretty sharp.

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I think it's a little more stylized than the Forte was.

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Yeah. But again, yeah, this sort of swooping back, kind of like sort

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of big fender bulges out back. Yeah. Pretty neat looking car.

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Yeah. So one too, that super popular among just Consumer Reports

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members, again, in general, was the Forester.

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That was one I filmed with Dave Abrams.

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And yeah, an iteration. A little more burly looking, if that's-- as they've done with

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the Impreza and the Crosstrek, you know,

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that whole wilderness idea.

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Same powertrain, but again, upping the ante

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in terms of safety, in terms of infotainment options, you know?

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Big, optional 11.6 inch tablet-like screen.

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But again, iterating pedestrian detection, bicyclist detection.

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I think we've seen that on a lot of cars.

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Powertrains staying pretty much the same, little tweak

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in horsepower, but every Forester buyer-- again, I

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talk about my 87-year-old mother on her seventh Forester.

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She'll be ready to be 90 and order her eighth,

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because it's not that much of a departure. So reliability, hopefully, will benefit from those small tweaks.

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But of course-- And-- --and again, most of these are 2025 models coming.

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And for people maybe traveling from out of town

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coming to the New York Auto Show, check out the Subaru display.

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They always go all out. It's very nice.

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Certainly, the wilderness theme, the outdoorsy themes, Subaru

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does that better than anyone. I'm waiting for someone to roll a sleeping bag out and just

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lay on the ground. Because as we've seen over time with a lot of auto shows,

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car makers are cutting back on their displays, not as fancy

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as they have been. So it's nice to see that Subaru's still sticking with it.

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And again, they're-- not everybody's here, to your point.

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Right. There isn't a BMW booth. There isn't a Mercedes booth.

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So some are opting not to be here.

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Chevrolet has a huge presence, but we

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learned the GMC trucks and vehicles that are in the corner

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are from their regional dealers, Correct. General Motors National.

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Exactly. Just a few vehicles. So I think this is expensive to do.

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And it's very sad. I mean, really. It's tucked away in the corner.

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They don't have great colors on any of them. There's nothing to draw you in, but I

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think there are some neat vehicles over there. Yeah.

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I stood in front of the-- I think it was 2500, and it is massive.

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The grille is huge. The hood height is like, around my nose.

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Not going to be great for front over, or anything like that.

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Right. And then there's also the EV version of the Silverado,

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so the Sierra Denali EV is over there too.

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Yeah. And speaking of EVs, again, the trend, not the forefront.

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Kind of tucked in, it just shows you how the market--

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they're here, but they're embedded in the floor

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space of the other vehicles. One in particular though, Mike, that you talked about

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was Honda's Prologue. That's right. And it was out front for Honda, basically right at the corner.

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Not showy out, front, but out front. It wasn't.

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It wasn't lit up all that spectacularly.

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It's kind of in a gray color, so it didn't really stand out.

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But it's an interesting car. And I did a video on it a little earlier today,

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but we walked around, and we kind of had some comments about it.

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One of the surprising things to people, maybe, is that it's a Honda, but it's also General Motors.

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It's a collaboration. It's the Ultium platform like the EV Blazer, and so basically,

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battery and motors, which actually might be a good thing--

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Right. --because that's kind of maybe the best part of the Blazer EV and the LYRIQ

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so far, from what we've experienced. But I just wonder for the Honda buyer,

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what are they going to feel when they get in this?

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Because I had both of you sit in. I was like, go sit in.

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It it's weird because there's a H on the airbag for Honda,

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but what does it feel like? Yeah. It's all General Motors.

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All the controls are General Motors. So we just we just wrapped up our testing of the Blazer EV,

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and we're looking at the controls like, wait a minute.

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I've seen this before, and it's-- what struck me about

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the Prologue is that Honda has been one of the few

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manufacturers, like Toyota, that has not been diving in headfirst

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to the EV market. They've been much more reluctant,

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and they're-- so they're using an existing GM platform

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and mechanical, Right. Everything else which lowers their overall investment,

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financial investment in this vehicle.

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And you know, Honda has re-branded vehicles in the past,

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so that's kind of not necessarily new. Right.

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But on the other hand, the average consumer

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has to has to kind of realize like, no, Honda is not going all

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into EVs if they're getting General Motors basically

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to build one for them. Right. Right.

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And maybe that's a good cost savings.

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They're not to run up. But is it a risk in terms of other areas

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of not branding themselves? Yeah.

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It's the unforeseen costs down the road. [INTERPOSING VOICES] It looks nice.

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The technician in me wonders about service

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because it is a GM platform. Now, does Honda have to have a GM scan

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tool, and things like that? So we're going to get one, so we're going to find out.

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And you brought up they're risking Honda's reputation

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for reliability. Yeah. OK?

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A lot of newly designed General Motors products have not

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done well in Consumer Reports reliability surveys.

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Right. So Honda has pretty good reputation

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for top notch reliability. So I-- you know, doing the accounting,

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crunching the numbers and this is way above my pay grade.

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It's a big scale. So I don't know if this is a smart move for Honda,

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or just they're placating people that say, I want a Honda

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but it has to be an EV. Honda's like, all right.

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Here's a sort of a General Motors Honda EV whatever thing.

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Right. We'll see how it sells.

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And like-- I do think it'll sell. --we're going to buy one and test it.

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Absolutely. See how it goes. Yeah. Very interesting.

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The finally, just in the cars we looked more closely at, Mike,

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was the Volkswagen ID buzz?

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Yes. It's here again. Again.

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Haven't we seen this? [LAUGHTER] Once or twice. Is it deja vu?

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I think 2016 was the first time that we saw, it not at an auto

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show. I think it debuted at CES maybe, or that was the first time we saw it.

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Yeah. I will say I saw it last year here.

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This particular one looks more complete.

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It looks more like a factory-ready production

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vehicle. It's not, though. We did find a couple of things as Andrew

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and I kind of made our way through the car. Still a European model.

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So what's interesting is it's the three row, the longer

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wheelbase, which is what we're going to get here in the states. OK.

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And I heard from someone who was in Germany last week.

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They actually saw a lot of the two row German models

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like, in and around Wolfsburg and out on the road.

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So whether they're factory test mules, I don't know, but they saw a few.

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So we have the long wheelbase here. But in poking around, it actually

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still has the European charge plug on it.

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So what's here now today is not actually truly the US model.

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It might have-- Did they give any promises of when?

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There are no promises of any kind

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for Volkswagen, other than they literally say, stay tuned for more information on any time you

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ask them a question. Mostly in promises, they're going to keep teasing this.

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Yes. I mean, talk about brand, like, love for brand, brand loyalty,

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and how this looks like a classic, you know,

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summer of love minivan, you know, micro van-- microbus,

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sorry. And they're not producing it, but they still show it.

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People still swoon over it. And like, yeah, it might happen.

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It might not happen. There's other swoon worthy.

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There's a lot of nostalgia. Right. Again, there is something for everyone.

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A couple of things that I wrote too, the race cars that are out

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here, be it Travis Pastrana's, or some Nismo, or whatever.

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And one quote I read, "Racing today shapes

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innovation of tomorrow." I thought that was very interesting,

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and it almost alludes to what we do sometimes

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in a very high end, very expensive vehicle.

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I would say luxury of today shapes innovation of tomorrow,

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and why we test some of these very expensive,

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new technology cars. I mean historically, anti-lock brakes

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debuted on high end Mercedes-Benz models.

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Yeah. We wouldn't think of even buying a new car without ABS

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because they're all standard everywhere. Right.

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So it starts on the high end and it trickles down,

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just like with the active safety features.

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Certainly, most of the electric vehicles

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are starting out high end. And again, they're going to learn technology trickles down,

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costs get better. And I like to think we have a role in that, particularly

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safety innovation, where we say-- take electronic stability control,

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where it was high end first. And we said, game changer.

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Everybody needs this. And it trickled very, very quickly

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because it was a game changer. I think we're seeing a little more of it, too.

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Some of the cars that I spend time with, some things are now

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standard, not even optional in these sort of, I'll call them mid-level or lower end

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cars like rear cross traffic, or rear pedestrian alert,

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and things like that. And again, you can't argue with those safety systems.

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I love rear cross traffic. I think it's the best of all of them.

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Yeah. Absolutely. Well you just talked about the K4.

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That had a laundry list of standard safety

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that just went bang, bang, bang, bang, and hits all the marks that we give points for, or really feel

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are really beneficial for safety.

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One thing I noticed, too, just on the floor here,

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is automakers doing good. And you were a little cynical,

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[LAUGHS] But you know, Ford and Honda with micro-mobility

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and wheelchair access to national parks.

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Toyota has a whole thing on Paralympics and their support.

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And you can go try playing basketball from a wheelchair.

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Not so easy. Hyundai Cancer, Hope On Wheels, support

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of cancer, Subaru, pet safety and national park support.

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So it's nice to see. It's nice to see.

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I think all most corporations want to have feel-good moments,

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either to make themselves feel better, to say something

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to their shareholders, or maybe it might even be a write off,

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or whatever. I think it's all good.

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But you know, it-- yeah, I do. I do look at it just a little bit not cynically,

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but skeptically. Yeah. Would it change you?

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Would it change you if you were on the fence

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to pick a manufacturer that you thought

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was doing something good, either for the environment, safety?

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I don't think it would change the car that I purchased

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because I'm so connected with cars, and I want the car that I want.

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However, if that car that I want, they're doing something,

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I would feel good about it in the process. Even if let's say, it was whatever

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the cause was, I don't have a direct connection to,

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but I know that $500 is going towards that. Yeah.

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It doesn't hurt, right? I was just thinking my friend who

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I take care of who has MS, who's in a wheelchair.

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I see those micro-mobility and her

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being able to see a national park because there's

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tracks on it. Right. No,

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I think I would. The American Disabilities Act is really important.

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And to think years ago, that they

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didn't have anything like this. Just, but-- if I can jump on this to answer?

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Absolutely. I love the fact that Subaru is big on like,

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dog ownership or pet ownership. Pet safety.

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We're dog people. Yeah, we are. And for Subaru, certainly when you're

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when you're on their website, they have all these pet accessories, whether it's seat covers,

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or harnesses, or even like, ramps for elderly dogs

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to get into your car. I think that's totally cool.

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No, it wouldn't like, make me want to necessarily buy

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a Subaru or something else just because they're pet friendly.

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But I do like the fact-- listen, talk about smart accounting.

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The pet market, the dog market is $1 billion industry.

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So it was like, well, let's appeal to those folks.

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We like our dogs better than we like people. Well, sort of.

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[INAUDIBLE] I think it creates a little bit of community, too.

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So if we stick with Subaru for a minute, it's part of that whole Subaru kind of community.

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And [INAUDIBLE] a lot of people that buy Subarus are active.

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They bike. They hike. They do all those kinds of things.

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So it's-- again, it's part of that community. And I think community is important.

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And we talk about that. And like with our community, it's one of the reasons why we do a podcast, right?

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Exactly. So it's just another way that we can reach out to our people.

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Right. Or it's aspirational.

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It's like, people maybe aren't outdoorsy,

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but they think they might want to be, so they get a Subaru.

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Or they want the image of being outdoorsy,

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and so they get a Subaru. So it's like-- I get a Subaru, I'll ski better.

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Right. Yes. But just like with all the racing heritage.

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Exactly. People aren't necessarily going to racetracks all the time

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on track days to take their Nismos out there.

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Right. But they like the whole idea of associating themselves

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with a racing program that has some prominence of some success.

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Absolutely. And you get that trickle down, too. So you get like a little taste of it.

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Some of the systems that your kicks might have

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might have been developed on the GT-R.

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Exactly. Right. The trickle down, which I love.

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OK. Closure. What tickled your fancy the most on this score?

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I don't think I have one car in particular, but I was sort of happy to see a lot of the prominent cars

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are kind of silver and gray, which is what cars tend to be.

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And we end up with a lot of white, black, silver cars.

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But there's a lot of really good color choice here.

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Yeah. I mean, there's a purple Tacoma back there.

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It's not a factory color, but it's still here, and it looks kind of cool.

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Some good greens, really good blues over in Nissan.

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And then I don't want to spoil anybody's, but Genesis

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down there has three crazy orange cars.

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Yeah. Total concepts, but it's them saying,

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I think, like hey, we're over here, and we have fun.

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They're trying to change their image just a little bit.

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Beautiful green, I think it's a GV70 or something.

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You? What tickled your fancy? Well, I also was blown away by the Genesis display, not only

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the concept cars. I love the color orange on cars.

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I think it's awesome. Yeah. But the commitment that Hyundai has with Genesis is awesome.

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They're not going away. They're not quitting at all, so I kind of like that.

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But really on a more practical basis,

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I actually kind of like the Nissan Kicks.

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Yes. Got to do a video with Anatoly the great on this.

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It's a little bit bigger. It's getting the Sentra's four cylinder engine, which--

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We really like. --which produced pretty good fuel economy numbers

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in Consumer Reports testing. It is affordable, you know?

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So it kind of goes on that theme. And it's totally front and center at the Nissan display.

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So they're not going all in on trucks or big SUVs.

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Certainly, they're out there. But the Kicks, to me, is something

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that's really approachable by most people, and affordable.

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And the 4 all-wheel drive. Yes. That wasn't there.

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All-wheel drive, so it's kind of transitioning from being kind

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of a-- --a not SUV. Well, kind of like a like a dorky hatchback to now,

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sort of looking like an SUV and offering all-wheel drive.

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Yeah. Mine was a little more obscure in that I think I've shared,

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my husband had a 1973 Bronco.

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And there is a new '24 Bronco Heritage version over there

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that looks so similar. I literally just sent him a picture

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and he said, please drive that for me. The light blue one.

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Yeah. Please drive that for me. Looks great.

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That looks really good. So again, something for absolutely everyone-- racing,

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nostalgia, off-road, on-road, EVs, traditional gas

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powertrains, here at the New York Auto Show.

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Of course, anything we've been talking about today,

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consumerreports.org. We do have highlight videos of some of the vehicles

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we talked about. Next time, keep your questions, [email protected].

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We like being here. Hope you like getting a glimpse, and we'll see you next time.

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