From Hybrid Skepticism to Sports-Car Smiles: Prius, GR86, and the EV Crossroads

Roll Call & Prius Tease

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another In-Wheel Time podcast. Welcome to the award-winning In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Just ahead, we talk to Mr. California, author, singer, songwriter, and car god, Jack Nira. Jeff has this week's motor minute, and we review the new Toyota Prius. Don't laugh. You're going to be interested to hear about what I got to say about Toyota Prius in this segment of the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Howdy, along with Mike, out of this world Mars, over there in Neerville, Texas. We always need more Jeff Zeken here in the beautiful Houston area. Our chief engineer David Ainsley is vacationing today in the UP of Michigan, where the current temperature is 55 degrees. All of us are eating our hearts out. Hello, I'm Bill Armstrong. Glad that you could join us on this Saturday for our live broadcast. And uh it's been an interesting week, uh, fun-filled week for me. How about you, Jeffrey? Yeah, pretty decent, pretty good week. Well, I had uh, as I mentioned, uh, had the Toyota Prius. I'm gonna review that car. Uh, I had it, and I say what you will, it's not the original Prius. This is a zoomy little car that gets great gas mileage.

Meet Jack: Cars, Media, and Music

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Matter of fact, let's go right now to Southern California, who's up in Adam this morning. That would be singer-songwriter Jack N. Red. Jack, good morning to you, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Good morning. How did you know about my music career? I kind of kept that on the down low, but sing a little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

And we're selling that Jay-Z video.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

That wasn't it, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

One of the background dancers.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Well, Jack, it's great to see you this morning. How are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_03 1:56

I am doing great. I am doing terrifically well.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Well, I'm glad to hear that. Um, I'm not sure about your governor, but that's another story for another day.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Yeah, I'm not sure about our

Prius Redesign and Hybrid Joy

SPEAKER_03 2:07

governor either.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

But yeah, well, so uh as I said in the tease and I just repeated, the Toyota Prius, have you driven one of those?

SPEAKER_03 2:16

I have, yeah. I was on uh the launch of uh, I think the most recent one, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I don't know about you. And you know, it really came with some bad rap after it got going, and granted, it probably wasn't the best-looking car originally, but it has evolved and not only technologically evolved, but it has also evolved in body shape. And it to me, aesthetics. I I fell in love with the car.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

I there's good reason to do that. Uh absolutely. I think what a lot of people don't realize is how good hybrids are these days to drive. I mean, how fun they are to drive, and you know, that little electric uh amount of electric torque just uh adds a lot. I think it's really they're really terrific.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

And the and I and I think that a lot of it has to be uh as a salute to Toyota for their technology because basically that technology is across the board now.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Yeah. Yeah, and so yeah, I mean you see that in Camry, for

EV Tax Credit Fallout

SPEAKER_03 3:20

example. I mean, uh you can't get a Camry that isn't a hybrid these days. So there's a lot to like about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

So uh what's going on with you?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Well, we're trying to sort out what's gonna happen now. Uh now that the uh federal tax credits for EVs are uh gone. You know, there's much gnashing of teeth in some uh some channels over that. So we're gonna see whether sales of EVs crater or not. I think that's the the big issue for October. We'll see what happens there. I mean, some manufacturers are trying to mitigate against that.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yes, and and the suppliers, they're going crazy. Some of them are going out of business. I'm still shocked and surprised about the Fram automotive supply, the made major company. But I think that there's some shenanigans going on there that put them in this predicament. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 4:12

There could well be. There could well be, because you know, that's a brand that uh those of us who work on our cars and have worked on our cars for a long time, uh, you know, it's just top front front and center, right? I mean, this is a brand that we all know about. Uh so it's it's hard to imagine how that could have uh been frittered away, but uh who knows?

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Fram and Fram and windshield wipers, the one two things that you've got on your car that you change out all the time. Right. How do you how does a company go bankrupt like that? I I just don't understand it. But it certainly uh has sent shivers throughout the automotive industry because uh, you know, new cars come with wiper blades and oil filters, and they don't just make the Fram brand, as you well know. They've got their generics and and specialty brands that they make for you know uh NADA and all of the other people out there that sell car parts.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean it's a giant supplier, and you know, the supplier base for the auto industry uh employs so many people in the United States, uh maybe as many as uh the car manufacturers themselves. So it's it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Well, back to the um

Supplier Shock and Industry Ripples

SPEAKER_00 5:24

actual EV stuff. Uh, I know that a lot of the manufacturers have pulled way back. Matter of fact, I'm gonna do a story later on about the EVs that they had planned, but now they're saying, no, we're not gonna do that, or they've put them off for at least a couple of years. Battery plants that were planned or in the process of being built, they've stopped all of that. And you know, Jack, my take on, and and I want I want you to give me your take on it. With with the EVs, I've said all along, why does an EV have to have the government's help? Okay, comes a point where you say they need to compete against the rest of the cars in the market. Don't you agree?

SPEAKER_03 6:08

I totally agree, totally agree. You have to take the training wheels off at some point. I think we were, what, 15 years in something like that, into subsidies for these things. And basically, uh, you know, I've had some industry uh insiders talk about this, and and essentially it was a $7,500 subsidy for each car manufacturer for each car sold, right? I mean, that's that's really what happened. Uh now we're gonna see uh if they can swim uh without the the flotation device, right? That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

That's exactly it. That was mentioned last week that it's a sink or swim kind of thing. If you want to do this, you want to play in these waters, here's how we're gonna play, and that's why they they they're making those announcements.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

And let's just uh face the fact, it's not as if all of the EV sales have gone to zero. They're still selling EVs despite the fact that they're not getting the 7500. My take is hey, if you want an EV, you're going to buy an EV because there's all sorts of different price ranges, just like a regular car, different styles and all that.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Yeah, I agree with you, and I and that's fine. And uh, you know, that for a lot of people an EV works, and for a lot of people, an EV doesn't work, and that's uh the important thing. I think consumer choice is a good thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Well, and and GM and Ford,

Automakers Tap the Brakes on EVs

SPEAKER_00 7:22

uh, I think that they were trying to cheat the system and load up on the on the on the borrower side, and well, we're just gonna go ahead and buy them and we'll give you the money back, and they both backed out of that deal pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Yeah, uh rightly so, because it seemed pretty hinky. We reported on that on our show a couple of weeks ago, too. Uh it's just this doesn't seem quite right, does it?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, no, yeah, it does not. So um, have you driven anything fun and exciting lately?

SPEAKER_03 7:51

Uh, I have actually. I uh was recently, well, just last week, I think, um, excuse me, in the um Toyota GR86 Hakone edition, uh, which is a lot of fun. I mean, what it struck me was uh this is one of the few cars, literal cars, and certainly sports cars that I've driven for a long, long time because uh probably as you guys do, I mean, we're driving a lot of uh SUVs and and crossovers and reviewing those because that's what people are buying. But it was really kind of a breath of fresh air to get into this uh you know little sports car. It reminded me a lot of the RX 7 I had uh years and years ago, probably 30 years ago now.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

You're showing your age. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

I had that in middle age, Don.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I I'm right with you. Yeah, um, so does it ride as rough as the regular GR86?

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Kinda, you know. I mean, you have to put up with uh, doesn't have a lot of suspension travel, not a lot of compliance, as they say in the industry, it's not all that soft riding. Uh, I think it could use more horsepower, um, but I guess I think everything could use a little more horsepower.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Well, so what what what uh what denotes this special version of it?

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Uh it's a paint treatment. There's some special things inside, you know, they do uh different things too. I

Sink-or-Swim Market Reality

SPEAKER_03 9:15

think there's 860 of them available for for the the particular year that uh they're out. Um it's kind of cool. It's got kind of a a green uh paint color to it that's uh interesting, different than anything else you see. I mean, we don't see color cars anymore, right? You see black, silver, and white cars is uh pretty much what you see. So um I thought it was fun. It was it was cool to do. I like a lot of Japanese cars, it's kind of like the Miata in a way, in that it's kind of a 7-8 scale car for Americans. You know, if you're uh our size, maybe uh I feel a little bit too big for it, and I'm not that big a guy.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Well, it's funny you should say that because I got to drive um this uh anniversary edition of the Mazda Miata here a few weeks back. Uh I love the car, paint was beautiful. I love the special touches that they put on it, but I forgot how small it is. My knees almost touched the bat the dashboard.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Yeah, yeah. And it hasn't grown, has it? I we uh to its credit in a lot of ways. I think that's pretty cool because uh, you know, the way the car companies improve a lot of vehicles is just to make them bigger, uh, and then you need more motor, and then you need uh this and that, more brakes and everything else. So then and you know, I guess that's another big uh industry issue is affordability because everything you know gets bigger and uh you know more filled with stuff, and uh fewer and fewer people can afford them.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Throw some turbos on it.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Yeah, so yeah, and we're doing that uh, you know, right and left, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Well, you know, it it's interesting that you should bring that up that they grow all of these brands. For instance, the Toyota Highlander, when it went on the market, man, that thing they sold like hot cakes. And I think a lot of it had to do with the size of it. Now it's darn near a full size. I think they even have a three-row version. Yeah, like a Tahoe.

GR86 Hakone and Sports-Car Nostalgia

SPEAKER_00 11:07

It's like what is the thought process? So the only thing I can think of is the fact that they're using the name for people that have bought it, loved it before. Hey, we got a new model, it's bigger. Oh my gosh, we're gonna sell X amount of these just by, you know, repeat business. Is that is that what your take is?

SPEAKER_03 11:27

I think some of it is that. And I think if you're the chief engineer on a particular program, let's say you're chief engineer on the Toyota Highlander, for example, uh, how do you make that vehicle better than before? How do you make the next generation better than before, right? So maybe uh customers want a little more room. Maybe they want a third row that's usable, maybe they want a little more horsepower, maybe they want more safety equipment than before. And even if they don't, I mean, that seems like the way you would quote unquote improve it, right? I think one of the geniuses of the Volkswagen Beetle was it didn't change very much for like 30 years, right? Exactly. And uh they figured out how to build them, and uh, you know, anybody could pretty much fix them. Um, you know, by the side of the road, you could fix them oftentimes. I ended up doing that myself a few times.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

If you've got a if you've got a a vehicle that works and people are buying it, why would you want to tinker with it? I mean, sure, there's probably some things aesthetically, maybe uh uh the fender tweak here, a grill grill tweak there, but if it's working, why why do that?

SPEAKER_04 12:35

Well, like you were talking about the Volkswagen, it's the same principle. You know, they they modified or they improved the mechanics, the the engine got a little bit bigger, got a little more horsepower over the years, you know. They uh got changed their heating system for the passengers. I mean, there's a lot of ways, like just said, to improve it without necessarily making it bigger. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Well, I you know, I I guess there's many schools of thought on that. And Jack, you you're probably more in the no on this. I would imagine, because there's so much money involved in not only designing and building a brand new vehicle, but there is also a huge take on whether or not it's going to be successful in the marketplace. Why why would you not have a focus group? It seems to me that they do, do they not?

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Yeah, they do, but it's interesting. I mean, I worked within car companies for a long time, about 10, 15 years. I work for car companies or I work for suppliers to

Size Creep, Affordability, and Focus Groups

SPEAKER_03 13:36

car companies when I left my journalist career for a while. Uh thank thank heavens I'm I'm back in it, uh, because this is this is what I love to do. But what you find out there is there's a lot of things. Maybe they want consumers to uh kind of endorse their own opinions about stuff. Uh so uh maybe the focus groups aren't as straight up in terms of what they're saying yes or no to uh than you might think. I think there's a lot of uh manipulation that goes on. You would think that they would want just uh give me the the real opinion, your real opinions, right? But I think that information gets stacked a little bit when you're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Well, it's it's like it's like a survey. You can set it up to get the answers you want, not necessarily the answers you're looking for.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Yes, absolutely, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

And that was one of the things back in my radio days. Well, I guess there's still radio days, but back in the day of radio, they did, especially the very successful radio stations, they did focus groups, focused on the actual music. And they would play a snippet of a song. Do you recognize the song? Do you like the song? What do you know about the song? And that kind of guided them for the next three, four, five months until the next focus group as to what songs they were going to play and what direction they were going to go in. Do they play the latest releases? Are they really more successful with some of the oldies out there? How old? That sort of thing. And the focus groups were part of the process of being a successful radio station. And I would like to think that the auto companies are doing the same thing. Uh, do they do they actually look at some of these influencers, Jack?

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Yeah, they do. And uh, you know, I've been on both sides of focus groups. I've been a participant in focus groups, and sometimes they'll have journalists panel focus groups as well as uh, and that's a really bad thing for product planners, actually, because auto journalists often uh want the wrong things, they will things that consumers don't want. You know, they want cars that handle real sharp but don't ride all that well. You know, they always want more horsepower, they want things that the typical consumer uh doesn't find useful. So you have that going on. But um I think they listen to focus groups to an extent. I think the really smart companies listen listen better, uh, pay more attention. Uh, I think Toyota is an example of that versus uh you know some of the other companies that maybe go astray a bit.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Well, can I can I just go ahead and play that card, if I may? Would somebody please make it easy to turn off the lane keeping assist?

SPEAKER_03 16:13

I hate I hate fighting the car. Right, right. Well, you know, I'm pretty close to the uh JD Power folks. I worked there long ago and I I still you know follow them very uh closely, and uh that's one of the the biggest bugaboos of people. I mean, people find that such uh so dissatisfying, uh, lane keeping, it's just again, it fights you, right? I mean, there are times when you want to cross that white line, right? Exactly. Really good reasons to do that.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, yeah. So um the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about, if we can stray just a moment, is only one thing stays the same, a new book by Jack Nirat. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

Well, that's that's very nice of you to talk about that. It's uh my second crime novel. Uh it's going quite well. It's uh I think an interesting story. It's about a a

Lane-Keeping Backlash and UX

SPEAKER_03 17:05

blue-collar worker who kind of gets involved with two women and they they end up uh kind of confounding him and being smarter than he is, uh, which isn't so surprising, is it? Oh, it's you've all run into women who are smarter than us, right? Uh, but uh there's uh some interesting crime involved in uh this to that. I think there's a lot of surprises.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

I've I've solved it. The crime is he got two women. That's the crap. That's one of the crimes.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

One of the problems right there. Exactly. Well, um, so have you had your books translated into the spoken word?

SPEAKER_03 17:40

You know, I'm thinking about doing that, and uh I'd like to I'd like to voice them myself. Uh there's a situation now where uh AI can do it. Uh, and I've heard some kind of AI uh renditions of uh books, and they're pretty good, but you know, you're a voice guy, Don. You know, you know that uh the inflection you put on it is maybe better than a machine would.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

I I hope that that's the well there is one guy that is used too too much, and you hear him all the time, and it's AI generated. And hey, look, good for that. I'm glad that that exists. But if you really want a human touch to it, you hire a human voice.

SPEAKER_03 18:21

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

And uh, you know, I've had an agent for years and years and years, and I've been fairly successful at doing voiceovers uh

Jack’s New Crime Novel and Voiceover Talk

SPEAKER_00 18:28

in this industry, here in Houston in particular. And I I have some very good friends that are very good at what they do. A very close friend of mine, as a matter of fact, does all of the Comic-Con stuff, the the anime from Japan, and he does all the translations. Listen, he goes to these conventions, they fly him there, they put him up, they pay him great money to make personal appearances. I'm going, Lord Death, you've got to be kidding me. That's one of his characters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's on it, you know, and he was he started off as a voice guy. He he wasn't in radio originally, but he was a voice actor. So great guy. There's good money to be made if you can get the work. Well, Jack, it's always great to great to talk to you. What are you going to be working on here in the next month?

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Uh, I've got another book that I'm working on, uh, a uh uh nonfiction um that I'm working on. So that's that's one of the things. And of course, we do the radio show each week and uh the associated right and the associated uh YouTube channel and all of that stuff, so that keeps me fairly busy. And I'm writing vehicle reviews still for jdpower.com, so I'm a busy guy.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Yeah, you are, you are, and I hope the price of gas stays down for you out there.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Yeah, well, it's under five dollars, so uh we're celebrating out here. Yeah, we're gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Jack, it's always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend. We love you to death, and uh let's talk next month.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

I love that. I love that. Always great to talk to you guys. I hope you have a wonderful day today.

unknown 19:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Thank you, Jack.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

All

What Jack’s Working On Next

SPEAKER_03 19:56

right.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Uh, hey, we invite you to join our live broadcast if you're listening on a podcast. Our talk show airs

Live Show Plug & Upcoming Segments

SPEAKER_00 20:04

every Saturday live, 10 to noon, Central Time on InWheelTime.com, YouTube and Facebook. Get one of those today. Coming up, a review of the Toyota Prius plus Jeff's Motor Minute. And the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show continues right after this quick break. You've

Event Spots: Tailpipes & Tacos, Veterans Benefits

SPEAKER_00 20:26

waited all summer and it's finally here. The Tailpipes and Tacos Fall 25 Cruise In Car Show. It's been a while, but the popular Tailpipes and Tacos Cruise In returns to the Loopy Tortilla Tex Max in Katy, Saturday, October 18th. Make any donation to Shirley's Kids and get a free breakfast taco. There'll be mimosas and bloody merys, too. Get to the best cruise in of the year. Tealpipes and Tacos Car Show, Saturday, October 18th, 8 to 11 a.m. Cruise in, make a donation of any amount, and grab a free Loopy Tortilla breakfast taco. Tailpipes and Tacos only happens at the Loopy Tortilla Tex Mex in Katy, 703 West Grand Parkway at Kingston Boulevard, just south of the Katy Freeway. Join the CarCom Rottery, and your car will automatically compete for one of three Chili Pepper trophies at no charge. Paul is here, and what better way to celebrate than with a free taco at Tailpipes and Tacos Cruise In Car Show. Saturday, October 18th, 8 to 11 a.m. It's the cruise in you won't want to miss. Loopy tortillas, tailpipes and tacos in Katy.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Time to fire up those engines and pay tribute to the folks who make freedom possible. Friday night, downtown cruise. Saturday, 400 of the coolest rides in Texas. Proceeds help veterans, shelters, food pantries, and scholarships. Sponsored by Craig's Jewelry, November 7th and 8th, Main Street. Don't miss it.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

Every week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Something. That's hometown cooking there.

Jeff’s Motor Minute: S&H Green Stamps

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Welcome back to the Unwheeled Time Car Talk Showtime now for Jeff's Motor Minute.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah, I actually had two. I'm going to pick one of these. This is my favorite. Have y'all had SH green stamps growing up in your house? Oh, absolutely. Well, here we go. Many of us probably grew up with the trade.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

That's a program store that you used to go and retrieve all the junk.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Many families did household things, small appliances, decorative home furnishings. In 1965 catalog in the top value stamps, that's what it was called. In this catalog, you could exchange full stamp books for Ford automobiles and small motorbikes. The Ford Falcon was 771 books. The account line wagon was 807 books. And the Mustang was 718 books. The Fairlane Coupe was 766. So Sperry Hutchinson began the stamps for U.S. retailers in 1896. And it went all the way through had a heyday in 63, and they've actually kind of dropped it around 1980 a little bit earlier. But you would pay $2.45 when today's money was $25, a little over for a book. Now the stamps were issued in dominations of one denominations of $110.50 points perforated with a gum reverse side. Shoppers accumulated the stamps. Now the books contained 24 pages. Mike, get a pencil in your calculator. Get ready for that. I got it. The book contained 24 pages filling the page requirement of 50 points. So each book contained 1,200 points. Shoppers could exchange the filled books for premiums, including housewares, like we said, local green stamps, store catalogs, and things of that nature. Now, in order to buy a Ford Falcon for 771 book, the Val the Falcon was 105 horsepower engine, three-speed manual transmission, all vinyl interior. A stripper, full with three passenger seats, oh boy, and foam padded cushions, heater, defroster, two-spoke steering wheel, and so on. And it had a twice-a-year maintenance program from Ford, if it was not recalled. Falcon Deluxe Club Wagon, 807 books, uh 105 horsepower, synchro, smooth three-speed transmission, all vinyl interior, three-spoke deep dish steering wheel, front seats, belts, front seat belts, heaters, and defrosters. So you could actually go to your SNH green stamps, and if you had enough books, you could buy a car.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Order a car. Order a car because

2025 Toyota Prius Review

SPEAKER_00 24:20

I don't think they kept them in stock.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

No, no, no. But they would deliver it to you. That was part of the deal. And they got pictures and you'd have to have a couple of wagons to haul that many books. Yeah, and it's a lot of money. I broke up a 12 months. That's a lot of saliva, too. It's about $95,000 worth of purchases you would have to do to buy a car back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Well, but remember, they gave the stamps away at the grocery store, at least for us.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Well, they did you had to have a set uh a certain plateau to get a five or ten cent stamp or something. Yeah. That was given. Yeah. But to do that, if you added them all up, and today's money is about 95 grand.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

We had big bonus stamps. They went from S and H to Big Bus at the white. 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, S E, XSE, and Premium. I had the premium. This is a plug-in hybrid sedan. Seats five people. It's small. Exterior changes from last model to 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 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 tied by 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 code 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. But I liked the convenient controls. We 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. 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. Hyundai Tucson plug-in, $39,730. These are starting prices. And the Honda Civic hybrid $28,750. And that's my review of the 20-25 Toyota Prius. Next week, we're going to review the brand

Sponsor Spotlights & Community Car Shows

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new Toyota Forerunner. And we hope that you'll tune in for that. Next week, same debat channel, same debat price. All right. Coming up, our next segment. Lots of stuff, including a special guest. Somebody that likes statistics. You're going to love this. We invite you to stay tuned here on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Back after this. You own a car you love. Well, why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it? Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts. We promise you'll be impressed. Whether you're looking to massage your original paint to a like new appearance, apply a ceramic coating, install a paint protection film, nano ceramic window tent, or new windshield protection called Exoshield, Gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go. Curbed your wheels? Instead of buying new, why not have them repaired? How about a professionally installed radar detector? Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too. Get a peek inside the shop and look at the services offered by getting online and heading to GCAutoShield.com. Better yet, stop by their facility at 11275 South Sam Houston Tollway, just south of the Southwest Freeway and get a personal tour. Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior. Call them today, 832-930-5655 or gcautoShield.com. Rev up your engines. It's time to roll back in style at the Back to the Pass Car Show. Join the Spring Branch Senior High School Foundation Saturday, October 18th at Cornerstone Academy, 916 Westview Drive in Houston. Classic cars, trucks, and motorcycles, family fun, food, music, and memory. There's something for everyone. Proceeds benefit local students and programs. Don't miss the shine, the chrome, and the nostalgia. 10 to 2, Saturday, October 18th, back to the Past Car Show. Springbranch Bears.com slash Car Show for more information. In Wheel Time will be there too.

Closing and Where to Listen

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That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show. I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our InWheeltime.com website. Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.