From Pixel Headlights To V8 Pull: Real-World EV And SUV Reviews

Kicking Off And Guest Delay

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast.

unknown 0:09

Join us.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Okay, Mr. Morris.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

We're going to do it first.

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We're doing Michael Wooding. Uh I haven't got him yet. He's on his way, he said.

unknown 0:18

Oh God.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Okay, so then you're going to do your car review.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Let's do the car review.

2025 Volvo EX40 Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Now we're talking about the 2025 Volvo EX40 twin motor ultra all-wheel drive. Now, this vehicle, the final assembly point, is in Ghent, G-H-E-N-T, Belgium, which kind of surprised me. And uh the reality of it is this is new for 2025, but it's all based on the last year's XC40. So they took the XC40, they kind of rebuilt it and turned it into the EX40. Now, it's got parts, uh well, we're not even going into that. So it's got available trim levels. There's actually three trims, but you can kind of look at it at six because there's the core, the plus, and the ultra, but each one can have a single motor or a twin motor. So you can actually get six different variants of this vehicle. Seats five people. Uh it's got a new battery, so it charges a little faster. And and uh I read something on Edmunds that it actually charges um ten percent faster. So it's kind of it's a few minutes. It was kind of weird to me that they would even talk about it being that. But anyway, would you like to start this car review over? No, I'm just I'm trying to stick to the facts and not what I'm thinking. So it's got a lot of things on the outside of it, it's got pixel headlight technology, which, if you're not familiar with that, they actually have little cameras in the headlights that reads what the lighting is on the outside, cars coming at you and things like that, and it adjusts the brightness of your headlights accordingly. Yeah. Get where there's no headlights or anything out there, it gets brighter. Yeah, mine does that. Does it? Well, does it have is it called pixel technology? That's the first I'd heard of it. But anyway, headlights is what we call them. It's got the LED fog lights, uh, got the power side mirrors, got a power sunroof, power lift gate, rolls on the optional, well, they're actually standard on the ultra trim level, the 20-inch alloy wheels. Now, the get into the interior of this thing. Uh, it's got the floor tunnel. Most EVs don't have a floor tunnel on them because it's still based on that XC40 from the previous year, so it's still got the tunnel in it, so it kind of takes up some of the feeding foot air room that you would expect to have in an EV. It's got a 12.3-inch digital driver display, got a nice nine-inch touchscreen center stack, which is very important, and we'll get to that in a moment. Got suede microtech interior, first row is seated, they're heated and they're cool. The second row is heated. It is only a two-row vehicle, so which is a very good thing in this size of the vehicle. Got the sound surround view camera, it's got connections with Google and Apple and all these other things. Uh, and it has a digital owner's manual. I thought was rather

Exterior Tech And Features

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interesting. Forget looking anything else up. Got the folding second row C, got a Harmon Cardin Premium audio system with 13 speakers, 600 watt subwoofer that is air vented, which is rather unusual. But switching back up to that nine-inch screen, that center stack, it's very important, and I'm surprised it's only that nine inches. And I think it could be a little bit bigger to help out because everything is there. Hold that right there, Wolf.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Everybody wants it bigger.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Well, I know, but there's across the bottom, there's very it's minimal buttons, but everything is in that touch screen. So, for example, you get into it like a lot of EVs, you put your foot on the brake, put it in gear, it starts, and off you go. Great, love it, that's fine. But now you want to stop. You pull in your driveway and you want to get out. Now you can put it in there and you can sit there and say, get out. Well, it's gonna still be running. Or you can go over to the touch screen and you hit home and you go to the control panel and you go into the control panel, so that's two touches, then you've got to scroll to the bottom, because it's not all on the same screen, and you touch it again the third time, it says, I want to turn this vehicle off. Great. You can get out of your car, but when you do, it's still on, and it's very distressing whenever you get out, and the radio is still playing as you walk away. So, what you have to do once you push the again says, I want to turn this vehicle off, it's gonna come up and ask you, Are you sure you want to turn this vehicle off? And you have to tell it yes. Wow. So you've got to touch four times to be able to turn the vehicle off before you get out of it.

Interior Layout And Screens

SPEAKER_00 4:31

I find that silly. Yeah, very whenever everybody else you could push it one time and say, Stop, I stop.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Well, the new GM EVs, you don't have to do any of that. You get in with the key in your pocket, put your foot on the brake, and it starts.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

I will say the other thing. The Volvo is known for their safety, they have this reputation for being a safe vehicle, and perhaps that's why they did it. Just like sometimes you jump in the car, you put it in gear, and you're gone, and you want to call somebody, but you didn't pair your phone. So normally you've got to wait until you're stopped. Not in this car here. 60 miles an hour is when I did it. I'm sure you could probably do it a little faster, but you can pair your phone going down the highway at 60 miles an hour. Not that it's distracting or anything while you're driving, but you can do that in this Volvo. So you can do all these good things to kind of make your life a little bit better. So uh again, twin electric motors on this vehicle that we had, 402 horsepower equivalent. Transmission is a direct derived, basically it's one speed, will be rated for towing 2,000 pounds. Um gross weight on this vehicle is 5,840 pounds, amazingly. Now, the MPG, it says it's rated for 103 on in the city, 85 on the highway, combined 94. I still haven't figured out how to convert all that stuff, so I did it a different way. I drove this vehicle 270 miles. I had to charge it twice. The total cost was $33.59 to go 270 miles. Now I took that same $33.59 and figured gasoline at $2.60 in my truck that gets 18 miles to the gallon, if not better. And I could go 232 miles versus the 270 that I went in the EV without spending two hours sitting at the Subaru dealer at 6 o'clock in the morning before he opens charging it. Uh it's pretty easy to get into, and again, you can get in it and go as you need to. Turning it off is not so much. Uh it rides and drives, it's heavy enough that it's absolutely going to ride and drive better. It's got there's no engine noise, got a little bit of road noise on it, but I mean it's not anything that's not unacceptable. Turn that Harman Cardinal stereo up and you override that. Um as to the cost of it. Now

Infotainment Friction And Powering Off

SPEAKER_00 6:46

the base trim price on this vehicle would be $53,795. Now, the base model price is $62.045, and we had the base Ultra, I guess you would call it, the $62045 was the MSRP as tested. Mercedes-Benz equivalent is an EQB, which used to be a GLB, for $53,050, Audi QE Tron for $49.8, and the Genesis G V60 at $52,350. So it's in the same price as all these other guys, but again, you need to kind of be prepared to deal with the controls and the infotainment system that I think is a little too much problem. Needy. Too much involvement. Yes, it does. Absolutely too much involvement. But otherwise, if you're looking for something like that, uh you might look at it. Otherwise, it's a nice looking car.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Well, I've got a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Do you have to change this picture? You don't have to. Yes, you do. But not yet. I want to see that girl there. Days of the Shag and Wagon, a look back at the 1970s custom vans. The streets of the 70s were littered with a variety of vehicles, littered, badass muscle cars, muscle are massive gus gas guzzling, lanyots, your parents drove, the new economy cars to handle the gas crisis, motorcycles, always ridden without helmets, and of course, vans. There were no minivans in the 70s, Mike. This was a time before van had been tamed, before it had been neutered to a soccer mom machine of today. Did you write that? No. That was really good. No, it wasn't. I had to throw it in there. I'll give credit to somebody else. I don't like to use the word neutered, but in the 1970s, vans didn't carry spoiled kids drinking juice boxes and watching SpongeBob. Quite the contrary. Vans were basically a bedroom on wheels, Don. No SpongeBob, no juice boxes, no trips to organized sporting events in the suburbs. Just a lot of sex and recreational drug use. They might say the 70s full-size van was the crazy uncle of the modern minivan. The uncle lived in a dangerous situation in the 70s and then flamed out a decade later. In the 70s, many van owners took their shaggin wagons seriously and tricked them out to the limit. Big, shiny side pipes with mellow sounds, plush interior carpet for the maximum results, dual amps and the horsepower, and perhaps most importantly the artwork on the side. The vans of the 70s were decorated with airbrushed psychedelic wizards, doobie

Safety Reputation And On-The-Move Pairing

SPEAKER_01 9:52

smoking dragons, naked slave girls, flaming unicorns. The trippier the better. This was not your mom's minivan. This was a place where bad things happened, and the designs were a warning sign. Get into the back of a van with an airbrushed grim reaper in a land of mushrooms and naked fairies. You know what you're getting into. Naked fairies. Yeah. Your clothes are distinctive too. Your lifestyle was different, so why should your means of transportation be any different? It was a sexual revolution. A vehicle designed to accommodate massive amounts of shagging and drugs just made sense. Songs like Me and You and a Dog Named Boo declared generation passion to spread their wings on the open road, untethered by responsibility. The only downside to thick shag carpeting Don was that your roaches tended to get lost in the fibers. Nowadays, a van labeled Magic Mushroom wouldn't make it down about a mile without being stopped, searched, impounded, and the driver imprisoned. Of course, I don't want to paint a completely one-dimensional picture of the 70s. There were, they weren't all used for sex and drugs. In fact, before the days of seatbelts requirements, the great family trips, enjoying the splendor of a spacious leg room, the CB radio, kids playing rock'em sock'em robots in the back. Life was good in the 70s, even for a kid. Like a boat, vans of the 70s often had their own name branded on the side. Note of the name Pot of Gold isn't referring to what you might think it's referring to. Think Acapulco Gold or Lumbo Gold, also known as Columbian Gold. Well, it's been fun traveling down memory lane. Custom vans, it's time to put your paraphernalia down and what? Keep on trucking. Yay! Jazz Hans. That was worth the wait.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

That was worth the wait.

Motors, Range Math, And Charging Costs

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Since 1983, Lupi Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients. Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience at Lupi Tortilla, all developed in a little house near Highway 6 and I-10 in West Houston. Visit any of the Loopy Tortillas and you'll see the same attention to detail in each and every location. Start your loopy experience with queso flammiato and guacamole, along with a classic frozen margarita. Dine on famous loopy beef and chicken fajitas or pepper shrimp brochette or a fish or vegetarian entree and finish with a scrumptious flan for dessert. Find loopy tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort Worth. There's a Texas location near you. The recipes are authentic and time-tested. The ingredients always fresh. Loopy Tortilla, East Prince. Apple or Android InWheel Time podcasts can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads. Whether you're on the road or at home and Jones in for a different kind of car talk show, give InWheel Time a try. Honest new car reviews, fun, informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's car culture and Mike's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time. Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music. Mm-hmm. InWheeltime.com has a list, and we know you love lists. At the back end of it that allows for a third row. Final assembly location, Princeton, Indiana. So it's built in the US of A. Available trim levels, the LE, the X LE, the Limited, the Knight Shade, the Max Limited, and the Max Platinum. I have the Max Shade Hybrid. Standard SUV. See this including the driver, 37. Exterior changes from last model year was all new in 2024. Looks really good. Subtle sheet metal creases create a conservatively look to it. Um rear hatch design allows it for more interior room, yet still very attractive. Love the fake dual exhaust hip for a four-banger engine. Nothing. One pod for the instruments, and one separate infotainment screen for accessories.

Ride, Noise, Pricing, And Rivals

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Yeah, that was good. Um seating is comfortable. Uh consider captain's chairs in the second row if you're interested in buying one. I think that that would probably be a good thing unless you actually need the extra seat. Third row actually has room for adults. Thanks to that six-inch increase in length of the overall.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

I was in that car, and yes, it does. It is roomy. I made a comment when I was back there that hey, you can actually. I really like it.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Um more room in the third row when the third row is up than most as far as cargo space is concerned. What I like. High marks for a well thought-out interior. We could use improvement. Upscale models could use a bit more blink. The thirteen hundred fifty dollar glass roof option option is for northern states only, unless you want to call cell phone charger, allows the phone to slide off of its charger pad. Oh man, that was a little bit of an issue. 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine in the hybrid. It also has a max option for more power, but then you use the fuel mileage, and that's what this is all about. It's a hybrid. Horsepower 245 is what I had. The max has 362 horsepower. If you need all of that, okay, go for it. But I like the mileage. It has a CBT transmission. Now the max has an actual six-speed transmission. 3,500 pounds, all wheel drive. I got well, it's rated at 36 miles per gallon on the highway. 32 uh I'm sorry, 36 city, 32 highway for a combined 34. I got

1970s Custom Vans Culture

SPEAKER_02 16:53

29.7 miles per gallon over 475 miles. What I like about it is clearly the mileage. Um we can use improvement, nothing. If you get a base engine in it, I think that you'll really be impressed. Uh ride handling? Smoothness. It rides like a big car. It's not it is not trying to pretend to be something else. It will go off-road. Let me ask you something. Percentage-wise, how many SUVs actually go off-road?

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Not many.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

My guess is less than one or two percent.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Not many.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

That's how much you buy them for. They're like a big station wagon.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Dirt road is a bit free as I go. Really? Gravel, snow, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah, yeah. We could use improvement. Um nothing that I can think of. Like I said here, who takes an SUV off-road these days? Pays trim price, 52610. Price is tested, 58.187. Pace model price, 44.210. Don't add too much to it. Why did you junk it all up with all the options when you can't you know that's an $8,000 savings. Yeah, tendency for more stuff to break. Uh, competitors to this vehicle, the Mazda CX90 hybrid plug-in. They don't have a pure hybrid, but it's a plug-in, $49,995. Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid 378, IKEA Sorrento Hybrid 38690. Next week, you're gonna review the twenty twenty-five Mazda Miata MX5. Beautiful. Because I bet everybody has their own story about one of the five worst cars ever made. I don't know why you just narrowed it down to five.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Well, because of time. I just figured the time because there's so it's so subjective as to what's good, what's bad, uh, and what's the worst and what's the best. So this is just five of the ones that you might can put a little data behind to say that this is one of the worst vehicles. And for example, the one that comes to mind real quick and easy is the Ford Pinto. It was manufactured from 1971. It was a very popular car, and they sold a bajillion of them. They really did. They sold um, in fact, the first year they sold uh 220,000. Is that rusty?

SPEAKER_03 19:47

That's that's uh I think they used to call them exploders.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I think they did. And but before that, had the the gas fumes got into the cab uh or the the compartment, and that's so that was the reason they Had to recall all of them. But um it came in three models and it blew up a lot. And uh it was only if you hit it. True. And uh had a lot of recalls, and it was a big problem for Ford, so they quit manufacturing that. There's mine. The Vega, the Vega deal.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Uh I had two of them. Did you hit it? I had a 72 and then I went uh all into a 74.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

You know, you really always like the way those look. Like uh like a baby Camaro or something. And uh, you know, they never did really come with a lot of big power or anything in them. It was just kind of stylish, but they had a tendency to break down a lot, they had uh overheating problems. The aluminum engine was the part of the problem. It just would get too hot. Didn't they have a copo version of that? They had a Cosworth version. Cosworth. It was a little bit of a hot rod. Yeah, uh they sold two million, over two million of these vehicles, and most of the morons that bought them, but I never had a problem with mine. Yeah, it made great. I mean, I thought that was really cool, the ones that did the V8 conversion, and particularly the little wagon. It just was really cool. But another one that was out there that that really didn't do so well was the AMC Gremlin. Had a kind of a quirky design to it, kind of boxy. Um, but it also had reliability issues and it didn't really run very fast. It didn't even sell very good. Actually, it was made from 1970 to 1978. They only sold 671,000 of those vehicles total. So it just uh you know it just didn't turn out to be very popular, although they make some pretty good hot rods right now. Yeah, they do. Then, you know, the the one your favorite probably Don is the Corvair. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Not the first model.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

No, not the first model. I mean, they were built from 1960 to 1969. So the first ones came out with a flat six at 80 horsepower. It was under $2,400 to buy this thing. And uh but they're that was to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle. Absolutely. And uh, of course, they sold uh 1.8 million of them during that whole time. But really what really hurt it was the uh Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed, where he went into why it would lose control, the rear engine, the swing axle. A lot of these things that even though they fixed some of them, it's the car just kind of faded away. And then you get down to the this one, I think this one really died because it was just so ugly. The Pontiac Azpod built from 2001 to 2005. It was actually the first mid-sized SUV C UV that came to market. It had a V6 with a four-speed automatic, and they marketed it as a sport recreational vehicle, and some of the advertisements had tents and had uh places you could put your bikes and your canoes and snowboards. It even had a two-piece tailgate that had cup holders on it for tailgating. Part of that whole get it, the family and get out and get busy type thing. And uh basically though, it was just plain ugly. And there's some more out there that I thought that was a good place to start. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

That's a good one. All right. Hey, if you'd like to get in touch with us, please do shoot us an email. The address is info at inwheeltime.com, and be sure to follow us on Facebook. Back after these brief messages. Yes, are you calling somebody? No, he's hallelujah. That would be the Chevy Tahoe in here's now to talk to you about that.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

And it is the 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe. I haven't driven one in a couple of years, so I was really happy to see that I was

Sponsor Breaks And Show Plugs

SPEAKER_00 24:06

going to get this. Um it's assembled in Arlington, Texas. So this is a Texas vehicle, very close to home, and it comes in six different trim levels LS, LT, RST, the E71, which is obviously the off-road suspension. You got the Premier and then the high country, the luxury. So we were driving the Premier four-wheel drive uh trim level. Now, this is considered by the government as a standard SUV that we used to call them full-size SUV, but I guess that means it's standard now, full size. I had the polar white tri-coat option. I love black and white cars. I love the color combination. Yes, almost, except it had the white hood instead of the black hood. Uh, of course, it had LED lighting all the way around on the exterior, including the fog lights, the daytime running lights, had the heated folding side mirrors, all the things you would expect off of a high-end SUV. Power lift gate with power panoramic sunroof, uh, power assist side steps with premier with perimeter lighting. So whenever they would come on and it would start going back and forth, they would light up the ground so you could see it. 22-inch polished aluminum wheels were also an option that we had. Now it did have the seating for seven front and second row bucket seats, both of which were heated on this particular vehicle. Uh, had a 17-inch infotainment screen up front. Now, this was not the vertical type of screen like uh some of the cars have. This was more of a horizontal screen, and I like it much better than the vertical because it just seems I could find things a little bit easier looking across instead of trying to search up and down. 15-inch heads-up display that was really good at seeing how things were going. And uh the rear seat had the media system. Now, this is the 12.6-inch touch screens that are on the back of the front seats. Now, I don't particularly care for the way they did that. To me, it's kind of like an add-on, it's like it's hanging there. I I like it much better when they build it in. But it worked, worked well. Everybody seemed to be happy with that. Now, to make this thing go, because this thing is uh a little bit on the heavy side, 5,700 pounds. We had the 6.2 liter V8. Now, this is a $2,400 option on it. The standard engine is a 5-point liter, and I'm thinking that that's probably a very adequate engine. But the 6.2 liter has 420 horsepower, 460-pound feat of torque, and putting that with a 10-speed automatic, it is rated to tow 8,200 pounds, which is a pretty good size load. You can see them pulling big boats and things. Now, the miles per gallon, the EPA says you should be looking for about 14 on the highway, 18, excuse me, 14 in the city, 18 on the highway, and with a combination of 16. Now, the week I had it, I drove it 267.8 miles, and I got 16.8 on an overall average for that time. And I was real happy with that because I really liked driving this vehicle. It's got plenty of power to spare, particularly if you're thinking about towing something. It's going to give you plenty of juice for that to get to that uh 8,400 pounds. So uh I also liked driving it, it was very quiet. I thought it had very responsive steering in that it's not a race car, but to get in around town where you're maneuvering around the streets or through a parking lot, I thought it worked really well for that size of the vehicle. I was really impressed with it. And it's also got a lot of glass, so you got a real nice field of view whenever you're looking around to see what's around you. The pillars don't get in the way of the Asian. No, no, it was it was really nice. Uh, I also like the magnetic rye control. I mean, that was that was some nice stuff there. Absolutely. Uh now cost. Now, the base model price, the LS base model price, $62,995. That's what it'll take to get into

Three-Row Hybrid SUV Impressions

SPEAKER_00 27:39

a Tahoe. Now, the base trim price for the premiere that we have is $78,000. That was pretty good. But we had an option or two. We did. Our MSRP is tested with $92,000. So we had some options.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Like I say, the paint, the wheels, and lots of other things. The only option that it didn't have is the Cadillac option. Uh that would have been $192,000. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

If you're looking for something to compare this to, I mean, you could look across at the Ford Expedition of about the same size, $64,995 to get started. Nissan Armada, $58,800. Uh Toyota Sequoia, which is strictly all you're going to get there is a hybrid. You're not going to get a straight gasoline engine, but it's $64,000. Now, the GMC Yukon is the sister vehicle to the Tahoe, or the cousin, whatever you want to call it. Uh, and it'll start at about $69,000 but I've always thought the GMC is kind of, you know, it used to be the working man's truck. The GMC?

SPEAKER_02 28:37

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. GMC now is the Chevy and the Cadillac.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah, yeah. It's it's got a lot nicer. So I uh it's base price, I that makes sense that it starts a little bit more. But I really enjoyed this vehicle. Uh I thought it would do a lot of things, and I don't know what all I would do to improve it. And that's my review of the 2026 Shiverly Tahoe Premier Four-wheel drive. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

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