Four-Door Camaro? | Ram 1500 | Auto History | Driving Destinations | Lexus IS 350

Welcome And Car Culture Setup

unknown 0:05

As always.

Don Armstrong 0:06

Time now for Jeff's car culture. Four-door

The Four-Door Camaro Idea

Don Armstrong 0:09

Camaros. Well, you know what? Guess what? I read a story that Ford is going to build a four-door Mustang. So imagine that. Well, let's just hold on to the end of the story, will we?

Jeff Dziekan 0:22

Okay, well, General Motors has confirmed an ambitious five-year product offensive with dozens of you updated models in the works. And while the finer points are still locked away for now, reports suggest that Chevrolet could re-enter the performance sedance segment with an all-new flagship wearing the Camaro name. Again, uh for a badge that has always meant two doors and a back seat nobody really wanted to sit in, unless your biology class, uh, that would make a massive departure. A four-door fastback brakes with everything in the nameplate has stood for, yet it could also give Chevrolet the halo car it lacks once you climb down the Corvette lineup. These images, what we'll see here in this uh the segment here, uh show everything that could make the case work from sheet metal right down to the what might sit under the hood. Rather than mimicking a previous Camaro, the exclusive design study adapts cleaner, more sophisticated aesthetics up front with a razor thin, full LED light bar, stretches across the nose, and a bold hexagonal grille, while sculptured lower sections exude an aggressive stance. In profile, a sweeping fastback roofline flows seamless into a short deck, creating elegant proportions despite its four-door layout. The front fender sport uh an arrow blade and emphasizes a strong axle to dash ratio, while deep scalloped doors pronounce rear haunches and muscular surfacing. Those riders at Chevrolet. I know. This AI stuff is crazy. Uh at the end, uh I'm sorry, at the rear, Ovid triplet element LED taillights are joined by a glass, gloss black panel that highlights his broad shoulders, a sizable diffuser, quad exhaust outlets, and the LFA inspired vertical air vents complete the bold look. Chevrolet's Corvette, Equinox, Blazor EV provide plenty of clues to what you're looking at. Performance flagship interior could head. The expected curved digital instrument cluster and expansive central infotainment display running GM's latest Google-based software. AI-powered voice control and integrated navigation will be integrated. The automaker's stubborn approach to be omitting the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto needs a little bit of rethinking. Bringing the Camaro nameplate to a four-door layout would deliver a genuine rear seat accommodation in a sizable lift back cargo area. Look for heavily bolstered sports seats, premium materials, and performance-focused driving modes. GM has yet to reveal any mechanical information, but possibility that it could use an evolution of the rear drive alpha platform underpinning the current Cadillac CT5. It could adopt a 270 horsepower two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder or a 350 horsepower 3-liter twin turbo V6 in a mild hybrid assist. VA powered an SS should be the uh uh, I'm sorry, take that back. The VA power in SS and ZL1 could feature the CT5 Blackwing Supercharger, 6.2 liter LT4, producing 668 horsepower and 659 foot pounds of torque. All versions would receive a 10-speed auto with a line lock and wash control and the six-speed uh manual for eight-cylinder models only. Should Chevrolet Greenlight a four-door Camaro? That's up to you. Uh, it would compete with an in-house Cadillac CT5, the Mustang's long-rumored Mustang Mach 4 sedan. There you go, Don. Others' rivals would include an uh upper echelon offerings such as a BMW 5 series and an Audi 6 four-door. Pie in the sky thinking, well, could be realistic hope. That's my story. I don't know.

Would Chevy Actually Build It?

Don Armstrong 4:07

Here's my thought. So, what about Cadillac? Now they're supposed to be the performance. Now that granted, they've got all of the performance in a four-door sedan, correct? In the CTS. Yep. Yeah. Big motor, big stuff. So the only company within the General Motors umbrella would be Chevrolet that doesn't have a performance vehicle and a four-door, because they've got a two-door in the Corvette. Right. So I could see, I hate to say, I could see the Camaro going to a four-door.

Jeff Dziekan 4:42

Yeah, and in the story, it says that you look down the Corvette line and the Cadillac line, and then boom, there's that four-door Chevrolet. Uh, and and looking at these photos that are produced for this, they're all renderings. There's there's not a production car or there's nothing built. These are renderings of your equinox and your this vehicle and that vehicle, and they're taking the back end of this and they're putting it in a uh a design to make it look a rendering to make it look. What does this look like? How could we make this work? I particularly don't like it. Uh, but no, it's but we're old. Yeah, well, I'm just saying it's uh I every six years we're gonna re-introduce the Camaro. I was on the reintroduction when they did the uh the latest model because Perelli, I was with Perelli and we did the 21-inch tires. We were exclusivity for that. So all of the SS had the 21-inch, they're staggered fit, we had a big production, big meeting, blah, blah, blah. And then six years later it's gone and back again.

Don Armstrong 5:33

So well, because they weren't selling. Right. Uh the Mustang was killing them, and uh it was time to pull the plug on it. Because you know, you can only keep the Camaro name, I guess, in General Motors mind, anyway, is the fact that they all look the same from year to year to year to year to year. In in the in the past, I don't know, eight years or so?

Jeff Dziekan 5:54

Yeah, it's been six years since they introduced it. It went away and now it's back again.

Don Armstrong 5:57

So we'll see. All right. Uh time now.

2026 Ram 1500 Longhorn Walkthrough

unknown 6:06

That's okay.

Don Armstrong 6:06

All right. So Mr. Mars, if if you don't have enough to do, now you now now we're gonna give you something to do because it's it allowed time for you to do your uh review of the 2015. I'm sorry, the 2026 Ram 1500.

Mike Marrs 6:20

Yeah, 2015 is what we got.

Don Armstrong 6:23

That's what you got, yeah.

Mike Marrs 6:25

All right, so this is the 2015 Ram 1500.

Don Armstrong 6:29

No, it's the 2026.

Mike Marrs 6:30

26. You know what? I wrote down 2015. That's just exactly like you said. All right. I have since corrected that. Here we go. 2026 Ram 1500 long hand longhorn crew cab four by four. Now, the final assembly point for this is actually in Sterling Heights, Michigan, although they bring a lot of parts in from all over the world. There are 10 available trim levels, not gonna go through all of them. They run from the tradesman up to the tungsten top of the line. The longhorn is somewhere in the mid-range there. They do have three different bed links you can get on this vehicle, and uh it is a full-size pickup with seating for five. Now, this is uh it's on the outside of it, you're gonna find you got full LED lighting all around. The headlights, taillights, all the uh courtesy lights are. You got tow hooks on it, you got power deploy running boards, and I really like the running boards on these with the height of this truck, it fit really well to use them. It wasn't something that was awkward.

Don Armstrong 7:34

It also has the sorry old man, yeah, yeah.

Mike Marrs 7:39

Old man steps is what they are, and they felt good, exactly right. And it also had a bed step for the old man that was nice to have, and it had the trifold tonneau cover on it, and it's got long hoard badging, of course, all the way around it, rolling on some 20 by 9 inch polished wheels that are nice looking wheels, makes for a nice combination for this color. The inside of it got leather seating all the way around with real wood trim on it. Now, the front seats got massaging, they're heated and they're ventilated. The second row is also heated and ventilated seating, although they don't have the massaging portion of it, which I don't care as long as I got it up front. Now it's got the wireless charging on it, it's got heads-up display, it's got UConnect 5.0 with a 12-inch touch screen. Uh, even the front passenger has interactive display in this particular vehicle. So there's a lot of technology in here, including an 18-speaker Harden Carmen premium sound system, and you also have the surround view camera. So you can see it, you can hear it, you can feel it on this vehicle.

Hurricane HO Power And MPG Reality

Mike Marrs 8:44

The drivetrain. Now we had the 3.0 liter inline six hurricane HO. Now, this is the twin turbo engine on this thing. Uh, I first time I'd ever driven one of them. I've heard a couple of people talking about them. They have the uh they don't have the HO, so this is kind of unique in that it's got 540 horsepower, 521 pound feet of torque. Toe rating is 10,000 pounds, haul rating is 1490 pounds. Now, I was a little surprised. I was really interested in driving this vehicle, like I said, because going from the 5'7 Hemi that I've got in the truck versus this, um, I will tell you, I felt like there was a lot of difference driving around town. This is a lot, this hurricane is a lot more refined, but I will also tell you you get up around highway speeds and you want to do a high-speed passing maneuver, this thing will get up and haul donkey on you real quick, real fast in a hurry. However, the EPA says you should be looking for in the city about 15 miles to the gallon, highway 21, combined 17. Now, I only had the chance to drive this vehicle 154 miles, but I got 16.1, 16.9 miles across that range. It's really nice ride. It's a really nice handling vehicle that's got the five-link suspension with active leveling air suspension on it. And then you can also have the manual ride height to where you can lower it down to get in and out of it a little bit easier. You're going off-road since it is a four by four. You want to raise it up, you can do that. And it's just really smooth on the road with lots of rolling power, like I said, up at highway speeds. Now, the base trim price on this vehicle is $76,405. As tested, $86,090. Now, you can get in a base model, tradesman, for $47,120. So you look across the board at the GMC 1500 crew cab 4x4 in the base model $46,995. The Silverado Cousin, uh, same thing, crew cab 4x4 is at $46,000. Even the Ford F-150 Crew Cab 4x4 will start you out at 467. So they're all right there in that same range. Then it just depends on how much you want to upgrade, how much you want to gussy it up from there.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

And you can pretty much I need to know where I can buy my $20,000 work truck. That why wasn't it? I got my eyes home on with the hoodie bobs on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike Marrs 11:09

Billy Bob used cared right down the street.

Jeff Dziekan 11:13

So does Becky want one? Um, yeah.

Mike Marrs 11:20

She liked it. I mean, you know, the leather and the wood. I mean, it's what's not to like about it. Um it's just the uh $8,000 price tag, is what she kind of hiccuped at.

Don Armstrong 11:31

How about that seven-year note, huh? How about that?

Mike Marrs 11:34

All right, coming up.

Five Camping Getaways Near Houston

Don Armstrong 11:41

Uh, time now for driving destinations. Last blast before the bell, please explain, Mr. Mars.

Mike Marrs 11:48

So, you know, it's almost time for everybody to go back to school. So before all the beach towels get replaced with backpacks and your homework instead of campfires, you know, there's time for one more adventure the next couple of three weekends. So today we're gonna talk about hitting the road for five camping destinations, all within two hours of Houston. You can swim, you can paddle, you can fish, all the things that wrap up your summer memories uh that you can do in one weekend. So, first up is Brazos Bend State Park. Now, this is 45 to 60 minutes from Houston, depending on where you're at. But this is where you're gonna go get more of the Texas adventure if you really want to go that far. You know, the family can set up camp in the height below giant oak trees. There's 20 miles of biking trails, got plenty of little lakes that you can fish along the banks and and still catch some fish. You gotta watch out for alligators when you go through the boardwalks, and there are some observation areas specifically so you can see some of the wildlife. Now, there's also the George Observatory here, which I did not even know existed. Now, this is weekend visitors can go here and look through the telescopes that are after dark and and see some of the skies and stuff. So the kids love the wildlife, the parents love the easy access to Houston, so it's a great place to go for a weekend before school starts again. The next one is Lake Livingston State Park. Now, when I think of Lake Livingston, uh it's about 90 miles away from Houston. I go there, I used to go there to go fishing. Never thought much about going there to camp or hang out, but there's plenty of water, there's a lot of water, and then there's even more water. It's one of the largest lakes in Texas to where you can go camping, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, and they also have boat rentals if you don't want to haul your own boat up there. Shaded campsires, nature trails, a lot of shorelines. The kids can throw rocks to go swimming, lots of stuff to do when you're out, including a Friday night campfire, goes paddle boating Saturday morning, lots to do again for a Texas summer vacation before school starts. Then the next one, the third one, is down at Galveston Island State Park. Now, this is a little further, 75 miles from Houston, and it gives you a couple of different ways to go about it because part of the park is on the beach. So you can go out on the beach, you can build sand castles, swim, uh, and then go to the bay side of the park. And they've got marshes over there where you can get some kayaking, go do some bird watching, and watch some other wildlife. And they've added some new camping areas in the last couple of years. It makes it even easier for first-time campers to go and uh see some of the areas, take your bikes and hit some of the biking trails. Then we're gonna go off to Stephen F. Austin State Park, and this is about an hour from Houston. A lot of people don't look at it because it's not as big, but it's one of the easiest family camping trips to get to from Houston. It's on the Brazos River, Brazos River, and offers shaded camp size, hiking trails, fishing, bird watching. A lot of things you want to do when you go camping. It's just you need to be close to something so you make it easier to get there. And the nearby town of San Felipe adds a bonus dose of Texas history. So you got a little things you can do if you don't want to stay in the campgrounds all day. When it gets hot, you want to go to town, you want to do a little run around, you got time to do all that, and it's close. The last one we're gonna look at is the Double Lake Recreation Area. Now, this is in the Sam Houston National Forest area, about 90 miles from Houston. And it's kind of tucked inside the Sam Houston National Forest. Again, camping, swimming, canoeing, fishing, got lots of shaded hiking trails that take you off through the East Texas prime pine trees. Now it's small enough to be a small lake. It's not like Toleda Bend where you've got boats doing 80 miles an hour across the lake, and you've got plenty of shade for cool, and the water the shade runs all the way down to the water's edge in a lot of places, so you can kind of stay in the shade while you're doing your fishing. So it's a lot of places that you can go, do a little bit of camping, get the family out and about before they go back to school.

Don Armstrong 15:51

Sounds good. Let's go. Perfect. All right.

Mike Marrs 15:53

Hey, the in-wheel time.

Don Armstrong 15:59

All right.

This Week In Auto History

Don Armstrong 16:00

Time now for this week in auto history. Uh, that would be Mr. Morris' job.

Mike Marrs 16:04

Yes, sir. We got a few things that we picked up this week that we thought would be interesting to watch out for. Way back in 1917, racing legendary legend Barney Oldfield took his unusual golden submarine to a lot of new speed records. Now, this vehicle was built, uh, is completely enclosed, and it was streamlined and built because a fellow driver, Bob Berman, was killed in an open cockpit race car. So Barney wanted something a little bit safer. So he got with Harry Miller and Fred Offenhauser, and they built this enclosed racer. Now, during the his time racing, 1917, for example, he took this vehicle to record speeds. I mean, this guy was cooking, got up to 80 miles per hour in this vehicle. So it's a lots of lots of speed records back then. Then the next thing we have is August the 10th, 1907. The first Peking to Paris automobile race ends. Now, think about Peking to Paris. Now that is 10,000 miles that you got to go. You got to go across uh the ocean, literally, everywhere. There was no modern highways, there was no GPS, no roadside views.

Don Armstrong 17:17

But they had lots of ducks.

Mike Marrs 17:19

Yeah, they had ducks. Yes, they crossed deserts, and there's even one of these pictures is of the bridge that collapsed when they were trying to go across it. So they had to dig out of the bridge to carry on. And this was actually a picture of the winner that won this race when he was trying to get through this bridge. Now, the next we have August 11th, 1966, the first production Chevrolet Camaro was built. And uh it was really a non-pilot production car, and it was completed in Norwood. They created this specifically to challenge Ford's Mustang, and they even invented a little mystery around this name before the announcement. And so they had uh played a game with it, and it offered everything from 140 horsepower six-cylinder to a 375 horsepower 396. Then coming up next in August the 12th of 1908, the first production Model T is completed. Now, this is important because it really wasn't famous as part of the moving assembly line, but that's what really brought this out and really made it affordable. And it changed the automobile from a luxury item, something that only the rich people go to forward, into something that uh was more practical transportation, ordinary Americans could actually afford to buy this. Now they began to run, ultimately, there was 15 million of these cars that were built and sold. Then on August the 13th, Friday, August the 13th, 1898. Now, this I find this, I thought this was real interesting because you know, if you go buy a car, you expect it to be really good. But what if you bought a car that was so bad that you complained so much that the car maker said, Well, if you can do better, go build your own, which is exactly what happened when James Ward Packard bought his new Winton motor carriage. He drove it home to Ohio from Cleveland and it did not go well. He had a lot of troubles, he complained a lot, and eventually Winton told him, if you think you can do better, do it. So he went out and started the Packard Motor Company. So that's what led to Packard being built. And the same thing happened to Ferrari because uh Lamborghini was complaining about the Ferrari, so Ferrari said, Well, you think you could do better, go do it. So he did. So that's how we got the Lamborghini, just as well. So that's a few things this week in auto history coming up that you might find interesting and want to look into a little more.

Don Armstrong 19:42

I did, yes. Very good. Thank you. Thank you.

Mike Marrs 19:44

Ford Motor Company.

Don Armstrong 19:49

All right.

2026 Lexus IS 350 F Sport Review

Don Armstrong 19:50

Um, I'm going to uh give you now my take on uh our next car review. And the car review that I have for this half hour. Uh we're trying to play catch-up so we're doing a two car review. This car review is the 2026 Lexus IS350. F Sport. It comes in the F- Sport design, the F-Sport itself, and the F Sport special appearance package. This is built in Aichi, Japan, which is the factory that's currently closed because of the uh earthquake over there. I just had the F-Sport. I think that this is one of the best-looking sedans on the market today. Five seats. Obviously, the back seats are going to be a little bit tight because of the it's a smallish kind of car. All new in 2014, refresh styling inside and out for 2026. Um, new front grille is still too big, uh, but the spindle look has been turned down just a little bit, too, toned down a little bit. So keep that in mind. I I I think that this is really a good-looking vehicle. Upswept rear wheel openings looks racy. Uh, reworked trunk incorporates a new spoiler back there. I like it. Um, dual exhaust exits below the black painted panel. Uh, what I liked about it overall, the body tweaks are spot on. I don't think anything could use improvement. Good-looking wheels, red calipers. It's got its going. Look at that interior. How could you not like that? Get that. That is good looking right there. I love that thing. Interior highlights include new infotainment system. It is the bomb. No more touchpad. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The red interior is one of the best looking out there. 12-inch infotainment screen is very nice. I'm gonna roll through these. It's got everything about this just speaks to me. This is a Don Armstrong vehicle. Oh, there you go. Trunk room is small. What I liked about quality, design, and materials top-notch in this thing is the phone charger. Or could use improvement. Some of the screens are a little bit difficult to find, is a note that I wrote to myself. This is an old school 3.5-liter V6 naturally aspirated that turns out 311 horsepower, 280 pound feet of torque. Not a ton of horsepower, but this is an everyday driver that looks good. Eight-speed automatic transmission gets 19 miles per gallon in the city, 27 on the highway for combined at 22. Guy got 27.2 miles per gallon over 347 miles. What I liked, no turbo lag, because it doesn't have any. Normally aspirated. It could use a little bit more horsepower. Don't touch it. I like it. It's fine. Leave it alone. Run it forever. Ride and handling, sporty, but not too rough or stiff. What could use improvement in the ride and handling department? Nothing. Base trim price, $47,950. Prices tested $60,473. The base model price, $45,500. Competitors, BMW 3 Series, $48,000. Mercedes-Benz C class, $49,000. These are base prices now. And the Genesis G70, $43,450. And that's my review. Next week, Hyundai Alantra Hybrid. Thank you for joining us.

Jeff Dziekan 23:27

You call it the uh engine old school. I would call it reliable because it even though it's been around a while, it's it's reliable. That's why it's been around a while. Proven. There you go. Better word, proven. All right.