Revving Up the Future with Jack Nerad: Scout SUV Debut, and the Road Ahead in Automotive

Car Talk Show's Recent Discussions

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast . This is the world's favorite place to go for fun , intrigue and informative car talk . It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show . Just ahead we turn left to the West Coast and talk to our favorite car guy , jack Nerad . Later , jeff has the racing calendar . Mars has this week in auto history and I'll get you caught up on the stories making automotive news headlines . Howdy , along with Mike out of this world Mars . We always need more . Jeff Zekin , our chief engineer , david Ainsley . I'm Don Armstrong , glad you could join us on this Saturday . It's hot and humid here in Houston , texas , and I'm not sure how it is out there in the West Coast , but we can find out by checking in with our man about town , always looking good out there with that little smirk on his face .

Speaker 2 0:54

Like what is he going to say next ? He's got his fall shirt on . He's got nice fall colors going on .

Speaker 1 0:57

Check me red , God . It's good to see you , my friend .

Speaker 3 0:59

Great to see you guys , great to talk to you . Don A little smirk all the time because I enjoy talking to you guys .

Speaker 1 1:06

well , and we and we yeah , and we enjoy talking to you and , and we got lots to talk about today and , uh , first of all , let's talk about scout , shall we ? Because sure , jack , oh my god , has this stirred up a hornet's nest . It's really a cool-looking SUV and truck that they debuted this week , but you know , they've ticked off every owner of a VW dealership in the entire world .

Speaker 3 1:34

It comes on the heels of Volkswagen having big-time trouble in Europe , you know , talking about closing plants . I mean , there couldn't have been a worse time . What I'm curious about is this isn't really new news . They've talked about direct selling this vehicle , I think , since the beginning . I guess maybe it just came home to roost , you know , in the last couple of weeks , as they did the Scout introductory event , and it became very real to Volkswagen dealers that they weren't going to get to sell this thing because they'd love to have that vehicle to sell . They'd love to have some vehicles that promise to sell . Well , exactly , there are lots , right ? Yeah , so it's a big deal .

Speaker 1 2:13

Well , did you go to the debut ?

Speaker 3 2:16

I did not . I was doing North American car of the year testing and then , oddly , I went to Texas and I drove from Dallas , texas , to Oxford , mississippi , and back this past weekend . So that's what I was up to Wait a minute .

Speaker 1 2:28

Dallas to Oxford , mississippi . I did Okay , and what was that about ?

Speaker 3 2:35

My future son-in-law went to Ole Miss . We wanted to go to a football game . He lives in Fort Worth , as does my middle daughter , and so we drove from there to Oxford Mississippi .

Speaker 2 2:50

Well he's running Moonshine or something .

Speaker 1 2:53

Either that , or maybe it was some debut of the Bronco or some sort of vehicle that you were driving in the back roads where nobody would see .

Speaker 3 3:02

Well we did it in an Odyssey . I mean , we got a Honda Odysseysey which was a perfect vehicle for this , and it was our own personal odyssey really , uh , in a couple of different ways . So well it's about a thousand miles round trip yeah , I know yeah .

Speaker 1 3:14

Did you try to make one leg in one day ?

Speaker 3 3:18

I made both legs in one day . We left on a friday . We went through hot springs , arkansas , and saw hot springs national park uh on the way to , uh on the way to oxford , uh , and then , uh after the football game on saturday , we got up early sunday morning and drove back to uh dallas , fort worth nice , so you crammed all that in .

Speaker 2 3:37

Well , that's good it's only a good family event very good family event .

Speaker 1 3:42

But there's other things going on that we're kind of interested in . Your take on some of the things that we teased in our open NACTOI North American Car and Truck of the Year . What are you doing with that ?

Speaker 3 4:00

Well , as I mentioned , I was doing NACTOI testing North American Car Truck and Utility of the Year testing in Ann Arbor this past week and it was fascinating . I turned in my final votes to choose the finalists . We're going to announce the finalists at the LA Auto Show in about two or three weeks' time . I guess almost exactly three weeks' time .

Speaker 2 4:24

Can you tell us what I was gonna say ?

Speaker 3 4:25

yeah , can I tell you ?

Speaker 1 4:27

tell you what they are no , what they , what you drove ?

Speaker 3 4:31

oh , I drove a ton of stuff . Actually I got a lengthy list here . I drove more than a dozen cars . Uh , if we want to go down the list of well cars I drove for north american car of the year , I can certainly tell you what ?

Speaker 1 4:42

yeah , highlight them . I mean anything that really stood out yeah , several stood out .

Speaker 3 4:48

I think the toyota camry really stands out , uh , as the value or they're all hybrid now the uh range and fuel economy is just amazing . So the toyota camry certainly stood out , uh , to me is that the PHEV ?

Speaker 1 5:03

I'm sorry , is that the PHEV ? Mm-hmm , it was the hybrid . Yeah , yeah , yeah , I had that last week and I agree with you .

Speaker 3 5:12

Yeah , and all Camrys this year are hybrids .

Speaker 1 5:16

I did not know that .

Speaker 3 5:17

Yeah , you can't get a normally aspirated Camry these days and , like I say , fuel economy through the roof , I think 40 plus miles per gallon .

Speaker 3 5:27

Yeah , I got 41 range like 600 or something like that 600 miles of range on a tank full of gas , so that's pretty cool . Uh , the kia k4 was there . We're starting to see that advertised nationally . There are very few of them out there , though , um , and that is their replacement for the Kia Forte , so that's cool . Fiat 500E , the all-electric Fiat 500 . How was that ? It's good . The difficulty with that vehicle is range . It's only got maybe 150 miles of range or something like that .

Speaker 3 6:03

It is meant as an urban vehicle . I think it's a lot more appropriate for Europe than it is for most of the United States , certainly for Houston or Texas . Yes , and I drove the new Porsche Panamera just an amazingly wonderful vehicle . Probably not going to be North American Car of the Year just because it's so expensive , but it is absolutely terrific . So , uh , you know a good lineup of , uh , new cars , uh , very important ones . I , if I didn't mention the honda civic hybrid , I should have , because it's also a contender there and I , I think , deserves a lot of credit again , these , these hybrid powered cars . I I don't know how you guys felt about hybrids . I was thinking long ago when I saw hybrids that typically we were going to see going forward . They would just install hybrids as a matter of course . It wouldn't be anything particularly special , it would just be that's how the cars are equipped , because the fuel economy benefits and the added cost to get those benefits aren't very great . So I think those are horrific additions .

Speaker 1 7:06

Well , I know it's been like

The Future of Auto Industry

Speaker 1 7:09

you . It's kind of surprised me in the fact that they seem to be the perfect fit right now , because I know that the government and everybody is trying to push all these electrics on us . And guess what ? They're not selling , as you well know , not to the amount that they had predicted . But these hybrids , man , it's a nice in-between and if you've got like a three-year lease on one , I think that that would be actually pretty perfect because they're not as expensive as electric . You don't have the problems with trying to find a station that's working to get it plugged up . And then also , range is , like you said on the Camry , 600 miles on a tank of gas . I'm all for that .

Speaker 3 7:52

Yeah yeah , I could have done that drive from Dallas to Oxford , mississippi , on one tank of gas .

Speaker 1 7:56

Yeah , and that Camry scoots . I mean there's nothing slow about it .

Speaker 3 8:01

Now that's the other benefit of hybrids is you get that immediate electric torque from that electric motor and it comes on immediately Right , and so it feels pretty peppy .

Speaker 1 8:13

Let's see . I also wanted to talk to you about AI . All of a sudden , all of a sudden , here in the past couple of weeks , there's been this explosion of stories on AI and the automotive industry . In fact , I read one this morning about robotics , the actual humanoid looking robotics that they're thinking about putting in . I think it's the BMW plant in Germany . I'm sure you read the story and I'm going . Well , why is this all of a sudden news ? Because to me , and well , why is this all of a sudden news ? Because to me , all of our plants are somewhat AI and I don't understand . Is this ?

Speaker 3 8:56

kind of like politics permeating the Well . I think there's been a lot of concern recently expressed by people and obviously we're in a big news time right now .

Speaker 3 9:04

There's a lot of concerns about a lot of things expressed , and I think emotions are wrought about a lot of different things , and so when people are warning about the dangers of AI , it makes big news . The headlines get out there , they get magnified , and I think one of the things about AI that I found most interesting is the use of AI to develop autonomous driving . I mean , that's become very , very controversial all of a sudden , where some companies Tesla included probably most prominent among them is going full on let's use AI , iterative AI , to develop our self-driving systems , which they're going to hang their hat on going forward . And then others are saying , well , you can't do that . That's pretty iffy . You don't know what you're going to get when you're letting artificial intelligence do all of this . So , again , I think a lot of people are trying to feather their own nests and say that their technology is the best technology , but it will be fascinating to see how this all unfolds .

Speaker 5 10:11

I think some of that goes to money . You know there's a lot of money software money going into the development of that AI and pushing it out into whether it's dealerships or hospitals . Doctors are now using AI to help diagnose things and I think some of it's really good , but I think a lot of it is money .

Speaker 1 10:29

I mean , there's a lot of money going here's the problem that I see , jack is the fact it goes back to the old infrastructure thing . You've got to have the infrastructure there to support ai . You just can't say , okay , well , go from uh , your residence in sugarland , texas to go to hobby Airport without lines painted on the concrete . Maybe one day they won't need those lines , but right now they do .

Speaker 3 10:53

Yeah , and some systems use cameras and nothing else . Some systems use LiDAR and radar in addition to cameras . I think we're a long way from having full self-driving cars for consumer use . We might have it for taxis . We have taxis in the Los Angeles area that are running around the streets now from Waymo . They're odd-looking things too . Driverless taxis have you ridden in one ? I have not ridden in one . I've ridden in some self-driving cars .

Speaker 1 11:25

But not that weird-looking Waymo thing . But when ?

Speaker 3 11:27

you see them on the street , yeah but I have not been in one of those .

Speaker 2 11:29

When you see them on the street , do you see people in them or are they just randomly driving ?

Speaker 3 11:32

Yeah , there are people in them and people use them all the time . Same thing in the San Francisco area . They've become fairly common . Well , that's not a surprise there . No , of course not . Sorry , it's not even a surprise here in Los Angeles . To tell you the truth .

Speaker 5 11:48

Do they have the little blow-up driver doll thing like on an airplane that kind of pops up there ? Yeah , like autopilot .

Speaker 3 11:56

Yes , they do not . I feel very close to that because my dad's name was Otto .

Speaker 2 12:02

There you go , mike's just into blow-up stuff .

Speaker 1 12:06

that's all the blow-up . I took a minute and I'm thinking the blow-up that was in the cockpit of the airplane .

Speaker 5 12:16

Wow , oh my goodness , you'll be there .

Speaker 1 12:18

Don Just hang in there , I know you have to tug me along , I guess I don't know Well , jack . So what's on your agenda here as we approach the end of the year ?

Speaker 3 12:27

Well , I'm fascinated to see what we're going to name as the finalists I think I'm going to learn that fairly soon for North American Car of the Year , and then they will be announced , as I mentioned , in Los Angeles . So we'll see what happens there . I'm really curious about how this is all going to sort out . You know how the election is going to sort out and make things either change somewhat radically or not radically in terms of the auto industry , because I think if it goes one way , there will be changes . If it goes another way , maybe changes a different way .

Speaker 1 13:01

Jack has the LA auto show shrunk ?

Speaker 3 13:06

I think all the auto shows have shrunk to some extent . One of the things that amazes me about the Los Angeles Auto Show Los Angeles is a giant luxury car market , as you can imagine . Yep , a lot of money , there's a lot of people here , and yet most of the luxury brands do not participate in the Los Angeles Auto Show .

Speaker 4 13:26

What is ?

Speaker 1 13:26

that about .

Speaker 3 13:28

Well , I think maybe they think , oh , our potential buyers aren't going to go to an auto show . I don't know that that's true , though I think auto shows are pretty ecumenical . I think , no matter what your income level , if you're interested in a new car , going to an auto show is just such a terrific research tool . It's a must-do .

Speaker 3 13:49

It's a brilliant thing to do , so why not do it ? You can do that without any kind of sales pressure whatsoever . You know , sit in a bunch of different cars and just see what they're like . So I think it's very short-sighted . But you know , that's what we're seeing out here .

Speaker 1 14:05

Interesting . Well , we don't know what this year's Houston Auto Show is going to bring , but I know that they've certainly had their difficulties in getting manufacturers here , because typically we've always fallen right behind the heels of either Chicago or Detroit or some of the other big shows here in Houston . And you know , we are the number four market in the United States . Yeah , it's a giant market , yeah , and you would think that everybody would be anxious to line up If they don't have their A display . How about the B display ? But I think that the auto manufacturers pull back on the car show thing prematurely . I really don't understand why they did that , because you'd think in a down year and I'm an advertising guy from radio and television and when sales are down , that's when you spend more money on advertising well , a lot of it had to do with covid too . Some a few years ago .

Speaker 2 14:57

That's when all of it started . Well , it started still there's .

Speaker 5 15:01

I don't think that that was well .

Speaker 3 15:03

They're hanging on to that well , yeah well , and some of it even started before covid too . Uh , there was less emphasis on on auto shows and , uh , I think , think for the consumer , for the typical potential car buyer , just for a fun family outing on a weekend day , it's just a terrific thing to go to a car show .

Speaker 1 15:24

Do you think that the upheaval in the auto industry right now , with too much inventory and plants being shut down I see where the F-150 electric truck they shut that factory down for a while Do you think that that is going to really have any effect on dealers and displays and sales ?

Speaker 3 15:45

Well , I think so and I think we're going to see some new brands come into the market . We talked about Scout . I mean , there's a lot of tumult in the industry now about the Chinese and what could happen if the Chinese start making inroads , and , of course , there's a very strong talk about giant tariffs that would keep the Chinese manufacturers out . I was just looking at what's going on in Mexico and there are 18 , 18 , count them 18 Chinese brands on sale in Mexico .

Speaker 1 16:16

I did not know that and BYD they have almost 10% market share in Mexico . And this company called BYD . Oh my God , they're making beautiful cars . It's all Chinese , it's all new to me .

Speaker 3 16:29

Yeah , amazing stuff , and I think they just overtook Tesla , if I'm not wrong I think I read this recently in terms of overall revenue . Uh , you know , they're just kind of um doing extremely well and that's without uh really playing in the north american market at all . I I guess they're in in mexico jack .

Speaker 1 16:48

Before we let you go , I want to talk . Talk about this new book that you're working on . What ?

Speaker 3 16:54

Yes , I am working on a new book . In fact it is liable to be out . I believe it's going to be published right before Thanksgiving . Here it is called Only One Thing Stays the Same . It has a cover that's very similar to my previous book , most recent book , dance in the Dark .

Speaker 5 17:10

That seems to work for me .

Speaker 3 17:11

It is another crime thriller and I'm really excited about it . I think it's a cool book .

Speaker 1 17:15

You know next thing they're going to start making movies of your books .

Speaker 3 17:19

I hope so , me too . They'd be pretty good movies . Actually , I think they'd be pretty good movies . They'd be good movie movies .

Speaker 1 17:26

Jack , we love talking to you . Thank you so much . It's a it's a pleasure and honor and and we and we hope that , uh , maybe we can touch base before the end of the year I'd love that .

Speaker 3 17:34

I'd love that . And uh , happy thanksgiving to you guys too sir girly and uh , we'll look to talk with you soon take care much , all right .

Speaker 1 17:43

Thank you , jack nerad , automotive journalist and author .

Speaker 2 17:46

Uh , good buddy out there on the west coast you gotta have police chases and love scenes in his yeah and I'm thinking .

Speaker 5 17:51

I'm thinking I ought to get Brad Pitt to play me .

Speaker 2 17:54

I almost couldn't say it To play you . It's so ridiculous . I was thinking of something else .

Speaker 1 17:59

I'll be Don Knotts , barney Fife okay .

Speaker 5 18:01

There you go .

Speaker 1 18:02

The In Real Time Car Talk Show is available 24-7 through the iHeartRadio app . Download it to your mobile device today . Easy for you to say if you haven't already . We also video stream on Facebook , youtube and InWheelTimecom Podcasts from your favorite podcast provider . In Wheel Time Car Talk Show continues right after this quick break , free tacos again at the Tailpipes and Tacos pre-holiday cruise-in .

Car Show Event Promotions and Racing

Speaker 1 18:27

It's been a while , but the popular Tailpipes and Tacos cruise-in returns to the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex in Katy , saturday , november 16th . Bring a new , unwrapped toy and get a free breakfast taco . Toys will be donated to Toys for Tots and Houston Children's Charity . Get to the best and one of the last cruise-ins of the year Tailpipes and Tacos . Saturday , november 16th , 8 to 11 am . Cruise in , donate a new , unwrapped toy 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 Kingsland Boulevard , just south of the Katy Freeway . It's the end-of-the-year car show season and what better way to celebrate than with a free taco and camaraderie at Tailpipes and Tacos . Saturday , november 16th , 8 to 11 am . The In Real Time Car Talk Show will be there too . Bring a toy , get a free Loopy Taco and feel good about heading into the holiday season at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex in Katy .

Speaker 1 19:21

Is your car ready for that all-important holiday road trip ? Gulf Coast Auto Shield is having another Car Social Saturday , december 7th , and you're invited . Bring your car , truck or SUV and find out what it'll take to get that thing looking new again . Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your one-stop shop for paint detailing , coatings , window tint , clear bras , camera installs and wheel repair . The Car Social is your opportunity to get a tour of this state-of-the-art facility located at 11275 South Sam Houston Parkway , just south of the Southwest Freeway . Join the Car Social Saturday , december 7th , 9 to noon . Talk to other owners and see how good your car can look on the road trip . To Aunt Mary's She'll want that good-looking ride in her driveway . I promise Put it on your calendar the Gulf Coast Auto Shield Holiday Car Social and Road Trip .

Speaker 1 20:05

Get ready Saturday December 7th , 9 to noon at 11275 South Sam Houston Parkway , just south of the Southwest Freeway . The In Real Time Car Talk Show will be there too . We'll see you then . Hey , the In Real Time Car Show fall tour continues . It's next Saturday . Hemi Hideout Open House November 9th . Make reservations , take your $10 cash and go , followed by Tailpipes and Tacos , november 16th and Gulf Coast Auto Shield , december the 7th . We hope you'll stop by the In Wheel Time remote broadcast booth and say hello Time now here on In Wheel Time for the Racing Calendar sponsored by Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge .

Speaker 2 20:41

Thank you . Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge . Hey , we've got NASCAR coming up . We've got this week and then next week would be the final . You've got the Xfinity 500 . It's in martinsville , martinsville speedway . That is tomorrow . Tickets are still available , mike . It's going to be on nbc , so turn into your nbc , then nobody cares television . There you go all right , we got nhra that is coming up . It's the the nhra nevada nosh national . Yeah , it's in the race vegas , yes , uh .

Speaker 2 21:11

John Ford's going to be there , I'm sure . Kiss and Baby , shaking Hands , signing Autographs and all that stuff is 5 pm on FS1 . And then , of course , the In-N-Out Burger is going to be the next couple of weeks . Then you've got . I watched a little bit of something this morning , but it wasn't this F1 is at the Autodrome in Jose Carlos Pace , it's in Lenovo San Pablo , san Pablo , san Pablo .

Speaker 2 21:33

Yeah , it's the Grand Prix of Sprint Shootout . That's going on yesterday , today and tomorrow . And then of course , this morning they had the eight hours of Bahrain , the hypercars , and I want to bring this to you , this is hot off the press here Cadillac was 10th and that was at about 7.30 this morning . It runs until about 2 30 uh . And then the that is in the hypercars , the lm gt3 , which is the corvette class . They're in one and place in place one and eighth uh running right now that's the fia , wec , which is the world endurance challenge . So that's going on right now as we speak . So , oh , also , you got the Lone Star Challenge , or Lone Star Bike going on down in Galveston . Oh , the big bike rally , the big bike rally going on right now .

Speaker 1 22:19

Try to get over to Bolivar this afternoon , going through Galveston .

Speaker 2 22:23

We played there a couple years ago at the Hooli Hooli Hut down on the Strand and it was a nightmare taking cars down there to unload your equipment everything's bikes and three-wheelers . What a mess . Kathy was freaking out and all that good stuff . But my buddy , bruce West , is down there . He's at the Lone Star Bike Rally . He's driving his Screaming Eagle Fat Boy . He's Harley . He's got it all duded up . I think he put new tires on it . So Bruce had some health issues . He's back on the bike , so go for it .

Speaker 5 22:49

Most of the locals that go down there . They go down there and they park at the ferry . They walk on the ferry , ride across , call Uber , uber me down to wherever they want to go .

Speaker 1 23:01

And they don't drive their cars over there anymore . What's that bar down there , that bar that you used to hang out in ? Is it still open ? The Tiki Bar ?

Speaker 5 23:06

Tiki Hut , the Tiki Hut . Yeah , it's still there . The tiki hut's still there , it is , it's still there .

Speaker 1 23:10

Yeah , how many times have they been flooded this year ?

Speaker 2 23:14

Only once , I think Only once . Count them on your tiki .

Speaker 1 23:18

Okay , all right Time now for Mr Marr's auto history review .

Speaker 5 23:23

I had a couple of three things actually I found this week that I thought were really , really interesting , and the first one we're going to start with is october , the 27th 1937 . Now a little backstory on this one . With the intent to build the ultimate automobile cadillac jeff , I know it they started developing a new multi-cylinder car in 1926 . It could be more powerful and smoother than any luxury vehicle on the market . Their efforts were the involved introducing the 452 cubic inch v16 powered Cadillac chassis in 1930 . I love it . Now each Cadillac 16 chassis received custom coachwork that the buyer could choose either get it from GM and have it installed , or the customer could order the rolling chassis and take it to whoever they wanted to have the coach builder of their choice put it together .

Speaker 5 24:10

That's cool , there were multiple members of British and Indian royalty went this route . Now by the end of the first year of production they had built 2,500 Cadillac 16s that went out to wealthy owners . Now , of course , the Depression kicked in . Sales dropped immediately . So they ended up that year only 750 V16s built in 1931 , 300 in 1932 . So by 1937 , they only built 49 units .

Speaker 5 24:36

So Cadillac then moved on to plans for a second generation of the V16 , which debuted on this day , October the 27th , in 1937 . The new cars had a slightly smaller engine , only 431 cubic inches , Jeff but they still produced the same 185 horsepower and they weighed 1,050 pounds . For the motor Wow For the motor . For the motor Wow Got eight headlights . Yeehaw , Amazing , I like it . So October the 30th 1911 , Little Motor Car Company is founded , which later becomes part of Chevrolet . Now the Little Motor Car Company , founded in Flint , Michigan , by William H Little , a former Buick executive , with backing from William C Durant , who was the co-founder of General Motors , and his cousin Tiny . Tiny Little and Durant wanted to create an affordable yet high-quality car to compete against the Ford Model T . Now this is known as the Little Four was their first car . It was a new compact equipped with a four-cylinder engine that would appeal to budget-conscious buyers , relatively inexpensive , targeted to a different customer than the Buick and Cadillac that GM was pushing to , but it had a relatively short lifespan . By 1913 , William C Durant saw the potential of merging the little brand with his next venture , Chevrolet , creating a stronger competitor against Ford , the big brand , With vehicles that combine the value-oriented appeal of the little motor company with Chevrolet's performance capabilities . So the consolidation allowed Chevrolet to produce a broader range of vehicles , established it as a major competitor in the industry , particularly against Ford , and it helped Durant regain control of General Motors , which is a different story how all that worked out .

Speaker 5 26:19

Now the third story . I found that was rather interesting . We've touched on this before October , the 31st 1957 , the Chevrolet Impala is introduced . Now , or it's announced the car would premiere . It's the top of the line bel air for 1958 .

Speaker 5 26:33

I always thought that it was a standalone brand in 1958 , but it wasn't . It was more of a trim level on the bel air and it could only be had as the cooper convertible . So while the impala and the bel air appeared similar in the a-pillar forward , the two cars had structural differences in the back . The impala had a shorter cabin and a longer deck lead and the appellate came with the two eighty three v eight . But if you want a more speed , you could step up to that year to the automakers first big block , which is a three forty eight b eight With 280 horses if you had the three twos on it . So in 1958 , Chevrolet built more than 180,000 Impalas , helping the automatic reclaimed top production for that title year . But then the next year , 1959 , the Impala became its standalone model . That's the reason . The 58 was the only year that looked the way it did . Wow , that's very cool . That's this week in auto history .

Speaker 1 27:26

Interesting . Well , here's a non-story . Kia's first pickup , the Tasman checks a lot of boxes midsize dimensions , body-on-frame construction , solid rear axle , vertical rear shock absorbers , rugged looks , except one thing it will not be coming to the United States , the biggest pickup market of all . What ? But the midsize Tasman demonstrates how ambitious Kia is to become a full-line automaker . Instead , kia is launching the Tasman at home in South Korea in the first half of 25 , followed by sales in Australia , africa and the Middle East . Hey , kia , why not bring it here ?

Speaker 5 28:18

Generally , I think things like that have something to do with crash testing and things like that it does , safety it does , but so fix it . Well , that's what I would think . It can't cost that much more , because they could do it to the trucks around the world say , hey , we're safer I don't .

Speaker 1 28:32

I don't understand some of the stuff that they do . Cox automotive said new car supplies in october rose 25 to 2.76 million , or an 81 day supply , but inventory still remains 20 below 2019 levels before the pandemic and chip shortage upended output . So they're getting cars on the lots , although they are a lot more expensive , generally speaking , and that's why the inventories continue to grow . At least part of the reason is because they cost too much In a down economy . What are you going to do ? I don't know . Don't do what you're doing , that's for sure . All right Time now for a quick break here on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show . As soon as I get my papers all in order , we'd love to hear from you . Shoot us an email . The address is info at inwheeltimecom . Did I miss something ?

Speaker 2 29:26

No , you're fine , We've got a little something going on over here .

Speaker 1 29:30

Okay , well , y'all just keep on keeping on In . Real Time continues after this . The holidays are upon us and Pro-Am Auto Accessories is your local one-stop for the auto enthusiast on your gift list . Pro-am Auto has been serving Houston since 1984 , providing world-class products for sports cars , european sedans and American muscle . Pro-am was one of the very first distributors in the US for brands such as Recaro , redline , momo Corbo and Simpson . Located in the heart of Houston's premier shopping corridor , the Galleria area , pro-am's walk-in storefront includes an 8,000-square-foot warehouse and showroom with installation and service bays . Pro-am reaches a worldwide audience through Pro-Am Autocom , taking its local reputation to the rest of the world . Holiday gift giving is alive and well at Pro-Am Auto . If you don't see what you're looking for on the website , call and Pro-Am will lend you a hand . Pro-am Auto . Call and Pro-Am will lend you a hand . Pro-am Auto 6125 Richmond at Greenridge in Houston's Galleria area . Call them at 713-781-7755 .

Speaker 1 30:36

The fabulous Hemi Hideout is having an open house and you're invited . Mark your calendar for Saturday , november 9th , 1030 to 1230 , and make a reservation today for a two-hour opportunity to see an eye-popping tribute to American muscle cars A collection of neon signs that'll dazzle all in a venue like no other in the country . Entry to this rare Hemi Hideout open house is by reservation only 713-825-2555 . The $10 cash donation per person is matched and given to Brookshire Charities . See you November 9th at the Hemi Hideout In real time . I'll be there too .

Speaker 4 31:06

Hey Houston , it's back . America's greatest hot ride . Tradition is thanksgiving weekend the o'reilly auto parts at the george r prune convention center four days of hot rods , customs trucks and muscle cars . Don't miss the evil caneval tribute . Transforming robot car lowrider showcase . Meet katherine bach from dukes of hazard , hip-hop legend , play-by-play farm truck and asian from street outlaws thanksgiving weekend discount . That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show .

Speaker 1 31:42

I'm Don Armstrong , inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook , youtube , Twitch and our InWheelTimecom website . Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts , spotify Stitcher , iheart Podcast , podcast Addict TuneIn , pandora and Amazon Music . Keep listening and we'll see you soon .