A Fall Driver’s Guide: Scenic Byways, Vintage Window Stickers, and the 2025 Prius

Fall Road Trips That Actually Rip

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All right. Uh time now for Mr. Morris to do the driving destinations. You got about five minutes here, Mr. Mars.

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I could do it. So I wanted to start with, you know, when when we start talking about fall road trips, everybody thinks changing colors in the woods and the trees and the leaves and all that stuff.

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We don't, they they ain't from these parts.

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No, they're not because we don't have the trees. But you generally don't go by yourself. You generally have to bring your somebody you like, your your or maybe even your spouse to go along on these trips.

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Or maybe somebody you like, or maybe even your spouse.

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So one of the places that you can go on these road trips is your sports car because you want to enjoy driving the road and you want to provide some scenery for them.

Blue Ridge Parkway Essentials

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So the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now, this is 469 miles of mountain curves that winds between the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountain National Parks. So you got sweeping overlooks, tunnels, you got bank turns, and that's where you get into the fall, where you get the red maples, the golden hickories, and the orange oak trees that are going to provide you with all the color and the scenery because you're going to be going through some elevation shifts that you can change these colors. And it's really considered one of the drives you should make before you drive if you're an enthusiast driver. Best time to go is late October.

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Sir Drive before you die.

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So the Cherokoles and National Nash Nat Nantahala National Forest. I said this three times, right? 43 miles to the Cherokee uh forest, and it goes from 900 feet above elevation to 5,000 feet. So that's where you get your mix of elevation. You get sweepers and the pavement that you can actually make some time on these high-altitude curves. Got a lot of panoramic outlooks so that your companion can see all the pretty trees as they go by at a high rate of speed. Best time to go is late October to see all the colors that are in there. Then the third one

Cherokee & Nantahala Mountain Mix

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is the Talamina National Scenic Byway. Now, this runs through Oklahoma and Arkansas 54 miles, and it goes through the Washita Mountains with the bottom sweepers again, the ridgetop view. So you go over the top and you can see these vast uh areas there that's got all the changing colors in it, so that you can keep the other half of the car happy. It's got plenty of oaks and reds and the golden hickories, and the cool temps that really make it nice to make this fall ride. And uh it's really popular on motorcycles, but again, uh cars really have a good time in this run. Now, this one I really this one caught my attention. It's in Arkansas Highway 23. It's called the Pig Trail Scenic Byway. That's the one I want to hear.

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Yeah, squeal like a pig.

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Yeah, it sneaks through the Ozark Mountains between Ozark and Eureka Springs. So it's right there outside of Eureka Springs, a very popular destination for tourists.

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She's got a real cute nose.

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You got tight turns, technical curves, a lot of elevation changes. Again, in October, as you go through these elevation changes, you can see the forest canopy and see all the changing colors in it. And uh, you get this really comes in whenever you get into Turner Bend and close to the Mulberry River. And one thing about this road, it really has a strong connection with the University

Talimena Scenic Byway Highlights

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of Arkansas Razorbacks because it runs between uh central Arkansas and it drops down in the northwest Arkansas area so that they go to the football games and go to the university. Best time to go mid-late October. Now, while we're up in Arkansas, Scenic Highway 7. Now, I've been on parts of this for several times, and that's 290 miles from El Dorado to Hot Springs to Harrison, Arkansas. Now it goes through the mountains and the river valleys again. It's got a lot of elevation changes, corners, got a lot of small town stops, kind of like you would see uh on the pig trail. And during mid-October, again, a lot of color changes in the forest through there because of the oaks and the maples, etc. And um it's in the Washita Mountains, and so it's a great time to go through this autumn road trip. And it's the best time is mid to late October to go up through there. It's a great run, it really is. I've been on part of that, and that is some destinations you can take your sports car in with some colorful scene scenic areas to keep the other half of the car happy.

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All right, thank you, Mr. Mars. In real time car talk continues after this quick break. Time now for Jeff's car culture. The good old days of buying a car. Shall we remember this?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, let's look at this. Let's uh get this opened up here, Michael. If you can give me a hand on your end. Uh crud, let's go back to the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

No, I see. There you go. Good old days of buying a car. So these are the the uh crud? Yeah, crud, yeah. Crud, I like crud.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I could say that on on radio. Uh

Arkansas’s Pig Trail Deep Dive

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just look at the moronis. I mean, these are a lot of good things that people were offering back then. You can see that uh there's a Mustang, and this rascal is a Mach 1. You got zero roof. Well, this should be around a 70, I believe. Um, it doesn't actually give the dates on it. I've been looking, it does the dealership name and things of that nature, but you got wide over belted tires, you got the Acapulco blue uh tint on the windows, all that good stuff, and then that's a picture of the car. This came from Greenville, Texas, in the Frank Hudson Ford in Greenville, Texas. So that's where that moroni comes from. And you can see all the cool stuff. $35,28. Oh, $3,500. Yeah, what'd I say? You said $35,000. So it's okay, yeah. But you can see that the uh uh $428 is $200. I'm sorry, $357.

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Rear seat was $76. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Let's move on to the next one. You got some cool stuff here. Oh, look at that Corvette. Uh software. Is that a $69? Could be, yeah. It's the GM Overseas Distribution Corporation, so it's Fifth Avenue, New York. So was that one going overseas somewhere, possibly? Probably. Don't know, don't know, but it's the St. Louis, Missouri vehicle. That's where they were building that. And that's $2,300. Yeah. Then you got this one here, you got the old Nova Hoshevy 2, black trim, free of charge, of course. Four speed transmission.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

No, the Malibu Malibu SS8 Sport Coup Coupe.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah. Yeah. When I say Nova, I was mistaken. Black trim, but look, you got $188 for the four-speed transmission, and you got two oh two for the $350.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

That's interesting. So they charged for the four-speed. I guess they didn't charge for the automatic.

unknown 6:42

Yeah.

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350 horsepower V8.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yep, yep, yep. And of course, the next one, you got a Pontiac here. Now, this one's a little deceiving. I was looking at this one. The description is not for a convertible in this particular one, but they threw a convertible picture up on there. Power door locks. This is when you're getting all the fancier stuff. The power, power this, power. See now.

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This one here, turbo automatic transmission,

Scenic Highway 7 Through Arkansas

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they charge you $227. That's the most expensive add-on on it. Yeah. So did they also charge for did they even offer a manual transmission?

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It's very possible they did, but I don't know if the this is actually matching that. So uh it could be. And then you got your your tires, you got your G7814 white wall, or better, white wall, white. G7814. And they're fiberglass, too, by the way. Yeah. Okay, and then you got Bale Chevrolet in Little Rock, Arkansas. Look at that, Rascal. That's a nice little car. That's a sleeper there. Is that a 63? Could be. Well, uh, it could be. Impala 8 two-door sport coupe again. Base price is $27,000.

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$10,000. But look, it's it it's a it's a hardtop, and it's a two-door hardtop. Yep. Steel belt. Permanent anti-freeze was a five-dollar up chart.

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You know what that is today? About 40 grand. So these are just some things you can find on the internet. Uh looking at them all, it's kind of fascinated me that to see because you always talk about Monronis, you're always looking at things that uh you can buy as options and what it has here and what it's not going to take. So take check. And these these are old Monronis that the window stickers, by the way.

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These are actual window stickers. But notice that there's no EPA stuff on it, miles per gallon, none of that stuff that's on it on a Monroe today.

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But you will see it's one page. You know, it doesn't take up two pages.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

It doesn't take up the whole rear window. You will see destination charges on these two. They're right up top. $74 destination charge up there. So they were they were hitting you back then, Mike. Yeah, but not the $1,500 that they're charging you today. Here's a $70 must think. So this one's actually true,

Break and Segment Transition

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true form. Uh sport roof, an eight-cylinder package, vinyl, high back bucket seats, color keyed carpeting. Oh boy.

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Ooh, tachometer and tripodometer. Look at that.

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Four additional four-speed manual transmission drag pack. Oh. 259. So, in other words, it's got uh some special gearing inside of it. Some gears going on, and you've got uh 5122 will take it out the door. That's expensive. There you go. Well, that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah. All right. Uh time now for this hour's car review. Had a chance to drive the 2025 Toyota Prius. Don't laugh, listen to this. Final assembly location, Toyota Aichi, Japan. Available trim levels, SE, XSE,

The “Good Old Days” of Buying Cars

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and premium. I had the premium. This is a plug-in hybrid sedan. Seats five people. It's small. Exterior changes from last model year was all new. This is a new trim name for 2025. It was all new in 2023. Exterior features. The most aerodynamic car in everyday models. I think that this thing is sleek. The windshield is sloped just like the front hood all the way down to the pavement. Attractive, skinny headlights with small grill opening at the lower end of the front end. Slick big wheels. Hatchback is sleek with attractive lighting. What I liked its attractiveness. It's not just a hybrid model anymore. This is probably one of the most attractive sedans I'd buy it. Interior highlights, unique two-cluster dash design with a big infotainment screen in the middle. Sleek, comfortable seating up front, leg and headroom is limited in the back. Drive mode controls on the center console. HVAC controls on the lower dash is well placed, and the controls are easy to use. Trunk room is limited due to its fastback design. What I liked, the convenient controls. What could use improvement? Well, the instrument cluster in front of the driver is a little bit too far away from the driver, in my opinion, and sometimes it was blocked by the steering wheel. It comes with a two-liter gasoline four-cylinder engine with 220 horsepower combined. That's a ton of horsepower, friends, for this little car. Torque, tons. Transmission, CVT automatic. And here is where you hit home runs. Combined gas mileage with gas and electric together is 114 miles per gallon electric. I got 43.7 miles per gallon over 460.6 miles. What I liked, plenty of gasoline-only power. I did not plug it in. If you want to plug it in, you can probably get about 40 miles of range with nothing but the battery. What could use improvement? Nothing. Stick with it. This is a good good deal. What I liked about it, the smooth ride. What could use improvement? Nothing. Pricing? Base trim price, $40,070.

Classic Mustangs, Corvettes, and Pricing

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Price as tested with a few options. $44,324. The base model price, all the engines are the same. Same gas mileage. The base model price is $33,375. Competitors, there really isn't any, but here's some that are close. Kia Nero plug-in, $34,490.730. These are starting prices. And the Honda Civic hybrid $28,750. And that's my review of the 2025 Toyota Prius. Next week, we're going to review the brand new Toyota 4Runner. And we hope that you'll tune in for that next week. Same bat channel, same bat price. Yep. Yep. All right. Uh coming up.